Thursday Nov 19, 2020

Thursday, November 19, 2020

San Juan The

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New Pfizer Results: Coronavirus Vaccine Safe and 95% Effective P7

New Gov’t Needs $150 Million to Keep Fighting COVID-19 Health Secretary at Transition Hearings: Over $25 Million Required Monthly for Agency Initiatives to Tackle Coronavirus

Election Chaos in Crescendo: CVM Calls Out SEC on Alleged Non-Compliance with Court Order

González Feliciano Also Warns Virus Deaths to Surpass 1,000 ‘Before Thanksgiving’

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Future of Public Employees’ Christmas Bonus Now in Fiscal Board’s Hands P5

NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 19

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Thursday, November 19, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

GOOD MORNING

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November 19, 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.

Transition hearings day 3: Health secretary says $150 million needed to fight COVID-19 for the next 6 months

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n the third day of the Puerto Rico government transition hearings, Health Secretary Lorenzo González Feliciano testified Wednesday that the incoming government needs $150 million to fight the COVID-19 pandemic emergency for the next six months.

In the Sala Sinfónica Pablo Casals at Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center, González Feliciano said up to $25 million are required monthly to maintain the current initiatives that the agency is conducting to tackle the coronavirus.

“For COVID-19 tests and municipal contract tracing, $12 million; for the elderly project, $4 million; for the Bioportal [Dashboard system], $1.5 million a month; for airport screenings, including Arecibo, Aguadilla and marine ports, around $5 to $6 million; communications, $1 million,” the Health chief said while indicating that those expenses are not yet budgeted.

González Feliciano noted further that the aforementioned estimate might fluctuate as it doesn’t contemplate future inoculation efforts and immunization analyses.

“We have conducted our efforts to get this financed with funds from the CARES [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security] Act; we are hopeful that we get an extension for the CARES Act funds,” he said, adding that if the extension is not possible, the Health Department will be in conversations with the Office of Management and Budget to request funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that will cover 25 percent of the expenses.

The Health secretary also said that if the extension isn’t approved, “the funds will be appropriated for hospital programs to make up for many of their losses in their resources.”

“There are other issues that can be addressed in the next 30 to 45 days,” González Feliciano said. “We allocated the first $150 million from the CARES Act funds for hospitals in three weeks. In two months, we [the Health Department] received $250 million, where we gave $230 million more to hospitals, we stayed with $20 million to cover Remdesivir and other medications, $40 million for telemedicine, $41 million for public hospitals. … We have moved the money around.”

As for the CARES Act funds, González Feliciano said that according to reports from the Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority, around $300 to $400 million are still in reserve.

Health Dept. spends $3 million on mental health monitor who hasn’t released reports in 10 years Meanwhile, governor-elect Pedro Pierluisi’s Incoming Transition Process Committee Chairman Ramón Luis Rivera Jr. noted that González Feliciano said the Health Department spends $3 million on a mental health and disabilities monitor -- and a law firm that he was unable to identify during a press conference -- that has worked for 10 years on court cases yet has not provided any reports during its tenure.

“In other words, the more the cases are extended, the

more the monitors earn and the more the lawyers earn,” Rivera said. “Right now there is $1.5 [million] assigned for the monitor. I don’t know if it is the same case, $1.5 [million] for lawyers.”

As for the physical state of Río Piedras Medical Center in San Juan, the Bayamón mayor stressed that “these buildings are in quite critical condition.”

“The secretary’s office is sad …” Rivera said, mentioning “an office where they have broken walls.”

“There are areas where improvement can be made and it will then be up to the incoming government to start making the corresponding corrective action plans, including making more effective use of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, which is there and is not being used,” he said.

As for Dr. Ramón Fernández Marina Psychiatric Hospital, which is a state rehabilitation center, González Feliciano said that although he is aware that mental health is a concern on the island, he said challenges are ahead as healthcare plans do not cover patients who need more than 30 days of service and there’s not enough funds in the commonwealth budget to cover those expenses.

“We don’t have a plan to transfer these patients to a center of lesser cost. There are many patients who have some circumstances, no family, no housing, and as they are not mentally stable, we can’t transfer them to the [general] community,” the Health secretary said, adding that the government has to develop a project to “develop an intermediate-level, lower-cost rehab center.”

Nonetheless, when a member of the press questioned if there is a risk of an ineffective transition, González Feliciano replied that “we will not remove ourselves tomorrow and turn off the switch.”

“No. We are here, we are exactly the same government,” he said. “A different executive group is definitely going to come, but the direction for the country and the health of Puerto Rico is up to all of us. There should be no problem here.”

Health chief: PR will reach 1,000 COVID-19 deaths by Thanksgiving As the Health Department on Wednesday reported 20 deaths due to the coronavirus -- the highest number of deaths the agency has reported for a day since the pandemic began -- González Feliciano said that by the end of November the island will have recorded more than 1,000 deaths due to COVID-19.

“Obviously, we are going to hit over 1,000 deaths before Thanksgiving,” he said. “That’s the sad news.”

The Health secretary said the rise in infections and related deaths is due to the general elections aftermath, regarding which he said both citizens and politicians demonstrated a “lack of discipline and responsibility.”

“The people in the elections did not pay attention, our leaders [took] liberties indiscriminately without social responsibility,” González Feliciano said while emphasizing that everyone must comply with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, such as using face masks and practicing physical distancing to prevent infection, during the upcoming holiday season.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Trump’s COVID-19 treatment available in Puerto Rico

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

H

ealth Secretary Lorenzo González Feliciano said Wednesday that the treatment that the President Donald Trump received for COVID-19 is already available in Puerto Rico.

“Remember when President Trump was admitted to the hospital and given an experimental treatment? This experimental treatment already exists in Puerto Rico; it was given emergency approval by the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration],” the secretary said in response to questions from the press.

González Feliciano said the treatment is an injection that must be given to the patient over the period of about an hour. Trump received the treatment called Regeneron, which is a cocktail of monoclonal antibodies in the experimental phase. When he left Walter Reed Military Hospital, Trump promised that he would make the treatment available free of cost.

González Feliciano also reiterated that deaths from COVID-19 in Puerto Rico will reach 1,000 before the end of November.

The Health secretary was summoned to appear at government transition public hearings.

The Health Department also announced that it will soon receive the drug Bamlanivimab, which will become an alternative for those patients with positive COVID-19 results who do not meet the criteria for hospitalization, but are at severe risk of developing the disease.

The treatment was authorized for emergency use by the FDA. It consists of a monoclonal antibody that is administered intravenously to a patient with confirmed COVID-19.

To be effective, it must be administered within the first 10

days of diagnosis. It is an outpatient process and will be free of charge for the patient.

“We have a lot of hope with the Bamlanivimab,” said Deputy Health Secretary Iris Cardona. “When this antibody is administered, the patient receives a type of passive immunity that neutralizes the coronavirus and that could prevent their health from deteriorating and having to go to the hospital. This is the good news.”

In Puerto Rico, the Health Department will supervise the allocation of the drug and coordinate its distribution.

Generally speaking, the percentage of the total number of confirmed COVID-19 patients and the total number of confirmed hospitalized patients, during a seven-day reporting period, will equal the percentage of Bamlanivimab available for a given week of distribution. For Puerto Rico, 640 vials of one dose each have been separated for the first week.

Cardona said the drug can be used in patients 12 years of age and older, who weigh 88 pounds or more. The patient should not be seriously ill, nor should he or she need oxygen. Neither should he or she present conditions or criteria for hospitalization.

“With Bamlanivimab we can prevent a COVIDpositive patient, who is not very bad but who has certain risk criteria, from developing complications and having to be hospitalized,” Cardona said. “The important thing is to identify the risk factors of these patients in order to administer the medication before it becomes serious so that the patient does not end up in the hospital. This to a great extent will help us to decongest hospitals because the patient is treated in a preventive manner.”

According to studies, the monoclonal antibody could also benefit patients 65 years of age or older who, despite not having hospitalization criteria, meet the risk of severe disease such as obesity with a body mass index of 35, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, compromised immune system or being treated with immunosuppressants.

Another group for which the drug could be useful is that made up of people 55 to 64 years of age with cardiovascular disease, hypertension or chronic respiratory disease. In the case of adolescents, Bamlanivimab could be useful in patients with obesity, sickle cell anemia, heart disease, neurological problems -- cerebral palsy or other conditions that depend on technology -- tracheostomy at home or who need oxygen assistance not related to COVID-19, as well as for asthmatics or those with respiratory diseases who need daily medications.

Cardona clarified that, at the moment, Bamlanivimab is not for sale. In the next 24 hours, the Health Department would have the application process available through its website, she said.

So far, the only options available to counteract COVID-19 in seriously ill patients are antiviral and convalescent plasma, treatments that are given to hospitalized patients.

On Wednesday the Health Department reported 20 deaths from COVID-19 and 470 additional positive cases.

Complaints of non-compliance with Superior Court order surface as SEC begins general scrutiny

By THE STAR STAFF

C

itizens Victory Movement (CVM) Scrutiny Floor Manager Lillian Aponte called out the State Elections Commission (SEC) on Wednesday for not complying with San Juan Superior Court Judge Rebecca de León Ríos’ decision requiring that a list of voters who cast both early and absentee votes in the general elections be handed out before ballot containers are opened for the general scrutiny.

“The responsibility lies with the SEC chairman [Fran-

cisco Rosado Colomer], who was just there when the ballot containers were delivered and this servant [Aponte] went to him and told him: ‘Return the briefcases [ballot containers], let’s talk, let’s meet and let’s get in order because the process is going to get out of control again,’” Aponte said. “They ignored it. The responsibility for this lies with the New Progressive Party [NPP], with the SEC chairman and the scrutiny director [Ferdinand Ocasio].”

Aponte insisted that “there’s a court order and it must be followed.” She said that if there were any disagreements on the matter, they should have gone to court.

The situation was such that at 1 p.m. the CVM floor officials refused to approach the tables and allegedly were threatened with arrest for obstructing the process.

“We have not hindered anything,” Aponte said.

Ocasio said meanwhile that “our response to that request was that they provide us with a copy of the order.”

“At this time, we have not received an order to that effect,” Ocasio said. “Our approach has always been that, according to the Electoral Code, the scrutiny does not stop by any order other than [one from] the Supreme Court.”

At press time, press outlets were reporting that the CVM will issue another court motion against the SEC. CVM Electoral Commissioner Olvin Valentín said “both the NPP and the SEC are playing with words.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

5

Oversight board approves new rules for gov’t purchases

By THE STAR STAFF

T

he Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico announced Wednesday that it had approved a set of rules that should substantially improve the island government’s practices in purchasing goods and services, and should prevent the irregularities and inefficiencies that have plagued Puerto Rico’s procurement system for too long.

The Uniform Regulation for Purchases and Bids of Goods, Works, and Nonprofessional Services of the General Services Administration (GSA), required by Act 73-2019, which centralized all purchases by government entities, was proposed by the commonwealth’s GSA and revised by the oversight board to align with best practices and comply with the Certified Fiscal Plan and the fiscal responsibility mandated under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act, the 2016 federal law commonly known as PROMESA. The approved regulation establishes a single, robust and sound procedure for all procurement, including exceptional purchases in emergencies or other situations during which the government must act quickly. The regulation will promote market competition, transparency and accountability, and necessary controls in the acquisition of goods and services.

“This regulation is a big step forward for Puerto Rico,” said the oversight board’s executive director, Natalie Jaresko.

“The regulation will enable Puerto Rico to efficiently and effectively procure goods and services at the best possible

prices. Competitive bidding for goods and services, transparent contracting, and sound controls are the guiding principle of a well-functioning procurement process, and that’s what this new regulation enables.”

“Procurement is like the wiring behind the walls of any house: it is essential to the lives of every resident, but mostly noticed only when it isn’t working -- and when it isn’t working, it’s dangerous,” Jaresko added. “Puerto Rico’s faulty wiring has done tremendous harm. From procurement of emergency electricity grid services to inefficient supply purchases, contracting has been opaque and problematic, and the new regulation puts in place the rules, policies and procedures that should put an end to many of the shortcomings that resulted in faulty contracts.”

Many of the significant deficiencies of the government procurement process came to light during the oversight board’s review of the contracts to purchase COVID-19 test kits earlier this year, revealing a lack of uniform rules for purchases during a government-declared emergency.

The oversight board’s review of the regulation proposed by the GSA led to substantial changes, including: minimization of what qualifies as exceptional procurement, a loophole that has allowed direct purchases of goods and services outside the normal procurement processes; the establishment of a defined process for exceptional procurement, including purchases during emergencies; the requirement that a re-bid process take place when no offers or proposals were received in the

Financial Oversight and Management Board executive director, Natalie Jaresko process of procuring ordinary contracts for goods and services; bids in open-book format (also known as cost-plus contracts) to require suppliers to include all of their costs, mark ups, and services to assist in the transparency of decision making; and publication of all purchase orders, in addition to all contracts.

The regulation adds robust controls and audits, and penalties for non-compliance.

Funds identified for Christmas bonus for public employees now await fiscal board’s approval

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

T

reasury Secretary Francisco Parés Alicea said Wednesday that officials have identified the funds to pay the Christmas bonus to Puerto Rico’s public employees and have notified the Financial Oversight and Management Board to that effect.

“The Office of Management and Budget [OMB] has already identified the funds,” Parés Alicea said in an interview on “Pegaos en la Mañana” on Radio Isla 1320 AM. “The position of the OMB was that one allocation was overestimated, and [the OMB] requested [that it be allowed] to allocate part of that overestimation to be used to pay the Christmas bonus.”

Parés Alicea said that “what was presented to the [oversight] board should be approved.”

“And the board is going to meet soon, so we must already have a clear picture,” he added. “But as for the identification of funds, we can do it.”

For her part, the executive director of the oversight board, Natalie Jaresko, said the matter will be the subject of discussion

this Friday at a meeting of the federal entity.

“The government presented us with a proposal to move funds and we will see if that move is consistent or not with the Fiscal Plan,” Jaresko said at a press conference. “The board has not yet evaluated it.”

At the most recent oversight board meeting on Oct 30, Justin Peterson, the board member appointed by President Donald Trump, left the meeting, leaving the federal entity created under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) without the votes for a resolution authorizing

it to negotiate a new plan of adjustment (POA) that would cut debt by 86 percent after board member Ana Matosantos said the new POA should be submitted to the court regardless of the negotiations with creditors.

Currently, the oversight has four members, all of whom it needs in order to have a quorum and approve resolutions.

Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced said Monday that the island government needs $23 million to complete the $63 million to pay Christmas bonuses to public employees. Now the money has been found and the government only needs the fiscal board’s green light, she said.

“As you know, the payment of the Christmas bonuses to public employees is a priority for my administration. The Office of Management and Budget has already identified the $23 million to complete the $63 million necessary and fulfill this promise,” the governor said. “Once we have the approval of the Financial Oversight and Management Board, the Treasury Department will begin the process of sending this money out.”

Vázquez said the $23 million will come from a funding item from the

“PayGo,” or retirement payments to public employees.

“This money will be used to complete the bonus payment for 98,535 central government employees at this time when the finances of many families are being harmed by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the terrible impact it has had on the country’s economy,” she said.

Vázquez insisted that the transfer of the identified funds will not affect the PayGo system and expressed hope that there will be no objections to the payments.

“We are confident that the board will approve the proposal that has been presented for the benefit of thousands of government employees,” the governor said. “The process of analysis and identification of funds for the payment of the Christmas bonuses began approximately two months ago. As part of the ordinary procedures, on October 1 we sent the memorandum to all agencies so that they could submit the required information on or before October 15, and last Saturday we submitted the official proposal for the consideration of the fiscal control board.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Island farmers sustain multi-million-dollar blow with cancellation of Education Dept. purchases

By THE STAR STAFF

T

he Education Department dealt a “serious blow” to Puerto Rico’s farmers when it cancelled a contract with the Agricultural Business Development Administration (ADEA) that supplied school lunchrooms with farming products grown locally, the president of the Puerto Rico Farmers Bureau, Héctor Cordero Toledo, charged Wednesday.

The market for local schools has a $15 million annual price tag and is made up of meats, fruits and vegetables supplied by local farmers.

“As if the blow caused by the slow recovery from the 2017 hurricanes, the January tremors and the closures to family markets caused by the COVID pandemic are not enough, without further explanation on Friday, September 25 of this year, the Administrative Secretary of the School Food Authority sent an email recommending the cancellation of the purchase of ADEA products,” Cordero said.

Despite their many efforts, island farmers are still waiting for a response from both the Education and Agriculture departments, “from

those who, beyond idle gestures, have not been seen exerting any kind of pressure to address the matter,” Cordero said.

“There is something fishy going on between the Department of Agriculture and its ADEA division and they should clarify why after more than 18 years of negotiation between the two government departments, there is an

impasse where local farmers are adversely affected,” the head of the Farmers Bureau said.

Productores de Cítricos de la Montaña General Manager Jorge Méndez Roig said the cancellation of the contract puts the growth of the island citrus industry at risk since the main shareholder and market is the Agriculture Department.

“It is unusual that the secretary of Agriculture has abandoned such an important program with school lunchrooms that has benefited many farming industries and hundreds of farmers for many years. This program is one of the few initiatives that has managed to organize the sectors to guarantee a safe market and stable prices for our farmers’ crops, and the secretary, Carlos Flores, is throwing away many years of sacrifices affecting hundreds of farmers and thousands of employees in [Puerto Rico’s] mountainous area, thus harming the diminished economy of our region that has been abandoned in this four-year period,” Méndez Roig said. “It is shameful for others to think that they are considering having him continue in the position despite being the secretary who has generated the greatest discord of all

the secretaries with the different agricultural sectors, which has been publicly denounced in recent years in different forums.”

Amanda Ramírez, the executive director of the Pork Promotion Fund, said meanwhile that the organization participated in the auction held by ADEA in August, but that at the end of October the Education Department held a bid for the same product in the ADEA bid.

“We participated in the pre-auction meeting in Education and they informed us that they have no information regarding why the bids carried out in ADEA were no longer awarded,” she said.

The farming business owner expressed concern because at the meeting she was informed “that there can be no priority to local products due to the Buy American Act.” The Pork Promotion Fund has been participating in the School Lunchroom Program since 2007 and is in charge of assigning the distribution of pigs to processing plants.

Other farmers have contacted the Farmers Association to express concern about the economic and social impact of the decision amid the pandemic.

Environmental groups file lawsuit against gas project

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

T

he Sierra Club of Puerto Rico, community groups from the Sabana neighborhood in Guaynabo and El Puente: Enlace Latino de Acción Climática, announced Wednesday that they have filed a lawsuit against methane gas import company New Fortress for allegedly operating a plant without an environmental review.

Since last year, the groups said, they “have raised the alarm about the development of a highly volatile liquefied methane gas import dock, also known as liquefied natural gas, in the Bay of San Juan.”

“The New Fortress company began to create this infrastructure at docks A, B and C of the bay without environmental reviews, without risk studies and without informing the surrounding communities,” the organizations said.

The plaintiffs are seeking to stop the importation of methane gas and the operations New Fortress in the San Juan Bay, the groups said in a written statement.

The allegations of the Sierra Club of Puerto Rico and community groups include evidence that New Fortress built and operates the gas project without having a location inquiry or an

environmental impact statement. The company has recognized, meanwhile, that there are risks of accidents, spills, explosions and fires in its gas project, the plaintiffs point out. The lawsuit presents evidence that the company violated due process of law and the communities did not receive any notification or have access to a public hearing process.

Methane gas, also known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel that is not extracted in Puerto Rico and, like oil, is tied to a market with economic fluctuations.

“The liquefied methane gas import docks are dangerous and incendiary,” the Sierra Club said. “A leak or explosion in the event of an accident creates highly dangerous clouds due to fires and explosions, both in the vicinity of the accident and at considerable distances where the volatile cloud travels, which can be transported by winds and other conditions.”

The gas infrastructure includes the transit and import of methane gas tankers, storage of ships anchored in the bay, and unloading and processing of fossil fuel. Those processes inherently carry risks of accidents and polluting effects, added the Sierra Club.

The company stores fuel in floating tanks in San Juan Bay “without any risk assessment,” the Sierra Club said. Close to this infrastructure

are docks A, B and C located in the residential area of Barrio de Sabana de Guaynabo.

In addition, the San Juan generating plant of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority is located nearby, which includes fuel tanks and several docks that receive flammable substances that “should an escape or explosion occur, the damage would be catastrophic,” the Sierra Club said.

“In these times of the COVID-19 pandemic, where the respiratory health of the people cannot be compromised, the company New Fortress intends to emit Volatile Organic Com-

pounds that impact the lungs and a minimum of 67,000 tons per year of greenhouse gases,” the environmental organization charged.

“The court is asked to stop the New Fortress [NF] operation because it is illegal and because it does not have all the necessary authorizations to locate and build the methane gas terminal,” said Omar Saade, who presented the case before the court. “These clearances that NF ignored are intended to protect the health and safety of those who reside around the plant.

New Fortress did not obtain a Location Consultation, despite the fact that it was required before locating, and building, also ignoring the notification and required participation of the affected parties in this process, especially the communities and residential areas near New Fortress operations. The quasi-automatic permits that were granted for the construction of the gas terminal must be declared null and void, and the lease contract, which compromised the location and use of the piers and the exposure to risks that residents continuously suffer, should also be invalidated.”

The claimant entities support the Queremos Sol energy proposal, which seeks to ensure a future free of fossil fuels in which the island relies on sun-based energy and the health of the communities is ensured.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

7

New Pfizer results: Coronavirus vaccine is safe and 95% effective

By KATIE THOMAS

T

he drugmaker Pfizer said Wednesday that its coronavirus vaccine was 95% effective and had no serious side effects — the first set of complete results from a late-stage vaccine trial as COVID-19 cases skyrocket around the globe.

The data showed that the vaccine prevented mild and severe forms of COVID-19, the company said. And it was 94% effective in older adults, who are more vulnerable to developing severe COVID-19 and who do not respond strongly to some types of vaccines.

Pfizer, which developed the vaccine with its partner BioNTech, said the companies planned to apply to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization “within days,” raising hopes that a working vaccine could soon become a reality.

The trial results — less than a year after researchers began working on the vaccine — shattered all speed records for vaccine development, a process that usually takes years.

“The study results mark an important step in this historic eight-month journey to bring forward a vaccine capable of helping to end this devastating pandemic,” Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chief executive, said in a statement.

If the FDA authorizes the two-dose vaccine, Pfizer has said that it could have up to 50 million doses available by the end of the year, and up to 1.3 billion by the end of next year.

However, only about half of its supply will go to the United States this year, or enough for about 12.5 million people — a sliver of the U.S. population of 330 million. Americans will receive the vaccine for free, under a $1.95 billion deal the federal government reached with Pfizer for 100 million doses.

The results align with an early analysis that Pfizer and BioNTech reported last week, which found that the vaccine was more than 90% effective. Then Monday, the drugmaker Moderna reported that its vaccine was 94.5% effective in an early analysis.

Pfizer and BioNTech’s trial included nearly 44,000 volunteers, half of whom received the vaccine. The other half received a placebo shot of salt water. Then

An undated image provided by BioNTech, shows a vaccine trial participant being injected with a vaccine against the coronavirus. Pfizer and BioNTech’s trial has shattered all speed records for vaccine development. the researchers waited to see how many in each group developed COVID-19.

The companies said that out of 170 cases of COVID-19, 162 were in the placebo group, and eight were in the vaccine group. Out of 10 cases of severe COVID-19, nine had received a placebo.

Pfizer and BioNTech said that the vaccine’s efficacy was consistent across age, race and ethnicity. The most common serious adverse event was fatigue, with 3.7% of volunteers reporting tiredness after they took the second dose. Two percent of volunteers reported a headache after the second dose. Older adults reported fewer and milder side effects, the companies said.

“It’s pretty amazing,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University.

She said the results in people older than 65 were the most promising.

“We know from the influenza vaccine that it’s very difficult to achieve protection in this age group with vaccines,” she said, so 94% efficacy in that group “is really remarkable.”

Federal health officials have said the first doses of the vaccines will most likely go to groups like health care workers who are at high risk for exposure, as well as to people who are most vulnerable to the

disease, such as older people.

Dr. Saad B. Omer, the director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, said the results showing the vaccines protected people from severe disease was also good news, because with such limited availability initially, the first goal will be not to stop transmission of the disease but to prevent people from becoming extremely ill.

“So that is very reassuring,” he said.

He called on Pfizer to quickly release a more detailed analysis of the data — beyond the initial news release — so that scientists could more thoroughly evaluate the results. The companies have said they plan to submit the results for review in a scientific journal, a process that can take weeks or months.

“These are not normal times; this is a pandemic, and major policy is being made,” Omer said. “It’s always better to make policy on scientific data, not a press release.”

In addition to the results of its clinical trial, Pfizer said it was ready to submit to the FDA two months of safety data that the agency had recommended, as well as detailed manufacturing records showing the company can consistently produce high-quality batches of its product. The FDA will review the data and ask an outside panel of vaccine experts to weigh in

on the application, a process that could take weeks.

Both Pfizer and Moderna have said the accelerating pace of the pandemic has had the silver lining of speeding up their trials, since volunteers are becoming infected with the virus more quickly.

Pfizer and Moderna have developed vaccines that use a new technology that has never before been approved for human use. Both use a synthetic version of coronavirus genetic material, called mRNA, to program a person’s cells to churn out many copies of a fragment of the virus. That fragment sets off alarms in the immune system and stimulates it to attack if the person is exposed to the real virus.

If the vaccine is authorized, attention will immediately shift to how it will be distributed. The vaccine must be stored at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit, colder than any other vaccine in development. Pfizer will ship the vaccine in special boxes of 1,000 to 5,000 doses that are stuffed with dry ice and equipped with GPS-enabled sensors. Pfizer’s vaccine can be stored in conventional freezers for up to five days, or in the special coolers for up to 15 days, as long the dry ice is replenished and the boxes are not opened more than twice a day.

Moderna’s vaccine must also be stored in a freezer long term, but at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit. The company said Monday that its vaccine could be stored at standard refrigerator temperatures of 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 30 days, not seven as previously thought, which could make it easier to store than the Pfizer vaccine.

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Thursday, November 19, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

FDA authorizes first at-home coronavirus test

Jordan Popham performs a rapid COVID-19 test at Weber State University Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020, in Ogden, Utah.

By KATHERINE J. WU

T

he Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday gave an emergency green light to the first rapid coronavirus test that can be run from start to finish at home, paving a potential path for more widespread testing outside of health care settings.

The test, developed by the California-based company Lucira Health, requires a prescription from a health care provider, and people younger than 14 also cannot perform the test on themselves.

But with a relatively simple nasal swab, the test can return results in about half an hour, and it is projected by the company to cost $50 or less, according to the product’s website. Clinicians can also run the test on their patients, including children younger than 14, potentially delivering results during a single visit to a care center or pharmacy instead of routing a sample through a lab.

A handful of other tests have been given emergency authorization by the FDA for at-home collection of samples, which are then shipped to a lab for processing. But Lucira’s test is the first to remove the need for an intermediary.

“Today’s authorization for a complete at-home test is a significant step toward the FDA’s nationwide response to COVID-19,” Jeff Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center

for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a statement.

“Now, more Americans who may have COVID-19 will be able to take immediate action, based on their results, to protect themselves and those around them.”

People who test positive for the coronavirus are advised to isolate themselves from others for 10 days starting from the onset of symptoms or from the day they tested positive, per guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Laboratory tests that look for the coronavirus’ genetic material using a technique called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, are still considered the gold standard for detecting the virus. But the new at-home test relies on similar principles, using a method called a loop-mediated isothermal amplification reaction, or LAMP. Like PCR, LAMP repeatedly copies the virus’ genetic material until it reaches detectable levels, enabling the test to identify the virus even when present at only very low levels in the respiratory tract. LAMP is faster and less cumbersome than PCR but is generally thought to be less accurate.

People taking the battery-powered test must swirl a swab in both nostrils, then dip and stir the swab into a vial of chemicals. That vial is then plugged into a test cartridge that processes the sample. Within a half-hour, the test cartridge will light up as “positive” or “negative.” Federal guidelines note that people taking the test

should report the results to their health care providers, who must then inform public health authorities to help track the virus’ spread.

An at-home test for the virus “was going to happen,” said Omai Garner, a clinical microbiologist and diagnostics expert at the University of California, Los Angeles Health System. “I am hopeful that it works well.”

Garner added that the news should be taken with a note of caution. In recent months, several experts have called for more widespread at-home testing as a way to help curb the virus’ spread. But others have raised concerns about the practicality of a strategy that would most likely rely on tests that sacrifice a degree of accuracy for convenience and a more affordable price tag.

According to the product’s instructions, Lucira’s LAMP test was able to accurately detect 94.1% of the infections found by a well-established PCR-based test. It also correctly identified 98% of the healthy, uninfected people. The study, which was conducted by the company, was small and included only people who had symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The packaging for the test notes that it “has not been evaluated” in asymptomatic people.

Although the company has yet to release more detailed results on its product’s performance, “the data look good” and could enable the test to fill an important gap, said Susan Butler-Wu, a clinical microbiologist at the University of Southern California. One of the most serious issues bedeviling efforts to identify people infected by the coronavirus is the inconsistent access to reliable laboratory testing in many parts of the country, especially outside urban centers.

“This type of assay can play a big role there,” Butler-Wu said.

Representatives at Lucira Health did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

Saskia Popescu, an infection prevention expert and epidemiologist at George Mason University, cautioned that home testing, while a notable advance, is not a panacea.

“No test is perfect,” she said, and a negative result should not be taken as a free pass to mingle.

Moreover, testing alone cannot prevent the spread of disease and must be combined with other public health measures like physical distancing and masking, she added.

Popescu also expressed concern at the vagueness around reporting results. At-home testing adds another degree of separation to the reporting process, which would need to include communications between patients and their health care providers, then a follow-up between those health care providers and public health officials.

The merits and pitfalls of at-home testing should continue to be weighed, Popescu said, adding: “We need more accessible and fast lab-based testing.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

9

Many GOP governors avoid stating plainly that Biden won

By RICK ROJAS, CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and WILL WRIGHT

M

ore than a week after the presidential race had been called for Joe Biden, Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma had not yet publicly acknowledged the outcome.

Then, on Monday, in the final seconds of a half-hour news conference on the resurgence of the coronavirus, a reporter slipped in one more question: Who would the governor be coordinating with at the federal level in the days ahead?

“Well, I’m going to talk to whoever is president at the time,” Stitt, a Republican, said during the briefing. “Now until Jan. 20, we’ll talk to President Trump. Then, you know, we’ll talk to President-elect Biden on Jan. 20.”

It was a nod, however buried, to a reality that Republican governors, like other elected officials from the party, have struggled to negotiate as Trump has resisted conceding the election.

Of the 26 Republican governors, about a half-dozen have stated without equivocation that Biden had won or that Trump should concede — like Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, who was among the earliest from the party to congratulate the president-elect. Others, like Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, have repeated Trump’s unfounded allegations about problems in the election. “So many serious election integrity concerns,” she wrote on Twitter.

Most were operating in a murky middle ground, straddling a line in which they neither gave full credence to the president’s claims that the election was rigged nor affirmed Biden’s victory. Or they tried to say nothing at all: A few have avoided making explicit statements about the outcome of the presidential race and failed to respond to requests for comment to elucidate their stance.

In many instances, constituents and political observers had to listen close to glean where their governors stood, like Stitt’s brief mention at the briefing. In the case of Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi, there were hints in a recent vow to fight with the Biden administration over a hypothetical virus shutdown, without publicly recognizing that Biden had, in fact, won.

The stakes go beyond political optics.

The coronavirus is surging across the country with a renewed fury, threatening to overwhelm hospitals and driving officials in some states to return to the strict measures used in the spring to curb the pandemic’s initial spread.

Many, including at least two Republican governors, have raised concerns that turbulence surrounding the transition could stir confusion

and serve as a dangerous distraction from the efforts to combat the pandemic.

“We’re in the middle of a war, and we don’t know who the general is going to be,” Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said at an event Monday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Washington. “We don’t know what the game plan is. And we can’t wait until the end of January.”

The time had come, he added, for Trump to recognize that Biden had notched a “pretty overwhelming victory,” and he said the delay in doing so starved the country of clarity it urgently needed. Hogan said Tuesday that he would meet with Biden to discuss the virus response.

But unlike Hogan, a moderate leading a state that overwhelmingly supported Biden, governors serving in more conservative states have to confront a different political reality where challenging the president, or even being seen as failing to sufficiently back him, can summon the wrath of Trump and his supporters.

“I think that’s why some governors have stayed relatively quiet,” said J.R. Davis, a Republican political consultant in Arkansas and a former spokesman for Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

“There’s a lot of Republican governors that realize there was no fraud,” Davis said, “and in the areas where there may have been fraud there’s just not enough votes there to make a difference.” On the other hand, there were 73 million Trump voters, and a lot of them live in states like Arkansas.

Many statements have supported the president’s contention that the election’s integrity must be assured but have not presupposed that there are serious reasons to doubt the outcome.

There is much talk of “processes in place” (Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas) to “ensure that every legal vote is counted” (Gov.-elect Greg Gianforte of Montana) in order to “get to the bottom of this” (Gov. Jim Justice of West Virginia).

Among the governors who took a more measured approach was Hutchinson of Arkansas, a state Trump won by almost 28 percentage points. Hutchinson, who is prevented by term limits from running again, released a statement Nov. 8 that began by recognizing “the likelihood that formerVice President Biden and Sen. Harris have won over 270 electoral votes.”

Hutchinson said then that the election process had not fully concluded. “As a nation, we should allow the process of preparation and court challenges to proceed with public patience and understanding,” he said. “I supported Donald Trump for president but I am an American first and I will support and work with the final decision of the voters.”

Yet critics have asked what it will take for key Republicans to recognize that the decision has been made.

“Every day that goes by it becomes more and more difficult for Republican leaders to defend Donald Trump,” said Jim Demers, a lobbyist and former Democratic state lawmaker in New Hampshire. “The clock is ticking for Republicans to step forward and say, ‘Mr. President, we’ve given you enough time, there’s no proof of any fraud, and it’s time to hand the transition over to the Biden team.’”

The discord over the results has exposed a rift within the Republican Party. In Georgia, Brian Kemp, the Republican governor, was already acutely aware of the sting that comes from running afoul of the president, having been publicly scolded by Trump — “I was not happy with Brian Kemp; I will tell you that” — over his handling of the virus.

Now, the governor has been wedged in an intramural fracas as the president and his supporters have unleashed attacks on the Republican state officials who oversaw the election there.

Brad Raffensperger, who describes himself as a conservative and a supporter of the president, became a target after Georgia, which had not gone to a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992, swung to Biden by a narrow margin.

Last week, both of the state’s Republican senators took the extraordinary step of urging Raffensperger to resign as they accused him of mismanagement and called the election he

oversaw “an embarrassment.” In turn, Raffensperger said that fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, were trying to compromise the legitimacy of the election to benefit Trump, who demanded a hand recount now underway that is not expected to flip the outcome.

In a statement last week, a spokesman for Kemp said the situation needed “to be a wake-up call to the secretary of state’s office to take a serious look at any and all voting irregularity allegations that have been made.”

“Georgians deserve to have every legal vote counted,” the spokesman, Cody Hall, added, “in order to have full confidence in the outcome of our elections.”

In a recent news conference, Justice of WestVirginia pushed back against the assertion that he and other Republicans were trying to sow uncertainty. He argued that it was, in fact, the opposite: He believed in taking the time to be methodical so that the outcome would be decisive and unassailable, even if that outcome is not the one he preferred.

“We want to absolutely know that the votes that were cast were legal votes and we want our election process to be absolutely sound,” Justice said. “We do not want to walk away and say, ‘Well, it really was rigged or this or that and everything else.’ We don’t want that in America. And I hope to goodness that Joe Biden doesn’t want that.”

“But when we get to that conclusion,” he added, “if Joe Biden is truly our elected president, I will support him with all of my soul.”

Republican governors are struggling with whether to support President Trump’s declaration of election fraud, or to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden on his win.

10

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The San Juan Daily Star

Michigan Republicans backtrack after refusing to certify election results lily-white city of Livonia, which had the second-highest number of out-of-balance precincts, but she won’t certify the city of Detroit,” Brewer said. “There is no reason to single out the city of Detroit for this racist treatment.”

The deadlock looked at first like a rare win for Trump, who, despite repeated losses in court and a string of baseless claims, has continued undaunted with a relentless legal, procedural and rhetorical assault on the country’s election system.

Even after the board cleared its initial stalemate, the night provided fresh evidence that, at the very least, Trump’s campaign is managing to disrupt what has long been an orderly process of certifying the clear winner of the popular and Electoral College votes and ensuring a peaceful transfer of power. Though Trump’s supporters have appeared to delight in his attacks, the MiWorkers with the Detroit Department of Elections count absentee ballots in the chigan confusion showcased a counterforcity on Wednesday morning, Nov. 4 2020. ce — angry voters who would not abide any possibility that their votes would be nullified by the president’s maneuvering.

By KATHLEEN GRAY, JIM RUTENBERG franchise large numbers of Americans. The Though Trump faces impossible odds and NICK CORASANITI board’s GOP members certified the results in his attempt to force a different result only after voters there angrily accused the from the one voters rendered, he and top epublican members of a key Mi- Republicans of trying to steal their votes.

Republican allies have shown that they At first, the two Republicans on the chigan elections board refused on have no intention of ceasing their attacks Tuesday to certify Detroit’s election board said they were voting against certion the voting system. results in a nakedly partisan effort to hold fying the results because many precincts in Michigan has 83 county canvassing up Joe Biden’s victory over President Do- the county had conflicting figures for the boards, each of which was to certify its renald Trump — only to reverse themselves numbers of votes cast and the number of sults by Tuesday. Next, the process moves after an outcry from the city’s voters and voters they recorded as having participated, to Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers, even though the disparities mostly involved state officials. where the final results are to be finalized The initial deadlock and pressure- a small number of ballots. The board deadby a Nov. 23 deadline. packed turnaround capped a chaotic day locked, with Michigan Democrats denounAt issue in Wayne County were miof repeated Republican misfires in the cing the opposition as a blatantly political nor discrepancies in which the number of party’s attempt to undermine the election intrusion into the process, and criticizing votes cast did not match the number of results. Republicans lost a case before the the Republican move as racist. voters listed as having shown up to vote At one point, a Republican board Pennsylvania Supreme Court and faced a in various election precincts. This could skeptical reception in a separate hearing in member, Monica Palmer, had made a mohave stemmed from scenarios like a voter federal court in Pennsylvania, and an au- tion to “certify the results in the commuleaving a long line, or an absentee ballot dit in Georgia confirmed there was no foul nities other than the city of Detroit” — a kicked out of a tabulator, among other posmove that would effectively disenfranchise play with voting machines. sibilities. Most involved a handful of votes, The Republican gambit in Detroit one of the nation’s major predominantly and were the types of inconsistencies that was among the starkest examples of how Black cities. are frequently found during canvassing Mark Brewer, an election law expert previously routine aspects of the nation’s processes without leading to deadlocks voting system have been tainted by and a former chairman of the Michigan like the one that happened on Tuesday.

Trump’s effort to challenge his defeat, and Democratic Party, noted that Palmer’s moSensing that Republicans might play he appeared to revel in the night’s chaos tion would have blocked certification for politics with the certification, Reps. Debwith celebratory tweets attacking Detroit Detroit, where Black residents make up bie Dingell and Rashida Tlaib, two Demo78% of the population, and certified the even after the deadlock ended. crats from metro Detroit, started making But the reversal by the elections results for communities like Livonia, where calls around 1:30 p.m. Eastern time, urboard in Wayne County — which is home the Black population is 4.4%. ging Democrats to join the Wayne Coun“Monica Palmer sat there and said to Detroit — showed the limits of what ty Board of Canvassers meeting to ensure has been, in essence, an effort to disen- she’s willing to approve the results of the that the election results would actually be

R

certified. Requests to join the Zoom call quickly went beyond capacity, with 300 people on the digital meeting when it started around 4:45 p.m.

After the first 2-2 vote, all of those participants stayed and the board opened up the meeting to public comment.

A broad coalition — Detroit voters, clergy members, Middle Eastern immigrants, Black women, environmentalists, civil rights leaders and people who had worked at the polls and the absentee voting center — spoke out on the deadlock, repeatedly calling the Republican members racist and saying they were trying to disenfranchise Detroit voters.

“The Trump stain, the stain of racism that you, William Hartmann and Monica Palmer, have covered yourself in, are going to follow you throughout history,” said Ned Staebler, the chief executive of TechTown, a high-tech business incubator in Detroit and a poll challenger at TCF Center in the city. “You will forever be known in southeast Michigan as two racists who did something so unprecedented that they disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of Black voters in the city of Detroit.”

The video call went mute for about five minutes at roughly 9 p.m., after about three hours of angry commentary by people dialing into the meeting. When the board came back, its members informed the crowd that they had just voted unanimously to certify the results and ordered Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to conduct a thorough audit of the Wayne County results, especially the precincts with disparities. They didn’t explain how the reversal had come about.

Tuesday’s drama stoked fears among Democrats that Trump was working to force Michigan and other critical states to miss their certification deadlines so that Republican-controlled legislatures could appoint their own slates of pro-Trump delegates to the Electoral College, regardless of popular vote victories for Biden — moves that Biden’s lawyers have dismissed as legally futile.

Mike Shirkey, the Republican majority leader in the Michigan state Senate, said in an interview on Tuesday with Bridge Michigan, a local news outlet, that the Legislature would not move to appoint its own slate of electors.

“That’s not going to happen,” Shirkey said.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

11

Senators take sharper aim at Twitter and Facebook

By CECILIA KANG, DAVID McCABE, MIKE ISAAC and KATE CONGER

S

enators took the chief executives of Facebook and Twitter to task Tuesday for how the services handled misinformation around the election, showing bipartisan support for changing a law that protects the companies from lawsuits.

In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that lasted more than four hours, the lawmakers forced Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Jack Dorsey of Twitter to defend their companies’ efforts to limit the spread of false information about voting and the election results. Republicans accused the companies of censoring conservative voices while Democrats complained about a continued surge of hate and misinformation online.

It was the second time in three weeks that Zuckerberg and Dorsey testified before Congress. But in contrast to the earlier hearing, lawmakers on Tuesday drilled deeply into the companies’ practices for moderating content and outlined a legislative agenda that could restrain the platforms.

“I fully expect that Congress is going to act in the next Congress that we’re going to produce an outcome,” Sen. Tom Tillis, R-N.C., said.

Among the highlights from the hearing: — A focus on how Facebook and Twitter moderate content.

Much of the discussion at the hearing focused on the minutiae of how Facebook and Twitter moderate the billions of pieces of content posted to their networks.

Both Democrats and Republicans zeroed in on the issue, according to a tally by The New York Times. Out of 127 total questions, more than half — or 67 — were about content moderation. Democrats asked 12 about how Facebook and Twitter could increase their moderation efforts on topics like hate speech, while Republicans asked 37 about why some points of view were censored online and how content moderation could be decreased in some areas, according to the tally. (The rest of the questions about content moderation did not indicate a clear desire for more or less of it.)

—- Democrats call for more regulation of the tech industry.

Democrats at the hearing showed no signs of letting up on criticisms of Facebook and Twitter despite greater efforts by the companies to act on misinformation in the recent election.

Instead, Democrats blamed Zuckerberg and Dorsey for a surge of hate speech and election disinformation after the election. They pointed to comments on Facebook from Steve Bannon, a former senior adviser to President Donald Trump, who suggested beheading Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, and posts on Facebook groups that spread false conspiracy theories about voter fraud.

“I think you can and must do better,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Several Democrats called for a slew of tech legislation. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, for example, voiced support for tougher data privacy laws, greater antitrust action and changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the law that gives the companies legal protection for content posted by users.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), questions Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, appearing via videoconference, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on censorship, suppression, and the 2020 election, in Washington, Nov. 17, 2020.

“You have built terrifying tools of persuasion and manipulation — with power far exceeding the robber barons of the last Gilded Age,” Blumenthal said. “You have made a huge amount of money by strip mining data about our private lives and promoting hate speech and voter suppression.”

— Republicans home in on bias complaints.

The committee’s Republican’s attacked the power that social media companies have to moderate content on their platforms, accusing them of making politically slanted calls while hiding behind the decades-old liability shield of Section 230.

“I don’t want the government to take over the job of telling America what tweets are legitimate and what are not,” said the committee’s chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “But when you have companies that have the power of government, have far more power than traditional media outlets, something has to give.”

Trump and his allies have spent years attacking Twitter and Facebook for what they say is bias against conservatives, pointing to the liberal politics of the companies’ employees and instances of moderation that affected Republicans or conservative media.

Their evidence for these claims has always been anecdotal, and many right-wing personalities have built big followings online.

— Differences on how to handle Trump’s accounts after his presidency.

Many world leaders generally have wider latitude on Twitter and Facebook because their comments and posts are regarded as political speech that is in the realm of public interest. But what will happen to Trump’s accounts on the social media platforms when he leaves office?

Dorsey said the company would no longer make policy exceptions for Trump after he leaves office in January.

During Trump’s time as a world leader, Twitter allowed him to post content that violated its rules, though it began adding labels to some of the tweets in May to indicate that

the posts were disputed or glorified violence.

“If an account suddenly is not a world leader anymore, that particular policy goes away,” Dorsey said.

In contrast, Zuckerberg said Facebook would not change the way it moderated Trump. Facebook does not fact-check world leaders but will fact-check Trump after his term ends, a company spokesman said. Since Election Day, Facebook has labeled a few of the president’s posts and has pointed users to accurate information about the results of the election, but it generally takes a hands-off approach.

— Tech’s legal shield draws substantive scrutiny.

Section 230 has long been mentioned by lawmakers as a potential target for change, yet the debate on Section 230 has resulted in minimal concrete discussions. Not Tuesday.

Lawmakers approached Section 230 differently out of the gate. They began with a bipartisan call to change the “golden goose” legal shield, with a substantive focus on legislation that will probably take center stage in the next Congress.

Graham opened the hearing taking direct aim.

“We have to find a way when Twitter and Facebook make a decision about what’s reliable and what’s not, what to keep up and what to keep down, that there is transparency in the system,” Graham said. “Section 230 has to be changed because we can’t get there from here without change.”

Democrats have agreed that the law needs to be changed, but they take the opposite position on why. They have said Section 230 has caused disinformation and hate to flourish on the social media sites.

“Change is going to come, no question,” Blumenthal said in his opening remarks. “ And I plan to bring aggressive reform to 230.” In 2018, he was a leading proponent of a change to Section 230, which made the platforms liable for knowingly hosting content on sex trafficking.

12

Thursday, November 19, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Boeing 737 Max is cleared by FAA to resume flights

Boeing’s 737 Max was banned around the world for 20 months after two fatal crashes.

By NIRAJ CHOKSHI

T

he Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday cleared the way for Boeing’s 737 Max to resume flying, 20 months after it was grounded following two fatal crashes blamed on faulty software and a host of company and government failures.

The decision ends a devastating saga for Boeing, which had predicted billions of dollars in losses stemming from the Max crisis even before the coronavirus pandemic dealt a ruinous blow to global aviation. The agency’s chief, Stephen Dickson, signed an order Wednesday formally lifting the grounding.

“The path that led us to this point was long and grueling, but we said from the start that we would take the time necessary to get this right,” he said in a video message. “I am 100% comfortable with my family flying on it.”

The Max was grounded worldwide in March 2019 when the FAA joined regulators in dozens of other countries in banning the plane after the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed all 346 people on board.

Investigators have attributed the crashes to a range of problems, including engineering flaws, mismanagement and a lack of federal oversight. At the root was software known as MCAS, which was designed to automatically push the plane’s nose down in certain situations and has been blamed for both crashes.

In August, the FAA determined that a series of proposals

by Boeing — including changes to MCAS, flight crew training and the jet’s design — “effectively mitigate” its safety concerns.

Dickson, a former Delta Air Lines pilot, took the controls on a test flight in September, saying he liked what he saw.

In a news conference on Tuesday in anticipation of the FAA announcement, relatives of victims on the second plane that crashed, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, questioned whether Boeing had done enough to address safety concerns with the plane.

“Aviation should not be a trial-and-error process; it should be about safety,” said Naoise Ryan, whose husband, Mick, was aboard that flight on March 10, 2019. “If safety is not prioritized, then these companies should not be in business.”

Now that the FAA has lifted its grounding order, regulators around the world are expected to follow suit, though some may take their time in wrapping up their own in-depth reviews. The agency has worked with its counterparts in Canada, the European Union and Brazil on revised pilot training requirements for the Max. Even in the United States, it could be months before the Max starts carrying passengers again. The FAA must still approve pilot training procedures for each U.S. airline operating the Max, planes need to be updated, and airlines suffering from a huge decline in traffic during the pandemic may feel little urgency to act quickly.

On an investor call last month, the American Airlines chief executive, Doug Parker, predicted that the carrier would not resume Max flights before late December if the order came in November. Southwest Airlines and United Airlines have said they probably will not fly the plane until next year.

“Our process is going to be deliberate, structured, and we’re expecting it to take three to four months between an ungrounding and the aircraft being in revenue service,” Mike Van de Ven, the chief operating officer of Southwest, a major Boeing

customer, said on a call with investors last month.

Nonetheless, the FAA decision removes some uncertainty as Boeing seeks to rehabilitate its reputation, start fulfilling longstanding orders for the Max and gauge how soon and how fully air travel will recover.

The company has lost more than 1,000 orders this year, mostly for the Max, after accounting for orders that either were canceled or are likely to fall through. Aircraft contracts typically allow buyers to cancel or renegotiate terms if deliveries are delayed, adding to the urgency for Boeing to resume delivering the planes. Still, the company has more than 4,200 orders in its backlog, most of them for the Max. The single-aisle plane is the latest in Boeing’s 737 line, an industry workhorse widely used by airlines around the world for short to intermediate distances. Southwest, for example, has more than 730 planes, all of them versions of the 737, including 34 Max jets. The airline has more on order, but its chief executive, Gary Kelly, said this week that Southwest was in no rush to expand its fleet.

For decades, Boeing had taken an incremental approach to the 737, choosing to update the plane rather than conceive a new model. That strategy had benefits, including reducing the need for costly pilot retraining. But it also resulted in a patchwork design that sometimes required workarounds. MCAS — for maneuvering characteristics augmentation system — was one such feature, developed to compensate for the size and placement of the engines on the Max. In both crashes, faulty sensors activated the software, sending the planes toward the ground as the pilots struggled to pull them back up. In a September report, Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said internal Boeing documents showed that concerns raised by employees about MCAS had been dismissed or insufficiently addressed. That report and one from the Transportation Department’s inspector general accused Boeing of misleading the FAA by playing down the complexity of MCAS, perhaps to avoid costly pilot training.

The House committee also faulted the agency’s practice of outsourcing some certification functions to employees of the companies it oversees.

On Tuesday, the House passed a bipartisan bill aimed at changing FAA certification procedures and requiring an expert panel to review Boeing’s safety culture.

Boeing is nearing the end of a dreadful year. The pandemic has bruised its airline clients, leading to layoffs across the industry. Boeing expects to start 2021 with a global workforce of about 130,000, nearly 19% fewer than it had at the start of this year.

Also, quality concerns have slowed deliveries of its wide-body 787 Dreamliner.

Still, despite the twin crises of the Max grounding and the pandemic, there is hope. Orders for the Max may be difficult to cancel; some airlines, like Southwest, rely exclusively on Boeing planes, making it difficult to switch to the other major manufacturer, Airbus; and the Max offers savings on maintenance and fuel that may be difficult for some to pass up, especially as corporate clients pressure airlines to cut carbon footprints.

Boeing’s stock has risen more than 40% this month, with investors encouraged by news from Pfizer and Moderna that coronavirus vaccines under development appear to be highly effective.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

13 Stocks

Wall Street edges higher on growing vaccine bets, Boeing gains

T

he Dow and the S&P 500 inched higher on Wednesday as Boeing rose after it won U.S. approval to resume flights of its 737 MAX jet, while growing optimism that a working vaccine was within reach also lifted the mood.

The planemaker BA.N advanced 1% as it geared up to resume deliveries of the best-selling jet again after a 20-month grounding following two fatal crashes.

The news also lifted the S&P 1500 airlines index .SPCOMAIR 3.5%, with American Airlines AAL.O rising 4.3% and Southwest Airlines LUV.N adding 3% as the carriers laid out plans to fly the aircraft again.

Earlier in the day, Pfizer Inc PFE.N said it would apply for emergency U.S. authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine within days and disclosed final results from a late-stage trial that showed it was 95% effective. The drugmaker’s shares rose 1.7%.

The announcement comes after Moderna Inc MRNA.O on Monday released preliminary data for its COVID-19 vaccine, showing similar effectiveness.

“The biggest positive news is Pfizer is not only going to get approval for the vaccine but the vaccine coming at 95% effectiveness which is terrific,” said Christopher Grisanti, chief equity strategist, MAI Capital Management, New York.

Meanwhile, the number of reported global daily deaths from the coronavirus stood at its highest ever on Tuesday, as the global epicenter the United States entered winter.

At 11:54 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 79.53 points, or 0.27%, to 29,862.88, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 5.49 points, or 0.15%, to 3,615.02 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 12.90 points, or 0.11%, to 11,912.24.

Target Corp TGT.N rose 4.4% after the big-box retailer blew past expectations for quarterly profit and sales, as its quick delivery services boosted online shopping.

Discount store operator TJX Companies Inc TJX.N rose about 4% after topping estimates for quarterly results.

“With earnings announcements coming in better than expected from the retail space and the positive news on Boeing, it should drive interest in cyclicals,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth, New York.

S&P sectors sensitive to economic growth, such as financials .SPSY, industrials .SPLRCI and energy .SPNY provided some of the biggest boosts to the S&P 500.

Lowe’s Cos Inc LOW.N tumbled 6.4% as the home improvement chain forecast holiday-quarter earnings largely below analysts’ estimates.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 2.2-to-1 ratio and by a 1.6-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 26 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 190 new highs and nine new lows.

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Thursday, November 19, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Biden wants to rejoin Iran nuclear deal, but it won’t be easy

President-elect Joe Biden is joined by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, left, as he speaks in Wilmington, Del., on Monday, Nov. 16, 2020.

By STEVEN ERLANGER

P

resident-elect Joe Biden has promised to move quickly to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran so long as Iran also comes back into compliance. But that vow is easier said than done.

While Biden’s pledge pleased the deal’s other signatories, who were angry that President Donald Trump withdrew from it two years ago, returning to the way things were may be impossible, complicated by both Iranian and U.S. politics.

Trump, even as a lame duck, is moving quickly to increase U.S. sanctions against Iran and sell advanced weapons to its regional enemies, policies that would be difficult for a new president to reverse.

Last week, he asked his advisers for options to launch a military strike against Iran but appears to have been talked out of it. His aides argued that an attack could quickly lead to a larger war.

Iran, where President Hassan Rouhani faces strong opposition from conservatives in elections set for June 2021, is expected to demand a high price to return to the deal, including the immediate lifting of the punishing sanctions imposed by the Trump administration and billions of dollars in compensation for them.

Those are demands that Biden is

highly unlikely to meet — especially given strong congressional opposition.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has tried to pass on to Biden’s advisers through intermediaries Tehran’s insistence that the United States return to the Iran deal unconditionally before any talks resume, according to Iranian diplomats.

The diplomats say that Iran is not interested in a temporary freeze and will not stop enriching uranium or reduce its large stockpile in the meantime. They said that Iran would return to full compliance with the deal when the United States does.

Advisers to Biden do not confirm receiving any messages from Iran and say they will only deal with the issue after the inauguration.

Iran has some leverage. When Trump took office, Iran had roughly 102 kilograms, or about 225 pounds, of enriched uranium, whose production was limited by the 2015 agreement. After the United States withdrew, Iran declared it was no longer bound by the agreement and resumed enriching uranium at higher levels.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said last week that Iran now had more than 2,440 kilograms, which is more than eight times the limit set by the 2015 nuclear deal. The “breakout” time for Iran to possibly make a nuclear weapon — an

ambition it denies — is now considerably shorter than a year.

During the campaign, Biden called Trump’s decision to abandon the deal “reckless” and said it ended up isolating the United States, not Iran.

“I will offer Tehran a credible path back to diplomacy,” Biden wrote in a September op-ed for CNN. “If Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States would rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations.”

A week ago, after Biden’s victory, Rouhani welcomed the initiative, calling it “an opportunity” for the United States “to compensate for its previous mistakes and return to the path of adherence to international commitments.”

The choice of the word “compensate” was not accidental, said Robert Einhorn, a nuclear arms-control negotiator now at the Brookings Institution. Iran says it wants Washington to pay for the billions of dollars in economic losses it incurred when Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran deal in 2018 and reinstituted sanctions that it had lifted.

Since then, Trump has piled on more sanctions. This maximum pressure campaign, as the administration has called it, devastated Iran’s economy but failed to push Iran back to the negotiating table or to curtail its involvement in Iraq, Syria or Lebanon.

The administration is also trying to further limit Iran’s support for proxy militias in those countries. It is selling more sophisticated weapons to the Arab monarchies in the Persian Gulf — countries that see Iran as an enemy and have their own regional ambitions — and accelerating the transfer of F-35 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates.

Short of a quick reentry into the nuclear deal, Einhorn said, the parties should work toward an interim agreement, in which Iran would roll back a meaningful part of its current nuclear buildup in exchange for partial sanctions relief — especially giving Iran access to some of its oil revenues now blocked in overseas bank accounts. Iran might welcome such an interim arrangement if it gave the economy a quick boost, especially before the mid-June elections.

But given the complications of the U.S. transition of power, with the require-

ments for security clearances and Senate confirmation already slowed by Trump’s refusal to concede defeat and cooperate with Biden, top officials might not be in place very soon. The practical window between inauguration Jan. 20 and June is likely to be only two or three months, which argues for a rapidly constructed “back channel” between Washington and Tehran after Biden takes office.

Despite Trump’s pressure campaign, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has kept the door open to a U.S. return, refusing to completely abandon the nuclear deal, said Ellie Geranmayeh, an Iran expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Iranians opposed to the initial deal argue that the United States has proved it cannot be trusted, and Iran rejected any negotiations with Trump. But Khamenei provided Rouhani “the green light, the political space to make these messages to a Biden administration” about Iran’s desire for Washington to return to the deal, Geranmayeh said.

If the Iran deal can be reconstituted, Iran has said it is open to talks on other issues, especially regional concerns around Iraq and Syria. But Iran has so far refused to put on the table its missile program, which is already under separate U.S. and U.N. sanctions.

The key, as with all major policies in Iran, is Khamenei, now 81. He regards the U.S. as a doomed country in “political, civil and moral decline.” He went along with the nuclear deal because it promised significant economic benefits from the lifting of sanctions and now apparently regards his skepticism about the United States as confirmed

by Trump’s withdrawal from the pact.

But with the change in U.S. leadership, he again sees the possibility of easing the economic straitjacket that renewed U.S. sanctions have imposed.

“Despite Khamenei’s hubris, a Biden presidency presents both an opportunity and a challenge for Tehran,” Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment wrote.

“The opportunity is a chance to improve the country’s moribund economy; the challenge is that Tehran will no longer be able to effectively use President Donald Trump as a pretext or distraction for its domestic repression, economic failures and regional aggression.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

15

Corbyn reinstated by Labour after he walks back anti-Semitism remarks

By BENJAMIN MUELLER

B

ritain’s main opposition party, Labour, readmitted its former leader Jeremy Corbyn after he tepidly reversed course on comments last month suggesting that problems with the party’s handling of anti-Semitism allegations had been “overstated.”

The decision, coming three weeks after Labour suspended Corbyn over those comments, provoked immediate anger from some groups of British Jews, who said his attempts to walk back his comments from last month were weak.

But while Corbyn’s readmission, decided on by a panel of the party’s governing body, means that he will return to being a member of the Labour Party, it was not immediately clear Tuesday night if he would be allowed to return to the party’s benches in Parliament as a Labour lawmaker.

That decision is reserved for Corbyn’s successor, Keir Starmer, who faced intense pressure from some Jewish groups and some Labour lawmakers Tuesday night not to allow Corbyn back into the party’s ranks in Parliament. (Since the suspension, Corbyn has retained his seat in

Parliament, but lost his affiliation with Labour.)

Corbyn’s suggestion that the party’s problems with anti-Semitism were overblown came last month after a British human rights watchdog found that Labour bore responsibility for “unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination” against Jewish members on his watch. The party had long faced accusations that it had dithered in its response to allegations of anti-Semitism and interfered on behalf of Corbyn’s political allies.

After the release of the human rights report, Corbyn said the yearslong scandal had been overblown by the media and his political opponents.

“One anti-Semite is one too many, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media,” he wrote at the time. “That combination hurt Jewish people and must never be repeated.”

On Tuesday, Corbyn released a statement in an effort “to clear up any confusion about what I had meant.”

“To be clear, concerns about anti-Semitism are neither ‘exaggerated’ nor ‘overstated,’ ” Corbyn wrote in the newly released statement, which he

said he had also submitted to the Labour Party shortly after he was suspended. “The point I wished to make was that the vast majority of Labour Party members were and remain committed anti-racists deeply opposed to anti-Semitism.”

Some Jewish groups in Britain saw Corbyn’s suspension as the clearest signal from Starmer, a former prosecutor and human rights lawyer, about the party’s changed approach to rooting out anti-Semitism and repairing ties with British Jews.

But casting out Corbyn, a longtime torchbearer for Labour’s hard left, also risked plunging the party back into the vicious factional disputes that became its trademark during his five years in charge, which ended earlier this year.

While Labour may have hoped that reinstating Corbyn would restore a measure of equanimity to the party, it did not immediately seem to have that effect. Some groups of British Jews long opposed to Corbyn’s leadership reacted angrily, and some Labour lawmakers were said to oppose the decision, too.

“Any reasonable and fair-minded observer would see Jeremy Corbyn’s statement today as insincere and wholly inadequate,” the Jewish Labour

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Movement said in a statement. “Once again we find ourselves having to remind the Labour Party that Jeremy Corbyn is not the victim of Labour anti-Semitism — Jewish members are.”

In a statement Tuesday night, Starmer did not directly address Corbyn’s readmission into the party. But he said that the former leader’s comments last month were “wrong” and that he would work to establish an independent process for litigating complaints of anti-Semitism within the party as soon as possible next year.

The former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the House of Commons in April.

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Thursday, November 19, 2020

German police arrest 3 suspects in heist of royal jewels

By MELISSA EDDY

G

erman police said Tuesday that they had arrested three men with links to organized crime and were searching for two other suspects in connection with the theft of gold, diamonds and other precious stones from three highly prized collections of Baroque royal jewels in a museum in Dresden last year.

Hundreds of officers and special forces from across the country descended on a Berlin neighborhood before dawn, searching 20 apartments, two garages, a cafe and several vehicles, said authorities in Dresden, an eastern German city.

“The stolen art treasures have not yet been found,” Dresden police and prosecutors said in a joint statement, adding that numerous storage media, clothing and small amounts of narcotics had been recovered.

The predawn break-in Nov. 25 at the Jewel Room, one of 10 rooms in the Royal Palace museum known as the Grünes Gewölbe, or Green Vault, made headlines around the world because of the importance of the stolen pieces and the circumstances surrounding the crime.

The pieces were said to have “immeasurable” cultural and historical value, and the theft raised questions about security in German museums after another spectacular break-in at a Berlin museum two years earlier.

In the Dresden heist, the thieves used an ax to break the security glass of the cases holding the jewels and stole 11 pieces, including three treasures dating to the 18th-century nobleman August the Strong, prince-elector of Saxony and little-loved ruler of Lithuania and Poland. Among the trove were sets known as the “Diamond Rose” and “Queens’ Jewelry,” along with parts of two other collections and several individual items.

Police officers during a raid in Berlin on Tuesday. The treasure stolen in Dresden last year was said to have “immeasurable” cultural and historical value.

Dresden officials identified the three men arrested Tuesday only as German citizens, two age 23 and one age 26. Thomas Geithner, a spokesperson for the Dresden police, said the men were “at home in the Berlin clan milieu,” a reference to organized crime rings in the German capital that authorities there define as being made up of members who are related to one another, or at least have a common ethnic origin.

A judge ordered that the three suspects remain in custody pending the outcome of an investigation on suspicion of gang theft and arson. The three men made no statements regarding the potential charges.

In February, Wissam Remmo, 23, and Ahmed Remmo, 21, two members of a family with known links to a Berlin crime ring, were each sentenced to 4 1/2 years in a youth prison for stealing a 220-pound Canadian gold coin from the Bode Museum in Berlin in 2017. The two men, who are cousins, were also ordered to pay nearly $4 million, the value of the giant coin, which was never recovered and is believed to have been melted down and sold.

Police and prosecutors in Dresden said Tuesday that they were searching for two other suspects in the Green Vault heist, Abdul Majed Remmo and Mohamed Remmo, both 21, issuing warrants with their pictures and asking for tips from the public.

Jürgen Schmidt, prosecutor in Dresden, said that investigators had relied on footage from security cameras at the entrance and inside the museum, as well as using “advanced technology,” to link the suspects detained in Berlin to the Royal Palace museum and to one of two getaway cars used in the heist.

The top security official in Berlin, Andreas Geisel, the citystate’s interior minister, said that officers in the capital had worked closely with their colleagues in Dresden, adding that the arrests were a warning to the criminal clans.

“This is another signal to the scene,” Geisel said in a statement. “Nobody should believe that they can ignore this state and its rules.”

The objects in the Green Vault belong to a collection of Baroque jewels that have survived together largely unscathed from the 18th century. The Royal Palace building was heavily damaged during World War II, but it was painstakingly rebuilt after German reunification and reopened to the public in 2006. The rooms hold a collection of about 3,000 individual objects.

The stolen jewels were not insured, and museum officials would not give a figure for their value, insisting that their worth lay in their historical and cultural significance as part of a complete royal collection.

Because they are unique, the pieces would be extremely difficult to hawk on the open market, leading to fears that they could be broken down, with the gems re-cut and the gold melted.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

17

As fighting rages in Ethiopia, aid groups plead for access to refugees

By SIMON MARKS and ERIC NAGOURNEY

E

ven before fighting started in November between the Ethiopian government and powerful military forces in the country’s northern region of Tigray, the area was home to as many as 200,000 refugees and displaced people, according to United Nations agencies.

Now, with airstrikes increasing and the conflict intensifying, international aid groups say that tens of thousands more people are fleeing. But the organizations say that they have been prevented from helping.

On Tuesday, aid groups appealed to the Ethiopian government to secure access for them to the Tigray region so they can replenish dwindling supplies for people stranded by the fighting.

At refugee camps in Tigray, fuel is running perilously low, a major concern because the camps rely on generators to pump water.

“We have fuel for a week — and that maybe dwindled to days now,” said Ann Encontre, resident representative for the U.N’s refugee agency in Ethiopia. “So you can imagine how desperate everything is.”

The conflict began in early November when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered Ethiopia’s military to open a military offensive against the powerful ruling faction in Tigray. Abiy accused the region’s ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front of arming irregular militias and orchestrating an attack on a federal army base.

The TPLF had for decades been the dominant force in Ethiopia’s government, but when Abiy became prime minister in 2018, he accused the region’s leaders of corruption and sought to undermine their power. They quit the coalition government, and proceeded to hold regional elections in Tigray, in defiance of Abiy, who had called off elections, citing the pandemic.

While reports from the region are sparse, analysts and aid workers say that hundreds of people have died in the fighting since then, and thousands have been displaced.

Saviano Abreu, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in East Africa, said “Since the conflict began in early November we have had reports of tens of thousands of people being newly displaced inside Tigray.”

In addition, 5,000 people crossed the Ethiopian border to Sudan just on Monday. So far, more than 27,000 people fleeing the violence in Tigray have arrived in Sudan, Abreu said.

With roads to Tigray cut off, getting food and other supplies to the refugees has become impossible, the aid group says.

And with most communication lines also cut off, it is hard even to know what needs to be done.

“Because of the communications blackout, it’s really difficult to corroborate a lot of the information we get,” Encontre said.

Speaking to reporters in Addis Ababa on Monday, Redwan Hussein, the Ethiopian state minister for foreign affairs, offered reassurances.

“We’ll come up in a couple of days with a solution,” he said. “We will come up with a plan to take care of the humanitarian issue before it becomes a crisis.”

But aid workers are becoming increasingly frantic, with one senior U.N. official complaining of “a de facto economic blockade.”

The U.N. has food, health supplies and other relief items

Ethiopian refugees in Sudan on Tuesday. So far, more than 25,000 people fleeing the violence in Tigray have arrived in Sudan. in warehouses ready to be sent to Tigray. The only problem is getting there.

“The telecommunications are down, road access is closed, and fuel, water and cash in particular for our remaining staff and civilians to buy food wherever they may be is cut off,” said Catherine Sozi, the U.N. resident coordinator in Ethiopia.

“Things are getting rather hard,” she said.

Aid groups are in talks with both the government and the leadership in the Tigray Region about opening up a humanitarian corridor. But in the meantime, thousands of refugees have decided that their safest course of action is to flee.

Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year “for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea.”

But with the fighting spreading in Ethiopia and threatening to bring about a wider conflict in the region, the Nobel Peace Prize committee on Tuesday issued a rare — if tacit — rebuke of one of its honorees.

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee follows the developments in Ethiopia closely, and is deeply concerned,” it said in a statement.

Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, which analyzes the Nobel Peace Prize selections, said it is “highly unusual” for the Nobel committee to issue such a statement.

“The committee hopes, of course, that the laureates addressed will feel a responsibility for honoring the prize and show restraint,” he said.

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18

Thursday, November 19, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

Trump runs red light. Almost kills Lady Liberty.

By THOMAS FRIEDMAN

S

o how do I feel two weeks after our election? Awed and terrified. I am in awe at the expression of democracy that took place in America. It was our most impressive election since 1864 and maybe our maost important since 1800. And yet, I am still terrified that, but for a few thousand votes in key states, how easily it could have been our last election.

To put my feelings in image form: It’s like Lady Liberty was walking across Fifth Avenue on Nov. 3 when out of nowhere a crazy guy driving a bus ran the red light. Lady Liberty leapt out of the way barely in time, and she’s now sitting on the curb, her heart pounding, just glad to be alive. But she knows — she knows — how narrowly she escaped, that this reckless driver never stops at red lights and is still out there, and, oh my God, lots of his passengers are still applauding the thrilling ride, even though deep down many know he’s a menace to the whole city.

Let’s unpack all of this. Stop for a second and think about how awesome this election was. In the middle of an accelerating pandemic substantially more Americans voted than ever before in our history — Republicans, Democrats and independents. And it was their fellow citizens who operated the polling stations and conducted the count — many of them older Americans who volunteered for that duty knowing they could contract the coronavirus, as some did.

That’s why this was our greatest expression of American democratic vitality since Abraham Lincoln defeated Gen. George B.

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McClellan in 1864 — in the midst of a civil Democrats abroad feared that this same war. And that’s why Donald Trump’s efforts to political virus would overtake America if soil this election, with his fraudulent claims of Trump were reelected and have a devastating voting fraud, are so vile. effect.

If Trump and his enablers had resisted for They feared that the core democratic only a day or two, OK, no big deal. But the fact concept that America gifted to the world in that they continue to do so, flailing for ways to 1800 — when John Adams lost his election to overturn the will of the people, egged on by Thomas Jefferson and peacefully handed over their media toadies — Lou Dobbs actually said the reins of power — was going to wither, unon Fox Business that the GOP should refuse dermining democracy movements across the to accept the election results that deny Trump globe. Every autocrat would have been embol“what is rightfully his” — raises this question: dened to ignore red lights.

Seeing an American president actually How do you trust this version of the Retry to undermine the results of a free and fair publican Party to ever hold the White House election “is a warning to democrats all over the again? world: Don’t play lightly with populists, they will Its members have sat mute while Trump, rather than using the federal bureaucracy to A blurred image at dusk of the not leave power easily the way Adams did when launch a war against our surging pandemic, has Statue of Liberty in New York, he lost to Jefferson,” the French foreign policy expert Dominique Moïsi remarked to me. launched a war against his perceived enemies Nov. 6, 2020.

That is why Biden’s mission — and the inside that federal bureaucracy — including mission of all decent conservatives — is not just the defense secretary, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration and, on Tuesday, the most senior to repair America. It is to marginalize this Trumpian version of the cybersecurity official responsible for protecting the presidential GOP and help to nurture a healthy conservative party — one that brings conservative approaches to economic growth, infrastructuelection — weakening it when we need it most.

Engineering Trump’s internal purge is 30-year-old Johnny re, social policy, education, regulation and climate change, but also McEntee, “a former college quarterback who was hustled out of cares about governing and therefore accepts compromises.

Democrats can’t summon a principled conservative party. the White House two years ago after a security clearance check turned up a prolific habit for online gambling,” but Trump later That requires courageous conservatives. But Democrats do need welcomed him back and installed him as personnel director for to ask themselves why Trump remains so strong among white working-class voters without college degrees, and, in this last election, the entire U.S. government, The Washington Post reported.

A political party that will not speak up against such a rec- drew greater support from Black, Latino and white women voters.

There is a warning light flashing for Democrats from this kless leader is not a party any longer. It is some kind of populist election: They can’t rely on demographics. They need to make cult of personality.

That’s been obvious ever since this GOP was the first party sure that every voter believes that the Democratic Party is a “both/ to conclude its presidential nominating convention without offe- and” party, not an “either/or” party. And they need to do it before ring any platform. It declared that its platform was whatever its a smarter, less crude Trump comes along to advance Trumpism.

They need every American to believe that Democrats are Dear Leader said it was. That is cultlike.

Are we just supposed to forget this GOP’s behavior as soon for BOTH redividing the pie AND growing the pie, for both reas Trump leaves and let its leaders say: “Hey fellow Americans, forming police departments and strengthening law and order, Trump tried to overturn the election with baseless claims — and for both saving lives in a pandemic and saving jobs, for both dewe went along for the ride — but he’s gone now, so you can trust manding equity in education and demanding excellence, for both strengthening safety nets and strengthening capitalism, for both us to do the right things again.”

That is why we are so very lucky that this election broke celebrating diversity and celebrating patriotism, for both making for Joe Biden. If this is how this Republican Party behaves when college cheaper and making the work of noncollege-educated Trump loses, imagine how willing to tolerate his excesses it would Americans more respected, for both building a high border wall have been had he won? Trump wouldn’t have stopped at any red and incorporating a big gate, for both high-fiving the people who start companies and supporting the people who regulate them. lights ever again.

And they need to demand less political correctness and offer And the people who understood that best were democrats all over the world — particularly in Europe. Because they’ve wat- more tolerance for those who want to change with the times but ched Trump-like, right-wing populists in Turkey, Hungary, Poland, need to get there their own ways — without feeling shamed into it.

We need our next presidential election to be fought betRussia and Belarus, as well as the Philippines, get themselves elected and then take control of their courts, media, internet and secu- ween a principled center-right Republican Party and a “both/and” rity institutions and use them to try to cripple their opponents and Democratic Party. Great countries are led from a healthy center.

Weak countries don’t have one. lock themselves into office indefinitely.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

19

DDEC se une a iniciativa Miércoles Naranja para impulsar ventas de PyMes Por THE STAR

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lega la edición 2020 de la campaña de concienciación del Miércoles Naranja, día nacional de “Cómprale al de Aquí, Primero lo Nuestro”, para exhortar al público a patrocinar los comercios locales en el inicio de las compras navideña con el auspicio del Departamento de Desarrollo Económico (DDEC) y la Compañía de Fomento Industrial de Puerto Rico. Así lo dieron a conocer en conferencia de prensa conjunta el secretario del DDEC, ingeniero Manuel Laboy Rivera y el presidente de Empresarios por Puerto Rico, Elliot Pacheco.

“Esta es una excelente oportunidad para que, como pueblo, apoyemos a los pequeños y medianos comerciantes durante esta época tan esperada por muchos al adquirir regalos de manera segura, rápida y siguiendo los correspondientes protocolos de salud. Estos pasados meses han sido complicados en términos económicos para este sector, debido a los ajustes operacionales para evitar la propagación del COVID-19. Ahora tenemos la oportunidad de consumir los productos y servicios de alta calidad disponibles por parte de las empresas puertorriqueñas. Comprar al local es invertir directamente en nuestro pueblo y se traduce en retención de empleos e impulsar futuras inversiones. Continuamos cumpliendo con el compromiso de la gobernadora Wanda Vázquez Garced de ofrecer las herramientas necesarias

para promover el crecimiento de nuestras empresas”, indicó Laboy Rivera en comunicación escrita.

Como en años anteriores, los participantes de la campaña del Miércoles Naranja visten de anaranjado sus locales y brindan ofertas a lo largo del día previo a la celebración del Día de Acción de Gracias, aunque la celebración se extiende durante todo el mes de noviembre, diciembre y hasta la celebración de Reyes Magos. En la iniciativa, participan farmacias, ferreterías, floristerías, supermercados, mayoristas, cooperativas de ahorro y crédito, aseguradoras y distribuidores, entre otros comercios.

Por su parte, Elliot Pacheco, presidente de Empresarios Por Puerto Rico, indicó que “este año ha sido sin duda uno de retos y adaptaciones continuas. Agradecemos al secretario Laboy y a todo el componente del DDEC, por haberse unido a esta iniciativa, que pretende continuar fomentando y educando sobre la relevancia de comprarle al de aquí. Los comercios locales hemos tomado todas las medidas de protección y los protocolos para proteger a nuestro personal y a los consumidores frente a la pandemia del COVID19. Esto, a la vez que hemos ido incluyendo mayores opciones para que el consumidor pueda realizar sus compras de forma segura. Tenemos comercios locales que tienen disponible para que el consumidor pueda realizar sus compras a través de aplicaciones, websites, vía telefó-

nica; esto, tanto para recogido de órdenes en sus localidades, como para entrega de estas a domicilio”.

Pacheco agregó que “es importante señalar que, al igual que en años anteriores, estaremos ofreciendo ofertas y especiales no solamente el Miércoles Naranja (miércoles 25 de noviembre), sino también durante toda la temporada navideña y hasta pasada la festividad de Reyes Magos. Esto facilitará que las personas puedan hacer sus compras tranquilamente, evitando aglomeraciones y manteniendo la seguridad y protocolos anti COVID19. Continuaremos siendo proactivos e innovando para que nuestros consumidores puedan tener las mejores y mayores opciones al momento de realizar sus compras navideñas y durante todo el año”.

Depto. de Educación y WIPR ofrecerán repaso televisado para Prueba de Admisión Universitaria Por THE STAR

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omo parte de su alianza para ofrecer teleeducación en medio de la pandemia de COVID-19 en la isla, el Departamento de Educación (DE) y WIPR ofrecerán un repaso intensivo para la Prueba de Admisión Universitaria (PAA) mediante el programa Rumbo a la Universidad.

El repaso televisado comienza el 21 de noviembre a través del canal de televisión pública y culmina el 29 de noviembre con un espacio en vivo para contestar las dudas y preguntas de los estudiantes de grado 12 que tomarán el examen.

El secretario del DE, Eligio Hernández Pérez, detalló que Rumbo a la Universidad forma parte del proyecto de teleeducación #EnCasaAprendo y consiste en una hora por cada una de las materias que se cubren en dicha prueba: Español, Matemáticas e Inglés. El ofrecimiento consiste en 20 programas de tres horas de duración cada uno, donde se repasan aquellas destrezas que serán evaluadas en la prueba y un programa final donde se responderán preguntas en vivo.

Para lograr el contenido, se trabajó con cinco profesores del sistema público de enseñanza que atienden las tres materias a nivel secundario y que cuentan con la experiencia necesaria para brindar dichos repasos.

“En esta ocasión nos enfrentamos a un escenario no solo atípico, sino histórico y a tono con las prioridades de la gobernadora Wanda Vázquez Garced, tenemos que hacer los ajustes para que nuestros estudiantes que se aprestan a solicitar a universidades puedan tomar esta prueba. Agradezco a WIPR por viabilizar este repaso mediante la alternativa de teleeducación y que pueda llegar a todos los hogares de nuestros estudiantes de grado 12”, dijo Hernández Pérez en comunicacion escrita.

“Estamos muy entusiasmados con este proyecto porque permite el acceso a todos los jóvenes del país, tanto de escuelas públicas como los de escuelas privadas a una preparación previa a la prueba. Además, proveerá información esencial que ayude al estudiante a prepararse, con un mayor grado de confianza para tomar el examen”, indicó por su parte Eric G. Delgado, presidente de la Corporación de Puerto Rico para la Difusión Pública.

El titular del DE explicó que este año, la prueba fue calendarizada para administrarse de manera escalonada entre los días 1 y 4 de diciembre siguiendo unas medidas estrictas para evitar el contagio por COVID-19.

Entre las medidas se encuentran: entrada escalonada a tomar la prueba, límite de estudiantes por salón, uso de salones con ventilación natural, designación de baños

por grupo, uso obligatorio de mascarilla y desinfectante, área de aislamiento para personas con síntomas, activación de personal de apoyo, entre otros.

El programa estrenará el sábado 21 de noviembre, a las 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. a través de WIPR TV y www. wipr.pr/live. El domingo 22 también irá al aire en horario de 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

El sábado 28 de noviembre de 2020 entre 9:00 a.m. y 6:00 p.m. se repetirán las primeras clases de cada materia (Español, Matemáticas e Inglés).

El domingo 29 de noviembre a las 10:00 a.m. se transmitirá el cuarto programa de Rumbo a la Universidad y desde la 1:00 p.m. habrá una transmisión especial en vivo en la cual se dedicarán dos horas a cada materia para repasar con los respectivos profesores y aclarar dudas de los estudiantes.

Durante ese programa, los estudiantes y sus familias podrán realizar sus preguntas a través del Facebook de WIPR (https://www.facebook.com/wiprtv/), mediante el correo electrónico rumboalauni@wipr.pr y/o llamando al 787-766-0505.

El DE y WIPR estrenan Rumbo a la Universidad este sábado 21 de noviembre, por WIPR TV (6.1 – San Juan, WIPM 3.1-Mayagüez, Liberty por el 6 o 206 HD, Direct TV 166, Dish 6) WLII TV 11.3 – San Juan, Caguas, WSUR TV 9.

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Thursday, November 19, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Dolly Parton: Singer, songwriter, pandemic savior?

By MARIA CRAMER

S

he wrote “I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene” on the same day and built a theme park around herself. She has given memorable on-screen performances as a wisecracking hairstylist and harassed secretary. She even helped bring about the creation of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

Now, Dolly Parton’s fans are crediting her with saving the world from the coronavirus. It’s an exaggerated, tongue-in-cheek claim, to be sure. But for legions of admirers, Parton’s donation this spring to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which worked with the drugmaker Moderna to develop a coronavirus vaccine, was another example of how the singer’s generosity and philanthropy have made her one of the world’s most beloved artists.

“Shakespeare may have written King Lear during the plague, but Dolly Parton funded a COVID vaccine, dropped a Christmas album and a Christmas special,” author Lyz Lenz said on Twitter.

In April, Parton announced that she had donated $1 million to Vanderbilt after her friend Dr. Naji Abumrad, a professor of surgery at the university, in Nashville, Tennessee, told her about the work researchers were doing to come up with a vaccine. Abumrad’s son, Jad Abumrad, is the creator of

On Monday, after Moderna announced that early trials of the vaccine showed a 94.5% effectiveness rate, fans reacted rapturously.

“I want everyone to know that Dolly Parton gave us Buffy the TV series, the song 9 to 5, Dollywood, and of course the COVID vaccine,” wrote one fan on Twitter.

Ryan Cordell, an associate professor of English at Northeastern University in Boston, filmed himself singing a song about the vaccine to the tune of “Jolene.”

“Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vacciiiiine, I’m begging of you please go in my arm,” he sang, while playing guitar and describing the virus as “beyond compare with spiky bursts of auburn hair that COVID, that corona emerald green.”

The lyrics were written by linguist Gretchen McCulloch, author of “Because Dolly Parton at last year’s C.M.A. Awards. A donation from the singer provided a Internet: Understanding the New Rules of critical boost in the early stages of coronavirus vaccine development, according to Language.” one researcher.

She said she wrote the lyrics in part be“Radiolab” and host of the podcast “Dolly $1 billion in the creation and testing of the cause the song “Jolene,” about one woman vaccine, but Denison said it was Parton’s begging another not to steal her man, has the Parton’s America.”

Her contribution, which became money that funded the “critical” early stages “same desperate feel” that the pandemic has instilled in so many people. known as the Dolly Parton COVID-19 Re- of the research.

Now McCulloch is hoping Parton might search Fund, helped pay for the first part of “Her money helped us develop the test the vaccine research, which was led by Dr. that we used to first show that the Moderna release her own vaccine song, she said.

“If Dolly Parton wants to record a vacMark Denison, a professor of pathology, mi- vaccine was giving people a good immune crobiology and immunology at Vanderbilt. response that might protect them,” Denison cine PSA to the tune of ‘Jolene,’” she said, “I think everyone would be very pleased.”

The federal government eventually invested said Tuesday.

Lil Wayne faces federal gun possession charge

By JOE COSCARELLI

T

he multiplatinum rapper Lil Wayne, 38, was charged on Tuesday with one count of possessing a firearm and ammunition as a felon, according to a court filing by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, stemming from a search of a private jet in Miami in December. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Lil Wayne, born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., previously pleaded guilty to attempted possession of a weapon in connection with a gun that was found on his tour bus in Manhattan in 2007. He served eight months of a one-year sentence at Rikers Island jail.

On Dec. 23, 2019, an anonymous tip led Miami police officers and federal agents to

board the rapper’s Gulfstream V jet at Opa-Locka Executive Airport after a trip from California, according to The Miami Herald. Onboard, in a Coach bag belonging to the musician, agents reported finding a gold-plated .45-caliber Glock handgun with a pearl grip. According to a warrant, Lil Wayne said he had received the gun as a Father’s Day gift.

Authorities also reported finding ammunition, cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, heroin, painkillers and prescription-strength cough syrup, along with $25,938 in cash, according to the warrant, though Lil Wayne has not been charged with any drug-related offenses.

A lawyer for Lil Wayne, Howard Srebnick, acknowledged in a statement that the rapper was charged with possessing the goldplated handgun, but raised questions about the

Second Amendment rights of felons.

“There is no allegation that he ever fired it, brandished it, used it or threatened to use it,” Srebnick said of the gun. “There is no allegation that he is a dangerous person. The charge is that because he was convicted of a felony in the past, he is prohibited from possessing a firearm.”

He added: “Although the Supreme Court has not yet decided the constitutional question, Justice Amy Coney Barrett recently wrote an appellate dissenting opinion in which she stated that ‘Absent evidence that he either belongs to a dangerous category or bears individual markers of risk, permanently disqualifying [a felon] from possessing a gun violates the Second Amendment.’”

Lil Wayne, a New Orleans native who

has been famous since he was a young teenager, is widely considered to be among the most influential rappers of all time, based on more than a dozen albums and many more mixtapes and guest appearances. His most recent LP, “Funeral,” opened at No. 1 on the Billboard chart in February, becoming his fifth title to reach the top spot. He is also the author of a prison memoir, “Gone ’Til November: A Journal of Rikers Island,” released in 2016.

The rapper recently appeared, ahead of the election, alongside President Donald Trump in Florida, and received some backlash from fans for vouching for the work the administration had done in the Black community.

“He listened to what we had to say today and assured he will and can get it done,” Lil Wayne tweeted after the meeting.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

21

‘Animaniacs’ is back, still zany and totally insane-y

By DAVE ITKOFF

A

t the end of the first new “Animaniacs” episode in more than 20 years, Yakko Warner, a vaguely anthropomorphic cartoon creature with beaming eyes and floppy ears, stands in front of a blank screen and solemnly addresses the audience.

“Reboots are symptomatic of a fundamental lack of originality in Hollywood,” Yakko declares, “a creativity crisis fueled by terrified executives clinging to the past like rats to the debris of a sinking ship.”

His sister, Dot, joins in the scolding of the entertainment industry. “Have you no shame?” she asks.

At this moment, Yakko, Dot and their brother, Wakko, are presented with a check for $100 billion and a mountainous pile of money that spells out Hulu.

Wakko — who, like his siblings, is ostentatiously dressed in Hulu gear — goes onto explain, “When we sell out, we know we’re selling out, so it’s cool.”

The Warners have not been seen in new installments of their antic, self-referential cartoon series since the original 1990s run of “Animaniacs,” when they and their co-stars barnstormed through historical lampoons and pop-cultural parodies while bumping elbows with the likes of Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and Bill Clinton.

Now, Hulu is bringing back the series — which was itself a throwback to the rebellious sensibility of classic Warner Bros. cartoons from the 1940s and ’50s — in new episodes that will be released on Friday.

This “Animaniacs” revival features its original voice actors playing Yakko, Wakko and Dot (as well as supporting characters like the mismatched mouse duo Pinky and the Brain) in adventures that have been updated for an era of superhero blockbusters, social media influencers and online trolls.

All of these elements would seem more than sufficient for “Animaniacs” to pick up where it left off. But the creators of the new episodes said it has been a particular challenge for them to recapture its unique mixture of comedy styles while aiming simultaneously for a younger audience unfamiliar with the show and for older viewers who grew up on it.

“One of our goals was to make a show worthy of the first one,” said Wellesley Wild, an “Animaniacs” co-showrunner and executive producer. “Let’s try to imbue every frame with that balance of cartoon violence and satire, parody, metahumor, musical comedy and sometimes quasi-ish educational content.”

Now that it is time to share their work with a fan base that is “so particular and rabid about the show,” Wild said, “I’m terrified.”

For the principal “Animaniacs” voice actors, there is far less tension about returning to these long dormant cartoon roles.

“We’ve become a really happy part of people’s memories,” said Jess Harnell, who plays the diminutive Wakko Warner. “You can’t put a price on that.”

He and his co-stars can remember a time, in the late 1980s, when children’s animation was dominated by TV cartoons that were essentially brand extensions for action figures and other toy lines.

Rob Paulsen, the voice actor who plays the characters Yakko and Pinky, said he could still remember practicing for one

The absurd, self-referential cartoon “Animaniacs” returns this week with the original voice actors playing, from left, Yakko, Wakko and Dot. of his earliest assignments on the show, a rapid-fire song about global geography set to the tune of “The Mexican Hat Dance.”

“I remember listening to my little Walkman, sitting next to my wife,” Paulsen recalled. “She said, ‘What is that?’ I sung it for her and she said, ‘Is that every country in the world?’ I said, ‘Pretty damn close.’”

To Paulsen, this segment was an early, encouraging bellwether of the show’s freewheeling comic sensibilities. “When the first thing you get is, ‘Tunisia, Morocco, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Botswana,’ you just go, my God,” he said.

Across 99 episodes that aired from 1993 to 1998 and a direct-to-video special released in 1999, “Animaniacs” was free to indulge its own whims and tastes, immersing its characters in pastiches of “Goodfellas,” “Apocalypse Now” and “The Day the Clown Cried” without straying from its kid-friendly ethos.

“It was social satire in a variety-show mask,” Harnell said.

“You can make fun of that stuff on ‘Saturday Night Live’ at 11:30 at night for adults. But how cool is it to poke at it for 8-year-olds and have them get it?”

Eventually “Animaniacs” ran its course and the people who made it moved on to other projects.

“It was a slow decompression,” said Maurice LaMarche, who plays the megalomaniacal Brain. As with other animated shows he has made, LaMarche said, there was a period, as the voice actors worked on the final batch episodes, when they knew the show was ending but hoped it might somehow continue. Then, he said “a deep appreciation for what you’ve got and what you’ve done begins to set in, as well as for the people you’ve worked with.” (He called this process the “Toon Stages of Grief, but with fewer stages because there are fewer frames per second.”)

Harnell added that they were eager to participate, pro-

vided that the new “Animaniacs” treated the series “respectfully and reverently — we love these little characters as much as the people out there love them.”

The “Animaniacs” revival also hired new staff members like Wild, a longtime writer and producer on “Family Guy.” Though that pedigree might seem to foretell a crass deconstruction of “Animaniacs,” Wild said his approach was not to drastically update the show or throw away its fundamental attributes. “There’s lightning in a bottle here,” he said, “and the first thing I’m going to do is keep that lightning in the bottle, vigilantly.”

Gabe Swarr, a co-showrunner and co-executive producer who oversees the show’s animation, said that character designs on the new episodes had been streamlined while remaining faithful to their original aesthetics.

“If you just remove one hair, that’s one less hair that everybody has to draw 1,000 times,” said Swarr, who has previously worked on shows like “Dexter’s Laboratory,” “Kung Fu Panda” and “The Penguins of Madagascar.” (He estimated that 90% to 95% of the animation on the new “Animaniacs” was drawn by hand.)

LaMarche said that he and his “Animaniacs” co-stars have embraced the new producers and found them to be open and mindful collaborators.

Describing an early voice-recording session that he had with Wild, LaMarche said, “There was onetime that I piped up, when I felt Brain was being particularly callous, beyond what was the norm even for his legendary, curmudgeonly self.”

After feeling that his recommendation was heard, LaMarche said, “I’ve never felt the need to say anything again, because Wellesley and his creative team honestly get who Pinky and the Brain are.”

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Thursday, November 19, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

How exercise might affect immunity to lower cancer risk

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

E

xercise may help to fight cancer by changing the inner workings of certain immune cells, according to an important new study in mice of how running affects tumors. The study involved rodents but could also have implications for understanding how exercise might affect cancer in people as well.

We already have considerable and compelling evidence that exercise alters our risks of developing or dying from malignancies. In a large-scale 2016 epidemiological study, for instance, highly active people were found to be much less likely to develop 13 different types of cancer than people who rarely moved.

Likewise, a review of past research released last year by the American College of Sports Medicine concluded that regular exercise may reduce our risks of developing some cancers by as much as 69%. That analysis also found that exercise may improve treatment outcomes and prolong life in people who already have cancer.

But it is not yet fully clear how working out may affect tumors. Animal studies show that exercise lessens inflammation and may otherwise make the body’s internal environment less hospitable to malignancies. But many questions remain unanswered about the interplay of exercise and cancer.

So, recently, a group of scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and other institutions began to won-

der about white blood cells. Part of the immune system, white blood cells play a key role in our defense against cancer by noting, navigating to and often annihilating malignant cells. Researchers have known for some time that different types of immune cells tend to target different types of cancer. But little has been known about if and how exercise affects any of these immune cells and if those changes might somehow be contributing to exercise’s cancer-blunting effects.

Now, for the new study, which was published in October in eLife, the scientists in Sweden decided to learn more by inoculating mice with different types of cancer cells and letting some of the rodents run, while others remained sedentary. After several weeks, the researchers saw that some of the runners showed little evidence of tumor growth. More intriguing, most of these active mice had been inoculated with cancer cells that are known to be particularly vulnerable to a specific type of immune cell, known as CD8+ T cells, which tend, primarily, to fight certain forms of breast cancer and other solid tumors.

Perhaps, the researchers speculated, exercise was having particular effects on those immune cells.

To find out, they then chemically blocked the action of these T cells in animals carrying tumor cells and let them run. After several weeks and despite being active, the animals without functioning CD8+ T cells showed significant tumor growth, suggesting that the CD8+ cells, when working, must be a key part of how exercise helps to stave off some cancers.

For further confirmation, the scientists then isolated CD8+ T cells from animals that had run and those that had not. They then injected one or the other type of T cells into sedentary, cancer-prone animals. Animals that received immune cells from the runners subsequently fought off tumors noticeably better than animals that had received immune cells from inactive mice.

These results surprised and excited the researchers, said Randall Johnson, a professor of molecular physiology with dual appointments at the University of Cambridge in England and the Karolinska Institute, who oversaw the new study. They seemed to demonstrate “that the effect of exercise on the T cells is intrinsic to the cells themselves and is persistent,” he said.

In other words, exercise had changed the cells in ways that lasted.

But what, the scientists wondered, was exercise doing to the cells that made them extra effective at fighting tumors? To explore that question, the researchers let some mice run until they tired themselves out, while others sat quietly. They then drew blood from both groups and put the samples through a sophisticated machine that counts all of the molecules there.

The blood samples turned out to be quite different at a molecular level. The runners’ blood contained far more substances related to fueling and metabolism, with especially high levels of lactate, which is produced in abundance by working muscles. Perhaps, the scientists speculated, lactate was affecting the runners’ T cells?

So, they added lactate to CD8+ T cells isolated from mice and grown in dishes and found that these cells became more active when faced with cancer cells than other T cells. Basically, having marinated in lactate, they became better cancer fighters.

In simpler terms, Johnson said, “It does seem from our studies that these T cells are potently affected by exercise.”

Of course, his and his colleagues’ experiments involved mice, not people. We humans also produce extra lactate and other related molecules after exercise (which the researchers confirmed in a final portion of their study, by drawing blood from people after a run and analyzing its molecular composition). But whether our CD8+ T cells respond in precisely the same way to working out remains uncertain.

The study also does not show if all exercise has the same effects on T cells or whether some workouts might be more beneficial than others for amping up these cells’ powers. It also does not suggest that exercise reduces cancer risk and progression solely by strengthening these cells.

More likely, being active affects how well our bodies deal with malignancies in multiple and perhaps interlinked ways.

Johnson and his colleagues plan to explore many of these issues in future studies, he said.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

26 de noviembre Mi prima trajo el pavo...

24 de diciembre y el COVID-19.

NO BAJES LA GUARDIA USA TU MASCARILLA Y MANTÉN LA DISTANCIA

#ElCovid19NoDiscrimina

23

24 (60’9”)”, equivalentes a dieciocho metros con cincuenta y dos cenESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE tésimas partes (18.52) con espaPUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE cio exterior. Tiene su puerta de PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SU- entrada y salida por el lado Este.

PERIOR DE sAN JUAN. Consta de tres (3) habitaciones, dos (2) baños, lavandería, cociMIDFIRST BANK na, comedor, sala y balcón. Le Demandante vs.

LILLIAN ORTIZ CLAUDIO corresponde a este apartamento dos (2) espacios de estacionat/c/c LILLIAN ORTIZ mientos identificados con los núLUGO meros nueve (9) y diez (10). A Demandada este apartamento le corresponde CIVIL NÚM: SJ2019CV00869. una participación en los elemenSOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO tos comunes del Condominio de Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. cero punto cero cinco siete cero EDICTO DE SUBASTA. por ciento (0.05570%). Esta proA: LILLIAN ORTIZ piedad por su procedencia se CLAUDIO t/c/c LILLIAN encuentra afecta a servidumbre de paso a favor de la propiedad ORTIZ LUGO Y AL PUBLICO EN GENERAL: de Zorahayda Ramírez de Arellano, servidumbre de paso a favor El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tridel Estado Libre Asociado de bunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Puerto Rico cedida a la Autoridad de San Juan, y al Público en Gede Acueductos y Alcantarillados neral hago constar que, en cumde Puerto Rico, servidumbre a plimiento de la Sentencia dictada favor de la Puerto Rico Telephocon fecha de 4 de junio de 2019, ne Company, servidumbre a fanotificada por edicto el 13 de juvor del Municipio de San Juan, nio de 2019, de la Orden de Ejeservidumbre a favor de la Autoricución de Sentencia emitida el 13 dad de Fuentes Fluviales de de agosto 2019 y el MandamienPuerto Rico, servidumbre a favor to de Ejecución de Sentencia exde la Autoridad de Acueductos y pedido el 12 de septiembre 2019, Alcantarillados de Puerto Rico, procederé a vender y venderé en servidumbre predial de paso pública subasta y al mejor postor combinada de agua y sanitaria a la propiedad que se describe a favor de Autoridad de Acueduccontinuación: URBANA: PROtos y Alcantarillados de Puerto PIEDAD HORIZONTAL: ApartaRico, servidumbre a favor de la mento residencial de forma irrePuerto Rico Telephone Comgular, localizado en la segunda pany, y por sí está afecta a Hipoplanta del CONDOMINIO MIRAteca, por la suma principal de DORES DE VENUS, sito en la CIENTO DIECINUEVE MIL SECalle Piedras Negras de la UrbaTECIENTOS DOLARES nización Venus Gardens Norte, ($119,700.00), a favor de Citiradicada en el Barrio Sabana bank, N.A. El balance actual de Llana Sur del término municipal dicha hipoteca habrá de ser pade Río Piedras antes, hoy San gado con cargo al préstamo que Juan, Puerto Rico, el cual se desse constituye en la presente escribe en la escritura matriz de critura y la hipoteca será subsiDedicación al Régimen de Proguientemente cancelada. Consta piedad Horizontal con el número, inscrita al folio número doscienárea y colindancias que se relatos veinticuatro (224) del tomo cionan a continuación: APARTAnúmero novecientos ochenta y MENTO NÚMERO DOS MIL seis (986) Ágora de Sabana LlaDOSCIENTOS SEIS (2,206), na, finca número treinta y tres mil ÁREA DEL SOLAR: MIL CIENTO cuatrocientos sesenta y tres OCHENTA PUNTO OCHENTA Y (33,463), en el Registro de la CINCO (1,180.85) PIES CUAPropiedad de Puerto Rico, SecDRADOS, equivalentes a CIENción Quinta de San Juan. La diTO NUEVE METROS CUADRArección física de la propiedad es: DOS CON SETENTA Apartamento núm. 2206, Calle CENTÉSIMAS DE OTRO Piedras Negras, Condominio Mi(109.70 mc). EN LINDES: por el radores de Venus 700, San Juan NORTE, en veintidós pies seis y 00926. El producto de la subasta media pulgadas (22’6 1/2”) equise destinará a satisfacer al devalentes a seis metros con mandante hasta donde alcance, ochenta y siete centésimas la suma de $116,093.81 por con(6.87) partes de otro con espacio cepto de principal, más intereses exterior, por el SUR, en dieciocho a razón de 4.750% anual a partir pies con diez y media pulgadas del 1 de abril de 2017 más cargos 18’ 10 ½”), equivalentes a cinco por demora equivalentes al 4% metros con setenta y cinco centéde todos los pagos atrasados simas (5.75) con espacio extemás de 15 días de la fecha de rior; por el ESTE, en sesenta pies vencimiento, y los créditos adenueve pulgadas (60’9”), equivalantados hechos de acuerdo con lentes a dieciocho metros con el pagaré hipotecario y la escritucincuenta y dos centésimas ra de hipoteca. Adeuda, además, (18.52) partes de otro con el la cantidad de tres pagos adicioapartamento número cuatro (4), nales de $13,017.30 por concepque da al área de pasillo del conto de costas, gastos y honorarios dominio, el cual lleva al área de de abogado, cuyas sumas están las escaleras que brindan acceso vencidas, líquidas y exigibles. La al apartamento; por el OESTE, venta en pública subasta de la en sesenta pies nueve pulgadas referida propiedad se verificará

LEGAL NOTICE

@

libre de toda carga o gravamen POSTERIOR que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA y TERCERA subasta, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier personas o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. La PRIMERA subasta se llevará a efecto el día 7 de diciembre de 2020 a las 11:30 de la mañana, en la sala del referido Alguacil, sita en el edificio que ocupa el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan. Que el precio mínimo fijado para la PRIMERA subasta es de $130,173.00. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una SEGUNDA subasta la misma se llevará a efecto el día 14 de diciembre de 2020 a las 11:30 de la mañana, en la sala en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la SEGUNDA subasta será de $86,782.00 equivalente a dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Si no se produce remate ni adjudicación en le PRIMERA ni en la SEGUNDA subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA el día 11 de ENERO de 2021 a las 11:30 de la mañana, en la oficina antes mencionada del alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo fijado para esta TERCERA subasta es la mitad de la suma pactada para la PRIMERA subasta a saber $65,086.50. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistente. Entendiéndose que el rematante lo acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de estos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se notifica Hipoteca preferente a favor de Citibank, N.A. por la suma principal de $119,700.00. Intereses: 6% anual. Vencimiento: 1ro de abril de 2020. Tasación: $119,700.00. En virtud de la escritura núm. 263 del 28 de marzo de 2005, otorgada en San Juan, ante el Notario Mario A. Quiles Rosado, según inscripción 5ª, al folio 141 del tomo 987 de Sabana Llana. Se les advierte a los licitadores que la adjudicación se hará el mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el acto mismo de la adjudicación, en moneda curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, entiéndase en efectivo, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal. Tome conocimiento la parte demandada y toda aquella persona o personas que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando; y para conocimiento de los licitadores y el público en general, se publicará dos (2) veces en un periódico de circulación diaria en la Isla de Puerto Rico y se fija-

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

rá, además, en los lugares públicos correspondientes. Una vez efectuada la venta de dicha propiedad, el Alguacil procederá a poner al licitador victorioso en posesión física de la propiedad dentro del plazo de veinte (20) días contados a partir de la venta en pública Subasta. Además, el Alguacil procederá a darle posesión del material al adjudicatario, en los casos que fuere necesario, proceda el lanzamiento del demandado o terceras personas de la propiedad subastada y forzar puertas o ventanas, romper cerraduras, candados, cortar cadenas y tomar cualquier otra medida propia. De igual forma, el Alguacil sacará cualquier propiedad mueble o personal de los demandados o de terceras personas que se encuentren en la mencionada propiedad. Además, los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la secretaría del tribunal durante las horas laborables. EXPIDO, el presente EDICTO, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 6 de NOVIEMBRE de 2020. PEDRO HIEYE GONZALEZ, Alguacil, Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan.

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

BOSCO CREDIT X, LLC, representado por su Agente de Servicios FRANKLIN CREDIT MANAGEMENT CORPORATION Demandante vs.

SUCESION DE HECTOR JULIAN COLON RODRIGUEZ, compuesta por sus hijo HECTOR JULIAN COLON RIVERA NESTOR JOHAN COLON RIVERA; FULANO DE TAL y ZUTANO DE TAL, como herederos desconocidos con posible interés; JULIA CECILIA RIVERA, también conocida como JULIA CECILIA RIVERA DE COLON, por sí y en cuanto a la cuota viudad usufructuaria; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (“CRIM”)

Demandados CIVIL NÚM. SJ2019CV03344 (604). SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO (Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria). EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: Público en General A: A LA PARTE DEMANDADA; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA, por tener embargos

(787) 743-3346

Thursday, November 19, 2020 anotados a su favor por las sumas de $5,687.20 y $3,062.88

Yo, Edwin E. Lopéz Mulero, Alguacil de este Tribunal, a la parte demandada y a los acreedores y personas con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, HAGO SABER: Que el día 3 de diciembre de 2020, a las 10:30 de la mañana en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico, venderé en Pública Subasta la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria al mejor postor quien hará el pago en dinero en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del o la Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal de San Juan durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una segunda subasta para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el día 10 de diciembre de 2020,a las 10:30 de la mañana y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 17 de diciembre de 2020 a las 10:30 de la mañana en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar sito en el Barrio Monacillos de Río Piedras, marcado con el número Tres (3) de la Manzana “HE” de la URBANIZACIÓN PUERTO NUEVO, con un área superficial de DOSCIENTOS NOVENTA Y UNO PUNTO TREINTA Y SIETE (291.37) METROS CUADRADOS. En lindes por el NORTE, SUR, ESTE y OESTE, con terrenos propiedad de la Everlasting Development Corporation, y dando frente al Norte, con la calle denominada número Sesenta y Seis (66) de la Urbanización a la cual hace esquina. En este solar enclava una casa de bloques de cemento y hormigón reforzado, que consta principalmente de dos dormitorios, sala-comedor, cocina y cuarto de baño. La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al folio 195 del tomo 929 de Monacillos, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Tercera, finca número 7,925, inscripción décimo séptima. -Modificada la hipoteca antes relacionada en cuanto al principal que será ahora por la suma de $143,762.23 al 6.50 % anual y su vencimiento será para el día 1ro. de septiembre de 2044, según escritura número 447, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 30 de septiembre de 2014, ante el Notario Público Héctor M. Lugaro Figueroa, inscrita al folio 202 del tomo 1089 de Monacillos, Regis-

tro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Tercera, finca número 7,925, inscripción 19a. La dirección física de la propiedad antes descrita es: Urbanización Puerto Nuevo, Número 3, Manzana HE (ahora 1044, Calle 2 SE), San Juan, Puerto Rico. La Subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $108,854.56 de principal, intereses al 6.50% anual, desde el 1 ro. de noviembre de 2018, hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad de $13, 725.00 estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado más recargos acumulados, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será de $137,250.00 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima será equivalente a 2/3 partes de aquella, o sea, la suma de $91,500.00 y de ser necesaria una tercera subasta, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado, es decir, la suma de $68,625.00. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en el momento de la adjudicación y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad hipotecada a ser vendida en pública subasta se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes posteriores: Embargo Federal, por la suma de $5,687.20 contra Héctor Colón, Seguro Social número xxx-xx-5448, Notificación número 318676918, Certificación del 7 de agosto de 2018, presentado y anotado el día 4 de septiembre de 2018, al Asiento 2018-006532-FED del Sistema Karibe. Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Tercera. Embargo Federal, por la suma de $3,062.88 contra Héctor Colón, Seguro Social número xxx-xx-5448, Notificación número 318676418, Certificación del 7 de agosto de 2018, presentado y anotado el día 14 de septiembre de 2018, al Asiento 2018006531-FED del Sistema Karibe.

Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Tercera. La propiedad a ser vendida en pública subasta se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores.

EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 5 de noviembre de 2020. EDWIN E. LOPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL, DIVISIÓN DE EJECUCION DE SENTENCIAS, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.

LEGAL NOTICE

The San Juan Daily Star ESTADO L IBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.

COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CREDITO DE MEDICOS Y OTROS PROFESIONALES DE LA SALUD (MEDICOOP) Demandante vs.

ANDRES MELENDEZ DEDOS y su esposa GAYLE ANNE AUGER KERRIGAN y la Sociedad Legal de Bienes Gananciales compuesta por ambos

Demandados CIVIL NÚM: SJ2019CV06806 (506). SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO (Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria) “INREM”.

EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: Público en General A: ANDRES MELENDEZ DEDOS y su esposa GAYLE ANNE AUGER KERRIGAN y la Sociedad Legal de Bienes Gananciales compuesta por ambos; DEPARTAMENTO DE HACIENDA- ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO por tener embargo anotado a su favor por la suma de $603,423.80

Yo, Edwin E. Lopez Mulero, Alguacil de este Tribunal, a la parte demandada y a los acreedores y personas con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, HAGO SABER: Que el día 3 de diciembre de 2020, a las 10:00 de la mañana en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico, venderé en Pública Subasta la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria al mejor postor quien hará el pago en dinero en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del o la Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal de San Juan durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una segunda subasta para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el día 10 de diciembre de 2020, a las 10:00 de la mañana y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 17 de diciembre de 2020, a las 10:00 de la mañana en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado.

La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como

sigue: URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Unidad designada Oficina número trescientos tres (303), localizada en el piso número tres (3) del CONDOMINIO TORRE SAN FRANCISCO, ubicado en la Calle de Diego número trescientos sesenta y nueve (369) de Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Esta unidad tiene una forma sustancialmente rectangular y cubre un área neta privada de aproximadamente MIL VEINTISEIS PIES CUADRADOS CON SEIS MIL DOSCIENTOS CINCUENTA DIEZMILESIMAS DE OTRO (1,026.6250. pc), equivalentes a NOVENTA Y CINCO METROS CUADRADOS CON TRES MIL SETECIENTOS TREINTA Y CINCO DIEZMILESIMAS DE OTRO (95.3735 me). En lindes por el NORTE: en dos (2) distancias que suman veinticinco pies (25’) lineales con oficina número trescientos cuatro (304) del mismo piso y en parte con el pasillo central del piso; por el SUR: en tres (3) distancias que suman veintiocho pies (28’) lineales, con pared exterior del Edificio; por el ESTE: en cuatro (4) distintas distancias que suman cuarenta pies seis pulgadas (40’ 6”) con la oficina número trescientos dos (302) del mismo piso y en parte con el pasillo central del piso; y por el OESTE: en cuatro (4) distintas distancias que suman cuarenta pies seis pulgadas (40’ 6”) con pasillo exterior del edificio.

Porcentaje: Elementos comunes generales cero punto ocho dos tres dos por ciento (0.8232%).

Elementos comunes limitados: diez punto siete cero cuatro por ciento (10.704%). Consta inscrita al Sistema Karibe, finca número 32726 de Sabana Llana, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan.

Dirección Física: Condominio Torre San Francisco Oficina 303, 369 Calle De Diego, San Juan, Puerto Rico. La Subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $260,741.05 de principal, intereses pactados y computados sobre esta suma al tipo de 7.5% anual desde el 1 de noviembre de 2017 y hasta su total y completo pago, contribuciones, recargos y primas de seguro adeudados y la suma de $27,200.00 por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; todas estas sumas están vencidas y son líquidas y exigibles. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será de $272,000.00 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima será equivalente a 2/3 partes de aquella, o sea, la suma de $181,333.34 y de ser necesaria una tercera subasta, la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado, es decir, la suma de $136,000.00. De declararse desierta la tercera subasta se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si esta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal

The San Juan Daily Star lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si esta es mayor. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en el momento de la adjudicación y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate.

La propiedad hipotecada a ser vendida en pública Subasta se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes posteriores: ---Embargo a favor del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, contra Andrés Meléndez Dedos y Gayle Anne Auger Kerrigar, por la suma de $603,423.80, por contribución sobre Ingresos, según Certificación del 8 de febrero de 2016 del Departamento de Hacienda, anotado el 25 de agosto de 2016 al tomo Karibe de Sabana Llana, finca número 32, 726, anotación A. Anotado también el 23 de febrero de 2016 al asiento 2016001576-EST del Sistema Karibe, según Certificación de fecha 8 de febrero de 2016 expedida por el Departamento de Hacienda. La propiedad a ser vendida en pública subasta se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Podrán concurrir como postores a todas las subastas los titulares de créditos hipotecarios vigentes y posteriores a la hipoteca que se cobra o ejecuta, si alguno o que figuren como tales en la certificación registra! y que podrán utilizar el montante de sus créditos o parte de alguno en sus ofertas. Si la oferta aceptada es por cantidad mayor a la suma del crédito o créditos preferentes al suyo, al obtener la buena pro del remate, deberá satisfacer en el mismo acto, en efectivo o en cheque de gerente, la totalidad del crédito hipotecario que se ejecuta y la de cualesquiera otro créditos posteriores al que se ejecuta pero preferente al suyo.

El exceso constituirá abono total o parcial en su propio crédito.

EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 5 de noviembre de 2020. EDWIN E. LOPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, ALGUACIL, DIVISION DE EJECUCION DE SENTENCIAS TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN. ****

LEGAL NOTICE

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

Thursday, November 19, 2020

SALÓN: 500. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: ABEL RUIZ RODRÍGUEZ

POR LA PRESENTE, se le emplaza y requiere para que notifique a: AGS LEGAL COLLECTIONS, LLC Lcdo. Juan A. Santos Berrios Lcdo. José R. González Rivera Lcdo. Ricardo A. Acevedo Bianchi P.O. Box 10242 Humacao, Puerto Rico 00792 Teléfono: (939) 545-4300 Email: agsIeqalcollections@gmaiI.com POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva, con copia a la parte demandante, dentro de los 30 días de haber sido diligenciado o publicado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día de su diligenciamiento o publicación. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente.

Extendido bajo mi firma y Sello del Tribunal, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 9 de noviembre de 2020. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretaria Regional.

Sandra I. Cruz Vázquez, Secretaria Servicios a Sala.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE MA YAGÜEZ.

ORIENTAL BANK Demandante v.

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO como custodio de los archivos de DORAL BANK; JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE

Demandados CIVIL NÚM. MZ2020CV00516.

Sala: 206. SOBRE: CANCELACION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE, personas desconocidas que se designan con estos COOPERATIVA DE nombres ficticios, que AHORRO Y CRÉDITO puedan ser tenedor o ORIENTAL PARTE DEMANDANTE vs. tenedores, o puedan tener ABEL RUIZ RODRIGUEZ algún interés en el pagaré PARTE DEMANDADA hipotecario a que se hace CIVIL NÚM.: BY2019CV07382. referencia más adelante SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO.

en el presente edicto, que se publicará una sola vez.

Se les notifica que en la Demanda radicada en el caso de epígrafe se alega que el 25 de abril de 2001, se otorgó un pagaré a favor de Doral Bank, o a ~u orden, por la suma de $1,300,000.00, con intereses al 15% anual, vencedero a la presentación , ante el Notario Francisco Pujol Meneses, mediante afidávit 1206. En garantía del pagaré antes descrito se otorgó la escritura de hipoteca número 32, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 25 de abril de 2001, ante el Notario Público Francisco Pujol Meneses, respondiendo la finca número 18809 por $15,123.00, inscrita al folio 175 del tomo 864 de Cabo Rojo, inscripción 4ta, Registro de la Propiedad de San German; respondiendo la finca número 18802 por $15,123.00, inscrita al folio 172 del tomo 864 de Cabo Rojo, inscripción 4ta, Registro de la Propiedad de San German; respondiendo la finca número 18692 por $15,123.00, inscrita al folio 1 del tomo 864 de Cabo Rojo, inscripción 4ta, Registro de la Propiedad de San German; y respondiendo la finca número 18693 por $15,123.00, inscrita al folio 4 del tomo 864 de Cabo Rojo, inscripción 4ta, Registro de la Propiedad de San German. Reducida la hipoteca por $1,300,000.00 en la suma principal de $1,252,423.00, según consta de la escritura #45, otorgada en San Juan, el día 22 de agosto de 2005, ante el Notario Público Francisco Pujol Meneses, anotado al margen de la inscripción 4ta, fincas 18802, 18809, 18692 y 18692, Registro de la Propiedad de San German.

Los inmuebles gravados mediante la hipoteca antes descrita son la finca número 18809 inscrita al folio 176 del tomo 864 de Cabo Rojo, Registro de la Propiedad de San German; la finca 18692 inscrita al folio 1 del tomo 864 de Cabo Rojo, Registro de la Propiedad de San German; la finca 18802 inscrita al folio 172 del tomo 864 de Cabo Rojo, Registro de la Propiedad de San German; y la finca 18693 inscrita al folio 4 del tomo 864 de Cabo Rojo, Registro de la Propiedad de San German. La obligación evidenciada por el pagaré antes descrito fue saldada en su totalidad.

Dicho gravamen no ha podido ser cancelado por haberse extraviado el original del pagaré. El original del pagaré antes descrito no ha podido ser localizado, a pesar de las gestiones realizadas.

Doral Bank es el acreedor que consta en el Registro de la Propiedad. El último tenedor conocido del pagaré antes descrito fue Doral Bank. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los 30 días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente

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

LCDO. JAVIER MONTALVO CINTRÓN RUA NÚM. 17682 DELGADO & FERNÁNDEZ, LLC PO Box 11750, Fernández Juncos Station San Juan, Puerto Rico 00910-1750, Tel. (787) 274-1414 / Fax (787) 764-8241 E-mail: jmontalvo@ delgadofernandez.com Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, hoy 6 de noviembre de 2020. Lcda. Norma G. Santana lrizarry, Secretaria. Rebeca Medina Figueroa, Sub-Secretario( a).

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

ORIENTAL BANK Demandante VS.

DAYNA FUENTES CHEVERE

Demandada CIVIL NÚM. VA2019CV00234.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO (Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria) IN REM. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: DAYNA FUENTES CHEVERE

POR EL PRESENTE EDICTO se le notifica que se ha radicado en esta Secretaría por la parte demandante, Demanda sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria en la que se alega adeuda la suma principal de $78,667.69, intereses al 4.500% anual, desde el día 1ro de mayo de 2019, hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad de $9,194.00 estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más recargos acumulados, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. La propiedad hipotecada a ser vendida en pública subasta es: RUSTICA: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Apartamento número Ochocientos Treinta y Uno (831 ), localizado en el Edificio número Ocho (8), piso número Tres (3) del CONDOMINIO VISTAS DE LA VEGA, el cual está situado en el Barrio Espinosa del término municipal de Vega Alta, Puerto Rico.

Unidad individual de vivienda de un nivel de altura, construida de hormigón reforzado y bloques de concreto, con puertas de madera y ventanas de aluminio y cristal.

Según se detalla en el plano, colinda al NORTE, con el ‘’planting’, acera, área de estacionamiento

y la calle interior del complejo; al SUR, con el patio posterior del Edificio; al ESTE, con el área verde del proyecto; y al OESTE, con la unidad de apartamento número Ochocientos Treinta y Dos (832). Esta unidad consta de un área de construcción bruta de OCHOCIENTOS CINCO (805) PIES CUADRADOS como área privada de vivienda, dividida como sigue: incluye sala, comedor, cocina, un baño, área de lavandería, tres dormitorios con closets y una terraza exterior techada. A esta unidad le corresponde el cero punto seiscientos veinticinco por ciento (0.625%) en los elementos comunes generales del Condominio Vistas de la Vega. A esta unidad le corresponde para su único y exclusivo uso como elemento común limitado un área de estacionamiento de dos punto cincuenta (2.50) metros de ancho y cuyo número de estacionamiento asignado es el Ochocientos Treinta y Uno (831). A esta unidad además le corresponde para su único y exclusivo uso como elemento común limitado un área de estacionamiento de dos punto cincuenta (2.50) metros de ancho y cuyo número de estacionamiento asignado es el Ochocientos Treinta y Uno guión A (831-A). La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al Sistema Karibe de Vega Alta, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección Tercera finca número 20,855, inscripción cuarta. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido publicado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día de la publicación. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección: https://unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/ salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. La dirección postal del abogado de la parte demandante es la siguiente: Lic. Baldomero A. Collazo Torres Bufete Collazo, Connelly & Surillo, LLC P.O. Box 70212 San Juan, P.R. 00936-8212 Tel. (787) 625-9999 Fax (787) 705-7387 E-mail: bcollazo@lawpr.com Se le notifica también por la presente que la parte demandante habrá de presentar para su anotación al Registrador de la Propiedad del Distrito en que está situada la propiedad objeto de este pleito, un aviso de estar pendiente esta acción. Para publicarse conforme a la Orden dictada por el Tribunal en un periódico de circulación general.

EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL,

25

expido el presente Edicto que fir- POSIBLES TENEDORES mo y sello en Vega Baja, Puerto DESCONOCIDOS DEL Rico, hoy 29 de octubre de 2020.

PAGARÉ LCDA. LAURA A. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, Sec Regional. MARITZA Queda usted notificado que en ROSARIO ROSARIO, Sec Auxi- este Tribunal se ha radicado demanda sobre cancelación de paliar del Tribunal I. garé extraviado por la vía judicial.

LEGAL NOT ICE El 8 de agosto de 1975, Olivain ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE Rodríguez y su esposa Gloria E. PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE Fernández, constituyeron una hiPRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SU- poteca en San Juan, Puerto Rico, conforme a la Escritura núm. 498 PERIOR DE SAN JUAN. por el notario Adán E. BANCO POPULAR DE autorizada Montalvo en garantía de un paPUERTO RICO garé por la suma de $22,200.00 a PARTE DEMANDANTE VS. favor de First National City Bank FIRST NATIONAL CITY (ahora Citibank National AssociaBANK T/C/C CITIBANK, tion), o a su orden, con intereses N.A. T/C/C CITIBANK, al 8% anual y vencedero el 1ro septiembre de 2005, sobre la NATIONAL ASSOCIATION; de siguiente propiedad: URBANA: DORAL MORTGAGE Propiedad Horizontal: ApartaCORPORATION T/C/C mento número D-8, destinado a DORAL MORTGAGE, vivienda en la octava planta del LLC., POR CONDUCTO Condominio San Ignacio o sea, el inmueble situado en la esDE SU AGENTE quina sureste de la intersección RESIDENTE CT de la Avenida San Ignacio y la CORPORATION Carretera Estatal Número Veintiuno, en el Barrio Monacillos del SYSTEM; FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE sector de Río Piedras, Municipio San Juan, Puerto Rico. Este CORPORATION (FDIC) de apartamento está situado en la COMO SÍNDICO DE parte este del edificio y tiene un DORAL BANK; OLIVAIN área superficial de quinientos RODRÍGUEZ, GLORIA noventa y nueve punto diecisiete pies cuadrados, equivalentes E. FERNÁNDEZ Y LA a cincuenta y cinco metros seSOCIEDAD LEGAL senta y ocho centímetros cuaDE GANANCIALES drados incluyendo el área de las COMPUESTA POR paredes interiores. En lindes por el NORTE, con el apartamento AMBOS; FULANO Y C-ocho en todo su longitud de MENGANO DE TAL, punto cincuenta pies, POSIBLES TENEDORES veintiséis equivalentes a ocho metros siete DESCONOCIDOS DEL centímetros que corresponde a la PAGARÉ sala-comedor; por el SUR, con el PARTE DEMANDADA apartamento E-ocho de veintiuno CIVIL NÚM. SJ2020CV03039 punto treinta y tres pies, equiva(602). SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN lentes a seis metros cincuenta DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO centímetros que corresponde POR LA VÍA JUDICIAL. EDIC- a la habitación y el baño; por el TO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE ESTE, formando parte de la faAMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE chada en dos planos, un plano LOS E.E.U.U. EL ESTADO LI- de doce punto setenta y cinco BRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO pies equivalentes a tres metros RICO. ochenta y ocho centímetros y corresponde a la terraza y el otro A: FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE de doce punto veinticinco pies, a tres metros setenCORPORATION (FDIC) equivalentes ta y tres centímetros de longitud COMO SÍNDICO DE corresponde a la habitación y por DORAL BANK a las el OESTE, en una longitud de siguientes direcciones: veinticinco pies, equivalentes a FDIC SAN JUAN FIELD siete metros veintiséis centímetros con el corredor de circulaOFFICE, 235 CALLE ción donde se encuentra la puerFEDERICO COSTA, STE ta de entrada al apartamento.

335, SAN JUAN, PR Consta de sala-comedor, con un área de doscientos dieciséis pies 00918-1341, 350 5TH cuadrados, equivalentes a veinte AVE STE 1200, NEW YORK NY 10118-1201 metros siete centímetros cuadrados, terraza con área de sesenta Y 1601 BRYAN ST., pies, equivalentes a cinco metros DALLAS TX 75201-3401; con cincuenta y ocho centímetros OLIVAIN RODRÍGUEZ, cuadrados, habitación, con área GLORIA E. FERNÁNDEZ de ciento veinte pies cuadrados, Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL equivalentes a once metros con quince centímetros cuadrados, DE GANANCIALES un closet con área de catorce COMPUESTA POR punto veintiocho pies cuadrados, equivalentes a un metro AMBOS a su última treinta y tres centímetros cuadirección conocida COND SAN IGNACIO, drados, otro closet con área de doce punto once pies cuadrados, 325 AVE SAN IGNACIO equivalentes a un metro siete APT 8D, SAN JUAN, PR centímetros cuadrados, baño 00921-3809.; FULANO con área de treinta y seis punto Y MENGANO DE TAL, noventa pies cuadrados, equi-

valentes a tres metros cuarenta y dos centímetros cuadrados, cocina con área de cincuenta y cinco punto treinta y seis pies cuadrados, equivalentes a cinco metros catorce centímetros cuadrados. Su puerta principal da acceso al pasillo que conduce al vestíbulo de los ascensores y a la escalera que a su vez conducen a la vía pública. Forma parte integrante de este apartamento como anejo al mismo el espacio de estacionamiento marcado con el número ciento veintisiete en la hoja número A-tres de los planos del edificio. Con un porcentaje de cero punto cuatro ocho nueve tres por ciento. La propiedad consta inscrita al folio 211 del tomo 728 de Monacillos, Finca 22671. Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección III. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 213 del tomo 728 de Monacillos, Finca 22671. Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección III. 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 secretaría del Tribunal. Se le advierte que, si no contesta la demanda, radicando el original de la contestación en este Tribunal y enviando copia de la contestación a la abogada de la Parte Demandante, Lcda. Belma Alonso García, cuya dirección es: PO Box 3922, Guaynabo, PR 00970-3922, Teléfono y Fax: (787) 789-1826, correo electrónico: oficinabelmaalonso@gmail. com, dentro del término de treinta (30) días de la publicación de este edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publicación, se le anotará la rebeldía y se le dictará Sentencia en su contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy 5 de noviembre de 2020 en San Juan, Puerto Rico. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA. NANCY I. GARCÍA FIGUEROA, SECRETARIA SERVICIOS A SALA.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE TOA ALTA.

CARLOS ARTURO TORRES GALÁN Y LUIS MANUEL TORRES GALÁN Demandantes Vs.

POPULAR MORTGAGE INC,; JUAN DEL PUEBLO Y FULANO DE TAL

Demandados CIVIL #: TB2020CV00409.

SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. Por la presente se notifica a los demandados desconocidos Juan del Pueblo y Fulano de Tal, que se ha radicado

26 una demanda sobre Cancelación de Pagaré en la que se solicita la cancelación de un pagaré hipotecario a favor de POPULAR MORTGAGE INC o a su orden, el cual fue pagado en su totalidad por la parte demandante. Dicho pagaré fue inscrito y se constituyó Hipoteca sobre el mismo, por la suma de $50,000.00 con intereses al 6 1/4% vencedero el 1ro de agosto de 2013, otorgada mediante escritura 143 del 13 de julio de 1198, ante el notario Eugene F. Hestres, la cual quedó inscrita en el Registro de la Propiedad bajo el número de finca 1253, inscripción 5ta. Cualquier persona que posea dicho pagaré tiene 30 días a partir de esta fecha para comparecer en el pleito de epígrafe radicando contestación original en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Guaynabo, exponiendo lo que a su derecho conduzca; advirtiéndosele que de no hacer alegación responsiva en el término indicado se anotará la rebeldía y se podrá dictar Sentencia concediéndose el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https: //unired.ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el Tribunal podrá dictar sentencia previo a escuchar la prueba de valor de la parte peticionaria en su contra, sin más citarle ni oírle, y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el Tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Es abogado de la parte demandante, el Lic. Jaime Rodríguez Rivera, quien tiene oficinas abiertas en el #30 de la Calle Reparto Piñero, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, Teléfono 787-720-9553. En Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, a de 10 de noviembre de 2020. Lcda. Laura I Santa Sanchez, Sec Regional. Liriam Hernandez Otero, Sec Regional del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de TOA ALTA.

AMERICAS LEADING FINANCE LLC

COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO (A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 4 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 Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de (30) días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 12 de NOVIEMBRE de 2020. En TOA ALTA, Puerto Rico, el 12 de NOVIEMBRE de 2020.

CC: LCDO. GERARDO MANUEL ORTIZ TORRES-COND. EL CENTRO I, SUITE 801, 500 MUÑOZ RIVERA AVE., SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, 00918 LCDO. ALEJANDRO BELLVER ESPINOSA- COND EL CENTRO I, 500 AVE MUÑOZ RIVERA STE 801, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, 00918. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretario (a) Regional. LIRIAM M. HERNANDEZ OTERO, Sec Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de BAYAMON.

MIDFIRST BANK Demandante v.

PAN AMERICAN FINANCIAL CORPORATION, INC., RAFAEL ALEXIS QUIJANO VICENS, VANESSA MEDINA BORRERO. LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA ENTRE AMBOS, JOHN DOE Y RICHARDO DOE

Demandado(a) Civil: Núm. BY2020CV01341.

SALA 702. Sobre: CANCELAALEXIS VAZOUEZ CION DE PAGARE HIPOTEBURGOS Y OTROS CARIO EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFIDemandados CACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR Caso Civil Núm. TA2020CV00358. EDICTO. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD EJECUCION DE GRAVAMEN ROE COMO POSIBLES MOBILIARIO. NOTIFICACION DE TENEDORES DE PAGARE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. (Nombre de las partes a las que se A: ALEXIS VAZOUEZ le notifican la sentencia por edicto) BURGOS, SU ESPOSA EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscriFULANA DE TAL Y LA be le notifica a usted que el 10 de noviembre de 2020, este Tribunal SOCIEDAD LEGAL ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia DE GANANCIALES Demandante VS.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 10 de noviembre de 2020. En BAYAMON, Puerto Rico, el 12 de noviembre de 2020. Lcda. Laura I Santa Sanchez, Secretaria.

Ivette M. Marrero Bracero, Sec Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

JUAN. cc: LCDA, MARJALIISA COLÓN VILLANUEVA-PO BOX 7970, PO BOX INDHIRA J. 7970, PONCE, PUERTO RICO 00732.

SANCHEZ POLANCO LCDA. LAURA I, SANTA SANDemandante VS CHEZ, Secretaria Regional. LIROBERTO A. RIAM M. HERNANDEZ OTERO, TATIS MARICHAL Sec Auxiliar.

Demandado(a) LEGAL NOTICE Civil Núm. SJ2020RF00906.

Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Sobre: DIVORCIO, RUPTURA Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE IRREPARABLE. NOTIFICACIÓN JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. Instancia Sala Superior de MAYAGUEZ.

WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, D/B/A CHRISTIANA TRUST, AS INDENTURE TRUSTEE, FOR THE CSMC 2016-PR 1 TRUST MORTGAGE-BACKED NOTES, SERIES 2016-PR1 Demandante vs.

ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL HOLDING CORPORATION HACIENDO NEGOCIO COMO CITIFINANCIAL: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS

Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE Demandados JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de TOA Caso Civil Núm. MZ2020CV00729.

Sobre: CANCELACION DE PAALTA. MTGLQ INVESTORS LP GARE EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACION DE SENTENCIA POR Demandante vs.

EDICTO.

ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS CORP Y OTROS

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS

Demandados Caso Civil Núm. BY2020CV01936. (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) Sobre: CANCELACION DE PAEL SECRETARIO(A ) que suscriGARE EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFIbe le notifica a usted que el 29 CACION DE SENTENCIA POR de octubre de 2020, este Tribunal EDICTO. ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia A: JOHN DOE Y Parcial o Resolución en este RICHARD ROE COMO caso, que ha sido debidamente POSIBLES HEREDEROS registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse DESCONOCIDOS (Nombre de las partes a las que se detalladamente de los términos le notifican la sentencia por edicto) de la misma. Esta notificación EL SECRETARIO(A ) que sus- se publicará una sola vez en un cribe le notifica a usted que el 3 periódico de circulación general de NOVIEMBRE de 2020, este en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, de los (10) días siguientes a su Sentencia Parcial o Resolución notificación. Y, siendo o repreen este caso, que ha sido debi- sentando usted una parte en el damente registrada y archivada procedimiento sujeta a los térmien autos donde podrá usted nos de la Sentencia, Sentencia enterarse detalladamente de los Parcial o Resolución, de la cual términos de la misma. Esta notifi- puede establecerse recurso de cación se publicará una sola vez revisión o apelación dentro del en un periódico de circulación término de (30) días contados a general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, partir de la publicación por edicto dentro de los (10) días siguientes de esta notificación, dirijo a usted a su notificación. Y, siendo o re- esta notificación que se consipresentando usted una parte en derará hecha en fa fecha de la el procedimiento sujeta a los tér- publicación de este edicto. Copia minos de la Sentencia, Sentencia de esta notificación ha sido archiParcial o Resolución, de la cual vada en los autos de este caso, puede establecerse recurso de con fecha de 12 de NOVIEMrevisión o apelación dentro del BRE de 2020. En MAYAGUEZ, término de (30) días contados a Puerto Rico, el 12 de NOVIEMpartir de la publicación por edicto BRE de 2020. LCDA. NORMA G de esta notificación, dirijo a usted SANTANA IRIZARRY, Secretaria esta notificación que se conside- Regional. F/BETSY SANTIAGO rará hecha en fa fecha de la pu- GONZALEZ, Sec Auxiliar. blicación de este edicto. Copia de LEGAL NOTICE esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto fecha de 12 de NOVIEMBRE de Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE 2020. En TOA ALTA. Puerto Rico, JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera el 12 de NOVIEMBRE de 2020· Instancia Sala Superior de SAN

A: ROBERTO A. TATIS MARICHAL

(Nombre de las partes a las que se les notifica la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 12 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 de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notIficación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha del 13 de Noviembre de 2020. En SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, 13 de Noviembre de 2020. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, Secretaria. YMALISA IRIZARRY CARDONA, Sec Auxiliar.

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

Reverse Mortgage Funding, LLC DEMANDANTE vs.

Sucesión de Argelia Mercedes Marrero Robles t/c/c Argelia Mercedes Marrero Robles t/c/c Argelia Marrero-Robles t/c/c Robles Argelia Marrero t/c/c Argelia M. Marrero, Robles t/c/c Argelia M. Robles t/c/c Marrero, Argelia t/c/c Margelia Mercedes Marrero Robles compuesta por Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos de nombres desconocidos, Centro de Recaudaciones Municipales; y a los Estados Unidos de América.

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: TJ2020CV00090.

SOBRE: Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR

EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos de nombres desconocidos de la Sucesión de Argelia Mercedes Marrero Robles t/c/c Argelia Mercedes Marrero Robles t/c/c Argelia Marrero-Robles t/c/c Robles Argelia Marrero t/c/c Argelia M. Marrero, Robles t/c/c Argelia M. Robles t/c/c Marrero, Argelia t/c/c Margelia Mercedes Marrero Robles

POR LA PRESENTE, se les emplaza y se les notifica que se ha presentado en la Secretaria de este Tribunal la Demanda del caso del epígrafe solicitando la ejecución de hipoteca y el cobro de dinero relacionado al pagaré suscrito a favor de Sun West Mortgage Company, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $261,000.00, con intereses computados sobre la misma desde su fecha hasta su total y completo pago a razón de la tasa de interés de 5.060% anual, la cual será ajustada mensualmente, obligándose además al pago de costas, gastos y desembolsos del litigio, más honorarios de abogados en una suma de $26,100.00, equivalente al 10% de la suma principal original. Este pagaré fue suscrito bajo el affidávit número 4, 732 ante el notario Rafael Maldonado Pérez. Lo anterior surge de la hipoteca constituida mediante la escritura número 154 otorgada el 25 de mayo de 2013, ante el mismo notario público, inscrita al folio 4 del tomo 693 de Trujillo Alto, finca número 14,430, inscripción 8va. La Hipoteca Revertida grava la propiedad que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar radicado en la Urbanización Fair View, Sección Sexta, localizada en el Barrio Las Cuevas de Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, que se describe en el Plano de Inscripción de la Urbanización con el número, área y colindancias que se relacionan a continuación: solar número treinta y uno de la Manzana cuatro-R, con un área de cuatrocientos noventa metros con cincuenta y cinco centímetros cuadrados. En lindes: por el NORTE, con solares número catorce y quince, distancia de diez y siete metros con cuatrocientos veintiseite milésimas de metro cuadrado; por el SUR, con la Calle número doscientos diez y seis, distancia de quince metros; por el ESTE, con el solar número treinta, distancia de treinta y dos metros quinientos veintiocho milésimas de metro cuadrado; por el OESTE, con el solar número treinta y dos, distancia de veintiocho metros novecientos ocho (así surge) milésimas de metro cuadrado. El inmueble antes descrito contiene una casa de concreto diseñada para una familia.

Finca número 14,430, inscrita al

folio 237 del tomo 283 de Trujillo Alto. Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico. Sección IV de San Juan. Se apercibe y advierte a ustedes corno personas desconocidas, que deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.jarnajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. De no contestar la demanda radicando el original de la contestación ante la secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina, y notificar copia de la contestación de esta a la parte demandante por conducto de su abogada, GLS LEGAL SERVICES, LLC, Atención: Lcda. Genevieve López Stipes, Dirección: P.O. Box 367308, San Juan, P.R. 00936-7308, Teléfono: 787-7586550, dentro de los próximos 60 días a partir de la publicación de este emplazamiento por edicto, que será publicado una sola vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general en la isla de Puerto Rico, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia, concediendo el remedio solicitando en la Demanda sin más citarle ni oírle.

Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal hoy 12 de noviembre de 2020. Lcda. Marilyn Aponte Rodriguez, Sec Regional. Solmarie Montero Castro, Sec Auxiliar.

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

Reverse Mortgage Funding, LLC DEMANDANTE vs.

Sucesión de Argelia Mercedes Marrero Robles t/c/c Argelia Mercedes Marrero Robles t/c/c Argelia Marrero-Robles t/c/c Robles Argelia Marrero t/c/c Argelia M. Marrero, Robles t/c/c Argelia M. Robles t/c/c Marrero, Argelia t/c/c Margelia Mercedes Marrero Robles compuesta por Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos de nombres desconocidos, Centro de Recaudaciones Municipales; y a los Estados Unidos de América.

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: TJ2020CV00090.

SOBRE: Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria. MANDAMIENTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. Por Cuanto: Se ha dictado en el presente caso la siguiente Orden: ORDEN. Examinada la demanda radicada por la parte

demandante, la solicitud de interpelación contenida en la misma y examinados los autos del caso, el Tribunal le imparte su aprobación y en su virtud acepta la Demanda en el caso de epígrafe, así como la interpelación judicial de la parte demandante a los herederos del codemandado conforme dispone el Artículo 959 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec.

2787. Se Ordena a los herederos del causante a saber, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal, herederos de nombres desconocidos a que dentro del término legal de 30 días contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudien la participación que les corresponda en la herencia del causante Argelia Mercedes Marrero Robles t/c/c Argelia Mercedes Marrero Robles t/c/c Argelia Marrero-Robles t/c/c Robles Argelia Marrero t/c/c Argelia M. Marrero, Robles t/c/c Argelia M. Robles t/c/c Marrero, Argelia t/c/c Margelia Mercedes Marrero Robles. Se le Apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados: ( a) Que de no expresarse dentro del término de 30 días en tomo a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia la misma se tendrá por aceptada; (b) Que luego del transcurso del termino de 30 días contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia del causante y por consiguiente, responden por la cargas de dicha herencia conforme dispone el Artículo 957 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec.

2785. Se Ordena a la parte demandante a que, en vista de que la sucesión del causante Argelia Mercedes Marrero Robles t/c/c Argelia Mercedes Marrero Robles t/c/c Argelia Marrero- Robles t/c/c Robles Argelia Marrero t/c/c Argelia M. Marrero, Robles t/c/c Argelia M. Robles t/c/c Marrero, Argelia t/c/c Margelia Mercedes Marrero Robles incluyen como herederos a Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal, como posibles herederos desconocidos, proceda a notificar la presente Orden mediante un edicto a esos efectos una sola vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de la Isla de Puerto Rico. DADA en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy día 12 de noviembre de 2020. F/ Thainie Reyes Ramirez, Juez.

Por Cuanto: Se le advierte a que dentro del término legal de 30 días contados a partir de la fecha de notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudien la participación que les corresponda en la herencia del causante Argelia Mercedes Marrero Robles t/c/c Argelia Mercedes Marrero Robles t/c/c Argelia Marrero-Robles t/c/c Robles Argelia Marrero t/c/c Argelia M. Marrero, Robles t/c/c Argelia M. Robles t/c/c Marrero, Argelia t/c/c Margelia Mercedes Marrero Robles. Por Orden del Honorable Juez de Primera Instancia de este Tribunal, expido el presente, Mandamiento, bajo mi firma y sello oficial, en Carolina, Puerto Rico hoy día 12 de noviembre de 2020. Lcda. Marilyn Aponte Rodriguez, Sec Regional.

Solmarie Montero Castro, Sec Auxiliar.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

27

Theo Epstein leaves the Cubs, but plans to stick around baseball

By DAVID WALDSTEIN

T

heo Epstein, the baseball executive and architect of two of the most remarkable championships in sports history, announced earlier this week that he would step down from his post as president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs, saying the time was right to hand the reins to Jed Hoyer, the Cubs’ general manager, and move on to another venture.

For an instant, Epstein became the most highly prized baseball executive available, but soon said in a news conference Tuesday that he did not envision working for a team in 2021. He outlined plans to serve the game in a general capacity and said that he plans to lead another club someday, perhaps even as part of an ownership group. He also noted that he wanted to spend more time with his wife and two sons.

But Epstein did not unequivocally rule out joining another team for the 2021 season, saying he would answer his phone if any team were to call.

“I’m open-minded about my future,” he said, “but those are my plans. I don’t expect to jump in with another team right now, and I’m really looking forward to the freedom to explore lots of different things.”

The New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies are both looking for someone to lead their baseball operations, and either would be a logical candidate to pursue Epstein, especially the Mets, who have not won a World Series since 1986.

After all, Epstein has a well-earned reputation for ending lengthy championship droughts.

Even if he never works in the sport again, Epstein has already carved out a Hall of Fame career with the Cubs and the Boston Red Sox, helping both franchises win championships after each had gone multiple decades without a World Series title.

Beginning with the 2012 season, he engineered the comprehensive roster rebuild that led the Cubs to the 2016 World Series title, thus closing the book on 108 years of frustration and futility on the Northside of Chicago.

Before that, he had been the youngest general manager in baseball when he took over the Red Sox, the team he followed as

Theo Epstein enjoyed building champions in Boston and Chicago but said he found “maintaining” teams difficult. a child, in 2002 at age 28. Two years later, Boston won the World Series to end its 86-year stretch without a championship.

Epstein was also in charge when the Red Sox won the 2007 World Series, but left for Chicago after the 2011 season.

Epstein, 46, said he planned to buy season tickets to the Cubs and also discussed areas where he could help build the game as a whole, perhaps in a role with the commissioner’s office. An early devotee of data analysis, he took some responsibility for problems with the game because of the expanded reliance on advanced statistics, which he believes has made the game less entertaining.

Epstein had one year remaining on a five-year, $40 million contract extension he signed with the Cubs in 2016. But he has long held to a belief, which he credits to former San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh, that 10 years are the optimal peri-

od of time to remain in one venture. Epstein said his real skill was building teams into champions. “Maintaining” them, he said, is not as much of a strength for him.

“In the first six years or so, we did some pretty epic things,” he said. “And the last couple years weren’t as impressive.”

Tom Ricketts, the chairman of the Cubs, has stated that baseball is facing significant financial stress because of the coronavirus pandemic, and Epstein, presumably referring to the cost of his contract, said the projected rebuild of the team would be “easier” without him there. He said his departure would allow Hoyer, who spent two years as general manager of the San Diego Padres, to make long-term decisions about the Cubs’ current roster.

When Epstein took over the Cubs after the 2011 season, the team went through a painful rebuild in which it finished fifth in its division three years in a row, and he felt the

burden of trying to end the longest championship drought in the sport. But through a combination of astute draft picks, trades and signings, he built a team that won a seven-game World Series against the Cleveland Indians, who have not won the Series since 1948.

During those early years in Chicago, Epstein said, he often dreamed that the Cubs had won the title, only to wake up and realize they were still in fifth place. Then, after they beat the Indians, he returned home from a night of celebration in Cleveland only to wake up later with that same feeling. For an instant, Epstein wondered if it had all been that same tantalizing dream.

“And then I realized it was real life and had this incredible rush of just joy and pride in collective accomplishment and freedom,” he said, “realizing that I had done what I set out to do and could be free from that burden going forward.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Russia tries new weapon in fight against doping ban: Emotion

By TARIQ PANJA

R

ussia’s attempt to overturn its four-year ban from international sports this month turned to a familiar courtroom weapon: emotion.

At a private hearing held over four days in the first week of November, Russian sports officials set aside their denials and their phalanx of lawyers pushed back from their papers, allowing six Russian athletes to take a starring role. The athletes spoke not of what Russia had done in pursuit of victory but about what they stood to lose, and they all had the same message: Please do not punish us for something we had no part in.

The emotional pleas to the panel of three arbitrators at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, appeared to be an effort to humanize the consequences of a worldwide ban on Russian sports that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) imposed last year.

But the stakes of the case — for Russia, for antidoping regulators and for global sports — could not be higher.

If Russia cannot get its ban lifted, it faces several more years in the sporting wilderness, with its athletes, its flag and even its name barred from high-profile events like the Olympics and the World Cup. But it is the other outcome that worries antidoping officials. If Russia succeeds in overturning its ban — the first blanket punishment issued to an entire country under new regulations drawn up by WADA, the global antidoping regulator — a yearslong effort to have Russia pay a price for one of the most sophisticated and brazen cheating schemes in sports history will be seen to have failed.

“It’s a test of the system,” said Michael Ask, chief executive of Denmark’s national antidoping agency.

“This is after a long time, years we’ve had this, and now it seems like we’ve come to the end and the final chapter is being written now,” he added. “Of course, in all good novels the end is often the most interesting part.”

The result of the hearing is expected by the end of the year.

Those present at the hearing Nov. 2-5 described an overwhelming show of force by Russia, with a horde of sports lawyers deputized to act for Russia’s Olympic committee or parties like the International Ice Hockey Federation, all of whom oppose the ban. As many as eight different legal teams spoke on Russia’s behalf, according to a person present

Russia’s flag was banned from competitions at the Pyeongchang Olympics, but it still flew in the stands. at the four-day hearing.

Much of the focus was not on whether Russia had manipulated testing data — WADA produced evidence last year that it did — but whether the punishment fit the crime, and whether the antidoping agency had overreached by issuing an all-encompassing ban that will affect athletes, sports officials, politicians and other Russian government agents.

That the antidoping agency could issue such a punishment at all was the result of a change to its rules as global sports organizations sought to punish Russia for its doping activities. Those activities are believed to have corrupted dozens of major international competitions, including, most notably, the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

Before the rules change, individual sporting organizations were left to determine their own punishments. Even after the scope of Russia’s state-sponsored doping program was laid bare before the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, few did. In Brazil, only track and field and cycling issued blanket bans to Russian athletes after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to impose its own broader sanctions.

More than a year after the Rio Games, Russia was finally barred from the Olympics by the IOC. But to many in the athlete and antidoping community, the punishment — which barred Russia’s flag and anthem but allowed its athletes to take part — did not go far enough. Russia arrived at the Pyeongchang Games with a large team, its biggest since Sochi.

WADA’s ban, announced in December, is the toughest yet. All Russian athletes, except for those in a vetted group who can

prove they had no connection to the country’s doping program, will be barred from all top-level international sporting events for four years. Those cleared to perform will only be able to do so as neutrals, and in uniforms that will denote them as such.

At the hearing this month, according to two people present at the hearings, Russia’s lawyers argued that WADA had gone beyond reasonable limits with its punishments, and even beyond what it legally could do within the scope of its statutes.

WADA’s legal team countered by describing its efforts as something akin to a bureaucratic housekeeping, an attempt to bring in-house — and standardize — the sanctioning powers that had been left to individual sports federations.

But they also pointed out the dire consequences of failing to punish Russia for its actions. The country had not only undertaken a doping program that used state resources, including the successor agency to the KGB, to accomplish its goals, the lawyers said, but it then used the same forces in a cover-up of its actions.

If WADA is not allowed to police those who break its rules, the lawyers argued, then it will be rendered powerless to stop industrial-scale doping in world sports.

WADA declined to comment on the hearing, or its legal strategy.

The sheer number of interests represented at the hearing gave a hint at the stakes. A lawyer for the IOC, for example, sought clarification on the ban on Russian government officials solely as a practical matter. According to a lawyer representing one of the groups backing Russia’s cause, the question was

hypothetical but important: Might the IOC face punishment if Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, attended a major competition like the Olympics as a guest of the host country’s head of state? Would other governing bodies potentially face the same risk at other events?

Most of the interested parties, though, seemed to be participating as part of a show of force backing Russia’s case. In addition to the six athletes who made personal pleas to the court, lawyers representing 50 other Russian athletes argued on their behalf, saying it would be wrong to punish them for the crimes of others.

Those emotional appeals for clemency were followed by another from a longtime ally of Russian sports, ice hockey’s global governing body. Throughout its years defending itself from the cheating charges, Russia has always found a reliable backer in René Fasel, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) president. Fasel has long argued against banning Russia’s colors and symbols from sporting events.

In the hearing, Russia’s lawyers argued some sports, like hockey, would be disproportionately affected because their championships are held more regularly than others like soccer’s quadrennial World Cup, meaning Russia’s team could miss four editions of hockey’s top event instead of just one. The punishment also bars Russia from hosting events, putting in doubt plans for hockey’s 2023 world championship, which is scheduled to be hosted by Russia in St. Petersburg.

“We need to find people who made mistakes and punish them, but collective punishment cannot be applied,” Fasel told Russia’s TASS news agency a day after the hearing. “Now we have the same task: We must support the Russian Ice Hockey Federation and the IIHF and fight against collective punishment.”

But such actions, WADA’s lawyers argued, were necessary to punish Russia for the sheer scale of its wrongdoing.

“It’s a test of whether the system is strong enough and whether it’s built to handle big schemes, doping cases like this one,” said Ask, the Danish doping official.

“The system was constructed for athletes to obey rules, but this is a more complex, more organized scheme,” he added. “It’s now an open question whether the system is strong enough to hold a state to account.

That’s the big question, and that’s what we are all waiting to see.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 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

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, November 19, 2020

(Mar 21-April 20)

Consider putting your emotions to one side, if it helps you to accomplish something that needs a formal approach. If you’re ready to push ahead with an idea or opportunity, then do the groundwork and don’t be tempted to take a shortcut. A mercurial tie can be misleading, and find you irritated with a slow and steady pace. However, if you want success, this is the way to go.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

Grounding activities can be of benefit today, as lunar ties suggest that without them you could veer off course and get too caught up in various emotions.

Anything that keeps you moving and focused, such as housework, gardening, exercise or a nature walk, may do the trick and assist you in keeping a down-toearth viewpoint, despite any crises that might disrupt your plans.

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

Scorpio

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

With lovely Venus forging an angle with prudent Saturn, you’ll need to decide whether to push yourself for the sake of progress, or to lead a more balanced lifestyle by reducing the amount you have on.

While you may have big plans Taurus, this developing aspect can find you questioning your motives.

Could there be a way to work smarter rather than harder that is more suitable?

While this is certainly the time to apply yourself, you might also relish a break and a chance to do other things. If your life is missing a sense of excitement, then you may go looking for it in unusual places.

Browsing the Internet could introduce you to ideas that are new and appealing, and it is these that you can turn to today to give you a fresh perspective on life, Gemini.

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

You may have an emotional reaction to any dramas taking place, concerning friends or a group. There is no need to get so involved, unless you feel you have to. Even so, others might be looking to you to act as a mediator in a tricky situation. Yet in this instance, with the Moon in down-to-earth Capricorn, your tendency could be to say it like it is Cancer, rather than sweeten the truth.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

If you stick to your routine and continue to work through your list of priorities, you won’t go far wrong.

Although there could be unexpected issues to deal with that may derail your plans, you don’t need to go to extremes to handle them. Whatever occurs, a practical solution is best, even if this means delegating some of your work Leo, or putting this matter aside for another time.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

Today, you have a chance to show off your flexibility and adaptability in the face of unexpected happenings. If someone lets you down, or new information shows up that changes everything, keep your cool, Virgo. There is always a way around any complications, and with some creativity and lateral thinking, you can turn an edgy issue into a positive advantage and feel good about it.

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Measured thinking can accomplish much, and assist in keeping a conversation or negotiations on a helpful trajectory. While divergent views could unravel a proposition or other discussions, the Moon in Capricorn might assist in reigning in those tendencies, leading to a better outcome. In the middle of a crucial project? Don’t doubt your abilities just as you are getting into your stride.

Desperately trying to salvage a plan? Rather than scrambling to make it happen, why not let go and go with the flow. It may save you so much stress, and you might find that where you end up is not that bad after all. In fact, it could work to your advantage. Feel guilty about not giving more time to a team project or other cause? Don’t Archer, just do what you can, when you can.

Keep a level head, as you might need it if things don’t go to plan, Capricorn. Anyway, it may be down to others if an event or project comes to nothing. Still, there could be something you can salvage, and with a little savvy it could work out as you hope, even with a few radical changes. On another note, keep a clear head when it comes to handling any business arrangements.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

No matter what happens, the Moon in your spiritual zone encourages you to focus on inner peace, rather than getting caught up in events that might prove unsettling. While you may be tempted to act on impulse, will it accomplish anything? With a little reflection, you could gain insights that give you a whole new take on a key situation, and this can change everything.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

Is someone eager for you to take them at their word?

Insist on looking at the details Pisces, otherwise you may be caught out. If you aren’t sure, then get a reliable friend to give their opinion. If they sense something is amiss, you’ll know it’s not for you.

Today’s pleasant Moon/Neptune tie, could be perfect for a special date that oozes with romance and much more.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Thursday, November 19, 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

Thursday, November 19, 2020

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