Tuesday Nov 17, 2020

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

San Juan The

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‘The Crown’ Has Had Its Scandals, But There’s Nothing Like Diana

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Transitioning More Problems Than Power Tourism, Medical Industries Clash with New Executive Order P5

Early Data: Moderna’s Coronavirus Vaccine Is 94.5% Effective P7

As Yet Uncertified Governor-Elect Pierluisi and Outgoing Governor Vázquez Begin Gov’t Transition Hearings as Pandora’s Box Opens: Debt, Trust Employees, Christmas Bonus & More

NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 19

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Tuesday, November 17, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

GOOD MORNING

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November 17, 2020

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

Pierluisi presents agenda for the first 100 days of his administration

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overnor-elect Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia on Monday presented his agenda for the first 100 days of his administration during a luncheon organized by the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce at La Concha Resort in Condado, San Juan.

Pierluisi told participants that he has an agreement with the Chamber’s plan for economic development.

The governor-elect said his priority will be to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic while jumpstarting the economy. He will be streamlining the permitting process, transforming the way people and merchants interact with the government, working so that students can return to the schools in a safe manner as soon as possible and establishing effective communication with the new administration of the president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

While he plans to repeal the inventory tax paid by merchants on stored goods, Pierluisi said he will do so gradually because of the impact that

it will have on municipalities, which depend on the tax. He said it will require legislative approval and he hopes that lawmakers from the Popular Democratic Party will work with him.

“We all want a government that functions and that facilitates economic development instead of hindering it,” Pierluisi said.

Regarding the governor’s latest executive order, Pierluisi said he supports the use of National Guard troops to help the Puerto Rico police enforce the new executive order that went into effect today and requires the use of masks and social distancing.

“Given the hike in cases, I think it is a good idea,” he said.

Pierluisi said he also wants to get the island out of bankruptcy but believes all plan support agreements should be negotiated from scratch because of the impact of the pandemic on the economy.

He also said he wants Puerto Rico to move aggressively to the use of renewable energy sources as the island’s power utility, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, only draws 3 percent of its energy from renewables.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Puerto Rico gov’t begins transition without SEC’s final certification

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

A

lthough the State Elections Commission has not begun its general scrutiny due to electoral records from the general elections not adding up, Gov. WandaVázquez Garced and governor-elect Pedro Pierluisi began public hearings Monday to initiate Puerto Rico’s government transition process.

Amid a rocky beginning in the Sala Sinfónica Pablo Casals at Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center, where connection issues in the lobby bedeviled members of the press situated there to watch the hearings, Pierluisi said the proceedings would be focused first on the COVID-19 emergency, Hurricane Maria recovery funds administration and the next term’s budget allocated by the Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB).

“I would mention those three at first because there are so many issues as the transition process covers everything,” the governor-elect said.

As for Pierluisi being the representative before the oversight board, he said it was still correct that he was going to face the oversight board personally, instead of delegating the role to someone else, “but with the support of AAFAF [the Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority] and other government agencies.”

Meanwhile, Vázquez said one of her concerns, which she has shared with the governor-elect, is for recovery projects to carry on given that her administration “focused for a year and a half on speeding up the approval and obligation of [federal] funds as 78 municipalities currently have approved projects and disbursed money.”

“That relationship between the federal government and the government agencies has been extraordinary and it has allowed projects to start, that towns have funds, and that is the priority, for these projects and any other initiative to go on,” the governor said.

As for the hearings, the Incoming Transition Committee president, Bayamón Mayor Ramón Luis Rivera Jr., spoke with members of the press in the afternoon after connection issues continued during the public hearing.

He said one of the issues brought up in the hearings was that there might be a chance of an 86 percent reduction in the negotiated public debt agreement as part of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, which he said would be “fantastic” because it would greatly reduce the

amount of money the government owes.

“Now, we have to see if that can be achieved or not after the new member of the oversight board [Justin Peterson] came in, and then he got up from the meeting and stopped that negotiation,” Rivera Jr. said, noting that the reduction under consideration would decrease the debt to $11.9 billion.

Rivera Jr., who won re-election as mayor of Bayamón on Nov. 3, said there are “many positive things and some other issues that need to be worked on.” He said clearer information was required to prove if the consolidation of government agencies has been effective.

“We know that there are some gaps between some and others,” he said. “Another point, which at least this servant is very concerned about, is that there is a large amount of federal money that is going to arrive in the next few years. We are talking about $83 billion in the next 15 years. But we are worrying about the first four.”

Meanwhile, the Incoming Transition Committee president said one of his greatest concerns, one that AAFAF Executive Director Omar Marrero confirmed at the hearings,

was the lack of manpower, as well as certain materials, in the construction industry.

“We had before more than 100,000 employees working in the construction field. At this moment, there are only 30,000 people working. There’s not enough manpower; we could have all the money, but if we don’t have the workforce, we’re going to face difficulties,” he said. “For the amount of money that will arrive and the number of projects that could be generated, there’s not enough aggregate in Puerto Rico, which are different-sized stones used in construction projects.”

Rivera Jr. said that due to the gravel shortage for construction, the new government has to negotiate with the federal government “to allow bringing aggregate from neighboring islands to boost construction projects in Puerto Rico” as this will promote economic growth on the island.

The Bayamón mayor-elect also expressed concern about the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds, as there are $1.2 billion left unspent and the government has until Dec. 31 to at least allocate their use.

“We’re talking about a big amount here, and looking at different alternatives for maximizing the use of these funds, [the concern is] that the federal government doesn’t decide to provide an extension and we lose that money,” he said.

When asked by a member of the press if the new government would be responsible for implementing the Incentive Retirement Program and Justice for Our Servants Acts 80, 81, 82 of 2020 with the oversight board requesting a government workforce reduction in order to mitigate costs, Office of Management and Budget Director Iris Santos said that, at the moment, the government has provided all of the information that the oversight board requested through AAFAF and the Government and Judicial Administration Employees Retirement Systems.

“The board continues requesting information, and as petitions come by, we continue responding,” Santos said, adding that the oversight board has the last word. “At the moment we are evaluating, because there are a number of employees who are eligible for Act 80; we are in the process in which these employees are determining if they want to take part in it or not. Once they are done, we will be aware of the impact that the act would have.”

As for $8 million for the liquidation of around 800 government trust employees, Santos said this is according to the law, and no other bonus is being considered. Meanwhile, the government is still looking for $3 million to complete the disbursement.

“It’s still a bit premature because we don’t know how many trust employees will keep working [for the government],” Santos said. “We don’t have an official list available. There’s been a separation of some trust employees who have returned to their career employment; therefore, taking away their liquidation benefits,” As for the Christmas bonus for public workers, she said the government is $23 million short of being able to pay for it this year.

“I want you to understand that we have submitted the petition to the FOMB,” Santos said. “We are talking about approximately $63 million for the Christmas bonus for all government employees and we are identifying $23 million, which is what we would be lacking.”

Along with Marrero and Santos, Treasury Secretary Francisco Parés participated in the public hearings, where he spoke about the process the agency took upon itself amid the COVID-19 pandemic to address refunds and the federal economic stimulus.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

5

Former SJ medical director: Gov’t must seize opportunity to enforce COVID-19 controls

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

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r. Ibrahim Pérez, a former medical director of the municipality of San Juan, said Monday that once the electoral process has concluded, the Puerto Rico government has the opportunity to enforce the executive orders issued to prevent coronavirus infections and limit the spread of COVID-19.

“The government now has a great opportunity to enforce compliance with the [executive] orders, but obviously if that doesn’t happen, you can’t wait, as the order says, into December,” Pérez said in an interview on “Pegaos en la Mañana” on Radio Isla 1320 AM. “If this [the executive order that went into force Monday] in one or two weeks does not have a noticeable effect, which can be felt, [then] more drastic action must be taken because

this can generate a much more serious situation, which can put hospital capacity at risk.”

The doctor pointed out that the most recent executive orders have “not been fully complied with or monitored,” which he warned may also happen with the latest order.

Pérez urged the central government to provide scientific evidence regarding the places with the greatest rates of COVID-19 infection.

On Monday the island Health Department reported seven deaths from COVID-19, while 434 confirmed cases, 71 probable and another 232 suspected were registered.

Some 533 people are hospitalized, 18 more than on Sunday. There are 83 patients in intensive care, seven fewer than the day before and 66 people on a ventilator, the same number as on Sunday.

The death toll from COVID-19 in Puerto Rico stood at 942 people as of Monday’s report.

Dr. Ibrahim Pérez, a former medical director of the municipality of San Juan,pointed out that the most recent executive orders have “not been fully complied with or monitored,” which he warned may also happen with the latest order.

Paradores and Tourism Assn. expresses concerns about latest COVID-19 executive order

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

T

he Puerto Rico Paradores and Tourism Association expressed its concern on Monday about the restrictions established in the new executive order imposing safety measures against COVID-19, which it considers unfair for responsible small local businesses, and possibly inconsistent in the war against the spread of the disease caused by the coronavirus.

In a written statement, members of the Association said they recognize that it was necessary to take additional control measures and impose sanctions in areas and against specific people in a surgical way, to avoid a crisis in the hotel industry, while they also believe that the new executive order imposes, without reason, an additional burden on the 80,000 employees and the thousands of small to midsize enterprises (SMEs) in the 17 industries that make up the island’s tourist activity, the sector most affected by the pandemic.

“In our tourism sector, more than 85% of the companies are SMEs and these actions threaten our survival,” said Jesús Ramos, president of the Association and owner of the ParadorVillas Sotomayor in Adjuntas. “We are going to be watchful that the application is consistent and of how they supervise the megastores, supermarkets and chain pharmacies to ensure that they operate at 30 percent of their capacity.”

Parador owners point out that, during the past four months, data from the Municipal Case Investigation and Contact Tracking System indicate that a substantial part of coronavirus infections occur in the family environment, usually

with the creation of groups at events and celebrations of relatives or between friends who do not belong to the same family group.

“To close the behavioral gaps that we observe, a cultural change and responsible behaviors are required, which can only be achieved with a massive and segmented education campaign, together with supervision and monitoring with severe penalties for those who do not comply, sustained over an extended time,” said Tomás Ramírez, co-owner of the Combate Beach Resort in Cabo Rojo. “For this purpose, we have made several timely and feasible recommendations, and very few have been considered.”

Ramos said that since the beginning of the pandemic, hotels and inns have demonstrated civic responsibility and their commitment to the protocols established by the island Tourism Company and Health Department.

“We know that the new restrictions in OE-2020-80 are

Puerto Rico Paradores and Tourism Association president Jesús Ramos said that since the beginning of the pandemic, hotels and inns have demonstrated civic responsibility and their commitment to the protocols established by the island Tourism Company and Health Department.

going to affect the occupation in our paradores; however, there are other industries and hundreds of companies within the sector that will suffer substantially,” he said. “Our collective focus has to be on improving consistency in the use of masks and limiting the crowding of people in all environments, including the squares in some municipalities, the parties that continue to occur in short-term rental accommodations, and excess customers in some stores.”

Ramírez added that “[i]t is clear that the main responsibility for this new rise lies with our political class.”

“However, we can only work to mitigate the results, and look to the future,” he said. “We recommend that the Honorable Governor and the mayors, in addition to the State Police and the National Guard, require all agencies and employees with regulatory responsibility to provide coverage seven days a week and during the hours of most economic activity, such as the Investigations Division of the Department of Health does. If we properly organize the thousands of resources in the Municipal Police, the Natural Resources Watch Corps, PR OSHA [Puerto Rico Occupational Safety and Health Administration], the Tourism Company, the Treasury, Ports, and others, we could improve supervision and compliance, causing an immediate reduction in mass gatherings in all public settings and reduce contagion.”

Ramos stated that “[t]he Paradores of Puerto Rico are ready to continue serving the Puerto Rican people, providing a healthy and safe family atmosphere of relaxation and recreation.”

“We reiterate our support and respect for all health professionals, government agencies and organizations that fight to combat the virus,” he said.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Bond insurer National expresses willingness to negotiate with Puerto Rico

By THE STAR STAFF

B

ond insurer National Public Finance Corp. has written to the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico (FOMB) to inform the entity created by the U.S. Congress to manage the island’s fiscal restructuring that it is ready and willing immediately to negotiate a revised commonwealth debt deal in good faith and to engage across other instrumentalities to help move Puerto Rico out of bankruptcy.

“The people of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Congress and the Court presiding over the Commonwealth’s Title III case expect nothing less. At the October 28, 2020 omnibus hearing, [federal] Judge [Laura Taylor] Swain established a deadline of early next year for the FOMB to propose a revised POA [plan of adjustment] and confirmation process,” National said in its letter. “During that hearing, Judge Swain stated that she expects ‘broader collaboration in negotiations toward the Amended Plan’ and ‘that negotiations during this period are expected to be ones in which the Oversight Board and all relevant stakeholders will act in good faith and responsibly toward the goal of … a substantially consensual plan’ (emphasis added). Judge Swain stressed that the process should be ‘as consensual as possible’ and have ‘as broad support as possible’ because ‘that is so

terribly important for efficient progress and for progress that redounds to a good result for creditors and for Puerto Rico.’”

National said it agrees with these sentiments and stands ready to comply.

The Commonwealth POA filed on Feb. 27 of this year, and the plan support agreement on which it was based, was negotiated among a limited subset of creditors representing a narrow spectrum of interests, and promised a contested, prolonged and costly confirmation battle.

“Even putting aside National’s concerns regarding certain creditors’ trading activities during the mediation period, and your subsequent referral of those concerns to the Department of Justice, this POA would not have been confirmed, further delaying the Commonwealth’s re-entry into the capital markets,” the firm said. “A more inclusive process is far more likely to lead the Commonwealth toward a consensual plan and a timely exit from bankruptcy, and fulfill PROMESA’s [the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act] goals.”

As one of Puerto Rico’s largest creditors and long-term partners, National owns or insures some $1.2 billion in bonds issued or guaranteed by the commonwealth and more than $2 billion of debt issued by certain commonwealth instru-

mentalities. To date, National has paid approximately $1.6 billion in insurance claims to bondholders, ensuring they received all scheduled principal and interest payments that the commonwealth and its instrumentalities have failed to make since 2015, the letter said. Moreover, based on the nature of National’s business and exposure, National has the ability to agree to creative and flexible solutions, the bond insurer added.

“National has proven this already as an active and constructive participant in the Title III proceedings of the Commonwealth and its instrumentalities. National is a signatory to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s Restructuring Support Agreement, and served as one of the largest creditors in the negotiation and implementation of a global resolution culminating in the successful restructuring of over $17 billion of debt issued by Puerto Rico’s Sales Tax Financing Corporation (COFINA),” the firm said in its letter. “National played a vital role in helping advance these restructurings, working together with the FOMB and other creditors to agree to substantial debt reductions that allow such instrumentalities to achieve financial stability. Once again, National is prepared to work collaboratively and pragmatically with the FOMB and other stakeholders on a POA for the Commonwealth.”

Community pharmacies warn of pressure from chains to enter gov’t health plan

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

C

ommunity Pharmacies Association Executive Director Linda Ayala called on Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced on Monday not to give in to the pressure of lobbyists from large pharmacy chains that seek entry into the Government Health Plan (PSG by its Spanish initials) served by community pharmacies since 1993.

“We call on the Governor to be in harmony with the public policy of this administration to protect the small and medium local merchant that has been so affected by hurricanes, earthquakes and the pandemic, and not give in to the large chains in the Government Health Plan,” Ayala said in a written statement. “As an example, Walgreens

The Community Pharmacies Association has noted that the issue will affect the health services of the most vulnerable population because it will bankrupt community pharmacies in many municipalities, undermining the more than 14,500 direct jobs created by community pharmacies.

participated as a pharmacy provider for PSG until 2003 and left when the Health Insurance Administration (ASES by its Spanish initials) refused to accept the drug rates they wanted to impose and that would have increased the cost of drugs for the government. Given the low population, they are looking to expand their business at the expense of the pharmacies here. That cannot be allowed.”

The Community Pharmacies Association has noted that the issue will affect the health services of the most vulnerable population because it will bankrupt community pharmacies in many municipalities, undermining the more than 14,500 direct jobs created by community pharmacies.

“After more than 15 years of absence as a provider for the PSG they [chain pharmacies] want to stay with the market and displace the community pharmacies that have served the PSG patients so well, according to ASES’ own data,” Ayala said. “If we bankrupt the local pharmacies, what is going to happen when the parent companies of these [chain] pharmacies decide to leave the country because it is not profitable for their business model and we have to rebuild the community pharmacy? It’s going to be uphill and very difficult.”

Since the PSG was created in 1993, community pharmacies have been successful ASES providers, with plan beneficiaries reporting 94 percent satisfaction with the service of community pharmacies, according to a survey conducted by ASES. “Unlike chain pharmacies, community pharmacies are present in all unpopulated areas and low-income communities. Large pharmacy chains are located exclusively in the country’s metropolitan areas and in areas with mass transit routes,” Ayala said in the statement. “We ask the Governor not to give in to pressure and lobbying from these companies because of how disastrous it would be for community pharmacies and patients of the

Government Health Plan. We call on the Governor-elect, Pedro Pierluisi, to be aware of this situation and to support community pharmacies in their claim, as recently expressed publicly.”

By 2018, community pharmacies had created a total of 14,413 jobs throughout Puerto Rico, with an approximate volume of drug sales of $1.1 billion annually, compared to the volume of large chain pharmacies of $1.2 billion annually, according to the Community Pharmacies Association. Community pharmacies have hired between 25 percent and 30 percent of all pharmacy sector employees in Puerto Rico in the past 10 years.

Community pharmacies comprise more than 800 small and midsize businesses that generate wealth that remains in Puerto Rico, Ayala noted in the statement. They have a distinctly Puerto Rican business model, contrary to chain pharmacies such as Walgreens and CVS, which take their profits to other jurisdictions.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

7

Early data show Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine is 94.5% effective

By DENISE GRADY

T

he drugmaker Moderna announced Monday that its coronavirus vaccine was 94.5% effective, based on an early look at the results from its large, continuing study.

Researchers said the results were better than they had dared to imagine. But the vaccine will not be widely available for months, probably not until spring.

Moderna is the second company to report preliminary data on an apparently successful vaccine, offering hope in a surging pandemic that has infected more than 53 million people worldwide and killed more than 1.2 million. Pfizer, in collaboration with BioNTech, was the first, reporting one week ago that its vaccine was more than 90% effective.

Pfizer and Moderna were the first to announce early data on large studies, but 10 other companies are also conducting big Phase 3 trials in a global race to produce a vaccine, including efforts in Australia, Britain, China, India and Russia. More than 50 other candidates are in earlier stages of testing.

The Food and Drug Administration has said that coronavirus vaccines should be at least 50% effective to be approved.

Researchers test vaccines by inoculating some study participants and giving others placebos, and then watching the two groups to see how many people get sick. In Moderna’s study, 95% contracted the coronavirus: five who were vaccinated, and 90 who received placebo shots of saltwater. Statistically, the difference between the two groups was highly significant. And of the 95 cases, 11 were severe — all in the placebo group.

The results were analyzed by an independent data safety monitoring board, appointed by the National Institutes of Health.

Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, developed its vaccine in collaboration with researchers from the Vaccine Research Center, part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the institute, said: “I had been saying I would be satisfied with a 75% effective vaccine.

Aspirationally, you would like to see 90, 95%, but I wasn’t expecting it. I thought we’d be good, but 94.5% is very impressive.”

Stéphane Bancel, chief executive of Moderna, said in a statement that the results

Moderna Therapeutics in Cambridge, Mass. had provided “the first clinical validation that our vaccine can prevent COVID-19 disease, including severe disease.”

Pfizer and Moderna each announced the findings in news releases, not in peerreviewed scientific journals, and the companies have not yet disclosed the detailed data that would allow outside experts to evaluate their claims. Therefore, the results cannot be considered conclusive. The studies are continuing, and the figures on effectiveness may change.

Researchers say the positive results from Pfizer and Moderna bode well for other vaccines, because all of the candidates being tested aim at the same target — the so-called spike protein on the coronavirus that it uses to invade human cells.

But it will be important to determine whether the vaccines work equally well in older and younger people, experts say. Researchers also want to know if the vaccines prevent people from spreading the virus — an ideal result that could help quash the pandemic.

Another big unknown is how long the immunity provided by the vaccines will last.

An additional concern is that both vaccines must be stored and transported at low temperatures — minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit for Moderna, and minus 94 Fahrenheit for Pfizer — which could complicate their distribution, particularly to low-income areas

in hot climates. Although both vaccines are made of mRNA, their temperature requirements differ because they use different, proprietary formulations of fat to encase and protect the mRNA, said Ray Jordan, a Moderna spokesman.

Other coronavirus vaccines being developed will need only refrigeration. If handled improperly, vaccines can become inactive.

But on Monday, Moderna said researchers had found that its vaccine had a longer shelf life in the refrigerator than previously thought: 30 days, not seven. And it will last 12 hours at room temperature, the company said.

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, said the relative ease of handling the Moderna vaccine would give it a big advantage.

“This vaccine presents the opportunity of using doctors’ offices, clinics and pharmacies as vaccination sites,” he said, adding that he would not be surprised, should both vaccines become available, if vaccination sites requested Moderna’s.

Both companies said they expected to apply within weeks to the FDA for emergency authorization to begin vaccinating the public.

In addition to the evidence for effectiveness, the companies must also submit two months of safety data on at least half of the participants.

So far, studies of the two vaccines have not found serious side effects, but par-

ticipants have reported sore arms, fatigue, fever and joint and muscle aches that last for a day or two.

Moderna said it would have 20 million doses ready by the end of 2020; Pfizer said it would have about 50 million by then. Both vaccines require two shots, so 20 million doses would be enough for 10 million people.

On Friday, Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientist for Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s program to accelerate development of vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, said that if any early vaccine candidates received permission for emergency use, immunization could begin sometime in December. Fauci said the vaccines would probably not be widely available before April.

The U.S. government will buy the vaccines and give them to the public free of charge. But both companies expect to profit, and not to provide their products at cost. Moderna said it would charge other governments from $32 to $37 per dose. The charge to the United States, which has already committed about $2.5 billion to help develop Moderna’s vaccine and buy doses, comes out to about $24.80 a shot, according to Jordan.

Pfizer did not take any money from the U.S. government to develop or test its vaccine. But Operation Warp Speed has promised Pfizer $1.95 billion to provide 100 million doses, which comes out to $19.50 per dose.

Moderna said it could produce 500 million to 1 billion doses in 2021.

The company is working with the Swiss company Lonza and Laboratorios Farmacéuticos Rovi of Spain to make doses of the vaccine outside the United States.

Bloom noted that Moderna had never marketed a vaccine before, and he questioned whether the company had the capacity to manufacture hundreds of millions of doses.

Moderna has received a commitment of $955 million from the U.S. government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for research and development of its vaccine, and the United States has committed up to $1.525 billion to buy 100 million doses.

Moderna has already taken the early steps needed to apply to government agencies in Britain, Canada and Europe to market its vaccine, and the company has made deals to sell 50 million doses to Japan and unspecified amounts to Qatar and Israel.

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Tuesday, November 17, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

With 11 million cases in the U.S., the coronavirus has gotten personal for most people

By AMY HARMON, LUCY TOMPKINS, AUDRA D.S. BURCH and SERGE F. KOVALESKI

J

ust a few weeks ago, Kem Kemp, a high school teacher in Houston, knew no one personally who had tested positive for the coronavirus. Then her roommate came down with a deep cough and was diagnosed with COVID-19. Her brother, a dentist in Amarillo, Texas, also tested positive. A neighbor fell sick with the virus. Two faculty members at the private school where she teaches were required to quarantine.

And in the past few days, so were two of the students she advises.

“Before, we were watching the numbers on the news,’’ said Kemp, 62. “Now it’s started creeping into my neighborhood, my school, my home — right where I’m existing.’’

As COVID-19 cases surge in almost every part of the country, researchers say the United States is fast approaching what could be a significant tipping point — a pandemic so widespread that every American knows someone who has been infected. But, as reflected in the polarized response to the virus, the public remains deeply divided about how and whether to fight it, and it is unclear whether seeing friends and relatives sick or dead will change that.

Many who have seen people close to them seriously affected say they are taking increased precautions.

Others, though, are focusing on how most people recover and are shrugging off the virus — and calls for concerted efforts to combat it.

The United States surpassed 11 million reported virus cases on Sunday, with 1 million of those tallied in just the past week. The daily average of new cases is up by 80% from two weeks ago. More than 69,000 people were in American hospitals with COVID-19 on Saturday; more than 1,100 deaths are being reported each day on average.

Those alarming numbers — the highest case numbers and death toll in the world — underscore a reality found in small towns, big cities and sprawling suburbs alike: The coronavirus has become personal.

Researchers estimate that nearly all Americans have someone in their social circle who has had the virus. About a third of the population knows someone — from a close relative to a neighbor to a co-worker to a friend of a friend — who has died from the virus, researchers say. But not everyone is hunkering down in fear or taking precautions as simple as wearing a mask.

“As more and more people know someone who gets sick and dies, more and more Americans are likely to take this disease seriously,’’ said Nicholas A. Christakis, a Yale University sociologist and the author of “Apollo’s Arrow,’’ a new book about the impact of the virus. “But the effect of knowing people who survived it may lead

A Covid-19 drive-thru testing site in Milwaukee, Wis., Nov. 6, 2020. What was once a health crisis that Americans feared has evolved into one virtually everyone has experienced up close. people to misread COVID as not being as bad as it is.”

Kemp, for one, has become more vigilant since listening to her roommate cough herself to sleep at night. She wears a mask when she walks her dog, and notices when others do not.

Wessie and John Dietz, of Sauk County, Wisconsin, wear masks even in their car since their 20-year-old grandson, an electrician’s apprentice, appeared to have contracted the virus from a friend he took a ride with.

“I hadn’t even thought about it before that,” Dietz said.

Kem Kemp, a high school teacher who until a few weeks ago knew no one personally who had tested positive for the coronavirus, in Houston, Nov. 15, 2020.

And April Polk, of Memphis, Tennessee, has urged all young people to follow restrictions to curb the spread of the virus since her 24-year-old sister, Lameshia, died this summer.

“I was one of the ones that didn’t take it seriously, and it took for me to lose my little sister to realize how real this virus is,” Polk said. “Every day we’re suffering, and we have to be reminded of what happened and how it happened to her.”

Nearly 2.2 million Americans have lost a close family member to COVID, research has shown, with troubling emotional and financial effects for children, widows and parents. Kristin Urquiza, 39, of San Francisco, said she continues to have nightmares about her father’s death from the disease in late June in Arizona.

Rosie Davis, a skin laser technician in Carrollton, Texas, has been attending remote grieving classes since her mother died in May at a hospital: “I will never have closure because I was not able to be next her when she passed,’’ Davis said.

For some, the lessons learned have as much to do with faith as public health.

Gabriel Quintas accepts the death of his favorite uncle, Joel, from COVID-19 complications at the age of 39 as the will of God and says that he harbors no anger or resentment. Joel, who worked in a bakery in Champaign, Illinois, was not the only one in his family to contract the coronavirus, but he was the only one to die from it in the United States. Gabriel’s own parents and two of his brothers tested positive and so did both of Joel’s young sons, though they all made full recoveries.

“We don’t want to blame anybody,” Gabriel, 20, said. “It is something tragic that happened and we want to move on.”

Research has shown that the lessons people draw from their social networks can be more powerful than anything they read on the news or receive from a government or educational institution they may not trust. How Americans perceive the threat of the virus in the lives of their friends and acquaintances will likely influence their willingness to be vaccinated, researchers said.

The perceived threat of the virus may also depend on how close someone is to a person who has died or suffered a long-term disability as a result of the virus.

While about a third of Americans know someone who has died of COVID-19, only a small percentage can count a virus victim among their 20 closest contacts, according to a calculation by James Moody, director of a network analysis center at Duke University.

“It’s the old joke about Facebook friends,’’ Moody said. “How many of them will help you move your couch? If you’re talking to a friend of a friend about someone who died, at that point it’s not impactful in the way that tends to shape people’s behavior.’’

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

9

Case on churches, Cuomo and coronavirus arrives at Supreme Court

By ADAM LIPTAK

I

n recent months, churches in California and Nevada asked the Supreme Court to lift government restrictions on attendance at religious services meant to address the coronavirus pandemic. The churches lost.

The vote in both cases was 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining what was then the court’s four-member liberal wing. One of those liberals, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, died in September. Her successor, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined the court last month.

It will not take long to assess the significance of that switch.

On Thursday, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn filed an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to lift restrictions imposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York. The case is broadly similar to the earlier ones.

The outcome, even as the pandemic is worsening, may be quite different.

The general question in all of the cases is whether government officials or judges should calibrate responses to the public health crisis.

One view, expressed by Roberts in a concurring opinion in the California case, is that officials charged with protecting the public “should not be subject to secondguessing by an unelected federal judiciary, which lacks the background, competence and expertise to assess public health and is not accountable to the people.”

A few hours after the diocese filed its application, Justice Samuel Alito delivered a slashing speech to a conservative legal group that expressed the opposite view. He had dissented in both of the earlier cases, and his speech echoed points he had made in the one from Nevada.

“Whenever fundamental rights are restricted, the Supreme Court and other courts cannot close their eyes,” Alito said on Thursday, rejecting the view that “whenever there is an emergency, executive officials have unlimited, unreviewable discretion.”

The court is likely to rule on the dispute from Brooklyn in the next week or so. The case may be the first in which Barrett’s vote changes the court’s direction.

The restrictions in Brooklyn are severe. In shifting “red zones,” where the coronavirus risk is highest, no more than 10 people may attend church services. In slightly less dangerous “orange zones,” attendance is capped at 25. This applies even in churches that can seat more than 1,000 people.

The measures were prompted in large part by rising cases in Orthodox Jewish areas. But the restrictions applied to all houses of worship.

Even as he ruled against the diocese, Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn praised it as “an exemplar of community leadership” that had been “enforcing stricter safety protocols than the state required.”

Lawyers for Cuomo agreed, telling an appeals court that the diocese “has introduced laudable social

distancing and hygiene measures.”

The diocese has said it intends to continue to limit attendance to 25% of its churches’ capacities and would accept other limitations, such as doing away with singing by congregants and choirs.

Garaufis, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, said the case was a difficult one. But he concluded that he would defer to the governor.

“If the court issues an injunction and the state is correct about the acuteness of the threat currently posed by hot spot neighborhoods,” the judge wrote, “the result could be avoidable death on a massive scale like New Yorkers experienced in the spring.”

In refusing to block the governor’s order while the diocese’s appeal went forward, a divided three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals drew on Roberts’ concurring opinion in the California case. Since the restrictions on churches were less severe than those on comparable secular gatherings like theaters, casinos and gyms, the majority wrote in an unsigned opinion, they did not run afoul of constitutional protections for religious freedom.

The members of the majority were Judge Raymond J. Lohier Jr., who was appointed by President Barack Obama, and Judge Jed S. Rakoff, who ordinarily sits on the U.S. District Court in Manhattan and who was appointed by Clinton.

Judge Michael H. Park, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, dissented. He said Cuomo’s order

discriminated against houses of worship because it allowed businesses like liquor stores and pet shops to remain open without capacity restrictions.

In asking the Supreme Court to step in, lawyers for the diocese argued that its “spacious churches” were safer than many “secular businesses that can open without restrictions, such as pet stores and broker’s offices and banks and bodegas.” An hourlong Mass, the diocese’s brief said, is “shorter than many trips to a supermarket or big-box store, not to mention a 9-to-5 job.”

Lawyers for Cuomo said gatherings like those at churches and theaters were different from shopping trips.

“The state’s limits on mass gatherings have consistently recognized that the risk of transmitting COVID-19 is much greater at gatherings where people arrive and depart at the same time and congregate and mingle for a communal activity over an extended period of time,” the governor’s appeals court brief said.

Park, the dissenting appeals court judge, twice served as a law clerk to Alito, once on the federal appeals court in Philadelphia and once on the Supreme Court. His dissent anticipated the remarks his former boss delivered Thursday.

“The pandemic,” Alito said, “has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty.”

“This is especially evident with respect to religious liberty,” he added. “It pains me to say this, but in certain quarters religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right.”

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn filed an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to lift restrictions imposed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York.

10

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Biden faces early test with immigration and Homeland Security after Trump

U.S. Border Patrol agents along the border between San Luis, Ariz., and Mexico, Oct. 26, 2020.

By ZOLAND KANNO-YOUNGS

P

resident-elect Joe Biden has said that one of his first priorities will be rolling back his predecessor’s restrictive immigration policies. To do it, he may have to overhaul the Department of Homeland Security, which has been bent to President Donald Trump’s will over the past four years.

The department, created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has helped enforce some of Trump’s most divisive policies, like separating families at the border, banning travel from Muslim-majority countries and building his border wall. When the president tried to reframe his campaign around law and order this year, homeland security leaders rallied to the cause, deploying tactical officers to protect statues and confront protesters.

After agents were videotaped hauling demonstrators off the streets of Portland, Oregon, into unmarked vans, department critics called for systemic changes to the agency, or even its dismantlement. But the incoming administration is intent on keeping the department intact.

Still, change is coming.

Interviews with 16 current and former homeland security officials and advisers involved with Biden’s transition, and a review of his platform, suggest an agenda that aims to incorporate climate change in department policy, fill vacant posts and bolster responsibilities that Trump neglected, including disaster response and cybersecurity.

But undoing Trump’s immigration policies will initially dominate.

Many of the Trump administration’s policies cannot be immediately undone, and Biden is likely to face an early test if migration to the southwestern border surges with Trump’s pending departure.

That could be politically fraught, balancing the demands of the Democratic left for more lenient immigration policies, with the concerns of moderates who fear such issues cost the party dearly in House and Senate elections this month. Trump campaigned on a hard-line immigration agenda when he won the election in 2016, and the policies remain a central appeal to many who have supported Trump.

“If it looks like they’re just kicking the can down the road, then people will be very angry,” said Marisa Franco, executive di-

rector of Mijente, a Latino civil rights organization, who served on a task force that issued recommendations to the Biden campaign.

Trump measured the success of his homeland security secretaries primarily by the progress of his border wall and the monthly totals of arrests made by his border agents.

The 23-member transition team announced by Biden last week indicates he will bolster the other responsibilities of the sprawling department. The team includes at least four former officials with Citizenship and Immigration Services, the legal-immigration agency that has been mired in financial struggles. The leader of the team, Ur Jaddou, was a chief counsel for the agency under President Barack Obama and frequent critic of Trump’s policies.

The group also features multiple former Obama administration officials who focused on cybersecurity, emergency response and transportation security. Trump had a team of only four transition advisers for homeland security.

“If you look at what’s going on in the world now, in addition to border security and TSA airline issues, you have a pandemic and an unprecedented hurricane season,” said Michael Chertoff, a homeland security secretary under President George W. Bush, referring to the Transportation Security Administration. Biden, he said, will take “a broader-based, more strategic approach.”

A team composed mostly of volunteers separate from Biden’s official transition team has worked for weeks on that approach. Those volunteers, including Obama’s former director of the Domestic Policy Council, Cecilia Muñoz, and his former deputy homeland security adviser, Amy Pope, have focused on infusing climate change research into the decision-making of the next department leadership.

While the agency will not become “the department of climate,” one adviser said, the new administration will use the research to shape natural disaster response and resilience to assist the Coast Guard as it patrols the Arctic. The next homeland security leaders could rely on climate science to predict migration from places like Guatemala, where coffee rust has disrupted the crops farmers rely on.

“This is something that needs to be a long-term priority for DHS,” said Thomas S. Warrick, a former top counterterrorism official in the department and a co-author of a report this year that emphasized the department’s future roles defending against cyberthreats, pandemics and white supremacy.

Warrick’s co-author, Caitlin Durkovich, is on Biden’s official transition team.

The volunteer team has emphasized that change will come not from a drastic restructuring but from personnel. Of the 74 leadership positions at the Department of Homeland Security, 18 are either vacant or held by an acting official. Even those serving in acting capacities have had their appointments questioned by government watchdogs and the courts. As recently as Saturday, a federal judge said Chad F. Wolf, the acting secretary of homeland security, was not serving lawfully when he issued a memo in July suspending protections for immigrants brought to the United States as children.

The Trump administration enacted more than 400 changes to tighten or choke off immigration, and while Biden can roll back the ones issued through executive orders or policy memorandums, rescinding policies that went through the full regulatory process will take time, according to Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst for the

Migration Policy Institute.

“On immigration, I expect them to stick to things that are high profile, very easy procedurally and come with minimal logistical burden,” Pierce said.

That includes ending travel bans that restrict travel from 13 mostly Muslim and African countries and halting the Trump administration’s efforts to strip protections for about 700,000 young immigrants brought to the country as children.

Biden also plans to raise the cap on refugee admissions to 125,000, impose a 100-day moratorium on deportations and direct Immigration and Customs Enforcement to focus on violent offenders. But it remains unclear how he will rebuild a deteriorated resettlement system to welcome that many immigrants or the specific details of his temporary halt on removing immigrants in the country illegally.

The new administration will end the national emergency declaration that allowed Trump to divert billions of Pentagon dollars to the border wall, but an adviser involved in the transition said there were no plans to dismantle the 400 miles of wall already up.

Other regulations will prove more challenging to unravel, like the maze of asylum restrictions imposed by the Trump administration and the public charge rule that allows green cards to be denied to immigrants who are deemed likely to use public assistance.

Pierce said the new administration could begin the lengthy process of replacing the Trump regulations or, given that the public charge rule is still being litigated in court, revise that regulation in a settlement.

Biden has also revived the long-standing Democratic goal of creating a path to citizenship for nearly 11 million immigrants who lack legal status — but without a Democratic Senate, that is likely impossible. (Control of the Senate rests on two Senate runoff races in Georgia in January.)

An expected surge of migration to the southwestern border in the coming months will test Biden’s ability to balance the demands of the liberal and moderate wings of his party while preventing overflowing border facilities.

Biden has said he will stop “metering,” which restricts the number of migrants who can seek protection at border ports. It is unclear if he would pull out of agreements with Central American countries that allow the United States to divert migrants seeking protection back to the region. He would end Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that has sent more than 60,000 migrants back to Mexico to await asylum hearings that have been suspended during the pandemic.

Biden’s advisers have discussed rushing asylum officers and immigration judges to the border to process those families and others seeking protection.

“The real question is scale. Can they be scaled up quickly enough if there is a surge to the border?” said one official involved in the transition.

Biden has not committed to lifting a public health emergency rule that has essentially sealed the border to asylum-seekers.

The Trump administration has cited the risk of the pandemic to empower Border Patrol agents to rapidly turn migrants back to Mexico or their home countries without providing the chance to have their asylum claims heard. An adviser to the campaign said the administration planned on consulting with public health officials to discuss the policy.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

11

Japan’s economy surges, but the comeback may not last

By BEN DOOLEY and HISAKO UENO

J

apan became the latest major economy to bounce back from the devastation of the coronavirus, as lockdowns eased and pent-up demand led to surging domestic consumption and a rebound in exports.

But the recovery is unlikely to be long-lived, analysts warn, as a surge in new virus cases has led to a second round of lockdowns in the United States and Europe and threatens to dampen sentiment at home.

Japan’s economy, the world’s third largest, surged 5% during the July-to-September period, for an annualized growth rate of 21.4%, after three straight quarters of contraction. The performance follows spurts of growth in the United States and China, the No. 1 and 2 global economies, after the initial hits caused by the pandemic, in a hopeful sign for global growth prospects.

Japan’s economy had contracted a revised 8.2% last quarter as the pandemic kept consumers home and devastated already weak demand for the country’s exports. The collapse in growth was the largest since 1955, when the Japanese government began to use gross domestic product as a measure of its economy, and paralleled similarly disastrous numbers for most of the world’s major economies.

While the country appears to be on the road to recovery, severe economic damage remains, according to Yuichi Kodama, chief economist at the Meiji Yasuda Research Institute.

“The rate of expansion is high, but the real economy is not as good as the numbers. It’s only about halfway recovered from its enormous fall,” he said.

When the pandemic hit in February, Japan’s economy had already begun to shrink because of slumping demand from China, a tax increase on Japan’s consumers and a costly typhoon in October. That underlying weakness made it the first among major economies to fall into recession, defined by two consecutive quarters of contraction.

That same fragility has also made it slower to recover. The size of its rebound has not been as stark as other major economies. The U.S. economy grew 33%, on an annual basis, in the most recent quarter.

Japan declared a national emergency in mid-April, asking people to stay home and businesses to close, but by early summer, case numbers had dropped to a few hundred a day nationwide, and life returned to something approaching normal, despite a bump in July.

Large government subsidies kept workers in their jobs and companies in business. To stimulate the service sector, authorities provided discounts for those willing to travel and eat out. Diners returned to restaurants and shoppers returned to malls. By October, moviegoers were flocking to the theaters.

Abroad, pent-up demand from Japan’s major trading partners, especially China — where the virus has

Shoppers in in Osaka, Japan, Oct. 10, 2020. Activity in Japan has jumped as pandemic limits have eased, in a positive sign for global growth, but damage may be deeper than the initial numbers showed. been nearly eradicated — drove a recovery in exports.

Chinese consumers rushed to buy new cars and factories resumed purchases of electronic components, helping Japanese companies to recover from devastating losses earlier in the year.

Japan’s success in controlling the virus so far — it has recorded around 1,800 deaths since the pandemic began — has made businesses and investors bullish.

Economic sentiment in the service sector is at its highest point in six years, according to a monthly government survey. And the country’s main stock exchange, the Nikkei, hit a 29-year high last week.

But it may be difficult to maintain the recovery’s momentum as the virus spreads in the winter months. Although daily case counts in Japan have yet to pass the 2,000 mark, the numbers have grown steadily in recent weeks.

As case counts grow, government efforts to stimulate the economy through discounts on travel and dining out have come under fire, with many questioning the wisdom of encouraging people to move around during the pandemic.

While the government has said it will exercise increased vigilance, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has continued to support the program, saying that there is, as of now, no need to consider a new state of emer-

gency.

But “things could change a lot depending on what happens with the coronavirus,” said Yoshiki Shinke, chief economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

The recovery would most likely stall if the government calls for new restrictions on activities as it seeks to curb new cases, he said, adding “as of right now, all you can say is that there is a lot of uncertainty.”

The bigger immediate threat to growth, however, may be an explosion in virus cases in other countries, said Akane Yamaguchi, an economist at the Daiwa Institute of Research.

The recovery “depends on overseas economies,” she said. “There is downside risk as Europe locks down, and in the United States if the president tightens prevention policies as infections increase.”

Regardless of what happens abroad, Japan’s economy may take a long time to fully recover.

While China’s return to growth will help, “Japan’s economy can’t rely on external demand alone to pull it into economic recovery,” Kodama of the Meiji Yasuda Research Institute said.

While a vaccine could spur a rapid recovery, he said, without one, “Japan’s economy will continue to be sluggish, tending toward stagnation, through next year.”

12

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Obama memoir could be booksellers’ savior

President Barack Obama smiles during his inaugural address in Washington, Jan. 20, 2009. Obama’s memoir “A Promised Land” is a potential lifeline for booksellers whose sales have plummeted during the pandemic.

By ALEXANDRA ALTER and ELIZABETH A. HARRIS

S

hortly after President Barack Obama left office in 2017, in the aftermath of a contentious election that cost his party the presidency, he sat down with a yellow notepad and began writing an account of his time in the White House.

Nearly four years later, Obama is preparing to release his book in the wake of another volatile and polarizing presidential race. His memoir, “A Promised Land,” arrives at a moment of deep political, cultural and social unrest — tensions that have been heightened by a global pandemic and an economic crisis.

It’s a challenging environment, to say the least, in which to release a book, even one of the most highly anticipated of the decade. Bookstores have limited their foot traffic to comply with public health measures, and many customers are still wary of in-person shopping. At the same time, supply chains are under intense strain as capacity issues at printing presses have delayed dozens of books this fall.

But in spite of such setbacks, “A Promised Land” is shaping up to be one of the top-selling political memoirs of all time, and a potential lifeline for booksellers whose sales have plummeted during the pandemic.

Crown is printing 3.4 million copies of “A Promised Land” for the U.S. and Canadian market and another 2.5 million for international readers. The book, which runs to 768 pages, is being released simultaneously around the world, and will be available in 19 languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish, Roma-

nian and Chinese (translations into six other languages are still underway). Demand among American customers is so high that Penguin Random House, Crown’s parent company, has printed 1.5 million copies in Germany to bring over on cargo ships.

It still may not be enough to meet demand.

Barnes & Noble is stocking around half a million copies of the book, but the chain expects to sell even more than that, based on the preorders for “A Promised Land” and the strong sales of Michelle Obama’s memoir, “Becoming,” published two years ago.

“We are taking as many as Penguin Random House will give us,” said James Daunt, chief executive of Barnes & Noble.

“If there was an unlimited supply, we would take more. I think we will end up selling an enormous number.”

Big-box stores are also placing large orders. ReaderLink, which supplies books to major chains like Target, Walmart and Costco, expects to receive 890,000 copies by the end of the month, chief executive Dennis E. Abboud said.

For struggling independent stores, Obama’s book — with a $45 list price — could prove crucial in recovering some of the losses suffered during the shutdown.

Kramers, a bookstore in Washington, D.C., is opening its doors for a midnight release Nov. 17, the sort of fanfare more typical for a new Harry Potter book than a political memoir.

Politics and Prose, another D.C.-area independent bookstore, has placed a substantial order, for more than 2,000 copies. Bradley Graham, the store’s co-owner, said the book could have a ripple effect, since shoppers who flock to buy

big bestsellers often pick up other titles as well.

“It should make a significant difference in helping to boost sales at a time that we desperately need it,” Graham said.

Even before its release, “A Promised Land” was exerting a strong gravitational pull on the industry. The Booker Prize decided to move its award ceremony, scheduled for Tuesday, to Thursday to avoid overlapping with the publication. (Obama will make an appearance at the Booker Prize online ceremony, alongside novelists Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo, where he will talk about what he has taken from reading past Booker-winning novels.)

A representative for Obama said the timing of the release was dictated by his writing schedule, which continued into this summer, when the election cycle was already in full swing.

“President Obama was completely focused this fall on helping elect Joe Biden, so there was never a thought given to having it come out in the lead-up to the election,” said Katie Hill, communications director for Obama.

Now, Obama is promoting his book at a tense and delicate political moment, as President-elect Biden seeks to lay the groundwork for his administration while President Donald Trump refuses to accept the results of the election. As a former president who retains high approval ratings with the public, Obama will no doubt be called on in interviews to address the current climate of partisan division, and to deliver his views on how Biden should navigate it. But Obama also wants to avoid stepping into Biden’s spotlight.

“President Obama is very aware, as he will be out there talking about his book, that he’s not the leader of the Democratic Party,” Hill said. “He does not want to be out there in any way overshadowing Joe Biden.”

Of course, the biggest obstacle to any plan in 2020 is the coronavirus. As the virus continued to spread through the summer and early fall, it became clear that Obama would not be able to conduct a book tour with appearances in front of large audiences, like Michelle Obama’s nationwide tour for “Becoming,” which involved events in major sports arenas. Obama isn’t holding any in-person events, except for select interviews.

Instead, he will rely on reaching readers through his large social media following — he has more than 125 million Twitter followers, and around 90 million followers on Facebook and Instagram combined — and interviews with traditional outlets like “60 Minutes,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” Oprah Winfrey’s Apple TV show and The Atlantic magazine, as well as on podcasts and youth-focused media outlets. He may also hold some live virtual events, Hill said.

Initially, Obama planned to cover his eight years as president in a single volume, but it became clear as he was writing that such a book would have been too vast and unwieldy. “A Promised Land” covers Obama’s youth and his political awakening, and ends with him meeting the Navy SEAL team involved in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

After Obama finished the book, a handful of trusted readers got early copies, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Wilkerson said Obama’s book was more introspective than a standard political memoir. “I found it to be a balance of grandeur and intimacy,” she said. “He’s very frank.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

13 Stocks

Dow hits record high as Moderna data bolsters vaccine bets

T

he Dow hit a record high on Monday after Moderna became the second U.S. company in a week to report positive results from its COVID-19 vaccine trial, raising hopes of a quicker economic recovery from a pandemic-led recession.

Moderna Inc soared 7.7% as it said its experimental vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19 based on interim data from a late-stage trial.

The Nasdaq’s rise was limited as investors sold some of this year’s “stay-at-home” winners such as Amazon.com Inc, Netflix Inc and Zoom Video Communications Inc. The S&P 500 and the Dow headed for record closing highs, building on gains from last week after a similar vaccine-related update from Pfizer Inc brightened the economic outlook and sparked a rotation into cyclical and value shares.

“It’s not the end of the virus issue, but it’s the first sign of the beginning of the end which is always taken as a positive sign,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.

“We won’t get a true impact from this until the vaccine is manufactured and distributed widely, which probably won’t happen until Q1 next year.”

Travel-related stocks including United Airlines Holdings Inc, American Airlines Group Inc, Carnival Corp and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd, which have lost more than half their market capitalization this year due to the pandemic, jumped between 5.0% and 11.4%.

Bets of a working COVID-19 vaccine fueled gains on Wall Street last week, helping investors look past surging coronavirus cases across the United States which topped the 11 million mark, just over a week after hitting 10 million.

At 11:35 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 443.68 points, or 1.51%, to 29,923.49, the S&P 500 gained 38.61 points, or 1.08%, to 3,623.76 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 75.21 points, or 0.64%, to 11,904.49.

The Russell 2000 index rose as much as 2.2% to a daily intraday peak. The S&P energy sector jumped 5.4%, while financial stocks were at their highest in eight months.

Value shares, that comprise banks and energy stocks and tend to outperform coming out of a recession, added about 1.6%, while growth shares, which are technology weighted, were 0.5% higher.

“When people look for places other than the traditional leading sectors for bargains such as healthcare, financials, it speaks of an improved confidence overall,” Frederick said.

Among other movers, Simon Property Group Inc jumped 6% after the biggest U.S. mall operator cut its purchase price for an 80% stake of rival Taubman Centers Inc, as the virus outbreak upends the retail industry.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by 4.6-to-1 on the NYSE; on the Nasdaq, a 2.7-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

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14

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Peru’s president steps down after just 6 days, leaving country adrift

Manuel Merino, Peru’s interim president, announcing his resignation on Sunday after widespread protests.

By ANATOLY KURMANAEV and MITRA TAJ

F

acing widespread opposition, Peru’s interim president stepped down on Sunday, his sixth day on the job, plunging a country already facing an economic tailspin and a devastating pandemic into a constitutional crisis.

The interim president, Manuel Merino, had taken power on Tuesday after legislators shocked the nation by voting to remove the popular incumbent, Martín Vizcarra, and then swearing in Merino, who was the head of Congress.

By giving up the presidency, Merino opened up a power vacuum and left Peruvians bracing for the prospect of living under a fifth president in five years, certain only that there is more turbulence to come.

Late Sunday evening, an attempt by Congress to push through a replacement for Merino failed after lawmakers balked at the Marxist credentials of the proposed candidate.

That left the country effectively rudderless.

“The resignation of Merino is just the beginning of the end of the political crisis,” said Denisse Rodríguez-Olivari, a Peruvian political scientist at Humboldt University of Berlin.

“There are still profound problems in the way the country is governed.”

From his first moments in office, Merino faced opposition from Peruvians who took to the streets in protest and from prominent political and social leaders, many of whom said they did not recognize him as the country’s leader.

On Sunday, after most of his Cabinet resigned and his last political allies abandoned him, the Congress that had put him in power called on him to step down, and Merino took heed.

“I present my irrevocable resignation,” he said in a video address to the nation. “I call for peace and unity of all Peruvians.”

The task of resolving Peru’s problem has fallen to its deeply unpopular and inexperienced Congress.

Elected in January, the lawmakers have proved more interested in pushing through their narrow business interests than governing a nation in crisis, analysts said. About half are under investigation for corruption and other crimes, and many in the country have blamed their political opportunism for the current turmoil.

Merino said he would now focus on ensuring a smooth transition to a new leader.

It was unclear, however, if Peruvians would accept Congress’ pick as their leader and end the daily protests rocking the nation. Whoever takes power now, RodríguezOlivari said, will need to pay close attention to the people’s demands to win legitimacy and be able to govern.

Vizcarra, the former president, added to the transition uncertainty Sunday evening by claiming the Congress was too discredited to select Merino’s replacement. He urged the nation’s top court to weigh in on the legality of his removal — a move that he could potentially use to stage a political comeback.

“It can’t be that the Congress that got us into this crisis gives us the solution,” Vizcarra told reporters on Sunday.

Protesters have also demanded that, if Congress is to pick the next president, they must choose from the small group of lawmakers who voted against Vizcarra’s impeachment, and that the nominee have a clean reputation, with no pending investigations or charges.

“The citizens feel like they have triumphed,” said Alexandra Ames, a political analyst in Lima. “But they know that the resignation is not enough, and they are awaiting Congress’ decisions to decide on further protests.”

Vizcarra, the president replaced by Merino, had earned the support of a majority of Peruvians during his two years in power by working to clean up Peru’s notoriously venal political establishment.

To remove him, lawmakers cited unproven accusations of corruption and used an archaic constitutional clause that allows the Congress to declare the president morally incapable to lead the nation. Vizcarra had been due to step down after a presidential election in April, and had promised to face justice after leaving office.

Merino promised to unite the nation and respect democracy, but his administration unraveled before it got started.

His presidency was met with the biggest street demonstrations in the two decades since the downfall of authoritarian President Alberto Fujimori, who is now in jail for human rights abuses and corruption.

The marches in cities and towns across Peru — in the capital, Lima, as well as in the Amazon, the Andes and on the Pacific coast — were driven largely by young people who saw Congress’ action as a ruthless power grab by lawmakers.

“They don’t realize that we’re capable of continuing, week after week, until this is over,” said Alejandra Cavero, a 19-year-old university student who said it was her first time protesting.

The police’s hardfisted response to the protesters — including the heavy use of tear gas and of rubber bullets at close range — only deepened discontent with the new president.

An umbrella group for human rights organizations in Peru said Saturday morning that 41 people had gone missing during the protests and that 112 had been wounded.

Then two protesters were killed during a police crackdown Saturday night, and calls for Merino to resign spread to some of his government’s staunchest supporters. By Sunday morning, most members of his Cabinet had tendered their resignations.

Marches continued in Lima on Sunday, images on local media showed, even after Merino announced his resignation.

“We have a single feeling that’s been multiplied. Why? The greed and hunger of those in power who should be defending our rights,” said Rubén León, a 38-year-old cook.

“I’m not a fan of Vizcarra, but his impeachment is an embarrassment and it’s causing a lot of instability.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

15

With progressive politics on March in New Zealand, Maori minister blazes new trails

By DAMIEN CAVE

N

anaia Mahuta entered New Zealand’s Parliament as the youngest Maori woman to ever gain a seat.

More than two decades later, she has become the country’s minister of foreign affairs, another trailblazing first. So when she was asked at a recent news conference about another woman of color breaking barriers halfway around the world, she broke into a wide smile.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, she said, “will bring, I’m sure, some very unique attributes to their leadership.”

“I’m not sure I’m in a position to give her a message,” Mahuta added, her eyes bright with possibility. “But what I can say, as the first woman representing the foreign affairs portfolio in Aotearoa, New Zealand, is that we will do what we must do in the best interests of our respective countries. I know we will have many opportunities to share areas of common interest, and I hope we can.”

Her excitement reflects a global desire among progressives for a shift away from the chauvinist, right-wing populism that has shaped the past four years in the United States and other countries that elected leaders like Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Victor Orban in Hungary.

New Zealand offers what many see as the world’s most promising, if tiny, alternative.

When Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern coasted to reelection last month in a landslide that gave her Labour Party the country’s first outright majority in decades, the remote island nation cemented its position as a beacon of hope for those seeking an anti-Trump model of government led by charismatic women and functioning with an emphasis on inclusion and competence.

With a victory over COVID burnishing her image, Ardern and her team now face a surge in expectations.

After three years of leading a coalition government that produced few, if any, lasting policy achievements on major issues like inequality, Labour now has the votes to pass what it wants, and the diversity other progressives long for.

Labour’s newly elected majority is made up mostly of women. It also includes the New Zealand Parliament’s first member of African descent, Ibrahim Omer, who is a former refugee from Eritrea. The 120-member legislative body also has 11 lawmakers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender; a dozen people of Pacific island descent; and 16 Maori members.

It is, by far, the most diverse Parliament the country has ever seen, reflecting New Zealand’s demographics and its place within the broader Pacific islands.

“It’s a really tectonic outcome,” said Richard Shaw, a politics professor at Massey University, which is based in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Ardern’s executive council, sworn in this month, includes a mix of well-known allies. She named Grant Robertson, the finance minister, as her deputy prime minister, making him the first openly gay lawmaker to have

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand speaks at the United Nations General Assembly, in Manhattan, Sept. 27, 2018. Nanaia Mahuta, the new foreign minister in New Zealand, brings a reputation as an honest broker to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s cabinet, the most diverse in the country’s history. that role. She also appointed several members of Maori and Pacific island descent.

Mahuta, 50, was the biggest surprise.

She arrived in Parliament at the age of 26 with a master’s degree in social anthropology after working as a researcher for her Tainui tribe in the lead-up to its historic treaty with the government that settled land claims from colonization. Her father was the lead negotiator; the Maori queen, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, was her aunt.

But rather than seizing the spotlight, Mahuta burrowed into briefing papers.

David Cunliffe, a former Labour Party leader who worked with Mahuta for nearly two decades, called her promotion to foreign affairs an inspired choice.

“She’s someone who seeks progress without necessarily seeking fame for herself,” he said. “All that hard work has now been recognized.”

In an interview Thursday, Mahuta said she had not sought the foreign affairs job — “though it was on my long list,” she said — and had been surprised by the offer. She said she jumped at the chance to build New Zealand’s international reputation while working closely with “our Polynesian family across the Pacific.”

The region has become more important and more closely scrutinized in recent years as China’s influence and investment have increased.

U.S. officials say Mahuta and her team — the defense minister, Peeni Henare, is also Maori — will be welcomed throughout the region as cultural equals and as a strong counterweight to Beijing.

And, yet, for any government, appointments alone are only the beginning. As is the case in the United States, Ardern’s team faces serious domestic and international anxieties. Climate change threatens everyone and everything. The economy is struggling, with COVID-19 exacerbating inequality as housing prices continue to rise beyond the reach of the middle class.

Cunliffe, the former Labour Party leader, said the governments of Ardern and President-elect Joe Biden both faced the need to be transformative while bringing along skeptics. Populism, he said, can be defeated only with progressive results that benefit supporters and critics alike.

“You don’t beat it by one day at the ballot box,” he said. “You do it by using the power of your office to address the root causes that led to it in the first place, and if you don’t, it will be back again in four years’ time or three years’ time.”

Mahuta agreed. She said she hoped that solutions for “reimagining what prosperity looks like” can be transferred from the Indigenous community, with values like manaakitanga (Maori for looking after people) and kaitiakitanga (guardianship of the environment).

“Addressing issues of economic inequality is a significant challenge for many countries,” she said. It’s time, she added, “to cut through the old way of doing things.”

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16

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

They once ruled Ethiopia. Now they are fighting its government.

By DECLAN WALSH and SIMON MARKS

W

hen it comes to mountain warfare, the people of Tigray — an ancient kingdom in the far north of Ethiopia, spread across jagged peaks and lush farmland — have decades of hard-won experience.

Tigrayan fighters led a brutal war through the 1970s and ’80s against a hated Marxist dictator of Ethiopia, whom they eventually toppled in 1991, becoming national heroes. For most of the next three decades, Tigrayans ruled Ethiopia.

But after Abiy Ahmed, a peace-talking young reformer, came to power as prime minister in 2018, he brusquely sidelined Tigray’s leaders. Tensions exploded violently on Nov. 4, as the world was focused on the presidential election in the United States, when Abiy launched military strikes in Tigray.

Now Tigray is once again at war, fighting the federal government. But this time the risks could be even wider: the potential fracturing of Ethiopia and the upending of the entire Horn of Africa.

The battle pits the nation’s army and Abiy, an internationally feted winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, against the ruling party of Tigray, which commands a large force of well-armed and experienced fighters who know their own mountain terrain well. Already the conflict has escalated at alarming

speed with intense fighting that has involved airstrikes and artillery barrages, sent thousands of civilians fleeing across borders — some in boats or even swimming — and led to reports of civilian massacres.

With such intransigent foes, analysts predict a potentially long and bloody fight that is already spilling over Ethiopia’s borders.

On Friday, Tigray launched rockets at two airports in neighboring Amhara province and on Saturday said it had fired a volley of rockets at the main airport in Ethiopia’s neighbor Eritrea, which Tigray accuses of siding with Abiy.

The rush to war has exacerbated ethnic divisions so badly that Friday it prompted warnings of potential ethnic cleansing and even genocide.

“The risk of atrocity crimes in Ethiopia remains high,” said Pramila Patten, the United Nations’ acting special adviser for the prevention of genocide, and Karen Smith, the special adviser on protecting civilians, in a joint statement.

Until recently Ethiopia, a close U.S. military ally, was seen as the strategic linchpin of the volatile Horn of Africa. But with its brewing civil war spilling into Eritrea, refugees streaming into Sudan and Ethiopia’s peacekeeping mission to Somalia now under strain because of its domestic turmoil, analysts worry that Ethiopia could destabilize the region.

Amhara militiamen, aligned with federal and regional forces against Tigray’s forces, receiving training outside Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, on Friday.

The dispute between Abiy and the Tigrayans goes back to the early days of his term as prime minister two years ago.

He moved quickly to shake up the country after decades of stultifying, iron-fisted rule under the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Political prisoners were freed from secret prisons, exiled dissidents were welcomed home and Abiy promised free elections and press freedom.

Those rapid, wide-ranging reforms, which eventually helped Abiy win the Nobel Peace Prize, were a pointed repudiation of the Tigrayan old guard. Leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front were unceremoniously sidelined and, in some cases, prosecuted for corruption and human rights abuses.

Although Ethiopia is one country, it contains 10 regions, many of them ethnic strongholds that have historically jostled for power. In moving so quickly to liberalize politics in 2018, Abiy may have inadvertently unleashed pent-up regional frustrations that had been simmering for decades.

Rivalries among ethnic groups like the Oromo, Amhara, Tigray and Somali burst into the open, leading to violent clashes that have increased in frequency and intensity this year, often killing scores of people.

With Ethiopia’s shaky federation straining badly, Tigray emerged at the vanguard of a movement pressing for greater autonomy for Ethiopia’s regions.

Abiy, who started to imprison opponents, pushed for much tighter central control.

“Everyone saw this coming,” said Kjetil Tronvoll, a scholar of Ethiopian politics at Bjorknes University College in Norway.

“Both sides felt insecure and started to mobilize troops. It was a clear signal of a civil war in the making.”

Abiy’s speed in prosecuting the war has sent waves of alarm across the region and dismayed those who once lauded him as a peacemaker.

With phone and internet connections cut off, it’s hard to know exactly what is happening in Tigray. But both sides agree that government warplanes have pounded targets around Mekelle, that some Ethiopian troops were pushed over the border into Eritrea and that the most intense fighting has raged in western Tigray. By Sunday at least 20,000 Ethiopian civilians had fled into Su-

dan, a refugee stream that the United Nations fears could quickly become a flood.

Sudan says it is preparing for up to 200,000 refugees.

There have been accusations of war crimes against both sides, including a massacre reported by Amnesty International in which dozens of villagers were said to have been chopped to death with machetes, possibly by pro-Tigray militiamen.

Abiy, who insists his dispute is with the ruling “clique” of Tigray, and not its people, has repeatedly promised a short campaign.

Few experts believe that is likely. By some estimates, Tigray has 250,000 armed men, including special forces and militias. And its leaders, who have been anticipating this confrontation for more than a year, will not be easy to find.

In Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, the conflict has acquired signs of a broader crackdown.

Authorities have detained at least 250 people, mostly Tigrayans, and dismissed or furloughed Tigrayans from jobs in the security services, civil service, the national airline and even as officers of international organizations.

The Tigrayan head of security at the African Union, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa, lost his job after the Defense Ministry complained about him in a letter, according to a copy seen by The New York Times.

In Somalia, where 4,400 Ethiopian peacekeepers form the bulk of an African Union peacekeeping mission, Tigrayan officers have been confined to barracks or sent home, according to a Western diplomat and an African Union official.

At Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, human rights workers say, security officials have begun to ask Ethiopian passengers for their identity cards, which show ethnicity, instead of their passports, which do not.

An uneasy current of jingoism runs through the capital.

On Thursday morning hundreds of flag-waving people streamed into the national stadium, waving Ethiopian flags, to support the war effort. First in line to donate blood was the city’s mayor, Adanech Abiebie. “Our army is the pride of Ethiopia, the pride of Africa,” she said.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

17

Spain’s other COVID casualties: Undetected cancer cases

By RAPHAEL MINDER

I

n March, as the coronavirus was tearing across Spain, Lídia Bayona Gómez started to suffer bouts of vomiting and coughing.

A nursing home worker, she treated herself as a potential COVID-19 case, isolating and getting herself tested. The results came back negative, twice. With her weight dropping and her urine turning red, she made repeated attempts to see a doctor and in late April, on a phone consult, one told her to stay home and prescribed medicine for gastroenteritis and a urinary tract infection.

But the pain kept getting worse and in late June, her sister took her to an emergency hospital unit. In midJuly, she underwent a 12-hour surgery to remove two cancerous tumors, one from an ovary and the other from the bile ducts. She died in the hospital nine days later, at age 53.

It was not an isolated tragedy.

Hospitals and other health care centers have been forced to devote most of their resources to COVID-19 patients, and doctors are warning that a growing number of cases of cancer and other serious illnesses are going undetected, which could end up costing many more lives. That toll is beginning to be reflected in lawsuits.

The details of Bayona Gómez’s care are part of a lawsuit brought by her sister, Fátima Bayona, who wants Spain’s public prosecutors to charge the local health authorities in the northern city of Burgos with gross negligence. Last month, the prosecutors said they would investigate the death.

Several other suits have been filed just in Burgos, including one by a woman who learned she had terminal cancer after trying for seven months to get access to a hospital for testing.

Carmen Flores, president of an association that helps patients or their relatives take legal action, said her association had helped file more than 50 lawsuits since September, when Spain and other countries were hit by a second wave of COVID-19.

She said her workload was growing

realize how much we have neglected our primary health care,” said César Carballo, a doctor in the emergency unit of the Ramón y Cajal hospital in Madrid.

“We have had thousands of our professionals who have left to work overseas, and we really need to make it more attractive for them to work here again.”

The staff shortage has been particularly worrying in places like Madrid. The capital region’s leader, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has been building a new hospital. But she is struggling to find health care professionals to work in it at a time when health labor unions are forcefully expressing discontent.

Last month, Spanish doctors staged a nationwide walkout to protest A doctors’ protest in Barcelona last month. Spanish medics are confronting a their working conditions and to warn second wave of coronavirus with better protective equipment but lower morale. authorities against hiring additional doctors without adequate qualificaexponentially as a result of medical June. A survey of U.S. cancer patients tions. errors and oversights stemming from published in April found nearly 1 in 4 “It will cost us a lot of time, money doctors’ focus on COVID-19 at the reporting delays to their care because and effort to rebuild the foundations of the pandemic. expense of other illnesses. of our health care system,” Carballo But Spanish medics say the crisis said. “You cannot find new doctors in Unlike in some other countries, Spain’s government does not report there has exposed particular weak- just a couple of months.” how many medical lawsuits are filed nesses in the country’s health care Flores echoed those concerns. each year. But Flores said that, judg- system.

“This virus is at least, hopefully, “In Spain, we have long been making us understand that primary ing by her monitoring of courtroom filings across the country, the number proud of having become the best in the health care cannot keep functioning appears to have risen so far this year world in specialties like transplants, but adequately when staff and investments this pandemic is now also making us have been steadily cut,” she said. by at least 30%.

Some lawsuits accuse doctors of refusing to see patients in person.

But others assert that doctors rushed to the wrong conclusions or did not want to risk touching patients as part of their examinations because of the risk of catching COVID-19.

For the most part, however, doctors say they are just overworked.

Doctors in many countries have warned that the pandemic may have exacerbated other health problems, either through diversion of resources or because, especially in its initial stages, people were afraid to seek help for other conditions.

The main doctors’ body in Britain, the British Medical Association, said hospitals there received more than 250,000 fewer urgent cancer referrals than normal in April, May and

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Tuesday, November 17, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

Trump, the absolute worst loser

By CHARLES M. BLOW

D

onald Trump lost the election. He knows it. But he won’t admit it.

He still hopes and believes that there is a way for the courts to erase enough votes to tip the election in his favor. This will not happen.

His legal challenges in swing states across the country are largely being met with defeat and setback. In court, you have to provide evidence. Lies, accusations and conspiracy theory don’t cut it. Trump has spent his life gaming the system. It is unfathomable to him that this system can’t be gamed.

In the end, Trump hopes to push his case to the Supreme Court, where he has seated three conservative justices. That is also not likely to be a winning strategy.

Trump believes he can use the judiciary as a weapon against the American people. The judiciary is not likely to allow itself to be used.

Barring that, he is committed to destroying faith in the electoral process itself. If he didn’t win, he insists he must have been cheated because, in his mind, failure is not a possibility.

Like he has done for the entirety of his presidency, he is lying, concocting a narrative detached from reality.

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His Twitter feed since the election — he has made precious few appearances or official statements during this time — has been an unprecedented attack on election integrity and the voting franchise as a whole.

He keeps complaining that the election was rigged, that it was stolen from him, that computer software switched millions of votes from him to Joe Biden.

On Sunday, in reference to Biden, he tweeted: “He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!” But Trump has gone further, appearing to attack the voters who cast their ballots for Biden. He retweeted a post by a Richmond, Virginia, television station that read: “Virginia Wesleyan University business professor and dean Paul Ewell wrote that anyone who chose Biden for president is ‘ignorant, anti-American and anti-Christian.’ ” To that tweet, Trump appended, “Progress!”

Trump will no longer be president on Jan. 20. That is a hard fact, an unmovable date. Biden will be sworn in and will become the president.

But Trump is not going to allow this transition to be smooth. He rose in spectacle and he will flame out in it. We should put nothing beyond him. He will do everything he can do not to assume the posture of the defeated. He will do everything to secure a future for himself and his family that is comfortable and secure.

He will do everything with the last bits of power from his presidency.

His attack on the election system is doing damage to our democracy. So is his refusal to concede. So is his sulking. But, of course, Trump doesn’t care about our democracy. He doesn’t care about democracy, period.

He cares about money and power. He cares about managing the mob. He cares about adoration.

But the problem here is bigger than Trump. Republicans in Congress are indulging Trump’s delusion, which has the effect of granting his derangement credence in the eyes of his loyal followers.

Trump became president in part because the Russians interfered with our election to help him in 2016.

That was a fact. Trump repeatedly called the investigation into that interference a hoax. Election officials have deemed this election “the most secure in American history.” That is a fact. Trump keeps claiming it was wracked with corruption.

Trump is depressingly predictable: constantly lying and denying, constructing a world in which he is the winner and hero.

We know why Trump does what he does. He is depraved. Republicans in Congress, by going along

President Donald Trump walks to the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Nov. 13, 2020. “He has spent his life gaming the system, so it’s no surprise that he can’t accept defeat,” writes New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow. with this nonsense, are proving once again that they are so cowardly and craven that they will join Trump in his depravity.

They underscore that the Republican Party is a thing that now exists in name only. This is Trump’s party, bought and paid for.

In other years, the rising stars of the party would emerge in this period offering a post-loss vision for an alteration that would ensure victory the next time out.

Not this year. They are all too afraid to tell the loser that he lost.

And, if Trump declares soon that he will run again in 2024, as some have speculated, it will further cow other 2024 contenders. Any suggestion that they would run would put them immediately in a fight with the man who just received a record number of Republican votes.

After Republicans lost in 2012, they produced an autopsy report designed to grow the party. With Trump, they threw that out and doubled down on being the party of white grievance. This year’s election and Trump’s reaction to it is not likely to produce an autopsy but induce a séance.

The Republican Party is dead. Trump killed it.

MAGA is dancing on the grave. The way to remember that party is in spirit.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

19

Departamento de Salud y Fideicomiso de Salud Pública explican los cuatro niveles de alerta para el control de la pandemia de COVID-19 Por THE STAR

E

l Departamento de Salud y el Puerto Rico Public Health Trust (PRPHT), programa del Fideicomiso para Ciencia, Tecnología, e Investigación de Puerto Rico (FCTIPR) desarrollaron un modelo de cuatro niveles de alerta establecidos a partir métricas claves para el control de la pandemia de COVID-19 en Puerto Rico con el objetivo es comunicar de una forma sencilla el nivel de emergencia que vive el país con relación al COVID-19, trascendió el lunes.

“Desde el pasado mes de septiembre, cuando la gobernadora Wanda Vázquez Garced le pasa el batón al Departamento de Salud para dirigir los esfuerzos de la pandemia, el Departamento de Salud utiliza el Modelo de Niveles de Riesgo de COVID-19 para hacer recomendaciones basadas en el nivel de alerta, previo al vencimiento de las órdenes ejecutivas. El modelo se utiliza para determinar, con el apoyo de miembros de los task forces médico y económico, las recomendaciones relacionadas a la movilidad de la población, restricciones económicas y sociales, así como el nivel de respuesta ante los contagios del COVID-19”, explicó el secretario del Departamento de Salud, Lorenzo González Feliciano en comunicación escrita.

El Modelo de Niveles de Riesgo de COVID-19 establece el marco de referencia para la respuesta a los cuatro niveles de alerta definidos. El modelo asigna un color a cada nivel de alerta. Las métricas incluidas en el modelo, así como los niveles de riesgo y medidas propuestas, son revisadas continuamente en función del conocimiento y la experiencia adquirida en el manejo de la pandemia, así como de la nueva información y evidencias científicas sobre el comportamiento del virus.

Por su parte, el doctor Miguel Valencia, quien dirige el Sistema de Vigilancia de Muertes relacionadas al COVID-19 en el Departamento de Salud, añadió que “es importante recalcar que tanto en el análisis de los datos para determinar el nivel de alerta en el que nos encontramos, como en las recomendaciones que se hacen a la gobernadora, participan representantes de grupos científicos y económicos para tomar en conjunto las mejores decisiones para el país.

El modelo nos guía para hacer las recomendaciones que siempre tienen como norte proteger la salud de la población y afectar lo menos posible la economía del país”.

El doctor José Rodríguez Orengo, director ejecutivo del PRPHT, explicó que “el modelo utiliza los niveles de alerta: verde, amarillo, naranja y rojo para determinar las medidas de prevención, contención y mitigación a seguir.

Las métricas incluyen: la tasa de positividad, tasa de casos positivos en 14 días por cada 100,000 habitantes, número de transmisión (reproductivo) y la capacidad hospitalaria, particularmente la capacidad de cuartos de intensivo. El modelo se estableció con el propósito de tener una guía clara para tomar determinaciones certeras, de acuerdo con nuestra experiencia con el COVID-19 y las recomendaciones del sector económico”.

Ante esto, el secretario del Departamento

de Desarrollo Económico y Comercio (DDEC), Manuel A. Laboy Rivera, manifestó “estos niveles de alerta son una parte importante al momento de tomar determinaciones futuras sobre la operación de los sectores económicos. Afrontamos un gran reto de salud y economía, que nos hace evaluar constantemente el funcionamiento de los sectores económicos de manera que siempre se cumplan con los protocolos establecidos para la operación comercial, mientras se salvaguarda el asunto de la salud. Desde el inicio de la pandemia hemos aunados esfuerzos con el sector privado, académico e interagencial para juntos desarrollar herramientas que nos permitan tener datos claros sobre la evolución del COVID-19, y nos conduzcan a ofrecer recomendaciones acertadas”.

NIVEL VERDE (Riesgo mínimo) El nivel de alerta verde implica un riesgo mínimo de transmisión comunitaria con contagios aislados. En este nivel, no hay restricciones de movimiento para la ciudadanía, por lo que no incluye un toque de queda. En cuanto a los sectores económicos, todos deben seguir las medidas de prevención tales como el lavado de manos, el requerimiento de la mascarilla y el distanciamiento físico, además de los protocolos de desinfección; inicialmente los sectores económicos pueden operar en un 90 por ciento de capacidad en sus áreas comunes y aumentar a 100 por ciento luego de cuatro semanas consecutivas en nivel verde. Sin embargo, en el caso de los puertos, se mantendrá el cernimiento a todos los pasajeros y la recomendación de que los viajeros ingresen con un resultado negativo de prueba molecular NIVEL AMARILLO (Riesgo moderado) El nivel amarillo significa que el riesgo de transmisión comunitaria sostenida es moderado, con potencial de brotes comunitarios y un rápido crecimiento de contagios. En este nivel, se recomienda un toque de queda de 11:00 de la noche a 5:00 de la mañana todos los días. En el caso de los aeropuertos, se mantiene el cernimiento a todos los pasajeros, pero los puertos no aceptarían cruceros ni barcos provenientes de otros destinos para propósitos recreacionales. Se permiten reuniones de no más de 10 personas, siempre tomando las debidas medidas de precaución. En este nivel se permite la prestación de servicios esenciales, la transportación pública, servicios médicos y cirugías electivas.

Además, se permite la operación de los centros de cuido, farmacias, supermercados, manufactura, centros de llamadas, centros de datos, servicios de seguridad, construcción, turismo, industria fílmica y telecomunicaciones; sin embargo, otros sectores tendrán restricciones.

En el nivel amarillo, se mantendrían operando solo bajo cita previa las agencias de viaje, salones de belleza, spa, centros de mantenimiento y reparación, servicios profesionales y médicos, además de la industria de bienes raíces. Los centros comerciales en formato abierto, las compañías de seguros, los laundromats, centros de inspección vehicular, lavado de autos, servicios financieros -excluyendo bancos y cooperativas- y servicios funerarios podrán operar en un 60 por ciento de capacidad.

El sector minorista, los centros comerciales en modelo cerrado, los gimnasios y casinos, podrán operar a un 60% de capacidad, evitando los grupos de más de diez personas, manteniendo el distanciamiento físico y fortaleciendo los protocolos de limpieza y desinfección. Los teatros o cines “drive in”, así como la práctica de deportes individuales serán permitidos. Las marinas podrán operar con sistemas de vigilancia, sin permitir actividades grupales ni el “rafting” y manteniendo la limpieza y desinfección de áreas comunes. La capacidad de personas permitida por embarcación dependerá del tamaño de esta.

Los cines, teatros, centros de tiro, museos, librerías, casinos, salas de juego, gimnasios y piscinas en los hoteles podrán operar siempre y cuando no permitan las actividades grupales ni el consumo de comida o bebidas, así como garantizando que mantendrán las medidas de desinfección y protección en todo momento.

No podrán operar los bares, chinchorros, servicios de party bus y se prohíben las actividades políticas, incluyendo caravanas. Los alquileres de habitaciones a corto plazo se permitirán en establecimientos debidamente registrados y certificados por la Compañía de Turismo de Puerto Rico.

NIVEL NARANJA (Riesgo sustancial) El nivel naranja implica un nivel de riesgo sustancial, por lo que es necesario tomar medidas más restrictivas, debido a que hay evidencia de una transmisión comunitaria sustancial, pero controlada, por un período de tiempo sostenido.

El nivel naranja incluye un toque de queda de 10:00 de la noche a 5:00 de la mañana diariamente.

La operación en los puertos y aeropuertos se mantendría igual a la establecida bajo el nivel amarillo, se prohíbe la aglomeración de personas en espacios comunes y no se permite la práctica de deportes grupales. Tampoco se permite la operación de bares, chinchorros, servicios de party bus, actividades políticas y se permitirá la visita a las playas solo para practicar deportes individuales. Se prohíbe la operación de establecimientos de renta a corto plazo y no se permiten los campings.

El sector minorista, los centros comerciales en modelo cerrado, los gimnasios y casinos, podrán operar a un 30% de capacidad. Los establecimientos que tienen permitido operar deberán ser más restrictivos con sus medidas de desinfección y limpieza, exigir el uso de mascarilla en todo momento y mantener el distanciamiento físico, dentro de la capacidad permitida, establecida en la orden ejecutiva.

NIVEL ROJO (Riesgo crítico) El nivel rojo significa un nivel de transmisión comunitaria sustancial, no controlada, una situación crítica que conllevaría la implementación de un cierre total o lockdown.

Bajo el nivel rojo, solo se permitirá la actividad económica y la movilidad ciudadana para propósitos esenciales. Se permite la operación de establecimientos de servicios esenciales, incluyendo las operaciones gubernamentales.

Podrán operar los supermercados, farmacias, establecimientos de servicios financieros esen-

ciales, las estaciones de gasolina y servicios de seguridad. Se permitirá la operación de compañías de servicio de telecomunicaciones, agricultura y los restaurantes solo podrán operar en modo de recogido. En este nivel, se prohíben las cirugías electivas y se mantiene la prohibición a otros sectores establecidos bajo el código naranja.

Todos los niveles Es importante recalcar la importancia de la investigación de casos y rastreo de contactos adecuados para el control de la propagación del virus en todos los niveles de alerta. Además, la implementación de protocolos contra COVID-19 por todos los sectores. Igualmente, se establece que las personas que tengan un diagnóstico confirmado de COVID-19 deberán permanecer en aislamiento; así como cualquier persona que haya tenido contacto directo con un caso positivo, deberá permanecer en cuarentena y seguir las indicaciones epidemiológicas.

“Hemos recibido el apoyo de representantes del sector médico y económico para establecer un modelo que tiene el objetivo salvaguardar la salud de la población sobre todas las cosas, pero siempre tomando en consideración el impacto económico. Estudiamos modelos implementados en otros países tales como Estados Unidos, Francia, España e Israel. Las recomendaciones establecidas bajo cada nivel son cautelares para reducir los focos de contagio, tomando en consideración la realidad del país en ese momento en específico, así como los índices y marcadores que analizamos constantemente”, subrayó Rodríguez Orengo.

Asimismo, el doctor Rodríguez Orengo explicó que “el uso de los colores en el modelo facilita el entendimiento de cómo está el país con relación al virus, pero más que eso, establece unas recomendaciones claras y precisas que se deben implementar y seguir para frenar el contagio del virus en la Isla” destacó. “El contagio comunitario está rampante, con días de más de 700 casos. Las personas deben estar conscientes de hacer los cambios de acciones y hábitos para prevenir enfermarse o enfermar a otros”.

“Que nadie olvide que cada caso representa un ser humano. De nada nos sirve implementar las medidas si las personas no las aplican”, puntualizó.

El secretario del Departamento de Salud, añadió que el modelo se estableció con la intervención y aceptación del task force médico y el task force económico. Además, González Feliciano, agradeció a todos los profesionales, científicos y expertos que han trabajado en conjunto para hacer las recomendaciones más certeras para el país. “Además de los científicos y los representantes del sector económico, representantes de las iglesias y del Task Force Ciudadano han colaborado en el esfuerzo de orientación y educación a la población. La pandemia del COVID-19 es la emergencia de salud que más nos ha trastocado en las pasadas décadas y hemos dado cátedra de que unidos podemos trabajar con Puerto Rico como prioridad. Ahora confiamos en que la población también ponga la salud primero y sea responsable y firme en la implementación de las medidas de prevención”.

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Tuesday, November 17, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

‘The Crown’ has had its scandals, but there’s nothing like Diana

By SARAH LYALL

W

hen we first glimpse her, minutes into Season 4 of “The Crown,” Lady Diana Spencer is dressed as a tree and hiding behind a plant, the picture of long-legged innocence in a foliage-festooned leotard.

“Sorry, I’m not here,” she says coyly to Prince Charles, the highly eligible heir to the British throne, who has arrived at her family’s estate for a date with her older sister Sarah.

“That’s sneaky of her,” Sarah says to Charles afterward. “I told her to leave us alone.”

Here is Diana in her contradictory glory, naive and conniving, full of charm and full of guile, destined to marry a prince and wreak havoc on a monarchy. Everyone already knows the sorry end to this disastrous love story. But the new season of “The Crown” (released Nov. 15, and not a moment too soon, after all we’ve been through) takes us back to its beginning, when Charles was a self-pitying bachelor, Diana was an unworldly earl’s daughter, and the world was thrilled to believe in what seemed like the happiest of fairy tales.

Fans of the long-running royal drama have been waiting excitedly for this season, anticipating the story line they know best: the emergence of Diana as the glamorous, attention-sucking vortex around which the royal family swirled for so many years. Even Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, the royal family’s newest rebels, look wan and dull in comparison to Diana, who was not just “the People’s Princess,” as Prime Minister Tony Blair called her, but an international superstar for the tabloid age.

With its intoxicating stew of ingredients — royalty, beauty, adultery, celebrity, media intrigue — the tale of the doomed princess has been one of the most rabidly consumed true-life tales of the past few decades. Even 23 years after her death, Diana is still a cottage industry, her story fueling too-many-to-count books, films, documentaries, musicals, plays, miniseries and even present-day tabloid stories, her sapphire-and-diamond engagement ring (currently displayed on the hand of Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William’s wife) instantly recognizable.

Now the new season of Netflix’s marquee series, under the watchful eye of its writer and showrunner, Peter Morgan, has to perform its greatest high-wire act yet: how to make such a familiar story feel fresh and new.

For the part of Diana, the production cast the unknown actor Emma Corrin, 24, a recent graduate of Cambridge University, who plays the princess from the ages of 16 to 28. Alert Diana-philes will notice that Corrin has gotten the princess’s seductive signature gesture — head tilting to the side, eyes glancing coquettishly upward through her bangs — just right. But inhabiting that most-talked-about of women presented challenges of its own.

“It’s very difficult; it’s a lot to take on and a lot of pressure, especially as we get close to when it comes out,” Cor-

Fans of the long-running royal drama, “The Crown,” have been waiting excitedly for this season, anticipating the story line they know best: the emergence of Diana as the glamorous, attention-sucking vortex around which the royal family swirled for so many years. rin said in an interview. The series is fiction, she pointed out, and her portrayal of Diana is her own. “I never went into this thinking I wanted to embody or mimic her,” she said. “I think of her more as a character, and this is my interpretation of her.”

Peter Morgan’s multigenerational saga, a consistently enthralling mix of serious history and frothy gossip, has already spanned more than 30 years. This new season brings us into the 1980s, the era of big hair and puffy dresses, of pleated pants and Conservative government. In Britain, it was the decade of Margaret Thatcher, the country’s first female prime minister (Gillian Anderson, her manner imperious and her voice full of cardboard).

As always, intimate developments in the lives of the Queen and her family are set against the sweep of British politics and the wider forces of history: the Falklands war; the Irish Troubles; Thatcher’s efforts to remake her party and upend the welfare state; the subsequent economic upheaval. As we move closer to the present, these events seem less like distant history and almost like familiar home movies, parts of a collective past shared by many viewers.

Morgan said that he had approached the new season in the same way he has all along, but that expectations for it seemed higher. “I’m slightly more conscious of accuracy as opposed to truth, and I’m leaning into accuracy as much as I can,” he said, speaking by phone from London.

Luckily, the research team had a trove of firsthand material to draw on. The vicissitudes of the royal marriage were aggressively covered by the British tabloid press, often with the tacit help of Diana (although she denied it at the time). In addition to endless newspaper accounts, the production turned to Jonathan Dimbleby’s exhaustive biography of Prince Charles, written with Charles’s help and providing an insight into his difficult relationship with his parents; and Andrew Morton’s explosive biography of Diana, based on hours of confessional tape recordings from the princess and full of juicy details about her marriage. “In earlier seasons our subjects were not given to this kind of self-reflection, so this was very helpful,” Annie Sulzberger, the production’s head of research (and the sister of The New York Times’ publisher, A.G. Sulzberger), said in an interview from London.

The show had a team of advisers with direct knowledge of the events, a change from previous seasons, when “there were fewer people alive we could talk to,” said Oona O Beirn, a “Crown” producer who worked closely with the research team. (For instance, in the first season, they had just one surviving source from Churchill’s office; now there is a plethora of contemporary experts, including Patrick Jephson, a former private secretary to Diana.)

“As the show has become more well known, we get approached a lot, and then it’s a case of talking to who we think would be helpful,” O Beirn said.

As always, they have taken many cinematic liberties.

“Crown” watchers in Britain are already debating what is accurate and what has been changed for dramatic purposes. In one episode, for instance, Diana gets a crash course in royal-family protocol — where to walk, where to stand, how to speak in public. In real life, Sulzberger said, the instruction came from two members of the palace staff.

But “The Crown” gives the job to Diana’s grandmother, the harsh Lady Fermoy, a lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother known for testifying in court against her own daughter, Diana’s mother, during Diana’s parents’ bitter divorce. “We had some advice from one of our advisers that Lady Fermoy was more of the kind of taskmaster we were looking for,” O Beirn said. The resulting scenes are painful: Diana really does come across as a lamb to the slaughter, a description she once used of herself.

Sulzberger said that with so many people alive to remember what happened, the show was particularly concerned with plumbing the nuances of the story. That meant acknowledging potential bias in even knowledgeable sources. For instance, accounts sympathetic to Diana at the time stressed her despair over Charles’ infidelity while conveniently eliding her own adulterous adventures. But “The Crown” makes it clear that there were two sides to the tale, showing Diana promising the Queen that she will give up her lover, James Hewitt, and then going back to him after Charles fails to end his own affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.

The San Juan Daily Star Both Corrin and O’Connor, who returned this season as Charles (he will be replaced next season by Dominic West, she by Elizabeth Debicki, among other cast changes), said they tried to not take sides in the million-dollar question surrounding Charles and Diana’s operatically disastrous marriage: Whose fault was it? “The Crown” gives evidence for both positions, and neither position.

“The more I’ve learned about the intricacies of this marriage and this relationship, the harder it’s been to pick sides,” Corrin said. “People criticize Charles, but he did love this one woman this whole life, and it wasn’t the one he married,” she said, referring to Camilla. “So many mistakes were made by Diana and Charles after their marriage, but the biggest mistake was that the marriage ever happened in the first place.”

Indeed, I was a Times correspondent in Britain in 2005 when Charles married Camilla, the woman he had loved all along, after years of upheaval following his divorce from Diana and her sudden, shocking death. I spent the day interviewing the crowds who had lined the streets in Windsor, where the wedding took place. Theirs was a mature, low-drama love between two people who knew each other thoroughly, and the public that had once so reviled them greeted this new chapter in their long relationship with a muted but respectful understanding that has deepened over time. They are both in their 70s now, with Charles still pointed toward the throne, and it feels as if they’ve been together forever.

But the new season reminds us how the relationship began in scandal, with the young Charles unable to give up Camilla even when she marries another man, and proposing to Diana only after his family browbeats him into finding a suitable wife. O’Connor presents Charles as a kind of Hamlet-on-the-Thames, stooped under the weight of his own ennui, by turns annoying and sympathetic. “He can be soft and gentle and kind,” O’Connor said in an interview. “I liked the idea that he was a sort of tortoise, with a shell over him that protects him from the world.”

Audience reactions at early screenings, Morgan said, have been emotional. “I’m inclined to think for the viewer there is now an increased sense of connection,” he said.

“People are feeling it far more vividly.”

As always, the series skates through public events, focusing its attention on the more interesting private dramas. We see only a glimpse of the wedding, with Diana all but drowning in her famously over-pouffed meringue of a dress, but we are thrust right into scenes showing her doubts and unhappiness beforehand. (As one of her sisters said to her back then, it was too late to get out of the marriage because “your face is on the tea towels.”) The production also addresses head-on the bulimia that took hold of her, showing Diana compulsively gulping down food and then throwing it back up. The scenes are hard to watch, but true to the disease that consumed her for so many years.

The emphasis on behind-closed-door drama adds a special frisson to episodes like “The Balmoral Test.” First Thatcher, new to her job, and then Diana, new to Charles’ romantic orbit, are summoned to Balmoral Castle, the Windsors’ estate in the wilds of the Scottish Highlands.

It’s hard for outsiders to break in to what we see here is

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Josh O’Connor and Emma Corrin play the doomed royals Prince Charles and Princess Diana in the newest season of “The Crown.” a close-knit family with peculiarly aristocratic traditions: the muddy, bloody joy they take in hunting; the incomprehensible parlor games they play; the upper-class language conventions that smoke out who (from their point of view) is well-born and who isn’t.

Thatcher finds it excruciating and fails test after test, sitting in the wrong chair; saying “I beg your pardon” instead of the correct (according to the snobbish Princess Margaret) “What?”; wearing city clothes for a day of hunting. By contrast, Diana, whose family is actually older and grander than the upstart Windsors, knows exactly how to play it.

It all feels like voyeuristic fun, especially in every scene featuring Olivia Colman, who brings a droll, in-on-

21

the-joke archness to the role of Elizabeth this season. Because the real-life Queen is scrupulously dull and anodyne in public, most of her private conversations are wholly made up — but true to her character, said Morgan, who has made a career of plumbing the personal lives of public figures and who has studied the queen from multiple angles in the past.

As always, we return to Diana, who remains as complicated and unknowable in death as she was in life. Was she the savior of the royal family, dragging a stultified institution, and a nation along with it, into the modern age with her humanity and common touch? Or were her emotional upheavals alarmingly anti-British and rather unhinged, a debasement of centuries of stiff-upper-lip rectitude?

It remains to be seen how the final two seasons of “The Crown,” which are expected to end in the early 2000s, will treat Diana’s legacy. But if you leave this season believing that to be a complex question — as indeed are the relationships between the Queen and her family, the Queen and her government and the Queen and her country — then Morgan will have done his job. You don’t even have to be a flag-waving royalist to care what “The Crown” reveals about the Windsors and the kingdom over which they preside.

Morgan himself isn’t a particular royal fan, he says: he’s much more interested in his characters’ unique position as both private and public figures, their personal lives inextricably intertwined with the history of their country.

“Once you’ve spent time with these characters,” he said, speaking of his job as author of this ongoing drama, “you don’t pass judgment on them.”

The research team of “The Crown” had firsthand material to draw on to tell the story of Diana (played here by Emma Corrin) and Charles.

22

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Old dogs, new research and the secrets of aging

In a photo provided by the Clever Dog Lab, a volunteer at the Clever Dog Lab at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. Researchers in Vienna have found that dogs’ personalities change over time and seem to mellow in the same way that most humans do.

By JAMES GORMAN

D

ogs go through stages in their life, just as people do, as is obvious to anyone who has watched their stiff-legged, white-muzzled companion rouse themselves to go for one more walk.

Poets from Homer to Pablo Neruda have taken notice. As have folk singers and storytellers. Now science is taking a turn, in the hope that research on how dogs grow and age will help us understand how humans age. And, like the poets before them, scientists are finding parallels between the two species.

Their research so far shows that dogs are similar to us in important ways, like how they act during adolescence and old age, and what happens in their DNA as they get older. They may be what scientists call a “model” for human aging, a species that we can study to learn more about how we age and perhaps how to age better.

Most recently, researchers in Vienna have found that dogs’ personalities change over time. They seem to mellow in the same way that most humans do. The most intriguing part of this study is that like people, some dogs are just born old, which is to say, relatively steady and mature, the kind of pup that just seems ready for a Mister Rogers cardigan. “That’s professor Spot, to you, thank you, and could we be a little neater when we pour kibble into my dish?”

Mind you, the Vienna study dogs were all border collies, so I’m a little surprised that any of them were mature. That would suggest a certain calm, a willingness to tilt the head and muse that doesn’t seem to fit the breed, with its desperate desire to be

constantly chasing sheep, geese, children or Frisbees.

Another recent paper came to the disturbing conclusion that the calculus of seven dog years for every human year isn’t accurate. To calculate dog years, you must now multiply the natural logarithm of a dog’s age in human years by 16 and then add 31. Is that clear? It’s actually not as hard as it sounds, as long as you have a calculator or internet access. For example the natural log of 6 is 1.8, roughly, which, multiplied by 16 is about 29, which, plus 31, is 60. OK, it’s not that easy, even with the internet.

To bring the comparisons home, the researchers compared an aging Labrador retriever to an aging Tom Hanks. They used a lab because that’s the kind of dog they studied. And they used Tom Hanks, because, well, everybody knows Tom Hanks. For most of us, of course, there is no pleasure in seeing a dog get older, but seeing even a beloved celebrity subject to the irresistible march of time is somehow reassuring. Sometime in the future the A-list may be able to purchase immortality, but not yet.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be flippant about these research projects. They involve some groundbreaking work and could have potentially important conclusions. Take that paper with the natural logarithms, for example. To come to those conclusions researchers sought patterns of chemical changes in DNA, a process called methylation that doesn’t alter the content of genes but does change how active they are.

Lab tests can tell how old a human is just from the pattern of methylation. Thanks to this research, the same can be done for dogs. The results will help researchers studying aging in dogs to

translate findings to humans. None of this research was done on dogs kept in a laboratory. All of the dogs in the aging comparison study were pet Labrador retrievers. and the owners gave permission for blood samples.

Scientists are unsure about whether the physical decline seen in aging in dogs and humans, in fact in all mammals, is related to the process of development in earlier life or whether the decline is a different process. The researchers found that the pattern of methylation suggested that the same genes may be involved in both processes.

Good methods of comparing dog and human ages are important. Dogs are increasingly seen as good models for human aging because they suffer from it in many of the same ways humans do. As the Dog Aging Project, which is collecting genetic and other information from a vast number of pet dogs, puts it on its website, the goal of the research is “Longer, healthier lives for all dogs … and their humans.”

As an aging human, I can’t fault that approach. In, 2018 the co-director of the project, Daniel. E. L. Promislow at the University of Washington, Seattle, laid out the reasons dogs make a good animal in which to study aging and get results that will help people. In essence, they suffer similar ailments, such as “obesity, arthritis, hypothyroidism, and diabetes.” That’s not all, but when we imagine that an old dog walks funny for the reasons we do (it hurts), we’re not being anthropomorphic.

Elinor Karlsson at the Broad Institute described her research in genomics and dogs: “One of the things that we’re really interested in is figuring out, first of all, whether there are things in the DNA of dogs that you can find that actually explain why some of them live a remarkably long time.” Those findings might be of use in extending healthy aging in people.

How do you test dog personality? The border collies were put through many different tests. In one, a stranger walks into a room and pets the dog. In another, the owners dress up their dogs in human T-shirts. One-fifth of the dog owners admitted to having done this before, on their own, not for research purposes.

In another test, the owners dangle a sausage in front of their dogs just out of reach for a minute or so. Be assured this was approved by an ethics board, and the dogs were fed the sausages once the time was up.

The researchers found that dogs do change as they grow older just as people do. They become less active and less anxious. But one of the authors of the study, Borbalu Turcsan, of Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, noted that some dogs don’t change as much over time. “People with more mature personality profiles change less as they age,” she said. “And we found exactly the same in the case of dogs.”

The end of aging is of course the same in dog and human.

Dogs just get there more quickly. This is one thing that makes the dog a “good model for human aging and mortality,” as Promislow wrote.

“Dogs age a lot faster than people do,” Karlsson of the Broad Institute explained. “And so if you want to study aging with the idea that you want to help people within our life span, then you want to be able to study something that’s aging much faster than us. You can learn about it more quickly than waiting 80 years until somebody dies.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

23

The greatest gift to loved ones this COVID winter? Don’t infect others

By JANE E. BRODY

I

n case you haven’t noticed, the days are getting shorter and, in most parts of the United States, also cooler. Winter will soon descend upon the northern hemisphere along with several vacation-prone and family-centered holidays that may tempt many people to celebrate in ways they have wisely resisted for most of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the same time, the coronavirus responsible for the pandemic is surging worldwide and throughout this country, where new cases have risen to more than 150,000 a day. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said last June that exactly this could happen unless aggressive action was taken to thwart the virus’s spread.

Last month, following widespread failure to take such action, Fauci predicted that if we don’t now do what we know is needed this fall and winter, we could be facing as many as 400,000 COVID-related deaths by year’s end.

And our annual infectious visitor, the influenza virus, promises to complicate the picture, causing its own surge of debilitating infections that each year claim the lives of tens of thousands of Americans.

For more reasons than most people realize, both flu and coronaviruses have the ability to spread more easily from person to person during the colder, drier days of winter. The risk is not limited to the fact that in colder weather people spend more time indoors potentially exposed to others who may harbor and spread an infectious virus. The risk is also influenced by lower temperatures and relative humidity that can increase the viral load of the air we breathe.

Of course, far more is understood about the behavior of the influenza virus than the novel coronavirus that is now causing such havoc. Rossi A. Hassad, a public health researcher and statistician at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York, reported this month that both viruses “share key transmission characteristics.”

Hassad and other experts say that what is known about the flu virus can inform our understanding of how and why COVID-19

is likely to become even more hazardous in the months ahead and that this knowledge can, in turn, reinforce the advice that everyone adopt readily available measures to thwart it.

Alas, we cannot afford to wait for a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine. Despite the intense excitement last week over an early report from Pfizer of a very promising experimental vaccine in the research pipeline, it may be six months or longer before this or any vaccine is likely to be widely available to protect most Americans against the potentially devastating infection.

“The fatality rate associated with COVID-19 is at least 10 times higher than from the flu,” Hassad said in an interview.

“And the COVID virus is more efficiently transmitted by both respiratory droplets and aerosols, which are smaller than respiratory droplets.”

In colder, drier air, he explained, respiratory droplets lose water content and become smaller and lighter and thus able to linger in the air for longer periods, creating “a perfect recipe for exposure to a higher viral load” both indoors and out.

“Low humidity during the winter enables the influenza virus to live longer indoors, and this together with spending more time indoors and in closer contact, significantly increases the risk of transmis-

sion and infection,” Hassad wrote in MedPage Today.

Furthermore, both the influenza virus and the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 have a fatty outer membrane that keeps them structurally sound and protects the RNA they contain that infects cells, causing disease. In temperatures at or near freezing, this fatty membrane solidifies into a gel, forming a rubbery coat that helps the virus survive and move more readily from person to person in cooler weather.

Characteristics of our own nasal passages in the colder, drier months enhance the risk of infection by these viruses. Nasal passages become dry and more susceptible to damage when the humidity is low, making it easier for viruses to invade the body.

These factors, along with “a high level of transmissibility (including asymptomatic transmission) and virulence of SARSCoV-2, create a perfect recipe for an even more explosive pandemic” in the coming months, Hassad noted. Given the fact that the vast majority of people have no immunity to COVID-19, he wrote, it “has the potential to parallel the 1918 flu pandemic if we fail to comply with the protective measures recommended by public health authorities.”

Dr. Stanley M. Perlman, a microbiologist at the University of Iowa who has studied coronaviruses for more than four

decades, said in an interview that the “key variables” for a new explosion of COVID infections “are people spending time indoors in not well-ventilated places and not wearing masks.” While air exchange in a hospital unit takes place 12 times an hour, indoor air in a typical room in a private home is exchanged only once or twice an hour, on average.

Perlman emphasized, “This is a remarkably contagious virus. Things have gotten worse and will get worser still. Our biggest worry is COVID-19 fatigue. People are losing respect for the virus and letting their guard down, which is a bad idea.”

Even outdoors, he said, “if you’re standing 1 foot away from someone and not wearing a mask,” you could transmit or contract the virus.

“The nose and mouth are the virus’s portal of entry,” Hassad said. “How can a mask not be a barrier against an organism coming toward me? There’s been an obvious difference in infections where masks are being worn consistently. It’s common sense, and it’s not a huge burden.”

Or as Michael Osterholm, public health researcher and infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota and a member of President-elect Joe Biden’s task force on COVID, put it, “Sharing air with someone is the primary mode of transmission.” He suggested two protective approaches: physically (though not socially) distancing yourself from others whose viral health you have no way of knowing, or creating a “bubble” of people who remain highly faithful to safe practices.

“The integrity of that bubble is only as good as its weakest link,” he said. “If one person lacks fidelity, everyone else is at risk.” He suggests meeting with friends and relations in outdoor settings, wearing masks and maintaining physical distance.

Instead of indoor gatherings of family and friends in the upcoming holidays, Osterholm said that “the ultimate gift you can give people you love is not to get anybody infected. This is your COVID year — just get through it — then hope that next year we’ll be in a very different situation.

We’re going to see the darkest days of this pandemic between now and next spring,” when a vaccine may become available.

24 Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o Estado Libre Asociado de Puer- apelación dentro del término de to Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL 30 días contados a partir de la DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Pri- publicación por edicto de esta mera Instancia Sala Superior de notificación, dirijo a usted esta San Juan. notificación que se considerará BANCO POPULAR DE hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de PUERTO RICO y SUN esta notificación ha sido archiWEST MORTGAGE vada en los autos de este caso, COMPANY, INC. COMO con fecha de 12 de noviembre AGENTE DE SERVICIO de 2020. En SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, el 12 de noviembre de Parte Demandante VS.: 2020. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ SUCESIÓN DE FÉLIX COLLADO, Secretaria RegioRIVERA MIGENES nal. ELSA MAGALY CANDELAT/C/C FELIX ESTEBAN RIO CABRERA, Sec Conf del RIVERA MIGENES Y Tribunal I.

LEGAL NOTICE

SUCESIÓN DE CARLOTA RIVERA MITCHEL T/C/C CARLOTA ELINA RIVERA MITCHEL AMBAS COMPUESTAS POR SU HEREDERO CONOCIDO ESTEBAN RIVERA MIGENES; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHAS SUCESIONES; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA;

Parte Demandada CIVIL NÚM: SJ2019CV13133 (604). SOBRE: EJECUCIÓDNE HIPOTECA NOTIFICACIÓDNE S ENTENCIPAO RE DICTO

A: ESTEBAN RIVERA MIGENES COMO HEREDERO CONOCIDO DE LA SUCESIÓN DE FELIX RIVERA MIGENES T/C/C FÉLIX ESTEBAN RIVERA MIGENES Y DE LA SUCESIÓN DE CARLOTA RIVERA MITCHEL T/C/C CARLOTA ELINA RIVERA MITCHEL; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHAS SUCESIONES

EL SECRETARIA que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 10 de noviembre de 2020, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en 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

@

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMON.

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Y SUN WEST MORTGAGE COMPANY, INC. COMO AGENTE DE SERVICIO DEMANDANTE VS.

SUCESIÓN DE RAMON MELENDEZ COLON COMPUESTA POR SU VIUDA LILLIAN ANTONIA ANZALOTA RIVERA, POR SI; SU HEREDERA CONOCIDA MEILING MELENDEZ ANZALOTA; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHA SUCESIÓN; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NÚM.: BY2020CV02937.

SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (IN REM). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. ss.

49 COLLEGE DRIVE APT. 16 ORANGE PARK, FL 32065

ROE as unknown members of the Estate

Defendants POR LA PRESENTE se le em- CIVIL NO. 20-1492 (GAG). Foplaza para que presente al tri- reclosure of Mortgage. SUMbunal su alegación responsiva MONS BY PUBLICATION. dentro de los 30 días a partir TO: JOSELINE WALESKA de la publicación de este edicto. SANTIAGO PÉREZ A/K/A Usted deberá presentar su aleJOSELINE W. SANTIAGO gación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y PÉREZ A/K/A JOSELINE SANTIAGO PÉREZ AS Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder JOINT DEBTOR AND utilizando la siguiente direcAS KNOWN MEMBER ción electrónica: https://unired.

OF THE ESTATE OF ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se PEDRO ANTONIO represente por derecho propio, SERRANO CASTRO en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la A/K/A PEDRO SERRANO secretaría del tribunal. Si usted CASTRO; JOHN DOE deja de presentar su alegación AND RICHARD ROE AS responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar UNKNOWN MEMBERS OF sentencia en rebeldía en su con- THE AFOREMENTIONED tra y conceder el remedio soliciESTATE tado en la demanda, o cualquier Pursuant to the Order for Serotro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio vice by Publication entered on de su sana discreción, lo entien- November 10, 2020, by the Hode procedente. Se le apacible norable Gustavo A. Gelpí, Chief que conforme al artículo 959 United States District Judge del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. § (Docket No. 7), you are hereby 2787, usted tiene 30 días para SUMMONED to appear, plead aceptar o repudiar la herencia or answer the Complaint filed desde la publicación de este herein no later than thirty (30) edicto. A esos efectos, de no re- days after publication of this chazarla, se tendrá la herencia Summons by serving the origipor aceptada. Representa a la nal plea or answer in the United parte demandante, la represen- States District Court for the Distación legal cuyo nombre, direc- trict of Puerto Rico, and serving ción y teléfono se consigna de a copy to counsel for plaintiff: inmediato: Attorney Juan C. Fortuño Fas, BUFETE FORTUÑO & FORTUÑO at PO Box 3908 Guaynabo, FAS, C.S.P. PR 00970, telephone numbers LCDO. JUAN C. FORTUÑO FAS 787-751-5290 and 787-751RÚA NÚM.: 11416 5616. This Summons shall be PO BOX 13786, SAN JUAN, PR 00908 published by edict only once in TEL: 787- 751-5290, a newspaper of general circulaFAX: 787-751-6155 tion in the island of Puerto Rico.

E-MAIL: Within ten (10) days following ejecuciones@fortuno-law.com publication of this Summons, En Bayamón, Puerto Rico a 5 a copy of this Summons and de noviembre de 2020. LCDA. the Complaint will be sent to LARUA I SANTA SANCHEZ, aforemtioned co-defendants Secretaria Regional. SANDRA by certified mail/return receipt I CRUZ VAZQUEZ, Sec Serv a requested, addressed to their Sala. last known addresses. Should you fail to appear, plead or anLEGAL NOTICE swer to the Complaint as ordeUNITED STATES DISTRICT red by the Court and noticed by COURT FOR THE DISTRICT this Summons, the Court will OF PUERTO RICO. enter default against you and UNITED STATES OF proceed to hear and adjudicate AMERICA, acting this cause based on the relief through the United States demanded in the Complaint.

Department of Agriculture BY ORDER OF THE COURT, summons is issued pursuant to Plaintiff v.

Federal Rules Civil Procedure JOSELINE WALESKA 4(e) and Rule 4.6 of the Rules SANTIAGO PÉREZ of Civil Procedure for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. In A/K/A JOSELINE W. SANTIAGO PÉREZ A/K/A San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 12th of November, 2020. MAJOSELINE SANTIAGO day RIA ANTORGIORGI-JORDAN, PÉREZ As Joint Debtor ESQ. CLERK, U.S. DISTRICT And As Known Member COURT. By: Viviana Diaz, DeOf The Estate Of PEDRO puty Clerk.

A: SUCESIÓN DE RAMON MELENDEZ COLON COMPUESTA POR SU VIUDA LILLIAN ANTONIA ANZALOTA RIVERA, POR SI; SU HEREDERA CONOCIDA MEILING MELENDEZ ANZALOTA; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHA SUCESIÓN ANTONIO SERRANO URB. FLAMINGO CASTRO A/K/A PEDRO TERRACE SERRANO CASTRO; 16 E, CALLE GRACIELA JOHN DOE and RICHARD BAYAMON, PR 00957;

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

Tuesday, November 17, 2020 SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO.

CONDADO 3 CR2, LLC Parte Demandante, v.

ANGEL ANTONIO MUÑOZ SOTO, ALMA IRIS PEREZ PEÑA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA

Parte demandada CASO NUM.: HSCI201600339.

SOBRE: EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA IN- REM. AVISO DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA SUBASTA.

A: ANGEL ANTONIO MUÑOZ SOTO, ALMA IRIS PEREZ PEÑA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RÍCO; PALMAS DEL MAR HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION; EUROBANK, O A SU ORDEN; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; Y AL PUBLICO EN GENERAL:

El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior, Centro Judicial de Humacao, Humacao, Puerto Rico, hago saber a la parte demandada, y al PUBLICO EN GENERAL: y a todos los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, siempre que surjan de la certificación registral, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante a saber: (1.) ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO: A cuyo favor aparece anotado un Embargo, por la suma de $25,110.37, por contribución sabre ingresos (contra solar 18 de 378.56 m/c, Comunidad Sapo), según certificación de fecha 9 de octubre de 2009, Embargo del 20 de enero de 2010 (así surge), presentado el LEGAL NOTICE 16 de octubre de 2009, caso ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE 2370, orden #118, folio 30 del PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE Libro ELA 410 de Yabucoa, Ley PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA #8, finca número 2,074-A (no se

(787) 743-3346

cancelara hasta la liquidación de la deuda). (2.) ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA: A cuyo favor aparece en el Libro de Embargos Federales número 6, en la página 160, asiento 2, se encuentra presentado el día 23 de diciembre de 2010, con el número de notificación 718398310, embargo contra Angel A. Muñoz Soto/Productos de Nutricion & Baby, seguro social 6 patronal 66-0421669, por la suma de $705.81, finca número 2,074-A. No podemos precisar si el titular y el embargado es la misma persona. (3.) ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA: A cuyo favor En el Libro de Embargos Federales número 6, en la página 207, asiento 2, se encuentra presentado el dia 13 de junio de 2011, con el número de notificación 788536611, embargo contra Angel A. Muñoz Soto/Productos de Nutricion & Baby, seguro social 6 patronal 66-0421669, por la suma de $2,851.66, finca #2,074-A. No podemos precisar si el titular y el embargado es la misma persona. (4.)

PALMAS DEL MAR HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION: A cuyo favor aparece una Sentencia en contra: Angel A. Muñoz Soto y Alma I. Pérez Pella y la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales compuesta por ambos, por $3,887.84, Sentencia del 7 de junio de 2011, Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Municipal de Humacao, caso civil HACI201100414. Anotado el 19 de septiembre de 2011, folio 105-B, Libro Sentencias #7, finca #2,074-A. (5.) ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO: A cuyo favor aparece presentado un Embargo por la suma de $58,486.48, por contribución sobre ingresos, caso #HUM-11-345, seguro social: xxx-xx-2370, según certificación de fecha 1 de marzo de 2011, Embargo del 2 de mayo de 2011, presentado el 2 de marzo de 2011, orden #462, folio 116, Libro Ley 12, Libro #1, finca #2,074-A. (6.) ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA: A cuyo favor aparece presentado en el Libro de Embargos Federales número 6, en la página 205, asiento 3, se encuentra presentado el dia 13 de junio de 2011, con el número de notificación 784240611, embargo contra Angel A. Muñoz Soto/Productos de Nutricion & Baby, seguro social 6 patronal 66-0421669, por la suma de $2,426.55, finca #2,074-A. No podemos precisar si el titular y el Embargado es la misma persona. (7.) ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO: A cuyo favor aparece presentado un Embargo, por la suma de $46,685.43, por contribución sobre ingresos, según certificación de fecha 3 de junio de 2010, Embargo del 10 de junio de 2010, presentado el 4 de junio de

The San Juan Daily Star 2010, caso #HUM-10-00414, seguro social: xxx-xx-2370, orden #263, folio 66, Libro ELA Ley 12 #1, finca #2,074-A. (8.) ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO: A cuyo favor aparece presentado un Embargo por la suma de $36,130.77, por contribución sobre ingresos, según certificación de fecha 10 de marzo de 2008, Embargo del 17 de marzo de 2008, presentado el 13 de marzo de 2008, caso #583-42-2370, orden #88, folio 22 del Libro Embargo ELA #10 de Yabucoa, finca #2,074-A. (9.)

ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA: A cuyo favor aparece en el Libro de Embargos Federales número 6, en la página 168, asiento 4, se encuentra presentado el día 23 de diciembre de 2010, con el número de notificación 73258481, embargo contra Angel A. Muñoz Soto/ Productos de Nutrición & Baby, seguro social número 66-0421669, por la suma de $21,243.07, finca #2,074-A. No podemos precisar si el titular y el embargado es la misma persona. (10.) ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA: A cuyo favor aparece en el Libro de Embargos Federales número 6, en la página 128, asiento 4, se encuentra presentado el dia 8 de julio de 2010, con el número de notificación 672918610, embargo contra Angel A. Muñoz Soto/ Productos de Nutricion & Baby, seguro social 66-0421669, por la suma de $2,993.89, finca #2,074-A . No podemos precisar si el titular y el embargado es la misma persona. (11.)

E U ROBANK, O A SU ORDEN: A cuyo favor aparece inscrito un Pagaré por la suma de $44,000.00, intereses al 9.50% anual y a vencer presentación Al asiento 480 del diario 882, el dia 30 de noviembre de 2006, según consta de la escritura #138, otorgada en Humacao, el dia 14 de noviembre de 2006, ante el Notario Jorge A. Surillo Arcano, inscrito el 3 de julio de 2017, Karibe, finca #2,074-A, inscripción 9na, Ley 216. (12.) ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO (Departamento de Hacienda): A cuyo favor aparece presentado un Embargo por la suma de $36,130.77, Certificación sobre Embargo de Bienes Inmuebles, Humacao, 10 de marzo de 2008, a favor del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico (Departamento de Hacienda), inscrito el 3 de julio de 2017, Karibe, finca #2,074-A, inscripción 9na, Ley 216. (13.) ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO (Departamento de Hacienda): A cuyo favor aparece presentado un Embargo por la suma de por $25,110.37, al asiento 516 del diario 898, el dia 16 de octubre de 2009, se presenta Certificación sobre Anotación de Embargo, Humacao, 9 de octubre de 2009, a fa-

vor del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, Departamento de Hacienda, inscrito el 3 de julio de 2017, Karibe, finca #2,074-A, inscripción 10ma, Ley 216. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el día 3 de diciembre de 2019, por la Secretaria del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor la propiedad que se describe a continuación: #18 CALLE FRANCISCO SUSTACHE, YABUCOA, PR 00767.

URBANA: Solar marcado con el Numero 18 del Proyecto de Renovación Urbana conocido como UR-PR-5-20 El Sapo, según indica en el plano de inscripción titulado “Inscripcion Map” El Sapo Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, dibujo en el número D-uno fechado en agosto de mil novecientos cincuentinueve y certificado como correcto por el Ingeniero Eddie Garcia Mendoza, en abril diez mil novecientos cincuentiocho situado en el Barrio Calabazas del término municipal de Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, con una cabida de 378.56 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con el solar 1 y terrenos del municipio de Yabucoa, Puerto Rico distancia de 6.73 metros y 11.38 metros respectivamente; por el SUR, con la Calle “A” distancia curvilínea de 11.24 metros; por el ESTE, con el solar 17, distancia de 28.68 metros; y por el OESTE, con el solar 19, distancia de 25.34 metros.

Consta inscrita al folio 26 del tomo 86 de Yabucoa, finca número 2074-A; Registro de la Propiedad Sección de Humacao. El producto de la subasta se destinará a satisfacer hasta donde alcance, la SENTENCIA dictada a su favor, el día 8 de marzo de 2017, expedida el día 14 de marzo de 2017, en el presente caso civil, a saber, la suma de $573.220.77, más intereses al 8% anual, que se continúan acumulando desde dicha fecha a razón de $112.58 diarios, más las partes pactaron en el Pagare Hipotecario suscrito por ambos que el pago de honorarios de abogados pactados equivalentes al 10% del principal del Pagaré, o sea, por la cantidad de $25,000.00. Los intereses se continúan hasta el saldo total de la deuda, para cubrir el principal adeudado, disponiéndose que si quedare algún remanente luego de pagarse las sumas antes mencionadas el mismo deberá ser depositado en la Secretaría del Tribunal para ser entregado a los demandados previa solicitud y orden del Tribunal. La venta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen que afecte la mencionada finca. La adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el acto mismo de la

The San Juan Daily Star 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 2 DE FEBRERO DE 2021 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina del referido Alguacil, localizada en el Centro Judicial de Humacao, Humacao, Puerto Rico. Que el precio mínimo fijado para la PRIMERA SUBASTA es de $95,000.00. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, la misma se llevará a efecto el día el 9 DE FEBRERO DE 2021 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 $63,333.34, 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 el 16 DE FEBRERO DE 2021 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 $47,500.00, 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 to-

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

dos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la secretaría del tribunal durante las horas laborables. b. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. EXPIDO, el presente EDICTO, en Humacao, Puerto Rico, hoy día 10 de NOVIEMBRE de 2020. MARIA DEL PILAR RIVER RIVERA, Alguacil Regional. Jennisa Garcia Morales, División de Subastas, Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Humacao.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO UBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS.

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

PARTE DEMANDANTE VS.

EL SECRETARIO DE LA VIVIENDA Y DESARROLLO URBANO T/C/C SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT OF WASHINGTON (HUD) POR SI Y EN REPRESENTACIÓN DE ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA; DORAL FINANCIAL CORPORATION H/N/C HF. MORTGAGE BANKERS POR CONDUCTO DE SU AGENTE RESIDENTE; FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION (FDIC) COMO SÍNDICO DE DORAL BANK; DORAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION T/C/C DORAL MORTGAGE, LIC., POR CONDUCTO DE SU AGENTE RESIDENTE CT CORPORATION SYSTEM; ÁNGEL ALFREDO JUSINO MORALES T/C/C ÁNGEL A. JUSINO MORALES FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ

PARTE DEMANDADA CIVIL NÚM. CG2020CV01282 (101). SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO POR LA VÍA JUDICIAL. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E.U.U. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION (FDIC) COMO SÍNDICO DE DORAL BANK a las siguientes direcciones: FDIC SAN JUAN FIELD OFFICE, 235 CALLE FEDERICO COSTA, STE 335, SAN JUAN, PR 00918-1341, 350 5TH AVE STE 1200, NEW YORK NY 10118-1201 y 1601 BRYAN ST., DALLAS TX 752013401. EL SECRETARIO DE LA VIVIENDA Y DESARROLLO URBANO T/C/C SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT OF WASHINGTON (HUD) POR SÍ Y EN REPRESENTACIÓN DE ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA a las siguientes direcciones: 235 CALLE FEDERICO COSTA STE 200, SAN JUAN, PR 00918-1341; THE ASSOCIATE GENERAL COUNSEL FOR LITIGATION, OFFICE OF LITIGATION - ROOM 10258, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, 451 7TH, ST SW, WASHINGTON DC 20410-0001, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES AT WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, 950 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20530-0001 y A UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, UNITED STATES ATFORNEY’S OFFICE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO A 350 AVE CARLOS CHARDÓN, STE 1201, SAN JUAN, PR 009182142.

Queda usted notificado que en este Tribunal se ha radicado demanda sobre cancelación de pagaré extraviado por la Vía judicial. El El 30 de noviembre de 2002, Ángel Alfredo Jusino Morales t/c/c Ángel A. Jusino Morales, se acogió a la alternativa de “Partial Claim”. Dicho beneficio, el cual se ofrece a los préstamos asegurados por la Administración de Vivienda Federal (FHA por sus siglas en inglés), consiste en la reinstalación del préstamo hipotecario, difiriendo los pagos en atraso a través de una hipoteca subordinada, sin intereses. Esta hipoteca subordinada fue constituida San Juan, Puerto Rico, mediante la Escritura núm. 902 autorizada por el notario Luis Fernando Castillo

Cruz en garantía de un pagaré suscrito bajo el testimonio 3,363, por la suma de $2,554.24, a favor de Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano t/c/c Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development, sin intereses y vencimiento al 1ro de febrero de 2029 sobre la siguiente propiedad: URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Apartamento residencial identificado con el No. C-302, localizado en la tercera planta del “Cluster C” del Condominio Turabo Clusters, sito en la Avenida Principal del Barrio Cañabón de Caguas, Puerto Rico, el cual tiene una cabida superficial de 1,007.57 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 92.96 metros cuadrados; en lindes por el NORTE, con el elemento exterior, en 31’9”; por el SUR, con el elemento exterior, la pared medianera del apartamento No. C-303 y la pared del pasillo, en 31’9”; por el ESTE, con el elemento exterior, en 32’7”; y por el OESTE, con la pared medianera del apartamento No. C-301, el pasillo que da acceso de entrada y salida al apartamento, al edificio, al condominio y a la vía pública, en 32’7”. La puerta principal de entrada a este apartamento se encuentra localizada en su colindancia Oeste. Consta este apartamento de sala-comedor, cocina, dos dormitorios, un servicio sanitario y terraza. A este apartamento le corresponde como elemento común limitado un espacio para estacionamiento que acomoda un vehículo de motor. Estos espacios para estacionamiento se identifican con la letra del “Cluster” donde se encuentra sito en el apartamento y el número de este. Este apartamento tiene una participación de 0.4163%.

La propiedad consta inscrita al folio 115 del tomo 1624 de Caguas, Finca 53956. Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección I. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio móvil del tomo 1628 de Caguas, Finca 53956. Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección I. Inscripción segunda. La parte demandada deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva, en la secretaria del Tribunal. Se le advierte que, si no contesta la demanda, radicando el original de la contestación en este Tribunal y enviando copia de la contestación a la abogada de la Parte Demandante, Lcda.

Belma Alonso García, cuya dirección es: PO Box 3922, Guaynabo, PR 00970-3922, Teléfono y Fax: (787) 789-1826, correo electrónico: oficinabelmaalonsogmail.com, dentro del término de SESENTA (60) días de la publicación de este edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publi-

cación, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy 5 de de noviembre de 2020 en Caguas, Puerto Rico. CARMEN ANA PEREIRA ORTIZ, SECRETARIA (O). ENEIDA ARROYO \/ELEZ, SUB-SECRETARIA(O).

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE PONCE SALA SUPERIOR DE PONCE.

MARCIAL JUSINO OQUENDO; MIEMBROS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE MARGARITA RIVERA NUÑEZ y otros DEMANDANTES v.

MARCOS IVAN JUSINO RIVERA Y otros.

25

de la comunidad. La finca antes descrita tiene el siguiente número de codificación del Centro de Recaudación de Ingresos Municipales (CRIM): 341-063-63816-000. La cual se encuentra pendiente de inscripción. SE LES APERCIBE que, de no hacer sus alegaciones responsivas a la demanda dentro del término aquí dispuesto , se les anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal en Ponce, Puerto Rico, a día 10 de noviembre de 2020.

LUZ MAYRA CARABALLO GARCIA, Sec Regional. MADELINE RIVERA MERCADO, Sec Aux del Tribunal I.

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

DEMANDADOS BAUTISTA REO PR CIVIL NUM: PO2020CV00976.

CORP., SOBRE: LIQUIDACION DE Demandante, v.

COMUNIDAD DE BIENES Y HEREDITARIA. EMPLAZAJOSEFINA MIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTALÓPEZ SÁNCHEZ DOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL Demandada PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU. CIVIL NÚM.: SJ2018cv09888 EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO (604). SOBRE: COBRO DE DE PUERTO RICO. SS. DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE A: MARCOS IVÁN PRENDA E hipoteca POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. AVISO DE JUSINO RIVERA es: 509-12 St. #38 Brooklyn, SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE New York 11215 DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS POR LA PRESENTE se les DE AMÉRICA EL PUEBLO DE emplaza y requiere para que PUERTO RICO. SS. YO, el(la) conteste la demanda dentro de Alguacil que suscribe, por la los treinta (30) días siguientes presente anuncia y hace consa la publicación de este Edicto. tar, que en cumplimiento del Usted deberá radicar su ale- Mandamiento de Ejecución de gación responsiva a través del Sentencia, expedido el 8 de ocSistema Unificado de Manejo y tubre de 2019 por la Secretaría Administración de Casos (SU- de este Tribunal, procederé a MAC), al cual puede acceder vender en pública subasta y al utilizando la siguiente dirección mejor postor, quien pagará el electrónica: http://unired.rama- importe de la venta en dinero judicial.pr/sumac/ 1 salvo que efectivo o en cheque certificado se presente por derecho propio, o de gerente, a la orden del Alen cuyo caso deberá radicar el guacil suscribiente, en moneda original de su contestación ante del curso legal de los Estados el Tribunal correspondiente y Unidos de América, el día 10 de notifique con copia a los abo- diciembre de 2020, a la(s) 9:30 gados de la parte demandante, a.m., en mi oficina localizada en Lcdo. Wendell W. Colón Muñoz, el Tribunal de San Juan, todo al PO BOX 7970, Ponce, P. R. título, derecho o interés que 00732; Teléfono: 787-843-4168. corresponda a la parte demanEn dicha demanda se tramita dada sobre el inmueble que se un procedimiento de liquida- describe a continuación: URBAción de comunídad de bienes NA: Solar número 18 de la Many hereditaria relacionado con zana H de la Urbanización Las la propiedad que se describe a Lomas, radicada en el Barrio continuación: RÚSTICA: Parce- (Monacillos), hoy Gobernador la marcada con el número diez Piñero de Puerto Rico, con un (10) en el plano de parcelación área de 252.00 metros cuadrade la comunidad rural Yuca del dos. En lindes por el NORTE, Barrio Machuelo Arriba del tér- con la calle principal San Patrimino municipal de Ponce con cio que es su frente, en 12.00 una cabida superficial de cero metros; por el SUR, con solar cuerdas con mil ciento noventa número 28 en 12.00 metros; por y seis diez milésimas de otra, el ESTE, con solar 19, en una equivalente a cuatrocientos se- distancia de 21.00 metros; y por tenta punto veinte y cinco me- el OESTE, con el solar número tros cuadrados. En lindes por 17 en 21.00 metros. Enclava una el Norte con parcela número casa. Inscrita al Folio 206 del nueve de la comunicad. Por el tomo 289 de Monacillos, Finca Sur con parcela número once de número 11,124, Registro de la la comunidad. Por el Este con la Propiedad de San Juan, Tercera calle D de la comunidad. Por el Sección. Dirección Física: #790 Oeste con parcela número siete Avenida San Patricio, Urbani-

zación Las Lomas, San Juan, Puerto Rico. La propiedad descrita anteriormente está afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: Por su procedencia está afecta a servidumbres; condiciones restrictivas de edificación y uso.

Por sí afecta a: HIPOTECA: En garantía de un pagaré a favor de DORAL BANK, o a su orden, por la suma de $249,000.00, con interés al 7.95%, y vencedero 1 de enero de 2021, según consta escritura #570, otorgada el día 21 de diciembre de 2005 en San Juan, Puerto Rico, ante el Notario Público David Gómez Rosario, inscrita al folio 26 del tomo 1060 de Monacillos, inscripción 11va. HIPOTECA: En garantía de un pagaré a favor de BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO, o a su orden, por la suma de $116,000.00, con interés al 8.89%, y vencedero a la presentación, según consta escritura # 8, otorgada el día 27 de febrero de 2006 en Caguas, Puerto Rico, ante el Notario Público Justino Ferrer Muñoz, inscrita al folio 26 del tomo 1060 de Monacillos, inscripción 12ma. MODIFICACIÓN DE HIPOTECA: Por la escritura #79, otorgada en San Juan el 28 de febrero de 2014 ante el Notario Público Gadiel O. Rosario Rivera, comparece titular y Doral Bank como tenedor del pagaré de $249,000.00. ANOTACION DE DEMANDA: Es objeto de esta anotación de Hipoteca por la suma de $249,000.00 que surge de la inscripción 11ª, modificada en la inscripción 14ª. DEMANDANTE: Bautista Cayman Asset Company DEMANDADO: Josefina López Sánchez, cantidad adeudada $246,292.75, según demanda expedida por el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, en el caso Civil Núm. SJ2018CV09888 de fecha de 13 de noviembre de 2018, inscrita al tomo Karibe, Anotación A de fecha 8 de marzo de 2019. Servirá como tipo mínimo para la primera subasta en ejecución de la Finca Número 11,124 antes descrita la suma de $249,000.00, conforme a lo estipulado en la Escritura de Primera Hipoteca #560, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 21 de diciembre de 2005 ante el Notario Público David Gómez Rosario. De no adjudicarse la propiedad en la primera subasta, se celebrará una segunda subasta, en las mismas oficinas de este Alguacil, el día 17 de diciembre de 2020, a la(s) 9:30 a.m. El tipo mínimo para la segunda subasta será dos terceras partes (2/3) del tipo mínimo de la primera subasta, o sea, $166,000.00. De no adjudicarse la propiedad en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una tercera subasta en las mismas oficinas de este Alguacil, el día 14 de enero de 2021, a la(s) 9:30 a.m. El tipo mínimo para la tercera subasta será la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo que se pactara para la primera subasta, o sea, $124,500.00.

Esta subasta se hará para sa-

tisfacer a la parte demandante, hasta donde alcance, el importe adeudado a BAUTISTA REO PR CORP., ascendente a la suma de $247,041.99, la cual se desglosa de la siguiente manera: a. $158,672.67 por concepto de principal bajo el Pagaré A; b. $10,801.10 por concepto de principal bajo el Pagaré B; c. $45,563.30 por concepto de intereses bajo el Pagaré A, los cuales incrementan diariamente a razón de $27.55 hasta su total y completo pago; d. $2,264.17 por concepto de cargos por mora bajo el Pagaré A, los cuales incrementan diariamente hasta su total y completo pago; e. $4,840.75 por concepto de otros gastos, incluyendo seguros, estudio de título, valoración e inspección; f. $24,900.00 por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado expresamente pactados bajo el Pagaré Hipotecario. La venta en pública subasta de la propiedad descrita anteriormente se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte dicha propiedad. Se entiende que cualquier carga y/o gravamen anterior y/o preferente, si lo hubiera, al crédito que da base a esta ejecución, continuará subsistente, entendiéndose además, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría de este Tribunal durante horas laborables.

El Alguacil 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. POR LA PRESENTE, se les notifica a los titulares de créditos y/o cargas registrales posteriores, si alguno, que se celebrará la SUBASTA en la fecha, hora y sitio anteriormente señalados, y se les invita a que concurran a dicha subasta, si les conviniere, o se les invita a satisfacer, antes del remate, el importe del crédito, sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honorarios de abogado asegurados, quedando entonces subrogados en los derechos del Acreedor ejecutante, siempre y cuando reúnan los requisitos y cualificaciones de Ley para que se pueda efectuar tal subrogación. Y PARA SU PUBLICACIÓN en el tablón de edictos de este Tribunal y en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio donde se celebrará la subasta señalada. Además, en un periódico de circulación general en dos (2) ocasiones y mediante correo certificado a la última dirección conocida de la parte demandada. EXPEDIDO el presente EDICTO DE SUBASTA en San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 9 de noviembre de 2020.

Pedro Hieye González, Alguacil, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE SAN JUAN.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Johnson wins 2020 Masters in record fashion

By BILL PENNINGTON

F

or 10 years, Dustin Johnson’s chase for career-defining, major titles was tinged with ruthless angst, misfortune and calamitous setbacks.

He grounded a club in an unobserved bunker at the 2010 PGA Championship to earn a heartless penalty that bounced him from a playoff for the victory. Five years later, at the U.S. Open, a three-putt on the final hole cost him another major championship playoff berth. Riding a hot streak that made him the prohibitive favorite at the Masters three years ago, Johnson slipped on the stairs at his rental house on the tournament’s eve and withdrew with a back injury.

Even as he won the 2016 U.S. Open, he was saddled with the ignominy of a penalty assessed after his celebration on the final hole.

But on Sunday, with verve and nerve, Johnson comfortably secured the validating breakthrough achievement he has long sought with a runaway, five-stroke victory at the 2020 Masters. It is a championship that separates Johnson, one of golf’s most talented players, from the gaggle of nearly 150 golfers with one major title and brightens the path to the game’s pantheon of heroes.

Johnson, 36, hopes to find his way there.

“It feels good to get past one major, especially when the second one is the Masters, which I always dreamed of winning as a kid,” said Johnson, who grew up in Columbia, S.C., about an hour’s drive from Augusta National Golf Club. “I dream of winning a lot of majors. Hopefully, this one will help give me a little spring.”

Johnson, whose unshakable stoicism on the golf course has become his best-known trait, broke down in tears while being interviewed after the final round behind the 18th green.

“It still feels like I’m dreaming,” he said, wiping his eyes.

Johnson’s closest pursuers were Sungjae Im of South Korea and Cameron Smith of Australia, who each finished the tournament at 15-under par. They narrowed Johnson’s lead after he made consecutive bogeys on the fourth and fifth holes, but Johnson rallied with two birdies in his next three holes and then extended his lead from there.

Johnson’s 4-under-par 68 in the final round gave him a tournament score of 268, or 20-under par, which broke the 72-hole Masters record of 270 previously held by Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth.

Woods, the defending champion, began Sunday 11 strokes behind Johnson, but never mounted a run at the lead. At the par-3 12th hole, he hit three balls into the creek protecting the green and registered a score of 10, his highest score on any hole in his PGA Tour career.

Woods then birdied five of his last six holes to finish 1-under par for the tournament and tied for 38th.

Johnson’s victory also concluded a bizarrely atypical Masters, which was postponed to November from its customary spot in early April because of the coronavirus pandemic. An event known for its traditions, the 84th Masters was contested for the first time without fans, who are

Dustin Johnson became the first golfer to reach 20-under at the Masters. normally an essential part of the visual and auditory experience. Augusta National was so quiet that only the chatter between player and caddie rose above the chirping birds.

The final round, a theatric staple of the worldwide sporting calendar, was held four hours earlier than its standard time to account for the diminished amount of sunlight in the fall.

Finally, Johnson was presented with the green jacket that goes with his victory less than five months before he will have to defend his title in April 2021.

That is a circumstance that did not vex Johnson, the world’s top-ranked player.

“I know 2020 has been a really strange year,” said Johnson, who contracted the coronavirus last month and quarantined for roughly two weeks with mild symptoms. “But it’s been good to me.”

Johnson’s victory was his first after holding the 54-hole lead in a major championship. He had failed to win in four such instances, including in August when he tied for second at the PGA Championship. Johnson conceded that not being able to close out the lead in a major had begun to weigh on him.

“There was doubts in my mind,” he said, adding: “I’m in

this position a lot of times — like when am I going to finish off the golf tournament or finish off a major?

“This definitely proved that I can do it.”

The Masters victory caps off a brilliant year for Johnson, who won four 2020 PGA Tour events and was second or tied for second three other times. In what is the final substantial tournament of 2020, Johnson on Sunday also stole the spotlight from Bryson DeChambeau, whose recent top results and attention-grabbing, towering drives had made him the Masters favorite. DeChambeau, who shot a 1-over-par 73 Sunday to finish the event 2-under, said he battled bouts of dizziness during the tournament and indicated he was going to see a doctor when he returned home to Dallas.

“I’ve got to fix this dizziness; I’ve got to get healthy,” DeChambeau said.

As the sun set Sunday evening, in a Masters ritual, Woods helped put a green jacket, size 42 long, on Johnson’s shoulders.

Later, Johnson was asked if there was any special meaning to having Woods, the five-time Masters champion, performing the ceremony.

“Yes,” he answered. Then, with a laugh and broad smile he added: “But any guy could put it on me and I’d be just fine.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

27

What we learned from Week 10 of the NFL season

By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN

A

Hail Mary into triple-coverage. A 98-yard touchdown run. A roughing-the-passer call that handed a team a win. It was a week of big plays and last-minute changes in fortune, and it shook up the NFL’s best division, as the NFC West now has a three-way tie for first place.

Here’s what we learned: — DeAndre Hopkins is magic. Buffalo had just scored a gut-punch of a touchdown to take a 30-26 lead in the final minute of the fourth quarter and Arizona, after the ensuing kickoff, had just 34 seconds to go 75 yards to score a winning touchdown. Undeterred, Kyler Murray and the Cardinals were methodical. Murray, the second-year quarterback. completed passes of 14, 9 and 9 yards to put Arizona at Buffalo’s 43-yard line, and that was all the space he needed. On his fourth pass of the drive, Murray launched a Hail Mary into triple-coverage in the end zone and Hopkins, acquired in a trade this offseason to unlock Murray’s potential, managed to outjump and outmuscle all three Buffalo defenders for the ball. The remarkable catch is the type of highlight that will be replayed for years, and it gave Arizona a thrilling end to a 32-30 win.

Thanks to a Seattle loss to the Los Angeles Rams, it also gave the Cardinals a share of the division lead in the ultracompetitive NFC West.

— Ronald Jones II had a point to prove.

After Tampa Bay set an NFL record by running the ball just five times in a humiliating loss to New Orleans last week, the Buccaneers remembered Jones existed and the running back helped carry them to a laughable 46-23 win over Carolina. Jones ran for 192 yards on 23 carries, but one play stood out. In the third quarter, with Tampa Bay clinging to a three-point lead, Jones took a handoff at his team’s 2-yard line, sliced right through a pack of Carolina defenders, and raced 98 yards for a touchdown, just the fourth rushing touchdown of 98 or more yards in NFL history, according to Pro Football Reference.

According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats database, Jones hit 21.19 mph on the run, gaining 94 more yards than expected on the play — the highest mark in that statistic all season.

— Something is not right for Baltimore. The Ravens have lost two of three games since their Week 7 bye and have not looked nearly as explosive on offense.

In Sunday night’s rain-soaked 23-17 loss to New England, Baltimore was limited to 115 yards rushing, with running back Mark Ingram getting just 5 yards in his return from an ankle injury, compounding his bad day by losing track of the snap on a wildcat play in the third quarter that resulted in a turnover on downs. It’s far too soon to say the league has figured Baltimore out, but this is the closest thing to a slump the Ravens have had in the Lamar Jackson era.

— Miami’s future is now. The Dolphins’ decision to switch from Ryan Fitzpatrick to Tua Tagovailoa at quarterback raised a few eyebrows — most notably Fitzpatrick’s — since Miami was playing well and was on the fringe of this year’s playoff hunt. The move was rationalized by most as the right play for the team’s future, but Tagovailoa has quickly changed that narrative by winning the first three starts of his career. In Sunday’s convincing 29-21 win over Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers, rookie running back Salvon Ahmed led the way, and the team’s defense withstood a late surge from Herbert. Tagovailoa’s statistics haven’t been eye-popping, but getting him muchneeded experience while inching closer to a wild-card spot is a major case of a team having its cake and eating it, too.

— Seattle can’t blame its defense this week. The Seahawks’ Achilles’ heel all season has been its porous defense, but in a devastating loss to the Rams, the offense pulled a disappearing act. Russell Wilson had his worst game of the season with 248 yards passing and two interceptions, D.K. Metcalf had just two catches on four targets and Seattle, which has lost three of its past four games, fell into a three-way tie with the Rams and Arizona for the lead in the NFC West. The Seahawks host the Cardinals next week in what appears to be a crucial game for both teams.

— Chase Young owes his teammates an apology. There were fewer than 10 seconds remaining in a tie game between the Detroit Lions and the Washington Footballers when Detroit’s Matthew Stafford threw an incomplete pass at his own 35-yard line, making overtime seem like a foregone conclusion. But Young, a rookie

Arizona’s DeAndre Hopkins fought through triple-coverage to haul in a 43-yard touchdown in the final minute of Arizona’s thrilling 32-30 win over Buffalo. defensive end for Washington, came in late and tossed Stafford to the ground, earning a flag for roughing the passer. The 15-yard penalty, plus a 6-yard pass from Stafford to Marvin Jones, got Matt Prater just close enough for a 59-yard field goal as time expired. That Washington had fought back from a 24-3 deficit to tie the game, only to have it fall apart because of such a ridiculous mistake, will certainly sting — and will undoubtedly be a focus of Washington’s review of the game this week.

Sunday’s Top Performers Top Passer: Ben Roethlisberger Pittsburgh’s quarterback appears to need practice about as much as Allen Iverson did. Roethlisberger was idle all week after landing on the COVID-19 reserve list as a result of close contact with tight end Vance McDonald and wasn’t cleared to enter team facilities until Saturday. That didn’t matter as he torched Cincinnati’s defense for 333 yards and four touchdowns. Pittsburgh improved to 9-0

for the season and will look to stretch that to 10-0 next week in Jacksonville.

Top Runner: Ronald Jones II It is hard to tell by the final score, but this was a closely-contested 17-17 game at halftime, and the second half had a slow start as well. Jones’ wild 98-yard run came on the first play of Tampa Bay’s second drive of the third quarter, and from there the Buccaneers were off to the races. Needless to say, the 192 yards rushing were a personal best for Jones, who came into the day with a career-high of 113. He had just 9 yards last week.

Top Receiver: DeAndre Hopkins You could make a reasonable case that Green Bay’s Marquez Valdes-Scantling had a more impressive game overall, considering his 78-yard touchdown and his average of 37.3 yards a catch. But this column is a Murray-to-Hopkins Hail Mary fan blog and we are not considering other nominees at this time.

Continues on page 28

28

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

From page 27 A Big Week for Kickers Detroit’s Matt Prater got most of the attention for a three field-goal game that included a 59-yard game-winner as time expired, but he was far from alone. With one game remaining in Week 10, the league’s kickers have already connected for 11 field goals of 50 or more yards, tying a record set in Week 13 of the 2012 season.

The longest field goal Sunday belonged to Seattle’s Jason Myers, who hit a 61-yarder in the Seahawks’ loss to Los Angeles. But the best day, beyond Prater’s, belonged to Buffalo’s Tyler Bass who connected on field goals of 54, 55 and 58 yards, setting a new career long on three consecutive kicks.

There have been 71 field goals of at least 50 yards this season, which according to the NFL has already broken the league’s record for the first 10 weeks of the season, which was set in 2017 when there were 67.

One* Sentence About Sunday’s Games *Except when it takes more.

Buccaneers 46, Panthers 23: Tom Brady had more than 300 yards passing for the third time this season — he topped that mark only once in his final 10 games with New England — and he once again split up his touchdown passes, with one each to Rob Gronkowski, Mike Evans and Cameron Brate.

Steelers 36, Bengals 10: Pittsburgh’s big day on offense saw Diontae Johnson, a second-year wide receiver, contribute six catches for 116 yards and a touchdown while rookie sensation Chase Claypool scored two more touchdowns, bringing his total over his past six games to eight.

Rams 23, Seahawks 16: Leonard Floyd got three of the Rams’ six sacks and five of the team’s 12 quarterback hits, helping to make Russell Wilson’s day absolutely miserable.

Giants 27, Eagles 17: It was a throwback game for New York, as the team’s defensive front set the tone with three sacks and 13 quarterback hits, and Daniel Jones went a second consecutive game without committing a turnover.

After starting the season 0-5, the Giants have improved from historically awful to merely bad, which in their division could lead to a playoff spot.

Packers 24, Jaguars 20: After an impressive NFL debut last week, Jacksonville’s Jake Luton came back to Earth a bit, passing for just 169 yards with one touchdown and one interception against a Green Bay defense that typically makes quite a few mistakes. That won’t work against Aaron Rodgers, even on a day that was a little slow by his lofty standards.

Patriots 23, Ravens 17: Rex Burkhead caught touch-

Tampa Bay’s Ronald Jones II joined Tony Dorsett, Derrick Henry and Ahman Green as the only players with rushing touchdowns of 98 or more yards in N.F.L. history.Credit... down passes from Cam Newton and Jakobi Meyers, Damien Harris ran for 121 yards and New England held on for an upset that could go a long way to turning around a disappointing season.

Saints 27, 49ers 13: A huge hit from San Francisco’s Kentavius Street in the second quarter left Saints quarterback Drew Brees wincing on the field — and resulted in a fairly questionable penalty on Street. Brees was able to fight his way through the pain until halftime, but gave way to Jameis Winston for the second half despite never being officially ruled out with what was described as a rib injury.

Dolphins 29, Chargers 21: Justin Herbert has had a remarkable rookie season, but the Chargers quarterback was outplayed by Tua Tagovailoa in this game and his interception early in the fourth quarter helped give Miami the breathing room it needed to stretch its winning streak to five games.

Lions 30, Footballers 27: In his first start in nearly two years following a devastating leg break, Alex Smith threw for 390 yards and rallied his team all the way back from a 24-3 deficit to a 27-27 tie before a mistake by his team’s defense handed Detroit the victory.

Browns 10, Texans 7: In his first action since Week 4, Nick Chubb ran for 126 yards and a touchdown while Kareem Hunt, seeming happy to share the load, had 132 yards from scrimmage.

Raiders 37, Broncos 12: When asked about a game in which his team’s defense forced five turnovers and running backs Josh Jacobs and Devontae Booker combined for 193 yards rushing and four touchdowns, quarterback Derek Carr just seemed happy to be there. “It’s kind of awesome,” Carr said in his postgame news conference. “As I get older, I let the young guys do more of the work.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

29

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

GAMES

HOROSCOPE Aries

30

(Mar 21-April 20)

Desires may be strong, and if you pursue them you have a good chance of getting what you want. Passionate feelings can be at the core, so be sure that what you are intending is good for you, as once you have it, you’ll have to deal with the consequences.

Mind, a harmonious Moon/Mars link could amplify your natural optimism and courage, inspiring you to relish new adventures.

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

You may need to screen out certain calls and avoid answering every email or text message, as the way things are looking, you could be in demand for one reason or another. It might be impossible for you to say yes to all requests, invites or friendly calls, so don’t feel bad. You also have an opportunity to get support for an idea or goal from someone who is well placed to give advice.

Gemini

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Tuesday, November 17, 2020

(May 22-June 21)

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

You could become a tad too focused on the nitty gritty of your financial situation, and perhaps be making a huge effort to get organized. While it certainly helps, consider giving yourself some leeway, as long as everything is under control in this regard. The Venus/Jupiter link actively encourages you to splurge a little, whether on an item for the home or a little pampering.

Scorpio

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

You may be filled with a great sense of purpose, and this can get things off to a positive start. The Moon’s alignment with fiery Mars, encourages you to push through obstacles to complete any overdue deadlines. An intuitive nudge could inspire you to find closure on an issue. Doing so might set you free from a matter that may have dragged on and needed to come to an end.

The coming days and weeks can be about streamlining your life, and making sure that your routines and daily activities are all working towards your general good. If something isn’t right, then it may become obvious that you need to deal with it. Ready to take your indulgences seriously? With Venus forging powerful angles, a temptation might be way too good to miss.

Sagittarius

You might appear placid on the surface, but inside you may be trying to fathom an ongoing situation, and perhaps not getting anywhere at all. Whatever is on your mind, consider letting it go and turning your attention elsewhere. You could find that a nature walk or some downtime with good friends, helps you feel more at ease and better able to find solutions.

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Cancer

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

(June 22-July 23)

A major focus on your leisure zone, could incline you to spend more time doing those things you enjoy. You may wish to go a stage further, though. If you have the option of diving deeper into a romance or enjoying the perfect shopping experience with your partner, you might well take it. Mind, with the Moon angling towards Neptune, be sure you are getting a bargain.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

You may surprise others at how exacting you are when it comes to family decisions or home affairs.

In fact, those closest to you might prefer to leave you to it, as you seem set on cutting a swathe through overdue household tasks, cleaning and general domestic organization. You’ll likely do an excellent job and feel better for it, but don’t forget to enjoy some downtime too.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

Is your mind continually presenting you with things that need to be done? Don’t try to keep them all in your head. Write them down, and put them in order of priority. You can then focus your energies on getting them out of the way. Putting too much pressure on yourself again, Virgo? Slow down and do something nice for you, as you are surely worth the time and investment.

Someone might appeal to your better nature to get their way. If you do go along with it, it will be in full knowledge of what they are doing, and because there can be advantages to yourself as well. In the end, if you work together much good could come from it.

When it comes to a social encounter, the Moon/Capricorn angle suggests taking someone’s words with a pinch of salt.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

If there is no urgency about what you need to do over coming days, then why put so much pressure on yourself. A productive Sun/Saturn link hints that pacing yourself is preferable to rushing. It’s better for you psychologically too, as adopting a mindful approach can make a task enjoyable and bring superior results. Plus, a dream could have far-reaching guidance for you.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

Looking to learn a new skill? This can be an excellent time to study, whether it’s online or offline, part or full-time, as you could do well. Equally, if you’re keen to travel or look at other exciting opportunities, this is your chance. A delightful Venus/Jupiter angle hints at feelings for someone that you may be reluctant to share. You might give yourself away by accident though.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

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Ziggy

32

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

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