Tuesday Jul 11, 2023

The San Juan Star

On Her Renaissance Tour, the World Is Beyoncé’s Ball

A Standout for ‘Diligence & Openness’

With Toledo López Out, Bayamón Regional Superintendent Raíces Vega Tapped to Lead Education Dept. P3

Caguas Invests

$2 Million in Security Equipment, Including Drones

NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL

With Far-Right Parties Rising to Power Around Europe, Is Spain Next?

MORNING

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.

Bayamón regional superintendent tapped to lead Education Dept.

Interim secretary Toledo López lacked traction needed for confirmation

By THE STAR STAFF

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia announced Monday the appointment of Dr. Yanira Raíces Vega as the new interim secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Education (DE).

Raices Vega has extensive experience as an educator, adviser and pedagogical researcher, has held various positions in the DE for more than 20 years and has served as Bayamón regional superintendent.

She replaces interim Education Secretary Ángel Toledo López, whose confirmation did not have sufficient support.

INDEX

many investigations with various campuses of the University of Puerto Rico, Inter-American University, and the State University of New York at Oswego.

As Bayamón regional superintendent, meanwhile, in addition to her administrative tasks, she has created work plans to promote students’ emotional and academic development and to develop instruments and platforms for data collection. She also stands out for her work in statistical data analysis, fostering alliances with public and private agencies to benefit school communities, and developing action proposals to increase academic achievement rates.

Since 2009, Raíces Vega has worked at the DE in various administrative positions. The designee has worked as the regional superintendent of Bayamón since 2021. She also worked as assistant secretary of educational planning and development, and as a specialist in educational research. Likewise, she has served as the interim director of the Center for Educational Research and Innovation, and later became the assistant secretary of educational transformation, planning, and performance. In 2020, Raíces Vega directed the administrative work of the Juvenile Institutions and Correctional Schools Program. Likewise, she served as director of the Pedagogical Research Unit in the Division of Educational Planning and Development, and helped manage the 21st Century Schools project.

“Dr. Raíces is a leader within the Department of Education and has collaborated on numerous successful projects, including the modernization and construction of schools under the 21st Century Schools program and the development of platforms such as the Teacher Evaluation System and Online Enrollment, which promote digitization processes in the agency,” the governor said. “As Bayamón regional superintendent, she has stood out for her diligence in administrative processes and openness in communication with the various school communities, which I am sure will continue to demonstrate from her position as secretary. I have been emphatic that education is the pillar of the development of society and, therefore, it is a priority for my administration. For this reason, I have appointed a professional with the qualities, the skills, and the experience to lead such an important agency.”

Raíces Vega, who comes from a family of educators in the public school system, was a research teacher in various DE schools and has worked on curriculum development and implementing the participatory research model in the public system. As part of her training, she has worked on

In the private sector, Raíces Vega was a professor at Central University of Bayamón and Caribbean University, and a lecturer at Colegio Universitario del Este. As a research assistant at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), she worked on developing and collecting research data related to education on the island. Additionally, she has served private schools as an adviser and consultant on school planning and educational assessment.

Raíces Vega has a bachelor’s degree in natural sciences and a master’s degree in evaluative research from the UPR Río Piedras campus. She has a doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction from Inter-American University.

Puerto Rico Teachers Association President Víctor Manuel Bonilla Sánchez expressed support on Monday for the governor’s recess appointment of Raíces Vega.

“The appointment of Dr. Yanira Raíces satisfies our demand that the selection of a leader who can take charge of the priority issues of our educational system be urgently addressed,” Bonilla Sánchez said in a written statement. “We know Dr. Raíces as a figure who knows the important processes that take place in the educational regions and in our schools.”

Interim Education Secretary Dr. Yanira Raíces Vega

NPP lawmakers ask governor to veto electoral code

By THE STAR STAFF

The New Progressive Party (NPP) legislative conference unanimously urged Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia on Monday to veto the proposed amendments to the Electoral Code.

“The legislative conference constituted today by unanimous vote asked the governor to veto that bill,” Sen. Thomas Rivera Schatz, spokesman for the NPP minority, said at a press conference.

The NPP legislators provided three main reasons to veto the bill.

Rivera Schatz charged that the new electoral code being advanced by the Popular Democratic Party majority seeks to limit the right to vote, particularly for people 60 years of age or

older, by restricting their ability to vote in advance by mail. In addition, he insisted that the bill intends to reduce the categories for absentee votes.

Rivera Schatz also pointed out that, in terms of legality, the current Electoral Code and Senate Bill 909 respected all the decisions of the Supreme Court and the determinations of the federal court on electoral issues, something that is not part of the new electoral code, he said.

Separately, House Minority Leader Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Núñez affirmed that lawmakers asked the governor not to convene a special session for the bill that would amend the inventory tax, and gave assurances that they are working on it. Méndez Núñez also noted the need to approve the tax reform in the next session that starts in August.

New Progressive Party legislators opposed the proposed amendments to the Electoral Code in part because they say they would limit the right to vote, particularly for people 60 years of age or older, by restricting their ability to vote in advance by mail.

Head of PREPA retirees: Genera has caused more problems than it has solved

By THE STAR STAFF

Although the central government is trying to keep the information under the radar and the magnitude of the problem is unknown, the arrival of Genera Puerto Rico has caused the most recent and one of the most acute crises in the island’s electricity service, Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority Retirees Association (AJAEE by its Spanish initials) President Johnny Rodríguez Ortiz said Monday.

“The corroborated information we have at hand specifies that, in less than 36 hours, there have been multiple load relays due to breakdowns that they did not know how to address, and they even dared to blame rain and lightning as the causes,” the AJAEE president charged.

“With several load relays, more than 100,000 subscribers per event have been affected due to breakdowns in the units Aguirre #2 (450 megawatts [mw]), Palo Seco #3 (216mw), Palo Seco #4 (216mw), Costa Sur 5 and 6 (410 mw each), while PREPA has a broken boiler (225 mw),” Rodríguez Ortiz added.

Rodríguez Ortiz said he does not understand how even with that kind of a start, the Financial Oversight and Management Board has reserved $50 million for the payment

of productivity incentives for Genera Puerto Rico, while “denying money to the Electric Power Authority (PREPA) to operate more than 50mw of renewable energy, owned by PREPA [Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority] in the Yauco I hydroelectric plants, Yauco II, Garzas I, Garzas II and Río Blanco.”

He also stressed that Unit No. 5 of Costa Sur was ready to enter service, but Genera PR “has not asked to put it into service because there is no one who knows how to reset the turbine.”

Given the failure of this misnamed “Public-Private Partnership (PPP),” Rodríguez Ortiz continued, the only great solution was “to take out of service the portal from where PREPA projected the units in service, taking into account the cost per KV [kilovolt] of each one, the load generated constantly and the units and load available to be used.”

Rodríguez Ortiz said “the failure of Genera Puerto Rico is a constant threat of a collapse of the electrical system indefinitely.”

Now that the island is entering the peak period of the hurricane season, the AJAEE president urged subscribers “to get some emergency equipment to alleviate the events to come due to the failure of Genera Puerto Rico.”

$52 million in federal funds approved for health & social

By THE STAR STAFF

Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón announced on Monday the allocation of $51.8 million in new federal funds for the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), the prevention of domestic violence, care for patients with HIV/AIDS, and suicide prevention, among other services.

“The funding comes from divisions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,” González Colón

said in a written statement. “Among the most significant items is the approval of $6.7 million for public health emergency preparedness programs and $2.6 million for hospital preparations.”

The Medical Sciences Campus of the UPR will receive $320,471 for priorities of the Newborn Detection System program, and $1.5 for the Neuroplasticity Center.

The Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust meanwhile will receive nearly $4 million for two projects related to the response to the management of chronic

Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority Retirees Association President Johnny Rodríguez Ortiz

“Citizens must accept the fact that neither the [oversight board], Judge Laura Taylor Swain, nor the Legislature, nor the Governor are working for the benefit of the people,” Rodríguez Ortiz said. “No one has wanted to address the real crisis caused by the entry of LUMA Energy and Genera Puerto Rico.”

services, Head Start & UPR

diseases and COVID-19, as well as for the prevention and control of vector-borne diseases.

The Office of Head Start approved $31.6 million to the Family Department and $41.5 million to the Municipality of Adjuntas for Head Start centers.

Two organizations will also receive federal funding: the Peace Coordinator for Women Inc. with $686,361 for its efforts against domestic violence and sexual assault, and Grupo Nexos Inc., with $1.7 million for its adolescent pregnancy prevention program.

Caguas strengthens its anti-crime tool kit

Mayor announces $2 million investment in security equipment, including drones

By RICHARD GUTIÉRREZ richardsanjuanstar@gmail.com

With 126,000 residents, Caguas is one of the largest cities in Puerto Rico. The downside of a larger city is that crime tends to be more prevalent in urban zones than in rural areas.

Recognizing the need to strengthen the city’s security measures, Caguas Mayor William Miranda Torres announced at a press conference Monday that the municipality will invest some $2 million in new security equipment, including the citywide implementation of drones.

“Even though guaranteeing public safety is and fighting against crime is primarily the responsibility of the state, the municipal administration has approached this subject with a humanitarian perspective,” the mayor said. “With this investment of $2 million we are able to double the number of surveillance cameras around our city as well as accomplish the acquisition of body cams for our police officers, a drones unit, more vehicles for our police force, and the installation of the CAD (computer-aided dispatch) system with GPS integration.”

Miranda Torres said it is all part of his comprehensive security plan implemented more than a decade ago, which involves prevention, response, and action strategies against crime.

“We understand there are a multitude of factors that figure into the different occurrences of heinous acts and criminal activity -- economic aspects, inequality, unemployment, lack of opportunity etc. Against that harsh reality, there has been a tremendous effort in the implementation of sports and cultural aspects in our city to prevent criminal activity from happening in the future,” the mayor said. “We have invested a great deal in the municipal police and have our surveillance counts currently with 110 cameras around the city.”

He added that because of those efforts regarding the broad-based security plan implemented more than a decade ago, the city has seen a significant decrease in crime. When looking at the most recent data, which compares 2022 to 2011, crime in Caguas has decreased by 69% overall over that period. That includes a 75% decrease in murders, 83% decrease in robberies, 8% decrease in assaults, 80% decrease in burglaries, a 67% decrease in illegal properties, and 73% decrease in car theft.

Even though the statistics show that crime in Caguas has decreased, Miranda Torres believes that much remains to be done in terms of implementing and reinforcing security around the city. He said that with the announced investment, the Caguas municipal police force will be the most modern and well-equipped municipal force on the island.

The mayor said he believes that the drone unit specifically will increase the level of surveillance in the city and will be especially useful when considering areas of difficult access. With the drones in place, the municipality will be able to fight crime and even perform rescues, he said, effectively protecting the lives and property of the people in the city.

The number of surveillance cameras, meanwhile, will increase from 110 to 236 cameras around the city. With a $998,790 investment, the cameras will be strategically placed to maximize coverage.

The mayor emphasized that technology will be a great work tool, noting that the installation of the CAD and GPS system will be used for quick and effective responses. For example, with the system in place, the city will be monitorable in real time, and the security team will be able to create a map of the areas that need the most attention, with the ability to immediately dispatch units to attend to a given emergency.

The budget will also include the acquisition of nine new police cars, a tow truck and two vans, for a combined investment of $363,079. Last year the municipality invested $674,500 in 10 patrol cars, 18 motorcycles and five golf carts, all for the use of the municipal police force. Miranda Torres also noted additional new equipment for the police force, including new portable radios, rifles and of course the body cams, for a sum of $410,270.

“Currently, 50 of our officers are equipped with body cams; we are purchasing 60 additional cameras to make sure that 100% of our police force is equipped with body cams,” Miranda Torres said.

There are currently 105 police officers in the Caguas municipal police force, and the municipality is looking

forward to hiring 20 more officers at the very least. The municipality believes the pay is competitive, with cadets starting at $1,850 and moving on to $2,353 once they have graduated as municipal police officers. The STAR asked the mayor what other measures are being implemented to motivate more officers to join the Caguas municipal police force.

“Finding people who want to serve in the police force has been extraordinarily difficult,” Miranda Torres said. “They are currently looking into adding more community programs and links, to spread the word to young people and families in the municipality.” The mayor added that they have a multitude of programs in the municipal department of education where they spend time with young people and answer any question they may have about the police force. Visits to schools have been key to putting the word about those opportunities out there for the people, which is the most important part, he said.

“We need to wait and see how people become motivated and if all of the federal aid that’s been received to help improve the force helps with that,” Miranda Torres said. “However, the efforts to promote the force to the youth will continue; we have to wait and see the results, but we keep working hard for those results.”

When asked what he would say to other municipal and public service providers of the island regarding the implementation of technological security measures, the mayor told the STAR that he had a rather realistic approach to the question.

“There are a lot of municipalities that due to economic and fiscal reasons have to make a couple of adjustments, so some municipalities simply don’t have police officers; they depend entirely on the state,” Miranda Torres said. “With a minimal investment in these systems, they can have something, which can make a huge difference in the security of the town. They should most certainly consider the implementation of drones and security cameras in their respective municipalities; it could most certainly be an option for them.”

Caguas Mayor William Miranda Torres (Richard Gutiérrez/The San Juan Daily Star)

GAO report highlights island’s 78% debt cut

By THE STAR STAFF

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted the 78% reduction in debt obligations resulting from the commonwealth’s restructuring plan, a Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority press release said.

Puerto Rico’s gross domestic product was $106.5 billion as of June 30, 2021. In March 2022, Puerto Rico finalized its most significant debt restructuring: issuing $7.4 billion in new bonds replacing $34.3 billion in outstanding bonds, a 78% reduction. The restructuring also contained several initiatives to reform Puerto Rico’s struggling pension system, including a new trust fund -- financed by government surpluses -- to support future pension payments.

Finalizing the overhaul of electric and power operations and adhering to fiscal and financial management reforms are critical to sustained economic growth, the GAO report said.

“This most recent restructuring is a significant step in its recovery from the fiscal crisis and represents the largest municipal debt restructuring in U.S. history,” the report said. “The general obligation restructuring adds to other component debt restructurings completed in recent years, resulting in a total $34.5 billion (55 percent) reduction in outstanding debt.”

The completion of the debt restructurings means that the cost to Puerto Rico to service the current debt outstanding -- interest and principal payments -- is significantly lower, dropping from 25% of revenue before the enactment of the Puerto Rico Oversight,

Management and Economic Stability Act, commonly known as PROMESA, to 6.1% in 2022. This cost -- now about $1.15 billion annually -- is fixed through 2049.

The report on U.S. territories’ public debt has highlighted the successes and challenges in Puerto Rico’s fiscal and economic recovery. The challenges include the restructuring of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s debt and the transformation of the electricity system, as well as the continued implementation of structural and fiscal reforms in areas such as debt management, and the timely publication of financial reports, the release added.

Regarding other U.S. territories, Guam’s economy is showing signs of recovery, as the opening of the third U.S. military base there is expected to foster economic growth, the report

said. The U.S. Virgin Islands’ March 2022 bond refinancing temporarily extended pension solvency, the report said, while the Northern Mariana Islands economy continues to decline, its financial management and reporting have worsened, and the commonwealth is “at risk of a severe fiscal crisis,” the report added.

ASSMCA chief to lead homeless population council

(ASSMCA by its Spanish initials), will chair the Multisectoral Council In Support of the Homeless Population.

Rodríguez Mateo was elected to the position in a unanimous vote by the members of the council during a regular meeting.

Before the announcement, the ASSMCA chief thanked the members of the council for their support and confidence.

vision is health, and homelessness has to be addressed in a multifaceted way, as we have been promoting through the services we offer from ASSMCA.”

with all the representatives that compose it to eradicate homelessness and improve the living conditions of this population,” she said.

By THE STAR STAFF

Starting this month, Dr. Carlos Rodríguez Mateo, who heads the Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration

“With the responsibility that comes with the position of president, I reiterate my commitment to continue working tirelessly to provide solutions to the prevention and eradication of the problem of homelessness and, equally important, to help people who live on the street to get out of there and overcome,” Rodríguez Mateo said. “As administrator of ASSMCA, my

The members also elected Vivian Camacho Dávila as vice president of the council. Camacho Dávila is the executive director of the Coalition of San Juan Inc., a nonprofit established in 2001 that supports organizations that provide services to the homeless in 24 municipalities.

Camacho Dávila said she looked forward to working with Rodríguez Mateo and assisting him “in his duties in order to achieve the proposed goals.”

“The council and the entire population have my commitment to work hand-in-hand

During the regular meeting, the members of the council also approved the new regulations that will govern its operations, whose content is based on the Law to Create the Multisectoral Council in Support of the Homeless Population, Law 130 of Sept. 27, 2007.

The Multisectoral Council in Support of the Homeless Population is composed of 25 people, 11 of whom are from the government sector, seven are from the nonprofit sector and seven are from the municipalities with the highest prevalence of homelessness throughout Puerto Rico. All members are confirmed by the governor.

PR vets win 38 medals at National Veterans Wheelchair Games

By THE STAR STAFF

Sixteen Puerto Rican veterans won 38 medals at the 42nd National Veterans Wheelchair Games, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Paralyzed Veterans of America in Portland, Oregon.

The games, held July 4-9, is a sports and rehabilitation program for the military. The events give participants the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and compete in the world’s largest wheelchair competition

for veterans who use wheelchairs due to amputations, spinal cord injuries or other neurological conditions.

Each year, hundreds of veterans train and travel to compete in the games, the world’s largest annual wheelchair competition for veterans.

More than 20 events were held at the games, where veterans with similar athletic abilities, experience or age competed in disciplines such as adaptive e-sports, adaptive fitness, pistol and rifle shooting, archery,

basketball, boccia, bowling, cycling, disc golf, field trials, billiards, pickleball, power

Dr. Carlos Rodríguez Mateo

soccer, wheelchair rugby, slalom, softball, swimming and table tennis.

Relying on desperate measure to save lifeline of Everglades

By DAN EGAN

For thousands of years, Lake Okeechobee pumped life into Florida’s swampy interior. Summer rains swelled the shallow inland sea, creating seasonal overflows that sustained the Everglades and its alligators, panthers, spoonbills and snail kites.

But a vast reengineering over the past century has transformed Okeechobee into something life-threatening as much as lifegiving. Toxic algal blooms now regularly infest much of its 730-square-mile surface during the summer, producing fumes and waterborne poisons potent enough to kill pets that splash in the contaminated waters, or send their owners to the doctor from inhaling the toxins.

The Okeechobee mess, caused mainly by phosphorus-based agricultural fertilizers, festered out of the public consciousness for decades. But in recent summers the problem has become more dire. Climate change is making storms and rainfall more intense and less predictable, and last fall Hurricane Ian stirred up so much phosphorus that this summer is expected to be particularly bad.

Things get further complicated when lake levels climb so high that contaminated water must be released into canals — toward coastal cities like Fort Myers and Stuart — to protect the structural integrity of the 143-milelong dike holding back the lake.

The coming weeks will offer a serious test.

Rainy season is just starting, but by late June the lake’s level was roughly 2 feet higher than the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would like. While that’s a few feet below the dike’s potential danger zone, history has shown that Okeechobee can swell by that much in less than a month.

Adding to the worry: More than half the lake is already suffering algal blooms. And the algae season has months to go.

This has people downstream bracing for another summer of sludge. “We’re looking at a bullet in the chamber here,” said Eve Samples, executive director of the conservation group Friends of the Everglades.

The state and the Army Corps of Engineers are trying to reduce the toxic flows to the coasts with a controversial reengineering plan that has been decades in the making, including building a new lake from scratch to contain and decontaminate Okeechobee’s

discharges.

Yet critics worry it’s still not enough, particularly as the world keeps warming. Scientists say hurricanes are getting not only more powerful because of climate change, but also wetter. Ian last year most likely dropped 10% more rain than would have been expected in a world without warming, researchers have said.

Star Robinson, 55, grew up playing in and around Okeechobee. But in recent years her relationship with the lake has soured. On a morning jog in the city of Pahokee a few weeks ago, she kept at least 100 yards from the shoreline, and with good reason. Any closer and she risked choking on the lake’s lung-burning fumes.

The only activity near the water’s edge? A cluster of buzzards. “They just love the smell of death and decay,” she said.

The vapors come from rotting mats of a type of toxic algae — technically a cyanobacteria — that thrives in Okeechobee’s tea-warm water and feasts on rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and the phosphorus-rich fertilizer and manure that wash off cropland and into the lake.

The immediate dangers include lung infections and gastrointestinal distress. There are also concerns that long-term exposure could lead to organ damage and the risk of certain neurological disorders.

“This has become almost like a perma-

nent condition,” said Gil Smart, executive director of VoteWater, a nonpartisan group pushing for a more ambitious fix. “It’s like you have spring, you have summer, and you have algae bloom season,” he said. “Like clockwork.”

Similar outbreaks have struck lakes elsewhere, including Lake Champlain, Lake Erie and Lake Tahoe. But Okeechobee is different. It is warm, flat and shallow as a backyard pool — making it more like a supersize petri dish than the wellspring of the Everglades.

Robinson, the jogger, said she knows how to fix a lake that has “gone to hell.”

“Stop the polluting,” she said. “That’s it. That’s the solution.”

It’s not likely to happen anytime soon.

Old dike, new hope

The crisis was borne of decisions starting a century ago to tame the lake by holding back its seasonal overflows in order to drain swamps, creating rich farmland. That has transformed southern Florida into one of the most important sugar-cane-producing regions in the world.

It came at a heavy cost.

Disaster struck in 1926, when a hurricane collapsed part of the dike, drowning hundreds of people. The dike was patched, but two years later it happened again, this time killing thousands.

By the 1960s the Army Corps of Engineers proclaimed it had finally controlled

the lake with what is now called the Herbert Hoover Dike, a mound of sand, rock and seashells rising a couple of stories above the table-flat landscape.

Since the dike severed the lake’s natural flow into the Everglades, the corps now operates canals to carry much of the outflows eastward to the city of Stuart on the Atlantic coast, and west to Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast.

For decades, the canals carried away lake water. Then, the algae came.

About a decade ago, Okeechobee’s outflows began triggering intense downstream algae outbreaks as green as anything SherwinWilliams might concoct. The coastal impact was particularly bad in 2013, 2016 and 2018, causing beach closures, business shutdowns and even some residential evacuations. (This is different from red tide, another type of toxic algal bloom.)

The releases were necessary because an old fear had returned. Engineers realized a few decades ago that Hoover Dike, notoriously leaky, was in danger of collapsing once again if water levels climbed too high. Today, tens of thousands of people live in Okeechobee’s flood path.

An 18-year, $1.5 billion dike-fortification project was completed last January. That probably means fewer algae releases toward Fort Myers and Stuart.

The Army Corps of Engineers said it is doing its best to protect the ecological health of the peninsula, the people who live downstream and the farmers. “While I can’t promise that there won’t be high releases later this year due to the inherent uncertainty of Mother Nature, we will do our best to avoid them, if possible,” Col. James Booth of the corps said in June.

A Manhattan-Size project

This winter the corps moved ahead with a Manhattan-size reservoir and wetlands complex. A decade or so from now, a 37-foot-high wall — holding back the new lake — will tower over sugar cane country. The idea is that the reservoir will capture at least some of Okeechobee’s toxic outflows instead of sending them to the coasts. The 10,500-acre reservoir and the recently completed 6,500-acre artificial wetlands, designed to absorb phosphorus, are the centerpiece of a growing system of canals, gates,

An aerial view of Lake Okeechobee by the pier in Okeechobee, Fla., July 3, 2023. Algal blooms now regularly infest much of the lake’s 730-square-mile surface during the summer, producing poisons potent enough to kill pets that splash in the waters, or send their owners who inhale the toxins to the doctor.

The Southwest bakes with more heat on the way

By JOHN WASHINGTON, ANNA BETTS and MARÍA JIMÉNEZ MOYA

As the heat engulfed Tucson, Arizona, on Sunday afternoon, six people, part of a new mutual aid group they call Gator-Aid, were dropping 7-pound bags of Reddy Ice on the hot sidewalks and loading coolers with hundreds of bottles of water and Gatorade.

Every Sunday for the past month, the group has been bringing beverages to downtown Tucson and distributing them to those in need, they said.

“You can see how badly people need it,” volunteer Hershey Long, 35, said. “It’s great to see that people can have a bit of relief.”

Within 40 minutes, there were only four bottles of water left. A few hours later, volunteers returned with restocked supplies. They found the Tucson Fire Department treating a man with a heat-related illness. Paramedics draped wet towels over him and loaded him into an ambulance.

People across the South and the West have been scrambling to find relief over the past week, a task that could get even more daunting as a new blast of heat threatens to settle over the Southwest over the coming week.

The heat wave, caused by a “heat dome” of high pressure, is stationed over the desert Southwest. Experts estimate that more than 50 million people across the United States live in the areas expected to have dangerous levels of heat.

A range of excessive heat warnings and heat advisories were in place across the region over the weekend. On Friday, the National Weather Service said that the conditions in Arizona were “rivaling some of the worst heat waves this area has ever seen.”

Those outside an air-conditioned comfort dome had it the worst. On Sunday, a few dozen people gathered in Santa Rita Park near downtown Tucson. Some collected bottled water from the Gator-Aid group; others brought it with them.

Joseph Whittaker, 51, said he was drinking three jugs of water at a nearby soup kitchen every morning.

“I’m dying — I have stage 3 kidney disease, so I need water more than you,” Whittaker said.

Mateo Calderón, 59, originally from San Luis Potosí,

Mexico, is spending his second summer in Tucson. He pays $200 a month to park in someone’s backyard. He sleeps in his car, or, when it’s too hot, on a row of couch cushions on the ground.

He can go into the house to shower, store food and fill up with water. Calderón explained how important it is to drink water.

“I used to go to cooling centers, last year, but they’re far,” he said. Now, he chases shade during the day, and just tries to stay hydrated.

Typically, Arizona faces its highest temperatures in June and July, Gabriel Lojero, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix, said Sunday, so the timing of this heat is not unusual. But what is a cause for concern, he said, is the longevity of the extreme heat.

So far, the weather service has recorded nine consecutive days of temperatures above 110 degrees in Arizona, Lojero said, and the longest stretch the state has seen of consecutive days over 110 degrees was 18, in 1974.

“Looking at the current forecasts that we have, we’re forecasting temperatures at least 110 or above for at least the next seven to eight days and potentially longer,” Lojero said, adding that this streak could potentially break the 18-day record.

Isaac Smith, another meteorologist with the weather service in Arizona, said that “we’re going to be looking at these

Relying on desperate measure to save lifeline of Everglades

From page 7

pumps and engineered wetlands built to clean the outflows so they can once again drift south into the Everglades as well as provide drinking water to booming South Florida. The two projects will cost roughly $4 billion.

During a recent visit to the site, Tim Harper, an engineer with the South Florida Water Management District, parked his pickup and asked his passengers to take in the endless sea of sugar cane that will one day be lake bottom. “Now, imagine 23 feet of water above you,” he said, “essentially for as far as the eye can see.”

It’s a difficult picture to conjure.

Equally challenging to grasp is the idea that the whole new lake, as big as it sounds, will fill to capacity if only 6 inches of Lake Okeechobee is sent its way.

An earlier proposal for a 60,000-acre system was scuttled when agricultural operators, primarily sugar cane growers, objected. Obtaining the land through eminent domain wasn’t an option after the Florida Legislature in 2017 prohibited allowing the state to force a sale.

Many conservationists welcomed the decision to build a smaller reservoir as a major step in the right direction. “No project will play a bigger role in reducing algae-causing discharges from Lake Okeechobee,” said the chief executive of

very hot temperatures continuing through the next week.” The weather service, he added, expects highs to continue to remain above 110 degrees each day. “That’s pretty significant for us,” Smith said. “Even for Phoenix standards.”

“People certainly need to be taking precautions to protect themselves from the heat,” Smith added. “People need to keep in mind that heat is the No. 1 weather-related killer in the U.S.”

A report released by the Maricopa County Department of Public Health last month found that in 2022 there were 425 heat-associated deaths in the county, up 25% from the previous year. More than half of the heat-associated deaths occurred in July, according to the report, and 107 of the deaths occurred on days with an excessive heat warning.

Still, throughout the region, people are finding ways to make do and assessing how much of the heat this year is extraordinary, and how much just feels like summer in the South and the Southwest.

At Heights Mercantile Farmers Market in Houston on Sunday, farmers and retailers reflected on the heat so far, and were bracing themselves for the rest of the summer.

Xander Hernandez, 29, a private chef and sales representative for the farmers at Animal Farm in Cat Spring, Texas, said that the extreme heat was killing the farm’s crops such as lettuce, spinach, kale and cabbage.

The lack of water has been tough, Hernandez said, adding that he had more produce last year.

Elsewhere in Houston, people were mostly avoiding being outside after noon or were doing their best to get by when they had to leave home.

One who was out was Mark Morales, 42, an engineering technician, who was walking his 19-year-old schnauzer named Moose through the Heights in Houston on Sunday afternoon. Morales has moved the morning walk up from 7 a.m. to 6 a.m. And the walks have gotten shorter.

“Instead of long walks, it’s just constant little walks of 15 to 20 minutes with lots of stops,” Morales said.

But a dog’s got to do what a dog’s got to do, so there they were Sunday, the streets almost empty, the heat almost 100 degrees, another summer day in Houston.

the Everglades Foundation, Eric Eikenberg.

Others are skeptical.

Bill Mitsch, retired director of the Everglades Wetland Research Park at Florida Gulf Coast University, sees the project as too small. He worries it may even result in harm to the Everglades if the phosphorus-absorbing wetlands don’t work as well as predicted. “There is just not enough capacity,” he said.

Samples, of the Friends of the Everglades, shares that concern. “Florida has this centurylong history of trying to outengineer Mother Nature and having it backfire, and it really feels like we’re repeating the mistakes of our past,” she said.

Temperatures soared to 115 degrees last week in Phoenix.

Saharan dust blowing across the Atlantic could reach South Florida

By REBECCA CARBALLO

As Florida recovers from the tangled seaweed blob plaguing its coasts, nature may have something else in store for the state: dust from the Sahara.

Saharan dust is moving across the Atlantic Ocean and could reach South Florida, resulting in hotter days and less rain, meteorologists said.

As of Sunday afternoon, the dust was still approaching South Florida. Earlier satellite images showed patches of dust over Puerto Rico, with more over the northern and western parts of the island, said Keily Delerme, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tampa, Florida. The weather service does not track the dust’s speed as it travels, she said.

The dust could arrive in South Florida by this week, said Ping Zhu, an earth and environment professor at Florida International University. However, he added, it is not a reason to panic.

“I don’t think we should worry too much of it,” Zhu said. “So far we don’t see the evidence that it’s very serious.”

This is not an uncommon occurrence. Saharan dust travels to Florida periodically throughout the year, Zhu said. Thunder and windstorms cause conditions that pick up dust, and certain winds blow it westward toward the United States.

It is not clear whether the dust will make it the thousands of miles to Florida, or how long it could linger, Delerme said.

“It could take a day or two,” she said. “It could dissipate. It could not make it at all.”

If the dust travels far enough, it could result in higher temperatures and less rain for South Florida. Since Saharan dust is so dry, it makes it difficult for water vapor to form in the atmosphere, limiting chances of rain, Zhu said. It could also have a blanket effect, trapping heat on the ground.

Still, many Floridians might not notice much change. People in sensitive groups or who have asthma may feel some of the effects, a meteorologist with the weather service said, as dust can worsen air pollution, allergies and lung problems.

The dryness of the dust could also affect air quality, according to Miami-Dade County’s website. As of Saturday evening, the air quality level in the county was listed as “moderate.”

Meteorologists said that the haze wouldn’t be strong enough to affect visibility and threaten air traffic. However, Federal Aviation Administration officials said they frequently grappled with visibility constraints and were “prepared to modify operations as needed.”

This wouldn’t be the first time Saharan dust made it out of Africa. Last summer, a dust cloud traveled all the

In an update image provided by NASA Earth Observatory, dust blowing from the Sahara off the coast of Morocco toward the Canary Islands in 2022. As Florida recovers from the tangled seaweed blob plaguing its coasts, nature may have something else in store for the state: dust from the Sahara.

way to Texas, and another turned the skies over Europe orange, with red dust coating cars and “blood rain” falling in certain areas.

In 2018, the dust turned snow in Eastern Europe orange, and in past years it has prompted both U.S. and international officials to issue health alerts.

Overdue book is returned to a library after nearly 120 years

By ORLANDO MAYORQUIN

As books go, James Clerk Maxwell’s “An Elementary Treatise on Electricity” is hardly a household name, but it has gained renewed attention after a copy was returned last month to a Massachusetts library nearly 120 years overdue.

“This is definitely the longest overdue book that we’ve gotten back,” Olivia Melo, the library’s director, said Sunday. “And we do get some books back after, you know, 10, 15 years.”

The book, published in 1881 and written by a prominent Scottish physicist, was an early scientific text laying out electrical theories.

Its 208 pages, bound by a cranberry-colored cover, are crammed with technical jargon and medleys of elaborate mathematical equations. The library acquired the book in 1882, Melo said.

It was likely either last checked out on Feb. 14, 1904, or Feb. 14, 1905. The faded stamp makes it difficult to be certain, but a faint circular shape after the “190-” suggests the later date, Melo said. A prior checkout stamp clearly reads Dec. 10, 1903.

On May 30, the library was contacted by Stewart Plein, a curator of rare books at West Virginia University’s library in Morgantown, West Virginia.

“We have recently received a donation that included a book from your library,” Plein wrote in a note. “There is no withdrawn information. Would you like it returned to you?”

Libraries mark books “withdrawn” to indicate they no longer own a book. The absence of such a mark suggested to Plein that it still belonged to the New Bedford Free Public Library. She mailed the book back.

Who originally checked out the book and where it had been all these years was not immediately known.

The book is in “optimal shape,” Melo said. The words are legible. The spine is sturdy.

“It was very well taken care of,” Melo said. “Whoever had the book all this time obviously had it in a controlled room. It wasn’t being thumbed through.”

The more than 140-year-old book isn’t the first to find its way back to its original lender after so many decades.

Last month, a copy of “The Bounty Trilogy” by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, published in 1932, was returned to a Washington state library 81 years after it was checked out, CNN reported. In 2021, a copy of Kate

Douglas Wiggin’s “New Chronicles of Rebecca,” still in “immaculate” condition, turned up at an Idaho library after 110 years.

When “An Elementary Treatise on Electricity” was checked out, the New Bedford Free Public Library charged a one-cent fee for every day it was late.

Had that late fee rate remained without a cap, the borrower would have owed roughly $430. Without a cap, at today’s late fee rate of 5 cents per day, the balance would be more than $2,100.

But late fees were capped decades ago at $2 to encourage people to return their books, Melo said.

Though the book today does not command an astronomical price on the open market — it was mass-produced, and a similar copy is listed for sale online at $600 — “An Elementary Treatise on Electricity” does hold sentimental and historical value, Melo said.

In the digital age, it speaks to the “value of the printed word,” she said.

“This book is going to be here 100 years from now because now we’re going to continue to preserve it and take care of it,” Melo said. “For future generations, this book will be here.”

As businesses clamor for workplace AI, tech companies rush to provide it

By YIWEN LU

Earlier this year, Mark Austin, the vice president of data science at AT&T, noticed that some of the company’s developers had started using the ChatGPT chatbot at work. When the developers got stuck, they asked ChatGPT to explain, fix or hone their code. It seemed to be a game-changer, Austin said. But since ChatGPT is a publicly available tool, he wondered if it was secure for businesses to use.

So in January, AT&T tried a product from Microsoft called Azure OpenAI Services that lets businesses build their own artificial-intelligence-powered chatbots. AT&T used it to create a proprietary AI assistant, Ask AT&T, which helps its developers automate their coding process. AT&T’s customer service representatives also began using the chatbot to help summarize their calls, among other tasks.

“Once they realize what it can do, they love it,” Austin said. Forms that once took hours to complete needed only two minutes with Ask AT&T so employees could focus on more complicated tasks, he said, and developers who used the chatbot increased their productivity by 20% to 50%.

AT&T is one of many businesses eager to find ways to tap the power of generative AI, the technology that powers chatbots and that has gripped Silicon Valley with excitement in recent months. Generative AI can produce its own text, photos and video in response to prompts, capabilities that can help automate tasks such as taking meeting minutes and cut down on paperwork.

To meet this new demand, tech compa-

nies are racing to introduce products for businesses that incorporate generative AI. Over the past three months, Amazon, Box and Cisco have unveiled plans for generative AI-powered products that produce code, analyze documents and summarize meetings. Salesforce also recently rolled out generative AI products used in sales, marketing and its Slack messaging service, while Oracle announced a new AI feature for human resources teams.

These companies are also investing more in AI development. In May, Oracle and Salesforce Ventures, the venture capital arm of Salesforce, invested in Cohere, a Toronto startup focused on generative AI for business use. Oracle is also reselling Cohere’s technology.

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“I think this is a complete breakthrough in enterprise software,” Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, said of generative AI. He called it “this incredibly exciting opportunity where, for the first time ever, you can actually start to understand what’s inside of your data in a way that wasn’t possible before.”

Many of these tech companies are following Microsoft, which has invested $13 billion in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. In January, Microsoft made Azure OpenAI Service available to customers, who can then access OpenAI’s technology to build their own versions of ChatGPT. As of May, the service had 4,500 customers, said John Montgomery, a Microsoft corporate vice president.

For the most part, tech companies are now rolling out four kinds of generative AI products for businesses: features and services that generate code for software engineers, create new content such as sales emails and product descriptions for marketing teams, search company data to answer employee questions, and summarize meeting notes and lengthy documents.

“It is going to be a tool that is used by people to accomplish what they are already doing,” said Bern Elliot, a vice president and analyst at the IT research and consulting firm Gartner.

But using generative AI in workplaces has risks. Chatbots can produce inaccuracies and misinformation, provide inappropriate responses and leak data. AI remains largely

unregulated.

In response to these issues, tech companies have taken some steps. To prevent data leakage and to enhance security, some have engineered generative AI products so they do not keep customer data.

When Salesforce last month introduced AI Cloud, a service with nine generative AIpowered products for businesses, the company included a “trust layer” to help mask sensitive corporate information to stop leaks and promised that what users typed into these products would not be used to retrain the underlying AI model.

Similarly, Oracle said that customer data would be kept in a secure environment while training its AI model and added that it would not be able to see the information.

Salesforce offers AI Cloud starting at $360,000 annually, with the cost rising depending on the amount of usage. Microsoft charges for Azure OpenAI Service based on the version of OpenAI technology that a customer chooses, as well as the amount of usage.

For now, generative AI is used mainly in workplace scenarios that carry low risks — instead of highly regulated industries — with a human in the loop, said Beena Ammanath, the executive director of the Deloitte AI Institute, a research center of the consulting firm. A recent Gartner survey of 43 companies found that more than half the respondents have no internal policy on generative AI.

“It is not just about being able to use these new tools efficiently, but it is also about preparing your workforce for the new kinds of work that might evolve,” Ammanath said. “There is going to be new skills needed.”

Panasonic Connect, part of the Japanese electronics company Panasonic, began using Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service to make its own chatbot in February. Today, its employees ask the chatbot 5,000 questions a day about everything from drafting emails to writing code.

While Panasonic Connect had expected its engineers to be the main users of the chatbot, other departments — such as legal, accounting and quality assurance — also turned to it to help summarize legal documents, brainstorm solutions to improve product quality and conduct other tasks, said Judah Reynolds, Panasonic Connect’s marketing and communications chief.

“Everyone started using it in ways that we didn’t even foresee ourselves,” he said. “So people are really taking advantage of it.”

The Salesforce tower in New York, on June 15, 2023. Salesforce recently rolled out generative A.I. products used in sales, marketing and its Slack messaging service.

Wall Street muted as traders eye inflation data

Wall Street stocks rose slightly on Monday, while oil prices and the dollar dipped, as investors digested Chinese economic data and looked ahead to a key U.S. inflation report and corporate earnings.

U.S. stocks gained modestly. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.62%, the S&P 500 gained 0.24%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.18%. European shares inched higher on Monday with the travel and leisure sector leading gains. The pan-European STOXX 600 index finished up 0.18%.

Chinese consumer price figures fell in June, leaving them almost unchanged from a year earlier, while producer prices slid deeper into negative territory.

The weakness implies scope for further monetary policy easing, but also underlines the challenge China faces in reflating its economy and avoiding a deflationary spiral.

“China is just a symptom. We see weaker growth around the world because of the effect of higher interest rates,” said Matthias Scheiber, global head of multi-asset portfolio management at Allspring Global Investments in London.

Citigroup on Monday downgraded U.S. stocks in anticipation of a pullback in growth equities and a recession in the fourth quarter of the year, while betting on beaten-down counterparts in Europe with an upgrade.

The brokerage cut its rating on U.S. stocks to “neutral” from “overweight” after a strong rally in the first half of the year. It warned that growth stocks were set for a pullback as the “euphoria” around artificial intelligence enters a more “digestive” phase.

The earnings season starts this week with JPMorgan, Citi, Wells Fargo, State Street and PepsiCo among those reporting.

CPI SLOWDOWN

U.S. consumer prices are expected on Wednesday to show headline inflation slowed to its lowest since early 2021 at 3.1%, down from 9.1% a year earlier.

Separately, U.S. wholesale inventories were unchanged in May after declining for two straight months, suggesting inventory investment could support economic growth in the second quarter.

“Markets are coming around to our view that central banks will be forced to keep policy tight to curb inflationary pressures,” BlackRock Investment Institute strategists wrote in a note Monday. “Stubbornly high U.S. CPI inflation data this week could bolster the recent bond yield surge as markets expect the Fed to hike rates.”

Markets still think the Federal Reserve is likely to hike rates this month, but a weak CPI might lessen the risk of a further move in September.

Currently futures imply around a 90% probability of a rise to 5.25%-5.5% this month, up 25 basis points.

The Fed will likely need to raise rates further to bring down inflation, but the end to its current monetary policy

MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS

PUERTO RICO STOCKS COMMODITIES CURRENCY

tightening cycle is getting close, several U.S. central bank officials said on Monday.

“I think we’re close,” said Michael Barr, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision.

Markets have also priced in higher rates in Europe and the UK. Canada’s central bank meets this week and markets imply a 69% chance of another hike.

The risk of higher global rates for longer has caused havoc in bond markets, where U.S. 10-year yields jumped 23

basis points last week, German yields rose 24 basis points and UK yields leapt 26 basis points. The yield on 10-year U.S. notes fell 4 basis points on Monday to 4.008%.

U.S. two-year yields last stood at 4.870%, having hit a 16-year high of 5.12% last week.

The dollar sank to around a three-week low against the yen on Monday as investors continued to price in expectations that the Federal Reserve is near the end of its tightening cycle.

The dollar index dipped 0.3%, while the euro was up 0.3%, and the pound rose 0.16%.

In commodity markets, gold was little changed after making a slight gain last week. [GOL/]

By CASSANDRA VINOGRAD

ARussian airstrike killed at least four people and wounded more than a dozen others in a frontline town in the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine over the weekend, Ukrainian officials said Monday.

The office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general said the strike had hit a “civilian infrastructure facility” on Sunday afternoon in the town of Orikhiv. It said that in addition to the four dead, 13 people were wounded. The prosecutor’s office did not provide further details.

Yuri Malashko, the head of the regional military administration, said a guided bomb had hit a residential area where humanitar-

ian aid was being distributed, killing three women and a man — all in their 40s. Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said that several people had been pulled from the rubble of a building that was “almost completely destroyed,” and that rescue efforts were continuing Monday. Those details could not be independently verified.

Ukrainian forces have for more than a month been waging a counteroffensive in the south and east of the country to recapture territory occupied by Russia. Some of the heaviest fighting of the campaign has been reported near Orikhiv.

Analysts have long anticipated a major Ukrainian thrust in the area, pushing southward toward the city of Melitopol and the Sea of Azov, in an attempt to cut in two the land that Russia has seized. Malashko said the deadly strike on Or-

ikhiv was one of 36 Russian attacks on Sunday alone in the Zaporizhzhia region.

A Russian strike on a town in southern Ukraine kills at least 4 Putin met with Prigozhin days after rebellion, Kremlin says

By PAUL SONNE

President Vladimir Putin of Russia held a lengthy meeting with Yevgeny V. Prigozhin just five days after his Wagner private military company launched a brief mutiny, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, noting that “further employment options” for the mercenary group were among the matters discussed.

It is the first known contact between the two men since Wagner’s uprising, which posed the most dramatic challenge to Putin’s authority in his more than two decades in power. But the Kremlin’s account of the meeting left a host of unanswered questions about the mercenary group’s future.

Putin invited 35 people to the three-hour meeting on June 29, including Prigozhin and all of Wagner’s top commanders, the Kremlin spokesperson said. He did not specify where the meeting took place. The details of any agreements reached at the meeting remain unclear, and Prigozhin hasn’t said anything about it since the failed mutiny.

“The only thing we can say is that the president gave his assessment of the company’s actions” during both the war in Ukraine and the uprising, Peskov said.

The commanders shared with Putin their version of events, he added. “Putin heard out the commanders and proposed further employment options and further combat options,” Peskov said. The fighters also pledged their loyalty to the Russian president.

“They emphasized that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and commander in chief — and also said they are prepared to fight for the country going forward,” Peskov said.

That the Wagner officials were able to attend a peaceful meeting with the Russian leader and air their grievanc-

es, even after Putin denounced them as traitors on national television and vowed to crush their rebellion, demonstrates the power that Prigozhin has amassed as the leader of Wagner, whose forces led the campaign to seize Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine in one of Russia’s rare battlefield victories in recent months.

It also suggests that the Kremlin, at least for the time being, could see the mercenaries as a threat better kept within the tent than marginalized into an aggrieved and armed opposition.

But Putin is walking a perilous line, with any lenience shown to Prwigozhin and his commanders likely to be met with scorn by his own Defense Ministry, whose leadership had been the object of Wagner’s ire for months and was the named target of its short-lived rebellion.

On June 24, the Wagner mercenaries seized the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and an important Russian military headquarters there, before beginning a shortlived march on Moscow.

Prigozhin asserted that the mutiny was aimed not at toppling Putin or his government, but at removing the top leaders of the Russian military, Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery V. Gerasimov.

Nevertheless, Putin hit back hard, appearing in a national address to denounce the uprising as traitorous and warn against a descent into a new Russian civil war. Putin promised the harshest punishment for those who “consciously chosen the path of betrayal.”

But the harsh punishments didn’t come.

Hours later, the Kremlin announced a deal, apparently brokered by the autocratic Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, under which Prigozhin would stand down, avoid prosecution and depart Russia for Belarus. Wagner fighters who had participated in the mutiny would also go free and avoid punishment; those who didn’t participate would be

given the chance to sign Russian military contracts.

The agreement prompted outrage among some Russian commentators, who were exasperated that the insurrectionist mercenaries were facing zero punishment, despite having shot down Russian aircraft, leaving an unspecified number of personnel dead.

The Kremlin has changed its story about Prigozhin’s whereabouts. On June 29, the day of the meeting between Putin and Prigozhin, the Kremlin spokesperson told reporters that he didn’t know where the mercenary boss was.

The following week, on July 6, Peskov said the Kremlin had neither the “ability nor the desire” to track Prigozhin’s movements.

The next day, the French newspaper Libération reported that Putin had met with Prigozhin and his commanders at the Kremlin to “negotiate the fate of his empire.”

On Monday, Peskov confirmed that the meeting with Putin had taken place. The Kremlin spokesperson added, “The details of it are unknown.”

Firefighters struggle to extinguish a blaze from a missile strike Monday on a tire-fitting plant in Lviv in western Ukraine. At least seven people were killed in missile strikes on the city.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Far-right parties are rising to power around Europe. Is Spain next?

By JASON HOROWITZ

Last month, after Spain’s conservative and hard-right parties crushed the left in local elections, the winners in Elche, a small southeastern town known for an ancient sculpture and shoe exports, signed an agreement with consequences for the future of Spain — and the rest of Europe.

The candidate from the conservative Popular Party had a chance to govern, but he needed the hard-right Vox party, which, in return for its support during council votes, received the deputy mayor position and a new administrative body to defend the traditional family. They inked their deal under the cross of the local church.

“This coalition model could be a good model for the whole of Spain,” said Pablo Ruz Villanueva, Elche’s new mayor, referring to upcoming national elections July 23, which most polls suggest will oust the liberal prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party. The new deputy mayor from Vox, Aurora Rodil Martínez, went further: “My party will do everything that’s necessary to make that happen.”

If Rodil’s wish comes true, with Vox joining a coalition with more moderate conservatives, it would become the first right-wing party since the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to enter the national government.

The rise of Vox is part of an increasing trend of hard-right parties surging in popularity and, in some cases, gaining power by entering governments as junior partners.

The parties have differences but generally fear the economic ramifications of globalization and say that their countries will lose their national identities to migration, often from nonChristian or nonwhite-majority countries, but also to an empowered European Union that they believe looks after only the elites. Their steady advances have added urgency to a now pressing debate among liberals over how to outflank a suddenly more influential right.

Some argue that the hard right needs to be marginalized, as was the case for more than a half-century after World War II. Others fear that the hard right has grown too large to be ignored and that the only choice is to bring them into governing in the hopes of normalizing them.

In Sweden, the government now depends on the parliamentary votes of a party with neo-Nazi roots and has given it some sway in policymaking. In Finland, where the right has ascended into the governing coalition, the nationalist Finns party has risked destabilizing it, with a key minister from that far-right party resigning last month after it emerged that he had

made “Heil Hitler” jokes.

On Friday, the Dutch government led by Mark Rutte, a conservative and the Netherlands’ longest-serving prime minister, collapsed because more centrist parties in his coalition considered his efforts to curb migration too harsh. Rutte has had to guard his right flank against surging populists and a long-standing hard-right party.

In Italy, the far-right has taken power on its own. But so far, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, politically reared in parties born from the ashes of fascism and a close ally of Spain’s Vox, has governed more moderately than many in Europe expected — bolstering some analysts’ argument that the reality of governing can be a moderating force.

Elsewhere, hard-right parties are breaking through in countries where they had recently seemed contained.

In France, the once fringe party of far-right leader Marine Le Pen has become an established force as entrenched anger against President Emmanuel Macron has newly exploded over issues like pension changes and the integration and policing of the country’s minority communities. He is not running again, and the election is years away, but liberals across Europe shuddered when she passed him in some recent polls.

And in Germany, where the right has long been taboo, economic uncertainty and a new surge in arrivals by asylum-seekers have helped resurrect the far-right Alternative for Germany party. It is now the leading party in the formerly Communist eastern states, according to polls, and is even gaining popularity in the wealthier and more liberal west.

While the parties in different countries do not have identical proposals, they generally want to close the doors to and cut benefits off for migrants; hit the pause, or reverse, button when it comes to LGBTQ rights; and stake out more protectionist trade policies. Some are suspicious of NATO and dubious about cli-

mate change and sending arms to Ukraine.

In a seeming recognition that the continent’s political complexion is changing, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said in Spain this past week that the EU needed to deliver tangible results in order to counter “extremist” forces.

In Spain, where the conservative Popular Party has a good chance of finishing first in the coming election, Esteban González Pons, a leading party official, said that bringing hardright parties, like Vox, into government was a way to neutralize them. But he acknowledged that strategy carried risks.

“First, the bad scenario: We can legitimize Vox,” he said.

“Then, there is a second chance: We can normalize Vox,” he said, adding that if they governed well, “Vox will be another party, a conservative party inside of the system.”

For now, the situation is fluid, and there are indications that Sánchez and his leftist allies are gaining support. Vox also appears to be losing ground, as the Sánchez campaign and well-known artists and liberals throughout Spain have focused on the threat of conservatives bringing Vox into the government.

Spain seemed in recent years to be a bright spot for liberals. Under Sánchez, Spain has kept inflation low, reduced tensions with separatists in Catalonia and increased the growth rate, pensions and the minimum wage. He is also generally popular in the EU.

But the alliance between Sánchez and deeply polarizing separatists and far-left forces has fed resentment among many voters.

González Pons, a leading official of the Popular Party, does not think that worries about Vox possibly joining forces with his conservatives are entirely off base. “We are pro-European, and Vox is not,” he said, adding that Vox “would prefer something like a general Brexit, for all the countries to recover their own sovereignty.” He said Vox had views on gay rights and violence against women that “are red lines for us.”

Those lines started to show as the new leaders of Elche sat on leather armchairs in the mayor’s office last month and sought to put up a united front. Ruz, the mayor from the conservative Popular Party, and his deputy from Vox, Rodil, took turns bashing the prime minister. But when pressed, the mayor acknowledged that his party recognized same-sex marriage and that he was queasier about hard-right parties like Alternative for Germany than his “partner.” Still, he said, the Popular Party and Vox had similar voters, just different approaches to “implementation.”

“Can I say something regarding that?” Rodil said with a coy smile. “We have a stance that is maybe a little firmer.” Vox, she said, believes in the “sovereignty of nations” and would like to make it more difficult for women to have abortions, positions that she said some people in the mayor’s party “do not defend.” She said the “ambiguous” stances of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the Popular Party’s leader, were “worrying.”

Many, instead, are worried about Vox.

“We have seen populism, supported by the center-right, grow in small towns,” said

The president of the hard-right party Vox, Santiago Abascal, giving a speech at a recent rally in Barcelona, Spain.

For a president and a king, the view from the top is curiously similar

By ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS and MARK LANDLER

The two men — the American president and the British king — waited decades for their dream jobs, projecting a sense of normalcy and unity when they finally reached their thrones. They both prefer to ditch executive palaces for their respective retreats. And they share a passion for confronting threats to the environment.

The men, 80-year-old President Joe Biden and 74-year-old King Charles III, are also united by their challenges. They both face a public increasingly dubious of their institutions. And they both battle skepticism over whether they are the right people to lead the increasingly diverse groups over which they preside.

“As older men in the pinnacle of their careers, they need to redefine what it means to be an older person,” said Arianne Chernock, a professor of history at Boston University and scholar of modern Britain, adding, “They need to find new ways to connect with a younger multicultural generation.”

That common ground was to serve as the backdrop for the meeting between the president and the king Monday at Windsor Castle, near London, where the two are expected to discuss clean-energy investment and efforts to combat climate change in developing nations. They are issues that Charles has been warning about since the 1970s and that Biden has made a central focus of his presidency.

Charles rallied leaders in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2021 to address climate change, warning them that “time has run out.” Biden has proclaimed the tax, energy and health bill that he signed into law last year as the “the biggest step forward on climate ever.”

Sally Bedell Smith, who has written numerous biographies about the British royal family, said those points of mutual interest could be useful. “Biden, I would guess, would have a lot of respect for what Charles has done and said” on the topic, she noted.

Both are also using the issue to connect more broadly with the public and, in Biden’s case, to galvanize voters.

Biden has struggled for most of his presidency with low approval numbers. A recent Reuters poll showed he had 41% approval, a marginal increase from the lowest level of his presidency but an indicator that voters remain unconvinced, particularly about his economic record.

Charles’ approval ratings have improved since he became king. He was viewed favorably by 55% of respondents in a recent poll by the market research firm YouGov. But that makes him only the fourth-most popular member of the royal family, trailing his son and heir, Prince William; his sister, Princess Anne; and his daughter-in-law, Catherine, Princess of Wales.

Biden and Charles have spent decades under the unforgiving glare of the public eye, finding respite in the familiar.

Biden flees the White House most weekends for one of his houses in the beachside town of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The king is said not to be particularly fond of Buckingham Palace. He and Queen Camilla live in the cozier Clarence House when they are in London and spend weekends at Highgrove, his countryside retreat in Gloucestershire.

They have a shared connection in struggle. Biden, who has navigated a stutter since his childhood, has said he was inspired by the film, “The King’s Speech,” which depicted the efforts of Charles’ grandfather, King George VI, to overcome similar speech problems.

Charles and the president have also faced heightened scrutiny over their complex relationships with their youngest sons. Biden’s adversaries have seized on Hunter Biden’s plea deal on two misdemeanor tax crimes to attack the president. The king’s relationship with Prince Harry has been in the spotlight since Harry and his wife, Meghan, withdrew from royal duties in 2020.

But the two men are also different in important respects.

The president is garrulous and extroverted, while the king is more contemplative and reserved. In his younger days, Charles was awkward and shy, seemingly ill-suited to a life in public. After decades of royal tours and receiving lines, he has become skilled in the art of small talk, though he is not the natural gladhander that Biden is.

Charles’ intellectual pursuits can sometimes seem offbeat. A voracious reader and autodidact, Charles has burrowed into subjects like architecture, organic farming and conservation. He once proudly revealed that his Aston Martin sports car ran on a biofuel made from surplus white wine and cheese waste.

In contrast, Biden has a 1967 Corvette that runs on gas and often tries to relate to the working class by recalling his days commuting to Washington on the Amtrak.

The king is expected to abide by the traditions of the British monarchy that Biden has on multiple occasions refused to follow. Biden twice declined to bow to the king’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on the advice of his mother. “Don’t you bow down to her,” she

told him, according to his memoir “Promises to Keep.” (There is no requirement that one must bow to the monarch — though many people follow the tradition as courtesy.)

During Biden’s four visits to the United Kingdom since becoming president, there has often been an undercurrent of tension.

In March, Biden made a brief stop in Northern Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement before going to the Republic of Ireland for a much more leisurely tour of his ancestral roots. (As the London papers grumbled, Biden also has English roots.)

Biden did not attend the coronation of Charles in May, sending his wife, Jill, and their granddaughter Finnegan. When he called the king to send his regrets and offer congratulations, Charles invited the president to visit Britain, setting the stage for the Monday meeting that U.S. officials are calling a “mini state visit.”

The logistics for this trip have not been without some static. The White House initially questioned the need for a stop at No. 10 Downing St. with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, according to an official familiar with the planning, since the two men would meet at the NATO summit in Lithuania a day later. For Sunak, however, a handshake with the president in front of his residence is politically valuable, and the White House ultimately agreed to it.

The White House also yielded to the king’s request to welcome Biden at Windsor Castle, west of London, rather than at the more conveniently located Buckingham Palace. The palace is undergoing a multiyear renovation, and the official told The New York Times that the king did not want Biden to see a construction site.

Asked about Biden’s skipping the coronation, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, rejected any notion that there was tension between the United States and Britain. (Historians point out that Dwight D. Eisenhower did not attend the 1953 coronation of Elizabeth.)

“It’s important that the president is going to go out there, and he’s going to have a meeting with not just the king, but also the prime minister,” Jean-Pierre said. “That’s what you’re going to see: continuing a partnership with the United Kingdom.”

Those who have observed the relationship between the White House and the Royal family said the common ground shared by Charles and Biden would probably ensure a cordial meeting.

“They’ve both been to this rodeo many times,” Bedell Smith said.

Charles and President Biden at Windsor Castle in London on Monday. Tackling global warming is a mutual passion for both.

APARTAMENTOS EQUIPADOS CON NEVERA, ESTUFA Y CALENTADOR. CONTROL DE ACCESO, LAVANDERIA, ELEVADOR.

It’s seven grandkids, Mr. President

By MAUREEN DOWD

Even my Republican sister is not immune to Joe Biden’s gregarious Irish charm. She met him at media holiday parties over the years and was so impressed that she got seduced to the other side for a time, voting for the Obama-Biden ticket in 2008 and writing in Biden’s name for president in 2012. She sent out a Christmas card one year with a picture of herself cheek to cheek with Biden — and some of her Republican friends stopped speaking to her.

So I was surprised recently when I discovered my sister writing a letter to Biden, a plea that she had started in the middle of the night, after mulling over the matter for quite a while.

“I watched as you told the nation that you had six grandchildren and you loved each one of them,” she wrote. “I believe that. What I cannot believe and what I find unconscionable is that you refuse to admit or accept the fact that there is a beautiful little 4-year-old girl living in Arkansas by the name of Navy Joan who is your seventh grandchild.”

Peggy wrote about Hunter Biden’s high-priced lawyers going down to Arkansas to make sure Navy could not use the Biden name and to slash child support payments.

“She has the Biden blood running through her veins, and all she is going to have as a reminder of this are some of Hunter’s original paintings; sounds like a lousy trade-off, if you ask me,” Peggy wrote, referring to the agreement that assigned some of Hunter Biden’s artwork to the daughter he has never met, even though DNA testing in 2019 established his paternity.

In his 2021 memoir, he wrote dismissively about Navy’s mother, Lunden Roberts, whom he met when he was spiraling into addiction and going to Washington strip clubs. He wrote that the women he had sexual encounters with during his drug “rampages” were “hardly the dating type.”

“I had no recollection of our encounter,” he said of Roberts. Yet he put her on the payroll of his consulting firm as a personal assistant while she was pregnant. About three months after Navy was born, he took away Roberts’ company health insurance.

“As she grows up, knowing that her father and paternal grandparents wanted nothing to do with her,” Peggy wrote, “she will probably be able to see a video or two showing her half sister Naomi getting married on the South Lawn and you watching the fireworks on the balcony with little Beau. And if she misses that, there will be plenty of schoolmates to remind her that she wasn’t wanted. Kids can be mean that way.”

What the Navy story reveals is how dated and inauthentic the 80-year-old president’s view of family is.

PO BOX 6537 Caguas PR 00726

Telephones: (787) 743-3346 • (787) 743-6537

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She asked why Hunter Biden couldn’t act like Tom Brady, who treats his son by Bridget Moynahan, the actress he was dating before he married Gisele Bündchen, the same as the two children he and Gisele had. (Not to mention Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said in a new Netflix documentary series that he has a great relationship with the son he had after a tryst with his family’s housekeeper that broke up his marriage.)

“Mr. President, many years ago, you lost your daughter in a horrendous car accident,” Peggy continued. “I know you still carry that pain with you every day because I have watched your face when you speak about her. Please do not throw away your granddaughter.”

My sister and I often disagree about politics, but this is not a political issue to us. It’s a human one. The president’s mantra has always been that “the absolute most important thing is your family.” It is the heart of his political narrative. Empathy, born of family tragedies, has been his stock in trade. Callously scarring Navy’s life, just as it gets started, undercuts that. As Katie Rogers, a New York Times White House correspondent, wrote in a haunting front-page piece last weekend about Hunter Biden’s unwanted child, the president is so sensitive “that only the president’s most senior advisers talk to him about his son.” Rogers said that “in strategy meetings in recent years, aides have been told that the Bidens have six, not seven, grandchildren.” Jill Biden dedicated her 2020 children’s book to the six grandchildren.

Once, you could get away with using terms like “out of wedlock” and pretend that children born outside marriage didn’t exist or were somehow shameful. But now we have become vastly more accepting of nontraditional families. We live in an Ancestry.com world, where people are searching out their birth parents and trying to find relatives they didn’t know they had.

I have sympathy for Hunter Biden going into a “dark, bleak hole,” as he called it. I have sympathy for a father coping with a son who was out of control and who may still be fragile. With Hunter Biden, his father can seem paralyzed about the right thing to do.

But the president can’t defend Hunter Biden on all his other messes and draw the line at accepting one little girl. You can’t punish her for something she had no choice about. The Bidens should embrace the life Hunter Biden brought into the world, even if he didn’t consider her mother “the dating type.”

The president’s cold shoulder — and heart — is counter to every message he has sent for decades, and it’s out of sync with the America he wants to continue to lead.

POR CYBERNEWS

SAN JUAN – La Administración de Seguros de Salud (ASES) exhortó el lunes a la aseguradora MMM Multihealth a concluir con urgencia el contrato con el Centro Comprensivo de Cáncer, de no cumplir, MMM podría enfrentar multas.

“Es de suma importancia que MMM Multihealth atienda la situación de los pacientes de cáncer con urgencia y prioridad”, afirmó la directora de ASES, Edna Marín Ramos, en declaraciones escritas.

Marín Ramos también recordó que el contrato de Platino contiene disposiciones para emitir multas en caso de incumplimiento.

“El Centro Comprensivo de Cáncer brinda servicios a una población de alto riesgo y/o con condiciones que requieren un tratamiento de alto costo”, dijo la funcionaria.

La ASES tomó conocimiento de una decisión de MMM Multihealth

que no favorece la solicitud del Centro Comprensivo de Cáncer para la inclusión de servicios en el plan Medicare Advantage Platino. “El producto Medicare Platino atiende a personas médico indigentes de Medicaid. Como aseguradora de ASES, bajo el Plan Vital, se espera que la red de proveedores sea la misma que brinde servicios en ambas líneas de negocio”, explicó Marín Ramos.

Cayey fomenta el empresarismo con ofertas educativas en el sector de la gastronomía

CAYEY – El alcalde de Cayey, Rolando Ortiz Velázquez, informó que la oficina local de la Alianza de Servicios Integrados (AMSI) está ofreciendo una oportunidad a todos los interesados en incursionar en el sector de la gastronomía, a adquirir una Certificación en Manejo de Alimentos, curso que se ofrecerá el próximo mes de agosto.

“Mediante el Liceo de Capacitación y Desarrollo Integral de AMSI, estamos ofreciendo la oportunidad de adquirir los conocimientos necesarios para que personas de todas las edades puedan incursionar en los distintos niveles de la industria de alimentos. Cada cual le añade su creatividad y el cielo es el límite”, señaló el Alcalde.

Ciertamente todo lo relacionado a la gastronomía ha tenido un gran auge en Puerto Rico, donde se han

ido sofisticado las ofertas desde catering a food trucks, pasando por coffee shops y entregas a domicilio. Por ejemplo, según la Oficina de Asuntos Económicos del Departamento de Hacienda en el Sistema Unificado de Rentas Internas (SURI) -para el año fiscal 2021 - ya se habían registrado unos 2,720 comercios ambulantes, cuyas ventas totalizaron $25.4 millones anuales.

El curso incluye los materiales de estudio, repaso virtual y examen presencial, así como el certificado oficial. El costo del curso es de $125.00 por estudiante y se administrará el miércoles, 30 de agosto a las 10:00 de la mañana en AMSI Cayey. Los interesados deben registrarse antes del miércoles, 23 de agosto de 2023, llamar al 787-744-5329 o mediante correo electrónico a ecastro@amsipr.com o visitar las facilidades en Avenida José de Diego #151 este en el centro urbano “De igual manera, por nada del mundo el boricua va a dejar el arrocito con habichuelas, ni el lechón tan sabroso, pero ciertamente hay un gran auge en términos de distintas ofertas gastronómicas. Hemos visto ‘food trucks’ especializados en opciones de comida, como asiática, vegetariana, hispanoamericana, carnes ahumadas, mariscos, dumplings y postres. De manera que hay un mundo por delante”, añadió Debbie Santiago, gerente de AMSI Cayey.

SAN JUAN – Hispanic Federation (HF) anunció un fondo de un millón de dólares que distribuirá subvenciones a organizaciones sin fines de lucro locales en Puerto Rico, trascendió este lunes.

Las organizaciones podrán solicitar subvenciones de hasta cincuenta mil dólares al año para impulsar la recuperación equitativa y sostenible en todo el archipiélago.

“En Puerto Rico, nos encontramos en la primera línea de la crisis climática, enfrentando la creciente amenaza de eventos naturales sin precedentes. Para evitar que estos eventos se conviertan en desastres,

nuestras comunidades más vulnerables deben estar preparadas”, dijo Charlotte Gossett Navarro, Directora Principal de Puerto Rico de la Hispanic Federation en declaraciones escritas.

“Crear un Puerto Rico más fuerte y resiliente es un esfuerzo colectivo que se centra en las comunidades del archipiélago de la isla. Invitamos a las organizaciones comunitarias locales a aprender más sobre nuestro fondo Amanece para que juntos podamos construir un Puerto Rico más fuerte”, expresó Frankie Miranda, presidente y director ejecutivo de Hispanic Federation.

Desde el lanzamiento del fondo Amanece, se han otorgado 57 subvenciones por un total de cinco punto

cuatro millones de dólares a 40 organizaciones sin fines de lucro locales. Estas organizaciones han utilizado los recursos para ejecutar iniciativas de recuperación a largo plazo centradas en vivienda, agricultura, desarrollo económico, medio ambiente, energía renovable y preparación para emergencias, entre otros.

Hispanic Federation se compromete a seguir apoyando a Puerto Rico con una promesa adicional de aproximadamente tres millones de dólares en inversión filantrópica y casi cinco millones de dólares en fondos federales a través de una nueva asociación con el USDA en el año 2023. Estos fondos respaldarán la visión de la isla a largo plazo para la recuperación, la resiliencia y el cambio.

POR EL STAR STAFF

ASES advierte a MMM Multihealth sobre posibles multas por no brindar servicios a pacientes de cáncer

Hispanic Federation establece fondo de un millón de dólares para organizaciones en Puerto Rico

On her Renaissance tour, the world is Beyoncé’s ball

By LINDSAY ZOLADZ

It was a crowd that had come to dance, dressed for a rodeo in the distant future: sparkling cowboy hats, silvery fringe, outré sunglasses and any other sartorial detail that represented “Renaissance,” Beyoncé’s dazzling seventh album and the occasion for her first solo tour in seven years. But as the imperial pop superstar took the stage at the Rogers Center in Toronto on Saturday night for the first North American show of her Renaissance World Tour, she reminded the club-ready audience just who was in charge. Because if they were prepared to move, she was going to make them wait a little longer.

Setting the table for a 2-1/2-hour performance that was visually spectacular, vocally ambitious and sometimes tonally confused, Beyoncé, 41 — clad in a glimmering chain-mail mini dress — began the show with a nearly 30-minute stretch of ballads and deep cuts that harked back to her past: an acrobatically sung solo rendition of the 2001 Destiny’s Child track “Dangerously in Love,” a bit of “Flaws and All” from the deluxe edition of her 2007 album “B’Day,” and the sparse, soulful “1+1” from 2011, which she belted atop a mirrored piano.

It was both a display of her vocal agility and a curiously traditional way to start a show centered around an album as conceptually bold and forward-thinking as “Renaissance” — a sprawling, knowingly referential romp through the history of dance music, with an emphasis on the contributions of Black and queer innovators. Here, instead, was a stopover in Beyoncé’s Middle Ages.

As a live entertainer, though, she has earned a fresh start. The Renaissance World Tour shows are some of Beyoncé’s first appearances since her dazzling, commanding performance headlining the 2018 Coachella festival (later released as the concert film and live album “Homecoming”), which served as a kind of mic-drop capstone to her career thus far. It would be futile to repeat that, and difficult to top it. The loose, fluid “Renaissance,” still said to be the first part of a trilogy, represents a new chapter in Beyoncé’s recorded oeuvre. And once the show finally found its center and, however belatedly, welcomed the crowd to the Renaissance, it heralded her maturity as a performer, too.

The show’s look — as projected in diamond-sharp definition onto a panoramic screen — conjured Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” by way of the 1990 drag ball documentary “Paris Is Burning.” After a lengthy video introduction, Beyoncé emerged from a chrome cocoon and

vamped through a thrilling stretch of the first suite of “Renaissance” songs; during “Cozy,” most strikingly, a pair of hydraulic robotic arms centered her body in industrial picture frames, like a post-human Mona Lisa.

In May, when Beyoncé began the European leg of the Renaissance World Tour, rumors swirled that she may have been recovering from a foot injury, since her choreography was a bit more static and less stomp-heavy than usual. The Toronto show did nothing to dispel that chatter, but it also showed that it doesn’t matter much. Perhaps because of some constraints, Beyoncé has embraced new means of bodily expression. She brought the flavor of ball movements into the show and served face all night, curling her lip like a hungry predator, widening her eyes in mock surprise, scrunching her features in exaggerated disgust.

Few seats in the stadium provided a legible view of Beyoncé’s face, of course, though the screen took care of that. She played expertly to the cameras that followed her every choreographed move, aware of how she’d appear to the majority of the audience and — perhaps just as crucially — in FOMO-inducing social media videos. The stage itself was breathtaking, featuring an arced cutout section of the screen that made for playful visuals, but its full grandeur was not visible from many of the side seats, making the band and sometimes the dancers difficult to see.

The screen, though, was the point. Beyoncé’s two solo releases before “Renaissance” — her 2013 self-titled album and “Lemonade,” from 2016 — were billed as “visual albums,” featuring a fully realized music video for each track. Again toying with her fans’ anticipation, she has still not released any videos from “Renaissance,” giving the previously unseen graphics that filled her expansive backdrop an added impact, and making them feel more weighty than a convenient way to pass time between costume changes.

Many of the tour’s outfits struck a balance between Beyoncé’s signature styles — megawatt sparkles, high-cut bodysuits — and the futuristic bent of “Renaissance.” She played haute couture bee in custom Mugler by Casey Cadwallader and glimmered in a Gucci corset draped with crystals. But the night’s most memorable look — so instantly iconic that a few fans had already tried to replicate it, from photos of the European shows — was a flesh-tone catsuit by the Spanish label Loewe, embellished with a few suggestively placed, red-fingernailed hands.

Throughout the set, Beyoncé wove interpolations of her predecessors’ songs throughout

her own, as if to place her music in a larger continuum. The grandiose “I Care” segued into a bit of “River Deep, Mountain High,” in honor of Tina Turner, who died in May. The cheery throwback “Love on Top” contained elements of the Jackson 5’s “Want You Back.” Most effective was the “Queens Remix” she performed of “Break My Soul,” which mashes up the “Renaissance” leadoff single with Madonna’s “Vogue,” paying homage to the mainstream pop star who brought queer ball culture to the masses before her. (The merch on sale at a Renaissance Tour pop-up shop in the days before the show included a hand-held fan emblazoned with the song title “Heated” for $40. It sold out.)

The show contained moments that sometimes felt conceptually cluttered and at odds with the “Renaissance” album’s sharp vision, like dorm-room-poster quotes from Albert Einstein and Jim Morrison that filled the screen during video montages. The middle stretch, arriving with a lively “Formation,” featured Beyoncé and her dancers clad in camo print, riding and occasionally writhing atop a prop military vehicle. There was a wordless, gestural power in the moment she and her entourage held their fists in the air, referencing a salute that had rankled some easily rankle-able viewers of the 2016 Super Bowl Halftime Show. But if Beyoncé was calling for any more specific forms of protest or political awareness — especially in a moment when drag culture and queer expression are being threatened at home and throughout the world — those went

unarticulated.

Beyoncé’s endurance as a world-class performer remained the show’s raison d’être; she is the rare major pop star who prizes live vocal prowess. By the end of the long night — and especially during the striking closing number, the disco reverie “Summer Renaissance,” when she floated above the crowd like a deity on a glittering horse — she extended the microphone to lend out some of the high notes to her eager and adoring fans. “Until next time,” she said, keeping the stage banter relatively minimal and pat. “Drive home safe!”

Even when Beyoncé embraces styles and cultures known for their improvisational looseness, she still seems to be striving toward perfection — a pageant smile always threatens to break through the stank face. Commanding a stadiumsized audience, she was an introvert wearing an extrovert’s armor. That tension is part of both her boundless charm and her occasional limitations as a performer. And it makes moments of genuine spontaneity all the more prized.

Naturally, #RenaissanceWorldTour was trending on Twitter long after the show, but one of the clips that went viral was unplanned. During a rousing performance of her early hit “Diva,” Beyoncé accidentally dropped her sunglasses. She fumbled them for a second, mouthed an expletive as they fell to the ground, and gave a sincere, shrugging grin before snapping back into the choreography’s formation. For a fleeting moment, she seemed human after all.

The San Juan Daily Star

‘Biosphere’ review: It’s the end of the world (and they caused it)

By AMY NICHOLSON

Over the decades that Billy (Mark Duplass) and Ray (Sterling K. Brown) have been best buds, the world has gotten worse — and they’re to blame. Honestly. “Biosphere,” a honed yet heartfelt two-person dramedy by the first-time feature director Mel Eslyn, takes place in a geodesic dome under a black sky. A few years back, Billy, then president of the United States, destroyed the planet; luckily, his consigliere, Ray, had already built this bunker. Barring a miracle, it will be humanity’s final tomb.

Naturally, there’s blame to spread. “Maybe if you’d done your job, we wouldn’t need to live in a dome,” Ray huffs to his petulant, anti-intellectual roommate. Ray, the brains of the pair, still treats Billy less like a former commander in chief than like the child he’s known since grade school. Their lingering locker-room power struggle factors into why everyone else is dead.

At first, we’re steeling ourselves for an extended skit. Duplass, who wrote the script with Eslyn, gives Billy the same dopey charm that Will Ferrell awarded George W. Bush, and comes off as so likable in a woulddrink-a-beer-with-him-if-beer-still-existed kind of way that it’s hard to hold onto the full horror of the hell he’s unleashed. (It’s possible to interpret Danny Bensi’s and

Saunder Jurriaans’ a cappella score as a haunting by the apocalypse’s ghosts, though it’s a hair too chipper.)

The film is only glancingly interested in science fiction mechanics. Billy and Ray face a relentless list of threats: the dwindling supply of fresh fish, the fragility of their dome’s filthy glass, the mysterious green light that looms ever closer, and their history of stifled resentments compounded by a lack of privacy (“It’s not like you can put a sock on the door in here”). Yet these aren’t problems to be solved; “Biosphere” uses their survival as a stress test to gauge whether these old friends are capable of change. Can extreme pressures turn two towel-snapping, Earth-murdering lumps of coal into diamonds? Even at

the end of everything, is there hope our species can evolve?

I can say without hyperbole that there are conversations in this movie that I have never heard before (and refuse to spoil). Better, I can confirm that Brown — the straight man to Duplass’ comic relief — delivers his half with conviction. At one point, his eyes well with tears as he tells a story about a magical bowling ball; later, he works himself into such a tizzy that he interrupts his own patter to lift weights. He and Duplass start off simply keeping pace with the audacious setup. By the end, the actors seem even braver than the script, which hesitates on the final step. There’s an unreconcilable tension in a film that aims to celebrate the unpredictability of life while manicuring every last prop and casual aside for maximum resonance. Still, I’ll allow Eslyn’s heavy hand for a scene in which Billy delivers an ode to his underused phallus while gazing at a night light shaped like the Washington Monument. “You made me feel powerful,” he intones — a farewell salute that doubles as a goodbye to bad government.

‘Biosphere’

Not Rated. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms.

‘Joy Ride’ review: A raunch-com roller coaster

By ELIZABETH VINCENTELLI

“Joy Ride” offers a modern-comedy bingo card with pretty much all the squares checked: mismatched besties, an oddball crashing a group outing, said outing going wildly off the rails, freewheeling sex, projectile vomiting, unhinged debauchery involving booze and drugs, and a crucial plot point hinging on an intimate body part.

This film, directed by “Crazy Rich Asians” co-writer Adele Lim, may not reinvent the raunch-com wheel (see: “The Hangover,” “Girls Trip,” “Bridesmaids”), but it does change who’s driving the car. And, most importantly, it is really, really funny.

“Joy Ride” processes all of its familiar ingredients into a sustained, sometimes near-berserk, barrage of jokes, interspersed with epic set pieces. That is, up until the two-thirds mark, when the movie paints itself into a corner and presses the “earnest sentimentality” eject button before managing a narrow escape. It’s a small price to pay for the inspired pandemonium that precedes.

The mismatched friends here are Audrey (the bril-

liant Ashley Park, from “Emily in Paris”) and Lolo (a deliciously acerbic Sherry Cola), who have been best friends since childhood, when they bonded over being the only two Asian girls in their Pacific Northwest town.

Audrey, who was adopted from China by a white couple, grows up to become a prim, career-obsessed lawyer. She is sent to Beijing to close a deal, with a promotion hanging on her success. Since her Mandarin is practically nonexistent, she brings along the irrepressible Lolo. Completing the comic superteam are Lolo’s socially awkward cousin, Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), whose superpower is extensive K-pop knowledge, and Audrey’s college roommate Kat (Stephanie Hsu, from “Everything Everywhere All at Once”), now a screen star in China and engaged to her very hunky and very Christian costar (Desmond Chiam).

Eventually, Audrey decides to find her birth mother, and the four women set off on an odyssey that immediately devolves into a series of mishaps. The shenanigans come at breakneck speed, and peak with a repurposing of the Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion hit “WAP” that could become a late-night-karaoke staple in its own

right.

The film is especially sharp around identity and assimilation, and screenwriters Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao have fun with the expectations and stereotypes placed on Asians and Asian Americans — including those that are self-imposed. The seams show only toward the end, when the film’s pace slackens, but even then, the cast’s chemistry and flawless timing hold steady.

As the straight arrow protagonist, Park expertly pulls off a trick similar to Kristen Wiig in “Bridesmaids”: Her character serves as the narrative engine, while also setting up comedy opportunities for the others.

If there is any justice, Park will soon be a marquee name. But this applies to all of the central quartet, who so effectively take advantage of the movie’s many opportunities to shine. With “Joy Ride,” summer has truly arrived.

‘Joy Ride’

Rated R for exuberant sexuality, bilingual foul language, brief nudity, and liberal use of drugs and booze. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes. In theaters.

Sterling K. Brown (left) plays the wiser consigliere to Mark Duplass’s childish former president in “Biosphere.”

LEGAL NOTICE

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO.

LA ELECTRONICA LLC

Plaintiff, v. EMPRESAS OMAJEDE, INC.

Defendant.

Civil No. 17-02372 (JAG). Re: COLLECTION OF MONIES; FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE AND OTHER COLLATERAL. NOTICE OF SALE.

To: EMPRESAS OMAJEDE, INC. AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

WHEREAS: On August 3, 2022, the Judgment (the “Judgment”) was entered in favor of plaintiff now LA ELECTRONICA LLC (“Electronica”) against defendant Empresas Omajede, Inc. (the “Defendant”). Under the Judgment, this Court concluded that the Defendant had defaulted on its obligations, had failed to pay the amounts due therein, further concluding that, as of July 18, 2022, Defendant owed the sum of $3,504,735.43, which would continue to accrue interest until payment is made in full. On June 21, 2023, this Court entered an Order for Execution of Judgment (the “Order of Execution”), designating Mr. Joel Ronda Feliciano as Special Master (the “Special Master”) for the execution of the Judgment pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 53(a)(1)(C). On June 22, 2023, this Court entered, in accordance with the Order of Execution, a Writ of Execution (the “Writ of Execution”). 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, 2 and the Writ of Execution, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S. currency in cash, or certified or bank manager 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 Electronica, the following properties, as described in the Spanish language: I. Property 11,660 RÚSTICA: Terreno en el Barrio Monacillos, del término municipal de San Juan, Puerto Rico, compuesto de tres punto doscientos ochenta y siete (3.287) cuerdas, equivalen-

tes a una hectárea, veintinueve áreas y diecinueve centiáreas. En linderos: NORTE, con Rafael Nevárez; SUR, con Antonio Cosme; ESTE, nueva Carretera Estatal número 1 de concreto que va de Río Piedras a Caguas; OESTE, con una quebrada que la separa de terrenos de Antonio Emmanuelli, hoy el Pueblo de Puerto Rico. Enclava una edificación de concreto para fines comerciales y de oficina Property number 11,660 is recorded at page 204 of volume 301 of Monacillos, Puerto Rico Property Registry, Third Section of San Juan. WHEREAS: Property 11,660 is encumbered by itself by Mortgage I (as defined below), which Electronica is seeking to foreclose, as described below: (i) Mortgage securing mortgage note in favor of Banco de Ponce, or to its order, in the principal sum of $3,300,000.00 with fluctuating interest, due on demand, constituted pursuant to Deed Number 3, executed in San Juan Puerto Rico, on February 27, 1987, before Notary Public Luis

E. Dubon Jr., recorded at page 6 of volume 679 of Monacillos, Property 11,660, 10th recordation (“Mortgage I”). Mortgage I was modified pursuant to Deed of Modification of Mortgage Number 41, executed on July 30, 1999, of Notaiy Public Ronald L. Rosenbaun, recorded at page 5 of volume 679 of Monacillos, Property 11,660, marginal note of 10th recordation, Deed of Modification of Mortgage Number 7, executed on March 21, 2003, of Notary Public Arquelio Rivera Rodriguez, recorded at page 7 of volume 679 of Monacillos, Property 11,660, marginal note of 11th recordation, and by Deed of Modification and Interruption of Mortgage Number 418 executed on June 8, 2006, of Notary

Public Juan C. Ortega Torres recorded at page 66 of volume 1,076 of Monacillos, Property 11,660, 13th recordation, as rectified by Deed of Rectification Number 543, executed on October 8, 2008, of Notary Public Gary E. Biaggi Silva. 3 Property 11,660 is encumbered by itself by the following junior liens: (i) Ratification of lease agreement in favor of Secretario del Plan de Emergencia por un Mundo Mejor, Inc., also known as Movimiento por un Mundo Mejor, Inc. dated September 1, 1998, executed a real estate private contract for commercial space of 14.03 of square feet in the sub-basement for a term of 72 months equal to 6 years and renewable for 48 additional months equal to 4 years by request of the lessee; with a rental fee of $5,612.00 annually, the first 5 years; and $7,015.00 annually the next 5

years for atotal of $63,135.00 for 10 years of the duration of the contract, resulting from deed number 2 of ratification of lease agreement, executed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on June 17, 1999, before Notary (ii)

Mortgage securing mortgage note in favor of WesternBank Puerto Rico, or to its order, in the principal sum of $115,479.00 with interest rate of 8.24% annually with preferential rate, due on demand constituted pursuant to deed number 419, executed in San Juan Puerto Rico, on June 8, 2006, before Notary Juan Carlos Ortega Torres, recorded at page 66 of volume 1,076 of Monacillos, Property 11,660, 12th recordation. The FIRST public sale of Property 11,660 shall be held on August 4, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $3,330,000.00. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND public auction of Property 11,660 shall be held on the on August 11, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $2,220,000.00, 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 of Property 11,660 will be held on the on August 18, 2023, at 10:00 a.m., the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $1,650,000.00, which is onehalf of the minimum bid in the first public sale. II. Property 1,624

RÚSTICA: Predio de terreno radicado en el Barrio Carraízo de Trujillo Alto, compuesto de 15 cuerdas y 94 céntimas de otra equivalentes a 6 hectáreas, 26 áreas, 50 centiáreas y 42 decimiliáreas . Colindante por el NORTE en parte con Esteban Reyes, en parte con Pilar Báez Rivera; por el SUR en parte con Antonia Estrada y Sucesión 4 de Bonifacio Estrada y en parte con la Quebrada Higuerito que la separa de los terrenos de Jesús Navarro antes hoy Adolfo Diaz por el OESTE con Esteban Reyes y Pilar Báez Rivera y por el ESTE con el resto de la finca principal de donde este predio se segrega hoy Petrona Báez Rivera. Contiene casa de madera terrrera y techada de zinc, dedicada a vivienda. Property 1,624 is recorded at page 1 of volume 25 of Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico Property Registry, Fourth Section of San Juan. Property 1,624 is encumbered by itself by Mortgage II (as defined below), which Electronica is seeking to foreclose as described below:

(i) Mortgage securing mortgage

note in favor of WesternBank Puerto Rico, or to its order, in the principal sum of $330,000.00 with interest of 2 points over “Prime Rate”, due on June 29, 2035, constituted pursuant to deed number 42, executed in San Juan Puerto Rico, on June 29, 2005, before Notary Public Jose Hector Vivas, recorded at Karibe volume of Trujillo Alto, Property 1,624, 8th recordation, as Abbreviated Seat, the lines extended on March 7, 2018 by virtue of Act 216 of December 27, 2010 (“Mortgage II”). The FIRST public sale of Property 1,624 shall be held on August 4, 2023, at 10:05 a.m. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $330,000.00. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND public auction of Property 1,624 shall be held on the on August 11, 2023, at 10:05 a.m. the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $220,000.00, 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 of Property 1,624 will be held on the on August 18, 2023, at 10:05 a.m., the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $165,000.00, which is onehalf of the minimum bid in the first public sale. 5 III. Property

2,214 RÚSTICA: Predio de terreno radicado en el Barrio Carraízo de Trujillo Alto, compuesto de 6 cuerdas , equivalentes a 2 hectáreas 35 áreas y 82 centiáreas. Colindantes por el NORTE con resto de la finca principal de donde este predio se segrega propiedad de Petrona Báez Rivera; por el SUR con terrenos de Jesús Navarro y de Juan Navarro, separados en parte por la quebrada Higuerito y en parte con terrenos hoy de Pedro Báez Rivera por el OESTE con Sofía Báez Rivera y por el ESTE con la quebrada Higuerito que la separa de terrenos hoy de Pedro Báez Rivera.

Property number 2,214, recorded at page 232 of volume 38 of Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico Property Registry, Fourth Section of San Juan. Property 2,214 is encumbered by itself by Mortgage III (as defined below), which Electronica is seeking to foreclose as described below:

(i) Mortgage securing mortgage note in favor of WestrnBank Puerto Rico, or to its order, in the principal sum of $40,000.00 with interest of 2 points over “Prime Rate”, due on June 29, 2035, constituted pursuant to deed number 43, executed in San Juan Puerto Rico, on June 29, 2005, before Notary Public Jose Hector Vivas, recorded at

Karibe volume of Trujillo Alto, Property 2,214, 8 recordation, as Abbreviated Seat, the lines extended on March 7, 2018 by virtue of Act 216 of December 27, 2010 (“Mortgage III”). The FIRST public sale of Property 2,214 shall be held on August 4, 2023, at 10:10 a.m. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $40,000.00. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND public auction of Property 2,214 shall be held on the on August 11, 2023, at 10:10 a.m. the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $26,666.67, 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 of Property 2,214 will be held on the on August 18, 2023, at 10:10 6 a.m., the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $20,000.00, which is one-half of the minimum bid in the first public sale. IV. Property

1,625 RUSTICA: Predio de terreno radicado en el Barrio Carraízo de Trujillo Alto, compuesto de 6 cuerdas y 69 centésimas de otra cuerda , equivalentes a dos hectáreas sesenta y dos áreas , noventa y cuatro centiáreas y treinticinco decimiliáreas. Colindantes por el NORTE en parte con el camino de la finca y en parte con terrenos de Rosario Báez Rivera; por el SUR con Reinaldo Betancourt Viera por el OESTE con Reinaldo Betancourt Viera y por el ESTE con la quebrada Higuerito que separa esta finca de terrenos de Pedro Báez Rivera. Property 1,625 is recorded at page 5 of volume 25 of Trujillo Alto, Property Registry, Fourth Section of San Juan. Property 1,625 is encumbered by itself by Mortgage IV (defined below), which Electronica is seeking to foreclose as described below:

(i) Mortgage securing mortgage note in favor of WesternBank Puerto Rico, or to its order, in the principal sum of $85,000.00 with interest of 2 points over “Prime Rate”, due on June 29, 2035, constituted pursuant to deed number 44, executed in San Juan Puerto Rico, on June 29, 2005, before Notary Public Jose Hector Vivas, recorded at Karibe volume of Trujillo Alto, Property 1,625, 7th recordation, as Abbreviated Seat, the lines extended on August 22, 2005 before Seat 683 of Diary 432 (“Mortgage IV”). The FIRST public sale of Property 1,625 shall be held on August 4, 2023, at 10:15 a.m. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $85,000.00. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not

adjudicated, a SECOND public auction of Property 1,625 shall be held on the on August 11, 2023, at 10:15 a.m. the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $56,666.67, 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 of Property 1,625 will be held on the on August 18, 2023, at 10:15 7 a.m., the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $42,500.00, which is one-half of the minimum bid in the first public sale. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens, if any, with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. The Special Master shall not accept in payment of the properties to be sold anything but United States currency (cash), or certified or bank manager checks, except in case the properties are sold and adjudicated to Electronica, in which case the amount of the bid made by Electronica shall be credited and deducted from its credit; Electronica being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied. If the third auction is deserted, Electronica may proceed to coordinate the execution of a deed of conveyance with the Special Master of the public sale, to take title of the properties in full satisfaction of the Judgment pursuant to the Registry of the Property Act of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. WHEREAS: said sale to be conducted by the Special Master pursuant to the Order of Execution. Compliance with all foreclosure proceedings is subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico pursuant to article 107 of the Registry of the Property Act of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, (30 L.P.R.A. § 6144), and the corresponding deed of conveyance and possession to the properties will be executed and delivered by the Special 8 Master after delivery of such Order of Confirmation. Once the properties are adjudicated in payment of the credit guaranteeing

the mortgages, and the price does not exceed the value thereof, all junior liens must be canceled provided that said junior creditors be notified of the public sale of said properties.

For further information, 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, on July 3, 2023. By: Joel Ronda Feliciano Special Master Ronda Legal Services, LLC rondajoel@me.com 787565-0515

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE AIBONITO LIME HOMES, LTD.

Parte Demandante Vs. MIGUEL ÁNGEL FRANCO MENDOZA, SU ESPOSA; DIANA

RODRĹGUEZ MIRANDA

Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: AI2022CV00222. Salón Núm.: (002). Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA Y COBRO DE DINERO. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.

A: MIGUEL ÁNGEL FRANCO MENDOZA, Y SU ESPOSA DIANA RODRĺGUEZ MIRANDA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS: CITIFINANCIAL, INC.: 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 Aibonito, 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 radicado en el Barrio Robles del término municipal de Aibonito, Puerto Rico, marcado con el número 7 del Bloque H, en el Plano de Inscripción de la Urbanización Reparto Bella Vista, con una cabida superficial de trescientos setenta y siete metros cuadrados (377.00 mc), en lindes por el NORTE, en 29 metros, con el solar 6H; por el SUR, en 29 metros, con el solar 8H; por el ESTE, en 13 metros, con terrenos de José A. Canino; y por el OESTE, en 13 metros, con la calle número 3. Sobre este solar anteriormente descrito enclava una casa dedicada a vivienda, terrera de hormigón y bloques de concreto, consistente de sala, comedor, cocina, tres (3) cuartos dormitorios, un baño, balcón y marquesina. Consta inscrita al folio 225 del tomo 162 de Aibonito, finca número #8,527, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Barranquitas. La propiedad objeto de ejecución está localizada en la siguiente dirección: Barrio Robles, Urbanización Reparto Bella Vista, #7 Bloque H, Aibonito, P.R. 00705. Según figura en el Estudio de título, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada al siguiente Gravamen posterior a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: a. Aviso de Demanda del día 10 de abril de 2008, expedida en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Aibonito, en el Caso Civil número BCD2008-0038, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, seguido por Citifinancial, Inc., contra Diana Rodríguez Miranda, por la suma de $48,145.48 más intereses y otras sumas, anotada el día 18 de junio de 2008, al folio 217 del tomo 267 de Aibonito, finca número 8,527, Anotación A. Se le notifica a los acreedores posteriores anteriormente identificados para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Se informa que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravamen posterior, una vez sea otorgada la escritura de venta judicial y obtenida la Orden y Mandamiento de cancelación de gravamen posterior. (Art. 51, Ley 210-2015). En relación a la finca a subastarse, se establece como tipo mínimo de licitación en la Primera Subasta la suma de $52,999.99, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la Escritura de Hipoteca #477, otorgada en Aibonito, Puerto Rico, el día 24

describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar Veinte (20) del Bloque “B”, URBANIZACIÓN LAS VEGAS, sitio Flor del Valle, Barrio Palmas, Cataño. Área: CUATROCIENTOS VEINTINUEVE PUNTO CERO CERO (429.00) METROS CUADRADOS. Lindes: NORTE, treinta y tres punto cero cero (33.00) metros, solar Veintiuno guion B (21-B); SUR, treinta y tres punto cero cero (33.00) metros, solar Diecinueve guion B (19-B); ESTE, trece punto cero cero (13.00) metros, con Calle Uno (1); OESTE, trece punto cero cero (13.00) metros, con terrenos de Las Palmas Industrial Corporation. Contiene una casa de una planta de concreto que consta de tres dormitorios, sala, comedor, cocina, balcón, baño y marquesina. La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al Sistema Karibe de Cataño, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección Cuarta, finca número 2543, inscripción sexta. La dirección física de la propiedad antes descrita es: Urbanización Las Vegas, 20 B, Calle Flor del Valle, Cataño, Puerto Rico. La subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $75,799.65 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 4.00% anual, desde el día 1ro. de octubre de 2020, hasta su completo pago, más recargos acumulados, más la cantidad de $9,523.80 estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, así como cualquier otra suma estipulada en el contrato de préstamo, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será de $95,238.00 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima será equivalente a 2/3 partes de aquella, o sea, la suma de $63,492.00 y de ser necesaria una tercera subasta, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado, es decir, la suma de $47,619.00. Si se declara desierta la tercera subasta se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si esta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en el momento de la adjudicación y que todo licitador acepta como suficiente la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser vendida en pública

subasta se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Podrán concurrir como postores a todas las subastas los titulares de créditos hipotecarios vigentes y posteriores a la hipoteca que se cobra o ejecuta, si alguno o que figuren como tales en la certificación registral y que podrán utilizar el montante de sus créditos o parte de alguno en sus ofertas. Si la oferta aceptada es por cantidad mayor a la suma del crédito o créditos preferentes al suyo, al obtener la buena pro del remate, deberá satisfacer en el mismo acto, en efectivo o en cheque de gerente, la totalidad del crédito hipotecario que se ejecuta y la de cualesquiera otro créditos posteriores al que se ejecuta pero preferente al suyo. El exceso constituirá abono total o parcial en su propio crédito. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, a 14 de junio de 2023.

EDGARDO ELÍAS VARGAS

SANTANA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #193, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL, SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC, COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC

Demandante Vs. ROSA ALLEN PRINCE

Demandado

Civil Núm.: BY2022CV02818. Salón: 504. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: ROSA ALLEN PRINCEJARDINES DE CAPARRA

V6 CALLE 23, BAYAMÓN, PR 00959-7763.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda en la cual la parte demandante alega que se le adeuda la cantidad de $3,782.30, dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva

dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kevin Sánchez Campanero, cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kevin. sanchez@orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orflaw.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO

MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 11 de abril de 2023. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 11 de abril de 2023. LCDA. LAURA

I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. VIVIAN J. SANABRIA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC, COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC

Demandante Vs. DEBBIE RODRIGUEZ SEDA

Demandado

Civil Núm.: CT2022CV00066. Salón: 403. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: DEBBIE

RODRIGUEZ SEDABO. NUEVO CARR 816 KM 5.8, BAYAMÓN, PR 00956 / PO BOX 3103 CATAÑO, PR 00963-3103. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando Ia siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal.

Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discre-

ción, Io entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificara copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kevin Sánchez Campanero cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 009368518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kevin.sanchez@ orf-law.com, y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 11 de abril de 2023. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 11 de abril de 2023.

LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. KATHERINE SANTIAGO RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE HATILLO ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC, COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC

Demandante Vs. FERNANDO LISBOA PÉREZ

Demandado Civil Núm.: HA2022CV00171. Salón: 104. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS:

A: FERNANDO LISBOA PÉREZ -

1 CARR 492 KM 3 H 7 HATILLO, PR 00659 / PO BOX 8901 HATILLO, PR 00659-9141 / PO BOX 142471 ARECIBO, PR 0614-2471.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:/ / unired.ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kevin Sánchez Campanero cuyas di-

recciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 009368518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kevin.sanchez@ orf-law.com, y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com.

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Hatillo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 11 de abril de 2023. En Hatillo, Puerto Rico, el 11 de abril de 2023. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARIANELA CONCEPCIÓN LÓPEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC., COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE FUNDING, LLC. Demandante Vs. DIANA RODRIGUEZ LOPEZ

Demandada

Caso Núm.: LP2021CV00099. Salón Núm.: 206. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.

A: DIANA RODRIGUEZ LOPEZ. PO BOX 1333, LAS PIEDRAS P.R. 00771; 9 URB. SAN FRANCISCO, LAS PIEDRAS, P.R. 00771-0000.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia al abogado de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kenmuel J. Ruiz López cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kenmuel.riuz@orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orflaw.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Humacao, Puerto Rico, hoy día 12 de mayo de 2023. En Humacao, Puerto Rico, el 12 de mayo de 2023. IVELISSE C. FONSECA RODRÍGUEZ,

SECRETARIA REGIONAL.

KEYLA PÉREZ FIGUEROA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE VEGA BAJA

SUN WEST MORTGAGE COMPANY, INC.

POR SÍ Y COMO AGENTE DE SERVICIOS DE BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. SUCESIÓN DE ALICIA BARBOSA BARBOSA, COMPUESTA POR ARIEL COLON BARBOSA, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESIÓN DE JOSE ANGEL COLON CONCEPCION

COMPUESTA POR ARIEL

COLON BARBOSA, FULANO DE TAL Y

SUTANO DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; JAMES

DOE Y JANE DOE COMO

POSIBLES TENEDORES DEL PAGARÉ

Demandados

Civil Núm.: VB2023CV00347.

Sobre: SUSTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO Y MANDAMIENTO DE INTERPELACIÓN POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S.

A: ARIEL COLON BARBOSA; FULANO(A) DE TAL Y SUTANO(A) DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS O PERSONAS CON INTERÉS EN LA SUCESIÓN DE ALICIA

BARBOSA BARBOSA Y LA SUCESIÓN DE JOSÉ ANGEL COLON CONCEPCIÓN; JAMES

DOE Y JANE DOE COMO

POSIBLES TENEDORES DEL PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. LOTE #15

BLOQUE F, COMUNIDAD VEGA BAJA LAKE, VEGA BAJA PUERTO RICO 00693; URB, VEGA BAJA LAKE, 6 CALLE 15, VEGA BAJA PR 00693-3803. Por la presente se les notifica que se ha presentado en este Tribunal la Demanda de sustitución de pagaré extraviado de

epígrafe en la cual se solicita la sustitución de un pagaré por la suma de $141,000.00, con intereses al 7% anual, suscrito el 30 de noviembre de 2007, ante el Notario Fernando Ignacio Medina Cedeño, número de affidávit 686. La Escritura Núm.

113, mediante la cual se constituyó una hipoteca voluntaria en garantía del pagaré antes descrito, consta inscrita al folio 73 del tomo 158 de Vega BAJA, finca número 7,848, del Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección IV de Bayamón. Se le emplaza y requiere para que notifique a: Lcdo. Fernando Gierbolini; MONSERRATE, SIMONET & GIERBOLINI, 101 Ave. San Patricio, Edificio Maramar Plaza, Suite 1120, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico 00968; Tel: (787) 620-5300, abogados de la parte demandante, con copia de la contestación a la Demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto, que se publicará una (1) vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general. Se le apercibe que si no contesta la Demanda radicando el original de la misma 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 Superior dentro del término antes indicado, y notificando con copia a la parte demandante, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra concediendo el remedio solicitado a favor de la parte demandante sin más citarle ni oírle. Además, se interpela judicialmente a Ariel Colon Barbosa; Fulano(a) De Tal y Sutano(a) De Tal como posibles herederos desconocidos o personas con interés en la Sucesión de Alicia Barbosa Barbosa y la Sucesión de José Ángel Colon Concepción, para que en un término de treinta (30) días de haber sido publicado este edicto, excluyendo el día de su publicación, acepten o repudien, mediante instrumento público o comparecencia judicial especial, la herencia del causante, ALICIA BARBOSA BARBOSA, apercibiéndosele que de no expresarse dentro de dicho término, se tendrá por aceptada la herencia. B.B.V.A. v. Latinoamericana, 164 D.P.R. 689 (2005), por lo que responderán por las cargas de dicha herencia. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el Sello del Tribunal, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 29 de junio de 2023.

LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARÍA E. COLLAZO FEBUS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante Vs. DORAL FINANCIAL CORPORATION, HACIENDO NEGOCIOS COMO H.F. MORTGAGE BANKERS; SISTEMA DE RETIRO DE LOS EMPLEADOS DEL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO; FULANO DE TAL Y MENGANO MÁS CUAL Demandados CIVIL NÚM. BY2023CV03479. Salon: 402 SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN DE HIPOTECA REPRESENTADA POR PAGARE HIPOTECARIO EXTRAVIADO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS A: FULANO DE TAL, Y MENGANO MAS CUAL Se emplaza y notifica a ustedes que se ha presentado una demanda en este caso, en la cual en síntesis, la parte demandante alega que se extravió un pagare hipotecario que estaban en poder de “Doral Financia! Corporation”, haciendo negocios como “H.F. Mortgage Bankers”, y solicita que se ordene la cancelación de la hipoteca que lo garantiza. El pagare fue librado por el Sr. Anselmo Perez Rivera, y su esposa, Elba Reverón Fuentes, a favor de “El Sistema De Retiro De Los Empleados Del Estado Libre Asociado De Puerto Rico”, o a su orden, por la suma de $36,700.00, más intereses y créditos accesorios, vencedero en 30 años, según surge de la escritura #38, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 8 de noviembre de 1978 ante el Notario Público Ángel D. Ramírez Ramírez. La referida escritura consta inscrita al folio 231 del tomo 1118 de Bayamón Sur, del Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Primera I de Bayamón, finca #49,940, inscripción 4ta. Dicha finca fue trasladada a la Sección III de Bayamón, y actualmente el número de finca lo es 11,880 y dicha hipoteca grava esta finca por su procedencia. Pueden ver la demanda en su totalidad en este Tribunal. Los abogados de la Parte Demandante lo son: Sandra De L. Tous-Chevres y Raúl J. Tous Bobonis, Urb. Santa María, 1789 Calle Diamela, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00927-6330, teléfonos 751-8834\3824, a quien deberá notificar la contestación de la demanda dentro de los próximos 30 días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto. Por la presente se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de

Glow of baseball’s All-Star Game can’t obscure Athletics’ departure

By KURT STREETER

Major League Baseball wants you to believe in its fairy tale. It wants you to see the talented players at Tuesday’s All-Star Game — Shohei Ohtani, Bo Bichette, Ronald Acuña Jr. — and be mesmerized into forgetting.

Among the many talents on parade will be a first-time selection: Oakland Athletics outfielder Brent Rooker, the team’s lone representative. Maybe, during an at-bat or a lull in play, some announcer will make mention of the Athletics’ all-but-sealed future relocation to Las Vegas, and then turn back to the wishful marketing and competitive fireworks of the game.

None of it will obscure the pain being wreaked upon baseball by the franchise’s prospective move, a pox on the sport that should not be brushed aside for the convenience of a midseason celebration of its best players.

How fitting that the All-Star festivities are in Seattle this week. Much of the citizenry in this tech-fueled port city still feels the sting of betrayal after a hard battle for a new arena was used as a pretext to transport the NBA’s SuperSonics in 2008 to Oklahoma City.

The A’s have followed a similar blueprint. The team’s skinflint owner, John Fisher, heir to the Gap clothing empire, who has an estimated net worth of more than $2 billion, claimed to be serious about building a new stadium that would replace the monolith where the A’s have played since 1968.

Fisher set his sights in 2018 on a sprawling expanse of waterfront beside a bustling port. He added plans to build a warren of residential units and entertainment venues next to the ballpark — making the development one of the biggest in California history.

Negotiations with the city of Oakland were as difficult as one would expect for such a complicated project, but they continued as Fisher pressed the financially struggling city to come up with at least $320 million in public subsidies. A deal seemed close, and then, suddenly, it wasn’t. In April, the A’s stopped the dialogue and announced an agreement to build a new stadium in Las Vegas that could be ready by 2027.

No wonder there are some A’s fans who have latched onto a soliloquy delivered by Rebecca Welton, the owner of AFC Richmond, the plucky fictional British soccer team at the center of the Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso.”

“Just stop it! I mean, how much more

money do you really need?” Welton barked at her fellow team owners as they considered leaving their tradition-laden league for a lavish new soccer association.

“Just because we own these teams doesn’t mean they belong to us,” she continued.

In the ethereal, almost mystical way that sports bind teams with their communities, fans can claim a hold on their beloved franchises equal to those of team owners.

In this way, the A’s are Oakland’s team as much as Fisher’s.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred denigrated the nearly 30,000 A’s fans who showed up at the Coliseum for a recent game to protest the move and urge Fisher to sell.

“It is great to see what is — this year — almost an average Major League Baseball crowd in the facility for one night,” Manfred said.

In a passive-aggressive manner, the commissioner was excoriating Oakland fans for the recent years in which they responded to Fisher’s selling off stars for spare parts by turning the once raucous Coliseum into a mostly empty morgue.

Did the commissioner forget that for decades, Oakland fans were considered among baseball’s best? Does he somehow not remember that the team’s devotees stood fervently behind their franchise whenever ownership, through all its iterations, put a viable team on the field?

Success has come less often in the 2000s — though the A’s have made the playoffs 11

times in this century. Taking a longer view, stretching back to 1970, Oakland marched to the World Series six times and won it on four occasions. That’s more World Series titles in the same stretch than the Los Angeles Dodgers. More than the Chicago Cubs. More than Atlanta. As many as the Boston Red Sox.

If any of those teams had announced they were leaving for Las Vegas in the weeks before the All-Star Game, the midsummer classic, as it is known, would be played under the darkest Seattle clouds.

The A’s of the past perched at the vanguard of the game. Think of the 1970s teams.

Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, Catfish Hunter, Sal Bando, Vida Blue. Their white pants and white shoes and mustachioed brashness brought a new flavor to a staid game. The way they ended up challenging their team owner, Charlie O. Finley, helped spark a drive toward player empowerment.

Think of the equally cocksure teams of the 1980s and early ’90s and how they perfectly captured baseball in that period. Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire helped usher in the age of the long home run — while also, it must be remembered, relying on the crutch of steroids that inflated the game in that era.

Remember the early 2000s? Moneyball. Barry Zito. Tim Hudson. Jason Giambi. The drive to quantify every part of the game. Winning (for the A’s, on the cheap) through analytics has now been adopted in virtually every professional sport.

All of these teams left a permanent mark. All of them played before crowds that turned the old Coliseum into a carnival of madhouse fun.

Now the city and many of the team’s longtime fans feel betrayed. And rightly so. The billionaire owner announced in a pique that his team would leave Oakland for the casino life and the Nevada dust. Baseball’s commissioner so heartily backed the move that he denigrated A’s fans and said he would waive the league’s relocation fee.

Go ahead and watch the All-Star Game. Try to enjoy it. Just don’t get so caught up in the fairy tale that you forget the scar that baseball has wreaked upon itself.

Athletics fans in Oakland have shown their displeasure with team ownership this year, protesting a planned relocation to Las Vegas.

By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN

Louisiana State’s baseball program pulled off an unprecedented feat Sunday, with players from its College World Series-winning team being taken with the top two picks in Major League Baseball’s draft in Seattle. With the No. 1 overall pick, the Pittsburgh Pirates chose Paul Skenes, a right-handed starting pitcher, and the Washington Nationals chose Dylan Crews, an outfielder, at No. 2.

Max Clark, an outfielder from Franklin Community High School in Indiana, went to the Detroit Tigers with the third pick.

Why it matters

The best previous result for teammates in draft history was first and third, which happened in 2011, with UCLA right-handed pitchers Gerrit Cole (No. 1, Pirates) and Trevor Bauer (No. 3, Arizona Diamondbacks), and in 1978, with Arizona State infielders Bob Horner (No. 1, Atlanta Braves) and Hubie Brooks (No. 3, Mets).

Background

By VICTOR MATHER

There were three climbs in the early part of Sunday’s Tour de France stage that would break any normal person on a three-speed. But everyone was really waiting for Jonas Vingegaard versus Tadej Pogacar on Le Puy de Dôme.

That short but unrelenting climb, returning to the Tour for the first time since 1988, was the capstone of Stage 9. And it was Pogacar who attacked on its steepest slope, gaining eight seconds on his rival. Vingegaard remained 17 seconds in front overall, but must be concerned about Pogacar’s fine climbing form with two weeks left in the race.

Vingegaard, a Danish cyclist, and Pogacar, who is from Slovenia, were the prerace favorites to win, and they had essentially split the first two tough stages of the race in midweek. On Wednesday, Vingegaard beat his rival by a minute. On

LSU was a dominant champion this season and Skenes and Crews were both considered worthy No. 1 overall picks. The only disagreements seemed to come in terms of who would be selected first.

The honor ended up going to Skenes, 21, a 6-foot-6, 235-pound power pitcher who went 13-2 with a 1.69 ERA and an outrageous 15.3 strikeouts per nine innings in 2023. He had gone 11-4 in two seasons for Air Force before

transferring to the Tigers.

Crews, 21, is 6 feet tall and weighs 205 pounds. He batted .380 over three seasons with LSU, with 58 home runs in 196 games. He has the speed to play center field at the major league level, and may prove to be more of a stolen base threat than he was in college.

Clark’s selection at No. 3 was somewhat of a surprise. Wyatt Langford, a star outfielder for Florida, the College World Series runner-up, was widely seen to have the potential of a No. 1 pick, and Walker Jenkins, a high school outfielder from North Carolina, was the top prep player on many prospect lists.

The left-handed-hitting Clark has the potential to hit 20 home runs a year at the MLB level, but the Tigers may have been more interested in his speed, which could be game-changing with the league’s new rules that encourage stealing bases.

Langford ended up falling to the Texas Rangers with the fourth pick, while Jenkins rounded out the top five when he was selected by the Minnesota Twins.

In an MLB draft first, teammates are taken with the top two picks Pogacar cuts further into Vingegaard’s Tour de France lead

Thursday, Pogacar struck back, pulling away to beat Vingegaard by half a minute. When the dust settled, Vingegaard led by 25 seconds overall, a margin he kept going into Sunday.

The road to Puy de Dôme goes up the mountain in a spiral, never giving riders a respite from the challenge of the slope. The final 2 miles do not dip below a punishing 12% gradient and hit an absurd 18% at the very end. A mano a mano duel there in 1964 between Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor is often thought to be the Tour’s best ever. (Poulidor won that battle, but Anquetil won the Tour.)

“Right now, I’m good, but after the stage I don’t know,” Pogacar said before the stage. “The final climb will be really explosive,” he predicted. “The last 4K will be really brutal.” And so it proved.

The Puy de Dôme, an extinct volcano, was long thought to be too narrow to

accommodate thousands of spectators, plus motorbikes, team cars, television cameras and the rest of the modern Tour infrastructure. Sunday’s return after 35 years was made possible in part by keeping out spectators for the final few miles.

Eight minutes ahead of the big two riders, Michael Woods, a 36-year-old Canadian, was winning the stage after chasing down American Matteo Jorgenson. “I can’t believe I did it,” he said of his first stage win. Noting the unusual absence of spectators toward the end, he said, “It was deafening until about 4K to go, then, all of a sudden, silence.” He added, “It’s an iconic climb, beautiful.”

But the battle for overall Tour victory was resuming farther down the mountain.

Pogacar attacked with about a mile of tough climbing to go. He got a small gap on Vingegaard, as the other members of their group melted away. Pogacar

kept up the pressure, and the gap widened to five seconds. But Pogacar needed 25. In the end he gained eight seconds and now trails by 17 seconds overall. The margin to third-place Jai Hindley of Australia increased by more than a minute to 2 minutes 40 seconds.

“It’s not a victory, but it’s a small victory,” Pogacar said. “I was a bit scared. The guys were telling me, ‘It’s so hard, it’s so steep.’ But actually today we were flying uphill, so it didn’t feel so steep.”

Vingegaard said, “Today he was stronger in the end,” and added, “I just have to keep fighting to keep yellow.”

The next big stages come next weekend, a tripleheader of mountain races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And the final week of the Tour brings a time trial and two more mountain stages before the final day in Paris on July 23.

There should still be many rounds of the Vingegaard-Pogacar battle to come.

Paul Skenes, a right-handed starting pitcher from Louisiana State, was taken by the Pittsburgh Pirates with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 M.L.B. draft.

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 30

Wordsearch

Aries (Mar 21-April 20)

You may have been saving up for something you really wanted, Aries, when an unexpected expense compels you to spend some of your savings. This could cause some gloom. Make sure you’ve exhausted all of your other options before digging into your nest egg. Appearances could be deceiving. There could be other resources at your disposal that you didn’t immediately think of.

Taurus (April 21-May 21)

Some hidden problems in your house could suddenly appear, Taurus. This could involve plumbing, electricity, or the walls. Repairs are definitely indicated. It’s best if you see to them right away rather than wait. The problem will only escalate if neglected. It’s probably better to call in professionals than to try to do it yourself. Things like this are a drag, but they happen.

Gemini (May 22-June 21)

Some strange communications could come your way today, Gemini. Hang-ups or blank emails could have you wondering who the person is and what they want from you. This is probably due more to problems with phone lines or Internet connections than to anything else, so don’t waste time worrying. If you think you know who’s trying to reach you, wait until tomorrow and contact him or her.

Cancer (June 22-July 23)

A group you’re affiliated with could find some discrepancies in their financial records and ask you to check into it, Cancer. This is probably due more to mistaken entries or lost pages than to any major disaster, but solving it will set everyone’s mind at ease. Don’t be surprised if you have to dig through little scraps of paper buried in the bottom of files. It will be worth it, though.

Leo (July 24-Aug 23)

Secrets that someone close has been trying to keep hidden could come out today, Leo. This may or may not be something Earthshaking, but either way, some quick damage control might prevent them from becoming common knowledge. The people around you are more understanding than you know, so express how you feel. By tomorrow it should be old news. Take care of business and all will be well.

Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)

Some strange news concerning friends who live far away could come to you secondhand today, Virgo. Attempts to reach the people in question may prove fruitless, at least now. Withhold judgment about what you hear until you talk to your friends, as much of what is passed on to you is likely to be misinformation. Tomorrow you should have better luck reaching them.

Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)

Some rather unsettling insights into a friend’s thoughts and feelings could come to you today. Your intuition is keener than usual, Libra, so trust your instincts about everyone, even strangers. Disconcerting though it may be, the experience will increase your understanding of others and enable you to deal with them in the right way. This could strengthen your relationships.

Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)

A disagreement with a friend or family member could cause confusion and hurt feelings if it isn’t nipped in the bud. Communication is the key, Scorpio. Avert misunderstanding by explaining in detail exactly what it is you need or what you’re prepared to give. Don’t assume everyone knows this already. Do this in person if you can. Phone or email might not be as effective.

Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)

Plans to get some long-neglected tasks done around the house or yard may be interrupted by a phone call from someone dear who lives far away. You might be so excited by the call that you are no longer in the right frame of mind to finish your work once the conversation ends. Don’t worry. You can always get the tasks done later.

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)

Plans to get together with a close friend or romantic partner might go awry due to circumstances beyond your control, Capricorn. Sudden events could necessitate being out of touch. You might have to face delays when you’re trying to make arrangements. Don’t give up - you will reach your goal but just a little later than you’d hoped. Accept things as they are and change your schedule. These things happen.

Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)

A member of your household has perhaps been withholding some negative emotions for a long time. He or she may finally let loose with everything today. This could prove disconcerting, Aquarius, as you probably had no idea this was going on. Some honest talk is definitely in order. Try to show that you understand. All should be fine in the end.

Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)

An unexpected and perhaps unwelcome call or email from a co-worker might mean you have to work some extra hours, Pisces. This could be frustrating. You may feel that someone is taking unfair advantage of you. If you aren’t up to doing it, say no. This won’t affect your long-term standing with this person. Otherwise, grit your teeth, dig in, and think of it as a favor.

Speed Bump