Thursday Dec 10, 2020

Thursday, December 10, 2020

San Juan The

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Leadership Wants to Believe It Has an Ally in Ex-President & Now Designated Secretary of Education

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‘Mank’ & More Movies with Screenwriters as Main Characters P21

Health Dept. Says 70% of Islanders Must Get Vaccine

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Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Trump Administration Planting Loyalists in Biden Transition Meetings P10

Agency Official: It’s the Only Way to Control the Pandemic But First, Health Officials Face a Bigger Challenge: Educate & Clear Away Doubts

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Thursday, December 10, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

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December 3, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star, the only paper with News Service in English in Puerto Rico, publishes 7 days a week, with a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday edition, along with a Weekend Edition to cover Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Thousands of unemployment claimants haven’t completed process to receive compensation

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abor and Human Resources Secretary Carlos J. Rivera Santiago announced Wednesday that about 36,822 claimants have not completed the process for certifying their unemployment weeks and receive compensation corresponding to Lost Wages Assistance (LWA).

“We have certainly identified in our database a large number of citizens who have not yet completed the process of certifying their weeks to receive their retroactive $300 weekly payment,” Rivera Santiago said in a statement.

“This compensation, as long as the claimant qualifies, could add up to a total of $900.”

The Labor chief said it is an extremely simple process.

“The claimant accesses our website, in the online services area selects “LWA certifications,” enters the Social Security and PIN number and concludes the certification,” he said.

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The commonwealth agency said officials have sent emails and text messages to the claimants so that they provide the required information and receive their compensation.

The Labor secretary at the same time announced the third LWA disbursement, which will reach 5,525 unemployment claimants who certified their weeks.

“This third disbursement amounts to about $5,490,720. This Friday, December 11, direct deposit claimants will see their compensation reflected in their bank accounts,” Rivera Santiago said. “Meanwhile, those who continue using checks will receive it in the days following the [date] announced.”.

To date, the Labor and Human Resources Department has disbursed a total of $187,197,090 through the LWA program to Unemployment Insurance claimants, and another $50,965,458 to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claimants.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Health Dept.: At least 70% of population must get COVID-19 vaccine to control pandemic

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

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n order to control the COVID-19 pandemic in Puerto Rico, Deputy Health Secretary Iris Cardona Gerena said Wednesday, at least 70 percent of the population must cooperate and get the vaccine.

During a Zoom conference where the Puerto Rico Vaccine Coalition (VOCES by its Spanish acronym) collaborated to help the island agency “bring the message to what we call the challenge of the century” to members of the press, Cardona Gerena said the chances of reaching the aforementioned vaccination threshold seems possible as data from an ongoing investigation show great expectations for the vaccine that has yet to receive United States Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization.

“Unlike other vaccines, more than half of the people in Puerto Rico have said they expect to receive the vaccine and are willing to do so,” Cardona Gerena said. “We conducted surveys, and not opinion polls, that have been done through a research study that is … looking

at the prevalence of [coronavirus] infection in different communities throughout Puerto Rico, where we included general questions about the disease, about how much they know about it, and about the vaccine.”

She added that by having more than 50 percent of the population interested in inoculation, it will be possible to reach the suggested percentage to develop immunity.

However, education is key to keeping citizens interested, Cardona Gerena noted.

For that reason, the epidemiologist said, education campaigns for vaccination are already running through different initiatives, such as radio and television commercials for the elder community and social media content for the youth.

As for misconceptions, such as the vaccine compromising the patient’s genetic material, Cardona Gerena insisted that the shot neither integrates into genetic material nor contains a live-attenuated particle.

“A messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine has a very small portion of a virus’ genetic material, in this case, the SARS-CoV2 virus, that codifies and gives instructions to produce a protein known as spike, which is the one that

the coronavirus contains and allows the virus to enter the human body through the respiratory epithelium,” she said. “The messenger, as I call it, never gets introduced into our cells, it doesn’t get integrated into our genetic material, and it won’t provide more information other than producing spike, that once our immune system recognizes it, our body prepares for a defense reaction, in this case, creating antibodies and leading to what we call cellular immunization.”

She also responded that clinical studies on both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which are the ones expected to be authorized, have proven a “robust immunization response.”

As for the distribution of the vaccine, Cardona Gerena said that under the plan designed by the Health Department and the Puerto Rico National Guard, “an ethical framework was set as a priority in order to maximize benefits, promote a fair environment that doesn’t allow inequalities, and promote transparency.”

VOCES spokesperson Antonia Novello, the former U.S. surgeon general, urged citizens to get vaccinated once the vaccine becomes widely available “if you want to hug again, if you want to roam free.”

Regarding the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are two doses each, Novello noted that the Pfizer shots take 21 days, while the Moderna shots take 28 days to fulfill immunization.

“It’s crucial that everyone gets the second dose,” she urged. “Immunization begins seven days after getting the second dose.”

Meanwhile, Novello urged both members of the press and citizens to be well informed about the COVID vaccines as “misinformation runs quicker than the truth in the age of the internet.”

New Teachers Assn. president: It’s too soon to restart in-person classes amid COVID-19 pandemic Víctor Bonilla insists on reliable data and a proper contact tracing system to evaluate reopening school campuses

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

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mid concerns over the high positivity rate in COVID-19 cases on the island, new Puerto Rico Teachers Association President (AMPR by its Spanish initials) Víctor M. Bonilla Sánchez said Wednesday it was premature to restart inperson classes in the public school system.

“I want to make it clear, at this time, thinking about my teachers and the members of the guild, we are not going to recommend the opening of face-to-face classes,” Bonilla Sánchez said.

The recently appointed president, who was elected by the association’s board of directors after former president Elba Aponte was designated as secretary of the Education Department by governor-elect Pedro Pierluisi, said that once the department obtains reliable data on the status of the coronavirus across the island, he would let the union local negotiate

with the agency on how to reopen school “in some sectors.”

“It would be very premature to give an answer without first having a clear idea with the Puerto Rico Health Department what the level of COVID-19 positivity is … in each municipality,” Bonilla Sánchez said.

He added that the AMPR needs to know how contact tracing by municipality is going “to be able to responsibly indicate our position to the Department of Education.”

When a member of the press asked how teachers were going to work for the students given that thousands of students have been unable to resume class instruction because they lack the resources to log into virtual classes, Union Local General Secretary Grichelle Toledo Correa said that while she is aware that not all students have been able to access online classes, going back to in-person teaching requires a responsible evaluation because “we cannot say that the whole island can open at the same time.”

“In the south of Puerto Rico, there are towns that do not have schools available [for] students to come back to,” she said, referring to the schools that were damaged by the earthquakes that struck southern Puerto Rico in January. “This has to be well analyzed.”

Toledo Correa said it was important to re-evaluate the public system’s education curriculum in terms of “how we are going to impact every student and help them overcome any learning backlog.”

“There has to be commitment not only from the union, there must be commitment from the agency to be able to hold meetings with other sectors to develop an action plan that’s not only short-term, but also long-term for working with the students’ skills,” she said.

As for the priorities to be addressed with the designated Education secretary if her appointment is confirmed by the island Senate, Bonilla Sánchez said he will advocate bringing back the negotiations on the collective agreement with the union local to “address both the teachers’ health concerns and other conditions” amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“I want to be clear and emphatic in this, … that there is no doubt that the Teacher’s Association will continue the oversight and activism that we have always demonstrated,” he said. “We reiterate the commitments we have made over the past 109 years to continue defending the teaching profession and to ensure that, through a resourceful, proactive, participatory and democratic administration, [teachers’] rights are not violated.”

Bonilla Sánchez anticipated meanwhile that the AMPR will not attend Aponte’s confirmation hearings as they would not express an opinion for or against her in the Senate.

“We must be aware of her actions as we go,” he said. “If she is doing things as she should, we are going to … decline to go to the confirmation hearings.”

Toledo Correa said she believes Aponte is “an ally rather than a foe.”

“Now that she might have the chance to be in a position of power, she should put her money where her mouth is,” the union official said.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

5

Stuck in the ’70s, the General Services Administration tries to achieve more in purchasing area

By THE STAR STAFF

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he General Services Administration (ASG by its Spanish initials) was created in 1971 to acquire non-professional goods and services for the Puerto Rico government, but over the years it has become ineffective because it has not incorporated technological advances into its purchasing processes.

ASG Administrator Karla Mercado, however, touted the achievements of the past four years in the purchasing area.

“In order to improve these services and achieve savings in purchases for the government of Puerto Rico, our administration has started to transform the mission and vision of the ASG by adopting a new model for the purchase of goods, works and services,” Mercado said. “This model is framed by the principles of transparency,

uniformity and healthy competition.”

Among her achievements, Mercado cited the acquisition of new technological equipment for ASG employees and recording all bids with the goal of making them public.

She cited as goals to be completed the need to purchase a computer system that can register all purchase transactions and statistical information in real time. She also said the ASG needs to implement a Single Registry for Services and renew the Bidders Single Registry.

Meanwhile, the Public Buildings Authority (PBA), which is in bankruptcy court, since 2019 has not been getting the estimated $135 million in annual revenues to fund operations and buy equipment. The PBA has an outstanding bond debt of $4 billion.

PBA Director Melitza López said the public corporation does not receive direct allocations from the general fund because its main source

of income consists of the rental fees stipulated in contracts with its tenants.

The PBA owns 673 facilities throughout Puerto Rico, including 425 public schools.

Lease fees are divided to pay the debt service on bonds used to finance projects, operational expenses, buying equipment and improvements.

The PBA receives about $400 million in fees from the rental of its facilities, but most of the rent, or about $265 million, goes to debt service, which is currently billed to tenants only for accounting purposes but has not been paid to the PBA since 2016 due to the moratorium declared by former Gov. Alejandro García Padilla and the central government’s Title III bankruptcy process, which began in 2017 under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act, the PBA’s transition statement reads.

Incoming gov’t transition committee details serious economic predicament at Ports

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

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amón Luis Rivera Cruz, chairman of the transition committee of governor-elect Pedro Pierluisi, detailed on Wednesday how the Ports Authority faces serious economic challenges.

“The Ports Authority is, like many public corporations -- because it is going through particular difficulties -- lacking necessary income and all the more so with the pandemic that has become more acute,” Rivera Cruz said at a press conference.

He said he is considering starting boat and yacht repair businesses to boost the industry on the island and as a source of revenue for the Ports Authority.

“But it has a promising future if things are done correctly, and the plans outlined by the director are very good plans,” Rivera Cruz said. “For example, the idea of mega yachts, the idea of using dry docks to establish a boat maintenance and repair industry in Puerto Rico.”

Ports Authority Executive Director Joel Pizá Batiz, meanwhile, held a dialogue with the press regarding a possible legal dispute over the expansion of docks in Puerto Nuevo.

“What there is is an investigation by the Federal Maritime Commission, by the federal Department of Justice, and an investigation by the Office of Monopolistic Affairs of the Puerto Rico Justice Department related to a collaborative agreement between two cargo loading companies in the Puerto Nuevo area.

There is still no lawsuit; the Federal Maritime Commission allowed the agreement,” Pizá Batiz said. “However, I know that the Office of Monopolistic Affairs is reviewing whether there is concurrent jurisdiction to intervene through local law.”

In other matters related to the Authority, Rivera Cruz noted the importance of the dredging and widening projects underway in the San Juan Bay, and at the Guayanilla and Yabucoa docks.

“The one in Yabucoa is of vital importance because a lot of fuel enters Puerto Rico from there,” he said.

He also expressed the need to improve Rafael Hernández de Aguadilla Airport as it is the only airport that is not in a flood zone.

“There will be [a need for] the creative capacity of the director selected by the governor,” Rivera Cruz said.

Pizá Batiz said he does not foresee the laying off of employees at the Ports Authority.

“The public policy of the government of Puerto Rico is to lay off zero employees,” he said. “All the efficiencies that are going to be realized in the regional airports are excluding exactly that alternative [layoffs]. As [Rivera Cruz] mentioned, the creative force is to transfer it [airport management], incentivize retirement, verify the status of Law 80, perhaps another process that instead of an operational maintenance contract is a P3 where there is a total concession, the negotiation with a private entity so that you recruit as many [current employees] as possible. But to lay off employees, that is not among the alternatives to be considered.”

The Ports chief added that if he increases fee collections, the possibilities of reducing the workforce decrease.

He said collections during the pandemic have made it possible to meet payroll; however, there is a lack of around $30 million for improvements.

During the public hearings officials discussed the potential effects of climate change on Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in Carolina.

Pizá Batiz said that “in the face of the next 50 years it is a reality that, not only we, but all the rest of the Caribbean, all of us who are a few feet above sea level are going to face.”

“But the Aguadilla Airport for us is a priority, mitigating because you can mitigate, but we must already be thinking of a substitute and Aguadilla is, in itself, the natural substitute for operations and we have the space, we have the longest runway in the Caribbean and we are headed [in that direction], to develop that airport,” he said.

The Ports chief also stated that all three of the island’s international airports will be developed. In the case of Aguadilla, the construction of a new runway is proposed.

“The Aguadilla runway, which is 11,700 feet, when the design was discussed, it was said that we are going to remove feet because you really do not need so many feet in your operations, and the Authority said no, it is important to maintain those 11,700 feet,” Pizá Batiz said.

“Maintain it and we will continue to have the longest runway in the Caribbean, with a new runway.”

In the center, Ramón Luis Rivera Cruz, chairman of the transition committee of governorelect Pedro Pierluisi.(CyberNews)

On the financial front, the head of Ports said the most recent audited statement for the Authority is from 2017. The statements from 2018, 2019 and 2020 are in their preliminary stage due to the processes established by government regulation GASB 68, he said.

Pizá Batiz said the Authority is in compliance with the reports required by the commonwealth’s Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority and the federal Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico, which include, among other matters, liquidity monitoring, cash outflow, accounts payable and receivable, and savings reports and implementation.

As for the challenge posed by COVID-19 in commercial aviation, Pizá Batiz said Ports has in recent months been implementing precautionary and preventive measures against the coronavirus to protect employees, visitors and eventual passengers in each of its facilities.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Arecibo employees outraged over outgoing mayor's vacation settlement

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

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recibo municipal employees complained bitterly on Wednesday upon learning that outgoing Mayor Carlos Molina will supposedly receive a check for $69,000 as a vacation settlement when they have been owed the Christmas bonus and excess sick leave since 2016.

“It is outrageous to see how the outgoing mayor, who raised his salary when he entered the mayor’s office, leaves with his hands full when he still owes his employees the excess vacation from 2016 and the Christmas bonus,” said Jesús Anguita, coordinator of PROSOL-UTIER, a union

that represents the municipality’s employees, in a written statement. “It is disrespectful that the Municipal Legislature has authorized this disbursement of money to Molina and has not disbursed the same that is owed to the workers.”

Anguita also demanded that commonwealth and federal authorities intervene in the municipality of Arecibo to prevent wasteful spending and further growth of the municipal government deficit.

“We urge the elected mayor, Carlos ‘Tito’ Ramírez, to submit everything found in the transition hearings to the corresponding authorities so that whoever did things wrong and has committed an illegality, has to pay,” the union leader said.

Comptroller finds gaps in House of Representatives security system reviews

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

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he Commonwealth Comptroller issued a report Wednesday on deficiencies in the Office of Technology and Information of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, finding a lack of periodic reviews of the security system’s main operational server logs and a failure to deactivate accounts of former employees in the main server.

The audit was carried out to determine if the controls in the office were conducted in accordance with the standards generally accepted in the field and whether they were effective.

The tests carried out and the evidence gathered by the comptroller revealed that the operations of the House were conducted in accordance with the applicable norms and regulations and that the controls were effective except in the

area of the review of the server logs and access accounts.

The report pointed out that entities must have processes that allow reviewing user activities in those sensitive assets that warrant it.

“The network administrator has the responsibility to review it daily to prevent and detect unwanted access authorization,” said the report. “Our examination revealed that as of May 15, 2019, the administrator network did not periodically review security logs.”

An adequate review of the logs is necessary to determine the possible violations of security that may occur on the server and on the network, and promptly take the necessary preventive and corrective measures.

“The administrator only examined these records in the event that any eventuality occurred with the information systems,” the report said. “The aforementioned situation may lead to unauthorized persons gaining access to confidential information maintained in the computerized

systems and possibly misusing it. The situations discussed prevent users from being controlled by those authorized to access computerized information systems and the privileges assigned to them to establish responsibilities in case of errors or irregularities.”

In addition, the situations can lead to unauthorized persons gaining access to confidential information and improper use of the information, the commission of irregularities and the alteration, by mistake or deliberately, of the data contained in the information system, without timely detection and corrective action, the report said.

Regarding the failure to deactivate accounts of former consultants, the comptroller found that two consultants kept their access for inordinate periods of time.

“Two accounts with remote privileged connections assigned to former consultants [were sustained],” the report said, “despite the fact that 321 and 929 days [had passed] from the date of termination of their contracts.”

Also, in the case of access to accounts assigned to five employees who quit their positions, between Dec. 31, 2016 and Feb. 20, 2019, between 86 and 867 days lapsed from the date of separation of these former employees and the closing of the accounts.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

7

Blunders eroded U.S. confidence in early vaccine front-runner

By REBECCA ROBBINS, SHARON LaFRANIERE, NOAH WEILAND, DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and BENJAMIN MUELLER

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n the afternoon of Sept. 8, AstraZeneca officials had a conference call with the Food and Drug Administration. The discussion covered important ground: What would AstraZeneca need to do to win the FDA’s blessing for the coronavirus vaccine it was developing with the University of Oxford?

But the AstraZeneca representatives neglected to mention a crucial development: Two days earlier, the company had quietly halted trials of its vaccine around the world, including a late-stage study in the United States. It acted after a participant in Britain fell ill.

A few hours after the conference call, the story broke about the halted trials. That was how key FDA officials heard the news, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

The FDA’s commissioner, Dr. Stephen Hahn, was stunned by AstraZeneca’s failure to disclose the halt to regulators, one of the people said. The U.S. government had pledged more than $1 billion to AstraZeneca to finance the development and manufacturing of its vaccine and to supply the United States with 300 million doses if it proved effective. FDA regulators expected to be kept in the loop.

The episode might have been chalked up to a simple miscue. But it was part of a pattern of communication blunders by AstraZeneca that have damaged the company’s relationship with regulators, raised doubts about whether its vaccine will stand up to intense public and scientific scrutiny and, in at least one instance, slowed the vaccine’s development.

Independent scientists and industry analysts have criticized AstraZeneca and Oxford for not being sufficiently transparent about their early results, the design of their studies and safety issues. Most critically, it is not clear how well the vaccine works.

“The world bet on this vaccine,” said Dr. Eric Topol, a clinical trial expert at Scripps Research in San Diego.

“What a disappointment.”

From the start, Oxford expressed great confidence.

In April, Oxford’s Dr. Sara Gilbert told a British newspaper that she was 80% sure the vaccine would work, even though it had not been tested in humans. Britain ordered 100 million doses, with the goal that 30 million would be delivered by September.

In the United States, Operation Warp Speed, the federal initiative to fast-track vaccine development, in May made what was then its biggest investment. The government awarded AstraZeneca up to $1.2 billion for development and manufacturing of the vaccine in exchange for 300 million doses. Alex Azar, the health secretary, played up the deal as “a major milestone” in the program’s work.

AstraZeneca’s stock hit a record high.

A volunteer participating in the AstraZeneca vaccine trial has her temperature taken in Oxford, England, Nov. 19, 2020.

AstraZeneca, however, would not begin testing its vaccine in the United States until August, three months after the Warp Speed deal. That was long after Oxford had started running trials elsewhere in the world — a delay that would prove fateful for the United States.

Federal health officials had said in June that in order to authorize a vaccine, the FDA would likely need to see late-stage data from at least 30,000 trial participants. By then, Oxford’s trials in Britain and Brazil were underway, and even if their results were pooled they would fall short of that FDA threshold.

AstraZeneca planned for its U.S. trial to include 30,000 people. But that trial was weeks away from even starting. Then came a safety scare.

A British participant in the Phase 2/3 trial developed neurological symptoms consistent with transverse myelitis, an inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord and is often caused by viral infections, according to a notice given to participants dated July 12. That trial was briefly paused. The participant was later found to have multiple sclerosis, deemed unrelated to the vaccine. But later in the summer, another participant in the same trial fell ill with similar symptoms.

On Sept. 6, AstraZeneca paused its global trials to investigate. The news became public two days later. FDA officials were blindsided.

In late October, after 47 days, the FDA cleared the U.S. trial to restart.

It was now even further behind the late-stage trials that Pfizer and Moderna had begun in the United States about a month before AstraZeneca’s trial started. One consequence was that, at least initially, AstraZeneca would not be able to combine the data from the U.S. and overseas trials in order to hit the FDA’s 30,000-person threshold.

In November, Pfizer and Moderna each reported that analyses had found their vaccines to be about 95% effective. The spectacular results set a high bar against which to measure rival vaccines.

Still, the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna had drawbacks compared with the Oxford-AstraZeneca approach. They were more expensive — and the companies had not pledged to forgo profits on them. Plus, they couldn’t be stored outside ultracold freezers for more than a few weeks.

As a result, the global public health community was hotly anticipating Oxford and AstraZeneca’s results. They came on Nov. 23.

The good news was that the vaccine seemed to work.

It appeared safe. And no one who had been vaccinated had developed severe COVID-19 or been hospitalized.

Things got messier from there.

AstraZeneca and Oxford researchers said their vaccine was up to 90% effective, but only among those who received the initial half-strength dose. Among the larger group of participants who got two full-strength doses, the vaccine was only 62% effective.

That seemed counterintuitive. And the Oxford researchers couldn’t explain with certainty why the vaccine worked so much better when participants got a half-strength initial dose. In The Lancet on Tuesday, the scientists said they still weren’t sure.

The situation only got worse. The day after the results were announced, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the head of Operation Warp Speed, told reporters that the promising half-strength dose had not been tested in people over the age of 55. That was concerning because some vaccines don’t work as well in older adults, who are also more vulnerable to COVID-19. It also raised the question of why the vaccine developers hadn’t themselves disclosed that important caveat.

The unclear results further sapped the confidence of American regulators. Absent a clear explanation of why the half-strength initial dose worked so much better, the results most likely “will not be sufficient for an approval,” Slaoui said last week.

AstraZeneca is now considering a new global trial that will enroll several thousand participants to gather more data on the regimen involving an initial half-strength dose.

Regardless, the vaccine is likely to become available soon in Britain and some other countries.

Not in the United States. As of last week, AstraZeneca’s U.S. trial was halfway to its goal of enrolling 30,000 people.

AstraZeneca executives said Tuesday that, based on feedback from the FDA, they didn’t expect to receive federal authorization for their vaccine until after the company gets results from its U.S. trial. That could happen in January.

In the meantime, U.S. public health authorities are preparing to begin vaccinating a tiny percentage of the population using the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which will soon be available in limited quantities.

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Thursday, December 10, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Social inequities explain racial gaps in pandemic, studies find

Dr. Gbenga Ogedegbe conducted a study of coronavirus infections among Black and Hispanic patients.

“We hear this all the time — ‘Blacks are more susceptible,’” he said. In fact, “it is all about the exposure.”

By GINA KOLATA

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hen Dr. Gbenga Ogedegbe began to research coronavirus infections among Black and Hispanic patients, he thought he knew what he would find. Infected Black and Hispanic patients would be more likely to be hospitalized, compared with white patients, and more likely to die.

But that’s not how it turned out.

Ogedegbe, director of the division of health and behavior at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, and his colleagues reviewed the medical records of 11,547 patients in the NYU Langone Health system who were tested for coronavirus infection between March 1 and April 8.

After accounting for various disparities, Ogedegbe found that infected Black and Hispanic patients were no more likely than white patients to be hospitalized. If hospitalized, Black patients had a slightly lower risk of dying.

“We were surprised,” Ogedegbe said.

The study was published in the journal JAMA Network Open. Three other recent large studies have come to similarly surprising conclusions.

The new findings do not contradict an enormous body of research showing that Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely to be affected by the pandemic, compared

with white people. The coronavirus is more prevalent in minority communities, and infections, illnesses and deaths have occurred in these groups in disproportionate numbers.

But the new studies do suggest that there is no innate vulnerability to the virus among Black and Hispanic Americans, Ogedegbe and other experts said. Instead, these groups are more often exposed because of social and environmental factors.

“We hear this all the time — ‘Blacks are more susceptible,’ ” Ogedegbe said. “It is all about the exposure. It is all about where people live. It has nothing to do with genes.”

Among many other vulnerabilities, Black and Hispanic communities and households tend to be more crowded; many people work jobs requiring frequent contact with others and rely on public transportation. Access to health care is poorer than among white Americans, and rates of existing health conditions are much higher.

“To me, these results make it clear that the disparities in mortality that we see are even more appalling,” said Jon Zelner, a public health researcher at the University of Michigan who led one of the new studies.

The toll on Black and Hispanic Americans “could easily have been ameliorated in advance of the pandemic by a less threadbare and cruel approach to social welfare and health care in the U.S.,” he added. “Even failing that, so much of this could have been avoided.”

For example, the federal government could have protected citizens from risky work situations by providing income subsidies allowing them to stay home, Zelner said.

The government could have ensured adequate protective equipment to workers in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

Zelner and his colleagues examined data on 49,701 coronavirus patients in Michigan, hospitalized and not, from March until June. In this population, the case fatality rate was the same for Black and white patients: 11%.

(The high rate reflects the fact that the incidence in Michigan early in the epidemic was dominated by older people, Zelner said. And the data involve detected cases, rather than all infections during this period, a time when there was much less testing.)

A study of patients in Veterans Affairs hospitals, led by Dr. Christopher Rentsch of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and researchers at the VA, analyzed the health records of more than 5 million patients in more than 1,200 facilities.

Some 16,317 tested positive for the coronavirus. Among them, Rentsch found, there was no difference in mortality rates between patients who were white, Black or Hispanic.

A study in New Orleans, led by Dr. Eboni Price-Haywood, who directs the Ochsner’s Center for Outcomes and Health Services Research, included 3,481 patients who tested positive for the coronavirus between March 1 and April 11.

Black and white patients had the same case fatality rate, she and her colleagues found.

“It’s always perplexing when people read the paper,” Price-Haywood said in an interview. But, she added, by the time someone was sick enough to be hospitalized, race became irrelevant.

“If you were fragile enough to be admitted, you were fragile enough to die,” Price-Haywood said.

The four studies did confirm stark differences in the incidence of coronavirus infection among minority and white patients.

In Ogedegbe’s study, Black and Hispanic patients were 60% to 70% more likely than whites to be infected. In the research in Michigan, the incidence of infection among Black people was four times higher than that among whites.

“If you were to substitute the white incidence rates for Black ones, you would see an 83% reduction in mortality,” Zelner said.

In theVA study, nine of 1,000 white veterans had a positive coronavirus test, compared with 16.4 of 1,000 among Black patients. In New Orleans, Black patients accounted for 76.9% of those hospitalized with COVID-19, although they made up just 31% of the health system’s population.

These differences are entirely explained by socioeconomic factors, researchers said.

“The larger issue is the role of social determinants of health,” Price-Haywood said. “Race is a social construct, not biological.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

9

10 Million residents, 88 jurisdictions, 1 outdoor dining ban

By ADAM POPESCU

U

ntil late last month, outdoor dining — no masks required — was the closest thing to pre-pandemic normal for the 10 million residents of Los Angeles County. But amid a record-busting surge in hospitalizations and cases of the coronavirus, the county’s health department recently said outdoor dining must come to a complete halt for the first time since May. This time, angry at the order and worried it would be the death knell for many of the 30,000 eateries sprawled across the vast county’s patchwork of 88 independent jurisdictions, several cash-strapped municipalities have pushed back and banded together — with votes to form their own health departments.

“It’s kind of like a mini secession,” said Raphael J. Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. “Their complaint is the county has a one-size-fits-all prescription.”

The discussions speak to the growing frustration over a countywide order that many elected officials said was inherently a hyperlocal issue.

While largely symbolic because there is no process for local jurisdictions to easily create their own health departments, city councils across the county have in recent days passed resolutions to do exactly that — or to annex and join a city that already has its own.

West Covina’s City Council was among the first to take such a vote. Lancaster, home to 158,000 in the high desert, followed suit last week, as did Beverly Hills. Now hard-hit Hawaiian Gardens, Commerce, Inglewood, West Hollywood and others are debating similar moves.

In West Covina, a San GabrielValley hub of 105,000 residents, Mayor Tony Wu called the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s outdoor dining ban, a three-week order that began the night before Thanksgiving, the spark that set off a state already in the throes of a major economic crisis.

“We’ve done everything they told us to do, and now telling us to shut down isn’t right,” Wu said. “Look, I’m an immigrant mayor trying to do the right thing, and that means a local policy for a local issue.”

Across the state, daily case reports have tripled in the past month, with more than 25,000 new infections reported Tuesday.

About 8,500 of them were in Los Angeles County, which now has more daily cases than at any point in the pandemic, setting daily records for nearly a week straight. On Tuesday, the county had about 3,000 people hospitalized, with nearly a quarter in intensive care units.

Gov. Gavin Newsom recently issued a three-week lockdown order, which went into effect for much of the state Monday, that also banned outdoor dining and superseded the Los Angeles County restrictions.

The county is a freeway-connected sprawl, with the city of Los Angeles’s 4 million residents an island within it. There are so many invisible borders for the dozens of municipalities within its limits that motorists often do not realize when they enter one town or leave another — confusion that could be exacerbated if there were multiple ordinances and orders across the county.

Many cities in the county operate their own law enforcement, fire and other government services, although only Pasadena and Long Beach have separate health departments — and the decision-making power that comes with it. (Pasadena offered outdoor dining until last week; Long Beach, citing rising coronavirus cases, did not.)

But local mayors lack authority over public schools, transportation and public health — control that largely rests with the county’s board of supervisors, which upheld the health department’s decision.

Last week, Judge James Chalfant of Los Angeles County temporarily agreed with the board of supervisors but ordered health officials to produce evidence supporting the ban.

Then, in a decision Tuesday, Chalfant sided with the restaurants, limiting the ban to three weeks to prevent an “indefinite” closure order.

Although the state ban still supersedes this ruling, health officials now have about a week to provide a risk-benefit analysis in order to extend the closure. Public health researchers have said prolonged gatherings without masks, even outside, drive spread.

It was not too long ago when California’s elected officials — among the first to impose wide-ranging lockdowns — took pride in an approach that had appeared to stave off the coronavirus.

Then came a series of dining gaffes that undermined pleas to avoid crowds, including Newsom and others failing to heed their own rules. In recent days, businesses and officials

The shuttered Gardens Casino in Hawaiian Gardens, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020. have seen a disparity in the most recent dining ban, with outdoor film crew catering spots remaining open, for example, while restaurants a few feet away are without a single diner.

Despite more than 1.3 million virus cases and roughly 20,000 deaths statewide since March, anger is bubbling, with recent protests against the new restrictions staged outside the homes of the county’s health director, county supervisors and Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Many elected leaders said that while they had not yet sorted out what it would take to create new health departments, they were nonetheless forging ahead, with many city councils meeting this week to discuss a range of ideas, such as contracting for services in an a la carte approach.

Starting a department would not be easy — or without great financial cost.

Health departments inspect, grade and enforce restaurant safety, plus prepare and respond to health emergencies and outbreaks.

Expensive to build from scratch — especially during a health crisis — they are staffed by specialists in short supply during a pandemic.

Plus, cities would need approval from the state’s public health department. Erica Pan, the state’s acting public health officer, who called this moment of rising cases “a critical tipping point where inaction and division could lead to loss of life,” said there was currently no process for approving new local health jurisdictions.

The spate of council decisions is not the first push to decentralize the county system.

The city of Los Angeles proposed a health department in 2013 but shelved the idea after learning it would take up to two years to build and cost at least $333 million annually to operate, a plan that former County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky called “crazy, stupid” and “dangerous to the public health.”

The financial and infrastructure requirements were “impossible for us to implement,” said Miguel Santana, the city’s former chief administrative officer who is now the chief executive of Fairplex, a nonprofit space turned coronavirus testing center.

Rather than start from scratch, Mayor James Butts of Inglewood said, one option is regional alliances, like a collective South Bay health agency that is “focused on dining and retail.”

The South Bay Cities Council of Governments, a joint powers authority of 16 cities and communities in unincorporated Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, is weighing “annexing with a city that already has a health department,” he said.

A West Hollywood councilman, John D’Amico, acknowledged that creating a health department would be difficult but said that elected leaders would keep pushing, hoping to move the county toward “sensible actions sooner to keep our community viable in 2021.”

10

Thursday, December 10, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Trump administration is planting loyalists in Biden transition meetings ted from transition meetings, said Thomas Burke, who served as EPA science adviser in the Obama administration at the time.

“To me, that’s the equivalent of having the opposing coach sitting in the room as you’re developing your team’s strategy,” he said.

Myron Ebell, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute who led the Trump administration’s transition for the EPA, agreed that Obama’s political appointees were not present but said he would have liked to meet with them. Regardless, he said, meetings were held in an open-plan office space.

The Biden transition team did not respond to a request for comment on the process. Several people close to the president-elect’s team said that, after taking more than two weeks to begin the President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of formal transition process, the Trump the White House in Washington, Nov. 11, 2016. administration’s handover has been fairly smooth and that Biden is loath to disrupt worked closely in late 2008 with Barack that process by remarking on tensions.

By LISA FRIEDMAN So far, about 40 federal agency reObama’s incoming team to help calm oyalists to President Donald Trump volatile financial markets. But against a view teams have conducted more than have blocked transition meetings at backdrop of Trump’s refusal to conce- 1,000 interviews and meetings, Biden’s some government agencies and are de election defeat, the actions of Trump transition officials said.

Federal employees who discussed sitting in on discussions at other agencies appointees appeared to be a pernicious between career civil servants and Presi- effort to slow the transition, some experts the transition and asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized dent-elect Joe Biden’s transition teams, said.

“The norm is that the political to speak about the process offered mixed sometimes chilling conversations, several people are not involved in the nuts and reviews on the presence of political leafederal officials said.

At the Environmental Protection bolts of this,” said Michael Herz, a profes- ders.

Several said they felt the Trump Agency, political appointees have joined sor of administrative law at the Cardozo officials were implicitly intimidating emvirtually every discussion between career School of Law at Yeshiva University.

He called the Trump administration’s ployees from speaking openly about isstaff members and Biden’s team, monitoring conversations on climate change, apparent determination to micromanage sues awaiting the new administration. scientific research and other topics. At the transition process by overseeing mee- Others described the meetings as merely the State Department such drop-ins are tings part of its broader plan to “milk their awkward.

At the Department of Education, happening on what Trump appointees authority as long as they can and disrupt define as an as-needed basis. On Tues- the new administration as much as they one official said Trump appointees had not crashed briefings but said the written day Biden’s transition team was allowed can.”

Under the Presidential Transition briefing materials given to Biden’s teams for the first time into the National Security Agency, but at the United States Agen- Act, career employees play the primary “gloss over anything controversial” and cy for Global Media, parent of Voice of role in managing the agency transitions, described the briefings as “politically inAmerica, the Trump-appointed leader is largely because they bring an institutio- fluenced.”

At the State Department, Trump’s refusing to cooperate with the Biden tran- nal knowledge about the government sition team, two agency officials confir- functions and have been viewed as unpo- appointees have insisted that they attend litical stewards of the agencies they serve. some, but not all, meetings of Biden’s med.

Presidential transition experts said No clear rules or guidelines, however, de- transition team with career employees, according to an official familiar with the the presence of political officials at agen- tail how the process should unfold. cy handoff meetings was not unheardDuring the handoff from Obama’s process. it was not immediately clear if of and could even be seen as helpful. administration to Trump, for example, doing so was seen as broadly intrusive President George W. Bush, for example, political officials were explicitly disinvi- or stifling the discussions at the State De-

L

partment, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

However, the official said, including the outgoing administration’s appointees in at least some diplomacy discussions was not unheard-of, and that, so far, the State Department personnel had been cooperative in accommodating the Biden team’s requests.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told department officials he was ready to meet with Biden’s transition team, CNN reported last week, and on Monday described the incoming administration as “plenty smart enough.” That was a shift from late November, when he said in a Fox News interview that Biden’s foreign policy advisers “lived in a bit of a fantasy world” when they served during the Obama administration.

This week the Biden team was allowed into the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency after several days of what two people close to the transition described as an effort by newly appointed Trump administration officials at the Pentagon to slow the transition by blocking access to Department of Defense intelligence agencies.

Susan Gough, a Defense Department spokeswoman, said the agency sometimes adds personnel to the list of people with whom Biden’s team requests meetings “so that we have the right subject matter experts present,” but she added, “there is no requirement that all meetings be attended by a political appointee.”

No classified material has yet been given to Biden’s team, and it is not clear if or when that will be made available. Meetings at other intelligence agencies, including the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, are expected to come later.

On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that Michael Pack, a Trump appointee who oversees the Voice of America and other federally funded news agencies, has declined to make records and personnel available to Biden’s team.

At the EPA, James Hewitt, a spokesman for the agency, confirmed that political leaders were attending meetings and said it was happening with the blessing of Biden’s transition team.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

11

Who’s behind the fight between Warner Bros. and Hollywood? It’s AT&T

By EDMUND LEE

E

ven a small sample of the Warner Bros. 2021 film slate suggests the studio’s big-screen ambitions: A desert-planet messiah who can kill with a word (“Dune”); a colossal clash between mutant monsters (“Godzilla vs. Kong”); a local hero who whips up frenzied dance routines across uptown rooftops (“In the Heights”).

They’re the kind of movies that families, couples and teenagers once watched on three-story screens from the comfort of stadium-style seats, with the soundtrack’s bass notes rumbling at their feet. But last week Warner Bros. broke with tradition by announcing that it would release its entire lineup of 2021 films on HBO Max — its struggling streaming service — on the same day they were scheduled to appear in theaters.

Hollywood agents and filmmakers were angered by the move — but they may have forgotten something crucial: Warner Bros. belongs to WarnerMedia, which is part of AT&T. And AT&T is a telecommunications company whose interests are sometimes at odds with those of the old entertainment business.

Despite joining Hollywood in a big way last year, when it bought Time Warner for more than $80 billion, AT&T may not mind so much if it speeds the demise of the century-old moviegoing habit.

For AT&T, HBO Max isn’t just a convenient way to get films and television shows to the public. Instead, the platform is a key part of its wireless business. HBO Max is included in packages for some high-end phone and internet subscribers, and it exists, in part, to create consumer loyalty to AT&T. The Warner Bros. films will also play in theaters — but seeing them that way would cost a family of four about $50 (excluding gas, parking and concessions). That makes the monthly $15 fee for HBO Max a steal. Or even a no-brainer. Especially at a time of dread caused by being part of a crowd during the coronavirus pandemic.

The studio’s emphasis on streaming

Timothée Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson in “Dune,” a Warner Bros. film that will make its debut simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max. certainly puts AT&T at risk of losing money on its 2021 films. But the box office has already been hollowed out, because of the pandemic, with every major studio stutter-stepping its way into various release strategies.

Jason Kilar, the WarnerMedia chief executive who helped craft the strategy, could have settled on a more patient distribution scheme, given that coronavirus vaccines might salvage some of the 2021 box office. Instead, he did something audacious by potentially sacrificing billions in box office receipts to boost the $15-a-month streaming platform.

Kilar was early to streaming, starting his run as the chief executive of Hulu in 2007. For those who knew him then, his moves at WarnerMedia have not been much of a surprise.

In its early incarnation, Hulu was wholly free, with limited commercial interruptions. It relied on television fare for its content, but it was better than broadcast TV, because it was divorced from network schedules. Watch what you want, when you want, for free.

But Hulu’s many corporate owners — Comcast, The Walt Disney Co. and Fox — eventually forced Kilar to impose

a subscription fee when they saw that the service wasn’t making real money.

A monthly subscription cost, on top of the ads that were already running on the service, effectively mimicked cable, cutting into Hulu’s advantage.

In 2011, Kilar got Hollywood’s attention by posting a memo assailing the entertainment industry for failing to take advantage of the internet. He left Hulu to start his own company and eventually found his way back to Hollywood via AT&T, his digital-first approach having impressed John Stankey, who became the telecom giant’s chief executive in the summer.

Kilar’s latest move has rankled a powerful group: the talent, whose backend payouts are contingent on box office earnings. And the fact that WarnerMedia kept its plan under wraps until the unveiling didn’t help.

“We see an opportunity to do something firmly focused on the fans, which is to provide choice,” Kilar wrote in a blog post announcing the move.

Stankey, his boss, vigorously defended the change in strategy Tuesday. “I think when we just are being really honest about this, there’s a win-win-win here,” he said at the UBS banking conference.

He added: “We think it’s a great way for us to penetrate the market faster and quicker.”

Christopher Nolan, a director who made “Tenet” for Warner Bros. and is known as a proponent of theatrically released movies, swiftly condemned the studio’s plan to release its movies simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max. “Their decision makes no economic sense, and even the most casual Wall Street investor can see the difference between disruption and dysfunction,” he said in a statement Monday to The Hollywood Reporter. He went on to call HBO Max “the worst streaming service.”

But a strategy that strikes auteurs and cinema die-hards as dysfunctional makes perfect sense to Kilar and Stankey. AT&T’s primary focus is its wireless service, a $71 billion business.

WarnerMedia generates half that.

More important, the wireless industry brings in significantly more money than the entertainment business — and it does so in a much more efficient manner. AT&T’s wireless division makes three times the pretax profit brought in

by WarnerMedia.

Kilar did not endear himself to the entertainment establishment during his time at Hulu, and now he seems to have aggravated the content creators who make Hollywood run. But the company he works for has very little in common with other entertainment outfits.

For AT&T, HBO Max isn’t just a way to make money, but serves as an incentive to keep phone customers from defecting to its rivals. Every 0.01% of customers who stay glued to AT&T are worth about $100 million to the company.

A pricing war among AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile has lowered mobile phone bills and cut into profits. Wireless providers have taken to stealing subscribers away from one another — a costly practice that includes discounting.

AT&T still wants HBO Max to be as profitable as possible. But even if its balance sheet suffers, the platform can still be valuable if it helps the company hang on to wireless subscribers.

12

Thursday, December 10, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

FireEye, a top cybersecurity firm, says it was hacked by a nation-state

By DAVID E. SANGER and NICOLE PERLROTH

F

or years, the cybersecurity firm FireEye has been the first call for government agencies and companies around the world who have been hacked by the most sophisticated attackers, or fear they might be.

Now it looks like the hackers — in this case, evidence points to Russia’s intelligence agencies — may be exacting their revenge.

FireEye revealed Tuesday that its own systems were pierced by what it called “a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities.” The company said hackers used “novel techniques” to make off with its own toolkit, which could be useful in mounting new attacks around the world.

It was a stunning theft, akin to bank robbers who, having cleaned out local vaults, then turned around and stole the FBI’s investigative tools. In fact, FireEye said Tuesday, moments after the stock market closed, that it had called in the FBI. The $3.5 billion company, which partly makes a living by identifying the culprits in some of the world’s boldest breaches — its clients have included Sony and Equifax — declined to say explicitly who was responsible. But its description, and the fact that the FBI has turned the case over to its Russia specialists, left little doubt who the lead suspects were and that they were after what the company calls “Red Team tools.”

These are essentially digital tools that replicate the most sophisticated hacking tools in the world. FireEye uses the tools — with the permission of a client company or government agency — to look for vulnerabilities in their systems. Most of the tools

are based in a digital vault that FireEye closely guards.

The FBI on Tuesday confirmed that the hack was the work of a state, but it also would not say which one. Matt Gorham, assistant director of the FBI Cyber Division, said, “The FBI is investigating the incident and preliminary indications show an actor with a high level of sophistication consistent with a nation-state.”

The hack raises the possibility that Russian intelligence agencies saw an advantage in mounting the attack while American attention — including FireEye’s — was focused on securing the presidential election system. At a moment that the nation’s public and private intelligence systems were seeking out breaches of voter registration systems or voting machines, it may have a been a good time for those Russian agencies, which were involved in the 2016 election breaches, to turn their attention to other targets.

The hack was the biggest known theft of cybersecurity tools since those of the National Security Agency were purloined in 2016 by a still-unidentified group that calls itself the ShadowBrokers. That group dumped the NSA’s hacking tools online over several months, handing nation-states and hackers the “keys to the digital kingdom,” as one former NSA operator put it. North Korea and Russia ultimately used the NSA’s stolen weaponry in destructive attacks on government agencies, hospitals and the world’s biggest conglomerates — at a cost of more than $10 billion.

The NSA’s tools were most likely more useful than FireEye’s since the U.S. government builds purpose-made digital weapons. FireEye’s Red Team tools are essentially built from malware that the company has seen used in a wide range of attacks.

FireEye’s clients after huge breaches have included Sony and Equifax. Hackers targeted its “Red Team” tools.

Still, the advantage of using stolen weapons is that nationstates can hide their own tracks when they launch attacks.

“Hackers could leverage FireEye’s tools to hack risky, highprofile targets with plausible deniability,” said Patrick Wardle, a former NSA hacker who is now a principal security researcher at Jamf, a software company. “In risky environments, you don’t want to burn your best tools, so this gives advanced adversaries a way to use someone else’s tools without burning their best capabilities.”

A Chinese state-sponsored hacking group was previously caught using the NSA’s hacking tools in attacks around the world, ostensibly after discovering the NSA’s tools on its own systems.

“It’s like a no-brainer,” Wardle said.

The breach is likely to be a black eye for FireEye. Its investigators worked with Sony after the devastating 2014 attack that the firm later attributed to North Korea. It was FireEye that was called in after the State Department and other U.S. government agencies were breached by Russian hackers in 2015. And its major corporate clients include Equifax, the credit monitoring service that was hacked three years ago, affecting nearly half of the American population.

In the FireEye attack, the hackers went to extraordinary lengths to avoid being seen. They created several thousand Internet Protocol addresses — many inside the United States — that had never before been used in attacks. By using those addresses to stage their attack, it allowed the hackers to better conceal their whereabouts.

“This attack is different from the tens of thousands of incidents we have responded to throughout the years,” said Kevin Mandia, FireEye’s chief executive. (He was the founder of Mandiant, a firm that FireEye acquired in 2014.)

But FireEye said it was still investigating exactly how the hackers had breached its most protected systems. Details were thin.

Mandia, a former Air Force intelligence officer, said the attackers “tailored their world-class capabilities specifically to target and attack FireEye.” He said they appeared to be highly trained in “operational security” and exhibited “discipline and focus,” while moving clandestinely to escape the detection of security tools and forensic examination. Google, Microsoft and other firms that conduct cybersecurity investigations said they had never seen some of these techniques.

The attack on FireEye could be a retaliation of sorts. The company’s investigators have repeatedly called out units of the Russian military intelligence — the GRU, the SVR and the FSB, the successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB — for high-profile hacks on the power grid in Ukraine and on American municipalities. They were also the first to call out the Russian hackers behind an attack that successfully dismantled the industrial safety locks at a Saudi petrochemical plant, the very last step before triggering an explosion.

“The Russians believe in revenge,” said James A. Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Suddenly, FireEye’s customers are vulnerable.”

On Tuesday, Russia’s National Association for International Information Security held a forum with global security experts where Russian officials again claimed that there was no evidence its hackers were responsible for attacks that have resulted in American sanctions and indictments.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

13 Stocks

S&P 500, Dow hit all-time highs on stimulus, vaccine hopes

T

he S&P 500 and the Dow scaled record highs on Wednesday as hopes of a working COVID-19 vaccine and fresh economic stimulus before the end of the year lifted demand for economically sensitive energy and financial shares.

Seven of the 11 major S&P indexes were higher, with energy leading gains as crude prices climbed on hopes of a recovery in fuel demand. Oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp gained 1% in early trading.

Investors are banking on a long-awaited relief package to mitigate the economic damage from the COVID-19 pandemic that has led to millions of layoffs and overwhelmed the healthcare system.

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said he expected Democrats and Republicans to work out most of the key details of the new aid package on Wednesday.

“The market remains very optimistic that some sort of a stimulus deal would be cut before the end of the year, and that would indicate the economy may not falter or wind up in a double-dip recession,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.

Positive updates on COVID-19 vaccine development have also recently lifted Wall Street’s main indexes, with investors swapping perceived safe-haven technology shares for industrial and banking stocks, which generally benefit most from an economic rebound.

On Wednesday, the S&P financials sector gained 0.3%, while industrial stocks added 0.2%.

By 10:08 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 44.64 points, or 0.15%, at 30,218.56, the S&P 500 was up 4.49 points, or 0.12%, at 3,707.08, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 7.67 points, or 0.06 %, at 12,575.94.

With overall valuations now at extremely high levels, some investors worry stocks could be more vulnerable to any bad news such as unexpected setbacks in the roll-out of coronavirus vaccines or delays in stimulus.

Major U.S. banks Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley Inc jumped nearly 2%, while travel stocks, which have been battered by the pandemic, also clocked sharp gains.

Delta Air Lines Inc and American Airlines Group Inc climbed 2.4% and 3.1%.

Home improvement chain Lowe’s Cos Inc jumped 4.9% and was among the top percentage gainers on the benchmark S&P 500 after announcing a new $15 billion share repurchase plan.

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14

Thursday, December 10, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

As U.K. begins vaccinations, a glimpse of life after COVID population of 67 million. It will be months before shots are given to enough Britons, much less to enough people in poorer countries with scarce access to vaccines, that life can start returning to normal.

The United States is also grappling with how to get vaccines to its citizens.

President-elect Joe Biden vowed Tuesday to get “at least 100 million COVID vaccine shots into the arms of the American people” in his first 100 days in office. The Trump administration bought that many doses in advance from Pfizer, but with two injections needed for each recipient, that is enough for just 15% of the U.S. population, and the administration passed up an offer last summer to buy more.

In beating the United States and the European Union last week to authorizing the vaccine, Britain kicked off a spirited People are given the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and undergo 15 minutes debate about whether it had moved too hastily or the others were wasting valuable of observation in Cardiff, Wales, on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020. time as the death toll mounted.

The White House, concerned that and jabbed them into the upper arms of the move had embarrassed President DonBy BENJAMIN MUELLER variously jubilant and needle-shy Britons. ald Trump, heaped additional pressure on n March, the emergency room doctor Every minute mattered: Defrosted doses U.S. regulators to accelerate vaccine apwas bedridden with the first case of the that were not given by Friday would be proval, but the FDA stuck to its schedule. coronavirus among his colleagues at a wasted.

It is likely to authorize the shot within days.

“We’re doing it with military precihospital in Wales. Within weeks, he was The global fight to secure shipments back in scrubs, tending to a crush of ill, sion,” said Fiona Kinghorn, the hospital heated up Tuesday, as Trump signed an breathless patients. administrator in charge of vaccines in the executive order proclaiming that the U.S. On Tuesday, after having weathered Welsh capital, Cardiff, where 225 doses, will not begin aiding other nations until all each turn in Britain’s ravaging bout with including Babolhavaeji’s, were planned for Americans had been inoculated. But the the coronavirus, the doctor, Farbod Babol- Tuesday. “And, in fact, we have had the vague directive appeared to have no real havaeji, was given one of the world’s first military helping our planning.” teeth and does not expand the U.S. supply shots of a clinically authorized, fully tested For the first recipients, among them of doses. vaccine — a step in the long, painstaking older Britons and hundreds of doctors and For Prime Minister Boris Johnson of campaign to knock back a disease that has nurses who pulled the National Health Britain, who suggested at a London hospikilled more than 1.5 million people world- Service through the pandemic, the shots tal Tuesday that a needle-phobic vaccine offered a glimpse at life after COVID-19, recipient “recite some poetry” to calm wide.

Images of the first people to be vac- replete with plans for rescheduled wedding down, the start of mass vaccinations was cinated were broadcast around the coun- anniversaries and bus trips to the seaside. a coup amid a pandemic that has battered try, led by Margaret Keenan, 90, a former Those hopes were bolstered by the Britain and deflated his first year in office. jewelry shop assistant in a “Merry Christ- Food and Drug Administration in the Unit- For the time being, the shot is only being mas” T-shirt, and an 81-year-old man with ed States, which said Tuesday that the administered by 50 hospitals, owing to its the improbable name of William Shake- Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the same one ultracold storage needs. speare. They quickly became emblems being given in Britain, provided strong Some health workers who had spent of the remarkable race to make a vaccine protection against COVID-19 within about months treating COVID patients cried and the world’s agonizing wait for relief 10 days after the first dose, sooner than upon getting the shot. By and large, peofrom deaths now numbering 11,000 a day. had previously been believed. ple said they felt no more pain than they But any such fantasies were tem- had from any other injection, though they Never before has Britain undertaken such a fiendishly difficult mass vaccina- pered by the bleak winter ahead, with the were asked to sit for 15 minutes to make tion program. Given pizza-boxlike trays of virus still spreading and claiming, on av- sure nothing went wrong.

975 doses each, hospitals stored them in erage, more than 400 lives a day in Brit“It’s nice to have had it done, and I deep freezers, defrosted them and, Tues- ain. The country only has enough doses feel rather smug,” said Martin Kenyon, 91, day, drew them up into individual syringes now for 400,000 people, a tiny sliver of its of London, who described the injection

I

itself as “quite boring.” Brandishing a wallet-sized card with a date for his second dose, Dec. 29, Kenyon said that he was excited to break the news of his vaccination to his family and to possibly see his grandchildren, aged 10, 8 and 7, for the holidays.

With Britain hoping to vaccinate tens of millions of people within months, hospital administrators spoke of using the first day of inoculations to resolve “teething problems.”

Some hospitals prioritized nurses, doctors and nursing home workers, while others gave the first shots to people aged 80 and over who already had visits with doctors or were being discharged. Nursing home residents, originally the top priority under a government advisory committee’s plans, will be vaccinated before Christmas, health officials said Tuesday, once the government refines a plan for breaking down the trays of vaccines outside hospitals.

Unlike flu vaccines in Britain, which come in prefilled syringes, the coronavirus vaccines arrived in vials of five doses each. That forced hospital pharmacists to rely on a delicate process for drawing out doses without contaminating the vial.

Britain preordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. But health officials expect only 4 million to arrive by the end of the year, less than half of what they had anticipated as recently as last month. Manufacturing difficulties have halved Pfizer’s expected global supply for this month.

In an effort to hedge its bets, Britain prepurchased hundreds of millions of doses of several different vaccine candidates in development. The country is expected to authorize the emergency use of one developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. That drug’s more forgiving storage requirements make it easier to dispense at mass vaccination centers being assembled at racecourses and soccer stadiums. Doctors could begin administering vaccines in their offices as early as next week.

Some Britons who were eligible for the Pfizer shot said Tuesday that they did not want it, an early sign of the hesitancy over vaccines that could complicate efforts to achieve widespread protection.

“It’s a bit too early,” said Carlos Pinto, 80, who was getting a blood test at a London hospital that had the vaccines. “I prefer to wait a bit longer.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

15

COVID cases, and blame, rise along southeast Asian borders

By HANNAH BEECH

T

he border between Thailand and Myanmar is more than 1,500 miles long, much of it thickly forested. Myanmar has suffered runaway transmission of the coronavirus.

Thailand, so far, has not.

But over the past couple of weeks, at least 19 COVID-19 cases in Thailand have been linked to migrant workers who slipped between the two countries undetected. The infections have spooked Thai officials, who have managed one of the world’s most successful coronavirus containment strategies.

The health authorities in Thailand are now racing to trace the contacts of hundreds of people who may have been exposed to the virus. And the events have cast a spotlight on how regions like Southeast Asia that depend on porous borders are fighting to keep the virus out while allowing economic activity to continue.

From Mexican farmworkers in California to Ethiopian construction workers in the Persian Gulf and Zimbabwean domestic workers in South Africa, essential labor is often carried out by undocumented people who slip across borders for work. Yet several countries are now using the illicit flow of migrant labor to accuse their neighbors of virus outbreaks.

In Southeast Asia alone, Myanmar has blamed people from Bangladesh, and Thailand has blamed Myanmar. Vietnam has pointed fingers at China. And China says its southwestern flank is suffering because of movement from Southeast Asia.

The winding frontier between Myanmar and Thailand — separating one country that has managed the virus from one that has not — is putting the crisis in stark relief.

“The border is very long,” said Col. Chatri Sanguantham, whose soldiers patrol the mountainous northern Thai region, near the town of Tachileik, Myanmar. “They will do anything, take any measure, to get what they want, including entering the country illegally,” he said of migrant workers from Myanmar.

Compared with other countries, the total caseload in Thailand — a shade over 4,000 infections — seems absurdly low. But over the past few days, Thailand said it had fortified parts of its border, increased military patrols and uncoiled barbed wire at popular illegal crossing points to try and stop the recent spread of infections.

The police have arrested those suspected of being peoplesmugglers, who are paid as little as $15 to help migrants cross the border illegally.

Undocumented workers, who often labor in crowded conditions, are of particular concern to the authorities because their uncertain legal status also makes them less likely to admit when they are sick, increasing the odds that the virus could spread undetected.

“Because these people came in illegally, they will lay low, work in hiding,” said Suthasinee Kaewleklai, a coordinator for the Migrant Workers Rights Network in Thailand. “If they get sick, they will never go to the doctor or hospital to get themselves checked.”

Vigilance against the virus has been heightened in the

Thai border town of Mae Sot, which sits directly across the Moei River from Myawaddy, Myanmar. Soldiers wearing camouflage and face masks patrol the riverbank. Before the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of people used to cross the river every year to work, study and play in Thailand, where roughly 5 million migrants normally find work, only about half of them legally.

At the narrowest point of the river, children could toss a ball between the two countries. In the dry season, migrants wade across the Moei, and in the rainy season they hop on skiffs.

Thailand began tightening the Mae Sot border in the spring, suspending traffic over the Friendship Bridge to Myawaddy. Restrictions eased a bit over the summer, then tightened again in August when the number of cases in Myanmar grew quickly.

But for all the talk of a fortified frontier, undetected crossborder movement continues, including people who want to avoid Thailand’s mandatory two-week quarantine. Thais still skip over to Myanmar, where casinos and clubs operate in a less-regulated environment, for a few hours of fun. Boats evade border posts to openly transport goods back and forth.

Despite this movement, Thailand has not reported sustained local transmission since May. Hospitals are currently treating about 180 COVID cases, according to health officials, and almost all of them are among people who returned from abroad and tested positive in state-mandated quarantine.

Yet over the past few months, travelers from Thailand have tested positive after arriving in Japan, Malaysia and South Korea. At least 70 migrant workers who returned from Thailand tested positive in Myawaddy, according to the Myanmar authorities.

In Mae Sot, Thais have started to organize neighborhood watches and set up nighttime roadblocks to prevent outsiders from coming in. But in a border town situated directly across the river from a place in Myanmar where at least 1,200 people have had COVID, keeping out disease is all but impossible.

In October, two truck drivers ferrying goods from Myanmar to Thailand tested positive at a Thai hospital. They

spread the virus to their family members in Myanmar and to Myanmar nationals living in Thailand.

By November, that cluster in Thailand was successfully contained. But late last month, a pair of Thai women who had crossed over the border illegally from Myanmar tested positive in Mae Sot. “This area depends on trade, on migrants,” said Col. Krit Kityathiwat, the deputy commander of the 4th Infantry Regiment that patrols the Mae Sot area border. “We don’t want to be known as the place where COVID is coming to Thailand.”

AVISO AMBIENTAL SOBRE INTENCIÓN DE OTORGAR UN PERMISO PARA OPERAR UNA INSTALACIÓN DE PROCESAMIENTO DE DESPERDICIOS SÓLIDOS NO PELIGROSOS La Sra. Judith M. Hernández, representante autorizado de Stericycle of Puerto Rico, lnc., sometió ante el Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (en adelante, DRNA) una solicitud de permiso para operar una instalación de desperdirios sólidos no peligrosos, para el recogido, transporte, procesamiento y destrucción de documentos confidenciales. Esta instalación está ubicada en 449 Calle E, Suite 2, Industrial Minillas, Bayamón PR. El Reglamento para el Manejo de los Desperdicios Sólidos No Peligrosos, establece en el Capítulo IX el requisito de solicitar un permiso como condición previa a la operación de una instalación de desperdicios sólidos no peligrosos, el cual es aplicable a dueños u operadores.

Luego de evaluar los documentos suministrados, el DRNA tiene la intención de emitir el permiso de operación.

Copia de la solicitud de permiso, al igual que el borrador del permiso y otros documentos relevantes al caso, están a la disposición del público para ser examinados en el Área Contaminación de Terrenos del DRNA, ubicado en la Carr. 8838 Km. 6.3, Sector Et Cinco, Río Piedras, de lunes a viernes de 8:00 a.m. a 4:30 p.m.

Cualquier persona interesada podrá someter comentarios por escrito sobre et borrador del permiso y podrá solicitar una vista pública. Toda solicitud de vista pública deberá hacerse por escrito y deberá ser debidamente fundamentada y exponer la naturaleza de tas cuestiones que se levantarán en la vista. El DRNA podrá celebrar una vista pública de forma discrecional. Toda solicitud deberá ser dirigida a ta siguiente dirección, no más tarde de treinta (30) días a partir de ta publicación de este Aviso: Área Contaminación de Terrenos, San José Industrial Park, 1375 Ave. Ponce de León, San Juan PR 00926.

Este anuncio se publica conforme a lo requerido por la Ley Núm. 382017, conocida como la “Ley de Procedimiento Administrativo Uniforme del Gobierno de Puerto Rico”, la Ley Núm. 416-2004, según enmendada, conocida como “Ley sobre Política Pública Ambiental”, los reglamentos aprobados a su amparo; y las leyes y reglamentos federales aplicables.

Aprobado por la Autoridad Nominadora, Certificación CEE-SA-2020-5576 del 21 de febrero de 2020.

Este anuncio se publicó conforme a lo requerido por la Ley sobre Política Pública Ambiental, Ley Núm. 416 del 22 de septiembre de 2004, según enmendada.

Aviso pagado por solicitante.

Gobierno de Puerto Rico

Rafael A. Machargo Secretario

Workers at a warehouse in the Thai border town of Mae Sot pack goods into a truck bound for Myanmar on Sept. 28, 2020.

DEPARTAMENTO DE RECURSOS NATURALES Y AMBIENTALES

• Carr. 8838 Km. 6.3 Sector El Cinco, Río Piedras PR 00926 • • San José Industrial Park, 1375 Ave. Ponce de León, San Juan PR 00926 • ' 787.999.2200 7 787. 999.2303 • y www. drna.pr.gov

16

Thursday, December 10, 2020

He broke out of quarantine for 8 seconds and got a $3,550 fine

The piazza Duomo in Milan, Italy, in early November.

By LIVIA ALBECK-RIPKA

O

ne man left the house after an argument with his wife and walked 280 miles to cool off, breaching Italy’s national curfew.

Another man wandered outside his quarantine room in Taiwan for eight seconds and caught the attention of authorities.

Still another drove 19 miles for a butter chicken curry during a strict lockdown and was apprehended by Australian police.

All those actions ended up costing them thousands of dollars in penalties.

During the global pandemic, with entire cities locked down, travel heavily restricted and isolation fatigue setting in, thousands of people have been caught, fined or jailed for breaching coronavirus restrictions that have made once normal activities taboo.

Some have intentionally broken the rules to make a political statement. Others have claimed they are immune to the disease and from the consequences of breaking those restrictions. Others have simply blundered into breaches because they apparently didn’t understand the rules or were acting in a moment of desperation.

“Everyone is operating in a crazy world where our normal, rational decision-making goes out the window,” said Robert Hoffmann, a professor of econom-

ics at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. “A pandemic is a perfect storm.”

Here are a few unusual cases.

Eight seconds + six strides = $3,550 In the port city of Kaohsiung, in the south of Taiwan, a migrant worker from the Philippines was caught on surveillance cameras briefly stepping into the corridor of a hotel while he was under quarantine in November.

The unidentified man wanted to leave something outside the door of a friend, who was quarantining at the same hotel, according to the Central News Agency, the official Taiwanese news agency, citing the health department.

In a video clip that circulated online, the man, wearing shorts and flip-flops, could be seen taking six lumbering strides between his room and that of his neighbor, before turning around.

The breach cost him $3,550.

His behavior, economists say, shows a kind of “optimism bias” — human beings tend to underestimate their chances of getting into trouble.

In the past month, nine foreign workers in Taiwan were caught breaking the rules, local news outlets reported, citing government data.

Taiwan has been lauded for its successful response to the coronavirus, an effort led by Chen Chien-jen, a public health researcher who until May was vice president. But in recent weeks, the

island has had a surge in cases, largely imported from Indonesia, prompting it to temporarily bar some migrant workers from entering and crack down on those in quarantine.

While punitive measures like fines act as deterrents, there is a limit to their effectiveness, economists say. Winning cooperation, they added, is a far better defense.

A long (long) lay from home After a heated argument with his wife, a man in Como, in Italy’s north, stepped outside his house for some air in November. Authorities found him a week later — after he had walked 280 miles south to the coastal town of Fano, breaching a national curfew.

They fined him 400 euros (about $485).

The unidentified man, 48, had walked about 40 miles per day, according to local news reports. Police confirmed his story after contacting authorities in Como, where the man’s wife had reported him missing. He told authorities that he was feeling a little weary but had been given food and water by strangers along the way.

Italy, which captured the world’s attention in March when the coronavirus hit, is fighting a second wave that is almost as deadly. The country is also battling a sense of exhaustion and despair.

“People are taking desperate measures; they are overreacting to the stimulus,” said Jelena Kecmanovic, an adjunct professor of psychology at Georgetown University.

Referring to the man in Como, she added that normally, someone might walk around the neighborhood to cool off.

“But now it’s accumulated, accumulated, and he snapped,” she said.

A party — and a fine — fit for a prince After Prince Joachim of Belgium landed in Spain in late May, he was supposed to quarantine for 14 days and adhere to the country’s lockdown measures.

He did neither.

The prince, 28, the nephew of King Philippe, instead flew from Madrid to Córdoba to meet his girlfriend. A few days later, the couple went to a house party with more than two dozen people in attendance, local news media reported.

Then he tested positive for the coronavirus.

Spain, which had one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns, has fined more than 1 million people for flouting those measures.

It did not let the Belgian prince off the hook, handing him a 10,400-euro fine (about $12,630) for breaching the restrictions.

“I would like to apologize for not having respected all the quarantine measures during my trip,” he said in a statement released publicly. “In these difficult moments, I did not mean to offend or disrespect anybody.”

‘I just had a craving’ for butter chicken In Melbourne, Australia — amid one of the longest and strictest lockdowns in the world — Noel Atkinson, a 48-yearold construction worker, had a yearning in July.

So he drove nearly 20 miles from his home to a downtown Indian restaurant for butter chicken curry. But he did not get the butter chicken. Instead, he got a police fine of $1,230, after they caught him contravening lockdown orders.

“I just had a craving for it,” Atkinson said in an interview. “My mum was born in Ambala,” he added of the city in the north of India. “It reminds me of home.”

As an essential worker, Atkinson had been exempt from most coronavirus restrictions during the day in the state of Victoria. He explained that since he traveled more than twice the distance for work, he had not considered the drive to the city lengthy or realized that he would be in breach of the rules.

“I have to risk my life to go to work, but I can’t risk my own life to get takeaway,” he said. “That’s a bit unfair.”

Before he was identified publicly, Australians tried to hunt down his identity.

One restaurant offered to reimburse him for his trouble in curries.

Amit Tuteja, owner of Desi Dhaba, the restaurant where Atkinson had planned to order his curry, said that while he did not condone Atkinson’s actions, “he made a mistake, but I’m pretty sure he just did not know.”

“He’s not the type who’s a freeloader; he’s a hard worker,” he added. “I said to him, ‘Mate, for the next year, you can have as much butter chicken to your heart’s content.’ “

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

17

Iran is moving key facility at nuclear site underground, satellite images show

By CHRISTOPH KOETTL

T

he mysterious July explosion that destroyed a centrifuge assembly hall at Iran’s main nuclear fuel enrichment facility in Natanz was deemed by Iranian authorities to be enemy sabotage and provoked a defiant response: The wrecked building would be rebuilt in “the heart of the mountains,” the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said.

Progress on that pledge, which could shield the facility from an aerial assault or other threats, has been unclear to outside observers. But new satellite imagery is now shedding light on the Iranian plans.

The Visual Investigations team of The New York Times has tracked construction at the site using the new imagery.

For the first time, new tunnel entrances for underground construction are visible under a ridge in the mountain foothills south of the Natanz facility, about 140 miles south of Tehran.

The Times worked with Jeffrey Lewis, an arms control expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California, to interpret the new image.

“The new facility is likely to be a far more secure location for centrifuge assembly — it is located far from a road and the ridge offers significant overburden that would protect the facility from air attack,” Lewis stated in written comments.

The July explosion was not the only recent incident that appeared to have exposed major gaps in Iran’s security of its nuclear program, which the country insists is limited to peaceful purposes. In late November, a brazen daylight attack killed Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Iran has blamed Israel and the United States for the Natanz explosion and Fakhrizadeh’s assassination, which were both considered serious setbacks to Iran’s nuclear program.

Lewis described the clues that underground construction was underway at the site in Natanz.

“There are what appear to be two tunnel entrances on either side of a large ridge, with a pile of spoil from excavation nearby. The space between the two entrances is large enough to accommodate a facility about the same size as the centrifuge assembly building that was destroyed this summer and that Iran indicated it was rebuilding in the mountains.”

Looking at satellite images taken over several months allows for tracking changes. Even something as simple and inconspicuous as a pile of dirt is a clue.

“The major clue is the pile of spoil from the excavation that was not present in July,” Lewis said. “Iran also regraded a pair of roads on each side of the ridge leading to what appear to be tunnel entrances.”

Allison Puccioni, an imagery analyst affiliated with the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, pointed out other telltale signs of excavations near the debris pile. In comments provided to the Times, Puccioni said that between the debris pile and excavation

Natanz nuclear facility. July 8, 2020. site, the imagery showed “trails of excavated earth, lighter in color than the existing hard-packed road.”

A flurry of activity in Natanz captured by satellites in recent months includes the building of new roads and additional excavations, which started after the explosion.

Some analysts say that additional tunnels are being constructed, suggesting work on an even larger underground complex is underway.

The destroyed building was built in 2012 and had been used to assemble centrifuges, the machines that enrich uranium needed for peaceful purposes — and when enriched to higher levels, for bombs. The 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers halted high level enrichment, but Iran started amassing enriched uranium again after President Donald Trump left the accord two years ago.

After the July explosion, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iran’s compliance with the accord, confirmed that there had been no nuclear materials at that specific building.

The ability to see via satellite what Iran has done since the Natanz explosion partly reflects the quantum leap in such visual technology in the past two decades.

In 2002, analysts revealed the construction of the then-secret Natanz enrichment facility using commercial high-resolution satellite imagery. Such sharp imagery had only become available in 2000. Back then, the analysis

required finding Natanz on Persian maps in the Library of Congress, faxing an order form and waiting for weeks to receive satellite imagery on a CD-ROM. Eighteen years later, even the smallest changes at a site like Natanz can be quickly tracked by analysts and journalists on their laptops.

These monitoring capabilities can create their own challenges. Frequently collected images do not show completed construction, but work in progress. Initial interpretation of the recent changes in Natanz from October focused on a former firing range south of the main facility as the possible location for the new underground centrifuge assembly hall. However, these changes turned out to be a construction support facility used for road work and tunnel excavations.

In response to Fakhrizadeh’s assassination, Iran enacted a law last week to immediately ramp up uranium enrichment and bar international inspectors by February if U.S. sanctions are not lifted. The law also calls for the installment of advanced centrifuges at its nuclear facilities, including in Natanz.

The United States may have been aware in advance of the recent attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and personnel. How Iran responds to the newest attack could pose an early challenge to the incoming Biden administration, which has said it wants to rejoin the nuclear accord repudiated by Trump.

18

Thursday, December 10, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

Apps are killing the restaurant industry in the U.S.

By GREG BENSINGER

T

he sudden onset of the pandemic in March sent the restaurant industry into a death spiral. Working in a notoriously low-margin business, many couldn’t withstand weeks of limited or no indoor dining. As a result, about 1 in 6 restaurants nationwide has closed permanently, and as of September nearly 3 million restaurant workers had lost their jobs.

Under pressure to pay rent and retain workers, some restaurants turned more of their attention to delivery, particularly from app-based companies like DoorDash, UberEats and Grubhub. Few restaurants that hadn’t done delivery in the past had the time or money to create their own delivery service, which typically brings in less money than dining rooms, where customers are more apt to order more profitable items like appetizers, desserts or a second round of drinks.

These restaurants have quickly found that the apps, with their high fees and strong-arm tactics, may be a temporary lifeline, but not a savior. Fees of 30% or higher per order cut eateries’ razor-thin margins to the bone. And a stimulus package that would bolster the industry has stalled in Congress, even as states and municipalities enact new limits on both indoor and outdoor dining.

Restaurants are entering a critical stage as a new coronavirus surge takes hold and outdoor dining becomes less appealing during the colder months. Lawmakers can help by extending federal grants to independent restaurants that will help them close the gap in lost sales and cover payroll and other expenses.

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A man carries his daughter as he buys food at El Nuevo Valle, a restaurant in the West Farms neighbourhood of the Bronx, on Nov19, 2020.

But legislators also should consider caps on the fees the apps can charge, particularly amid the pandemic, as places like New York City, San Francisco, New Jersey and Washington state have done, or risk seeing additional restaurant casualties. Officials in Colorado and Santa Clara County in California are considering similar fee limits, though app firms are pushing back by imposing $1.50 to $2 per-order charges on customers in some cities.

App companies have said the high fees are necessary to pay drivers, acquire new customers and expand into new markets, and caps could force them to alter their service. But the fees are also funding a consolidation among the four largest players that together represent an estimated 99% of delivery market share and which will give them greater pricing power.

Though still unprofitable, Uber this month completed its acquisition of Postmates in a $2.7 billion deal. And DoorDash, also a money loser, is going public this week with hopes of raising more than $3 billion from investors. DoorDash’s IPO will net already wealthy investors billions in profits, particularly galling as restaurants wither.

The apps’ fees have hobbled many restaurateurs that had viewed app-based delivery as a temporary solution until the coronavirus could be contained.

While several vaccine trials offer hope that indoor dining might safely resume next year, Stephanie Vitori, owner of the Cheeseburger Baby restaurant in Miami Beach, says she worries she will not be able to hold out that long.

The fees were acceptable when delivery represented less than 15% of her business last year, but with delivery now nearly 90% of her sales, DoorDash and others are taking a big chunk of her revenue. “It’s not sustainable at these rates; the fees are killing my business,” she said, noting her overall sales are down nearly 15%.

Even larger chains, which can negotiate lower fees, have had their profits nibbled away by the delivery apps.

A former Grubhub executive compared the apps to payday lenders. “They give you the sensation of cash flow, but at the expense of your long-term future and financial stability,” he wrote in May. There are other causes for concern about the app com-

panies, particularly the treatment of their legion of contract drivers who face inconsistent earnings and are denied health care and other benefits from the companies. DoorDash, Uber and Postmates, among others, pulled together $200 million to back a winning ballot proposal in California last month that circumvented the legislative process and entrenched a system ensuring drivers can’t attain status as employees or other benefits like consistent minimum wage guarantees and help with vehicle costs. The companies have since vowed to bring similar limits to other states.

Restaurants of course do not have to use the apps, but those that don’t or that refuse to pay marketing fees to push their eateries higher up in search results find that customers are funneled to competitors. Desperate to maintain typical profit margins of just 5% or less, some restaurants have fought back by encouraging customers to order directly through their websites for pickup. Others are slipping flyers into delivery boxes to promote less costly options, including a few new startups that charge lower commissions.

Ashish Arnold, who operates two restaurants in Maryland, implored customers to delete all delivery apps from their phones. “It’s a predatory business,” he said, noting Uber, DoorDash and others had been unwilling to negotiate lower fees with him even as sales slipped. “They say the onus is on us to make it sustainable, but this is not a service we asked for.”

With deep pockets, the dominant app companies have devised ways to put pressure on restaurant owners to sign contracts with them, including downloading menus without restaurants’ consent and then offering their own delivery. Grubhub registered internet domain names of tens of thousands of independent restaurants. Legislators should curtail such anti-competitive practices.

Dan Raskin, an owner of Manny’s Deli in Chicago, said his greatest frustration was the companies’ unwillingness to share customer information with him. That means he cannot verify their claims that they are bringing him new customers. Worse, they appear to be using that data to create competing virtual restaurants — which have no dining rooms, offer multiple cuisines from one location and operate only on the apps.

App-based food delivery will become only more vital to the industry as the coronavirus stretches into the new year and more communities issue shelter-in-place orders. With a vast ondemand workforce, Uber and DoorDash do offer a service that is difficult and expensive to replicate.

But the power imbalance between restaurants and delivery apps willing and able to absorb billions in losses to maintain market share threatens to force more cherished dining establishments out of business.

Consumers can help by ordering directly from restaurants for pickup and by using the apps sparingly. And lawmakers too should wait no longer to extend workers a new stimulus package and help to limit the prohibitive fees the apps charge small businesses.

DoorDash’s IPO will mint countless new millionaires.

But is an industry designed to enrich the elite and built atop a growing heap of struggling restaurants truly worth celebrating?

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

19

Comisionado electoral del PPD espera culminar escrutinio de la alcaldía de Aguadilla Por THE STAR

E

l comisionado electoral del Partido Popular Democrático (PPD), Gerardo Antonio “Toñito” Cruz Maldonado dijo el miércoles, que 30 de las 60 mesas de adjudicación en el Escrutinio General que lleva a cabo la Comisión Estatal de Elecciones (CEE), atendían maletines correspondientes a la candidatura de alcalde del Municipio de Aguadilla.

Hasta esa hora, según Cruz Maldonado, se habían recontado las papeletas municipales de alrededor de 32 maletines del Colegio Regular.

“Conforme al plan de trabajo delineado, hoy, esperamos conocer los resultados de la candidatura a alcalde del Municipio de Aguadilla. Es de conocimiento general, que ese escaño se encuentra en recuento debido a que la diferencia en votos entre los candidatos a alcalde del PPD y el PNP es menor a 100 votos”, precisó Cruz Maldonado en declaraciones escritas.

“De igual forma se recontarán los votos que pertenecen al voto adelanto de la Junta Administrativa del Voto Adelantado y Ausente (JAVAA)”, añadió.

Según la página de Internet de la CEE, la noche

del evento, el escaño a alcalde de Aguadilla presentaba una ventaja de 75 votos a favor del candidato del PPD, Julio Roldán Concepción (8,760) sobre la candidata del PNP Yanitsia Irizarry Méndez (8,685).

Por otra parte, el Código Electoral en el Artículo 10.8 dispone: Cuando el resultado parcial o preliminar de una elección arroje una diferencia entre dos candidatos a un mismo cargo público electivo de 100 votos o menos, o del .5 por ciento o menos del total de votos adjudicados para ese cargo, la Comisión realizará un recuento de los votos emitidos en los colegios de votación que conformen la demarcación geoelectoral de la candidatura afectada por este resultado estrecho,, estableció el comisionado electoral del PPD. “Sabemos el interés que tiene el electorado de Aguadilla en conocer los resultados a la mayor brevedad y quiero dejar claro que estamos trabajando para ello. Hasta el momento, como he repetido, los números en los recuentos no se alejan mucho de los resultados del día de la elección y la tendencia hasta ahora favorece a Julio Roldán, candidato del PPD. Otro dato importante destacar es que no he recibido informes de las papeletas tipo “pivazo” municipal a la cual alude la actual alcaldesa en el recurso radicado ante el Tribunal”, explicó Cruz.

“Una vez tengamos un número más concreto, que incluya los resultados de la JAVAA emitiremos expresiones al respecto”, concluyó.

Contraloría revela que corporación de adiestramientos presentó información falsa al Departamento de Educación Por THE STAR

L

a Contraloría de Puerto Rico publicó el miércoles, el resultado de la investigación de una querella relacionada con la facturación de servicios de talleres y adiestramientos no ofrecidos en el Departamento de Educación (DE).

La investigación revela que una corporación contratada del 2014 al 2015, para ofrecer talleres sabatinos y adiestramientos a maestros del Plan de Trabajo 14-22-Aprendizaje Matemático en el Contexto de la Sociedad del Siglo 21, presentó documentos con firmas alteradas e información falsa para justificar el cobro de 60,500 dólares por servicios no prestados. La prueba documental y testifical evidencia que 39 maestros y facilitadores indicaron no haber tomado los adiestramientos y 37 no recordaban haberlos tomado.

Además, tras la verificación de las facturas y mediante declaración jurada, dos entrenadores indicaron que no ofrecieron los 61 servicios de adiestramiento del proyecto de matemáticas Mathcloud; otros dos entrenadores validaron que no ofrecieron los 118 servicios de adiestramiento del proyecto educando matemáticos, Edumat; cuatro entrenadores expresaron desconocer que

la corporación había utilizado sus nombres para facturar 179 servicios de adiestramiento, y uno de ellos indicó que no cualificaba para ser entrenador.

Según el reporte, la profesora proponente del proyecto, quien certificó las facturas de la corporación, dijo que se seleccionó dicha corporación del catálogo de licitadores elegibles y designó una encargada para preintervenir las facturas. Sin embargo, la profesora afirmó que no preintervenía ni revisaba las facturas y tampoco corroboraba que los servicios facturados se hubiesen ofrecido, salvo alguna ocasión que visitó los adiestramientos.

La encargada de preintervenir las facturas le comentó a los auditores de la Contraloría, que su trabajo era voluntario, que verificaba la documentación requerida por la Oficina de Asuntos Federales, que no participó en la selección de la corporación y que tampoco corroboraba si los servicios facturados fueron ofrecidos.

Estas situaciones se refirieron al Negociado Federal de Investigaciones, al Departamento de Justicia Federal y a la Oficina del Inspector General del Departamento de Educación de los Estados Unidos, el 26 de julio de 2019.

El Informe concluye que la exdirectora del

Programa pudo haber incurrido en negligencia al no verificar y permitir que una persona sin autoridad de ley certificara las facturas objeto de esta investigación. Además, se pudo haber configurado los delitos de apropiación ilegal agravada, fraude, falsedad ideológica y negligencia en el cumplimiento del deber, entre otros, tipificados en la Ley 146-2012 del Código Penal de Puerto Rico.

La Oficina del Contralor de Puerto Rico ha publicado seis informes con hallazgos relacionados a la falta de controles en los procesos de contratación y facturación de servicios rendidos al Departamento, estos son: DA-15-17, DA-15-33, TI-1714, DA-17-39, TI-18-15, y DA-19-05.

El Resultado de la Investigación con fecha del 30 de noviembre de 2020 está disponible en www.ocpr.gov.pr.

20

Thursday, December 10, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

What made Leonardo such a great artist? Science, says a new book

By PARUL SEHGAL

W

hen testing a new pen, Leonardo da Vinci was in the habit of scrawling the phrase dimmi — tell me.

The doodles appear in the margins of his notebooks, those records of his ravenous, almost carnal curiosity about the natural world. Dimmi was his animating question. Dimmi, he wrote between scribbled shopping lists (eels, velvet, wine) and sketches of inventions, instructing himself: “Describe what sneezing is, what yawning is, the falling sickness, spasm.” Dimmi — tell me your secrets — he implored in his studies of the movement of water and the working of the woodpecker’s tongue.

Painter, engineer, anatomist, the designer of torture devices as well as machines to break men out of prison, Leonardo is heralded as the “real Renaissance man.” Never mind that this notion is reductive and plain wrong — or so argues art historian Francesca Fiorani in her new book, “The Shadow Drawing.”

Leonardo’s interests were not as dizzyingly disparate as they seem. His mind sought synthesis.

He was hunting basic principles, the fundamental laws of all nature. “Write of swimming under water,” he declared, “and you will have the flight of birds through the air.” His artistic and scientific interests were conjoined. In painting, Leonardo could apply all he learned about geometry, shadow and light, about the interplay of the eye and mind in perception.

By no means is Fiorani the first to make this case (historian Sydney Freedberg elegantly described how knowledge was indivisible for Leonardo), but she makes it with fresh force and pitches it against the misconception that Leonardo abandoned painting for science in his later years.

Where did that idea come from? Sure enough: The unmistakable, chaos-sowing figure of Freud skitters in the shadows.

It was from Freud’s influential, and exuberantly fictionalized, study of Leonardo that many of our false impressions spring, including the idea of the “dual Leonardo” — the artist turned scientist. (This depiction is buried beneath the essay’s most memorable claim: Freud, in full sail, laments that Leonardo was excessively cuddled by his mother.) True, Leonardo’s output seems to support Freud’s case — the first charge at least. He was one of the least prolific painters of his era. In 40 years, he completed, at most, 15 paintings and left much work — including the “Mona Lisa” — deliberately unfinished. In contrast, a kind of graphomania seemed to seize him. By

some counts, the notebooks run to 16,000 pages — only a fraction of which have been viewed.

In “The Shadow Drawing,” Fiorani argues that Leonardo’s artistic and scientific preoccupations likely shared their root in the seven-volume 11thcentury manuscript “Book of Optics,” by Arab philosopher Abu Ali al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham, known in the West at the time as Alhacen.

There’s no proof that Leonardo read the text, but translations circulated among Italian painters.

Born near Florence in 1452, the illegitimate child of a notary and a household servant, Leonardo was apprenticed to artist Andrea del Verrocchio, one of the few professional avenues open to him. From his shadow drawings in his notebooks, we can see that he was already exploring optical effects in his 20s, perhaps ones he first encountered in Alhacen’s work.

“Book of Optics” gathered all the available knowledge of the field at the time: Galen’s study of the eye, Euclid’s and Ptolemy’s treatises on geometry, Aristotle’s suppositions about the soul. What Alhacen theorized, Leonardo put into practice.

Roland Barthes once wrote that the photographs that compel us never overpower or coerce;

they attract us because they are pensive, they think.

Leonardo’s paintings are stuffed with ideas, with suppositions on perspective and distortion, on how the rounded surface of the eye influences perception. They were living laboratories — which is Fiorani’s explanation for the unfinished paintings. Process simply became more alluring to Leonardo than a final product.

One wishes only that Fiorani felt freer to think alongside this work. Her approach is admiring but oddly withdrawn. She is prone to parroting her thesis and lapsing into somnolent praise. Leonardo’s youthful paintings are “stunning.” His skull drawings are “stunning.” His landscapes are “stunning.” So too are his anatomical drawings, his portrait of Ginevra Benci, his treatment of drapery and too many other techniques to mention.

The patness of this description is striking; its laziness borders on indifference. Does it bespeak the challenges of writing about Leonardo — how to make a fresh case for his obvious genius? How to write in the wake of so many others? One recent example, published just last year, is Carmen Bambach’s monumental four-part biography, which Fiorani herself calls “unsurpassed.”

Dimmi, I wanted to say to the writer, tell me not what has been seen before but what you have seen. Sometimes Fiorani does exactly that, and in such passages, when she loses herself in looking, the book achieves fluency and power. She notes the traces of the azure paint on the throat of the “Mona Lisa” and wonders if it is responsible for giving us the sense of seeing her pulse. Or take the bravura section on “The Last Supper,” in which she explains how the painting exists in two time frames, with several characters making gestures that will mark them in the future. Thomas, for example, is shown raising the very finger he will later use to prod Christ’s wounds.

“The Shadow Drawing” doesn’t offer the conventional satisfactions of biography: the evocation of Leonardo’s world, his paradoxes and idiosyncrasies, that famous fondness for solitude and rose-pink tunics. The book trains its gaze on his technical and philosophical obsessions. Its focus may feel narrow at times, and yet its pleasures often prove surprisingly wide. The book reorients our perspective, distills a life and brings it into focus — the very work of revision and refining that its subject loved best.

Publication Notes: “The Shadow Drawing How Science Taught Leonardo How to Paint”

By Francesca Fiorani Illustrated. 374 pages. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $35.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

21

‘Mank’ and more movies with screenwriters as main characters

By ALEXANDER HULS

S

creenwriting — a torturous act practiced in solitude while staring at a screen or typewriter, punctuated by a neurosis or two — is not an inherently cinegenic profession. Nonetheless, Hollywood has produced a catalog of movies that try to capture the trade, using a sprinkle of movie magic to transform the seemingly boring pursuit.

Here’s a look at the latest, David Fincher’s “Mank” (now on Netflix), and seven other movies about the trade, and how they succeed at interpreting the writer’s experience.

‘Adaptation’ (2002). Watch on streaming platforms.

The writer: Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) struggles to adapt “The Orchid Thief”

by Susan Orlean in something of a love letter to the struggle of writer’s block.

How much we see him write: He continually reads his source material and dictates his bolts of inspiration into a recording device. He even makes multiple attempts at sitting at his typewriter, before giving up after 15 seconds.

Degree of neurosis: “I’m a walking cliché,” Kaufman tells himself at the beginning of the movie in a stream-of-consciousness purge of his negative thoughts and impostor syndrome that continues throughout the film.

Writerly moment: Charlie excuses himself from a party to go home to write, but instead flops down face-first onto his bed because it’s easier.

‘Barton Fink’ (1991). Watch on streaming platforms.

The writer: John Turturro stars as a playwright who is invited to Hollywood to write a wrestling movie. It proves to be more difficult than he anticipated.

How much we see him write: Despite spending much of the movie staring at an empty page, when Fink gets going on a beautiful Underwood typewriter, he tip-taps his way through a whole ream of blank paper.

Degree of neurosis: Fink is a cluster of writerly traits: painfully awkward, lonely, eager for praise, quick to despair and driven by the idea that writing “comes from a great deal of pain.”

Writerly moment: Desperate for companionship, when asked about his writing by his neighbor at the hotel (John Goodman), Fink unspools an unprompted two-minute monologue about his literary ambitions. “I know sometimes I run on,” he says apologetically.

‘In a Lonely Place’ (1950). Stream on Amazon.

The Writer: Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart), a struggling screenwriter, becomes a murder suspect when a woman who came to his apartment on business later turns up dead.

How much we see him write: You’d think being investigated for murder while falling in love with a neighbor (Gloria Grahame) would hinder productivity. Yet Steele writes an entire script in the course of the movie, a healthy amount of which we see him doing by hand on a legal pad.

Degree of neurosis: Anger management is a bigger concern for Steele, but there are small bursts of writerly insecurity, like when he jokes with someone, “One day I’ll surprise you and write something good.”

Writerly moment: After several allnighters and days of writing, Steele assumes the official pose of his profession: exhausted, hunched over a writing instrument, elbow on a table, and hand on head as if trying to physically pull thoughts directly from his brain.

‘Mank’ (2020). Stream on Netflix.

The Writer: Exiled to an isolated ranch to dry out and recuperate from a broken leg, Herman “Mank” Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) sets out to write the screenplay for “Citizen Kane.”

How much we see him write: He occasionally dictates parts of “Citizen Kane” to an assistant (Lily Collins), but the film is more preoccupied with flashbacks of Mank’s past.

Degree of neurosis: Self-destructive alcoholism and gambling are combined with an eagerness to entertain that hints at a deepseated lack of self-worth.

Writerly moment: Mank, on his recovery bed, surrounded by loose and crumpled pages, a tidy symbol of the not-so-tidy creative process.

‘The Muse’ (1999). Watch on streaming platforms.

The Writer: Oscar-nominated Steven Phillips (Albert Brooks) is fired from his Hollywood studio contract for losing his creative edge. Desperate, he turns to a supposed muse (Sharon Stone) to get his career back on track.

How much we see him write: The closest we get is an aquarium visit that inspires an idea for a Jim Carrey movie, followed by a montage showing him furiously jotting down thoughts in a notebook.

Degree of neurosis: Phillips is a selfdoubting mess (it is Albert Brooks), but who

Gary Oldman as the screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz in “Mank.” can blame him? Many writers tell themselves they’re bad and irrelevant, but Phillips is told that repeatedly by others.

Writerly moment: Phillips, asleep on his computer, meant to be writing, but choosing unconsciousness over creative hardship.

‘Seven Psychopaths’ (2012). Stream on Amazon.

The Writer: Battling a screenplay and a drinking problem, Marty (Colin Farrell) gets pulled into the fallout from a dog kidnapping gone wrong, courtesy of his friend Billy (Sam Rockwell).

How much we see him write: A good amount of scribbling on yellow legal pads and in notebooks, along with some printing out of script pages. Marty also likes to write via verbal storytelling, creating character backstories that are visually dramatized for the audience.

Degree of neurosis: Marty is an almostalcoholic whom friends describe as suffering from “suicidal self-loathing” that only writing can cure — or perhaps cause.

Writerly moment: Whenever inspiration strikes, Marty scribbles with the frantic desperation of a writer afraid to lose a good idea.

‘Sunset Boulevard’ (1950). Stream on Amazon.

The Writer: An unemployed screenwriter (William Holden) meets former silent movie star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), who hires him to write her comeback role.

How much we see him write: He works on short stories. He pitches a baseball

movie to a producer. He annotates, edits and types Norma’s script about Salome. He even collaborates late at night — typing, proofreading, brainstorming — with his friend’s fiancé, Betty (Nancy Olson).

Degree of neurosis: Functionally selfdoubting and prone to dismissing himself as “just a movie writer.”

Writerly moment: Sitting on a bed in a bathrobe, working on a typewriter while he questions his talent and creditors bang on his door.

‘The Truth’ (2019). Watch on streaming platforms.

The Writer: Lumir (Juliette Binoche), is a screenwriter who has brought her family from America to Paris to visit her mother, renowned French actress Fabienne Dangeville (Catherine Deneuve).

How much we see her write: Aside from a call discussing changes to one of her screenplays, Lumir’s main output is scripting an apology for her mother to deliver to a slighted manager, and a few heartfelt lines for her daughter, Charlotte (Clémentine Grenier), to tell Fabienne.

Eccentricity level: Pretty levelheaded, although who’s to say whether her relationship with her difficult mother didn’t inspire unseen neuroses that led her to turn to pen and paper.

Writerly moment: Before Charlotte returns from her scripted chat with Fabienne, Lumir waits, reciting aloud the lines she wrote with the smile of someone pleased with her work.

22 ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE ARECIBO. PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE ANTONIO ARECIBO

LEGAL NOTICE

JORGE LUIS ORTIZ CAMACHO T/C/P JORGE ORTIZ CAMACHO, IRIS ENEIDA CAMACHO DELGADO

RIVERA GONZALEZ,

BIENVENIDA REYES MUÑIZ T/C/P BIENVENIDA REYES

Peticionarios CIVIL NUMERO: Peticionarios AR2020CV01336. SOBRE: EXCIVIL NUMERO: PEDIENTE DE DOMINIO. NOAR2020CV00343. SOBRE: EX- TIFICACION POR EDICTO. ESPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO. NO- TADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA TIFICACION POR EDICTO. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EUA A: JOHN DOE, RICHARD ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE ROE, Y AL PUBLICO EN PUERTO RICO. Ex Parte

GENERAL:

Se les notifica que los peticionarios interesan inscribir a su favor el dominio de la finca que se describe a continuación: RUSTICA: Predio de terreno, sito en el Barrio Montellanos, Carr.

159 km. 12.1 de Morovis, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 92.6327 mc, equivalente a 0.0236 cuerdas, en lindes, par el Norte, con la carretera Puerto Rico 159 (de Morovis a Corozal); al Sur y Este, con Ana R. Colon Perez, al Oeste, con Migdalia Miranda Rivera. Enclava casa de concrete de una sola planta, con techo de zinc, que mide 20 pies de frente par 20 pies de fondo. Por orden del Tribunal, se ordena la publicación de edicto en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, por tres veces, en el termino de 20 días, para que las antes mencionadas personas y todo aquel que se viere perjudicado con dicha inscripción, lo verifique. Dentro del termino de veinte (20) días contados desde la ultima publicación del edicto, usted debera presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Cases (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial.pr., salvo que se represente par derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaria del Tribunal, enviando su escrito al Tribunal de Primera instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala Superior de Arecibo, P.O. Box 6005, Arecibo, PR 00613 y copia a los abogados de las peticionarios, Lcdo. Jose A. Salicetti Maldonado, P.O. Box 97, Adjuntas, PR 00601 y Lcdo. Jose Oscar San Miguel, PO Box 27, Ciales, Puerto Rico 00638. Expedido en Arecibo, Puerto Rico hoy 27 de octubre de 2020, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZALEZ ,Sec Regional. YANOLES QUILES ROSARIO, Sec Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE @

alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal, enviando su escrito al Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala Superior de Arecibo, P. O. Box 6005, Arecibo, PR 00613 y copia a los abogados de los peticionarios, Ledo. José A. Salicetti Maldonado, P. O. Box 97, Adjuntas , PR 00601 y Lcdo . José Oscar San Miguel, P. O. Box 27, Ciales, Puerto Rico, 00638. Expedido en Arecibo, Puerto Rico, hoy 10 de noviembre de 2020, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal.

VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZALEZ, Sec Regional. MICHELINE REYES TORRES, Sec Auxiliar. ****

LEGAL NOTICE

A: JOHN DOE, RICHARD ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE ROE, a toda persona ignorada o desconocida PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE MANATI. que pueda perjudicar la MMG I PR CR, LLC inscripción solicitada, y Demandante, v. a toda persona que esté RAFAEL SEPULVEDA ausente cuyo paradero NEGRON, ROSAISELA se desconoce al tiempo HERNANDEZ ROLON Y de hacerse la publicación LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE del Edicto, y al público en BIENES GANANCIALES general: COMPUESTA POR Se les notifica que los peticionaAMBOS Y ESTADOS rios interesan inscribir a su favor UNIDOS DE AMERICA el dominio de la finca que se describe a continuación: RUSTICA: Situada en el Barrio Frontón, sitio La Altura, de l término municipal de Ciales, compuesta de 8.50 cuerdas, equivalentes a tres hectáreas, treinta y cuatro áreas, y ocho centiáreas de terrenos, con casa vivienda, y en lindes, por el Norte, con Angel Manuel González , al Sur, con Joaquín Rebollo, al Este , con sucesión Gabriel Garáu, y al Oeste con el Río Mudo (también conocida como Quebrada Muro). Enclava estructura residencial con dimensiones de setenta pies (70’) de largo por treinta y seis pies (36’) de ancho aproximadamente, de una planta, toda de cemento y bloques, con tres cuartos dormitorios, un baño, sala, comedor, cocina, marquesina con uno y medio balcones. Por orden del Tribunal, se ordena la publicación de edicto en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, por tres veces, en el término de 20 días, para que las antes mencionadas personas y todo aquel que se viere perjudicado con dicha inscripción, lo verifique. Dentro del término de veinte (20) días contados desde la última publicación del 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

Demandados CASO NUM.: C4CD2018-0078.

SALA NUM. 0103. SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA. AVISO DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA SUBASTA.

A: RAFAEL SEPULVEDA NEGRON, ROSAISELA HERNANDEZ ROLON Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS Y ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; PAN AMERICAN FINANCIAL CORPORATION, O A SU ORDEN; FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO: Y AL PUBLICO EN GENERAL:

El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior, Centro Judicial de Manatí, Manatí, Puerto Rico, hago saber a la parte demandada, y al PUBLICO EN GENERAL: y a todos los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los 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, siempre que surjan de la certificación registral, para que pue-

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

dan 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 a saber: PAN AMERICAN FINANCIAL CORPORATION, o a su orden: A cuyo favor aparece inscrito un Pagaré por la suma de $34,000.00, intereses al 6.5% anual y a vencer el 1 de julio del año 2020, según consta de la escritura #258, otorgada en Manatí, el 6 de julio de 2005, ante el Notario José M. Birriel Barreto, inscrito al tomo Karibe de Manatí, finca #14,834, inscripción 5ta. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA: A cuyo favor aparece en el Libro de Embargos Federales número 4, en la página 178, asiento 3, se encuentra presentado el día 16 de enero de 2009, con el número de notificación 504993308, embargo contra Rafael Sepúlveda Negrón, seguro social XXXXX-5383, por la suma de $9,543.75. No podemos precisar si el titular y el embargado es la misma persona. FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO: A cuyo favor aparece inscrito un Aviso de Demanda Enmendada de fecha 20 de diciembre de 2010, en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Arecibo, Caso Civil CCD2010-0673 (404), por concepto de Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la vía ordinaria, seguido por Firstbank Puerto Rico versus Rafael Sepúlveda Negrón y su esposa Rosaisela Hernández Rolón, se solicita el pago de la deuda garantizada con las hipotecas de $136,000.00 y $34,000.00, reducidas a $128,800.55 y $32,200.68 o la venta de esta finca en pública subasta. Anotado al tomo Karibe de Manatí, finca #14,834, Anotación A el 5 de junio de 2017. FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO: A cuyo favor aparece inscrito un Embargo y Aviso de Prohibición de Enajenar con Orden y Mandamiento de fecha 18 de mayo de 2012, en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Arecibo, Caso Civil #CCD2010-0673, seguido por Firstbank Puerto Rico versus Rafael Sepúlveda Negrón y Rosaisela Hernández Rolón, por la suma de $32,200.68. Anotado al tomo Karibe de Manatí, finca #14,834, Anotación B el 5 de junio de 2017. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el día 28 de febrero de 2020, por la Secretaria del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor la propiedad que se describe a continuación: SR #686, Lote 1, Reparto Gayaney, Barrio Cotto Norte, Manatí, P.R. 00674: URBANA: Solar número uno (1) localizado

(787) 743-3346

Thursday, December 10, 2020 en Reparto Guayancy del Barrio Cotto Norte del Municipio de Manatí. Con cabida superficial de setecientos tres puntos ocho mil cuatrocientos noventa y ocho (703.8498) metros cuadrados equivalentes a cero puntos mil setecientos noventa y una cuerdas (0.1791). En lindes por el NORTE, con la finca de Jose Alberto Arce en veinte puntos trescientos treinta (20.330) metros; por el SUR, con el solar numero dos (2) del mismo reparto en veinticinco puntos trescientos treinta y siete (25.337) metros lineales; por el ESTE, con la calle de acceso del reparto en veinticuatro puntos sesenta (24.60) metros lineales; y por el OESTE, con finca propiedad de Santana Santos en veintisiete puntos setecientos cincuenta (27.750). Consta inscrita al Folio 220 del tomo 414 de Manatí, finca número 14,834, Registro de la Propiedad de Manatí. El producto de la subasta se destinará a satisfacer al demandante hasta donde alcance, la SENTENCIA dictada a su favor, el día 8 de enero de 2019, notificada el 9 de enero de 2019 en el presente caso civil, a saber, la suma de $208,304.67 al 14 de septiembre de 2018, el cual se desglosa de la siguiente manera; $128,800.55 de principal $76,022.73 de intereses, $3,481.39 de cargos por demora, más costas y gastos. Los intereses se continúan acumulando a razón de $23.26 al día (“per diem”) hasta el pago de la deuda. Las partes pactaron en el Pagare Hipotecario suscrito por ambos que el pago de honorarios de abogados pactados equivalentes al 10% del principal del Pagare, o sea por la cantidad de $13,600.00. Los intereses se continúan acumulando, hasta el saldo total de la deuda, para cubrir el principal adeudado, disponiéndose que si quedare algún remanente luego de pagarse las sumas antes mencionadas el mismo deberá ser depositado en la Secretaría del Tribunal para ser entregado a los demandados previa solicitud y orden del Tribunal. La venta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen que afecte la mencionada finca. La adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el acto mismo de la adjudicación, en efectivo (moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América), giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del alguacil del Tribunal. LA PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a efecto el día 14 DE ENERO DE 2021 A LAS 9:00 a.m., en la oficina del referido Alguacil, localizada en el Centro Judicial de Manatí, Manatí, Puerto Rico. Que el precio mínimo fijado para la PRIMERA SUBASTA es de

$136,000.00. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, la misma se llevará a efecto el día el 21 DE ENERO DE 2021 A LAS 9:00 a.m., en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe.

El precio mínimo para la SEGUNDA SUBASTA será de $90,666.67, equivalentes a dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una TERCERA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día el 28 DE ENERO DE 2021 A LAS 9:00 a.m., en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe.

El precio mínimo para la TERCERA SUBASTA será de $68,000.00, equivalentes a la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. 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 esta es mayor, todo ello a tenor con lo dispone el Articulo 104 de la Ley Núm. 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015 conocida como “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico”. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquiere libre de toda carga y gravamen que afecte la mencionada finca según el Artículo 102, inciso 6.

Una vez confirmada la venta judicial por el Honorable Tribunal, se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura de venta judicial y se pondrá al comprador en posesión física del inmueble de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda aquella persona o personas que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de todos los licitadores y el público en general, el presente Edicto se publicará por espacio de dos (2) semanas consecutivas, con un intervalo de por lo menos siete días entre ambas publicaciones, en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y se fijará además en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse dicha venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Se les informa, por último, que: a. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la secretaría del tribunal durante las horas laborables. b. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y

The San Juan Daily Star los preferentes, 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. EXPIDO, el presente EDICTO, en Manatí, Puerto Rico, hoy día 25 de noviembre de 2020. Wildredo Rodriguez Carrion, Alguacil Confidencial, Placa 135, Alguacil, División de Subastas, Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Manatí.

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

MMG I PR CR, LLC Parte demandante, v.

LUIS ANTONIO COLON RODRIGUEZ T/C/C LUIS A. COLON RODRIGUEZ, ASTRID IVELISSE COTTO LEBRON, T/C/C ASTRID I. COTTO LEBRON Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Parte demandada CASO NUM.: GCD2016-0045.

SALON NUM. 302B. SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA. AVISO DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA SUBASTA.

A: LUIS ANTONIO COLON RODRIGUEZ T/C/C LUIS A. COLON RODRIGUEZ, ASTRID IVELISSE COTTO LEBRON, T/C/C ASTRID I. COTTO LEBRON Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; DORAL FINANCIAL CORPORATION P/C BANCO POPULAR DE PR; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; Y AL PUBLICO EN GENERAL:

El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior, Centro Judicial de Guayama, Guayama, Puerto Rico, hago saber a la parte demandada, y al PUBLICO EN GENERAL: y a todos los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los 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, siempre que surjan de la certificación registral, 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 a saber: a.) AVISO DE DEMANDA: En el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Guayama, caso civil GCD2007-0191807, expedida el 11 de abril de 2007, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, por la Vía Ordinaria, seguido por Doral Financial Corporation versus Luis A. Colon Rodríguez t/c/c Luis Antonio Colon Rodríguez, Astrid I. Cotto Lebron t/c/c Astrid Ivelisse Cotto Lebr6n y la Sociedad Legal de Bienes Gananciales compuesta por ambos, por la suma de $63,217.22 de principal, más intereses, etc., inscrito al folio 166 del tomo 468 de Guayama, anotación A y Ultima, con fecha del día 16 de noviembre de 2007. b.) ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA: A cuyo favor aparece un en el Libro de Embargos Federales número 3, en la página 13, asiento 1, se encuentra presentado el día 4 de febrero de 2008, con el número de notificación 409713907, embargo contra N. De Jesús Silva S. & L. Colon Rodríguez, por la suma de $1,817.28, finca número 5,044. No podemos precisar si el titular y el embargado es la misma persona. (c.) ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA: A cuyo favor aparece un en el Libro de Embargos Federales número 3, en la página 21, asiento 5, se encuentra presentado el día 19 de febrero de 2008, con el número de notificación 418797208, embargo contra Luis A. Colon, por la suma de $8,484.33, finca número 5,044. No podemos precisar si el titular y el embargado es la misma persona. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el día 28 de enero de 2020, por la Secretaria del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor la propiedad que se describe a continuación: Calle Duques 45 Sur, Guayama, P.R. 00784: URBANA: Solar radicado frente a la Calle Duques del Municipio de Guayama, Puerto Rico. Con un área de 289.34 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en 28.55 metros con el solar ocupado por la Señora Angela Castrello, viuda de Rivera; por el SUR, en 3 alineaciones de 4.70 metros, 5.60 metros y 18.21 metros con un solar ocupado por el señor Rafael Zayas; por el ESTE, en 1181 metros con un solar ocupado por la

The San Juan Daily Star Sucesión de Ambrosio Ortiz; por el OESTE, en 9.60 metros con la calle Duques. Enclava una casa. Consta inscrita al folio 120 del tomo 180 de Guayama, finca número 5,044, Registro de la Propiedad Sección de Guayama. El producto de la subasta se destinará a satisfacer al demandante hasta donde alcance, la SENTENCIA dictada a su favor, la suma de $50,775.16 al 14 de junio de 2019, el cual se desglosa en $40,332.70 de principal, $8,777.60 de intereses, $1,549.65 de cargos por demora, y $115.21 de cargos por preservación de propiedad, más costas y gastos. Conforme en el Pagare Hipotecario suscrito por ambos el pago de honorarios de abogados pactados equivalente al 10% del principal del Pagare, o sea, por la cantidad de $6,560.00. Los intereses se continúan acumulando a razón de $7.84 al día (“per diem”) hasta el pago total de la deuda, para cubrir el principal adeudado, disponiéndose que si quedare algún remanente luego de pagarse las sumas antes mencionadas el mismo deberá ser depositado en la Secretaría del Tribunal para ser entregado a los demandados previa solicitud y orden del Tribunal. La venta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen que afecte la mencionada finca. La adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el acto mismo de la adjudicación, en efectivo (moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América), giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del alguacil del Tribunal. LA PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a efecto el 13 DE ENERO DE 2021 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina del referido Alguacil, localizada en el Centro Judicial de Guayama, Guayama, Puerto Rico. Que el precio mínimo fijado para la PRIMERA SUBASTA es de $65,600.00. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, la misma se llevará a efecto el día el 21 DE ENERO DE 2021 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la SEGUNDA SUBASTA será de $43,733.34, equivalentes a dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una TERCERA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día el 28 DE ENERO DE 2021 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la TERCERA SUBASTA será de $32,800.00, equivalentes a la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. 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

Thursday, December 10, 2020

tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente; se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor, todo ello a tenor con lo dispone el Articulo 104 de la Ley Núm. 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015 conocida como “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico”.

La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquiere libre de toda carga y gravamen que afecte la mencionada finca según el Artículo 102, inciso 6. Una vez confirmada la venta judicial por el Honorable Tribunal, se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura de venta judicial y se pondrá al comprador en posesión física del inmueble de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda aquella persona o personas que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de todos los licitadores y el público en general, el presente Edicto se publicará por espacio de dos (2) semanas consecutivas, con un intervalo de por lo menos siete días entre ambas publicaciones, en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y se fijará además en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse dicha venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía.

Se les informa, por último, que: a. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la secretaría del tribunal durante las horas laborables. b. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, 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. EXPIDO, el presente EDICTO, en Guayama, Puerto Rico, hoy día 24 de noviembre de 2020. Angel Mercado Quiles, Placa 140, Alguacil, División de Subastas, Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Guayama.

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

MMG 1 CR, LLC

Parte Demandante, v.

MANUEL DE JESUS LOPEZ Y SU ESPOSA YBOAN SIERRA TAPIA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Parte Demandada CASO NUM.: KCD2017-898.

SALA NÚM.: 0908. SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJE-

CUCION DE HIPOTECA. AVI- cientos diecisiete punto cuatro SO DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA tres siete cuatro (1717.4374) SUBASTA. pies cuadrados, equivalentes A: MANUEL DE JESUS aproximadamente a ciento cinLOPEZ Y SU ESPOSA cuentinueve punto cinco nueve cuatro cuatro (159.5944) meYBOAN SIERRA TAPIA Y tros cuadrados y las siguientes LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE colindancias: Por el NORTE, en BIENES GANANCIALES 58’3” con la avenida sesenta y cinco de Infantería; por el SUR, COMPUESTA 40’0” con el apartamento númePOR AMBOS; ro 204 en 13’0” con el patio al AUTORIDAD PARA EL 40’0”, con el patio al Norte del FINANCIAMIENTO DE LA apartamento número 204, en VIVIENDA DE PUERTO 3’10” con el pasillo; por el ESTE, 20’6” con el apartamento núRICO, O A SU ORDEN: en mero 202, en 3’0” con el exterior Y AL PUBLICO EN en 12’0” con el patio al Norte del GENERAL: apartamento número 204 y en El que suscribe, Alguacil del 2,0” con el apartamento numero Tribunal de Primera Instancia, 204; y por el OESTE, en 33’0” Sala Superior, Centro Judicial con el exterior. La entrada prinde San Juan, San Juan, Puer- cipal a este apartamento está to Rico, hago saber a la parte localizada al Sur. Este Apartademandada, y al PUBLICO EN mento contiene sala, comedor, GENERAL: y a todos los acree- cocina, tres habitaciones con dores que tengan inscritos o closets, dos baños, un balcón anotados sus derechos sobre y un área de lavandería, y le los bienes hipotecados con corresponden áreas comunes posterioridad a la inscripción limitadas de una fosa de escadel crédito del ejecutante, o de lera, dos pasillos, un callejón, los acreedores de cargas o de- una entrada, un patio interior rechos reales que los hubiesen y el estacionamiento número pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecu- E-16. Le corresponde a este tada y las personas interesadas apartamento el seis punto uno en, o con derecho a exigir el tres dos por ciento, en los elecumplimiento de instrumentos mentos comunes del inmueble. negociables garantizados hipo- Inscrita al folio 121 del tomo 817 tecariamente con posterioridad de Sabana Llana, finca numero al crédito ejecutado, siempre 30,971; Registro de la Propieque surjan de la certificación re- dad Sección Quinta de San gistral, para que puedan concu- Juan. El producto de la subasta rrir a la subasta si les convenga se destinará a satisfacer al deo satisfacer antes del remate mandante hasta donde alcanel importe del crédito, de sus ce, la SENTENCIA dictada a su intereses, costas y honorarios favor, el día 13 de septiembre de abogados asegurados, que- de 2017, notificada el 4 de didando entonces subrogados en ciembre de 2017, en el presenlos derechos del acreedor eje- te caso civil, a saber, la suma cutante a saber: AUTORIDAD de$51,183.40 de principal, más PARA EL FINANCIAMIENTO los intereses que se acumulen DE LA VIVENDA DE PUERTO hasta la fecha del pago total, RICO O A SU ORDEN: A cuyo recargos por demora, más la favor aparece inscrito un Paga- suma de dinero para primas ré por la suma de $15,000.00, de seguro y/o contribuciones sin intereses y a vencer el 27 inspecciones. Las partes pacde enero del año 2011, según taron en el Pagare Hipotecario consta de la escritura número suscrito por ambos que el pago 51, otorgada en San Juan, el de honorarios de abogados día 27 de enero de 2004, ante pactados equivalentes al 10% el Notario Público Angel Ruiz del principal del Pagare, o sea Charbier, inscrito en Karibede por la cantidad de $5,610.00.

Sabana Llana, finca número Los intereses se continúan acu30,971, Inscripción 12da, en mulando, hasta el saldo total de asiento abreviado el 20 de la deuda, para cubrir el principal junio de 2019.

Conticiones adeudado, disponiéndose que de Programa La Llave para si quedare algún remanente tu Hogar, por el término de 8 luego de pagarse las sumas años. Que en cumplimiento del antes mencionadas el mismo Mandamiento de Ejecución de deberá ser depositado en la Sentencia expedido el día 9 Secretaría del Tribunal para ser de octubre de 2020, por la Se- entregado a los demandados cretaria del Tribunal, procederé previa solicitud y orden del Tria vender y venderé en pública bunal. La venta de la referida subasta y al mejor postor la propiedad se verificará libre propiedad que se describe a de toda carga o gravamen que continuación: Condomino Las afecte la mencionada finca. La Mercedes, Apto. 203, San Juan, adjudicación se hará al mejor P.R. 00926: URBANA: Propie- postor, quien deberá consignar dad Horizontal: Apartamento el importe de su oferta en el número 203, Residencial loca- acto mismo de la adjudicación, lizado en el segundo piso del en efectivo (moneda del curso Condominio Las Mercedes, legal de los Estados Unidos de ubicado en el barrio Sabana América), giro postal o cheque Llana del sitio denominado Rio certificado a nombre del alguaPiedras de la capital de Puerto cil del Tribunal. LA PRIMERA Rico. Este apartamento consta SUBASTA se llevará a efecto con un área total del mil sete- el día 19 DE ENERO DE 2021

A LAS 10:00 AM, en la oficina del referido Alguacil, localizada en el Centro Judicial de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Que el precio mínimo fijado para la PRIMERA SUBASTA es de $56,100.00. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, la misma se llevará a efecto el día 26 DE ENERO DE 2021 A LAS 10:00 AM, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la SEGUNDA SUBASTA será de $37,400.00, equivalentes a dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una TERCERA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día 2 DE FEBRERO DE 2021 A LAS 10:00 AM, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la TERCERA SUBASTA será de $28,050.00, equivalentes a la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. 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 esta es mayor, todo ello a tenor con lo dispone el Articulo 104 de la Ley Núm. 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015 conocida como “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico”.

La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquiere libre de toda carga y gravamen que afecte la mencionada finca según el Artículo 102, inciso 6. Una vez confirmada la venta judicial por el Honorable Tribunal, se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura de venta judicial y se pondrá al comprador en posesión física del inmueble de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda aquella persona o personas que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de todos los licitadores y el público en general, el presente Edicto se publicará por espacio de dos (2) semanas consecutivas, con un intervalo de por lo menos siete días entre ambas publicaciones, en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y se fijará además en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse dicha venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Se les informa, por último, que: a.

Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la secretaría del tribunal durante las horas laborables. b. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y

23

que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, 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.

EXPIDO, el presente EDICTO, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 23 de noviembre de 2020.

PEDRO HIEYE GONZALEZ, Alguacil, División de Subastas, Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan.

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

WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY FBS, d/b/a Christiana Trust, as indenture Trustee, for the CSMC 2016-PR 1 Trust Mortgage-Backed Notes, Series 2016-PR1 Parte Demandante Vs.

JESSICA MARIE DAVILA PAGAN

Parte Demandada CASO CIVIL NUM. FA2019CV00879. SOBRE: EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA POR LA VIA ORDINARIA IN-REM. ANUNCIO DE SUBASTA. El suscribiente, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Fajardo, a los demandados de epígrafe y al público en general hace saber que los autos y documentos del caso de epígrafe estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables y que venderá en pública subasta al mejor postor, en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América en efectivo, cheque certificado, o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, el derecho que tenga la parte demandada en el inmueble que se relaciona más adelante para pagar la SENTENCIA por $78,913.28, de balance principal, los intereses adeudados sobre dicho principal y computados al 6% annual desde el primero de agosto de 2016, y hasta su total pago y completo pago; más el 5% computado sobre cada mensualidad de $590.80; cargos por demora devengados, más la suma estipulada para honorarios de abogado de $9,550.00, pactada en la escritura de hipoteca; y cuales quiera otras sumas que por cualesquiera concepto legal se devenguen hasta el día de la subasta. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbanización Monte Brisas, tercera extensión, situada en el barrio Quebrada Fajardo del término municipal de Fajardo, Puerto Rico que se describe en el plano de inscripción de la urbanización, con el número, área y colindancias: número del solar bloque 3-P-1, área del

solar 417.37 metros cuadrados.

En lindes por el NORTE, en una distancia de 28.00 metros con el solar número 2 de la urbanización; por el SUR, en una distancia de 24.50 metros y un arco de 5.50 metros con la Calle Numero 109 de dicha urbanización; por el ESTE, en una distancia de 15.00 metros con el solar número 32 de dicha urbanización y por el OESTE, en una distancia de 11.50 metros con la Calle Numero 106 de dicha urbanización. Contiene una casa. Inscrita al folio doscientos treinta (230) del tomo doscientos cuarenta y tres (243) de Fajardo, Registro de la Propiedad de Fajardo, finca número nueve mil quinientos noventa y cinco (9595). Dirección Física: 3 P 1 Calle 1, Monte Brisas Development, Fajardo, PR 00738.

La primera subasta se llevará a cabo el día 12 de enero de 2021, a la 1:30 de la tarde, y servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la suma de $95,500.00 sin admitirse oferta inferior. En el caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en la primera subasta, se celebrará una segunda subasta el día 20 de enero de 2021, a la 1:30 de la tarde, y el precio mínimo para esta segunda subasta será el de dos terceras partes del precio mínimo establecido para la primera subasta, o a sea la suma de $63,666.67. Si tampoco hubiera remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 27 de enero de 2021 a la 1:30 de la tarde, y el tipo mínimo para esta tercera subasta será la mitad del precio establecido para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $47,750.00. El mejor postor deberá pagar el importe de su oferta en efecto, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse el inmueble al acreedor hipotecario dentro de los diez días siguientes a la fecha de la última subasta, si así lo estimase conveniente, por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada conforme a la sentencia, si ésta fuera igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta y abonándose dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta fuera mayor.

Se avisa a cualquier licitador que la propiedad queda sujeta al gravamen del Estado Libre Asociado y CRIM sobre la propiedad inmueble por contribuciones adeudadas y que el pago de dichas contribuciones es la responsabilidad del licitador.

Que se entenderá por todo licitador acepte como suficiente la titulación y que los cargos y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes en entendiéndose que el rematador los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse su extinción al precio rematante. Todos los nombres de los acreedores

que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los 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, siempre que surgen de la certificación registral, 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. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Y para conocimiento de licitadores, del público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria en Puerto Rico y en los sitios públicos de acuerdo a las disposiciones de la Regla 51.7 de las de Procedimiento Civil, así como para la publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria y en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas con antelación a la fecha de la primera subasta y por lo menos una vez por semana. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento indicado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables.

(Art. 102 (1) de la Ley núm. 2102015). Expedido el presente en Aguadilla, Puerto Rico a 24 de noviembre de 2020. SHIRLEY SANCHEZ MARTINEZ, Alguacil Regional 161, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE FAJARDO. SANDRALIZ MARTINEZ TORRES, Alguacil Auxiliar, Placa 737. ***

LEGAL NOTICE

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

CONSEJO DE TITULARES DEL CONDOMINIO SAN GABRIEL Demandante V.

FLORENTINA RIVERA RIVERA t/c/c FLORENCE RIVERA RIVERA; RALPH J. LUM, LAURIAM B. LUM Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandada Civil NUm.: SJ2020CV05108.

Sala: 901. Asunto: Cobro de Dinero (Via Ordinaria). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

24 A: Florentina Rivera Rivera, t/c/c Florence Rivera Rivera; Ralph J. Lum ; Lauriam B. Lum y Ia Sociedad Legal de Gananciales compuesta por estos Ultimos

POR LA PRESENTE se le notifica que Ia parte Demandante de epígrafe ha radicado en su contra una demanda de Cobro de Dinero por Ia Vía Ordinaria.

Por este medio se le emplaza, y se le requiere que dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a Ia publicación de este edicto, comparezca y presente su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando Ia siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, caso num. SJ2020CV05108 salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en Ia Secretarla del Tribunal, y notificando con copia de Ia contestación a Ia demanda al Lcdo. Javier Sevillano Vicéns, RUA 20126, con dirección P.O. Box 192278, San Juan P.R. 00919, Teléfono 787-983-4146, correo electrónico: soIutions@ seviIlanoleqaI.org. Se le apercibe que, Si dejare de hacerlo, se podrá dictar contra usted sentencia en rebeldía, concediendo el remedio solicitado, sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el Sello del Tribunal hoy 12 de noviembre de 2020.

Griselda Rodriguez Collado, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. Carmen E. Garcia Figueroa, Sec Servicios a Sala.

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

ATENAS COLLEGE INC. vs

EX PARTE

CASO NÚM. AR2019CV02105 (SALÓN 404 - CIVIL SUPERIOR). SOBRE: EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO. NOTIFICACIÓN.

A: ARIEL H CHICO JUARBE ARCHICO@ JUSTICIA.PR.GOV DAISY M. QUINTEROH ERNÁNDZ E DQUINTERO@ JUSTICIA.PR.GOV EDGARDO RODRÍGUEZ MENA RODRIGUEZMENALAW@ YAHOO.COM

El (La) secretario(a) que suscribe certifica y notifica a usted que con relación al (a la) MOCIÓN DE MOCION EN SOLICITUD DE ORDEN PARA PUBLICACION DE RESOLUCION [32] este Tribunal emitió una ORDEN el 24 de noviem-

bre de 2020, se transcribe la determinación a continuación: ENTERADO. COMO SE PIDE. SE ORDENA A SECRETARÍA NOTIFICAR NUEVMAENTE LA RESOLUCIÓN Y EXPEDIR NOTIFICACIÓN ADJUNTA. [34] f/SANTIAGO CORDERO OSORIO. SE LE ADVIERTE que al ser una parte o su representante legal en el caso sujeto a esta ORDEN, usted puede presentar un recurso de apelación, revi sión o certiorari de conformidad con el procedimiento y en el término establecido por ley, regla o reglamento. CERTIFICO que la determinación emitida por el Tribunal fue debidamente registrada y archivada hoy 03 de diciembre de 2020, y que se envió copia de esta notificación a las personas antes indicadas, a sus direcciones registradas en el caso conforme a la normativa aplicable. En esta misma fecha fue archivada en autos copia de esta notificación. En Arecibo, Puerto Rico, a 03 de diciembre de 2020. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZALEZ, Secretario(a) Regional. Por: f/BRUNILDA HERNANDEZ MENDEZ, Auxiliar del Tribunal.

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

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC. Demandante (a) Vs.

CASILDA ANTONIA RAMIREZ ROQUE T/C/C CASILDA A. RAMIREZ; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA.

Demandado (a) Civil Núm.: SJ2019CV07620.

Sala: 506. SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: CASILDA ANTONIA RAMIREZ ROQUE T/C/C CASILDA A. RAMIREZ

EL SECRETARIO (A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 30 de noviembre 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 diez (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 publi-

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

cación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 1 de diciembre de 2020. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 1 de diciembre de 2020.

Griselda Rodriguez Collado, Secretario Regional. f/ Angela M. Rivera Hernández, Secretario(a) Auxiliar.

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

PEDRO JUAN CORUJO FIGUEROA; SARITA RIVERA VAZQUEZ Demandantes Vs.

GLOBAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION, DORAL MORTGAGE, LLC POR CONDUCTO DE SU AGENTE RESIDENTE CT CORPORATION SYSTEM ENTIDADES X,Y y Z; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD DOE

Demandados CIVIL NÚM. GM2020CV00458.

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

A: GLOBAL MORTGAGE CORP, ENTIDADES X,Y y Z, JOHN DOE Y RICHARD DOE, o sea, la parte demandada arriba mencionada.

POR LA PRESENTE, se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda sobre PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto, radicando el original de su contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente y notificando con copia al abogado de la parte demandante cuyo nombre y dirección es: NOMBRE: AMERGIE E GARCIA SANTIAGO DIRECCIÓN: CALLE FRANCISCO G BRUNO 22 O GUAYAMA, PR 00784 TELÉFON0:(787) 864-4090 EMAIL: amergiegarcia@gmail.com Se le apercibe que de no hacerlo, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle.

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y sello del Tribunal, en Guayama, Puerto Rico, hoy 24 de noviembre de 2020. MARISOL ROSADO RODRIGUEZ, Sec Regional. FELICITA TORRES TORRES, Sec Auxiliar del Tribunal I.

MILAGROS DIAZ HEREDIA

Demandada CIVIL NÚM.: SJ2020RF01246.

SALÓN 706. SOBRE: DIVORCIO RJ TURA IRREPARABLE. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS.

00967 DE: FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO

Se le notifica a usted que se ha radicado en esta Secretaría la demanda del epígrafe. 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 , cuyo caso deberá presentar alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal.

Además, deberá notificar copia de dicha contestación al Sr. Steven Garcia Lopez, Urb.Villa Granada 912 Calle Alameda, San Juan PR 00923 Tel. 787 3684672, 787-974-3509, dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto.

Si dejare de hacerlo , podrá dictarse contra usted sentencia en rebeldía concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la demanda.

EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de San Juan a 24 de noviembre de 2020. Griselda Rodriguez Collado, Sec Regional. Jackeline Laureano Garcia, Sec Auxiliar.

Se le emplaza y requiere que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto.

Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramaiudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Este caso trata sobre Incumplimiento de Contrato, Cobro de Dinero y Reposesión en que la parte demandante solicita que se condene al demandado a pagar $32,953.97 de principal, más los intereses acumulados a razón del 10.25% anual hasta el total y completo pago de la deuda, más $566.40 de cargos los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el total y completo pago de la deuda, y más una suma equivalente al 5% del total adeudado para honorarios de abogados según pactado. Se le apercibe que si dejare de hacerlo, se dictará contra usted sentencia en rebeldía, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle.

Lcda. Carolina M. Mejía Lugo, Número del Tribunal Supremo 19857 221 Ponce de León Ave., Suite 900, San Juan, PR 00917, Teléfono: (787) 296-9500, Correo Electrónico: cmejia@lvprlaw.com EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y Sello del Tribunal, hoy 30 de noviembre de 2020. Lcda. Laura I Santa Sanchez, Sec Regional.

Maireni Trinta, SubSecretaria.

LEGAL NOTICE

LEGAL NOTICE

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

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

Demandante v.

PARTE DEMANDANTE vs.

A: MILAGROS DIAZ HEREDIA Calle 24 de abril #2 Urb. Cristo Salvador San Isidro, Santo Domingo Oeste, Republica Dominicana

FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO

HARRISON CHIDIEHERE OJIMMA T/C/C CHIDI HARRISON OJIMMA

SAMUEL KING FRANCISCO

EUSEBIA MARTINEZ

PARTE DEMANDADA CIVIL NÚM.: SJ2020RF00995.

SALA: 705. SOBRE: DIVORCIO Demandado (R.I.) EDICTO. ESTADOS UNICIVIL NUM. GB2020CV00618.

DOS DE AMERICA EL PRESID Sobre: INCUMPLIMIENTO DE ENTE DE LOS EE.UU. ESTADO CONTRATO, COBRO DE DINELIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS. RO Y REPOSESIÓN. EMPLAA: SRA. EUSEBIA ZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESMARTINEZ TADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESSE DESCONOCE TADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO Se le notifica a usted que se LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO ha radicado en esta Secretaría RICO. SS. la demanda del epígrafe. Se le emplaza y requiere que radique A: HARRISON CHIDIEHERE OJIMMA en esta Secretaría el original de la contestación a la Demanda y T/C/C CHIDI HARRISON que notifique con copia de dicha LEGAL NOTICE OJIMMA contestación a la Lcda. Nicole ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE Marie Peña Cartagena, 379 CaPMB 372, 405 Ave. PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE lle César González , Hato Rey, Esmeralda Ste. 2, PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE 00918, Tel. (787) 766-0949 Guaynabo, PR 00969- P.R. SAN JUAN. Fax (787) 771-2425 con el co4466; Cond. Polaris E. rreo electrónico vazquezyasoSTEVEN GARCIA LOPEZ Apt. 810, Carolina, PR ciadospr@gmail.com , dentro de Demandante vs

los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto.

Si dejare de hacerlo, podrá dictarse contra usted sentencia en rebeldía concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la demanda.

EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de San Juan, a 24 de noviembre de 2020.

SRA. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. POR: CARMEN J. CASTRO SERRANO, SECRETARIA SERVICIOS A SALA.

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

PARTE DEMANDANTE VS.

ORIENTAL BANK T/C/C ORIENTAL BANK AND TRUST, FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION COMO SÍNDICO DE WESTERNBANK OF PUERTO RICO, CARMEN ALICIA PÉREZ ACEVEDO; FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ

PARTE DEMANDADA CIVIL NÚM. MZ2020CV00919 (307). SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO POR LA VÍA JUDICIAL. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E.U.U. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ

Queda usted notificado que en este Tribunal se ha radicado demanda sobre cancelación de pagaré extraviado por la vía judicial. El 20 de octubre de 1995, Carmen Alicia Pérez Acevedo, soltera, constituyó una hipoteca en Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, mediante a la Escritura núm. 240 autorizada por el notario Juan Surillo Pumarada en garantía de un pagaré por la suma de $55,000.00 a favor de Oriental Bank & Trust o a su orden (no especifica número de affidavit o testimonio), con intereses al 6.75% anual y vencedero el 1ro de noviembre de 2005, sobre la siguiente propiedad: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número trece del Bloque H de la Urbanización Vistaverde en el Barrio Sábalos de Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de cuatrocientos sesenta y cuatro metros cuatrocientos cincuenta y nueve milímetros cuadrados.

Colindando por el NORTE, en veinticinco metros ochenta centímetros con solar número doce

Y SUTANO DE TAL CON DIRECCIONES DESCONOCIDAS

de la manzana H; por el SUR, en veinticinco metros ochenta centímetros con solar número catorce de la manzana H; por el ESTE, en diecinueve metros ochenta centímetros, en arco con la calle número cuatro de la Urbanización; y por el OESTE, en catorce metros novecientos setenta y siete milímetros con solares ocho y nueve de la manzana H. Contiene y le pertenece una casa de hormigón armado modelo Uno-A que mide treinta y seis pies de frente por cuarenta y dos pies de fondo más su marquesina. La propiedad consta inscrita al folio 174 del tomo 532 de Mayagüez, Finca 14928. Registro de la Propiedad de Mayagüez. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al tomo de hoja móvil de Mayagüez, Finca 14928. Registro de la Propiedad de Mayagüez. Inscripción octava. La parte demandada deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. Se le advierte que, si no contesta la demanda, radicando el original de la contestación en este Tribunal y enviando copia de la contestación a la abogada de la Parte Demandante, Lcda. Belma Alonso García, cuya dirección es: PO Box 3922, Guaynabo, PR 00970-3922, Teléfono y Fax: (787) 789-1826, correo electrónico: oficinabelmaalonso@gmail.com, dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publicación, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle.

EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy 24 de noviembre de 2020 en Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. LCDA. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA. F/ZAHIRA RODRIGUEZ SOLER, SECRETARIA DE SERVICIOS A SALA.

Por la presente le notifico que la demandante en el caso de epígrafe, ha radicado demanda en la que alegan que el 12 de febrero de 2003, la corporación Desarrolladora J.A., Inc. suscribió el siguiente Pagaré Hipotecario: Pagaré Hipotecario a favor del Banco Popular de Pue1to Rico, o a su orden, o sus sucesores en derecho, garantizado con hipoteca por la suma principal de $900,000.00, con intereses a razón del uno por ciento (1%) sobre la tasa de interés fluctuante prevaleciente de tiempo en tiempo en los principales Bancos en la Ciudad de Nueva York, (“New York Prime Rate”), vencimiento a la presentación, constituida dicha hipoteca en virtud de la Escritura número Veinticuatro (24) otorgada en Isabela, Puerto Rico, el 12 de febrero de 2003, ante el Notario Ramón H. Banuchi Eurite sobre la propiedad inmueble con cabida Diecisiete Mil Seiscientos Cuarenta y Siete punto Cuarenta y Cinco Veintiuno Metros Cuadrados (17,647.4521 M /C) localizada en el Barrio Bejucos de Isabela, que constituye la finca número 25,400, inscrita en el Registro de la Propiedad, Sección de Aguadilla al tomo 463 de Isabela, habiéndose extraviado el mismo y la demandante interesas u cancelación. Por este Edicto se le emplaza y requiere para que notifiquen al Lcdo.

Ramón H. Banuchi Eurite, P.O. Box 475, Isabela, Puerto Rico 00662, Teléfono 872-2223 con copia de su contestación a la demanda, dentro de los 30 días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto, apercibiéndoles que si así no lo hicieran, se anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia en su contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda.

En Aguadilla, Puerto Rico a 25 de noviembre de 2020. SARAHÍ REYES PÉREZ, Secretaria Regional. Zuheily Gonzalez Aviles, SubSecretaria.

INMOBILIARIA J.A.C, INC.

MORTGAGE, INC

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL

AIDA ANGELICA BAYONA CRUZ

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL LEGAL NOTICE DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INS- TRO JUDICIAL DE GUAYNABO TANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SALA SUPERIOR. E.M.I. EQUITY AGUADILLA. DEMANDANTE vs.

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: AG2020CV00913.

SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARE HIPOTECARIO EXTRAVIADO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA ELPRESIDENIE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: FULANO DE TAL

DEMANDANTE VS.

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: GB2018CV00845.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA (VÍA ORDINARIA). EDICTO DE SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente CERTIFICA, ANUNCIA y hace CONSTAR: Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que le ha sido dirigido al Alguacil que suscribe por la Secretaría del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

The San Juan Daily Star CENTRO JUDICIAL DE GUAYNABO, SALA SUPERIOR, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, cheque certificado en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América 25 DE ENERO DE 2021, A LA 1:30 DE LA TARDE, sita en el local que ocupa en el edificio del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE GUAYNABO, SALA SUPERIOR, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en: APT. 502 COND. LA ARBOLEDA GUAYNABO, PR 00966 y que se describe a continuación: URBAN: APARTMENT #502: HORIZONTAL PROPERTY: Residential apartment in regular shape at the 5th floor of La Arboleda Condominium, located at Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. Said apartment has an area of 1,335.12 square feet, and its boundaries are as follows: at the NORTH, in 5’2” with common hall and in 29’4” with apartment #501, and in 2’ with the exterior of the building; at the SOUTH, in 31’4” with the exterior of the building and 5’2” with apartment #503; at the EAST, in 30’6” with apartment #503 and in 17’6” with the common hall, and in the WEST, in 48’4” with the exterior of the building. This apartment comprises: foyer, living-dining area, one master bedroom with walk-in closet and bathroom with lavatory, bathtub with shower, medicine cabinet, water closet and bidet, two bedrooms, one bathroom with lavatory, tub with shower, medicine cabinet and water closet, a covered balcony and a common shaft between walk-in closet and kitchen. The entrance to the apartment is located on the Northern boundary connection with the common corridor and with access to the elevators and stairs. Parking space #133, located at level 4 of the parking building of La Arboleda Condominium at Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, with an area of 9’, in width and 18’ in length. Its boundaries are as follows: on the NORTH, with the northern side of level four floor; on the SOUTH, with a driveway; on the EAST, with parking stall #134 and on the WEST, with a driveway ramp.

It is an uncovered parking space. Le corresponde a este estacionamiento .5586% en los elementos comunes generales del edificio y al apartamento le corresponde un porcentaje de .6848%. La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita al Folio 57 del Tomo 760 de Monacillos, finca número 23,301, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Tercera. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma de $177,200.00. Si no hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del inmueble mencionado, se celebrará una

segunda subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 1 DE FEBRERO DE 2021, A LA 1:30 DE LA TARDE. En la segunda subasta que se celebre servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes (2/3) del precio pactado en la primera subasta, o sea la suma de $118,133.33.

Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una tercera subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 8 DE FEBRERO DE 2021, A LA 1:30 DE LA TARDE. Para la tercera subasta servirá de tipo mínimo la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para el caso de ejecución, o sea, la suma de $88,600.00. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 185 otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 12 de junio de 2009, ante el Notario David Cardona Dingui, y consta inscrita al folio 148 del tomo 928 de Monacillos (ágora), finca número 23,301, en el Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Tercera, inscripción Octava (8va) y última. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al Demandante total o parcialmente según sea el caso el importe de la Sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma de $151,813.73, por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de septiembre de 2017, más intereses al tipo pactado de 5.00% anual que continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además, la parte demandada adeuda a la parte demandante los cargos por demora equivalentes a 4.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha de vencimiento; los créditos accesorios y adelantos hechos en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca; y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $17,720.00. Además, la parte demandada se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $17,720.00 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $17,720.00 para cubrir intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley. Por razón de dicho incumplimiento, y al amparo del derecho que le confiere el Pagaré, el demandante ha declarado tales sumas vencidas, líquidas y exigibles en su totalidad. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al Procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE GUAYNABO, SALA SUPERIOR durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la

Thursday, December 10, 2020 responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio de remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores ni preferentes según las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores conocidos y desconocidos que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargos o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso o al portador garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito del actor que se celebrarán las subastas en las fechas, horas y sitios señalados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les conviniere o se les invita a satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado asegurados quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad objeto de ejecución y descrita anteriormente se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores una vez el Honorable Tribunal expida la correspondiente Orden de Confirmación de Venta Judicial. Y para conocimiento de licitadores del público en general se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley por espacio de dos semanas en tres sitios públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Este Edicto será publicado dos veces en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 30 de noviembre de 2020. Firma Ilegible, Placa 793, ALGUACIL DE SUBASTAS TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE GUAYNABO SALA SUPERIOR.

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

FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO Demandante v.

TIMOTHY MICHAEL DOULETTE

Demandado CIVIL NÚM: HU2018CV00090 (208). SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE GARANTÍAS. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. Yo Maria del Pilar Rivera Rivera, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Humacao, al público en general. CERTIFICO Y

HAGO SABER: Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia fechado el 15 de noviembre de 2018 que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Humacao, en el caso arriba indicado, venderé en la fecha o fechas que más adelante se indican, en pública subasta al mejor postor, en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América, en efectivo, cheque certificado o giro postal, en mi oficina sita en el local que ocupa en el Centro Judicial de Humacao, Puerto Rico, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada, en el inmueble que se describe a continuación, propiedad de la parte demandada Timothy Michael Doulette.

Dirección Física: Cond. Tierra del Sol, Apt. 211, Building E, Humacao, PR 00791. Finca 25947, inscrita al folio 103 del tomo 570 de Humacao, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Humacao. URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Apartamento residencial número 211 del Condominio Tierra del Sol, localizado en Humacao, Puerto Rico.

Esta unidad está fabricada en hormigón armado y bloques de cemento y se encuentra ubicada en la cuarta planta del edificio denominado con la letra E del Condominio. Consta de 2 plantas y tiene su entrada por su lindero Sur, el cual sale a un pasillo con escalera de entrada común del cuarto nivel que da acceso al exterior del edificio. Sus linderos son los siguientes: Primera planta: por el NORTE, en una distancia lineal de 45’6”, equivalentes a 13.79 metros lineales, con elemento común exterior; por el SUR, en una distancia de 17’7”, equivalentes a 5.35 metros lineales, con elemento común de la escalera, en una distancia de 25’11”, equivalente a 7.90 metros lineales, con apartamento número 212 y en una distancia lineal de 2’0”, equivalentes a 0.60 metros lineales, con elemento común exterior; por el ESTE, en una distancia lineal de 31’6”, equivalente a 9.60 metros lineales, con elemento común exterior; y por el OESTE, en una distancia lineal de 25’3”, equivalentes a 7.69 metros lineales, con elemento común exterior y en una distancia de 6’3”, equivalente a 1.90 metros lineales, con elemento común de la escalera.

Segunda planta: por el NORTE, en una distancia lineal de 22’2”, equivalentes a 6.75 metros lineales, con elementos común exterior (techo); por el SUR, en una distancia lineal de 18’4”, equivalente a 5.58 metros lineales, con apartamento número 212 y en una distancia lineal de 7’6”, equivalentes a 2.28 metros lineales, con elementos común exterior (techo); por el ESTE, en una distancia de 19’, equivalente a 7.79 metros lineales, con elementos común exterior (techo); y por el OESTE, en una distancia lineal de 19’0”, equivalente a 5.79 metros lineales, con

elementos común exterior techo. Esta unidad tiene un área de construcción de 1,640.8 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 152.49 metros cuadrados y consta de 3 cuartos dormitorios, uno con closet y baño que da acceso al pasillo y otros 2 cuartos dormitorios con closet que también tiene acceso al pasillo que da acceso al segundo baño, sala, comedor, cocina, área de lavandería, con acceso al segundo nivel a través de una escalera espiral interior localizada en el lado Este de la sala-comedor, que da acceso al foyer del segundo nivel. El segundo nivel consta de 1 foyer que da acceso al medio baño y terraza cubierta por paredes y techo y terraza abierta con baranda alrededor.

Estacionamiento: A esta unidad le ha sido asignado el uso de 2 espacios de estacionamientos, ambos de tamaño regular marcado como 125 en el Plano del Condominio. Le corresponde un 0.85% en los elementos comunes. Finca 25947. Por su procedencia está afecta a: a. Condiciones restrictivas sobre edificación y uso. b. Servidumbre a favor de la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica de Puerto Rico. Por sí está afecta a: a.

Condiciones Restrictivas a través del Programa Bono de Vivienda: La Autoridad para el Financiamiento de la Vivienda ha concedido a los compradores la suma de $5,750.00 para gastos de cierre, por lo que impone las siguientes condiciones restrictivas: No podrá vender, donar, permutar o de cualquier otro modo transferir la propiedad sin el previo consentimiento de la Autoridad dentro de un periodo de 10 años a partir de la fecha de la escritura relacionada en la inscripción primera. b. Embargo en el Caso Civil número HSCI07-00354 (207), sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Humacao, seguido por RG Mortgage Corporation, versus Miriam Del Valle Román, por la suma de $162,159.45, más intereses, etc., según Mandamiento de fecha 28 de febrero de 2008, anotado el día 20 de octubre de 2008, al folio 103 del tomo 570 de Humacao, finca número 25,947, Anotación “A”. c. Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor de HR Mortgage Corp., o a su orden, por la suma principal de $97,750.00, con intereses al 6.750% anual, vencedero el día 1 de enero de 2041, constituida mediante la escritura número 442, otorgada en Caguas, Puerto Rico, el día 29 de diciembre de 2010, ante el notario Reinaldo Segurola Pérez, e inscrita al folio 104 vuelto del tomo 570 de Humacao, finca número 25,947, inscripción 5ta., y última. d. AL ASIENTO 2018-033274-HU01 DEL SISTEMA KARIBE, se presentó el día 16 de abril de 2018, Demanda de fecha 9 de abril de 2018, expedida en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Humacao, en el Caso Civil

25

número HU2018CV00090, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, seguido por Firstbank Puerto Rico, versus Timothy Michael Doulette, por la suma de $89,408.03, más otras sumas o la venta de esta propiedad en Pública Subasta. e. AL ASIENTO 2019-115088-HU01 DEL SISTEMA KARIBE, se presentó el día 29 de octubre de 2019, Mandamiento de fecha 25 de marzo de 2019, expedida en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial de Humacao, en el Caso Civil número HSCI200700354, mediante la cual se ordena la cancelación de Anotación de Embargo, por la suma de $162,159.45 que surge de la Anotació A. El precio mínimo de este remate con relación a la Finca 25947 antes descrita y la fecha de cada subasta serán la siguiente: Primera Subasta: 2 de febrero de 2021 a la 1:30 PM, Precio Mínimo: $97,750.00, Hipoteca: Escritura Número 442, sobre Hipoteca, otorgada el 29 de diciembre de 2010, ante el Notario Reinaldo Segurola Pérez. Segunda Subasta: 9 de febrero de 2021 a la 1:30 PM, Precio Minimo: $65,166.67. Tercera Subasta: 16 de febrero de 2021 a la 1:30 PM, Precio Mínimo: $48,875.00. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación que se transmite y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y las preferentes, si las hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante las acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de las mismas, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Conforme a la Sentencia dictada el día 29 de agosto de 2018 y archivada en los autos el 9 de octubre de 2018, la anterior venta se hará para satisfacer las sumas adeudadas por concepto del préstamo garantizado por la hipoteca antes mencionada y las sumas que se mencionan a continuación: La suma principal de $89,408.03, la suma de $5,251.52, que incluye intereses según pactados, cargos por demora y otros cargos, que se acumulan diariamente hasta su total y completo pago, más la suma de 10% del principal, por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. Se notifica por la presente a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los inmuebles a ser subastados con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen del ejecutante descrito anteriormente, o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubieren pospuesto al gravamen del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso o al portador garantizado hipotecariamente con posterioridad al gravamen

del actor para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si así lo interesan o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogado, quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Y, para conocimiento de licitadores, del público en general, y para su publicación de acuerdo con la ley en un periódico de circulación general de la isla de Puerto Rico y en tres sitios públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía y vía correo certificado con acuse de recibo a la última dirección conocida de la parte demandada, expido el presente edicto bajo mi firma y el sello de este Tribunal en Humacao, Puerto Rico, hoy día 7 de diciembre de 2020. Maria del Pilar Rivera Rivera, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO.

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

Federal National Mortgage Association t/c/c Fannie Mae Demandante v.

Lizardo Luis Rivera Meléndez t/c/c Lisardo Luis Rivera Meléndez y J. Neer Development Corp. (titular registral)

Demandados CIVIL NÚM: BY2018CV04329.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente CERTIFICA, ANUNCIA y hace CONSTAR: Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que le ha sido dirigido al Alguacil que suscribe por la Secretaría del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor quién pagará de contado y en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, giro postal o por cheque de gerente a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia el día 19 de enero de 2021, a las 2:30 de la tarde en la sala 503 en el edificio del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en Urb. Sunflower Valley, A-14 Calle 1, Toa Alta PR, 00957 y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el #14 del bloque A en el plano de inscripción de la

Urbanización Sunflower Valley, radicada en el barrio Quebrada Arenas del término municipal de Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 804.282 metros cuadrados y en lindes por el NORTE, en distancia de 44.68 metros, con el lote #15 del bloque A de la urbanización; por el SUR, en una distancia de 44.31 metros, con el lote #13 del bloque A de la urbanización; por el ESTE, en distancia de 18.00 metros, con la calle #1 de la urbanización y por el OESTE, en distancia de 11.38 metros y 6.65 metros, con Tomás Pérez.

La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita en Karibe de Toa Alta, finca número 28445, en el Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección Tercera. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma de $140,400.00. Si no hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del inmueble mencionado, se celebrará una segunda subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 26 de enero de 2021, a las 2:30 de la tarde. En la segunda subasta que se celebre servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes (2/3) del precio pactado en la primera subasta, o sea la suma de $93,600.00. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una tercera subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 2 de febrero de 2021, a las 2:30 de la tarde. Para la tercera subasta servirá de tipo mínimo la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para el caso de ejecución, o sea, la suma de $70,200.00. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 363, otorgada el día 11 de septiembre de 2017, ante el Notario David Cardona Dingui y consta inscrita en Karibe de Toa Alta, finca número 28445, en el Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección Tercera, inscripción tercera. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al Demandante total o parcialmente según sea el caso el importe de la Sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma de $138,798.23 por concepto de principal, más intereses al tipo pactado de 4.125% anual desde el día 1 de julio de 2018. Dichos intereses continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Se pagará también la suma de $14,040.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, y cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al Procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad del inmueble y que

26 las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, 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 de remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según surge de las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad en un estudio de título efectuado a la finca antes descrita.

Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargos o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso o al portador garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito del actor que se celebrarán las subastas en las fechas, horas y sitios señalados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les conviniere o se les invita a satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado asegurados quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Y para conocimiento de licitadores del público en general se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley por espacio de dos semanas en tres sitios públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la alcaldía, el Tribunal y la colecturía. Este Edicto será publicado mediante edictos dos veces en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores sujeto a lo dispuesto en los Artículos 113 al 116 de la Ley 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015, según aplique. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 7 de diciembre de 2020. FDO. MARIBEL LANZAR VELAZQUEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA 735.

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

Federal National Mortgage Association t/c/c Fannie Mae Demandante v.

Irma Suheil Vázquez Rodríguez t/c/c Irma S. Vázquez Rodríguez y como Irma S. Vázquez

Demandada CIVIL NÚM: BY2019CV00817.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA.

EDICTO DE SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente CERTIFICA, ANUNCIA y hace CONSTAR: Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que le ha sido dirigido al Alguacil que suscribe por la Secretaría del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor quién pagará de contado y en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, giro postal o por cheque de gerente a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia el día 19 de enero de 2021, a las 3:00 de la tarde, en la sala 503 en el edificio del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en Urb. Santa Mónica, W-9 Calle 1, Bayamón, PR 00957, y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar No. 9 de la Manzana ‘W’ de la URBANIZACIÓN SANTA MÓNICA, Barrio Pájaros de Bayamón, compuesto de 325.00 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el Norte, con solar No. 8, en 25.00 metros; por el Sur, con solar No. 10, en igual medida; por el Este, con Calle No. 1, en 13.00 metros; y por el Oeste, con solar No. 4, en 11.00 metros y el solar No. 5, en 2.00 metros, con distancia total de 13.00 metros. Catastro No. 085-052-695-09-001.

La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita en el Folio 212 del Tomo 1960 de Bayamón, finca número 22,525, en el Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección Primera. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma de $59,900.00. Si no hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del inmueble mencionado, se celebrará una segunda subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 26 de enero de 2021, a las 3:00 de la tarde. En la segunda subasta que se celebre servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes (2/3) del precio pactado en la primera subasta, o sea la suma de $39,933.33. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una tercera subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 2 de febrero de 2021, a las 3:00 de la tarde. Para la tercera subasta servirá de tipo mínimo la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para el caso de ejecución, o sea, la suma de $29,950.00. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura número 96, otorgada el día 29 de septiembre de 2015, ante el Notario Lisdaira Serrano Martínez y consta inscrita en el Folio 212 del Tomo 1960 de Bayamón, finca

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

número 22,525, en el Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección Primera, inscripción décimocuarta. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al Demandante total o parcialmente según sea el caso el importe de la Sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma de $56,923.85 por concepto de principal, más intereses al tipo pactado de 4.250% anual desde el día 1 de agosto de 2018. Dichos intereses continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Se pagarán también los cargos por demora equivalentes a 5.000% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha vencimiento, la suma de $5,990.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, la suma de $5,990.00 para cubrir los intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley y la suma de $5,990.00 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca, más intereses según provisto por la regla 44.3 de las de Procedimiento Civil. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al Procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, 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 de remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores ni preferentes según las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad. Surge de un estudio de título que, sobre la finca descrita anteriormente, pesan los gravámenes posteriores a la hipoteca que se ejecuta mediante este procedimiento que se relacionan más adelante. A los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargos o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de, o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso, o al portador, garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito del actor por la presente se notifica, que se celebrarán las subastas en las fechas, horas y sitios señalados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les conviniere o se les invita a satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado asegurados quedando subrogados en los derechos del acree-

dor ejecutante. A: GRAVAMEN POSTERIOR. HIPOTECA: Por la suma principal de $29,215.00 en garantía de un pagaré a favor del MUNICIPIO DE BAYAMÓN, o a su orden, sin intereses y vencimiento el 29 de septiembre del 2025, tasada en $29,215.00, constituida mediante escritura No. 47 otorgada en Bayamón el 29 de septiembre del 2015, ante Yaritza Deyá Meléndez, inscrita al folio 113 del tomo 1961 de Bayamón Sur, finca No. 22525, inscripción 15a. Y para conocimiento de licitadores del público en general se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley por espacio de dos semanas en tres sitios públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la alcaldía, el Tribunal y la colecturía. Este Edicto será publicado mediante edictos dos veces en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores sujeto a lo dispuesto en los Artículos 113 al 116 de la Ley 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015, según aplique. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 7 de diciembre de 2020. FDO. MARIBEL LANZAR VELAZQUEZ, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN.

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

E.M.I. EQUITY MORTGAGE, INC DEMANDANTE VS.

HÉCTOR MANUEL AYALA BELTRÁN, JOEL MORALES DÍAZ Y ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: MZ2019CV02206.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA (VÍA ORDINARIA). EDICTO DE SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente CERTIFICA, ANUNCIA y hace CONSTAR: Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que le ha sido dirigido al Alguacil que suscribe por la Secretaría del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE MAYAGÜEZ, SALA SUPERIOR, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, cheque certificado en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América el 12 DE ENERO DE 2021, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en su oficina sita en el local que ocupa en el edificio del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE MAYAGÜEZ, SALA SUPERIOR, todo dere-

cho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en: LOT 168 CALLE 2 COMUNIDAD LA PLATA LAJAS, PR 00667 y que se describe a continuación: RUSTICA: Parcela marcada con el #168, en el plano de parcelación de la Comunidad Rural La Plata del Barrio La Plata del término municipal de Lajas, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 0.0995 cuerdas, equivalentes a 391.21 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el Norte, con parcela #169 de la comunidad; por el Sur, con parcela #167 de la comunidad; por el Este, con la calle #2 de la comunidad y por el Oeste, con parcela #203 de la comunidad. ENCLAVA: Estructura en bloques y concreto armado de una sola planta, con dimensiones aproximadamente de 42’ de largo por 32’ de ancho, consta de sala, comedor y cocina en una sola unidad, tres dormitorios, dos baños, uno en el dormitorio principal y otro en el pasillo, balcón y una marquesina con su frente hacia el norte de la propiedad donde se encuentra enclavada.

La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita al Folio 106 del Tomo 279 de Lajas, finca número 13031, Registro de la Propiedad de San Germán. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma de $50,611.21. Si no hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del inmueble mencionado, se celebrará una segunda subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 19 DE ENERO DE 2021, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA. En la segunda subasta que se celebre servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes (2/3) del precio pactado en la primera subasta, o sea la suma de $33,740.80. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una tercera subasta en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 26 DE ENERO DE 2021, A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA. Para la tercera subasta servirá de tipo mínimo la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para el caso de ejecución, o sea, la suma de $25,305.60. La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la escritura de hipoteca 265 otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 30 de julio de 2011, ante el Notario David Cardona Dingui, y consta inscrita al Folio 128 del Tomo 336 de Lajas, finca número 13,031, inscripción Novena (9na), Registro de la Propiedad de San Germán. Dicha modificada en cuanto a su principal que será de $50,611.21, en cuanto a su pago mensual de principal e intereses que será la cantidad de $256.44, en cuanto a su vencimiento que será el primero (1ro.) de septiembre de 2044, en cuanto al tipo mínimo en caso de ejecución que será de $50,611.21, y en caso de reclamación judicial

la cantidad líquida y estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado será de $5,061.12, según consta de la escritura de modificación de hipoteca número 378, otorgada el día 15 de agosto de 2014, en San Juan, Puerto Rico ante el Notario Público Jaime E. Dávila Santini, y consta inscrita al Tomo Karibe de San Germán, finca número 13,031, inscripción Décima (10ma), Registro de la Propiedad de San Germán. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al Demandante total o parcialmente según sea el caso el importe de la Sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma de $46,302.02 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de agosto de 2019, más intereses al tipo pactado de 4.50% anual que continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación.

Además la parte co-demandada Héctor Manuel Ayala Beltrán y Joel Morales Díaz adeuda a la parte demandante los cargos por demora equivalentes a 4.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha de vencimiento; los créditos accesorios y adelantos hechos en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca; y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado equivalentes a $5,061.12. Además la parte co-demandada Héctor Manuel Ayala Beltrán y Joel Morales Díaz se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $6,140.20 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $6,140.20 para cubrir intereses en adición a los garantizados por ley. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al Procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE MAYAGÜEZ, SALA SUPERIOR durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio de remate.

La propiedad está sujeta a los siguientes gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad.

CONDICIONES RESTRICTIVAS DEL PROGRAMA “MI NUEVO HOGAR”: Los deudores no podrán refinanciar, permutar, alquilar, vender, ceder, traspasar o enajenar en forma alguna el inmueble por un término de 10 años, contados desde la fecha de otorgamiento de la escritura, sin la previa autorización el acreedor hipotecario inspeccionará periódicamente la propiedad para asegurarse que los deudores hipotecantes

cumplen con las restricciones y convenidas. De no cumplirse con las condiciones, los deudores hipotecarios deberán rembolsar el total del subsidio otorgado según las reglas de recobro del préstamo establecido, establecidas por el Programa Home, más la suma correspondientes para cubrir gastos, costas y honorarios de abogados en que incurra el acreedor hipotecario en caso de cualquier gestión o reclamación judicial para el cobro de la deuda. Impuesta por la escritura #117, otorgada en San Juan, el 30 de julio de 2011, ante Jorge Fernando Colón Muntaner, inscrita al folio 128 del tomo 336 de Lajas, inscripción 8va. Surge de un estudio de título que, sobre la finca descrita anteriormente, pesa el gravamen posterior a la hipoteca que se ejecuta mediante este procedimiento que se relaciona a continuación: HIPOTECA: Por $18,072.58, sin intereses, en garantía de un pagaré a favor del Secretario del Departamento de Desarrollo Urbano y Vivienda de Estados Unidos de América, que vence el 1ro de octubre de 2044. Según escritura #377, otorgada en San Juan, el 15 de agosto de 2014, ante Jaime E. Dávila Santini, inscrita en el tomo Karibe de la Sección de San Germán, finca #13031 de Lajas, inscripción 11ra y última. EMBARGO FEDERAL: Por $26,401.54, contra Héctor Ayala (sin segundo apellido); Seguro Social #xxx-xx-1109. Anotado en el tomo Karibe de Embargos, bajo el Asiento 2016-005790FED, con fecha de 9 de junio de 2016. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores conocidos y desconocidos que tengan inscritos, no inscritos, presentados y/o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso o al portador garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito del actor que se celebrarán las subastas en las fechas, horas y sitios señalados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les conviniere o se les invita a satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado asegurados quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad objeto de ejecución y descrita anteriormente se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores una vez el Honorable Tribunal expida la correspondiente Orden de Confirmación de Venta Judicial. Y para conocimiento de licitadores del público en general se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley por espacio de dos semanas en tres sitios públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales

como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Este Edicto será publicado dos veces en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal en Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, hoy día 1 de diciembre de 2020.

Jose M. Crespo Nazario, ALGUACIL DE SUBASTAS TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE MAYAGÜEZ SALA SUPERIOR.

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

SUN WEST MORTGAGE COMPANY, INC. DEMANDANTE VS.

RAUL OMAR MEDINA CARDONA

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NÚM.: SI2020CV00100.

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

A: RAUL OMAR MEDINA CARDONA HACIENDA ISABEL DEVELOPMENT #2, 2ND STREET SANTA ISABEL, PR 00757; 310 PENTAS LN DAVENPORT, FL 33844

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. 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 13786, SAN JUAN, PR 00908 TEL: 787- 751-5290, FAX: 787-751-6155 E-MAIL: ejecuciones@fortuno-law.com En Ponce, Puerto Rico a 7 de diciembre de 2020. Luz Mayra Caraballo Garcia, Sec Regional.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

27

Michigan-Ohio state is off, creating playoff problems for Buckeyes

By BILLY WITZ and ALLAN BLINDER

T

he Michigan football team, unable to rein in a coronavirus outbreak now in its second week, canceled its game Saturday with fourth-ranked Ohio State, dealing a more threatening blow to the Buckeyes’ playoff hopes than the Wolverines seemed equipped to do on the field.

Ohio State desperately needs to play this weekend — or persuade the Big Ten to rewrite its rules — to have enough games in this herky-jerky pandemic season to qualify for the conference title game scheduled for Dec. 19.

If not, the Buckeyes — who are behind Alabama, Notre Dame and Clemson in the College Football Playoff rankings — would have to argue that they should remain in that spot despite having played fewer games than other contenders, like one-loss Texas A&M and unbeaten Cincinnati, who are expected to play nine games. Ohio State is unbeaten in five games.

Big Ten athletic directors had a previously scheduled meeting Wednesday morning, but as of midafternoon Tuesday there were no plans to change the requirement that — barring the cancellation of virtually every game Saturday — a team must play six games to qualify for the championship game that pits the winners of the Big Ten’s two divisions. Ohio State leads the East, and Northwestern (5-1) has clinched the West.

If Ohio State does not qualify for the conference championship game, Indiana would represent the East. The Hoosiers have lost once in seven games — 42-35 at Ohio State.

“If we don’t quite get the games we need to get into the championship game, then I think that needs to be looked at hard, just like anybody else in the conference,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said Tuesday, shortly before the Michigan game was canceled.

He added, “There’s no easy solution in times like this, so I know those guys are going to come together and take a hard look at it and make sure it was the right decision.”

Day, the Buckeyes’ second-year co-

Michigan canceled its matchup with Ohio State, saying it would not have enough players available to play in the game because of coronavirus cases. ach, has already proved a formidable lobbying force with Ohio State’s considerable financial and political muscle behind him. He was at the head of an earlier movement, with the Buckeyes’ team doctor in tow, that prodded the Big Ten presidents and chancellors to reconsider their August decision not to play football this fall because of health concerns with the virus.

A compelling argument for ensuring that Ohio State qualifies for the playoff: Conferences earn $6 million for each team that qualifies, as well as $2.43 million to cover expenses.

In a statement saying it is continuing to determine the qualifications for the conference title game, the Big Ten noted, “We are in unprecedented times.”

The Big Ten is not the first conference to have to grapple with rewriting its rules for a pandemic season. The Atlantic Coast Conference last week canceled the final regular-season games for Clemson and Notre Dame and declared they would play each other for the conference championship. That plan also leaves open the lucrative possibility that both teams could reach the four-team playoff that is scheduled to begin Jan. 1.

The decision spared the ACC the

potential calamity of having Miami finish ahead of Clemson because of cancellations. Both teams have one loss.

Conversely, the Pac-12 has yet to alter its rules that pit the North and South Division winners against each other. So the possibility stands that Southern California and Colorado could finish their seasons unbeaten, with wins over UCLA and Utah, respectively, but the Buffaloes would be relegated to watching the Trojans play the winner of the North Division (Washington or Oregon) because they have played one less conference game than USC. This might have been settled on the field, but Colorado’s game against USC was canceled because the Trojans did not have enough players.

If the Buckeyes lost a playoff berth because of Michigan’s outbreak, it would be particularly cruel. In a game played annually since 1918, they have beaten Michigan the last eight years, often dominating their rivals. And Michigan this season has been desultory, going 2-4 and losing four of its past five games, the only victory a double-overtime win over Rutgers.

Michigan had to cancel its game last week against Maryland after posi-

tive cases surfaced in the program. The situation worsened this week.

“We have not been cleared to participate in practice at this time,” Warde Manuel, Michigan’s athletic director, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we will not be able to field a team due to COVID-19 positives and the associated quarantining required of close contact individuals.”

Manuel said later during a news conference that he would be open to changes that would allow Ohio State to play for the Big Ten title. It was an acknowledgment of how the conference has struggled to contain the virus. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Maryland, Michigan and Ohio State have endured outbreaks that forced them to cancel games.

“I don’t think we should just hunker down and say, ‘Well, we said six, and that’s going to be it,’” Manuel said.

Ohio State canceled its Nov. 28 game at Illinois, and its game at Michigan State last week was in doubt before it was ultimately played (the Buckeyes won, 52-12). The Buckeyes also had a game against Maryland canceled because of the Terrapins’ virus troubles.

Another potential lifeline that appeared to open up for the Buckeyes on Tuesday may not be reliable.

Purdue announced Tuesday that it had canceled practice to evaluate the results of virus tests. Indiana followed Tuesday night and said it had paused football activities because of an increase in virus cases. The teams are scheduled to play a rivalry game Saturday.

If Purdue was unable to play but Indiana could field a team, that could open the possibility of Ohio State playing Indiana again.

But it is hard to see the incentive for Indiana, which would reach the conference title game if Ohio State does not play and the rules are not changed.

“I would think Ohio State would do it in a minute,” Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin’s athletic director, said Tuesday.

“Indiana is a very good team also. They may think by not playing ‘It gives us an opportunity to not only play in the championship but maybe open up the door for the CFP.’ There are a lot of different ways people can look at it.”

28

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Virtual cycling and real cheating: Cracking down on ‘digital doping’

By NICK BUSCA

T

he cat-and-mouse battle between athletes who cheat and those who try to find them has gone digital.

With a proliferation of online endurance events during the pandemic, catching cheats is the challenge faced by companies like Zwift, which produces an app that allows amateur and professional cyclists and runners to compete against one another from home. Now the company is trying to crack down on so-called digital doping, or the practice of manipulating race data to improve digital performances or cover up human or technical errors.

“There’s so much cheating in Zwift that I think a lot of people would like to see more accountability,” said Ray Maker, who writes the endurance sports technology blog DC Rainmaker.

Yet professional athletes publicly accused of gaming the system by Zwift said that they did not intentionally cheat and that they had been made scapegoats as the company tries to show it is taking the matter seriously.

The pressure has been on to get the process right, especially leading to a new event, the UCI Cycling Esports World Championships, which the Union Cycliste Internationale, the global cycling governing body, was to host on Wednesday.

It was to be a race of 50 kilometers (about 31 miles) on Zwift’s virtual island Watopia, with each of the more than 130 entrants from 22 countries represented by an avatar. Male and female winners were to be awarded 8,000 euros, or about $9,700, and a rainbow-striped champion jersey (both digitally and physically). The second- and third-place finishers were to receive 4,000 and 2,000 euros.

Instead of taking place in an arena, as originally planned, riders were to compete from their place of choice because of the pandemic. And so in addition to traditional anti-doping controls to bar the use of performance-enhancing drugs, there was to be data analysis to avoid digital doping, too.

“We feel confident in the ability to catch cheaters and to police the races,” said Chris Snook, a spokesman for Zwift.

To try to prevent the use of performance-enhancing drugs, the UCI requested that athletes be part of an anti-doping pool, which includes having proof of a biological passport (a record of biological markers following tests), providing their whereabouts for random testing in and out of competition, and complying with World Anti-Doping Agency policies.

A group called Zwift Accuracy and Data Analysis, made up of sports scientists and technical experts, was to analyze riders’ race data. It was to look at the riders’ race files registered on Zwift and on a second device, and inspect metrics from power meters and heart rate monitors to compare the athletes’ digital race performance to their past data.

A cyclist using a smart trainer connected to the cycling app Zwift.

Cyclists were to race on bicycles mounted to turbo trainers, which are static devices used for riding bicycles indoors. Participants were all to use the same model of turbo trainer as it requires no calibration — removing one potential route to cheating — and allows more standardized readings.

The data that determine race rankings are captured from the turbo trainer and include power, power per kilogram of the rider, cadence and speed. Within 24 hours of the start of the event, participants were also to be required to submit their height and weight through a recorded video process, providing additional data that would influence the rider’s power per weight numbers and final rankings.

At the conclusion of the race, athletes were to be required to manually upload the second race file that they had recorded on a second device connected to a power meter (usually a pedal or another device in their crank arms or chain rings). This second file is crucial for double-checking the validity of the first file registered on Zwift.

There have been several accusations of digital doping since 2019, when British Cycling stripped Cam Jeffers of his Cycling eRacing Championship title; he was barred from all races, real and virtual, for six months.

In November, news broke that two racers had been barred for six months from Zwift races for “fabrication or modification of any data” and “bringing the sport into disrepute,” according to a sentencing decision by Zwift.

The athletes — Lizi Duncombe of Britain and Shanni Berger of Israel — were accused of providing manipulated files.

Duncombe has denied cheating; instead, she wrote on Facebook, her bike computer ran out of battery during the race, which meant she could not find a complete race file to upload.

“I had a file that looked like the warm-up, and it was

the only thing I could find, so I sent it,“ she wrote.

A friend offered to help her find a full file, she wrote, but Zwift disqualified her after recognizing that the first file was a warm-up file. The second file she uploaded ultimately seemed to be an incorrect file, too — at which point, she wrote, she was accused of tampering.

In Berger’s case, the initial problem was that she had linked the wrong device (her power meter, rather than her trainer) to her online race, Zwift wrote. This disqualified her. Berger’s team provided Zwift with additional data from the race to prove her results, but those files had been manipulated, Zwift concluded.

Berger said that she was still confused about the episode and that she did not intentionally commit any wrongdoing. “I was positive that I connected my trainer,” she said. “I don’t see any reason for me to connect my power meter. It doesn’t make any sense. I even did a test before and sent everything to the director.” As for the accusation that files were manipulated, she said she did not know: “I think now everything is possible, but I don’t want to blame anyone, and it’s not my place to say.”

The 19-year-old Berger said she received numerous hate messages, and had anxiety and thoughts of selfharm.

“Ms. Berger strongly and utterly denies all of Zwift’s accusations against her, and is examining the possibility of taking legal action against Zwift,” her lawyer, Iro Monitz, wrote in an email. Zwift has stood by its decisions.

But the discussion in the cycling community over their cases and how to make the competitions fair and clear of manipulation has continued.

Maker, who writes the endurance sports technology blog, said: “There is zero reason technically that anybody, whether pro or amateur athletes, should have to have a secondary device on their handlebars recording data for backup. That should be handled in-game.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

29

Sudoku How to Play: Fill in the empty fields with the numbers from 1 through 9.

Sudoku Rules: Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9 Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9 Every 3x3 square must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

GAMES

HOROSCOPE Aries

30

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

(Mar 21-April 20)

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

Current aspects bring your imagination into play, and can see you weighing the possible against the seemingly impossible. With the Sun tied to hazy Neptune, an idea that seems good might appear tantalizingly out of reach. Another potent aspect suggests that this may not be the case, and that with the right approach you could do it Aries, you just need to summon the motivation.

Your natural urge may be to broaden your horizons, and to do so in the company of friends. In fact, the current set-up can be the reason you’re keen to travel, especially if you want to immerse yourself in a new environment. Even so, planning might be essential, as is attention to detail, as a dreamy influence could lead to choices that may not be in your best interests, Libra.

Taurus

Scorpio

(April 21-May 21)

The coming days could be an opportunity to make amends with someone you’ve had a difference of opinion with. With Mercury, the planet of communication, pushing ahead in a transformative sector, any conversations may reach to the heart of the matter, encouraging a turning point. On another note, a moving encounter could result in a special new friendship.

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

You may feel in a charitable mood and ready to help in whatever way you can, which is very commendable. Whether this means assisting family members with DIY tasks, house cleaning, cooking or running errands, you can drop everything to give them a hand. Leave a space clear in your schedule though, as you could likely use a pampering session or other treat, Scorpio.

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Relationships look pleasantly positive, with opportunities coming your way the more you are willing to interact or move in new circles. You have a keen interest in those you meet and a natural desire to reach out, and ongoing influences enhance this. Even so, if you sense that it’s best to be careful in your dealings with a certain person, then the planets suggest that you do.

You may be radiating a positive and buoyant mood Archer, but on a deeper more personal level, you might not be quite so confident. If this is your experience, then it’s likely due to a tie between the Sun and elusive Neptune. Within a few days this can shift, and you could begin to feel more like your usual self. Getting to grips with any issues that have held you back may be essential too.

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

Whether you have a challenge ahead or are simply trying to get more done, the celestial star map offers a solution. Smart thinking could help you see ways to get certain tasks completed faster, giving you time for activities that you enjoy. You may be dreaming of getting away from it all rather than doing more, though. If you haven’t had a break in a while, then it might be time.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

Lively energies can spark ideas that surprise you. You may begin to perceive a person or a situation in a way that you had not done previously, bringing your creative side into play. Other key influences hint at changes that are the result of a decision. A Venus/ Pluto tie could see you considering a bold move Leo. If this is in connection with your lifestyle, a step at a time is best.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

Key influences might leave you questioning whether you are doing the right thing, if a close one casts doubts on your plans. Even so, with confusing Neptune involved in the mix, it may be wise to leave any decisions for a few days until you can see this situation with more clarity. Once you understand your best course of action, then you could push ahead with greater confidence, Virgo.

This can be a good day for reflection or spiritual pursuits, as the Sun forges an angle with Neptune. If it appeals, then a meditation or yoga class, whether online or off, that balances mind and body, might be an antidote to too much busyness. If you’re able to attend an open-air get-together with close friends, it could be a great occasion with fresh opportunities arising from it.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

With two positive planets in a dynamic sector, this can be a chance to consider doing something just for the enjoyment it might bring. Furthermore, joining forces with someone who shares your interests, could make a social event with close ones a positive experience that lifts your spirits. With confusing Neptune in the mix though Aquarius, it helps to keep track of your money.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

With the Sun in your career zone currently making a lingering connection with Neptune, it is wise to read the small print before you commit to anything important. As this influence will be active for another week or so, it’s just as well to be aware of any pitfalls before they morph into something more.

The cosmos suggests taking nothing for granted until you know the score.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, December 10, 2020

31

CARTOONS

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

Herman

Ziggy

32

Thursday, December 10, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star