The Financial Oversight and Management Board gave the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) until Jan. 11, 2023 to present financial information in order to evaluate a request to include $200 million as additional available revenue in the utility’s fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget that went into effect July 1, according to a letter.
The Dec. 27 letter sent by oversight board general counsel Jaime A. El Koury to PREPA Executive Director Josué Colón Ortiz was in response to a Dec. 8 letter in which PREPA requested that the FY 2023 PREPA budget be amended and recertified to reflect $200 million in nonrecurring and unbudgeted Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursement funds as additional available revenue.
The letter notes that before the oversight board can determine it necessary or appropriate to set forth a budget amendment schedule, it needs additional information from PREPA.
says, because they misstate the baseline target dates for initiatives and milestones outlined in the certified fiscal plan, replacing the original baseline dates with amended dates reflective of existing delays and other changes.
The implementation reports submitted for the first four months of FY 2023 incorrectly reflect a baseline finish date of Sept. 9, 2021. PREPA is required to update the baseline finish date in the implementation reports to mirror the certified fiscal plan, the letter states.
“Additionally, since PREPA indicates that the renewable generation and storage RFP [request for proposals] process is ‘delayed,’ please provide an update on the status of the 18 power purchase and operating agreements approved and describe the main drivers that keep delaying the full execution of tranche 1,” the oversight board says in the letter.
The oversight board requested an updated budgetto-actual (B2A) report for the most recent quarter of FY 2023, confirmation on whether PREPA intends to use the $200 million in FEMA reimbursement funds to initiate projects that will later also be reimbursed by FEMA, and a complete and detailed description of the source of the funds for the reimbursements.
The oversight board noted that during discussions with PREPA, utility officials mentioned that they might request to increase the budget by some $140 million, as opposed to $200 million. The board asked for an explanation of the inconsistency between the two amounts and why an additional $60 million is needed.
In a separate Dec. 27 letter, the oversight board gave PREPA until Jan. 15, 2023 to correct inconsistencies identified in the implementation reports that the utility submitted for each of the four months of FY 2023 that measure the level of compliance with the fiscal plan.
According to the second letter, sent by El Koury to Colón Ortiz, the 2022 certified fiscal plan for PREPA requires the utility to report on its progress in implementing financial and operational initiatives outlined in the certified fiscal plan.
The letter notes that the accuracy and reliability of PREPA’s reporting is essential to providing transparency, measuring progress and compliance with the certified fiscal plan, and most importantly to achieving the safe, reliable, affordable, resilient and modern electrical grid that the people of Puerto Rico deserve.
The implementation reports, as submitted by PREPA, are noncompliant with the certified fiscal plan, the letter
“To achieve Puerto Rico’s energy system transformation, a change in PREPA’s historical roles and responsibilities and their reassignment through multiple entities is imperative,” the letter continues. “As such, PREPA’s vertically integrated operations are to be disaggregated into separate generation and transmission & distribution functions. The milestone baseline finish dates included in the implementation reports submitted in August, September, October, and November are different from the ones included in the certified fiscal plan.”
The oversight board then “hereby requests that PREPA address and correct all inconsistencies highlighted above in the implementation report due on January 15, 2023,” reads the letter.
A letter from the Financial Oversight and Management Board notes that before the board can determine it necessary or appropriate to set forth a budget amendment schedule for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, it needs additional information from the utility.
The Financial Oversight and Management Board has questioned the island government’s Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority (AAFAF by its Spanish initials) for requesting $56 million to assist a housing developer investigated in 2020 by federal officials for allegedly violating the Fair Housing and Americans with Disabilities acts.
In a letter dated Dec. 27, the oversight board, the federal regent of local fiscal affairs, reminded the AAFAF that it must approve all debt transactions by the Government of Puerto Rico or its instrumentalities. It asked the AAFAF to submit certain documents by Jan. 5 to determine if the request should move forward.
In a letter dated Dec. 19, the AAFAF asked the oversight board to allow the Puerto Rico Housing Finance Authority (HFA) to enter into a conduit financing transaction in an amount up to $56 million to assist in the financing of an affordable public housing project named “El Mirador Las Casas” in San Juan.
The debt transaction would lend the proceeds to El Mirador LLC as HFA’s borrower to partially cover the total construction and substantial rehabilitation costs of an existing 294-unit public housing complex, the letter
notes.
According to the materials provided, the managing member of El Mirador LLC and developer of the project is Fernando L. Sumaza of Fernando L. Sumaza & Co. LLC., who has faced complaints in the past. The developer, whose main offices are in Mayagüez, manages 22 properties located around the island, according to the firm’s website. At press time, the company had not answered requests for comment.
“It has been brought to the Oversight Board’s attention that following an investigation of the United States Department of Justice on Fernando L. Sumaza & Co, Inc. and some of its affiliates, the US DOJ [Department of Justice] filed a complaint in the United States
District Court for the District of Puerto Rico against Fernando L. Sumaza & Co, Inc. and its affiliates for alleged violations of certain provisions of the Fair Housing Act and the American with Disabilities Act, the oversight board noted.
As part of the complaint procedures, the parties reached an agreement and entered into a consent order on March 30, 2020 to remain in effect for a period of three years after the date of entry or until all of the actions required of the defendants were completed.
“Further, we have also become aware that there were also two cases, which are currently closed and solved, in the local courts against Fernando L. Sumaza Laborde for collection of money,” the oversight board said. “Under Fernando L. Sumaza & Co, Inc. as defendant, we found several cases for torts that are currently closed and inactive and one case that remains active and is in pre-judgement stage in the Mayaguez courts.”
After reviewing the supporting materials and considering the new information as part of the oversight board’s analysis under Section 207 of Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act, commonly known as PROMESA, the oversight board asked for a confirmation letter from the U.S. DOJ as to the compliance of Fernando L. Sumaza & Co Inc., in all material respects,
with the terms and conditions of the consent order. The board also asked for a written confirmation from the HFA as to whether the complaint and consent order were evaluated as part of the application for the allocation of low-income housing tax credits and the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Gap to award Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) programs and as part of the request to the HFA to issue tax-exempt obligations to finance the acquisition and construction of the project.
“The formal response should also address to what extent this information had an impact on the evaluation of the application for the requested benefits; and, written confirmation that HFA was aware of the local cases against Fernando L. Sumaza Laborde and his legal entities and whether these were evaluated as part of the application for the allocation of low-income housing tax credits and the CDBG-DR Gap to award LIHTC Programs and as part of the request to the HFA to issue tax exempt obligations to finance the acquisition and construction of the project,” the oversight board noted.
The formal response should also address to what extent the information had an impact on the evaluation of the application for the requested benefits, the letter said.
Rep. Domingo Torres García announced Wednesday that Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia signed into law House Bill 1182, of Torres García’s authorship,
which increases the number of vacation days for public employees from 15 days to 24 days.
“With this increase, justice is done for public servants by restoring part of the days that had been taken away previously by the country’s economic crisis,” Torres García said. “This increase in vacation days is a recognition of hard work and also an effort to promote family integration.”
The District 25 legislator, who chairs the House Labor Affairs Committee, added that “with this [enactment], it is reaffirmed that the reduction of days, which from now on remains in the past, was an ideological imposition that hurt public servants and violated the acquired right to prevent this very thing.”
“I will continue to raise my voice and seek justice for all workers in Puerto Rico,” he said.
“I take this opportunity to recognize the colleagues of all delegations for supporting the bill unanimously, and to the governor for stamping his signature on such an important bill for the working class of Puerto Rico,”
Torres García said. “I reaffirm my commitment to continue working hard with an unwavering commitment to the working class and for the country.”
The lawmaker noted that he has also undertaken efforts to return the private sector benefits that were previously eliminated.
San Juan Municipal Administrator Israel O. Alicea said Wednesday that it is public policy to always listen to the voices of the communities, including those of the Old San Juan Neighborhood Association.
The official added that at the start of the administration of Mayor Miguel Romero Lugo, fixed routes were established for garbage collection in Old San Juan and daily cleaning of squares and streets was restored, in addition to the redoubling anti-crime efforts in the capital.
Likewise, at least $3.8 million is being invested in the restoration of historic streets, including streets that had been dark at night for years being reilluminated; the process of declaring public nuisances was reactivated; and abandoned and dilapidated structures were identified in Old San Juan, requiring the owners to present work plans for their rehabilitation.
Alicea added that they are already in the design stage, the construction and rehabilitation of squares, sidewalks and streets in the historic center with a multimillion-dollar investment.
“I gladly receive you and listen to your concerns, just as we have done with other bonafide organizations of residents
and merchants. The doors of the mayor’s office have always been open to listen to the claims of the people of San Juan,” said the administrator of the Capital City.
Alicea also noted that since Romero Lugo assumed the reins of San Juan, aggressive plans have been established to combat crime, such as the recent acquisition of “body cams” for municipal police, and patrols have doubled in Old San Juan. Spray painting is also prohibited throughout the city according to Ordinance No. 10, which imposes fines of $1,000 for the first offense to those who engage in that practice.
“Mayor Miguel Romero Lugo has been emphatic with his team in expressing that Old San Juan is not only a place of housing for sanjuaneros, but also constitutes the most important tourist attraction for thousands of tourists from all over the world, so cleanliness and order must always be our priority,” Alicea said. “An example of this are the dozens of Christmas celebrations that have taken place in Old San Juan, the ‘Walk and Shop’ initiative and the exhibitions of our artisans in the main squares, among others.”
The administrator anticipated that, thanks to the planning and established beautification work, the next Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián will be the most organized and clean in the history of San Juan.
By THE STAR STAFFJustice Secretary Domingo Emanuelli Hernández said Tuesday that the Utuado Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against Javier Bermúdez López for allegedly shooting his partner in the face in the presence of their three-month-old daughter.
Emanuelli Hernández said the process was initiated to provide the victim with the help available through the Justice Department’s Office of Compensation and Services for Victims and Witnesses of Crime.
“She will have all the services and help available,” he said in a written statement. “In addition to prosecuting the aggressor, the Department of Justice has already assigned a technician who will accompany her during the process and the procedures have been initiated to provide her with what she needs.”
Prosecutors Daralis Alicea Cordero and Mariela Rullán Declet filed charges of attempted murder, violations of the Weapons Law for illegal possession of a firearm, shooting a firearm and aiming a firearm, and one count of ill treatment, under Article 59 of the Law for the Safety, Welfare and Protection of Minors.
Judge Welda Rivera Utuado Superior Court determined cause for arrest against Bermúdez López and imposed a bail of $4 million.
The events occurred this past Monday at the couple’s residence in Utuado. According to the investigation, after a disagreement between the two, Bermúdez López aimed at and shot the victim, who was in the bed with their daughter. The woman was shot on the left side of her face and was taken to the Río Piedras Medical Center in critical condition.
The preliminary hearing was scheduled for Jan. 4.
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Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC) Secretary Manuel Cidre Miranda on Wednesday released the Retail Sales Survey for October of this year, reflecting an increase in sales of 2.5% compared to the same month in the year 2021.
The sales registered for October 2022 totaled some $3.1 billion, despite the island still facing the consequences of the passage of Hurricane Fiona.
“Even within Puerto Rico’s situation during that post-Fiona recovery period, our economy began to reflect slight increases in key sectors such as hardware stores and supermarkets,” the DDEC secretary said.
“In the case of small businesses, these were strongly affected by the lack of electricity and water services, which improved over time.
Fuel costs, problems in global supply chains, which affect the availability of certain products in stores, added to the problem. Despite the 2.5% growth occurring at a lower growth
rate, these sales of October 2022 exceed the sales registered before the pandemic (March 2020) by 53.7%.”
The Business Intelligence Division of
the DDEC’s Assistant Secretariat for Strategic Sectors conducted the survey.
The study revealed that the economic sectors that reported the highest increases in
October 2022 were: Sports stores, musical instruments and entertainment (+21.5%); specialty food stores (+14.2%); hardware stores and household materials (+12.9%); supermarkets and alcoholic beverage stores (+12.3%); pharmacies and drug stores (+11.8%); and restaurants and establishments serving alcoholic beverages (+10.9%).
On the other hand, among the sectors that presented reductions in their sales were: Electronic items stores (-18.7%), new and used motor vehicles (-10.5%), and auto parts stores (-9.0%).
Within the line of small and midsize enterprises (SMEs by its Spanish initials), accumulated sales during October 2022 reached $951.3 million, which represented a 0.4% reduction at an annual rate.
The accumulated value of retail sales during the 10 months of the current calendar year 2022 (January-October), presents an increase of 0.7%, compared to the same period of the previous calendar year of 2021, and reach $30.5 billion.
Trapped in her car as a blinding snowstorm engulfed Buffalo, New York, Anndel Nicole Taylor, 22, texted her family that she was scared. She had been calling emergency services for hours Friday but kept being put on hold.
At midnight, with 4 feet of snow piling up on the ground and her car still stuck, she told her family she was going to try to get some sleep.
“That was the last time we spoke to her,” said her older sister, Shawnequa Renee Brown, 35, who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Taylor was found dead in her car on Christmas Eve.
A certified nursing assistant, Taylor had moved from Charlotte to Buffalo about two years ago to care for their ailing father. On Christmas Day, the family gathered in North Carolina, mourning at what should have been a celebration. Taylor’s presents were under the tree, still wrapped.
“It was just a crying day,” Brown said. “All day long, we just cried.”
In western New York, the death toll from the punishing winter storm continued to climb four days after the snow began Friday; nearly 30 people were reported dead after the mayor of Buffalo reported eight more fatalities Tuesday morning.
Even as the rescue effort continued, officials and emergency workers were reeling from what they said was the extraordinary challenge of saving people in this blizzard, which set records for its duration — 36 straight hours — and 79 mph winds.
In Charlotte, Taylor’s sister was making funeral plans, she said, and taking refuge in her favorite memories of Taylor, including the way her younger sister would belt out the chorus to her favorite song, “Bless-Sin” by Juiicy 2xs, and how easily she made friends.
“She’ll meet you one time and now y’all friends forever,” Brown said. “She was the strong one in the family.”
On social media, some residents have criticized the storm response as sluggish, particularly taking umbrage at officials who, they felt, suggested that those who became trapped or died while awaiting rescue that never came, had themselves in part to blame.
Mayor Byron W. Brown disputed that characterization.
“We are certainly not blaming individuals who were driving,” he said, adding, “but the act of driving during a blizzard during zero visibility and whiteout conditions, as you can surmise, made the emergency response much more difficult and much more complicated.”
Even as residents were warned to stay home, Abdul Sharifu was among those who took a chance.
On Saturday, with his pregnant wife due to give birth next week, Sharifu, 26, ventured out in his car for groceries, despite her warning him not to, according to a friend, Enock
Rushikana.
On Monday, the body of Sharifu, a Congolese refugee who fled war in 2017 and resettled in Buffalo, was identified by a friend at the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital. His car had been found Saturday, abandoned on the corner of Main and Utica streets; his friends believe he had become stuck and tried to walk home.
He had been known by the nickname “911,” for his giving nature and propensity to drop everything to help others in need in his tightknit community of people who identify as members of the tribal Bafuliru group, Rushikana said. He had been overjoyed about becoming a father to a son.
“It’s his first child,” said Rushikana, who considered Sharifu a nephew. “He was very excited.”
On Saturday, Christmas Eve, disturbing video of a body apparently frozen in a snowbank began circulating. It appeared to be William Clay, who went by Romello, according to a GoFundMe for funeral expenses created by his sister, Sophia Clay. On that day, she wrote, he would have turned 56.
A part-time home health aide and part-time housekeeper at a hotel, Monique Alexander, 52, was also found partly buried in the snow on Delaware Avenue that day, according to her daughter, Casey Maccarone.
“She was the most outgoing person I knew,” Maccarone said. “She was loyal to everyone she knew.”
Late Tuesday afternoon, the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office announced the identity of another victim: Timothy M. Murphy, 27, who died from carbon monoxide poisoning on Christmas Day after heavy snow choked the external furnace of his residence in Lockport, New York.
Cleanup efforts continued Tuesday in Buffalo, a city of 275,000 along Lake Erie. About 4,000 people still remained without power, according to the mayor’s office, and the community feared that the death toll would rise as emergency workers reached more stranded vehicles and
powerless homes.
An additional 3 to 5 inches of snow was expected in the region, according to the National Weather Service.
There were reports of some incidents of looting. Carl Anderson Jr., 59, the owner of Louie’s Texas Red Hots restaurant on Bailey Avenue said he spent Christmas Day stuck at home, watching live security footage from his restaurant as four men smashed the door and dragged a cash register and safe into the snow. Helpless to stop them, he called police five times, he said, but they did not go to the scene.
“This is killing me financially,” he said.
Anderson shared the video with The New York Times.
“We have already made a number of arrests, and we will be focusing very aggressively on following on the crime of looting during these blizzard conditions,” Brown said at a news conference.
The travel ban that was instated when the blizzard began remained in place for Buffalo on Tuesday, although it was reduced to an advisory in the nearby community of Cheektowaga, announced Mark Poloncarz, the Erie County executive.
The volume of snow, he wrote on Twitter, was impossible to plow. It had to be scooped up by dump trucks and carted away. The Buffalo Niagara International Airport and all county offices in Erie County remained closed Tuesday. The airport will reopen late Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced more support for people in western New York, including waiving ATM fees and increasing cash withdrawal limits, as well as measures to expedite insurance claims.
Amid the chaos of the storm, there were also moments of astounding grace.
On Christmas Eve, Sha’Kyra Aughtry found an older man crying and disoriented in the snow, according to videos Aughtry posted on Facebook. Her partner, whom she identified only as Trent, carried him into their home. They called emergency services, she said, but no help came.
The man — whom a friend identified as Joe White, 64, an intellectually disabled man who worked for 40 years at the North Park movie theater, in a GoFundMe account set up for his medical care — had become lost in the storm.
“When I found him he had bags frozen to his hands; I had to cut the bags off his hands because his hands had ice bricks.” Aughtry is seen on video telling rescuers who arrived on Christmas after she posted on Facebook desperately seeking medical attention for the man.
“I had to cut off his socks. I washed him up and fed him,” she added. The rescuers plowed her driveway and took White, who had severe frostbite, to the hospital.
She turned to him. “Come on, Joey, don’t cry. I’m here,” she said. “I’m your friend forever.”
On Sunday the marquee of North Side was lit up. “Thank You Sha’Kyra and Trent,” it read. “Get Well Soon Joe.”
42, but there was no clear plan for how they would have managed the inevitable influx,” said Justin Gest, a professor at George Mason University who studies the politics of immigration.
“The ruling brings a sense of relief that officials may not publicly acknowledge,” he said.
The number of migrants apprehended at the southern border already surpassed 9,000 per day on three occasions in a 10-day span in December, a record number. About 1,500 people, mostly Nicaraguans who had been victims of a mass kidnapping in northern Mexico, crossed from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso, Texas, on Dec. 11 alone, straining the city’s shelters and prompting migrant families to sleep on the streets in freezing temperatures.
coronavirus pandemic justifies the immigration policy. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had initially adopted the policy to prevent cross-border transmission of the disease, a policy that the agency has since said is no longer medically necessary.
“The current border crisis is not a COVID crisis,” Gorsuch wrote. “And courts should not be in the business of perpetuating administrative edicts designed for one emergency only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency. We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort.”
Sotomayor and Kagan did not join Gorsuch’s dissent and gave no reasons for their votes against granting the stay.
By EILEEN SULLIVAN and ADAM LIPTAKThe Supreme Court said earlier this week that a pandemic-era health measure that restricted migration at the southern border would remain in place for the time being, delaying the potential for a huge increase in unlawful crossings.
In a brief, unsigned order, the justices halted a trial judge’s ruling that would have lifted the measure, known as Title 42, which has allowed even migrants who might otherwise qualify for asylum to be swiftly expelled at the border.
The court said that it would hear arguments in the case in February and that the stay would remain in place pending a ruling. The justices said they would address only the question of whether the 19 mainly Republican-led states that had sought the stay could pursue their challenge to the measure.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
President Joe Biden said a decision on Title 42 was overdue, adding that in the meantime the public health order must be enforced.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said that the White House would be “advancing our preparations to manage the border in a secure, orderly and humane way when Title 42 eventually lifts and will continue expanding legal pathways for immigration.”
Tuesday’s decision comes as border towns have already been struggling with a swelling number of crossings by migrants from many countries, mainly in South America and Asia, whose nationals have not been subject to the expulsion policy. While temporary, the court decision offers a reprieve for the Biden administration, which had been preparing for the possibility of thousands of additional migrants a day, had the policy been lifted.
“The administration asked to end Title
Still, humanitarian organizations that operate shelters along the U.S. side of the border derided the court decision. They said it keeps in place a policy that is preventing migrants who are fleeing violence and persecution from obtaining the safe harbor to which they are entitled under U.S. and international law.
The expulsion policy, first introduced by the Trump administration in March 2020, has been used to expel migrants — including many asylum-seekers — about 2.5 million times.
“All of us know that Title 42 has nothing to do with the pandemic. It’s an immigration enforcement tool used to deny people access to asylum,” said Ruben Garcia, who oversees a constellation of shelters in El Paso.
“I would have thought the Supreme Court would say that if you want something like Title 42, then pass legislation,” he said, adding, “It’s a very sad day.”
“We are deeply disappointed for the desperate asylum-seekers who will continue to be denied even the chance to show they are in danger,” said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents migrants challenging the expulsion policy. “But this ruling is only temporary, and we will continue this court battle.”
Gorsuch, joined by Jackson, said the legal question the court agreed to address, about the states’ intervention, “is not of special importance in its own right and would not normally warrant expedited review.”
By issuing a stay while it addressed that question, he added, the court effectively took an incorrect position, at least temporarily, on the larger issue in the case: whether the
The court’s order was a provisional victory for the 19 states that had sought to keep Title 42 in place, saying that states often must bear the brunt of impacts from a surge in border crossings. “The failure to grant a stay will cause a crisis of unprecedented proportions at the border,” lawyers for the states wrote in an emergency application, adding that “daily illegal crossings may more than double.”
With Title 42 in place, in most cases, migrants were returned to Mexico or to their home countries, especially Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. But many migrants have been allowed to stay in the country because they come from countries that have strained diplomatic relations with the United States or are nationals whom Mexico has refused to accept. These include migrants from Cuba, Colombia, Russia and, until recently, Venezuela.
“We have been seeing the demographics change drastically, and the number of people coming through from those other countries has been increasing steadily for several months,” said Diego Piña Lopez, associate director of Casa Alitas, a shelter network in Tucson, Arizona, affiliated with the Catholic Church.
After Title 42 was put into place at the border, migrant encounters increased every month for 15 consecutive months — in part because the use of Title 42 at the border has encouraged migrants to attempt to cross multiple times after being expelled.
Meanwhile, those stranded in Mexico have endured kidnapping, extortion and other violence at the hands of criminal enterprises. Human Rights First, a nonprofit organization, has recorded more than 13,000 attacks on people waiting in Mexico since Biden took office.
Local authorities in Washington state are investigating a series of Christmas Day attacks on four power substations that knocked out power to thousands of customers in the region and have raised concerns once again about the security of the nation’s power grid.
The attacks come just weeks after two substations in North Carolina were damaged by assailants who disabled equipment with gunfire, leaving about 45,000 customers in rural Moore County without power for days. Those attacks highlighted growing concerns that the power grid could be a target for extremist groups and prompted federal regulators to order a review of security standards for the nation’s power grid.
Authorities in Pierce County, Washington, said that they had no suspects and were still in the early stages of their investigation.
“At this time, deputies are conducting the initial investigation,” the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. “We do not have any suspects in custody. It is unknown if there are any motives or if this was a coordinated attack on the power systems.”
According to the sheriff’s department, the first attack occurred sometime before 5:30 a.m. Sunday, when deputies received a call that a Tacoma Public Utilities substation about 20 miles south of downtown Tacoma had been broken into.
“Nothing had been taken from the substation, but the suspect vandalized the equipment causing a power outage,” the sheriff’s department said. Authorities said that they were soon notified of a second break-in at another substation, just over 2.5 miles east.
Tacoma Power, which manages both substations, said that more than 7,000 customers in the regions of Elk Plain and Graham were without power after the attack.
“Earlier this month, we were alerted by federal law enforcement of a security alert for the electrical grid,” the utility company said in a statement, adding that it could not share any further details about its security tactics or the attacks.
Late Sunday morning, Puget Sound Energy notified authorities that it had also experienced a power failure just before 2:40 a.m. that day. The sheriff’s department said it confirmed that one of the utility’s substations had also been broken into and vandalized.
That evening, just after 7:20 p.m., dispatchers were notified of a fire at a second Puget Sound Energy substation, which the sheriff’s department said had been caused by a vandal and knocked out power to homes in the area.
The utility said it was coordinating with the authorities and could not comment further on the investigation. “PSE has extensive measures to monitor, protect and minimize the risk to our equipment and infrastructure,” the utility company wrote in an email Monday, adding that power to all affected customers had since been restored.
Sheriff’s department officials did not immediately respond to requests for further comment Monday, but a dispatcher said by phone that the FBI was now leading the investigation into the attacks.
The Seattle office of the FBI said that while it was “aware of the reports,” it could not confirm whether or not the agency was looking into them.
“We routinely share information with our local partners and take threats against our infrastructure seriously,” Steve Bernd, an FBI spokesperson, wrote in an email Monday evening. “We urge anyone with information to contact law enforcement.”
The FBI has confirmed that it is also investigating the Dec. 3 gunfire attacks on the power grid in Moore County, North Carolina.
Gov. Roy Cooper said after the attacks in North Carolina that whoever carried out the assault “knew exactly what they were doing,” and that the episode had drawn attention to the importance of protecting critical infrastructure.
The Treasury Department earlier this week set broad rules for a new tax on stock repurchases that had been created under a law signed by President Joe Biden this year, largely rejecting business lobbyists’ efforts to narrow its scope.
The initial guidance was issued ahead of more detailed regulations that are expected to be released early next year. Tax experts said it was likely to yield more revenue for the federal government than if officials had granted business groups’ request to carve particular types of buybacks out of the tax.
The department also released initial guidance Tuesday for a second, further-reaching tax included in the Inflation Reduction Act: an alternative minimum tax on large corporations that use deductions and credits in the tax code to reduce their effective federal tax rates below 15%. The corporate income tax rate has been set at 21% since 2018,
when a sweeping set of tax cuts signed by former President Donald Trump took effect.
The minimum tax guidance sets criteria for which companies must pay that new tax. “Critically,” Treasury officials wrote in a news release, “it also gives smaller corporations an easy method for demonstrating that the new alternative minimum tax does not apply to them.”
The buybacks tax was included as one of several revenue raisers in the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law over the summer. The act seeks to reduce prescription drug prices for seniors on Medicare and decrease premiums for some Americans who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. It also includes $370 billion in tax credits and federal spending meant to encourage the deployment of lowemission energy technologies to fight climate change.
The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, which provides official estimates of
tax policies in Congress, projected that the buybacks tax would raise nearly $74 billion over the course of a decade.
Business groups had sought to whittle that number down, by excluding certain types of buybacks from the tax. Treasury officials appeared to agree to only one of them, which concerns SPACs: special purpose acquisition companies, which sell shares to investors and use the money to buy operating businesses.
If a SPAC forms but cannot find a company to buy within two years, it must return investors’ money to them — effectively buying back their shares. The Treasury guidance does not treat that liquidation as subject to the buyback tax. But otherwise, the guidance rejects industry attempts to narrow its scope.
“Treasury and the IRS could have written these regulations narrowly to apply only to paradigmatic buybacks — corporations repurchasing their own common stock on the open market,” said Daniel Hemel, a New
York University law professor who specializes in tax law. “Unhappily for Wall Street — but happily from a revenue perspective — Treasury chose to define the scope of the tax much more broadly.”
Hemel noted that the guidance was in contrast with the department’s decision Friday to delay by a year a new reporting requirement for users of Venmo, PayPal and a variety of other tech platforms. A provision in the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion economic legislation Biden signed soon after taking office in 2021, was set to begin forcing those tech platforms to report small transactions to the IRS, a change that stoked fears of surprise tax bills for individual taxpayers and drew heavy opposition from small businesses and large tech companies alike.
It is “hard to tell a story about Treasury and the IRS going narrow or going broad” on tax implementation issues under Biden, Hemel said. “It’s going in different directions on different issues.”
U.S. stock investors could not be more eager to turn the page on 2022, a brutal year dominated by market-punishing Federal Reserve rate hikes designed to tamp down the steepest inflation in 40 years.
The S&P 500 is down nearly 20% year-to-date with only a few trading days left in 2022, on pace for its biggest calendar-year drop since 2008. The carnage has been even more severe for the Nasdaq Composite, which had tumbled by nearly 34% so far for the year.
High-profile casualties include the once-soaring shares of Amazon.com Inc, which have slumped around 50% this year, while those of Tesla Inc are down some 70% and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc shares have lost about 65%. Meanwhile, energy stocks have bucked the trend by posting eye-popping gains.
nflation, and the Fed’s degree of aggressiveness in trying to contain it, will likely remain a critical factor driving equity performance as 2023 gets under way. But investors will also be watching for fallout from higher interest rates, including how tighter monetary policy ripples through the economy and whether it makes other assets more competitive with stocks.
Here is a look at some of the big themes for the U.S. stock market in 2023.
Perhaps the biggest question that will sway stocks as the new year begins is whether the economy is headed for a recession, as many investors are expecting.
If a recession starts next year, stocks could be set for another slide: A bear market has never bottomed before the beginning of a recession, historic data showed.
Recessions tend to hit stocks hard, with the S&P 500 falling an average of 29% during recessions since World War Two, according to Truist Advisory Services. Those declines, however, have usually been followed by a strong rebound.
Investors are also concerned that corporate earnings estimates may not have fully factored in a potential slowdown, leaving more downside for stocks.
Consensus analyst estimates project S&P 500 earnings to rise 4.4% in 2023, according to Refinitiv IBES. Yet earnings fall by an average annual rate of 24% during recessions, according to Ned Davis Research.
GOODBYE, TINA?
The Fed’s rate hikes have pushed up bond yields and created competition for equities, flying in the face of the low-yield environment that predominated for more than a decade and gave rise to the acronym “TINA,” or “there is no alternative” to stocks.
Yields on the 10-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) - also known as real yields because they
strip out projected inflation - recently stood at around 1.5%, after hitting their highest level in over a decade in October.
In the past year, value stocks - commonly defined as those trading at a discount on metrics such as book value or price-to-earnings - held up better than tech and other growth shares, reversing trends that had been in place for much of the past decade.
With higher yields and doubts about profit growth standing to pressure tech and growth stocks, the question is whether value - which is more heavily represented by financial, energy and defensive groups - could be poised for another year of outperformance.
The dollar’s surge against other currencies this year hurt the earnings of many U.S. companies, making it more expensive for multinationals to convert their earnings back into their home currency.
The greenback has pared some of those gains in recent weeks and a continued reversal would depend in part on investor perceptions of how hawkish the Fed will be relative to other global central banks.
Russian forces launched a missile attack and nearly three dozen rockets at Kherson over the past day, the Ukrainian military said Wednesday, and officials called on residents to evacuate the embattled southern city where Moscow has stepped up artillery strikes.
The strikes hit a maternity ward where at least five women were recovering after giving birth, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office.
“Miraculously, no one was hurt,” he said.
Images shared by Tymoshenko on Telegram, the social messaging app, after the strike Tuesday showed blown-out windows, a hole in the roof and piles of rubble in one of the rooms.
Kherson has been battered by shelling since Ukraine retook the city last month, with Russian forces using new defensive positions on the opposite bank of the Dnieper River to launch near-daily barrages at the city. At least 10 people were
killed
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s Ministry of Reintegration renewed a plea
French defense minister Sébastien Lecornu visited the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Wednesday for the first time since the war began, a trip that follows a pledge by President Emmanuel Macron of France to send more weapons to Ukraine
and comes as efforts to reach a peaceful settlement appear to be deadlocked.
In Kyiv, Lecornu laid a wreath at a monument to Ukrainians who have died in the war. He was scheduled to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksii Reznikov, to discuss further military support.
to leave Kherson, quoting Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying, “The enemy does not stop shelling.” The ministry, which helps manage affairs in land that had been occupied by Russia, said on Facebook that about 300 people were departing Kherson every afternoon on an evacuation train headed west to the city of Khmelnytski. Most of them are older people, those with reduced mobility, women and children.
Passage on the evacuation trains is free of charge, with the Ukrainian government urging civilians to leave regions of active fighting and spend the winter in safer areas to the north and east. The government has promised free shelter and cash payments to those who heed the call to evacuate.
The toll of Russia’s war has continued to grow. The United Nations’ human rights office, in its latest tally of civilian casualties in the war, said it had recorded the deaths of 6,884 people in Ukraine due to fighting as of Monday. Nearly 11,000 people had been wounded, the office said, while emphasizing that in both cases the real figures were likely to be “considerably higher.”
France has committed about 500 million euros ($530 million) in military assistance, supplying Ukraine with long-range cannons, air defense missile batteries and rocket launchers. Still, it lags far behind other European nations, including Britain and Germany, whose military support adds up to billions of dollars, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Last week, after Russia unleashed more barrages of missiles on Ukrainian cities, Macron said that France was working on sending more weapons to Ukraine early next year “so that Ukrainians can defend themselves against these bombings.”
France also hosted a major aid conference this month that involved dozens of countries and resulted in more than $1 billion in aid for Ukraine to repair vital infrastructure.
But many in Ukraine and in Eastern Europe have remained critical of France’s response to the war, drawing a link between its relatively limited military support and Macron’s approach to Russia.
While unequivocally backing the
Ukrainian cause, Macron has at times appeared sympathetic to President Vladimir Putin’s concerns over NATO, saying that any peace talks should consider providing security guarantees to Russia — an approach that Ukraine strongly rejects and that has infuriated some Western allies.
Both Russia and Ukraine have said they are open to peace talks, but only on terms that are unacceptable to the other.
France’s defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, second from right, visited a memorial to Ukrainian soldiers in Kyiv on Wednesday.
As the sun fell on a makeshift tent city in Mexico less than a mile from the Rio Grande on Tuesday, hundreds of migrants gathered to share the news they had been dreading: Their wait to cross the nearby border into the United States had just grown longer, indefinitely longer.
Word that the U.S. Supreme Court had effectively extended a nearly twoyear health policy that has all but closed the border to many migrants swept through the camp, leaving dashed hopes and deep disappointment. Roodline Pierre, 28, among a large number of Haitians gathered around their phones, shook his head as he described how he had escaped a long list of hardships in Haiti with his wife and 14-month-old daughter. “We can’t go back,” Pierre said. “We left everything behind to be here.”
In a brief ruling Tuesday afternoon, the Supreme Court indefinitely blocked an earlier court order that would have lifted the policy known as Title 42 and allowed thousands of migrants to make their way to a U.S. port of entry and seek asylum in the United States.
The policy, which U.S. officials say is no longer needed to protect the country against the coronavirus, allows the swift expulsion of many migrants who cross the border without authorization, and large numbers have been waiting in Mexico for the policy’s expected termination. Instead, the policy could remain in place for several more months.
Pierre pointed to the squalid conditions around him. People were cooking meat on rusty grills and piles of wood. Children walked in and out of tents along the street. Trash and used toiletries were scattered around on an empty dirt lot.
“These are no conditions for children,” he said. “No person should live like this. We want a better life, and now we are stuck here for much longer.” The policy did not make sense, he said. If U.S. authorities worried about people bringing COVID-19 to the United States, he said, why would they not test each person individually and allow those free of infection to apply for asylum?
A line of men, women and children had formed outside a nearby shelter, Senda de Vida, which featured a large mural of a man walking between two flags, one from Mexico and one from the United States. Most shelters along the
border have reached their capacity, and those who cannot gain entry have had to find their own places to sleep. Daisy Rezino, 26, who had arrived from Guatemala a week earlier with her two small daughters, turned away from the growing line, disappointed.
Her two girls cuddled with her as nightfall brought colder winds.
“There is no room for any more people in there,” she said. “We are going to have to sleep out here.”
Rezino had also been hoping for better news. She was not sure if migrants from Guatemala would be turned away at the border with Title 42 remaining in place, but she was afraid to try and face potential deportation.
“We went through a lot to get here,” Rezino said. “I don’t understand why they treat us like this. If they only saw the way we have to sleep here, no food to eat and no roof over our heads.”
The extreme cold temperatures were especially difficult during the Christmas holiday, especially at night, Rezino and other migrants said. But with temperatures rising Tuesday, many of the migrants who were camped outside said they were determined to stay as long as it took.
For some, like Mario Vazquez, 57, and his friend Jose Lopez, 33, both from Honduras, returning home was no longer an option. Both men sold most of their
belongings to afford the trip to the border. Along with their families, they had been sleeping for the past two weeks in tents made of sheets and other rudimentary materials.
They stood silent for several minutes after learning that their chance to cross and plead their case before an asylum judge had been indefinitely postponed.
They wanted to work in the United
States, where family members were waiting for them, and would not be a burden, the men said. But their plight seemed out of their hands.
“I wanted to cross to the United States,” Vazquez said. “But we will cross when God allows us to cross. It is all up to him.”
Lopez put his hands in his pockets and bowed his head in agreement.
Pope Francis on Wednesday asked those present at his weekly audience to pray for the retired Pope Benedict XVI, who Francis said was “very ill.” In their prayers, Francis said, people should ask God to
console Benedict and “support him in this witness of love to the church, until the end.”
Matteo Bruni, a Vatican spokesman, said in a statement that, after the audience, Francis had visited Benedict, 95, at the monastery on Vatican City grounds where Benedict has lived since announcing his resignation in February 2013. Benedict was the first pope in six centuries to step down. Increasingly frail, he has rarely made public appearances in recent years.
Bruni said that Benedict’s health had “deteriorated in recent hours due to advancing age.” The situation, he added, was “under control at the moment, and was constantly monitored by doctors.”
When he resigned nearly 10 years ago, Benedict had cited his declining health, both “of mind and body.” He had said that “due to an advanced age,” his strengths were “no longer suited to an adequate exercise” of leading the church, which had led to his decision to resign freely “for the good of the church.”
Since then, he has mostly stepped back from public life, dedicating himself to prayer and meditation.
“I’d like to ask all of you for a special prayer for emeritus Pope Benedict, who, in silence, is sustaining the church,” Francis said Wednesday at the end of his hourlong audience.
Joseph Alois Ratzinger was born in 1927 and ordained a priest in 1951. Pope Paul VI named him archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1977, the same year that he became a cardinal. Four years later, Pope John Paul II summoned Ratzinger to Rome, where he became prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office responsible for defending church orthodoxy, one of the Vatican’s most important positions. He headed the office for nearly 25 years.
After John Paul died in 2005, Ratzinger was chosen as his successor, taking the name of a fifth-century monk, Benedict of Norcia, who had founded monasteries that spread Christianity in Europe. The new pope, as Benedict XVI, would seek to reevangelize a Europe that was struggling to maintain its faith.
An intellectual who wrote several theological works, Benedict is considered conservative in his religious and social views. At the same time, he has taken what many considered to be liberal stands in promoting environmental protection and in criticizing capitalism, notably during the financial crisis that erupted in 2008.
But his papacy was marred by the unresolved sexual abuse scandal in the church, and in the year before he stepped down, an Italian journalist published a book based on insider documents detailing infighting, corruption and a power struggle at the Vatican bank.
When Benedict turned 95 in April, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the former pope’s longtime personal secretary, said that Benedict was in “good spirits.” In an interview with Vatican News, a Vatican-controlled outlet, Gänswein said that Benedict was “of course physically relatively weak and frail, but lucid.”
Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, May 1, 2011. Pope Francis asked those present at his weekly audience on Dec. 28, 2022 to pray for the retired Pope Benedict XVI, who Francis said was “very ill.”
The archbishop also said in the interview that Benedict read and dealt with correspondence and that he met with visitors but that he found it difficult to be the main celebrant at Mass because he did not have the strength.
This month, during an awards ceremony named for his predecessor, Francis honored Benedict, remarking on the “spiritual presence and accompaniment in prayer” of the retired pope.
Francis last visited Benedict in August, along with a group of prelates who had been elevated as cardinals that day.
A video released by the Vatican at the time showed a very frail Benedict receiving the greetings of the new cardinals. He and Francis blessed them at the end.
Church leaders joined Francis on Wednesday in praying for the retired pope. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, said that Benedict’s post-papacy decision to accompany the church with prayer and reflection “was a strong message for the ecclesiastical community and the whole of society.”
The archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, noted that he had “received the news that there is a great concern in Rome about the state of health of the pope emeritus.”
“But for us, we are united in prayer,” Marx said, in remarks quoted by the news agency DPA.
If you’re one of those people who bought bitcoin or another cryptocurrency near its peak last fall, you’ve lost a lot of money. Is it any consolation to know that you would have lost a similar amount if you had bought Tesla stock instead?
OK, probably not. Still, Tesla stock’s plunge is an opportunity to talk about what makes businesses successful in the information age. And in the end, Tesla and bitcoin may have more in common than you think.
It’s natural to attribute Tesla’s recent decline — which is, to be sure, part of a general fall in tech stocks, but an exceptionally steep example — to Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and the reputational self-immolation that followed. Indeed, given what we’ve seen of Musk’s behavior, I wouldn’t trust him to feed my cat, let alone run a major corporation. Furthermore, Tesla sales have surely depended at least in part on the perception that Musk himself is a cool guy. Who, aside from MAGA types who probably wouldn’t have bought Teslas anyway, sees him that way now?
On the other hand, as someone who has spent much of his professional life in academia, I’m familiar with the phenomenon of people who are genuinely brilliant in some areas but utter fools in other domains. For all I know, Musk is or was a highly effective leader at Tesla and SpaceX.
Even if that’s the case, though, it’s hard to explain the
huge valuation the market put on Tesla before the drop, or even its current value. After all, to be that valuable Tesla would have to generate huge profits, not just for a few years but in a way that could be expected to continue for many years to come.
Now, some technology companies have indeed been long-term moneymaking machines. Apple and Microsoft still top the list of the most profitable U.S. corporations some four decades after the rise of personal computers.
But we more or less understand the durability of the dominance of Apple and Microsoft, and it’s hard to see how Tesla could ever achieve something similar, no matter how brilliant its leadership. Apple and Microsoft benefit from strong network externalities — loosely speaking, everyone uses their products because everyone else uses their products.
In the case of Microsoft, the traditional story has been that businesses continued to buy the company’s software, even when it was panned by many people in the tech world, because it was what they were already set up to use: Products like Word and Excel may not have been great, but everyone within a given company and in others it did business with was set up to use them, had IT departments that knew how to deal with them, and so on. These days Microsoft has a better reputation than it used to, but as far as I can tell its market strength still reflects comfort and corporate habit rather than a perception of excellence.
Apple’s story is different in the details — more about individual users than institutions, more about physical products than about software alone. And Apple was widely considered cool, which I don’t think Microsoft ever was. But at an economic level it’s similar. I can attest from personal experience that once you’re in the iPhone/iPad/MacBook ecosystem, you won’t give up on its convenience unless offered something a lot better.
Similar stories can be told about a few other companies, such as Amazon, with its distribution infrastructure.
The question is: Where are the powerful network externalities in the electric vehicle business?
Electric cars may well be the future of personal transportation. In fact, they had better be, since electrification of everything, powered by renewable energy, is the only plausible way to avoid climate catastrophe. But it’s hard to see what would give Tesla a long-term lock on the electric vehicle business.
So what would make that happen for Tesla? You could imagine a world in which dedicated Tesla hookups were the only widely available charging stations, or in which Teslas were the only electric cars mechanics knew how to fix. But with major auto manufacturers moving into the electric vehicle business, the possibility of such a world has already vanished. In fact, I’d argue that the Inflation Reduction Act, with its strong incentives for electrification, will actually hurt Tesla. Why? Because it will quickly make electric cars so common that Teslas no longer seem special.
In short, electric vehicle production just doesn’t look
like a network externality business. Actually, you know what does? Twitter, a platform many of us still use because so many other people use it. But Twitter usage is apparently hard to monetize, not to mention the fact that Musk appears set on finding out just how much degradation of the user experience it will take to break its network externalities and drive away the clientele.
Which brings us back to the question of why Tesla was ever worth so much. The answer, as best as I can tell, is that investors fell in love with a storyline about a brilliant, cool innovator, despite the absence of a good argument about how this guy, even if he really was who he appeared to be, could found a long-lived money machine.
And as I said, there’s a parallel here with bitcoin. Despite years of effort, nobody has yet managed to find any serious use for cryptocurrency other than money laundering. But prices nonetheless soared on the hype, and are still being sustained by a hard-core group of true believers. Something similar surely happened with Tesla, even though the company does actually make useful things.
I guess we’ll eventually see what happens. But I definitely won’t trust Elon Musk with my cat.
LA FORTALEZA – El gobernador Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia, firmó el miércoles la Orden Ejecutiva 2022-060 que establece la composición, facultades y
funciones del Consejo Asesor para el Desarrollo de la Carrera Pública.
“Los funcionarios públicos son el pilar de las ejecutorias gubernamentales. Es por esto que reconocemos que la capacitación técnica y profesional es medular para garantizar mayor eficiencia en los servicios que le ofrecemos a la ciudadanía. Tan pronto como en enero, entra en vigor la Reforma Administrativa de Servicio Público, que busca asegurar que los sueldos en el Gobierno estén equiparados con los del sector privado, por lo que garantizar la capacitación y crecimiento de los servidores públicos es fundamental para lograr nuestras metas”, puntualizó el gobernador en comunicación escrita.
Este Consejo tiene el propósito de profesionalizar la carrera del servidor público y garantizar la capacitación del recurso humano, orientado al logro de las metas y compromisos gubernamentales.
La Orden Ejecutiva establece que, como parte de sus funciones, el Consejo identificará las necesidades de desarrollo profesional del personal, fundamentando en análisis y determinaciones, y las prioridades que reportan las entidades públicas, mediante un Plan Maestro Quinquenal dividido por años para el adiestramiento y profesionalización de los empleados del Gobierno de Puerto Rico.
El consejo estará compuesto por la directora de la Oficina de Administración y Transformación de los Recursos Humanos (OATRH), los secretarios del Departamento de Educación, Departamento de Desarrollo Económico y el Departamento del Trabajo y Recursos Humanos, así como los directores de Puerto Rico Innovation & Technology Services (PRITS), Oficina de Gerencia y Presupuesto (OGP) y la Autoridad de Asesoría Financiera y Agencia Fiscal (AAFAF).
SAN JUAN – Luego de un extenso y ponderado análisis de la prueba sometida por el Departamento de Justicia en torno a una querella planteada contra el alcalde de San Juan, Miguel Romero Lugo, y otros legisladores de la Capital, el Panel sobre el FEI concurrió el miércoles, con la determinación de ese departamento de no designar un fiscal especial.
La querella fue radicada ante Justicia por el coordinador general del Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana, licenciado Manuel Natal Albelo, la exsenadora Rossana López León y el ex legislador municipal, licenciado Adrián González Costa.
En la misma los querellantes alegaron que, según había trascendido públicamente, el alcalde y otros legisladores habían tenido vínculos con la empresa JR Asphalt Inc. Los socios de esta empresa, Raymond Rodríguez y Mario Villegas, habían sido acusados en el foro federal por participar en un esquema de soborno,
a cambio de adjudicarle contratos municipales que beneficiaron a la compañía de asfalto y pavimentación.
Por ello, alegaron los querellantes que, pudo haber existido un acuerdo entre el alcalde y los socios de la empresa en el que realizarían obras de bacheo en San Juan, a cambio de que se les otorgaran contratos municipales en el futuro.
En la investigación de la División de Integridad Pública y Asuntos del Contralor (DIPAC) de Justicia, no se encontró desvío en los procesos de subasta de la Capital, y que los mismos, cumplieron con las normas, reglamentos y leyes establecidas a tales propósitos.
Más aún, ninguno de los querellantes pudo aportar prueba directa sobre actos delictivos, ya que lo declarado no les consta de propio y personal conocimiento.
“La prueba documental recopilada en la investigación demuestra que las declaraciones del alcalde Romero Lugo, han sido consistentes en que los trabajos de bacheo se realizaron con asfalto provisto por JR
Asphalt, sin costo alguno y con el único propósito de beneficiar a las comunidades. Ello hay que analizarlo conjuntamente con el dato de que no se obtuvo evidencia que estableciera que el asfalto fue sufragado con fondos públicos”, lee en parte la Resolución emitida por el PFEI.
La prueba recopilada por Justicia establece que, a pesar de que JR Asphalt licitó en siete ocasiones, solo fue agraciada en cuatro procesos de subasta. Los procesos de selección y contratación que se llevan a cabo en el municipio no proveen espacios para la participación del alcalde.
“La DIPAC no encontró prueba alguna de que el licenciado Romero o cualquiera de los otros querellados, procuraran el asfalto para el bacheo. Lo que surge es que efectivamente fue un ofrececimiento libre y voluntario”, expresa en su exposición la Resolución.
Al no existir el quantum de prueba necesario para la designación de un FEI, el Panel ordenó el archivo definitivo de este asunto.
SAN JUAN – El informe preliminar de COVID-19 del Departamento de Salud (DS) reportó el miércoles 10 muertes y 213 personas hospitalizadas.
El total de muertes atribuidas es de 5,519.
Hay 193 adultos hospitalizados y 20 menores. El monitoreo cubre el periodo del 11 al 25 de diciembre 2022.
La tasa de positividad está en 28.55 por ciento.
In April, during his headlining set at Coachella, reigning pop prince Harry Styles invited a surprise guest, Shania Twain, to the stage to sing a provocatively chosen duet: “Man, I Feel Like a Woman.”
Clad in a low-cut, silver sequined jumpsuit, Styles strutted, twirled and belted out the cheeky anthem’s lyrics. “This lady taught me how to sing,” he told the raucous crowd of over 100,000 when the song was over. “She also taught me that men are trash.”
The performance was fun, headlinegenerating and relatively radical: It is difficult to imagine Styles’ generational predecessor, Justin Timberlake — or even Timberlake’s successor, Justin Bieber — playing so fast and loose with gender roles. That is partially because the Justins embraced hip-hop and R&B — genres where such experimentation is often less welcome — more directly than Styles ever has. But it’s also because the cultural forces that shape the norms and expectations of what a male pop star can and should be are evolving.
While the year in music was dominated by a handful of female powerhouses (critically, by Beyoncé’s widely praised dance-floor odyssey “Renaissance” and com-
mercially, by Taylor Swift’s moody synth-pop juggernaut “Midnights”), the top male pop stars — Styles, Bad Bunny and Jack Harlow — all found success while offering refreshingly subversive challenges to old-school masculinity.
Styles and Harlow seem cannily aware of how to position themselves as heartthrobs in a cultural moment when being a man — especially one who scans straight and white — can seem like a minefield of potential missteps, offenses and overextended privilege. Bad Bunny, even more subversively, ripped up the English-language pop star’s rule book and offered a more expansive vision of gender and sexuality.
Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican superstar whose summery smash “Un Verano Sin Ti” spent more weeks atop the Billboard chart than any other album this year, has gleefully rejected the confines of machismo. Instead, he has embraced gender-fluid fashion, called out male aggression in his songs and videos and even made out with one of his male backup dancers during a performance at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards — decisions that carry extra weight considering his aesthetic-hopping pop is rooted in reggaeton, a genre that has leaned on heteronormativity.
Styles, too, has won fans and admirers by treating his gender presentation as something of a playground, whether that means wearing a dress on the cover of “Vogue,” refusing to label his sexuality or flipping the familiar script of the older male auteur/younger female muse in his much publicized relationship with his “Don’t Worry Darling” director Olivia Wilde, who is 10 years his senior. None of it has been bad for business: Styles’ “As It Was” was the year’s longest-reigning Billboard No. 1 and, globally, Spotify’s most-streamed song of 2022. But there’s also an increasingly fine line between allyship and pandering, one that fans aren’t shy about calling out online. Styles and Bad Bunny have been accused of the very contemporary crime of “queerbaiting,” or cultivating a faux mystique around one’s sexuality to appeal to an LGBTQ fan
base. To overemphasize straightness and alpha-male stereotypes, though, presents its own risks, especially in a post-MeToo moment. What’s a man to do?
Harlow, a 24-year-old Kentucky-born rapper, spent 2022 trying to figure it out. A technically dexterous rapper with an easy charisma and a head of Shirley Temple ringlets, Harlow is known for making artistic choices that spotlight his skills and convey his seriousness as an MC. He’s also cultivated a persona as an irrepressible flirt with a particular attraction to Black women. He famously shot his shot with Saweetie on the BET Awards red carpet, repeatedly popped into Doja Cat’s Instagram live broadcasts and even parodied his reputation during a star-turning “Saturday Night Live” hosting gig, when he played himself in a skit that
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imagined him seducing Whoopi Goldberg on the set of “The View.”
Harlow’s music, too, actively cultivates the female listener. As he explained in an interview with The New York Times this year, “I always think about if I was in the car and the girl I had a crush on was in the shotgun and I had to play the song, would I be proud to play the song?”
Throughout his second album, “Come Home the Kids Miss You,” Harlow paints himself as stylish and sensitive, a man who keeps his nails clean and discusses his romantic encounters in therapy. In the grand tradition of his elder Drake, Harlow often uses the pronoun “you” to directly and intimately address women in his songs. His biggest solo hit to date, “First Class,” which spent three weeks at No. 1 this spring, turned “Glamorous,” Fergie’s blingy 2007 hit about luxury and hardearned success, into a chivalric invitation for a lady to come enjoy the good life on Harlow’s dime: “I could put you in first class,” he clarified.
Stylistically, Harlow’s music is worlds away from Styles’, but both share a kind of glorification of the female listener, a lyrical attentiveness to her pleasure and a subtle insistence that they are more caring partners than all those other men who, in Styles’ parlance (and on superhumanly empathetic ballads like “Boyfriends” and “Matilda”), are “trash.”
In some sense, this is certainly progress. Consider that Timberlake’s early aughts success involved the excessive vilification of his ex Britney Spears, or that a performance that pantomimed a kind of hyper-heterosexual dominance over Janet Jackson had virtually no effect on his career, but nearly ended hers. Harlow’s collaboration with and public support for gay pop star Lil Nas X and even his fawning over his female peers are worlds away from his predecessor Eminem, who negotiated his complex stance as a white man in a predominantly Black genre by punching down at women and queer people. Misogyny and homophobia aren’t exactly good for business anymore — and thank goodness.
It’s hard to imagine these men making the same mistakes as their forebears, and overcorrection is in some sense welcome, given the alternative. (Bad Bunny, again, has taken even bolder risks, such as vehemently criticizing the Puerto Rican government in response to islandwide
blackouts.)
But even responsibly wielded privilege is still, at the end of the day, privilege. And Styles’ and Harlow’s music often betrays that by its relative weightlessness, its sense of existence in a space free of any great existential cares. Styles’ songs in particular seem hollowed out of any introspection; most of the ones on “Harry’s House” pass by like cumulus clouds. The focus of Harlow’s music vacillates between girls and ego, with few gestures toward the riskier political statements he’s made on red carpets (decrying homophobia) and on social media (attending protests demanding justice for Breonna Taylor). That failure to see oneself as part of a larger problem is a symptom of privilege, too. Even if he’s wearing sequins, a man declaring that “men are trash” is just a very subtle way of saying “not all men.” What about the guy saying it?
On “Part of the Band,” a moody, verbose single released this year by British band the 1975, frontman Matty Healy imagines overhearing a snippet of chitchat between two young women: “I like my men like I like my coffee/Full of soy milk and so sweet it won’t offend anybody.” The implication is that Healy is decidedly not one of those men, and it’s indeed hard to imagine a listener — particularly a nonmale one — making it through all 11 tracks of the 1975’s soft-focused “Being Funny in a Foreign Language” without cringing at something Healy says. (Just one example: “I thought we were fighting, but it seems I was ‘gaslighting’ you.” Yeesh.)
But in Healy’s musings, there’s something often lacking in Harlow’s or Styles’ music: a genuine sense of selfscrutiny, and an active internal monologue about what it means to be a man at this moment in the 21st century. Healy’s songs are, as the critic Ann Powers put it in an astute essay tracing the cultural lineage of “the dirtbag,” excavations of “the curses and blessings of his gendered existence.” Under his relentless microscope, straight(ish) white masculinity is, blessedly, freed from its status as the default human condition and instead becomes a curiosity to poke and prod at, exposing its internal contradictions and latent anxieties.
“Am I ironically woke?” Healy wonders later in “Part of the Band.” “The butt of my joke? Or am I just some post-coke, average, skinny bloke calling his ego imagination?” Cringe if you want. He’s man enough to let the question hang there in the air.
By MELISSA CLARK
Ididn’t grow up eating many casseroles, and the main event at my family’s holiday brunch was bagels and lox. So, the first time I encountered a breakfast casserole at a New Year’s Day shindig, I was dubious. Where was the Nova and whitefish salad? Or at least the coffee cake and French toast I associated with parties held before noon?
One bite of that golden-topped casserole, though, set me straight. Bits of crunchy melted cheese speckled the surface, while the inside was creamy, savory cubes of bread strewn with sausages and onions, flavored with sage. It reminded me a little of Thanksgiving stuffing, but cheesier — and better with coffee.
Perhaps best of all for our host, it could be assembled entirely before the New Year’s Eve revelries even began. The next morning, while her morning coffee brewed, she simply popped the cold pan into a hot oven. An hour later, it was a bubbly, burnished vision on the table. So easy, filling and especially soothing after a night of copious Champagne-drinking, it made me a breakfast casserole convert from that moment on.
The basic formula is extremely forgiving. As long as you keep the backbone of custard-soaked bread, you can embellish it however you wish: sausages, bacon, vegetables, herbs, different varieties of cheese, you name it.
For this strata, I went meatless, opting for a mix of browned, earthy mushrooms and gently sweet butternut squash. Then, I seasoned it all with sage, which works well with those wintry flavors, and added a pinch of red-pepper flakes to mimic a hot Italian sausagelike burn. For the cheese, I used a classic combination of mild, milky mozzarella and sharp Parmesan for lushness and depth.
Breakfast casserole recipes call for a variety of different breads, from feathery brioche to crusty sourdoughs. The lighter the bread, the more puffed and ethereal the casserole; the denser
the bread, the heartier and richer. Here, I chose the middle ground: a simple baguette. But feel free to use whatever bread you have, as long as it’s not too seedy, which can interfere with the creaminess.
Assemble it ahead, then bake it as your guests arrive, whether that’s for a holiday breakfast or brunch, or even a cozy dinner. Just rebrand it as a vegetable casserole and serve it as a side dish — or make this gorgeous casserole the star.
This golden-topped strata has a savory mushroom and butternut squash filling, which gives it a complex, earthy flavor. Mozzarella adds mild richness, while the Parmesan gives everything a hit of salt and depth. You’ll need to let the strata sit in the fridge for at least eight hours (and preferably overnight) before baking. This allows the bread to soak up all the custard. Then, run it under the broiler after baking so the edges become crunchy and pleasingly singed. It’s a lovely main dish for a celebratory brunch or meatless supper, or a hearty side dish with roast chicken or fish for dinner.
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Total time: 1 1/2 hours, plus chilling Ingredients: 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
1 pound mixed mushrooms, such as cremini, white, shiitake and oyster, cut into 1-inch chunks
Fine salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 cup chopped shallots (from 3 to 4 large shallots)
1 1/4 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and grated (about 2 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage 1/8 teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus
more as needed
8 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup heavy cream (or use 2 1/4 cups half-and-half instead of the milk and cream)
3/4 cup grated Parmesan 2 cups shredded mozzarella 12 ounces baguette, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 10 cups)
Preparation:
1. In a very large (12-inch) skillet (or in a Dutch oven), working in batches so as not to crowd the pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon butter over high. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and season lightly with salt and pepper.
2. In the same skillet (no need to clean), heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil and 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high. Add shallots and shredded squash, and cook, stirring, until shallots are golden brown and the squash is soft and cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes. (If the squash starts to stick to the pan, splash in a little water.) Stir in 1/2 tea-
spoon salt, sage and a pinch of red-pepper flakes. Transfer to the bowl with the mushrooms, tossing gently to combine.
3. Grease the bottom and sides of a broiler-safe 9-by-13-inch baking dish with butter.
4. In another large bowl, whisk eggs until uniform in color. Whisk in milk, cream, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan (save the rest for the top), 2 teaspoons salt, red-pepper flakes and a large pinch of black pepper. Whisk thoroughly to combine.
5. Stir in the mozzarella, about 2/3 of the squash-mushroom mixture and the bread cubes until well coated. Pour bread mixture into the prepared baking dish in an even layer. Strew the remaining squash-mushroom mixture over top. Refrigerate, covered, until the bread absorbs all the liquid, at least 8 hours or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Top the strata evenly with the remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until set in the center. (It may puff a bit.) Run it under the broiler for 1 to 3 minutes to brown the top, watching carefully. Let sit for 10 minutes, then serve warm.
Rich with cheese and filled with butternut squash and mushrooms, this breakfast casserole is worth waking up for.
An alphabet soup of respiratory illnesses has been spreading misery across the United States, once again pushing hospital staff to the brink. But Gena Oppenheim, an intensive care nurse in Santa Monica, California, was taking it all in stride last week as the bed count at Providence Saint John’s Health Center continued the ominous rise that had begun around Thanksgiving.
Like countless other health care workers throughout the country, Oppenheim, 35, feels emotionally battered by the past three years and the loss of so many COVID-19 patients under her care, many of them young people who lingered on life support for months.
But as family members of those patients texted her with holiday greetings in recent days, Oppenheim found herself feeling oddly comforted even as she was subsumed by melancholy.
“I still value the fact that I can connect with those people,” she said, noting that before the pandemic it was unusual for ICU nurses to stay in touch with the relatives of those who didn’t make it. “In this case, it’s like we’re the only link they had to their loved one. It’s an experience we share.”
Nursing is in crisis, fueled by burnout, exhaustion and the politicization of a virus that left many front-line workers feeling unappreciated and, at times, abused. But the tale of how the pandemic has decimated hospital staff counts and dented patient care tells only half the story: For every bedside nurse who has left the field or transferred to a less stressful job at an insurance company or a school clinic, there are stalwarts like Nick Vargas, Bonifacio Deoso and Mariana Marquez, who, like Oppenheim, have endured and in some cases thrived.
“At its core, if you love your job and that’s why you became a nurse, as long as you take care of yourself and you have good people around you, you’re going to come back to nursing,” Oppenheim said. “That’s how I look at it.”
Oppenheim has an unusually powerful connection to Providence Saint John’s. Her father, who was chronically ill most of her life, spent many nights there. She last saw him in Room 2230 shortly before he died.
A month later, she applied to nursing
school, and in March 2020, just as the novel coronavirus began its deadly cascade across the country, Oppenheim took a job alongside the nurses who cared for her father that final night.
“Even in the darkest times at the hospital, I feel my dad there,” she said.
When Oppenheim saw that Hanny Virginia, a 24-year-old nursing student, had been wheeled into Room 2230, she thought, “OK, Dad, do your magic.”
Although Virginia was heavily sedated, Oppenheim spoke to her new patient as if they were old friends. She explained various medical procedures and the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, or ECMO, that was keeping her alive. Perhaps the information might seep in and help prepare Virginia for the exams she had been planning to take before she fell ill.
“Come on, hurry up, get better, so we can give you a job here,” the staff members would whisper in her ear.
By the summer of 2021, the nurses found themselves caring for surging numbers of patients in their 20s and 30s. The demographic shift, after months in which most patients were older, was bracing for the ICU nurses at Providence Saint John’s, many of whom were also young. “It’s like looking at yourself in the mirror,” one nurse, Andrea Taylor, said.
There is a deep intimacy that forms between an ICU nurse and their patients, most of whom are heavily sedated. Over time, nurses can sense when something is wrong, sometimes even before the arrival of confirmatory diagnostics and data.
“It’s kind of like with a spouse or a family member, where you can just tell when something’s off,” Vargas said. “Just by small little signals on their face they’re making. It just becomes like a sixth sense.”
Oppenheim was constantly in motion. One moment, she was entering digits into a file, then dashing to mute a sharp beep from a vitals monitor before squatting on the floor of Jessica Flores’ room to change a bag of fluid from a dialysis machine.
“I’m just going to wipe your eyes, OK? Don’t be scared,” Oppenheim said in a playful voice as she dabbed the eyes of an unconscious Flores, 32, a visual artist and freight office manager.
Bonifacio Deoso, a night shift nurse, spent much of the pandemic sitting in si-
lence with patients like Catalina Gonzalez, a housekeeper from Santa Clarita, California, who survived 119 days on an ECMO machine.
“It becomes a little more intimate for us at night,” Deoso said. “That’s the time you have your patient all to yourself and you grieve with them.”
Against all odds Oppenheim rarely hears the voices of her patients, and when their condition improves, she is often the first to hear them break what can be a monthslong silence.
“I don’t want you to be discouraged,” Oppenheim said, leaning over Manny Garcia, 26, a construction worker and avid soccer player from Oxnard, California, whose respiratory distress meant he would have to be intubated again.
A day later, he was alert for the first time in months. He deliriously mouthed “I love you” to his girlfriend as Oppenheim held the phone to his ear. Later, she held a pad of paper beneath his hands as he penned a series of dots that might one day become words.
Garcia had been given a slim chance of survival when he was first hospitalized. But two months later, he emerged from slumber to recall vivid dreams filled with dinosaurs, car crashes and social media posts mourning his untimely departure.
“When I was asleep, I thought I was dead,” Garcia said.
His only true memory was that of a nurse standing at the foot of his bed.
The nurses were always there. They followed him as he took his first steps down the hallway, and when he made it to the hospital’s rose garden, where his father took a knee in disbelief and gasped, “It’s a miracle.”
It is stories like these that helped health care workers endure the pandemic’s darkest days.
Yet as Garcia was taking those first halting steps toward recovery, Virginia was ailing in Room 2230. She was bleeding profusely from her nose, and Oppenheim had a knot in her stomach.
Two weeks later, Oppenheim held the arm of Virginia’s mother, Fitri Sho, as another nurse tried to explain that her daughter was nearly brain-dead. Sho listened with disbelief. “She looked at me to save her,” Oppenheim recalled afterward.
On Oct. 5, 2021, Manny Garcia was discharged. On the same day, two doors down, Hanny Virginia died.
Questions on life and death
Nick Vargas left his shift as Virginia’s family members were gathering around her bed for their final goodbyes. Once inside his car, he burst out sobbing.
Vargas, 38, reflected on the sense of invincibility he carried in his 20s. He empathized with Virginia and imagined that like her, he might have chosen to avoid being vaccinated. “That could have been me,” he said.
A year later, Oppenheim, Vargas and the other nurses were still reckoning with questions about why some patients survived and others died despite having received the same level of care. Their deaths felt mysterious, and in vain.
Some view nursing as a combination of creative art and science. Others emphasize the importance of spirituality and human tenderness.
Nurses like Mariana Marquez, who sang hymns to the intubated, have grown more confident in the healing power of holding a patient’s hand. “Praying with the patient absolutely relieves a lot of sadness and pain for me,” said Marquez, who has been a nurse for two decades and can still recall patient names from her first year on the job. “I will never forget them because they became a part of me.”
Andrea Taylor, another ICU nurse agreed. “I see their faces. I see the rooms they were in,” she said. “It is a part of nursing to carry with you.”
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO.
Plaintiff,
Defendants
CIVIL NO. 19-1548 (RAM). RE: COLLECTION OF MONIES, FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE. NOTICE OF SALE.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO.
SS. Judgment in favor of plaintiff for the sum of 161,937.16, plus accrued interest at a rate of four-point five percent (4.5%) per annum from May 17,2019 until the debt is paid full, in the lates charges, all advances under mortgage note, cost and attorney’s fees; Pursuant to the judgment, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for United States currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Federico Degetau Federal Building, Chardón Street, Hato Rey, San Juan, Puerto Rico or any other place designated by said Clerk, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property:
URBANA: Solar numero catorce (14) de la manzana DD de la Urbanización Santiago Iglesias Pantín, Barrio Frailes de Guaynabo, con un área de quinientos doce punto diez (512.10) metros cuadrados.
En lindes por el NORTE, con la calle catorce (14), en dieciséis punto diez (16.10) metros; por el SUR, con solar numero quince (15), en veintiséis punto cincuenta y seis (26.56) metros; por el ESTE, con la calle número catorce guion A (14-A), en Veintiuno punto cincuenta y ocho (21.58) metros; OESTE, con el solar numero trece (13), en treinta y siete punto treinta y siete (37.37) metros. Consta
inscrita al folio 7 del tomo 94 de Guaynabo, finca número 8,925, Registro de la Propiedad Sección de Guaynabo. Physical address: 14 DD Santiago Pantín Guaynabo, Puerto Rico 00966. The property is subject to the following Senior liens: DORAL BANK: In the favor appears a notation of demand, issued on May 8, 2013, in the Court of First Instance, Superior of Guaynabo, civil case # DCD2013-1257, followed by Doral Bank versus Luis Cortes Alejandro y Irma Andino Ortiz, for the sum of $148,480.54 and other expenses. Recorded on folio 112 of volume 1529 of Guaynabo, farm 8,925, Annotation A on July 241, 2015. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior or preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax liens (express, tacit, implied or legal), or homeowner associations dues, to the extent specified under the applicable Condominium Law, shall continue in effect. It being understood that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. The present property will be acquired free and clear of all junior liens. THEREFORE, the first public sale shall be held on the JANUARY 20th ,2023, at the 10:30 a.m.”, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $148,702.70. In the event said first public auction does not produce a bidder and the properties is not adjudicated, a second public auction shall be held on the JANUARY 27th, 2023, at the 10:30 a.m. and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $99,135.13, 2/3 parts of the minimum bid for the 1st public sale. If said second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a third auction will be held on the FEBRUARY 3rd, 2023, at the 10:30 a.m. and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $74,351.35, ½ of the minimum bid for the 1st public sale. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued canceling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Federal Building, Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. In San
Juan, Puerto Rico, on November 30th, 2022. Aguedo de la Torre, Special Master.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE FAJARDO SALA SUPERIOR
HOUSE, INC. Demandante Vs.
Demandados
Civil Núm.: FA2022CV00442. Sala: 303. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN 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 FAJARDO, SALA SUPERIOR, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, giro postal, o cheque certificado en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal el 11 DE ENERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en su oficina sita en el local que ocupa en el edificio del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE FAJARDO, SALA SUPERIOR, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en: A-3 CALLE EUCALIPTO, URBANIZACION MANSIONES HACIENDA JIMENEZ III, RIO GRANDE, PR 00745 y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Urbanización Mansiones Hacienda Jiménez Fase III de Río Grande, Puerto Rico. Solar: 3-A. Cabida: 606.5826 metros cuadrados. Solar marcado con el número 3 del Bloque A Tercera Fase de la Urbanización Mansiones de Hacienda Jiménez, localizado en el Barrio Jiménez de la Municipalidad de Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 606.5826 metros cuadrados de los cuales 595.6965 metros cuadrados se encuentran en superficie plana y 10.8861 metros cuadrados se encuentran en superficie irregular (talud); en lindes por el NORTE, en distancia de 26.25
metros lineales, con Dolly Lugo Rosa; por el Sur en distancia de 26.25 metros lineales, con la Calle Eucalipto; por el ESTE, en distancia de 22.71 metros lineales con el solar 4 de la Urbanización y por el OESTE, en distancia de 23.34 metros lineales, con el solar 2 de la Urbanización. Enclava una estructura de hormigón y bloques de hormigón tipo residencial diseñada para una sola familia. La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita al Toma Karibe de Rio Grande, Finca número 29,907, en el Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, 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 $114,258.00. 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 19 DE ENERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 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 $76,172.00. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el día 26 DE ENERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 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 $57,129.00.
La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constituida mediante la Escritura de hipoteca número 44 otorgada en Carolina, Puerto Rico, el día 10 de marzo de 2016, ante el Notario Carlos Martínez Olmo y consta inscrita al Tomo Karibe de Río Grande, finca número 29,907, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección 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 $104,535.31 por concepto de principal, desde el 1ro de noviembre de 2020, más intereses al tipo pactado de 4.00% 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 $11,425.80. Además, la parte demandada se comprometió a pagar una suma equivalente a $11,425.80 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca y una suma equivalente a $11,425.80 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 FAJARDO, SALA SUPERIOR durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio de remate. La propiedad no está sujeta a gravámenes anteriores y/o preferentes según surge de las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad en un estudio de título efectuado a la finca antes descrita. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores desconocidos, no inscritos o presentados que sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargos o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca del actor y a los dueños, poseedores, tenedores de o interesados en títulos transmisibles por endoso o al portador garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito del actor que se celebrarán las subastas en las fechas, horas y sitios señalados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les conviniere o se les invita a satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado asegurados quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad objeto de ejecución y descrita anteriormente se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores una vez el Honorable Tribunal expida la correspondiente Orden de Confirmación de Venta Judicial. Y para conocimiento de licitadores del público en general se publicará este Edicto
de acuerdo con la ley por espacio de dos semanas en tres sitios públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Este Edicto será publicado dos veces en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal en Fajardo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 17de noviembre de 2022. DENISE BRUNO ORTIZ, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR #266, ALGUACIL DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE FAJARDO, SALA SUPERIOR. JORGE A. ORTIZ ESTRADA, ALGUACIL REGIONAL INTERINO #622.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE PONCE SALA DE SANTA ISABEL WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, NOT INDIVIDUALLY BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE FOR FINANCE OF AMERCIA STRUCTURED SECURITIES ACQUISITION TRUST 2018- HB1
Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE ENRIQUE SALAMO COLÓN, T/C/C ENRIQUE SALAMO COMPUESTA POR FERNANDO SALAMO SEPÚLVEDA, ENRIQUE DE TAL, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO MIEMBROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESIÓN DE HILDA EDIVIA SEPULVEDA MORENO, T/C/C HILDA EDIBIA SEPULVEDA MORENO, T/C/C HILDA E. SEPULVEDA MORENO, T/C/C HILDA SEPULVEDA MORENO, T/C/C HILDA EDIVIA SEPULVEDA, T/C/C HILDA EDIBIA SEPULVEDA, T/C/C HILDA E SEPULVEDA, T/C/C HILDA SEPULVEDA COMPUESTA POR FERNANDO SALAMO SEPULVEDA, ENRIQUE DE TAL, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO MIEMBROS DE NOMBRES
DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES; Y A LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA
Demandados Civil Núm.: SI2022CV00003.
Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA IN REM. EDICTO DE SUBASTA.
Al: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL. A: SUCESIÓN DE ENRIQUE SALAMO COLÓN, T/C/C ENRIQUE SALAMO COMPUESTA POR FERNANDO SALAMO SEPÚLVEDA, ENRIQUE DE TAL, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO MIEMBROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESIÓN DE HILDA EDIVIA SEPULVEDA MORENO, T/C/C HILDA EDIBIA SEPULVEDA MORENO, T/C/C HILDA E. SEPULVEDA MORENO, T/C/C HILDA SEPULVEDA MORENO, T/C/C HILDA EDIVIA SEPULVEDA, T/C/C HILDA EDIBIA SEPULVEDA, T/C/C HILDA E SEPULVEDA, T/C/C HILDA SEPULVEDA COMPUESTA POR FERNANDO SALAMO SEPULVEDA, ENRIQUE DE TAL, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO MIEMBROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES; Y A LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA.
Yo, MANUEL MALDONADO, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Ponce, a los demandados, acreedores y al público en general con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, por la presente CERTIFICO, ANUNCIO y HAGO CONSTAR: Que el día 31 DE ENERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico, procederé a vender en Pública Subasta, al mejor pos-
tor, la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria mediante Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, la cual se notificó y archivó en autos el día 30 de agosto de 2022. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el 7 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA; y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 14 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que ha sido liberado por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Ponce, en el caso de epígrafe con fecha de 2 de diciembre de 2022, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número 82 de la Urbanización San Miguel, radicada en el Barrio Felicia del término municipal de Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de cuatrocientos sesenta y siete punto cinco metros cuadrados, en lindes por el NORTE, en una distancia de quince punto cuarentinueve metros con la calle “A” de la Urbanización; por el SUR, en una distancia de dieciséis punto cuarentidós con el solar número sesentiséis de la Urbanización; por el ESTE, en una distancia de veinticuatro punto ochentinueve metros, con el solar número ochentiuno de la Urbanización; y por el OESTE, en una distancia de veinte punto treintiún metros, con la calle B de la Urbanización. Sobre dicho solar enclava una casa de concreto reforzado con techo del mismo material, consistente principalmente de sala, comedor-cocina, cuatro cuartos dormitorios, dos cuartos de baño, balcón y marquesina. La casa contiene gabinetes de cocina y calentador de agua. Según el plano inscrito en este Registro, este solar tiene un arco de siete punto ochenta metros por su rumbo Noroeste que colinda con calles A y B. Finca número
vs. LUIS
-ALEJANDRO, HIS WIFE, IRMA IRIS ANDINO-ORTIZ AND THE CONJUGAL
TO: LUIS CORTESALEJANDRO, HIS WIFE, IRMA IRIS ANDINO-ORTIZ AND THE CONJUGAL
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 Fajardo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 12 de diciembre de 2012. Jorge A. Ortiz Estrada #622, Alguacil regional interino. Sandraliz Martínez Torres, Alguacil Auxiliar #737, División De Subastas, Tribunal De Primera Instancia, Sala Superior De Fajado.
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO BAUTISTA REO PR CORP. Plaintiff V.
PEDRO G. SILVESTRE RODRÍGUEZDefendant
Civil No.: 3:20-cv-01253.
(DRD). FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE AND PLEDGEIN REM. NOTICE OF SALE.
To: DEFENDANT AND GENERAL PUBLIC.
On January 4, 2021, this Court entered Default Judgment in favor of Bautista Cayman Asset Companny, now Bautista REO PR Corp. To date, Defendants have not satisfied the Judgment. Consequently, there is an outstanding balance of: (i) $151,861.20 in principal; plus (ii) accrued interests in the amount of $50,690.39, which continue to accrue daily at a rate of $33.75, until full payment of the debt; plus (iii) accrued late charges in the amount of $4,210.02; plus (iv) other costs in the amount of $8,024.50; plus (v) any other advance, charge, fee or disbursements made by Bautista on behalf of Defendant in accordance with the Mortgage Note, the Loan Agreement, as well as under
the other loan documents, plus (vi) costs and agreed attorney’s fees under the Mortgage Note in the amount of $20,000.00. Pursuant to said judgment and/or the Order of Execution of Judgment, the undersigned appointed Special Master was ordered to sell, at public auction for U.S. currency in cash or certified check, without appraisement or right to redemption, to the highest bidder, at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Room 150 - Federal Building, 350 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, or at any other place designated by said Clerk, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property: URBAN: Plot located in the Monacillos Ward of the Municipality of Rio Piedras before, today San Juan, Puerto Rico marked with the number 26-B of the AQ block of the Caparra Terrace Development, with a surface area of 237.50 square meters. In borders by the NORTH, in 9.50 meters, with the street 122 of the Development; by the SOUTH at 9.50 meters with lot 5 of the AQ block; on the EAST, at 25.00 meters with lot 26-A of the AQ block; and on the WEST, at 25.00 meters with lot 27 of the AQ block. Contains a house. The property described above is recorded at page 58 of volume 417 of Monacillos, property number 15,714, Registry of Property of San Juan, Third Section. The Property is described in the Spanish language as follows: URBANA: Solar sito en el Barrio Monacillos de la Municipalidad de Rio Piedras antes, hoy San Juan, Puerto Rico marcado con el numero 26-B de la manzana AQ de la Urbanización Caparra Terrace, con un área superficial de 237.50 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en 9.50 metros, con la calle 122 de la Urbanización; por el SUR en 9.50 metros con el solar 5 de la manzana AQ; por el ESTE, en 25.00 metros con el solar 26-A de la manzana AQ; y por el OESTE, en 25.00 metros con el solar 27 de la manzana AQ. Enclava una casa. The property described above is recorded at page 58 of volume 417 of Monacillos, property number 15,714, Registry of Property of San Juan, Third Section. The property is subject to the following liens: BY ITS ORIGIN: PUERTO RICO RAILROAD LIGHT AND POWER AUTHORITY; RESTRICTIVE CONDITIONS OF USE AND CONSTRUCTION. BY ITSELF: MORTGAGE in guarantee of note in favor of DORAL BANK, or to its order, in the principal amount of $200,000.00, with a yearly interest rate of 8%, due on demand as per Deed No. 153, executed in San Juan,
Puerto Rico, on May 20, 2005, before Notary Public Nicolás A. López Peña, recorded at page 216 of volume 1036 of Monacillos, 11th inscription. MORTGAGE MODIFICATION: The object of this modification is the Mortgage for $200,000.00, which arises from registration 11th thru deed # 2, on March 9, 2011, before the Notary Public Maga Vanessa Alsina Figueroa, recorded on page 216, volume 1036 of Monacillos, 12th inscription. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal), shall continue in effect. It being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. The lien executed is over the property, and for the purposes of the first judicial sale the minimum bid amount is as follows: The amount of $200,000.00, as set forth in the mortgage deed, shall serve as the minimum bidding amount for the first public sale. Should the first public sale fail to produce an award or adjudication, two-thirds of the aforementioned amount or $133,333.33 shall serve as the minimum bidding amount for the second public sale. Should there be no award or adjudication at the second public sale, the minimum bidding amount for the third public sale shall be $100,000.00. Said sale to be made by the appointed Special Master is subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property may be executed and delivered after the judicial sale. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued canceling all junior liens. THEREFORE, public notice is hereby given that the appointed Special Master, pursuant to the provisions of the Judgment herein before referred to, will, on the FEBRUARY 17, 2023, AT 10:35 A.M., in the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Room 150 - Federal Building, 350 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, will sell at public auction to the highest bidder the property described herein, the proceeds of said sale to be applied in the manner and form provided by the Court’s Judgment. Should the first judicial sale set hereinabove be unsuccessful, the SECOND
JUDICIAL SALE of the property described in this Notice will be held on the FEBRUARY 24, 2023, AT 10:35 A.M., in the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Room 150 - Federal Building, 350 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. Should the second judicial sale set hereinabove be unsuccessful, the THIRD JUDICIAL SALE of the property described in this Notice will be held on the MARCH 3, 2023, AT 10:35 A.M., in the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Room 150 - Federal Building, 350 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by the parties at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Federal Building, Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 6th day of December, 2022. AGUEDO DE LA TORRE, APPOINTED SPECIAL MASTER.
***
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC, COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC Demandante Vs. ABIGAIL DE JESÚS GONZÁLEZ
Demandada Civil Núm.: BY2022CV03771. Salón: 505. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: ABIGAIL DE JESÚS GONZÁLEZ URB. REPARTO FLAMINGO K22 CALLE CIUDAD DEL TURABO, BAYAMÓN, PR 009594960.
POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal.
Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kevin Sánchez Campanero cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 009368518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kevin.sanchez@ orf-law.com, y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 3 de noviembre de 2022. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 3 de noviembre de 2022. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MILITZA MERCADO RIVERA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE PONCE ESTRELLA HOMES II LLC.
Parte Demandante V. SUCESIÓN DE MARÍA CORREA SIERRA Y LA SUCESION DE LUIS FELIPE VELEZ USERA AMBAS COMPUESTAS POR MAILEEN MARIE VELEZ CORREA, JANAIRA MARIE VELEZ CORREA Y LUIS DANIEL VELEZ CORREA
Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: PO2022CV01609. 406. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA Y COBRO DE DINERO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.
A: MAILEEN MARIE VELEZ CORREA, JANAIRA MARIE VELEZ CORREA Y LUIS DANIEL VELEZ CORREA TODOS COMO MIEMBROS DE LA SUCESION DE MARÍA CORREA SIERRA Y LA SUCESION DE LUIS FELIPE VELEZ USERA.
CALLE SOLIMAR 422, URBANIZACIÓN VILLA DEL CARMEN, PONCE PR 00716-2104; 3411 SOUTH CHICAGO AVE., APT. #34 SOUTH MIILWAUKEE WI 53172.
VISTA la Moción Solicitando se dicte Orden de Interpelación a los miembros de la SUCESIÓN DE MARÍA CORRIEA SIERRA
Y LA SUCESION DE LUIS FELIPE VELEZ USERA ambas compuestas POR MAILEEN MARIE VELEZ CORREA, JANAIRA MARIE VELEZ CORREA Y LUIS DANIEL VELEZ CORREA se declara HA LUGAR y de conformidad con el Artículo 1578 del Código Civil de Puerto Rico de 2020, antes Art. 959 del Código Civil de 1930, se dicta Orden para que expresen si han de aceptar o rechazar formalmente la herencia de los causantes MARIA CORREA SIERRA Y LUIS FELIPE VELEZ USERA en el término de treinta (30) días, dispuesto en ley. Se advierte a los miembros de la Sucesión de SUCESIÓN DE MARÍA CORREA SIERRA Y LA SUCESION DE LUIS FELIPE VELEZ USERA ambas compuestas por MAILEEN MARIE VELEZ CORREA, JANAIRA MARIE VELEZ CORREA Y LUIS DANIEL VELEZ CORREA, que al haberse presentado el pleito en Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca en contra de los causantes mencionados, de no recibirse contestación en el término de treinta (30) días a partir de la notificación de esta orden, la herencia se tendrá por aceptada y los herederos responden por la deuda reclamada. En PONCE, Puerto Rico, hoy 6 de octubre de 2022. LUZ MAYRA CARABALLO GARCÍA, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARIELY FÉLIX RIVERA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE PONCE. MARÍA RITA MELENDEZ VIDAL; AGUSTÍN BERAST AIN LÓPEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS DEMANDANTE vs. GERONIMA VIDAL TORRES, MARGARITA VIDAL TORRES, ANTONIO VIDAL TORRES, FELICITA VIDAL TORRES; MARIA MAGDALENA ARBONA TORRES, JAIME ARBONA TORRES, ROSA CONCEPCION ARBONA TORRES; FULANA DE TAL; FULANO DE TAL HEREDEROS DE PARADEROS DESCONOCIDOS
DEMANDADOS
CASO NUM.: PO2022CV01875.
SOBRE: EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO CONTRADICTORIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE
DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.
DEMANDADOS Geronima Vidal Torres, Margarita Vidal Torres, Antonio Vidal Torres, Felicita Vidal Torres; Maria Magdalena Arbona Torres, Jaime Arbona Torres, Rosa Concepcion Arbona Torres; Fulana De Tal; Fulano De Tal Herederos De Paraderos Desconocidos como cualquier otra persona que tenga interés propietario en la (Finca número 4,984A de Ponce 1) la cual se describe a continuación:
RUSTICA: Predio de terreno sin nombre conocido que radica en el barrio de San Patricio sitio de Monte Llanos de este término municipal, compuesto de 210,629.902 metros cuadrados. Linderos: NORTE, con tierras de la Sucesión Maldonado, Sucesión de Tiburcio Pacheco y Sucesión de José del Carmen Rivera, por el SUR, con unos terrenos de Don Ignacio Vida!, por el ESTE, con las de Félix Valentín; y por el OESTE, también con tierras del citado Vida!. Sitio Montes Llanos” Inscripción 9, Contine una casa de Madera propia para vivienda, techada de zinc, con balcón al frente, que mide 14 varas de frente o sea 11.703 metros por igual medida de fondo. Sobre esta finca se ha practicado varias segregaciones sin contar remanente descrito. Inscripción 14, Contiene otra casa almacén de madera, techada de zinc, con nueve correderas para servir café y varias casas para peones. Por la presente quedan notificados que los Demandantes; Agustín Berastain López Y La Sociedad Legal De Gananciales Compuesta Por Ambos, han radicado en este Tribunal una Demanda de Expediente de Dominio Contradictorio en la cual la parte demandante alega que a adquirido la propiedad antes mencionada por prescripción adquisitiva. Se apercibe que si transcurrido Treinta (30) días desde la publicación de este Edicto, no ha habido reparos u oposición contra la demanda interpuesta, este Tribunal dictará Sentencia de acuerdo a lo solicitado en la misma. Copia de la contestación deberá ser notificada al Licenciado Rubén Román Toro a su dirección en: P.O. Box número 1831, Yauco, Puerto Rico 00698. En cumplimiento de uno orden dictada por este Tribunal expido el presente bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal en Ponce, Puerto Rico, a 28 de noviembre de 2022. Luz Cara-
ballo Garcia, Sec del Tribunal, Centro Judicial, Ponce, Puerto Rico. Brenda Santiago Lopez, Sec Aux del Trib I.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS
Demandante V. DAMIEN
Demandado Civil Núm.: ECD2012-1001. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
El Alguacil del Tribunal que suscribe anuncia y hace constar: A. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Caguas, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor de contado y en moneda de curso legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América y cuyo pago se efectuará en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, todo derecho, título o interés que tenga la Parte Demandada en el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: Solar uno. Solar marcado con el número 1 radicado en el Barrio Rabanal, en el término municipal de Cidra, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de cero punto dos mil seiscientos noventa y nueve (0.2699) cuerdas, equivalentes a mil sesenta punto novencientos cuatro (1,060.904) metros cuadrados. En linderos: NORTE, con terrenos propiedad de Luis A. Santos; SUR, con el solar remanente de la finca principal; ESTE, con terrenos propiedad de Luis R. Vázquez Santos; OESTE, con carretera municipal y con camino dedicado a uso público A. Enclava casa para fines residenciales.
Dirección Física: Barrio Rabanal, Comunidad Palma. SR 173 KM 0.9 INT., Solar #1, Cidra, PR 00739. Finca 18,604, inscrita al folio 49 del tomo 501 de Cidra, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Segunda de Caguas. B. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado están de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas
A/K/A PEDRO GONZÁLEZ
SILVESTRE RODRÍGUEZ A/K/A PEDRO GONZÁLEZ
laborables bajo el epígrafe de este caso. C. 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 ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematente los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate.
La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. D.
Que la propiedad se encuentra afecta a las siguientes condiciones restrictivas: Condiciones restrictivas bajo el Programa Mi Nuevo Hogar Ley122 del 6 de agosto de 2010: Para viabilizar la adquisición de esta propiedad, la Autoridad para el Financiamiento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, concedió la suma de $10,000.00 para sufragar gastos de cierre y/o para aplicar al pronto del pago y está sujeta a las siguientes condiciones restrictivas: La finca será residencia principal del comprador y no puede ser arrendada o destinada a otro uso que no sea el de su residencia principal y habitual y no podrá vender, donar, permutar o de otro modo transferir la propiedad sin el previo consentimiento de la Autoridad para el Financiamiento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, por un término de 10 años. E. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma de $212,248.80, balance de Principal del referido pagaré, más los intereses que al timo convenido del 5.50% anual que se han devengado sobre dicha suma desde el 1ro de abril de 2012, y los que se devenguen hasta el total y completo pago de la deuda, los cargos por demora devengados hasta esta fecha y los que se devenguen hasta el total y completo pago de la deuda, cualesquiera adelantos hechos por la demandante para el pago de primas de seguro y contribuciones y la suma de $21,440.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado del demandante según pactados Enel pagaré, así como en el contrato de hipoteca y cualesquiera otros adelantos para contribuciones y pólizas de seguro hechos por la demandante. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se celebrará el día 8 DE FEBRERO DE 2023
A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA en la Oficina del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Caguas, por el tipo mínimo de $214,400.00. De declararse desierta dicha subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 15 DE FEBRERO DE 2023 A LAS 10:00 DE LA
MAÑANA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado. El precio para la segunda subasta lo será 2/3 partes del precio mínimo de la primera, o sea, $142,933.33. De declararse desierta dicha segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 23 DE FEBRERO DE 2023 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado. El precio para la tercera subasta lo será 1/2 del precio mínimo de la primera, o sea, $107,200.00. Y PARA QUE ASÍ CONSTE, y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general y por un término de catorce (14) días en los sitios públicos conforme a la ley, expido la presente bajo mi firma y sello de este tribunal, hoy 22 de diciembre de 2022 en Caguas, Puerto Rico. ALGUACIL - ALEJANDRO URBINA ROQUE, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA - 997.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA MUNICIPAL DE HUMACAO COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CREDITO DEL VALENCIANO Demandante V. KEISHLA M. GONZALEZ RIVERA Demandado(a) Civil: LP2020CV00209. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO VÍA ORDINARIA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. A: KEISHLA M. GONZALEZ RIVERA. P/C LCDO RICARDO ANDRES ACEVEDO BIANCHI. (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 23 de mayo de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso,
con fecha de 21 de diciembre de 2022. En Humacao, Puerto Rico, el 21 de diciembre de 2022. IVELISSE C. FONSECA RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA. KARILIN MORALES FIGUEROA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE ARECIBO ORLANDO
PEREZ HERNANDEZ
Demandante V. NATIONSTAR MORTGAGE LLC H/N/C MR COOPER, CITIMORTGAGE, INC., JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE
Demandado(a)
Civil Núm.: AR2022CV00845.
Sobre: CANCELACIÓN O RESTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE O SEA, LAS PERSONAS IGNORADAS QUE PUEDAN SER TENEDORES DEL PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO.
(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)
EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 16 de diciembre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 16 de diciembre de 2022. En ARECIBO, Puerto Rico, el 16 de diciembre de 2022. VIVIAN Y.
FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA. YANITZA IGLESIAS MALDONADO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL
DE PRIMER INSTANCIA SALA DE SUPERIOR DE FAJARDO GOBIERNO MUNICIPAL AUTÓNOMO DE FAJARDO, REPRESENTADO POR SU ALCALDE, JOSÉ A. MELÉNDEZ MÉNDEZ Peticionario V. ADQUISICIÓN DE FINCA 13,908 DE LA CALLE AMPARO, DEL TÉRMINO MUNICIPAL DE FAJARDO; PETRA GUERRA CARRERAS ET ALS.
Partes con Interés Civil Núm.: FA2022CV00742.
Sobre: EXPROPIACIÓN FORZOSA. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.
A: PETRA GUERRA CARRERAS Y/O CUALQUIER PERSONA CON ALGÚN POSIBLE INTERÉS.
Se le emplaza y notifica que, con el fin público de erradicar el abandono y peligrosidad de propiedades declaradas estorbos públicos, el Municipio de Fajardo ha radicado en esta Secretaría una Petición de Expropiación Forzosa al amparo de la Ley General de Expropiación Forzosa del 12 de marzo de 1903, según enmendada, la Ley Núm. 107 de 14 de agosto de 2020 conocida como el Código Municipal de Puerto Rico, en su Artículo 2.018 [21 L.P.R.A. §7183]; la Ordenanza Número 26, Serie 2014-2015, aprobada por la Legislatura Municipal de Fajardo, Puerto Rico el 4 de septiembre de 2014 y firmada por el su Alcalde el día 30 del mismo mes; y, la Ordenanza Número 13, Serie 2021-2022, aprobada por la Legislatura Municipal el 4 de noviembre de 2021 y por el que suscribe el día 28 del mismo mes; para adquirir la siguiente Finca: URBANA: Solar radicado en la Calle AMPARO número 155 del Municipio de Fajardo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 118.15 metros cuadrados; y, en lindes por el NORTE, en 13.50 metros, con un solar ocupado por Petra Guerra; por el SUR, en 12.80 metros, con el solar número 153; por el ESTE, en 9.35 metros, con el solar ocupado por Herminio Cardona y por el OESTE, en 8.60 metros, con la Calle Amparo. FINCA NÚMERO 13,908, INSCRITA al FOLIO 166 del TOMO 321 de Fajardo. Catastro Número: 150046-044-20-001. Existiendo una Deficiencia de Deficiencia de $15,023.93, no se ha consignado cantidad alguna por la adquisición de dicha propiedad, la cual se tasó en $9,000.00.
No habiéndose podido emplazar personalmente a las partes con interés antes relacionadas, por desconocer su paradero, este Tribunal ha ordenado que se le emplace por edicto, el cual se publicará una (1) vez por semana, durante tres (3) semanas consecutivas en un periódico de circulación diaria en Puerto Rico. Se le notifica que, si usted desea presentar objeción o defensa a la incautación de las estructuras descritas, debe presentar su contestación en este Tribunal dentro del término de 30 DÍAS, contados a partir de la última publicación de este edicto, debiendo notificar con copia de la misma a la parte peticionaria, a través de la LCDA. JOSEPHINE M. RODRÍGUEZ RÍOS - RUA 15,736: PO BOX 889 FAJARDO, PR 00728 Email: josephine.rodriguez@gmail.com. Tribunal ha señalado la vista del caso para el día 6 de abril de 2023, a las 10:00, en la Sala 307, en cuyo día se determinará el justo valor de la propiedad y las partes a ser compensadas. A dicha vista podrá usted comparecer y ofrecer prueba de valoración, aunque no haya contestado la petición. De no comparecer, el Tribunal dictará Sentencia declarando CON LUGAR la Petición de Expropiación Forzosa en todas sus partes, sin más citación ni vista. Expedida por Orden del Tribunal, en Fajardo, Puerto Rico a 21 de diciembre de 2022. WANDA I. SEGUÍ REYES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. LINDA I. MEDINA MEDINA, SUB-SECRETARIA.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN
EX - PARTE PETICIONARIO Civil Núm.: BY2022CV05250.
Sobre: EXPEDIENTE DOMINIO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: PERSONAS IGNORADAS, SUCESIÓN DE JOSÉ MARCELO SANTIAGO, COMPUESTA
POR: ERNESTO SANTIAGO CRUZ, CORNELIO SANTIAGO CRUZ, FRANCISCA SANTIAGO CRUZ, CORNELIA SANTIAGO CRUZ, FÉLIX SANTIAGO CRUZ; SUCESIÓN DE FÉLIX SANTIAGO CRUZ, COMPUESTA POR:
Por la presente se le notifica a usted que se ha presentado ante este Tribunal el expediente arriba mencionado, con el fin de justificar e inscribir a favor del Promovente, el dominio que tiene sobre la siguiente finca: “RÚSTICA”: Predio de terreno radicado en el barrio Achiote del término municipal de Naranjito, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de MIL OCHENTA Y TRES PUNTO CERO, QUINIENTOS TREINTA Y SIETE METROS CUADRADOS (1,083.0537 mc), equivalentes a CERO PUNTO DOS MIL SETECIENTOS CINCUENTA Y SEIS CUERDAS (0.2765 cdas), en lindes por el NORTE, con servidumbre de paso y Edwin Rodríguez, por el SUR, con José Marcelo Santiago Pacheco, por el ESTE, con José Marcelo Santiago Pacheco y por el OESTE, con Sucesión de José Figueroa Elias. Enclava estructura para fines residenciales. Alega la parte Peticionaria que adquirió la finca descrita mediante escritura número 50, otorgada el 23 de agosto de 2022, en Naranjito, Puerto Rico, ante el Notario Jorge Manuel Díaz Rodríguez. Es abogado de la parte Peticionaria: LIC. JORGE M. DÍAZ RODRÍGUEZ, PO BOX 852, NARANJITO, P.R. 00719-0852, TELÉFONO: (787) 869- 4042, jorgemdiazrodriguez@gmail. com. Este Tribunal Ordenó que se publique la pretensión por tres veces durante el término de veinte días en un periódico de circulación general diaria, para los que tengan algún derecho real sobre el inmueble descrito, las personas ignoradas a quienes pueda perjudicar la inscripción, y en general, a todos los que quisieran oponerse, entre ellos los colindantes y dueños anteriores, puedan efectuarlo dentro del término de veinte días a partir de la última publicación del presente edicto. Por tanto, libre la presente en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy 21 de diciembre de 2022. LCDA.
LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. VERÓNICA MARTÍNEZ ORTIZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA
Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO
DemandanteReconvencionado Vs. FAUSTINO GARCÍA ABISLAIMÁN Demandado - Recoviniente Vs. DAGMAR
Tercera Demandada Civil Núm.: CA2022CV01196. Sobre: DAÑOS Y PERJUICIOS; ENRIQUECIMIENTO INJUSTO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.
A: DAGMAR RIVERA DÁVILA. CALLE D A-6, ALTO APOLO ESTATE, GUAYNABO, PUERTO RICO 00907.
POR LA PRESENTE se le notifica que ha sido presentada en este Tribunal por la parte demandada una Contestación a Demanda, Reconvención y Demanda contra Terceros, cuyos hechos se detallan en la misma, la cual puede ser examinada en la secretaría de este Tribunal. REPRESENTA a el Sr. Faustino Garcia Abislaimán el bufete RIVERA COLON, RIVERA TORRES & RIVERA RIOS (Lcdo. Víctor M. Rivera Torres) con dirección en Ave. Fernández Juncos #1420, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00909, teléfonos (787) 727-5710, fax (787) 2681835, e-mail: victor.rivera@rcrtrblaw.com. Se le advierte que este edicto se publicará en un periódico de circulación general una sola vez y que si no comparece en el término de treinta (30) días desde su publicación, el demandante podrá solicitar que se dicte sentencia en rebeldía, declarándose con lugar las contestaciones, sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO, bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy día 20 de diciembre de 2022.
LCDA. MARILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARICRUZ APONTE ALICEA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN
FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO
Demandante V. WANDA
Demandados Civil Núm.: DCD2016-1913.
Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. AVISO DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA SUBASTA. Yo, EDGARDO ELÍAS VARGAS SANTANA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #193, Alguacil de la División de Subastas del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, a la demandada y al público en general, les notifico que, cumpliendo con un Mandamiento que se ha librado en el presente caso, por el Secretario del Tribunal, con fecha 13 de agosto de 2019 y para satisfacer la Sentencia por la cantidad de $87,311.21 de principal; dictada en el caso de epígrafe el 10 de agosto de 2017, Enmendada Nunc Pro Tunc el 3 de diciembre de 2018, notificada y archivada en autos el 5 de marzo de 2019, notificada a la parte demandada y publicada mediante edicto el 11 de marzo de 2019 en el periódico “The San Juan Daily Star”; procederé a vender en pública subasta, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, todo derecho, título e interés que haya tenido, tenga o pueda tener la deudora demandada en cuanto a la propiedad localizada en el: Municipio de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación: Urb. Caná, 23 PP Calle 5, Bayamón, PR 00958-6240. URBANA: Solar #23 del Bloque PP de la urbanización Residencial Caná, localizada en el Barrio Cerro Gordo del término municipal de Bayamón, con una cabida superficial de 300.15 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en una distancia de 23.05 metros, con el mall que los separa de los solares #9 y #10 del bloque PP; por el SUR, en una distancia de 13.05 metros, con la calle #5; por el ESTE, en una distancia de 23.00 metros, con el solar #24 del bloque PP y por el OESTE, en una distancia de 23.00 metros con el solar #22 del bloque PP. Inscrita al folio 111 del tomo 729 de Bayamón Sur, finca 33397, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón Sección I. Con el importe de dicha venta se habrá de satisfacer a la parte demandante las cantidades adeudadas, según la Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, por el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, cuyas cantidades ascienden a $87,311.21 de principal, 5.95% de intereses, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda; $167.02 de gastos por mora, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda; más costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. El tipo mínimo para la subasta será la suma de tasación pacta-
IVETTE SANTOS MALDONADO, MELVIN CASTRO RIVERA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS
ción. Y, siendo o representado usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 22 de diciembre de 2022. En Ponce, Puerto Rico, el 22 de diciembre de 2022. LUZ MAYRA CARABALLO GARCÍA, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. GISELLE GUTIÉRREZ LEÓN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante V, CARLOS ENRIQUE
CRUZ DAVILA; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA
Demandada Civil Núm.: BY2022CV03794.
Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.
ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S.
Por la presente se le emplaza y notifica que debe contestar la demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente edicto, radicando el original de la contestación ante el Tribunal y sala que se menciona en el epígrafe de este edicto con copia a la parte aquí demandante. Se le apercibe que, de no contestar la demanda dentro del término aquí estipulado, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia sin más citarle ni oírle. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), a l 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. El abogado de la parte demandante es: Lcda. Melisa Figueroa Castro, 1225 Ave. Ponce de León, VIG Tower, Suite 706, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00907, Tel. (787) 9190073, Fax (787) 722-1932. Ex-
pido este edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, hoy 16 de septiembre de 2022. LCDA.
LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL.
AMALYN FIGUEROA NIEVES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE AIBONITO LEGACY MORTGAGE ASSET TRUST 2019 PR1
Demandante Vs. SUCESION DE FRANCISCO SANTIAGO ROLÓN, ET AL. Demandados Civil Núm.: AI2022CV00049.
Salón Núm.: 002. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA Y COBRO DE DINERO (VÍA ORDINARIA). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO E INTERPELACIÓN. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIDRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: FRANCISCO SANTIAGO CORDERO T/C/C FRANCISCO SANTIAGO T/C/C FRANCISCO SANTIAGO COLÓN; MARGARITA SANTIAGO CORDERO T/C/C MARGARITA SANTIAGO T/C/C MARGARITA SANTIAGO COLÓN; IVETTE SANTIAGO CORDERO T/C/C IVETTE SANTIAGO T/C/C IVETTE SANTIAGO COLÓN Y AWILDA SANTIAGO CORDERO T/C/C AWILDA SANTIAGO T/C/C AWILDA SANTIAGO COLÓN
COMO MIEMBROS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE FRANCISCO SANTIAGO ROLÓN Y/O DE ANA COLON GREEN.
POR LA PRESENTE se les emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá radicar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se presente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá radicar el original de su contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente y notifique con copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, Lcdo. Roberto C. Latimer Valentín, al PO BOX 9022512, San Juan, P.R. 00902-2512;
Teléfono: (787) 724-0230. En dicha demanda se tramita un procedimiento de cobro de dinero y ejecución de hipoteca bajo el número mencionado en el epígrafe. Se alega en dicho procedimiento que la parte Demandada incurrió en el incumplimiento del Contrato de Hipoteca, al no poder pagar las mensualidades vencidas correspondientes a los meses de abril de 2021, hasta el presente, más los cargos por demora correspondientes. Además adeuda a la parte demandante las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado en que incurra el tenedor del pagaré en este litigio. De acuerdo con dicho Contrato de Garantía Hipotecaria la parte Demandante declaró vencida la totalidad de la deuda ascendente a la suma de principal de $28,190.80, más intereses a razón del 8.606% anual desde el 3 de marzo de 2021, hasta el presente y los que se continúen acumulando hasta su total y completo pago, más una suma principal diferida (piggyback) por la cantidad de $905.00, la cual genera intereses, más los cargos por demora que se corresponden a los plazos atrasados desde la fecha anteriormente indicada de cualquier pago que éste en mora por más de quince (15) días desde la fecha de su vencimiento, más adelantos para el pago de seguros y contribuciones, entre otros; más una suma equivalente a $3,800.00, por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado todo según pactado. La parte Demandante presentará para su inscripción en el Registro de la Propiedad correspondiente, un AVISO DE PLEITO PENDIENTE (“Lis Pendens”) sobre la propiedad objeto de esta acción cuya propiedad es la siguiente: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número 5 del Bloque H de la Urbanización Extensión Residencial San José, propiedad de Corujo & Maldonado, Inc., sita en Aibonito, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 358.54 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el Noreste, en distancia de 27.74 metros, con el solar número 4; por el Noroeste, en distancia de 13.00 metros, con la calle número 3 de la urbanización; por el Sureste, en distancia de 13.004 metros, con el Proyecto VBC-46 de la Corporación de Renovación Urbana y Vivienda de Puerto Rico; y por el Suroeste, en distancia de 27.42 metros, con el solar número 6 de la urbanización. Sobre este solar la Corporación ha construido una casa de hormigón reforzado de una planta para un solar familiar y que contiene sala, comedor, cocina, tres dormitorios, un baño, un laundry room y marquesina para un solo au-
tomóvil. Consta inscrita al folio 255 del tomo 112 de Aibonito, Finca número #5,272. Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Barranquitas.
SE LES ORDENA a ustedes a que dentro del término legal de treinta (30) días, contados a partir de la fecha de notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudie la participación que les corresponda en la herencia de la DE LA SUCESIÓN DE FRANCISCO SANTIAGO ROLÓN De no hacerlo dentro de dicho término, se dará la herencia por aceptada. SE LES APERCIBE que de no hacer sus alegaciones responsiva a la demanda dentro del término aquí dispuesto, se les anotará la rebeldía y e dictará sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal en Aibonito, Puerto Rico. A 27 de diciembre de 2022. MAYRA LIZ CABRERA GARCÍA, SECRETARIA REGIONAL INTERINA. ANGÉLICA COLÓN NEGRÓN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE MAYAGÜEZ ORIENTAL BANK Demandante V. SECRETARIO DE DESARROLLO URBANO Y VIVIENDA DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS; MULTIPLES MORTGAGE CORPORATION; CELINK; JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE
Demandado(a) Civil: SG2022CV00415. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: SECRETARIO DE DESARROLLO URBANO Y VIVIENDA DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS; MULTIPLES MORTGAGE CORPORATION; CELINK; JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE.
(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)
EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 13 de diciembre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días
siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 20 de diciembre de 2022. En Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, el 20 de diciembre de 2022. LCDA. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA. ALEXANDRA M. LÓPEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de MANATI.
Demandante v. FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION COMO SUCESOR EN DERECHOS DE R&G MORTGAGE CORPORATION REPRESENTADO POR SU AGENTE RESIDENTE CT CORPORATION SYSTEM Y OTROS
Demandado(a) Civil: MT2022CV0778. Sobre: CANCELACION o RESTITUCION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACION DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE(personas desconocidas con posible interest (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican Ia sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que 15 de diciembre de 2022 este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolution en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podra usted enterarse detalladamente de los terminos de Ia misma, Esta notificacion se publicara una sola vez en un periodic° de circulation general en Ia Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 dias siguientes a su notificacion. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los terminos de Ia Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolution, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revision o apelacion dentro del termino de 30 dias contados a partir de la publication por edicto de esta notificacion dirijo a
usted esta notificaci6n que se considerara hecha en la fecha de la publication de este edicto. Copia de esta notificacion ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 15 de diciembre de 2022. En Manati Puerto Rico , el 15 de diciembre de 2022. f/Vivian Y. Fresse Gonzalez, Secretaria. f/ SARAY SALGADO, Secretaria Auxiliar.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante Vs. WILLIAM YAMIL PABÓN RODRÍGUEZ, BANCO SANTANDER PUERTO RICO, AHORA, FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO, JOHN DOE
Demandado (a) Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV08369. Sala: 503. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: JOHN DOE.
EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 21 de diciembre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 21 de diciembre de 2022. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 21 de diciembre de 2022. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARTHA ALMODÓVAR CABRERA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN
Demandante Vs.
Demandado (a) Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV02070.
Sala: 508. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 22 de diciembre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 23 de diciembre de 2022. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 23 de diciembre de 2022. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARTHA ALMODÓVAR CABRERA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN RUBEN TORRES
CINTRÓN Y SUSANA CINTRON TORRES
Demandante Vs. FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION
Y JOHN DOE Demandados Civil Núm.: BY2022CV05650.
Salón: 501. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EDICTO. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E.U.U., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.
A: FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION. 550 17TH STREET NW, WASHINGTON, DC,
20429-9990.
JOHN DOE. Por la presente se le notifica a usted que se ha radicado en esta Secretaría la Demanda de epígrafe, solicitando la cancelación del pagaré extraviado que se describe más adelante y que fue pagado en su totalidad. En dicha Demanda se reclama que usted es el posible Tenedor de un Pagaré extraviado el cual se constituyó por la suma principal de $127,200.00, a favor de R& G Mortgage Corporation, o a su orden, con interés al 4.625 % anual y vencimiento el 1 de febrero de 2018, según surge de la Escritura número Dos (2), de Hipoteca otorgada el día 2 de enero de 2003 ante el Notario Alberto Rosado López, sobre la finca Número Once Mil
Seiscientos Cincuenta y Dos (11,652), demarcación Corozal, inscripción sexta, sobre la finca que se describe a continuación: “RÚSTICA: Solar uno (1) radicado en el Barrio Palmarito de Coroza], con una cabida de Mil Trescientos Sesenta Punto Seis Mil Ciento Diecinueve metros cuadrados(1,360.6119 mc.), en lindes por el NORTE, camino municipal pavimentado; por el SUR, parcela de uso público que separa de la carretera estatal número Setecientos Setenta y Uno (771); por el ESTE, con faja de seguridad que la separa de la quebrada y por el OESTE, con camino municipal pavimentado. En este solar enclava una casa residencial. Inscrita en el Registro Digital como Finca Número Once Mil Seiscientos Cincuenta y Dos (11,652), demarcación de Corozal. Se le emplaza y requiere que dentro de treinta días conteste la Demanda, 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 y se le apercibe que de no contestar la misma dentro del término antes indicado, radicando el original según indicado con con copia al licenciado HÉCTOR MANUEL MARRERO MARRERO, cuya dirección es PO Box 283, Naranjito, Puerto Rico 00719, teléfono 787-869-0806, se le anotará Rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. Se expidió bajo mi firma y sello de este Honorable Tribunal, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy 13 de dicembre de 2022. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL.
No player since the 1960s had tallied 50 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists in an NBA game. On Tuesday night, Luka Doncic reached that total and kept right on going to 60 points.
Doncic’s 60-21-10 line in the Mavericks’ 126-121 overtime victory against the New York Knicks in Dallas was the first in NBA history. The other highest point totals with 20 rebounds and 10 assists all came more than 50 years ago: Wilt Chamberlain’s 53-32-14 in 1968, Elgin Baylor’s 52-25-10 in 1961 and Chamberlain’s 51-29-11 in 1963.
In the 21st century, only DeMarcus Cousins (44-23-10) in 2018 and Nikola Jokic (40-27-10) this month had as many as 40 points along with 20 rebounds and 10 assists.
Cut the rebound requirement to 10 from 20 and Doncic’s game is still tied for the highest scoring ever, alongside James Harden’s 60-10-11 game in 2018.
Doncic shot 21-for-31 on Tuesday night. It was the first 60-point game in Mavericks history, surpassing a 53-point game by Dirk Nowitzki in 2004. Basketball Reference gave the performance a “game score” of 56.3, the best in the league since Harden’s game and the fifth best of the 3-point era.
Many of Doncic’s buckets came in classic Luka style: The 6-foot-7 player repeatedly handled the ball near the 3-point arc, then drove in for a layup or an assist. His teammates made 23 baskets in total, and Doncic assisted on 10 of them.
The Knicks led the game by 9 points with 42 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, but Doncic helped lead a Mavericks comeback that forced overtime. With 1 second to go and the Mavericks trailing by 2, he intentionally missed a free throw, got the rebound after several players from both teams touched the ball and made the shot as time expired.
“It was just kind of lucky,” Doncic said of the game-tying shot. “I’m tired as hell. I need a recovery beer.”
Doncic scored 27 of his points off pick-and-roll plays.
“I love the pick-and-roll,” he said. “I think everybody knows that. So just keep rolling the pick-and-roll.”
Three of the four 50-20-10 games
in NBA history went to overtime, but Doncic did not benefit enormously from the extra time: He played a total of 47 minutes, less than Chamberlain and Baylor did in their games.
It was the first 60-point game of the NBA season, surpassing Joel Embiid’s 59 for the Philadelphia 76ers in November. Doncic exceeded his previous career high, 50, which he had set Friday against the Houston Rockets. His 21 rebounds were also a career high.
The Mavericks, who lost in the conference finals to Golden State last season, have won four in a row and climbed to sixth place in the West.
At 23 and in just his fifth NBA season, Doncic figures to improve. Partway through the season, his field-goal percentage is over .500 for the first time, despite his shooting more than ever before, and his 33.6-point average is also a career high.
But it will be tough to conjure a performance that would top Tuesday night’s.
The Brooklyn Nets were a complicated franchise when Jacque Vaughn met with his players at a morning shootaround in Washington on Nov. 4. Before their game against the Wizards that night, the Nets had filled the early weeks of their season with substandard basketball. But it was their off-court issues that were worthy of a telenovela. The Nets had indefinitely suspended Kyrie Irving for refusing to disavow antisemitism. They had fired Steve Nash as their coach. And Ben Simmons was scuffling through his delayed debut with the Nets.
Vaughn, a longtime assistant, was in a tenuous spot as the team’s interim coach at a particularly fraught moment for an organization that had already experienced its share of fraught moments in recent seasons. But Vaughn was hoping to act as an agent of change.
“Our shootaround was the precipice of that,” he recalled, “me getting up in front of the group and being as vulnerable as I can be in explaining the situation and telling them that ‘I’m going to be as consistent as I can be with you every day, and as honest as I can be — and I’m always going to do what’s best for the group.’ ”
As a self-described “simple person,” Vaughn wanted his team to rid itself of unnecessary clutter. So he stripped down the playbook. He began to stress just three defensive concepts — “I won’t say what those are,” he said — so that his players could focus on them rather than make huge adjustments from game to game. And he emphasized the purity of their pursuit: Why make life in the NBA more difficult than it needed to be?
“We kind of pledged to each other that it was going to be about basketball,” Vaughn said, “and hopefully not let any outside noise interfere with that. And our guys have done an unbelievable job protecting each other.”
The Nets won that game against the Wizards, which was the start of a trend — a trend that has them climbing the Eastern Conference standings and back in the conversation as, yes, a championship contender.
The Nets, who extended their winning streak to nine games Monday night with a 125-117 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers, had won 20 of their past 26 games under Vaughn, who was named the head coach on Nov. 9, heading into Wednesday night’s game in Atlanta. The Nets’ resurgence has been notably drama-free, no small feat given their early challenges.
Kevin Durant is assembling one of his finest seasons,
averaging 30 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists a game while shooting a career-best 56.3% from the field. Simmons, after missing all of last season, has rebooted and
From
found his footing as a pass-first facilitator and disruptive defender. And Irving, whose suspension lasted eight games, had 32 points and five assists in the Nets’ win over the Cavaliers.
“I think we’re finding our identity off the court in terms of how we treat each other, and that’s looking good on the floor,” Irving said after the game. “It’s looking great on the floor, honestly. We just want to keep it up.”
There is no denying the Nets’ talent, but everyone has already heard this story. They were talented last season, too, until their grand experiment blew up in spectacular fashion. Remember last season? Irving refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. James Harden asked to be traded. And the Nets crashed out of the playoffs when the Boston Celtics swept them in
Nets guard Kyrie Irving was suspended for eight games in November after he would not disavow antisemitism. He apologized and has averaged 25.6 points per game since he returned.
the first round. During the offseason, Durant asked to be traded, and Irving seemed to be on his way out, too. Both stars stuck around, but the Nets seemed bound for more dysfunc-
tion anyway in the wake of the early coaching change and Irving’s highprofile suspension. For his part, Durant blamed the news media, rather than Irving’s behavior, for creating a lot of
the “outside noise” that had the team flailing. But Vaughn has operated as a calming influence.
“Coach shored up our roles, pretty much letting us know each day what he needs from us,” Durant said. “I think that’s been our focus. It’s not like, ‘Man, finally we got the noise out of our locker room, and now we can play.’ I think we always been locked in on basketball to try to get this thing back on track.”
The question now is whether the Nets can sustain their strong play. The answer will hinge in large part on Irving, a gifted player who is not known for being the most reliable teammate.
J.J. Watt, the Arizona Cardinals defensive end who has been one of the most dominant players at his position for much of the past decade, winning three NFL Defensive Player of the Year Awards and almost certainly securing a future spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, indicated earlier this week that this season would be his last in the league.
Watt posted pictures on Twitter that showed him; his wife, Kealia; and their infant son, Koa, on the field at the Cardinals’ stadium and wrote Tuesday: “Koa’s first ever NFL game. My last ever NFL home game. My heart is filled with nothing but love and gratitude. It’s been an absolute honor and a pleasure.” The Cardinals’ final two games of the regular season will be on the road, and, at 4-11, they have been eliminated from playoff contention.
Watt, 33, who played for Central Michigan and Wisconsin in college, was drafted No. 11 overall by the Houston Texans in the 2011 draft. At 6-foot-5 and nearly 300 pounds, Watt quickly became one of the N.F.L.’s most disruptive defensive players, compiling four seasons with at least 15 sacks.
He was one of only three defensive players unanimously selected to the NFL’s all-decade team for the 2010s, along
with Von Miller, then of the Denver Broncos, and Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams.
In the 2014 season, Watt secured 20.5 sacks, returned an interception and a fumble for touchdowns and caught three touchdown passes as a tight end. Watt finished second to Aaron Rodgers for the Most Valuable Player Award, which is administered by The Associated Press; he had the most votes for a defensive player since New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor won the award in 1986.
Watt was also known for his community efforts, most notably when he raised more than $41 million through his charity to help victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas in 2017. He won the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 2017, which recognizes philanthropy and community impact as well as excellence on the field.
“His commitment to the community is unlike any player in NFL history,” Texans owner Janice McNair said in a statement in 2021.
Watt’s dominance on the field and his charitable work helped him become one of the league’s most popular athletes. He hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 2020.
Watt’s gaudy individual statistics never translated into championship success for the Texans, who never made it past the divisional round of the playoffs during Watt’s tenure with the team. And after another dominant season in 2015, injuries began to take their toll on Watt. He played in every regular season game in only two of his final five seasons in Houston, and played a total of only eight games in 2016 and 2017.
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After a 4-12 season in 2020, Watt was released by the Texans; he had asked to leave the team in search of a championship as his play declined and the Texans began to rebuild.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that I don’t have 10 years left in this league,” Watt told report-
ers during his final season in Houston. “I’m not looking to rebuild. I’m looking to go after a championship, and that’s what I want to do.”
The Cardinals began the 2021 season with seven consecutive wins. But Watt suffered a shoulder injury in the seventh game that sidelined him for the remainder of the regular season. After a 10-2 start, the Cardinals spiraled at the season’s end, finishing 11-6. Watt returned for the team’s wild-card game, but the Cardinals were steamrollered by the Rams, the eventual Super Bowl champions.
In September, Watt had his heart shocked back into rhythm after experiencing atrial fibrillation, a heart-rhythm abnormality. Watt played days later in the Cardinals’ win over the Carolina Panthers, but it was a moment that Watt said made him think about not playing football anymore as he fought through tears in the postgame news conference.
Watt is having his best season since 2018, leading the Cardinals with 9 1/2 sacks, including a three-sack performance against the Denver Broncos this month.
Watt last won the Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2015. His youngest brother, linebacker T.J. Watt of the Pittsburgh Steelers, won the award for the 2021 season. Another brother, Derek Watt, is a fullback for the Steelers.
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
Exuberant energies are being held in check by stoic Capricorn, as key planets encourage you to be careful rather than too enthusiastic. While it’s fine to leave your comfort zone, it’s worth considering how things might pan out. Be prepared, is your best motto for now, Aries. You are being encouraged to be bold, but also to think about the steps necessary so you can succeed.
Let it out or hold it in? This is the dilemma you may be faced with, as Mercury in Capricorn encourages you to share something that’s been a weight on you for some time. Has a situation come to a head? Perhaps it’s time to ask for help. The moment you reach out, you’ll realize it was nothing to worry about. The support you get may be more than you imagined, Taurus.
Considering trying something new that may be an enjoyable challenge? If so, the current line-up encourages you to get started on it. Rather than think about it, this is the time to make plans and take those first steps. If you can apply the same logic to your job, career or business goals, you could go far. Combining a tendency to dream with practical action is the best way ahead.
The coming days could be crucial to your plans, which may take several steps forward. When it comes to how much they’ll cost, it’s wise to do a thorough job, as this will set you up to succeed. Finding someone’s company very enticing, Cancer? If so, this phase looks set to last for a few days yet. Be aware that no matter how great it is to be with them, they are human too.
New adventures may appeal, and as the days go by you could feel a tug to go further with an idea or dive into a new experience. But temper any excitement with some reflection and get other opinions. Plus, Venus’s link with ethereal Neptune can coincide with an attraction to something that might be just out of reach. The more you want it, the more it moves further away.
This may be one day when anything goes, and when you’re much more likely to accept other people’s mistakes and quirky traits. With aquatic Neptune in the picture, you’ll be happy to go with the flow and see what happens. You’re more likely to reach out and help another. And whether their need is genuine or a cry for attention, the desire to ease suffering is strong.
Should you tell someone how you feel about a matter or sidestep it altogether? If you sense they won’t want to hear the truth, this could make things awkward. While it might be simpler to ignore this matter, addressing it sensitively may bring you closer to this person. With Venus in Capricorn making a caring link, barriers can melt, and trust begin to develop, Libra.
An aspect between Venus and nebulous Neptune, means you could easily pick up on others’ moods, which might influence your decisions. Is it time to feel the fear and go ahead anyway? You’ll find that action is the best way forward, no matter what the issue. You’ll soon get into your stride. There are romantic options showing too, so a special date may be in order.
Despite the call to adventure, you might not feel like doing much today. The Moon in Pisces and its tie with soporific Neptune, suggests you’ll do as little as possible or daydream more than usual. If you have a busy day ahead, then simplify it. This is one of those times when you’ll be extra sensitive to other people and their vibes. A shower can leave you refreshed and restored, Archer.
While you may be impatient to get moving on something, timing can be everything, Capricorn. If you hurry a project or plan, you might get where you want to go, but at what cost? The outcome could be nothing like you are hoping for. Instead, be prepared to listen to your instincts. Still, you’re in a very creative mood, which can add a zesty touch to projects and sparkle to your ideas.
Destiny may play its hand, leading you to discover something that changes you in a powerful way. You gain the most benefit from personal reflection and meditation and from following your instincts, rather than accepting others’ words as the truth. If you look for advice elsewhere, you might be misled. Allow your intuition to be your guide and you won’t go far wrong, Aquarius.
With the Moon and Venus linking to Neptune you’ll be in your element Pisces, and ready to add your caring, creative and intuitive touch to the matters of the day. If there is an issue, it’s that you could be taken advantage of, as you’ll find it hard to say no to anyone, even if busy yourself. It doesn’t hurt to be stronger with others, especially if someone you know has tried it on before.
