Tuesday Jan 17, 2023

INDEX

PREPA workers’ job security appears uncertain under proposed PPP for operation of power plants

By THE STAR STAFF

As details of the transaction have been kept in the dark, Public-Private Partnerships Authority (P3A) Executive Director Fermín Fontanés Gómez said Monday that the contract that would create a publicprivate partnership for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority legacy power plants does not contemplate “employer successorship,” which means PREPA workers’ jobs are uncertain.

“We have achieved better benefits for Authority employees than have been achieved in the past, so we are going to promote, as always, that these employees move to the private [sector],” Fontanés said during a radio interview, without going into much detail.

The employer successorship doctrine states that when a business owner buys another business assets, he or she also assumes all obligations, including those with respect to the workers. When the government contracted LUMA Energy to operate PREPA’s transmission and distribution system, the workers were required to apply for jobs with the private operator or move to other public agencies. Most of the workers transferred to other agencies because they did not want to lose their PREPA pensions.

In a televised interview, Fontanés said the job guarantees of PREPA workers were protected but did not say whether those rights included the ones established in the workers’ collective bargaining agreement.

Ángel Figueroa Jaramillo, the president of the Electrical Industry and Irrigation Workers Union (UTIER by its Spanish acronym), had warned last week about the importance of having a successor employer that guarantees the rights of workers.

On Sunday, the P3A announced that its board of directors unanimously approved the proposed publicprivate partnership (PPP) that would put legacy power plants under private management.

Fontanés declined to provide details of the contract, which at press time still needs to be approved by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority board, the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau and the Financial Oversight and Management Board.

“That is a legal requirement,” Fontanés said. “Act 120 [of 2018, the Law to Transform the Electrical System of Puerto Rico] requires that the generation assets of the Electric Power Authority be transferred to private hands. In other words, we are in compliance with the law.”

STAR sources have said the contract was awarded to a consortium headed by New Fortress Energy.

The P3A director could not say what the private investment of the company in the island would be, the start date of the work or if the affected employees will be welcomed under a collective agreement that guarantees their acquired rights.

“When a private investment is made, that investment is recovered through the rate [...],” Fontanés said. “Nobody invests without recovering.”

The consumer representative on the PREPA board, Tomás Torres Placa, also drew attention to the lack of transparency in the meeting of the P3A. PREPA’s board is holding its ordinary meeting on Jan. 25 and as of press time had not announced the meeting to approve the PPP.

Torres Placa said now is not the right time to privatize generation as the cost of imported fuel is slated to go up, which will further increase consumer rates, which are expected to be impacted by the transaction with a generation operator.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has impacted the supply chain, he said, noting that the geopolitical scenario may become worse if Finland and Sweden join NATO later this year, a move that would be opposed by Russia, he said.

Torres Placa also expressed concern over the impact on energy customers, who have experienced multiple blackouts due to failures in the transmission and distribution system, which is operated by LUMA Energy. He asked why PREPA’s generation service, which has not presented many problems compared to the performance of LUMA Energy, should be privatized.

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

PR students’ proposal chosen for NASA project

By THE STAR STAFF

Aproposal presented by four physics and robotics students at the Mayagüez Educational Opportunities Residential Center (CROEM by its Spanish acronym) turned out to be the winner in NASA’s TechRise student competition, which entails an economic reward to carry out the experiments of the project presented.

“The students Lisangellie Flores, Ana Cabrera, Diego Roura and Michael Quiñones of the Physics and Robotics courses will design a device that will collect information for research which entails the application of their knowledge in science and mathematics in the design of a prototype to be tested in the stratosphere at the end of this semester,” said Prof. Danelix Cordero Rosario, who along with professors Elier Sánchez and Josué López is in charge of the group of students. “This experiment seeks to provide knowledge about Earth’s climate by studying particle physics. As is generally known, the study and knowledge of the Earth’s atmosphere helps us with possible solutions to global warming and the development of knowledge of deep space, among other uses.”

The CROEM professors said the work behind the proposal that was selected by NASA takes the students to another level, and expressed feeling very proud of the creativity, commitment and excellent work done

by the young participants. The CROEM school, located on the premises of a former U.S. Army-Air Force radar base, houses 250 students in three residential buildings whose curriculum emphasizes science, math and technology.

“NASA selected this research proposal, which is aimed at the development of new technology that will be sent as an experiment to the stratosphere, from our CROEM school,” said CROEM Director Prof. Milton Tomassini del Toro. “NASA’s TechRise project is a highly coveted one among schools and universities since it provides financial aid of about $1,500 to teams working on developing new technologies that will eventually be tested by experts at the National Aeronautics and Space Agency. This is another challenge for our students and motivates them to design a science or technology experiment that could be tested in a NASA-sponsored high-altitude balloon flight. It is important to highlight the statement made by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson when announcing the winning schools, which included CROEM, and where he said: ‘NASA’s future missions are driven by the achievements of the Artemis generation that today are in classrooms throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. Through opportunities like the TechRise Student Challenge, young people are deepening their passion for science and technology, preparing to be the future innovators and pioneers who help humanity soar to new heights and unlock more secrets of the universe.’”

Video gaming convention returns to PR next month

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

For two consecutive days in February, the Pedrín Zorrilla Coliseum in San Juan will become the scene of Winter Clash 2023, the most important winter video game event in Puerto Rico.

On Feb. 25-26, eSports fans on the island will have the opportunity to enjoy a show full of competitions, entertainment and video games.

“We started the year with the ninth edition of the Winter Clash, but on a large scale,” said Ricardo “Mono” Román, captain of the Red Rooster Team. “Two days in which families of gamers can share and enjoy an unforgettable event. As usual, we will have several areas focused on the most important video games of the moment and we will combine spaces for traditional sports.”

This year, Winter Clash will have competitive categories for Fighting Games and First Person Shooters, and a new category will be the Parent & Son Ping Pong Challenge, in partnership with Metro Sports.

“All the events we promote have as a

philosophy to involve families in the world of gaming while incorporating traditional games,” Román said. “On this occasion, we will have a ping pong tournament, a Pac Man competition as part of retro gaming and a ‘party’ with DJs and karaoke with music from gaming movies.”

The Fighting Games categories will be Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Guilty Gear Strive, Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, Dragonball FighterZ, Tekken 7, Mortal Kombat 11 and The King Of Fighters XV. The First Person Shooter games will be Overwatch 2 and Call Of Duty

Tickets for Winter Clash 2023 can be purchased on the start.gg platform. For additional information, search the social networks: Facebook: https://www.facebook. com/RedRoosterTEam1 Twitter: https:// Twitter.com/RedRoosgterTeam1, Youtube: https:// www.youtube.co/channel/UCMK33nD16 uyxgvyH3MlefQ Instagram: https://www. instag, Twitter ram.com/redroosterteam and https://www.redroosterteamper.com.

Those interested in being part of the event with booths can communicate directly with the Red Rooster Team through its social networks.

Students Lisangellie Flores, Ana Cabrera, Diego Roura and Michael Quiñones will design a device that will collect information for research from the stratosphere.

In debut, Puerto Rico ranks last for economic freedom in North America

By THE STAR STAFF

Puerto Rico occupied the last position in the Economic Freedom of North America 2022 report, which is published by the Fraser Institute and measures the degree of economic freedom in various jurisdictions in Canada, the United States and Mexico.

The Fraser Institute, an independent, nonpartisan Canadian public policy think tank, included Puerto Rico for the first time in its Economic Freedom of North America 2022 report.

Economic freedom is defined as the ability of people to act in the economic sphere without undue restrictions, and is regarded as fundamental to prosperity. Consequently, the Economic Freedom of North America report examines government spending, taxes and labor market restrictions to assess economic freedom in different places.

In the U.S. subnational index (which compares jurisdictions within the United States), Florida ranks first as the most economically free state, with a score of 7.94 out of 10, and New Hampshire, with 7.84, ranks second. Rounding out the five most economically accessible states are South Dakota, with 7.75, and Texas and Tennessee, tied with 7.66.

At the other end of the index, Puerto Rico occupies the last position with 2.04 — less than half the score of the least free state. Among states, New York (at 4.25) is the least accessible for the eighth consecutive year, followed by California, Hawaii, Vermont and Oregon. Scores are based on data from 2020, the year with the most recent complete information available.

“These results show the gap between Puerto Rico and the United States in terms of economic freedom,” said Ángel Carrión Tavárez, director of research and public policy at the

Institute for Economic Freedom. “Instead of a convergence with the freest states, there is a divergence — a distancing from the island even from the least free states.”

The co-authors of Economic Freedom of North America 2022 are Dean Stansel, José Torra, Fred McMahon and Carrión

Tavárez. The report derives from the Economic Freedom of the World, published by the Fraser Institute. It results from more than a quarter of a century of work by more than 60 academics, including three Nobel laureates.

“Hundreds of independent studies have produced overwhelming evidence that higher levels of economic freedom are associated with more opportunity, more prosperity, higher economic growth, and more jobs,” said Dean Stansel, a research associate professor at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University.

Economic Freedom of North America 2022 includes a full chapter on Puerto Rico that explains the process of incorporating the island into the report and how it compares poorly with all U.S. states in the components and variables used in the subnational index.

“Puerto Rico’s per capita income of $13,318 in 2020, its high poverty rate of 43.4%, its notorious low labor participation rate, the wage gaps between the island and the States, and the net migration out of the island demonstrate that the lack of economic freedom is at the center of many of Puerto Rico’s socioeconomic problems,” Carrión Tavárez said.

Economic Freedom of North America has been cited in more than 340 articles in academic journals and public policy studies around the world. In the past 18 months alone, it has been cited more than 55 times, demonstrating the credibility and standing of the publication in the international community.

The inclusion of Puerto Rico in Economic Freedom of North America 2022 was the result of the efforts made by the Institute of Economic Freedom for the island to have a presence in the leading indices and reports used to measure and compare the situation of various jurisdictions and establish the public policy necessary to improve people’s lives.

By THE STAR STAFF

Puerto Rico is located in the second level of the monkeypox outbreak with 209 confirmed cases, most of which were transmitted by contact, the

island Department of Health has revealed in its Epidemiological Surveillance System bulletin.

The agency published its Special Bulletin Number 29 on Sunday, and according to the document, a local transmission scenario already exists within a defined population.

“At the time of writing this bulletin, Puerto Rico is in the second level of the outbreak since 83.1% of the confirmed cases had no travel history and the most reported transmission route is prolonged and direct close contact, of type skin to skin,” reads the document.

The document also indicates that the transmission of the virus is found mainly in populations with the following characteristics: men who identify as homosexuals, bisexuals, or men who have sex with other men (176 of 201 cases; 87.6%), and people who have stated having had sexual intercourse in the last 21 days with one or more partners (140 of 182 cases; 76.9%).

Three women have been confirmed with seismic

smallpox and 25 of the confirmed cases identify as heterosexual.

Ángel Carrión Tavárez, director of research and public policy at the Institute for Economic Freedom

SanSe weapons ban called unconstitutional

By THE STAR STAFF

The San Juan municipal ordinance banning licensed gun owners from carrying weapons on public conveyances during the San Sebastián Street Festival is unconstitutional, Corporation for the Defense of the Puerto Rico Weapons License Holder (CODEPOLA) President Ariel Torres Meléndez said Monday.

CODEPOLA threatened to sue San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero Lugo to overturn the ordinance.

“The decent citizens of Puerto Rico should not be risking their safety when the State publicly tells criminals that people participating in Sanse 2023 will be completely unarmed, at the mercy of criminals,” Torres Meléndez said. “Criminals will not ask permission to carry their illegal weapons with them.”

Torres Meléndez insisted that if the municipality does not clarify its statements, CODEPOLA will seek a court injunction to defend the right to bear arms.

“What statistics or study on violence led the mayor of San Juan to conclude that a legal carrier is a security problem?” he asked.

The ban is part of the city council’s security plan, which includes 1,050 municipal and commonwealth police officers, 400 private security guards, and the installation of 420 cameras deployed in the capital city to provide security to between 85,000 and 110,000 people daily.

Torres Meléndez said it is worrying that “an official who believes in the safety of his

parties does not make those statements that generate fear in people.”

“On the contrary, the legal bearer of weapons places his safety and that of his family in the training he received and allows him to carry the weapon for the good of his

family,” he said.

The San Juan municipal administration issued a response later on Monday.

“This afternoon and through the media we learned of the statements made by the president of the Corporation for the Defense

of the Puerto Rico Weapon License Holder (CODEPOLA), Ariel Torres Meléndez, in relation to the prohibition of carrying firearms in municipal vehicles that will transport Puerto Ricans to the Celebration of the Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián 2023,” San Juan city administrator Israel Alicea said in a written statement. “For the administration of Mayor Miguel A. Romero Lugo, one of the main priorities for the events that will be taking place during the Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián is the safety of all those who will participate in them. This is why not only the coordination of events has been worked on for several months, but also a Municipal Ordinance was constituted in order to establish the parameters for an orderly celebration of the festivities in the Isleta de San Juan.”

In addition, and among many other initiatives, Alicea said, so that the San Sebastián Street Festival can be carried out successfully and in an orderly manner, the San Juan Municipal Police, in collaboration with personnel from commonwealth and federal agencies, have “created a robust work plan to promote a safe environment for all attendees.”

As part of the effort, 1,450 police and security personnel composed of 550 municipal officers, 400 private police – armed and unarmed – and 500 from the commonwealth police will be activated, Alicea said.

“They will work 12-hour shifts to provide security in the Old San Juan perimeter,” the official said. “Likewise, 150 officers will be appointed at the transportation stations of Sagrado Corazón, Hiram Bithorn Stadium, North Capitol and South Capitol.”

By THE STAR STAFF

Federal agents killed two suspected drug traffickers in a shootout early Sunday off the northeast coast of Puerto Rico, according to press reports.

The incident occurred shortly after midnight after authorities chased down a suspicious boat, U.S. Customs Border Protection spokesman Jeffery Quiñones told the Associated Press.

The suspects shot at the border patrol agents, who returned fire, killing two of the six passengers on board the boat.

The remaining four suspects were arrest-

ed, No federal agents were injured.

Quiñones said drugs were found on board the boat and in the water.

Ariel Torres Meléndez, president of the Corporation for the Defense of the Puerto Rico Weapons License Holder

A year after a fiery voting rights speech, Biden delivers a more muted address

By PETER BAKER

When he came to the capital of the South to honor Martin Luther King Jr. last year, President Joe Biden delivered a call to nonviolent arms for voting rights, equating opponents to segregationists and vowing to rewrite Senate rules to defeat them. “I will not yield,” he declared. “I will not flinch.”

A year later, Biden returned to Atlanta on Sunday with little to show for it. He may not have flinched, but he did not succeed, either. None of the sweeping voting rights measures he championed passed the Democratic-controlled Congress last year, and the prospects of any passing a newly elected Republican-controlled House seem vanishingly small.

And so a leader who arguably owes his presidency to the critical and timely support of Black voters in 2020 was left to offer only vague exhortations of hope and no concrete policy plans or legislative strategies. He assured an audience at King’s fabled Ebenezer Baptist Church that its side in the struggle would, indeed, overcome someday.

“At this inflection point, we know there’s a lot of work that has to continue on economic justice, civil rights, voting rights and protecting our democracy, and I’m remembering that our job is to redeem the soul of America,” Biden told the appreciative crowd, which included King’s sister, Christine King Farris, and one of his allies, Andrew Young.

“Look, I get accused of being an inveterate optimist,” the president added. “Progress is never easy. But redeeming the soul of the country is absolutely essential.”

Speaking from a church pulpit, Biden eschewed the open partisanship of his speech last year, when he spoke at a university and compared Republicans to George Wallace, the Alabama governor who stood in a doorway rather than let Black students enter a white university; Bull Connor, the public safety commissioner of Birmingham, Alabama, who used police dogs and fire hoses on civil rights protesters; and Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy that went to war to defend slavery.

The analogy went over poorly at the time with Republicans, who insisted that the limits they had imposed in many states were intended to secure election integrity and argued that they opposed Democratic-sponsored legislation because it was federal overreach. Even some Democrats fretted that the president “went a little too far in his rhetoric,” as one senator put it last year. Biden defended the comparison but then opted against repeating it or anything like it Sunday.

Nor did he mention eliminating the Senate filibuster to pass voting rights legislation, the centerpiece of last year’s speech — and an idea that was defeated barely a week later, when two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, joined Republicans in refusing to go along.

As a result, the legislation, pulling together separate initiatives, went nowhere. The measure was intended to es-

tablish nationwide standards for ballot access to nullify new Republican state-level restrictions; establish new automatic voter registration programs; make Election Day a national holiday; and restore elements of the landmark Voting Rights Act stripped away by the Supreme Court in 2013.

Despite Biden’s failure to fulfill his promise of a year ago, some civil rights leaders did not fault him. “Obviously, in the last year we were not successful,” Marc H. Morial, the president of the National Urban League, said in an interview. “I sort of chafe at the idea that we were not successful because Joe Biden didn’t do something or the other. We were blocked.”

Still, even if policy success remains elusive, Morial said he hoped Biden would use his bully pulpit to make the case more often than just on King’s holiday. “I’d like to see the president consistently speak about democracy and voting rights throughout the second half of his first term, not just episodically, because it is one of these fundamental values,” he said.

Aides said there was little Biden could do at this stage without a change on Capitol Hill. “The president has done and will continue to do all that he can do in his executive powers, but there’s only so much that he can do,” said Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta who now serves as a senior adviser to Biden and accompanied him Sunday. “We need Congress to act.”

Some of the steam may have seeped out of the battle over voting rights after the midterm elections in November. While Democrats feared the GOP would rack up victories in part because of voter suppression, Republicans fell short of expectations. They lost a seat in the Senate and picked up far fewer House seats than expected, although enough to eke out a narrow majority.

Among the winners in the midterms was Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and the senior pastor at Ebenezer. Warnock

held onto his seat after a runoff election last month, despite new state voting restrictions that Democrats and civil rights leaders widely condemned. He played host at the church Sunday to Biden, who congratulated him on his victory.

Republicans said Warnock’s win demonstrated that the Democratic criticism was overblown. “Georgia’s election system has been challenged and scrutinized and criticized, and passed every test,” Brad Raffensperger, the Republican secretary of state, said in a statement after the runoff, citing high turnout.

Warnock, however, said in his victory speech that night that he won despite voter suppression. Stories of Georgia voters waiting for hours in long lines that wrapped around buildings, he said, were “most certainly not a sign voter suppression does not exist.”

Early figures indicated that nationally the Black share of the electorate in the midterm elections fell to its lowest level since 2006, particularly in states like Georgia. Many factors could explain why Black voter participation returned to levels common before the era of President Barack Obama, analysts said. And an examination of the numbers suggested that the lower Black turnout might not have changed the outcome.

But the shift in selected states was striking. In Georgia, Louisiana and North Carolina, the average Black turnout rate was 26% lower than among white voters, according to state records, compared with 13% lower in the 2018 midterm elections. Georgia and Louisiana both passed new restrictions before the 2022 elections, while North Carolina did not.

The president, who plans to address the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in Washington on Monday, recalled that King anticipated a constant struggle. “He said, ‘Where do we go from here?’ That’s a quote. ‘Where do we go from here?’” Biden said. “Well, my message to the nation on this day is: We go forward. We go together.”

He pointed to the Catholic rosary on his wrist that he said his son Beau wore the night he died of brain cancer in 2015. “There’s always hope,” Biden said. “We have to believe.”

President Joe Biden, right, greets Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, center, and Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) as he arrives at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023.

Driven by election deniers, this county recounted 2020 votes last week

By TRIP GABRIEL

On the 797th day after the defeat of former President Donald Trump, a rural Pennsylvania county last Monday began a recount of ballots from Election Day 2020.

Under pressure from conspiracy theorists and election deniers, 28 employees of Lycoming County counted — by hand — nearly 60,000 ballots. It took three days and an estimated 560 work hours, as the vote-counters ticked through paper ballots at long rows of tables in the county elections department in Williamsport, a place used to a different sort of nail-biter as the home of the Little League World Series.

The results of Lycoming County’s hand recount — like earlier recounts of the 2020 election in Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona — revealed no evidence of fraud. The numbers reported more than two years ago were nearly identical to the numbers reported Thursday.

Trump ended up with seven fewer votes than were recorded on voting machines in 2020. Joe Biden had 15 fewer votes. Overall, Trump gained eight votes against his rival. The former president, who easily carried deep-red Lycoming County in 2020, carried it once again with 69.98% of the vote — gaining one onehundredth of a point in the recount.

Did that quell the doubts of election deniers, who had circulated a petition claiming there was a likelihood of “rampant fraud” in Lycoming in 2020?

It did not.

“This is just one piece of the puzzle,” said Karen DiSalvo, a lawyer who helped lead the recount push and who is a local volunteer for the far-right group Audit the Vote PA. “We’re not done.”

Forrest Lehman, the county director of elections, oversaw the recount but opposed it as a needless bonfire of time, money and common sense. He sighed in his office Friday.

“It’s surreal to be talking about 2020 in the present tense, over two years down the road,” he said. He attributed the slight discrepancies between the hand recount and voting machine results to human error in reading ambiguous marks on the paper ballots.

Lycoming County’s recount was part of the disturbing trend of mistrust in elections that has become mainstream in U.S. politics, spurred by the lies of Trump and his supporters. Amid the Appalachian ridges in north-central Pennsylvania, such conspiracy theories have firmly taken hold.

The county’s election professionals spent months responding to the arguments of the

election deniers in public hearings and fielding their right-to-know requests for the minutiae of voting records. Lehman said he did not think an encounter with the facts would change the views of some people.

“You close one election-denying door, they’ll open a window,” he said.

One of the residents who pushed for the hand recount, Jeffrey J. Stroehmann, the former chair of Trump’s 2020 campaign in Lycoming County, said he was happy the results matched the 2020 voting machine counts, though he said other questions needed to be addressed.

“Our goal from Day 1 when we approached the commissioners, we said our goal here is not to find fraud — if we find it, we’ll fix it — we just want to restore voter confidence,” said Stroehmann, a founder of the far-right Lycoming Patriots group.

He and DiSalvo were inspired by the debunked claims of a retired Army officer named Seth Keshel, who gained attention in 2021 with the assertion that there were 8 million “excess votes” cast for Biden. His analysis has been dismissed by professors at Harvard University, the University of Georgia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A petition circulated by DiSalvo and Stroehmann noted that registered Republicans grew their numbers in Lycoming County compared with Democrats from 2016 to 2020, but that Biden managed to win more votes than Hillary Rodham Clinton. Election deniers found this suspicious.

“If Republicans GAINED voters and

Democrats LOST voters — why did Biden receive 30% MORE votes in the November 2020 election than Hillary Clinton did in 2016?” their petition asked.

Lehman called the argument nonsensical. Party registration does not dictate how someone will vote, he said. Biden outperformed Clinton in nearly every Pennsylvania county in the 2020 election. Trump also raised his vote totals in the county by 16%.

“The voters’ unpredictability — it makes democracy both majestic and messy,” Lehman told county commissioners at a hearing last year. The commission ultimately approved the recount 2 to 1, along partisan lines.

Election officials at every level have been harassed and vilified since 2020, when election conspiracists echoing Trump blamed officials and helped inspire the “Stop the Steal” movement. On an election conspiracy show that was streamed on Rumble, Stroehmann called for an investigation into Lehman, who he said is “part of the steal.”

“Our director of voter services is playing for the other team,” Stroehmann said on the show. “He’s as liberal as the day is long.”

Richard Mirabito, a Lycoming County commissioner who is a Democrat, said there was no evidence whatsoever of wrongdoing by Lehman. “He’s held in the highest esteem of integrity,” he said. “Those kinds of statements undermine the confidence of people in our system.”

Mirabito voted against the recount but was overruled by the two Republicans on the

board. Scott L. Metzger, a Republican and the chair of the county commission, also vouched for Lehman. “He’s done an outstanding job,’’ he said.

Metzger — one of the two Republicans on the commission who approved the recount — said that he voted for it after thousands of people signed petitions, and others approached him on the street saying they didn’t want to vote because they distrusted the system. Now that the recount matched what voting tabulator machines showed in 2020 and that there was no evidence of fraud, Metzger said, it was time to move on.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m done with it,” he said.

Election deniers have no plans to stand down. They have requested reams of documents that they believe will expose fraud once and for all.

“We’ve received a series of crazy records requests,” Lehman said. “You can quote me. They are insane,” he added, referring to the requests.

Election deniers asked for copies of every application for a mail ballot, requiring Lehman and his staff to laboriously redact all personal information. They are pressing for copies of every ballot cast on Election Day 2020, and they have gone to court to seek digital data from the voting machines at each of the 81 county precincts.

Although observers from both parties watched the hand recount this week, DiSalvo raised questions about the process, including that Lehman oversaw the adding up of the recounted votes.

“We asked to see the tally sheets before the final processing and were denied,” DiSalvo said, referring to the paperwork used by ballot counters. The elections director, she added, had a “vested interest in making sure the numbers aligned.”

Her group has filed a right-to-know request for the hand-count tally sheets.

Lehman, a former Eagle Scout and teacher, displays two iconic photographs in his office. One shows Harry Truman in 1948 holding aloft the famously erroneous “Dewey Defeats Truman” newspaper headline. The other shows Lyndon Johnson solemnly taking the oath of office on Air Force One in 1963 following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

“They’re both transitions of power,” Lehman said. “One is comic, the other tragic. We’ve managed to process them both as a country. I don’t know which category to put 2020 in. We need to get back to a place where we can process the outcomes of elections in a constructive, healthy way.”

Forrest Lehman, the director of elections in Lycoming County, with boxes of ballots from the 2020 presidential election, in Williamsport, Pa., Jan. 13, 2023.

With another storm arriving, five areas of California to watch

By CARLY OLSON, AVA SASTANI, LUKE VANDER PLOEG and JULIE BROWN

More than two weeks of storms have hammered California, and one more was on the way over the holiday weekend. The relentless downpours and their impact — flooded homes, flattened cars, downed power lines and more — have killed at least 19 people and disrupted the lives of millions more since late December.

Experts have said that almost none of the storms, alone, would have been considered catastrophic, but the continual pounding has taken a toll on California’s landscape. Soil now struggling to hold water is more vulnerable to mudslides. Days of strong winds have sent trees tumbling. And the relentless precipitation has turned trickling creeks into raging waterways.

Here is a rundown of a few areas officials are watching closely.

Monterey Peninsula

The signature coastal perch of Monterey County, the peninsula is about 100 miles south of San Francisco, home to 50,000 residents and a world-renowned tourist destination that includes the towns of Carmel, Monterey, Pacific Grove and golfing destination Pebble Beach.

As storms continue to pound the Central Coast, the peninsula has been under close watch. The area expects thunderstorms and between a half inch and 1 inch of rain through Sunday night, with rain continuing into Monday.

Disaster relief workers have seen widespread flooding in the Salinas Valley, inland from the peninsula, and the county still has active evacuation orders for some areas along the Salinas and Carmel rivers. On Saturday, more than a hundred people were in evacuation shelters, according to Maia Carroll, communications coordinator for Monterey County. Some residents have been out of their homes since floods began last Monday.

Santa Cruz Mountains

Concerns across hard-hit Santa Cruz County, a coastal region south of San Jose, include flooding in the lowlands, a rising tide at the coast and falling trees, but the mountains were uniquely vulnerable to the effects of more rain, said Dave Reid, director of the Santa Cruz County Office of Response, Recovery & Resilience.

“The challenge for us right now in mountain regions is that any amount of rain,

even modest rains, could cause road failures, landslides,” he said. Since the ground has been saturated with rain for weeks, it cannot absorb much more, adding to the potential for mudslides and damaged roads.

Rain was expected for the rest of Sunday into Monday morning in the Santa Cruz Mountains, with a chance of rain continuing into Monday afternoon.

Falling trees and mudslides are Daniel DeLong’s primary concerns.

DeLong, 56, a retired firefighter who lives in Ben Lomond, California, a rural town in the Santa Cruz Mountains, describes the recent storms as “much more extreme” than anything he has experienced in three decades living there. His family resides on acres of land full of towering Redwoods and Douglas firs.

“They could just come down and cut your house in half,” DeLong said.

Lake Tahoe Region / Sierra Nevada

More than 8 feet of snow have accumulated in the Sierra Nevada in the past week. Mountain communities in the Lake Tahoe region, with a fleet of snow removal equipment and avalanche professionals, are built to withstand big winter storms. Problems mount, however, on a holiday weekend when that much snow coincides with the arrival of thousands of people looking for a winter getaway in the Tahoe area, one of the most popular places for downhill skiing in the country.

On Sunday morning, bumper-to-bumper traffic inched up two-lane roads toward the ski resorts north of Lake Tahoe. A winter storm warning issued by the National Weather Service on Sunday forecast another 8 to 18 inches of snow to accumulate by Tuesday,

with wind gusts up to 80 mph on exposed ridge tops in the Sierra.

On the positive side, the amount of water currently contained in the snowpack rivals that during some of the biggest winters in decades. The Sierra is, essentially, a large reservoir for all of California — roughly 30% of the state’s water, on average, is from the Sierra snowpack — and snowmelt in the spring keeps a supply of water flowing downstream when the weather turns dry.

Los Angeles County Downtown Los Angeles received 1.8 inches of rain on Saturday, breaking a record for that date. In the city and surrounding region, the storm inflicted limited damage: A tree crushed several cars; a boulder and other debris from a mudslide shut down traffic. Near the ocean, surging tides caused up to 6 inches of water to form ponds in streets, including in Long Beach. And a sinkhole that swallowed two vehicles last week in the neighborhood of Chatsworth, in north Los Angeles, continued to expand, stretching across nearly the entire width of the road.

Overall, Mark Pestrella, director of Los Angeles County Public Works, described the situation as “10,000 small cuts across the county.” But they all add up. The road system, he said, with sinkholes and damaged pavement, will cost nearly $200 million to repair, he estimated.

Still, Los Angeles has fared a lot better than other parts of the state, according to Capt. Sheila Kelliher-Berkoh of the Los Angeles

County Fire Department. “We’re definitely having our share of things, but it could be worse,” she said.

Kelliher-Berkoh said that one of the biggest priorities for the department was the Los Angeles River. Often just a stretch of dry concrete cutting south through the heart of the city, the river became a 10-foot deep torrent gushing during the storms, she said. That flow can be particularly dangerous for people who underestimate the power of the current, especially children and homeless people camping near the banks.

The County Fire Department is also closely watching areas recently affected by wildfires, as burn scar areas have left behind loose soil, perfect conditions for mudslides.

Merced County

The county, which sits roughly 130 miles east of San Jose in the San Joaquin Valley and is home to nearly 300,000 people, has endured some of California’s most punishing weather conditions, with last week’s flooding forcing hundreds of people to evacuate from their homes. Among the hardest-hit areas was Planada, a small farming community that sits 90 minutes outside of Yosemite National Park.

The county, part of California’s Central Valley, has seen more than 200 times more rainfall this month than it did last January amid the drought. Storm conditions in the area there eased on Sunday, but locals braced for another round of heavy rain and possible flooding. The rain is forecast to continue through Monday.

Brandee Aragaki stands on her balcony overlooking her flooded neighborhood with her cat, in Felton Grove, Santa Cruz County, Calif., on Jan 14, 2023.

A crew works to stabilize and clear an active landslide on Route 36 in Carlotta, Calif. on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023.

After a burst of new businesses, a cooling economy intrudes

By SYDNEY EMBER

An unexpected result of the pandemic era has been a surge in entrepreneurial activity. Since 2020, applications to start new businesses have skyrocketed, reversing a decadeslong slump.

The reasons for the boom are manifold. Millions of people were suddenly laid off, giving them the time, and inclination, to start new businesses. Personal savings jumped, buoyed partly by a frothy stock market and government stimulus payments, providing would-be entrepreneurs with the means to fulfill their visions. Rockbottom interest rates made money cheap and widely available.

But the ebullient economic environment that helped foster this entrepreneurial spirit has given way to high inflation, rising interest rates and dwindling savings. That has left these nascent businesses to navigate challenging financial crosscurrents — and a possible recession — at a moment when they are at their most fragile. Even under normal conditions, roughly half of new businesses fail within five years.

“Young businesses are inherently vulnerable,” said John Haltiwanger, an economist at the University of Maryland who studies entrepreneurship. “They’re likely to fail, and they are especially likely to fail in a recession.”

In 2021, Americans filed applications to start 5.4 million new businesses, according to data from the Census Bureau. That was on top of the 4.4 million applications filed in 2020, which had been the highest by far in the more than 15 years the government had been keeping track. (Filings last year through November were running ahead of 2020 but behind 2021; figures for December will be released this week.)

Data on actual business formation will not become available for several years, so it is not possible yet to measure the effects of the cooling economy on new ventures. Whether these new businesses pull through could have broad implications for the health and dynamism of the overall economy.

“Innovation drives gains in productivity,” said John Dearie, president of the

Center for American Entrepreneurship, an advocacy organization. “And innovation comes disproportionately from new businesses.”

But he cautioned that the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy — intended to tamp down the fastest price increases in decades — is “ramping up the headwinds facing entrepreneurs to gale force by crushing demand and by increasing the price of money.”

In interviews, entrepreneurs expressed a mix of resolve and resignation about the months ahead. Some said they had learned lessons from the pandemic’s upheaval about how to endure financial adversity that they believed had recession-proofed their business models. Others were cleareyed about needing outside funding that they feared would no longer arrive.

“It’s been a bumpy ride, for sure,” said Jennifer Sutton, who started a juice and wellness bar in Park City, Utah, in 2021. She is most worried about inflation, she said, as well as the prospect of a recession that could reduce the tourism that her business depends on. She opened a second location inside a grocery store, partly because it required less startup capital than opening another stand-alone storefront.

In many ways, however, Sutton is lucky. She largely self-financed her company, High Vibes Juicery and Wellness Bar, with her family’s savings and credit card debt.

Taylor Wallace, an entrepreneur in Florida, is in a different position.

After he was laid off from the augmented-reality company Magic Leap at the start of the pandemic, he reconnected with a friend, Mike Mayleben, who was looking to start a day care business for dogs. In the fall of 2020, the two began acquiring dog day care locations that were for sale, rolling them into a new business called Paws ‘n’ Rec.

The company, which offers membership-based day care, boarding and grooming, currently has two locations in the Tampa, Florida, area, with a third under construction. But the company wants to grow by opening more locations — just as inflation is pushing up construction costs and rising interest rates are making terms on loans more onerous. His borrowing costs on the company’s line of credit, which he expects to draw on soon, are based on prevailing interest rates and have increased by more than 4 percentage points from a year ago.

“Debt being more expensive is going

to be massively challenging for us and everyone,” he said. “When we started this, we were dealing with money being the cheapest it’s ever been ever in the United States.”

Higher interest rates and uncertainty about the economy have also appeared to dry up once-flowing sources of capital, some entrepreneurs said.

Census data shows that a large swath of new-business applications were for sole proprietorships that had no intention to hire employees. Many filings were also for businesses in industries that had been upended by the pandemic, including retail, food services and logistics, some of which may have been replacing others that shuttered.

But despite a slowdown that could harm new businesses, many economists are optimistic that the rush to start businesses that began in 2020 will still translate into job growth, innovation and, ultimately, a more productive economy.

“A lot of these new businesses are continuing to grow and hire,” said Luke Pardue, an economist at Gusto, a smallbusiness payroll and benefits platform. “These new businesses are really driving employment growth right now because they are continuing to grow and because they are ambitious in their future roles.”

The CEO at a vacuum manufacturer in Price, Utah, that his father started in 1985, Spencer Loveless grew frustrated during the early months of the pandemic that supply chain issues were preventing him from getting parts from China. So he began using 3D printers that his company had on hand to make his own parts. Companies that were similarly stuck in supplychain snarls caught wind of what he was doing and began asking him to print items for them, too.

In November 2020, he started Merit3D, a 3D printing company. The business originally had two employees, but it has been growing. Last year, he had 20 workers; this year, he aims to have 30 to 40.

His hiring plans don’t stop there. He wants Merit3D to eventually have 1,700 employees — helping to offset the loss of jobs at nearby power plants that will shut down in the years ahead.

Jennifer Sutton, who started High Vibes Juicery and Wellness Bar during the pandemic, in Park City, Utah, Jan. 11, 2023.

Davos 2023: Big Oil in sights of climate activist protests

Big oil firms came under pressure at the start of the World Economic Forum (WEF) from activists who accused them of hijacking the climate debate, while a Greta Thunberg-sponsored “cease and desist” campaign gained support on social media.

Major energy firms including BP BP.L, Chevron CVX.N and Saudi Aramco 2222.SE are among the 1,500 business leaders gathering for the annual meeting in the Swiss resort of Davos, where global threats including climate change are on the agenda.

“We are demanding concrete and real climate action,” said Nicolas Siegrist, the 26-year-old organiser of the protest who also heads the Young Socialists party in Switzerland.

The annual meeting of global business and political leaders opens in Davos on Monday.

“They will be in the same room with state leaders and they will push for their interests,” Siegrist said of the involvement of energy companies during a demonstration attended by several hundred people on Sunday.

The oil and gas industry has said that it needs to be part of the energy transition as fossil fuels will continue to play a major role in the world’s energy mix as countries shift to low carbon economies.

On Monday, a social media campaign added to the pressure on oil and gas companies, by promoting a “cease and desist” notice sponsored by climate activists Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate and Luisa Neubauer, through the non-profit website Avaaz.

It demands energy company CEOs “immediately stop opening any new oil, gas, or coal extraction sites, and stop blocking the clean energy transition we all so urgently need,” and threatens legal action and more protests if they fail to comply.

The campaign, which had been signed by more than 660,000 people, had almost 200,000 shares on Monday morning.

Sumant Sinha, who heads one of India’s largest renewable energy firms, said it would be good to include big oil companies in the transition debate as they have a vital role to play.

“If oil people are part of these conversations to the extent that they are also committing to change then by all means. It is better to get them inside the tent than to have them outside the tent,” Sinha, chairman and CEO of ReNew Power, told Reuters, saying that inclusion should not lead to “sabotage.”

Rising interest rates have made it harder for renewable energy developments to attract financing, giving traditional players with deep pockets a competitive advantage.

As delegates began to arrive in Davos, Debt for Cli-

MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS

PUERTO RICO STOCKS

mate activists protested at a private airport in eastern Switzerland, which they said would be used by some WEF attendees, and issued a statement calling for foreign debts of poorer countries to be cancelled in order to accelerate the global energy transition.

This week also marks the start of the quarterly earnings season, with big banks expected to report lower profits, while overall S&P 500 earnings are expected to decline year-over-year, according to Refinitiv.

At 12:02 p.m. ET, the S&P 500 was up 8.51 points, or 0.21%, at 3,978.12, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 21.37 points, or 0.20%, at 10,953.04.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 182.66 points, or 0.54%, at 34,155.67, supported by gains in industrial stocks such as Boeing Co and Caterpillar Inc.

Among major S&P 500 sectors, energy stocks led gains, rising 2% as oil prices climbed. [O/R]

Tesla Inc slid 1.7% following a report that the electriccar maker delayed plans to expand its Shanghai factory.

American Airlines Group Inc advanced 5.7% after raising its fourth-quarter profit forecast.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 2.62-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.74-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

As toll in Dnipro climbs, details on victims emerge

By MEGAN SPECIA, NICOLE TUNG and CASSANDRA VINOGRAD

The number of dead in a Russian attack on an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 40, emergency officials said Monday, as rescuers found more bodies at the site of one of the deadliest attacks against civilians since the start of the war.

As search crews scoured the debris for survivors for a third consecutive day, details began to emerge about the lives lost. Two young mothers — Olha Usova and Iryna Solomatenko — were among the dead, along with Mykhailo Korenovskyi, a box-

ing coach and father of two, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense. One of the

victims, Maria Lebid, was 15 years old, a Ukrainian official said.

“She was school president and ballroom dancer,” the official, Emine Dzheppar, the first deputy foreign minister, wrote on Twitter. “Her beautiful life dance was cut short.”

At least 75 people were wounded and 34 remained unaccounted for as of Monday afternoon, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said in a post on Telegram, the social messaging app. The strike Saturday at the nine-story residential building prompted renewed calls for Moscow to be charged with war crimes. In an address to Ukrainians on Sunday night, Ukrainian President Volody-

myr Zelenskyy said it was also critical to punish “those who grease the Russian propaganda machine.”

Switching to Russian, he then warned: “Your cowardly silence, your attempt to ‘wait out’ what is happening, will only end with those same terrorists coming after you one day.”

Hundreds of rescuers are working at the site, the emergency service said, and more than 8,000 tons of debris have been moved. Zelenskyy said Sunday night that the rescue operation would last “as long as there is even the slightest chance to save lives.”

“We are fighting for every person,” he said.

Britain pledges just 14 tanks, but with aim of prompting more transfers from Ukraine’s allies

By STEPHEN CASTLE

Britain’s defense secretary, Ben Wallace, on Monday confirmed plans to send Challenger 2 tanks and a package of other sophisticated military equipment to Ukraine, as part of wider efforts to persuade other Western nations to offer similar support.

Fourteen tanks are to be sent in coming weeks, and Britain is also planning to send around 30 large self-propelled guns known as AS90s, plus armored vehicles, drones, missiles and artillery rounds, Wallace said in a statement in Parliament.

“If we are to continue helping Ukraine

to seize the upper hand in the next phase of the conflict, we must accelerate our collective effort diplomatically, economically and militarily,” Wallace told lawmakers, describing his move as Britain’s “most significant package of combat power to date.”

It was hoped that Britain’s example “will allow those countries holding Leopard tanks to donate as well,” Wallace added, appealing to the government in Germany, which has been reluctant to commit weaponry that could be used for offensive military action, or to approve transfers of such German-made weapons from countries that have bought them.

Wallace’s comment underscored that

one of the main objectives in Britain’s decision to transfer the relatively small number of tanks was to spur other European nations to deploy Leopard 2 tanks, which military analysts believe would be potentially more helpful to the government in Kyiv.

Poland is thought to be ready to offer German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine as part of an alliance of European countries, but this would require the agreement of the government in Berlin.

The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is scheduled to travel to the United States on Tuesday, and then to Canada, to coordinate measures to support Ukraine.

Wallace will visit Estonia this week, and then take part in talks with allies at the U.S. military base in Ramstein, Germany.

British officials say that their decision to send tanks is part of a broader push to galvanize support for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and to prevent the conflict degenerating into a long and static war that could favor Russia’s military.

Zelenskyy expressed his appreciation, writing on Twitter: “Tanks, APCs [armored personnel carriers] and artillery are exactly what Ukraine needs to restore its territorial integrity.” He thanked the prime minister, the defense minister and the British people “for this powerful contribution to our common victory over tyranny.”

The government’s action had broad

support in Parliament, including from the opposition Labour Party.

Some British lawmakers are frustrated that other countries have yet to follow suit.

“The reason why we’re doing it is to provide political leadership and political cover, so that other countries will send their tanks as well,” Bob Seely, a Conservative Party lawmaker, told GB News. “And, primarily, this is about sending German Leopard tanks, of which there are over 3,000 in Western Europe and North America.”

“There’s still a problem in that the mood music from Berlin is that they’re not willing to send until next year, which is way too late,” Seely added.

Military experts see the Leopard 2 as critical to helping Ukraine but say that the scale of the assistance offered is crucial.

“The Leopard 2 is arguably the most successful modern Western main battle tank design,” Bastian Giegerich, director of defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank, wrote in a report. By creating a pool of available tanks, he said, Western countries would be able both to replenish Ukraine’s fleet, which has suffered attrition in the conflict, and add to its capabilities.

“It is believed that for the Leopard 2 tanks to have any significant effect on the fighting, around 100 tanks would be required,” he wrote.

The Russian strike on an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro was one of the deadliest attacks against civilians since the start of the war.

A united Europe weathers crises, but deeper challenges remain

By STEVEN ERLANGER

Jean Monnet, one of the founders of the European Union, wrote in his memoirs that “Europe will be forged in crises and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises.”

The war in Ukraine is only the latest crisis to confound Europe and rip away its illusions. A return to full-scale territorial warfare rarely seen in Europe since World War II has altered the European Union and NATO, both their present and their future, with consequences still unclear.

Along with China, Europe’s crises will be the undercurrent jolting discussions at the World Economic Forum this week. Its theme of “Cooperation in a Fragmented World” summarizes the aspiration driving some of the policies rapidly adopted on the continent since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February.

Both the European Union and NATO have responded well and remain united, at least on the surface, to challenges including war, economic stress, energy disruption and humanitarian crises — all topics on the Davos agenda.

The European Union and Britain have reacted with declarations of solidarity, nine rounds of economic sanctions against Russia, a generous reception of Ukrainian women and children as refugees, and significant deliveries of financial and military aid. Europe has moved to reduce its enormous dependency on Russia for energy, especially natural gas, and it has managed so far to cope with the political pressures stemming from an inevitable explosion in energy and food prices and the consequent inflation.

“The European Union has reacted faster and more united than others would have thought,” said Fabian Zuleeg, the CEO of the European Policy Center, a Brussels research institution. It was aided by discreet American leadership, he said. “But Europe’s great success has been the ability to bring together a very diverse set of countries with very different politics and still decide to cooperate, to understand that this war of aggression is not only about Ukraine, but about the future of liberal democracy and global security.”

But “now comes the big challenge, the underlying structural changes we have to make,” Zuleeg said. He cited the continuing differences among member states, enlargement, how to work with allies and NATO, and future relations with Washington and Beijing — in addition to the future of Ukraine itself, which has been promised membership in both the European Union and NATO at some indefinite moment.

In fact, Europe is divided about how the war should end. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe, with their memories of Soviet occupation, want Russia defeated and driven back from all of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. They argue that the war has underscored the necessity of NATO and the trans-Atlantic alliance and the primacy of the United States as the ultimate guarantor of Europe’s freedom and security.

The countries of what Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary called Old Europe — including France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Spain — support Ukraine but are anxious about the continuing costs. They don’t expect Ukraine to take back Crimea, and they see the inevitability of a negotiated solution and the durability of Russia as a neighbor whose own insecurities must somehow be assuaged for a lasting peace. While New Europe sees security as “against Russia,” Old Europe, best articulated by Emmanuel Macron, the French president, still sees security as with Russia.

The dilemma remains hypothetical, however, since President Vladimir Putin has shown no interest in compromise or serious peace talks, at least to this point.

“It’s astonishing that the Europeans have kept together so far,” said Charles Grant, director of the Center for European Reform. “But the worry is that given stagflation, high energy prices, migration and deficits, populists might exploit divisions and push Ukraine to make an early peace. As the war goes on, divisions in these two camps will get worse.”

Nathalie Tocci, director of the Institute for International Affairs in Rome, thinks Europe’s glass is half full. On the positive side, she said, Europe has made significant strides in energy

conservation and begun to wean itself from Russian energy, especially from natural gas. Brussels has tried to coordinate energy storage, put a cap on gas prices (although too high to matter) and begun discussion on decoupling the electricity and gas markets.

Still, Russian gas flows were largely intact until June and continued afterward in lesser amounts, including Russian supplies of pipeline and liquefied natural gas, and the value of imports from Russia soared, funding the Kremlin for now.

Europe will now have to rely on non-Russian sources of energy, especially LNG from countries like Qatar and the United States, but that will create new dependencies, especially on Washington, said Robin Niblett, former director of Chatham House, a London-based think tank. Add that to Europe’s need “to turn wholeheartedly to the U.S. to help guarantee its security” in the face of Russia’s willingness to double down militarily on trying to rewrite Europe’s security order, Niblett said, and “as a result the E.U. has ditched the idea of European strategic autonomy as a project running parallel to and independent of NATO.”

European institutions are functioning well, especially the European Commission, the bloc’s executive bureaucracy, and it has been clever to turn existing agencies, like the European Peace Facility, into a mechanism to finance military aid to Ukraine. It has also used joint resources, some 300 billion euros from its COVID recovery fund, to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and radically reduce the need for Russian energy.

But European leaders were less united when it came to building up Europe’s defense capabilities, buying from South Korea, Israel and the United States, not from within the con-

tinent. “It leads to Europe being less capable in defense and more dependent on the U.S.,” Tocci said.

As for NATO, the war in Ukraine has “rescued it, transformed its status and ensured its relevance” after four years of confusion under President Donald Trump and the chaotic exit from Afghanistan, said Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the U.S. and Americas program at Chatham House.

NATO, with strong American leadership, has gone from being a post-Cold War institution in search of a purpose (at one point, as Macron said, “nearing brain death”), to a military alliance “desperately needed to protect its European members from an imminent threat to their sovereignty and security,” Niblett said. The planned enlargement to include Finland and Sweden will enhance NATO and make it easier to align with a European Union that has been forcefully reminded of its military reliance on Washington.

But there are major challenges ahead, with serious questions suppressed in the name of trans-Atlantic unity and solidarity with Ukraine.

Ukraine has been promised membership in both the European Union and NATO, but there are no realistic offers for now, and the complicated question of future security guarantees for Ukraine has been left hanging while the fighting continues. How the war will end, how Ukraine will be protected and how it will be rebuilt — and by whom and with whose money — will have major consequences for both institutions.

Then there is the looming rise of China and what that means for trans-Atlantic security, cohesion and prosperity.

Politico Europe asked the E.U. ambassadors from Sweden and the Czech Republic what they consider to be the pressing issues for 2023. Their answers are apt and revealing.

Sweden’s Lars Danielsson responded: “If and how the aggression against Ukraine will end. If energy prices will start to come down. If the rule of law will be fully respected in all E.U. member states.”

The Czech, Edita Hrda, said: “In the short term, it will be the results of the Russian war in Ukraine, and whether the current will for unity in the E.U. will last, as well as whether, in the long term, it will be proved that the E.U. is capable of assuming the role of a global player.”

“There is very little long-term strategic thinking going on in Brussels,” said Zuleeg of the European Policy Center. “We cannot be definite about outcomes, but we need to start building possible scenarios.”

Families head to evacuation trains in Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022.

By BHADRA SHARMA and KARAN DEEP SINGH

Aplane carrying 68 passengers and four crew members crashed in the city of Pokhara, Nepal, on Sunday while trying to land. At least 68 were killed, according to the airline operating the plane and the country’s Civil Aviation Authority.

The ATR-72 plane, a twin-engine propeller model manufactured more than 15 years ago, was being operated by Yeti Airlines, on a roughly 30-minute flight from the capital, Kathmandu, to Pokhara, a picturesque vacation destination near the Annapurna mountains. A spokesperson for Yeti Airlines confirmed the crash and the number of people on board.

Videos on social media showed the plane engulfed by flames and black plumes of smoke at the crash site, where emergency responders were seen trying to retrieve victims.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said in a statement that at least 68 people had died in the crash. A statement from Yeti Airlines cited the same figure.

The Nepal army said it had retrieved 66 bodies from the site as of Sunday evening. Rescuers had taken 29 bodies to a hospital for identification and at least 33 were still at the site, according to Brig. Gen. Krishna Prasad Bhandari, a spokesperson for the Nepal army.

Tek Bahadur KC, the chief administrator of the district of Kaski, where the crash took place, said rescuers had to struggle to reach the site, at first because of all the smoke and because

the plane had gone down into a gorge.

He said hundreds of rescuers, including from the Nepal Police, the Nepal army and the local community, had been mobilized to the area. The plane had broken into three large pieces.

To reach far-flung parts of the country, many people in Nepal rely on small, twin-engine planes, a number of which have crashed in recent years, according to the Aviation Safety Network. Poor visibility, rapidly changing weather conditions above mountainous terrain and aging fleets are among the ha-

zards of flying in Nepal.

Last May, a plane carrying 22 people and operated by Nepali airline Tara Air went down during a 20-minute flight from Pokhara to Jomsom, a tourist destination popular with trekkers. There were no survivors.

And in 2016, all 23 people on board were killed when another Pokhara-Jomsom flight, also operated by Tara Air, crashed shortly after takeoff.

For Nepal, one of the poorest nations in South Asia, tourism is a major source of foreign exchange and revenue, contributing at least 6.7% of the country’s gross domestic product. The industry, which is rebounding from the coronavirus pandemic, employs more than 1 million people.

Of the 68 passengers on board Sunday’s flight, 53 were from Nepal, five from India, four from Russia, two from South Korea and one each from Australia, Argentina, France and Ireland, according to Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority. The four crew members were all from Nepal.

Yeti Airlines Flight 691 took off from Kathmandu about 10:30 a.m. Sunday. It lost contact with the airport in Pokhara about 20 minutes later, the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement released Sunday.

A spokesperson for the airline said the plane was supposed to land at the newly inaugurated Pokhara International Airport, which was built with a soft loan of $216 million from China. It was nearly there before it crash-landed in a gorge near the Seti River, he said.

Plane crash in Nepal leaves at least 68 dead Armed insurgents kidnap 50 women in Burkina Faso

By ELIAN PELTIER

Armed assailants kidnapped about 50 women in northern Burkina Faso last week, the government said on Monday, the latest security incident in the landlocked West African country, which has been battling a jihadi insurgency since 2015.

The women were abducted on Jan. 12 and

13 as they were foraging for fruit outside two villages near the city of Arbinda, the regional governor, Lt. Col. Rodolphe Sorgho, said in a statement.

No group had claimed responsibility as of Monday, but extremist groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State have for years carried out attacks and kidnappings in Burkina Faso, killing tens of thousands and displacing nearly

2 million people — 10% of the country’s population.

Until recently, however, women could move more easily in rural areas than men, often walking for days from displacement camps back to the villages they fled to check on their crops and houses.

Burkina Faso’s leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, seized power in a coup in September and made the recovery of territories lost to armed groups his priority. But the government controls only about half of the country, according to estimates by research groups and regional leaders.

Aziz Diallo, the mayor of Dori, a locality in northern Burkina Faso, said in a telephone interview on Monday that clashes between local branches of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group were frequent in the area, but that it was too early to tell who had abducted the women.

Since the extremist groups have essentially blockaded the country’s north, the mayor said, economic activities were at a standstill and residents — primarily women — have been forced to venture farther out to get supplies.

“Their lives are exposed,” he said.

The local branch of the Islamic State has kidnapped women in Nigeria and other coun-

tries, said Fahiraman Rodrigue Koné, a senior researcher with the Institute for Security Studies, based in Mali. The most notorious kidnappings happened in Nigeria, where in 2014, militants with the group Boko Haram stormed a girls’ school in the village of Chibok.

But kidnappings have been rare in Burkina Faso, Koné said.

“It could be a strategy of blackmailing, or an attempt to get a ransom,” Koné said.

Arbinda and the broader Sahel region of Burkina Faso have faced dwindling food supplies because of multiple blockades imposed by jihadi groups since last year. About 3.5 million people are projected to face severe food insecurity in the country this year, according to the World Food Program. In Djibo, a city 55 miles west of Arbinda, cases of diarrhea have spiked because of scarce access to drinking water caused by the blockade, the organization has said.

Faced with hunger, the women in Arbinda gathered carts to pick up leaves and wild fruit in the bush on Jan. 12, residents told news outlets. A few survivors managed to escape and recount what happened, but another group was kidnapped the following day in a nearby village, they said.

A woman was helped as the body of a relative who had been on the plane was brought to a hospital in Pokhara on Sunday.

A deal to help South Africa is a breakthrough for the world

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

South Africa generates 80% of its electricity by burning coal, more than any other industrialized nation. Some 200,000 people are directly employed by the coal mines, coal transports and coal-fired power plants that dot the flatlands east of Johannesburg, but the prosperity of the rest of the nation also rests on a foundation of black rock.

Now, the South African government, with the help of the United States and European nations, is embarking on an audacious plan to quit coal without undermining economic growth. If it works, the proposed transition to solar and wind power could fuel faster growth and create a template for coal-dependent nations to confront climate change. This is a significant opportunity, and it deserves support and attention.

The United States has committed more than $1 billion as part of an $8.5 billion international aid package to catalyze South Africa’s shift to renewable energy, and, after two years of talks about the details, the government in Pretoria is to deliver a plan in February for carrying it out.

The proposed aid package is part of a broader shift in the international response to climate change. Windy talk about the necessity for wealthy countries to help less wealthy countries is finally turning tangible. In November, a group of nations, including the United States, committed $20 billion for a similar partnership with Indonesia, then made a $15.5

million commitment to Vietnam in December. Talks are underway with other nations, including Senegal and India.

America’s own response to climate change remains inadequate, and Americans are suffering as a result, but even if the United States stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow — magically and completely — it wouldn’t much impede the march of climate change. The country needs to help the rest of the world burn less fossil fuel, too. South Africa is a promising place to start.

South Africa needs more electricity. The country’s coalfired power plants are regularly overwhelmed by demand, forcing the national power company, Eskom, to impose rolling blackouts. The blackouts were worse than ever last year, leaving millions of customers in major cities without power for hours at a time, disrupting the economy and slowing growth. To generate more electricity, Eskom is completing two coal-burning power plants that will be among the world’s largest, projects that have been financed in part by billions of dollars in World Bank loans.

Most leaders in South Africa’s government regard those plants as the end of an era. Climate change is taking a growing toll on the country. Like many countries that are far from the equator, South Africa is experiencing drastic changes in temperature, and it has been plagued by both droughts and flooding.

Many of the country’s existing coal-fired power plants need to be replaced in the coming years, and the rapid decline in the cost of wind and solar power generation means that renewable energy can be substituted for coal at relatively little additional cost. Last year, the country shut down the first of those older power stations. It plans to build a solar and wind farm on the site — once again with financing provided by the World Bank.

The international aid package now under discussion with the United States and European partners is intended to accelerate the energy transition. Under the South African government’s current plans, which seek to ease the price of electricity during the transition, the country’s power plants still would produce 3.9 gigatons of carbon between now and 2050. A South African consultancy, Meridian Economics, estimated in a 2020 report that a faster transition could prevent roughly half of those emissions.

The South African government has estimated that it will require about $98 billion over the next five years to start a faster transition — and several times more to finish the work. The $8.5 billion in aid, which represents only a small fraction of that total, is meant to help South Africa raise the rest.

Foreign aid can support investments in infrastructure that are less attractive to private investors. For example, South Africa needs to build transmission lines to connect the best sites for generating renewable energy with the people who need electricity. A study of a similar effort in Chile,

completed in 2019, found new transmission lines led to an increase of 51% in solar generation, while sharply reducing prices for urban households.

The workers who are likely to lose their jobs also will need help — and easing the impact on their lives and communities is necessary to maintain political support.

The scale of the aid represents a significant political breakthrough. But there is a very real danger that it’s not enough. Only 4% of the aid for South Africa is in the form of grants. The rest basically amounts to helping South Africa borrow money from foreign lenders to whom it already is heavily indebted. Even without any borrowing for energy transition, the national debt is equal to more than two-thirds of gross domestic product.

For South Africa, there also will be a temptation to treat solar and wind as supplements rather than replacements for coal power. Political leaders have made clear that they are not willing to sacrifice growth, and even as the government pursues its plans, some have openly argued that coal remains the country’s best option.

The hardest work, in other words, remains ahead. Given the urgency of addressing climate change, and the momentum to extend similar aid to other nations, it will be crucial to learn, and to adjust, quickly.

The Phola Coal Processing Plant outside Ogies in Mpumalanga province, South Africa, March 24, 2022.

Voto unánime para privatizar la generación AEE abre conflictos entre presidente cameral y representante independiente

EL CAPITOLIO – Tras la votación unánime que abrirá paso a la privatización de la generación energética en Puerto Rico, se abrió paso a un conflicto entre el representante independiente Luis Raúl Torres Cruz y el presidente de la Cámara, Rafael “Tatito” Hernández Montañez.

“Hoy se confirma que los presidentes de la Cámara de Representantes y del Senado de Puerto Rico le han fallado al pueblo que confió en ellos y han dejado atrás los ideales y valores del PPD. Los presidentes legislativos debieron exigirle a los representantes del interés público en la Junta de Directores de la AAPP, recomendados por ellos, la licenciada Liza Ortiz Camacho y el licenciado Eduardo Ferrer Ríos que votarán en contra o abstenidos en la votación para la aprobación de esa alianza público privada y así detener la privatización de la generación de energía eléctrica por lo que resta de este cuatrienio. Mi decisión de desafiliarme del PPD, a causa de las acciones del alto liderato de esa colectividad fue la correcta. Estoy seguro de que el pueblo de Puerto Rico evaluará sus acciones y pasará su evaluación en las elecciones del 2024”, dijo Torres Cruz en declaraciones escritas.

“Es increíble que tras todas las deficiencias

que han surgido tras el proceso de adjudicación e implementación del contrato de LUMA, especialmente ante la falta de transparencia de dichos procesos, los presidentes de los cuerpos legislativos y el gobernador formen una alianza para encaminar otro proceso similar, cubierto bajo un manto de secretismo y una adjudicación que a todas luces es contraria a las disposiciones de la Ley 17 – 2019. Tal como se nos había informado, se seleccionó el consorcio Genera PR, que está

compuesto por las compañías NFR Energía, afiliada a New Fortress Energy, Peak Energy y Black and Veatch”, añadió.

Por su parte, Hernández Montañez reaccionó: “Compañero Luis Raúl Torres Cruz, usted no sabe cómo diferir ni presentar sus reclamos o posiciones personales con respeto y deferencia, como este servidor siempre lo ha hecho. Su reclamo filosófico es para las gradas, dado a que usted ni ningún otro compañero del Partido Popular Democrático en Cámara y Senado ha radicado legislación para eliminar la participación y evaluación de los representantes del interés público en la junta de la Autoridad para las Alianzas PúblicoPrivadas (AAPP). Por el contrario, solo ha radicado legislación para mantener la política pública vigente. Por tanto, en repetidas ocasiones con su voto afirmativo, usted ha avalado la estructura para el análisis y aprobación de propuestas para la generación de energía eléctrica en manos del sector privado.

Usted tiene que aprender a respetar la diversidad de ideas, pero no hacia un solo lado. Tampoco es responsable su costumbre, a través de toda su carrera política, de levantarse e irse cada vez que difieren de una postura suya. Ya lo conoce mos”.

Miembros del PIP rechazan propuesta para privatizar la generación AEE

EL CAPITOLIO – La delegación del Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (PIP) en la Legislatura, compuesta por la senadora María de Lourdes Santiago y el representante Denis Márquez Lebrón, reaccionaron el lunes tras la determinación de iniciar el proceso de privatización de la

generación de electricidad en Puerto Rico.“La determinación de iniciar el proceso de privatización de la generación de electricidad en Puerto Rico constituye el paso final en la carrera por entregar a los intereses privados una de las funciones fundamentales del sector público. La votación de la Junta de Directores de la Autoridad para las Alianzas Público Privadas fue unánime- lo que quiere decir que los representantes en esa Junta de los presidentes de Cámara y Senado favorecieron la entrega de lo que quedaba en manos públicas de la AEE. Como legisladores del Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño condenamos ese voto, y cuestionamos si representa el parecer de la mayoría de las legisladores en ambos cuerpos.

El acceso a energía eléctrica es un derecho humano del que dependen la salud, la educación, las comunicaciones y el desarrollo económico del país, y como tal, no debe estar sujeto a los intereses del mercado. Tras la nefasta experiencia con Luma, el país no puede seguir pagando el precio de la imposición del neoliberalismo rojo y

azul. Luma ni siquiera existía: es un engendro de la agenda privatizadora de dos partidos políticos, los mismos que llevaron a la AEE a la quiebra y la contaminaron con su incompetencia y politiquería. Con el historial de quienes estarán dirigiendo el proceso, no hay razón para pensar que la empresa que asuma la fase de generación resulte menos desastrosa.

Además, la privatización aprobada es contraria a la posibilidad de que en el futuro previsible Puerto Rico pueda experimentar la tan necesaria transformación a fuentes energéticas renovables. No tengamos la menor duda de que, con la excusa de que el sol y las demás alternativas “no satisfacen la demanda”, el país continuará atrapado en la dinámica de la disponibilidad de los combustibles fósiles, particularmente del gas natural, que seguirá siendo el presunto “combustible de transición”. Nada más lejos de la verdad. Puerto Rico estaría condenado a continuar quemando gas -además de petróleo y carbón- por mucho más tiempo, con las consecuencias negativas que ello acarrea.

POR CYBERNEWS

Critics Choice Awards 2023: ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ wins the top prize

By KYLE BUCHANAN

It’s a three-way race.

The sci-fi hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” starring Michelle Yeoh as an immigrant mother who saves the multiverse, took top honors at the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday night, joining “The Fabelmans” (which won the Golden Globe for best drama earlier in the week) and “The Banshees of Inisherin” (the Globe winner for best comedy or musical) as the three films to have won a major televised film award this Oscar season.

Those three films were also the only ones to earn top nominations last week from the producers, directors and acting guilds. The guild ceremonies won’t be held until the end of February, and since they share significant voter overlap with the academy, their winners could go all the way, as “CODA” did last year after it took the top PGA and SAG prizes. But until then, the race for best picture looks awfully competitive, with three very different theatrical features all in play.

“This award is dedicated to my dad, a Taiwanese immigrant who worked himself into an early grave,” said Jonathan Wang, a producer of “Everything Everywhere,” who held his statuette high and thanked “all the immigrant parents who would kill themsel-

FILM

Best Picture

“Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Best Director

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Best Actor

Brendan Fraser, “The Whale”

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett, “Tár”

Best Supporting Actor

Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Best Supporting Actress

Angela Bassett, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”

Best Young Actor or Actress

Gabriel LaBelle, “The Fabelmans”

Best Acting Ensemble

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”

Best Original Screenplay

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Best Adapted Screenplay

Sarah Polley, “Women Talking”

ves for us immigrant children.”

Daniel Scheinert, who directed “Everything Everywhere” with Daniel Kwan, appeared gobsmacked upon taking the stage: “This is absurd,” exclaimed the filmmaker, who has said he never expected his film to turn into a significant awards contender. But

Best Cinematography

Claudio Miranda, “Top Gun: Maverick”

Best Production Design

Florencia Martin and Anthony Carlino, “Babylon”

Best Editing

Paul Rogers, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Best Costume Design

Ruth E. Carter, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”

Best Hair and Makeup

“Elvis”

Best Visual Effects

“Avatar: The Way of Water”

Best Comedy

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”

Best Animated Feature

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”

Best Foreign Language Film

“RRR”

Best Song

“Naatu Naatu,” “RRR”

Best Score

Hildur Gudnadóttir, “Tár”

“Everything Everywhere” notched several other significant wins at the Critics Choice Awards, with trophies handed to the film for its directing, editing and original screenplay. (The film had already tied the record for nominations from the group, with 14.)

And though Yeoh lost in the best-ac-

TELEVISION

Best Drama Series

“Better Call Saul”

Best Actor in a Drama Series

Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul”

Best Actress in a Drama Series

Zendaya, “Euphoria”

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Giancarlo Esposito, “Better Call Saul”

Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

Jennifer Coolidge, “The White Lotus”

Best Comedy Series

“Abbott Elementary”

Best Actor in a Comedy Series

Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”

Best Actress in a Comedy Series

Jean Smart, “Hacks”

Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Henry Winkler, “Barry”

Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Sheryl Lee Ralph, “Abbott Elementary”

Best Limited Series

“The Dropout”

Best Movie Made for Television

“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”

tress category, her “Everything Everywhere” co-star Ke Huy Quan won the supportingactor trophy, as he has all awards season.

“I’m going to try real hard to not cry tonight,” said Quan, who is in the middle of a career comeback after first achieving fame as a child actor in “The Goonies” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.”

Brendan Fraser referenced his own comeback while accepting the best actor award for “The Whale”: “I was in the wilderness, and I probably should have left a trail of breadcrumbs,” said the star, who fell on hard times after a leading-man era that included “The Mummy” and “George of the Jungle.” But like his character in “The Whale,” who struggles with his weight and selfworth, Fraser noted, “If you too can have the strength to just get to your feet and go to the light, good things can happen.”

Those moving moments gave the Critics Choice prizes some major oomph, although best-actress winner Cate Blanchett used her provocative speech to question the entire awards-show industrial complex, give shout-outs to other performers who weren’t nominated, and implore the powers that be, “Stop the televised horse race of it all!” Seconds later, her speech was interrupted by an orchestra eager to play her offstage. Here is the full list of winners:

Best Actor in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television

Daniel Radcliffe, “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”

Best Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television

Amanda Seyfried, “The Dropout”

Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television

Paul Walter Hauser, “Black Bird”

Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television

Niecy Nash-Betts, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”

Best Animated Series

“Harley Quinn”

Best Foreign Language Series

“Pachinko”

Best Comedy Special

“Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special” Best Talk Show

“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”

SeeHer Award

Janelle Monáe

Lifetime Achievement Award

Jeff Bridges

Daniel Kwan, left, and Daniel Scheinert accepting the best directing award for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

The

Even with the crowds, Davos is a winter haven

neath the Weissfluhjoch station on the Parsenn mountain, nearly 8,600 feet above sea level. Visitors can spend the night in rooms designed by ice artists or simply linger over a Swiss fondue lunch at the snow bar.

The Parsenn Gada Club, located across from the Parsenn cable car, offers a more traditional après-ski experience, with a wooden chalet ambience and a more varied snack menu.

For those seeking more structured activities, there are guided ski touring courses, snowshoe outings (day and night) and ski cross workshops for children led by professional Swiss freestyle skier Armin Niederer, all offered by Destination Davos Klosters throughout the winter season. A complete guide with schedules and prices are available to download.

Ice skating at Davos World of Ice, Switzerland’s largest mobile and artificial ice rink, is another family-friendly option that will remain open throughout the conference.

Hikers also have the luxury of choice — as well as opportunity to enjoy one of the few free activities in town — with nearly 69 miles of easy to moderate winter trails in Davos and another 28 miles in Klosters. The Hohe Promenade is a onehour leisurely route suitable for families and delivers exquisite views of the Jakobshorn mountains, the town’s flat roofs, and the wood-topped Davos Ice Stadium, home to the Spengler Cup hockey championship and the local Hockey Club Davos team.

In Davos, Swizterland, skiers have access to nearly 167 miles of slopes and 80 different downhill runs spanning five (unlinked) mountain areas.

By LINDSEY TRAMUTA

It may be synonymous with the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering of world leaders, but Davos, Switzerland, is, first and foremost, a winter sports mecca.

The highest city in Europe at 5,120 feet above sea level, this modern town in the Swiss state of Graubünden has plenty to offer travelers, from cultural activities to outdoor excursions.

And while it might not be the priciest of the high-end Swiss destinations (that title is claimed by St. Moritz, Verbier and Zermatt, known for luxury hotels, glitzy shopping, and premium ski resorts), travelers should expect to spend a pretty penny both for hotels, which can run anywhere from 254 Swiss francs (about $277) to nearly 1,000 Swiss francs per night, and ski passes in the high season. A six-day Davos Klosters pass, for example, costs 454 Swiss francs per adult, 318 Swiss francs per teenager, and 182 Swiss francs per child, not including equipment rental.

Cost isn’t the only element to keep in mind. During the forum conference, which takes place at the Congress Center and other cultural venues and hotels from Jan. 16-20, tourism is significantly disrupted as several thousand business, political and organization leaders — along with their security and trailed by throngs of journalists — invade.

One representative from the local tourist organization, Destination Davos Klosters, described the conference period as “a state of emergency,” with roadblocks, armed guards and closures. That includes the shutdown of cultural institutions like the Kirchner Museum, home to an expansive collection of

works by German expressionist painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner who spent the last two decades of his life in Davos.

But visitors can still enjoy outdoor time in pure mountain air — the distinctive feature that historically made Davos and its sanitariums a magnet for people in search of healing. And beyond the roadblocks and closed doors, it’s still possible to get a flavor for what the town offers beyond business and politics.

Davos does not have the same idyllic Alpine village vibe as neighboring towns. Nonetheless, it is surrounded by grand mountain peaks and forestland, with connections to the best slopes, trails and vistas in the valley. Those staying at a hotel or holiday rental for at least one night are eligible for a free Davos Klosters Premium Card for discounts on outdoor activities, museum admission fees and regional railways, as well as free local public transportation.

As one of the birthplaces of the ski resort, the pursuit of quality powder is well-served here, both for beginners and more experienced ski and snowboarding enthusiasts. There are nearly 167 miles of slopes and 80 different downhill runs spanning five (unlinked) mountain areas, the largest of which is Parsenn.

Parsenn is also considered the most classic for its wide packed runs. Accessible via a funicular, the resort connects Davos and Klosters, which sits on the other side of the mountain. During the World Economic Forum, only the Rinerhorn and Pischa ski areas will be closed.

After a long day on the slopes, it’s worth checking out Iglu-Dorf, an igloo resort with a hotel and restaurant set be-

As for hockey, it’s among the activities recommended by Swiss writer Joseph de Weck, who has spent years traveling to Davos.

“Hockey Club Davos is really central to the identity of the town,” said de Weck in a telephone interview, adding it is the biggest club in the area and a draw for fans from other Swiss regions.

“If you can, get tickets to a game,” he said. “It’s fun and you’ll really get a sense of the locals.” Home games resume Jan. 22, after the conference.

A more athletic walk takes hikers along the Thomas Mann Weg, named for the novelist, up to the Schatzalp, the Alpine home to one of the earliest and most iconic sanitariums in Davos, which was converted to a resort hotel in 1953. Readers will recognize the art nouveau property, set about 1,000 feet above the town, as the setting for Mann’s acclaimed work, “The Magic Mountain.”

Hikers can ascend farther to Strela Alp, a mountain restaurant with panoramic views that serves Rösti (a Swiss potato dish), soups and toasted sandwiches. Or they can do as Dimitri Burkhard, founder of online magazine Newly Swissed, suggested in an email, and stick around the Hotel Schatzalp for a drink in “the cheeky X-ray bar,” once the sanitarium’s X-ray room. Guests can then return to central Davos by foot, cable car or a free toboggan that mazes through forests straight out of a fairy tale.

When it comes to nightlife, the scene in Davos revolves around bars with music, from the nearly 60-year-old Ex Bar, known for its live rock performances and wide appeal, to the more niche Box Davos, a bar-club popular in the European punk scene for its concerts.

That is, of course, if you can get in.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante

Parte

Vs. LA SUCESIÓN DE LUZ CELENIA RODRÍGUEZ TORRUELLA T/C/C LUZ C.

RODRÍGUEZ TORRUELLA

COMPUESTA POR:

ALBERT GUADALUPE RODRÍGUEZ, IRLA GARCÍA T/C/C ELAINE GUADALUPE RODRÍGUEZ, FULANO

Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: PO2022CV00764. (406). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, ss. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente anuncia y hace constar que en cumplimiento de la Sentencia dictada el 23 de agosto de 2022, la Orden de Ejecución de Sentencia del 4 de noviembre de 2022 y el Mandamiento de Ejecución del 16 de noviembre de 2022 en el caso de epígrafe, procederé a vender el día 14 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 2:15 DE LA TARDE, en mi oficina, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial de Ponce, Sala Superior, en 2150 Ave. Santiago de los Caballeros, Ponce, Puerto Rico, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda de los Estados Unidos de América, cheque de gerente o giro postal, todo título, derecho o interés de la parte demandada sobre la siguiente propiedad: RÚSTICA: Parcela marcada con el Número Veinticinco (25) en el plano de parcelación de la Comunidad Rural Canas del Barrio Canas del término municipal de Ponce, con una cabida superficial de 575.17 metros cuadrados.

En lindes por el NORTE: con Parcela Número Veinticuatro (24) de la comunidad; por el SUR: con Calle Número Cinco (5) de la comunidad; por el ESTE: con Calle Número Uno (1) de la comunidad y por el OESTE: con Parcela Número Veinticinco guion A (25-A) de la comunidad. Contiene una casa de concreto dedicada a vivienda. Inscrita al folio 161 del tomo

766 de Ponce Sur, Finca 11546. Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección II. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 178 del tomo 1109 de Ponce Sur, Finca 11546. Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección II. Inscripción octava. La escritura de modificación de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 179 del tomo 1109 de Ponce Sur, Finca 11546. Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección II. Inscripción décima segunda. DIRECCIÓN FÍSICA: COMUNIDAD RURAL CANAS, 25 CALLE RAMOS ANTONINI, PONCE, PR 00731. Número de Catastro: 63-411-026-16614-000. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta será de $51,019.25. De no haber adjudicación en la primera subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, el día 21 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 2:15 DE LA TARDE en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será de dos terceras partes del tipo mínimo fijado en la primera subasta, o sea, $34,012.83. De no haber adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA, el día 28 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 2:15 DE LA TARDE en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será la mitad del precio pactado, o sea, $25,509.62. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta es mayor. Dicho remate se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer a la demandante el importe de la Sentencia por la suma de $45,594.29 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 6.5% anual desde el 1 de septiembre de 2021 hasta su completo pago, más $34.16 de recargos acumulados, los cuales continuarán en aumento hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más la cantidad estipulada de $5,495.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato del préstamo. Surge del Estudio de Título Registral que sobre esta propiedad pesa el siguiente gravamen posterior a la hipoteca que por la presente se pretende ejecutar: Aviso de Demanda: Pleito seguido por Banco Popular de Puerto Rico vs. Sucesión de Luz Celenia Rodríguez Torruella también conocida como Luz C. Rodríguez Torruellas, compuesta por Albert Guadalupe Rodríguez, Irla García, Fulano y Mengano de Tal, ante el Tribunal Superior

de Ponce, en el Caso Civil Número PO2022CV00764, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, en la que se reclama el pago de hipoteca, con un balance de $45,594.29 y otras cantidades, según Demanda de fecha 28 de marzo de 2022.

Anotada al Tomo Karibe de Ponce. Anotación A. Se notifica al acreedor posterior o a su sucesor o cesionario en derecho para que comparezca a proteger su derecho si así lo desea. Se les advierte a los interesados que todos los documentos relacionados con la presente acción de ejecución de hipoteca, así como los de Subasta, estarán disponibles para ser examinados, durante horas laborables, en el expediente del caso que obra en los archivos de la Secretaría del Tribunal, bajo el número de epígrafe y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general en Puerto Rico por espacio de dos semanas y por lo menos una vez por semana; y para su fijación en los sitios públicos requeridos por ley. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes; entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate y que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores tal como lo expresa la Ley Núm. 210-2015. Y para el conocimiento de los demandados, de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas y público en general, EXPIDO para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspondientes, el presente Aviso de Pública Subasta en Ponce, Puerto Rico, hoy 9 de diciembre de 2022. MANUEL MALDONADO, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE PONCE, SALA SUPERIOR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CAGUAS FIRSTBANK

Parte Demandante

COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: ECD2017-0876. (802). Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA Y COBRO DE DINERO. ANUNCIO DE SUBASTA. El suscribiente, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Caguas, a los demandados de epígrafe y al público .en general hace saber que venderá en pública subasta en la Oficina de Alguaciles, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, al mejor postor, en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América en efectivo, cheque certificado, o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, el derecho que tenga la parte demandada en el inmueble que se relaciona más adelante para pagar la SENTENCIA por $128,128.78 de balance principal, los intereses adeudados sobre dicho principal y computados al 6.500% anual hasta su total pago y completo pago; más el 5% computado sobre cada mensualidad; cargos por demora devengados, más la suma estipulada para honorarios de abogado, pactada en la escritura de hipoteca por la suma de $15,200.00; y cuales quiera otras sumas que por cualesquiera concepto legal se devenguen hasta el día de la subasta. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: RÚSTICA: Parcela de terreno radicado en el barrio Cañaboncito de Caguas, Puerto Rico, identificada con el numero treinta y tres (33) del bloque C, con una cabida superficial de mil doscientos veintiuno punto novecientos veinte (1,221.920) metros cuadrados.

En lindes por el NORTE, con la calle número tres (3), en veinticinco punto cero cero (25.00) metros; por el SUR, con terrenos de uso público, en treinta y siete punto trescientos cincuenta y tres (37.353) metros; por el ESTE, con el solar número treinta (30) del bloque e, en sesenta y dos punto setecientos cincuenta y cuatro (62.754) metros y por el OESTE, con el solar número treinta y cuatro (34) del bloque C, en treinta y cinco punto cero cero (35.00) metros.

Inscrita al folio doscientos setenta (270) del tomo mil trescientos setenta y seis (1376) de Caguas, finca número cuarenta y ocho mil ochocientos setenta y seis (48876). Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección l. Dirección Física: 33-C 3 St., Estancia La Sierra, Caguas, PR 00725. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a cabo el día 1 DE

FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA y servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la suma de $152,000.00 sin admitirse oferta inferior. En el caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en la primera subasta, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 8 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, y el precio mínimo para esta segunda subasta será el de dos terceras partes del precio mínimo establecido para la primera subasta, o a sea la suma de $101,333.33. Si tampoco hubiera remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 15 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, y el tipo mínimo para esta tercera subasta será la mitad del precio establecido para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $76,000.00. El mejor postor deberá pagar el importe de su oferta en efecto, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse el inmueble al acreedor hipotecario dentro de los diez días siguientes a la fecha de la última subasta, si así lo estimase conveniente, por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada conforme a la sentencia, si ésta fuera igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta y abonándose dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta fuera mayor. Se avisa a cualquier licitador que la propiedad queda sujeta al gravamen del Estado Libre Asociado y CRIM sobre la propiedad inmueble por contribuciones adeudadas y que el pago de dichas contribuciones es la responsabilidad del licitador. Que se entenderá por todo licitador acepte como suficiente la titulación y que los cargos y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes en entendiéndose que el rematador los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse su extinción al precio rematante. Todos los nombres de los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, siempre que surgen

de la certificación registral, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Y para conocimiento de licitadores, del público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria en Puerto Rico y en los sitios públicos de acuerdo a las disposiciones de la Regla 51.7 de las de Procedimiento Civil, así como para la publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria y en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas con antelación a la fecha de la primera subasta y por lo menos una vez por semana. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento indicado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables. (Art. 102 (1) de la Ley núm. 210-2015). Expedido el presente en Caguas, Puerto Rico, a 12 de diciembre de 2022. ALEJANDRO URBINA ROQUE, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE CAGUAS.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V.

NAYDA JIMÉNEZ MERCADO

Demandada Civil Núm.: BY2022CV00783.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. AVISO DE SUBASTA. El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior, Centro Judicial de Bayamón, Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hago saber, a la parte demandada y al PÚBLICO EN GENERAL: Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el día 15 de agosto de 2022, por la Secretaría del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor la propiedad

que ubica y se describe a continuación: URBANA: Apartamento residencial identificado con el número 104 ubicado en la primera ubicado en la primera planta del Edificio I del Complejo de estructuras tipo “walk up” denominado Chalets de Río Hondo, ubicado en el Sector de Río Hondo, término municipal de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de aproximada de 108.199 metros cuadrados, equivalentes a 1,164.64 pies cuadrados, consiste de un salón para ser destinado a sala, comedor y family, otra área para ser destinada a cocina, dos área de habitaciones para ser destinadas a dormitorios, áreas para almacenar y de lavandería, dos baños y un área para ser destinada a balcón, esta última con acceso desde la sala. Colinda en una distancia en una distancia de 30’3”, con las áreas verdes del solar en donde ubica el edificio de la cual forma parte este apartamento y que lo separa de la Calle Flamboyanes; por el NORTE, por el SUR, en una distancia de 24’0”, con los áreas verdes que son parte del solar en donde se construyó el edificio de la cual este apartamento forma parte y en una distancia de 5’0”, con el área de descanso a escalera por la cual se gana acceso a este apartamento; por el ESTE, en una distancia de 20’4”, con la pared y la puerta que lo separa del vestíbulo o área de descanso de la escalera que da acceso a este apartamento y área verde, en una distancia de 24’1”, con la pared que lo separa del apartamento contiguo a saber, el apartamento número 103 y por el OESTE, en una distancia de 20’4”con la pared y la puerta que lo separa del vestíbulo o área de descanso de la escalera que da a acceso a este apartamento y en una distancia de .24’1”con la pared que lo separa del apartamento contiguo, a saber, el apartamento 103, en una distancia de 39’0”con las áreas verdes y el estacionamiento son parte del solar en donde se constituyó el edificio del cual este apartamento forma parte . Le corresponde a este apartamento de forma exclusiva las áreas de estacionamiento identificadas como APT 104. Le corresponde una participación en los elementos comunes generales 5.556%. El producto de la subasta se destinará a satisfacer al demandante hasta donde alcance, la SENTENCIA dictada a su favor, el día 22 de junio de 2022 notificada el 22 de junio de 2022 y publicada el 23 de junio de 2022 en el periódico “The San

Juan Daily Star” en el presente caso civil, a saber la suma de $77,252.89 por concepto de principal; generando intereses a razón de 7.5% desde el 1ro de enero de 2020; cargos por demora los cuales al igual que los intereses continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda reclamada en este pleito, y la suma de $12,707.50 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; y demás créditos accesorios garantizados hipotecariamente. La adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el acto mismo de la adjudicación, en efectivo (moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América), giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del alguacil del Tribunal. LA PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a efecto el día 15 DE FEBRERO DE 2023 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el cuarto piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas de Centro Judicial de Bayamón, Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Que el precio mínimo fijado para la PRIMERA SUBASTA es de $127,075.00. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una SEGUNDA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día 8 DE MARZO DE 2023 A LAS 9:30

DE LA MAÑANA, en el cuarto piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas de Centro Judicial de Bayamón, Bayamón, Puerto Rico. El precio mínimo para la SEGUNDA SUBASTA será de $84,716.66, equivalentes a dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una TERCERA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día 15 DE MARZO DE 2023 A LAS 9:30

DE LA MAÑANA, en el cuarto piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas de Centro Judicial de Bayamón, Bayamón, Puerto Rico. El precio mínimo para la TERCERA SUBASTA será de $63,537.50, equivalentes a la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente; se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor, todo ello a tenor con lo dispone el Articulo 104 de la Ley Núm. 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015 conocida como “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico”. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se

PUERTO RICO

Vs. MIKE MANGUAL DIAZ Y SU ESPOSA MARIA MAGDALENA AQUINO MARTINEZ, POR SÍ Y EN REPRESENTACION DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES

adquiere libre de toda carga y gravamen que afecte la mencionada finca según el Artículo 102, inciso 6. Una vez confirmada la venta judicial por el Honorable Tribunal, se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura de venta judicial y se pondrá al comprador en posesión física del inmueble de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda aquella persona o personas que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de todos los licitadores y el público en general, el presente Edicto se publicará por espacio de dos (2) semanas consecutivas, con un intervalo de por lo menos siete días entre ambas publicaciones, en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y se fijará además en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse dicha venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Se les informa, por último, que: a. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la secretaría del tribunal durante las horas laborables. b. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate.

EXPIDO, el presente EDICTO, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 27 de diciembre de 2022. MARIBEL LANZAR VELÁZQUEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #735, DIVISIÓN DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN.

LEGAL NOTICE

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, D/B/A CHRISTIANA TRUST, AS INDENTURE TRUSTEE, FOR THE CSMC 2015-PR1 TRUST, MORTGAGE-BACKED NOTES, SERIES 2015-PR1 Plaintiff V. GLADYVIRG RIVERA JIMENEZ, ALSO KNOWN AS GLADYVING RIVERA JIMENEZ

Defendant(s)

Civil No.: 3:18-CV-01978.

(FAB). FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE AND COLLECTION OF MONIES. NOTICE

OF SALE.

To: GLADYVIRG RIVERA JIMENEZ, ALSO KNOWN AS GLADYVING RIVERA JIMENEZ. APT. 1303-B, COND. PARQUE DE SAN FRANCISCO, BAYAMÓN, PR 00959; APT. 1303 B BOX 126, BAYAMÓN, PUERTO RICO 00959.

THE GENERAL PUBLIC. WHEREAS: On March 23, 2022, this Court entered Default Judgment in favor of Plaintiff, against Defendant. On August 10, 2022, this Court entered Order for Execution of Judgment, stating that Defendant has failed to pay the sums of monies adjudged to be paid under the judgment. The In the Judgment, this Court stated that Defendant has defaulted on the repayment obligation to WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, D/B/A CHRISTIANA TRUST, AS INDENTURE TRUSTEE, FOR THE CSMC 2015-PR1 TRUST, MORTGAGE-BACKED NOTES, SERIES 2015PR1, and ordered to pay the Plaintiff the principal sum of ONE HUNDRED TWO THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED THIRTY-FOUR DOLLARS AND THIRTY-TWO CENTS ($102,334.32), plus interest at 7.000% per annum from January 1, 2016, which will continue to accrue interest at the contractual rate. The defendant also owes and the Court ordered to pay Wilmington Savings all advances made in accordance with the mortgage note, including, but not limited to, insurance premiums, taxes and inspections, as well as 10% of the original principal balance, or $9,500.00, to cover costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees guaranteed by the mortgage obligation. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by the parties at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Federal Building, Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. WHERAEAS, Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned judgment and the order of execution thereof, the following property belonging to Defendant will be sold at a public auction: HORIZONTAL PROPERTY: San Francisco Condominium, Apartment B-1303: Rectangular shape, three bedroom unit with a total construction area of 865.46 square feet, equivalent to 80.40 square meters, distributed in 798.06 square feet, equivalent to 74.14 square meters of enclosed area and 67.40 square feet, equivalent to 6.26 square meters of porch. The main entrance is located on the South side. This apartment is located in Building B of the Condominium and occupies part of the thirteenth floor of the building. The maximum length of this unit is

25’5” and the maximum width is 44’4”. Its boundaries all: by the NORTH, in a distance of 44’4”, equivalent to 13.52 meters, with the common wall that separates it from apartment number 1304 and the common interior areas; by the SOUTH, in a distance of 44’4”, equivalent to 13.52 meters with exterior common areas; by the EAST, in a distance of 24’1”, equivalent to 7.34 meter with the common wall that separates it from apartment number 1302 and interior and exterior common areas and by the WEST, in a distance of 25’3”, equivalent to 7.70 meters with the exterior common areas. This unit contains a kitchen, a living room, a dining room, three bedrooms with closet, two bathrooms and a covered porch. Se le asigna a este apartamento el estacionamiento número 85 como elemento común limitado. Este apartamento tiene una participación de .61792% en los elementos comunes del condominio. Property recorded at page 61, volume 1708 of Bayamón Sur, property number 71489, Registry of the Property of Puerto Rico, Section I of Bayamón. WHEREAS: The property is subject to the following lien: HIPOTECA en garantía de pagaré a favor de RG Premier Bank de Puerto Rico, o a su orden, por la suma de $95,000.00 con intereses al 7.00% anual y vencimiento 1ro de agosto de 2036. Constituida por la Escritura 571 otorgada en San Juan el 31 de julio de 2006 ante el notario Antonio José Cruz Bonilla, e inscrita y extendido su asiento abreviado el 4 de mayo de 2011 bajo la Ley 216 del 27 de diciembre de 2010 para Agilizar el Registro de La Propiedad, al folio 161 del tomo 1846 de Bayamón Sur, finca 71489, inscripción 5ª.

AMPLIADA en una suma adicional de $12,209.77 y MODIFICADA en cuanto a su interés y vencimiento, siendo ahora su principal por $107,209.77 con intereses al 7.00% anual y vencimiento 1ro de enero de 2042, según consta de la escritura 12 otorgada en San Juan el 20 de enero de 2012 ante la notario Ileana Quintero Aguiló, e inscrita al folio 161 del tomo 1846 de Bayamón Sur, finca 71489, inscripción 6ª. Senior Lien: None. The above-described property is subject to the following junior lien: HIPOTECA en garantía de pagaré a favor de la Corporación para el Financiamiento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, o a su orden, por la suma de $24,700.00 sin intereses y vencimiento 20 años. Constituida por la Escritura 48 otorgada en San Juan el 23 de enero de 2001 ante el notario Miguel A. García Rivera, e inscrita al folio 62 del tomo 1708 de Bayamón Sur, finca 71489, inscripción 2ª. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential

lien with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential lien to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, lien (express, tacit, implied or legal), shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. The present property will be acquired free and clear of all junior liens. WHEREAS: For the purpose of the First Judicial Sale, the minimum bid agreed upon by the parties in the mortgage deed will be $107,209.77 for the property and no lower offers will be accepted. Should the first judicial sale of the abovedescribed property be unsuccessful, then the minimum bid for the property on the Second Judicial Sale will be two-thirds of the amount of the minimum bid for the First Judicial Sale, or $71,473.18. The minimum bid for the Third Judicial Sale, if the same is necessary, will be onehalf of the minimum bid agreed upon by the parties in the aforementioned mortgage deed, or $53,604.89 (Known in the Spanish language as: “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmobiliaria del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, 2015 Puerto Rico Laws Act 210 (H.B. 2479), Article 104, as amended. WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the appointed Special Master is subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. NOW THREFORE, public notice is hereby given that the appointed Special Master, pursuant to the provisions of the Judgment herein before referred to, will on FEBRUARY 3, 2023 AT 10:45 AM, in the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150, Federal Building, Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 2001 will sell at public auction to the highest bidder, the property described herein, the proceeds of said sale to be applied in the manner and form provided by the Court’s judgment. Should the first judicial sale set hereinabove be unsuccessful, the SECOND JUDICIAL SALE of the property describes in the Notice will be held on FEBRUARY 10, 2023 AT 10:45 AM, in the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court located at the address indicated above. Should the second judicial sale set hereinabove be unsuccessful, the THIRD JUDICIAL SALE of the property described in this Notice will be held on FEBRUARY

17, 2023 AT 10:45 AM, in the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court located at the address indicated above. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 28 day of December 2022. JOEL RONDA FELICIANO, APPOINTED SPECIAL MASTER.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante Vs. SONJA EMIYANLLERLINE TAVERAS RAMOS; RAFAEL ACOSTA MEDINA

Demandados Civil Núm.: BY2022CV02041. (401). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO (EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA). EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL.

A: SONJA EMIYANLLERLINE TAVERAS RAMOS; RAFAEL ACOSTA MEDINA.

Yo, MARIBEL LANZAR VELÁZQUEZ, 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 más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria al Que el día 16 DE FEBRERO DE 2023 A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Bayamón, en el Cuarto Piso, Bayamón, Puerto Rico, venderé en Pública Subasta la propiedad inmueble 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 Bayamón 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 9 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 16 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 9:15 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número I guión Veintiocho (I-28) del plano de

inscripción del Proyecto PRHA22, denominado BRAULIO DUEÑO COLÓN, radicado en el Barrio Pájaros del término municipal de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de DOSCIENTOS CUARENTA Y NUEVE PUNTO NOVENTA Y NUEVE (249.99) METROS CUADRADOS; en lindes por el NORTE, con el solar número I guión Veintisiete (I-27), distancia de veintidós punto setenta y ocho (22.78) metros; por el SUR, con el solar número I guión Veintidós (I-22) y pared medianera, distancia de veintidós punto setenta y nueve(22.79) metros; por el ESTE, con la Calle número Cuatro (4), distancia de diez punto noventa y siete (10.97) metros; y por el OESTE, con terrenos de la Corporación de Renovación Urbana y Vivienda de Puerto Rico, distancia de diez punto noventa y siete (10.97) metros. Enclava casa. La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al folio 84 del tomo 1787 de Bayamón Sur, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección Primera, finca número 40,969, inscripción tercera. La dirección física de la propiedad antes descrita es: Urbanización Braulio Dueño Colón, Calle 4, I-28, Bayamón, Puerto Rico. La subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $33,867.74 por concepto de principal, más intereses pactados a razón del 8% anual, desde el día 1ro. de febrero de 2020, los cuales continuarán acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación, más la suma de $5,059.70 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado más otros cargos, recargos acumulados, penalidades y crédito accesorios, según pactados. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será de $50,597.00 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima será una equivalente a 2/3 parte de aquella, o sea la suma de $33,731.33 y de necesitarse una tercera subasta la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado, es decir la suma de $25,298.50. Si se declara 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 todo licitador acepta como suficiente la titularidad 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 Bayamón, Puerto Rico, a 29 de diciembre de 2022. MARIBEL LANZAR VELÁZQUEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #735, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL, SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS ORIENTAL BANK

Parte Demandante V. GREGORIO

ROSADO TORRES, EMMA RUTH SEDA FIGUEROA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: CG2022CV01000.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, hago saber a la parte demandada, GREGORIO ROSADO TORRES, EMMA RUTH SEDA FIGUEROA 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 1 de agosto 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: [Urb. Hacienda Borinquen A5 Calle Almendro, Caguas, PR 00725] y que se describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbanización Hacienda Borinquen, situada en el Barrio Tomás de Castro, jurisdicción de Caguas, Puerto Rico, que se describe en el plano de inscripción de la urbanización con el número, área y colindancias que se relacionan a continuación: Solar 5 Bloque A, Área del solar: 510.87 MC.

En lindes por el NORTE, en una distancia de 2.15 metros, 20.07 metros y 2.58 metros en arco con la “State Road PR 789”, por el SUR, en una distancia de 7.34 metros en arco con la Calle Almendro de la Urbanización, por el ESTE, en una distancia de 36.55 metros con el Solar 6 del Bloque A de la Urbanización, y por el OESTE, en una distancia de 29.16 metros, con el Solar 4 del Bloque A de la Urbanización. Enclava estructura dedicada a vivienda. Finca número 64501, inscrita al tomo digital Karibe, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección Primera. La finca antes descrita se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: (i) Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor de World Mortgage Corporation, h/n/c World Mortgage Bankers, o a su orden, por la suma de $289,000.00, con intereses al 6.00% anual y vencimiento 1 de septiembre de 2036. Constituida mediante la escritura 239 otorgada en San Juan el 31 de agosto de 2006 ante el notario Félix J. Santiago García. Inscrita el 18 de febrero de 2022 al Tomo Karibe, finca 64,501 de Caguas, inscripción 2da. 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 13 de junio de 2022, mediante la cual se condenó a la parte demandada pagar a la parte demandante la cantidad ascendiente a En dicha sentencia, se determinó que la parte demandada, adeuda a la parte demandante la suma de $216,820.46 de principal, más $7,516.44 a intereses acumulados, que continuarán acumulándose al 6.00% anual hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más $519.84 a cargos por demora, más $3,522.58 a otros cargos, más $28,900.00 de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, según pactado, más cualquier otro desembolso que haya efectuado o efectúe la parte demandante durante la tramitación de este caso para otros adelantos de conformidad con el Contrato Hipotecario.

La PRIMERA SUBASTA será celebrada el día 7 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:15 DE

LA MAÑANA, en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de

obra en los archivos de la Secretaría del Tribunal, bajo el número de epígrafe y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general en Puerto Rico por espacio de dos semanas y por lo menos una vez por semana; y para su fijación en los sitios públicos requeridos por ley. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes; entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate y que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores tal como lo expresa la Ley Núm. 210-2015. Y para el conocimiento de los demandados, de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas y público en general, EXPIDO para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspondientes, el presente Aviso de Pública Subasta en Ponce, Puerto Rico, hoy 9 de diciembre de 2022. MANUEL MALDONADO, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE PONCE, SALA SUPERIOR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE FAJARDO

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante Vs. ISMAEL PARIS AYALA, TAMBIÉN CONOCIDO COMO ISMAEL PARIS GUZMAN; SUCESION DE CARMEN SYLVIA SIMONS CALDERON, COMPUESTA POR SUS HIJOS

CARMEN IVETTE ALICEA, TAMBIÉN CONOCIDA

COMO CARMEN IVETTE ALICEA SIMONS, ROBERTO ALICEA, TAMBIÉN CONOCIDO COMO ROBERTO ALICEA SIMONS Y MIRIAM ALICEA, TAMBIÉN CONOCIDA

COMO MIRIAM ALICEA SIMONS Y POR ISMAEL PARIS AYALA, TAMBIÉN CONOCIDO

COMO ISMAEL PARIS GUZMAN, EN CUANTO A LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA; GURUSHARAN PERSAD Y SU ESPOSA BLANCA

IRIS TORRES PERSAD Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE

BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM) Demandados Civil Núm.: FA2022CV00234. (303). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO (EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA). EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL.

A: ISMAEL PARIS AYALA, TAMBIÉN CONOCIDO COMO ISMAEL PARIS GUZMAN; SUCESION DE CARMEN SYLVIA SIMONS CALDERON, COMPUESTA POR SUS HIJOS

CARMEN IVETTE ALICEA, TAMBIÉN CONOCIDA

COMO CARMEN IVETTE ALICEA SIMONS, ROBERTO ALICEA, TAMBIÉN CONOCIDO COMO ROBERTO ALICEA SIMONS Y MIRIAM ALICEA, TAMBIÉN CONOCIDA

COMO MIRIAM ALICEA SIMONS Y POR ISMAEL PARIS AYALA, TAMBIÉN CONOCIDO

COMO ISMAEL PARIS GUZMAN, EN CUANTO A LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA; GURUSHARAN PERSAD Y SU ESPOSA BLANCA IRIS TORRES PERSAD Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM).

Yo, SANDRALIZ MARTÍNEZ TORRES, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR #737, 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 6 DE MARZO DE 2023 A LAS 3:00 DE LA TARDE en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Fajardo, Fajardo, 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 Fajardo 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 13 DE MARZO DE 2023 A LAS 3:00 DE LA TARDE y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 20 DE MARZO DE 2023 A LAS 3:00 DE LA TARDE en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: RUSTICA: Parcela marcada con el número Ciento Cuarenta y Nueve (149) en el plano de parcelación de la COMUNIDAD RURAL LUIS M. CINTRÓN del Barrio Quebrada Vueltas del término municipal de Fajardo, con una cabida superficial de MIL SETENTA Y SIETE PUNTO VEINTICINCO (1,077.25) METROS CUADRADOS. En lindes por el NORTE, con parcela número Ciento Cuarenta y Ocho (148) de la Comunidad; por el SUR, con parcela número Ciento Cincuenta y Dos (152) de la Comunidad; por el ESTE, con parcela número Ciento Cincuenta (150) de la Comunidad; y por el OESTE, con Caretera Estatal número Tres (3). La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al folio 184 del tomo 417 de Fajardo, finca número 16,995, inscripción segunda. La dirección física de la propiedad antes descrita es: Comunidad Luis M. Cintrón, Parcela 149, Calle 3, Fajardo, Puerto Rico. La subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $56,091.72 de principal, intereses al 7.25% anual, desde el día 1ro de marzo de 2020, hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad de $8,800.00estipulada 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 $88,000.00 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima será una equivalente a 2/3 parte de aquella, o sea la suma de $58,666.67 y de necesitarse una tercera subasta la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado, es decir la suma de $44,000.00. Si se declara 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 todo licitador acepta como suficiente la titularidad 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 Fajardo, Puerto Rico, a 31 de octubre de 2022. SANDRALIZ MARTÍNEZ TORRES, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR #737, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL, SALA SUPERIOR DE FAJARDO. JORGE A. ORTIZ ESTRADA, AGUACIL REGIONAL INTERINO.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Parte Demandante Vs. LA SUCESIÓN DE ERASMO GARCÍA JR. T/C/C ERASMO GARCÍA TORRES T/C/C ERASMO GARCÍA COMPUESTA

POR: ENGELYD GARCÍA COLÓN, ENGEL GARCÍA COLÓN, EMELYD GARCÍA COLÓN, MYDELIZ ANGELIQUE GARCÍA RIVERA, FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: PO2022CV02466. (406). 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: FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE ERASMO GARCÍA JR. T/C/C ERASMO GARCÍA TORRES T/C/C ERASMO GARCÍA.

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: $175,060.07 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 4.50% anual desde el 1 de julio de 2021 hasta su completo pago, más $35.62 de recargos acumulados, los cuales continuarán en aumento hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más la cantidad estipulada de $17,575.70 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato del préstamo.. La propiedad que garantiza hipotecariamente el préstamo es la siguiente: RÚSTICA: Radicada en el Barrio Caonillas Abajo del término municipal de Villalba, Puerto Rico, con una cabida de 5.358 cuerdas, equivalentes a 2 hectáreas, 10 áreas, 58 centiáreas y 159 centiáreas. En lindes por el NORTE: con camino para uso público; por el SUR: con terrenos del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico (Lago Toa Vaca); por el ESTE: con la parcela número 10; y por el OESTE: con la parcela número 8. Edificación: Enclava casa de un nivel para uso residencial, construida en hormigón reforzado y cemento, se compone de cocina, sala, comedor, living room, terraza, dos habitaciones, dos baños y garaje para dos autos, con una dimensión de 1620 pies cuadrados, con un valor de $65,000.00, según consta de la escritura #14, otorgada en San Juan, el 17 de diciembre de 2020, ante el Notario Moisés Avila Sánchez, inscrito al tomo Karibe de Villalba, finca 1810, inscripción décimo cuarta. Inscrita al folio 159 del tomo 52 de Villalba, Finca 1810. Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección I. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al tomo Karibe de Villalba, Finca 1810. Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección I. Inscripción décimo sexta. La demandante es la tenedora por endoso, 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 la causante 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 no contesta la demanda, radicando el original de la contestación en este Tribunal y enviando copia de la contestación a la abogada de la parte demandante, Lcda. Belma Alonso García, cuya dirección es: PO Box 3922, Guaynabo PR 00970-3922, Teléfonos: (787) 789-1826 y (787) 708-0566, correo electrónico: oficinabelmaalonso@gmail.com, dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publicación, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy 03 de enero de 2023, en Ponce, Puerto Rico. CARMEN G. TIRU QUIÑONES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL INTERINA. EREINA AGRONT LEÓN, SUBSECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE MAYAGÜEZ

EILEEN VÉLEZ BERRIOS

V.

Demandante

ÁNGEL L. HERNÁNDEZ FELICIANO

Demandado(a) Civil: MZ2022CV00597. Sala: 307. Sobre: LIQUIDACIÓN DE BIENES GANANCIALES. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: ÁNGEL L. HERNÁNDEZ FELICIANO.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que 20 de diciembre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento

sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 27 de diciembre de 2022. En Mayagüez , Puerto Rico , el 27 de diciembre de 2022. LCDA. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA. REBECA MEDINA FIGUEROA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, NOT INDIVIDUALLY BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE FOR FINANCE OF AMERICA STRUCTURED SECURITIES ACQUISITION TRUST 2019-HB1

Demandante Vs. YOLANDA HERNÁNDEZ COLLAZO, T/C/C YOLANDA HERNÁNDEZ POR SÍ Y COMO MIEMBRO DE LA SUCESIÓN DE SANTIAGO AYALA RIVERA, T/C/C SANTIAGO AYALA, COMPUESTA A SU VEZ POR IVETTE AYALA HERNÁNDEZ; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES; Y LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

Demandados Civil Núm.: BY2022CV01254.

Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA IN REM. EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL.

A: YOLANDA HERNÁNDEZ COLLAZO, T/C/C YOLANDA HERNÁNDEZ POR SÍ Y COMO MIEMBRO DE LA SUCESIÓN DE SANTIAGO AYALA RIVERA, T/C/C SANTIAGO AYALA, COMPUESTA A SU VEZ POR IVETTE AYALA HERNÁNDEZ;

FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES; Y LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA.

Yo, EDGARDO ELÍAS VARGAS SANTANA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #193, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, a los demandados, acreedores y al público en general con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, por la presente CERTIFICO, ANUNCIO y HAGO CONSTAR: Que el día 7 DE ENERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:45 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Bayamón, Bayamón, Puerto Rico, procederé a vender en Pública Subasta, al mejor postor, la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria mediante Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, la cual se notificó y archivó en autos el día 2 de agosto de 2022. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el 14 DE ENERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:45 DE LA MAÑANA, y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 21 DE ENERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:45 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que ha sido liberado por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Bayamón, en el caso de epígrafe con fecha de 15 de septiembre de 2022, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar número cuarenta y uno de la manzana “CA” en la Urbanización Rexville, situada en el Barrio Pájaros de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, con un área de doscientas doce metros cuadrados y cincuenta centímetros, en lindes: por el NORTE, con el solar número caurentidos, distancia de veintiún metros doscientos cincuenta milésimas de metro; por el SUR,

oficina #403, y en 5 pies con la pared Este del elevador. Tiene un área de 484 pies cuadrados, aproximadamente. A dicha oficina le fue asignado un porcentaje de 0.018% que le corresponde a dicha unidad sobre los elementos comunes del edificio. FINCA NÚMERO: 4900, inscrita al folio ciento ochenta y siete (187) del tomo ciento cincuenta y uno (151) de Santurce Sur, Registro de la Propiedad, Sede Metropolitana, sección primera de San Juan. Dirección física: 609 Condado St., Suite 409, San Juan PR 00907. La subasta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al demandante, total o parcialmente, según sea el caso, de la referida sentencia que fue dictada por las siguientes sumas: de $10,460.10 por concepto de cuotas de mantenimiento vencidas y no pagadas; la suma de $4,577.15 por intereses, la suma de $1,035.76 por penalidad, para un total hasta el mes de noviembre de 2021 de $16,073.01, más costas, el interés legal vigente de 4.25% anual, gastos y honorarios de abogado. Esta subasta no tiene fijación de tipo mínimo por tratarse de una ejecución de sentencia por embargo. Y PARA CONOCIMIENTO DE LAS PARTES INTERESADAS y del público en general, se advierte que los autos de este caso y demás instancias están disponibles para ser inspeccionadas en la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de San Juan, durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante, incluyendo el gravamen por las contribuciones sobre la propiedad inmueble adeudadas, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda responsable 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. En testimonio de lo cual, expido el presente aviso, el cual firmo y sello, hoy 11 de enero de 2023, en San Juan, Puerto Rico. ERIK F. OSUNA ACEVEDO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE SAN JUAN.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL

GENERAL DE JUSTICIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA

FIRSTBANK

PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. SUCN DE MIGUEL ANGEL

SANTIAGO COLON Y OTROS

Demandado(a)

Civil: CA2022CV02199. Sala: 409. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA Y COBRO DE DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 10 de enero de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 11 de enero de 2023. En Carolina, Puerto Rico, el 11 de enero de 2023. LCDA. MARILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA. MARICRUZ APONTE ALICEA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. WILBUR TORRES PACHECO T/C/C WILBUR D. TORRES PACHECO, LILLIAN MEDINA RODRÍGUEZ T/C/C LILLIAM T. MEDINA RODRÍGUEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS, LA SUCESIÓN DE ARISTIDES FERRAO RODRÍGUEZ COMPUESTA POR

FULANO Y POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS (TITULAR REGISTRAL), LA SUCESIÓN DE LILLIAM AYALA CABRERA T/C/C LILLIAN AYALA CABRERA COMPUESTA POR SUTANO Y PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS (TITULAR REGISTRAL) Demandado(a) Civil: BY2021CV04848. 702. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: WILBUR TORRES PACHECO T/C/C WILBUR D. TORRES PACHECO, LILLIAN MEDINA RODRIGUEZ T/C/C LILLIAM T. MEDINA RODRIGUEZ

Y IA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE ARISTIDES FERRAO RODRIGUEZ; SUTANO Y PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LILLIAM AYALA CABRERA T/C/C LILLIAN AYALA CABRERA.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 9 de enero de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada

en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 9 de enero de 2023.

En BAYAMÓN, Puerto Rico, el 9 de enero de 2023. Lcda Laura I. Santa Sánchez, Secretaria. Mircienid González Torres, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante V. ALBERTO CARTAGENA SILVA, GLENDA LIZ SÁNCHEZ VARGAS Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS COLON DIAZ Demandado(a) Civil: Núm. CG2022CV01797. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA - IN REM. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: A LA PARTE DEMANDADA: ALBERTO CARTAGENA SILVA, GLENDA LIZ SÁNCHEZ VARGAS Y

LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS A SUS ÚLTIMAS DIRECCIONES

CONOCIDAS: URB. SAN RAFAEL, H12 CALLE 4, CAGUAS, PR 00725-4688 Y 2779 VIRGINIA DR., MACON, GA 31206-4843.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 13 de septiembre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 10 de enero de 2023. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 10 de enero

de 2023. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. VILMA OYOLA RIVERA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN

FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO Demandante V. NANCY CRUZ CARLO; FULANO DE TAL, MENGANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO DEMANDADOS DESCONOCIDOS Y POSIBLES HEREDEROS FORZOSOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE HERNÁN RAMÓN PANTOJA SÁNCHEZ Y RICHARD ROE COMO DEMANDADO DESCONOCIDO Demandado(a) Civil: BY2022CV04195. 702. Sobre: SUSTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: NANCY CRUZ CARLO; FULANO DE TAL, MENGANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO DEMANDADOS DESCONOCIDOS Y POSIBLES HEREDEROS FORZOSOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE HERNÁN RAMÓN PANTOJA SÁNCHEZ Y RICHARD ROE COMO DEMANDADO DESCONOCIDO. (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 9 de enero de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 11 de enero de 2023. En BA-

YAMÓN, Puerto Rico, el 11 de enero de 2023. LCDA LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA. MIRCIENID GONZÁLEZ TORRES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE YAUCO EN SABANA GRANDE BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante Vs LOURDES I.

SANTIAGO CALIZ

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: PE2022CV00037. Sala: 0001. Sobre: COBRO DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: LOURDES I. SANTIAGO CALIZ P/C

LIC. GINA H. FERRER MEDINA, PO BOX 2342 MAYAGÚEZ, PR 006812342.

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 22 de diciembre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 12 de enero de 2023. En Yauco, Puerto Rico, el 12 de enero de 2023. Carmen Tirú Quiñones, Secretaria Regional. Adelaida Lugo Pacheco, Secretaria Auxiliar Del Tribunal I.

LEGAL NOTICE

PUERTO RICO, THE WORLD MORTGAGE CORPORATION, FULANO DE TAL

Demandadas

Civil Núm.: CG2022CV03893. Salón: 801. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EDICTO. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO:

A:

FULANO DE TAL.

Por la presente se le notifica que la parte demandante, Roberto Rosa Rosa, Edith Nereida Ríos Rivera y la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales compuesta por ambos, ha presentado ante este Tribunal una demanda por la causal de cancelación de pagaré extraviado contra los demandados Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, The World Mortgage Corporation y Fulano de Tal. Representa a la parte demandante el Lcdo. Héctor L. Claudio Rosario, 167 Calle Pedro Flores Urb. Monticielo, Caguas, Puerto Rico 00725; número de teléfono 787-635-1220 / Telefax: 1-267-392-3959; dirección de correo electrónico, bufetehectorclaudio@gmail.com. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Se le advierte que de no contestar la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto, radicando el original de la contestación ante el Tribunal, con copia a la parte demandante, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma, y sello de éste Tribunal, en Caguas, Puerto Rico, a 11 de enero de 2023. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA. MARTA E. DONATE RESTO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE AIBONITO

NILSA SOTOMAYOR FIGUEROA EN INTERES DE LA SUCN. DE FRANCISCO SOTOMAYOR ALVAREZ

Demandante V. EX PARTE

Demandado(a) Civil: AI2019CV00168. Sobre: EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

Demandante Vs. BANCO POPULAR DE

A: PERSONAS

IGNORADAS, ARNALDO SOTOMAYOR FIGUEROA, 34 ADAM ST., BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT 06607; ROSA IDALIA SOTOMAYOR FIGUEROA, 7914 WOODGROVE CIRCLE, TAMPA, FLORIDA 33615; ORLANDO SOTOMAYOR FIGUEROA, 38 HUBBARD RD., HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT 06114; ZULMA IVETTE SOTOMAYOR FIGUEROA, 5028 WHITE SANDERLING COURT, TAMPA, FLORIDA 33619; DUVAR ESTEBAN SOTOMAYOR FIGUEROA, 85 GLENDALE AVE. 1 FLOOR, HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT 06106; JUAN ÁNGEL SOTOMAYOR FIGUEROA, 5028 WHITE SANDERLING COURT, TAMPA, FLORIDA 33619; NORBERTO SOTOMAYOR FIGUEROA, 85 GLENDALE AVE. 1 FLOOR, HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT 06106, MARIA MERCEDES FIGUEROA 24 CARPENTER ST.APT. 62, HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT 06106; P/C LCDO. JORGE M DIAZ RODRIGUEZ. EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 27 de diciembre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 10 de enero de 2023. En AIBONITO, Puerto Rico, el 10 de enero de 2023. Elizabeth González Rivera, Secretaria. María Del C. Mercado, Secretaria Del Tribunal Confidencial.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION DE MIGUEL ANGEL SANTIAGO COLON Y DE LA SUCESION DE ROSA AMELIA OCASIO FEBRES T/C/C ROSA OCASIO FEBRES.

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CAGUAS ROBERTO ROSA ROSA, EDITH NEREIDA RIOS RIVERA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

What we learned in the NFL’s wild-card round

By DERRIK KLASSEN

Teams don’t suddenly turn into champions when the postseason begins. If anything, the even matchups and heightened stakes force opponents to rely more heavily on what they’ve done best all year since there’s little room for experimentation.

The Buffalo Bills have followed quarterback Josh Allen’s daring to the postseason, riding the risk roller coaster the whole way. On the first weekend of the 2022 NFL playoffs, Buffalo didn’t stray from that routine, and it almost gave the Miami Dolphins an upset. Meanwhile, the New York Giants used a savvy defensive game plan to take down the Minnesota Vikings, and the Jacksonville Jaguars leaned into the resilience they’ve shown all year to take down the wobbly Los Angeles Chargers.

Josh Allen’s big plays cut both ways.

Allen giveth, and Allen taketh away. One of the league’s most prominent bigplay-makers, Allen had the most volatile game of his season in Sunday’s 34-31 win over the Dolphins. The deep throws and extended plays that buoyed an otherwise hapless Buffalo offense were the same plays that led to turnovers and disjointed drives. It was a game that highlighted both Allen’s singular ability to affect a game and also how dangerous his decision-making can be for the Bills.

Allen started the game firing on all cylinders. On Buffalo’s second drive, Allen strung together two improbable throws to bail out the Bills and eventually score a touchdown.

The drive began with a 20-yard pickup, but the Bills quickly faced a thirdand-15 near midfield — a classic case of the conundrum Allen presents to defenses. Not blitzing gives him too much time to find an open receiver for a chunk play, but blitzing Allen opens up the possibility that he’ll break the pocket on a run or find an uncovered receiver.

The Dolphins chose to roll the dice on an all-out Cover 0 blitz, and they paid

for it. Bills receiver Stefon Diggs beat defensive back Xavien Howard one-on-one down the field, and Allen nailed Diggs for a 52-yard gain. On the very next play, Allen scurried to his right to pin a touchdown pass just past the helmet of a Dolphins defender and into the outstretched arm of tight end Dawson Knox for the first score of the game.

By the next quarter, Allen couldn’t stop himself from playing so aggressively. Offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey continued to dial up shot plays, and Allen had zero reservations about taking them, a strategy the Dolphins eventually wised up to.

With 6:01 to go in the second quarter, the Bills called a first-and-10 play-action deep shot near midfield with receiver John Brown sprinting down the sideline. Brown never had the step on his man; Howard, whom Diggs had burned for the earlier long pass, was on top of Brown the whole way. Allen let it rip anyway, coughing up a senseless turnover when

both of his underneath check-down options — running back Devin Singletary and tight end Quintin Morris — were open.

Allen was stuck in big-play mode from the beginning of the second quarter to the middle of the third. The Dolphins outscored the Bills 24-3 over that stretch, including a strip-sack touchdown of Allen. Allen finally recovered by leading back-to-back touchdown drives that included a dazzling Cover 2 hole shot to Gabe Davis for a touchdown, the kind of throw that reminded everyone watching that it’s still Allen’s game to decide.

That’s been a scary way for the Bills to play this season, with their three losses each featuring Allen turnovers. Allen finished Sunday’s game with 16 interceptions and 22 giveaways this season, including the playoffs. That’s tops in the league, according to NFL Research (at least until Dak Prescott played Monday).

Perhaps Allen wouldn’t be tempted to gamble if the Bills had a more con-

sistent running game, and if the team regularly threw more in the short area and chipped away at drives. But Buffalo has banked on Allen’s unique eye and talent for doing the improbable. And on Sunday, a Skylar Thompson-led Dolphins team couldn’t make the Bills pay. Buffalo may not be so lucky against the rest of a loaded AFC playoff pool.

The Giants won with their defense.

Defense isn’t what got the Giants to the playoffs. Injuries kept many of their best defensive players out of the lineup during the season and robbed them of the chance to build up chemistry. They finished 25th in yards per game allowed and 24th in yards per play allowed. They never quite found their footing as a unit under new defensive coordinator Don Martindale.

When the team needed them most Sunday, however, the defense tightened up. Martindale called on the lessons he took from the last time these two teams played in Week 16, a 3-point Giants loss. The defense was most successful in that game when it played with a softer passrush approach and directed its coverage attention toward Justin Jefferson, often bracketing or playing Cover 2 to his side of the field.

Martindale didn’t send as many pressures at Kirk Cousins as usual, instead favoring more four-man rushes with softer coverage behind it. Per the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, the Giants played a seasonhigh 65% of their snaps from split-safety coverages. The Giants struggled to affect Cousins directly — he wasn’t sacked and didn’t throw any interceptions — but they took away the wide-open explosive passes he is used to finding with his receivers.

The Giants instead gave Cousins everything he wanted over the short and middle parts of the field. Slants, hitches and shallow crossers were all available, and Cousins, a by-the-book passer, took all those open short throws with enthusiasm.

Josh Allen’s reliance on hero ball almost cost the Bills a win.

Tight end T.J. Hockenson was the biggest beneficiary, netting 10 catches for 129 yards. That approach can be a dangerous game, too, but the Giants’ defense stepped up when it came to tackling. Minnesota’s receivers struggled to squeeze out extra yardage, and chunk plays after the catch were tough to come by.

Martindale and the Giants’ defense weren’t exceptional, but they were enough. They lulled Cousins into dinking-anddunking the game away, and they made sure to tackle well enough to not let the Vikings bite them in the behind. That kind of defensive fortitude is going to have to hold if the Giants want to trudge forward in a brutal NFC divisional-round matchup.

Doug Pederson’s calls keyed the Jaguars’ comeback.

Trevor Lawrence’s playoff debut opened in terrible fashion, with the second-year Jaguars quarterback throwing four interceptions on the first six drives. That meltdown helped the Chargers to a 27-0 first-half lead.

Each interception was worse than the last, on throws that ranged from unlucky to wishy-washy to flat-out horrible. Lawrence’s first interception was a tipped ball on a run-pass option throw, and his second pick came on a missed ball in which receiver Zay Jones was roughed up by a Chargers’ defender with no flag thrown. Bad plays, to be sure, but mistakes that could be forgiven.

Then Lawrence threw a third interception after failing to read the defense, and he one-upped that two drives later with a throw over the middle and straight into traffic for his fourth interception.

Somehow, those mistakes — and a muffed punt return — weren’t enough to slay Lawrence and the Jaguars. Coach Doug Pederson dug deeper into his bag of tricks, and the Jaguars’ receivers stepped up in the second half. Tight end Evan En-

gram, in particular, took center stage in the Jaguars’ rally to victory.

The Chargers’ linebackers weren’t adept at coming downhill to tackle, and in the second half, Pederson and Lawrence found ways to make them do that relentlessly. Engram raced straight across the shallow part of the field over and over again, and Lawrence found him repeatedly on shallow throws that reaped 10- and 15-yard chunks. Lawrence and Pederson hammered that matchup until the Char-

gers made an effort to stop it, which finally opened up the vertical game for Lawrence.

All of the Jaguars’ efforts came to a head in the fourth quarter while trailing 3028. On fourth-and-1 at the Chargers’ 40yard line, Pederson called a timeout with 1:28 remaining to get the Jaguars out of a quarterback sneak call. Pederson came out of the break with a strike of brilliance.

The Jaguars lined up in an old-school T formation — three players in a horizontal row behind the quarterback — and sent running back Travis Etienne on an outside rush to the right. Etienne hit the perimeter, made the lone cornerback miss and booked it 25 yards for a first down, putting the Jaguars at the 16-yard line for a gamewinning field goal.

Around the NFL Bengals 24, Ravens 17: The Baltimore Ravens played their hearts out. Defensively, they had Joe Burrow’s number. Baltimore’s well-designed pressure schemes and chippy play over the middle made it difficult for Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals’ passing offense to ever get in a groove. That wasn’t enough, though. Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley, who mostly played a respectable match, squandered the game early in the

fourth quarter. After leading an 80-yard drive, Huntley reached for the end zone on a quarterback sneak. He was short by about 1 yard, and the ball was jarred loose right into the hands of Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard, who ran it back for a touchdown to break a 17-17 tie. It was a mistake that ultimately sealed the Ravens’ fate.

Giants 31, Vikings 24: Both Daniel Jones and Kirk Cousins had a field day in the short area, peppering each other’s defenses with throws designed for yards after the catch. The Giants’ receivers were just a smidgen better at evading their opponents and picking up extra yardage, and that was the difference. The Giants’ speedy receivers moved the ball into the red zone regularly, and running back Saquon Barkley made sure to finish the job for them a couple times. It’s hard to imagine that the Giants have the juice to go any further than this in the playoffs, but stealing a postseason win in a “rebuilding” year with a firstyear head coach is a huge success.

Bills 34, Dolphins 31: After a 17-0 start, the Bills collapsed for about 1 1/2 quarters. Quarterback Josh Allen, great as he is, could not stop throwing the ball deep to covered defenders. A couple of those hero throws became interceptions, giving the Dolphins extra chances on offense. Miami capitalized on plenty of those chances, getting spectacular downfield throws from Skylar Thompson in between his four sacks. Allen nailed receiver Gabe Davis for a 23-yard touchdown in the fourth, and then the Bills’ defense stopped a Dolphins’ drive at midfield to end things.

Jaguars 31, Chargers 30: It’s hard to play two more different halves of football than the Jacksonville Jaguars did. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence had four interceptions before halftime, and the defense constantly folded in its attempts to slow down Justin Herbert, who got Los Angeles out to a 27-0 start. Everything flipped in the second half, when Lawrence threw touchdown passes to Zay Jones, Christian Kirk and Marvin Jones, leading the third biggest playoff comeback in NFL history. It was also the first playoff game in which a team with five more turnovers than its opponent won.

49ers 41, Seahawks 23: Rookie quarterback Brock Purdy threw for 332 yards and three touchdowns, and the San Francisco 49ers scored on four straight drives in the second half, giving San Francisco a lead that allowed its pass rush to tee off on Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith (25 of 35 passing for 253 yards, three sacks). Deebo Samuel added a 74-yard touchdown catch, and Christian McCaffery had 119 yards rushing on 15 carries.

The Giants’ defense swarmed Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson all day on Sunday.

How to Play:

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

Sudoku Rules:

Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

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

Aries (Mar 21-April 20)

You may be in two minds as to whether to share news or information, or to keep it to yourself. As knowledge is power, the desire to keep it a secret could seem the better option. If you do speak out the news can travel fast. This is no problem if you don’t mind, but if you have a plan that needs the element of surprise to make it a success, then it might be wise to stay quiet for now.

Taurus (April 21-May 21)

Your ideas may seem eccentric to some. But to you they can make perfect sense, so don’t let others’ doubts put you off. What you are considering could be something different and a move out of your comfort zone that might be both exciting and nervewracking. However, once the important people in your life see that your plan works, they’ll rally to your cause, Taurus.

Gemini (May 22-June 21)

Need to recharge? This may be one of those days when doing something completely different on a whim, could re-energize you like nothing else. If you’ve felt bogged down by recent events or need a break from an intense situation, this might be it. And if involves moving your body, so much the better. This is one of those times when you can revel in being a bit of a daredevil.

Cancer (June 22-July 23)

People may be in a demanding mood over coming days, and with the Sun linking to Pluto, you might feel annoyed about this. Can you adopt a philosophical approach, even if their attitude is irritating? If all fails, the Moon’s angle to Venus suggests a little something to boost your mood. Consider investing in a pampering spa session or makeover, as this could do it for you, Cancer.

Leo (July 24-Aug 23)

You may be ready to tap into your creative side by exploring situations where you can be an influence on others. The Moon in Scorpio and its link to electric Uranus, could stir up desires and push you to explore new platforms for self-expression. With a practical focus ongoing, you’ll also be aware that becoming well known does have a price. Be sure you want to pay it, Leo.

Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)

The notion that someone may be quietly taking advantage can begin to dawn. With the Moon in Scorpio making an awkward aspect to asteroid Chiron, it could seem as though you’ve made one too many sacrifices, even though they were done with a willing heart. As it turns out, you might be the winner here. A chat may reveal this person has always had your interests in mind.

Libra (Sep

24-Oct 23)

Money could run through your fingers like water, as an impulsive lunar tie hints that spending can be your chosen way to generate some excitement in your life today. And it wouldn’t be fun if you played it safe, which means you might splurge on something that’s expensive. If it’s an investment, then you’ll get a return further down the line. If not, stop before you go too far.

Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)

The conversations you hold over the days ahead, could set a friendship in motion or encourage you to collaborate on an idea. And although you may be fizzing with excitement, the Sun’s link with Pluto might work to your benefit by encouraging you to slow down and do more research. Eager to showcase your skills? Think about how you can stand out from the crowd, Scorpio.

Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)

A face-off between the Moon and Uranus, suggests some restlessness around mundane tasks. What you really want is more variety and stimulation, and following an intuitive nudge could be the answer. Get an urge to call a friend, try a new form of exercise or go for a walk or jog, to burn off some steam. Anything that breaks your routine can leave you refreshed and eager for more.

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)

A social event could be quite an occasion, Capricorn. Someone you meet can make it extra special, mainly because they are so different to your usual crowd. You’ll appreciate their unique take on life and the intense but revealing way in which they talk about key issues. Want to know more about them? Don’t leave it to fate. Be sure to get their details so you can connect again.

Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)

Someone’s opinion could cause a dip in confidence, if you let it, Aquarius. The key to making progress may be to ignore them and make a start anyway. Your best outcome might prove them wrong. Plus, with the Moon in Scorpio opposing Uranus your guide planet, it pays to reveal more about how you really feel, even if this proves a bit of a shock to the person involved.

Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)

Although you may be keen to collaborate with someone on a ground-breaking idea, awkward aspects suggest some caution. Make sure you’re both on the same wavelength before you get overtaken by the excitement of it all. Still, the Moon’s faceoff with Uranus, suggests you’re more than ready to embrace new opportunities, even if there’s a learning curve involved.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29