Tuesday Jun 30, 2020

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

San Juan The

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DAILY

Star

P22

Pets Left Behind by COVID-19

PRASA to Close the Tap With Carraízo’s Water Level in the Red, Public Utility Announces Rationing Plan P4

CESCO to Reopen, But by Appointment Only Starting Next Week

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NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 19

Gov’t Officials Referred to Authorities by House Health Committee P3

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Tuesday, June 30, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

GOOD MORNING

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June 30, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star, the only paper with News Service in English in Puerto Rico, publishes 7 days a week, with a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday edition, along with a Weekend Edition to cover Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

House Health Committee files report with new referrals of gov’t officials for law violations in purchase of COVID-19 tests

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he House Health Committee on Monday presented the final report on the investigation of the purchasing process for tests to detect COVID-19, as ordered in Resolution 1741.

The report contains new referrals to state and federal agencies for irregularities, negligence and violation of established laws and regulations.

“We cannot fail to emphasize that we have the power to authorize in the first instance the budget for income and expenses of our government,” said Health Committee Chairman Rep. Juan Oscar Morales in a written communication. “But with this power comes the enormous responsibility of ensuring that the Executive Branch makes good use of those funds. If in other instances or administrations this has not been audited, we have been doing so since we arrived at the Legislature and since I have chaired the House Health Committee.”

“Above partisan, intra-party or inter-party considerations, the performance of public officials and private individuals involved in these transactions and who are responsible for irregularities with public funds and violations of laws and regulations must be evaluated,” the legislator reiterated.

The report, which also contains findings and recommendations, details that it refers to several officials of the Puerto Rico government and people who were involved in the process of purchasing the tests with the Department of Health.

Those individuals are Iris Santos, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OGP by its Spanish initials); CPA Alfonso Rossy, assistant secretary of accounting at the island Treasury Department; Dr. Segundo Rodríguez Quilichini, coordinator of the Medical Task Force; Antonio Pabón Batlle, La Fortaleza chief of staff; Lillian Sánchez, La Fortaleza deputy chief of staff; Mabel Cabeza, former employee of the Health Department and La Fortaleza; Guarina Delgado García, special assistant in the Emergency Management and Disaster Administration Bureau (NMEAD by its Spanish acronym); Ottmar Chávez, General Services administrator; Juan Maldonado de Jesús, representative of Apex General Contractors; Robert Rodríguez, president of Apex General Contractors; and Ricardo Vázquez Hernández, president of 313 LLC. The report establishes that Santos, director of the OGP, may have been negligent in fulfilling her duty under Article 263 of the Penal Code, in addition to possibly having violated Article 264 of the Penal Code, which addresses the embezzlement of public funds. Rossy, the CPA, could have been negligent in the fulfillment of his duty according to Articles 262 and 263 of the Penal Code and could have violated Article 4.2 (of Chapter IV Subsection (r) and (s)) of the Government Ethics Law, as well as Article 9 of the Accounting Act of the Government of Puerto Rico. In addition, he may have violated Article 264 of the Penal Code that addresses the embezzlement of public funds. Rodríguez Quilichini may have been negligent in fulfilling his duty pursuant to Articles 254, 255, 261, 262 and 263 of the Penal Code and may have violated Article 4.2 of the Government Ethics Law.

Likewise, Pabón Batlle and Sánchez may have been negligent in fulfilling their duty under Articles 262 and 263 of the Penal Code, and may have violated Article 4.2 of the Government Ethics Law, possibly violating, in multiple instances, what constitute the functions and duties of their positions.

The report states that Cabeza may have been negligent in fulfilling her duty under Articles 254, 255 and 261 of the Penal Code and could have violated Article 4.2 of the Government Ethics Law. Delgado García may have been negligent in fulfilling her duty under Article 263 of the Penal Code.

Likewise, Chávez may have been negligent in the fulfillment of her duty pursuant to the provisions of Article 263 of the Penal Code and may have violated Article 9 of the Accounting Law, in addition to possibly having violated Article 264 of the Penal Code.

The report refers to the attorney Maldonado de Jesús for possible violations of Article 56 of the Notarial Law and Rule 67 (evidence of legitimation and signature) of the Notarial Regulations, and for possibly having violated the Canons of Professional Ethics, especially Canon 35 (sincerity and honesty), as well as for having committed perjury when testifying in violation of Article 33 of the Political Code of Puerto Rico and Article 269 of Law 146-2012, known as the Puerto Rico Penal Code.

The report establishes that Rodríguez may have violated Articles 202, 211 and 212 of the Penal Code. Likewise, it establishes that Vázquez could have committed the crime of ideological falsehood (Article 212 of the Penal Code) and violated Article 34 of the Political Code, as well as Article 298b of the Penal Code.

In the final report, it is stated that due to the exhaustive analysis that the committee made with all the information in its possession, another irregularity was added by Gen. José Burgos, NMEAD commissioner, since he signed with Apex General Contractors an invoice for the amount of $38 million, where it certified that it had received a million tests, without, in fact, that having happened.

“Endangered in this way, was the disbursement of public funds,” the report adds. “In addition, from the above, it is surprisingly embarrassing, that a prominent military man, of the rank of GENERAL, lends himself to assert, in a document, facts that are false, of which he is proven false, and on which he will pay with public funds.”

Referrals will be sent to the Office of the Independent Special Prosecutor Panel, Government Ethics Office, Office of the Comptroller, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Supreme Court of Puerto Rico.

Among the findings, a pattern of irregularities and negligence in the process of purchases made and in the fulfillment of the duty of various government officials stands out as a result of the investigation, putting the lives and health of all citizens at risk.

Likewise, there were strong indications of gross deficiency in the administrative direction of the Health Department, which went nine days without a head official while important decisions were made on behalf of the people of Puerto Rico in the midst of a pandemic.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Water rationing set for Thursday. Here’s which towns will be affected

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

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uerto Rico Aqueducts and Sewers Authority (PRASA) President Doriel Pagán Crespo urged citizens on Monday to be cautious with their water consumption, as 140,000 clients are going to be affected by a service interruption plan on account of the low water levels in the Carraízo reservoir.

The following plan will take place starting Thursday (July 2) at 9 a.m. Clients who get their potable water from the Sergio Cuevas Filtration Facility will experience a 24-hour on-and-off interruption. PRASA divided the area into two zones, A and B, in order to determine a uniform system of interruption and restoration. This phase will affect parts of San Juan, Trujillo Alto, Carolina and Canóvanas.

“As a pre-emptive measure to manage the water shortage of the reservoir, we will begin the period of programmed interruptions for the sectors that are supplied by the Carraízo reservoir, which provides water to the largest population in the metropolitan area,” Pagán Crespo said.

“We reiterate the call to make prudent use of water and we urge you to be moderate in your consumption. We must conserve water.”

In response to questions from the press, the PRASA president said citizens must keep calm in

the situation. Although many clients might have their water service interrupted, she insisted that they should not overreact by storing excessive amounts of water, as this could decrease the reseroir’s water levels.

“For months, we have reported, educated and made announcements to raise awareness on this issue. We are not asking citizens to not store water, but rather to be wise in storing what you need for the interruption phase,” she said.

“Despite finding ourselves at this point, we will

keep working with the same sensibleness and commitment.”

Pagán Crespo also advised the public to follow PRASA’s social media accounts and stay alert, as they will announce when the interruptions start and how clients can supply themselves at around 23 oasis spots that will be available during this stage. She also confirmed that she will be in touch with the mayors of the affected municipalities regarding the situation.

The press conference took place after Gov.

Wanda Vázquez Garced declared an islandwide state of emergency for drought. Executive Order 2020-049 orders the Public Safety Department to carry out the interagency coordination of executive actions and planning, mitigation, response and recovery techniques to comprehensively address the declaration of drought emergency, with the advice of various government agencies.

In order to take action on and monitor the situation, every agency must follow the Protocol for Drought Management in Puerto Rico 2018.

Up to $2,500 fine for inappropriate water usage During the press conference, the PRASA chief submitted an administrative order which details certain prohibitions on water usage amid the rationing that was announced for the 140,000 clients who are supplied by the Carraízo reservoir.

“The following order will restrict undue use of water such as using hoses or pressure washing equipment … washing automobiles, motorcycles,” Pagán Crespo said. “This will apply in the municipalities categorized as under moderate or severe drought.”

Likewise, the order imposes a $250 fine for a first incidence, $1,000 for a second and $2,500 for a third. However, from July 1 to July 15, PRASA will conduct an orientation campaign to inform their clients as to wha activities will be regulated. Then, starting July 16, the agency will impose penalty fees for violations.

Oversight board asks PRASA for P3 by the end of 2020

By THE STAR STAFF

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he Financial Oversight and Management Board expects the Puerto Rico Aqueducts & Sewers Authority (PRASA) to enter into a public-private partnership (P3) before the end of the year for a smart meter system to reduce the public corporation’s loss of water due to leakage and theft.

The executive director of the oversight board, Natalie Jaresko, said Monday that up to 60 percent of the island’s potable water supply is lost.

“Water is life and people depend on water,” Jaresko said. “Therefore, we need a stable water utility.”

Puerto Rico’s water is safe to drink, but water quality reports indicate troubling trends for health-based violations, such as nitrates and chlorine-based disinfection byproducts, she said.

The public utility issued an invitation for bids on the project in April 2019 and three companies responded. At the time, no details were revealed about the companies.

The proposed metering system would involve the use of

advanced metering infrastructure and automatic meter reading devices.

Jaresko’s remarks came as Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced issued an executive order imposing rationing because of a severe water drought.

Regarding dredging plans to increase the capacity of the water reservoirs and avoid water rationing, the fiscal plan says PRASA has included in its resiliency projects around $1 billion for reservoir dredging, which must be subject to federal funds availability.

The oversight board official’s remarks were made during a roundtable to announce that the board has certified the 2020 fiscal plans for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Authority, and PRASA. “The three Fiscal Plans are roadmaps to a better quality of life in Puerto Rico and more safety and continuity during hurricanes, during earthquakes, during droughts, and every day,” Jaresko said. “Electricity, roads, and water are essential for every resident, and neglect of those essential

elements has negatively affected everyday life in Puerto Rico for years, if not decades.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

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Fiscal board: Deadline for revised UPR FY2021 budget is today

By THE STAR STAFF

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ith the island Senate and House of Representatives not agreeing on a single version of the commonwealth budget, the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico told the government in a letter Monday it wants a revised version of the University of Puerto Rico’s (UPR) proposed fiscal year (FY) 2021 budget by today.

Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz said the upper chamber will not concur with the House version of the budget. The current budget will continue in effect in the new fiscal year, which starts Wednesday (July 1).

“It looks like we are not going to concur with the House budget,” Rivera Schatz said. “Therefore, the current budget will continue in effect.”

Last week, the House passed the governor’s version of the budget while the

Senate approved the version designed by the Financial Oversight and Management Board.

Meanwhile, the oversight board threatened to submit its own budget for UPR unless it receives from the government a revised, compliant budget by today, the letter from the oversight board said.

The letter said the proposed UPR budget for FY 2021, submitted to the oversight board on June 26, is not compliant with the fiscal plan for UPR as certified by the board on June 12.

If the governor fails to submit a revised, compliant budget to the oversight board, the board then will submit its own compliant budget to the governor today, and that budget shall be deemed to be approved by the governor, deemed to be subject to a compliance certification issued by the oversight board to the governor, and in full force and effect beginning Wednesday, the

first day of the new fiscal year.

A summary of major items that are noncompliant with the 2020 UPR certified fiscal plan, and require corrective action were: 1. Payroll: Payroll is significantly higher than the 2020 certified fiscal plan allows for FY 2021.

2. Benefit reductions: The proposed budget does not lower monthly employer contribution on medical benefits. Similarly, UPR did not eliminate the amount for the Christmas bonus budget line item. Also, calculating the cost of employee benefits based on the information included in the contract review submission would yield a number inconsistent with the proposal in this budget submission.

3. Tuition exemptions: Tuition net of scholarship expenditures is lower than required under the 2020 UPR certified fiscal plan.

4. Capital projects program: The pro-

posed budget by UPR includes only $6 million in internal capital projects (capex); it significantly underfunds critical capex needs for the UPR system.

5. Pension reform: The proposed budget does not tie the employer contribution to a pension reform.

6. Debt: The proposed budget does not include funds to pay debt service.

CESCO to open Monday, but not so fast. Citizens must book an appointment

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

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s early as Wednesday (July 1), citizens will be able to book appointments to go to the Driver Service Centers (CESCO by its Spanish acronym) as they reopen on July 6, Transportation and Public Works (DTOP) Secretary Carlos Contreras Aponte said Monday.

In order to arrange an appointment, citizens must log in to http://cesco.turnospr.com/. In addition to instructions for choosing the time and date of a consultation, the website will have downloadable versions of required documents and a portal to buy stamps from the Treasury Department.

Contreras Aponte said that, in order to complete any process, people must follow instructions available at the website.

“It is very important to use these platforms to make arrangements,” he said. “Make sure you arrive with your documents and paid stamps; if not, we must ask you to book another appointment.”

During a press conference, Contreras Aponte said that in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and help citizens get their new licenses, CESCO has reinforced its webpage CESCO Citas and its smartphone app CESCO Digital to provide any other services that do not require physically appearing at their locations. The DTOP secretary stressed that any person without a booked appointment

will not be provided any service.

“Any person who doesn’t have an appointment will not be attended to, no matter how urgent the case might be,” Contreras Aponte said. “We cannot be offering any favors here.

There will be no bending of the rules because our reality will be that these locations will be busy. If I let someone in at 10 a.m., the person who has that reservation will be helped at 10:15. It will disrupt our day.”

In order to renew around 167,000 drivers’ licenses, The DTOP secretary explained that the appointments will be phased. Starting on July 1, drivers with January to March expired licenses and their last digit ending in 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 can book an appointment, followed by, on July 2, drivers whose licenses expired from January to March and their last digit ends in 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9. On July 3, anyone with an expired license from January to March can set up a consultation.

Meanwhile, drivers with April to May expired licenses can arrange a meeting on CESCO Citas on July 15. On Aug. 1, CESCO will accept appointments from drivers with expired licenses in June and July. People with licenses that expire in August and September can arrange a meeting as of Aug. 15.

Anyone with a license that expires October or November can reserve a consultation as early as Sept. 1.

Citizens must show up for an appointment wearing a face mask and will have a screening test before going in. Contreras Aponte estimated that the process will take around 15 to 20 minutes. He also recommended that platform users arrive 20 minutes before their appointment time.

“Do not arrive earlier; we will ask you to wait in your car,” he said. “We want to prevent gatherings and lines.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Resident commissioner urges small businesses to claim assistance

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

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esident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón stressed the importance of the federal funds she helped obtain for the recovery of small businesses affected by hurricanes Irma and Maria being given to small entrepreneurs, up to a maximum of $50,000 per grant.

“Given the impact of the worst natural disaster that we have experienced in Puerto Rico, we work from the federal capital to simultaneously bring the largest amount of aid ever distributed to the island and ever issued by any federal agency. The $20 billion allocated to Puerto Rico by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is the largest amount of federal funds allocated by this agency,” the resident commissioner said in a written statement.

“The aid that the government of Puerto Rico provides under the Small Business

Financing Program is a direct product of these funds,” González Colón added. “This is an important injection for our economy at a time when, due to the pandemic, it is precisely our small merchants that are one of the most affected sectors of our economy.”

The federal Bipartisan Budget Act of February 2018 allocates billions of dollars in federal funds to help the recovery of Puerto Rico. Within HUD, the most important impact program is the Community Development Block Grant for Disaster Recovery.

The previous governor, Ricardo Rosselló Nevares, submitted to HUD his action plan for the recovery of Puerto Rico through the use of these funds, which included a part for economic revitalization, and in this way small merchants can be assigned aid of up to $50,000. Along with HUD Secretary Ben Carson, then-Gov. Rosselló on Sept. 20, 2018 signed the $1.5 billion grant agreement that included the plan for these funds.

From this program, Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced announced in March of this year that a sum of $225 million was destined to finance the Small Business Financing Program that offers aid of up to $50,000 to cover operational expenses, purchase of mobile equipment or furniture, payroll, utilities, and business rent or mortgage payments.

Recipients of these funds are micro and small businesses that suffered damage as a result of hurricanes Irma and Maria.

Businesses impacted by COVID-19 are also eligible as long as they show evidence that they were also damaged by the hurricanes.

The program is managed under the Puerto Rico Department of Housing and the Economic Development Bank.

The Federal Bipartite Budget Law of February 2018, allocates billions of dollars in federal funds to help the recovery of Puerto Rico. Within HUD, the most important impact program is the Block Grant for Community Development.

New disposal cell to start receiving solid waste at Humacao landfill

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

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ith the hurricane season nearly a month along, solid waste management and disposal company EC Waste announced Monday the end of construction of its new cell for the disposal of non-hazardous solid waste at its El Coquí Landfill sanitary landfill system in Humacao.

“The construction of this new cell is part of the commitment to the country, the environment and our customers, to provide the best resources for the responsible and safe management of their non-hazardous solid waste,” said Jorge Alexis Meléndez, the company’s director of health, safety and environmental compliance. “Like all the cells developed by EC Waste, this one was built in accordance with the requirements of subtitle D of the federal Law for the Conservation and Recovery of Resources (RCRA).”

The cell was designed with a wastewater collection system — better known as leachate — which allows liquid to flow to the bottom of the cell and be collected and

disposed of in accordance with local and federal regulations.

The cell is covered with three layers of geosynthetic membranes: the first is the synthetic clay liner, which produces a waterproof layer that is activated by contact with moisture.

The second layer is the high-density polyethylene liner, a continuous layer throughout the sanitary landfill system that isolates waste from the ground.

The third layer is geotextile/geonet (geocomposite) lining for drainage. This layer protects the second layer and provides drainage at the bottom of the cell. The geocomposite drain layers are then covered with 18 to 24 inches of permeable granular material.

The granular material protects the membranes and allows the liquids produced by the waste or leachate to reach the perforated and solid pipes of the leachate collection system.

Construction of the cell began in midJanuary, and work was completed during the first week of June, as scheduled. The company in charge of developing the cell was TCO

Group LLC and the installation of AGRU America’s synthetic membranes was carried out by Rightway Environmental Contractors Inc. In terms of available airspace, the new cell has a footprint of approximately six acres and adds a final disposal space of 2.2 million cubic yards. Solid waste disposal in this cell will begin this week.

Based in Humacao, EC Waste provides waste management solutions to more than 100,000 residential clients and 3,500 commercial clients in Puerto Rico. Its services include collection, transfer, disposal, recycling and recovery of resources. According to the company, EC Waste employs about 300 people in Puerto Rico.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

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Supreme Court strikes down Louisiana abortion restrictions

By ADAM LIPTAK

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he Supreme Court on Monday struck down a Louisiana law that could have left the state with a single abortion clinic.

The vote was 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts voting with the court’s four-member liberal wing but not adopting its reasoning. The chief justice said respect for precedent compelled him to vote with the majority.

The case was the court’s first on abortion since President Donald Trump’s appointments of two justices shifted the court to the right.

The Louisiana law, which was enacted in 2014, requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

The law’s supporters said the law protects the health and safety of women seeking abortions and that the requirements for obtaining admitting privileges helps ensure the competence of doctors. Opponents disputed that, saying that hospitalizations after abortions are rare, that women would receive medical care at hospitals whether their doctors had admitting privileges or not and that abortion providers are often unable to obtain admitting privileges for reasons unrelated to their competence.

Only two of the five doctors who provide abortions in Louisiana have obtained admitting privileges: one in New Orleans and one in Shreveport. But the Shreveport doctor testified that he could not handle the clinic’s work alone. If the law went into effect, a trial judge concluded, there would be a single doctor in a single clinic, in New Orleans, available to provide abortions in Louisiana.

The judge, John W. deGravelles of the U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge, struck down the Louisiana law in 2017, saying it created an undue burden on women’s constitutional right to abortion. The experience of the clinic in Shreveport, Hope Medical Group for Women, showed, he wrote, that the law was a solution in search of a problem.

“In the last 23 years, Hope Clinic, which serves in excess of 3,000 patients per year, had only four patients who required transfer to a hospital for treatment,” deGravelles wrote. “In each instance, regardless of whether the physician had admitting privileges, the patient received appropriate care.”

The law, deGravelles ruled, was essentially identical to the one from Texas that the Supreme Court struck down in the 2016 decision, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority in that decision, said courts must consider whether the benefits claimed for laws that put restrictions on abortion outweigh the burdens

Anti-abortion demonstrators protesting in front of the Supreme Court in Washington on Monday. they put on the constitutional right to the procedure.

There was no evidence that the Texas law’s admitting-privileges requirement “would have helped even one woman obtain better treatment,” Breyer wrote. But there was good evidence, he added, that the requirement caused the number of abortion clinics in Texas to drop to 20 from 40.

The vote in that decision was 5-3, with Justice Anthony Kennedy joining the court’s four-member liberal wing to form a majority. It was decided by an eight-member court after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia that February, and since then, Justice Neil Gorsuch was appointed to succeed Scalia and Justice Brett Kavanaugh to succeed Kennedy.

In 2018, a divided three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in New Orleans reversed deGravelles’ ruling and upheld the Louisiana law notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s decision in the Texas case, saying that the law’s benefits outweighed the burdens it imposed.

“Unlike Texas, Louisiana presents some evidence of a minimal benefit,” Judge Jerry E. Smith wrote for the majority. In particular, he wrote, “the admitting privileges requirement performs a real, and previously unaddressed, credentialing function that promotes

the well-being of women seeking abortion.”

Smith faulted doctors seeking to provide abortions in the state for not trying hard enough to obtain admitting privileges and said abortions would remain available after the law went into effect.

In dissent, Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham wrote that the majority’s ruling was impossible to reconcile with the Supreme Court’s 2016 decision in the Texas case and with its 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which banned states from placing an “undue burden” on the constitutional right to abortion.

“I fail to see,” Higginbotham wrote, “how a statute with no medical benefit that is likely to restrict access to abortion can be considered anything but ‘undue.’ ” The full 5th Circuit refused to rehear the case by a 9-6 vote. In dissent, Judge Stephen A. Higginson wrote that the Louisiana law was “equivalent in structure, purpose and effect to the Texas law” invalidated by the Supreme Court in 2016.

“I am unconvinced that any justice of the Supreme Court who decided Whole Woman’s Health would endorse our opinion,” Higginson wrote. “The majority would not, and I respectfully suggest that the dissenters might not either.”

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Tuesday, June 30, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Federal Executions can restart after Supreme Court declines a case

Two Supreme Court Justices said they would have heard the case.

By ADAM LIPTAK

T

he Supreme Court on Monday let stand an appeals court ruling allowing the Trump administration to resume executions in federal death penalty cases after a 17-year hiatus. The court’s brief, unsigned order cleared the way for the executions of four men in the coming months.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor said they would have heard the case.

Attorney General William Barr announced last summer that the federal government would end what had amounted to a moratorium on capital punishment. There are more than 60 prisoners on death row in federal prisons.

Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, of the U.S. District Court in Washington, blocked the executions in November, saying the protocol the government planned to use did not comply with the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994, which requires executions to be carried out “in the manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence is imposed.”

The central legal question in the case is whether the word “manner” in the 1994 law refers to the methods of execution authorized by the relevant states (like hanging, firing squad or lethal injection)

or the protocols the states require (like the particular chemicals used in lethal injections, whether a doctor must be present or how a catheter is to be inserted).

In his announcement last year, Barr said the federal government would replace the three-chemical cocktail it had used in earlier executions with a single chemical, pentobarbital.

Chutkan wrote that using a uniform nationwide protocol was not authorized by the 1994 law. All of the relevant states permit or require executions by lethal injections, but the details of their protocols vary. That meant, Chutkan wrote, that the federal protocol was at odds with the 1994 law.

In December, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to block Chutkan’s ruling. The court declined, but it ordered the appeals court to resolve the case “with appropriate dispatch.”

In a statement at the time, Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, said that “the government has shown that it is very likely to prevail” when the case moved forward.

In April, a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated Chutkan’s ruling, though the two judges in the majority, both appointed by President Donald Trump, offered conflicting rationales for doing so.

Judge Gregory G. Katsas concluded that the 1994 law “regulates only the top-line choice among execution methods such as hanging, electrocution or lethal injection.” Judge Neomi Rao disagreed, saying the law also requires the federal government to follow execution procedures in state statutes and regulations — but not in less formal execution protocols.

The two judges agreed, however, that the executions could proceed.

In dissent, Judge David S. Tatel, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, wrote that the law “requires federal executions to be carried out using the same procedures that states use to execute their own prisoners — procedures set forth not just in statutes and regulations, but also in protocols issued by state prison officials pursuant to state law.”

In the administration’s Supreme Court brief in the case, Bourgeois v. Barr, No. 19-1348, Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco urged the court to let the executions go forward, saying the prisoners had been convicted more than 15 years ago of brutal murders of children.

Requiring the federal government to use the three-drug cocktail required in some state protocols would be odd, Francisco wrote. The combination of chemicals — sodium thiopental, a sedative; pancuronium bromide, a paralytic; and potassium chloride, which stops the heart — has been blamed for botched executions and has given rise to lawsuits from death row inmates who said it could subject them to excruciating pain.

In a 2015 dissent, Sotomayor, writing for four members of the Supreme Court, wrote that the cocktail “may well be the chemical equivalent of being burned at the stake.”

Barr recently announced new execution dates for the four prisoners, starting with Daniel Lewis Lee on July 13. Lee was convicted of murdering a family of three, including an 8-year-old girl.

“After robbing and shooting the victims with a stun gun,” Barr wrote, “Lee covered their heads with plastic bags, sealed the bags with duct tape, weighed down each victim with rocks, and threw the family of three into the Illinois bayou.”

In a Supreme Court brief, lawyers for the prisoners disputed that characterization. “The prosecution’s own evidence,” the brief said, “was that the child was murdered solely by the far more culpable co-defendant.”

Ruth Friedman, a lawyer for Lee, said the government had used “junk science and false evidence” to obtain his conviction and secure a death sentence.

“In what may be an unprecedented occurrence in a capital case,” she said in a statement, “the trial judge, the lead prosecutor and the victims’ family all oppose executing Danny Lee and believe a life sentence is appropriate.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

9

How the Trump campaign is drawing Obama out of retirement

By GLENN THRUSH and ELAINA PLOTT

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ust after Donald Trump was elected president, Barack Obama slumped in his chair in the Oval Office and addressed an aide standing near a conspicuously placed bowl of apples, emblem of a healthy-snacking policy soon to be swept aside, along with so much else.

“I am so done with all of this,” Obama said of his job, according to several people familiar with the exchange.

Yet he knew, even then, that a conventional White House retirement was not an option. Obama, 55 at the time, was stuck holding a baton he had wanted to pass to Hillary Clinton, and saddled with a successor whose fixation on him, he believed, was rooted in a bizarre personal animus and the politics of racial backlash exemplified by the birther lie.

“There is no model for my kind of postpresidency,” he told the aide. “I’m clearly renting space inside the guy’s head.”

Which is not to say that Obama was not committed to his pre-Trump retirement vision — a placid life that was to consist of writing, sun-flecked fairways, policy work through his foundation and family time aplenty at a new $11.7 million spread on Martha’s Vineyard.

Still, more than three years after his exit, the 44th president of the United States is back on a political battlefield, drawn into the fight by an enemy, Trump, who is hellbent on erasing him, and by a friend, Joe Biden, who is equally intent on embracing him.

The stakes of that reengagement were always going to be high. Obama is nothing if not protective of his legacy, especially in the face of Trump’s many attacks. Yet interviews with more than 50 people in the former president’s orbit portray a conflicted combatant, trying to balance deep anger at his successor with an instinct to refrain from a brawl that he fears may dent his popularity and challenge his place in history.

That calculus, though, may be changing in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis. As America’s first Black president, Obama sees the current social and racial awakening as an opportunity to elevate a 2020 election dictated by Trump’s mud-wrestling style into something more meaningful — to channel a new, youthful movement toward a political aim, as he did in 2008.

He is doing so carefully, characteristically intent on keeping his cool, his reputa-

tion, his political capital and his dreams of a cosseted retirement intact.

“I don’t think he is hesitant. I think he is strategic,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a top adviser for more than a decade. “He has always been strategic about using his voice; it’s his most valuable commodity.”

Many supporters have been pressing him to be more aggressive.

“It would be nice, for a change, if Barack Obama could emerge from his cave and offer — no wait, DEMAND — a way forward,” columnist Drew Magary wrote in a much-shared Medium post in April titled “Where the Hell is Barack Obama?”

The counterargument: He did his job and deserves to be left alone.

Obama’s head appears to be somewhere in the middle. He is still anguishing over the publication date of his long-awaited memoir.

But last week he stepped up his nominally indirect criticism of Trump’s administration — decrying a “shambolic, disorganized, mean-spirited approach to governance” during an online Biden fundraiser. And he made a pledge of sorts, telling Biden’s supporters: “Whatever you’ve done so far is not enough.

And I hold myself and Michelle and our kids to that same standard.”

On Thursday, during an invitation-only Zoom fundraiser, Obama expressed outrage at the president’s use of “kung flu” and “China virus” to describe the coronavirus. “I don’t want a country in which the president of the United States is actively trying to promote anti-Asian sentiment and thinks it’s funny. I don’t want that. That still shocks and pisses me off,” Obama said, according to a transcript of his remarks provided by a participant in the event.

Obama speaks with the former vice president and top campaign aides frequently, offering suggestions on staffing and messaging. Last month, he bluntly counseled Biden to keep his speeches brief, interviews crisp and slash the length of his tweets, the better to make the campaign a referendum on Trump and the economy, according to Democratic officials.

He has taken a particular interest in Biden’s work-in-progress digital operation, the officials said, enlisting powerful friends, like LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, to share their expertise, they said.

Yet he continues to slow-walk some requests, especially to headline more fun-

draisers. Some in Obama’s camp suggest he wants to avoid overshadowing the candidate — which Biden’s people are not buying.

“By all means, overshadow us,” one of them joked.

From the moment Trump was elected, Obama adopted a minimalist approach: He would critique his policy choices, not the man himself, following the norm of civility observed by his predecessors, especially George W. Bush.

But norms are not Trump’s thing. He made it clear from the start that he wanted to eradicate any trace of Obama’s presence from the West Wing. “He had the worst taste,” Trump told a visitor in early 2017, showing off his new curtains — which were not terribly different from Obama’s, in the view of other people who tramped in and out of the office during that chaotic period.

The cancellation was more pronounced when it came to policy. One former White House official recalled Trump interrupting an early presentation to make sure one staff proposal was not “an Obama thing.”

During the transition, one Trump aide got the idea of printing out the detailed checklist of Obama’s campaign promises from the official White House website to repurpose as a kind of hit list, according to two people familiar with the effort.

“This is personal for Trump; it is all about President Obama and demolishing his legacy.

It’s his obsession,” said Omarosa Manigault

Newman, an “Apprentice” veteran and, until her departure, one of the few Black officials in Trump’s West Wing. “President Obama will not be able to rest as long as Trump is breathing.”

As the transition dragged on, Obama became increasingly uneasy at what he saw as the indifference of the new president and his inexperienced team. Many of them ignored the briefing binders his staff had painstakingly produced at his direction, former Obama aides recalled.

As for Trump, he had “no idea what he’s doing,” Obama told an aide after their Oval Office encounter.

During the transition, Paulette Aniskoff, a veteran West Wing aide, began assembling a political organization of former advisers to help Obama defend his legacy, aid other Democrats and plan for his deployment as a surrogate in the 2018 midterms.

He was open to the effort, but his eye was on the exits. “I’ll do what you want me to do,” he told Aniskoff’s team, but mandated they carefully screen out any appearances that would waste time or squander political capital.

Obama was, then as now, so determined to avoid uttering the new president’s name that one aide jokingly suggested they refer to him as “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” — Harry Potter’s archenemy, Lord Voldemort.

Continues on page 10

Former President Barack Obama and then President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Nov. 11, 2016.

10

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Trump retweets racist video showing supporter yelling ‘white power’ of some of his followers, even at a moment of national unrest.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican senator, called the video “offensive” and asked Trump to take it off his Twitter page.“There is no question he should not have retweeted it, and he should just take it down,” Scott said on the CNN program “State of the Union.” “We can play politics with it or we can’t. I’m not going to. I think it’s indefensible.

We should take it down.”

Trump deleted it less than an hour after Scott’s comments, but he did not condemn the “white power” statement or specifically disavow the sentiment expressed by his supporter.

Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, said Trump “is a big fan of The Villages.”

“He did not hear the one statement made on the video,” Deere said. “What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.”

President Donald Trump during an executive order signing at The Villages in FloJohn Bolton, the president’s former narida. tional security adviser who just released a scathing book about Trump, said Sunday that the “Where’s your white hood?” and other taunts, president’s inattention to detail made it possible

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR the man in the golf cart pumps his fist in the that he did not notice the racist comments.

“He doesn’t pay attention to a lot of resident Donald Trump on Sunday retwee- air twice and says “White power!” twice. The ted a video of one of his supporters yelling two-minute video continues to show profane things,” Bolton said on “State of the Union.” “It’s “White power!,” once again using the vast exchanges between protesters and other Trump entirely possible that he tweeted this video because he saw the sign, I think it was in the first reach of his social media platforms to inflame ra- supporters riding on more golf carts.

The president retweeted the video to his go-kart that said the Trump 2020 or something cial divisions in a nation roiled by weeks of protests about police brutality against Black people millions of followers just after 7:30 Sunday mor- like that. That’s all he needed to see. Not paying and demands for social justice reforms. ning, thanking “the great people of The Villa- attention. Not considering all the implications of The edited racist video shows a white man ges,” the Florida retirement community where information he gets.”

But Bolton added, “It may be that you can riding in a golf cart bearing “Trump 2020” and the clash apparently took place. He added: “The “America First” signs during what appears to be Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in draw a conclusion that he heard it and it was racist and he tweeted it to promote the message. an angry clash over the president and race bet- the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!!”

The tweet was widely criticized as racist It’s a legitimate conclusion to draw.” ween elderly white residents of a Florida retireEither way, the president’s initial decision ment community. Trump deleted the tweet more and insensitive, and again demonstrated the president’s willingness to use social media to to approvingly share the blatant display of supthan three hours after posting it.

In response to a protester shouting amplify some of the most hateful commentary port for white supremacy was the latest example

P

of his willingness to use his vast Twitter following to inject incendiary commentary into the ongoing debate in the country over systemic racism.

In May, as protests erupted after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a Minneapolis police officer, Trump tweeted, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” a phrase with a long history of connection to racism.

More recently, Trump has used his Twitter feed to attack protesters who have pulled down statues of Confederate generals, calling them “arsonists, anarchists, looters, and agitators.” On Saturday night, he tweeted out 15 “wanted” posters for people the U.S. Park Police were seeking in connection with vandalism in Lafayette Square, just outside the White House.

The video on Sunday — which could not be independently verified by The New York Times — appeared to show a slow-moving parade through the Florida community with supporters of Trump riding golf carts, wearing red, white and blue, and displaying pro-Trump materials.

Protesters lined the street, many of them screaming epithets, accusing the Trump supporters of being racists and holding signs calling the president a bigot.

In his tweet, Trump did not specifically refer to the man who yelled “white power.” But his reference to “the great people of The Villages” was an eerie echo of his comments in the summer of 2017, when he responded to deadly violence by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, by saying there were “very fine people on both sides.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, invoked the president’s comments about Charlottesville in response to the video Sunday.

“We’re in a battle for the soul of the nation — and the President has picked a side,” Biden tweeted.

How the Trump campaign is drawing Obama out of retirement From page 9 Trump had no trouble naming names.

In March 2017, he falsely accused Obama of personally ordering the surveillance of his campaign headquarters, tweeting, “How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”

It was an inflection point of sorts. Obama told Aniskoff’s team he would call out his successor by name in the 2018 midterms. But not a lot.

It was telling how Obama talked about Trump that fall: He referred to him less as a person than as a kind of epidemiological affliction on the body politic, spread by his Republican enablers.

“It did not start with Donald Trump — he is a symptom, not the cause,” he said in his kickoff speech at the University of Illinois in September 2018. The American political system, he added, was not “healthy” enough to form the “antibodies” to fight the contagion of “racial nationalism.”

The rising cries for racial justice have lent

the 2020 campaign a coherence for Obama, a politician most comfortable cloaking his criticism of an opponent in the language of movement politics.

Obama’s first reaction to the protests, people close to him said, was anxiety — that the spasms of rioting would spin out of control and play into Trump’s narrative of a lawless left.

But peaceful demonstrators took control, igniting a national movement that challenged Trump without making him its focal point.

Soon after, in the middle of a strategy call

with political aides and policy experts at his foundation, an excited Obama pronounced that “a tailor-made moment” had arrived.

His response to the Floyd killing was less about hammering Trump than about encouraging young people, who have been slow in embracing Biden, to vote. When he chose to speak publicly, it was to host an online forum highlighting a slate of policing reforms that went nowhere in his second term.

In that sense, the role he is most comfortable occupying is the job he was once so over.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

11

‘We live from the tourists’: Orlando workers face virus’s fallout

By EVE EDELHEIT and BROOKS BARNES

F

our thousand phone calls.

To be more specific, Paul and Julia Cox figure they called the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity 4,480 times between April 19, when Walt Disney World furloughed them, and June 7, when glitches with their state and federal unemployment benefits were finally sorted out.

The Coxes are among the lucky ones. While most people have received one-time stimulus payments from the federal government, UNITE HERE, a union representing 30,000 hospitality workers in the Orlando area, recently said that at least 1,500 of its members had yet to receive any unemployment payments from the state. Florida has been one of the slowest states to process jobless claims, in part because its system was designed to be arduous.

One housekeeper in late May sent UNITE HERE a threeword plea: “Please help me!!!!”

Few areas of the country rely on tourism more than central Florida, which is home to Disney World, SeaWorld, Universal, Gatorland, Legoland and a plethora of smaller attractions. An estimated 250,000 people work in the leisure and hospitality industries, accounting for 25% of jobs in the area, according to the trade organization Visit Orlando.

Most workers whose livelihoods depend on Orlando’s ability to attract tourists in large numbers have managed to get by as the amusement economy shut down around them — though for some it has been a struggle.

Recent weeks have brought a new kind of purgatory for tourism workers in the region. Will spiking coronavirus cases in Florida halt the reopening that was beginning to happen? Disney, for instance, has been calling back employees ahead of a limited return to operations on July 11.

“To Disney’s credit, they have done everything in their power to mitigate our safety concerns about returning to work,” said Cox, who also serves as president of Disney World’s stagehand union. “People are mostly terrified that the company is going to stop the recalls. That would be a disaster. People are barely hanging on as it is, and unemployment benefits will end soon.”

Others are worried that going back to work will lead to infection. With the coronavirus now rampaging in Florida, one Disney employee started an online petition asking the company and government officials to reconsider their reopening timelines.

It had about 16,200 signatures on Sunday.

Disney World employs roughly 77,000 people. A Disney spokeswoman on Friday reiterated that the resort would begin opening on July 11 and that “several thousand” employees (“cast members” in Disney parlance) had already been called back in preparation.

“Cast members are incredibly eager to return to their jobs at our theme parks,” Disney said in a statement. “The new protocols we have put into place for our phased reopening will help guide our cast and guests to enjoy the parks experience in a responsible way.”

Before the coronavirus halted travel in March, Orlando was booming. The convention center, the second largest in Nor-

An aerial view of an empty Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Orlando, Fla. th America, had announced a $605 million addition; billions of dollars’ worth of new theme park attractions and hotels were on the way; and Orlando International Airport was working on a $3 billion expansion.

With local officials estimating that it could take five years for visitation to rebound from the pandemic, many of those growth projects are being scaled back or postponed. Unemployment in the Orlando metropolitan area was 22.6% in May, the highest level since Florida began its current estimating process in 1976.

Universal Orlando made sweeping layoffs last week.

An Economy on Hold Here is what some Orlando-area workers had to say about the limbo that has decimated central Florida’s tourism industry.

“When I’d feel safe going back to work would be when all of this is over, when they’ve actually been able to detect that there’s no more cases and that everything can basically go back to normal for everybody. Because until then, nobody’s going to feel safe going back to work.” — OLIVIA WILLIAMS, Starbucks at the Orlando Airport “I really want to go back to work. I want to be a part of rebuilding everything that we lost. I want to be a part of the new beginning.” — JAVIER LOPEZ, employee at Budget Rent-A-Car “My hope is if we can get a vaccine or if we can get this under control, that people could come back. The only hope you can have.” — MICHAEL BOYLE, electrician for Bob Carr Theatre “Down here, everybody speaks to everybody and talk and

all that. Now, nobody does that because everybody’s scared. Nobody wants to come out, nobody wants to talk to anybody. And if you go in these stores right now, people are standoffish, and Southern people are not like that.” — RONNIE JACKSON, cook at Orlando Airport “We know Florida’s economic health is all based on the tourists, because everyone comes from other places. It’s going to be a huge impact. Nobody is going to be able to trust anyone to come here now, because everyone is worried about their life.” — KIKI PIERRE, cook at Orlando Airport “I feel excited, knowing that I will receive my salary every week and will be able to cover my needs without the anguish of wondering when they will pay me unemployment, since that system is very bad and we workers lived desperately.” — KARINA LIRA, Walt Disney World cast member “I could read everybody’s face, the fear of not knowing what was going to happen. It was tense, it was sad, it was uncertain.” — NANCY LUNA, convention center employee “Paying rent on time. Paying anything on time. Trying to decide ... just really with the funds that I have left, trying to decide if I should pay anything or not.” — SERENA JAMES, a Disney World wig stylist “We live from the tourists. When we stop getting money, how are we going to go to support those restaurants or support those stores?” — ESTEFANIA VILLADIEGO, who manages attractions at Disney’s Magic Kingdom

12

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Stocks

Wall Street leads stocks’ rebound, sterling dips

A

gauge of stocks across the world rose on Monday, led by a rebound on Wall Street, even as rising COVID-19 cases threaten to stall the recovery of the world’s largest economy.

Contracts to buy U.S. previously owned homes rose by the highest percentage on record in May. But they remained below their February level and were down compared with May 2019, which also kept alive expectations for even more economic stimulus.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley said a further injection of cash was critical to the bank’s thesis for a V-shaped U.S. economic recovery.

“The market believes that the (Federal Reserve) has its back,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research in New York.

“If things get really bad, the Fed will step in with additional monetary easing and basically reach into their bag of tricks to do whatever they need to support the market.”

Confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide rose past 10 million and deaths surpassed 500,000 on Sunday. The relentless spread of the new coronavirus in the United States, Latin America and elsewhere curbed optimism over the global economy and raised worries that some reopening plans will be delayed.

Boeing shares shot up 14% after 737 MAX certification flights started Monday and the rally gave life to the Dow industrials, while factory- and materials-heavy sectors of the S&P 500 boosted the benchmark index. Indexes closed the day at or near session highs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 580.25 points, or 2.32%, to 25,595.8, the S&P 500 gained 44.19 points, or 1.47%, to 3,053.24 and the Nasdaq Composite added 116.93 points, or 1.2%, to 9,874.15.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.44% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.74%.

Emerging market stocks lost 0.48%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.93% lower, while Japan’s Nikkei futures rose 0.29%.

It is an important week for U.S. data, with the ISM manufacturing index on Wednesday and monthly payrolls on Thursday, moved up a day due to observance of the Independence Day holiday on Friday. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is testifying on Tuesday.

Bill Merz, head of fixed income research at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis, said he expected small changes for long-term yields, noting that Treasuries may be “one of the least-interesting markets for the rest of the year” due to the Fed’s influence on the short end of the curve.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

13

Iran issues arrest warrants for Trump and 35 others in Soleimani killing

By MEGAN SPECIA

I

ran has issued an arrest warrant for President Donald Trump and 35 other people it says were involved in a drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad earlier this year and has asked for international help in detaining them, according to Iranian news reports.

According to the reports, Tehran’s top prosecutor, Ali al-Qasimehr, said that those sought were involved in “directing the assassination” of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed with other Iranian and Iraqi officials at the Baghdad airport in January.

The comments came during a meeting with judicial figures, according to the semiofficial ISNA news agency, and al-Qasimehr added that Iran intended to pursue prosecution of Trump even after his term in office ends. No information was immediately available on the other people sought by Iran.

The ISNA report noted that “judicial authorities have ordered arrest warrants for them and a notice of red alert through the international police” and said that a request for cooperation had been handed over to Interpol, an international police organization that includes both the

United States and Iran as members.

Interpol said in an email statement that under its founding constitution, “it is strictly forbidden for the organization to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.”

“Therefore, if or when any such requests were to be sent to the General Secretariat, in accordance with the provisions of our constitution and rules, Interpol would not consider requests of this nature,” the statement read, though it did not specifically address the Iranian request.

While the organization is responsible for coordinating international policing efforts, it does not have the authority to make arrests or force nations to arrest people on behalf of other governments.

The organization’s “red alert” notices are not arrest warrants. They are sent out as a “request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action,” according to Interpol.

Soleimani, a powerful Iranian commander, was killed in a U.S. drone strike at the Baghdad airport in January, increasing tensions between the United States and Iran and nearly leading to war.

The strike was ordered by Trump, who said it was carried out to prevent an imminent attack on U.S. interests, but in the months since the attack, the United States has presented no evidence of this.

The Pentagon also defended the killing of Soleimani, who it said planned attacks on American diplomats and service members, including a deadly assault on an Iraqi military base in December that killed an American contractor.

Gen. Qassim Suleimani, shown in 2018, was killed in a drone strike in January, increasing tensions between the United States and Iran.

François Fillon, ex-presidential hopeful in France, is convicted of embezzlement

By AURELIEN BREEDEN

F

rançois Fillon, a former French former prime minister, was found guilty Monday of embezzling public funds in a scandal involving a no-show job for his wife that crippled his front-runner status in the 2017 presidential race and led to a broader resentment of France’s political elite.

Fillon, 66, who was prime minister from 2007 to 2012, was accused of paying his wife hundreds of thousands of euros from the public payroll for little or no work as his aide, over different periods between 1998 and 2013, when he served as a representative in the lower house of the French Parliament.

Fillon’s wife, Penelope Fillon, 64, was found guilty of complicity in the embezzlement. No sentencing details were announced.

Reports of Penelope Fillon’s no-show job first emerged in satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné in late January 2017, a few months before the first round of voting, and they were

swiftly followed by an official investigation. The accusations were especially damaging for François Fillon, a stern fiscal and social conservative who ran on an image of probity and austerity, calling for economic sacrifices and vowing to slash thousands of civil service jobs.

Fillon angrily denied wrongdoing, lashed out against the news media and pressed on as the candidate for the right-wing conservative Républicains party. He had been widely seen as the favorite in the race, ahead of Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate, and Emmanuel Macron, then a relatively untested centrist outsider.

But his campaign was badly damaged, and François Fillon failed to qualify for the second round of the elections, in which Macron defeated Le Pen. Fillon has since retired from politics and is working in finance.

Fillon’s lawyers argued at the trial, held from late February to early March, that while there may have been few written traces of Penelope Fillon’s activities as a parliamentary

aide, she had been her husband’s eyes and ears in his home constituency, the Sarthe region of northwestern France.

Prosecutors countered that little of what Fillon did could be defined as the usual work of a parliamentary aide — like working on legislation or drafting policy memos — and argued that François Fillon had paid his wife for a “fictitious” job.

The case against Fillon tapped into broader resentment against France’s elite political class, its cozy financial arrangements and its reluctance to enact strict ethical standards.

Hiring close family members as parliamentary aides was not illegal — and Fillon was not the only one to do so — but the practice was banned later in 2017.

Fillon’s lawyers sought to reopen his trial last week after Éliane Houlette, formerly France’s top financial prosecutor, told lawmakers that she had been put under intense “pressure” by her superiors while she was handling the case.

Houlette told the lawmakers during a hearing this month that supervision of the case was heavy handed, with incessant requests for updates on the proceedings and pressure to upgrade the status of the investigation to a more formal one. Houlette later said that the “pressure” was “purely of a procedural order” and had no bearing on the merits of the case against Fillon. She denied that the executive branch, then led by President François Hollande, a Socialist, had interfered in her work.

But some of Fillon’s allies, who remained bitterly convinced that the case was politically motivated, have jumped on Houlette’s statements as proof that their candidate was unfairly knocked out of the race.

Macron has ordered a top judicial oversight body to review the actions of the financial prosecutor’s office during the investigation, to see if it was able to act “without pressure” and to “to erase all doubt about the independence and impartially of the justice system in this case.”

14

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Coronavirus is battering Africa’s growing middle class

From Kenya to Nigeria, South Africa to Rwanda, the pandemic is decimating the livelihoods of the once-stable workers who were helping to drive Africa’s economic expansion.

By ADBI LATIF DAHIR

J

ames Gichina started out 15 years ago as a driver shuttling travelers from the airport, worked his way up to safari guide, and with the help of some bank loans, bought two minivans of his own to ferry vacationers around.

His clients were, as he is, members of Africa’s growing middle class — bankers from Nigeria, tech entrepreneurs from South Africa and fellow Kenyans who could finally afford trips to enjoy their own country’s beaches and wildlife preserves.

But when the coronavirus pandemic cratered the tourist industry and the economy, Gichina removed the seats from his minibus and started using it to hawk eggs and vegetables. With what he now earns, he said, he can barely afford to pay rent, buy food or send his 9-year-old son to school.

“We have been working hard to build better lives,” Gichina, 35, said of his colleagues in the tourist sector. Now, he said, “We have nothing.”

As the coronavirus surges in many countries in Africa, it is threatening to push as many as 58 million people in the region into extreme poverty, experts at the World Bank say. But beyond the devastating consequences for the continent’s most vulnerable people, the pandemic is also whittling away at one of Africa’s signature achievements: the growth of its middle class.

For the last decade, Africa’s middle class has been pivotal to the educational, political and economic development across the continent. New business owners and entrepreneurs have created jobs that, in turn, gave others a leg up as well.

Educated, tech-savvy families and young people with money to spare have fed the demand for consumer goods, called for democratic reforms, expanded the talent pool at all levels of society, and pushed for highquality schools and health care.

About 170 million out of Africa’s 1.3 billion people are now classified as middle class.

But about 8 million of them could be thrust into poverty because of the coronavirus and its economic fallout, according to World Data Lab, a research organization.

It’s a setback that may be felt for years to come.

“The tragedy is that because Africa is not growing fast, this collapse of the middle class could take several years to recover,” said Homi Kharas, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the co-founder of the World Data Lab. Africa’s middle class tripled over the past 30 years, by some estimates, spurred by job opportunities in sectors like technology, tourism and manufacturing. But now that the region is facing its first recession in 25 years, millions of educated people living in urban centers could fall victim to the extreme in-

come inequality that has defined Africa for decades.

The rising middle class has been “critical for the future prospects of African economies as they stimulate long-term growth, social progress, an inclusive and prosperous society and effective and accountable governance,” said Landry Signé, author of “Unlocking Africa’s Business Potential.” The coronavirus “will drastically delay wages and hold back the dreams of Africa’s middle class,” he said.

Governments across Africa responded differently to the coronavirus, but Kenya was among those that closed borders, imposed curfews and restricted movement between counties. In Nairobi, the capital, malls were once touted as a symbol of a rising middle class. Now their owners are furloughing employees, shuttering stores and desperately trying to survive the crisis.

When Kenya first announced lockdown restrictions in March, there was almost no foot traffic at the Junction mall, where Nairobi’s middle class had once gravitated to dine and shop in more than 100 stores.

Eastleigh, a bustling area with dozens of malls, hotels, lodges and banks, was also put under a total lockdown in early May after a jump in reported coronavirus cases.

Maryan Bashir, who owns three stores in Eastleigh that sell mattresses and curtains, said traders like her were already worried about whether they could still get supplies from China as the pandemic began to affect imports.

But the lockdown left them reeling from lack of customers.

It also cut employment. Out of 12 of her co-workers, only three lived within the locked-down area and could report to work.

Authorities lifted the curfew from Eastleigh in early June, but Bashir said it will be a long time before shop owners like her are able to make the same profits they made before the pandemic.

“The landlords are still asking for rent,” she said, “but if we are not earning anything, how do we even pay?”

The economic fallout of the COVID-19 outbreak is also being felt among the middle class in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy. Hit by low oil revenues in the pandemic, the West African nation faces increasing unemployment rates and a recession that could last until 2021, according to the International Monetary Fund.

In Zimbabwe, which has been in economic free fall for years, the pandemic and the ensuing restrictions are threatening the solvency of those who have built a bridge into

the middle class.

For years, Madeline Chiveso’s restaurant in downtown Harare, Zimbabwe, served professionals such as bankers, journalists and engineers flocking to work. But as infections rose and the restrictions tightened, there were no customers to serve. She was forced to close the restaurant.

She used to make $350 a day and now makes nothing. She is using her savings to pay bills, she said, jeopardizing her dream of one day owning her own home.

“The future looks surely uncertain because nobody knows how this would end,” said Chiveso, who is 46 and a single mother of two daughters, both in college.

Kharas, of the World Data Lab, defined the middle class in Africa as households that spend anywhere between $11 and $110 per capita per day.

What distinguishes the middle class from the poor, said Razia Khan, chief economist for Africa and the Middle East at Standard Chartered bank, is the ability to earn a steady income. But because of the pandemic, many more people across Africa are at risk of being “knocked back into poverty” because of lack of jobs, unemployment benefits or any social safety net, she said.

The pandemic is also posing a threat to nascent industries supported by governments in Africa in recent years to boost the number of middle-income earners.

Rwanda, which announced aspirations to become a middle-income nation by 2035, supported the local textile and fashion industries to limit imports of used clothing from the United States and boost manufacturing.

Matthew Rugamba, 30, created House of Tayo in 2011, building it into one of the leading brands in Rwanda’s burgeoning fashion scene. Rugamba gained enough notice for his designs to be worn in Hollywood, at the premiere of the movie “Black Panther.”

But as Rwanda enforced one of the toughest lockdowns in Africa, Rugamba’s store shut its doors, only to open several weeks later to almost no customers. Even though he’s pivoted to making masks and introduced a delivery service, business has not been the same.

“We were at a point where people value the work that we do,” Rugamba said. But with the pandemic, he said, “you go through periods where you are worried that this is something that I have invested nine years of my life in, and is it going to be there tomorrow?”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

15

China’s new national security law looms over Hong Kong

By CHRIS BUCKLEY

C

hinese lawmakers could approve a national security law as early as this week, drastically curbing political protest and dissent in Hong Kong and adding to China’s tensions with Western powers.

The National People’s Congress Standing Committee — an arm of China’s Communist Party-run legislature — discussed the draft law this month, and a Hong Kong member of the committee has said it may vote for the legislation by the end of its latest three-day session starting Sunday, “if conditions are ripe.” But Hong Kong residents are still waiting to see the full text of the law.

A law to curb opposition in Hong Kong.

China’s Communist Party leaders have long worried about opposition to their rule in Hong Kong, a British colony until 1997. The Basic Law, which enshrines Hong Kong’s special legal status, says the semiautonomous territory should enact legislation that outlaws “any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion.”

The security law could deter speech, protests and media critical of the Chinese government, threatening the territory’s independent press and democratic opposition.

Many Hong Kong residents are proudly protective of their rights under the territory’s separate legal system and have opposed attempts to pass such legislation. A previous push by Hong Kong’s leaders to enact a national security law foundered in 2003 after nearly 500,000 people joined a street protest against it.

China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has been impatient to impose control over Hong Kong. After the territory erupted in monthslong protests last year over a proposed extradition law, a Communist Party meeting in October demanded steps to “safeguard national security” in Hong Kong.

The National People’s Congress Standing Committee usually meets every two months or so. This time, the committee is meeting just a little over a week after it first discussed the security legislation at its last session, suggesting that Xi wants the law passed, or at least on the cusp of approval, before July 1, the 23rd anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty.

Beijing imposes security agencies.

Legal experts had been uncertain how Xi could introduce a national security law into Hong Kong without going through the city’s Legislative Council, a body stacked with pro-Beijing members who have, nonetheless, hesitated to take such a contentious step.

But Xi made a bold move to break the impasse in May, when a full session of the National People’s Congress nearly unanimously passed a resolution empowering the Congress’ Standing Committee to bring state security legislation into the Basic Law. The central government’s decision to impose a law effectively circumvents the Hong Kong legislature. Even Hong Kong politicians who have endorsed the law, including the territory’s top official, Carrie Lam, have said they have not been shown the full text by Beijing, which will bring into Hong Kong new crimes like inciting separatism and “colluding with foreign powers.”

The law will also establish a new security agency in the territory to enforce the security restrictions, and Beijing will create its own separate security arm in Hong Kong, empowered to investigate special cases and collect intelligence, according to a summary issued by China’s legislature.

The legislation also gives the territory’s chief official, who must answer to Beijing, the power to decide which judges are empowered to hear trials for state security charges, limiting the autonomy of the city’s judiciary.

Many residents fear the law.

Lam, Hong Kong’s local leader, has sought to reassure the public that their “legitimate rights and freedoms” will be safeguarded. She and other politicians who support the law have also said that it will target only a tiny minority of lawbreakers.

Pro-democracy activists have denounced the proposed law, and the Hong Kong Bar Association has called it unconstitutional.

The Hong Kong police force has denied applications from three groups — the League of Social Democrats, the Civil Human Rights Front and pro-democracy district officials — to hold marches opposing the law on July 1, the politically sensitive anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to Chinese rule, citing risks from the coronavirus and dangers of violence. If the police decision survives appeal, it would be the first time since 2003 that a march on July 1 has been banned, the Civil Human Rights Front said. Some protesters may ignore the order and march.

A survey by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research

Institute in mid-June found that 49% of respondents “very much oppose” the security legislation, while another 7% “somewhat oppose” it, Reuters reported. But the survey also indicated that public backing for street demonstrations had softened: Support for protests fell to 51%, down from 58% in a poll in March.

Western governments object.

As China has moved forward with plans to impose security laws in Hong Kong, foreign governments have criticized the decision. Foreign ministers from the Group of 7 leading industrialized democracies called on China this month to abandon the law, saying that it would undermine the autonomy of the territory.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that the United States would impose visa restrictions on Chinese officials, including retired ones “believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy.” He did not name any officials or say how many might be barred.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain has promised to allow nearly 3 million people from Hong Kong to live and work in the country. Johnson, however, has left unanswered questions about how those admitted might be able to obtain British citizenship.

Taiwan said this month that it would expand efforts to provide refuge to protesters and others who wish to leave Hong Kong. The government said it could, in certain cases, provide work and study visas, as well as assistance securing housing and jobs.

Pan-democratic legislators in Hong Kong protest against the proposed national security laws during Legislative Council.

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Tuesday, June 30, 2020

India debates skin-tone bias as beauty companies alter ads

By SAMEER YASIR and JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

T

hroughout the years she was growing up in southern India, Christy Jennifer, a producer with a media house in the city of Chennai, was traumatized by episodes of prejudice.

As she walked through school corridors, classmates pointed at her darker skin and teased her, she said. Even friends and family members told her never to wear black. She said she was constantly advised on which skin lightening cream to use, as if the remedy to this deep-seated social bias lay in a plastic bottle.

“Every day, my dignity and self-esteem were reduced to the color of my skin,” she said.

“I felt a worthless piece of flesh.”

Colorism, the bias against people of darker skin tones, has vexed India for a long time. It is partly a product of colonial prejudices, and it has been exacerbated by caste, regional differences and Bollywood, the nation’s film industry, which has long promoted lighter-skinned heroes.

But America’s intense discussion of race, in the wake of George Floyd’s death, seems to be having some effect.

This past week, Unilever and other major international consumer brands, facing accusations that they were promoting racist attitudes, said they would remove labels such as “fair” “white” and “light” from their products, including the skin-lightening creams that are wildly popular in India.

At the same time, a big Indian matchmaking website, Shaadi.com, decided to remove a filter that allowed people to select partners based on skin tone after facing a backlash from users that began in North America.

Jennifer and several other Indians said these were moves in the right direction.

“This is a fantastic news — a steppingstone toward ending colorism,” Jennifer said.

“Now young people won’t feel ashamed of how they look while growing up with dark-tone

Jennifer, who was teased as a child for her skin color, praised an Indian matchmaking site’s decision to remove a skin-tone filter amid objections from users as Indians grapple with the societal discrimination of skin tone. skin.”

For centuries, discrimination over skin tones has been a feature of Indian society.

Some historians say it was greatly intensified by colonialism and a practice by the British rulers of favoring light-skinned Indians for government jobs.

Preferences for light-toned skin over dark — when it comes to marriages and some jobs — are still upending the lives of hundreds of thousands of Indians.

In some families, daughters-in-law with darker skin are called derogatory names, sometimes branded with the same words used for thieves. Students with dark-toned skin are more frequently bullied in schools.

Such attitudes have spawned a huge demand in India for whiteners and bleaching products. Shop shelves are crammed with creams, oils, soaps and serums promising to lighten skin, and some are manufactured by the world’s biggest cosmetic companies. The

king of the market is Unilever’s Fair & Lovely cream, a fixture in many Indian households for decades.

But even before this past week, the culture had been changing.

Earlier this year, India’s government proposed a law that would make it illegal to market products that make false health claims, including those that promise to lighten skin.

Kavitha Emmanuel, the director of Women of Worth, an organization in Chennai, started a campaign in 2019 called “Dark Is Beautiful.” Many young men and women, she said, have complained to her that their skin tone is an impediment to social mobility.

She welcomed the moves by Unilever and Shaadi.com, but said India was still slow in confronting such discrimination.

“While movements like Black Lives Matter have had a profound impact in the West, in South Asian countries it is still a long-drawn battle,” she said. Emmanuel said that skin-tone biases had the greatest effect on marriage and social issues but that in some fields, including entertainment, hospitality and modeling, “the qualification goes without saying that you need to be fair-skinned, particularly for women.”

Other commentators, though, insisted that colorism in India is different from racism in the West.“The preference for lighter skin is largely aesthetic and does not have structural economic or power consequences,” said Dipankar Gupta, a well-known sociologist.“It is not as if a policeman would routinely harass darker-skinned people,” Gupta added. “Indians can recognize class and status through a number of markers, but skin color is not one of them.”

Still, across India, there is great social pressure for people to seek light-skinned spouses.

Mohinder Verma, a businessman, defended placing an ad in a newspaper in which he sought for his son a “tall, good-looking” bride with “fair skin” who has a university de-

gree but prefers to be a stay-at-home wife.

Verma, 72, said parents in India felt pressure within their social circles to find brides for their sons who look “gori,” or fair, although he agreed that “this thinking needs to change.”

“It’s somehow ingrained in our minds,” said Verma, who lives in the northern Indian state of Punjab. “When you have a dark-skinned daughter-in-law, people talk behind your back.

They ask what wrong had we committed in our previous life.”

For decades, matrimonial ads in Indian newspapers displayed a preference for lighter skin, reinforcing entrenched beliefs partly rooted in India’s stubborn caste system. Many Indians believe that lower caste people are darker.

Social scientists say that there is no direct relationship between caste and skin color, but that this perception might have been perpetuated by a long history of lower-caste people being relegated to menial jobs, often performed under the sun, that made their skin darker.

The debate over skin color bias flared into the open after a few women of Indian descent started a petition drive against Shaadi. com, the matchmaking service, which claims to have delivered “millions of happy stories.”

Meghan Nagpal, who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, said that four days after the killing of Floyd in Minneapolis, she visited Shaadi.com and was struck by the filter that categorized prospects based on skin tone.

She flagged the issue with the website but got no response. She then posted about it on Facebook, which led Hetal Lakhani, a Dallas resident, to open an online petition, which quickly garnered more than 1,500 signatures.

The company then removed the filter.

Nagpal said that when she was younger, she used skin-lightening products.

“It was like buying jeans of size 8 when you want 10,” said Nagpal, 28, a graduate student who was born in Canada. “You are never comfortable with it.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

17

Yes, even George Washington

By CHARLES M. BLOW

To that I say, “abso-fricking-lutely!”

George Washington enslaved more than 100 human beings, and he signed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, authorizing slavers to stalk runaways even in free states and criminalizing the helping of escaped slaves.

When one of the African people he himself had enslaved escaped, a woman named Ona Maria Judge, he pursued her relentlessly, sometimes illegally.

Washington would free his slaves in his will, when he no longer had use for them.

Let me be clear: Those Black people enslaved by George Washington and others, including other founders, were just as much human as I am today. They love, laugh, cry and hurt just like I do.

When I hear people excuse their enslavement and torture as an artifact of the times, I’m forced to consider that if slavery were the prevailing normalcy of this time, my own enslavement would also be a shrug of the shoulders.

I say that we need to reconsider public monuments in public spaces. No person’s honorifics can erase the horror he or she has inflicted on others.

Slave owners should not be honored with monuments in public spaces. We have museums for that, which also provide better context. This is not an erasure of history, but rather a better appreciation of the horrible truth of it.

O

n the issue of American slavery, I am an absolutist: enslavers were amoral monsters.

The very idea that one group of people believed that they had the right to own another human being is abhorrent and depraved. The fact that their control was enforced by violence was barbaric.

People often try to explain this away by saying that the people who enslaved Africans in this country were simply men and women of their age, abiding by the mores of the time.

But, that explanation falters. There were also men and women of the time who found slavery morally reprehensible. The enslavers ignored all this and used anti-Black dehumanization to justify the holding of slaves and the profiting from slave labor.

People say that some slave owners were kinder than others.

That explanation too is problematic. The withholding of another person’s freedom is itself violent. And the enslaved people who were shipped to America via the Middle Passage had already endured unspeakably horrific treatment.

One of the few written accounts of the atrocious conditions on these ships comes from a man named the Rev. Robert Walsh. The British government outlawed the international slave trade in 1807, followed by the United States in 1808. The two nations patrolled the seas to prevent people from continuing to kidnap Africans and bringing them to those countries illegally. In 1829, one of the patrols spotted such a ship, and what Walsh saw when he boarded the ship is beyond belief.

The ship had been at sea for 17 days. There were more than 500 kidnapped Africans onboard. Fifty-five had already been thrown overboard.

The Africans were crowded below the main deck.

Each deck was only 3 feet 3 inches high. They were packed so tight that they were sitting up between one another’s legs, everyone completely nude. As Walsh recounted, “there was no possibility of their lying down or at all changing their position by night or day.”

Each had been branded, “burnt with the red-hot iron,” on their breast or arm. Many were children, little girls and little boys.

Not only could light not reach down into the bowels of those ships, neither could fresh air. As Walsh recounted, “The heat of these horrid places was so great and the odor so offensive that it was quite impossible to enter them, even had there been room.”

These people, these human beings, sat in their own vomit, urine and feces, and that of others. If another person

A statue of George Washington near the New York Stock Exchange in New York. sat between your legs, their bowels emptied out on you.

These voyages regularly lasted more than a month, meaning many women onboard experienced menstruation in these conditions.

Many of the enslaved, sick or driven mad, were thrown overboard. Others simply jumped. In fact, there was so much human flesh going over the side of those ships that sharks learned to trail them.

This voyage was so horrific that I can only surmise that the men, women and children who survived it were superhuman, the toughest and the most resilient our species has to offer.

But of the people who showed up to greet these reeking vessels of human torture, to bid on its cargo, or to in any way benefit from the trade and industry that provided the demand for such a supply, I have absolute contempt.

Some people who are opposed to taking down monuments ask, “If we start, where will we stop?” It might begin with Confederate generals, but all slave owners could easily become targets. Even George Washington himself.

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Tuesday, June 30, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

Trump’s napalm politics? They began with Newt

Newt Gingrich during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in 2016.

By JENNIFER SENIOR

A

pproximately 1 billion news cycles ago — which is to say, on June 9 — a businesswoman named Marjorie Taylor Greene won the Republican primary in Georgia’s deeply conservative 14th Congressional District, northwest of Atlanta, which means she’s all but assured a seat in the House of Representatives next year.

Unfortunately, she is a cheerful bigot and conspiracytheory fluffernutter. She subscribes to QAnon, the far-right fever dream that says Donald Trump is under siege from a cabal of deep-state saboteurs, some of whom run a pedophile ring; she says African Americans are being held back primarily by “gangs.”

(She’s left behind a contrail of unsavory videos through cyberspace, if you’d care to Google.)

The House Republican leadership is trying to distance itself from this woman, as if she belongs to some other party from a faraway galaxy. She doesn’t. Her politics are Trumpism distilled. And Trumpism itself isn’t a style and philosophy that began in 2016, with Trump’s election, or even in 2010, with the Tea Party. It began 40-odd years ago, in Greene’s own state, with the election of a different politician just two districts over.

I’m talking about Newt. You really could argue that today’s napalm politics began with Newt.

The normalization of personal destruction. The contempt for custom. The media-baiting, the annihilation of bipartisan co-

mity, the delegitimizing of institutions.

“Gingrich had planted; Trump had reaped,” writes the Princeton historian Julian Zelizer in the prologue to his forthcoming book, “Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of a New Republican Party.”

I recently read Zelizer’s book with morbid fascination. My first real job in journalism was as a reporter for the The Hill newspaper the year it launched, in 1994, which happened to be the same year Republicans won control of the House, overturning four decades of Democratic rule. (I wrote nothing memorable that day, but I did come up with our banner headline: “It’s Reigning Republicans.”)

Gingrich became speaker the following January. It was a stunning development. Previous speakers, no matter how partisan they were, tended to work, lunch and even drink across the aisle. The only kind of cocktails Gingrich was partial to were Molotovs.

He conceived of governing as war. Democrats were not merely to be defeated ideologically. They were to be immolated.

Even as an inexperienced kid, I could see his ascension was bad news. Looking back, the parallels between then and now couldn’t be clearer.

Democrats were devastated that a man with so much malignity and anger in his heart could suddenly be at the helm; but in Republicans, Gingrich had a cult.

Gingrich despised the mainstream press, breaking with

tradition and giving valuable real estate over in the Capitol to conservative, nativist-populist radio hosts who spoke loudly and carried a big shtick, just as Trump gives coveted space to the servile One America News Network.

Gingrich was my introduction to Orwellian newspeak. He had this tic of starting every other paragraph with “frankly” and then telling a lie; it was his poker tell. Falsehoods and hyperbole came as naturally to him as smirking. He freely trafficked in conspiracy theories. His PAC circulated a pamphlet for aspiring politicians who wished “to speak like Newt.” It advised them to repeat a long list of words to describe Democrats, including sick, pathetic, corrupt.

Like Trump, Gingrich was a thrice-married womanizer who’d somehow seduced the evangelicals. He too had a skyscraping ego, nursed grudges as if they were newborns, and lacked impulse control. In 1995, Bill Clinton made him sit in the back of Air Force One; he responded with a tantrum and shut down the government, prompting The New York Daily News to run a cartoon cover of him in a diaper under the headline “Cry Baby.”

Gingrich turned the politics of white racial grievance into an art form. It may have started with Nixon’s Southern Strategy, but Gingrich actually came from the South. He intuited the backlash to globalization, to affirmation action; the culture teemed with stories about white men under siege. (Including the Michael Douglas movie “Falling Down,” about a divorced, unemployed defense contractor’s descent into armed madness.) It wasn’t long before 1994 became known as “The Year of the Angry White Male.”

Most of Zelizer’s book is about Gingrich’s Javert-like quest to bring down the House speaker, Jim Wright, for his shady ethics.

(Gingrich succeeded, only to later be reprimanded and fined for his own ethical breaches.) Zelizer never mentions individual parallels to Trump once he starts telling Gingrich’s story, which is clever, because there’s no need. They hop off the page like frogs.

But the one that stands out, the one that goosepimples me even as I type, is this: Gingrich was the first true reality TV politician. He understood that the C-SPAN cameras didn’t have to be a passively recording set of eyes. You could operatically perform for them. Early in his career, Gingrich staged a coordinated attack on House Democrats that drew so much fury from Speaker Tip O’Neill it earned him time on the evening news. “I’m famous,” he crowed.

“Conflict equals exposure equals power,” became one of his favorite sayings. Which may as well be the motto of reality television. And Trump.

Assuming she wins in November, Marjorie Taylor Greene will likely be relegated to the margins of her caucus. But if Gingrich — and Trump — have taught us anything, it’s that there’s no telling where the last exit is on the loonytown expressway to extremism; we know only that the guardrails get lower with each passing mile. “These are the depths to which we’ve descended,” Zelizer told me in a phone call. “No one ever thinks that an outlier will one day be the party’s future.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

19

Jenniffer González discute estrategias de seguridad con la fiscalía federal Por THE STAR

L

a comisionada residente, Jenniffer González Colón, se reunió el lunes, con el jefe de la fiscalía federal en Puerto Rico, W. Stephen Muldrow, y su equipo de trabajo para discutir los esfuerzos e iniciativas para abordar las organizaciones criminales transnacionales a lo largo de la frontera caribeña de nuestra nación, incluyendo Puerto Rico.

“La fiscalía federal en Puerto Rico ha demostrado que, si tiene los recursos, saben cómo maximizarlos para un esfuerzo interagencial de seguridad nacional.

Me complace ser parte de estos esfuerzos con la asignación de fondos federales, recursos como la nueva nave de respuesta rápida de la Guardia Costera y entre otras tantas gestiones como que se actualizara la Estrategia de Antinarcóticos de la Frontera del Caribe”, expresó González Colón en comunicación escrita.

Entre los asuntos discutidos está la implementación de la Estrategia de Antinarcóticos de la Frontera del Caribe de 2020, por parte de la Oficina de Política Nacional de Control de Drogas (ONDCP, por sus siglas en inglés). La publicación de este documento, el cual articula la estrategia de los Estados Unidos para reducir

las amenazas de drogas en Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes de los Estados Unidos, surge del lenguaje legislativo asegurado por la congresista para requerirle a ONDCP actualizar esta estrategia, publicada por última vez en el 2015.

Discutieron las rutas de narcotráfico entre Colom-

bia, Venezuela, República Dominicana, Isla Vírgenes, Isla Británicas y Puerto Rico; así como el nuevo foco de narcotráfico para la isla en el área sur y este. Además, de varias incautaciones recientes: su procedencia, el contenido y detalles de los operativos.

El fiscal Muldrow le rindió un informe a la congresista de las gestiones de la agencia durante la pandemia, el Gran Jurado de Puerto Rico estuvo activo mientras otros distritos seguían “lockdown”. De diciembre hasta hoy, en incautaciones marítimas se han confiscado sobre $4.5 millones y le manifestaron que están encausando a criminales de alto perfil.

La comisionada discutió su preocupación por las denuncias sobre que empleados de agencias de gobierno están requiriendo dinero a cambio de trámite para beneficios federales en relación con el COVID-19. La fiscalía expresó que estaría al pendiente del uso correcto de estos fondos federales. Recalcaron que utilizar información falsa para acceder a estos fondos o pagar para conseguir estos fondos, son un delito federal. La discusión incluyó a programas de los cheques de estímulo económico para individuos de $1,200, las ayudas federales para pequeños negocios como el programa PPP y otros.

Gobernadora entrega ayudas a microempresas y pequeñas empresas bajo programa CDBG-DR Por THE STAR

L

a gobernadora Wanda Vázquez Garced entregó el lunes la primera subvención de $50 mil dólares como parte del programa de Financiamiento para Pequeñas Empresas (SBF, por sus siglas en inglés) bajo los fondos CDBG-DR. “El pasado 24 de marzo anunciamos el inicio de este programa y en tan solo tres meses, ya comenzamos a entregar las ayudas para aquellas personas que solicitaron y fueron cualificadas. El sector de las microempresas y pequeñas empresas es uno fundamental en nuestra economía y esta ayuda representa un impulso necesario para continuar con la reconstrucción de nuestra isla”, expresó la primera ejecutiva en comunicación escrita.

La primera mandataria hizo la entrega de la ayuda a Cristina Sumaza, propietaria de Lote 23, un espacio que alberga un parque gastronómico en Santurce. De igual forma, se entregaron otras seis subvenciones.

SBF otorga hasta $50 mil dólares para capital de operación, inventario, renta o hipoteca, nómina, utilidades, o equipo para dichas empresas que sufrieron pérdidas luego del paso de los huracanes del 2017. Luego de esa fase inicial de Subsidio de Recuperación, el programa SBF les ofrecerá la oportunidad para solicitar a préstamos flexibles a fin de fomentar aún más su recuperación económica.

Asimismo, Vázquez Garced añadió que “agradezco el trabajo del Departamento de la Vivienda y del Banco de Desarrollo Económico (BDE) en esta gestión, quienes han trabajado arduamente para lograr entregar estas ayudas en poco tiempo”.

Esta primera fase apoya a la recuperación económica mediante la creación de nuevos empleos, la retención de empleados, así como la atención a necesidades pertinentes que tengan estas empresas como resultado de los daños que provocaron las tormentas.

Por su parte, el secretario del Departamento de la Vivienda, Luis Carlos Fernández Trinchet, indicó que “desde que comenzamos nuestra gestión hemos estado enfocados en acelerar el proceso para que las ayudas del programa CDBG-DR lleguen a nuestra gente. En medio de la emergencia generada por la pandemia, hemos continuado trabajando arduamente y lanzamos este programa, y hoy vemos el resultado al entregar esta primera ayuda”.

El BDE es el administrador general del programa SBF mediante un acuerdo de subrecipiente.

Como parte de los acuerdos, el BDE tiene la responsabilidad de manejar todos los aspectos principales del programa, tales como llevar a cabo evaluaciones de cumplimiento de CDBG-DR y evaluaciones de admisión y elegibilidad; implementar informes de administración financiera y cumplimiento; así como, llevar a cabo cál-

culos de otorgamiento y diseñar agendas.

Según define el programa CDBG-DR, las microempresas son aquellas compañías que tienen cinco empleados o menos, lo que incluye a su dueño o sus dueños.

Este renglón puede incluir a una persona autónoma. Asimismo, las pequeñas empresas se definen como empresas compuestas por 75 empleados o menos.

Como parte de los requisitos, los solicitantes deberán presentar evidencia de daño o interrupción a su empresa a raíz de los huracanes del 2017, así como una necesidad no cubierta de recuperación y crecimiento, o una necesidad no cubierta de creación y retención de empleos de ingreso bajo o moderado.

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Tuesday, June 30, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

James Brown’s will: Is it inching toward closure after 14 years?

By STEVE KNOPPER

A

fter more than a decade of litigation over James Brown’s estate, which he, the Godfather of Soul, had largely bequeathed to underprivileged students in South Carolina and Georgia, the chief justice of South Carolina’s Supreme Court seemed irritated.

“Has one scholarship been given, pursuant to Mr. Brown’s will?” the justice, Donald Beatty, pointedly asked at a hearing in October. “So all the people who’ve gotten any money out of this are the lawyers, thus far?”

S. Alan Medlen, a University of South Carolina law professor who represents Brown’s wife, Tommie Rae Hynie, responded, “Maybe some, Your Honor.”

The judge was not amused. “It’s quite bothersome,” he said, “considering the will was clear.”

But now, the state’s Supreme Court has taken a large step toward unraveling the tangle of litigation that has trailed the estate since Brown’s death on Christmas Day 2006. The five justices ruled unanimously last week that Hynie was not legally married to Brown because she had not annulled a previous marriage.

Legal experts say the decision weakens Hynie’s claim to Brown’s estate, which has been subject to a variety of opinions on its value, from $5 million to $100 million. In addition, there is the potential value of copyrights to classics such as “I Feel Good” and “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud,” which are not part of the estate.

While the decision is not the sort of magic wand that will make years of acrimony and potential further appeals disappear, experts said it was a clear step forward in resolving a dispute that has begotten case after case in the courts.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court instructed the lower court to “promptly proceed with the probate of Brown’s estate in accordance with his estate plan,” which called for the creation of a charitable trust to help educate poor children.

“His intent is finally going to be carried out, and it’s going to benefit the children of South Carolina and Georgia,” said Dylan Malagrinò, a professor at the Charleston School of Law in South Carolina. “Most people are going to look at that and think that’s a really good outcome.”

Hynie, a singer who met Brown in 1998 after she performed a show in Las Vegas, has been a key player in the legal battle over Brown’s assets. Independent of what Brown had spelled out in his will regarding beneficiaries, as his widow, she would have had the right under state law to a third of his estate value, Malagrinò said.

But when Brown and Hynie married in 2001, she was married to another man: Javed Ahmed. She said in court that she had later learned that he had three wives in his native Pakistan.

(After Brown learned of Hynie’s earlier marriage, he filed for an annulment in 2004.) Hynie’s lawyers have argued that Ahmed was a bigamist and that, as a result, her earlier marriage was void. Lower courts had upheld that view and declared her marriage to Brown as valid.

But, citing its 2008 ruling in another case, the state’s highest court disagreed: “All marriages contracted while a party has a living spouse are invalid unless the party’s first marriage has been

The will of James Brown, who died in 2006, has been the subject of court fights since he died almost 14 years ago. ‘declared void’ by an order of a competent court.” In the case of Hynie’s marriage to Ahmed, no such declaration had occurred.

Robert Rosen, one of Hynie’s lawyers, said in a statement, “We are naturally very disappointed in the ruling.” He said he planned to “file a petition to reconsider and rehear the decision.”

Hynie, who was entitled as spouse to a share of Brown’s music copyrights under federal law, has already settled part of her dispute with the estate. Under that settlement, Hynie had agreed to give the charity 65% of any proceeds from her socalled termination rights — copyrights that, although once sold, can return to the songwriter or his heirs after several decades, according to court papers.

“Mrs. Brown,” said Rosen, “had given up her contests to the estate and charitable trust and agreed to give substantial funds from her very valuable federal rights to the charitable trust for needy students, which otherwise would not go to the charity.

In our opinion, under her plan, many more millions of dollars would have flowed from those federal rights to the charitable trust if she had been confirmed as the surviving spouse.”

But Marc Toberoff, the lawyer for nine of Brown’s heirs, including his daughters Deanna Brown-Thomas, Yamma Brown and the children of Venisha Brown, who died in 2018, criticized previous South Carolina court rulings in Hynie’s favor as “shockingly bad.”

“There was an injustice in these rulings and that was righted by the Supreme Court,” he said.

Toberoff’s clients stand to benefit from the decision because Hynie would no longer share in the proceeds from the estate or in future copyright revenues.

Brown’s will had set aside $2 million to underwrite schol-

arships for his grandchildren. It designated that his costumes and other household effects were to go to six of his children; the rest of the estate was to go to the charitable trust for the poor, called the “I Feel Good Trust.”

“We won,” Daryl Brown, one of James Brown’s children, said by phone last week. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

Much of the value in Brown’s legacy arises from the “termination rights” to Brown’s song publishing, which are not part of the estate. The copyrights sold to a music publisher can be terminated after several decades and the rights revert to the songwriters or their heirs, who can strike deals to sell or license the songs.

Some of the 900 songs that Brown wrote have appeared in commercials by companies including Walmart and L.L. Bean; rappers like Jay-Z and Dr. Dre have sampled his music on lucrative hits; and his 1968 classic “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud — Part 1” recently landed atop Spotify’s popular Black Lives Matter playlist. “‘I Feel Good’ alone pretty much could support you and me for the next 100 years,” said Walt McLeod, a longtime Newberry, South Carolina, lawyer and former state representative who has followed the case.

As Brown’s spouse, Hynie sold her share of termination rights in five of the songwriter’s works to publisher Warner Chappell Music for nearly $1.9 million in 2015, according to a federal lawsuit by nine of Brown’s children and grandchildren. The lawsuit accused Hynie and her son, James Brown II, of “unlawfully” making deals without informing the other children and grandchildren.

Hynie and her son denied that, asserting that the heirs’ lawsuit was filled with “misrepresentations and material omissions.”

Lawyers for the nine heirs negotiated a settlement with Warner Chappell where the heirs also transferred their shares and received half of that money, Toberoff said, but the federal lawsuit is still pending.

Now that Hynie has been dislodged as a spouse, Scott Keniley, a lawyer who represented Brown’s son Terry, said, “The children have rights to the copyright terminations at 100% capacity that they split between themselves.”

Although it is far from a capstone, the Supreme Court ruling is a significant decision in a case that has entangled multiple participants. Brown’s 2000 will said that any heirs who challenged it would be disinherited, but several of his children and grandchildren sued after his death.

Although Hynie is no longer an heir, as determined by the Supreme Court, her son with Brown, James Brown II, has also asked to be considered an heir to the estate.

Toberoff says the nine heirs he represents are “more sympathetic” to James Brown II, although he declined to discuss further how they view the son’s claim.

Brown’s heirs have more details to work out, but for now, the will he drafted seems more likely to be implemented than it has.

“If all were right in the world,” said Adam Silvernail, a lawyer representing one of the estate’s former executors, Adele Pope, “the needy and deserving students would be receiving scholarships by the end of this year.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

21

Broadway league pledges change amid national uproar over racism

By MICHALE PAULSON

T

he Broadway League, a trade association that is the closest thing to a governing body presiding over America’s biggest stages, has decided to undertake a sweeping audit of diversity in the industry in response to the unrest over racial injustice that is sweeping the nation.

The League, whose members include Broadway theater owners and producers, as well as presenters of touring shows around the country, will hire a company to survey all aspects of the industry — onstage, backstage and in the many offices that power the productions, according to Charlotte St. Martin, the League president and chief executive.

She said the League could not mandate participation by other companies and organizations but that its leadership would strongly encourage all affected entities, including labor unions and nonprofits that operate on Broadway, to cooperate with the researchers.

“I think we have done a good job onstage, and we’ve done a good job with the Tony Awards, but in a lot of our backstage areas we haven’t done as good a job, and if people are frustrated, they have the right to be,” St. Martin said. “We have to change, and we will change.”

The audit is one of several measures the League’s board has decided to take in response to the uproar over racism that has roiled the country since George Floyd was killed in police custody last month in Minneapolis. Many theater artists have taken to social media to detail instances in which they felt mistreated because of race, and several have formed new organizations to press for change.

St. Martin said the League had also decided to change its bylaws to make it easier for industry leaders of color to join its board. In addition, she said, the League will hire an executive to oversee its equity, diversity and inclusion efforts; undertake an assessment of its 19 existing diversity initiatives; make unconscious bias and anti-

racism training mandatory for its staff and leadership; and offer the training to its members.

The League currently has a board of about 50, two of whom are black.

Both of them welcomed the changes.

“I’m very proud that there are actions being taken, and it isn’t just talk,” said Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, the longtime executive director of Arizona State University Gammage, a large performing arts center whose programming includes touring Broadway shows.

“It’s been a long time coming,” she added. “As wonderful as the field is, I often am the only one in the room.”

Stephen Byrd, a Broadway producer who also serves on the League board, described similar experiences.

“When I walk into a general manager’s office, I don’t see anyone like me;

when I walk into an audition, I don’t see anyone at the table that looks like me,” he said. “We do need new voices.”

The League is a relatively small trade association — it had 37 employees before the pandemic, and now has 20 — but it is influential because it is the body through which theater owners and producers negotiate labor contracts, interact with government officials and, together with the American Theater Wing, oversee the Tony Awards.

Its existing diversity programs are focused in two areas — workforce development, aimed at encouraging and assisting people of color interested in careers in the industry, and audience development, aimed at persuading people of color to become more frequent theater patrons.

But St. Martin said the current

discussion about injustice has persuaded the League’s leadership that it needs to do more.

“There’s no question that what we all just experienced has educated us all,” she said. “We have accepted the responsibility to ensure that we change the industry through our members.”

Drew Shade, the founder and creative director of Broadway Black, a digital platform highlighting black theater artists working in the industry, welcomed the move, but with a note of caution.

“It sounds like a really great beginning — a first step,” he said. “But the Broadway League has all the power, and it will be interesting to hear how they plan to distribute control and power within the industry. Maybe there’s a conversation to be had about what else they can do.”

Charlotte St. Martin, far right, is the president of the Broadway League; the board includes Stephen Byrd, left, and Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, center.

22

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

The pets left behind by COVID-19

Feraz Mohammed, with Animal Care Centers of NYC, pets a dog he is picking up from the apartment of a resident who is hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms, in New York.

By SARAH MASLIN NIR

A

s a trained disaster responder, Dr. Robin Brennen was well versed in proper safety procedures when she entered a coronavirus patient’s apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in late March. She pulled on protective plastic bootees, a face mask and an eye shield.

Then, with a gloved hand, she picked up the rest of her equipment: a 5-pound bag of cat kibble and a litter box.

The pandemic’s devastating human toll in New York City has been well documented. But it has also affected people’s lives in ways that have gotten less attention, including what happens to the pets of those who become seriously ill.

Brennen, a veterinarian at Animal Care Centers of NYC, is part of a team of specialists who help the animal companions that have been left behind.

Across the city, animal specialists in full-body personal protective gear enter homes to feed, at no charge, famished pets whose owners are hospitalized with the virus, or to take custody of pets belonging to pa-

tients who do not return home.

Pet owners who have died of the virus have left behind dogs, guinea pigs and cats, at least one of which starved to death before anyone had checked the owner’s apartment, according to Animal Care Centers of NYC. For cats, which are susceptible to coronavirus infection, the city’s standard strategy is to essentially quarantine them in their homes for at least 14 days, with city animal specialists monitoring them.

(It is unclear whether cats can pass the disease to humans.)

On the Upper West Side that day in March, residents of the co-op building had alerted Brennen’s organization that a woman who lived there was in intensive care battling the virus, and that her two beloved cats had been left behind.

Brennen went in and fed the cats twice a week.

“I knew how much she wanted those cats and loved them,” she said.

“And I wanted them to be there for her when she got home.”

Ultimately, the cats’ owner died; a neighbor later adopted them.

“They don’t have her, but they had

people willing to help her,” said Brennen, the animal care organization’s vice president of animal health and welfare.

“And that is something.”

Some virus patients, intubated and in intensive care units, have been unable to tell anyone that their dog or cat has been left behind, leaving neighbors to figure it out from plaintive pet sounds down the hall.

In late April, New York City’s emergency management and animal welfare offices introduced a hotline for people who were struggling to care for their pets because of the virus.

Some questions that come into the hotline, which is staffed by members of local animal rescue groups and representatives of the city agencies, are fairly basic. One example: Can my dog get the virus? (There have been few documented cases of dogs contracting the disease.)

The hotline’s primary goal is to help struggling or sick New Yorkers avoid surrendering their pets, connecting callers to things like subsidized emergency veterinary medicine and the city’s network of free pet food pantries.

But sometimes, surrendering pets is the only option: As of June 17, roughly 145 had been turned over via the hotline. The animals have been cared for by Brennen’s organization and by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Manhattan.

Animals surrendered by people who have contracted the virus must be quarantined for 14 days. After that, they can be adopted.

“It is so important, especially at this time, that this human-animal bond is taken care of,” said Christine Kim, the city animal welfare office’s senior community liaison. “This is the time when people need that the most.”

When Howard Katz, 61, a limousine driver from Massapequa, on Long Island, was hospitalized with the virus in April, his primary concern was not for himself, his sister, Cynthia Hertz, said.

Instead, he was worried about Lucy, his Shiba Inu, who was readjusting after surgery for an illness that necessitated removing her eyes.

Hertz said she and her boyfriend spent three days calling vets, dog boarding facilities and rescue shelters to find someone to care for Lucy. No one would.

“They were afraid,” she said. “Lucy could be carrying the COVID, and nobody was able to help.”

A call to the pet hotline connected her with Jenny Coffey, the community engagement director at the rescue group Animal Haven.

The group, which Coffey said had fielded 215 cases so far, arranged for Lucy to stay at a Long Island boarding facility for three weeks. The cost was covered by a grant from Red Rover, a group that provides financial help to people with pets in crisis.

“It was like a lifeline for my brother,” said Hertz, adding that Katz was overjoyed to be reunited with Lucy after three weeks in a hospital and rehabilitation center. “I didn’t know if he was going to make it if something had happened to Lucy.”

Entering homes where the virus is believed to have been present can be nerve-racking, said Feraz Mohammed, an animal control officer at Animal Care Centers of NYC. On one recent day, Mohammed drove an agency van covered with images of cats and dogs to a South Bronx apartment building. A resident who was thought to have contracted the virus had been hospitalized; her dog and cat had not had food or water for five days.

Mohammed pulled on a mask, gloves and a Tyvek suit, meticulously sealing the openings around his wrists and ankles with tape. Then he grabbed his dog-catching stick and cat carrier.

Upstairs, a blond mop of a dog bounded out of the apartment, a blur of canine joy. Mohammed snapped a leash on the small dog and then went inside.

He fished a tabby cat out from under the couch, and he cooed gently at the two pets as he brought them downstairs and locked them in cages in the truck.

“Once we get them fed, get them water,” he said, stroking the little dog’s head, “it makes me feel better about all of this.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

23

How the coronavirus short-circuits the immune system

By GINA KOLATA

A

t the beginning of the pandemic, the coronavirus looked to be another respiratory illness. But the virus has turned out to affect not just the lungs, but the kidneys, the heart and the circulatory system — even, somehow, our senses of smell and taste.

Now researchers have discovered yet another unpleasant surprise. In many patients hospitalized with the coronavirus, the immune system is threatened by a depletion of certain essential cells, suggesting eerie parallels with HIV. The findings suggest that a popular treatment to tamp down the immune system in severely ill patients may help a few, but could harm many others. The research offers clues about why very few children get sick when they are infected, and hints that a cocktail of drugs may be needed to bring the coronavirus under control, as is the case with HIV. Growing research points to “very complex immunological signatures of the virus,” said Dr. John Wherry, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania whose lab is taking a detailed look at the immune systems of COVID-19 patients.

In May, Wherry and his colleagues posted online a paper showing a range of immune system defects in severely ill patients, including a loss of virus-fighting T cells in parts of the body.

In a separate study, the investigators identified three patterns of immune defects, and concluded that T cells and B cells, which help orchestrate the immune response, were inactive in roughly 30% of the 71 COVID-19 patients they examined. None of the papers have yet been published or peer reviewed.

Researchers in China have reported a similar depletion of T cells in critically ill patients, Wherry noted. But the emerging data could be difficult to interpret, he said — “like a Rorschach test.”

Research with severely ill COVID-19 patients is fraught with difficulties, noted Dr. Carl June, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved with the work.

“It is hard to separate the effects of simply being critically ill and in an ICU,

which can cause havoc on your immune system,” he said. “What is missing is a control population infected with another severe virus, like influenza.”

One of the more detailed studies, published as a preprint and under review at Nature Medicine, was conducted by Dr. Adrian Hayday, an immunologist at King’s College London.

He and his colleagues compared 63 COVID-19 patients at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London to 55 healthy people, some of whom had recovered from coronavirus infections.

found, was a marked increase in levels of a molecule called IP10, which sends T cells to areas of the body where they are needed.

Ordinarily, IP10 levels are only briefly elevated while T cells are dispatched. But in COVID-19 patients — as was the case in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), also caused by coronaviruses — IP10 levels go up and stay up.

That may create chaotic signaling in the body: “It’s like Usain Bolt hearing the

An electron microscope image provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases shows SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the U.S. Hayday and his colleagues began with the assumption that the patients would generate a profound immune response to the coronavirus. That is why most people recover from infections with few, if any, symptoms.

But those who get very sick from the virus could have immune systems that become impaired because they overreact, as happens in sepsis patients. Alternately, the scientists hypothesized, these patients could have immune systems that struggle mightily, but fail to respond adequately to the virus.

One of the most striking aberrations in COVID-19 patients, the investigators

starting gun and starting to run,” Hayday said, referring to the Olympic sprinter.

“Then someone keeps firing the starting gun over and over. What would he do?

He’d stop, confused and disoriented.”

The result is that the body may be signaling T cells almost at random, confusing the immune response. Some T cells are prepared to destroy the viruses but seem undermined, behaving aberrantly.

Many T cells apparently die, and so the body’s reserves are depleted — particularly in those over age 40, in whom the thymus gland, the organ that generates new T cells, has become less efficient.

The research also suggests that a

popular idea for treatment may not help most people.

Some patients are severely affected by coronavirus infections because their immune systems respond too vigorously to the virus. The result, a so-called cytokine storm, also has been seen in cancer patients treated with drugs that supercharge T cells to attack tumors.

These overreactions can be quelled with medications that block a molecule called IL-6, another organizer of immune cells. But these drugs have not been markedly effective in most COVID-19 patients, and for good reason, Hayday said.

“There clearly are some patients where IL-6 is elevated, and so suppressing it may help,” he explained. But “the core goal should be to restore and resurrect the immune system, not suppress it.”

The new research may help answer another pressing question: Why is it so rare for a child to get sick from the coronavirus?

Children have highly active thymus glands, the source of new T cells. That may allow them to stay ahead of the virus, making new T cells faster than the virus can destroy them. In older adults, the thymus does not function as well.

The emerging picture indicates that the model for HIV treatment, a cocktail of antiviral drugs, may be a good bet both for those with mild illnesses and those who are severely ill.

Some experts have wondered if antiviral treatment makes sense for severely ill COVID-19 patients, if their main affliction is an immune system overreaction.

But if the virus directly causes the immune system to malfunction, Hayday said, then an antiviral makes sense — and perhaps even more than one, since it’s important to stop the infection before it depletes T cells and harms other parts of the immune system.

“I have not lost one ounce of my optimism,” Hayday said. Even without a vaccine, he foresees COVID-19 becoming a manageable disease, controlled by drugs that act directly against the virus.

“A vaccine would be great,” he said.

“But with the logistics of its global rollout being so challenging, it’s comforting to think we may not depend on one.”

24

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Life hatched from soft eggs, some a foot long, in dinosaur era

An image provided by Legendre et al (2020), the footlong egg of a mosasaurus-like creature, including a cross section, lower left, showing that the egg consisted mostly of a soft membrane surrounded by a thin outer shell.

By LUCAS JOEL

T

here is a problem with dinosaur eggs: A lot of them are missing.

Dinosaurs dominated land from about 245 million years ago until an asteroid extinguished them some 66 million years before our time. But their eggs, a lot like those of other reptiles that lived on the planet during that time, are mostly absent from the first half of their fossil record. A new study published in Nature, showcasing baby dinosaur remains from Mongolia and Argentina, offers a reason: The very first dinosaurs laid soft eggs, the way turtles do today, and their eggs decomposed long before they could ever turn into fossils.

In a second study also published in Nature, paleontologists announced the first known fossil egg found in Antarctica.

The egg, also soft-shelled, looks like a deflated football. It is bigger than any dinosaur egg ever found, and the team that unearthed it thinks it might be the egg of a mosasaur. These rocketsize marine reptiles patrolled the ancient oceans during the dinosaur era and, until now, were thought to give birth to live young, not lay eggs.

Both studies scramble scientific understanding of ancient reptile reproduction. The dinosaur find explains a gap in the fossil record. But it also reveals how natural forces most

likely guided the evolution of dinosaur reproduction over time, ultimately leading dinosaurs to evolve a completely different kind of egg-laying ability. At the same time, the Antarctic egg find expands the known size limits that life can reach at birth, inviting questions about how big living things can truly grow.

The idea behind the dinosaur egg research incubated for a long time.

“This is actually an idea I had about 15 years ago,” said Mark Norell, a vertebrate paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, who led the team behind the dinosaur study.

Norell was in Mongolia excavating dinosaur fossils in the Gobi Desert. He unearthed the fossil babies of a dinosaur called Protoceratops — a beaked, herbivorous dinosaur in the same group as Triceratops.

The Protoceratops babies died between 75 million and 71 million years ago, and they are curled in fetal positions.

They look as if they should still be sheltering in their eggs. But when Norell found them, there were no fossilized eggshell fragments. Instead, a thin film surrounded the animals.

That is when it hit Norell: The films could be residues of decomposed soft shells. Today, reptiles like turtles, snakes and lizards will lay soft-shelled eggs, which are easier to hatch

from but offer little protection from the elements or some predators.

“But I couldn’t ever really prove it,” Norell said.

Norell said the idea bugged him, because paleontologists would regularly unearth large hauls of dinosaur eggs at excavation sites. But these eggs were always younger than the middle of the Jurassic Period, which runs from about 200 million to 145 million years ago.

Norell thought something important had happened around that time. But until there was more evidence, the question of the missing eggs would be “put down to the normal vagaries and biases and inadequacies of the fossil record,” said Stephen Brusatte, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh.

So, the idea gestated. It was not until Jasmina Wiemann, a molecular paleobiologist at Yale University, joined Norell’s team that the idea finally hatched.

Wiemann analyzed the chemistry of hard and soft eggs from animals like chickens and turtles, and she found that each shell type produces a unique chemical fingerprint. She then looked at the chemistry of the Protoceratops films, as well as films from the egg of another dinosaur from Argentina called Mussaurus, and found that the dinosaur eggs matched the soft shell fingerprint. “That was incredibly exciting,” Wiemann said.

The team now knew that some dinosaurs laid soft eggs.

After sorting out where the soft-shelled trait fit on the dinosaur family tree, they realized that the common ancestor of all the dinosaurs must have laid soft eggs. The ability to lay the hardshelled eggs that turned up later in the fossil record evolved tens of millions of years later, closer to their extinction than when nonavian dinosaurs first emerged.

“The idea that the ancestral dinosaur laid soft-shelled eggs like a turtle is a bold hypothesis, but I like it,” said Brusatte, who was not involved in the study. “It’s a stunning revelation — and it’s remarkable to think of these giant dinosaurs, larger than buses and in some cases airplanes, starting out as little pipsqueaks tearing their way out of a soft egg.”

While not a dinosaur, the mosasaur that tore out of the soft-shelled egg from Antarctica was one such pipsqueak.

Adult mosasaurs might have reached lengths of nearly 60 feet.

The egg, discovered in 2011 and the first mosasaur egg ever found, is about 1 foot long. The only larger egg ever found came from the elephant bird, which went extinct in the 17th century.

“That’s what really surprised us, because we didn’t think that soft-shelled eggs could grow that big without collapsing,” said Lucas Legendre, a paleontologist at the University of Texas at Austin who is the lead author of the new study. “We didn’t think there were animals that large that might have laid soft-shelled eggs.”

For Norell, such an evolution in understanding is surprising — but that is par for the course. “I think the more we look at the evolution of basically anything, the more it just kind of blows your mind,” he said. “That’s just the way it works.”

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

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

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

CIVIL NO. 18-01878-DRD. FO-

RECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE COLLECTION OF MONIES. NOTICE OF SALE.

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

tros; Sur, con el solar número fees, as well as any other sum on the September 4th, 2020 MAC), al cual puede acceder de Puerto Rico, dentro de los sido archivada en los autos de término, el tribunal podrá diccatorce (14), por donde mide contained in the loan agree- at 10:00 am, in the Office of utilizando la siguiente direc- 10 días siguientes a su notifica- este caso, con fecha de 24 de tar sentencia en rebeldía en su

catorce (14.00) metros; Este, ment. This is the result of the the Clerk of the United States ción electrónica: https://unired. ción. Y, siendo o representando junio de 2020. En TOA ALTA, contra, y conceder el remedio con el solar número setenta above annotation. Inscribed on District Court, Room 150 or ramaiudicial.pr, salvo que se usted una parte en el procedi- Puerto Rico, el 24 de junio de solicitado en la Demanda, o

(70), por donde mide veintiséis November 9, 2015 on folio 119 400, Federal Building, Chardon represente por derecho propio, miento sujeta a los términos 2020. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en

(26.00) metros; Oeste, con el of volume 1256, annotation A. Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico en cuyo caso deberá presentar de la Sentencia, Sentencia SANCHEZ, Secretaria Regio- el ejercicio de su sana discresolar número sesenta y ocho Potential bidders are advised to in accordance with 28 U.S.C. su alegación responsiva en la Parcial o Resolución, de la cual nal.

(68), por donde mide veintiséis verify the extent of preferential Sec. 2001, will sell at public secretaría del tribunal.

solar una casa residencia de shall be understood that each the property described herein, ro e Incumplimiento de Contra- término de 30 días contados a

una sola planta construida de bidder accepts as sufficient the proceeds of said sale to be to, en que la parte demandante partir de la publicación por edic-

suant to the Judgment, the Defendants were Ordered to pay

of $153,280.01, accrued varia-

manda presentada al lugar de

at page 181 of volume 243 of legal), shall continue in effect sale of the property described tinúan aumentando hasta el sido archivada en los autos de

Urb. Villa del Encanto, Cl Calle

na. The property is recorded liens (express, tacit, implied or successful, the second judicial en intereses, los cuales con- to. Copia de esta notificación ha

Ponce, property number 12617, it being understood further that in this Notice will be held on the pago total y completo de la este caso, con fecha de 24 de Registry of the Property of the successful bidder accepts September 11th, 2020 at 10:00 deuda a razón de $11.25 diario; junio de 2020. En TOA ALTA, Puerto Rico, Section II of Pon- them and is subrogated in the am, in the Office of the Clerk of la suma de $177.24, por con- Puerto Rico, el 24 de junio de

ce. WHEREAS: The property responsibility for the same and the United States District Court cepto de cargos por mora; más 2020. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA is subject to the following ju- that the price shall be applied located at the address indica- $140.00 en cargos adicionales; SANCHEZ, Secretaria Regionior liens described as follows: toward their cancellation. The ted above. Should the second más el 5% del balance adeuda- nal.

And Services Inc. in the amou- liens. WHEREAS: For the pur- sale of the property described hacerlo, se dictará contra usted

nt of $49,500.00, with interest pose of the first judicial sale, in this Notice will be held on the sentencia en rebeldía, conce-

ring on January 1, 2038. This by the parties in the mortga- am, in the Office of the Clerk of en la demanda, sin más citarle to Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL

by Scotiabank of Puerto Rico, bid agreed upon the parties in

and risk insurance premiums, expressly agreed-upon in the

secured debt in the amount of Asociado de Puerto Rico”, 2015

stated above until full payment

interest. Condemning the de- 2479), Articule 104, as amen-

late fees and any other amount

which it is requested to pay the Inmobiliaria del Estado Libre

mortgage deed, from the date

$168,000.00 for principal; plus Puerto Rico Laws Act 210 (H.B.

PUERTO RICO Demandante v.

CELIA CINTRON MELENDEZ Demandado

CIVIL NUM. CA2020CV00324.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO E

INCUMPLIMIENTO DE CON-

TRATO. EMPLAZAMIENTO thereof, plus 10% for attorneys’’ fendant to pay the plaintiff the ded). WHEREAS: Said sale POR EDICTO. ESTADOS sum of $153,280.01 principal to be made by the appointed fees and legal costs in the UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL amount of $16,800.00. WHE- balance of the referred to pay Special Master is subject to PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTAREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the interest at the agreed rate confirmation by the United StaDOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIthe aforementioned Judgment of $6,875 principal balance of tes District Court for the District BRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO of Puerto Rico and the deed of the referred to pay the interest and the Order for Execution of RICO. SS Judgment thereof, the following at the agreed rate of 6.875% conveyance and possession to property belonging to the De-

per year accrued on such sum the property will be executed

auction: Urbana: Solar marcado

those accruing to the full and confirmation. The records of the

del Bloque D del plano de ins-

cipal, late charges incurred up may be examined by interested

Antonio, radicada en el Barrio

to the full and complete pay- of the United States District

A: CELIA CINTRON MELENDEZ, HC 1 BOOX 12986 CAROLINA, PUERTO RICO 00987 DE: FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO

fendants will be sold at a public

from December 1, 2014 and and delivered only after such

con el numero Sesenta y Nueve

complete payment of the prin- case and of these proceedings

cripción de la Urbanización San

to this date and those accruing parties at the Office of the Clerk

Canas del municipio de Ponce,

ment of the debt, any advan- Court, Room 150 or 400 Fede- Se le emplaza y requiere que ces made by the plaintiff for ral Office Building, 150 Chardon conteste la demanda dentro de

tros cuadrados. En linderos: Norte, con la calle número ocho

(8) de la urbanización, por donde mide catorce (14.00) me-

@

LEGAL NOTICE

at 6.875% annually and expi- the minimum bid agreed upon September 18th, 2020 at 10:00 diéndose el remedio solicitado Estado Libre Asociado de Puer-

tion, Defendants, by means of del Registro de la Propiedad

punto Cero Cero (364.00) me-

VAZQUEZ

the order of National Promoter red free and clear of all junior unsuccessful, the third judicial Se le apercibe que, si dejare de I.

And Services Inc, Eagle Real- deed, or $84,000.00. (Known in

Trescientos Sesenta y Cuatro

GLORIBELL

MORTAGE: On behalf of or at present property will be acqui- judicial sale set hereinabove be do; para un total de $32,492.48. MAYSONET, Sec del Trib Conf.

from December 1sr, 2014 until

Puerto Rico, con una cabida de

edicto, se le estará enviando

sanitario, balcón y marquesi- not limited to any property tax, sale set hereinabove be un- más la cantidad de $2,323.98 de la publicación de este edic- SALA DE JUANA DIAZ.

ty And Development Corpora- the Spanish language as: “Ley

for Execution of Judgment. Pur-

a la publicación del presente

tos dormitorios, cocina, cuarto foreclosed upon, including, but ment. Should the first judicial suma principal de $28,304.00; considerará hecha en la fecha NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA del emplazamiento y de la de-

full payment, plus mortgage

2020, this Court entered Order

LEGAL NOTICE

en sala-comedor, tres cuar- ferential liens to the one being provided by the Court’s Judg- parte demandada a pagar: la usted esta notificación que se DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU- con acuse de recibo, una copia

Plaintiff vs. National Promoter the aforementioned mortgage

inst Defendants. On January 9,

los diez (10) días siguientes

hormigón reforzado, dividida the title and that prior and pre- applied in the manner and form solicita que se condene a la to de esta notificación, dirijo a ESTADO LIBRE ASOCI:ADO a usted por correo certificado

ble interest starting at 6.875%,

ment in favor of Plaintiff, aga-

VAZQUEZ ción, lo entiende procedente.

(26.00) metros. Existe en este liens with the holders thereof. It auction to the highest bidder, caso trata sobre Cobro de Dine- revisión o apelación dentro del I.

Plaintiff the principal amount

2019, this Court entered Judg-

GLORIBELL

Este puede establecerse recurso de MAYSONET, Sec del Trib Conf. Se le advierte que dentro de

is the result of deed number ger deed will be $168,000.00, the United States District Court ni oírle.

Lcda. Mariana Ortiz Colón, 177, granted in San Juan on for the property and no lower located at the address indicaAbogada Núm. 15394; Colegiada December 31, 2007, before the offers will be accepted. Should ted above. In San Juan, Puerto Número: 16599 notary Elyvette Fuentes Bonilla. the firs judicial sale of the above Rico, this 16 day of June 2020. 221 Ponce de León Ave., Suite 900, San Juan, PR 00917, Registered on 20 May 2008 on described property be unsuc- Victor Encarnacion Pichardo, Teléfono: (787) 296-9500, folio 72 of volume 1096, 23rd cessful, then the minimum bid Appointed Special Master.

Correo Electrónico: **** registration. LAWSUIT: In the for the property on the second maortiz@lvprlaw.com LEGAL NOTICE Court of First Instance, Ponce judicial sale will be two-thirds EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA Chamber, a lawsuit was filed the amount of the minimum ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO y Sello del Tribunal, hoy 12 de on May 5, 2015, followed by bid for the first judicial sale, or DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUjunio de 2020. Lcda. Marilyn Civil Case number JCD2015- $112,000.00. The minimum NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA Aponte Rodriguez, Secretaria 0438 on Collection of Money bid for the third judicial sale, SALA SUPERIOR DE CARORegional. Lourdes Torres, Sec and Foreclosure of Mortgage if the same is necessary, will LINA. del Tribunal. by the Ordinary Way, followed be one-half of the minimum FIRSTBANK

WHEREAS: On August 20,

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

the payment of insurance pre- Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. los treinta (30) días siguientes miums, property contributions, NOW THEREFORE, public a la publicación de este edicto.

special contributions, any other notice is hereby given that the Usted deberá presentar su aleexpenses paid by the plaintiffs Special Master, pursuant to gación responsiva a través del and the sum of $16,800.00 for the provisions of the Judgment Sistema Unificado de Manejo y costs, expenses and attorneys’ herein before referred to, will, Administración de Casos (SU-

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

(787) 743-3346

LEGAL NOTICE

Estado Libre Asociado de Puer-

DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de TOA ALTA.

EDNALYZ CONDE ROBLES Demandante v.

ZINHOM GAMAL ZINHOM Demandados

Civil: Núm. BY2019RF00859.

ORIENTAL BANK, Demandante, V.

EDUARDO RIVERA RODRIGUEZ, FULANA DE TAL y la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales compuesta por ambos, Demandados

CIVIL NUM.: JD2019CV00496.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO

POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. BM-

PLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE

LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: EDUARDO RIVERA RODRIGUEZ, FULANA DE TAL y la Sociedad Legal da Gananciales compuesta por ambos

su última dirección conocida:

2, Juana Díaz, PR 00795-2703.

EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal en Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico, hoy día 20

de febrero de 2020. Luz Mayra

Caraballo Garcia, Sec Regional. Waleska E. Rivera Torres, Sec Aux del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE MAYAGUEZ.

CARMEN J. MONTERO ROSSY DEMANDANTE v.

KERSTIN MEYERS DEMANDADA

CIVIL NÚM: MC2019CV00029.

SOBRE: DESAHUCIO POR Sobre: DIVORCIO (RI). NO- POR MEDIO del presente edic- LA VÍA SUMARIA. EMPLAZATIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA to se le notifica de la radicación MIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTAde una demanda en cobro de DOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, POR EDICTO.

A: ZINHOM GAMAL ZINHOM - 339 HYDE STREET, CALIFORNIA, San Francisco 94109

dinero por la vía ordinaria en la EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESque se alega que usted adeuda TADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO a la parte demandante, Oriental LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERBank, ciertas sumas de dinero, TO RICO. SS. y las costas, gastos y honora- A: SRA. KERSTIN MEYER

to Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL EL SECRETARIO(A) que susrios de abogado de este litigio.

DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Pri- cribe le notifica a usted que El demandante, Oriental Bank, mera Instancia Sala Superior el 11 de junio de 2020, este ha solicitado que se dicte sende TOA ALTA. Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, tencia en contra suya y que se HIRAM ORTIZ SANTIAGO Sentencia Parcial o Resolución le ordene pagar las cantidades en este caso, que ha sido debiDemandante v. reclamadas en la demanda.

DANNA ROMAN OJEDA damente registrada y archivada POR EL PRESENTE EDICTO en autos donde podrá usted Demandados se le emplaza para que presenCivil: Núm. TB2019RF00001. enterarse detalladamente de te al tribunal su alegación resSobre: DIVORCIO (RI). NO- los términos de la misma. Esta ponsiva a la demanda dentro TIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA notificación se publicará una de los treinta (30) días de hasola vez en un periódico de POR EDICTO. ber sido diligenciado este emcirculación general en la Isla A: DANNA ROMAN plazamiento, excluyéndose el OJEDA - 2644 TANDORI de Puerto Rico, dentro de los día del diligenciamiento. Usted CIR, ORLANDO FL 32837 10 días siguientes a su notifica- deberá presentar su alegación ción. Y, siendo o representando responsiva a través del Sistema EL SECRETARIO(A) que sususted una parte en el procediUnificado de Manejo y Adminiscribe le notifica a usted que miento sujeta a los términos tración de Casos (SUMAC), al el 15 de junio de 2020, este de la Sentencia, Sentencia cual puede acceder utilizando Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Parcial o Resolución, de la cual la siguiente dirección electróniSentencia Parcial o Resolución puede establecerse recurso de ca: https://unired.ramajudicial. en este caso, que ha sido debirevisión o apelación dentro del pr/sumac/, salvo que se repredamente registrada y archivada término de 30 días contados a sente por derecho propio, en en autos donde podrá usted partir de la publicación por ediccuyo caso deberá presentar su enterarse detalladamente de to de esta notificación, dirijo a alegación responsiva en la Selos términos de la misma. Esta usted esta notificación que se cretaría del Tribunal. Si usted notificación se publicará una considerará hecha en la fecha deja de presentar su alegación sola vez en un periódico de de la publicación de este edicresponsiva dentro del referido circulación general en la Isla to. Copia de esta notificación ha

Carretera 374, kilómetro 1. 7, Maricao, Puerto Rico 00606 Hc-01 Box 7044 Yauco, Puerto Rico 0098

POR LA PRESENTE se le notifica que la parte demandante, por conducto de su abogado

LCDO. CARLOS L. SEGARRA MATOS, con oficina en el #

2510 de la Carretera 100, kilómetro 3.5 de Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico 00623, y cuyo número de teléfono es el 787-851-3582, ha radicado ante este tribunal una

demanda sobre Desahucio por la Vía Sumaria. Se le apercibe que si no compareciera usted a

contestar dicha demanda, dentro un término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación

de este edicto, podrá dictarse

sentencia en rebeldía en su contra concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda sin

más citarle ni oírle. En Maya-

güez, Puerto Rico, hoy día 13 de marzo de 2020. Lic. Norma

The San Juan Daily Star G Santana Irizarry, Sec Regional. Gloria E Acevedo Soto, Sec Auxiliar del Tribunal I.

Tuesday, June 30, 2020 RICHARD ROE

25

ca : https://unired.ramajudicial. miento sujeta a los términos

pr, salvo que se represente por de la Sentencia, Sentencia Demandados CIVIL NUM. BY2020CV01828. derecho propio, en cuyo caso Parcial o Resolución, de la cual SALA: 503. SOBRE: CANCE- deberá presentar su alegación puede establecerse recurso de

LEGAL NOTICE LACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRA- responsiva en la secretaría del revisión o apelación dentro del ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO VIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO tribunal. Si usted deja de pre- término de 30 días contados a DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNI- sentar su alegación responsiva partir de la publicación por edicGENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRI- DOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRE- dentro del referido término, el to de esta notificación, dirijo a BUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTAN- SIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL tribunal podra dictar sentencia usted esta notificación que se CIA SALA DE SAN JUAN. ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO en rebeldía en su contra y con- considerará hecha en la fecha ORIENTAL BANK Demandante V.

DE P.R. SS.

A: JOHN DOE Y JOHN DOE Y RICHARD RICHARD ROE, personas ROE COMO MIEMBROS desconocidas que se DESCONOCIDOS DE designan con estos LA SUCESIÓN MARTA nombres ficticios, que MILDRED RAMOS puedan ser tenedor o RAMOS; tenedores, o puedan tener Demandada algún interés en el pagaré DEPARTAMENTO DE hipotecario a que se hace HACIENDA; CENTRO DE referencia más adelante RECAUDACIONES DE en el presente edicto, que INGRESOS MUNICIPALES se publicará una sola vez.

ceder el remedio solicitado en de la publicación de este edicla demanda, o cualquier otro, to. Copia de esta notificación ha

si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de sido archivada en los autos de

su sana discreción, lo entiende este caso, con fecha de 26 de procedente.

LCDO. JAVIER MONTALVO CINTRÓN RUA NÚM. 17682 DELGADO & FERNÁNDEZ, LLC PO Box 11750, Femández Juncos Station San Juan, Puerto Rico 00910-1750 , Tel. (787) 274-1414 / Fax (787) 764-8241 E-mai 1: jmonta1vo@ delgadofemandez.com

Star

San Juan The

DAILY

junio de 2020. En GUAYNABO,

Puerto Rico, el 26 de junio de

2020. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretaria Regional.

F/DIAMAR

GONZALEZ

BARRETO, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUExpedido bajo mi firma y sello NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA Se les notifica que en la De- del Tribunal, hoy 24 de junio de SALA DE ARECIBO. CIVIL NÚM.: manda radicada en el caso de 2020. LCDA. LAURA I SANTA SJ2019CV11182(604).

SOAMADOR epígrafe se alega que un paga- SANCHEZ, Secretaria RegioBRE: INTERPELACIÓN, RAMOS RODRIGUEZ ré hipotecario fue otorgado el nal. DAISY J. RODRIGUEZ, COBRO DE DINERO Y EJEDemandante VS. 23 de mayo de 2014, se otorgó Secretaria Auxiliar.

CUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. ESMARISOL VICTORIA un pagaré a favor de Oriental TADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRIRAMOS GUERRA LEGAL NOTICE Bank, o a su orden, por la suma CA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS Demandado de $1, 750,000.00 de principal, Estado Libre Asociado de PuerEE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE con intereses al 15% anual, y to Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL CIVIL NÚM.: AR2020RF00289.

ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS. vencedero a la presentación, DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Pri- SALA NÚM.: 103. SOBRE:

El mejor lugar para publicar SUS EDICTOS!

Partes Con Interés

John Doe y Richard Roe como miembros desconocidos de la Sucesión Marta Mildred Ramos Ramos.

Ave. Sagrado Corazón 387 San Claudio, San Juan, PR 00926; Venus Gardens 1677 Calle Morelia, San Juan, PR 00926.

ante el Notario Jorge Rexach mera Instancia Sala Superior DIVORCIO (Ruptura Irreparable). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR Vaquer, mediante afidávit 2635. de GUAYNABO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS La hipoteca que grava la propiedad descrita en el párrafo

anterior fue constituida mediante la escritura número 27 del

23 de mayo de 2014, ante el Notario Jorge Rexach Vaquer,

inscrita al folio 212 del tomo

282 de Bayamón, finca número 1876, inscripción 9, Registro

de la Propiedad de Bayamón,

Sección IV. El inmueble gravaPor la presente se les ordena do mediante la hipoteca antes para que se expresen si han de descrita es la finca número 186 aceptar o rechazar formalmen- inscrita al folio 1 del tomo 50 te la herencia en el término de de Dorado, Registro de la Pro-

MYRIAM VILLAR DE FRANCOS REP. POR ELYAM G. RODRIGUEZ VILLAR DE FRANCO Demandante v.

DORAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION AHORA BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO, JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS

Demandados treinta (30) días a partir de la piedad de Bayamón, Sección publicación de esta orden, de lo IV. La obligación evidenciada Civil: Núm. GB2019CV00698. contrario la herencia se tendrá por el pagaré antes descrito SALA: 201. Sobre: CANCELApor aceptada. Se le apercibe a fue saldada en su totalidad . CION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIAlos herederos que si no se ex- Dicho gravamen no ha podido DO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENpresan dentro del término aquí ser cancelado por haberse ex- TENCIA POR EDICTO. A: JOHN DOE Y otorgado, la herencia se ten- traviado el original del pagaré drá por aceptada. Aclarándose . El original del pagaré antes que el heredero deberá, si así descrito no ha podido ser localo desea, repudiar la herencia lizado, a pesar de las gestiones mediante instrumento público realizadas. Oriental Bank es

RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARE EXTRAVIADO

DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNI-

DOS EL PUEBLO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: MARISOL VICTORIA RAMOS GUERRA 809 Oakwood Ave. Jacksonville, North Carolina 28546

Por la presente se le notifica

que la demandante ha presen-

la siguiente dirección electróni- usted una parte en el procedi-

NOTIFICACIONES SUBASTAS EMPLAZAMIENTO MARCAS EXP. DOMINIO

$60 $195 p/p $95 $60 $85 p/p

tado ante este Tribunal una demanda contra usted, solicitando

la concesión del Divorcio por la causal de Ruptura Irreparable.

El abogado de la demandante

es el Lcdo. Luis Sevillano Sánchez, cuya dirección es PO Box

141118, Arecibo PR 00614,

teléfono (787) 878-5132, facsímile (787) 880-3073 y correo

electrónico sevillano@prtc.net.

Se le apercibe que si dentro del

término de treinta (30) días de

la publicación de este edicto, o por escrito judicial. En San el acreedor que consta en el EL SECRETARIO(A) que sususted no contesta la demanda, Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy 24 de Registro de la Propiedad. El úl- cribe le notifica a usted que radicando el original de la conJUNIO de 2020. GRISELDA timo tenedor conocido del paJ el 10 de junio de 2020, este testación ante el Tribunal de RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, SE- aré antes descrito fue Oriental Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Arecibo y envía copia al aboCRETARIA.. Marlyn Ann Espi- Bank. POR LA PRESENTE se Sentencia Parcial o Resolución gado de la demandante, se le nosa Rivera, Secretaria Servi- le emplaza para que presente al en este caso, que ha sido debianotará la rebeldía y se dictará cios a Sala. tribunal su alegación responsi- damente registrada y archivada sentencia concediendo el reva dentro de los 30 días de ha- en autos donde podrá usted medio solicitado, sin más citarle LEGAL NOTICE ber sido diligenciado este em- enterarse detalladamente de ni oírle. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO plazamiento, excluyéndose el los términos de la misma. Esta FIRMA y sello del Tribunal, en DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL día del diligenciamiento. Usted notificación se publicará una Arecibo, Puerto Rico, hoy 15 de GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRI- deberá presentar su alegación sola vez en un periódico de junio de 2020. VIVIAN Y FRESBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTAN- responsiva a través del Sistema circulación general en la Isla SE GONZALEZ, SECRETARIA CIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN. Unificado de Manejo y Adminis- de Puerto Rico, dentro de los REGIONAL. NOEMI MEDINA ORIENTAL BANK tración de Casos (SUMAC), al 10 días siguientes a su notificaJUARBE, SEC AUXILIAR. Demandante v. cual puede acceder utilizando ción. Y, siendo o representando

JOHN DOE &

Implementamos una forma nueva e innovadora de trabajar la publicación de edictos...

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26

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Gerardo Parra hopes ‘Baby Shark’ magic can bring a title in Japan, too

By BRAD LEFTON

A

mid all the new safety protocols and unusual scenes after the delayed opening of Japan’s baseball league, a highly unscientific yet intriguing multicultural study is underway: Can a Venezuelan player who became the emotional soul of an American franchise’s first championship run deliver similar results in Japan with his beloved Korean-produced children’s song?

Nearly two weeks into Nippon Professional Baseball’s coronavirus-delayed season, the early results are promising.

Gerardo Parra is remembered in Washington for using the children’s song “Baby Shark” to inspire a team and its fan base on the way to the Nationals’ 2019 World Series championship. But while his walk-up song and on-base celebrations may have galvanized the team, his on-field production was mediocre, and the Nationals declined to re-sign him after his one-year contract expired.

With an increasingly unkind freeagent market for veterans in the major leagues, Parra signed with the Yomiuri Giants when they approached him in November. Despite the long layoff and the adjustment to a new country, Parra is off to a fine start.

He got a hit on opening night after his manager challenged a close out call at first base on a ball Parra had bounced to shortstop. With no fans in the stands, it would have made for an awkward debut for his “Baby Shark” dance. The moment produced only a silent exchange of gestures: the umpire overturning the call with a sweeping extension of his arms and then Parra pinching his thumb and index finger together privately — just as he and his Nationals teammates had done in 2019 to celebrate singles.

A bigger moment came in Game No. 2. As the Giants broke open a close contest in the seventh inning against the Hanshin Tigers, Parra blasted a chesthigh pitch that clunked off an empty seat in the right-field stands for a three-run home run. He was delighted with both the result and the response from his teammates.

“For this one, I do the big ‘Baby Shark’ dance,” Parra said in a postgame phone interview, referring to the chomping gesture made with both arms.

Gerardo Parra broke out the “Baby Shark” celebration in Japan after a hit with his new team, the Yomiuri Giants.

“When I turned back and looked at the dugout, everybody do that. Everybody.

I be happy for that, because when the team is together, everything is positive.”

The Giants lead the six-team Central League with a 6-2-1 start. Parra is batting .286 with three home runs and has started in right field in eight of their games, but they did not sign him for his home run prowess. He hit just 88 in 11 U.S. major league seasons, including eight for the Nationals last year. The Japanese club liked his solid career batting average of .276 and his versatile defense, which includes two Gold Gloves and more than 200 games at each outfield position.

Beyond those skills, it has been obvious since his signing that the Giants also embrace his contagious energy.

At his introductory news conference in January, the Giants blared the same tune that filled Nationals Park last year throughout the room. Everyone on the

dais received a pair of blue-and-white Baby Shark hand puppets adorned with a Yomiuri cap in front of the dorsal fin.

Even manager Tatsunori Hara slipped one on each hand and smiled broadly as he joined in the dance that thousands of Nationals fans happily performed last year.

Even with no fans in stadiums after a 91-day delay of the season because of the coronavirus, the Giants are playing walk-up music in the empty Tokyo Dome at home games. Once again, Parra is stepping to the plate to the tune from Pinkfong, the Korean educational entertainment company.

“I can’t change the music now because it’s emotion for me,” Parra said.

“It’s my life to see all the people and kids happy. Right now, we can’t see fans in the stadium, but I know they like it because they send me video and pictures

by Instagram and everything. It brings

energy, and we need that to help make a championship team here.”

He was credited with doing exactly that in Washington. Parra was released

by San Francisco in May 2019 after a slow start, and signed with a Nationals team that had stumbled to a 19-31 record. He had been stepping to the plate to the reggaeton track “Contra La Pared,”

by Sean Paul and J. Balvin, but before a doubleheader against Philadelphia on June 19, he changed it on a whim.

“In the morning, my kids say, ‘Daddy, I want to listen to “Baby Shark,’ ” so I put it on my phone and we dance in the apartment for like three hours,” said Parra, who estimated he had switched his walk-up song more than 20 times in his career. “When I go to the stadium, I said, ‘Hey, I want to change the walk-up song.’ I never think I want to put ‘Baby Shark,’ but it was still on my phone and I kept hearing it. After so many times, I said: ‘You know what? That’s the song I’m going to use.’”

Some on the team were skeptical, but when Parra saw how children and adults reacted, he decided to keep it.

“I never seen kids and adults happy together like that before,” he recalled.

“It’s beautiful when you see that.”

The energy of the tune, coupled with Parra’s charisma, eventually seeped into the clubhouse and helped build a camaraderie that became a central storyline in the Nationals’ title run.

“Of course, you have to play strong on the field, but when everyone is together like that in the clubhouse, everything is possible,” Parra said.

JOSÉ BURGOS Técnico Generadores Gas Propano

787•607•3343

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

27

Patriots sign Cam Newton as NFL levies fine in video scandal

Cam Newton, pictured in 2019, was drafted first over all in 2011 and had spent his entire career with Carolina.

By KEN BELSON

Q

uarterback Cam Newton, a former NFL Most Valuable Player who has been dogged by injuries in recent years, has signed a one-year contract with the New England Patriots, according to multiple reports.

On Sunday, the NFL fined the Patriots $1.1 million and would take its third-round draft pick in 2021 as the penalty for the team videotaping the Cincinnati Bengals’ sideline during their game against the Cleveland Browns last season, according to a league spokesman, Michael Signora. The incident raised fresh suspicions of the team, which has been the subject of more serious rules scandals, like the so-called Spygate and Deflategate incidents, during coach Bill Belichick’s tenure.

The news of Newton’s arrival, though, will have Patriots fans looking forward, not backward. Newton, who was drafted first overall in 2011 by the Carolina Panthers and has played his entire career in Carolina, became a free agent this offseason. After missing just six games in his first eight seasons, he played in

just two games last year. Newton has injured his knee, shoulder and the Lisfranc ligament of his left foot, necessitating surgery — a few months before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted offseason NFL player movement.

Newton was released by the Panthers in March amid an organizational reshuffling that saw the departures of the head coach, Ron Rivera, and a stalwart linebacker, Luke Kuechly.

Before injuries slowed him down, Newton, 31, was one of the league’s most dominant quarterbacks and the best offensive player in Panthers history. He has thrown for more than 29,000 yards and 182 touchdowns in his career. He has run for more than 4,800 yards and 58 touchdowns as well.

His best season came in 2015, when the Panthers went 15-1 in the regular season and reached the Super Bowl. Newton was voted winner of the MVP award that year. Newton guided the Panthers to four postseason appearances.

The deal was first reported by ESPN and confirmed by NFL Network. The Patriots declined to comment on the report of Newton’s signing. Newton’s agent, Bus Cook, did not

immediately return requests for comment.

Newton still must pass a physical, which all players have had trouble completing because of travel restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic. But assuming he passes the test, Newton will have a one-year contract to prove he still is a big-time quarterback and the Patriots will risk little to gain a seasoned, athletic leader. The team’s longtime quarterback, Tom Brady, signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in March.

The Patriots’ roster of quarterbacks also includes Jarrett Stidham, whom the Patriots selected in the fourth round of the 2019 draft and who appeared in just three games as a backup last season. At quarterback, the Patriots will also have Brian Hoyer, who is in his second stint with the team, J’Mar Smith and Brian Lewerke going into training camp.

Signing Newton may take some of the sting out of the Patriots’ penalties, which stem from an instance in December when a team videographer recorded the field and the Bengals’ sideline while attending the BengalsBrowns game in Cleveland, ostensibly to film a Patriots scout in action for a feature on the

team’s website.

In a statement released at the time of the incident, the Patriots acknowledged that the video crew “unknowingly violated” league policy and stressed that team personnel had no “involvement whatsoever in the planning, filming or creative decisions made during the production of these features.”

The league determined that the filming constituted an attempt to spy on an opponent. In addition to the fine and the loss of a draft pick, the team’s video crews will also not be allowed to shoot any games this season and the producer responsible for the shoot will be banned from NFL facilities.

The Newton signing and news of the league penalty come after a relatively quiet period since Brady’s departure. That silence has ended dramatically. Today, a threejudge panel in Florida will hear an appeal of the case against Patriots’ owner, Robert Kraft, when it considers a lower court’s decision to throw out video evidence that is central to the two misdemeanor charges against him for solicitation of prostitution.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Dustin Johnson splashed and rallied to a Travelers Championship win

By BILL PENNINGTON

T

he Travelers Championship, the PGA Tour’s third tournament after a 90-day layoff because of the coronavirus pandemic, began last week with a flurry of positive tests for the virus among players and caddies. The event warily lurched forward.

But by the final round Sunday afternoon, uncertainty, drama and the import that accompanies it seemed almost reassuringly familiar as another PGA Tour event closed with gripping, taut pressure.

There was Dustin Johnson, ranked sixth on the tour, standing in a pond with his pants rolled up desperately trying to save par a few minutes after he hooked a tee shot out of bounds and close enough to a railway to be a stowaway. There was Brendon Todd, who began the day with a two-stroke lead, having to endure the dreaded despair of a shanked chip shot that ruined his round. There was Kevin Streelman making a late charge as if conjuring the mojo of his 2014 Travelers victory, when he finished the final round with seven consecutive birdies.

Oh, yes, and Bryson DeChambeau, who has gained 40 pounds from an intense workout regimen designed to overpower tour layouts, once again smashed towering drives that made some holes look like those from a pitch-andputt course. However, as it turns out, pitching and putting is still a challenge for most golfers, including DeChambeau.

In the end at the TPC River Highlands golf course about 12 miles outside Hartford, Conn., Johnson had the right combination of strength off the tee and deftness on the greens to claim the championship by one stroke over Streelman. For Johnson, who shot a final round 67 to finish 19 under par for the tournament, it was his 21st tour victory and his first since he won the World Golf Championship event in Mexico in February 2019. Nonetheless, earning the Travelers title means that Johnson has won a tour event in each of the past 13 seasons. Only Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods have longer streaks for wins in consecutive PGA Tour seasons.

“It’s obviously a great streak and anytime you’re mentioned with those names, it’s obviously a big accomplishment,” Johnson said Sunday. “But it was a long time between wins and hopefully I won’t have to wait that long again for the next one.”

Johnson shot a career low 61 during Saturday’s third round and on Sunday was forced to wait through a weather delay of about an hour when thunderstorms moved through central Connecticut. Johnson was leading the tourna-

Dustin Johnson of the United States poses with the trophy after winning the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands on 28 June 2020 in Cromwell, Connecticut. ment with three holes left to play at the time.

“The rain delay didn’t help because I had time to think about things,” he said. “I had been on a nice roll before that.”

It would be more accurate to say that Johnson had settled down after an adventurous stretch of golf when he chased down Todd but was suddenly staggered by wayward tee shots. In all, Johnson had three bogeys and four birdies in his final 12 holes.

A bogey at the seventh hole began the topsy-turvy stretch, but Johnson rallied by sinking a 27-foot birdie putt that broke sharply from right to left on the eighth hole. He then birdied the next two holes as well. By the 13th hole, Johnson appeared to be in cruise control but then knocked his drive out of bounds to the left and struggled to make a bogey on what should have been an easy par 5 for the longdriving Johnson. But he rallied with a birdie on the next hole.

On the 15th hole, a short, drive-able par 4, Johnson’s tee shot was heading for a pond to the left. Though the ball landed at high speed

just a few feet from the water, luckily for Johnson it remained on the grass bank.

“I hit a 3-hybrid very poorly,” Johnson said of the shot. “I don’t know what was going on with my tee balls today. And I was a little lucky there, but I still had to get up and down for par.”

Johnson’s only chance to advance the golf ball toward the green from about 25 yards away was to wade into the pond, which he did after removing his shoes and socks and hiking up his pants to just below knee level. His chopping chip from the bank traveled about a third of the way to the green but Johnson, after being reunited with his shoes and socks, pitched his third shot within 4 feet of the hole.

He made the par putt.

A bogey on the 16th after the weather delay cut his lead over Streelman to one stroke, but Streelman, who shot 67 Sunday, could not replicate his 2014 magic on the greens. He finished with five successive pars. It was Streelman’s second runner-up finish of the year, having been second at the AT&T Pebble Beach

Pro-Am in February.

“It’s a little disappointing, making a last birdie would have been nice,” Streelman said.

“But I have to take a lot of positives. I just played beautifully.”

Todd, who overcame golf’s dreaded swing yips a few years ago, held a two-stroke lead over Johnson when his approach shot to the par 4, 12th hole drifted slightly right of the green. Todd was left with an awkward uphill chip shot within 8 feet of the green.

It was a delicate shot but Todd rocketed the ball off his wedge and it flew over the green and sharply to the right. Now needing a flop shot to ascend to the green, Todd’s attempt was short and rolled back down the hill.

A putt still did not reach the green and two putts later, Todd was out of contention after a triple-bogey seven. For Todd, it was the first time he had not made a par or better since the fourth hole of Thursday’s first round.

The PGA Tour resumes this week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit beginning Thursday.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Sudoku

29

How to Play:

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

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

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

GAMES

HOROSCOPE Aries

30

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

(Mar 21-April 20)

If you’re going to realise your full potential, you must put an end to limited thinking. You should also avoid pessimists who are always mocking your urge to try new things. If it weren’t for pioneers like you, change would happen at a snail’s pace. Be polite about setting barriers with an overbearing authority figure. You can turn down an assignment without being angry and defensive. Remaining calm under pressure will make your point in an effective way. Breathe deep and remain focused.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

A creative block is getting under your skin. The best way to blast through this obstruction is to pour your energy into everyday domestic duties. A breakthrough will occur while you’re chopping vegetables, sweeping the floor or folding laundry. This will come as a huge relief. A broken appliance should be replaced. Do some research before purchasing a new model. This will save lots of time, money and effort.

There’s no point buying a device with fancy functions that you’ll never use.

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

Scorpio

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

Worrying what others will think of you is a recipe for misery. The only person you must please is yourself. Stop aiming for the stars just because it will appease your family. Becoming an artist or working for a voluntary or charitable organisation will cultivate contentment. It’s possible you’ll fail a test or be turned away from a respected institution. Rejection is never easy, but it’s part of life. Treat this situation as a chance to correct your course. There’s a bigger and better opportunity ahead.

It’s difficult to remain hopeful when you continue getting bad news. Instead of trying to see the bright side, divert your attention to another subject. Watching a movie, reading a book or video conferencing with friends will remind you of what’s truly important. Take every opportunity to appreciate your time on Earth. It can be challenging for an analytic person like you to relax. Get into the habit of engaging your five senses on a regular basis. It helps ease tension that fills the airways now.

A setback has changed your priorities. You’re no longer willing to go along with boring plans. If that means rocking the boat, you will have no trouble doing so. People will wonder why you’ve become so uncooperative. Don’t worry about inconveniencing them. It’s time to put your needs first.

Your best friend or romantic partner will accuse you of being selfish. Tell them you’re no longer willing to sacrifice your dreams for their comfort.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

You’re willing to work hard to make a partnership work.

This can be challenging if your other half can be somewhat eccentric. It may be necessary to rearrange your household or change your hours to accommodate your partner’s ways. Be flexible. Beware of pushing your body past the brink of exhaustion. Taking light exercise is better than doing increasingly harder workouts. A little gentle stretching will keep you physically flexible and emotionally content. When stress begins to mount, flex your muscles.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

Resist the temptation to criticise a relative. Although their recent performance leaves plenty of room for improvement, it’s better to praise their patience and bravery. The more encouragement you give them to keep working, the faster they will improve. Beginners require gentle treatment. Your romantic partner’s childish behaviour is a source of concern. It’s possible your amour is acting out because it’s the only way to get your attention. Be more attentive to their needs and have a heart to heart conversation.

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Don’t let a deep attachment to home keep you from exploring different ideas and philosophies of life. If you’ve always admired a friend’s ability to handle stress, you may want to ask them about their approach to conflict. Adopting their attitude will keep tension at bay. A power struggle with someone could erupt. You’re tired of their inconsiderate behaviour. Stop giving this pest permission to spoil your mood.

Nobody can make you feel bad without your permission.

Make a renewed commitment to your favourite hobbies.

Personal plans will be delayed. Instead of fixating on your disappointment, find another enjoyable way to fill your time. Sometimes the Universe conspires to give you more time to think, rest and relax. Return to an art project you abandoned some time ago. Going through a stockpile of supplies for inspiration. You’ll find an innovative use for materials you bought some time ago. It feels great to make something that’s both useful and beautiful with your own two hands.

Are you looking for ways to make more money? It will take time to find a lucrative opportunity that is worth your while.

Begin your search and remain patient. Being able to work from home is much easier than you think. Beware of adopting a bossy attitude with a relative. If your relationship is going to get better, you must show faith in their judgment. Let them make their own mistakes. Your loved one is highly resourceful.

Give them credit where it is due.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

You feel drained of energy and enterprise. Stop making long lists of things you should be doing. Take a break instead. There’s nothing wrong with sleeping late, sitting around in your pyjamas and cuddling your pets. You’re a human being, not a human doing. It will be more difficult than expected to get official permission to carry out plans.

Don’t panic if your first application is rejected. Make an appeal and wish for the best. Everything is unfolding in perfect time.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

Don’t let hypersensitivity keep you from following your dreams. If someone teases you about your goals, give them the elbow. Continue to imagine your ideal future, whether it involves earning an additional technical or academic qualification, travel the world or publish a book. A wellconnected friend is willing to give you the contact information of an influential person who can help you. Getting access to a powerful person or institution is half the battle.

Take advantage of every break you can.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

The San Juan Daily Star

Ziggy

32

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

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