Lawyers for former Guaynabo Mayor Ángel Pérez Otero have asked the U.S. District Court to dismiss the charges that he awarded contracts to a company in exchange for bribes because the evidence fails to establish the explicit “quid pro quo,” or the granting of advantage in exchange for something.
Pérez Otero’s lawyers, Osvaldo Carlo Linares, Eduardo Ferrer Ríos and José R. Olmo Rodríguez, said in a petition dated Jan. 9 that the evidence suggests that the payments took the form of campaign contributions. Pérez Otero was indicted on charges he took payments from contractor Oscar Santamaria in exchange for contracts, something which the lawyers say is not established by the evidence.
“The appearing defendant requests the dismissal of the indictment in the instant action. Although the prosecution charged ex-mayor Angel Antonio Perez-Otero with bribery and extortion alleging that he awarded contracts to company ‘A’ in exchange for bribes and kickbacks paid by Oscar Santamaria in cash, the evidence provided by the government, during discovery, clearly suggests that the payments took the form of campaign contributions,” the document says. “Perez-Otero requests the dismissal of the indictment because it fails to allege an essential element of the charged violations of law and because it fails to allege a crime since it is missing an allegation of an explicit quid pro quo, as required by the Supreme Court.”
The lawyers noted that a Supreme Court holding in the case of McCormick’s “was that
the pro itself must be clear and unambiguous and characterized by more than temporal proximity, winks and nods, and vague phrases like ‘let me see what I can do,’” the petition says.
To charge criminal liability where the conduct did not clearly involve an “explicit” quid pro quo would create a significant fair-warning problem. The prosecution was required not just to track the language of each relevant statute, but also to explicitly allege any implicit element of each statute,” the ex-mayor’s lawyers asserted.
In a radio interview, Carlo Linares said the indictment was deficient. Also, the attorney said, a photo showing Pérez Otero taking several envelopes is not part of the evidence. He said it was used by prosecutors to obtain a high amount in bail but that the photo is not evidence of a bribe.
With the resumption of classes this week, Health Secretary Carlos Mellado López called on teachers, parents, students and the rest of the scholastic community on Tuesday to strengthen the preventive measures they have been using for COVID-19 since they are the same for avoiding the spread of other respiratory diseases.
“Respiratory diseases have similar preventive measures; it is extremely important not to touch your nose, mouth and eyes before washing your hands, avoid contact with sick people and stay home if you have any symptoms, to break the chain of infections,” Mellado López said in a written statement. “It is also important to have one’s vaccinations up to date. Everyone six months of age or older should receive the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine and the flu virus vaccine to strengthen their immune system and fight the virus. At this time there is no vaccine for RSV.”
COVID-19 surveillance teams will continue to visit school campuses for free random antigen testing, the Health chief noted. Home and referral tests for PCR testing continue to be distributed to the
network of providers for students, nonteaching staff and school contractors. In this way, health professionals will be able to identify outbreaks and stop the chains of infection in the school environment and keep the education system open, Mellado López said.
According to the most recent COVID-19 epidemiological report (December 25, 2022 to December 31, 2022), the 0-4 age
group had a positivity of 13.24%, the 5-9 year age group 8.76%, and 10 to 19 years a positivity of 21.10%. In the case of influenza, (same period) the age group from 0 to 4 years accumulates the largest number of positive cases, followed in order of cases by the group of 5 to 9 years, 10 to 14 years and 15 to 19 years.
Meanwhile, the Health Department reported that as Jan. 4, RSV — the leading cause of lower respiratory infections among newborns and young children — registered 1,386 cases in children under one year of age and 1,396 in children aged one to four. All of the aforementioned reports are updated weekly and published on the Department of Health’s website at https:// www.salud.gov.pr/ resumen_vigilancias.
According to Health Department guidelines, the isolation period for cases that do not present symptoms is five days from the day the viral test (antigen or molecular) was performed, after receiving a positive result. The subject must wear a mask from day six until completing day 10.
The isolation period for cases with mild to moderate symptoms, meanwhile, is 10 days after the onset of symptoms.
The use of a mask is required in health services and prolonged care facilities.
“The use of a mask has always been within our recommendations as a protective measure,” said Melissa Marzán, the Health Department’s chief epidemiology officer. “Particularly in vulnerable populations, as are older adults, people with chronic conditions and congregated places. Similarly, regarding COVID-19 tests, we recommend testing on the fifth day from having had an exposure, on the fifth day from arriving from a trip or if the person has symptoms associated with the virus.”
Marzán emphasized that there is no administrative order that requires a negative test to return to school or work in person.
The Health Department maintains fixed early detection centers throughout the island, conducting tests in correctional centers, shelters, long-term care facilities, educational institutions and airports. It also facilitates access to test referrals through the Bio Portal in educational institutions and continues to distribute home tests in hard-to-reach communities and schools.
For more information on prevention measures in educational institutions, please access the updated Guide for the prevention of COVID-19 in Educational Institutions: Academic Year 2022-2023, available at: 6578 (salud.gov.pr).
By THE STAR STAFFTreasury Secretary Francisco Parés Alicea announced Tuesday that the second sales tax holiday, during which school uniforms and supplies are exempted from the sales and use tax (IVU by its Spanish acronym), will be on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 13-14.
“Uniforms and school supplies will be available free from payment of the IVU, starting at 12:01 in the morning of this Friday, January 13, until midnight on Saturday, January 14,” Parés Alicea said. “We urge parents and guardians of students to set aside the dates and benefit from the exemption.”
Section 4030.20(b) of the Puerto Rico Internal Revenue Code of 2011 exempts school uniforms and materials from payment of the IVU, as defined in that section, for two days in July and two days in January.
On this occasion, the start of classes was close to the Jan. 6 Three Kings Day festivities. However, the Retail Trade Association members agreed with the days determined for IVU-exempt sales after the holidays because, according to what they indicated, the second school semester mainly involves substitution purchases.
The clothing and footwear required by the educational institution, which does not replace ordinary clothing, are considered school uniforms. Therefore, the exemption does not include separately sold pieces such as belt buckles, patches and emblems.
The materials included in the IVU holiday are school materials, art and music materials, instructional materials purchased at retail, and computer storage media, such as disks, compact discs, and memory storage devices (flash drives).
Pocket and plain folders, school bags,
calculators, adhesive tape, chalk, compasses, crayons, erasers, accordion folders, and expandable, plastic and manila envelopes will also be exempted from the IVU. Glues, markers, cards or index cards and their storage boxes, lunch boxes, pencils and sharpeners, pens, scissors and rulers, among other school supplies, are also exempted.
The complete list of exempt materials is available in Internal Revenue Memorandum No. 22-10, https://hacienda.pr.gov/publicaciones/carta-circular-de-rentas-internasnum-22-10- cc-ri-22-10.
All print and electronic books (digital, cyberbooks or ebooks) are exempt from paying the IVU throughout the year, and the exemption applies to both purchase and rental. In addition, notebooks purchased at retail, regardless of their size, are exempt from the IVU payment throughout the year.
Sales under layaway plans, vouchers
(rain checks), by mail, telephone, mail or internet, and with certificates and gift cards, qualify for the exemption as long as the item is paid for and delivered during the established period of the IVU holiday.
By THE STAR STAFF
Despite opposition from the Financial Oversight and Management Board, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia on Tuesday enacted legislation that would increase tax credits for the film industry from $38 million to $100 million.
The oversight board’s advisers in late December noted that the legislation goes against the commonwealth fiscal plan. They said the increased cap to $100 million created by Senate Bill (SB) 552 would not be revenue neutral. They noted that increased economic activity from the increased cap would be insufficient to offset the additional cost to the commonwealth of offering expanded incentives.
The new film incentives, which were proposed by La Fortaleza, were among four Senate bills signed into law.
Last year, the governor allocated $74 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to promote film projects in Puerto Rico. The $74 million is divided into $37 million for fiscal 2023 and $37 million for fiscal 2024.
“The film industry has great potential on our island. We have seen it in action over the past few years through highly renowned and successful local and national productions,” Pierluisi said. “The film industry has generated thousands of jobs and positively impacted the island’s economy. I support this industry and have provided more incentives to increase film production in Puerto Rico, which in addition to having a positive effect on economic development, promotes tourism on our island.”
The new law will allow the Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC by its Spanish acronym) to distribute $100 million among all eligible film projects. At least 10% of the total incentive is for local productions and documentaries.
Pierluisi, who participated last year in the announcement of the shooting of “The Plane,” a movie starring actor Gerard Butler, in Puerto Rico, said the film had an investment of $65.7 million and an approximate economic impact of $136 million with a hotel occupancy of 3,964 hotel rooms per night.
In addition, the film generated a payroll of $5.1 million, and more than 500 Puerto Rican workers participated. Meanwhile, in 2021, the filming of a reboot of the popular 1970s-80s television series “Fantasy Island” on the Fox television network had an economic impact of over $54.7 million and created 418 direct jobs. In addition, hotel occupancy was more than 2,000 quarters a night. Meanwhile, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” employed 423 people
and left an economic investment of more than $8 million.
Likewise, SB 552 would include energy storage systems as an eligible activity to grant green energy incentives. The legislation also would promote the development of renewable energy sources and compliance with the public energy policy aimed at lowering costs and promoting the use of clean energy.
Pierluisi also signed SB 934, which amends the Incentives Code and directly benefits the police. The law would exempt from the payment of income tax the disbursements and contributions made to the active and retired members of the Police Bureau for bonuses granted under the Police Retirement Fund. The exemption will take effect in the current fiscal year. Therefore, the Treasury Department must establish, through regulations, administrative determination, memoranda or general information bulletin, the form and manner in which the exemptions will be applied.
The governor also signed SB 385, which amends the Pensions for Death in the Line of Duty Law. The purpose of the amendment is to increase to $200,000 the mortgage payment and total exemptions at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) and in commonwealth and municipal post-secondary educational institutions to the surviving spouse, minor children and stepchildren of the deceased employee.
The exemption related to studies only applies to expenses for tuition, fees, books and other materials necessary to complete their university academic degree at the undergraduate, post-secondary technical-professional, graduate, and professional levels.
Another measure converted into law is SB 330, which places the Financial Education Institute under the jurisdiction of the Financial Education Division of the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions.
Camuy Mayor Gabriel Hernández Rodríguez reacted on Tuesday to complaints from employees who refused to take a COVID-19 test and are staging a protest outside the municipality’s town hall.
Hernández issued a memorandum stating that on Jan. 2 vaccination and testing for COVID-19 would take place, and people who did not attend to perform either of the two options would have to stay home or outside City Hall.
“As part of the return to administrative work of all employees of the municipality of Camuy, our administration made the decision to request and process antigen tests in order to ensure a healthy environment in each of the offices of the municipality and prevent the spread or outbreaks of this virus. Our sole intention is that both employees and visitors are safe when they show up at their work areas or when they are going to request a service. At no time has the intention of this administration been to persecute employees, but rather, as has been said, to ensure a healthy work environment,” the mayor said in a written statement.
“The determination to carry out COVID detection tests and make bivalent vaccines voluntarily available are part of our responsibility to have a protected population free of COVID-19 infections and anyone who does not want to be vaccinated has always been respected. It is important to note that 311 employees were tested and only the employee who makes the complaint refused to do so. The municipal administration is consistent in requesting the proof for the
issued a memorandum stating that on Jan. 2 vaccination and testing for COVID-19 would take place, and municipal employees who did not attend to perform either of the two options would not be able to enter City Hall.
reasons explained above.”
Rawell Rivera Feliciano said Tuesday that she had been outside City Hall for days trying to get into her work area, the Bureau of Women’s Affairs, which is directed by Jakeline Vélez Méndez, and has been denied entrance by order of the mayor.
Rivera Feliciano refuses to be vaccinated or tested for COVID-19 antigens, and she alleged Tuesday that for this reason she is not allowed to work.
“I feel harassed, mistreated, discriminated against,
simply because I do not believe in anything that has to do with vaccinations and tests,” Rivera Feliciano said in a written statement. “About a year ago I delivered an affidavit as requested by Executive Order of the Government; there are more than twenty employees with situations similar to mine and many of them have been threatened by the trusted administration. Others were forced to be vaccinated, violating the most sacred rights, such as the right to privacy. City Manager Christian Martínez notified me that he is not vaccinated, nor has evidence of testing as of Jan. 3, and many of my colleagues have told me they haven’t asked for testing either. What we believe is that it is selective persecution by the Municipal Executive.”
Rivera Feliciano said people who did not attend the Jan. 2 vaccination/testing clinic to perform either of the two options were instructed that besides being required to stay at home, or at least not enter City Hall, they would be able to take advantage of the applicable vacation benefit and exhaust the corresponding compensatory times.
“The mayor has explained that his decision is due to an Executive Order made last year by Dr. Carlos Mellado, Secretary of Health,” the employee alleged. “This order was made earlier than [those issued] by the president of the United States, Joe Biden, and the Governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia, with the culmination of the pandemic. Secretary Mellado also repealed the same order, after these proposals.”
Employees who do not want to comply with the mayor’s directive are continuing the protests in front of the Camuy Municipal Legislature starting at 8:30 a.m.
By THE STAR STAFFSan Germán Mayor Virgilio Olivera Olivera said Tuesday that his administration is allocating at least $1 million annually to repair dilapidated roads in the municipality.
“After nearly 20 years of total neglect, we continue to work responsibly with the disastrous condition of our public roads and municipal roads,” said Olivera Olivera, who emphasized that “from our first year of administrative management in the municipal seat, we are allocating at least $1,000,000 annually to paving the roads.”
“Little by little we are solving the serious problem that we inherited in the different sectors, although we recognize that there are still many other roadways to attend to,” the mayor said. “For us, it is humanly and economically impossible to attend to them all at the same time.”
The mayor said that as part of the repaving projects, work has already been done in Pin. Quiñones, La Luz
(Tea), Higüero, Villa Juanita, Toño Ufret and El Cotto, Los Veteranos, Julio Renta, Metropolitano, Camino Los Pinos, La Islita, Cuesta Colorá, Parcelas La Tea and Camino La Cancha, and Urb. La Monserrate, among
many other sectors.
“In addition, we have also spread more than 9,057 tons of tar throughout the City of San Germán,” the mayor said.
The set of new rules Republicans pushed through the House earlier this week make it easier to remove their own speaker, establish new investigatory committees, and make it harder to raise taxes or spend federal money, and could potentially slow ethics investigations.
The package, backed by the House on a mostly party-line vote, does not detail all of the concessions made by Rep. Kevin McCarthy to nail down the votes he needed to be elected speaker — such as the allocation of prime committee assignments — some of which were handshake deals or would require further action by House Republicans.
Republicans said the new rules empower individual lawmakers to have a greater voice in legislation and advance the party’s goal of limiting spending.
“It reflects Republican priorities and the priorities of the voters who elected us,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., chair of the Rules Committee, said about the package.
But the rules could also make it difficult for the House to carry out even its most basic duties in the next two years, such as funding the government, including the military, or avoiding a catastrophic federal debt default.
Here is a closer look at the package:
An easy ouster for the speaker
Perhaps the most discussed change in the rules is the restoration of a provision that permits a single lawmaker to force a vote to “vacate the chair,” allowing a snap vote to remove the speaker.
Historically that had been the position of the House, but lawmakers refrained from employing that weapon until 2015, when hard-right Republicans used it as a threat to force out Speaker John Boehner. Democrats then changed the rules to necessitate that a majority of House members get behind the motion; Republicans have now reverted to requiring a single member.
McCarthy had hoped to keep the threshold higher, proposing that at least five members of the House must make the motion. But he relented under pressure.
Because a motion to vacate would be “privileged,” it could be raised and receive a vote at any time, whether House leaders wanted it to or not.
The rules open the way for new committees to explore the nation’s competitiveness with China, examine what Republicans called “the weaponization” of federal law enforcement agencies in politically charged investigations and assess the federal government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The package imposes rules to try to limit spending, including blocking consideration of legislation that would increase mandatory spending, which is how many social safety net programs are financed.
Republicans are also requiring a supermajority vote of the
House to raise taxes. In a provision that could make it easier to cut taxes, the new rules direct congressional budget offices to try to calculate the “macroeconomic” effect of tax reductions, an approach that could lower the estimated impact of tax cuts on the federal deficit. The rules also call for legislation to be judged for its potential contribution to inflation.
The package also includes adoption of the so-called Holman rule, which allows lawmakers to use spending bills to defund specific programs and fire federal officials or reduce their pay.
Facing a looming confrontation over raising the federal debt limit in the coming months, Republicans eliminated the so-called Gephardt rule, which in the past has allowed the House to skirt a vote on the politically charged issue and automatically increase the federal government’s borrowing power. Republicans intend to try to leverage their future consideration of any debt increase to obtain steep spending cuts, something they could not do under rules that allowed an automatic increase.
Under their new rules, Republicans will allow lawmakers at least 72 hours to review legislation before it goes to the floor for a House vote, responding to a chief complaint of members who have been angered by voluminous, costly legislation offered up at the last minute as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Such requirements have existed in the past, however, and have often been waived when time was short.
The rules put in place other technical changes framed as efforts to improve transparency around legislation by trying to restrict measures to a single topic and making it easier to eliminate provisions in a bill not considered germane to the main focus. Facing the prospect of more votes on amendments in the months ahead as Republicans try to open up the House floor, the rules also allow the party to give lawmakers just two minutes to
record their votes when the leadership decides such a time limit is necessary. The shortest time frame previously was five minutes.
The rules could hamper investigations by the Office of Congressional Ethics, which undertakes bipartisan inquiries and then makes recommendations for discipline to the Ethics Committee.
One rule imposes term limits for board members, with the result of removing all but one Democrat from the board at a time when it is considering whether to open an inquiry into certain Republican congressmen over their conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The rules also require the board to approve the hiring of investigators within the first 30 days of a new Congress, which some ethics watchdogs fear could cause the office to go understaffed if hires are not made within that window. (Republicans contend that the rules ensure investigators are accountable to the board.)
“These are measures that will render the ethics office ineffectual and which no member, from either party, should support,” said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist with the watchdog group Public Citizen.
The rules approved on Monday end proxy voting and remote committee hearings for lawmakers, after Democrats put the practices in place at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. With their slim majority, Republicans will now need to keep lawmakers in Washington for longer periods to be certain they have the votes to advance their legislation.
The package also rolls back staff unionization, an effort that began in earnest during the previous Congress, and which Democrats passed legislation to facilitate.
House Republicans also used the rules package to bolster their policy agenda, including a focus on supporting fossil fuel development and trying to restrict the Biden administration from drawing down the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The package specifically allows consideration of legislation to require that any future release of oil from the reserve be contingent upon oil production on federal lands in the United States.
The measure is unlikely to win support in the Senate or with President Joe Biden, who as a candidate vowed to end new oil and gas leases for federal lands and waters.
Préstamos Personales Pequeños otorgados para la semana que terminó el sábado, 7 de enero de 2023
President Joe Biden’s lawyers discovered “a small number” of classified documents in his former office at a Washington think tank last fall, the White House said earlier this week, prompting the Justice Department to scrutinize the situation to determine how to proceed.
The inquiry, according to two people familiar with the matter, is a type aimed at helping Attorney General Merrick Garland decide whether to appoint a special counsel, like the one investigating former President Donald Trump’s hoarding of sensitive documents and failure to return all of them.
The documents found in Biden’s former office, which date to his time as vice president, were found by his personal lawyers on Nov. 2 when they were packing files at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, according to the White House. Officials did not describe precisely how many documents were involved, what kind of information they included or their level of classification.
The White House said in a statement that the White House Counsel’s Office notified the National Archives and Records Administration on the same day the documents were found “in a locked closet” and that the agency retrieved them the next morning.
Biden had periodically used an office at the center from mid-2017 until the start of the 2020 presidential campaign, and the lawyers were packing it up in preparations to vacate the space. The discovery was not in response to any prior request from the archives, and there was no indication that Biden or his team resisted efforts to recover any sensitive documents.
Garland has assigned John R. Lausch Jr., the U.S. attorney in Chicago who was appointed by Trump, to look into the matter, according to two people familiar with the decision, confirming a CBS News report. Lausch has been scrutinizing the situation since November, according to one of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
Two people familiar with the matter said that Lausch has been conducting a so-called initial investigation under a Justice Department regulation that allows an attorney general to appoint a special counsel, a special prosecutor who operates with a measure of day-to-day independence to conduct a particularly sensitive investigation.
Under the regulation, an initial investigation consists of “such factual inquiry or legal research as the attorney general deems appropriate” to “be conducted in order to better inform the decision” about whether a matter warrants the appointment of a special counsel.
The White House statement said that it “is cooperating” with the department but did not explain why Biden’s team waited more than two months to announce the discovery of the documents, which came a week before the midterm congressional elections when the news would have been an explosive last-minute development.
It also came shortly before Garland’s Nov. 18 appointment of Jack Smith as a special counsel to take over the
President Joe Biden speaks during a White House event to mark the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, in Washington on Friday, Jan. 6, 2023.
criminal investigation into Trump’s failure to return a large number of classified documents that were sent to his Florida residence and club, Mar-a-Lago, when he left office — even after being subpoenaed.
At the time, Garland cited the fact that Trump had just announced he was running for president again, and that Biden had indicated that he is likely to run as well, as justification to transfer control of the investigation to Smith. (An attorney general retains final say over whether anyone is charged with a crime by a special counsel.)
Trump jumped on Monday’s disclosure. “When is the FBI going to raid the many houses of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?” he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “These documents were definitely not declassified.”
That appeared to refer to Trump’s disputed claim that before leaving office he declassified all the documents the FBI found when it searched Mar-a-Lago in August. No credible evidence has emerged to support that claim, and his lawyers have resisted repeating it in court, where there are professional consequences for lying. In any case, the potential charges the FBI cited in its search warrant affidavit do not depend on whether intentionally mishandled documents were classified.
But while Trump tried to suggest a parallel, the circumstances of the Biden discovery as described appeared to be significantly different. Biden had neither been notified that he had official records nor been asked to return them, the White House said, and his team promptly revealed the discovery to the archives and returned them within a day.
“The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the archives,” Richard Sauber, a special White House counsel, wrote in the statement. “Since that discovery, the president’s personal attorneys have cooperated with the archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden administration documents are appropriately in the possession of the archives.”
By contrast, in 2021 the archives repeatedly asked Trump to turn over large numbers of documents it had determined
were missing. He put the agency off for months, then allowed it to retrieve 15 boxes of material in early 2022, including scores of classified documents, but it was later discovered that he kept more.
Eventually, the Justice Department obtained a grand jury subpoena for documents with classification markings remaining in Trump’s possession, and a lawyer for Trump turned over several more and told the department there were none left. But an August search by the FBI found 103 more marked as classified — along with thousands of other official records.
The search warrant affidavit that the Justice Department submitted suggested that Trump was under investigation for obstruction, along with possible violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalizes the willful unauthorized retention of national security documents and failure “to deliver them on demand” to a government official entitled to take custody of them.
Still, whatever the legal questions, as a matter of political reality, the discovery will make the perception of the Justice Department potentially charging Trump over his handling of the documents more challenging. As a special counsel, Smith is handling that investigation, along with one into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and the Jan. 6 attack on Congress, under Garland’s supervision.
Moreover, the discovery will fuel the fires on Capitol Hill, where Republicans who have just taken the House majority were already planning multiple investigations of the Biden administration, including the decision to have the FBI search Mar-a-Lago.
Rep. James R. Comer, R-Ky., who is in line to become the chair of the House Oversight Committee, said Monday that he would investigate the discovery of the classified documents in Biden’s office, vowing to send letters demanding information within 48 hours.
“How ironic,” Comer said in an interview. “Now, we learn that Joe Biden had documents that are considered classified. I wonder, is the National Archives going to trigger a raid of the White House tonight? Or of the Biden Center?” He added, “So now we’re going to take that information that we requested on the Mar-a-Lago raid and we’re going to expand it to include the documents that Joe Biden has.”
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, downplayed the matter, saying that he had confidence that Garland had taken appropriate steps to review the circumstances and that Biden’s lawyers “appear to have taken immediate and proper action” to notify the archives of the documents.
The department’s leadership decided to make the unusual choice of assigning the case outside the jurisdictions involved because Lausch was a Republican appointee and his work would likelier be seen as impartial, according to a person familiar with the situation.
With Lausch investigating the handling of classified information in Biden’s office, and David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware, investigating the president’s son, Hunter Biden, both Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys who have remained at the department are now scrutinizing the Biden family.
As rain lashed Southern California overnight, parts of the Los Angeles area experienced flooding — an unusual twist for a typically dry, sunny place where people tend to worry about droughts. Forecasters warned that little relief was expected Tuesday.
Rainfall in many parts of the state has exceeded a foot since Sunday, when the latest wave of moisture, known as an atmospheric river, swept across Northern California and spread to Central and Southern California. Parts of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, just west of Los Angeles, had received more than 16 inches of rain as of early Tuesday, leading to evacuations and flood alerts.
Additional rain, including thunderstorms, was forecast for Tuesday, worsening the ongoing flooding and raising the risk of flash flooding and mudslides, particularly in areas scarred by wildfires, the National Weather Service said in an advisory.
More than 34 million people, mostly in Southern and Central California, were under a flood watch early Tuesday, the weather service said. And nearly 200,000 customers, mostly in Santa Clara County, were without power, according to PowerOutage.us.
Forecasters in Los Angeles warned that the next round of heavy precipitation would tear across the region through much of Tuesday and that some of the passing storms could bring wind gusts up to 60 mph. There were concerns that storms could also bring hail and spawn tornadoes.
In the Bay Area, meteorologists were carefully watching the storms for Tuesday and advised locals to remain weather aware and have multiple ways to receive weather alerts. A similar forecast was issued farther inland for the Sacramento region, with meteorologists adding, “When thunder roars, head indoors.”
A large swath of Southern California was walloped with dangerous weather Monday night. In Los Angeles, where more than an inch of rain fell in an hour and where cars were partially submerged, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop for Los Angeles International Airport after 8 p.m., effectively slowing down takeoffs and landings for about an hour.
Concerns over flooding followed a chaotic day in Santa Barbara County, where officials ordered thousands of residents to quickly evacuate coastal communities over worries of mudslides in the area where wildfires have made the ground
less stable.
The orders were issued five years to the day that a torrent of mud and boulders rushed through neighborhoods in Montecito, killing 23 people.
“We’re in the midst of a series of significant and powerful storms,” Sheriff Bill Brown of Santa Barbara County said in a briefing Monday. “Currently, we’re experiencing a storm that is causing many problems and has the potential to cause major problems across our county, especially in the burn scar areas.”
The death toll related to the weather continued to climb. One person was killed Monday by floodwater while trying to navigate a submerged road in San Luis Obispo County, north of Santa Barbara. And a 5-year-old boy was missing in the county after his mother escaped from a car that was being swept away by floodwaters. At least seven other deaths in California have been attributed to the storms, which have been bashing the state since last month.
Scott Jalbert, San Luis Obispo County’s emergency services manager, said that the rivers and creeks in the area were gushing like they hadn’t in decades. “They’re pretty monstrous,” he said.
Terrible conditions were also reported in Santa Cruz County, about 70 miles south of San Francisco. More than
30,000 residents were evacuated as creeks and rivers topped their banks, threatened homes and washed away at least one bridge. Mudslides also blocked at least two highways that connect the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Bay Area.
Most of California has seen rainfall totals over the past several weeks that have been up to 600% above average values, forecasters said. The rain, although damaging and deadly, has brought some relief from the drought that has persisted across large portions of the West.
By time the rain was to begin winding down Tuesday evening, yet another “enormous cyclone” forming off the coast was on track to slam areas from Northern California north along the coast of the Pacific Northwest today, the weather service said. Rainfall totals over the next several days in many parts of California could reach 7 additional inches.
a “shadow army” to shake down small businesses with assault rifles.
On Monday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that the Republican bill to rescind billions of dollars in IRS funding would actually increase the deficit by $114 billion through 2032.
“They don’t want a fairer tax administration — they think it’s bad for some of their supporters,” Rep. Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, said in debate with Republicans on the House floor. “What they’re attempting to do tonight is bad for middleclass families. It’s bad for small businesses.”
Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Calif., acknowledged that “the agency needs reform and modernization,” but argued that the money did not prioritize those goals.
Rep. Adrian Smith of Nebraska, the Republican who led debate over the legislation, said the measure “stops autopilot funding for an out-of-control government agency that is perhaps most in need of reform.”
J.P. Freire, a spokesperson for Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee, said on Twitter that the revenue estimates would necessitate more audits on middle-class taxpayers. He argued that the agency often audited taxpayers who did not owe the government any additional money.
By EMILY COCHRANE and ALAN RAPPEPORTHouse Republicans, in one of their first legislative moves, voted to cut funding for the Internal Revenue Service earlier this week, as conservative lawmakers try to kneecap President Joe Biden’s $80 billion overhaul of the beleaguered agency.
The measure does not have the votes to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, let alone receive approval from Biden. It passed the House, 221-210 along party lines, with every Democrat in opposition and Republicans applauding upon passage.
But the legislation serves as an opening salvo from the new Republican majority, which is seeking to undercut the policy accomplishments of Democrats over the past two years, when they controlled both Congress and the White House.
The Biden administration issued a statement of policy on Monday confirming that the president would veto the measure and dismissing it as “a reckless bill.” Sen. Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., the majority leader, said that “this is a giveaway to the
multimillionaires and big corporations, and Democrats won’t let it happen.”
The Republican focus on the IRS comes after years of the complaints from the party that the agency had unfairly targeted conservative groups and harangued small businesses and middle-class families.
“The IRS does not need a raise — it needs a reckoning,” Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, who clinched the chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee on Monday, said about the bill. In a separate statement, he added that Daniel Werfel, Biden’s nominee to serve as the next IRS commissioner, should “plan to spend a lot of time before our committee answering questions about the leaking of sensitive taxpayer information and an agency with a history of targeting conservative Americans.”
Shortly after winning his speaker position early Saturday, Kevin McCarthy of California reiterated his pledge to make defunding the IRS the first bill of the Republican majority.
“The government should be here to help you, not go after you,” he said.
Democrats included an extra $80 billion for the IRS in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, which passed over Republican opposition, saying it would help the agency crack down on tax evaders and ensure that the government was collecting the taxes it was owed. The money will be used to hire 87,000 IRS employees and modernize the agency’s antiquated technology systems. That investment is expected to generate $180 billion in revenue over 10 years.
Yet despite denouncing the federal budget deficit and calling for more fiscal responsibility, Republicans have dismissed any revenue gain from beefing up the tax collector. Instead, they have falsely accused the administration of trying to create
“And ramping up those audits is going to be painful,” Freire said.
The money is intended to invest in an agency that has become depleted over the years. The effects of years of neglect and Republican cuts on the IRS budget were highlighted by reports recently published by the Ways and Means Committee as it released former President Donald Trump’s taxes.
The Biden administration has promised to prioritize using the additional funding to improve customer service at the IRS so that it is easier for taxpayers to get answers to questions. It has also pledged that audit rates for taxpayers earning less than $400,000 a year will not go up.
“House Republicans’ legislation would allow wealthy and corporate tax evaders to continue avoiding taxes owed, increasing the burden on honest, hardworking families who pay their taxes with every paycheck,” said Ashley Schapitl, a Treasury Department spokesperson. “The IRS audits nearly 80% fewer millionaires than a decade ago, and this legislation would deny the agency much-needed resources to hire top talent to go after the $163 billion in taxes avoided by the top 1% annually.”
Mark W. Everson, who served as IRS commissioner from 2003 to 2007, said the legislation proposed by House Republicans was a sign of an intensifying political battle over the fate of the agency.
“This is a shot across the bow, and it’s a very important one,” Everson said. He added that Republicans and Democrats needed to take steps to depoliticize the IRS.
“We should have plenty of debates about tax policy, but we need a fairly and efficiently functioning IRS,” said Everson, who is now a vice chairman at the business consulting firm Alliantgroup.
Wall Street ended sharply higher on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank might scale back the pace of its interest rate hikes as soon as December.
The S&P 500 rallied and closed above its 200 day moving average for the first time since April after the release of Powell’s remarks prepared for delivery at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.
Powell also cautioned that the fight against inflation was far from over and that key questions remain unanswered, including how high rates will ultimately need to rise and for how long.
“(The market) has waited with bated breath, looking for that clarification in terms of duration and extent of Fed tightening. And anything that gives hope to the idea the Fed is becoming less hawkish is viewed as a positive for stocks, at least on a shortterm basis,” said Chuck Carlson, Chief Executive Officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana.
Bets that the Fed will reduce the size of its rate hikes, as well as recent data pointing to a mild cooling in inflation, led the benchmark S&P 500 index to its second straight month of gains.
The CME FedWatch Tool showed futures traders seeing a 75% chance that the Fed will raise interest rates by 50 basis points at its December meeting, up from a 65% chance before Powell’s comments were released. The FedWatch tool now shows a 25% chance of a 75 basis point increase.
Nvidia rallied more than 8%, Microsoft jumped 6.2% and Apple climbed 4.9%.
Tesla Inc’s shares surged 7.7% after China Merchants Bank International said Tesla’s sales in China in November were boosted by price cuts and incentives offered on its Model 3 and Model Y.
The S&P 500 climbed 3.09% to end the session at 4,079.97 points.
The Nasdaq gained 4.41% to 11,468.00 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.18% to 34,589.24 .
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index surged 5.85%, trimming its loss in 2022 to about 28%.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was heavy, with 15.0 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 11.1 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.
For November, the S&P 500 climbed 5.4%, the Dow added 5.7% and the Nasdaq increased 4.4%.
An ADP National Employment report showed private employment increased by 127,000 in November, below expectations of 200,000 jobs, sug-
gestin .
“The ADP employment number not meeting expectations fits into the narrative that the Fed will have room and start slowing down its rate hikes, and that definitely benefits interest rate sensitive assets,” said Keith Buchanan, a portfolio manager at Globalt in Atlanta.
The Labor Department’s closely watched nonfarm payrolls data is due on Friday. A report showed
U.S. job openings falling to 10.334 million in October, against 10.687 million in the prior month.
Another reading showed the U.S. economy rebounded more strongly than initially thought in the third quarter.
The S&P 500 remains down about 14% so far in 2022, while the Nasdaq index has lost about 27%.
Biogen Inc jumped 4.7% after its experimental Alzheimer’s drug slowed cognitive decline in a closely watched trial.
Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a 24.1-to-one ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 24 new highs and 1 new low; the Nasdaq recorded 117 new highs and 167 new lows.
At least 17 people were killed in southern Peru in a matter of hours Monday amid ongoing protests over the ouster of the former president, an extraordinary spasm of violence that led to criticism of excessive force by the military and the police. The clashes heightened concerns that the protests would spread and lead to more bloodshed.
Peru, the fifth-most-populous nation in Latin America, has been the scene of violent demonstrations since mid-December, when the country’s leftist president, Pedro Castillo, who had promised to address longstanding issues of poverty and inequality, attempted to dissolve Congress and rule by decree. The move was widely condemned as unconstitutional, and Castillo was arrested and replaced by his vice president.
Supporters of Castillo, many of them living in impoverished rural regions, quickly took to the streets to demand new general elections, with many saying they had been stripped of the right to be governed by the man they had voted into office just one year earlier.
The violence, in the southern city of Juliaca near the border with Bolivia on Monday, marked the deadliest clash between civilians and armed actors in Peru in at least two decades, when the country emerged from a dictatorship as well as from a long and brutal fight with a violent guerrilla group, a conflict that left at least 70,000
people dead, many of them civilians.
On Tuesday, Jennie Dador, executive secretary of the National Human Rights Coordinator of Peru, an accountability group, blamed “indiscriminate use of force” by state security forces for Monday’s deaths.
“What happened yesterday was really a massacre,’’ she said. “These were extrajudicial killings.”
Peru’s interior minister, Victor Rojas, said that the protests in Juliaca had begun peacefully but that they turned violent around 3 p.m., when about 9,000 protesters tried to take control of the airport and people armed with makeshift guns and explosives attacked police.
Rojas said that security forces had act-
ed within legal limits to defend themselves. “It became impossible to control the mob,” he said.
The country’s demonstrations began shortly after authorities arrested Castillo on charges of rebellion on Dec. 7. Over the past month, some protests have been peaceful; in other cases marchers have used slingshots to fling rocks, set up roadblocks on vital highways, burned government buildings and taken over airports.
When the new president, Dina Boluarte, a former ally of Castillo’s, declared a state of emergency in December, the military took to the streets to maintain order.
Monday’s violence brings the national death toll since Castillo’s ouster to at least 46 people, according to Peru’s ombudsman’s office. All of the dead have been civilians, the office said, with 39 people killed amid protests and seven killed in traffic accidents related to the chaos or as a result of protesters’ blockades.
Hundreds of police officers and civilians have been injured.
Not included in that count is the body of a person found dead Tuesday in a burned police vehicle in Juliaca, after the interior minister said that the vehicle had been attacked.
The violent convulsions in Peru come as South America faces significant threats to many of its young democracies, with polls showing exceptionally low levels of trust in government institutions, politicians and the media.
On Sunday, supporters of Brazil’s former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed Congress and other buildings in the capital, fueled by a belief that the election Bolsonaro lost in October had been rigged. In nearby Bolivia, protests have erupted in the economic hub of Santa Cruz following the arrest of the opposition governor, whose supporters say he is being persecuted by the ruling government.
In Peru, the most recent bloodshed occurred in the region of Puno, a heavily Indigenous part of the country, after villagers from remote Aymara communities arrived by the thousands to the city of Juliaca.
Many are calling for Castillo to be returned to office, a political nonstarter in the capital of Lima, and a move that would be illegal.
The chief demand is new general elections, which electoral authorities said could happen as early as late this year. Congress has rejected such a tight time frame, with many representatives reluctant to give up their seats, but has backed a proposal for a vote in April 2024.
By early Tuesday afternoon, Boluarte still hadn’t commented on the unrest since confirming the first civilian killed a day earlier, when she sounded exasperated with protesters’ demands.
“The only thing in my hands is bringing forward elections, and we’ve already proposed it,” Boluarte said at an event Monday. “During peace, anything can be achieved, but amid violence and chaos it gets harder.”
Ukrainian troops are heading to the United States soon for training on the Patriot missile system, defense officials said Tuesday, in what would be an unusual case of Ukrainians being trained on U.S. soil.
The training will take place in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Fort Sill is where U.S. troops undergo their own training in how to operate and maintain the Patriot system, which is the country’s most advanced groundbased air defense system.
Most of the recent training on U.S. weapons systems for Ukraine has taken place in Germany, but in the case of the Patriot system, Pentagon officials had indicated that they were considering training the Ukrainians in the United States. Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said last week that the United States was looking at options to “include potential training here in the U.S., overseas or a combination of both.”
For the Biden administration, the U.S.-based training, reported earlier by CNN, does not risk escalation with Russia. While the Patriot system is a major step in continued U.S. aid for Ukraine, it is a defensive system that
is meant to protect Ukrainians from Russian missiles; it is not an offensive system.
After months of debate, the Biden administration said late last month that it was sending the Patriot system to Ukraine, responding to Kyiv’s urgent request to help defend against an onslaught of Russian missile and drone attacks. The Patriot is part of a $1.8 billion aid package for Ukraine that was announced last month during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington.
A Patriot battery can require close to 100 people to operate it, officials said. While training on the complex system can take months, one defense official said that he expected that Ukrainian service members, who had shown themselves to be quick studies on military systems, might be able to get up to speed more quickly.
Germany is also sending Ukraine a Patriot missile system from its stockpiles.
President Joe Biden was under growing political pressure earlier this week to confront the surge of migrants entering the U.S. illegally at the southern border as he began two days of diplomacy in Mexico City intended to secure more help from Mexico to stem the tide of people fleeing toward the United States.
Biden is also looking for more cooperation from Mexico in the fight against drug trafficking, and for the resolution of a dispute over the Mexican government’s financial support for its energy industries. He began those conversations on Monday evening with a oneon-one meeting with the country’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the second time that the two leaders have met in person since Biden took office two years ago.
In remarks before his meeting, Biden said that the United States and Mexico “have to continue to build and contribute to democratic institutions in the hemisphere.” Both countries, he said, are “at one of those inflection points.”
Officials on both sides of the border have set modest goals for the North American Leaders Summit between Biden, López Obrador and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada. No agreements are expected on immigration, for instance, only commitments to work in that direction.
But officials also said that specific deals at the short gathering were less important than a broader mission: cementing the return of a North American partnership based on cooperation and shared interests rather than the intimidation and conflict that marked the Trump years.
It has been 3 1/2 years since former President Donald Trump threatened Mexico with far-reaching tariffs and nearly five years since Trump angrily tore up an agreement with the Group of 7 countries during a summit in Canada. Now, with Biden as president, officials in all three countries say a stronger relationship is vital to improving supply chains and weathering economic headwinds.
“A larger economic vision of North America that involves high labor standards, better environmental standards and as much positively reinforcing economic activity as possible,” was how Jake Sullivan, the administration’s national security adviser, described what Biden hopes to accomplish at the summit.
“That allows the United States to be the manufacturing powerhouse that President Biden has talked about, but also is a win-win for Mexico and Canada, and reduces our dependencies on other countries and other parts of the world who don’t necessarily share the same values that we share with our partners here in North America,” Sullivan said.
The lack of specific, aggressive action items has frustrated some business leaders in the United States, who said there are economic disputes between the three countries that need to be resolved soon.
“It’s not sufficient for leaders to get just together,”
Migrants near the banks of the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Jan. 8, 2023. The migration tide loomed large at the president’s summit meeting with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.
said Myron Brilliant, the executive vice president and head of international affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “It’s important that we see action and transformational change in the way that governments work with the private sector.”
Still, confronting migration is at the top of the agenda for the leaders here, according to officials with all three governments, even if major policy announcements are unlikely. Talks on migration are constant, with a U.S. official saying that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in regular touch with Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard.
The Mexican government, along with immigrant advocates in the United States, has denounced a policy the Biden administration proposed last week that would make asylum very difficult to obtain for migrants arriving from a “safe third country,” usually Mexico, without first seeking refuge there. On Saturday, Roberto Velasco, the Mexican Foreign Ministry’s chief officer for North America, called the idea “a red line for us” because it could mean far more migrants in Mexico.
Mexico has not asked the United States for any financial support to deal with the influx of migrants, believing that doing so would limit the country’s autonomy. But López Obrador is facing political pressures of his own inside Mexico, where some are frustrated by the large number of migrants from elsewhere in the region.
While announcing that it is cracking down on asy-
lum claims, the Biden administration also said it would open more pathways for people to migrate legally to the United States — a change Mexico had been seeking.
“Obviously it also decreases the pressure on our own systems and our own country in terms of these very large flows of people that we’ve been seeing in the past years,” Velasco said.
White House officials said Biden was also determined to address the issue of illegal drug smuggling, especially the vast flow of fentanyl from Mexico into the United States.
There has been growing concern among U.S. officials about a decline in security cooperation with Mexico in recent years. In October 2020, without notifying the Mexican government, U.S. agents arrested a former Mexican secretary of defense after he got off a plane in Los Angeles, accusing him of working on behalf of a drug cartel.
The move infuriated the Mexican military and prompted so much outrage within López Obrador’s government that the American authorities eventually released the official and returned him to Mexico.
But the fallout continued.
Mexico delayed for months the granting of visas to several agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and moved to make it harder for agents already in the country to operate normally. A law passed at the end of 2020 required foreign agents to share information with the Mexican government and removed their diplomatic immunity.
López Obrador, meanwhile, has presided over one of the most violent periods in Mexico’s recent history.
While the country’s government last week arrested Ovidio Guzmán — the son of the infamous drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, known as El Chapo — López Obrador has removed fewer drug cartel chiefs and has done less to dismantle organized criminal groups than his predecessors, analysts say.
“The Mexican government is not making it a priority to crack down on the supply side of the drug problem,” said David Shirk, director of the Justice in Mexico program at the University of San Diego.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Sullivan said Biden had “some confidence” that by the end of the summit on Tuesday, he would secure a commitment from López Obrador “for stronger cooperation on the fentanyl issue.”
During their meeting Monday, the two presidents also began potentially tense conversations about trade conflicts between their countries that still loom large.
Biden confronted López Obrador about steps the Mexican president has taken to strengthen the dominance of Mexico’s two main state-owned energy companies — the Federal Electricity Commission, or CFE, and the oil and gas company Pemex. Executives of American energy companies believe that the Mexican actions put American companies at a disadvantage in ways not allowed under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a free-trade pact that was signed two years ago.
It was midmorning Friday when the camera of a Ukrainian drone zoomed in on a Russian soldier moving furtively among trees on the edge of town. Another enemy assault was underway in the eastern city of Bakhmut.
The drone pilot marked coordinates as he watched, then sent them by satellite link to artillery commanders.
Within a few minutes, Ukrainian artillery units struck the houses where they had seen the Russians taking cover. Smoke from the hits could be seen rising silently on the drone operator’s screen.
Later that day, however, an armored vehicle rumbled out of an eastern neighborhood carrying wounded Ukrainian soldiers toward a stabilization point in the city’s west. Ukraine’s army was taking its hits, too.
It’s a grim stalemate that has taken on the rhythms of a heavyweight title bout, with each side going toe to toe in one of the longest-running battles of the war. That stands in contrast to Ukraine’s strategy elsewhere along the front line, where it succeeded by avoiding direct confrontations, relying instead on nimble maneuvers, deception and Western-provided long-range weapons to force Russian retreats.
In an earlier phase of the war, Ukraine’s leadership had been more equivocal about pitched battles like Bakhmut. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a rare moment of public self-doubt, mulled then whether the deaths of about 100 Ukrainian soldiers per day in Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk were worth the fight for two already ruined cities.
But this time, there has been no second-guessing. And new research suggests the lethal urban combat in the summer was not as senseless as it might have seemed at the time.
An analysis by two leading military analysts published last month by the Foreign Policy Research Institute vindicated the attritional fighting. The pitched battle weakened the Russian army enough for two Ukrainian counterattacks in the fall to succeed, wrote the analysts, Rob Lee and Michael Kofman. Those offensives, in the Kharkiv region in the north and Kherson in the south, delivered two of the most embarrassing defeats of the war to President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
“The amount of ammunition Russia expended and the casualties they took set up the Russian army for failure,” Lee said in
an interview.
Whether Bakhmut winds up playing a similar role before expected spring offensives by Ukraine depends on many variables, he said, including how many soldiers Russia can field after a mobilization this past fall.
Fierce fighting continued to rage Monday along the front line that extends from Bakhmut northeast toward the city of Soledar, with the Russians claiming to have taken a nearby village and Ukraine saying that it had repelled Russian attempts to storm Soledar itself.
Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, said in a post on Telegram that after an unsuccessful attempt to capture Soledar and subsequent retreat, the enemy regrouped “and launched a powerful assault.” Ukrainian forces were “bravely defending every inch,” she wrote.
At the Pentagon on Monday, a senior U.S. military official described the combat in and around Bakhmut as “really severe and savage” with both sides slugging it out.
Bakhmut’s strategic value is debatable, but it carries symbolic importance for both sides. For Russia, capturing it would be the most significant success in months. In Ukraine, the long battle and heavy losses have turned Bakhmut into a national symbol of defiance. Zelenskyy cited the city in a high-profile appearance before the U.S. Congress last month and presented House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a Ukrainian flag signed by soldiers fighting in Bakhmut.
(The imperative to “Hold Bakhmut,” as Ukrainians say, nevertheless carries some risks, analysts warn, saying that it could cloud military judgment and potentially delay a retreat if one becomes necessary).
Viewed from the sky, on the monitor of a drone pilot, Bakhmut slides silently by in sepia hues of brown mud roads, gray rubble of homes and white smoke rising from fires. The stalemate has transformed a swath of ruins and mangled, muddy fields on the city’s eastern rim into scenes reminiscent of World War I: Shell craters are ubiquitous, and the abandoned bodies of Russian soldiers lie about, with Ukrainian troops often complaining of the stink.
“It’s a place like Verdun in the First World War, where each side is trying to bleed out the other,” Lt. Gen. Frederick Hodges, the former U.S. commanding general in Europe, said of the battle of Bakhmut, now in its sixth month.
A drone overflight of the wasteland Thursday recorded a typical scene: two Russian bodies lying on the battlefield beside an artillery crater. “It looks like apocalypse,” Pvt. Oleksiy Kondakov, a Ukrainian soldier who rotated out of Bakhmut last month, said of the area.
Inside the city, few civilians remain, most on the less heavily damaged western bank of the small river that divides
Bakhmut, the Bakhmutovka. The eastern neighborhoods are panoramas of collapsed and burned houses.
Soldiers settle into a familiar routine. Last Friday, a team of Ukrainians careened down a muddy street in an SUV, wheeled into a courtyard and piled out, standing next to a wall with rifles ready, just as they do most days.
Inside the relative safety of a ruined building, one soldier set about unspooling cable for a satellite link. Another unpacked a drone. They exchanged pleasantries with another unit that happened to be using the same devastated building that day, sharing tea with them and ignoring the booms and rattle of gunfire outside.
The battle in Bakhmut has been fought in two phases: For the first 100 days or so the Russian regular army was involved, and from then on a private military contracting company, the Wagner Group, which has recruited prisoners into its ranks.
The second phase has been the bloodier one, as the Russians have assaulted the city using brigades made up of the convicts. The company’s owner, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, who is a close associate of President Vladimir Putin and is seen as wanting a victory in Bakhmut to boost his political standing back in Russia, tested new tactics.
Many of these units were essentially throwaway soldiers; Ukrainian soldiers have called them human wave assaults.
“Essentially they take the brunt of whatever Ukrainian response there is,” said the senior U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details. “Then you have better trained forces that move behind them to claim the ground that these individuals have walked over.”
Serhiy Hrabsky, a former Ukrainian colonel and commentator for the Ukrainian news media, called the fighting around Bakhmut “a completely different nature” of war. Ukraine persists in the city’s defense, he said, in part because “their losses are important for us.”
Private Andriy Pancheko, a member of the drone team, had been working as an electrician in Poland before the invasion but returned and volunteered in the army. Broadly, he said, Ukrainians were defending their country because “if we don’t fight, we won’t have freedom.”
The purpose of holding out specifically in the ruins of eastern Bakhmut was less clear, he admitted. “I don’t know; I just take orders,” he said. “They commanded me to be here. But why not? It’s our land.”
The people who will be running the House of Representatives for the next two years — a group that does not, as far as anyone can tell, include Kevin McCarthy, who seems set to be speaker in name only — believe a number of untrue things.
Many, perhaps most, believe that the 2020 election was stolen, or at least that Joe Biden is somehow not the legitimate president.
Many believe that COVID vaccines do more harm than good, a belief that has contributed to thousands of excess deaths among Republican partisans.
Quite a few either subscribe to or are at least friendly to beliefs of the QAnon cult, which claims that the world is run by a vast conspiracy of pedophiles.
And just about all of them, again as far as I can tell, believe that the U.S. economy is in terrible shape, with the federal government at great risk of going bankrupt.
You’ve probably read a lot about the political delusions of Republican extremists — and these days a vast majority of Republicans in the House are either extremists or opportunists willing to go
along with whatever the extremists want. It’s important, however, to realize that GOP economic views are almost as divorced from reality as their political fantasies are.
Let’s talk first about the current state of the U.S. economy.
Republicans have spent much of the past year screaming about a “Biden recession.” And to be fair, many private forecasters do expect recent interest rate increases to cause slowing growth and rising unemployment this year — although I’m hearing growing talk about the possibility of a “soft landing” that might breach the Sahm rule for recessions (a half-point rise in the unemployment rate) but won’t feel like a severe slump.
One thing is for sure, however: There wasn’t a recession in 2022. Indeed, the U.S. economy ended the year with continuing strong job growth and the unemployment rate all the way back down to what it was before COVID.
What about inflation? The price surge of 202122, coming after decades of low inflation, was a nasty shock, and I don’t want to minimize either the size of that shock or the extent to which many economists, myself included, failed to see it coming. Republicans, it goes without saying, tried to make inflation, which they attributed to excessive federal spending, a central theme of the midterm elections.
But have they noticed that inflation has been coming down? Have any prominent Republicans even acknowledged the changing situation?
The numbers are really striking. Over the year ending in November (the most recent data available), the consumer price index rose 7.1%. But inflation ran at an annual rate of only 4.8% over the past six months, 3.6% over the past three months and 1.2% in November.
True, inflation has been held down in part by events that probably won’t be repeated, like the plunge in gasoline prices over the second half of 2022. On the other hand, there’s good reason to believe that housing inflation — which accounts for about a third of the consumer price index — has declined sharply, but that this decline isn’t yet reflected in official statistics.
Add in the latest data on wages, which were seriously encouraging, and a reasonable estimate is that we’ve regained full employment with underlying inflation only a point or two above prepandemic levels. That’s not a perfect situation, and squeezing out the remaining inflation may (or may not!) be hard, but it’s hardly a picture of catastrophe.
For what it’s worth, financial markets have ba-
A darkened podium in the U.S. House of Representatives after an unsuccessful vote to determine the next speaker, in Washington, Jan. 5, 2023.
sically declared the inflation threat over: They’re implicitly predicting roughly 2% inflation as far as the eye can see. They’re also willing to buy federal debt at interest rates that are up a bit but still low by historical standards, showing no hint of concerns about U.S. solvency.
Still, Republicans are determined to see economic and fiscal disaster, and as always when Democrats hold the White House, they’re insisting that we must take drastic action to balance the budget.
That is, after we deal with their first priority: depriving the Internal Revenue Service of the resources it needs to go after wealthy tax cheats.
Anyway, as usual the GOP is insisting that the budget can and must be balanced entirely by cutting spending. And as usual this insistence runs up against the reality that spending cuts that big would be politically impossible. In fact, they’d probably be politically impossible even if Republicans managed to destroy democracy completely, which some of them seem to want.
For the federal government is, as an old line puts it, basically an insurance company with an army. Other than military spending — only a small fraction of which, even now, goes to defending democracy in Ukraine — federal dollars mainly go to retirement and health care programs on which scores of millions of Americans, including many Republicans, depend.
So the new House majority is living in a fantasy world, insisting on a completely unworkable solution to a largely imaginary crisis. Unfortunately, as we learned on Jan. 6, 2021, political fantasies can have dire real-world consequences.
SAN JUAN – La llegada de cinco cruceros con alrededor de 21 mil pasajeros el miércoles, 11 de enero de 2023, marca el punto más activo de una semana para el sector de cruceros en los mue-
lles de San Juan.
La visita de estas y otras nueve embarcaciones adicionales entre el 9 y el 15 de enero al principal puerto turístico de la Isla inyectarán sobre 5.8 millones de dólares al fisco local.
Los 5 cruceros que arriban mañana en los muelles de la ciudad capital, el primero en llegar será a las 7:00 am y el último en zarpar será a las 10:30 pm; estos son: el Carnival Celebration, el Oceania Riviera, el Wonder of the Seas, el Norwegian Getaway y el Disney Fantasy.
“El sector de cruceros es un sector de la industria turística que aporta significativamente al desarrollo económico de Puerto Rico y redunda en beneficios directos e indirectos para empresarios y trabajadores locales. La llegada de estos 21,000 cruceristas representa un impacto económico de cerca de 2.5 millones de dólares a la economía local lo cual, sumado a los 27,268 pasajeros adicionales que visitarán la Isla entre el lunes 9 y domingo 15 aumenta a 5.8 millones durante esta semana”, expresó el director ejecutivo de la Com-
pañía de Turismo de Puerto Rico, Carlos Mercado Santiago en comunicación scrita.
“La llegada de todos estos cruceros en un mismo día visibiliza nuestra visión de tener un puerto cada vez más activo. Nos satisface en gran manera ver la cantidad de cruceros que han llegado durante los pasados meses, pero no nos quedaremos ahí. Seguiremos trabajando para que el año 2023 sea uno altamente productivo. Continúan en proceso varias mejoras a la infraestructura portuaria para fomentar que durante todo el año, y no solo en la temporada invernal, haya más operaciones que fortalezcan el desarrollo económico de Puerto Rico. Cada mejora a la infraestructura propicia que las compañías de cruceros aumenten su interés en operar en el Puerto de San Juan, ya sea mediante operaciones homeport o en tránsito”, dijo Pizá Batiz.
El principal ejecutivo de la CTPR añadió que, “también, es importante destacar que la actividad registrada para esta semana alcanza el promedio pre-pandemia de visitas para esta temporada”.
POR CYBERNEWSSAN JUAN – La comisionada residente, Jenniffer González Colón, discutió el martes, con el secretario de Salud de los Estados Unidos (HHS) Xavier Becerra, formas en que pueden trabajar para corregir las disparidades en programas de atención médica. Entre otros, discutieron el aumento de las primas para los beneficiarios de Medicare Advantage (MA), pagos más altos a los proveedores y la eliminación de ciertas multas por inscripción tardía para beneficiarios de Platino.
“Ya que hemos asegurado el financiamiento para la cubierta de salud de Medicaid por 19.4 mil millones de dólares en cinco años, podemos movernos a concentrar nuestros esfuerzos en otras áreas en donde por nuestra condición territorial seguimos en desventaja con el resto de la nación, esto a pesar de que los beneficiarios de Medicare en Puerto Rico han pagado el mismo impuesto sobre la nómina de Medicare que cualquier otro ciudadano americano. Uno de ellos es el pago a los proveedores de salud, es importante que podamos equiparar estos pagos a los del resto de la nación, o al menos aumentarlos al mismo nivel del nuestro vecino territorio, las Islas Vírgenes para así evitar escasez de proveedores. Le solicité además al secretario tratar a Puerto Rico por igual en las próximas iniciativas del HHS para reformar
la prestación de servicios de atención médica”, indicó González Colón en comunicación escrita.
La comisionada marcó la desigualdad de Puerto Rico con el cuidado de la salud en general al comparar el gasto anual per cápita en los estados es de 14,170 dólares en 2023, mientras que en Puerto Rico se estiman que los recursos totales para el cuidado de la salud para el 2023 serán de aproximadamente 5,000 dólares per cápita, incluso con la reciente aprobación de Medicaid.
Medicaid todavía está un 50 por ciento por debajo del promedio nacional y Medicare Advantage está un 41 por ciento por debajo del promedio nacional y un 23 por ciento más bajas que las del territorio vecino de Puerto Rico, las Islas Vírgenes.
Además, estas tarifas bajas para los planes MA impiden los reembolsos adecuados a los proveedores, lo que lleva a un éxodo masivo de proveedores locales de atención médica a los Estados Unidos continentales y a una erosión continua de la infraestructura de atención médica de Puerto Rico.
La congresista también pidió al secretario que se establecería administrativamente un punto de referencia de MA mínimo con un ajuste geográfico promedio de 0,70. Este es el nivel actual que se aplica a las Islas Vírgenes y protegería a todas las jurisdicciones de anomalías no deseadas que empobrecen más a los pobres según la fórmula de pago geográfica.
A lo largo de los años, CMS ha realizado ajustes administrativos limitados para suavizar el impacto, pero las tarifas nacionales continúan creciendo a un ritmo mucho más rápido y reflejan mejor el costo real de la atención médica, mientras que Puerto Rico continúa rezagándose. Además, los datos más recientes de los Centros de Servicio Medicare y Medicaid (CMS) revelan que solo quedan alrededor de 40,000 beneficiarios de Medicare A&B en PR FFS Medicare sin inscribirse en los planes MA.
Este es un número no representativo de beneficiarios autoseleccionados considerando que hay 640,000 en MA y más de 750,000 beneficiarios de Medicare en general en Puerto Rico, por lo que la congresista enfatizó al secretario que esta disparidad persistente que afecta gravemente a más de 640,000 de nuestros adultos mayores, lo que constituye más del 80 por ciento del total de afiliados a Medicare en la isla.
Además, para abordar el éxodo continuo de proveedores, se podría exigir a los planes que gasten no menos del 50 por ciento del aumento en los fondos de MA para mejorar la compensación del proveedor en virtud de los beneficios de Medicare A y B, mientras que la proporción restante se utiliza para mejoras de beneficios suplementarios. reducciones de costos compartidos o mejoras adicionales a la compensación del proveedor.
Comisionada residente discute con el secretario de Salud federal acceso a programas federales de salud
El principal puerto turístico de la Isla recibirá cerca de 21 mil pasajeros y cerrará la semana con un total de visitas de 14 embarcaciones
In their prolonged campaign to tell their story — and to present themselves as victims of the British royal family, the tabloid press and critics and haters everywhere — Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, have in the past two years revealed their secrets to Oprah Winfrey, revealed them again to various sympathetic television interviewers, produced and starred in a six-part Netflix series and, in the case of Harry, appeared on actor Dax Shepard’s podcast, “Armchair Expert.”
Now comes the prince’s multimilliondollar ghostwritten memoir, “Spare.” Set for release Tuesday, it has been leaking out over the past few days, one eye-popping detail after the next. (The book mistakenly appeared in stores early in Spain, and was snapped up and translated by alert members of the British news media, injecting an element of chaos into the publisher’s rollout.)
Harry and Meghan still have many sympathizers, particularly those who see the couple’s grievances through the lens of the racism Meghan encountered in Britain and who say that she — and Harry, once he married her — never stood a chance in such a stultified, reactionary institution as the monarchy.
But something has changed, judging from the response so far. Even in the United States, which has a soft spot for royals in exile and a generally higher tolerance than Britain does for redemptive stories about overcoming trauma and family dysfunction, there is a sense that there are only so many revelations the public can stomach.
“Look, everyone has a family,” television host Don Lemon declared on “CNN This Morning” last week. “I have arguments in my family. Am I going to put that out there for the whole world to see? I don’t understand why on earth he would want to put that out there. I know he’s selling a book, but to me it’s just …”. (“Gauche,” he added later.)
Was it gauche, for instance, for Harry to accuse Prince William of pushing him to the floor while the two argued about Meghan, ripping Harry’s necklace and shattering a dog’s bowl whose shards then gouged his back? Or to describe how the brothers squabbled in front of their father after Prince Philip’s funeral? (“Please, boys, don’t make
my final years a misery,” Charles is quoted as saying.) How about Harry’s account of how, high on mushrooms, he believed a garbage can was talking to him, or the passage about how Meghan offended Kate, the Princess of Wales, by boldly asking if she could borrow her lip gloss?
It’s one thing to be criticized; it’s another to be openly ridiculed.
It can’t be a great sign, for instance, that the Jimmy Kimmel show last week staged a reenactment of the supposed argument in the kitchen that it called “Two Princes.” Set to a voice-over of an actor reading the passage in a plummy English accent, the skit featured two actors who were, bizarrely, each dressed as the musician Prince.
On the other side of the Atlantic, four media personalities on the couch of the British show “This Morning” could barely keep it together last week as they discussed another revelation in the book: Harry’s account of the first time he had sex.
“An older woman took his virginity, and then, when the act of darkness had been completed, he lay on his front, and she smacked his bottom,” said one, writer and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, to peals of laughter.
Preorders have already catapulted the book to the top of bestseller lists, and the
ubiquitous coverage is unlikely to damage sales, at least in the short term.
“I’m sure they don’t mind all the publicity,” said Jeffrey W. Schneider, a co-founder of public relations firm The Lead PR, speaking of the book’s publisher, Penguin Random House. “It is also true that what is good for a publisher is not necessarily the same as what is good for the person who has published the book.”
Indeed, more worrying for Harry and Meghan is whether the continued public relitigation of their troubles has grown so repetitive or even tiresome that it has eroded their personal brand and damaged their potential future earnings. Once they have exhausted the topic of themselves, what is left for them to talk about?
“It’s overload,” Schneider said. “There’s been a lot about them, and now there’s a lot more. While people’s fascination has always been pretty high, maybe there is a natural limit to that.”
If he had been advising Harry and Meghan, said Howard Bragman, chair of crisismanagement firm La Brea Media, he would have impressed on them that there is only so much mileage you can get out of a finite amount of material.
“You have to realize that you can really only tell your story once,” Bragman said.
There is also the question of timing. Harry’s book is being published shortly after the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. Whatever you think of the monarchy, Elizabeth’s funeral gave the royal family the chance to showcase qualities like discretion, fortitude, an adherence to duty and tradition, and an aptitude for remaining publicly stoic in the face of private grief.
But Harry embodies the opposite of all that. With his revelations about private family conversations, his accounts of his anguish and unhappiness at the behavior of his father, stepmother and brother, especially in the wake of his mother’s death, and his eagerness to divulge un-regal details about topics like Meghan and Kate’s high-drama altercation over the bridesmaids’ dresses at his and Meghan’s wedding, he presents a stark contrast to William and, especially, to Kate, who in public have said exactly nothing about any of this.
“It feels a little reality-television-y to me,” Bragman said of the Harry-and-Meghan media offensive. The couple, he added, “feel a little Trumpian, in that they seem like they can’t let a grudge go.”
Alas, even one of the queens of reality television, former “Real Housewives of New York City” star Bethenny Frankel, believes that Harry and Meghan have finally said too much.
“Is it too late to change the name of Harry’s book to ‘Dirty Harry Laundry?’” Frankel said in a video on Instagram, filming herself as she lay in bed. She decried the level of detail in the book. “How much more? Are we going with Meghan to get a Pap smear? I mean, what’s next?” (“Okay, but how is this any different than the reality shows that you did?” a commenter named wendyjo79 responded, which seemed like a fair point.)
Many people have defended Meghan and Harry on social media and elsewhere in the past few days. But for every person who sticks up for the couple, there is someone else who says that enough is enough.
“We’ve all just fallen down some wormhole where we will never be free of hearing every single detail of Prince Harry’s life and why he believes no one has ever had a worse life than his,” former “View” co-host Meghan McCain said on Twitter. “This is never going to end. He’s never going to let us live!”
This month’s picks feature a time-collapsing camera, culinary cultists and a hole to hell.
‘LandLocked’
The new year is only days old, but this deeply affecting film is already a contender for my favorite scary movie of 2023. It’s a triumph of low-fi horror and a knockout narrative feature debut from writer-director Paul Owens, a documentarian.
It begins as Mason, a young artist, returns to his soon-to-be demolished childhood home in exurban New Jersey, where he meets up with his brothers. (Owens and his siblings, Seth and Mason, play fictional versions of themselves, as does their father, Jeffrey.) Wandering the rooms, Mason finds a VHS-era camera, and when he looks through the viewer what he sees isn’t the now but the then: clips from his family’s home movies, taken in the same spots where he points the camera, with his father a prevalent figure. (The home videos are the Owens family’s own.)
Mason is so taken by his supernaturally retro discovery that he starts recording, building a library of memories. But when the camera reveals that a sinister creature lurks in the house, Mason is forced to reckon with ghosts whose haunting days he thought were over.
It’s tough to pin down this spare yet exceptional film because it never stops wrestling: with loss, memory, death, fatherhood. With genre, too, as it intersects science fiction, found footage, experimental horror, documentary. Owens does so effortlessly and assuredly, and the result is singular: It’s analog and futuristic, creepy and sentimental, heart racing and utterly heartbreaking.
(Rent or buy it on major platforms.)
(Hato Rey, Puerto Rico):
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‘The Menu’
Mark Mylod’s revenge thriller squeezes wine from low-hanging grapes: pretentious foodies, precious plating, 1 percenters. I got drunk on it.
A group of moneyed Americans — including a pompous restaurant critic (Janet McTeer) and a has-been movie star (John Leguizamo) — travel to a remote island to eat a pricey, conceptually audacious meal by the renowned chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) and his devoted acolytes. Clues that something’s amiss come early when the guests meet their hostess, Elsa (Hong Chau, perfection), who’s as severe in her appearance as she is in her hospitality.
But this is no Noma: Julian is a vengeful madman who plans to serve his guests delicious food to die for — then actually kill them. What chef didn’t expect was a surprise guest: Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), in whose cut-thecrap demeanor he sees hints of his own burger-flipping past. Their relationship fuels the film’s punishing final course.
As sinister and crafty as this death-cult horror story is, it’s funny, too; what’s for dessert is as loony as it is monstrous. Privilege, haute cuisine, finance bros: They all take a beating, and the result is a cutting mashup of “Clue” and “The Exterminating Angel.”
‘It Hatched’
(Stream it on HBO Max.)
Petur (Gunnar Kristinsson) and his wife, Mira (Vivian Olafsdottir), move to the middle of nowhere in Iceland to renovate a guesthouse. He loves the property but she doesn’t, especially when she learns that the previous owners left behind little more than a busted crib.
Things get weird when Petur discovers a hole in the basement that’s been covered by a stone inscribed with a strange script, an object he thinks may have something to do with his wife’s unexpected pregnancy. (His sperm count is low.) But instead of giving birth, Mira lays an egg that cracks open to reveal an adorable human baby in-
side. She shrugs off the unusual birth, but Petur supposes “that kid,” as he calls his child, might be a demon.
Elvar Gunnarsson’s folk-horror dark comedy is eerie and unashamedly eccentric — an absurdist companion to “Lamb,” Valdimar Johannsson’s macabre parenthood drama that was also set in isolated Iceland. Gunnarsson’s own haunting cinematography and creepy, tinkling score add menace throughout, especially during the film’s deliciously unnerving nightmare scenes.
(Stream it on Screambox.)
On a chilly day in 1987, Vivian (Ani Mesa) is surprised when her estranged identical twin sister, Marian (Alessandra Mesa), shows up at their childhood home, where Vivian still lives. What Vivian, a married housewife, doesn’t know is that Marian, a struggling singer, is on the run from an abusive boyfriend (Pico Alexander). Soon, and strangely, the sisters’ identities blur, down to their hairstyles and wardrobes — and that’s when their entwined lives take dark detours.
Erin Vassilopoulos’ feature debut is less a horror movie than a psycho-thriller à la “Blue Velvet,” its spirit guide. It has more style than substance, and I’m not complaining; it’s a throwback to ’80s No Wave cinema, and I’m a sucker for low-budget movies about evil that lurked in Reagan-era suburban America, so it mostly kept me hooked.
The film’s punk charms wore off as the story neared a conclusion with too many mysteries piled up at the finish line. But man, would I love to visit the ghostly 16 mm suburbia cinematographer Mia Cioffi Henry so evocatively summons.
(Stream it on the Criterion Channel.)
Blackouts are plaguing Brazil, and the timing couldn’t be better for a gang of Christian evangelical women who hunt other young women they perceive to be sexually impure, smearing them as Delilahs and recording their post-beatdown vows to accept Jesus.
After being sliced in the face during an attack on a young victim, Mari (Mari Oliveira), one of the gang’s leaders, starts to question her sinner hunting. At a strange hospital where she nurses coma patients, Mari slowly discovers that the Christian community she loves — surprise, surprise — teems with sexual secrets and toxic masculinity.
There’s nothing subtle about this “Purge”-like thriller, written and directed by Anita Rocha da Silveira. Siouxsie and the Banshees’ apocalyptic anthem “Cities in Dust” plays in its opening minutes, and the film ends with a screen-filling brawl between male and female true believers. In the middle, da Silveira’s feminist message toggles between despairing realism and ultra-dark comedy, making for a smart, if repetitive, takedown of religious extremism.
(Rent or buy on most major platforms.)
ders. Her looks are not numbered like most designers do in their books. They are named like art in a gallery: “Pasado Tumultuoso Maxi Dress,” “Mother Continent Midi Dress,” “Iconic Terrains Cape,” “Chilling Out Pants,” “Latin Vintage Mini Dress.”
The color palette is fabulous as well: bright greens, blues, chocolate, lavender, burnt orange, coral, fuchsia, black and ecru.
mini dresses with raffia accents on the hem line and feather trim mings. Stunning, really. Her onesleeve dresses and tops with asym metrical draped necklines are oh so glam as are her wraparound maxi dresses in patterns of fuchsia, chocolate and black.
By IRIS EDÉN SANTIAGO Special to The STAR
From the Resort collections I have viewed for 2023, one definitely stands out. It’s intriguing, sophisticated, rustic and playful.
Like all her previous work since her beginnings in 2003, Johanna Ortiz’s proposal remains fiercely authentic, feminine and very much her own. By this I mean that she integrates current trends in her own way, at her own pace. She will not allow trends to absorb her point of view but rather creates a space for them in her sketchbook.
Her unique proposal is elegant, mature. Her silhouettes are polished and sensual. The Colombian fashion designer doesn’t force sexiness. She doesn’t use super low necklines or double-high slits. Ortiz suggests all that femininity in a clever manner, so delicately that it takes a back seat to the primary matter at hand: her classy fashion-forward super chic designs.
Her signature style is front and center.
“Each piece confirms a commitment to excellence and originality. Precise in construction and exuberant in
spirit,” as she explains on her website, “the allure of complexity, the mark of individuality.”
We love the big patterns, the supersized palm trees, the ruffles, the tribal feeling, the exquisite textiles. Born in Cali, Ortiz was trained at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, so part of her imprint reflects those two worlds, the modern influences going forward and the immensely rich artisanal details that she calls “intricate artistry.”
The details in her designs are not simple hints of her heritage, oh no. She celebrates our Hispanic culture to the fullest. Ortiz has been making global headlines and collecting stellar reviews for years with collections that don’t hide our cultures but rather celebrate them. She shares our colors with the world. This is her power.
Through her work Ortiz intertwines new and vintage using fascinating contrasts. We love the pairings she creates with beautiful and exciting effects: handwoven raffia and paillettes, seed beads and sequins, maximalist prints and knit, feathers and metallic accents, 3D cords and glitter. That impact is priceless.
In her Resort collection “Oriana” Ortiz includes elegant options and statement looks for women without bor-
Just before dusk in a desolate stretch of Qatari desert, Saqr al-Humaidi slipped on a worn leather glove and readied his falcon for its daily training. Coaxing the bird out of the back seat of his Toyota Land Cruiser, al-Humaidi, 40, removed a round hood from its head and nodded to his cousin to prepare the target: a live pigeon attached to a small red parachute that, in turn, was tied to a drone.
Fiddling with a remote control, his cousin launched the drone into the cool evening air. It dragged the pigeon higher and higher until all that could be seen was a red speck dancing across the washed-out sky. As if sensing a shift in the air, the falcon tilted its head, ruffled its pointed wings and took off in pursuit.
The hunt was on.
Every evening, al-Humaidi; his 13year old son, Talal; and a handful of relatives come to this spot near the city of Al Khor, about an hour’s drive from the capital, Doha, to train their falcons for hunting competitions. It is a rite of passage passed down through generations of his family, and a touchstone of Qatari culture linking the country’s present to its Bedouin past.
Al-Humaidi’s great-grandfather was raised here when it was still a poor sliver of a country in the Gulf. He once used the birds to hunt for small animals — adding a bit of protein to his family’s sparse diet. But as Qatar became affluent with the discovery of vast gas reserves, one of its oldest traditions was transformed as well.
Long before soccer fever swept Qatar, peaking with its hosting of the World Cup this year, the sport of falconry was a point of national pride.
These days, it has assumed a mostly symbolic role in society. The birds are kept as pets and often trained by Qatari men — few if any women are involved in the hobby — for racing competitions with cash prizes of tens of thousands of dollars as well as new cars.
As the migrant workforce on which the country relies has swelled, owning the birds has also become a sort of sta-
tus symbol, a visible way of identifying oneself as Qatari in a country where citizens are outnumbered 8 to 1. Nearly everyone involved is a Qatari citizen, alHumaidi said.
In the sky above him, his falcon dipped and swerved, drawing closer and closer to the pigeon as the drone pulled the prey through the sky.
“See how he’s chasing it,” said alHumaidi’s cousin, Mohammad Ali alMohannadi, as he gently maneuvered the throttle on the drone’s remote.
Drones are a relatively new addition to the training, introduced in the past decade or so, he said.
Before that, the men would attach a pigeon to a kite and release it into the sky for the falcons to chase. And before that, trainers would take a sack of pigeon meat, cover it with feathers, attach it to a rope and swing it in circles.
Nowadays, the men try to keep the bird in pursuit for at least 10 minutes a day to strengthen its muscles. The faster the falcon moves its wings, the more advanced a hunter it is, al-Mohannadi said.
If the bird seems lethargic, it could be a sign that it needs more practice or is drained from the previous day’s workout.
“They are like any animal: They get sick. They get tired sometimes. They go for 15 minutes one day, and the next day, we find them down with exhaustion,” he explained, eyes glued to the bird in the sky.
As the falcon snatched the pigeon, al-Mohannadi screamed, “It’s done!” and released the red parachute connecting the prey to the drone. The men then raced to where the falcon had landed to retrieve it, the dead pigeon clasped in its long, curved talons.
Wrapped around the falcon’s ankle was a small bracelet inscribed with alHumaidi’s phone number, in case the bird did not return to him during training and someone found it perched on their roof. Stroking the bird’s nape, alHumaidi gently removed a GPS device — another safety net — and rearranged its feathers with care.
Losing one of the birds could be expensive; the best racing falcons are worth millions of dollars, and even those kept as pets often run into the tens of thousands.
Al-Humaidi’s falcon cost him a relatively modest amount, about $2,000,
he said.
It was a peregrine, one of two kinds of falcons that dominate in the Gulf, and a species known for its speed and courage as well as sensitivity.
“You must take special care of him, more than with others,” he explained.
As the blood-red sun slipped below the horizon, the men packed up their blankets and tea and placed the falcons back in their Land Cruisers. It was a relaxed training day, they explained.
Unlike many other falconers, they did not plan to enter their birds into the large hawking competition that takes place in Qatar each January.
The competitions can be fierce and the training required grueling.
The event involves a series of challenges that test a bird’s eyesight, speed and hunting prowess. In one of the contests, the falcons race to catch pigeons that have been trained all year to evade them.
Last year, the pigeons were so good that they evaded capture by every single falcon entered. The pigeons won the right to go on living, and their trainer took home that contest’s prize.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA
Demandante Vs. ALEX GONZALEZ
ALMEYDA YSU ESPOSA CAROLYN APONTE SALGADO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES
COMPUESTA POR AMBOS
Demandados
Civil Núm.: CA2020CV00712.
(403). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO (EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA). EDICTO DE SUBASTA.
Al: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL.
A: ALEX GONZALEZ
ALMEYDA Y SU ESPOSA CAROLYN APONTE SALGADO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES
COMPUESTA POR AMBOS.
Yo, MANUEL VILLAFAÑE BLANCO, Alguacil de este Tribunal, a la parte demandada y a los acreedores y personas con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, HAGO SABER: Que el día 7 DE FEBRERO DE 2023 A LAS 2:00
DE LA TARDE en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, Carolina, Puerto Rico, venderé en Pública Subasta la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria al mejor postor quien hará el pago en dinero en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del o la Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal de Carolina durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el día 14 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 2:00 DE LA TARDE y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 22 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 2:00 DE LA TARDE en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. La propiedad a venderse
en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar con el número Treinta (30) de la Manzana número Ciento Noventa y Uno (191) de la URBANIZACIÓN VILLA CAROLINA, Quinta Sección, radicado en el Barrio Hoyo Mulas del término municipal de Carolina, Puerto Rico, de TRESCIENTOS VEINTICUATRO PUNTO CERO CERO (324.00) METROS CUADRADOS. En lindes por el NORTE, con el solar número Veintinueve (29), distancia de veinticuatro punto cero cero (24.00) metros; por el SUR, con el solar número Treinta y Uno (31), distancia de veinticuatro punto cero cero (24.00) metros; por el ESTE, con el solar número Ocho (8), distancia de trece punto quinientos (13.500) metros; y por el OESTE, con la Calle número Quinientos Veintidós (522), distancia de trece punto quinientos (13.500) metros. Contiene una casa de concreto para una familia. La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al folio 100 del tomo 1379 de Carolina, Sección Segunda, finca número 33,864, inscripción novena. Modificada la hipoteca de la inscripción 9na., se amplía en la suma de $7,689.14 para un nuevo principal de $139,266.14, con intereses al 4 ½% anual, vencedero el día 1ro. de febrero de 2044, con un último pago de $27,853.23, según la escritura número 56, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 28 de febrero de 2014, ante la Notario Público Nay Del Carmen Rodríguez González, inscrita al folio 136 del tomo 1515 de Carolina, Sección Segunda, finca 33,864, inscripción 10ma. La dirección física de la propiedad antes descrita es: Urbanización Villa Carolina, Quinta Sección, 191-30, Calle 522, Carolina, Puerto Rico. La subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $102,894.16 de principal, intereses 4 ½% anual, desde el día 1ro. de agosto de 2018, hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad de $13,157.70, estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más recargos acumulados, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será la suma de $131,577.00 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima será equivalente a 2/3 partes de aquella, o sea, la suma de $87,718.00 y de ser necesaria una tercera subasta, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado, es decir, la suma de $65,788.50. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor
postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en el momento de la adjudicación y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser vendida en pública subasta se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en Carolina, Puerto Rico, a 12 de diciembre de 2022. MANUEL VILLAFAÑE BLANCO #830, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA.
Demandante v. DENISE
Demandados CIVIL NÚM: FCD2016-1365.
SOBRE: EJECUCION DE GARANTIAS (IN REM). EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.
El Alguacil del Tribunal que suscribe anuncia y hace constar: A. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Carolina, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor de contado y en moneda de curso legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América y cuyo pago se efectuará en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, todo derecho, título o interés que tenga la Parte Demandada en el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación:
URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Apartamento identificado con el número treinta y trescero cinco (3305), Modelo
“Typical”, localizado en el tercer piso del Edificio número tres (3) del Condominio “Terrazas de Parque Escorial”, a su vez localizado en el Barrio San Antón del término municipal de Carolina, Puerto Rico. Tiene una cabida superficial total de mil cuatrocientos setenta y tres punto setenta y dos (1,473.72) pies cuadrados, equivalentes a ciento treinta y seis punto noventa y uno (136.91) metros cuadrados. Colinda por el NORTE, en una distancia de cincuenta pies ocho pulgadas (50’ 8”), equivalentes a quince punto cuarenta y cuatro (15.44) metros lineales, con el apartamento número treinta y dos cero seis (3206); por el SUR, en tres distancias, una de diecinueve pies dos pulgadas (19’ 2”), equivalentes a cinco punto ochenta y cuatro (5.84) metros lineales, con área común, otra de veinte pies dos pulgadas (20’ 2”), equivalentes a seis punto quince (6.15) metros lineales, con el apartamento número treinta y tres cero seis (3306) y la otra de diez pies cero pulgadas (10’,0”), equivalentes a tres punto cero cinco (3.05) metros lineales, con elementos exteriores; por el ESTE, en una distancia de treinta y tres pies once pulgadas (33’ 11’), equivalentes a diez punto treinta y cuatro (10.34) metros lineales, con elementos exteriores; y por el OESTE, en dos distancias, una de veinticinco pies seis pulgadas (25’ 6”), equivalentes a siete punto setenta y siete (7.77) metros lineales, con elementos exteriores y la otra de ocho pies cinco pulgadas (8’ 5”), equivalentes a dos punto cincuenta y siete (2.57) metros lineales, con área común. Contiene cocina, dos baños, sala-comedor, tres dormitorios, dos closets, un walk-in-closet, linen-closet, foyer (vestíbulo) y balcón. Su puerta principal de acceso se encuentra en su colindancia Sur. Le corresponde en porciento de participación en los elementos comunes generales el 0.42% y en los elementos comunes limitados le corresponde el 2.33%. Le pertenece además el uso y disfrute de dos áreas para estacionamiento identificadas con los números ciento sesenta y cinco (165) y ciento sesenta y seis (166). Dirección Física: 3305 Terrazas de Parque Escorial, Carolina, PR 00987. Finca 58,513, inscrita al folio 91 del tomo 1,412 de Carolina, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Primera de Carolina. B. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado están de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas
laborables bajo el epígrafe de este caso. C. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematente los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. D. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma de $212,556.09 por concepto de principal, más la cantidad de $7,335.74, que incluye intereses, cargos por demora y otros cargos, que se acumulan diariamente hasta su total y completo pago, más la suma de 10% del principal, por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, pactados con en el pagaré y en la escritura de Hipoteca de la parte demandante pactados en el pagaré y en el contrato de hipoteca. La primera subasta se celebrará el día 6 de marzo de 2023 a las 10:30 de la mañana, en la Oficina del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Carolina, por el tipo mínimo de $224,850.20. De declararse desierta dicha subasta se celebrará una segunda subasta el día 13 de marzo de 2023 a las 10:30 de la mañana en el mismo lugar antes mencionado. El precio para la segunda subasta lo será 2/3 partes del precio mínimo de la primera, o sea, $149,900.13. De declararse desierta dicha segunda subasta, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 20 de marzo de 2023 a las 10:30 de la mañana en el mismo lugar antes mencionado. El precio para la tercera subasta lo será 1/2 del precio mínimo de la primera, o sea, $112,425.10. Y PARA QUE ASÍ CONSTE, y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general y por un término de catorce (14) días en los sitios públicos conforme a la ley, expido la presente bajo mi firma y sello de este tribunal, hoy 22 de diciembre de 2022 en Carolina, Puerto Rico. SAMUEL GONZALEZ ISAAC, ALGUACIL.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO
PUERTO RICO Demandante V.
Demandado
Civil Núm.: HSCI201300212. (206), Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
El Alguacil del Tribunal que suscribe anuncia y hace constar: A. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Humacao, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor de contado y en moneda de curso legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América y cuyo pago se efectuará en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, todo derecho, título o interés que tenga la Parte Demandada en el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar K guión 18 (K-18)de la Urbanización Villas de Candelero, localizada en el Barrio Candelero Abajo del término municipal de Humacao, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 450.00 metros cuadrados. En lindes: por el Norte, en una distancia de 30.00 metros, con el solar K-19; por el Sur, en una distancia de 30.00 metros, con el solar K-17; por el Este, en una distancia de 15.00 metros, con el solar K-7; y por el Oeste, en una distancia de 15.00 metros, con calle #6. Enclava una estructura en hormigón para una familia. Consta inscrito al folio móvil del tomo 530 de Humacao, finca 24,155, Registro de la Propiedad de Humacao. Dirección Física: K18 CARDENAL STREET VILLAS CANDELERO HUMACAO, Puerto Rico, 00791. Finca 24,155, inscrita al tomo móvil 530 de Humacao, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Humacao. B. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado están de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables bajo el epígrafe de este caso. C. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematente los acepta y queda subrogado en la respon-
sabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. D. Que la propiedad se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes posteriores: 1. Embargo a favor del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por la suma de $20,075.53, por concepto de Contribución Sobre Ingresos años 2004-2005, según Certificación de fecha 25 de noviembre de 2008, anotado el día 28 de mayo de 2009, al folio 35 del tomo 573 de Humacao, finca número 24,155, Anotación “A”. También anotada al folio 72 del tomo libro 13 de Embargos del Estado Libre Asociado, Orden 281. 2. Aviso de Demanda de fecha 29 de diciembre de 2008, expedida en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Centro Judicial de Humacao, Sala Superior, en el Caso Civil número HSCI-2008-01512, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria, seguido por Firstbank Puerto Rico, contra José Fernando Oliver Rivera, por la suma de $163,934.66, más intereses, anotado el día 28 de mayo de 2009, al folio 35 del tomo 573 de Humacao, finca número 24,155, Anotación “B”. 3. Aviso de Demanda de fecha 19 de febrero de 2009, expedida en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Centro Judicial de Humacao, Sala Superior, en el Caso Civil número 200900217, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria, seguido por Firstbank Puerto Rico, contra José Fernando Oliver Rivera, por la suma de $163,934.66, más intereses, anotado el día 28 de mayo de 2009, al folio 188 del tomo 576 de Humacao, finca número 24,155, Anotación “C”. 4. Embargo Federal contra un tal José F. Oliver Rivera, seguro social xxx-xx-8675, dirección Urbanización Villas de Candelero número 169, Calle Cardenal, Humacao, Puerto Rico 00791, por la suma de $28,730.85, Notificación número 127738014, presentado el día 24 de noviembre de 2014, anotado al folio 189, Asiento 4, del libro de Embargos Federales número 7. 5. Embargo a favor del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, Departamento de Hacienda, contra José F. Oliver Rivera, seguro social xxx-xx-8675, por la suma de $14,758.43, según Certificación de fecha 16 de mayo de 2017, Embargo número SJU-17-037, anotado el día 16 de mayo de 2017, al Asiento 2017-004155-EST del Sistema Karibe. 6. Embargo Federal
contra Josse F. Oliver Rivera, seguro social xxx-xx-8675, por la suma de $6,423.73, notificación número 327319018
Refiling, según Certificación de fecha 10 de octubre de 2018, anotado el día 23 de octubre de 2018, al Asiento 2018-009029FED del Sistema Karibe. 7. Embargo Federal contra José F. Oliver Rivera, seguro social xxx-xx-8675, por la suma de $3,523.00, notificación número 342482819 Refiling, según Certificación de fecha 2 de enero de 2019, anotado el día 11 de junio de 2019, al Asiento 2019-004626-FED del Sistema Karibe. 8. Embargo Federal contra José F. Oliver Rivera, seguro social xxx-xx-8675, por la suma de $17,414.44, notificación número 432057321, según Certificación de fecha 24 de mayo de 2021, anotado el día 7 de junio de 2021, al Asiento 2021-003528-FED del Sistema Karibe. E. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma de $193,185.37 de principal, la suma de $15,375.00, que incluye principal, intereses según pactados, cargos por demora y otros cargos, que se acumulan diariamente hasta su total y completo pago, más la suma de 10% del principal, por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se celebrará el día 8 DE FEBRERO DE 2023 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en la Oficina del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Humacao, por el tipo mínimo de $153,750.00. De declararse desierta dicha subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 15 DE FEBRERO DE 2023 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado. El precio para la segunda subasta lo será 2/3 partes del precio mínimo de la primera, o sea, $102,500.00. De declararse desierta dicha segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el 22 DE FEBRERO DE 2023 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado. El precio para la tercera subasta lo será 1/2 del precio mínimo de la primera, o sea, $76,875.00. Y PARA QUE ASÍ CONSTE, y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general y por un término de catorce (14) días en los sitios públicos conforme a la ley, expido la presente bajo mi firma y sello de este tribunal, hoy 28 de diciembre de 2022, en Humacao, Puerto Rico. JOSÉ
LUIS RODRÍGUEZ HERNÁNDEZ, ALGUACIL REGIONAL INTERINO. WILNELIA RIVERA
de $16,731.30 estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más recargos acumulados, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será de $174,619.65 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima será equivalente a 2/3 partes de aquella, o sea, la suma de $116,413.10 y de ser necesaria una tercera subasta, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado, es decir, la suma de $87,309.83. De declararse desierta la tercera subasta se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si esta 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. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en el momento de la adjudicación y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser vendida en pública subasta se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Podrán concurrir como postores a todas las subastas los titulares de créditos hipotecarios vigentes y posteriores a la hipoteca que se cobra o ejecuta, si alguno o que figuren como tales en la certificación registral y que podrán utilizar el montante de sus créditos o parte de alguno en sus ofertas. Si la oferta aceptada es por cantidad mayor a la suma del crédito o créditos preferentes al suyo, al obtener la buena pro del remate, deberá satisfacer en el mismo acto, en efectivo o en cheque de gerente, la totalidad del crédito hipotecario que se ejecuta y la de cualesquiera otro créditos posteriores al que se ejecuta pero preferente al suyo. El exceso constituirá abono total o parcial en su propio crédito. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en Arecibo, Puerto Rico, 9 de enero de 2023. Angel De Jesus Torres
Perez, Alguacil Del Tribunal De Primera Instancia, Sala Superior De Arecibo.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CAROLINA
Demandante Vs. ANA CALIXTA MARTINEZ REYES
Demandada Civil Núm.: SJ2022RF01424. Sobre: DIVORCIO - RUPTURA IRREPARABLE. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LFFIRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: ANA CALIXTA MARTINEZ REYES. 175 UNION STREET 2ND FLOOR, LAWRENCE, MA USA 01841 O SEA
POR LA PRESENTE, se le notifica que ha sido presentada en este Tribunal, por la parte demandante, una acción sobre divorcio. Es el abogado de la parte demandante: LCDO. FELIPE BRAVO GARCIA RUA #8483 P. O. BOX 21090 SAN JUAN, P. R. 00928 TEL / FAX: (787)764-2275
Se le advierte que este edicto se publicará en un periódico de circulación general una (1) sola vez, y que sino contesta la demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días de haberse publicado el original de esa contestación ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala Superior, Sala de San Juan, con copia a la parte demandante, se podrá dictar Sentencia en Rebeldía en contra suya, concediendo el remedio solicitado en la Demanda.
EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y Sello del Tribunal, hoy día 19 de diciembre de 2022. LCDA.
MARILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARÍA FRANCIS AYALA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE MAYAGÜEZ
CASITAS BLANCAS, LLC
Parte Demandante V. ORVILLE SULSONA CASIANO, BELIZABETH VELAZQUEZ MERCADO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS
Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: SG2021CV00386.
Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA - IN REM. 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 MAYAGÜEZ, hago saber a la parte demandada, OR-
VILLE SULSONA CASIANO, BELIZABETH VELAZQUEZ MERCADO 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 día 27 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 [CI LA HACIENDA, CABO ROJO, PR 00623] y que se describe como sigue: RÚSTICA: Predio de terreno identificado en el plano de inscripción como Solar C-1, localizado en el Barrio Monte Grande, del término municipal de Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida de 409.903 metros cuadrados. En linderos: por el Norte, con la calle #1 de uso público en una distancia de 9.957 metros. Afecta a servidumbre a favor de la Puerto Rico Telephone Company de 5’ de ancho por 9.957 metros de largo; por el Sur, con el solar identificado como C-6 en una distancia de 13.120 metros; por el Este, con el solar identificado como C-2 en una distancia de 31.000 metros; por el Oeste, con la calle #1 de uso público en una distancia de 27.459 metros con un largo de curva de 5.540 metros. Afecta a servidumbre a favor de la Puerto Rico Telephone Company de 5’de ancho por 37.459 metros de largo con un largo de curva de 5.540 metros. Enclava una residencia construida en concreto y bloques de hormigón para una familia. Finca 29970 inscrita al folio 103 del tomo 883 de Cabo Rojo, Registro de la propiedad de San Germán. La finca antes descrita se encuentra afecta al siguiente gravamen: (i) HIPOTECA constituida por Orville Sulsona Casiano y esposa Idalis Serrano Soto, en garantía de un pagaré, aff. 089, a favor de Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Puerto Rico, o a su orden por $126,000.00, al 5.75% vencedero el 1 de julio de 2035, según Esc. 50 en Mayagüez, a 8 de junio de 2005, ante María Luisa Rojas Fabregat, inscrita al Folio 103 del Tomo 883 de Cabo Rojo, finca 29970, inscripción 2da. Modificada la hipoteca de la inscripción 2da. A $124,125.20 vence el 1 de agosto de 2051, según Esc. 160 en San Juan, a 30 de julio de 2011 ante Luis Yamil Rodríguez San Miguel, inscrita al margen de la inscripción 2da. Modificada nuevamente la hipoteca por $126,000 a $127,594.58, al 3.850%, los primeros 36 meses luego al 5.75%, según Esc. 40 en San Juan, a 28 de mayo de 2015, ante Miguel Gabriel Esteva
Arroyo, inscrita al Sistema Karibe de Cabo Rojo, finca 29970, inscripción 4ta. Modificada la hipoteca de la inscripción 2da, por $126,000.00, nuevamente a $134,627.23 y vence el 1 de agosto de 2051, intereses al 3.850%, los primeros 36 meses, luego al 5.750%, según Esc. 53 en San Juan, el 30 de marzo de 2017, ante Juan A. Martinez Romero, inscrita al Sistema Karibe de Cabo Rojo, finca 29970, inscripción 6ta. 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 5 de julio de 2022, mediante la cual se condenó a la parte demandada pagar a la parte demandante la cantidad de $123,545.22 de principal, más $1,669.00 de la modificación, más intereses acumulándose al 3.85% anual hasta el saldo total, $250.02 de cargos por atrasos y 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, incluyendo primas de seguro de hipoteca, prima de seguro de siniestro y cargos por demora.
La PRIMERA SUBASTA será celebrada el día 7 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 11:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina del Alguacil, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. Servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma, la cantidad de $134,627.23 sin admitirse oferta inferior. De no haber remate ni adjudicación, celebraré SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 14 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 11:30 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, $89,751.49 Si no hubiese remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, celebraré TERCERA SUBASTA el día 21 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 11:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar en la que regirá como tipo mínimo, la mitad del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $67,313.62. El Alguacil que suscribe hizo constar que toda licitación deberá hacerse para pagar su importe en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América, de acuerdo con la Ley y de acuerdo con lo anunciado en este Aviso de Subasta. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables. Se entiende que todo licitador que comparezca a la subasta señalada en este
caso acepta como bastante la titulación que da base a la misma. Se entiende que cualquier carga y/o gravamen anterior y/o preferente, si la hubiere al crédito que da base a esta ejecución continuará subsistente, entendiéndose, además, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción cualquier parte del remanente del precio de licitación. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Vendida o adjudicada la finca o derecho hipotecado y consignado el precio correspondiente, en esa misma fecha o fecha posterior, el alguacil que celebró la subasta procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura pública de traspaso en representación del dueño o titular de los bienes hipotecados, ante el notario que elija el adjudicatario o comprador, quien deberá abonar el importe de tal escritura. El alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la confirmación de la venta o adjudicación. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Y PARA CONOCIMIENTO DE LOS LICITADORES Y DEL PUBLICO EN GENERAL y para su publicación de acuerdo con la Ley, expido el presente Edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal. En MAYAGÜEZ, Puerto Rico, hoy 3 de enero de 2023. CALIXTO RIVERA GHIGLIOTTY, ALGUACIL PLACA #283, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE MAYAGÜEZ.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC., COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC. Demandante Vs. FRANK MARTÍNEZ CARMONA, FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES POR AMBOS COMPUESTA Demandados Caso Núm.: CA2022CV02643. Salón Núm.: 401. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO / INCUMPLIMIENTO DE CONTRATO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: FRANK MARTÍNEZ CARMONA, FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES POR AMBOS COMPUESTAURB. VILLA CAROLINA 161-24 CALLE 422, CAROLINA, PR 009854056 / ESTANCIAS DEL BOSQUE 817 LOS ROBLES, CIDRA, PR 00739.
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.sanxhez@ orf-law.com, y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy día 23 de noviembre de 2022. En Carolina,
Puerto Rico, el 23 de noviembre de 2022. LCDA. MARILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. KEILA GARCÍA SOLÍS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Parte Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE ROBERTO NIEVES REYES COMPUESTA POR OLGA VANESSA NIEVES PACHECO, JESSICA NIEVES PACHECO, ROBERTO NIEVES MERCADO, SUJEY ARELIS NIEVES SOLANO, FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESIÓN DE YAHAIRA NIEVES MERCADO COMPUESTA POR SU VIUDO MIGUEL A. OTERO FUENTES, JANE DOE OTERO NIEVES Y PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLE HEREDERO DESCONOCIDO
Parte Demandada
Civil Núm.: BY2022CV00618.
(501). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO E INTERPELACIÓN. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E.U.U., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.
A: JANE DOE OTERO NIEVES, POR CONDUCTO DE SU PADRE, MIGUEL A. OTERO FUENTES, COMO HEREDERA DE YAHAIRA NIEVES MERCADO A SUS DIRECCIONES CONOCIDAS EN: URB. MIRAFLORES, 26-9 CALLE 32, BAYAMÓN, PR 00957-3868, URB. SANS SOUCI, W10 CALLE 17, BAYAMÓN, PR 009574304, 9314 TIFFANY TER, TAMPA FL 33610-8427, 2023 GRANDE CT APT 415, KISSIMMEE, FL 34743-3113, HC 69 BOX 15624, BAYAMÓN, PR 00956-9518, 690 RD, KM 1 HM 1, CERRO GORDO WARD, VEGA ALTA, PR 00692 Y CORREO ELECTRÓNICO: MIGUELOTEROFUENTES @GMAIL.COM.
Queda usted notificado que en este Tribunal se ha radicado demanda sobre ejecución de hipoteca por la vía ordinaria en la que se alega se adeuda las siguientes cantidades: $130,419.46 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 4.5% anual desde el 1 de octubre de 2019 hasta su completo pago, más $1,349.12 de recargos acumulados, los cuales continuarán en aumento hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más la cantidad estipulada de $16,000.00 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: URBANA: Solar marcado con el #9 del bloque 26 de la Urbanización Miraflores, radicada en el Barrio Pájaros del término municipal de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, con cabida de 302.40 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE y SUR, en 12.60 metros, por cada lado respectivamente con la calle #32 y el solar #18; por el ESTE y OESTE, en 24.00 metros por cada lado, respectivamente con solares #10 y #8. Inscrita al folio 240 del tomo 879 de Bayamón, Finca 39283, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección I. La hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 186 vuelto del tomo 1802 de Bayamón, Finca 39283, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección I. Inscripción 7ma. La demandante es tenedora por endoso en blanco, por valor recibido y de buena fe del referido pagaré objeto de la presente acción. Se interpela a los demandados para que acepten o renuncien a la herencia de los causantes dentro de los 30 días subsiguientes a la fecha que fuesen emplazados o requeridos que contesten, para darle cumplimiento el Artículo 1578 del nuevo Código Civil de Puerto Rico, 31 L.P.R.A. § 11021, entendiéndose que, si no se expresan dentro de dicho término, aceptan el caudal relicto; la renuncia se hará por instrumento público o por escrito judicial. 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
It’s hard to know when it was over. At the national anthem? The coin flip? The opening kickoff? Or perhaps even before that — the moment Noah Ruggles’ kick for Ohio State sailed far, far left on New Year’s Eve, giving Georgia a second life and scaring the Bulldogs straight in the process.
Whenever it was, the reigning national champion Georgia wasted little time turning the College Football Playoff title game in Inglewood, California into a coronation, laying waste to pesky little Texas Christian with a 65-7 thumping that was every bit as decisive as the score might have indicated.
The Georgia defense, led by the sticky hands of defensive back Javon Bullard, was all but impenetrable and its offense, led by the peerless performance of quarterback Stetson Bennett IV, was all but unstoppable. Together, they overwhelmed the Horned Frogs, whose storied run — behind its folksy coach, its gutsy quarterback and a cast of unlikely characters, including a quirky Hypnotoad talisman — ended with a thud.
Georgia, which rolled up 589 yards, did not punt until the second half — long after televisions surely had clicked off around the country. And with the way the Bulldogs continued to parade into the end zone and tee off on Max Duggan, the TCU quarterback, it was a wonder that officials didn’t order a running clock for the final quarter.
The only moment Georgia was baffled came when its coach, Kirby Smart, was asked afterward how a championship game could be so easy.
“I don’t have an answer for that,” he said.
The biggest previous margin of victory in a College Football Playoff final came four years ago when Clemson routed Alabama by 28 points. Georgia’s margin exceeded that by halftime. The Bulldogs scored the most points ever in a title game, surpassing the 62 that Nebraska posted in clobbering Florida in the 1995 season.
Georgia’s romp could stand as a proxy for the gap between the rest of the country and the Bulldogs, who won their second consecutive national championship and their 33rd game in the last 34 tries. Their back-to-back titles are the first
since Alabama a decade ago.
For a program that until last year was known mostly for falling short, Monday should not be the end of the line with so many freshmen and sophomores dotting its depth chart.
Georgia may as well be renamed Blue Chip U. Each recruiting cycle, the top high school football prospects in the country, from California to Pennsylvania and all across the south, funnel into Athens, Georgia. And each spring, many of those former prospects — after years spent in a football finishing school — trickle out to the NFL.
Yet, the player most essential to the Bulldogs’ two championships was someone not even Georgia wanted.
Bennett, who grew up in speck-onthe-map Blackshear, Georgia, did not have a scholarship from a Football Bowl Subdivision school, so he headed up to Athens in 2017 as a walk-on, intent on working his way into the starting quarterback job.
A year later, Justin Fields, the top quarterback prospect in the country, showed up and those fealties to the school he grew up rooting for didn’t mean much. Bennett wanted to play. So off he went to a Mississippi junior college.
“When I left, I thought it was deuces out forever from UGA; I didn’t think I was coming back,” Bennett, who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 190 pounds, said
Saturday. “I kind of knew when I pulled the trigger that, hey, I’m not here at Georgia just to hang out and be on the team and have some footballs in 30 years. I want to play ball. I want to do what I think I can do.”
When Bennett returned a year later, he did so only when Georgia offered him a scholarship on signing day to keep him from going to Louisiana-Lafayette.
Georgia still didn’t know what it had. Offensive coordinator Todd Monken, who arrived just as the coronavirus pandemic hit, was trying to parse through a crowded quarterbacks room, attempting to find reps for Jamie Newman, a transfer from Wake Forest, J.T. Daniels, a transfer from Southern California, and a pair of prized freshmen, D’Wan Mathis and Carson Beck.
Oh, and Bennett.
Daniels won the job in 2020 and got hurt in last year’s season opener against Clemson. The coaches were set to go with Beck the next week but Bennett badly outplayed him in practice. Bennett has started every game since.
“We’re human,” Monken said Saturday. “We all have preconceived notions of how a person looks, their background. Oftentimes we’re wrong — whatever it is, personal life, business, football. Sometimes you have to go by how they play.”
On Monday night, Bennett could do no wrong.
He was precise throwing the ball. He completed 18 of 25 passes for 304 yards and four touchdowns. He twice found Ladd McConkey, for scores of 37 and 14 yards, and added a 22-yarder to tight end Brock Bowers. His 22-yarder to Adonai Mitchell with 26 seconds left before halftime punctuated the Bulldogs’ dominant half.
Bennett was also dangerous running the ball. His two touchdown runs were waltzes into the end zone — untouched on a 21-yard keeper and a 6-yard scamper around the left end.
And the Georgia defense was only slightly less flawless.
The holes that were exposed the last two games by Ohio State and Louisiana State were patched up by Monday night.
The Georgia secondary blanked TCU receivers. Bullard, a sophomore, had two interceptions and a fumble recovery and the Bulldogs held star receiver Quentin Johnston to a single catch for 3 yards.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs front punished Duggan, sacking him five times — three of which were recorded by freshmen.
Georgia held the Horned Frogs, who entered averaging 474.1 yards per game, to a season-low 188. The only score Georgia surrendered was set up when it blew a coverage and Duggan connected with a wide-open Derius Davis for a 60yard gain.
Several plays later Duggan ran into the end zone to make the score 10-7, Georgia. Finding any more highlights for the Horned Frogs would take some foraging.
“For whatever reason, it went downhill from there,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said. “I don’t know what happened tonight. We ran into a very good team and it snowballed.”
In the other locker room, Georgia players puffed on cigars — when they figured out how to keep them lit — and talked about what amounts to a college football dynasty.
The Bulldogs had 15 players drafted by the NFL last April and did not bring anyone in through the transfer portal, so some backsliding was expected. And yet they were tested only twice: rallying from 10 points down in the fourth quarter to win at Missouri and coming back from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit in the semifinal victory against Ohio State, which they survived on the missed field goal.
Next year, the challenge will be making do with a new quarterback.
Bennett came off the field for the last time when Smart called timeout to remove him with 13 minutes 25 seconds left, providing him with a curtain call and a bearhug as he reached the sidelines. It was something Smart said he had never done before.
When Smart got to the coach’s office, he found his 10-year-old son, Andrew, in tears.
Smart said he asked him what was wrong.
“‘Stetson is leaving,’” Smart said, mimicking his son crying. “I said, ‘He’s 25 years old. He’s got to go. He’s got to leave.’”
Indeed, he must. But as Bennett does finally depart, his exit on Monday night was not unlike the rest of the Bulldogs, who made sure to leave an indelible mark.
Last week came the horror of watching Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffer cardiac arrest live on television, followed by days of national soul-searching about the violence of America’s most popular sport. This weekend, the narrative flipped.
Saturday night, before the Tennessee Titans and the Jacksonville Jaguars faced off for a division title and a trip to the playoffs, both teams gathered at midfield, then knelt and prayed together. Sunday afternoon, on the usually macho CBS pregame show, Boomer Esiason confessed his love for each of the other panelists individually, which prompted Nate Burleson, another former player, to say, “Love you, too, brother.”
Before the opening kickoff of Sunday’s game pitting the Bills against the New England Patriots, Jim Nantz, the first-string playby-play announcer for CBS, then delivered the NFL’s message: “What we’ve really seen this week is a glimpse of humanity at its very best.” Nantz’s partner in the broadcasting booth, Tony Romo, a former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, underscored the point.
“People came together and put their differences aside,” he said. What started as a tragedy, he added, “has slowly turned into a celebration of life.”
So what’s the ultimate takeaway? If Hamlin weren’t making a remarkable recovery, off his breathing tube, talking, tweeting and neurologically intact -- he was upgraded from critical condition and released from the intensive care unit at a Cincinnati hospital Monday and was transferred to the Buffalo General Medical Center/Gates Vascular Institute in Buffalo, New York for ongoing care -- it would probably be different. There would still be the outpouring of public good wishes but not the joy or shared pride and sense of common purpose. Like the movies
and other forms of popular culture, football is a national barometer, after all. And the past week seems to have illuminated the country’s erratic condition — the violence but also the longing, or at least the posture of longing, for unity in polarizing times.
Looking back, what made Hamlin’s collapse Jan. 2 all the more shocking was how it followed the most routine of tackles. At this point it’s a fair guess that no play all season has been watched more often online. The telecast didn’t keep showing the tackle, out of a sense of decency. Instead, cameras lingered over the players’ anguished reactions, showing teammates huddling around Hamlin’s body on the field, weeping and praying while medics struggled to save him for nearly 10 minutes.
The scene may have summoned to some minds famous paintings by artists like Giotto, Titian, Caravaggio and Dürer of mourning crowds surrounding Jesus as he is taken down from the cross or entombed. For centuries, church- and museumgoers have gaped, with something approximating the same mix of fear and confusion, at these pictures of violence and despair. America certainly didn’t invent rubbernecking.
Or violent sports. Twenty-nine Formula 1 drivers died during the ’60s in Formula 1 or other racing cars; 18 died during the ’70s. Auto racing was popular in Europe and considered all the more glamorous for being dangerous. Things changed after the death of Ayrton Senna, a sublime Brazilian driver, in 1994. New regulations and technologies arrived. A culture of safety emerged.
In the United States, navel-gazing
about football and violence is nothing new. Between 1900 and 1905, 15 years before the National Football League was founded, at least 45 college players died from broken necks and backs, concussions and internal injuries they suffered playing football, according to The Washington Post. The death toll troubled Americans enough that President Theodore Roosevelt and a number of university presidents pressed for reforms.
Today we gather in front of our screens by the tens of millions to witness collisions of increasingly spectacular brutality with the expectation that modern players, vastly better trained and equipped than they were a century ago, will pop back up like John Wick and Spider-Man.
Of course we know that sometimes they don’t. The long-term effects of concussions have increasingly become a topic of public concern, alongside gun control, mass shootings and crime. But Americans juggle conflicted feelings about the violent game. Some parents, and even former NFL stars, are discouraging their young children from taking up tackle football. At the same time, football, like no other sport, crosses politics, gender, race, age and class in the United States.
NFL games accounted for a whopping 82 of the 100 most-watched television broadcasts last year, according to Nielsen, making it the last remaining form of water cooler entertainment in our atomized culture.
Not coincidentally, pro football only took off as a national sport during the late ’50s and ’60s when it embraced television,
which marketed football’s brutality as a counterweight to baseball’s languor. The league cooked up documentaries and highlight shows, memorably narrated for years by John Facenda, the voice of God.
“The game is a time warp where the young dream of growing up and the old remember youth,” he intoned. As writer James Surowiecki put it, NFL Films “tried to simultaneously convey the gritty reality of the game and mythicize it in a Homeric fashion.”
This was also the era of America’s metastasizing debacle in Vietnam. A 1967 documentary, “They Call It Pro Football,” exalted NFL linebackers who, like American soldiers in Da Nang and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, were on “search-and-destroy” missions. Head coaches like Vince Lombardi were lionized as tactical generals leading self-sacrificing armies of clean-cut soldiers to victory. The nation was on the verge of coming apart, and football needed its own counterculture representative, who arrived in the green and white uniform of the New York Jets in the upstart American Football League. While campuses were erupting with anti-war protests, the Jets’ playboy quarterback, Joe Namath, with his long hair, fur coats and bedroom eyes, famously predicted the Jets would beat the NFL’s ultraestablishmentarian Baltimore Colts and win Super Bowl III.
When the Jets won, football not only survived the upheaval; it came out richer, more popular than ever and unified. At least on Sundays, Americans could dream about Hollywood endings despite their divisions.
We are again a nation divided and reading more than ever into the meaning of the game and what, wishfully or otherwise, it says about us. Buffalo fans on Sunday suggested that Hamlin’s recovery was a metaphor for the resilience of a city battered by storms, decline and crime. As if on cue, the Bills returned the opening kickoff against the Patriots for a touchdown, the first time the team had done that in 18 years.
Although the game was a nail-biter through the first half, Buffalo pulled away in the second.
“We all won,” Hamlin tweeted from his hospital bed. As Nantz, the announcer, put it: “Love for Damar, it was definitely in the air. Not just here. All across this league, this nation.”
Then he asked the melancholy question that seemed to sum up the week. “The love, the support, the prayers,” he said. “Why can’t we live like that every day?”
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
Good things can come from sharing your skills, and letting others see just how proficient you are. If you’ve been holding back, then the Sun in Capricorn encourages you to feel proud of what you have accomplished so far, and of what you might achieve in the future. Even if there have been a few delays recently, it’s worth putting some feelers out, as you’ll soon see progress.
As Saturn continues in a prominent sector, you could find yourself in situations in which you’ll be in the hot seat with more responsibility. You don’t have to do everything by yourself. If you need help, ask for it. Keen to rally someone to your cause, Taurus? Applying a little charm might do it for you. And if you want to get a coveted job interview, investing in your image may help.
You may be more willing to step out of your comfort zone and do something you’ve never tried before. And with Jupiter continuing in the sign of Aries, there’s a chance that your bold approach will bring good things your way. Yet there could be a misunderstanding with a friend which might cause bad feeling unless you deal with it. Don’t leave it too long, Gemini.
Have you let too many opportunities go by? This may be down to an edgy influence that’s left you discouraged before you’ve even started. As Mars prepares to push forward in a few days, you’ll realize that you won’t get anywhere if you don’t take a few risks. Need some help to get moving? Confiding in a friend or a life coach could give you the confidence you need, Cancer.
A vibrant aspect can coincide with a conversation that sparkles with promise. It could be an offer or some advice that leaves you feeling on top of the world. Keen to take it up? If so, there may be a learning curve. You might need to learn new skills or let go of something you’re already involved with. On a romantic note, someone who loves adventure may have an interest in you.
The world may seem a friendlier place, especially on the work front. A positive alliance can help you win over the hearts and minds of colleagues, your boss and others you connect with daily. Thinking about accepting an offer? The terms and conditions could change over coming weeks, so it might be wise to wait or to have a get-out clause, just to be on the safe side, Virgo.
It’s best not to make claims you can’t prove or promises you can’t keep, especially if it’s just to keep the peace. If you sense that something might overwhelm you or is simply more than you can handle, have the courage to say so, as others will understand. Plus, with Mercury in reverse for a while longer, there could be delays with family or property matters, so patience is required.
A deeper understanding of your roots and heritage could leave you enriched, and perhaps grateful to your ancestors for the gifts that have been handed down to you. In addition, the current set-up suggests you might be ready to use your place as a base to start a business, or perhaps to declutter or expand certain areas for your needs. Whatever plans you have could open doors for you.
Talks and discussions can take a positive turn, in a way that allows you and others to share your thoughts openly. But with Mars preparing to forge ahead, there may be hiccups when it comes to key arrangements, so take matters as they come rather than stick to a rigid plan. Others could seem more distracted or undecided than usual, so you’ll need to be as flexible as you can, Archer.
Is it worth making your feelings known? There are things which need to be spoken about, and letting those concerned know your situation could bring an immediate offer of help or some advice. On a financial note, you may get a fabulous bargain at the sales. You have a natural instinct for this, so if you get a feeling to go into a shop or visit a shopping site, go ahead!
With an upbeat blend of energies working on your behalf, you’ll start to believe your dreams can become a reality. Even if others seem sceptical, you’ll be ready to prove them wrong. Plus, with lovely Venus in your sign and a zesty aspect on the go, one opportunity may be too good to miss. And even if it does come with challenges Aquarius, you’ll be so pleased you said yes to it.
Keen to help others? A focus on a spiritual and compassionate zone, can find you paying more attention to humanitarian issues and how you might play your part. This may be an ongoing theme that connects you to new groups, and finds you making many friends who support the same causes as you. The ideas you encounter could change you in more ways than one, Pisces.
