Tuesday Jul 7, 2020

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

San Juan The

50¢

DAILY

Star

Ennio Morricone, Oscar-Winning Composer of Scores, Dies

Concern Over Abrupt Rise in COVID-19 Cases

P21

Acevedo Vilá to NPP: How Will You Come Up with Millions for ‘Yes or No’ Referendum?

P5

Bubonic Plague Diagnosed in China

P15

Did the Governor Reopen to Soon?

Plus, Coronavirus Case Confirmed at Elderly Home

NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 19

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

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July 7, 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.

Medical task force members disagreed with governor’s reopening terms. Now cases are on the rise

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

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onfirming that COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Puerto Rico, Medical Task Force epidemiologist Juan Carlos Reyes said Monday that he, along with other task force members, disagreed on Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced’s terms for reopening the island’s economy.

During an interview on Radio Isla 1320, Reyes said things have gotten “a little out of hand” as the latest Health Department report showed an upturn in confirmed and possible COVID-19 cases. The physician also said the Medical Task Force recommended myriad places and spaces that were not conducive for reopening; however, as they are an advisory group, they could not submit any orders.

“I believe that, today, we woke up with an alarming number rate; it has been one or two weeks since we have noticed this [sharp an] upturn. Everywhere, in the United States, reopening the economy has brought a rise in COVID-19 cases,” he said. “As the Medical Task Force, we advised the government not to reopen movie theaters, indoor restaurants up to 50 percent capacity, indoor churches.

Meanwhile, the epidemiologist said there has not been a discussion that should have taken place in order to prevent the coronavirus disease from spreading, which is talking about low-risk perception. He said that although the concept is not new, it is relevant as people can fall under the impression that such infection is not a threat due to lower death rates compared to other countries.

“In Puerto Rico, we have been successful in maintaining this quarantine, in maintaining physical distancing, in trying to do things right,” Reyes said. “Yet, all of a sudden, we have fallen under a low-risk perception, which is an old concept that has been under observation since HIV infection, STDs [sexually transmitted diseases] and cannabis consumption in adolescents. A person can fall under the perception when they see little to no risk, where things seem alright, where no one dies, no one around them gets sick, they end up lowering their guard and [relaxing] safety measures.”

The epidemiologist said he considered that Puerto Ricans, on a community and general population level, are under a low-risk perception. Likewise, he was concerned that the scenario on the island could change in a matter of days due to people not using their face masks and not practicing physical distancing in indoor spaces.

“There’s something so important. If people keep physically distancing, use their face masks, do not [gather in] indoor spaces or outdoors, we could control

the spread,” Reyes said. “If people go out with friends and family members who are foreign to their circle and start singing and laughing, an infection risk exists. It is highly probable that you get infected at a restaurant that is using up to 75 percent capacity. Who keeps an eye on that? Every [piece of scientific] literature points out that people in an enclosed place with crowds of people who take their face masks off are at probable risk for infection.”

Family Dept. confirms first COVID-19 case in elderly home Family Secretary Orlando López Belmonte confirmed on Monday the island’s first registered COVID-19 case in an elderly home, in Carolina. The patient is a 61-year-old man who was hospitalized five days ago. The resident was admitted to a hospital with symptoms unrelated to COVID-19 and, once a test was conducted, the result was positive.

López Belmonte said medical services for the man are being subsidized by the commonwealth as he is under the Family Department’s custody. He added that the agency contacted the home where the patient resides with the results provided by Health Department authorities.

“The home has 60 residents enrolled, all of whom had a rapid test done again today [Monday],” López Belmonte said. “Furthermore, it has 38 employees who were also tested today. According to the protocol, once there is a suspicious case at a home, the in-house doctor recommends testing be conducted and reports results to a regional epidemiologist.”

At press time, a Health Department report on COVID-19 disclosed on Monday did not report any deaths from the virus, while it confirmed 204 confirmed cases and 333 additional possible cases. Meanwhile, 115 people were listed as hospitalized due to the virus, three fewer than Sunday, while 18 were under intensive care, nine more than Sunday.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

AMA union: Reopening of bus services does not comply with disinfection protocols

By THE STAR STAFF

T

he United Workers of the Metropolitan Bus Authority (TUAMA by its Spanish acronym) charged on Monday that the public corporation did not follow health protocols to avoid the spread of the coronavirus on the bus system’s first day of resumed operations.

TUAMA President Alexis Merced Gutiérrez and Ángel Torres Escribano, secretary treasurer, said they observed the resumption of operations of the Metropolitan Bus Authority (AMA) starting at 4 a.m. and did not see officials disinfecting terminals or buses.

“We have already been able to witness what the Authority’s supposed preparation has been for the gradual opening,” Merced Gutiérrez said in a written communication. “As the workers’ representative, I must point out that if the Authority does not have all the units available with the necessary safety accessories, even if they want to provide the service, they should not because if they do so, they would be

putting the health of the workers and riders at risk.”

There were buses that did not have the necessary safety signage and protocols, such as those for the mandatory use of a mask, the union officials said.

Buses also were not equipped with hand sanitizer, as required. Only about 26 units that were in service had the protective device or acrylic barrier for

drivers installed, Merced Gutiérrez said.

“Thus, in the middle of the day [during the driver’s relay hours] the absence of protocols became evident, both in the Terminal de Sagrado Corazón and the Terminal de San Juan,” he said. “There were no personnel or equipment to carry out the disinfection, nor were there any personnel to supervise that this task be carried out.”

In May, Budget Director Omar Hernández said the public corporation was preparing a protocol for resuming operations and deterring the spread of COVID-19. The plan entailed reducing the number of passengers in buses to maintain social distancing and requiring riders to use masks. He also said drivers were going to be protected by an acrylic shield separating them from riders.

Major roof repairs underway at Vieques airport

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

T

he Puerto Rico Ports Authority (APPR by its Spanish initials) has begun permanent repair work on the roof of the Antonio Rivera Rodríguez de Vieques regional airport terminal, APPR Executive Director Joel A. Pizá Batiz announced Monday.

The airport, the only one in Vieques, connects the island municipality through commercial flights to the municipalities of Ceiba, Carolina and San Juan, and to other Caribbean islands.

During the passage of Hurricane Maria in September 2017, the Vieques airport suffered severe damage, such as the rupture of most of the metal panels and insulation material, as well as drainage ducts, and the detachment of the roof waterproofing system, allowing the entry of water into the passenger terminal. “To resolve the situation, emergency repairs were carried out that allowed the facility to be used,” Pizá Batiz said.

Despite implementing the temporary repairs, the APPR chief noted, the current condition of the airport terminal is complicated by the penetration of water into the second floor.

“Regional airlines have been affected by this situation,

having to move their counters in a disorganized way to the first floor, causing, in turn, poor service to the local passenger and the tourist,” Pizá Batiz said. “However, we needed a solution that was permanent, durable and resilient.”

APPR recently managed to complete the study and design process and awarded a $1.85 million bid for a total and permanent repair of the terminal roof. The work is expected to be completed in about six months.

As detailed by Pizá Batiz, APPR worked through the entire damage definition and cost estimation process with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), with the assistance of Puerto Rico’s Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience, for the project to be eligible for a 90 percent rebate under FEMA’s Public Assistance program.

The repair work consists of the removal and replacement of the existing metal panels, repair of the roof surface, replacement of drains and the installation of a new waterproofing system on the entire roof of the terminal, impacting an area of some 12,000 square feet, in addition to other improvements to the terminal.

“We are implementing a more robust design that will greatly improve the resilience of the terminal, maintaining commercial operation at the airport, and at the same time

ensuring mobility and evacuation of people in the event of an emergency,” Pizá Batiz said. “This work reaffirms the commitment of Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced and APPR to continue improving the experience of our residents and visitors, who use this important regional airport daily.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

5

Acevedo Vilá questions how NPP will get $3.5 million for statehood referendum

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

P

opular Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for resident commissioner Aníbal Acevedo Vilá urged the governing New Progressive Party (NPP) on Monday to explain how the island government will find $3.5 million for the “Statehood Yes or No” referendum given that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has ignored the request for those funds made under Law 51 of 2020, which was signed on May 16 by Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced.

During a press conference held at PDP headquarters in Puerta de Tierra, Acevedo Vilá noted that the Puerto Rico government had until June 30 to complete all procedures, certifications and disbursements related to the plebiscite and that the State Elections Committee (SEC) president had up to 30 days to coordinate with U.S. attorney general and other federal authorities for approval. In addition, if the procedures under Law 11376 of 2014 were not complete on or before June 30, the recent law offered guidelines for guaranteeing the process’ success and protecting voters’ rights, while the governor, the resident commissioner and the SEC president were responsible for informing the U.S. president and the leaders of both houses of Congress and of the island Legislature of any actions taken.

“This is not what the PDP says, we did not invent this; that is the law that [Puerto Rico Senate President] Thomas Rivera Schatz wrote, what the NPP majority approved

unanimously and what the governor signed,” Acevedo Vilá said. “Obviously, here we are on July 6, and yes, they submitted a request for funds to the U.S. DOJ to hold the [political] status plebiscite and the SEC followed in order to get ballot approval, that was on June 3, which was compliant with Law 51 of 2020. However, after that, officially, we have not been informed about anything.”

Acevedo Vilá also raised concerns as the only update known by the general public came from PDP ex-senator Ramón Luis Nieves, who called out powerbrokers hired by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority who were using public funds to lobby for statehood in Washington.

Likewise, the former governor called on the party to clarify how they were going to fund the referendum slated for Nov. 3 when NPP Electoral Commissioner María Dolores “Lolín” Santiago had insisted that there was not enough money for the primary elections.

“Although they say that the referendum costs $2.5 million, it could actually be $3.5 million -- $3.5 million that might come out of the budget that we do not have, $3.5 million that could be used for so many other things

that we need in Puerto Rico,” Acevedo Vilá said. “We also call on the Financial Oversight and Management Board to tell us if they will validate this squandering of public funds on a plebiscite that is not endorsed by the [U.S.] DOJ, the Constitution, laws or U.S. public policy. We can’t make Puerto Rico waste their time and money on a referendum that will not lead to any consequence.”

Meanwhile, the PDP governing board still insists on citizens voting “No” if the referendum takes place. However, when The Star asked if the PDP had other options for addressing Puerto Rico’s political status, Acevedo Vilá replied that, as it is a priority to address such a situation, the island government should stop making the same mistakes and commit to holding a constitutional assembly, “but that’s something up for discussion by the party.”

PDP expresses concern over Justice secretary’s dismissal As for ex-Justice Secretary Denisse Longo Quiñones being dismissed by Vázquez, Acevedo Vilá said he thought it was worrisome.

He also said he felt incensed because there is not enough press coverage and citizens feel uneasy about the matter.

“You don’t dispose of a [cabinet member] because you lost your trust in them on a Friday night, at 8 p.m., so they leave that same date. Unless, analogically speaking, you own a store, you have a security camera and you find an employee stealing money from the cash register. You tell them that they must get out,” he said. “Hierarchically, it is the third most important position in our Constitution.

This person could be governor, as Wanda

Vázquez well knows. She [Longo Quiñones] gets fired when there are five ongoing cases that involve her [Vázquez’s] government.”

Acevedo Vilá went on to say that there are no reasons for firing Longo Quiñones other than some dispute with the ex-Justice secretary’s mother, former Health Department acting secretary Dr. Concepción Quiñones de Longo, or that, last Tuesday, there was a referral from the island House of Representatives Health Committee that involved half of the governor’s staff, which she later made an effort to debunk.

“If any of these were not the reason, then what was it? Two sources confirmed it was due to a dispute between [Vázquez and Longo Quiñones] after the governor wanted to shelve some investigations. If that was the reason, that is called obstruction of justice,” Acevedo Vilá said. “For two years, Donald Trump was being investigated; this is an extremely serious matter, as a governor gives someone instructions or insinuates to a [Justice] secretary to stop investigations, this could be material for impeachment.”

Rep. Luis Vega Ramos, meanwhile, asked Longo Quiñones to come clean and tell the public if Vázquez asked for her resignation because she refused to shelve ongoing cases against the government.

“If there’s another reason as to why she got fired, then we can all move on from this discussion,” Vega Ramos said. “However, if her dismissal, which has been confirmed by the governor herself, is involved with prolonging investigations that involve La Fortaleza and Puerto Rico’s government, she has the moral duty to confirm that.”

Pierluisi urges renegotiation of PREPA-LUMA deal

By THE STAR STAFF

P

edro Pierluisi, one of two candidates seeking the gubernatorial nomination under the New Progressive Party ticket, called on Monday for a renegotiation of the contract between the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and LUMA Energy to ensure that the labor rights of PREPA workers are protected and that utility rates remain reasonable.

“The transformation of PREPA is crucial for the economic development of Puerto Rico and it is necessary to complete the process of restructuring its debt,” Pierluisi said in written remarks. “The contract announced by the Governor between PREPA and LUMA suffers from the same defect of many of the actions that have tarnished [the power utility’s] administration, the

lack of transparency. We learned the agreement was signed without providing an opportunity for the public to review it and to provide opinions on its terms and clauses that compromise the future of our electricity system.”

The former two-term resident commissioner criticized the noted lack of transparency in the process.

“The main intention of transforming PREPA is to lower the cost of electricity and provide a more efficient and reliable service to our people,” Pierluisi said. “It is extremely worrying that the contract anticipates increases in the electricity rates that we will all pay, even though Act 1202018, the Law for the Transformation of the Puerto Rico Electrical System, is clear in its intention to avoid any increase and to lower the cost of power.”

The law also states that the rights of PREPA’s workforce must be respected, as established in the applicable collective bargaining agreements, he said.

“However, this agreement allows the opposite and, as expected, it will bring us legal disputes that are unnecessary and delay our mission of having the electrical system that Puerto Rico deserves, a modern and resilient one,” Pierluisi said.

The gubernatorial hopeful said he supports the use of public-private partnerships to modernize the power grid.

“However, this should only be done if it is to improve service to our people, provide more accessible and cheap energy, promote the diversification of our energy sources and help comply with public policy in favor of renewable energy as established by law,” Pierluisi said. “This is what must

be done, and it must be done now.”

On June 22, PREPA entered into a 15year agreement in which LUMA Energy will manage its transmission and distribution (T&D) for a service fee and incentive fees payable to the company after achieving certain performance milestones. The fixed fee starts at $70 million in year one and increases to $105 million for years four through 15, but with the incentives the total would end up costing $125 million per year.

The contract requires the reorganization of PREPA into two operating companies. One is GridCo, which will retain ownership of the T&D system, and the other is GenCo, which will own PREPA’s generation assets.

6

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

González Colón tops $205,000 in campaign contributions

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

R

esident Commissioner and candidate for re-election Jenniffer González Colón has surpassed the preliminary campaign contributions of the other candidates for the Washington, D.C. post ahead of November’s elections, exceeding $205,000.

A full 88 percent of those collections come from residents of Puerto Rico.

“Given the difficult times that we have had to live through, I understand and appreciate the sacrifice that our people make in contributing what they can to my campaign, but it is necessary to continue the work that I have been doing in the federal capital,” González Colón said in a written statement. “We have achieved the largest allocation of federal funds in our history.”

Since she announced her aspira-

tions in September 2015 to become the first woman to represent the island before Congress, the vice president of the New Progressive Party has positioned herself as the leader in campaign contributions in all collection cycles.

Despite the pandemic and the fiscal crisis, the congresswoman’s campaign committee noted that “it is evident that Puerto Ricans want to keep her in Washington, D.C., and they appreciate the tireless and productive work Jenniffer

González is doing; with their contributions [they are doing their part so] that she continues working and advocating for the well being of the island.”

The current collection cycle covers the period from April to June.

Barceloneta mayor passes out economic incentive checks

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

W

ith an investment of approximately $21,000, Barceloneta Mayor Wanda Soler Rosario gave economic incentive checks to the first group of small businesses in the municipality that saw the operation of their services interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic emergency.

The group of more than 50 merchants

each generate a sales volume of less than $25,000 annually while contributing to the economic development of the northern coastal town.

“By delivering these checks we have contributed to relieving the economic situation faced by these merchants, many of whom had to close operations during the pandemic,” Soler Rosario said. “The incentive is part of the commitment of our administration, which recognizes that the merchants were affected by the passage of

Hurricane Maria, the earthquakes and the quarantine.”

“Our small merchants are vital for the economic development of our people and the country, and it is our responsibility to help them in these difficult times we are experiencing,” the mayor added.

In order to receive the economic benefit, the merchants complied with a series of conditions, including being registered with the Barceloneta Finance Department and being up to date with their documents

and business tax payments.

The money comes from an item of the municipality’s general fund that is used for these purposes. The mayor hopes to deliver a second round of incentives from which businesses with a sales volume of less than $100,000 a year will benefit.

Soler Rosario reiterated her commitment to help the businesses in her town, which she recognized for the contribution they make to the economic development of Barceloneta through the services and jobs they generate.

“I urge merchants who meet the requirements to contact the Mayor’s Office so they can benefit from this economic incentive,” she said. “In addition, I invite you to learn about the services that our administration has available, which include the painting of businesses in the urban area, garbage collection, and personnel training through the Consortium, all free of charge for merchants. Those who are interested in establishing or developing a new business concept can visit our business incubator, unique in the area, known as REDI, which makes facilities and guidance in business areas available to entrepreneurs.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

7

As the virus surged, Florida partied. Tracking the revelers has been tough.

By PATRICIA MAZZEI

M

iami’s flashy nightclubs closed in March, but the parties have raged on in the waterfront manse tucked in the lush residential neighborhood of Belle Meade Island. Revelers arrive in sports cars and ride-shares several nights a week, say neighbors who have spied professional bouncers at the door and bought earplugs to try to sleep through the thumping dance beats.

They are the sort of parties — drawing throngs of maskless strangers to rave until sunrise — that local health officials say have been a notable contributing factor to the soaring coronavirus infections in Florida, one of the most troubling infection spots in the country.

Just how many parties have been linked to COVID-19 is unclear because Florida does not make public information about confirmed disease clusters. On Belle Meade Island, neighbors fear the large numbers of people going in and out of the house parties are precisely what public health officials have warned them about.

“We have hundreds of people coming onto this island,” said Jeri Klemme-Zaiac, a nurse practitioner who has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years. “This is how this is spreading: People have no regard for anyone else.”

The city of Miami and the Miami-Dade Police Department shut down a party at the house just before midnight Wednesday, a spokesperson for the department said. Officers kicked out perhaps a hundred people, estimated Rita Lagace, who lives next door and saw the attendees reluctantly depart.

She predicted the festivities would soon return: Targeting loud parties has always been a game of whack-a-mole in Miami, a city famous for its dazzling nightlife.

But the quest to end parties and other social gatherings has gained new urgency because of the exploding coronavirus in Florida, which reported more than 10,000 new cases Sunday. The state’s contact tracers, already overwhelmed by the surging number of new cases, have found it especially difficult to track how the virus jumped from one party guest to the next because some infected people refused to divulge whom they went out with or had over to their house.

“We are starting to encounter a fair amount of pushback from younger folks when you call them up and say, ‘We want to know everyone who was at your party,’” said Dr. J. Glenn Morris Jr., director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida in Gainesville, a college town where local officials have begged students to stop partying. “There’s very much a sense of, ‘That’s none of your business.’”

The party problem is not limited to Florida. In New York, officials in Rockland County issued subpoenas to eight partygoers, all in their 20s, who had refused to answer even basic questions about a party they attended, hosted by a person who was sick. The subpoenas threatened a daily fine of up to $2,000. The eight people quickly complied.

In Miami, the city attorney plans to sue the owner of the

With the coronavirus exploding, trying to trace the contacts of every positive case has become unrealistic in Florida, especially among elusive partygoers.

Belle Meade Island party house next week, citing repeated “illegal activity.” Local officials have not publicly disclosed any case of the virus traced to the house, whose owner could not be reached for comment.

Florida’s cases began climbing in June, about a month after the start of the state’s economic reopening. The surge came after Memorial Day and several weeks of protests against police brutality, though public health officials had not publicly tied any outbreaks directly to the beaches or the demonstrations. Instead, they said people resuming their normal jaunts to bars, restaurants and parties had spread the virus.

The socializing that followed Florida’s rapid economic reopening has left the state reeling from the virus. The Department of Health reported more than 11,400 infections Saturday, a record. Florida cases made up 20% of all U.S. cases Thursday. Patients with COVID-19 have begun to fill up Florida hospital wards, forcing some hospitals to scrap elective surgeries, as they did early on in the pandemic.

More than 3,600 people have died, including an 11-yearold boy.

Desperate local officials have adopted local mask requirements and closed the beaches over the long holiday weekend. Some communities were deploying teams to go door-to-door in the hardest hit neighborhoods, distributing

masks, hand sanitizers and flyers with information on coronavirus symptoms and testing.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, insisted there would be no new shutdown, but a piecemeal rollback is still underway: The state banned drinking at bars. Miami-Dade County ordered entertainment venues to close again and imposed a curfew “If everyone is enjoying life but doing it responsibly, we’re going to be fine,” DeSantis said Thursday in Tampa after a visit from Vice President Mike Pence.

The Florida Department of Health has about 1,600 students, epidemiologists and other staff doing contact tracing, and it has hired a contractor to bring on 600 more people, for a total of 2,200. That is about a third of the roughly 6,400 tracers that will be needed to meet the target of 30 tracers per 100,000 people recommended by the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

With so much community spread, trying to trace the contacts of every positive case becomes unrealistic, several public health officials said.

“We may have to change the priorities on tracing as the numbers continue to increase, because at some point it is like drinking out of a fire hose,” said Raul Pino, the health department officer in Orlando.

8

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Why New York buses are on the rise in a subway city

During the coronavirus pandemic, daily ridership on buses has surpassed the subway for the first time in over half a century.

By CHRISTINA GOLDBAUM and WINNIE HU

I

n the battle for riders, New York City’s subway has always trounced buses. By a lot.

But at the height of the coronavirus pandemic the equation was flipped on its head — average daily ridership in April and May was 444,000 on the subway and 505,000 on the buses.

It was the first time that happened since the transit agency started keeping such records more than half a century ago.

Buses have held on to their lead even as the city has begun reopening after a three-month shutdown and more commuters return to work. Average daily counts in June were 752,000 riders for the subway — and 830,000 riders for the buses.

The city’s sprawling bus system, which has long been overshadowed by the subway, has emerged as a crucial part of its recovery. Buses are being counted on to keep people out of cars and to relieve subway crowding as more commuters come back, drawing many riders who said they felt buses were a safer and less-stressful alternative because riders can wait outside for the bus, see how clean or crowded a bus is before paying the fare, and hop off at any time and be back outside again.

“I’m more comfortable on the bus,” said Arturo Carrion, 52, who works as a cleaner for Uber. “The train is tight with a lot of people like sardines.”

Buses also reach into parts of the city where the subway doesn’t and serve a less well-off ridership. And when the subway started shutting down overnight for cleaning in May some workers turned to buses to get to their jobs.

To speed up buses, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city would install five busways that would push cars off some of New York’s busiest arteries, including Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and Main Street in Flushing, Queens.

The mayor had been under growing pressure from advocates and bus riders to create more busways before the pandemic, and the outbreak has intensified a focus on how better public transit can reduce car traffic as the city slowly resumes normal life and more people return to work.

The city opened a busway last fall on 14th Street in lower Manhattan that has significantly boosted bus speeds and ridership. Before the pandemic, the average time it took to complete a trip had dropped by 36%. Weekday ridership had increased 19% and as much as 25% during morning rush hour.

Still, the new busways have angered some business owners who are already struggling to survive the economic fallout of the virus.

“This is Queens — people here drive,” said Dian Song, executive director of the downtown Flushing Business Improvement District, which serves around 2,000 businesses.

“Adding driving restrictions on Main Street, you will scare

away those customers. You are really going to bankrupt those businesses.”

The health crisis that has changed so much about New York has upended its transit patterns and unexpectedly allowed buses to shine. By most measures, buses have received far less attention and resources than the subway. If the subway was slow and crowded, the buses were usually worse. The buses were often the ride of last resort for those moving about the city.

When the subway plunged into a crisis in 2017, Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency. Yet the buses have been on a steady decline for more than a decade. Bus speeds dropped year after year — to almost 4 mph — as congestion worsened. Riders fled for faster options, including Uber, Lyft and Citi Bike.

But during the worst of the pandemic, as subway ridership was wiped out, buses still carried as many as half their riders, including essential workers.

“This is what I have to do to get to work,” said Jackie Inabinet, 57, a security guard who never stopped riding the bus from her home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to her job in Long Island City, Queens.

Other riders are newcomers to the bus like Toddara Galimore, 23, a junior office manager in Brooklyn who traded in the J train for the B44 bus. “I can see the outside, said Galimore, who never took the bus to work until the pandemic. “If I need to get off quick, I can get off fast.”

Bus service even improved. With the city nearly shut down, buses zoomed down empty streets — at speeds up to 19% faster than normal — in a tantalizing glimpse of just how much better service could be.

“Buses are no longer seen as second tier anymore,” said Tom Wright, president of the Regional Plan Association, an influential planning group.

New York’s buses have carried more riders than the subway every day for more than two months — the first time that has happened since the Metropolitan Transportation Authority began keeping track in 1963.

Bus ridership dropped to a low of 430,000 riders one day in April, or 20% of pre-pandemic levels. Subway ridership hit bottom with 403,000 daily riders, a 93% drop.

Transportation experts said expanding the city’s bus network was essential to attracting more riders, especially in transit deserts outside Manhattan without subway lines.

Improvements to buses can also be made faster and cheaper than to the subway, they said.

“The city’s bus system has always sort of been the unwanted step sibling of transit in New York,” said Janette Sadik-Khan, a former city transportation commissioner. “But buses are a more attractive option when they can operate above ground just like subways operate underground.”

Kate Slevin, a senior vice president of the Regional Plan Association, said faster bus trips would also mean less time that riders could be potentially exposed to the virus. “It’s a public health issue and an equity issue as well,” she said.

“The last thing you want is essential workers stuck in traffic behind single-occupant vehicles.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

9

Trump defends Confederate flag in latest race-based appeal to white voters

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

P

resident Donald Trump mounted an explicit defense of the Confederate flag Monday, suggesting that NASCAR had made a mistake in banning it from its auto racing events, while falsely accusing a top Black driver, Bubba Wallace, of perpetrating a hoax involving a noose found in his garage.

Trump’s reference to the Confederate flag, and its role in a sport whose mostly white fans Trump remains popular with, was the latest remark by the president focused on culture wars as he tries to rally his culturally conservative base behind his struggling reelection effort.

And it came after a weekend in which the president delivered official speeches that avoided explicitly referencing totems of the Confederacy.

“Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest

ratings EVER!” Trump posted on Twitter on Monday.

While NASCAR and other organizations have moved to retire symbols of the Confederacy, and lawmakers in Mississippi voted to bring down the state flag featuring the Confederate emblem, Trump has defended symbols from the nation’s past that represent slavery and oppression.

He has opposed the renaming of military bases named after Confederate officers, even as military leaders have expressed support for the idea.

The noose incident last month at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama came after Wallace, the only Black driver in NASCAR’s top circuit, called for the Confederate flag to be banned from the sport, and NASCAR agreed to banish it from its races and properties. At the start of the race week, a member of Wallace’s racing team found the noose hanging in his garage stall and reported it to NASCAR. The organization’s president then informed Wallace himself, and FBI officials later found that the knot had been tied into the rope as early as October, well before anyone would have known that Wallace

The mural was painted on Saturday in Martinez, Calif., which is about 30 minutes northeast of San Francisco. would be assigned that stall for the race.

Wallace told Don Lemon of CNN at the time that people were using the issue to damage him.

“I’m mad because people are trying to test my character and the person that I am and my integrity,” Wallace said.

Trump’s tweet came just days after he delivered a divisive speech at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota as part of the July 4 holiday, in which he denounced Democrats as radical anarchists and said

that children are taught in schools to “hate” the United States. In that address he avoided specifically mentioning anything related to Confederate monuments, which polls show a majority of Americans support removing.

He talked more generally about efforts to take down statues across the country, conflating what is primarily an attempt to remove statues of Confederate generals with others questioning monuments to people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

“Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities,” Trump said in the speech. “Many of these people have no idea why they are doing this, but some know exactly what they are doing.”

Some of Trump’s advisers have tried to get him to focus less explicitly on statues of Confederate generals, given that he is taking an unpopular position. But after sticking to the script in his Friday night speech, he was clear about his support for the Confederate flag in his tweet Monday.

Police seek 2 white people who were seen vandalizing Black Lives Matter mural

By AZI PAYBARAH

P

olice in Martinez, California, said Sunday that they were seeking two white people who were seen vandalizing a Black Lives Matter mural less than an hour after it was painted in front of a local courthouse on Saturday.

“The community spent a considerable amount of time putting the mural together only to have it painted over in a hateful and senseless manner,” Chief Manjit Sappal of the Martinez Police Department said in a statement. “The city of Martinez values tolerance, and the damage to the mural was divisive and hurtful.”

Videos posted on social media show a white woman using a roller with black paint to cover the letters B and L in “Black Lives Matter,” while a white man records onlookers yelling for them to stop.

The mural, in yellow paint in the middle

of a city street, spelled out “Black Lives Matter” in capital letters.

The man, who can be seen in a video wearing a red cap and a red shirt that reads “Trump” and “Four More Years,” can be heard saying: “We’re sick of this narrative” and “The narrative of police brutality, the narrative of oppression, the narrative of racism. It’s a lie.

It’s a lie.”

The man was also recorded going to a car parked nearby to retrieve a can of black paint.

The woman, using two expletives, tells onlookers to “keep this” in New York, adding, “This is not happening in my town.”

At one point, the man in the red shirt tells onlookers: “Keep America great again, that’s right. Why don’t you guys learn about history, the Emancipation Proclamation Act?” and “You’re only free because of our forefathers.”

A woman can be heard off-camera telling the man he is not “from America” and

that he is a “colonizer.”

“Your ancestors aren’t from here,” she says.

“You don’t know nothing,” the man in the red shirt replies.

That woman eventually takes the can of black paint from them.

The relationship between the two people who were seen defacing the mural was unknown, and it was unclear what charges they could face. Police officials were not immediately available to comment Sunday night.

Justin Gomez, a local resident who got permission from the city to paint the mural, said of the vandalism on Sunday: “I’m not so surprised that it happened. I’m surprised at how bold they chose to be.”

The mural was painted on a one-block stretch of Court Street in Martinez, which is about 35 miles northeast of San Francisco.

The city selected the location after Gomez,

the lead organizer for Martizians for Black Lives, asked the city for permission to paint the message, he said.

“We asked to do it on our city’s main street,” Gomez said. The city, he said, offered the street in front of the Wakefield Taylor Courthouse instead.

“We immediately agreed to it,” he said, “and I feel it was a more powerful statement than what we had initially proposed.”

Gomez and local residents started painting the mural at 7 a.m. Saturday; by 2:30 p.m., with the paint still drying, he left.

By 3 p.m., Gomez said, he received messages saying the mural was being vandalized.

Gomez said that the mural had since been restored and that supporters were “maintaining a presence” to prevent further damage.

Similar murals have been painted in cities across the country, including Washington, New York, Dallas and Los Angeles.

10

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

A Kennedy wife and a professor compete to run against a Trump backer

By TRACEY TULLY

J

eff Van Drew’s defection from the Democratic Party began with a vote against impeaching President Donald Trump and ended with a handshake in the Oval Office.

With his pledge of “undying support” for Trump, the freshman congressman from New Jersey unleashed the full fury of his former party and earned a quick embrace from the Republican president, who promptly held a rally for Van Drew in South Jersey, declaring it “Trump country.”

The apostasy set in motion a surprisingly toxic race that has become a moral crusade by Democrats thirsty for political payback in a state where they outnumber Republicans by 1 million voters.

“We’ve got to make an example out of this guy — kick his butt,” said Michael Suleiman, the Democratic Party chairman in Atlantic County, who helped to send Van Drew to Congress in 2018 during the so-called blue wave.

But Tuesday’s primary race among Democrats vying to run against Van Drew has split largely along the political fault lines that have divided the party.

On one side is Gov. Philip D. Murphy, who offered a late endorsement to the candidate with a celebrity surname: Amy Kennedy, a mental health advocate and former history teacher married to Patrick J. Kennedy, a former congressman and a son of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

On the other are two of Murphy’s political rivals, George E. Norcross III, a South Jersey power broker, and Stephen M. Sweeney, the state Senate president, who are supporting Brigid Callahan Harrison, a professor of political science and law.

That lineup was the only predictable element in the race.

Both of New Jersey’s U.S. senators are backing Harrison, staking ground opposite Murphy, an ally and fellow Democrat, as are many labor organizations.

Kennedy has the support of public employee unions that often align with Murphy as well as progressive groups that oppose Norcross and are working to undermine the power that county leaders in New Jersey have to anoint candidates.

With help from Norcross, Harrison notched the support of six of the district’s eight county chairs, but Kennedy won the coveted Democratic Party line in Atlantic County, where more than one-third of the district’s voters live.

The coronavirus has upended the contest since it has precluded most traditional campaigning.

Amy Kennedy, a mental health advocate and former history teacher, in New Jersey on June 26, 2020.

Instead, the race has been marked by a volley of competing news releases, Zoom fundraisers and an online-only debate broadcast on YouTube. (The three-way debate drew a total of 256 viewers to its live airing.)

The election itself was postponed by a month, to the Tuesday after a holiday weekend.

And voting is being conducted almost entirely with mail-in ballots — the first wide-scale test of a method that was used in May but tainted by allegations of fraud.

Mail-in ballots must be postmarked or delivered in person by Election Day, and the race, if close, may take more than a week to decide.

“There’s almost, like, no anchor to grab onto,” said Professor Micah Rasmussen, who teaches politics at Rider University and was former Gov. James McGreevey’s press secretary.

“There’s no sense of normalcy.”

Other closely watched races on Tuesday include a Republican primary between Kate Gibbs and David Richter, who had planned to run against Van Drew but switched districts after the defection. The winner will compete against Rep. Andy Kim, a freshman Democrat in a vulnerable South Jersey district.

Farther north, Rep. Josh Gottheimer is facing a progressive challenger, Arati Kreibich, as

is Rep. Albio Sires.

“I really think that people are just looking around and asking: ‘Why is everything so screwed up?’” said Hector Oseguera, a 32-yearold lawyer running in the Democratic primary against Sires, who has been in Congress since 2006. “And they start to say maybe the people who have been in charge for so long haven’t been doing such a good job.”

A third candidate in the running to oppose Van Drew — Will Cunningham, 34, a lawyer and former investigator for the House Committee on Oversight and Reform — makes a similar argument.

“Those closest to the pain should be closest to the power,” said Cunningham, a Black man who experienced homelessness as a child.

It is his second campaign against Van Drew: Cunningham drew 16.8% of the vote in 2018. Still, the race is widely viewed as a competitive two-person contest between Harrison and Kennedy.

Sen. Cory Booker, who is running for reelection, filmed a TV ad for Harrison and is bracketing himself with her on the ballot.

Kennedy was endorsed last week by Steny H. Hoyer, the majority leader of the House of Representatives. “She is the best candidate to beat Jeff Van Drew and turn this seat blue again,” Hoyer said in a statement.

What debate there has been about issues has focused on infrastructure and economic needs along the Jersey Shore, health care reform and marijuana legalization. The district stretches from Atlantic City west to the Pennsylvania border.

Kennedy, a mother of five, has emphasized her experience as a teacher and her role advocating for mental health and addiction reform as the education director of the Kennedy Forum, which was founded by her husband.

Harrison, a professor at Montclair State University, has focused on the economic plight facing Atlantic City, marijuana legalization as a social justice issue and health care costs.

If Kennedy wins the primary, she will be on the ballot in November alongside a voter referendum question about whether to legalize marijuana in New Jersey, a proposal that Murphy has championed but that she does not support.

Patrick Kennedy, who has spoken frequently about his struggle with addiction, is an ardent opponent of legalized marijuana.

Rasmussen, who helped run Van Drew’s campaign for the state Legislature, said Amy Kennedy’s opposition to legalizing marijuana is unlikely to trouble many general election voters

in the moderate swing district where Trump won by 5 percentage points in 2016.

Tuesday’s elections also are being viewed as a referendum on the vote-by-mail process, which is expected to lead to increased voter participation but has been marred by problems.

Some voters got the wrong ballots; other ballots never reached voters. A glitch involving a bar code on the envelope caused some ballots to be returned in the mail to voters.

“These primary elections are going to have an asterisk next to them,” Sweeney, the Senate president, said last week.

A May special election for Paterson City Council, conducted using mail voting at the height of the pandemic, led the attorney general to charge four men with ballot fraud. Trump, who has been critical of vote-by-mail, referred to the Paterson arrests on Twitter.

Amber McReynolds, chief executive of the National Vote at Home Institute, said expanded voting options are fundamentally healthy for democracy.

“Just like in-person voting, just like early voting, there are risks,” she said. “It’s not an indictment of the policy. It’s just further demonstration that you have to implement it properly.”

“It’s a science,” she added, “and an art.”

Will Cunningham, a lawyer and former investigator for the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, in New Jersey on June 26, 2020.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

11

Our cash-free future is getting closer

By LIZ ALDERMAN

O

n a typical Sunday, patrons at Julien Cornu’s cheese shop used to load up on Camembert and chèvre for the week, with about half the customers digging into their pockets for euro notes and coins.

But in the era of the coronavirus, cash is no longer à la mode at La Fromagerie, as social distancing requirements and concerns over hygiene prompt nearly everyone who walks through his door to pay with plastic.

“People are using cards and contactless payments because they don’t want to have to touch anything,” Cornu said, as a line of maskwearing shoppers stood 3 feet apart before approaching the register and swiping contactless cards over a reader.

While cash is still accepted, even older shoppers — his toughest clientele when it comes to adopting digital habits — are voluntarily making the switch.

Cash was already being edged out in many countries as urban consumers paid increasingly with apps and cards for even the smallest purchases. But the coronavirus is accelerating a shift toward a cashless future, raising new calculations for merchants and enriching the digital payments industry.

Fears over transmission of the disease have compelled consumers to rethink how they shop and pay. Retailers and restaurants are favoring clicks over cash to reduce exposure for employees. China’s central bank sterilized bank notes in regions affected by the virus. And governments from India to Kenya to Sweden, as well as the United Nations, are promoting cashless payments in the name of public health.

“Time to swap your coins for payment cards — safer for containing coronavirus,” Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission vice president for financial services, wrote on Twitter as Europe imposed quarantines.

Cash is certainly not dead. Before the pandemic, bills and coins were used for 80% of the transactions in Europe, and there are few signs that the pandemic is about to wipe it out.

Yet for a growing number of people sensitized by COVID-19 quarantines, cash is a fading routine.

“We’re living through an amazing global social experiment that is forcing govern-

A customer makes a so-called contactless payment at the Entrepôt St. Claude cafe in Paris. ments, businesses and consumers to rethink their operating models and norms for social interactions,” said Morten Jorgensen, director of RBR, based in London, a consulting firm specializing in banking technology, cards and payments.

“We have a world in which there is less contact,” he said. “People’s habits are changing as we speak.”

Those dynamics are creating a golden moment for credit card companies, banks and digital platforms, which are capitalizing on the crisis to advance the cashless revolution by encouraging consumers and retailers to use cards and smartphone apps that yield lucrative fees. In Britain alone, retailers paid 1.3 billion pounds (about $1.7 billion) in third-party fees in 2018, up 70 million pounds from the year before, according to the British Retail Consortium.

Payment and processing companies such as PayPal (whose stock is up about 55% this year) and Adyen, based in the Netherlands (up 72%), also stand to gain. So do data analytics and fraud prevention companies, and businesses that enable merchants to accept card payments.

Propelling the trend is a surge in online shopping as homebound consumers turn to digital tools for basic items. In the United States, 40 million customers went online for

groceries in April. In Italy, where cash is king, the volume of e-commerce transactions has surged more than 80%, according to McKinsey & Co. Credit card issuers are keeping the momentum rolling by working with banks and governments to lift ceilings on contactless payments that allow shoppers to avoid touching a keypad.

Limits as low as 20 euros (about $23), originally intended to prevent thieves from being able to buy large amounts with a stolen or hacked card, were raised to 50 euros or more in France and other countries during quarantine, enticing shoppers to increase the number and value of their purchases.

Visa reported a surge in contactless payments for basic items in Britain after limits there were lifted and a 100% increase from a year ago in the United States. Visa said it had also worked with governments in Greece, Ireland, Malta, Poland and Turkey to raise contactless payment limits in those countries.

Card companies do not divulge fee earnings, but Jorgensen at RBR said issuers were probably raking in a handsome profit. The European Commission capped interchange fees in Europe last year at 0.2% of a transaction for debit cards and 0.3% for credit after a legal battle with Visa and Mastercard. But the rising volume of swipes helps compensate for the

shortfall, he said.

At L’Entrepôt Saint-Claude, a cafe near the cheese shop, owner Emmanuel Mades expected higher contactless payment limits to increase the amount of the fees he pays for card use. Since the restaurant reopened in early June, 90% of all tabs are paid by card, a jump from three-quarters before France went into quarantine in mid-March.

Back then, Mades was paying about 300 euros a month in card fees. With more people switching to contactless cards for even small bills, his expenses are likely “to rise significantly,” he said.

There is no medical evidence that cash transmits the virus. Nonetheless, “perceptions that cash could spread pathogens may change payment behavior by users and firms,” the Bank for International Settlements said in a recent study on the effect of COVID-19 on cash use.

Authorities that manage the world’s currencies say the dangers of going fully cashless are rife. In tech-forward Sweden, cash has been disappearing so fast that parliament and the central bank asked commercial banks to keep bills and coins circulating while they figure out what a cash-free future would mean.

Consumer groups warn that vulnerable people risk being marginalized. Many lowincome earners and retirees, as well as some immigrants and people with disabilities, have little or no access to electronic payments and are increasingly shut out as banks cut back on ATMs and customer service.

Central banks are looking at whether electronic currencies can replace physical cash. The Swedish Riksbank is testing a pilot version of a digital krona, or e-krona, that could keep the functions of a currency backed by the state.

“In certain economies, there is still a role for cash, because it continues to provide a benefit and a utility,” said John Velissarios of Accenture, which is helping to manage the Riksbank’s test. “That’s where the concept of things like digital central bank money is interesting.”

While virtual euros and dollars are still a ways off, the shift in attitudes toward real cash brought on by the pandemic is unlikely to be reversed.

“Cash is not going to disappear,” Jorgensen said. “But it will continue to decline, and COVID is accelerating that trend.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

12

Facebook temporarily stops Hong Kong data requests

By PAUL MOZUR

F

acebook said Monday that it would temporarily stop processing Hong Kong government requests for user data as the company reviews a sweeping national security law that has chilled political expression in the city.

The social network’s assessment of the law, which has already been used to arrest people who have called for Hong Kong independence, would include human rights considerations, the company said.

The Facebook decision is a rare public questioning of Chinese policy by a large American internet company, and it raises questions about how the security law will be applied online in Hong Kong, where the internet is not censored as it is in the rest of China. Although the social network may ultimately decide to cooperate with some forms of the law, the expression of uncertainty alone is likely to raise hackles in Beijing.

Facebook’s move will also probably put pressure on other American tech giants like Apple and Google, which have not yet clarified how they intend to deal with data requests related to the national security law. Twitter said it paused all data and information requests from Hong Kong authorities immediately after the law went into effect last week. Telegram, a messaging app popular with Hong Kong’s protesters, said Sunday that it would suspend the provision of user data until a consensus was reached on the new law.

Late Monday night, Hong Kong released new rules that give police powers to take down internet posts and punish internet companies that do not comply with data requests.

The national security law, adopted in part to quash the anti-government demonstrations that have smoldered

A restaurant in the Tsim Sha Tsui district that once bore pro-democracy slogans on sticky notes have now been replaced with blank ones, in Hong Kong in Hong Kong for more than a year, was introduced last week on the 23rd anniversary of the city’s return to Chinese control. Though officials insist that the sweeping and punitive new rules will affect only a small number of offenders, many worry that it will be used to widely curb dissent in Hong Kong, which, unlike mainland China, continues to enjoy an array of civil liberties.

“We are pausing the review of government requests for user data from Hong Kong pending further assessment of the National Security Law, including formal human rights due diligence and consultations with international human rights experts,” Facebook wrote in a statement.

“We believe freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and support the right of people to express themselves without fear for their safety or other repercus-

sions,” the statement added. The suspension of data reviews also applies to the messaging app WhatsApp, the company said.

The law has already cast a pall over the city’s internet. Seeking safer ways to communicate, legions have downloaded the encrypted messaging app Signal, pushing it to the top of app store download lists. Others, fearing prosecution for speech crimes, have deleted online posts, likes and even whole accounts.

The new rules announced by Hong Kong on Monday made clearer how the law will apply to online discussion.

The government said that if an internet company failed to comply with a court order to turn over data in cases related to national security, it could be fined almost $13,000 and an employee could face six months in prison.

If a person is ordered to remove a post and they refuse, they can face a jail sentence of one year. A separate provision also gave police wide powers to order the deletion of internet posts that threaten national security. How widely enforced the rules will be remains unclear.

The rules leave internet giants like Facebook in an awkward position. The companies regularly provide user data to local law enforcement, yet the vaguely written national security law has criminalized certain types of political speech and branded some forms of vandalism terror crimes.

Going along with the law may be unpopular in the United States, where it has received bipartisan condemnation. Yet standing up against it could raise the ire of Beijing, hurt companies’ bottom lines and put local employees at risk. Though Facebook, Google and Twitter are all blocked in mainland China, all three run valuable advertising businesses in the country.

Uber to buy Postmates for $2.65 Billion

By MIKE ISAAC and ERIN GRIFFITH

U

ber has agreed to acquire the food delivery startup Postmates for $2.65 billion, said two people with knowledge of the deal, as the ride-hailing firm aims to grow its presence in on-demand food delivery while its core business struggles.

The companies plan to announce the all-stock deal as soon as Monday, said the two people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were confidential. Uber is expected to combine Postmates with its own food delivery subsidiary, Uber Eats, which has been growing during the coronavirus pandemic.

A spokesman for Uber declined to comment Sunday night, and a spokeswoman for Postmates did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bloomberg earlier reported the specifics of the deal.

Food delivery apps, which connect drivers, restau-

rants and customers, have grown quickly in recent years, fueled by venture capital and armies of contract workers.

But the services they offer are not very different from one another, leading to heavy competition and pressure to keep fees low. While more people have been using delivery services during the pandemic, profits have been elusive.

As a result, delivery app companies have circled one another, aiming to make deals to gain scale. Postmates previously discussed possible deals with DoorDash, the largest service in the United States, and another rival, GrubHub, according to two people with knowledge of the talks.

In recent months, Uber also discussed buying GrubHub. But last month, GrubHub was instead sold to Just Eats, a European delivery company, for $7.3 billion.

Together, Postmates and Uber Eats would have a 37% share of food delivery sales in the United States, ac-

cording to Edison Trends, which tracks credit card spending. DoorDash would remain the largest player with 45%, while GrubHub would have 17%.

Uber is looking for growth as more people stay home during the pandemic and its core ride-hailing business has struggled. In May, Uber posted a $2.9 billion loss for the first three months of the year and announced it was laying off 14% of its workforce. But revenue for its Uber Eats division rose 53%.

Postmates, last valued by investors at $2.4 billion, is smaller than the other players. Founded in 2011, it was among the first startups to use part-time “gig workers” to deliver customers whatever they wanted at the tap of a smartphone button.

Postmates has raised more than $900 million in funding, according to PitchBook, from investors including Spark Capital and Tiger Global Management. It had filed to go public.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

13 Stocks

Wall Street investors scored emergency government loans amid pandemic

S

ome investment firms, including those that run hedge funds or manage money for wealthy investors, are among the businesses approved for emergency U.S. government loans to help small businesses pay employees during the coronavirus lockdown, according to data made public on Monday.

They included Semper Capital Management LP, which bets more than $2 billion on mortgage and other assetbacked securities; Domini Impact Investments LLC, a mutual fund manager with about $2 billion under management; Brevet Holdings LLC, a $1.2 billion lending firm; and Truvvo Wealth Management LP, which manages more than $2 billion for large families and institutions.

Emails to the firms seeking comment were not immediately returned. The data does not track which loans were disbursed, paid back, or if they will qualify for forgiveness.

All told, the U.S. Small Business Administration said in a report on Monday that finance and insurance firms represented $12.2 billion across 168,462 loans, about 2.3% of the program’s total lending as of June 30. The figures for investment firms alone were not immediately available.

Many investment and wealth management firms are relatively small, and staff pay varies widely, often far from the stereotype of the billionaire jet-set financier. Unlike restaurants and hotels, many financial businesses remained open during the coronavirus-related lockdowns and shifted relatively smoothly to remote work.

Investment firms typically earn a percentage of assets under management and profits as fees. The markets rebounded sharply after hitting a low in late March, which would have reversed some of those losses.

The firms disclosed on Monday add to some already revealed in public filings.

Cohen & Company Inc, for example, said in May it had received $2.2 million under the PPP, noting its small market capitalization and lack of access to the public capital markets. The company declined a request for additional comment on Monday beyond its previous statement that, in part because of the loan, it “does not anticipate any significant workforce reduction or reductions in compensation levels in the near future.”

Some financial firms initially approved for loans quickly canceled or returned them amid additional guidance from the Treasury Department and media scrutiny.

One was Metacapital Management LP, according to managing member Deepak Narula.

A spokesperson for another hedge fund listed as a recipient in Monday’s data, Advent Capital Management LLC, said it explored the idea of taking a PPP loan but never completed an application and did not receive any aid.

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14

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Prince Andrew sought Washington lobbyist to help with Epstein case

By KENNETH P. VOGEL

P

rince Andrew’s lawyers had discussions with a Washington lobbyist with ties to the Trump administration about the possibility of assisting the prince with fallout from his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Lawyers from the London-based firm Blackfords consulted the lobbyist, Robert Stryk, who represents international figures with sensitive legal or diplomatic issues, in recent weeks about Andrew’s situation, according to a person familiar with the circumstances.

Stryk has a history of taking on clients with unsavory reputations. But he expressed discomfort about the possibility of assisting Andrew, and talks about the potential representation appear to have fizzled, according to the person familiar with the situation.

It is not clear precisely what type of assistance Blackfords might have been seeking from Stryk, who is not a lawyer, or what he could do to help Andrew. Nor is it clear whether Blackfords has reached out to other Washington lobbyists or consultants about the possibility of working on the issue.

Neither Stryk nor any other U.S. consultant is listed as having registered with the Justice Department to represent Andrew, which could be required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act if a consulting arrangement had been reached involving lobbying or public relations.

Blackfords has been representing Andrew, the Duke of York, in a contentious back-and-forth with federal prosecutors in New York who are investigating allegations of sex trafficking and other crimes by Epstein and his associates.

Prince Andrew had indicated a willingness to help American law enforcement officials last year, but he has since been criticized Andrew, 60, has not been charged in the case.

But in August, Virginia Roberts Giuffre accused the prince of having sex with her three times when she was 17 years old after she was connected to him by Epstein.

The prince denied her claim in an interview with the BBC in August and sought to minimize his long friendship with Epstein, who killed himself last summer at a federal jail in New York City while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. Andrew had met Epstein through Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite and Epstein’s onetime girlfriend, who was arrested Thursday and charged with luring multiple underage girls into Epstein’s orbit.

Andrew had indicated a willingness to help U.S. law enforcement officials with their investigations late last year. But since then, prosecutors in New York have publicly criticized him on multiple occasions for offering “zero cooperation” and for stonewalling.

The prince’s lawyers at Blackfords shot back in a statement last month. They accused Geoffrey S. Berman, who had served as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan until being fired late last month, of making “inaccurate” statements about Andrew, suggesting that the prosecutor and his colleagues were “perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered.”

Blackfords did not respond to requests for comment. Stryk declined to comment.

Stryk, who is well connected in Trump administration foreign policy circles, owns a company called Sonoran Policy Group, which casts itself as a “global private diplomacy” firm. He has developed a reputation in recent years for taking on clients other Washington lobbyists and consultants shy away from.

This year alone, his firm has signed contracts to represent a jailed Saudi prince who had fallen out of favor with his country’s powerful de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as the administration of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, which the Trump administration considers illegitimate.

Stryk represents Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s former president who is accused of embezzling millions of dollars from a state oil company she once headed. And he had represented the government of the former Congolese president Joseph Kabila, which had faced U.S. sanctions for human rights abuses and corruption.

Russian court convicts journalist for ‘justifying terrorism’

By ANDREW HIGGINS

F

urther tightening the screws on free speech in Russia just days after a national plebiscite effectively entrenched Vladimir Putin as president for life, a Russian military court Monday convicted a freelance journalist on charges of “justifying terrorism” in a 2018 text critical of the security services.

The court in Pskov, an ancient city near Russia’s border with Estonia, sentenced the journalist, Svetlana Prokopyeva, to a fine of about $7,000 and ordered the confiscation of her computer and cellphone.

Prosecutors had asked for a six-year jail sentence, so the punishment was less severe than the journalist and her supporters had feared, but the guilty verdict nonetheless sent a chilling message.

Lev Shlosberg, the Pskov region leader of Yabloko, a liberal opposition party, and a supporter of the journalist, described the verdict as “an achievement for civil society but not a victory.”

The authorities, he said, had backed away from a harsh prison sentence under public pressure, “but they still declared an innocent person guilty because they can never acknowledge that

the security services are ever wrong. If they do that, the whole system crumbles.”

Even the Kremlin’s own human rights council had denounced the charges as unwarranted, adding its voice to a chorus of support for Prokopyeva in what became a battle of wills between an impecunious local reporter and Russia’s powerful security apparatus.

Her conviction indicated that, despite a resounding vote of public support last week for constitutional amendments intended to let Putin rule until 2036, the Kremlin is in no mood to tolerate criticism of the security agencies that anchor Russia’s increasingly authoritarian system.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Monday that he could not comment on the verdict because Russian courts act independently from the Kremlin, despite ample evidence that officials often dictate court decisions in a system known as telephone justice.

In her final statement to the court Friday, Prokopyeva rejected the charges against her as “absurd,” noting that her work posed no danger to anyone and blaming the authorities for stoking violence by cracking down on dissent.

“It is state power that has fallen into the hands of cruel and

cynical people that represents the most serious threat to the security of citizens,” she said.

The case against Prokopyeva revolved around a brief commentary she wrote in 2018 after a Russian teenager, a self-declared anarchist, blew himself up inside a branch of the secret police in Arkhangelsk, near the Arctic Circle.

She held the government responsible for the attack, which killed only the 17-year-old bomber, arguing that nonviolent means of protest like street protests had been steadily closed off by often violent security officers.

“Cruelty breeds cruelty,” the journalist said in her commentary, which was broadcast on the Pskov affiliate of Ekho Moskvy, a Moscow radio station, and also published on the internet.

The terrorism-related charges brought against Prokopyeva drew widespread scorn and dismay, including from Putin’s human rights council, which declared last year that it had “carefully studied” the text at the center of the case and “did not see in it any signs of justification of terrorism.”

Soon after giving its opinion, the human rights council was purged of its more independent-minded members and stacked with Kremlin loyalists.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

15

Bubonic plague is diagnosed in China

By AUSTIN RAMZY

A

herdsman in Inner Mongolia was confirmed to be infected with bubonic plague, Chinese health officials said, a reminder of how even as the world battles a pandemic caused by a novel virus, old threats remain.

The Bayannur city health commission said the plague was diagnosed in the herdsman Sunday, and he was in stable condition undergoing treatment at a hospital.

The commission also issued a third-level alert, the second lowest in a four-level system, warning people against hunting, eating or transporting potentially infected animals, particularly marmots, and to report any dead or diseased rodents.

The city government said it had put in place plague-prevention measures that would remain in force for the rest of the year.

The disease, which caused the Black Death in the Middle Ages, is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium and is transmitted by fleas that become infected by rodents. In In-

ner Mongolia, the host is often marmots that live in rural areas.

In November, Beijing officials said two people from Inner Mongolia were found to have pneumonic plague, another form of plague caused by the same bacterium. Pneumonic plague is the only form that can be transmitted person to person, through respiratory droplets.

If not treated, pneumonic plague is invariably fatal, while bubonic plague is fatal in about 30-60% of untreated cases, the World Health Organization says. Antibiotics can cure the disease if delivered early.

The neighboring country of Mongolia also announced Monday that it had lifted restrictions in Khovd Province after two cases of bubonic plague linked to the consumption of marmot meat were reported a week ago. Health officials said the patients’ conditions had improved, the Ikon.mn news site reported.

Plague cases are found in limited numbers across much of the world. In the United

States, about seven cases, usually the bubonic form, are reported on average each year, most

often in rural areas of western states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

A flock of sheep in northern China’s Inner Mongolia Province. China said a herder had recently tested positive for the bubonic plague.

Croatia’s prime minister held early elections, hoping for a COVID bump. He got one.

By JOE OROVIC and PATRICK KINGSLEY

C

roatia’s ruling party came first in a general election Sunday despite ongoing criticism over the country’s recent handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s center-right party, the Croatian Democratic Union, has won more than 65 seats in Parliament. It was not enough for an outright majority, but with more than 90% of votes tallied, his party had at least 10 more seats than it held at the start of the campaign.

Plenkovic called for early elections at the height of the pandemic in May, after his government was praised for its smooth management of the initial stages of the outbreak and his party edged ahead in opinion polls. But in the days before the vote, that decision started to look risky.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases began to spike, and polls showed Plenkovic ceding ground to his main rivals, a center-left alliance led by the Social Democratic Party.

Still, on Sunday, Plenkovic’s party emerged with one of its best showings in more than a decade. “The gamble paid off,”

said Karlo Jurak, a political analyst and academic at the University of Zagreb.

The strength of Plenkovic’s performance will make it easier for him to form a coalition with small centrist parties and parties representing ethnic minorities, analysts said. Plenkovic will also be less beholden to a new far-right group, the Homeland Movement, which has now entered parliament for the first time and is led by pop singer Miroslav Skoro.

Though the Homeland Movement was projected to win about 15 seats, making it the third-largest in parliament, it no longer seemed likely that Plenkovic would need its support to form a coalition.

Voters opted for stability amid a profound health and economic crisis, said Dejan Jovic, a political scientist at the University of Zagreb. “It looks like the electorate sees the coming difficulties and want some center-right government to lead the country,” he said.

Throughout Plenkovic’s four years in power, his government was plagued by scandal: Nine ministers left office for reasons related to corruption. But during the campaign, Plenkovic successfully diverted

attention from graft by centering his reelection bid on Croatia’s strong coronavirus response, which at one point was among the strictest in the world.

“Croatia and this government defeated COVID-19,” Plenkovic said at a press briefing in May. But as the campaign wore on and social restrictions eased, his strategy seemed set to backfire. In the two weeks before the election, daily coronavirus cases in Croatia rose above 50, mirroring rates at the height of the crisis in April.

As cases climbed, Plenkovic’s rivals — and some of his allies — suggested that the election be postponed in the interest of public health. Attempting to ward off those concerns, the election authority briefly barred confirmed coronavirus patients from participating. But the country’s Constitutional Court later reversed the ban, allowing patients to vote by proxy.

And just as support for both the center-left and far-right began to rise, Plenkovic was criticized for endorsing an exhibition tennis tournament organized in Zadar, a seaside town, by Novak Djokovic, the world’s No. 1 tennis player.

The tournament was meant to stir interest in Croatia’s holiday vacation locations, boosting the country’s beleaguered tourism industry, a key part of its economy. It ended in embarrassment, for both Djokovic and Plenkovic.

Crowds at the event did not have to wear masks or follow social distancing rules. Several participants contracted the virus, including Djokovic himself, forcing a premature end to the tournament and undermining Plenkovic’s victorious coronavirus narrative.

Plenkovic was accused of hypocrisy after fist-bumping Djokovic and then refusing to enter quarantine, which critics felt contravened the government’s own guidelines for curbing the spread of the disease.

And when Plenkovic was defended by members of the group overseeing Croatia’s virus response, the experts of the group were accused of politicizing public health.

The decision created a “double standard,” said Jurak, the political analyst.

But on Sunday, Plenkovic’s base nevertheless appeared to have kept faith in the prime minister and his party, Jurak said.

“Plenkovic timed the vote correctly.”

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Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Tokyo’s 1st female governor sails to reelection even as virus cases rise

By MOTOKO RICH

I

n rewarding Tokyo’s first female governor, Yuriko Koike, with a second term Sunday, voters endorsed her highly visible leadership as the sprawling metropolis has avoided the kind of spiraling death toll from the coronavirus seen in other world capitals.

But a recent resurgence in cases in Tokyo has made clear that her challenge is far from over.

Even as Koike, 67, cruised to victory Sunday, with exit polls by Japanese news media showing her winning 60% of the vote, Tokyo reported 111 new infections, its fourth straight day over 100.

The creeping increase in cases has started to raise anxieties that the capital may have to reinstate elements of the nearly two-month state of emergency that it emerged from at the end of May. That growing caseload was felt in the election: About 15% of voters cast their ballots before Sunday, and turnout on election day was just above 37%.

During the emergency period, in which the government issued voluntary requests for businesses to limit operations and residents to stay home, Koike made herself the face of Tokyo’s response to the virus. She anchored near nightly news conferences to deliver daily test figures and advice on how to avoid infections.

Koike presented a stark contrast to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who often appeared stiff in front of the news media. He was widely criticized when he posted an awkward video on Twitter showing himself at home drinking tea with his dog. Koike was a much more relaxed presence when she appeared in a jovial conversation with Japan’s most famous YouTube star, Hikakin.

“Seeing her face on television every day made me feel comfortable,” Yuki Matsuura, 70, said as she voted in the Setagaya ward of Tokyo. “I think that she is doing the best that she can in a very difficult situation.”

Koike said she was unlikely to request citywide business closures as she had during the earlier state of emergency.

She said that she would prefer a “pinpointed” approach and that she wanted to establish a Tokyo version of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A total of 22 challengers vied for the post. Koike’s main rivals for the governor’s seat tried to differentiate themselves by staking out positions on further delaying, or even canceling, the Tokyo Olympics. Abe and the International Olympic Committee announced in March that the games would be postponed from 2020 to 2021 because of the pandemic, and Koike has stuck to the official line.

Same-sex partnerships were another dividing line in the race. Three of Koike’s most significant opponents expressed support for them: Kenji Utsunomiya, a former president of the Japan Bar Association who was backed by the country’s largest opposition parties, including the Communist Party; Taisuke Ono, a former adviser to the governor of Kumamoto in southern Japan; and Taro Yamamoto, a former actor and the head of a newly founded party.

Posters of candidates for Tokyo governor. More than 20 people ran for the position.

When asked about the issue during an online questionand-answer session, Koike said she “didn’t know” whether she would support such a policy.

The victory Sunday for Koike, an ultraconservative former defense minister who speaks English and Arabic, was something of a turnabout for her. Just a few years ago, she had seemed to have fallen out of favor with the public: In 2017, an upstart party she founded to challenge Abe’s governing Liberal Democratic Party in national elections took a drubbing, forcing her to admit “total defeat.”

Until the pandemic, Koike’s record of achievements had been thin, and some of her decisions have drawn criticism.

Not long after she was elected in 2016, she postponed a controversial move of Tokyo’s famous seafood market from its historic location in Tsukiji when it emerged that contaminants in the groundwater at a newly built site far exceeded environmental limits. But she went through with the move a year later even as tenants suspected that the metropolitan government had suppressed information about the safety of the new site.

She also led an initiative to ban smoking in most indoor venues in Tokyo.

Burnishing her credentials with hard-line conservatives, she was the first Tokyo governor to refuse during an annual ceremony to pay tribute to Koreans who died in a massacre after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. She also revoked a lease of public land to a new school for ethnic Korean residents, many descended from people who were brought to Japan as forced labor before and during World War II, when Japan occupied the Korean Peninsula.

Surveys of employees of the metropolitan government, which oversees a region of 14 million people, indicate that she is far less popular among her city’s staff than she has

been with voters.

As an incumbent, Koike started with a considerable advantage, particularly given that the Japanese news media tends not to ask tough questions of candidates or investigate their records. The only thing that came close to a challenge to Koike were rumors that she had falsified her graduation from Cairo University in Egypt, prompting the Egyptian Embassy in Tokyo to post confirmation on its Facebook page that she had received a diploma.

“The Japanese media likes scandals, but they don’t really do any serious policy review or anything that really affects our livelihood,” said Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Sophia University in Tokyo. The Japanese media “fails to inform us or fails to ask questions of the incumbents who have a huge advantage and owe us an explanation of their past record.”

Koike has also managed to portray herself as a renegade. Although she started her political career as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party and served briefly as defense minister during Abe’s first term as prime minister, she has run for governor as an independent. Some analysts say she is more adept at political performance than actual policy.

“She is very good at presenting catchy slogans or sound-bite phrases,” said Jiro Yamaguchi, a professor of political science at Hosei University in Tokyo. “I don’t think she has achieved substantive policies during her first term, but she often appears in television programs, especially after the outbreak of COVID-19, and she pretends to handle the problems.”

Kazuhisa Tanaka, 63, who was voting in the Setagaya ward Sunday afternoon, said he had cast his vote for the incumbent by default.

“I don’t think that Koike has done the best job,” he said. “But who else would I vote for?”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

17

Hong Kong, changed overnight, navigates its new reality

By VIVIAN WANG, ELAINE YU AND TIFFANY MAY

A

barge draped with enormous red banners celebrating China’s new security law was sailing across Hong Kong’s famed Victoria Harbor only hours after the legislation passed. Police now hoist a purple sign warning protesters that their chants could be criminal. Along major roads throughout the city, neon-colored flags hailing a new era of stability and prosperity stand erect as soldiers.

In recent days, as China took a victory lap over the law it imposed on the city Tuesday, the defiant masses who once filled Hong Kong’s streets in protest have largely gone quiet. Sticky notes that had plastered the walls of prodemocracy businesses vanished, taken down by owners suddenly fearful of the words scribbled on them. Parents whispered about whether to stop their children from singing a popular protest song, while activists devised coded ways to express now-dangerous ideas.

Seemingly overnight, Hong Kong was visibly and viscerally different, its more than 7 million people left to navigate what the law would mean to their lives. The territory’s distinct culture of political activism and free speech, at times brazenly directed at China’s ruling Communist Party, appeared to be in peril.

For some who had been alarmed by the ferocity of last year’s unrest, which at times transformed shopping districts, neighborhoods and university campuses into smokefilled battlefields, the law brought relief and optimism. For others, who had hoped the desperate protest campaign would help secure long-cherished freedoms, it signaled a new era of fear and uncertainty.

“This is home,” said Ming Tse, sitting in the cafe he manages, which once loudly supported the protesters.

“But I don’t think this place loves us anymore.”

For months, Tse’s love for his home was advertised at his shop in the working-class neighborhood of North Point. The oat milk carton at the cash register sat behind postcards of protest art. A poster condemned the police shootings of two student demonstrators. Even after opponents of the movement threatened to vandalize the shop last fall, the decorations stayed.

But on Thursday, Tse, 34, took everything down.

News reports said police officers had interrogated owners of restaurants with similar protest paraphernalia. The security law criminalizes “subversion” of the government, a crime that the police say encompasses speech such as political slogans.

All that remained was a small plastic dinosaur on the counter, wearing a yellow hard hat. That inexpensive yet tough headgear, worn by protesters who fought with police, had become a symbol of their scrappy fortitude.

“I don’t know if they are so sensitive,” Tse said. “It’s just a helmet on a dinosaur.”

He paused, then reconsidered: “Actually, everything is sensitive.”

That the lines of criminality had been redrawn became clear Friday, when authorities charged a 24-year-

old man with terrorism and inciting separatism — the first person to be indicted under the new law. With a “Liberate Hong Kong” flag mounted on the back of his motorcycle, the man careened into a group of police officers on Wednesday, the anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China from British rule.

Most years, that holiday draws large pro-democracy rallies. But this time, they were banned. Protests were scattered, and police swept in and arrested hundreds. Ten people, including a 15-year-old girl, were accused of “inciting subversion,” a vaguely defined crime under the new law; some had merely waved flags, bearing slogans that had never been explicitly outlawed.

A few dozen relatives and social workers waited Thursday outside a police station in North Point where more than 100 of those arrested were being held. Such vigils had become a rite for protesters’ loved ones.

But this one felt more perilous, with crimes under the security law punishable by life imprisonment in the most serious cases. A Chinese official said Wednesday that the law was meant to hang over would-be troublemakers like the sword of Damocles.

Police collected DNA samples and searched the homes of the 10 people arrested on suspicion of inciting subversion — measures that seemed excessive when applied to people accused only of possessing pamphlets, said Janet Pang, a lawyer who is helping some of them.

“You’re supposed to only use power that is necessary, and that’s how the law should be,” she said.

Shortly after noon Thursday, a pro-democracy activist, Tam Tak-chi, emerged from the station, where he had spent the night after being detained. Tam met a young man inside who said he had been arrested after police found a banner in his bag reading “Hong Kong Independence, the Only Way Out.” The man wept on his shoulder, Tam said.

The Hong Kong government has insisted that free speech is not under threat. But Saturday, the city’s public

library system said that books by some prominent activists had been removed from circulation while officials reviewed whether they violated the new law.

The censorship has crept even into private homes.

In June 2019, Katie Lam took her two young sons to a large rally. Her older son wore a cap that read “Hong Konger” and raised a handmade sign saying, “Don’t shoot us.”

Now Lam, a data analyst, is anxious about what her sons say at home. One of them is having a birthday party in two weeks, and Lam wondered if she should hide a print displayed on the piano that reads “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times,” a slogan that the government says could be considered subversive.

The boys loved singing “Glory to Hong Kong,” the unofficial anthem of the protest movement. She worries that the neighbors will hear it.

“Even though we all knew it would happen one day,” she said of China’s intervention, “it’s still painful.”

But in some corners of the city, China’s move has been welcome.

The successive blows of the unrest, followed by the coronavirus pandemic, emptied malls and grounded flights, eviscerating Hong Kong’s economy. The security law, however unpopular, seemed poised to end the monthslong impasse over the protests.

It was Hong Kong’s prosperity and worldliness that drew Harry He, 33, to the city from mainland China 10 years ago. He earned master’s degrees in finance and engineering and fell in love with his new home: its efficient public transportation, its high food-safety standards. He got married, found work as an insurance agent, bought a home, had a daughter.

Last year shattered that serenity. Once, while he was eating at a restaurant with friends, masked protesters smashed a nearby sushi restaurant owned by a company seen as pro-Beijing, he said. His mainland clients began avoiding Hong Kong.

He said he had supported the protesters at first. But he soon grew convinced that authorities needed to restore stability, and that the security law would do so.

“I just don’t want to see violence again,” he said in an interview in his office tower in Tsim Sha Tsui, a luxury shopping district that was battered by street fighting. “I just want Hong Kong to be as developed and prosperous as before.”

Even as old markers of resistance have come down, subtler ones have surfaced. Some protesters have turned to puns and created new meaning from well-worn phrases, a tactic long adopted by mainland internet users to skirt government censorship.

On Wednesday, in one of the city’s commercial hubs, someone had spray-painted “Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves” — the opening line of China’s national anthem.

And one shop, in place of protest slogans, hung up In a city where China has made some ideas suddenly dannearly two dozen posters of propaganda from Mao-era gerous, people are trying to figure out where the boundar- China, including one that proclaimed: “Revolution is not a ies lie, and how their lives have changed. crime, rebellion is reasonable.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

‘Tell the truth and shame the devil’

By CHARLES M. BLOW

A

s Donald Trump gave his race-baiting speeches over the Fourth of July weekend, hoping to rile his base and jump-start his flagging campaign for reelection, I was forced to recall the ranting of a Columbia University sophomore that caught the nation’s attention in 2018.

In the video, a student named Julian von Abele exclaims, “We built the modern world!” When someone asks who, he responds, “Europeans.”

Von Abele goes on: “We invented science and industry, and you want to tell us to stop because oh my God, we’re so baaad. We invented the modern world. We saved billions of people from starvation. We built modern civilization. White people are the best thing that ever happened to the world. We are so amazing! I love myself! And I love white people!”

He concludes: “I don’t hate other people. I just love white men.”

Von Abele later apologized for “going over the top,” saying, “I emphasize that my reaction was not one of hate” and arguing that his remarks were taken “out of context.” But the sentiments like the one this young man expressed — that white men must be venerated, regardless of their sins, despite their sins, because they used maps, Bibles and guns to change the world, and thereby lifted it and saved it — aren’t limited to one college student’s regrettable video. They are at the root of patriarchal white supremacist ideology.

To people who believe in this, white men are the heroes in the history of the world. They conquered those who could be conquered. They enslaved those who could be enslaved. And their religion and philosophy, and sometimes even their pseudoscience, provided the rationale for their actions.

It was hard not to hear the voice of von Abele when Trump stood at the base of Mount Rushmore and said, “Seventeen seventy-six represented the culmination of thousands of years of Western civilization and the triumph not only of spirit, but of wisdom, philosophy and reason.”

He continued later, “Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children.”

To be clear, the “our” in that passage is white people, specifically white men. Trump is telling white men that they are their ancestors, and that they’re now being attacked for that which they should be thanked.

The ingratitude of it all.

How dare historically oppressed minorities in this country recall the transgressions of their oppressors? How dare they demand that the whole truth be told? How dare they withhold their adoration of the abominable?

President Donald Trump watches a military plane flyover at Mount Rushmore in Keystone, S.D. At another point, Trump said of recent protests: “This left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution. In so doing, they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery and progress.”

In fact, many of the protesters are simply pointing out the hypocrisy of these men, including many of the founders, who fought for freedom and liberty from the British while simultaneously enslaving Africans and slaughtering the indigenous.

But, Trump, like white supremacy itself, rejects the inclusion of this context. As Trump put it: “Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that were villains. The radical view of American history is a web of lies — all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted, and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition.”

In fact, the record is not being disfigured but corrected.

According to Trump: “This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore.

They defile the memory of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt.”

Is it a defilement to point out that George Washington was an enslaver who signed a fugitive slave act and only freed his slaves in his will, after he was dead and no longer had earthly use for them?

Is it a defilement to point out that Thomas Jefferson enslaved more than 600 people during his life, many when he wrote the Declaration of Independence, and that he had sex with a child whom he enslaved — I call it rape — and even enslaved the children she bore for him?

Is it a defilement to recall that during the LincolnDouglas debates Abraham Lincoln said: “I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the Black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which in my judgment will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong, having the superior position.”

Is it defilement to recall that Theodore Roosevelt was a white supremacist, supporter of eugenics and an imperialist? As Gary Gerstle, a professor of American history at the University of Cambridge, once put it, “He would have had no patience with the indigenous and original inhabitants of a sacred American space interfering with his conception of the American sublime.”

It is not a defilement, but deprogramming. It is a telling of the truth, and the time for it is long overdue.

As the old folks used to put it, “Tell the truth and shame the devil.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

19

Educación el inicio del semestre escolar “ante la realidad del COVID-19” Por THE STAR

L

a gobernadora Wanda Vázquez Garced se reunió el lunes con el secretario de Educación, Eligio Hernández Pérez donde discuten los detalles de cara al inicio del semestre escolar en agosto.

“Con el equipo del Departamento de Educación discutiendo detalles del inicio escolar y la preparación del Departamento ante la realidad del COVID-19”, escribió la mandataria en sus redes sociales.

El viernes, Vázquez Garced dijo que su preferencia es que las clases en Puerto Rico, de cara al próximo semestre escolar, sean presenciales.

“Probablemente la semana que

viene estaremos notificando una conferencia de prensa con el Departamento de Educación. Ya tienen un plan estructurado para que tanto los padres, los maestros, los

encargados y la ciudadanía conozca los planes para el comienzo de clases. Hay unas que, obviamente, serán presencial. Queremos que sea presencial la gran mayoría de

ellos, y las que no, de manera virtual, cuáles son las medidas que el Departamento de Educación está tomando para que ningún niño quede rezagado en este próximo año escolar”, dijo la gobernadora en conferencia de prensa.

En cuanto a las escuelas que no podrán ser utilizadas por los sismos, la mandataria anunció, que “revelará un plan extraordinario”.

“Próximamente a mediados o finales de julio le estaremos anunciando al pueblo de Puerto Rico ese plan extraordinario que vamos a presentarle a nuestro pueblo plan en unión a FEMA, que ese va, con relación a todas las escuelas”, dijo la gobernadora.

Representante José Aponte asegura inversión en la consulta de estadidad es para una “inversión en un mejor futuro” Por THE STAR

E

l representante José Aponte Hernández dijo el lunes, que el dinero que se utilice en la consulta estadidad sí o no es una “inversión en un mejor futuro” para todos los puertorriqueños.

“Es una prioridad solucionar el asunto centenario del status colonial de Puerto Rico, el verdadero candado que ata cualquier desarrollo económico sostenible y que nos ha condenado a vivir como ciudadanos americanos de segunda clase. El costo de esta consulta de estatus es una inversión para el pueblo, para nuestra gente. ¿Costo? El verdadero costo en billones de dólares ha sido el estatus colonia que tenemos que ha provocado una crisis fiscal sin precedentes que ha forzado a cientos de miles de puertorriqueños a marcharse de su tierra hacia los estados de la unión en búsqueda de una mejor calidad de vida. Nos trajo la Junta de Supervisión Fiscal y la desigualdad completa”, dijo Aponte Hernández en declaraciones escritas.

“No tengo la menor duda de que el gobierno federal escuchará el reclamo del pueblo en esta consulta de estadidad sí o no”, sentenció.

“Aquellos que quieren vivir en el inmovilismo, que siempre que llegan a la administración del gobierno lo único que desean en destruir las finanzas de la Isla para sostener el trillado argumento de que primero se soluciona la crisis fiscal y luego se atiende el status, les digo que su tiem-

po pasó. A esos que buscan retrasar a Puerto Rico para complacer su deseo de gobernar la colonia, les informo que nosotros, el Partido Nuevo Progresista, estamos del lado del pueblo que quiere la igualdad. Nos vemos en las urnas el 3 de noviembre”, culminó.

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Tuesday, July 7, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Nick Cordero, nominated for Tony as Tap-Dancing tough guy, dies at 41

By MICHAEL PAULSON

N

ick Cordero, a musical theater actor whose intimidating height and effortless charm brought him a series of tough-guy roles on Broadway, died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 41.

His death was announced on Instagram by his wife, Amanda Kloots. The couple, who moved from New York to Los Angeles last year, have a 1-year-old son, Elvis.

“My darling husband passed away this morning,” she wrote. “He was surrounded in love by his family, singing and praying as he gently left this earth.”

She did not cite a cause, but he had been hospitalized for three months after contracting the coronavirus.

Cordero’s experience with the virus, which included weeks in a medically induced coma and the amputation of his right leg, was chronicled by Kloots on Instagram.

Cordero’s big break came in 2014, when he played Cheech, a gangster with a fondness for theater and a talent for tap who was the highlight of a musical adaptation of “Bullets Over Broadway.” The role won him a Tony nomination.

“Mr. Cordero never pushes for effect, even when he’s leading a homicidal dance number to ‘’Tain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness if I Do,’” critic Ben Brantley wrote in his New York Times review. “And somehow, this dopey, mass-murdering thug and the actor playing him stand out as being far more endearingly earnest than anybody else.”

He went on to play the abusive husband of the title character in “Waitress” and a mentoring mobster in “A Bronx Tale.”

“The terrific Mr. Cordero radiates a cool charisma that mixes a surface geniality with shrugging ruthlessness,” critic Charles Isherwood wrote of “A Bronx Tale” in The Times.

Cordero fell ill on March 20 with what was initially diagnosed as pneumonia and later as COVID-19, Kloots said in a series of Instagram posts.

For weeks, he was kept alive with extensive treatment, including the use of a ventilator, dialysis and a specialized heart-lung bypass machine; he endured brief heart stoppage, minor heart attacks and sepsis, Kloots said, as well as the leg amputation and a tracheotomy.

As he remained unresponsive, she began daily playing a song that he had written, “Live Your Life,” and encouraging others to do so as well.

Many people joined in online, sharing videos

Nick Cordero as Sonny in the musical “A Bronx Tale,” in New York of themselves singing and dancing as they tried to encourage his recovery with the hashtag #WakeUpNick. Alumni of musicals including “Waitress,” “Good Vibrations” and “Rock of Ages” recorded online performances for him, as did a group of musicians led by Constantine Maroulis and Steven Van Zandt.

“We sang it to him today, holding his hands,” Kloots said in her Instagram post announcing his death. She said that as she sang the words “They’ll give you hell but don’t you let them kill your light/ Not without a fight” from the song’s final verse, “I smiled because he definitely put up a fight. I will love you forever and always my sweet man.”

Actor Zach Braff, in whose guesthouse Kloots has been living with her family while Cordero was hospitalized, said on Twitter: “I have never met a kinder human being. Don’t believe that COVID only claims the elderly and infirm.” Braff, Cordero’s costar in “Bullets Over Broadway,” added, “I am so grateful for the time we had.”

Kloots’ frequent updates on Instagram, inter-

spersed with short video clips from well-wishers, periodically had encouraging news; on April 24, Kloots said that Cordero had two negative COVID-19 tests.

“We think the virus is out of his system, and now we’re just dealing with recovery and getting his body back from all the repercussions of the virus,” she said. And on May 12, she said he had woken up after the lengthy medically induced coma.

But he continued to battle a lung infection, and

by May 20 she told her followers that “unfortunately things are going a little downhill at the moment” and asked for prayers.

In recent weeks, he had been able to respond to some communication with his eyes but remained immobile, according to his wife.

Nicholas Eduardo Alberto Cordero was born on Sept. 17, 1978, in Hamilton, Ontario. His parents were both teachers — his father, Eduardo, was originally from Costa Rica, and his mother, Lesley, from Ontario.

A drama kid who performed frequently as an adolescent in shows at school and local theaters, he attended Ryerson University in Toronto to study acting but dropped out to join a band called Love Method.

His professional acting career began with “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding” in Toronto, followed by a twoyear stint working on cruise ships.

In 2007 he moved to New York, and by 2008 the 6-foot-5-inch performer was starring in a small musical called “The Toxic Avenger,” first in New Jersey, and then off-Broadway.

“Mr. Cordero morphs convincingly from supernerd to slime-dripping hulk, retaining traces of geekery that glimmer appealingly from under the neon-green gunk,” Isherwood wrote.

After a period of unemployment, he was cast in the national tour of “Rock of Ages,” and then in 2012 he joined the Broadway cast of that long-running show; another stretch of joblessness prompted him to consider a career in real estate.

But then he landed his breakout role in “Bullets Over Broadway.” It was also there that he met Kloots, who was a dancer in the ensemble.

In Los Angeles this year, he returned to a familiar show reconceived for a new setting, appearing in a bar-based version of “Rock of Ages,” staged in a nightclub.

In a 2014 interview, he reflected on the challenge of finding his way into the roles coming his way.

“The producer kept telling me, ‘Get tough. Get mean. Get angry,’” he said. “But I’m a nice guy. I’m Canadian.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

21

Ennio Morricone, Oscar-winning composer of film scores, dies at 91

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN

E

nnio Morricone, the Italian composer whose atmospheric scores for spaghetti westerns and some 500 films by a who’s who of international directors made him one of the world’s most versatile and influential creators of music for the modern cinema, died Monday in Rome. He was 91.

His death, at a hospital, was confirmed by his lawyer, Giorgio Assumma, who said that Morricone was admitted there last week after falling and fracturing a femur.

To many cineastes, Maestro Morricone (pronounced more-ah-CONE-ay) was a unique talent, composing melodic accompaniments to comedies, thrillers and historical dramas by Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Terrence Malick, Roland Joffé, Brian De Palma, Barry Levinson, Mike Nichols, John Carpenter, Quentin Tarantino and other filmmakers.

He scored many popular films of the past 40 years: Édouard Molinaro’s “La Cage aux Folles” (1978), Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982), De Palma’s “The Untouchables” (1987), Roman Polanski’s “Frantic” (1988), Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Cinema Paradiso” (1988), Wolfgang Petersen’s “In the Line of Fire” (1993), and Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” (2015).

Morricone won his first competitive Academy Award for his score for “The Hateful Eight,” an American Western mystery thriller for which he also won a Golden Globe. In a career showered with honors, he had previously won an Oscar for lifetime achievement (2007) and was nominated for five other Academy Awards. In addition, he won two Golden Globes, four Grammys and dozens of international awards.

But the work that made him world famous, and that was best known to moviegoers, was his blend of music and sound effects for Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns of the 1960s: a ticking pocket watch, a sign creaking in the wind, buzzing flies, a twanging Jew’s harp, haunting whistles, cracking whips, gunshots and a bizarre, wailing “ah-ee-ah-eeah,” played on a sweet potato-shaped wind instrument called an ocarina.

Imitated, scorned, spoofed, what came to be known as “The Dollars Trilogy” — “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964), “For a Few Dollars More” (1965) and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966), all released in the United States in 1967 — starred Clint Eastwood as “The Man With No Name” and were enor-

- Ennio Morricone receives an Oscar for lifetime achievement, presented by Clint Eastwood, at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, Feb. 25, 2007. mous hits, with a combined budget of $2 million and gross worldwide receipts of $280 million.

The trilogy’s Italian dialogue was dubbed for the English-speaking market, and the action was brooding and slow, with clichéd close-ups of gunfighters’ eyes. But Morricone, breaking the unwritten rule never to upstage actors with music, infused it all with wry sonic weirdness and melodramatic strains that many fans embraced with cultlike devotion and that critics called viscerally true to Leone’s vision of the Old West.

“In the films that established his reputation in the 1960s, the series of spaghetti westerns he scored for Mr. Leone, Mr. Morricone’s music is anything but a backdrop,” The New York Times critic Jon Pareles wrote in 2007.

“It’s sometimes a conspirator, sometimes a lampoon, with tunes that are as vividly in the foreground as any of the actors’ faces.”

Morricone also scored Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968) and his Jewish gangster drama, “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984), both widely considered masterpieces. But he became most closely identified with “The Dollars Trilogy,” and in time grew weary of answering for their low-

brow sensibilities.

Asked by The Guardian in 2006 why “A Fistful of Dollars” had made such an impact, he said: “I don’t know. It’s the worst film Leone made and the worst score I did.”

“The Ecstasy of Gold,” the theme song for “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” was one of Morricone’s biggest hits. It was recorded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma on an album of Morricone’s compositions and used in concert by two rock bands: as closing music for the Ramones and the introductory theme for Metallica.

Morricone composed for television films and series like “The Sopranos,” wrote about 100 concert pieces, and orchestrated music for popular singers including Joan Baez, Paul Anka and Anna Maria Quaini, the Italian star known as Mina.

Morricone never learned to speak English, never left Rome to compose, and for years refused to fly anywhere, though he eventually flew all over the world to conduct orchestras, sometimes performing his own compositions. While he wrote extensively for Hollywood, he did not visit the United States until 2007, when, at 78, he made a monthlong tour, punctuated by festivals of his films.

He gave concerts in New York at Radio City Music Hall and the United Nations, and he concluded the tour in Los Angeles, where he received an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement. The presenter, Eastwood, roughly translated his acceptance speech from the Italian as the composer expressed “deep gratitude to all the directors who had faith in me.”

Ennio Morricone was born in Rome on Nov. 10, 1928, one of five children of Mario and Libera (Ridolfi) Morricone. His father, a trumpet player, taught him to read music and play various instruments. Ennio wrote his first compositions at 6. In 1940, he entered the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, where he studied trumpet, composition and direction.

His World War II experiences — hunger and the dangers of Rome as an “open city” under German and American armies — were reflected in some of his later work. After the war, he wrote music for radio; for Italy’s broadcasting service, RAI; and for singers under contract to RCA. In 1956, he married Maria Travia. They had four children: Marco, Alessandra, Andrea and Giovanni. There was no immediate word on his survivors.

22

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Dog breeding in the neolithic age

Sled dogs on the southeastern shores of Greenland last summer.

By JAMES GORMAN

T

here are two broad stories about dogs and humans. One is of a deep and meaningful partnership between two species that ensures the survival of both. The other is of scavengers and camp followers that live off our garbage and feed on our corpses in the shadow of war.

Both are undeniably true, in different places and different times, but vast mysteries remain about the early roots of dogs and humans, and when the first glimpses of the working partnership appeared.

A 35-person team, including a who’s who of ancient DNA experts, has now uncovered a vivid and genetically detailed picture of the oldest known case of selective breeding, the creation of Arctic sled dogs at least 9,500 years ago.

By that time, the researchers found, sled dogs already had mutations in genes involved in oxygen use and temperature sensitivity that set them apart from other dogs and wolves.

And much of that genetic heritage survives in modern Greenland sled dogs. Other Arctic breeds, like Alaskan malamutes and Alaskan and Siberian huskies, also carry some of that heritage, although not quite as much as the Greenland dogs.

Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding of the University of Copenhagen, one of the lead researchers on the project, said the genome of an ancient Siberian dog, an even older wolf, and some modern dogs provided “the first hard evidence of early dog diversifi-

cation.” He and his colleagues published their findings Thursday in Science.

Elaine Ostrander, who studies dog genetics and breed differences at the National Institutes of Health, and was not involved in the research, said it was not a surprise that dogs were being selectively bred by 9,500 years ago. They were first domesticated at least 15,000 years ago. But, she said, the new research is the first “where someone’s put it all together and said, you know, this is what was going on 10,000 years ago.”

Terrie M. Williams at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who studies the exercise physiology of carnivores, said researchers had tried to understand why sled dogs perform better than other breeds at running long distances, by looking at body shape and the mechanics of running. But they didn’t find the major differences they were expecting.

She said she was thrilled to see that the researchers had found specific genetic differences that set sled dogs apart. “That’s what’s so cool here,” she said.

Sled dogs have well-known roots in human prehistory. A 12,500-year-old tool found at one Arctic site hints at its possible use on sleds. And archaeological investigations at a well-known site on Zhokov Island in the Siberian Sea uncovered dog bones and sled technology indicating that the dogs may have been the first canines bred for a specific task.

Sinding and colleagues dug deep into the DNA of one of those dogs, using a jawbone from the site dating to 9,500 years

ago. They also sequenced the genomes of a Siberian wolf dating to 33,000 years ago and 10 modern Greenland sled dogs. They relied on other canine genomes archived in databases as well.

They found that the Zhokov dog was closest to modernday sled dogs, particularly to the Greenland sled dogs, which are a “land race,” bred for a task and sharing a look and behavior but not the sort of breed for which studbooks and records are kept.

The Zhokov dog was not a direct ancestor of modern sled dogs, but it shared a common ancestor with modern sled dogs that was probably about 12,000 years old. This evidence suggested that the sled-dog type, bred for hauling loads in brutal winters, was already established 9,500 years ago.

The researchers also found that sled dogs, ancient and modern, did not show interbreeding with wolves, even though other modern dog breeds do, and dog-wolf matings were known in Greenland in historic times. The results suggest hybrids may not have been much use in pulling sleds.

Then the researchers started looking for genes that were different in sled dogs from both wolves and other dog breeds. They found several that made sense. One is involved in a variety of physiological functions including calcium transport and temperature sensitivity. They don’t know what exactly it does in sled dogs, but they do know that several similar genes are different in mammoths, creatures of the cold, and elephants, animals of more temperate climates, suggesting some kind of adaptation to arctic life.

Another gene that distinguished sled dogs from other dogs is involved in coping with low oxygen conditions. It is also found in a group of humans, sea nomads, who have been diving for thousands of years. It could, Sinding said, contribute to fitness for the extreme demands of long sled-hauling trips.

And finally, one might expect to find the Arctic dogs adapted to a different diet, than say, the dogs of the Fertile Crescent or European farmlands. They do have specific genes to cope with a high fat intake, as do humans and bears who live in the Arctic.

And they do not have the same adaptations to digesting starch found in many other dog breeds.

The diet adaptations were not present in the Zhokov dog, indicating that the sled dogs changed over time.

Sinding cautioned that although the Greenland sled dogs and other Arctic breeds carry a major genetic contribution, particularly in terms of the important genes identified, from ancient sled dogs, they are not the same.

The modern sled dogs and sled technology have their origin in Thule culture, he said, which dates to 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. And the Greenland sled dogs went through what is called a bottleneck, about 850 years ago, when the population shrunk.

That was when the Inuit arrived, and they succeeded the Thule people, in Greenland.

Modern Arctic breeds do have a major contribution from the sled dogs of 9,500 years ago, he said, but a gap exists between then and 3,000 years ago.

In other words, if you have a malamute or a husky, do not start parading around with your pet claiming its breed goes back 9,500 years. A good part of its genes may derive from those old sled dogs, but as Sinding pointed out, “in principle, all dogs are equally old.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

23

In Norway, gymgoers avoid infections as virus recedes

By GINA KOLATA

L

ike many countries, Norway ordered all gyms to close in March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But unlike any other nation, Norway also funded a rigorous study to determine whether the closings were really necessary.

It is apparently the first and only randomized trial to test whether people who work out at gyms with modest restrictions are at greater risk of infection from the coronavirus than those who do not. The tentative answer after two weeks: no.

So last week, responding to the study it funded, Norway reopened all of its gyms, with the same safeguards in place that were used in the study.

Is there hope for gymgoers in other parts of the world?

“I personally think this is generalizable, with one caveat,” said Dr. Michael Bretthauer, a cancer screening expert at the University of Oslo who led the study with Dr. Mette Kalager. “There may be places where there is a lot of COVID or where people are less inclined to follow restrictions.”

Norway is bringing its epidemic under control, and the number of new infections has fallen. But the incidence of the infection in Oslo, where the study was conducted, resembles that in such cities as Boston, Oklahoma City and Trenton, New Jersey.

The trial, begun May 22, included five gyms in Oslo with 3,764 members, ages 18 to 64, who did not have underlying medical conditions. Half of the members — 1,896 people — were invited to go back to their gyms and work out.

They were required to wash their hands and to maintain social distancing: 3 feet apart for floor exercises, and 6 feet apart in high-intensity classes. The subjects could use the lockers but not the saunas or the showers. They were not asked to wear masks.

Another 1,868 gym members served as a comparison group; they were not permitted to return to their gyms.

During the two weeks of the study, 79.5% of the members invited to use their gyms went at least once, while 38.4% went more than six times. Some were overjoyed to restart their routines.

Goril Bjerkan, a 53-year-old economist who lives in Baerum, just outside Oslo, went to the gym three to four times a week during the study, using the treadmill, taking classes and doing strength training.

“It was fantastic to get back to the gym again after almost 11 weeks of closure,” she said. “I suspect it was more risky to visit the shopping center than to visit the gym.”

Heide Tjom, a 57-year-old architect who bicycles into Oslo, leapt at the opportunity to return to the gym four times a week, where she works with a personal trainer and takes group cardio classes.

“Keeping fit is very important to me,” Tjom said. “I feel it is important to my existence.”

Bjerkan participated in an unusual experiment in which researchers found no coronavirus infections among thousands of people allowed to return to their gyms.

Over the study period, there were 207 new coronavirus cases in Oslo. Study participants and gym staff members were tested for the infection June 8. (Antibody tests of participants are now being conducted.)

Bretthauer and Kalager also examined Norway’s extensive electronic health records database for outpatient visits and hospitalizations among the participants.

The results? The researchers found only one coronavirus case, in a person who had not used the gym before he was tested; it was traced to his workplace. Some participants visited hospitals but for diseases other than COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.

There was no difference in hospital visits between the groups, and there were no outpatient visits or hospitalizations because of the coronavirus. The findings were posted online Thursday but had not been peer-reviewed nor published.

Some experts felt the results demonstrated that returning to the gym was relatively safe — but only in places where there were few infections.

“This shows us that low-prevalence environments are safe for gyms and probably just about everything else,” said Dr. Gordon Guyatt, a professor of medicine at McMaster University in Canada. “It is very unlikely you will get infected.”

“If you were in a different environment where there is a substantially higher prevalence, we don’t know what will happen,” he added.

But Jon Zelner, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan, did not find the study to be fully convincing: “These findings don’t tell me that going to the gym isn’t riskier than not going to the gym, even in Oslo,” he said.

A larger study is needed in places with a relatively low prevalence to determine whether the virus is more easily transmitted in gyms, Zelner added. Alternatively, a study with fewer people, but in a community with a high prevalence of infection, could answer the question.

Such a study may raise ethical concerns, since it may not be safe to send people to gyms in high-prevalence communities — “kind of a Catch-22,” Zelner said.

Still, how low does risk have to be before it is acceptable to reopen gyms and fitness centers?

Guyatt said the risks of infection in a community where the prevalence is low are outweighed by the advantages to society.

“You can’t stay locked down forever,” he said. “We are never going to be completely free of this thing. And in a low-prevalence environment, the risk is low wherever you go — gyms or grocery stores or even restaurants.”

Now, Bretthauer and Kalager want to see whether the social-distancing measures they used in the study were necessary.

They hope to randomly assign 150 gyms to operate without restrictions or to maintain those in place now, then compare infection rates among gymgoers. The study is only in its planning stages.

24 LEGAL NOTICE IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO.

FRANKLIN CREDIT MANAGEMENT CORPORATION, AS SERVICER OF DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY, AS CERTIFICATE TRUSTEE ON BEHALF OF BOSCO CREDIT II TRUST SERIES 2017-1, Plaintiff, v.

NATIONAL PROMOTER AND SERVICES INC., EAGLE REALTY AND DEVELOPMENT CORP. Defendants

CIVIL NO. 18-01878-DRD. FO-

RECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE COLLECTION OF MONIES. NOTICE OF SALE.

TO: NATIONAL PROMOTER AND SERVICES INC., EAGLE REALTY AND DEVELOPMENT CORP; AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

tros; Sur, con el solar número contained in the loan agree- the Clerk of the United States escritura 751 del 7 de septiem- SALA: 0001. SOBRE: Cance- utilizando la siguiente direc- de marzo de 2020. GRISELDA catorce (14), por donde mide ment. This is the result of the District Court, Room 150 or bre de 1993, ante el notario Ar- lación o Restitución de Pagaré ción electrónica: https://unired. RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, SEcatorce (14.00) metros; Este, above annotation. Inscribed on 400, Federal Building, Chardon mando E. González Maldona- Hipotecario. EDICTO. ESTA- ramajudicial.pr/sumac/,

salvo CRETRIA REGIONAL. Raquel

con el solar número setenta November 9, 2015 on folio 119 Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico do, la cual quedó inscrita en el DOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA, que se presente por derecho E. Figueroa Nater, Secretaria (70), por donde mide veintiséis of volume 1256, annotation A. in accordance with 28 U.S.C. Registro de la Propiedad al folio EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ES- propio. Se le apercibe que de de Servicio a Sala.

(26.00) metros; Oeste, con el Potential bidders are advised to Sec. 2001, will sell at public 92 deI tomo 683 de Guaynabo, TADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO no hacerlo, el Tribunal podrá solar número sesenta y ocho verify the extent of preferential auction to the highest bidder, finca 27095 Bis, inscripción 5ta. LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUER- dictar Sentencia en rebeldía (68), por donde mide veintiséis liens with the holders thereof. It the property described herein, Cualquier persona que posea TO RICO. S.S.

concediendo el remedio solici- ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

solar una casa residencia de bidder accepts as sufficient applied in the manner and form partir de esta fecha para com-

ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRI-

(26.00) metros. Existe en este shall be understood that each the proceeds of said sale to be dicho pagaré tiene 30 días a

A: JOHN DOE/ RICHARD DOE

tado en la demanda, sin citarle DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL

una sola planta construida de the title and that prior and pre- provided by the Court’s Judg- parecer en el pleito de epígrafe Quedan notificados que la y sello del Tribunal, hoy día 29 BUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANhormigón reforzado, dividida ferential liens to the one being ment. Should the first judicial radicando contestación original demandante de epígrafe ha de junio de 2020. Luz Mayra CIA SALA DE CAGUAS. en sala-comedor, tres cuar- foreclosed upon, including, but sale set hereinabove be un- en el Tribunal de Primera Ins- radicado en este Tribunal una Caraballo García, Secretario ORIENTAL BANK tos dormitorios, cocina, cuarto not limited to any property tax, successful, the second judicial tancia, Sala de Guaynabo, ex- Demanda contra ustedes como (a). Doris A Rodriguez Colon, sanitario, balcón y marquesi- liens (express, tacit, implied or sale of the property described poniendo lo que a su derecho co-demandados en la que se Sub-Secretaria.

na. The property is recorded legal), shall continue in effect in this Notice will be held on the conduzca; advirtléndosele que solicita la cancelación de un LEGAL NOTICE at page 181 of volume 243 of it being understood further that September 11th, 2020 at 10:00 de no hacer alegación respon- Pagaré Hipotecario a favor de Ponce, property number 12617, the successful bidder accepts am, in the Office of the Clerk of siva en el término indicado se The Money House, Inc., o a ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

Registry of the Property of them and is subrogated in the the United States District Court anotará la rebeldía y se podrá su orden, por la suma principal DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUPuerto Rico, Section II of Pon- responsibility for the same and located at the address indica- dictar Sentencia concedién- de $136,500.00 e intereses al NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA ce. WHEREAS: The property that the price shall be applied ted above. Should the second dose el remedio solicitado sin 2.923% anual y vencimiento el SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN is subject to the following ju- toward their cancellation. The judicial sale set hereinabove be más citarle ni oírle. Usted de- 26 de marzo de 2099, mediante JUAN. nior liens described as follows: present property will be acqui- unsuccessful, the third judicial berá presentar su alegación la Escritura Número 263 otorMORTAGE: On behalf of or at red free and clear of all junior sale of the property described responsiva a través del Sistema gada en Ponce, Puerto Rico the order of National Promoter liens. WHEREAS: For the pur- in this Notice will be held on the Unificado de Manejo y Adminis- ante el notario público FrancisAnd Services Inc. in the amou- pose of the first judicial sale, September 18th, 2020 at 10:00 tración de Casos (SUMAC), al co R. Febus Rivera. El menciont of $49,500.00, with interest the minimum bid agreed upon am, in the Office of the Clerk of cual puede acceder utilizando nado Pagaré Hipotecario grava at 6.875% annually and expi- by the parties in the mortga- the United States District Court la siguiente dirección electróni- el inmueble que se describe a ring on January 1, 2038. This ger deed will be $168,000.00, located at the address indica- ca: https: //unired.ramajudicial. continuación: URBANA: Solar

DANERIS FERNÁNDEZ GERENA Peticionaria

EX PARTE Causante: Antonio Fernández Vargas I

CIVIL NUM.: SJ2019CV11891. is the result of deed number for the property and no lower ted above. In San Juan, Puerto pr, salvo que se represeAte por marcado con el número G-27, SALA: 802. SOBRE: ADMINIS177, granted in San Juan on offers will be accepted. Should Rico, this 16 day of June 2020. derecho propio, en cuyo caso denominado Residencial LoTRACION JUDICIAL DE LOS December 31, 2007, before the the firs judicial sale of the above Victor Encarnacion Pichardo, deberá presentar su alegación mas, radicado en el Barrio LoBIENES HEREDITARIOS. EMnotary Elyvette Fuentes Bonilla. described property be unsuc- Appointed Special Master. responsiva en la secretaría del mas del término municipal de PLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. **** Registered on 20 May 2008 on cessful, then the minimum bid Tribunal. Si usted deja de pre- Juana Díaz, Puerto Rico, con ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMEsentar su alegación responsiva una cabida superficial de dosLEGAL NOTICE WHEREAS: On August 20, folio 72 of volume 1096, 23rd for the property on the second RICA EL PRESIDENTE DE dentro del referido término, el judicial sale will be two-thirds registration.

LAWSUIT: In the cientos setenta metros cuadra- LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL 2019, this Court entered JudgESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO ment in favor of Plaintiff, aga- Court of First Instance, Ponce the amount of the minimum DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU- Tribunal podrá dictar sentencia dos (270.00 mc). En lindes por ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO inst Defendants. On January 9, Chamber, a lawsuit was filed bid for the first judicial sale, or NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA previo a escuchar la prueba de el NORTE, con la calle 1, dis- DE PUERTO RICO. SS. valor de la parte peticionaria tancia de doce metros (12.00 2020, this Court entered Order on May 5, 2015, followed by $112,000.00. The minimum SALA DE GUAYNABO. A: ANTONIO EDGARDO en su contra, sin más citarle ni m); por el SUR, con zanja de for Execution of Judgment. Pur- Civil Case number JCD2015- bid for the third judicial sale, JOSÉ MANUEL FERNANDEZ GERENA oírle, y conceder el remedio so- riego, distancia de doce metros suant to the Judgment, the De- 0438 on Collection of Money if the same is necessary, will LIZARDI O’NEILL Por la presente, se le emplaza licitado en la demanda, o cualbe one-half of the minimum and Foreclosure of Mortgage (12.00 m); por el ESTE, con el fendants were Ordered to pay Demandante vs. quier otro, si el Tribunal, en el solar G-28, distancia de vein- y se le notifica que debe conPlaintiff the principal amount by the Ordinary Way, followed bid agreed upon the parties in DORAL MORTGAGE ejercicio de su sana discreción, tidós punto cincuenta metros testar la demanda dentro del of $153,280.01, accrued varia- by Scotiabank of Puerto Rico, the aforementioned mortgage CORPORATION, lo entiende procedente. Es abo- (22.50 m) y por el OESTE, con término de treinta (30) días a ble interest starting at 6.875%, Plaintiff vs. National Promoter deed, or $84,000.00. (Known in Representada por BANCO gado de la parte demandante, el solar G-26, distancia de vein- partir de la publicación del prethe Spanish language as: “Ley And Services Inc, Eagle Realfrom December 1sr, 2014 until POPULAR DE PUERTO el Lic. Jaime Rodríguez Rivera, tidós punto cincuenta metros sente edicto. Deberá presentar full payment, plus mortgage ty And Development Corpora- del Registro de la Propiedad la contestación a través del and risk insurance premiums, tion, Defendants, by means of Inmobiliaria del Estado Libre RICO, JUAN DEL PUEBLO quien tiene oficinas abiertas (22.50 m). Consta inscrita al en el #30 de la Calle Repar- folio 118 del tomo 432 de Juana Sistema Unificado de Manejo y late fees and any other amount which it is requested to pay the Asociado de Puerto Rico”, 2015 Y FULANO DE TAL to Piñero, Guaynabo, Puerto Díaz, finca número 11,102, Re- Administración de Casos (SUexpressly agreed-upon in the secured debt in the amount of Puerto Rico Laws Act 210 (H.B. Demandados MAC), al cual puede acceder mortgage deed, from the date $168,000.00 for principal; plus 2479), Articule 104, as amen- CIVIL#: GB2020CV00305.. Rico, Teléfono 787-720-9553. gistro de la Propiedad de Puerutilizando la siguiente direcded).

WHEREAS: Said sale En Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, a interest.

Condemning the deto Rico, Sección I de Ponce. stated above until full payment SOBRE: CANCELACION DE ción electrónica: https://unired. thereof, plus 10% for attorneys’’ fendant to pay the plaintiff the to be made by the appointed PAGARE HIPOTECARIO EX- 26 DE JUNIO de 2020. LCDA. Se les advierte que el presente ramaiudicial.pr/sumac, salvo sum of $153,280.01 principal Special Master is subject to LAURA I. SANTA SANCHEZ, Edicto se publicará en un periófees and legal costs in the TRAVIADO. SOBRE: CANque se represente por derecho amount of $16,800.00. WHE- balance of the referred to pay confirmation by the United Sta- CELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ HI- Sscretaria Regional. Diamar T. dico de circulación general una propio, en cuyo caso deberá REAS: Pursuant to the terms of the interest at the agreed rate tes District Court for the District POTECARIO EXTRAVIADO. Gonzalez Barreto, Sec del Tri- sola vez y se le requieres para presentarla ante el Tribunal de que contesten la Demanda de the aforementioned Judgment of $6,875 principal balance of of Puerto Rico and the deed of EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDIC- bunal Confidencial II. Primera Instancia Sala Supeconveyance and possession to the referred to pay the interest epígrafe dentro de los treinta and the Order for Execution of TO. Por la presente se notifica LEGAL NOTICE rior de San Juan con copia a (30) días siguientes a la publiJudgment thereof, the following at the agreed rate of 6.875% the property will be executed a los demandados desconocila representación legal de la ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO and delivered only after such per year accrued on such sum cación del edicto, radicando el property belonging to the Dedos Juan del Pueblo y Fulano parte demandante a la siguienfendants will be sold at a public from December 1, 2014 and confirmation. The records of the de Tal, que se ha radicado una DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL original de su contestación en te dirección: Lcda. Ana Cristina DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA REcase and of these proceedings those accruing to the full and el Tribunal correspondiente y auction: Urbana: Solar marcado demanda sobre Cancelación Gómez Perez; PO Box 13762, GION JUDICIAL DE PONCE may be examined by interested complete payment of the prinnotificando con copia de la miscon el numero Sesenta y Nueve de Pagaré en la que se soliciSan Juan, PR 00908; Tel. (787) cipal, late charges incurred up SALA SUPERIOR DE JUANA parties at the Office of the Clerk ma a la parte demandante a la del Bloque D del plano de insta la cancelación de un pagaré 459-1035; Correo electrónito this date and those accruing DÍAZ. of the United States District siguiente dirección: cripción de la Urbanización San hipotecario a favor de Doral BUFETE APONTE & CORTÉS, LLC. co: anacgomezperez@gmail.

Antonio, radicada en el Barrio to the full and complete pay- Court, Room 150 or 400 Fede- Mortgage Corporation o a su CENTURION INSURANCE MORALES MARENGO com. Se le apercibe que, de no AGENCY, INC. por sí y LCDA. ERIKA Canas del municipio de Ponce, ment of the debt, any advan- ral Office Building, 150 Chardon orden, el cual fue pagado en su PO Box 195337 contestar la demanda dentro Puerto Rico, con una cabida de ces made by the plaintiff for Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. totalidad por la parte demancomo parte interesada San Juan, Puerto Rico 00919-5337 del término aquí establecido, the payment of insurance preNOW THEREFORE, public Tel. (787) 302-0014 ¡(787) 239-5661 / Trescientos Sesenta y Cuatro dante. Dicho pagaré fue insDemandante V. se le anotará la rebeldía y se Email: emarengo16@yahoo.com punto Cero Cero (364.00) me- miums, property contributions, notice is hereby given that the crito y se constituyó Hipoteca THE MONEY HOUSE, dictará sentencia concediendo Usted deberá presentar su alespecial contributions, any other Special Master, pursuant to tros cuadrados. En linderos: sobre el mismo, por la suma de INC.; JOHN DOE y gación responsiva a través del el remedio solicitado sin más Norte, con la calle número ocho expenses paid by the plaintiffs the provisions of the Judgment $39,711.00 con intereses al 7 RICHARD DOE Sistema Unificado de Manejo y citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo (8) de la urbanización, por don- and the sum of $16,800.00 for herein before referred to, will, 1/8% vencedero el 1 de octubre Demandados Administración de Casos (SU- mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en de mide catorce (14.00) me- costs, expenses and attorneys’ on the September 4th, 2020 de 2004, otorgada mediante CIVIL NÚM. JD2020CV00003.

MAC), al cual puede acceder San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy 9 fees, as well as any other sum at 10:00 am, in the Office of

@

LEGAL NOTICE

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

(787) 743-3346

Demandante V.

ANGELA RONDÓN RIVERA, por sí y como miembro conocida de la sucesión Rafael Colón Carmona en cuanto a la cuota viudal usufructuaria; CARLOS RAFAEL COLÓN RONDÓN, BETHZAIDA COLÓN RONDÓN Y YADIRA COLÓN RONDÓN como miembros conocidos de la sucesión Rafael olón Carmona; JOHN DOE Y JANE ROE como miembros desconocidos de la sucesión Rafael Colón Carmona; ANGELA RONDÓN RIVERA, por sí y como miembro conocida de la sucesión Carlos Rafael Colón Rondón; FULANO DE TAL Y FULANA DE TAL como miembros desconocidos de la sucesión Carlos Rafael Colón Rondón.

Demandados DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES Partes Con Interés

CIVIL NÚM.: CY2019CV00433.

SALA: 801. SOBRE: COBRO DE EJECUCION DE HIPO-

TECA,

E

INTERPELACION.

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

Fulano de Tal y Fulana de Tal como miembros desconocidos de la Sucesión Carlos Rafael Colón Rondón; Urb. Jardines de Cayey I, D22 calle 8, Cayey, PR 00736.

Por la presente se les ordena para que se expresen si han de

aceptar o rechazar formalmente la herencia en el término de

treinta (30) días a partir de la

The San Juan Daily Star publicación de esta orden, de lo de radicación de Ia Demanda al

contrario la herencia se tendrá tipo legal, hasta el total y compor aceptada. Se le apercibe a pleto pago de Ia obligación, y Ia los herederos que si no se ex- cuantía de $7,230.13 pactada

presan dentro del término aquí para las costas, gastos y honootorgado, la herencia se ten- rarios de abogado. La deuda es

Tuesday, July 7, 2020 más adelante en el presente edicto, que se publicará una sola vez.

25

Tel. (787) 274-1414 Fax (787) 764-8241 E-mail: jmontalvo@ delgadofernandez.com

Se les notifica que en la De- Expedido bajo mi firma y sello manda radicada en el caso de del Tribunal, hoy 2 de julio de

epígrafe se alega que un pa- 2020. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA garé hipotecario fue otorgado SÁNCHEZ, Secretaria Regioque les fue desembolsado por el 6 de mayo de 2014, a favor nal. Carmen M. Pintado, Sec. Ia demandante y cuyos últimos de Bank of America N.A., por la Auxiliar det Tribunal I. cuatro dígitos son 0005. Se les suma de $375,500.00 de prinemplaza y requiere quo preLEGAL NOTICE cipal, con intereses al 1.750% senten al tribunal su alegación anual, vencimiento el 1 de junio ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO responsiva dentro do los treinta de 2039, ante la Notario Héctor DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU(30) días siguientes a Ia publiFrancisco Márquez Somoza. La NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA cación de este edicto, a través hipoteca que grava la propie- SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN del Sistema Unificado de Admidad descrita en el párrafo an- JUAN. nistración y Manejo de Casos terior fue constituida mediante BOSCO IX OVERSEAS, (SUMAC), aI cual pueden accela escritura número 7 del 6 de LLC, BY der utilizando Ia siguiente direcmayo de 2014, ante el Notario FRANKLIN CREDIT ción electrónica: salvo que se Héctor Francisco Márquez SoMANAGEMENT representen par derecho promoza, inscrita al folio #40 del pio, en cuyo caso deberán preCORPORATION AS tomo #1805 de Bayamón Sur, sentar su alegación responsiva SERVICER finca #644 15, inscripción lOma, en Ia secretaria del tribunal.

PARTE DEMANDANTE Vs. Registro de la Propiedad de BaDeberán notificar a Ia licenciaFELICIA yamón, Sección I. El inmueble da: Maria S. Jiménez Meléndez ACOSTA VÁZQUEZ gravado mediante la hipoteca al P0 Box 9023632, San Juan, PARTE DEMANDADA antes descrita es la finca númePuerto Rico 00902-3632; teléro 64415 inscrita al folio #40 del CIVIL NUM: SJ2020CV01167. fono: (787) 723-2455; abogada tomo #1805 de Bayamón Sur, SALA: 604. SOBRE: EJECUde Ia parte demandante, con Registro de la Propiedad de CIÓN DE GARANTÍAS (IN copia de Ia contestación a Ia EMPLAZAMIENTO Bayamón, Sección I. La obliga- REM). demanda enmendada. Si usteción evidenciada por el pagaré POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIdes dejan de presentar su aleantes descrito fue saldada en DOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIgación responsiva dentro del su totalidad. Dicho gravamen DENTE DE LOS EE. UU. ESreferido término, el tribunal pono ha podido ser cancelado por TADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE drá dictar sentencia en rebeldía haberse extraviado el original P.R. SS. en su contra y conceder el redel pagaré. El original del pagaA: FELICIA medio solicitado en Ia demanda ré antes descrito no ha podido ACOSTA VÁZQUEZ enmendada, a cualquier otro, ser localizado, a pesar de las Queda emplazada y notificada si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de gestiones realizadas. Bank of de que en este Tribunal se ha su sana discreción, lo entiende America N.A. es el acreedor radicado una demanda de ejeprocedente. Expedido en Caroque consta en el Registro de cución de garantías (in rem) lina, Puerto Rico, a 30 de junio la Propiedad. El último tenedor en su contra. Se le notifica que de 2020. Lcda. Marilyn Aponte conocido del pagaré antes des- deberá presentar su alegación Rodriguez, Secretaria Regiocrito fue Oriental Bank. POR responsiva a través del Sistema nal. Ruth M Colon, Sec Auxiliar LA PRESENTE se le emplaza Unificado de Manejo y Adminisdel Tribunal. para que presente al tribunal tración de Casos (SUMAC), al su alegación responsiva den- cual puede acceder utilizando LEGAL NOT ICE

drá por aceptada. Aclarándose par concepto de un préstamo que el heredero deberá, si así

lo desea, repudiar la herencia

mediante instrumento público

o por escrito judicial. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy 15 de

junio de 2020. Carmen Ana Pereira Ortiz, Secretaria. Teresita Vega Gonzalez, SubSecretaria.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA.

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Parte Demandante vs.

CARLOS A. SANTIAGO QUIÑONES, FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS Parte Demandada

CIVIL NUM.: CA2019CV04951.

SALA: SOBRE: COBRO DE

DINERO (Ordinario). EMPLAZAMIENTO

POR

EDICTO

EMITIDO POR EL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA DE

PUERTO RICO, SALA DE CAROLINA.

A: CARLOS A. SANTIAGO QUIÑONES, por sI y en representación de Ia Sociedad Legal de Gananciales Compuesta por él con Francis Arroyo (Fulana de Tal), parte ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO demandada en el caso de: DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL Banco Popular de GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANPuerto Rico vs.

CIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN. Carlos a. Santiago ORIENTAL BANK Quiñones, Francis Demandante V. Arroyo (Fulana de Tal) y Ia Sociedad Legal de BANK OF AMERICA, N.A.; JOHN DOE & Gananciales Compuesta RICHARD ROE porAmbos, Civil Nm.: Demandados CA2019CV04951 sobre CIVIL NUM. BY2020CV01832 Cobra de Dinero.

(504).

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

An unlikely source of catharsis for a Black MLB player: Social media

By JAMES WAGNER

T

ony Kemp felt, in his words, depressed.

Soon after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in May, with enduring protests about racial injustice and police brutality around the country, Kemp could not get himself out of bed until 2 or 3 p.m. on back-to-back days.

“I was just down in the dumps,” said Kemp, an infielder-outfielder for the Oakland Athletics.

Seeking some catharsis, he decided on June 5 to start the sort of civil dialogue that often feels so lacking nowadays.

Kemp, 28, walked into his kitchen in Nashville, Tenn., sat down and tapped out a message on his cellphone to his 42,000 followers on Twitter.

“Let’s be honest,” he wrote. “It’s been a tough week. If any of you need to talk or want to be more informed don’t hesitate to ask me. All love.”

Social media can be a challenging venue for tackling sensitive subjects with nuance. But for Kemp, one of the few African American players in Major League Baseball, sending that tweet felt like placing a bar stool at his kitchen island and inviting anyone to join him for a conversation about the issues roiling the country.

The idea to formalize his efforts into a campaign, which Kemp labeled the +1 Effect, came during a tearful video chat with his family after Floyd’s death in police custody. Kemp’s uncle argued that societal reform would come from individuals sharing perspectives with others, and that motivated Kemp to keep talking to fans.

Messages streamed in from baseball fans, many with starkly different views from his. He talked with them about everything from race to police profiling to kneeling during the national anthem.

“Sending out something like that, you never know what kind of response you’re going to get,” he said in a recent telephone interview. “But man, it blew up. I was happy about that. We had a lot of good, positive conversations.”

In all, Kemp estimated he has corresponded with more than 125 fans through

“If any of you need to talk or want to be more informed don’t hesitate to ask me,” Tony Kemp wrote on Twitter in June. direct messages on Twitter or Instagram.

There was a short exchange with Emily Eason, a 38-year-old white woman originally from Nashville, about white privilege. There was a conversation with Frank Howard, a 40-year-old white man in the Houston area, about Drew Brees’ comments against anthem protests in the NFL, which Brees later apologized for. And there was an extended chat with Bob Wheeler Jr. about education gaps affecting poor or minority students.

“When I was talking to him, Tony seemed genuinely concerned and he really wanted to know what I thought about making things better,” said Wheeler, a 52-year-old white man who works as a medical consultant and lives two hours outside Dallas. “That just blew me away.”

Wheeler is a self-avowed “gun-toting right-winger” who said he would rather

fund education than defund the police.

As he talked to Kemp, Wheeler said, he could tell they were coming from differing perspectives but had a common interest in eradicating systemic racism and improving the disparities in Texas’ public schools.

“We had the exact same end point in mind,” Wheeler said. “We just got at it from different viewpoints.”

When Kemp first opened the line of communication with fans, he braced himself for polarizing comments. There were certainly some difficult conversations, but he said people were mostly cordial.

“I don’t see myself as much of an activist,” said Kemp, who was drafted out of Vanderbilt in 2013 by the Houston Astros, for whom he played from 2016-19 before trades to the Chicago Cubs and then to Oakland. “I’m not into politics. I just think this is a matter of right and wrong. And for

me, it was very therapeutic to reach out to some people and educate some people.”

Kemp, who does not have children, fielded questions from parents who sought advice on how to talk to their children about racism or who were white and adopted Black children. When someone asked what was wrong with saying “All Lives Matter” — because “it seems B.L.M. is about one specific race” — Kemp explained the Black Lives Matter movement.

When a woman asked Kemp how she could better understand his experience, Kemp sent her a list of documentaries, movies, podcasts and books that he and his wife had compiled.

Kemp did some listening, too. During a discussion about some protesters damaging police property, one man sent Kemp a YouTube video from a Black conservative commentator. In turn, Kemp recommended the documentary “13th,” about the racial inequality in the U.S. criminal justice system. Each watched the other’s suggestion.

“Being able to have these conversations and talk to people and be able to see their side, too, is important,” Kemp said.

Howard, a second-generation Army veteran who now manages a sandwich shop in the Houston area, said he was shocked that a professional athlete was willing to talk directly to fans about such issues.

In a telephone interview, Howard explained that he had been angered when former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in 2016. Since then, Howard said, he had realized that his ignorance had kept him from understanding Kaepernick’s motives, but he still felt somewhat hypocritical: While he would always stand during the anthem himself, he respected those kneeling to raise awareness about injustice.

“As a white man I think I’m looked at crazy for that stance,” Howard wrote, in part, to Kemp.

“People have different views,” Kemp later wrote to Howard. “And if you change your point of view it doesn’t make you a hypocrite just means you’re growing as a person and become more open minded.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

27

When a farewell season was wiped out, the outfield became a diner

By GARY SANTIANELLO

T

he long goodbye to McCoy Stadium began in August 2018, when the Class AAA Pawtucket Red Sox of the International League announced the franchise would be moving 50 minutes up Route 146 to Worcester, Mass., starting with the 2021 season.

The news added even more weight to the team’s 2020 season, which was also the 50th anniversary of the Boston Red Sox’s minor-league presence in Pawtucket.

The club’s president, Charles Steinberg, had events planned throughout the season, drawing on the memories of star players like Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, Mo Vaughn and Mookie Betts who had passed through en route to Boston.

Then the coronavirus pandemic closed the door on the season, which was officially canceled last week, leaving McCoy Stadium like the host of a goingaway party with no guests.

Officials for the PawSox, as they’re known locally, feared they would have no chance to formally say goodbye to the community. They did what they could, holding virtual events with players and inviting fans to post personal messages on the stadium’s video board.

But when Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island announced in May that the state would permit outdoor gatherings of more than 10 people, “It turned a light on for all of us,” said Mike Tamburro, the team’s vice chairman who has been involved with the PawSox since 1974, including a long stretch as general manager.

The collective brainstorm created “Dining on the Diamond,” an outdoor picnic on the pristine grass of McCoy Stadium. What started on the first weekend in June with 20 tables, two seatings and basic ballpark fare (hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries and nachos) has expanded to include a third seating, more tables, and a menu that includes a Rhode Island lobster roll, a barbecue platter and chicken caprese.

With the minor league season canceled, McCoy will be used as an alternate training site for members of the Red Sox’s 60-man active roster, potentially interrupting “Dining on the Diamond,”

McCoy Stadium, the home of the Pawtucket Red Sox for 50 years, became a makeshift restaurant this summer. but Steinberg said the club “will continue to explore ways to have a fitting farewell to McCoy Stadium.”

There is clearly an appetite. When the team announced the promotion on its website, tables for the first two days — June 6 and June 7 — sold out in 88 minutes. When June 8 was added, it sold out in the same amount of time.

For Father’s Day weekend, the team expanded to 33 tables, a nod to the 33 innings played at the stadium between the PawSox and Rochester Red Wings in 1981 — the longest game in professional baseball history. And at the urging of fans, the team’s executive chef, Tom Whalen, added more expensive items, including his favorite, eggplant Parmesan. The tables also were moved from the dirt infield to the outfield grass.

Fans reserve tables, order their food and pay for it in advance online. At the ballpark, the green metal tables are set up at least 14 feet apart and restricted to five people. Servers wear masks, but they’re not required of diners.

On each table, which is cleaned between seatings, sits a placard with the table number and an image of a notable PawSox alum or member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame (Naturally, Ted Williams represents Table No. 9.).

Finally, diners at each table receive a miniature replica of McCoy to take home.

Like other members of the club’s front office and full-time staff, Tamburro has chipped in to help run the makeshift restaurant, escorting diners to their tables and soaking in stories of McCoy memories.

Seated at Table 4 with his wife, son and daughter on a recent Friday, James Vierra of East Providence said he had seen his first game at McCoy in the mid1960s, when it was home to the Cleveland Indians’ Class AA team. He recalled attending a Red Sox-sponsored activity one Saturday morning with his son, Brad, who ended up playing catch with Nomar Garciaparra.

“In fact, it was right about here,”

he said, noting their spot in the outfield grass. “And here I am sitting at this table.”

Under former owner Ben Mondor, who passed away in 2010 after holding the club for decades, the Pawtucket Red Sox became a local institution with strong ties throughout Rhode Island for its charitable works. In 2015, a group led

by Larry Lucchino, then the president and chief executive of the Boston Red Sox, bought the club and tried to build a new stadium to replace McCoy, which opened July 4, 1942.

After failing to reach an agreement with the state legislature, Lucchino signed a letter of intent in August 2018 to move into a new ballpark in Worcester, 42 miles away.

But the team is making the most of its last few months in Rhode Island. Steinberg, whom Tamburro calls “the master of event planning” from his work with the Red Sox, Orioles, Padres and Dodgers, marveled at the tableau in front of him last month. “Look at any place on the field and there’s a story,” he said. “A who’s who of some of the greatest players in baseball history have been here.”

“It’s also a reminder,” he added, “of the vital role ballparks play in our lives.”

At Table 21, honoring Clemens, Tina Trahan remembered working in the souvenir stand as a teenager during the years when the star pitcher himself had passed through. Joining her were two friends and her father, Fred, 90, who saw the Class B Pawtucket Slaters play at McCoy in the 1940s, including a 19-yearold Chuck Tanner in 1948.

More than 2,600 families are on the waiting list, anticipating when the promotion resumes. “Amazing,” said Bill Wanless, who started with the franchise in 1985 as an intern, worked as its public relations director for 29 years and became senior vice president for communications in 2015.

His new job — greeting patrons as they enter the ballpark through a gate in right field and helping them get their table number — provides a front-line opportunity to assess the success of Dining on the Diamond.

“It’s not a home run,” he said. It’s a grand slam.”

28

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Can Cam Newton be Superman again?

By BEN SHPIGEL

T

hird-and-10 is traditionally a passing situation, but just outside the red zone on that down, Cam Newton took the shotgun snap, glanced left, tucked the ball and charged forward. Evading a thicket of bodies, he cut right and accelerated toward the sideline.

Even then, five years into Newton’s career, defenders seemed confounded that someone that big — 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds — could also be that fast. He outraced one defender, then shoved another, jolting him 5 yards with a hellacious stiff arm, to gain the first down.

Jumping up, Newton spiked the ball and flexed. On the next play, after shedding a tackle, he raced 12 yards into the end zone, somersaulting over his center, for the second of his four touchdowns in the Carolina Panthers’ NFC championship game rout of the Arizona Cardinals in January 2016. He did his “Superman” celebration and then dabbed, performing the head-to-bent-elbow dance move as the home crowd at Bank of America Stadium roared.

In that dominant season of dominant victories and dominant displays — he would, two weeks later, be selected as the NFL’s Most Valuable Player — Newton’s personality and performance catapulted him into a niche of celebrity culture, as the rare football superstar with crossover appeal.

“I see myself not only as a football player, but an entertainer and icon,” he said before he was drafted in 2011. He had, unabashedly, done just that.

In a league where teams pay millions of dollars for even average quarterback play, what has happened to Newton this offseason would have seemed incomprehensible in 2015. With a new coach and after gutting the roster, the Panthers released Newton in March, having decided he no longer fit into their plans.

His career since that MVP season has been marred by injury and postseason disappointment. In his absence from the limelight, the NFL has churned on, and a cadre of thrilling young quarterbacks has reached full bloom. But it was Newton who helped create the paradigm for the stars currently holding the league rapt; Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson don’t have to fight their organizations or commentators to boldly play the way they do, in part because Newton already did.

Newton spent three months unemployed as the coronavirus pandemic pre-

vented teams from gauging his health before the New England Patriots signed him to a one-year contract reportedly laden with performance incentives. In less than a month, Newton, 31, who is two years removed from his last healthy season, will arrive at the Patriots’ training camp seeking to answer for himself the same question wondered by a vast legion of football fans: Can he be Superman again?

Flipping the Script When Carolina drafted Newton No. 1 overall in 2011, he vaulted the franchise from two-win irrelevance the season before into the national consciousness.

In his debut, he passed for 422 yards and accounted for three touchdowns.

The next week, he threw for 432 and rushed for 53 more. The Panthers lost both games, but it almost did not matter.

They had Newton, and no one else did.

He primped. He preened. He moped. He pointed after first downs. He barreled into defenders. He ran and threw for lots of yards and scored lots of touchdowns and had lots of fun, charming some fans and irritating others with his demonstrative personality. Categorized as a mobile quarterback or a dual threat — descriptions, rooted in racial stereotypes, suggesting he doesn’t throw as well as he runs — Newton abhorred labels. He played the position how he wanted to, how he knew he could.

“Cam was like, ‘I’m bringing my full self here,’” said Louis Moore, author of “We Will Win the Day: The Civil Rights Movement, the Black Athlete and the Quest for Equality” and an associate professor of history at Grand Valley State University.

“I think it opened up everything for others to follow — the way he dressed, the way he talked, the way he moved,” Moore said. “We hadn’t really seen any of that. The quarterback’s always been told that he has to act a certain way, this kind of professional level — you can’t be a diva wide receiver — and Cam flipped the script: ‘No, I’m going to be who I want to be.’ And plus, he was really, really good.”

A Top Tactician Considering all that Newton could do on the field, he seemed at times burdened with offsetting Carolina’s roster imperfections, from its modest offensive line to its meager cast of receivers. The Panthers won three consecutive NFC

Newton went from paradigm-shifting M.V.P. to discarded free agent. Joining the New England Patriots could give him the perfect relaunch.

South titles, culminating with that 2015 season that ended with a loss to Denver in Super Bowl 50.

Just as he was thriving, though, another set of shoulder troubles surfaced.

After having surgery for a torn rotator cuff after the 2016 season, Newton underwent another procedure on the same shoulder in January 2019, eight months after David Tepper bought the team.

Mended by training camp that year, he then injured the Lisfranc ligament in his left foot during a preseason game, an injury that impeded his mobility and follow-through.

In his final game with Carolina, a Week 2 home defeat to Tampa Bay, Newton completed 49 percent of his passes, and in decisive proof of his limitations, he didn’t run the ball on either of the Panthers’ fourth-and-1 situations in the fourth quarter.

‘It’s About Respect’ Newton’s free agency this spring followed his peers’, as Tom Brady, Philip Rivers and Teddy Bridgewater, who landed with Carolina, all signed contracts that could pay them over $20 million per year. Newton became available on March 24 — when travel restrictions wrought by the pandemic blocked teams from examining him — and lingered on the open market past April’s draft, as viable starting options evaporated.

Whether the depressed demand was an absurdity, given his stature, or entirely reasonable, given the general uncertainty about his health, was not clear. If not for the pandemic, one NFL agent said, the market for Newton would have been robust.

“But you have to pay a player for what they’re going to be in the NFL, not for what they’ve done,” said the agent, who requested anonymity to speak freely about a player he does not represent.

“And you don’t know what he’s going to do.”

Newton has not had to prove himself to such an extent since 2009, when he attended Blinn College to regain NCAA eligibility after flaming out at Florida.

He arrived at the campus in Brenham, Texas, without a car or a starting role but parlayed that stopover into an enchanted season at Auburn, where he won the Heisman Trophy and the national championship.

New England, in many respects, offers a similar springboard for Newton, who will play the marquee position for the most successful NFL franchise of the past 25 years. It is a chance to reclaim his primacy and visibility while also making a social statement of sorts, as a high-profile Black quarterback alighting in Boston, a city that has a reputation for being inhospitable to Black people.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Sudoku

29

How to Play:

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

Sudoku Rules: Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9 Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9 Every 3x3 square must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

GAMES

HOROSCOPE Aries

30

(Mar 21-April 20)

You’re worried about how your family will respond to some plans and ideas. The sooner you discuss this the better. It might surprise you when someone you expected to raise objections turns out to be amazingly supportive. There are issues you are dealing with that need to be discussed with your other half.

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

A great relationship doesn’t have to be spoiled because you have commitments that are keeping you apart. Don’t feel guilty about talking about it if you’re unhappy. Intense emotions will need an outlet. A benefactor will come forward and make a substantial pledge towards a charity you are involved in.

Sharing your feelings, your worries about recent happenings and your hopes for the future will keep you and a partner in tune with each other. It might seem as if recently you have drifted apart but you’ve both been through many challenges. It hasn’t been easy and you will get through this. Keep telling yourself that.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

What’s important for you no longer seems to matter to a partner. Their views have changed over recent months. You can understand why they feel differently, after all they have been through but it’s not easy to accept the intangible aspects of your life together. Eventually, a new understanding will occur.

Scorpio

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

You’ve always been able to rely on your intuition. You can sense someone you love is feeling down even though they won’t admit it. People might paste on a smile but underneath, you can feel their tension and anxiety.

Go out of your way to make your partner or a relative feel loved and special.

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

If you’re interested in a challenging work assignment, put your name forward. Doubts about your ability to carry out this job should not hold you back. You can learn as you go and there will be plenty of people willing to help when you need it. You would regret it if this opportunity went to someone else.

A choice you have to make concerning a friendship is making you uncomfortable. It feels like you have very few options. You won’t rush into anything that might have an adverse effect on other people’s lives. Discuss your worries with someone you can trust and you will find there are more alternatives.

Your partner’s words and actions are making you feel nervous. It’s as if they’re looking for any excuse to get out of your relationship. You could be reading them incorrectly. It’s entirely possible you’ve both got in a rut and it shouldn’t take a lot of effort to come up with a way to spice things up between you.

Leo

Aquarius

(July 24-Aug 23)

A relationship you expected to last forever is no longer bringing you any happiness. You’re wondering whether to bail out now before it ends up in a dramatic finale. If it is taking too much effort to keep a partner happy, ask for some space and take a few days before deciding on what to do next.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

Don’t lower your standards when it comes to matters of work and hygiene. You would rather take your time to get the job right than rush and make mistakes. It’s important to wear safety equipment where it is advisable.

Your efforts to help an ailing friend to transition to a healthier lifestyle will be gratefully received.

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

Your attention turns to neighbours isolated at home and the terrible impact this is having on their emotional well-being. A fund-raising exercise will be surprisingly successful. It will feel amazing to raise money to go to help people who are feeling lonely. You are helping make a difference to other people’s lives.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

You miss a friend who you haven’t seen for years. It’s posYou’re spending time with a neighbour or workmate with whom you haven’t always seen eye to eye. They may seem to be acting much friendlier towards you today. This is a good time to extend an olive branch. Since you’re sorry for some of the things you’ve said in the past, it will be a relief to know you have been forgiven.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

The San Juan Daily Star

Ziggy

32

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

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