Tuesday Jan 31-2023

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.

Some see rate hike as inevitable under power generation PPP contract

By THE STAR STAFF

The contract with Genera PR to operate the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) legacy power plants, combined with the utility’s “serious” liquidity problems, could lead to higher rates for consumers.

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrurtia and Public-Private Partnerships Authority (P3A) Executive Director Fermín Fontanés Gómez said energy rates would not go up as a result of the generation contract, but individuals consulted by the STAR believe that a rate hike is inevitable.

Tomás Torres, the consumer representative on the PREPA governing board, said there is an erroneous public perception that PREPA has three buckets of funds, one for transmission and distribution, another for generation and another for the payment of obligations, including debt.

INDEX

“But there is only one piggy bank or bucket,” he told the STAR. “All of the income received by PREPA is used to pay obligations and the operators. If that amount is not enough, it will have to increase rates.”

Pierluisi and Fontanés recently announced the selection of Genera PR, a subsidiary of New Fortress Energy, to operate and maintain PREPA’s power plants. Genera PR will subcontract Pic Group Inc. in charge of evaluating potential employees and certain items related to service. New Fortress also supplies fuel to PREPA.

As part of the 10-year contract, Genera PR will receive $15 million during a transition period that will last 100 days. After the transition period ends, Genera PR will receive a fixed payment of $20 million in fixed fees and about $100 million under a structure of penalties and incentives for performance.

The contract with Genera PR establishes certain conditions that must be met before its commencement and that include pre-funding of the service accounts, procurement and delivery of fuel to each legacy generation asset, and the finalization of the initial budgets “and issuance by the PREB [Puerto Rico Energy Bureau] of a Rate Order sufficient to fund the Initial Budgets.”

Rolando Emmanuelli, a bankruptcy lawyer, noted in a video posted on social media that if PREPA’s revenues are not enough, the new budget that must be devised has to be sufficient to cover the utility’s obligations.

At the most recent PREPA board meeting last week, Finance Director Nelson Morales said that as of Jan. 23 the utility’s cashflow was $706.4 million, of which $576 million is for a service account for the transmission and distribution operator, LUMA Energy, and the remaining $130.3 million is in operational accounts.

Morales’s remarks got the attention of PREPA Executive Director Josué Colón Ortiz, who reminded customers of the importance of paying their utility bills.

“Over the past few weeks after Thanksgiving, the Authority has had cash flow problems that reached their lowest levels,” he said. “The historic lowest level could happen, unless this changes.”

Cash flow could be as little as $55 million, the PREPA chief noted.

“This is worrisome. I urge clients to continue to improve the efficiency of their power service but also to pay for energy service,” Colón Ortiz said. “Right now, we have obligations to pay, including fuel, and that comes from the income of the energy we provide to customers.”

The utility’s December report notes that PREPA has about $12 billion in liabilities.

To make matters worse, Genera PR has subcontracted PIC Group to provide operation and management (O&M) services, and for much of the employee screening, assessment, hiring, training and qualifying of people for the new organization. PIC Group, a corporation organized in Georgia, is a service provider for the global power generation industry and a wholly owned subsidiary of Marubeni Group.

According to a report from the P3A, Genera’s core strength is in fuel management services and the firm intended to hire PIC Group for a significant amount of its provision of the mobilization services and O&M services.

On Sept. 1, 2022, Genera entered into the contract with PIC Group, a copy of which was provided to the P3A. Under the three-year agreement, PIC will reportedly be paid from PREPA’s budget.

Public-Private Partnerships Authority Executive Director Fermín Fontanés Gómez

Union: Legislative leaders went back on promise to challenge LUMA contract

By THE STAR STAFF

The Electrical Industry and Irrigation Workers Union (UTIER by its Spanish acronym), the union that represents most Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) workers, criticized the island’s legislative leaders Monday for going back on a promise to challenge the LUMA Energy contract.

The legislative leaders merely objected to PREPA’s bankruptcy disclosure statement instead of challenging in the Title III bankruptcy court the legality of LUMA Energy’s 15-year contract to manage PREPA’s transmission and distribution (T&D) system, UTIER President Ángel Figueroa Jaramillo said.

When the extension of the LUMA supplementary contract was approved on Nov. 30, 2022, the legislative leaders were very vocal about their intention to challenge the validity of that extension, he said.

“When the extension was announced, legislators said they would challenge said extension for various reasons anchored in the laws that enable this type of public-private partnership,” Figueroa Jaramillo said. “Particularly, they took refuge in the lack of an affirmative vote by the [board] representatives of the public interest. However, this is not what they have done.”

As the STAR reported, Senate Pres-

ident José Luis Dalmau Santiago and House Speaker Rafael Hernández Montañez filed an objection to the disclosure statement last week, arguing that information on T&D system operator LUMA Energy is incorrect.

Contrary to what has been the lived experience of PREPA customers ever since LUMA took over the operation of PREPA’s T&D system on June 1, 2021, the Financial Oversight and Management Board posits that the entity will transform Puerto Rico’s electric system into a more modern, resilient, and efficient one, they said.

While it is beyond dispute that PREPA and LUMA reached an initial agreement to have the latter run the T&D operations for a 15-year period, the lawmakers argued the contract is not yet in effect, as it is contingent upon a “conditional

obligation,” on account that it depends on uncertain future events materializing.

One of the conditions that must be met before the “commencement date” comes about is that “[a] final plan for the reorganization of PREPA into GenCo and GridCo shall have been approved by the applicable governmental bodies, and the GridCo-GenCo PPOA [power purchase and operating agreement] shall have become effective,” which the lawmakers said has not happened.

LUMA Energy’s contract with PREPA expired in November 2022, the legislative leaders said. While the oversight board said in PREPA’s disclosure statement that the contract was extended, it wasn’t because it didn’t have the necessary legislative approvals, the lawmakers argued.

Jessica E. Méndez Colberg, vice president of the Emmanuelli CSP law firm, clarified that “unlike a lawsuit, which is what we expected from the Legislature, the objection to the Disclosure Statement does not initiate an adversarial process to challenge the contract.”

“Through this filing, the LUMA contract cannot be affected or invalidated, for various reasons,” she said. “The first of these is that the limited purpose of the objection does not allow the Court to assume jurisdiction or competence to address the arguments regarding the invalidity of the LUMA contract.”

Meanwhile, other entities have ob-

jected to the disclosure statement. Feb. 3 is the deadline for objections to the disclosure statement.

PV Properties said in a Jan. 26 objection that the PREPA bankruptcy disclosure statement is inadequate because it fails to disclose that the power utility isn’t buying required renewable energy credits (RECs).

“The disclosure statement is defective as it doesn’t properly address Puerto Rico’s public policy regarding energy and the environmental attributes associated with the generation of electricity utilizing renewable energy,” PV Properties said.

The firm has a $5.3 million claim against PREPA for its “refusal to purchase the RECs generated by PV Properties.”

Puerto Rico’s renewable energy policy act mandates that PREPA must obtain 20% of its energy from renewable energy sources by 2022 “subject to important qualifications,” PV Properties said. But it hasn’t bought any RECs from distributed generators, the firm said.

Also in the PREPA bankruptcy case, bond insurers Assured Guaranty and Syncora Guarantee criticized the oversight board for prioritizing litigation over deals to end the bankruptcy.

Creditors did not object to the mediation team’s request that its termination date be extended to April 28 to allow for additional negotiations between creditors and the board, but they noted that negotiations had not started.

NPP lawmakers laud plan to build reservoir on Valenciano River

By THE STAR STAFF

The New Progressive Party minority leader in the House of Representatives, Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Nuñez, along with Reps. José Aponte Hernández, Lourdes Ramos Rivera and Ángel Peña Ramírez, highlighted the importance of the $18.5 million allocation for the construction of a new reservoir on the Valenciano River between the municipalities of Juncos and Las Piedras.

In a press release, the legislators thanked Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia and Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón, for making the effort to achieve the historic

budget allocation.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced on Sunday the approval of the aforementioned item from the Risk Mitigation Grant Program to begin the first phase of the reservoir, which will have a capacity of 12.7 million cubic meters. The total project is estimated at over $400 million.

“This is tremendous news for the residents of the municipalities of the east-central zone of the island,” Méndez Nuñez said.

“For a long time, since the sixties, there had been talk of the construction of a drinking water reservoir on the Valenciano River; however, that has never materialized. With the allocation of $18.5 million the devel-

opment work can begin for this reservoir, which will supply drinking water to over 120,000 residents of the region.”

“Today we see the light at the end of the tunnel,” added Peña Ramírez, who represents District 33 (Las Piedras, Juncos and San Lorenzo). “This project, which also includes the expansion of El Valenciano water station, will directly help the residents of Juncos, Las Piedras, Gurabo, Humacao, Caguas and San Lorenzo. In addition, during the first phase, the capacity of the El Valenciano water plant will be expanded, something essential for the quality of life of those who live in many of these municipalities.”

Electrical Industry and Irrigation Workers Union President Ángel Figueroa Jaramillo

Rep. José Aponte Hernández

Puerto Rico National Guard Adj. Gen. Reyes retires

By THE STAR STAFF

The adjutant general of the Puerto Rico National Guard, Maj. Gen. José Reyes, announced his retirement on Monday.

“On February 19, 2019, I was confirmed in the Senate of Puerto Rico to lead the men and women of this organization, and with the task of elevating it to a higher level of acceptance, respect and pride in the conscience of each of its members, of our people and of the Nation,” Reyes said in a written statement.

He said Puerto Rico faced unprecedented challenges in the modern history of the island “that, at times, even disrupted the foundations of our society.”

“But in the midst of all this confusion, the men and women of the National Guard were always present as a firm pillar and beacon of hope,” Reyes said.

“As our people still recovered from the devastating experiences of 2017’s Hurricanes Irma and Maria, together we faced the challenges that 2020 brought — the wildfires, the

ongoing atmospheric unrest, the earthquakes that impacted us for the first time in nearly 100 years and, to top it off, the COVID-19 pandemic,” Reyes said. “Fearing the unknown, the men and women of the Puerto Rico National Guard stood firm to combat that scourge, protecting

not only their families but all the people of Puerto Rico until we were able to declare victory, making us the region with the highest percentage of vaccinated in the entire nation.”

“We have fully and successfully fulfilled all our responsibilities to our Puerto Rican

people, as well as our federal responsibility, showing total dedication to selfless service and the fulfillment of the commitment acquired,” he added. “Thank you to everyone! God bless our island. God bless the nation and God bless the National Guard of Puerto Rico.”

Governor denies threatening to fire NPP municipal presidents over support for González Colón

By THE STAR STAFF

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said Monday that he has issued no order to fire government employees who serve as municipal presidents of the New Progressive Party (NPP) for supporting the gubernatorial campaign of Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón.

“If they refer to public servants, it’s the other way around,” the governor said in response to questions from the press. “On the contrary, all they have received from me is support, economic support; every time I have the federal funds to give bonuses to public servants I have done it, and salary increases.”

“I don’t know where that comes from. … There is no need to investigate because there is no such instruction,” he added. “On the contrary, public servants have a job to do.”

On Sunday, during a campaign activity she was hosting, González Colón said in her message that “I want to recognize all the NPP presidents of each of the municipalities who are here today, although they have called them to threaten that they are going to throw them out.”

“I like to say things head-on, and to those who have threatened to throw them out of government agencies, be calm …” she said. “Here there is no fear, here there is no fear. We are ready.”

On Monday, the resident commissioner told reporters that “I made some statements that are self-explanatory.”

Likewise, the governor repeated his position that he will run for re-election and added that there is still communication with the resident commissioner.

“Everyone knows since I began the four-year term that I will [seek a second term],” he said.

González Colón attended Sunday’s campaign event in Las Marías with Sens. Thomas Rivera Schatz and Gabriel Rodríguez Aguiló, former Sen. Nelson Cruz Santiago and the former mayor of Adjuntas,

The statements of the governor, as well as the resident commissioner, were given separately on Monday, after they participated in a press conference announcing the beginning of the construction phase of the Port of San Juan improvement project.

Jaime Barlucea Maldonado, among others.

Maj. Gen. José Reyes had served as adjutant general of the Puerto Rico National Guard since early 2019.

Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón

Zaragoza says he’ll seek a seat on PDP governing board, party candidacy for governor

By THE STAR STAFF

Popular Democratic Party (PDP) Sen. Juan Zaragoza Gómez announced on Monday his interest in seeking a seat on the PDP governing board and an eventual run for governor under the PDP banner.

“I want to consign my eventual aspiration to the presidency of the Popular Democratic Party and to a gubernatorial candidacy for the Popular Democratic Party,” Zaragoza said at a press conference in which the president of the PDP and the island Senate, José Luis Dalmau Santiago, participated.

PDP Vice President and Morovis Mayor Carmen Maldonado González pointed out that in view of Monday afternoon’s meeting of the party’s governing board, her position is that the choice of available spaces on the board must be filled after the PDP presidential election in May.

“The reality is that the General Assembly determined last November that there was an election now in February for the vacancies on the Board, but the reality is that the work was not done internally and there is no time,”

Maldonado said in an interview on Radio Isla. “I believe that the popular [party membership] must be given the opportunity to choose the person who presides over the party and who forms their working group for reorganization, fundraising, reorganization work in the municipalities and, very importantly, structuring the electoral scaffolding.”

Regarding the possible candidacies of Zaragoza and Villalba Mayor Luis Javier Hernández, Maldonado pointed out that “what this shows is that we have a vibrant party, with good candidates, prepared people who are interested in contributing to the political process, and to me it is good news that the popular [party membership] have options to lead the PDP.”

“The political opposition knows that when the ‘populares’ of all Puerto Rico organize ourselves properly, we win and govern well,” she said. “That is my mission and I am ready to fulfill it.”

By THE STAR STAFF

Nearly $811 million in federal grants, disaster loans, public assistance grants and flood insurance payments have been provided to Puerto Rico and to households impacted by Hurricane Fiona to help jumpstart their recovery.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has provided nearly $607 million in disaster assistance grants to households affected by Hurricane Fiona. The funds are provided to repair damaged homes, replace personal property, and for unmet critical needs and other types of disaster-related assistance.

In addition, FEMA has obligated more than $115 million to government entities and private nonprofit organizations for debris removal and emergency protective measures. To

date, 19 municipalities, 21 government agencies and 47 private nonprofit organizations have been awarded disaster assistance grants.

Nearly $22 million was obligated to the Puerto Rico Police Bureau, which deployed 9,250 officers to provide additional law enforcement patrol and surveillance to minimize immediate threats to public health and safety.

“Puerto Rico’s recovery after hurricane Fiona has been swift and FEMA’s work, having already disbursed over $806 million in federal aid in just four months, is a great example of the joint work our government and the federal government do for the benefit of our people,” Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said. “Hurricane Fiona was a difficult moment for everybody on the island, and our police officers and emergency personnel, as well as many other public officials, left their families

for weeks on end to provide security and assistance to our citizens in their time of need.”

Nearly $811 million in federal Hurricane Fiona aid provided so far Governor sends wish list to congressional leadership

By THE STAR STAFF

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia asked the congressional leadership in Washington earlier this week to approve bills directly affecting the well-being of the 3.2 million American citizens living on the island over the next two years.

“Before the 118th Congress begins, I hope to work with you in key areas specifically to strengthen the economy of Puerto Rico for the benefit of the 3.2 million American citizens who reside on our island,” the governor said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and to the minority leaders, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

“Therefore, for us to continue advancing, I ask you for your collaboration and support in these congressional initiatives

that are essential for Puerto Rico to continue on the path of progress and economic recovery.”

Pierluisi requested a bill to help Puerto Rico transition from the Nutrition Assistance Program to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Medicare Advantage Program rates.

He also asked lawmakers to increase security resources to combat drug trafficking, to adjust federal Earned Income Tax Credit contributions, and to retroactively reauthorize full rum tax refunds.

Likewise, the governor called for, through legislation, waivers to the Jones Act for fuel transportation in times of emergency.

He also asked for legislation allowing Puerto Rico citizens access to the Supplemental Security Income program and for approval of a status bill.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided nearly $607 million in disaster assistance grants to households impacted by Hurricane Fiona.

Matt Gaetz, political arsonist, has new powers. What will he do with them?

By ROBERT DRAPER

The night before the start of a humiliating and historic five-day floor fight in Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s quest to become speaker, Rep. Matt Gaetz, McCarthy’s chief tormentor, handed him a list of demands from a hard-right faction ensuring that if McCarthy’s victory did occur, it would only be a pyrrhic one.

It was Monday, Jan. 2, and McCarthy, soon to move into his new suite of offices, rejected the list outright. “You just want to be speaker,” he told Gaetz, according to two Republican lawmakers with knowledge of the encounter.

Not so, Gaetz replied. Then he breezily added, according to the lawmakers: “You can have the portrait.”

It was a reference to the ceremonial paintings spanning two centuries of 54 House speakers on the walls of the Capitol, and the implication was obvious. McCarthy, R-Calif., would be the 55th speaker but in title only, and a political hostage to Gaetz, R-Fla., and his fellow rebels on the right.

In the three weeks since McCarthy ultimately agreed to the price of the portrait, Gaetz’s role in the melodrama has only entrenched his stature as an attention-craving political arsonist adored by the Trump wing of the GOP — but also, House Republican leaders begrudgingly say, as a lawmaker with new powers.

Gaetz, 40, and his fellow antagonists demanded and got a deal allowing a single lawmaker to force a snap vote to oust the speaker, a commitment for a third of the seats on the powerful Rules Committee and an agreement that any lawmaker could force votes on changes to government spending bills. Taken together, the concessions drastically hamstring McCarthy’s ability to shape a legislative agenda.

Gaetz “had to be dealt with, even if he was not ever going to vote for Kevin,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., one of McCarthy’s closest allies.

The far right is exultant. “He handed McCarthy a blunt knife and forced him to castrate himself on national television,” Raheem Kassam, a British political activist and the editor of the far-right online journal The National Pulse, said in an interview.

Gaetz’s chief aim, he asserted, is to bring egalitarianism to a legislative process domi-

nated by lobbyists and powerful committee chairs. As a conservative, he said, he and his allies intend to use this push for greater transparency “to draw the American people into our vision.”

His past is not that of a judicious legislator who might be depended on to hold a fractious and wafer-thin Republican majority together.

Two years ago, The New York Times reported Gaetz was the subject of a Justice Department investigation over allegations the congressman had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him, a violation of federal sex-trafficking laws. Gaetz denied the allegation and has not been charged.

He can be as quick to surprise as to repel. He has received accolades from animal rights groups for his opposition to federally funded animal testing. Colleagues on the House Armed Services Committee say they regard him as a productive member, and he was recently seen on the House floor having a lengthy discussion with Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, former member of the Navy SEALs, about providing veterans with access to psychoactive drugs.

During votes in the House chamber, he tends to sit by himself, with no visible signs

of discontent. Friends of Gaetz’s maintain that three terms of political seasoning on Capitol Hill, in addition to his 2021 marriage to Ginger Luckey, a sales analyst he met the previous year at Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida, have matured the congressman’s approach to politics and the way he conducts his personal life.

Most vocal among dissidents

Animus between Gaetz and McCarthy intensified in April, when audiotapes were released of a conversation four days after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, in which McCarthy could be heard telling fellow House Republican leaders that Gaetz’s denunciation of Trump critics such as former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., was “putting people in jeopardy.”

The second-ranking Republican leader, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, had chimed in that Gaetz’s rhetoric after the riot was “potentially illegal.” Gaetz fired back, “This is the behavior of weak men, not leaders.” A day later, Scalise offered a public apology — with the result, according to a close associate of the two men, that they had made peace. The same did not hold true with McCarthy, the associate added.

To what extent those personal misgivings

factored into the recent speaker showdown carries implications for how Gaetz will work with McCarthy going forward. From the outset, Gaetz framed his opposition as a matter of principle. After McCarthy initially rejected the list of concessions that Gaetz had presented, 19 to 20 Freedom Caucus members and allies proceeded to oppose him through three days and 11 rounds of voting. Gaetz was the most vocal among the dissidents, but also the most tactically agile.

Gaetz’s dislike of the aspiring speaker — “I’m never voting for you,” he vowed to McCarthy a day after voting began — had become a hindrance in negotiations. By midweek, the McCarthy team turned to Rep. Chip Roy, RTexas, as the preferred stakeholder among the Never Kevin group. Gaetz and his chief ally, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., were excluded from the Wednesday night discussions, which yielded nearly all the concessions originally demanded by the hard-liners.

“Everything got fruitful with the Freedom Caucus when he stopped being included in the meetings,” McHenry said of Gaetz.

By Friday afternoon, Roy and 13 others had thrown their support to McCarthy. Yet, Gaetz, Boebert and four other Republicans continued to hold out through two more rounds of voting that carried on past midnight.

On the 15th ballot, Gaetz and his five allies finally all voted “present,” which enabled McCarthy to eke out victory. Gaetz told reporters he dropped his opposition because “I ran out of things to ask for,” but McHenry said Gaetz had not asked for or received any “things” that had not already been handed over. What he had done instead, McHenry said, was demonstrate his singular ability to bring everything to a screeching halt.

“And in that crucial moment, when everything came down to him, he knew the gig was up and saw that the deal on the table was the best he was going to get,” McHenry said.

If Gaetz’s principal aim was to cement his reputation as the right’s preeminent warrior, he appears to have achieved that objective. “He showed that he was the one with the cojones to take all the blows,” said Kassam.

A week after the final speaker votes were cast, Gaetz became the first sitting member to guest-host former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. It was the ultimate reward in the MAGA universe, a fellow Republican member ruefully observed, for Gaetz’s obstructionist antics.

Juan

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) speaks to reporters at the Capitol, in Washington on Jan. 4, 2023. Gaetz describes his chief aim as bringing egalitarianism to a legislative process that is dominated by lobbyists and powerful committee chairmen.

Jeff Zients will take over as chief of staff in a White House full of ‘Klainiacs’

Steven J. Ricchetti, Mike Donilon, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon and Bruce Reed, to oversee political operations. Zients will be expected to help oversee the implementation of the semiconductor industry-boosting CHIPS Act, several infrastructure projects and the most significant expansion of veterans’ health care benefits in decades.

Zients’ allies say he is known as someone who is unwilling to accept defeat in a negotiation. As the administration’s COVID-19 response coordinator, several people said that one of his biggest coups was convincing the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to sell a half-billion vaccine doses to the government to power a donation program to assist some of the world’s poorest countries.

the liberal wing of the party.

“Zients’s record does not indicate similar political sophistication,” Max Moran, a researcher of the Revolving Door Project, a group fighting the influence of Wall Street and corporate America, wrote in an essay published in The American Prospect on Friday. “It primarily shows a talent for making his fellow elites like him, mostly by saying what they want to hear.”

Zients, 56, grew up in Washington, joining the wrestling team at the capital’s elite St. Albans School before graduating from Duke University in 1988. (He is still an avid weightlifter, according to McDonough.)

By KATIE ROGERS

Jeffrey D. Zients, who served as President Joe Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator and a chair of the Biden transition team, will bring a different set of skills to the job when he replaces Ron Klain as the White House chief of staff.

Biden formally announced late last week that Zients had been tapped to replace Klain, the longtime Biden adviser and skilled political operative who has served the first two years of the president’s term. In a statement, Biden said that Klain, whom the president has known for decades, would be replaced by “someone who understands what it means to lead a team and who is as focused on getting things done.”

When he leaves the White House, Klain will take with him decades of institutional knowledge about Washington politics, the inner workings of Capitol Hill and the Biden family. (Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, on Friday counted herself among the chief of staff’s “Klainiac” fans inside the administration.)

Zients, 56, by contrast, is an entrepreneur who made a fortune by building health care and education consultancies. He does not have deep relationships with lawmakers on Capitol Hill and did not nurture those contacts through years of coffee dates and

phone calls in the same way as his predecessor. His interactions with Biden tend to be matter-of-fact briefings where he offers the president a list of options and sometimes calls on aides to flesh out the details.

But according to his allies, the president appreciates his eye for recruiting talent and his experience at coordinating large projects, including overseeing the largest vaccine campaign in U.S. history during the coronavirus fight.

He is taking over as the White House faces an assortment of political headwinds, including looming congressional investigations from House Republicans and a special counsel investigation surrounding Biden’s possession of classified documents. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate majority leader, said in an interview that the White House chief of staff “inevitably” has to understand the politics behind every decision made.

“While Zients isn’t as schooled in it as Ron was when he took the job, he’s a very fast and smart learner,” Schumer said. “He has an instinctive understanding of politics, even though he hasn’t practiced it as much as Klain has.”

As the White House faces a barrage of attacks from Republicans and shifts toward a probable 2024 campaign, White House officials say that Zients will rely on other senior advisers, including Anita Dunn,

“That was at a time when trying to acquire vaccines from major companies for countries that could not afford, or were not regular buyers, was proving very difficult,” said Gayle Smith, who partnered with Zients at the State Department to help oversee the implementation of the program. “He held his ground. He was absolutely firm,” Smith added. The government got the doses.

Officials across Washington praised Zients for bringing a business background, team-building abilities and adroit negotiating skills to the federal government. He first served in the Obama administration, twice as the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, before eventually became the national economic adviser.

Then Denis McDonough, the secretary of veterans affairs who served as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff for his second term, recruited Zients to work on fixing the glitch-prone website for Obama’s health care program. McDonough said that, as chief of staff, Zients will be expected to continue acting as a Mr. Fix-It to complicated problems, but also relied on to keep pushing the White House staff to deliver after two years of grinding work and crises including a continuing pandemic and a land war in Europe.

“People are tired. They’ve done historic things,” McDonough said. And the president, he said, “needs to know that one person is accountable for the effective implementation of big priorities.”

Critics have held Zients’ corporate background and personal wealth against him, citing it as evidence that he may not be as responsive to progressive Democrats as Klain, who was seen as a touchstone for

He worked at the consulting firm Bain in Boston, then returned to Washington to work for David G. Bradley, founder of the Advisory Board Co. The company specialized in research for the health care industry, and Zients eventually became its CEO. He has reported assets between $76 million and $419 million on 2022 financial forms, which use only ranges and are therefore imprecise.

Zients married Mary Menell, who grew up in South Africa, at a 1992 wedding where the guests included Nelson Mandela, a friend of the bride’s family. The couple now live with their four children in Washington. Zients was an original investor in a string of popular bagel shops named Call Your Mother in the city — officials in the White House are looking forward to more “Bagel Wednesday” events sponsored by Zients — and he has been known to drive around in an Aston Martin. He got his entry to high-level government after supporting Obama’s 2008 campaign.

On Friday, prominent Democrats, from the president on down, signaled that Klain would be a tough act to follow in a job that is considered one of the most difficult in Washington. Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters Friday that Klain tearfully gave remarks that morning on his departure and that several senior officials all recalled their favorite stories about him. One adviser, she said, had handed Klain a rock, a symbol of what the chief of staff had meant to them as they weathered two tough years together.

All were careful to say that Zients was not to be underestimated.

“Nobody’s Ron Klain,” said Smith, who worked with him to procure millions of vaccine doses. “But nobody’s Jeff Zients, either,” she added.

Jeffrey Zients at a news briefing at the White House, in Washington on April 13, 2021. President Biden said on Friday, Jan. 27, 2023 that Zients, who served as the coronavirus response coordinator and a chairman of Biden’s transition, would take over as the White House chief of staff.

Video of Tyre Nichols beating raises questions about medical response

By NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS, GINA KOLATA and MARK WALKER

Tyre Nichols writhed in pain on the pavement after being beaten by Memphis police officers. His back was against a police car, his hands were cuffed, and his face was bloody. He was groaning, and he kept falling over.

A few feet away, two emergency medical workers looked on. They helped Nichols sit up a few times after he had slumped to his side, but then, for nearly seven minutes, they did not touch him. At one point, they walked away.

Nichols, a father and FedEx worker who liked photography and skateboarding, died in a hospital three days later. Five officers were fired and have been charged with seconddegree murder in his death.

Videos of the Jan. 7 beating released Friday have led people to scrutinize those officers’ actions frame by frame. But the footage has also turned the public’s attention to the emergency medical workers who first arrived on the scene after the beating, raising the question of whether they should or could have done more to help Nichols.

“It seems like they did not have the decent humanity to render aid to a man who was, at first, calling for his mother, but then laying against the car,” said JB Smiley Jr., vice chair of the Memphis City Council.

Both of the medical workers who arrived first to tend to Nichols appeared to be emergency medical technicians with the Memphis Fire Department. Fire EMTs often respond more quickly than ambulance crews to emergency calls, but their job is largely to carry out fundamental first aid: conducting a basic neurological assessment, making sure patients can breathe, checking their vital signs and stemming any major bleeding.

Qwanesha Ward, a spokesperson for the Fire Department, said Friday that the department had suspended two of its EMTs who had treated Nichols and that an investigation was expected to wrap up early this week. She declined to identify the medics.

To many in Memphis, the videos were troubling, appearing to show the medical workers responding without urgency to Nichols’ suffering.

Experts in emergency medicine noted that the first medics on a scene were often the least trained and frequently relied in part on police — who, in this case, said Nichols, 29, was on drugs — to understand a patient’s condition.

With five officers charged with murder, community leaders are now trying to assess how the Scorpion strike team that was created to ease the violence in Memphis had instead inflicted an attack so brutal that the police chief herself called it “heinous” and “inhumane.”

Dr. Sean Montgomery, a trauma expert at Duke University’s medical school, said that it was difficult to evaluate the medical response, given the low quality of the nearby surveillance camera, but that the responding medical personnel did not seem to have followed standard protocol, which calls for stopping any major bleeding and then assessing a patient’s airway and breathing.

He said it was not clear that anyone had begun to fully assess Nichols, in line with those standards, until about 15 minutes after the medics had arrived. That is when medics can be seen going into their bag of tools and treatments. At that point, it had been 21 minutes since an officer last kicked Nichols.

“The patient clearly seems to be in shock and have trouble breathing, even with the poor camera view,” Montgomery wrote in an email, adding that emergency response crews are often undertrained and underfunded.

Dr. Alan Tyroch, chief of surgery and trauma at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso, said he had watched a video of the response several times but had found the quality so poor that it was nearly impossible to evaluate what medical care was being provided or by whom.

“Nobody really knows except the people who were there,” he said.

An ambulance pulled up to the scene more than 25 minutes after the police offi-

cers had stopped beating Nichols. Medical response times have been a problem in many cities, including Memphis, where officials have said they are experiencing a rise in 911 calls, straining the system.

In recent years, the Memphis firefighters union has tried to calm fears about slow response times by noting that Fire Department EMTs often show up before more skilled paramedics and ambulance units do. Union officials did not respond to inquiries, and the Fire Department did not respond to questions about the specifics of its response.

Nichols suffered his fatal injuries after police officers kicked, punched and used a baton to beat him. They said later that they had pulled him over because he was driving recklessly. Police had pulled him out of his car and ordered him onto the ground, continuing to yell at him and threaten him even as he lay on his side, pleading with them to stop. When one officer pepper-sprayed him, he got up and ran in the direction of his mother’s house, but officers caught him about 200 feet from her home and began to pummel him.

Afterward, some officers dragged a handcuffed Nichols to a police car and propped him up against it. In the first five minutes that the medics were on the scene, Nichols fell to his side six times. The medics helped him up several times and at one point asked a police officer to shine a light on him.

Among the seven felony charges filed

against each of the officers is an accusation that they refrained from performing a duty that was either imposed by law or was inherent as part of their jobs. This could cover a range of behavior, but the Shelby County district attorney, Steven J. Mulroy, suggested at a news conference last week that the charge had to do in part with their communications with medical officials.

On-duty police officers, Mulroy said, have a duty “to prevent official misconduct and to accurately report information to medical personnel who show up.”

The officers have not entered a plea. Lawyers for the officers have cautioned people to wait for more details before judging them.

Blake Ballin, who represents Desmond Mills Jr., one of the five officers, said in a statement that the videos have “produced as many questions as they have answers.”

At the scene, the medics at times appeared to defer to police, standing back at one point as a police officer asked Nichols what drugs he had taken. Nichols largely groaned in response, though twice he appears to answer “alcohol.”

For about the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds, no one touches Nichols as he rolls back-and-forth on the pavement.

The official cause of Nichols’ death has not been released by the Shelby County medical examiner’s office. The family said it had commissioned a separate, private autopsy that determined he had suffered from extensive bleeding.

When a young person like Nichols dies three days after a beating involving blows to the head, Montgomery said, brain injuries are the most likely cause. He said that, based on video of the beating, Nichols had likely been at risk for severe traumatic brain injury, rib fractures, collapsed lungs and internal bleeding.

Montgomery said it was not easy to say whether getting Nichols into an ambulance or to the hospital more quickly would have made a difference, though some cases, such as a brain injury, would have been helped by early surgery.

“Some brain injuries are too severe for medical care to improve them,” he added. “However, if you manage the other injuries well, the brain will do better. For example, if the patient is not breathing well, the brain will have a much worse outcome.”

Police in Memphis have said that Nichols was taken to the hospital after complaining about shortness of breath.

Families struggle as pandemic program offering free school meals ends

aren’t going to get free or reduced,” she said.

Before the pandemic, Vazquez worked part-time as a special education assistant and her children teetered between qualifying for free or reduced-price meals year to year. But when she took a full-time job as a nutritionist in August 2021, her salary was just enough to bump her family above the income threshold for either benefit: about $42,000 annually for free meals for a family of five and $60,000 for reduced-price meals.

“That was actually a worry when I applied for this position, because you don’t know what’s going to happen — am I going to get disqualified for this?” she said, adding that she ultimately took the job with a view toward long-term financial stability.

Even as some parents have seen their wages increase and the criteria for free and reduced-price meals expand, those boons have done little to blunt the impact of rising food costs.

having to pay for meals that had once been free.

The universal free school meal program pushed the federal cost of school nutrition programs from $18.7 billion in the 2019 fiscal year to $28.7 billion in the 2022 fiscal year, according to data from the Agriculture Department, which administers the program. The department does not have an official estimate of the cost of permanently enacting the policy, a spokesperson said.

Such an initiative has drawn widespread support, with polls showing 74% of voters and 90% of parents favoring the idea, but federal enactment seems unlikely. Republican lawmakers in Congress oppose permanently extending the policy, arguing that free meals should serve only the neediest and that pandemic-era policies must eventually end.

Still, some states — and some parents — have been spurred to take action. For Amber Stewart, a mother of five in Duluth, Minnesota, the program was lifesaving.

By LINDA QIU

Like other parents, April Vazquez, a school nutrition specialist in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is cutting coupons, buying in bulk and forgoing outings and restaurant meals. Still, a hot lunch in the school cafeteria for her three children is now a treat she has to carefully plan in her budget.

The expiration of waivers that guaranteed free school meals for nearly 30 million students across the United States during the pandemic has meant that families such as

Vazquez’s who earn just over the income threshold no longer qualify for a federal program allowing children to eat at no cost.

As pandemic-era assistance programs lapse and inflation reaches record highs, Vazquez is hardly alone. The number of students receiving free lunches decreased by about one-third, to about 18.6 million in October, the latest month with available data. In comparison, about 20.3 million students ate for free in October 2019, before the pandemic. That drop can be attributed to several factors, such as being on the cusp of eligibility, lack of awareness that the program had ended by the start of the school year and fewer schools participating in the program overall.

“It’s just making things a hell of a lot harder at the most difficult moment that I think American families have seen in a generation,” said Keri Rodrigues, co-founder and president of the National Parents Union network.

For Vazquez, returning to a reality where she must pay full price for a school meal — about $3 or $4 for each child — is trying, and most days, her children bring a packed lunch. (Bagels, cream cheese and apples are typical; grapes and strawberries are rare because they are too expensive.)

“It’s painful to know that my kids

From the 2019-20 school year to this school year, the income eligibility for free and reduced-price meals has increased by about 7.8%. Average hourly wage growth in that same period grew by 15.1%. Consumer prices, though, have risen by 15.4%, and food prices by 20.2%, surpassing wage growth.

In the Sioux Falls School District — where Vazquez works and where her children attend school — about 41% of children qualified for free or reduced-price lunch this school year, compared with about 49% before the pandemic, said its nutrition director, Gay Anderson. Some parents have remarked that they would be “better off missing half a week’s work to get that free meal,” she said.

At Wellington Exempted Village Schools, in northeastern Ohio, Andrea Helton, the nutrition director, described denying the program to nearly 50 families in a school district of about 1,000 students. She recalled a single mother who lamented, “I missed the cutoff for reduced meals by $100 of gross income.”

But Helton said, “There’s nothing I can do, and it’s heartbreaking.”

Families are also struggling to navigate a maze of new rules or, unaware that the program had ended, contending with

Before the pandemic, when the family owed money for meals, her daughter would receive a cold cheese sandwich and a carton of milk, signaling to classmates she could not afford the hot meal. Stern letters demanded repayment and warned of consequences.

“Then the pandemic rolled around and everybody was eligible for the free meals, and they delivered it or you could go pick it up,” said Stewart, who asked to be identified by her maiden name. “It was amazing.”

Intent on seeing the program enacted permanently, Stewart is now lobbying the Minnesota Legislature to adopt universal free school meals statewide, a policy that the governor recently endorsed.

Under the new income guidelines, Stewart’s children now qualify for reducedprice meals. And because of a state law that covers the fees normally owed by families in that category, they are not charged the 35 or 50 cents for breakfast or lunch.

That has been crucial, she said, because even after weekly trips to the food bank, she does not have nearly enough to get by.

“Our money is really tight,” she said. “With the cost of groceries and everything, we’re barely making it.”

Students eat lunch at Osbourn Park High School in Manassas, Va. on Jan. 11, 2023. A federal benefit guaranteeing free school meals to millions more students has expired as food prices have risen. Many families are feeling the pinch.

Smaller rate increase by Federal Reserve likely as inflation cools

By JEANNA SMIALEK

Federal Reserve officials are widely expected to raise interest rates by a quarter point at their meeting this week, further slowing what had been an aggressive pace of rate increases in 2022 as they wait to see how swiftly inflation will fade.

Moving gradually will give Fed officials more time to assess how high rates need to rise and how long they need to stay elevated to fully wrangle inflation, both of which are looming and crucial questions. The answers will help to determine how much damage the Fed inflicts on the labor market and broader economy in its quest to control price increases.

Central bankers raised interest rates from near zero to above 4.25% last year, and they are expected to lift rates to a range of 4.5% to 4.75% Wednesday. Investors will be even more attuned to what may come next, and will parse the Fed’s 2 p.m. statement and the subsequent news conference by Fed chair Jerome Powell for clues about the future.

Fed officials predicted in December that they would lift rates to just above 5% in 2023, then hold them at a high level throughout the year. But incoming data will drive how high the Fed raises rates and how long they keep them at that level.

Since the Fed’s last decision, inflation has meaningfully slowed, and data on the economy show that consumers are becoming more cautious and beginning to spend less. Anecdotes suggest that shoppers may be more sensitive to prices, which would make it more difficult for companies to continue passing along big price increases. At the same time, the job market remains very strong, and economists and central bankers have warned that a re-acceleration in growth and inflation remains possible. That is likely to keep the Fed wary of prematurely declaring victory over inflation.

The Fed has been somewhat at odds with financial markets in recent months. Central bankers have insisted that they have more work to do on the policy front to ensure that they bring inflation fully under control. Yet markets have begun to expect the Fed to cease rate increases soon — stopping once they get to a 4.75% to 5% range, if not earlier

— and then to begin cutting borrowing costs before the end of 2023.

When investors anticipate less aggressive Fed policy, it matters to the real economy. Those market expectations cause interest rates, like those on home loans, to drop lower. That, in turn, can help economic activity perk back up even as central bankers try to slow it down.

But there are signs that the economy is playing out roughly the way the Fed has been hoping, which is why many investors think that relatively little further policy adjustment will be needed. Inflation moderated to 5% in December from 5.5% in November, based on the latest reading of the Fed’s preferred price index.

That is more than double the 2% price increases the Fed aims for on average over time, but price increases have now been slowing for six months across a range of measures and the moderation shows signs of broadening. Plus, demand seems to be waning at last.

Many economists expect that deceleration in demand to persist. Higher interest rates mean that it’s expensive to borrow money to buy a house or expand a business, which should slow both big purchases and the labor market. A worsening hiring situation should cause wage growth to cool —

early signs suggest that a slowdown is already underway, and the Fed will receive another key reading on worker pay Tuesday. Weaker wage gains would further weigh on spending.

But other factors could shore up the economy’s resilience, even in the face of Fed rate moves. Consumers still have savings stockpiles left from the early days of the pandemic, albeit shrinking ones. The unemployment rate is at 3.5%, its lowest level in half a century, and many workers are experiencing faster-than-typical wage gains.

That is why the Fed is taking a cautious stance and trying to avoid pulling back prematurely from its assault on inflation.

“We do not want to be head-faked,” Christopher Waller, a Fed governor, said in his most recent speech.

That will place particular focus on Powell’s post-meeting news conference this week. Powell could join some of his colleagues — including Lael Brainard, the vice chair — in emphasizing positive recent developments on inflation and reasons the economy might be headed for a soft landing, in which inflation cools without spurring an outright recession.

“It remains possible that a continued moderation in aggregate demand could facilitate continued easing in the labor market

and reduction in inflation without a significant loss of employment,” Brainard said in a recent speech.

Or he could focus more on signs that the economy remains strong, cautioning that the Fed needs to remain steadfast in its efforts to rein in consumer and business demand and underlining that services inflation, in particular, is likely to prove stubborn without a notable slowdown in the labor market. John C. Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has said things along those warier lines.

“It seems to me that demand is still very strong relative to available supply,” Williams told reporters at a recent event, and the “concern” is that this would continue to put pressure on inflation.

Many economists expect Powell to hew to a more inflation-focused line, in hopes of underscoring the central bank’s commitment to combating inflation. But investors will be watching for any hint at which narrative is becoming dominant — emphasis on progress toward lower inflation, or a focus on how much more work there is to do.

“We expect the division of opinion on the committee to become more pronounced as 2023 unfolds,” said Sonia Meskin, head of U.S. macro at BNY Mellon Investment Management.

Officials are also beginning to entertain the idea that the Fed could stop raising interest rates, then restart if the economy shows signs of re-accelerating — something Powell could face questions about. Lorie Logan, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, suggested as much in recent remarks.

“I believe we shouldn’t lock in on a peak interest rate,” Logan said. “Even after we have enough evidence to pause rate increases, we’ll need to remain flexible and raise rates further if changes in the economic outlook or financial conditions call for it.”

Because this is the first meeting of 2023, the Fed will get new voting members: Four of the central bank’s 12 regional president rotate in and out of voting seats each year, while New York’s president and the Fed’s seven governors in Washington hold a constant say. This year, Logan from Dallas, Austan Goolsbee from Chicago, Neel Kashkari from Minneapolis and Patrick Harker from Philadelphia will vote.

Investors will be watching the Fed chair Jerome H. Powell on Wednesday to see whether he emphasizes progress toward lower inflation or focuses on how much more work there is to do.

In the fight over gas stoves, meet the industry’s go-to scientist

By HIROKO TABUCHI

When Multnomah County in Oregon convened a recent public hearing on the health hazards posed by pollution from gas stoves, a toxicologist named Julie Goodman was the first to testify.

Studies linking gas stoves to childhood asthma, which have prompted talk of gas-stove bans in recent weeks and months, were “missing important context,” she said. Levels of pollutants in the kitchen, particularly a well-ventilated one, were negligible, Goodman told people at the November meeting. In fact, she said, the simple act of cooking itself, “baking, frying and sautéing,” also released emissions that had nothing to do with gas.

What Goodman didn’t tell the crowd was that she was paid to testify by a local gas provider. Goodman is a toxicologist who works for Gradient, a consulting firm that provides environmental reviews for corporations. She appeared at the county hearing on behalf of NW Natural, the local utility that is heavily reliant on gas, an affiliation she didn’t state during her testimony.

In recent months, Goodman has also worked with the American Gas Association, the industry’s main lobby group, to help it counter health concerns linked to gas.

In an interview, Goodman said she was transparent about the approach and processes she followed in her research, including disclosing the funding she receives. She said that it had been an oversight not to have mentioned that she had been paid to testify at the Multnomah hearing on behalf of the gas utility, and she said that the opinions she expressed represented her own, not necessarily the utility’s.

She said she wasn’t saying that the epidemiological studies showed that gas cooking doesn’t cause asthma. Still, “when considering the entire body of literature, the available epidemiology evidence is not adequate to support causation with respect to gas stoves and adverse health effects,” she said.

Whether many Americans will continue to cook and warm their homes with gas, or instead switch to electricity, has become one of the most divisive issues in public health as well as the fight over climate action.

A growing body of scientific research has documented indoor air pollution and health problems caused by gas stoves, which emit nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter when they are turned on. A December study estimated that gas-burning stoves were associated with 13% of childhood asthma in the United States.

Gas stoves also emit methane, even when the stoves are off. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and significant contributor to global warming.

Almost 100 cities and counties have adopted electrification ordinances that ban or discourage gas hookups for new buildings in favor of electric appliances and heat pumps.

The gas industry has fought back. In at least 20 mostly Republican-led states, gas utilities have persuaded lawmakers to pass bills that forbid cities from pursuing prohibitions on gas,

calling them too restrictive and costly.

Earlier this month, Richard Trumka Jr., a commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, drew a rebuke from the fossil fuel industry and its allies for suggesting his agency might take regulatory action on gas stoves in the face of the mounting research on their hazards.

“You’ll have to pry it from my COLD DEAD HANDS!” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., wrote on Twitter alongside a video of a flaming gas stove. Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, started selling gas-stove aprons.

Even before the gas stove recently became the appliance to either love or hate, the fight over its future had already been underway. The gas industry had been mobilizing to rebut the concerns, calling on experts at firms like Gradient.

Last year, the American Gas Association, the industry’s main lobbying group, commissioned Goodman to scrutinize a resolution adopted by the American Medical Association saying that cooking with gas stoves increased household air pollution and the risk of childhood asthma. Goodman told the gas-industry group in a letter dated Aug. 11 that the medical association’s concerns were based on “a very limited number of studies that are not representative of the broader body of scientific literature” and that those studies had “significant limitations.”

Soon after, the gas-industry group wrote the medical association complaining of what it called the “incomplete and inadequate scientific basis” of its resolution and urging the group to “closely re-examine” its decision.

The American Medical Association said it stood by its resolution, which had been adopted by physicians and medical students representing more than 190 state and specialty medical societies.

The gas industry group, together with Goodman, has in particular criticized research led by experts at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a think tank that supports renewable energy, which estimated childhood asthma cases associated with gas cooking, based on previous studies. The peer-reviewed study,

published in December, calculated what is known as the population attributable fraction, used to measure the strength of a relationship between a risk factor, like gas-stove use, and a disease, like asthma.

That calculation doesn’t establish causation, however, and the gas industry has used that fact to criticize the research. The study’s authors have stood by the analysis.

Jonathan Levy, who heads the department of environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health, said the research linking gas stoves to asthma and other health issues, including the latest Rocky Mountain Institute asthma study, was solid.

“There’s a very large and long-standing literature that shows that gas stoves lead to increased levels of indoor nitrogen dioxide, which stands to reason since you’re burning fuel indoors, and nitrogen dioxide comes from fuel combustion,” he said. “Separately, we know that there’s a very large literature linking nitrogen dioxide exposures to respiratory health effects, and to asthma in particular,” he said.

In a statement, Karen Harbert, president of the American Gas Association, said the group’s positions were “grounded in data and good science.” She said the industry would “continue to work with regulators and policymakers to help ensure they have the reliable and objective information they need.”

David Roy, a spokesperson for NW Natural, said Goodman had appeared at the hearing on the utility’s behalf. NW Natural had called upon experts to counter “hastily prepared conclusions and recommendations made without the support of robust process and scientific assessment,” he said.

At Gradient, Goodman co-authored an article, sponsored by the now-defunct American Plastics Council, criticizing dozens of academic articles that had raised concerns over Bisphenol-A, or BPA, a chemical used to make hard plastics such as water and juice bottles. A body of research suggests that BPA and other bisphenols can act as endocrine disrupters that interfere with hormones in the body. The chemicals have been linked to reduced fertility, earlier puberty in boys and behavioral problems in children.

In congressional testimony, Goodman has argued against regulatory standards for mercury and air toxics, and has criticized studies linking air pollution and mortality, frequently identifying herself as an independent scientist, despite Gradient’s work for corporate clients. In articles funded by the American Petroleum Institute, she has also attacked research linking exposure to smog-causing ozone to deaths from respiratory diseases.

Frederick vom Saal, a professor emeritus of biology at the University of Missouri, is among the scientists whose work Goodman has criticized. “There are over 1,000 publications on BPA, but she claimed none of them stand up to their standards,” he said. He said her argument is essentially, “‘You don’t need to worry about anything because there’s so little exposure,’” he said, adding that decades of research has shown that not to be true.

Gradient declined to comment.

Gas stoves can leak methane and have raised concerns about indoor air quality and health. A researcher measured emissions in 2021.

Tech, megacaps drag Wall St lower at start of big market week

Major U.S. stock indexes fell on Monday, dragged lower by declines in technology and other megacap shares, as investors looked toward a major week of events including central bank meetings and a slew of earnings reports.

The tech sector slumped 1.7%, with most sectors trading lower. Shares of Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Google parent Alphabet Inc, which are all due to post results later this week, dropped over 1%.

More than 100 S&P 500 companies are expected to report results this week, which also includes central bank meetings in the United States and Europe and closely watched U.S. employment data.

“The market has had a big run and the trading is a bit more cautious heading into a week which likely will be an inflection point for the overall market,” said Keith Lerner, cochief investment officer at Truist Advisory Services.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 125.11 points, or 0.37%, to 33,852.97, the S&P 500 lost 38.49 points, or 0.95%, to 4,032.07 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 184.56 points, or 1.59%, to 11,437.15.

U.S. Treasury yields rose, providing another pressure point for tech shares that have otherwise rebounded to start the year after a rough 2022.

Despite Monday’s declines, the S&P 500 was on track to post its biggest January gain since 2019.

The U.S. central bank is seen hiking the Fed funds rate by 25 basis points at the end of its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, following a 2022 in which the Fed aggressively hiked rates to control soaring inflation.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s news conference will be scrutinized for signs of how high rates may go and how long they could stay elevated. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank is expected to deliver another large rate hike on Thursday.

Investors are also focused on earnings reports, amid concerns the economy may be facing a recession. With more than 140 companies having reported so far, S&P 500 earnings are expected to have fallen 3% in the fourth quarter compared with the prior-year period, according to Refinitiv IBES.

In company news, shares of Johnson & Johnson fell over 3% after the healthcare giant’s strategy to use bankruptcy to resolve the multibillion-dollar litigation over claims its talc products cause cancer was rejected by a federal appeals court.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.81-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.73-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted five new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 51 new highs and 14 new lows.

“The group appears to be holding up well, but there is some trepidation due to the fact that investors are concerned about an economic slowdown and what that will do to demand,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth.

He said he is slightly overweight the energy sector, including shares of Chevron and Pioneer Natural Resources.

Economists and analysts in a Reuters survey forecast US crude would average US$84.84 per barrel in 2023, compared to an average price of US$94.33 last year, citing expectations of global economic weakness. US crude prices recently stood at around US$80 per barrel.

At the same time, many investors beefed up their hold-

ings of energy stocks in 2022 after years of avoiding the sector, which had often underperformed the broader market amid concerns such as poor capital allocation by companies and uncertainties over the future of fossil fuel. The sector’s weight in the S&P 500 roughly doubled last year to 5.2 per cent.

However, that dynamic may be petering out, said Aaron Dunn, co-head of the value equity team at Eaton Vance.

“People have come back to energy in a big way,” he said. “We had that tailwind the last couple of years, which was that everyone was under-invested in energy. I don’t think that’s the case anymore.”

And while energy companies are expected to deliver strong quarterly reports over the coming weeks after a roaring 2022, those numbers may have set a high bar for this year.

‘We have to make time our weapon,’ Zelenskyy says

By MARC SANTORA and CARLY OLSON

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine has implored allies to speed up delivery of weapons as Russia intensifies its assaults on eastern Ukraine and sends waves of troops in an effort to break through heavy Ukrainian defenses.

“Russia hopes to drag out the war, to exhaust our forces,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Sunday. “So we have to make time our weapon. We must speed up the events, speed up the supply and opening of new necessary weaponry options for Ukraine.”

The United States and several European countries last week pledged to send dozens of battle tanks, among the most powerful weapons they have promised to Ukraine, but Western officials have said that it could be months before the tanks are delivered.

Zelenskyy’s appeal for both speedier deliveries of promised weapons and faster decisions on sending additional arms — including long-range missiles and even fighter jets — comes amid warnings that Moscow plans to launch a major offensive in the coming weeks, a year after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Western allies have not publicly indicated if they will provide fighter jets, but over the course of the war, they have sent Ukraine an ever-expanding array of advanced weapons that many once thought were off-limits. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, said on Monday that further supplies of Western weaponry to

Ukraine would lead to “significant escalation” of the conflict.

Military experts and allies say that in the coming weeks, Ukraine will also mount an offensive aimed at driving Russia out of occupied areas.

The British Defense Ministry said on Monday that Moscow was “likely keeping open the option” of announcing another “partial mobilization” of men with military experience for its war effort in Ukraine. In September, President Vladimir Putin of Russia announced the first such call up, of roughly 300,000 reservists, a move that prompted widespread protests.

Russia is currently “inundating”

Ukraine’s positions in the east, according to Ukrainian officials. “They are simply throwing bodies at our positions and numbers and gradually moving forward,” Serhiy Haidai, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, said on national television Sunday night.

As the war has evolved, so, too, has the kind of military assistance that Ukraine’s allies are willing to provide to Ukraine. First, it was small arms, such as the Javelin and NLAW anti-tank weapons that helped stall Russian forces and then drive them back from Kyiv and other northern cities. Then the focus shifted to artillery to help Kyiv match the Russian supply. That allowed

Ukraine to grind out gains in the east, until July.

The arrival of precision missile systems, like the U.S.-made HIMARS, helped Ukraine set the stage for its two most successful operations, recapturing Kharkiv in the northeast, and then the southern city of Kherson.

After announcing last week that his government would send battle tanks, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany reiterated over the weekend that Berlin would not send fighter jets to Ukraine. The United States has not indicated that it will send jets. European nations with U.S.-made jets could decide to transfer theirs to Ukraine, but only if Washington approves those transactions.

Long-range missiles are critical “to drastically curtail the key tool of the Russian army” by destroying weapons warehouses, Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Zelenskyy, said over the weekend. Col. Yuriy Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian air force, said last week that F-16 fighter jets would serve a dual role in Ukraine, as part of air defenses and as “a force for strikes against the enemy.”

Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian defense minister, said that fighter jets and long-range rockets remained at the top of the military’s wish list, adding that he was hopeful that discussions in coming weeks between Ukraine’s Western allies would lead to new commitments.

“For me, everything that’s impossible today will be possible tomorrow,” he said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that aired on Sunday.

Suicide bombing tears through Pakistan mosque, killing dozens

By SALMAN MASOOD

Apowerful suicide bombing Monday ripped through a mosque frequented by police officers in a highly secured part of the city of Peshawar, killing at least 44 people and wounding nearly 160, police and hospital officials said, in the worst attack in the country in months.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the attack broke a period of relative calm in Peshawar, the capital of the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in northwestern Pakistan. The northwest has been the site of several attacks on police and military tar-

gets in recent months, especially in areas that straddle the border with Afghanistan, and the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for them.

“It was a deafening explosion, and I fell on the ground,” said Shabbir Afridi, 40, a government employee who was standing near the mosque at the time of the attack. “When I ran toward the mosque, I saw dust and bodies everywhere.”

The mosque was nearly full, with more than 300 worshippers filling the rows when the blast struck in Police Lines, a heavily guarded neighborhood that is home to several important government and military buildings.

An office of the counterterrorism department is nearby, and officials said they were investigating how the suicide bomber managed to breach several security checkpoints to reach the mosque.

The roof caved in from the impact, trapping people under the debris.

“Most of the people are still trapped under the rubble. We fear that the number of casualties could increase,” said Akbar Khan, an official of the Edhi Foundation, a charity that runs a rescue service.

At least 157 people were wounded, according to hospital officials, many of them rushed to the nearby Lady Reading Hospital, a

state-run medical facility, which was a scene of chaos. Doctors were struggling to move the many wounded to operating rooms while relatives thronged the hospital, frantically searching for information about their loved ones.

The hospital was put on alert, more medical personnel were called in and people were asked to donate blood for the injured, according to hospital officials.

The last terrorist attack on Peshawar was also a suicide bombing that targeted a mosque in March and killed more than 60 people. The Islamic State group’s regional affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, claimed responsibility.

Russian terror must lose everywhere

and in everything - both on the battlefield and in the absence of ruins in our country - address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

As Israelis grieve, some Palestinians exult, and some fear what’s next

By PATRICK KINGSLEY

As grieving Israeli families sat shiva on Sunday for seven civilians killed over the weekend in East Jerusalem, the family of their Palestinian killer felt a different emotion. Pride.

“He’s a legend and hero,” said the killer’s father, Moussa al-Qam, 48, whose own father was stabbed to death in 1998, in what Israeli officials later acknowledged as an act of Jewish terrorism. His son, Khairy, 21, who was named for his grandfather, was killed after waging Friday’s attack outside a synagogue.

“I raised him well,” al-Qam said.

Both al-Qam’s comment and his family history highlighted why the current moment in Israel and the occupied territories feels so hopeless and perilous, after a spasm of violence that has left seven Israelis and at least 14 Palestinians dead since Thursday.

Some Palestinians like al-Qam express little empathy for Israeli civilians and live in an environment where Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians are celebrated and their perpetrators lionized — raising the likelihood of further attacks in the coming days.

Such desire for revenge, coupled with the goals of extremist Israeli ministers in Israel’s new government, has fanned questions about whether the region is on the cusp of another escalation involving either a violent grassroots uprising in the occupied West Bank, another devastating conflict in the Gaza Strip, or both.

The Palestinian Authority, the semiautonomous body that administers parts of the West Bank, scaled back its coordination with Israeli military officials last week, weakening one of the means by which violent surges have been curbed in the past.

The nature of Israel’s response could help decide whether the current surge ebbs or escalates, as could the messages brought by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is set to visit Jerusalem and the West Bank on Monday and Tuesday.

But a Palestinian appetite for a renewed wave of violence may ultimately be the decisive factor in where the current moment goes. And in interviews Sunday with Palestinians across the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, there was widespread anger about their treatment, particularly after the deadliest year for West Bank Palestinians in more than a decade and a half.

In Jerusalem, the families of the seven Israelis killed Friday grieved in cramped, spartan homes, welcoming a steady flow of

mourners. Some expressed bewilderment at how their relatives had ended up victims to this cycle of violence. Others voiced anger.

But to Palestinians, such attacks do not happen in a vacuum: They are fueled by Israeli treatment of Palestinians, including the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the creation of a two-tier legal system that distinguishes between Israelis and Palestinians in the territory; the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza; and individual acts of violence such as the killing of al-Qam’s father.

“When Palestinians are being killed daily, they see any attack that kills Israelis as something that redeems their dignity,” said Majd Dandis, 31, a neighbor and friend of the al-Qam family.

“Naturally, people were happy,” Dandis said of Khairy al-Qam’s attack outside the synagogue. “All of Palestinian society was happy, not just this neighborhood.”

Video posted online Friday showed Palestinians in parts of the West Bank and Gaza cheering the news of the attack, distributing sweets in celebration and setting off fireworks.

But Palestinian society is not monolithic, just as Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who once displayed in his

home a portrait of an Israeli mass killer, does not reflect the breadth of Israeli opinion.

Among Palestinians, there is also empathy for Israeli civilians, as well as a broader, pragmatic awareness of the toll that an insurgency might unleash not only on Israelis but on Palestinians themselves.

Already, the families of the Palestinian attackers, among them the al-Qams, have been forced from their homes before the buildings’ demolition, a standard Israeli practice that critics call collective punishment. Dozens of their relatives and neighbors have also been arrested and interrogated.

The society-wide cost would also be high. The second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, of the 2000s left about 1,000 Israelis dead, mostly in terrorist attacks, but roughly three times that number of Palestinians died in the Israeli response.

In the al-Qams’ East Jerusalem neighborhood, which was captured by Israel in 1967 from Jordan and which most of the world still considers occupied, the fear of an Israeli crackdown tempered some of the residents’ pride.

While several of al-Qam’s neighbors agreed that his son was a hero, they also tried to prevent journalists from talking to

the father to prevent him from saying anything that might bring further problems to the neighborhood.

A mile away, the family of another Palestinian assailant — a 13-year-old who shot and wounded two Israelis on Saturday morning — displayed a similar ambivalence.

They expressed pride in the actions of their 13-year-old relative, who was shot, wounded and arrested after the attack near a Jewish area in East Jerusalem, and indifference to the fates of the wounded Israelis. But they said they feared the consequences the attack would bring on the boy’s family. Already, his parents and two older brothers have been interrogated by the Israeli police and their house sealed for demolition.

“Of course we’re proud of what he did,” said Khalil Abbasi, 31, the boy’s uncle. “But at the same time, we’re upset, because his family didn’t deserve this.”

Among some Palestinians, there is a sense that they have little to lose from an insurgency because the situation is already so fraught.

In Jerusalem neighborhoods like Silwan, where the 13-year-old gunman grew up, many Palestinian residents are under constant threat of eviction or home demolition. About 200 homes are vulnerable because of court cases by Israeli settler groups seeking to cement Israeli control over the city, according to Peace Now, an anti-occupation advocacy group. The group estimates that a further 20,000 Palestinian homes face demolition because their owners built them without getting planning permission.

A study by the United Nations office for humanitarian affairs described such permission as “virtually impossible” for Palestinians to obtain, partly because the city authorities have set aside little land in Palestinian areas for residential development while facilitating large-scale Israeli settlement construction.

A few yards from the home of the 13-year-old arrested in the Saturday attack stand the ruins of another building. It was once the home of his aunt. Authorities destroyed it several years ago because it lacked a permit, the family said.

The al-Qam family home a few miles away is likely to be one of the next to go. On Sunday, it was sealed shut by Israeli security officials, forcing al-Qam to sleep with relatives, and it is expected to be demolished in the coming weeks.

Al-Qam maintained it was a price worth paying.

“Even if I have to sleep outside, I don’t care,” he said. “As long as my son fulfilled his duty, I don’t care.”

Khalil Abbasi, far left, the uncle of a teenager who shot and wounded two Israelis, with other family members in the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem, Jan. 29, 2023.

Israel launched drone attack on Iranian facility, officials say

By RONEN BERGMAN, DAVID E. SANGER and FARNAZ FASSIHI

Adrone attack on an Iranian military facility that resulted in a large explosion in the center of the city of Isfahan, Iran, on Saturday was the work of the Mossad, Israel’s premier intelligence agency, according to senior intelligence officials who were familiar with the dialogue between Israel and the United States about the incident.

The facility’s purpose was not clear, and neither was how much damage the strike caused. But Isfahan is a major center of missile production, research and development for Iran, including the assembly of many of its Shahab medium-range missiles, which can reach Israel and beyond.

Weeks ago, U.S. officials publicly identified Iran as the primary supplier of drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine, and they said they believed Russia was also trying to obtain Iranian missiles to use in the conflict. But U.S. officials said they believed this strike was prompted by Israel’s concerns about its own security, not the potential for missile exports to Russia.

The strike came just as Secretary of State Antony Blinken was beginning a visit to Israel, his first since Benjamin Netanyahu returned to office as prime minister. CIA Director William Burns visited Israel last week, although it is not clear anything about the operation in Isfahan was discussed.

U.S. officials quickly sent out word Sunday morning that the United States was not responsible for the attack. One official confirmed that it had been conducted by Israel but did not have details about the target. Sometimes Israel gives the United States advance warning of an attack or informs U.S. officials as an operation is being launched. It is unclear what happened in this case.

Isfahan is the site of four small nuclear research facilities, all supplied by China many years ago. But the facility that was struck Saturday was in the middle of the city and did not appear to be nuclear-related.

Iran made no effort to hide the fact that an attack had happened, but said it had done little damage. In statements, senior Iranian officials contended that the drones — apparently quadcopters, a kind of aircraft with four separate propellers — had all been shot down.

Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, reported Sunday that the drones had targeted an ammunition manufacturing plant, and that they had been shot down by a surface-to-air defense system. It is not clear why Iran would build an ammunition production plant in the middle of a city of roughly 2 million people.

Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, said at a news conference in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday that “a cowardly drone attack on a military site in central Iran will not impede Iran’s progress on its peaceful nuclear program.”

This is Israel’s first known attack inside Iran since Netanyahu reassumed office, and it may indicate that he has adopted the strategy formed under his two predecessors and political rivals, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, who expanded Israeli attacks inside Iran.

The quadcopters have become a signature of such operations.

In August 2019, Israel sent an exploding quadcopter into the heart of a Hezbollah-dominated neighborhood in Beirut

to destroy what Israeli officials described as machinery vital to the production of precision missiles.

In June 2021, quadcopters exploded at one of Iran’s main manufacturing centers for centrifuges, which purify uranium at the country’s two major uranium enrichment facilities, Fordow and Natanz. That attack was in Karaj, on the outskirts of Tehran. Iran claimed that there was no damage to the site, but satellite images showed evidence of significant damage.

A year ago, six quadcopters exploded at Kermanshah, Iran’s main manufacturing and storage plant for military drones.

And in May 2022, a drone strike targeted a highly sensitive military site outside Tehran where Iran develops missile, nuclear and drone technology.

The targets — presumably including the military facility in Isfahan — have been chosen in part to shake the Iranian leadership, because they demonstrate intelligence about the locations of key sites, even those hidden in the middle of cities.

But the strikes also reflect a change in Israeli strategy made after Bennett became prime minister in June 2021. He lasted a year in the post.

Bennett says in a forthcoming YouTube video shared with The New York Times that he decided to “create a price tag” and strike inside Iran in response to any attack on Israelis or Jews around the world. “The Iranians beat us, and soldiers die on the border,” Bennett says in the self-produced interview, while Iranian leaders “sit quietly in Tehran and we do nothing to them.”

It was not just the quadcopter attacks.

After “Iran tried to murder Israelis in Cyprus, in Turkey,” Bennett says, the Revolutionary Guard commander behind it “was eliminated in Tehran.” He is referring to the assassination of Sayad Khodayee, who Israel claimed was a leader of a covert unit responsible for the abduction and killing of Israelis and other foreigners around the world.

After Israel adopted the new strategy, Bennett says in the video, President Joe Biden, during a meeting, made a “sharp request” that Israel inform the United States in advance “of

any action we take in Iran.”

Bennett refused, he says.

“There are things you do not want to know about in advance,” he recalls telling the U.S. president.

The intelligence communities of Israel and the United States clashed on the issue in April 2021 after an operation by the Mossad to blow up bunkers at the Natanz enrichment site surprised the United States.

Burns called his counterpart at the Mossad at the time, Yossi Cohen, to express concern over the snub. Cohen said that the belated notification was the result of operational constraints and uncertainty about when the Natanz operation would take place.

A video capturing what is said to be the moment a drone hit a military factory in Isfahan, Iran.

‘Very dangerous people’: Russia’s convict fighters are heading home

By ANATOLY KURMANAEV, ALINA LOBZINA and EKATERINA BODYAGINA

He was released from a Russian prison and thrown into battle in Ukraine with a promise of freedom, redemption and money. Now, Andrei Yastrebov, who was among tens of thousands of convict soldiers, is part of a return from the battlefield with potentially serious implications for Russian society.

Yastrebov, 22, who had been serving time for theft, returned home a changed man. “We all feel like he is in some sort of hypnosis, like he is a different person,” said a relative of his, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “He is without any emotions.”

Thousands of convicts have been killed, many within days or even hours of arriving at the front, Russian rights advocates and Ukrainian officials say. Those who live and return home largely remain silent, wary of retribution if they speak out.

President Vladimir Putin’s decision to allow a mercenary group to recruit Russian convicts in support of his flagging war effort marks a watershed in his 23-year rule, say human rights activists and legal experts. The policy circumvents Russian legal precedent and, by returning some brutalized criminals to their homes with pardons, risks triggering greater violence throughout society, underlining the cost Putin is prepared to pay to avoid defeat.

Since July, about 40,000 inmates have joined the Russian forces, according to Western intelligence agencies, the Ukrainian government and a prisoners’ rights association, Russia Behind Bars, which combines reports from informers across Russian jails. Ukraine claims that nearly 30,000 have deserted or been killed or wounded, although that number could not be independently verified.

Most of the enlisted men were serving time for petty crimes such as robbery and theft, but records from one penal colony seen by The New York Times show that the recruits also included men convicted of aggravated rape and multiple murders.

“There are no more crimes, and no more punishments,” said Olga Romanova, the head of Russia Behind Bars. “Anything is permissible now, and this brings very far-reaching consequences for any country.”

More than six months ago, Russia’s largest private military company, Wagner, and its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, began systematically recruiting convicts on a scale not seen since World War II to bolster a bloody assault on the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Yet the operation remains largely cloaked in secrecy and propaganda.

Wagner has been able to avoid oversight by exploiting the most marginalized Russian citizens, the 350,000 male inmates of its harsh penal colonies, human rights activists and lawyers said.

Dozens of survivors from the first inmate assault units began filtering back to Russia this month with medals, sizable payouts and documents that Wagner claims grant them freedom. The releases are likely to accelerate as Wagner’s six-month service contracts expire, potentially confronting Russian society with the challenge of reintegrating thousands of traumatized men with military training, a history of crime and few job prospects.

“These are psychologically broken people who are retur-

ning with a sense of righteousness, a belief that they have killed to defend the Motherland,” said Yana Gelmel, a Russian prisoner rights lawyer who works with enlisted inmates. “These can be very dangerous people.”

Neither Prigozhin, through his press office, nor Russia’s penal service provided comment.

To document the recruitment drive, the Times interviewed rights activists, lawyers, legal workers, relatives of recruited inmates, deserters and prisoners who decided to remain behind bars but maintain contact with companions on the front lines.

They described a sophisticated system of incentives and brutality built by Wagner, with the Kremlin’s support, to refill Russia’s decimated military ranks using questionable, and possibly illegal, methods.

Andrei Medvedev said he joined Wagner within days of finishing his prison term for theft in southern Russia. A former convict with military experience, he says he was put in charge of a detachment of prisoners who were dispatched on nearly suicidal missions around Bakhmut.

“We were told: ‘Keep going until you’re killed,’” Medvedev said in a phone interview from Russia after deserting in November. He has since escaped to Norway and applied for political asylum.

The campaign to recruit convicts began in early July, when Prigozhin started appearing in prisons around his native St. Petersburg with a radical proposal for the inmates: paying their debt to society by joining his private army in Ukraine.

A former inmate himself, Prigozhin understood prison culture, skillfully combining a threat of punishment with a promise of a new, dignified life, according to rights activists and families.

“He didn’t go for the money, he was too proud for that,” said Anastasia, about a relative who enlisted with Wagner as a prisoner. “He went because he was ashamed in front of his mother, he wanted to clear his name.”

Prigozhin’s prison visits immediately raised legal questions. Mercenary recruitment is illegal in Russia, and until last year Prigozhin had denied that Wagner even existed.

On paper, the prisoners never went to war, but were merely transferred to Russian jails near the Ukrainian border, according to information requests filed by their relatives.

When Anastasia, who asked that her last name not be used, tried to find the whereabouts of her enlisted relative at his prison, she said the guards merely told her that he was unavailable.

To lift declining recruitment numbers, Wagner has lately been playing up the rewards for survivors, releasing videos of returned prisoners being granted freedom.

“I needed your criminal talents to kill the enemy in the war,” Prigozhin said in one video. “Those who want to return, we are waiting for you to come back. Those who want to get married, get baptized, study — go ahead with a blessing.”

In some videos, the inmates are given papers described as pardons or annulments of convictions. However, none of these documents have been made public, raising questions about their legitimacy. Rights advocates say pardons are rare, time-consuming and complex legal procedures that have never been issued in Russia on anywhere near the scale advertised by Wagner.

Only Putin can issue a pardon under the Russian Constitution, and the Kremlin has not published such decrees since 2020. In 2021, Putin pardoned just six people, according to the Kremlin.

Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, on Friday told reporters that Wagner’s enlisted convicts are being pardoned “in strict adherence to Russian law.” He declined further comment, implying the procedure was a state secret.

“There are open decrees and decrees with various degrees of secrecy,” he said.

Under Russian law, all pardon petitions are evaluated by specialized regional committees before arriving at the Kremlin. However, two members of such commissions said they had not received any petitions from enlisted convicts. One of those officials represents the city of St. Petersburg, the residence of Yastrebov.

Rights activists say the returning inmates’ ambiguous legal status undermines Russia’s justice system and ties their fate to Wagner.

After spending just three weeks at home, Yastrebov said he was already getting ready to return to the front, despite the extraordinary casualty rates suffered by his prison’s unit, according to Russia Behind Bars.

“I want to defend the Motherland,” he said in a brief interview Friday. “I liked everything over there. The civilian life is boring.”

A poster showing a member of the Russian military near the headquarters of the Wagner private military company in St. Petersburg, Russia.

AI: Actually insipid until it’s actively insidious

Elon Musk. Musk, one of the founders with Sam Altman, left and now Microsoft is a partner.

There’s keening that ChatGPT — couldn’t they have come up with a better name, like HAL? — will eliminate millions of jobs. Why hire a college graduate if a bot can do the same work faster and cheaper? No more arguments about work-from-home rules, no more union fights. You don’t need to lure AI back into the office with pizza.

ChatGPT opens a Pandora’s box of existential fears. Silicon Valley brainiacs have talked about safeguards and kill switches for AI, but you know they won’t pull the plug when their baby turns into M3gan.

Once AI can run disinformation campaigns at lightning speed, will democracy stand a chance? We seem headed toward a Matrix where “it will become cheaper to show fakes than to show reality,” Jaron Lanier, the father of virtual reality, wrote in Tablet. Will bad actors use AI to promote bigotry or hijack nuclear weapons?

As Musk once told me about his AI angst: “It’s great when the emperor is Marcus Aurelius. It’s not so great when the emperor is Caligula.”

“Act II, Scene 1: You sneak away from the ball and make your way to the estate’s library. There, you discover a hidden door, which leads to a secret chamber. Inside, you find a chest filled with precious jewels.

“Act III, Scene 1: As you are admiring the jewels, you hear a noise. It is the estate’s owner, a wealthy and arrogant nobleman. He catches you red-handed but instead of punishing you, he is taken by your wit and charm.

“Act IV, Scene 1: The nobleman reveals that the jewels were a test of character and he had been seeking a clever and resourceful woman to be his wife. You are overjoyed and accept his proposal.

“Act V, Scene 1: The play ends with a grand wedding ceremony and a celebration of your cleverness and wit.”

Sounds more like a Salma Hayek heist movie. I spent the rest of the afternoon soliciting love poems from John Donne, Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe, who called me a “telltale columnist.” I tried to channel Sylvia Plath, but ChatGPT told me that would be “inappropriate.”

By MAUREEN DOWD

Some experts say that when artificial intelligence takes off, it’s going to be like Martians landing on the National Mall.

So far, our mind children, as the roboticist Hans Moravec called our artificially intelligent offspring, are in the toddler phase, as we ooh and aah at the novelty of our creation. They’re headed for the rebellious teenage phase. When AI hurtles into adulthood and isn’t so artificial anymore, we’ll be relegated to being the family pets, as a resigned Steve Wozniak put it.

Silicon Valley is reeling at the prowess of an experimental chatbot called ChatGPT, released by OpenAI in late November and deemed “scary good” by

Several years ago, I interviewed the OpenAI founders in San Francisco, as well as other Valley digerati. And that is when I realized that we are doomed. For the Lords of the Cloud, as they form their sleek new world, we’re VCRs.

That is why I feel free to kick back and shoot the breeze with our incipient overlords. I read that you could use advanced AI to interview historical figures. So I conducted my dream interview with Shakespeare, bantering with the Bard.

“Greetings, fair sir or madam,” ChatGPT said, embodying Shakespeare.

What is your response to those who think “The Merchant of Venice” is antisemitic?

“While it is true that some of the language and imagery used in the play may be considered offensive by modern standards,” he replied, Shylock “is a complex and multifaceted figure who is both villain and victim.”

The Bard of Avon, as he called himself, cautioned that while the Oscar-winning movie “Shakespeare in Love” was “whimsical,” “it should not be taken as a factual representation of my life.”

Can you write me a love sonnet?

He could, even though, as he said, he was “a mere machine.” One stanza read: “With eyes that shine like stars upon the sea, And lips as sweet as summer’s ripest fruit, Thou art the one my heart doth long to see, And in thy beauty, all my dreams take root.”

Shakespeare, it ain’t. Still, I tell him, I would love to be the heroine in a Shakespearean comedy! It took ChatGPT only moments to write “The Clever Maid.”

“Act I, Scene 1: A grand ball is being held in a grand estate. You, the fair maiden, are in attendance, dressed in the finest gowns. However, you are not there to dance and make merry, for you have a secret mission.

The most entertaining mimicry was when AI Kendrick Lamar wrote me a rap: “Listen up, I got a story to tell, ’bout a journalist who’s sharp as a nail. She’s got the pen and the power, To make politicians cower.”

For now, ChatGPT is typing, not writing. The creative spark requires humanity. But soon, AI could be sentient. Then we’ll need our dog bowls.

PO BOX 6537 Caguas PR 00726

Telephones: (787) 743-3346 • (787) 743-6537 (787) 743-5606 • Fax (787) 743-5100

SAN JUAN – La secretaria del Departamento de Energía federal, Jennifer Granholm, insistió el lunes que la transición para que Puerto Rico produzca su energía eléctrica con alternativas 100 por ciento renovables depende de la voluntad del Gobierno de Puerto Rico.

“Esto no va a suceder por sí solo. Hemos encontrado tres opciones que son viables y forman parte de las consultas que hemos hecho con la comunidad. Espero que esto ayude a informar el plan de recursos integrados, pero ese plan debe seguirse. Significa que tienen que distribuirse recursos en todos los bolsillos de la Isla. Así como algunos recursos de generación a gran escala. Y, por supuesto, esta es una transición, por lo que sabemos que tenemos que garantizar la confiabilidad mientras esta transición ocurre”, dijo Granholm en una conferencia de prensa con el gobernador Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia y la administradora de la Agencia federal para el

Manejo de Emergencias (FEMA, por sus siglas en inglés), Deanne Criswell.

“Puerto Rico puede ser un ejemplo de Zona Cero de cómo una la isla, que es parte de los Estados Unidos o cualquier país puede ser 100 por ciento confiable en recursos limpios, renovables. Es un momento para que Puerto Rico pueda levantarse de la tragedia de estos huracanes y terremotos para construir un sistema que realmente sea un modelo. Esto requerirá un esfuerzo considerable”, añadió.

Por su parte, el gobernador Pierluisi Urrutia, reiteró que Puerto Rico está encaminado a lograr las metas de generación de energía mediante fuentes renovables y que su Administración está comprometida en incorporar tecnologías de energía solar, almacenamiento y plantas virtuales de energía, así como soluciones adicionales para continuar la transición hacia un sistema que no dependa de combustibles fósiles.

“Estamos encaminados a lograr nuestras metas de generación renovable, hemos aumentado

los sistemas de energía distribuida, continuamos dando prioridad a la resiliencia y seguimos arreciando nuestros esfuerzos para estabilizar el sistema eléctrico. A la misma vez, trabajaremos juntos, tanto el gobierno estatal, el gobierno federal, el sector privado y el comunitario, para asegurar que logramos el sistema energético confiable y moderno que merece nuestra gente”, expuso el gobernador.

La secretaria Granholm visitará los pueblos de Loíza, Vieques, Culebra y Salinas.

SAN JUAN – La División de Integridad Pública y Asuntos del Contralor (DIPAC) del Departamento de Justicia concluyó la investigación preliminar de un referido contra el senador Albert Torres Berríos por alegaciones de maltrato de menores.

“La investigación preliminar realizada por la DIPAC reveló que la evidencia recopilada no establece los elementos de los delitos de maltrato instaurados en los artículos 59 y 60 de la Ley

Núm. 246-2011, Ley para la Seguridad, Bienestar y Protección de Menores”, lee el informe de la DIPAC.

La investigación comenzó el 5 de julio de 2022, cuando la División de Delitos Sexuales y Maltrato de Menores del CIC de Guayama del Negociado de la Policía de Puerto Rico consultó una querella de maltrato de menores presentada por el padre de una menor en contra del senador Torres Berríos en la Fiscalía de Guayama. Por tratarse de un legislador a quien le cobija las disposiciones de la Ley Núm. 2-1988, según enmendada, conocida como Ley de la Oficina del Panel sobre el Fiscal Especial Independiente, la querella fue investigada en la DIPAC del Departamento de Justicia y el Negociado de Investigaciones Especiales (NIE).

La querella fue presentada por el padre de una menor en contra del senador Torres Berríos por alegado maltrato en contra de la hija del querellante. Los hechos se remontan al 18 de junio de 2022, cuando la menor, hijastra del querellado, le notificó a su padre que el senador Torres Berríos la maltrataba consistente en halarle el cabello, empujarla y llamarla por el epíteto de víbora. Además, la menor le informó a su padre que el querellado también agredió (empujó) a su madre, quien es la actual pareja del senador, frente a los dos hijos menores de edad. La menor se retractó de la información ofrecida a su padre.

Tras completar la investigación, la DIPAC concluyó que no existe causa suficiente para creer que Torres Berríos incurrió en maltrato de menores, toda vez que la evidencia recopilada no establece los elementos de los delitos de maltrato.

En vista de lo anterior, el secretario de Justicia, Domingo Emanuelli Hernández, acogió la recomendación de la DIPAC para que no se designe un Fiscal Especial Independiente para el senador por los hechos investigados y envió a la OPFEI el informe sobre la investigación preliminar y el expediente. También se les envió comunicación notificando dicha recomendación a las partes involucradas.

El 22 de julio del año pasado, tras concluir otra investigación relacionada con una querella sobre acoso laboral presentada ante la Oficina de Recursos Humanos del Senador, el Departamento de Justicia recomendó la designación de un FEI para investigar al senador Torres Berríos. En aquella ocasión, el Departamento de Justicia entendió que existía causa suficiente para creer que el legislador incurrió en conducta de naturaleza delictiva al infringir varias disposiciones de leyes especiales y del Código Penal de Puerto Rico.

Debido a que la investigación preliminar se encuentra ahora ante la consideración de la OPFEI, el secretario y los funcionarios del Departamento de Justicia no emitirán declaraciones adicionales sobre este caso.

No recomiendan FEI contra senador Albert Torres Berríos por maltrato de menores

“El camino a la energía renovable no ocurrirá por si solo”, dice secretaria de Energía

Tuesday, January 31, 2023 20

The responsibility of watching

out by an apparent right-wing extremist, had been the subject of grotesque jokes and lurid, baseless speculations from some of his wife’s political enemies. While the video seems to refute all such claims, it is unlikely to stem the tide of conspiracism and fantasy in some right-wing precincts. The assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, also involved extremists hunting for Nancy Pelosi, and in spite of abundant documentation has been treated by partisans as a tangle of mystery, indeterminacy and through-the-looking-glass distortion.

Video may not lie, but people do. The fact that even the plainest images are open to interpretation, manipulation and mischaracterization places an ethical burden on the viewer. The cost of looking is thinking about what we see. Video is a tool, not a shortcut or a solution. Three decades after the King beating, Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, and a bystander’s video of his killing galvanized a global protest movement. What we do with the images is what matters.

What do we do with these images that come from official sources, and that exist partly because of the impulse to keep a closer eye on law enforcement? In the Memphis videos what is perhaps most heartbreaking, and most chilling, is the casual indifference of the officers to Nichols’ anguish — and to the cameras that recorded it.

By A.O. SCOTT

Do you have a civic duty to watch, or a moral obligation not to?

Some version of that question has confronted us since the body- and pole-camera footage of Memphis, Tennessee, police officers beating Tyre Nichols was released Friday evening. The argument isn’t necessarily about whether the Police Department should have posted the roughly hourlong, four-part, lightly redacted video online for everyone to see.

The legal and political reasons for doing so, at the urging of Nichols’ family, seem obvious and cogent. Too often, the worst abuses of power are allowed to fester in secrecy, shrouded in lies, bureaucratic language and partial information. Raw video offers clarity, transparency and perhaps accountability — a chance for citizens to understand the unvarnished truth about what happened on the night of Jan. 7.

That is the hope, in any case: that concerned Americans will become witnesses after the fact, our senses shocked and our consciences awakened by the sight of uniformed officers repeatedly kicking and punching Nichols, who would die from his injuries three days later. “I expect you to feel what the Nichols family feels,” Cerelyn Davis, the Memphis police chief, said in anticipation of the video’s impact. Her appeal to common humanity expressed faith in the power of even the most horrific images to foster empathy and community — and faith in the human capacity to experience outrage and compassion when shown such images.

That faith provides a strong argument for the importance

of looking. To turn away in circumstances like this would not merely be to succumb to a loss of nerve, but to risk a loss of heart. In insisting that the world see what had been done to her son, RowVaughn Wells, Nichols’ mother, recalled Mamie Till-Mobley, who in 1955 placed the disfigured body of her murdered son, Emmett, in an open coffin so that the viciousness of the racists who killed him could not be denied.

A delicate ethical line separates witness — an active, morally engaged state of attention — from the more passive, less demanding condition of spectatorship. The spectacle of violence has a way of turning even sensitive souls into gawkers and voyeurs. Violence, including the actions of police, is a fixture of popular culture, and has been since long before the invention of video. For much of human history, public executions have been a form of entertainment. The history of lynching in the United States is in part a history of public spectacle, in which the mutilation and murder of Black men brought out white crowds to stare, cheer and take photographs.

I’m not saying that looking at the video of Nichols’ beating is equivalent to joining in one of those crowds, but rather that Black suffering in America has often been either relegated to invisibility or subjected to exploitation and commodification. That is the dilemma that Wells and others in her position have faced, even as she challenges the public to acknowledge her son’s full humanity.

On Friday, not long before the Memphis videos were posted, a police bodycam clip was released showing part of the Oct. 28 assault on former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, at his home in San Francisco. That attack, carried

In the pole-camera video, which is the longest of the four segments and has no sound, you see him crumpled against the side of a patrol car and collapsing onto the ground as his assailants and an ever-increasing number of their colleagues mill around, mostly ignoring him. Someone lights a cigarette. Someone fiddles with a clipboard. Because of the silence of the soundtrack and the immobility of the camera, time seems to slow down, and action mutates into abstraction. A human catastrophe is playing out under a ruthlessly impersonal eye looking down from above.

The bodycam adds sound and movement. You feel the frenzy of the chase and the impact of bodies as Nichols is taken down. Then you hear his anguished, pleading, desperate cries. You also hear the officers complaining that he made them run after him and made them pepper-spray one another, insisting that he must be “on something” and embroidering a story — which they may well believe — about how he took a swing at one and grabbed for another’s gun.

After a while, the drama of the traffic stop, the chase and the beating fades into the routine tedium of the job. The semiintelligible voices on the radio, the blend of jargon and profanity in the officers’ conversation, their mixture of weariness and bravado — all of this is familiar. We’ve seen this before, not only in real life but also, perhaps most of all, in movies and on television. And of course in first-person games, which the bodycam footage uncannily and unnervingly replicates. We see the violence from the point of view of a perpetrator. We aren’t bearing witness so much as experiencing our own complicity, and taking account of that is perhaps where the work of watching these videos should begin.

A still image from police body camera video provided by San Francisco Superior Court and annotated by The New York Times shows the moment before an assailant, left, struck Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi, with a hammer in the couple’s California home in the early hours of Oct. 28, 2022.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tom Verlaine, influential guitarist and songwriter, dies at 73

By PETER KEEPNEWS

Tom Verlaine, whose band Television was one of the most influential to emerge from the New York punk rock scene centered on the nightclub CBGB — but whose exploratory guitar improvisations and poetic songwriting were never easily categorizable as punk, or for that matter as any other genre — died Saturday in Manhattan. He was 73.

His death was announced by Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of Verlaine’s fellow musician Patti Smith. She did not specify a cause, saying that he died “after a brief illness.”

Although Television achieved only minor commercial success and broke up after recording two albums, Verlaine — who went on to record several solo albums and reunited with the band periodically — had a lasting influence, especially on his fellow guitarists.

“Tom Verlaine is the guitarist to mention these days if you’re a young rocker with some pretense to intelligence and originality,” Robert Palmer of The New York Times wrote in 1987.

Reviewing a performance by Verlaine’s band at the Bowery Ballroom in 2006, Times critic Jon Pareles wrote: “Mr. Verlaine’s guitar leads didn’t flaunt virtuosity by streaking above the beat. They tugged against it instead: lagging deliberately behind, clawing chords on offbeats, trickling around it or rising in craggy, determined lines.”

The layered, often ethereal sound that Verlaine and the other members of Television developed was a far cry from the stripped-down approach of the Ramones and other leading lights of the punk scene. But that scene — which also included bands as disparate as Blondie and Talking Heads — was never as one-dimensional as it was often portrayed.

Verlaine, who was also the band’s lead singer and did most of the songwriting, studied piano and saxophone as a

child, and his music had roots in everything from the free jazz of John Coltrane to the Rolling Stones’ hard-driving “19th Nervous Breakdown.” His often impressionistic lyrics reflected the influence of poets like Paul Verlaine, from whom the man born Thomas Miller took his stage name. Television had its roots in Verlaine’s friendship with Richard Meyers, later known as Richard Hell, when they were students at a boarding school in Delaware. After they moved to New York, they formed a band, the Neon Boys, which in 1973 evolved into Television, with Rich-

ard Lloyd on second guitar, Hell on bass and Billy Ficca on drums. Hell was replaced by Fred Smith in 1975 and later went on to form the punk band Richard Hell and the Voidoids.

After building a devoted following in New York, Television was signed by Elektra Records and in 1977 released the album “Marquee Moon.” Sales were disappointing, but critical acclaim was nearly unanimous, and “Marquee Moon” now regularly shows up on lists of the greatest rock albums.

Tom Verlaine, center left, and Television perform at Rough Trade NYC, in New York, Nov. 29, 2013. Verlaine, whose band Television was one of the most influential to emerge from the New York punk rock scene, died in Manhattan on Jan. 28, 2023. He was 73.

Help! I reserved a rental car, but there was no car for me.

By SETH KUGEL

Dear Tripped Up, My husband and I often fly to Atlanta and rent a car at the airport for the 90-mile final leg to our lake house. Two weeks before our Dec. 6 trip, I made a reservation through Alamo. But when we got to the counter, an employee told me they were totally out of cars. I thought he was joking — I had a reservation — but he wasn’t. So I got on my phone, saw Avis had cars available, and reserved with them. After a wait at the Avis counter, an employee told me he couldn’t give me a car because they were prioritizing people who had booked in advance. We ended up in an expensive Uber. Can you explain how car rental companies can take a reservation and then not have a car waiting for you? Shouldn’t they at least alert us in advance, so we could make other arrangements?

— Renee, Carmel, Indiana

Dear Renee, Car rental companies have frustratingly variable definitions of the word “reservation,” ranging from “whimsical notion” to “binding agreement.” Something is out of whack here, and has been at least since the Dec. 4, 1991, episode of “Seinfeld,” when Jerry steps up to the counter to find the mid-size vehicle he has reserved is unavailable.

“You know how to take the reservation,” he berates the poor attendant. “You just don’t know how to hold the reservation. And that’s really the most important part of the reservation, the holding.”

In the end, Jerry’s predicament turned out to be nothing compared with yours: The clerk offers him a compact car and he accepts. That’s a dime-a-dozen inconvenience that anyone who rents cars regularly has experienced, but it is a result of the same quirky industry practice: Unlike hotels and airlines, car rental companies typically allow customers to reserve a car with no prepayment or even a credit card. That means there is usually no penalty for no-shows, making it harder for companies to predict fleet availability, sometimes relegating large families to small sedans and occasionally leading to experiences like yours.

So I beg to differ with Jerry: Rental car companies don’t know how to take a reservation. And I agree with you — the least companies could do is get in touch with customers when they are running out of cars and suggest they make other arrangements.

I reached out to Alamo and Avis to discuss your issue, and for good measure spoke with Hertz, so all three U.S. car rental conglomerates were represented. (Alamo is owned by Enterprise Holdings.)

That led a manager at the Atlanta Alamo agency to get in touch with you and offer to pay for your Uber from the airport, which, as Mike Wilmering, an Alamo spokesperson, told me via email, is what the company did for other customers that day.

Beth Gibson, vice president for customer experience at Avis, was a bit befuddled, telling me that, according to company records, Avis did not run out of cars that day and in fact took 70 walk-in customers, far more than usual. Gibson did say that on rare occasions, the Avis system implements a “hard suspend” of reservations for a period of time when demand is too high, but there was no record of that happening the day you tried to get a car.

So what happened that day at Alamo?

“We have a team that closely monitors our bookings and inventory to ensure vehicles are available for those who reserved one,” wrote Wilmering, “but extenuating circumstances can, at times, disrupt this.”

On Dec. 6, the company experienced “an unexpected surge in demand, coupled with multiple vehicles not returned, we also had several vehicles that were due for maintenance and/or repair.”

That doesn’t explain why Alamo would run out of cars. Nothing was forcing the company to accept those additional reservations. Having cars “due for maintenance” also strikes me as an odd excuse, since it seems highly foreseeable. Wilmering did not specify how many cars were not returned or were in for repair, but it must have been a lot more than usual or it doesn’t make sense for Alamo not to have cut off reservations as well. (Dec. 6 was the day of the Senate runoff election in Georgia, which both companies suggested may have contributed to the spike in demand.)

This left me with two nagging questions: What can consumers do to ensure a car is waiting for them? And, if hotels and airlines require payment in advance (or at least a penalty for no-shows), why not car rental companies?

Jonathan Weinberg, the founder and CEO of AutoSlash, a car rental site that searches for the best deals, told me that the car rental agencies originally offered riskfree reservations as a consumer-friendly policy and now are reluctant to drop a perk consumers have come to expect.

To seek advice on how customers can be sure a car — and preferably the one they reserved — is there, I asked not only company representatives, but also called customer service lines to ask whoever answered. Advice was all over the place and frustratingly devoid of promises, leaving me with the sneaking suspicion that companies simply give cars away in the order people show up, no matter who they are or how or when they reserved.

The best advice came from a customer service representative from Alamo, who recommended calling the branch directly as your travel date approaches. (It’s easy to find the branch numbers by clicking on “Locations” on alamo.com.) They can let you know if there is an increase in demand for your dates that might mean it’s worth having a plan B, he said.

An Avis representative had a different take, telling me the best way to ensure you get a car is to register for Avis Preferred, a loyalty program. She told me it was easy and free, and she was right. (I’m their latest member.) Gibson agreed, and added that prepaying would also make you a higher priority. Another pro tip: She recommended taking the extra minute or two to provide your flight information when you book a car, which allows the agency to automatically adjust your arrival time if your plane is late.

The biggest news came from Hertz, which now requires that renters provide a credit-card number when making a reservation. Customers who do not cancel before their pickup time are charged for one day’s rental. Lauren Luster, a Hertz spokesperson, said that the new policy was put in place last February at all corporate branches in the United States, in part to better control inventory and reduce the chances a customer would arrive and not find an appropriate car waiting. Kudos to Hertz, which took the leap a mere 31 years after that “Seinfeld” episode first aired. Progress, nonetheless.

A reader’s reservation got her nowhere with Alamo (and Avis didn’t pull through either), raising the question of why rental companies have such a bad record of delivering the cars they promise.

Expert panel votes for stricter rules on risky virus research

By BENJAMIN MUELLER and CARL ZIMMER

An expert panel late last week endorsed a sweeping set of proposed changes to the federal government’s program for regulating experiments that involve tinkering with risky viruses and other viruses. The move sets the stage for a closely watched decision by the Biden administration about its approach to protecting against lab disasters that could kick off a pandemic.

The experts unanimously approved draft recommendations that, among other things, ask health officials to extend their oversight to less dangerous viruses, including ones similar to the coronavirus. They also recommended an end to exemptions for research related to vaccine development and surveillance of emerging viruses.

“We have a lot of oversight on paper, but not really a lot of oversight,” said Dr. Kenneth Bernard, a retired rear admiral and a member of the expert panel, making the case for the proposed changes, which will still receive some slight modifications.

The proposals have added to the momentum in Washington for tightening government oversight of studies of dangerous pathogens.

Two internal federal watchdogs recently issued reports that criticized the monitoring of such studies. Congressional Republicans are preparing to seek testimony from Dr. Anthony Fauci, who until recently directed the institute responsible for funding much of the country’s virus research. And the Biden administration has signaled a willingness to act, describing biological threats as among the most serious dangers facing the United States.

The expert panel, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, is charged with advising the government on biosecurity issues. Its proposals emerged out of a decade of debate over so-called gain of function studies, in which viruses are endowed with new abilities. Members of the board began discussing their latest reforms in January 2020, only to put the process on hold so they could focus on pandemic-related research.

The pandemic, though, reinforced

what some critics of risky virus research saw as a need for oversight of a broader set of viruses: Despite killing only a tiny fraction of those it infected, the coronavirus created a global catastrophe.

Now, the question is whether the advisory board’s proposals sweep up too broad a range of viruses or fail to reach far enough.

Proponents of stronger oversight have largely been heartened by the recommendations and applauded their focus on any experiments that could be expected to produce a virus with pandemic potential.

“If the government implements the spirit of what they’ve written, this would be a major overhaul of dual-use research oversight in the United States,” said Gregory Koblentz, a biodefense specialist at George Mason University, referring to research that could also be used to do harm.

Still, he said, the White House should go beyond the board’s recommendations in creating an independent agency to perform that oversight, streamlining a system he considered too fragmentary.

Other experts have warned that even the existing proposals go too far. Some have said that the recommendations would create an oversight system so expansive

and confusing that it could discourage minimally risky experiments with huge potential public health benefits.

“There’s a lot that could potentially fall into this because it’s so vaguely written,” said Gigi Gronvall, a biosafety specialist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She suggested that the type of research used to make the Ebola vaccine could fall under the new policy. “You could potentially be creating a huge oversight burden,” she said, “which the government does not have the technical capacity to implement.”

Those concerns were echoed by 150 virologists, who in a commentary published Thursday cautioned against hampering researchers with needless burdens. They warned that cumbersome regulations “will lead to unwarranted constraints on pandemic preparation and response and could leave humanity more vulnerable to future disease outbreaks.”

Seema Lakdawala, a virus expert at Emory University, told the advisory board Friday that additional regulations could, for example, interfere with efforts to track the bird flu epidemic that has killed millions of chickens and driven up egg prices. Influenza strains that infect people evolve from

bird flu viruses that gain new mutations. The advisory board’s final report will be sent to the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, which will have further discussions with different government agencies before issuing a new policy.

“I’d be hesitant to even guess what the time frame is, but I am sure that it will be longer than one month,” Dr. Lawrence Tabak, who is performing the duties of director at the National Institutes of Health, said in a news conference after the meeting.

Proponents of stronger oversight have been lobbying in recent days for more aggressive controls. For example, the board recommended that the government be more transparent about its reviews of potential viruses. A group of scientists including Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, have argued that the public should be allowed to see the resulting risk/benefit assessments before any research begins.

One board member, Mark Denison, a virus expert at Vanderbilt University, who voted for the recommendations, said he nevertheless had reservations about their potential to constrain testing of new monoclonal antibody treatments for viral infections.

Even if the White House embraces the core of the advisory board’s recommendations, it is unclear whether it will adopt some of the experts’ more ambitious proposals. For example, the board suggested evaluating research for its impact on not only humans but animals or even plants.

Some virologists said the threat posed by an experiment could only be determined by evaluating the details of its methodology, such as whether a virus was being modified to grow better in a petri dish or in a mosquito.

“Who decides what’s reasonable, and who decides what’s anticipated?” said Angela Rasmussen, a virus expert at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. “Is it going to affect just a few more studies or basically every virology study?”

Proponents of stronger oversight applauded the recommendations, while critics were wary of an oversight system that they worried would stymie experiments with potential public health benefits.

LEGAL NOTICE

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO LIME HOMES LTD.

Plaintiff V. ELIZABETH JAMESON HODGES SEYMOUR, FELIX DELGADO MEDINA AND THEIR CONYUGAL PARTNERSHIP

Defendants

Civil: 16-CV-3001. PAD. Re: FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE IN REM. NOTICE OF SALE.

TO: ELIZABETH JAMESON HODGES SEYMOUR, FELIX DELGADO MEDINA AND THEIR CONYUGAL PARTNERSHIP, ANY OTHER PARTY WITH INTEREST OVER THE PROPERTY MENTIONED BELOW; GENERAL PUBLIC.

WHEREAS: Judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff to recover from defendants the sum of $284,655.44 in principal, interest rate of 6.9140% per annum since September 1, 2015. Such interest will continue to accrue until the debt is paid in full. Also advances made under the mortgage note including but not limited to insurance premiums, taxes and inspections as well as 10% of the original principal amount to cover costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees guaranteed under the mortgage obligation. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by interested parties at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150, Federal Office Building, 150 Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.

WHEREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned Judgment, Order of Execution, and the Writ of Execution thereof, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S. currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Room 150 –Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property (as described in the Property Registrar in the Spanish language): Mansiones Playa de Húcares, B2 Calle Marina, Naguabo, PR 00718. URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbani-

zación Playa de Húcares, en el barrio Santiago y Lima del municipio de Naguabo. Puerto Rico, que se describe en el plano de urbanización, con el número, área y colindancias que se relacionan a continuación: número del solar B-2; área de 1,023.24 metros cuadrados. En lindes al NORTE, con el solar 1, en una distancia de 33.77 metros; al SUR, con el solar 3, en una distancia de 33.78 metros; al ESTE, con la calle #2, en una distancia de 30.00 metros y al OESTE, con el solar #6, en una distancia de 30.00 metros. Enclava una casa. La propiedad consta inscrita al folio 200 del tomo 188 de Naguabo, finca número 10,586 del Registro de la Propiedad de Humacao.

The mortgage deed is recorded at page 93 of volume 234 of Naguabo, property #10586, Property Registry of Humacao.

WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens:

Senior Liens: None. Junior Liens: None. Other Liens: None. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. THEREFORE, the FIRST PUBLIC SALE shall be held on the 14TH DAY OF FEBRUARY OF 2023, AT: 8:45 AM. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $289,220.87. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on 21ST DAY OF FEBRUARY OF 2023, AT: 8:45 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum $192,813.91, which is twothirds of the amount of the minimum bid for the first public sale. If a second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD public auction will be held on the 28th day of February of 2023, at: 8:45 am, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $144,610.44, which is onehalf of the minimum bid in the first public sale. Should there be no award or adjudication at the third public sale, the property may be awarded to the creditor for the entire amount of its debt if it is equal to or less than the amount of the minimum bid

of the third public sale, crediting this amount to the amount owed if it is greater. The Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied. WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the Special Master subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 21st day of December of 2022. PEDRO

A. VÉLEZ-BAERGA, SPECIAL MASTER, SPECIALMASTERPR@GMAIL.COM, 787-6728269.

LEGAL NOTICE

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO FINANCE OF AMERICA REVERSE, LLC.

Plaintiff Vs. NILDA LUZ SANTIAGO

MEDINA A/K/A NILDA

L. SANTIAGO MEDINA

A/K/A NILDA SANTIAGO

MEDINA A/K/A NILSA

SANTIAGO MEDINA A/K/A

NILDA LUZ SANTIAGO

A/K/A NILDA L.

SANTIAGO A/K/A NILDA

SANTIAGO A/K/A NILSA

SANTIAGO; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Defendants

Civil Action No.: 17-cv-1627.

NOTICE OF SALE.

To: NILDA LUZ

SANTIAGO MEDINA A/K/A

NILDA L. SANTIAGO

MEDINA A/K/A NILDA

SANTIAGO MEDINA

A/K/A NILSA SANTIAGO

MEDINA A/K/A NILDA

LUZ SANTIAGO A/K/A

NILDA L. SANTIAGO

A/K/A NILDA SANTIAGO

A/K/A NILSA SANTIAGO;

Tuesday, January 31, 2023 24

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

GENERAL PUBLIC.

WHEREAS: Judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff to recover from defendants the principal sum of $86,409.11, plus interest at a rate of 5.060% per annum until the debt is paid in full. The defendant Nilda Luz Santiago Medina a/k/a Nilda L. Santiago Medina a/k/a Nilda Santiago Medina a/k/a Nilsa Santiago Medina a/k/a Nilda Luz Santiago a/k/a Nilda L. Santiago a/k/a Nilda Santiago a/k/a Nilsa Santiago to pay Finance of America Reverse, LLC., all advances made under the mortgage note including but not limited to insurance premiums, taxes and inspections as well as 10% ($17,100.00) of the original principal amount to cover costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees guaranteed under the mortgage obligation. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by interested parties at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150, Federal Office Building, 150 Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. WHEREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned Judgment, Order of Execution, and the Writ of Execution thereof, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S. currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Room 150 – Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property.

“URBANA: Solar número seis de la Manzana H, Urbanización Santa Mónica, Barrio Pájaros de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, compuesta de 325.00 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con el solar número 5, en 25.00 metros; por el SUR, con el solar número 7, en 25.00 metros; por el ESTE, con la Calle número 6, en 13.00 metros y por el OESTE con el solar número 21, en 7.00 metros y con el solar número 20, en 6.00 metros, con un total la distancia de 13.00 metros.” Property Number 19,829 recorded at page 146 of volume 438 of Bayamon Sur, Registry of the Property of Puerto Rico, Section I of Bayamón. The mortgage being foreclosed is recorded at page 37, volume 1,933 of Bayamon Sur, property 19,829, 12th inscription, Registry of the Property of Puerto Rico, Section I of Baya-

mon. WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens: Senior Liens: None. Junior Liens: Reverse mortgage securing a note in favor of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, or its order, in the original principal amount of $171,000.00, due on March 30, 2094 pursuant to deed number 84, issued in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on June 9, 2014, before notary Magaly Rodriguez Batista, and recorded, at page 37 of volume 1,933 of Bayamon Sur, property number 19,829, 13th inscription. Other Liens: None. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. THEREFORE, the FIRST PUBLIC SALE shall be held on the 14TH DAY OF FEBRUARY, 2023 AT 8:35 AM. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $171,000.00. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on the 21ST DAY OF FEBRUARY, 2023 AT 8:35 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum $114,000.00, which is two-thirds of the amount of the minimum bid for the first public sale. If a second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD PUBLIC AUCTION will be held on the the 28TH DAY OF FEBRUARY, 2023 AT 8:35 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $85,500.00, which is one-half of the minimum bid in the first public sale. The Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied.

WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the Special Master subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and

the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 13th day of December of 2022.

PEDRO A. VÉLEZ-BAERGA, SPECIAL MASTER, SPECIALMASTERPR@GMAIL.COM, 787-672-8269.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Parte Demandante Vs. CARMEN F. RIVERA PEÑA T/C/C CARMEN

FABIANA RIVERA PEÑA Y ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: PO2022CV00586. Sala: 406. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y 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 19 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 3:15 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: URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Apartamento Número Seis guion C (6-C). Apartamento de forma irregular situado en el sexto piso (6to) del edificio conocido como Condominio Buena Vista que consta de sala-comedor, dos (2) dormitorios, dos baños, un closet vestidor, otro closet,

The San Juan Daily Star

cocina, un corredor que comunica la sala-comedor con los dormitorios y un closet despensa en la cocina. Tiene un área aproximada de 79.43 metros cuadrados. Colindando por el NORTE, en dos punto noventa (2.90) metros, con la pared que lo separa del vestíbulo que da acceso a la escalera y el ascensor y en cinco punto noventa y dos (5.92) metros, con la pared que lo separa de un espacio abierto que da sobre el techo del corredor de la primera planta; por el SUR, en siete punto setenta (7.70) metros, con la pared que lo separa de los Solares Números Noventa y Uno (91) y Novena y Dos (92) de la Urbanización Mercedita; por el ESTE, en cinco punto sesenta y uno (5.61) metros, con la pared que lo separa de la caja del ascensor y la escalera y en cuatro punto sesenta (4.60) metros con la pared que lo separa del patio lateral Este, que a la vez colinda con el área reservada para estacionamiento en la Urbanización Mercedita; y por el OESTE, en nueve punto ochenta (9.80) metros con la pared que lo separa del patio que colinda con la Calle F de la urbanización mencionada. Todas las medidas anteriores son aproximadas. Al indicado apartamento le corresponde un porcentaje de 4.05% en la participación como en los gastos, ganancias y derechos de los elementos comunes generales e igual proporción se aplicará en la notación de las reuniones de los Condómines. Inscrita al folio 9 del tomo 1346 de Ponce, Finca Número 38545, Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección I. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 5 del tomo 2039 de Ponce, Finca 38545, Registro de la Propiedad de Ponce, Sección I. Inscripción vigésima. Dirección Física: Cond. Buena Vista, 1396 Calle Bonita, Apt. 6C, Ponce, PR 00731. Número de Catastro: 63-389-075-854-07-719. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta será de $69,000.00. De no haber adjudicación en la primera subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, el día 21 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 3:15 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, $46,000.00. De no haber adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA, el día 28 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 3:15 DE LA TARDE en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será la mitad del precio pactado, o sea, $34,500.00. 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 $62,034.72 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 6.375% anual desde el 1 de noviembre de 2020 hasta su completo pago, más $279.76 de recargos acumulados, los cuales continuarán en aumento hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más la cantidad estipulada de $6,900.00 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 los siguientes gravámenes posterior a la hipoteca que por la presente se pretende ejecutar: Hipoteca: Constituida por Carmen Fabiana Rivera Peña (soltera), en garantía de un pagaré a favor de Popular Mortgage Inc., o a orden, por la suma de $10,000.00, con intereses al 5.50% anual y vencedero el 1 de septiembre de 2041, según consta de la escritura #27, otorgada en Ponce, el 13 de agosto de 2011, ante la notaria Alys M. Collazo Bougeois, inscrita al folio 127 del tomo 2110 de Ponce, finca #38545, inscripción 21ma. Aviso de Demanda: Pleito seguido por Banco Popular de Puerto Rico Vs. Carmen Fabiana Rivera Peña también conocida como Carmen F. Rivera Peña y Estados Unidos de América, ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Ponce, en el Caso Civil Número PO2022CV00586, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, en la que se reclama el pago de hipoteca con un balance de $62,034.72 y otras cantidades, según Demanda de fecha 9 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 13 de diciembre de 2022. Juan

Rolando Cruz Román, Alguacil Placa #965, Tribunal De Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial De Ponce, Sala Superior.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE FAJARDO BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. CARLOS ENRIQUE HERNÁNDEZ RUIZ, SU ESPOSA, JACKELINE ROSARIO QUIÑONES Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandados

Civil Núm.: FA2018CV00537.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA

POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA.

A: LOS CODEMANDADOS DE EPIGRAFE Y AL PÚBLICO EN GENERAL:

El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente anuncia y hace constar que en cumplimiento de una Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe el 29 de abril de 2022, enmendada el 3 de mayo de 2022, notificada el 5 de mayo de 2022 y publicada el 12 de mayo de 2022; y de un Mandamiento de Ejecución emitido el día 15 de junio de 2022, que le ha sido dirigido por la Secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Fajardo, procederá a vender en subasta, y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, y/o giro postal, dinero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o cheque certificado a nombre

del Alguacil del Tribunal, o letra bancaria, con similar garantía de todo título, derecho o interés de los demandados de epígrafe sobre el inmueble que adelante se describe. Se anuncia por la presente que la primera subasta habrá de celebrarse el día 9

DE MAYO DE 2023 A LAS 2:30

DE LA TARDE, en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Fajardo, sobre el inmueble que se describe a continuación:

RÚSTICA: Parcela marcada con el #H-1, en el plano de parcelación de la comunidad rural Mata de Plátano, del barrio Mata de Plátano del término municipal de Luquillo, con una cabida de 525.71 metros cuadrados. En linderos: NORTE, con calle #2 de la comunidad; SUR, con parcela #H-2 de la comunidad; ESTE, con calle #10 de la comunidad y OESTE, con parcela #H-37 de la comunidad. Finca número 12344, inscrita al folio 181 del tomo 241 de Luquillo (Sección de Fajardo). Dirección física: H-1 (10 St) Gaviota St. Estancias del Atlántico Luquillo PR 00773. El siguiente pagaré consta inscrito en la propiedad antes mencionada y es el que se pretende ejecutar: HIPOTECA: Por $110,907,00, con intereses al 4-1/2% anual, en garantía de un pagaré a favor de Home Mortgage Bankers, o a su orden, que vence el 1ro de mayo de 2039. Según escritura #36, otorgada el 23 de abril de 2009, ante Carlos Martínez Olmo, inscrita al folio 181 del tomo 241 de Luquillo, inscripción 4ta. y última. La referida hipoteca grava el bien inmueble antes descrito. 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: $94,252.05 por concepto de principal, más intereses al 4.5% anual hasta su completo pago, más 4% de todo pago en atraso, más $11,090.70 como cantidad estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato de préstamo. 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 de Fajardo, 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. Los tipos mínimos a utilizarse para la subasta son los siguientes: El inmueble antes descrito ha sido tasado en la suma de CIENTO

DIEZ MIL NOVECIENTOS SIETE DÓLARES ($110,907.00) para que dicha suma sirva de tipo mínimo en la primera subasta a celebrarse. De no producirse remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del antedicho inmueble, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado, el día 16 DE MAYO DE 2023 A LAS 2:30 DE LA TARDE, sirviendo como tipo mínimo para dicha segunda subasta, una suma equivalente a las dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de SETENTA Y TRES MIL NOVECIENTOS TREINTA Y OCHO

DÓLARES ($73,938.00) para la finca antes descrita. De no producirse remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta del antedicho inmueble, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado, el día 23 DE MAYO DE 2023 A LAS 2:30 DE LA TARDE, sirviendo como tipo mínimo para dicha tercera subasta, una suma equivalente a la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo fijado para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de CINCUENTA Y CINCO MIL CUATROCIENTOS CINCUENTA Y TRES

DÓLARES CON CINCUENTA

CENTAVOS ($55,453.50) para la finca antes descrita. En testimonio de lo cual, expido el presente aviso, el cual firmo y sello, hoy 11 de enero de 2023, en Fajardo, Puerto Rico. DENISE BRUNO ORTIZ, ALGUACIL

AUXILIAR #266, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE FAJARDO. JORGE

A. ORTIZ ESTRADA, ALGUACIL REGIONAL INTERINO #622.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN

BANCO POPULAR DE

PUERTO RICO Y SUN

WEST MORTGAGE

COMPANY, INC. COMO

AGENTE DE SERVICIO

Demandante Vs.

SUCESIÓN DE

ROSA GILDA ABREU

HERNÁNDEZ T/C/C

ROSA GILDA ABREU COMPUESTA POR

SUS HEREDERAS

CONOCIDAS OLGA

CORPORÁN T/C/C OLGA

IDALIZA CORPORÁN

ABREU, ROSA CORPORÁN ABREU, WANDA CORPORÁN ABREU Y MYRIAN CORPORÁN ABREU; SUCESIÓN DE MANUEL DE JESÚS CORPORÁN COMPUESTA POR SUS HEREDEROS CONOCIDOS OLGA CORPORÁN T/C/C OLGA IDALIZA CORPORÁN ABREU, ROSA CORPORÁN ABREU, WANDA CORPORÁN ABREU, MYRIAN CORPORÁN ABREU Y DORA LISA CORPORÁN; SUCESIÓN DE MANUEL CORPORÁN ABREU COMPUESTA POR SUS HEREDERAS CONOCIDAS LISA CORPORÁN BATISTA, MICHELLE CORPORÁN BATISTA Y MARÍA ROSA CORPORÁN BATISTA; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHAS SUCESIONES; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA Demandados

Civil Núm.: SJ2021CV04986. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO ANUNCIANDO PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe, funcionario del Tribunal de la Sala Superior de San Juan, Puerto Rico, por la presente anuncia y hace saber al público en general que en cumplimiento con la Sentencia dictada en este caso con fecha 7 de febrero de 2022, y según Orden y Mandamiento del 6 de mayo de 2022 librado por este honorable Tribunal, procederé a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor, y por dinero en efectivo, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal con todo título derecho y/o interés de la parte demandada sobre la propiedad que se describe a continuación:

URBANA: Solar sito en el Barrio Monacillos de la municipalidad de Río Piedras, antes, hoy San Juan, Puerto Rico, marcado con el número diez y nueve A de la manzana LV de la Urbanización Caparra Terrace, con un área superficial de doscientos cuarenta y uno metros cuadrados, más o menos, el cual colinda por el NORTE, en nueve metros setenta y ocho centímetros con los solares número diez A y diez B de la manzana LV; por el SUR, en nueve metros cincuenta centímetros con la Calle número noventa

y uno de la urbanización; por el ESTE, en veinticinco metros con el solar número diecinueve B de la manzana LV; y por el OESTE, en veinticinco metros con el solar número dieciocho de la manzana LV. Enclava una casa de concreto armado con techo de azotea y piso de losas del país, de una sola planta, que constituye una vivienda independiente, consistiendo de tres dormitorios con sus closets, sala y comedor en una sola unidad, cocina con su closet, balcón y cuarto de baño. Existe una servidumbre por signo aparente establecida por la corporación vendedora en la pared que divide los apartamentos A y B, cuya pared continuará sirviendo a ambos apartamentos y pertenecerá en común proindiviso y en toda su actual extensión y espesor a los propietarios de ambos apartamentos. FINCA NÚMERO: 8,785, inscrita al folio 41 del tomo 236 de Monacillos, sección III de San Juan. Nota aclaratoria: En el Registro de la Propiedad la descripción registral consta como anteriormente fue descrita. En la Escritura número 69, otorgada el 29 de febrero de 2008, consta lo siguiente; URBANA: Solar sito en el Barrio Monacillos de la municipalidad de Río Piedras, antes, hoy San Juan, Puerto Rico, marcado con el número diez y nueve A de la manzana LV de la Urbanización Caparra Terrace, hoy número mil trescientos veintidós (1321). Dirección

Física: URB. CAPARRA TERRACE, NÚMERO 19-A MANZANA LV (Hoy número 1321), SAN JUAN PR 00921 T/C/C 1321 34 ST. SO CAPARRA TERRACE, SAN JUAN PR 00921. Se anuncia por medio de este edicto que la PRIMERA SUBASTA habrá de celebrarse el día 21 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina sita en el edificio que ocupa el Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala Superior de San Juan. Siendo ésta la primera subasta que se celebrará en este caso, será el precio mínimo aceptable como oferta en la Primera Subasta, eso es el tipo mínimo pactado en la Escritura de Hipoteca para la propiedad, la suma de $222,000.00. De no haber remanente o adjudicación en esta primera subasta por dicha suma mínima, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 28 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar antes señalado en la cual el precio mínimo serán dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo pactado en la escritura de hipoteca, la suma de $148,000.00. De no haber remanente o adjudicación en esta segunda subasta por el tipo mínimo indicado en el párrafo anterior, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA en el

mismo lugar antes señalado el día 8 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la cual el tipo mínimo aceptable como oferta será la mitad (1/2) del precio mínimo pactado en la escritura de hipoteca, la suma de $111,000.00. Si se declare 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 mínimo de la tercera subasta, si el tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta es mayor. Con el importe de esta venta se habrá de satisfacer el balance de la sentencia dictada en este caso el cual consiste en el pago de $218,566.26 de principal, más intereses convenidos al 7.0000% anual más recargos hasta su pago, más el pago de lo pactado en la sentencia para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados. Se dispone que una vez celebrada la subasta y vendido el inmueble relacionado, el alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial a los nuevos dueños dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la celebración de la Subasta. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del demandado/deudor la ocupen. El Alguacil de este Tribunal efectuará el lanzamiento de los ocupantes de ser necesario. Por la presente, también se notifica e informa al Secretario de Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano de los Estados Unidos de América por éstos contar con una hipoteca a su favor por la suma de $222,000.00, intereses al 7.00% anual, y a vencer el 1ro de marzo de 2090, según consta de la Escritura #70, inscrito al folio 11 del tomo 1059 de Monacillos, finca 8,785, inscripción 13ra. Además, se notifica e informa a Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal, personas desconocidas que puedan tener derechos en la propiedad o título objeto de este edicto. La Venta en Pública Subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga y gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la Primera, Segunda y Tercera Subasta, si eso fuera necesario, a los efectos de cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha Subasta. 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 enten-

derá que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento del caso de epígrafe están disponibles en la Secretaría de este Tribunal durante horas laborables y para la concurrencia de los licitadores expido el presente Edicto que se publicará en un periódico de circulación diaria en toda la Isla de Puerto Rico por espacio dos (2) semanas y por lo menos una vez por semana y se fijará, además, en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Alcaldía y la Colecturía de Rentas Internas del Municipio donde se celebrará la Subasta y en la Colecturía más cercana del lugar de la residencia de la parte demandada. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente que firmo y sello, hoy día 17 de enero de 2023.

PEDRO HIEYE GONZÁLEZ, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE MAYAGÜEZ

FIRSTBANK

PUERTO RICO

Demandante V.

AURIE RAMONITA

FERNANDEZ TORO T/C/C

AURIE R. FERNÁNDEZ

TORO T/C/C AURIE

FERNÁNDEZ TORO,

EDWARD JOEL RAMÍREZ

OLIVENCIA T/C/C

EDWARD J. RAMÍREZ

OLIVENCIA T/C/C

EDWARD RAMÍREZ

OLIVENCIA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS

Demandados

Civil Núm.: ISCI201700653. (307). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE GARANTÍAS. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A:

EL PÚBLICO EN GENERAL.

El Alguacil del Tribunal que suscribe anuncia y hace constar: A. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Mayagüez, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor de contado y en moneda de curso legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América

y cuyo pago se efectuará en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, todo derecho, título o interés que tenga la Parte Demandada en el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: Solar identificado con el número 2 en el Plano de Inscripción del Proyecto Valle La Encantada, localizado en el Barrio Marías del término municipal de Añasco, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 455.244 metros cuadrados, equivalentes a 0.1158 cuerdas. En lindes por el NORTE, con solar número 1 del Plano de Inscripción; por el SUR, con solar número 3 del Plano de Inscripción; por el ESTE, con calle de uso público y por el OESTE, con terrenos pertenecientes a la Sucesión Juan Carrero García. En dicho solar enclava una casa residencial de concreto armado y bloques de hormigón. Dirección Física: 2 Valle La Encantada, Dev., Marías Ward, Añasco, PR 00610. Finca 12,117, inscrita al folio 144 del tomo 277 de Añasco, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Mayagüez. B. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado están de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables bajo el epígrafe de este caso. C. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematente los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. D. Que la propiedad se encuentra afecta a las siguientes condiciones restrictivas: Sujeta a Condiciones para viabilizar la adquisición del bien inmueble, la Autoridad para el financiamiento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, a través del Programa de Mi Nuevo Hogar, concedió a la compradora la suma de $6,420.66 para sufragar gastos de cierre y dispone condiciones por el término de 10 años. E. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma de $145,106.07 de principal, la suma de $7,614.12, que incluye principal, intereses según pactados, cargos por demora y otros cargos, que se acumulan diariamente hasta su total y completo pago, más la suma de 10% del principal, por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se celebrará el día 28 DE MARZO DE 2023 A LAS

término de catorce (14) días en los sitios públicos conforme a la ley, expido la presente bajo mi firma y sello de este tribunal, hoy 13 de enero de 2023 en Camuy, Puerto Rico. LUIS E. ROMÁN CARRERO, ALGUACIL. WILFREDO OLMO SALAZAR, ALGUACIL REGIONAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN

LIME RESIDENTIAL, LTD.

Parte Demandante Vs. JOSÉ EDUARDO

RAMÍREZ DE ARELLANO CALDERÓN, SU ESPOSA

MARTA MARGARITA

VARGAS SUÁREZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; GOBIERNO DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

Demandados

Civil Núm.: KCD2012-0587.

Salón Núm.: (807). Sobre:

EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA

Y COBRO DE DINERO (VÍA ORDINARIA). EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.

A: JOSÉ EDUARDO

RAMÍREZ DE ARELLANO CALDERÓN, SU ESPOSA MARTA MARGARITA

VARGAS SUÁREZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS; GOBIERNO DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA: ESTADO

LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO; DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA; BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO: Y AL PÚBLICO EN GENERAL:

El Alguacil que suscribe, certifica y hace constar que en cumplimiento de Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América. Todo pago recibido por el (la) Alguacil por concepto de subastas será en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del (de la) Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Todo derecho, título, participación e interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o

cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número ocho guión F (#8-F) de la Urbanización Paseo del Prado, situada en el Barrio Cupey Alto de Río Piedras del término municipal de San Juan, Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de ochocientos catorce punto cero seis (814.06) metros cuadrados, colindando por el NORTE, con Interstate General Properties Limited Partnership, S.E. para futuro desarrollo, con una distancia de veintinueve punto quince (29.15) metros; por el SUR, con la Calle número dos (2) en una distancia de veintidós punto noventa y cinco (22.95) metros; por el ESTE, con Esteban Facundo en cuatro distancias que suman treinta y cinco punto cincuenta y dos (35.52) metros; y por el OESTE, con el solar número siete guión F (#7-F) en una distancia de veintiocho punto veintisiete (28.27) metros. ENCLAVA: Una casa de concreto para fines residenciales. Consta inscrita al folio sesenta y uno (61) del tomo cuatrocientos cincuenta y dos (452) de Río Piedras Sur, finca número catorce mil setecientos dos (#14,702) del Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Cuarta de San Juan. La propiedad objeto de ejecución está localizada en la siguiente dirección: Urbanización Paseo del Prado, Solar 8-F, Calle Camino Real, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00926. Según figura en el Estudio de título, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada a los siguientes Gravámenes posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: i. Embargo a favor del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, en la suma de $25,503.98, por concepto de contribución sobre ingreso, según Certificación de fecha 9 de julio de 2009, anotado el día 30 de julio de 2009, al folio 85 del tomo 676 de Rio Piedras Sur, finca número 14,702, Anotación

A. NOTA: También anotado al folio 153 Orden 608 del Libro de Embargos Estatales número

2. ii. Embargo Federal contra J. Ramírez De Arellano & M. Vargas, seguro social xxx-xx-2760, dirección P.O. Box 195491, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 009195491, por la suma de $34,311.30, notificación número 840354612, presentado el día 15 de febrero de 2012, anotado al folio 174, Asiento 1, del libro de Embargos Federales

número 8. iii. Embargo Federal contra José Ramírez De Arellano & M. Vargas, seguro social xxx-xx-2760, dirección F-8 Camino Real El Prado Los Paseos, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00926, por la suma de $12,905.93, notificación número 858530512, presentado el día 26 de abril de 2012, anota-

do al folio 214, Asiento 1, del libro de Embargos Federales número 8. iv. Sentencia dictada el día 11 de julio de 2011, por el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, en el Caso Civil número KCD10-2422 (903), sobre Cobro de Dinero, seguido por Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, demandante, versus José Ramírez de Arellano Calderón; Marta Vargas Suarez y la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales compuesta por ambos, por una cuantía de $10,243.79, más intereses, presentado el día 12 de junio de 2013 y anotado el día 17 de julio de 2013, al folio 36 Demanda número 103 del Libro de Sentencias número 3. v. Sentencia dictada el día 2 de marzo de 2010, por el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, en el Caso Civil número KCD2006-0710, sobre Cobro de Dinero, seguido por el Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, demandante, versus José Ramírez de Arellano, por la suma de $68,240.44, inscrito al folio 92, Demanda número 270 del Libro de Sentencias 2. vi. Embargo Federal contra J. Ramírez de Arellano & M. Vargas, seguro social xxx-xx-2760, dirección 650 P/2 650 Muñoz Rivera Ave. Ste. 205, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00918-4112, por la suma de $9,279.37, notificación número 136919914, presentado el día 29 de enero de 2015, anotado al folio 90, Asiento 3, del libro de Embargos Federales número 10. vii. Embargo Federal contra José Ramírez de Arellano & M. Vargas, seguro social xxx-xx-2760, dirección F-8 Camino Real El Prado, Los Paseos, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00926, por la suma de $12,905.93, notificación número 841767512, presentado el día 15 de febrero de 2012, anotado al folio 178, Asiento 5, del libro de Embargos Federales número 8. viii. Embargo Federal contra J. Ramírez de Arellano & M. Vargas, seguro social xxx-xx-2760, dirección P.O. Box 195491, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00919-5491, por la suma de $5,549.92, notificación número 186150115, presentado el día 7 de diciembre de 2015, anotado al folio 80, Asiento 5, del libro de Embargos Federales número 12. ix. Embargo Federal contra J. Ramírez de Arellano & M. Vargas, seguro social xxx-xx-2760, dirección P.O. Box 195491, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 009195491, por la suma de $4,487.56, notificación número 190420515, presentado el día 23 de diciembre de 2015, anotado al folio 97, Asiento 1, del libro de Embargos Federales número 12. x. Embargo Federal contra J. Ramírez de Arellano & M. Vargas, seguro social xxxxx-2760, dirección P.O. Box 195491, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00919-5491, por la suma

de $107,529.34, notificación número 210369116, Certificación de fecha 26 de abril de 2016, presentado el día 26 de abril de 2016 y anotado el día 9 de mayo de 2016, Asiento 2016-004641-FED del Sistema Karibe. xi. Embargo Federal contra J. Ramírez de Arellano & M. Vargas, seguro social xxxxx-2760, dirección P.O. Box 195491, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00919-5491, por la suma de $45,638.99, notificación número 218677916, Certificación de fecha 24 de junio de 2016, presentado el día 24 de junio de 2016 y anotado el día 20 de julio de 2016, Asiento 2016006875-FED del Sistema Karibe. xii. Embargo Federal contra J. Ramírez de Arellano & M. Vargas, seguro social xxxxx-2760, dirección P.O. Box 195491, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00919-5491, por la suma de $8,379.22, notificación número 3968251119, Certificación de fecha 7 de diciembre de 2019, anotado el día 23 de diciembre de 2019, Asiento 2019012000-FED del Sistema Karibe. Se le notifica a los acreedores posteriores anteriormente identificados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Se informa que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravamen posterior, una vez sea otorgada la escritura de venta judicial y obtenida la Orden y Mandamiento de cancelación de gravamen posterior. (Art. 51, Ley 2102015). En relación a la finca a subastarse, se establece como tipo mínimo de licitación en la Primera Subasta la suma de $682,000.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la Escritura de Hipoteca #553, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 3 de octubre de 2006, ante el notario Frederick James Baraga Huyke, inscrita al folio 85 del tomo 676 de Río Piedras Sur, finca #14,702, inscripción 9na., modificada mediante la escritura número 168, otorgada el día 31 de marzo de 2012, ante la notario Alexandra Serracante Cadilla, inscrita al folio 85 del tomo

676 de Río Piedras Sur, Inscripción 10ma. La PRIMERA SUBASTA, se llevará a cabo el día 15 DE FEBRERO DE 2023 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en mis oficinas sitas en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, el tipo mínimo para la primera subasta es la suma de $682,000.00. Si la primera subasta del inmueble no produjere remate, ni adjudicación, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 23 DE FEBRERO DE 2023 A LAS

10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo sitio y servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes del precio pactada para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $454,666.67. Si la segunda subasta no produjere remate, ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 6 DE MARZO DE 2023 A LAS

10:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar y regirá como tipo mínimo de la tercera subasta la mitad del precio pactado para la primera, o sea, la suma de $341,000.00. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo, para con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor, a saber: Suma Principal: $694,561.87, más los intereses correspondientes a razón de 5.50% anual, más los cargos por demora que corresponden a los plazos atrasados desde la fecha anteriormente indicada a razón de la tasa pactada de 5% de cualquier pago que esté en mora por más de quince (15) días desde la fecha de su vencimiento, desde el 1ro de julio de 2011 y los que se continúen acumulando hasta su total y completo pago. Más una suma estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado de $68,200.00, más cualquier otra suma que resulte por cualesquiera otros adelantos que se hayan hecho la demandante, en virtud de las disposiciones de la escritura de hipoteca y del Pagaré hipotecario. Para más información, a las personas interesadas se les notifica que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal, durante las horas laborables. Este EDICTO DE SUBASTA, se publicará en los lugares públicos correspondientes y en un periódico de circulación general en la jurisdicción de Puerto Rico. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los referentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente Escritura de Venta Judicial y el Alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días, de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Expedido en San Juan,

Puerto Rico, a 11 de enero de 2023. PEDRO HIEYE GONZÁLEZ, ALGUACIL. ***

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS

ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO AGENTE GESTOR DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC

Demandante Vs. MIGUEL NIEVES PÉREZ

Demandados

Civil: GR2022CV00019. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: MIGUEL NIEVES PÉREZURB SANTA ELVIRA E 11 CALLE SANTA ANA, CAGUAS, PUERTO RICO 00725-3419 / HC 02 BOX 13091 BO NAVARRO

GURABO, PUERTO RICO 00778-9615.

(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 19 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 24 de enero de 2023. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 24 de enero de 2023.

LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. 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 CAGUAS

AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND LLC

Demandante Vs. JUAN A. ESTEVES

OCASIO, FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES POR AMBOS COMPUESTA

Demandado Núm. de Caso: GR2022CV00216. Sala: 701. COBRO DE DINERO E INCUMPLIMIENTO DE CONTRATO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES QUE COMPONE CON JUAN A. ESTEVES

OCASIO - PARC. NUEVA CELADA 812 CALLE 39A, GUARABO PR 007782960.

EL(LA) SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 24 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 24 de enero de 2023. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 24 de enero de 2023. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL INTERINA. ENEIDA ARROYO VÉLEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC

COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC

Demandante V.

IVÁN SANTIAGO DELPIN; FULANA DE TAL & LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES

COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandado (a) Civil: CG2022CV00686. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, INCUMPLIMIENTO DE CONTRATO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: IVÁN SANTIAGO DELPIN, POR SI Y EN REPRESENTACIÓN DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES QUE COMPONE JUNTO A FULANA DE TAL. URB LA SERRANIA 169 LA PRIMAVERA CAGUAS, PUERTO RICO 00725.

A: FULANA DE TAL, POR SÍ Y EN REPRESENTACIÓN DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES QUE COMPONE JUNTO A IVÁN SANTIAGO DELPIN. URB

LA SERRANTA 169 LA PRIMAVERA CAGUAS, PUERTO RICO 00725. (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 20 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 25 de enero de 2023. En CAGUAS, Puerto Rico, el 25 de enero de 2023. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA. VILMA OYOLA RIVERA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

CHINEA PROPERTY MANAGEMENT INC.

Parte Demandante RAFAEL GOTAY

CRUZ Y ELIZABETH

VEGA INFANTE Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE

GANANCIALES POR ELLOS COMPUESTA

JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: CG2023CV00164.

Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: RAFAEL GOTAY CRUZ & ELIZABETH VEGA

INFANTE; JOHN DOE & JANE DOE.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:// unired.ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio. En síntesis, la parte demandante alega que el 7 de febrero de 2005, según escritura número 1 otorgada ante Evelyn Rodríguez Rodríguez, con vencimiento en 15 años, se garantizó un pagaré por la suma de $108,000, testimonio 1,710, devengando intereses al 4.5% anual a favor de Rafael Gotay Cruz y Elizabeth Vega Infante o a su orden, sobre la finca

7,069 de Aguas Buenas inscrita al folio 846 del tomo 338 de Aguas Buenas. Dicho pagaré fue satisfecho en su totalidad y no ha podido cancelarse por haberse extraviado. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. A esos efectos se le emplaza y requiere para que notifique copia de su contestación al abogado de la parte demandante:

JUANITA CRISTINA ALAMO

GARCIA RUA 11,004, PO BOX 194911 SAN JUAN, PR 00919, Tel. 787-607-7731, jcanotarial@gmail.com. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal hoy, 20 de enero de 2023. LISILDA

MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA. LIZ WHARTON ROSA, SUB-SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA DE MAYAGÜEZ

COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO

COURTHOUSE OF FIRST INSTANCE COURTROOM

OF MAYAGUEZ: JON

MICHAEL DUPONT

Demandante (Plaintiff) Vs PAIGE NICOLE GRANDCHAMP

Demandada (Defendant)

Civil Núm.: MZ2022RF00753.

Civil Number: MZ2022RF00753.

Sobre: DIVORCIO (RUPTURA IRREPARABLE) CUSTODIA Y PATRIA POTESTAD. Re: DIVORCE (IRREPARABLE BREAKUP) (CUSTODY AND PARENTAL AUTHORITY). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.

A: PAIGE NICOLE GRANDCHAMP.

P. O. BOX 62, KIOWA, CO 80117.

POR LA PRESENTE: Se le notifica a usted, Paige Nicole Grandchamp, que la parte demandante de epígrafe, ha radicado en esta Secretaría una Demanda sobre Divorcio por la causal de Ruptura Irreparable que aquí se menciona. Se le emplaza y requiere para que notifique a: LCDA. LOURDES

M. ORTIZ PAGAN, P.O. Box 593, Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico 00623, Tel (787) 831-1984, Fax 833-5118, remitiéndole copia de su contestación a la Demanda y radique el original de la contestación en este Tribunal dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Si no contesta la demanda, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia conforme a la prueba a recibirse, sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO POR ORDEN DEL TRIBUNAL, en Mayagüez, Puerto Rico hoy 23 de enero de 2023. LIC. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA REGIONAL II.

LOURDES GARCÍA CUEBAS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE AGUADILLA

COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO

COURTHOUSE OF FIRST INSTANCE COURTROOM OF AGUADILLA;

JONATHAN RAFAEL

CRESPO JIMÉNEZ

Demandante (Plaintiff) Vs DANIELLE MARIE PAULINO CRUZ TCP

DANIELLE MARIE CRUZ

Demandada (Defendant)

Civil Núm.: AG2023RF00013. Civil Number: AG2023RF00013.

Sobre: DIVORCIO (RUPTURA IRREPARABLE). CUSTODIA Y PATRIA POTESTAD RE:

DIVORCE (IRREPARABLE BREAKUP) (CUSTODY AND

PARENTAL AUTHORITY). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. SUMMONS BY EDICT. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: DANIELLE MARIE PAULINO CRUZ TCP DANIELLE MARIE

CRUZ. HC 1 BOX 17119, INARAJAN, GUAM 96915 O SEA LA PARTE DEMANDADA ARRIBA MENCIONADA. I.E. THE ABOVE-MENTIONED DEFENDANT.

POR LA PRESENTE: Se le notifica a usted, Sra. Danielle Marie Paulino Cruz t/c/p Danielle Marie Cruz, que la parte demandante de epígrafe ha radicado en esta Secretaría una Demanda de Divorcio por la causal de Ruptura Irreparable que aquí se menciona.

HEREBY: You are hereby notified, Mrs. Danielle Marie Paulino Cruz t/c/p Danielle Marie Cruz, that the plaintiff has filed in this Secretariat a Petition for Divorce on the grounds of Irreparable Breakdown mentioned herein. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizado la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitando en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente.

YOU ARE HEREBY summoned and required to answer the complaint within thirty (30) days of the publication of this Edict.

You must submit your responsive allegation through the Unified Case Management and Administration System (SUMAC), which can be accessed using the following electronic address: https://unired.ramajudicial.pr, unless represented in its own right, in which case you must present your responsive allegation at the secretariat of the. Court. If you fail to present your responsive argument within the aforementioned term, the court may issue a judgment in default against you and grant

the remedy requesting in the lawsuit, or any other, if the court in the exercise of its healthy discretion, considers it appropriate.

Nombre del Abogado:

LOURDES M. ORTÍZ PAGAN

RUA: 9103

Dirección: Po Box 593, Cabo Rojo, PR 00623 Tel: (787) 831-1984 / Fax (787) 833-5118

Correo electrónico: lourdesm_ ortizpagan@hotmail.com

Name of Attorney:

LOURDES M. ORTIZ PAGAN RUA: 9103

Address: PO Box 593, Cabo Rojo, PR 00623 Phone: (787) 831-1984 / Fax (787) 833-5118

Email:

lourdesm)ortizpagan@hotmail.com

EXPEDIDO POR ORDEN

DEL TRIBUNAL, en Mayagüez Puerto Rico hoy 17 de enero de 2022. ISSUED BY ORDER OF THE COURT, in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico today 17 of January, 2023. SARAHÍ REYES PÉREZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

MIDFIRST BANK

Demandante Vs. LA SUCESION DE ORLANDO RIVERA CUADRADO COMPUESTA

POR DIEGO ORLANDO

RIVERA FELICIANO Y POR LEONARDO

RIVERA FELICIANO Y POR SUS HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS

DENOMINADOS COMO

FULANO Y SUTANA DE TAL; SUCESION DE YASHIRA WALESKA

FELICIANO TORRES

COMPUESTA POR

SUS HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS

DENOMINADOS COMO

FULANO Y SUTANA DE TAL; Y EL CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Demandada

Civil Núm.: FA2019CV00247.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

A: LA SUCESION DE ORLANDO RIVERA

CUADRADO COMPUESTA

POR DIEGO ORLANDO

RIVERA FELICIANO Y POR LEONARDO

RIVERA FELICIANO Y POR SUS HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DENOMINADOS COMO FULANO Y SUTANA DE TAL; SUCESION DE

YASHIRA WALESKA

FELICIANO TORRES COMPUESTA POR

SUS HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DENOMINADOS COMO FULANO Y SUTANA DE TAL; Y EL CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM), Y AL PUBLICO EN GENERAL: El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Fajardo, hago constar que en cumplimiento de la Sentencia dictada con fecha de 26 de agosto de 2021 y por edicto el 1 de septiembre de 2021, de la Orden de Ejecución de Sentencia emitida el 27 de octubre de 2021 y el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el 28 de octubre de 2021, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor la propiedad que se describe a continuación:

URBANA: Solar número diez (10) del bloque cuatro “L” (4-L) de la Urbanización Alturas de Monte Brisas, localizado en el Barrio Quebrada Fajardo, del municipio de Fajardo, Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de trescientos treinta y ocho (338.0) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con el solar número once (11), en una longitud de veintiséis (26.0) metros; por el SUR, con el solar número nueve (9), en una longitud de veintiséis (26.0) metros; por el ESTE, con el solar número cuarenta (40), en una longitud de trece (13.0) metros; y por el OESTE, con la calle número siete (7) en una longitud de trece (13.0) metros. Enclava edificación. FINCA NUMERO: 11,525, inscrita al folio 70 tomo 278 de Fajardo, Registro de Fajardo. Esta hipoteca consta inscrita al folio #130 del tomo #460 de Fajardo, finca #11525, inscripción 5ta. La dirección física de la propiedad es: Urbanización Alturas de Monte Brisas, Calle 7 #4-L10, Fajardo, Puerto Rico. El producto de la subasta se destinará a satisfacer al demandante hasta donde alcance, la suma de $69,464.35 que compone la deuda del principal, más el interés anual de 7.00% sobre el balance del principal calculado desde el 1 de agosto de 2018, hasta el pago de la deuda en su totalidad. Los intereses continuaran devengándose hasta el pago total y completo de la deuda. Los demandados adeudan los cargos por mora, equivalentes al 4.0% de todos los pagos atrasados más de 15 días de la fecha de vencimientos y los créditos adelantados hechos de acuerdo con el pagaré hipotecario y la escritura de hipoteca; La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen

POSTERIOR que afecte la mencionada finca. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a efecto el día 6 DE MARZO DE 2023

A LAS 3:30 DE LA TARDE, en la sala del referido Alguacil, sita en el edificio que ocupa el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Fajardo. Que el precio mínimo fijado para la PRIMERA subasta es de $97,231.00. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una SEGUNDA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día 13 DE MARZO DE 2023 A LAS 3:30 DE LA TARDE, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la SEGUNDA subasta será de $64,820.66 equivalente a dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Si no se produce remate ni adjudicación en le PRIMERA ni en la SEGUNDA subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA día 20 DE MARZO DE 2023

A LAS 3:30 DE LA TARDE, en la oficina a antes mencionada del alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo fijado para esta TERCERA subasta es la mitad de la suma pactada para la PRIMERA subasta a saber $48,615.50. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistente. Entendiéndose que el rematante lo acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de estos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. No constan inscrito en el Registro de la Propiedad acreedores que tengan derechos o cargas sobre el bien hipotecado con anterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante. Se les advierte a los licitadores que la adjudicación se hará el mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el acto mismo de la adjudicación, en moneda curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, entiéndase en efectivo, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal. Tome conocimiento la parte demandada y toda aquella persona o personas que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando; y para conocimiento de los licitadores y el público en general, se publicará dos (2) veces en un periódico de circulación diaria en la Isla de Puerto Rico y se fijará, además, en los lugares públicos correspondientes. Una vez efectuada la venta de dicha propiedad, el Alguacil procederá a poner al licitador victorioso en posesión física de la propiedad dentro del plazo de veinte (20) días contados a partir de la venta en pública Subasta. Además, el Alguacil procederá a darle posesión del material al adjudica-

tario, en los casos que fuere necesario, proceda el lanzamiento del demandado o terceras personas de la propiedad subastada y forzar puertas o ventanas, romper cerraduras, candados, cortar cadenas y tomar cualquier otra medida propia. De igual forma, el Alguacil sacará cualquier propiedad mueble o personal de los demandados o de terceras personas que se encuentren en la mencionada propiedad. Además, los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la secretaría del tribunal durante las horas laborables. EXPIDO, el presente EDICTO, en Fajardo, Puerto Rico, a 23 de diciembre de 2022. SANDRALIZ MARTÍNEZ TORRES, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR #737, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE FAJARDO. JORGE A. ORTIZ ESTRADA, ALGUACIL REGIONAL #622.

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. FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION COMO SUCESOR EN DERECHOS DE DORAL BANK; BANCO POPULAR PUERTO RICO COMO SUCESOR EN DERECHOS DE RELIABLE FINANCIAL SERVICES INC.; NEW YORK MORTGAGE BANKERS POR CONDUCTO DEL SINDICO DE QUIEBRA; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES CON INTERES

Demandado(a)

Civil: BY2022CV05887. Sala:

501. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE (PERSONAS DESCONOCIDAS CON POSIBLE INTERES).

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 23 de 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 no-

tificación 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 25 de enero de 2023. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 25 de enero de 2023. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. NEREIDA QUILES SANTANA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR. LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CRÉDITO DE VEGA ALTA Demandante Vs. ORIENTAL BANK AND TRUST (EUROBANK), BAYVIEW LOAN SERVICING, MOCZÓ DEVELOPMENT

CORPORATION; FULANO DE TAL Demandado Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV08076. (908). Sobre: PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO POR SUMAC. A: BAYVIEW LOAN SERVICING, ULTIMO ACREEDOR MOCZÓ DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, DEUDOR INSCRITO FULANO DE TAL, TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS. EL SECRETARIO (A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 23 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 esta. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los diez (10) días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del

término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 26 DE ENERO DE 2023. En SAN JUAN , Puerto Rico, el 26 de enero de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL, LUCRECIA PAGÁN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO MMG PR CFL, LLC

Plaintiff Vs. ALBA DIANA

VILAR VELEZ

Defendants

Civil No.: 11-1517. (SSC). Re: COLLECTION OF MONIES, FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE. NOTICE OF SALE.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO, SS.

To: ALBA DIANA VILAR VELEZ; DEPARTAMENTO DE LA VIVIENDA DE PUERTO RICO; CONSEJO DE TITULARES DEL CONDOMINIO MARINA

III AND THE PUBLIC IN GENERAL:

Judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff for the sum of $83,966.01 in principal, $7,287.79 in accrued, plus accrued interest as of October 10,2011, which continue to accrue at 6.00% per annum until payment in full. Late charges of $396.91, and any disbursements made by plaintiff on behalf of defendant in accordance with the mortgage deed, plus costs, and ten (10) percent attorney’s fees; Pursuant to the judgment, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for United States currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Federico Degetau Federal Building, Chardón Street, Hato Rey, San Juan, Puerto Rico or any other place designated by said Clerk, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property:

URBANA: Propiedad Horizontal: Apartamento residencial localizado en el primer piso (segundo nivel) del Edificio B del Condominio Marina III Barceloneta, sito en el barrio Pueblo del término municipal de Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, con un área aproximada de 95.941

pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 83.2666 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en 46’4” con áreas comunes, pasillo y escaleras; por el SUR, en 46’4” con el apartamento #801; por el ESTE, en 17’10” con la calle Juan de la Torres y por el OESTE, en 21”3” con área de estacionamiento. Consta de sala-comedor, cocina, balcón 3 dormitorios, 2 baños, roperos (closets) y lavandería (laundry). Su puerta principal de entrada está situada en su lindero Norte. Estacionamiento: Le pertenece el uso exclusivo de dos estacionamientos identificados con el #901 en el área descubierta del estacionamiento y en el plot plan con una cabida superficial de 270.00 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 25.08 metros cuadrados; siendo sus colindancias por el NORTE, con el estacionamiento #1001; al SUR, con el estacionamiento, # 801; al ESTE, con área de rodaje y al OESTE, con área verde. El área total de este apartamento, incluyendo el estacionamiento privado es de 1,165.941 pies cuadrados equivalentes a 108.346 metros cuadrados. Porcentaje: Elementos comunes generales: 2.3518%. Inscrito al Sistema Karibe de Barceloneta, Finca 15881, Registro de la Propiedad Puerto Rico de Manatí.

Physical address: Apt. 901-B Cond Marina III, Barceloneta, PR 00617. The property is subject to the following Junior liens: Mortgage in favor of Departamento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, or to its order, for principal amount of $40,000.00, with no annual interests, due on demand, constituted by deed #92, executed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on July 23, 2007, before Miguel Bauza Rolon, with restrictive covenants for the sale of the property for ten (10) years. Mortgage in favor of Departamento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, or to its order, for principal amount of $12,500.00, with no annual interests, due on demand, constituted by deed #93, executed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on July 23, 2007, before Miguel Bauza Rolon, with restrictive covenants for the sale of the property for six (6) years.

JUDICIAL ATTACHMENT: Filed in the Court of First Instance, Manatí Section, Civil Case number CD2011-753, regarding collection of monies, filed by Consejo de Títulares del Condominio Marina III versus Alba Diana Vilar Velez, in the amount of $6,005.09, pursuant to judgment entered on January 26, 2012 and order of attachment dated March 26, 2012 with the corresponding Writ dated March 27, 2012. Annotated at Karibe System of Barceloneta, property 15,881 on August 31, 2021, Annotation “A”. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with

the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior or preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax liens (express, tacit, implied or legal), or homeowner associations dues, to the extent specified under the applicable Condominium Law, shall continue in effect. It being understood that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. The present property will be acquired free and clear of all junior liens. THEREFORE, the FIRST PUBLIC SALE shall be held on the MARCH 3RD, 2023, AT THE 10:30 A.M., and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $100,000.00. In the event said first public auction does not produce a bidder and the properties is not adjudicated, a SECOND PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on the MARCH 10TH, 2023, AT THE 10:30 A.M. and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $66,666.66, 2/3 parts of the minimum bid for the 1st public sale. If said second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD AUCTION will be held on the MARCH 17TH, 2023, AT THE 10:30 A.M. and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $50,000.00, ½ of the minimum bid for the 1st public sale. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued canceling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Federal Building, Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, on January 25th, 2023. AGUEDO DE LA TORRE, SPECIAL MASTER.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL

GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE MANATÍ ORIENTAL BANK

Demandante V. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO, CUSTODIO DE LOS ARCHIVOS DE DORAL FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK Y COMO CUSTODIO DE LOS ARCHIVOS DE WESTERNBANK PUERTO RIO; JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE

Demandados

Civil Núm.: MT2023CV00012.

Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EM-

PLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIAD DE P.R., SS.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE, personas desconocidas que se designan con estos nombres ficticios, que puedan ser tenedor o tenedores, o puedan tener algún interés en el pagaré hipotecario a que se hace referencia más adelante en el presente edicto, que se publicará una sola vez. Se les notifica que en la Demanda radicada en el caso de epígrafe se alega que el 6 de mayo de 1996, se otorgó un pagaré a favor de Doral Federal Savings Bank, o a su orden, por la suma de $30,000.00 de principal, con intereses al 10% anual, con vencedero el 1 de mayo de 2006, ante la Notaria Alexandra M. Serracante Cadilla. En garantía del pagaré antes descrito se otorgó la escritura de hipoteca número 182, el 6 de mayo de 1996, ante la Notaria Alexandra M. Serracante Cadilla, inscrita al folio móvil del tomo 458 de Manatí, finca número 7739, inscripción 6, Registro de la Propiedad de Manatí. El inmueble gravado mediante la hipoteca antes descrita es la finca número 7739 inscrita al folio 70 del tomo 183 de Manatí Registro de Manatí. La obligación evidenciada por el pagaré antes descrito fue saldada en su totalidad. Dicho gravamen no ha podido ser cancelado por haberse extraviado el original de pagará. El original del pagaré antes descrito no ha podido ser localizado, a pesar de las gestiones realizadas. Doral Federal Savings Bank es el acreedor que consta en el Registro de la Propiedad. Western Bank fue el último tenedor conocido del pagaré antes descrito. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los 30 días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende

procedente.

LCDO. JAVIER MONTALVO CINTRÓN

RUA NÚM. 17682

DELGADO & FERNANDEZ, LLC PO Box 11750, Fernández Juncos Station San Juan, Puerto Rico 00910-1750, Tel. (787) 274-1414 / Fax (787) 764-8241

E-mai jmontalvo@ delgadofernandez.com

Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, hoy 20 de enero de 2023. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. SARAY SALGADO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE AIBONITO SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. SUCESIÓN DE HÉCTOR FÉLIX ORTIZ ORTIZ COMPUESTA

POR EVELYN ORTIZ ORTIZ, MARIA DEL CARMEN ORTIZ ORTIZ, DORIS ORTIZ ORTIZ, MIRIAM IVETTE ORTIZ ORTIZ, “JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE” COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE DICHA SUCESIÓN; SUCESIÓN DE HILDA

DORIA LAMBOY GONZALEZ, COMPUESTA

POR MIRIAM LAMBOY, “JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE” COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE DICHA SUCESIÓN; Y, CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Demandado Civil Núm.: AI2021CV00374. 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 Aibonito, Aibonito, 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 20 de diciembre 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: Solar en la Urbanización Villa Rosales, sita

en el Barrio Robles del término municipal de Aibonito, Puerto Rico, identificado en el plano de inscripción con el número cuatro (4) del Bloque “A”, con una cabida superficial de doscientos sesenta y nueve punto uno (269.01), metros cuadrados. En colindancias por el NORTE, con Utrich Foundation Corporation; por el SUR, con la calle “A” de la urbanización; por el ESTE, con el solar cinco (5) del Bloque “A”; y por el OESTE, con el solar tres (3) del Bloque “A”. Inscrita al folio 85 del tomo 98, finca número 4,308 de Aibonito. Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Barranquitas. Propiedad ubica: Rosales A-12 C/DR Troyer Villa Aibonito, PR. El producto de la subasta se destinará a satisfacer al demandante hasta donde alcance, la SENTENCIA dictada el 2 de noviembre de 2022, archivada en autos y notificada el 8 de noviembre de 2022, y publicada en periódico de circulación general, The San Daily Star”, el 11 de noviembre de 2022, en el presente caso civil, a saber la suma de $66,580.65 por concepto de principal; generando intereses a razón de 6% 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 $6,700.00 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 13 DE ABRIL DE 2023

A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el Centro Judicial de Aibonito, Aibonito, Puerto Rico. Que el precio mínimo fijado para la PRIMERA SUBASTA es de $67,000.00. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una SEGUNDA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día 20 DE ABRIL DE 2023 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la SEGUNDA SUBASTA será de $44,666.66, 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

27 DE ABRIL DE 2023 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la TERCERA SUBASTA será de $33,500.00, equivalentes a la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo estipulado para

la PRIMERA subasta. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente; se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor, todo ello a tenor con lo dispone el Articulo 104 de la Ley Núm. 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015 conocida como “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico”. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquiere libre de toda carga y gravamen que afecte la mencionada finca según el Artículo 102, inciso 6. Una vez confirmada la venta judicial por el Honorable Tribunal, se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura de venta judicial y se pondrá al comprador en posesión física del inmueble de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda aquella persona o personas que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de todos los licitadores y el público en general, el presente Edicto se publicará por espacio de dos (2) semanas consecutivas, con un intervalo de por lo menos siete días entre ambas publicaciones, en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y se fijará además en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse dicha venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Se les informa, por último, que: a. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la secretaría del tribunal durante las horas laborables. b. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y 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 desti narse a su extinción el precio del remate. EXPIDO, el presente EDICTO, en Aibonito, Puerto Rico, hoy día 23 de enero de 2023. JUAN O. BURGOS BURGOS, ALGUACIL REGIONAL, DIVISIÓN DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE AIBONITO.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS

REVERSE MORTGAGE

FUNDING LLC. Demandante Vs. SUCESION VICTOR AUGUSTO RIVERA MARRERO COMPUESTA POR LUZ ESTHER RIVERA COLON, VICTOR LUIS RIVERA COLON, VICTOR ANTONIO RIVERA COLON, MARIA VICTORIA RIVERA COLON, LUIS OSCAR RIVERA COLON, OLGA ISABEL RIVERA COLON, MARITZA RIVERA COLON; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESION MARIA ISABEL COLON RIVERA COMPUESTA POR LUZ ESTHER RIVERA COLON, VICTOR LUIS RIVERA COLON, VICTOR ANTONIO RIVERA COLON, MARIA VICTORIA RIVERA COLON, LUIS OSCAR RIVERA COLON, OLGA ISABEL RIVERA COLON, MARITZA RIVERA COLON; JOHN ROE Y JANE ROE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES Demandados

Civil: CG2021CV02889. (801). Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: MARITZA RIVERA COLON; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION VICTOR AUGUSTO RIVERA MABRERO; MARITZA RIVERA COLON; JOHN ROE Y JANE ROE COMO POSIBLES MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION MARIA ISABEL COLON RIVERA. (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 19 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

propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar número veintidós (22) del bloque Q de la Urbanización Ciudad Cristiana, localizada en el barrio Río Abajo del término municipal de Humacao, con un área de doscientos cuarenta y cuatro punto treinta y dos (244.32) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con un canal, en diez punto dieciocho (10.18) metros; por el ESTE, con el solar Q guion veintitrés (Q-23), en veinticuatro (24.00) metros; y por el OESTE, con el solar Q guion veintiuno (Q-21) en veinticuatro (24.00) metros. Enclava casa. Inscrita al folio ciento sesenta (160) del tomo trescientos sesenta y dos (362) de Humacao, finca número quince mil seiscientos noventa y ocho (15,698). Dirección Física: #402 Ave. Bolivia Ciudad Cristiana, Humacao PR 00791. La propiedad se encuentra afecta a: HIPOTECA SUBORDINA Y CONDICIONES RESTRICTI-

VAS: En garantía de un pagare a favor del Secretario del Departamento de Desarrollo Urbano y Vivienda de los Estados Unidos de América, o a su orden, por la suma de $2,461.75, sin intereses y vencedero el 1 de julio de 2030, según consta de la escritura número 221, otorgada en San Juan, el 28 de junio de 2002, ante el notario José V. Gorbea Varona, inscrito al folio 190 del tomo 556 de Humacao, finca 15,698, inscripción 6ta. HIPOTECA

SUBORDINADA: En garantía de un pagare a favor de Secretario del Departamento de Desarrollo Urbano y Vivienda de los Estados Unidos de America, o a su orden, por la suma de $2,693.35, sin intereses, a vencer el 1 de noviembre del 2044, según consta de la escritura numero 492, otorgada en San Juan el 31 de octubre del 2014, ante la Notario Alexandra

M. Serracante Cadilla, inscrita al sistema karibe, finca 15698 de Humacao, inscripción 10ma.

HIPOTECA SUBORDINADA: En garantía de un pagare a favor de Secretario del Departamento de Desarrollo Urbano y Vivienda de Estados Unidos de America, o a su orden, por la suma de $5,816.55, sin intereses, a vencer el 1 de abril del 2047, según consta de la escritura numero 117, otorgada en San Juan el 29 de marzo del 2017, ante la Notario Alexandra

M. Serracante Cadilla, inscrita al sistema karibe finca 15698 de Humacao, inscripción 12ma.

EMBARGO: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico contra William Rodriguez / Trucking Services, por la suma de $110,154.94 del 24 de febrero del 2011, caso #660-55-2729, HUM11-0068, anotado al Libro de la ley 12 numero 1 pagina 113 orden 449. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a cabo el

día 29 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA y servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la suma de $70,129.70 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 5 DE ABRIL 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 $46,753.13. Si tampoco hubiera remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 12 DE ABRIL 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 $35,064.85. 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 in-

tereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Y para conocimiento de licitadores, del público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria en Puerto Rico y en los sitios públicos de acuerdo a las disposiciones de la Regla 51.7 de las de Procedimiento Civil, así como para la publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria y en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas con antelación a la fecha de la primera subasta y por lo menos una vez por semana. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento indicado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables. (Art. 102 (1) de la Ley núm. 2102015). Expedido el presente en Humacao, Puerto Rico a 12 de enero de 2023. JOSÉ LUIS

RODRÍGUEZ HERNÁNDEZ, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE HUMACAO. WILNELIA RIVERA DELGADO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR #249.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE GURABO

FIRSTBANK

PUERTO RICO

Demandante Vs. BANCO POPULAR PUERTO RICO

COMO SUCESOR EN DERECHOS DE DORAL FINANCIAL CORPORATION; FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION COMO SUCESOR EN DERECHOS DE DORAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE

COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES CON INTERÉS

Demandados

Civil Núm.: GR2023CV00005.

Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE (PERSONAS DESCONOCIDAS CON POSIBLE INTERÉS).

En este caso la parte demandante ha radicado Demanda para que se decrete judicialmente el saldo de un pagare a favor de DORAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION o a su orden por la suma de $18,250.00 in-

tereses al 9 1/2%anual y fecha de vencimiento al 1 de febrero de 2015, constituido mediante la escritura 36 otorgada en San Juan el 24 de enero de 2000 ante el Notario Público Reinaldo Segurola Pérez, inscrita al folio 85 del tomo 339 de Gurabo finca 9,881 inscripción 7ma., Registro de la Propiedad Sección Segunda de Caguas, y está garantizado por hipoteca sobre la propiedad sita en Parcelas Nuevas 437 Calle 27 Gurabo, Puerto Rico que se describe como sigue: RÚSTICA: Parcela numero 437 en la Comunidad Rural Celada y Hato Nuevo de Gurabo, con una cabida de 373.47 metros cuadrados, colinda por el NORTE, con la calle número 27 de la comunidad; por el SUR, con finca privada de William González; por el ESTE, con Parcela número 436 de la comunidad; y por el OESTE, con Parcela número 438 de la comunidad.

Inscrita al folio 182 del tomo 262 de Gurabo, finca 9,881, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección Segunda. La parte demandante alega que dicho Pagaré se ha extraviado, según más detalladamente consta en la Demanda radicada que puede examinarse en la Secretaría de este Tribunal. Por tratarse de una obligación hipotecaria, y pudiendo usted tener interés en este caso o quedar afectado por el remedio solicitado, se les emplaza por este Edicto que se publicará en un (1) periódico de circulación general una (1) sola vez y que si no comparecen a contestar dicha Demanda radicando el original de la misma a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual pueden acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se representen por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberán presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de Utuado, con copia al abogado de la parte demandante, Lcdo. Jorge García Rondón, de PMB 538, 267 Sierra Morena, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00926 dentro del término de treinta (30) días contados a partir de la publicación del Edicto, se les anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia en su contra concediendo el remedio solicitado en la Demanda sin más citarles ni oírles. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto por Orden del Tribunal, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en CAGUAS, Puerto Rico, hoy 20 de ENERO de 2023. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA. LIZ WHARTON ROSA, SUB-SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE VEGA BAJA VACATION OWNERSHIP LENDING, L.P. Demandante Vs. OSCAR ESPINOSA RAMOS, AMPARO ORESTE CORTEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES, COMPUESTA POR AMBOS Demandados Civil Núm.: VB2023CV00006. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: OSCAR ESPINOSA RAMOS, POR SÍ Y EN REPRESENTACIÓN DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES, COMPUESTA POR AMBOS. AMPARO ORESTE CORTEZ, POR SÍ Y EN REPRESENTACIÓN DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES, COMPUESTA POR AMBOS. SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES, COMPUESTA POR AMBOS. Siendo ustedes la parte demandada arriba mencionada. Se les notifica a ustedes que se ha radicado mediante el sistema SUMAC una Demanda por la parte demandante VACATION OWNERSHIP LENDING, L.P. solicitando un Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca. Se les emplaza y se les requiere que notifiquen a GARRIGA & MARINI LAW OFFICES, C. S. P., P.O. Box 16593, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00908-6593, teléfono (787) 275-0655, email: jmartbirr@yahoo.com, con copia de su contestación a la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto. Ustedes deberán presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual pueden acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se representen por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberán presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Vega Baja. Si dejaren de contestar podrá anotarse la rebeldía y dictarse contra ustedes sentencia en rebeldía concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda,

sin más citarles ni oírlos. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el Sello del Tribunal, a tenor con la Orden del Tribunal, hoy día 20 de enero de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARITZA ROSARIO ROSARIO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC. Demandante Vs. SUCESION ANDREA

VAZQUEZ GARCIA T/C/C

ANDREA VAZQUEZ

COMPUESTA POR JOHN

DOE Y JANE DOE COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES Demandados Civil Núm.: CG2019CV04402.

Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: LA PARTE DEMANDADA, AL (A LA) SECRETARIO(A) DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO Y AL PÚBLICO

GENERAL:

Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América y/o Giro Postal y Cheque Certificado, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, el 27 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: Solar número tres (3) del bloque A, sito en el proyecto de viviendas conocidas como Villas del Bosque, en el Barrio Bayamón del municipio de Cidra, con una cabida superficial de doscientos ochenta y ocho punto ochocientos setenta y seis (288.876) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el Norte, con la Calle Margarita (numero dos (2); por el Sur, con la finca prin-

cipal; por el Este, con el solar número dos (2) del bloque A; y por el Oeste, con el solar número cuatro (4) del bloque A. Enclava una casa. Inscrita al folio 9 del tomo 425 de Cidra, finca 15,443, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección II. La Hipoteca Revertida consta inscrita al folio 2031 del tomo 518, finca 15,443, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección II, inscripción 4ª. Propiedad localizada en: URB. VILLAS DEL BOSQUE, A-3 CALLE MARGARITA, CIDRA, PR 00739. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes: Nombre del Titular: N/A. Suma de la Carga: N/A. Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: Nombre del Titular: Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano. Suma de la Carga: $172,500.00. Fecha de Vencimiento: 30 de noviembre de 2083. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes. El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo de mínima subasta la suma de $115,000.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una SEGUNDA SUBASTA por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, el 3 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $76,666.67, 2/3 partes del tipo mínima establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la TERCERA SUBASTA, la suma de $57,500.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, el 10 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $117,657.11 por concepto de principal, más la suma de $21,354.57 en intereses acumulados al 8 de abril de 2022 y los cuales continúan acumulán-

dose a razón de 3.97% anual hasta su total y completo pago; más la sumas de $4,805.27 en seguro hipotecario; $5,530.00 en tarifas de servicios; $2,075.11 en seguro; $550.00 de tasaciones; $720.00 de inspecciones; $2,700.00 de adelantos pendientes; más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original en la suma de $11,500.00, para gastos, costas y honorarios de abogado. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy 19 de enero de 2023. EDGARDO ALDEBOL MIRANDA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR #282.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Parte Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE GAMALIER BERMÚDEZ RUIZ T/C/C GAMALIER ANGLADA RUIZ COMPUESTA POR ROSA HILDA BERMÚDEZ EMANUELLI, MIRTA JAZMINE BERMÚDEZ EMANUELLI T/C/C MIRTA WOODALL, PILAR AURELIA BERMÚDEZ EMANUELLI, VIRGINIA MICHELLE CRISTINA ANGLADA CEDEÑO, GABRIELA MARÍA JOSÉ ANGLADA CEDEÑO, GAMALIER EMMANUELLE ANGLADA CEDEÑO, SUS NIETOS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS, DENOMINADOS FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL,

IGLESIA BÁRBARA ANN ROESSLER MEMORIAL, LAS AMÉRICAS

EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATION, SHARON ARLEEN LÓPEZ

BERRÍOS, SANTIAGO

ANGLADA ORTIZ T/C/C

SANTIAGO BERMÚDEZ

ORTIZ, ELIER ANGLADA

RUIZ T/C/C ELIER

BERMÚDEZ RUIZ, DELSIE

ANGLADA RUIZ T/C/C

DELSIE BERMÚDEZ

RUIZ, HILDA ELIZABETH

ANGLADA RUIZ T/C/C

HILDA BERMÚDEZ RUIZ, KEYLA ANN ANGLADA

RUIZ T/C/C KEYLA ANN BERMÚDEZ RUIZ, JAZMINE ANGLADA

RUIZ T/C/C JAZMINE BERMÚDEZ RUIZ, NATANEL ANGLADA MUÑÍZ, JOSEPH

ANGLADA MUÑÍZ, JAVIER JOSUÉ ANGLADA

MUÑÍZ, KEYLA VANESSA

ANGLADA MUÑÍZ, Y SUS

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS, DENOMINADOS ZUTANO Y PERENCEJO DE TAL Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: SJ2019CV10177.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y 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: ROSA HILDA BERMÚDEZ EMANUELLI a sus últimas direcciones conocidas: URB.

MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; NORTH

ATTLEBORO, MA 02760; 690 SEA ST. QUINCY, MA 02169; MIRTA

JAZMINE BERMÚDEZ

EMANUELLI t/c/c MIRTA

WOODDALL a: URB.

MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL

#221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; 6911 VIOLET DR. FREDERICKSBURG, VA 22407; PILAR

AURELIA BERMÚDEZ

EMANUELLI a: URB.

MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926, PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; 72

HAZEB RD MONT VERNON, MA 030507; VIRGINIA MICHELLE CRISTINA ANGLADA CEDEÑO a: URB.

MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926;

URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; 7730 ZIMPEL ST. NEW ORLEANS, LA 70118; GABRIELA

MARÍA JOSÉ ANGLADA

CEDEÑO a: URB.

MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926;

URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-734; GAMALIER

EMMANUELLE ANGLADA

CEDEÑO a: URB.

MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346,

IGLESIA BARBARA

ANN ROESSLER

MEMORIAL a: URB.

MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926-

9538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; CARR. 176

KM 4.2 ESQ. AVENIDA FELISA RINCÓN DE GAUTIER, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 363362, SAN JUAN, PR 009363362; CARR 176 KM.

4.2 RIO PIEDRAS, PR 00921; LAS AMÉRICAS

EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATION a: URB.

MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; 1532 LAND C LAKES BLVD SUITE C, LUTS, FL 33549; SHARON ARLEEN

LÓPEZ BERRIOS a: URB.

MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB MONTEHIEDRA, 70

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; PO BOX 1474, YAUCO, PR 00698; SANTIAGO ANGLADA

ORTIZ t/c/c SANTIAGO

BERMÚDEZ ORTIZ a: URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; PO BOX 121634 CLERMONT, FL 34712; ELIER ANGLADA

RUIZ t/c/c ELIER

BERMÚDEZ RUIZ a: URB.

MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; PO

BOX 8986, PONCE, PR 00732; 715 LAKEVIEW AVE. ORANGE CITY, FL 32763; DELSIE ANGLADA

RUIZ t/c/c DELSIE

BERMÚDEZ RUIZ a: URB.

MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926, URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926: PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346: PO BOX 757 WARTBURG, TN 37887; HILDA

ELIZABETH ANGLADA

RUIZ t/c/c HILDA

BERMÚDEZ RUIZ a: URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; 2737 WILD TAMARIND BLVD ORLANDO, FL 32828; KEYLA ANN ANGLADA

RUIZ t/c/c KEYLA ANN BERMÚDEZ RUIZ a: URB.

MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26

CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538, CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; 12981 MALLORY CIR #101 ORLANDO, FL 32828; JAZMINE ANGLADA RUIZ t/c/c JAZMINE

BERMÚDEZ RUIZ a: URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; 746 CLOVERLEAF BLVD, DELTONA, FL 32725; NATANAEL ANGLADA MUÑIZ a: URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926;

URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; 1420 KENSINGTON RD #203, OAK BROOK, IL 60523; JOSEPH ANGLADA MUÑIZ a: URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; JAVIER JOSUÉ ANGLADA MUÑIZ a: URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; 43 ROSE ST #4, GENEVA, NY 14456; KEYLA VANESSA ANGLADA MUÑIZ a: URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 H-26 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; URB. MONTEHIEDRA, 70 CALLE CARPINTERO, SAN JUAN, PR 009269538; CALLE ZORZAL #221 MONTEHIEDRA, SAN JUAN, PR 00926; PO BOX 7346, PONCE, PR 00732-7346; 3926

DIAMOND CROVE CT, HOUSTON TX 77059. FULANO y MENGANO DE TAL, nietos desconocidos de GAMALIER

BERMÚDEZ RUIZ t/c/c

GAMALIER ANGLADA

RUIZ, con identidad y dirección desconocida.

ZUTANO y PERENCEJO DE TAL, posibles herederos desconocidos de GAMALIER

BERMÚDEZ RUIZ t/c/c

GAMALIER ANGLADA

RUIZ con identidad y dirección desconocida. 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 adeu-

da las siguientes cantidades: $873,616.80 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 6.75% anual desde el 1 de mayo de 2018 hasta su completo pago, más $2,721.24 de recargos adeudados, más la cantidad estipulada de $68,000.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato del préstamo (tales como Corporate Advances, inspecciones, mantenimiento, etc.). La propiedad que garantiza hipotecariamente el préstamo es la siguiente:

URBANA: Solar marcado con el #26 del bloque H de la Sección Guayacán de la Urbanización Montehiedra, radicada en el barrio Caimito de Río Piedras, término municipal de San Juan, Puerto Rico, compuesto de 770.7744 metros cuadrados, equivalentes a 0.1961 cuerdas. En lindes por el NORTE, con la Calle Carpintero, en distancia de 22.002; por el SUR, con los solares H-30 y H-31, en distancia de 22.119 metros, por el ESTE, con el solar H-25, en distancia de 35.449 metros y por el OESTE, con el solar H-27, en distancia de 33.789 metros.

Inscrita al Folio 111 del Tomo 657 de Río Piedras Sur, Finca 17921 Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección IV. La hipoteca consta inscrita al Folio 201 del Tomo 737 de Río Piedras Sur, Finca 17921 Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección IV. Inscripción 8va. La modificación de hipoteca consta inscrita al Tomo Karibe de Río Piedras Sur, Finca 17921 Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección IV, Inscripción 12ma. 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 abo-

gada de la parte demandante, Lcda. Belma Alonso García, a: PO Box 3922, Guaynabo PR 00970-3922, Teléfonos: (787) 789-1826, (787) 708-0566, correo electrónico: oficinabelmaalonso@gmail.com, dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publicación, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy, 12 de enero de 2023, en San Juan, Puerto Rico. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. FERNÁNDEZ DEL VALLE, LUZ E., SUB-SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. JOEY CALDERÍN

CORDERO, ZAIDA IRIS

TIRADO RIVERA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES, COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandados

Civil Núm.: HU2019CV01696.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE GARANTÍAS. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL.

El Alguacil del Tribunal que suscribe anuncia y hace constar: A. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Humacao, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor de contado y en moneda de curso legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América y cuyo pago se efectuará en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, todo derecho, título o interés que tenga la Parte Demandada en el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación:

URBANA: Solar número siete (7) del Bloque “I” radicado en la Urbanización Praderas del Este localizada en el Barrio Santiago y Lima del término municipal de Naguabo Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de doscientos sesenta y cuatro punto cero cero (264.00) metros, colindando por el NORTE, en doce punto cero cero (12.00) metros, con la calle número (3) de la

urbanización; por el SUR, en doce punto cero cero (12.00) metros, con el solar veinte (20) del bloque “I” de la urbanización; por el ESTE, en veintidós punto cero cero (22.00) metros, con el solar seis (6) del bloque “I” de la urbanización; y por el OESTE, en veintidós punto cero cero (22.00) metros, con el solar ocho (8) del bloque “I” de la urbanización. Enclava casa de hormigón y bloques de hormigón para fines residenciales. Dirección Física: I--07 Praderas Del Este, Naguabo, PR. 00718. Finca 14,394, inscrita al folio 106 del tomo 244 de Naguabo, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Humacao. B. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado están de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables bajo el epígrafe de este caso. C. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematente los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. D. Que la propiedad se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes anteriores: a. Condiciones de Subsidio bajo la Ley 124 del Programa emisión de Bonos a favor del Banco y Agencia del Financiamiento de la Vivienda. E. Que la propiedad se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes posteriores: a. Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor de la Autoridad para el Financiamiento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $15,000.00, sin intereses, vencedero el día 16 de septiembre de 2011, constituida mediante la escritura número 970, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 16 de agosto de 2003, ante el notario Pedro Nel Arévalo Martínez, e inscrita al folio 106 del tomo 244 de Naguabo, finca número 14,394, inscripción 3ra. Sujeta a Condiciones restrictivas bajo el “Programa La Llave para tu Hogar” por el término de 8 años. b. Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor del Secretario del Departamento de Desarrollo Urbano y Vivienda de los Estados Unidos de América, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $3,872.60, sin intereses, vencedero el día 1 de septiembre de 2033, constituida mediante la escritura número 231, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 31 de agosto de 2009, ante el notario Luis A. Arrufat Pimentel, e inscrita al folio 107 del tomo 244 de Naguabo, fin-

ca número 14,394, inscripción

4ta. c. Aviso de Demanda de fecha 31 de agosto de 2012, expedido en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Humacao, en el Caso Civil número HSCI-201201042, por concepto de Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, por la Vía Ordinaria, seguido por Doral Bank, versus Joey Calderín Cordero y su esposa Zaida Iris Tirado Rivera, por la suma de $49,335.58 más intereses y otras sumas, anotado el día 13 de diciembre de 2012, al folio 107 del tomo 244 de Naguabo, finca número 14,394, Anotación A. F. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma principal de $ 39,398.93, la suma de $ 3,924.38, que incluye intereses según pactados, cargos por demora y otros cargos, que se acumulan diariamente hasta su total y completo pago, más la suma de 10% del principal, por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se celebrará el día 28 DE MARZO DE 2023 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA en la Oficina del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Humacao, por el tipo mínimo de $56,840.00. De declararse desierta dicha subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 4 DE ABRIL DE 2023 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado. El precio para la segunda subasta lo será 2/3 partes del precio mínimo de la primera, o sea, $37,893.33. De declararse desierta dicha segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 11 DE ABRIL DE 2023 A LAS 10:30 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado. El precio para la tercera subasta lo será 1/2 del precio mínimo de la primera, o sea, $28,420.00. Y PARA QUE ASÍ CONSTE, y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general y por un término de catorce (14) días en los sitios públicos conforme a la ley, expido la presente bajo mi firma y sello de este tribunal, hoy 20 de enero de 2023 en Humacao, Puerto Rico. JOSÉ LUIS RODRÍGUEZ HERNÁNDEZ, ALGUACIL REGIONAL INTERINO. WILNELIA RIVERA DELGADO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR #249.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL

GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CAROLINA

ORIENTAL BANK

Demandante V. JOSÉ ENRIQUE

VILANOVA MEDINA

Demandado

Civil Núm.: CA2022CV00862. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO

Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (VÍA ORDINARIA). 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 Superior de Carolina, hago saber a la parte demandada

JOSÉ ENRIQUE VILANOVA MEDINA, y al PÚBLICO EN GENERAL; que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el 6 de julio de 2022, por la Secretaría del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta por el precio mínimo de $170,000.00 y al mejor postor, pagadero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o giro postal, a nombre del alguacil del tribunal, la propiedad que se describe a continuación: Condominio VILLAS DE PARQUE ESCORIAL, APT. 707-C V, CAROLINA, PR 00987, y que se describe de la siguiente manera: URBANA: PROPIEDAD

HORIZONTAL: Apartamento número 707. Apartamento residencial de forma irregular localizado en la cuarta planta del Edificio C del Condominio Villas de Parque Escorial, situado en el barrio San Antón del término municipal de Carolina, Puerto Rico. El área aproximada del Apartamento es de 1292.98 pies cuadrados equivalentes a 120.12 metros cuadrados.

Son sus linderos por el NORTE, en un máximo de 45 pies 6 pulgadas con el Apartamento número 708; por el SUR, en un máximo de 34 pies 11 pulgadas con el Apartamento número 608; por el ESTE, en un máximo de 35 pies 6 pulgadas con área común; y por el OESTE, en un máximo de 35 pies 6 pulgadas con área exterior común. La puerta de entrada de esta Apartamento está situada en su lindero Este. Consta de sala-comedor, cocina, lavandería, 3 dormitorios, balcón, estudio, terraza y dos baños. Le corresponden dos espacios de estacionamiento identificados con los números 102 y 103 localizados en la tercera área de estacionamientos del Condominio. Este Apartamento tiene una participación de 0.5815% en los elementos comunes del Condominio. Este Apartamento goza del uso exclusivo de un balcón con un área aproximada de 70.13 pies cuadrados equivalentes a 6.52 metros cuadrados, un estudio con un área aproximada de 140.81 pies cuadrados equivalentes a 13.09 metros lineales y una terraza con un área aproximada de 287.13 pies cuadrados equivalentes a 26.68 metros cuadrados. Finca 53800 inscrita al folio 14 del tomo 1254 de Carolina Sur, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección II. La finca antes descrita se

encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: (i) HIPOTECA en garantía de pagaré a favor del Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Puerto Rico o a su orden por la suma principal de $170,000.00 con intereses a razón del 7.375% anual y vencimiento el 1 de agosto de 2036. Constituida por la Escritura #160 otorgada en San Juan el 28 de julio del 2006 ante la notario Rosario González Rosa. Inscrita el 28 de noviembre de 2006 al folio 75 del Tomo 1380 de Carolina Sur, finca 53800, inscripción 5, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección II. 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 dicta el 3 de mayo de 2021, mediante la cual se condenó a la parte demandada pagar a la parte demandante la suma de $131,036.77 de principal, más interés al 7.375% anual, que continuarán acumulándose hasta el saldo total desde el 1 de noviembre de 2020, $763.23 de otros cargos, $17,000.00 de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más cualquier otro desembolso que haya efectuado o efectúe la parte demandante durante la tramitación de este caso para otros adelantos de conformidad con el Contrato Hipotecario, incluyendo primas de seguro de hipoteca, prima de seguro de siniestro y cargos por demora. La PRIMERA SUBASTA será celebrada el día 6 DE MARZO DE 2023 A LAS 1:15 DE LA TARDE, en la oficina del Alguacil, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina, Puerto Rico. Servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la cantidad de $170,000.00, sin admitirse oferta inferior. De no haber remate ni adjudicación, celebraré SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 13 DE MARZO DE 2023 A LAS 1:15 DE LA TARDE, en el mismo lugar, en la que servirá como tipo mínimo, dos terceras (2/3) partes del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $113,333.33. Si no hubiese remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, celebraré TERCERA SUBASTA el día 20 DE MARZO DE 2023 A LAS 1:15 DE LA TARDE, en el mismo lugar en la que regirá como tipo mínimo, la mitad del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $85,000.00. El Alguacil que suscribe hizo constar que toda licitación deberá hacerse para pagar su importe en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América, de acuerdo con la Ley y de acuerdo con lo anunciado en este Aviso de Subasta. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables. Se entiende que

todo licitador que comparezca a la subasta señalada en este caso acepta como bastante la titulación que da base a la misma. Se entiende que cualquier carga y/o gravamen anterior y/o preferente, si la hubiere al crédito que da base a esta ejecución continuará subsistente, entendiéndose, además, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción cualquier parte del remanente del precio de licitación. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Vendida o adjudicada la finca o derecho hipotecado y consignado el precio correspondiente, en esa misma fecha o fecha posterior, el alguacil que celebró la subasta procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura pública de traspaso en representación del dueño o titular de los bienes hipotecados, ante el notario que elija el adjudicatario o comprador, quien deberá abonar el importe de tal escritura. El alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la confirmación de la venta o adjudicación. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Y PARA CONOCIMIENTO DE LOS LICITADORES Y DEL PUBLICO EN GENERAL y para su publicación de acuerdo con la Ley, expido el presente Edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal. En CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, hoy 12 de diciembre de 2022. Samuel González Isaac, Alguacil, Tribunal De Primera Instancia, Sala De Carolina.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INS-

TANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE MAYAGÜEZ

FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO Demandante V. SUCESION DE ANIBAL CRUZ DE LEON T/C/C ANTONIO ANIBAL CRUZ DE LEON Y SUCESION DE MIGUELINA RIVERA CANCEL T/C/C MARIA

RIVERA CANCEL COMPUESTA POR FULANO Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; CRIM Demandado(a)

Civil: SG2022CV00347. 207. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA Y COBRO DE DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: FULANO Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION DE ANIBAL CRUZ DE LEON t/c/c ANTONIO ANIBAL CRUZ DE LEON Y DE LA SUCESION DE MIGUELINA RIVERA CANCEL t/c/c MARIA RIVERA CANCEL. (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 24 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 26 de enero de 2023. En Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, el 26 de enero de 2023.

LCDA. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA. JAZMÍN SANABRIA TORRES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

JUAN MASSACHUSETTS MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY

Demandante Vs. ANGELA MARÍA PIMENTEL DE LA ROSA, POR SÍ Y COMO MIEMBRO DE LA SUCESION DE RAFAEL

RIVERA FIGUEREO

T/C/C RAFAEL RIVERA FIGUEROA COMPUESTA

POR SUS HIJOS PABLO RAFAEL RIVERA

PIMENTEL; RAFAEL RIVERA PIMENTEL; BRENDALIZ RIVERA PIMENTEL; RICHARD RIVERA DISLA Y LOS HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DENOMINADOS COMO FULANO DE TAL Y MENGANA MAS

CUAL; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

RAFAEL RIVERA PIMENTEL; RAFAEL RIVERA PIMENTEL; BRENDALIZ RIVERA

PIMENTEL; RICHARD RIVERA DISLA Y LOS HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DENOMINADOS COMO FULANO DE TAL Y MENGANA MAS

CUAL; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

(CRIM) ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA

Demandados

Civil Núm.: SJ2021CV06459. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: LA PARTE

DEMANDADA, AL (A LA)

SECRETARIO( A) DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO Y AL PÚBLICO

GENERAL:

Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario( a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor en efectivo, cheque gerente, giro postal, cheque certificado en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América al nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instan-

cia, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, el 22 DE FEBRERO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número once del bloque AE del plano de inscripción de la Urbanización Extensión Country Club situado en el barrio Sabana Llana de la municipalidad de Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 300.15 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en 13.05 metros con el solar 20; por el SUR, en 13.05 metros con la calle 58; por el ESTE, en 23.0.0. metros con el solar 10; y por el OESTE, en 23.00 metros con el solar 12. Consta inscrita al folio 241 del tomo 125 de Sabana Llana, finca número 5449, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Quinta de San Juan. Propiedad localizada en: #917 Calle Labrador Country Club, San Juan, PR 00924. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está no gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: HIPOTECA en garantía de pagaré a favor del Secretary of Housing and Urban Development o a su orden por la suma principal de $3956.45 sin devengar intereses y vencimiento el 1 de enero del 2031. Constituida por la Escritura #18 otorgada en San Juan el 30 de septiembre de 2004 ante el notario José Manuel Rosa Malavé. Inscrita el 28 de enero de 2009 al folio 1 del Tomo 1043 de Sabana Llana, inscripción 7a. HIPOTECA en garantía pagaré a favor del Secretary of Housing and Urban Development por la suma principal de $7,036.54 la cual no devenga intereses y vencimiento el 1 de octubre de 2045 según consta de la Escritura #760 otorgada en San Juan el 13 de noviembre de 2015 ante la notario Magda V. Alsina Figueroa. Inscrita el 27 de julio del 2020 al Tomo Digital Karibe de la finca 5449 de Sabana Llana, inscripción 9a. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes. El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece

como tipo mínimo de subasta la suma de $81,801.61, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una SEGUNDA SUBASTA por declararse la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, el 1 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $54,534.41, 2/3 partes del tipo mínimo establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la TERCERA SUBASTA, la suma de $40,900.80, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, el 9 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $75,951.65; intereses al 4.00%, los cuales se acumulan mensualmente desde el 1ro. de agosto de 2019 hasta el saldo total de la deuda; $406.12 por concepto de cargos por demora, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo de la deuda; $8,186.16 por concepto de honorarios de abogado; así como cualquier otra suma que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si ésto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 19 de enero de 2023. EDWIN E. LÓPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, ALGUACIL DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN, SALA SUPERIOR.

What we learned from the NFL’s conference championship games

By DERRIK KLASSEN

Sunday’s NFL conference championship games forced four playoff teams to interrogate and counter their opponent’s well-documented strengths and weaknesses. Those games ended with the Philadelphia Eagles downing the San Francisco 49ers, after San Francisco’s towering defense could no longer keep pace, and the Kansas City Chiefs finally batting back the Cincinnati Bengals for their first win over Cincinnati in four tries.

The Eagles’ balance can frustrate any defense.

The entire 2022 Philadelphia Eagles offensive campaign has been a showcase in winning games in different ways. With explosive receivers DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown and big-armed quarterback Jalen Hurts, they often torched teams down the field, like they did against the Detroit Lions in Week 1 and the Tennessee Titans in Week 13. That same core attacked the Arizona Cardinals’ perimeter in Week 5.

The Eagles have the rushing attack — with the Pro Bowler Miles Sanders at running back and Hurts — to pound the ball as they did against the Green Bay Packers in Week 12.

Sunday in the NFC championship, the Eagles won 31-7 in a different kind of game against the 49ers’ top-ranked defense: slow, efficient, and mistake-free.

Philadelphia’s lone passing play of more than 20 yards was Smith’s fourthand-3 conversion on the first drive, a play called a catch on the field but that might have been reversed had the ruling been challenged in time. Hurts struggled to connect with receivers down the field as San Francisco’s tough secondary blanketed his targets and its linebackers refused to allow any underneath throws to turn into big plays.

After punting on their next three drives, the Eagles rattled off a 14-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that featured nine rushes. It was a display of not just their physicality up front, but the unique kinds of runs they can execute.

On Miles Sanders’ touchdown run with 1 minute, 35 seconds left in the half, the Eagles pulled center Jason Kelce

on a zone adjustment. Rather than have every player step the same way like a zone would traditionally be run, the Eagles asked left guard Landon Dickerson to turn back and attack the nose tackle and allow Kelce to pull out in front of him.

Philadelphia’s smothering run game was only made more valuable by winning the discipline battle: penalties and turnovers. The Eagles got seven first downs off penalties, including one on a roughing the punter call, to the 49ers’ zero. San Francisco had led the NFL in turnover ratio all season, but forced no turnovers Sunday, while Philadelphia recovered three fumbles. One of those turnovers set the Eagles up at the 49ers’ 30-yard line for a drive that ended in a touchdown three plays later.

There is, of course, the caveat that the Eagles only had to outscore a broken Brock Purdy, who injured his hand on the 49ers’ first drive, and backup Josh Johnson. But the 49ers’ defense has been the team’s star all season and Philadelphia frustrated and wore it down with a run-first approach. In a season in which the Eagles’ offense has had a counter for every opponent, it won its toughest

matchup yet with a smart, physical performance.

Patrick Mahomes’ ankle injury forced him to show patience.

It’s always Patrick Mahomes. For the past five seasons, at the end of winding journeys through the AFC, Mahomes has awaited an opponent in a conference championship game at Arrowhead Stadium.

This season, though, Mahomes and Kansas City hosted the rival that booted them from the playoffs last year and one that had the upper hand in their last three meetings. Facing the Joe Burrowled Bengals, Mahomes lacked his usual mobility but picked his spots to help Kansas City get a hard-fought win over Cincinnati 23-20.

Kansas City’s first two drives ended in field goals, with the team’s receivers hampered by injuries and draped in creative coverages. Mahomes began to test what the defense offered on Kansas City’s third drive, when he rolled out to the right, pumped to a receiver on a short route, replanted and then found tight end Travis Kelce in the end zone for a 14-yard score.

Kelce (seven catches for 78 yards)

wasn’t his usual tackle-busting self, limited as he was by a sore back that had been spasming in Friday’s practices. Receiver Mecole Hardman, another reliable veteran, was limited after battling a groin injury all week.

That led Mahomes to rely on receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling and rookie running back Isiah Pacheco. Mahomes first found Valdes-Scantling on a chunk play on a corner route that set up the Kelce touchdown.

Coach Andy Reid and Mahomes also got Valdes-Scantling into the end zone on a seam route in the third quarter. Valdes-Scantling ran a switch-release with Skyy Moore, who ran underneath to clear space for the catch. ValdesScantling finished with six catches for 116 yards, exceeding his previous highs this season.

But Mahomes was just as willing to take what the Bengals presented him and not force plays that had crushed Kansas City in its previous matchups with Cincinnati. Despite catching just 13 passes during the regular season (never more than three in any game), Pacheco netted five receptions for 59 yards Sunday.

With the score tied at 20, Kansas City started its final drive near midfield with 30 seconds left. After a 6-yard Pacheco run and an incomplete pass, Mahomes was left with a third-and-4 on the Bengals’ 47-yard line. Interior pressure forced Mahomes out of the pocket to his right. Rather than rely on his arm, Mahomes gritted out a 5-yard run to the sideline, his longest rush of the day, to keep the drive alive.

Bengals defensive end Joseph Ossai drew an unnecessary roughness penalty for his overeager pursuit of Mahomes, no doubt a reflexive reaction to Mahomes’ forays of the past. The flag added another 15 yards to the run, putting Kansas City in range for a game-winning 45-yard kick by Harrison Butker.

If there were any need for it, Sunday’s championship game was another reminder of Mahomes’ playmaking. He and Kansas City are heading to a third Super Bowl in five years thanks to the quarterback having shown new poise to finally beat Cincinnati — and the instinct to know when to let loose.

The top-seeded Eagles advanced to the Super Bowl after beating a 49ers team hampered by injuries to their quarterbacks.

In Boston, Lakers’ James is reminded that a career is not all glory

By SCOTT CACCIOLA

LeBron James was warming up for the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night when an old foe wearing shamrock-themed pajama pants strode onto the court to greet him. Paul Pierce, the former Celtics star, embraced James, who got a kick out of Pierce’s outfit.

It was a warm moment that lacked any sort of discernible shelf life. A few seconds later, James appeared on the arena’s giant video screens. Several thousand early-arriving fans booed him.

With LeBronapalooza revving into high gear as James approaches the NBA career scoring record, his trip to Boston was a reminder of some of the less glamorous stuff — the tight games and controversial calls, the fraught rivalries and hostile crowds — that has filled out his career, shaping him and motivating him. And the Celtics have been right there throughout, providing paint for his canvas.

Saturday’s game was another doozy. The Celtics’ 125-121 victory in overtime came after James justifiably felt that he had been fouled on a layup attempt at the end of regulation. A foul call would have sent him to the free-throw line with a chance to win it. Instead, the officials missed it. James yelled and protested and fell to his knees. Then he seethed at his locker after another loss by the Lakers (23-27) in a season full of them.

“I don’t get it,” he said. “I’m attacking the paint just as much as any of the other guys in this league that’s getting double-digit free throws a night. I don’t get it. I don’t understand it.”

The messy end obscured another enormous effort by James, who finished with 41 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. (He was 5 for 6 from the freethrow line.) And it is worth emphasizing: He is regularly posting numbers like those at 38 years old, the thirdoldest player in the NBA.

Ahead of the Lakers’ trip to New York for games against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday and the Knicks today, James had scored 38,271 points, putting him 117 points away from eclipsing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record.

It is a number so large that it defies belief, a number so large that it can be difficult to conceptualize. James has scored against defenders who have long since retired, in arenas that no longer exist.

How about this? When James faced the Celtics on Saturday, it had been 19 years 2 months 14 days since his first regular-season game in Boston. That game was on Nov. 14, 2003, back when TD Garden was known as the Fleet Center, when James was an 18-year-old rookie with the Cleveland Cavaliers and nine games into his career. It was also when Jayson Tatum — now the face of the Celtics — was 5.

James struggled in that game, a narrow loss, scoring just 10 points to increase his career total at the time to 146. Vin Baker played 36 minutes that day for the Celtics, while Zydrunas Ilgauskas led the Cavaliers with 22 points. For James, it was an inauspicious opening act ahead of two decades of tussling with the Celtics.

By now, each team in the league can cite moments (plural) when James did something to destroy the collective morale of its highly paid employees. A fast-break dunk that sealed a win. A long jumper that clinched a playoff series. A pass, a defensive stop, a blocked shot.

The Celtics may be able to cite more of those moments than most teams. Consider that James has won five straight playoff series against them, dating to 2011. But as a much younger player with the Cavaliers, James was stymied by them. The Celtics of the Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen era had savvy and experience, and they bounced the Cavaliers from the playoffs in 2008 and 2010.

Their series in the 2010 Eastern Conference semifinals may have changed the arc of the league. After the Cavaliers were eliminated, James removed his jersey before he reached the visiting locker room.

“A friend of mine told me, ‘I guess you’ve got to go through a lot of nightmares before you realize your dream,’” he said at the time. “That’s what’s going on for me individually right now.”

About two months later, James emerged from a luxury vehicle at the

Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich, Connecticut, to announce in a televised special that he was joining the Miami Heat as a free agent.

The new-look Heat proceeded to eliminate the Celtics from the playoffs in 2011 and again in 2012, after a seven-game scrap in the conference finals. That year, the Celtics were actually home for Game 6 with a chance to clinch the series. Before the game, Doc Rivers, who was then the Celtics’ coach, instructed his players to force James to shoot from the outside. They heeded his message.

“The way he was scoring, if you go by a scouting report, was the way we wanted him to score,” Rivers, now the coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, said in an interview. “Like, if he had to score, it had to be from the outside. It had to be with the 3-ball. We didn’t feel like he could beat us with that. And he did.”

James extended the series by collecting 45 points, 15 rebounds and 5 assists in a lopsided win. He shot 19 of 26 from the field and 2 of 4 from

3-point range.

“That,” Rivers said, “was the moment LeBron became a champion.”

The Heat went on to win Game 7, and then defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA finals as James won the first of his four championships.

As for roughing up the Celtics, it seemed to become one of James’ favorite pastimes. During his second stint with the Cavaliers, he helped oust the Celtics from the postseason all three times he played them.

So perhaps there was some relief in Boston when James decamped for Los Angeles before the start of the 201819 season, since it meant the Celtics would see him less often. But it also seemed fitting that he signed with the Lakers, whose rivalry with the Celtics is nearly as old as the league itself.

On Saturday, Celtics fans showed up in “Beat L.A.” shirts and jeered every time James touched the ball, which was really just their way of honoring him. The game itself was basketball as theater, same as ever, all the way to the bitter end.

LeBron James of the Lakers, center, had a chance to win Saturday’s game in regulation, but he was defended by Jayson Tatum, who was 5 when James first played an N.B.A. game in Boston, in 2003.

A too-early look at the Super Bowl matchup

By JENNY VRENTAS

The Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will meet next month in Super Bowl LVII, a game that will pit Andy Reid against his former team and that will feature two Black starting quarterbacks for the first time in Super Bowl history.

This will be Patrick Mahomes’ third Super Bowl appearance in his five seasons as Kansas City’s starter, while Jalen Hurts has led the Eagles to the Super Bowl in his second full season as the starting quarterback.

The teams will play Feb. 12 in Glendale, Arizona, and both quarterbacks will need to use the time before the game to recover from lingering injuries.

Mahomes sprained his right ankle Jan. 21 in Kansas City’s divisional-round win against the Jacksonville Jaguars. While he passed for 326 yards in Sunday’s 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC championship, and he nimbly scrambled for a first down on the play that set up the game-winning field goal, Mahomes was clearly playing through pain and limped at times throughout the game.

Hurts, a right-handed quarterback, sprained his throwing shoulder in December and missed two regular-season games. He returned for the Eagles’ regular-season finale and both their postseason games but has said his shoulder is not 100% healthy.

Each team entered the postseason as the No. 1 seed in its respective conference, but they advanced to the Super Bowl under very different circumstances.

The Eagles were in control for most of their 31-7 win against the San Francisco

49ers, after both the starter Brock Purdy and his backup Josh Johnson — the team’s third and fourth quarterbacks this season — were injured.

Kansas City’s game against the Bengals, on the other hand, came down to the final seconds. On the final drive, a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty was called against the Bengals on Mahomes’ 5-yard scramble for a first down, which put Kansas City in position to kick a 45-yard gamewinning field goal with three seconds left.

The Super Bowl matchup between Kansas City and Philadelphia should pit a pass-heavy juggernaut against the groundbound Eagles. Mahomes led the league in passing this season, accruing more than 5,000 yards in the air during the regular season. Against the 49ers, both Hurts and the Eagles set records for rushing touch-

downs this season: 15 for Hurts and 39 for the team.

The last time Kansas City and Philadelphia played each other, in October 2021, Mahomes threw five touchdown passes in a 42-30 victory.

Beyond the quarterbacks, a major storyline over the next two weeks will be Reid facing the team he led for 14 years. In the early 2000s, Reid took the Eagles to four straight NFC championship games, and one Super Bowl appearance, a loss to the New England Patriots, before the team decided not to bring him back for the 2013 season.

Reid accepted the Kansas City job days later, and won his first Super Bowl in the 2019 season, against the 49ers. He took Kansas City back to the Super Bowl in the 2020 season, but the team lost to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Like Kansas City, the Eagles have also recently been to the Super Bowl. But while there are a handful of veteran players still on the roster from the team that won in the 2017 season, the Eagles are returning to the big game with a different head coach, Nick Sirianni, and a different quarterback, Hurts.

The Kelce brothers — Jason, the Philadelphia center, and Travis, the Kansas City tight end — will become the first set of brothers to play against each other in the Super Bowl.

The last two Super Bowls played in the Phoenix area were two of the most thrilling games in recent history: the New York Giants’ win against the previously undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, and the Patriots’ victory against the Seattle Seahawks off Malcolm Butler’s goal-line interception in Super Bowl XLIX.

Bobby Hull, hockey hall of famer, is dead at 84

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Bobby Hull, one of the National Hockey League’s superstars of the 1960s, whose blond hair, lightning-fast slap shot and furious, rink-length offensive rushes earned him the nickname “the Golden Jet,” died Monday. He was 84.

The Chicago Blackhawks, for whom Hull played for 15 seasons, announced his death but did not say where he died or cite a cause.

Hull’s great upper body strength lent power to a fearsome slap shot that was measured over the years at between 97 and 120 mph. Glenn Hall, a Blackhawks goalie who faced Hull in practice, once said, “The idea was not to stop that

thing but to avoid getting killed.”

Ed Giacomin, a goalie for the New York Rangers, told The New York Times in 1988 that Hull’s slap shot “would rise or dip. You’d pull up when you should really be ducking. It played games with your mind.”

Hull was the third player in NHL history to score at least 50 goals in a season, following Maurice Richard and Bernard Geoffrion, both of the Montreal Canadiens. He scored 50 goals or more five times with the Blackhawks, peaking at 58 during the 1968-69 season.

Hull left the Blackhawks in 1972 and signed a long-term contract as player-coach for the Winnipeg Jets of the upstart World Hockey Association. During the 1974-75 season, he scored 77 goals.

Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts

Bobby Hull of the Chicago Blackhawks at the opening day of training at Chicago Stadium in 1970.

Sudoku

How to Play:

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

Sudoku Rules:

Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

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

Crossword

Answers on page 38

Wordsearch

Aries (Mar 21-April 20)

The Moon’s angle to diplomatic Venus makes convivial ties that could lead to exciting, positive and useful conversations. The more you link with others, join groups and pool ideas, the more productive the coming days and weeks can be. And yet a more reflective influence might find you ready to reach out with a view to resolving issues that need some discussion and closure, Aries.

Taurus (April 21-May 21)

It’s time to set the scene for what is to come. As Mars continues to move through Gemini, you’ll be eager to make the most of any offers or opportunities related to your job or career. And if you increase your income, it could lead to a positive shift in your affairs. Lunar ties encourage you to stay on the pulse, and see what you can discover that might bring about a breakthrough, Taurus.

Gemini (May 22-June 21)

Looking for ways to free up your time and explore new interests? You might even be looking for a job or career that allows you to work from anywhere. The focus on your sector of travel and far horizons could intensify this desire, Gemini. And while you might be limited as to what you can accomplish, you’re eager to learn more. Prepare now, and it might soon be all systems go.

Cancer (June 22-July 23)

Over the past years you have learnt a lot about what makes other people tick. Now with an ongoing focus on a psychological zone, you can make use of this in so many ways. An understanding of the values of those you work with or are close to, could be a gamechanger. Keen for someone to embrace an idea or plan? Knowing what they really want makes it easier.

Leo (July 24-Aug 23)

Whatever has been happening regarding your relationship, things could take a positive turn very soon. Developing influences make positive ties, allowing conversation to flow, differences to be smoothed over and a budding romance to show greater promise. This can be an excellent time to promote a skill or talent, as fortunate energies suggest you may get an instant following, Leo.

Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)

It’s time to find a balance between what you can and can’t do, Virgo. With sobering Saturn in your work zone, you may be busier than ever, with little time to yourself. The Sun in this same zone encourages you to explore options that might lead to a balanced lifestyle. Which activities inspire you, or turn you off? Something may need to go, if you’re to live each day to the full.

Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)

You’re all for new associations that could revolutionize your life. But dig deep, and you might find that despite your reputation for being a harmonious person, you won’t mind causing others to feel unsettled. You can use this in a way that gives you an edge, and you’ll work your magic very subtly, Libra. Plus, it will give you the option of restoring order in a way that suits your agenda.

Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)

If an emotional event happened again, you would have a different take on it. As you can’t turn back the clock, you may be left with the realisation that what is needed is a chance for things to heal. Today’s lunar ties can help you take the first step. While you can’t expect miracles, this is an opportunity to break the ice and make a gesture of reconciliation. See how it goes, Scorpio.

Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)

You enjoy mulling over big ideas, as well as looking for novel and exciting ways to implement them. Helpful lunar ties suggest that something can occur to you that is very savvy and clever. You might even wonder why you never thought of it before. Now you have, get moving, Archer, and your plans could build momentum. Don’t discount the help of others, as it may be vital.

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)

Feel it’s inappropriate to share what’s on your mind? Do it anyway Capricorn, as you’ll be surprised at the number of people who agree with you. You may find you have more friends and supporters than you thought, which could be heart-warming. Plus, a small windfall might boost your mood. Treating yourself to something nice can get the week off to a fabulous start.

Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)

Pushing yourself harder than ever to accomplish big plans? It’s very commendable, but you may go through what seem like testing times Aquarius, with situations that try your patience. With Saturn in your sign for quite some time, you’ve learned how to push beyond your limits. The rewards that will be yours as you continue to persevere will certainly be worth the effort.

Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)

You may wish that things were different Pisces, but the focus on a spiritual zone suggests that you are in exactly the right place. And that this is a time to heal any issues rather than go into denial. You don’t have to cope with everything alone. Whatever is going on, there is someone with the experience and knowledge to help. If you need support, then be sure to ask for it.

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