Thursday Jun 1, 2023

The San Juan Star

A Rising Tide for Tourism

Officials Welcome Trio of Cruise Ships

Carrying 14,300 Passengers, Estimated $1.3 Million Economic Impact

P3

Jorge Pierluisi Díaz, Father of Governor, Is Remembered as the Right Kind of Public Servant

NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL

AI Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn

Juan Carlos Formell, Heir of a Cuban Musical Legacy, Dies at 59

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.

Officials welcome arrival of 3 cruise ships, and estimated $1.3 million impact

By THE STAR STAFF

Puerto Rico Tourism Company (CTPR by its Spanish initials) Executive Director Carlos Mercado Santiago celebrated the arrival of 14,301 passengers aboard the Carnival Celebration, MSC Seascape and Norwegian Getaway cruise ships, all docked in Old San Juan on Wednesday.

Mercado Santiago said the economic impact of the visit of the three cruise ships is estimated to be over $1.3 million.

“The Tourism Company remains firm in the plan designed by Governor Pedro Pierluisi to continue developing the cruise industry in all the ports of the island,” the CTPR director said. “In the past 11 months, we have seen an accelerated, almost total, recovery of the cruise ship market, cruise ships, with the arrival of more than 10 new vessels, the reactivation of the Port of Ponce as a tourist stop and the inclusion of ports on the island in itineraries for new vessels such as MSC World America, among other advances.”

Puerto Rico Ports Authority Executive Director Joel A. Pizá Batiz joined in welcoming the passengers from the three ships.

“Certainly, the continued arrival of cruise ships strengthens the local economy, makes it clear that our port continues to be one of the favorite destinations for cruise passengers, reflects the effectiveness of our work plan put together with the Tourism Company, and represents a vote of confidence from the cruise lines,” he

said. “We have worked for this and will continue to do so per the public policy of Governor Pedro R. Pierluisi to strengthen our critical infrastructure, of which our ports are a significant part.”

As part of the efforts to continue increasing the number of cruise passengers and the quality of their experience on the island, the CTPR is coordinating training for tour operators and people who work directly with visitors from the cruise industry with the leading company AQUILA. The international certifications of AQUILA’s Center for Cruise Excellence are specifically designed for personnel who work in tourist ports, docks, information centers, tour guides, drivers and businesses on issues of product development and service excellence, among others. The trainings are an integral part of a quality of service program that the CTPR will be launching soon, “Puerto Rico Yes -- Quality of Service 100 x 35.” The program aims to increase the competitiveness of the destination by guaranteeing high levels of satisfaction among the consumers of the island’s touristic offer.

“The preparation and training of partners from all sectors of the tourism industry is a vital element to promote an increase in quality and satisfaction of all who visit Puerto Rico,” Mercado Santiago said. “Strategies like this provide the staff that represent us as a tourist destination with the necessary skills to offer a first-class service to cruise passengers. We are confident that these trainings will result in more ship visits and a greater boost and contribution to local economic activity.”

Island officials welcomed the arrival on Wednesday of 14,301 passengers aboard the Carnival Celebration, MSC Seascape and Norwegian Getaway cruise ships, all docked in Old San Juan.

Gov’t agencies voice doubts about proposal for 4-day workweek

By THE STAR STAFF

During a public hearing of the Senate Human Rights and Labor Affairs Committee, several government agencies related to human resources voiced reservations with regard to Senate Bill 1143 and Senate Resolution 394, which propose to reduce the working hours of public employees without an accompanying salary reduction.

“The purpose of the measure is that we see the possibility of offering our employees a four-day week without salary reduction. What the government currently has is a reduction in working hours and a reduction in wages,” said the chairwoman of the committee, Sen. Ana Irma Rivera Lassén. “This measure speaks of a pilot plan that would be up to the OATRH [Office of Administration and Transformation of Human Resources, by its Spanish initials] to see the viability and convenience not of what is, but of what could be. … This is being seen in many parts of the world and apparently is yielding good results.”

During her presentation, Diocelyn Rivera of the OATRH said that “in the area of the Uniform Classification and Compensation Plan of the Puerto Rico government, even when the legal basis under which it is proposed we develop a pilot plan so that certain employees can work and complete a workweek of four days and 32 hours without salary reduction, it would not be consistent with the current legal system because it

affects the uniformity in the implementation of the Uniform Classification and Compensation Plan and the constitutional principles of equal protection of the laws and equal pay for equal work, and therefore we do not favor the bill.”

Given this, Rivera Lassén asked what would be the specific concerns around the implementation of a pilot plan to evaluate what would be the benefits, if any, of a reduced workweek without reducing wages. The witness said that “we are not rejecting what is proposed, but we are inclined to

evaluate the proposal because, as it is filed, it must be evaluated in order to implement some type of analysis.”

“We reiterate our help in making that analysis,” Rivera said.

Similarly, Gustavo Cartagena, also of the OATRH, said the office is open to the analysis of the measure, but stressed that the possibility that it leads to an increase in costs must be reviewed. He also established that another analysis that must be carried out is regarding the services to citizens, which could be affected.

In his turn, Heriam Martínez of the Office of Management and Budget said the “measure as drafted in the pilot plan has no budgetary impact, but the analysis cannot be isolated.”

Along the same lines, Naiomy Álamo, on behalf of the Department of Labor and Human Resources (DTRH by its Spanish initials) expressed reservations about the proposal’s fiscal impact.

“The proposal of this bill reduces the working week in the public service without salary reduction, which could have a fiscal impact. Article 204 l of the ‘Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act’ (PROMESA) requires certification of the fiscal impact of each law and its consistency with the Fiscal Plan,” Álamo said.

The deponent also noted that Law 8-2017 contemplates measures to reduce working hours as an action to avoid layoffs since, ordinarily, they represent savings for the central government.

“Likewise, voluntary reductions in working hours are allowed at the request of the public employee by agreement with his employer in which the employee can benefit from a four-day week and earn 80 percent of his gross remuneration,” Álamo said. Meanwhile, the official clarified that the DTRH administers the pertinent labor legislation in the private sector of Puerto Rico, “so this bill is not within the matters under the jurisdiction of expertise of our agency.”

Senator proposes package of measures to improve quality of life of the elderly

By THE STAR STAFF

Culminating the “Month of the Elderly,” Sen. Keren Riquelme Cabrera, along with interim Family (DF) Secretary Ciení Rodríguez introduced a package of measures on Wednesday focused on improving the quality of life of the elderly in Puerto Rico.

In a ceremony held at the DF’s central offices, Riquelme stamped her signature on three pieces of legislation, all in favor of protecting rights and expanding the services received by people 65 and older, including those with special needs.

The first bill creates the “Law on the Sup-

port Program for the Elderly of Puerto Rico,” better known as PROSAM, with the objective of expediting pension payments to elderly members, one of the biggest complaints by members of the social sector. The measure also implements the creation of six new assistant prosecutor positions that will be responsible for representing PROSAM in the island’s courts.

On the island there is an obligation to pay a pension in favor of senior relatives when they require it to survive. The parties that are eligible to apply for the aid from their nuclear family are parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, over 60 years of age.

“Today we make history with the filing of

this package of bills focused on improving the quality of life of older adults, those men and women who created the new Puerto Rico,” Riquelme said in a written statement. “With these measures we protect 740,489 (from the 2021 U.S. Census Bureau) people over the age of 65, nearly 24 percent of the population in Puerto Rico. They all address specific issues, remove loopholes in existing laws and create new platforms to support our seniors.”

“Our socio-demographic reality demands that we identify and work on new strategies to meet the needs of our seniors and people with disabilities in Puerto Rico,” Rodríguez added. “Therefore, we greatly appreciate the initiative

of Senator Riquelme to work on a package of measures aimed at these populations.”

The other bill establishes that the DF will be obliged to maintain a register of care facilities for the elderly, on its official website, which contains the following designations: “In compliance” or “At risk,” and whether or not they have faced complaints related to situations of negligence or institutional abuse.

The last piece of legislation establishes the “Law to Establish the Process of Dignified Burial of the Indigent Person” so that any person who does not have resources at the time of death can be buried in a municipal cemetery free of charge.

Deponents Diocelyn Rivera, Naihomy Álamo and Heriam Martínez are seen during Wednesday’s Senate hearing.

Jorge Pierluisi Díaz is remembered as an example of public service done right

By THE STAR STAFF

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia and his siblings gathered at the National Cemetery in Bayamón on Wednesday to say their last goodbyes to their father, Jorge Pierluisi Díaz, who passed away last Friday.

Pierluisi Díaz was an engineer and former Housing secretary.

The governor received a U.S. flag during the ceremony, which he held on his lap.

“One of the main qualities of Mr. Jorge Pierluisi Díaz, former secretary of housing, was his dedication to public service,” Bayamón Mayor Ramón Luis Rivera said.

He said Pierluisi Díaz stood out in the post as part of the administration of the late Gov. Carlos Romero Barceló.

“His legacy is the example that one comes to public service to give oneself, to give oneself, to build, to build, not to

benefit from public service,” Rivera said. “They left their mark along the way and did their work in a positive and effective way; they should be a reference for future generations“.’

Josué Colón, executive director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, said any public servant should emulate the life of Pierluisi Díaz.

“He is an example for all public servants, secretaries and agency heads, of a public servant who fully did his job,” he said.

Traffic Safety Commissioner Luis Rodríguez Díaz said: “On one occasion I heard the governor say, it is best to follow his legacy in the sense that he ended his management, and it ended without any controversy, or anything questionable. It is what all of us who serve from any government position should aspire to. To serve and later see our legacy and work be remembered without any blemishes, with a lot of transparency and attached to serving the people.”

Blackrock: Relending bond claims should be estimated at full face value, plus interest

By THE STAR STAFF

Blackrock informed the federal Title III bankruptcy court Wednesday that claims associated with the 2016 Relending Bonds should be estimated at the full face amount of $375 million plus interest.

The information came as part of the court’s request to estimate the size of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) debt. A hearing is slated for next week. Bondholders are seeking full payment of about $8 billion in bonds.

Blackrock said that first, the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act, commonly known as PROMESA, had not yet been enacted. In 2016, Puerto Rico did not have access to bankruptcy or the automatic stay, or have a receiver in place. The 2016 Relending Bonds constituted critical bridge financing that enabled PREPA to avoid a bond default and “preserved [PREPA’s] cash position” at a time when PREPA faced “very serious liquidity constraints.”

The 2016 Relending Bonds allowed PREPA to give its fuel providers and third-party electricity providers substantial assurance that they would continue to be paid.

“In short, the 2016 Relending Bonds were intended to be short-term financings that would be repaid in full, similar to debtor-in-possession financing in respect of PREPA’s restructuring, which was well underway under a Restructuring Support Agreement in 2016,” Blackrock said.

Blackrock also said the Financial Oversight and Management Board and other parties have taken the position from time to time that “Current Expenses” must be paid in full and, third, the higher interest rates and compounding interest on the 2016 Relending Bonds relative to the other bonds would have motivated a receiver to repay such 2016 Relending Bonds in full before the other bonds.

On June 29, 2016, PREPA reached an agreement with certain members of the Ad Hoc Group, Assured, National and Syncora Guarantee Inc. whereby the July 2016 bond purchasers would, among other things, purchase and re-lend approximately $264 million in power

revenue bonds.

Meanwhile, PREPA contractor Cobra Acquisitions argued this week that the utility’s refusal to pay it with funds already approved by the federal government is impermissible.

Cobra is seeking to have a stay lifted so that it can seek $99 million in money that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has already approved, according to the response filed in PREPA’S Title III bankruptcy. PREPA argued that the stay, which is in effect until after the July confirmation hearing, should remain in effect because it doesn’t want to divert resources from confirmation, and, even with a court ruling, the money won’t be paid until after it completes its own review.

Cobra, which completed its work helping rebuild after Hurricane Maria over four years ago, said the review was an unacceptable excuse.

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi

Isabela mayor files complaint with EPA over sewage discharge on coast

By THE STAR STAFF

Isabela Mayor Miguel Méndez Pérez said Wednesday that he filed a complaint with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because of damages caused by a Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA) plant discharging wastewater into the sea.

“Yes, this is something very terrible that has been happening for a while,” Méndez Pérez told “En Blanco y Negro with Sandra.”

“We saw your complaint and acted quickly. I just left the EPA where I filed a complaint.”

The Carey Camp had denounced the illegal discharges after seeing sea turtles trying to swim through the excrement coming

out of a PRASA pipeline.

Last year, the EPA conducted an off-site reconnaissance inspection (RI) at the facility.

The RI report found deficiencies and non-compliance with the Clean Water Act and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit, according to documents posted by the media outlet.

Méndez Pérez told the media outlet that the problem has been occurring for some time. He said he spoke with officials from PRASA and the EPA to find out how the problem will be monitored. He said the discharges are supposed to go into the deep sea and not the coast after exiting the waste treatment plant.

National Weather Service warns of hot days ahead

By THE STAR STAFF

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned Wednesday that exceedingly hot days would continue into the weekend with heat ratings between 100° and 107° Fahrenheit.

The NWS also warned that heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke and advised on measures to take if someone becomes overheated.

“Move the person to a cooler place, change to more comfortable clothes,” the NWS said. “Apply ice or cool water and seat the person in a cool area. Visit the emergency room if the symptoms persist.”

Hot conditions are expected to continue for the rest of the week and into the weekend.

An east-southeast wind is forecast to bring additional downpours across Puerto Rico’s windward areas during the day, followed by afternoon convection due to sea breezes and daytime warming in the central and western interior regions.

This weather pattern will generate intense heat conditions into the weekend, especially in urban and coastal areas, with heat indices between 100 and 107 degrees Fahrenheit. Maximum temperatures will reach 90 degrees in urban and coastal areas.

As for sea conditions, boaters can expect a swell of 2 to 4 feet in the Atlantic and lower in the rest of the local waters in the coming days. The wind will blow from east to southeast at speeds of 10 to 15 knots.

Study finds widespread hiking of prices in island restaurants

By THE STAR STAFF

The Puerto Rico Restaurants Association (ASORE by its Spanish acronym) presented an update this week of the “Projections” study it developed in collaboration with the firm Economic Intelligence, in which they revealed a price increase in restaurants due to the local economic situation.

“We are committed to generating and sharing knowledge about the restaurant industry in Puerto Rico,” ASORE president Mateo Cidre said in a written statement. “Through the Projections study, we seek to understand the challenges facing our sector and work together to find solutions that promote the profitability and sustainability of businesses.”

First off, the measures taken by restaurants to meet the current challenges were highlighted. Some 75.9% of the establishments

surveyed have chosen to increase prices in all menu categories, while 62.1% have reduced other expenses. In addition, 44.0% have had to reduce the number of employees or adjust work schedules to suit circumstances.

In terms of revenue and sales, although restaurants have experienced an increase in revenue compared to the same period last year, a reduction in sales has been observed when compared to the last quarter.

It was noted in the study that significant days, such as Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, have reported minimal increases in sales for the most part. Industry perception and conditions were also addressed at the event.

According to respondents, 43.6% consider industry conditions to be bad or even worse. However, surprisingly, only 27.6% state that their own business is experiencing difficulties or worsening, indicating a diversity

of situations in the sector.

Finally, an increase in menu prices was highlighted, which in most cases has exceeded 5% (42.5%). The measure has been adopted to address the economic and operational challenges faced by restaurants in Puerto Rico.

Looking ahead to the remainder of 2023, respondents identified the inventory tax, the cost of electric power, and labor costs/minimum wage increase as the top obstacles to maintaining profitable and sustainable operations.

“The development of a bank of indicators and the continuous development of analysis of the restaurant industry is an important achievement for the business community,” said Gustavo Vélez, president of Economic Intelligence, who also urged the government and the Legislature to look at the ASORE analysis before making decisions that impact the industry.

Puerto Rico Restaurants Association President Mateo Cidre

House votes to consider suspending federal debt limit

By CATIE EDMONDSON

The House voted Wednesday to take up a bipartisan plan that would suspend the nation’s debt ceiling and limit spending, clearing a major procedural hurdle as lawmakers raced to act before a looming default.

With Republicans in revolt over the measure, it fell to Democrats to help clear the way for the legislation, in a 241-187 vote that reflected a bitter GOP split over the compromise between Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden. The vote to begin debate is normally a formality that passes entirely along party lines, and McCarthy’s inability to keep his members united on it was a political setback for him.

It also led to a suspenseful scene on the House floor, as Republican defections stacked up and Democrats waited to begin casting votes in favor of the measure for several minutes, leaving its fate in doubt. In the end, 29 Republicans opposed the measure while 52 Democrats crossed party lines to support it.

To muster a 218-vote majority to push the actual bill through the closely divided House, McCarthy will need to cobble together a coalition of Republicans willing to back it and enough Democrats to make up for what was shaping up to be a substantial number of GOP defections. McCarthy and his lieutenants predicted they would be able to do so and scheduled a final vote for

Wednesday night.

“Everybody has a right to their own opinion,” he said. “But on history, I’d want to be here with this bill today.”

The vote came after a contentious debate on the House floor, in which both Democrats and Republicans vented frustration with the compromise and traded accusations of fiscal irresponsibility.

“In that compromise, nobody got what they wanted; we certainly didn’t get everything we wanted,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., the chair of the Rules Committee,

adding later: “We’ll continue to try to work together, but the preeminent problem we had is our friends on the other side think we can spend forever.”

Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, countered that House Republicans had advanced a debt ceiling bill that was “extraordinarily devastating” and an “assault” on impoverished Americans.

“Their biggest accomplishment will be ending a crisis that they created,” McGovern said.

Clearing the procedural hurdle allowed the House to move to debating the bill itself, which is expected to begin around 7:15 p.m. The final vote, expected around 8:30 p.m., comes just days before a June 5 deadline, when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the United States will run out of cash to pay all of its bills on time.

Republicans have said they will supply most of the votes for the debt limit plan, and Democrats have indicated they would make up the difference to allow the measure to pass, which would require dozens of them to vote “yes.” “House Republicans need to keep their commitment to produce 150 votes,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the minority leader. “And when that happens, Democrats are going to make sure there’s no default.”

The deal would suspend the $31.4 trillion borrowing limit until January 2025. It would cut federal spending by $1.5 trillion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office, by effectively freezing some funding that had been projected to increase next year and then limiting spending to 1% growth in 2025, which is considered a spending cut because the increase won’t keep pace with inflation. The legislation would also impose stricter work requirements for food stamps, claw back some funding for IRS enforcement and unspent coronavirus relief money, accelerate the permitting of new energy projects and officially end Biden’s student loan repayment freeze.

Can McCarthy pass the debt deal and keep his job?

By CATIE EDMONDSON

Hard-right lawmakers who have for years resisted increasing the nation’s borrowing limit did not mince words about how they thought Speaker Kevin McCarthy fared during negotiations with President Joe Biden over averting a federal default.

“Nobody could have done a worse job,” said Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina, who said he was fed up with what he said were McCarthy’s “lies” about the deal he was going to get.

Rep. Bob Good of Virginia openly marveled at how “our own leadership” caved to Democrats on major tenets of the debt limit bill that Republicans passed last

month. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas claimed the deal had torn the conference “asunder” and promised Republican leaders would face a “reckoning.”

But for all the fury about the deal — by far the biggest test of McCarthy’s leadership since he became speaker in January — few far-right Republicans have yet to seriously entertain the notion of ousting him over it.

A movement to depose McCarthy as speaker could still bubble up, particularly if he is forced to rely on Democrats to win a procedural vote to get the debt limit deal to the floor or to lean more on Democratic votes than Republicans to pass the measure. So far, though, there has been little appetite for such a move among

even the most conservative lawmakers in his conference.

McCarthy negotiated the compromise with that threat in mind, attempting to strike a careful balance: He could — and likely would — lose conservatives’ votes, but could not afford to reach a deal that so infuriated the far right that it would move to oust him. When asked Tuesday by reporters if he was worried about whether the hard-right flank of his conference would try to remove him, McCarthy replied: “No.”

Under the rules House Republicans adopted at the beginning of the year that helped McCarthy become speaker, any single lawmaker could call for a snap vote to remove him from that role, something that would take a majority of the House.

One hard-right Republican— Bishop — has publicly said that he considered the debt and spending deal grounds for ousting McCarthy from his post.

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., said on NBC’s “Meet the Press Now” that he had discussed the issue with the chair of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa. “Let’s get through this battle and decide if we want another battle,” Buck said was the response.

And in what has become a hallmark of his leadership style, McCarthy has rallied the support of an influential conservative whose opposition to the deal could have doomed the bill: Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, an influential libertarian who sits on the powerful Rules Committee.

Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), center, at a news conference about the debt limit bill in Washington, May 30, 2023.

Denouncing ‘elites’ in kickoff speech, DeSantis vows to ‘impose our will’

referring to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, a Democrat. “I can tell you this. I could count the number of Republicans in this country on my hands that would rather have lived in New York under Cuomo than lived in Florida in our freedom zone.”

“Hell, his whole family moved to Florida under my governorship, are you kidding me?” DeSantis added later of Trump.

The DeSantis campaign’s decision to hold its first in-person event at Eternity Church in Clive, a suburb of Des Moines, signaled the enduring importance of evangelical Christian voters in Iowa’s Republican caucuses, which begin the nominating process.

Before the event, DeSantis and his wife, Casey DeSantis, had met privately with about 15 local pastors for a private prayer over his family and candidacy, according to a campaign aide.

mother’s work as a nurse, his father’s installation of Nielsen ratings boxes and his own minimum-wage jobs.

“I was given nothing,” DeSantis said. His cadence at times felt rushed. He pushed so quickly through his speech that sections were swallowed by the crowd’s applause, which did not slow him down.

Trump, who has focused on DeSantis more than on all of his other rivals, was also set to visit Iowa on Wednesday and today, meeting with local Republicans and faith leaders and holding a Fox News town hall event also in Clive.

DeSantis has positioned himself to the right of Trump on some key issues, including abortion, as part of an effort to woo right-wing voters. In his news conference, he accused Trump of shifting to the left.

By SHANE GOLDMACHER and NICHOLAS NEHAMAS

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida kicked off his presidential campaign in Iowa on Tuesday with a sweeping denunciation of the “elites” whom he said dominated American institutions, pitching himself as an unrepentant fighter who could reverse a tide of progressivism in boardrooms, the government and the military.

“We must choose a path that will lead to a revival of American greatness,” DeSantis

told supporters at an evangelical church in the suburbs of Des Moines.

In a strident speech, he painted a dark picture of America, saying he would be a salve to a “malignant ideology” that was taking hold across the nation. He described children facing “indoctrination.” He mocked transgender athletes, denounced the “woke Olympics” of diversity programs and reveled in his battle with Disney.

“It is time we impose our will on Washington, D.C.,” DeSantis said. “And you can’t do any of this if you don’t win.”

The stop was the first in a three-state, 12city tour that DeSantis’ team hopes can begin the arduous process of chipping away at former President Donald Trump’s advantage in early polls of the 2024 Republican primary race.

DeSantis did not mention Trump by name in his speech. But he left little doubt about some of the areas in which he planned to draw contrasts with the former president in the coming months, including how each leader handled the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic more than three years ago and his ability to win in 2024.

Later, in a news conference, he sharpened the contrast.

“The former president is now attacking me saying that Cuomo did better handling COVID than Florida did,” DeSantis said,

“As a pastor, it tells me they value the Christian vote,” Jesse Newman, the pastor of Eternity Church, said in an interview, referring to the DeSantis team’s decision to begin campaigning at the church. In his own brief address to the crowd, Newman prayed for DeSantis’ family and urged the Lord’s intervention in the “fight against globalism and socialism.”

DeSantis was introduced by the state’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, who joked that her state was “the Florida of the north” for the similarly conservative agenda she has pushed.

“They’re going to be here a lot,” Reynolds said of the DeSantis family.

DeSantis entered the stage in a blazer, a blue button-down shirt and no tie, alongside his wife, who also addressed the crowd in a demonstration of the central role she is expected to play in the campaign. The pastor said the jam-packed auditorium seated 600, and campaign officials estimated the spillover crowd that filled the lobby and elsewhere on the complex was more than 1,000.

In his speech, DeSantis made the argument that he had fought the left in Florida and won — both electorally and on a raft of policies that have been enacted during his tenure.

He spoke about signing a six-week abortion ban, pressing for the death penalty for those convicted of sexually abusing children, and “even sending illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard.”

DeSantis injected more bits of his biography into his emerging stump speech than he did during his pre-candidacy. He invoked his

“He’s not an orator, I don’t think,” said Matt Wells, a conservative activist who drove 120 miles from Washington, Iowa, to see DeSantis. “But you give him a question about policy and he’ll run with it. I have wanted someone for so long who, when they’re asked about policy, they have an answer for it right there.”

Kenneth Wayne, a retired physician from Clive, cited DeSantis’ leadership skills, including his military service, as a selling point. He said he had read DeSantis’ book cover-to-cover.

“I feel that this is a fellow who knows his own mind, who is not going to blow with the wind,” said Wayne, who was wearing a Vietnam veteran hat. “He’s of a solid conservative bent.”

DeSantis has sought to differentiate himself from Trump on social issues, pointing to their stances on abortion and the governor’s clash with Disney, among other issues, as proof that he is the more conservative candidate in the race and that Trump has moved to the center.

“I will be able to destroy leftism in this country,” DeSantis said on Fox News on Monday.

It is part of a DeSantis pitch that, more broadly, centers on fulfilling the promises where Trump fell short, including winning the White House for a second term by appealing to Republicans and independents who say they can no longer support the former president.

“There are a lot of voters that just aren’t going to ever vote for him,” DeSantis told reporters on Tuesday. “We just have to accept that.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential hopeful, speaks during a campaign event at Eternity Church in Clive, Iowa, May 30, 2023. After his much-maligned Twitter rollout last week, DeSantis is joining the campaign trail, making a play for evangelical voters in the first-in-the-nation nominating state.

Prosecutor recounts a day of worship turned deadly in a Pittsburgh synagogue

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON

The federal trial of the gunman who killed 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue, the deadliest antisemitic attack in the nation’s history, began earlier this week with a minute-by-minute description of how the massacre unfolded on a chilly October morning in 2018.

Before a courtroom packed with spectators, including several who had been shot in the synagogue that day, federal prosecutors detailed when, where and how each victim was killed.

Harrowing 911 calls were played, with the courtroom echoing with the pleas for help from Bernice Simon, 84, who was shot along with her husband in the same sanctuary where they were married more than 60 years earlier. And Jeffrey Myers, rabbi of the Tree of Life congregation, recounted whispering what he thought would be his final prayers in a small bathroom next to the choir loft as he heard gunfire and screaming below.

The government is seeking the death penalty for the gunman, Robert Bowers, and the trial is essentially a monthslong hearing to decide whether he should face execution.

The facts surrounding the shooting are mostly undisputed. Judy Clarke, one of the lawyers representing Bowers, 50, said there was “no disagreement” that he killed 11 congregants that October morning, adding that he had caused “extraordinary harm to many, many people.”

But before the jury can consider the death penalty, the panel must decide whether Bowers is guilty. He is facing 63 federal charges, including 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death and 11 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death. This stage of the trial is likely to be dominated by the government’s case, with prosecutors describing how Bowers carried out his rampage and detailing the hate that they argue fueled it.

Bowers’ lawyers have offered to resolve the case with guilty pleas on all counts, in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release, but federal prosecutors have rejected these offers.

If Bowers is found guilty, proceedings will follow to determine whether he should be sentenced to death. That is when his

lawyers are expected to make their case, arguing that even if he did commit the murders, Bowers does not deserve to be put to death.

Soo Song, one of the prosecutors, began her opening statement by describing how each of the victims arrived at the synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, most of them older people “in the sanctuary and refuge of their holy place.” The 22 people at the synagogue that morning, half of whom would be killed, were from three different congregations: Tree of Life, New Light and Dor Hadash. The Torah text, Song said, was on the imperative to welcome the stranger.

Song then spoke of Bowers, first describing his flurry of hate-filled postings on social media and then explaining how, at the moment that worshippers were gathering for Sabbath services, he was “making his own preparations to destroy, to kill and to defile.”

She described how Bowers shot out the synagogue’s front door and then, armed with a semi-automatic rifle and three handguns, “moved methodically through the synagogue to find the Jews he hated so much and to shoot them and kill them.” She emphasized that he did not fire in a spray of bullets, killing erratically, but aimed at his victims and shot six of them directly in the head, two at close range.

Survivors of the shooting who were in the courtroom on Tuesday embraced each

other during breaks in the testimony.

Song, chief of the criminal division for the U.S. attorney’s office in Western Pennsylvania, warned the jury that prosecutors would present some horrific evidence of the extent of the violence. She said that such details were the only way to show “the depths of the defendant’s malice and his hate.”

After Song spoke for roughly 40 minutes, Clarke, a lawyer with a long record of defending people accused of capital crimes, delivered a shorter opening statement. She called the attack a senseless tragedy and acknowledged that Bowers had made “reprehensible” comments online.

But she said that unlike a trial in state court, which might turn on a straightforward question of whether a defendant had committed murder, many of the charges in the federal trial required a determination of motive. “The federal hate crimes statue is something you’ll have to examine,” she told the jury.

While Bowers had told the police at the scene of the shooting that he carried out the killings because he believed Jews were “killing our people” in helping welcome refugees to the country, Clarke argued that such statements were signs of his “irrational motive and his misguided intent.”

Bowers’ defense lawyers have said in motions that he suffers from schizophrenia

and other mental illnesses. But in pretrial rulings, the judge, Robert J. Colville of U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, limited what could be discussed in the guilt phase of the trial.

“You won’t get a full picture of Bowers’ background in this phase of the case,” Clarke told the jury.

Bowers’ lawyers did not offer objections Tuesday, nor did they cross-examine any witnesses, including Myers, whose testimony brought the day to a close.

He had been questioned by the government for about two hours about the essentials of the Jewish faith, the building’s layout and how a Saturday morning Sabbath service would normally unfold.

But in the last hour of the day, prosecutors played the 911 call that the rabbi made from his hiding place amid the shooting. There was a long pause at one point in the call. The prosecutor asked Myers what he was doing at that moment.

“I was praying,” the rabbi said, halting for long moments between his answers. “I expected to die.”

He debated hanging up and calling his wife, he said, but decided he did not want that moment to be the last she heard from him.

“I thought about the history of my people,” the rabbi said, wiping tears from his eyes. “How we’d been persecuted and hunted and slaughtered for centuries. And how all of them must have felt at the moments before their death. And what did they do.”

Hiding in the bathroom, he recited the final confessional, he said, a prayer for the end of one’s life. “I was prepared to meet my fate.”

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life congregation, third from right, entered the federal courthouse in Pittsburgh for the first day of the trial of Robert Bowers.

AI poses ‘risk of extinction,’ industry leaders warn

By KEVIN ROOSE

Agroup of industry leaders warned earlier this week that the artificial intelligence technology they were building might one day pose an existential threat to humanity and should be considered a societal risk on a par with pandemics and nuclear wars.

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war,” reads a one-sentence statement released by the Center for AI Safety, a nonprofit organization. The open letter was signed by more than 350 executives, researchers and engineers working in AI.

The signatories included top executives from three of the leading AI companies: Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind; and Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic.

Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, two of the three researchers who won a Turing Award for their pioneering work on neural networks and are often considered “godfathers” of the modern AI movement, signed the statement, as did other prominent researchers in the field. (The third Turing Award winner, Yann LeCun, who leads Meta’s AI research efforts, had not signed as of Tuesday.)

The statement comes at a time of growing concern about the potential harms of AI. Recent advancements in socalled large language models — the type of AI system used by ChatGPT and other chatbots — have raised fears that AI could soon be used at scale to spread misinformation and propaganda, or that it could eliminate millions of white-collar jobs.

Eventually, some believe, AI could become powerful enough that it could create societal-scale disruptions within a few years if nothing is done to slow it down, although researchers sometimes stop short of explaining how that would happen.

These fears are shared by numerous industry leaders, putting them in the unusual position of arguing that a technology they are building — and, in many cases, are furiously racing to build faster than their competitors — poses grave risks and should be regulated more tightly.

This month, Altman, Hassabis and Amodei met with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to talk about AI regulation. In a Senate testimony after the meeting, Altman warned that the risks of advanced AI systems were serious enough to warrant government intervention and called for regulation of AI for its potential harms.

Dan Hendrycks, executive director of the Center for AI Safety, said in an interview that the open letter represented a “coming-out” for some industry leaders who had expressed concerns — but only in private — about the risks of the technology they were developing.

“There’s a very common misconception, even in the AI community, that there only are a handful of doomers,” Hendrycks said. “But, in fact, many people privately would express concerns about these things.”

Some skeptics argue that AI technology is still too immature to pose an existential threat. When it comes to today’s AI systems, they worry more about short-term problems, such as biased and incorrect responses, than longerterm dangers.

But others have argued that AI is improving so rapidly that it has already surpassed human-level performance in

some areas, and that it will soon surpass it in others. They say the technology has shown signs of advanced abilities and understanding, giving rise to fears that “artificial general intelligence,” or AGI, a type of AI that can match or exceed human-level performance at a wide variety of tasks, may not be far off.

In a blog post last week, Altman and two other OpenAI executives proposed several ways that powerful AI systems could be responsibly managed. They called for cooperation among the leading AI makers, more technical research into large language models and the formation of an international AI safety organization, similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which seeks to control the use of nuclear weapons.

Altman has also expressed support for rules that would require makers of large, cutting-edge AI models to register for a government-issued license.

In March, more than 1,000 technologists and researchers signed another open letter calling for a six-month pause on the development of the largest AI models, citing concerns about “an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds.”

That letter, which was organized by another AI-focused nonprofit, the Future of Life Institute, was signed by Elon Musk and other well-known tech leaders, but it did not have many signatures from the leading AI labs.

The brevity of the new statement from the Center for AI Safety — just 22 words — was meant to unite AI experts who might disagree about the nature of specific risks or steps to prevent those risks from occurring but who share general concerns about powerful AI systems, Hendrycks said.

“We didn’t want to push for a very large menu of 30 potential interventions,” he said. “When that happens, it dilutes the message.”

The statement was initially shared with a few high-profile AI experts, including Hinton, who quit his job at Google this month so that he could speak more freely, he said, about the potential harms of AI. From there, it made its way to several of the major AI labs, where some employees then signed on.

The urgency of AI leaders’ warnings has increased as millions of people have turned to AI chatbots for entertainment, companionship and increased productivity, and as the underlying technology improves at a rapid clip.

“I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong,” Altman told the Senate subcommittee. “We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 16, 2023. More than 350 executives, researchers and engineers working in AI, including Altman, signed a statement released by nonprofit Center for AI Safety on May 30, 2023: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

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US Rate Futures Expect Fed Pause in June in Sharp Turnaround From Earlier

U.S. rate futures on Wednesday priced in a pause in interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve at next month’s monetary policy meeting, a massive turnaround from indications of a 25 basis-point increase earlier in the session, according to Refinitiv’s FedWatch.

The big catalyst were comments from Fed Governor and vice chair nominee Philip Jefferson and Philadelphia Fed President Fed Harker who both touted skipping a June rate hike.

Jefferson said “skipping a rate hike at a coming meeting would allow the (Federal Open Market) Committee to see more data before making decisions about the extent of additional policy firming.”

Harker echoed the same sentiment. “I am in the camp increasingly coming into this meeting thinking that we really should skip,” Harker said at an event on financial stability. That said, data due on Friday about the U.S. job market “may change my mind.”

Following their comment, fed funds futures have factored in a 70% chance the Fed will keep rates unchanged next month, up sharply from a 30% probability earlier in the wake of data showing an increase in U.S. job openings.

The Labor Department reported on Wednesday that U.S. job openings unexpectedly rose in April and data for the prior month was revised higher, pointing to persistent strength in the labor market.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, also showed layoffs declined significantly last month. There were 1.8 job openings for every unemployed person in April, up from 1.7 in March, and well above the 1.0-1.2 range viewed as consistent with a jobs market that is not generating too much inflation.

After the JOLTS report, rate futures had priced in a nearly 70% chance of a rate increase next month.

“We have been suggesting that they (the Fed) stop,” said Ellis Phifer, managing director, fixed income capital markets at Raymond James in Memphis, Tennessee.

“But they are still so nervous of not signaling that they are done. Even though inflation is still high, it seems to be easing. Some things seem like a little bit loose and so if the Fed is going to be on pause, it’s time. They need to let some of this data work through.”

Leaning toward what some have called a “hawkish pause,” with rates held steady for now but the door left open for further increases, Jefferson said that “a decision to hold our policy rate constant at a coming meeting should not be interpreted to mean that we have reached the peak rate for this cycle.”

Though Jefferson’s nomination as vice chair is still pending in the U.S. Senate, his remarks were taken as a cue, just two days before the start of a blackout period that prohibits further public comment about the June 13-14 policy meeting.

“We are as certain as we can be that this message would have been agreed with chair (Jerome) Powell be-

MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS

forehand and represents the collective Fed leadership view,” said Evercore ISI vice chairman Krishna Guha, who called it “an authoritative signal that the Fed leadership is not intending to raise rates in June.”

Since the Fed’s last meeting and with inflation showing little recent improvement towards the Fed’s 2% target, markets have been on a seesaw trying to determine if the Fed is going to raise its policy rate in June or not. After Jefferson spoke investors reset expectations yet again, with

prices of futures tied to the Fed’s policy rate reflecting a less than one in three chance of a June rate hike compared with about a two-in-three probability before his remarks.

Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker added to the case.

“I am in the camp increasingly coming into this meeting thinking that we really should skip,” Harker said, though data due on Friday about the U.S. job market “may change my mind.”

The rate hike “skip” has now become jargon for an emerging compromise between concerns inflation is not yet controlled with fears the economy may slow sharply as banks pull back on credit.

Sudan’s army withdraws from cease-fire talks

By ABDI LATIF DAHIR

Sudan’s army has withdrawn from talks aimed at achieving a full cease-fire and delivering humanitarian aid across the country, it said on Wednesday, raising the specter of escalating clashes as a war between rival generals rages for a second month in Africa’s third-largest nation.

The talks, facilitated by Saudi Arabia and the United States, were the only major ongoing official effort to mediate between the Sudanese army and its paramilitary rival, the Rapid Support Forces. The army’s withdrawal from the talks deals a blow to the attempts to decisively end the war, which has released a paroxysm of violence and chaos that have killed hundreds of people and displaced millions more.

The army said in a statement posted to its Facebook page that it was suspending its participation in the talks because the paramilitary forces had failed “to implement any of the provisions of the agreement and to continue violating the armistice.” The paramilitary group said on Twitter that it was “unconditionally” backing the Saudi and U.S.-led initiative, and that the violations by the army had “not deterred us from honoring our commitments.”

The talks began in the Saudi port city of Jeddah in early May and achieved limited results between the rival groups. The two sides first allowed for aid to come through and later agreed to a seven-day cease-fire that began on May 22. That truce was then extended for five days on Monday as both parties considered ways to allow for deliveries of more aid, the restoration of services like water and electricity, and the evacuation of their forces from urban areas including civilian homes and hospitals.

But even as the talks progressed, forces from the two sides continued to clash, including on Wednesday, with street fighting, drone attacks and airstrikes decimating the health care system and pushing civilians to continue to evacuate the capital, Khartoum, and the adjoining cities of Omdurman and Bahri.

In recent days, the fighting also intensified in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, according to residents. On social media, each side continued to accuse the other of breaking the cease-fire.

Renewed clashes have also torn through the western region of Darfur, pushing thousands of people to flee and cross into neighboring Chad. This is particularly true of El

Geneina, a city in West Darfur where the health facilities have been shattered and all 86 gathering camps for displaced people have been razed to the ground, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. A communications blackout has also kept the region cut off from the wider world for more than a week, raising fears of unreported deaths and the unfolding of a dire humanitarian crisis.

The conflict, which began on April 15, has led to the killing of 865 people and the injury of 3,634 others, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Union. Almost 1.4 million people have been displaced, with 360,000 of them crossing into neighboring nations like Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency.

Organizations for journalists and local activists have also accused the warring parties of increasingly targeting their members with home raids and arrests. Factories, banks and small businesses have been looted or destroyed, further damaging an economy that was already ailing from high

inflation, spiking food prices and the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.N. said this past month that it would need $2.56 billion to assist those affected.

The army, controlled by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, were long on the same side. In 2019, they helped remove the dictator Omar al-Bashir, who had held power for three decades. They also carried out a coup that toppled the civilian government in October 2021, effectively scuttling the country’s nascent efforts to transition to democratic rule.

But over the past year, the two leaders began to fall out as they vied for supremacy over the northeast African nation — tensions that resulted in open warfare in the capital last month.

As talks for a cease-fire were held in Saudi Arabia, leaders from the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an eight-nation regional bloc that includes Sudan, also hoped to agree on a road map for future political

talks that would bring in various stakeholders including civilian participants. Efforts by the U.N. mission in Sudan to support the country’s democratic transition were also recently thrown into limbo, when al-Burhan called on its head, Volker Perthes, to resign.

On Tuesday evening, the army released a video in which al-Burhan appeared among a group of cheering soldiers, saying the military was yet to use its “maximum strength.” He added: “But if the enemy does not comply and does not respond, we will be forced to use the strongest force that we have.”

With the breakdown of the talks in Jeddah, observers are now worried about a protracted conflict that could have serious regional ramifications.

“Sudan is not getting the high-level attention needed to prevent another failed state in the region,” said Alan Boswell, the Horn of Africa director at the International Crisis Group, a research organization. “Sudan is collapsing and, thus far, no one seems to be able to do anything to reverse it.”

Yemenis who fled Sudan disembarked from the Saudi ship Abha at Jeddah port in May.

A pillar of Erdogan’s victory: Devout conservative women

By BEN HUBBARD, SAFAK TIMUR and ELIF INCE

Ten years ago, Emine Kilic was focused on raising her two children at home in Istanbul when she decided to set up her own clothing company to help support her family. Her business, started with an interest-free government-backed loan for female entrepreneurs, now employs 60 people and exports to 15 countries, said Kilic, who has an elementary school education. She credited a powerful motivator who inspired her to transform her life — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — calling him a champion for women.

“Thanks to my president, I became the boss of my own company,” said Kilic, 38. She said she had voted for him for years and did so again to help him secure another presidential term Sunday.

To beat back the most serious political threat to his two-decade tenure as Turkey’s dominant politician, Erdogan counted on the fervent support of an often underappreciated constituency: conservative religious women.

Across Turkey, devout women, both professionals and those who don’t work outside the home, not only turned out to vote for Erdogan in large numbers but also coaxed their friends and relatives to do the same. Women are also active across the country in his governing Justice and Development Party, ranging from activists who spread party messages among their neighbors over tea to the dozens of women who represent the party in Parliament.

Uniting these women and Erdogan is a shared conservative Muslim view of female roles in Turkish society, first as mothers and wives, second as members of the workforce. In a staunchly secular country where women who covered their hair were long barred from universities and government jobs, many devout women view Erdogan as their protector because he pushed to loosen those rules.

“Voting in Turkey, especially for our community, is not only about electing someone. It is making a decision about your life,” said Ozlem Zengin, a lawmaker and senior female member of Erdogan’s party.

For many conservative women, the bitterness of having their ambitions limited by public expressions of their faith runs deep, even affecting the children of those who lived through it, she said. That resentment also fuels the tremendous gratitude toward Erdogan.

“Erdogan is loved that much, because he changed people’s lives,” Zengin said.

The electricity between Erdogan and his female supporters coursed through an Istanbul

conference hall during a women’s rally two days before the May 28 runoff. Thousands of women, some with babies or children in tow, packed the hall, clapping and waving their arms to campaign anthems and holding up their cellphone flashlights to welcome him onstage.

“Women are the most important heroes in our struggle to serve the country,” Erdogan said, to rapturous applause.

He reminded his audience that he had delivered on conservative causes, lifting headscarf bans and turning the Hagia Sofia, one of Turkey’s architectural treasures, from a museum into a mosque. And he made a new promise to seek retirement pay for women who do not work outside the home, garnering more cheers.

“We will burst the ballot boxes,” Erdogan said. “Don’t just go by yourself. You must make sure your families, neighbors and distant relatives also go to the ballot box.”

“The women are with you!” the crowd chanted.

Erdogan’s loyal following among conservatives is rooted in Turkey’s history.

Although a predominantly Muslim society, the country was founded in 1923 as a secular state. That gave the government oversight of religious institutions and the power to keep open displays of religiosity out of the public sphere.

Some Turks treasure that secularism as a founding pillar of the republic. But it rankled many devout people, including women who felt that it made them second-class citizens. Some women had to remove their veils to attend university. Others wore wigs.

Zengin, the lawmaker, said she had worked as a lawyer for 20 years without being allowed to even enter the courtroom because she covered her hair.

“If you were a defendant or an aggrieved party, you could enter the courtroom, but not as a lawyer,” she said. “It was incomprehensible.”

Since Erdogan arrived on the national stage in 2003 as an ambitious Islamist politician, he has sidelined Turkey’s secular elites and consolidated more power in his own hands. Along the way, he pushed to loosen headscarf restrictions.

The restrictions were lifted on university campuses in 2008, and in 2013, four veiled women from Erdogan’s party became Parliament members, a first. Now there are many more, and conservatives still thank Erdogan with their votes.

“I feel like I have a debt to him,” said Eda Yurtseven, a kindergarten teacher. “I owe him a lot because now I can live freely.”

Erdogan’s vision of the family remains conservative, holding sacrosanct the notion of marriage being only between a man and a woman, preferably with three children. His idea of personal freedom leaves little room for LGBTQ people in Turkey.

“We believe the family is sacred,” he said during the women’s rally. “We must take precautions now against these trends that are spreading like the plague.”

Turkey’s constitution grants equal rights to men and women, and its labor code bars gender-based discrimination. But women still earn 15.6% less than men on average, according to a United Nations report last year.

In 2021, Erdogan shocked rights groups by withdrawing Turkey from an international treaty on preventing violence against women that he had signed in 2011. Women’s advocates consider the country’s domestic violence laws strong but say that physical and sexual abuse against women remains common and often goes unreported or is not properly investigated by authorities.

Female political representation has increased during Erdogan’s tenure, and women won about 120 seats in the 600-member parliament in this month’s election. Still, the U.N. report said, most women work in campaigning, communications or support roles, not in high-level decision-making.

Erdogan has been a pioneer in tapping the power of devout, conservative women in grassroots politics in Turkey, said Nur Sinem Kourou, a professor at Istanbul Kultur University who has studied his party’s women’s groups. Many work in their neighborhoods, she said, spreading party views through informal meetings or religious activities while gathering information to feed back to the party.

“The fact that the women’s branches are on the ground every week, every day means that they analyze society very well,” Kourou said. “That data leads back to Erdogan’s speeches on TV.”

Those activists remain fiercely loyal to Erdogan and consider him key to Turkey’s future, she added.

“We have to protect him,” Kourou said, summarizing their views. “Erdogan protects us.”

That bond means that Erdogan’s staunchest female supporters tend to give him a pass on the country’s problems, including a painful cost-of-living crisis, blaming instead other members of his party or foreign powers.

Erdogan’s foes say he has acquired too much power and accuse him of pushing the country toward one-man rule. But his vast control does not bother his loyalists. On the contrary, they say he needs it to do his job.

Mina Murat, 26, said she voted for Erdogan and his party because they protected her right to cover her hair.

“My teacher used to wear a wig over her headscarf in school,” she recalled. “Women couldn’t attend college and couldn’t get government jobs because of their headscarves.”

Now Murat works in a clothing store geared toward conservative women, with headscarves in a vast array of colors and patterns.

“Now we can dress fashionably and conservatively,” she said.

Supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrate his victory in presidential elections in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday May 28, 2023.

By MEGAN SPECIA

Just before midnight, David O’Neill navigated his trawler into the harbor in Union Hall, a small port in southwestern Ireland, the wake from the vessel sending tiny waves slapping against the pier.

The crew swiftly unloaded their catch, using a crane to lift ice-packed crates of haddock and hake from the hold of the Aquila under bright spotlights.

Less than an hour later, the Aquila would depart for its final trip. Two days later, the crew stripped the vessel’s contents — chains, buoys, ropes, steel cables, and hooks — and ejected them onto the pier, on their way to a shipyard to be scrapped.

“This is coming with me,” O’Neill said as he unscrewed the Aquila’s wooden steering wheel. “It reminds you of all you’ve been through on this boat.”

The Aquila is one of dozens of Irish boats being scrapped as part of a voluntary government decommissioning plan introduced after Britain withdrew from the European Union, and transferred 25% of Europe’s fishing rights in British waters. That significantly limited Irish vessels in the numbers of fish they are allowed to catch — an anticipated annual loss of 43 million euros ($46 million), making Ireland one of the European nations most affected.

Although fishing is a small industry in Ireland, in some coastal communities, it has been the backbone of the economy, even as it has been whittled down over the years. But beyond economics, fishing has been an essential way of life for generations. Locals fear the Brexit quotas and subsequent retiring of boats will be the final death knell.

“It’s bittersweet,” said O’Neill, 37, who has skippered the Aquila for five years. “You spend most of your time battling the boat. But the boat made us a wage every week and brought us home as well.”

Elsewhere along Ireland’s southwestern coast, in Castletownbere, two fishermen were repairing a net, their hands whipping through the bright green tangle with ease. Behind them, on the pier, stood a memorial to those lost at sea, with dozens of names dating back to 1793 providing a roll call of the dead, linked by family roots and shared tragedy, the same last names repeating through several generations.

At the nearby warehouse for Sheehan’s

Fishing — owned by Jason Sheehan, 35, and his father, Ebbie — Jason, who became a skipper at 19, remembers when fishing was lucrative. But new regulations, shrinking quotas and rising gas prices have amounted to “death by a thousand cuts,” he said.

“We have fish, that’s our currency, that’s what we have here,” he said. “So we’re between a rock and a hard place.’”

“There is a lot of disillusionment,” said his father, 64, “because they feel that we were sold out on Brexit.”

The men own a number of trawlers together and have decided to decommission two.

“It was a matter of viability,” the elder Sheehan said.

The realigned fishing rights affect the entire Irish industry, but the decommissioning plan applies to the whitefish fleet, which could see up to 30% of its vessels scrapped. Larger trawlers that fish farther off the coast for mackerel and herring, among other fish, are also affected; their fishing season has been nearly halved.

Seven hours north in Killybegs, in County Donegal, the trawlers that have already met their quotas have sat idle for weeks. Visitors to the town are greeted by a strong smell of fish, a reminder of the processing plants dotting the town’s edges, and of how fishing is core to the identity of this place.

“If you removed the fishing from Killybegs, Killybegs would become a ghost town,” said Patrick Murphy, chief executive of the Irish South & West Fish Producer’s Organization.

On a recent Thursday night, at the Fleet Inn in Killybegs, a group of children known as the Wild Atlantic Buskers were performing traditional music. Most of their families go back generations in the fishing community.

As the youngsters played reels on the fiddle, accordion and guitar, one mother pointed out a boy whose grandfather was lost at sea, a girl whose father worked for a net supplier, and another with family who still fishes here.

At the processing factories, change has already come. Martin Meehan, the general manager of Premier Fish Products, said production had nearly halved since last year.

“I have a son myself, and certainly wouldn’t be looking for him to come into the industry,” said Meehan, 49.

The decommissioning plan is intended

to “restore balance” between the Irish fishing fleet’s capacity and the new quotas, according to the government agency in charge. So far, 42 boat owners have accepted offers to scrap their boats. Payments vary, but for a smaller boat, an average amount might be about $1.6 million, often split among multiple shareholders or a bank.

Cara Rawdon, 64, who has been fishing for four decades out of the northern village of Greencastle, said he received a fair price for his boat. He is retiring.

“There are no young men getting into it here,” he said. Coastal communities around Ireland “are being annihilated.”

Caitlin Ui Aodha, who also fished these waters, sold her vessel and is using the money to open a restaurant in Dungarvan, in Ireland’s southeast.

“You have to adjust, at sea as well as in fishing,” said Ui Aodha, 60. “You’re out and it’s moving around, and you kind of learn life changes very quickly.”

Ui Aodha was born in a village in the Gaeltacht, the Irish-speaking area of the country, into a family that had fished for over 150 years. She fished through her early adult years, eventually alongside her husband, Mi-

chael Hayes, and then turned to raising their five children, while he continued as a skipper.

But the sea claimed his and four crew members’ lives when their boat sank in a storm near Union Hall in 2012.

After his death, Ui Aodha bought a trawler and took to the sea again. She assumed she would sell the boat when she retired, but things had been difficult for years, and decommissioning felt like her only option. Her boat was scrapped in late April.

“The saddest thing really is to see how, all around the coast, indigenous fishing people like me become extinct, we’re just not going to be there,” she said, rattling off the names of longtime fishing families. “All these names are disappearing.”

But she also spoke with hopeful resilience about what comes next. The restaurant will be called Iasc, or fish in Irish. Photos of Ui Aodha’s father with his boat adorn the wall, she pointed out, as she walked through the unfinished space.

“I’ve done what I can and we’ve changed now, and this is just something new,” she said, reflecting on her years of fishing. “So I am bringing my world in here.”

‘We have fish, that’s our currency’

David O’Neill, the skipper of the Aquila, removes the boat’s steering wheel after the ship’s final voyage, at the Irish port of Baltimore, on April 5, 2023.

Pass the debt limit deal. Then figure out how to end the drama.

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

No one walked away satisfied by the agreement reached late Saturday to raise the debt ceiling:

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy did not win the most destructive cuts sought by the right, and the Democratic proposals to raise revenue never seriously entered the conversation. Yet with the risk of ruinous economic default less than a week away, Congress should pass this agreement as quickly as possible.

The agreement reached by McCarthy and President Joe Biden would suspend the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025. Biden can, as the nation should, feel relief over this outcome. He also should feel a sense of urgency to make sure such a partisan impasse never repeats itself.

Biden had said he would not negotiate over the debt ceiling, which limits federal borrowing after money has been appropriated, and he had demanded that Congress raise it without conditions. The House responded by approving a bill to raise the ceiling for a year in exchange for stringent cutbacks on nondefense spending. That bill would have rolled back many of the president’s signature achievements and ended benefits for millions of people who get their health insurance through Medicaid, as well as those who rely on food and cash assistance.

As the deadline for the nation’s first credit default grew closer — the Treasury Department now says it will run out of money June 5 — Biden set aside his earlier

position and began closed-door negotiations with McCarthy over those demands.

The final agreement reflects this one-sided bargaining, with McCarthy refusing to truly entertain any of the Democrats’ proposals to raise revenue: None of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which added $1.8 trillion to the deficit through 2029 for the benefit of corporations and the wealthy, would be rolled back. Republicans rejected the elimination of the carried-interest loophole, which benefits hedge fund managers and private equity funds, and the end to fossil fuel tax subsidies that Biden proposed in his 2024 budget.

In fact, no measures to raise revenues were included; the deal is entirely about cutting spending. Reducing the national debt is an important long-term goal. A much more responsible form of fiscal discipline is to collect the taxes that are owed, to make considered spending cuts where appropriate and to reverse tax cuts that solely benefit the wealthy.

The details of the agreement, released Sunday, show that it is a watered-down version of the Republican wish list. Spending on most domestic programs in the 2024 fiscal year would stay at about the same level as 2023 and grow by 1% in 2025. That is effectively a cut over both years, given the pace of inflation and the potential for an economic downturn hovering. (Medicare and Social Security would not be affected.)

Under the deal, the Pentagon would be allowed to grow, as well as veterans’ programs. The two-year cap would shortchange many important investments in education, housing, infrastructure and disease prevention. It is a significant improvement, however, from the drastic cuts proposed in McCarthy’s bill — $860 billion compared with $3.2 trillion over a decade — and is roughly in line with what might have been expected in regular budget negotiations with the House.

That price was likely inevitable when Democrats lost the chamber last year and failed to raise or eliminate the debt ceiling during the lame-duck session.

The White House should have insisted that military and domestic spending be held at the same rate of change, following a pattern set during the Obama administration. At least the military budget in this agreement would be at roughly the same level that Biden proposed in his 2024 budget. The deal also includes a helpful mechanism that would make it difficult for Republicans to spend less on domestic programs or more on the military when the time comes to write appropriation bills this year.

The most unfortunate aspect of the agreement is the change to eligibility for nutrition assistance, popularly known as food stamps, and the cash welfare program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Although virtually every study has shown that work requirements for these benefits are not effective inducements to employment, Republicans were willing to let the government default on its debt if they didn’t

get them. During the talks, Biden rejected the strict new work requirements for people on Medicaid, but he agreed to changes in the other two programs.

Under this concession, people age 50 to 54 years old without dependents would be limited to three months of food stamps every three years unless they meet new work requirements, which the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said would affect hundreds of thousands of older adults. State requirements for people who receive cash assistance from the TANF program would also be tightened. The only good news here is that for the first time, the food stamp program would not subject homeless people, veterans or young adults formerly in foster care to time limits, under an agreement won by Biden.

One of the most nonsensical Republican demands was to cut $80 billion in new funding for the IRS to hire investigators to reduce tax cheating. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the IRS expansion would reduce the budget deficit because it would bring in new tax revenue. Republicans refused to reduce the deficits by any means other than cutting spending. Biden agreed to reduce the new IRS spending by about $21 billion over two years, although the money may be moved to the general fund to reduce the impact of the new spending caps.

The blunt instrument of the debt ceiling allowed this standoff and its concessions. With the Republicans in control of the House, Democrats in Congress have given up their path to change this for now. The president seemed to acknowledge that this month when he told reporters that he’d consider declaring the debt ceiling unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment’s debt clause and letting the courts decide whether he is right. “When we get by this, I’m thinking about taking a look at — months down the road — to see whether, what the court would say about whether or not the — it does work,” he said.

If Congress approves this agreement, the threat of default will be over for the next two years. At that point, Biden and his legal experts need to follow through on his interest in testing a constitutional solution and try to stop the debt crisis from returning in 2025 or thereafter.

The U.S. Capitol building in Washington, on Jan. 23, 2023.

Incremento en la cantidad de personas sin hogar en Puerto Rico, según CoC PR-502

POR CYBERNEWS

SAN JUAN – El CoC PR-502 presentó el miércoles su “Informe de resultados del conteo de personas sin hogar 2023”, en la que se reveló que 1,077 personas en 24 municipios están sin hogar,

un 52.6 por ciento de las cuales enfrentan el sinhogarismo por primera vez. El conteo fue realizado el 31 de enero y 1 de febrero del presente año.

“El conteo de personas sin hogar se lleva a cabo como parte de los requisitos de la solicitud de fondos del Programa CoC del Departamento de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano Federal (HUD, por sus siglas en inglés)”, explicó Liz Mónica Lamboy, directora ejecutiva del CoC PR-502 en declaraciones escritas.

“Dicha Agencia establece que cada jurisdicción debe llevar a cabo un conteo de personas sin hogar por lo menos cada dos (2) años. El propósito del conteo es obtener datos sobre el número de personas sin hogar, sus características y necesidades; a la vez que podamos proveer información al estado, municipios y entidades comunitarias para la planificación de servicios”, añadió.

El informe mostró un incremento de 51 casos en comparación con el conteo de 2022. Según el

estudio, el 91.2 por ciento de las personas sin hogar son mayores de 25 años y un 31.4 por ciento son mayores de 55 años. El 53.9 por ciento de las personas sin hogar no están albergadas.

“Los datos que se derivan del Conteo de Personas sin Hogar 2023 evidencian la complejidad de la situación del sinhogarismo en Puerto Rico y plantean la necesidad de que continuemos trabajando desde diversos enfoques, incluyendo nuevas y variadas estrategias, pero siempre desde una visión interdisciplinaria y transectorial”, comentó Ciení Rodríguez Troche, secretaria interina del Departamento de la Familia.

Los resultados fueron presentados por la licenciada Anitza M. Cox-Marrero, directora de Análisis y Política Social de Estudios Técnicos, empresa contratada para colaborar con el diseño del conteo y el análisis de los datos. El informe completo se publicará próximamente en la página web del CoC PR-502.

Gobernador aprueba leyes para fortalecer Medicaid y responder a desastres naturales

POR CYBERNEWS

S AN JUAN – El gobernador Pedro Pierluisi promulgó diversas medidas el miércoles, incluidas el Proyecto de Administración 21, que modifica la Ley de Reclamaciones Fraudulentas a Programas, Contratos y Servicios del gobierno de Puerto Rico.

El objetivo, explicó en comunicación escrita, es optimizar la Unidad de Control de Fraude al Medicaid, además de permitir investigar querellas sobre negligencia y maltrato en hogares de cuidado de larga duración.

“Estas medidas son esenciales para asegurar la integridad de nuestros servicios de salud y para proteger a nuestros ciudadanos más vulnerables”, dijo Pierluisi.

El mandatario explicó que se establecerá una cuenta especial en el Departamento de Hacienda, donde se depositará dinero recaudado por recobros, multas o penalidades, garantizando la continuidad de la Unidad de Control de Fraude al Medicaid.

Pierluisi también promulgó el Proyecto del Senado 524 que crea la Ley del Protocolo para la Determinación de la Causa y Manera de las Muertes Relacionadas a Desastres Naturales o Eventos Catastróficos.

“Este protocolo asegurará un proceso de certificación de muerte claro y efectivo en momentos de emergencia o desastre”, dijo el gobernador.

Además, el gobernador aprobó Resoluciones Conjuntas que permiten analizar el traspaso de varias escuelas a organizaciones locales y municipios, buscando el beneficio de la comunidad.

El Partido Popular Democrático anuncia los candidatos al Senado por el Distrito de Guayama

POR CYBERNEWS

S AN JUAN – El secretario general del Partido

Popular Democrático (PPD), Gerardo “Toñito”

Cruz, anunció el miércoles que cinco candidatos fueron certificados por la Comisión Calificadora de Aspirantes para competir por un puesto en el Senado de Puerto Rico, representando al Distrito de Guayama.

“La Comisión Calificadora de Aspirantes determinó el martes que dos de los aspirantes, Eder Ortiz y Kia Rosario, no serían certificados por diferentes

razones, dejando a cinco candidatos que se enfrentarán el próximo domingo para ocupar la silla del distrito senatorial de Guayama en la Cámara Alta”, explicó Cruz en declaraciones escritas.

Cruz informó que Ortiz no fue certificado debido a que no ha residido en el distrito senatorial durante un año, mientras que Rosario no entregó la documentación requerida a tiempo. “Los aspirantes no certificados tienen que acudir a la Junta de Gobierno para solicitar reconsideración. Este proceso no detiene el rumbo de la elección”.

Además, se realizó el sorteo de las posiciones

que los candidatos ocuparán en la papeleta de votación el próximo domingo. Las posiciones quedaron de la siguiente manera:

1 – Carmen Iris “Ciela” González; 2 – Héctor L. Santiago; 3 – Ángel Rodríguez Otero; 4 – Roberto Colón Sánchez; 5 – Juan Carlos Figueroa Vázquez.

La elección se llevará a cabo el domingo 4 de junio de 2023 en la Escuela de Bellas Artes Leopoldo Sanabria Cruz, en el Complejo Deportivo en Guayama, y será por Asamblea de Delegados del Distrito Senatorial de Guayama, tal y como decidió la Junta de Gobierno del PPD, concluyó Cruz.

Miss ‘Succession’ already? Here’s what to watch next

By MARGARET LYONS

The end of “Succession” leaves a Waystar Royco-sized hole in our hearts. With the various Roys scattered, licking their wounds, where can bereft fans turn for their regular dose of acid insults, soapy skulduggery and privileged misery grounded by occasional glimpses of human vulnerability and warmth? We have a few ideas.

There are obvious pound-for-pound swaps, past greats like “Mad Men,” “The Americans” and “The Shield.” Each has its own thematic resonance with “Succession” — the metastasizing hollowness of business; the alienation of believing that actually, many things are more important than family; the nature of affection that sprouts from routine cruelty. But those are far from the only worthy follow-ups. Here are a few more to consider.

I want something similar, but sillier.

‘The Righteous Gemstones’

Where to watch: Max

The Roys and the Gemstones, a family of televangelists, are inside-out versions of one another: A bombastic, volatile but wildly successful dad reigns over an empire that his desperate, indulged children will inherit if they don’t all kill each other first. Bickering and jockeying abound, fueled by the mutually understood but outwardly denied reality that no one in the second generation is truly up to the task. They all compensate with glorious, vulgar insults. The daughter is married to a bumbling oaf, whom she bullies with real glee. The younger son sublimates his sexuality. The older son’s ego could pull the Earth off its axis.

In “Succession,” the stakes are grave, but the characters approach them with flippancy; in “Gemstones,” the circumstances are absurd, but the characters take them incredibly seriously. The shows share an understanding of the corrupting powers of wealth and a conviction that there is no greater achievement than standing onstage and singing a song. (“Misbehavin’” has a leg up on “L to the OG,” though.) If “Succession” is an ice bath, “The Righteous Gemstones” is a slip-n-slide, but the water is springing from the same source.

My favorite character is Kendall.

‘BoJack Horseman’

Where to watch: Netflix

BoJack is, like Kendall, a character with a history of serious drug abuse, whose carelessness has led to people’s deaths, who will never be able to compensate for the absen-

ce of his parents’ love. He is mean and very funny, and also jaded, vulnerable and able to deliver a searing, soaring eulogy. They each have their Gatsby-in-the-pool moments, their long memories and deep pockets. Heck, Kendall even says he’s thinking of “hitting up some ‘BoJack’ guys” to write his tweets.

“BoJack” and “Succession” share a thrilling attention to detail — production design meant for obsessive pausing and screenshotting, with a particular knack for tickers at the bottom of inane cable-news shows. (“‘Speak English!’ Yells Patriot at Soy Milk.”) “Succession” has Vaunter-as-Gawker; “BoJack” has Girl Croosh-as-BuzzFeed.

My favorite characters are Greg and Tom.

‘Peep Show’

Where to watch: The Roku Channel, Pluto TV

Before Jesse Armstrong created “Succession,” and before he created the brilliant political comedy “The Thick of It,” he cocreated this warped buddy comedy starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb as Mark and Jez, two dopey roommates who are perhaps the ur Disgusting Brothers.

“Peep Show” is shot mostly POV-style, and it revels in all the awkward and crude intimacies of one’s thoughts. Like Tom and Greg, Mark and Jez are often scheming but rarely with any real accuracy; when their plans materialize, it’s usually a monkey-paw scenario or an odd coincidence, a tiny boat

in a vast sea that sometimes sweeps it ashore.

I want more Sarah Snook.

‘The Beautiful Lie’

Where to watch: Acorn TV

This six-part Australian miniseries is a modern-day adaptation of “Anna Karenina,” with Sarah Snook starring as the ill-fated lead. As Shiv, Snook is all tiny trembles and selfcontainment, but as Anna, her performance is grander, wider, far more open; this Anna is reckless in ways Shiv would never be. Some of Anna’s smiles are even warm and genuine! The show itself is soapy in a good way, full of beachy horniness and angry fights.

I want more Matthew Macfadyen.

‘Quiz’

Where to watch: AMC+

Macfadyen delivers a different version of a doofy husband in this terrific three-part British docudrama miniseries about the creation of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and the cheating scandal it begot.

Charles Ingram (Macfadyen) is an army major whose wife, Diana (Sian Clifford), is a trivia buff who convinces him to go on “Millionaire,” where he wins 1 million pounds. But something seems off — could that guy really know those answers? Or was he being tipped off with a cough from a conspirator in the audience? The show itself is a tight, twisty ride, and it is additional evidence of Macfadyen’s mastery of “wait … is that guy dumber than he seems, or smarter than he seems?”

I want something just as cynical and media-focused but with a different vibe.

‘I Hate Suzie’

Where to watch: Max

Cocreated by “Succession” writer Lucy Prebble, “Suzie” centers on a former child star turned B-list actress (played by Billie Piper, the show’s other creator) whose life implodes when intimate photos of her are leaked to a tabloid. In Season 2, she crawls her way back into the public’s good graces with a stint on a dance competition series, though that carries its own emotional costs.

Both shows love to play off what viewers “hope” will happen, and their disciplined refusal to give over to the more familiar contours of happy endings and redemption make them richer and more fraught. The Roys, and Suzie, read a lot of their own press, often struggling to see themselves anywhere other than in reflection.

No, something similar but sadder. ‘Shtisel’

Where to watch: Nowhere right now, but one hopes that will change.

This Israeli drama, set within a modern ultra-Orthodox family, is not currently available to stream, but fingers crossed that it will reemerge in the not-too-distant future. There’s also no way to write a “Succession” adjacency list and not include it — the shows are deeply alike.

Like the Roys, the Shtisel children see their father less as a dad than like a temperamental god; their achievements and failures can never truly be their own. If “Gemstones” is the sillier version, then “Shtisel” is the more serious one, more steeped in grief and moments of magical thinking. And much as the Roys say, “yeah,” when they mean “no” and vice versa, almost no one in “Shtisel” ever says what they mean.

The real pleasure in putting “Shtisel” and “Succession” in conversation, though, comes from their different approaches to desire, embodied in their different portrayals of food — cooking, eating, hunger itself. Food is omnipresent in “Shtisel,” though not in luxurious ways. It’s one-egg omelets and wan, poorly sliced tomatoes, a two-liter of soda resentfully plunked on a table. In “Succession,” visible desire is a sin, and only the lowliest characters eat; the only acceptable form of passion is anger. There’s plenty of anger in “Shtisel” too, but lust and ambition are also permissible, love exists, and religious fervor is virtuous.

From left, Adam Devine, Danny McBride and Edi Patterson in ”The Righteous Gemstones,” a kind of inside-out version of “Succession.”

Juan Carlos Formell, buoyant heir of Cuban musical legacy, dies at 59

When he was 3 weeks old, his parents sent him to live on the outskirts of Havana with his paternal grandparents. His grandfather, the conductor, had been ostracized by the Castro government for being part of the old guard. Formell told the Los Angeles Times in 2000 that he had been teased by other children for having holes in his shoes.

Even so, he set his course toward music, studying at the Alejandro García Caturla and Amadeo Roldán conservatories in Havana, and later at Cuba’s National Art School.

By his teens, he was already composing and studying bass with Andres Escalona of the Havana Symphony Orchestra. He went on to play bass with jazz pianist Emiliano Salvador.

He was also a talented guitarist and hoped to carve out a career as a singer-songwriter, influenced by Afrocubanismo, the Cuban artistic movement focused on Black identity, as well as the negrista movement in poetry, particularly the work of Nicolás Guillén. Even so, he felt unable to express himself freely under the restrictions of the government-controlled Cuban music industry, his former wife, Dita Sullivan, said in an email.

“While still in my 20s, at a time when most musicians are full of hope,” he said in a 2001 radio interview, “I was resigned to a future of marginalization.”

In 1993, while on tour with the dance band Conjunto Rumbavana in Mexico, he defected, crossing the Rio Grande near Laredo, Texas, and eventually settling in New York City. The transition was not easy.

By ALEX WILLIAMS

Juan Carlos Formell, an acclaimed singer-songwriter who settled in New York after defecting from Cuba and eventually took over as bassist for his famous father, Juan Formell, in Los Van Van, one of the most influential bands of post-Revolutionary Cuba, died on Saturday during a performance in New York City. He was 59.

His death, from a heart attack he suffered onstage at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts in the Bronx, was confirmed by his romantic and musical partner, Danae Blanco. Formell, she said, had high blood pressure and arteriosclerosis.

Since fleeing Cuba for New York City in 1993, Formell had charted his own musical course, releasing five solo albums and earning a Grammy nomination in 2000 for best traditional tropical Latin performance for his debut album, “Songs from a Little Blue House.”

When his father died in 2014, Formell agreed to carry on his legacy as the bassist for Los Van Van, the Afro-Cuban dance band co-founded by his father. The band’s current lineup also includes his brother Samuel on drums and his sister Vanessa on vocals.

The band was just a few numbers into an energetic set at the Lehman Center when Formell wandered away from his upright bass, doubled over as if to catch his breath, then lumbered toward the rear of the stage. As the band played on, Abdel Rasalps Sotolongo, the Van Van singer known as Lele, and Javier

León Peña, a sound engineer, were helping him offstage when he collapsed near the curtain.

The band took a break of more than a half-hour, then made a brief announcement that Formell was having a health problem and returned to finish the set, playing for nearly an hour, a friend, musician Ned Sublette, who was present, said in a phone interview.

Formell was a fourth-generation member of one of Cuba’s most famous musical families. His great-grandfather, Juan Francisco, was a popular bandleader. His grandfather, Francisco Formell, was a conductor of the Havana Philharmonic and the arranger for the Lecuona Cuban Boys, a popular big band starting in the 1930s.

His father, Juan Formell, along with fellow giants of Cuban music, César Pedroso, known as Pupy, and José Luis Quintana, known as Changuito, founded Los Van Van in 1969, fusing traditional Afro-Cuban genres such as son cubano with elements of rock, soul and disco.

With the blessing of the Cuban government, the band toured the world for decades, developing a global following. It won a Grammy Award in 2000 for best salsa performance for their album “Llego…Van Van/Van Van is Here.”)

Despite his family name, Formell’s path to musical success was not easy.

Juan Carlos Formell was born in Havana on Feb. 18, 1964, the eldest of three children of Juan Formell and the cabaret singer Natalia Alfonso.

“When you leave Cuba, you don’t exist,” Formell said in a 2005 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. “You come here, you’re invisible. You come here and no one cares. If you want to defect, you’d better have a support system.”

Even so, he built a career performing solo and with various ensembles at New York jazz clubs before releasing his Grammy-nominated debut. Formell followed with “Las Calles del Paraíso” (“The Streets of Paradise”) in 2002 and “Cemeteries of Desire,” a 2005 rumination on the Latin musical flavorings of New Orleans, along with “Son Radical” (2006) and “Johnny’s Dream Club” (2008), which a Village Voice review said wove “an unforgettable spell.”

His music, rooted in filin, a romantic, jazz-inflected genre of Cuban popular music, as well as son cubano, a traditional style mixing Spanish and African influences, celebrated the natural beauty of his homeland as well as its complicated history.

“Although my songs don’t specifically talk about politics,” he said in a 1996 interview, “they reflect the reality of Cuba from my perspective and not from the perspective of the system.”

In addition to Samuel and Vanessa, his survivors include his other sisters, Elisa Formell Alfonso and Paloma Formell Delgado, and another brother, Lorenzo Formell González. He and Sullivan separated in 2012 and divorced in 2021.

In a Facebook post announcing his death, Los Van Van said it would continue its tour of the United States, “paying tribute to Juan Carlos in every performance, every musical note, in every Vanvanero choice as Juanca would have wanted.”

Los Van Van performing in New York in 2010. Mr. Formell joined the band in 2014, after his father, the band’s bassist and co-founder, died.

With mpox at risk of flaring, health officials advise, ‘get vaccinated’

By SHARON OTTERMAN and LIAM STACK

Late last year, with cases at a trickle, New York City wound down its mpox emergency response. Health officials stopped posting updates about cases. Vaccination vans stopped appearing outside nightclubs. The number of people being vaccinated against the disease flatlined.

But the mpox virus — a close relative to smallpox whose name was changed from monkeypox last year — never completely disappeared.

Now, a year after a global mpox outbreak began and just as Pride celebrations and the summer party season are set to start, public health authorities are warning of a risk of new outbreaks, nationally and in New York City, primarily among men who have sex with men.

Since peaking in the city late last July at almost 100 cases a day, the disease has continued to circulate at much lower levels. Health officials stopped posting case information on the city’s website at the end of last year. The health department

said there had been at least 39 mpox cases in New York so far this year, including 20 in January and two in the past month.

Most people who were diagnosed with the disease recently and interviewed did not report having traveled, officials said, suggesting the disease is spreading locally.

Public health researchers are also monitoring a cluster of cases spreading among vaccinated and unvaccinated people in Chicago, raising concern that the protection provided by vaccination may be waning.

New York City has had one of the nation’s highest vaccination rates among people at greatest risk for getting the disease, but about half of those who have been vaccinated received only one dose of the two-dose vaccine, leaving many vulnerable to infection.

“Without renewed prevention efforts, especially vaccination, we are definitely at risk of a resurgence, in fact, a substantial risk of resurgence of mpox,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the White House’s national mpox response deputy

People wait in line for mpox vaccinations at a sexual health clinic in New York’s Harlem neighborhood, July 7, 2022. Cases dropped after a successful public health campaign last summer, but the disease still has a low-level presence in the city, and many people remain at risk.

coordinator, at a news briefing this month.

Anecdotal evidence indicates that vaccination may also lead to milder symptoms, and that has held true in the recent Chicago cluster cases, Daskalakis said.

He and other health experts said the key public health message remains the same: “Get vaccinated.”

Mpox, which causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions that can be extremely painful, has been endemic in parts of Africa for decades. It can infect anyone, but in 2022, it began spreading globally, mainly through close physical contact and almost exclusively in social and sexual communities of men who have sex with men.

tion, it is imperfect.

at New York University, added that “it is much more complicated than that.” With the disease still spreading globally, risks remain; and although he did not think any new outbreak in New York would be as bad as last summer, “there will be cases,” he said.

The virus largely disappeared from the news as the outbreak waned last year. But the Chicago cluster, which reached 30 cases by May 20, has resurrected concern. According to a health alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nine of the first 13 cases in the cluster were among men who had received two doses of the Jynneos vaccine.

Although the vaccine, which the federal government originally developed to fight smallpox, provides strong protection, it is imperfect. In three recent studies, the effectiveness of two doses in preventing infection ranged from 66% to 88%, while the effectiveness of a single dose ranged from 36% to 75%. Protection may wane further over time.

Mpox is a particular risk for people in marginalized communities. Of the 42 people to die in the United States during the outbreak, almost all had poorly managed HIV, and about 40% were homeless, according to an analysis by KFF, a nonprofit health-policy research organization.

After some initial stumbles, New York’s mpox response has been considered a public health victory overall. People lined up eagerly to get the first doses of the Jynneos vaccine, and many gay men changed their behavior while the outbreak was at its height, helping to bring it under control.

But while it was broadly a success story, Joseph Osmundson, a virus expert

Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, an LGBTQ clinic with branches in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx, saw its first new mpox case in months about three weeks ago, said Dr. Marcus Sandling, the director of sexual health. Since then, he has been asking patients about their vaccine status. He has been troubled by their answers.

“Maybe 50% of them” had gotten both vaccine doses, Sandling said. “Maybe.” He said he had vaccinated 10 people in the past few days.

Sage Rivera, the chief development and program officer at Destination Tomorrow, a Bronx LGBTQ center, said the center’s office had received a number of calls from borough residents concerned about the mpox cluster in Illinois and what might happen “should it migrate its way over” to New York.

Heritage of Pride, the nonprofit group that organizes New York City Pride, one of the largest LGBTQ pride celebrations in the world, has not yet planned any specific outreach about mpox for its June events, said Dan Dimant, a spokesperson for the organization. Its community health partners, however, may provide information at booths.

“As an organization, we will do everything in our power to educate the public on making good decisions and getting the proper vaccines, but the onus does remain on individuals to make those decisions as well,” he said.

Although the vaccine, which the federal government originally developed to fight smallpox, provides strong protec

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE SAN JUAN MWPR, LLC

Demandante V. FELIX TELEMACO RIVERA T/C/C FELIX JOSE TELEMACO RIVERA

Demandado (s)

Civil Núm.: KCD2007-1184. (504). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. AVISO DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA SUBASTA.

A: FELIX TELEMACO

RIVERA T/C/C FELIX JOSE TELEMACO

RIVERA Y AL PUBLICO EN GENERAL:

El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior, Centro Judicial de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico, hago saber a la parte demandada, y al PUBLICO EN GENERAL: y a todos los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, siempre que surjan de la certificación registral, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante a saber:

AUTORIDAD PARA EL FINANCIAMIENTO DE LA VIVIENDA DE PUERTO RICO: A cuyo favor aparece inscrito un pagaré por la suma de $10,000.00, sin intereses y a vencer el 18 de agosto de 2012, según consta de la escritura #458, otorgada en San Juan, el 18 de agosto de 2004, ante el Notario Juan Marco Acevedo Ramirez, inscrito al folio 16 del tomo 1016 de Monacillos, finca #16,664, inscripción 10ma. RG MORTGAGE CORPORATION: A cuyo favor aparece una anotación de demanda, en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, caso civil Kcd2007-1184, Ejecución de Hipoteca, seguido por RG Mortgage Corporation versus Félix Jose Telemaco Ri-

vera por la suma de $77,276.77 más intereses, ect, presentado el 14 de noviembre de 2017. Anotado el 15 de noviembre de 2007, al folio 17 del tomo 1016 de Monacillos, finca #16,664 anotación A. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el día 10 de mayo de 2023, por la Secretaria del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor la propiedad que ubica y se describe a continuación: Dirección de la Propiedad: 1412 Calle Dover, Caparra Terrace, San Juan, Puerto Rico. RÚSTICA: Solar sito en el Barrio Monacillo de la Municipalidad de Rio Piedras, antes hoy San Juan, Puerto Rico, marcado con el numero dieciocho guion A (18-A) de la manzana “AB” de la Urbanización Caparra Terrace, con un área superficial de doscientos treinta y siete metros cuadrados con cincuenta centímetros de otro, (237.50) metros cuadrados mas o menos, el cual colinda por el NORTE, en nueve punto cincuenta (9.50) metros, con la Calle Ciento Uno (101) de la Urbanización; por el SUR, en nueve punto cincuenta 9.50 metros, con el solar numero veinticinco (25) de la manzana “AB”; por el ESTE, en veinticinco punto cero cero (25.00)metros con el solar nueve (9) de la manzana “AB”; y por el OESTE, en veinticinco punto cero cero (25.00) con el solar numero dieciocho B (18-B)de la manzana AB. Enclava una casa de concreto armado con techo de azotea y piso de losas del país de una sola planta, que constituye una vivienda independiente, consistiendo de tres dormitorios con sus closets, sala y comedor en una sola unidad, cocina con su closet, balcón y cuarto de baño. Existe una servidumbre por signo aparente establecida por la corporación vendedora en la pared que divide los apartamientos A y B, cuya pared continuará sirviendo a ambos apartamientos y pertenecerá en común pro indiviso y en toda su actual extensión y espesor a los propietarios de ambos apartamentos. Inscrita al folio 204 del tomo 445 de Monacillos, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Tercera, finca número 16,664. El producto de la subasta se destinará a satisfacer al demandante hasta donde alcance, la SENTENCIA dictada a su favor, ascendente a la suma de $58,716.78 de principal; más intereses acumulados a razón del 5.88% anual, suma que al 13 de enero de 2023 as-

cendía a $13,624.95 los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el total pago y solvente del principal a razón de $874.24 diarios (“per diem”); $184.00 por concepto de cargos por demora; $105.42 por concepto de seguro sobre la propiedad (“FPI”); y la suma de $8,000.00 por concepto de honorarios de abogados, disponiendose que si quedare algun remanente, luego de pagarse las sumas antes mencionadas, el mismo deberá ser depositado en la Secretaria del Tribunal para ser entregado a la parte con derecho previa solicitud y orden del Tribunal. La venta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen que afecte la mencionada finca. La adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el acto mismo de la adjudicación, en efectivo (moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América), giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del alguacil del Tribunal. LA PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a efecto el día 26 DE JUNIO DE 2023 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina del referido Alguacil, localizada en el Centro Judicial de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Que el precio mínimo fijado para la PRIMERA SUBASTA es de $80,000.00. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, la misma se llevará a efecto el día 05 DE JULIO DE 2023 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la SEGUNDA SUBASTA será de $53,333.33, equivalentes a dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una TERCERA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día 12 DE JULIO DE 2023 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la TERCERA SUBASTA será de $40,000.00, equivalentes a la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente; se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor, todo ello a tenor con lo dispone el Articulo 104 de la Ley Núm. 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015 conocida

Thursday, June 1, 2023 22

como “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico”. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquiere libre de toda carga y gravamen que afecte la mencionada finca según el Artículo 102, inciso 6. Una vez confirmada la venta judicial por el Honorable Tribunal, se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura de venta judicial y se pondrá al comprador en posesión física del inmueble de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda aquella persona o personas que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de todos los licitadores y el público en general, el presente Edicto se publicará por espacio de dos (2) semanas consecutivas, con un intervalo de por lo menos siete días entre ambas publicaciones, en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y se fijará además en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse dicha venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Se les informa, por último, que: a. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la secretaría del tribunal durante las horas laborables. b. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. EXPIDO, el presente EDICTO, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 16 de mayo de 2023.

JUAN A. SANTANA GARCÍA, ALGUACIL DE LA DIVISIÓN DE SUBASTAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

TRIANGLE REO PR CORP.

Demandante V. CARIBBEAN MARINE SUPPLIES INC.; BENIGNO HERRERO ESTEVANEZ, VIVIAN GARCÍA GUZMÁN

Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES POR ÉSTOS COMPUESTA; MARTA GUZMÁN HERNÁNDEZ; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

Demandados

Civil Núm.: KCD2016-0331. (504). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. AVISO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PUEBLO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S. YO, el(la) Alguacil que suscribe, por la presente anuncia y hace constar, que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia, expedido el 20 de noviembre de 2019 por la Secretaría del Tribunal de San Juan, procederé a vender en públicas subastas y al(os) mejor(es) postor(es), quien(es) pagará(n) el(los) importe(s) de las ventas en dinero efectivo o en cheque certificado o de gerente, a la orden del Alguacil del Tribunal, en moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, el día 20 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LA(S) 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA para la Finca Número

34,646; para la Finca Número

7,248, A LAS 10:05 DE LA MAÑANA; para la Finca Número

7,249, A LAS 10:10 DE LA MAÑANA; para la Finca Número

8,059, A LAS 10:15 DE LA MAÑANA, en las oficinas del Alguacil del Tribunal de San Juan, todo título, derecho o interés que corresponda a la parte demandada sobre los inmuebles que se describen a continuación: a. URBANA: Solar número nueve (9) del Bloque B de forma irregular de la Urbanización Alto Apolo Estates, localizada en el Barrio Frailes del término municipal de Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 932.62 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en 6.05 metros, con remanente propiedad del desarrollador y un largo curva de 19.94 metros de otro con la Calle E; por el SUR, en una distancia de 25.07 metros con la Urbanización Monte Olympo; por el ESTE, varias alineaciones en distancia de 20.86 metros y 37.10 metros con los solares de la Urbanización Alto Apolo Estates y terrenos pertenecientes a Monte Olympo Development; y por el OESTE en una distancia de 33.02 metros, con el solar 8 del bloque B de la Urbanización. En sus colindancias SUR y ESTE tiene su talud. Contiene

una casa. Finca Número 34,646, inscrita al folio 72 del tomo 963 de Guaynabo, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Guaynabo.

Dirección Física: B-9, B Street, Alto Apolo Dev., Guaynabo, PR. La propiedad descrita anteriormente está afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: Afecta por su procedencia: Servidumbres a favor de la Autoridad de Fuentes Fluviales de Puerto Rico; Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados de Puerto Rico; Municipio de Guaynabo; Autoridad de Comunicaciones de Puerto Rico; y Condiciones

Restrictivas de Edificación y Uso. Por sí: HIPOTECA: En garantía de un pagaré a favor de Eurobank, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $350,000.00, con intereses al Prime Rate, vencedero a la presentación, según consta de la escritura número 101, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 30 de marzo de 2004, ante el Notario Público Nelson W. González Rosario, inscrita al folio 47 del tomo 1537 de Guaynabo, inscripción 3ª. (asiento abreviado).

HIPOTECA: En garantía de un pagaré a favor de Eurobank, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $275,000.00, con intereses a 8% anual, vencedero a la presentación, según consta de la escritura número 5, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 28 de enero de 2008, ante el Notario Público Luis M. Nolla Vilá, inscrita al folio 47 del tomo 1537 de Guaynabo, inscripción 3ª (asiento abreviado). ANOTA-

CIÓN DE DEMANDA: De fecha 19 de febrero de 2016, expedida en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, caso Civil Núm. KCD-20160331, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria. Demandante: Caribbean Marine Supplies, Inc.; Demandados: Benigno Herrero Estevanez, Vivian García Guzmán y la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales compuesta por ambos; Marta Guzmán Hernández; y Estados Unidos de América; por las sumas de $257,773.04; $427,616.18; y $926,523.84; sobre las fincas #34,646 de Guaynabo; #49,827 de Guaynabo; #7,248 de Río Piedras Sur; #7,249 de Río Piedras Sur y #8,059 Río Piedras Sur, inscrita al tomo Karibe de Guaynabo, Anotación “A” de fecha 13 de abril de 2016. b. RÚSTICA: Predio de terreno radicado en el Barrio Tortugo del término municipal de Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de cuatrocientos setenta y ocho

The San Juan Daily Star

punto ochenta y siete (478.87) metros cuadrados, en lindes por el NORTE, en tres (3) alineaciones distintas que forman treinta punto veintidós (30.22) metros con la faja de terreno dedicada a uso público conocida como Calle Solá; por el SUR, en dos (2) alineaciones distintas que totalizan treinta y cuatro punto sesenta y ocho (34.68) metros, con la Parcela segregada en el Caso Número setenta y cinco, guión diecisiete, guión, “C”, guión, novecientos uno, guión, “SPL” (75-17-C901-SPL), propiedad de los comparecientes esposos SoláDíaz; por el ESTE, con dos (2) alineaciones distintas que totalizan dos punto quince (12.15) metros, con la faja de terreno dedicada a uso público para el ensanche de la Carretera “PR”, guión, ochocientos setenta y tres (873) y por el OESTE, en quince punto diecisiete (15.17) metros, con el solar dos (2) del Plano de Inscripción. Enclava una casa de bloques y concreto que mide veinte pies (20’) de frente por cuarenta y cuatro pies (44’) de fondo, de una sola planta. Finca Número 7,248, inscrita al folio 278 del tomo 220 de Río Piedras Sur Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección IV de San Juan.

Dirección Física: PR-873 Km. 15.6, Tortugo Ward, San Juan, PR. La propiedad descrita anteriormente está afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: Afecta por su procedencia: Libre de Cargas. Por sí: HIPOTECA: En garantía de un pagaré a favor de Eurobank, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $445,500.00, respondiendo esta finca por $164,835.00, con intereses al 8%, vencedero a la presentación, según consta de la escritura número 47, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 9 de septiembre de 2005, ante el Notario Público Luis M. Nolla Vilá, inscrita al tomo Karibe de Río Piedras Sur, inscripción 11ª. ANOTACIÓN DE DEMANDA: Es objeto de esta anotación la Hipoteca a favor de Eurobank, por la suma de $445,500.00, que surge de la inscripción 11ª. Demandante: Triangle Cayman Asset Company; Demandados: Caribbean Marine Supplies, Inc.; Cantidad adeudada: $357,817.49 por concepto de principal más intereses, según Demanda Expedida por el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, caso Civil Núm. KCD20160331; el día 19 de febrero de 2016, inscrita al tomo Karibe de Río Piedras Sur, Anotación “A” de fecha 6 de mayo de 2016.

EMBARGO: A favor del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico (Ley 12), contra Caribbean Marine and PL, por la suma de $29,486.74, Caso número SJU12-2216, presentado el día 29 de junio de 2012, anotado al folio 199, Orden 794, del libro de Embargos (Ley 12) número 2. SUSTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO: Demandante: Triangle Cayman Asset Company vs. Demandado: Caribbean Marine Supplies, Inc.; Fulano De Tal y Mengano Del Cual, se ordenó la sustitución del pagaré garantizado con la hipoteca que resulta de la inscripción 9ª, por la suma principal de $445,500.00, respondiendo esta finca en la suma de $164,835.00, por haberse extraviado, según escritura número 122 ,otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 27 de octubre de 2020, ante el Notario Público José Alfredo Prats Cruz, inscrita al tomo Karibe de Río Piedras Sur, inscripción Nota Marginal 11.1. EMBARGO FEDERAL: Contra Caribbean Marine and PNI, S.S., por la suma de $2,126.66, Notificación número 596944409, presentado el día 30 de noviembre de 2009, anotado al folio 129, Asiento 3, del libro de Embargos Federales número 6. EMBARGO FEDERAL: Contra Caribbean Marine and PNI, por la suma de $6,065.85, Notificación número 609132609, presentado el día 27 de enero de 2010, anotado al folio 162, Asiento 2, del libro de Embargos Federales número 6. EMBARGO FEDERAL: Contra Caribbean Marine Contractors Corp., por la suma de $1,194.19, Notificación número 995870914, presentado el día 22 de mayo de 2014, anotado al folio 242, Asiento 2, del libro de Embargos Federales número 9. c. RúSTICA: Parcela de terreno en el Barrio Tortugo del término municipal de Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de setecientos sesenta y seis punto dieciséis (766.16) metros cuadrados, marcada con el número dos (2) en el plano de inscripción. En lindes por el NORTE, su frente en dos (2) alineaciones que totalizan diecinueve punto sesenta y ocho (19.68) metros con la faja de terreno dedicada a uso público conocida como Calle Solá; por el SUR en veintiuno punto cero cero (21.00) metros con Sucesión de Don Julio Laguna; por el OESTE en cuarenta y uno punto veinticinco (41.25) metros con el solar número tres (3) del plano de inscripción; y por el ESTE en trein-

demandante, la Lcda. Natalie Bonaparte cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección natalie.bonaparte@ orf-law.com, edwin.serrano@ orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com.

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy día 03 de mayo de 2023. En Carolina, Puerto Rico, el 03 de mayo de 2023. LIC. KANELLY ZAYAS

ROBLES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR. MARICRUZ APONTE

ALINEA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE AGUADILLA

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante Vs. SUCESION DE FERNANDO A.J. DAVILA RIOS Y SUCESIÓN DE IRMA SOTO SÁNCHEZ, QUIEN ES TAMBIÉN

CONOCIDA COMO

ROSA IRMA SÁNCHEZ Y COMO IRMA TORO SÁNCHEZ; COMPUESTAS

POR FULANO DE TAL Y ZUTANO DE TAL

Demandados

Civil Núm.: ACD2014-0079. (601). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO (EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA). EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL.

A: SUCESION DE FERNANDO A.J. DAVILA RIOS Y SUCESIÓN DE IRMA SOTO SÁNCHEZ, QUIEN ES TAMBIÉN

CONOCIDA COMO

ROSA IRMA SÁNCHEZ Y COMO IRMA TORO SÁNCHEZ; COMPUESTAS POR FULANO DE TAL Y ZUTANO DE TAL.

A: CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (“CRIM”).

Yo, GERARDO MÉNDEZ VILLANUEVA, Alguacil de este Tribunal, a la parte demandada y a los acreedores y personas con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, HAGO SABER: Que el día 1RO. DE AGOSTO DE 2023, A LAS

11:00 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Aguadilla, en el Centro Judicial de Aguadilla, Segundo Piso, Oficina del Alguacil Re-

gional, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, venderé en Pública Subasta la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria al mejor postor quien hará el pago en dinero en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del o la Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal de Aguadilla durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el día 8

DE AGOSTO DE 2023, A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una

TERCERA SUBASTA el 15

DE AGOSTO DE 2023, A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar 134 de la Calle A, según Plano de Inscripción del Proyecto de Solares denominado Residencial Punta Borinquen, radicada en el Barrio Borinquen del Municipio de Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. Dicho solar tiene un área de ochocientos sesenta y dos punto cero siete (862.07) metros cuadrados y colinda por el NORTE, con el solar ciento treinta y dos, distancia de treinta y cuatro punto treinta y cuatro metros; por el SUR, con la Calle J, distancia de veintinueve punto sesenta y nueve metros y tres punto cincuenta y cuatro metro en arco; por el ESTE, con el solar ciento treinta y uno de la Calle C, distancia de veintiuno punto setenta y un metros; y por el OESTE, con la Calle D, distancia de veintidós punto cero siete metros y tres punto cincuenta y tres metros en arco. Enclava una casa destinada a vivienda. Inscrita al folio 185 del tomo 636 de Aguadilla, Registro de la Propiedad de Aguadilla, finca número 22,956, inscripción 7ma. La dirección física de la propiedad antes descrita es: Res. Punta Borinquen Ramey, D-134, D St. (antes Calle A), Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. La Subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $160,768.37 de principal, interés al 4.5% anual, desde el 1ro. de septiembre de 2013, hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad de $16,528.00 estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; más recargos acumulados y otras sumas estipuladas, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. Que la cantidad mínima

de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será de $165,280.00 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima será equivalente a 2/3 partes de aquella, o sea, la suma de $110,186.67 y de ser necesaria una tercera subasta, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado, es decir, la suma de $82,640.00. De declararse desierta la tercera subasta se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si esta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en el momento de la adjudicación y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser vendida en pública subasta se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Podrán concurrir como postores a todas las subastas los titulares de créditos hipotecarios vigentes y posteriores a la hipoteca que se cobra o ejecuta, si alguno o que figuren como tales en la certificación registral y que podrán utilizar el montante de sus créditos o parte de alguno en sus ofertas. Si la oferta aceptada es por cantidad mayor a la suma del crédito o créditos preferentes al suyo, al obtener la buena pro del remate, deberá satisfacer en el mismo acto, en efectivo o en cheque de gerente, la totalidad del crédito hipotecario que se ejecuta y la de cualesquiera otro créditos posteriores al que se ejecuta pero preferente al suyo. El exceso constituirá abono total o parcial en su propio crédito. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, 24 de marzo de 2023. GERARDO MÁNDEZ VILLANUEVA, ALGUACIL DEL CONFIDENCIAL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE AGUADILLA.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC

Demandante Vs. SUCESION ORLANDO RODRIGUEZ BACALLAO COMPUESTA POR ORLANDO RODRIGUEZ PORTAL, CARIDAD RODRIGUEZ PORTAL; JOHN: DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESION MAYRA A. PORTAL DE RODRIGUEZ

T/C/C MAYRA ALEIDA CARIDAD PORTAL CANEJO COMPUESTA POR ORLANDO RODRIGUEZ PORTAL, CARIDAD RODRIGUEZ PORTAL; JOHN ROE Y JANE ROE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES Demandados

Civil Núm.: GB2022CV00932.

Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO E INTERPELACIÓN POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: ORLANDO RODRIGUEZ PORTAL Y CARIDAD RODRIGUEZ PORTAL COMO MIEMBROS DE LA SUCESION MAYRA A. PORTAL DE RODRIGUEZ

T/C/C MAYRA ALEIDA CARIDAD PORTAL CAMEJO; JOHN ROE Y JANE ROE COMO POSIBLES MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION MAYRA A. PORTAL DE RODRIGUEZ

T/C/C MAYRA ALEIDA CARIDAD PORTAL CAMEJO.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al Tribunal su alegación responsiva a la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este edicto.

Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired. ramajudicial.prm salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberé presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaria del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dic-

tar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El Artículo 1578 del Código Civil de 2020, dispone: “Transcurridos treinta (30) días desde que se haya producido la delación, cualquier persona interesada puede solicitar al tribunal que le señale al llamado un plazo, para que manifieste si acepta la herencia o si la repudia. Este plazo no excederá de treinta (30) días. El tribunal apercibirá al llamado de que, si transcurrido el plazo señalado no ha manifestado su voluntad de aceptar la herencia o de repudiarla, se dará por aceptada.” Por la presente el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, conforme al Art. 1578, supra, y el caso Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria vs. Latinoamericana de Exportación, Inc., 164 DPR 689 (2005), les ordena que el término de treinta (30) días, hagan declaración aceptado o repudiando la herencia de la causante MAYRA A. PORTAL DE RODRIGUEZ T/C/C MAYRA ALEIDA CARIDAD PORTAL CAMEJO. Se les apercibe que de no expresar su intención de aceptar o repudiar la herencia dentro del término que se le fijó, la herencia se tendrá por aceptada.

Greenspoon Marder, LLP

Lcda. Frances L. Asencio-Guido

R.U.A. 15,622 TRADE CENTRE SOUTH, SUITE 700 100 WEST CYPRESS CREEK ROAD FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33309

Telephone: (954) 343 6273 Frances.Asencio@gmlaw.com

Expedido bajo mi firma, y sello del Tribunal, en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 22 de mayo de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. SARA ROSA VILLEGAS, SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL CONFIDENCIAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante Vs. SANTANDER MORTGAGE CORPORATION POR CONDUCTO DE SU

SUCESOR EN DERECHO

FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO,

LORELL CRESPO

MIRANDA T/C/C

LOREL CRESPO

MIRANDA, GLENN

QUIÑONES RIVERA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS, FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: BY2023CV02010. (505). Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO POR LA VÍA JUDICIAL. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E.U.U., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: GLENN QUIÑONES RIVERA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA CON LORELL CRESPO MIRANDA T/C/C LOREL CRESPO MIRANDA A LAS SIGUIENTES DIRECCIONES: URB. PALACIOS DE MARBELLA, 903 CALLE MAGALLANES, TOA ALTA PR 00953-5200 Y 3737 CASTLE PINES LN APT 4412, ORLANDO, FL 32839-3560.

FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ.

Queda usted notificado que en este Tribunal se ha radicado demanda sobre cancelación de pagaré extraviado por la vía judicial. El 31 de octubre de 2005, Glenn Quiñonez Rivera y su esposa Lorell Crespo Miranda t/c/c Lorel Crespo Miranda constituyeron una hipoteca en San Juan, Puerto Rico, conforme a la Escritura núm. 637 autorizada por la notario Sheilla E. Santos Camacho en garantía de un pagaré suscrito bajo testimonio número 423 por la suma de $247,000.00, a favor de Santander Mortgage Corporation, o a su orden, devengando intereses al 5 5/8% anual y vencedero el 1ro de noviembre de 2010. El 12 de octubre de 2009, la referida hipoteca fue modificada en cuanto a su interés, que sería al 3% anual, de conformidad con la Escritura núm. 364 del 12 de octubre de 2009, otorgada ante el notario José E. Franco Gómez. Modificada por segunda ocasión para un nuevo interés de 5 5/8% anual y extender el vencimiento hasta el 1ro de octubre de 2013, mediante la Escritura núm. 269, autorizada el 30 de octubre de 2010 por el notario Orlin P. Goble. Estas transacciones fueron constituidas sobre la siguiente propiedad: URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbanización

Palacios de Marbella, localizada en los Barrios Ortiz y Piñas del término municipal de Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, que se describe en el plano de inscripción de la Urbanización, con el número, área y colindancias que se relacionan a continuación: Número del Solar: Uno del Bloque A (A-1). Área del Solar: cuatrocientos setenta y cuatro punto setenta y cuatro metros cuadrados (474.74). En lindes: Por el NORTE, con la Avenida Marbella, en los dos alineaciones, en una distancia de doce punto cincuenta metros (12.50) y otra distancia de dos punto setecientos cuarenta y nueve metros (2.749); por el SUR, con la calle número Dos (2), en dos alineaciones, en una distancia de doce punto cincuenta metros (12.50) y en otra distancia de dos punto setecientos cuarenta y nueve metros (2.749); ESTE, con el solar número Dos del Bloque A (A-2), en una distancia de treinta metros (30.00); y por el OESTE, con la calle número Dos (2), en tres alineaciones, en una distancia de veintitrés metros (23.00), en otra distancia de dos punto setecientos cuarenta y nueve metros (2.749) y otra distancia de dos punto setecientos cuarenta y nueve metros (2.749). En este solar se ha construido una vivienda de bloques y hormigón reforzado para una familia. La propiedad y la escritura de hipoteca constan inscritas al folio 51 del tomo 487 de Toa Alta, Finca 24370, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección III. Inscripción segunda. Las escrituras de modificación de hipoteca constan inscritas al folio 51 vuelto del tomo 487 de Toa Alta, Finca 24370, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección III. Inscripción tercera y cuarta. La parte demandada deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. Se le advierte que, si no contesta la demanda, radicando el original de la contestación en este Tribunal y enviando copia de la contestación a la abogada de la parte demandante, Lcda. Belma Alonso García, cuya dirección es: PO Box 3922, Guaynabo, PR 00970-3922, Teléfono y Fax: (787) 789-1826, correo electrónico: oficinabelmaalonso@gmail.com, dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publicación, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su

contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy 19 mayo de 2023, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA. MARILYN COLÓN CARRASQUILLO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC Demandante Vs. SUCESION LIVIA MARGARITA FELICIE

RODRIGUEZ T/C/C LIVIA M FELICIE

REODRIGUEZ T/C/C LIVIA FELICIE RODRIGUEZ COMPUESTA POR PEDRO ALBERTO SOSA FELICIE, EDGARDO LUIS

SOSA FELICIE, JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES Demandados Civil Núm.: SJ2021CV07391. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION LIVIA MARGARITA FELICIE RODRIGUEZ T/C/C LIVIA M FELICIE REODRIGUEZ T/C/C LIVIA FELICIE RODRIGUEZ. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al Tribunal su alegación responsiva a la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberé presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaria del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dic-

tar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente.

Greenspoon Marder, LLP

Lcda. Frances L. Asencio-Guido R.U.A. 15,622

TRADE CENTRE SOUTH, SUITE 700 100 WEST CYPRESS CREEK ROAD

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33309

Telephone: (954) 343 6273

Frances.Asencio@gmlaw.com

Expedido bajo mi firma, y sello del Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 22 de mayo de 2023. GRISELDA

RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. FERNÁNDEZ DEL VALLE, LUZ E., SUB-SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA MUNICIPAL DE MANATÍ

MÚLTIPLES MORTGAGE CORPORATION

Demandante V. ORIENTAL BANK DE PUERTO RICO, COMO CUSTODIO DE LOS EXPEDIENTES DEL BANCO BILBAO VIZCAYA ARGENTARIA PUERTO RICO; JOHN DOE, RICHARD DOE

Demandado(a)

Civil: FL2022CV00017. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD DOE.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 23 de mayo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos

de este caso, con fecha de 24 de mayo de 2023. En Manatí, Puerto Rico, el 24 de mayo de 2023. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA. CARMEN J. ROSARIO VALENTÍN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE PONCE ORIENTAL BANK

Demandante V. MARIA ELENA SANCHEZ ARIAS, MARELIZ DE JESÚS RODRÍGUEZ Y GEOVANNI DE JESÚS RODRÍGUEZ COMO MIEMBROS CONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE HIPÓLITO DE JESÚS FLORES; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE HIPÓLITO DE JESÚS FLORES

Demandados

Civil Núm.: GM2023CV00015.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA E INTERPELACIÓN. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS. EDICTO.

A: MARELIZ DE JESÚS RODRÍGUEZ COMO

MIEMBROS CONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE HIPÓLITO DE JESÚS

FLORES. BRISAS DEL PRADO 2103 CALLE

ZORZAL, SANTA ISABEL, PR 00757; URB. BRISAS DEL PRADO, H-35 CALLE ZORZAL, SANTA ISABEL, PR 00757; URB. BRISAS DEL PRADO, LOT H-35

CALLE ZORSAL (307), SANTA ISABEL, PR 00757; SOLAR H-35 URB. BRISAS DEL PRADO (VALLE COSTERO III)

BARRIO FELICIA DOS, SANTA ISABEL, PR 00757; 500 SARAINA RD, PMB 218, SHELBYVILLE, IN 45176.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los 30 días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial.

pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Representa a la parte demandante el Lcdo.

Javier Montalvo Cintrón, Delgado & Fernández, LLC, PO Box 11750, Fernández Juncos Station, San Juan, Puerto Rico

00910-1750. Tel. [787] 274-

1414. DADA en Pon ce, Puerto Rico, a 28 de abril de 2023.

CARMEN G. TIRÚ QUIÑONES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. EREINA AGRONT LEÓN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL

GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRI-

BUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. JOSÉ MIGUEL VALENTÍN NIEVES Y LUIS ALBERTO ORTIZ SÁNCHEZ

Demandados

Civil Núm.: BY2023CV00843.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S.

A: LUIS ALBERTO ORTIZ SÁNCHEZ. 18-G 8 ST. TINTILLO GARDENS DEV., GUAYNABO, PUERTO RICO 00969, Y; 217 CALLE SALAMANCA URB. UNIVERSITY GARDENS SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO 009274804.

Por la presente se le emplaza y notifica que debe contestar la demanda incoada en su contra dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio. Si usted deja de presentar y notificar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el

Tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, o cualquier otro, si el Tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Los abogados de la parte demandante son:

ABOGADOS DE LA PARTE

DEMANDANTE:

Lcdo. Reggie Díaz Hernández RUA Núm.: 16,393

BERMUDEZ DIAZ & SÁNCHEZ, LLP 500 Calle De La Tanca Suite 209 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901

Tel.: (787) 523-2670 / Fax: (787) 523-2664 rdíaz@bdslawpr.com

Expido este edicto bajo mi firma y el sello de este Tribunal, hoy 10 de abril de 2023. LCDA.

LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL.

SANDRA BÁEZ HERNÁNDEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

ORIENTAL BANK

Demandante Vs. SUCESION DE LIVIA COTTY JUSINO, COMPUESTA POR FULANO DE TAL Y ZUTANO DE TAL, COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS CON POSIBLE INTERÉS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Demandados

Civil Núm.: MZ2023CV00448.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO (EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.

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

A: FULANO DE TAL Y ZUTANO DE TAL, COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION DE LIVIA COTTY JUSINO. POR EL PRESENTE EDICTO se le notifica que se ha radicado en esta Secretaría por la parte demandante, Demanda Enmendada sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria en la que se alega adeuda la suma principal de $56,010.21, intereses sobre dicha suma al 6.375% anual, desde el día 1ro de junio de 2022, hasta su completo pago, más recargos acumulados, más la cantidad de $8,820.00, estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios

de abogado, así como cualquier otra suma estipulada en el contrato de préstamo, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. La propiedad hipotecada a ser vendida en pública subasta es: URBANA: Solar número Veintiséis (26) del Bloque “D” del plano de la URBANIZACIÓN EXTENSIÓN REPARTO EL VALLE DE LAJAS, radicado en el Barrio Sabana Yeguas del Municipio de Lajas, compuesto de un área superficial de TRESCIENTOS VEINTICINCO PUNTO CERO CERO (325.00) METROS CUADRADOS. Colindando por el NORTE, en trece punto cero cero (13.00) metros, con el solar número Siete (7) del Bloque “D”; por el SUR, en trece punto cero cero (13.00) metros, con la Calle Municipal; por el ESTE, en veinticinco punto cero cero (25.00) metros, con el solar número Veintisiete (27) del Bloque “D”; y por el OESTE, en veinticinco punto cero cero (25.00) metros, con el solar número Veinticinco (25) del Bloque “D”, todos de la referida Urbanización. Se encuentra construida sobre dicho solar una casa de concreto y bloques, diseñada para una familia. La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al folio 169 del tomo 360 de Lajas, Registro de la Propiedad de San Germán, finca número 6128, inscripción cuarta. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido publicado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día de la publicación. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección: https:// unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/ salvo que se represente por derecho propio. en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal y enviar copia a la representación legal de la parte demandante cuya dirección más adelante se indica. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente.

Lcdo. Baldomero A. Collazo Torres Bufete Collazo, Connelly & Surillo, LLC

P.O. Box 11550

San Juan, P.R. 00922-1550

Tel. (787) 625-9999

Fax (787) 705-7387

E-mail: bcollazo@Iawpr.com

Se le advierte, además, a los herederos que conforme el caso de Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria v. Latinoamericana

de Exportación, lnc., 164 D.P.R. 689, 696 (2005) y a tenor con las disposiciones del Artículo 1578 del Código Civil de Puerto Rico (31 L.P.R.A. sec. 11021), deberá aceptar o repudiar la herencia de la causante Livia Cotty Jusino, dentro del término de treinta (30) días. De no expresar su intención de aceptar o repudiar la herencia dentro del término que se le fijó, la herencia se tendrá por aceptada. Se le notifica también por la presente que la parte demandante habrá de presentar para su anotación al Registrador de la Propiedad del Distrito en que está situada la propiedad objeto de este pleito, un aviso de estar pendiente esta acción. Para publicarse conforme a la Orden dictada por el Tribunal en un periódico de circulación general. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto que firmo y sello en Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, hoy 26 de mayo de 2023. LIC. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA REGIONAL II. NILDA TORRES ACEVEDO, SUBSECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO

Demandante V.

ANGEL L. PERELES SANTIAGO

Demandado

Civil Núm.: FA2023CV00345.

(301). Sobre: INCUMPLIMIENTO DE CONTRATO; COBRO DE DINERO Y REPOSESIÓN.

EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDIC-

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

A: ANGEL L. PERELES SANTIAGO. PO BOX 1832, FAJARDO, PR 00738; ESTANCIAS DE YAUCO, A 6 CALLE TOPACIO, YAUCO, PR 00698.

De: FIRSTBANK.

Se le emplaza y requiere que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramaiudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Este caso trata sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Garantías

en que la parte demandante solicita que se condene a la parte demandada a pagar: la suma principal de $87,211.18, más los intereses acumulados a razón del 9.25%; más $540.14 de cargos por mora los cuales se continúan acumulando hasta el total y completo pago de la deuda; más una suma equivalente al 30% del total adeudado para honorarios según pactados. Se le apercibe que, si dejare de hacerlo, se dictará contra usted sentencia en rebeldía, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle.

Lcdo. José Antonio Lamas Burgos Número del Tribunal Supremo 15693 PO Box 194089, San Juan, PR 00919

Teléfono: (787) 296-9500

Correo Electrónico: jlamas@lvprlaw.com

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y Sello del Tribunal, hoy 30 de mayo de 2023. WANDA I. SEGUÍ REYES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. LINDA I. MEDINA MEDINA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE VEGA BAJA - SUPERIOR LIMITADO BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Vs REYES OLIVER, ERNIE Caso: D4CD2016-0066. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

ERNIE REYES

OLIVER - SU ESPOSA FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS.

EL SECRETARIO(A) QUE SUSCRIBE LE NOTIFICA A USTED QUE EL 05 DE JUNIO DE 2017 , ESTETRIBUNAL HA DICTADO SENTENCIA, SENTENCIA PARCIAL O RESOLUCION EN ESTE CASO, QUE HASIDO DEBIDAMENTE REGISTRADA Y ARCHIVADA EN AUTOS DONDE PODRA USTED ENTERARSEDETALLADAMENTE DE LOS TERMINOS DE LA MISMA.ESTA NOTIFICACION SE PUBLICARA UNA SOLA VEZ EN UN PERIODICO DE CIRCULACION GENERAL ENLA ISLA DE PUERTO RICO, DENTRO DE LOS 10 DIAS SIGUIENTES A SU NOTIFICACION.Y, SIENDO O REPRESENTANDO USTED

UNA PARTE EN EL PROCEDIMIENTO SUJETA A LOS TERMINOSDE LA SENTENCIA, SENTENCIA PARCIAL O RESOLUCION, DE LA CUAL PUEDE ESTABLECERSERECURSO DE REVISION O APE-

LACION DENTRO DEL TERMINO DE 30 DIAS CONTADOS A PARTIR DE LAPUBLICACION POR EDICTO DE ESTA NOTIFICACION, DIRIJO A USTED ESTA NOTIFICACION QUE SECONSIDERARA HECHA EN LA FECHA DE LA PUBLICACION DE ESTE DICTO.COPIA DE ESTA NOTIFICACION HA SIDO ARCHIVADA EN LOS AUTOS DE ESTE CASO, CON FECHA DE 25DE MAYO DE 2023. LIC. ALBORS AGULLÓ, NATALIA. CRISTINALEGAL@ B2BFUNDING.NET. LIC. BELLVER ESPINOSA, ALEJANDROALEJANDRO@BELLVERLAW.COM. EN VEGA BAJA, PUERTO RICO, A 25 DE MAYO DE 2023. LAURA SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA. MARITZA ROSARIO ROSARIO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN

FELIPE

SANTANA FUENTES Demandante V.

BARBARA

VAZQUEZ VEGA Demandado(a)

Civil: BY2023RF00005. (4003). Sobre: DIVORCIO (RI). NOTIFICACIÓN DE S ENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

BARBARA VAZQUEZ VEGA

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 24 de mayo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 25 de mayo de 2023. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 25 de mayo de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA. DIANA RIVERA, SECRETARIA

AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS SALA SUPERIOR.

FIRSTBANK

PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante Vs. LILIANA ORTIZ

SANTIAGO, t/c/c Lilliana

Ortiz Santiago

Parte Demandada

CASO CIVIL NUM:

CG2021CV02003. SOBRE:

EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA

POR LA VIA ORDINARIA Y COBRO DE DINERO. ANUN-

CIO DE SUBASTA. El suscribiente, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Caguas, a los demandados de epígrafe y al público en general hace saber que venderá en pública subasta en la Oficina de Alguaciles, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, al mejor postor, en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América en efectivo, cheque certificado, o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, el derecho que tenga la parte demandada en el inmueble que se relaciona más adelante para pagar la SENTENCIA por la suma $97,791.50 y un principal diferido por la suma de $6,716.96 de balance de principal; los intereses adeudados sobre dicho principal de $97,791.50, y computados al 5.00% anual desde el primero de julio de 2019, hasta su total pago y completo pago; cargos por demora devengados, más la suma estipulada $10,865.52 para honorarios de abogado pactada en la escritura de hipoteca y cualesquiera otras sumas que por cualesquiera concepto legal se devenguen hasta el día de la subasta. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como

sigue: URBANA: Propiedad

Horizontal: Apartamento mil trescientos dos (1302) del Condominio Beatriz radicado en el Barrio Beatriz de la municipalidad de Cayey, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial d ochocientos veinte punto cuarenta y nueve (820.49) pies cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con un área común: por el SUR, con área común; por el ESTE, con pasillo área común y con pared que lo separa del apartamento mil trescientos siete (1307) y por el OESTE, con pared que lo separa del apartamento mil doscientos siete (1207. Apartamento ubicado en la segunda planta del edificio trece (13) del Condominio Beatriz, con entrada principal mirando hacia el Este, del cual consiste de

un área sala-comedor, cocina, balcón, tres (3) habitaciones cada uno con ropero, un baño y un line closet. A este apartamento le corresponde una participación de punto cincuenta y cinco por ciento (.55%) en los elementos comunes del Condominio. También tiene derecho a dos (2) espacios de estacionamiento identificados con el mismo número del apartamento. Inscrita al sistema Karibe, finca numero veinticinco mil quinientos cuarenta y siete (25547), Registro de Caguas I. Dirección Física: 1302 Condominio Beatriz, Cayey, Puerto Rico 00636. La primera subasta se llevará a cabo el día 27 de junio de 2023 a las 9:15 de la mañana y servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la suma de $108,655.24 sin admitirse oferta inferior. En el caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en la primera subasta, se celebrará una segunda subasta el día 10 de julio de 2023 a las 9:15 de la mañana, y el precio mínimo para esta segunda subasta será el de dos terceras partes del precio mínimo establecido para la primera subasta, o a sea la suma de $72,436.83. Si tampoco hubiera remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 17 de julio de 2023, a las 9:15 de la mañana, y el tipo mínimo para esta tercera subasta será la mitad del precio establecido para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $54,327.62. El mejor postor deberá pagar el importe de su oferta en efecto, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse el inmueble al acreedor hipotecario dentro de los diez días siguientes a la fecha de la última subasta, si así lo estimase conveniente, por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada conforme a la sentencia, si ésta fuera igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta y abonándose dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta fuera mayor. Se avisa a cualquier licitador que la propiedad queda sujeta al gravamen del Estado Libre Asociado y CRIM sobre la propiedad inmueble por contribuciones adeudadas y que el pago de dichas contribuciones es la responsabilidad del licitador. Que se entenderá por todo licitador acepte como suficiente la titulación y que los cargos y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes en entendiéndose que el rematador los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse su extinción al

precio rematante. Todos los nombres de los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, siempre que surgen de la certificación registral, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Y para conocimiento de licitadores, del público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria en Puerto Rico y en los sitios públicos de acuerdo a las disposiciones de la Regla 51.7 de las de Procedimiento Civil, así como para la publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria y en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas con antelación a la fecha de la primera subasta y por lo menos una vez por semana. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento indicado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables. (Art. 102 (1) de la Ley núm. 210-2015). Expedido el presente en Caguas, Puerto Rico, a 25 de mayo de 2023. Eduardo Aldebol Miranda, Alguacil Del Tribunal De Primera Instancia Sala De Caguas.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

FIRSTBANK

PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante Vs. FELICITA RAMIREZ TORRES; SUCESION DE JULIAN CLAUDIO, compuesta por Carlos Serrano Ramirez y Julián Xavier Serrano Ramirez; John Doe y Richard Roe, posibles herederos desconocidos, ADMINISTRACION

PARA EL SUSTENTO DE MENORES, CENTRO DE RECAUDA CION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

Parte Demandada

CIVIL NUM. CG2022CV02519.

SOBRE: EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA POR LA VIA ORDINARIA Y COBRO DE DINERO. ANUNCIO DE SUBASTA. El suscribiente, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Caguas, a los demandados de epígrafe y al público en general hace saber que venderá en pública subasta en la Oficina de Alguaciles, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, al mejor postor, en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América en efectivo, cheque certificado, o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, el derecho que tenga la parte demandada en el inmueble que se relaciona más adelante para pagar la SENTENCIA por la suma de $29,860.93 de balance de principal, el cual se compone de un primer principal por la suma de $27,737.78 y un principal diferido por la suma de $2,123.15, más los intereses calculados sobre la suma de $27,737.78, a razón de 6.25% desde el primero de noviembre de 2020, el 5% sobre cada mensualidad adeudada, y cualesquiera otras cantidades pactadas en la escritura de hipoteca, desde la fecha antes mencionada, más la suma de $7,400.00 estipulada para honorarios de abogado pactada en la escritura de hipoteca y cualesquiera otras sumas que por cualesquiera concepto legal se devenguen hasta el día de la subasta. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue:

URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbanización Villas de Castro situado en el Barrio Tomas de Castro del término municipal de Caguas, Puerto Rico, marcado con el número catorce (14) del Bloque “R” con un área de trescientos cincuenta y dos punto treinta y nueve (352.39) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el Norte, con la calle trece (13), en trece punto diez (13.10) metros; por el Sur, con el solar número siete en trece punto diez metros (7) (13.10); por el Este, con el solar quince en veintiséis punto noventa (15) (26.90) metros; y por el Oeste, con el solar trece (13) en veintiséis punto noventa (26.90) metros. Enclava una casa de concreto diseñada para una familia. Inscrita al folio ciento ochenta y seis (186) del tomo mil ciento dieciséis (1116) de Caguas, finca número treinta y ocho mil doscientos nueve (38,209), Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas I. Dirección Física: Urb. Villas De Castro, R14 Calle 13, Caguas, PR 00725. La primera subasta se llevará a cabo el día 27 de junio de 2023 a las 9:45 de la mañana y servirá de tipo mínimo para la

misma la suma de $74,000.00 sin admitirse oferta inferior. En el caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en la primera subasta, se celebrará una segunda subasta el día 10 de julio de 2023, a las 9:45 de la mañana, y el precio mínimo para esta segunda subasta será el de dos terceras partes del precio mínimo establecido para la primera subasta, o a sea la suma de $49,333.33. Si tampoco hubiera remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 17 de julio de 2023, a las 9:45 de la mañana, y el tipo mínimo para esta tercera subasta será la mitad del precio establecido para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $37,000.00. El mejor postor deberá pagar el importe de su oferta en efecto, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse el inmueble al acreedor hipotecario dentro de los diez días siguientes a la fecha de la última subasta, si así lo estimase conveniente, por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada conforme a la sentencia, si ésta fuera igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta y abonándose dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta fuera mayor. Se avisa a cualquier licitador que la propiedad queda sujeta al gravamen del Estado Libre Asociado y CRIM sobre la propiedad inmueble por contribuciones adeudadas y que el pago de dichas contribuciones es la responsabilidad del licitador. Que se entenderá por todo licitador acepte como suficiente la titulación y que los cargos y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes en entendiéndose que el rematador los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse su extinción al precio rematante. Todos los nombres de los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, siempre que surgen de la certificación registral, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios

de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Y para conocimiento de licitadores, del público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria en Puerto Rico y en los sitios públicos de acuerdo a las disposiciones de la Regla 51.7 de las de Procedimiento Civil, así como para la publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria y en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas con antelación a la fecha de la primera subasta y por lo menos una vez por semana. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento indicado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables. (Art. 102 (1) de la Ley núm. 210-2015). Expedido el presente en Caguas, Puerto Rico, a 25 de mayo de 2023. Eduardo Aldebol Miranda, Alguacil Auxiliar Del Tribunal De Primera Instancia Sala De Caguas.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Parte Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE ANTONIO REYES LOZADA COMPUESTA POR FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; TEODORA GARCÍA MARTÍNEZ, POR SÍ Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA; JANET REYES

GARCÍA, POR SÍ Y COMO HEREDERA DE ANTONIO REYES LOZADA; SUCESIÓN DE ANTONIO REYES GARCÍA

COMPUESTA POR LUZ

MARÍA BERRÍOS T/C/C

TATITA BERRÍOS, EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA Y COMO MADRE CON PATRIA POTESTAD DE SU HIJO MENOR DE EDAD SAMUEL ANTONIO REYES BERRÍOS, SUTANO Y PERENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESIÓN DE ANTONIO REYES NAVARRO

COMPUESTA POR CHARLEEN ORTIZ GONZÁLEZ, SUTANEJO Y PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: CG2021CV03073.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA

POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EMPLAZAMIENTO Y REQUERIMIENTO DE INTERPELACIÓN

POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E.U.U., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: CHARLEEN ORTIZ GONZÁLEZ COMO

HEREDERA DE ANTONIO REYES NAVARRO A SUS ÚLTIMAS DIRECCIONES

CONOCIDAS: URB.

TAMARINDO 1, E22

CALLE 4, SAN LORENZO, PR 00754-3719, URB.

LOS TAMARINDOS, E22

CALLE 4, SAN LORENZO, PR 00754-3719, 1545

SOFTSHELL ST., SAINT

CLOUD, FL 34771-7517, URB. SELLE, CARR 181

CASA #5, SAN LORENZO, PR 00754 Y URB.

JARDINES DE CERRO

GORDO, A-19 CALLE

3, SAN LORENZO, PR 00754.

SUTANEJO Y PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS, CUYAS IDENTIDADES Y DIRECCIONES SE DESCONOCEN.

Quedan ustedes notificados que en este Tribunal se ha radicado Demanda sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria por lo que la parte demandante ha declarado la totalidad de la deuda vencida ascendente a la suma de de $89,819.50 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 2.5% anual desde el 1 de diciembre de 2017 hasta su completo pago, más $437.12 de recargos acumulados, los cuales continuarán en aumento hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más la cantidad estipulada de $8,950.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato de préstamo. La propiedad que garantiza hipotecariamente el préstamo es la siguiente: URBANA: Solar #22 del bloque “E” del Residencial Los Tamarindos en el Barrio Hato del término municipal de San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, con cabida de 272.15 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con

los solares #3 y #4 distancia de 13.12 metros; por el SUR, con la Calle #4, distancia de 12.00 metros; por el ESTE, con el solar #23, distancia de 21.36 metros; por el OESTE, con el solar #21, distancia de 22.00 metros. Ubica en este solar casa de concreto y bloques dedicada a residencia. Inscrita al folio 265 del tomo 177 de San Lorenzo, Finca 8985. Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección II. La hipoteca consta inscrita como asiento abreviado al folio 267 vuelto del tomo 177 de San Lorenzo, Finca 8985. Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección II, inscripción 5ta. La primera y segunda escritura de modificación de hipoteca constan inscritas al tomo Karibe de San Lorenzo, Finca 8985. Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección II, inscripciones 7ma. y 8va., respectivamente. La demandante es la tenedora por endoso, por valor recibido y de buena fe del referido pagaré objeto de la presente acción. Se interpela a los demandados para que acepten o renuncien a la herencia de la causante dentro de los 30 días subsiguientes a la fecha que fuesen emplazados o requeridos que contesten, para darle cumplimiento al Artículo 1578 del nuevo Código Civil de Puerto Rico, 31 L.P.R.A. § 11021, entendiéndose que, si no se expresan dentro de dicho término, aceptan el caudal relicto; la renuncia se hará por instrumento público o por escrito judicial. La parte demandada deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. Se le advierte que si no contesta la Demanda, radicando el original de la contestación en este Tribunal y enviando copia de la contestación a la abogada de la Parte Demandante, Lcda. Belma Alonso García, a: P.O. Box 3922, Guaynabo, PR 009703922, teléfono (787) 789-1826, correo electrónico: oficinabelmaalonso@gmail.com, dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publicación, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy, 22 de mayo de 2023, en Caguas, Puerto Rico. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. SANDRA J. TRINIDAD CAÑUELAS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

By DAN HIGGINS

Damar Hamlin was easy to spot on the sideline of the Buffalo Bills’ practice field in Orchard Park, New York earlier this week.

Most of the defensive players on the “blue” side wore helmets for the team’s optional workouts. Hamlin’s head was instead covered in a pink tie-dyed beanie with a Bills logo, a sign that the safety was not yet tackling teammates.

It was the second on-field workout for Hamlin, 25, since he received lifesaving care after undergoing cardiac arrest on the field during an NFL game Jan. 2. Three specialists cleared Hamlin to return to football in April, and he participated with teammates in drills last week during the team’s first offseason workouts.

As the voluntary training resumed Tuesday, Hamlin’s pink headgear was one of the few signs that the mundane drilling and stretching marked a milestone that was nearly unthinkable a few months earlier.

Hamlin walked with his teammates up and down the field, next to the Bills’ Highmark Stadium, as players scrimmaged. The third-year defender participated in drills and at one point ran a route with the offense, catching a pass in the end zone from backup quarterback Matt Barkley.

At one point during the workout, which lasted nearly two hours, Hamlin got ribbed during a chat with fellow defensive backs Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde.

“I was teasing him a little. I told him he was looking swole,” Hyde said after practice.

“He told me he got to lift a little weight yesterday.”

The near normalcy of Hamlin’s appearance in a football workout is a far cry from

the tense nine minutes in January during which trainers and physicians performed CPR on him while television cameras captured the grief-stricken faces of Bills players.

Hamlin was revived and was taken off the field in an ambulance.

After his release from the hospital later that month, Hamlin made a number of high-profile public appearances. He helped to honor Bills training and medical staff, as

well as the hospital employees who treated him, during a pregame ceremony at the Super Bowl in February. Days before the game, Hamlin gave an emotional speech after accepting the Community Award during the NFL Honors ceremony.

In March, Hamlin met with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office and spoke before Congress in support of a bill that, if passed, would fund access to automated external defibrillators in schools.

Last week, the Bills posted a video of several players and staff members receiving training in CPR and the use of defibrillators before Hamlin’s return.

The team’s contact drills are scheduled to begin next week, when Bills players are slated for three practices. Although general manager Brandon Beane said Hamlin had been “fully cleared” for football activities, Hyde acknowledged that players can experience an initial reluctance to return to the violent collisions that are inherent to the game.

Hyde injured his neck last season during Week 2, and underwent spinal surgery to remove a herniated disc and fuse two vertebrae together. He returned to practice Jan. 12, just days after Hamlin’s near-death experience.

Hyde said anytime a player comes back from an injury, “there’s a little mental block to get out there and go play fast. It’s such a violent game.”

Damar Hamlin’s return to football looks almost normal Racing regulators hold emergency meeting to investigate horse deaths

By JOE DRAPE

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority gathered Kentucky state regulatory veterinarians, along with vets from Churchill Downs, earlier this week to examine why 12 horses have been fatally injured at the historic racetrack in a matter of weeks and to decide whether to recommend pausing racing there.

Lisa Lazarus, CEO of the authority, called the “emergency veterinary summit” in Lexington, Kentucky, to review necropsies, toxicology reports and veterinarians’ and trainers’ notes on the deaths, seven of which preceded this month’s Kentucky Derby. The deaths have cast a pall over the Triple Crown season, the few weeks each spring when casual sports fans have heightened focus on horse racing.

In addition, the authority has asked a

longtime California track superintendent, Dennis Moore, to examine the racing surfaces at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, and offer an independent analysis of the dirt and turf courses’ suitability for racing.

“I have not had a single jockey or trainer tell me that they believe the track is a factor in these fatalities,” Lazarus said Tuesday. Most of the deaths occurred after horses broke down while racing.

Along with a review of the protocols Kentucky state veterinarians follow to make sure horses are fit to race, Lazarus said that vet records would be scoured for illegal or misused drugs. She said the authority will apply “very intense scrutiny from a testing standpoint to any horse that we’re concerned about” as well as increased surveillance and attention on their trainers.

The reviews of the veterinary and medication history of each horse were led by Jennifer Durenberger, the authority’s director of equine safety and welfare.

“It’s basically trying to get a whole snapshot of that horse’s history in the month leading up to the injury,” Lazarus said. “We have to turn over every leaf, look under every stone.”

She said her agency would have a recommendation from the summit by the end of the day Wednesday about whether and how Churchill Downs should proceed with racing.

“Everyone is committed to figuring out what is happening and committed to stopping it,” Lazarus said.

Lazarus acknowledged that the authority could not force Churchill Downs to stop holding races, but it could prohibit the track from sending the broadcast of

its races to other courses or internet betting sites to be wagered on. That would be costly to Churchill Downs, which receives a percentage of those bets.

“My strong view is that if we were to make a recommendation to Churchill Downs to shut down racing that they would accept that recommendation,” Lazarus said.

The authority is flexing its muscles as troubles in horse racing are raising questions about how long America’s oldest sport can continue to have its social license renewed.

The authority was established by Congress and is overseen by the Federal Trade Commission to ensure the health and safety of horse racing’s athletes — human and equine. Its primary responsibility is to eliminate doping and abuse within thoroughbred racing.

Damar Hamlin running drills with his teammates on Tuesday. On Jan. 2, he was revived after undergoing cardiac arrest on the field during a game.

Can these Russians become tennis’ next great sister act?

By MATTHEW FUTTERMAN

Long day for the Andreeva family.

First came an early rise to get Mirra, a 16-year-old Russian, ready for her 11 a.m. French Open debut against Alison Riske-Amritraj of the United States. Mirra was as efficient as they come, finishing her match Tuesday in 56 minutes by improvising an array of easy, smooth winners against an opponent twice her age.

“I just play as I feel inside,” she said.

Then came a long wait for Mirra’s older sister, 18-year-old Erika, who was last up on Court No. 14 against Emma Navarro, another American. She took the court just after 7:30 p.m. in Paris. With the sun dropping toward the banks of the Seine, she gave every ounce of energy she had to try to match her sister’s success before Navarro won in three sets, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, despite Andreeva showing plenty of promise.

One family, more than a dozen hours on the grounds of Roland Garros, a 16-yearold in the second round, and an 18-year-old who came oh-so-close. So it goes for tennis’ newest sister act.

If this all sounds a bit familiar, it should. Sister acts are not exactly new in women’s tennis, which was headlined for more than two decades by the American duo of Serena and Venus Williams. They won a combined 30 Grand Slam singles titles. Venus Williams, 42, has not retired, though another major title seems unlikely.

More recently, Naomi Osaka of Japan and her sister, Mari, had their moments, though Mari never got higher than 280th in the singles rankings before retiring in 2021 at age 24. Leylah Fernández of Canada, a 2021 U.S. Open finalist, has partnered in doubles with her younger sister Bianca. This French Open main draw even had another sister duo — Linda and Brenda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic. Both lost their openinground matches.

Coaches and parents — who are often one and the same — say the reasons for sisterly success is fairly obvious: never having to look far for a practice partner. Also, the younger sibling grows up with the motivation of trying to overtake the older one. And yet the accomplishment still feels a bit astounding each time it happens, even more so when the journey starts in Siberia, as it did for the Andreevas.

Mirra said her mother, Raisa Andreeva, fell in love with the sport while watching Marat Safin of Russia in the Australian Open in 2005, when he won the tournament. She

decided then that she wanted her children to be tennis players.

As a toddler, Mirra trailed along to her sister’s tennis practices and matches. At 6, she started playing seriously herself. When the girls showed early promise, the family moved from Siberia, which was not exactly teeming with tennis players or tennis friendly weather, to Sochi, Russia, with a mild climate along the Black Sea, and then Cannes, France, where they enrolled in a tennis academy.

Mirra said she was about 8 years old when she competed in her first international tennis tournament, an under-12 competition in Germany, where she made the semifinals. When she was 12, a recruiter for IMG, a sports and entertainment firm, spotted her at a tournament for top juniors.

“She was a small player but she was

feisty and fighting and just running for the ball and a great competitor and that was the differentiator,” said Juan Acuna Gerard, an IMG agent. “Our recruiter said, ‘This girl is special.’ She was undersized for her age but fiercely competitive.”

The company now represents Erika, too.

Last month, still not 16, Mirra became one of the youngest players to beat a top20 opponent, knocking off Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil on her way to the round of 16 at the Madrid Open.

She said she wasn’t nervous then, or before her match Tuesday. She needed her alarm to wake her up in the morning.

“I was excited but in a good way, you know?” Mirra said.

The Andreeva sisters worked under the radar on a day when much of Roland Garros was buzzing about one of the biggest upsets

in recent memory, as Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil, 172nd in men’s singles, beat Daniil Medvedev, the former world No. 1 who is the second seed at the French Open, in five sets.

Medvedev, who excels on hard courts, has never been a fan of clay-court tennis or had much success at Roland Garros. But he won the final earlier this month at the Italian Open, the main clay-court tournament before the French Open. It seemed like the victory might have been the beginning of a beautiful friendship between Medvedev, the creative Russian, and the red clay. He declared himself cautiously optimistic about his chances. But Medvedev was never comfortable on a gusty Tuesday afternoon, spraying balls in the wind, double-faulting 15 times and catching an opponent playing the match of his life.

“Every time it finishes I’m happy,” Medvedev said of his clay-court season. “I had a mouthful of clay from the third game of the match.”

Mirra Andreeva had no such issues. Her biggest problem of the day was that her sister’s match started too late for her to hang around to watch it. That may have been for the best. She said she gets far more nervous watching her sister’s matches than while playing her own.

Tuesday evening would have caused plenty of jitters. Erika dropped a messy first set, gritted her way to draw even with a clinic in tennis defense, then surged to a 3-0 lead in the deciding set, only to watch Navarro find her groove and win six of the next seven games. Sitting in the front row, quietly urging her daughter on all evening, Raisa Andreeva finally left her seat as Erika’s lead slipped away.

The loss left Mirra to carry the family torch the rest of the way in Paris. She will face Diane Parry of France on Thursday, no easy task but it beats chemistry, the class that she said befuddles her in her online school.

“Chemistry is so bad,” she said. “I don’t understand anything.”

Tennis, on the other hand, comes much more naturally. Her coaches — she and Erika have separate ones — give her a game plan before each match. She listens, takes it in, then forgets what she was told almost as soon as she walks onto the court, playing by feel instead.

“If I feel that I have to do a drop shot, even though the score is not really appropriate to do a drop shot, I will do it anyways,” she said. “I don’t know how to explain.”

For the moment, she does not have to.

Mirra Andreeva won her first-round match against Alison Riske-Amritraj at the French Open on Thursday.

Erika Andreeva of Russia lost her first-round match to Emma Navarro of the United States in three sets.

Sudoku

How to Play:

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

Sudoku Rules:

Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every 3x3 square must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

Aries (Mar 21-April 20)

The day is likely to be confrontational. The latest developments in your career have offered you so little encouragement that you’re tempted to cut back on your efforts, but your financial situation is forcing you to try even harder. The flashes of insight you gain today are only likely to increase your discomfort, but in the end they will provide some valuable information.

Taurus (April 21-May 21)

You’re likely to experience a day of thoughtfulness and reflection, Taurus. Your state of mind will resemble that of a person who has just rebelled against everything and is now in search of a new vehicle for self-fulfillment. Others seem to be trying to exert pressure on you. Will you yield or will you listen to your inner voice? You will know the answer by the end of the day!

Gemini (May 22-June 21)

The day may give you great insight into the decisions you face concerning your future. Now is the time to decide on your priorities. Do you want a career right away or would you prefer to continue your studies? Are you satisfied with your love life and family relationships? It’s possible that a major upheaval in one of these realms will affect all the others. It will be interesting!

Cancer (June 22-July 23)

Prepare for a somewhat stressful day, Cancer. Your family life may be marred by some disagreements. There’s some likelihood you will feel as though your territory is being invaded and your range of action limited. But you have no intention of surrendering. You’ve a right to a room of your own. You will fight for it tooth and nail!

Leo (July 24-Aug 23)

You may have planned to isolate yourself in order to get things done, but that won’t be possible. It’s like a force is destabilizing your professional life. Nothing seems to go right today. Everyone may be disagreeing, misunderstandings may crop up, things could be delayed, and communications are likely to be scrambled. You will be asked to take sides in a conflict, Leo. Try to stay neutral.

Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)

People seem fussy about your way of doing things today, Virgo. Try as you might, it seems there’s no pleasing the authorities. You, one of the world’s great escape artists, would be well advised to choose this opportunity to do a vanishing act. However, if the financial health of your home is at stake, it would be better to stay and face the music.

Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)

Your characteristic independence may play some tricks on you today, Libra. What you say won’t be approved of as easily as usual. Even though you have quite a bit of freedom, there are others who assume that you feel you don’t have enough. There’s no way to please everybody. This concern is their problem, not yours. Do the people you associate with daily really understand who you are?

Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)

Here is a day that may make you think you aren’t exactly in the right place in your profession, Scorpio. Could it be that your current position is too traditional? You’re someone who wants to expand on all the ideas that you have at any given moment. It would seem that your superiors aren’t evolving in the same way. If this is the case, take the necessary action.

Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)

Some past stories may come back to haunt you today, Sagittarius. If you once held a government post, for example, a journalist could undercover some error that you made years ago and publish it in today’s newspaper! Everyone has to deal with the jealousy of others at some point in their lives. So prepare yourself and fight back!

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)

You may be taking stock of your professional life, Capricorn. If this is so, be careful to balance strategy with personal objectives. If you’re a journalist, think about writing for yourself as well as the paper. You could write novels, poetry, or plays. It doesn’t matter what you create so long as it accurately reflects what you feel and is quite apart from your professional life.

Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)

Something strange may happen today. Someone in your family may reproach you for having chosen your profession. It may be that your career has little connection with what people have traditionally done in your family. But just because a tradition is lost doesn’t mean that it must be mourned, Aquarius. Listen to your heart. If you’ve chosen a profession that you’re truly meant for, you will know it.

Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)

Authorities who have been your guides up to now may confront you. The hour is here to set aside your fears and lead yourself along your path. This is undoubtedly a very positive state of affairs. It means that you’re maturing, Pisces. Besides, there’s nothing to stop you from asking for help from time to time, should you need it.

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