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Governor Announces Curfew Hours Stay the Same, But Closes Beaches, Bars, Movie Theaters and More P4 A Dance for Equality: Feds All Over the Capitol.

LGBTQIAP+ Community Members House Speaker Confirms Protest at SEC Headquarters Investigations P3

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The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

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July 17-19, 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.

LGBTQIAP+ community dances for equality in front of SEC headquarters

Today’s

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

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INDEX Local 3 Mainland 7 Business 11 International 14 Viewpoint 18 Noticias en Español 19 Entertainment 20

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o matter rain or sunshine, members of the LGBTQIAP+ community and their allies stood up in solidarity on Thursday with Joanna Cifredo, a trans woman who says she was discriminated against due to her gender identity when she acquired her voter’s card at the State Elections Committee (SEC), and demanded equal treatment in every government entity during a demonstration in front of the agency’s headquarters.

During the demonstration, Cifredo and many other members of the trans community spoke with the protesters and shared their angst as the local government still shows inefficiency whenever they request public services, as acquiring state documentation is still a challenge they confront. Cifredo also made a call to action for the country’s youth to register and vote.

“I want to call for the Puerto Rican youth to get their voter’s card. In the past years, we have lived with scandal after scandal, this government has been irresponsible with our biggest treasures, our offspring and our dear Borinquen,” she said. “We are living in serious times; we have to be serious people. Our generation faces great challenges, and we must think about great solutions.

As American as some might feel, this 100 by 35 [mile island] is the only thing that we still own. Look at what’s happening in the government -- they are making choices that will affect us for the next 50 years.”

The activist told The Star that although she felt vulnerable during the trying transaction to legitimize her right to vote, the amount of support on social media and how her case has been covered by various media outlets during the coronavirus pandemic has overwhelmed her with joy. In addition, she said has been surprised as both trans and non-binary people have united as they are tired with the lack of accountability.

“To be fair with you, it fills my heart with joy to see so many people here. I was raised during times when social media did not exist, when loneliness produced a great amount of depression for me as it was difficult to simply connect with other trans people,” Cifredo said.

“I am still surprised; I never thought my situation would be on the news, especially during the global pandemic and the alleged obstruction of justice of Governor Wanda Vázquez. I believe many members of our community are tired. We have lived through abuse after abuse from this government and witnessed how five trans siblings have been murdered.”

Cifredo’s husband Michael Fellman said he felt happy to see the number of supporters at Thursday’s event, which involved marching, slogan chanting, bomba dancing, drag performances, poetry declamation, and a moment of silence for the year’s trans victims: Neulisa Alexa Luciano Ruiz, Yampi Méndez Arocho, Serena Angelique Velázquez, Layla Peláez Sánchez and Penelope

Díaz Ramírez. Although Fellman and his wife have tried to get used to indifferent behavior at island agencies whenever they deal with government documentation, he said he still does not understand how public servants can deny the legitimacy of a federal document such as a passport, which already includes Cifredo’s legal name and gender change.

“I don’t really understand what difference it makes what the Demographic Registry says when the passport is more important than all that,” Fellman said. “If I could say to any sort of public servant or someone who works in a government office that it does not matter what the processes are, you have a choice to be someone who wants to serve a member of the public to get access to the vote, or to receive some sort of public service or to resolve some issue with the government. Your job is to facilitate, not to put up barriers. That’s why they are called public servants.”

Teresa Karolina, a black trans sex worker and performer, said she came out to protest because she feels that every system in the island is erasing and minimizing the humanity of the LGBTQIAP+ community. Karolina, who did a lip-sync performance of “Odio” by Ileana Cabra commemorating the five trans people whose murders are still unsolved, said the lack of education and sensitivity on the part of the government toward the trans community has made their lives a game of survival.

“I felt devastated by what happened to Joanna; she is like my sister, as are many of the protesters. I demonstrated through my art and showed that these murder cases have not been solved, that those names are branded on my skin and the government still inflicts pain on us,” Karolina said. “It’s time to end transphobia, it’s time to be respected for who we are: trans women, trans men, and non-binary people.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

Governor reverses reopening amid increase in COVID-19 cases Malls and churches saved, left out of new executive order

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

A

fter medical experts and academics presented in atypical fashion a growing trend of positive COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Puerto Rico, Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced on Thursday announced new restrictions in the new executive order to stop the spread of the coronavirus that causes the potentially lethal disease.

According to scientific data shown during the governor’s message, although it proved that during the first lockdown cases were kept under 1 percent, mathematical models indicated a sustained weekly increase in cases after the reopening, with the number of positive molecular test results per week rising to 1,332 by the third week of June.

“The data shown by medical experts proves that measures taken in the month of March produced results and saved the lives of Puerto Rican citizens,” Vázquez said. “However, as scientists have proved that there has been a spike in [positive COVID-19] cases, I have determined to

order the following restrictions in order to protect the health and lives of my citizens.”

The governor determined the following rules that will go into force on today and continue to July 31: * Curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. is maintained * The sale of alcoholic beverages in all authorized businesses is forbidden after 7 p.m. * Bars will not be operating * Gatherings of people outside establishments will not be permitted

* Restaurants will only use 50 percent of seating capacity * Waiting lines outside businesses will not be permitted; citizens must wait inside cars * Only individual sports and recreational training are permitted * Competitive activities are prohibited * Beaches will be closed to everyone except runners, surfers and water sports athletes * Coolers and beach chairs are not permitted on beaches

* Common-use pools are not permitted * Excursion sites will be closed * Theaters, casinos, movie theaters, gyms and recreation centers will be closed * Marine ports will shut down, while the use of boats and jet skis is prohibited * Transportation for island municipalities such as Vieques and Culebra will be available only for residents * The opening of tourism has been postponed until Aug. 15; it is recom mended that travelers arrive in Puerto Rico only for essential trips.

The updated order also postpones family visits to elderly homes and prisons, while the governor assigned $100 million to all municipalities for the second round of aid and $150 million for hospitals to reinforce their services.

The governor called on citizens under the age of 30 to comply with safety measures, such as the use of face masks and sanitization procedures, although one of the graphics presented by the scientific panel showed that people ages 30 to 59 make up the group with the highest rate of coronavirus infection.

“The COVID disease has not gone away, the COVID disease is still with us; it is living together with every citizen,” the governor said. “We must fight this invisible enemy together. We must cooperate.”

Although the new executive order contains numerous limitations, the governor

House speaker confirms Legislature is under investigation by feds

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

S

peaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Núñez confirmed on Thursday that there are several ongoing investigations in the House of Representatives, the day after Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents raided the residence of New Progressive Party (NPP) Rep. María Milagros Charbonier.

“Yes, we have always said that there are several investigations ongoing in the Legislative Assembly, in the state forum and the federal forum,” Méndez Núñez told journalists after concluding a caucus meeting of the NPP in the lower house.

“The House will always cooperate with the

investigations that are being carried out.”

“My call to all colleagues is that in the same way that our colleague [Charbonier] cooperated, all the members of the majority should cooperate with any type of investigation that is ongoing,” he added.

Although he did not elaborate, the House speaker stated that there have been “requests” for information and the information has been provided.

Regarding Wednesday morning’s raid at Charbonier’s Río Grande residence, where both her and her husband’s cell phones were seized, Méndez Núñez said “we will pay attention to everything that may happen at any given time.”

He said he will not remove the legislator from the chairmanship of the House Legal Committee.

“There is no reason to remove her; she is cooperating with that investigation so there is no reason to remove her,” the House leader said.

Méndez Núñez said meanwhile that the investigations are aimed in part at “ghost employees” (people who are paid without doing any work) in the Capitol.

“Basically that’s it. Remember this started when you were talking here that there were ghost employees in the Legislative Assembly,” he said. “And there are processes in the Legislative Assembly that the feds are unaware of, and they have to conclude their investigations to find out if there is something or there is not something.”

The House speaker called the fact that Charbonier has cooperated with the federal investigation “successful.”

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

5

Fiscal board hires contractor to assess gov’t procurements

By THE STAR STAFF

T

he Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico has hired independent contractor Wanda E. Moorman to oversee the commonwealth’s procurement processes, according to the contract published on the board’s website.

The move comes amid recent irregularities in government procurement processes, including in the purchase of coronavirus equipment. The oversight board filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Monday to force the administration of Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced to hand over all documents related to contracts for the purchase of COVID-19 test kits and other medical supplies during the pandemic emergency after the government gave a $40 million contract to a company that lacked the required experience.

The contract with Moorman will be effective starting Aug. 3. Some of the responsibilities detailed in the contract include promoting the use of technologies to accomplish procurement objectives, providing regular reporting on contracts’ status, and identifying opportunities for procurement process improvement.

Her contract was capped at $110,000 per year, the maximum amount chargeable by Moorman, plus valid reimbursed expenses. The contract is set to expire on June 30, 2021.

Meanwhile, the oversight board wrote to the government informing it that the commonwealth’s 2020 third quarter financial report has some inconsistencies with regard to the certified budget.

The information is contained in a July 14 letter.

In the letter sent by Board Executive Director Natalie Jaresko to Vázquez, the Board listed the inconsistencies as follows: (i) Significant underspend in actual PayGo as compared to budgeted PayGo disbursements; (ii) Actual overspend and projected overspend in payroll for several agencies; (iii) Projected overspend in operational expenditures (OpEx) for several agencies; (iv) Incomplete reporting of actual expenditures for several agencies;

(v) Budgetary adjustments reflected in incorrect periods and late or no monthly closing of accounting books and records; and (vi) Significant reported underspending of CapEx budgeted funds.

The government is hereby required to provide detailed explanations to the oversight board no later than July 30.

Separately, the oversight board identified in the Highways and Transportation Authority’s (HTA) third quarterly financial report a series of violations of the fiscal year 2020 certified budget.

In the letter that Jaresko sent to Vázquez and HTA Executive Director Rosana Aguilar, she said the violations of the certified budget undermine HTA’s fiscal sustainability and its ability to effectively deliver capital improvements that would improve mobility, increase transport convenience, and lower the cost of doing business.

“HTA is hereby required to provide to the oversight board detailed explanations for the budget-to-actual variances described above, as well as detailed explanations for the non-compliance with respect to measures contained in the certified budget and certified fiscal plan, no later than 30 July,” the letter said.

UPR profs union: Transparency needed with $3.3 million tech licensing contract

By THE STAR STAFF

T

he Puerto Rican Association of University Professors (APPU by its Spanish acronym) urged University of Puerto Rico (UPR) President Jorge Haddock on Thursday to answer various questions about a multimillion-dollar contract with Microsoft Caribbean Inc. and SoftwareOne Inc. at a time when the institution of higher learning is in a fiscal crisis.

UPR employees and students are using the tools provided by Google for online classes.

APPU President Ángel Rodríguez expressed in a written statement his reservations with a $3.3 million contract with Microsoft for the acquisition of technology licenses. This contract would end in February 2022 with the possibility of being renewed for three more years.

In addition, the contract calls for a reserve of 5 percent to cover up to $157,584 in purchases, the union leader said.

“At a time when the economic crisis at UPR continues to sharpen, this type of contract lacks the sense of administrative and fiscal responsibility that should prevail when evaluating any contract that further compromises the institution’s finances,” Rodríguez stated.

He stressed that the contract was signed without

the endorsement of the university community or of the Distance Education Advisory Committee, which is made up of specialists in the area of technology and distance education whose express function is to advise the administration on the subject of technologies.

While the trend in educational institutions is to move toward open access or open source technologies and software, the university administration has opted instead for a multi-million dollar contract, Rodríguez added.

APPU said the contract is an unnecessary expense in times of austerity.

Rodríguez noted that the investment could have been destined to address the lack of high-quality internet services for faculty, students and workers, or for the hiring of teaching and non-teaching staff.

The union leader said he expects a response to the letter addressed to Haddock, which includes a list of concerns, among which he highlighted: * Will it be possible to continue using the tools provided by Google and that they do not entail costs for the UPR? * What will happen to the data and web pages of projects and research that are created under Google Sites, Forms and Google Drive? * How will the new system ensure the integrity of

the data and all the work typical of our academic and creative activity? * How will the confidentiality and protection of information of each member of the university community be ensured? * What concrete benefits does this emulation bring?

Rodríguez called on the UPR president to show greater transparency toward the university community and the public.

“We cannot speak of austerity and sacrifices while incurring this type of expense,” he said.

6

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

Authorized cost of dredging Martín Peña Channel on track for 55% increase

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

tor of the Caño Martín Peña ENLACE Project Corp. “If thae measure is approved with the new amendment, the amount required for the execution of the Caño dredging will be updated in accordance with the feasibility study of the project.”

The measure is pending approval by the U.S. House of Representatives. Then it will go to conference committee with the Senate, since the version in upper chamber does not contain the amendment to the costs.

“The dredging of the Caño is critical to minimize the risks from flooding of the communities surrounding this body of water and fundamental infrastructure of the country, such as Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, and to restore the ecosystem of the San Juan Bay estuary for the health and safety of the residents who live in these eight communities,” said Lucy M. Cruz Rivera, president of the Group of Eight (G-8) communities situated near Caño Martín Peña.

“We must continue fighting so that these funds are officially assigned to the project. For this, we are going to continue coordinating efforts with Caño’s allies in the Puerto Rico government and the United States Congress,” she said.

For years the Caño Martín Peña has served as a landfill for successive generations of squatters who have filled the channel with garbage, reducing its width to just a few feet in some stretches.

Several public and private housing projects have been completed to relocate residents away from the banks of the fetid channel.

T

he Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives determined Thursday to amend the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) 2020 with an increase in the authorized costs of carrying out the dredging of the Martín Peña Channel (Caño Martín Peña) in San Juan from $150 million to $232.4 million.

The WRDA is the federal law that authorizes environmental, structural, navigation, flood protection, and hydrology projects, among others, that impact bodies of water in U.S. jurisdiction.

In 2007, through Section 5127 of the 2007 WRDA, the U.S. Congress authorized up to a maximum of $150 million to carry out the dredging of the Caño Martín Pena as a project of environmental restoration and protection against flood damage. With the amendment accepted Thursday by the House, the dredging costs authorized in 2007 are updated to match those of the Feasibility Study approved by the Corps of Engineers in 2016.

“We welcome the inclusion of this amendment in the United States House of Representatives version of the WRDA 2020, but we want to make it clear that this is not an allocation of funds. It is an amendment that updates project costs and guides Congress and relevant federal agencies to eventually identify and allocate funds for dredging,” said Mario Núñez Mercado, executive direc-

2019 tax cycle closes on a high note

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

T

reasury Secretary Francisco Parés Alicea announced on Thursday a successful closure of the 2019 tax cycle, with an increase in the filing of individual and corporate returns, in addition to the sending out of over $1 million in refund payments.

“We concluded a tax cycle with increases of 14

percent and 4 percent in the filing of individual and corporate returns, respectively, despite the various events that have altered the lives of citizens since the beginning of the year,” Parés Alicea said in a written communication. “This represents 124,590 additional forms compared to those received last year as of July 15. We are also closing the period by sending the most significant reimbursement payroll to date, for $106,464,479.37 to 53,149 taxpayers, “said With the new million-dollar refund payment, more than $527 million has already been disbursed to some 597,736 taxpayers, since the tax cycle began on Feb. 24.

On July 15, the term for filing for the 2019 tax year expired. It was the second extension of the term, given the strong impact of COVID-19 on the health and finances of all taxpayers.

The Treasury electronically received 992,058 returns from individuals and 33,590 from corporations, compared to 868,903 returns from individuals received for the 2018 tax year and 32,154 from corporations for that same period.

Parés Alicea emphasized that the digitization of the system eliminated the traditional lines and the accumulation of documents, which delayed the

processing of payrolls and the payment of refunds.

“Digitization definitely makes tax administration more effective and the period we have just closed is the best example,” he said. “We will continue to process and pay refunds quickly, for the benefit of all taxpayers who assumed their tax liability.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

7

Even if the polls are really off, Trump is still in trouble

By NATE COHN

W

ith Joe Biden claiming almost a doubledigit lead in national polls, one question still seems to loom over the race: Can we trust the polls after 2016?

It’s a good question. But for now, it is not as important as you might guess. If the election were held today, Biden would win the presidency, even if the polls were exactly as wrong as they were four years ago.

The reason is simple: His lead is far wider than Hillary Clinton’s was in the final polls, and large enough to withstand another 2016 polling meltdown.

This is not to say that Trump can’t win.

There are still nearly four months to go until the election — more than enough time for the race and the polls to change. The race changed on several occasions over the final months in 2016.

And this race has already changed significantly in the past four months. According to FiveThirtyEight, three months ago, Biden held a lead of only about 4 points.

And while Biden can currently survive a 2016-like polling error, there is no reason a polling error couldn’t be even larger in 2020.

But for now, his lead is large enough to survive a 2016 repeat and just about every generalelection polling error in recent memory. He leads by an average of nearly 10 percentage points in national polls since June 1, well ahead of Clinton’s 4-point lead in the final national polls or her peaks of about 7 points in early August and mid-October.

Biden also enjoys a far wider lead in the battleground states likeliest to decide the presidency. His 13-point lead in a Monmouth University poll of Pennsylvania published Wednesday, for instance, puts him in a much stronger position than Clinton, who had a 4-point lead in the last Monmouth poll of Pennsylvania taken just before the election.

Of course, the polls could be even further off this time than four years ago. But there are also many reasons to think they could be better this time around.

Perhaps most important, many pollsters now weight their sample to properly represent voters without a college degree. The failure of many state pollsters to do so in 2016 is widely considered one of the major reasons the polls underestimated Trump’s support. Voters without a four-year college degree are far less likely to respond to telephone surveys — and far likelier to support Trump. By our estimates, weighting by education might move the typical poll by as

much as 4 points in Trump’s direction.

Although many state pollsters still do not weight by education, far more do than four years ago.The Monmouth poll is one example.The final Monmouth poll of Pennsylvania in 2016, which showed Clinton up 4 percentage points, would have shown her with a 2-point lead, 47% to 45%, if it had been weighted by education, according to Patrick Murray, director of the poll. That alone covers about half of the difference between the actual result and the final Monmouth poll, and it’s a reason to have more confidence in the new Monmouth poll.

Education weighting is not enough to ensure a perfect result. After all, Clinton still would have led — albeit quite narrowly — in the final Monmouth poll of Pennsylvania, even weighted by education. And other high-quality, educationweighted state polls, like the Marquette Law School poll in Wisconsin, still showed Clinton with a considerable edge in 2016. Other factors were clearly at play.

But many of the other sources of polling error in 2016 also seem less likely to repeat.

There are far fewer undecided or minorparty voters now than four years ago. These voters broke in Trump’s favor, according to exit polls and postelection surveys that recontacted preelection respondents, helping to explain part of his strength in the final results. Undecided voters could again break towardTrump, but this time there are simply fewer of them — and therefore less opportunity for the polls to be wrong for that reason.

Another component of the polling error in 2016 was turnout. It is hard to generalize the role of turnout in the polling misfire because there are as many likely-voter models as there are pollsters. But some pollsters probably overestimated Black turnout by relying too heavily on Obama-era turnout models. This time, reliance on the last election could just as easily understate Democratic turnout. In general, the party out of power tends to enjoy a relatively higher turnout than when it’s in power, and that could help Democrats compared with 2016.

In the case of the Monmouth poll, it turns out that turnout was a significant factor. Trump would have led Clinton by 1 percentage point, 45% to 44%, in the final Monmouth University poll of Pennsylvania if it had been weighted by education and the likely voter sample had consisted only of those who ultimately voted, according to voter file records. (Trump won the state by 0.7 of a point.)

Similarly, the final New York Times/Siena College poll of North Carolina, which was con-

ducted over the weekend before the election and found the candidates tied, would have shown Trump ahead by 4 percentage points (he won by 3.6 points) if the likely voter sample had consisted only of validated voters. These kinds of findings led many pollsters to conclude that survey research wasn’t fundamentally broken after the 2016 election, and led many to redouble their efforts rather than abandon the enterprise.

Of course, addressing the last election’s polling problems doesn’t ensure that there won’t be another type of polling failure.

Perhaps the biggest risk is one that has loomed over the polling industry for a decade: declining response rates to telephone surveys.

Up until now, there has been little evidence that low response rates have endangered the accuracy of high-quality survey research. It turns out that the people who respond to telephone surveys appear to vote similarly to people from their same demographic group who do not respond.

But they are different in some ways. They are likelier to be volunteers. They are likelier to express trust in their neighbors and society. Such differences could become more significant or

grow into closer alignment with political views.

In the worst-case scenario, declining trust in experts, the news media and polling could lead to systematic nonresponse bias, where even adjusting for education or demographics would be far from enough to ensure a representative sample.

There are reasons to doubt that this will happen. Only a few months ago, polls showed Trump highly competitive, and there is a fairly simple explanation for the turn against him: his handling of the coronavirus. The trend against the president holds regardless of how the survey was conducted. Panel surveys, in which respondents are repeatedly contacted, also show formerTrump supporters abandoning the president. And most surveys show the right number of respondents who say they voted for Trump in 2016. They’re just saying they won’t vote for him again. It would take an awfully targeted form of bias for polls to get the right number of 2016 Trump voters yet vastly overrepresent those who are leaving him.

Even so, you can imagine how it could, possibly, happen — such problems can’t be discounted. The problems even harder to discount are those that can’t be imagined.

8

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

Biden gets help from big names writing huge checks

By SHANE GOLDMACHER

F

ormer Vice President Joe Biden raised tens of millions of dollars in the last three months from major donors who gave more than $100,000, relying on some of the Democratic Party’s deepest pockets to sharply shrink President Donald Trump’s financial advantage, according to new federal filings.

Biden’s biggest benefactors in the second quarter of 2020, when he became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, represent a who’s who of billionaires and influencers in Silicon Valley, Hollywood,

Wall Street and beyond. Among those who gave at least $500,000 were Laurene Powell Jobs, the philanthropist and widow of Steve Jobs; Meg Whitman, a former Republican candidate for governor of California and now chief executive of the streaming company Quibi; George Soros, the billionaire progressive financier; Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood producer; and Dustin Moskovitz, a co-founder of Facebook.

Biden had previously announced that he narrowly edged Trump in total fundraising with their parties in the last full three months, $282 million to $266 million. New Federal

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, speaks in Wilmington, Del., July 14, 2020.

Election Commission filings released late Wednesday shed the first light on the biggest contributors powering Biden’s financial turnaround, from a candidate who struggled to raise money in the primaries to one now outpacing the incumbent president.

Ever since Biden became the presumptive nominee in early April, the financial floodgates have opened as major donors who once backed his rivals rallied behind him and small contributors surged toward the chance to oust Trump. James Murdoch, the son of the media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and his wife, Kathryn, each gave $615,000 in June to Biden’s shared committee with the Democratic Party. During the primary campaign, Murdoch had donated to Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

Donation limits during the general election skyrocket because, as the expected nominee, Biden can raise money simultaneously for his own campaign, the Democratic National Committee and state parties. Checks can be as large as $620,600.

Donors who gave at least $100,000 accounted for more than $53 million of Biden’s total haul in April through June, records show.

The Biden and Trump campaigns will not file full reports for their spending and fundraising until Monday, though Wednesday’s disclosures offered important revelations both about how much cash Biden has accumulated and whom he and Trump have raised money from.

Biden’s campaign has closely guarded exactly how much cash he has in the bank, along with the DNC. But the latest filings suggested he had far surpassed $210 million

in cash on hand entering July, a remarkable number given his earlier difficulties.

His two committees that filed Wednesday showed balances of $92.5 million.

Biden’s main committee and the DNC account had combined for another $118 million, including debts, at the end of May; and spending patterns suggest those balances only rose in June, by far the campaign’s best fundraising month.

Trump’s campaign has said he entered July with $295 million in the bank, but his edge over Biden has eroded from $187 million at the start of April to a fraction of that now.

Trump has previously leaned heavily on major donors to bankroll his run, tapping many of the mainstays of the Republican money circuit months ago. But in the spring, as the coronavirus pandemic shut down traditional fundraisers, he relied mostly on online contributions, with $167.6 million of his donations — more than 62% — coming via the Republicans’ main online processing site, WinRed, new records show.

Trump still had some major contributors, raising $27 million via his joint committee with the Republican National Committee that can accept outsize checks. But that was a fraction of the sum that Biden raised from larger contributors.

Among Trump’s bigger contributors were Isaac Perlmutter, former chief executive of Marvel Entertainment, who has been a presence at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club; and Bernard Marcus, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot, who recently dined with Trump at the White House.

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

9

Ocasio-Cortez pushes Cuomo to back billionaires’ tax

By JEFFERY C. MAYS and JESSE McKINLEY

R

ep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., will spearhead a new campaign to push Gov. Andrew Cuomo to tax billionaires who live in New York state and use the money to assist people hurt by the pandemic-fueled economic crisis.

Similar measures targeting the wealthy have stalled in Albany, opposed by Republicans who long controlled the state Senate or by Cuomo, a third-term Democrat who has made his tax-cutting ways a central platform of his decadelong tenure.

But the environment has changed: Democrats gained control of both houses of the Legislature in a “blue wave” election in 2018, and the effects of the coronavirus-forced shutdown have created a $13 billion state budget shortfall.

Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Queens who was among the progressive Democrats who won office in 2018, sponsored the bill that would tax the unrealized capital gains of the state’s 119 billionaires. The money raised would be redirected to workers not eligible for unemployment insurance or the federal stimulus.

The proposed legislation is one of at least three taxthe-rich bills, including one that would impose an ultramillionaires’ tax, that will greet the state Legislature when it returns for a rare July session Monday.

But even with Democrats in control in Albany, the measures are still sure to encounter opposition from Republicans and many business leaders.

Cuomo has argued that taxes that target high earners could drive them out of the state and further damage the tax base — a concern that the governor’s budget director, Robert Mujica, underscored in an interview Wednesday.

New York already has one of the highest tax rates for the wealthy in the country, Mujica said, adding that the top 2% of taxpayers already pay half of the state’s tax liability. The only effective way to get billionaires to pay more, he said, would be if Congress enacted a wealth tax on high earners.

“It’s interesting when you have people elected to Congress pushing for state action when they can’t get action in Congress,” Mujica said. “It’s absolutely necessary for the federal government to step up and provide the support we need.”

Ocasio-Cortez is part of a coordinated effort that aims to persuade Cuomo that the state should act first.

On Thursday, a campaign-like video will be released featuring Ocasio-Cortez; Ramos; the New York City public advocate, Jumaane Williams; and two Assembly members, Carmen De La Rosa and Yuh-Line Niou.

“Gov. Cuomo, we need you to pass a billionaires’ tax, in order to make sure that we’re providing for our working families,” Ocasio-Cortez said in the video. “It’s time to stop protecting billionaires, and it’s time to start working for working families.”

Ms. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that a new tax on billionaires would help many essential workers who are suffering from the effects of the outbreak.

Also Thursday, 100 immigrant workers will start a 24hour fast and sleep-out near the Fifth Avenue penthouse of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and one of the richest men in the world. On Friday, hundreds of people are expected to hold a “march on billionaires” that will end at Cuomo’s Manhattan office.

“We are calling for a just recovery for all New Yorkers, but right now our system is rigged to protect the mega-rich,” said Angeles Solis, lead organizer for Make the Road New York, one of the groups in the coalition.

Last year, a so-called pied-à-terre tax on the second homes of the wealthy in New York City gained some momentum after Kenneth C. Griffin, a hedge fund billionaire with an estimated net worth of $10 billion, purchased the most expensive single family home in the United States, a $238 million apartment on Central Park South.

Cuomo voiced support for the plan before it fell apart after the real estate industry exerted pressure on legislators.

But the financial crisis created by the coronavirus — the state estimates it needs more than $10 billion to stave off major cuts in education, health care and public safety — has forced lawmakers to reconsider implementing new taxes.

Last month, 103 Democratic legislators — including a majority in the state Senate — signed on to a letter that called for the wealthy to pay their share and pledged not

to allow budget cuts “without raising revenue from those who can most afford to pay more.”

Ramos, who represents areas of Queens hit hardest by the coronavirus, said the environment has changed since the failure of the pied-à-terre tax.

“The pandemic has only exacerbated the holes that already existed in our safety net,” she said. “It is much easier to make the case for taxing billionaires now that there is such widespread strife, and unemployment has never been higher.”

Ocasio-Cortez said that Ramos’ bill would give “much deserved economic relief” to the many people suffering from the effects of the outbreak, especially immigrants in the country illegally “who have been at the forefront of the crisis as essential workers.”

With Republicans no longer in charge of the state Senate, the proposals for new taxes on the wealthy will undoubtedly have a far greater chance of passing. But Robert G. Ortt, the Senate Republican minority leader, still asserted that a billionaires’ tax would be a mistake that would “send individuals who already pay for most of New York’s services away to lower tax states along with their businesses and jobs.”

“We need to examine spending and start cutting waste before everyone escapes from New York,” he added.

10

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

Washington State beat back COVID-19. Now it’s rising again.

By RACHEL ABRAMS

I

n what seems like almost a lifetime ago, America’s coronavirus story started in January in Washington state, with the nation’s first confirmed case followed by an early outbreak that spread with alarming ferocity.

But swift lockdown measures were credited with holding down illnesses and deaths. By June, nail salons and bars had begun to reopen, even as the virus began to rage in Texas, Arizona and Florida. Washington still had relatively low case numbers, and some counties were even contemplating a return to movie theaters and museums.

Now, those plans are on hold.

The coronavirus is once again ravaging Washington, and the number of cases has hit grim new milestones. Since the middle of June, the state has reported an average of 700 new cases per day — the highest levels since the start of the pandemic.

More than 42,000 people have been infected and over 1,400 have died.

“If these trends were to continue, we would have to prepare to go back to where we were in March,” Gov. Jay Inslee said recently.

Six months after the coronavirus first reached the United States, the state that was on the initial front line — a state that locked down early and hard — is only now beginning to see how complicated and lengthy the fight may be.

A lot of things are going wrong at once. Young people, less likely to die of the virus and undoubtedly weary of social

distancing measures, have been driving a spike in new infections in the Seattle area. And an outbreak in Yakima County that began powering its way through agriculture workers in the spring has now spread widely through a community that has not embraced self-isolation and masking to the degree that many Seattleites have.

Yakima, the eighth-most populous county, now has the second-highest number of cases. While the county cannot be blamed for hot spots elsewhere, Yakima does show how the virus can simmer along at a seeming lull — until a fresh outbreak suddenly surges through an entire region, challenging officials to stitch together cohesive policies for a patchwork of different problems.

“It’s really important for people to understand that their individual behaviors, everyone’s individual behaviors, collectively have a big impact on transmission,” said Dr. Kathy Lofy, Washington’s health officer. “We can increase testing, we can do case and contact investigations, we can do outbreak response, but those activities only get us so far.”

When the virus first came to Washington, the eastern part of the state was not hit as badly as Seattle, a liberal city with legions of tech workers who dutifully stayed home. But lockdown measures were not as effective in Yakima, a much less affluent county where more than 60% of people work in meat- or fruitpacking plants or other essential jobs.

The county is home to a large Hispanic population, which officials have said is more at risk for the coronavirus because of crowded living conditions where the virus can easily spread or

Yakima, Washington’s eighth-most populous county, now has the second-highest number of cases.

limited access to health care. Many people live paycheck to paycheck, and if they were able to get up and go to work, they did.

By mid-May, people who worked in Yakima’s fruit-packing facilities had started to get sick. Terrified of working on crowded assembly lines or in warehouses that were not regularly cleaned, many went on strike, even as the virus spread outside the buildings’ walls.

Cases hit a peak in early June, according to Dr. Teresa Everson, the health officer for the Yakima Health District, just as more workers were cramming into processing facilities for the beginning of Washington’s busy cherry-picking season.

Still, only a third of those in the county wore masks, according to one survey from health officials. In the last few weeks, infectious people have gone to at least 20 family gatherings, 15 birthday parties, two baby showers and two weddings, Everson said. Some businesses were even reluctant to work with her office, which was trying to track cases and do contact tracing.

“There are a few large employers that persistently do not return our phone calls and do not want to work with us,” Everson said.

Local law enforcement authorities have been reluctant to aggressively enforce virus-control measures ordered by the state.

When the governor issued a statewide mask mandate, Yakima County’s sheriff, Robert Udell, issued a statement saying that he would not arrest or detain anyone who violated the “controversial” rule.

As in many conservative towns, masks are a political issue here, and rumors have swirled: The masks are bad for your health. Officials are inflating the numbers.

“Our county health department’s cooking the books,” a Yakima County sheriff’s detective, Judd Towell, said one recent afternoon at a dusty gun range in Yakima. He went on to argue, without evidence, that the severity of the outbreak was not what county health officials were making it out to be.

Everson said she has heard plenty of such suspicions. ”We are accused daily of blatantly lying about our numbers to either scare the public or make money,” she said. “I don’t know what to make of that.”

With only 60 deputies and one of the highest murder rates in the state, Udell argues that he has bigger problems to deal with than enforcing the mask mandate. And ultimately, Udell, an elected official, has no interest in wading into a debate over masks that could alienate voters.

“I get emails, dozens of emails a day, saying ‘I’m never going to do it, you can’t make me,’” he said. “On the other side, we get emails saying, ‘Put those people in jail.’”

For health officials, there is no debate. The government can increase testing only so much, they say. But to reopen businesses, to reestablish a normal way of life, Washington will have to rely on a weary public that may have thought they had the virus beat.

Just a few weeks ago, the state was confident that it could reopen schools in the fall, allowing many parents to go back to work and fuel the state’s economic recovery. But amid mounting opposition from educators and health experts, those plans look increasingly unlikely. And on Tuesday, Inslee said that no counties would be allowed to loosen lockdown restrictions for at least two weeks.

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

11

China’s economy rebounds from virus, but uncertainty persists

By KEITH BRADSHER

E

conomies in Europe and the United States are still languishing as the pandemic forces cities to shut down and shoppers to stay home. But one major country is growing once again: China.

The world’s second-largest economy expanded 3.2% from April through June compared to the same period last year, Chinese officials said Thursday. It was an abrupt turnaround from the January through March quarter, when the economy shrank 6.8%, the first contraction that China has acknowledged in nearly half a century.

The recovery points to the authoritarian government’s success in bringing the coronavirus outbreak under control with widespread testing and travel restrictions, after its early missteps delayed the response and fed public anger.

But the economic rebound also reflects the government’s continued reliance on spending on the building of highways and rail lines and other infrastructure projects to juice the economy, rather than on domestic consumption.

The approach raises questions about whether China’s economic turnaround is sustainable, and whether it can become the engine needed to drive the global economy out of a slump.

China needs to rev up consumption at home because demand for its exports is slowing as other countries go into recession and unemployment grows globally. Factories in China are already cranking out furniture, consumer electronics and mass-market cars more quickly than consumers at home or abroad want to buy them.

“It looks like there is still a mismatch there — people are not consuming as much as previously,” said Sara Hsu, a visiting scholar in economics at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Sales of groceries and other essentials have stayed strong in China throughout the pandemic. But the people’s willingness to spend on restaurant meals, nights at hotels, and other nonessential goods and services has still not fully bounced back.

“The production recovery was much better than that of demand, with

Commuters during the evening rush hour in Beijing in May. insufficient demand for optional goods,” said Stephan Wöllenstein, the chief executive of Volkswagen Group China.

The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets have surged 14% in the first half of this month, through Wednesday’s close. The rally has been so strong that some analysts have worried it may be the start of another speculative mania like the one in early 2015 that led to a crash late that year and in early 2016.

On the Chinese economy itself, however, a cautious optimism is emerging. “The economy is definitely on the mend,” said Shen Jianguang, the China economist for JD.com, a large Chinese online retailer.

The National Bureau of Statistics also announced Thursday that industrial production climbed 4.8% in June from a year ago, while investment in fixed assets strengthened, especially for infrastructure. Retail sales remained fairly weak, falling 1.8% last month compared to a year earlier.

China’s economy has shown “development and resilience,” said Liu Aihua, the bureau’s director general of the department of comprehensive statistics, at a news briefing. But, she warned, “the national economic recovery was still under pressure.”

Growth was driven by a ramping up of infrastructure investments. Beijing gave quick approval for local governments to issue bonds to pay for shovelready projects like building a subway line in Dalian and renovating a train station in Xi’an. The government also provided quick loans and other subsidies to businesses on the condition that they not lay off workers.

Despite those measures, however, tens of millions of Chinese remain out of work, particularly young Chinese. The government has tried to respond by sharply expanding the number of places in graduate schools this autumn and even redefining employment to include bloggers and professional video gamers.

Millions of factory and service workers routinely quit their jobs each December or January to return to their home villages for extended Lunar New Year celebrations, and then hunt for new jobs when they return to cities in late February or in March. But this year, many of these workers are still unemployed, as eateries, hotels and many export factories have hired back practically no one since the holiday ended.

As in the United States and elsewhere, the slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic has widened the gap

between the rich and the poor in China.

Sales data shows that spending in villages, towns and smaller cities and among lower-income households had faltered, Shen said. But wealthier households, who are more likely to work from home or to have considerable savings, are still spending money.

Consumption has also stayed fairly strong in big cities, where most of the country’s affluent families live, Shen said.

China’s appearance of economic strength in the second quarter was also partly a statistical fluke. In April and May, China spent less on imports because the cost of oil, copper and other commodities went down. That meant China had a bigger trade surplus. And a larger trade surplus shows up in countries’ accounting as faster economic growth.

But those prices have jumped back up in the past several weeks, so the country’s economic performance now through September will not reflect the same import savings.

Now the question is whether China’s exports can hold up at a time when many stores are struggling in the West, and particularly in the United States, which has seen a steep increase in new confirmed cases of COVID-19. China’s exports were up only 0.5% in June compared to last year.

Steve Denton, the chief executive of Ware2Go, a large warehouse logistics company controlled by UPS, said that from March through mid-July, the company had seen a 17% jump in the volume of goods being stored. Many of these goods are from China.

Many businesspeople in China are worried that weak demand is putting inexorable pressure on them to cut prices. Their revenues erode as a result, making it hard for them to repay their loans.

Sun Fengling, a seafood trader in Xuzhou, said that she had been forced to cut the price of crayfish by two-thirds in recent weeks. Farmers continued raising crayfish through the spring and now have ponds full of them, but demand has been slow to rebound.

In a glimmer of hope, other harvests are starting to do better. “We’re all sold out of crab,” she said.

12

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

Stocks

Wall Street dips on fears over rising COVID-19 cases, tech weighs

T

he S&P 500 dipped from a five-week high on Thursday, pulled lower by Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Apple Inc (AAPL.O), as concerns about the economic toll from rising coronavirus cases were heightened by data showing elevated levels of unemployment claims.

U.S. retail sales increased more than expected in June, but a resurgence in new COVID-19 cases is undercutting the budding recovery, keeping 32 million Americans on unemployment benefits.

A jump in domestic case loads has forced California and other states to shut down again, sparking fears of more business damage and slowing the pace of a Wall Street rally. The S&P 500 is about 5% below its February record high.

“The economic data shows there is still a challenge going forward,” said Willie Delwiche, an investment strategist at Baird in Milwaukee. “Congress better get its act together and pass another fiscal stimulus.”

The S&P 500 has exceeded the Nasdaq by over 2 percentage points over the past week, its greatest five-day outperformance over the Nasdaq since late March, reflecting a shift away from Amazon.com (AMZN.O), Microsoft and other major technology companies that have led Wall Street’s gains in recent months.

Apple lost 1.1% and Microsoft fell 1.9%, each weighing more than any other company on the S&P 500.

Most S&P 500 sector indexes fell, with real estate .SPLRCR down 1.3% and technology .SPLRCT down 1.2%, more than any other.

“This is an early indication of good signs that money is now flowing away from completely overbought Nasdaq into those names that will bode well when the economy starts finding more of a solid footing,” said Andrew Smith, chief investment strategist at Dallas, Texas-based Delos Capital Advisors.

Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) fell 1.4% after hackers accessed its internal systems to hijack some of the platform’s top voices, including U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, reality TV star Kim Kardashian West, former U.S. President Barack Obama and billionaire Elon Musk and used them to solicit digital currency.

At 2:28 p.m. ET (1828 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was down 0.62% at 26,702.34 points, while the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.44% to 3,212.51.

The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 0.66% to 10,480.66.

Rounding up earnings reports of big banks, Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) fell 3% after its second-quarter profit more than halved, while Morgan Stanley (MS.N) rose 2.2% after posting a record quarterly profit.

American Airlines (AAL.O) dropped 7.2% as it sent 25,000 notices of potential furloughs to frontline workers and warned that demand for air travel is slowing again.

Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) slipped 1.8% as its vehicle registrations nearly halved in the U.S. state of California during the second quarter, according to data from a marketing research firm.

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The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

13

It’s Merkel’s last rodeo. Will a pandemic rescue deal seal her legacy?

By STEVEN ERLANGER

F

inishing her 15th year as chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, the European Union’s longest-serving and most respected leader, now has her last, best chance to shape the future of the bloc and her own legacy.

With her long reign winding down, she and Germany have assumed the EU’s rotating presidency, which lasts through the end of the year, at a moment when the bloc is badly divided over a coronavirus recovery plan, a new seven-year budget and threats to the rule of law in eastern member states.

Merkel faces her first big test Friday, when she and other leaders are to convene their first in-person summit in Brussels since the coronavirus outbreak took hold in Europe five months ago. With a sense of urgency, they will try to hash out a consensus on how best to help European nations clobbered by the virus.

Expectations for Merkel’s leadership are high. But while this may be her last rodeo, many expect the same cautious pragmatism and reluctance to take bold, transformative steps that have characterized her time in office and her response to past European crises.

As a politician, Merkel, soon to be 66, remains, as ever, deliberately opaque, allowing many to imagine her support for their own preferred outcomes. But as much as she is committed to the European Union, she has consistently sought that sweet spot where German and European interests align, guided by German public opinion and her own careful personality.

While she has understood in the current crisis that the European economy needs a rescue, she is also keenly aware that Germany needs a strong European economy for its own continued prosperity.

That, as much as anything, led her to break new ground with France by backing pooled debt among EU members to stave off the economic crash of the pandemic — what she last week called “the greatest test the European Union has ever faced.”

The proposal — grants worth 500 billion euros (about $570 billion) for regions hit hardest by the pandemic — represented a reversal of the fierce German opposition to collective European debt.

Some hailed her move as a sea change, one that would seal her legacy as a Europeanist, much as Helmut Kohl is remembered for his support of the euro currency.

But others are skeptical, instead seeing a unique and typically pragmatic response to a crisis that threatened the European single market and thus the German economy.

Merkel, who tends to say what she means, has made it clear that such largess was a “one-off.”

“Germany has moved a lot,” said Daniela Schwarzer, the director of the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin.

“Germans were always ready in the presidency to put a bit more on the table, but without the virus, there would have been no revolution in the budget.”

Ulrich Speck, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin, said that Merkel remained true to herself, and that she was shifting only because Germans, deeply embedded in the European Union, want to help those ravaged by the pandemic, especially in Italy and Spain.

Health care workers at a hospital in Munich on April 22, 2020.

“For her, this does not really change the European Union, and public opinion is behind it,” Speck said. “This is not controversial; this is crisis management. What would be controversial would be a permanent change of structure.”

But others, especially European federalists in France and Italy, dare to believe Merkel harbors secret sympathy for deeper European integration and prefer to see her as breaking a taboo.

Even if that were true, with her time in office coming to an end, any more permanent shift in policy would have to come from her successor, and few believe that the current band of potential chancellors would have the political weight, let alone the desire, to repeat the exercise.

But first she must get a deal, which will not be simple, given that all 27 member countries must agree.

There is significant opposition from northern European nations like the Netherlands and Austria, which oppose grants and want loans to come with conditions about structural change in weaker economies. And there will be a fight over how the money is distributed and monitored.

Still, given the stakes, Merkel is likely to succeed at finding some agreement — if not this week then before the end of the month, when Europe goes on vacation, no matter how serious the crisis.

Merkel is still seen as a holdover of an older Europe, one that profited from friendly relations with the United States, a healthy trans-Atlantic relationship, a strong NATO and a global consensus about the virtues of multilateralism and of engagement

with a rising China.

Those bedrock beliefs are now in question. As much as she is praised for her steadiness, there is a deep sense in Europe that she is yesterday’s leader, her core beliefs no longer a given in a more rivalrous, competitive world.

The pandemic has provided an opportunity for her to change the narrative. It created political space for her to push Germany in a more European direction, said Simon Tilford, of the Forum for a New Economy in Berlin.

“This is an opportunity to ensure her legacy as a chancellor who bit the bullet and convinced Germans that it’s in their interest to accept greater responsibility for the performance of the European economy as a whole,” he said.

Charles A. Kupchan, former director for Europe on the National Security Council and professor of international relations at Georgetown, said that “the pandemic has woken up Merkel and Berlin.” While President Emmanuel Macron of France was trying to articulate a vision for a more integrated Europe, he said, “the lights were out in Berlin — there was no response.”

But the pandemic raised the prospect of a collapse of the eurozone, “with ground zero being not Greece but Italy, a much larger economy, so Merkel crossed the Rubicon,” Kupchan said.

“But my best guess is that this is not a moment of conversion for Merkel. She is responding to an emergency with emergency measures,” he added. “She does not have the inclination for some dramatic change in the European architecture or the political support for it.”

14

July 17-19, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

For U.K.’s minority women, economic toll of lockdown lingers

Zuhr Rind, who worked at a laundromat in the city, said she was laid off shortly after asking her boss for a face mask.

By CEYLAN YEAGINSU

W

ithin 10 days of the British government’s lockdown announcement in late March, one woman lost all nine of her cleaning jobs. Another was laid off from a laundromat after she requested a mask, and a live-in nanny was fired for using public transport on her day off.

In separate interviews, the three women said that they had expected to confront hardships during the lockdown. But as the economy starts to reopen, they and other women on the lower rungs of the economy say they are still struggling, weighed down by debts accumulated during the freeze and often facing pay cuts or forced to do more work for the same wages.

The three have one other thing in common: They are all women of color, a group that has long faced economic and racial inequality in Britain and is now being hit disproportionately by the financial and psychological impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a recent study by a group of British universities and women’s charities.

“COVID-19 has brought the harsh realities of preexisting racial inequalities into sharp relief, and nowhere is this more manifest than the disproportionate social and economic impact of COVID-19 on Black and ethnic minority women,” said Zubaida Haque, interim director of the Runnymede Trust, a London-based organization advocating racial equality.

The main reason that people of color are so vulnerable, experts say, is that they are more likely to be in precarious employment or to become unemployed, making it harder for them to qualify

for government support and to protect themselves from the virus.

Minji Paik, a Korean beautician who works in a hair salon in East London, said she made 15 pounds an hour before the pandemic, about $19 dollars, plus tips. Now she is making 10 pounds an hour and has been working longer shifts because of staff shortages.

“My manager says this is temporary and she will give me more money when we make money,” Paik said. “But actually, I should be paid more because I’m working inside and risking my health.”

A government review of the disparities in the risk and outcomes from the coronavirus found that death rates have been higher in Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups than in white groups. The review found that Chinese, Indian, Pakistani and other Asians as well as Caribbeans and other Black people had from 10% to 50% higher risk of death than white Britons.

“There’s often a risk when people start talking about the underlying causes of death because of the assumption that the reason is related to genetics or poor diets,” said Bridget Byrne, director of the Center on Dynamics of Ethnicity at the University of Manchester. “But actually, you need to look at the wider process of racism and the structuring of race and deprivation.”

The precarious nature of the current labor market is a contributing factor as well, Byrne said. “It makes people less willing to voice their concerns. They worry that if they say, ‘I don’t feel safe; I don’t think I should be coming in,’ they will be the first to be laid off.”

Candice Brown, 48, a cleaner who is of Jamaican descent, said she had lost all her clients when lockdown measures were imposed in March.

“They phoned me one by one to say don’t come,” she recalled, referring to the owners of the nine houses she cleaned each week in the city of Manchester, in northwestern England.

“Each call was like a bomb, blasting every bit of my livelihood until I had no work left.”

For two months she tried to navigate the government’s financial support system for those affected by the pandemic and even borrowed money from a friend to hire an accountant to help.

But eventually, she found out that she was not eligible for any aid because she lacked the paperwork to prove her employment history.

“I applied for universal credit,” she said, referring to the government’s income support program. “But I am still waiting. I haven’t received a penny.”

Even with the easing of the lockdown measures, Brown has not been invited back to work because her employers fear that she could contract and spread the virus by working between multiple households.

“I don’t know how much longer I can go on like this,” she said. “In the first month, I was worrying about how to pay my rent and my bills. Now I can’t sleep, worrying about how to feed my children.”

Zuhr Rind, 48, a Pakistani laundromat worker in East London, was asked to work the last shift when the pandemic broke out so that she could wash the uniforms of the front-of-house employees, who collected laundry from clients.

“I was not happy about it, but what could I do? Work is work, and I was afraid to lose my job if I made an argument,” she said.

When she asked for a face mask, her manager chided her, she said.

“That is pathetic, Z,” her manager wrote back in a text message she showed to The New York Times. “Doctors and nurses do not even have enough masks, and they’re still going to work.”

A day later, Rind said, she was laid off. “When you have brown skin, when you have an accent and when you don’t have a high education, you don’t have choices,” she said. “And this is a very dangerous situation to be in during COVID.” The laundromat where she worked did not respond to a request for comment.

Verona Pollard, an experienced nanny and maternity nurse, has taken up part-time child care work since she was fired from a full-time nannying job after her employer found out she had taken public transport on her days off.

“She was ruthless about it and wouldn’t take me back, even when the lockdown was lifted,” she said in a phone interview. “ It’s been brutal since then. I’m just doing odd jobs here and there.”

And in the Fawcett Society’s survey, work-related anxiety was highest among Black and minority ethnic women, with 65.1% of women employed outside the home reporting that they felt apprehensive as a result of having to go to work during the pandemic.

Brown, the cleaner in Manchester, said that she was still waiting for her unemployment benefits to come through and that she had been borrowing money from a friend and from a former employer to get by. In recent weeks, she said she has become so stressed and anxious that rashes have broken out all over her body and she has noticed her hair falling out.

“I promise you, what I am going through now is worse than any virus,” she said.

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

15

Burning ships in Iran add to string of dozens of explosions and fires

By FARNAZ FASSIHI

A

large fire broke out at a shipyard in the southern Iranian port city of Bushehr on Wednesday, burning seven ships and sending plumes of black smoke billowing above the city skyline, according to videos and Iranian media reports.

The fire followed dozens of recent fires and explosions across Iran’s forests, factories and military and nuclear facilities in the past three months that have rattled ordinary Iranians. Iranian officials have said that some of the episodes may have been acts of sabotage but blamed weather, accidents and equipment malfunctions for the others.

On Tuesday, an aluminum factory in the industrial city of Lamard in Fars province caught fire. On Sunday, a fire broke out at petrochemical plant in Khuzestan province.

An explosion at the country’s top nuclear facility in Natanz two weeks ago damaged the structure where centrifuges were assembled and has been attributed to Israeli sabotage.

There have also been explosions at two power plants, a chlorine gas leak at a chemical plant and an explosion at a missile production factory at a military complex in Tehran.

Some Iranian officials have said privately that they suspected that at least some of the fires and explosions were part of a U.S. and Israeli military campaign against Iran, but no official has publicly said whether any of the incidents are linked or blamed any country or group for them.

Some analysts speculate that various enemies of the Iranian government — not just the United States and Israel but possibly domestic groups as well — may be seizing the opportunity to stoke chaos.

“There is a belief that those who want regime change in Iran are throwing everything they have at Iran to see which one would stick,” said Foad Izadi, a conservative political analyst in Tehran. The waves of explosions and fires, he said, are “creating this sense of instability and chaos and insecurity.”

No casualties were reported from the shipyard fire Wednesday. Local officials said the flames were so extensive that they had to call in additional fire engines from the navy, the Revolutionary Guard and a nearby nuclear plant.

The fire was tamed after about five hours, local media reported.

Jahangir Dehghan, Bushehr’s top crisis official, said that the cause of the fire was unclear but that high winds and the fiberglass used in boat construction had contributed to its rapid spread, according to the Tasnim news agency. Fiberglass, however, is not generally flammable.

While government officials have not linked the

Firefighters combatting a blaze at a shipyard in the Iranian city of Bushehr on Wednesday, as seen on Iranian state TV. fires and explosions, they have acknowledged that the number and frequency are unusual.

Aside from military and industrial fires, 1,100 forest fires have burned more than 150 squares miles of woodland. Parliament called in the ministers of environment and intelligence to question them about the forest fires, at least a fifth of which were believed to have been caused by arson.

Many Iranians and some officials suspect that the fires and explosions are part of a coordinated covert operation by the United States and Israel to pressure the Islamic Republic government to negotiate a new nuclear deal or to provoke a military confrontation.

The July 2 explosion at Natanz was part of a yearlong covert operation by Israel and the United States, American and Middle Eastern intelligence officials have said. Intelligence officials said the blast may have set the Iranian nuclear program back as much as two years.

Israel and the United States have sabotaged Iran’s nuclear program in the past. But officials from both countries said they had nothing to do with the explosion at a missile production facility near Tehran in late June.

But there have been so many things burning or blowing up that Iranians are suspicious of everything.

“Nobody believes these incidents are an accident even if they really are accidents,” said Abbas Abdi, a reformist analyst in Tehran. He said he thought the aim of these attacks was to project the sense that

Iran’s government was losing control and to encourage opposition supporters inside Iran to rise up.

In the absence of a clear culprit or claim of responsibility, the government has been struggling to respond.

Analysts said some of the episodes had clearly demonstrated that there were security gaps and intelligence moles within Iran’s most secure nuclear and military sites as well as industrial complexes.

Not responding to sabotage risks appearing weak and vulnerable, while retaliating could set off a military confrontation that could be costly and painful. Some officials also fear that a war could improve President Donald Trump’s reelection prospects.

Hence the government has said little about the fires and explosions that have damaged a military base in Birjand, the state broadcasting headquarters in Tehran, a port near Bandarlengeh, a steel plant in Ahwaz and a petrochemical plant in Mahshahrtaken, to name a few episodes that took place over just five days last month.

Instead, the government is embracing what one official calls “strategic patience.”

“Iran is neither prepared nor wants a war,” Abdi said. “The reason it won’t even acknowledge publicly that they are sabotage is to save face and not be cornered into a response.”

But if the attacks escalate, analysts said, a military response would be inevitable.

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July 17-19, 2020

Russian hackers trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine research, intelligence agencies say

By JULIAN E. BARNES

R

ussian hackers are attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine research, the U.S., British and Canadian governments said Thursday, opening a dangerous new front in the cyberwars and intelligence battles between Moscow and the West.

The National Security Agency said APT29, the hacking group known as Cozy Bear which is associated with Russian intelligence, has been taking advantage of the

chaos created by the coronavirus pandemic and targeting health care organizations seeking to steal intelligence on vaccines.

The Russian hackers have been targeting British, Canadian and American organizations researching vaccines against COVID-19. The hackers have been using spear-phishing and malware to try to get access to the research.

“We condemn these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the coronavirus pandemic,” said Paul Chichester, director of operations for

Britain’s National Cyber Security Center.

Cozy Bear is one of the most high profile, and successful, hacking groups associated with the Russian government, and was implicated alongside the group Fancy Bear in the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee.

“APT29 has a long history of targeting governmental, diplomatic, think-tank, health care and energy organizations for intelligence gain so we encourage everyone to take this threat seriously and apply the mitigations issued in the advisory,” said

Anne Neuberger, the NSA’s cybersecurity director.

The British and Canadian governments said Thursday that Cozy Bear is almost certainly part of the Russian intelligence services.

The two government’s cyberdefense arms published advisories aimed at helping health care organizations bolster their computer network defense.

The malware used by Cozy Bear to steal the vaccine research included code known as “WellMess” and “WellMail.”

Bristol removes statue of black protester after just one day

By MARK LANDLER

J

en Reid, the Black Lives Matter protester whose statue was erected in place of a toppled slave trader in Bristol, England, on Wednesday, said just before the unauthorized installation that she did not know

whether the city’s authorities would let it stand there for a few months or a single day.

It turned out to be the latter.

Workers removed the resin-and-steel statue of Reid at dawn Thursday, 24 hours after it was put up, bringing a swift curtain down on an act of guerrilla art that attracted

Contractors on Thursday remove Marc Quinn’s statue, A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020, after its temporary stint atop the plinth dedicated to slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol.

widespread attention but did not impress city leaders.

“I understand people want expression, but the statue has been put up without permission,” the mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, said in a post on Twitter on Wednesday, soon after the figure was installed. “Anything put on the plinth outside of the process we’ve put in place will have to be removed.”

“The people of Bristol will decide its future,” Rees added of the plinth where the 17th-century slave trader, Edward Colston, once stood before being toppled by protesters last month and thrown into the nearby harbor.

The Bristol City Council said it would hold the statue of Reid, by sculptor Marc Quinn, at a local museum for him “to collect or donate to our collection.” Quinn, who created the sculpture in a few weeks after seeing a photograph of Reid standing on the plinth during a protest, did not have an immediate response.

In an earlier interview, Quinn said he did not expect Bristol to leave the statue, titled “A Surge of Power (Jen Reid),” in place permanently, though he hoped it would be

there long enough to provoke a conversation about “how we commemorate people in statues.” He called it a “temporary sentence in the conversation.”

Reid, a fashion stylist, climbed on the plinth during a Black Lives Matter demonstration after the crowd pulled down the bronze statue of Colston that had stood in the city since 1895, rolled it down the street, and dumped it in the harbor. Her pose, with her right arm thrust upward in a defiant gesture, inspired Quinn after he saw a picture of it on social media.

Part of a cohort of British visual artists known as Young British Artists, Quinn drew attention in 2005 for a marble sculpture, “Alison Lapper Pregnant,” which depicted a woman with a condition that left her with no arms and shortened legs. It was placed on a plinth in Trafalgar Square in London.

Quinn plans to install a piece next year on the steps of the New York Public Library that will consist of two identical cubes filled with frozen blood donated by thousands of refugees, as well as nonrefugees. Inspired by the migrant crisis, it is meant to capture how under their skin, people are all the same.

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

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Who can make Trump miserable this fall?

By GAIL COLLINS

I

hope by now you’ve managed to come to grips with the fact that we’re no longer going to have Jeff Sessions in our lives.

“It’s been a real adventure for me,” Sessions said in his concession speech this week, after he lost the Republican Senate nomination to a former football coach whose biggest campaign moment probably came when his bus caught on fire.

Not clear which adventure Sessions was referring to — scampering out of the Senate to become President Donald Trump’s attorney general and wage his long-dreamed-of war against immigrants? Accepting the advice of Justice Department lawyers and recusing himself from the Russia investigation? Being attacked by a furious Trump who had purposely put Sessions in the job to get protection from the forces of ... justice?

Truly, he’s been badly treated by the man whom he helped propel into the presidency. Hehehehe.

It’s a little weird contemplating Sessions now. Trump’s treatment of him was outrageous, but if anybody’s going to suffer a political stab in the back, you have to be glad it’s the guy whose policies as attorney general ranged from keeping more people in prison longer to “good people don’t smoke marijuana.”

Tommy Tuberville, the football coach who beat Sessions, doesn’t seem to have any ideas beyond flexing his muscles and promising to do whatever Trump likes. Alabamians have no idea what he would do if Joe Biden was president, since Tuberville will never acknowledge such a possibility.

The nominee will go on to fight Sen. Doug Jones, the Democrat who you’ll recall won his seat in a race against a judge with a history of making improper advances to teenage girls. Tuberville will presumably be more of a challenge.

I guess we’ll have to chalk the Alabama primary up as a win for Trump, who assured voters that Sessions was “not mentally qualified.” (This was before the president gave that wild, rambling news conference in which he claimed Biden was opposed to windows.)

We’re deep into the Senate election season now, with primaries right and left, setting the stage for the Democrats’ attempt to take control of the majority in 2021. Everything is on the line — taxes, economic recovery, Supreme Court justices.

Let’s look at a few of the battles brewing. You’ll be able to discuss them with your friends over virtual cocktails.

And if you want to send a donation or two to candidates who strike your fancy, go for it.

In Maine, Republican Sen. Susan Collins is fighting for survival. You may remember Collins as the self-styled brave

his successor quit. You could argue that she’s been through a lot. Everything, really, except being elected to her job.

We’re pretty sure McSally’s Democratic opponent is going to be former astronaut Mark Kelly, even though Kelly first has to weather a primary against someone named Bo Garcia. All we know about Bo is that his nickname is “Heir Archy” and he’s running as a write-in candidate. Really, that’s all. No campaign website, no nothing. But if you write in his name on your ballot, they’ll count the vote.

Do not be dispirited because some of the people running for high office in America appear to be phantom candidates from nowhere. Think of it this way: It’s sort of inspiring how wide open the system sometimes is, as long as you don’t expect to actually get elected to anything.

One of my favorite meaningless races was for an Idaho Senate seat in 2010. Nobody had any doubt that Mike Crapo, the Republican incumbent, was going to win.

Eventually Democrat William Bryk volunteered to oppose him, just so Crapo would have some competition. This came President Donald Trump and Tommy Tuberville, the after he noticed that you did not actually have to live in Republican Senate nominee of Alabama, exit Air Force Idaho in order to run there. Bryk was, in fact, a bankruptcy One in Dallas, June 11, 2020. lawyer in Brooklyn. His campaign slogan was, “If Elected, independent moderate who spends most of her working I Will Move.”

Right now, that sort of sounds better than Make days caving in.

America Great Again.

Her opponent will be Sara Gideon, the speaker of the state House. Gideon won the Democratic primary Tuesday over two lesser-known women who seemed to spend much of their time attacking her for not agreeing to enough debates.

That’s an important rule for political campaigns: When all else fails, demand more debates. John McCain PO BOX 6537 Caguas PR 00726 insisted that he and Barack Obama have 10. Trump is already complaining about Biden’s refusal to go beyond the Telephones: (787) 743-3346 • (787) 743-6537 three scheduled.

(787) 743-5606 • Fax (787) 743-5100 Gideon showed up for two, which seemed OK given the fact that she was about a mile ahead in the polls. But it’s perfectly fair to have your doubts about a candidate who won’t debate at all. Tuberville, for instance, said he backed out of any new encounters with Sessions because of: A) The coronavirus.

Publisher B) Donald Trump already having praised his mental Manuel Sierra Ray Ruiz capacity.

General Manager Legal Notice Director C) Lack of attractive cheerleaders.

Yeah, he blamed the coronavirus. Hardly exists at all María de L. Márquez Sharon Ramírez for the Trump camp, unless somebody is asking you to do Business Director Legal Notices Graphics Manager something you don’t want to do.

R. Mariani Elsa Velázquez Moving west there’s Arizona, which looks like it’s going Circulation Director Reporter to be huge. This is the one that could tip the balance for the Senate Democrats. The Republican incumbent is Martha Lisette Martínez María Rivera McSally, who lost a Senate race in 2018 but then was apAdvertising Agency Director Graphic Artist Manager pointed to the state’s second seat after John McCain died and

Dr. Ricardo Angulo

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July 17-19, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

Who bears witness to a hidden epidemic?

By LAUREN KELLEY

W

ithin the first few weeks of states’ going into lockdown, reports began flooding in from domestic violence hotline centers throughout the country: They were seeing spikes in calls. But as sheltering-in-place dragged on, the calls for help dropped off.

To those familiar with the dynamics of intimate-partner violence, this was not a good thing.

That domestic violence is part of the story of this pandemic is well known: Lockdowns have made it more

Veronica Hernandez answers a call to SAFEline, a domestic violence hotline, at her home in Austin, Texas, on May 12, 2020.

difficult for domestic violence survivors to distance themselves from their abusers; orders of protection often take longer to come through because courts aren’t operating at full capacity; experts have viewed the decline in calls for help with alarm, as it suggests survivors might not be able to get away from abusers long enough to reach out.

But if covering domestic violence, which takes place mainly behind closed doors, is difficult in normal times, telling the story of its rise during a time of lockdowns and quarantines poses an even bigger challenge. That is why Christopher Lee, a photographer, opted to focus on the hotline workers. He began photographing them in the Austin, Texas, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston metro areas in May. According to Dr. Noël Busch-Armendariz, director of the Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault at the University of Texas at Austin, 38% of adult women in Texas in 2011 reported having been in an abusive relationship. The stay-at-home orders have had a severe effect on the most vulnerable women, and domestic violence centers are bracing themselves for the worst.

In Texas, which reported record numbers of daily cases of COVID-19 four times last week, the governor signaled Friday the possibility of a new economic “lockdown” if the state cannot curtail its outbreak.

Like so many people around the globe, those who answer phones for domestic violence hotlines are working from home during the coronavirus pandemic. With the benefit of technology, advocates and counselors have been fielding calls, texts and emails from survivors from their kitchen tables and living rooms. Their experiences on one end of these calls help shed light on stories going untold.

Veronica Hernandez, a hotline operator and advocate at SAFE Austin, says she’s seen an uptick in reports

from a wider array of survivors than usual: men who’ve been abused, youth who’ve been trafficked and people who’ve been hurt by nonromantic partners such as roommates. She’s also sensed that those who call have grown more desperate — she hears more frequently from women who are actively fleeing danger or have already had violent interactions with their abuser. Before the pandemic, callers would be more likely to say they had experienced non-life-threatening behavior or abuse, such as emotional or psychological abuse or behavior that could evolve into something violent. Now they are getting calls that go from zero to 60 in an instant.

As the stories have grown more desperate, the work has grown more challenging. Hotline workers who once counted on the commute between office and home to decompress from stressful professional lives no longer have that sense of separation. “Bystander trauma is real,” said Milisa Alexis-Flores, managing attorney for the Houston office of Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse, a nonprofit that provides legal aid to domestic violence survivors.

“We all experience it doing this line of work when you consume other people’s trauma for a living. That’s just the nature of the job, and it’s always challenging, but it’s more challenging in a different way when you’re doing it at home.”

But “I at least am still able to try to decompress in the safety of my home, which my client cannot do,” Alexis-Flores said.

These images don’t quite shed light on the domestic violence that is currently on the rise in private spaces around the world. What they do highlight is the parallel world of the hotline operators, working from their homes, speaking over the phone to survivors calling from rooms that at first glance probably look very similar; what sets them apart is the danger.

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

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Anuncian envío de más de $180 millones en nuevos pagos del incentivo de Impacto Económico Por THE STAR a gobernadora Wanda Vázquez L informó el jueves la emisión de nuevos pagos millonarios de

$1,200, aprobados bajo la Ley CARES, para asistir a los ciudadanos afectados por la emergencia del COVID-19.

“Durante la primera mitad de julio hemos pagado 186,043,961 dólares del incentivo de Estímulo Económico a 139,883 familias adicionales. Continuamos enfocados en enviar los pagos con la mayor celeridad posible. Con estos desembolsos ya se han enviado $2,442,805,957 en pagos de $1,200, a 1,661,683 familias en Puerto Rico, desde que comenzó el proceso en mayo”, indicó la gobernadora en comunicación escrita.

Por su parte, el secretario del Departamento de Hacienda, Francisco Parés Alicea, reiteró que la meta en el Departamento es culminar el desembolso de esta ayuda el 31 de julio. “Estamos emitiendo pagos de la ayuda federal todas las

semanas y en lo que resta de mes, vamos a enviar los correspondientes a unas 500 mil personas, entre las que se encuentra un grupo de 400,000 recipientes del Seguro Social”, agregó el secretario.

Mientras continúan los desembolsos de las diferentes ayudas, el Departamento también está atendiendo reclamaciones de individuos que no han recibido su incentivo o que no lo recibieron

completo, según determinado.

“Iniciamos un proceso de orientación y reclamación para todas las personas que aún no han recibido su pago de $1,200 o la suma que entienden les corresponde, según su composición familiar. Para este proceso estamos utilizando la plataforma digital de SURI, con un acceso sencillo, para que los ciudadanos provean su información”, dijo el funcionario.

Los individuos que tengan dudas sobre su pago, conforme a lo establecido en la Carta Circular de Rentas Internas 20-30, deberán acceder a SURI y someter su información en la opción Reclamación Pago de Impacto Económico.

Parés Alicea explicó que los individuos que tienen dudas sobre la cantidad de la ayuda recibida deberán someter su reclamación dentro de 30 días de haber recibido el Pago de Impacto Económico o de la fecha de publicación de la CCRI 20-30, disponible a través de www.hacienda.pr.gov, sección de Publicaciones del Área de Rentas Internas.

Cierran de manera preventiva Casa Alcaldía de Añasco Por THE STAR

T

ras una empleada municipal presentar síntomas relacionados al Covid- 19, la Administración Municipal de Añasco y su alcalde Jorge Estévez Martínez tomaron la decisión el jueves de cerrar la Casa Alcaldía hasta el próximo lunes, 20 de julio de 2020.

“Llevamos meses orientando y ayudando a nuestro pueblo buscando prevenir el contagio de este terrible virus. Pero hoy nos toca de cerca, al una compañera de trabajo dejarnos saber que tiene los síntomas del Covid – 19. Responsablemente, he tomado la decisión de cerrar la Casa Alcaldía y enviar a los empleados a

realizarse la prueba del Covid – 19”, mencionó el alcalde Estévez Martínez en comunicación escrita.

Cerca de 70 empleados municipales tendrán que realizarse una prueba de sangre y la Casa Alcaldía será desinfectada, como medida preventiva.

Las dependencias que estarán cerradas son las de la Casa Alcaldía y programas federales. Las oficinas que están fuera del Ayuntamiento Municipal seguirán trabajando tales como el Centro de Envejecientes, Centro de Deambulantes, Oficina Municipal para El Manejo de Emergencias, el Departamento de Recreación y Deportes y el Departamento de Obras Públicas y Saneamiento.

Autoridades realizan arrestos por alegado fraude al beneficio del desempleo pandémico, PUA Por THE STAR

L

a Policía informó el jueves que agentes de la División de Robos a Bancos y Fraude a Instituciones Bancarias investigan varias querellas de timo y estafa, reportadas durante las pasadas horas, en las áreas policiacas de San Juan y Bayamón.

Según el parte policial, se trata varios individuos que roban la identidad de personas con el fin de solici-

tar la ayuda para Asistencia de Desempleo Pandémico (PUA por sus siglas en inglés), que ofrece el Departamento del Trabajo y Recursos Humanos de Puerto Rico.

La Uniformada precisó que, utilizando identificaciones falsas proceden a cambiar los cheques en los diferentes bancos alrededor de la isla. Hasta el momento, se han arrestado a 10 personas Los casos son consultados en el fiscal de turno para la radicación de cargos correspondientes.

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July 17-19, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

‘Gotham refuses to get scared’: In 1918, theaters stayed open

The show did go on: The 1918 Ziegfeld Follies featured Lillian Lorraine, center, with from left, W. C. Fields, Will Rogers, Eddie Cantor and Harry Keely.

By LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES

W

ar plays were big on Broadway in the fall of 1918.

With the nation sending soldiers to Europe to fight in World War I, spectacles like the “Ziegfeld Follies” wrapped themselves in patriotism.

The runaway hit of the season, though, was the kind of distraction that people relish in troubled times. They flocked to see a play called “Lightnin’: A Live Wire American Comedy” at the Gaiety Theater, on the edge of Times Square.

Even as a lethal influenza pandemic took hold of the city, audiences came. Settled into the seats, they must have laughed and laughed.

Sounds dangerous to us now, right? It sounded dangerous even then. As the flu spread that year and the next, eventually killing about 675,000 people across the United States, city after city raced to contain the threat by shuttering theaters and other places of public amusement. Hollywood vowed to release no more films until the flu subsided.

New York, defiant, kept its playhouses — and movie theaters — wide open.

“Gotham Refuses to Get Scared,” an early October headline declared in The Baltimore Sun, which noted that despite 2,070 new cases of flu and 283 of pneumonia in the previous 24 hours in New York City, its health department had announced “that the epidemic has not reached an alarming stage.”

Its brief, steep spike was about to start. But quelling dismay was part of the city’s strategy — an effort to keep the public’s spirits up.

Amid our own pandemic, which since March has disrupted American life and largely paralyzed live performance, it sounds almost unreal that New York theater in 1918 simply carried on.

When I mentioned that history to Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the Broadway League, she asked, “Are you sure?”

“It seems nuts,” she said, adding that the industry’s response to the coronavirus had been unhesitating. “We didn’t

even think about it a minute. Once it became clear that this was here, the first case we got on Broadway, we shut that night. Literally that night.”

Preventing Panic Royal Copeland, the powerful health commissioner of New York City when the Spanish flu crept in, looked askance at pandemic responses elsewhere.

While the nation’s surgeon general, Rupert Blue, encouraged localities to close theaters as a preventive measure, Copeland was philosophically disinclined to intrude much on ordinary life.

He also didn’t want to freak people out. “My aim was to prevent panic, hysteria, mental disturbance,” he said later, “and thus to protect the public from the condition of mind that in itself predisposes to physical ills.”

Howard Markel, the director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan, said Copeland “had the faith of the people” as he steered the city through the outbreak — shuttering almost nothing, including the schools. Without a ban on public gatherings, New York was “a big outlier” among sizable American cities, Markel said.

‘Eliminate the sneezers’ In a pre-television, pre-talkies age, theater was a more everyday pleasure.

Soldiers on leave flocked to live shows; free tickets for them were seen as a necessity. “War Service Director Says No Soldier Should Lack Food, Shelter, and Entertainment,” read one headline in The New York Times.

Neighborhood theaters and vaudeville houses were scattered through the city. That fall, the number of “first-class houses” had reached a high of 45.

But while the virus lurked, some changes were needed.

At theaters and cinemas, standing-room tickets were no longer allowed; smoking wasn’t, either. Masks were not mandated, but Copeland was ruthless about the need to “eliminate the sneezers, coughers and spitters” from the audience.

Using performances as opportunities for health education, he ordered theater managers to make preshow announcements explaining the danger of infection and detailing the new prohibitions. He told them “to instruct their ushers and attendants to escort from their theaters those who violate the department rules, and to use force if necessary.”

“We will back them up,” Copeland promised, ominously.

Those ushers and attendants were to boot sneezers, coughers and spitters right out.

Copeland’s militancy on that point anticipated a worry that 21st-century theatergoers cited in a survey this spring about what would keep them from returning to Broadway once it reopens: “a lack of trust that others in the audience will adhere to safety protocols.”

But as J. Alexander Navarro, a historian and an editor of the online Influenza Encyclopedia, pointed out, the pull-together spirit of wartime helped coax Americans in 1918 to alter their behavior.

“It’s hard to measure,” he said in a phone interview, “but I think there was definitely a much higher sense of civic duty and

nationalism and patriotism, compared to today.”

The few theaters that Copeland did shut down, quietly, were what he called “hole-in-the-wall moving-picture shows,” judged to risk infection with unhealthy air. In “the big modern sanitary theaters,” he said, he was confident of the ventilation.

How misplaced his faith was is unclear; probably, Navarro said, some people did come away infected. It would be interesting, he mused, to re-create the conditions of a typical theater, to see how far from a given seat a person’s breath would have spread back then.

Which is just the sort of thought that flashes through people’s minds these days when they think about sitting in an audience again.

A Virus’s Swift Rampage One of the stranger things about that indelibly marked New York season is that it started busy and, apart from a period of weeks, stayed that way. With stars like Harry Houdini, Will Rogers and W.C. Fields onstage, an abundance of productions jostled for real estate, each closing making way for an opening.

Before the flu started wreaking its havoc, producers’ biggest worry had been the proposed doubling of a hefty war tax on theater tickets — a move they tried to shame senators out of by reminding them that the enemy, the German kaiser, had at least one positive feature: his staunch support of the stage.

It wasn’t until late September that The Times’ Sunday drama column, What News on the Rialto?, mentioned the flu. The worry was not about bustling Broadway but about poor Boston, one of the first American cities hit by the virus’s deadly second wave. Its theaters had just been closed, leaving touring companies to languish.

Only two weeks later, though, “theatrical men” were blaming a dent in some New York shows’ box office on twin factors: the latest war-bond drive, which they had loudly dreaded, and the flu, which sneaked up on them. A week after that, the industry news was almost uniformly grim, with New York and San Francisco the rare “communities of consequence” with stages still open for business.

Counting The Losses What Copeland did right, Navarro said, was to act early, employing stringent isolation and quarantine measures for the infected, enforced by what he called “a very well-funded, very efficient, well run, long-standing public health department.”

Still, more than 20,000 New Yorkers died in the influenza pandemic of 1918 — about the same number who have died in the city so far from the coronavirus.

Yet Copeland’s unorthodox approach resulted in New York having a lower death rate from the flu than any other large city on the East Coast, Markel said.

“I would have closed the theaters, absolutely,” said Markel, a physician and historian who edits the Influenza Encyclopedia with Navarro. “So it was kind of a bold move. But he was a very bold guy, and a very opinionated guy.”

Had New York shuttered businesses and schools, Navarro speculated, it would have fared even better. “But given that they didn’t bring the city’s economy to a halt,” he said, “what they did was very effective.”

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

21

Can’t match Netflix? At least you can buy some British shows

By MIKE HALE

W

hen you want to start a streaming service and your most established competitor has for years been spending billions of dollars making and acquiring exclusive series, what do you do?

Disney+ and Apple TV+ chose to go halfway when they debuted last year, addressing Netflix’s unassailable lead with offerings of original shows that, in each case, amounted to more than a handful but less than a roster.

This year, Peacock and HBO Max have gone for what could be called the British option. Behind each service’s first marquee series — “Love Life” for HBO Max, “Brave New World” for Peacock — the section devoted to originals has been filled out with shows made and already seen across the Atlantic.

The Special Relationship may not have the geopolitical juice it once had, but it’s alive and well in streaming video.

Peacock, which made its debut Wednesday, opened with just three original scripted series for adults, two of them British.

On the surface the imports are quite different from each other: “The Capture,” from BBC, is an hourlong, tightly wound conspiracy thriller while the workplace sitcom “Intelligence,” from Sky, is a 22-minute goof.

But if you look past genre, they have some things in common. Both are cautionary tales about the British intelligence services. “The Capture” warns that the spies are stealing your liberties and will disappear you if you protest. “Intelligence” warns that they’re marginally competent wackos more interested in food delivery and photocopier high jinks than in preventing cyberterror.

More interesting, given their prominent placement on Peacock, is that both employ a favorite British target: the ugly American. The shortcomings of the British characters are finessed by shifting attention to an American interloper whose malignancy is exceeded only by his shallowness.

In “The Capture,” he’s a cool operative running an off-thebooks surveillance operation in London and pulling the strings of his peers in the British spy and police services. This would constitute a spoiler, as he doesn’t show up right away in the engagingly convoluted story, if Ron Perlman’s name weren’t so prominent in the credits.

In “Intelligence,” he’s a National Security Agency liaison to Britain’s cyberterrorism unit, and it probably says all you need to know about the show’s view of Americans that the hammerheaded, narcissistic character is played by David Schwimmer, that avatar of hammerheaded American narcissism.

“Intelligence” was created by British actor and comedian Nick Mohammed, and he cast himself in the cringiest role as Joseph, a bumbler who strenuously sucks up to the American newcomer, Schwimmer’s Jerry.

Mohammed is amusing as the nervous sycophant, as is Jane Stanness as a frump whose submerged libido and unsuspected spying skill are played for laughs. (Mongolia-born model and actress Gana Bayarsaikhan, as an intimidating analyst whom Jerry immediately fetishizes, has presence but isn’t as sure a comedian.) Amid the “Office”-like ensemble, the accomplished Sylvestra Le Touzel (“The Crown,” “Happy-Go-Lucky”) stands out as the boss, Jerry’s mostly button-down antagonist.

Holliday Grainger in “The Capture,” one of two British shows NBCUniversal used to fill out the launch slate for its Peacock streaming service.

The focus is on Jerry, though, as he preens, broadcasts his sexism and xenophobia and tries to get the British to loosen up with group hugs and trust exercises that tend to involve undressing in the office. (He expresses a British idea of an American’s idea of the British when he says of the office, “There’s still this sense that I’ve wandered onto an abandoned farm.”)

Schwimmer is what he is: calculatedly awkward and not all that funny when Jerry is blustering and oddly disarming when Jerry is vulnerable, which isn’t often. “Intelligence” is mild tea overall, but it’s an easy binge at just over two hours for its six episodes.

“The Capture,” also a six-parter, is the better of the Peacock imports, a reasonably entertaining and well-constructed (at least in its early episodes) example of a classic style of British television conspiracy thriller, most recently seen in “Bodyguard” on BBC and Netflix.

Its hook is surveillance culture, and it posits that British law enforcement (with American help) is not only employing the kind of facial-recognition software popular in China but has also moved onto more advanced and sinister uses of video technology. The series, written and directed by Ben Chanan (“The Missing”), teases a larger theme about storytelling — that governments can use technology to fictionalize their citizens’ lives — but it mostly settles for being a straightforward thriller with the stylistic tic of often presenting the action through closedcircuit cameras.

Holliday Grainger (“C.B. Strike”) embodies clipped efficiency and self-righteousness as Rachel, a rising star in coun-

terterrorism who’s doing a career-enhancing stint as a detective inspector with the regular police. She’s called in when a worker monitoring a video feed sees a woman being knocked down and abducted on the street; the man in the video is a former soldier, Shaun (Callum Turner of “The Only Living Boy in New York”), who just that day had been acquitted of murdering an Aghan civilian, after the video evidence against him was discredited.

It’s a tricky setup, and “The Capture” gets progressively more complicated and double-crossy as Rachel and Shaun form an uneasy alliance. (The video of Shaun abducting the woman is, no surprise, not entirely on the up and up.) The show holds up fairly well if you’re the kind of conspiracy story fan who’s satisfied when each step proceeds more or less plausibly from the step before; if you’re the kind of fan who wants the overall plot to feel as if it could actually take place in the real world, well, good luck.

If there’s a larger point to the inclusion of “The Capture” and “Intelligence” in Peacock’s initial lineup, it may have to do with the smaller role that such “originals” are playing while services promote their libraries of older series and franchise movies to counter Netflix’s focus on the new. The British shows HBO Max launched with, like “Ghosts” and “Home,” have largely disappeared from the home page a few months later. And the tier for “Peacock Originals” is several levels down, well below “Jurassic Park” and “30 Rock” (and even the Bravo reality series “Below Deck Mediterranean”). If you want something different, you need to find it yourself.

22

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

20 Under $20: Wines that feed the soul

These 20 bottles found online from 11 different countries, including some unexpected regions, offer values and pleasures in a summer unlike any other.

By ERIC ASIMOV

B

etween the physical, emotional and economic miseries delivered by the pandemic, the continuing national debate over racial justice and the myriad daily shockers that have battered the national equanimity, I’ve learned it’s possible to feel hopeful and despondent at the same time.

Add to that, it’s summer, and although we’re no longer stuck indoors exactly, the usual seasonal pleasures seem a distant fantasy.

In these strange times, I find grounding in wine. Not through self-medication, although I do not disparage the buzz.

But simply through the fascinating combination of grape, place and person that can make every good bottle either a new adventure or an old, beloved story.

I went in search of thrills and values late last month. Or rather, I did it pandemic style, letting my fingers do the shopping through the online inventories of New York wine shops. I tried them all at home and have come up with what I think is an excellent and unusual assortment of 20 wines under $20. They come from 11 different countries, in quite different proportion from my usual array.

For one thing, five of the wines are American — four from California and one from Washington. I don’t want to say that’s unprecedented, but California, for numerous reasons, is not usually fertile ground for good values. Perhaps bottles generally destined for restaurants ended up instead at retailers. Or maybe producers in California have finally taken up the challenge of making interesting, honest, moderately priced wines.

With these wines, don’t expect the most famous grapes from the most prized vineyard areas. Indeed, the two reds from California are blends, leading with carignan and petite sirah from various sites in the sweeping North Coast appellation.

One of two whites is a blend of pinot gris and pinot blanc. The other is a chardonnay, although from the wilds of Mendocino.

These 20 bottles include none from Spain, usually a wonderful source of great values. Why not? I don’t know. Earlier this year Spanish bottles dominated a roundup of wines under $15, so don’t hesitate to experiment with a few on your own.

Now, I can’t emphasize this enough: I am not asserting that these 20 bottles are the best values in the world under $20.

They are all excellent deals, but they represent simply a crosssection of what I could find on the websites of Manhattan retail shops in June 2020.

That, I am sorry to say, will differ from what’s available in Atlanta or Dallas, or Milwaukee or Salt Lake City, to say nothing of all the countries within internet reach of this column.

Some of these bottles you may find, others not.

What to do if you can’t find a specific bottle? I recommend these steps: — Find a good wine shop. The most important step toward improving your drinking is to shop at a store that loves wine rather than treating it as a random consumer product. It will have assembled an inventory of scrupulously made wines from meticulously farmed grapes. These 20 bottles are not all big brands. You won’t find them at supermarkets.

— If a good retailer does not have a bottle, ask the merchant to suggest an equivalent wine. Most shops will be happy to take on this challenge. If they don’t have, say, a Croatian posip or a German weissburgunder, perhaps the two most esoteric bottles in this selection, they may find something equally obscure that they esteem. Why not try something new on a recommendation?

— Use an online tool, like wine-searcher.com, to track down bottles. You might find them in other stores. For American wines, dozens of states permit you to buy directly from winer-

ies and have it shipped to your home.

— Consult previous 20 Under $20 columns. Most of these bottles are still excellent deals, although some prices may have crept up slightly.

— If all else fails (I don’t expect anybody to find all these bottles in one place. I sure didn’t) it’s nice to know that these wines exist in the world, even if they are not immediately available. Seriously, in the days before theater and restaurants closed down, I enjoyed reading about a play that opened in London or a restaurant in Los Angeles without the immediate expectation of experiencing either. You may not find this bottle now, but it may show up in the future if you keep your eyes open. And it’s great to know wines like these exist.

Thinking seasonally, this list emphasizes whites, sparklers and rosés, but it does include eight red wines, because, well, one always needs reds. Here are the 20 bottles, in no particular order.

Zlatan Otok Hvar Posip 2018: This bottle from Croatia may seem obscure. But this sumptuous white, made from the indigenous grape posip, is rich, herbal, savory and deliciously refreshing. For now, wines like this, made from grapes little known to Americans in regions yet to achieve international popularity, are great values. Zlatan Otok, on the island of Hvar, was established in 1991. It’s now one of the larger wineries in the country. ($17.99, Vinum USA, Basking Ridge, New Jersey) Le Vigne di Alice Vittorio Veneto Tajad Frizzante NV: This gently sparkling wine is a modern interpretation of the wines made in an era before the glera grape came to dominate Prosecco. It’s a blend of indigenous varieties, including 40% boschera, 40% verdiso and 20% glera. However, it’s not strictly old school. Cinzia Canzian, the winemaker, achieves the bubbles through the bulk-production Charmat method, also used for industrial Prosecco. But by comparison with mass-market bottles, this wine seems handmade, easygoing and perfectly refreshing. ($18.99, PortoVino, Buffalo, New York) Troupis Arcadia Moschofilero Hoof & Lur 2019: Moschofilero, like pinot gris and its Greek cousin, roditis, is a pinkskinned grape. If the juice sits briefly with the skins before vinification, it develops a pale salmon color, so let’s call Hoof & Lur a rosé. This wine, made without added yeast or filtration in the Peloponnese region of Greece, is fragrant and floral, bonedry and lightly fruity. ($19.99, DNS Wines/T. Elenteny Imports, New York) Broc Cellars North Coast Love Red 2018: Broc Cellars is one of my favorites among the new wave of California producers. Chris Brockway, the proprietor, specializes in tracking down well-farmed grapes, no matter how obscure, from undervalued vineyards around the state. The wines in Broc’s Love series are lower-priced and made to quench thirsts. With its lively fruit flavors, this red, a blend mostly of carignan, with some valdigué and syrah thrown in, is perfect for an outdoor barbecue. Chill it up, pour it out and prepare to be refreshed. ($19.99) Dirty & Rowdy North Coast Unfamiliar Red 2017: Dirty & Rowdy operates very much like Broc, prospecting California for grapes and vineyards off the beaten trail, although with

The San Juan Daily Star a more puckish attitude. The 2017 Unfamiliar Red is more structured than the Broc Love Red. Its primary component is petite sirah, a notoriously tannic grape. The tannins are apparent here but very much in check. Zinfandel, carignan and mourvèdre round out the blend. It’s fresh and fruity and would be just right with juicy burgers off the grill. ($19.99) Brand Pfalz Weissburgunder Trocken 2018: Daniel and Jonas Brand, two brothers, work in the northern reaches of the Pfalz region of Germany, where they farm organically and make a wide selection of excellent wines, many of them, like this one, sold in 1-liter bottles. This is made of weissburgunder, also known as pinot blanc. It’s a creamy, textured wine that feels so good in the mouth you just want to keep drinking it, rolling it around and seeking out nuances. (1 liter, $19, Vom Boden, Brooklyn, New York) Niepoort Douro Tinto Twisted 2018: Dirk Niepoort is one of Portugal’s most interesting and influential producers.

Based in Douro, port country, he pioneered the movement toward making lighter, fresher wines that aimed for finesse rather than power. Twisted is a perfect example. It’s a field blend of port varieties, a wine that maybe 15 years ago would have been heavy and jammy. It’s far more of a precise wine these days, lightly tannic and fresh, reminiscent of port but delightful now.

It will improve for a few years, too. ($19, Polaner Selections, Mount Kisco, New York) Chiara Condello Romagna Sangiovese Predappio 2016: In Italy, sangiovese is not grown only in Tuscany. It’s the country’s most abundant red grape and has been cultivated in Emilia-Romagna for centuries. Chiara Condello, a young producer from a family of winemakers, makes this wine under her own label. It is 100% sangiovese, and it’s more overtly fruity than, say, a Chianti Classico. But it carries similarly dusty tannins and is nuanced and energetic. ($19.99, Bowler Wine, New York) Meinklang Österreich Prosa Sparkling Rosé 2019: Meinklang, the biodynamic estate in the Burgenland region of Austria, almost never fails to delight. Whether blaufränkisch, grüner veltliner or anything else, the wines are always pure, fresh and delicious. This lightly sparkling rosé is made of pinot noir, tastes gently of red fruit and flowers, and will go with burgers, grilled salmon or even just by itself. ($17.96, Zev Rovine Selections, Brooklyn, New York) Mother Rock Swartland Force Celeste Sémillon 2018: Sémillon makes wonderful wines, but you don’t see them often. It’s a crucial component of Sauternes and the dry whites of Graves, even as many producers there reduce the proportion in favor of sauvignon blanc. Excellent, age-worthy versions

July 17-19, 2020

come from the Hunter Valley of Australia, while California and Oregon make a few. This, from Mother Rock, is the first South African sémillon that I’ve tried. It’s bone dry and full of the grape’s characteristic aromas and flavors of beeswax, lemon and honey. Bravo. ($17.99, Vine Street Imports, Mount Laurel, New Jersey) Leitz Rheingau Sylvaner Trocken Alte Reben 2016: Sylvaner, or silvaner as it’s also spelled frequently, is a perpetually underrated grape. When conscientiously farmed and made with care, like this one, it’s a perfect spring or summer white.

This wine, tangy and light, yet with flavors that resonate, won’t be easy to find. But I include it because it’s excellent, and perhaps it will inspire you to try a sylvaner, whether this one or from another producer like Stefan Vetter, Ostertag, Dirler-Cadé or maybe one you discover yourself. ($19.96, Schatzi Wines, Milan, New York) Gaspard Vin de France Sauvignon Blanc 2018: Jenny & François is one of the pioneering U.S. importers of natural wines. Gaspard is the name of its private label, and this wine is delicious. Made from sauvignon blanc grown in the Touraine region of the Loire Valley, this wine will not remind you of the more pungent sauvignon blanc associated with New Zealand. It’s a more gentle, resonant style reminiscent of a restrained Sancerre. ($16.96, Jenny & François Selections, New York) Familie Bauer Wagram Terassen Roter Veltliner 2018: What is roter veltliner, you ask, grüner veltliner’s whirling sibling? The grapes are actually unrelated, ampelographers say, although it does have some similarities, like a pleasing peppery spiciness. But this Austrian wine, made from organic grapes, is richer and rounder, pure, clear and deep. It would make an interesting alternative to chardonnay. ($16.96, Savio Soares Selections, New York) Fabien Jouves Cahors Haute Côt(e) de Fruit Malbec 2018: Fabien Jouves is one of the best young producers in Cahors in southwest France. Those wines meant to reflect the

23

WINE

characteristics of particular terroirs are bottled under the name of his estate, Mas del Périé. Those intended primarily for thirstquenching, like this one, carry his own name. The red grape of the region, malbec, is also known as côt, hence the pun on the label. Whichever name you choose for the grape, this is a less effusive expression of malbec than the familiar Argentine version, fruity yet tapered and lightly mineral. Chill a bit before serving. ($17.99, Zev Rovine Selections) Porter-Bass Poco à Poco Mendocino County Chardonnay 2018: Poco à Poco is the budget label of Porter-Bass Vineyard and Winery, a producer in the Russian River Valley that is committed to biodynamic farming. This bottle, from a biodynamic vineyard in Mendocino County, is lean and lively with lovely citrus and herbal flavors, a blessed relief from heavy, oaky California chardonnays. ($19.99) Au Bon Climat Santa Barbara County Pinot Gris/Pinot Blanc 2018: Jim Clendenen is the man, or as he prefers to put it, the mind, behind Au Bon Climat. I’m not sure he is exactly unsung, but he is a hero for his advocacy both of the Santa Barbara region and for wines of restraint and subtlety. In the annals of American wine, where attention seems to gravitate to the newest thing, it’s always worth remembering what good wines he’s been making for years. This white blend, two-thirds pinot gris, one-third pinot blanc, is savory and sumptuous, not at all heavy but quite refreshing. It would be great with richer fish or chicken off the grill. ($19.99) Punt Road Airlie Bank Yarra Valley Gris on Skins 2019: Clear glass bottles are almost always unfortunate, as they expose wines to possible damage from light. But they seem irresistible to rosé producers as they show off the variety of pink colors possible in wine. This Australian one is a pale maraschino, and it is quite beautiful. More important, it’s absolutely dry and refreshing, with the faintest rasp of pleasant tannin to scrub the mouth clean. Made of pinot gris fermented with its skins, which accounts for that lovely color. ($19.99, Little Peacock, New York) Seresin Marlborough Momo Pinot Noir 2018: Inexpensive pinot noir is often a dicey proposition. Too often the money-saving compromises mean that this difficult-to-grow grape was planted in the wrong place, or that the production process cut multiple corners. But this wine, made from organic grapes grown in the Marlborough region of New Zealand, is true to the spirit of pinot noir, resulting in a fresh, graceful, refreshing wine redolent of flowers and red fruit. Drink lightly chilled. ($18.99, The Sorting Table, Napa, California) Rasa Vineyards Occam’s Razor Columbia Valley Red Wine Blend 2017: This blend of cabernet sauvignon and syrah calls for steaks grilled over coals. It’s got the substance and body — 14.5% alcohol — to handle fatty, juicy beef, yet it wears its heft easily without feeling heavy or syrupy. As befitting the name Occam’s Razor, which postulates that the simplest explanation is the most likely, this wine is not complicated, it’s just satisfying. ($19.99) Pierre & Rodolphe Gauthier Domaine du Bel Air Bourgueil Jour de Soif 2019: Domaine du Bel Air, run by a fatherand-son team, makes fine, age-worthy wines from organic cabernet franc. Jour de Soif is their entry-level bottle, made from younger vines, which are nonetheless still 20 years old. Yet this is no mere vin de soif. You can sense the structure of the other cuvées in the fine tannins that give shape to this otherwise fresh and juicy wine. Not shy at 14.3% alcohol, it, too, would be great for grilled meats. ($17.99. Polaner Selections)

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July 17-19, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

How the United Arab emirates set its sights on Mars

By KENNETH CHANG

A

s a girl growing up in Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates, Sarah al-Amiri looked at an astronomy book with a photograph of Andromeda, the giant galaxy neighboring our Milky Way. “I can’t describe it,” al-Amiri said in an interview, “but just to realize that something that was printed on a page was larger than anything that I’ve ever seen and dwarfs the planet that I live on.”

When she was in college, there were few opportunities in the Middle East to pursue studies of the universe, and al-Amiri majored in computer science instead. But now, the UAE is aiming to inspire its youth to pursue science and technology careers, and al-Amiri has forged a career pursuing the heavens.

Just 33 years old, she is the head of science operations and the deputy project manager for a space probe that the UAE is about to send to Mars.

At 4:51 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday, a rocket lifting a spacecraft called Hope is to begin its journey to Mars. It is the boldest move yet by a country that is looking to establish a future that will long outlive its oil wealth, and sees a space program as one way to accomplish that goal.

Mars will be much in the news for the next month, a once-every-26-month interlude when Earth and Mars line up to allow robotic spacecraft to make a relatively quick trip. After several delays, NASA’s next Mars rover, Perseverance, with instruments to search for chemical signs of past life, is scheduled to launch July 30. China will also try to launch an ambitious mission to Mars, Tianwen-1, in about a week.

A fourth mission, which would put a Russian-European rover named Rosalind Franklin on Mars, was pushed off the calendar because of technical hurdles that could not be cleared in time.

Preparations for Hope, the smallest of the bunch, proceeded smoothly, and it is now the first to be ready for liftoff.

Because the UAE does not yet have its own rocket industry, it bought the launch for Hope aboard a H-IIA rocket from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a machinery maker in Japan. At the launch site, on Tanegashima Island in Japan, the liftoff will occur at 5:51 a.m.

About the size of a Mini Cooper car, Hope is to arrive in orbit around Mars in February. The spacecraft — which cost about $200 million to build and launch — is carrying three instruments: an infrared spectrometer, an ultraviolet spectrometer and a camera.

From its high orbit — varying from 12,400 miles to 27,000 miles above the surface — Hope will give planetary scientists their first global view of Martian weather at all times of day. Over its two-year mission,

Sarah al-Amiri is the head of science operations and the deputy project manager for the Emirates Mars Mission, the U.A.E.’s first space mission. it will investigate how dust storms and other weather phenomena near the Martian surface speed or slow the loss of the planet’s atmosphere into space.

That, however, is not the main reason that the Emirates government built Hope.

“A lot of you might ask us, ‘Why space?’ ” Omran Sharaf, the Hope project manager, said during a news conference Thursday. “It’s not about reaching Mars.”

Rather, Sharaf said, the country’s primary aim is to inspire schoolchildren and spur its science and technology industries, which, in turn, will enable the Emirates to tackle critical issues like food, water, energy and a post-petroleum economy.

“It’s about starting getting the ball rolling,” Sharaf said, “and creating that disruptive change, and changing the mindset.”

The Emirates previously built and launched three earth observing satellites, collaborating with a South Korean manufacturer and gradually taking on greater shares of the engineering. The country even has a nascent human spaceflight program. Last year, the UAE bought a seat on a Russian Soyuz rocket and sent its first astronaut, Hazzaa al-Mansoori, for an eight-day stay at the International Space Station.

For the Mars mission, the country took a similar approach to the earlier satellites by working with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, where Hope was built before being sent to Dubai for testing.

By design, Emirati engineers worked side by side with their counterparts in Boulder, learning as they designed and assembled the spacecraft. “One of the requirements that the government gave us since the beginning,” Sharaf said, “they told us, ‘You have to build it and not buy it.’ ” The science piece of the mission was an even bigger gap to fill for a country without Mars scientists, which until recently constituted an unfathomable career choice.

If the UAE had tried to train planetary scientists from scratch to work on Hope, the mission would have been long over before the scientists were ready.

Instead, Emirati officials took a quicker approach: converting some of the space center’s engineers into scientists by offering apprentice-like training with researchers in the United States.

“I was put there to develop scientific talents within the organization and be able to transfer knowledge in a nontraditional way,” al-Amiri said.

The coronavirus outbreak tossed in more challenges.

Once construction of the spacecraft was complete in Colorado, a large Ukrainian transport plane ferried it to Dubai, where it was to undergo a round of testing before heading to the launchpad in Japan.

But at the end of February — not long before the European Space Agency and Russia postponed the launch of the Rosalind Franklin mission in part because of the logistical hurdles created by the pandemic — Sharaf and al-Amiri realized the outbreak could disrupt their carefully planned schedules if airports were shut down.

“Based on that, we started working on a plan to get the team across to Japan as soon as possible,” alAmiri said.

They shuffled some of the tests in order to hurry the spacecraft to Japan, three weeks earlier than originally planned, and where some of the testing would instead be completed.

Travel restrictions meant team members could not travel back and forth. A small team went ahead in early April to wait out a quarantine. Two weeks later, the cargo plane with Hope flew to Japan with another small team from the Emirates.

In Japan, the people who flew with Hope then went into quarantine and then those who had gone ahead joined the spacecraft on the barge trip to the island that is home to the launch site.

Sharaf and al-Amiri said the mission was now ready, and the nation’s space program would continue regardless of the outcome.

“The Emirates fully understand the risk associated with this mission,” Sharaf said. “So does the team.

Let’s be honest. Fifty percent of the missions that have been to Mars have failed.”

The San Juan Daily Star LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE TOA BAJA.

ORIENTAL BANK, Demandante, V.

EDWIN F. ROSARIO COLON, LUZ RODRIGUEZ GONZALEZ y la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales compuesta por ambos

Demandados CIVIL NUM.: TB2019CV00652.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: EDWIN F. ROSARIO COLON, LUZ RODRIGUEZ GONZALEZ y la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales compuesta por ambos

POR MEDIO del presente edicto se le notifica de la radicación de una demanda en cobro de dinero por la vía ordinaria en la que se alega que usted adeuda a la parte demandante, Oriental Bank, ciertas sumas de dinero, y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado de este litigio. El demandante, Oriental Bank, ha solicitado que se dicte sentencia en contra suya y que se le ordene pagar las cantidades reclamadas en la demanda. POR EL PRESENTE EDICTO se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva a la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento.

Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial.pr/ sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra, y conceder el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Se le advierte que dentro de los diez (10) días siguientes a la publicación del presente edicto, se .le estará enviando a usted por correo certificado con acuse de recibo, una copia del emplazamiento y de la demanda presentada al lugar de su última dirección conocida: Bo. Pájaros Candelaria, 819 KM 0.1, Toa Baja, PR 00949; HC 1 Box.7081,

@

Toa Baja, PR 00949-9729. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, Puerto Rico, hoy día 28 de febrero de 2020. Lcda.

Laura I Santa Sanchez, Sec Regional. Nelida Jimenez Sanchez, Sec Auxiliar del Tribunal I.

Friday, July 17, 2020 PARTE DEMANDANTE Vs.

LEGAL NOTICE

JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN MARTA MILDRED RAMOS RAMOS;

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA REGION JUDICIAL DE PONCE SALA MUNICIPAL DE JUANA DIAZ.

DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA, CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CREDITO CENTRO GUBERNAMENTAL MINILLAS (GUBECOOP) Demandante V.

EDUARDO COLON ROCHE

PARTE DEMANDADA

PARTE CON INTERÉS CIVIL NUM: SJ2019CV11182.

SALA: 604. SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU., ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS.

Demandado(a) CIVIL NÚM: JD2020CV00011. A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD SALA: 001. SOBRE: COBRO DE ROE COMO MIEMBROS DINERO (REGLA 60). EDICTO. DESCONOCIDOS DE ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMELA SUCESIÓN MARTA RICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE MILDRED RAMOS LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL RAMOS ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE Quedan emplazados y notificaPUERTO RICO.S.S. dos de que en este Tribunal se ha A: EDUARDO radicado una demanda de cobro COLON ROCHE de dinero y ejecución de hipoteca DIRECCIÓN: HC 6 Box en su contra. Se les notifica para 2241 Ponce, Puerto Rico que deberán presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sis00731-9603 POR LA PRESENTE, se le em- tema Unificado de Manejo y Adplaza y se le notifica que una De- ministración de Casos (SUMAC), manda sobre Cobro de Dinero ha al cual puede acceder utilizando sido presentada en su contra y se la siguiente dirección electrónihttps.//unired.ramajudicial. le requiere para que conteste la ca: misma dentro de los treinta (30) pr, salvo que se represente por días siguientes a la publicación derecho propio, en cuyo caso del edicto, radicando el original deberá presentar su alegación de su contestación en el Tribunal responsiva en la Secretaría del correspondiente y notificando Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, con copia de la misma a la parte Sala de San Juan y enviando codemandante a la siguiente direc- pia a la parte demandante: Lcdo.

Javier Montalvo Cintrón, dirección: BUFETE APONTE & CORTES ción PO Box 11750, Fernández LCDA. ERIKA MORALES MARENGO Juncos Station, San Juan, PR PO Box 195337 00910-1750; Tel. (787) 274-1414 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00919 Facsímil (787) 764-8241; correo Tel. (787) 302-0014; (787) 239-5661 / electrónico jmontulvo@delgaEmail: emarengo16@vahno.com dofernandez.com, dentro del Usted deberá presentar su alegatérmino de treinta (30) días de ción responsiva a través del Sisla publicación de este edicto, se tema Unificado de Manejo y Adles anotará la rebeldía en su conministración de Casos (SUMAC), tra y se dictará sentencia en su al cual puede acceder utilizando contra, conforme se solicita en la la siguiente dirección electrónica: Demanda, sin más citárseles, ni https://unired.ramajudicial.pr/suoírseles. Se ordena a los heredemac/, salvo que se presente por ros de la. causante Marta Mildred derecho propio. Se le apercibe Ramos Ramos, a que dentro del que de no hacerlo, el tribunal pomismo término de treinta (30) drá dictar Sentencia en rebeldía días contados a partir de la fecha concediendo el remedio solicitade la notificación, ACEPTEN o do en la demanda, sin citarle ni REPUDIEN la participación que oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y les corresponda en la herencia sello del Tribunal, hoy día 29 de de la causante Marta Mildred junio de 2020. Luz Mayra CaraRamos Ramos. Se les apercibe ballo Garcia, Secretaria. Doris a los herederos antes mencionaRodriguez Colon, SubSecretaria. dos que de no expresarse dentro de ese termino de treinta (30) LEGAL NOTICE dias en torno a su aceptacion o ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE repudiacion de herencia, se tenPUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE dra por aceptada. Expedido bajo PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUmi firma y sello de1 Tribunal, a 1 PERIOR DE SAN JUAN. de julio de 2020. Griselda RodriLUNA ACQUISITION, LLC guez Collado, Secretaria. Marlyn

staredictos1@outlook.com

25

Ann Espinosa Rivera, Sec Servi- lindero Sur, a través del cual se cios de Sala. llega a los pasillos interiores del condominio. Consta de sala-coLEGAL NOTICE medor, cocina, balcón, 2 dormiESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE torios y 2 baños, 1 lavandería, y PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE 2 guardarropas. Le corresponden PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SU- 2 espacios de estacionamiento PERIOR DE SAN JUAN. identificados con el mismo número del apartamento. Tiene una AMARIS YASSIELLE participación de 0.004594% en FABRE GARCIA los elementos comunes del conDemandante V. dominio. Finca Número 31,742 ORIENTAL BANK; JUAN inscrita al folio 1 del tomo 969 DEL PUEBLO UANA DEL de Sabana Llana. Registro de PUEBLO y cualesquier la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, persona desconocida Sección 5 de San Juan. La parte demandante alega que dicho con posible interés pagaré ha sido saldado según en la obligación cuya más detalladamente consta en cancelación por decreto la Demanda radicada que puede examinarse en la Secretaría de judicial se solicita. este Tribunal. Por tratarse de una Demandados CIVIL NÚM. SJ2020CV02514. obligación hipotecaria y pudiendo SOBRE: CANCELACION DE usted tener interés en este caso PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. EM- o quedar afectado por el remedio PLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. solicitado, se le emplaza por este ESTADOSUNIDOS DE AMÉ- edicto que se publicará una vez RICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE en un periódico de circulación LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL diaria general de Puerto Rico.

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del PUERTO RICO. SS. A: JUAN DEL PUEBLO Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUY JUANA DEL PUEBLO MAC), al cual puede acceder COMO POSIBLES utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramaTENEDORES Y CUALESQUIER PERSONA judiciaLpr/sumac/, salvo que se por derecho propio.

DESCONOCIDA CON represente Debe notificar con copia de ella POSIBLE INTERÉS EN a la abogada de la parte demanLA OBLIGACIÓN CUYA dante la Lcda. LízbetAviles Vega, CANCELACIÓN POR Urb. Los Sauces, Calle PomarroDECRETO JUDICIAL SE sa #222, Humacao, PR 00791; Tel (787) 354-0061, dentro de SOLICITA. los treinta (30) días siguientes Por la presente se le notifica que a la publicación de este Edicto, ha sido presentada en este Tri- apercibiéndole que de no hacerlo bunal una Demanda en su con- así dentro del término indicado, tra en el pleito de epígrafe. En el Tribunal podrá anotar su reeste caso la parte demandante beldía y dictar sentencia conceha radicado una Demanda para diendo el remedio solicitado en que se decrete judicialmente la Demanda sin más citarle ni el saldo de un (1) pagaré hipo- oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma tecario a favor de RG MORT- y sello de este Tribunal, en San GAGE CORPORATION o a su Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 8 de orden, por la suma principal de julio de 2020. Griselda Rodriguez $86,950.00, con intereses al 7% Collado, Sec Regional. Maria M. anual, vencedero el 1 de octubre Cruz Ramos, SubSecretaria. de 2027 Dicho pagare fue susLEGAL NOTICE crito mediante Escritura número 62, otorgada en San Juan, Puer- ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE to Rico, él día 26 de septiembre PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GEde 1997, ante la notarla Maria D. NERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal Ríos Diaz, inscrita al folio 1 deI de Primera Instancia Sala Supetomo 969 de Sabana Llana, ins- rior de SAN JUAN. cripción 2da., sobre la propiedad DARIO que se describe a continuación: ZALAZAR MARTINEZ URBANA: Propiedad Horizontal: Demandante v.

Apartamento 607.Apartamento residencial de forma irregular lo- ABIGAIL SOTO MENDEZ calizado en la segunda planta del Demandado(a) edificio 6 de Condominio Bosque Civil Núm: SJ2020RF00115. SoReal en el Barrio Sabana Liana bre: RUPTURA IRREPARABLE. de Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. Area NOTIFICACION DE SENTENCIA aproximada de 870.46 pies cua- POR EDICTO. drados equivalentes a 80.86771 A: ABIGAIL metros cuadrados. Colinda por el SOTO MENDEZ NORTE, con área comunal; por (Nombre de las partes a’ las que se el SUR, con área comunal; por le notifican la sentencia por edicto) el ESTE, con el apartamento 608 EL SECRETARIO (A) que susy por el OESTE, con el aparta- cribe le notifica a usted que el 11 mento 606. La puerta principal de JUNIO de 2020, este Tribunal de entrada está situada en su

(787) 743-3346

ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada, y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico dentro, de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerara hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos del caso con fecha de 18 de JUNIO de 2020. En San Juan, Puerto. Rico, el 18 de junio de 2020. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, Secretaria Regional.

F/Carmen J. Castro Serrano, Secretaria Auxiliar.

https://unired.ramaudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio. Se le apercibe que si no contesta la demanda dentro del término antes indicado, radicando el original de la contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente, y notificando con copia a la parte demandante, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra concediendo el remedio solicitado a favor de la parte demandante sin mas citarle ni oírle.

EXTENDIDO BAJO Ml FIRMA y el Sello del Tribunal, en Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, hoy día 9 de marzo de 2020. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, Secretaria Regional. Karla P. Rivera Roman, Sec Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

CARMEN

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de CABO ROJO.

COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CREDITO DE CABO ROJO Demandante v.

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE CANCEL PAGAN PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE Demandado(a) PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE Civil Núm: CB2019CV00205.

TOA ALTA. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO LUNA ACQUISITION, LLC (REGLA 60). NOTIFICACION DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. Demandante vs

JUANA A MORALES RIVERA JORGE RIVERA MORALES

Demandados CIVIL NUM: BY2019CV05447.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.

A: JORGE RIVERA MORALES - 1475 Big Bear Tn., Orlando, Florida, 32825.

Por la presente se le notifica a usted que se ha radicado en esta Secretaría la demanda de epígrafe. Se le emplaza y requiere para que notifique al licenciado: Alberto De Diego Collar, DE DIEGO LAW OFFICES, PSC, PO BOX 79552, Carolina, PR 009849552, Teléfono: (787)622-3939, abogado de la parte demandante, con copia de la contestación a la Demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto, que se publicará una vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica:

A: CARMEN CANCEL PAGAN

(Nombre de las partes a’ las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO (A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 10 de febrero 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. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico dentro, de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerara hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos del caso con fecha de 10 de JULIO de 2020.

En Cabo Rojo, Puerto. Rico, el 10 de julio de 2020. Norma G Santana Irizarry, Secretaria Regional.

F/Veronica Martinez Ortiz, Secretaria Auxiliar.

PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de MANATI.

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante v.

COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CREDITO DE MANATI, INC.; VIG MORTGAGE CORPORATION, INFINITY HOME & CONSTRUCTION, CORP., FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARE

Demandado(a) Civil Núm: MT2019CV01060. Sobre: CANCELACION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO POR LA VIA JUDICIAL. NOTIFICACION DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: INFINITY HOME & CONSTRUCTION, CORP. A las siguientes direcciones conocidas URB. BRISAS DEL MONTE, C-12, BARCELONETA PR 00617; URB. LUCHETTI 29 CALLE RAMON FERNANDEZ MANATI PR 00674-6036; 20 CALLE CARIBE MANATI PR 00674-5228 y PO BOX 340 MANATI PR 00674-0340

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO (A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 20 de mayo 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. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico dentro, de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerara hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos del caso con fecha de 14 de JULIO de 2020.

En Manati, Puerto. Rico, el 14 de julio de 2020. F/Vivian Y Fresse Gonzalez, Secretaria Regional.

LEGAL NOTICE F/Saray Salgado, Secretaria AuESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE xiliar.

26

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

A team by any other name is fine, it turns out

By KEVIN DRAPER

W

hen team owner Abe Pollin decided to change the name of the NBA’s Washington Bullets in 1995, the two-year rebranding process had the veneer of a democratic undertaking.

The fast-casual restaurant chain Boston Market ran a renaming contest that resulted in nearly 3,000 submissions. A seven-person panel came up with five finalists — the Wizards, Dragons, Stallions, Express and Sea Dogs — which were put to a public vote.

Jody Shapiro, who at the time ran the regional sports television network that aired Bullets games, was one of the seven panel members. His preference, the Monuments, was highly rated by the panel but the NBA rejected it because of trademark considerations.

“I thought it had the D.C. connection and the sense of towering structures and buildings or individuals,” he said.

Despite, or perhaps because of, his participation in the process, Shapiro was never under any illusion about who was really in charge.

“Truth be told at the end of the day, Abe and Susan chose whatever they wanted to choose,” he said, referring to Pollin and Susan O’Malley, then the team’s president. “It was more public relations than it was actually significant.”

For the second time in a quartercentury, a professional sports team based in the Washington area will undergo a name change and rebranding, in large part because of the name’s negative connotations. On Monday, Washington’s NFL team announced it would drop its logo and “Redskins” name, with a new identity to be determined.

While Pollin rebranded his team voluntarily — he was concerned by an epidemic of gun violence in Washington and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister and a friend — Daniel Snyder, the owner of Washington’s NFL team, was largely forced into it by sponsors who said they would end their association with the team if the name didn’t change.

The timing of Washington’s rebrand is unique.

“Any redesign is either done with a franchise acquisition or done with a big

When the Washington Bullets began the process of changing the team’s name, a seven-member panel came up with a list of names for a public vote, but the decision ultimately was made by team’s owner, Abe Pollin. transition,” like relocation or the unveiling of a new stadium, said Mark Verlander, who has designed the logos for a number of NFL teams.

Altering a professional sports team’s identity is a huge undertaking that typically takes anywhere from six months to a couple of years. Research is conducted, design firms are contracted, hundreds of logos are mooted, trademarks are secured, merchandise is produced and marketing plans are rolled out. The NFL has a creative services division to help teams through such occasions.

This rebrand could be particularly difficult, as the trademarks to a number of possible names that have bandied about over the years, like the Redtails and Monuments, are owned by the same man.

Matthew Wolff is a graphic designer who focuses on the visual identity of soccer teams, though he has participated in redesigns for North America’s big-four professional sports teams. He designed the uniforms France wore while winning the World Cup in 2018, as well as the instantly iconic Nigeria jerseys from the same men’s tournament.

He said a logo should be “a mirror, an avatar of self-identification” for fans.

This is particularly explicit in soccer, where team names are less prominent on uniforms and supporter culture can define a team in the eyes of outsiders.

This is not necessarily true in Ameri-

can football. There are of course names that explicitly reference regional identity, like the New England Patriots, but in the NFL identity often works in reverse. Nobody particularly associates, say, tigers with the Ohio River Valley or big cats with the Canadian border, but over decades the Bengals have come to represent Cincinnati and the Lions Detroit.

“I think there is an inherent connection with football still as kind of a gladiator wild animal spirit that they can’t let go of,” Verlander said.

And rather than teams reflecting some unique aspect of regional culture, the regional culture coalesces around the team that represents it via TV to tens of millions each weekend.

“Those NFL team names are so historic that I don’t even think about their origin story,” Wolff said. “I don’t really think about Buccaneers Buccaneering across the sea when I watch Jameis Winston throw interceptions.” He referred to the former Tampa Bay quarterback who joined the New Orleans Saints this offseason.

What makes a good logo or name is not objective, as ultimately it is art. It also isn’t static. Winning and losing, controversy and popular culture trends can alter meanings. Washington’s NFL team meant something different in the early 1990s, after three Super Bowl wins in a decade, than in 2020, after two decades

of mismanagement.

Wolff knows that much of the success of his Nigeria jersey design, which sold out in minutes, came from what happened after the garments were made.

Nike’s brand design team rolled out a clever influencer marketing campaign and used beautiful photographs in ads, just as aspects of Nigerian culture, like film and fashion, were becoming prominent worldwide.

“I felt like it was the right piece at the right time,” he said. “To be frank, that is kind of dumb luck.”

It is not clear yet in which direction Washington’s unnamed football team will go. In announcing the change, the team said Snyder and coach Ron Rivera were developing a “new name and design approach that will enhance the standing of our proud, tradition rich franchise.”

In a previous statement, Rivera said he had “hoped to continue the mission of honoring and supporting Native Americans and our Military.” That could prove problematic.

In a letter sent to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell earlier this month, representatives from hundreds of Native American groups demanded the league require Washington cease the use of “imagery of or evocative of Native American culture, traditions and spirituality,” as well as change its longtime burgundy and gold color scheme to discourage fans from continuing to wear their old gear.

But what Washington’s team will be named, and the logos and colors it uses, isn’t up to Native American groups, design firms or others.

When Verlander was given the brief to design the Tennessee Titans’ logo in the late 1990s after the team relocated, he was told the Houston Oilers’ colors had to be used because Nancy Neville Adams, the wife of the team’s owner Bud Adams, loved the colors.

Wolff knows that no matter what the brief says, only one person’s opinion matters.

“Once it gets past legal checkpoints, and even if the supporters overwhelmingly say one thing in their online poll or Twitter or Reddit, ultimately someone bought a franchise for X million or billion dollars.”

That someone is Snyder. He paid roughly $800 million.

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

27

Tuberville advances: Will Alabama send an Auburn coach to the Senate?

By GILLIAN R. BRASSIL

T

ommy Tuberville, who made his name as one of the most successful football coaches at Auburn, won in overtime and now faces an intrastate rival in Alabama.

This time, instead of recruiting players to defeat Alabama on the field, he is attempting to persuade voters to select him for the U.S. Senate over an incumbent, Doug Jones, who is considered to be in the weakest position of any Senate Democrat in this year’s election. Jones narrowly won a special election in 2017 to fill Jeff Sessions’ seat after President Donald Trump appointed Sessions the U.S. attorney general.

Sessions, who fought for his political life after Trump threw his full support behind Tuberville in the Republican primary, was crushed in the runoff election Tuesday night, sending Tuberville’s name to the November ballot.

“There’s no way he could run for Senate in Alabama and not align himself with Trump,” said the Rev. Wayne Dickens, a defensive tackle for Auburn from 2001 to 2005 who is now on the coaching staff at Western Kentucky. “My disappointment would be his actions falling in line with Trumpism,” though he said he would vote for “Coach Tub” if he were registered to vote in Alabama.

Tuberville’s football past has been present on the campaign trail, and Alabama Democrats have used his losses, abrupt job changes and team decisions to call into question his integrity and ability to win on Election Day. At times in recent days, the party’s official Twitter account has read more like a trash-talking college football message board, speaking a language familiar to many Alabama voters.

“Tuberville couldn’t score a TD for 2 weeks with 4 first rounders on his offense,” read one message posted hours after Tuberville’s victory over Sessions. “He also lost to Vanderbilt.”

‘Probably the Best Year He Ever Had’ Tuberville coached the Tigers from 1999-2008, and posted an 85-40 record and the university’s longest winning streak against the Crimson Tide, six straight, in the rivalry.

But it wasn’t a smooth ride. In 2003, William F. Walker, the president of Auburn, and David Housel, the athletic director, flew to chat with Bobby Petrino, then Louisville’s coach, about replacing Tuberville after he lost three Southeastern Conference games in which the Tigers should have had the upper hand. That was the same week as the highly anticipated Iron Bowl, which Auburn won, 28-23. Fans found out after the coveted victory, spurring severe backlash against university officials.

Tuberville held on to his job. The incident is remembered as JetGate.

And the next season, Tuberville led Auburn to a 13-0 season, earning him Coach of the Year Awards from the SEC, his second, and The Associated Press.

“I still think about 2004,” Dickens said. “For me, being

an ordained minister and understanding the impact faith has on a person, the willingness that Coach Tub had to share his faith in Jesus Christ when his team was on a national stage, he let people see who he genuinely was. 2004 was probably the best year he ever had.”

As a coach, Tuberville was more like a chief executive, Dickens said — excellent at hiring assistant coaches who supported his team and mission.

But some of the coach’s losses at Auburn are being used to taunt him, including the Iron Bowl wipeout that sealed his resignation from Auburn in 2008. Even Nick Saban, Alabama’s national title-winning coach, has been invoked.

Football in His Blood, Politics on His Brain Tuberville had always been athletic, according to his sister, Vicki Tuberville Fewell. Born and raised in smalltown Camden, Ark., about 100 miles south of Little Rock, he became Harmony Grove High School’s first quarterback; his father was a referee.

“He and Tommy were very close,” Fewell said. “He and Dad would work together because of their love of sports.”

Charles Tuberville, a World War II veteran with five Bronze Stars, died at a training camp as a member of the National Guard when Tommy was coaching at Hermitage High School in Arkansas. It was a hard loss for the tight-knit family — Tommy, Vicki, Charles III and their mother, Olive. He was an inspiration to his son’s football and political careers.

The children considered themselves “Army brats,” and supporting veterans has become central to Tuberville’s campaign, along with strong Christian values, instilled from the days his family attended Maul Road Church of Christ.

Tuberville played safety at Southern Arkansas University, then started his coaching career — after graduation in 1976, he coached at nearby Hermitage High for four years, then Arkansas State University for five. From 1986-1993, he coached at the University of Miami, contributing to three championships as a graduate assistant and later as the defensive coordinator. For the 1994 season, he served as defensive coordinator for Texas A&M, which finished with a 10-0-1 record.

That propelled him into his first head coaching job at the University of Mississippi for the 1995 season, where he

bolstered a movement to bar the Confederate battle flag from home games. He focused on attracting Black recruits and making them feel more welcome.

“The flag is killing us,” he told Robert Khayat, a former university chancellor, in a brief visit. And it worked, to an extent. Flags were waved at the 1997 homecoming game, but Tuberville’s statements helped eventually ban the flag from Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

The former coach has not shared his thoughts on the removal of Confederate symbols across the country in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

His campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Although he made his stance clear on kneeling during the national anthem in a recent campaign ad: Don’t.

Despite his dedication to Mississippi recruiting, Tuberville left for Auburn before the 1999 season (after saying they’d have to take him out “in a pine box” just two days before).

His departure from Auburn was much more quiet: After a disappointing 2008 season, he resigned, taking a year off from coaching as an analyst for ESPN before assuming the head coach role at Texas Tech.

“He’s unquestionably one of the greatest coaches of all time,” Dickens said. “He should be up there with Pat Dye and other well-known coaches in Auburn history.”

But keeping with the flair of his exit from Mississippi, after Tuberville had spent three years coaching Texas Tech, he silently withdrew from a recruitment dinner to accept the head coaching job at Cincinnati in December 2012.

Recruits at the time claimed he took the call midmeal and bailed, but Tuberville said that simply wasn’t the case.

“I actually paid the bill,” he told Al.com in 2019.

Ending with a bang in four seasons at Cincinnati, he won a share of the American Athletic Conference championship once before retiring from football in 2016.

In another instance of college football coming up on the campaign trail, Tuberville’s thoughts on the coming season aligned with those of Trump about getting back to school. When asked about starting the season on time by WNSP-FM Sports Radio in June, he said, “You betcha.”

JOSÉ BURGOS Técnico Generadores Gas Propano

787•607•3343

28

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

Bob Baffert suspended 15 days for drug positives

By JOE DRAPE

T

he Arkansas Racing Commission has suspended Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert for 15 days and vacated the victories of two of his horses after they tested positive for a banned substance.

One of the horses, Charlatan, won a division of the Arkansas Derby on May 2. The colt’s owners will forfeit the $300,000 in prize money. The owner of the other horse, a filly named Gamine, must forfeit a $36,000 first-place check won in an allowance race earlier that day. The suspension will run from Aug. 1 to 15.

On June 20, Gamine won the Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park in New York by nearly 19 lengths in a stakes-record time of 1 minute 32.55 seconds, a performance that inspired talk of the filly taking on males in the Kentucky Derby, which is scheduled for Sept. 5.

Baffert is America’s pre-eminent active trainer. He has won the Kentucky Derby five times. In 2015, he trained American Pharoah, the first horse to win the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978.

Baffert won his second Triple Crown in 2018 with the colt Justify.

Baffert has also caught the attention of regulators over the years. These are his 26th and 27th drug violations, according to public records compiled by the Association of Racetrack Commissioners International and the Thoroughbred Regulatory Rulings database maintained by the Jockey Club.

Charlatan and Gamine had two samples test positive for lidocaine, a local numbing agent, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case had not been fully adjudicated. The New York Times reported on the first positive tests in late May. Lidocaine can be used legitimately for suturing wounds or in diagnosing if a horse is sound enough to compete. It may also be present in ointments used on cuts or abrasions. It is regulated because of its potential to mask lameness in an unsound horse.

In a hearing, Baffert and his representatives argued that the horses were accidentally exposed to the lidocaine by an assistant trainer, Jimmy Barnes, who had applied a medicinal patch to his own back. Barnes had broken his pelvis, and the brand of patch he used, Salonpas, contains small amounts of lidocaine. The drug was transferred from his hands through the application of a tongue tie, they said.

A lawyer for Baffert, W. Craig Robertson, said the trainer was disappointed in Wednesday’s ruling and planned to appeal. In a statement, he said,

Bob Baffert, left, after Charlatan won a race at Santa Anita on March 14.

“This is a case of innocent exposure and not intentional administration.”

Four days after Charlatan’s runaway victory in the Arkansas Derby, the colt’s stallion rights were sold for an undisclosed sum to Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms.

The colt missed the Belmont Stakes with an ankle injury, and Baffert has said he will miss the Kentucky Derby as well. Charlatan may be able to come back in time for the Preakness on Oct. 3.

Baffert-trained Justify failed a drug test after winning the Santa Anita Derby, nearly a month before the 2018 Kentucky Derby. Justify wound up winning the Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont that year for the Triple Crown. The rule on the books when Justify failed the test required that the horse be disqualified, forfeiting both his prize money from the Santa Anita Derby and his entry into the Kentucky Derby.

California racing officials investigated the failed test for four months, allowing Justify to keep competing long enough to win the Triple Crown. In August, after Justify’s breeding rights had been sold for $60 million, the California Horse Racing Board — whose chairman at the time, Chuck Winner, had employed Baffert to train his horses — disposed of the inquiry in a rare closed-door session.

The board ruled that Justify’s positive test for the banned drug scopolamine had been the result of “environmental contamination,” not intentional

doping. Baffert has denied any wrongdoing, but the quantity of the drug found in Justify suggested that it was present not because of contamination in his feed or his bedding but rather because of an effort to enhance performance, according to Dr. Rick Sams, who ran the drug lab for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission from 2011 to 2018.

Mick Ruis, owner of the second-place horse in the Santa Anita Derby, is in litigation with California officials to have his colt Bolt d’Oro declared the winner and awarded the $600,000 first-place check.

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July 17-19, 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

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

(Mar 21-April 20)

A friend or colleague needs a helping hand but there’s no one around to give them any assistance. Once you notice their dilemma, you won’t mind dropping whatever you are doing to help them out. Changes taking place take you by surprise. Go with the flow and you will start to realise these could be to your benefit.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

You’ve been making a big effort to show someone how much you care. Romantic gifts, affectionate actions and loving texts should be working by now. If a certain someone does not realise how smitten you are with them, they must be blind. Another great way to show how much you care is to arrange a candlelit meal.

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

Scorpio

If there is something that grabs your interest or intrigues you, find out more. You’re tempted to hold back from showing your interest.

Remember the saying: if you don’t ask, you won’t get. Trust your intuition and keep up with those little things that help give your life meaning.

An unexpected award or recognition for your past hard-working efforts will make your prospects for success even stronger. You’re about to take another step up the career ladder. Be careful about what you say in front of a disgruntled neighbour. You don’t want to get dragged into an issue that is really none of your concern.

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

A loved one or close friend is starting to feel neglected. You haven’t had much chance lately to keep on top of emails and text messages. An important text may have gone overlooked and now you will feel bad that you haven’t replied. If a relationship is meaningful to you, put a little more time into it.

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

If someone has been unusually quiet and you feel you may have upset them in some way, give them a call. Leave it too long and this relationship will drift apart. You will get the green light to start on a new career project.

Celebrate with a little of what you fancy.

Accepting an unexpected invitation will mean a quick change of plans. A short trip will bring the change of scenery you feel you need. A needy neighbour is starting to take advantage of your kindness. Step back now.

Through not being there for them they will be encouraged to stand on their own two feet.

An invitation to a party or celebration will take you by surprise. People will come together online or at a venue where it will be possible to have fun while social distancing. You’re in two minds whether or not to accept. No one should be a slave to their duties. It is time to relax and catch up with your friends.

Leo

Aquarius

(July 24-Aug 23)

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

Friends are wondering about the smile on your face. You and a partner have something special to celebrate. You aren’t ready to let people in on your big secret. An invitation to a carefully organised event for a select group of people will give you something to dress up for. This is a great excuse to go clothes shopping.

A sensitive friend will read more into a teasing remark than is there. Misunderstandings can be avoided if you think before you speak.

Carefully consider questions before giving a response. Double check times of important meetings, seminars and workshops. Check amended travel timetables if you are using public transport. Don’t take any chances.

Virgo

Pisces

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

You’ve taken on other people’s obligations and your boss is expecting too much from you. You need to let them know you have a life outside your work. Start delegating and reducing commitments and this will give you more time for fun and friendships. Are you single and hoping to get together with someone soon? Take the initiative in romance.

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

You’ve taken on other people’s obligations and your boss is expecting too much from you. You need to let them know you have a life outside your work. Start delegating and reducing commitments and this will give you more time for fun and friendships. Are you single and hoping to get together with someone soon? Take the initiative in romance.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

July 17-19, 2020

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

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Ziggy

32

The San Juan Daily Star

July 17-19, 2020

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