Wednesday Jul 15, 2020

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

San Juan The

50¢

DAILY

Star

David Lee Roth Is Letting His Art Do the Talking P20 - 21

Dubious Safety Protocol at Airport Begins Governor Scolds the Media, Citizens for Keeping Tabs on Her Use of Masks, Social Distancing During Campaign P3

PREPA to Begin Grid Resiliency Process Soon P5

Miscommunication Is the Order of the Day; Gov’t Execution Plan Short on Specifics Will the Passenger Declarations Help?

NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 19

P4

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

POR FAVOR, CONTRIBUYE A DETENER EL COVID-19

El Municipio Autónomo de San Lorenzo se preocupa por su gente y exhorta a cada ciudadano de nuestro País, a que contribuya con la responsabilidad de protegerse y cuidar a nuestros hermanos puertorriqueños. Con tu contribución podemos detener el aumento de casos y proteger en gran medida a los más vulnerables, ante la amenaza de la nueva ola de propagación del COVID-19.

Es fácil, sigue usando mascarilla, lávate las manos, usa desinfectante, mantén el distanciamiento de 6 pies. Sabemos que podemos contar contigo, por favor, es hora de unirnos en un esfuerzo mayor para preservar nuestro recurso más preciado, la vida. Así también, levantar la economía y asegurar la disponibilidad del sistema de salud.

MUNICIPIO AUTÓNOMO

+ Información Oficina de Manejo de Emergencias y Emergencias Médicas Municipal T: 787.736.0210 | 787.736.0220

DE SAN LORENZO

Sometido a la Comisión Estatal de Elecciones CEE-SA-2020-8914

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GOOD MORNING

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July 15, 2020

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.

Governor: Monitor all candidates’ political events for health safety, not just hers

Today’s

Weather

By PEDRO CORREA HENRY Twitter: @PCorreaHenry Special to the Star

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From E 13 mph 66% 10 of 10 5:56 AM Local Time 7:03 PM Local Time

INDEX Local 3 Mainland 7 Business 11 International 13 Viewpoint 17 Noticias en Español 19 Entertainment 20

Fashion Health Legals Sports Games Horoscope Cartoons

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ov. Wanda Vázquez Garced said media outlets and citizens should monitor other candidates’ political events to the same degree as they do hers after she participated in a New Progressive Party primary activity on Monday where there was little social distancing being practiced around the audience.

With COVID-19 cases on the rise in Puerto Rico, Vázquez said she was going to cancel every political activity that generated crowds of people, yet she attended Monday’s event, which gathered public servants who support her gubernatorial campaign, where pictures posted on social media showed no physical distance being maintained between audience members and where a few in attendance were not wearing their masks correctly.

The images spurred heavy criticism.

“I consider that this monitoring should be done to every candidate, because I see that the only candidate who is being monitored is this candidate, from a political perspective, which I don’t mind,” the governor said Tuesday during a press conference.

Meanwhile, the governor insisted that the aforementioned activity complied with the safety measures that the World Health Organization recommended, as every attendee was screen-tested

for their body temperature, their hands were sanitized and the seats were accommodated to abide by social distancing requirements. In addition, she said the picture that was posted on media outlets was the only occasion where they came together, and that they separated again after the picture was taken.

“I told them to stand up from where they were, we stood up, everyone looked at the camera and we took the photograph,” she said. “In the rest of the conference, they did follow security protocol: temperature, hand sanitizer, face masks and distancing according to the seat placement.”

In response to a question from the press, Vázquez said she was not going to consider what happened at the campaign event as contradictory given the declarations she has made scolding others for not being responsible enough or for not practicing social distancing or using a face mask. She added that as the event was scheduled beforehand, she was obliged to attend.

“I reaffirm what I said last time -- when I finished the press conference, everyone [there] was invited and many came from far away,” the governor said.

“As you all could see from some of the pictures, we took all the safety measures: they had their temperature taken, they had hand sanitizer applied, they had their face masks on and there was social distancing in terms of the seat placement as I thanked them for coming.”

“It’s a courtesy; the least I could have done was to arrive and explain what I had determined for the [primary] campaign,” she added. “They were already there as it was scheduled for that day, so my intention was to show up and reaffirm the norms that will take place in the following two weeks while we work with the COVID-19 pandemic. I will not take this as a contradiction.”

In order to prevent the crowding of people in upcoming events, the governor said she suggested to her campaign team that each person had to stay inside their vehicles and, if they were to come out, they had to wear their face mask. The campaign team is also looking into siting events in open spaces to facilitate social distancing.

“From now on, everyone should be inside their vehicles and, if they come out of them, they must have their face masks on,” Vázquez said. “That should be part of the protocol.”

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Wednesday, July 15, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Executive order requiring travelers to provide negative COVID-19 test result goes into effect

By PEDRO CORREA HENRY Twitter: @PCorreaHenry Special to The Star As Executive Order 2020-052 comes into force today, which instructs every passenger who comes to Puerto Rico to arrive with a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result less than 72 hours old and a travel declaration form, the government still does not have a clear plan of execution.

Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced said every passenger, from today, must log onto the Aerostar website, where an option will be available to fill out an application that, when submitted, will be sent to the island Health Department. Vázquez said the initiative has been a joint effort between the Puerto Rico Tourism Co. (PRTC), the Health Department, the Puerto Rico National Guard and the aforementioned airport management company.

“There’s an app that is available at the Aerostar website, and it’s the same one that, through Tourism, is sent to all airlines so travelers fill out the application. There should be no doubt in coming to Puerto Rico, the executive order is clear enough: if you come to Puerto Rico, you must have a negative COVID-19 test result within the past 72 hours. If you don’t have it, as the Health secretary said, don’t come,” the governor said. “The information that is submitted to the Aerostar app will be sent back to the Health Department. We are working hard so that it starts today [Tuesday]; if it is not ready, we hope it is available tomorrow [today]. Each traveler will be asked if they have a negative COVID-19 test and if they successfully submitted all the required information, they can come to Puerto Rico.”

However, PRTC Executive Director Carla Campos said the protocol is being led by the Health Department, with “narrow collaboration” from the PRTC, Aerostar and the National Guard. The digital component that includes the Online Travel Declaration and its interconnection with the Health Department’s Bio Portal and the traveler’s surveil-

lance system was uploaded at midnight.

“On the other hand, the PRTC has informed airline partners about the new protocol and, furthermore, it has been reported to Discover Puerto Rico, the entity in charge of visitors’ communication, about the details so the message is integrated with outside marketing efforts,” Campos said.

The Star investigated how to fill out the travel declaration that has been ordered for all who would travel to Puerto Rico. The Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport’s website https://www.sjuinsider.com only offers information about the security and monitoring measures they have put into effect during the coronavirus pandemic. However, according to a letter from the PRTC sent to airline partners on June 12, travelers had to log on to http://travelsafe.pr.gov/ or http://www.viajaseguro.pr.gov/ in order to acknowledge the travel requirements under the new executive order.

At press time, the latter one has a 403 Forbidden error, as there is no permission to access the server.

“Travel Safe! Official information from the Government of Puerto Rico about guidance, mandates and advisories applicable to anyone traveling to Puerto Rico. As a U.S. jurisdiction, travelers must observe national health guidance, as per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (link to cdc.gov), in addition to local protocols,” the website says. “While traveling in Puerto Rico you must: Be tested and self-isolate if you get sick or develop COVID-19 symptoms, Wear a mask or face covering at all times in public, Wash your hands frequently and wipe down high-touch surfaces, Practice social distancing, Minimize and keep track of interactions with others and the places that you visit.”

Once inside http://travelsafe.pr.gov/, every traveller must scroll down and click on the “Online Travel Declaration” option and fill out the application. The declaration asks for name, sex, phone number, e-mail address, passport or license number, if you own a residence or will be lodging, physical direction, if you have children younger than 18 years travelling and if there has been contact with

anyone with COVID-19 in the past 14 days. Once you fill out the contact information, you must complete the test result application.

“Every traveler, visitor or resident arriving in Puerto Rico must comply with a mandatory quarantine period for 14 days, unless it complies with one of the following categories,” the website says.

The first category confirms that the traveler had a molecular test in a period of 72 hours or less before traveling to Puerto Rico; if the option is selected, it is required to submit date and time of the test, laboratory name, laboratory phone number and asked if you were informed about the results.

The second category confirms that the traveler will take the molecular test in an authorized facility on the island, while the third category confirms the visitor will comply with the mandatory quarantine.

“Any person who provides false information in a public document with the purpose of defrauding the Department of Health and interfering with their duty to care for citizens, may be punished with a 3-year prison sentence for violating Article 212 of the Penal Code of Puerto Rico. In addition, [violators] will be committing a misdemeanor in violation of Article 246, by obstructing the exercise of authority by preventing a public official or employee from fulfilling any of the duties of his office,” the website says. “Travelers will be registered in the Department of Health’s Traveler Surveillance System (SARA Alert). They will receive for a period of 14 days, automated daily messages, either by text, email or phone call, about their health status. They must answer the SARA Alert questions every day; if they do not, they are exposed to a violation of the executive order, which establishes these controls at the airports. The information provided is for the exclusive use of the Puerto Rico Department of Health and its associates, for the prevention, follow-up and treatment of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 or other infectious diseases, as per HIPAA Law (45 CFR 164.502 (e) (2)).”

Once the traveler finishes the online travel declaration, they must arrive at the airport with the declaration and negative COVID-19 test result in hand for validation.

Chamber of Commerce argues against return to total closure

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

C

OVID-19 has dealt a severe blow to the economy of Puerto Rico, in particular to small and midsize merchants, “who have had serious difficulties staying afloat in this situation, so returning to a total closure would be devastating,” the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce (CCPR) said Tuesday.

According to economist Gustavo Vélez, data published by the island Department of Labor and Human Resources indicate that for the months of April and May, “total nonsalaried employment contracted by 10.1 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively,” CCPR President Juan Carlos Agosto said in a written statement.

“Prior to the start of COVID-19, employment was at 885,000 jobs,” he noted.

The initiative “of the quarantine was to eradicate or minimize the pandemic,” Agosto said. “Now, after several weeks of the phased opening, we see a considerable increase, which according to some health professionals was to be expected. According to data published this weekend

by the Department of Health, the confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased to 2,583 while possible infections are estimated at 7,071.”

The CCPR president contended that “the difference at the moment is that we have, or should have, much more information regarding the sources of infection, and the risk of infection due to activity, and this allows us to take informed measures on the steps to follow.”

“There is no doubt that without health there is no economy, but there is also no doubt that before making decisions that impact our citizens and our businesses, we must carefully study and evaluate the data in terms of health and infectionas, and the economic data,” Agosto continued. “It is important that any modification in the scheduled opening of the economy focuses particularly on the areas of potentially greater infection.”

He added that “several publications have recommended keeping those shops that are at low risk for infection open.”

“This data, however, varies from state to state,” Agosto said. “In Puerto Rico, for example, we have seen how many shops offer very effective alternatives for ‘delivery,’ ‘carryout,’ curbside and online shopping. Commerce has been

reinvented, so at this moment, we have to find that balance in Puerto Rico so that trade can continue to develop, while infection remains controlled.”

The CCPR president also supported the Health Department campaign that urges everyone to follow the recommendations for avoiding infections.

“We should all wear our masks, use our antibacterial gel, keep the required distance and avoid activities with a high possibility of infection,” Agosto said. “Generally speaking, businesses have done their part by taking extraordinary measures of cleaning, labeling, and [managing] space. Teamwork is going to be essential to get out of this situation. Awareness, information and communication will be an essential part of a solution.

“We call on the entire private sector and on businessmen and women entrepreneurs to continue to implement in our companies all the recommendations of federal and state agencies to ensure that we control the pandemic and can continue to open up the economy. If we do not do our part, we could see a setback and nobody, neither the workers nor the employers nor the government, wants that.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

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PREPA to begin grid resiliency process in September

By THE STAR STAFF

T

he process of making the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) energy grid a resilient one should start in the eastern section of Puerto Rico and the first requests for proposals should come out in September, PREPA Executive Director José Ortiz said Tuesday.

Speaking at a Puerto Rico Grid Revitalization Forum, Ortiz said the grid resiliency projects are slated to start in eastern municipalities, more specifically in the so-called medical device and pharma corridor in the Humacao district.

“The entranceway to all weather events in Puerto Rico is the eastern region,” he noted.

The plan is to bury power lines and possibly substations in the area and near critical facilities such as hospitals and airports.

PREPA already has nine firms working on the designs of the projects, which should be put out for bid

by September.

On June 22, PREPA signed a 15-year contract with Luma Energy to operate its transition and distribution system, but the company will also be in charge of customer service, billing, and the net metering program, and will also administer billions of dollars in federal reconstruction funds.

Ortiz said that during the transition period, PREPA will make decisions on where the federal funding will go, but that after 11 months, Luma Energy should take over.

He denied that the contract with Luma will follow the fate of Ondeo, which ceased operations as manager of the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA) in 2004, less than two years into its contract. Ortiz said he was a member of the committee that put PRASA back in public hands.

The Ondeo contract failed, he said, because the officials were unable to renegotiate collective bargaining

agreements and because half of the utility’s revenues depended on government appropriations. He said Ondeo did not have the autonomy needed to make decisions, something Luma Energy has more of.

“We used that experience for this contract,” Ortiz said.

As a matter of fact, the company decided to interview employees directly for its hiring process instead of negotiating with the union. In response to that decision, PREPA workers are launching a one-day work stoppage today.

Energy Bureau sets deadline for comments on PREPA demand response rules

By THE STAR STAFF

P

uerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) Commissioner Ángel Rivera said Tuesday that all parties interested in commenting on demand response regulations that would help the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) prevent power outages to compensate for a lack of generating capacity during days of high demand, have until Aug. 2 to do so.

Over the past few months, Puerto Rico has endured numerous power outages, some of which have been caused by a reduction in energy capacity. The PREB began a process in September to evaluate demand response regulations.

The Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association (PRMA), which groups most of the island’s manufacturers and service firms, has already proposed asking the bankrupt PREPA to

grant a credit against future invoices to manufacturing companies that agree to temporarily disconnect themselves for a specified amount of time and use their own co-generating or emergency standby equipment so the power utility can better match the demand for power with the supply.

The information is contained in documents submitted to the PREB. The credit consists of the cost of operating equipment plus a 10 percent incentive based on the client’s consumption. PREPA is currently in bankruptcy to restructure about $9 billion of debt. The economic impact of the proposed demand response incentive is not yet known.

“We propose a regulation that will offer a viable mechanism for PREPA to harvest such generating resources by granting industrial and commercial clients, who voluntarily decide to participate in the program, a credit against future

invoices for electric power in exchange for temporarily disconnecting themselves from PREPA’s grid for specific periods of time as requested by PREPA,” reads the PRMA’s proposal, issued June 26.

The PREB had asked PREPA to discuss with industrial and commercial clients the possibility of enlisting their help in dealing with a shortage of energy reserves during the peak summer months. The energy utility was ordered

by PREB to file by June 25 a list of high-capacity industrial and commercial clients and a report on their consumption as well as any document showing the energy utility has established a demand response program.

The need for a demand response initiative arose after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in January knocked out PREPA’s Costa Sur power plant, eliminating about 820 megawatts of capacity.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Delgado Altieri proposes economic plan as part of his campaign

By THE STAR STAFF

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opular Democratic Party gubernatorial hopeful Charlie Delgado Altieri presented on Tuesday his proposal to boost the Puerto Rico economy, which includes the creation of an Economic and Social Development Council that will have the participation of private companies, economists, and the labor and environmental sectors.

Delgado Altieri said the council will be in charge of implementing the Puerto Rico Economic and Social Development Plan for the years 2021-2030.

“To fight poverty, we need to create jobs that guarantee the livelihood and well being of our citizens,” Delgado Altieri said when presenting his proposal. “The plan for Economic and Social Development of this second transformation is to create an environment that fosters equal opportunities for everyone in Puerto Rico.”

The plan will have pillars such as Project 3i (Innovation-Research-Intelligence) to promote education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) from primary grades to the university level (K20), he said.

“We are going to attract and retain world-class scientists and researchers through economic and tax incentives,” Delgado Altieri said. “We will establish a scientific-business ecosystem that allows the initiatives developed to be manufactured

and marketed locally. In addition, we will create the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CIAR), together with the universities and private companies, which will allow us to insert ourselves into the economic and social growth related to the fourth industrial revolution.”

To validate the potential of artificial intelligence development, the Delgado Altieri noted that according to a report by the prominent international firm PwC, artificial intelligence, robotics and other forms of intelligent automation have the potential to contribute up to $15 trillion to global gross domestic product by 2030.

“This will generate employment, but it will also displace jobs that exist today,” he said. “Therefore, together with the academy, we will invest in education and the development of human capital with the necessary skills for this work scenario.”

In addition to jobs in the aforementioned areas, Delgado Altieri stated that he is proposing to develop civil aeronautics to turn the western region of Puerto Rico into the main cargo hub in the Caribbean. This will be accompanied by a concentrated fight for the permanent elimination of air cabotage laws.

“The state of Alaska did it and we are going to do it for Puerto Rico. We are going to develop an air and sea transshipment port, and a shipyard at the former Roosevelt Roads naval base,” he said. “This initiative will be complemented by a school to develop

naval mechanics. We will develop tourism in the eastern area, including Vieques and Culebra, promoting the arrival of small and midsize cruises.”

Likewise, Delgado Altieri said he will push the United States Congress to restore tax incentives that promote the return of the pharmaceutical industry to the island.

“We will incorporate into this initiative marine biotechnology that is being developed by Inter-American University in Barranquitas and that seeks to produce food, medicinal, industrial and pharmaceutical products,” he said. “We will encourage the development of local companies that provide products and services to support pharmaceutical companies. In this way,

local capital companies are linked and a business ecosystem is created that benefits SMEs [small and midsize enterprises].”

Delgado Altieri said further that he will push for Congress to allow the Puerto Rico government to make tax agreements with other countries.

Regarding his proposal to support small and midsize businesses, he said he will seek to recapitalize the Economic Development Bank (BDE by its Spanish initials) so that it can offer financing to SMEs at a reasonable cost.

“We will restructure the BDE and we will appoint a board of directors made up of people with experience to keep the institution away from political changes,” Delgado Altieri said. “Also, we are going to capitalize on COSSEC [the Public Corporation for the Supervision & Insurance of Cooperatives in Puerto Rico] and provide all the technical support to cooperatives so that they, together with local banks, are protagonists in financing economic and social development.”

Delgado Altieri said he will establish an integrated tax system that is fair, equitable, efficient and simple, and that reduces the costs of doing business.

“We will simplify the compliance process for entrepreneurs by filing a single form that serves to meet the requirements of the income tax, the municipal [business tax], the personal property tax and the annual report of corporations, if applicable,” he said.

Incentives for accelerated payment of traffic fines extended

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

G

ov. Wanda Vázquez Garced has signed House Bill 2555 into law, which will extend for an additional 60 days the incentives for the accelerated payment of fines issued and thus registered to the license plates and driver’s licenses for violations,

including interest, surcharges and penalties.

“After the earthquakes that occurred in the southern area and due to the pandemic, many people were not able to take advantage of the accelerated payment of fines that ended on June 19, 2020,” the governor said Tuesday in a written statement. “We are extending this period after work resumes in the offices of the Treasury Department and the Driver Services Centers of the Department of Transportation and Public Works for the benefit of all citizens.”

During the term for which the incentive for the accelerated payment of fines is extended, citizens who pay all of their fines or who avail themselves of a payment plan, may renew their driver’s license without being subject to the provisions of Article 3.14 of the Puerto Rico Vehicle and Traffic Law. The new law, authored by Rep. José “Memo” González, is an amendment to Law 134-2019, which established an incentive program to promote the accelerated payment of fines issued to license plates and driver’s licenses.

More than 270,000 people have already benefited from the aforementioned program and around $14 million has been raised.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

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New York confronts second-wave risk: Visitors from Florida and Texas

By LUIS FERRÉ-SADUNI and NATE SCWEBER

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ew York, once the center of the coronavirus pandemic, has so successfully stemmed the outbreak that its death and hospitalization rates have plummeted and it has among the lowest infection rates in the country.

But the state and its neighbors are facing a disquieting new threat: Can they keep the virus suppressed when it is raging across the South and West?

Officials and public health experts are especially concerned that infected travelers from any of the nearly 40 states where the outbreak is spiking could set off new clusters in New York. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday imposed more restrictions on travelers from states with high infection rates, but it is not all clear that they will be followed — or are even enforceable.

Tens of thousands of people enter New York daily through its airports, highways and train stations, and compliance largely depends on the whims of visitors and of residents returning home.

Cuomo has warned it is almost inevitable that the virus will seep back into the state, much the way it came to New York through flights from Europe in February. He has also raised concerns that some New Yorkers might let their guard down and blamed local governments for not enforcing mask-wearing and social-distancing measures.

But his focus lately has been on trying to keep the virus from re-entering New York: Travelers from 19 states where cases have increased must now quarantine for two weeks upon arrival in New York. And beginning Tuesday, travelers arriving at New York airports will be required to fill out a form with their personal information and planned whereabouts, or face a $2,000 fine.

Epidemiologists said they were skeptical that the measures would work.

“I think it’s going to be incredibly hard to keep the virus out of New York state,” said Isaac Weisfuse, a former New York City deputy health commissioner. “I think that these types of travel restrictions may be somewhat helpful, but we should assume that they’re not going to be airtight.”

But Weisfuse, an adjunct professor at Cornell University’s master of public health program, and other epidemiologists said New York was better positioned to deal with a surge in cases this time around.

They said that government officials had a better understanding of the virus and that doctors in New York had learned invaluable lessons from treating the disease. People in New York, where more than 400,000 people were infected and more than 30,000 died, are keenly aware of the risks and, for the most part, of the importance of wearing masks. The state has also dramatically ramped up its testing capacity, processing about 60,000 tests per day.

“I don’t anticipate that in New York, we’re going to have a second wave that is going to look like what we have in Texas and Florida,” said Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at the Mailman

Visitors flying into New York airports must fill out virusrelated questionnaires or face a fine of up to $2,000.

School of a Public Health at Columbia University. “We can’t become complacent, and I don’t think we will. I am cautiously optimistic.”

Cuomo’s quarantine order comes as the state continues to gradually reopen and stabilize its health metrics.

In July, New York averaged about 10 virus-related deaths a day, a huge drop from the 799 deaths over a 24hour period at the peak of the outbreak in April. About 790 people are hospitalized, down from nearly 19,000 people a few months ago when hospitals were nearly overrun.

But NewYork officials are readying for a spike, however big or small, as states like Florida continue to report record number of cases — more than 12,000 on Monday — and others, like California, impose sweeping rollbacks of their reopening plans, forcing many businesses to close again.

Officials in New York — unlike in Connecticut and New Jersey, which also implemented a quarantine requirement — have sought to proactively enforce the quarantine order. The state instituted fines of up to $10,000 and made it legal to order people to self-isolate, if necessary.

But no fines or mandatory isolation orders have been issued in New York City since the order took effect June 25, according to a city spokeswoman. Instead, both state and city officials have urged travelers to take the order seriously and are hoping visitors will comply voluntarily, as with similar executive orders mandating masks and social distancing.

Officials estimate about 12,000 people visit New York daily from the states on the quarantine list, which is updated regularly according to certain virus health metrics. The quarantine currently applies to travelers from a broad swath of mostly the West and South where cases have skyrocketed, including California, Florida and Texas. Additional states are poised to be added to the list soon.

The quarantine order has applied to more than 900 flights that have landed in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut since the order went into effect, according to a New York Times analysis of flight data provided by MyRadar.

About one-third came from Florida, and most flights landed in New York City and in Newark and Teterboro, New Jersey.

Domestic flights are averaging about 68 passengers per flight, according to Airlines for America, an industry group, so more than 61,000 people could have been on those flights.

Before Cuomo made the airport forms mandatory, arriving passengers were expected to voluntarily fill them out and leave them in drop boxes.

The information from the forms is shared with local health departments, which are supposed to follow up with visitors over phone, text message or in person to ensure they are quarantining, officials said. More than 20,000 forms had been submitted as of last week, state officials said.

Ensuring that people filled out the forms became a problem for officials early on. A recent outbreak of cases in Rensselaer County originated with three residents — two of whom worked in nursing homes. They traveled to Georgia and did not report their arrival back in New York.

Collecting the questionnaires also appeared to be a problem. On a recent evening last week, many travelers at LaGuardia Airport walked out of baggage claim with the form in hand, unsure of where to hand it in.

Whether they planned to quarantine or not, most travelers arriving on a recent afternoon from designated states like North Carolina and Kansas seemed to be aware of the 14-day requirement.

Dani Sheinbaum, 33, who lives in Connecticut and was returning from visiting her best friend in Dallas, went so far as to inform her gym she wouldn’t be going back for a while because of the quarantine.

“It’s a moral compass,” said Sheinbaum, an account executive at a job recruitment company. “I don’t want to fail my brethren.”

Quarantining also didn’t seem like much of a burden for the many people still working from home, like Jeff Rudolph, a psychologist who was retuning from a five-day vacation in his second home in Longboat Key, Florida.

“For me, it’s not a particular hardship,” said Rudolph, 72, who lives in New Jersey. “I do my patient therapy sessions online. I think safety first.”

Still, some others said they had no intention of quarantining, whether because they were in town for business or because they didn’t believe the coronavirus was a real threat. Or both.

Daurys Payano, 24, who lives in Phoenix and came to New York City for a week to deal with a business matter related to his work as a truck driver, said he would not quarantine.

“I don’t mean to sound ignorant,” he said, expressing skepticism over the threat of the virus and the need for masks. “I’m not stopping my life for a virus. If I catch it, God forgive me.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Thinking of traveling in the U.S.? These states have travel restrictions

In New Jersey, a road sign advises out-of-state visitors to call and learn if they must self-quarantine.

By KAREN SCHWARTZ

A

mericans are planning millions of trips this summer within the United States, according to a forecast released by the AAA last month.

But packing a face mask and hand sanitizer aren’t the only things these travelers need to consider, as a third of states have restrictions in place for visitors, from mandatory testing to quarantine requirements.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is continuing to caution against travel, both internationally and within the U.S. For those who do take a trip, the CDC recommends people wear a face mask in public, wash hands frequently, avoid touching their face, keep 6 feet from others, cover coughs and sneezes, and use drive-thru service and curbside pickup at restaurants and stores.

Here is a summary of current restrictions in the U.S. for leisure travelers. Some municipalities or counties may have more stringent restrictions.

With the number of coronavirus cases surging across the country, check the areas you plan to visit before you travel.

Alaska People entering Alaska must complete a Mandatory Declaration Form for Interstate Travelers, and agree to one of the following conditions: — Those with proof of a negative COVID-19 test within the previous 72 hours must take another test between seven and 14 days after arrival, and minimize interactions with others until they receive those new results.

— Tourists with a negative result from a test taken in the five days before their trip agree to take

a second test at the airport upon arrival, and then a third test seven to 14 days later. They also agree to minimize interaction with others until the third test is back.

— People can also receive a test upon arrival, if one is available, but they must self-quarantine until the results are reported. Those who refuse to be tested must self-quarantine for 14 days or until the end of their stay, whichever is shorter.

Connecticut Visitors to Connecticut from one of 19 states with high rates of COVID-19 are asked to self-quarantine for 14 days. The state will also allow people to enter if they have received negative results for a coronavirus test taken in the previous 72 hours.

The 19 states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

Florida People from NewYork, New Jersey and Connecticut must self-quarantine at their own expense for 14 days when they enter Florida. Violators may be fined up to $500 or imprisoned for up to 60 days.

With the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations spiking in parts of Florida, the mayor of Miami-Dade County recently ordered all short-term vacation rentals in the county closed.

Hawaii Arriving tourists must isolate for two weeks, or until the end of their stay, whichever is shorter.

Violators may face up to a $5,000 fine and up to

a year in prison. Beginning Sept. 1, travelers can avoid that restriction by showing proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of their trip.

Idaho Travelers to Boise and other cities in Ada County are encouraged to self-quarantine for 14 days. Other counties in the state are further along in their reopening and don’t have a similar request.

Illinois There are no statewide restrictions, but those entering Chicago from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah are required to self-quarantine for 14 days from their last contact with those states. Those violating the order face fines of up to $500 per day, up to a maximum of $7,000.

Kansas Most people arriving from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida or South Carolina must self-quarantine for 14 days.

Maine Only residents ofVermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey who stay in commercial lodging in Maine can enter the state without restriction. Everyone else must either self-quarantine for 14 days, or sign a document stating that they tested negative for COVID-19 within the previous 72 hours. Those in quarantine may leave their hotel or campsite only for limited outdoor activities, such as hiking, when no other people are around.

Massachusetts Visitors are asked to self-quarantine for 14 days, unless they are arriving from Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New York or New Jersey.

New Hampshire Those traveling to New Hampshire from non-New England states “for an extended period of time” are asked to self-quarantine for two weeks.

New Jersey Unless they are just passing through, tourists from 19 states with rising coronavirus rates are asked to self-quarantine for 14 days. The request applies even to those with a recent negative COVID-19 test.

The 19 states are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

New Mexico Visitors to New Mexico are required to selfquarantine for 14 days or the duration of their stay, whichever is shorter.

New York New York requires those who spent more than 24 hours in a state with significant community spread of the coronavirus to self-quarantine for 14 days.

The states currently are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

Pennsylvania The state asks travelers from an area with a COVID-19 surge to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arriving in Pennsylvania. It has identified affected states as: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

Rhode Island Those coming to Rhode Island from a state that has a positivity rate for COVID-19 tests of greater than 5% are required to self-quarantine for two weeks. Alternatively, visitors can provide a negative test for the virus that was taken within the previous 72 hours. A person who receives a negative test during their quarantine can stop isolating, although the state recommends the full two-week quarantine.

The states identified are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and Pennsylvania.Visitors from Puerto Rico must also quarantine.

South Carolina The state recommends that people who have visited an area with widespread or ongoing community transmission of COVID-19 stay home for 14 days from the time they left that region.

Vermont Most visitors need to self-quarantine upon arrival, but the state gives travelers a few options.

People may self-quarantine out of state before traveling to Vermont as long as their trip is in a private vehicle and they make only necessary stops, while wearing a face mask, social distancing and washing their hands frequently. Those opting to selfquarantine before their visit to Vermont can either do it for 14 days, or they can shorten it to seven days if they then get a negative COVID-19 test result.

Those arriving by public transportation or a longer car ride must self-quarantine for 14 days, or for seven days followed by a negative test.

Wisconsin There are no recommendations for visitors from out of state, but Wisconsinites are asked to cancel or postpone all travel within the state.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

9

Ted Cruz was seen on a flight without a mask. His office says he followed airline policy.

By CHRISTINA MORALES

A

merican Airlines said Monday that it had reached out to Sen. Ted Cruz after a widely shared photograph showed him not wearing a mask on one of its flights.

The photo, posted on Twitter on Sunday night by an employee of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, shows Cruz sans mask while holding a cup of coffee on a flight.

Another photo shows Cruz, R-Texas, sitting outside the flight’s gate, also without a mask. A photo shared on a different Twitter account Monday appears to show Cruz wearing a red, black and white mask on a flight.

A representative from Cruz’s office said

that the senator wore a face covering when traveling and that he had temporarily removed his mask to eat or drink when he was photographed without one.

“Sen. Cruz has repeatedly said since the start of the pandemic we need to follow the science, listen to public health experts and take common sense steps to slow the spread of COVID-19 and reopen our economy,” the spokeswoman said in an email. “That includes wearing face masks, washing hands and social distancing where possible.”

Hosseh Enad, who shared the photos of Cruz without a mask, works for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, a political action committee that works to elect Democratic candidates into the U.S. House

of Representatives.

Enad later wrote that the photos were taken by a friend of a friend. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

It is unclear who took the photo of Cruz wearing a mask or when it was taken.

A spokesperson for American Airlines confirmed that Cruz flew with one of its domestic regional partners Sunday and said that the company reviewed the incident.

“As we do in all instances like these, we reviewed the details of the matter,” the spokesperson wrote in an email Monday afternoon. “And while our policy does not apply while eating or drinking, we have reached out to Sen. Cruz to affirm the importance of this

policy as part of our commitment to protecting the health and safety of the traveling public.”

American Airlines announced in midJune that it would require passengers to wear face coverings while on board its planes and that it would deny boarding to passengers who refused to comply. The policy allows face coverings to be removed while eating or drinking.

Travelers have used social media to call out inconsistencies in airlines’ face mask policies and to share examples of when rules are not enforced.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended wearing nonmedical face coverings to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

GAO: Trump boosts deregulation by undervaluing cost of climate change

By LISA FRIEDMAN

A

federal report released Tuesday found that the Trump administration set a rock-bottom price on the damages done by greenhouse gas emissions, enabling the government to justify the costs of repealing or weakening dozens of climate change regulations.

The report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ nonpartisan investigative arm, said the Trump administration estimated the harm that global warming will cause future generations to be seven times lower than previous federal estimates. Reducing that metric, known as the “social cost of carbon,” has helped the administration massage cost-benefit analyses, particularly for rules that allow power plants and automobiles to emit more planet-warming carbon dioxide.

C r i t i c s d e s c r i b e d t h e Tr u m p administration’s move as turning a deliberate blind eye to the dangers of climate change.

Some critics likened it to President Donald Trump downplaying the risks of the coronavirus, hoping it would “go away” but instead leaving the country unprepared for the pandemic.

“Climate change is a massive threat to our economy. That threat will only grow in years to come, even if we take the action necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, one of eight Democrats who requested the review.

The White House did not respond to a

President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion with energy sector CEOs at the White House in Washington, April 3, 2020. request for comment on the report.

Every ton of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere imposes a cost on the economy, whether from damage to infrastructure from sea level rise and heat waves or harm to public health. But calculating the price of that damage has been economically challenging and politically contentious.

Conservatives have argued that the valuation serves to make big energy projects look bad and lays the foundation for burdensome and

costly industry regulations. Many Republicans said that the Obama administration’s estimates — which in 2016 determined the social cost of carbon to be about $50 a ton by 2020 — were unrealistic and intentionally onerous.

The Trump administration has overhauled not just the regulations governing the economy but also the economic foundations that underpin those regulations. One ofTrump’s earliest moves was to order agencies to unwind Obama’s climate policies and with them the social cost of carbon he had set.

When the Trump administration put forward its own rules to regulate emissions from power plants and vehicles, it estimated the cost of climate damages between $1 and $7 per ton of carbon.

The GAO found the administration used two main avenues to push the numbers down.

It only factored in damages that would occur within the United States rather than around the globe. It also used an economic calculation, known as the discount rate, in a way that assumes society should not pay much now to prevent harm from climate change to future generations.

“As a result, the current federal estimates, based on domestic climate damages, are about seven times lower than the prior federal estimates that were based on global damages,” the report found.

Michael Greenstone, an economist at the University of Chicago, said the Trump administration’s calculations were not done in good faith.

“It was entirely a political act,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone pretended that those moves were justified.”

Some agencies have defended using the significantly lower figure by saying they are awaiting new federal estimates recommended by the National Academies of Sciences.

But the White House disbanded the working group that was devising them and has acknowledged it actually has no plans to update the calculations.

Without them, the GAO found, the federal government “may not be well positioned to ensure agencies’ future regulatory analyses are using the best available science.”

By 2050, under the estimates developed by the Obama administration, the social cost of carbon should be about $82 a ton, the report found. Under the Trump administration’s calculations, the damages would be around $11 a ton.

“This really parallels the mismanagement of coronavirus,” said Michael K. Dorsey, a limited partner with IberSun, a renewable energy company, and a climate expert who has testified before Congress on the social cost of carbon.

“There’s this belief that by doing this you will have some effect of helping the fossil fuel industry,” he said of the administration’s low carbon cost. “The only thing it does, unfortunately, is undermine the ability of the government to make prudent decisions about moving critical resources to communities that are experiencing the unfolding climate crisis.”

10

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

He beat Trump and Weinstein. Why is this DA’s standing still shaky?

By JAN RANSOM

H

e just won a landmark victory in the Supreme Court over President Donald Trump that paved the way for prosecutors to obtain the president’s tax returns. In February, he won a conviction against Harvey Weinstein in perhaps the biggest criminal case to arise from the #MeToo movement.

So why isn’t Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, a shoo-in for reelection?

Despite his recent successes, Vance remains politically vulnerable: He is facing a growing list of emboldened challengers, including two civil rights lawyers, an assemblyman, a former federal prosecutor, a career public defender and the former general counsel to the Brooklyn district attorney. Vance has raised only $29,000 for a reelection campaign, according to his disclosure forms.

And some feminists and advocates for sex abuse victims have criticized the handling of sex crime cases by Vance’s office.

Through it all, Vance has not even announced whether he will seek a fourth term next year.

Vance, 66, declined to be interviewed about his political plans. But he has maintained in recent days that he is focused on getting his office through the coronavirus pandemic, cutting down a backlog of cases that had built up in the months the courts slowed down, and — in response to the

protests after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis — addressing inequities within the criminal justice system.

“That’s where my attention is,” Vance told NY1 last week when asked if he intended to seek reelection.

Still, his effort to investigate Trump is likely to appeal to his base of Democratic supporters in Manhattan. When Vance tweeted Thursday that “no one — not even a president — is above the law,” it was liked more than 30,000 times.

“For New Yorkers, there is nothing bigger than the antiTrump sentiment, and this case is just monumental when it comes to holding Trump accountable,” said George Arzt, a political consultant who advised Vance on his first campaign for district attorney, in 2010. “It takes a great deal of courage to go after the president.”

Six months ago, Vance was considered to be in deep political trouble, having been criticized for his handling of cases against the wealthy and well-connected, including the Trump family and Weinstein.

Vance’s office had been called into question over its decision to halt an investigation years ago into whether Trump and his children misled investors in a condominium project.

And though Vance won the conviction against Weinstein — the Hollywood producer who is now in prison — he had declined to prosecute him five years earlier.

Now Vance is pursuing one of the biggest targets of his career: the president. The district attorney’s office sought eight years of business and personal tax records in connection with

Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, talks with reporters following the sentencing of Harvey Weinstein, the once influential Hollywood producer, on felony sex crimes, in New York, March 11, 2020.

an investigation of the role that Trump and the Trump Organization played in hush-money payments made in the run-up to the 2016 election.

The office also focused on whether senior executives at the Trump Organization falsely accounted for the reimbursement as a legal expense to cover up the nature of the payment.

Once the office has access to Trump’s records, the investigation could broaden beyond the falsifying records law to include any potential financial or tax crimes.

In recent weeks, Vance has also taken on the New York Police Department after a series of videos showed officers assaulting peaceful protesters during demonstrations against police violence and racism in America.

He has dedicated significant resources to aggressively investigate allegations of police misconduct during the protests and has declined to prosecute demonstrators arrested on minor charges.

Last week, Vance announced that he intended to prosecute Amy Cooper, a white woman who called the police on a Black bird-watcher in Central Park when he asked her to put her dog on a leash. Cooper claimed that the man was threatening her, and the case resonated throughout the country, sparking a discussion about white people filing false police reports against Black people.

Vance said his office was “strongly committed to holding perpetrators of this conduct accountable.” The pending criminal charge against Cooper appeared to be among the first that a white person in the country has faced for wrongfully calling the police to make a complaint about a Black person.

But some detractors have accused Vance of pandering to liberal voters in the wake of national protests against racism and police brutality.

“Is this just an exercise in trying to gain some kind of public credit?” said Mark Bederow, a criminal defense lawyer in New York and a former Manhattan prosecutor.

In recent years, Vance had lost the support of many feminists and advocates for sexual assault victims, who have faulted his office’s handling of sex crimes, including a 2015 case against Weinstein.

Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, a Filipino Italian model, had accused the producer of groping her breasts and shoving his hand up her skirt. With the help of the police, she recorded Weinstein apologizing for touching her. Vance declined to take the case.

The prosecutor also faced harsh criticism for the way his office agreed to a no-jail plea deal for Robert A. Hadden, a prominent gynecologist who had abused his patients. Elected officials and women’s rights advocates staged protests during Weinstein’s trial, pointing to the Hadden case as an example of another failed prosecution.

“I think that people and women in particular are asking for more vigorous prosecution and that the harm of this kind of violence be taken seriously for the public safety problem that it is,” said Tali Farhadian Weinstein, the former general counsel to the Brooklyn district attorney who has announced a run for Manhattan district attorney. “People have been demanding accountability.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

11

As Europe’s economies reopen, consumers go on a spending spree

By LIZ ALDERMAN

C

lémentine Sebert buzzed through an Ikea furniture store during her lunch break, filling her cart with decorative cushions, a new nightstand, lamps and a small rug. After being cooped up for two months during France’s coronavirus quarantine, she was back to work at the firm where she is a legal counselor — and ready to spend.

“I’m not so worried about the future,” said Sebert, who returned to her office last month after France’s lockdown was lifted, and was settling into a new rental apartment.

Because of a government program to support businesses during the crisis, Sebert kept her job and most of her pay while on furlough — a big help in paying for the new purchases. “If I had been unemployed, I wouldn’t be spending as much,” she said.

Consumers in Europe are going on a shopping spree as their economies reopen, offering hope that a fragile recovery from a deep pandemic-induced recession may be taking hold.

Retail sales in the eurozone, which plunged to record lows while millions were confined, surged 17.8% in May compared with the month before, as people fanned out to buy furniture, electronics, clothing and computer equipment, Europe’s statistics agency reported this week. The biggest gains are in France and Germany, where spending has rebounded to near preconfinement levels.

The current binge has doused some worries that Europeans might feel too shaken to spend again, as happened in China, where many chose to curtail expenditures after losing their jobs or having their pay slashed.

“Consumers are driving the rebound across much of Europe more than expected,” said Holger Schmieding, chief economist of Berenberg Bank. “There is a relief that lockdowns are over.”

But whether people will keep opening their wallets remains to be seen.

Spending is still around 7% lower than

where it was before the pandemic hit.

Last week the European Commission warned that the economy would contract 8.7% in the eurozone this year, a significantly deeper recession than forecast just two months ago. The commission’s study assumed no second wave of coronavirus that shutters Europe’s economies — a possibility it described as a “major risk.”

For now, at least, patrons have not stopped flocking to socially distanced sidewalk tables at cafes and bistros in France. Dutch flower and plant suppliers are reporting record demand as shoppers crowd do-it-yourself stores around Europe to beautify their homes.

In Germany, families are heading to malls to buy new appliances after the government lowered the value-added tax to stimulate sales.

“This is a government-subsidized recovery in spending, but that is

exactly the intention,” said Bert Colijn, senior eurozone economist at ING. “If this hadn’t happened, the countereffect would be disastrous. It’s a confirmation that the policy is working as intended.”

The spending wave is already helping to tilt some sectors toward recovery. At Adecco, one of Europe’s largest temporary recruiting agencies, demand for retail and restaurant workers — many of whom lost work during lockdowns — has rebounded sharply since the middle of May. “Consumption is returning probably due to the fact that the government put a lot of money on the table,” said Christophe Catoir, Adecco’s president for France and northern Europe. As a result, he added, “hiring is coming back.”

Some of the splurge is no surprise: People couldn’t shop or dine out during confinements, and now they can.

Still, with government support

programs in place, consumer spending could return by the end of this year to nearly what it was before the lockdowns, said Schmieding, who has now revised his outlook for the recession from disastrous to merely bad. “For the second quarter, we now pencil in a plunge of 13% instead of 15.1% for the eurozone,” he said.

Those are still grim figures, and economists don’t expect a return to normal levels until health risks abate, making a full economic recovery unlikely until a vaccine for the coronavirus is found.

Mindful of the risks, consumers are remaining cautious. Despite their splurging since lockdowns have eased, consumers have also socked away savings at a record rate, causing bank deposits across the continent to jump, in case things take another turn for the worse. The European Commission expects this increase in savings, which could otherwise be stimulating a recovery, to keep rising.

And not everyone has been able to take advantage of income-supporting furlough programs. Lockdowns and business closures have hit the most vulnerable workers in Europe especially hard, according to a report this week the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Hundreds of thousands of people, especially the self-employed and those on temporary or part-time contracts, have been exposed to steep income losses. They won’t be able to join the ranks of consumers who have the disposable income to support a recovery.

Many are in countries along Europe’s southern rim where the coronavirus hit hard — especially in Spain and Italy — leading to long quarantine periods that have proved a drag on prospects for economic recovery.

“We’re seeing that there’s an ugly divide opening between countries that had a harsher lockdown and the ones that didn’t,” said Colijn of ING. “It puts the southern periphery at risk of a prolonged slump compared to their northern neighbors.”

12

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Stocks

Futures rise on upbeat JPMorgan results

U

.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday as a better-than-expected profit from JPMorgan lifted the mood in the first batch of quarterly reports from big banks bracing for a wave of coronavirus-driven loan defaults.

The largest U.S. lender rose about 2% in premarket trading as it posted a smaller-than-expected 51% drop in second-quarter profit and set aside $10.5 billion to cover potential bad loans.

“The numbers were better than what people were afraid of. They’re making money in a difficult environment and it shows what good management and a strong balance sheet can do,” said Christopher Grisanti, chief equity strategist at MAI Capital Management in Cleveland, Ohio.

Citigroup Inc rose 1.6% despite reporting a plunge in quarterly profit and setting aside billions for potential loan defaults. Wells Fargo & Co, on the other hand, fell 3% after it reported a quarterly net loss.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp which report later this week rose between 1.4% and 2.6%.

Investors are bracing for what could be the sharpest drop in quarterly earnings for S&P 500 firms since the 2008 financial crisis, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

“Expectations are so low that there’s a good chance there will be a decent set of earnings reports over the next two or three weeks,” said Grisanti.

An upbeat second-quarter report by PepsiCo Inc lifted Wall Street early on Monday, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended the session lower on new coronavirus restrictions in California and a resurgence in U.S.-China tensions.

The United States on Monday rejected China’s disputed claims to offshore resources in most of the South China Sea. The Trump administration also plans to scrap a 2013 auditing agreement that could foreshadow a broader crackdown on U.S.-listed Chinese firms.

At 7:38 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 153 points, or 0.59%. S&P 500 e-minis were up 12.75 points, or 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 40.75 points, or 0.38%.

Delta Air Lines edged lower as it warned it will be more than two years before the industry sees a sustainable recovery from the “staggering” impact of the coronavirus pandemic, with demand largely tracking the curve of infections in different places.

Investors will also keep an eye on the Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI) data for June, expected at 8:30 a.m. ET.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

13

Brexit border bureaucracy looms for truckers, pet owners and travelers

By STEPHEN CASTLE

N

o more seamless access to medical care. A spike in cellphone bills. And months of preparation if you are bringing the dog.

For Britons who have lapsed into complacency about crossing the English Channel in the four years since they voted for Brexit, the situation will soon get a lot more complicated. Up until now, the biggest problem they faced was driving on the wrong side of the road when reaching France.

With Brexit grinding into its final phase, a government publicity drive is warning that Britons will lose health care rights in European Union countries and could pay roaming fees when using cellphones there.

Perhaps as alarming for a nation of dog lovers, roaming freely will be harder for British pets. Owners must plan four months in advance to secure the paperwork to take them.

Britain formally left the European Union in January but is honoring most of the bloc’s rules until a transition period ends in December. After that Britain will be outside the bloc’s economic structures and can proceed with plans to tighten immigration controls and strike trade agreements around the globe.

But for travelers, and many businesses, the end of the transition period means more of one thing often regarded as a specialty of the European Union: bureaucracy.

“For ordinary travelers it means getting ready for paying more and for more inconvenience,” said Anand Menon, a professor of European politics and foreign affairs at King’s College London. “For business, the government is telling them to get ready for an enormous amount more paperwork.”

Talks between Britain and the European Union over a trade deal are scheduled to continue on Wednesday. Despite new optimism around them, there is no sign of an immediate breakthrough.

Even assuming Prime Minister Boris Johnson strikes an agreement with the bloc that guarantees no tariffs or quotas on trade, more controls on imports and exports are inevitable.

That is the outcome of leaving the bloc’s single market and customs union — something Johnson has promised to do — a system that allows thousands of trucks to roll off ferries between Dover and Calais each day, mostly without stopping.

According to British government estimates, the change of rules will require an additional 400 million customs declarations each year, adding a significant cost to businesses.

The government has said it will spend more than 700 million British pounds — about $880 million — on infrastructure plans and will build around a dozen facilities near ports to process imports.

If the technology works as planned, while trucks are crossing the Channel, their drivers will be instructed by text message whether they are required to stop at a special site either at a port or nearby. Others will be allowed to complete formalities at their destinations.

“We are committed to working closely with businesses and the border industry to help deliver not just a fully operational border at the end of the transition period, but also the world’s most

An overview of the port of Dover, England, on Oct. 10, 2019. For Britons who have lapsed into complacency about crossing the English Channel in the four years since they voted for Brexit, the situation will soon get a lot more complicated. effective and secure border,” said Michael Gove, a senior Cabinet member with the title of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

But he acknowledged that a new customs system will not be fully functioning until next July, so Britain will effectively wave many European trucks through ports for several months. That has provoked fears of a legal challenge under the rules of the World Trade Organization, according to a leaked internal letter from Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, with concerns that, under some circumstances, Britain could be deemed to be giving preferential treatment to EU imports by not subjecting them to the same conditions as, for example, American or Australian ones.

The customs change poses big economic risks. One business lobbying organization, the Institute of Directors, surveyed 978 members and found less than one-quarter were fully prepared. One in seven said they were distracted by the coronavirus crisis and almost one-third wanted the details of the new system to be clear before adjusting.

“With so much going on, many directors feel that preparing for Brexit proper is like trying to hit a moving target. Jumping immediately into whatever comes next would be a nightmare for many businesses,” said Jonathan Geldart, director general of the Institute of Directors.

Part of the problem is that Britain has been here before, having missed successive deadlines last year for its departure from the European Union. In 2019, some businesses prepared for a rupture only to find it unnecessary.

So this time, the government needs to ensure that companies know change is coming, even before it is clear how much the disruption can be minimized.

Travelers too need to know that the rights many have taken for granted, like working or retiring in continental Europe, are at an end. So the government campaign, with a slogan “The U.K.’s new start: let’s get going” is warning Britons, for example, that they will no longer be able to use a European pet passport system and will need different paperwork.

Johnson, who was elected with the help of many voters in northern, working-class districts, is unlikely to fret about upsetting affluent, pro-European Britons who commute with their pets to vacation homes in rural France.

On Monday the government also announced details of a new immigration system to be introduced next year, once Britain ends the free movement of European Union workers.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, said the system would “attract the best and brightest from around the world,” but many low-paid workers will be excluded, which has alarmed several types of employers that rely on them, including nursing-care institutions.

But the government hopes that such employers will have to increase wages to attract Britons to perform those jobs. That upward pressure on earnings could prove popular in economically disadvantaged parts of the country, which Johnson has promised to help by “leveling up” prosperity.

14

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Hong Kong voters defy Beijing, endorsing protest leaders in primary

Protesters clash with riot police officer at a shopping mall in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong on July 1, 2020.

By AUSTIN RAMZY, ELAINE YU and TIFFANY MAY

D

efying warnings from local officials that the Hong Kong opposition’s unofficial primary vote could be illegal under a sweeping new security law, hundreds of thousands of people chose avowedly pro-democracy candidates to run in citywide elections this year, results released Monday showed.

Early returns showed that the more than 600,000 people who had voted favored candidates who were prominent supporters of the months of demonstrations that have gripped the semiautonomous Chinese city. Their choices indicated a desire to see the goals of the protest movement pressed within the government itself but could lead to an intensifying confrontation with authorities, who could bar some from running.

“So many people came out to vote despite the threat that it may violate the national security law,” said Lester Shum, a 27-year-old activist and candidate who was among the front-runners Monday. “That means Hong Kong people have still not given up.”

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement has been hobbled by mass arrests at protests and by the new security law, which bans vaguely defined crimes of secession, subversion and terrorism and is already working to mute dissent. The one remaining avenue of resisting Beijing’s tightening grip over the city, they say, is to capture a majority in the legisla-

ture in September.

The obstacles are enormous. Hong Kong’s electoral system has long been weighted heavily in favor of the establishment that is backed by the Chinese Communist Party. ProBeijing parties are far better funded than the opposition.

Now they must contend with the new, far-reaching national security law imposed by the central Chinese government that makes speaking out against authorities possibly criminal. Opposition candidates, whose calls for democratic freedoms could be deemed as hostile to China’s ruling Communist Party, say they fear that whoever has protested the law could be disqualified from running or jailed.

Even if they did succeed in being elected, there was no guarantee that the party would let them govern.

Supporters of the democratic camp have been grappling with whether to rely on familiar, moderate politicians or to abandon them in favor of more confrontational candidates — and those disagreements have threatened to divide the vote.

The informal primary this past weekend to help determine who should run in September sought to avoid such a split. Among those in the lead were activists such as Joshua Wong, who led the large street demonstrations in 2014 for freer elections, and Ted Hui and Roy Kwong, young lawmakers who often tried to mediate between protesters and police during last year’s unrest.

“They are in favor of electing people who have a strong record in the protest movement so that they can continue the protests” within the legislative body, said Ma Ngok, an associate professor of political science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “Those who have strong recognition in the protests stand out, irrespective of their parties.”

The turnout represented more than half of the opposition’s votes in 2016 and was several times higher than the organizers had expected. Voters went to polling stations set up on sidewalks as well as in unconventional venues such as a lingerie shop and a converted double-decker bus.

Just half of the 70 seats in the legislature represent geographical districts that are directly elected by voters. The other half are so-called functional constituencies, most chosen by corporate voting and more likely to go to establishment candidates. That tilted system has historically discouraged some Hong Kong residents from participating.

But in November, after months of fierce and at times violent anti-government protests, voters turned out in large numbers for an election of Hong Kong’s district councilors, a lowlevel office that previously drew little attention.

More than 7 in 10 eligible voters cast ballots, compared to a previous high of 47% — and delivered a stunning victory for the pro-democracy camp, which swept 86% of the seats.

That victory shocked Beijing and emboldened protesters to set their eyes on the more ambitious target of elections for the Legislative Council, a far more powerful body.

Their goal has taken on extra urgency as other displays of dissent have become increasingly perilous under the new security law.

Police now regularly ban marches, citing violence and coronavirus-prevention measures, and sweep up hundreds of demonstrators in mass arrests.

“To cast your vote, you do not need to risk your life,” Benny Tai, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong and leading strategist for the opposition, said in June. “It is a form of protest that actually is risk-less, I would say.

So why not? Why not use your vote to buy a chance?”

Gwyneth Ho, a 29-year-old former journalist who emerged as a front-runner in her district Monday, has urged pro-democracy supporters to keep fighting, no matter the odds.

“We all know, we do something not because it’s effective or because it’ll succeed,” she called out to commuters streaming past her outside a busy subway station on a recent

Wednesday late last month. “It’s because we can’t give up on any front.”

If the pro-democracy candidates were able to capture a majority in the legislature, they could use their position to block the government’s agenda. Some have proposed vetoing the government’s budget, which could force the dissolution of the legislature. If a new legislature were also to block the budget, the chief executive would be forced to step down.

Erick Tsang, the constitutional affairs secretary, warned last week that the pro-democracy camp’s primary could potentially be considered subversion under the new national security law if its goal were to form a majority to block the Hong Kong government’s policies. Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s leader, repeated Tsang’s warning Monday night.

Beijing’s representative office in Hong Kong was more strident, declaring in a statement late Monday that the primary was “nakedly illegal behavior” that caused “serious damage to the fairness and justice” of the legislative elections. It singled out Tai, the opposition strategist, for criticism, accusing him of working at the behest of unnamed forces.

“The goal of the Benny Tai gang and the opposition is to seize the power of governance in Hong Kong and deliberately stage the Hong Kong version of the ‘color revolution,’ ” the office said, referring to anti-communist uprisings China says are orchestrated by the West.

“He was so openly manipulating the election.

Whose instructions did he receive? Who gave him such confidence?”

The pro-democracy camp’s electoral push also displayed rifts within the opposition movement. A few candidates who champion more aggressive tactics refused to participate in the pro-democracy camp’s primary, arguing that voters should be able to choose from the full range of candidates in September. More moderate voices have argued that voters needed to be strategic rather than ideological, and should rally behind the candidates most likely to win.

A significant threat looms over all the pro-democracy camp’s plans: disqualification.

In the last legislative election, several candidates were barred from competing over questions of whether they acknowledged Beijing’s position that Hong Kong was an “inalienable part” of China. Six who won later lost their seats because they protested against China during their oaths of office. This year, many in the opposition fear that election officials will also bar candidates who have questioned the new security law.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

15

After tight race for polish president, Andrzej Duda wins 2nd term

By MONIKA PRONCZUK and MARC SANTORA

P

continue to reshape the nation in ways that critics contend undermine open political debate and the rule of law, and put it at odds with the European Union, which has accused Poland of damaging democratic values and institutions.

Trzaskowski had cast the election as a fight for the soul of the nation. He promised to end a government that uses state media to promote its views and silence opposing voices, manipulates the courts and uses fear and division to build support.

The mayor, whose campaign rallies were as likely to feature the blue and gold of the EU flag as the red and white of Poland, said he wanted to live in a country where “an open hand wins against a clenched fist.”

Duda, however, dismissed concerns about Poland’s illiberal drift as an invention of foreign interests. He attacked Trzaskowski over his support for LGBT rights — a powerful argument in a staunchly Catholic country, particularly outside its cosmopolitan cities.

Thomas Boserup, an independent election observer from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said the voting and counting process was carried out well and all the coronavirus precautions were observed. But he said that there were threats reported against journalists and politicians.

“The polarization was illustrated by the fact that candidates did not participate in one debate, depriving the voters from comparing their views,” he said, noting that public television had failed in its duty to impartially cover

the election. “We were worried by instances of intolerant rhetoric of a homophobic, xenophobic and anti-Semitic nature, particularly among the president’s campaign and the public television.”

Duda’s campaign received a boost recently from President Donald Trump, who met with him at the White House just days before the election and all but endorsed him.

“He’s doing a terrific job,” Trump said of the incumbent. “The people of Poland think the world of him.”

An already bitter campaign turned even uglier in the final days before Sunday’s vote, with Duda, the Law and Justice party and its supporters in the right-wing media launching a barrage of attacks on Trzaskowski.

In the pro-government weekly Sieci, the Warsaw mayor was accused of supporting pedophilia. State television, which has been turned into a propaganda machine for the government, suggested that Trzaskowski would be controlled by Jewish interests in complicated questions related to restitution of property dating from World War II. Independent news outlets faced escalating attacks during the campaign, with the governing party claiming that Germany and other outside powers were trying to meddle in Poland’s affairs.

“Have you ever heard such homophobia, such anti-Semitism, such attacks on everybody who is brave enough to say ‘We have had enough’?” Trzaskowski asked supporters Friday.

“It’s now or never,” he said.

resident Andrzej Duda of Poland was narrowly elected to a second term after the votes were counted Monday following the country’s closest presidential election since the end of communist rule in 1989, clearing a potential obstacle for the conservative nationalist government.

Duda and the governing party have fought to control the courts and media, while stoking fear of gay people, the European Union and foreigners. For many in the opposition, the race was not only a contest between competing visions for Poland, but a last chance to save institutions that form the bedrock of a healthy democracy.

While the tight vote underscored the extent to which the deep divisions in Poland have only intensified after five years governed by the Law and Justice party, there was no suggestion the government would now change course.

Duda’s promise to protect “traditional families” resonated with older voters and churchgoers, especially in the eastern half of the country, helping him fend off a fierce challenge from Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw.

The opposition was fueled by support from young people around the country, securing a majority of votes from people under 50, and turnout was among the highest since the country turned away from communism.

Poland’s major cities, from Gdansk in the north to Krakow in the south, were bastions of resistance, but the governing party rallied its faithful in rural communities, many left behind in the rapid transition from communism to capitalism.

Trzaskowski conceded defeat Monday afternoon after the country’s electoral commission said that with 100% of the actual vote counted, Duda had secured 51.03% of the vote. Trzaskowski won 48.97%. The turnout was 68.18%.

While Duda struck a conciliatory tone in remarks to supporters Sunday, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said Monday that Duda would continue to advance the government’s agenda, which he described as “pro-family policies,” a focus on social issues and “a more just redistribution” of wealth.

“Most important,” he said, “is to complete the judiciary reform and other state bodies, so everything is more professional, faster.”

Writing on Twitter, Trzaskowski thanked the roughly 10 million people who voted for him, but conceded the contest. It was a bitter defeat for opponents of the government.

The Warsaw mayor was not even a candidate when the election was postponed in May because of the coronavirus, but he mounted a serious challenge against an incumbent president who had the backing of state television and important church leaders.

With the next parliamentary elections not scheduled until 2023, Duda’s reelection ensured that the governing party, which also controls the parliament, will be able to Voting in Poland’s presidential election runoff on Sunday in Warsaw.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Suriname elects a new president, ending Bouterse’s long rule

By ANATOLY KURMANEV and HARMEN BOERBOOM

S

uriname elected a new president Monday, ending the long rule of Desi Bouterse, who dominated the small South American nation’s politics since its independence through intimidation and charisma.

The president, Chan Santokhi, a 61-year-old former police chief and leader of the opposition, was elected to the office by Suriname’s Congress following a landslide opposition victory in the May general elections.

In handing Santokhi a victory, the Surinamese punished Bouterse, a former military dictator turned populist champion, for a disastrous economic crisis and the

widespread corruption in his government.

Santokhi takes charge of a deeply divided nation teetering on the verge of bankruptcy and struggling to contain the coronavirus, which has infected 741 people and killed 18.

“We’re on the brink of a financial abyss,” Santokhi said in Congress on Monday, as he promised to unite Suriname’s ethnically diverse citizens. “This crisis has surpassed every worst-case scenario we had expected.”

Suriname’s longer-term prospects appear brighter, as the country is expected to begin exploiting major new offshore oil discoveries by 2026.

The new government will have to rebuild Suri-

Chan Santokhi and his wife, Melissa Seenacherry. The former police chief was elected president by Suriname’s Congress following a landslide opposition victory in May.

name’s damaged relations with the Netherlands, Suriname’s former colonial ruler and major trade partner, whose judges had convicted Bouterse of drug trafficking in absentia in 1999.

In the past 10 years in office, Bouterse had shifted Suriname’s foreign alliances away from the Netherlands and toward China and nearby Venezuela, whose redistributive economic policies and anti-imperialist rhetoric he copied at home.

Bouterse leaves power as he appeals another criminal conviction, this time at home, for his role in the murder of 15 prominent political opponents following a 1980 military coup. Even as he loses his presidential immunity, it is unclear that he will serve the 20-year sentence the court handed down.

As police chief, Santokhi had investigated Bouterse for his role in the violence connected to the coup, a deeply traumatizing event for Suriname’s older generation known as the “December Murders.”

Some in Suriname, however, fear that trying to enforce the homicide sentence could provoke riots from Bouterse’s well-organized supporters and make the small nation ungovernable. After four decades of running the country in different guises, Bouterse retains strong connections in the Suriname’s military, commands a large personal fortune and enjoys the adoration of a loyal base.

But in a sign of conciliation, Bouterse, an elected lawmaker, made a rare appearance in Congress on Monday, where he congratulated the new government.

“Out of experience, I can tell you it won’t be an easy job,” Bouterse said.

In an attempt to maintain his support ahead of elections, Bouterse raided the reserves of private banks and imposed restrictions on foreign exchange rates earlier this year. The moves proved popular with his core supporters but provoked an unprecedented backlash from the private sector and devastated an already damaged economy.

Economic mismanagement proved to be Bouterse’s undoing. The Surinamese abandoned his ruling party in droves, voting many of his chief allies out of power.

Bouterse’s top economic policymaker, Amzad Abdoel, received 117 votes out of more than 70,000 cast in his congressional district.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

17

America drank away its children’s future

By PAUL KRUGMAN

A

brief history of the past four months in America: Experts: Don’t rush to reopen, this isn’t over.

Donald Trump: LIBERATE! COVID-19: Wheee!

Trump officials: Here’s our opposition research on Anthony Fauci.

And we are now faced with an agonizing choice: Do we reopen schools, creating risks of a further viral explosion, or do we keep children home, with severe negative effects on their learning?

None of this had to happen. Other countries stuck with their lockdowns long enough to reduce infections to rates much lower than those prevailing here; COVID-19 death rates per capita in the European Union are only a 10th those in the United States — and falling — while ours are rising fast. As a result, they are in a position to reopen schools fairly safely.

And the experience of the Northeast, the first major epicenter of the U.S. pandemic, shows that we could have achieved something similar here. Death rates are way down, although still higher than in Europe; on Saturday, for the first time since March, New York City reported zero COVID-19 deaths.

Would a longer lockdown have been economically sustainable? Yes. It is true that strong social distancing requirements led to high unemployment and hurt many businesses. But even America, with its ramshackle social safety net, was able to provide enough disaster relief — don’t call it stimulus! — to protect most of its citizens from severe hardship.

Thanks largely to expanded unemployment benefits, poverty did not soar during the lockdown. By some measures it may even have gone down.

True, there were holes in that safety net, and many people did suffer. But we could have patched those holes.

Yes, emergency relief costs a lot of money, but we can afford it: The federal government has been borrowing huge sums, but interest rates have remained near historical lows.

Put it this way: At its most severe, the lockdown seems to have reduced GDP by a little over 10%. During World War II, America spent more than 30% of GDP on defense, for more than three years. Why couldn’t we absorb a much smaller cost for a few months?

So doing what was necessary to bring the coronavirus under control would have been annoying, but entirely feasible.

But that was the road not taken. Instead, many states

not only rushed to reopen, they reopened stupidly. Instead of being treated as a cheap, effective way to fight contagion, face masks became a front in the culture war. Activities that posed an obvious risk of feeding the pandemic went unchecked: Large gatherings were permitted, bars reopened.

And the cost of those parties and open bars extends beyond the thousands of Americans who will be killed or suffer permanent health damage as a result of COVID-19’s resurgence. The botched reopening has also endangered something that, unlike drinking in groups, can’t be suspended without doing long-run damage: in-person education.

Some activities hold up fairly well when moved online.

I suspect that there will be a lot fewer people flying crosscountry to stare at PowerPoints than there were pre-COVID, even once we finally beat this virus.

Education isn’t one of those activities. We now have overwhelming confirmation of something we already suspected: For many, perhaps most students there is no substitute for actually being in a classroom.

But rooms full of students are potential petri dishes, even if the young are less likely to die from COVID-19 than the old. Other countries have managed to reopen schools relatively safely — but they did so with much lower infection rates than currently prevail in America, and with adequate testing, which we still don’t have in many hot spots.

So we are now facing a terrible, unnecessary dilemma.

If we reopen in-person education, we risk feeding an out-ofcontrol pandemic. If we don’t, we impair the development of millions of American students, inflicting long-term damage on their lives and careers.

And the reason we are in this position is that states, cheered on by the Trump administration, rushed to allow large

parties and reopen bars. In a real sense America drank away its children’s future.

Now what? At this point there are probably as many infected Americans as there were in March. So what we should be doing is admitting that we blew it, and doing a severe lockdown all over again — and this time listening to the experts before reopening. Unfortunately, it is now too late to avoid disrupting education, but the sooner we deal with this the sooner we can get our society back on track.

But we don’t have the kind of leaders we need. Instead, we have the likes of Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, politicians who refuse to listen to experts and never admit having been wrong.

So while there have been a few grudging policy adjustments, the main response we are seeing to colossal policy failure is a hysterical attempt to shift the blame. Some officials are trying to blacken Fauci’s reputation; others are diving into unhinged conspiracy theories.

As a result, the outlook is grim. This pandemic is going to get worse before it gets better, and the nation will suffer permanent damage.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

In some countries, normal life is back. Not in the U.S.

By MICHELLE GOLDBERG

I

f you’re lucky enough to live in New Zealand, the coronavirus nightmare has been mostly over since June. After more than two weeks with no new cases, the government lifted almost all restrictions that month. The borders are still shut, but inside the country, normal life returned.

It’s coming back elsewhere too. Taiwan, where most days this month no new cases have been reported, just held the Taipei Film Festival, and a recent baseball game drew 10,000 spectators. Italy was once the epicenter of Europe’s outbreak and remains in a state of emergency, but with just a few hundred new cases a day in the whole country, bars are open and tourists have started returning, though of course Americans remain banned. According to The New York Times’ figures, there were 321 new cases in all of Canada last Friday.

And America? We had 68,241. As of last week, the worst per capita outbreak on the planet was in Arizona, followed by Florida. The world is closed to us; American passports were once coveted, but now only a few dozen nations will let us in. Lawrence O. Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown, told me he doesn’t expect

American life to feel truly normal before summer 2022. Two years of our lives, stolen by Donald Trump.

As our country plunges into a black hole of unchecked illness, death and pariahdom, the administration is waging a PR war on its own top disease expert, Anthony Fauci, trying to convince news outlets that he can’t be trusted. “The move to treat Dr. Fauci as if he were a warring political rival comes as he has grown increasingly vocal in his concerns about the national surge in coronavirus cases,” reported The Times.

Trump has also undercut the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, retweeting the conspiratorial ramblings of former game show host Chuck Woolery: “The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying.

The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust.” There are now so many stories of Trump fans dying after blithely exposing themselves to the virus that they’ve become a macabre cliché.

Gostin was part of the international panel that put together the Global Health Security Index, a report, released last year, that evaluated the pandemic readiness of every nation on Earth. No country, they found, was as prepared as the United States. But the coronavirus, he said, has shown us that “health system capacity alone is almost useless un-

Baseball fans enjoying a game in Taoyuan, Taiwan, on Sunday.

less you have a government that can unleash that capacity promptly and consistently.”

America has long fancied itself a swaggering colossus. It will likely emerge from this calamity humbled and decrepit.

Not all experts are as pessimistic as Gostin. Andy Slavitt, a senior health official in the Obama administration, has argued that with better tests, therapies and an eventual vaccine, life could broadly improve as soon as next year.

Others caution against making predictions. “We want to be able to give some assurance of, ‘Life will not always be this way, and it will be over soon,’ but we don’t know when that will be,” said Nicolette Louissaint, president of Healthcare Ready, an organization established after Hurricane Katrina to strengthen the health care supply chain for disasters.

But we know that the CDC forecasts total deaths from COVID-19 to rise to as many as 160,000 just by the end of the month. Many times that number will have long-term medical complications, and a record 5.4 million people lost their health insurance between February and May. A generation of American kids will have their educations derailed, and many parents who don’t lose their jobs due to the economic crisis will see their careers ruined by the demands of child care.

The country’s international humiliation is total; historians may argue about when the American century began, but I doubt they’ll disagree about when it ended.

The psychological fallout alone will be incalculable.

Even before the coronavirus, researchers spoke of loneliness as its own epidemic in America. A March article in the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry attributed 162,000 deaths a year to the fallout of social isolation. Now people are being told that they can socialize only under the most stringent conditions. Much of what makes life sweet is lost to us, not for days or weeks, but months or years.

“We’re going to stagger out of it; we’re not going to snap back,” Gostin said of the pandemic. He added, “It’s going to take several years for us to be able to come out of all of the trauma that we’ve had.”

Yet somehow there’s no drumbeat of calls for the president’s resignation. People seem to feel too helpless.

Protesters can make demands of governors and mayors, especially Democratic ones, because at the local level small-d democratic accountability still exists. Nationally such responsiveness is gone; no one expects the president to do his job, or to be held to account when he doesn’t. That’s how you know the country was broken before coronavirus ever arrived.

This suffering, your suffering, wasn’t inevitable. The coronavirus is a natural disaster. The Republican Party’s death-cult fealty to Trump is wholly man-made.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

19

Jenniffer González anuncia aprobación federal de producción de cáñamo Por THE STAR comisionada residente, Jenniffer LqueaGonzález Colón, anunció el martes, el Departamento de Agricultura de

los Estados Unidos (USDA, por sus siglas en inglés) aprobó el plan de Puerto Rico para la producción del cáñamo o hemp bajo el Programa de Producción de Cáñamo Doméstico de los Estados Unidos. “Esta aprobación se da luego de que el Congreso aprobará la Ley de Mejoramiento de la Agricultura de 2018, en donde se ordenó al USDA que desarrollara un programa de supervisión reglamentaria para el cáñamo e incluye disposiciones para que el USDA apruebe los planes de producción de cáñamo presentados por los estados y tribus nativas”, dijo González Colón en comunicación escrita.

El 31 de octubre de 2019, USDA emitió una regla final interina que establece el Programa de Producción de Cáñamo Doméstico de Estados Unidos y las disposiciones para que el USDA apruebe los planes presentados. Los planes estatales proporcionan detalles sobre prácticas y procedimientos que permiten a los productores de cáñamo

en sus jurisdicciones operar de acuerdo con sus planes individuales y de conformidad con las leyes federales.

El plan de Puerto Rico aprobado por USDA, se publicará más adelante, junto a otros planes autorizados en la siguiente página: https://www.ams. usda.gov/rules-regulations/hemp/stateand-tribal-plan-review Cuando se aprobó en el Congreso la Ley de Mejoramiento de la Agricultura de 2018, González Colón explicó uno de los programas incluidos en la ley expandiría a Puerto Rico la autorización del cultivo del Cannabis (Cáñamo) industrial en universidades y Departamentos de Agricultura estatales.

En aquella ocasión explicó que el cultivo tendría que ser por motivos de investigación o como parte de un programa piloto de agricultura. El Cannabis industrial es reconocido por su viabilidad económica. Tiene varios usos que incluyen proveer material para ropa, zapatos, productos de uso higiénico, como jabón y cremas, entre otros. Sin embargo, hasta ahora, este beneficio está disponible para los estados, excluyendo Puerto Rico. Este cambio permitirá que instituciones de

educación avanzada en la isla participen e investiguen la viabilidad y usos del Cannabis industrial en la isla.

La comisionada también ha radicado legislación para evitar el discrimen a trabajadores del cannabis junto junto a los senadores Elizabeth Warren (DMass.) y Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), y la vicepresidenta del Caucus Demócrata Katherine Clark (D-Mass.).

En la versión de la Cámara, el HR 5477 prohibiría al Departamento de Asuntos de Veteranos (VA) de los Estados Unidos denegar a los veteranos préstamos de vivienda respaldados por VA basados en su empleo en la industria legal del cannabis de su estado.

Actualmente, el cannabis se considera ilegal según la ley federal, aunque 48 estados, incluyendo Massachusetts, tienen leyes que permiten o despenalizan la marihuana o los productos a base de marihuana. Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam y otros territorios tienen leyes similares. Se ha encontrado veteranos trabajando en la industria legal del cannabis en todos los estados.

Los veteranos elegibles pueden recibir un préstamo hipotecario parcialmente garantizado por el VA. Sin

embargo, como resultado de la ley federal, el VA puede denegar préstamos de vivienda a veteranos cuyos ingresos verificados se obtienen trabajando en la industria legal del cannabis de su estado. Esta legislación busca corregir esto.

Otras ayudas de USDA La comisionada también anunció que USDA tiene disponible 4.8 millones de dólares para el año fiscal 2020 del Programa de Micro-Subvenciones para la Seguridad Alimentaria (MGFSP, por sus siglas en inglés).

Este nuevo programa ayudará a las agencias o departamentos agrícolas en los estados y territorios elegibles, incluyendo Puerto Rico, a aumentar la cantidad y calidad de los alimentos cultivados localmente a través de operaciones de jardinería, pastoreo y ganadería a pequeña escala. MGFSP está autorizado por la Ley de Mejoramiento de la Agricultura de 2018 y el período de concesión para los acuerdos entre los solicitantes elegibles y AMS es de cuatro años.

Las solicitudes deben enviarse electrónicamente a través de www.grants. gov antes del 17 de agosto de 2020.

DTOP informa extensión de amnistía para pago de multas hasta el 14 de septiembre Por THE STAR l secretario de Transportación y Obras Públicas, Emiércoles, Carlos Contreras Aponte, anunció que, a partir del 15 de julio, estará en vigor otra extensión

de la Ley de Pago Acelerado de Multas de Tránsito, identificada por la ciudadanía en general como amnistía.

El beneficio estará disponible por 60 días y culminará el 14 de septiembre.

Esta es la segunda extensión de la amnistía original de 90 días que venció el 17 de marzo, y luego se extendió hasta el 19 de junio.

Según explicó el secretario de DTOP, “esta medianoche se reactivarán los sistemas para que los ciudadanos puedan hacer los pagos de sus multas acogiéndose a la amnistía, a partir de mañana. Esta segunda extensión tendrá una duración de 60 días, culminando el 14) de septiembre y, al igual que en las primeras dos fases, los ciudadanos podrán acogerse al beneficio del 15 por ciento de descuento de sus multas y hasta un 100 por ciento de descuento de las penalidades y recargos aplicables”.

“Nuevamente, nos complace que tanto el representante, José “Memo” González, como la gobernadora, Wanda Vázquez Garced, hayan legislado y convertido en ley esta medida, respectivamente, porque se trata de una iniciativa de justicia social que

hoy, particularmente, con los retos que enfrentamos todos en Puerto Rico durante la lucha contra el COVID-19, cobra mayor relevancia”, sostuvo.

Contreras Aponte informó que los pagos de multas al acogerse a la amnistía se pueden realizar en las colecturías del Departamento de Hacienda y por la aplicación CESCO Digital, disponible de forma gratuita para teléfonos móviles con sistemas operativos de Apple (iOS) y Google (Android).

“Mi exhortación a la ciudadanía es que aprovechen esta plataforma para realizar sus pagos desde la comodidad de su teléfono móvil, sin necesidad de salir de su hogar y evitándose cualquier fila presencial. Cabe destacar que los pagos a través de CESCO Digital se reflejan al momento, evitando tener que pasar físicamente por Hacienda o los CESCO para buscar certificaciones y procurar que sus multas pagadas sean borradas del sistema. De hecho, puede bajar la certificación de pago y eliminación de las multas desde la propia aplicación,” añadió.

Ciudadanos con licencias vencidas en abril y mayo podrán sacar sus citas para renovar, a partir del miércoles.

Por otra parte, Contreras Aponte recordó que “a partir de mañana, 15 de julio, los ciudadanos cuyas licencias o tarjetas de identificación vencieron en los meses de abril y mayo, podrán acceder a la página cesco.turnospr.com y sacar su cita para hacer

la renovación en un CESCO 2.0, con un sistema más rápido, un ambiente más seguro y sin hacer filas. Las citas para estos ciudadanos se le programarán para que puedan hacer su renovación en el mes de agosto y, en la propia página de cesco.turnospr.com podrán ver cuáles son los documentos necesarios para la transacción del día de su cita, imprimirlos, y hasta acceder directamente al portal de Colecturía Digital para comprar los sellos requeridos. Todo, nuevamente, desde la comodidad de su computadora, tableta o teléfono inteligente”.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

David Lee Roth is letting his art (mostly) do the talking

By RICHARD BIENSTOCK

T

ypically, David Lee Roth spends his days, or at least his nights, “in tactical spandex, moving at 134 beats per minute,” he said. But now Roth, the 65-year-old Van Halen singer, is just like the rest of us: stuck at home and obsessing about pandemics.

However, the past few months in quarantine have led Roth to an old pursuit, with new focus. Since April, he has filled his days creating COVID-themed drawings — he calls them comics — and then sharing the finished works, one each week, on his social media channels. The art, like Roth’s music and disposition, is vibrant, whimsical and somewhat unconventional. In moments, it is confrontational. Several drawings feature his own face.

Many are filled with images of frogs.

What sparked this surge of artistic expression?

“Well, I lost my job!” Roth cracked over the phone from his home in Los Angeles on an afternoon in late June. As recently as March, Roth was on tour as a solo act, supporting Kiss in arenas across the United States. Earlier in that run, Roth, who has also worked as an EMT in New York, had battled an unspecified illness. “I’m not so unconvinced I didn’t have the corona,” he said.

“Man, they gave me enough prednisone to put boots on the moon! We left a trail of groupies, rubble and incandescent reviews.

But I don’t want to go back through it.”

Even by rock frontman standards, Roth’s ability to command full attention from his audience is renowned, whether he’s launching himself off drum risers for midair splits or schooling fans on how Van Halen is “the rock ’n’ roll band who sold Ricky Ricardo rumba to the heavy metal nation.” But now his art is doing the talking. “Social commentary is what I do,” he said. “It’s what I’ve always done.”

In his recent artwork, that social commentary has elicited a strong response. In one piece, he declares a name change. “Diamond Dave following Lady Antebellum’s (now Lady A) example, will be dropping the ‘Lee,’” he wrote below a drawing of, naturally, a frog. “From now on he wants us all to call him ‘David L. Roth’ or simply ‘El Roth.’”

To many, it diminished the steps white artists

David Lee Roth at his home studio in Pasadena, Calif. are taking to correct racism.

“Humor — not jokes — humor, the best stuff, isn’t funny at all,” Roth said, defending his work. “My version is the truth dipped in sugar. And maybe it’s a little sugar and spice.

But the good stuff compels discussions.”

Art, he continued, “has been a constant in my life. My hand has always been in wardrobe, background sets, stage sets, album covers, video direction. This is part of it.

And there’s craft involved, so there’s a little bit more heft to some of the statements.”

Roth laughed. “This is the adult ta-

ble; as a fellow artist, I sense you understand that.”

Another laugh. “Next question!”

These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Q: Why frogs?

A: I saw a story about Mark Twain — it was not his biography, it was a fictional piece with actors. And at the end of it ol’ Sam passes on, but he doesn’t go to heaven. He’s in the backyard where he grew up in Hannibal, Missouri. And a little girl walks up and he goes, “Who are you?” She says, “I’m Becky

Thatcher, and I’ve got some friends who are waiting to meet you.” And all the characters that he created come on up to greet him. So, I started my guest list. And probably the only one of that retinue that I could even spell, much less draw, was the frog from Calaveras County [from the short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”].

Q: Many of your drawings include a reference to the “Soggy Bottom.” I took this, at least in this context, to be a play on the phrase “draining the swamp.”

A: If I explain it, it’s a bumper sticker.

If I let you explain it, it’s art. But you’re very close to exactly accurate.

Q: Can you describe your artistic process?

A: My approach is the best of both worlds: vintage and hyperatomic digital. Sort of like watching “Dragnet” on your iPad. You know, I moved to Japan for two-plus years to study Sumi-e and calligraphy, and four nights a week I trained and then I did homework.

Jesus, I’ve spent thousands of hours learning to operate a horsehair brush with a block of ink that I grind myself. Hasn’t changed its recipe in 700 years.

So everything in the comics is handdrawn — all the typeface, all the colors, the line work, the lighting. And once I’m done, I work with Colin Smith, the Led Zeppelin of Adobe Photoshop. Together we scan everything, and then I’m able to move into areas that otherwise weren’t graphically available without decades of effort.

Q: How does using digital manipulation transform the original work?

A: Many of these colors can’t be found outside the cyberverse. It’s a world unto itself. Serves a well purpose, because almost all of our fine arts and graphic consumption these days is interactive with a screen, whether it’s on your PC or your wristwatch.

We’re actually back to Maxwell Smart and his shoe phone. “Somebody is on my Nike!”

Q: What appeals to you about using brush and ink as a means of artistic expression?

A: Hold on. This isn’t expressing myself. This is performance therapy. I’m venting.

I’m angry. And I am not asking for forgiveness. And this is how I do it.

Q: People don’t usually think of David Lee Roth as angry.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

21

from somebody else. I’m actually taller now.

Do I seem taller? I mean, over the phone?

Q: You last toured with Van Halen in 2015. Do you think it’ll ever happen again?

A: I don’t know that Eddie [Van Halen] is ever really going to rally for the rigors of the road again. [The guitarist first announced he had cancer in 2001, and it has recurred since.] I don’t even want to say I’ve waited — I’ve supported for five years. Because what I do is physical as well as musical and spiritual — you can’t take five years off from the ring. But I did. And I do not regret a second of it. He’s a bandmate. We had a colleague down. And he’s down now for enough time that I don’t know that he’s going to be coming back out on the road. You want to hear the classics? You’re talking to him.

Q: For how long will we continue to

see new artwork from David Lee Roth?

A: Like the tattoo artist said, ’til I don’t have any friends left! Until my Instagram’s empty! I can do this endlessly. I hadn’t considered this as something other than after dinner at the campfire. But lo and behold, people have taken a real fascination.

Q: Given that fascination, will these drawings eventually be offered for sale?

A: In terms of what I really do for a living, as soon as the B-list — that’s Beyoncé, Bono and Bruce [Springsteen] — say it’s OK, I’ll be back singing and dancing and selling you T-shirts. But in the interim, I am drawing and painting every night. And the fact that there’s an audience for it is quite a tickle. So of course I’ll make it available. You bet. I just didn’t see it coming. [Laughs.] But like my sister says, I seem to miss the big stuff.

David Lee Roth with some of his paintings at his home in Pasadena, Calif., July 6, 2020.

A: That’s because I have transcended it.

It is that secret magic when you take something that is essentially sad and find humor, eloquence and sometimes illumination in it.

Q: What is your view of this country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

A: I sure wish our country had taken a Marine Corps approach to COVID. Instead of [creating] a divide, good or bad, right or reasonable, wrong or otherwise.

Q: One of your pieces features the phrase “No politics during happy hour,” which feels to me like it could be an encapsulation of the Van Halen ethos.

A:Well, visually and graphically, the frogs underneath that caption are fighting — identical to what happened in my brief and colorful tenure with the Van Halens.

[Laughs.] But when you see Technicolor frogs doing it, it’s a bit more digestible. But what I’m reflecting on in that comic is the unstated. That which we don’t talk about. What does happen when we drink at happy hour and talk politics? What does it mean when we say, “Alcohol sales skyrocket again”? It’s all a bit of a diversion.

Q: Can you say more about the piece that seems to be a response to Lady Antebellum’s name change?

A: It had connotations of personal politic. I sought to have a little fun at the expense of others, whose vision I will respect. And in lieu of the inevitable false-footed copycats I pretended to be one. But the supposed name change really drew some ire in terms of some folks posting from an arch right-wing stance: “Another left-winger takes a fall.” Hey, I’m a combat hippie — peace, love and enough

guys and gears to defend the [expletive] out of it. You need one to support the other.

Q: Would it be correct to identify David Lee Roth as left-leaning?

A: I love civil rights. Equal rights.

Women’s rights. Kids’ rights. The rights of the rights. OK? The entire list. But conversely, I’m prepared to shave my head, join the Marines and go defend those rights. That in itself isn’t really a left-wing statement. Or it didn’t used to be when I was growing up. But I grew up in a really great time and a really great space during integrational busing in the ’60s.

I went to schools that were 90% Black and Spanish, and I was in the color guard with a crew cut. Every morning at 7 we’d march to put up the flag. And then at night we’d go to Kenny Brower’s brother’s house, smoke pot and listen to that new Doors record. Combat hippie!

Q: You were on tour when the lockdown began. As a lifelong performer, was it difficult being forced to leave the road so hastily?

A: Every jiujitsu magazine has a 28-year-old who’s going to tell you about the two years that got taken away by his elbow.

Every kickboxing magazine has a 32-yearold instructor who goes, “Well, I lost those three years to my left knee.” So I’ve just been isolating away. Because I myself am high risk.

Q: Why do you consider yourself high risk?

A: The road will deteriorate you from the beginning or it will keep you alive forever. When we go out, we wear ourselves to a nubbin. I just had a lower back surgery. It was a spinal fusion where they take a chip

The past few months in quarantine have led the Van Halen singer to an old pursuit with new focus: since April, he has filled his days creating COVID-themed drawings — he calls them comics — and then sharing the finished works, one each week, on his social media channels.

FASHION The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, March July 4, 2020 Wednesday, 15, 2020 20 22

The The San San Juan Juan Daily Daily Star Star

Say ‘yes’ to the dress without leaving your house

By ALIX STRAUSS

A

s couples move forward with their wedding plans, many bridal boutiques, retailers and designers are creating virtual shopping experiences that allow brides, grooms and their attendants to select and buy wedding attire from the comfort of their homes. Some bridal salons now offer free remote consultations, prepaid shipping labels for trying on and returning gowns and sample dresses.

There is also personalized help available from stylists who can pull a selection of gowns based on your style preference and assist you in taking measurements. Here are a few shopping options to help you find your wedding day look online.

The Designer Kelly Faetanini, the founder and designer of an independent bridal brand based in New York who started selling her wedding dresses exclusively to retailers in 2012, began a virtual shopping program for brides at the end of April.

“We’d never sold directly to the consumer, instead we sold to 55 stores, globally,” she said. “But we had to do something because stores were closed and the emails from brides who were desperately looking for gowns was huge.”

Faetanini’s “Try At Home” program allows brides to shop for the first time directly on the brand’s website. After filling out a questionnaire, brides schedule a 30-minute Zoom consultation with an in-house salesperson.

During the appointment, the stylist makes dress recommendations and selects gowns that fits the bride’s style and desired silhouette. Brides can choose between two to five sample dresses, which are then shipped to their home. In the box with the dresses is a handwritten note, a faux bouquet, veils, clips and measuring tape. A second appointment is made once the box arrives, where the stylist is available to answer questions while you try on dresses.

Faetanini suggests that brides treat this experience as they would going into a bridal salon. “Try the dresses on in full makeup and hair, so you can really see how it’s going to look on you,” she said.

“We also suggest inviting your mother or anyone you want to join the second appointment so it feels like an event.”

Sample dresses are $50 each, and are sent back to Kelly Faetanini within 48 hours of receipt. If a dress is ordered, any previous fee a bride incurred is deducted from the total price of the gown. Once a dress has been ordered, it takes about six to 10 weeks to arrive. Dresses retail from $2,300 to $5,000.

The Store BHLDN, a national bridal brand based in Phila-

delphia with 21 stores throughout the United States, started its virtual styling program at the end of April.

Like most programs, customers go to the site, click on the virtual appointment link, select an appointment date and fill out a questionnaire.

“You can also choose to share your Pinterest board and Instagram with us,” said Maddie Bender, the brand styling manager who created the program.

“You’ll receive an email confirmation with a Zoom link. We do 45 minutes for bridal, and an hour for bridesmaids.” Bender encourages the bride to invite guests to replicate the in-store experience.

Bridal boutiques across the country are offering virtual shopping experiences where brides, grooms and wedding parties can try on and purchase their wedding attire online.

Another bonus: “During the appointment, we offer a digital portfolio of real brides who have worn a specific dress in the past so you can see how that garment looks on someone who has your skin tone or body type,” said Bender, who added that 75% of brides who have opted for this experience have purchased dresses. “That’s very high for the retail industry. Within our first month almost 1,000 appointments were booked.” Dresses typically range from $200 to $2,500.

The Tuxedo Friar Tux, a full-service retailer for renting or purchasing tuxedos and other suiting options, offers head-to-toe virtual consultations. When their 31 stand-alone stores, located in Nevada and California, temporarily closed in March, the brand was

forced to think resourcefully.

“We didn’t want to turn our backs on our customers, so we started our virtual program within 24 hours of lockdown,” said Eric Acuna, the vice president for sales. “We booked our first appointment within the hour. More than 200 couples have purchased either a suit or tux.”

After couples answer a few questions about what they’re looking for, an appointment is made with a salesperson. “We do our in-store virtual experiences on the Google Duo app because it shows the garments in a high definition, it’s like they’re seeing them in our store,” Acuna said. He added that four to six store mannequins will be fully dressed when your hour appointment starts. “From the information you’ve already given us, we’ve curated full outfits — suits, ties, shirts and shoes,” he said. “It’s very personalized, intimate and private.”

Before pulling the trigger, don’t be afraid to ask for complimentary swatches, which Friar Tux is happy to send you. Rentals are returned within 48 hours after the event and range from $90 to $200; purchasing costs $150 to $700.

The Wedding Party Dressing your wedding party is just as important, and perhaps just as stressful. Gilded Social, an independent retailer in Columbus, Ohio, that focuses on everyone but the bride, created Gilded Boxes, which includes sample dresses, dress clips, a tape measure, fabric swatches and an ordering process guide.

“We created an experience that mimics what you do in person as much as possible,” said Tanya R. Hartman, the owner and chief executive of Gilded Social. “Ordinarily the bride comes in to make her selections, then her bridesmaids follow, often as a group, to try them on.”

The program, which started April 1, offers brides a 60- to 90-minute Zoom or FaceTime meeting with Brit Kniceley, the director of sales. She walks shoppers through some of the more than 1,200 options, and pulls specific suggestions, as she gets an understating of what they’re looking for in terms of color, style, designers and price point. You can also preselect dresses from the website before the meeting.

After narrowing down your choices, up to 10 sample dresses are sent directly to you. Samples start at $30 for two and go up to $60 for 10. A second virtual meeting happens with Kniceley when the box arrives.

Once decisions are made and measurements have been taken, the sample dresses are sent back.

All ordering is done online. Three to four months later final dresses arrive. Dresses range from $150 to $800.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

23

The case for smarter Coronavirus testing

The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota has compiled a document on “smart testing to help ensure that the right test is given to the right person at the right time, with test results provided in a timely manner to allow for actions that minimize illness, deaths, and transmission.”

By JANE E. BRODY

A

s COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc in communities around the country, many people are seeking tests for evidence either of the virus itself or antibodies to it, an indicator of past infection.

Whatever the result, experts say, test-seekers face challenges. Those fearing a current infection may have been exposed too long ago to still have active virus — or too recently to have enough virus lurking in their noses, throats or saliva to show up on a test. Even four days after close contact with a person who is shedding the novel coronavirus, 40% of tests that come back negative will most likely be false.

Thus, even if a test for COVID-19 is negative, anyone knowingly exposed to the virus is advised to self-isolate for 14 days. And those who develop symptoms consistent with COVID-19 should isolate throughout the entire illness and three more days after they recover.

Late in June, there were long lines for testing, noted Dr. Howard Bauchner, editor of JAMA. He said that if people had been well and not knowingly exposed to the virus there was no reason for them to be tested. Overuse of testing clogs up the testing lines, he said, and could make

it more difficult for people truly infected to get a test that would help protect others (unless, of course, the test is part of contact tracing or a community-mandated pool to spot a potential outbreak).

In an interview with Bauchner, Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that people were sometimes disappointed when the test was negative. However, she added, if you develop symptoms, you should stay home to avoid infecting others and let people you were with during the previous three or four days know they are at risk.

Many other test-seekers hope that they have already had COVID-19 and now have antibodies circulating in their blood that could protect them until an effective vaccine is available. Alas, antibody tests are much less reliable than tests for the virus itself. This is especially the case among people whose illness was relatively mild and failed to stimulate a readily detectable immune response.

Or they may have produced antibodies early on that are no longer detectable.

A further caveat: The FBI warned last month that scammers were advertising fraudulent antibody tests, and urged those seeking a test to consult the Food and Drug Administration’s website for an approved list of tests and

testing companies.

In an interview, Michael T. Osterholm, professor of public health at the University of Minnesota and an expert on infectious disease, described the current testing scene as “the wild, Wild West.”

A big unknown about COVID antibodies is the level one needs — or even what kind of antibodies are needed at a given moment — to prevent illness. It is also unknown how long immunity might last. Based on an online report in the journal Nature, Dr. F. Perry Wilson of Yale School of Medicine pointed out that “about 20% to 30% of people” who recovered from COVID-19 did not have antibody levels significantly greater than those who never were infected.

The two main types of antibodies relevant to COVID-19 are immunoglobulin M, which the body generates during an active infection but that gradually dissipate, and immunoglobulin G, which are long-term antibodies. But Wilson emphasized, “The mere presence of antibodies does not mean that those antibodies are protective.”

Of the majority of people who do make antibodies, are they so-called neutralizing antibodies that can stop the virus from multiplying? In a laboratory study of plasma from 111 recovered COVID-19 patients treated at Rockefeller University Hospital in New York, 33% had too few neutralizing antibodies to prevent a reinfection. “The results here were not so encouraging,” Wilson observed.

To help both medical professionals and lay individuals make the best possible use of COVID tests, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota compiled a document on “smart testing to help ensure that the right test is given to the right person at the right time, with test results provided in a timely manner to allow for actions that minimize illness, deaths, and transmission.”

Osterholm, who directs the center, explained that accurate testing requires the use of tests that are least likely to result in either false-negative or false-positive results.

He called drive-in tests that many people now seek “terrible,” generating lots of false-negative and false-positive results, in part because of how samples are collected.

Kelly Wroblewski, infectious disease director at the Association of Public Health Laboratories in Silver Spring, Maryland, explained that when there is a relatively low prevalence of disease, as is currently the case with COVID-19, the chances of getting false-positive results from antibody tests increase. Scott Becker, director of the association, said such results convey a misleading message that “I’m safe, I can get on with my life.”

“Relying on testing as the be-all and end-all doesn’t make sense,” Wroblewski said. Tests for the virus represent only one point in time. A person may test negative one day and positive the next. “Testing a person every day is not practical,” she said. “Limiting exposure to people, not repeated testing, will help us the most.”

24 LEGAL NOTICE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO.

Reverse Mortgage Funding, LLC Plaintiff v.

Enrique Pagan Vega; Jane Doe; Conjugal Partnership Pagan-Doe; United States of America; Richard Doe

Defendants CIVIL ACTION NO.: 3:15-cv02251-GAG. COLLECTION OF MONIES AND FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE. NOTICE OF SALE.

TO: Enrique Pagan Vega; Jane Doe; Conjugal Partnership Pagan-Doe; United States of America; Richard Doe GENERAL PUBLIC

WHEREAS: Judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff to recover from defendants the principal sum of $83,597.38, plus the annual interest rate convened of 5.060% per annum until the debt is paid in full. In addition the defendant Enrique Pagan Vega; Jane Doe; Conjugal Partnership Pagan-Doe; Richard Doe to pay Reverse Mortgage Funding, LLC., is ordered t pay all advances made under the mortgage note including but not limited to insurance premiums, taxes and inspections as well as 10% (18,900.00) of the original principal amount to cover costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees guaranteed under the mortgage obligation. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by interested parties at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150 or 400 Federal Office Building, 150 Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.

WHEREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned Judgment, Order of Execution, and the Writ of Execution thereof, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S. currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Room 150 or 400 – Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property “URBANA: Solar marcado con el número 18 de Bloque “JJ” de la Urbanización Villa del Car-

@

men del término municipal de Ponce, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 312.500 metros cuadrados, y en lindes por el NORTE, por donde mide 25.00 metros, con el solar número 19 del mismo Bloque; por el SUR, en 25.00metros con el solar número 17 del mismo Bloque; por el ESTE, en 12.50 metros, con la Calle Constancia; y por el OESTE, en 12.50 metros, con el solar número 5 del mismo Bloque.” Property Number 40,410 filed at page 265 of volume 1,395 of Ponce, Registry of the Property of Puerto Rico, Section of I of Ponce. The mortgage is recorded in the Registry of Property of Puerto Rico, Section I of Ponce at page 153, volume 2,115 of Ponce. WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens: Senior Liens: None . Junior Liens: Reverse mortgage securing a note in favor of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, or its order, in the original principal amount of $189,000.00, due on April 24, 2099 pursuant to deed number 27, issued in Ponce, Puerto Rico, on March 28, 2013, before notary José L. Inglesias Irizarry, and recorded, at page 153 of volume 2,115 of Ponce, property number 40,410, 8th inscription. Other Liens: None.

Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. THEREFORE, the FIRST public sale shall be held on the 18th day of August, 2020, at: 9:40 am. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $189,000.00. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND public auction shall be held on the 25th day of August, 2020, at: 9:40 am, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum $126,000.00, 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 will be held on

staredictos1@outlook.com

the 1st of September 2020, at: 9:40 am, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $94,500.00, which is one-half of the minimum bid in the first public sale. The Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied. WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the Special Master subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 2nd day of July, 2020. By: Pedro A. Vélez-Baerga, Special Master. specialmasterpr@gmail.com.

787-672-8269.

LEGAL NOTICE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT. DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

Finance of America Reverse, LLC. Plaintiff v.

The Estate of Zoe Longoria Quiñones a/k/a Zoe Longoria Quiñonez a/k/a Soe Longoria Quiñones a/k/a Soe Longoria Quiñonez a/k/a Zoe Longoria a/k/a Soe Longoria a/k/a Zoe Longoria Viuda de Bey a/k/a Zoe L. de Bey a/k/a Zoe L. Bey a/k/a Zoe Longovia Quiñones composed of Maritza Bey, Manuel Bey Longoria and Edaliz Bey Longoria; Centro de Recaudaciones de Ingresos Municipales; United States of America

Defendants CIVIL ACTION NO.: 3:16-cv3065-SEC. COLLECTION OF MONIES AND FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE. NOTICE

OF SALE.

TO: The Estate of Zoe Longoria Quiñones a/k/a Zoe Longoria Quiñonez a/k/a Soe Longoria Quiñones a/k/a Soe Longoria Quiñonez a/k/a Zoe Longoria a/k/a Soe Longoria a/k/a Zoe Longoria Viuda de Bey a/k/a Zoe L. de Bey a/k/a Zoe L. Bey a/k/a Zoe Longovia Quiñones composed of Maritza Bey, Manuel Bey Longoria and Edaliz Bey Longoria; Centro de Recaudaciones de Ingresos Municipales; United States of America GENERAL PUBLIC

WHEREAS: Judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff to recover from defendants the principal sum of $164,065.82, plus the annual interest rate convened of 5.060% per annum until the debt is paid in full.

The defendants, the Estate of Zoe Longoria Quiñones a/k/a Zoe Longoria Quiñonez a/k/a Soe Longoria Quiñones a/k/a Soe Longoria Quiñonez a/k/a Zoe Longoria a/k/a Soe Longoria a/k/a Zoe Longoria Viuda de Bey a/k/a Zoe L. de Bey a/k/a Zoe L. Bey a/k/a Zoe Longovia Quiñones composed of Maritza Bey, Manuel Bey Longoria and Edaliz Bey Longoria, also owes and is ORDERED to pay Finance of America Reverse, LLC all advances made under the mortgage note including but not limited to insurance premiums, taxes and inspections as well as 10% ($26,250.00) of the original principal amount to cover costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees guaranteed under the mortgage obligation. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by interested parties at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150 or 400 Federal Office Building, 150 Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. WHEREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned Judgment, Order of Execution, and the Writ of Execution thereof, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S. currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Room 150 or 400 – Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chardón Ave-

(787) 743-3346

Wednesday, July 15, 2020 nue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property “URBANA: Solar marcado con el número mil ciento sesenta y nueve (1169) en el bloque M guión treinta y siete (M-37) del plano de inscripción de la Urbanización Luis Muñoz Rivera radicado en el Barrio Frailes del término municipal de Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de trescientos sesenta punto sesenta y tres (360.63) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en veinticuatro punto noventa y ocho (24.98) metros, con el solar número mil ciento setenta (1170) del bloque M guión treinta y siete (M-37); por el SUR, en veinticuatro punto noventa y ocho (24.98) metros, con el solar número mil ciento sesenta y ocho (1168) del bloque M guion treinta y siete (M-37); por el ESTE, en catorce punto ochenta y cinco (14.85) metros, con la calle denominada Street G; y por el OESTE, en trece punto noventa y dos (13.92) metros, con el solar número mil ciento sesenta y cuatro (1164) del bloque M guion treinta y siete (M-37) del mencionado plano. Según inscripción segunda (2da) se expresa que se ha edificado una residencia de hormigón reforzado de una sola planta que consta principalmente de tres (3) cuartos dormitorios, sala, comedor, cocina, cuarto de baño y balcón.”

Property Number 12,174 filed at page 168 of volume 172 of Guaynabo, Registry of the Property of Puerto Rico, Section of Guaynabo. The mortgage is recorded in the Registry of Property of Puerto Rico, Section of Guaynabo at page 31, volume 1,248 of Guaynabo. WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens: Senior Liens: None. Junior Liens: Reverse mortgage securing a note in favor of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, or its order, in the original principal amount of $262,500.00, due on October 1st, 2078 pursuant to deed number 2, issued in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, on January 15, 2013, before notary Saideth Cristóbal Martínez, and recorded, at page 31 of volume 1,248 of Guaynabo, property number 12,174, 13th inscription. Other Liens: None.

Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being

foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. THEREFORE, the FIRST public sale shall be held on the 18th day of August, 2020 at 9:30am. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $262,500.00. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND public auction shall be held on the 25th day of August, 2020, 9:30am, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum $175,000.00, 9:30am, which is two-thirds of the amount of the minimum bid for the first public sale. If a second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD public auction will be held on the 1st day of September, 2020, 9:30am., and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $131,250.00, which is one-half of the minimum bid in the first public sale. The Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied.

WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the Special Master subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 2nd day of July, 2020. By: Pedro A. Vélez-Baerga, Special Master. specialmasterpr@gmail.com.

787-672-8269.

The San Juan Daily Star

COURT. DISTRICT OF PUER- longitud de catorce metros; por el ESTE, con el solar veintidós, TO RICO. en una longitud de veinticuatro Finance of America metros; y por el OESTE, con el Reverse, LLC solar veintitrés, en una longitud Plaintiff v.

Grecia Yolanda Gutierrez de veinticuatro metros. Enclava una casa de concreto para Martinez a/k/a Grecia Y. vivienda.” Property Number Gutierrez; United States 41,225, recorded at page 49 of America of volume 983 of Carolina, ReDefendants. gistry of the Property of Puerto CIVIL ACTION NO.: 17-cv- Rico, Section II of Carolina. The 1869. NOTICE OF SALE. mortgage is recorded in the TO: Grecia Yolanda Registry of Property of Puerto Gutierrez Martinez a/k/a Rico, Section of Carolina II at page 42, volume 1,479 of CaGrecia Y. Gutierrez; United States of America rolina. WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following GENERAL PUBLIC liens: Senior Liens: None. JuWHEREAS: Judgment was nior Liens: Reverse mortgage entered in favor of plaintiff to securing a note in favor of Serecover from defendants the cretary of Housing and Urban principal sum of $150,654.79, Development, or its order, in plus the annual interest rate the original principal amount of convened of 5.300% per annum $208,500.00, due on July 28, until the debt is paid in full. The 2084 pursuant to deed number defendant Grecia Yolanda Gu970, issued in Guaynabo, Puertierrez Martinez a/k/a Grecia Y. to Rico, on November 14, 2011, Gutierrez was also ordered to before notary María G. Chevere pay Finance of America ReverMauriño, and recorded, at page se, LLC, all advances made un42 of volume 1,479 of Carolina, der the mortgage note including property number 41,225, 5th but not limited to insurance preinscription. Other Liens: None. miums, taxes and inspections Potential bidders are advised to as well as 10% (20,850.00) of verify the extent of preferential the original principal amount liens with the holders thereof. It to cover costs, expenses, and shall be understood that each attorney’s fees guaranteed unbidder accepts as sufficient the der the mortgage obligation. title and that prior and preferenThe records of the case and tial liens to the one being foreof these proceedings may be closed upon, including but not examined by interested parties limited to any property tax, liens, at the Office of the Clerk of the (express, tacit, implied or legal) United States District Court, shall continue in effect it being Room 150 or 400 Federal Office understood further that the sucBuilding, 150 Chardon Avenue, cessful bidder accepts them Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. WHEand is subrogated in the resREAS: Pursuant to the terms of ponsibility for the same and that the aforementioned Judgment, the bid price shall not be applied Order of Execution, and the Writ toward their cancellation. THEof Execution thereof, the unREFORE, the FIRST public sale dersigned Special Master was shall be held on the 18th of Auordered to sell at public auction gust of 2020, at 9:30 AM. The for U.S. currency in cash or minimum bid that will be accepcertified check without appraited is the sum of $208,500.00. sement or right of redemption In the event said first auction to the highest bidder and at the does not produce a bidder and office of the Clerk of the United the property is not adjudicated, States District Court for the a SECOND public auction shall District of Puerto Rico, Room be held on the 25th of August of 150 – Federal Office Building, 2020, at 9:30 AM, and the mini150 or 400 Carlos Chardón mum bid that will be accepted Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, is the sum $139,000.00, which to cover the sums adjudged is two-thirds of the amount of to be paid to the plaintiff, the the minimum bid for the first following property: “URBANA: public sale. If a second auction Solar veintidós A del Bloque 2C does not result in the adjudicade la Urbanización Metrópolis, tion and sale of the property, localizado en el Barrio Mara THIRD public auction will be tín González del municipio de held on the 1st of September of Carolina, Puerto Rico, con un 2020, at 9:30 AM, and the miniárea superficial de trescientos mum bid that will be accepted is treinta y seis metros cuadrados. the sum of $104,250.00, which En lindes por el NORTE, con el is one-half of the minimum bid solar dieciocho A, en una lonin the first public sale. The SpeLEGAL NOTICE gitud de catorce metros; por el cial Master shall not accept in SUR, con la Avenida C, en una UNITED STATES DISTRICT

The San Juan Daily Star payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied. WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the Special Master subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 2nd day of July, 2020. By: Pedro A. Vélez-Baerga, Special Master. specialmasterpr@gmail.com.

787-672-8269.

LEGAL NOTICE Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior Municipal de Ponce.

FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representado usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 9 de julio de 2020. En Ponce, Puerto Rico, el 9 de julio de 2020. LUZ MAYRA CARABALLO GARCÍA, Secretaria Regional. f/HILDA J. ROSADO RODRÍGUEZ, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRJMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE PATILLAS.

ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC como agente de PR RECOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT JV, LLC DEMANDANTE VS.

JOSE A. RAMOS RlVAS

DEMANDADO CIVILN ÚM.: G3CI2009-00200.

VÍCTOR E. VEGA LABOY SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Demandado Y EJECUCIÓN DE ACUERDO Civil Núm.: PO2019CV03796.

DE GRAVAMEN MOBILIARIO. Salón: 0601. Sobre: INCUMA: JOSÉ A. RAMOS PLIMIENTO DE CONTRATO; COBRO DE DINERO. NOTIFI- RIVAS 5116 FILMORE PL CACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR SANFORD, FL 32773-6410 Y/O 2976 GIPPER CR EDICTO. Demandante Vs

A: VICTOR E. VEGA LABOY URB. CONSTANCIA, CALLE RIO LLANO 3356, PONCE, 00733 DE: FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO P/C Lcda. Mariana Ortiz Colón, Abogado Número 15394, Colegiada Número 16599, 221 Ponce de León Ave., Suite 900, San Juan, PR 00917 Teléfono: (787) 296-9500 Correo Electrónico: maortizlvprlaw.com

SANFORD, FL 32773 Y/O URB.V ILLASD E PATILLAS3 6 CALLE DIAMANTE, PATILLAS, PR 00723-2656

NOTIFICACIÓN POR EDICTO. POR LA PRESENTE se le notifica que la parte demandante interesa ejecutar la sentencia dictada en su contra el 6 de julio de 2010 y notificada el 20 de julio de 2010. Se le ordena que exprese su posición sobre la solicitud de la parte demandante dentro de los 30 días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Patillas, Puerto Rico, hoy día 11 de mayo de 2020. En Patillas, Puerto Rico, el 11 de mayo de 2020. Marisol Rosado Rodriguez, Secretaria.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se les notifica la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que 24 de marzo de 2020, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución LEGAL NOTICE en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.

BOSCO IX OVERSEAS, LLC, BY FRANKLIN CREDIT MANAGEMENT CORPORATION AS SERVICER PARTE DEMANDANTE Vs.

ROLANDO PÉREZ CRUZ, RAQUEL IVELISSE LÓPEZ CRESPO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

PARTE DEMANDADA CIVIL NUM: SJ2020CV01927.

SALA: 604. SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE GARANTÍAS (IN REM).

EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU. ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS.

A: ROLANDO PÉREZ CRUZ

Queda emplazada y notificada de que en este Tribunal se ha radicado una demanda de ejecución de garantías (in rem) en su contra . Se le notifica que deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:///unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de San Juan y enviando copia a la parte demandante: Ledo. Juan C. Salichs Pou, PO Box 195553, San Juan, PR 00919-5553; Teléfono : (787) 449-6000, Facsímil (787) 474-3892; correo electrónico: jsalichs@splawpr.com.

Se le apercibe y notifica que si no contesta la demanda radicada en su contra dentro del termino de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto, se le anotara la rebeldía y se dictara sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin mas citarles ni oírles. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, a 6 de julio de 2020. Griselda Rodriguez Collado, Secretaria. Fernandez Del Valle, Luz E., Secretaria Servicios a Sala.

LEGAL NOTICE Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de FAJARDO.

Demandante v.

TACTICAL CHOICE, INC. WILLIAM VILLANUEVA VILLANUEVA, JANETTE GUTIERREZ RAMIREZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES

Demandado(a) Civil: Núm. FA2019CV00955 .

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

A: TACTICAL CHOICE, INC, WILLIAM VILLANUEVA VILLANUEVA, JANETTE GUTIERREZ RAMIREZ & LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS • 513 Marina St., Urb. Coco Beach, Rio Grande, PR 00745

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 13 de julio de 2020, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 13 de julio de 2020. En FAJARDO, Puerto Rico , el 13 de julio de 2020.

Wanda I Segui Reyes, Sec Regional. F/Amariilis Marquez Marquez, Sec Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÔN.

AMERICAS LEADING FINANCE, LLC Demandante, V.

ADALJOEL ANTONIO NEGRON MARTfNEZ, SU ESPOSA FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL PUERTO RICO DE GANANCIALES RECOVERY & COMPUESTA POR DEVELOPMENT JV, LLC

AMBOS

Demandados CIVIL NUM.: BY2020CV01882.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO FOR LA VA ORDINARIA Y EJECUCION DE GRAVAMEN MOBILIARIO (REPOSESION DE VEHICULO). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. DE AMERICA EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO SS.

A: ADALJOEL ANTONIO NEGRON MARTiNEZ, SU ESPOSA FULANA DE TAL, Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL

DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

25

Quedan emplazados y notificados que en este Tribunal se ha radicado Demanda sobre cobro de dinero por la vía ordinaria en la que se alega que los demandados ADALJOEL ANTONIO NEGRÔN MARTfNEZ, SU ESPOSA FULANA DE TAL, Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS, le adeudan solidariamente al Americas Leading Finance, LLC la suma de principal de $16,623.26, más los intereses que continúen acumulando, las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado según

pactados. Además, solicitamos de este Honorable Tribunal que autorice la represión y/o embargo del Vehículo. Se les advierte que este edicto se publicará en un periódico de circulación general una sola vez y que, si no comparecen a contestar dicha Demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del Edicto, a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC). al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:// unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaria del

San Juan The

tribunal, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictara Sentencia concediendo el remedio asI solicitado sin mas citarles ni oirles. La abogada de la parte demandante es la Lcdo. Gerardo M. Ortiz Torres, cuya dirección física y postal es: Cond. El Centro I, Suite 801, 500 Muñoz Rivera Ave., San Juan, Puerto Rico 00918; cuyo número de teléfono es (787) 946-5268, el facsímile (787) 946-0062 y su correo electrónico es: gerardobellverlaw.com. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, en Bayamon, Puerto Rico, hoy día 9 de julio de 2020.

Lcda. Laura I Santa Sanchez, Secretaria Regional. Ana Lopez Rivera, Subsecretario (a).

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26

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

For Native American activists, Washington name change was ‘a long time coming’

By KEVIN DRAPER and GILLIAN R. BRASSIL

A

ctivists have spent decades pressuring professional sports leagues, college programs and high schools to abandon Native American names and imagery for their teams.

The first domino fell in 1970, when the University of Oklahoma retired its mascot, a Native American named “Little Red.” Over the ensuing years, Division I schools like Stanford, Dartmouth and Syracuse — and thousands of high schools — dropped their mascots or changed their names.

But the biggest lightning rod was always Washington’s NFL team, the “Redskins.” Its owner has been recalcitrant about changing the name of one of football’s oldest and most valuable franchises, and its name does not just appropriate Native American imagery, as do the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs or NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, but is considered by many to be a slur itself.

On Monday, those at the forefront of the fight finally won. The Washington team an- Earlier this month, Native American activists sent a letter to N.F.L. Commissioner nounced that it would soon drop its 87-year- Roger Goodell that made a number of demands. old name and its logo, for a yet-to-be revealed new name, becoming the oldest NFL an acknowledgment of Native people’s saw, if Fred turned on it and didn’t want to team name to ever be retired.

“This is part of a much larger movement concerns or a rumination on the name’s stay involved in the stadium and the name, going on that Indigenous peoples are situa- offense. Instead, Daniel Snyder, the owner that was a really big point to him, and others ted in, and it is a long time coming,” said of the Washington NFL team for more than would follow. And they did.”

Suzan Shown Harjo, who was formerly Carla Fredericks, the director of First Peoples 20 years, was seemingly driven by a simpler the president of the National Council of AmeWorldwide and a longtime advocate against motivation: money.

In a letter sent to the Washington team rican Indians and is the most well-known acNative American mascots. “I think that for anyone that is associated with the movement dated July 2, FedEx, which pays about $8 tivist against Native American team names, for racial justice this is a significant gain, and million a year for the naming rights to the was cleareyed about the order of concerns team’s stadium in Landover, Md., said if the for Snyder. this is a significant moment.”

“He had to satisfy first, his FedEx and That movement for racial justice is, in name wasn’t changed, it would back out of the deal.

The threat carried extra weight, other managerial and promotion partners,” part, propelled by the Black Lives Matter movement, and the widespread re-exami- considering that Frederick Smith, the chair- she said. “Second, his merch partners. Third, nation of systemic racism — not to mention man of FedEx, owns a minority stake in the the franchise’s 40 percent owners.” But ultistatues, flags, symbols and mascots that ce- team, which he had been quietly attempting mately the credit belongs to “the longevity and persistence of our no-mascot movelebrate racist history — that was prompted to sell for many months.

FedEx was among several corporate ment,” Harjo said. by the police killing of George Floyd in MinNow that their biggest target has budneapolis in May. On Monday the Council on heavyweights to take action to persuade Snyder to act on the name.

Bank of America, ged, activists have pushed for much work to American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil Pepsi, Nike and other NFL sponsors issued ensue in Washington. rights advocacy group, said in a statement Earlier this month, a letter, signed by that it “welcomed the decision of the Wash- statements asking the team for a name chanington, D.C. football team to drop the racist ge, and retailers like Walmart, Amazon and nearly every national American Indian group Target stopped selling the team’s merchandi- and representatives from more than 150 fe‘Redskins’ name.” derally recognized tribes, was sent to NFL But despite the collective power of for- se on their websites and in their stores.

Donald Dell, who represented Snyder Commissioner Roger Goodell. The letter merly disparate movements, not to mention the half-century of activist pressure, what in brokering the $205 million, 27-year sta- made several demands, including that he finally triggered the name change was not dium naming rights deal in 1999, said: “He “require the Washington team to immedia-

tely cease the use of racialized Native American branding,” which seems on the verge of happening.

But it isn’t yet clear if one of the letter’s asks, that the team’s burgundy and gold color scheme be changed, will be acceded to.

“One thing we have seen where there have been shifts like this in the past is there can be a faction of fans that refuse to retreat from stereotypical names and logos, and not changing the colors would allow for that behavior,” Fredericks said. Changing the name and logo doesn’t mean as much if tens of thousands of fans stream into FedEx Field wearing their old team gear.

Fans have long worn headdresses, war paint and other stereotypical imagery to Washington games, and sung along to the team’s fight song, “Hail to the Redskins,” which contains references to “braves on the warpath” and is played after touchdowns at home games. The team may get to delay making those decisions if fans are not allowed to attend games this season because of the coronavirus.

Fredericks referred to the campaign to change the name of the University of North Dakota athletic teams, the Fighting Sioux.

In 2015, the nickname was changed to the Fighting Hawks, but the green color scheme endured.

“There is still an opportunity for some further leadership here by the team,” she said.

Fifty years is a long time to be fighting for one issue, to get so far but also to have so far to go. The Chiefs, Blackhawks, and Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves still exist, and more than 2,200 high schools still use some form of Native American imagery. Those that have been in this fight made it clear that it was always about the future, never the present or past.

“A lot of the work that she did was the attempt to create an environment that was better than the one I grew up in,” said Duke Ray Harjo II, who grew up in the Washington area, about his mother Suzan.

For Fredericks, the goal goes beyond the next generation.

“A lot of us have a philosophy that the work we do is not only for the current moment, but for seven generations in the future.

A lot of decision making is taken with that value in place.

“We are not going to give up ensuring that our humanity and dignity be respected.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

27

Rockets’ Westbrook says he tested positive for the Coronavirus

By SOPAN DEB

R

ussell Westbrook of the Houston Rockets, the NBA’s MVP in the 2016-17 season, said in a social media post earlier this week that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. He said he received his test result before the team left for Walt Disney World in Florida, where the NBA is attempting to restart its season.

“I’m currently feeling well, quarantined, and looking forward to rejoining my teammates when I am cleared,” Westbrook said in his statement Monday. He added: “Please take this virus seriously. Be safe. Mask up!”

Westbrook and Houston’s other star guard, James Harden, did not travel with the team last Thursday to the Walt Disney World campus. Luc Mbah a Moute, a veteran forward whom the Rockets signed this month, also did not make the trip.

Coach Mike D’Antoni did not specify why, in comments to reporters over the weekend, but said he expected the players to arrive soon.

“These are things that people are dealing with,” D’Antoni said. “We’re not going to get into why not. They’re on their way.”

It was unclear when Westbrook would be able to join the Rockets or when

his quarantine period began. According to the NBA’s guidebook on health protocols, Westbrook will be allowed to join others on the campus when he tests negatively for the coronavirus in two separate tests at least 24 hours apart. He must also be cleared by a league-approved infectious disease physician and undergo a cardiac screening.

The Rockets were 40-24 and tied for fourth place in the Western Conference before the pandemic suspended the season in March. Westbrook, the team’s second-leading scorer, struggled with his shooting throughout the season but still averaged 27.5 points a game, with eight rebounds and seven assists a game.

The NBA also announced Monday that two other players had tested positive for the coronavirus upon arriving in Florida. In total, 322 were tested, the league said in a statement. The two players, who were not identified, “never cleared quarantine and have since left the campus to isolate at home or in isolation housing.”

Shortly before the NBA announced its findings, one player, Richaun Holmes of the Sacramento Kings, said that he had left the campus to pick up a food delivery order and now has eight days left in another quarantine.

Houston Rockets guard Russell Westbrook (0) drives between Minnesota Timberwolves guards Jake Layman, left, and Jordan McLaughlin during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, March 10, 2020, in Houston.

Since July 1, according to the NBA, 19 players had tested positive for the coronavirus before arriving in Florida. That number includes players like Spencer Dinwiddie and DeAndre Jordan of the Brooklyn Nets, who are skipping the NBA restart entirely as a result. Commissioner Adam Silver had said that the league expected more positive cases as players arrived on campus. But even so, Silver has expressed

confidence that the NBA season will be able to conclude and that players will be safer on campus than off.

“What would be most concerning is once players enter this campus and then go through our quarantine period, then if they were to test positive or if we had any positive tests, we would know we would have an issue,” Silver told Fortune this month.

Remaining PGA Tour events will not host fans

By BILL PENNINGTON

T

he remainder of the PGA Tour schedule this season will be played without spectators after the organizers of four tournaments announced earlier this week that they would close their events to the public.

“Our No. 1 priority remains the health and safety of everyone in the communities where we are invited,” Andy Pazder, the PGA Tour’s chief of tournaments, said in a statement Monday, attributing the decision to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

The organizers for the Wyndham Championship and the three tournaments that make up the FedEx Cup playoffs each released a separate statement Monday announcing the decision.

“These decisions are never easy,” Allison Fillmore, the executive director of the Tour Championship, said in a statement, “and we would like to thank the City of Atlanta and PGA Tour headquarters for their extensive

The PGA Tour had hoped to welcome about 8,000 fans daily to the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, this week, but scrapped those plans as coronavirus cases spiked in the state and the country. collaboration as we arrived at what was the best decision for all involved with the Tour Championship and the community.”

The Tour Championship, scheduled for Sept. 4-7 at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, is set to be the last event of the playoffs, which

in normal years are contested after golf’s major tournaments and feature the PGA Tour’s largest purses.

Several other PGA Tour events are scheduled in the next four months, and it is unlikely that any of them will welcome

fans. The Memorial Tournament, which begins Thursday and will feature Tiger Woods, had received clearance from health officials to welcome about 8,000 fans daily to the Muirfield Village course in Dublin, Ohio, but scrapped those plans last week as confirmed cases of the virus spiked in the state and around the country.

The announcements do not directly affect the three major golf championships remaining this year. The PGA Championship, scheduled for San Francisco’s TPC Harding Park, had already said it would be contested without fans. The U.S. Open, conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA) and set for Sept. 17-20 at the Winged Foot Golf Club in Westchester County, N.Y., has not yet revealed whether it will host fans at its tournament. The USGA has considered allowing a limited number of spectators to the event or holding the event without fans.

The Masters, scheduled for Nov. 12-15 in Augusta, Ga., has also not committed to having fans — or prohibiting them.

28

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Manchester City won. Now brace for the losses.

By RORY SMITH

M

anchester City has its answer: the answer it wanted, the answer it was adamant, right from the start, was the only one possible.

There will be no two-year ban from the Champions League. There is no reason to worry that Pep Guardiola might seek new pastures earlier than expected, or that Kevin De Bruyne or Raheem Sterling or any other member of City’s galaxy of stars will feel the urge to leave. All of those achievements of the last decade stand, unblemished.

To Manchester City and its fans, that is what matters. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has cleared its name on appeal, striking down the charge from UEFA, the body theoretically in charge of European soccer, that City misrepresented some of its financing to circumvent cost-control rules.

True, there might still be quibbles, queries. Like whether a determination that the most serious accusations against City fell outside UEFA’s statute of limitations counts as total exoneration. Or if you can claim to be exonerated as you pay a fine of more than $11 million. Or how what the club had said was a “comprehensive body of irrefutable proof” of its innocence came down to UEFA’s not being able to make its case.

City had claimed that a cache of emails, released as part of the Football Leaks documents and explosive enough to attract UEFA’s attention, had been not just hacked but “taken out of context.” It is not yet clear quite what that context might be. Perhaps the full ruling from CAS, scheduled to be published later this week, will clear it all up. Perhaps not.

No matter: Nobody goes past the first page of Google. For City, six years of skirmishing with UEFA over its Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations is at an end.

It has its victory. Any dissent to that orthodoxy will be dismissed as sour grapes, bile produced by bitterness.

But the ramifications were always likely to extend way beyond the club at its center. If there will be no tangible consequences for City — carte blanche to back Guardiola, to build a dynasty, to extend its empire of clubs — the same cannot be said for European soccer more broadly.

At first glance, it seems a little overblown to suggest this as a Bosman mo-

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City will remain a Champions League favorite for the foreseeable future. ment for the 21st century: the point at which the Financial Fair Play experiment takes its last breath, where UEFA acquiesces to fate and sits idly by as clubs spend what they like.

The organization, after all, has emphasized its commitment to its regulations. City has not proved FFP is illegal under European Union law (and was not, in the end, trying to). UEFA has simply not brought a strong enough, or quick enough, case to police its rules in this instance.

The problem is that it is not just this instance. This is the third time UEFA has tried to punish one of the Continent’s elite — for all its attempts to characterize itself as some sort of insurgent underdog, that is precisely the group to which Manchester City belongs — and it is the third time it has failed to bring any of them to heel. It has been undone, again, by technicalities.

There has been no spectacular, conclusive breach in FFP; just a series of cracks, fatally undermining the foundation. For the richest, most powerful clubs, the rules are starting to look a lot like guidelines, and the impression is that UEFA cannot universally enforce them, anyway. There is, now, precious little in-

centive for anyone to adhere to them.

That such a blow should be delivered now is significant. UEFA has already agreed to suspend, temporarily, some of its cost-control measures, to allow clubs to ride out the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Even before the virus hit, though, UEFA was considering how its financial rules might be altered, updated, possibly simplified, to make them easier to understand and — possibly — more appealing to follow. City’s acquittal lends weight to the argument that the current approach is not up to the task, but it also highlights how difficult it will be to rewrite the rules.

There is a school of thought that perhaps it is not worth the effort. The belief that FFP is not doing what it was supposed to do has become a truism: An idea introduced almost a decade ago to improve soccer’s financial health and to decrease its reliance on debt has become a tool to entrench the status quo, to lock ambitious clubs out of the golden circle.

Criticism, though, is easier than construction. If Financial Fair Play is jettisoned, if Manchester City’s vindication proves to be its death knell, one question lingers: What comes next?

It should not be a surprise that two of the clubs to take advantage of the relaxation of the rules this summer, Chelsea and Paris St.-Germain, have benefactors able to thrive in a world without financial regulation. Inter Milan, too, has long found FFP inhibitive. Manchester City, meanwhile, is planning an overhaul of its squad. It will not come cheap.

This moment is a window into what soccer’s landscape might look like without financial control: the teams with the most generous owners and the deepest pockets bending the market to their whim, cherry-picking the poor, challenging their rivals to match them or to sink into mediocrity. Perhaps that is as it should be: the strong rising and the weak falling and fading.

Except, of course, soccer has been there before, in an age of unrestrained spending. At the start of the 2010s, UEFA found that European soccer as a whole was $1.9 billion in debt. The turnaround, over the last 10 years, has been remarkable. In 2017, the continent’s clubs turned a profit of $680 million. The change, of course, was the introduction of Financial Fair Play.

That is soccer’s problem: Inherently, unapologetically tribal, it settles on the small answers and ignores the big questions. In Manchester City’s eyes, Financial Fair Play was designed, exclusively, to limit its ambitions. In the eyes of English or Spanish or Italian fans, it was created to stop arriviste wealth from distorting the sport’s economics.

But elsewhere, it has proved crucial.

It has enabled UEFA to ensure that clubs in smaller markets — where the concerns are not who wins the Champions League — meet their debts and obligations by wielding the threat of expulsion from money-spinning European competitions.

FFP has always looked like a paper tiger to the big clubs; for smaller teams, it has had teeth. That is its weakness, but it is also its strength. In its absence, it is in the places where it has had the most effect that the consequences will be felt: not for the clubs that can spend to their hearts’ content, but to the clubs that can risk their very existence for short-term success.

What comes next for Manchester City? The sky is the limit. For much of the rest of Europe, the trajectory may be very different.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

29

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

GAMES

HOROSCOPE Aries

30

(Mar 21-April 20)

Now is a good time to start drawing up plans for renovating your home. Fill in important documents. Apply for planning permission and get any official business out of the way.

Let someone who is struggling know they can reach out to you whenever they might need a friend. Your support will be appreciated, more perhaps than you realise.

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

You and a friend are on the same wavelength.

You’re finding new ways to come together more regularly and are able to inspire each other with creative ideas. A younger relative may need a few extra hugs. If for various reasons you can’t get close to them, be sure you let those who can, know it.

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

As soon as it is safe to do so you will find a pragmatic way to fulfil obligations that have been put on the back burner for a while. Wherever there is a problem, there will be a few options available. There is a way to work out a solution that will help you to move forward.

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

Don’t wait for other people to take the initiative. If you’re hoping to meet up again with an interesting person you recently met, get in touch with them. Someone has to make the first move. Your response to a question a relative or partner puts to you will be exactly what they are hoping to hear.

Leo

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

(July 24-Aug 23)

about your feelings.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

Promoting harmony comes naturally to you.

It will come as a shock when you realise a friend is upset about some of your recent activities. This will prompt you to look at your friendships and close relationships. If there is a way to make amends, you will find it. You don’t want to drift apart.

Scorpio

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

You have some big decisions to make and you will take your time to decide what you want to do. Your aim is to take action that will have a positive effect on your life. You aren’t in a hurry as you know that the best way to avoid mistakes is to set realistic, achievable goals.

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

You can trust your intuition when you are with people who are close to you. With you being so in tune with your partner, you can anticipate their thoughts, needs and desires.

Love is in the air. Are you single? A newcomer to your world will give you a lot to think over and talk about.

Apply for a job that has caught your interest.

If you leave it until past the deadline, you are wasting your time as it will be strictly upheld.

Acting on a spontaneous whim will surprise friends who know how much you like to stick with your usual routine. Doing something completely different on the spur of the moment will be uplifting.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

An email or text message needs some careful thought. You don’t want to give an instant response but this does not mean you are ignoring anyone. If you find it hard to explain your feelings in writing, give them a call. The longer you leave it to deal with a difficult issue, the more it will prey on your mind.

Connect with friends if you are feeling lonely.

Joint activities and creative workshops can help reduce those feelings of isolation. Joining an online forum is another great way to meet new people. Speaking with relatives abroad on social networking sites will get you thinking about travel plans for the coming year. Seek advice on how to resolve a financial muddle.

Virgo

Pisces

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

Someone’s thoughtful gesture will delight you.

Little surprises brighten your day. You will be amazed, delighted and happy all at the same time. A neighbour’s childish comments are designed to ruin your happy moment but nothing can burst your bubble. Often, it’s the simple things in life that bring you most pleasure. You’re finding it easier now to be honest

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

An unexpected offer will come your way.

If you’re excited about spending more time with someone, the big smile on your face will be all the answer they need. Equally if you aren’t keen on what they are suggesting, hesitating for even a minute will tell them what they need to know.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

The San Juan Daily Star

Ziggy

32

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

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