Wednesday Nov 4, 2020

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

San Juan The

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Star

González Colón Leads Race for Resident Commissioner Post, Again

Closed Gap

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In Another Chaotic Election, State Elections Commission Stumbles After Web Page Collapses and Numbers Go Up, Down

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San Juan Mayoral Race Full of Surprises: Romero Leads, But Watch Out for Natal!

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NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 19

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New Faces in the House and Senate

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Wednesday, November 4, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

GOOD MORNING

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November 4, 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.

NPP’s Pierluisi takes early lead in voting for governor

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ew Progressive Party (NPP) Pedro Pierluisi held an early lead in the gubernatorial race in Tuesday’s general elections, with Popular Democratic Democratic (PDP) Party candidate Carlos Delgado Altieri in second place. The gap was closing at press time.

Pierluisi’s campaign director, Caridad Pierluisi, said she feels satisfied with the preliminary results, and added that “as votes get counted completely, I am sure that Pierluisi will still have the lead.”

“The results that we were releasing are validated by the State Elections Commission,” she said. “The website might be having some technical issues, but that doesn’t mean that the process has stopped; therefore, what’s important is that we’re providing information and, as long as we get more information, we will broadcast it.”

Meanwhile, Pierluisi requested that the PDP electoral officers finish scrutinizing the early votes, absentee votes and inmate votes, which, regarding the latter, she said that “we have 75 percent of those votes ensured.”

When a press member asked if such numbers would have any legitimacy given that the SEC’s polling website had crashed, Pierluisi’s campaign director Caridad Pierluisi said “what matters is that the numbers that have been released were provided by the SEC.” Meanwhile, as for the initial numbers influencing voters who were still waiting in line at the polling centers, Pierluisi’s sister said “people already know who they will vote for.”

“In addition, at 5 p.m, voting centers have closed,” she said. “I think the commission knows what they are doing. I think we should wait for them to do the process and give us information.”

Earlier in the day, the NPP gubernatorial candidate arrived at Rafael María de Labra School in Santurce to vote and said “there’s a vibrant democracy” as citizens lined up at polling centers islandwide to “choose the leaders of their government, and express the future for the country.”

“My capability has been proven. I did my work

as secretary of Justice, I also did it as resident commissioner. I am ready,” Pierluisi said. “I was ready four years ago, and I didn’t prevail in a primary election, but that was a primary event. Now it’s all of the country, and I know that there are many, more than my party, who will support me.”

As for getting prepared mentally to lead with a legislative minority, he said that “what’s ideal is to work as a team, and that one party prevails,” he said.

“My team from the NPP is a better team than the one from the PDP.” As for the statehood “Yes or No” plebiscite, he said the ballot counting might take longer as the space to answer the referendum was too small, leading to complications, including the reading of ballots by the counting machines.

“That won’t happen,” Pierluisi responded when a reporter asked what he would do if the U.S. Congress rejects the plebiscite. “When we get the mandate for statehood and equality, there won’t be any going back. I can’t tell you when we will accomplish it, but we will.”

At press time, with 1,684 of 5,567 polling centers reporting, Pierluisi had 106,338 entered votes (38.09 percent), while Delgado Altieri held second place with 99,251 entered votes (35.55 percent). Early voting results were yet to be released.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González to win 2nd term

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

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ew Progressive Party (NPP) Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González takes the lead with a wide margin on the resident commissioner race for the 2020 General Elections, making González become the first female resident commissioner to have a second term on the seat, leaving behind Popular Democratic Party Resident Commissioner Candidate, former governor Anibal Acevedo Vilá at his second attempt.

González’s campaign director Francisco Domenech requested at 8:38 pm for the PDP Resident Commissioner Candidate to accept his defeat over González as she has a wider advantage against him.

Furthermore, Domenech said that González has had a double-digit advantage over her PDP opponent, which he added that “in any league, in any political race, in Puerto Rico, in the United States, in Timbuktu, that’s a big win.”

“What I see is a validation of the serious

surveys that were done during this process, validation from the numbers that we have been reading, where the commissioner, with the number of entered votes that she has received, which are the ones cast at the polling centers, she maintains an advantage over Acevedo Vilá over 10 points, that’s an

extremely comfortable advantage,” he said.

Meanwhile, Caridad Pierluisi said that, along with NPP Gubernatorial Candidate Pedro Pierluisi, which has taken the lead in the gubernatorial race, “they will become the team to bring all federal funds to work for Puerto Rico.”

Meanwhile, preceding Acevedo Vilá, Citizen Victory Movement Resident Commissioner Candidate Zayira Jordán Conde placed third on her first attempt at the U.S Congress seat. Meanwhile, amid leaving a good impression during the only Resident Commissioner debate, Dignity Project Resident Commissioner Candidate Ada Norah Henriquez placed fourth in the electoral race; however, Puerto Rican Independence Party Resident Commissioner Candidate Luis Roberto Piñero fell to the bottom.

As for the Statehood Plebiscite, citizens have answered Yes for statehood.

At press time, with 224,500 votes cast, 121,822 answered Yes to an immediate annexation with the United States, which consists of 54%. Meanwhile, around 102,678 have said no to statehood.

This is not the first attempt during the four-year term to achieve statehood for the island, as the government held a statehood referendum on June 11, 2017, where 97% of voters overwhelmingly supported statehood amid having only 22% of the electoral participation.

Delgado Altieri behind in gubernatorial race, but not by much

By THE STAR STAFF

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hile initial results showed Popular Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Charlie Delgado Altieri lagging behind New Progressive Party candidate Pedro Pierluisi by 11 percent of the vote, the gap had begun to shrink and at press time Delgado Altieri was behind by less than 1.5 percent.

However, former Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vilá was expected to lose the resident commissioner race at press time to current Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón, who is now expected to run for governor in the next election. At 8 p.m., some 220,000 advanced ballots, or early ballots, had yet to be counted and there were over a million votes that had yet to be counted.

The PDP won in the city of Ponce and at 8:57 p.m. NPP Mayor María “Mayita” Meléndez conceded the defeat early in the night and congratulated Luis Irizarry Pabón.

“I am proud of the work that we did in Ponce for 12 years but the people made a decision in a democracy and I accept it,” she said. The PDP was also slated to win mayorships in the towns of Aguada and Añasco.

However, the PDP lost the city of San Juan to Miguel Romero of the NPP by a wide margin as

well as the mayoral race in Guayanilla, where Mayor Nelson Torres Yordán conceded defeat. The PDP was also slated to lose San Germán, which is headed

by Isidro Negrón, and the municipality of Corozal, whose mayor is Sergio Torres. Lajas Mayor Marcos Turin also conceded defeat to his NPP opponent.

Delgado Altieri campaign manager Cirilo Tirado urged supporters to stay on at the polling stations as he said Delgado Altieri would be moving ahead.

“We have received calls that there are still people in the polling stations, that there are lines outside the voting centers, and we want to tell the people and the country that the schools will be receiving each and every one of the voters,” he said.

Former electoral commissioner Héctor Luis Acevedo said it was too early to determine who won the gubernatorial race and that it was a mistake to say that there was a tendency or trend.

At 9:21 p.m., Tirado said the difference in the gap was 1.37%. “There are still one million votes to be counted,” he said.

The election was atypical from the beginning.

The State Elections Commission system, designed

by Microsoft, collapsed.

The STAR visited several voting polling stations in Carolina and at the closing of the polls, some voting places have already completed their work but in others, there were long lines. However, officials said

that once in the voting poll, everyone was allowed to vote.

Francisco Gonzalez, a resident from Villa Carolina, said he arrived to vote in the morning but the lines were so long that he went back to his house and then opted to vote later in the day to avoid the crowds.

“When I saw the long line, I said to myself I will be back later,” he said.

Ana Cruz, a voter who voted at the Francisco Matias Lugo School, said she wanted to vote because she wanted to get corrupt politicians out. “I don’t care if I have to make a long line.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

5

Dalmau, in 3rd-4th place, sounds, looks like a winner

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

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he votes had barely begun to be counted, but Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) gubernatorial candidate Juan Dalmau sounded like a winner on Tuesday even though at press time he polled in third place, up from fourth and further back earlier in the night.

“This isn’t a process that has been started that we intend to finish. This is a new process,” Dalmau said at PIP headquarters in Puerto Nuevo a little after the polls closed at 5 p.m.

PIP elder statesman Rubén Berríos met Dalmau at the headquarters with a huge hug.

Berríos said Dalmau was the man of the hour.

“I was the leader in ‘52,” Berríos said. “He is the leader of ‘20.”

The atmosphere outside of PIP party headquarters was electric with a sound truck blasting music and PIP devotees handing out green and white flags to horn-honking passersby.

Earlier in the day, a huge line wrapped around the

Escuela Cedín in Guaynabo where Dalmau voted a little after 10 in the morning.

Anticipating a Legislature without a clear majority, Dalmau said “[w]e are looking forward to an atmosphere of cooperation and dialogue that is going to require maturity and patience.”

By his side was PIP Senate candidate María de Lourdes Santiago. Excited for the support of new voters, de Lourdes Santiago said she didn’t expect the number of new PIP followers. The support grew since their campaign launch.

“Today we don’t only celebrate the results of elections, we also celebrate the rebirth of hope for Puerto Ricans,” de Lourdes said.

In Puerto Nuevo at Eugenia María de Hostos School, a smaller line of voters formed.

“The important thing now is to have a cleanup,” said Noel Hernández, 71, who said he voted for Popular Democratic Party candidate Carlos “Charlie” Delgado Altieri for governor.

Edgar López, 47, said he was voting for change.

“We have to have a better future,” he said.

Lizbeth Barett, 19, voted in her first election.

“I’m voting for a change in Puerto Rico,” she said.

The fix is in, claims Victoria Ciudadana

Candidates Lúgaro and Rivera Lassén sound the alarm regarding over 400 voter claims of anomalies and mismanagement during the voting process

By José A. Sánchez Fournier @SanchezFournier Special to The Star

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he polls had not closed, but gubernatorial candidate Alexandra and senate hopeful Ana Irma Rivera Lassén were already on the warpath. At around 4:30 pm yesterday, the Victoria Ciudadana leaders held a press conference at the party headquarters and presented data of over 400 individual complaints regarding anomalies during the voting process. The pair made the information publicly available after, according to Lúgaro and Rivera Lassén the cases were dismissed by the representatives of the New Progressive Party and Popular Democratic Party in the State Electoral Commission.

“Our electoral commissioner Olvin Valentín just came out of an emergency meeting where he presented evidence of these irregularities to the other commissioners. The New Progressive Party and Popular Democratic Party commissioners claimed these were but a few isolated cases. But due to the fact that we have received over 400 individual voter complaints, we decided to compile them and make the information available

to the public,”said Lúgaro, who presented a graphic and data backing her claims. They provided journalist with a digital copy of a list of 401 cases of irregularities during the voting process. The cases were compiled by the party officials after being caught by surprise by the large number of calls and texts sent by citizens voluntarily reporting the incidents to Victoria Ciudadana.

According to Lúgaro, most cases had to do with claims of out of order ballot storage machines. She added that there were also statements alluding to voters receiving ballots already marked as voting for NPP gubernatorial candidate Pedro Pierluisi.

“San Juan is the municipality with the most citizen complaints, followed by Ponce, Bayamón, Aguadilla and

PIP elder statesman Rubén Berríos met Dalmau at the headquarters with a huge hug.

Mayagüez. And they were happening in voting colleges with no minority volunteer presence,” Lúgaro said.

At 9 p.m. last night, Victoria Ciudadana held a second press conference, claiming that the State Electoral Commission was grossly underreporting vote totals from San Juan, where Victoria Ciudadana’s candidate for mayor, Manuel Natal, was having a strong showing.

“The way the State Electoral Commission is underreporting the vote totals in San Juan is alarming. We must wait and be vigilant”, said Rivera Lassén.

Errors and mishaps galore on election day In one of the most haphazard elections in modern Puerto Rico history, not even gubernatorial candidate Lúgaro was immune to the procedural hiccups faced by many citizens who exercised their right to vote today. The Victoria Ciudadana figurehead arrived early yesterday at Abraham Lincoln public school in Old San Juan to vote and had to deal with lines of waiting voters and faulty voting equipment. Lúgaro was unable to insert her governorship/resident commissioner ballot in the automated ballot box. She was then told by one of the officials that she would have to manually insert the ballot in a box which would later be moved to another site, where they would be counted.

The machine was not having troubles with the other ballots.

Lúgaro also claimed to hearing reports about government employees being coerced into showing their ballots and not being allowed to vote in private. “No one can force you to make your vote public. That would be a crime,” Lúgaro said.

Later this afternoon, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the District Attorney’s office would be investigating local citizen complaints regarding irregularities during the voting process on the Island today.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

A late night of surprises in island municipalities Ponce flips to the PDP, San Juan switches to the NPP, and several other municipal races appear headed toward unexpected results

By JOSÉ A. Sà NCHEZ FOURNIER Twitter: @Sanchez Fournier Special to The Star

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espite the slow going of the vote counting process, some municipalities considered bastions of old-school politics were looking like sure bets to remain unchanged by Tuesday’s election. However, other mayors vying for re-election must have been sweating bullets early Tuesday night due to preliminary numbers that were less than favorable.

William Miranda Torres seemed to be one of the lucky few in the first group. A second-generation mayor, Miranda Torres has been able to maintain the immense popular support his late father, former mayor William Miranda MarĂ­n, had among the people of Caguas, a stronghold of the Popular Demo-

cratic Party (PDP). By 7 p.m. last night, you could hear celebratory fireworks in Caguas, where exit polls had “Willitoâ€? ahead in the mayoral race with New Progressive Party (NPP) candidate Roberto LĂłpez in second place, and Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) candidate Jason Domenech Miller in third. However, as the night wore on, LĂłpez closed the gap and by 8:30 p.m. the once clear lead for Miranda Torres had become a neck-and-neck race, with the incumbent slightly in front.

Ponce mayor MarĂ­a MelĂŠndez Altieri was clearly in the latter group, in what would be considered by many as a small upset if the early numbers held. MelĂŠndez Altieri, a three-term incumbent and member of the NPP, would lose to PDP candidate Luis Irizarry PabĂłn, who was to become the first PDP mayor of Ponce since one-term mayor Francisco Zayas Seijo held office from 2005 to 2009. “This town was a disaster when I got to city hall and I gave all of me to make it better.

I will never be ashamed of that,� a teary-eyed MelÊndez Altieri said late last night at a press conference where she conceded.

MelĂŠndez Altieri explained why she

waited for her granddaughter to arrive at the press conference before commencing her speech. “I wanted to show her that sometimes you do the right thing and you still lose,� the mayor said.

In San Juan at press time, the NPP’s Miguel Romero had a comfortable lead over PDP candidate Rossana López León and Citizens Victory Movement candidate Rep. Manuel Natal Albelo, who nevertheless had a strong showing and was close to López León in the vote tally.

The first incumbent to admit defeat yesterday was Guayanilla Mayor Nelson Torres YordĂĄn. The PDP politician conceded to the NPP’s RaĂşl Rivera RodrĂ­guez before the clock struck 7 p.m. “My congratulations to mayor-elect RaĂşl Rivera, and my best wishes for him to continue bringing this town to its feet,â€? wrote Torres YordĂĄn. “I already contacted RaĂşl to let him know my intention of meeting with him this week to discuss the projects already in place to aid in the reconstruction of Guayanilla,â€? the mayor added.

Meanwhile, early numbers had Arecibo as a toss-up between NPP incumbent and former Corrections Secretary Carlos Molina RodrĂ­guez and challenger Carlos “Titoâ€?

RamĂ­rez Irizarry.

Maunabo was the site of another upset, with NPP candidate Ă ngel Omar Lafuente Amaro defeating incumbent Jorge Luis MĂĄrquez PĂŠrez of the PDP. “Our victory is the result of teamwork, of a campaign based on believing in including one and all in our plans. Because we are all part of Maunabo,â€? said the apparent winner, who said his strategy was anchored in going door to door and speaking to constituents. “I walked all of Maunabo and spoke to everyone about our plans and projects,â€?

Lafuente Amaro added. “The people of Maunabo heard me and blessed me with their vote and their trust.�

In Lajas, incumbent Marcos A. Irizarry PagĂĄn of the PDP had apparently defeated Jayson “Jayâ€? MartĂ­nez of the NPP. Although official numbers from the State Elections Commission were just starting to trickle out at press time, unofficial exit polls had Irizarry PagĂĄn as the winner.

New and very familiar faces in the Legislature

By THE STAR STAFF

A

t press time, very preliminary results showed Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz leading the at-large Senate race and in the House at-large race, the top spot was being held by JosĂŠ “Pichyâ€? Torres Zamora of the

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New Progressive Party (NPP).

The results were expected to change. As of press time, the Minority Law was not expected to apply because the NPP did not have a supermajority.

That was with up to 26.75 percent of the voting precincts counted. Rivera Schatz, of the NPP, had 21,173 votes in his favor. However, he was closely followed by MarĂ­a de Lourdes Santiago, a candidate for the Puerto Rican Independence Party, with 18,100 votes.

Popular Democratic Party (PDP) Sen. JosĂŠ Luis Dalmau held fourth place followed by William VillafaĂąe of the NPP and AnĂ­bal JosĂŠ Torres of the PDP. Independent Sen. JosĂŠ Vargas Vidot had 9,133 votes in eighth place, and Ana Irma LassĂŠn and Rafael Bernabe, candidates for the Citizen Victory Movement, held ninth and 10th place, respectively.

Former San Juan Mayor HĂŠctor Luis Acevedo, who is an electoral expert, said it was still too early to tell.

The NPP had 16 Senate seats, followed by nine seats for the Popular Democratic Party while the PIP had one seat out of a total of 27 seats.

The NPP had, preliminarily, 27 seats in the House.

In the House, following Torres Zamora were HĂŠctor Ferrer Jr., the son of the late HĂŠctor Ferrer; NPP Rep. JosĂŠ Enrique MelĂŠndez; PIP Rep. Dennis MĂĄrquez; Enid Monge,

a former United Retailers Association head who is running for the PDP; NPP Rep. JosĂŠ Aponte; NĂŠstor Alonso, a new candidate running under the NPP; and PDP Rep. JesĂşs Manuel Ortiz. The results were expected to change.

At press time, the NPP was also ahead in the district House and Senate seats.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

7

A ‘country grappling’ with just about everything seeks answers

BY MATT FLEGENHEIMER

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rom the start of his 2020 campaign, Joe Biden insisted that President Donald Trump was an aberration, his normbreaking, race-baiting tenure anathema to the national character.

“It’s not who we are,” Biden often said, “not what America is.”

And at the end of the 2020 campaign, an anxious, quarrelsome country is turning a question back at him: Are you sure?

For millions of Trump supporters, the past four years have been a time when things changed for the better, when they felt they had a president who knew exactly who they were. They cheered pre-virus jobs success, shifts in the tax code, trade fights with China and the emerging rightward tilt of the Supreme Court. But they often responded more viscerally to the fury than the finer points: Trump’s eager brawls against elites and institutions, against threats to conservatives’ preferred social order, against shared enemies.

For many Democrats, the story of this White House is far uglier: division for its own sake and for Trump’s personal aggrandizement, coaxing an American backslide that harnessed the levers of government to settle scores and buoy white supremacists, international strongmen and anyone else who spoke well of the man in charge.

On Tuesday, this abiding conflict — over which vision of America will endure, over whether this president is more protector or destroyer — was put to the voters at last.

But even before that verdict was to be rendered, before a single state projection came down, this election season had already supplied some answers to the question of who we are — evidence of all that Trump has changed, and all that he hasn’t, and all the work that will await Biden if his bet is rewarded.

America is now a nation where businesses in many cities boarded up their windows in anticipation of election violence. It is a nation where partisans daydream about seeing their political opponents in jail and where the sitting president has pressed his own Justice Department to follow through.

It is a nation where Black Lives Matter protesters have pressed their cause in the streets and where caravans of Trump backers have filled highways and waterways with a procession of MAGA flags.

It is a nation where faith in institutions, already dismal, was not helped by a year in

which federal authorities could not safeguard their own people against a deadly disease.

And it is a nation, if voter turnout levels are instructive, that was moved as never before in modern memory to stand and be counted, in defiance of contagion and ostensible suppression. Americans braved polling places in masks and gloves, hand-delivered mail ballots just in case, waited in lines that zagged and folded over themselves across whole neighborhoods — a kind of small intestines of democracy.

“I honestly can’t say I know any institution that is working,” said Aalayah Eastmond, 19, a survivor of the Parkland, Florida, massacre and a first-time voter who has spent much of the year in Washington protesting racism and police violence. “But one thing I do know that is working is the power of the people.”

How much of the recent past can be undone, and how much the electorate wants it undone, is a question no campaign can resolve in full. There is danger in any sweeping assertion about the ideals of a country that narrowly chose to follow its first Black president with the man who pushed a racist conspiracy about that president’s birthplace.

But in some ways, given the distinctiveness of the choices, the decision in this election will be especially revealing about how America sees itself and what it expects of its leaders.

In interviews this fall, voters supporting each candidate described fears that the nation would soon appear unrecognizable to them, if it was not already. This campaign, they suggested, had doubled as a national X-ray, with both sides distressed about what might turn up on the scan.

“You learn a lot about yourself and other people and the country,” said Luke Hoffman, 36, standing outside the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia in a “Vote” mask before a recent televised forum with Biden.

“The sheer polarization is terrifying.”

Katherine Smarch, 51, who traveled to Lansing, Michigan, to see Eric Trump speak at a gravel pit last month, said that any proTrump sentiment she might express on social media was doomed to be met with taunting and hostility.

“It just feels so foreign,” she said. “This is the kind of thing that happens in a foreign country.”

Yet there is maybe some comfort, at least, in the idea that the electorate appears to be operating with mostly full information about its options.

Jan Guess waits for the polls to open in Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 3, 2020.

While the stakes of a Trump presidency could still seem theoretical four years ago — “What do you have to lose?” he asked his audiences — the magnitude and responsibility of the office are by now impossible to misconstrue.

There had once been a thought that the gravity of the job might transform Trump, that America’s guardrails would check him, that the “adults in the room” (as they often liked to call themselves) would head off his most reckless impulses.

Little of it took. He is who he has been.

The institutions often bent to him, aided by Republicans in Congress. Advisers and aides came and went, and often never much disagreed with him anyway.

And in the run-up to Tuesday, Trump left little doubt that a second term would look very much like the first: chaotic, retaliatory, uninterested in unity.

Even in the shared suffering endemic to this year of virus and relative isolation, Trump presided over partisan clashes concerning once apolitical subjects like adherence to public health guidelines, fostering divisions that trickled down to the national rank and file.

If the whole ofTrump’s tenure has often felt like a rolling challenge to precedent, the coming days may stand as a kind of super exam, particularly if the president makes premature claims about the outcome.

Of course, how Trump chooses to conduct himself has never been up to the American people. The tautological lesson he learned from his own rise always seemed to be this: If no one had the power to tell him no — or even bothered trying — it was a yes.

Trump also understands well that many millions of people are with him, win or lose, holding him up as the figure girding the nation against would-be decline and leftward creep.

“We didn’t vote for him to be our pastor or our husband,” said Penny Nance, chief executive of Concerned Women for America, a conservative Christian group. “We voted for him to be our bodyguard.”

Biden has presented himself as the kind of “transition candidate” capable of guiding the nation through that grappling, a bridge to whatever should come after. He outlasted a large and historically diverse primary field as the Democrat most singularly focused on removing the president and worrying about the rest later. He hammeredTrump on matters of competence and integrity and asked Sen. Kamala Harris to join his ticket, keeping a pledge to name a woman as his running mate and nodding to the overwhelming support Biden has enjoyed from Black voters since his election as Obama’s vice president.

It was not lost on his allies that Biden, a man of institutions, was offering himself up to a country that seemed to be losing its trust in them, one where crises of confidence have touched Congress, law enforcement and the courts.

The work of repair, he argued, was not as simple as removing Trump. That was merely a prerequisite. And while he has long professed affection for a bygone era of bipartisanship, Biden has also already run up against the realities of the moment, navigating progressive calls to expand the Supreme Court and watching Republican former Senate colleagues entertain misleading attacks on the Biden family.

If anything, the campaign’s final frames included often ubiquitous reminders of the rupture that will persist after the election — and perhaps only widen once the winner is clear.

Last week inTexas, vehicles withTrump flags and signs surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus and appeared to be trying to slow it down and force it to the side of the road.

Trump called the drivers supporting him “patriots” who did nothing wrong. The FBI said it was investigating. Biden sounded something like a disappointed parent, waiting for the collective tantrum to pass.

“We are so much better than this,” Biden said over the weekend. “It’s not who we are.”

For better or worse, he seemed to believe it.

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Wednesday, November 4, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Despite fears of violence, election day proceeds smoothly as millions line up to vote

By ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, JENNIFER STEINHAUER and NICOLE PERLROTH

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espite fears of widespread intimidation or disruptions at polling places, voting for a vast majority of Americans proceeded smoothly by midday on Tuesday with sporadic reports of robocalls, text messages, and some live calls meant to confuse and dissuade voters, or scattered incidents, but few major problems.

“It’s definitely a relief so far,” said Daryl Johnson, a former senior analyst with the Department of Homeland Security who focuses on domestic terrorism. But he warned “the period after the election is going to be more volatile and higher risk because you’re going to be dealing with the aftermath of the election results.”

By midday, most of the complaints around the country concerning intimidation centered on robocalls made to voters relaying false information. The Election Protection Hotline said it received reports of robocalls from 17 states discouraging voting.

The Michigan attorney general, Dana Nessel, said in a tweet that callers were directing voters to delay going to the polls to avoid long lines. “Obviously this is FALSE and an effort to suppress the vote. No long lines and today is the last day to vote,” Nessel said. “Don’t believe the lies! Have your voice heard!”

The robocall complaint comes on top of live calls to voters in Michigan that threatened voters in Flint and Grand Rapids with arrests if they showed up to the polls, and a text message sent to voters in Dearborn that warned of “ballot sensor” malfunctions in the voting precincts. The message, which is being investigated by the state attorney general’s office, told voters that if they wanted their vote for their preferred presidential candidate to count, then they actually had to mark the ballot for the other candidate.

The FBI also confirmed the robocalls.

“As a reminder, the FBI encourages the American public to verify any election and voting information they may receive through their local election officials,” the agency said in a statement.

In Michigan, voters also started receiving disturbing, typo-filled text messages that claimed to come from the FBI. The messages, which were sent to

death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. “Every single officer will be working,” he said.

During a news briefing focused on cyberthreats, Christopher Krebs, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, encouraged Americans to be patient through Election Day. “Keep calm, vote on, and then after today keep calm and let them count,” Krebs said.

Bob Bauer, a former White House counsel who is helping to lead the Biden campaign’s election protection efforts, said that the campaign was seeing “minimal issues and disruptions” around voting, and that “by and large, voting is proceeding Metropolitan Police Department officers at Black Lives Matter Plaza near the Whi- smoothly.”

Still, a few random acts of violence te House in Washington, Nov. 3, 2020. On Tuesday, there were reports of robocalls did pop up. In Chicago, a man told the poproviding misinformation meant to keep people from the polls, but none of the lice that a group had clubbed his car with widespread intimidation that had been feared. baseball bats as he drove near a polling site, according to Sally Brown, a spokeswoman A senior homeland security official for the Chicago Police Department. The voters in Dearborn — which has the largest concentration of Muslims per capita in said such robocalls are common during staff at a museum in Kansas City, Missouri, moved to cover up a spray-painted message the U.S. — read, “Urgent alert: Due to a elections.

Homeland Security intelligence reading “Don’t Vote.” typographical error, scantron ballots being Natalie Landreth, a senior staff lawyer used for the 2020 election has swapped sen- warned last month that extremists could sors. If you are intending on voting for Joe look to target “physical election infrastruc- at the Native American Rights Fund, had anticipated the potential for widespread Biden you must bubble in Trump and vice ture” like polling sites. verse. — Federal Berue of Investigation.”

Federal officials and local police on voter intimidation at polling sites on or A spokeswoman for the Michigan Tuesday continued to prepare for possible near reservations.

Weeks before Election Day, she was attorney general’s office said officials were unrest going into election night, with the still trying to track down the sender. They Homeland Security Department deploying already preparing for potential litigation to sent out an urgent alert on Facebook and tactical agents from Customs and Border block people from intimidating voters. But Twitter on Tuesday to make sure voters in Protection, and Immigration and Customs on Tuesday, she said the day “thus far seems Dearborn did not fall for the scam.

Enforcement throughout the United States relatively calm compared to what we were In addition to the robocalls, there to protect federal property. A new fence has told to expect.”

Maya Berry, executive director of the have also been live calls reported by voters been erected in front of Lafayette Square, Arab American Institute, had sent to her in Flint and Grand Rapids that threatened near the White House. family in Michigan a fact sheet from Georgevoters to stay home or be arrested. “None Law enforcement officials across of those are true,” the spokeswoman, Kelly the nation nonetheless remained on high town University Law Center for encounterRossman-McKinney, said. She said there alert on Tuesday after a weekend in which ing militias at the polls. But on Election Day, were reports of similar calls in Iowa. caravans blocked roadways and there was she said she had not received many calls about reports of voter intimidation.

In Virginia, Kristen Clarke, the presi- an increase in threats made online.

The agents deployed by the Homeland Retailers and banks from Boston to dent of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said robocalls went out Washington to Los Angeles searched for Security Department are directed to guard warning voters that they might get sick if beefed up security. Disney and Saks Fifth Av- federal buildings, not conduct immigration they went out to vote. “Stay home and stay enue were among the brand-name stores in enforcement. Such homeland security tactisafe,” the calls said. The robocalls were Manhattan that boarded up their windows. cal teams were also the subject of a report similar to those reported in Michigan, Texas, And Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills has been issued by the homeland security inspector California, Florida, Georgia, NewYork, New closed for Election Day and the day after. general on Tuesday that said the agency had Hampshire and Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

“Our police department will be on sent the teams to quell protests in Portland, The “stay home and stay safe” robo- a full deployment,” said Patrick Burke, a Oregon, without the proper authority or calls had started during the campaign and former U.S. marshal for Washington, D.C. training.

Chase Jennings, a spokesman for the were continuing during voting, Clarke said. and executive director of the city’s police agency, said Tuesday that the report was Voting rights groups said voters in several foundation. The city was convulsed by other states had gotten similar calls directing violent clashes between protesters and law evidence of “politicization” in the inspector them to vote on Wednesday, Clarke said. enforcement officers last June following the general’s office.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

9

Migrant families were confused when U.S. expelled children into Mexico

By CAITLIN DICKERSON

E

va Acuña spoke with her teenage sister Esther by phone early on the morning of Aug. 15, about an hour before Esther planned to enter the United States near the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez and ask for asylum — the end of a long journey from Esther’s home in El Salvador.

Acuña, a legal permanent resident in the United States, expected to hear next from U.S. immigration authorities about her sister’s status.

But instead, about eight hours later, she received a call from authorities in Mexico. Instead of taking her sister into custody, the U.S. Border Patrol had delivered the girl back to Mexico, where she was in a children’s shelter.

The transfer was contrary to both U.S. policy and an outstanding diplomatic agreement with Mexico, which do not allow children from other countries who are traveling without adult guardians to be expelled into Mexico.

But it is now becoming clear that a number of children have been improperly expelled after the Trump administration shut down the border to most asylum applicants because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Since The New York Times reported last week on an internal email that warned border authorities about the improper transfers, Acuña, who asked that her sister be identified by her first name to avoid immigration repercussions, is one of several Central Americans who have come forward saying they were anxious and confused after their children and young relatives were sent without any adult to accompany them into a country that is not their own.

In some cases, including Esther’s, there were no other family members in Mexico to aid the children.

Just weeks after Esther crossed into the United States, a Honduran woman named Paola walked with her 5-year-old son Nahum to the edge of the international bridge that leads into the United States. (She also asked that she and her son be identified by their first names for fear of retaliation from U.S. immigration authorities.)

The two had been living for months in a shelter in Matamoros, Mexico, waiting for the border to reopen so they could pursue U.S. asylum petitions. But Paola said she had reached her wit’s end about the conditions they had been living in, and the fact that her son had not been to school in more than a year. She decided to send Nahum to the United States,

A migrant camp near the U.S. border in Matamoros, Mexico, Aug. 5, 2020. U.S. authorities improperly expelled Central American children in violation of international agreements. hoping U.S. authorities would allow him to join his grandfather and uncles in Los Angeles.

She said she walked the boy to the bridge on Sept. 5 and watched U.S. immigration officials usher him into the U.S. port of entry.

Scared that something might go wrong, she said, she stood on the bridge waiting for news.

But after about five hours, she was dismayed to see a Mexican government van drive past her with Nahum inside.

Working with American lawyers, Paola contacted Mexico’s child welfare agency and learned that her son had been sent back into its custody. She pleaded to see him, but three days went by before she was allowed to pick him up.

Shipping young people back and forth between foreign governments is a sensitive matter, in part because of the bureaucratic red tape that can lead to delays in their release, even in cases like Paola’s, when the child’s parent is waiting in the same country.

It is unclear how many non-Mexican children have been expelled into Mexico, because both the U.S. and Mexican governments have declined to provide data on the number of cases. U.S. government officials have cited a legal challenge against some of the expulsions that have occurred under the pandemic to explain why they cannot elaborate further. In a tweet Friday, a spokesman for the Mexican secretary of foreign affairs said that “at the

moment” it had no record of minors entering Mexico without accompanying relatives.

“The Mexican government, along with civil society and multilateral organizations, will continue with due investigations,” the statement said.

A U.S. Border Patrol official raised alarms about the practice in the internal email that came to light last week. Brian Hastings, chief of the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector, confirmed the practice had been occurring, and said border agents had been directed to contact the Mexican consular office each time an unaccompanied child who was not Mexican was expelled.

Five people have told The Times that their children or young relatives were expelled into Mexico after entering the United States, in violation of the agreement between the two countries.

Lawyers from KIND, an immigrant advocacy organization, said that they knew of several Central American children who were expelled into Mexico and that some of them were still in custody there. And the Young Center, another such group, confirmed it had appealed to U.S. authorities in two additional cases — two Salvadoran girls, ages 11 and 15, who were expelled into Mexico and eventually allowed into the United States after legal interventions.

“We shouldn’t be encountering these kids at all,” said Jennifer Nagda, policy director for

the group. “We have no idea how many cases there are because we’re getting them through word of mouth.”

Some parents have had to wait days or weeks to find out that their children had been sent without their knowledge to Mexico.

Lenis Manzanarez Suazo, a Honduran who has also been waiting in Matamoros for the U.S. border to reopen, said she watched as U.S. immigration authorities walked her 7-yearold daughter, Samantha Manzanarez, into the United States on Sept. 23. She waited for news, assuming that the girl would be reunited with relatives in Florida.

“We waited for a call from a family member or something for three, four days,” Manzanarez Suazo said. “I was nervous. A week passed and still nothing.”

Finally, about eight days later, Manzanarez Suazo sought help from an immigrant advocacy organization called Every Last One that contacted the Mexican child welfare agency on a hunch that Samantha had been expelled. The hunch was correct. Samantha was in one of the agency’s shelters.

Mexican officials declined to provide her, as well as Paola, with documentation showing that her child had been improperly expelled by the United States into Mexican custody.

A.B., a 17-year-old from El Salvador who asked to be identified by his initials because he did not want to face retaliation in his pending asylum case, said he crossed the border near El Paso, Texas, on July 14 but was expelled back to Mexico and held in a shelter there for two weeks.

The American officer who processed his case, he said, told him that if he had tried to cross the border before the pandemic, he would have had more success. “We’re sending you back to Mexico,” he said the official told him. “Maybe next time.”

Acuña’s sister Esther, who is 15, was transferred to a second shelter after being sent back to Mexico, then a third. She was eventually allowed into the United States after American lawyers, working in concert with the Salvadoran consulate, successfully argued that the expulsion had violated both U.S. policy and the diplomatic agreement.

She arrived at a U.S.-operated children’s shelter in Arizona on Oct. 23, about two months after she had been sent back to Mexico.

Eventually, Acuña said, the family hopes she can be released to family members in Houston. But when that will be, no one knows.

10

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

25 Years in prison for man who burned down 3 black churches in Louisiana

By AZI PAYBARAH

He pleaded guilty in federal court in February to three counts of violating the Church Arson Prevention Act and to one count of using fire to commit a felony.

Prosecutors did not mention race as a factor in the charges, but the church arsons evoked a long history of racist crimes committed across the Jim Crow South.

“These churches trace their origins to the post-Civil War Reconstruction period,” Eric S. Dreiband, assistant attorney general of the civil rights division in the Justice Department, said in

a statement on Monday. “The churches survived for nearly 150 years but did not survive this 23-year-old Louisiana man was sentendefendant’s warped act of hatred.” ced Monday to 25 years in prison for At his sentencing in U.S. District Court in setting fire to three predominantly Black Lafayette, Louisiana, Matthews addressed conchurches in what federal prosecutors say was gregants of the churches he had burned and an effort to raise his profile as a “black metal” apologized, according to The Acadiana Advocamusician. te of Lafayette.

The man, Holden James Matthews, 23, “There are not enough words in the English who burned down the churches over a 10-day language to say how sorry I am,” the newspaper period ending on April 4, 2019, was also ordequoted Matthews as saying. “If I could go back red to pay nearly $2.7 million to the churches. and change it, I would.”

The churches Matthews set ablaze were St. Mary Missionary Baptist Church in Port Barre, and Greater Union Baptist Church and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, both in Opelousas.

At the sentencing, Judge Robert R. Summerhays of the Western District of Louisiana gave Matthews credit for the 18 months he has been in custody since his arrest in April 2019, about two weeks after the last church fire, The Advocate reported.

Matthews has also pleaded guilty to six state charges in connection with the church fires, including aggravated arson of a religious building and three hate crime counts. Sentencing is pending.

Matthews has admitted that he targeted the churches because of their religious character, according to prosecutors.

Matthews has also said that he was copying similar crimes committed in Norway in the 1990s in an effort to elevate his status among the Greater Union Baptist Church in Opelousas, La., after it was damaged in a fire on black metal community, whose most extreme practitioners have engaged in church burning, April 2, 2019.

A

vandalism and killings. Black metal is a subgenre of heavy metal, known for its unique blend of howls, nonsyncopated blast-beat drums and cold, trebly guitars.

Matthews posted pictures and videos of the church burnings on Facebook, and discussed them with a friend online, prosecutors said.

In one message to a friend that prosecutors presented in court as evidence, Matthews mentioned a possible name for his would-be record label: “Soul Rotting Records, ‘music to burn to,’ ” he wrote.

Dustin Charles Talbot, a lawyer for Matthews, did not immediately return a telephone call or email seeking comment Monday night. In February, Talbot said that Matthews had the social and mental development of an adolescent, and that his actions were not motivated by the racial makeup of the congregations.

“Holden now fully understands the seriousness and gravity of his actions and is deeply remorseful for what he has done and the pain he has caused the congregations of these churches,” Talbot said.

Matthews’ arrest came after investigators determined that his debit card was used to buy a gas can that was found at the scene of one of the fires.

In April, The Advocate reported that the three churches were in various stages of reconstruction. The land had been cleared at Mount Pleasant, and the church was awaiting an inspection to begin foundation work.

Donations to help rebuild the churches poured in last year, surpassing the organizers goal of $1.8 million.

Bail for Kyle Rittenhouse set at $2 million in Kenosha protest shooting

By MARK GUARINO

B

ail for Kyle Rittenhouse, an Illinois teenager accused of killing two men during protests over a police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was set at $2 million on Monday as Rittenhouse made a first appearance in a Wisconsin court.

The father of one of the men who died urged the court not to allow Rittenhouse’s release, warning that he is a flight risk. “Kyle Rittenhouse thinks he’s above the law and he’s been treated as such by law enforcement,” said John Huber, the father of Anthony M. Huber, who was killed in the shooting.

Rittenhouse has become a cause célèbre for conservatives who insist he acted in

self-defense, and donations have poured into a legal-defense fund on his behalf. Even President Donald Trump suggested shortly after the shooting that Rittenhouse’s actions were legitimate.

“He was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like,” Trump said in a news conference in August.

Rittenhouse, 17, has been charged with six criminal counts, including first-degree intentional homicide, for the shooting on Aug. 25 that left two protesters dead and a third injured.

The shooting occurred after a clash between demonstrators, who were protesting a white police officer’s shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black Kenosha resident, and armed civilians with guns who said they had come to downtown Kenosha to protect businesses and private property after

two nights of fires, looting and destruction.

The hearing on Monday afternoon came as Trump was scheduled to hold a rally at the Kenosha Regional Airport on the final day of campaigning before Tuesday’s election. A protest against Trump’s appearance was set for Monday evening outside the Kenosha County courthouse, where protesters had demonstrated in August.

Rittenhouse spent nearly two months without bail in an Illinois detention center while his lawyers fought to prevent him from being returned to Wisconsin to face the criminal charges.

According to records filed as part of Rittenhouse’s arrest, he turned himself in to the police in Illinois, near his home, the day after the shooting. Rittenhouse was accompanied by

his mother, the records show, and was crying at points.

“I shot two white kids,” he told the police, according to the records. Rittenhouse also told the police he had been “hired to protect businesses in Kenosha during the riots and had to protect himself,” the report said.

Sam Olejcik, the owner of an auto repair business near where the initial shooting took place, has said he did not hire Rittenhouse to protect his business.

Rittenhouse remained in custody Monday afternoon, as bail had not been posted. If he were to be released, the court commissioner overseeing the hearing ordered Rittenhouse not to have contact with families of the men who were shot or to possess a weapon.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

11

How the wealthy world has failed poor countries during the pandemic

By PETER S. GOODMAN

L

ike much of the developing world, Pakistan was alarmingly short of doctors and medical facilities long before anyone had heard of COVID-19. Then the pandemic overwhelmed hospitals, forcing some to turn away patients. As fear upended daily life, families lost livelihoods and struggled to feed themselves.

On the other side of the world in Washington, two deep-pocketed organizations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, vowed to spare poor countries from desperation. Their economists warned that immense relief was required to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and profound damage to global prosperity. Emerging markets make up 60% of the world economy, by one IMF measure. A blow to their fortunes inflicts pain around the planet.

Wages sent home to poor countries by migrant workers — a vital artery of finance — have diminished. The shutdown of tourism has punished many developing countries. So has plunging demand for oil. Billions of people have lost the wherewithal to buy food, increasing malnutrition. By next year, the pandemic could push 150 million people into extreme poverty, the World Bank has warned, in the first increase in more than two decades.

But the World Bank and IMF have failed to translate their concern into meaningful support, economists say. That has left less-affluent countries struggling with limited resources and untenable debts, prompting their governments to reduce spending just as it is needed to bolster health care systems and aid people suffering lost income.

“A lost decade of growth in large parts of the world remains a plausible prospect absent urgent, concerted and sustained policy response,” concluded a recent report from the Group of 30, a gathering of international finance experts, including Lawrence Summers, a former economic adviser to President Barack Obama, and Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration.

The wealthiest nations have been cushioned by extraordinary surges of credit unleashed by central banks and government spending collectively estimated at more than $8 trillion. Developing countries have yet to receive help on such a scale.

The IMF and World Bank — forged at the end of World War II with the mandate to

People wait to be tested for the coronavirus at PIMS Hospital, the only location that is screening for the virus in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 24, 2020. Despite pledges for debt relief and expanded programs, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have delivered meager aid, say economists. support nations at times of financial distress — have marshaled a relatively anemic response, in part because of the predilections of their largest shareholder, the United States.

During a virtual gathering of the two organizations last month, the U.S. Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, urged caution.

“It is critical that the World Bank manage financial resources judiciously,” he said, “so as not to burden shareholders with premature calls for new financing.”

The World Bank is headed by David Malpass, who was effectively an appointee of President Donald Trump under the gentlemen’s agreement that has for decades accorded the United States the right to select the institution’s leader. A longtime government finance official who worked in the Trump administration’s Treasury Department, he has displayed contempt for the World Bank and IMF. “They spend a lot of money,” Malpass said during congressional testimony in 2017.

“They’re not very efficient. They’re often corrupt in their lending practices.”

The IMF is run by a managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, a Bulgarian economist who previously worked at the World Bank. She is answerable to the institution’s shareholders. The Trump administration has resisted calls to expand the IMF’s reserves, arguing that most of the benefits would flow

to wealthier countries.

In April, as worries about poor countries intensified, world leaders issued elaborate promises for help.

“The World Bank Group intends to respond forcefully and massively,” Malpass said. At the IMF, Georgieva said she would not hesitate to tap the institution’s $1 trillion lending capacity. “This is, in my lifetime, humanity’s darkest hour,” she declared.

But the IMF has lent out only $280 billion. That includes $31 billion in emergency loans to 76 member states, with nearly $11 billion going to low-income countries.

“We have really stepped up in terms of quick disbursement to be able to support countries that are in need,” Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, director of the IMF’s Strategy Policy and Review department, said in an interview.

The World Bank more than doubled its lending over the first seven months of 2020 compared with the same period a year earlier, but has been slow to distribute the money, with disbursements up by less than a third over that period, according to research from the Center for Global Development.

The limited outlays by the IMF and World Bank appear to stem in part from excessive faith in a widely hailed initiative that aimed to relieve poor nations of their debt burdens to foreign creditors. In April, at a virtual summit of the Group of 20, world lea-

ders agreed to pause debt payments through the end of the year.

World leaders played up the program as a way to encourage poor countries to spend as needed, without worrying about their debts. But the plan exempted the largest group of creditors: the global financial services industry, including banks, asset managers and hedge funds.

“The private sector has done zilch,” said Adnan Mazarei, a former deputy director at the IMF, and now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “They have not participated at all.”

Concerns about developing countries’ debts rested atop the reality that many were spending enormous shares of their revenues on loan payments even before the pandemic.

Since 2009, Pakistan’s payments to foreign creditors have climbed to 35% of government revenues from 11.5%, according to data compiled by the Jubilee Debt Campaign, which advocates for debt forgiveness.

Ghana’s payments swelled to more than 50% of government revenues from 5.3%.

As the pandemic spread, Pakistan raised health care spending but cut support for social service programs as it prioritized debt payments.

The debt suspension was at best a short-term reprieve, delaying loan payments while heaping them atop outstanding bills.

Some 46 countries, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, have collectively gained $5.3 billion in relief from immediate debt payments. That is about 1.7% of total international debt payments due from all developing countries this year, according to data compiled by the European Network on Debt and Development.

Summers recently described the debt suspension initiative as “a squirt gun meeting a massive conflagration.”

But the program has proved powerful in one regard: It conveyed a sense that the troubles of the poorest countries have been contained.

“Part of the reason why so little has been done is that there was a misguided expectation that you could provide all the support low-income countries needed simply by deferring payments on their debts,” said Brad Setser, a former U.S. Treasury official and now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

12

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

How to keep climbing the ladder while you work from home

By JULIE WEED

Y

ou’re stuck working from home, but does your career need to be stuck, too?

Worried about keeping employees safe, many companies are pushing return-to-office dates deep into next year, so workers face more months toiling from spare bedrooms and kitchen tables.

To keep progressing professionally, reach out for feedback, polish your skills and stay visible (on Zoom, Slack or however you keep in touch with your bosses).

Ask how you’re doing It’s OK to seek feedback more often now that people aren’t in the same office, said Wonya Lucas, chief executive at Crown Media Family Networks, which owns the Hallmark Channel. It’s also more important than ever to keep track of your to-do list, with quick checkins to clarify or confirm directions.

Employees may wonder if they are checking in too frequently — or not enough — to make sure they are on the right track. The simplest solution is to ask your manager how he or she wants to be briefed (by Slack message, email or phone call), how often or under what circumstances, and with what level of detail.

“Managers can be struggling, too, so they’re not necessarily thinking about you,” said Elizabeth Umphress, a management professor

at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. “Sending an email asking to meet about communications expectations gives them time to think about what they want,” Umphress added, “and you can come to that conversation with ideas, too.”

Level up your skills If the time you’re saving on your commute or business travel hasn’t been subsumed by your children’s online schooling or other pandemic tasks, you may have time to expand or deepen your skill set.

Ask your manager what you should focus on improving or which skill he or she is using most right now, Lucas said. There are plenty of free or low-cost online classes, video tutorials and other resources on every aspect of the business world. It may even be beneficial to go back to school part time.

Getting started can sometimes take courage. “Terrified of writing? Take a writing class!” said C.J. Liu Rosenblatt, an executive coach in Seattle.

Don’t be shy about asking a co-worker with a skill you covet — like wrangling complex PowerPoint presentations, wielding infographics software or explaining complicated concepts — for advice on how to improve, Lucas said. People like to be noticed for their strengths and usually won’t mind sharing tips.

You’re stuck working from home, but does your career need to be stuck, too? To keep progressing professionally, reach out for feedback, polish your skills and stay visible.

Interactions matter Communication skills are more important than ever, said Jean Choy, an associate dean at the Foster School of Business, whose focus is executive education and international initiatives. For example, some people like to chitchat before getting to the meeting’s agenda, and others like to get right to business, she said.

“Figure out the other person’s style and adapt to it, to communicate most effectively with them,” Choy said.

Learn how to express empathy better, as well. “There’s a lot more that work people are dealing with,” she said. “Offering understanding and flexibility will go a long way.”

In online meetings, be present and visible, said Lucas, who noted: “In a physical meeting, all eyes are on the speaker, but in a virtual meeting, all faces are seen at all times by everyone.”

Keep your camera on and lean in a bit to show you are focused, she advises. “You don’t have to be the first to talk, but do try to come up with one smart comment or provocative question in the meeting so you’re seen as bringing value,” she said. Offer positive feedback in the chat window if appropriate.

Get exposure Volunteer for tasks outside your job description to gain new knowledge and get in front of new groups, Lucas said. “Experience and exposure go hand in hand.” You might offer to mentor new employees, create remote social opportunities or pitch in to help a team rushing to meet a deadline.

Even within your own team, capitalize on your best characteristics by seeking out work where you are most likely to shine, Umphress said. If you excel at defining problems, coming up with creative solutions, writing or selling, look for those opportunities.

“If your co-workers or your manager see your skills, they’ll see your value to the business,” she said.

If you’ve made the effort to acquire a new skill or do some interesting research, offer to hold a “lunch and learn” virtual meetup to share your new knowledge and gain recognition that way.

See the big picture Seek out employees with different job descriptions like marketing, finance, human resources and learn what they do.

“You will always be judged on how well you do in your own area, but unless you understand how your group’s work fits into the company’s overall goals and strategy, you wont rise far,” Lucas said.

Take advantage of the virtual break rooms, happy hours or lunchtime hangouts your company is hosting, to meet people, she

said. Connecting with someone about a shared interest like sports or pets “can lead to the courage to ask that person to a virtual lunch,” she added.

Ask which skills or jobs have been important to that person and what his or her journey has been. “Curiosity may even turn into referrals or job offers, but in all cases will be illuminating,” Lucas said.

If you are a manager Your career trajectory will hinge at least in part on having a crackerjack team, Umphress said. Go beyond surface changes to make thoughtful individual adjustments and accommodations so your staff can do its best work.

Burned-out employees can’t sustain highquality output, she said, and “the most likely to leave will be your most talented and best performers, because they will have the most choices.”

Choose your goal Define your intention, said Rosenblatt, the career coach. Perhaps you’re aiming for different responsibilities, a promotion or a move to another division.

“Find small ways to gain experience in the area you want to move to,” she said. Do some research. There may be an office task force or a volunteer organization outside work to join.

“Stretch yourself — say yes,” Rosenblatt said, “even if it makes you uncomfortable.”

Not all the opportunities will help you, she said, but it’s hard to know in advance which will be fruitful: “Even saying yes to the wrong thing will have value if it shows there’s something you don’t like.”

If your boss doesn’t support you Gaining visibility can be especially challenging in a virtual workplace if your boss isn’t passing your good work up the chain or, worse, is taking credit for it. Ask to join the meeting where your work is being presented. Ask peers to speak up for you and acknowledge your contribution to the project.

Take a business-based rather than emotional approach, Choy said. It’s more effective to present a concrete reason that you should be part of a presentation or high-visibility team, for example because you did the research and can answer questions about the data.

A request that helps the business or could make your boss look good “works much better than telling them you felt hurt not to be included,” she said.

Lucas agreed: “Performance matters, so focus on results.”

Give yourself a break If you do need to tread water at work, that’s OK, too. Careers can span 50 years, and for this moment, personal health may need to eclipse professional growth.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

13 Stocks

Wall Street jumps 2% as Americans head to polls

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all Street’s main indexes jumped on Tuesday as investors bet that one of the country’s most divisive presidential races could end with a clear victory for Democratic nominee Joe Biden and a swift deal on more fiscal stimulus.

All 11 major S&P indexes were up in morning trading, led by financial .SPSY, healthcare .SPXHC and industrial .SPLRCI stocks as investors also reined in some of the bets on post-vote volatility that dominated in recent weeks .VIX. Not all of the infrastructure and other stocks which analysts have identified as likely winners from a Democrat sweep were up, with marijuana and renewable energy companies down, some as much as 4%.

The lead for Biden in national opinion polls, however, has raised expectations for a decisive outcome in Tuesday’s election and a post-election stimulus package that would make good on his promises of infrastructure spending.

“There is some optimism that we might have a quick resolution to the election,” said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist for LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“The market is going to accept a couple of days (of delay) but if we get to Friday and it looks like it’s going to take longer than that, that could upset markets and we could lose a lot of these big gains.”

Democrats are also favored to emerge from 14 hotly contested U.S. Senate races with full control of Congress, although final results from at least five of those contests may not be available for days, and in some cases, months.

Still, the competition in swing states is seen as close enough that President Donald Trump could piece together the 270 Electoral College votes he needs to stay in the White House for another four years.

U.S. stock index futures plunged on Election Night 2016 when it appeared Trump was becoming more likely to pull out an upset victory against then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The benchmark S&P 500 has since risen 55% as lower tax rates under the Trump administration boosted corporate profits.

Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners in Pittsburgh, said a Biden victory could lead to some inflation, which would be beneficial to banks in particular.

“A Federal Reserve committed to keeping rates lower and yet allowing not a flat curve, but one with some steepening to it, and then some inflation and you get yourself a hip hip hooray for banks.”

MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS

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14

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

U.K.’s Johnson faces a growing revolt over his coronavirus policy

By MARC LANDLER and STEPHEN CASTLE

T

wo days after abruptly announcing plans to put England back into a lockdown, Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a mutiny Monday from members of his Conservative Party, who said he went too far, and scalding criticism from opposition leaders, who said he acted too late to stem a second wave of the coronavirus.

Johnson’s decision, a reluctant reversal after weeks of stubbornly resisting a lockdown, seemed to please almost no

AVISO AMBIENTAL SOBRE INTENCIÓN DE RENOVAR UN PERMISO PARA OPERAR UNA INSTALACIÓN DE PROCESAMIENTO DE DESPERDICIOS SÓLIDOS NO PELIGROSOS

El Sr. Luis Raúl Sueiro, representante autorizado de IFCO Recycling, lnc., sometió ante el Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (en adelante, DRNA) una solicitud de permiso para operar una instalación de recibo, procesamiento, almacenamiento y exportación de desperdicios sólidos no peligrosos, que consisten en cartón, papel, periódico y plásticos. Esta instalación está ubicada en la Carr. 872 Km. 1.3 (interior), Río Plantation, Bayamón PR. El Reglamento para el Manejo de los Desperdicios Sólidos No Peligrosos, establece en el Capítulo IX el requisito de solicitar un permiso como condición previa a la operación de una instalación de desperdicios sólidos no peligrosos, el cual es aplicable a dueños u operadores.

Luego de evaluar los documentos suministrados, el DRNA tiene la intención de emitir el permiso de operación.

Copia de la solicitud de permiso, al igual que el borrador del permiso y otros documentos relevantes al caso, están a la disposición del público para ser examinados en el Área Contaminación de Terrenos del DRNA, ubicado en la Carr. 8838 Km. 6.3, Sector El Cinco, Río Piedras, de lunes a viernes de 8:00 a.m. a 4:30 p.m.

Cualquier persona interesada podrá someter comentarios por escrito sobre el borrador del permiso y podrá solicitar una vista pública. Toda solicitud de vista pública deberá hacerse por escrito y deberá ser debidamente fundamentada y exponer la naturaleza de las cuestiones que se levantarán en la vista . El DRNA podrá celebrar una vista pública de forma discrecional. Toda solicitud deberá ser dirigida a la siguiente dirección, no más tarde de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este Aviso: Área Contaminación de Terrenos, San José Industrial Park, 1375 Ave. Ponce de León, San Juan PR 00926.

Este anuncio se publica conforme a lo requerido por la Ley Núm. 382017, conocida como la “Ley de Procedimiento Administrativo Uniforme del Gobierno de Puerto Rico”, la Ley Núm . 416-2004, según enmendada, conocida como “Ley sobre Política Pública Ambiental”, los reglamentos aprobados a su amparo; y las leyes y reglamentos federales aplicables.

Aprobado por la Autoridad Nominadora.

Certificación CEE-SA-2020-5576 del 21 de febrero de 2020.

Este anuncio se publicó conforme a lo requerido por la Ley sobre Política Pública Ambiental, Ley Núm. 416 del 22 de septiembre de 2004, según enmendada. Aviso pagado por solicitante.

Gobierno de Puerto Rico

Rafael A. Machargo Secretario

DEPARTAMENTO DE RECURSOS NATURALES Y AMBIENTALES

• Carr. 8838 Km. 6.3 Sector El Cinco, Río Piedras PR 00926 • • San José Industrial Park, 1375 Ave. Ponce de León, San Juan PR 00926 • ' 787.999.2200 7 787. 999.2303 • y www. drna.pr.gov

Protesters march through South London on Saturday, in opposition to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s proposed lockdown measures to quell the spread of the coronavirus, Oct. 31, 2020. one. His allies in the right-wing press have turned on him, as have disgruntled business leaders.

The about-face even reopened fault lines from the debate over Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, as Nigel Farage, the pro-Brexit leader, said he would rebrand his Brexit Party with a new name, Reform U.K., and a platform of opposing the lockdown.

A somber Johnson defended himself in Parliament, apologizing for the economic pain caused by the lockdown but insisting there was no alternative. At the current rate of infections and hospitalizations, he said, England’s hospitals would have to turn away patients within weeks.

“Doctors and nurses could be forced to choose which patients to treat, who would live and who would die,” he said.

“That sacred principle of care for anyone who needs it — whoever they are and whenever they need it — could be broken for the first time in our lives.”

The Labour Party’s leader, Keir Starmer, endorsed the lockdown. But he accused the prime minister of dithering for 40 days after his scientific advisers recommended taking this step — a delay that he claimed had cost lives.

Johnson’s now-defunct program of targeted restrictions, he said, “not only failed to stop the second wave, they been swept away by it.” Starmer called for a two-week “circuit breaker” lockdown nearly three weeks ago.

The depth of Britain’s ordeal with the coronavirus was underscored by the news Sunday that Prince William, the son of Prince Charles, and second in line for the throne, contracted the virus last spring, around the same time as his father.

William did not disclose his diagnosis because he did not want to alarm the nation, according to the Sun newspaper, which first reported the story.

For all the criticism of Johnson, his latest plans are not likely to be derailed. While a handful of Conservative members of Parliament said they would oppose the lockdown measure when it comes up for a vote Wednesday, the prime minister’s 80-seat majority, plus the seal of approval from the Labour Party, all but guarantees that it will be approved by the House of Commons.

Still, the swelling unrest in Conservative ranks, the rising

strength of the opposition and the reemergence of Farage as a threat from the right add up to a treacherous landscape for Johnson.

Even among some of his supporters, there was despair at the government’s inconsistency and failure to foresee predictable problems — and at the constant drumbeat of questions about its competence.

“The problem is if a narrative is established that he lacks a grip on the situation,” said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “Most Conservative members of Parliament realize that the sine qua non of reelection is competence.”

Johnson had barely put behind him a bitter dispute with northern mayors over putting their cities, which have been hard hit by the virus, under targeted lockdowns. Several balked at what they said was the government’s insistence on reducing to 67% the amount of money it would pay for people who lose their jobs because of the restrictions.

Under the national lockdown, the government will extend a subsidy program that pays 80% of the wages of those people — a concession that the mayors said illustrated that the government does not treat the north the same as the south.

“Why did it take a lockdown that affected London for them to address these issues?” Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, said in an interview. “Why didn’t it get addressed when it was just Manchester?”

Conservatives have a litany of other objections — that the lockdown is a death knell for the economy, an infringement of civil liberties and proof that the government lacks a coherent strategy for getting past the pandemic.

“As we drift further into an authoritarian coercive state, the only legal mechanism left open to me is to vote against that legislation,” said Charles Walker, vice chair of the influential 1922 committee of Conservative lawmakers. “The people of this country will never, ever forgive the political class for criminalizing parents seeing children.”

Another Conservative lawmaker, Philip Davies, asked Johnson how many lost jobs and failed businesses were “a price worth paying to continue pursuing this failed strategy of lockdowns and arbitrary restrictions.”

The chaotic nature of the announcement added to the misgivings. Johnson convened an emergency Cabinet meeting Saturday after internal deliberations leaked late Friday. Then Downing Street botched the rollout, delaying a news conference almost three hours, causing it to run into the BBC’s popular variety show, “Strictly Come Dancing.”

Johnson’s reversal was particularly embarrassing because he spent more than two weeks deriding Starmer for demanding the circuit breaker shutdown, which turned out to be half the length of the one the prime minister ultimately adopted. As late as Friday, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, defended the “focused, localized approach” over what he called the “blunt tool” of a national lockdown.

“You build resentment from those loyal supporters who have only recently defended a government policy they were told was inviolable, only to have to eat their words a few days later,” Bale said.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

15

In hunt for virus source, WHO let China take charge

An elderly man collapsed and died of unknown causes on a street near a hospital in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 30, during the first months of the epidemic.

By SELAM GEBREKIDAN, MATT APUZZO, AMY QIN and JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ

O

n a cold weekend in mid-February, when the world still harbored false hope that the new coronavirus could be contained, a World Health Organization team arrived in Beijing to study the outbreak and investigate a critical question: How did the virus jump from animals to humans?

At that point, there were only three confirmed deaths from COVID-19 outside China and scientists hoped that finding an animal source for the coronavirus would unlock clues about how to stop it, treat it and prevent similar outbreaks.

“If we don’t know the source then we’re equally vulnerable in the future to a similar outbreak,” Michael Ryan, the World Health Organization’s emergency director, had said that week in Geneva. “Understanding that source is a very important next step.”

What the team members did not know was that they would not be allowed to investigate the source at all. Despite Ryan’s pronouncements, and over the advice of its emergency committee, the organization’s leadership had quietly negotiated terms that sidelined its own experts. They would not question China’s initial response or even visit the live-animal market in the city of Wuhan where the outbreak seemed to have originated.

Nine months and more than 1.1 million

deaths later, there is still no transparent, independent investigation into the source of the virus. Notoriously allergic to outside scrutiny, China has impeded the effort, while leaders of the World Health Organization, if privately frustrated, have largely ceded control, even as the Trump administration has fumed.

From the earliest days of the outbreak, the World Health Organization — the only public health body with a global remit — has been both indispensable and impotent.

The Geneva-based agency has delivered

key information about testing, treatment and vaccine science. When the Trump administration decided to develop its own test kits, rather than rely on the WHO blueprint, the botched result led to delays.

At the same time, the health organization pushed misleading and contradictory information about the risk of spread from symptomless carriers. Its experts were slow to accept that the virus could be airborne.

Top health officials encouraged travel as usual, advice that was based on politics and economics, not science.

The WHO’s staunchest defenders note that, by the nature of its constitution, it is beholden to the countries that finance it.

And it is hardly the only international body bending to China’s might. But even many of its supporters have been frustrated by the organization’s secrecy, its public praise for China and its quiet concessions. Those decisions have indirectly helped Beijing to whitewash its early failures in handling the outbreak.

Now, as a new COVID-19 wave engulfs Europe and the United States, the organization is in the middle of a geopolitical standoff.

China’s authoritarian leaders want to constrain the organization; President Donald Trump, who formally withdrew the U.S. from the body in July, now seems intent on destroying it; and European leaders are scrambling to reform and empower it.

The search for the virus’s origins is a study in the compromises the WHO has made.

By Jan. 23, Wuhan was completely locked down.

On the surface, an investigation into the virus’s origin is progressing. Beijing recently approved a list of outside investigators. The health organization has agreed that key parts of the inquiry — about the first patients in China and the market’s role in the outbreak — will be led by Chinese scientists, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The documents, which have never been made public, show that WHO experts will review and “augment, rather than duplicate,” studies undertaken by China.

Internal documents and interviews with more than 50 public-health officials, scientists and diplomats provide an inside look at how a disempowered WHO, eager to win access and cooperation from China, has struggled to achieve either. Its solicitous approach has given space for Trump and his allies to push speculation and unfounded conspiracy theories, and deflect blame for their own mistakes.

The organization said it was committed to a full-scale investigation irrespective of political distractions.

“Divisions between and within countries have provided fertile ground for this fast-moving virus to grow and gain the upper hand,” the WHO’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a statement to the Times.

The question of where COVID-19 began is especially intriguing because the initial theory, centered on illegal wildlife sales at the Wuhan market, is now in doubt.

There is powerful evidence that the new coronavirus passed naturally from an animal into humans. Scientists have found a virus in bats that is a close relative, and they suspect that it may have infected another animal species before it reached people.

But though they agree that many cases were linked to the market in Wuhan, many scientists no longer believe it is where the outbreak began.

For now, however, it’s still where the trail goes cold.

A contaminated market On the night of Dec. 30, 2019, according to local reports, workers in protective gear began scrubbing the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, a warren of vendors selling produce, meats and wild animals. They scoured the market, going stall to stall, and spraying disinfectant to stop an outbreak that officials believed originated there.

Continues on page 16

16

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

From page 15 A day or so later, another team arrived from China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. According to one official account, the experts took samples both from products sold at the market and the environment.

But three weeks later, George F. Gao, the chief scientist at China’s CDC, indicated to a reporter that the market had been closed before his team could conduct a thorough search for the animal source.

This is a key moment. The discrepancy in the accounts leaves open two possibilities.

If researchers tested samples from live animals, then they may be concealing potentially important clues about the origins of the virus.

But if they arrived after the market had been closed and disinfected, they may only have taken samples from places like door handles, counters and sewage runoff. Many outside experts consider this the most likely scenario. They said it was understandable that local officials, focused on preventing human illness, would rush to clean the market rather than pause to preserve evidence.

Yet that would mean that Chinese officials probably missed a chance to confirm where the outbreak did, or did not, originate.

In late January, Gao co-wrote one of the earliest epidemiological studies about the virus. The study highlights the market’s links to the outbreak. But a close look at the data reveals something significant: Four of the first five coronavirus patients had no clear links to the market.

They had apparently been infected elsewhere.

The diplomacy of effusive praise In late January, Tedros met with China’s

The World Health Organization held a special session of its executive board last month in Geneva. leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing. The outbreak was gathering speed, if still largely confined to China, as the two men sat in front of a bucolic mural in the Great Hall of the People and carved out an agreement.

Tedros had rushed to Beijing to lobby Xi to allow in a large team of international experts.

A small WHO team had traveled to Wuhan a week before but had not gone to the market or to the largest hospital for infectious diseases.

Xi did not welcome the suggestion that China needed help. But he agreed to let a WHO mission evaluate the situation “objectively, fairly, calmly and rationally.”

The agreement was critical for Tedros, who the previous week had decided against declaring an international emergency after convening a committee to advise him.

On the same day, China’s vaunted infrastructure machine continued work on a new 1,000-bed hospital for virus patients in Wuhan.

What was not publicly known, though, was that the committee’s Jan. 23 decision followed intense lobbying, notably by China, according to diplomats and health officials.

Committee members are international experts largely insulated from influence. But in Geneva, China’s ambassador made it clear that his country would view an emergency declaration as a vote of no confidence.

Half the committee said it was too early to declare an emergency. The outcome surprised many countries, as did Tedros when he publicly praised both Xi and China’s pneumonia surveillance system.

Praising China, though, has been Tedros’ trademark refrain.

In the end, Tedros declared an emergency on Jan. 30, on the advice of nearly every member of the committee, save for the Chinese delegate.

About a week later, in early February, two top experts from the organization went to Beijing to negotiate the mission’s agenda.

That same week, the world’s leading health experts ranked finding the animal host as one of the top tasks.

Yet, even before the full team gathered in Beijing on Feb. 16, the WHO had ceded ground, according to two people who were on the mission, diplomats and others. It agreed not to examine China’s early response or begin investigating the animal source, they said. It could not even secure a visit to Wuhan.

American fury In Washington, the U.S. health secretary, Alex M. Azar II, gathered advisers inside a conference room of the Department of Health and Human Services to hear from two government scientists who had participated in the WHO mission to China.

The scientists, still in quarantine, descri-

bed by videoconference the seemingly unimaginable lockdown that China had imposed.

When questions turned to the origins of the virus, however, answers stopped.

“You’d have to look at the terms of reference,” one of the scientists replied, a senior U.S. health official recalled. The “terms of reference” was a document spelling out the mission’s rules.

The Americans had never seen it.

In the United States, where the pandemic was starting to take root, Trump and his allies began to talk about the “China virus.”

On April 7, Trump accused the WHO of being too close to China.

In May, under sharp criticism for his administration’s response to the outbreak, Trump announced the U.S. would soon withdraw from the international organization.

Doing so isolated him from allies who shared some of his frustrations but wanted to strengthen, not abandon, the WHO. Bottlenecks The WHO found new support in May for its stalled effort to investigate the virus’s origins. A resolution, sponsored by more than 140 countries, included a clause directing the agency to search for the animal source.

By the summer, even the WHO was frustrated. Two experts who went to China in July to define the terms of the investigation spent two weeks in quarantine. They interviewed experts by phone but did not go to Wuhan.

Chinese officials then said that the organization should start investigating in Europe.

In a letter to Chinese officials described to the Times, the health organization expressed frustration at China’s delays and insisted that the investigation begin in Wuhan, if only because the first infections were found there.

None of these frustrations spilled into public. The organization described only progress.

Yet it repeatedly declined requests by multiple governments to disclose the investigation terms it had negotiated with China. On Friday, the organization told the Times that it would soon make the documents public.

An executive summary of the documents, obtained by the Times, shows that the health organization’s virus origin studies will unfold in two phases. One will look for the first patients by reviewing hospital records and interviewing people who were treated for the virus in December. The team will also investigate what wildlife was sold at the Wuhan market and follow the supply chain, according to the summary.

The WHO has agreed this phase will be led by Chinese scientists, with outsiders reviewing their work remotely.

In the second phase, international experts will work with Chinese colleagues to find the virus among animal hosts and a possible intermediate host.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

17

Almost like clockwork, talk of a military coup follows Thai protests

By HANNAH BEECH

T

here are certain constants in Thailand: the drenching monsoons, the grand openings of new shopping malls and the rumors that the Royal Thai Armed Forces are plotting another coup.

For weeks now, student-led protesters across Thailand have taken to the streets every few days, calling for a new constitution with authority over the monarchy, an end to the persecution of the political opposition and the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the retired general who led the most recent military coup, in 2014.

Some earlier anti-government movements in Thailand were silenced by gunfire, with dozens killed most recently in 2010.

While the security forces have not cracked down violently on these peaceful rallies, it’s unclear how long such restraint will last. Nor is it certain how long the army is willing to stay in the barracks, plotting against Prayuth, who was once one of their own.

Whenever the generals launch a coup, the refrain is the same: Thailand needs a return to order, without messy rallies or dissenting voices.

“I see a coup as not a bad thing,” said Sondhi Limthongkul, a prominent royalist. As recently as last week, Sondhi publicly called for yet another military intervention to restore stability and protect the monarchy, urging the military to quickly hand over power after seizing it so the king could oversee the formation of a unity government.

For the protesters, the military’s enduring power in a country that markets itself as a modern democracy is as alarming as it is anachronistic.

The rallies have highlighted the military’s continuing grip on the country, its meddling in politics through coups and the ways it has profited from a deeply unequal society, securing economic benefits via vast business holdings. Most of all, the young demonstrators chafe at how conscription and other martial traditions are being used to try to create an orderly, obedient populace that hews to the military’s command.

Prayuth, the prime minister, said Friday that he could not determine whether “there will be a coup or there won’t be a coup.”

But he added, “no one wants to do it; no one wants to stage one.”

Political analysts noted that coup denials have often grown louder as planning for them intensifies. Over the past nine decades, the Thai military has tried to oust elected governments about 30 times. At least a dozen of these putsches have been successful.

“The empire will strike back,” said Paul Chambers, author of the upcoming book “Camouflaged Khakistocracy: Civil-Military Relations in Thailand.” “The military, and all the vested interests that are being threatened by the student protesters, they aren’t going to allow the end of hegemonic military capitalism.”

The Thai military is the country’s largest landowner, apart from the forestry bureau’s national park holdings. It has created a sort of parallel state with its own internal security apparatus that has brought thousands of dissenters to its military bases for enforced “attitude adjustment” sessions. It appoints all 250 members of the Senate.

Military regimentation — uniforms, hierarchies and unquestioning discipline — has become a societal expectation, from schools to parts of the Civil Service. The military has also profited

Protesters rally for democratic changes in Bangkok, Oct. 19, 2020. Whenever the generals launch a coup, the refrain is the same: Thailand needs a return to order, without messy rallies or dissenting voices. from defense budgets that have increased roughly 140% since 2006, the year of yet another coup.

The outsize influence of the Royal Thai Armed Forces stands in contrast to its diminished role on the battlefield. Despite a top brass that includes about 1,600 generals, the second highest in the world per capita, Thai soldiers have not fought in a major engagement on home turf since World War II. Thailand does not face serious external security threats, and a defense alliance with the United States ensures safekeeping by the world’s largest military.

The Thai military has instead fashioned itself as a guardian against internal discord, most of all threats to the nation’s other powerful institution: the monarchy. The last two coups, in 2014 and 2006, were justified as necessary to protect the palace, even though the royal family, one of the richest in the world, can count on a raft of laws designed to shield it from criticism.

For the first time since absolute monarchy was abolished in 1932, King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun is now facing sustained calls from protesters for his powers to be curbed. Since inheriting the throne in 2016, he has lived most of the time in Germany, with taxpayer money funding his lavish lifestyle. The king is now back in Thailand, attending public events in military uniform.

“The military is the only institution that can sustain the power of the king,” Chambers said. “And the monarchy gives legitimacy to the military and blesses each of the coups.”

This symbiotic relationship between the military and the monarch was underscored in September when Apirat Kongsompong, commander in chief of the Royal Thai Army, retired from the military only to be immediately appointed vice chamberlain

of the palace’s Royal Household Bureau.

“The royal institution, the military and people are inseparable,” Apirat said in a speech last year.

The current protest movement began earlier this year when students spoke out against regimented school rules, such as grooming regulations and expectations that they prostrate themselves before their superiors.

The demonstrations also encompassed urban, educated Thais who felt their political aspirations were thwarted when a new party called Future Forward was ordered to dissolve by the Constitutional Court in February, a decision rights groups said was politically motivated. Future Forward had campaigned on slashing the defense budget and ending military conscription. It finished third in the elections last year, a surprisingly strong showing for a neophyte political force.

“The real reason for conscription is that they need the personnel so they can control the society,” said Pongsakorn Rodchomphu, a leading member of the Progressive Movement, which replaced Future Forward after its dissolution.

“We need to reform the military to be professional soldiers who don’t have time to do politics,” Pongsakorn, a retired lieutenant general, added. “This kind of atmosphere in Thailand, where we have to ask the commander in chief, not the politicians, for help, it’s not civilized; it’s not modern.”

In October, Gen. Narongpan Jittkaewtae took command as the new army chief and addressed the coup rumors.

“The chance of making a coup is zero as long as there are no groups that create a situation or a violent conflict,” he said. He did not specify what would happen if such groups were thought to exist.

18

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Vienna reels from a rare terrorist attack

By KATRIN BENNHOLD, MELISSA EDDY and CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE

H

e was armed with an automatic rifle, a pistol, a machete and a dummy suicide belt. For nine minutes, the 20-year-old gunman turned the cobbled streets of central Vienna into a war zone, firing so many shots from so many places that officials initially believed there were multiple attackers.

By the time the police shot him Monday night, he had killed four people and wounded 23, shocking a country where deadly terrorist attacks are rare.

But the shooter, a 20-year-old dual citizen of Austria and North Macedonia, was well known to the authorities. Two years ago, he was sentenced to prison for attempting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group, raising questions about whether someone so firmly on the radar of Austria’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies should have been more closely watched.

Few details have been released about how the shooting unfolded or who the victims were, but officials have identified six locations in one neighborhood where they say shots were fired.

The dead, who have yet to be publicly identified, include three Austrians and one German, and range in age from 19 to 34, a senior government official said. Little is known about them other than one was a young man who was shot on the street, another a waitress in a bar. Among the wounded was a 28-year-old police officer.

Monday’s violence comes after recent terrorist attacks in France — including the beheading of a teacher near Paris and a knife attack at a church in Nice — that have both been linked to Islamist extremists.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of Austria said in an address to the nation Tuesday that the shooting was “definitely an Islamist terrorist attack,” which he called “an attack out of hatred, hatred for our basic values.”

But Kurz, his interior minister and the mayor of Vienna all vowed that the attacker would not divide Austrian society or alter Austrians’ way of life. The chancellor warned against making assumptions about Austria’s Muslim community.

“This is no fight between Christians and Muslims, or between Austrians and migrants,” Kurz said. “This is a fight between civilization and barbarism.”

He urged citizens to remember that “our enemy is never all those belonging to a religion, our enemy is never all the people that come from a particular country” but rather “our enemy is extremists and terrorists.” Ümit Vural, the president of the Islamic Faith Community in Austria, condemned the “cowardly, revolting attack,” calling it “an attack on our Vienna” and “an attack on all of us.”

Two Turkish-Austrians and a Palestinian who braved the gunfire to bring an older woman to safety and help save the life of the 28-year-old police officer, were celebrated in the Austrian media as heroes.

The interior minister and the police said investigators were still reconstructing the events of the previous evening, trying to determine how just one attacker, as they now believe, could have been responsible for the gunshots recorded at all six loca-

Beers and tables left as they were the night before on a street in central Vienna, when a mass shooting left at least 4 dead and 22 wounded, on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. tions identified as scenes of the crime.

The first emergency calls reached the police at 8 p.m. Vienna time Monday from Seitenstettengasse, a street where the city’s main synagogue is surrounded by bars in the heart of a bustling area known as the “Bermuda Triangle” because it is easy to get lost there, especially after a few drinks. There, the gunman could be seen on video firing his AK-47 at a young man in the street. He ran away, then returned to the scene, and shot the young man again with a pistol.

Another victim was found on Fleischmarkt, a street several minutes’ walk from the synagogue, and another on a nearby square beside the Franz-Josefs-Kai canal. Both had been fatally shot. The 28-year-old police officer was also shot there, surviving only because of the young men who dragged him to safety.

Around the corner, a woman waiting tables at a bar in the Ruprechtsplatz, a square named for the city’s oldest church, was shot and killed. At 8:09 p.m., police officers fatally shot the gunman in the same square, where his body lay for hours as specialists tried to gauge the danger posed by what appeared to be a belt of explosives strapped to his waist. It turned out to be fake.

Barely 24 hours after the assault, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, calling the shooter a “soldier of the caliphate,” according to a statement translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online extremist messaging.

It was not clear from the claim whether the terrorist group had helped plan the attack or if others were involved. The Islamic State group has used similar language before in asserting responsibility for assaults by individuals acting on their own.

Two years ago, the attacker, Kujtim Fejzulai, then 18, had planned to travel to Syria with a friend to join the Islamic State group, his former lawyer, Nikolas Rast said. When the friend changed his mind, he went on his own. But he made it only as far as Turkey, where he was arrested and taken back to Vienna to face charges of attempted jihad and attempting to join a terrorist organization.

He was convicted and sentenced to 22 months in prison, but was released in December, after serving only about a year.

Rast, who represented Fejzulai at the trial, said that his cli-

ent’s good behavior in prison — he even took part in a deradicalization program — led to his early release.

He said that Fejzulai had appeared to show remorse.

There had been no sign that his parents shared his extremist views, Rast said, adding the man’s mother had been the one to alert the authorities when her son first was missing.

“He gave the impression of a young man who was searching for who he was,” Rast said. “At no point did I have the impression that he was dangerous.”

But evidence found in the suspect’s home Tuesday, including a stockpile of ammunition, indicated that since his release from prison he appears to have led a double life — presenting himself to the world as fully integrated into society, while embracing a radical ideology in private, Karl Nehammer, the Austrian interior minister, said in a news conference Tuesday.

Before the attack, Fejzulai posted a photograph of himself to social media, wielding a machete and a rifle with a message that “clearly indicated his sympathy for IS,” the minister said, using an abbreviation for the Islamic State group. Investigators believe the gunman worshipped at a mosque that Austrian intelligence services suspect of promulgating extremism, an official said.

Kurz vowed to shed light on how a man whose militant aspirations had come to the attention of the authorities in 2018 was able to slip through the net.

“The attacker tried to join the Islamic State some time ago and was arrested and convicted,” Kurz said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “He was in prison and was released early.

We need to get to the bottom of why the justice system let this attacker go early.”

At least 14 people in Austria who have been linked to the suspect have been detained and are being questioned, and 18 locations are being searched, Nehammer said. The police in Switzerland said they had detained two men, ages 18 and 24, on suspicion of a connection to the attacker in Vienna, but gave no further details.

Throughout Tuesday, the cobbled streets of Vienna’s city center, normally full of tourists, government employees and other citizens, were largely empty, save for hundreds of heavily armed police officers. School attendance was optional, most stores were closed and residents were encouraged to stay home.

At several of the restaurants where the shootings took place, half-drunk glasses and untouched food still sat on tables, as if the guests had just left. Elsewhere, panicked flight was in evidence — knocked-over chairs and broken beer bottles were scattered not far from a trail of blood.

Michael Kramer, 33, who lives just yards from where the young man was killed said he had spent the night with a friend and returned only when the police blockade was lifted later Tuesday.

“You always think you are in a bubble and that nothing can happen, and then something like this happens right in front of your door,” he said, surveying the scene in disbelief.

“We often see ourselves as a blessed island where violence and terror is only known from abroad,” Kurz said. “But the sad truth is, even if we live in a generally safe country, we don’t live in a safe world.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

19

Revalida Carmen Maldonado, alcaldesa de Morovis Por THE STAR La alcaldesa de Morovis, Carmen Maldonado González se encamina a iniciar su segundo cuatrienio de manera cómoda, a juzgar por los datos más recientes de su componente electoral municipal. “La tendencia es que nuestra ventaja va a superar los 3,000 votos y vamos a esperar los números oficiales, como corresponde. Yo estoy bien agradecida de todos los moroveños, que han llevado una campaña política de altura y han acogido el mensaje que hemos llevado durante todo este proceso”, aseguró la también vicepresidenta del Partido Popular Democrático (PPD).

Maldonado, quien previo a este cuatrienio laboró en la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica (AEE), Retiro y La Fortaleza, es además la primera mujer en asumir

la alcaldía de Morovis, municipio de la montaña fundado en 1818. Entre las luchas más significativas de la alcaldesa en este cuatrienio están lo relacionado a la crisis de agua, lo que incluso llevó al Municipio a demandar la Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AAA) y tramitar alternativas de soluciones con el Cuerpo de Ingenieros del Ejército de Estados Unidos.

La situación fiscal del Municipio ha mejorado dramáticamente en Morovis gracias a la disciplina presupuestaria establecida por la alcaldesa, lo que se refleja en el superávit reportado recientemente que supera los $300,000. “Para este nuevo cuatrienio, nos vamos a concentrar en los proyectos de reconstrucción pendientes con los fondos de la Agencia Federal para el Manejo de Emergencias (FEMA) en distintas comunidades, así como el desarrollo económico”, detalló la alcaldesa.

Julia Nazario vuelve a revalidar como alcaldesa de Loíza Por THE STAR

L

a alcaldesa de Loíza, Julia Nazario Fuentes, se encamina a revalidar en el gobierno municipal con el 80% de los votos, según los datos más recientes de su equipo electoral.

“Ciertamente será una noche larga para conocer los números finales, así que mi llamado a todos es a mantenerse en sus hogares y respetar la determinación de los electores. Yo por mi parte, mañana a trabajar como de costumbre”, aseguró. La alcaldesa del Partido Popular Democrático (PPD) se midió con la exprimera dama Lymarie Escobar Quiñones, del Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) quien acumulaba aproximadamente el 20% de los votos.

Entre las prioridades de Nazario Fuentes para el próximo cuatrienio están los proyectos de reconstrucción que se han ido trabajando con la asignación de $5,334,102.57 por parte de la Agencia Federal para Manejo de Emergencias (FEMA) para la reconstrucción de facilidades y calles que resultaron afectadas por los fenómenos atmosféricos de hace tres años.

“También continuaremos traba-

jando en el manejo de la pandemia de Covid-19, que es una realidad que vamos a tener durante muchos meses más y los proyectos del desarrollo de la escuela hotelera y propuesta agrícola, para la cual tenemos unas 21 cuerdas para trabajar”, añadió.

Uno de los logros de Nazario Fuentes fue la creación del Centro de Servicios Municiples Carlos Escobar López, instalación cedida al municipio y que ha convertido a una escuela cerrada en unas facilidades con super refugio y oficinas de servicio y manejo de emergencias. Esta semana pasada también se le adjudicó la escuela de Piñones que también está cerrada. “Ya esta semana que viene vamos a reunirnos con la comunidad para trazar los planes”, añadió.

El tema fiscal en Loíza ha sido crucial en este cuatrienio que termina. “Como administradora tengo que decir que aparte del desastre fiscal que encontramos en enero de 2017, los recaudos estaban en el piso. Por ejemplo, haciendo los ajustes necesarios, aumentamos en 115% en los recaudos del Impuesto de Ventas y Uso (IVU), entre el año fiscal 2015-2016 ($559,662) al 2018-2019

($1,207,202). Esto es muy importante porque allega al municipio los recursos que por ley tenemos y porque

el comercio loiceño aporta lo justo y también recibe servicios del municipio”, finalizó la ejecutiva municipal.

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Wednesday, November 4, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

A golden team, a terrible title and a show that vanished

By JESSE GREEN

H

ow do you top “West Side Story”?

If you’re Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins, the answer is: You don’t.

Well, you try. Ten years after the composer, the lyricist and the director-choreographer of that show (along with its book writer, Arthur Laurents) changed the musical theater with their contemporary take on “Romeo and Juliet,” they rejoined forces to develop another project.

The idea was Robbins’. He thought that one of Bertolt Brecht’s Lehrstücke, or teaching plays, could make a good musical, being short and pointed and fablelike. In 1967, he asked Sondheim to read “The Measures Taken,” the first in a collection of four translations, for possible adaptation. When Sondheim balked, finding the material too inert, Robbins told him to read the next play in the book.

That one, “The Exception and the Rule,” is about a rapacious oil merchant (read: capitalism) who races another merchant across a desert to win a lucrative deal. Accompanying him are a guide and a porter; when the three get lost, and the porter (read: exploited labor) tries to help the merchant, the merchant misunderstands the gesture and shoots him. Naturally, being of the ruling class, he is acquitted: Selfdefense, the judge decides, applies even if the threat is imaginary.

Sondheim, eager to work with Robbins, whom he called “the only genius I had ever associated with,” thought this story might work, even though he found most of Brecht, and especially the teaching plays, “insufferably simplistic.” In his book “Look, I Made a Hat,” he wrote that there was “too much Lehr in each stück” — too much teaching in each play — “to hold my attention.”

Indeed, his attention waned after “taking a stab” at two songs. Giving up, he suggested that Robbins get Bernstein to write both music and lyrics. But Robbins instead asked Jerry Leiber, the word half of the pop songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller, to work with the maestro. Although the odd couple did complete some numbers, the show stalled out. Most do, usually for their own good.

But “The Exception and the Rule,” as it was then called, had a gleam of possibility that kept it from dying completely. Perhaps it would be an exception itself, as “West Side Story,” which almost fell through several times, was in its day.

What looked like the key arrived when

Playwright John Guare backstage at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in Lincoln Center in New York, Oct. 23, 2010. Would you like to see a new musical from the people who brought you “West Side Story”? For better or worse, you probably never will. playwright John Guare, then known for surreal way-off-Broadway comedies, joined up with a great idea for the adaptation.

The story would now take place in a television studio where the Brecht play is being readied for broadcast. The tension between the star actor playing the merchant (who was to be white) and the supporting actors playing the guide and porter (who were to be Black) would parallel the class paranoia of the inner scenes, while adding an element of racial paranoia to the mix. Sondheim, noting that the Brecht would be chopped up by scenes set in the present, “and thus not be so relentlessly Brechtian,” rejoined the team.

By April 1968, a New York Times theater column trumpeted a January 1969 opening for the new musical. Later that year, the producers announced that Broadway star Zero Mostel would play the lead. It seemed a mere glitch in its inevitable success when, in October, the show, budgeted at $600,000 and now bearing Bernstein’s awful Spooneristic title “A Pray by Blecht,” was postponed until the following fall.

And then: nothing.

It was so dead that Bernstein, nine years later, describing it as “a big wonderful show that could have been,” got its title wrong. He called it “The Measures Taken.”

What happened? According to “Look, I Made a Hat,” in which Sondheim relates “almost all” of the tale, the golden collaboration

was “no fun at all”; he stepped away again after he and Bernstein, who treated him as if he were “still an apprentice” from “West Side Story” days, wrote eight songs. Robbins quit soon thereafter: In the middle of auditions, he excused himself to Guare and Bernstein, left the theater and took off in a cab to Kennedy Airport.

“I couldn’t tell anything about it,” he wrote, “except that it seemed (as I’d always thought it was) self-consciously Important instead of spontaneous and exuberant, which is the chief saving grace of any Brecht play (and was Brecht’s intention).”

Guare, who provided the necessary new lyrics, recently declined to comment on the experience, having “closed the door” on it ages ago.

One person was happy to comment, though: Mostel’s son Josh. In the 1987 workshop, he was cast (after Kevin Kline apparently withdrew) in the role originally intended for his father.

By the time the show was performed for invited audiences in May of that year, he recalled, Robbins had given up on the white ver-

sus Black theme; Joe Grifasi played the guide and Thomas Ikeda the porter, still unfortunately referred to as the “coolie.” But Brecht’s warning about the dangers of unlimited power remained — and not just in the coda, during which planted actors rose from the audience to sing about revolution. Robbins himself was a warning about unlimited power.

“Working with Jerry was torture,” Mostel said. “Thomas Ikeda literally passed out in my arms in rehearsal, from exhaustion. At our last show, Bernstein fell down the stairs trying to get out of there. Jerry was nasty even to Guare, a very sweet guy. He was so controlling and paranoid he wouldn’t tell us what time the performances were until right before they started.

“But I have to say the songs were brilliant.

And the book was one of the best of any musical I’d been in. Some friends brought a 6-yearold to the show, and he said, ‘Is that all?’ — which is a pretty good review. It should have moved forward, and the reason it didn’t is that no one could stand Jerry.”

Zero Mostel, right, rehearses “Fiddler on the Roof” with the director Jerome Robbins, at Lyceum Theatre in New York, July 13, 1964.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

21

The future according to Grimes

By EZRA MARCUS

G

rimes is thinking about a world without humans.

“Six million years from now you don’t want, like, Nazi propaganda, like, propagating through the universe,” said Claire Boucher, 32, the singer, songwriter and producer known as Grimes. “Like, that’s crazy.”

She cited experiments where machine-learning bots with artificial intelligence trained on Twitter ended up spewing hatred within days. It’s a warning, she believes, about what the future might hold.

“As soon as AI starts engaging, it puts responsibility on all of us to be better humans, because you know, humanity, in 10,000 years, humanity might be long gone,” she said. “And this might be the only consciousness in the universe. So it probably matters quite a bit what we feed it.”

Talking to the artist, who now goes by ‘c’ (a reference to the speed of light), feels a bit like drinking from a fire hose of science fiction prophecy. She speaks in rapid bursts about the fate of the human race, her mind stretching into the far reaches of time and space.

“OK, wait,” she said, after several minutes of theorizing about a post-human space Goebbels spreading fascism beyond the Oort cloud. “I feel like I’m getting into, like, talking about things I’m not supposed to talk about.”

Does she know something we don’t?

“I think I’m going down a dark path here. I think AI is great. I just feel like, creatively, I think AI can replace humans.

And so I think at some point, we will want to, as a species, have a discussion about how involved AI will be in art,” she said.

“Do we want to just sit around and just watch AI-created art all day? I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. This question opened a lot of doors. I’m now going to stop talking.”

Concerns aside, her answer as to whether humans should engage with AI-created art is, for now, a resounding yes. She spoke with The New York Times on a Zoom call alongside the team behind Endel, an app that says it uses artificial intelligence to generate ever-changing soundscapes to fit different moods. It has received funding from companies including True Ventures, an investment firm that bankrolled the Grimes collaboration.

Endel was founded in 2018 by a team of six, since expanded to 30, which includes programmers, musicians, artists and designers; they previously made a drawing app for children called Bubl. Endel users pay a monthly subscription to access a variety of soundscapes on the app, which, according to a manifesto on their website, provide a “tech-aided bodily function” to help people cope with a world where “information overload is destroying our psyche.”

“This is technology that helps you focus, relax and sleep,” said Oleg Stavitsky, the company’s chief executive. “It creates a sound environment in real time on the spot, on the device, personalized to you, based on a bunch of inputs. The algorithm that we have created — it takes in the time of day, the weather, the heart rate, movement, it plugs all of those inputs into the algorithm. And it creates that soundscape personalized to you in real time.”

Grimes had already been using the app to help with sleep; she ended up contributing a soothing, ambient soundtrack to the company that Endel calls an “AI Lullaby.” (It will be available on the app for the next eight weeks.)

Grimes said she was also inspired to work with Endel because of her search for “a better baby sleeping situation” for her 5-month-old son, X Æ A-XII Musk, whom she calls ‘X.’ (His father is her boyfriend, Elon Musk.)

“When you have a baby, you’re always using white noise machines,” she said. “It’s much easier to get them to sleep if you train them on some kind of audio situation. And so I was just like, could this be more artistic?”

X even helped Grimes with the music she produced for Endel; she used her baby as a sounding board. “The first version, there was too many sort of sharp bells, and it caused tears and just general chaos,” she said. As she fussed with the mix, “X would smile more and stuff.”

The music Grimes created was made up of stems — sonic building blocks — that eventually fed the app’s algorithm. Throughout the process of making it, she would send stems over, the Endel team would give feedback, and then she would send back new batches. Eventually, Endel’s programmers, sound designers and algorithm turned her contributions into an ever-shifting soundtrack.

The end result is a soothing, shimmery soundscape, with snippets of Grimes’ auto-tuned voice sprinkled throughout.

“I was basically personally just referencing ambient music I’ve heard, and then kind of trying to make it cuter,” she said. “It’s a bit sparklier, a bit nicer.”

Grimes spoke with The New York Times on a Zoom call alongside the team behind Endel, an app that says it uses artificial intelligence to generate everchanging soundscapes to fit different moods.

Canadian artist Grimes in Los Angeles, Oct. 24, 2020.

She draws a contrast between evolution as it has so far occurred on Earth — “it’s been like a survival-of-the-fittest kind of thing” — and the ways that AI machine learning works, which she feels is closer to intelligent design, the theory that the universe or life itself could not have been created by chance but must have been molded, at least in part, by a creative or spiritual force.

The actual potential of AI is a hotly debated topic among academics, some of whom think it will never achieve the kind of abilities that spur sci-fi dystopian dreams. The artist disagrees. “‘AI won’t be able to mimic the human spirit or whatever’— that’s what people keep saying to me, and it’s like, ‘I don’t know, man. We, like, video-talk through tiny black cubes, through space and time.’ And, you know, technology — I don’t think there’s an actual limit on technology. I mean, you look at Twitter and stuff. It’s like, AI can make people pretty emotional.”

FASHION The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, March 4, 2020 4, 2020 Wednesday, November 20 22

The TheSan SanJuan JuanDaily DailyStar Star

Ashley Graham talks breastfeeding, postpartum hair loss and her best beauty hack

By BEE SHAPIRO

C

ertainly supermodel Ashley Graham is stunning.

But Graham, 32, is also keeping it real, varied and interesting, whether on her Instagram account, her YouTube workout series or her podcast, “Pretty Big Deal,” which is back for Season 3 this week, where she hosts conversations with successful people she looks up to.

Here is a behind-the-scenes peek at how she does it all. Graham, who is also a Revlon ambassador, muses on her career, managing a 9-month-old baby and sticking to her COVID-adjusted beauty regimen.

Figuring Out Routines It’s a weird time. I’m a new mom, but I’m also figuring out how to live life at home. We moved to Nebraska when the pandemic hit. That’s where I’m from. It was my mom, my husband, my baby and me, and on March 13 we drove for 20 hours straight. We were there for six months. And we were all staying in the house I grew up in. It was very nostalgic for me. And I was so grateful that my husband was so kind to bear with me through all of it.

We’ve been back in New York now for maybe a month and a half. It feels so good to be back. I have a new-normal morning routine. I don’t set an alarm. I learned that from interviewing Arianna Huffington on my podcast. She said that the time from when you put your head down to when you wake up is your own. I don’t sleep with my phone next to me either. The baby monitor is my alarm, and I know Isaac will wake me up between 6 or 7. I feed him right away, and it’s morning snuggles time.

I’m ever-so-proudly breastfeeding. I put it on my social media all the time because I want it normalized in a way that is truly normal. We all eat in public, so why not breastfeeding? Once he’s close to a year old, I’ll probably stop. Isaac has four teeth now, so, buddy, if you’re going to bite me, we’re going to have problems.

Hair Issues I’m a nighttime shower girl. My morning routine is really prepped by my evening routine. I use whatever shampoo I can get my hands on that doesn’t have sulfates. To stimulate my hair follicles, I’ve been doing an apple cider vinegar rinse about once a week. It smells! If you go to the gym the next day, you’re going to sweat and smell like vinegar.

I go to sleep with my hair wet. I part it down the middle and then douse my head with John Frieda Dream Curls.

I’ve been using it since I was 15 years old. This is the only way I can get a full head of hair when I wake up in the morning.

Skin Care Devotee My favorite deodorant is the Crystal spray deodorant. I feel like it doesn’t mess with my pH, and it’s aluminum-free.

I also love the Flamingo spray moisturizer. It’s my biggest beauty mommy hack. It’s so fast — you spray it on. I feel so moisturized, and it smells like a hotel!

I use SkinMedica face wash. It’s light, and it gets any residue off my face. I use it morning and night. Then I use the skin toner by Vivant. It burns really bad. That’s how I know it’s working. Ha!

I think I have early signs of rosacea, so I’ve been looking into LED lights. I have the Dennis Gross one — it’s the face mask with all the LEDs. It makes me feel like I’m doing something helpful for my face.

I like to use skin care products that my skin idols use.

Tracee Ellis Ross, her skin looks phenomenal. She’s on Skinceuticals right now, so I’m on Skinceuticals right now. I’ve been using the Phloretin CF serum. It’s stinky, but again because it stinks, I know it’s working. Ha! Podcast Ready I’m shooting my podcast now. I’m getting some really good glam for that. I get my eyebrows dyed, so I don’t have to think about that. Otherwise, everything I wear for makeup is Revlon. If I need to be camera-ready, I wear the Candid Glow foundation in shade 270. I love that it’s coverage with a glow, and you don’t have to mix anything with it.

I usually use a concealer under my eyes and on my chin if I have acne — which, yes I do have right now! I like the SkinLights bronzer and the powder blush in Naughty Nude, but not too much. My eyelashes will stick straight out if I don’t do something about them. The So Fierce mascara pulls them up like Tammy Faye.

I don’t use eyeliner, but my favorite pro tip, whether for Zoom or a run to the grocery store — actually that’s a lie, I don’t always do this for the grocery store! — is something I learned on set. You use an eyebrow pencil in a muted

Model Ashley Graham at her home in New York, Oct. 23, 2020. Here is a behind-the-scenes peek at how she does it all.

Graham, who is also a Revlon ambassador, muses on her career, managing a 9-month-old baby and sticking to her Covid-adjusted beauty regimen.

brown, and you draw just on the outside of your upper lip.

It makes your upper lip look a little bigger, like you got lip filler, but it was $4.99 instead of $4,099.

Diet and Fitness Sometimes I think about diet, and other days I don’t.

Today, for example, I had Levain Bakery delivered. The chocolate walnut cookies are so good!

I worked out so hard during my pregnancy. I started a series called Thank Bod in my second trimester. It’s on YouTube. Every episode is only 15 minutes. I wasn’t finding anybody that looked like me online, and I wanted to make a point that working out is for any age and any size. I don’t want to look at ripped abs and toned arms — I will never look like that. I started modeling when I was 12 years old, and I was already a size 12. Now I’m a 32-year-old postpartum, size 16 mom, and my body is ever-changing, and so is everybody else’s, so why not showcase that?

I supplement that with boxing at Gleason’s Gym in Dumbo. It’s really tough. It’s not about losing weight but staying healthy, and that can also benefit your mental health. Working out and being able to move my body has been crucial for me, especially through the pandemic. We all need to release tension somewhere.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

23

Living in noisy neighborhoods may raise your dementia risk

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

L

ong-term exposure to noise may be linked to an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Researchers did periodic interviews with 5,227 people 65 and older participating in a study on aging. They assessed them with standard tests of orientation, memory and language, and tracked average daytime noise levels in their neighborhoods for the five years preceding the cognitive assessments. About 11% had Alzheimer’s disease, and 30% had mild cognitive impairment, which often progresses to full-blown dementia.

Residential noise levels varied widely, from 51 to 78 decibels, or from the level of a relatively quiet suburban neighborhood to that of an urban setting near a busy high-

way. The study is in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

After controlling for education, race, smoking, alcohol consumption, neighborhood air pollution levels and other factors, they found that each 10 decibel increase in community noise level was associated with a 36% higher likelihood of mild cognitive impairment and a 29% increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease. The associations were strongest in poorer neighborhoods, which also had higher noise levels.

The reasons for the connection are unknown, but the lead author, Jennifer Weuve, an associate professor of epidemiology at Boston University, suggested that excessive noise can cause sleep deprivation, hearing loss, increased heart rate, constriction of the blood vessels and elevated blood pressure, all of which are associated with an increased risk for dementia.

Let’s Talk About Constipation During Pregnancy

A lullaby by any other name C would sound as sweet

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

B

abies love lullabies, and a new study suggests they do not much care what culture the songs come from, what language they are sung in or even who sings them.

The study, led by Constance M. Bainbridge, a doctoral student at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Mila Bertolo, a researcher at Harvard University, enrolled 144 infants aged 2 months to 14 months. The scientists fitted the babies with heart rate and skin monitors, and tracked their eye movements while they listened to lullabies and nonlullabies they had never heard before.

The songs were in unfamiliar languages from 16 foreign cultures, half sung by men, half by women, all a cappella. You can hear the songs the babies heard at themusiclab.org/lullabies.

Whether the infants heard an Iroquois lullaby sung by a

woman in Cherokee, one in Hopi sung by a man, or a tune used to soothe babies among the Ona people of Patagonia, their responses were the same: their heart rates went down; their pupils became smaller; their skin electrical activity decreased. In short, when they heard lullabies, in whatever language and from whatever culture, they relaxed. With the nonlullabies, this did not happen. The study is in Nature Human Behaviour.

onstipation may be two to three times more common during and after pregnancy, Finnish researchers report.

The scientists studied 877 women having babies, comparing them with 201 nonpregnant controls of the same age. They rated the women on the Rome IV criteria for diagnosing constipation, which considers five symptoms, including the amount of straining at stool, sensations of incomplete defecation, the necessity of manual maneuvering required to defecate, the firmness of stool and the frequency of bowel movements. The study is in BJOG. Based on these criteria, 21% of the controls had constipation, compared with 40% of pregnant women and 52% of postpartum women. About 44% of women had constipation in the second trimester, and 36% in the third trimester. Fiftyseven percent of women who gave birth by C-section and 47% of those who gave birth vaginally were constipated at least for a few days afterward, but at one month postpartum, rates differed little from controls.

“For pregnant women, I would suggest that they talk about this symptom frankly,” said the senior author, Dr. Merja Kokki, an anesthesiologist at the University of Eastern Finland. “It’s more common in pregnancy than nausea and vomiting, which are always openly discussed. It’s a big problem that can cause difficult symptoms later in life — pelvic floor problems, uterine prolapse, urinary problems. These are things that can impair the quality of life.”

This response may be innate and not learned. “Since we found that relaxation response across all ages,” Bainbridge said, “that’s evidence for some evolutionary adaptive role of music.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Slow lorises are adorable but they bite with flesh-rotting venom

By RACHEL NUWER

W

ith their bright saucer eyes, button noses and plump, fuzzy bodies, slow lorises — a group of small, nocturnal Asian primates — resemble adorable, living stuffed animals.

But their innocuous looks belie a startling aggression: They pack vicious bites loaded with flesh-rotting venom. Even more surprising, new research reveals that the most frequent recipients of their toxic bites are other slow lorises.

“This very rare, weird behavior is happening in one of our closest primate relatives,” said Anna Nekaris, a primate conservationist at Oxford Brookes University and lead author of the findings, published in Current Biology.

Researchers are just beginning to untangle the many mysteries of slow loris venom. One key component resembles the protein found in cat dander that triggers allergies in humans. But other unidentified compounds seem to lend additional toxicity and cause extreme pain. Strangely, to produce the venom, the melon-sized primates raise their arms above their head and quickly lick

venomous oil-secreting glands located on their upper arms. The venom then pools in their grooved canines, which are sharp enough to slice into bone.

“The result of their bite is really, really horrendous,” Nekaris said. “It causes necrosis, so animals may lose an eye, a scalp or half their face.”

To get to the bottom of how slow lorises use their venom in nature, Nekaris used radio collars to track 82 Javan slow lorises, a critically endangered species in Indonesia. Like other types of slow lorises, Javan slow lorises form long-term mating pairs that occupy small territories containing one or several gum-producing trees.

Over an eight-year span, the researchers spent more than 7,000 hours monitoring their study subjects in a 2-square mile patch of forest. They recaptured the animals every few months for health checks.

Shockingly, across all captures, 20% of slow lorises had fresh bite wounds — oftentimes severe, flesh-rotting injuries that entailed a lost ear, toe or more. Males suffered more frequent bites than females, as did young animals

dispersing from their parents’ territories.

While necrotic wounds were a regular occurrence, predation was not; since 2012, the researchers have lost just one Javan slow loris to a predator, which was

a feral dog.

Nekaris and her colleagues concluded that slow lorises are remarkably territorial and that they frequently use their venom to settle disputes.

An undated photo by Andrew Walmsley of a male Javan slow loris named Alomah that was killed in a venomous battle with another slow loris.

Melting ice reveals mummified penguins in Antarctica

By MATT KAPLAN

I

While pebbles are an everyday find on other continents, it is rare to spot them in abundance on dry land in Antarctica. A key exception is found in Adélie penguin colonies, as the birds collect the small stones from the beaches to

n January 2016, Steven Emslie was finishing a season of studying penguin colonies living near Zucchelli Station, an Italian base in Antarctica. With the austral summer quickly coming to a close and all planned work completed, Emslie, an ornithologist at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, did what any good scientist would do with a few extra days in the Antarctic: He went exploring.

He had heard rumors of penguin guano on a rocky cape along the Scott Coast but knew of no active colonies there.

Emslie immediately knew he had stumbled upon something intriguing when he arrived. “There were pebbles A mummified Adélie penguin chick, diseverywhere,” he recalled. covered under melted ice in Antarctica.

build their nests.

Then Emslie saw the guano. Then he found the penguin corpses.

With feathers still intact and flesh having barely decayed, Emslie was stunned.

He collected some remains and took them back for carbon-dating analysis to work out when the birds had died.

With dates of death that ranged from 800 to 5,000 years ago, Emslie immediately realized that the guano, feathers, bones and pebbles had all been locked in place under layers of ice for centuries and that the “freshly dead” penguins were in fact recently defrosted mummies that had been swallowed by advancing snow fields long ago.

Emslie speculates in the journal Geology, where he reported his findings in mid-September, that cooling

temperatures drove a type of sea ice to form along the coast that persisted well into summer months. Known as “fast ice” because it “fastens” to the coastline, this sea ice makes it very difficult for penguins to gain access to beaches and prevents them from colonizing places where it occurs.

He said he thought the ice forced the colony to be abandoned but also suggested that warming temperatures might change things in the years ahead.

With Antarctic ice melting and sea levels rising, established penguin colonies are being forced to disperse to new places. Emslie suggests that the penguins could then return to sites like this one.

“They need pebbles for their nests, so they are going to find all the pebbles that are already on the land at this site very attractive,” he said.

The San Juan Daily Star nueve (839) del tomo doscientos ochenta y cinco (285) de ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO Dorado, finca número cinco mil DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU- ochocientos noventa (5,890), NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA inscripción catorce (14ta). Que SALA SUPERIOR D~ TOA AL grava la propiedad que se TA. describe a continuación: RÚSLEGACY MORTGAGE TICA: Parcela marcada con el ASSET TRUST 2019-PR1 número doscientos veinticuatro (224) en el plano de parcelaDEMANDANTE Vs. ción de la comunidad rural Rio ASSOCIATES Lajas del Barrio Rio Lajas del INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS CORPORA término municipal de Dorado, Puerto Rico, con una cabida TION; JOHN DOE y superficial de cero punto tres RICHARD ROE como dos nueve ocho (0.3298) cuerposibles tenedores das equivalentes a mil dosdesconocidos cientos noventa y seis punto DEMANDADOS doce (1,296.12) metros cuaCIVIL NUM. BY2020CV02965. drados. En BY2020CV02965 SOBRE: CANCELACION DE 25/09/2020 02:26:21 pm EntraPAGARE EXTRAVIADO. EM- da Núm. 3 Página 2 de 2 lindes PLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. por el NORTE, con parcelas ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉ- números doscientos veintisiete RICA EL PRESIDENTE DE (227) y doscientos veintiocho LOS EE. UU. EL ESTADO LI- (228); por el SUR, con la parceBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO la número doscientos veintitrés RICO SS. (223); por el ESTE, con zanja; A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD y por el OESTE . con la calle Rio Hondo y parcela número ROE como posibles tenedores desconocidos doscientos veinticinco (225).

Inscrita al folio ciento setenta POR LA PRESENTE se les y nueve (179) del tomo ciento emplaza y requiere para que veintisiete (127) de Dorado , finconteste la demanda dentro de ca número cinco mil ochocienlos treinta (30) días siguientes tos noventa (5,890) de Registro a la publicación de este Edicto. de la Propiedad Sección Cuarta Usted deberá radicar su ale(4ta) de Bayamón. SE LES gación responsiva a través del APERCIBE que, de no hacer Sistema Unificado de Manejo y sus alegaciones responsivas a Administración de Casos (SUla demanda dentro del término MAC)1 al cual puede acceder aquí dispuesto, se les anotará utilizando la siguiente dirección la rebeldía y se dictará Sentenelectrónica: http://unired.ramacia , concediéndose el remedio judicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se solicitado en la Demanda , sin presente por derecho propio, más citarle ni oírle. TOA ALTA en cuyo caso deberá radicar el Expedido bajo mi firma y sello original de su contestación ante del Tribunal en Toa Alta, Puerto el Tribunal correspondiente y Rico, a 20 día de OCTUBRE de notifique con copia a los abo2020. LCDA LAURA I. SANTA gados de la parte demandante, SANCHEZ SECRETARIA(O) LCDA. MARJALIISACOLÓN POR: VILLANUEVA A su dirección: PO. Box 7970 Ponce, PR. LEGAL NOTICE 00732. Tel: 787-843-4168. En ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO dicha demanda se tramita un DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUprocedimiento de cancelación NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA de pagare extraviado. Se alega SALA SUPERIOR DE CAMUY. en dicho procedimiento que se AMERICAS LEADING extravió un pagaré hipotecario FINANCE LLC a favor Associates IntematioDemandante, v. nal Holding Corporation, o a su orden, por la suma de veinte JOSÉ N. BARRETO mil dólares ($20,000.00), con VALES, SU ESPOSA intereses al trece punto nueve FULANA DE TAL Y LA seis cero por ciento (13.960%) SOCIEDAD LEGAL anual, vencedero el ocho (8) DE GANANCIALES de abril de dos mil veintiocho COMPUESTA POR (2028), según surge de la AMBOS escritura número doscientos Demandados noventa y siete (297), otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, CIVIL NÚM.: CM2020CV00200. el día tres (3) de abril de dos SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO mil ocho (2008), ante la nota- POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA Y rio Félix R. Figueroa Gabán y EJECUCIÓN DE GRAVAMEN cuya obligación está inscrita MOBILIARIO (REPOSESIÓN al folio ochocientos treinta y DE VEHÍCULO). EMPLAZA-

LEGAL NOTICE

@

Wednesday, November 4, 2020 MIENTO POR EDICTO. ES- SALA DE GURABO. TADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRIGRAN VISTA 2 CA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS HOMEOWNERS EE.UU. DE AMERICA EL ESASSOCIATION, INC. TADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE Demandante Vs PUERTO RICO.

A: JOSÉ N. BARRETO VALES, SU ESPOSA FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Quedan emplazados y notificados que en este Tribunal se ha radicado Demanda sobre cobro de dinero por la vía ordinaria y ejecución de gravamen mobiliario (reposesión de vehículo) en la que se alega que la parte demandada JOSÉ N. BARRETO VALES, SU ESPOSA FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS, le adeudan solidariamente a AMERICAS LEADING FINANCE LLC., por la suma de $8,649.66, más los intereses que continúa acumulando, más una suma razonable por concepto de honorarios de abogados, costas y gastos, según pactados. Se les advierte que este edicto se publicará en un periódico de circulación general una sola vez y que, si no comparecen a contestar dicha Demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del Edicto, 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, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia concediendo el remedio así solicitado sin más citarles ni oírles. El abogado de la parte demandante es el Lcdo. Gerardo Ortiz Torres, cuya dirección física y postal es: Cond. El Centro I, Suite 801, 500 Muñoz Rivera Ave., San Juan, Puerto Rico 00918; cuyo número de teléfono es (787) 946-5268, y su correo electrónico es: gerardo@bellverlaw.com. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, en Arecibo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 22 de octubre de 2020.

Vivian Y. Fresse Gonzalez, Sec Regional. F/Micheline Reyes Torres, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

25 RAMOS SEPÚLVEDA Demandante v.

BANCO POPULAR, como sucesor en Interés de DORAL MORTGAGE SAMAR SOTO SERRANO, CORP.; JOHN DOE & LLOYD P. MERCADO RICHARD ROE RODRÍGUEZ Y LA Demandado(a) Civil: GB2019CV00737. SALA: SOCIEDAD LEGAL 201. Sobre: CANCELACION DE GANANCIALES DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. COMPUESTA POR NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENAMBOS

Demandada Civil Número: GR2020CV00193. Sobre: COBRO DINERO REGLA 60. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.

A: SAMAR SOTO SERRANO, LLOYD P. MERCADO RODRÍGUEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS URB. GRAN VISTA II 73 PLAZA SIETE GURABO, PR 00778

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al Tribunal su alegación responsiva a la demanda por cobro de dinero de mantenimiento de la Urbanización dentro de los treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este edicto; el cual se publicará en un periódico de circulación general diaria durante una (1) sola vez. 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. PEDRO A. CRESPO CLAUDIO (RUA 17415) 282 Urb. La Serranía, Caguas, Puerto Rico 00725 Tel. 939-337-5550 ; FAX 939-337-5553 E-mail: pcrespo©emphatialaw.com POR ORDEN DEL JUEZ DE ESTE TRIBUNAL, hoy día 21 de octubre de 2020. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, hoy día 27 de octubre de 2020. CARMEN ANA PEREIRA ORTIZ, Secretaria. SANDRA J. TRINIDAD CAÑUELAS, Sec Auxiliar.

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

ANTONIA MILAGROS SEPÚLVEDA APONTE, MARIBEL RAMOS SEPULVEDA Y MCBETH

(787) 743-3346

CIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE & RICHARD ROE

(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 24 de marzo de 2020, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en 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 23 de octubre de 2020. En Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, el 23 de octubre de 2020 . LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SANCHEZ, SEC. REG. II. f/DIAMAR GONZALEZ BARRETO, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA REGION JUDICIAL DE BAYAMON SALA MUNICIPAL DE BAYAMON.

COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CREDITO DE LA INDUSTRIA BIOFARMACEUTICA Demandante V.

ROBERT OMAR RIVERA RIVERA

Demandado(a) CIVIL NÚM: BQ2019CV00205.

SALA: 500. SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO (REGLA 60).

EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA, EL PRESIDEN-

TE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. S.S.

A: ROBERT OMAR RIVERA RIVERA DIRECCIÓN: HC 01 Box 5230 Barranquitas, Puerto Rico 00794

POR LA PRESENTE, se le emplaza y se le notifica que una Demanda sobre Cobro de Dinero ha sido presentada en su contra y se le requiere para que conteste la misma

dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación del edicto, radicando el original de su contestación en el Tribunal correspondiente y notificando con copia de la misma a la parte demandante a la siguiente dirección: BUFETE APONTE & CORTES LCDA. ERIKA MORALES MARENGO PO Box 195337 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00919 Tel. (787) 302-0014 ¡(787) 239-5661 / Email: emarengo16@yahoo.com Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SU-

MAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se presente por derecho propio. Se le apercibe que de no hacerlo, el tribunal podrá dictar Sentencia en rebeldía concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin citarle ni oírle.

Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, hoy día 24 de febrero de 2020. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SANCHEZ, Sec Regional. Lureimy Alicea Gonzalez, Sec Auxiliar del Tribunal.

GOBIERNO DE PUERTO RICO DEPARTAMENTO DE TRANSPORTACIÓN Y OBRAS PÚBLICAS AUTORIDAD DE CARRETERAS Y TRANSPORTACIÓN OFICINA ASESORA, ADMINISTRACIÓN DE PROPIEDADES SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO RESOLUCIÓN A LOS DUEÑOS ANTERIORES, CAUSAHABIENTES, OCUPANTES LEGALES, ENTIDADES GUBERNAMENTALES Y OTRAS PERSONAS QUIENES PUDIERAN TENER DERECHO DE READQUIRIR LOS TERRENOS OBJETO DE ESTE AVISO PRIMERA: Por la presente se notifica que la AUTORIDAD DE CARRETERAS Y TRANSPORTACION se propone vender la parcela de terreno que se describe a continuación: RUSTICA: Parcela de terreno radicada en el Barrio Duque de Naguabo con una cabida de 0.4374 cuerdas, equivalente a 1719.1652 met ros cuadrados en lindes por el Norte, con la Autoridad de Carreteras y Transportación; por el Sur, co n la Autoridad de Carreteras y Transportación; por el Este con Inversion es Rafael A. Soto Inc. y por el Oeste, con la Autoridad de Carreteras y Transportación.

SEGUNDO: La parcela de terreno anteriormente descrita Consta inscrita al Folio 15, del Tomo 205, Finca 11,484 de Humacao, a favor de la AUTORIDAD DE CARRETERAS Y TRASPORTACION, adquirida mediante Expropiación Forzosa Número KEF-1995-0128 (708).

TERCERO: Que la Junta de Planificación de Puerto Rico, AUTORIZÓ esta transacción con el Número de Consulta 2010- 52-0168-JGT. CUARTO: Que la propiedad anteriormente descrita ha dejado de ser de utilidad pública y la venta de la misma constituye una transacción beneficios a para el interés público.

QUINTO: En cumplimiento con las disposiciones de la Ley Número 12 del 10 de diciembre de 1975, según enmendada, se notifica a los anteriores dueños, o en la alternativa a sus respectivas sucesiones o causa habientes, colindantes, municipios y otras entidades gubernamentales con interés en ejercitar el derecho preferente de adquirir la propiedad, que le concede la misma, lo informen por escrito al Secret ario del DEPARTAMENTO DE TRANSPORTACIÓN Y OBRAS PÚBLICAS dentro del término de treinta (30) días a contarse desde la fecha de la última publicación de esta Resolución.

Se notifica a los anteriores dueños o en la alternativa a sus sucesiones a la última dirección conocida con copia de este Edicto, por correo certificado con acuse de recibo la intención de la AUTORIDAD DE CARRETERAS Y TRANSPORTACION, de enajenar el predio de terreno antes descrito.

En San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 28 de octubre de 2020.

ING. CARLOS MAXIMINO CONTRERAS APONTE

26

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

This time the Sixers don’t need a process. They need patience.

By SOPAN DEB

T

he Philadelphia 76ers and Daryl Morey seem like an ideal match.

For the Sixers, who introduced Morey earlier this week as president of basketball operations, he is an executive who gives their front office instant credibility. And for Morey, the job is a chance to transform a franchise with marquee players into a championship contender.

But transformations require institutional buy-in from all corners of a franchise. Morey’s track record as an analytics-driven tinkerer willing to blow up “good” in order to be “great” may not jibe with other parts of the organization — the ones that judge or are judged on straight wins and losses, or that need wins to make money. And Philadelphia has been here before: Sam Hinkie, a Morey acolyte, took the reins of the Sixers in 2013 for an ill-fated partnership. Yet, with Morey, this can and should work. He will give the franchise much needed stability and direction. But it will require something owners always say they have but often don’t: patience.

The Morey pursuit began in earnest two years ago, when Philadelphia made a push for him to replace the ousted Bryan Colangelo but was rebuffed.

Morey, who helped usher in the analytics movement in the NBA, finally made his way to Philadelphia after unexpectedly announcing his intent last month to resign from the Rockets in Houston, where he had been general manager since 2007.

But just adding a big name to the front office won’t magically fix the Sixers, who were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Boston Celtics despite preseason championship aspirations. Afterward, the Sixers’ general manager, Elton Brand, announced that changes needed to be made “top to bottom” — including in the front office.

Morey is one of those changes. The Sixers also announced Monday that Brand had signed a multiyear contract extension, but he will most likely answer to Morey, and it is unclear how that dynamic will shake out. In August, Brand said “collaboration days didn’t work too well” with the front office last season.

Philadelphia, under Brand’s leadership, doubled down on going big in the frontcourt — with Joel Embiid, a franchise cornerstone, and Al Horford — while the rest of the league trended toward a smaller and faster style of basketball supported by analytics. No team embraced the concept more than Morey’s Rockets, who traded a productive center in Clint Capela in February to play a smaller lineup. While the Rockets often relied on 3-pointers for their offense, Philadelphia’s other franchise player, Ben Simmons, has shot just 24 of them in three seasons.

“The best way to win in the NBA is to take your talent and figure out how to utilize them best,” Morey

Joel Embiid, left, and Ben Simmons, right, of the Philadelphia 76ers are still early in their careers, but their growth seems to be stalling. said at a news conference Monday. “It’s not to take your talent and hammer it into a particular system.”

One insight into Morey’s style of thinking comes from before his time in Houston, when he was an executive with the Celtics. In the 2003-04 season, the Celtics were 36-46, made the playoffs as an eighth seed and were swept in the first round.

On whether the Celtics should have tanked, Morey told ESPN last year: “We should have. We didn’t.

We were trying to win every game. But that would have been a year to not be in the eighth seed.”

That’s Morey, at least partly. He would rather start from scratch than languish in mediocrity. (He has also since spoken out against tanking, saying it is bad for the NBA. There is an open question as to how radical the team’s ownership group will allow Morey to be. He made 77 trades in his 13 years in Houston, and his influence has made an impression in Philadelphia. In 2013, the Sixers hired Hinkie as team president and general manager, commencing an era known to Sixers fans as the Process. Hinkie based roster decisions on analytics and eschewed short-term gains for bigger, future ones. (Or, in NBA terms: The Sixers tanked.)

He honed that approach working alongside Morey in Houston from 2005 to 2013.

Hinkie focused on accumulating higher draft

picks and tradable contracts rather than wins. While Hinkie’s supporters argue that the Process was successful because it netted the Sixers Embiid and set up the pick to draft Simmons, his detractors said his strategy was detrimental to the league. In 2016, Hinkie resigned. When he was in charge, the Sixers were among the worst teams in the NBA. Two years later, Embiid and Simmons led the Sixers on a surprising run to the second round of the playoffs, which only further entrenched Hinkie as a cult hero among Sixers fans.

On a recent podcast with ESPN, Hinkie spoke glowingly of his friend Morey’s willingness to make unpopular moves.

“That kind of being willing to do the hard right thing, I think, is the kind of thing Daryl will help with a bunch,” Hinkie said. “He’s proven with patient ownership that he can be successful.”

Under Morey, the Rockets never had a losing season. He often opted to rapidly retool rather than wholly rebuild, such as by swapping Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook — “often” being the operative word. Morey kept the team competitive, seamlessly transitioning from the era of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady to one led by James Harden. To acquire Harden, though, Morey overhauled the roster, trading away several productive veterans and letting others leave in free agency.

The Rockets made the playoffs 10 times during Morey’s tenure, including two trips to the Western Conference finals. But Houston never made the NBA Finals with Morey, and critics have questioned whether his approach can build a champion, given that other teams rebuilt themselves and won rings in less time.

So there may come a time when Morey looks at Philadelphia’s dire salary cap situation and inconsistent superstar production and determines that retooling won’t be good enough, as he did before maneuvering to get Harden. The Sixers have no cap space, and two players, Horford and Tobias Harris, are signed to expensive, long-term deals that do not seem justified by their production last season.

“Our championship team probably isn’t going to have the same exact players that we have right now,” Morey said Monday. “Do I think that the players we have right now are very good and we can build around and continue to grow from there? I do believe that, absolutely.”

Morey is the kind of executive willing to pull the trigger on deals that would make his competitors squeamish. He is open to grand experiments, provided there is a statistical justification. Owners with egos and billions at stake might not take kindly if the results aren’t there right away.

Morey is likely aware of that. Take, for example, when he shared a tongue-in-cheek image of Hinkie on Twitter in May: His caption read, “He never got a chance to build.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

27

The new boss in the NFC West is Seattle

By KEN BELSON

T

he scramble among the Kansas City Chiefs, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens for supremacy of the AFC has dominated the headlines as the NFL reaches its halfway point, and for good reason: Combined, they are 19-3, with the Steelers the last remaining undefeated team.

The NFC is a very different picture, with the NFC East composed entirely of losing teams. Across the country, though, the NFC West is the league’s most competitive division, and superiority there has been decisively seized by the Seattle Seahawks, led by quarterback Russell Wilson, who may finally be on track to win his first Most Valuable Player Award.

With a 37-27 victory over the San Francisco 49ers, the defending conference champions, on Sunday, the Seahawks improved to 6-1 for the second time in franchise history, and the first time since 2013, the season they won their only Super Bowl title. The Seahawks are atop the league’s toughest division and have established themselves as the class of the conference.

Despite making it to six Pro Bowls, steering the Seahawks to the postseason seven times in his nine-year career and never missing a game, Wilson has never been in the running for an MVP Award.

This season may be different. His four touchdown passes Sunday gave him 26 for the year, first in the league, ahead of Patrick Mahomes’ 21 and one short of Tom Brady’s record for most passing scores through seven games. Wilson leads the league in quarterback rating, is just behind Mahomes in the key adjusted yards per pass statistic and ranks in the top five in completion percentage and yards passing. His 71.5 percent completion rate and 307 yards passing per game are career highs.

“I just keep swinging,” Wilson said of his bounce-back performance against the 49ers.

Wilson has never had a single vote for the MVP Award in his eight previous seasons. But his 26 touchdown passes are already more than the totals of 10 other quarterbacks who have been named MVP since 1970.

Wilson has been nothing if not consistent. He is 9242-1 as a starter, 32-8 in games after a loss. After their first loss of the season last week, in which Wilson threw three interceptions against the Arizona Cardinals, the Seahawks seemed eager to come out strong Sunday. Wilson found his new favorite wide receiver, D.K. Metcalf, early and often.

On his first score, a 46-yard catch-and-run, Metcalf showed the speed and elusiveness that have made him one of the league’s best receivers. After catching the ball on the left side, he sliced across the field, raced past 49ers defenders, then sprinted down the right sideline and into the end zone.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll likes his toughness.

“When he caught the ball on the crossing route, I was screaming they weren’t going to get him,” he said.

The slick score — Metcalf’s sixth of the year — also got rave reviews from LeBron James, who called the secondyear receiver Baby Bron on Instagram. In a caption to a picture, James wrote, “We built different.”

Metcalf is indeed different from most receivers. At 6

Russell Wilson about to throw a touchdown pass to receiver D.K. Metcalf despite pressure from Marcell Harris. feet, 4 inches tall, he is both tall and fast. Several 49ers defensive backs bounced off him Sunday, and two defenders were draped over him in the end zone when he caught his second touchdown of the game.

As for the 49ers, maybe it is the Super Bowl hangover.

Maybe the injuries, freakish or otherwise, have thrown them off track. Maybe their opponents have just gotten better at figuring them out. Whatever the reason, the team looks like a shell of the one that dominated the NFC last year. The 49ers slipped to 4-4, good for only last place in the tough NFC West.

The gap between the teams seems to grow by the week. Seattle has the top-ranked offense in the league, which has managed to offset a defense that is giving up the most yards per game in the NFL. Like last year, the 49ers still have a stingy defense. But injuries have hurt the offense, including ones to wide receiver Deebo Samuel and to running backs Raheem Mostert and Tevin Coleman, who left Sunday’s game with a knee injury.

The Seahawks shut down the 49ers’ run game Sunday and knocked out quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who aggravated an ankle injury, and tight end George Kittle, who left with an injured foot. The 49ers managed just 116 yards in the first half and turned over the ball twice. Most of their points and yardage came in the fourth quarter when Garoppolo’s backup, Nick Mullens, took over with the Se-

ahawks ahead by 23 points.

The 49ers continue an uneven season in which three of their four wins have come against the New York Giants, the New York Jets and the New England Patriots, who have combined for three wins this year. A rash of injuries has made it harder for the 49ers to compete against stronger teams. On defense, they are missing cornerback Richard Sherman, defensive linemen Nick Bosa, Dee Ford and Solomon Thomas, and safety Jaquiski Tartt, among others.

Coach Kyle Shanahan said injuries were no excuse. “I don’t think we played good as a group,” he said Sunday.

“We’ve missed players a number of times and that’s not a reason to go out there and not play well.”

With the NFL adding one more playoff team in each conference this season, the 49ers are by no means out of the hunt for the postseason. But because they had such a successful season last year, their schedule is harder than in previous years. Their next four games are against the Green Bay Packers, the New Orleans Saints, the Los Angeles Rams and the Buffalo Bills, who are 21-9 collectively.

In what amounts to a silver lining in a difficult season, several 49ers said they were happy to be facing the Packers on Thursday instead of Sunday so they would not have time to dwell on their humbling loss to the Seahawks.

“There’s definitely still a lot of fight left in this team,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

What we learned from week 8 of the NFL season

By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN

A

Green Bay Packers home loss to the lowly Minnesota Vikings. The Pittsburgh Steelers toppling the Ravens in Baltimore to stay undefeated. The Miami Dolphins and the Cincinnati Bengals pulling off wild upsets behind rookie quarterbacks.

The theme of Week 8 was to expect the unexpected, though the New York Jets proved to be a stabilizing force by losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in as ugly a fashion as predicted.

Here’s what we learned: — The Vikings may be rebuilding, but they’re all set at running back. Minnesota has taken its share of abuse during a rough start to the season. But general manager Rick Spielman has repeatedly rejected the idea that the Vikings are rebuilding, regardless of the team’s defensive woes, because no team with a running back as good as Dalvin Cook is rebuilding. Cook proved Spielman’s point — emphatically — in a 28-22 upset victory at Green Bay. Cook ran for 163 yards, picked up another 63 through the air and scored four touchdowns. Minnesota’s defense came out of nowhere to fluster Aaron Rodgers down the stretch, and while the Vikings’ record improved to only 2-5, the team earned some NFC North bragging rights.

— The Steelers are for real. Despite being the last undefeated team in the NFL, the Steelers had faced some lingering questions about how good they really were. Those questions will probably fade after the Steelers held on for a thrilling 28-24 win on the road in Baltimore. The Steelers conceded 265 yards rushing to the Ravens, but forced Lamar Jackson into several mistakes. Jackson, the reigning NFL Most Valuable Player, was intercepted twice and lost two fumbles. Baltimore still had a chance to win in the final seconds, getting all the way to Pittsburgh’s 23-yard line while trailing by four points, but Jackson’s final pass fell incomplete as time expired.

The Steelers have now matched their 1978 squad for the best start in franchise history, and the team would undoubtedly like it noted that it won the Super Bowl that season.

— Russell Wilson is building his case.

The Seattle Seahawks quarterback has never received a single vote for the Most Valuable Player Award, but he is up to 26 touchdown passes — in just seven games — which is only one fewer than Peyton Manning had in 2008 when he was named MVP. The total also matches or exceeds 10 single-season

outputs of other quarterbacks who have been named MVP since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. Wilson had four touchdowns in Sunday’s 37-27 win over San Francisco, which kept him comfortably ahead of Patrick Mahomes, who threw for five in a blowout win over the New York Jets to improve to 21 for the season.

— Tua Tagovailoa didn’t win as much as Jared Goff lost. On the second play of his first start, Tagovailoa of the Dolphins was welcomed to the NFL by the Rams’ Aaron Donald, who ripped the ball out for a stripsack turnover. Los Angeles capitalized with a touchdown on the ensuing drive, but then Goff self-destructed. He threw two interceptions and lost two fumbles, which allowed the Dolphins to reel off 28 consecutive points in a 28-17 victory. As the wheels fell off for Los Angeles, Miami rose up as a team.

The Dolphins scored on a 78-yard fumble recovery and an 88-yard punt return in addition to a pair of touchdowns from the team’s offense. Tagovailoa completed just 12 of 22 passes for 93 yards, but his career record is 1-0 just the same.

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

Steelers 28, Ravens 24: Baltimore was playing at home, and was up by 10 at halftime, only to have it all fall apart in the second half. Pittsburgh now has a commanding two-game lead over the Ravens in the ultracompetitive AFC North.

Bengals 31, Titans 20: Cincinnati was again without running back Joe Mixon, but Giovani Bernard did his part in the upset with 78 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns. The Bengals have a way to go before anyone will be scared of them, but coach Zac Taylor got his first career win over a team with a winning record and the Bengals matched their 2019 win total (two).

Vikings 28, Packers 22: Minnesota gave Aaron Rodgers the ball down by six with 47 seconds remaining at Lambeau Field. All too many times in Rodgers’ career a setup like that meant Green Bay was about to storm to victory. This time, the Vikings’ beleaguered defense held strong, allowing a few completions before getting a devastating strip-sack from D.J. Wonnum that sent the ball flying and allowed the clock to run out.

Broncos 31, Chargers 30: Justin Herbert seemed well on his way to his first career winning streak by having his team leading by 24-10 entering the fourth quarter. But Los Angeles managed just two field goals in the final 15 minutes, while Denver’s Drew Lock responded with three touchdown passes,

Dalvin Cook seemed remarkably comfortable in Green Bay, Wis., piling up four touchdowns and pulling off a fanless version of the Lambeau Leap. including a 1-yarder to K.J. Hamler as time expired. The score — along with the extra point — gave the Broncos a crucial win at home.

Seahawks 37, 49ers 27: It wouldn’t be Sunday if the 49ers didn’t lose a running back to injury, and they kept that bad luck going by having Tevin Coleman — who was playing in his first game since Week 2 — ruled out after hurting his knee. By the end of the game, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and tight end George Kittle left with injuries as well.

Colts 41, Lions 21: Jordan Wilkins picked up the bulk of the Colts’ yardage on the ground, but his fellow running back Nyheim Hines stole the show with a pair of receiving touchdowns, each of which he celebrated with gymnastlike floor routines in the end zone.

Chiefs 35, Jets 9: After failing to cover an outrageous 19.5-point spread in this blowout, the Jets fell to 0-8 for just the second time in franchise history, a feat that matched the 1996 Jets, who finally won in Week 9.

A “Monday Night Football” matchup against the reeling Patriots is theoretically the team’s best bet for a win for this year’s Jets as well, though even that is far from a given.

Dolphins 28, Rams 17: Miami didn’t get

big offensive yardage the way it did with Ryan Fitzpatrick under center, but the team increased its winning streak to three games, outscoring opponents by 95-34 in that stretch.

Bills 24, Patriots 21: Josh Allen was limited once again, and Buffalo barely held off New England despite the Patriots missing several key players. The Bills have a solid lead in the AFC East, but it’s worth noting that their point differential for the season is -1, while the second-place Dolphins are +58.

Saints 26, Bears 23 (OT): Wil Lutz won the game in overtime with a 35-yard field goal, but the lasting memory from this one will be wide receiver Javon Wims slapping at safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson’s helmet before unloading for a few seemingly unprovoked punches. Wims paid for the aggression by having Janoris Jenkins ride him like a bull and was subsequently ejected.

Raiders 16, Browns 6: A chilly day in Cleveland led to a remarkably quiet day from teams mostly known for high-scoring games.

Somewhat surprisingly, Las Vegas looked far more comfortable grinding things out than Cleveland did, getting 128 yards on the ground from running back Josh Jacobs on a day when neither team’s quarterback threw for even 125 yards.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

29

Sudoku How to Play: Fill in the empty fields with the numbers from 1 through 9.

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

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

GAMES

HOROSCOPE Aries

30

(Mar 21-April 20)

You’re looking to the future and moving past disturbing memories and old disappointments.

Go with the need to get ahead in the world now. Take the initiative and get going with plans you have been thinking about for some time. Be assertive and let others see the confidence you have in your abilities.

Taurus

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

(April 21-May 21)

Before making a joint decision you need to think about how this might affect both of your lives. There may be a surprise when someone you hadn’t regarded as being a close friend proves to be more understanding than your partner or best friend. They will give you some excellent advice and their words will be a comfort to you.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

Do your best to stay calm in an emotional situation. You may have to find the words to soothe a volatile friend. Take a logical approach to get them to see there is nothing for them to get worked up about. You get on well with people who are practical and pragmatic and you will find their company soothing.

Scorpio

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Are you expecting too much from someone you recently met? They may not share your standards which can be impossibly high at times but they will be doing their best and that’s what’s important. Someone could take your suggestions as criticism. Offer encouragement and the results will delight you.

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

A travel offer or party invitation causes a dilemma. Either you are supposed to be someplace else or you are hesitant due to travel advisories for your intended destination. Leave arrangements loose and tell other people you will get back to them nearer the time instead of agreeing to anything definite.

An older colleague’s refusal to adapt to new policies is causing tension in the workplace. You never expected them to be the one to throw a spanner in the works. Keeping an upbeat attitude will help avoid contention as you hammer out a workable compromise. Taking out a small insurance policy will give you piece of mind.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

A new job closer to where you live or working from home will help you save more money.

Not only are you saving by cutting down on car and travel costs but also in travel time. You have more energy to pursue your favourite hobbies. Use your charm and powers of persuasion to get what you want.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

So many possibilities are now available that you’re finding it hard to make a choice. An attitude of gratitude will attract new work and social opportunities. It should be fun to explore unfamiliar territories. A senior colleague who respects your work ethic will offer you a plum assignment. Are you looking for work?

Devote more time developing your craft.

Even when a partner or close friend is getting on with their duties and obligations without involving you, it doesn’t mean they don’t need you. Your family and friends will appreciate your support. Take time to listen. When you hear about what they have been going through, you won’t be able to turn them away.

In testing and challenging times, be your normal self. Keeping calm and taking a practical overview of the situation will help you use all your good points to the best advantage.

A friend who has never been good in a crisis will be glad to have you around.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

You’re wary of someone who is trying too hard to please you. Their excessive praise is starting to get on your nerves. You want to be your best with people without feeling they have put you on a pedestal. You appreciate help when it is offered but, in some areas, you will prefer to get on alone.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

You’re being admirably cautious when it comes to spending. You have learned the hard way how it is important to keep on top of finances. You are determined to pay off all your debts and this will give your life a sense of stability and order. Professionally, you need a fresh challenge. Taking on a difficult assignment will lead to a promotion.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

The San Juan Daily Star

Ziggy

32

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

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