Wednesday Oct 21, 2020 by The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

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Yldefonso Solá Solá Morales Morales Yldefonso Stadium in in Caguas Caguas Stadium Coming Back Back to to Life Life Coming

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CVM Candidate: Romero Can’t Manage a City Where Sexual, Gender-Based Violence Cases Are Skyrocketing

A Dead PersonVoted? PDP Calls Out Possible Electoral Fraud in Luquillo P4

If in Money We Trust

Senate Finally Makes Public Its List of Salaries, Some Very (Very) Lucrative $5,000 to Supervise the Coffee Room?

NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 19

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

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October 21, 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.

Senate’s hefty salaries finally made public

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$5,000 a month for supervising the coffee room? By THE STAR STAFF

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fter unsuccessfully battling in court to keep the salaries of the upper chamber’s employees under wraps, Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz published on the Senate’s web page Tuesday the list of its employees with name, position, date of employment, appointment and salary. Superior Court Judge Anthony Cuevas Ramos dismissed the Senate’s contentions that releasing the information could put the lives of employees in jeopardy or that the task was too onerous following a lawsuit filed by Eva Prados Rodríguez, who is running for the District 3 seat in the island House of Representatives under the Citizen Victory Movement banner. A quick examination of the information released shows that it does not include Senate employees who were appointed during the Extraordinary Session. The list contains the names of individuals whose salaries range from $7,000 to more than $10,000 per month, but for a majority of the employees the salaries were lower. One of the highest salaries listed was that of electoral comptroller Manuel Torres Nieves, who earns a salary of $10,500 per month. The salary is not that different from what he was making in his previous position as Senate secretary at the beginning of the current four-year term. Another employee who earns more than $10,000 a month is the executive director of the Senate Office of Federal, Social and Economic Affairs in Washington, D.C., Carmen Feliciano, who receives a monthly compensation of $13,730. The special assistants to the president’s office, María Santiago and Christian Saavedra, are listed at $8,500 a month and $7,000 a month, respectively, while the salaries of other special assistants did not exceed $4,000. At the Office of Legislative Advisors, Alicia Alvarez, director and legislative adviser, is listed with a salary of $9,000 per month. The assistant director of that office, Jorge Rivera, appears with a

salary of $6,500 a month. However, an employee identified as María del Mar Mateu exceeds the salary of the assistant director, at $7,000 a month. Meanwhile, in the office of the Secretary of Administration, Alex Muñiz Lasalle, the secretary, is listed with a salary of $8,500 per month. At the Office of Finance and Financial Affairs, the director is listed with a salary of $7,300 a month but the assistant secretary of the Undersecretary’s Office receives about $7,500 per month. The director of the Transactions and Records Office, Madeline Rivera, who has been working at the Capitol for over 20 years, is listed with a salary of $7,000 a month, while Senate Sergeant at Arms Manuel Vélez has a salary of $8,000 a month. Also in the Sergeant of Arms Office, but assigned to the coffee room, its supervisor Juan C. Rodríguez Miranda has a salary of $5,000.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

CVM candidates: NPP SJ mayoral candidate is ‘not capable of managing the capital city’ Nogales says Romero mishandled harassment case against ex-Guaynabo mayor’s son; Romero calls accusations ‘acts of desperation’ By PEDRO CORREA HENRY Twitter: @PCorreaHenry Special to The Star

itizen Victory Movement (CVM) at-large candidate for the Puerto Rico House of Represenatives Mariana Nogales Molinelli and San Juan Municipal Assembly candidate Mari Laura Rohena Cruz said Tuesday that New Progressive Party (NPP) candidate for mayor of San Juan Miguel Romero is not capable of managing “a city where gender and sexual violence are more exacerbated day by day.” The candidates allege that Romero exonerated Héctor O’Neill Rosa in an investigation that was part of a sexual harassment case against the son of former Guaynabo Mayor Héctor O’Neill García. “We want the people of Puerto Rico to know the final judgments that Miguel Romero has in terms of sexual harassment. We remind you all that, in the case of Héctor O’Neill’s son, he [O’Neill Rosa] was indicted for sexual harassment in both administrative and judicial terms. In the specific case of Miguel Romero, he

was the one who conducted an investigation of the accusations as Guaynabo’s then-examining officer, as it was an administrative investigation,” Nogales Molinelli said. “From the administrative investigation, allegedly, there was a report submitted. It would be good to know the content of the 30-page report that Romero makes reference to, to see if he conducted a [thorough] enough investigation to provide a basis for exonerating him [O’Neill Rosa].” The House at-large candidate added that, in terms of an administrative investigation, it would require “robust and convincing proof to make this determination” and that such proof would represent enough to remove the indicted from their position. Nonetheless, she said, that wasn’t what happened in this case. “This sexual harassment case that Romero did not handle well on an administrative level cost around $1 million to both the city and its constituents in public funds,” Nogales Molinelli said. “When the defendants don’t want to go forward with a lawsuit, they pay a nuisance fee, which consists of what they would save on attorney fees, which is different from a milliondollar transaction.” The attorney also said that, usually, agreements to settle such cases have confidentiality clauses; in a case where there is a transaction to litigate, she said, $2,000-$5,000 would be a common settlement.

“A $1 million transaction is settled to silence and cover what happened,” Nogales Molinelli said. Meanwhile, Rohena Cruz said the candidates were not calling on Romero, a sitting NPP senator, to respond regarding the aforementioned matter, but rather wish to remind citizens of the capital city to take it into consideration when they cast their vote on Nov. 3. “This is unforgivable. We can’t ignore these matters, we can’t let people who have such a record assume a leadership role either in the city or the Capitol,” Rohena Cruz said while demanding that the central government declare a state of emergency in response to a significant rise in gender violence on the island. Romero, meanwhile, said in a written statement that the CVM candidates’ accusations were “an act of desperation.” Furthermore, he said, the submitted report was based on the information that was provided to him at the beginning of the investigation. “At that stage, all of the evidence that was presented to the Court four years later was not available,” Romero said. “In fact, the federal [Equal] Employment Opportunity Commission, which also considered this matter at its inception, did not issue a determination on the allegations presented.” The NPP candidate for mayor of San Juan and former island Labor and Human Resources

secretary said the CVM is only continuing “its defamatory attacks, wanting to create a ball of smoke around my accomplishments as a lawyer and as a professional.” “My legal services to that Municipality [Guaynabo] occurred five years ago when the complaint of a municipal employee began to be aired. In that administrative stage, all the evidence was never presented, and subsequently [it was] submitted in the federal court trial. They were two different processes in nature and purpose,” he said. “Cases are exclusively evaluated by the Court based on the evidence presented. The sentence issued in federal court was determined after additional evidence was [introduced] that was never presented in the initial process, including expert evidence, mostly on events that occurred after my work as Examining Officer.”

PDP calls out NPP Luquillo electoral commissioner over possible electoral fraud Sen. Torres announces electoral transaction involving person who died in 2019 By PEDRO CORREA HENRY Twitter: @PCorreaHenry Special to The Star

opular Democratic Party (PDP) Sen. Aníbal José Torres and Luquillo Mayor Jesús “Jerry” Márquez Rodríguez demanded on Tuesday that New Progressive Party (NPP) Luquillo mayoral candidate Luis Rodríguez and his municipal electoral commissioner, Jan Febo Cabrera, explain irregularities involving two registered mail-in early voting transactions in the northeastern coastal municipality. Torres said one of the transactions involved Evelyn Cabrera Becerril, who is Febo Cabrera’s deceased aunt who died on Sept. 22, 2019 in Oklahoma. Torres said she was registered to Unit 10 from Precinct 100 in Luquillo in the State Elections Commission (SEC) electoral roll and had transactions from two Permanent Registration Board offices on Sept. 26 and Oct. 10 of this year. Furthermore, the senator said, the SEC authorized an early voting request via mail-in because a list from the Absentee and Early Voting Administrative Board (JAVA by its Spanish acronym) confirmed Cabrera Becerril was currently registered. “Currently, Febo Cabrera lives in Los Paisajes Urbanization, where his deceased aunt was enrolled; however, even though he lives in his aunt’s home, in electoral terms, he is enrolled in the SEC as living in the Alamar Urbanization. The transactions

made by Cabrera Becerril in September and October not only involved requesting Early Voting, but also requested that the ballots be sent to the NPP electoral commissioner’s immediate neighbor in the Alamar Urbanization,” Torres said. “This act is a violation of several articles of the Electoral Law at the local and federal levels. Today, we request that both SEC Chairman Francisco Rosado Colomer and the Federal Bureau of Investigation initiate an investigation into what happened.” Meanwhile, Márquez said the other scheme involved the NPP Luquillo municipal assembly candidate’s sister, Lyanne Febo Cabrera, who allegedly resides in Bastrop, Texas, based on a post on her Facebook profile that she early voted in the U.S. presidential elections. However, she also appeared registered in the JAVA list to early vote via mail-in in Luquillo using her brother’s electoral residential address.

“This is an act of corruption; this [public] servant has the ministerial duty to defend his city’s democracy,” Márquez said. “We’re releasing these remarks because what is happening in Luquillo could also be happening in other parts of the country. We must be wary of what’s occurring.” The Luquillo mayor added that the current Electoral Code states that the described situations are considered violations and carry criminal penalties of fines and even jail. Among the articles that could be violated are 12.1, 12.10 and 12.19, all related to illegal voting and double voting, as well as failure to comply with the provisions of the law. In addition, Márquez read to reporters that, at the federal level, “the events reported constitute crimes such as conspiracy to promote false registration, provide false information for the purpose of establishing eligibility to register to vote, conspiracy to injure citizens in the exercise of their constitutional rights, and fraud by mail through the transmission of fake voting forms, among others.” When a member of the press asked how a matter like the Luquillo situation was not brought to Rosado Colomer once he was appointed as SEC chairman, Torres replied that “it is one of the consequences brought about by Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz’s Electoral Code.” “The electoral commissioner and the mayoral candidate know the law and the procedure to follow; however, apparently they decided to circumvent it to exercise a vote that is clearly illegal,” Torres said. “These are the results of the approval of an Electoral Reform in a hurry and without consensus.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

UTIER says District Court ruling in favor of LUMA-PREPA deal not final By THE STAR STAFF

he Electrical Industry and Irrigation Workers Union (UTIER by its Spanish acronym) said Tuesday that the U.S. District Court ruling giving administrative expense status to some $60 million in front-end transition fees does not mean the court has given the green light to the contract the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) signed with LUMA Energy Inc. to manage the utility’s transmission and distribution system, or that the public-private agreement is a done deal. “This is not a final decision because the ruling refers to the transitional period,” UTIER Vice President Freddyson Martínez said. “This ruling does not proceed [further than that] and it is just one step in dozens of conditions that need to be met for the contract to move forward. Of course, we will continue to fight this contract.” Public Private Partnership Authority Executive Director Fermín Fontanés said “with this determination, the advance payment expense for the transition process is authorized, as well as the claim for any accumulated amount that corresponds to that payment.” “This determination will facilitate LUMA’s work during the transition phase,” he said. In a ruling Monday, Judge Laura Taylor Swain granted PREPA’s request for the front-end transition payments to LUMA Energy to be declared an administrative expense, which means they will be paid before other debt. The transition period in the 15-year contract is expected to last until June 2022.

The payments are meant to cover LUMA’s costs related to transitioning in a new management team, administrative activities, budgeting, and establishing customer service protocols, stated Taylor Swain’s order approving the expenses. Swain, nonetheless, withheld approval of 2 percent late fees for any potential overdue payments included in PREPA’s contract with LUMA, finding that the government had not shown that such payments “categorically constitute actual and necessary costs of preserving PREPA and therefore [would be] eligible

for administrative expense priority status.” The order leaves the door open for PREPA to win approval for late fees if it can come back with evidence supporting its administrative expense claim. Several PREPA creditors, such as the Unsecured Creditors Committee, have objected to giving administrative expense status to the LUMA payments in part because of a provision that provides for a $115 million termination fee that would be paid to LUMA Energy if the contract is not implemented by October 2021. But Swain disregarded the objections.

AAFAF: All funds received for annual COFINA debt payment By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

inancial Advisory Authority and Fiscal Agency Executive Director Omar J. Marrero Díaz announced Tuesday that the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp. (COFINA by its Spanish acronym) has received all of the funds for making the annual payment to its bondholders. The funds come from the initial collections of 5.5 percent of the sales and use tax (IVU by its Spanish acronym), in ac-

Financial Advisory Authority and Fiscal Agency Executive Director Omar J. Marrero Díaz

cordance with the COFINA Adjustment Plan. Marrero Díaz, who is the top financial official of the island government, said COFINA has received and deposited in Mellon Bank of New York, as trustee of the COFINA bonds, the income from the IVU for fiscal year 2021. “Our government is committed, not only to seeking financial aid for all of us who live on this island, but also to fulfilling its fiscal responsibility,” Gov. WandaVázquez Garced said. “We want to get out of bankruptcy as soon as possible, and steps like these are important in order to achieve that.” COFINA revenues collected from July 1 through Oct. 19 totaled $454,472,448. “Once again we highlight our commitment to the restructuring agreements reached, coupled with the effectiveness of our tax administration, which is reflected in the collection for payment to COFINA bondholders,” Marrero Díaz said. “This management is another significant step on our fiscal path and toward access to capital markets.” Puerto Rico Treasury Secretary Francisco Parés Alicea noted meanwhile that the island government completed the payment to COFINA that is made under the Adjustment Plan less than four months into the current fiscal year, which began July 1. “Having successfully achieved this goal a second time and

in record time is a source of great satisfaction for us,” he said. COFINA Executive Director Carlos M. Yamín added that “COFINA’s independent board of directors and its management highlight as an achievement that [COFINA] has reached this goal for the second consecutive year.” “With this, the success of COFINA’s restructuring is demonstrated,” he said.

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Wednesday, October 21, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

DDEC, BDE reduce interest rate on loans aimed at young entrepreneurs By THE STAR STAFF

conomic Development and Commerce (DDEC by its Spanish acronym) Secretary Manuel Laboy Rivera and Economic Development Bank (BDE by its Spanish initials) President Pablo Muñiz Reyes signed a collaborative agreement on Tuesday that reduces to 3 percent the interest that is paid on loans under the “Young Entrepreneur” initiative of the DDEC’s Youth Development Program (PDJ by its Spanish initials). “After discussions with the Economic Development Bank, we agreed to reduce the interest [rate] on the loan, which was previously eight percent,” Laboy Rivera said in a written statement. “We urge young people with business plans to orient themselves and apply for this loan, which will now have a low interest rate of 3 percent, on or before November 9. Since we announced the availability of $1 million to help the establishment of 100 micro-businesses, 30 cases have been processed and of these 23 loans are close to completing the banking process, so that $230,000 will be disbursed soon, under the new interest rate.” Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced noted that “through ‘Young Entrepreneur,’ applicants will receive funds to

Economic Development and Commerce Secretary Manuel Laboy Rivera direct their business proposals.” “This initiative translates into investment and job creation, which follows one of the main objectives of our administration, to empower youth and offer them viable alternatives so that they can be part of the economic development of Puerto Rico,” she said. The BDE president said “the mission of this admin-

istration is to ensure that Puerto Ricans can implement their business dreams.” “It is part of the mission of the Economic Development Bank to achieve financial products that are accessible to youth and others in the midst of a pandemic,” Muñiz Reyes said. “The interest achieved is historic, very attractive and competitive in the market. I know that with this initiative we will be able to promote a new generation of entrepreneurs and they in turn will help the country promote economic development and job creation.” The initiative has gone into effect by way of Law 35 of 2003, which orders the creation of a loan program aimed at young people for the development of small businesses. PDJ Director Roberto Carlos Pagán Santiago said “the young people who can qualify for this program are those who are going to develop new businesses, between the ages of 21 and 29 years, and who meet the requirements established by our program and the Economic Development Bank.” “The ‘Young Entrepreneur’ loan is subject to the availability of funds,” he noted. “For this reason we invite those interested to request the aid on or before the established deadline.”

Flu shot fairs slated for next 2 Fridays in Toa Baja, Toa Alta By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

en. Carmelo Ríos (District II-Bayamón) announced Tuesday a free vaccination initiative against influenza in communities in his district as part of a health project to promote prevention. “As we know, the influenza season has already started and is expected to reach its highest point between November of this year and February 2021. For this reason, we undertook the task of establishing curbside, drive-through vaccination fairs, health alternatives for high-risk communities in the district I represent,” Ríos said. “There is no doubt that prevention is the most effective option for tackling these

conditions and through events like this we will continue to convey the message.” The Puerto Rico Department of Health will be in charge of supplying the vaccines, while the Physicians & Surgeons Association will provide the medical staff to administer them. Rapid tests for COVID-19 will also be available for patients who are at possible risk of infection and first responders. The fairs will be held this Friday, Oct. 23, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the San José de Toa Baja neighborhood community center, and on Oct. 30 in the Las Acerolas community in Toa Alta, thanks to the collaboration of its community board. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), influenza is one of the top 10 causes of

death in the United States annually. In addition, the CDC estimates that from October 2019 to April of this year, about 56 million people in the United States were infected with influenza, of which about 62,000 died.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Voters prefer Biden over Trump on almost all major issues, poll shows By ALEXANDER BURNS and JONATHAN MARTIN

oe Biden holds a 9-point lead over President Donald Trump amid widespread public alarm about the trajectory of the coronavirus pandemic and demand among voters for largescale government action to right the economy, according to a national poll of likely voters conducted by The New York Times and Siena College. With just two weeks left in the campaign, Trump does not hold an edge on any of the most pressing issues at stake in the election, leaving him with little room for a political recovery absent a calamitous misstep by Biden, the Democratic nominee, in the coming days. The president has even lost his longstanding advantage on economic matters: Voters are now evenly split on whether they have more trust in him or Biden to manage the economy. On all other subjects tested in the poll, voters preferred Biden over Trump by modest or wide margins. Biden, the former vice president, is favored over Trump to lead on the coronavirus pandemic by 12 points, and voters trust Biden over Trump to choose Supreme Court justices and to maintain law and order by 6-point margins. Americans see Biden as more capable of uniting the country by nearly 20 points. Overall, Biden is backed by 50% of likely voters, the poll showed, compared with 41% for Trump and 3% divided among other candidates.Most of all, the survey makes clear that crucial constituencies are poised to reject Trump because they cannot abide his conduct, including 56% of women and 53% of white voters with college degrees who said they had a very unfavorable impression of Trump — an extraordinary level of antipathy toward an incumbent president. His diminished standing on economic matters and law and order is a damaging setback for the president, who for much of the general election has staked his fortunes on persuading Americans that a Biden administration will leave them impoverished and unsafe. But that argument has not managed to move the electorate in his direction. Nor, according to the poll, have Trump’s efforts to tarnish Biden’s personal image and make him unacceptable to swing voters. Fifty-three percent of voters said they viewed Biden in somewhat or very favorable terms, compared with 43% who said the same of Trump. A majority of voters said they saw Trump unfavorably, with 48% viewing him very unfavorably. The margin of sampling error for the poll, which was conducted from Oct. 15 to 18, was 3.4 percentage

points. Part of the shift away from Trump on the economy may stem from voters’ urgent hunger for new relief spending from the federal government — which Trump has nominally endorsed but which he has not sought actively to extract from congressional Republicans. Seven in 10 voters, including more than half of Republicans, said they wanted to see a new multitrilliondollar stimulus program that includes government support for citizens and emergency help for state and local governments. There is also widespread public support for a $2 trillion renewable energy and infrastructure package that Biden has proposed as a form of economic stimulus. Trump retains a few important bastions of support, most notably among white voters without college degrees, who continue to favor him over Biden by 23 percentage points. But that lead is far narrower than the advantage Trump held among less-educated whites in 2016, when those voters preferred him over Hillary Clinton by 37 points. Biden is on track to win with the overwhelming support of women, people of color and whites with college degrees. If women alone voted, the election would be a landslide of epic proportions: Biden is ahead of Trump among female voters by 23 points, 58% to 35%. And unlike four years ago, the Democratic nominee is leading Trump among white women by a formidable margin, 52% to 43%. Kathryn Jorgensen, 51, a registered Republican in Brookfield, Wisconsin, said that she did not vote for Trump in 2016 and would not do so this year. Trump, she said, has been “so divisive” throughout his tenure as president. “The important thing is bringing the country back together and addressing the divisions affecting people like racial equity,” Jorgensen said.

A rare spot of welcome news for Republicans came on the subject of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court: While more voters said they would like to see Biden choose future justices, rather than Trump, a plurality of voters also said that the Senate should vote on Barrett’s nomination before the election. Voters were about evenly split on Barrett as a nominee, indicating that the Supreme Court fight had not given a clear electoral advantage to either party. But a sizable number of voters — about 1 in 7 — gave no opinion, suggesting the court fight had not become an allconsuming issue. Forty-four percent of voters supported Barrett’s nomination, 42% opposed it, and the remainder declined to take a position. If Biden win the election, it remains to be seen whether he will be a compelling enough president to meld a broad array of anti-Trump constituencies into a sturdy governing alliance. Cassandra Williams, 21, of Greenville, North Carolina, said she saw Biden as a flawed candidate who might nevertheless be sufficient for the moment. A college student majoring in chemistry, Williams said she hoped he would focus on the coronavirus and climate change at the outset of his presidency. “If his opponent wasn’t President Trump, he would be a subpar candidate,” said Williams, who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the Democratic primary race. The poll shows that Trump is facing widespread rebuke because he has not met the great challenge of his presidency. Voters remain deeply concerned about the virus, with 51% of those sampled saying they feared the worst of COVID-19 was still to come, and just 37% saying they believed the worst was over. Among voters over 65, a bloc that has drifted away from Trump, the difference was even starker: Fifty-six percent said they worried the worst was still to come, and only 29% said the opposite. Even more striking was the disconnect between Trump’s cavalier approach toward wearing a mask to guard against the virus and the broad support to mandate the practice in public. Voters supported mandatory mask-wearing, 59% to 39% overall, and among women support for a mandate grew to 70%. Among voters over 65, 68% favored it, and even about 30% of Republicans said they backed a nationwide requirement. There was also hesitation on taking an eventual vaccine for the coronavirus, with 33% saying they would definitely or probably not take a vaccine after it was approved by the FDA.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Trump and Biden will be muted for parts of their next debate By MICHAEL M. GRYNBUM

his time, the candidates will get the silent treatment. The microphones of President Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be muted during portions of the final presidential debate Thursday, the organizers said late Gobierno de Puerto Rico

DEPARTAMENTO DE RECURSOS NATURALES Y AMBIENTALES

AVISO AMBIENTAL INTENCIÓN DE EMITIR PERMISO DE OPERACIÓN PARA UN SISTEMA DE INYECCIÓN SUBTERRÁNEA La peticionaria, Sra. Marisol Santana, Presidenta Asociación de Residentes de Puertas del Combate, cuya dirección postal es Buzón ADM- 196, Boquerón, Puerto Rico 00622, ha solicitado al Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (DRNA) la renovación del Permiso de Operación para un sistema de inyección subterránea (SIS) Clase VC-1, bajo las disposiciones del Reglamento para el Control de la Inyección Subterránea (RCIS), y la Ley Federal de Agua Potable Segura, según enmendada 42 USC 300f et seq. (LFAPS). El SIS 001 consiste de una planta paquete de tratamiento secundario diseñadas para tratar 44,700 galones por día, precedidas por cuatro tanques de aeración con una capacidad de 7,210 galones cada uno, dos tanques decantadores secundario con capacidad de 7,210 galones cada uno, un tanque con una capacidad de 7,210.0 galones, la mitad se usara como cámara de cloración y la otra mitad se usará como digestor aeróbico, un tanque de digestor aeróbico con una capacidad de 7,210.0 galones y un tanque de almacenamiento de las aguas tratadas con una capacidad de 7,210. para la disposición de aguas sanitarias provenientes de la instalación. El referido SIS, está ubicado en la Carretera 3301, km 0.6, Sector Combate, Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. Luego de realizada la evaluación correspondiente de los documentos sometidos, el DRNA tiene la intención de emitir la renovación del Permiso de Operación para la instalación antes indicada , en conformidad con los requisitos del RCIS y de la LFAPS. Esta notificación se hace para informar que el DRNA, ha preparado el borrador de los permisos de forma tal que el público interesado pueda someter sus comentarios con relación al mismo. Los permisos contienen las condiciones y prohibiciones necesarias para cumplir con los requisitos reglamentarios aplicables. El público puede evaluar copia de la solicitud de permiso que sometió el peticionario ante el DRNA, el borrador del permiso y otros documentos relevantes en la Oficina Regional de Mayagüez (ORM) cuya oficina está localizada en la Carr. PR-2, Km 164, Edificio Plaza Monserrate, en Hormigueros, Puerto Rico. Copia de dichos documentos pueden adquirirse en la Oficina de Secretaría localizada en el Edificio de Agendas Ambientales Cruz A. Matos, Urbanización San José Industrial Park, Ave. Ponce de León 1375, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00926 o en la ORM, entre las 8:00 am y las 4:00 pm de lunes a viernes o escribiendo a la dirección: Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales. Las partes interesadas o afectadas pueden enviar sus comentarios o solicitar una vista pública por escrito al Gerente del Área de Calidad de Agua, Directora de la ORM y al Secretario del DRNA, respectivamente, a la dirección antes indicada. Los comentarios por escrito o la solicitud de vistas públicas deberán ser sometidos a la DRNA, no más tarde de treinta (30) días a partir de la fecha de publicación de este aviso. La fecha límite para someter comentarios puede ser extendida si se estima necesario o apropiado para el interés público. La solicitud para una vista pública deberá señalar la razón o las razones que en la opinión del solicitante ameritan la celebración de la misma. De realizarse una vista pública los interesados o afectados tendrán una oportunidad razonable para presentar evidencia o testimonio sobre si se emiten o deniegan los permisos, eI Secretario determina que dicha vista es necesario o apropiada.

Secretario Aprobado por la Autoridad Nominadora, Certificación CEE-SA-2020-5576 del 21 de febrero de 2020. Este anuncia 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. ' Plaza Monserrate, Carr. 2, km 164 Int.. Hormigueros, PR 00660 Departamento de Recursos NaturaIes y AmbientaIes / Oficina RegionaI de Mayagüez San José Industrial Park, 1375 Ave. Ponce de León, San Juan PR 00926 787.999.2200 • 787.445.8903 www.drna.pr.gov

Monday, in an unusual effort to avoid the unruly spectacle of the candidates’ first meeting in Cleveland last month. The debate’s rules remain the same: Each candidate will be allotted two minutes to initially answer the moderator’s questions. But the Commission on Presidential Debates said it would turn off each candidate’s audio feed while his rival had the floor. Once each candidate has delivered his two-minute reply, Trump and Biden, the Democratic nominee, will be allowed to freely engage with each other for the remainder of each 15-minute segment, with both microphones fully functional. The incoherence of the first debate — during which Trump’s relentless interruptions of Biden and the moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News, derailed the proceedings — put pressure on the nonpartisan debate commission to improve enforcement of the rules, despite its members’ long-standing reluctance to change any aspects of the debates in the middle of a campaign. The moderator of Thursday’s debate in Nashville, Tennessee, Kristen Welker of NBC News, will not be in control of turning the candidates’ microphones on and off; that task will be left to the commission’s production crew. There is also the potential for a new kind of gaffe: Trump’s voice may be picked up by Biden’s microphone, and vice versa, meaning that an attempted interruption may still be heard, at least faintly, by viewers watching at home. In a statement, the commission said it had acted out of concern that the first debate had fallen short, “depriving voters of the opportunity to be informed of the candidates’ positions on the issues.” But it also acknowledged that the two campaigns, which were notified only shortly before the announcement, might not “be totally satisfied.” “We are comfortable that these actions strike the right balance and that they are in the interest of the American people, for whom these debates are held,” the commission said. Trump and his aides have signaled deep hostility to any outside control of his microphone at the debate, even sending a belligerent letter to the commission calling it “completely unacceptable” for “an unnamed person” to shut off a microphone. Late Monday, Trump told reporters on Air Force One, “I just think it is very unfair,” according to a pool report. He added, “It is very unfair that again we have an anchor who is totally biased.” The president’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, said Trump was “committed to debating Joe Biden regardless of last-minute rule changes.” But he also accused the commission of adopting the microphone rule to aid Biden, part of a days-long effort by the Trump campaign to undermine the integrity of the commission and to paint it as biased toward the Democratic candidate. Earlier Monday, Stepien — who mockingly referred to the nonpartisan commission as the “Biden Debate Commission” in a tweet — claimed that the commission had

“promised” that the debate Thursday would be about foreign policy and asked for it to discard the six subjects announced last week by Welker, the moderator. (The topics are the coronavirus, climate change, national security, leadership, “American families” and “race in America.”) In fact, the debate organizers did not announce such a plan to focus on foreign policy, saying that the third debate would mirror the format of the first, with six subjects selected by the moderator. (It is true that in some campaign years, the third presidential debate has focused on foreign policy.) A Biden spokesman, T.J. Ducklo, said Monday that Stepien had sent the letter “because Donald Trump is afraid to face more questions about his disastrous COVID response,” adding: “The campaigns and the commission agreed months ago that the debate moderator would choose the topics.” Stepien’s letter did not mention baseless accusations that Trump has made that Welker, a respected White House correspondent, is biased. Trump’s aides, including a top adviser, Jason Miller, have previously spoken warmly about Welker, calling her “a very good choice” to oversee the debate. The debate commission has had a tumultuous year. Its attempt to hold a virtual debate in Miami over coronavirus concerns prompted Trump to withdraw; that debate was eventually canceled, and the candidates held separate televised town hall events instead. Alan Schroeder, an emeritus professor of journalism at Northeastern University who wrote a history of presidential debates, said Monday that the microphone change “sounds good in theory, but I don’t see it as solving the problem.” “There might be — might be — two uninterrupted minutes for each candidate in the opening stretches of each segment, but then what?” Schroeder asked. “Both participants must agree to a common vision of what the exercise is supposed to be. As long as one of the candidates fails to accept the basic premise of ‘I listen while you talk, you listen while I talk,’ the essential problem remains.”

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, at the first presidential debate in Cleveland on Sept. 29, 2020.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Justice Dept. says Trump’s denial of rape accusation as an official act By BENJAMIN WEISER and ALAN FEUER

he Justice Department said Monday that President Donald Trump should not be sued personally for having denied a rape allegation because he made the statement while acting in his official capacity as president. Lawyers for the government made the argument as they defended Attorney General William Barr’s decision to intervene in a defamation lawsuit filed in a New York court against Trump by E. Jean Carroll, a writer. Carroll has said that Trump raped her in a department store two decades ago and then falsely denied the attack while in office, branding her a liar and harming her reputation. But Justice Department lawyers say that even though the allegation concerns an incident that occurred decades before Trump became president, his denial was still an official act because he “addressed matters relating to his fitness for office as part of an official White House response to press inquiries.” “Given the president’s position in our constitutional structure, his role in communicating with the public is especially significant,” the Justice Department wrote, adding, “The president’s statements fall within the scope of his employment for multiple reasons.” On Sept. 8, the Justice Department took the highly unusual step of seeking to intervene on Trump’s behalf even though the lawsuit concerns a claim of defamation stemming from an event that allegedly occurred in the 1990s, long before Trump became president. Using a law designed to protect federal employees from defamation suits when they perform their duties, Barr sought to transfer the lawsuit from state court to U.S. District Court in Manhattan and to substitute the federal government for Trump as the defendant. That maneuver, if approved by a judge, would have the practical effect of dismissing Carroll’s lawsuit because government employees enjoy immunity from most defamation claims. Earlier this month, Carroll’s lawyers attacked the effort in court papers, asking a federal judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, to reject it. “There is not a single person in the United States — not the president and not anyone else — whose job description includes slandering women they sexually assaulted,” Carroll’s lawyers wrote. In its filing Monday, however, the Justice Department argued that Trump had not slandered Carroll but merely rebutted her allegations. That fell within the scope of his official role as president, the department said, because a claim of rape — even a false one — could have an impact on his job. Carroll’s allegations “sought to call into question the president’s fitness for office and a response was necessary for the president to effectively govern,” the Justice Department said. “The president’s challenged statements were directly relevant to his role as president and leader of the executive branch.” The controversy over the case even arose during a presidential campaign event last week, when the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, alluded to it, among other examples,

E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers have said that President Trump should respond to her suit as a private citizen and that the Justice Department should not be allowed to intervene in the case. to accuse Trump of treating the Justice Department “as if it’s your own law firm.” “‘I’m being sued because a woman’s accusing me of rape. Represent me. Represent me,’” Biden said sarcastically, as if speaking in the president’s voice, adding, “What’s that all about?” A day after the requested transfer of the case, Barr told reporters in Chicago that it was routine to substitute the government as the defendant in lawsuits against federal officials and that the action was taken at the White House’s request. “The law is clear,” Barr said. “It is done frequently. And the little tempest that’s going on is largely because of the bizarre political environment in which we live.” In their court papers attacking the government’s move, Carroll’s lawyers, Roberta A. Kaplan and Joshua Matz, acknowledged that while it may be typical for the government to take the place of low-level federal employees like letter carriers when they are sued, it was not normal to do so for the president. Carroll, a longtime advice columnist for Elle magazine, wrote in a book published last year and in excerpts in New York magazine that Trump attacked her in a dressing room in the luxury Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s. According to Carroll’s account, Trump had stopped her and said, “Hey, you’re that advice lady!” She claimed Trump threw her against a wall, pulled down her tights, opened his pants and raped her. In response, Trump denied that he had ever met Carroll

and accused her of lying, adding, “She’s not my type.” In a written statement, Trump also said Carroll was “trying to sell a new book.” He added, “It should be sold in the fiction section.” In her lawsuit, filed in November, Carroll said Trump’s defamatory statement had led her to lose goodwill and the support of her readers. The defamation suit is a legal tactic that at least one other woman, Summer Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice,” Trump’s reality television show, has adopted in an effort to force the president to give a sworn deposition about her allegation that she was sexually harassed. Several women accused Trump of sexual harassment and assault during the 2016 election; he denied all the allegations, calling them liars. In the Carroll lawsuit, Trump, initially represented by private lawyers, tried to delay the case on grounds that as a sitting president, he was immune to civil lawsuits in state court. But in August, a New York state judge, Verna L. Saunders, denied his request. She cited a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court this summer, which rejected a claim by Trump that, as president, he was immune from a state criminal investigation. That dispute arose after the Manhattan district attorney’s office subpoenaed Trump’s accountants for his tax returns. The judge’s ruling meant that Trump would have to provide a DNA sample, as requested by Carroll’s lawyers, to determine whether it matched material on the dress Carroll said she was wearing during the encounter.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Virus cases spike in New Jersey, threatening ‘lurch backward’

Coronavirus cases in New Jersey, an early epicenter of the pandemic, are on the rise again, doubling over the last month to an average of more than 900 new positive tests a day, a worrisome reversal of fortune for a state that had driven transmission rates to some of the nation’s lowest levels. By TRACEY TULLY and MICHAEL GOLD

manda Rosa contributed reporting. Coronavirus cases in New Jersey, an early epicenter of the pandemic, are on the rise again, doubling over the past month to an average of more than 900 new positive tests a day, a worrisome reversal of fortune for a state that had driven transmission rates to some of the nation’s lowest levels. After an outbreak several weeks ago in a heavily Orthodox Jewish town near the Jersey Shore, cases are now rising in counties across the state, driven, officials say, by indoor gatherings. The state’s health commissioner has said there are signs of “widespread community spread” for the first time since New Jersey successfully slowed the spread of a virus that has claimed the lives of more than 16,000 residents. A small, densely packed state, New Jersey has the highest virus fatality rate in the country. Gov. Philip D. Murphy said Monday that residents should refrain from all but necessary out-of-state travel. “The numbers are up,” Murphy said. “They’re up — up and down the state.” Under a quarantine policy adopted by New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, New Jersey now exceeds the threshold — an average of 10 cases for every 100,000 re-

sidents for seven days — used to determine which states should be included in the travel advisory. Thirty-eight other states are on the list. The uptick comes as other parts of the Northeast and states across the country are confronting similar surges of infections and hospitalizations as the pandemic stretches into its eighth month, with a death toll that now exceeds 219,000, according to a New York Times database. Murphy, who has been conservative in allowing the state to reopen, said he would consider targeted shutdowns to curb the spread, as Connecticut and New York have done, but he suggested that would not cure the problem. The new cases, he said, do not appear linked to reopened schools or businesses, and are instead believed to be connected with private indoor gatherings that are harder to regulate. Murphy and the state’s health commissioner, Judith M. Persichilli, warned that cases could continue to climb as the weather cooled and people shifted their activities indoors, where the risk of spread was higher. “It is understandable that residents want life to go back to normal,” Persichilli said. “But as we approach a holiday season, now is the time to double down on social distancing, wearing face coverings and good hand hygiene.” In New York, the rate of positive virus tests was 1.21% on Monday, compared with 3.36% in New Jersey.

Over the past seven days, Connecticut has seen an average of more than 375 cases per day, according to data collected by The Times, and a seven-day average positive test rate of 1.9%. In response to higher rates of infection in parts of New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered shutdowns in certain neighborhoods in New York City and in parts of Rockland and Orange Counties. Asked Monday if New York intended to bar travelers from New Jersey, Cuomo said that was unlikely. “You can’t do border patrol with New Jersey and Connecticut,” Cuomo said. Even though many businesses are still asking employees to work from home, plenty of people still travel every day among the three states. In Connecticut, 11 municipalities have been labeled “red” — meaning they had a two-week rolling average of 15 positive cases of coronavirus per 100,000 people. Towns and cities in the red zones must cancel public events and postpone indoor activities and outdoor activities where social-distancing or mask wearing is not possible. “The state-by-state quarantine is complicated,” said Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut, noting the town-by-town differences within each state. Weeks ago, New Jersey officials dispatched extra contact tracers to Ocean County on the Jersey Shore and set up a testing site at a baseball stadium to confront a large outbreak that was thought to have been linked to religious gatherings in Lakewood, New Jersey. Cases there remain stubbornly high, but the virus is also now spreading throughout the state. Murphy called the trend “sobering”: Five of the state’s 21 counties each reported more than 100 new cases Monday. The seven-day average of new cases has not been this high since late May, and the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 also is increasing slightly. On Sunday, the state reported 1,282 new cases of the virus. On Monday, there were 1,192, including more than 100 each in Ocean, Essex, Union, Middlesex and Bergen Counties. Still, Murphy continues to face pressure to reopen the state more fully. He had suggested last week that he was preparing to relax the limits on indoor dining beyond the current 25% occupancy limits, offering a lifeline to restaurants struggling to stay afloat. Most schools in the state are offering only partial inperson instruction, and classes in many districts remain entirely online. But last week, he said schools could move ahead with full-contact indoor winter sports like wrestling and basketball. On Monday, he acknowledged the risk of sending “mixed messages” about reopening at a time when virus cases were on the rise. “Things are on the table,” he said, referring to indoor dining, “but we’re looking at community spread.” “I don’t want to take a step and have to lurch backward,” he added.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Intel casts off more of its memory chip business in $9 billion deal By DON CLARK

ntel moved to further distance itself from its original business, reaching a deal to sell a remaining memory chip unit to SK Hynix of South Korea for $9 billion. The transaction, announced Monday, includes Intel’s most important factory in China. But it excludes a proprietary memory technology that the company has been promoting as an important tool for accelerating speeds in cloud data centers. Intel for decades has been known for supplying the microprocessors that serve as calculating engines in most computers. But Intel was founded in 1968 mainly to make memory chips, which store data in all kinds of electronic devices. Those components are largely interchangeable and come from multiple suppliers, which compete fiercely on price and subject the market to boom and bust periods. So Intel, starting in the 1980s, began retreating from segments of the memory business to focus efforts on more profitable microprocessor sales. The deal with SK Hynix focuses on chips known as NAND flash memory, which store data in smartphones, computers and many other products. Intel’s flash memory business has been doing well lately, with revenue up 76% in the second quarter owing to factors like pandemic-related spending on personal computers.

The deal announced on Monday with SK Hynix, a South Korean company, involves NAND flash memory chips, which store data in a variety of devices. But Intel, which has recently suffered from manufacturing problems, has at other times been hurt by drops in flash memory pricing. Robert Swan, Intel’s chief executive, previously signaled that it might seek a partner or acquirer for the unit. “Memory is never a great business,” said Jim Handy, a market researcher with Objective Analysis. The deal with SK Hynix is “a very natural step” for Intel, he added.

Intel primarily makes flash memory chips at a factory in Dalian, China, though the company also conducts related development work in New Mexico. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Monday that the companies were close to a deal. A news release issued in the evening by SK Hynix said it would make an initial $7 billion payment to acquire both the Dalian factory and NAND flash business as well as a related business selling storage drives that use the chips. Until a final closing of the deal, not expected until March 2025, Intel will continue to make chips at the Dalian factory, the companies said. After the close, SK Hynix will make a final $2 billion payment and receive other assets, including intellectual property needed to make the chips. The deal does not include rights to a memory technology called 3D XPoint, developed in a joint venture with Micron Technology, which offers higher data transfer speeds than conventional NAND flash. That technology, which Intel markets under the brand name Optane, “is Intel’s crown jewel in the memory sphere,” said Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates. Intel has spent billions of dollars perfecting the technology, Handy said, but the latest quarterly results suggest it may no longer be selling the chips at a loss.

Profit reports may provide antsy investors a new focus By MATT PHILLIPS

nvestors have gone from betting on another round of trillion-dollar stimulus spending, to hoping a Democratic sweep in November will remove any uncertainty about the election, to worrying about yet another upward trend in COVID-19 cases in the United States and Europe. Now, something far more mundane could help drive stock prices: earnings season. The roughly one-month period, which brings a flurry of financial results from public companies, is upon us. It’ll be a chance to see how corporate bottom lines have been affected by the still uncontrolled pandemic. Analysts are predicting that the companies in the S&P 500 will report a decline in profits of about 20% for the three months through September, compared with the same period last year. That would be ugly. But it would be an improvement from the 32% tumble that profits took during the second quarter, which was one of the worst quarters for earnings since 2009, when the United States was suffering a deep recession.

The numbers in earnings reports are always an estimation game on Wall Street, with results graded on a curve compared with the expectations that investors and analysts hold. So when expectations are deeply negative, a notas-bad result can fuel stock market gains. In the last reporting season, which got underway in July, a record number of companies did better than expected. That lifted the stock market to a high, even as a fresh coronavirus wave was slamming the economy. The S&P 500 rose 5.5% in July and 7% in August, hitting its highest point in early September. A similar less-bad-is-good dynamic could be in store for investors over the next few weeks. Wall Street banks reported their results last week, and they were much better than expected. (On the other hand, airlines Delta and United posted disappointing numbers, even when factoring in the already diminished expectations because of COVID-19.) This week, the pace of reporting will pick up, with companies like Netflix, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, AT&T and Intel scheduled to release results. Analysts will scour that news for clues about economically im-

portant issues, such as whether further cost-cutting plans are coming down the pike, potentially weighing on economic growth. Right now the predictions are that companies in industries that are sensitive to short-term economic swings, including industrial equipment companies and airlines, will produce the worst results over the next few weeks. While those in industries such as health care, consumer staples and technology — relatively insulated from the vicissitudes of the COVID economy — will fare better. Either way, don’t expect corporate chiefs to be too chatty about the outlook for the future, given the scale of the uncertainty. “Most managements will still be reluctant to provide forward earnings guidance,” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a preview last week of the next few weeks of results. “The uncertain timeline of a vaccine that is essential for the normalization of the economy, the stalled talks between the Trump administration and Congress on an interim fiscal package, and the contentious election that is only 25 days away are all valid reasons for executives to minimize forward-looking commentary.”

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Oil industry turns to mergers and acquisitions to survive

An oil well near Loco Hills, N.M. on Aug. 14, 2020. With the acquisition of Concho Resources, ConocoPhillips will become a major player in the world’s most lucrative shale field, the Permian Basin. By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

he once mighty oil and gas industry is flailing, desperately trying to survive a pandemic that has sharply reduced demand for its products. Most companies have cut back drilling, laid off workers and written off assets. Now some are seeking out merger and acquisition targets to reduce costs. ConocoPhillips announced Monday that it was acquiring Concho Resources for $9.7 billion, the biggest deal in the industry since oil prices collapsed in March. The acquisition, days after the completion of Chevron’s takeover of Noble Energy, would create one of the country’s biggest shale drillers and signals an accelerating industry consolidation as oil prices languish around $40 a barrel, just above the levels many businesses need to break even. Just last month Devon Energy said it would buy WPX Energy for $2.6 billion. But many investors are not sure such deal making will be enough to protect the industry from a sharp decline. The share prices of ConocoPhillips and Concho closed down by about 3% on Monday. The big problem is that the fortunes of oil companies are fundamentally tied to oil and natural gas prices, which remain stubbornly low. Few experts expect a full recovery of oil demand before 2022, and some analysts have gone so far as to declare that oil demand might have

peaked in 2019 and could slide in the years to come as the popularity of electric cars grows. “There’s a lot more red ink than there is black gold,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research, who periodically advises the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. “Companies are trying to hunker down and weather the storm. Most people don’t think the oil price will recover for a couple of years.” More than 50 North American oil and gas companies with debts totaling more than $50 billion have sought bankruptcy protection this year. Among the casualties was Chesapeake Energy, a shale pioneer based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. More failures could come in the next two years as companies are required to repay tens of billions of dollars in debt. Oil companies are facing daunting uncertainties, particularly as concerns over climate change mount and governments impose tougher regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Small companies fear a crackdown on methane leaks and tightening regulations, especially if former Vice President Joe Biden becomes president and Democrats take control of the Senate. European oil companies have already begun pivoting away from oil and gas, plotting investments in renewable energy like wind and solar to attract new investors. While those companies have had limited success so far, American

companies have for the most part stuck with their traditional businesses. They have adapted to low oil and gas prices by slashing investments by 30% or more. The oil and gas rig count has dropped by 569 since last fall, to only 282 operating across the country. Oil companies are hoarding cash and renegotiating contracts with service companies that drill and complete wells. Rig rental rates are down roughly 10%, pressuring the companies that do the field work. More than 100,000 American oil workers have lost their jobs in recent months. ConocoPhillips, the largest American independent oil company, has been something of an outlier, recently raising its dividend and buying back shares. Nevertheless, ConocoPhillips’ stock price has dropped by roughly half so far this year. The company is a major producer in the Bakken shale field of North Dakota and the Eagle Ford shale field in South Texas. By acquiring Concho, it will become a major player in the world’s most lucrative shale field, the Permian Basin, which straddles West Texas and New Mexico. With Concho’s 550,000 acres in the Permian, ConocoPhillips will more than triple its 170,000-acre position in the basin, which became the world’s most productive oil field last year. Concho is little known outside Texas but became a major oil producer after it bought RSP Permian for $9.5 billion in 2018. Concho produced more than 300,000 barrels in the second quarter. “Together ConocoPhillips and Concho will have unmatched scale and quality,” said Ryan M. Lance, ConocoPhillips’ chairman and chief executive, referring to their joint balance sheet, resource reserves and personnel. The deal would help make ConocoPhillips one of the largest players in the Permian, putting it in the same league as companies that are much bigger than it overall. “The combination is remarkable,” said Robert Clarke, a vice president and oil analyst at Wood Mackenzie, a research and consulting firm. “Just in regards to scale, ConocoPhillips is adding enough Permian production to nip at the heels of ExxonMobil’s massive program.” American oil production fell to 11.2 million barrels a day in September from 13 million at the beginning of the year. The Energy Department expects production to fall an additional 200,000 barrels a day by mid-2021 as companies drill fewer new wells to replace older ones. The industry has no choice but to cut back. Americans drove 12.3% fewer miles in August than they did a year earlier, according to the Transportation Department. Globally, daily oil consumption was down more than 6% in September from a year earlier, according to the Energy Department. Oil production continues to outpace demand, keeping inventory levels high and prices low. And the pandemic is not yet under control in many parts of the world. If sustained, the recent increase in coronavirus infections in the United States, Europe and elsewhere could reduce demand for oil and gas even further in the coming months.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

13 Stocks

Stimulus bets drive Wall Street higher

all Street’s main indexes climbed on Tuesday on growing signs that U.S. lawmakers were making headway in their talks over stimulus to support an economic recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was optimistic Democrats could reach a deal with the White House that could get aid out by early next month. She added there should be an indication of a possible agreement later on Tuesday. Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will also talk at 3 p.m. ET (1900 GMT) on Tuesday, according to a source. “Visibly there is optimism that the stimulus deal is going to be done at the end of the day,” said Matthew Stucky, portfolio manager, equities at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Uncertainty over the coronavirus aid package weighed on Wall Street’s main indexes on Monday and analysts expect market turbulence to increase with only two weeks left until Election Day. Latest national opinion polls pointed to a victory for Democratic challenger Joe Biden, though the contest is closer in swing states that decide elections including Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, the third-quarter earnings season has gathered momentum. Of the 66 S&P 500 companies that have reported results, 86.4% have topped expectations for earnings, according to Refinitiv IBES data. Property and casualty insurer Travelers Cos Inc TRV.N gained 5.2% as it beat quarterly profit expectations, while consumer paroducts giant Procter & Gamble Co PG.N advanced 0.7% as it raised its full-year sales and earnings forecasts. All 11 major S&P sectors were up, with financials .SPNY, industrials .SPLRCI and consumer discretionary .SPLRCD stocks rising over 1%. At 12:46 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 249.70 points, or 0.89%, at 28,445.12 and the S&P 500 .SPX was up 33.38 points, or 0.97%, at 3,460.30. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 98.53 points, or 0.86%, at 11,577.41. Netflix Inc NFLX.O dipped 0.5% ahead of its thirdquarter earnings report. International Business Machines Corp IBM.N edged past estimates for quarterly revenue on Monday, bolstered by higher demand for its cloud services. The company’s shares, however, fell 5.9% after it stayed away from issuing a current-quarter outlook, citing economic uncertainty related to the pandemic.

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Wednesday, October 21, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

As Britain edges toward lockdowns, long-held grievances flare up

The central shopping district of Manchester, England, Oct. 18, 2020. Residents of Manchester and other northern English cities have never much cared for the heavy hand of Westminster. By MARK LANDLER

ritain’s desperate attempt to curb a second wave of the coronavirus has exposed multiple fractures in its politics and society, but perhaps none as jagged as that between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the mayor of Greater Manchester, the country’s second-largest urban area. For days, the mayor, Andy Burnham, has been engaged in a war of words with Johnson and his ministers over the government’s plan to elevate hard-hit Manchester to the highest level of restrictions. That would shut down pubs, bars and gyms and forbid all socializing by people from different households. Burnham says that the restrictions would devastate the city’s economy, and that the central government has not offered adequate financial aid to the people who would lose their jobs during the lockdown. He has been a nearly ubiquitous presence on television, waging a fierce rebellion on behalf of his 2.8 million constituents. “People can’t just be pressurized into it,” Burnham said of the new restrictions, to Sky News on Monday. “I’m not going to be pressurized into it. And I’m not just going to kind of roll over at the sight of a check.” Burnham’s resistance is rooted in the long-held griev-

ances of people in the old industrial cities of the north of England toward the politically dominant government sitting in London. While it has delegated some powers to regional authorities in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the Westminster government retains highly centralized control over England and its major urban centers. But the standoff between Manchester and London also reflects mounting frustration with Johnson’s erratic, often opaque handling of the pandemic, as well as a dash of ambition and old-fashioned political maneuvering. Burnham, a 50-year-old native of Liverpool, is a Labour Party stalwart who twice ran unsuccessfully for party leader. Having served as health secretary under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, he traded in his seat in the opposition in 2016 to run for mayor of Greater Manchester, a newly created post. He is responsible for a far-flung metropolitan region, though he has less power than big-city mayors in the United States. “With his limited powers, Andy Burnham is taking advantage of his legitimacy,” said Tony Travers, an expert in urban affairs at the London School of Economics. “He has clearly sensed that the central government is weak.” Burnham’s clash with London carries echoes of the ill will between President Donald Trump and Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City. As with them, much of the dispute

comes down to complaints over a lack of financial support. But de Blasio has considerably more power than Burnham, who has little control over budgetary matters and must obtain the consent of council leaders for many decisions. What Burnham does have is an antenna for national politics — and for the fact that Johnson won a landslide victory in the election last year by promising to close the economic gap between England’s more prosperous south and the struggling regions of the Midlands and the north. That message lured many traditional Labour voters to the Conservative Party, shattering Labour’s vaunted “red wall.” Johnson, analysts said, could easily alienate those voters if he foists an economically ruinous lockdown on them. “There is a sense,” Travers said, “that people in Greater Manchester are having things done to them by a distant government.” Burnham has complained of being cut out of the deliberations over when to impose the heightened restrictions, saying he often learns of decisions from press reports attributed to unnamed Downing Street officials. And he says the government does not share the epidemiological data that is driving its decisions, which makes it impossible to judge whether a lockdown is necessary in one place but not another. There is no debate that Manchester was hit hard by the resurgence of the virus at the end of the summer, in part because of its large student population. Its current rate of infection is 432 cases per 100,000 people, well above the national average. But its rate of cases has declined from a peak of 583 per 100,000 in the seven days before Oct. 3. Government officials said that infections were continuing to rise there among vulnerable older people, and that based on current projections, intensive care units at hospitals in Greater Manchester would reach capacity by Nov. 8. The supply of hospital beds, officials said, is a more relevant barometer than cases. Johnson’s aides are frustrated by Burnham’s resistance, which some view as cynical posturing. On Sunday, Michael Gove, a senior cabinet minister who holds the title of chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, urged the mayor and his allies to “put aside for a moment some of the political positioning they’ve indulged in.” But while the government has the power to impose health requirements on any city in England, Johnson has been reluctant to do it over the objections of the mayors. Public adherence to the rules depends in no small part on how faithfully the local authorities enforce them. As the talks between Manchester and London dragged on Monday, the government began separate negotiations with officials in South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and Nottinghamshire about elevating those regions to socalled Tier 3 status. Wales, which controls its own health policy under the terms of the United Kingdom’s limited self-government, plans to impose a temporary lockdown on the entire region. All told, Britain reported 18,804 new cases Monday, and 80 deaths.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

France unleashes a broad crackdown on ‘the enemy within’ By ADAM NOSSITER

rance on Monday unleashed a broad crackdown on Muslims accused of extremism, carrying out dozens of raids, vowing to shut down aid groups and threatening to expel foreigners as anger swept the country following the decapitation of a high school teacher for showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class. Many of those swept up in raids were already in police files for showing “signals” of potential radicalization, like preaching radicalized sermons or sharing hate messages on social networks, government officials said. More than 200 others — the bulk already in prison — were threatened with a rare mass expulsion. But other groups targeted in the raids included Muslim associations previously given government subsidies for their work promoting better civic relations, and only 15 of the people arrested had any connection to the gruesome attack on Friday. The scope of the response was a measure of how the killing of Samuel Paty, a teacher in a suburb north of Paris, had reopened old wounds in France. The nation remains traumatized by terrorists attacks by Muslim extremists that killed scores in 2015, starting with the editorial offices of the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine — whose cartoons the teacher had shown. As much as the Charlie Hebdo killings, the killing of Paty has struck deep inside the French psyche as an assault on a principal pillar of the French republic — the secular public school system — as well as the nation’s devotion to freedom of speech. Thousands of people took to the streets in cities around France over the weekend to demonstrate their horror at the killing Friday. And politicians, especially on the right, jostled to sound the alarm against “the enemy within,” as the hard-line interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, put it in a radio interview, referring to radicalized Muslims. Some voices were raised against the breadth of the government’s raids, but

People in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2020, protest the killing of a teacher who showed his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. in general the tone was set by President Emmanuel Macron’s likely principal challenger in 2022, the far right leader Marine Le Pen, whose party has targeted Muslims and immigrants for nearly 50 years. “This situation calls for a strategy of reconquest,” Le Pen said Monday. “Islamism is a bellicose ideology whose means of conquest is terrorism.” Even before the attack on Paty, Macron, looking to consolidate a rightleaning electorate that is his only solid base heading into the 2022 election, had embarked on a campaign against what he called “Islamist separatism” in a speech earlier this month. The speech reinforced the idea, current on France’s right, that there is a large and hostile Muslim contingent waiting in the wings — the country’s suburbs — to tear down French values. Macron vowed to end home-schooling as well as the practice of bringing in foreign imams. On Monday, the police began their work at 6 a.m., going after “numerous” Muslims in multiple raids, Darmanin said. “Important police operations have been carried out starting this morning, targeting radicalized individuals,” Macron’s prime minister, Jean Castex, said in a

speech Monday. “Other actions will follow,” Castex promised, against “networks and individuals who are attacking our basic values and the Republican ideal.” Some 51 Muslim aid organizations will also be targeted by the police this week, the interior minister said, some of which would be dissolved at Macron’s request. Darmanin called the most prominent of them, Collective Against Islamophobia, the CCIF, which compiles a register of anti-Muslim acts, “an enemy of the republic.” Its former president, Marwan Muhammad, one of the most prominent of France’s Muslim activists, said the CCIF “didn’t have the slightest involvement” in the killing of Paty. Already, 15 people have been arrested, including family members of the suspect, an 18-year-old Chechen refugee named Abdullakh Anzorov, who was shot dead by the police Friday night after the killing. Also in custody is the father of a student at the school who had denounced Paty online for showing the caricatures and had demanded his dismissal. The video circulated widely on social media. The interior minister announced that it would expel 231 foreign citizens

identified for their radicalism, including 180 who were already in prison. Those not imprisoned would soon be arrested, officials said. At times, the French government has expelled foreign Muslims it accuses of being radicalized. But a mass expulsion like the one currently envisioned is unusual. By day’s end it was not clear how many arrests had resulted from the police raids. Some of the country’s prominent Muslim preachers defended the government’s actions. “When the war has already been declared, what you need is a wartime government,” said Hassen Chalghoumi, president of the French Imams’ Congress. But a few Muslim scholars raised questions — not just about the raids, but also about Paty’s use of the Muhammad caricatures in class. “I feel like it’s very hard to use these cartoons for strictly educational purposes,” said Farhad Khosrokhavar, a sociologist at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, EHESS, in Paris. “Secularists think that it is their right, because of the law that allows blasphemy and any form of mockery of religion. But on the other hand, there is the feeling that in doing so, it is the Muslims who are despised, not the prophet,” he said. “By using cartoons to teach freedom of expression, we do not understand that we offend people,” Khosrokhavar said. “There are a thousand ways to express freedom of expression, so why choose this one?” Francoise Lorcerie, an education expert at the National Center for Scientific Research, said she had never heard of using the caricatures of the prophet in a classroom setting for high school students. And she was critical of Paty’s invitation to Muslim students that they leave the class to avoid being offended. “Obviously these caricatures are wounding for Muslims,” said Lorcerie. “I’m not so sure about presenting these caricatures, without some sort of justification,” she said. From the standpoint of the absolute value of secularism, “it doesn’t conform to his obligation to be neutral,” Lorcerie said. “There should be a reflection on all of this.”

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

India captures Chinese soldier along disputed mountain border By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

ndian troops fed the captured Chinese soldier a meal. They gave him oxygen and some warm clothes. They treated him respectfully, both sides indicated, and the Indians said that they planned to release him soon. The Indian military revealed Monday that its forces had captured a Chinese corporal who had strayed across the disputed, unmarked high-altitude border that zigzags between the two nations, the first time a soldier had been reported captured since hostilities exploded between India and China in June. The friendly treatment seemed to signal that maybe, finally, after rounds and rounds of talks, tensions were slightly easing between the Indian and Chinese troops positioned high up in the Himalayas. In June, a vicious brawl erupted in the same area, along the rocky edges of India’s Ladakh region, in which 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops were killed. Late on Monday, the Chinese military confirmed that one

of its personnel had ended up in Indian hands. A soldier became lost on Sunday evening after agreeing to help a herder find a missing yak, Senior Col. Zhang Shuili, a spokesman for the People’s Liberation Army’s Western Theater Command, said in a statement on a Chinese military website. The Chinese forces asked for help from their Indian counterparts, who “agreed to give support and also promised to promptly return” the soldier, Zhang said. “We hope that the Indian side will abide by its promise and quickly transfer the individual who became lost back to the Chinese side.” Hu Xijin, editor of The Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party newspaper, said that Beijing and New Delhi were “working toward a proper resolution,” and that it appeared the captured Chinese soldier had gotten lost. “This matter should not cause new tensions in the border area,” he wrote in a post on the social media site Weibo. “The smooth resolution of this matter is also a sign that the two countries have made progress in recent negotiations.” The Indian army said in a statement Monday that its

An Indian Army convoy carrying reinforcements and supplies on a highway bordering China in Gagangir, India, last month.

troops had provided the food, clothing and other aid to the Chinese soldier to “protect him from the vagaries of extreme altitude and harsh climatic conditions” and that he would be released “after completion of formalities.” Since June, Indian and Chinese officials have been meeting regularly. Both countries have nuclear weapons and they seem to want a way out of the crisis, but both are also led by strong-willed nationalists unwilling to back down. The border area is considered strategically important. It snakes through icy mountain passes that rise higher than 15,000 feet and touches several contentious territories, such as Tibet and Kashmir. It has been a sore spot for decades. In 1962, the two nations went to war over the same area and China won, taking firm control of a high-altitude plateau, Aksai Chin, that India wants back. After the brawl in June, in which Chinese troops used spiked iron clubs to beat Indian soldiers to death, tens of thousands of reinforcements rushed in. Military analysts say that the troops remain dangerously close, in many places just a few hundred yards apart, and that they are backed up by fighter jets, tanks, artillery pieces and armored personnel carriers. Several soldiers were captured during the June fighting and in the smaller brawls that led up to it in April and May. A few shots were even fired in September, breaking India and China’s long-standing agreement not to use firearms during border confrontations. Since then, though, it appears that both sides have invested more in the effort to talk out their differences. Indian and Chinese military officials have held seven rounds of discussions, and Indian officials said in a recent statement that they had “a sincere, in-depth and constructive exchange of views on disengagement” with their Chinese counterparts. But some Indian analysts said they were still a little suspicious. “The winter’s going to be tough,” said D.S. Hooda, a retired general. “I know that the Indian army has considerable experience in operating in Ladakh during the winter months,” he said. “The PLA also seems to be building habitat for housing troops during the winter,” referring to China’s forces, known as the People’s Liberation Army. Hooda said that during night patrols, soldiers sometimes inadvertently strayed across the border, which he said was most likely what had happened in the case of the captured Chinese soldier.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

900 Prisoners escape from Congo jail after attack By MIKE IVES

bout 900 prisoners escaped from a jail in the Democratic Republic of Congo early Tuesday after armed men attacked it, the news agency Reuters and local journalists reported. A local official attributed the operation to an Islamist rebel group. The assault in Beni, in the country’s northeast, targeted the Kangbayi central prison and the military camp defending it, the city’s mayor, Modeste Bakwanamaha, told Reuters on Tuesday morning. The mayor said that just 100 of the prison’s more than 1,000 inmates remained. “Unfortunately, the attackers, who came in large numbers, managed to break the door with electrical equipment,” the mayor told the news agency. No group immediately claimed responsibility, but Bakwanamaha blamed the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamist militant group from neighboring Uganda that has been active in eastern Congo for decades. Officials in Congo could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday morning, and there was no comment from the official Twitter page of President Félix Tshisekedi’s office. Tshisekedi took office last year after claiming victory in a presidential election that

was widely considered to be illegitimate. Congo is a vast country where the central government has limited reach, and Beni lies in an area that has long been troubled by violence. The attack on Tuesday appears to mirror one from 2017, in which armed men stormed the Kangbayi prison and freed roughly the same number of inmates. Local news reports at the time said that perpetrators of the attack had claimed to be Ugandan members of the Allied Democratic Forces. Last year, the Islamic State’s news agency claimed what it said was the group’s first attack in Congo, saying its soldiers had assaulted a military barracks in the Beni area, killing eight people. Congolese officials confirmed an attack in the area, but said that the assailants were from the Allied Democratic Forces. A 2018 report by the Congo Research Group at New York University said the ADF had received money from a financier linked to the Islamic State. The Allied Democratic Forces have been accused of killing hundreds of people. In 2016, a military court in Beni began conducting trials of the group’s fighters and their allies. LUCHA, a human rights group in Congo, said in a statement on Tuesday that the prison break had freed

several high-profile criminals who had participated in previous armed attacks. It urged local authorities to take swift action. “They’ve got to take serious measures to recapture the fugitives,” the group’s statement said.

The entrance of the Kangbayi prison was breached during the attack in Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Tuesday.

Peter Madsen, killer of Kim Wall, escapes prison but is recaptured By MARTIN SELSOE SORENSEN, MEGAN SPECIA, THOMAS ERDBRINK and KRISTIN ANDERSON

Danish inventor convicted of killing a journalist aboard his homemade submarine in Copenhagen in 2017 briefly escaped from prison Tuesday, according to the Danish state broadcaster. The inventor, Peter Madsen, reportedly fled the Herstedvester Prison near Copenhagen after using a staff member as a human shield but was arrested a short time later in Albertslund, near the facility on the western outskirts of the city. Photos and videos posted by Ekstra Bladet, a local news outlet, appeared to show Madsen seated on the side of the road surrounded by armed police officers with the area cordoned off. Media reports said he may have had a “belt-like” object around his waist. The police said in a statement posted to Twitter that they had responded to an incident in Albertslund in which “a man has been arrested after attempted escape” but did not name Madsen. A short time later, police said that the person had been removed from the scene. The state broadcaster, DR, said police had confirmed the escaped prisoner was Madsen. The police also said that investigators were on site and that the area had been cordoned off. Madsen was able to escape by taking a female

prison psychologist hostage, the chairman of the prison workers’ union, Bo Yde Sorensen, told Ekstra Bladet, adding that he had been brandishing what appeared to be a gun. “The weapon was so lifelike that prison guards at the gate didn’t take any chances in relation to the hostage,” Sorensen told the newspaper. Madsen’s actions were deemed a danger to the prison worker’s life, prompting a decision to let him out of the gate, he said. “It’s a decision I support,” he said. “We don’t want to risk anybody getting killed — we have to find people afterward.” Guards followed Madsen as he fled but stepped back when he threatened them, the news outlet reported, before eventually taking him into custody. Kirsten Schlichting, 78, who lives and works near the prison, spoke with TV 2, a national news network, and described a heavy police presence as officers tried to apprehend Madsen. “The only thing I’m worried about is the school which is also close by, but I don’t know if there are students there,” Schlichting said. “But I’m not afraid. There’s lots of police watching out.” Madsen was found guilty of the premeditated killing — equivalent to a murder conviction — of journalist

Kim Wall in 2018 and sentenced to life in prison. A life sentence is rare in Denmark, even in murder cases, but Wall’s grisly death horrified the nation, and the brutality of the crime made Madsen’s trial one of the most closely watched in Scandinavian history. Wall, 30, disappeared after meeting Madsen for an interview aboard his homemade submarine in August 2017. Her body was later discovered dismembered, and Madsen was soon arrested and charged with her killing. Madsen initially offered a series of shifting explanations about Wall’s whereabouts, before admitting to dismembering her body and tossing body parts overboard. But he denied killing her. Wall, a freelance journalist who had written for international outlets including The New York Times, graduated from the London School of Economics and received two master’s degrees from Columbia University. She reported from Uganda, Sri Lanka and Cuba, and died only miles from Trelleborg, Sweden, where she grew up. “Kim wanted to give a voice to people who didn’t have one,” Joachim Wall, her father, said in a recent interview with The New York Times. “She was always looking for the story behind the story.” A television drama based on the police investigation of her killing premiered in Denmark last month.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

Trump is giving up By ROSS DOUTHAT

onald Trump can still win the 2020 presidential election; something that has a 10% or 15% chance of happening can certainly transpire. But even more than in 2016, if the president wins this time, we will have to attribute his victory to the workings of divine providence (don’t worry, I have that column pre-written), because what we’re watching is an incumbent doing everything in his power to run up his own margin of defeat. Start with his reelection messaging, to the extent that you can discern such a thing. In 2016, Trump’s campaign was shambolic and punctuated by self-inflicted disasters, but his message against Hillary Clinton, like his message against the Republican establishment in the primaries, had a simplicity and consistency: She supported bad trade deals; she supported stupid wars; she sold the country out to special interests and foreign governments; vote for her and you get more closed factories, more soldiers dead or crippled, more illegal immigration, more power to Wall Street and Washington, D.C. In 2020, on the other hand, the Trump campaign has been stuck toggling back and forth between two very different narratives. One seeks to replay the last campaign, portraying Joe Biden as the embodiment of a failed establishment (hence all the references to his 47 years in Washington)

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who will sell out American interests to China as soon as he’s back in power (hence the attempts to elevate Hunter Biden’s influence-peddling). But the other narrative goes after Biden as though the Democrats had actually nominated Bernie Sanders, insisting that his advancing age makes him a decrepit vessel for the radical left, a stalking horse not just for Kamala Harris but also for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and antifa. A truly brilliant campaigner might be able to weave these two narratives together, but on the lips of Donald Trump their contradictions are evident. The resulting incoherence just feeds his tendency to return to old grudges and very online grievances, as though he’s running for the presidency of talk radio or his own Twitter feed. Without Steve Bannon to keep him grounded or Clinton to keep him focused, he’s making a closing “argument” that’s indistinguishable from a sales pitch for a TV show or a newsletter — suggesting that even more than four years ago, the president assumes he’ll be in the media business as soon as the election returns come in. But the messaging failure is just the surface; it’s on policy where Trump has really acted like a Black Sox ballplayer trying to throw the World Series. There are two major issues for voters in this election: the pandemic and the economy. Trump’s numbers on handling the virus are lousy, but his numbers on handling the economy are still pretty good, presumably thanks to both the memory of where the unemployment rate stood before the coronavirus hit and the fact that the flood of COVID-19 relief spending kept people’s disposable income up. This context suggested an obvious fall campaign strategy: Push more relief money into the economy, try to ostentatiously take the pandemic seriously and promise the country that mask-wearing and relief dollars are a bridge to a vaccine and normalcy in 2021. Instead Trump has ended up with the opposite approach. He mostly ignored the negotiations over relief money for months, engaging only at a point where he had become so politically weak that both Republican deficit hawks (or the born-again variety, at least) and Democratic free-spenders assume he’ll soon be gone. And meanwhile he’s let himself be drawn ever deeper — especially since his own encounter with the disease — into the libertarian style of COVID-19 contrarianism, which argues that we’re overtesting, overreacting and probably close to herd immunity anyway. There is a mild contrarianism that makes important points: The lockdown approach wasn’t sustainable and can’t be reimposed, most elementary schools should be open because the risks of spread seem pretty low, the virus is less deadly than the initial worst-case projections suggested, and deaths as a share of cases are going down with better treatment.

But the strong version keeps being wrong. First, the past two months have made it clear that herd immunity is a moving target: You can achieve it provisionally under socialdistancing conditions, but once people relax and start socializing again, the threshold changes, and suddenly you get a renewed spike. This is what happened across Europe, which crushed its case rates in the late spring, returned to more normal life in the summer — and then reaped an early-fall wave that’s now fully out of control, including in countries like Belgium that were hit intensely in the first go-round. Meanwhile, just because tests reveal more mild cases doesn’t mean the virus has stopped killing people. Over and over again, case numbers spike and deaths lag and contrarians talk about how the virus is just a “casedemic” — and then a few weeks go by, and deaths follow cases up. It happened in the United States over the summer, it’s happened in Europe in the past month, and now it’s probably about to happen here again: Our cases have been rising since early September, our hospitalizations have been rising for several weeks, and while deaths are flat for now (at “only” 711 Americans a day), it’s likely they’ll be rising again by the time we hit November. Which means that Trump has chosen to go to war with the idea of testing, with Dr. Anthony Fauci and with “experts” in general at precisely the moment when the fall wave they’ve been warning about seems to be showing up — which is also the moment when the two-thirds of Americans who describe themselves as “very” or “somewhat” concerned about the virus will be going to the polls. Strictly as a policymaking matter, this is Trump’s worst behavior since his springtime push for the fastest-possible reopening. Europe’s renewed crisis shows that the Western failure to contain the virus is much more than just a Trump problem — but on the margins, in the thousands if not the hundreds of thousands, Trumpian denial can still get Americans unnecessarily killed. As politics, meanwhile, even more than the mixed messaging on Biden and the missed opportunities on relief spending, the retreat to corona-minimizing is a case study in how the Trump of 2020 has ceded his biggest general-election advantage from 2016 — his relative distance from the ideological rigidities of the anti-government right — and locked himself into a small box with flatterers and cranks. From these follies the God of surprises might yet deliver him. But every decision of his own lately has been a choice for political defeat.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Aspirante a la alcaldía de San Juan presenta iniciativas para familias, adultos mayores, las mujeres y la comunidad LGBTTQIA Por THE STAR

l candidato a la alcaldía de San Juan por el Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP), Miguel Romero, presentó el martes, su plataforma sobre fortalecimiento ciudadano y social a través de diversas iniciativas para atender los problemas y situaciones que enfrentan sectores ciudadanos de la Capital. Romero, quien estuvo acompañado por el pastor Moisés Carrasquillo, la líder de la Comunidad LGBTTQIA, Cecilia La Luz, la ex comisionada de Asuntos de la Mujer, Gloria Escudero y el candidato a legislador municipal, Alberto Giménez, indicó en comunicación escrita que “es necesario enfatizar en el fortalecimiento social ya que el San Juan que conocemos hoy es solo un residuo de la ciudad enfocada en servicios que un día fue. El ciudadano de San Juan no ha sido prioridad, sus necesidades desatendidas y su problemática social fue ignorada”. Añadió además que la exrepresentante, Albita Rivera fue parte también del equipo que ayudó en la elaboración de propuestas. Como parte de su agenda de trabajo, detalló que en el área de familias y niños se promoverán servicios de apoyo y capacitación a través de acuerdos con el tercer sector e instituciones de base de fe, como talleres de crianza positiva, cuidado intergeneracional, prevención de la violencia y el maltrato en cualquiera de sus manifestaciones, así como la educación y servicios relacionados en niveles como medio de erradicar la carencia de recursos y fomentar la valía de cada persona. Para el senador por San Juan, los acuerdos con el tercer sector incluirán diversas organizaciones que trabajarían junto al Municipio, incluyendo entidades sin fines de lucro, iglesias y entidades de base de fe, para implementar programas y servicios de apoyo a familias y sectores de población vulnerable, que sean subvencionados con fondos federales destinados a servicios a sectores en alto riesgo. “Son acuerdos formales que autorizaría nuestra Legislatura Municipal para que el Municipio extienda su capacidad de servir y atender nuestras necesidades familiares de forma más efectiva y abarcadora, en alianza con entidades del tercer sector cuyo peritaje está más que probado”, manifestó Romero. Se comprometió, además, a maximizar y promover los servicios de adopción de la “Casa Cuna de San Juan”, para elevar la cantidad de niñas y niños que se pueden beneficiar de los servicios. “Estableceremos un proyecto de padrinos y madrinas de Casa Cuna para allegar recursos y mejorar los servicios y atenciones de la población infantil y facilitar su adopción en hogares que estén deseosos de brindar amor y apoyo a nuestras niñas y niños de Casa Cuna”. Anunció que junto al sector privado establecerá una unidad de Servicios Técnicos a Mayores que facilitará la comunicación de necesidades específicas a través de una línea de orientación que evalúe situaciones, provea referidos y dé seguimiento a las mismas.

Asimismo, a través del sistema de Salud Municipal expandirá los servicios de salud, suplementándolos con cuidado en la casa, mejorando los servicios de los centros de cuido de adultos, y desarrollando unidades de servicios especializados para condiciones o enfermedades específicas. También, se incluye la preparación de censos de poblaciones vulnerables y de personas que viven en égidas como mecanismo de atención de necesidades durante emergencias. Romero enfatizó en aprovechar las asignaciones de fondos federales para necesidades de vivienda; “Apoyaremos la inversión de fondos CDBG-DR para el desarrollo de comunidades de retiro que promuevan la conexión social y el disfrute de los años de retiro”, expresó el candidato. En cuanto al desarrollo de la mujer y la protección contra la violencia de género, Romero enfatizó en el fortalecimiento del andamiaje municipal de servicios que se prestarían a través de la Oficina para el Desarrollo de la Mujer y de Prevención y Protección contra la Violencia de Género. Para Romero, “es necesario integrar servicios que fomenten la educación temprana, la formación laboral y el desarrollo empresarial, atacar la violencia de género y atender la necesidad de servicios legales, de vivienda y de cuidado infantil entre otros, a mujeres jefas de familias y servicios de apoyo a víctimas de violencia de género”. También anunció la iniciativa “Mujer Líder”. A través del Colegio Universitario, se proporcionarán servicios de formación y desarrollo empresarial para la mujer para promover su autosuficiencia económica y fomentar su confianza en sus capacidades empresariales. La iniciativa “Mujer Líder” incluirá un programa de apoyo empresarial que dará prioridad para que mujeres jefas de familia desarrollen sus proyectos de negocios en facilidades municipales y en estructuras abandonadas para que se puedan beneficiar de exenciones sobre

contribuciones municipales de las Ley 96-2017 y la Ley 270-2018; ambas leyes de la autoría de Romero. Romero se comprometió a fortalecer las condiciones y oportunidades de progreso para las personas de la comunidad LGBTTQIA. El candidato a la alcaldía informó que se atemperarán todas las ordenanzas municipales a las normas y estándares internacionales, para garantizar la continuidad del esfuerzo hacia la erradicación de todo discrimen y extenderá las Ordenanzas Municipales 117, 155, 183, 114 y 180 al discrimen por expresión de género el discrimen real o percibido, y contratistas del Municipio. En el área de salud, anunció la revisión de los protocolos de cumplimiento según requeridos por la nueva Orden Administrativa 398 del Departamento de Salud, que prohíbe el discrimen por orientación sexual, identidad de género y expresión de género, al igual que los protocolos requeridos por la nueva Carta Normativa 203-2019 de ASES. Sobre el tema de desarrollo económico y el fortalecimiento de empresarios LGBTTQIA, el candidato presentó una serie de iniciativas de inclusión que abarcan el llevar a cabo esfuerzos de mantenimiento y mejoras en áreas urbanas donde se concentran negocios frecuentados por la comunidad LGBTTQIA e inclusivos con la intención de estimular la economía del área y promover el desarrollo. Así también, ampliar planes estratégicos con grupos de empresarios representativos de la comunidad para identificar y aumentar oportunidades de desarrollo, apoyo municipal a actividades tradicionales que se llevan a cabo en la Capital y una política clara de no discrimen contra negocios LGBTTQIA mediante estándares de inclusión, diversidad y el reconocimiento por parte del Municipio. “Es imperativo que esta comunidad se sienta segura y parte de nuestra sociedad, razón por la cual garantizaremos espacios libres de discrimen”, finalizó Romero.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Richard Avedon, a photographer who wanted to outrun the glitz factor

From left, Richard Avedon, Carmel Snow and MarieLouise Bousquet in Paris. By DWIGHT GARNER

he drama of the approaching photo insert nags at the reader of biographies. Do you skip ahead and devour the eye candy? Or do you hold off, slogging toward the photographs as if they were a small, warm inn at the midpoint of a long, pebbly hike? The issue is pressing while reading “What Becomes a Legend Most,” Philip Gefter’s wise and ebullient new biography of Richard Avedon. Gefter takes the reader inside so many of Avedon’s photo shoots, and so deftly explicates his work, that you’re thirsty to sate your eyes with Avedon’s actual images. They aren’t in this book. The two photo inserts contain, surely because of rights issues, pictures of … Richard Avedon. He was eye candy, too. He did most of his bold, minimal, revolutionary fashion work for Harper’s Bazaar, and its longtime editor Carmel Snow. Ginette Spanier, director of the House of Balmain in Paris, first met Avedon in 1948. She accurately described him in her autobiography as “small, dark and electric with his own sort of vitality. Crackling. Sparks seem to fly out of him. He flashes his fingers like tiny rapid moths.” Since I’m already complaining about a book I admire, allow me to get one more thing out of the way. The drama of Avedon’s career lay in his effort to escape the taint of being seen as merely a fashion and a commercial photographer. A certain glitz factor followed him wherever he went. His wealth, his flowing hair, his eager showmanship; he was his own klieg light. Though he was personally close to Diane Arbus — among the first people to arrive at her apartment after her suicide — most of the downtown photography elite, including Robert Frank, never trusted him. One of the achievements of Gefter’s biography is to argue persuasively for Avedon’s place, as a maker of portraits, as one of the 20th century’s most consequential artists. To dismiss him as a celebrity photographer, this book suggests, is “an intellectual slur.” Gefter further situates Avedon on a continuum that includes photographers like Nadar, Julia

Margaret Cameron and August Sander. Given all this, it’s baffling that Gefter would use as his book’s title the tag line from a series of mink coat ads that Avedon shot for Blackglama in the late 1960s. “What Becomes a Legend Most,” as a title, spritzes cheap cologne on Gefter’s own thesis. Avedon’s career was long. His first fashion photograph appeared in Harper’s Bazaar in 1944, when he was 21, and he was still shooting for The New Yorker at the time of his death 60 years later. He knew everyone and photographed everyone, and part of the pleasure of this biography lies in watching life’s rich pageant pass by. Avedon went to Kansas with Truman Capote to take images of the killers Capote wrote about in “In Cold Blood.” He was in the room the night Leonard Bernstein gave the party Tom Wolfe wrote about in “Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny’s.” Bernstein, Sidney Lumet, Harold Brodkey and Mike Nichols were among Avedon’s closest friends. Avedon, who married twice, was a closeted gay man. A previous biographer, Norma Stevens, one of Avedon’s business partners, alleged that Avedon and Nichols had a long clandestine romance. Gefter holds this assertion somewhat at arm’s length. Gefter selects the right photo sessions to linger over. These include Avedon’s time with Marilyn Monroe; Charlie Chaplin; the Chicago Seven; James Baldwin; Rudolf Nureyev (who posed nude); the Beatles; Andy Warhol’s Factory crew; Jorge Luis Borges; and Nastassja Kinski, whom Avedon also photographed nude, lying with a boa constrictor curving along her own curves and flicking its tongue at her ear in an image plastered on a million dorm room walls. Gefter’s prose is unshowy but supple. “Avedon’s signature was the formality of a straight-on figure against the white nuclear backdrop,” he writes, “with a proscenium frame composed of the edges of the film printed as part of the image — the ID picture taken to its apotheosis.” Avedon was born on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1923. His parents were the children of recent Jewish immigrants. His father ran a sophisticated clothing store on Fifth Avenue before shutting it and filing for bankruptcy soon after the 1929 stock market crash. His mother introduced Avedon and his younger sister, Louise, to as much culture as they could handle, sometimes finding ways to sneak into performances without tickets.

Avedon was picked on as a kid. He was Jewish, effeminate and an aesthete; he disliked sports and was told he threw like a girl. At DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, he found a close friend in Baldwin; together they edited the school’s literary magazine. During his senior year, Avedon’s father paid for him to have a nose job. Avedon was a poor student, and joined the merchant marine in 1942 in part to avoid telling his parents that he would have to repeat senior year. He had an easy war, working stateside as a photographer’s assistant. He never attended college and nursed an inferiority complex over that fact. Avedon enjoyed his rapid embourgeoisement. “Richard Avedon taught me how to be a rich person,” Nichols commented. The photographer’s houses and apartments were baronial. If he saw a play in Stockholm he loved, he’d fly over four additional times to see it, bringing friends on each occasion. He had big, varied, elegant buffet lunches at his studio every day; friends dropped in to meet whomever he was shooting. He could get a table at the last minute in any restaurant, the best seats to any opera. His friend Adam Gopnik wrote of him: “He smelled faintly, richly, of limes.” Gefter, whose previous books include “Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe” and who was an editor at The New York Times for 15 years (The Times is a big place and I’ve never met him), details the long-running antagonism between Avedon and John Szarkowski, the king-making director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art. Critics were hot and cold on the lavishly staged shows of Avedon’s work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Marlborough gallery and elsewhere, and he took criticism hard. When a negative review of his 1974 show “Jacob Israel Avedon,” a series of portraits of his aging father, appeared in this newspaper’s Arts & Leisure section, Avedon was in the hospital with pericarditis, an inflammation near the heart. He tried to take the review calmly. He could not. Distraught, he eventually rose from his bed and took a lighted match to the corner of the offending section. The fire grew out of control. He wrestled the mess into the toilet, where it continued to fizzle. A journalist for Playboy, writing a profile, captured the rest of the scene: “There he knelt, world-famous glamorous person Richard Avedon, flushing the toilet again and again, forcing down the soggy glob of paper until he was elbow deep in intimate plumbing. Finally, with a gurgle, the cremated remains started off to sea.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Jeff Bridges says he has lymphoma By DERRICK BRYSON TAYLOR

eff Bridges, the actor known for his roles as Bad Blake in “Crazy Heart” and The Dude in “The Big Lebowski,” announced on Monday that he has lymphoma. “Although it is a serious disease, I feel fortunate that I have a great team of doctors and the prognosis is good,” Bridges tweeted, with a nod to The Dude. “I’m starting treatment and will keep you posted on my recovery.” He said that he was grateful for the love and support from his family and friends during this time. “Thank you for your prayers and well wishes,” he said before urging people to vote. A representative for Bridges did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday. Lymphoma, according to the Mayo Clinic, is a cancer of the lymphatic system, which helps the body fight germs. Bridges did not specify what his treatment entailed, but options vary based on the type and severity of the

cancer, the clinic said. Those options can include chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiation therapy. Hodgkin’s lymphoma and nonHodgkin’s lymphoma are the two main subtypes of lymphoma. There will be more than 77,000 new cases of nonHodgkin’s lymphoma in 2020, according to the National Cancer Institute, accounting for 4.3% of all new cancer cases. Approximately 2.1% of people will receive a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma during their lifetime, the institute said, based on data from 2015 to 2017. In 2017 alone, more than 719,000 people were estimated to be living with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the United States. Bridges hails from a family of actors, including his father, Lloyd, who died in 1998, and his brother, Beau. He began his acting career in the late 1950s and has appeared in more than 90 projects, according to IMDb. He’s earned seven Academy Award nominations and won the Oscar in 2010 for best performance by an actor in a lead-

Jeff Bridges said on Monday that he was being treated for cancer and promised to keep fans posted on his recovery. ing role for “Crazy Heart.” But his role as Jeff Lebowski — aka “The Dude” — in “The Big Lebowski” (1998), earned him a cult following.

In a 2017 interview with The New York Times, Bridges said he wasn’t sure if he related most to the Dude out of all of his characters. The different roles he plays, Bridges said, start with himself and he sees what lines up with the character. “You might magnify those aspects of yourself that work with the character, or keep those parts of you that don’t match to the curve,” he said. When asked what makes people adore the Dude, Bridges said. “He is who he is and doesn’t mess around with trying to be something else. It’s kind of a mystery to me.” According to IMDb, Bridges was recently filming “The Old Man,” an FX series that is set to debut on Hulu next year. “Our thoughts go out to Jeff and his family during this challenging time, and they have our love and support,” FX, Touchstone Television, Hulu and FXP said in a joint statement. “We wish him a safe and full recovery. And, as Jeff always says, ‘We are all in this together.’ Jeff, we are all in this together with you.”

Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ returns to the top 10, thanks to TikTok By BEN SISARIO

he last time Fleetwood Mac’s classic LP “Rumours” was in the Top 10 of the Billboard album chart, in February 1978, Jimmy Carter was president, disco was king and the prime-time soap opera “Dallas” was still more than a month away from its premiere. But thanks to a viral TikTok video, “Rumours” has climbed back to the chart’s upper rungs for the first time in 42 years, landing at No. 7 with the equivalent of 33,000 sales in the United States, including more than 30 million streams, according to Nielsen Music. Its return was set in motion late last month, when Nathan Apodaca, a potato worker in Idaho, filmed himself languidly singing along to “Dreams” while skateboarding down a road and sipping from a bottle of Cran-Raspberry juice. The clip

caught on in the way that random, joyful TikTok videos do — it has been viewed more than 60 million times — and began spurring streams and downloads for “Dreams.” Before long, Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks responded with their own videos. After a tight race for the top of this week’s album chart, “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon,” a posthumous release by New York rapper Pop Smoke, who was shot to death in February at age 20, returned for its second slot at No. 1 with the equivalent of 67,000 sales. “Shoot for the Stars,” a steady hit since its release in July, squeezed ahead of 21 Savage and Metro Boomin’s “Savage Mode II,” last week’s top seller, which fell to No. 2 in its second week out with 66,000. Also this week, Juice WRLD’s “Legends Never Die” is No. 3, Lil Baby’s “My Turn” is No. 4 and Machine Gun Kelly’s “Tickets to My Downfall” is No. 5.

Fleetwood Mac’s return to the top of the charts was prompted by a viral video of a man languidly singing along to “Dreams” while skateboarding.

FASHION The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, March 4, 2020 21, 2020 Wednesday, October 20 22

The TheSan SanJuan JuanDaily DailyStar Star

A centuries-old Korean style gets an update

Jennie, right, of the K-pop group Blackpink, wearing a hanbok made by Danha.

cisco, Western clothing completely replaced the hanbok in the early 1980s. Almost concurrently, there were designers incorporating traditional Korean elements into Western designs. Kim attributed late designer Lee Young-hee as the first designer to transcend the boundaries of hanbok design. At Paris Fashion Week in 1993, the designer sent bare-shouldered models down the runway wearing hanboks without a jeogori. Around the same time, stylist Suh Younghee became interested in hanbok because

By HAHNA YOON

hen the K-pop band Blackpink released the music video for their song “How You Like That” in June, fans began asking about the group’s outfits, which appeared at once traditional and contemporary. Who was the designer behind Jennie’s cropped pink jacket, they wanted to know, and what inspired the look? In the past few years, similar design concepts have been spotted on members of K-pop groups like BTS, SHINee and Exo. They are fresh takes on a centuries-old form of Korean dress called a hanbok. Scroll through the #hanbokstagram hashtag on Instagram and you’ll find thousands of posts with updated looks. While a hanbok — which usually consists of a jeogori (jacket), paired with baji (pants) for men and a chima (skirt) for women — is generally reserved for holidays and special occasions, contemporary designers have been reimagining it. Some modern hanbok brands have been boosted by Kpop stars who command devoted stan armies. Kim Danha, of the label Danha, said her brand’s site saw nearly 4,000 visitors a day after her jacket appeared on Jennie in the Blackpink video. Leesle Hwang, the designer of the brand Leesle, saw an increase in sales after Jimin of BTS wore one of her hanbok ensembles at the 2018 Melon Music Awards in Seoul. “It’s incredible how many people got to know Leesle through that one appearance,” she said. Another brand, A Nothing, gained some 8,000 followers after Jungkook, another BTS member, wore its clothes. “The reason why people became interested in hanboks, especially outside Korea, is this growth soft power as demonstrated by K-pop,” said Kan Ho-sup, a professor of textile art and fashion design at Hongik University. In Korea, the style can be traced back to the first century B.C., and was traditionally made out of silk dyed in vivid colors. (Before the advent of Western clothing in Korea, all clothing was simply a hanbok; the word itself means “Korean clothing.”) According to Minjee Kim, a dress historian in San Fran-

Kim Danha, designer of the label Danha. she felt it could counter the industry’s obsession with Western labels. She began playing with hanbok conventions at Vogue Korea, where she worked. In the February 2006 issue, she styled jokduri (traditional coronets) on models with vibrantly dyed hair, an image that defied any conventionality the garment might convey. In 2014, she helped start the Hanbok Advancement Center, which leads programs on hanbok education and funds related events. In the early 2000s, designer Kim Young-Jin started rethinking the style’s tradition while studying with Park Sunyoung, a master of hanbok needlework. Kim learned about a type of traditional military uniform worn by men during the Joseon dynasty (1392-1897) called the Cheolik, and recreated it as a midi-length wrap dress with a V-shaped collar, tailored to fit the female form. “Just because something is inspired by the past doesn’t mean there’s no creativity in it,” she said. When images of the garment began circulating, other labels started creating similar looks. Suh, who often collaborates with Kim for high-end fashion photo shoots, called the number of “copies” troubling. “I’m not saying this because we’re close, but Tchai Kim’s Cheolik one-piece marked a new A look from the label Danha

era of hanbok design,” Suh said. After experimenting with leftover textiles at her parents’ bedding and curtains shop, Hwang, of Leesle, began selling her pieces online and eventually started Sonjjang, a hanbok line focusing on what she called “altered hanboks,” with lace and frills, and shortened sleeves and skirt lines. When Hwang began thinking about creating hanboks for everyday wear, she turned to the internet. A majority of traditional hanbok shops were, and still are, reluctant to stray from the expensive, ’70s-style tailored-to-fit designs, but online communities devoted to hanbok subcultures were already discussing what changes they wanted in the garment as early as the mid 2000s. Taking their feedback into account, Hwang founded Leesle in 2014, selling easy-to-wash hanboks. Her clothes are available in extra small to large, unlike many companies that offer only one size. “I don’t want to be exclusive,” Hwang said. “Bigger people. Older people. Slender people.” Her garments are also more modestly priced than their silk forebears, at under $200 apiece. “It’s still uncommon to see people in modern hanbok,” Hwang said. “And while it doesn’t need to be worn all the time, it can become a basic item like a white Tshirt or black pants.” Kim Danha said she hopes those who encounter her brand come to appreciate Danha’s environmental ethos. The label has a focus on sustainability; 30 to 50% of its fabrics are recycled polyester or organic cotton. “Sustainability and traditional Korean design go well together because compared to Western shapes, original hanbok designs produce less scraps,” she said. The hanbok’s straight lines, she said, waste less fabric than, for instance, the rounded collar of a T-shirt. She cited the worsening air pollution in South Korea as a motivation for her interest in environmental issues. However, so-called slow fashion is a tough business, she said. Upcycling discarded wedding dresses is labor-intensive, and everything, even printing on fabric, costs more when you take the eco-friendly route, she said. So while she tries to uphold that model, most important to her is honoring the hanbok and giving it a place in the future.w

Jimin wearing a hanbok by Leesle at the 2018 Melon Music Awards.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

A rapid test offers hope for community screening By APOORVA MANDAVILLI

$5 rapid test for the coronavirus may be nearly as effective as the slower, more complex polymerase chain reaction test for identifying people who may spread the coronavirus, a novel experiment has found. The study, conducted by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, is among the first head-to-head comparisons of a rapid test and the PCR diagnostic tool under real-world conditions. But the number of participants was comparatively small, and the data have not been peer-reviewed or published. A rapid test still cannot conclusively determine that an individual is not infected; the tests are intended primarily to detect the presence of high levels of the virus, rather than its absence, and are authorized only to evaluate symptomatic people. At the moment, anyone who has been exposed to the virus should be tested by PCR, said Joseph DeRisi, an infectious disease expert at UCSF and a co-leader of the project. Still, the finding offers hope that rapid tests can be used even more widely to help contain a pandemic that is resurging in the United States. Some epidemiologists have argued that the country relies too heavily on cumbersome PCR tests for screening even as the coronavirus flies through communities. The new test, Abbott’s BinaxNOW, offers results in 15 minutes, compared with the days or weeks people may have to wait for a PCR result. The Trump administration already has purchased 150 million BinaxNOW tests and plans to ship them to states for use in schools, nursing homes and meatpacking plants. The tests could also be used to screen people in communities where time, trust and resources are in short supply. The study assessed the BinaxNOW in one such community, a largely Latino neighborhood in San Francisco. On three mornings in late September, as commuters emerged from a BART train station in the Mission District, they were offered two nasal swabs: one for a PCR test, the other for the rapid test with a simple readout. The commuters received only the PCR result, by text, but the researchers compared both tests. Of the 878 people who took the tests at the train station, only 26 tested positive on the researchers’ PCR. BinaxNOW identified only 15 of them. But many experts have argued that the PCR test is too sensitive, picking up fragments of the coronavirus lingering in the body long after people have recovered and are no longer infectious. A study by the company Becton Dickinson recently showed that rapid tests correlated better with live virus than PCR. But when they only considered PCR results that corresponded to high viral loads, the researchers found that the BinaxNOW test detected 15 of the 16 people who were most likely to transmit the virus. “This card will do pretty well at detecting the most infectious people, the people who are actually spreading virus,” De-

A man registers to undergo COVID-19 testing as part of a study comparing a rapid test against the slower, but gold standard, P.C.R. tests at a BART train station in San Francisco on Sept. 23, 2020. Risi said, referring to the BinaxNOW. “On the whole, I’m pretty encouraged and very optimistic.” Dr. Yuka Manabe, an expert in infectious disease diagnostics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said, “It’s a very nice illustration of how an antigen test could be used in real life and might find those patients who are most likely to transmit disease.” The new study was led by Unidos En Salud, a collaboration between researchers at UCSF and the Latino Task Force on COVID-19. A study in April by the same team showed that 11% of Latino participants at another train station tested positive for the virus when PCR was used, compared with 2.6% in the city overall. About 90% of people who tested positive in that study were essential workers, and 88% made under $55,000 a year, said Jon Jacobo, chair of the health committee for the Latino Task Force. Community members living in the country without legal permission may also not have access to sick pay or to state and federal benefits, he said. The task force worked with the researchers to design the study and make it financially possible for those who tested positive to isolate. The organization offered two weeks of groceries to those with positive tests, and a community wellness team delivered other necessities. Beginning July 1, the city guaranteed two weeks of minimum wage, or $1,285, to anyone who should isolate but could

not afford to do so. “The important thing is to always truly have a partnership with community,” Jacobo said. The project benefited from the researchers’ experience conducting HIV studies in sub-Saharan Africa. “Working in rural areas in Africa is all about talking with the community and asking the question, ‘What works for you?’” said Dr. Diane Havlir, an infectious disease expert at UCSF who led the project. In this case, she said, the community expressed interest in flu vaccination, so the team worked with Walgreens to offer free vaccines at the test site. Havlir and other experts acknowledged that BinaxNOW had limitations. Simple as the test may be, it should be used only by people who are trained to interpret the results, cautioned Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The tests are “supposed to be administered by a health care professional, but occasionally that gets interpreted as ‘as long as a doctor signs off,’” she said. Nearly half of those with high levels of the virus did not have symptoms, the UCSF researchers found. The number was similar in the group who tested positive by PCR. That result suggests that “whether you have a high viral load or low viral load doesn’t really matter; you can still equally be asymptomatic” said Dr. K.J. Seung, chief of strategy and policy for COVID-19 response in Massachusetts.

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

ORIENTAL BANK Demandante v.

REBECA MANGUAL PEREZ; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE

DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS CON INTERES EN LA SUCESION; JUAN CARLOS VELÁZQUEZ RAMOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

NAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE AÑASCOMUNICIPAL.

COOP DE AHORRO Y CREDITO DE AÑASCO VS

ROMAN CINTRON, ZULMA V

CASO: IBCI201100138. SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO REGLA 60.

Demandado(a) ZULMA V Civil: Núm. FA2019CV00583. SALA 404. Sobre: EJECUCION ROMAN CINTRON DE HIPOTECA (IN REM). NO- NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA TENCIA POR EDICTO. EL SECRETARIO(A) QUE SUSPOR EDICTO. CRIBE LE NOTIFICA A USTED A: CARMEN IVELISSE A: REBECA MANGUAL QUE EL 01 DE JUNIO DE 2011 VELAZQUEZ RAMOS, PEREZ; JOHN DOE Y , ESTE TRIBUNAL HA DICTAPOR SI Y EN LA DO SENTENCIA, SENTENCIA RICHARD ROE PARCIAL O RESOLUCION EN CUOTA VIUDAL (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) USUFRUCTUARIA; JUAN ESTE CASO, QUE HA SIDO EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscriREGISTRACARLOS VELAZQUEZ DEBIDAMENTE be le notifica a usted que el 9 de DA Y ARCHIVADA EN AUTOS RAMOS; JOHN DOE octubre de 2020, este Tribunal DONDE PODRA USTED ENY JANE DOE COMO ha dictado Sentencia, SentenTERARSE DETALLADAMENcia Parcial o Resolución en este POSIBLES HEREDEROS TE DE LOS TERMINOS DE LA caso, que ha sido debidamente DESCONOCIDOS CON MISMA. ESTA NOTIFICACION registrada y archivada en autos SE PUBLICARA UNA SOLA INTERES EN LA donde podrá usted enterarse VEZ EN UN PERIODICO DE SUCESION DE RAMIRO CIRCULACION GENERAL EN detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación LA ISLA DE PUERTO RICO, SANTANA ACOSTA: se publicará una sola vez en DENTRO DE LOS 10 DIAS • 7 V COND. ISLETA un periódico de circulación geSIGUIENTES A SU NOTIFICAMARINA, FAJARDO, PR neral en la Isla de Puerto Rico, CION. Y, SIENDO O REPRE00738. dentro de los 10 días siguientes SENTANDO USTED UNA PAR• PO BOX 29475, SAN TE EN EL PROCEDIMIENTO a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte SUJETA A LOS TERMINOS DE JUAN, PR 00929. en el procedimiento sujeta a (Nombre de las partes a las que se LA SENTENCIA, SENTENCIA los términos de la Sentencia, le notifican la sentencia por edicto) PARCIAL O RESOLUCION, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscri- DE LA CUAL PUEDE ESTAde la cual puede establecerse be le notifica a usted que el 8 de BLECERSE RECURSO DE recurso de revisión o apelación octubre de 2020, este Tribunal REVISION O APELACION dentro del término de 30 días ha dictado Sentencia, Senten- DENTRO DEL TERMINO DE contados a partir de la publica- cia Parcial o Resolución en este 30 DIAS CONTADOS A PARción por edicto de esta notifica- caso, que ha sido debidamente TIR DE LA PUBLICACION ción, dirijo a usted esta notifica- registrada y archivada en autos POR EDICTO DE ESTA NOTIción que se considerará hecha donde podrá usted enterarse FICACION, DIRIJO A USTED en la fecha de la publicación detalladamente de los términos ESTA NOTIFICACION QUE SE de este edicto. Copia de esta de la misma. Esta notificación CONSIDERARA HECHA EN LA notificación ha sido archivada se publicará una sola vez en un FECHA DE LA PUBLICACION en los autos de este caso, con periódico de circulación general DE ESTE DICTO. COPIA DE fecha de 14 de octubre de 2020. en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro ESTA NOTIFICACION HA SIDO En CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, el de los 10 días siguientes a su ARCHIVADA EN LOS AUTOS 14 de octubre de 2020. LCDA notificación. Y, siendo o repre- DE ESTE CASO, CON FECHA MARILYN APONTE RODRI- sentando usted una parte en el DE 14 DE OCTUBRE DE 2020. LIC. FABRE COLÓN,RAFAEL GUEZ, Secretario(a). F/BETH- procedimiento sujeta a los térRFABRE@MCMLAWPR.COM ZAIDA MERCADO ALVAREZ, minos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la LIC. FIGUEROA MERCED,GILBERTO Secretario(a) Auxiliar. GFMCOBROLEGAL@GMAIL.COM cual puede establecerse recurEN AÑASCO, PUERTO RICO, LEGAL NOTICE so de revisión o apelación denEL 14 DE OCTUBRE DE 2020. Estado Libre Asociado de Puer- tro del término de 30 días contaLCDA. NORMA G. SANTAto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL dos a partir de la publicación por NA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIO. DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Pri- edicto de esta notificación, dirijo POR: F/ LUZ NELDY CHICO mera Instancia Sala Superior de a usted esta notificación que se ACEVEDO, SECRETARIO AUconsiderará hecha en la fecha FAJARDO. XILIAR. de la publicación de este edicNEWREZ LLC D/B/A to. Copia de esta notificación LEGAL NOTICE SHELLPOINT MORTGAGE ha sido archivada en los autos ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO SERVICING de este caso, con fecha de 14 DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUDemandante v. de octubre de 2020. En FAJARNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CARMEN IVELISSE DO, Puerto Rico, el 14 de octuSALA DE SAN JUAN. bre de 2020. WANDA I SEGUI VELÁZQUEZ RAMOS, Reverse Mortgage REYEZ, Secretario(a). F/ANA POR SI Y ENL A CELIS MARQUEZ APONTE, Funding, LLC CUOTA VIUDAL Secretario(a) Auxiliar. DEMANDANTE VS. Demandado(a) Civil: Núm. CA2020CV01425. SALA 404. Sobre: SUSTITUCION DE PAGARE HIPOTECARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

USUFRUCTUARIA; LA SUCESION DE RAMIRO SANTANA ACOSTA COMPUESTA POR JOHN @

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

Sucesión de Eudosio Aguirre Ruiz, t/c/c Eudosio Aguirre

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

compuesta por Omar Aguirre Cotto, Johanna Aguirre Cotto y Wanda Aguirre Cotto, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos de nombres desconocido; Sucesión de Ramonita Cotto Guzmán, t/c/c Ramonita Cotto compuesta por Omar Aguirre Cotto, Johanna Aguirre Cotto y Wanda Aguirre Cotto, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos de nombres desconocido; Centro de Recaudación de Ingresos Municipales; y a los Estados Unidos de América.

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: SJ2019CV11630. SOBRE: Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria. MANDAMIENTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. Por Cuanto: Se ha dictado en el presente caso la siguiente Orden: ORDEN. Examinada la demanda radicada por la parte demandante, la solicitud de interpelación contenida en la misma y examinados los autos del caso, el Tribunal le imparte su aprobación y en Su virtud acepta la Demanda en el caso de epígrafe, así corno la interpelación judicial de la parte demandante a tos herederos del codemandado conforme dispone el Artículo 959 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 2787. Se Ordena a los herederos de los causantes a saber, Omar Aguirre Cotto, Johanna Aguirre Cotto, Wanda Aguirre Cotto, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal, herederos de nombres desconocidos a que dentro del término legal de 30 días contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudien la participación que les corresponda en la herencia de los causantes de Ramonita Cotto Guzmán, t/c/c Ramonita Cotto y de Eudosio Aguirre Ruiz t/c/c Eudosio Aguirre. Se le Apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados: (a) Que de no expresarse dentro del término de 30 días en torno a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia la misma se tendrá por aceptada; (b) Que luego del transcurso del término de 30 días contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia del causante y por consiguiente, responden por la cargas de dicha herencia conforme dispone el Artículo 957 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A.

(787) 743-3346

Wednesday, October 21, 2020 sec. 2785. Se Ordena a la parte demandante a que, en vista de que la Sucesión de Ramonita Cotto Guzmán, t/c/c Ramonita Cotto y la Sucesión de Endosio Aguirre Ruiz t/c/c Eudosio Aguirre incluyen como herederos a Omar Aguirre Cotto, Johanna Aguirre Cotto, Wanda Aguirre Cotto, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal, como posibles herederos desconocidos, proceda a notificar la presente Orden mediante un edicto a esos efectos una sola vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de la Isla de Puerto Rico. DADA en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 9 de octubre de 2020. Fdo. Ramón E. Meléndez, Juez. Por Cuanto: Se le advierte a que dentro del término legal de 30 días contados a partir de la fecha de notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudien la participación que les corresponda en la herencia de los causantes de Ramonita Cotto Guzmán, t/c/c Ramonita Cotto y de Eudosio Aguirre Ruiz t/c/c Endosio Aguirre. Por Orden del Honorable Juez de Primera Instancia de este Tribunal, expido el presente Mandamiento, bajo mi firma y sello oficial, en San Juan, Puerto Rico hoy día 13 de octubre de 2020. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA GENERAL. Jessica Soto Pagán, Sec. Servicios Sala.

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

Reverse Mortgage Funding, LLC DEMANDANTE VS.

Sucesión de Eudosio Aguirre Ruiz, t/c/c Eudosio Aguirre compuesta por Omar Aguirre Cotto, Johanna Aguirre Cotto y Wanda Aguirre Cotto, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos de nombres desconocido; Sucesión de Ramonita Cotto Guzmán, t/c/c Ramonita Cotto compuesta por Omar Aguirre Cotto, Johanna Aguirre Cotto y Wanda Aguirre Cotto, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos de nombres desconocido; Centro de Recaudación de Ingresos Municipales; y a los Estados Unidos de América.

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: SJ2019CV11630. SOBRE: Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía

Ordinaria. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. TADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: Omar Aguirre Cotto, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos de nombres desconocidos de la Sucesión de Eudosio Aguirre Ruiz, t/c/c Eudosio Aguirre

POR LA PRESENTE, se les emplaza y se les notifica que se ha presentado en la Secretaria este Tribunal la Demanda del caso del epígrafe solicitando la ejecución de hipoteca y el cobro de dinero relacionado al pagaré suscrito a favor de VIG Mortgage Corp, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $202,500.00, con intereses computados sobre la misma desde su fecha hasta su total completo pago a razón de la tasa de interés de 5.060% anual, la cual será ajustada mensualmente, obligándose además al pago de costas, gastos y desembolsos del litigio, más honorarios de abogados en una suma de $20.250.00, equivalente al 10% de la suma principal original. Este pagaré fue suscrito bajo el affidávit número 26,407 ante el notario José M. Biaggi Junquera. Lo anterior surge de la hipoteca constituida mediante la escritura número 42 otorgada el 29 de febrero de 2012, ante el mismo notario público, inscrita al tomo Karibe de Sabana Llana,finca número 5,380, inscripción I 3ta.. La Hipoteca Revertida grava la propiedad que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número dieciocho (18) del Bloque “AK” antes, ahora Calle Labrador número Novecientos Cincuenta y Uno (951) de la Urbanización Country Club, localizada en el Barrio Sabana Llana de Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, con un área de trescientos cuarenta y dos punto treinta y siete (342.37) metros cuadrados, en lindes por el NORTE, en quince (15.00) metros con el solar diecinueve (19); por el SUR, eu once punto cincuenta (11.50) metros con la Calle Labrador ahora, antes Calle número Cincuenta y Ocho (58); por el ESTE, en veintitrés (23.00) metros con el solar diecisiete (17); por el OESTE, en diecinueve punto cincuenta (19.50) metros con la Calle Serpentario ahora, antes calle número Sesenta y Cinco (65); y por el SUROESTE, en cinco punto cincuenta (5.50) metros con la intersécción de las calles Cincuenta y Ocho (58) y Sesenta y Cinco (65). Contiene una casa residencial para una familia. Finca número 5,380 inscrita al folio 146 del tomo 124

The San Juan Daily Star de Sabana Llana. Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección V de San Juan. Se apercibe y advierte a ustedes como personas desconocidas, que deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.jamajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. De no contestar la demanda radicando el original de la contestación ante la secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan, y notificar copia de la contestación de esta a la parte demandante por conducto de su abogada, GLS LEGAL SERVICES, LLC, Atención: Lcda. Genevieve Lopez Stipes, Dirección: P.O. Box 367308, San Juan, P.R. 009367308, Teléfono: 787-758-6550, dentro de los próximos sesenta (60) días a partir de la publicación de este emplazamiento por edicto, que será publicado una sola vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general en la isla de Puerto Rico, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia, concediendo el remediO solicitando en la Demanda sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal hoy 13 de octubre de 2020. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, Secretaria. Jessica Soto Pagan, Sec Servicios a Sala.

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

Reverse Mortgage Funding, LLC DEMANDANTE VS.

Antonio Primitivo Carrero Villarubia, t/c/c Antonio P. Carrero Villarubia, t/c/c Antonio P. Carrero t/c/c Antonio Carrero Villanueva por si y en representación de la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales que compone junto a Evelyn Perez Garcia, t/c/c Evelyn Perez Garcia, t/c/c Evelyn Perez de Carrero, t/c/c Evelyn Perez de Carrero; Evelyn Perez Garcia, t/c/c Evelyn Perez Garcia, t/c/c Evelyn Perez de Carrero, t/c/c Evelyn Perez de Carrero por si y en representación de la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales que compone junto a

Antonio Primitivo Carrero Villarubia, t/c/c Antonio P. Carrero Villarubia, t/c/c Antonio P. Carrero t/c/c Antonio Carrero Villanueva; y a los Estados Unidos de America.

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: CA2020CV01640. SOBRE: Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la VIa Ordinaria. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: Antonio Primitivo Carrero Villarubia, t/c/c Antonio P. Carrero Villarubia, t/c/c Antonio P. Carrero t/c/c Antonio Carrero Villanueva por si y en representación de Ia Sociedad Legal de Gananciales que compone junto a Evelyn Perez Garcia, t/c/c Evelyn Perez Garcia, t/c/c Evelyn Perez de Carrero, t/c/c Evelyn Perez de Carrero; Evelyn Perez Garcia, t/c/c Evelyn Perez Garcia, t/c/c Evelyn Perez de Carrero, t/c/c Evelyn Perez de Carrero por si y en representación de la Sociedad Legal de Gananciales que compone junto a Antonio Primitivo Carrero Villarubia, t/c/c Antonio P. Carrero Villarubia, t/c/c Antonio P. Carrero t/c/c Antonio Carrero Villanueva y/o como cualquier otra persona con interés en este caso.

POR LA PRESENTE, se les emplaza y se les notifica que se ha presentado en Ia Secretaria de este Tribunal la Demanda del caso del epígrafe solicitando La ejecución de hipoteca y el cobro de dinero relacionado a! pagaré suscrito a favor de Senior Mortgage Bankers, Inc., o a su orden, por la suma principal de $184,500.00, más intereses computados sobre Ia misma desde su fecha hasta su total y completo pago a razón de la tasa de interés de 5.560% anual, la cual será ajustada mensualmente, obligandose además a! pago de costas, gastos y desembolsos del litigio, mas honorarios de abogados en una suma de $18,450.00 equivalente al 10% de Ia suma principal original. Este pagaré fue suscrito bajo el afidávit

The San Juan Daily Star número 11,900 ante el notario publico Laura Mia Gonzalez Bonilla. Lo anterior surge de la hipoteca constituida mediante la escritura número 99 otorgada el 1 de agosto de 2017, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, ante el notario publico José Garcia Noya, inscrita al tomo Karibe de Carolina, finca número 16,007, inscripción 8a, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección II de Carolina. La hipoteca grava la propiedad que describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número ciento cincuenta del Bloque “D” del Piano de Inscripción de la Urbanización Rolling Hills, situada en el Barrio Martín Gonzalez, del término municipal de Carolina, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de trescientos cuarenta y cuatro metros cuadrados con veinticinco centímetros cuadrados; en lindes por el NORTE, en veinticinco metros con el solar “D ciento cincuenta y uno”; por el SUR, en veinticinco metros con el solar “D ciento cuarenta y nueve”; por el ESTE, en catorce metros cincuenta y cuatro centímetros con un Paseo Público; por el OESTE, en trece metros con la calle número cuatro. Finca Número 16,007, inscrita a! folio 126 del tomo 404 de Carolina, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección II de Carolina.” Se apercibe y advierte a ustedes como personas desconocidas, que deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.jamajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretarIa del Tribunal. De no contestar la demanda radicando el original de la contestación ante la secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Humacao, y notificar copia de Ia contestación de esta a la parte demandante por conducto de su abogada, GLS LEGAL SERVICES, LLC, Atención: Lcda. Genevieve López Stipes, Dirección: P.O. Box 367308, San Juan, P.R. 009367308, Teléfono: 787-758-6550, dentro de los próximos 60 días a partir de la publicación de este emplazamiento por edicto que será publicado una sola vez en un periódico de circulación diana general en la isla de Puerto Rico, se le anotara la rebeldía y se dictara sentencia, concediendo el remedio solicitando en la Demanda sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal hoy 14 de octubre de 2020. Lcda. Marilyn Aponte Rodriguez, Secretaria Regional. Rosa M. Viera Velazquez, SubSecretaria.

LEGAL NOTICE

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

CAROLINA.

ORIENTAL BANK COMO AGENTE DE SERVICIO DE THE MONEY HOUSE, INC. Demandante Vs.

LA SUCESION DE ALEJANDRINA FARIS ORTIZ COMPUESTA POR CLARA I. TORRUELLAS FARIS T/C/C CLARA I. LEON TORRUELLAS T/C/C CLARA LEON; FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL COMO POSIBLES MIEMBROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION Y EL CENTRO DE RECAUDACIONES DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Demandado (a) Civil Núm.: CA2019CV01937. Sala: 404. SOBRE COBRO DE DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: CLARA I. TORRUELLAS FARIS T/C/C CLARA I. LEON TORRUELLAS T/C/C CLARA LEON DE LA SUCESION DE ALEJANDRINA FARIS ORTIZ; FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION DE ALEJANDRINA FARIS ORTIZ

EL SECRETARIO (A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 7 de octubre 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 diez (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 16 de octubre de 2020. En CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, el 16 de octubre de 2020. LCDA MARILYN APONTE RODRIGUEZ, Secretario Regional. F/BETHZAIDA MERCADO ALVAREZ, Secretario(a) Auxiliar.

Estado Libre Asociado de PuerLEGAL NOTICE to Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Pri- ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO mera Instancia Sala Superior de

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU- continuación: Solar número J NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA raya cuatro (J-4) con una cabida superficial de cuatrocientos SALA DE BAYAMON. veintisiete metros cuadrados Reverse Mortgage con noventa y cinco centésimas Solutions, Inc. de otro (427.95 m.c.). ColindanDEMANDANTE VS. do por el NORTE, en veintisiete Fulano de Tal y Sutano metros con el solar J-cinco; por de Tal como miembro de el SUR, en veintisiete metros la Sucesión de Gladys con el Solar J-tres; por el ESTE, Norma Aulet Sanchez; en dos alineaciones, una de metros con cincuentitres Fulano de Tal y Sutano de quince centésimas de metro y otra de Tal como miembros de la treintidos centésimas de metro Sucesión de Francisco con los Solares J-13 y J-12; y Torres Gracia; Centro por el OESTE, en quince metros de Recaudaciones de ochenticinco centésimas de otro con la Calle ocho. Sobre este Ingresos Municipales; a Solar enclava una estructura.” los Estados Unidos de Finca número 67007, inscrita al Asiento 201 del Diario 1523 América; de Bayamón, Registro de la DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: BY2018CV04718. Propiedad de Puerto Rico, SecSOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO ción I de Bayamón. Se aperciY EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA be y advierte a ustedes como POR LA VIA ORDINARIA. EM- personas desconocidas, que PLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. deberá presentar su alegación ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AME- responsiva a través del Sistema RICA EL PRESIDENTE DE Unificado de Administración y LOS ESTADOS EL ESTADO Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUER- cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electróniTO RICO. A: Fulano de Tal y Sutano ca: https://unired.ramajudicial. salvo que se represente por de Tal como miembro de pr, derecho propio, en cuyo caso la Sucesión de Gladys deberá presentar su alegación Norma Aulet Sanchez responsiva en la secretaría del y/o como cualquier otra Tribunal. De no contestar la depersona con interes en manda radicando el original de la contestación ante la secretaeste caso ria del Tribunal de Primera InsPOR LA PRESENTE, se les tancia, Sala de Humacao, y notiemplaza y se les notifica que se ficar copia de la contestación de ha presentado en la Secretaria esta a la parte demandante por de este Tribunal la Demanda del conducto de su abogada, GLS caso del epigrafe solicitando la LEGAL SERVICES, LLC, Atenejecución de hipoteca y el cobro ción: Lcda. Charline Michelle de dinero relacionado al pagaré Jiménez Echevarría, Dirección: suscrito a favor de The Money P.O. Box 367308, San Juan, House, Inc., o a su orden, por la P.R. 00936-7308, Teléfono: 787suma principal de $300,000.00, 758-6550, dentro de los próximás intereses computados so- mos 60 días a partir de la publibre la misma desde su fecha cación de este emplazamiento hasta su total y completo pago por edicto que será publicado a razón de la tasa de interés de una sola vez en un periódico de 5.560% anual, la cual será ajus- circulación diaria general en la tada mensualmente, obligándo- isla de Puerto Rico, se le anose además al pago de costas, tara la rebeldía y se dictara sengastos y desembolsos del litigio, tencia, concediendo el remedio mas honorarios de abogados solicitando en la Demanda sin en una suma de $30,000.00 más citarle ni oírle. Expedido equivalente al 10% de la suma bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal principal original. Este pagaré hoy 5 de octubre de 2020. Lcda. fue suscrito bajo el afidávit nú- Laura I. Santa Sanchez, Secremero 4961 ante el notario públi- taria Regional. Yariliz Cintron co Laura Mia González Bonilla. Colon, SubSecretaria. Lo anterior surge de la hipoteca LEGAL NOTICE constituida mediante la escritura número 244 otorgada el 8 de ju- IN THE UNITED STATES DISnio de 2010, en San Juan, Puer- TRICT COURTFOR THE DISto Rico, ante el notario público TRICT OF PUERTO RICO. Laura Mia González Bonilla, insUNITED STATES crita al Folio 97 del Tomo 1,885 DEPARTMENT OF de Karibe de Toa Baja, Registro AGRICULTURE de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección I de Bayamón, finca (Farm Service Agency) número 67,007, inscripción 3ra. Plaintiff v. La hipoteca grava la propiedad BASILISA RIVERA que describe a continuación: GARCIA, as joint debtor “URBANA: Solar dedicada a la and as known member Urbanización Villas de Buena Vista, localizada en el Barrio of the Estate of SIXTO Buena Vista del término muniGARCIA CRUZ; LUIS cipal de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, RAUL GARCIA RIVERA, que se describe en el Plano de EVELYN MARGARITA Inscripción de la Urbanización GARCIA RIVERA, IRIS con el número, área y colindancias que se relacionan a YOLANDA GARCIA

RIVERA, ENDHIR OMAR GONZALEZ GARCIA and ENDHIR ELIER VELLON GARCIA, as known members of the abovementioned Estate; JOHN DOE and RICHARD ROE as unknown members of the Estate; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Defendant(s) CASE NO. 20-01028 (DRD). Foreclosure of Mortgage. SUMMONS BY PUBLICATION.

TO: EVELYN MARGARITA GARCIA RIVERA, JOHN DOE AND RICHARD ROE AS UNKNOWN MEMBERS OF THE ESTATE OF SIXTO GARCIA CRUZ

Pursuant to the Order for Service by Publication entered on September 30, 2020, by the Honorable Daniel R. Domínguez, Senior United States District Judge (ECF No. 20), you are hereby SUMMONED to appear, plead or answer the Complaint filed herein no later than thirty (30) days after publication of this Summons by serving the original plea or answer in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, and serving a copy to counsel for plaintiff: Attorney Juan C. Fortuño Fas, at PO Box 13786 San Juan, PR 00908, telephone numbers 787-751-5290 and 787-7515616. This Summons shall be published by edict only once in a newspaper of general circulation in the island of Puerto Rico. Within ten (10) days following publication of this Summons, a copy of this Summons and the Complaint will be sent to you, by certified mail/return receipt requested, addressed to your last known address. Should you fail to appear, plead or answer to the Complaint as ordered by the Court and noticed by this Summons, the Court will enter default against you and proceed to hear and adjudicate this cause based on the relief demanded in the Complaint. BY ORDER OF THE COURT, summons is issued pursuant to Federal Rules Civil Procedure 4(e) and Rule 4.6 of the Rules of Civil Procedure for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 9th day of October, 2020. MARIA ANTORGIORGIJORDAN, ESQ., CLERK, U.S. DISTRICT COURT. By: Viviana Diaz-Mulero, Deputy Clerk.

LEGAL NOTICE

RAMIREZ VELEZ, COMPUESTA: FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERES EN DICHA SUCESION: ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA

Demandado(a) Civil: MZ2019CV01995. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACION DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERES DE LA SUCESION DE GRACIELA RAMIREZ VELEZ

(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 6 de julio 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 diez (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 13 de octubre de 2020. En MAYAGUEZ, Puerto Rico, el 13 de octubre de 2020. LCDA NORMA G SANTANA IRIZARRY, Secretario. F/BETSY SANTIAGO GONZALEZ, Secretario(a) Auxiliar.

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

ORIENTAL BANK

Demandante (a) VS.

AIDA DE LAS MERCEDES

Estado Libre Asociado de PuerHEREDIA GÓMEZ T/C/C to Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL AIDA HEREDIA GÓMEZ DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de PriDemandado (a) mera lnstancia Sala Superior de Civil Núm.: SJ2019CV12820. MAYAGUEZ. BANCO POPULAR DE Sala: 506. SOBRE COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE PUERTO RICO Y SUN GARANTÍAS. NOTIFICACIÓN WEST MORTGAGE DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

COMPANY INC COMO AGENTE DE SERVICIO Demandante v.

SUCESION DE GRACIELA

A: AIDA DE LAS MERCEDES HEREDIA GÓMEZ T/C/C AIDA

HEREDIA GÓMEZ

EL SECRETARIO (A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 13 de octubre 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 diez (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 15 de octubre de 2020. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 15 de octubre de 2020. Griselda Rodriguez Collado, Secretario Regional. f/ Angela M. Rivera Hernández, Secretario(a) Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOT ICE Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de CABO ROJO.

COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CREDITO DE CABO ROJO Demandante v.

EDWIN ALGENISS PABON SANTANA

Demandado(a) Civil: Núm. HO2019CV00096. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, REGLA 60. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: EDWIN ALGENISS PABON SANTANA

(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 9 de octubre 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 15 de octubre de 2020. En CABO ROJO, Puerto Rico, el 15 de octubre de 2020. LCDA NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, Secretario(a). F/ REBECA MEDINA FIGUEROA, Secretario(a) Auxiliar.

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

BANCO COOPERATIBO DE P.R. Demandante Vs.

COOPERATIVO DE A/C ORIENTAL; FULANO DE TAL

Demandados CIVIL NUM: HU2020CV00959. SOBRE: CANCELACION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA DENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: FULANO DE TAL O sea, la parte codemandada arriba mencionada.

POR LA PRESENTE, se le emplaza y requiere para que presente al Tribunal su alegación represiva a la demanda dentro de los 30 días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyendo el dia del diligenciamiento, notificando copia de la misma al abogado de la parte demandante o a esta, de no tener representación legal. La demanda promueve la cancelación de una hipoteca por $37,500.00, la cual grava la finca 17,012 de Humacao, inscrita al folio 105 del tomo 385 de Humacao. La hipoteca fue constituida mediante la escritura numero 102, otorgada en Humacao, Puerto Rico, el 27 de septiembre de 1996 ante el Notario Manuel A. Coss Martinez; y el pagare, de la misma fecha, por $37,500.00 y garantizado por dicha hipoteca, lleva el numero de testimonio 22,087 del mismo Notario Coss Martinez. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido termino, 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, entiende que procede: LCDO, JULIAN ANTONIO PARRILLA BORIA BanCoop Plaza, Suite 1100-A Ponce de Leon 623 Hato Rey, PR 00917 Tel & Fax: 787-763-1698 Email: parrillajulian@gmail.com EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y Sello del Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy dia 14 de octubre de 2020. Dominga Gomez Fuster, Sec Regional. Marisol Davila Ortiz, Sec Auxiliar.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Repairs begin for La Yegüita’s stable By MARCOS MEJÍAS ORTIZ Special to The Star

fter more than three years since the onslaught of Hurricane Maria, the legendary Yldefonso Solá Morales Stadium in Caguas is on its way to its long-awaited reconstruction. At a cost of $5 million, the Municipality of Caguas announced the repairs to the home of the Caguas Criollos of the Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League (LBPRC), with the goal that the team will return to its home field for the 202122 season, after four years playing outside the city. “Yegüita’s stable is coming to life. We are returning to our stadium. We are working to make our stadium shine once again,” said Caguas Mayor William Miranda Torres at a press conference held in the stadium’s right field stands. “It is an indescribable feeling, after the destruction of hurricanes Irma and Maria, now there is progress in the arrival of funds to repair our facilities.” Of the $5 million, about $3.9 million will come from insurance funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The rest of the money will come out of municipal funds. “We are creating savings that are going to be used for that,” Miranda Torres said. In an aside with The San Juan Daily Star, the mayor said FEMA evaluated 822 facilities in the municipality that were damaged by Maria in September 2017. Of that total, 100 will receive repair funds totaling $35 million, from which the nearly $4 million are going to be used for the repairs at Solá Morales. Among those repairs at the stadium that opened on Nov. 7, 1948 are the restoration of the playing field (natural grass,

sprinkler system, warning track), ceiling improvements, exterior painting, repair of the electronic scoreboard and the electrical system, construction of two terraces (one on the right field side and the other on the left field side), among others. “Thanks to the mayor, who has always supported us, we are happy to return to our park after four seasons,” said Raúl Rodríguez, president of the Criollos. For the upcoming season, scheduled to start in December, the team will play at the Pedro Montañez Stadium in Cayey, after playing in Gurabo (two years starting in 2017) and San Juan (last year). At the event, which was attended by several former Criollos players, it was observed that the painting tasks outside the facility have already begun. It is expected that the project will be completed by September 2021 and that the Criollos can play at Solá Morales from the start of the season in November 2021. Caguas has not played in its stadium since January 2017, when they won the LBPRC championship against the Santurce Cangrejeros. “We are [on target] for September [2021],” Miranda Torres said. “The terraces are in the design stage and we are trying to ensure that everything is running from the beginning of 2021.” With the construction of both terraces, the stadium’s public seating capacity will be reduced from 10,000 to about 7,000 seats. The Criollos also announced that they will dedicate the 2020-21 season to former pitchers Desiderio de León, who pitched for the Criollos in the 1950s, and the recently retired Orlando Román, who played his entire career with the Criollos. The 2020-21 Winter League season is scheduled to begin on Dec. 1.

It was observed that the painting tasks outside the facility have already begun. (Marcos Mejías Ortiz)

Former Criollos players Pedro García, Desiderio de León and Orlando Román observed the improvements to the stadium along with Caguas Mayor William Miranda Torres (second from left to right). (Marcos Mejías Ortiz)

Tough for the Winter League to play in bubble format By MARCOS MEJÍAS ORTIZ Special to The Star

Raúl Rodríguez, president of the Caguas Criollos, trusts that the Puerto Rico government will give the go-ahead to play in all stadiums this season. (Marcos Mejías Ortiz)

n the United States, the NBA, and MLB in the postseason, bet on the bubble system to complete their 2020 seasons. In Puerto Rico, the National Superior Basketball (BSN by its Spanish initials) aspires to do the same in the month of November. However, for the Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League (LBPRC) that option is not very viable. In recent days, the Puerto Rico government told the LBPRC, also known as the Winter League, to play its next tournament in a bubble format using only two stadiums to minimize any possibility of an outbreak of coronavirus infections amid the global pandemic. However, says Caguas Criollos President Raúl Rodríguez, that alternative cannot be adjusted to the reality of the winter league. “It is very difficult,” Rodríguez told The San Juan Daily Star after the press conference at which the renovation plans for Yldefonso Solá Morales Stadium were presented. “Baseball is not about time. There is the issue of the dugouts. Dressing rooms

would have to be created. They are not easy like basketball or other sports.” The league presented to the commonwealth government a plan to play in its regular stadiums in the towns of San Juan (Santurce Cangrejeros and RA12), Manatí (Atenienses), Aguadilla (Tiburones), Mayagüez (Indios), Carolina (Gigantes) and Cayey (the temporary home of the Criollos). The government presented the option of playing in two stadiums, but Rodríguez said the hope remains that the teams will play in their respective stadiums. “The [LBPRC] president [Juan Flores Galarza] had a meeting with the [La Fortaleza] chief of staff [Antonio Pabón] and if things do not change, from the beginning we have said that we must wait until the end of November to see how the situation [develops],” Rodríguez said regarding COVID-19 cases in Puerto Rico. “We are giving the government what they need, which is security in relation to COVID,” Rodríguez said. “I think they will accept that we play in the stadiums in the towns. We should not have problems.” The Winter League season is scheduled to begin on Dec. 1, although the last word on whether it will be played at all remains in the hands of the island government.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

The Bills won the Stefon Diggs trade. Right? By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN

eople do not like ties. They want to win, and they want others to lose. It’s a maxim that has kicked around for years, but may have been best said by English novelist W. Somerset Maugham. “Now that I’ve grown old, I realize that for most of us it is not enough to have achieved personal success,” Maugham said. “One’s best friend must also have failed.” With that in mind, what happens when a trade appears to be an unequivocal success for both teams? That situation is playing out in Buffalo and Minnesota, where a blockbuster deal that sent wide receiver Stefon Diggs and a late-round pick to the Bills for a package of draft picks has given both teams exactly what they wanted. Diggs, who scored a touchdown for Buffalo in the team’s otherwise quiet 26-17 loss to Kansas City on Monday, has been a dominant force for the 4-2 Bills. Justin Jefferson, a wide receiver taken with one of the picks acquired for Diggs, has been one of the few bright spots for the rebuilding Vikings (1-5). For the Bills, the addition of Diggs has changed the makeup of the team. Josh Allen, who had occasionally tantalized, was looking like a legitimate candidate for the league’s MVP Award before faltering in the past two weeks. John Brown and Cole Beasley appear to have found purpose as the team’s No. 2 and 3 receivers behind Diggs. And Buffalo, as it works out some issues on defense, entered Monday with a top-five offense for the first time since 1992. As for Diggs, he is playing perhaps the best football in his career. His 555 yards receiving give him 92.5 per game — a career high — and he is catching more than 70 percent of the balls thrown his way for just the second time in his career. He is doing that despite increased attention and fairly tight coverage, with an average separation of just 2.7 yards per reception going into Monday’s game, according to the NFL’s Next Gen statistics database. Diggs has said he is eager for even more. “I’m always chasing greatness,” he said. “I feel like we’re nowhere close to where we can be.” While Diggs has had personal success, it’s also notable how his presence has opened the field for his teammates. With opponents focusing on Diggs, Allen was able to throw fourth-quarter touchdown passes to Brown and to tight end Tyler Kroft during the team’s 4-0 start. Diggs said he’s “just one guy,” but acknowledged the impact he has had on others, saying, “My job entails getting open or getting other guys open.” Despite that, you can make a reasonable case that Minnesota has won this trade so far. Or at least that the Vikings did better than could have been expected once the team’s hand was forced.

Stefon Diggs has been terrific for Buffalo and is second in the N.F.L. in yards receiving per game. But Justin Jefferson, selected with a draft pick acquired for Diggs, has been nearly as good for Minnesota. Diggs was a malcontent in Minnesota, repeatedly talking about wanting to be traded. He turns 27 next month and he’s fairly expensive at $14.8 million for this season. Situations like that often lead to teams getting pennies on the dollar in a trade. But the Vikings appear to have struck gold in Jefferson. A 6-foot-1, 202-pound receiver out of Louisiana State, Jefferson is just 21 and under contract for a total of just $13.1 million for the next four seasons — less than Diggs will make just this year. Despite that discounted rate, Jefferson is fourth in the NFL with 537 yards receiving, a total that trails only Anquan Boldin of the 2003 Cardinals for the most through a player’s first six games. And Jefferson is picking up steam with more than 100 yards in three of his past four games, including 166 and two touchdowns in Sunday’s loss to Atlanta. He is catching 77.8 percent of the balls thrown his way and he is a serious vertical threat, with an average of 19.2 yards per reception. The struggling team’s faith in Jefferson has been apparent. Many took note of Kirk Cousins trusting the rookie in a key situation with an unpracticed over-theshoulder throw in a Week 4 win. But an even bigger

endorsement of Jefferson came in Sunday’s loss to Atlanta. Cousins was intercepted twice on throws to Jefferson in the first half, but he kept targeting the young star, who ended up having the best game of his career despite the team’s 40-23 loss. Diggs’ departure has not cured the Vikings of their discontent, and tempers flared Sunday with receiver Adam Thielen appearing to berate Cousins on the sideline during a brutal first half. But Jefferson has done his part to try to keep things light, introducing his teammates to the Griddy, a dance that Thielen tried to emulate a few weeks ago. Whether Jefferson can keep up with Diggs in the long term is an open question. Diggs is a known entity thriving as a No. 1 receiver for a team expected to make the playoffs. Jefferson is benefiting from teams not knowing him, from his team often trailing by a wide margin and from having Thielen on the other side of the field. But Jefferson, the youngest player to score a touchdown this season, made an excellent point a few weeks ago when asked about his rapid development. “We didn’t have any preseason or anything before this,” he said. “I guess you could say this is my preseason and I’m just getting started.” Maybe in this rare instance, a tie is OK.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Hockey broadcaster Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick retires By KEVIN DRAPER and ANDREW KNOLL

hen the NHL begins its next season, absent for the first time in four decades will be the man perhaps more associated with the league than any player, coach or official: broadcaster Mike Emrick — known universally by his nickname, Doc. Emrick, 74, who this year called the Stanley Cup Final for the 22nd time, announced his retirement Monday. “In your mid-70s, you realize that you have had a very healthy and long run, except for the cancer scare, and you are looking outside and seeing this to be the autumn of your years,” he said on a conference call with reporters Monday. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1991. Emrick ascended to the top of his profession, jockeying with Canadianborn greats like Bob Cole and Dan Kelly in the pantheon of hockey’s play-by-play announcers. He worked in print media covering the Pittsburgh Penguins, earned his doctorate in broadcast communications from Bowling Green State University (hence the “Doc” sobriquet), and transitioned to television from radio in a way that was at once seamless and iconic. “He was able to get away with a descriptive, radiolike, wood-to-wood calls, on network television,” said David J. Halberstam, founder of the Sports Broadcast Journal and a former play-by-play announcer for the Miami Heat. “The textbook says, ‘Caption, don’t describe.’ Vin Scully said: ‘On radio you’re a puncher, and on television you’re a counterpuncher.’ “Emrick broke the cardinal rule on each of his broadcasts, yet he was beloved. When I asked him about it, he didn’t hesitate: ‘It’s the way I’ve always done it.’ ” Emrick was particularly known for his barrage of verbs. In a game between the U.S. and Canadian national teams at the 2014 Olympics, one count had him at 153 distinct verbs to describe the movement of the puck. Among his favorites were descriptive but uncommon words like “jostle” during physical battles and inventive yet understandable actions like “soccering” when players used their feet. His default register conveyed a sense of ecstasy to be watching hockey, even as he called nearly 4,000 games, from playoff nail-biters to throwaway games in December. Some fans thought he was too

Mike Emrick has been inducted into seven Halls of Fame, including the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. excited and too verbose, but in a job that fans jump to criticize, Emrick was about as close as a broadcaster can get to being universally beloved. “When the Doc Emrick evil chuckle comes in when two gentlemen square off on the ice, you know it’s a special day,” said Sam Flood, the longtime producer of NBC’s hockey coverage. Al Michaels, the longtime NFL broadcaster who also called the Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Olympics, compared Emrick’s influence on the sport to John Madden’s on football. “I think of you much as I think of John Madden, as a man who has been as important to the National Hockey League as anybody,” Michaels said to Emrick on Monday’s call. Michaels recalled being asked at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, 30 years after the Miracle on Ice, whether he should be calling Olympic hockey instead of Emrick. “No. 1, I can’t do hockey one-tenth as well as Mike Emrick,” he said. “No. 2, I want to listen to Mike Emrick do hockey.” Emrick’s career in numbers is astounding. He has broadcast 47 seasons of

professional hockey, including 40 in the NHL. He called 45 Game 7s in the playoffs. He won eight sports Emmy Awards and is a member of seven halls of fame, including the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and the Fort Wayne Komets Hall of Fame. Emrick’s signature call during the Stanley Cup Final — what he recited after each of the nearly two dozen he has called — came from American Hockey League beat writer Steve Summers, who died in 1993. Emrick adapted Summers’ description of a 12-0 Calder Cup run in 1988 by the Hershey Bears: “The episodes in life that last so many years in memory are often measured in fleeting moments as they happen.” Dan Rusanowsky, the longtime playby-play announcer for the San Jose Sharks, said that Emrick had become an invaluable resource to other broadcasters, creating a pronunciation guide for the NHL — a league that has featured more than its share of names with uncommon vowelconsonant arrangements and distinct pronunciations thereof — and a method for condensing press notes into a two-sided sheet for quickly finding information.

NBC has not announced a successor for Emrick, who was its lead hockey play-by-play voice since 2005. The company has a number of others doing playby-play, like Kenny Albert, who also announces New York Rangers games, and John Forslund. The network could also opt to hire a team or regional sports network broadcaster. Whoever it chooses, however, will have gigantic shoes to fill. Jeremy Roenick, a former All-Star center and former NBC studio analyst, said that Emrick was the consummate professional who took great pride in his work, sports and life in general. “Hockey will not replace Doc Emrick,” Roenick said. “NBC has a hole and a void that will not be filled.” Emrick’s retirement could be just the beginning in seismic changes to how hockey is shown in the U.S. NBC’s longtime exclusive rights agreement with the NHL to show games expires after the 2020-21 season, and with television networks and streaming platforms as voracious for content as ever, there very well could be new broadcasters and new playby-play voices involved in the game.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

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

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

(Mar 21-April 20)

You won’t stand for it when you observe someone on the receiving end of another’s biased behaviour. Your timely intervention will be appreciated. A colleague who shares your ambitions will suggest you team up together to work towards a mutual goal. There will be advantages but you can see possible problems too. Your ambition will take you far.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

You won’t have much time to call your own when your day is full of duty and this includes the favour or two a friend is expecting from you. Even though you might start the day dreading what might be ahead for you, once it does get going, you could be in for a surprise.

Scorpio

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

Play your hunches. You will know the right thing to do at the right time. The industrious mood surrounding you will make progress easy and your efforts will not go unrewarded. You know how to make the most of your time and get the most from your efforts. You have a lot to show for your hard work.

You’re at your most assertive because you know exactly what you want. Your mind is on a particular goal and nothing is going to stand in your way. Friends will praise you for being able to come up with some great solutions to problems. Someone will ask you to help resolve an issue they cannot see an answer to.

Decide on exactly which steps are needed to get you on a new path towards self-improvement. Making changes to your diet or daily routine can make you feel more active, healthy and energised. Breaking a bad habit or releasing an addiction to a behaviour or activity are among the possibilities.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

Extra work you are asked to take on won’t be half as bad as you expected. You might agree to do this out of a sense of duty and it could turn out to be enjoyable and entertaining. You’ve been growing bored with your regular routine and now you’re offered the perfect chance to change all that.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

Enrolling on a study course could bring you a lot of satisfaction. Don’t tell yourself you’re too old or you aren’t capable of reaching the standard required for examinations. You won’t get anywhere if you don’t try and you could be surprised by what you can do once you put your mind to it.

Keep quiet about money dealings especially joint financial affairs. Obviously your partner will be in on your every move but for some reason they don’t want the world to know about it. A colleague you’re working closely with will trust you with some information. Again, it’s important you don’t pass this on to another.

Friendship and group activities look set to offer you plenty in the way of pleasure and fun. Even so, if you’re suddenly taken with the idea of visiting someone who lives some distance away it might be wise to check transport arrangements. Delays or cancellations could cause a lot of inconvenience.

You will do anything for a quiet life but this should not stop you from standing up for your rights. Backing down is the easy way out. Why let a rival win? Be careful about who you confide in as there is someone close by who will do their best to block your progress.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

It’s difficult to settle down to anything when you are feeling so restless. Allow yourself to be carried along by a friend’s desire to liven up the day with something that has nothing to do with routine. Ignore anyone who suggests you’re shirking your responsibilities. You will return to these another time.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

Keep your mind on what you are doing and avoid a tendency to daydream. Losing yourself in fantasy when you should be working could get you into a lot of trouble. Developments in a close relationship will feel fantastic and will make you content and secure.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

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Ziggy

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

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