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Star Exclusive: Delgado Will Reveal Plan to Keep Station Running by Itself; Says He Has Found the Funds

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The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

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June 5-7, 2020

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

Funeral parlors oppose bill requiring cremation for COVID-19 victims

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rganizations related to funeral services in Puerto Rico on Thursday expressed their opposition to Senate Bill 2488, authored by the New Progressive Party Sen. Víctor Torres González, which seeks to establish cremation as the only method of disposing of the corpses of people who died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Funeral Homes of Puerto Rico, the Funeral Directors Association of Puerto Rico and the Chamber of Funeral Homes of Western Puerto Rico objected to the measure because they believe that it is a violation of the right of family members to choose the method they prefer for the disposal of the remains of the deceased.

Likewise, they said Puerto Rico Funeral Law 248 ensures that rigorous protocols and regulations established by the island Health Department for the disposal of corpses are complied with, so that the health of mourners is not put at risk.

“The representative is totally oblivious to reality,” said Javier Granell, owner of the Fernández Funeral Home in Mayagüez. “Each service that we offer in funeral homes is provided according to the request of the family, the condition of the body, the place of burial or the causes of death.”

Granell, a member of Funeral Homes of Puerto Rico, said the bill does not only talk about mandatory cremation for people who died from COVID-19 or any future pandemic, since it also intends to freeze cremation prices.

“We as funeral homes cannot allow the price freeze,” he said. “Whenever a natural disaster or a situation like the one we face with this pandemic happens in Puerto Rico, we know how prices skyrocket, [of] gloves, masks, surgical gowns, shrouds, and body bags, among others.

Those are materials that we normally use, but in the emergency, we are affected by the increase in service costs.”

“Furthermore,” Granell said, “this would cause even more mishandling of corpses, since in Puerto Rico the Forensic Sciences Institute and the Department of Health … must authorize cremation, which would increase the waiting time for it.”

Funeral Directors Association of Puerto Rico President Eduardo Cardona, meanwhile, also opposed Bill 2488 for going against what the main international health organizations recommend.

“We are against this bill, since both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the World Health Organization, which are the most important organizations related to health problems worldwide, have established that COVID-19 deaths can be embalmed, veiled, buried or cremated,” Cardona said. “We believe that this bill is not based on any study or scientific basis to establish the above. Similarly, the religious and cultural beliefs and wills of the families and/or deceased are not being taken into consideration.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

Delgado guarantees no firings at WIPR TV station president will officially announce plan for Public Broadcasting in two weeks

By JOSÉ A. SÁNCHEZ FOURNIER Twitter: @SanchezFournier Special to The Star

T

A week after the Financial Oversight and Management Board announced that beginning July 1 -- the start of the 2021 fiscal year -they will no longer allocate funds for the operations of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (known as WIPR by its Federal Communications Commission call sign), the morale of the battle-hardened crews working at the station is at perhaps an all-time low.

However, WIPR President Eric G. Delgado Santiago sees a silver lining in the dark clouds over the station. He speaks confidently of his top-secret plan to steer the public corporation into becoming a self-sustaining, financially independent venture by re-establishing old partnerships and shifting the programming philosophy into one that combines WIPR’s usual culturally centered topics but with a focus on making them appealing for a larger number of viewers.

Delgado Santiago expects to make the official announcement of the Corporation’s new funding structure in the third week of June. The Corporation’s funds are scheduled to run dry a week later.

“We are approaching this situation from a remarkably interesting perspective. So much so, that I cannot speak of it in much detail because it will soon be announced in a proper press conference,” Delgado Santiago said during a telephone conversation with The San Juan Daily Star late on Thursday afternoon. “But I can feel the nervous energy and I hope it is noticeable in my voice.

We are working on the final touches of this plan.”

“I was a television studio owner and a producer for many years prior to holding this position,” added Delgado Santiago, who was named president of WIPR by the corporation’s board of directors on March 9, 2019. “In all honesty, I was a step away from retirement when I was offered this post. What happens is that when you have the experience of being a longtime independent producer you develop a number of tools in not only

production but also management and business that prepare you for another phase in the industry.”

The former studio head said it is his peculiar background inside the local television industry that unknowingly readied him for his current position.

“When I got here, the Corporation was disorganized and almost in the red,” he said. “My priority then was organizing the finances of the Corporation, and from then onwards I’ve been working on properly streamlining the administrative aspects and on rediscovering the true mission of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is educating the viewership.”

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has a long history of heading culturally important projects and of being the home of some of the island’s greatest talents, from Enrique Laguerre to Abelardo Díaz Alfaro and Jack Delano.

The current president sees the purpose of the corporation a bit differently than many executives prior to his tenure did.

“I don’t mean that before my arrival their programming wasn’t educating the public, but their productions were so focused on culture that they became too dense for the audience; it was high-brow television that was unapproachable for many,” Delgado Santiago said. “So I decided to bring our programs’ feet back down to earth, to keep it cultural but with a bigger popular appeal. Something like Pop programming. And I want to strengthen the education aspect of our mission.”

Another venue that the new financing structure of WIPR will delve into involves acquiring grants from nongovernmental endowment foundations.

This is a popular strategy for many other not-for-profit organizations in the communications industry.

“For many years they [previous management] had a person here, under contract. I did not know her. She used to help us in that aspect [grant proposals].

But they were not really preparing and presenting proposals for grants,” Delgado Santiago said. “That was another thing we went into headfirst. We started presenting proposals for grants. Just like the Public Broadcasting Service -- PBS -- does in the United States. They submit proposals and get grants from the federal Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

We started working hard on that aspect of funding and we even started to work on realigning WIPR with PBS. The Corporation had a valuable partnership with them, but many years ago a previous president ended that agreement with PBS. And little by little

we are doing it. But the most important part is that we already have been able to inject money into the [Corporation] with successful grant proposals.”

Delgado Santiago claimed that they have landed grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Puerto Rico General Archive & National Library.

“What I would like is to have WIPR in an ideal alignment with the [commonwealth] Department of Education so as to contribute to their schooling programs and working with PBS to the extent that we can become suppliers of Latino programming for them,” Delgado Santiago said of his mission with the Corporation.

These are all realistic goals that have previously been attained by other television enterprises. In this case, perhaps the question is whether WIPR will be able to quickly amass the necessary funds to keep the Corporation afloat until those long-term economic goals are attained.

Delgado Santiago is betting that -with him at the helm -- the Corporation will be successful in that endeavor.

“That would be my dream come true,” he said. “I think we can say that I already saved the finances of the Corporation. I think I already found the funds to keep it running for the foreseeable future. That is what we are going to announce in the upcoming press

conference.”

Delgado Santiago noted that the Corporation’s COVID-19 public service campaigns are proof that these are attainable goals.

“Our early programming informing and educating the viewers about the coronavirus ran in the Latino markets of PBS for more than a month,” he said. “That’s what gave me the idea and showed me that we could do it.”

And he insisted that his soon-tobe-public plan will be able to save WIPR without any firing or personnel cutbacks.

“Definitely no. That is the reason I work for every day, for my crew,” Delgado Santiago said. “There are no firings, no job losses in my plan. That’s the main goal. There is nothing else to work for.”

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

5

Judge defers ruling on extending federal assistance programs to PR

By THE STAR STAFF

U

.S. District Court Judge William Young on Thursday deferred for a later time ruling on Peña Martínez et al. v Azar, an equal protection suit that seeks to extend three federal programs to Puerto Rico.

The plaintiffs in Peña Martínez et al. v Azar sued U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar in April 2018 seeking parity for Puerto Rico in Supplementary Security Income (SSI), the Supplementary Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) for Medicare Prescription Drug Program.

Thursday’s hearing came two months after the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled in the case US vs VaelloMadero that there was no rational basis for the U.S. government to deny Puerto Rico participation in the SSI program to help poor and disabled individuals.

Young told the U.S. government’s lawyer, Dan Riess, that as a district court judge within the First Circuit, he is bound by the decision in theVaello-Madero ruling as the arguments in that case are similar to those in the Peña Martínez et al. v Azar case.

“My duty is to apply the laws of the First Circuit,” the judge said.

Riess, however, distinguished Peña Martínez from Vaello-Madero, saying that the Vaello Madero case did not include the U.S. government’s argument that extending SNAP and LIS for Medicare Prescription Drug Program in addition to SSI benefits to Puerto Rico residents could have a disruptive effect on Puerto Rico’s economy, something that the U.S. government has a legitimate interest in avoiding.

Riess noted that extending certain welfare benefits to Puerto Rico residents while at the same time not levying federal income taxes on them “might deter Puerto Rico residents from seeking private sector employment.”

“We have shown that there are public studies showing correlation between welfare and employment,” the attorney said.

“It is reasonable to conclude it will be more severe with respect to Puerto Rico.”

Riess went further to say that absent an appeal, the U.S. government would be limiting the ruling to the nine plaintiffs in the Peña Martínez case as they are doing in the case of Vaello-Madero, which is being limited to that particular plaintiff. He said other people who have applied for SSI benefits after the ruling inVaello-Madero in Puerto Rico are proceeding to the courts.

Kathleen Sullivan, the lawyer for the plaintiffs in the Peña Martínez case, said there is no distinction between the VaelloMadero case and the Peña Martínez case because both cases entail means-tested programs that aid the needy and that the U.S. government chose to extend to the 50 states and Washington, D.C., but not to Puerto Rico.

“The government has not provided an

argument that would suggest Vaello is not applicable here,” Sullivan said. “There is no meaningful distinction between programs.”

Sullivan rejected Riess’ argument that the U.S. government could treat Puerto Rico differently because Puerto Rico residents do not pay federal taxes, noting that Puerto Rico residents contribute more to the U.S. coffers than the taxpayers in six states.

“It is simply a falsehood to say residents of Puerto Rico do not contribute to the U.S. Treasury, and even if it were true, there is a rational basis to make a distinction using tax contributions,” she said.

Sullivan said that in Vaello-Madero the court noted that these programs seek to help poor people who would likely not be required to pay federal taxes at all anyway. Residents of states such as North Dakota and Alaska contribute less to the U.S. coffers than Puerto Rico but qualify for SNAP, SSI and LIS, she said.

Sullivan also dismissed the U.S. government’s argument that extending the welfare benefits would disrupt Puerto Rico’s economy. She presented a study that showed that when SNAP benefits were increased after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico in 2017, there was an increase in retail sales, not an economic disruption.

Nominee aims to create task force with feds to advance island financial industry

By THE STAR STAFF

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íctor M. Rodríguez Bonilla, the nominee to head Puerto Rico’s Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions (OCIF by its Spanish initials), said Thursday that if confirmed he will establish a formal agreement with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of State, the Financial Oversight and Management Board, and the New York Federal Reserve to create a task force that would develop the island’s financial industry.

“I propose this initiative [of the task force for the development of the financial industry] so that it serves as a national project and increases investment in these nerve-racking moments we are having, and attract investors for our island,” Rodríguez Bonilla said during a Senate Appointments Committee hearing.

The committee is headed by Sen. Héctor Martínez.

Rodríguez Bonilla also proposed that banks increase their participation in social welfare projects and financial transactions that help develop government infrastructure and housing, as well as attract immediate injection of money to increase the OCIF budget, which is currently between $30 million and $40 million, and of which a large part goes to the General Fund.

The nominee likewise proposes the establishment of an “International Financial/Banking Hub,” to “formally” develop an OCIF School of Examiners that will consist of alliances with public and private universities and the participation of existing federal regulators, and to implement a program of seminars and professional training for all island financial entities with U.S. regulatory agencies.

When asked about the process of auditing financial entities and regulatory agencies, Rodríguez Bonilla said that it should be a “severe and fair” process.

The nominee holds a marketing

degree from Universidad del Sagrado Corazón and a masters degree in banking from the University of Oklahoma. As part of his work experience, Rodríguez Bonilla founded and presided over a company that provided professional services to guard against money laundering and becoming subject to the economic sanctions programs of the federal Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), through which banks, individuals, entities and corporations are sanctioned when they are considered enemies of the United States.

He also served for nearly five years as the corporate manager of global sanctions for Popular Inc., where his work in the Corporate Compliance Division included the subjects of money laundering, terrorism and OFAC legal provisions. Likewise, Rodríguez Bonilla served as corporate compliance manager at Banco Santander with direct responsibility for providing advice on banking compliance laws and regulations. He also worked for the Federal

Deposit Insurance Corp., where he was involved in investigations -- including the ground-breaking Operation Greenback -- into financial crimes such as money laundering and other illegal white-collar activities.

Rodríguez Bonilla was nominated to the post by Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced on May 14 along with current Family Secretary Orlando López Belmonte, who was confirmed by the Senate last Monday.

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The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

Carrasquillo: Inventory tax bill for emergency situations dead

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

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unicipal Revenue Collections Center (CRIM by its Spanish acronym) Board Chairman Javier Carrasquillo said on Thursday that the bill that sought to eliminate the Inventory Tax in emergency situations has “died” in the Legislature.

“That proposal made no sense,” said Carrasquillo, who is also the mayor of Cidra, in response to questions from the press.

“That idea came from CRIM, not from the Legislative Assembly.

We proposed that if the concern was the impossibility of increasing inventories due to the emergency situation, then because of that we said we are going to establish a cap -- you pay what you have so far and if you want to exploit your inventories and fill the warehouses. But then the business sectors criticized us because that is not what they want. What they want is not to pay.”

Carrasquillo maintained that he has not followed up on the matter because “in principle, we did not want the matter to be touched.”

“What happened is that we came up with a measure that addressed the emergency issue,” he said. “But what this showed

at the end of the road is that their concern was not the emergency; their desire was not to pay.”

“I think the matter died,” he added. “Because the proposal that comes from the commercial sector is to me to eliminate all or nothing. And that is not possible.”

House Bill 2443 -- introduced by Speaker of the House of Representatives Carlos “Johnny” Méndez and Rep. Antonio

“Tony” Soto -- was intended, in essence, to eliminate excise duty on a limited group of essential products. In addition, a provision was included so that during an emergency declaration by the president of the United States, the governor of Puerto Rico or the island Health secretary, and the Health and Treasury departments, the list of products excluded from arbitration could be expanded during the emergency period.

SEC president asks for $2.5 million from US Justice Dept. for plebiscite

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

S

tate Elections Commission (SEC) President Juan Dávila Rivera announced Thursday that he made a formal request for funds to the U.S. Department of Justice for expenses related to the status plebiscite scheduled for election day in November.

“The legislative mandate to submit to the federal Justice secretary the formal petition for the allocation of $2.5 million to the SEC for the holding of the plebiscite, in accordance with the federal legislative mandate as established in Public Law 113, was diligently fulfilled,” Dávila said in a written statement. “Any question or request that arises in this process with the federal Department of Justice, or any other federal agency concerned, will be promptly addressed. Likewise, a web page was enabled to keep the Puerto Rican people informed about the steps taken on this important matter.”

The SEC president said that last May 16, Law 51-2020 went into force, ordering the holding of a plebiscite on the day of the general elections so that the people of Puerto Rico can express themselves on the statehood alternatives: Yes or No. Law 51-2020, the Law for the Final Definition of the Political Status of Puerto Rico, mandates that the SEC president coordinate with the federal secretary of Justice and other federal authorities in all matters related to the processes required by Public Law 113-76 of 2014 as the maximum legal and administrative representative of the public interest in the electoral affairs of Puerto Rico.

Dávila further noted that Law 51 considers June 30 as the maximum date to complete all procedures, certification and disbursement related to the realization of the plebiscite.

Gov. WandaVázquez Garced thanked Dávila in a brief written statement for having expeditiously fulfilled the legislative mandate to present to the U.S. Justice secretary the formal request for the allocation of funds for the plebiscite.

“It is now up to the executive branch and yours truly

to continue with such an important process,” the governor said. “Once again I reiterate that the Law for the Final Definition of the Political Status of Puerto Rico will allow us to go to the polls to express ourselves as a people about our future. … Law 51, which makes the plebiscite viable and which will define the will of our people, is part of our affirmative actions to achieve equality. These two actions open the way for the defining decision toward statehood.

This is the opportunity to leave behind economic, social and political inequality.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

7

Another man who said ‘I can’t breathe’ died in custody. Autopsy calls it homicide.

By MIKE BAKERF

A

black man who called out “I can’t breathe” before dying in police custody in Tacoma, Washington, was killed as a result of oxygen deprivation and the physical restraint that was used on him, according to details of a medical examiner’s report released Wednesday.

The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that the death of the man, Manuel Ellis, 33, was a homicide. Investigators with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department were in the process of preparing a report about the March death, which occurred shortly after an arrest by officers from the Tacoma Police Department, said the sheriff’s spokesman, Ed Troyer.

“The information is all being put together,” Troyer said. “We expect to present it to the prosecutor at the end of this week or early next week.”

Ellis’s sister, Monet Carter-Mixon, called for action to bring accountability in the death and further scrutiny of both the Police Department’s practices and how the investigation into his death has been handled.

“There’s a lot of questions that still need to be answered,” Carter-Mixon said.

Ellis died from respiratory arrest, hypoxia and physical restraint, according to the medical examiner’s office. The report listed methamphetamine intoxication and heart disease as contributing factors.

Police officers encountered Ellis, a musician and father of two from Tacoma, on the night of March 3 as they were stopped at an intersection.

They saw him banging on the window of another vehicle, Troyer said.

Ellis approached the officers, Troyer said, and then threw an officer to the ground when the officer got out of the vehicle. The two officers and

A photo of Manuel Ellis, who died in police custody in March, in Tacoma, Wash. two backup officers who joined — two of them white, one black and one Asian — handcuffed him.

“Mr. Ellis was physically restrained as he continued to be combative,” the Tacoma Police Department said in a statement Wednesday.

Troyer said he did not know all the details of the restraint the officers used — they were not wearing body cameras — but said he did not believe they used a chokehold or a knee on Ellis’ neck. They rolled him on his side after he called out, “I can’t breathe.”

“The main reason why he was restrained was so he wouldn’t hurt himself or them,” Troyer said. “As soon as he said he couldn’t breathe, they requested medical aid.”

Troyer said the call for aid came four minutes

after the officers encountered Ellis.

Ellis was still breathing when medical personnel arrived, Troyer said. He was removed from handcuffs while personnel worked on him for about 40 minutes, Troyer said. He was then pronounced dead.

Family members said Ellis was the father of an 11-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter.

He was a talented musician at his church. CarterMixon said Ellis was like a father figure to her boys, coaching them on things like how handle themselves to keep safe in a world of racial injustices.

“My heart literally hurts,” she said. “It’s painful. My brother was my best friend.”

On Wednesday night, she and others held a vigil in Tacoma.

Brian Giordano, a close friend of Ellis, said that the two usually spoke several times a day and that Ellis had videochatted with him two hours before his death. He had been excited about a church service he had attended and proud of how he had played drums during the service, Giordano recalled.

He said it would be uncharacteristic of Ellis to act in the violent way described by the police.

He was living in a clean-and-sober house and was getting his life back together, he said.

“He was always uplifting,” Giordano said. “He was always on the up-and-up about taking care of people.”

The death comes as protests have spread around the nation over the case of George Floyd, a black man who died in the custody of Minneapolis police last week. Minnesota officials have charged all four officers in that case, including Derek Chauvin, who kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes during the arrest.

Forensics experts who conducted a private autopsy for Floyd’s family concluded that another officer’s knees on Floyd’s back contributed to making it impossible for his lungs to take in sufficient air.

Mayor Victoria Woodards of Tacoma said Wednesday that she would take appropriate steps based on the findings of the sheriff’s investigation.

“We will learn the results of that investigation even as our country reels from the recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and too many others,” Woodards said.

Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington said the issue was a top priority for him.

“We will be pushing to make sure there is a full and complete investigation of that incident,” Inslee said.

8

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

George Floyd protests reignite debate over Confederate statues

By AIMEE ORTIZ and JOHNNY DIAZ

A

s protests against racism and police violence spread across the nation, demonstrators in at least six cities focused their anger on symbols of the Confederacy, seizing the opportunity to mar statues and monuments that have ignited debate for years.

Many of the monuments were vandalized with spray paint; protesters tried to topple others from their bases. In response, at least two cities this week have removed them from public spaces.

In Richmond, Virginia, this weekend, graffiti was scrawled on the headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the building also burned for a time. Statues of the Confederate generals J.E.B. Stuart, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee, all of which stand on the city’s Monument Avenue, were marked.

In Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday, protesters climbed a 15-foot figure of a Confederate soldier and spray-painted its base. In Charleston, South Carolina, “BLM,” for Black Lives Matter, and “Traitors” were spray-painted in red on the base of the Confederate Defenders of Charleston statue, erected in 1932. In North Carolina, a Confederate monument at the State Capitol in Raleigh was marked with a black X. And in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday, protesters spray-painted the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument, a 52-foot-tall sandstone obelisk, and chipped at its base. Then,

according to news reports, they tried to topple it.

Even as workers arrived to tidy up the destruction, the protests have freshened the conversation around the fate of these controversial memorials, many of which have been the subject of legal challenges, especially in the years since a deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 over the city’s plan to remove a statue of Lee. In the weeks after Charlottesville, dozens of plaques, statues and other monuments to the Confederacy were challenged or removed from public places across the country.

Since then, there has been no unified plan for what to do with these landmarks. Some have been auctioned, moved, stored, covered or dismantled in recent years; others have remained while legal challenges have played out or failed.

“The conversation has never really died,” said Lecia Brooks, outreach director at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama.

Confederate monuments that survived the protests are facing renewed scrutiny as protesters, angered by the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25, have taken to the streets in at least 140 cities across the country.

In Huntsville, Alabama, where protesters gathered Monday to demand the removal of a Confederate monument from the grounds of the Madison County Courthouse, according to AL.com, a group of business owners wrote to the city Tuesday asking that it be moved. “The tragic killing of George Floyd has magnified the deep pain experienced by African American and

The Robert E. Lee statue at the center of the 2017 protests in Charlottesville, Va., still stands, surrounded by a small plastic construction fence and “No Trespassing” signs.

other members of our community,” the group wrote.

About 100 miles south of Huntsville, Birmingham’s Confederate monument had been covered since last year amid a legal battle between the state attorney general and the city.

On Monday, a day after protesters began chipping away at the statue’s base, Mayor Randall Woodfin, over the objections of the state’s attorney general, ordered a crew to finish the job. Removing the statue from Linn Park, he said, would “prevent more civil unrest.”

On Tuesday, Alabama’s attorney general, Steve Marshall, announced that the state had filed a lawsuit against the city over its removal of the monument.

In Richmond, Virginia, an oversized statue of Lee that towers over the city’s Monument Avenue was covered with graffiti, including the phrases “No More White Supremacy” and “Black Lives Matter.” The statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States, on the avenue was also painted.

Virginia has more than 220 public memorials to the Confederacy, according to the governor’s office. A state law passed this year, which goes into effect on July 1, gives local governments the ability “to remove, relocate, or contextualize the monuments in their communities.”

“These monuments tell a particular version of history that doesn’t include everyone,” Gov. Ralph S. Northam said when he signed the legislation in April. “In Virginia, that version of history has been given prominence and authority for far too long.”

On Tuesday, a few hours before protesters again gathered on Monument Avenue, Northam cited the new state law when asked about the protests that have focused on the statues.

“Richmond or any other city has discussions on how to deal with these statues,” he said. “And there are a lot of options, a lot of discussion has taken place and will continue to take place.”

In Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., a Confederate statue that had been slated to be removed next month was taken down on Tuesday.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy, the group that owns the statue, notified the city on Monday that it would remove it the next day, a spokesman for the city said. He said he did not know what the group planned to do with the statue.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy did not respond to a request for comment.

“Alexandria, like all great cities, is constantly changing and evolving,” the city’s mayor, Justin Wilson, said on Twitter, sharing images of its removal.

In Oxford, Mississippi, the words “spiritual genocide,” along with red handprints, were painted on a Confederate monument on the University of Mississippi campus on Saturday, The Oxford Eagle reported.

The school’s chancellor said planning had begun months ago to relocate the statue from the center of campus.

In an open letter dated Sunday, the chancellor, Glenn F. Boyce, said the death of Floyd and those of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky “have evoked much anger, horror and disbelief” and “continue to tear apart the fabric of our country and impact our campus.”

“This is a time for change,” he wrote.

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

9

Historic wins for women of color as nation protests systemic racism

BY REID J. EPSTEIN, JENNIFER MEDINA AND NICK CORASANITI

A

s the nation remained gripped by widespread protests against police brutality and systemic racism, black and Hispanic women won elections in multiple statesTuesday while Rep. Steve King, a nine-term congressman with a long history of racist remarks, was ousted in a Republican primary in Iowa.

And as the coronavirus pandemic upended the election process, with millions of absentee ballots flooding clerks offices and consolidated polling locations leading to hourslong waits in cities across the country, a determined electorate pushed turnout past 2016 levels in nearly all of the eight states that held primary contests.

In Philadelphia, voters strode past National Guard troops deployed amid the protests to drop off their absentee ballots. In Washington, D.C., voters observing social-distancing measures waited in line for close to five hours, some not returning home until after midnight, long after the curfew that had been set by the city.

The result was a dramatic night for candidates of color up and down the ballot, largely in Democratic primaries for Congress, state legislatures and city halls, at a time when national leaders like former President Barack Obama are encouraging a nation reeling from the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and other black Americans to embrace civic action and vote.

In New Mexico, 17 women won Democratic primaries for the state legislature. In Iowa, 11 women won primaries for the statehouse.

In Monroe County, Pennsylvania, Claudette Williams, the first black woman to serve as county chair, won her primary to represent a competitive state House district, a seat that state Democrats are hoping to flip. And in Washington, D.C., Janeese Lewis George, a self-described democratic socialist, beat a sitting city councilman whose mailers said George wanted “to cut police in Ward 4.” She prevailed by 10 percentage points.

The city of Ferguson, Missouri, elected its first African American mayor, six years after protests against the police killing there of Michael Brown, a black teenager, propelled the Black Lives Matter movement to national prominence.

The mayor-elect, Ella Jones, a city councilwoman, said she had received hundreds of messages from throughout the country, including from congressional leaders, senators and Democratic Party officials.

Mayor-elect Ella Jones in Ferguson, Mo., on Wednesday. She will become the first black person and first woman to lead the city.

Her favorite, though, was a tweet from Obama, who called her victory “a reminder of the difference politics and voting can make in changing who has the power to make real change.”

“My election gives people hope,” Jones said in an interview. “Everybody is looking for a change; everybody wants to have a better way of life. You don’t want to go four blocks and worry about getting shot. Nobody wants that. It is starting to get better. We are making changes.

“I have been living in injustice all my life,” she said. “I didn’t just get exposed to it because I became a City Council member.”

Many of the candidates of color who won Tuesday, most of whom are Democrats, still face difficult battles in November. And Republican women won in five House districts expected to be competitive this November, a significant shift as the party has tried to recruit more women in recent years.

Progressive activists hailed Tuesday’s primary results as evidence that the widespread protests can spur political action, leading to important gains in electing more candidates who focus heavily on issues of race and inequality.

Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC, a progressive group focused on black voters, said her polling has found that each political crisis brings a growing intensity among black voters to vote, in whichever election is on the ballot, to reject whichever

candidate or policy is more closely associated with President Donald Trump.

“People believe that every vote they cast is a message being sent to Donald Trump, no matter what they’re voting for,” Shropshire said.

Mayra Macías, executive director of the Latino Victory Project, which endorsed several candidates who won Tuesday, said the protests of the past 10 days illustrated the need for more diverse elected officials.

“We are winning with people we need, who can represent the communities that are suffering,” she said.

Democrats see the wins as a prelude to November, when they hope to recapture the White House in part by relying on voters who are enraged by Trump’s rhetoric and actions.

“The attacks that the president has been consistent about making are against people of color, immigrants and especially women,” said Rep. Tony Cárdenas, D-Calif., and chairman of BOLD Pac, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s political action committee. “I think that a lot of women are stepping up and saying, ‘I just can’t leave it to people like him; I need to do my part.’ ” States that aggressively promoted mail voting saw large increases in turnout compared with their 2016 primaries — even though four years ago there were competitive presidential races in both parties and Tuesday’s contest featured only a long-decided Democratic race.

Iowa, which mailed absentee ballot request forms to every registered voter, had the largest turnout for a June primary in the state’s history, according to Paul Pate, the secretary of state. In Montana, which mailed ballots to all registered voters, total turnout was up 35% compared with the state’s 2016 primary.Turnout was up 14%in New Mexico and 12% in South Dakota, despite few competitive races there.

The primary results in New Mexico reflected a significant shift. In the Democratic contest for a House seat representing the northern part of the state, Teresa Leger Fernandez, a progressive with deep roots in New Mexico, easily defeated Valerie Plame, the former CIA agent.

Leger Fernandez is widely expected to prevail in November in her staunchly Democratic district. Her victory would mean New Mexico could have a House delegation that entirely comprises Hispanic and Native American women.

Rep. Deb Haaland, a Native American elected to Congress in 2018 to represent the district encompassing Albuquerque, is expected to hold her seat.

And in the southern part of the state, Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, a Hispanic first-term Democrat, is running for reelection against Yvette Herrell, who won the Republican primary. Herrell is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation.

The congressional delegation will represent a state where Anglos are in the minority, accounting for 37% of the population. Hispanics make up 49% of New Mexico’s population while Native Americans account for about 11%.

Throughout her campaign, Leger Fernandez emphasized her family’s long history in the state — her parents helped institute the state’s early bilingual education programs, which she views as a key element of the state’s multicultural identity.

And she drew on her father’s experience as a rancher bringing meat to restaurants with signs on the door that read “No dogs or Mexicans.”

“We bring these voices; we know what it is like to be from a community that has suffered,” Leger Fernandez said.

In a race certain to be competitive in November, Christina Hale, a Cuban American state legislator who won a Democratic congressional primary in Indiana on Tuesday, will face Victoria Spartz, a Ukrainian-born Republican state senator who self-funded her primary campaign and overcame 14 primary opponents.

They are seeking to represent the state’s 5th Congressional District, which covers suburbs north of Indianapolis and several rural counties. Hale would be the first Latina congresswoman from Indiana.

Hale, whose suburban and rural district is just 9% black and 5% Hispanic, said the Trump era, along with the events of recent weeks, had spurred more women to become involved in politics.

“We’ve had traditionally low voter turnout in Indiana,” Hale said in an interview.

People around her were starting to take their role in the democratic process more seriously, she said, “turning out to vote and stepping up to be candidates themselves.”

In Idaho, Paulette Jordan, a Native American former state representative who previously ran for governor, won a Democratic Senate primary. Though she faces an uphill battle to defeat Sen. Jim Risch in her heavily Republican state, Jordan’s candidacy gives Idaho, with its large Native American population, the chance to elect the first Native American to statewide office since Larry Echo Hawk was elected attorney general in 1990.

10

June 5-7, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

With Steve King gone, does the Democrat have a shot in his Iowa district?

By STEPHANIE SAUL

Q: How do you change your strate-

gy? he 2020 campaign had been going A: It literally doesn’t change. We go well for J.D. Scholten, the former miout there and campaign everywhere and, nor league pitcher turned Democralike I said, it doesn’t matter who you are, tic congressional candidate in Iowa. we’re going to invite you to the table. If you He had raised more than $1 million in came on the road with us last time, we baa bid to unseat Rep. Steve King, the ninerely mentioned Steve King. term Republican congressman who had There’s not enough people fighting for alienated voters with his racist comments something who are running for office. The about immigration. Kevin Costner had napeople of the 4th District are sick of divirrated an ad for Scholten, evoking the Iowa sive politics. It’s not enough just not being landscape in “Field of Dreams.” National Steve King. We need to have something for Democrats such as Cory Booker and Julián this district and the ability to bring people Castro had lined up to endorse him. together. And that’s what we plan to do.

But just when it seemed the momenQ: Do you intend to make it a camtum was in Scholten’s favor, the dynapaign issue that Feenstra did not attack mics shifted. In a dramatic turn of events King’s racism? in Tuesday’s primary election, King was A: He talks about how much of a defeated by another Republican, Randy man he is of faith. And there’s a Proverbs Feenstra. message that really is near and dear to my With the removal of King, who had heart. It’s “Speak up for those who cannot been ostracized even within his own party, speak up for themselves, ensure justice for the seat Democrats hoped to flip appears those being crushed.” To me, the absento be further out of reach. Scholten was ce of all five of the Republicans even adonly about 10,000 votes shy of defeating dressing the George Floyd death or any of King in their previous matchup in 2018. But these protests or anything like that, I feel Republican voters outnumber Democrats that’s a huge issue. I think that’s the type of in the congressional district, Iowa’s 4th, by J.D. Scholten was only about 10,000 votes shy of defeating Representative people we don’t need to go to Congress.

Steve King in 2018. more than 70,000.

Q: What are the differences betNow, it’s almost as if Iowa Demoween King and Feenstra? for America. What we’re trying to do here in the 4th crats are mourning King’s primary defeat as A: I would say they are both extreDistrict is the same thing we did last time. It’s not tal- mely conservative, but with King, I’ll say he is his own much as any of his Republican supporters.

We spoke to Scholten about what this means for king about who we’re against or what we’re against, man. If you put the racism and the controversy aside, his campaign between now and Nov. 3, when he will but what we’re for. you get an anti-establishment person. I feel that fits this Q: But doesn’t this mean you have a tougher district. face Feenstra in the general election.

He seemed undeterred and said he planned to campaign ahead?

With Feenstra, you see a career politician. In his A: The people who are saying this race is an campaign, you saw a lot of outside influence, whether hit the road in his RV, sleeping in Walmart parking lots during campaign trips through the 39-county district, uphill battle as of now are the same people who told it’s Des Moines or D.C., you saw what Congressman a rural swath of the state that stretches from Sioux City me that last time. We’re going to work our tails off, King referred to as the D.C. swamp. Whether it’s tato Mason City to Ames. (Feenstra didn’t respond to our get out there with our campaign RV, which we named king money from corporations, whether it’s the extreSioux City Sue. We’re going to go out and earn your mely wealthy coastal people influencing this primary. request for an interview.)

Scholten said his strategy would remain the same, vote. I spent more nights in Walmart parking lots the That goes to the heart of my campaign, where we but a new theme emerged: He suggested that Feenstra last few months of the campaign last cycle than I did don’t take corporate PAC money. We don’t need more is beholden to outside interests. This conversation has in my own bed. tax breaks for these multinational corporations. What We’re the second biggest agriculture-producing we need to do is enforce our antitrust laws. been edited and condensed.

Q: Hi. You tweeted this morning that your cam- district in America. We’re 39 counties, very rural, and Q: Do you expect to get any help from the Depaign was responsible for ousting Steve King, but his in order to compete and connect with folks where mocratic Congressional Campaign Committee? defeat by a Republican primary challenger must be they’re at, you’ve got to get out there. This past fall we A: Before this race, the DCCC called and begged went to 38 of 39 counties and towns of under 1,000 me to run against King for a second time and said we’d bittersweet.

A: Not at all. We laid the groundwork in 2018, people, and we called it the “Don’t Forget About Us” be a top-five race. To be honest, we haven’t had much and he wouldn’t have had a competitive primary if not tour. Some of these communities are fighting to keep discussion with them since we launched. Last cycle for what we were able to do. I think what America their grocery stores. Some have to drive 30 minutes they didn’t return my phone calls. That’s all I know needs is for people like Steve King to have their voi- to buy fresh produce. When farmers aren’t making a right now. That’s where we’re at. They’ve been helpful ces quieted, and I think this is a huge step forward dime, something isn’t adding up. by not getting in our way.

T

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

11

401(k) Plans move a step closer to pooling with private equity

By EDMUND LEE

E

veryday investors may soon be able to get a piece of private equity action.

The Department of Labor on Wednesday issued a letter that clarifies how, under existing rules, certain retirement plan sponsors, including 401(k)s, can put money into private equity investments that are usually reserved for the super rich and big institutional investors.

Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia said the new guidance “helps level the playing field for ordinary investors and is another step by the department to ensure that ordinary people investing for retirement have the opportunities they need for a secure retirement.”

But it’s unclear how quickly the managers of big retirement plans will embrace private-equity investments.

Vanguard, one of the largest managers of 401(k) plans in the country, declined to comment on the letter. Another major manager, Fidelity, did not respond to a request for comment.

Consumer advocates and some regulators have been wary of giving ordinary investors broader access to investments in businesses that do not adhere to the same disclosure rules as public companies and that could put them at risk.

Even without access to this untapped pool of capital, private equity managers have been able to raise record amounts in recent years. Fund managers in the United States had access to $914 billion as of mid-May, according to investment data firm Preqin.

Many of those dollars come from wealthy clients, but big pension funds, such as the Texas County and District Retirement System, also put their money into funds managed by private equity firms.

But the move away from traditional pensions and into defined contribution plans means most retail investors don’t have access to those kinds of investments, which proponents say can provide added diversification to an investment portfolio.

Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia speaks during the Federalist Society’s 2019 National Lawyers Convention in Washington.

“This is a positive step toward helping more Americans gain access to private equity investment,” Drew Maloney, chief executive of the American Investment Council, which represents the private equity industry, said in a statement.

Private equity investments in new startups or in growth businesses can produce high returns. The private equity funds in the top 25% for performance earned at least 16.2% over the 10 years that ended in September 2018, according to PitchBook.

But that comes with numerous risks.

As the term “private equity” suggests, investments can be opaque. Companies in such portfolios don’t have to disclose as much information as publicly traded businesses. Investors also can’t cash out as easily as they can with public investments. Money is often locked up for eight to 10 years at a time.

And while private equity can score big by investing in the next Facebook, it can also lose money when a company doesn’t get off the ground. According to the same PitchBook

data, the bottom 10% of funds had negative returns over 10 years.

In November, Andrea Seidt, the Ohio securities commissioner, told the federal Securities and Exchange Commission that a review of 100 enforcement actions over the prior two years — a partial snapshot — showed that more than 1,000 investors had lost in excess of $100 million in private offerings gone wrong.

The private marketplace has become increasingly important as startups stay private longer. Also, there are half as many public companies as there were two decades ago, leaving fewer places for everyday investors to store their money.

The Labor Department outlined the new guidance in coordination with the SEC. Jay Clayton, the commission’s chairman, said in the statement that the clarification “will provide our long-term Main Street investors with a choice of professionally managed funds that more closely match the diversified public and private market asset allocation strategies.”

The SEC has supported giving smaller investors access to private equity through special investment vehicles that might work like mutual funds. Right now, only accredited investors — those with at least $1 million in assets not including their home, or $200,000 in annual income — can participate in private equity deals.

In December, the agency proposed rules that would relax the accredited investor rules, but it stopped short of figuring out a way to make private equity more widely accessible. The Labor Department’s guidance was a response to Partners Group, a private equity firm with $94 billion in assets under management, and Pantheon Group, which has $49 billion in assets under management and is controlled by Affiliated Managers Group, a publicly listed company that specializes in asset management.

Susan Long McAndrews, a partner at Pantheon, said in a statement that the change was “a critical step toward improving retirement outcomes.”

12

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

Stocks

S&P 500 closes down, snapping four-day rally

T

he S&P 500 lost ground on Thursday as investors took profits in advance of Friday’s jobs report, ending a four-day rally driven by rising economic sentiment.

The Nasdaq joined the S&P 500 in negative territory, while the blue-chip Dow posted a nominal gain.

“We were pretty overvalued going into this week,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer, Independent Advisor Alliance, Charlotte, NC. “It’s not surprising to see a pullback.”

Still, all three major indexes have shown remarkable resilience since their late March plunge, with the Nasdaq, the S&P 500 and the Dow about 2%, 8% and 11% below their respective record highs reached in February.

“This market has gone up so far so fast there’s a lot of people saying, ‘I’m going to take a little profit,’” said Jim Paulson, chief investment strategist at The Leuthold Group in Minneapolis.

Economic data showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dipped below 2 million for the first time since mid-March, and plummeting international commerce resulted in a net widening of the U.S. trade gap.

Friday’s much-anticipated jobs report from the Labor Department is expected to show the U.S. unemployment rate skyrocketing to a historic 19.7%.

Violent protests against the death of George Floyd appeared to abate overnight as prosecutors brought new charges against the officers implicated in the killing.

The European Central Bank approved a stimulus package that surpassed expectations, nearly doubling the size of its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Plan to 1.35 trillion Euros.

Its American counterpart, the U.S. Federal Reserve, is due to meet next week for its two-day policy meeting.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.93 points, or 0.05%, to 26,281.82, the S&P 500 lost 10.52 points, or 0.34%, to 3,112.35 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 67.10 points, or 0.69%, to 9,615.81.

Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, all but financials, industrials and materials were in the red in a continuation of a rotation in cyclicals.

American Airlines Group Inc announced it would beef up its flight schedule in July to 55% of its year-ago capacity as the U.S. economy reopens, sending its shares soaring 41.2%.

The hard-hit commercial airline industry also jumped on the news, with the ARCA Airline index gaining 10.1%.

Global online commerce platform EBay Inc rose 6.3% after raising current quarter forecasts due to a surge in customer orders.

The Department of Justice gave anti-trust approval for Charles Schwab Corp’s purchase of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp, sending their shares up 5.5% and 9.0%, respectively.

J.M. Smucker Co fell 4.8% after the packaged food company forecast a decline in full-year sales.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.08-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.06-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 16 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 52 new highs and 10 new lows.

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The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

13

Pope Francis calls unrest in U.S. ‘disturbing’

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO and CRISTINE HAUSER

P

ope Francis said Wednesday that he was watching the “disturbing social unrest” in the United States with “great concern,” adding his voice to those of other world leaders who have spoken up about the days of unrest across the United States after the death of a black man in Minneapolis.

“We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life,” the pope said in his weekly general audience.

He said he was praying for “the repose of the soul of George Floyd and of all those others who have lost their lives as a result of the sin of racism.”

The pope was the latest religious or government leader to react to the turmoil in the United States, where, for more than a week, tens of thousands of people have staged daily peaceful protests and impassioned marches across the country. The looting that has followed demonstrations in recent days has somewhat tapered off.

The protests erupted after Floyd, a 46-year-old black security guard, died after his neck was pinned under a white police officer’s knee for nearly nine minutes in Minneapolis last week.

The officer has been fired and charged with second-degree murder, and three other officers were charged with aiding and abetting murder. The killing, captured on video, was the spark for the outpouring of anger and anguish expressed in demonstrations in more than 140 cities.

The pope’s comments came a day after Christian leaders criticized President Donald Trump for using two religious sites in Washington for what they said were acts of political theater. On Monday, Trump posed holding a Bible outside the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church, and on Tuesday he and the first lady spent about 10 minutes inside the St. John Paul II National Shrine.

The pope called for “national reconciliation and peace” and said the recent violence on U.S. streets was “self-destructive and self-defeating.” Like his predecessors, Pope Francis has often used his weekly addresses to the faithful — a general audience each Wednesday and a prayer on Sundays — to weigh in on global matters and issues of social justice. He has tackled subjects like human trafficking and migration, climate change and its effect on the poor, and access to universal health care, which have been among the cornerstones of his papacy.

The pope’s condemnation of racism and calls for justice in the aftermath of Floyd’s death echoed comments from other current and former leaders: Former President Jimmy Carter Carter on Wednesday issued a statement in support of the protests but condemning the violence.

“Rosalynn and I are pained by the tragic racial injustices and consequent backlash across our nation in recent weeks,” he said. “Our hearts are with the victims’ families and all who feel hopeless in the face of pervasive racial discrimination and outright cruelty. We all must shine a spotlight on the immorality of racial discrimination. But violence, whether spontaneous or

Pope Francis, center, at his weekly general audience in Vatican City on Wednesday. consciously incited, is not a solution.

“As a white male of the South, I know all too well the impact of segregation and injustice to African Americans. As a politician, I felt a responsibility to bring equity to my state and our country.”

“We need a government as good as its people, he said, “and we are better than this.”

Former President George W. Bush On Tuesday, Bush praised peaceful protesters and called for empathy for people seeking justice.

“Laura and I are anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country,” he said in a statement. “It remains a shocking failure that many African Americans, especially young African American men, are harassed and threatened in their own country.”

He said the “doctrine and habits of racial superiority, which once nearly split our country, still threaten our union.”

Former President Barack Obama Obama has released two statements about the death of Floyd and in an online town hall on Wednesday praised the protesters and called for police reform.

“It’s natural to wish for life ‘to just get back to normal’ as a pandemic and economic crisis upend everything around us,” he said Friday. “But we have to remember that for millions of Americans, being treated differently on account of race is tragi-

cally, painfully, maddeningly ‘normal’ — whether it’s while dealing with the health care system, or interacting with the criminal justice system, or jogging down the street, or just watching birds in a park.”

Obama commented again on Monday, in an essay published on Medium, after the weekend’s protests expanded and turned violent in some cases.

“Let’s not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it,” he said. “If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves.”

He also planned to hold an online forum on Wednesday evening.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada When asked on Tuesday what he thought of Trump’s call for military action against American protesters and the teargassing of peaceful demonstrators to make way for a photo-op, Trudeau paused at his lectern for 21 uncomfortable, televised seconds.

Finally, he said: “We all watch in horror and consternation what’s going on in the United States.” He then spoke out about racism against black Canadians and other people of color.

“It is a time for us as Canadians to recognize that we too have our challenges,” he said, adding, “There is systemic racism in Canada.”

14

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

Johnson pledges to admit 3 million from Hong Kong to U.K.

By MARK LANDLER

P

rime Minister Boris Johnson raised the stakes in a brewing confrontation with China on Wednesday, promising to allow nearly 3 million people from Hong Kong to live and work in Britain if Beijing moves forward with a new national security law on the former British colony.

Johnson’s offer, made in a column in The Times of London, opens the door to a significant influx of people fleeing Hong Kong, should the situation in the territory deteriorate further. But it leaves unanswered thorny questions about how difficult it would be for these arrivals to obtain British citizenship.

Describing it as one of the biggest changes in visa regulations in British history, Johnson said the roughly 350,000 Hong Kong residents who hold a British overseas passport, as well as some 2.5 million who are eligible to apply for one, would be granted 12-month renewable visas that would allow them to work in Britain and put them on a path to citizenship.

“Many people in Hong Kong fear that their way of life — which China pledged to uphold — is under threat,” Johnson wrote. “If China proceeds to justify their fears, then Britain could not in good conscience shrug our shoulders and walk away; instead we will honor our obligations and provide an alternative.”

Johnson’s offer applies to Hong Kong residents whose passports bear the insignia of the British government — reflecting their status in the territory before it returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 — but do not confer the rights of citizenship that come with an ordinary British passport.

China has angrily rejected the idea, declaring Britain has no right to make such an offer to Hong Kong residents who are Chinese nationals. It is not clear whether Chinese authorities would allow these passport holders to leave and, if they did not, what recourse Britain would have to get them out of Hong Kong.

For Johnson, the crisis illustrates both the pull of Britain’s colonial past and

A broadcast being shown in Hong Kong last month about the proposed security law, which would tighten Beijing’s control over the semiautonomous city. the perils of its post-Brexit future. The new security law in Hong Kong could, for all intents and purposes, eviscerate the Sino-British agreement that returned Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty.

At the same time, Britain, no longer insulated by its membership in the European Union, is eager to forge new trading relationships with economic powers around the world, and China is high on that list. Johnson’s effort to stand up for people with British overseas passports in Hong Kong could threaten his economic agenda.

“London doesn’t want to have a Hong Kong crisis,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London.

Polls show there is broad popular support for Johnson’s offer of visas to passport holders. But it is not clear how long that support would last if a huge number of immigrants came to Britain at a time when its economy is reeling under the effects of a coronavirus lockdown.

“The last thing London wants is to have 3 million British overseas passport holders coming to the U.K.,” Tsang added.

Britain has barely put to rest its debate over Brexit, which was fueled in large part by fears of untrammeled im-

migration. Those fears also contributed to Johnson’s landslide election victory last year.

Given all the uncertainty, few analysts expect millions of people from Hong Kong to flood into Britain. In the short run, the policy might be most helpful for students from the city who are studying in Britain on temporary visas.

Some of these young people were active in the pro-democracy protests at home and worry about being forced to go back if there is a draconian new security law in place.

After the law was announced, some people in Hong Kong rushed to renew their British passports, while others expressed skepticism that Britain would move forward and grant citizenship.

“I see it as an option to go somewhere else to start over,” said Phoenix Wong, a 33-year-old social worker.

“That would give me peace of mind, as I am very worried about Hong Kong’s future.”

But Perrie Tsui, a 25-year-old swim instructor, said: “I don’t think the U.K. government will put politics on a higher agenda than economics.”

Human rights groups applauded Johnson’s immigration pledge, as did lawmakers from his Conservative Party.

His fellow Tories have called on him

to challenge China’s aggressive moves, whether against protesters in Hong Kong or governments in Africa, where Beijing is accused of predatory lending practices.

“The attacks on the civil rights of Hong Kongers are not just about Hong Kong,” said Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative member of Parliament and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

“They are about the undermining of the rule of law around the world and its replacement with the rule of force.”

Tugendhat recently became chairman of the China Research Group, a collection of Conservative lawmakers who aim to scrutinize China’s global ambitions and develop more robust policies for dealing with them. Among its first targets: how China suppressed information about the roots of the coronavirus pandemic.

As in the United States, attitudes in Britain toward China have hardened noticeably in the past few months. In January, Johnson rebuffed an appeal by President Donald Trump to keep Chinese telecommunication firm Huawei out of the country’s advanced digital network. Now, analysts predicted, Johnson is likely to yield to pressure from his own party to tighten restrictions on Huawei’s access.

Britain has tried to put together a coalition of countries to pressure Beijing to pull back on the security law.

But at home, critics said, the government could still depress the flow of immigrants by erecting other barriers to citizenship. Others pointed to a discrepancy between Johnson’s offer, which extended to nearly 3 million people, and the proposal made earlier by Britain’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, which appeared limited to the 350,000 people who currently hold passports.

Then there is the blunt question of what Britain will do if the Chinese government refuses to let people leave.

“With the Chinese government under Xi Jinping, we cannot rule out the possibility that they won’t be allowed to leave,” said Tsang, referring to China’s leader.

“We don’t have gunboats to send to Hong Kong to get them out of there.”

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

15

Venice glimpses a future with fewer tourists and likes what it sees

By JASON HOROWITZ

F

or a change, it was the Venetians who crowded the square.

Days before Italy lifted coronavirus travel restrictions Wednesday that had prevented the usual crush of international visitors from entering the city, hundreds of locals gathered on chalk asterisks drawn several feet apart. They had come to protest a new dock that would bring boatloads of tourists through one of Venice’s last livable neighborhoods but also to seize a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show that another, less tourist-addled future was viable.

“This can be a working city, not just a place for people to visit,” said the protest’s organizer, Andrea Zorzi, a 45-year-old law professor who frantically handed out hundreds of signs reading, “Nothing Changes If You Don’t Change Anything.” He argued that the virus, as tragic as it was, had demonstrated that Venice could be a better place. “It can be normal,” he said.

The coronavirus has laid bare the underlying weaknesses of the societies it has ravaged, whether economic or racial inequality, an overdependence on global production chains or rickety health care systems. In Italy, all those problems have emerged, but the virus has also revealed that a country blessed A view of the island of San Giorgio Maggiore from a vaporetto in Venice, Italy. with a stunning artistic patrimony has developed an addiction to tourism that has priced many residents have increasingly pushed out Venetians. city, powerful Italian banks and Airbnb, that would out of historic centers and crowded out creativity, That lucrative model is likely to return. But allow thousands of students — including internatioentrepreneurialism and authentic Italian life. longtime proponents of a less touristy city are hoping nal ones — to live in Airbnb apartments, which are During the lockdown, Rome’s center became to take advantage of the global standstill. now empty, instead of commuting from the cheaper as sleepy as a ruin, while the surrounding neighbor“This is a tragedy that has touched us all, but mainland. hoods remained vibrant. The mayor of Florence said COVID could be an opportunity,” said Marco Ba“Common sense says, ‘Let’s take advantage of it,’ he would tour the world, starting in China, to raise ravalle, a leader of an anti-cruise-ship movement ” Ferlenga said of the available housing. Students who private funds for a city hollowed by the lack of tourists. who called the absence of big boats “magnificent.” stayed and built careers and families in Venice could But it is Venice, a city threatened by inundations of In this floating field of dreams, people will prove as economically viable as the mass tourism tens of millions of tourists as much as it is by high come, just other kinds of people. The tourists market, he argued. “It would change everything,” he water, where things changed most drastically. would be more like the arts crowd that flocks to said. “In this moment, there is a temporary window.”

For months, the alleys, porticoes and campos the Venice Biennale, and they would carry canvas But as advocates of change talk of motivating reverberated with Italian, and even with Venetian, tote bags and be interested in Venice’s heritage, its long-term lending through housing-tax breaks, low dialect. The lack of big boats reduced the waves on museums and galleries. Students would stay and interest loans and a restricting of infamously genethe canals, allowing locals to take their small boats become young professionals, draw startup investors, rous squatting rights, the window is already closing. and kayaks out on cleaner water. Residents even ven- and replenish an aging and diminishing population.

In recent days, the city was opened only to tured to St. Mark’s Square, which they usually avoid. Good restaurants and natural wine bars would push those in the surrounding Veneto region. The place Venice, which gave the world the word quaran- out the awful ones. was still jammed. tine during a prior pandemic, has undergone many “The type of people you attract to Venice But the city was offered a sense of what was, and transformations in its roughly 1,500-year history. It depends on what you offer,” said Luca Berta, a co- what could be. Only Italian — and Veneto-accented started as a hideout for refugees, became a powerful founder of VeniceArtFactory, which promotes new Italian — could be heard over the spritzes and plates republic, mercantile force and artistic hub. art in the city, as he stood in his exhibition space. of black squid ink spaghetti.

Now, it’s a destination that largely lives off Alberto Ferlenga, the rector of the Iuav Uni“We thought we’d take advantage of this last its history and a tourism cash cow worth 3 billion versity of Venice, one of several colleges in the city, chance to see Venice when it is only for us, alone,” euros, or about $3.3 billion. But with the money said his goal was to make Venice more a university said Matteo Rizzi, 40, from nearby Portogruaro, comes hordes of day trippers, giant cruise ships, town, with students and professors making the city whose children carried cameras as he crossed a growing colonies of Airbnb apartments, souvenir their campus. bridge into the city from the train station. “It’s like shops, tourist-trap restaurants and high rents that He said he was working on a project with the having the museum to ourselves.”

16

June 5-7, 2020

How crowdsourcing aided a push to preserve the histories of Nazi victims

By ANDREW CURRY

W

hile the coronavirus pandemic has painfully upended lives and businesses around the world, the lockdowns it caused are providing a unique boost for one group’s effort to help heal a generations-old wound: Nazi atrocities.

As the virus prompted lockdowns across Europe, the director of the Arolsen Archives — the world’s largest devoted to the victims of Nazi persecution — joined millions of others working remotely from home and spending lots more time in front of her computer.

“We thought, ‘Here’s an opportunity,’” said the director, Floriane Azoulay.

Two months later, the archive’s “Every Name Counts” project has attracted thousands of online volunteers to work as amateur archivists, indexing names from the archive’s enormous collection of papers. To date, they have added over 120,000 names, birth dates and prisoner numbers in the database.

“There’s been much more interest than we expected,” Azoulay said. “The fact that people were locked at home and so many cultural offerings have moved online has played a big role.”

It’s a big job: The Arolsen Archives are the largest collection of their kind in the world, with more than 30 million original documents. They contain information on the wartime experiences of as many as 40 million people, including Jews executed in extermination camps and forced laborers conscripted from across Nazioccupied Europe.

The documents, which take up 16 miles of shelving, include things like train manifests, delousing records, work detail assignments and execution records.

Gathered up by the Allied forces

after World War II and stored in a small town north of Frankfurt, Germany, the material was used by the International Committee of the Red Cross after the war to help reunite thousands of families and help many more reach some sort of closure.

The archive began scanning and digitizing its collection in the late 1980s.

In the last year, 26 million scanned documents have been posted online. For descendants, relatives, historians and curious members of the public, the online collection is a singular resource.

“No one can overstate the importance of that archive,” said Deborah Dwork, a Holocaust historian at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. “It’s quintessential.”

Yet searching the records for specific people remains difficult. Most of the archive’s collection — particularly, handwritten prisoner lists from concentration camps and other hard-to-read material — is not indexed by name.

“We’ve had 20 or 30 staffers indexing documents day in and day out for 20 years, but we have 30 million documents,” Azoulay said. “It’s just not feasible to do it all ourselves.”

Over the past five years, the archive has turned to private companies, including Ancestry.com, in an effort to accelerate the process of extracting names, birth dates and other identifying details.

Faced with scans of mid-20th-century German cursive, smudged stamps and decayed paper, computers could take the effort only so far. “The documents aren’t homogeneous, and it’s difficult for a machine to read the names properly,” Azoulay said.

She estimates that half of the approximately 40 million names in the archive are still missing from its database.

In an image provided by Arolsen Archives, lists from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp detailing prisoners’ deaths, transfers to other camps and other information.

And finishing the job is a priority.

“Otherwise the names are lost,” said Paul Shapiro, the director of international relations at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

That’s where crowdsourcing comes in.

In 2019, Azoulay sought help from Zooniverse, a crowdsourcing platform that allows volunteers to contribute to academic research projects by analyzing large data sets a little bit at a time.

It seemed a strange fit at first. Many Zooniverse projects are science-related, relying on volunteers to log video of migrating herring, for example, or to spot asteroids in images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

But after a successful test run in January with student volunteers from 26 German high schools, Azoulay decided to move forward slowly, and planned to

open the project to more schools in August as part of the archive’s educational mission.

Then the pandemic broke out.

“That’s when we decided to scale up quite quickly,” she said. On April 24, the archive posted tens of thousands of documents from the Buchenwald, Dachau and Sachsenhausen concentration camps to Zooniverse. Soon, volunteers from around the world were poring over the records, picking out names to add to the database.

Participants say they relish the challenge and the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution. Andreas Weber, a medical physicist in Berlin, estimates that he has entered 1,200 names in the past few weeks, mostly in five- or 10-minute intervals while at home with his children.

“You see the name for a moment and think, ‘It could have been my neighbor, or my son,’” Weber said. “It’s really spooky.”

Indexing the names has a practical purpose for historians and the relatives of victims. But Shapiro of the Holocaust Museum says the project’s greatest value may be as a tool to help people trace their relatives’ fates and to keep the past alive.

“These collections are an insurance policy against forgetting,” he said. “A real document is concrete proof. By inviting people to enter names in the database, it brings them in direct contact with evidence that screams authenticity.”

Azoulay hopes those sorts of encounters establish the Arolsen Archive as a sort of “digital monument,” particularly at a time when traveling to concentration camps and museums is out of reach.

“Strangers are indexing the names of people who were persecuted. That’s very intimate and moving,” she said. “In terms of awareness, a crowdsourcing project is a wonderful thing.”

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

17

MUNICIPIO AUTÓNOMO DE HUMACAO - EDICTO PÚBLICO - NOTIFICACIÓN DE INTENCIÓN DE DECLARACIÓN DE ESTORBO PÚBLICO

El Municipio de Humacao ha determinado que las siguientes propiedades cualifican para ser consideradas estorbo público debido a las condiciones físicas en que se encuentran de acuerdo con la Ley Núm. 81 de 30 de agosto

de 1991 y el “Reglamento de Estorbos Públicos”, la cual define como estorbo público de la siguiente manera: “Cualquier solar abandonado, yermo o baldío, cuyas condiciones o estado representen peligro o resulten ofensivas o MUNICIPIO AUTÓNOMO DE HUMACAO - EDICTO PÚBLICO - NOTIFICACIÓN DE INTENCIÓN DE DECLARACIÓN DE ESTORBO PÚBLICO perjudiciales a la salud seguridad de lalas comunidad.

Cualquier vivienda, edificio, solar o cualquier otro inmueble que constituya peligroa inminente porquecon amenace o ponga en30riesgo la seguridad la“Reglamento vida, propieEl Municipio de Humacao haydeterminado que siguientes propiedades cualificanestructura, para ser consideradas estorbo público debido a las condiciones físicas enun que se encuentran de acuerdo la Ley Núm.

81 de de agosto de 1991 yael de dad Estorbos cual defineesté como estorbo público de ladesplome, siguiente manera: “Cualquier solar abandonado, yermo o baldío, o cuyas condiciones o se estado representen peligro ono resulten ofensivas o perjudiciales a la o salud y seguridad la o a laPúblicos”, salud, yalasea porque expuesta a incendio, derrumbe, desprendimiento, sea foco de contagio contaminación, preste para el albergue autorizado de personas naturales a la comisión dede actos comunidad. Cualquier vivienda, estructura, edificio, solar o cualquier otro inmueble que constituya un peligro inminente porque amenace o ponga en riesgo la seguridad a la vida, propiedad o a la salud, ya sea porque esté expuesta a incendio, contrarios a la ley, moral y el orden público. Cualquier estructura abandonada o solar abandonado, yermo o baldío que es inadecuada para ser habitada o utilizada por seres humanos por estar en condiciones de ruina, falta de desplome, derrumbe, desprendimiento, sea foco de contagio o contaminación, o se preste para el albergue no autorizado de personas naturales o a la comisión de actos contrarios a la ley, moral y el orden público. Cualquier estructura abandonada o solar abandonado, yermo baldío que es o inadecuada para ser habitada por seres humanos por estar en condiciones ruina, falta de construcción que perjudicialque a laaumenten salud o seguridad de público.

Dichas o reparación, defectos deoconstrucción que es perjudicial a la saludo outilizada seguridad de público.

Dichas condiciones puedendeincluir, perode sinreparación, limitarse adefectos las siguientes: defectosoen laes estructura los riesgos de incendios condiciones pueden incluir, pero sin limitarse a las siguientes: defectos en la estructura que aumenten los riesgos de incendios o accidentes; falta de adecuada ventilación o facilidades sanitarias; falta de energía eléctrica o agua potable; y falta de accidentes; falta de adecuada ventilación o facilidades sanitarias; falta de energía eléctrica o agua potable; y falta de limpieza.” limpieza.” #

Catastro

Dirección

Último Dueño Conocido

#

1

329-077-004-37-001

DIAZ BURGOS JORGE

40

2

304-018-072-09-001

COM AUSTRALIA 57 B , HUMACAO

CALLE NOYA , HUMACAO

LUGO PASSAPERA JOSE M

41

304-028-203-06-000

3

304-018-090-09-001

TORRELLAS BERTRAN MARIA E

42

4

304-009-182-19-001

CALLE B 15 URB PEREYO , HUMACAO

RODRIGUEZ PASTRANA JUAN

43

304-028-204-22-001

304-037-315-04-001

5

304-009-218-05-001

DR PALOU D 5 URB PEREYO , HUMACAO

MARTINEZ FIGUEROA ISRAEL

44

304-037-312-18-001

6

304-020-225-34-000

BLQ F NUM 11 LOS MAESTROS

ROSARIO CONDE MARIA E/ ROSARIO SANTOS BENIG

45

304-037-312-11-001

7

330-051-580-44-000

BO BUENA VISTA, HUMACAO

CINTRON DEMETRIO

46

304-047-312-28-001

8

330-000-001-29-000

304-037-307-24-001

CARR 906 BO BUENA VISTA , HUMACAO NO H 21 LOS PINOS, HUMACAO

47

12

304-027-213-07-001

304-027-209-02-001

304-028-220-05-001

SAN JOSE 26 SOLAR 47 PATAGONIA , HUMACAO LIBERTAD 21 PATAGONIA , HUMACAO #26 LIBERTAD, HUMACAO

POU SALVADOR

DELGADO GONZALEZ ISMAEL SUCN/ RODRIGUEZ RIVERA ALICIA M VALENTINI FIGUEROA AMELIA

VELAZQUEZ MARTINEZ JUAN

RIVERA GARCIA ANIBAL

13

330-000-001-70-000

BO BUENA VISTA, HUMACAO

14

330-000-001-76-001

CARRADERO SANTIAGO HECTOR CARR 923 BO BUENA VISTA , HUMACAO BO BUENA VISTA LOTE 1 , HUMACAO BO BUENA VISTA, HUMACAO=

9 10 11

15 16

330-021-019-55-001 330-021-019-32-000

17

305-033-435-44-001

18

305-035-549-12-001

21

305-035-549-13-001

281-095-006-60-000

281-095-006-64-901

22

281-086-008-11-000

19 20

DE LA CARRERA 7 , HUMACAO

CALLE 5 L 84 URB VILLA , HUMACAO X15 URB. CIUDAD CRISTIANA , HUMACAO X14 URB. CIUDAD CRISTIANA , HUMACAO CARR 3 INTERIOR BO RIO ABAJO , HUMACAO #284 COMM RIO ABAJO , HUMACAO

23

281-086-007-58-000

COMM BAJANDAS #19 , HUMACAO SOLAR 44 . COMM BAJANDAS , HUMACAO

24

27

281-065-001-42-998

329-049-024-24-000

329-000-009-44-000

304-018-086-02-001

AT 99 COMM BAJANDAS , HUMACAO #4 CANDELRO ABAJO COMM FERNANDEZ , HUMACAO BO. CANDELERO ARRIBA URB JAZMIN - SOLAR10 , HUMACAO NOYA HDEZ NO 14 , HUMACAO

28

304-018-073-07-001

53 CALLE NOYA, HUMACAO

29

304-018-058-01-901

71 CALLE DUFRESNE, HUMACAO NAVARRO CRUZ SATURNINA

113 FONT MARTELO , HUMACAO 2 CALLE L M CARRASQUILLO HUMACAO , HUMACAO

25 26

30 31 32

304-008-048-08-001

304-008-036-05-001 304-008-037-16-000

34

304-008-037-15-000

281-045-158-77-000

35

281-045-151-06-000

33

36

281-099-455-20-001

37

304-018-095-08-001

38

304-038-477-08-000

2 CALLE L M CARRASQUILLO HUMACAO , HUMACAO 1 CALLE 1 COM.EL BATEY , HUMACAO 12 1 COMM EL BATEY CARR 925 , HUMACAO CALLE 33 NUM 860 EXT VERDE MAR , HUMACAO BERMUDEZ FRANCISCO/MARIA ZENON A 54 URB EXT PATAGONIA

48 49 50 51

Catastro

Dirección

Último Dueño Conocido

SOLAR #65 REMANENTE . COMM. AUSTRALIA BO CANDELERO ARRIBA , HUMACAO 11 CALLE ESPAÑA URB PATAGONIA , HUMACAO ESPANA 20 URB PATAGONIA , HUMACAO URB V UNIVERSITARIA , HUMACAO

TORRES MOLINA CIRILO

ROMAN OQUENDO ADELA

304-047-312-40-001

304-036-333-04-001

CALLE 10 BLQ E 18 VILLA UNIVERSITARIA , HUMACAO

CALLE 10 BLQ E 11 VILLA UNIVERSITARIA , HUMACAO

E41 CALLE 12 VILLA UNIVERSITARIA , HUMACAO

CALLE 12 BLQ E 29 VILLA UNIVERSITARIA, HUMACAO V UNIVERSITARIA S 4, HUMACAO

304-036-329-25-001

304-038-477-34-001

304-038-477-16-001

CALLE 20 P 25 VILLA UNIV , HUMACAO

NO A22 LOS PINOS , HUMACAO

EXT PATAGONIA A 46, HUMACAO

CARLOS RAMOS BONILLA

EL RYDER MEMORIAL HOSPITAL INC

PEDRO CORDERO SEPULVEDA

ANDRES UBILES MALDONADO

LYDIA ESTHER RIVERA GONZALEZ

MAUNEZ NO 53 , HUMACAO

A CUADRA NO 106, HUMACAO

LUIS ROQUE DELGADO

ANGEL VELAZQUEZ TORRES

329-067-501-30-000

HERNANDEZ LOPEZ JORGE POAPART BERRIOS DAMASA

RUFAT CRUZ LEILA ENID

REMUS RAMIREZ IVAN

HERNANDEZ FARIA VENTURA

52

304-028-125-11-001

DIAZ JAIME ADELAIDA

AVILES GERENA JESUS

53

304-028-124-35-001

SUCN BLAS CRUZ

55

304-018-096-03-001

ULISES MARTINEZ ESQ JAURIA , HUMACAO LA CARRERA NO 12, HUMACAO

BERMUDEZ FRANCISCO/MARIA ZENON NATHANIEL VAZQUEZ BELTRAN

ORTIZ RIVERA LUIS FELIX

56

304-018-089-08-001

7 CALLE CARRERA , HUMACAO

CRUZ DE BUFFIL RAMONA ET AL

SANTOS CARABALLO MADELINE

MORALES CRUZ ADALINE

SUCN MELITONA COTO DE MORALES CARRION ROSARIO JUAN

57

304-018-096-04-001

304-019-076-15-001

CALLE DE LA CARRERA , HUMACAO

CALLE SELENIA ESQ FONT MARTELO , HUMACAO LA CARRERA 53, HUMACAO

52 CALLE DR VIDAL, HUMACAO

LOUIS A PEREZ GARCIA

LIVING ALTIERI RODRIGUEZ

304-018-095-07-901

54

CUADRADO TOLEDO ERNESTINA

58

304-018-088-07-001

59 60

304-018-088-03-001

61

304-018-070-07-001

CAMACHO SIERRA RUTH/ PEREZ PEREZ JOSE A

62

304-008-037-14-001

MARIN DEL VALLE DOMINGO

CINTRON SANTIAGO SUCN

CASTILLO ESTREMERA EPIFANIA

CASILLA CASILLA JUAN B

63

304-008-016-04-001

304-008-039-14-001

304-018-074-01-001

304-018-073-06-001

JOSE M LUGO PASSAPERA

67

304-018-073-09-001

PABELLON DE LA FAMA DEL DEPORTE CALLE M CASILLAS ESQ DUFRESNE , HUMACAO TOTAL PETROLEUM PR CORP

68

304-018-057-04-001

69

304-008-049-04-001

304-008-036-06-001

GARCIA BERRIOS CARMEN E (HERMANA

AYALA SANTIAGO ISRAEL

HERMINIA FELICIER TORRES

71

73

281-066-001-17-000

281-045-158-75-000

VIRGINIA DAVILA MOLINA

74

305-017-349-03-000

CONTRERAS JOSE ALIPIO

CALLE JAURIA

DUEÑO DESCONOCIDO

75

281-089-452-09-001

76

304-009-182-20-001

304-028-203-03-000

64 65 66

70

72

77

304-008-022-11-001

FRANCISCO VEGA 5 , HUMACAO PEÑA CRUZ ESQ MUÑOZ MARIN , HUMACAO

105 PADRE RIVERA 51 , HUMACAO

61 CALLE MUNOZ, HUMACAO

CALLE FONT MARTELO , HUMACAO

NOYA NO 57 , HUMACAO

ATANACIO CUADRA 7, HUMACAO DUFRESNE NO 62, HUMACAO L MUNOZ MARIN NO 58, HUMACAO

CALLE FONT MARTELO , HUMACAO

ROOSEVELT 64 , HUMACAO

COM BAJANDAS AT 124 , HUMACAO

3 1 COMM EL BATEY, HUMACAO CALLE 10 BLQ F 111 MANS VILLA PALMIRA , HUMACAO CALLE 28 NO 781 URB EXT VERDE MAR , HUMACAO CALLE B URB PEREYO

5 CALLE ESPAÑA COMM PATAGONIA

MARTINEZ RODRIGUEZ GILBERTO RIVERA TORRES ANGEL LIMAGE LEGROS EDWARD

BH & M CORPORATION

SANCHEZ RIVERA ALICEBELL

PAZ CUADRA CONCEPCION

DIAZ ORTIZ JUAN E

HANIN HMIEDAN AL ASMAR VERONICA FRANCISCA GOMEZ CRUZ NICOLAS AGOSTO DE LEON ROSA M RODRIGUEZ PEREZ SUCN

GIL BOSCH ENRIQUE

GONZALEZ VDA ORTIZ AMALIA

GERMA L DAVILA FELICIER

JUANA M. RAMOS MONEZUMA TORRES RIVERA MIGUEL POMALES JOSE A C/O LYDIA GONZALEZ VAZQUEZ RAMOS OLGA VIOLETA

VAZQUEZ CASTRO RAFAEL

SE ADVIERTE: a las partes interesadas de sudederecho a solicitar una vista a la cuala podrán asistido de abogado.

Toda comunicación debe ser dirigida a POdirigida Box 51847 Toa Baja, PR 00950-1847.

Se apercibe que laSe declaración de estorbo SE ADVIERTE: a las partes interesadas su derecho a solicitar unaadministrativa vista administrativa la cual comparecer podrán comparecer asistido de abogado.

Toda comunicación debe ser a PO Box 51847 Toa Baja, PR 00950-1847. apercibe que la público se hará constar mediante aviso que será colocado su propiedad, usted tiene a treinta (30)tiene días derecho calendarios a partir de días la fecha de colocación delde aviso para que se expresedel sobre la determinación.

Pasadosobre los treinta (30) días desde la declaración de estorbo público seun hará constar mediante unen aviso que será colocado en derecho su propiedad, usted a treinta (30) calendarios a partir la fecha de colocación aviso para que se exprese la determinación.

Pasado los treinta (30)eldías desde laposeedor notificación, sin quecon el propietario, poseedor o en persona interés, no comparezca en formade alguna a oponerse la identificación de entenderá la propiedad estorbo renuncia público, se entenderá notificado renunciay el notificación, sin que propietario, o persona interés, no comparezca formacon alguna a oponerse a la identificación la propiedad comoa estorbo público, se quecomo el notificado a su derecho aque unaelvista administrativa a su derecho a una vista administrativa y el Municipio tomará una determinación final de estorbo público. POR CUANTO: Una vez emitida la declaración de estorbo público sobre una propiedad inmueble, el propietario vendrá obligado a limpiar el Municipio tomará una determinación final de estorbo público. POR CUANTO: Una vez emitida la declaración de estorbo público sobre una propiedad inmueble, el propietario vendrá obligado a limpiar el mismo o a ejecutar las obras necesarias para eliminar mismo o a ejecutar las obras necesarias para eliminar tal condición, dentro del término de sesenta (60) días, a partir de la notificación de la resolución. POR CUANTO: Si el propietario no efectuare la limpieza de la propiedad inmueble, el municipio tal condición, dentroa del término degastos sesentaincurridos (60) días, ay partir de la notificación de la resolución.

POR CUANTO: Si elopropietario node efectuare la limpieza de la propiedad inmueble, el municipio procederá a hacerlo a su costo. gastos legal incurridos no recobprocederá a hacerlo su costo.

Los no recobrados por el municipio en la gestión de limpieza eliminación la condición detrimental constituirán un gravamen sobre la propiedad equivalente a unaLos hipoteca tácita;y con el mismo de prioridad una deuda contributiva; y el mismo hará constar en el Registro de la POR la CUANTO: aquellos casos que ellegal municipio en el costo por la limpieza, se le impondrá unaymulta al titular, radoscarácter por el municipio en lade gestión de limpieza o eliminación de la se condición detrimental constituirán unPropiedad. gravamen sobre propiedadEnequivalente a una en hipoteca tácita;haya con elincurrido mismo carácter de prioridad de una deuda contributiva; el mismo se hará a ser pagada al municipio donde esté situada la propiedad inmueble, la cual será no menor de quinientos (500) dólares ni mayor de cinco mil (5,000) dólares. Puede usted comunicarse con Universal Properties Realty Government Services LLC, constar en el Registro de la Propiedad. POR CUANTO: En aquellos casos en que el municipio haya incurrido en el costo por la limpieza, se le impondrá una multa al titular, a ser pagada al municipio donde esté situada la propiedad inmueble, la cual será no Agente Municipal de Humacao al (787) 478-0932, Lic. E-300 de lunes a viernes de 9:00 am a 5pm. menor de quinientos (500) dólares ni mayor de cinco mil (5,000) dólares. Puede usted comunicarse con Universal Properties Realty Government Services LLC, Agente Municipal de Humacao al (787) 478-0932, Lic. E-300 de lunes a viernes de 9:00 am a 5pm.

Universal Properties Realty Government Services, LLC AgenteGovernment Municipal Services, LLC Universal Properties Realty Agente Municipal

18

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

Trump uses the military to prove his manhood

By NICHOLAS KRISTOF

F

or two decades, the United States has repeatedly made the mistake of over-relying on the military toolbox to try to solve intractable problems — particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq — without adequately relying on diplomacy. Now President Donald Trump wants to repeat the mistake at home.

The U.S. military is, according to Gallup polling, the most trusted institution in the country. But Trump’s call to dispatch armed forces to crush protests so that he can look tough betrays the military’s nonpartisan tradition and should trigger all our alarm bells.

It was exactly 31 years ago that I covered the Chinese military’s assault on pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square. There was outrage worldwide, with virtually the only praise in the West coming from …

Donald Trump.

“When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it,” Trump told Playboy Magazine months later. “Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength.”

No, U.S. troops won’t massacre protesters, as Chinese troops did, but Trump’s deployment of troops for political purposes would betray our traditions, damage the credibility of the armed forces and exacerbate tensions across the country.

Trump introduced Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to governors as the man “in charge” of putting down protests. “It’s a beautiful thing to watch,” Trump said of a National Guard crackdown

Military police officers restraining a protester near the White House as demonstrations against George Floyd’s death continued, on Monday.

in Minneapolis.

The Pentagon has rushed active-duty military police and combat engineers to just outside Washington, where they would back up National Guard units, and military helicopters have already been used in a show of force to intimidate protesters.

“I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting,” Trump said in his Rose Garden address.

The Times has reported that there have been heated arguments in the White House about whether to invoke an 1807 law called the Insurrection Act that on its face provides broad authority to deploy the military.

Trump also declared, “I am mobilizing all available federal resources — civilian and military — to stop the rioting and looting.”

Think of that phrase: “all available resources.” In this annus horribilus, the United States has endured more than 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus and 40 million jobs lost. In response to those cataclysms, Trump responded lethargically and ineffectively: The American death rate from the virus is three times Germany’s and the unemployment rate roughly four times Germany’s. But in response to a week of protests and looting, Trump seeks to send in the Army? According to the Daily Beast, he even inquired about sending in tanks.

The impulse to call in the military is perhaps rooted not only in his authoritarian instincts but also in something more personal. Trump seemed mortified at disclosures that when protesters approached the White House he was rushed to an underground bunker; on Wednesday, he claimed instead that he went down “more for an inspection.”

Embarrassment at his “inspection” trip seems to have fueled his desire to project toughness by using the U.S. armed forces as a prop.

Most shamefully, Trump’s aides dispatched federal forces to use rubber bullets, chemical irritants and flash bang grenades to clear peaceful, lawful protesters — so that the president could indulge in a photo op at a nearby church. The church’s leaders were outraged, for those protesters had as much moral right to be there as Trump did.

Milley and Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper accompanied Trump on this stroll, and Esper spoke of U.S. cities as a “battlespace.” I spoke to several retired American commanders who were deeply troubled by this.

“I cannot remain silent,” Admiral Mike Mullen, a much-respected former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in The Atlantic. “Our fellow citizens are not the enemy, and must never become so.”

“America is not a battleground,” tweeted Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Our fellow citizens are not the enemy.”

On Wednesday, Esper backed off and said that he opposed the use of active duty military forces for now.

I find it thrilling that so many Americans have marched peacefully against racism, although I do wish they would all wear masks and be extremely careful about spreading the coronavirus. My 88-year-old mom joined a peaceful protest the other day in rural Oregon, with hundreds of people turning out in a lily-white community and chanting “black lives matter.”

Rioting and looting are deplorable of course, and it’s great that protesters have tried to stop the looters.

Police forces are available, so it’s baffling to hear Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, suggest sending in the 101st Airborne Division. We need not turn American cities into Fallujah.

When you’ve seen the ugliness of war, you don’t lightly summon tanks, helicopters or heavily armed troops to deal with civil disturbances; that’s a dangerous and damaging tactic of insecure old men who claimed heel spurs to dodge the Vietnam draft and now need to prove their own manhood.

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The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

19

Alcaldesa de San Juan presenta moción ante la jueza Taylor Swain sobre la Ley 29 Por THE STAR

L

a alcaldesa de San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto informó el jueves, que sometió ante la jueza Laura Taylor Swain, una Moción Informativa sobre el efecto que causará la eliminación de la Ley 29.

“Con documentos del CRIM (Centro de Recaudación de Ingresos Municipales) podemos probar inequívocamente el daño que le ha hecho a todos los municipios la eliminación de la Ley 29”, dijo Cruz Soto en conferencia de prensa.

La Ley 29 eximía a los municipios del pago de dinero a la tarjeta de salud y a Retiro.

“49 municipios de Puerto Rico van a recibir una reducción de más de un millón de dólares. Con el municipio más afectado, siendo el municipio de Comerío que va a recibir $2.4 millones menos. Eso dejará al municipio de Comerío casi inoperante”, dijo.

Mencionó que 24 municipios recibirán entre $300 mil a $1 millón menos, siendo el municipio de Hormigueros el más afectado en ese renglón.

Hay cinco municipios que reciben más dinero, Hu-

macao, Caguas, Ponce, Carolina y San Juan.

“San Juan recibe $6.7 millones más porque es el municipio que más pone al fondo de equiparación”, dijo Cruz Soto.

Por otro lado, mencionó que la Junta de Gobierno del CRIM aprobó por unanimidad una solicitud a la gobernadora para que, en vez de devolverle del fondo de emergencia sobre $500 millones a la Junta de Supervisión Fiscal (JSF), utilizar ese dinero para que la gobernadora cubra esa deficiencia en los municipios.

“Se radicó un proyecto de ley en la Cámara de Representantes”, acotó.

Además, mencionó que el primero de junio, le cursó una carta a la directora ejecutiva de la JSF, Natalie Jaresko en relación a trabajos que realizan los municipios que le toca al gobierno central y que el propio gobierno central no devuelve los fondos utilizados.

“El estimado de las vías estatales que el Municipio de San Juan maneja es de sobre $13 millones al año”, explicó la alcaldesa.

Mencionó que las avenidas “esbaratá’s” en San Juan le corresponde al Gobierno Central y no al municipio.

Hacienda abre solicitud de ayuda económica para pequeñas y medianas empresas Por THE STAR l secretario del Departamento de Hacienda (DH), Eviernes, Francisco Parés Alicea, informó que a partir del 5 de junio se habilitará un enlace a través del

Sistema Unificado de Rentas Internas (SURI), para que pequeños y medianos comerciantes elegibles puedan solicitar la ayuda económica aprobada bajo la Ley CARES. “El 23 de mayo de 2020, el Comité de Supervisión de Desembolsos del Fondo de Alivio de Coronavirus, aprobó las guías del programa de asistencia a pequeñas y medianas empresas, según establecido bajo el Plan Estratégico y a tenor con esto, emitimos la Carta Circular de Rentas Internas 20-26, para establecer la forma y manera en que se van a distribuir los incentivos económicos a partir de este viernes 5 de junio”, explicó Parés Alicea en comunicación escrita.

Los incentivos aprobados para las PYMES serán de 5,000 dólares, para aquellos pequeños negocios que tenían entre dos y 49 empleados en su nómina al mes de marzo de 2020 y de $10 mil para empresas medianas cuya plantilla de empleados al mes de marzo de 2020 era de 50 a 500. En ambos casos, los comerciantes debían tener vigente su Certificado de Registro de Comerciante al 16 de mayo de 2020.

Las pequeñas y medianas empresas que podrían beneficiarse, incluyen a entidades sin fines de lucro que proveen servicios directos a la ciudadanía y que cumplen con el requisito de cantidad de empleados. Este programa aplica a todo tipo de negocio, tanto al indivi-

dual como el negocio a través de una entidad jurídica como sociedad, compañía de responsabilidad limitada o corporación.

“En el caso de individuos que trabajan por cuenta propia y a su vez son patronos elegibles para la Ayuda a Pymes por la cantidad de empleados en su nómina, podrán solicitar este beneficio, aunque hayan recibido el pago de $1,000 de Ayuda a Cuentapropistas, según establecida en el Plan Estratégico. Sin embargo, en estos casos los individuos recibirán $4 mil, en el caso de ser considerados una Pequeña Empresa y $9 mil, en el caso de ser considerados una Mediana Empresa”, explicó el funcionario.

Para solicitar el pago de la ayuda, los comerciantes deberán acceder al enlace que se habilitará en sus cuentas de SURI. Como parte de la solicitud, deberán certificar que el monto de la ayuda será utilizado para compensar las pérdidas económicas debido a la interrupción de las operaciones por la emergencia del COVID-19 y/o para gastos necesarios permitidos relacionados, según se establece en las Guías del Programa de Ayuda a PYMEs. Parés Alicea agregó que otros requisitos establecen que ninguna porción del pago recibido podrá ser utilizado para pagar bonos a ejecutivos, refinanciar deudas o para gastos no permitidos. También se dispone que cualquier cantidad recibida que no sea utilizada en o antes del 30 de diciembre de 2020 o que se determine que fue utilizada incorrectamente, deberá ser devuelta al Departamento.

“La ayuda económica no se utilizará para gastos de

nómina si la PYME ha recibido, recibirá o planea solicitar y recibir ayuda bajo el Programa de Protección de Nómina del Sector Privado bajo el Plan Estratégico y deberán comprometerse a cumplir con todos los demás términos y condiciones del programa”, recalcó.

Todos los comerciantes que soliciten la ayuda económica, deberán someter una copia del Formulario 941-PR, Planilla para la Declaración Federal Trimestral del Patrono, del trimestre terminado el 31 de marzo de 2020, junto con la evidencia de radicación al Servicio de Rentas Internas Federal (“IRS” por sus siglas en inglés).

En los casos de las PYMEs que no hayan sometido la Planilla Trimestral para el trimestre terminado el 31 de marzo de 2020, el Departamento utilizará la información provista en la Planilla Trimestral del trimestre terminado el 31 de diciembre de 2019, para determinar su elegibilidad para las ayudas, basado en la cantidad de empleados informada en dicha planilla, Los comerciantes también deberán proveer su información de cuenta bancaria para recibir el pago vía depósito directo.

La ayuda a PYMEs será otorgada a base de primero en tiempo, primero en derecho y estará disponible hasta que se agoten los fondos destinados para estos incentivos bajo el Plan Estratégico.

Para conocer más detalles, las guías están disponibles en el siguiente enlace: http://www.aafaf.pr.gov/ assets/guide-crf-small-medium-sized-bus-grants-prog. pdf. También puede acceder a la Carta Circular 20-26 en la página del Departamento, www.hacienda.pr.gov .

20

June 5-7, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

A documentary for the #MeToo era, for better and worse

By SALAMISHAH TILLET

“I

don’t know if there is any comparable experience to coming forward, being believed, finding other victims of the same trauma by the same person and suddenly we’re together,” Drew Dixon says in “On the Record,” the documentary about sexual assault allegations against Russell Simmons that premiered last week on HBO Max. “I’ve been alone for 22 years,” she continues, sitting next to Sil Lai Abrams and Jenny Lumet, two other African American women who have also accused Simmons of rape. “I thought it was just me.” (Simmons has denied all accusations of nonconsensual sex and described his life as “devoid of violence” in a written response to the filmmakers.)

In a December 2017 article in The New York Times, four women — Dixon, Tina Baker, Toni Sallie and Christina Moore — went public with their accusations that Simmons had sexually assaulted them. Not only did Dixon, a former A&R executive at Simmons’ Def Jam Records, leave the music industry because of her experiences with sexual assault, but we also eventually learn that she has separated from her husband as a result of the heavy toll taken by her allegations and the subsequent backlash.

Against that backdrop, the strength and solace she finds by sharing her story with Abrams and Lumet form one of the most memorable scenes in the film. It’s a moment that encapsulates what “On the Record” and other documentaries like it do well, what they lack, and where filmmakers interested in further exploring the subject can go from here.

It is also vintage Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, the directing and producing team responsible for “Invisible War” (2012), about sexual assault in the military, and “The Hunting Ground” (2015), about campus rape. Those films predate the current trend of documentaries that explore the devastating impact sexual assault has on the lives of victims.

Rather than focus on hierarchical institutions like the U.S. armed forces

“On the Record” largely focuses on the former music executive Drew Dixon. and universities where rape is underreported because it often goes unpunished, “On the Record” strives to be more intimate and personal. By mainly centering on Dixon’s story, it is reminiscent of Dick’s 2004 Oscar-nominated “Twist of Faith,” about the struggle of an Ohio firefighter who was sexually abused as a teenager by a Catholic priest.

Dick didn’t start out intending to make films about sexual assault. HBO suggested the topic of “Twist of Faith” after another filmmaker took on the subject “but found the material too difficult,” he said in an email. “Amy and I continued to make films about survivors because we were so moved by their stories of pain and courage and because sexual assault has been ignored by society for far too long. We are happy that a movement like #MeToo happened to elevate the voices we have been capturing for over two decades to an even higher level than we could have imagined.”

And yet, in many ways, “On the Record” is decidedly a movie of the #MeToo era, forming something of a genre with a number of other documentaries: “Untouchable,” on the Harvey Weinstein case; “Leaving Neverland,”

on the allegations of childhood sexual abuse against Michael Jackson; and the docu-series “Surviving R. Kelly” and “Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich.” All of these films expose how celebrity and wealth not only provided powerful men with countless opportunities for sexual abuse but also entitled them to a unique set of protections that prevented them from getting caught.

As a scholar and activist who has worked on related issues for many years, I’ve been struck by how many films on sexual violence have come out in such a short period.

In other ways, “On the Record” can be viewed as a response to a criticism of #MeToo in particular, and the anti-rape movement in general: the overlooking of black women as victims of sexual assault. Dick and Ziering, who are white, could have taken up the vexed history of rape and U.S. racism when they made “The Hunting Ground,” which featured the allegations that a black Harvard law student lodged against her black classmate. But until now, the race of the victim or the perpetrator went unaddressed in their movies.

The film’s focus on race is also its

biggest challenge. By zooming in on Dixon, “On the Record” risks making her story a stand-in for that of all black women, a burden that is impossible for one person to carry. In turn, even with the thoughtful use of black feminist scholars and writers as expert voices, the film’s focus on one woman makes it difficult to understand fully how racism and sexism are institutions unto themselves — even larger than the Catholic Church, the military or universities — that simultaneously oppress millions of black women and girls.

In our conversation, Dick acknowledged that the phenomenon of experiencing racial and gender oppression at the same time, or what law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw (who appears in the film) describes as intersectionality, was eye-opening. As a former academic, Ziering is more familiar with black feminist theory and history. “But I think having all of these analyses articulated in this way for me was revelatory,” she said.

Such oversight does not undermine the power or authority of Dixon’s account. In the film, her story is corroborated not only by friends with whom she worked at the time but also by other women, including Sherri Hines, Alexia Norton Jones and Tina Baker, who all say Simmons raped them. Together, these allegations reveal a striking pattern: They all suggest that Simmons used his rarefied status (as one of the few black men to run his own music label) to prey on up-and-coming female artists and executives in hip-hop.

Today, the mere presence of “On the Record” on HBO Max and Dream Hampton’s “Surviving R. Kelly” on Lifetime are signs of remarkable racial and gender progress: They’re proof that #MeToo is gaining traction among black people, for which the movement’s African American founder, Tarana Burke, has long advocated, and that black rape victims are increasingly seen as credible witnesses of their own stories.

Such a shift in the public consciousness is long overdue and, for some victims, life-changing.

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

21

Italians rediscover their museums, with no tourists in sight

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

T

here was no red carpet, but even so, a cadre of photographers snapped frenziedly as the objects of their attention — the first visitors to the Vatican Museums when they reopened on Monday after the coronavirus lockdown — squirmed in the unexpected spotlight.

With travel among Italian regions restricted until Tuesday, it was a local lineup, ready to experience what many Romans dream of: a tourist-free visit to one of the world’s greatest — and most popular — museums, which last year drew nearly 7 million visitors.

Although she lives in Rome, Simona Toti, a statistician, said she hadn’t seen the Sistine Chapel for years “because of the mobs.”

While online reservations have shortened the milelong queue that once snaked along the walls of Vatican City to the museum entrance, many Rome residents are still daunted by the crowds, and the crowding. “Normally it’s so packed that you just can’t appreciate anything,” Toti said.

“For once, living in Rome is not a handicap,” she said.

Across town, at the Colosseum, which also reopened Monday, Margherita Blaconà and her teenage daughter Asia were enjoying a tourist-free tour as part of a 45-minute visit of the amphitheater, which now permits only 14 people to enter every 15 minutes.

The same throngs that make the Colosseum Italy’s most visited monument, with more than 7.5 million visitors last year, Visitors at the Sistine Chapel on Monday, when the Vatican Museums reopened after a nearly three-month are the reason that most locals give it a wide berth. “The queues, coronavirus closure. the people. It’s impossible,” said Blaconà, who hadn’t been to the Colosseum since she was in elementary school. “We’re goAt the Uffizi in Florence, which opened Wednesday, by tourists is an understatement. Barbara Jatta, the director, said ing to profit from the lack of tourists these days and see other black dots have been glued to the floor in front of the muse- that some days as many as 29,000 have filed through the doors, sites,” she said. um’s heaviest hitters — works by Botticelli, Piero della Franc- compared with the few hundred they are allowing in every But while locals were keen to reclaim Italy’s monuments, esca, Michelangelo, Raphael and Caravaggio — to ensure that hour. “Now we are missing the crowds,” she said. the directors of many cultural institutions were worried about people maintain social distancing. The gallery has halved the The museum’s coffers had suffered, she said, not only for the loss of much-needed revenue from ticket sales. number of people who can visit at any time, to 450 from 900, lost ticket and trinket sales but also because the Vatican had “It’s a disaster, obviously,” said Massimo Osanna, the di- and capped guided tours at 10 people. refunded thousands of tickets booked for 2020. rector of the Pompeii archaeological site, which drew nearly 4 To commemorate the 500th anniversary this year of RaAt a news conference on Wednesday, Eike Schmidt, the million visitors last year, including 40,000 on one day in May. Uffizi’s director, said, “It would be wonderful if the model of phael’s death, new lighting was installed in the room housing Until next Tuesday, entrance at the site is capped at 400 relaxed tourism that we are experimenting at the Uffizi in this the famed tapestries based on his cartoons. The room was set to visitors a day. Osanna said that last Thursday only 250 people particular historical moment become the model for tourism in be inaugurated on April 20, during a symposium on the artist, had visited the site. “It was like being in a surrealist painting,” the future.” when the museum also planned to unveil the recently restored he said.

The Uffizi had lost 12 million euros ($13.5 million) during Hall of Constantine, which visitors saw in its refreshed guise “The budget we reached last year will not be imaginable the 85 days it was closed, he told reporters in Florence.

Monday. this year, so we won’t be able to carry out many of the projects With a maximum of 20,000 visitors per day at the ColosOn Monday, the Campbell family, Swiss residents who we had planned,” Osanna said. “Now we’re focused on things seum in pre-coronavirus times, the current cap of 650 made have lived in Rome for the past three years, were among the that can’t be postponed, like ordinary maintenance.” visiting the site refreshingly relaxing on Monday. Colosseum of- 30 people gaping at the Sistine Chapel, normally so crowded In an interview, Anna Coliva, the director of the Borghese ficials were happy that a “slow, more aware sort of tourism” that guards spend most of their time shushing sardine-packed Gallery, also used the word “disaster” to describe the loss of would allow the monument to reopen “on the right foot,” said visitors. revenue at the gallery, which can now allow 400 visitors a day Alfonsina Russo, the state official who oversees the monument “It’s amazing,” said Franziska Campbell, the mother. She instead of 2,000. “We’re losing 500,000 euros a month in tick- and other archaeological sites in downtown Rome. said that when a friend from Switzerland had visited last sumet sales, events and royalties,” said Coliva, who will retire this Normally, she said, the Colosseum — “a symbol of Italy mer, she’d been pushed through so quickly she hadn’t had time month after more than a quarter-century at the gallery. and of Rome” — is “besieged by tourists” who “weren’t always to see the famed fresco of the creation of Adam and had to The coming months were going to be tough for MAXXI, aware of what they were visiting.” come back.

Italy’s national museum of contemporary art, said the president But as the site’s revenues account for a chunk of financing “We’re seeing Rome as no one normally sees it. Everyof its foundation, Giovanna Melandri. “The damage is huge,” for other monuments, their absence will be a big loss, said Fed- thing is tourist-free,” said Valerie Chambert, a nuclear physicist she said Tuesday, speaking of the lockdown that deprived the erica Rinaldi, the state official responsible for the amphitheater. who lives in Rome, after finishing her Vatican visit. “It’s a pity museum, and many Italians, of their livelihoods.

To say that the Vatican Museums are normally besieged for the hotels and the restaurants, but for us it is great,” she said.

22

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

Rediscovering wine after COVID-19

By ERIC ASIMOV

T

his is a story about what happens when one of life’s joys is taken away, perhaps forever. In this case, it is wine, but it could as easily have been painting, cooking, dancing, or playing golf or tennis.

The potential loss of these pleasures, of course, is trivial compared with the social and personal catastrophes the coronavirus pandemic has inflicted. It has taken friends and loved ones, destroyed jobs and businesses, and shaken up lives. The human cost has been immense.

Yet people still want to savor what they love, what has shaped their personalities and lives. They want to return to bars and restaurants, to date and find romance, to play softball on the weekends and dive once more into the wild surf.

Dr. Michael Pourfar’s pleasure was wine, particularly on the weekends when he and his wife, Jennifer, retreated from their workaday lives in Manhattan to the Hudson Valley with their children, Alex, 13, and Caroline, 9.

His loss of that pleasure traces back to one morning in mid-March when his wife told him she could not smell her coffee.

Michael Pourfar, 49, a neurologist who specializes in treating people with Parkinson’s disease and other nerve disorders, had not been treating COVID-19 patients directly, but he knew about its symptoms.

His hospital, NYU Langone Health, on the east side of Manhattan, was hit hard in the pandemic’s early stages, and Pourfar had seen enough coronavirus patients to understand that losing one’s sense of smell was a possible first sign of infection.

He also realized that if his wife was infected with the coronavirus, he had a greater chance of getting it, too.

As anyone might, he at first pondered the most morbid possibilities. He was particularly worried about their children.

But his medical training soon kicked in.

After rationally assessing the situation, he concluded that while they might all get sick, the chances of grave illness were low. For now, he and his wife needed to maintain a calm routine for the sake of the children, as well as for their own peace of mind.

That evening, routine meant choosing a bottle of wine from the cellar. It was their weekend custom, and Jennifer Pourfar wanted a glass even though she was unable to smell anything.

Knowing that this might be the last bottle they would enjoy for a while, he pon-

Dr. Michael Pourfar at his home in Stamfordville, N.Y., on May 20, 2020. Pourfar, a wine lover who lost his sense of smell with the onset of COVID-19, has gauged his slow recovery. dered his selection.

He considered a few of the most precious bottles he owned — a Domaine de la RomanéeConti, one of the great Burgundies, perhaps, or a Cheval Blanc, an equally hallowed Bordeaux.

But he settled on a bottle of Williams Selyem pinot noir from the Russian River Valley, a wine he and his wife had discovered early in their marriage and enjoyed together regularly.

Within a few days of opening the Williams Selyem, the couple were feverish, with aches, chills and relentless coughs. They could not smell a thing, nor taste the food they forced themselves to eat.

But they were not sick enough for the hospital. Instead, they quarantined themselves in their home, where they were able to care in shifts for their children. Their son had mild symptoms, their daughter none at all. But for the parents, the illness dragged on.

“You’d think you were getting better, then evening would come, and you’d realize you’re not out of it yet,” Michael Pourfar said. “It wasn’t really a dragon, but it had a long tail.”

After a full month, they began to feel much better; Michael Pourfar’s symptoms did not disappear entirely until mid-May. His sense of smell, though, did not return. He understood that losing the ability to enjoy wine was a small price to pay for one’s life and health. Still, he could not help but feel that in a small way he

had been diminished.

Like many wine lovers, he had constructed what he called “life’s comforting rituals” around fetching a bottle: “The considered selection, the careful handling, the slow, deliberate opening and thoughtful smelling, the little smile, they were gone,” he said.

Shortly after he had fallen ill, he gave himself a daily exercise, partly in hopes of rehabilitating his olfactory sense, and partly out of scientific curiosity. Because of its relative subtlety, wine was beyond his capability, but he began taking daily whiffs of coffee in the morning and of Rémy Martin X.O., a particularly aromatic cognac, in the afternoon, in order to gauge his sensitivity.

Early on, he could smell nothing. But slowly the sense began to return. Each day he tracked his progression, and rated his ability using a scale derived from cognac’s hierarchy of classifications: V.S. would represent a trace return of smell, V.S.O.P. a moderate return and X.O. a complete recovery.

The trajectory, like the overall recovery, was frustrating and erratic. After two weeks of peaks and valleys, he found himself plateauing at the V.S.O.P. level. Entire realms of aromas seemed beyond his reach, yet his taste for wine was returning.

“Only when you start to get better do you realize you want part of your sense of self back,”

he said. “It’s a joy that’s part of something bigger. Not everybody feels this way about wine, but they feel this way about something.”

He found that he could not appreciate the subtleties of wines he had come to love, like good Burgundies. At first he considered this a sort of wine purgatory, a limbo where the desire had returned, but not the means for satisfaction.

In his diminished state, he found his tastes beginning to change. He was being drawn to the sorts of bolder, more effusive wines that he had once enjoyed but believed he had outgrown.

Zinfandel, which he had come to think of as exaggerated, he now perceived as vibrant and alive. New Zealand sauvignon blanc, which he had dismissed as overpowering, now seemed distinctive and welcome.

Most especially, he said, he found renewed love and respect for Bordeaux, another old favorite he had largely abandoned.

“These wines I thought I’d moved on from, I’ve found I’m grateful for them now,” he said. Enjoying Bordeaux again, he said, was like “a Rosebud moment.” But where he might have craved one of the more exclusive labels, if only to try to understand the appeal, he now found good bistro bottles like a Château Poujeaux delightful and satisfying.

The rediscovery and acceptance of wines past, particularly those not considered in the top echelon, he decided, was an indication that perhaps he has become a little less judgmental about wine, a little more tolerant.

“You don’t have to put down what you liked at a certain time in your life because you are different now,” Pourfar said. “I hope I will have the ability not to be so binary. All of these things are wonderful in the right context. If somebody’s excited about it, there’s probably something to it.”

His path toward recovery has also made him consider the role wine came to play in his life, not just as an enjoyable beverage, but as an essential component of his character. He wonders whether his altered experience of wine has changed him as a person.

“We all compose a sensory kaleidoscope out of our life experiences that shapes our appreciation of the world,” he said. “Losing an appreciation of wine’s flavors was for me like losing the color red from my kaleidoscope.

The world was still beautiful and I was grateful for the greens, blues and other colors that remained, but I realized something important and familiar was missing, and the world just isn’t quite the same.”

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

23

He best way to eat grilled salmon

By MELISSA CLARK

on their smoky taste. You’ll need to keep an eye on it, but a few distracted seconds won’t be disastrous.

Also, if you can buy your fish in one big piece, instead of individual servings, it will be less likely to overcook. It’s done when the surface is browned in spots, and the center, when poked with a knife, is tender but doesn’t yet flake.

Once cooked, you have loads of options for serving it, either plain with a squeeze of lemon or lime, or more gussied up.

I love turning grilled salmon into a salad, smothering it in a spicy, limey dressing while it’s hot so it can absorb all the flavors. And the flavors of this particular dressing were inspired by nuoc cham, the traditional Vietnamese dipping sauce made from lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and often chiles or garlic. I used shallots instead of garlic and added a little oil to turn it into a sweet, pungent dressing.

Then, just before serving, I plopped the fish onto a bed of crisp lettuces and vegetables, and topped it with fresh herbs.

The fish fell apart into large, satiny chunks, and I ate it warm and tangy against the cool vegetables — and even cooler wine.

I

generally prefer my salmon raw or cured rather than cooked. But grilled salmon, still dark pink at the center and a little charred at the edges, is a soft, silky exception.

Grilling salmon to this degree of perfection isn’t easy, though.

First of all, salmon has a tendency to stick. If you don’t have a grilling basket, and if your grate isn’t clean and well oiled, the fish will glue itself onto the grill, then tear when you try to remove it. Always give the grate a brushing even if you think it’s clean enough. In this case, being extra fussy will work in your favor.

Second, grilled salmon is also easy to overcook, going from buttery to chalky in less time than it takes to open that chilled bottle of white you thought you were going to sip while you cooked. Open it before you start. Salmon grilling is no time for multitasking.

Placing the fish over indirect heat gives you a little more leeway. It slows the process, allowing the fish to cook more evenly than it would sitting directly over the fury of glowing coals, while still taking

Grilled salmon salad with lime, chiles and herbs Yield: 4 servings Total time: 30 minutes 2 limes 2 small fresh red or green chiles or 1 large one, thinly sliced, seeds removed if you like 1 shallot (or 2 scallions, or 2 tablespoons red onion), thinly sliced 2 tablespoons fish sauce Kosher salt Pinch of granulated sugar 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil or grapeseed oil, plus more for brushing 1 1/4 pounds salmon fillet, preferably 1 large centercut piece

8 cups salad greens, such as Little Gem, bibb or Boston lettuce 1 cup mixed soft herbs (such as cilantro, mint and basil), leaves and tender stems 1 cup thinly sliced radishes, cucumbers or both (optional) 1. Light the grill for indirect heat, or heat the oven to 450 degrees.

2. As the grill or oven heats up, make the dressing: Halve 1 lime and squeeze its juice into a small bowl. Add the chile slices, half of the sliced shallot (save the rest for serving), the fish sauce and a pinch each salt and sugar. Let sit for 1 minute to dissolve the salt, then whisk in the olive oil. It won’t emulsify, so mix again before using.

3. Brush the salmon with oil and place it in a grilling basket if you have one. Cook over the indirect (unlit) side of the grill, for 2 to 5 minutes per side, depending on how hot the grill is and how thick the salmon is. Note that individual fillets will cook faster than a single large piece.

Check the salmon often. (Alternatively, roast the

salmon on a baking sheet in the oven, until just cooked to taste, 7 to 12 minutes; you don’t have to flip it.)

4. As the salmon cooks, halve the other lime.

Brush the cut sides with olive oil and grill, cut-side down, over direct heat until charred, about 1 minute. If using the oven, throw the halves, cut-side up, on the roasting pan with the salmon. They won’t char, but they will cook and mellow in flavor, which is the aim.

5. When the salmon is cooked, transfer it to a plate and spoon some dressing over it. Let it cool slightly, then break up the fish into large chunks.

6. Place greens, remaining shallots, herbs and radishes or cucumber, if using, in a large shallow bowl or on a platter, and add a little more of the dressing. Squeeze some of the juice from a charred lime half over it and drizzle with a little olive oil.

Toss and taste, adding lime juice, olive oil or salt as needed.

7. Top with the salmon chunks and drizzle with more (or all) of the dressing. Serve with the remaining charred lime half on the side for squeezing.

24

June 5-7, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Genes may leave some people more vulnerable to severe COVID-19

By CARL ZIMMER

researchers carried out the same genetic survey on 2,205 blood donors with no evidence of COVID-19. hy do some people infected The scientists were looking for with the coronavirus suffer spots in the genome, called loci, where only mild symptoms, while an unusually high number of the seothers become deathly ill? verely ill patients shared the same variGeneticists have been scouring ants, compared with those who were our DNA for clues. Now, a study by not ill.

European scientists is the first to docuTwo loci turned up. In one of these ment a strong statistical link between sites is the gene that determines our genetic variations and COVID-19, the blood type. That gene directs producillness caused by the coronavirus. tion of a protein that places molecules Variations at two spots in the huon the surface of blood cells. man genome are associated with an It’s not the first time Type A blood increased risk of respiratory failure in has turned up as a possible risk. Chipatients with COVID-19, the researchnese scientists who examined patient ers found. One of these spots includes blood types also found that those with the gene that determines blood types.

Type A were more likely to develop a Having Type A blood was linked serious case of COVID-19. to a 50% increase in the likelihood No one knows why. While Franke that a patient would need to get oxywas comforted by the support from the gen or to go on a ventilator, according Chinese study, he could only speculate to the new study. how blood types might affect the disThe study was equally striking ease. “That is haunting me, quite honfor the genes that failed to turn up. estly,” he said.

The coronavirus attaches to a protein He also noted that the locus where called ACE2 on the surface of human the blood-type gene is situated also cells in order to enter them, for example. But genetic variants in ACE2 did A transmission electron microscope image of a U.S. case of corona- contains a stretch of DNA that acts as an on-off switch for a gene producing not appear to make a difference in the virus. a protein that triggers strong immune risk of severe COVID-19. responses.

The findings suggest that relatively The coronavirus triggers an overreaction of unexplored factors may be playing a large role which is currently going through peer review.

Scientists have already determined that fac- the immune system in some people, leading to who develops life-threatening COVID-19. “There are new kids on the block now,” said Andre Fran- tors like age and underlying disease put people massive inflammation and lung damage — the soke, a molecular geneticist at the University of Kiel at extra risk of developing a severe case of CO- called cytokine storm. It is theoretically possible in Germany and a co-author of the new study, VID-19. But geneticists are hoping that a DNA that genetic variations influence that response. test might help identify patients who will need A second locus, on Chromosome 3, shows aggressive treatment. an even stronger link to COVID-19, Franke and Figuring out the reason that certain genes his colleagues found. But that spot is home to six may raise the odds of severe disease could also genes, and it is not yet possible to say which of lead to new targets for drug designers. them influences the course of COVID-19.

As the pandemic gained momentum in FebOne of those gene candidates encodes a ruary, Franke and his colleagues set up a collabo- protein known to interact with ACE2, the cellular Destin VIP Cleaning LLC looking for ration with doctors in Spain and Italy who were receptor needed by the coronavirus to enter host cells. But another gene nearby encodes a potent Stocking Associates for retail stores. struggling with a rising wave of COVID-19.

The doctors took blood samples from 1,610 immune-signaling molecule. It is possible that Various shift available. patients who needed an oxygen supply or had to this immune gene also triggers an overreaction go on a ventilator. Franke and his colleagues ex- that leads to respiratory failure.

Must speak fluent English tracted DNA from the samples and scanned it usand be able to lift 25-30lbs.

It’s not common for genetic variants to ing a rapid technique called genotyping.

Hourly rate of $11. Bi-weekly pay. emerge out of studies of so few people, said JonaThe researchers did not sequence all 3 bil- than Sebat, a geneticist at the University of CaliContact us at 850-368-2047 or lion genetic letters in the genome of each patient. fornia, San Diego, who was not involved in the annakay@destinvipcleaning.com.

Instead, they looked at 9 million letters. Then the new study.

W

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The San Juan Daily Star LEGAL NOTICE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS MIDDLESEX, ss. DISTRICT COURT DEPARTMENT MALDEN DIVISION.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF VILLAGE GREEN AT MALDEN CONDOMINIUM TRUST, Plaintiffs vs.

ESTATE OF CARLOS M. GUZMAN Defendant and

CARLOS J. GUZMAN, HEIRS, DEVISEES AND PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVES of the ESTATE OF CARLOS M. GUZMAN, CITIZENS BANK OF MASSACHUSETTS, ANTHIUM, LLC, MIDLAND FUNDING LLC and METROPOLITAN CREDIT UNION,

Defendants/Parties-In-Interest CIVIL ACTION NO. 1950CV0824. ORDER OF NOTICE.

To the above-named Defendant/Party-InInterest, Carlos J. Guzman:

Whereas a civil action has been filed against you in our District Court, within and for the county of Middlesex, by

Board of Trustees of Village Green at Malden Condominium Trust

And whereas it appears from the officer’s return on process issued therein that after diligent search he can find no one upon whom he can lawfully make service, and after hearing it is ORDERED by the Court that the following summons issue for service upon you in The San Juan Daily Star for three consecutive weeks: You are hereby summoned and required to serve upon Pamela M. Jonah, Esquire, Plaintiff’s attorney, whose address is 45 Braintree Hill Office Park, Suite 107, Braintree, MA 02184, a copy of your answer to the complaint which is herewith served upon you, within 20 days after service of this summons, exclusive of the day of service. You are also required to file your answer to the complaint in the Office of the Clerk of this Court either before service upon plaintiff’s attorney, or within 5 days thereafter. If you fail to meet the above requirements, judgment by default may be rendered against you for the relief demanded in

@

the complaint. Unless otherwise provided by Rule 13(a), your answer must state as a counterclaim any claim which you may have against the plaintiff which arises out of the transaction or occurrence that is the subject matter of the plaintiff’s claim or you will be barred from making such claim in any other action.

WITNESS Hon. Emily A. Karstetter at Malden the 11th day of March, 2020. ****

LEGAL NOT ICE

Friday, June 5, 2020 del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de Ja publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 3 de junio de 2020. En BAYAMON, Puerto Rico, el 3 de junio de 2020. LCDA. LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretaria. f/MILITZA MERCADO RIVERA, Secretario(a) Auxiliar.

Estado Libre Asociado de LEGAL NOTICE Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENEEstado Libre Asociado de RAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENEPrimera Instancia Sala Superior RAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Municipal de BAYAMON. Primera Instancia Sala Superior FIRSTBANK Municipal de TOA ALTA.

PUERTO RICO Demandante V.

CARMEN LUZ PAGAN CARTAGENA; Y LA SUCESION DE HIPOLITO ANDRADES NIEVES COMPUESTA POR CARMEN LUZ PAGAN CARTAGENA, FULANO DE TAL, SUTANO DE TAL; A, B Y C, COMO MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION

Demandados Civil Núm. BY2019CV05751.

SALA; 595. Sobre: INTERPELACION, COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA POR LA VIA ORDINARIA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO ENMENDADA.

A: FULANO Y SUTANO DE TAL, como posibles herederos desconocidos de la Suçesión de HIPOLITO ANDRADES NIEVES DIRECCION DESCONOCIDA

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 2 de JUNIO de 2020, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en Ja Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro

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FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO Demandante V.

DOMINICK RIVERA

Demandados Civil Núm. DO2019CV00089.

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

A: DOMINICK RIVERA

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 28 de FEBRERO de 2020, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en Ja Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de Ja publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 27 de MAYO de 2020. En TOA ALTA, Puerto Rico, el 27 de MAYO de 2020.

CC: LCDA. CAROLINA MARIA MEJÍA LUGO -PO BOX 194089, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, 00919-4089 LCDA. LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretaria Regional Int. f/LIRIAM M. HERNANDEZ OTERO, Secretario(a) Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Reverse Mortgage Solutions, Inc. DEMANDANTE VS.

Sucesión de Santos Nieves Perez t/c/c Santos Nieves Pérez tic/c Santos Nieves compuesta Por Luis Nieves Flores, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos desconocidos; Sucesión de Gloria Flores Roman t/c/c Gloria Flores compuesta por Luis Nieves Flores, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos de nombres desconocidos, Centro de Recaudación Municipales; y a los Estados Unidos de América.

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: RG2020CV00010.

SALA: 303. SOBRE: Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO E INTERPELACIÓN. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: Luis Nieves Flores, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos desconocidos de la Sucesión de Santos Nieves Perez t/c/c Santos Nieves Pérez t/c/c Santos Nieves y de la Sucesión de Gloria Flores Roman t/c/c Gloria Flores y/o como cualquier otra persona con interés en este caso.

POR LA PRESENTE, se les emplaza y se les notifica que se ha presentado en la Secretaria de este Tribunal la Demanda del caso del epígrafe solicitando la ejecución de hipoteca y el cobro de dinero relacionado al pagaré suscrito a favor de The Money House, Inc., o a su orden, por la suma principal de $180,000.00, más intereses computados sobre la misma desde su fecha hasta su total y completo pago a razón de la tasa de interés de 5.560% anual, la cual será ajustada mensualmente, obligándose además al pago de costas, gastos y desembolsos del litigio, más honorarios de abogados

(787) 743-3346

25 en una suma de $18,000.00 equivalente al 10% de la suma principal original. Este pagaré fue suscrito bajo el afidávit número 6090 ante la notaria público Laura Mia Gonzalez Bonilla.

Lo anterior surge de la hipoteca constituida mediante la escritura número 318 otorgada el 14 de julio de 2010, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, ante la notaria público Laura Mia Gonzalez Bonilla, inscrita al Folio 94 del Tomo 523 de Río Grande, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Tercera de Carolina, finca número 10,554. La hipoteca grava la propiedad que describe que describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbanización Rio Grande Estates, situada en el Barrio Zarzal del término municipal de Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, con el número, área y colindancias que se relacionan a continuación y contiene una casa de concreto reforzado diseñada para una familia, construida de acuerdo con los planos y especificaciones aprobados por la Junta de Planificación de Puerto Rico, y otras agencias gubernamentales. Número del Solar: nueve (9) Bloque “D”. Área del Solar: trescientos treintitres metros cuadrados con setentiún centímetros cuadrados (331.71 m.c.). En lindes: por el NORTE, en arco de doce metros con treinticinco centimetros con los Solares cuarentitres y cuarenticuatro, por el SUR, en arco de quince metros con cuarenticinco centimetros con la Calle numero cinco; por el ESTE, en veinticuatro metros con el Solar numero ocho, y por el OESTE, en veinticuatro metros con el Solar numero diez.

Finca número 10,554, inscrita al folio 163 del tomo 221 de Rio Grande, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección III de Carolina. Vista la interpelación judicial presentada por la parte demandante al amparo del Artículo 959 del Código Civil se ordena a Luis Nieves Flores, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos desconocidos como cualquier miembro aún desconocido de las Sucesiones de Gloria Flores Román t/c/c Gloria Flores y de Santos Nieves Pérez t/c/c Santos Nieves Pérez t/c/c Santos Nieves, que notifiquen si aceptan o repudian la herencia de los causantes dentro del plazo de 30 días contados a partir de la notificación de la presente orden. Se le apercibe que de no comparecer en dicho término a aceptar o repudiar las herencias, las herencias se tendrán por aceptadas. Se aperci-

be y advierte a ustedes como personas desconocidas, que deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.jamajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. De no contestar la demanda radicando el original de la contestación ante la secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, y notificar copia de la contestación de esta a la parte demandante por conducto de su abogada, GLS LEGAL SERVICES, LLC, Atención: Lcda. Charline Michelle Jimenez Echevarría, Dirección: P.O. Box 367308, San Juan, P.R. 00936-7308, Teléfono: 787-758-6550, dentro de los próximos 60 días a partir de la publicación de este emplazamiento por edicto que será publicado una sola vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general en la isla de Puerto Rico, se le anotara la rebeldía y se dictara sentencia, concediendo el remedio solicitando en la Demanda sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal hoy 25 de mayo de 2020. Wanda I Segui Reyes, Sec Regional.

LEGAL NOTICE

SERVICES COMPANY, INC., NORTHSTAR MORTGAGE CORPORATION, SANA INVESTMENT MORTGAGE BANKERS INC., T/C/C SANA MORTGAGE CORPORATION, SUBSIDIARIA DE DORAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION T/C/C DORAL MORTGAGE, LLC., POR CONDUCTO DE SU AGENTE RESIDENTE CT CORPORATION SYSTEM, FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION (FDIC) COMO SINDICO DE DORAL BANK, JIM RIVERA MOJICA, CAROL BESARES MORALES Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS, FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARE

Demandados Civil Núm. HU2020CV00010.

Sobre: CANCELACION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO POR LA VIA JUDICIAL. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO ENMENDADA.

A: NORTHSTAR MORTGAGE CORPORATION a sus últimas direcciones conocidas: UNION PLAZA BANCO POPULAR DE BLDG 416 AVE PONCE PUERTO RICO DE LEON STE 1, SAN Demandante V. JUAN, PR 00918-3432, 416 ASSOCIATES FINANCIAL AVE PONCE DE LEON

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

San Juan

STE 6A, SAN JUAN, PR 00918-3432. 17760 PRESTON RD DALLAS TX 75252-5663. ASSOCIATES FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPANY, INC, FULANO y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARE con direcciones desconocidas P/C LCDA. BELMA ALONSO GARCIA

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 24 de marzo de 2020, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en Ja Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de Ja publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 28 de mayo de 2020. En HUMACAO, Puerto Rico, el 28 de mayo de 2020. DOMINGA GOMEZ FUSTER, Secretaria Regional. f/EVELYN FELIX VAZQUEZ, Secretario(a) Auxiliar.

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26

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

MLB took 9 days to address George Floyd. Was it too late?

By JAMES WAGNER

F

ive days after George Floyd was killed while in custody of the Minneapolis police on May 25, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell released a 150-word statement about the death and ensuing protests. The NHL and NBA followed suit the next day.

But MLB’s first public statement on the matter did not come until 10:29 a.m. on Wednesday — nine days after Floyd’s death. Until then, its only words came from a leaked internal memo from Commissioner Rob Manfred to employees on Monday.

“Our game has zero tolerance for racism and racial injustice,” the statement on Wednesday read. “The reality that the Black community lives in fear or anxiety over racial discrimination, prejudice or violence is unacceptable.

“Addressing this issue requires action both within our sport and society. MLB is committed to engaging our communities to invoke change. We will take the necessary time, effort and collaboration to address symptoms of systemic racism, prejudice and injustice, but will be equally as focused on the root of the problem.”

For some fans and players, the delay in comment from a league that bills itself as a social institution and wraps itself in the legacy of Jackie Robinson did not sit well.

“Took long enough…BLACK LIVES MATTER!,” New York Mets pitcher Marcus Stroman, who is black, wrote on Twitter while sharing MLB’s statement.

Nathan Kalman-Lamb, who teaches about the intersection of sport, labor, race and social inequality at Duke University, said he found sports leagues’ statements to be particularly hollow now considering how they responded — or didn’t — to the peaceful protests by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016.

“If the NFL or Major League Baseball had come out and endorsed that statement, saying they’re going to make meaningful and material changes to support a movement against police violence and policy brutality and murder in society against black people, that would’ve sounded pretty powerful to me,” Kalman-Lamb said.

Instead, Kaepernick faced backlash for his actions, remains unemployed by an NFL team and settled his collusion case with the league last year. In MLB, the league, teams and players were relatively silent on the issue at the time.

Considering the extent of the protests over the past week, Kalman-Lamb said, “it doesn’t

mean that much to me when more than a week later an organization like Major League Baseball sees that almost every other corporation in the country had released a statement like this and followed suit.”

Baseball has long publicly grappled with racism and racial issues. Some of the best players in the sport’s history, like pitcher Satchel Paige and catcher Josh Gibson, had to play in the Negro leagues in the first half of the 20th century because of segregation. In 1947, Robinson integrated MLB and the league has leaned heavily on his legacy, dedicating every April 15, the anniversary of his debut, in his honor. The last MLB team to integrate was the Boston Red Sox in 1959.

The proportion of black players has dwindled from a peak of 19 percent in the 1980s to 8 percent in recent seasons. Sixty percent of players are white, a stark contrast to the NFL and NBA, where black players make up the overwhelming majority.

While players in the NBA and the NFL were demonstrating in 2016, Adam Jones, who is black and was playing for the Baltimore Orioles at the time, called baseball “a white man’s sport.” Only one MLB player, Bruce Maxwell, then a rookie catcher for the Oakland Athletics, knelt during the national anthem before a game. Players often worry about stirring controversy in baseball, a team sport that is filled with tradition and unwritten rules.

Manfred consulted with his staff before sending the two-page memo addressing the unrest to MLB’s 1,400 employees Monday, which the league prioritized before making a public statement. But since the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Floyd, MLB players and team officials of all ethnicities have spoken up about race in a manner unseen in some time in the sport.

“As other people have pointed out, that’s better than nothing,” said Kalman-Lamb, referring to the waves of comments from players.

“If it actually starts a real conversation now and doesn’t stop, that has value.”

Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, who is white, tweeted two days after Floyd’s death, “George Floyd should be breathing right now. We have a lot of progress to make.”

Adam Wainwright, a white pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, wrote on Twitter that he had reached out to his teammate Dexter Fowler, a black outfielder who has received racist attacks on social media in the past, “to tell him that I was sure he didn’t need my affirmation but just wanted him to know he was awesome and making a difference.”

Bruce Maxwell, a former catcher for the Oakland A’s, was the only player to kneel during the national anthem in 2017.

According to Wainwright, Fowler told him that his call was needed. “The silence can be hurtful so I respect the hell out of you for reaching out,” Wainwright said Fowler told him.

“Would really be meaningful if you used your platform too!”

“My white privilege has allowed me to be oblivious to the true magnitude of oppression the black community faces,” New York Yankees pitcher James Paxton, who is white, wrote on his Instagram account. “My silence to this point is also a product of my white privilege. I’m beginning to realize my privilege and ignorance. Time to listen, learn and take action.”

On Monday, Derek Jeter, the former Yankees star and the son of a black father and white mother, was the first MLB owner to release a statement about Floyd, and said protesters should not be demonized.

“I hope that my children and nephews don’t have to live in a society where people are unjustly treated because of the color of their skin,” his team-issued statement said. “I hope that their white friends grow up to recognize that it is not only enough to verbalize their non-racist views, but also to participate at an active level to eradicate racism.”

Statements from MLB teams poured in before the league’s statement. Some were criticized for being vague or boilerplate. The Yankees, for example, one of the most recognizable sports brand in the world, posted a quote from and a photo of former President Nelson Mandela of South Africa in Yankees gear and his Monument Park plaque.

“Black Lives Matter,” the Tampa Bay Rays’ statement read in part. “Police brutality is inhumane. We fully support the protestors exercising their civil rights. We stand with black families living in fear. Our country demands better than this for its people. We can’t breathe.”

The Rays said its committee on diversity and inclusion would soon meet to decide where to direct a $100,000-a-year pledge to support causes fighting “against systemic racism.”

When MLB finally issued its statement on Wednesday morning, some players were less concerned about the timing and more about its contents. “A statement done right ! Thank you, MLB,” Fowler wrote on Twitter.

Some observers pointed out that the statement didn’t mention the words “police brutality.” Others hinted at issues. “Give me a call,” the former major-league outfielder Preston Wilson wrote.

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

27

Drew Brees criticized for calling kneeling during the anthem ‘disrespectful’

By MICHAEL LEVENSON

D

rew Brees, the star quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, faced intense criticism earlier this week after reiterating that he considered it disrespectful for players to kneel during the national anthem in protest of police brutality.

Brees made the comments Wednesday after he was asked in an interview how the NFL should respond if the season were to start and players resumed kneeling during the anthem like Colin Kaepernick did beginning in 2016, when he was the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers.

“I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country,” Brees said in the interview, with Yahoo Finance. He added that when he looked at the flag and stood with his hand over his heart during the anthem, he envisioned his grandfathers, who fought in World War II. “And is everything right with our country right now?” Brees said. “No. It’s not. We still have a long way to go. But I think what you do by standing there and showing respect to the flag with your hand over your heart, is it shows unity. It shows that we are all in this together. We can all do better. And that we are all part of the solution.”

Brees has made similar comments before. In 2016, he criticized Kaepernick for sitting during the anthem, saying it was “disrespectful to the American flag” and “an oxymoron” because the flag gave critics the right to speak out in the first place.

But on Wednesday, Brees’ comments prompted fresh outrage as the nation confronted a wave of protests following the death of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis who died after a white police

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees last year. He was criticized by teammates and others this week for remarks about kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality. officer pinned him by the neck.

In the sports world, Floyd’s death has renewed attention on Kaepernick and his campaign for racial and social justice. The quarterback, who has been without a job in football, reached a settlement with the league last year over his accusation that he had been denied a job because he had knelt during the anthem before games.

Some of those who criticized Brees’ remarks were prominent professional

sports figures, including members of his own team.

LeBron James wrote on Twitter that Brees’ remarks had not come as a surprise to him. He added that Kaepernick’s protest had absolutely “nothing to do with the disrespect of” the nation’s flag and the “soldiers (men and women) who keep our land free.”

Michael Thomas, a wide receiver on the Saints, responded to Brees’ com-

ments on Twitter with a single emoji: a green face that indicated nausea. Emmanuel Sanders, another Saints wide receiver, also expressed dismay, writing on Twitter, “Smh.. Ignorant.”

Several commentators said the remarks were particularly insensitive, coming from a white quarterback in a league in which three-quarters of the players are African American yet almost every owner and top team executive is white.

Brees, a Super Bowl champion who holds a number of NFL records, is also a major star in a city where a majority of residents are black.

“SMH. You represent New Orleans Louisiana. Don’t ever forget that! #Bottomofthemap,” Tyrann Mathieu, a safety for the Kansas City Chiefs, wrote on Twitter.

Josh Hart, who plays in the NBA for the New Orleans Pelicans, said that kneeling during the anthem was “never about disrespecting the armed forces.”

“It’s about police brutality and racial injustices in our country,” he wrote on Twitter. “This country can’t be unified if African Americans are unjustly killed in the street because of the color of their skin.”

Brees later defended his remarks, reiterating why he believed it was important to stand for the anthem.

“I believe we should all stand for the national anthem and respect our country and all those who sacrificed so much for our freedoms,” Brees told ESPN in a text message. “That includes all those who marched for women’s suffrage in the 1920s and all those who marched in the civil rights movements and continue to march for racial equality. All of us ... EVERYONE ... represent that flag. Same way I respect all the citizens of our country ... no matter their race, color, religion.”

28

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

TPG in talks to acquire Goal, the Soccer website, for $125 million

By TARIQ PANJA

D

AZN Group, the sports media company owned by billionaire Len Blavatnik, is in talks to sell Goal.com, the world’s largest online soccer news website, to investment giant TPG for as much as $125 million, according to executives with knowledge of the discussions.

The sale of Goal, which offers content in 19 languages, comes during continuing financial difficulties at DAZN, which has been among the sports media companies worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down sports leagues and competitions worldwide. DAZN (pronounced da-zone) has invested billions of dollars on sports rights for its eponymous online sports streaming business, which has sustained heavy losses in its efforts to grow its subscriber base.

The company last year hired Goldman Sachs to explore fundraising options, including the sale of an equity stake. The Financial Times last month reported that DAZN’s need for cash had grown during the pandemic, leaving it fighting to secure its financial future. In the absence of live sports events, subscribers have withheld payments or declined to renew agreements, while DAZN has taken its own emergency measures, including furloughing hundreds of staff members and suspending rights payments.

TPG, which has investments in a broad range of other media and entertainment companies, including Spotify and the Creative Artists Agency, would be acquiring Goal through one of its affiliates, according to people familiar with the discussions, who declined to be identified because the deal had yet to close.

The talks, the executives said, started late last year as part of DAZN’s plans to focus and grow the cash-intensive streaming business. Under the proposals for the sale, DAZN has committed to continue working with Goal.

Representatives for TPG and DAZN declined to comment.

The disposal of Goal echoes the far larger sale last year of DAZN’s hugely profitable Perform subsidiary to Vista Eq-

uity Partners for a reported $1 billion.

Much of that cash was invested in the sports streaming business as it faced the twin challenges of competing with well funded incumbents for broadcast rights while also investing in expensive streaming technology. Goal was bought in 2007

by Perform Group, its parent company’s name until it became known as DAZN Group in 2018, for 18 million pounds ($22.7 million).

Blavatnik, ranked the 51st richest person in the world by Forbes magazine, has bet big on DAZN, which its boosters describe as the Netflix of sports. According to the group’s most recently published set of accounts, through 2018 the company lost more than a billion pounds ($1.3 billion) in two years. It has since spent far more on acquiring one of the largest sports rights portfolios in the world, from exclusive rights to the top names in boxing to premium soccer properties like Champions League broadcast rights for Germany and Italy’s Serie A. DAZN’s next set of results, for the year through 2019, is expected to be published on Companies House, Britain’s registrar of companies, in September and will most likely show a larger loss as subscriber numbers have not kept pace with investments, according to a person familiar with DAZN’s finances.

News of the potential sale comes as Blavatnik on Wednesday cashed in part of his investment in Warner Music, in the year’s largest initial public offering, for $1.9 billion. Blavatnik, a Briton born in Ukraine, built his fortune in Russia’s oil industry before broadening his interests through investments in a range of media, telecoms and entertainment properties.

DAZN, based in London, has grown rapidly since striking a $2 billion deal for 10 years of Japanese soccer rights in 2016. Its business model is based on providing exclusive live sports content on a market-to-market basis at a lower price than those charged by most cable companies. In the United States, the company has built a reputation as the destination for combat sports, with a particular focus on boxing, with a number of eye-catching deals, notably a $365 million, 11-fight agreement with Mexican star Saúl Álva-

rez, who is known as Canelo.

In Europe, DAZN’s focus has been on soccer, a market that has been notoriously difficult for new entrants to penetrate with legacy media companies spending large sums on rights that are typically available for no more than three years and offsetting their costs by bundling them together with broadband or cellphone offerings, something DAZN is currently unable to do. Its biggest plays so far included buying a portion of domestic soccer league rights in Germany and Italy, and exclusive Champions League rights for some of the markets it currently operates in.

The spending spree has not been limited to programming. It has extended to hiring big-name executives. It named former ESPN Chief Executive John Skipper as its chairman in 2018.

Since then, it has continued to talk about expansion, even as the losses mounted. Before the coronavirus pandemic sent the world into a head-spinning new reality, DAZN announced plans to expand into 200 countries, with a view to giving a wid-

er audience to its expensively assembled boxing properties. That launch, scheduled for last month, has now been delayed indefinitely, with the company, like others in the sector, coming to terms with the repercussions of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In late March, as the full extent of the coronavirus’s immediate impact on the sports industry started to become clear, Simon Denyer, DAZN’s chief executive, wrote an email to his employees, describing the situation as “the biggest disaster to hit the sports world in 75 years and the biggest challenge our business has ever faced.”

DAZN has not been alone among sports broadcasters to have taken drastic action to limit the damage of the pandemic. BeIN Media Group, the world’s biggest buyer of sports rights, and Sky Italia, the company that shares exclusive rights to Italy’s Serie A soccer league with DAZN, are among a number of other companies that have suspended payments to sports organizers since their events have been suspended.

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

Sudoku

29

How to Play:

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

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

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

GAMES

HOROSCOPE Aries

30

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

(Mar 21-April 20)

Are you unusually relaxed? Milk the feeling for all it’s worth. Usually, you move at the streak of light. That’s not the case now, when a personal milestone has prompted you to slow down. Pause to enjoy some sensual pleasures. Money from an inheritance, insurance refund or legal settlement will arrive when you need it most. Planning a future holiday is just what the doctor ordered. You’ll have a wonderful time searching for a bargain to an ancient city by the sea.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

Work gives you a creative outlet. You manage to put a stylistic touch on even the most mundane chores. If your current job has become boring, look for one that excites your imagination. You can earn a great deal of money in the arts. A lucrative job is yours for the asking. A successful company is eager to add a talented person like you to their ranks. If you’re not happy with the salary you are first offered, ask for more money. You have more power than you realise.

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)

Mixing with people who share your artistic sensibilities is refreshing. Although you’ve always been a practical person, you also possess a strong sense of style. You put a distinctive stamp on everything, whether you’re decorating your home, designing a fashion line or composing music.

If you’re looking for love, you’ll find it with someone who admires your talent. Don’t brush off their compliments on your work. Let them sink into your soul. Being with someone who believes in you could be transformative.

Listen to your heart and pursue a career that fills you with excitement. When you do what you love, the money will follow. It doesn’t matter if you must take a low-level position as a means to gain experience. You’ll quickly rise through the ranks. Be open to learning every aspect of the industry.

Knowing how to perform everyone’s job will make you a valuable asset to a successful company. Not only will they appreciate your versatility, your employer will also reward your curiosity with paid training.

Going on a spiritual pilgrimage will be lots of fun. There’s nothing wrong with having a good time while seeking a profound experience. Although you can’t go just yet, book a trip now, while you’re feeling adventurous and happy. Your upbeat attitude will pave the way for a joyous adventure.

Spending safely distanced, quality time with a youngster will be rewarding. You’re amused by their questions and moved by their profound insights.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

A passionate romantic encounter makes you feel like you’re walking on air. It feels so good to be with a partner who intuits your sensual desires. Are you single? You could meet someone special at a religious, cultural or artistic gathering. Deep feeling about family will cause you to make an important change. It doesn’t matter if you quit a bad habit, consider moving to a new place or forgive someone for a past transgression. You’re ready to move to higher ground.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

A close partnership improves your self-worth. It’s good for your ego to be respected and adored. Take this opportunity to pursue a creative opportunity that used to intimidate you.

Apply for an artist’s residency when a gallery re-opens, pursue a grant or ask for a scholarship. Complimentary feedback on your work will fuel your ambition. You’re no longer willing to play second banana to someone who is less capable.

Go for the top position, even if it means facing stiff competition. You’re much more accomplished than you realise.

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Your personal charisma is always strong, but it’s especially powerful now. Use it to lure someone into your web of intrigue. If you’re already in a relationship, ask your amour for a gift, favour or in time to come, a holiday.

They’ll find it impossible to resist your charm. Have you been thinking of adopting a new look? It’s a good time to radically rethink your image or revamp your wardrobe.

Altering your image will cause people to treat you differently. You’ll find the change refreshing.

Spending time with family is reassuring. It’s nice to know there are people in your life who support you unconditionally. If you’ve been thinking of relocating, discuss your options with the group. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the feedback you get. Taking a solo break away from daily routine could be on the cards. Even a social butterfly like you can benefit from time alone. Take a day trip to somewhere that gives you a chance to think. It doesn’t necessarily mean travelling. It could be your local park or even the spare bedroom.

Your imagination is running wild. Put mundane chores on the back burner and develop an artistic project instead. Painting, writing or playing music will bring you great joy. The more you practice, the better you’ll get. Exercising your creativity will also enhance your charisma. You’ll be invited to an exclusive party. You should go, even if you feel tired at the end of the day.

The moment you walk through the door, you’ll be surrounded by a bevy of admirers.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

Don’t be dismayed by other people’s wealth. You’re capable of cultivating the same abundance. The key is to celebrate every time you see manifestations of money, regardless of who gets rich. When you associate cash with happiness, it will flow into your own life. An exciting career opportunity will become available. Apply for this job as soon as possible. Your combination of organisation and artistry will make a great impression. Don’t be surprised if you’re given a handsome offer within a few days.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

You’re making important progress with your spiritual life.

The more you connect with your higher power, the happier you are. It’s nice to have wealth and romance, but your biggest priority is to pour energy into activities that make life meaningful. A friend will recommend a book, movie or album that has had great personal meaning. Follow up on their advice. This material will delight you. There’s a chance you’ll be inspired to take an overseas trip when the opportunity arises, to learn more about the artist’s birthplace.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

June 5-7, 2020

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

The San Juan Daily Star

Ziggy

32

The San Juan Daily Star

June 5-7, 2020

Especiales y ahorros que llenan tu carrito AQUÍ TODO ES A TU GUSTO Síguenos en

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Arroz Rico

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