Thursday May 4, 2023

GOOD MORNING May 4, 2023

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.

Study of free market principles finds widespread belief that favoritism rules in PR

But nearly all respondents value individual merit as a priority in professional advancement

By THE STAR STAFF

The Institute of Economic Liberty (ILE) has published the results of an investigation of knowledge of free market principles and affinity with them in Puerto Rico.

The report, called “The Free Market in Puerto Rico 2022,” found that participants broadly support the free-market system. For example, 99.6% of respondents said they should be free to make decisions in pursuit of their well being, and 97% believe they should be able to earn a living honestly in whatever they wish, without obstacles from the government.

INDEX

Those who answered the questionnaire believe in individual responsibility and self-effort to satisfy desires and achieve personal aspirations.

“From the perspective of a change from the welfare model to one of economic mobility in Puerto Rico, it is significant that 98% of those surveyed say they are capable of and responsible for achieving their goals and 93% affirmed they prefer to make a living by working,” Carrión Tavárez said.

One striking result is that 61% of the respondents strongly agreed or agreed with the Spanish saying “It is not what you know but who you know,” which in Spanish is “El que no tiene padrino, no se bautiza.” The result suggests that although respondents generally prioritize individual merit to move ahead professionally, they perceive that in Puerto Rico, people’s actions are limited by a culture of favoritism.

The study covered the four main pillars of the free market: “Individual liberty,” “Rule of law,” “Private property rights,” and “Limited government,” and topics such as “current situation of Puerto Rico,” “social welfare,” and “meritocracy,” among others.

In assessing their economic status, 88% of the participants responded that Puerto Rico’s financial situation is bad or very bad. Moreover, 92% believe that the direction of the island’s economy is bad or very bad. Those results indicate that most people in the sample negatively perceive the local economy, although about half of them do not feel personally at risk.

Ángel Carrión Tavárez, the director of research and public policy at ILE, Dr. Luz N. Fernández López, a researcher at ILE, and Dr. Juan Lara, an economist and professor at the University of Puerto Rico, prepared the report made public Wednesday.

Carrión Tavárez and Fernández López designed the study and the construction and administration of the questionnaire, which consisted of sociodemographic data of the participants and 25 multiple-choice questions or statements.

Most respondents said social welfare programs are ineffective and require modification. More than 80% of the sample disagrees with the idea that such programs are designed to lift people out of poverty, and three-quarters of respondents said the programs only meet the basic needs of people while they are poor. In addition, twothirds disagree with the idea that social welfare programs allow people to stand on their own two feet and start over.

About 81% of respondents said the free market contributes to more employment, less poverty, and a better quality of life; however, 58% answered that the government has the most significant weight in the economy of Puerto Rico at present.

“This important result reveals that the sample perceives a lack of alignment between the value aspirations and the prevailing reality, regarding economic liberty and the free market,” Carrión Tavárez said.

A key takeaway from the report is that although respondents generally prioritize individual merit to move ahead professionally, they perceive that in Puerto Rico people’s actions are limited by a culture of favoritism.

FBI sends device found in LUMA office to Virginia for analysis

By THE STAR STAFF

Joseph González, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Juan Office, said Wednesday that investigators had not yet confirmed if a device found in the commercial office of LUMA Energy is a bomb.

“We have taken custody of the device and we will send it to our laboratory for analysis and determine if it was a bomb or not,” González said in a radio interview.

“A bomb has four or five components to classify it as such,” he added. “The full analysis is done in our lab in Virginia.”

González said the priority is to find the author or authors responsible for placing the device in the commercial office of LUMA Energy in Guayama. Asked if the device could qualify as a bomb, he replied: “I don’t feel comfortable saying it’s a bomb until the final exam is done.” He added that the device “does not seem to be very complex.”

The results of the lab analysis of the device had not been disclosed as of press time Wednesday.

On Monday, authorities reported the discovery of the device in Guayama, where local authorities had referred to it as a bomb.

Feds vow to double down on Medicare fraud detection & deterrence

By THE STAR STAFF

Federal authorities on the island announced Wednesday that they are redoubling efforts and focus to investigate, detect and deter Medicare fraud.

According to estimates from the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, Medicare fraud costs taxpayers over $100 billion a year in a wide range of fraud schemes that involve beneficiaries, health care providers, and organizations operating Medicare Advantage (Medicare Part C) plans. All Medicare beneficiaries in Puerto Rico, as well as the doctors and other healthcare providers who serve those beneficiaries, deserve an affordable, effective, efficient, and transparent health care system, the officials -- United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico W. Stephen Muldrow, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s San Juan Office Joseph González, and Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) José Luis Soto -- said in a written statement.

In October of last year, seven individuals were arrested for

fraud related to Social Security and Medicare in Puerto Rico that surpassed $1 million.

“Typical fraud schemes committed in the health care area include cases where healthcare providers bill for services not actually provided or lie about and inflate the nature of the actual services rendered (known as “upcoding”),” Muldrow said. “However, together with our law enforcement partners, our investigative and prosecutorial focus will continue to look at any fraudulent activities occurring within organizations managing Medicare Advantage programs, including payments of illegal incentives and the submission of false information related to patient risk assessments.”

González noted that “[h]ealthcare is a basic need and improper use of healthcare systems can turn this basic necessity into a luxury.”

“The FBI will not stand by while this type of abuse is taking place,” he said. “We ask that anyone who believes they have been a victim or witness to a healthcare fraud scheme to report it by calling the FBI San Juan number 787-987-6500 or leave a tip online through tips.FBI.gov.”

According to estimates from the National Health Care AntiFraud Association, Medicare fraud costs taxpayers over $100 billion a year in a wide range of fraud schemes that involve beneficiaries, health care providers, and organizations operating Medicare Advantage (Medicare Part C) plans.

Soto, the HHS-OIG ASAC in Puerto Rico, added that “HHSOIG will continue to investigate any conduct by Medicare Advantage plans that may result in violation of federal law and will work jointly with our law enforcement partners to ensure that entities that execute business with federal health care programs do so in an honest manner.”

Labor report shows net increase in private sector jobs, workplaces in 3Q22

By THE STAR STAFF

Labor and Human Resources (DTRH by its Spanish initials)

Secretary Gabriel Maldonado González announced on Wednesday the publication of the Business Employment Dynamics (BED) report for the third quarter (3Q) of 2022, which reflects a net increase in jobs and establishments in the private sector in that period.

During 3Q 2022, the BED recorded a net increase of 7,855 jobs in the private sector. In addition, 304 additional net establishments were registered.

Maldonado González noted that “the BED is another tool that our agency and the [federal] Bureau of Labor Statistics

[BLS] … have to measure and evaluate the behavior of the labor market.”

“In our economic system, it is normal for some employers to show an increase in their employment levels, while others experience a reduction in their workforce. Meanwhile, the creation of new establishments or the closure of any of them also has an impact on the total number of jobs in a particular quarter,” he said. “When analyzing the data, we note that, as reflected in the other reports published by the DTRH, the BED demonstrates a positive trend in the private sector …”

According to the report, during the reference period, 46,034 jobs were created, of which 38,442 correspond to expansions of establishments and 7,592 to new establishments.

On the other hand, there was a loss of 38,179 jobs, of which 33,134 correspond to contractions of establishments and 5,045 to closures of establishments. The dynamic recorded in employment, the DTRH secretary said, is explained by the changes observed in the number of establishments since during the third quarter of 2022, some 1,420 establishments entered into operation, while 9,255 existing companies expanded their operations. An estimated 1,116 establishments closed and 8,516 reduced operations.

BED reports are based on the BLS Quarterly Census of Jobs and Wages, and include data related to private employers who pay unemployment insurance and present net changes in terms of jobs and establishments in Puerto Rico by quarter.

Asked if a device found at a LUMA Energy commercial office could qualify as a bomb, Joseph González, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Juan Office, said “I don’t feel comfortable saying it’s a bomb until the final exam is done,” adding that the device “does not seem to be very complex.”

$6 million in FEMA funds to revive Maricao fish hatchery

By THE STAR STAFF

The Fish Hatchery in Maricao will have a new opportunity to continue cultivating fish species that sustain the population of aquatic life in Puerto Rico’s reservoirs.

The hatchery facilities, which are part of the National Register of Historic Places, will be repaired with over $6 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The hatchery is considered one of the southwestern municipality’s main attractions due to the large number of species that are raised and then relocated to the island’s mountain rivers. Its annual production of largemouth bass ranged from 50,000 to 200,000 fish per year.

The funds allocated to the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) will address some of the damage that has kept the hatchery closed to the public since Hurricane Maria. The gazebos, dike walls and the main drainage channel will be replaced, including the cleaning and unclogging of drainage pipes.

“This is the only state government facility dedicated to the maintenance and preservation of diverse fish in all of Puerto Rico,” federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator José G. Baquero said. “This is why FEMA supports the renovation of the hatchery, which fosters scientific research related to aquaculture and in turn has an economic impact

The Fish Hatchery in Maricao is considered one of the southwestern municipality’s main attractions due to the large number of species that are raised and then relocated to bodies of fresh water throughout the island.

on the municipality.”

Biologist María Olmeda, who leads the hatchery project for the DNER, noted that before Hurricane Maria, fish “farming” was done in almost all of the island’s reservoirs.

“The hatchery has been instrumental in the development of Puerto Rico’s freshwater fisheries,” she said. “More than collaborating in the introduction of fish, it has been key in sustaining and maintaining healthy fish populations that are already established.”

Olmeda added that prior to Hurricane Maria, the Maricao hatchery was considered one of the best and most modern in the Caribbean, and its historic production of fish was transferred to the various reservoirs on the island. In addition, the group working at the hatchery was able to produce pure Florida largemouth bass, which are more resistant to the island’s temperatures and live longer.

Maricao Mayor Wilfredo Ruiz said the aquatic nursery has been an icon of the municipality, particularly between the 1980s and early 2000s.

“The Fish Hatchery was the main attraction for tourism in Maricao,” he said. “As people came to see it, it moved the economy by boosting the patronage of businesses and restaurants in the area. There were many businesses that closed because of the lack of activity due to the closure of the fish hatchery.”

The mayor added that with the funds allocated from FEMA, the nursery will benefit sport fishing while it will also serve as a space for collaboration on research projects for science fairs organized by colleges and universities in Puerto Rico and abroad.

Vieques Sun Bay resort to be turned over to municipality July 1

By THE STAR STAFF

The New Progressive Party minority leader in the island House of Representatives, Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Nuñez, met with Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) Secretary Anaís Rodríguez Vega and Vieques Mayor José “Junito” Corcino to outline the final details of the transfer of the Sun Bay resort to the municipal administration.

“After completing all the procedures, the Municipality

is ready to receive the transfer of the administration of the Sun Bay resort in Vieques,” said Méndez Nuñez, who represents House District 36 (RÍo Grande, Luquillo, Fajardo, Ceiba, Vieques and Culebra). “After holding a meeting with the DNER secretary, we can report that the transfer of the administration of Sun Bay will be officially finalized on July 1.”

The transfer of the administration of the spa was announced last November. The municipality will manage the facility for a period of 15 years.

According to the management agreements, the municipality will be in charge of all administrative operations, including the maintenance of the spa. It will also have jurisdiction over the parking area, campgrounds and any other facilities located on the premises.

“The full development of Vieques has been one of our priorities and that is why we always evaluate alternatives that promote that goal. We believe that the current municipal administration of Vieques can implement a plan to promote many social and economic projects -- such as microenterprises in the area of the Sun Bay resort, one of the most precious attractions on all the coasts of Puerto Rico, which is a reason for attracting local and international tourism,” the former House

speaker said.

Corcino stressed that the offshore island municipality will recruit two duly certified lifeguards ‘to provide surveillance in the spa area.”

“We are evaluating the feasibility of acquiring two beach chairs, those vehicles with yellow tires, which are used to take people with special needs to the sea in order to provide more opportunities for our residents and visitors to enjoy the beauties of the Sun Bay resort,” the mayor said, adding that he will keep the DNER offices at the spa open.

According to the management agreements, as of July 1 the Municipality of Vieques will be in charge of all administrative operations at the Sun Bay resort, including the maintenance of the spa. It will also have jurisdiction over the parking area, campgrounds and any other facilities located on the premises.

Puerto Rico takes home awards in global robotics contest

By THE STAR STAFF

The Puerto Rican delegation to the VEX Robotics World Championship 2023 returned from Dallas, Texas, with five awards in various events, including one of the most prestigious, said Kelianet Roque, project director of the nonprofit Caribbean Robotics Academy (CRA), and official coordinator at the local level.

“We are extremely proud and happy for them, since they had an outstanding participation that was recognized even by the leaders of REC Foundation, the organizing entity of this competition,” Roque said.

“These awards are a sample of the talent, skill and dedication of our Puerto Rican students in robotics. Congratulations to our students for their great achievement!” CRA Executive Director Pedro Alvarado said.

Students from Hogar Colegio La Milagrosa in Arecibo won the Innovate Award, which is considered one of the most prestigious awards in the competition. The Adianez School team won the Create Award and the KHU Inventors team, composed of homeschooling students and public school students, won the Judges Award. Students from the CIMATEC school, who managed to qualify for the world championship after winning the Online Challenge, re-

ceived their trophy during the event and also received the Energy Award for their enthusiasm throughout the week.

“The Innovate Award is given to teams that demonstrate innovative design and strategy in competition,” Alvarado said. “This award is a sign of the commitment of our students to seeking creative and effective solutions

to the challenges of the competition.”

He added that the Judges Award recognizes teams that impress judges with their creativity and exceptional teamwork.

“This award is a great testament to the dedication and teamwork of our robotics students,” Alvarado said.

The Create Award is given to teams that demonstrate excellence in the design and construction of their robot, by recognizing the effort and technical skill of students in creating a high-performance robot.

“The Energy Award highlights the passion and dedication our students have for robotics and their willingness to overcome challenges with enthusiasm and energy because it recognizes the teams that show great energy, enthusiasm and commitment during the competition,” Alvarado said.

The Puerto Rico delegation to the VEX Robotics World Championship 2023 was composed of 41 students from the intermediate, high school and university levels, some with up to six years of experience in robotics competition. It also included students from Colegio San José de San Juan, the Municipal Robotics Club of Salinas (2 teams), the Mayagüez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico and Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico.

US transition to new benchmark for setting interest rates could impact some debt transactions already approved by fiscal board

By THE STAR STAFF

The transition on June 30 from the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate, known as Libor, to the Secure Overnight Financing Rate, or SOFR, for loans and credit products could impact some of the debt transactions already approved by the Financial Oversight and Management Board.

For more than 40 years, the Libor was a key benchmark for setting the interest rates charged on adjustable-rate loans, mortgages and corporate debt. Libor provided loan issuers with a benchmark for setting interest rates on different financial products each day by collecting estimates from up to 18 global banks on the interest rates they would charge for different loan maturities, given their outlook on local economic conditions. Libor was calculated in five currencies: the UK pound sterling, Swiss franc, euro, Japanese yen and U.S. dollar.

However, Libor is being phased out in large measure because of the role it played in worsening the 2008 financial crisis, as well as scandals involving Libor manipulation among the rate-setting banks.

SOFR will replace Libor in the United States. SOFR uses a benchmark based on the rates U.S. financial institutions pay each other for overnight loans.

Those transactions take the form of Treasury bond repurchase agreements, otherwise known as repos agreements. They allow banks to meet liquidity and reserve

requirements, using so-called Treasurys as collateral. SOFR comprises the weighted averages of the rates charged in repo transactions.

However, the change will have an impact on some of the debt transactions in the event the banks involved decide to change the interest rate, according to a review from the oversight board.

In response to inquiries from Omar Marrero Díaz, executive director the Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority, the oversight board found that the transition will impact some debt transactions already approved.

Robert Mujica, the oversight board’s executive director, replied in writing Tuesday that the oversight board expects three different interest rate transition scenarios, depending on the contractual provisions governing the transaction.

Those scenarios are transactions that will automatically transition from Libor to SOFR by operation of law, transactions where a fallback interest rate is provided in the transaction’s legal documentation and will be applicable prospectively, and transactions where the financial institution involved in the transaction is willing to offer an interest rate lower than the fallback interest rate notwithstanding the transaction’s legal documentation.

It is the oversight board’s position that the first two scenarios previously stated do not constitute a modification of the debt transaction.

“The third scenario, however, would constitute a modification of the debt transaction, given that the financial

institution involved in the transaction would be voluntarily offering a new interest rate not dictated by either statute or previously agreed terms or conditions,” Mujica wrote. “Therefore, such change to the transaction’s terms or conditions shall be deemed a modification of the debt transaction.”

As such, the oversight board said documentation related to transactions falling into the third scenario stated above must be submitted to the oversight board for review.

Students from Hogar Colegio La Milagrosa in Arecibo won the Innovate Award, which is considered one of the most prestigious awards in the competition.

Robert Mujica, executive director of the Financial Oversight and Management Board

House Democrats move to force debt-limit increase as default date looms

By CARL HULSE

The only clue to the gambit was in the title of the otherwise obscure hodgepodge of a bill: “The Breaking the Gridlock Act.”

But the 45-page legislation, introduced without fanfare in January by a littleknown Democrat, Rep. Mark DeSaulnier of California, is part of a confidential, previously unreported, strategy that Democrats have been plotting for months to quietly smooth the way for action by Congress to avert a devastating federal default if debt ceiling talks remain deadlocked.

With a possible default now projected as soon as June 1, Democrats earlier this week began taking steps to deploy the secret weapon they have been holding in reserve. They started the process of trying to force a debt-limit increase bill to the floor through a so-called discharge petition that could bypass Republican leaders who have refused to raise the ceiling unless President Joe Biden agrees to spending cuts and policy changes.

“House Democrats are working to make sure we have all options at our disposal to avoid a default,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the minority leader, wrote in a letter he sent to colleagues Tuesday. “The filing of a debt ceiling measure to be brought up on the discharge calendar preserves an important option. It is now time for MAGA Republicans to act in a bipartisan manner to pay America’s bills without extreme conditions.”

An emergency rule that Democrats introduced Tuesday, during a pro forma session held while the House is in recess, would start the clock on a process that would allow them to begin collecting signatures as soon as May 16 on such a petition, which can force action on a bill if a majority of members sign on. The open-ended rule would provide a vehicle to bring DeSaulnier’s bill to the floor and amend it with a Democratic proposal — which has yet to be written — to resolve the debt-limit crisis.

The strategy is no silver bullet, and Democrats concede it is a long shot. Gathering enough signatures to force a bill to the floor would take at least five Republicans willing

to cross party lines if all Democrats signed on, a threshold that Democrats concede will be difficult to reach. They have yet to settle on the debt ceiling proposal itself, and for the strategy to succeed, Democrats would likely need to negotiate with a handful of mainstream Republicans to settle on a measure they could accept.

A handful of hard-right Republicans explicitly warned their colleagues on Tuesday not to go down that path. “House Republicans: don’t defect!” Sen. Mike Lee of Utah wrote on Twitter.

Still, Democrats argue that the prospect of a successful effort could force House Republicans into a more acceptable deal. And Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s announcement Monday that a potential default was only weeks away spurred Democratic leaders to act.

House Democratic leaders have for months played down the possibility of initiating a discharge petition as a way out of the stalemate. They are hesitant to budge from the party position, which Biden has articulated repeatedly, that Republicans should agree to raise the debt limit with no conditions or concessions on spending cuts.

But behind the scenes, they were simultaneously taking steps to make sure a vehicle was available if needed.

There were no signs Tuesday of any momentum toward even a temporary resolution. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, brushed aside the idea of putting off a confrontation by passing a short-term debt limit increase, telling reporters: “We should not kick the can down the road.”

And Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the minority leader, reiterated that he intended to leave the negotiations to Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy, again dashing the private hopes of some Democrats that the veteran Republican would ultimately cut a deal with them to allow the debt ceiling to be lifted, as he has done in the past.

“There is no solution in the Senate,” McConnell said.

The White House had no public comment on the discharge effort, according to Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary. Biden is scheduled next week to host McCarthy and other congressional leaders at the White House to discuss raising the debt limit. His goal at that meeting, a senior administration official said, will be to stress the importance of averting default and creating a separate negotiation to address other budget issues.

The discharge petition process can be time-consuming and complicated, so House Democrats who devised the strate-

gy started early and carefully crafted their legislative vehicle. Insiders privately refer to the measure as a “Swiss Army knife” bill — one that was intended to be referred to every single House committee in order to keep open as many opportunities as possible for forcing it to the floor.

It would create a task force to help grandparents raising grandchildren, create a federal strategy for reducing earthquake risks, change the name of a law that governs stock trading by members of Congress, extend small business loans, protect veterans from the IRS, authorize a new Pentagon grant program to protect nonprofit organizations against terrorist attacks and more. The legislation was so broad and eclectic that it was referred to 20 committees, where it has sat idle for months. That was the point.

DeSaulnier’s intent was never to pass the elements of the bill, although he favors them all. It was to create what is known on Capitol Hill as a shell of a bill that would ultimately serve as the basis for a discharge petition — and a way out of the debt-limit standoff.

Democrats say the beauty of DeSaulnier’s bill — which Republicans have ignored — is that it long ago passed the threshold of being held in committee for at least 30 days, the minimum length of time to initiate a discharge petition to force action on legislation. Even so, in a memo sent to members on Tuesday, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce analysis projected that even if Democrats were able to draw enough support for their plan and advance it without further delay, the measure could take until June 12 or 13 to clear Congress — many days beyond the earliest date Yellen has warned the debt limit could be reached. Democrats said the fact that their bill would fall under the jurisdiction of so many committees gave them several options for moving forward.

DeSaulnier was picked to sponsor the measure because his low profile meant there was likely to be little attention to his bill. In contrast, any legislation introduced by Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Rules Committee, would have drawn attention immediately, and Republicans might have been able to take action to derail it.

Representative Mark DeSaulnier, Democrat of California, at a hearing in 2019. He introduced the 45-page legislation without fanfare in January.

US history scores are falling, but it’s not just because of the pandemic

that was amplified during the pandemic, when schools had to triage academic losses, resulting in more of a focus on reading and math.

“It doesn’t bode well for the future of this country and for the future of democracy if we don’t start doing more instruction in social studies,” said Kristin Dutcher Mann, a history professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, who helps train middle and high school social studies teachers. At one point, she said, older elementary school students in her community received an hour of social studies each day. Now, she said, “they will be lucky if they get 30 minutes for social studies twice a week.”

(The National Council for the Social Studies recommends a minimum of 45 minutes of daily instruction in elementary school and a similar equivalent in middle and high school.)

Instruction has changed, too.

By SARAH MERVOSH

National test scores released on Wednesday showed a marked drop in students’ knowledge of U.S. history and a modest decline in civics, a sign of the pandemic’s alarming reach, damaging student performance in nearly every academic area.

The pandemic plunge in U.S. history accelerated a downward trend that began nearly a decade ago, hitting this recent low at a time when the subject itself has become increasingly politically divisive.

A growing number of students are falling below even the basic standards set out on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a rigorous national exam administered by the Department of Education. About 40% of eighth graders scored “below basic” in U.S. history last year, compared with 34% in 2018 and 29% in 2014.

Just 13% of eighth graders were considered proficient — demonstrating competency over challenging subject matter — down from 18% nearly a decade ago.

Questions ranged from the simple — knowing that factory conditions in the 1800s were dangerous, with long days and low pay — to the complex. For example, only 6% of students could explain in their own words how two ideas from the Constitution were reflected in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

The dip in civics performance was smaller but notable: It was the first decline since the test began being administered in the late 1990s. About 22% of students were proficient, down from 24% in 2018.

President Joe Biden’s education secretary, Miguel Cardona, seized on the results, admonishing politicians

for trying to limit instruction in history, often on topics of race, a trend that has played out in dozens of states, typically Republican-controlled.

“Now is not the time,” he said, adding that “banning history books and censoring educators from teaching these important subjects does our students a disservice and will move America in the wrong direction.”

The results, from a national sample of about 8,000 eighth graders in each subject, track with scores in math and reading, which also decreased during the pandemic. Across subjects, declines were often driven by the lowestperforming students, a trend that has federal officials so concerned that they are now considering rewriting test questions to zero in on what these students are missing.

In history, it’s possible that reduced reading comprehension played some role in student performance.

But experts also pointed to a continuing de-emphasis on social studies instruction.

Since the implementation of No Child Left Behind in the early 2000s and its update during the Obama administration, federal policy has required states to test students in reading and math. Periodic testing is also required for science.

No such mandate exists for social studies. (Many state policies around testing and accountability also do not include social studies.)

While some experts have criticized standardized tests as limited in effectiveness and detrimental to students, most generally agree: What is tested drives what is taught.

Instructional time for social studies declined after the implementation of No Child Left Behind, a pattern

Students spend far less time memorizing state capitals or the preamble to the Constitution — information they could easily Google — and instead focus more on key skills, like distinguishing between primary and secondary source documents. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, Dr. Dutcher Mann said. Students need to be taught to think critically.

But she said that emphasis can contribute to a troubling lack of background knowledge. Even in her college classes, she said, she has noticed a “rapid and very significant decline” in what students know about history and geography — like the fact that Africa is a continent, not a country.

A base knowledge in history and civics is critical for students to become engaged, informed citizens, particularly amid misinformation on social media platforms, said Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of Tufts University’s CIRCLE center, an organization focused on youth civic engagement.

She cited a recent TikTok campaign against an Alaska oil project, which resulted in a misguided petition urging Biden not to sell Alaska.

“You need some basics to understand what’s even verifiable: ‘Does it even jibe loosely with what I learned?’” she said, noting that the president does not have executive power to sell a state.

With American trust in institutions falling to new lows, but with young voter turnout and political engagement up, many see this as a pivotal moment for reemphasizing history and civics education.

Sheila Edwards, a middle school history teacher in Los Angeles County, said after recent school shootings, students had inundated her with detailed questions about the Second Amendment. On the day of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, she had to come up with a new homework assignment to address her students’ interest in the news.

“Kids seem to be more interested in history and civics than ever before,” she said.

The dip in civics performance was the first decline since the test began being administered in the late 1990s.

Man accused of killing 5 in Texas is arrested

By J. DAVID GOODMAN

After a search that stretched to the Mexican border, heavily armed Texas and federal officers earlier this week arrested the man who they believe fatally shot five people in a neighborhood dispute outside the town of Cleveland, Texas, officials said.

The suspect, Francisco Oropesa, was “caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry” in a home a few miles from the site of the Friday shooting in San Jacinto County, said Greg Capers, the county sheriff.

Oropesa, 38, an immigrant from Mexico who had been deported four times, was charged with five counts of murder and was being held on $5 million bond, Capers said. Oropesa was being transferred back to a San Jacinto County jail on Tuesday night.

Capers declined to say who owned the home near the town of Cut and Shoot, Texas, where Oropesa was found but said that he had not resisted arrest. Property records indicated that the home belonged to one of his relatives.

“Somebody got a tip,” Capers said at a Tuesday night news conference. Then tactical officers from several agencies “meandered over there and found that tip to be true.”

Officials said that those connected to the home, in Montgomery County, were being questioned but that no one else had been taken into custody as of Tuesday evening.

For four days, state and federal law enforcement officials had been searching for Oropesa in the thick woods around his home outside Cleveland, in neighboring counties and as far south as the border with Mexico, where, officials believed, he might

be trying to flee.

But in the end, officers found Oropesa, whose face stared out from large Spanishlanguage posters around San Jacinto County — about an hour’s drive north of downtown Houston.

Jimmy Paul, an assistant special agent in charge with the FBI, said that the tip that had led to the arrest came in at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday; Oropesa was arrested shortly after, at 6:30 p.m. Paul did not elaborate on the nature of the tip or who had left it. Officials had offered rewards totaling $80,000 for information leading to Oropesa’s arrest.

Officials said he had been taken into custody without incident by a team that included officers from the U.S. Marshals Service, the Texas Department of Public Safety and a tactical unit from the Border Patrol.

The killings occurred late Friday. Officials said Oropesa had been firing a gun that night in his front yard outside Cleveland, on a plot of land smaller than an acre in a row of similarly sized properties along a rutted dirt road. His immediate neighbors, a family from Honduras, complained about the noise, to both Oropesa and police via 911, shortly after 11:30 p.m.

Officers did not immediately go to the area, where residents have long complained of dangerously wanton gunfire. Soon after the complaints, officials said, Oropesa could be seen on a doorbell video entering his neighbor Wilson Garcia’s home, armed with an AR-15-style rifle.

Five people were fatally shot inside the home, according to the FBI: Garcia’s wife, Sonia Guzman, 25; his son, Daniel Enrique Laso, 9; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Juliza Molina Rivera, 31; and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.

Officials declined to answer questions on Tuesday about the speed of the response to the killings.

The top official in San Jacinto County, Fritz Faulkner, said in a telephone interview that he had been alerted to the arrest shortly after it happened. The killings had shocked the community, he said, and the county was now, after several days, finally able to rest easy.

“I’m just elated,” Faulkner said.

Law enforcement officials said Francisco Oropesa was caught hiding in a closet just a few miles from the site of the shooting.

After pandemic rebound, US manufacturing droops

By LYDIA DePILLIS

The pandemic had a bright silver lining for Elkhart, Indiana.

The city, renowned as the capital of recreational vehicle production, had a surge in demand as cooped-up families took to the highways and avoided hotels. The cluster of manufacturers enjoyed record profits, and workers benefited as well: The metropolitan area’s unemployment rate sank to 1% in late 2021, and average weekly wages jumped 35% from their level in early 2020.

That frenzy, however, has turned to a chill. Dealers who stocked up on as many trailers and vans as they could have been discounting them to clear their lots — and new orders have dried up. The area has lost nearly 7,000 manufacturing jobs over the past year, and unemployment is now above the national average. Thor Industries, which owns a wide portfolio of RV brands, saw its sales tumble 39.4% from the quarter a year ago.

“In 2022, manufacturers overproduced, and you’re seeing some of the impact of that from the staffing standpoint,” said Chris Stager, chief executive of the Economic Development Corporation of Elkhart County. He foresees new projects propelled by recent federal energy and infrastructure legislation, but rising interest rates are taking a toll in the meantime.

“It’s not bad, but it’s not what it was,” Stager said.

That’s manufacturing in America in 2023.

Factory construction is proceeding more rapidly than at any time in recent memory, heralding what may be a resurgence

in domestic production powered by a move away from long, fragile supply chains and by the infusion of billions of dollars in public investment.

At the same time, after an extraordinary boom fed by cooped-up consumers, manufacturing is suffering something of a hangover as retailers burn through bloated inventories. Inflation-fighting efforts by the Federal Reserve, which is expected to announce another interest-rate increase on Wednesday, have squelched big-ticket purchases. New orders have been declining since last summer, and a widely followed index of purchasing activity has been downbeat for six months.

Manufacturing employment bounced back quickly after the pandemic — which is unusual for recessions — but has contracted for two months. While layoffs in the industry remain low, job openings and hires have sunk from recent highs.

“It’s not one of these really concerning plunges, where we’re shedding a bunch of manufacturing jobs, but it seems kind of stalled,” said Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. “And I think the longer that lasts, the harder it’s going to be to rev things up.”

A bigger question for the American economy is whether this heralds a broader downturn, since cooling demand for goods usually signifies that consumers are feeling financially strained. “Manufacturing is always at the forefront of the recession,” notes Barbara Denham, a senior economist at Oxford Economics.

To understand the current slump, it’s important to dissect the manufacturing moment from which America is emerging.

For example: Those new manufacturing jobs weren’t all for people making steel coils and oak cabinets. The production of consumable items — including food, beverages, and pharmaceuticals — represented an outsize portion of the job growth from 2020 through 2022. But it tends to pay less well, requires less training and has fewer unions than heavy manufacturing in airplanes and automobiles. And it can disappear more quickly as demand returns to normal.

The pandemic-era manufacturing boom also didn’t happen equally in all places. States like Nevada, Arizona, Florida and Texas surged far above their pre-pandemic baselines, while longtime manufacturing centers — Michigan, Illinois, New York and Ohio — have not fully bounced back. That imbalance reflects recent migration trends, as people have moved out of urban areas for more space, more sunshine and a lower cost of living.

The factory construction underway is poised to further reshape the geography of American manufacturing, with the largest increases in investment happening in the Mountain West.

All that new building is propelled by several factors. Former President Donald Trump’s trade war raised the cost of importing from China and other countries, while the pandemic snarled ports and idled suppliers, hurting manufacturers who depended on farflung sourcing networks.

In recent months, the war in Ukraine — for which the United States has furnished more than $36 billion in weaponry — has generated more long-term contracts for defense manufacturers, mostly restricted to domestic

production.

Finally, over the past two years the passage of three major bills — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act — made available hundreds of billions of dollars for the production of items like semiconductors, solar panels, wind turbines and bridge spans. Private funders have rushed to capitalize on the opportunity, even if much of it is still in the planning stages.

“A lot of manufacturers are reacting to what they see as a lot of long-term structural factors in their industry,” said Adam Ozimek, chief economist at the Economic Innovation Group, an entrepreneurship-focused think tank. “They’re seeing more demand for domestic production long term. That’s a bet on the future. It’s going to take a while to really translate to employment.”

For businesses that depend on industries related to fossil fuels, the ramp-up in federal investment may just be enough to keep them afloat even as demand shifts to clean energy.

LaDon Byars runs Colonial Diversified Polymer Products, which employs about 75 people in western Tennessee. The company has survived many cycles of outsourcing and offshoring, making molded rubber products like gaskets and mats for a variety of customers. Automobile manufacturers are important clients, and Byars knows that demand for parts that go into cars with internal combustion engines will start to wane.

She has been encouraged, however, by the number of solicitations she has received as a result of rules that require federally funded projects to find their parts and raw materials in the United States, rather than overseas. It may be difficult and impede progress at first, but she thinks reinforcing domestic supply chains will work out better in the end, just like building new roads.

“It takes a while before they get that intersection through — it’s a mess and traffic is backed up,” Byars said. “And then when they finally open it up, everything works so much smoother and better, and you don’t have the long delays. We might not even see the impact of not being dependent on other countries, and not having the supply chain disruptions, but I do think that’s what the long-term best interest for the American people is.”

Factories that roared out of the recession have stalled, hampering the economy, even as a new wave of production looms.

Wall Street holds gains following Fed decision

Wall Street’s main indexes were muted on Wednesday as investors steered clear of big bets ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy decision later in the day, while regional banks took a breather after a steep selloff in the previous session.

Major U.S. stock indexes dropped more than 1% on Tuesday as regional bank shares tumbled on renewed fears over the financial system and as investors tried to gauge how much longer the Fed may need to hike interest rates.

Regional lender PacWest Bancorp, one of the worst hit stocks in the previous session, gained 4.1% on Wednesday, while the KBW Regional Banking index advanced 1.4%.

While the Fed is widely expected to deliver a 25-basis point interest rate hike, investor focus will be on cues if further hikes are on the cards given inflation remains above the U.S. central bank’s 2% target level.

“The Fed is still stuck between a rock and a hard place,” said Joshua Chastant, senior investment analyst at GuideStone Financial Resources.

“Inflation is still elevated and unemployment is very low, so they’re trying to walk the tightrope of not sending a signal that they’re completely done hiking rates, but also not necessarily wanting to send the economy in a downcycle.”

Major global central banks have embarked on an aggressive interest rate hike campaign to tackle sticky inflation, with the Fed already having hiked its benchmark rates nine times by 475 basis points to a range of 4.75%-5.00% since March 2022.

Graphic: U.S. Fed interest rate increases - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/dwvkdqqgepm/Fed%20 rate%20hikes.png

Data on Wednesday showed U.S. private employers boosted hiring in April, but there are signs that the labor market is slowing amid higher interest rates.

A separate report showed U.S. services sector maintained a steady pace of growth in April, but higher input prices indicated inflation could remain elevated for some time.

At 11:35 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 35.48 points, or 0.11%, at 33,649.05, the S&P 500 was up 0.58 point, or 0.01%, at 4,120.16, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 22.13 points, or 0.18%, at 12,102.64.

Wall Street’s main indexes were muted on Wednesday as investors steered clear of big bets ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy decision later in the day, while regional banks took a breather after a steep selloff in the previous session.

Major U.S. stock indexes dropped more than 1% on Tuesday as regional bank shares tumbled on renewed fears over the financial system and as investors tried to gauge how much longer the Fed may need to hike interest rates.

Regional lender PacWest Bancorp, one of the worst hit stocks in the previous session, gained 4.1% on Wednesday, while the KBW Regional Banking index advanced 1.4%.

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While the Fed is widely expected to deliver a 25-basis point interest rate hike, investor focus will be on cues if further hikes are on the cards given inflation remains above the U.S. central bank’s 2% target level.

“The Fed is still stuck between a rock and a hard place,” said Joshua Chastant, senior investment analyst at GuideStone Financial Resources.

“Inflation is still elevated and unemployment is very low, so they’re trying to walk the tightrope of not sending a signal

that they’re completely done hiking rates, but also not necessarily wanting to send the economy in a downcycle.”

Major global central banks have embarked on an aggressive interest rate hike campaign to tackle sticky inflation, with the Fed already having hiked its benchmark rates nine times by 475 basis points to a range of 4.75%-5.00% since March 2022.

Data on Wednesday showed U.S. private employers boosted hiring in April, but there are signs that the labor market is slowing amid higher interest rates.

A separate report showed U.S. services sector maintained a steady pace of growth in April, but higher input prices indicated inflation could remain elevated for some time.

Floods and landslides kill more than 120 in Rwanda

By ARAFAT MUGABO and EMMA BUBOLA

More than 120 people were killed in devastating floods and landslides caused by heavy rains in Rwanda, the government said Wednesday, the highest death toll from a flood reported in a single day in the country’s recent history.

Entire families were killed, injured or left homeless and in desperate need of assistance.

“I wanted to cry but couldn’t in front of my children,” said Martine Nsanimana, 40, a resident of a small village in Western Rwanda whose home and farmland were destroyed by the floods.

“If you saw how the farmland was washed away, you would want to cry,” said Nsanimana, a father of three.

The rains started Tuesday, but residents said that some people were still trapped in their homes Wednesday, suggesting that the number of deaths could rise. Local officials also warned that more homes could fall down.

Most of the casualties were recorded in the west and north of Rwanda, but some damage was also reported in the south. The districts of Ngororero, Rubavu, Nyabihu, Rutsiro and Karongi, in the northwest, were among the hardest-hit, the Rwandan government said.

Videos showed swollen rivers of mud streaming through villages and alongside houses, and landslides of mud and rocks racing down hillsides into roads, homes and infrastructure.

“Many houses collapsed on people,” said Francois Habitegeko, the governor of the Rwanda’s Western province. Emergency workers were deployed to rescue those caught by the floods, helping the injured and those trapped in their homes.

April is typically Rwanda’s rainiest month, but even for April, the rains last month were heavy. And while the rainy

season usually begins to wind down in May, the forecast called for more rain in the coming days.

Experts said that the sandy soil and the terrain in the areas that were hit made them susceptible to floods and landslides.

Joseph Tuyishimire, a researcher in geography at the University of Rwanda, said that the Western and Northern provinces used to be natural forests but had been converted into agricultural and settlement areas, increasing the risk of flooding.

“If nothing is done to resolve this issue or relocate people from these areas,” said Tuyishimire, “we should expect consistent lethal floods.”

Across East Africa in recent years, many areas, including in Uganda, Kenya and Somalia, have been experiencing both severe droughts and heavy rainfalls that kill many and dam -

age properties and crops. In 2020, floods killed hundreds of people in the region.

On Wednesday, the Red Cross in Uganda said that landslides had killed six people there as well.

Last year, a study found that human-caused climate change made heavy rains that lead to deadly floods in West Africa 80 times more likely. The scientists, part of the World Weather Attribution group, also found that the heavy rains that caused catastrophic flooding in South Africa last year had been made twice as likely by climate change.

Mouhamadou Bamba Sylla, a Rwandan climate change scientist at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences and an author with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said that he could not say with certainty that Tuesday’s rainfalls were associated with climate change. But in general, he noted, climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfalls.

The Rwandan government has promised to provide assistance to those in need, and relief efforts have already included helping bury victims and providing supplies to those whose homes were destroyed, Marie Solange Kayisire, a minister for emergencies, told reporters.

“My deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims of the landslides and floods that occurred last night,” Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, said on Twitter. “We are doing everything within our means to address this difficult situation.”

Nsanimana’s house initially withstood the heavy rains Tuesday, but eventually, the flooding caused severe damage to its foundation, and it began to collapse.

Nsanimana decided to move his family to his brother’s house in the north of the country, but he is not sure he will be able to afford to send them to school there.

“I am now thinking of what to do next,” he said. “I don’t even know.”

Russia claims it foiled Ukrainian drone attack on Kremlin

By MATTHEW MPOKE BIGG and IVAN NECHEPURENKO

The Kremlin claimed Wednesday that Ukraine had launched a drone strike at President Vladimir Putin’s residence overnight. The two drones were disabled by state security services and Putin was uninjured, the Kremlin said.

It was not immediately possible to verify the Russian claim, and a Ukrainian official said Kyiv had “no information about the so-called night attacks on the Kremlin.”

In a statement, the Kremlin said it “regards these actions as a planned terrorist attack and an attempt on the president,” and reserved the right to retaliate. It said that “timely actions taken by the military and special services” had disabled the drones, causing some debris to scatter on the Kremlin grounds, it said.

Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time of the incident, according to his spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov. There were no casualties, the Kremlin said.

If confirmed, it would be the most audacious attempted strike on Russian soil since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Local and regional authorities in Russia have reported a series of drone strikes in recent months. Some have landed close to Ukraine’s border with Russia, but at least one has hit south of Moscow. Ukraine has not acknowledged responsibility for most of the incidents. Moscow is around 280 miles northeast of the Ukrainian border at its closest point.

Last month, The Washington Post reported that the United States had secretly monitored discussions among Ukrainian officials about possible attacks against Moscow timed to coincide with the Feb. 24 anniversary of Russia’s invasion. The White House feared that such a move would provoke an aggressive response from Moscow, and two days before the anniversary, the CIA said that Ukraine’s intelligence directorate “had agreed, at Washington’s request, to postpone strikes” on Moscow. The information was part

of a trove of classified U.S. intelligence documents obtained by The Post and other news organizations.

Floods and landslides killed more than 120 people in Rwanda, according to the government. Most deaths were recorded in the country’s western and northern provinces.

The Kremlin complex sits in the center of Moscow, and contains the Russian president’s official residence and main office.

is estimated to cost between $175 billion and $250 billion each year for the next 27 years.

“The spending pressures on Europe will be huge, and that’s not even taking into account the green transition,” said Kenneth Rogoff, an economics professor at Harvard. “The whole European social safety net is very vulnerable to these big needs.”

Before war broke out in Ukraine, military spending by the European members of NATO was expected to reach nearly $1.8 trillion by 2026, a 14% increase over five years, according to research by McKinsey & Co. Now, spending is estimated to rise between 53% and 65%.

That means hundreds of billions of dollars that otherwise could have been used to, say, invest in bridge and highway repairs, child care, cancer research, refugee resettlement or public orchestras is expected to be redirected to the military.

Last week, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported that military spending in Europe last year had its biggest annual rise in three decades. And the spendathon is just beginning.

The demand for military spending will be on display Wednesday when the European Union’s trade commissioner, Thierry Breton, is expected to discuss his fact-finding tour to determine whether European nations and weapons manufacturers can produce 1 million

the increase will enable the country to hit NATO’s budget target, it will undercut efforts to meet the debt limits set by the European Union.

The shift in government spending is perhaps most striking in Germany, where defense outlays plunged after the reunification of the former East and West German nations in 1990.

“Defense was always the place to save, because it was not very popular,” said Hubertus Bardt, the managing director of the Institute of the German Economy.

Germany, the largest and most powerful economy in Europe, has consistently devoted less money to the military as a percentage of gross domestic output than either France or Britain.

It’s a “historic turning point,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said when he announced a special $112 billion defense fund last year. Yet that pot of money did not include any spending for ammunition. And when the fund is depleted, Germany will need to find an additional $38 billion to level up with its NATO partners.

Rogoff, the Harvard economist, said that most Europeans have not yet absorbed how big the long-term effects of a fading peace dividend will be. This is a new reality, he said, “and governments are going to have to figure out how to rebalance things.”

Los datos del censo económico guían las decisiones y política pública que afectan la economía local e industrias. Además, los negocios (pequeños, medianos y grandes) usan la data recopilada para tomar decisiones estratégicas para sus empresas. Al llenar el Censo Económico estás aportando al desarrollo económico de nuestra isla y el tuyo propio.

El Nino, global weather pattern tied to intense heat, is expected by fall

By ELENA SHAO

Forecasters from the World Meteorological Organization are reporting increased chances that the global climate pattern known as El Nino will arrive by the end of summer. With it comes increased chances for hotter-than-normal temperatures in 2024.

While there is not yet a clear picture of how strong the El Nino event will be or how long it might last, even a relatively mild one could affect precipitation and temperature patterns around the world.

“The development of an El Nino will most likely lead to a new spike in global heating and increase the chance of breaking temperature records,” Petteri Taalas, the secretary-general of the meteorological organization, said in a news release.

El Nino is associated with warmer-thannormal ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. In the United States, it tends to lead to rainier, cooler conditions in much of the South, and warmer conditions in parts of the North.

Elsewhere, El Nino can bring increased ra-

The London skyline at sunrise during a heat wave in August. Worldwide, the last eight years have been the hottest on record.

infall to southern South America and the Horn of Africa, and severe drought to Australia, Indonesia and parts of southern Asia.

El Nino, together with its counterpart La Nina, is part of the intermittent cycle known as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, that is highly influential in shaping year-to-year variations in weather conditions across the globe.

ENSO is a naturally occurring phenomenon, and scientists are still researching exactly how human-caused climate change over the past 150 years may be impacting the behavior

and dynamics of El Nino and La Nina events, with some studies suggesting that El Nino events may be more extreme in a warmer future.

Conditions in the tropical Pacific have been in a neutral state since the latest La Nina event ended this year. La Nina conditions had persisted through a rare three consecutive winters in the Northern Hemisphere, supercharging Atlantic hurricane seasons and prolonging severe drought across much of the Western United States.

Yet, despite the cooling effect La Nina typically has, the past eight years have been the hottest on record, a worrisome addition to the longer-term pattern of temperatures that have been steadily rising as the world continues to emit greenhouse gases from burning coal, oil and natural gas.

According to the World Meteorological Organization outlook, there is about a 60% chance that El Nino will form between May and July, and an 80% chance it will form between July and September. The forecasts are based on observations of wind patterns and ocean temperatures as well as climate mode-

ling, said Wilfran Moufouma-Okia, head of the Climate Prediction Services Division at the organization, which is a United Nations agency.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a similar outlook last month. Both groups cautioned that while El Nino events are associated with certain typical conditions, they unfold differently each time. But in general, the warmest year of any decade will be an El Nino year, and the coldest a La Nina one, according to data from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

Research surrounding global warming’s effects on precipitation and temperature worldwide are much more conclusive: It has intensified wet and dry global extremes, prolonged heat waves and warmed winters.

“There’s little doubt that El Nino loads the dice in favor of higher global mean temperatures,” said Michelle L’Heureux, a climate scientist with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

But, separately, climate change has led to global temperatures that are, on average, warmer over time, she said, and the combination of both could lead to more record-breaking temperatures.

7th grader opens fire at school in Serbia, killing 8 children

By CORA ENGELBRECHT

Aseventh-grade student went on a shooting rampage at a school in Belgrade, Serbia, early Wednesday, killing eight children and a security guard, Serbian police said.

Police said in a statement that the shooting took place around 8:40 a.m. at Vladislav Ribnikar primary school in the upscale neighborhood of Vracar. The boy, who was identified only by his initials, K.K., and was born in 2009, used his father’s handgun to fire into a crowd at the school, police said.

The suspect was apprehended in the schoolyard, the statement said. Six children and a teacher were injured in the attack and taken to the hospital. A security guard was killed while trying to stop the attack, according to the district’s mayor, Milan Nedeljkovic.

“He wanted to prevent a tragedy, which would have been even greater if he had not stood in front of the boy who shot,” Nedeljkovic said in an interview with state media outside the school Wednesday.

“The children are under stress. The school is closed. Something like this has never been recorded in the history of Belgrade schools,” he added.

Video broadcast on local TV from the scene of the shooting showed dozens of vehicles, including ambulances and police cars, stationed outside the school, watched by local residents.

Photographs released by news agencies showed police detaining the student, whose head was covered with a dark piece of clothing. Authorities did not offer any motive for the shooting.

“All police forces are still on the ground working intensively to shed light on all the facts and circumstances that led to this tragedy,” said the statement, which was posted by Serbia’s Ministry of Public Affairs on Facebook. Gun violence is rare in Serbia, although stockpiles of weapons from the Balkan wars in the 1990s remain and many Serbs keep weapons at home for protection.

A mass shooting in 2013 left 13 people dead after a 60-year-old man opened fire in a village near Belgrade.

The curious conservative case against defending Ukraine

By BRET STEPHENS

One of the stranger features of the politics of the war in Ukraine is that the most vocal opposition to it tends to come from the hard right. In some ways, that right sounds like the hard left it used to oppose so fiercely.

On April 20, 19 Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Rand Paul, Mike Lee and J.D. Vance, sent a letter to President Joe Biden decrying “unlimited arms supplies in support of an endless war.” Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis have each expressed their opposition to Western support for Ukraine (though the Florida governor seemed to walk his opposition back); both are keenly attuned to what they think will play well in GOP primaries.

Opposition also comes from what passes for an anti-war conservative intelligentsia. Peter Hitchens, the brother of Christopher Hitchens, is a fierce critic, as is Orbanist American writer Rod Dreher, whose manner of critique is “Russia is wrong, but … ” Tucker Carlson routinely used his prime-time pedestal to disparage Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling the Ukrainian president a “dictator” and comparing his dress style to that of the manager of a strip club. The Buchananite American

Conservative is against the war on principle; the Trumpian Federalist is against it as a matter of political opportunism.

“While forcing his own people — and those whose migration keeps the cartels supplied with the billions to buy military-grade weaponry — to suffer murder, rape and other heinous crimes, Biden is abroad encouraging ongoing violence in Ukraine,” wrote The Federalist’s executive editor, Joy Pullmann, giving readers a taste of the quality of both her thinking and her prose. Is there a coherent philosophical grounding for these anti-war conservatives? On the surface, no.

From Vietnam to Iraq, the anti-war left (both in the United States and abroad) tended to be united by a kind of instinctive pacifism, a belief that war was almost never the right answer. There has also often been a fair amount of anti-Americanism on the left — the Chomskyite view that Washington’s foreign policy is generally a force for neo-imperialism and rapacious capitalism.

But that’s not the case with the anti-war right.

Some of the more dovish conservative voices on Ukraine, who fear that the war could set off a nuclear conflagration with Moscow, are uber-hawks when it comes to China: They argue that the resources we are pouring into Ukraine should be held in reserve for a looming battle with Beijing over Taiwan. They are also the same people who fault Biden’s shambolic withdrawal from Afghanistan for making America seem weak, without appearing to be the least bit concerned about the signal that an American abandonment of Ukraine might also send.

Some of the Tuckerite conservatives who accuse Zelenskyy of illiberal policies in Ukraine — such as banning pro-Russian political parties that could be expected to serve as Vladimir Putin’s puppets in the event of a Russian military victory — go out of their way to celebrate the illiberal policies of the government in Budapest, Hungary.

Some of the historical revisionists who embrace Putin’s pretext for invasion — that he was provoked by the West into coming to the defense of ethnic Russians who were “stranded” in a “Nazi” Ukraine after the breakup of the Soviet Union — would never accept those arguments in any other context: They’re the people who believe in the absolute inviolability of America’s southern border when it comes to the “invasion” of Latin American immigrants.

Much of this incoherence is partly explained via the George Costanza school of modern conservatism: If a Democrat is for it, they’re against it.

But something darker is also at work. In Putin’s cult of machismo; his suppression of political opposition;

his “almost sublime contempt for truth” (Joseph Conrad’s memorable line about Russian officialdom); his opportunistic embrace of religious orthodoxy; his loathing of “decadent” Western culture; his sneering indifference to international law; and, above all, his contempt for democratic and liberal principles, he represents a form of politics the Tuckerites glimpsed but never quite got in Trump’s presidency.

It isn’t new. In the 1930s, there was Ezra Pound and Charles Lindbergh and Diana and Oswald Mosley. The hard right’s reverence for the principles of raw strength and unblinking obedience runs deep.

This is not true of every conservative. The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, remains firmly on Ukraine’s side, as do the editorialists at The Wall Street Journal and National Review and even conservative firebrands like Mark Levin. A narrow plurality of Republican-leaning voters feel the same way. To tar the entire American right as pro-Putin is a slur, much as old right-wing allegations about liberal softness on communism used to be. But there’s also more than a nugget of truth to it.

Certain conservative readers of this column will no doubt feel insulted and claim that it should be possible to oppose U.S. support for the war on strategic grounds without being labeled pro-Putin.

It’s worth reminding them what George Orwell wrote in 1942 about the position of Western pacifists vis-àvis Nazi Germany: “Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help that of the other.”

A Ukrainian soldier with the 71st Separate Hunting Brigade of the Air Assault Forces, near an American MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on March 15, 2023.

FEI presenta denuncias contra Mariana Nogales Molinelli y su familia y defensa pide inhibición de jueza

SAN JUAN – El Panel sobre el Fiscal Especial Independiente (FEI) presentó 51 denuncias por evasión contributiva, perjurio y violaciones al Código Penal contra la representante Mariana Nogales Molinelli, su madre y su corporación Ocean Front Villas.

La investigación se centró inicialmente en el informe financiero de Nogales Molinelli ante la Oficina de Ética Gubernamental (OEG), pero se amplió para incluir a su madre y la corporación familiar.

“Vio prueba detallada para la orden de allanamiento para acceder a las cuentas bancarias de la representante”, dijo el licenciado José Andreu Fuentes,

defensa de la representante, quien pidió la inhibición de la jueza Iraida Rodríguez Castro del Tribunal de San Juan.

El FEI estará representado por cuatro fiscales especiales independientes: Ramón Mendoza Rosario, Miguel Colón Ortiz, Zulma Fúster Troche y Leticia Pabón Ortiz; y la defensa por tres licenciados: Frank Torres Viada, Ricardo Prieto Figueroa y Andreu Fuentes.

Según el Panel del FEI, la legisladora ocultó información sobre sus propiedades y no pagó el impuesto de ocupación por las propiedades de alquiler.

La representante reconoció errores en su informe financiero y renunció a todas las posiciones en las corporaciones familiares, asegurando que no generaba ingresos de Ocean Front Villas, ahora presidida por su madre.

325 empleados de AEE han aceptado ofertas de trabajo con Genera PR

el senador exige comprender otros 22.5 millones de dólares.

EL CAPITOLIO – La Comisión de Proyectos Estratégicos y Energía, presidida por el senador Javier Aponte Dalmau, prosiguió el miércoles, con las vistas públicas sobre el funcionamiento y operación del sistema de generación de energía de la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica (AEE) en relación a la Resolución del Senado 340.

“Les voy a dar cinco días para que nos entreguen a la comisión un desglose financiero del contrato. Es importante entender cada partida porque son millones”, destacó Aponte Dalmau. Según la Autoridad para las Alianzas Público-Privadas (AAPP), el contrato tiene un costo de 118 millones de dólares por 10 años, pero

Fermín Fontanés Gómez, director ejecutivo de la AAPP, informó que hasta el martes, 325 empleados de la AEE habían aceptado ofertas de Genera PR para unirse al equipo de trabajo. Además, señaló que la AAPP no supervisa a la AEE, sino el contrato de transmisión y distribución.

Según la AAFAF, la AEE cuenta con cerca de 800 empleados que laboran en las centrales generatrices de Aguirre, Palo Seco, Costa Sur y San Juan, además de las unidades de respuesta rápida, de unos 1,200 trabajadores que permanecen en la corporación pública.

Las vistas públicas continuarán previo a la entrada en vigor del contrato el 1 de julio de 2023.

Senado y Cámara se unen para buscar soluciones cierre de universidades en Puerto Rico

POR EL STAR STAFF

SAN JUAN – Con el fin de evitar más cierres de instituciones educativas universitarias en Puerto Rico, el representante José Enrique ‘Quiquito’ Meléndez y la senadora Keren Riquelme anunciaron la celebración de una mesa de trabajo con los directivos de todas las entidades que ofrecen cursos educativos postsecundarios, tanto públicos como privados.

El cónclave se desarrollará en el Capitolio y la fecha será anunciada en los próximos días.

De acuerdo con los legisladores del Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) el norte del foro es realizar una radiografía real de la situación de la educación postsecundaria en la Isla, escuchar las propuestas que presenten los directivos y evaluar otras iniciativas, incluyendo posible legislación.

“El cierre de la American University levanta bandera de alerta ante la realidad demográfica que enfrentamos. Todos sabemos que Puerto Rico tiene la tasa de natalidad más baja en el mundo (0.6 por ciento), algo que unido al descenso poblacional anual de 0.9 por ciento, nos coloca en una condición precaria. Esta situación afecta a todos los renglones de nuestra sociedad, incluyendo la educación, por eso tenemos que actuar ya para salvaguardar la estructura educativa para futuras generaciones”, dijo la Senadora.

En el día de ayer se informó que la American University cerrará sus puertas ante contar con menos de 600 estudiantes matriculados.

“Los números no mienten, en Puerto Rico había para el 2011 unos 151,252 estudiantes matriculados en instituciones postsecundarias privadas, hoy la cifra es de apenas 114,953. Lo mismo sucede con el sistema de la

Universidad de Puerto Rico que ha visto su matrícula caer de sobre 60 mil hace apenas unos años hasta 40 mil en estos momentos. Existe una crisis y eso no se puede negar. Si no actuamos, el sistema postsecundario que hoy tenemos será cosa del pasado en cuestión de nada y eso afectará la disponibilidad de estudios para nuestros jóvenes, que son el futuro de Puerto Rico”, dijo por su parte Meléndez.

Riquelme, quien recientemente radicó la Resolución del Senado 772 la cual crea la Comisión Especial del Senado de Puerto Rico sobre Iniciativas para Mitigar el Descenso Demográfico en Puerto Rico, sostuvo que “estamos buscando alternativas reales y aplicables bajo la condición económica y demográfica actual. Queremos salvar la estructura que tenemos en estos momentos, pero no podemos cerrar los ojos a tomar acciones radicales para ello”.

POR CYBERNEWS

POR CYBERNEWS

The British coronation: A TV spectacle, now for the digital age

By ALAN COWELL

The mystique around the British royal family — so essential to the nation’s acceptance of its hereditary and privileged first monarchy — has always drawn its power from a blend of secrecy and symbolism that combine in impeccably choreographed spectacle.

On Saturday, the regal alchemy will be conjured anew at King Charles III’s coronation at Westminster Abbey in London. The spectacle has been years in the planning, not simply as an event in its own right, but also as a moment in history intimately entwined with its on-screen projection around Britain and across the globe.

The coronation will be the first since Charles’s mother, Elizabeth II, who died in September, was crowned in June 1953. Hers was the first coronation to be transmitted live and in full at a time when televisual broadcasting was still a novelty, and it initiated a long era of increasingly close coordination between Buckingham Palace and the BBC, Britain’s public broadcaster.

Anti-royalists have complained bitterly that, as Graham Smith, the head of a campaigning organization called Republic, said in a recent statement: “The BBC routinely misrepresents the monarchy and public opinion. They suggest the nation is celebrating major events when that simply isn’t the case.”

While the BBC rejects these claims of partiality, there is little doubt that as digital technology has advanced over many years, the broadcaster’s royal coverage has become ever more sophisticated and comprehensive. The medium, in other words, has facilitated a kind of blanket coverage of a message that would not have been possible in the 1950s.

In 1953, the queen’s coronation unfolded in a nation in thrall to a newfangled miracle called television. British baby boomers, many of them small children at the time, like to recall that television in those days meant a small black-and-white screen in a large wooden cabinet broadcasting a single channel. The British establishment — including its nobles and priests, as well as the BBC — wielded exclusive control of the monochrome footage that would mold a generation’s memory of the event.

Makeshift antennae were thrown up on hilltops to link the various parts of the

British Isles to the central broadcast unit in London. In the pre-satellite, pre-digital era, British Royal Air Force bombers flew raw film of the coronation across the Atlantic for broadcast on American networks.

Some members of the British hierarchy wished to keep cameras out of the inner sanctum of Westminster Abbey, where the queen was crowned. “The world would have been a happier place if television had never been discovered,” the Most Rev. Geoffrey F. Fisher, then the archbishop of Canterbury, who presided over the queen’s coronation, was quoted as saying.

Even today, King Charles has resolved to follow his mother’s example by banning cameras from what is considered the most sacred part of the coronation service, in which he is anointed with what is called the oil of chrism.

But much else has changed. When Elizabeth was crowned, “Britain was marked by extreme deference,” Vernon Bogdanor, a constitutional expert at King’s College, London, said in a recent interview. “The monarchy was thought to be magical and untouchable.”

Since then, the royal House of Windsor has changed radically from “a magical monarchy to a public service monarchy,” Bogdanor said, and “is judged by whether it contributes to society, and if it doesn’t, people won’t have it.” King Charles, he

added, seems “well aware of that.”

For the king, a helter-skelter technological revolution has transformed every smartphone owner into a pocket cinematographer, hooked to a multiplex world of apps and platforms, uploads and downloads. Where his mother’s crowning bathed the monarchy in uncontested splendor, Charles’ challenge is to focus a much more diffuse spotlight.

While Elizabeth’s coronation required only around 20 cameras, Charles’ crowning is set to be broadcast on the BBC’s hi-definition iPlayer streaming service, alongside television coverage. In advance of the coronation, other television offerings — including a soap opera, a sewing program and a show usually devoted to rural life — will be broadcast with coronation-themed episodes “to mark history with an unparalleled breadth of programs,” said Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s chief content officer. Regional affiliates of the BBC, its many radio channels and rival commercial television broadcasters will also have programming on regal matters.

With her sparing television addresses and her tight adherence to the royal script, the queen seemed to generally balance the monarchy’s need for visibility with its enduring aversion to scrutiny. But the rest of her family has fared very differently on screen.

“The public eye is grown more unfor-

giving, its gaze, like its judgments, more relentless,” Catherine Mayer wrote in “Charles: The Heart of a King,” a biography updated last year after its initial publication in 2015.

“Even so, if the Windsors wish to see the biggest dangers to the survival of the monarchy, they need only look in the mirror.”

Since the mid-1990s, when the estranged Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, gave television interviews to seek sympathy for their divergent versions of their marital woes, culminating in divorce in 1996, efforts by members of the royal family to advance their agendas on television have proved ambiguous at best.

In 2019, Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth’s second son after Charles, gave a lengthy television interview to try to rebut accusations related to his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The interview set off a public relations disaster, leading to Prince Andrew’s withdrawal from public life.

Then, in March 2021, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry appeared in a joint interview with Oprah Winfrey, screened in the United States and then in Britain, after their decision to live in California and step back from their roles as senior royals. The interview touched on a range of topics including mental health issues, intimations of racism in the House of Windsor, and the couple’s sense of dislocation, betrayal and vulnerability.

But cumulatively, the airing of grievances, like Prince Andrew’s litany of selfexculpation before it, bolstered the sense of a dysfunctional and anachronistic institution held in place by a fickle mix of public tolerance, inherited privilege and fabled wealth. In the run-up to the coronation, one question eagerly pursued by British newspapers was whether Harry would attend the most important public event in his father’s life on May 6. The answer: he would, but without Meghan and their two children.

For Charles, the recent redrawing of the media landscape and the public mood offer perils that were barely dreamed of when his mother was crowned.

“Because the royals have ended up coopted into the culture wars,” Mayer said in an interview, “one word out of place — and, let’s face it, that’s a family that specializes in words out of place — will have gone round the world and back in a way it never would have before.”

On Monday in central London, posing for a photo in front of a portrait of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, ahead of the king’s coronation on Saturday.

Gordon Lightfoot’s 10 essential songs

“Early Morning Rain” (1966)

Lightfoot grew up in bucolic central Ontario, which could hardly be farther from Memphis, but he sounds nearly Southern on this simple, brisk folk song, which Presley recorded a few years later. Its theme is homesickness (Lightfoot was living in Los Angeles when he wrote it); the narrator, who’s “as cold and drunk as I can be,” in addition to broke, watches a 707 fly overhead and envies its freedom as he pines for his hometown.

“Did She Mention My Name” (1968)

In this canny depiction of wounded pride, Lightfoot gets together with an old friend to shoot the breeze, but amid the chitchat about sports and mutual acquaintances, he casually slips in a question that reveals his agenda: “By the way, did she mention my name?” This song and “For Lovin’ Me” are fraternal twins, joined by their fascination with male pride.

“Black Day in July” (1968)

Smith, a girlfriend whose cheekbone he once broke during a fight. The lyrics typify his dark, terse romanticism, and the snaking guitar solo is one of the great Red Shea’s finest moments. The song’s been covered by, among others, the goth legends Scott Walker and Depeche Mode.

“Rainy Day People” (1975)

The mid-’70s was Lightfoot’s commercial peak, but this successor to the Top 10 pop hits “Sundown” and “Carefree Highway” didn’t get the reception it deserved. The chords and lyrics call to mind Jimmy Webb, as Lightfoot, with his usual precise elocution, celebrates the way loyal friendships give succor to “high-stepping strutters who land in the gutters.”

“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (1976)

By ROB TANNENBAUM

Bob Dylan once named Gordon Lightfoot one of his favorite songwriters, and called the musician “somebody of rare talent” while inducting him into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986. On Dylan’s 1970 album “Self Portrait,” he even recorded Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” and the respect was mutual — Lightfoot listened carefully to Dylan’s songs, which instilled in him “a more direct approach, getting away from the love songs,” he once said.

In an expansive career that drew from Greenwich Village folk and Laurel Canyon pop, Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr., who died Monday at 84, was embraced by a diverse group of musicians: Elvis Presley and Duran Duran, Lou Rawls and the Replacements. He sang in a rueful baritone full of tenacity and an almost professorial air, and specialized in songs that dwelled on solitude, or recounted unhappy relationships, in grounded language that drew on folk and blues modes.

“Lightfoot’s is the voice of the romantic,” Geoffrey Stokes of The Village Voice wrote in 1974. “For him (as for Don Quixote, one of his chosen heroes) perfection is always in view and always slipping from

his grasp.”

Nowhere was Lightfoot more beloved than in his native Canada, where he helped transform its music industry into a worldwide force. “He sent a message to the world that we’re not just a bunch of lumberjacks and hockey players up here,” Geddy Lee of Rush said in “If You Could Read My Mind,” a 2019 documentary. “We’re capable of sensitivity and poetry.” In the process, Lightfoot became one of the most successful recording artists of the 1970s.

Here are 10 of Lightfoot’s most beloved and impactful songs.

“For Lovin’ Me” (1966)

The folk tradition in which Lightfoot initially worked is full of boastful songs about rambling men who are lighting out for the territory, but this one is uniquely cruel. It’s pushed along by his stout acoustic guitar strumming and David Rea’s sleek fingerpicking accents, which reinforce the lyrics’ hauteur. “Everything you have is gone,” Lightfoot tells the woman he’s leaving. “That’s what you get for lovin’ me.” Her broken heart will eventually mend, he adds, at which point “I just might pass this way again.” He later felt some embarrassment about the song, and said, “I didn’t know what chauvinism was.”

Lightfoot mostly worked the personalrelationship side of folk music and left the political side to others. The controversial “Black Day in July” has a restless, unsettled drum track, and describes the July 1967 uprisings in Detroit in which Black residents protested police abuse, prompting the governor to send in the National Guard and the president to send in the Army. The song is full of irony, scorn and bafflement (“The soul of Motor City is feared across the land”) and most U.S. radio stations refused to play it.

“If You Could Read My Mind” (1970)

Lightfoot’s commercial breakthrough (it reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100) is also his masterpiece, with assistance from Nick DeCaro’s cascading string arrangement. The lyrics, inspired by his impending divorce, range from poetic to stark, until he reaches the stoic summary: “Stories always end.” The melody inspired Duran Duran’s “Save a Prayer,” and the song has been covered by a who’s who of singers, including Barbra Streisand, Johnny Cash and Neil Young — and, almost, by Frank Sinatra, who tried to record it but gave up, declaring it “too long.”

“Sundown” (1974)

Lightfoot was an alcoholic and a rounder who knew a lot about tempestuous relationships. He wrote “Sundown” while in a jealous fit of fantasy about Cathy

His best-known song is one of the most unlikely pop hits: a 6 1/2-minute folk ballad about a freighter that sank in Lake Superior a year earlier, killing 29 crew members. It’s also surely the only Top 40 song to ever mention Gitche Gumee, the Chippewa name for Lake Superior. The impish rock band NRBQ sometimes played a slow, out-of-tune cover of the song, and if the audience didn’t like it, it would play it a second time as well.

“The Circle Is Small” (1978)

In some of Lightfoot’s lyrics, it’s difficult to tell whether the conflicts he describes are factual or merely byproducts of a suspicious imagination. In this softly scornful song about cheating, which he recorded in 1968 and rerecorded 10 years later, in a superior version, he believes his lover is using a friend’s apartment to carry on an affair, and he implies that he’ll eventually catch her: “The city where we live might be quite large/But the circle is small.”

“Harmony” (2004)

In the 1980s, as music moved away from acoustic sounds, Lightfoot chased pop success by using synthesizers, drum machines and producer David Foster, but he didn’t sound like himself. By the time of “Harmony,” he’d returned to working with guitarists Shea and Terry Clements. Tobacco use had eaten away at the top of his range, but the title song of his penultimate studio album has a fragile, hard-won tenderness that seems to look back at his career (and his life) with peaceful regret.

Gordon Lightfoot onstage in 2018. His expansive career drew from Greenwich Village folk and Laurel Canyon pop.

How ‘weathering’ contributes to racial health disparities

By ALISHA HARIDASANI GUPTA

For Arline Geronimus, avoiding the limelight had become a way of life.

Three decades ago, she put forward an idea that was unconventional for the time: that the constant stress of living within a racist society could lead to poor health for marginalized groups.

Geronimus, then a 32-year-old public health researcher at the University of Michigan, had spent three years gathering data on more than 300,000 pregnant women, in search of an explanation for the vast racial disparities in infant mortality rates. At the time, Black babies died more than twice as often as white babies in their first year of life. It was widely assumed that high rates of teen pregnancy among Black women were to blame.

Geronimus’ research showed otherwise: The babies of Black teens were healthier than the babies of Black women in their 20s and older. These younger women, she posited, had endured fewer years of racism-induced stress, and therefore had given birth to more robust children.

She called this particular form of chronic stress “weathering,” evoking a rock being eroded by constant exposure

When Dr. Arline Geronimus first introduced a theory in 1990 that the constant stress of living within a racist society could lead to poor health for marginalized groups, her ideas were derided and largely ignored — now, people are starting to listen.

to the elements. She first presented her findings and the outlines of her hypothesis at the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1990.

The backlash was immediate, and ran the ideological gamut. The Children’s Defense Fund, a progressive organization

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that had knowledge about her talk ahead of time, set up a table outside to express outrage because they thought Geronimus’ conclusion was that teen pregnancy was not entirely bad. “The policy implications of her arguments are perverse,” a CDF representative told The New York Times a few weeks after her speech. A columnist at the

Washington Times, a conservative paper, wrote “As Marie Antoinette might put it: Let them have babies.” Michigan alumni pressured the university’s president to fire her. She received death threats at home from anonymous callers.

“I was pretty traumatized,” said Geronimus, now 66, over coffee at the New York Public Library in March. “So I kind of retreated into my work.”

In the years that followed, Geronimus largely stopped going to conferences and rarely talked to reporters (she admitted that this interview was nerve-wracking for her). But, with the University of Michigan’s continued support, she has published more than 130 papers, expanding and bolstering the evidence for weathering well beyond Black mothers. She has studied Latina mothers, Mexican immigrants and white people in Appalachian Kentucky, among other groups, repeatedly showing that people experiencing high levels of chronic stress as a result of their identities and circumstances have poorer health outcomes. Simultaneously, researchers across disciplines have linked the relentless strain of discrimination to premature aging and dysfunction of the immune, cardiovascular, metabolic and endocrine systems.

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That body of evidence, which Geronimus describes in her new book, “Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society,” has turned her into an “icon” and provided a framework for understanding health inequities that goes deeper than blaming poor health on lifestyle choices or flawed genetics, said Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor at Yale School of Medicine who chaired the White House COVID-19 health equity task force.

“There’s a solid line from her work on weathering to what we now call social determinants of health,” Nunez-Smith said. Weathering was the foundation of many of the task force’s policy decisions during the height of the pandemic, which focused on reducing the excess stresses of the pandemic on people of color and low-income groups — such as funding non-English speaking workers to help reach vulnerable populations for contact tracing, and switching from drive-thru testing sites, which excluded those without cars, to walk-in options.

The trap of chronic stress

When the body is exposed to stressors, it goes into fight-or-flight mode, said Elizabeth Brondolo, a psychology professor at St. John’s University who studies the psychophysiology of discrimination. Breathing, heart rate and blood pressure shoot up and the bloodstream is flooded with glucose and fatty acids to fuel the large muscles.

Over time, if the sympathetic nervous system reaction remains activated, it can erode internal systems, Brondolo said. Chronically elevated blood pressure can damage arteries and veins, which can lead to hypertension, for example. A constant stream of cortisol — known as the stress hormone — can create insulin resistance, leading to diabetes. Research has suggested that chronic stress can damage DNA and even alter brain structure.

Though many people feel stress on a day-to-day basis, surveys have repeatedly found that people of color and those with lower socioeconomic status report more severe and more frequent rates of stress. Research shows that these groups often can’t escape their stressors because they face a higher likelihood of violence, job instability and discrimination while lacking social or material support.

There’s also a physically potent and persistent quality to race-based stress. In a series of studies between 1999 and 2009 and in clinical sessions, Brondolo and her colleagues examined the physiological

Dr. Arline Geronimus at her home in Ann Arbor, Mich., March 24, 2023. When Geronimus first introduced a theory in 1990 that the constant stress of living within a racist society could lead to poor health for marginalized groups, her ideas were derided and largely ignored — now, people are starting to listen.

impact of racist behavior, finding that the body and mind can’t easily shake off its effects. In one study, for instance, participants who reported being on the receiving end of racist behavior experienced elevated blood pressure for an extended period, even while they were asleep. “That’s really the key to what Dr. Geronimus is talking about — there was no recovery,” Brondolo said.

Geronimus’ research has found that upward mobility and wealth aren’t antidotes for weathering. In one 2006 study, she analyzed the health data — including blood pressure, cortisol levels, liver function and cholesterol — of over 1,500 survey respondents and found that high-income Black women had worse health outcomes than low-income white women.

In a related case, when researchers from Ohio State University examined Black students who attended historically Black colleges and universities, they determined that those years of being “sheltered, at least somewhat, from racial discrimination,” as they put it, put participants at a lower risk of health problems later on, compared with their peers who had attended predominantly white institutions.

One explanation for these findings is found in the stress a person experiences when they try to thrive in an environment where their identity or circumstances are in the minority — what psychologists call “high-effort coping.” “The actual physiological energy it takes to succeed against

all kinds of structural headwinds and barriers itself is weathering,” Geronimus said. It is one of the reasons Black maternal mortality rates remain stubbornly high, she said, even among high-income families — and even as Black teenage pregnancies have plummeted in the decades since her first study.

Challenges and critiques

A caveat for much of public health research is that it’s observational; it can identify links and associations but cannot prove causation, said Robert Kaestner, a professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy who worked with Geronimus on a 2009 study on Mexican immigrants. When it comes to weathering, he said, not only is it “a difficult empirical task” to measure discrimination, it is also difficult to rule out other environmental stressors.

Despite his skepticism regarding its ability to be measured, Kaestner described weathering as “intuitive,” “plausible” and “consistent with biological processes.”

The intersection of health and racism is also a fraught research area that raises challenging questions about privilege and

bias. That Geronimus is a white woman might have afforded her some credibility in that context, said Dr. Camara Jones, an public health researcher at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, who served as a medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2000-14.

“White people, in general, are given more credit when they’re naming racism,” she said. “When people of color do that, we are seen as having a chip on our shoulder or being subjective.”

In 1992, Jones had also shown a link between racism and accelerated aging in a study on blood pressure disparities. But she didn’t pursue this line of research for very long, in part because one of her advisers told her that she didn’t want to be “known as ‘the racism lady,’” she said. “Even when I was writing grant proposals, people would call me and say ‘Camara, can you just change the word racism to discrimination?’”

But Geronimus’ race doesn’t negate the importance of her research, Jones said. “I’m grateful for her work because now the knowledge is out there.”

LEGAL NOTICE

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

WILMINGTON SAVINGS

FUND SOCIETY, FSB, NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY BUT SOLELY AS CERTIFICATE TRUSTEE OF BOSCO

CREDIT II TRUST SERIES

2017-1, BY FRANKLIN

CREDIT MANAGEMENT AS SERVICER

Plaintiff V. LAURA MALDONADOCASILLAS A/K/A LAURA

EMMA MALDONADOCASILLAS

Defendant

Civil No.: 19-1400. IN REM.

NOTICE OF SALE.

To: LAURA MALDONADOCASILLAS A/K/A LAURA

EMMA MALDONALDOCASILLAS.

WHEREAS, Default Judgment was entered on August 22, 2022, published on November 3, 2022, in favor of Plaintiff the aggregated amount of $118,159.02, consisting of principal, interests which continues to accrue until full payment of the debt at $16.33 daily and other charges, plus the amount of $10,192.00 to cover costs, expenses and attorney fees as agreed in the Mortgage Note in the event judicial foreclosure and collection action. WHEREAS, pursuant to said judgment, the undersigned SPECIAL MASTER, Joel Ronda Feliciano, was ordered to sell at public auction for US currency in cash or certified check, without appraisal or right to redemption to the highest bidder, the sale will take place at: Federico Degetau Federal Building, Room 150, 150 Carlos Chardon Street, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico 00918; this sale is regarding the following property belonging to the Defendant, located at the following physical address: Condominio Medical Center Plaza, Apt. 812 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00912, and described in the Property Registry as follows: URBAN:

HORIZONTAL PROPERTY: Apartment for residential use number eight hundred and twelve on the plot plan, which is part of the building called Condominium Medical Center Plaza, built on a plot of land of the Monacillos ward of the municipality of San Juan, Puerto Rico, whose apartment It is located on the ninth floor of the building, with access door to a corridor for cir-

culation, which communicates with the exterior of the building. This apartment has a surface area of six hundred eightyfour-point ninety square feet, equivalent to sixty-three point sixty-five square meters and consists of the following facilities. Living room, balcony, kitchen with counter, room with its auxiliary closet and bathroom. It adjoins by the NORTH, with the corridor for circulation; by the south, with the front yard; by the EAST, with the apartment number eight hundred and eleven; by the WEST, with apartment number eight hundred thirteen. It corresponds to this apartment and therefore also marks number eight hundred and twelve the parking space for a car located in the parking area at the basement level. The linear measures are this apartment are the following; In front is twenty-two ten inches, equivalent to six point seventy-four meters, in the background is thirty feet zero inches corresponds a share in the common elements equivalent to fifty-five percent point.” Property number 22169, recorded at page 281 of volume 696 of Monacillos, Registry of the Property of Puerto Rico, Section III of San Juan. The property is described in the Spanish language in Registry of the Property of Puerto Rico as follows: URBANA: Propiedad Horizontal. Apartamiento para uso residencial marcado número ochocientos doce en el plano, el cual forma parte del edificio denominado Condominio Medical Center Plaza, construido en una parcela de terreno del Barrio Monacillos del término municipal de San Juan, Puerto Rico, cuyo apartamiento está localizado en la novena planta del edificio, con puerta de acceso a un pasillo para la circulación, que lo comunica con el exterior del edificio. Este apartamiento tiene un área superficial de seiscientos ochenta y cuatro punto noventa pies cuadrados equivalentes a sesenta y tres punto sesenta y cinco metros cuadrados y consta de las siguientes facilidades. Sala-comedor, balcón, cocina con mostrador, habitación con su closet, closet auxiliar y baño. Colinda por el NORTE, con el pasillo para la circulación; por el SUR, con el patio delantero; por el ESTE, con el apartamiento número ochocientos once; y por el OESTE, con el apartamiento número ochocientos trece. Le corresponde a este apartamiento y por lo tanto también se marca número ochocientos doce, el espacio de estacionamiento para un

automóvil localizado en el área de estacionamiento al nivel del sótano. Las medidas lineales de este apartamiento son las siguientes: de frente, veintidós pies diez pulgadas equivalentes a seis punto setenta y cuatro metros de fondo, treinta pies cero pulgadas equivalentes a nueve punto quince metros. Con un porcentaje en los elementos comunes de cero punto cincuenta y cinco por ciento. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that the potential bidders acquire the property subject to any and all the senior liens that encumber the property. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax liens (express, tacit, implied or legal), shall continue in effect, it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and the bid price shall not be applied toward the cancellation of their cancellation. The present property will be acquired free and clear of all junior liens. WHEREFORE, the FIRST PUBLIC SALE will be held on JUNE 9, 2023 AT 9:30 AM and the minimum bidding amount that will be accepted is the sum of $101,920.00, pursuant to the “Deed of First Mortgage”, Deed Number 13 of November 30th 2007, before notary public Jorge Alberto Maisonet Rivera, duly recorded at Page 110, Volume 929 of Monacillos, 8th inscription, recording of the Registry of the Property of Puerto Rico, Section III of San Juan, securing a mortgage note payable to the Plaintiff, and no lower offers will be accepted. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on JUNE 16, 2023 AT 9:30 AM and the minimum bidding amount that will be accepted will be two-thirds the amount of the minimum bid, the sum of $67,946.67. If said second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on JUNE 23, 2023 AT 9:30 AM and the minimum bidding amount that will be accepted will be one-half of the minimum bid, the sum of $50,960.00. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued canceling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the

judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the aforementioned office of the Clerk of the United States District Court. The files and all the documents corresponding to the procedure initiated will be shown at the court’s office during working hours. San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 4 day of April 2023. JOEL RONDA FELICIANO, APPOINTED SPECIAL MASTER, E-mail: rondajoel@me.com, Tel: 787565-0415.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAROLINA SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO PARTE DEMANDANTE VS. LA SUCESIÓN DE AGUSTÍN RIVERA TIRADO COMPUESTA

POR AGUSTÍN RIVERA

LÓPEZ, EMILIO MIGUEL RIVERA LÓPEZ, HÉCTOR LUIS RIVERA LÓPEZ, FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS BELÉN LÓPEZ

CARRASQUILLO T/C/C

LORENA MONTES T/C/C

BELÉN NAVARRO, POR SÍ Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA, DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA POR CONDUCTO DE LA DIVISIÓN DE CAUDALES RELICTOS, CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

PARTE DEMANDADA

CIVIL NÚM. CA2019CV02173

(403) SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO. EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente anuncia y hace constar que en cumplimiento de la Sentencia Sumaria dictada el 28 de noviembre de 2022 y notificada el 31 de enero de 2023, la Orden de Ejecución de Sentencia del 16 de marzo de 2023 y el Mandamiento de Ejecución del 17 de marzo de 2023 en el caso de epígrafe, procederé a vender el día 5 de

The San Juan Daily Star Thursday, May 4, 2023

junio de 2023, a las 9:45 de la mañana, en mi oficina, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial de Carolina, Sala Superior, en la Avenida 65 Infantería, Carretera Número Tres (3), Kilómetro 11.7 (Entrada de la Urbanización Mansiones de Carolina) Carolina, Puerto Rico, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda de los Estados Unidos de América, cheque de gerente o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal; todo título, derecho o interés de la parte demandada sobre la siguiente propiedad: RÚSTICA: Parcela marcada con el Número ciento cuarenta y ocho (148) en el plano de parcelación de la Comunidad Rural Villa Santa del Barrio Torrecillas del término municipal de Canóvanas, con una cabida superficial de 531.71 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE: con Parcela Número ciento cuarenta y nueve (149) de la comunidad; por el SUR: con Parcela Número ciento cuarenta y siete (147) de la comunidad; por el ESTE: con calle de la comunidad; y por el OESTE: con terrenos de la Comunidad Santa Catalina. La propiedad consta inscrita al folio 28 del tomo 243 de Canóvanas, Finca 11018. Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección III. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 1 del tomo 335 de Canóvanas, Finca 11018. Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección III. Inscripción tercera (3ra). Dirección Física: Villa Santa, Parcela 148, Barrio Torrecillas, Canóvanas, PR 00729; 2147 Villa Central Canóvanas, Canóvanas, PR 00729. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta será de $50,000.00. De no haber adjudicación en la primera subasta se celebrará una segunda subasta, el día 12 de junio de 2023, a las 9:45 de la mañana, en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será de dos terceras partes del tipo mínimo fijado en la primera subasta, o sea, $33,333.33. De no haber adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una tercera subasta, el 20 de junio de 2023, a las 9:45 de la mañana en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será la mitad del precio pactado, o sea, $25,000.00. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta es mayor. Dicho remate

se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer a la demandante el importe de la Sentencia por la suma de $40,375.96 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 9.95% anual desde el 1 de julio de 2017 hasta su completo pago, más $2,145.20 de recargos acumulados, más la cantidad estipulada de $5,000.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato del préstamo. Surge del Estudio de Título Registral que sobre esta propiedad pesa el siguiente gravamen posterior a la hipoteca que por la presente se pretende ejecutar: Aviso de Demanda: Pleito seguido por Banco Popular de Puerto Rico Vs. Agustín Rivera Tirado y su esposa Belén López Carrasquillo ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, en el Caso Civil Número CA2019CV02173, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, en la que se reclama el pago de hipoteca, con un balance de $40,375.96 y otras cantidades, según Demanda de fecha 17 de junio de 2019. Anotada al Tomo Karibe de Canóvanas. Anotación A. Se notifica al acreedor posterior o a su sucesor o cesionario en derecho para que comparezca a proteger su derecho si así lo desea. Se les advierte a los interesados que todos los documentos relacionados con la presente acción de ejecución de hipoteca, así como los de Subasta, estarán disponibles para ser examinados, durante horas laborables, en el expediente del caso que obra en los archivos de la Secretaría del Tribunal, bajo el número de epígrafe y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general en Puerto Rico por espacio de dos semanas y por lo menos una vez por semana; y para su fijación en los sitios públicos requeridos por ley. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes; entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate y que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores tal como lo expresa la Ley Núm. 2102015. Y para el conocimiento de los demandados, de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas

y público en general, EXPIDO para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspondientes, el presente Aviso de Pública Subasta en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy 13 de abril de 2023.

Héctor L. Peña Rodríguez, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAROLINA SALA SUPERIOR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante Vs. FELÍCITA ÁGUEDA AMÉZQUITA, ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA REPRESENTADO POR EL SECRETARIO DE LA VIVIENDA Y DESARROLLO URBANO (HUD)

Parte Demandada

Municipal de Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 350.00 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE: con Parcela Número Trescientos cincuenta (350), Trescientos cuarenta y nueve (349) y Trescientos treinta y dos (332) de la comunidad; por el SUR: con Calle Número Dos (2) y Parcela Número Trescientos treinta (330) de la comunidad; por el ESTE: con Parcelas Números Trescientos treinta (330), Trescientos cincuenta (350) y Trescientos cuarenta y nueve (349) de la comunidad; por OESTE: con Calle Número Dos (2) y Parcela Número Trescientos treinta y dos (332) de la comunidad. La propiedad consta inscrita al folio 210 del tomo 404 de Toa Baja, Finca 23342. Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección II. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 113 vuelto del tomo 695 de Toa Baja, Finca 23342. Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección II. Inscripción sexta (6ta). -Dirección Física: Comunidad Rural San José, Parcela 331 Calle 14, Bo. Media Luna, Toa Baja, PR 00949. Número de Catastro: 13-084-021-698--36-000. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta será de $68,571.00. De no haber adjudicación en la primera subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, el día 20 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 10:15 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será de dos terceras partes del tipo mínimo fijado en la primera subasta, o sea, $45,714.00. De no haber adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 27 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 10:15 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será la mitad del precio pactado, o sea, $341 285.50. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor. Dicho remate se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer a la demandante el importe de la Sentencia por la suma de $58,353.97 de principal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 4% anual desde el 1 de noviembre de 2019 hasta su completo pago, más $488.49 de recargos acumulados, los cuales continuarán en aumento hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más la cantidad estipulada de

$6,857.10 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato del préstamo. Surge del Estudio de Título Registra! que sobre esta propiedad pesan los siguientes gravámenes posteriores a la hipoteca que por la presente se pretende ejecutar: a. Hipoteca: Constituida por Felícita Águeda Amézquita (soltera), en garantía de un pagaré a favor de Secretary of Housing & Urban Development, o a su orden, por las suma de $1,773.00, sin intereses y vencedero el 1 de junio de 2042, según consta de la escritura #691, otorgada en San Juan, el 26 de noviembre de 2018, ante el notario Roberto Varela Ríos, inscrita al Tomo Karibe de Toa Baja, finca #23342. Inscripción séptima (7ma). b. Aviso de Demanda: Pleito seguido por Banco Popular de Puerto Rico Vs. Felícita Águeda Amézquita (soltera), Estados Unidos de América Representado por el Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano (HUD), ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Bayamón, en el Caso Civil Número BY2022CV03750, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, en la que se reclama el pago de hipoteca, con un balance de $58,353.97 y otras cantidades¡ según Demanda de fecha de 22 de julio de 2022. Anotada al Tomo Karibe de Toa Baja. Anotación C. Se les advierte a los interesados que todos los documentos relacionados con la presente acción de ejecución de hipoteca, así como los de Subasta, estarán disponibles para ser examinados, durante horas laborables, en el expediente del caso que obra en los archivos de la Secretaría del Tribunal, bajo el número de epígrafe y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general en Puerto Rico por espacio de dos semanas y por lo menos una vez por semana; y para su fijación en los sitios públicos requeridos por ley. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes; entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate y que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores, tal como lo expresa la Ley Núm. 210-2015. Y para el conocimiento de los demandados, de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas y público en general, EXPIDO para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspon-

dientes, el presente Aviso de Pública Subasta en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy 17 de abril de 2023. EDGARDO ELÍAS VARGAS SANTANA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #193, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN, SALA SUPERIOR. ****

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CABO ROJO ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC, COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC

Demandante Vs. JOSÉ A. ACEVEDO IRIZARRY

Demandado

Civil Núm.: HO2022CV00062.

Salón: 0001. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.

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

A: JOSÉ A. ACEVEDO

IRIZARRY - CARR NUEVA

KM. 1.6 HORMIGUEROS, PR 00660-0394 / URB.

VILLA SERENA 103

CALLE GUAJATACA

SANTA ISABEL, PR 00757.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kevin Sánchez Campanero cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 009368518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kevin.sanchez@ orf-law.com, y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com.

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Cabo

Rojo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 9 de marzo de 2023. En Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, el 9 de marzo de 2023. LIC. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA REGIONAL II. MARÍA M. AVILÉS BONILLA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC. Demandante vs. SUCESION FELIX

SANCHEZ RODRIGUEZ COMPUESTA POR JOHN

DOE Y JANE DOE COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESION LUZ

ACEVEDO SANTA

COMPUESTA POR AIDA

ROSA MARTINEZ SANTA y ANGEL ACEVEDO SANTA; JOHN DOE

Y JANE DOE COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES Demandados

CIVIL NUM. CG2020CV00523

Sala 801 SOBRE: EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: ANGEL ACEVEDO SANTA; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO

POSIBLES MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN LUZ ACEVEDO SANTA

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al Tribunal su alegación responsiva a la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberé presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaria del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente.

Greenspoon Marder, LLP

Lcda. Frances L. Asencio-Guido R.U.A. 15,622 TRADE CENTRE SOUTH, SUITE 700 100 WEST CYPRESS CREEK ROAD FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33309

Telephone: (954) 343 6273

Frances.Asencio@gmlaw.com

Expedido bajo mi firma, y sello del Tribunal, en Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy día 26 de abril de 2023. Lisilda Martínez Agosto, Secretaria. Sandra J. Trinidad Cañuelas, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS CARMEN ISABEL FLORES LOPEZ Demandante Vs BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO, COMO SUCESOR EN INTERES DE DORAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION, JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE Demandado CIVIL NUM. CG2023CV00092. SOBRE: CANCELACION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE

EL(LA) SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe, le notifica a usted que el 25 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia o Sentencia Parcial en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia o Sentencia Parcial, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha 27 de abril de 2023. En en Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 27 de abril de 2023. Lisilda Martínez Agosto, Secretaria Regional Interina. Eneida Arroyo Vélez, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA

WILMINGTON SAVINGS

FUND SOCIETY FSB

NOT INDIVIDUALLY BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE FOR FINANCE OF AMERICA STRUCTURED SECURITIES

ACQUISITION TRUST

2019-HB1

Demandante V.

SUCESION HERMELINDA

PABON FERNANDEZ

T/C/C HERMELINDA

PABON COMPUESTA

POR CARMEN S. PEREZ

PABON, JOSE ANTONIO

PEREZ PABON, MARIA DE LOS ANGELES

PEREZ PABON, LUIS F. PEREZ PABON; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES Demandado(a)

CIVIL: CA2022CV01312. 401.

SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: LUIS F. PEREZ

PABON, JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN HERMELINDA

PABON HERNANDEZ

T/C/C HERMELINDA

PABON CARMEN S. PEREZ PABON, JOSE ANTONIO PEREZ PABON, MARIA DE LOS ANGELES

PEREZ PABON, LUIS F.

PEREZ PABON, JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que 26 de ABRIL de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 5 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se consi-

derará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 27 de ABRIL de 2023 . En CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, el 27 DE ABRIL de 2023. MARILYN APONTE RODRIGUEZ, Secretaria. KEILA GARCIA SOLIS, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO, Demandante v. LAURA BENITEZ QUILES, DORAL FINANCIAL CORPORATION h/n/c H.F. MORTGAGE BANKERS, JOHN DOE

Demandado(a) CIVIL: SJ2023CV01266. SALA: 802. SOBRE: CANCELACION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO POR LA VIA JUDICIAL. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE COMO TENEDOR DESCONOCIDO DEL PAGARÉ a favor de Doral Financial Corporation h/n/c H.F. Mortgage Bankers, o a su orden, por la suma $77,600.00, con intereses al 7.50% anual, vencedero el día 1 de junio de 2029, constituida mediante la escritura número 743, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 18 de mayo de 1999, ante el notario Luis A. Archilla Díaz, e al folio 154 del tomo 290 de Monacillos Este y el Cinco, finca número 5,197, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Quinta Sección de San Juan.5

(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 25 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia

Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 28 de abril de 2023. En SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, el 28 de abril de 2023. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, Secretaria. ELSIE PRATTS MELENDEZ, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

ELSA LOPEZ CRESPO

Demandante V. UNITED MORTGAGE CORPORATION, JUAN DEL PUEBLO Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO Y CUALESQUIER PERSONA

DESCONOCIDA CON POSIBLE INTERÉS EN LA OBLIGACIÓN CUYA CANCELACIÓN POR DECRETO JUDICIAL SE SOLICITA.

Demandados

CIVIL NÚM. GM2023CV00252

SOBRE: CANCELACION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: UNITED MORTGAGE CORPORA TION, JUAN Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO

Por la presente se le notifica que ha sido presentada en este Tribunal una Demanda en su contra en el pleito de epígrafe. En este caso la parte demandante ha radicado una Demanda para que se decrete judicialmente el saldo de un (1) pagaré hipotecario a favor de United Mortgage Corporation, por la suma de $15,650.00. El pagaré por fue suscrito el día 1ro de septiembre de 2012, ante el notario Jose Enrique Amador, garantizado por hipoteca constituida mediante la Escritura número 1292, inscrita al folio 133 del tomo 324 de Guayama, 3ra inscripción, sobre la siguiente propiedad: URBANA: Solar número quince (15), del Bloque HH de la Urbanización Costa Azul, situada en el barrio Machete del término municipal de Guayama, Puerto Rico, con área superficial de doscientos noventa y siete metros cuadrados; (297.00 m.c) En lindes por el NORTE, en once metros (11.00), con la Calle doce (12).

Por el SUR, en once metros (11.00), con el Solar número veinte (20), Por el ESTE en veintisiete metros (27) con el solar número catorce (14), Por el OESTE, en veintisiete metros (27), con el solar número dieciséis (16) de dicha urbanización. Enclava una casa dedicada a fines residenciales. FINCA: # 10853 Inscrita al folio 136 del tomo 324 de Guayama, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Guayama. La parte demandante alega que dicho pagaré ha sido saldado según más detalladamente consta en la Demanda radicada que puede examinarse en la Secretaría de este Tribunal. Por tratarse de una obligación hipotecaria y pudiendo usted tener interés en este caso o quedar afectado por el remedio solicitado, se le emplaza por este edicto que se publicará una vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de Puerto Rico. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, y notifique con copia de ella a la abogada de la parte demandante la Lcda. Zilmarie Delgado Pieras, 33 Calle Resolución, Suite 302, San Juan, PR 00920-2727; Tel. (787) 7826500, dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto, apercibiéndole que de no hacerlo así dentro del término indicado, el Tribunal podrá anotar su rebeldía y dictar sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado en la Demanda sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, en Guayama, Puerto Rico, hoy día 2 de mayo de 2023. Marisol Rosado Rodríguez, Secretaria Regional. Luz M. Guzmán Santiago, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA SALA

SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante vs LA SUCESIÓN DE MANUEL GONZÁLEZ RIVERA, T/C/C MANOLÍN GONZÁLEZ COMPUESTA POR FELÍCITA GONZÁLEZ VÁZQUEZ; FULANO DE TAL Y MENGANO DE TAL LOS POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA; DEPARTAMENTO DE

JUSTICIA

Parte Demandada

CASO NUM.: CG2022CV02105

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR LA VIA ORDINARIA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: LA SUCESIÓN DE MANUEL GONZÁLEZ RIVERA, T/C/C MANOLÍN GONZÁLEZ COMPUESTA

T/C/C CARMEN GLORIA

PADILLA HENÁNDEZ

COMPUESTA POR MARICARMEN

HERNANDEZ; MARILYN HERNANDEZ; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO

mino a aceptar o repudiar la herencia, la herencia se tendrá por aceptada. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal hoy 1 de mayo de 2023. Lcda. Laura I. Santa Sánchez, Secretaria Regional. Vivian J. Sanabria, Sub-Secretaria.

LEGAL NOTICE

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE COAMO FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO

POR

FULANO DE TAL Y MENGANO DE TAL LOS POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se les notifica la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 25 de abril de 2023 este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 2 de mayo de 2023. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, 2 de mayo de 2023. LISILDA

MARTINEZ AGOSTO, Secretaria Regional. FDO/ JESSENIA

PEDRAZA, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA DE BAYAMON

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC

Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE JUAN

ANTONIO HERNANDEZ

ACEVEDO T/C/C JUAN A.

HENANDEZ COMPUESTA

POR MARICARMEN

HERNANDEZ; MARILYN

HERNANDEZ; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN

GLORIA PADILLA

PACHECO T/C/C

CARMEN G. PADILLA,

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS

MUNICIPALES; Y LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA Demandados

CIVIL NÚM.: BY2023CV00715

SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA IN REM. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO E INTERPELACION. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: SUCESIÓN DE JUAN

ANTONIO HERNANDEZ

ACEVEDO T/C/C

JUAN A. HERNANDEZ

COMPUESTA POR:

FULANO DE TAL Y

SUTANO DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; Y

SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN

GLORIA PADILLA

PACHECO T/C/C

CARMEN G. PADILLA, T/C/C CARMEN GLORIA

PADILLA HERNÁNDEZ

COMPUESTA POR:

FULANO DE TAL Y

SUTANO DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS.

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 $152,000.00, con intereses computados sobre la misma desde su fecha hasta su total y completo pago a razón de la tasa de interés de 3.571 % anual, la cual será ajustada mensualmente, obligándose además al pago de costas, gastos y desembolsos del litigio, más honorarios de abogados en una suma de $15,200 equivalente al 10% de la suma principal original. Este pagaré fue suscrito bajo el affidávit número 14,551, ante el notario Raul Rivera Burgos. Lo anterior surge de la hipoteca constituida

mediante la escritura número 672 otorgada el 12 de junio de 2009, ante el mismo notario público, inscrita al folio 51 del tomo 686 de Bayamón Sur, finca número 31,576, inscripción 6ta. La Hipoteca Revertida grava la propiedad que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar veintisiete, manzana P, Bayamón Gardens Extensión, Pájaros de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, con cabida de trescientos quince metros cuadrados, lindes: por el NORTE, con Solar veintiocho, distancia de dieciocho metros; por el SUR, con solar veintiséis en igual distancia; por el ESTE, con solares veinticuatro y veinticinco, distancia de diecisiete metros y cincuenta centímetros; y por el OESTE, con Calle C, en igual distancia. Contiene una casa de concreto para una familia. Se apercibe 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.ramajudicial. 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, Región Judicial de Carolina, Sala de Carolina, y notificar copia de la contestación de esta a la parte demandante por conducto de su abogada, GLS LEGAL SERVICES, LLC, Atención: Lcda. Genevieve López Stipes, Dirección: P.O. Box 367308, San Juan, P.R. 00936-7308, Teléfono: 787-758-6550, dentro de los próximos sesenta (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 anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia, concediendo el remedio solicitando en la Demanda sin más citarle ni oírle. Vista la interpelación judicial presentada por la parte demandante al amparo del Articulo 1578 del Código Civil de Puerto Rico se ordena a Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como miembros de nombres desconocidos de la Sucesión de Juan

Antonio Hernandez Acevedo

t/c/c Juan A. Hernandez y la Sucesión de Carmen Gloria

Padilla Pacheco t/c/c Carmen

G. Padilla, t/c/c Carmen Gloria

Padilla Hernández que notifiquen si aceptan o repudian la herencia de la causante dentro del plazo de 30 días contados a partir de la notificación de la orden. Se le apercibe que de no comparecer en dicho ter-

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE FUNDING, LLC

Demandante V. MIGUEL A. CORREA RIVERA

Demandado(a)

Civil: YB2022CV00100. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: MIGUEL A. CORREA RIVERA:

A SU DIRECCIÓN CONOCIDA:HC 5 BOX 4990 YABUCOA PR 00767-9664, BDA. MARTORRELL, CARR. 3R 904 PARC 261, YABUCOA, P.R. 00767; P/C LIC. EDWIN OMAR SERRANO PEÑA.

(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 27 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 28 de abril de 2023. En HUMACAO, Puerto Rico, el 28 de abril de 2023. Ivelisse C. Fonseca Rodríguez, Secretaria. Ileanette Rivas Serrano, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

Parte Demandante Vs. RAMON RIVERA SANTOS Y CALIXTA CARDONA RODRIGUEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCILES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: B2CI2016-00728. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA “IN REM”. ANUNCIO DE SUBASTA. El suscribiente, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Coamo, a los demandados de epígrafe y al público en general hace saber que venderá en pública subasta en la Oficina de Alguaciles, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Humacao, al mejor postor, en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América en efectivo, cheque certificado, o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, el derecho que tenga la parte demandada en el inmueble que se relaciona más adelante para pagar la SENTENCIA por $59,451.64 de balance principal, los intereses adeudados sobre dicho principal y computados al 4% anual hasta su total pago y completo pago desde el primero de marzo de 2016; cargos por demora devengados, más la suma de $7,676.00 estipulada para honorarios de abogado pactada en la escritura de hipoteca y cualesquiera otras sumas que por cualesquiera concepto legal se devenguen hasta el día de la subasta. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBANA: Parcela de terreno en la Urbanización “Extensión Jardines de Coamo”, situada en el Barrio San Ildefonso del término municipal de Coamo, marcada con el número cuatro (4) del bloque “P”, con un área superficial de doscientos noventa y tres punto setenta y cinco metros cuadrados (293.75). En lindes por el Norte, en veinticinco metros (25.00) con el solar numero tres (3) del bloque P, por el Sur, en veinticinco metros (25.00) con el solar número cinco (5) del bloque P, por el Este, en once punto setenta y cinco metros (11.75) con la calle numero veinticinco (25), y por el Oeste, en once punto setenta y cinco metros (11.75) con solares dieciséis (16) y diecisiete (17) el bloque P. Enclava casa. Inscrita al folio ciento uno (101) del tomo ciento cuarenta y siete (147) de Coamo, finca numero ocho mil trescientos noventa y seis (8396), Registro de Barranquitas. Dirección Física:

Extensión Jardines de Coamo, P4, Calle 25, Coamo, PR 00769-2140. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a cabo el día 15 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA y servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la suma de $76,760.00 sin admitirse oferta inferior. En el caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en la primera subasta, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 22 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 2:00 DE LA TARDE, y el precio mínimo para esta segunda subasta será el de dos terceras partes del precio mínimo establecido para la primera subasta, o a sea la suma de $51,173.33. Si tampoco hubiera remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 29 de junio de 2023, a la 2:00 de la tarde, y el tipo mínimo para esta tercera subasta será la mitad del precio establecido para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $38,380.00. El mejor postor deberá pagar el importe de su oferta en efecto, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse el inmueble al acreedor hipotecario dentro de los diez días siguientes a la fecha de la última subasta, si así lo estimase conveniente, por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada conforme a la sentencia, si ésta fuera igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta y abonándose dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta fuera mayor. Se avisa a cualquier licitador que la propiedad queda sujeta al gravamen del Estado Libre Asociado y CRIM sobre la propiedad inmueble por contribuciones adeudadas y que el pago de dichas contribuciones es la responsabilidad del licitador. Que se entenderá por todo licitador acepte como suficiente la titulación y que los cargos y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes en entendiéndose que el rematador los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse su extinción al precio rematante. Todos los nombres de los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, siempre que surgen

de la certificación registral, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Y para conocimiento de licitadores, del público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria en Puerto Rico y en los sitios públicos de acuerdo a las disposiciones de la Regla 51.7 de las de Procedimiento Civil, así como para la publicación en un periódico de circulación general diaria y en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas con antelación a la fecha de la primera subasta y por lo menos una vez por semana. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento indicado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables. (Art. 102 (1) de la Ley núm. 210-2015). Expedido el presente en Coamo, Puerto Rico, a 26 de abril de 2023. RODOLFO

LARA MARTÍNEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #321, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE COAMO.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

GITSIT SOLUTIONS, LLC.

Parte Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE NELLY

CELESTE FIGUEROA

CORTÉS T/C/C NELLIE

CELESTE FIGUEROA

CORTÉS T/C/C NELLIE

C. FIGUEROA CORTÉS

T/C/C NELLIE FIGUEROA

CORTÉS COMPUESTA

POR NEFTALÍ ROSADO

GARCÍA POR SÍ Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA;

Y SANDRA ROSADO

FIGUEROA COMO HEREDEROS CONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN; FULANO DE TAL, FULANA DE TAL, ZUTANO DE TAL, ZUTANA DE TAL, HEREDEROS A,B, Y C COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN; HONORABLE SECRETARIO DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA DEL ESTADO LIBRE

ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO; HONORABLE SECRETARIO DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE JUSTICIA DEL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: SJ2018CV11194. (604). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO; EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. A: SUCESIÓN DE NELLY CELESTE FIGUEROA CORTÉS T/C/C NELLIE CELESTE FIGUEROA CORTÉS T/C/C NELLIE C. FIGUEROA CORTÉS T/C/C NELLIE FIGUEROA CORTÉS COMPUESTA POR NEFTALÍ ROSADO GARCÍA POR SÍ Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA; FULANO DE TAL, FULANA DE TAL, ZUTANO DE TAL, ZUTANA DE TAL, HEREDEROS A,B, Y C COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN. LA SECRETARIA que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 27 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 60 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 28 de abril de 2023. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 28 de abril de 2023. Griselda Rodríguez Collado, Secretaria Regional. Elsa Magaly Candelario Cabrera, Secretaria Auxiliar Del Tribunal I.

LA

SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE

GANANCIALES

COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Peticionarios

Ex-parte

Caso Núm.: CU2023CV00008.

Sobre: EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO. EDICTO. ESTADOS

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

A: PERSONAS IGNORADAS O DESCONOCIDAS A QUIENES PUEDA PERJUDICAR LA INSCRIPCIÓN SOLICITADA, LOS QUE ESTÁN AUSENTES, PERO DE NO ESTARLO DEBÍAN SER CITADOS EN PERSONA Y CUYO PARADERO SE DESCONOCE; Y, PERSONAS CON ALGÚN DERECHO REAL SOBRE LA FINCA OBJETO DEL PROCEDIMIENTO.

POR CUANTO: Ha presentado la Lcda. Josephine M. Rodríguez Ríos, con oficina en la el número 6 de la Celis Aguilera, Suite 201A, Fajardo, PR; PO Box 889, Fajardo, Puerto Rico 00738, con teléfono 787-4035056, una solicitud a nombre de los peticionarios para que se inscriba a su favor el dominio del siguiente inmueble: “URBANA: Solar localizado en la calle Escudero, también conocida como la Carretera Estatal número 250, Km. 1.1 de la Comunidad Rural Clark en El Barrio Pueblo Municipio de Culebra, con una cabida superficial de 779.57 metros cuadrados, equivalentes a 0.1983 cuerdas. En lindes, por el NORTE, en 41.803 metros, con JJRG LLC; por el SUR, con Casa Blanca RIAD VI Inc en 21.919 metros y con Luis M. Santana Rodríguez en 21.135 metros lineales; por el ESTE, en 13.186 metros con Luis M. Santana Rodríguez y, en 10.365 metros, con la Carr. 250; y por el OESTE con Jesús Sanes González, en 24.705 metros lineales.” Valor de ochenta mil dólares ($80,000.00). POR TANTO:

Habiendo ordenado el Honorable Juez de esta Corte se publique este Edicto tres (3) veces, dentro del término de veinte (20) días en un periódico de circulación general, para que los que tengan derecho real sobre este inmueble y en especial Gloribel Torres Sanes y Eric Omar Monell Sanes como anteriores dueños, persona ausentes, personas con algún derecho real sobre el inmueble, personas ignoradas a quienes pueda perjudicar la inscripción

solicitada y en general, todo el que desee o quiera oponerse pueda efectuarlo dentro del término de Veinte (20) días a partir de la última publicación de este edicto, libro el presente en Fajardo, Puerto Rico, a 1 de mayo de 2023. Wanda I. Seguí Reyes, Secretaria Regional.

Kathia Ferrer Figueroa, Secretaria Auxiliar Del Tribunal I.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

GOBIERNO MUNICIPAL AUTÓNOMO DE FAJARDO, REPRESENTADO POR SU ALCALDE, JOSÉ A.

MELÉNDEZ MÉNDEZ

Demandante v. ADQUISICION DE FINCA

3,431 DE LA CALLE AMPARO DEL TÉRMINO

MUNICIPAL DE FAJARDO LORENZO VAZQUEZ BALLORIS ET ALS

Demandado(a)

CIVIL: NÚM. FA2022CV01080

SOBRE: EXPROPIACION

FORZOSA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: LORENZO VAZQUEZ BALLORIS, MARIA ESTHER DIAZ COLÓN Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES

COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS. 169 CALLE

AMPARO, FAJARDO PR 00738 Y/O 170 CALLE

AMPARO, FAJARDO PR 00738.

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

de este caso, con fecha de 28 de abril de 2023. En FAJARDO, Puerto Rico, el 28 de abril de 2023. Wanda Segui Reyes, Secretaria Regional. Linda I. Medina Medina, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE FAJARDO MIGUEL ANGEL MÉNDEZ CRESPO

Demandante V. OSCAR LAFONTAINE, FULANO DE TAL

Demandado(a)

Civil: FA2022CV01214. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: OSCAR LAFONTAINE: CONDOMINIO SANDY HILLS OESTE, APARTAMENTO 11-C-II, LUQUILLO, PR 00773; FULANO DE TAL: DIRECCIÓN DESCONOCIDA O SEA, LA PARTE CODEMANDADA ARRIBA MENCIONADA.

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 27 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 01 de mayo de 2023.

En Fajardo, Puerto Rico, el 01 de mayo de 2023. WANDA I. SEGUÍ REYES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. SHEILA ROBLES HERNÁNDEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

ORIENTAL BANK

Demandante Vs. SUCESION DE GREGORIO ANGULO RIVERA Y LYDIA

ESTHER ROSA RIVERA, COMPUESTAS POR SUS

HIJA JESSICA ANGULO ROSA; FULANO DE TAL Y ZUTANO DE TAL, COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS CON POSIBLE INTERÉS DE AMBAS SUCESIONES; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (“CRIM”)

Demandados

Civil Núm.: CG2022CV00672. (701). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO (EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA). EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL.

A: SUCESION DE GREGORIO ANGULO RIVERA Y LYDIA

ESTHER ROSA RIVERA, COMPUESTAS POR SUS

HIJA JESSICA ANGULO ROSA; FULANO DE TAL Y ZUTANO DE TAL, COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS CON POSIBLE INTERÉS DE AMBAS SUCESIONES; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (“CRIM”)

Yo, EDGARDO ALDEBOL MIRANDA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, Alguacil de este Tribunal, a la parte demandada y a los acreedores y personas con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, HAGO SABER: Que el día 30 DE MAYO DE 2023 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas, Caguas, Puerto Rico, venderé en Pública Subasta la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria al mejor postor quien hará el pago en dinero en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del o la Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal de Caguas durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el día 6 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS

9:30 DE LA MAÑANA y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 13 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número Cuarenta y Seis (46) del Bloque R guión Trece (R-13) de la URBANIZACIÓN TURABO GARDENS, radicado en el Barrio Cañaboncito del término municipal de Caguas, Puerto Rico, con una cabida de TRESCIENTOS DOCE PUNTO CERO CERO (312.00) METROS CUADRADOS. En lindes: por el NORTE, en veinticuatro punto cero cero (24.00) metros, con el solar número Cuarenta y Cinco (45); por el SUR, en veinticuatro punto cero cero (24.00) metros, con el solar número Cuarenta y Siete (47); por el ESTE, en trece punto cero cero (13.00) metros, con la Avenida Shuford; y por el OESTE, en trece punto cero cero (13.00) metros, con la Calle “A”. Contiene una casa de concreto reforzado diseñada para una familia. La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al folio 31 del tomo 1744 de Caguas, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección Primera, finca número 22,077, inscripción décima. La dirección física de la propiedad antes descrita es: Urbanización Turabo Gardens III, Calle A (antes 34), R13-46, Caguas, Puerto Rico. La subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $97,281.23 de principal, intereses al 5.00% anual, desde el día 1ro. de agosto de 2021, hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad de $12,460.00, por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más recargos acumulados, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será la suma de $124,600.00 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima será equivalente a 2/3 partes de aquella, o sea, la suma de $83,066.67 y de ser necesaria una tercera subasta, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado, es decir, la suma de $62,300.00. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en el momento de la adjudicación y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos,

sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser vendida en pública subasta se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en Caguas, Puerto Rico, a 27 de abril de 2023. Edgardo Aldebol Miranda, Alguacil Auxiliar, Alguacil Del Tribunal, Sala Superior De Caguas.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. ZULEIKA MARÍN QUILES

Demandado(a)

Civil: HU2022CV00733. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA, COBRO DE DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: ZULEIKA MARÍN

QUILES A SUS DIRECCIONES

CONOCIDAS: Q-14 CITY

PALACE II DEV. RIO

WARD, NAGUABO, PR 00718, 4241 DESERT ROSE AVE. KISSIMMEE, FL 34746-2321 P/C LCDO.

GUILLERMO A. SOMOZA COLOMBANI.

(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 02 de mayo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 03 de mayo de 2023. En HUMACAO, Puerto Rico, el 03 de mayo de 2023. Ivelisse C. Fonseca Rodríguez, Secretaria. Michelle

Guevara De León, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN GERMAN COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CREDITO DE RINCON

Demandante V. ELVIN SEPULVEDA IRIZARRY

Demandado(a)

CIVIL: SG2021CV00189 SOBRE: COBRO DE DINEROORDINARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: ELVIN SEPULVEDA IRIZARRY (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que 21 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 27 de abril de 2023. En SAN GERMAN, Puerto Rico, el 27 de abril de 2023. LCDA. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, Secretaria. F/ LYDIA SANTIAGO MORALES, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

SAN CARLOS MORTGAGE, LLC

Demandante Vs. MARIE IVETTE GRAU

GRAU

Demandada

Civil Núm.: CCD2014-0427. (302). Sobre: Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria “IN REM”. EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: Público en General.

A: MARIE IVETTE GRAU GRAU; DEPARTAMENTO DE LA VIVIENDA, por tener Hipoteca en Garantía de Pagaré a su favor por la suma de $40,000.00.

Yo, ÁNGEL DE JESUS TORRES PÉREZ, Alguacil de este Tribunal, a la parte demandada y a los acreedores y personas con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, HAGO SABER: Que el día 23 DE MAYO DE 2023 A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Arecibo, Arecibo, Puerto Rico, venderé en Pública Subasta la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria al mejor postor quien hará el pago en dinero en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del o la Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal de Arecibo durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el día 31 DE MAYO DE 2023 A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA; y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 7 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: Apartamento número Dos Mil Seiscientos Uno (2601). Cabida: CIENTO DIEZ PUNTO OCHENTA Y SEIS (110.86) METROS CUADRADOS. URBANA: Propiedad Horizontal: Apartamento residencial localizado en el primer piso (segundo nivel) del Edificio “E” del Condominio “Marina IV de Barceloneta”, sito en el Barrio Pueblo del término municipal de Barceloneta, Puerto Rico. Área aproximada de OCHOCIENTOS NOVENTA Y CINCO PUNTO NOVECIENTOS CUARENTA Y UNO (895.941) PIES CUADRADOS, equivalentes a OCHENTA Y TRES PUNTO VEINTISIETE (83.27) METROS CUADRADOS. En lindes: por el NORTE, en veintiún pies con tres pulgadas (21’ 3”), con la Calle Unión; por el SUR, en veintiún pies con tres pulgadas (21’ 3”), con área de estacionamiento; por el ESTE, en cuarenta y seis pies con cuatro pulgadas (46’ 4”), con áreas comunes, pasillo y escalera; y por el OESTE, en

cuarenta y seis pies con dos pulgadas (46’ 2”) con el apartamento número Dos Mil Setecientos Uno (2701). Consta de sala comedor, cocina, balcón, tres dormitorios, dos baños, roperos (“closets”) y área de lavandería (“laundry”). Le pertenece el uso exclusivo como elemento privado: dos espacios de estacionamiento, identificados con el número Dos Mil Seiscientos Uno (2601) en el área descubierta del estacionamiento y en el “Plot Plan”, con una cabida superficial de Doscientos Noventa y Siete punto Cero Uno (297.01) pies cuadrados, equivalentes a Veintisiete punto Cincuenta y Nueve (27.59) metros cuadrados, siendo sus colindancias: por el NORTE, con áreas comunes y áreas verdes; por el SUR, con área de rodaje; por el ESTE, con el estacionamiento Dos Mil Quinientos Uno (2501); y por el OESTE, con el estacionamiento Dos Mil Setecientos Uno (2701). El área total de este apartamento, incluyendo el estacionamiento privado es de Mil Ciento Noventa y Dos punto Novecientos Cincuenta y Un (1,192.951) pies cuadrados, equivalentes a Ciento Diez punto Ochenta y Seis (110.86) metros cuadrados. Su puerta principal de entrada está situada en su lindero Este. Este apartamento tiene una participación en los elementos comunes generales de uno punto seiscientos treinta y tres porciento (1.633%). La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al Sistema Karibe de Barceloneta, Registro de la Propiedad de Manatí, finca número 16,047, inscripción segunda. La dirección física de la propiedad antes descrita es: Condominio Marina IV, Apartamento 2601, Barceloneta, Puerto Rico. La subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $92,802.86 de principal, intereses a 4.50% anual, desde el día 1ro. de diciembre de 2013, hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad de $9,760.00, estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más recargos acumulados, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será la suma de $97,600.00 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima será equivalente a 2/3 partes de aquella, o sea, la suma de $65,066.67 y de ser necesaria una tercera subasta, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado, es decir, la suma de $48,800.00. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en

el momento de la adjudicación y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad hipotecada a ser vendida en pública Subasta se encuentra afecta al siguiente gravamen posterior: Hipoteca en Garantía de Pagaré a favor del Departamento de la Vivienda, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $40,000.00, sin intereses, vencedero en 10 años, según consta de la Escritura Número 82, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 27 de diciembre de 2010, ante el Notario Público Miguel Bauzá Rolón; inscrita al tomo Karibe de Barceloneta, Registro de la Propiedad de Manatí, finca 16,047, inscripción 3ra. y última. La propiedad a ser vendida en pública subasta se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en Arecibo, Puerto Rico, a 3 de mayo de 2023. Ángel De Jesús Torres Pérez, Alguacil, Tribunal De Primera Instancia, Sala Superior De Arecibo.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE PONCE BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. EDWIN RODRIGUEZ

RODRIGUEZ, DAMARIS SUHAIL VELAZCO

VARGAS, SOCIEDAD DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS, ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA

Demandado(a)

Civil: GU2022CV00047. 406.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: EDWIN RODRIGUEZ

RODRÍGUEZ POR SI Y EN REP DE LA SOCIEDAD DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA CON

DAMARIS SUHAIL

VELAZCO VARGAS. P/C

LCDO. GUILLERMO A.

SOMOZA COLOMBANI, PO BOX 366603, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, 00936-6603.

(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 16 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 03 de mayo de 2023. PONCE, Puerto Rico, el 03 de mayo de 2023. Carmen G. Tirú Quiñones, Secretaria. Ereina Agront León, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

ORIENTAL BANK

Demandante V. HECTOR ALBIZU ROSARIO

Demandado(a)

Civil: SJ2022CV10151. Sala:

802. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: HECTOR ALBIZU ROSARIO.

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

de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 27 de abril de 2023. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 27 de abril de 2023. Griselda Rodríguez Collado, Secretaria. Elsie Pratts Meléndez, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

GOBIERNO DE PUERTO

RICO DEPARTAMENTO DE ESTADO. NOMBRE COMERCIAL PARA REGISTRAR.

AVISO. A QUIEN PUEDA INTERESAR: De acuerdo con las disposiciones de la Ley Núm. 75 del 23 de septiembre de 1992, según enmendada, mejor conocida como la Ley de Nombres Comerciales del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y la Sección 24 del Reglamento promulgado bajo la ley citada anteriormente, el siguiente nombre comercial ha sido presentado en el Departamento de Estado de Puerto Rico para su archivo y registro.

DON CHUITO’S DRIVING SCHOOL

Número de Expediente: 250764-99-0. Propietario: Luis Roberto Estremera Santiago. Dirección: Urb Bonneville Heights calle Aguas Buenas #64 Caguas, PR 00725. Actividad Empresarial: Ensenar a manejar vehículos de motor, transacciones relacionadas para las personas obtener licencia de conducir y chofer de Puerto Rico, y renta de vehículo para personas obtener su licencia de conducir y chofer de Puerto Rico. Renuncia a elementos no registrables: Driving School. NOTIFICACIÓN: Cualquier oposición a este registro deberá presentarse en el Departamento de Estado de Puerto Rico dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este aviso.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. LUIS RUBÉN CASTRO

AQUINO T/C/C LUIS

CASTRO AQUINO; MARITZA CASTRO AQUINO; CARLOS SOBET GUERRIDO

Demandados

Civil Núm.: TB2019CV00382.

Sala: 504. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. AVISO DE SUBASTA. El

que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior, Centro Judicial de Bayamón, Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hago saber, a la parte demandada y al PUBLICO EN GENERAL: Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el día 12 de abril de 2023, por la Secretaria del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor la propiedad que ubica y se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar número once del Bloque FD en la Urbanización Levittown en el Barrio Sabana Seca de Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, con un área de trescientos sesenticinco metros cuadrados con treinta y siete centímetros cuadrados en lindes por el NORTE, en veintitrés metros con el solar número doce; por el SUR, en diecinueve metros cincuenta centímetros y arco de dos metros setecientos cuarenta y nueve milímetros con Ramon Marín; por el ESTE, en doce metros cincuenta centímetros y arco de dos metros setecientos cuarenta y nueve milímetros con Ramon Marín; y por el OESTE, en dieciséis metros con el solar número diez. Contiene una casa de cemento, diseñada para una familia construida de acuerdo con los planos y especificaciones aprobado por la Administración Federal de Hogares y otras agencias gubernamentales. Inscrita al folio 211 del tomo 178 de Toa Baja, finca número 10,528. Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección II de Bayamón. La propiedad ubica según pagaré en: 11 FD Ramón Marín St. Urb. Levittown, Sexta Unidad de Planificación Barrio Sabana Seca, Toa Baja, PR. El producto de la subasta se destinará a satisfacer al demandante hasta donde alcance, la SENTENCIA dictada a su favor, el día 27 de febrero de 202 y notificada el 1 de marzo de 2023, en el presente caso civil, a saber la suma de $144,491.37 por concepto de principal; generando intereses a razón de 6.50% desde el 1ro de noviembre de 2018; cargos por demora los cuales al igual que los intereses continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda reclamada en este pleito, y la suma de $18,915.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; y demás créditos accesorios garantizados hipotecariamente La adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el acto mismo de la adjudicación, en efectivo (moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América), giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del alguacil del Tribunal. LA PRIMERA subasta se llevará a efecto el día 13 DE

JUNIO DE 2023 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el cuarto piso, Oficina de Alguaciles de Subastas de Centro Judicial de Bayamón, Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Que el precio mínimo fijado para la PRIMERA SUBASTA es de $189,150.00. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una SEGUNDA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día 20 DE JUNIO DE 2023 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la SEGUNDA SUBASTA será de $126,100.00, equivalentes a dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una TERCERA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día 27 DE JUNIO DE 2023 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la TERCERA SUBASTA será de $94,575.00, equivalentes a la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente; se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor, todo ello a tenor con lo dispone el Articulo 104 de la Ley Núm. 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015 conocida como “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico”. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquiere libre de toda carga y gravamen que afecte la mencionada finca según el Artículo 102, inciso 6. Una vez confirmada la venta judicial por el Honorable Tribunal, se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura de venta judicial y se pondrá al comprador en posesión física del inmueble de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda aquella persona o personas que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de todos los licitadores y el público en general, el presente Edicto se publicará por espacio de dos (2) semanas consecutivas, con un intervalo de por lo menos siete días entre ambas publicaciones, en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y se fijará además en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse dicha venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Se les informa, por último, que: a. Que los autos y todos los documen-

tos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la secretaría del tribunal durante las horas laborables. b. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. EXPIDO, el presente EDICTO, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 25 de abril de 2023. Maribel Lanzar Velázquez, Alguacil Placa #735, Alguacil De La División De Subastas, Tribunal De Primera Instancia, Sala Superior De Bayamón.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Demandante V. MERCEDES TORRES

AMENABAR, FULANO DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS

Demandado(a)

Civil: AR2022CV02261. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO (VÍA ORDINARIA). NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. A: MERCEDES TORRES AMENABAR, FULANO DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS. (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 19 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se

considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 26 de abril de 2023. En Manatí, Puerto Rico, el 26 de abril de 2023. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA. CARMEN J. ROSARIO VALENTÍN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

T & A PROPERTIES, LNC. Demandante v. BANCO SANTANDER PUERTO RICO; FIRST BANK DE PUERTO RICO COMO SUCESOR EN DERECHOS DE BANCO SANTANDER PUERTO RICO; TENEDOR DE PAGARÉ X Y TENEDOR DE PAGARÉ Y. Demandado(a)

CIVIL: GB2023CV00014 SALA 202 SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: BANCO SANTANDER PUERTO RICO, TENEDOR DE PAGARÉ “X” Y TENEDOR DE PAGARÉ “Y”

(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 25 de abril de 2023 este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 1 de mayo de 2023. En Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, el 1 de mayo de 2023. Lcda. Laura Santa Sánchez, Secretaria. F/Brenda Zamot Salgado, Secretaria Auxiliar.

FIFA threatens Women’s World Cup TV blackout in Europe

By TARIQ PANJA and ANDREW DAS

The president of soccer’s global governing body earlier this week harshly criticized European broadcasters for not meeting FIFA’s demands for significantly higher television rights fees for this summer’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. If the offers did not improve, he threatened, the tournament’s matches would not be televised in many of Europe’s biggest markets.

“It is our moral and legal obligation not to undersell the FIFA Women’s World Cup,” the president, Gianni Infantino, said in an appearance at the World Trade Organization in Geneva on Tuesday. “Therefore, should the offers continue not to be fair, we will be forced not to broadcast the FIFA Women’s World Cup into the ‘Big 5’ European countries,” he added. That group includes England, Germany, France, Spain and Italy — all of which will send teams to the tournament.

Reeling off unverifiable figures, Infantino labeled the offers for the World Cup rights “a slap in the face” not only to the World Cup’s players but to women generally.

The comments escalated a fight Infantino opened last year, when he and FIFA rejected initial offers for rights to the women’s championship from several countries as far too low. At the time, he framed the battle as one over fairness, and he has since positioned himself as a champion of women’s soccer by increasing prize money for this year’s tournament and pledging to equalize it with the men’s World Cup by 2027.

But he will need hundreds of millions of dollars from broadcasters and sponsors to fulfill those promises, and his threat that the games might not be broadcast in Europe — a major driver of the growth of the women’s game — comes with serious risks.

With little over two months to go until the start of the tournament in Australia and New Zealand and little sign of an accord, the dispute risks overshadowing the biggest Women’s World Cup yet. FIFA has expanded the event to 32 teams

for the first time as a sign of its commitment to grow the women’s game, and it has increased the prize money for players and the support money for participating teams to $150 million, a fivefold increase from the last tournament, which was held in France in 2019.

Infantino had hoped that much of that commitment would be financed by higher rights fees from international broadcasters. But in a rebuke to media companies both at the World Cup draw in Auckland last year and at FIFA’s annual meeting in March in Rwanda, he said that was not the case. Each time, he lashed out at the television companies for not paying more for a product that, he said, viewership figures had proved was increasingly popular.

With little movement since then, he took an even tougher line in his latest comments.

“I call, therefore, on all players, fans, football officials, presidents, prime ministers, politicians and journalists all over the world to join us and support this call for a fair remuneration of women’s foot-

ball,” he said, repeating his remarks on his Instagram account. “Women deserve it. As simple as that.”

While women’s soccer in the United States — where a TV deal is in place — and in Europe has enjoyed greater investment and viewership in recent years, figures for even its biggest games are often significantly lower than for comparable men’s soccer games, and less attractive matches sometimes struggle to attract even in-stadium audiences. Broadcasters also appear to be taking a cautious stance on assigning a value to Women’s World Cup rights that have never previously been on the market. This year is the first time FIFA has decoupled the women’s tournament from the men’s; previously, the women’s rights were bundled as an extra in the bidding for the men’s World Cup rights.

Acknowledging that playing the tournament in Australia and New Zealand might be a factor for broadcasters in Europe, Infantino nonetheless said the sums currently being offered for the tournament were a fraction of what FIFA

considers its true value. He noted that while viewing figures for the women’s tournament are 50% to 60% of those for the men’s World Cup, the amounts offered for the women’s games have been much lower than that: In Europe alone, he said, they were “20 to 100 times lower than for the men’s FIFA World Cup.”

“Whereas broadcasters pay $100200 million for the men’s FIFA World Cup,” Infantino said, “they offer only $110 million for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. This is a slap in the face of all the great FIFA Women’s World Cup players and indeed of all women worldwide.”

There has been a substantial interest in women’s soccer in Britain, Europe’s biggest market, which peaked when England beat Germany to win the European championship on home soil last year. That final was played in front of a packed Wembley Stadium and watched by more than 17 million on television, the highest audience for a televised women’s game in Britain. The figure for the final represented 35% of the total global audience for the game, according to data from European soccer’s governing body.

The same data, though, highlights how certain women’s games in certain markets draw large audiences but highlights concerns among broadcasters over viewing figures for games not featuring premium teams in a tournament that will feature more games than ever. According to news media reports, the BBC and ITV — the two main British broadcasters — have offered about 9 million pounds ($11.2 million) for the World Cup rights, the highest among European broadcasters. The offer from Italy is about $1 million.

The inability of FIFA and broadcasters to reach rights agreements in the next two months does not necessarily mean the games will be unavailable to fans in Europe. FIFA officials have previously spoken about possible alternatives, including airing the games on its own streaming platform or on FIFA’s YouTube channel. Such a move would carry its own risks, however, both by reducing viewing figures and revenue for an event — and a sport — that FIFA has a stated commitment to grow.

Gianni Infantino called offers for the rights to the Women’s World Cup “a slap in the face” to women.

Looking to the future, Japan would say goodbye to its baseball past

By JOSHUA MELLIN

Over a span of nearly 100 years, Meiji Jingu Stadium in central Tokyo has been the scene of numerous important events. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played there on a barnstorming tour, novelist Haruki Murakami was inspired by a trip to the stadium to write his first novel and just last year Munetaka Murakami of the Yakult Swallows hit a record-breaking home run into the stadium’s stands.

An ambitious redevelopment plan, however, would have the stadium razed and replaced with a modern facility. The plan has come under intense scrutiny from disparate groups that include fans of baseball history, followers of the country’s rugby history and conservationists who are concerned about how the various projects would affect the Jingu Gaien district, a historic green space that features century-old trees provided by industrialist Shibusawa Eiichi, known by some as the father of Japanese capitalism.

“This is like building skyscrapers in the middle of Central Park in New York,” Mikiko Ishikawa, an emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo, told The Associated Press of the redevelopment plan. “Tokyo would lose its soul.”

Part of that soul lies in Meiji Jingu, Japan’s second-oldest baseball stadium to Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya. The ballparks are Nippon Professional Baseball’s answers to Major League Baseball’s Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago.

In the redevelopment plan, Meiji Jingu Stadium and a neighboring venue, the Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, which opened in 1947 and was used as a soccer venue during the 1964 Summer Olympics, would be demolished in phases. The new versions of the two stadiums would swap locations.

The goal of the project is to modernize the various facilities involved, which are far out of date, and to create a better environment for moving between the stadiums. Open spaces would be created and enlarged and

the hope is that it would be a hub for tourism and for people to enjoy the various sporting events that would be held there. The entire project, which includes skyscrapers and a hotel, is scheduled to be completed by 2036.

At that point it will have been just over 100 years since a lineup of MLB stars played five games at Meiji Jingu during a tour of Japan in 1934. Ruth put on a show by hitting 13 home runs, five of them in Meiji Jingu. The ripples of that tour are still felt, as the Japanese team compiled to take on the Americans went on to form the Yomiuri Giants, a team that would dominate NPB.

Forty-four years later, Haruki Murakami was in the stadium’s bleachers having a beer when he was so inspired by “the satisfying crack when the bat met the ball” that he purchased a pen and paper on his way home and immediately began writing the novel “Hear the Wind Sing.”

In 2022, it was Munetaka Murakami (no relation to Haruki) who took a turn making history, slugging his 56th homer of the year at the park and breaking Sadaharu Oh’s single-season record for a Japanese-born player.

Beyond the stadium’s history, the

plans have raised concerns because the relocations would have the new baseball stadium run adjacent to a notable avenue of century-old ginkgo trees that are celebrated with an annual fall festival.

The New Jingu Gaien planning website promises to “preserve the four rows of ginkgo trees and pass on to future generations the beautiful scenery with a good view of the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery.”

But the Japanese ICOMOS National Committee, which consists of a panel of experts involved in cultural heritage preservation, says the plan does not properly address the tree line nor offer scientific data about the issue.

Rochelle Kopp, a management consultant who works with Japanese businesses, has organized a petition to rethink the Meiji Jingu development, and has partnered with other activists who are concerned about how the plans will affect the trees.

“The roots have branches out as far as the top of the tree, which means they’re branching out pretty far,” Kopp said of the trees. “Tree experts have said, if you put this wall on the stadium, which is going to have piling going 40

meters into the ground, that is going to, for sure, damage the rest of the tree.”

In response to the criticisms, the developers have adjusted the plan for fewer trees to be felled, but activists have said that the trees’ complex roots systems could still be compromised and that the amount of sunlight the trees receive will be affected by the new surrounding buildings.

There are other concerns about the plans as well.

Robert Whiting, an American author and journalist who has lived in Japan for most of the past 50 years and has written several books on Japanese culture, first visited Meiji Jingu Stadium in the 1960s, he wrote, “when there were no seats in the outfield, just a grassy slope where you could sit and watch the game, spread out a blanket, drink beer and look at the sky between innings.”

Whiting has organized his own petition against the development because of concerns about the loss of heritage, the potential damage to the current trees and the overall environmental impact of the project.

“It’s going to make for a less pleasant experience for fans,” he said.

While the issues surrounding the redevelopment project are complex, some detractors are simply focused on losing the experience of seeing games in a venue with so much history.

Lilli Friedman, a Temple University student on a study abroad program, grew up a Yankees fan in New York. She said she has become a passionate fan of Japanese baseball and that she “loves the history and being outside” at Meiji Jingu Stadium, which evokes the “same feeling as when I used to go to the old Yankee Stadium.”

“Coming from a Yankees fan standpoint, I don’t know anyone that didn’t prefer the old Yankee Stadium to the new one,” Friedman said. “I think there’s something to be said for even if it’s not the flashiest, newest stadium, keeping an environment that people really connect to, and have memories of, has a really special history especially because it’s such an endangered species now.”

On a barnstorming tour of Japan in 1934, Babe Ruth hit five home runs at Meiji Jingu.

Sudoku

How to Play:

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

Sudoku Rules:

Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

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

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

Aries (Mar 21-April 20)

Offer your services to others, Aries. Your generosity in spreading your knowledge will be rewarded. Things might be rather confusing at first, but once you start talking, you will be surprised by how much you really know and how far your incredible wit, manners, and sociable attitude can take you. Try your best to reach out to others without seeming needy or demanding.

Taurus (April 21-May 21)

If you feel slighted today, Taurus, don’t shut yourself off from the situation. It may seem like everyone has ganged up and turned against you. Either that, or they all want to be your best friend. Things are always extreme for you, with no in-between. The slightest action from someone else can cause turmoil in your mind unless you learn to control your emotions. Make it a goal.

Gemini (May 22-June 21)

You may wake up in a fog of confusion this morning for some reason, Gemini. The good news is that the air is likely to clear as the day continues. By late afternoon and early evening, you should be revved up and ready to go once again. Your normal self has returned and you’re ready to face the world with a dramatic show of courageous action and adventure.

Cancer (June 22-July 23)

Here’s a suggestion. If you get a strange vibe about a situation today, walk away, Cancer. Your instincts will tell you if something is dangerous or not. If you don’t feel safe, find another place to be. You won’t be productive in an environment where you don’t feel comfortable. You will also enjoy yourself much more if you can relax in the situation instead of being uptight about it.

Leo (July 24-Aug 23)

It’s time to take charge of your life, Leo. Don’t rely on other people to sort out your problems. There may some anxiety in the air today that causes you to overreact to a situation that normally wouldn’t faze you. You need to dig down and take responsibility for getting out of this mental or emotional jam. Don’t rely on other people to do it for you.

Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)

It’s time to show other people that you have backbone, Virgo. It could be that up until now very few people have noticed, since you’re so flexible and adaptable to change. You easily wriggle your way downstream, and as a result, people may think they can control you. Prove to them that this isn’t the case by setting your own agenda and sticking to it.

Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)

You may be anxious to get some new projects underway today, Libra, even though they aren’t necessarily ready or well thought out. You must first learn that patience is key. Jumping the gun could cause a false start that disqualifies you from the race. Avoid this fate by playing it cool and laying low. Keep your big guns under wraps for now. You don’t need to bring out all the heavy artillery yet.

Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)

There’s a romantic, dreamy feeling to today that you should indulge in, Scorpio. If you have a special someone in your life, this is the perfect day to share these feelings! Try to plan a candlelit dinner at home for just the two of you. But don’t feel pressured to cook an elaborate meal. Pick up some Chinese and serve it on the good china. Keep the focus on the two of you.

Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)

You might not be in the mood to cooperate today, Sagittarius. You will most likely want to work on projects alone at your own pace. You will probably have to come out of your shell and interact with others. You may need advice or input. Try not to be too pouty with your partner or kids. They might not understand the real reason why you’re distracted.

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)

Start today on the right foot by projecting a positive mood and healthy mindset, Capricorn. If you’re dragging your heels and already dreading the forthcoming events, you will only succeed in making it harder to move ahead, regardless of what you end up doing. Attitude is everything. This is one of those days in which it matters the most.

Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)

You may discover your emotions are tempered today, as you want to turn inward, Aquarius. You’re apt to surprise yourself and the people around you when you decide that all you want to do is go into your room and sit by yourself instead of join the crowd outside. Don’t feel bad about doing this even if you’re expected at the party in full regalia. Do what feels most natural for you.

Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)

You may discover your emotions are tempered today, as you want to turn inward, Aquarius. You’re apt to surprise yourself and the people around you when you decide that all you want to do is go into your room and sit by yourself instead of join the crowd outside. Don’t feel bad about doing this even if you’re expected at the party in full regalia. Do what feels most natural for you.

Speed Bump