The San Juan Daily Star, the only paper with News Service in English in Puerto Rico, publishes 7 days a week, with a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday edition, along with a Weekend Edition to cover Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Asector in the pro-statehood movement will propose to the U.S. Senate to make Puerto Rico an incorporated territory instead of a full-fledged state because the latter does not have senators’ majority support, the STAR has learned.
The Senate is expected to oppose the consideration and approval of House Resolution (HR) 8393, legislation that provides for a plebiscite to be held on Nov. 5, 2023, to resolve Puerto Rico’s political status. Specifically, such a plebiscite will offer eligible voters a choice of independence, sovereignty in free association with the United States, or statehood.
For that reason, a sector in the pro-statehood movement is drafting a document that they will send to the senators proposing to make Puerto Rico an incorporated territory.
Pro-statehood lawyer Gregorio Igartúa said the battle for statehood is in a stalemate in part because the Popular Democratic Party continues to influence Congress for a status alternative that promotes inequality.
He said that while Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia and Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón have the best of intentions in pushing for a binding plebiscite, the statehood movement needs to be more active.
“We have to take a more definitive road,” Igartúa said. “The territorial incorporation would get independence and other status options out of the way and pave the way for statehood.”
He also urged the governor to create a statehood commission that can create a plan as to the steps it should follow.
The document, which the pro-statehooders plan to publish in local newspapers, provides background on the different status-related bills and court cases.
On Dec. 15, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives approved HR 8393, with 233 votes in favor and 191 against. Shortly before the consideration of the bill, U.S. President Joe Biden gave his support to the legislation, stating that “For too long, the residents of Puerto Rico -- more than 3 million U.S. citizens -- have been deprived of the opportunity to determine their political future and have not received the full rights and benefits of their citizenship by residing in a United States territory,” the document notes.
Although the House passed the bill, then-Majority Leader Steny Hoyer acknowledged that there was no chance of the Senate passing the bill as Republicans have expressed their opposition for various reasons ranging
from prejudice and misinformation to fear that Puerto Rico will become a Democratic state. Such a position has been influenced by lobbyists of economic interests that benefit from Puerto Rico being treated as a foreign jurisdiction for tax purposes.
“Those of us who believe in American liberal democracy, economic freedom and citizens’ rights cannot -- must not -- assume a passive attitude,” the document notes. “We have to come together and get ready to act. The immediate option, given this situation that makes it essential to end the current limiting and denigrating status, is to insist that Congress put an end to the racist jurisprudence that invented a territorial status called ‘unincorporated’ and that through a Congressional Resolution it puts an end to said status and recognizes us as an incorporated territory.”
“Congress must exercise its constitutional authority over the territories as provided in the Constitution,” the document adds. “And we must organize and activate ourselves to achieve it.”
Resident Commissioner Jenniffer
González Colón has introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to permanently exempt Puerto Rico from air cargo rules that prevent foreign airlines from transporting cargo and passengers between two U.S. points.
In a statement Sunday, González Colón said the goal of the Puerto Rico Air Cargo Industry Empowerment Act (HR 375), is to turn Puerto Rico into an important air cargo hub center.
The legislation comes after a feasibility study yielded favorable results in the wake of the U.S. granting a waiver for a trial period and then extending it.
The resident commissioner noted that Alaska, which like Puerto Rico is an extraterritorial jurisdiction of the mainland United States, now competes with foreign cargo centers. Before 2003, most international flights flew over Alaskan airports, the same as is now happening in Puerto Rico. The Stevens Amendment, a federal statute that relaxed air cargo rules for Alaska, allowed airports in that state to compete at the same level as foreign airports.
“Puerto Rico has a strategic geographical position that also has the necessary airport infrastructure and should be the ideal candidate for an air cargo center
that meets the requirements of national and international aviation,” González Colón said. “But the help of this regulatory incentive is needed to increase the
relevance of Puerto Rico’s airports with competing foreign airports, as it did with Alaska in 2003. This regulation will help increase Puerto Rico’s air connectivity and will also facilitate airline operations and added value in free zones around the airport.”
She said the increased air cargo would benefit island airports and lead to positive effects on the Puerto Rican economy. The expansion of air cargo operations could increase the use of underutilized airports and create opportunities for existing industries, such as the pharmaceutical, medical device and aerospace industries.
Puerto Rico and industry stakeholders had varying perspectives on the potential for the island expanding its air cargo operations. For example, some stakeholders said Puerto Rico’s geographical location may allow it to serve as a refueling and cargo distribution point, particularly for flights between Europe and Latin America, while others said the island may be too close to some Latin American destinations to serve that purpose.
In the past, much like petitions for changes to maritime shipping laws, efforts to have Puerto Rico exempted from air cabotage regulations have all but failed.
Manuel Calderón Cerame, the spokesman for the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) in the San Juan Municipal Assembly, announced on Sunday his candidacy to represent San Juan on the PDP governing board, with three specific principles that will guide him representing all San Juan residents on the board: renewal, work and hope.
“My party needs a renewal of styles and purposes, in order to offer ourselves as a reliable alternative for San Juan and all of Puerto Rico,” Calderón Cerame said. “It is urgent to carry out the work of reorganizing what is disorganized and modernizing what is obsolete, in order to position the Popular Party favorably for 2024. And also, it is time to sow seeds of hope in our institution, in order to inspire and excite not only the hundreds of thousands of ‘popular’ people who militate and love this party, but the other hundreds of thousands who today do not believe in any political party or who voted in the last elections for other options that have disappointed them.”
During a press conference at PDP headquarters in Puerta de Tierra, where he was joined by several grassroots leaders from various parts of San Juan, the Precinct 4 president expressed his desire that the party recover its majority in the island capital.
“For the past year I have been the spokesman of the PDP in San Juan, and I have been doing the work of inspection and presentation of proposals so that we have a San Juan with more security, organized communities, common spaces in good condition and quality of life for our older adults,” Calderón Cerame said. “That is, I have shown that the firsthand work can be done [for the PDP] to become again an option for all San Juan residents.”
The municipal legislator also sent a message to all those who are making themselves available to preside over the PDP in the face of an election on May 7.
“All those who have announced their intention to preside over this party are my friends; I know them all and they have my respect, and that is why I tell you, that without San Juan there is no Puerto Rico,” he said. “The numbers and analyses tell us that it is essential to do the
electoral and political work in the capital to ensure that the Popular Party can win the [general] election.”
The success of the Genera PR contract to operate the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s (PREPA) legacy power plants would depend in great measure on its success in attracting current generation workers and in avoiding a fuel monopoly, Senate Strategic Projects and Energy Committee Chairman Javier Aponte Dalmau said recently.
Genera PR, a subsidiary of New Fortress Energy, will receive a $22.5 million fee to operate, maintain and eventually decommission some 12 power plants, and up to $100 million through a system of performance incentives. As part of Genera PR’s tasks, the contract calls for the creation of a decommissioning budget as a requirement to perform the decommissioning services for the applicable power plant. Unless otherwise approved by the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau, the decommissioning budget cannot exceed the sum of all costs related to the performance of the operation and management services for the same legacy asset.
In an interview with the STAR, Aponte Dalmau, who is leading an investigation into the contract, said officials have not taken into account the cost of decommissioning and demolition of the power plants over the 10 years of the contract, which may increase contract costs.
“They have not contemplated the costs or if at the end of the day the company performs the task,” he said.
Aponte Dalmau is worried that a provision in the contract that allows Genera PR to subcontract services may lead to a monopoly in fuel supply. Currently, the firm’s parent company, New Fortress Energy, has a contract to supply natural gas to PREPA. The legislator said that nothing in the contract prevents Genera PR from subcontracting New Fortress to supply other types of fuel or create other subsidiaries to do the same.
“The issue of subcontracts [that the company can enter into] is also a detail that leads us to think that there are no restrictions for this company to become a fuel monopoly on the island,” Aponte Dalmau said.
During a public hearing last week, Aponte Dalmau questioned Public Private Partnership Authority Director Fermín Fontanés Gómez about what controls are in the Genera PR contract regarding risks and the subcontracting that can be expected. Fontanés replied that “we maintain the same controls that are held in the matter of bidding to third parties, if they wanted to participate,” to which Dalmau said: “Then you don’t have any [controls].”
At a recent hearing, Fernando Gil Enseñat, chairman of PREPA’s governing board, highlighted that “one of the most important aspects of the contract was the commitment to PREPA’s plant employees.”
“The operator has the obligation to make a job offer to all the employees of the plants who, as of June 30, 2022, were performing full-time functions and with good
standing,” he said.
The contract notes that there are at least 98 critical positions that Genera PR must fill.
“It would be a disaster if Genera can not hire the workers who know how these plants operate and is forced to look for new employees to operate old power plants,” Aponte Dalmau told the STAR, noting that the firm will have the same problems that LUMA Energy, the private operator of PREPA’s transmission and distribution system, has had. Under the contract, PREPA workers who do not go to Genera PR can choose to move to other government agencies.
three “aero-derivative combustion turbines,” better known as mega generators, at the Palo Seco thermal power plant in Toa Baja, COR3 Executive Director Manuel A. Laboy Rivera said Sunday.
“This multi-million-dollar disbursement comes after the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] concluded a series of tests and issued a validation of environmental compliance,” Laboy Rivera said. “This evidence was required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] to continue with the reimbursement process. The three mega generators contribute to stabilizing energy loads to avoid mass interruptions of electricity service.”
to commission the three mega generators at Palo Seco,” PREPA Executive Director Josué Colón Ortiz said. “These generation units are used as a source of energy during periods of high energy demand, as well as to start and stabilize the system when atmospheric disturbances occur.”
Mega generators are also used as alternate energy sources while repairs are being carried out at power plants, among other functions.
By THE STAR STAFFThe Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) received $53.5 million in reimbursement from the Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience (COR3) for the purchase and installation of
The notification by the EPA that the request for modification of the environmental permits for the use of the equipment was complete was issued on Nov. 10, 2022, and on the Nov. 23, the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources announced that the protective cover was approved under the Title V permit of the Palo Seco Power Plant that allows the turbines to operate. The three mega generators can generate 81 megawatts and also have the capacity to operate on natural gas.
“Thanks to the collaboration and work of the employees of the Electric Power Authority, together with FEMA and COR3, the Authority was able to rescue and complete all the pending and necessary work and tests
Ramón González Simounet, the president of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce of Puerto Rico, said Sunday that the development of the island is stagnant or slow due to the complicated permitting system found in government agencies. González Simounet, who is also CEO of the EMPIRE Gas Group, one of the top 10 liquefied gas distribution companies in the United States, said that to achieve a healthy economy and sustainable development on the island, the “honor” method must be implemented or the permitting process must be simplified.
“Puerto Rico has the best professionals in the field of energy worldwide and they are people who can help or advise the government so that the permits come out as quickly as possible,” he said. “We have the talent, but we don’t use it. As a result of the money that is deposited in the banks and the million-dollar allocations made by the federal government for the reconstruction of Puerto Rico after hurricanes Irma and Maria with the complication of the earthquake in January 2020, the Government of Puerto Rico should understand that there are certain priorities for infrastructure projects whose start should be given. We know that the money is available; there are million-dollar assignments that have an expiration date.”
“The biggest hurdle for the developer or industrialist is the time it takes to evaluate a permit,” continued the official, who also co-chairs the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce’s Energy Committee. “It is often the case that it takes up to five years to evaluate the documents that are submitted to achieve a final authorization. The situation is worse, when we talk about
those infrastructure megaprojects, many of which end up in the archives. There have been cases where government agencies do not issue a permit in final form due to the absence of an employee who has retired, who was assigned to those tasks and the agency has not been able to achieve his replacement.”
Speaking before a forum on the Comprehensive Renewable Energy Portfolio and Resources Plan for Puerto Rico, González Simounet made it clear that manufacturing industries such as pharmaceuticals and large energy consumption companies are already switching to combined systems for the production of their own energy supplies in search of security and better prices.
“In each and every renewable energy project, many of them backed by the use of liquefied gas, the problem for successful achievement is the slowness of permits in government agencies,” he said. “The interesting thing about all this is that we already have the clean, modern and economical technology to supply energy with liquefied gas or solar panels. These modules, many of them manufactured in countries such as India, Germany, Canada or the United States, come with their documentation and specifications, which are combined according to the customer’s energy needs. Even so, the government has put in too many restrictions, demands and bureaucratic steps, which at the end of the project becomes a serious headache, causing unnecessary expenses and a delay of up to five years to achieve the acceptance or granting of the requested permits.”
“This must be modified,” González Simounet emphasized at the Energy Symposium, where a group of entrepreneurs, industrialists, developers and members of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce participated over the weekend. “One thing is to protect the environment or our coasts, and another thing is to join forces to help manufacturing and other industries install modern and efficient energy production equipment that allows lower costs so as to continue their production and sustain the large workforce of Puerto Ricans who work in those industries.”
By THE STAR STAFF
The defense attorney for convicted producer Sixto Jorge Díaz Colón, better known as Sixto George, Rafael Castro Lang, said following the federal trial that he will go to the appeals process before the First Circuit of Boston after his client was declared guilty Friday by a jury of extortion and obstruction of justice.
“I’m very disappointed,” Castro Lang said in statements to the press. “I thought he was going to be not guilty on all
charges because they didn’t prove the elements of the crime. And obviously, this decision is going to be appealed because many errors occurred in the case, instructions that were not given, proof that they did not let me present.”
As for the determination of the jury, composed of six men and six women, Castro Lang said: “I do not know; that is, one never knows what factors can [influence a jury].”
Díaz Colón was found guilty of charge one, attempted extortion, a second charge, extortion, and a third charge, obstruction of justice.
The United States shot down a Chinese spy balloon Saturday that had spent the past week traversing the country, an explosive end to a drama that put a diplomatic crisis between the world’s two great powers onto television screens in real time.
The balloon, which spent five days traveling in a diagonal southeast route from Idaho to the Carolinas, had moved off the coast by midday Saturday and was shot down within moments of its arrival over the Atlantic Ocean.
“I told them to shoot it down,” President Joe Biden told reporters in Hagerstown, Maryland, on his way to Camp David Saturday afternoon. “They said to me, let’s wait until the safest place to do it.”
That time and place came at 2:39 p.m., Pentagon officials said, about 6 miles off the coast of South Carolina. The Federal Aviation Administration had paused departures and arrivals at airports in Wilmington, North Carolina, and in Myrtle Beach and Charleston in South Carolina. One of two F-22 fighter jets from Langley Air Force Base fired a Sidewinder air-to-air missile, downing the balloon, which was flying at an altitude of 60,000 to 65,000 feet. The F-22s were at 58,000 feet, with other American fighters in support.
The Pentagon said that Navy and Coast Guard personnel would conduct a recovery effort to retrieve the debris of the balloon, which landed in relatively shallow water. U.S. national security agencies hope the material they collect will add value to their database of Chinese intelligence gathering.
The Chinese foreign ministry declared its “strong discontent and protest” about the United States’ downing of the balloon. In a statement, the ministry said that China had told Washington repeatedly that the balloon was a civilian aircraft that had inadvertently flown over the United States and its presence was “totally accidental.”
“In these circumstances, for the United States to insist on using armed force is clearly an excessive reaction that seriously violates international convention,” the statement said. “China will resolutely defend the legitimate rights and interests of the enterprise involved, and retains the right to respond further.”
The president was alerted by the Pentagon on Tuesday that a spy balloon had entered continental U.S. airspace near Idaho, White House officials said, and asked for military options. By Wednesday, the balloon was hovering over Montana and a full-blown diplomatic crisis was underway, puncturing recent efforts in Washington and Beijing to lower U.S.-China tensions.
Pentagon officials advised then against shooting down the balloon, whose belly structure was roughly the size of three buses, because of the possibility of harm to civilians and infrastructure while it was over land. Pentagon officials also said they did not view the intelligence threat from the balloon as any more extensive than what China could glean
from a satellite.
But the arrival — and extended stay — of the balloon over American territory prompted furious calls from senior U.S. officials to their Chinese counterparts, criticism from Republican lawmakers of the White House response, and on Friday, the cancellation of a visit to China by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. It would have been the first trip by a Biden Cabinet secretary to Beijing. In announcing the cancellation of his trip, Blinken said the entry of the spy balloon was a “clear violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law.”
Seven days over U.S. skies
Pentagon officials said the spy balloon, which was remotely maneuverable to some degree by the Chinese but still dependent on the jet stream for travel, began its controlled drift into American territory on Jan. 28, when it entered Alaskan airspace near the Aleutian Islands. It first appeared to trackers at U.S. Northern Command to be just another one of China’s probes around the edges of America’s defensive borders.
A senior administration official said China had developed a fleet of balloons to conduct surveillance operations that have been spotted over countries across five continents. They typically orbit at about 60,000 feet, and have occasionally strayed into American territory. Earlier, a senior defense official said that had happened three times during the Trump administration and once previously during the Biden administration.
Officials said the most recent balloon, equipped with solar panels to power propulsion and cameras and surveillance technology, exited U.S. territory Monday and spent the day over Canada’s Northwest Territories. But it was back over the United States Tuesday after entering through northern Idaho, much to the surprise of officials at Northern Command as well as at the Pentagon.
Gen. Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, alerted Biden.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, in the Philippines at the time, called a meeting Wednesday of senior military and defense officials to review military options, per Biden’s order. Milley and Austin advised against shooting down the balloon while it was over land.
They also did not alert the public, as officials at the Pentagon, the White House, the State Department, along with the intelligence agencies, discussed what to do. Blinken’s trip to China was scheduled to begin in days, and the administration had decisions to make.
But the balloon was hard to hide. By Wednesday afternoon there were eyewitness reports out of Montana and a ground stop at the airport in Billings. At around the same time, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of Northern Command, abruptly canceled a lunch with reporters only 45 minutes before it was to start, arousing suspicions.
By Thursday afternoon, Courtney Kube of NBC had reported that the military was monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon over Montana. A short time later, the Pentagon held a news conference confirming that report.
Biden administration officials said they had planned to notify the public regardless. “We acted to notify the public as quickly as possible as to the facts regarding the balloon,” said Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary.
Some Republicans began criticizing the president for not ordering that the balloon be shot down immediately. Then they turned on Blinken for not canceling his trip.
At a meeting Thursday evening, Blinken, Austin, Milley and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, decided that the trip did not make sense, officials said. On Friday morning, Biden affirmed their decision.
The Chinese foreign ministry tried to salvage the situation by issuing its statement expressing regret and asserting that the balloon was an off-course civilian machine. Blinken called Wang to tell him the trip was off and admonish his government over what the U.S. secretary called an “irresponsible act.”
By that day, the balloon was over Kansas and heading, helped in part by the jet stream, to the Eastern Seaboard. Pentagon officials were able to gauge its projected path and made plans to shoot it down once it reached the Atlantic. Officials wanted to do it while it was still technically in U.S. airspace.
nor’s mansion and state Legislature, have stressed that they have no interest in changing that law, and many Democrats in the state have been just as forceful and have argued that they cannot make changes unilaterally — points officials raised Saturday before the voice vote. Some have also warned that Biden could invite a primary challenge from someone camped out in the state, or stoke on-the-ground opposition to his expected reelection bid.
Biden has a rocky political history in the state — he placed fifth there in 2020 — but he also has longtime friends and allies in New Hampshire, some of whom wrote a letter expressing concerns about the proposal.
The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee has given New Hampshire until early June to work toward meeting the calendar requirements, but some Democrats in the state have made clear that their position is not changing.
“They could say June, they could say next week, they could say in five years, but it’s not going to matter,” said former Gov. John Lynch, who signed the letter to Biden. “It’s like asking New York to move the Statue of Liberty from New York to Florida. I mean, that’s not going to happen. And it’s not going to happen that we’re going to change state law.”
party officials there hope the matter of sanctions is still up for some degree of discussion.
Georgia Democrats, who are facing logistical hurdles in moving up their primary, have also received an extension until June to work toward meeting the new calendar lineup. Georgia is of personal interest to Biden; it helped propel him to the presidency and cemented the Democratic Senate majority. Atlanta is also vying to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
“We can proudly say that we sought to elevate the voices that have far too long been sidelined,” said Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Ga., chair of the state party. “Georgia isn’t a blue state, y’all. But we’re not a red state, either. I’d like to think that we’re periwinkle. There’s still more work to be done. This is a fight that’s worth fighting for.”
By KATIE GLUECKUpending decades of political tradition, the Democratic National Committee on Saturday approved a sweeping overhaul of the Democratic primary process, a critical step in President Joe Biden’s effort to transform the way the party picks its presidential nominees.
For years, presidential nominating contests have begun with the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, a matter of immense pride in those states, and a source of political identity for many highly engaged residents.
But amid forceful calls for a calendar that better reflects the racial diversity of the Democratic Party and the country — and after Iowa’s 2020 meltdown led to a major delay in results — Democrats voted to endorse a proposal that starts the 2024 Democratic presidential primary circuit on Feb. 3 in South Carolina, the state that resuscitated Biden’s once-flailing candidacy. New Hampshire and Nevada are scheduled to follow on Feb. 6, Georgia on Feb. 13 and Michigan on Feb. 27.
“This is a significant effort to make the presidential primary nominating process more reflective of the diversity of this country, and to have issues that will determine the outcome of the November election part of the early process,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., who has vigorously pushed for moving up her state’s primary.
It’s a calendar that in many ways rewards the racially diverse states that propelled Biden to the presidency in 2020.
But logistical challenges to fully enacting it still remain. And resistance to the proposal has been especially fierce in New Hampshire, where officials have vowed to hold the first primary anyway, whatever the consequences.
New Hampshire, a small state where voters are accustomed to cornering candidates in diners and intimate town hall settings, has long held the first primary as a matter of state law.
New Hampshire Republicans, who control the gover-
And in a statement from New Hampshire’s federal delegation, Democratic lawmakers declared that “while President Biden and the DNC continue to push a plan of political convenience, they will not be successful in the end,” a comment that underscored the bitter nature of the intraparty debate.
But in a Philadelphia hotel ballroom before the vote, a number of Democrats argued obliquely and explicitly that tradition and even state law are not reason enough to preserve a particular lineup.
“No one state should have a lock on going first,” Dingell said Saturday, to applause.
Leah D. Daughtry, a veteran member of the DNC, pointedly took issue with the idea that state law “somehow gives some people divine right of privilege.”
“None of that is more important than what the party says it wants in its process,” she said.
Many prominent Democrats had been adamant that Biden’s preferences should prevail, reflecting his standing as the head of the party.
“If he had called me and said, ‘Jim Clyburn, I’ve decided that South Carolina should not be in the pre-primary window,’ I would not have liked that at all, but I damn sure would not oppose,” said Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., a close Biden ally. His state zooms into the most influential position on the primary calendar, although Clyburn said he had been agnostic on the early state order as long as South Carolina was part of the window.
DNC rules demand consequences for any state that operates outside the party-approved early lineup. That state would risk losing delegates in the nomination process, which could make delegate-hunting contenders question the time investment.
Certainly, the New Hampshire primary has historically been more about building momentum and media attention than securing a large delegate prize. Even so, New Hampshire Democrats have urged the DNC not to punish the state, and
But Georgia’s primary date is determined by the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and officials from his office have stressed that they have no interest in holding two primaries or in risking losing delegates. Republicans have agreed to an early primary calendar, keeping the order of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, and Republican National Committee rules make clear that states that jump the order will lose delegates.
Iowa Democrats argue that with significant hurdles still facing the new calendar, their state should be regarded as a safer bet to host an early contest.
“We now have a process with a whole lot of uncertainty and probably no clarity — no chance to even achieve some clarity — until June,” said Scott Brennan, a member of the Rules and Bylaws Committee from Iowa. “You’ve turned the Mountain and Central time zones into flyover country for purposes of a presidential nominating calendar, and that’s just wrong.”
Iowa’s caucuses are deeply ingrained in the state’s political culture and even its dining culture, and voters are seasoned at probing politicians over fried treats at the state fair. But officials have acknowledged a need to revamp the caucus process and have promised changes. Iowa Democrats have been more muted in their public pushback than their New Hampshire counterparts, but how they may proceed with the timing of their caucuses is an open question, Brennan said.
Meantime, Nevada, South Carolina and Michigan have met the committee’s requirements for holding early primaries, according to a letter from the leaders of the Rules and Bylaws Committee.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan this week signed a bill moving up the state’s primary to Feb. 27. There are still questions regarding how quickly that could take effect, and how Republicans in the state may respond, but Democrats there have voiced confidence that the vote can be held according to the DNC’s new calendar.
There had also been some resistance to the idea of South Carolina — a Republican-tilted state that is not competitive in presidential general elections — serving as the leadoff state, while others strongly defended the idea of elevating it. Regardless, the reshuffle may only be temporary: Biden has urged a review of the calendar every four years, and the party has embraced steps to get that process underway.
People across the northeastern United States confronted the coldest temperatures seen in decades Saturday, as an Arctic air mass passed over the region, accompanied by powerful winds that drove wind chills to dangerous levels.
Frigid conditions demolished records set more than a century ago in Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, where lows hit minus 10 and minus 9 degrees Fahrenheit early Saturday, the National Weather Service reported. Temperatures plunged to 4 degrees in New York City, minus 6 in Hartford, Connecticut, and minus 15 in Concord, New Hampshire. with the wind making it feel much colder everywhere.
At least one death was attributed to the weather system. In western Massachusetts on Friday, a tree fell and crushed a vehicle in Southwick, west of Springfield, and killed an infant passenger. The 23-year-old driver, the victim’s aunt, suffered serious injuries, according to a statement from the office of the district attorney in Hampden County.
At the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, the region’s highest peak, the low of minus 47 degrees at 4 a.m. Saturday tied the previous record set in 1934. Wind chills approached minus 110 degrees, and were likely among the coldest ever recorded, though staff at the weather observatory atop the 6,288-foot peak said they do not keep long-term wind chill data, and could not confirm the record.
Venturing outside onto the mountain to track the system Friday, Francis Tarasiewicz, a staff meteorologist at the Mount Washington Observatory, encountered wind that sounded like a roaring freight train. “There were pieces of ice flying around, lots of ducking and dodging,” he said. “I had a tiny, millimeter-wide area of skin exposure, and it felt like a bee sting.”
Conditions moderated by late Saturday, and the deep cold was expected to subside by Sunday. In the meantime, government officials opened warming shelters, issued warnings about frostbite and hypothermia, and urged people to stay inside. Saturday morning, 18,000 customers in Maine and New York state were without electricity, according to the website poweroutage.us; by afternoon, power had been restored to all but 5,000.
“This is one of the coldest events that we’ve seen in years,” said Miro Weinberger, mayor of Burlington, Vermont. “We’re encouraging people to stay indoors.”
Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston declared a cold emergency through Sunday, while in
New York, a Code Blue was in effect, meaning that no one seeking shelter would be denied.
Concern about the fate of people living on the streets spurred an all-hands outreach effort in Boston, where dozens of city and agency workers fanned out last week to urge those without housing to plan for the cold. In the end, only 10 people chose to spend Friday night outdoors in the city’s largest tent encampment, while more than 100 others were safely sheltered, said Tania Del Rio, director of the city’s coordinated response team.
“We were very worried,” Del Rio said. “We know these people by name. We know their stories and we care about them, and we know some people would rather stay outside.”
In Portland, Maine, a shelter set up to serve 75 people saw 92 show up seeking warmth overnight Friday and into Saturday morning, a city spokesperson said. Chairs were set up to accommodate the extra turnout.
The core of the Arctic air mass passed over northern New England, where residents pride themselves on cold-weather endurance. But the combination of frigid cold and high winds forced some to make rare accommodations.
Wildcat Mountain, a 4,000-foot peak in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, closed to skiers for a second consecutive day Saturday, citing risks from the adverse conditions. Other ski mountains, including Sugarloaf in western Maine, where the temperature was minus 21 at 9 a.m. Saturday, limited chairlift operations.
The National Weather Service in Caribou, Maine, said in a tweet Friday that it had received reports of “frostquakes,” tremors in the earth, similar to earthquakes but caused by sudden cracks in frozen soil.
In Burlington, the annual Penguin Plunge — in which participants leap into icy Lake Champlain to raise money for the Special Olympics — was canceled and replaced with safer, remote activities. An opening event Friday night for the Quebec Winter Carnival, which draws tens of thousands of people to outdoor activities in the Canadian city, was also canceled.
Still, for some New Englanders who have lamented the milder temperatures and lack of snow so far this winter, the cold snap meant a brief return to beloved winter hobbies before temperatures skyrocket back up this week. Highs near 50 degrees were expected in Boston today.
Adam Zlatkus, 31, headed out with skates and a hockey stick to a frozen pond in Boston’s Public Garden for several hours Saturday morning, unbothered by the cold. Before this
weekend, he said, the weather had been too warm for the pond to ice over properly.
“I actually took off a layer,” he said.
Across the northern reaches of the region — and even in parts of Manhattan — some expressed a stoicism about the cold.
Marco Nasso, 38, was bundled in a fluffy hood as he walked his similarly dressed dog, Cesar, in midtown Manhattan on Saturday morning. Nasso, who hails from Italy, seemed largely unfazed by the chill.
“That’s how it’s supposed to be, winter in New York,” he said with a shrug, adding that it hadn’t affected his weekend plans. “There’s people living in Alaska!”
In New Hampshire, too, many residents
brushed aside the wintry weather. Navigating the discomfort without fuss is part of their Granite State identity, some said.
“It’s brutal, but it’s what I signed up for, and I love it,” said one Durham postal worker as she headed out to make deliveries Saturday.
In Millinocket, Maine, the cold drove some to desperate measures. Kelly Gardner, a physician assistant, said she and her family usually ski, ice fish or play in the snow on winter weekends. The prospect of staying indoors instead, with three active kids under age 6, was more than she wanted to manage.
“We’re headed to a hotel with a pool in Bangor with friends for an overnight,” Gardner said.
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Abitterly divided House on Thursday ousted Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the Foreign Affairs Committee over past comments about Israel that were widely condemned as antisemitic, as Republicans moved to cater to the demands of right-wing members and mete out punishment to a Democrat their party has demonized for years.
The 218-211 party-line vote, with one member voting “present,” settled a partisan score that has been festering since 2021, when the House, then controlled by Democrats, stripped Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., of their committee assignments for social media posts in which they endorsed violence against Democrats.
The removal of Omar delivered on a threat that Speaker Kevin McCarthy, RCalif., made at the time to retaliate if his party took the House majority by removing Democrats whom Republicans regarded as unfit to serve on committees. Last week, he unilaterally removed Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., from the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where membership is appointed and thus not subject to a vote.
McCarthy’s decision to force the removal of Omar, a step that some of his rank-and-file resisted, in the earliest days of his new majority demonstrated his determination to ingratiate himself with the hard-right Republican base, which has made the Somali-born Omar a target for some of its most vicious attacks. Former President Donald Trump famously said in 2019 that Omar and three other progressive women of color should “go back” to their countries, although she was the only one not born in the United States.
Thursday’s vote was also a bid by McCarthy to curry favor with pro-Israel groups and evangelical voters and to drive a wedge among Democrats, many of whom had condemned Omar’s statements about Israel.
In 2019, Omar drew criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike for tweeting that certain pro-Israel
groups were “all about the Benjamins, baby,” appearing to refer to hundred-dollar bills in what was seen as invoking an antisemitic trope about Jews and money. She later apologized for the comment. Two years later, Omar seemingly equated “atrocities” carried out by the U.S. military to those committed by terrorist groups such as the Taliban and Hamas; she later said she had not meant to compare them.
Yet, during an unusually raw debate on the House floor on Thursday, prominent Democrats, including many Jewish members, stood alongside Omar’s closest friends in Congress to defend her in passionate and, at times, emotional speeches. They accused Republicans of hypocrisy, xenophobia and racism for targeting her while saying nothing about antisemitic remarks by members of their own party, some of whom have associated with Holocaust deniers.
“A blatant double standard is being applied here,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the ranking party member on the Foreign Affairs Committee. “Something just doesn’t add up. And what is the difference between Rep. Omar and these members? Could it be the way that she looks? Could it be her religious practices?”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was more direct about the exiling of Omar, who is Black and one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress. “This is about targeting women of color in the United States of America,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Republicans were comparatively sober as they made the case for removing Omar.
“Individuals who hold such hateful views should rightly be barred from that type of committee,” said Rep.
Mike Lawler, R-N.Y. “Words matter. Rhetoric matters. It leads to harm, and so the congresswoman is being held accountable for her words and her actions.”
McCarthy and the members of his leadership team were nowhere to be seen during the floor debate, during which the number of Democrats speaking on behalf of Omar outnumbered Republicans 2 to 1. After the vote, McCarthy defended the decision to remove Omar, telling reporters that it was “not tit for tat,” but based on her statements.
“I’m not removing people from all committees,” McCarthy said, pointing out that Omar had been excised from just one panel, unlike Greene and Gosar.
But his effort to oust Omar stalled and nearly faltered in recent weeks, highlighting the challenges McCarthy faces as he tries to make good on his promised agenda with a razor-thin majority that has already proved to be unruly. Some Republicans were concerned about being seen as hypocritical after they had railed against the removals of Greene and Gosar, and about the precedent set by expelling a lawmaker for her views and statements, particularly by a party that routinely condemns “cancel culture.”
In the end, after days of haggling by McCarthy, all but one Republican fell in line, with Rep. David Joyce of Ohio voting “present,” as he did on Democrats’ resolution to expel Gosar.
Debate over the move turned raucous, particularly after Omar made a defiant speech defending herself. She drew cheers and applause from her colleagues as she declared, “Take your vote or not — I am here to stay.”
Shortly before members cast their ballots, Omar charged that the move to expel her was an inevitable extension of the false “birther” conspiracy theory, promoted by Trump, that former President Barack Obama, the first Black occupant of the Oval Office, was secretly an African-born Muslim.
“I am Muslim. I am an immigrant. And interestingly, from Africa,” Omar said on the House floor. “Is anyone surprised that I am being targeted? Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy?”
Omar’s ouster capped off an opening month in the House that has been defined by political jockeying and messaging far more than serious policy ventures. During a history-making struggle to claim the speaker’s gavel, McCarthy provided a raft of concessions to his hard-right detractors to win their votes. He has spent the weeks since paying off those debts, including by placing ultraconservative members on powerful committees and forming a new panel to investigate the “weaponization of government.”
Federal prosecutors are scrutinizing a growing array of people tied to Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed cryptocurrency empire, including his father, his brother and former colleagues, as part of a rapidly expanding investigation into one of the biggest American financial crime cases in more than a decade, according to 13 people with knowledge of the inquiry.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan has created a special task force to pursue its investigation into the collapse of FTX, the crypto exchange founded by Bankman-Fried.
More than half a dozen prosecutors, led by Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, are building the criminal case and tracking down the billions of dollars in customer money that Bankman-Fried has been charged with misappropriating.
In recent weeks, prosecutors have had talks with lawyers representing a dozen former executives and employees at FTX and Alameda Research, the hedge fund Bankman-Fried also founded, 11 people with knowledge of the inquiry said. Prosecutors have also examined the role of Bankman-Fried’s family members in his business empire, six people with knowledge of the matter said.
The collapse of FTX has forced virtually everyone in Bankman-Fried’s immediate orbit to seek legal counsel as the investigation intensifies and prosecutors weigh bringing more charges. Defense lawyers at the law firms Mayer Brown, Steptoe & Johnson, and Covington & Burling each represent multiple former FTX executives who may have information to contribute.
“As people begin flipping or cooperating with the government, it can lead to new lines of inquiry and new people of interest,” said Daniel Hawke, a lawyer for the firm Arnold & Porter who was a former director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s market abuse unit.
The FTX investigation could also ensnare companies that either received money from the exchange or lent it funds. The collapse of FTX last year set off a crisis
at the crypto lending firm Genesis, which was recently charged with securities law violations by the SEC. And in late January, a bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to Silvergate, a bank that did business with FTX, asking company officials whether they were aware of the exchange’s misuse of customer money.
In addition to tracking down customer funds, prosecutors are trying to recover hundreds of millions of dollars that were stolen from the exchange by a hacker around the time FTX filed for bankruptcy in November. And they are scrutinizing the more than $90 million in campaign contributions that FTX employees and others close to the company gave to congressional candidates and political action committees.
Much of the criminal case against Bankman-Fried could hinge on testimony from his former colleagues. Two of his closest advisers, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, pleaded guilty to fraud in December and have been cooperating with prosecutors for months. Now, the investigators are focusing their attention on other former FTX executives.
Prosecutors have had conversations with a lawyer for Sam Trabucco, a former co-CEO of Alameda Research, according to three people with knowledge with the matter. They have also met in person with Daniel Friedberg, who was a top in-house lawyer at FTX, two people said.
And in court filings, prosecutors have said they are in contact with Ryne Miller, the general counsel of FTX’s U.S. subsidiary who helped manage the crisis in the frantic final days before FTX’s bankruptcy.
The authorities have also had discussions with a lawyer for Nishad Singh, a former top engineer at FTX who had a minority stake in the exchange, about whether he would cooperate as part of a potential plea agreement, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations. Singh, a major donor to Democratic politicians, has not been charged with any wrongdoing, but government documents claim that he had been aware that FTX misused customer money and that he had received a $543 million loan from Alameda.
The talks between prosecutors and Singh were first reported by Bloomberg,
and Friedberg’s contact with prosecutors was earlier reported by Reuters.
As they’ve spoken with witnesses and lawyers, prosecutors have also asked questions about Ryan Salame, a former FTX executive who donated tens of millions of dollars to Republican politicians, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
Conversations between defense lawyers and prosecutors do not necessarily indicate a person is under investigation. It’s common for the authorities to engage in such conversations to determine whether people have information that would make them helpful to the case as witnesses.
Bankman-Fried, 30, has pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations. A federal judge has granted him bail under strict conditions, requiring him to remain confined to his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, as he awaits a criminal trial scheduled for October.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment.
One aspect of the investigation that could soon expand is the inquiry into FTX’s campaign finance activities. Prosecutors are particularly interested in whether FTX engaged in an illegal scheme to funnel tens
of millions of dollars to so-called straw donors who made disguised campaign contributions on behalf of the company, as it sought political influence in Washington.
Soon after Bankman-Fried was arrested in December, federal prosecutors began reaching out by email to some of the campaigns and political action committees that had received donations from FTX employees to seek information about those contributions, The New York Times has reported.
The authorities are also looking into whether Bankman-Fried’s younger brother, Gabe Bankman-Fried, played any role in the suspected campaign finance scheme, said four people briefed on the investigation.
Gabe Bankman-Fried ran an advocacy group, Guarding Against Pandemics, that was bankrolled by FTX. The organization donated to other groups and opened a headquarters in a nearly $3.3 million town house in Washington, D.C. The town house, a few blocks from the Capitol, is now listed for sale.
Another person under scrutiny from prosecutors is Bankman-Fried’s father, Joe Bankman, a Stanford Law School professor who was a paid FTX employee and an enthusiastic public cheerleader for the company.
When Arebeth Pease was laid off from the tech startup MasterClass last year, she could have had her pick of jobs. But so many tech companies’ missions rang hollow, she said, and many were creating more problems than they were fixing.
Pease, 42, was drawn instead to Span, a startup that makes smart home electrical panels and is among a class of fast-growing companies aiming to combat climate change. She joined Span in September as an operations manager, with the startup’s focus on slowing the effects of climate change as the main selling point.
“We’re actually doing work that matters,” she said.
As tech companies slash perks and cut jobs, the downturn has spurred a wake-up call among many workers, causing them to question whether their company’s role in society — selling ads or selling stuff, often — was actually making the world a better place. The result? More are now flocking to climate startups, just as investors pour money into the field.
Last year, climate startups in the United States raised nearly $20 billion, topping 2021’s high of $18 billion and nearly tripling 2020’s $7 billion, according to Crunchbase, a data provider. At least 83 climate-focused companies around the world are worth more than $1 billion, according to HolonIQ, a research firm.
Despite worries of a recession, enthusiasm about climate startups is undimmed. Laurence D. Fink, CEO of the investment firm BlackRock, recently declared that 1,000 more $1 billion so-called climate unicorns were on the way.
“There is no line of business that will not be impacted by climate,” said Chris Sacca, one of the founders of Lowercarbon Capital, a climate-focused venture capital firm, at a conference run by Axios in October. “That’s also the opportunity.”
The momentum and excitement, investors said, are different from the cleantech boom of the mid-2000s, when investors poured money into a cohort of clean energy companies that were reliant on government subsidies. Many of those startups eventually went under.
“There were a lot of lessons learned from the first cleantech wave,” said Ben Marcus, an investor at the venture capital firm UP.Partners. “Investors are not just looking to invest in science projects but in real companies.”
Now broader economic trends have coalesced to bolster the market. The cost of renewable energy has fallen over the past decade. The
Securities and Exchange Commission last year proposed a rule that would require companies to report their emissions, creating demand for tools to measure them. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed last year, dedicated $370 billion to climate-related spending.
Large corporations have also elevated climate-focused initiatives to the boardroom, with 91% of the global economy now covered by “net zero” pledges of some sort, according to Net Zero Tracker, a nonprofit site.
Climate tech is “one of the few bright spots in the economy and one of the few industries that tend to be extremely recessionresilient,” said Rick Zullo, an investor at the venture capital firm Equal Ventures.
At least 135 funds focused on climate investing, with $94 billion under management, have been created since 2021, according to the newsletter Climate Tech VC. The largest tech investment firms — including Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, General Atlantic and TPG — have increased their investments in climatetech companies, as have corporate investors such as Salesforce and United Airlines.
Lila Preston, an investor at Generation Investment Management, the investment firm that Al Gore helped found in 2004, said the momentum was welcome and “absolutely needed.”
“You want the very best investors around the table with you when you are disrupting industries,” she said.
Still, with Silicon Valley-style growth comes Silicon Valley-style hype. Many in the industry are wary of the risks of too much money
flowing into climate startups at inflated valuations. Some fear that the excitement will lead to more “greenwashing” — when businesses make “green” marketing a priority over actual impact — and infighting over which solution is best, ultimately damaging the industry’s credibility.
But the stakes are too high to be cynical, climate entrepreneurs and investors said.
Many tech workers have gone through a similar climate awakening. Olya Irzak, one of the founders of Frost Methane Labs, which helps reduce methane seeps from coal mines and other natural sources, has mentored people who want to work at climate companies for almost a decade. But during the pandemic, more people began reaching out to her and taking an interest in her annual list of climate startups, she said.
“People were sitting at home a lot, asking a lot of hard questions,” Irzak said. “That was
when the tech talent pool started shifting really dramatically.”
One effort, Climate Draft, aims to help climate startups find advisers, investors and employees from the tech industry. More than 3,000 recently laid-off tech workers have signed up to learn about jobs at climate companies, the company said. Another online community, Work on Climate, has ballooned to 16,000 members since it began in 2020. People use it to network and learn about jobs.
“Rebuilding every single industry we have is going to require the participation of everybody who is in the workforce,” said Eugene Kirpichov, a former engineer at Google who helped found Work on Climate.
Diego Saez Gil, a founder of Pachama, a company that funds reforestation and sells carbon credits, said he had recently hired people from Meta, Google, Amazon, Airbnb and Tesla, with some even taking pay cuts to join. That’s a change from his past startups, where he found it tough to recruit people from big tech companies who would take pay cuts.
“The people coming to climate are missionaries,” he said. “They had some kind of awakening. They came to realize, ‘The planet is falling apart, and I’m working on making people click on ads.’”
That was what happened to Bryan Nella, 47, an account manager who has worked in tech for more than two decades. When pandemic shutdowns briefly cleared the skies of plane and car pollution, he reflected on his impact on society and the environment.
Last year, Nella joined SemiCab, a startup that helps trucking companies eliminate miles driven with no cargo. He usually ignored calls from recruiters, he said, but felt inspired by SemiCab’s mission to reduce trucking emissions. “There’s a lot more to feel good about,” he said.
Julia Collins, founder of Planet FWD and Moonshot Snacks, in San Francisco, Jan. 26, 2023. Tech workers and investors are flocking to start-ups that aim to combat climate change.U.S. stock bulls are taking heart from a range of market signals pointing to an upbeat year for Wall Street, as equities sit on impressive gains despite worries that the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy tightening may plunge the economy into a recession.
Among these are equities’ positive January performance, a “golden cross” chart pattern on the S&P 500 and more stocks making new highs rather than new lows.
Such signals are far from the only indicators market participants use to make investment decisions, and they are not foolproof. Weak outlooks for corporate heavyweights such as Amazon and Microsoft and a blowout employment number that heightened expectations for Fed hawkishness injected a fresh note of uncertainty into markets on Friday, though the S&P 500 remains up 7.7% year-to-date.
However, steady improvements in gauges of momentum and sentiment in recent weeks reinforced the view among some investors that asset prices may be heading for a more benign period, after last year saw the S&P 500 lose 19.4% in its biggest annual percentage drop since 2008.
“We think this is a healthy picture that is being painted here,” said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at the Carson Group, referring to signals such as January’s gains and the broad range of sectors participating in the rally.
The S&P 500 rose 6.2% in January, driven in part by hopes that the Fed will be able to contain surging inflation without badly damaging the economy.
When the S&P 500 has advanced in January, the market has gone on to rise in the subsequent February-December period 83% of the time, with an average 11-month gain of over 11%, according to an analysis of data going back to World War II by CFRA Research.
An up January after a down year, however, was followed by a gain of 23.1% from February to December with a 92% success rate.
Despite a recent rally that may have made stocks comparatively expensive, “the track record implies that maybe we do have some upside potential,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.
Meanwhile, chart watchers noted that the S&P 500’s 50day moving average rose above its 200-day moving average on Thursday, a pattern known as a golden cross.
Since 1950, the S&P 500 has produced an average 12-month return of 10.5% after a golden cross formed, while the overall average annual return since 1950 is 9.1%, according to Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Research.
However, when a golden cross has appeared as the 200day moving average is declining - as it is now - the average 12-month return for the S&P 500 jumps to 16.8%.
“The recent golden cross adds to the growing technical evidence of a trend change for the S&P 500 and further raises the probabilities of the bear market low being set in October,” Turnquist said in a post.
Willie Delwiche, an investment strategist at All Star Charts, said all five indicators on his bull market checklist were fulfilled in January, including upside volume and risk appetite metrics, something that did not occur once in 2022.
One of those indicators showed more stocks on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq making new 52-week highs than lows -- -- a sign that the rally is being led by a broad
range of stocks, rather than a cluster of heavyweights. That happened as many times in January as it did during all of 2022, Delwiche said.
However, some investors believe stocks may have gotten ahead of themselves.
Friday’s data showing U.S. employment growth accelerating sharply in January renewed the inflation concerns that hammered stocks last year and ignited bets on a more hawkish Fed.
“The January employment report was unambiguously strong and should be the start of a series of data points showing stronger activity and inflation in early 2023,” analysts at Citi wrote. “We expect this emerging trend should push back on too-dovish market pricing.”
Fierce fighting raged Sunday in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, where a Russian paramilitary leader said Ukrainian forces were defending “every street, every house, every stairwell,” as they waged an increasingly desperate effort to deny Moscow its first significant battlefield success in months.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner private military company, whose forces have helped lead Russia’s brutal campaign in Bakhmut, said that Ukrainian troops were “fighting to the last,” denying reports on social media that Ukraine’s forces were withdrawing from the key city in the eastern Donetsk region.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine are not retreating anywhere,” Prigozhin said in a statement posted by one of his companies on Telegram, the social messaging app.
As Russia pours more troops into the battle in eastern Ukraine, its Defense Ministry claimed on Sunday that “offensive operations” had helped its forces gain “more advantageous lines and positions” around Donetsk. But there were growing signs that the bitter fighting was exacting an enormous toll on both sides.
Ukraine’s defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, told a news conference that 500 Russian soldiers were being killed or wounded daily in their drive to take Bakhmut. Ukraine’s losses were significantly fewer, he added, without offering details.
It was not possible to independently verify either side’s account of the fighting. But Reznikov’s tally roughly matched that of U.S. officials, who believe hundreds of Russian soldiers are being killed or injured every day as the Kremlin rushes many more men — including lightly trained new recruits and ex-convicts — to the front line. Ukrainian forces have at times suffered similar losses in Bakhmut, U.S. officials say.
Reznikov acknowledged that the intense fighting was taking a toll on Ukrainian soldiers on the front line and that keeping up morale after a year of war was a “very serious challenge.”
“People are under crazy stress day and night,” he said.
Since last summer the Kremlin’s
forces have bombarded Bakhmut, a city that Moscow sees as critical to achieving Russian President Vladimir Putin’s objective of capturing all of Donbas, which includes Donetsk and the neighboring Luhansk region. Ukraine has warned that Russia could be starting a renewed offensive in the east as its troops seek to give Putin a victory to mark the anniversary of his invasion, on Feb. 24.
After losing significant ground to Ukrainian counterattacks last fall, Russia has escalated its campaign in the east,
bringing in more troops and intensifying its artillery strikes. Russian forces have slowly surrounded Bakhmut on three sides and cut off many of the roads leading into and out of the city. That has left Ukrainian forces with one road as their last major supply line — or potential escape route.
“Bakhmut is increasingly isolated,” Britain’s defense intelligence agency reported Sunday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine on Saturday night called the situation in Bakhmut and other parts of the east “very difficult,” saying that Russia was throwing in “more and more of its forces to break our defenses.”
As more Russian troops arrive on the front, many likely drawn from Putin’s recent call-up of 300,000 reservists, Reznikov said Russian forces have changed their tactics in recent weeks, attempting to overwhelm Ukrainian defensive lines by deploying wave upon wave of small assault groups.
Ukraine also has a large military presence in the region around Bakhmut, with large troop transports and armored vehicles crowding the roads as Ukrainian forces mount a defense that has forced Russia to commit significant resources to the fighting.
“The situation remains complex but under control,” Reznikov said. He described Bakhmut as a fortress that holds great symbolism for Ukraine, and said
that any decision on a tactical withdrawal would be made by military generals.
But some Ukrainian soldiers deployed there are increasingly pessimistic about the fate of the city. They are killing Russians, one soldier recently told The New York Times, but not fast enough.
Three people were killed in Russian attacks Saturday in Bakhmut, the head of the regional military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Telegram. A fourth was killed in the settlement of Yampol, to the north, he said.
On Sunday morning, Russian forces struck a school that Ukrainian soldiers appeared to be using as a base in the town of Druzhkivka, west of Bakhmut. A blast ripped out window frames and damaged the building’s facade. Another missile hit an apartment complex directly across from the school, blasting a large hole through the first floor and cutting through a number of apartments.
Five residents were injured in the strikes, according to local authorities.
In northeastern Ukraine, five people were injured in a Russian missile attack on the center of Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, regional officials said Sunday.
A Ukrainian counteroffensive drove Russian forces out of the Kharkiv region last September, and Reznikov said Ukraine had not seen signs that Russia was preparing to mount a new campaign aimed at the northeast. Nor did Ukraine believe Moscow had enough combat troops in neighboring Belarus, which it used as a staging ground for its invasion last year, to launch a serious assault against Kyiv, the capital, he added.
But he said that Moscow remained intent on expanding the territory it controlled in southern Ukraine to tighten its grip on Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula it illegally captured in 2014, and was focusing its troop buildup on the east and south.
Western allies are rushing battle tanks, armored vehicles and other advanced weapons to help Ukraine, although many are not expected to arrive for months.
Ukrainian soldiers on Monday were expected to begin training outside the country on German-made Leopard tanks, dozens of which were pledged by allies last month.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the greatest challenge to European security since the end of the Cold War, but the Europeans have missed the opportunity to step up their own defense, diplomats and experts say. Instead, the war has reinforced Europe’s military dependence on the United States.
Washington, they note, has led the response to the war, marshaled allies, organized military aid to Ukraine and contributed by far the largest amount of military equipment and intelligence to Ukraine. It has decided at each step what kind of weapons Kyiv will receive and what it will not.
Its indispensable role was manifest in the recent decision to provide Leopard tanks to Ukraine and allow others to do so — a step Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany refused to take, despite strong pressure from Poland and Britain, unless the United States provided some of its own modern tanks.
American leadership “has almost been too successful for its own good, leaving Europeans with no incentive to develop leadership on their own,” said Liana Fix, a German analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
“The perception is that there is no real leader in the European Union, and the U.S. is doing helicopter parenting with Brussels,” she said. “This is a problem that can come back to haunt the U.S.”
And the Europeans, too.
European Union leaders visited the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Friday, but offered President Volodymyr Zelenskyy little more than promises that his embattled country might join the bloc someday.
In the meantime, the EU has responded to the invasion with economic sanctions against Russia, significant financial aid and a fund — now at 3.6 billion euros (about $3.9 billion) — to repay member states for their military contributions to Ukraine. Total military contributions to Ukraine from member states is estimated at 12 billion euros, and overall assistance at nearly 50 billion euros.
But the goal of President Emmanuel Macron of France for “strategic autonomy” — for the EU to become a military power that could act independently of the United States, if complementary to it — has proved hollow.
In large part, diplomats and experts say, that is because European nations disagree sharply among themselves about how the war should end and even about their relationship with Russia and its president, Vladi-
mir Putin, both now and in the future.
It is impossible to have a real European defense without a coherent European foreign policy, suggested Charles Kupchan, a former Obama administration official and a professor of international studies at Georgetown University. The Ukraine war cuts both ways, he said, prompting a new unity among Europeans, but also new cracks.
“There is very little appetite for autonomy if that means distance from the United States,” he said, “because the war has underscored the importance of the American military presence in Europe and the guarantee it extended to European allies since World War II.”
Central and Eastern Europeans, along with the Baltic nations and Britain, have always mistrusted promises of an autonomous European defense and have worked to keep the United States engaged in European security and in the NATO alliance.
For them, the American nuclear umbrella is considered indispensable to deter a Russia they saw as more of a threat than did other allies like Germany, France, Spain and Italy, especially since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Whether Washington laments it or not, given its desire to pivot toward China, Kupchan said, “this war extends the shelf-life of the American military presence in Europe for a long time to come.”
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former NATO secretary-general who has proposed
a plan to bolster Ukraine’s security against Russia, said that Macron “has undermined his own idea of European autonomy” by “his statements and behavior when it comes to Putin,” arguing that a new European security order must include Russia and that Putin must not be humiliated.
That “created suspicion in Eastern Europe and made it more or less impossible for Macron to create momentum behind his idea of European autonomy,” Rasmussen said.
So long as Europe’s major powers “cannot agree on a common approach to Russia, then the rest of the crowd will look across the Atlantic and look for security guarantees from the United States,” he added.
The European dream was always to have two major collective pillars, one fiscal and one defense, said Guntram Wolff, the director of the German Council on Foreign Relations. Germany would anchor the first and France the second.
“But the Ukraine war was a big gamechanger for European security,” he said, “and Central and Eastern Europeans immediately understood that they need the U.S. for their security, and Germany quickly decided the same.”
Despite a promise by Scholz for a “Zeitenwende,” or a turning point in German security policy, details were lacking.
Now it turns out the 100 billion euros set aside to rebuild the paltry post-Cold War German military will be spread out over the life of the parliament. Bureaucracy has made
it difficult to start spending the money, and the government failed to get the German defense industry moving.
Rheinmetall, a German arms manufacturer, makes the Leopard tank and has about 200 in storage, and it says it needs up to a year to refurbish them for Ukraine. But Germany could have easily paid the company to get the tanks ready 12 months ago, even for its own military.
“Germany already wasted a year,” Wolff said.
European countries have tried to catch up with needed defense investment, but in a national and fragmented way, not coordinated by Brussels. That inevitably meant buying off-the-shelf, which mostly meant American weaponry, not European.
The fact that Scholz relented on providing tanks to Ukraine only with the Americans stung in Europe. “It shows that Europeans in the end don’t trust one another, and for Central and Eastern Europeans, trust and credibility is gone,” Fix said.
At the same time, Fix said, both Germany and France think the Central and Eastern Europeans underestimate the risk of Russian escalation and need Washington to restrain them. “So everyone is looking to Washington as the main arbiter,” she said, “and not to one another.”
Macron and Scholz, whose relations are said to be frosty, have failed to provide necessary leadership, separately or together, analysts said.
France missed an opportunity to “show what strategic autonomy is or could be,” said Bart Szewczyk, a former Obama administration official now with the German Marshall Fund. “Under the surface of the slogan,” he said, “there was not much there in terms of resources or deployment or even in intellectual leadership.”
When it came to reducing dependence on Russian energy imports, Europeans took a big economic hit, quickly built liquefied natural gas terminals, overrode regulations, imposed sanctions and agreed on a price cap for Russian oil. Defense was a different story.
“On security and defense, it has lost credibility,” Fix said. “France could have used this war an opportunity to invest big into Ukraine and Central Europe and say, ‘You can really rely on us,’ but that didn’t happen.”
Instead, France and Germany hesitated, hoping for a short war, which this one is shaping up not to be.
For some time to come, then, “strategic autonomy is dead,” Fix said, “and the French don’t like this at all.”
Bilal al-Sudani was no stranger to American counterterrorism officials.
Before joining an affiliate of the Islamic State militant group in Somalia, al-Sudani was subjected to punitive sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2012 for his involvement with al-Shabab, al-Qaida’s branch in the East African country.
But it wasn’t until U.S. officials started digging deeper into the background of another Islamic State branch, the one in Afghanistan that had carried out the deadly bombing at Kabul’s international airport in August 2021, that analysts fully realized that al-Sudani oversaw a sprawling Islamic State financial and logistical network across Africa, Europe and Afghanistan.
Al-Sudani’s newly revealed role as the financier for the Islamic State branch responsible for the death of 13 U.S. service members in Kabul rocketed him to the top ranks of U.S. counterterrorism kill-or-capture lists, senior U.S. officials said. Late last month, commandos from the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 killed him in an early-morning helicopter-toground raid in a remote cave complex in northern Somalia.
“Al-Sudani helped to put money in the pockets of the same elements of ISIS-K responsible for Abbey Gate,” said a senior U.S. official, referring to the Afghan group ISIS Khorasan and the location of the Kabul airport bombing.
The death of al-Sudani, whose Somalia-based headquarters coordinated trainers and funding for Islamic State affiliates in Afghanistan, the Congo, Mozambique and South Africa, underscores the group’s global connections and support structure, analysts say.
Despite his killing, analysts point to the Islamic State’s resiliency nearly four years since the end of its so-called
caliphate, or religious state, in Iraq and Syria as it leverages terrorist networks to sustain new and established affiliates.
“Sudani’s death may temporarily disrupt this administrative network and the support reaching these affiliates, but is unlikely to dampen this support permanently,” the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project said in an assessment this past week.
Under intense military pressure by the United States and its local allies, the Islamic State’s leadership in Iraq and Syria has faced significant resource constraints in recent years, a sharp decline from the group’s peak as one of the best-financed terrorist organizations in the world.
This led the Islamic State to direct its affiliates to pursue financial self-sufficiency, as several “offices” coordinate revenue generation and money laundering among affiliates and networks within regions, rather than money flowing from Iraq and Syria to branches around the world, according to a recent analysis in the Long War Journal, a website run by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies that tracks military strikes against militant groups.
The Islamic State group has attempted to expand its influence in Africa through large-scale operations in
areas where government control is limited. In announcing sanctions against four South African-based financiers for the group, the Treasury Department said in March that Islamic State branches in Africa were relying on local fundraising schemes such as theft, extortion and kidnapping for ransom, as well as financial support from the Islamic State hierarchy.
Somalia is better known as a sanctuary for al-Shabab, the terrorist group linked to al-Qaida, than for the Islamic State. But the Islamic State branch in the country has played an outsize role for the global terrorist organization despite having only 200 to 280 fighters.
The Islamic State’s Somalia wing includes a regional office called Al Karrar, which serves as a coordination hub for operations in the Congo, Mozambique, South Africa and the networks among them, Caleb Weiss and Ryan O’Farrell wrote in the Long War Journal analysis.
With counterparts in West Africa, South Asia, Syria and elsewhere, the Al Karrar office oversees substantial fundraising operations through extortion rackets and criminal activity in Somalia and South Africa, the analysis concluded.
But U.S. and other Western intelligence services have in the past year detected increasing ties between Al Karrar and ISIS Khorasan in Afghanistan. A United Nations report in July concluded that Al Karrar facilitated the flow of money to the Afghan affiliate through cells in Yemen, Kenya and Britain.
The U.N. report said that ISIS Khorasan “uses these funds in the acquisition of weapons and to pay the salaries of fighters.”
Before his death, al-Sudani was thought to play a key role in, or even direct, the Al Karrar office, officials said. “There’s evidence he was pulling the strings from East Africa,” said Heather Nicell, an Africa analyst with Janes, a London-based defense intelligence firm.
A senior administration official said no one else in the Islamic State group rivaled al-Sudani in his ability to receive and distribute illicit funds — as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars at any given time — to far-flung affiliates on at least three continents through a network of clandestine contacts he had built over more than a decade.
As al-Sudani’s role in supporting Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan — including the Kabul airport bomber — came into sharper focus, the military’s secretive Joint Special Operations Command ramped up its planning to kill or capture him, officials said.
The Special Operations raid Jan. 25 took place in a remote mountainous cave complex in the Puntland region of northern Somalia, months after American spy networks first detected al-Sudani’s hidden headquarters and began using spy satellites and other surveillance aircraft to study his movements.
The U.S. commandos had been prepared to capture al-Sudani, but he and 10 other Sudanese associates were killed in a gunbattle after they resisted, a senior administration official told reporters after the raid was disclosed.
After years of deepening mistrust and simmering tensions, ties between the United States and China appeared poised for a modest rebound after the meeting of the two nations’ leaders at a summit last November and recent efforts by Beijing to stabilize its relations with the world. A visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing this weekend was expected to build on that progress.
All it took was a balloon to upend everything.
The discovery of what U.S. military officials called a “highaltitude surveillance balloon” over Montana last week, and Blinken’s decision Friday to cancel his trip, has again exposed the fragility of a relationship between two powers locked in an increasingly tense rivalry for military, geopolitical and technological dominance.
The revelation of the balloon, which the U.S. shot down Saturday, fueled bipartisan outrage in the United States and gave the Biden administration little room to maneuver — even as China uncharacteristically expressed regret for the vessel’s appearance.
The two countries issued competing claims about the nature of the airship. The Pentagon said it was used for “intelligence-gathering,” whereas China said it was a civilian vessel used for scientific research and that it had strayed off course.
Wang Yi, the top official in China’s foreign policy hierarchy, told Blinken in a phone call late Friday that “China is a responsible country and has always strictly abided by international law,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on its website.
The brief summary of their call did not mention the balloon or Blinken’s cancellation of his trip, but suggested China’s leaders believed the Biden administration had blown the episode out of proportion.
While there was no indication the balloon posed a serious military or intelligence threat to the United States, the symbolism of a Chinese craft drifting over the continental United States added a new element of volatility to a relationship that is at the core of the world’s most pressing challenges — including maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait, rebuilding post-pandemic economies and combating climate change.
“It’s a little action with a big consequence,” Rorry Daniels, managing director of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New
York, said of the balloon. “It’s kind of mind blowing when you look at the history of U.S.-China relations and all the different phases the relationship has been through to end up here.”
Shrinking levels of contact between the two governments in recent years have made it more difficult for them to test assumptions about each other’s intentions during diplomatic crises, she added.
In the months before the balloon episode, China’s diplomatic corps had toned down its typically acerbic rhetoric about Washington. One highlight was an appeal from the incoming Chinese foreign minister, Qin Gang, to build “mutual understanding and affinity between the two peoples” in remarks he made last month upon leaving his post as ambassador to the United States.
China has been looking to reduce tensions overseas to focus its energy on repairing its beleaguered economy and transition out of COVID-induced isolation. Liu He, the country’s vice premier, last month attended the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, to woo foreign investment and declare that China was open for business again.
How an apparent Chinese spy balloon ended up over the United States amid such a backdrop hints at divisions within the Chinese government about its strategy toward its chief geopolitical competitor, analysts say.
“The overall direction of China’s recent diplomatic messaging to the United States has been to seek to lower tensions,” said Ryan Hass, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former National Security Council director for China.
“The spy balloon incident is discordant with the overall messaging,” he added. “This raises questions about the quality of coordination within China’s security system.”
Hass said China’s leader, Xi Jinping, can ill afford to let Sino-U.S. relations sour even further. Managing these ties is among Xi’s chief responsibilities in the eyes of the country’s elite.
Under his watch, Washington has crippled major Chinese telecommunications companies like Huawei, imposed sweeping export bans on critical semiconductor technology and fortified military relationships across Asia, most recently with news this past week about the expansion of U.S. access to military bases in the Philippines.
“Secretary Blinken’s very visible postponement of his vi-
sit could generate questions internally about Xi’s capacity to manage tensions with the United States,” Hass said. “This issue already has been a soft spot in Xi’s overall résumé after a decade of historically strained relations with the United States under his leadership.”
Tensions could escalate this year. There is already a new select committee in the House of Representatives to investigate the strategic challenges posed by China. And if the new speaker, Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., makes good on plans to visit Taiwan, that could stoke the same tensions that prompted China to respond with a near military blockade when the former speaker, Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., traveled to the self-governing island last year.
China’s response on Friday to the balloon revelation underscored the country’s more measured tone since last year. The confrontational tack of the past — known as “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy, so named after a jingoistic Chinese film — would not have expressed anything close to regret for the balloon. Instead, Beijing’s admission that the vessel was Chinese, and its pledge to continue communicating with the United States, suggests a desire to press ahead with Blinken’s visit.
“It is worthy of recognition that China acknowledged the balloon,” said Shen Dingli, a Shanghai-based international relations scholar who focuses on U.S.-China ties.
support. But with that support increasing, if he’s right about the likelihood of total victory, we should see its beginnings in the looming campaign, with real territorial turnover in Ukraine’s favor and signs of turmoil inside Russia.
If that’s what we end up seeing, then the American strategy will need to focus on the dilemmas of success: The perils of a desperate Russian nuclear gamble, spillover risks from any internal Russian power struggle and possible dangers from a still-more-nationalist successor regime.
To the authors — and, I suspect, to the Biden administration — the possibility of these risks extending far into the 2020s makes a strong case for de-escalation. But of course any de-escalation requires a Russian willingness to negotiate and make real concessions, which has not been evident to date. So the question is whether there are credible American moves that would actually make negotiations more likely, rather than just encouraging Moscow to wait us out.
By ROSS DOUTHATThe next phase of the Ukraine war, a new Russian offensive and a potential Ukrainian counteroffensive, seems all but inevitable for late winter or early spring. The logic of escalation is prevailing, the mutual belief that no peace deal is possible until the other side understands that it can’t win.
The Ukrainian hope for how this escalation ends was sketched out by Mykhailo Podolyak, a key adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a recent interview with Bruno Macaes for The New Statesman. “Russia will embark on some minor offensive actions in a short period of time,” Macaes summarizes. “A lot of manpower will be lost. After that, it will face a series of significant defeats.” This will lead to Russian unraveling: Major cities will be lost, some kind of military collapse will follow, and then there will be “uncontrolled political transformation” within the Russian Federation.
Podolyak doesn’t predict that all of this will happen this spring, suggesting that the timing depends on Western
But if we don’t see signs of Podolyak’s prophecy’s fulfillment, if mutual escalation yields again to stalemate (I am bracketing the dire but hopefully unlikely scenario where the Russians threaten Kyiv again), then analysts predicting a long war will look more prescient. And the Biden administration will need to decide whether a grinding conflict extending toward 2025 and beyond is in the American national interest.
In a new paper from RAND, Samuel Charap and Miranda Priebe offer a strong case that the answer should be no. There are, they acknowledge, benefits for the United States from a drawn-out struggle. If a long war gradually goes the Ukrainian way, more Ukrainians would be liberated from Russian occupation, and a post-conflict Ukraine would be potentially more economically viable. A long war would impose continuing punishment on Russia for its aggression, shoring up the norm against cross-border aggression, and it would encourage increased military spending among our European allies and the continued decoupling of Western economies from Russian energy, both of which are clearly in the American interest.
But against those benefits you have to count the extensive costs. A long war maintains the current dangerously elevated risk of NATO-Russia conflict and nuclear brinkmanship indefinitely. A long war requires constant flows of money and weapons, threatening the depletion of American military resources at a time when we’re escalating our rivalry with China.
A long war kills lots of people, Ukrainian as well as Russian, and threatens to leave a post-conflict Ukraine in ever-worsening economic and demographic shape. A long war is a drag on global economic growth, and its continued impact on energy and food prices would cost lives in Europe and in poorer countries around the world.
And a long war leaves America ill-equipped to pivot, not just to face a Chinese threat but against whatever other surprises the 21st century might yet have in store.
Charap and Priebe suggest a few such possibilities, which attempt to link different peace-oriented policies together. The promise of long-term American support for Ukraine’s security, via regularized aid and some sort of guarantee in the event of renewed Russian aggression, could be linked to Kyiv’s willingness to open negotiations. The promise of some sanctions being lifted against Putin’s regime could be linked to Russia’s willingness to entertain concessions that Ukraine might accept. The goal would be to show Kyiv some limits to our patience while offering to stabilize our relationship, and show Moscow some potential advantages to making peace without preemptively conceding any ground.
All this is easier said than done, especially given the moral asymmetry in the war, where any settlement short of Russian surrender will necessarily concede something to a wicked aggressor.
But if the next phase of war suggests that such a compromise is required for peace, better to seek it sooner than after many more seasons of suffering and death.
PO
RÍO PIEDRAS – El Comisionado de la Policía Municipal de San Juan, José Juan García, presentó a representantes del Centro de Acción Urbana, Comunitaria y Empresarial de Río Piedras (CAUCE), un modelo de organización de la uniformada municipal como Policía Comunitaria, para enfrentar los problemas de la criminalidad en alianza con las comunidades, en este caso la de Río Piedras.
Para atender la situación, se implantó el modelo S.A.R.A. que establece las estrategias orientadas a la solución de problemas. Este modelo circular consta de cuatro etapas: Scanning (escaneo), Analysis (análisis), Response (Respuesta) y Assessment (Evaluación).
“Queremos que el policía no sea visto como un agente agresor, sino que asuma el liderato social en la solución de conflictos. El propósito de este nuevo enfoque es, en definitiva, unir las comunidades para salvaguardar la seguridad y
la proteccion de todos los residentes de nuestra ciudad”, dijo el comisionado en declaraciones escritas.
La etapa de escaneo consiste en identificar el crimen y los problemas de desorden; el análisis ayuda a comprender las condiciones que provocan que se genere el problema; con la respuesta se desarrolla e implementa las soluciones, y la evaluación determina el impacto. El modelo se apoya en el trabajo en equipo para cumplir los objetivos, aumentar el sentido de pertenencia, crear armonía y mejorar la calidad de vida.
A los representantes de CAUCE, quienes visitaron la Comandancia Municipal de San Juan, además de presentarle el novel enfoque de la policía municipal, se les enseñó el Centro de Operaciones, donde se tienen las pantallas que recogen lo captado por las cámaras de seguridad para monitorear puntos de toda la Ciudad Capital.
El Centro de Acción Urbana, Comunitaria y Empresarial de Río Piedras (CAUCE), adscrito a la Oficina de Rectoría del Recinto de Río Piedras de
la Universidad de Puerto Rico, destina sus recursos a la colaboración para la revitalización del centro urbano y comunidades riopedrenses.
EL CAPITOLIO – El representante José Bernardo Márquez y las representantes Mariana Nogales y Sol Higgins radicaron un proyecto de ley que procura atender el ataponamiento de las licencias para nuevos médicos en la Junta de Licenciamiento y Disciplina Médica.
El Proyecto de la Cámara 1611 enmienda la Ley de la Junta, el Código de Seguros de Puerto Rico y el Código de Seguros de Salud de Puerto Rico a los fines de ordenar la expedición a médicos nuevos de licencias provisionales en un término no mayor de 10 días y ordenar a las organizaciones de seguros de salud a evaluar y tomar una decisión sobre las solicitudes de nuevos médicos para convertirse en proveedores en un término no mayor de 30 días.
De igual manera, ordena al Sindicato de Aseguradores para la Suscripción Conjunta de Responsabilidad Médico Hospitalaria (SIMED) a reconocer una licencia provisional para la evaluación de solicitudes de seguros de responsabilidad médico hospitalaria, todo esto con el
propósito de eliminar trabas administrativas y burocráticas que dificultan que nuevos médicos estén autorizados para ejercer la profesión en Puerto Rico.
“La crisis en el sistema de salud de Puerto Rico es patente e innegable. Actualmente hay apenas 9,000 médicos, lo que representa una pérdida de 5,000 en el transcurso de una década. Por eso es inaceptable que nuevos médicos que quieran
establecer su práctica en la isla no puedan hacerlo porque sus solicitudes de credencialización y certificación de proveedores languidecen en la Junta de Licenciamiento y posteriormente ante las aseguradoras. Si bien hay otros factores más retantes para la retención de médicos como la compensación y la falta de personal de apoyo, el ataponamiento de nuevas solicitudes en la Junta es fallar en lo fácil. No podemos perder ni un médico más a las trabas administrativas del gobierno. Por eso nos enorgullece presentar esta medida a petición del Colegio de Médicos Cirujanos”, dijo el representante José Bernardo Márquez, en declaraciones escritas.
El Proyecto de la Cámara 1611 identifica como un problema el tiempo de espera al que los médicos recién graduados deben someterse antes de comenzar a generar ingresos producto de su trabajo. “Los doctores y las doctoras tienen que esperar, en ocasiones, hasta 90 días por su licencia, para luego comenzar trámites individuales de credencialización con cada aseguradora para convertirse en proveedores de salud” explica la legislación en su exposición de motivos.
El representante José Bernardo Márquez y las representantes Mariana Nogales y Sol Higgins radicaron un proyecto de ley que procura atender el ataponamiento de las licencias para nuevos médicos en la Junta de Licenciamiento y Disciplina Médica
Presentan modelo colaborativo de policía comunitaria en Río Piedras
fighting a mysterious alien invasion whose conflicts reveal the inequities of humankind. Initially, however, we’re not totally sure who the invaders are: They could be typical extraterrestrials, or they could be humans infected with a virus. Screenwriter Ilya Kulikov’s script smartly leaves that open to interpretation, imbuing the action with an enveloping pulse.
But it’s the futuristic environment, built upon visually arresting production design, that brings this film to life: The cinematographer’s reliance on violet lighting evokes “Blade Runner 2049” while the costumes recall “Starship Troopers.” Its aesthetics combine for a climactic urban sequence featuring a tank driving through a crowd while people launch themselves off buildings as human projectiles.
Stream it on Tubi.
‘High Heat’
I love a good “retired spy tries to have a wholesome life away from espionage” movie. The ex-secret agent usually finds some mundane job and sticks out like a sore thumb — so much so that you wonder how she ever expected to fit in. In “High Heat,” Ana (Olga Kurylenko), a KGB spy turned chef, is trying to build a new life as a restaurant owner with her husband, Ray (Don Johnson). On opening night, however, their past catches up to them when Ray’s loan shark, Dom (Diamond Dallas Page), sends goons to burn down the restaurant for its insurance money. To defend her business, Ana calls upon a former friend, Mimi (Kaitlin Doubleday), now a suburban mom with a dweeby gun-toting husband (Chris Diamantopoulos) and creepy twin daughters.
By ROBERT DANIELSFrom funny former spies to upbeat flights of anarchy, this month’s action picks look toward the gentler side of the genre.
‘A Man of Action’
Walking with a Pan Am travel bag through a crowded airport, Lucio Urtubia (Juan José Ballesta), a master counterfeiter, is approached by the police. Rather than be captured, he tosses stacks of cash from his luggage into the air. Moving with the high-flying exuberance of “Catch Me If You Can,” Spanish director Javier Ruiz Caldera’s “A Man of Action,” a biopic chronicling Urtubia’s anarchist schemes to overthrow capitalist authorities in Spain, takes place primarily during the 1960s, and features explosive bank robberies and suspenseful financial espionage.
In the film, which is part adventurous lark and part character study, Ballesta controls the frame as the unassuming Urtubia, who began as a simple bricklayer and rose to confabbing with Fidel Castro. His wholesome mien makes him easy to root for as a Robin Hood fighting an elephant of a system by copying checks to exploit the banking infrastructure while evading the police. You can’t help being charmed by Urtubia and this lighthearted and endearing film. Stream it on Netflix.
‘The Big 4’
With “Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash,” “Ben
& Jody” and more, Indonesia is quickly becoming a hub for ambitious, bighearted action movies. Director Timo Tjahjanto’s “The Big 4,” which follows a quartet of do-gooder mercenaries, is cut from the same cloth. It begins with the murder of their mentor, affectionately called Pops (Budi Ros), by a former student, Suranto (Marthino Lio), and escalates when Pops’ cop daughter, Dina (Putri Marino), searches for the killer. In her hunt, she discovers the identities of Pops’ former team — the noble Topan (Abimana Aryasatya), the mercurial explosives expert Alpha (Lutesha), the buffoonish Pelor (Kristo Immanuel) and the spiritual Jenggo (Arie Kriting) — then joins up with them to seek revenge against Suranto.
Like other contemporary Indonesian action films, “The Big 4” knows how to leverage exaggerated gore for laughs: Zany firefights, a bloody slow-motion infiltration of an enemy hide-out set to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, and a ponytail used as a sharp weapon are just some of the outlandish features of its cartoonish set pieces. Amid all the killing, the characters emphasize family as their uniting bond, in a way that doesn’t come off as contrived. And in their loving, if combustible, interpersonal dynamics resides an intoxicating joy.
Stream it on Netflix.
‘The Blackout: Invasion Earth’
Set in Moscow in the vaguely distant future, Russian director Egor Baranov’s “The Blackout: Invasion Earth” sees two soldiers, Yuriy (Pyotr Fyodorov) and Oleg (Aleksey Chadov),
From director Zach Golden, “High Heat” pokes fun at the spy genre by throwing bumbling gangsters — such as the hilarious Gary (Jackie Long), a frightened masseur duped into being a hired gun — against Ana and Ray in fight sequences that straddle the line between brutal takedowns and slapstick. That playful dysfunction, in addition to the witty banter between Doubleday and Diamantopoulos, makes this an uncommonly cozy and breezy thriller.
Rent or buy on most major platforms.
‘Renegades’
By this point, you might have noticed a trend in my selections: Except for “The Blackout: Invasion Earth,” they have a pleasurable, carefree sensibility. With a cast filled with familiar faces, director Daniel Zirilli’s octogenarian revenge tale “Renegades” doesn’t break that run. In it, Burton (Nick Moran), a former mercenary struggling with PTSD, finds aid from a family friend and retired soldier, Carver (Lee Majors). Carver takes Burton to meetings where other older special forces retirees, including Harris (Paul Barber), share their stories as therapy. When Carver is murdered by a local human-trafficking gang, these veterans come together to exact revenge for their fallen comrade.
While the log line to “Renegades” might sound heavy, a lightness is evinced from this experienced ensemble’s chemistry and the tall task that awaits them: In one scene, they must defend themselves with a hodgepodge of weapons — garden shears, a couple of grenades, a crossbow. The appearances of Danny Trejo and the late Tommy Lister as lovable informants only further instills “Renegades” — like “The Expendables” — with a welcome measure of nostalgia.
Rent or buy on most major platforms.
Juan José Ballesta (left) plays an endearing anarchist in “A Man of Action.” The San Juan Daily Star Monday, January 6, 2023 20
By MARIA CRAMER
Oobah Butler knew it was wrong to write fake online reviews for restaurants where he had never dined. But he was 21, broke and living in his parents’ house in Feckenham, an English village 115 miles northwest of London. A faceless vendor on a website that advertised freelance work offered to pay him 10 pounds (about $15 at the time) for each review he wrote and posted on the travel site Tripadvisor.
The job was simple. He would receive an email with the restaurant’s name. Then he would log into one of the four or five profiles he had set up on Tripadvisor to avoid suspicion, look at pictures of the restaurant’s food and study the menu.
The reviews were always positive (raving was a job requirement) and “verbose,” he said.
One post said a waiter was so attentive he should get a raise. Another said something along the lines of “this place has one of the finest Greek pastries in London.”
“I wasn’t even living in London at the time,” Butler said. “I was writing from a very limited experience of curry houses and chip shops. At the time I was more versed in beans and toast.”
It has been 10 years since Butler, now 30 and actually living in London, has written false reviews, but plenty of others have stepped in where he left off.
In 2022, Yelp, another review site, said its moderators removed more than 700,000 posts that violated its policies — including many that were abusive or deceptive. In 2020, more than 26 million reviews were posted on Tripadvisor. The company said it took down nearly 1 million it deemed fraudulent, according to its 2021 transparency report.
Fake reviews have led to legal consequences. In 2018, the owner of PromoSalento, an Italian company offering to write paid reviews of hospitality businesses, was sentenced to nine months in prison after an Italian court determined that he had used a fake identity to write false reviews on Tripadvisor.
In November, Google filed a lawsuit against dozens of companies and websites, accusing them of carrying out “a large-scale scam” to mislead small businesses by selling them “fake or worthless services,” including “the option of essentially flooding a competitor’s business profile” found on Google search with fake negative reviews or ratings.
Sites like Yelp and Tripadvisor say false reviews represent a tiny percentage of the overall posts that make it online. They point to their use of technology and human investigators, which allows them to weed out bad posts so they rarely get published.
Still, as customers rely more and more on the ratings of people who say they have patronized a restaurant or a hotel, the need to update technology that separates authentic posts from false ones is only growing.
In October, representatives from Yelp, Tripadvisor, Trustpilot, Google and several other review sites met for a one-day closed-door conference in San Francisco to discuss how they could work together to tackle fake online reviews. It was the first time such a meeting had been held, said Becky Foley, the senior director of trust and safety at Tripadvisor, which organized the summit. The Federal Trade Commission, which is
looking into strengthening penalties against companies that solicit and sell fake reviews, also sent a representative, Foley said. The big business of fake review writers “is bad for all of us,” she said. “If people don’t trust reviews on Yelp, then they’re not going to trust reviews on Tripadvisor.”
Sleuths on a mission
Review sites use automated systems with built-in algorithms to scour data and detect inauthentic or problematic posts. Neither Yelp nor Tripadvisor would provide details of how their systems work because they did not want to telegraph the knowledge to potential fraudsters.
There are some obvious examples of a questionable post. For instance, a large number of positive reviews coming from a hotel in Cancún, Mexico, might suggest that the posts are being generated by the business itself, not by people who have stayed there.
Overwhelmingly, false posts are positive, Foley said. They can come through paid writers or from patrons who feel pressured by the business to post a glowing review or are offered incentives to do so.
Noorie Malik, vice president for user operations at Yelp, said some hotels thrust smart screens in front of guests as they’re leaving and ask them to leave reviews on the spot, which could pressure them into giving unearned praise.
One hotel in Buena Park, California, offered discounts to guests who agreed to write five-star reviews, Malik said. Yelp said it learned of the discounts from one of its users.
That’s just the kind of tip a human investigator is waiting to pounce on. A computer algorithm can flag a pattern or a post, but when questionable reviews need deeper scrutiny, sites rely on specialized detectives, who say they also work proactively, looking for potential abuses.
Sometimes investigators conduct sting operations, going on websites that sell reviews and pretending to be business owners seeking to boost their ratings, Foley said.
“At any given time, I probably have three or four conversations going with different fraudsters that are out there,” said
one senior investigator at Tripadvisor who has worked for the company for 15 years and was a mechanic before he started.
The investigators at Tripadvisor come from a wide range of backgrounds. Some were police officers or detectives who investigated fraud or child exploitation. Others worked in cybersecurity.
The two who spoke to the New York Times asked to remain anonymous and, during an online interview, kept their faces hidden out of fear they might be targeted. Some investigators have been threatened by users who were taken off the site after they were found to have written false reviews, Foley said.
The biggest requirements for the job are curiosity and tenacity, said Robert O’Neill, the senior investigations manager of trust and safety at Tripadvisor.
Successful investigators, he said, should have “this idea of not leaving well enough alone.”
‘It’s basically extortion’
Butler, the London writer, said his experience writing false posts made him “obsessed” with Tripadvisor’s review system and the power it seemed to hold over the public and restaurant owners.
Butler took his deceit to new heights in 2017, when he made up a restaurant and began writing fake reviews about it. He called it the Shed at Dulwich, a name inspired by the rundown backyard behind an apartment he rented for 800 pounds a month.
He described it as a unique dining experience that was open by appointment only and served entrees named after moods like “empathetic,” “lust” and “contemplation.” He and his friends wrote enough five-star reviews that after a few months, the Shed rose to become the top rated restaurant in London on Tripadvisor.
Butler opened the restaurant for one night, never charging the guests for packaged lasagnas and macaroni and cheese he and his friends served them.
When he revealed his ruse in a Vice article, he was bombarded with media attention. An anchor on “Good Morning Britain” called him “naughty.” An investor in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, said he would pay Butler to replicate what he did with the Shed for his own restaurant, which didn’t even exist yet.
He also heard from restaurant owners, who said his experiment underscored the problem of trying to placate customers to get high ratings.
“There is a real sense of injustice that people who work in hospitality feel toward these platforms,” Butler said.
That feeling is familiar to Chris Wiken, the owner of the Packing House, a restaurant in Milwaukee that his parents opened in 1974.
For years, he said he has dealt with negative posts from two types of people: customers who wait until they leave the restaurant to complain online and reviewers who never ate at the restaurant at all.
When he replies to their posts, he says, he has learned they are typically looking for the same thing: money or gift certificates.
“It’s basically extortion,” Wiken said.
(2) semanas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre cada publicación. Se fijará además, en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio donde ha de celebrarse la subasta, estos lugares serán la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía de dicho Municipio. Se notificará a la parte demandada copia del edicto de subasta mediante correo certificado con acuse de recibo a su dirección que obra en autos. Una vez efectuada la correspondiente venta judicial, otorgaré la escritura del traspaso al licitador victorioso, quien podrá ser la parte demandante, cuya oferta podrá aplicarse a la extinción parcial o total de la obligación reconocida por la Sentencia. Colocaré al licitador victorioso en posesión física de la Propiedad mediante el lanzamiento de los ocupantes en el término legal de veinte (20) días desde la fecha de la venta en pública subasta y para ello procederé a romper candados de ser necesario. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el Tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante o ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. El Registrador de la Propiedad cancelará, libre de derechos, todo gravamen posterior a la fecha en que se otorgó la hipoteca que ha sido ejecutada mediante esta acción, y procederá a la inscripción de la venta a favor del comprador en subasta libre de todo gravamen posterior a la fecha en que se otorgó la hipoteca que ha sido ejecutada mediante esta acción. Expido el presente edicto bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 18 de enero de 2023.
EDWIN E. LÓPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.
BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO, INC.
Demandante v. JULIO ALBERTO MOSQUEA, T/C/C JULIO
ALBERTO MOSQUERA; VANESSA FRÍAS ROSARIO
Demandados
CIVIL NUM.: KCD2016-2480. SALA: 604. SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO - EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. ESTADOS
UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL
PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. AVISO DE SUBASTA.
SS. El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico, hago saber a la parte demandada, al PUBLICO EN GENERAL; y a todos los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, siempre que surjan de la certificación registra!, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante: Secretario Del Departamento de Desarrollo Urbano y Vivienda de los Estados Unidos de América: A cuyo favor aparece un pagaré por la suma de $ 5,698.95, sin interés y no se expresa la fecha de vencimiento, según consta de la escritura # 338, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 27 de agosto de 2011, ante el notario ANA CRISTINA DIAZ VELASCO.
Inscrita al folio 2 del tomo 1069 de Sabana Llana, finca # 6085 inscripción 15ta. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el día 15 de julio de 2022, por la Secretaria del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor la propiedad que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el #12 de la manzana I en el plano de la Urbanización Villa Granada sito en el barrio Sabana Llana de Rio Piedras, con un área superficial de 338.00 metros cuadrados; en lindes por el NORTE, en 13.00 metros con el solar #17; por el SUR, en igual medida con la calle #10; por el ESTE, en 26.00 metros con el solar #13; por el OESTE, en igual medida con el solar #11. Enclava una casa. Inscrito al folio 201 del tomo 139 de Sabana Llana, finca número #6,085 Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Quinta de San Juan. Propiedad ubicada en: 503, Calle Teruel, Villa Granada, San Juan, PR. El producto de la subasta se destinará a satisfacer al demandante hasta donde alcance, la SENTENCIA dictada a su favor, el día 3 de agosto de 2017 y notificada el 9 de agosto de 2017, en el presente caso civil, a saber la suma de $137,156.53 por concepto de principal; $1,045.44 por concepto de intereses acumulados; $172.16 por concepto de cargos por demora;
los cuales al igual que los intereses continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda reclamada en este pleito, $243.86 por concepto de “Escrow Advances” y la suma de $16,540.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; y demás créditos accesorios garantizados hipotecariamente (Sentencia). La adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el acto mismo de la adjudicación, en efectivo (moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América), giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del alguacil del Tribunal. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a efecto el día 23 de febrero de 2023 a las 10:00 de la mañana, en la oficina del referido Alguacil, localizada en el Centro Judicial de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico. El precio mínimo fijado para la PRIMERA SUBASTA es por la cantidad de $165,400.00. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, la misma se llevará a efecto el día 6 de marzo de 2023 a las 10:00 de la mañana en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la SEGUNDA SUBASTA será de $110,266.66, equivalentes a dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una TERCERA SUBASTA, la misma se llevará a efecto el día 13 de marzo de 2023 a las 10:00 de la mañana en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la TERCERA SUBASTA será de $82,700.00, equivalentes a la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente; se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor, todo ello a tenor con lo dispone el Articulo 104 de la Ley Núm. 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015 conocida como “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico”. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquiere libre de toda carga y gravamen que afecte la mencionada finca según el Artículo 102, inciso 6. Una vez confirmada la venta judicial por el Honorable Tribunal, se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura de venta judicial y se pondrá al comprador en posesión física del inmueble de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda aquella persona o personas que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción
del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de todos los licitadores y el público en general, el presente Edicto se publicará por espacio de dos (2) semanas consecutivas, con un intervalo de por lo menos siete días entre ambas publicaciones, en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y se fijará además en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse dicha venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o los acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado pueden concurrir a la subasta si les convienen o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Se 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 San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 20 de enero de 2023. Pedro Hieye Gonzalez, Alguacil, División de Subastas Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de San Juan.
LEGAL NOTICE
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO
WILMINGTON SAVINGS
FUND SOCIETY, FSB, D/B/A CHRISTIANA TRUST, AS INDENTURE TRUSTEE, FOR THE CSMC 2015-PR1 TRUST, MORTGAGE-BACKED NOTES, SERIES 2015-PR1
Plaintiff V.
ANGEL GARCIA GARCIA
Defendants
Civil Action Num.: 21-cv-01229.
(FAB). Matter: FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE. NOTICE OF SALE.
To: ANGEL GARCIA
WHEREAS: On July 13, 2022
Default Judgment was entered and grated on same day in favor of Plaintiff to recover from defendants the principal amount of $127,202.53 plus accrued interests at an annual rate 4.00%, since March 1st, 2020, to the present, a deferred principal balance of $2,114.68, which does not accrue interest at the time, plus late charges fees in the amount of 5.0% of each and any monthly installment not received by the note holder within 15 days after the installment was due, including the balance of the sum of $15,229.00, for costs, charges, disbursements, expenses and attorneys’ fees guaranteed under the mortgage obligations. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by interested parties at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150 or 400 Federal Office Building, 150 Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.
WHEREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned Judgment, Order of Execution, and the Writ of Execution thereof, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S. currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the Court, Room 150 or 400 – Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property described in Spanish: UR-
BANA: Propiedad Horizontal: Apartamento número ciento cuarenta (140), localizado en el tercer cuarto y quinto piso del Edificio I del Condominio Paseo Mónaco, situado en el kilómetro dieciséis punto seis (16.6) de la Carretera Estatal número ciento sesenta y siete Barrio Cerro Gordo del Municipio de Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Este apartamento está construido en hormigón reforzado. Tiene tres (3) niveles, con su puerta de entrada por el lindero Este, y por ella se accesa al área común general del Condominio. Este apartamento tiene un área total de mil quinientos sesenta y cuatro punto noventa y seis (1,564.96) pies cuadrados equivalentes a ciento cuarenta y cinco punto cuatrocientos cuarenta y dos (145.442) metros cuadrados.
Linderos: En el primer nivel del apartamento (tercer piso del edificio) por el NORTE, con el apartamento número ciento treinta y nueve (139); por el SUR, con área común general del condominio; por el ESTE, con área común general del Condominio entre la que se encuentra el área de ubicación de la puerta de entrada al apartamento y con el apartamento número ciento treinta y nueve
(139); y por el OESTE, con área común general del Condominio. Los linderos en el segundo nivel del apartamento (cuarto piso del edificio) son por el NORTE, con el apartamento número ciento treinta y nueve (139); por el SUR, con el apartamento número ciento cuarenta y cuatro (144) y con área común general del condominio; por el ESTE, con el apartamento número ciento treinta y siete (137) y con el apartamento número ciento treinta y nueve (139); y por el OESTE, con el apartamento número ciento treinta y siete (137) y con área común general del condominio. Este segundo nivel se comunica con el primero a base de una escalera interior del apartamento. Los linderos del tercer nivel del apartamento (quinto piso del edificio) son por el NORTE, con el apartamento número ciento treinta y nueve (139); por el SUR, con el apartamento número ciento cuarenta y cuatro (144); por el ESTE, con el apartamento número ciento treinta y siete (137); y por el OESTE, con el apartamento número ciento treinta y nueve (139) y con área común general del condominio: Este tercer nivel se comunica con el segundo a base de una escalera interior del apartamento. Este apartamento consta de sala-comedor, balcón, cocina con clóset, tres cuartos con closets, dos baños, un medio baño, un área de lavandería, un clóset adicional fuera de los cuartos, escalera interior, un área techada en la azotea del edificio y un área techada en laazotea del edificio, y un área de terraza descubierta en la azotea del edificio la cual está delimitada en su lindero por una pared. A este apartamento le corresponde dos espacios sencillos de estacionamientos, identificados cada uno con el número ciento cuarenta (140) en el área de estacionamiento ubicada al Este del edificio marcado I; J, K y L del condominio. Le corresponden a este apartamento como anejos, el estacionamiento número ciento cuarenta (140) para dos automóviles, uno detrás del otro y el área de terraza que ubica en el tercer nivel del apartamento, todo según ilustrado en el Plot Plan y planos del condominio aprobados por ARPE. A este apartamento le corresponde una participación de cero punto cinco mil quinientos cuarenta y ocho por ciento (0.5548%) en los elementos comunes del Condominio. The encumbered property is recorded at Page 35 of Volume 1918 of Bayamon Sur, Property Registry of Puerto Rico, lot number 79,880, First Section of Bayamón. Property address: Condominio Paseo de Monaco II, Apartament 140, Bayamón, P.R. 00960. The deed of mortgage and subsequent modifications are recorded at Page 35 of
Volume 1918 and Page 55 of Volume 1922 both of Bayamón Sur, Property Registry of Bayamón, Third and Fourth Inscription respectively. WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens: Senior Liens: NONE. Junior Liens: NONE. Other Liens: NONE. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. THEREFORE, the FIRST PUBLIC SALE shall be held on the 14TH DAY OF MARCH OF 2023 AT 8:45 AM. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $135,966.15. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on the 21ST DAY OF MARCH OF 2023 AT 8:45 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum $90,644.10, which is two-thirds of the amount of the minimum bid for the first public sale. If a second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD PUBLIC AUCTION will be held on the 28TH DAY OF MARCH OF 2023 AT 8:45 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $67,983.01, which is one-half of the minimum bid in the first public sale. Should there be no award or adjudication at the third public sale, the property may be awarded to the creditor for the entire amount of its debt if it is equal to or less than the amount of the minimum bid of the third public sale, crediting this amount to the amount owed if it is greater. The undersigned Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency (cash), or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied. WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the undersigned Special Master subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon
confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, 17th day of January of 2023. Pedro A. Vélez Baerga, Special Master, 787-672-8269.
***
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR E.M.I. EQUITY MORTGAGE, INC.
Demandante Vs. YAHAIRA SOSTRE
SANTOS T/C/C YAJAIRA SOSTRE SANTOS
Demandados
Civil Núm.: BY2022CV03763. Sala: 702. 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 BAYAMON, SALA SUPERIOR, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, cheque certificado en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América el 8 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la Oficina del Alguacil de Subastas, sita en el cuarto piso del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Bayamón, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en:
URBANIZACION SANTA JUANITA, WK-14 CALLE MARIA L. GOMEZ, BAYAMON, PUERTO RICO 00956 y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar catorce Bloque WK, Santa Juanita municipio de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, con cabida de trescientos once metros con cuarenta y nueve centímetros cuadrados, linda por el NORTE, con solar trece; por el SUR, con solar quince; por el ESTE, con calle María L. Gómez Norte; y por el OESTE, con solares nueve y diez. Contiene una casa de concreto para una familia. La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita al Folio 131 del Tomo 538 de Bayamón Sur, finca número 24,448, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección Primera. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dispuesto en la Escritura de Hipoteca, es decir la suma
la parte demandante el Lcdo.
Javier Montalvo Cintrón, Delgado & Fernández, LLC, PO Box 11750, Fernández Juncos Station, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00910-1750. Tel. [787]
274-1414. DADA en San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 25 de enero de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ
COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. FERNÁNDEZ DEL VALLE, LUZ E., SECRETARIA
AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA DE HUMACAO
ORIENTAL BANK
Demandante V. SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN
MARIA MORGES LLAMAS COMPUESTA POR
GUALBERTO SOLER MORGES, DAVID SOLER MORGES, MINERVA SOLER MORGES
Demandados
Civil Núm.: NG2022CV00140.
Sobre: INTERPELACIÓN, COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA.
EMPLAZAMIENTO E INTERPELACIÓN POR EDICTO.
ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.
A: SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN MARIA MORGES LLAMAS COMPUESTA POR GUALBERTO SOLER MORGES, DAVID SOLER MORGES Y MINERVA SOLER MORGES.
BARRIADA SANTIAGO Y LIMA, CALLE 4 NÚMERO
162, NAGUABO, PR 00718-3010 (PROPIEDAD); 3062 MANDOLIN DRIVE, KISSIMMEE FLORIDA
34744 (GUALBERTO SOLER MORGES);
25318 FELICITY COURT, LEESBURG, FLORIDA
34748 (DAVID SOLER MORGES); 10313
SUMMERVIEW CER, RIVERVIEW, FLORIDA
33578 (MINERVA SOLER MORGES).
Por la presente se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los 30 días de haber sido notificado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la 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 termino, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Representa a la parte demandante el Lcda. Raquel Deseda Belaval, Delgado Fernández, LLC, PO Box 11750, Fernández Juncos Station, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00910-1750. Tel.
[787] 274-1414. Oriental Bank ha presentado una Demanda en su contra en la cual se reclama que la parte demandada incurrió en el incumplimiento del Contrato Hipotecario al no pagar la mensualidad vencida el día 1 de agosto de 2022 y las que han vencido subsiguientemente, por lo que la parte demandante ha declarado vencida la totalidad de la deuda ascendente a $25,048.10 de principal, más $344.41 a intereses acumulados, que continuarán acumulándose al 3% hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más $68.58 a cargos por demora y otros cargos, más $527.14 a escrow, más costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, según pactado, más cualquier otro desembolso que haya efectuado o efectúe la parte demandante durante la tramitación de este caso para otros adelantos de conformidad con el Contrato Hipotecario. El inmueble entregado como garantía de la hipoteca antes descrita es: RÚSTICA: Solar marcado con el numero 162 (según registro) en el Plano de Parcelación de la Comunidad Rural Santiago y Lima del Barrio Punta y Lima del Término Municipal de Naguabo, Puerto Rico; con una cabida superficial de 0.945 cuerdas, equivalente a 355.49 metros cuadrados.
En lindes por el NORTE, con la calle número 14, por el SUR con Parcela número 163 de la comunidad, por el ESTE con la calle número 9 de la comunicad y por el OESTE, con parcela número 161 de la comunidad.
Finca 7677 inscrita al Folio 45 del tomo 136 de Naguabo, Registro de la Propiedad de Humacao. Se dicta Orden 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 del causante
CARMEN MARÍA MORGES LLAMAS en el término de treinta (30) días, dispuesto en ley. Se advierte a Sucesión de Carmen Maria Morges Llamas compuesta por Gualberto Soler Morges, David Soler Morges y Minerva Soler Morges, 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. DADA en Humacao, Puerto Rico, a 24 de enero de 2023. IVELISSE
C. FONSECA RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL AUXILIAR. DALISSA REYES DE LEÓN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE SAN JUAN YAN LLC
Demandante V. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO; JUAN DEL PUEBLO Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO Y CUALESQUIER PERSONA DESCONOCIDA CON POSIBLE INTERÉS EN LA OBLIGACIÓN CUYA CANCELACIÓN POR DECRETO JUDICIAL SE SOLICITA
Demandados
Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV11143.
Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: JUAN DEL PUEBLO Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES Y CUALESQUIER PERSONA DESCONOCIDA CON POSIBLE INTERÉS EN LA OBLIGACIÓN CUYA CANCELACIÓN POR DECRETO JUDICIAL SE SOLICITA.
Por la presente se le notifica que ha sido presentada en este Tribunal una Demanda en su contra en el pleito de epígrafe. En este caso la parte demandante ha radicado una Demanda para que se decrete judicialmente el saldo de un (1) pagaré hipotecario a favor de Westernbank Puerto Rico, por la suma de $2,275,000.00. El pagaré por fue suscrito el día 17 de junio de 2005, ante el notario Adrian J. Hilera Torres, garantizado por hipoteca constituida mediante la Escritura número 470, otorgada en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, inscrita al folio 171 del tomo 1,044 de Monacillos, finca 20,328, inscripción 14ta, sobre la siguiente propiedad:
URBANA: Parcela de terreno situada en el Barrio Monacillos del término municipal de Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de tres mil doscientos cuarenta y tres
punto noventa y dos (3,243.92) metros cuadrados, equivalentes a treintidos (32) áreas, cuarentitres (43) centiáreas y noventidos (92) centésimas de otra, equivalentes a cero punto ochocientos veinticinco (0.825) cuerdas. En lindes: por el NORTE, en una distancia de sesenta punto ochenta y cinco (60.85) metros, con terrenos pertenecientes a Fermín Cruz; por el SUR, en una distancia de cuarentitres punto cuarenta (43.40) metros, con una acera de tres (3) metros de ancho que separa las parcelas número dieciséis (16) y diecisiete (17) según aprobado por la Junta de Planificación de Puerto Rico; por el ESTE, en una distancia de cincuentidos punto cuarenta (52.40) metros, con la carretera insular número uno (1); y por el OESTE, con una distancia de treinta (30.00) metros, con la parcela número ocho (8) de este mismo Reparto Sein, propiedad de Sein Realty Company, lnc., y en una distancia de cincuenta (50.00) metros, con la parcela número nueve (9) de este mismo Reparto Sein y propiedad de Francisco R. Sein. Según el documento en dicho solar enclava una casa cuya descripción copiada literalmente en el idioma inglés lee como sigue: The structure of the building consists of reinforced concrete foundations, columns and beams, with steel joists supporting pitched-roof consisting of pre-cast concrete (Porete) slabs, covered by half inches cellotex boards and 3 ply composite built-up roofing. Along its whole length it has a monitor to accommodate 2 continuos rows of windows. The building has a main floor 120 feet, 8 inches, by 90 feet 8 inches plus 30 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 6 inches out to out dimensions for an área of 11,017.39 square feet of manufacturing space, and entrance lobby 23 feet 6 inches by 8 feet 6 inches for an area of 199.75 square feet, anda lean to 31’ 0” by 21’ 6” for an area of 666.50 square feet, to be used for sanitary facilities. This gives a total área of 11,883.64 square feet of covered floor space. The floor consists of a 5 inches thick reinforced concrete slab with an integral cement finish of the manufacturing área, and a monolithic cement finish on entrance porch, stairs and loading platform. Toilets and ladies rest rooms have a native cement tile finish. Exterior walls are of concrete blocks, plastered and painted on both sides, except from wall which is plastered and painted on the outside, interior face of walls on the men and ladies toilets are plastered/and painted a 5’ 0” high sprayed-on glazed finish wainscot. Ceilings are rubbed and painted through-out the building. Windows are metal sash throughout the building except for Miami aluminum at
the toilet rooms. Door are wood panel, except for 2 wood and glass, at the main entrance and another one with antipanic hardware set at the left side entrance, and one metal an glass double sliding one at the loading platform. Clearance in the manufacturing área from finish floor to the lowest part of beams at the side eaves is 11’ 9” and 17’ 5” at the center of the building. This building has an uncovered loading platform 30’ 0” long by 7’ 0” wide. Finca número 20,328 (12,674 antes) inscrita al folio 247 del tomo 587 de Monacillos, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección III de San Juan. La parte demandante alega que dicho pagaré ha sido saldado según más detalladamente consta en la Demanda radicada que puede examinarse en la Secretaría de este Tribunal. Por tratarse de una obligación hipotecaria y pudiendo usted tener interés en este caso o quedar afectado por el remedio solicitado, se le emplaza por este edicto que se publicará una vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de Puerto Rico. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, y notifique con copia de ella a la abogada de la parte demandante la Lcda. Zilmarie Delgado Pieras, 33 Calle Resolución, Suite 302, San Juan, PR 00920-2727; Tel. (787) 7826500, dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto, apercibiéndole que de no hacerlo así dentro del término indicado, el Tribunal podrá anotar su rebeldía y dictar sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado en la Demanda sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 17 de enero de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA. ELIZABETH AGOSTO NÚÑEZ, SECRETARIA DE SERVICIOS A SALA.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA
WILMINGTON SAVINGS
FUND SOCIETY, FSB, AS TRUSTEE OF STANWICH MORTGAGE LOAN
TRUST D
Demandante V. HECTOR LUIS SANTIAGO ROSA; LA SUCESION DE LYDIA HERNANDEZ VAZQUEZ COMPUESTA POR LUZ DELIA PENA
HERNANDEZ, NOEL MOJICA HERNANDEZ, ANAIDA PENA
HERNANDEZ, JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE; SECRETARIO DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE DESARROLLO URBANO Y VIVIENDA DE ESTADOS UNIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INTREGOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)
Demandados Civil Núm.: LO2019CV00131.
Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE INTERPELACIÓN. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, S. S. A: SUCESION DE LYDIA HERNANDEZ VAZQUEZ COMPUESTA POR LUZ DELIA PENA HERNANDEZ ANAIDA PENA HERNANDEZ.
El Artículo 1578 del Código Civil de 2020, dispone: “Transcurridos treinta (30) días desde que se haya producido la delación, cualquier persona interesada puede solicitar al tribunal que le señale al llamado un plazo, para que manifieste si acepta la herencia o si la repudia. Este plazo no excederá de treinta (30) días. El tribunal apercibirá al llamado de que, si transcurrido el plazo señalado no ha manifestado su voluntad de aceptar la herencia o de repudiarla, se dará por aceptada.” Por la presente el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, conforme al Art. 1578, supra, y el caso Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria vs. Latinoamericana de Exportación, Inc., 164 DPR 689 (2005), les ordena que el término de treinta (30) días, hagan declaración aceptado o repudiando la herencia de la causante, LYDIA HERNANDEZ VAZQUEZ. Se les apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que de no expresarse dentro de ese término de treinta (30) días en torno a la aceptación o repudiación de herencia, la misma se tendrá por aceptada. Los abogados de la parte demandante son:
Lcdo. Andrés Sáez Marrero
T.S.P.R. Núm. 18074
TROMBERG, MORRIS & POULIN, LLC
1515 South Federal Highway, Suite 100 Boca Raton, FL 33432 Tel. 877-338-4101 / Fax: 561-338-4077 prservice@tmppllc.com / asaez@tmppllc.com
Expido este edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, hoy 27 de enero de 2023. LCDA. MA-
RILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. RUTH M. COLÓN LUCIANO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.
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. DANIEL E. MELÉNDEZ ORTEGA
Demandado
Civil Núm.: BY2022CV04473.
Salón: 502. 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: DANIEL E. MELÉNDEZ ORTEGA - URB. SAN FERNANDO J13 CALLE 3 BAYAMÓN, PR 00957.
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 9 de enero de 2023. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 9 de enero de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA
SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. NEREIDA QUILES
SANTANA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.
LEGAL NOTICE
Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL
DE JUSTICIA Tribunal Supremo Tribunal de Apelaciones Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de MAYAGÜEZ. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante v. SUCESION DE EMILIO MALAVE ORTIZ, compuesta por JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE como posibles herederos desconocidos de dicha Sucesión y SUCESION DE ENID RIVERA ROMAN compuesta por JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE como posibles herederos desconocidos de dicha Sucesión, CRIM Demandado(a) Civil Núm. AG2022CV00657 (207). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE como posibles herederos desconocidos de la SUCESION DE EMILIO MALAVE ORTIZ Y JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE como posibles herederos desconocidos de la SUCESION DE ENID RIVERA ROMAN. (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 26 de enero de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 2 de febrero de 2023. En Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, el 2 de febrero de 2023. LCDA. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, Secretario(a). F/ JAZMIN SANABRIA TORRES, Secretario(a) Auxiliar.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN
JUAN SAN CARLOS MORTGAGE, LLC.
Parte Demandante Vs. LESTER VIRGILIO
NEGRON AYALA Y LA SUCESION DE GETZAIDA
MONTIJO CABIYA COMPUESTA POR
FULANO Y FULANA
Parte Demandada
Civil Núm.: SJ2019CV03258. Salón Núm.: (0503). Sobre:
EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA Y COBRO DE DINERO. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS
UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.
A: LESTER VIRGILIO NEGRON AYALA Y LA SUCESION DE GETZAIDA
MONTIJO CABIYA COMPUESTA POR
FULANO Y FULANA; ORIENTAL BANK
(ANTES) SCOTIABANK DE PUERTO RICO O A SU ORDEN; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS
MUNICIPALES:
DEPARTAMENTO
DE HACIENDA: Y AL PÚBLICO EN GENERAL:
El Alguacil que suscribe, certifica y hace constar que en cumplimiento de Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América. Todo pago recibido por el (la) Alguacil por concepto de subastas será en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del (de la) Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Todo derecho, título, participación e interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar número cincuenta y cinco (55) de la Urbanización Villa Francis (hoy Urbanización Los Maestros) radicado en el Barrio de Hato Rey del término municipal de Río Piedras (hoy San Juan), Puerto Rico, compuesto de trescientos cuarenta y cuatro punto cincuenta (344.50) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en veintiséis punto cincuenta (26.50) metros, con el solar número cincuenta y nueve (59); por el SUR, en veintiséis punto cincuenta (26.50) metros, con el solar número cincuenta y nueve (59); por el ESTE, en trece punto cero cero (13.00) metros, con el solar número cincuenta y cuatro (54); por el
OESTE, en trece punto cero cero (13.00) metros, con la número tres (3) (hoy calle Ramón Negrón Flores), marcada con el número quinientos trece (513). Enclava una casa de concreto reforzado y bloques de concreto de una planta. Inscrita al folio 32 del tomo 1527 de Río Piedras Norte, finca #17,784 inscripción 11ma. La propiedad objeto de ejecución está localizada en la siguiente dirección: Urbanización Los Maestros, #513 Calle Negrón Flores, San Juan, P.R. 00918. Según figura en el Estudio de título, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada al siguiente Gravamen posterior a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: a. Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor de Oriental Bank (antes) Scotiabank de Puerto Rico, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $10,000.00, con intereses al 5.50% anual, vencedero el día 1 de julio de 2041, constituida mediante la escritura número 225-B, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 29 de julio de 2011, ante la notario Elyvette Fuentes Bonilla, e inscrita al folio 32 del tomo 1527 de Río Piedras Norte, finca número 17,784, inscripción 12ma. Se le notifica a los acreedores posteriores anteriormente identificados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Se informa que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravamen posterior, una vez sea otorgada la escritura de venta judicial y obtenida la Orden y Mandamiento de cancelación de gravamen posterior. (Art. 51, Ley 210-2015). En relación a la finca a subastarse, se establece como tipo mínimo de licitación en la Primera Subasta la suma de $172,861.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la Escritura de Hipoteca #225-A, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 29 de julio de 2011, ante la notario Evlyvette Fuentes Bonilla, inscrita al folio 32 del tomo 1527 de Río Piedras Norte, finca # 17,784, inscripción 11ma. La PRIMERA SUBASTA, se llevará a cabo el día 20 DE MAR-
ZO DE 2023 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en mis oficinas sitas en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, el tipo mínimo para la primera subasta es la suma de $172,861.00. Si la primera subasta del inmueble no produjere remate, ni adjudicación, se celebrará una SEGUNDA
SUBASTA el día 28 DE MAR-
ZO DE 2023 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo sitio y servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes del precio pactada para la primera subasta, o
sea, la suma de $115,240.66. Si la segunda subasta no produjere remate, ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 4 DE ABRIL DE 2023 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar y regirá como tipo mínimo de la tercera subasta la mitad del precio pactado para la primera, o sea, la suma de $86,430.50. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo, para con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor, a saber: Suma Principal de $149,809.99, con intereses al 4.50% anual desde el día 1 octubre de 2018; cargos por demora mensuales; las debidas cantidades de contribuciones e impuestos, primas de seguro contra riesgo y seguro de hipoteca hasta su completo pago; $17,286.10 estipulados para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados en caso de reclamación judicial; así como cualquier otra suma que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca, más cualquier otra suma que resulte por cualesquiera otros adelantos que se hayan hecho la demandante, en virtud de las disposiciones de la escritura de hipoteca y del Pagaré hipotecario. Para más información, a las personas interesadas se les notifica que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal, durante las horas laborables. Este EDICTO DE SUBASTA, se publicará en los lugares públicos correspondientes y en un periódico de circulación general en la jurisdicción de Puerto Rico. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los referentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente Escritura de Venta Judicial y el Alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días, de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Expedido en San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 31 de enero de 2023.
PEDRO HIEYE GONZÁLEZ, ALGUACIL.
Demandante (a) Vs. FREDERICK GUADALUPE MEDINA
Demandado (a)
Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV07312.
Sala: 803. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 26 de enero de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 27 de enero de 2023. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 27 de enero de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. KAROLYN RIVERA NAVARRO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN TITLE SECURITY GROUP LLC
Demandante V. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO, JUAN DEL PUEBLO Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO Y CUALESQUIERA PERSONA DESCONOCIDA CON POSIBLE INTERÉS EN LA OBLIGACIÓN CUYA CANCELACIÓN POR DECRETO JUDICIAL SE SOLICITA
Demandados
Civil Núm.: SJ2023CV00371. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
Por la presente se le notifica que ha sido presentada en este Tribunal una Demanda en su contra en el pleito de epígrafe. En este caso la parte demandante ha radicado una Demanda para que se decrete judicialmente el saldo de (1) pagaré hipotecario: pagaré a favor Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, por la suma principal de $232,707.00 dólares con intereses al 4.25% anual, vencedero el día 1 de febrero de 2046, constituida mediante la escritura número 17, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 30 de enero de 216, ante la notaria Eileen M. Rivera Amador, e inscrita al folio de Kairbe volumen de Sabana Llana, finca número 2,194, inscripción 17ta.; sobre la propiedad que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar radicado en el Barrio Sabana Llana, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, que forma parte de la Urbanización Villa Dos Pinos, marcado con el número ciento cuarenta y ocho del Plano de Lotificación de dicha Urbanización, con una cabida superficial de ochocientos sesenta y siete metros con cincuenta y cinco centímetros cuadrados, colindando por el NORTE, en diecinueve metros con cincuenta y seis centímetros, con la Calle número nueve; por el SUR, en treinta y ocho metros con dieciocho centímetros, con los Solares número ciento cincuenta y cinco y ciento cincuenta y seis; por el ESTE, en treinta y tres metros noventa y cuatro centímetros, con la Calle Doctor López Sicardó; y por el OESTE, en treinta metros, con el Solar número ciento cuarenta y siete. Finca número 2,194, inscrita al folio 126 del tomo 53 de Sabana Llana, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección V de San Juan. La parte demandante alega que dicho pagaré ha sido saldado según más detalladamente consta en la Demanda radicada que puede examinarse en la Secretaría de este Tribunal. Por tratarse de una obligación hipotecaria y pudiendo usted tener interés en este caso o quedar afectado por el remedio solicitado, se le emplaza por este edicto que se publicará una vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de Puerto Rico. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:// unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac, salvo que se represente por derecho propio. Debe notificar con copia de ella a la abogada de la parte demandante a la Lcda. Alyssa Rivera Rivera, a la dirección P.O. Box 19815, San Juan, P.R. 00910. Teléfono 787-4007269, dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación
de este Edicto. Se le apercibe que, de no hacerlo así dentro del término indicado, el Tribunal podrá anotar su rebeldía y dictar sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado en la Demanda sin más citarle, ni oírle.
EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA
Y SELLO DEL TRIBUNAL, en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy a 20 de enero de 2023. GRISELDA
RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA. MICHELLE RIVERA RÍOS, SUB- SECRETARIA.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA SUPERIOR DE VEGA BAJA
BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Parte Demandante Vs. LUIS FELIPE FLORES GARCÍA, AMELIA
RAMOS ORTIZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR
AMBOS
Parte Demandada
Civil Núm.: VB2022CV00788. (201). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E.U.U., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.
A La Parte Demandada
LUIS FELIPE FLORES GARCÍA, AMELIA RAMOS ORTIZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR
AMBOS A SUS
ÚLTIMAS DIRECCIONES
CONOCIDAS: 160 SR
KM 9.8, BO. ALMIRANTE SUR, VEGA BAJA, PR 00693, PO BOX 20243, SAN JUAN, PR 009280243, URB FAIRVIEW, 659 CALLE FRANCISCO
CASSANS, SAN JUAN, PR 00926-7619, SANTA RITA, 16 CALLE JORGE
ROMANY, SAN JUAN PR 00922, 1011 CALLE
VALLEJO, SAN JUAN, PR 00925-3816, 153
CALLE CAPETILLO, SAN JUAN PR 00925-3812, SANTA RITA, 651 CALLE MANILA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926, PANORAMA PLAZA APT. 1303, SAN JUAN, PR 00926, 1013
CALLE VALLEJO, SAN JUAN, PR 00925-3816.
Queda usted notificado que en este Tribunal se ha radicado demanda sobre ejecución de hipoteca por la vía ordinaria en
la que se alega que se adeuda las siguientes cantidades: $104,244.38 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 7.125% anual desde el 1 de mayo de 2019 hasta su completo pago, más $486.26 de recargos acumulados los cuales continuarán en aumento hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más la cantidad estipulada de $12,000.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato del préstamo. La propiedad que garantiza hipotecariamente el préstamo es la siguiente: RÚSTICA: Compuesta de 6 cuerdas y ocho mil novecientas noventa y nueve diez milésimas de cuerdas, sita en el Barrio Almirante Sur de Vega Baja. Colindando por el NORTE: con la Sucesión de Juana Torres Marrero; por el SUR: con Antonio Declero Laureano y Manuel Pérez; ESTE: con la Sucesión de Juana Torres Marrero; y por el OESTE: con Anita Pabón. Inscrita al folio 162 del tomo 74 de Vega Baja, Finca 3374. Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección IV. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita como asiento abreviado al folio 241 del tomo 459 de Vega Baja, Finca 3374. Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección IV. Inscripción novena. La demandante es la tenedora por endoso en blanco, por valor recibido y de buena fe del referido pagaré objeto de la presente acción. La parte demandada deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. Se le advierte que si no contesta la demanda, radicando el original de la contestación en este Tribunal y enviando copia de la contestación a la abogada de la Parte Demandante, Lcda. Belma Alonso García, cuya dirección es: PO Box 3922, Guaynabo Puerto Rico 009703922, Teléfono y Fax: (787) 789-1826, (787) 708-0566 correo electrónico: oficinabelmaalonso@gmail.com, dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publicación, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy 26 de enero de 2023, en Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARITZA
ROSARIO ROSARIO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA
WENDELL WILLIAM COLON MUNOZ
Parte Demandante Vs. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA ACTUANDO POR CONDUCTO DE LA ADMINISTRACIÓN DE HOGARES AGRICULTORES DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE AGRICULTURA DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, JOHN DOE Y RICHARD DOE, COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS
Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: CA2022CV03416. 408. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE Puerto Rico, SS.
A: ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA POR CONDUCTO DE LA ADMINISTRACIÓN DE HOGARES AGRICULTORES DEL DEPARTAMNETO DE AGRICULTORES DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE ÁMÉRICA.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, 451 7HT S.W., WASHINGTON, DC 20410. 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, Lcda. Marjaliisa Colón Villanueva, al PO BOX 7970, Ponce, P.R. 00732; Teléfono: 787-843-4168. En dicha demanda se tramita un procedimiento de cancelación de pagaré extraviado. Se alega en dicho procedimiento que se extravió un pagaré hipotecario a por la suma $31,000.000, a favor de Estados Unidos de América actuando por conducto de la Administración de Ho-
gares Agricultores del Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos de América, o a su orden; según consta de la escritura número 27, otorgada en Carolina, Puerto Rico el día 24 de mayo de 1984 ante el notario Marcos A. Rivera Ortiz Inscrito folio doscientos sesenta y cinco (265) del tomo ciento cincuenta y siete (157) de Canóvanas, finca número siete mil ochocientos cuarenta y cinco (7,845), Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección II de Carolina, inscripción cuarta. Que grava la propiedad que se describe a continuación:
URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbanización Villas de Loíza, situada en el Barrio Canóvanas del Municipio de Loíza, Puerto Rico. Contiene una casa de concreto reforzado diseñada para una sola familia. Solar número 26 del Bloque I, con un área del solar: doscientos cincuenta punto cero cero metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en veinticinco punto cero cero metros con solar veinticinco; por el SUR, en veinticinco punto cero cero metros con solar veintisiete; por el ESTE, diez punto cero cero metros con calle cuatro; y por el OESTE, en diez punto cero cero metros con solar tres.
Afecta a una servidumbre de uno punto cincuenta metros por su colindancia Sur para mantenimiento. Inscrito al folio doscientos sesenta y cinco (265) del tomo ciento cincuenta y siete (157) de Canóvanas, finca número siete mil ochocientos cuarenta y cinco (7,845), Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección II de Carolina.
SE LES APERCIBE que, de no hacer sus alegaciones responsivas a la demanda dentro del término aquí dispuesto, se les anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal en Carolina, Puerto Rico. A 30 de enero de 2023.
LCDA. MARILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. LILLIAM ORTIZ NIEVES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO
DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-
NAL DE PRIMERA INSTAN-
CIA SALA SUPERIOR DE RÍO
GRANDE EN FAJARDO
REVERSE MORTGAGE
FUNDING LLC
Demandante Vs.
SUCESION LUZ VIRGINIA
CASTROS COLON T/C/C
LUZ VIRGINIA CASTRO
COLON T/C/C LUZ
CASTRO COLON T/C/C
LUZ VIRGINIA CASTRO
COMPUESTA POR
VIRGINIA MALDONADO
CASTRO, ERNESTO
MALDONADO CASTRO, ALEX MALDONADO
CASTRO, ANDRES
MALDONADO CASTRO, EDWIN MALDONADO
CASTRO, ANGEL
MALDONADO
CASTRO; JOHN DOE
Y JANE DOE COMO
POSIBLES HEREDEROS
DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES
Demandados
Civil Núm.: RG2022CV00486.
Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO
POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO
POSIBLES HEREDEROS
DESCONOCIDOS DE LA
SUCESION LUZ VIRGINIA
CASTROS COLON T/C/C
LUZ VIRGINIA CASTRO
COLON T/C/C LUZ
CASTRO COLON T/C/C
LUZ VIRGINIA CASTRO.
POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al Tribunal su alegación responsiva a la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberé presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaria del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente.
Greenspoon Marder, LLP
Lcda. Frances L. Asencio-Guido
R.U.A. 15,622
TRADE CENTRE SOUTH, SUITE 700
100 WEST CYPRESS CREEK ROAD
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33309
Telephone: (954) 343 6273
Frances.Asencio@gmlaw.com
Expedido bajo mi firma, y sello del Tribunal, en Río Grande en Fajardo, Puerto Rico, hoy 1 de febrero de 2023. WANDA SEGUÍ REYES, SECRETARIA. IVELISSE SERRANO GARCÍA, SUB-SECRETARIA.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
CENTRO JUDICIAL DE MANATÍ SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante V.
VÍCTOR MANUEL RIVERA
CANTRE T/C/C VÍCTOR
RIVERA CANTRE; SUCESIÓN DE CELINÉS
RAMÍREZ ROSARIO, COMPUESTA POR
SUS HEREDEROS UNIVERSALES: VÍCTOR DAVID RIVERA RAMÍREZ
Y CARLOS ABDIEL RIVERA RAMÍREZ; Y CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (C.R.I.M.)
Demandados
Civil Núm.: MT2019CV00930.
Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO E INTERPELACIÓN. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO
RICO, S.S. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO E INTERPELA-
CIÓN A: VÍCTOR DAVID
RIVERA RAMÍREZ COMO
HEREDERO DE LA SUCESIÓN DE CELINÉS
RAMÍREZ ROSARIO.
9922 IMBERVIEW WAY, LOUISVILLE, KY 40223; B104 APT. FLORIDA GARDENS
BARCELONETA, PR 00617; PO BOX 1534
BARCELONETA, PR 00617-1534 Y PO BOX
245 BARCELONETA, PR 00617.
Queden emplazados, notificados e interpelados, que en este Tribunal se ha radicado Demanda sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca de la que surge lo siguiente: Que se ha incumplido con las cláusulas de la escritura de hipoteca objeto de ejecución por haberse dejado de pagar las mensualidades vencidas, y al 1ro de abril de 2018, la parte demandada le adeuda las siguientes cantidades: $104,314.26 por concepto de principal; generando intereses a razón de 5.375% desde 1ro de marzo de 2018; cargos por demora los cuales al igual que los intereses continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda reclamada en este pleito y la suma de $10,793.07 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; y demás créditos accesorios garantizados hipotecariamente. La propiedad hipotecada cuya ejecución se solicita tiene la siguiente descripción y localización: URBANA: PROPIEDAD
HORIZONTAL: Apartamento residencial identificado B-104,
localizado con el primer piso del Edificio B del Complejo conocido como Condominio Florida Garden Apartament, ubicado en el Barrio Florida Afuera del término municipal de Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, tiene un área superficial de 1,228.8750 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 114.2247 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en 24’ 9’’ pulgadas, con patio; por el SUR, 30’ 3’’ pulgadas, con pasillo que le da acceso; por el ESTE, en 46’ 6’’ pulgadas, con el apartamento B-101; y por el OESTE, en 46’ 6’’ pulgadas, con patio. Su puerta principal de acceso se encuentra localizada en su lado Sur, la cual se comunica con el pasillo del primer piso. Contiene tres cuartos dormitorios, dos baños, un walk in closet, dos closets y un closet de pasillo (linen), sala-comedor, cocina, laundry y un balcón. Le pertenece el uso y disfrute exclusivo de dos espacios para estacionamiento identificados B-104 y B-104-2 en el Plano. Le pertenece además, el uso y disfrute exclusivo de un área de patio de 57.6375 metros cuadrados, localizado en su lado Norte y Oeste que se describe como sigue: por el NORTE, en 41 pies 9 pulgadas, con área de parking; por el SUR, en 7 pies 2 pulgadas, con área común y en 24 pies 9 pulgadas, con apartamento B-104; por el ESTE, en 12 pies 2 pulgadas, con patio apartamento B-101 y en 31 pies con 6 pulgadas, con apartamento B-104; y por el OESTE, en 33 pies 4 pulgadas, con área de parking y área común. Le corresponde en los elementos comunes generales una participación de 2.024%.
Inscrita al folio móvil del tomo 233, finca 12,437 de Barceloneta, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Manatí. Por la presente se le emplaza y notifica que debe contestar la demanda incoada en su contra dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente edicto. Además, en cuanto a la interpelación de los herederos del causante, a que dentro del término legal de treinta (30) días contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudien la participación que les corresponda en la herencia del causante conforme dispone el Artículo 959 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. §2787, de no expresarse dentro de ese término de treinta (30) días en torno a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia, se tendrá por aceptada. También se le APERCIBE a los herederos antes mencionados que luego del transcurso del término de treinta (30) días antes señalado contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia del causante y, por consiguiente,
responden por las cargas de dicha herencia conforme dispone el Artículo 957 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. §2785. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio. Si usted deja de presentar y notificar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el Tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, o cualquier otro, si el Tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Los abogados de la parte demandante son:
ABOGADOS DE LA PARTE
DEMANDANTE:
Lcdo. Reggie Díaz Hernández RUA Núm.: 16,393
BERMÚDEZ & DÍAZ, LLP
Edificio Ochoa, 500 Calle De La Tanca Suite 209 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901
Tel.: (787) 523-2670 / Fax: (787) 523-2664 rdíaz@bdprlaw.com Expido este edicto bajo mi firma y el sello de este Tribunal, hoy 01 de febrero de 2023. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. SARAY SALGADO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE GUAYAMA SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante V. JANETTE RODRÍGUEZ SUÁREZ
Demandada Civil Núm.: GM2022CV00789.
Sala: 301. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA “IN REM”. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S.
A: JANETTE RODRÍGUEZ SUÁREZ. C-15 ARROYO VILLAGE, ARROYO, PR 00714, Y 31 URB. BROOKLYN, ARROYO, PR 00714-8006.
Por la presente se le emplaza y notifica que debe contestar la demanda incoada en su contra dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr/sumac/, salvo que se repre-
sente por derecho propio. Si usted deja de presentar y notificar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el Tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, o cualquier otro, si el Tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Los abogados de la parte demandante son: ABOGADOS DE LA PARTE
DEMANDANTE: Lcdo. Reggie Díaz Hernández RUA Núm.: 16,393
BERMUDEZ & DIAZ LLP 500 Calle De La Tanca Suite 209 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901
Tel.: (787) 523-2670 / Fax: (787) 523-2664 rdíaz@bdprlaw.com
Expido este edicto bajo mi firma y el sello de este Tribunal, hoy 1 de febrero de 2023. MARISOL ROSADO RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL I. SONIA CORREA NAVARRO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CAGUAS ORIENTAL BANK
Parte Demandante V.
JESSICA
MORALES CASTRO
Parte Demandada SIGFREDO
SANTIESTEBAN
MARES, GRISEL DEL VALLE MARRERO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR
AMBOS
Parte con Interés Civil Núm.: CG2022CV00612. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de CAGUAS, hago saber a la parte demandada, JESSICA MORALES CASTRO, a la parte con Interés, SIGFREDO SANTIESTEBAN MARES, GRISEL DEL VALLE MARRERO y la SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES compuesta por ambos; y al PÚBLICO EN GENERAL; que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el 21 de septiembre de 2022, por la Secretaría del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor pagadero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o giro postal, a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal, la siguiente propiedad con dirección física: [55 Calle Caoba, Urbanización Mansiones de Juncos, Juncos, PR 00777] y que se describe como sigue:
URBANA: Solar número 55 de la urbanización Mansiones de Juncos, radicada en el Bario Ceiba Norte del término municipal de Juncos, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de aproximadamente 490.72 metros cuadrados, equivalentes a 0.1249 cuerdas. Colina por el NORTE, en una distancia de 36.58 metros con los solares 23, 24 y 25; por el SUR, en una distancia de 27.17 metros con el solar 56; por el ESTE con una distancia de 13.42 metros y otra distancia de 13.11 metros con La Campiña Development, y por el OESTE en una distancia de 7.59 metros con la calle número 3. Contiene una casa para fines residenciales. Finca 15017, inscrita al folio 153 del tomo 401 de Juncos. Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección II. La finca antes descrita se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: (i) HIPOTECA constituida por Jessica Morales Castro, en garantía de un pagaré, aff. #1705, a favor de Oriental Bank & Trust, o a su orden, por la suma de $222,250.00, con intereses al 5% anual y vencimiento 1 de mayo de 2038. Constituida mediante la escritura 201 otorgada en San Juan el 2 de mayo de 2008 ante el notario Javier A. Rivera Meléndez. Inscrita al folio 133 del tomo 401 de Juncos, finca 15017, inscripción 2ª. La hipoteca objeto de esta ejecución es la que ha quedado descrita en el inciso (i). Será celebrada la subasta para con el importe de la misma satisfacer la sentencia dictada el 2 de agosto de 2022, mediante la cual se condenó a la parte demandada pagar a la parte demandante la cantidad ascendiente a $164,245.93 de principal, más $6,747.13 a intereses acumulados que continuarán acumulándose al 5% anual hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más $616.77 a otros cargos, más $22,225.00 en costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, según pactado, más cualquier otro desembolso que haya efectuado o efectúe la parte demandante durante la tramitación de este caso para otros adelantos de conformidad con el Contrato Hipotecario. La PRIMERA SUBASTA será celebrada el día 28 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA, en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de CAGUAS, Puerto Rico. Servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma, la cantidad de $222,250.00 sin admitirse oferta inferior. De no haber remate ni adjudicación, celebraré SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 4 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la que servirá como tipo mínimo, dos terceras (2/3) partes del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $148,166.67 Si no hubiese remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, cele-
braré TERCERA SUBASTA el día 11 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar en la que regirá como tipo mínimo, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $111,125.00. El Alguacil que suscribe hizo constar que toda licitación deberá hacerse para pagar su importe en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América, de acuerdo con la Ley y de acuerdo con lo anunciado en este Aviso de Subasta. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables. Se entiende que todo licitador que comparezca a la subasta señalada en este caso acepta como bastante la titulación que da base a la misma. Se entiende que cualquier carga y/o gravamen anterior y/o preferente, si la hubiere al crédito que da base a esta ejecución continuará subsistente, entendiéndose, además, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de estos, sin destinarse a su extinción cualquier parte del remanente del precio de licitación. La propiedad para ejecutar será adquirida libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Vendida o adjudicada la finca o derecho hipotecado y consignado el precio correspondiente, en esa misma fecha o fecha posterior, el alguacil que celebró la subasta procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura pública de traspaso en representación del dueño o titular de los bienes hipotecados, ante el notario que elija el adjudicatario o comprador, quien deberá abonar el importe de tal escritura. El alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la confirmación de la venta o adjudicación. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la fin-
LeBron James sat in the visitors locker room at Madison Square Garden with ice on his 38-year-old knees and 28 more points to his name after his Los Angeles Lakers beat the New York Knicks in overtime. James’ teammate Anthony Davis teased him about how close he was to breaking Kareem AbdulJabbar’s NBA career scoring record, then about 90 points away.
Suddenly, James remembered something. His mother, Gloria James, was set to go on vacation soon. She might miss his record-breaking game.
He called her on speakerphone, with a dozen attentive reporters close by. He asked when she was leaving, reminding her every once in a while, lest she disclose too much, that reporters could hear the conversation. Eventually, he looked around, sheepishly, and said he would call her later.
“I love you,” he said. Then, just before he ended the call, he added: “I love you more.”
It was typical James: He brings you along for the ride, but on his terms, revealing what he wants to reveal and no more. It is perhaps the only way someone who has been so famous for most of his life could survive the machine of modern celebrity.
As he has closed in on Abdul-Jabbar’s record of 38,387 points, the very idea of what it means to be a star has shifted since James scored his first two points on Oct. 29, 2003. And James has helped define that shift. He has risen above the din of social media celebrities
and 24-hour news cycles, buoyed by the basketball fans who love him or love to hate him. He’s now 36 points away from breaking Abdul-Jabbar’s record after a game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday.
He has been a selfie-snapping tour guide for this journey, with a portfolio that now extends well beyond the court. He has a production company and a show on HBO. He’s acted in a few movies and received some good reviews. His foundation has helped hundreds of students in his hometown Akron, Ohio, and a public school the foundation helps run there, the I Promise School, focuses on children who struggle academically. His opinions are covered as news, given far more weight than those of almost any other athlete.
“Hopefully I made an impact enough so people appreciate what I did, and still appreciate what I did off the floor as well, even when I’m done,” James said in an interview. “But I don’t live for that. I live for my family, for my
friends and my community that needs that voice.”
Basketball is the ‘main thing’
In early 2002, James was a high school junior and on the cover of Sports Illustrated. News didn’t travel as quickly as it does now. Not everyone had cellphones, and the ones they had couldn’t livestream videos of whatever anyone did. Social media meant chat rooms on AOL or Yahoo. Facebook had yet to launch, and the deluge of social networking apps was years away.
“Thank God I didn’t have social media; that’s all I can say,” James said in October when asked to reflect on his entry into the league.
As a teenage star, he was spared the incessant gaze of social media and the bullying and harsh criticism that most likely would have come with it.
But social media, in its many changing forms, has also helped people express their personalities and share their lives with others. It lets them define themselves — something particularly useful for public figures whose stories get told one way or another.
James began thinking about that ear-
ly in his career.
His media and production firm, now called the SpringHill Co., made a documentary about James and his high school teammates titled “More Than a Game” in 2008. It also developed “The Shop,” an HBO show James sometimes appears on with celebrity guests, including former President Barack Obama and rapper Travis Scott, talking like friends in a barbershop.
James likes to say that he always keeps “the main thing the main thing” — meaning that no matter what else is happening in his life, he prioritizes basketball. He honors the thing that created his fame.
He led his teams to the NBA Finals in eight consecutive years and won championships with three franchises. He was chosen for the league’s MVP award four times, and he has dished the fourth-most assists in NBA history.
James’ talent meant that it didn’t take long for him to become the face of the NBA. He has mostly embraced that, capitalizing on an era when sports fandom was no longer about sitting down to watch a game so much as it was about catching small bites of the most compelling moments.
“People’s interest in athletes moves very quickly, especially with the NBA season,” said Omar Raja, who in 2014 founded House of Highlights, an Instagram account for viral sports moments, because he wanted to share clips of the Miami Heat during James’ time playing there with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
“LeBron’s Instagram stories would do as well as his poster dunks, and you were like, ‘This is crazy,’” Raja said.
House of Highlights reposted two videos from James’ Instagram stories in May 2019. One showed James and a former teammate dancing in a yard. Another showed James and friends, including Russell Westbrook, smoking cigars. Both videos outperformed anything that happened in the playoffs.
‘I wish I could do normal things’ James has used his fame to further
business opportunities and build his financial portfolio. He has used it to both shield his children and prepare them for growing up in his shadow.
He has used it for social activism, most notably in speaking about Black civil rights and racism. That began in 2012, when he and his Heat teammates wore hooded sweatshirts and posted a group photo on social media after the death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager who was wearing a hoodie when he was shot and killed in Florida. The Heat decided to transfer some of their spotlight to the national conversation about racism that emerged.
Black NBA players have a long history of speaking out or demonstrating against racism and discrimination: Abdul-Jabbar and the Boston Celtics’ Bill Russell were vocal about the racist dangers they faced in the 1960s and ’70s. But what made the actions of James and his teammates stand out was that the superstar athletes of the ’90s and early 2000s — Michael Jordan, most notably — had often shied away from overt activism.
What James chooses to talk about (or not talk about) draws notice.
In 2019, when a Houston Rockets executive angered the Chinese government by expressing support for Hong Kong, James was criticized for not speaking out against China’s human rights abuses. James said he did not know enough to talk about them, but some skeptics accused him of avoiding the subject to protect his financial interests in China.
And in 2020, when protests swept the country after the police killed George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, both of whom were Black, the NBA made social justice
part of its ethos. James used many of his news conferences that season to discuss racism and police violence against Black people.
The attention to James’ words separates him from others, as does the attention to his life.
“I don’t want to say it ever becomes too much, but there are times when I wish I could do normal things,” James said Thursday while standing in an arena hallway in Indianapolis about an hour after the Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers there. A member of a camera crew that has been following him for the past few years filmed him as he spoke.
“I wish I could just walk outside,” James said. “I wish I could just, like, walk into a movie theater and sit down and go to the concession stand and get popcorn. I wish I could just go to an amusement park just like regular people. I wish I could go to Target sometimes and walk into Starbucks and have my name on the cup just like regular people.”
He added: “I’m not sitting here complaining about it, of course not. But it can be challenging at times.”
James grew up without stable housing or much money, but his life now is not like most people’s because of the money he has made through basketball and business (he’s estimated to be worth more than $1 billion), and because of the extraordinary athletic feats he makes look so easy. Once in a while, as when he’s on the phone with his mother, he manages to come off like just another guy.
Another example: In October 2018, during his first Lakers training camp, James gave up wine as part of a preseason diet regimen. He was asked if abstaining had
affected his body.
“Yeah, it made me want wine more,” James said, relatably. “But I feel great. I feel great. I did a two-week cleanse and gave up a lot of things for 14 days.”
James had also quit gluten, dairy, artificial sugars and all alcohol for those two weeks, he said.
What was left?
“In life?” James said. “Air.”
There to see him
The past few seasons have been challenging for James on the court. He is playing as well as he ever has, but the Lakers have struggled since winning a championship in 2020.
They missed the playoffs last season and are in 12th place in the Western Conference, although they have played better recently. James, his coaches and his teammates all insist that he spends more time thinking about how to get the Lakers into the playoffs than about breaking the scoring record.
Still, Madison Square Garden, one of his favorite arenas, buzzed Tuesday night. Because of him.
Celebrities, fans and media came to watch him, just as they did when he was a constant in the NBA Finals.
He taped a pregame interview with Michael Strahan courtside. Then he went through his pregame warmup, shooting from different spots on the court, working against an assistant coach, who tried to defend him. He took a few seconds to dance near the 3-point line as he waited for someone to pass the ball back to him.
He was in what he’s made into a comfortable place: the center of the basketball universe.
By TANIA GANGULI and SCOTT CACCIOLA
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was still a couple of months from breaking the NBA’s career scoring
record, but Mark Eaton of the Utah Jazz had been crunching the numbers, and he was worried — for himself.
Eaton had determined that AbdulJabbar could eclipse the record when
his Los Angeles Lakers faced the Jazz on April 5, 1984 — in Las Vegas, oddly enough — and guess who would probably get the defensive assignment as Abdul-Jabbar chased one of basketball’s greatest feats?
“I don’t want to be in that picture!” Eaton told Swen Nater, a friend who was playing for the Lakers that season and who recalled their conversation in a recent interview.
For 15 seasons, first with the Milwaukee Bucks and later as the Lakers’ impassive captain, Abdul-Jabbar had been drop-stepping and sky-hooking his way toward history — and no one, not even Eaton, a 7-foot-4 shot-blocking maestro who died in 2021, could prevent any of it from happening.
In recent weeks, LeBron James of the Lakers has been on his own inexorable march, thrilling crowds and mowing through defenders as he gets closer to overtaking Abdul-Jabbar’s
record, an achievement that once seemed untouchable.
For Abdul-Jabbar, 75, the hubbub over his pursuit of Wilt Chamberlain’s scoring record nearly 39 years ago was little more than a distraction in the final weeks of the 1983-84 regular season, teammates said. The Lakers wanted to win another championship.
“One thing that he didn’t really like to do was talk about himself,” said Mitch Kupchak, a teammate for five seasons before he joined the Lakers’ front office in 1986. “I think he just wanted to get it over with.”
There was one player who wanted to talk about the record: Magic Johnson, the team’s All-Star point guard.
“I’m making the pass,” Johnson told teammates, according to guard Byron Scott. “I’m throwing it to Cap for him to break the record.”
From page 35
Nater, 73, who was Abdul-Jabbar’s backup, joked that he tried to help out at practice in his own way in the days leading up to the April 5 game.
“I basically let him score on me,” Nater said, deadpan. “I’d pat him on the butt and say, ‘Nice shot, Kareem.’ Or tell him to maybe follow through a little more with his wrist on the sky hook. I just wanted to build him up a little.”
It was one of 11 home games for the Jazz in Las Vegas that season as the team’s owner sought to build a fan base there. And even though the Jazz were solid — they would advance to the Western Conference semifinals — would-be fans did not exactly flee their slot machines and flock to the Thomas and Mack Center to watch Adrian Dantley, Rickey Green and Darrell Griffith.
Their game against the Lakers in April drew 18,389 fans — the largest for a Jazz “home” game since the team had relocated from New Orleans before the start of the 197980 season. The Jazz had no illusions about their role in the game being such a hot ticket. History was happening.
“I don’t think anybody thought that they were going to stop him from scoring,” Dantley said. “No one has ever stopped the best weapon in basketball.”
Before the game, the crowd gave Abdul-Jabbar a 45-second standing ovation, according to an account in The New York Times. Abdul-Jabbar, who needed 22 points to break Chamberlain’s record of 31,419 career points, expressed his appreciation by flashing a double thumbs-up, then went about his familiar business of leading the Lakers to another win.
He scored 16 points in the first half. But even as the Lakers built a big lead in the third quarter, Abdul-Jabbar resisted forcing shots and consistently passed out of traps. A 12-footer along the baseline gave him 18 points for the game. By the start of the fourth quarter, the game was so out of reach that Frank Layden, the coach of the Jazz, began removing his key players to preserve them for the playoffs.
But Abdul-Jabbar was so close to the record that he reentered the game, and he tied Chamberlain when James Worthy passed to him for a dunk. The next assist needed to belong to Johnson, and when Johnson passed out of trouble to Bob McAdoo, one of the Lakers’ reserves, his teammates shouted at McAdoo to pass it back to Johnson.
“Magic almost ran up and grabbed it,” Scott said, laughing at the memory.
Bob Hansen, a first-year guard for the Jazz that season, was guarding Johnson and made the unconventional decision to give him a little space to make an entry pass to Abdul-Jabbar on the right block.
“Didn’t want to really get in the way of history,” Hansen said.
Hansen’s teammates had other ideas. Eaton and Green tried to double-team the 7-2 Abdul-Jabbar, but he took one dribble, pivoted to his right, then spun to his left to rise for a sky hook over Eaton, who had been dreading such a moment. Chick Hearn, the longtime play-by-play announcer for the Lakers, rejoiced when the ball splashed through the hoop.
“The new king of scoring has ascended his throne,” Hearn said on the broadcast as Abdul-Jabbar’s teammates embraced him. “This man has accomplished something that I don’t believe — and I mean this sincerely — I don’t think this will ever happen again.”
As reporters, photographers and dignitaries swarmed Abdul-Jabbar, Hansen waded through the mass of humanity with the ball in his hands. He found Abdul-Jabbar near midcourt.
“I said: ‘Here you go, big fella, here’s the ball. Do you want the ball?’ He was like: ‘Yeah! Thanks, little man,’” said Hansen, who is 6-6. “And he patted me on the head.”
Abdul-Jabbar acknowledged the crowd, thanked his teammates and hugged his parents, Cora and Al Alcindor.
“His father, Mr. Alcindor, was very stoic,” Scott said. “He was an ex-cop in New York, so he was tough. It was probably the first time that I saw him give Kareem a hug. You could tell he was very proud, his mother was very proud.”
Abdul-Jabbar was subbed out of the game and replaced by Kupchak.
“That’s my claim to fame,” said Kupchak, 68, now general manager and president of basketball operations for the Charlotte Hornets. “Put in the mop sweeper.”
Chamberlain did not attend the game, but he came to a ceremony that the Lakers held at home the next day before they played the Kansas City Kings.
In Las Vegas, the visiting locker room was so packed with reporters and photographers after Abdul-Jabbar broke the record that Scott tried to escape as quickly as he could.
And while the Jazz did not enjoy losing that night, many players are still proud to have played a small role in basketball history, and to have witnessed a record that has stood for decades.
“You do kind of appreciate the fact that you’re on the court with a legend,” said Thurl Bailey, a longtime power forward for the Jazz.
Bailey has particularly warm feelings for Abdul-Jabbar. Earlier that season, Bailey, who was a rookie, emerged from the locker room at halftime of a game against the Lakers wearing an eye patch after Worthy had inadvertently scratched him. Abdul-Jabbar pulled Bailey aside and showed him his goggles.
“Young fella, you need to get you some of these,” Bailey recalled Abdul-Jabbar telling him. “And I tried them and loved them and they worked. He was always nice to me.”
When Abdul-Jabbar retired in 1989 after 20 seasons and six championships, his point total was so high — and he was such a singular talent, with the durability to match — that few thought anyone would rival it.
But about eight months after Abdul-Jabbar’s recordsetting game against the Jazz, something else happened: LeBron James was born.
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
Answers on page 38
Aries (Mar 21-April 20)
Expect a touch of drama, with the Leo Full Moon encouraging you to vent if something isn’t quite to your liking. And yet it’s generally the squeaky hinge that gets the oil, so by making your feelings clear you will get results. Plus, a link to Uranus could enhance the desire for instant results. You may be tempted to act impulsively Aries, but it might backfire, so be patient.
Taurus (April 21-May 21)
All the world is a stage, and today’s Full Moon can find you eager to make a big splash. And yet home and family affairs may become a priority, just when you have something important to accomplish. Emotions could run high, and you might need to placate someone with a promise, just so that you can move ahead with your plans. If you can simplify matters, this will help, Taurus.
Gemini (May 22-June 21)
The writing is on the wall, so whatever needs to be known will be talked about widely, as the Full Moon takes place in your sector of communication. Matters that may have been swept under the carpet could come out into the open, making this a time for animated discussion. However, there is a chance that you or others could overreact to certain news and be rather too hasty, Gemini.
Cancer (June 22-July 23)
A financial issue may require attention, as today’s powerful lunar phase in your money zone, could push you to do something. And although you may need to scramble to sort this out, you could uncover new information that benefits you along the way. Plus, a flash of inspiration, and one that is rather ingenious, could help you to find a way to tackle an ongoing issue, Cancer.
Leo (July 24-Aug 23)
Today’s dramatic Full Moon in your sign could rampup the drama, as a situation that’s been simmering away comes to a head. If you know what this is, then acting sooner rather than later to resolve it might help lessen any fall-out. Mind, although events could disrupt plans, clearing the air can be a relief, leaving you free to move ahead. And a relationship may improve no end.
Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)
All you want is some peace and quiet, and yet you might be busier than ever, Virgo. If your to-do list is taller than you, then something certainly needs to change. This could be a precursor of things to come, unless you can find a way to get your schedule better organized. Do you have too many projects on the go at once? If so, finding the right work/ life balance is crucial to happiness.
Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)
There’s a party vibe in the air, or at least a desire to let your hair down. If you can’t get out to an event, then how about letting your hair down at home. Put some music on and dance your heart out. And if someone wants to join you, that’s great! Still, feelings can be intense. If a romance is blossoming, then today’s Full Moon could bring things to a head in an unexpected way, Libra.
Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)
Ready for your place in the spotlight? Today’s lunar phase in your sector of reputation, can make you stand out, whether you want this or not. If you have something to promote, then you could get a very enthusiastic response. But if you need to share something delicate, this too might soon be doing the rounds. Choose your words carefully, as they will be noticed by all kinds of people.
Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)
Be careful what you say, as today’s Full Moon across your communication axis, could coincide with a conflict of opinion that you’re unlikely to stay quiet about. And with unpredictable Uranus involved, you could say something that makes the situation worse. If you need to stay on good terms with this person or group, then it’s wise to detach and let it all wash over you.
Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)
Today’s lunar phase can find you in the mood to splurge, especially if the latest gadget is on sale and you have to have it. A Full Moon in Leo, might encourage you to think of it as an investment, even if in your heart of hearts, you know that you can make do with what you have. If there is something you need that will bring a good return on your money, you could get a bargain.
Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)
Today’s Full Moon in your sector of relating, can fuel relationship dramas and coincide with intense interactions. And it is one of those times when the smallest thing could trigger a meltdown, especially if a matter has been a point of tension for a while. There is a chance to sort things out, but unless you manage to clear the air Aquarius, those edgy feelings will linger on.
Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)
Have too much on your plate? If you’ve been struggling on regardless, today’s Full Moon could highlight a need to stop and unwind. With disruptive Uranus on the scene, an unexpected event could scupper your plans and add unnecessary stress to the mix. You’ll realize that you need more time to relax and less pressure. Finding a way to make this happen will be a game-changer.
