Monday Oct 26, 2020

Monday, October 26, 2020

San Juan The

50¢

DAILY

Star

PBS Showed TV the Future.

What’s Its Own? P20-21

More Questions Than Answers

Fate of Mail-In Ballots Sent Without ID Copies Is in Supreme Court’s Hands P5

Members of Pence’s Inner Circle Test Positive for COVID-19 P8

With the General Elections Around the Corner, Doubts Prevail About Electoral Code and Voting Process P4

NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 18

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Monday, October 26, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

GOOD MORNING

3

October 26, 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.

LCDC: Independent probe not needed, insider trading allegations against its members are unfounded

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From NNW 9 mph 72% 10 of 10 6:19 AM Local Time 5:58 PM Local Time

INDEX Local 3 Mainland 7 Business 11 International 14 Viewpoint 18 Noticias en Español 19 Entertainment 20

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22 24 26 29 30 31

he Lawful Constitutional Debt Coalition (LCDC), a group that supports the legality of early vintage general obligation (GO) bonds and Public Buildings Authority (PBA) bonds in Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy process, objected on Sunday to the appointment of an independent investigator to probe allegations of insider trading as requested by bond insurer National Public Finance.

The LCDC has been the target of allegations that its members used confidential information obtained during bankruptcy mediation to manipulate its bonds because they had purchased late vintage GO bonds (bonds issued after 2012) whose legality the LCDC had challenged in court. After initially trying to have late vintage GO bonds and PBA bonds declared illegal during the bankruptcy, the Financial Oversight and Management Board withdrew such objections.

Boiled down to its essence, the LCDC said National Public Finance is asking the people of Puerto Rico to foot the bill for National Public Finance Guarantee Corp.’s upcoming objection to confirmation of a plan of adjustment of the central government debt that it dislikes.

National Public Finance seeks to promote a theory that LCDC members violated the mediation protocol and the law by engaging in improper trading and activities that were inconsistent with their legal positions before the court.

LCDC said National Public Finance is wrongly implying that any changes to the holdings of members of the LCDC correlate with the period in which the LCDC was engaged in negotiations.

“National’s contentions are baseless,” the LCDC said.

In addition, National’s motion fails to allege a single fact showing any LCDC member breached its obligation of confidentiality in the mediation because, the LCDC said, there was no such breach by any LCDC member.

“Likewise, the Motion fails entirely to mention that the mediation was governed by the Mediation Agreement (which National executed), the terms of which address the permissibility of trading, and with which LCDC members fully complied,” the LCDC said. “As is clear from the facts, the totality of the isolated trades were by and among sophisticated institutions all signatory to the Mediation Agreement, and those trades did not violate the Mediation Agreement.

Each of these institutions also signed the New PSA [plan support agreement] after the trades and support the deal opposed by National.”

No LCDC member traded in any securities that were the subject of bilateral confidential negotiations with the oversight board while participating in such negotiations from the moment discussion began on March 14, 2019 until after the public release on June 16, 2019, which led to the

initial PSA released in February, the LCDC said.

Five of the seven members of the LCDC (Aristeia, Farmstead, FCO, Monarch and Taconic) did not trade in any securities that were the subject of confidential mediation while participating in such mediation, which began on Oct. 2, 2019 for some firms and ended Feb. 9, 2020, which led to the New PSA, the LCDC said, adding that the two LCDC members (GoldenTree and Whitebox) that engaged in a few isolated trades while participating in mediation did so with other signatories to the mediation agreement in a manner that complied fully with the court’s orders.

The LCDC also denied assertions that the economic interests of members of the LCDC are inconsistent with the legal positions taken by the LCDC in court.

“In fact, and as disclosed by the LCDC throughout these proceedings, the aggregate holdings of LCDC members have always been weighted towards bonds issued by PBA and guaranteed by the Commonwealth, and very heavily weighted towards Early Vintage Bonds (i.e., PBA Bonds and GO Bonds issued prior to March 2012) over Late Vintage Bonds (i.e., bonds issued in and after March 2012),” the LCDC said. “The LCDC’s Rule 2019 Statements — the public disclosures that National supposedly relies upon to support an investigation — actually show that the percentage of Early Vintage Bonds held by its members has never been below 85 percent of the group’s total holdings. In other words, the LCDC’s positions before the Court as defenders of PBA Bonds generally and Early Vintage Bonds specifically have at all times been consistent with its members’ economic interests. Put even more simply, the LCDC has advocated for respecting the PBA and the relative lawful priority of Early Vintage Bonds because it believed those positions were right on the law. And, therefore, it should come as no surprise that the compromise negotiated with the [oversight board] and holders of Late Vintage Bonds — under the auspices of the Mediation Team — is consistent with those positions and interests.”

“Since National knows it cannot credibly assert that holders of Early Vintage Bonds are not permitted to compromise with holders of Late Vintage Bonds, National resorts to false accusations in an effort to spin an unfair characterization of events,” the LCDC added.

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Monday, October 26, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Have concerns about the Nov. 3 elections? Here’s what you need to know After chaotic primaries, doubts remain about the general elections and the Electoral Code signed back in June

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

W

ith only eight days before the general elections, doubts and concerns still reign about the current Electoral Code, which was approved by the New Progressive Party legislative majority and signed on June 20 by Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced amid heavy opposition from minority parties.

Mayté Bayolo Alonso, a legislative attorney for the Puerto Rico National Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU-Puerto Rico), said Sunday that there have been “two main changes” that have raised concerns about the law authored by Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz. One of them has to do with mixed voting, which is similar to crossover voting, and of which the Electoral Code states that, with the gubernatorial ballot, the voter must make a mark under the party’s insignia, which represents a vote for the main candidate, and another one next to the preferred resident commissioner candidate.

“This has confused many citizens. Most of the questions that I have received involve mixed voting,” she said. “The ballots, especially the legislative ballot, have many options that overwhelm the common voter; I look at it and if I didn’t know exactly how to vote, I would be overwhelmed because there are so many candidates that, more than the many options you have to vote for, you must know there’s a limited quantity of people you could vote for or you damage your ballot.”

Bayolo Alonso said the other “big change” with the Electoral Code has to do with the definition of the term “intact vote,” which is when the voter marks only underneath a party’s insignia as this vote could determine which party will be in charge of the State Elections Commission’s (SEC) administrative affairs for the next four-year term.

“Constitutionally speaking, the majority party is the party that will manage the country as they acquired most of the citizens’ votes,” she said. “According to Law 58-2020, for the SEC, the majority party will be the party that acquires the most intact votes on the gubernatorial ballot, and that party will have control over the SEC’s administrative affairs, which includes official appointments and budget allocation. There will only be a balance [among parties] in electoral affairs; that’s a big change.”

The ACLU-Puerto Rico attorney told the Star that, in her opinion, that new rule could become an issue because there might be only one party in charge of the island’s electoral budget.

“The SEC’s purpose is that every registered party has representation when decisions are made; the chairman is the one who agrees or disagrees with their final decision. We will have a situation where there won’t be interference from minority parties -- which might not have lost the elections, but didn’t get the most intact votes from the gubernatorial ballot -- as budget decisions are being made,” Bayolo Alonso said. “I want to [hope for] the best and from good faith, and say that perhaps it would create a situation in which there is, to some extent, a system of checks and balances in the electoral field; however, history cannot be ignored when we have seen divided administrations.”

For these reasons, Bayolo Alonso, along with ACLU-Puerto Rico’s non-governmental organization Tu Voto No Se Deja, which is focused on educating citizens on their voting rights and providing accessible information on the candidates’ platforms, has released a guide to educate voters on how to fill out their ballots correctly in this year’s general elections. She added that apart from publishing the pamphlet to raise awareness on how voters can make their vote count and which methods are valid according to Law 58-2020, they have handed out more than 5,000 copies to citizens across the island because “there are people who don’t have access to social media, who reject being on social media and [others who] have no internet access.”

“In order to reach out to this population, which we have done by teaming up with community leaders and allies, we decided to print out these pamphlets that are available in PDF format so digital [users] share them with their WhatsApp group chats, with their family members and friends,” she said. “We’re not affiliated with any political party, but due to the changes in the Electoral Code, we want elder and disadvantaged citizens of our country to know how to cast their vote and that there are more options other than the intact vote.”

Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) Electoral Commissioner Roberto Iván Aponte told the Star meanwhile that the “run-over” approval of the Electoral Code has led people to inform themselves about the changes “as it was approved by only one party without considering recommendations from the opposition, which helps

benefit the current government.”

“One of the challenges that we have faced has been with the change of the definition of ‘early voting,’ as the concept has been widely opened and it limits any intent to oversight,” Aponte said. “The enormous number of people who have requested early voting makes it harder to inspect every step, above all in the early voting at home and early voting by mail processes.”

As for early voting at home, the PIP electoral commissioner said the SEC has never seen so many requests and “that it requires visiting the homes of 105,000 voters in such a short amount of time” to validate their votes. Meanwhile, he said that early voting by mail “needs a more serious evaluation of how to oversee and ensure the voters’ authentication.”

Aponte said further that the reduction of Permanent Registration Board offices in each municipality represents a challenge for voters who live in rural areas because “they won’t have an office close to them to reactivate, register or update their information in the electoral roll.”

“There’s also an imbalance in the SEC’s structure and the lack of representation from minority parties on many terms, which creates great suspicion in the electorate,” he said. “We must return to consensus among all parties. Nowadays, Puerto Ricans demand more representativeness from all sectors, and it cannot be that a single party establishes the rules; there must be consensus and transparency, something that was not [considered] in the approval of this new electoral code.”

The American Civil Liberties Union , along with ACLU-Puerto Rico’s non-governmental organization Tu Voto No Se Deja released a guide to educate voters on how to fill out their ballots correctly in this year’s general elections.

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

5

Top court to decide fate of mail-in ballots sent without copies of ID

By THE STAR STAFF

T

he Puerto Rico Supreme Court gave the State Elections Commission (SEC) and the electoral commissioners until today to submit legal briefs in a dispute over the fate of mail-in ballots that did not have the required copies of the voters’ electoral identification or other forms of identification.

The top court resolution contained a dissident opinion written by Associate Justice Ángel Colón Pérez warning that the SEC cannot alter the procedures for election mail through “an agreement among the electoral commissioners.”

New Progressive Party (NPP) Electoral Commissioner Héctor Joaquín Sánchez Álvarez said the NPP sought the protection of the top court to stop the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) from trying to invalidate through a lower court challenge the ballots from individuals who cast their ballots by mail without including copies of their identifications.

The NPP had proposed as an alternative to the problem that the Early and Absentee Voting Administration Board notify voters who did not include a copy of their identification in the early voting by mail so that they can have the opportunity to do so. The PDP had argued the NPP proposal compromised the purity of the process.

In the absence of unanimity on the matter, the SEC issued a resolution amend-

ing the Procedures Manual for Early Voting

by Mail to include a provision that allows voters to correct by mail any deficiency that prevents their vote from being counted.

The PDP challenged that decision in court.

“The PDP is opposed to having a remedy that protects voters, this with a clear intention of restricting the rights to cast their votes and have them counted,” Sánchez Álvarez said. “We want to provide voters who decided to exercise their right to vote by mail with the opportunity to correct any defect that would prevent their vote from

being counted in the general vote count.

If the voter is not notified that his vote will not be counted due to a formal error, we would be restricting his right to vote and due process of law.”

The coronavirus pandemic has pushed many voters to send in their ballots by mail.

U.S. Postal Service officials have said they have made election mail their number one priority.

SEC Chairman Francisco Rosado Colomer concluded that the identification requirement is not related to the validity

of the vote itself, but rather to the verification that whoever exercises his or her right to vote by mail is a citizen who meets the requirements set forth in the Electoral Code to appear in the General Registry of Electors of Puerto Rico and to vote. Likewise, he determined that not providing voters who decided to exercise their right to vote early by mail a mechanism to correct a procedural deficiency, such as including the copy of a valid identification, deprives them of their fundamental right to due process of law.

“Voters have the right to have voting by mail that has the same guarantees and protections as the rest of the voters,” the NPP electoral commissioner said. “What the electoral commissioner of the PDP wants to do by trying to annul the SEC resolution is to deprive voters, who chose this mechanism as an alternative in the middle of the pandemic, of their right to vote. Our responsibility is to provide all the necessary protections to guarantee democracy and the right to vote.”

Colón Pérez said the law is clear in that the inclusion of the copy of the identification card with the ballot must be done in one single act and should not be done separately, as the SEC and the NPP have proposed.

“That unity of the act is needed to ensure the purity of the upcoming electoral process,” he said. “Our democracy is going through an uphill climb and apparently is in the hands of those who do not respect it.”

Florida congressman endorses Romero for SJ mayor

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

U

.S. Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) on Sunday endorsed New Progressive Party (NPP) candidate Miguel Romero for mayor of San Juan in a political advertisement on social networks.

Soto, who is of Puerto Rican heritage and has represented Florida’s 9th District since 2017, hosted Romero, a member of the Puerto Rico Senate, in Washington to identify more funds to benefit San Juan communities. He attributed his endorsement to the leadership and commitment Romero has demonstrated to his constituents.

“This endorsement translates into recognition of the work we have done on behalf of the San Juan people,” Romero said. “From the Senate, I have dedicated myself to ensuring the well being and development of the communities I represent and Congressman Soto is a witness to this delivery. I appreciate every show of support I receive and I reiterate my commitment to the Capital City.”

Two weeks before the general elections, Romero said his priorities are based on rescuing San Juan from the neglect and deterioration that it has undergone for the past eight years.

“Unfortunately, the city is destroyed and with countless problems that put the safety and well being of citizens at risk,” he said. “As I have mentioned on several occasions, once I am sworn in as the new mayor of San Juan, my efforts will be directed at conducting massive cleanup operations to bring the Capital up to date.”

He said that parallel to those operations, “we will be doing other work aimed at restoring the city with lighting projects, sidewalk repairs, storm pipes and efforts to reactivate the economy, among others.”

“We are convinced that the communities yearn for a leader who watches over the interests of all without distinction of parties,” Romero said. “In me they will have a mayor who will ensure the well being, security, economic development and administration of the municipality without improvisation and without the political protagonists that have done so much damage to us.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

PDP candidates accuse resident commissioner of living ‘the good life’ while island suffered

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

P

opular Democratic Party Rep. Ángel Matos García (Carolina) and Manuel Calderón Cerame, the PDP candidate for the District 4 (San Juan) seat in the House of Representatives said Sunday that while the island suffered after Hurricane Maria, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón “dedicated herself to the good life, traveling all over the world and enjoying very expensive hotels and exquisite restaurants paid for with public funds from the federal Congress, her political campaign committee and private groups.”

“Nine days before the elections, the country must know where its elected officials were and what efforts they took in recent years, while Puerto Ricans suffered the effects of two hurricanes, Irma and Maria,” Matos García said. “The corrupt government of the New Progressive Party of Ricardo Rosselló and Wanda Vázquez was joined by the callousness and arrogance of Jenniffer González, who, from the beginning of her mandate in the federal capital, was very well organized to get the most out of the benefits and privileges of the position.”

According to information gathered by an investigative team, the PDP candidates said, González paid for a party to celebrate her swearing-in as resident commissioner.

Although the party was for her, the PDP members said “she did not put in a penny.” The reception was in a room of the Sofitel Hotel in Washington, D.C., which cost $18,105.81,

paid for with campaign funds, and with music by a salsa, merengue and cumbia orchestra, Pablo Antonio and the Firm, at a cost of $2,600, they said.

Likewise, Matos García and Calderón Cerame said, on a trip to Israel from Aug. 6, 2017 to Aug. 14, 2017 that was paid for by the American Israel Education Foundation, the resident commissioner spent $7,009.56 on “Business Class” transportation, $1,351.81 on meals and $1,613.66 on other expenses, such as $50 on snacks and $31.25 on bottled water.

“At that time, Jenniffer stayed at the 5-star Hotel King David in Jerusalem at a cost per night of $321 and at the Scots Hotel … in Tiberia at a cost per night of $270,” Matos García said. “Jenniffer González traveled to Puerto Rico from March 1, 2018 to March 6, 2018. The trip was paid for by the Republican Main Street Partnership, where she spent $567 on transportation, $567 on accommodation and $163 on food.”

Meanwhile, Calderón Cerame pointed out that “the [resident] commissioner also stayed

at the Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino in Condado, one of the few hotels to open after the effects of Hurricane Maria, where the room was $189 per night.”

“Even living in Puerto Rico, she preferred the luxury of a hotel to meet with members of the NPP and her Republican Party,” the candidate said. “Later in the year, González was in Spain from September 16 to 19, 2018, [on a trip] paid [for] by the Fundación Consejo España-Estados Unidos, where she spent $4,700 on transportation, again in ‘Business Class,’ and reporting $250 consumed in meals, $1,200 in lodging expenses and $130 in other expenses.

On that trip, she was at the Hyatt Regency Hesperia in Madrid, which has a cost per night of $290.”

During the presentation to the press held at PDP headquarters in Puerta de Tierra, the candidates also said the resident commissioner traveled to England from Dec. 13 to Dec. 18, 2018. That trip was paid for by Ken Weinstein of the Hudson Institute, and the Henry Jackson Society, and included $5,449.09 in “Business Class” transportation expenses, $686.77 for food and $821.50 for lodging, they said.

The PDP candidates noted that while the commissioner traveled the world, Congress discussed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (known as the Farm Bill), the measure that banned cockfighting. This measure was introduced, as the HR 2, on April 12, 2018.

On May 18, 2018, then-Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) introduced the amendment to

the Farm Bill to eliminate cockfighting and Jenniffer González failed in her attempt to stop those amendments.

“It took seven months until the law that buried this important industry and cultural tradition of ours was finally signed and Jenniffer was unable to reverse the damage,” Matos García said. “In those seven months, Jenniffer traveled to more than 10 countries.”

The legislator said González traveled to the cities of Tokyo, Fukushima and Sendal in Japan from Feb. 17 to Feb. 23, 2019, with charges to the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress for expenses of $11,635.01 for transportation, $1,336.80 for lodging and $700 for food. On that trip the resident commissioner had several formal dinners at renowned restaurants in Japan such as Mon cher ton ton, Shinjuku Sumitomo, where she spent 12,960 yen, which at the official exchange rate of $123 to 21,000 yen, represents $256, Matos García said.

Last week, González Colón denied in an interview with the Star that her trips had been paid for with public funds from the commonwealth. She said they were all paid for by Congress and that meanwhile she has brought nearly $121 billion to the island through her work as resident commissioner.

“Trips that did not cost the people of Puerto Rico a penny, but that have produced more than $121 billion for the island,” she said. “These are trips paid for by Congress in my function as a congressman, as a member of committees.”

Fajardo biopharma producer adding $4.5 million cogeneration system

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

P

all Life Sciences Puerto Rico LLC, a subsidiary of Danaher Corp., is continuing its expansion in Puerto Rico with an investment of over $4.5 million in a cogeneration system for the production of electrical and thermal energy in its operations.

The expansion was announced over the weekend by Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC by its Spanish acronym) Secretary Manuel A. Laboy Rivera, along with Vivienne N. Henry Sánchez, executive general manager of the company, which specializes in the manufacture of filters for biopharmaceutical applications.

“Established in Fajardo 45 years ago, Pall Life Sciences Puerto Rico LLC reaffirms its commitment to invest in the island with a system focused on business continuity and resilience, along with its commitment to the environment in reducing carbon emissions by a little over 30 percent, equivalent to 12 million pounds a year,” Laboy Rivera said.

“This system will produce 1,350 kilowatts of electrical energy and 373 tons of ice water to be used in the company’s air conditioning systems. I thank the company for trusting in the Puerto Rican talent that strengthens the biopharmaceutical industry, which represents 45 percent of all direct, indirect

and induced industrial jobs.”

The project is in addition to the announcement made by the biosciences sector company in July about the construction of a new warehouse for an investment of over $10 million in its operations.

“The company’s relationship with the island is one of commitment to the economic well being of the region, commitment to the environment and the community, and support for its associates,” Henry Sánchez said.

The DDEC secretary added that “[i]nvestments such as that of Pall Life Sciences Puerto Rico, in resilience technology, business continuity and reduction of environmental emissions reinforce the development of this specialized sector that is constantly evolving and whose economic impact on exports destined for more than 85 countries approximates 68 percent.”

Laboy Rivera stressed that the commitment of the agency he directs is “to be a facilitator for various economic sectors, both local and foreign.”

The company held a ribbon cutting that symbolically began the operation of the cogeneration system. José Sepúlveda, director of transmission and distribution of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, Deputy DDEC Secretary Julio Benítez and DDEC Director of Business Development Víctor Merced were on hand.

Pall Life Sciences Puerto Rico LLC also produces technologies for the medical device and biotechnology industries such as medicines, vaccines, cell therapies and classic pharmaceutical products.

Danaher Corp. is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

7

Virus surge shadows Trump and Biden campaign events after final debate

By SHANE GOLDMACHER, THOMAS KAPLAN and ANNIE KARNI

A

day after the nation hit a new high for coronavirus cases, President Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail for a series of rallies and again sought to minimize the surging pandemic, mocking his rival, Joe Biden, for following the social distancing recommendations of public health officials.

In the face of spiking numbers, Trump on Saturday continued to lean into the idea that the news media and his critics were obsessing about the virus, even as polls show widespread public concern. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll found that a slim majority of voters (including half of independents) believed the worst of the pandemic was yet to come.

“That’s all I hear about now. That’s all I hear, turn on television,” Trump said at a campaign event in Lumberton, North Carolina.

“COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID,” a refrain he recited in the state as well on Wednesday.

With 10 days left until the election and hundreds of thousands of voters expected to cast their ballots as long lines marked the first weekend of early in-person voting in Florida, New York, Wisconsin and other states, Trump and Biden presented sharply divergent cases, both in words and actions, for how they would handle the virus crisis still gripping the country.

Making two stops in the key battleground of Pennsylvania, Biden cited the milestone in cases and criticized Trump for asserting that the country was “rounding the corner” as cases spiked.

“You’re asking us to learn how to die with it, and it’s wrong,” Biden said at a drivein rally in the Philadelphia suburbs, recalling his exchange with Trump on the subject at the debate Thursday. He added that there was “going to be a dark winter ahead unless we change our ways.”

The beeping of car horns punctuated his remarks, a familiar soundtrack at his socially distanced drive-in events in the weeks before Election Day. “I wish I could go car to car and meet you all,” Biden said at a community college in Bucks County, where he spoke from a stage decorated with pumpkins and bales of hay. “I don’t like the idea of all this distance, but it’s necessary. I appreciate you being safe. What we don’t want to do is become superspreaders.”

In North Carolina, it seemed that Trump had watched his rival’s event, mocking Biden for his careful crowd limits. “People in cars,” Trump said. “I don’t get it.”

“You heard a couple of horns,” he added.

President Donald Trump at the polling place in West Palm Beach, Fla., where he cast his ballot in the 2020 general election, on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020.

“Honk, honk. It’s the weirdest thing.”

From there, Trump was off to Circleville, Ohio, outside Columbus, and then Waukesha, Wisconsin, as he sought to rally backers in suburban areas where polls show his support has slipped. On Sunday, he will fly to New Hampshire, the lone state on his weekend itinerary that he did not carry in 2016 and part of a hopscotching schedule reminiscent of his intense final push four years ago.

But the virus’ surge has ensured that even Trump’s well-attended rallies can be a political liability, a reminder to voters fearful of the pandemic of his regular disregard for expert and public health advice. Trump used his own contracting of the disease, his weekend of hospitalization and his subsequent recovery as a pitch to minimize the severity of a pandemic that has cost more than 224,000 lives in the United States out of more than 8 million cases.

“By the way, I had it, here I am,” he said.

Trump began his day in Florida, where he joined the more than 56 million Americans who have already voted. He cast his ballot in person at the Palm Beach County Main Library, declaring, “I voted for a guy named Trump.”

Afterward, he also continued to baselessly question the integrity of the election and in particular mail-in ballots. “It’s the only way we can lose,” Trump said, citing the size of crowds at his rallies. Most polls show Trump behind by a sizable margin nationally and in many of the critical battleground states.

Biden’s full day in Pennsylvania was a

sign of the state’s crucial importance in his Electoral College calculations. After his rally in Bucks County, which Hillary Clinton won by less than 1 percentage point in 2016 — he flew to Luzerne County in the blue-collar northeastern part of the state, where he held a drive-in rally that included a performance by singer Jon Bon Jovi. Luzerne County is near Biden’s hometown, Scranton, and it is a historically Democratic county that Trump flipped

by a wide margin in 2016.

Still, the day had its prickly moments. In a local television interview, Biden interjected when a reporter began to ask a question about “controversy” and his son Hunter Biden. “There is no controversy about my son,” Biden said.

“It’s all a lie. It’s a flat lie, because the president has nothing else to run on.”

Along with Biden’s appearances this weekend, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was in western Pennsylvania on Saturday, holding a get-out-the vote event in Pittsburgh and a drivein rally with the state’s lieutenant governor, John Fetterman. And in another sign of Pennsylvania’s potential as the 2020 tipping point, the Biden campaign dispatched former President Barack Obama there this past week for his first in-person campaign trip of the general election. Obama campaigned in Florida on Saturday.

“It may come down to Pennsylvania,” Biden said in Bucks County. “And I believe in you. I believe in my state.”

For Trump, it may come down to the coronavirus. At the rally in Circleville on Saturday, along with his continuing focus on Biden’s stance on fracking and his attacks on Hunter Biden, Trump continued his efforts to redefine the virus and his own experience with it.

He played down the threat the pandemic posed, pointing to his own family’s experience as an example of why a virus that has killed more than 224,000 people in the United States is not so bad. “It worked out,” he said of his own hospitalization for the virus. “By the way, 99.9% is good and then you’re immune.”

Attendees hold their young children as President Donald Trump departs the stage after speaking at a campaign rally in The Villages, Fla., on Friday, Oct. 23, 2020.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

Members of Pence’s inner circle test positive for coronavirus

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

S

everal members of Vice President Mike Pence’s inner circle, including at least four members of his staff, have tested positive for the coronavirus in the past few days, people briefed on the matter said, raising new questions about the safety protocols at the White House, where masks are not routinely worn.

Devin O’Malley, a spokesman for Pence, said that the vice president’s chief of staff, Marc Short, had tested positive. A person briefed on the diagnosis said he received it Saturday.

“Vice President Pence and Mrs. Pence both tested negative for COVID-19 today and remain in good health,” O’Malley said, adding, “While Vice President Pence is considered a close contact with Mr. Short, in consultation with the White House Medical Unit, the vice president will maintain his schedule in accordance with the CDC guidelines for essential personnel.”

The statement did not come from the White House medical unit but instead from a press aide. Two people briefed on the matter said that the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, had sought to keep news of the

outbreak from becoming public.

A spokeswoman for Meadows did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

A Trump adviser briefed on the outbreak, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said that Pence adviser Marty Obst also recently tested positive. Obst’s positive result was earlier in the week. His positive test was first reported

by Bloomberg News.

A third person briefed on the developments, who also was not authorized to speak publicly, said that three additional Pence staff members had tested positive. O’Malley did not immediately respond to a question about others who had tested positive.

The decision by Pence, who leads the White House Coronavirus Task Force, to continue campaigning is certain to raise new questions about how seriously the White House is taking the risks to its own staff members and the public from the pandemic that has killed more than 224,000 people in the United States. Short has been among those within the White House who have questioned the extensive lockdowns across the country.

Trump, the first lady and several aides

Vice President Mike Pence and his current chief of staff, Marc Short, in 2018. and advisers tested positive for the virus roughly three weeks ago. Trump spent three nights at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and he was treated with a cocktail of medicine that included an experimental antibody treat-

ment, as well as the steroid dexamethasone.

Trump, at rallies over the past two days, has insisted the country is “rounding the turn” on the virus, despite a record high number of single-day cases this past week.

Murkowski, in a turnabout, says she will vote to confirm Barrett

By NICHOLAS FANDOS

S

en. Lisa Murkowski, the Alaska Republican who has vocally opposed filling the vacant seat on the Supreme Court so close to an election, said on Saturday that she would nonetheless vote to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett this coming week.

“While I oppose the process that has led us to this point,” Murkowski said in a speech on the Senate floor, “I do not hold it against her as an individual who has navigated the gauntlet with grace, skill and humility.”

Her unexpected turnabout gave a boost to Senate Republicans looking to quiet intraparty dissent in the face of unified Democratic opposition. They already had the votes they needed to confirm Barrett, President Donald Trump’s third Supreme Court nominee, but Murkowski’s support means that only one Republican — Sen. Susan Collins of Maine — is likely to defect when the roll is called on Monday.

The development came as a divided Senate slogged through another day of debate over Barrett, 48, an appeals court

judge whose confirmation would lock in a 6-3 conservative majority on the court.

Democrats again turned to parliamentary tactics to draw out the process and needle Republicans for confirming a justice so close to Election Day. Amid the scripted partisan theatrics, Murkowski’s 16-minute speech stood out as a rare moment of suspense. An iconoclast willing to occasionally buck her party, Murkowski had been one of the lone voices in her party joining Democrats last month to push back against the decision to quickly fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Murkowski repeated those concerns Saturday, warning that the rush by her fellow Republicans to fill the seat would “reinforce the public perception about political influence on the court.” She lamented decades of partisan escalation in the Senate over judicial nominations.

“Moving forward on a nominee just over a week removed from a pitched presidential election when partisan tensions are running about as high as they could — I don’t

think that this will help our country become a better version of itself,” she said.

Murkowski said she would still join Democrats in trying to filibuster the nomination Sunday.

But after meeting with Barrett in recent days, Murkowski said she came away impressed and concluded she was unwilling to punish a qualified nominee because her party insisted on moving ahead.

“Frankly,” she added, “I lost that procedural fight.”

Murkowski, who is up for reelection in Alaska in 2022, has frequently broken with Republicans on significant votes in the last four years. She was the only member of her party in 2018 to oppose Trump’s last nominee to the Supreme Court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, earning her the vitriol of the president and some of his staunchest supporters.

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL ProChoice America, said the group was “deeply disappointed” by Murkowski’s intended vote in support of Barrett.

“Her extreme views should be disqualifying for anyone who claims to be a champion

for women and families,” Hogue said.

Murkowski made only glancing comments about abortion rights or the Affordable Care Act during her floor speech, but they suggested she had been reassured by Barrett about how the two issues would fare by the nation’s highest court in the future. She dodged reporters in the Capitol after the speech.

“It was important for me to hear and to better understand her views on precedence and her evaluation process, specifically the weight that she affords reliance on decisions that have been in place for decades, such as Roe v. Wade,” she said in her remarks.

She said she also discussed with the nominee the issue of “severability,” a legal doctrine that could lead to the preservation of the Affordable Care Act when the Supreme Court hears a challenge seeking to invalidate it just after the election.

“I do not believe Judge Barrett will take her seat on the bench with a predetermined agenda or with a goal of putting a torch to every volume of the United States Reports,” she said, referring to the official bound volumes of Supreme Court opinions.

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

9

What will New York real estate look like next year?

Zohran Mamdani outside his campaign headquarters in New York, June 17, 2020.

City planners, developers and local officials weigh in on how the coronavirus pandemic could change the city’s housing markets, land use and policy.

By DAVID W. CHEN and STEPHANOS CHEN

O

ne in five New York City tenants did not pay rent in September, by one estimate, and there is growing concern of “an eviction tsunami.”

As apartment vacancies climb, sale prices and rents are falling, but nowhere near the magnitude needed to compensate for scarce affordable housing options.

And while the flight of affluent residents to the suburbs appears to be overstated, major companies are downsizing and fewer people are commuting, setting the stage for a new reckoning over personal and business priorities.

Real estate is everyone’s business in New York City. The industry generated nearly $32 billion in taxes last year, 53% of the city’s tax revenue, and it employed more than 275,000 people, according to the Real Estate Board of New York and labor statistics. An inveterate source of obsession, envy and frustration, real estate colors the aspirations and agendas of countless people, companies and policymakers.

So how the industry weathers an unparalleled economic collapse fueled by a global pandemic will reshape not just the chronically underfunded public housing system and the overbuilt luxury condominium market, but also virtually every aspect of urban life.

To assess what might happen in the next year or two, The New York Times interviewed nearly 50 people, including former senior city officials, real estate executives, affordable hou-

sing advocates, urban planners and brokers.

When will the real estate market recover, and what will it look like in terms of supply, demand, and prices?

Will New Yorkers be more open to development in their neighborhoods, or will they be even more resistant?

How will housing, transportation, retail and commercial real estate be affected in the broader New York region?

The outlook is daunting. Unemployment in New York City is still 14%, after hitting 20% in June and July. The hotel occupancy rate is 39%, down from 95% this time last year, according to research firm STR. Roughly one-third of the city’s 240,000 small businesses may never reopen, and iconic retailers like Neiman Marcus are closing.

Residential real estate sales plummeted 40% in July, and 57% in August, compared with 2019, according to the New York City Comptroller’s Office. Commercial sales were down 28% and 43% in July and August, compared with last year.

Still, many experts predict that New York will eventually bounce back — as it always does, citing the eventual rebounds after the Great Recession, 9/11 and the fiscal crisis of the 1970s.

What will happen to the market?

Rents and sale prices will continue to drop in the next year, significantly so in some areas, but likely not for the people who need relief most.

Rents in the New York metro area — including parts of New Jersey and White Plains

— are projected to drop 7.7% to 11.3% by the middle of next year, from the first quarter of 2020, according to Andrew Rybczynski, a managing consultant with CoStar Advisory Services, a commercial real estate data provider.

After the 2008 recession, rents fell nearly 10% in Manhattan because of high unemployment and rising vacancies, said Nancy Wu, an economist with listing website StreetEasy.

The median rental price in Manhattan, including concessions, was $3,036 a month in September, according to brokerage Douglas Elliman. That is an 11% drop from the same period a year ago, but still far beyond the means of most New Yorkers. Citywide, the median rent last year was $1,467 a month, according to the New York University Furman Center.

Rents will continue to drop citywide, in the absence of a vaccine, Wu said, but that trend masks affordability problems in several neighborhoods hit hard by the coronavirus.

In an analysis of neighborhoods with the lowest rates of infection — affluent neighborhoods like Battery Park City and SoHo in Manhattan — rents dropped 1.9% from February to July, largely because of rising vacancies. In the hardest hit neighborhoods — including East Elmhurst in Queens and Fordham in the Bronx — rents have actually increased 0.3% in the same period, and a disproportionate share of Black and Hispanic renters, many in the service industries, have shouldered that burden.

“New York has been a tale of two cities — not just in terms of the pandemic, which is known, but also with rent affordability,” Wu said, noting the dearth of options on the lower end of the market.

In sales, the boroughs beyond Manhattan are expected to recover sooner, because they are relatively less expensive, and proximity to midtown is no longer a top priority. In August, Brooklyn exceeded the pace of sales recorded the same time last year, and Queens is on a similar but slower trajectory, according to StreetEasy.

Discounts of under 10% are widespread, but prices have yet to plummet, except in the ultraluxury tier. Buyers waiting for fire sale prices may be disappointed, because the market was already three years into a price correction before COVID-19, Wu said.

It is less clear what will happen in the saturated new-development market. Out of more than 20,000 condo units citywide that have come to market since 2018, nearly 60% remain unsold, said Kael Goodman, chief executive of Marketproof, a real estate data company. That represents $33 billion of unsold apartments, and about 2,000 of those units have not yet even begun sales.

So far, the glut of new luxury inventory has not resulted in many distressed sales, in which units may be sold in bulk to investors at deep discounts. To avoid foreclosure, some scenarios could involve converting condos to rentals, or restructuring loan obligations. Industry observers expect to see more of these actions in the months to come, as developers run out of options to satisfy lenders.

“It’s the ‘Road Runner’ dynamite scenario: The fuse is burning, but it hasn’t blown,” Goodman said. “Whichever way things break, there will be buildings that will have to be traded.”

A tran station in Manhasset, N.Y., July 12, 2020.

Continues on page 10

10 From page 9 What happens to real estate’s political clout?

In recent years, the real estate industry’s clout has waned as local legislators have leaned increasingly to the left, and campaign contributions from the Real Estate Board of New York have shriveled. In July, progressive challengers, like Zohran Kwame Mamdani, a housing counselor, toppled incumbents viewed as too moderate.

City and state legislators are mulling an apartment vacancy tax and other measures to discourage speculative investment, while opponents warn of a “death spiral,” in which over-taxation could scare away the wealthy.The highest-earning 1% of New York City residents generated 43% of city income taxes and 51% of state income taxes collected from individuals living in the city as of 2016, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative think tank.

But more than any statistic or legislation, the most consequential factor for real estate is what will happen on June 22, 2021.

That is the date of New York City’s next primary election, and it will be the most consequential since 2013, when Bill de Blasio, bolstered by his “tale of two cities” campaign, swept into office. Now, with term limits forcing out a deeply unpopular de Blasio as mayor, along with most of the City Council, a wideopen battle for the city’s leadership is underway.

And real estate interests say the stakes have never been higher.

The city’s next mayor will need to address urgent land use and housing issues that have dogged the current administration even in a

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

time of prosperity and freewheeling spending.

A $9 billion budget shortfall looms.

Depending on what happens in the presidential election, it is too early to gauge whether voters will opt for, say, a technocrat like former Mayor Michael Bloomberg or a rising progressive like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. One presumed favorite, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, has already bowed out, highlighting the unpredictable nature of the race.

“What these two crises have laid bare is that this extraordinarily wealthy city which was doing so well for one segment of the population was completely failing other segments of the population, including people we now call essential workers, and communities of color, generally,” said Vishaan Chakrabarti, a former city planning official who is now dean of the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley. “Now how can we use this pause to think about the city that should be — a more equitable city?”

Some power brokers, like developer Stephen M. Ross and Daniel L. Doctoroff, a deputy mayor under Bloomberg, are already plotting how to best use their influence and money to elevate their preferred mayoral candidate.

“Just vote — vote in the Democratic primary,” said Mary Ann Tighe, chief executive of CBRE NY Tri-State, a commercial brokerage, during a Zoom panel organized by the Partnership for New York City, an influential business group. “And get people to serve on the community boards who come from the world of business who understand the basic economics of the city.”

What will happen to big projects?

In light of the virus’s disastrous effects on the economy, some believed the path forward

A public housing development in New York, April 23, 2019.

for several stalled megadevelopments would be cleared, because of their promise of new jobs and infrastructure.

Instead, opponents have grown more circumspect, and the de Blasio administration, in its waning days, could push for something critics have long demanded: rezoning in wealthier, whiter neighborhoods, not the communities of color that have often been the reluctant recipients of major redevelopment.

A large expansion of Brooklyn’s Industry City complex, which developers said would create 20,000 new jobs, was quashed last month by opponents who doubted that claim and said the project would hasten the displacement of the largely lower-income immigrant community nearby.

Also in September, the city backed out of a proposal to build up to 15 mixed-use towers on 28 acres in Long Island City, where Amazon previously failed to garner support for its New York campus, because of local concerns about gentrification and inadequate infrastructure.

The Justice for All Coalition, a community group opposed to the project, explained in a letter in July: “The proposed rezoning — for the purpose of building luxury residential and commercial mega towers — is exactly what this community does not need in the face of COVID and the urgent issues raised by Black Lives Matter.”

Alicia Glen, a former deputy mayor under de Blasio, rejected that thinking.

“This is not the time to double down on the narrative that business is bad, that development is bad,” said Glen, who recently started a development firm, M Squared, which builds mixed-income housing in cities across the country. “We can’t play to the cheap seats of being against everything and everybody.”

But the disproportionate harm the virus has caused to Black and Hispanic residents in lower-income neighborhoods has emboldened another view, critics say:That the argument is not simply pro- or anti-development, but a matter of where the effort is placed, and for whom.

So the mayor’s decision this month to back a rezoning in SoHo, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods to be eyed for new affordable housing, is a significant moment, said Alex Fennell, the coordinator for the Racial Impact Study Coalition, a community advocacy group.

“It’s the first time the city has flat-out said, ‘We need to put more affordable housing in affluent, white neighborhoods,’ and that’s an important rhetorical shift,” Fennell said.

The proposal, which made scant mention of new housing when it was floated last year as a mostly commercial rezoning, is now seeking to allow about 3,200 new housing units to be built, including 800 below-market-rate apartments. The city has also signaled that a rezoning of Gowanus, a neighborhood in Brooklyn that is wealthier than several other

neighborhoods eyed for redevelopment, is also a priority.

“There was an unspoken rule that you don’t rezone wealthy neighborhoods,” said Will Thomas, a board member of Open New York, a pro-housing group. While local opposition is already building, he said “SoHo is the first step in really showing that it’s politically possible.”

What happens to affordable housing?

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which funds and maintains much of the city’s affordable housing stock, suffered a deep cut this summer, when the city agreed to decrease its capital funding by 40% over two years.

Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference, a policy and advocacy nonprofit, estimated that could translate into 21,000 fewer new and preserved affordable housing units and 34,000 fewer jobs, mostly in construction and related industries. (In a reversal, the city said Thursday that it would restore about half of the funding that had been scheduled to be cut.)

The cuts could delay or derail a number of once-assured projects. In Far Rockaway, Queens, an 11-building complex called Edgemere Commons with more than 2,000 units, all of which would be offered below market rate, was scheduled to receive city financing in December, but a backlog of stalled closings this summer means their project will likely be pushed back further.

“Now we’re in limbo,” said Daniel Moritz, a principal at Arker Companies, the developer, which planned to begin construction this year.

Millions of dollars in predevelopment costs like architectural plans, legal fees and engineers can overwhelm developers awaiting funding, said Ron Moelis, a co-founder of L+M Development Partners. His firm expected to close city financing in June on the first phase of Bronx Point, a mixed-use project in the South Bronx with 542 below-market-rate units expected to be completed by 2023. Now financing has been pushed back until at least December.

“At the exact moment in time when we as a city know that we should be doubling down, the city is pulling back,” said Barika Williams, executive director of the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, a coalition of housing organizations.

In a September survey representing about 85,000 apartments in New York, nearly 20% of tenants paid no rent, according to CHIP, a group that represents 4,000 landlords and managers of primarily rent-stabilized buildings.

And unemployment figures do not show the full scope of struggling renters, Williams said, because many who are out of work or are underemployed were paid in cash, and therefore not recorded by official counts. “We’re on the brink of an eviction tsunami,” she said.

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

11

Apple, Google and a deal that controls the internet

By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI and JACK NICAS

W

hen Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, the chief executives of Apple and Google, were photographed eating dinner together in 2017 at an upscale Vietnamese restaurant called Tamarine, the picture set off a tabloid-worthy frenzy about the relationship between the two most powerful companies in Silicon Valley.

As the two men sipped red wine at a window table inside the restaurant in Palo Alto, their companies were in tense negotiations to renew one of the most lucrative business deals in history: an agreement to feature Google’s search engine as the preselected choice on Apple’s iPhone and other devices. The updated deal was worth billions of dollars to both companies and cemented their status at the top of the tech industry’s pecking order.

Now the partnership is in jeopardy.

Last Tuesday, the Justice Department filed a landmark lawsuit against Google — the U.S. government’s biggest antitrust case in two decades — and homed in on the alliance as a prime example of what prosecutors say are the company’s illegal tactics to protect its monopoly and choke off competition in web search.

The scrutiny of the pact, which was first inked 15 years ago and has rarely been discussed by either company, has highlighted the special relationship between Silicon Valley’s two most valuable companies — an unlikely union of rivals that regulators say is unfairly preventing smaller companies from flourishing.

“We have this sort of strange term in Silicon Valley: co-optation,” said Bruce Sewell, Apple’s general counsel from 2009 to 2017. “You have brutal competition, but at the same time, you have necessary cooperation.”

Apple and Google are joined at the hip, even though Cook has said internet advertising, Google’s bread and butter, engages in “surveillance” of consumers and even though Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder, once promised “thermonuclear war” on his Silicon Valley neighbor when he learned it was working on a rival to the iPhone.

Apple and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, worth more than $3 trillion combined, do compete on plenty of fronts, like

In 2007, Steve Jobs, left, Apple’s co-founder, invited Google’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, to join him to explain how Google would work on the iPhone. smartphones, digital maps and laptops. But they also know how to make nice when it suits their interests. And few deals have been nicer to both sides of the table than the iPhone search deal.

Nearly half of Google’s search traffic now comes from Apple devices, according to the Justice Department, and the prospect of losing the Apple deal has been described as a “code red” scenario inside the company. When iPhone users search on Google, they see the search ads that drive Google’s business. They can also find their way to other Google products, like YouTube.

A former Google executive, who asked not to be identified because he was not permitted to talk about the deal, said the prospect of losing Apple’s traffic was “terrifying” to the company.

The Justice Department, which is asking for a court injunction preventing Google from entering into deals like the one it made with Apple, argues that the arrangement has unfairly helped make Google, which handles 92% of the world’s internet searches, the center of consumers’ online lives.

Online businesses like Yelp and Expedia as well as companies ranging from noodle shops to news organizations often

complain that Google’s search domination enables it to charge advertising fees when people simply look up their names, as well as to steer consumers toward its own products, like Google Maps. Microsoft, which had its own antitrust battle two decades ago, has told British regulators that if it were the default option on iPhones and iPads, it would make more advertising money for every search on its rival search engine, Bing.

What’s more, competitors like DuckDuckGo, a small search engine that sells itself as a privacy-focused alternative to Google, could never match Google’s tab with Apple.

Apple now receives an estimated $8 billion to $12 billion in annual payments — up from $1 billion a year in 2014 — in exchange for building Google’s search engine into its products. It is probably the single biggest payment that Google makes to anyone and accounts for 14% to 21% of Apple’s annual profits. That’s not money Apple would be eager to walk away from.

In fact, Cook and Pichai met again in 2018 to discuss how they could increase revenue from search. After the meeting, a senior Apple employee wrote to a Google counterpart that “our vision is that we work as if we are one company,” according to the Justice Department’s complaint.

A forced breakup could mean the loss of easy money to Apple. But it would be a more significant threat to Google, which would have no obvious way to replace the lost traffic. It could also push Apple to acquire or build its own search engine. Within Google, people believe that Apple is one of the few companies in the world that could offer a formidable alternative, according to one former executive.

Google has also worried that without the agreement, Apple could make it more difficult for iPhone users to get to the Google search engine.

A spokesperson for Apple declined to comment on the partnership, while a Google spokesperson pointed to a blog post in which the company defended the relationship.

Even though its bill with Apple keeps going up, Google has said again and again that it dominates internet search because consumers prefer it, not because it is buying customers. The company argues that the Justice Department is painting an incomplete picture; its partnership with Apple, it says, is no different than Coca-Cola paying a supermarket for prominent shelf space.

Other search engines like Microsoft’s Bing also have revenue-sharing agreements with Apple to appear as secondary search options on iPhones, Google says in its defense. It adds that Apple allows people to change their default search engine from Google — though few probably do because people typically don’t tinker with such settings and many prefer Google anyway.

Apple has rarely, if ever, publicly acknowledged its deal with Google and, according to Bernstein Research, has mentioned its so-called licensing revenue in an earnings call for the first time this year.

According to a former senior executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality contracts, Apple’s leaders have made the same calculation about Google as much of the general public: The utility of its search engine is worth the cost of its invasive practices.

“Their search engine is the best,” Cook said when asked by Axios in late 2018 why he partnered with a company he also implicitly criticized. He added that Apple had also created ways to blunt Google’s collection of data, such as a private-browsing mode on Apple’s internet browser.

12

Monday, October 26, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

People fear a market crash more than they have in years

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on March 20, 2020. A lack of investor confidence, a pandemic, political polarization and elevated share prices suggest that it’s a time to be careful.

By ROBERT J. SHILLER

T

he coronavirus crisis and the November election have driven fears of a major market crash to the highest levels in many years.

At the same time, stocks are trading at very high levels. That volatile combination doesn’t mean that a crash will occur, but it suggests that the risk of one is relatively high. This is a time to be careful.

I base these conclusions largely on research I’ve been doing for years, including findings from the stock market confidence indexes that I began to develop more than three decades ago. These indexes are drawn from surveys of a random sample of high-income individual investors and institutional investors in the United States that are now conducted monthly by the International Center for Finance at the Yale School of Management.

Consider what my Crash Confidence Index is telling us. That measurement of sentiment about the safety of the stock market is based on this question: “What do you think is the probability of a catastrophic stock market crash in the U.S., like that of Oct. 28,

1929, or Oct. 19, 1987, in the next six months, including the case that a crash occurred in the other countries and spreads to the U.S.?”

The index is a rolling six-month average of the percentage of monthly respondents who think that the probability of such a major crash is less than 10%. In August, the percentage of individual investors with that level of confidence in the market hit a record low, 13%. The most recent reading in September, 15%, was still extremely low.

Institutional investors — people who make decisions for pension funds, mutual funds, endowments and the like — were a bit more confident, with a September reading of 24%, but that was extremely low, too. In short, an overwhelming majority of investors said there was a greater than 10% probability of an imminent crash — really, a remarkable indicator that people are quite worried.

Another of my stock market confidence indexes, the Valuation Confidence Index, is also near a record low in 2020. It is based on this question: “Stock prices in the United States, when compared with measures of true fundamental value or sensible investment value, are: 1. Too

low; 2. Too high; 3. About right; 4. Do not know.”

This index tells us the proportion of investors who think the market is not too highly priced. At the latest measure in September 2020, the reading for individual investors stood at 38%, far lower than at the bottom of the stock market in March 2009, when it stood at 77% after the financial crisis. For institutional investors, it was 46% in September, compared with 82% in March 2009.

Despite these signs of distress, the stock market has been trading near a record high, stretching the valuations of stocks to fairly rich levels. That’s very different from the situation in March 2009, when stock valuations were quite low and the stock market subsequently rose. It is a different situation now, however: Not only is investor confidence low, but actual stock valuations are quite high.

Consider a separate measure of stock valuations that I helped create — the Cyclically Adjusted Price Earnings (CAPE) ratio. This is a measure that enables the comparison of stock market valuations from different eras by averaging the earnings over 10 years, thus reducing some of the short-term fluctuations of each market cycle. It now stands at a level that was higher in only two periods, both of which were followed by stock market crashes: the 1920s, in the lead-up to the Great Depression; and early 2000, just before the bursting of the dot-com bubble.

The low confidence readings and the high stock prices won’t, on their own, cause a market crash. Another dynamic would need to be in effect.

It seems that when superficial similarities to current events prod people’s memories, they shift their attention to old stories. The question now is whether another reminder of crashes past could emerge to create a psychological sense of the risk. A further pickup in coronavirus cases, a chaotic or violent election or any number of other events could well shake people up. Conversely, an orderly election, and a sense of political and economic stability, could have a calming effect.

We may be at something of a crossroads.

The decision to invest in the stock market is for some people a bit of an adventure. One is goaded to do it partly by the fun of it and partly by a competitive spirit in observing others and wanting to keep up. The market may be vulnerable to a change in mass psychology, one that might dampen this sense of adventure and bring on a crash.

It seems that investors should be advised to remain cautious in their U.S. stock market holdings. The potential rewards for being heavily committed to the market in the coming years need to be carefully balanced against the possible risks.

No one knows the future, but given the general lack of investor confidence amid a pandemic and political polarization, there is a chance that a negative, self-fulfilling prophecy will flourish. This highlights the importance of being well-diversified in asset classes — including Treasury securities, which are safe — and not overexposed to U.S. equities now.

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

13 Stocks

More U.S. companies offer earnings guidance despite pandemic

W

ith earnings season in full swing, more companies are again offering earnings guidance, signaling to investors that some corporations are adapting to uncertainty about a global pandemic that may extend deep into next year.

Overall, 73 companies in the S&P 500 index have offered guidance this quarter so far, up from last quarter’s 65 pre-announcements but well below the 170 companies that typically offer guidance, according to Refinitiv data. The companies offering guidance are giving the most bullish expectations in Refinitiv data going back to 1997.

“If a company is able to offer guidance it shows that they’re able to have a better idea of what’s coming down the road,” said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management.

The market has been buffeted by cross-currents related to the looming Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election, drawn out fiscal stimulus talks in Washington and a resurgent pandemic. Still, investors appear more hopeful in recent months.

Fifty percent of high net worth U.S. investors surveyed

by UBS Global Wealth Management voiced optimism on the economy, up from 41% three months prior, with 55% optimistic on stocks, up from 44%. The S&P 500 index is up nearly 7% year to date, including a 2.2% gain since the start of October.

So far this quarter, shares of AT&T Inc T.N, Verizon Communications Inc VZ.N and Quest Diagnostics Inc DGX.N have rallied after each company gave investors updated guidance on how they expect to fare over the next fiscal year.

“It’s not surprising we’ve had so many beats this quarter because we entered the season with very little guidance,” causing analysts to slash their estimates, said Katie Nixon, chief investment officer at Northern Trust Wealth Management.

“Now we’re seeing how companies expect to be able to navigate through the challenges of the year ahead,” she said.

Investors next week will wade through the busiest period of earnings season so far, with companies ranging from Beyond Meat Inc BYND.O and Microsoft Corp MSFT.O to Pinterest Inc PINS.N scheduled to report results.

Microsoft, in particular, should outperform its conservative guidance thanks to strong PC shipments and growth of its Azure cloud computing platform, said J. Derrick Wood, an analyst at Cowen.

“The set-up feels more compelling as the bar was reset last quarter and as macroconditions are improving,” he said.

Nearly 86% of companies that have reported earnings so far have beat analyst expectations, a rate 20 percentage points higher than the average beat rate since 1994, according to Refinitiv data.

Still, investors like Nixon say they are looking past beat rates and focusing on companies that can improve or maintain measures such as refinancing debt, raising cash, and controlling costs regardless of the pandemic’s trajectory or a breakthrough in stimulus talks.

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14

Monday, October 26, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Indigenous Colombians, facing new wave of brutality, demand gov’t action

Indigenous protesters ride through Bogota, Colombia in colorful caravans, Oct. 20, 2020.

By JULIE TURKEWITZ and SOFIA VILLAMIL

P

rotesters descended by the thousands on Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, this past week, horrified by a brutal wave of violence sweeping the country — one so intense that mass killings have taken place every other day on average.

Most traveled hundreds of miles from the rural Indigenous communities that have been particularly ravaged by the violence, which they trace to government failures to protect them under the country’s halting peace process.

They call their movement the “minga Indígena.”

Minga is an Indigenous word, one used long before the Spanish arrived in South America, to refer to an act of communal work, an agreement between neighbors to build something together: a bridge, a road, a government.

But minga has also come to mean a collective act of protest, a call to recover what a community believes it has lost: territory, peace, lives.

And the protests, which lasted all week, punctuated by a large march last Wednesday, have amounted to an ex-

tended, cooperative howl.

“If we don’t stand before the world and say, ‘This is happening,’” said Ermes Pete, 38, an Indigenous leader from the country’s southwest, “we will be exterminated.”

The demonstrations are another sign of public frustration and anger over the pace of peace in Colombia.

Four years ago, the government signed a historic peace deal with the country’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, ending the longest-running conflict in the Americas. The accord called for the Colombian government to provide basic services — education, health care and safety — in areas battered by the long civil war.

But many protesters said that when the FARC moved out of their communities, the government never moved in. Instead, new criminal groups arrived.

“We fear for our lives,” said one protester, Samay Sacha, 61, “and that is why we are here.”

Protesters — many of them farmers, teachers and community organizers from small towns — arrived by bus, pooling their salaries to rent colorful vehicles called “chivas” and leaving children and jobs back home.

They camped in a sports arena provided by the city or on the grass outside and gathered around fires to cook, plan and share stories.

As new criminal groups have moved into former FARC territory, Indigenous communities, often located on drug routes and in areas rich with minerals and timber, have been among the most vulnerable. The criminal groups have used deadly violence to stifle dissent and discourage people from working with rivals.

Community leaders who speak out against the brutality have become targets.

This year alone, at least 233 civic leaders have been killed, according to the human rights group Indepaz. More than 1,000 have died since the peace accord was signed.

Mass killings, defined as three or more deaths, have shot up as well. Indepaz has counted 68 this year, with a marked uptick between July and September.

The killings come after decades of strife in which communities were squeezed between the FARC and the military in a war that left well over 200,000 dead and displaced an estimated 6 million people.

Many thought they would find relief after the peace accord. But that has not always been the case.

“After the peace deal, the war worsened,” said Aida Quilcue, a leader in the Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia, a union of the country’s Indigenous groups.

Protesters demanded a meeting with President Iván Duque, a conservative elected after the adoption of the 2016 peace accord, which his party had opposed on grounds it was too lenient on the FARC. Duque’s critics have accused him of not doing enough to carry out the deal, pointing out, for example, that only a limited number of families have been able to participate in a program that would help them switch from growing coca — the plant used to make cocaine — to legal products.

Many have continued growing coca, and drug trafficking and associated violence have proliferated around them.

Duque did not meet with the minga in Bogotá, instead sending a delegation to meet with people in the country’s southwest, which has been hit hard by the violence. His office said that it was spending millions of dollars to address the problem.

In an interview earlier this year, his high commissioner for peace, Miguel Ceballos, urged Colombians to be patient with the peace process.

“Give the man a chance,” he said, speaking of Duque, who took office in 2018. “We cannot undo 56 years of war in just two years.”

Pete, one of the protest leaders, recalled growing up with war in his home in the department of Cauca, the FARC sleeping on his doorstep.

At the time, the military accused his family of collaborating with the guerrillas — and the guerrillas accused them of collaborating with the military. Some days, he would watch helicopters fly overhead.

Occasionally, bullets would rain down.

The violence pushed Pete to run for a leadership position in his community, and when the FARC left, he urged his neighbors to abandon coca cultivation.

He thought the state would move in to protect them.

“The state,” he said, “never arrived.”

Pete soon became a target himself.

In 2017, as he left his home, two men began to shoot at him. He hit the ground and survived.

Another protester, Bertha Rivera, 53, came to Bogotá from an Indigenous territory nearly 400 miles away.

She slept in a tent overnight at the arena. The following day, she marched with the minga through the streets of the capital.

“We had so many dreams,” she said of the peace process. “It was, ‘Now we won’t hear the dead, we won’t hear the bombs, we won’t hear the threats.’”

She went on: “When we were just beginning ‘peace,’ we thought it was the best thing, and though we had heard from other nations that the post-conflict era was often more difficult than the conflict itself, we didn’t believe it.

“Today,” she said, “we understand that they were right.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

15

Venezuela opposition figure, long confined, flees country

By ANATOLY KURMANAEV

V

enezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López fled the country Saturday after spending the past six years in jail, house arrest and diplomatic asylum, his political party said.

López, 49, is heading to an undisclosed international destination after leaving the Spanish Embassy in Caracas, according to his political party and Spain’s Foreign Ministry. He had sought refuge at the Spanish ambassador’s residence after leading a failed military uprising against the government in April 2019.

A charismatic, U.S.-educated former mayor with a piercing glare, López has for years been one of the most radical opponents of Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolas Maduro, whom he sought to overthrow through street protests and increasingly desperate palace plots.

His maximalist tactics, however, have backfired, leaving the opposition dismantled and increasingly irrelevant to the struggles facing Venezuelans amid one the deepest economic recessions in modern history.

Leopoldo Lopez in Caracas last year. The Venezuelan opposition leader left the country on Saturday.

López came nearest his goal in early 2019, when his protégé, Juan Guaidó, a young lawmaker, declared himself the country’s interim president, citing Maduro’s

fraudulent reelection. The United States and most European and Latin American countries swiftly backed him, cutting the government off from the global economy.

Maduro, however, has weathered the challenge and used his control over security forces to gradually suppress the opposition and terrorize its supporters. As Venezuela’s political crisis escalated, sanctions by the Trump administration to aid Guaidó’s bid for power plunged an already rapidly shrinking Venezuelan economy and its people into a full-scale humanitarian crisis.

López now becomes the latest opposition leader to leave for exile, leaving Guaidó increasingly isolated. Guaidó’s term as the speaker of parliament, on which he has based his claim to the country’s leadership, expires in January, threatening to leave the opposition without its last base of support.

López’s party, Popular Will, said its departed leader has pledged his unconditional support for Guaidó and will continue fighting against Maduro, who has resorted to torture, extrajudicial killings and legal persecution to maintain his grip on power.

“Like other Venezuelans, Leopoldo López is not fully free as long as there’s a dictatorship that violates human rights of the people,” his party said in a statement Saturday.

As lawlessness roils Nigeria, police chief vows to take back streets

By SHOLA LAWAL

N

igeria’s police chief on Saturday ordered the mobilization of all police resources to reclaim public space after more than two weeks of peaceful protests over police brutality gave way to widespread vandalism and looting.

The order came four days after police and soldiers fired on demonstrators, killing 12 and injuring hundreds in an upscale Lagos neighborhood. The protesters are demanding that the government dismantle and discipline a police unit known as SARS, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, which for years has been known for detaining, brutalizing and stealing from citizens, particularly young people.

Tuesday’s violent crackdown on protesters, combined with a nighttime curfew imposed in its wake and protest leaders urging people to stay home, have largely cleared peaceful demonstrators from the

streets of Lagos.

But following the shootings, which outraged Nigerians, at least 17 police stations were destroyed in Lagos, according to a police spokesperson.

Widespread looting has also taken place, including at government warehouses stocked with food. Malls, TV stations and banks have been targeted as well as retail stores in popular shopping districts in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial and cultural hub.

“Enough is enough to all acts of lawlessness, disruption of public peace and order and wanton violence, which have resulted in indiscriminate looting of shops, malls and warehouses, damage to property and loss of lives in some parts of the country,” said the police chief, M.A. Adamu, in a statement Saturday.

Additional police units are being deployed to all 36 states, Adamu said.

He added that police would “use all legitimate means to halt the further slide into

lawlessness and brigandage.”

Violence and looting were also reported in other states.

On Saturday, the governor of the southwestern state of Osun, Adegboyega Oyetola, imposed a 24-hour curfew “to forestall the breakdown of law and order and protect the lives and property of citizens and residents.”

Dozens have died in the protests against police brutality that started Oct. 8, with 38 killed across the country on Tuesday alone, Amnesty International said. The turmoil has been the worst street violence since Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in 1999.

Many of the demonstrators have been middle-class, well-educated young people in the southern and central cities who are too young to remember the military rule that ended two decades ago.

The government has promised to reform the police force in the wake of

the protests, but President Muhammadu Buhari has been criticized for not mentioning Tuesday’s shooting and for warning Nigerians against “undermining national security.”

He further inflamed the protesters Friday by saying security forces have exercised “extreme restraint” in handling the situation.

Buhari has said 51 civilians have been killed, along with 11 police officers and seven soldiers since the protests began.

Protesters said the surge in violence this week could damage their peaceful efforts at reform and allow the government to cast the movement as having been hijacked by criminal elements.

“The lootings don’t put us in a good light,” said Chiamaka Ebochue, 27, a protester in Lagos. “We have to take this loss and restrategize. We need to be aware of our voting rights; that’s the only ammunition we have.”

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Monday, October 26, 2020

In South Korea, draft resisters still go to prison. But now it’s a job

By CHOE SANG-HUN

L

ike thousands of other Jehovah’s Witnesses who refused to join the military because of their religious beliefs, Lee Seung-ki will serve time in a South Korean prison.

But unlike those before him, Lee will not enter as a convicted criminal. He will be among the first conscientious objectors in South Korea allowed to perform alternative service — jobs like cook, janitor and clinic assistant — behind prison walls.

For three years starting Monday, Lee and 63 others will work, eat and sleep in prisons, though they will live apart from the inmates and will be allowed several weeks of leave. And unlike Jehovah’s Witnesses who served prison terms for their beliefs, they will have no criminal record to trail them for the rest of their lives.

Alternative service is a seismic shift in a country that considers conscription crucial to its defense against North Korea, with which it is still technically at war. Military duty is seen as a revered rite of passage for able-bodied young men, who are required to spend 21 months in

uniform, usually between the ages of 18 and 28.

South Korea has imprisoned more conscientious objectors than any other country. Its Military Service Act requires up to three years in prison for those who refuse the draft without “justifiable” reasons. For decades, hundreds of young men, almost all of them Jehovah’s Witnesses, were put behind bars each year, usually for 18 months. As inmates, they did much of the same work that Lee will be doing.

“The difference is that the old objectors did it for 18 months wearing a prisoner’s uniform, but we will do it for three years as legalized conscientious objectors,” Lee said. “I am grateful that I am finally given this chance to serve the country without violating my conscience.”

A historic 2018 ruling by the Constitutional Court found that imprisoning conscientious objectors was unconstitutional because there were no alternative forms of service, and it ordered the government to create some. In December, parliament passed legislation that allowed for civilian service in prisons “and other areas of public interest” — though for now, at least, prison work is the only option the govern-

Kim Keun-hyeong, another conscientious objector, and his wife, Kim Seoyoung, prepare for an online church service in Bucheon, South Korea on Oct. 14, 2020.

ment is offering.

Human rights groups were critical, saying that the three-year requirement made South Korea’s alternative service the longest in the world.

Conscientious objectors “are confronted with little more than an alternative punishment,” Arnold Fang, an East Asia researcher for Amnesty International, said in December. “Confining people to work in a prison — and for almost twice as long as the typical military service — does not respect their right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief.”

Still, for Jehovah’s Witnesses, alternative service is a hard-won victory.

In the decades after the Korean War, when South Korea was ruled by military dictators, male Jehovah’s Witnesses of draft age who refused to serve were dragged into military boot camps and stockades, where they were vilified as “traitors,” beaten and in some cases killed, according to reports from a presidential commission in 2008.

One member of the church, Kim Keun-hyeong, 27, said he knew from an early age that he would end up in prison unless he abandoned his beliefs. His older brother, also a Jehovah’s Witness, was imprisoned for refusing military service. When Kim disobeyed his enlistment order, he, too, was put on trial on charges of dodging the draft.

But his case was suspended in 2013, when he joined 27 others to mount the legal challenge that led to the Constitutional Court’s ruling.

“I respect the decision of those who join the military,” Kim said. “But I also wanted my decision not to join the military for my religious conviction to be respected, as well.”

After the court’s ruling, officials and lawmakers weighed various forms of civilian service, like working in nursing homes, fire stations or hospitals. Some argued that if alternative service was not long and rigorous enough, young men would try to evade the draft under the pretext of ethical principles, compromising the country’s ability to deter North Korea’s 1.1

million-strong military.

In their prison work, conscientious objectors will be exempt from guard and prisoner-escort duty, which involves carrying firearms. But like soldiers, they will live together in barrackslike facilities.

The question of who should be excused from military service has long been a sensitive topic in South Korea.

“It’s a sacred duty to defend our country, but that doesn’t mean that everyone has to carry a weapon,” Noh Woong-rae, a senior lawmaker in the governing party, said this month. He floated the idea that K-pop stars, like members of BTS, should be exempted from the draft.

For decades, top athletes have been excused from military service on the grounds that they enhanced national prestige. K-pop fans say it is unfair that world-class pop stars are denied that privilege.

In a report to parliament this month, the Military Manpower Administration, which oversees the draft, offered a compromise: It would let top K-pop stars postpone their service so that they could perform for a few more years at the peak of their careers.

Such a revision would be a godsend for the oldest member of BTS, Kim Seok-jin, who turns 28 in December and must enlist within the following year.

But South Korea cannot afford too many exemptions. After decades of low birthrates, it will soon lack enough young men to maintain its conscript military at 620,000 members, defense officials say. (The military accepts female volunteers — about 13,000 are now serving — but there has never been serious discussion of drafting women.)

There is still much hostility in South Korea toward men seen as draft dodgers. Yoo Seungjun, 43, once one of the most popular K-pop singers, saw his career crash and burn in 2002, after he was accused of evading military service by becoming an American citizen. He has since been barred from entering South Korea.

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

17

As China clamps down, activists flee Hong Kong for refuge in the west

By AUSTIN RAMZI and MARIA ABI-HABI

I

n Western democracies, they have been welcomed as refugees escaping Beijing’s tightening grip over Hong Kong.

In China, they have been denounced as violent criminals escaping punishment for their seditious activities.

A group of Hong Kong activists who have been granted asylum in the United States, Canada and Germany in recent weeks are the latest catalyst for deteriorating relations between China and the West. Western leaders have asserted that they will stand up for human rights in Hong Kong, while Chinese officials have rebuked the countries for what they called interference in Beijing’s affairs.

The protesters’ newly conferred status has made clear how profoundly Hong Kong has changed since China imposed a tough new security law this summer. For decades, the city had been a place of shelter for people escaping war, famine and political oppression in mainland China.

Now the semiautonomous city has become a source of asylum seekers.

“The United States is a country that allows us freedom,” said Vicky Xiao, a 20-year-old university student from Hong Kong who is in California and seeking asylum in America.

Xiao said she feared being arrested if she returned to Hong Kong because she had taken part in the demonstrations that roiled the city last year. One of her former classmates who had also joined in the demonstrations in Hong Kong had been detained by the police, she said.

The United States is directly challenging Beijing over its crackdown on Hong Kong. The Trump administration moved to list refugees from the city as a priority for the first time — even as it reduced the total number of refugees the United States will take in annually. At least three bills now before Congress would enact greater protections for people fleeing Hong Kong for the United States. And the government has moved unusually quickly to grant asylum to at least two protesters who left Hong Kong late last year.

The two activists, who asked not to be named to protect their families in Hong Kong, showed The New York Times documents stating they had received asylum in September. They said they had fled to the Los Angeles area after receiving multiple calls from an unlisted number that made them concerned they were at risk of being detained.

Xiao, the university student who is awaiting a decision on her asylum application, is also in Southern California.

She is currently on a student visa and lives with her parents, who are on business visas.

She described sneaking out of her parents’ house with a backpack of clothes last August and flying to Hong Kong to join the protests without their approval. She said she returned after three days, but has also helped organize protests in the United States, which she thinks could put her at risk of arrest if she had to return to Hong Kong after her visa expires.

“I don’t know what will happen to me if I go back to Hong Kong,” Xiao said. “But I don’t think that the consequences will be good.”

China has not commented on the U.S. asylum cases. But Beijing and the Hong Kong government have dismissed the notion that the city’s residents might need shelter from oppression, saying the authorities guarantee the rights of its people. “There are no so-called ‘refugees being persecuted’ in Hong Kong,” the city government said in a statement.

And officials have lashed out publicly at other countries.

Hong Kong’s No. 2 leader, Matthew Cheung, summoned Germany’s consul general on Wednesday to complain after Germany granted asylum to a university student who was wanted on a rioting charge. Cheung said the move would “only send a plainly wrong message to criminals.”

In Canada, China’s ambassador, Cong Peiwu, warned Ottawa against accepting refugees from Hong Kong. He said such a policy would embolden criminals in the Chinese city and put “the good health and safety” of 300,000 Canadian passport holders and companies in the territory at risk.

The ambassador’s remarks were regarded by

some as a potential threat against Canadians in Hong Kong. They were also a reminder of the two Canadians who have been held for nearly two years in China in retaliation for the arrest of a top executive of Huawei, the Chinese technology giant. Canada’s foreign affairs minister, François-Philippe Champagne, denounced the comments as “totally unacceptable and disturbing.” (The Chinese government later asserted that the remarks had been taken out of context.)

China’s crackdown over Hong Kong has prompted residents with means to consider their options elsewhere.

Some have turned to Britain, Hong Kong’s former colonial master, which has expanded channels for the city’s residents to immigrate.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in June that the country would allow holders of British overseas passports in Hong Kong to live and work in Britain for up to five years and later apply for citizenship. The residency plan is open to nearly 3 million people in total.

China has criticized the plan. A foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said Friday that Beijing is now considering not recognizing the British overseas passport as a valid travel document.

An image provided by Vicky Xiao, Vicky Xiao during a protest in Hong Kong in 2019. In Western democracies, they have been welcomed as refugees escaping Beijing’s tightening grip over Hong Kong.

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Monday, October 26, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

King Kong Trump, losing his grip

By MAUREEN DOWD

D

uring the Barack Obama comet streak in 2008, a lot of Americans were electrified by the idea of leaping into modernity with a brainy, young, Black cool cat.

Now a lot of Americans seem resigned yet relieved to step back in time with a sentimental old-school Irish pol who was born the year Bing Crosby topped the charts with “White Christmas.”

Back to a time when the president did not rubbish people like an insult comic. Back to a time when the president did not peddle his own lethal reality. Back to a time when the president cared about the whole country, not just the part that voted for him. Back to a time when the president didn’t dismiss science, treat the Justice Department like his personal legal defense firm, besmirch the intelligence community, and denigrate the FBI for not doing his bidding.

Back to a time when the president behaved like an adult, not a delinquent.

You can only let King Kong, as Don McGahn, Donald Trump’s first White House counsel, dubbed his former boss, smash up the metropolis for so long.

Trump does have a gift for symmetry, though, you must admit.

He began his presidency with an epic tantrum about

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President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in The Villages, Fla., Oct. 23, 2020. “Normal life, that’s all we want,” Trump said at the Florida rally. But his only normal is chaos,” writes Maureen Dowd. pictures showing that his inaugural crowd could not compare with Obama’s.

And now he could be ending his presidency with another epic tantrum about crowd size. After Lesley Stahl trolled him during a “60 Minutes” taping, saying, “You used to have bigger rallies,” you could almost see steam pouring out of the president’s ears. He stormed out of the interview a short while later.

He may be finishing right where he started, focused on himself.

Whatever Joe Biden’s shortcomings, he is genuine when he says he will make his presidency about helping others.

As the former vice president vowed in a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday, “I’ll listen to the American people, no matter what their politics.”

Biden’s appeal comes from his own struggles. He was a working-class kid who stuttered. He was an adult who suffered terrible losses. He was not coddled by a rich father who was always there to bail him out of a jam. Biden is an empath, Trump a sociopath.

Somehow Trump grew aggrieved buoyed by family money in a Fifth Avenue penthouse, while Biden remained optimistic despite the fates throwing down one lightning bolt after another.

“Biden feels others’ pain,’’ said Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio. “Trump doesn’t even feel his own.”

D’Antonio pointed out that Trump’s more modulated debate performance was disturbing, in that it proved “that being horrible has been a choice all along.”

“He had the capacity to be normal,” D’Antonio said.

“He just prefers being the bad boy, the out-of-control deviant member of society who says the things that no one else

will say. He’s just performing. He needs the adoration of the mob more than he needs the acceptance of normal people.’’

Trump would rather be bitchy than boring. He loves being a gaper’s delight. That’s why that long-yearned-for pivot never came.

Biden’s debate performance wasn’t scintillating. He let some balls get past him. He did not word his comment about transitioning from oil dependence artfully. But he checked the boxes he needed to check and he successfully presented himself as the anti-venom to Trump’s venomous attempts to divide the country for personal gain.

Trump calls Biden gloomy but he’s the one threatening the apocalypse if he loses — low-income hordes overrunning pristine suburbs, scary immigrants streaming north, a stock market crash and a cadaverous New York City.

“Wave bye-bye to your 401(k), cause it’s going down the tubes,’’ he said at a rally Friday in The Villages in Florida, warning that Biden’s climate aims might somehow deprive Floridians of air conditioning.

Isolated in his shrink-wrap, Fox-speak bubble in the debate, he ignored the fact that he has already turned America into a sort of dystopia by bungling and dissimulating on the virus.

He didn’t even seem to know how he sounded when he bragged that unauthorized immigrant children separated from their parents and held in cages are being “so well taken care of.”

When asked about families living under the polluted clouds of oil refineries and chemical plants — made worse by his administration’s incessant rollback of regulations — the president intoned that, actually, all that smog is a small price to pay because the families “are employed heavily and they are making a lot of money.”

Trump began the pandemic blowing off masks and, even as we enter a new fall surge and even after the president and his family contracted the virus, he was still mocking a White House reporter’s mask Friday. It’s unfathomable that the president of the United States would turn himself into a public health menace. But he has.

Trump’s problem is that he keeps wowing the same people. And that base just isn’t large enough.

“Republicans were relieved that he was eating with a knife and fork,’’ David Axelrod cracked about the debate.

“But it was still the same meal.’’

Trump is clearly stunted. His father encouraged his opportunism and cynicism: Do what you need to do to grab whatever you want. And never do anything that is not in your own self-interest. That’s only for suckers and losers.

“Normal life, that’s all we want,” Trump said at the Florida rally.

But his only normal is chaos.

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

19

Empleado de La Fortaleza da positivo a COVID-19

By THE STAR STAFF El administrador de La Fortaleza, Luis Augusto Martínez, informó el domingo que un empleado dio positivo en una prueba de COVID-19.

“Un empleado de una oficina administrativa arrojó positivo a COVID-19, por lo que el personal de dicha oficina y demás divisiones circundantes deberán permanecer en cuarentena y realizarse las pruebas correspondientes”, dijo Martínez en declaraciones escritas.

“Dichas oficinas están localizadas en uno de los edificios de la calle Fortaleza, pero no en el Palacio Santa Catalina, por lo que las demás labores no se verán afectadas. En el área afectada se activó el protocolo interno de limpieza y desinfección”, añadió el administrador de La Fortaleza.

“Hemos tomado las medidas necesarias para proteger a todo nuestro personal y así evitar la propagación del virus, acorde con lo que dicta nuestro protocolo”, concluyó Martínez.

Cerca de dos millones de dólares en cheques de PUA son enviados a nueve direcciones Por THE STAR

L

a Oficina del Inspector General de Puerto Rico identificó un posible esquema de fraude al “Pandemic Unemployment Assistance” (PUA), al encontrar que cerca de dos millones de dólares en cheques de la ayuda federal fueron enviados a unas nueve direcciones.

Como parte del proceso investigativo, la OIG pudo identificar que una gran cantidad de reclamaciones contenían las mismas direcciones postales o físicas para el envió de los cheques. Las direcciones incluyen residencias, apartados postales, apartamentos en residenciales públicos, entre otros, indicó la agencia en declaraciones escritas este domingo.

La OIG, dirigida por la inspectora general Ivelisse Torres, encontró que en una sola de las direcciones se pudo recibir cheques distintos, por distintas reclamaciones presentadas que sumaron más de $500 mil. En los demás casos se enviaron cheques por distintas reclamaciones, que sumaron totalidades de más de $100 mil.

La dependencia refirió el informe de investigación a las autoridades federales concernientes para la evaluación de las infracciones y los posibles delitos federales que se hayan cometido.

Previamente la Oficina del Inspector General de Puerto Rico, publicó dos informes de investigación que contenían posibles esquemas de fraude mediante la alteración de números de seguro social en las reclamaciones

realizadas al PUA, los cuales fueron realizados en colaboración con la Oficina del Inspector General del Departamento del Trabajo de los Estados Unidos.

A tenor con el Artículo 9, de la citada Ley y Reglamento, el contenido total del informe es confidencial a los efectos de no afectar los procesos futuros, producto de los hallazgos y recomendaciones. Un resumen ejecutivo se en-

cuentra público en la página de internet www. oig.pr.gov.

La OIG instó a la cooperación y la colaboración ciudadana, para que cualquier persona que tenga información sobre posible fraude con fondos públicos en la rama ejecutiva, se comunique a esa dependencia a través de la Línea de Consultas 787-679-7979 o a través del correo electrónico informa@oig.pr.gov.

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Monday, October 26, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

PBS showed TV the future. But what does its own look like?

The Public Broadcasting Service created the blueprint for what TV has become. And, while networks and streaming services reap the benefits of PBS’s successes, it is still struggling to survive.

By ELIZABETH JENSEN

A

s satires go, Robert Wuhl’s “Open Season” seemed particularly farfetched when it was released in 1996. The film’s high concept? After the television industry’s all-powerful ratings system malfunctions, a thinly disguised Public Broadcasting Service becomes the most popular network in the country.

Educational programs such as “Kennedy: What’s Left to Say?” and a history of Limoges china shoot up the charts. (“What’s Limoges?” asks Regis Philbin in a cameo.)

Culture is suddenly cool; book sales and museum donations surge. So the top commercial network decides to fight back.

It counters with “Greek’s Company,” “the first culture-com,” starring Alan Thicke as the counselor in a coed college dorm in ancient Greece. And Tom Selleck is cast as a renowned cellist who fights bad guys by day in “Rock Maninoff, Classical Crimefighter.” His catchphrase: “Time to face the

music, scumbag.”

Alas, the glitch is discovered and the balance in the TV universe is restored. The public network’s ratings actually come in below those of the Weather Channel, Wuhl’s character moans. Wuhl’s satire flopped, too, taking in less than $9,500 at the box office.

But in retrospect, the movie may just have been ahead of its time. As PBS celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, it’s not ranked No. 1, but the rest of the premise doesn’t seem so crazy.

PBS’ influence is everywhere. There’s a fairly direct line from PBS’s groundbreaking reality series “An American Family” to MTV’s “The Real World” and “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” on E! Julia Child’s “The French Chef” begat the 24-hour Food Network, 1 million-follower YouTube cooking stars and even food porn like “The Chef’s Table” on Netflix. The DIY Network is filled with “This Old House” knockoffs.

PBS made BBC naturalist Sir David Atten-

borough a star in the United States, but today he is just as likely to be found on Discovery or Netflix, while the descendant of Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos: A Personal Adventure” airs on National Geographic.

PBS’ signature preschool shows have also been picked off. New episodes of “Sesame Street” air first on HBO Max. Powerhouse commercial media companies ViacomCBS and NBC Universal have muscled in with their Noggin and Sprout (now Universal Kids) services. British police procedurals and costume dramas are found not just on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and HBO Max but also on BritBox and Acorn TV. Documentaries are equally ubiquitous, with HBO and Showtime and streaming services increasingly vying for titles, hefty checkbooks in hand.

When PBS arrived a half-century ago, television was essentially a three-network game, and PBS thrived by championing programming and audiences ignored

by NBC, CBS and ABC. But that distinctiveness has faded in today’s world of hundreds of cable channels and seemingly unlimited streaming services, many built after rivals saw the commercial value in PBS’ embrace of food lovers, costume drama obsessives, home improvement tinkerers and other niches. PBS may still execute many of its programs better than its rivals, and its content remains free and over-theair, crucial for reaching those with lesser means and those without broadband. But in a country where the vast majority of people get their TV through a paid service, that distinction rarely registers.

This cornucopia of programming that viewers can enjoy across the television landscape only intensifies the political pressures facing PBS. Why should the federal government subsidize public broadcasting, conservative politicians and others ask, when the commercial marketplace appears to be doing just fine delivering those types of programs?

From its beginnings, PBS has grappled with an existential conundrum — what it should be, and how it should distinguish itself. Thanks to its success, that quandary has become even thornier. More than ever, a thriving future for PBS will come down to how it manages an organi-

zation for the public good in a commercial environment, according to Marcia Smith, a documentary film producer (“The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution”).

“Is there still an idea of the public good that we can agree on beyond ‘Sesame Street’?” Smith asked.

How it came together PBS is an odd entity to celebrate, really. It’s a “service,” not a “system,” and not a network like CBS or CNN. Officially, it distributes national programs that it does not produce, and it is charged with operating the satellite system to interconnect all local public television stations. PBS did not originate noncommercial, educational television; there were already more than 100 such stations when PBS debuted in October 1970. “The French Chef” was its first broadcast, but the program had been airing on some public stations for six years. “Sesame Street” had begun a year earlier.

But it’s an anniversary worth commemorating. PBS and public television are now widely considered synonymous, having met the goal envisioned by its founders: helping autonomous educational stations nationwide combine resources, amplifying the reach of high-quality programs and shepherding new ones worthy of the federal funds allotted under the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act. Those stations, while committing to a common purpose, ultimately retain control over what they air.

Call it upside down, or bottom up, as Paula Kerger, the president and chief executive of PBS, does.

“You have a lot of responsibility but not ultimate authority,” she said of PBS’ role. That leads to what she called “the beauty and the pain of trying to keep this whole system glued together.”

The 1967 act, which created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, laid out a broad mandate for the programs that public television (and radio) should foster.

It sought media for “instructional, educational and cultural purposes,” promoting “diversity and excellence,” and addressing “the needs of unserved and underserved audiences, particularly children and minorities.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Elmo joined a fellow witness, Joe Lamond of International Music Products Association, during testimony on Capitol Hill in 2002.

Elmo goes to Washington The political pressure — a constant in PBS’ history — didn’t take long to arrive. One month, to be exact.

In November 1970, PBS distributed “Banks and the Poor.” It chronicled how banks perpetuated substandard housing for low-income Americans of color, ending with a scroll listing some 100 conflicted U.S. lawmakers.

Bill Moyers, who as a special assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson had worked on the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act, remembered the reaction in 2006: “All hell broke loose. President Nixon and his director of communications, Patrick Buchanan, were so outraged that the president vetoed CPB’s reauthorization bill and wouldn’t sign another until the chairman, president and director of television for CPB resigned.”

After a few more years of political kerfuffles over programming, a deal was struck in the mid-1970s that executives hoped would insulate PBS from administration meddling. The federal appropriation would now go largely to local stations, rather than directly to PBS. And those stations, more than 330 currently, would funnel the money — in part — back to PBS. “Politically, it was the right thing to do to protect the system,” recalled Stuart Sucherman, who helped broker the deal.

“But in hindsight that made an inefficient system more inefficient.”

It didn’t end the political posturing, either.

In 2005, an episode of the children’s program “Postcards From Buster” featur-

Monday, October 26, 2020

ing lesbian parents set off conservative complaints. Last year, a same-sex wedding on the cartoon “Arthur” prompted another round of criticism when Alabama Public Television declined to air the episode. And in 2012, Mitt Romney enlivened a 2012 presidential debate by declaring, “I love Big Bird,” but “I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS.” Barack Obama’s reelection prevented Romney from canceling Big Bird, but a different result in 2016 reignited the funding wars. The Trump administration argued in a budget proposal that “alternatives to PBS and NPR programming have grown substantially since CPB was first established in 1967, greatly reducing the need for publicly funded programming options.” But Congress restored the appropriation, which this year is $445 million, of which roughly 70% goes to the stations, radio and television. (PBS gets a small amount of direct money from the corporation; in the 2019 fiscal year, it was about $29 million.)

The most potent weapon in these battles over the years has been the activation of Big Bird, Elmo and characters from PBS’ other children’s shows. They often make the trek to Capitol Hill and have even testified at congressional hearings.

But even as PBS has fended off these funding threats, the culture wars and the push for political balance have taken their toll. PBS never did distribute that episode of “Buster,” and an ambitious series of films on America’s role in the post-Sept. 11 world was criticized for being both too conservative and too liberal.

A funding model under constant threat Politicians’ threats to slash federal funding make headlines, but that money does not come close to bankrolling PBS shows. The life of the public television producer often means spending years trying to coax backing from foundations and corporate sponsors, and local stations have come to rely on donations from their (older) viewers. And that financial state of affairs has hobbled PBS’ ability to compete and skewed its programming choices.

Over the decades, PBS has seen many of its best programming ideas copied by its commercial competitors, who’ve nabbed some of its audience too.

Particularly younger viewers.

21

Attempts to woo a new generation have had mixed success. When Fox canceled R.J. Cutler’s teen reality series “American High” in 2000, Pat Mitchell, PBS’ new president, brought it to public television, a bold move given PBS’ median viewer age of 55 at the time. She also tried to cut back on British drama by reinventing the venerable “Mystery!” with American dramas. But some donors, and thus stations, objected to the raw language and sexual and drug conversations in “American High” and forcefully pushed back against the “Mystery!” plan.

The runaway success of “Downton Abbey,” which ended in 2016, eased some of the pressure on the PBS budget and drew donations to local stations.

But any boost they got was temporary.

Indeed, “Mercy Street,” PBS’ first original drama in more than a decade, was abruptly canceled in 2017 after two seasons when the funding fell apart.

“We have not solved our funding model,” said Sharon Rockefeller, president and chief executive of WETA, in Washington, D.C., who has been in public broadcasting for more than four decades.

A vibrant past, a future in question Lynn Novick, a collaborator with Ken Burns on “The Vietnam War” and other films, and the director of “College Behind Bars,” said that no other outlet would allow a filmmaker to come up with an idea and spend 10 years getting it right. PBS, she said, is “creator driven, more than top down, not an executive saying we need a documentary on the Civil War.” The past seven months have unexpectedly underscored another area

Some donors, and thus stations, objected to the raw language and sexual and drug conversations in “American High.”

where PBS remains unique: education.

In March, days before 600,000 Los Angeles Unified School students were sent home because of the pandemic, PBS’ Kerger received a call from Austin Beutner, the district’s superintendent. PBS and its area stations quickly marshalled educational resources for students with limited or no broadband access. Dozens of other public stations and school systems nationwide have followed suit.

Meanwhile, PBS LearningMedia, an online educational platform for teachers and students, has seen its users more than double this school year, compared with the prepandemic average.

In June, as Black Lives Matter protests generated national conversations about racism, PBS dug into its back catalog so films like Firelight’s “Freedom Riders” could begin streaming again. New programs about race include “The Power of We: A Sesame Street Special.”

“It is rather stunning to see how very relevant our original mission is today,” WETA’s Rockefeller said. “In the midst of this pandemic, public television is delivering free education content right into homes, connecting people with arts and performances, giving context to our history and providing clear news and analysis.”

She added: “When other outlets are scrambling to create programming about the complex and troubled racial history in our country, we already have a rich library of programs and educational resources already at hand because examining our history and our culture has been a part of our mission all along.”

For Kerger, the last months have provided a “clarion call around service,” which, after all is built into PBS’ name.

“This is a moment when the country was looking for us, and here we are,” she said.

The challenge for PBS going forward will be to sustain that focus. It means convincing donors that service and an hour of nightly news and math programs for homebound students are equally worthy causes as sending a pledge to support a favorite costume drama. Corporations will need to be persuaded to underwrite difficult examinations of the country’s racial tensions, not just “Antiques Roadshow.”

Leaps of faith that the money and audience will ultimately be there will need to be taken. But for PBS to thrive another 50 years, reinvention seems a necessity.

22

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

Iceland tourism prepares for a comeback

A customer at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, a popular hot dog stand in Reykjavik, Iceland, that draws long lines in less trying times, on Oct. 10, 2020.

By PAIGE MCCLANAHAN

I

n a normal October, the Radisson BLU Saga Hotel in Reykjavik would be buzzing with tourists hoping for a glimpse of the Northern Lights, business travelers in town for trade fairs, honeymooners gearing up for a tour of Iceland’s waterfalls and geothermal spas. This year, of course, things are very different.

“It’s surreal,” said Ingibjorg Olafsdottir, the hotel’s general manager. “It’s completely quiet.”

Since March, even with government support, Olafsdottir’s staff has shrunk from 140 to just 16. The hotel, which has more than 200 rooms, normally has an occupancy rate of above 75%, but it fell to 11% in September.

“It’s been emotional,” Olafsdottir said, adding that, even after cutting down to bare-bones operations, the hotel continues to rack up debt. “But the thing is, I think everybody is in the same boat here.”

Tourism is undergoing an unprecedented downturn all over the world, but several factors make Iceland particularly vulnerable to the industry’s crash: geographic isolation, a small domestic population, strict border measures and an economy that — after an extraordinary, decadelong tourism boom — had come to depend heavily on foreign tourists. A recent surge in coronavirus cases has

added to Iceland’s challenges.

But while visitor numbers are low, Iceland is positioning itself for a major tourism rebound after the pandemic. The government is investing more than $12 million in tourism infrastructure, while improving roads and harbors across the country. To keep the tourism industry afloat in the short term, the government is also investing more than $9 million in a program that distributes free travel vouchers to Icelandic citizens and residents. A marketing campaign targeting domestic tourists was rolled out in the late spring; an international version will be unveiled as soon as travel restrictions are lifted.

The government hopes that when people go to book their first post-pandemic flights overseas, Iceland will be at the top of their list.

The tourism boom A lack of tourists was the last thing that Icelanders were worrying about in 2018, when the country welcomed a record-breaking 2.3 million visitors — more than six times Iceland’s population.

It was the height of a tourism boom that most observers trace to 2008, when a steep drop in the value of the Icelandic krona — which was linked to the economic crisis that hit the country that year — suddenly made Iceland much more affordable to outsiders. Then in April 2010, the cloud of ash from the eruption of Iceland’s

Eyjafjallajokull volcano forced the temporary closure of a large swath of European airspace — and put Iceland into headlines around the world. The government had rolled out the “Inspired by Iceland” marketing campaign just a few weeks after the eruption hit the news, and what started as a travel nuisance turned into a giant publicity boon.

Tourism took off. Visitor numbers rose from 459,000 in 2010 to more than 2.3 million in 2018. Economically, tourism came to account for 8.6% of gross domestic product and 39% of the country’s total export revenue. Roughly 30,000 people — nearly 16% of Iceland’s workforce — were employed in the tourism industry in 2018.

Signs of tourism’s impact began cropping up in Reykjavik: Dunkin’ Donuts appeared in 2015 (all locations have since closed); a Hard Rock Cafe opened the following year; H&M arrived in 2017. In the countryside, sites that had once welcomed a handful of visitors were full of tour groups. Many tourists were seen parking their camper vans illegally, while others were caught defecating wherever they pleased.

“In a typical summer, you would see camper vans parked just about anywhere,” said Jenna Gottlieb, the author of the Moon Iceland travel guide and an American who has lived in Iceland since 2012. “That gets a lot of backlash from people because there aren’t toilets in a parking lot or wherever people are parking. It’s seen as so disrespectful.”

In 2015, a Justin Bieber music video transformed an obscure corner of the Icelandic countryside into a must-see spot for the Instagram crowd. The site — Fjadrargljufur canyon, which had little infrastructure in place when the video was filmed — was soon inundated with tourists. Iceland’s environmental agency later closed the site to visitors in the springtime, when the thawing earth is especially vulnerable to damage.

A survey of tourists in the summer of 2016 found that at all but two destinations — the popular Gullfoss waterfall and Geysir Geothermal Area — a majority of visitors weren’t bothered by the size of the crowds. Most Icelanders also remained positive about tourism. Indeed, the industry’s rise brought locals many benefits: a broader range of jobs and restaurants, more

affordable flights to other parts of the world.

Plus, many of them actually enjoyed having visitors. Unlike other European tourist hot spots like Venice and Barcelona, Iceland has no active anti-tourism movement.

Icelanders “are just warmhearted people who like to have visitors,” said Anna Dora Saethorsdottir, a professor of tourism at the University of Iceland. “We are proud of our culture, we are proud of our nature.

When you’re proud of something, you also love showing it. Most Icelanders are very positive toward tourism.”

Concerns started to mount. Foreign experts and many Icelanders worried about the pressure that all those tourists were putting on the country’s fragile natural landscape. “Overtourism” appeared in a travel story about Iceland in 2016, and use of the term began to spread.

Of course, it wasn’t to last. In 2017, the Icelandic krona strengthened, making the country more expensive. In March 2019, WOW Air, an Icelandic low-cost airline, collapsed. Tourist numbers that year declined by about 14%, to just under 2 million. And then came 2020.

‘Everyone is crying’ The summer started off fairly well.

Coronavirus numbers in Iceland were low and travel within Europe’s Schengen Area, of which Iceland is a member, began opening up. Travelers to Iceland could choose either to undergo a virus test on arrival or self-quarantine for 14 days. At the same time, the government rolled out a campaign to promote tourism among the island’s roughly 366,000 inhabitants, offering tourism vouchers worth 5,000 krona (about $36) to every Icelandic resident over age 18.

The summer was “pretty good, considering everything,” said Bjarnheidur Hallsdottir, the chair of the board of the Icelandic Travel Industry Association and the chief executive of two tourism companies.

“And then suddenly out of nowhere, the government decided to change the rules at the borders. Since then, everyone is crying.”

Under the new rules, which took effect on Aug. 19 and are still in place, arriving passengers may choose either to submit to two screening tests for the virus, separated by five days’ self-quarantine, or to skip border screening and self-quarantine for 14 days after arrival.

The San Juan Daily Star “Given the uptick in infections worldwide and the widespread effect that a small infection can have on the functioning of our society, the Government has decided to strengthen our border-screening measures to further limit the number of infections entering the country,” Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir said when the rules were announced.

When the new measures took effect, Hallsdottir said, tourist numbers plunged.

And while virus cases remained low for most of the summer, the country has registered a wave of new infections since midSeptember, even with the new measures in force. Many of the recent cases have been linked to a pair of French tourists who tested positive for the virus when they arrived in the country, but then failed to isolate, Iceland’s Visir.is news outlet reported. On Oct. 5, the government ordered bars, nightclubs and gyms to close, and banned most gatherings of more than 20 people.

As in most parts of the world, the tumult of the last several months has triggered a surge in unemployment in Iceland. Between March and August of this year, about 8,000 people — roughly 4% of the country’s labor force — were laid off, according to Iceland’s Directorate of Labour; most of those layoffs were in the tourism industry.

Iceland’s unemployment rate reached 8.5% in August, compared to just 2.5% two years earlier. The agency predicted a rise in job losses in September and October.

Hallsdottir says that tourism operators are now looking to the government to help them cover running costs, or to pay the wages of a few personnel who can keep the companies afloat.

“If no one answers the phone or answers the emails, there will be no tourism next year,” she said.

Investing for the future After the 2008 banking crisis, Iceland’s tourism boom helped to propel the country into an impressive economic rebound. But while the rapid growth in foreign arrivals created jobs and revenue, it also outpaced the government’s ability to build the infrastructure that was needed to manage so many new visitors. Now, with tourist numbers low, the government has a chance to catch up.

This year, the Icelandic government is investing roughly 1.7 billion Icelandic krona (about $12.3 million) in infrastructure at both public and private tourist spots across the country, said Skarphedinn Berg Steinarsson, director general of the Icelandic Tourist Board. Roughly 1 billion krona has been set aside for infrastructure at national

Monday, October 26, 2020

The new Marriott Edition hotel rises next to the Harpa concert hall and conference center in Reykjavik, on Oct. 10, 2020. parks, protected areas and large public tourist sites, while 700 million krona is going into the country’s Tourist Site Protection Fund. The investments were already being planned last year, but the government increased the funding after the pandemic hit. Further investments will support harbor and road improvements throughout the country.

The improvements at tourist sites have two goals, Steinarsson said in an interview, “allowing them to receive bigger numbers — creating parking spaces, walking paths, etc. — but also preserving the nature to make sure that the sites will not be worn down when we get the visitors back.”

The largest grants from the Tourist Site Protection Fund are supporting the construction of a viewing platform on Bolafjall Mountain in the Westfjords, he said, as well as infrastructure at Studlagil Canyon, where a viewing platform is being installed as well as new walkways, toilets and information signs. These improvements are meant to keep tourists safe (the Bolafjall site features a steep cliff), while also protecting the landscape from environmental damage and improving the overall visitor experience.

The Studlagil Canyon is an example of a phenomenon that is not uncommon in Iceland: a site that was created not by the hosts, but by the visitors. The canyon — which features dramatic basalt-column cliffs lining the banks of a glacial-fed river — was “discovered” as an attractive destination only recently, Steinarsson said, after the river’s flow was made much calmer following the construction of a nearby hydroelectric plant.

“This is one of those sites that are created on social media,” Steinarsson said.

“But there’s no infrastructure there, no parking sites, no toilets. What happens when you start allowing 100,000 or 500,000 visitors? Everything gets torn down because nothing is designed to accommodate that.”

Now the government is working with the owners of the land to build pathways, parking spaces and toilets. The goal, Steinarsson said, is to ensure that visitors can enjoy the site “without spoiling anything.”

The kind of infrastructure being installed at Studlagil is already in place at most of Iceland’s more established destinations, particularly in the Golden Circle — an area not far from Reykjavik that includes some of the country’s most famous tourist destinations: Gullfoss waterfall, Geysir Geothermal Area and Thingvellir National Park, among other spots. While the infrastructure in those areas is already fairly good, Steinarsson said, any areas that are particularly fragile will need continual upkeep — and funding — to protect against damage from visitors.

Plenty of Icelanders would have seen these places over the last several months, and enjoyed them with smaller crowds than usual. A marketing campaign encouraging Icelanders to explore their country was rolled out in the late spring (“Island — komdu med!” or “Iceland — come join us!”), while the government’s travel voucher campaign helped to jump-start demand for hotels, restaurants and attractions. So far, Icelanders have used more than $1.2 million worth of their free travel vouchers, which are valid through the end of the year.

The most popular spots have been FlyOver Iceland, an attraction in Reykjavik; Islandshotel, a hotel chain; and Blue Lagoon, the geothermal spa near the country’s biggest

23

TRAVEL

airport.

“It was a success,” said Steinarsson of the efforts to encourage domestic tourism. “Icelanders really enjoyed their country during the summertime. And that’s what counts.”

Looking ahead What will Icelandic tourism look like after travel restrictions are finally lifted? Several people interviewed expressed the hope that future tourists would make longer visits and take the time to explore less popular corners of the country.

“If you get off the beaten path a little bit — and you don’t even have to go that far — you can get more of a remote feeling, a more private version of Iceland,” said Gottlieb, the travel guide author.

It’s a kind of travel that seems in line with how consumer attitudes have shifted during the pandemic, said Peter Jordan, head of strategy and research at Toposophy, a destination marketing and management agency. People are looking for “open spaces, fresh air, nature, walking routes, cycling trails, outdoor activities, and perhaps a much slower form of travel,” he said in an interview. By those measures, Iceland — which has the lowest population density in Europe — scores very well indeed.

Even Olafsdottir, the hotel manager, was optimistic about the country’s prospects for post-pandemic tourism.

“The population is so small and the country is so big,” she said. “For Iceland, that’s a huge opportunity.”

The Skogafoss waterfall near Skogar, Iceland, one of the country’s most popular sites, but the crowds have vanished during the coronavirus pandemic, on Oct. 10, 2020.

24 LEGAL NOTICE IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE TENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT OF FLORIDA, IN AND FOR POLK COUNTY. In Re: Petition for Temporary Custody Of

SHERIANICK ZOE ROSADO REYES by

ANNIE CAST AING and JORGE ROSADO

and In Re: Petition for Temporary Custody of

KAMILA ANNIERICK ROSADO ORTIZ by

ANNIE CASTAING AND JORGE ROSADO

Case No.: 2020DR-000414.

SEC. 01. SECOND AMENDED NOTICE OF ACTION FOR TEMPORARY CUSTODY OF MINOR CHILD BY EXTENDED FAMILY.

To: Rose Marie Ortiz Urb. Bonneville Heights Calle Naranjito Numero 3 Caguas, Puerto Rico 00725

YOU ARE NOTIFIED that an action for Temporary Custody of Minor Children By extended family has been filed against you and that you are required to serve a copy of your written defenses, if any, to Petitioners, Annie Castaing and Jorge Rosado whose address is c/o Ira A. Serebrin, Esq. 2109 Combee Road, Lakeland, FL on or before December 14, 2020 and file the original with the Clerk of this Court, at Post Office Box Drawer CC-5 before service on Petitioner or immediately thereafter. If you fail to do so, a default may be entered against you for the relief demanded in the Petition. Copies of all court documents in this case, including orders, are available at the Clerk of the Circuit Court’s office. You may review these documents upon request. You must keep the Clerk of the Circuit Court’s office notified of your current address. (You may file Designation of Current Mailing and E-Mail Address, Florida Supreme Court Approved Family Law Form 12.915.) Future papers in this lawsuit will be mailed or emailed to the addresses on record at the clerk’s office.

Dated: 10/22/2020.

STACY M. BUTTERFIELD, CLERK OF COURT. By: Debra R. Reed, Deputy Clerk.

LEGAL NOT ICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN.

Félix Fautlno De Jesús Polanco

@

Demandante vs.

Luz Verónica Núñez Matías

Demandada ClVIL NÚMERO: BY2020RF01055.

SOBRE: DIVORCIO (Ruptura Irreparable). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE NORTEAMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. ss.

A: Sra. Luz Verónica Núñez Matías 394 Belmont St. Apt 4 Manchester, NH 03103

Se le notifica a usted que se ha radicado en esta Secretaría la solicitud del epígrafe. Se le emplaza y requiere que radique en esta secretaría el original de la contestación a la Demanda de Divorcio y que notifique con copia de dicha contestación a la Lcda. María Pagán Hemández, P.O. Box 21411, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00928-1411, teléfono 787-282-6734, abogada de la parte demandante, dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Si dejare de hacerlo, podrá dictarse contra usted sentencia en rebeldía concediéndole el remedio solicitado en la demanda. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, a 24 de septiembre de 2020. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretaria Regional. ISABEL C. SOUCHET, Sec Auxiliar.

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

ANTONIO J. PURAS MONSERRATE Y LAURA I. BIBILONO RODRÍGUEZ VS

EL SECRETARIO (A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 20 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 esta. 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 21 de octubre de 2020. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 21 de octubre de 2020. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, Secretaria Regional. f/ DENISE M. AMARO MACHUCA , Secretario (a) Auxiliar.

OF THE ESTATE OF GUILLERMO JORGE MATTEI OLIVERAS

Pursuant to the Order for Service by Publication entered on October 20, 2020, by the Honorable Daniel R. Domínguez, United States District Judge (Docket No. 27), 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 3908 Guaynabo, PR 00970, 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 co-defendants Jorge Luis Mattei Vélez, Angel Jorge Mattei Vélez, and Lilliam Mercedes Mattei Vélez, as well as to John Doe and Richard Roe as unknown members of the Estate of Guillermo Jorge Mattei Oliveras, by certified mail/return receipt requested, addressed to their LEGAL NOTICE last known address. Should UNITED STATES DISTRICT you fail to appear, plead or COURT FOR THE DISTRICT answer to the Complaint as orOF PUERTO RICO dered by the Court and noticed UNITED STATES by this Summons, the Court will enter default against you and DEPARTMENT OF proceed to hear and adjudicate AGRICULTURE cause based on the relief (Farm Service Agency) this demanded in the Complaint.

Plaintiff v.

BY ORDER OF THE COURT, ESTATE OF GUILLERMO summons is issued pursuant JORGE MATTEI to Federal Rules Civil ProceOLIVERAS COMPOSED dure 4(e) and Rule 4.6 of the

BY HIS KNOWN HEIRS Rules of Civil Procedure for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

JORGE LUIS MATTEI In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this VÉLEZ, ÁNGEL JORGE 21st day of October, 2020. MAMATTEI VÉLEZ, LILLIAM RIA ANTORGIORGI-JORDAN, ESQ., CLERK, U.S. DISTRICT MERCEDES MATTEI By: VIVIANA DIAZVÉLEZ; ANGELA VÉLEZ COURT. MULERO, Deputy Clerk.

SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN JULIA MASCARÓ ARLEQUÍN aka ANGELA GARCÍA COMPUESTA VÉLEZ AKA ANGELA POR FULANO DE TAL, VÉLEZ ALEQUÍN AS COMENGANO DE TAL, SUTANO DE TAL Y JOHN DEBTOR AND WIDOW; JOHN DOE & RICHARD DOE ROE AS UNKNOWN CIVIL NUM. SJ2020CV03964 (602). SOBRE: CANCELA- HEIRS TO SAID ESTATE

Defendant(s) CIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SEN- CASE NO. 19-01993 (DRD).

TENCIA POR EDICTO POR Foreclosure of Mortgage, SUMMONS BY PUBLICATION. SUMAC.

A: SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN JULIA MASCARÓ GARCÍA COMPUESTA POR FULANO DE TAL, MENGANO DE TAL, SUTANO DE TAL Y JOHN DOE

Monday, October 23, 2020

TO: CO-DEFENDANTS JORGE LUIS MATTEI VÉLEZ; ANGEL JORGE MATTEI VÉLEZ; LILLIAM MERCEDES MATTEI VÉLEZ; JOHN DOE AND RICHARD ROE AS UNKNOWN MEMBERS

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

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

AMERICAS LEADING FINANCE LLC Demandante, v.

VQ AUTOS CORP. h/n/c AUTOS ARECIBO; UNIVERSAL INSURANCE COMPANY Demandado

MARÍA A. VELÁZQUEZ MEDINA

Parte Interesada CIVIL NÚM.: GB2020CV00554.

(787) 743-3346

The San Juan Daily Star

USUFRUCTUARIA DE LA MORTGAGE SERVICING Demandante SUCESION DE NOEMI LA SUCESION DE ORTIZ CORDOVA, ESTEBANIA RIVERA DE COMPUESTA POR JESUS, COMPUESTA EURIDIZ NOEMI TORO POR FULANO DE TAL Y ORTIZ, CENTRO DE FULANA DE TAL COMO RECAUDACION DE POSIBLES HEREDEROS INGRESOS MUNICIPALES A: VQ AUTOS CORP. CON INTERES EN LA (CRIM) h/n/c AUTOS ARECIBO Demandados SUCESION; CENTRO y MARÍA A. VELÁZQUEZ CIVIL NUM. HU2020CV00838.

DE RECAUDACION DE MEDINA, como parte SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO INGRESOS MUNICPALES Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA interesada.

(CRIM) Quedan emplazados y notifi- POR LA VIA ORDINARIA. EMSOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO, NIVELACIÓN, INCUMPLIMIENTO DE CONTRATO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. DE AMERICA EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

cados que en este Tribunal se ha radicado Demanda Enmendada sobre cobro de dinero, nivelación, incumplimiento de contrato, contra la parte demandada VQ AUTOS CORP. h/n/c AUTOS ARECIBO; UNIVERSAL INSURANCE COMPANY y MARÍA A. VELÁZQUEZ MEDINA, como parte interesada, por las razones que se detallan en la demanda enmendada. Se les advierte que este edicto se publicará en un periódico de circulación general una sola vez y que, si no comparecen a contestar dicha Demanda Enmendada dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del Edicto, a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:// unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia concediendo el remedio así solicitado sin más citarles ni oírles. La abogada de la parte demandante es la Lcda. Ana Deseda Belaval, cuya dirección física y postal es: Cond. El Centro I, Suite 801, 500 Muñoz Rivera Ave., San Juan, Puerto Rico 00918; cuyo número de teléfono es (787) 946-5268, y su correo electrónico es: anadeseda@bellverlaw.com. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 14 de octubre de 2020. Lcda. Laura I Santa Sanchez, Secretaria Regional.

Sara Rosa Villegas, Sec Tribunal Conf I.

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

DLJ MORTGAGE CAPITAL, INC. Demandante V.

ELIAS TORO SANTIAGO, POR SI Y EN CUANTO A SU PARTICIPACION DE LA CUOTA VIUDAL

pudien la participación que les corresponda en la herencia de Estebania Rivera De Jesús. De no expresarse dentro del ese termino de treinta (30) días en torno a la aceptación o repudiación de herencia, la misma se tendrá por aceptada. También se apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que luego del transcurso del termino de treinta (30) días antes señalado, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia de la causante y por consiguiente responde de las cargas de dicha herencia conforme a lo que dispone el Articulo 959 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 2787. EXPEDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA, y el sello de este Tribunal, en Fajardo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 15 de octubre de del 2020. Wanda I Segui Reyes, Secretaria.

Demandados CIVIL NUM. FA2019CV00535.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA POR LA VIA ORDINARIA. EMPLAZAMIENTO DE INTERPELACION POR EDICTO. ESA: ELIAS TORO TADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA SANTIAGO; EURIDIZ EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESLEGAL NOTICE TORO ORTIZ TADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO Queden emplazados y notifi- LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUER- ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO cados que en este Tribunal se TO RICO. SS. DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUha radicado Demanda sobre A: JANE DOE Y JOHN NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución SALA DE FAJARDO. DOE, POSIBLES de Hipoteca, en la que se aleBanco Popular de HEREDEROS DE ga que usted(es) le adeuda(n) Puerto Rico LA SUCESION DE a la demandante lo siguiente: DEMANDANTE vs.

La suma de $79,627.49 de ESTEBANIA RIVERA DE Sucesión de Esmeralda principal más los intereses soJESUS bre dichas sumas devengados Queden emplazados y notifiRodríguez Villafañe, desde el día 1 de julio de 2018, cados que en este Tribunal se t/c/c Gerarda Rodríguez más aquellos a devengarse ha radicado Demanda sobre Villafañe compuesta hasta el pago total de la deu- Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución por Jessica Dávila da a razón 8.62500% anual, de Hipoteca, en la que se alega más las primas de seguro hi- que usted(es) le adeuda(n) a Navarro, Alejandra Dávila potecario y riesgo, recargos la demandante lo siguiente: La Rivera, Fulano de Tal y por demora y cualesquiera suma de $18,344.97 de princiSutano de Tal; Centro otras cantidades pactadas en pal más los intereses sobre dide Recaudación de la escritura de hipoteca desde chas sumas devengados desde Ingresos Municipales; y la fecha antes mencionada y el día 1 de agosto de 2018, más hasta la fecha del total pago aquellos a devengarse hasta el a los Estados Unidos de de las mismas, más la suma pago total de la deuda a razón América estipulada de $10,000.00 por 6.37500% anual, más las priDEMANDADOS concepto de costas, gastos y mas de seguro hipotecario y CIVIL NUM.: FA2019CV01445. honorarios de abogado incurri- riesgo, recargos por demora y SOBRE: Cobro de Dinero y dos por concepto de un présta- cualesquiera otras cantidades Ejecución de Hipoteca por la mo hipotecario, se advierte que pactadas en la escritura de Vía Ordinaria. MANDAMIENsi no contesta(n) la demanda, hipoteca desde la fecha antes TO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE radicando el original de la con- mencionada y hasta la fecha AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE testación en este Tribunal y en- del total pago de las mismas, DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS viando copia de la contestación más la suma estipulada de EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIAa Edmy Cortijo Villock, 1515 $3,000.00 por concepto de cosDO DE PUERTO RICO. Por South Federal Highway, Suite tas, gastos y honorarios de aboCuanto: Se ha dictado en el 100, Boca Raton, FL 33432, gado incurridos por concepto presente caso la siguiente Orteléfono 877-338-4101, dentro de un préstamo hipotecario, se den: ORDEN. Examinada la del término de treinta (30) días advierte que si no contesta(n) demanda radicada por la parde la publicación de este Edic- la demanda, radicando el origite demandante, la solicitud de to, se le anotará la rebeldía y se nal de la contestación en este interpelación contenida en-la dictará Sentencia en su contra, Tribunal y enviando copia de misma y examinados los autos concediendo el remedio soli- la contestación a Edmy Cortidel caso, el Tribunal le imparte citado, sin más citarle ni oírle. jo Villock, 1515 South Federal su aprobación y en su virtud EXPEDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA, y Highway, Suite 100, Boca Raacepta la Demanda en el caso el sello de este Tribunal, en Hu- tón, FL 33432, teléfono 561de epígrafe, así como la intermacao, Puerto Rico, hoy 15 de 338-4101, dentro del término pelación judicial de la parte octubre de 2020. Dominga Go- de treinta (30) días de la pudemandante a los herederos mez Fuster, Sec Regional. Ma- blicación de este Edicto, se le del codemandado. Se Ordena risol Davila Ortiz, Sec Auxiliar. anotará la rebeldía y se dictará a los herederos del causante a Sentencia en su contra, conce- saber, Jessica Dávila Navarro, LEGAL NOTICE diendo el remedio solicitado sin Alejandra Dávila Rivera, Fulano ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO mas citarle ni oírle. Se ordena de Tal y Sutano de Tal, heredeDE PUERTO RICO TRIBU- a los herederos de la causante ros de nombres desconocidos NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA Estebania Riyera De Jesus a a que, dentro del término legal SALA SUPERIOR DE FAJAR- que dentro del termino legal de de 30 días contados a partir de DO. treinta (30) días contados a par- la fecha de la notificación de la NEWREZ LLC D/B/ tir de la fecha de publicación del presente Orden, acepten o represente edicto, acepten o re- pudien la participación que les ASHELLPOINT PLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

The San Juan Daily Star corresponda en la herencia del causante Juan Cardona Alicea a beneficio de inventario. Se le Apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados: (a) Que de no expresarse dentro del término de 30 días en tomo a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia la misma se tendrá por aceptada a beneficio de inventario; (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 a beneficio de inventario y por consiguiente, responden por la cargas a dicha herencia a beneficio del inventario. Se Ordena a la parte demandante a que, en vista de que la sucesión del causante Esmeralda Rodríguez Villafañe, t/c/c Gerarda Rodríguez Villafañe incluyen como herederos a Jessica Dávila Navarro, Alejandra Dávila, 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 Fajardo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 12 de agosto de 2020. (Fdo) Jaime J Benero Garcia, JUEZ . Por Cuanto: Se le advierte a que, dentro del término legal de 30 días contados a partir de la fecha de notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudien la participación que les corresponda en la herencia del causante Esmeralda Rodríguez Villafañe, t/c/c Gerarda Rodríguez Villafañe a beneficio de inventario. Por Orden del Honorable Juez de Primera Instancia de este Tribunal, expido el presente Mandamiento, bajo mi firma y sello oficial, en Fajardo, Puerto Rico hoy día 16 de octubre de 2020. Wanda I. Segui Reyes, Sec Regional.

Vía Ordinaria. MANDAMIENTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. Por Cuanto: Se ha dictado en el presente caso la siguiente Orden: ORDEN. Examinada la demanda radicada por la parte demandante, la solicitud de interpelación contenida en la misma y examinados los autos del caso, el Tribunal le imparte su aprobación y en su virtud acepta la Demanda en el caso de epígrafe, así como la interpelación judicial de la parte demandante a los herederos del codemandado conforme dispone el Artículo 959 del .Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 2787. 1 Se Ordena a los herederos Jacinto González Trías, t/c/c Víctor Jacinto González Tríaz como miembro de la Sucesión de Iris García Méndez 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 la causante Iris García Méndez. 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. sec. 2785. Se Ordena a la parte demandante a que, en vista de que la sucesión de la causante Iris García Méndez incluyen como herederos a Jacinto González Trías, t/c/c Víctor Jacinto González Tríaz como miembro LEGAL NOTICE de la Sucesión de Iris García ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO Méndez, proceda a notificar la DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU- presente Orden mediante un NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA edicto a esos efectos una sola SALA DE BAYAMÓN. vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de la Isla de Reverse Mortgage Puerto Rico. DADA en BayaFunding, LLC món, Puerto Rico, hoy día 13 de DEMANDANTE vs. octubre de 2020. Fdo. Andino Jacinto González Trías, Olguin Arroyo, JUEZ. Por Cuant/c/c Víctor, Jacinto to: Se le advierte a que, dentro González Tríaz; Sucesión del término legal de 30 días de Iris García Méndez contados a partir de la fecha de de la presente Orcompuesta por Jacinto notificación den, acepten o repudien la parGonzález Trías, t/c/c ticipación que les corresponda Víctor Jacinto González en la herencia del causante Iris Tríaz, Fulano de Tal y García Méndez. Por Orden del Honorable Juez de Primera InsSutano de Tal como tancia de este Tribunal, expido posibles herederos el presente Mandamiento, bajo desconocidos; Centro mi firma y sello oficial, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico hoy día 16 de de Recaudación de Ingresos Municipales; y octubre de 2020. Lcda. Laura I Sanchez, Secretaria Rea los Estados Unidos de Santa gional. Sandra I Cruz Vazquez, América.

Sec Servicios a Sala.

DEMANDADOS LEGAL NOTICE CIVIL NUM.: BY2019CV05880.

SOBRE: Cobro de Dinero y Estado Libre Asociado de PuerEjecución de Hipoteca por la to Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL

Monday, October 26, 2020 DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Pri- (Nombre de las partes a las que se mera Instancia Sala Superior le notifican la sentencia por edicto) de CAROLINA. EL SECRETARIO(A) que susREVERSE MORTGAGE cribe le notifica a usted que el 13 de octubre de 2020, este FUNDING, LLC Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Demandante v.

Sentencia Parcial o Resolución DELIA RIVERA PEREZ Y A en este caso, que ha sido debiLOS ESTADOS UNIDOS damente registrada y archivada Demandado(a) en autos donde podrá usted enCivil: Núm. CA2019CV03974. terarse detalladamente de los SALA 408. Sobre: COBRO DE términos de la misma. Esta noDINERO ORDINARIO. NO- tificación se publicará una sola TIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA vez en un periódico de circulaPOR EDICTO. ción general en la Isla de PuerA: DELIA RIVERA PEREZ to Rico, dentro de los 10 días (Nombre de las partes a las que se siguientes a su notificación. Y, le notifican la sentencia por edicto) siendo o representando usted EL SECRETARIO(A) que sus- una parte en el procedimiento cribe le notifica a usted que el sujeta a los términos de la Sen20 de octubre de 2020, este tencia, Sentencia Parcial o ReTribunal ha dictado Sentencia, solución, de la cual puede estaSentencia Parcial o Resolución blecerse recurso de revisión o en este caso, que ha sido debi- apelación dentro del término de damente registrada y archivada 30 días contados a partir de la en autos donde podrá usted en- publicación por edicto de esta terarse detalladamente de los notificación, dirijo a usted esta términos de la misma. Esta no- notificación que se considerará tificación se publicará una sola hecha en la fecha de la publicavez en un periódico de circula- ción de este edicto. Copia de ción general en la Isla de Puer- esta notificación ha sido archito Rico, dentro de los 10 días vada en los autos de este caso, siguientes a su notificación. Y, con fecha de 16 de octubre de siendo o representando usted 2020. En BAYAMON, Puerto una parte en el procedimiento Rico, el 16 de octubre de 2020. sujeta a los términos de la Sen- LCDA LAURA I SANTA SANtencia, Sentencia Parcial o Re- CHEZ, Secretario(a). IVETTE solución, de la cual puede esta- M. MARRERO BRACERO, blecerse recurso de revisión o Secretario(a) Auxiliar. apelación dentro del término de LEGAL NOTICE 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta Estado Libre Asociado de Puernotificación, dirijo a usted esta to Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL notificación que se considerará DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de Prihecha en la fecha de la publica- mera Instancia Sala Superior ción de este edicto. Copia de de Caguas. esta notificación ha sido archiORIENTAL BANK vada en los autos de este caso, Demandante vs. con fecha de 20 de octubre de FRANCISCO MENDEZ 2020. En CAROLINA, Puerto DEL VALLE, FULANA Rico, el 20 de octubre de 2020.

LCDA MARILYN APONTE RODE TAL Y LA DRIGUEZ, Secretario(a). F/ SOCIEDAD LEGAL DAMARIS TORRES CRUZ , DE GANANCIALES Secretario(a) Auxiliar.

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

ORIENTAL BANK Demandante v.

EDUARDO FIGUEROA PADILLA, DIANA JOVE VELEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandado(a) Civil: Núm. GB2019CV01435.

SALA 503. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO POR LA VIA ORDINARIA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: EDUARDO FIGUEROA PADILLA, DIANA JOVE VELEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandado CASO NUM. CG2019CV03205.

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

A: FRANCISCO MENDEZ DEL VALLE, FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

(Nombre de las parles a las que se / es notifica la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 14 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 16 de octubre de 2020. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, 16 de octubre de 2020. CARMEN ANA PEREIRA ORTIZ, Secretario (a). JESSENIA PEDRAZA, Secretario (a) Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

25

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 22 de octubre de 2020. En BAYAMON, Puerto Rico, 22 de octubre de 2020. LCDA LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretario (a). ELIBETH M TORRES ALICEA, Secretario (a) Auxiliar.

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

COLON MIRANDA ,

Estado Libre Asociado de PuerABIGAIL to Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL vs DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de PriEX PARTE mera Instancia Sala Superior CASO: DJV2016-1837. SOde BAYAMON. BRE: EXPEDIENTE DE DOORIENTAL BANK MINIO. Demandante vs.

JOSE ANTONIO RIVERA RODRIGUEZ, EVELYN TORRES RIVERA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES POR ESTOS COMPUESTAS; JOHN DOE; RICHARD ROE; ASOCIACION DE EMPLEADOS DEL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO

Demandado CASO NUM. CZ2020CV00069 (402). SOBRE: SUSTITUCION DE PAGARE HIPOTECARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOSE ANTONIO RIVERA RODRIGUEZ, EVELYN TORRES RIVERA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES POR ESTOS COMPUESTAS; JOHN DOE; RICHARD ROE

(Nombre de las parles a las que se les notifica la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 21 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

VADA EN AUTOS DONDE PODRA USTED ENTERARSE DETALLADAMENTE DE LOS TERMINOS DE LA MISMA. ESTA NOTIFICACION SE PUBLICARA UNA SOLA VEZ EN UN PERIODICO DE CIRCULACION GENERAL EN LA ISLA DE PUERTO RICO, DENTRO DE LOS 10 DIAS SIGUIENTES A SU NOTIFICACION. Y, SIENDO O REPRESENTANDO USTED UNA PARTE EN EL PROCEDIMIENTO SUJETA A LOS TERMINOS DE LA SENTENCIA , SENTENCIA PARCIAL O RESOLUCION , DE LA CUAL PUEDE ESTABLECERSE RECURSO DE REVISION O APELA CION DENTRO DEL TERMINO DE 30 DIAS CONTADOS A PARTIR DE LA PUBLICACION POR EDICTO DE ESTA NOTIFICACION , DIRIJO A USTED ESTA NOTIFICACION QUE SE CONSIDERARA HECHA EN LA FECHA DE LA PUBLICACION DE ESTE DICTO. COPIA DE ESTA NOTIFICACION HA SIDO ARCHIVADA EN LOS AUTOS DE ESTE CASO, CON FECHA DE 16 DE OCTUBRE DE 2020.

LIC. SEISE NEGRON , BRUSEINY LCDASEISE@GMAIL.COM EN BAYAMON, PUERTO RICO, A 16 DE OCTUBRE DE 2020. LAURA SANTA SANCHEZ, SECRETARIA. POR: F/ ALBA BRITO BORGEN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

AUTORIDAD DE CARRETERAS DE PUERTO RICO, PO BOX 41269, MINILLAS STATION, SAN JUAN PR 00940-1269; SUCESION SOBRINO, CUYOS NOMBRES LEGAL NOTICE Y DIRECCIONES Estado Libre Asociado de PuerSE DESCONOCEN, to Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL MUNICIPIO DE VEGA DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de PriBAJA, PO BOX 4555, mera Instancia Sala Superior VEGA BAJA PUERTO de SAN JUAN. RICO 00693-455, CONSEJO DE TITULARES SUS SUCESORES, DEL CONDOMINIO HEREDEROS O BRISAS DE SAN JUAN Demandante v.

CAUSAHABIENTES, PEGGY LEZZIE PROVIDENCIA ROSA BENITEZ VALENTIN MARTINEZ, Demandado(a) CUYA DIRECCION Civil: Núm. SJ2019CV08312.

SE DESCONOCE, SALON 802. Sobre: COBRO SUS SUCESORES O DE DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN CAUSAHABIENTES DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. DE PARADERO A: PEGGY LEZZIE DESCONOCIDO, Y A ROSA BENITEZ TODO EL QUE TENGA (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) ALGÚN DERECHO REAL EL SECRETARIO(A) que susSOBRE EL INMUEBLE cribe le notifica a usted que el 20 de febrero de 2020, este DESCRITO EN ESTA PETICIÓN DE DOMINIO, Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución LAS PERSONAS en este caso, que ha sido debiIGNORADAS A QUIENES damente registrada y archivada PUEDA PERJUDICAR en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los LA INSCRIPCIÓN , Y EN GENERAL , A TODA términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola PERSONA QUE DESEE vez en un periódico de circulaOPONERSE . ción general en la Isla de Puer-

NOTIFICAC ION DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. EL SECRETARIO(A ) QUE SUSCRIBE LE NOTIFICA A USTED QUE EL 09 DE OCTUBRE DE 2020 , ESTE TRIBUNAL HA DICTADO SENTENCIA , SENTENCIA PARCIAL O RESOLUCION EN ESTE CASO, QUE HA SIDO DEBIDAMENTE REGISTRADA Y ARCHI-

to 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 19 de octubre de 2020. En SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, el 19 de octubre de 2020. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, Secretaria.

ELSIE PRATTS MELENDEZ. Sec Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMON SALA DE RELACIONES DE MENORES Y FAMILIA.

WANDELISSE MALDONADO ROSARIO Demandante Vs

ROBERTO JUAN SANTIAGO GONZALEZ

Demandada CIVIL NUM: BY2020RF01372.

SOBRE: DIVORCIO POR RUPTURA IRREPARABLE. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA El Presidente de los Estados Unidos El Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico. ss.

A: ROBERTO JUAN SANTIAGO GONZALEZ

Por Ia presente, se le notifica que Ia parte demandante de epígrafe ha presentado ante este tribunal, demanda contra usted, solicitando Ia concesión del siguiente remedio: DIVORCIO POR LA CAUSAL DE RUPTURA IRREPARABLE. La parte demandante se encuentra representada por: LCDA. MICHELE M. SILVA MARRERO RUA: 18374 20 Ave. Luis Muñoz Mann PMB 263 Villa Blanca Caguas, Puerto Rico 00725 Tel.: (787) 653-5733 E-mail: msilvamarrero@gmail.com Se le apercibe que si no compareciere usted a contestar dicha demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de Ia publicación del último edicto, notificando copia de su contestación a Ia abogada de Ia parte demandante; se le anotará Ia rebeldía y se dictará sentencia en rebeldía en su contra concediendo el remedio solicitado en Ia Demanda, sin más citarle ni oIrle. Usted deber presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC) al cual puede acceder utilizando Ia siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en Ia SecretarIa del Tribunal. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico a 24 de septiembre. de 2020.LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretaria Regional. Ruth Rosa Hernandez, Sec Aux Tribunal I.

26

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

Sports came back in 2020. Now comes the hard part.

By MATHEW FUTTERMAN

P

rofessional sports figured out how to sputter back to life over the past three months.

The NBA finished its season with LeBron James on top again. The NHL has a new Stanley Cup champion. The WNBA also delivered a title team, including two of its biggest stars. The NFL is charging ahead despite a series of positive coronavirus tests among some of its 32 teams.

And Major League Baseball this week, if all goes as planned, will become the latest elite sports league to pull off the small miracle of completing a season that once appeared beyond hope.

Against all odds, and with their financial futures threatened as never before, the leagues deployed aggressive, rapidresponse testing that remains out of reach for the general public. Keeping spectators out or severely limiting attendance, they apparently avoided the calamity of a virus death traced to an event. And they pushed through, their schedules overlapping as never before, as the country was reeling from the pandemic and politics, and was not necessarily watching.

When things looked dire, as when NBA players refused to take the court in protest of the police killings convulsing the country, it took former President Barack Obama to step in and keep the action going, telephoning a group of players led by Chris Paul and James and persuading them not to abandon the season.

In a late-night call, after an acrimonious player meeting on Aug. 26 appeared to leave the season hanging in the balance, the former president, a fan of the game who is friendly with basketball luminaries, stressed to the players that they would be giving up a powerful platform if they stopped playing. Seen as something of a wise elder of the sport, he urged them to demand specific actions from the league before agreeing to return. (They resumed play in exchange for commitments from the league to work toward increased voting opportunities and to press for social change.)

Now comes the hard part.

The leagues succeeded because they are enormously wealthy. They had enough money not just to administer

comprehensive testing but also to pivot quickly and do things that would have seemed unimaginable in the past, like relocating the Toronto Blue Jays to Buffalo, N.Y., and closing off hundreds of basketball and hockey players in bubble environments in two Canadian cities and at Disney World in Florida for two months.

Now the leagues have to figure out how to do it again as infection numbers have reached a record daily high in the United States, making it unclear how to protect players and personnel without spending exorbitantly again.

Baseball recently released its 2021 schedule with an April 1 opening day, but Commissioner Rob Manfred last week essentially said the schedule was little more than a series of dates on a calendar.

“The reality is all planning for 2021 for us, and for every other business in America, has to have an asterisk next to it in terms of what the course of the virus is going to be,” Manfred said on ESPN Radio.

Resorting to bubbles seems unrealistic for an entire season. And going without ticket sales and money from overpriced hot dogs, beer, T-shirts and parking has produced plenty of deep-red balance sheets.

The NHL, which should now be in the third week of the 2020-21 season, is targeting a Jan. 1 start date but has yet to post a schedule, as the U.S.-Canadian border remains closed. On Thursday, the league announced it was postponing its All-Star Game and the Winter Classic, an outdoor game scheduled for New Year’s Day. The Lakers won the NBA championship on Oct. 11, ending a season just weeks before the next one would normally start. League officials have yet to say when play will start again.

“We will react to the state-of-the-art science,” Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said. “I can’t say when, but I can say that whatever we do we will do with safety being our top priority.”

Casey Wasserman, the owner of a sports marketing and talent firm who has close relationships with the leaders of several leagues, said he was confident the NHL and the NBA would aim to start their seasons by early winter, perhaps

with slightly shorter schedules of roughly 70 games, and to complete their playoffs in June, as usual, so they can return to normal schedules for the 2021-22 season.

Major League Soccer is considering starting sometime in April rather than in early March. The WNBA played 22 regular-season games this year instead of 34, as in 2019, but it ended at roughly the same time, putting less pressure on scheduling for next year.

Where allowed, teams will admit spectators in limited numbers, as some NFL teams have done. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays are playing the World Series at a neutral stadium in Arlington, Texas, that is about 20 percent full.

Still, as they so often do, sports are serving as a reflection of society. No one can say when most people will stop fearing large crowds, and the steps toward normalcy have had setbacks riddled with positive coronavirus tests.

Even with payment from media contracts, teams and leagues still stand to lose billions without fans in seats. Spectator spending brings in roughly 25 percent of the NFL’s $15 billion in revenue, about one-third of baseball’s revenue and roughly 40 percent of the NBA’s. For other sports, such as hockey, soccer and tennis, the share is substantially higher.

Also, for any number of reasons — including too much competition, an oxygen-sucking presidential election and a distaste for watching games in empty stadiums — millions of fans have largely rejected the version of pro sports that the pandemic has wrought.

Television ratings plummeted for nearly every league — 61 percent for the Stanley Cup playoffs compared with 2019, 49 percent for the NBA finals, and more than 40 percent for the U.S. Open tennis and golf tournaments and for baseball’s playoffs.

Ratings for the NFL, which did not have to alter its traditional schedule, have fallen the least, by 13 percent.

Throughout all the ups and downs, constant testing has been vital. Every league entered a contract with a private lab to perform multiple tests each week and produce rapid results, usually within 24 hours. NFL players are tested and screened for symptoms every day.

Already the league has conducted more than 450,000 tests, and the handful of positive cases have come not from the gridiron but from off-the-field activities like dining, according to the league and the players union. In Major League Soccer, tests occur every other day and the day before each match.

“The only way any of this happens is with vigorous testing and the protocols working in tandem,” said George Atallah, a spokesman for the NFL Players Association. “Testing alone is not enough. It puts everyone in the right frame of mind, but also gives a false sense of security. It’s not a ticket to ignore the protocols and do whatever you want.”

Agreements on testing, safety protocols and pay were crucial to persuading players to return for the 2020 seasons, but only the NFL has figured out how to manage its finances beyond this year.

In July, the NFL and the players association agreed to share the financial pain.

The limit on each team’s player salaries, known as the “salary cap,” is currently $198.2 million. It will probably drop next year, but it cannot go lower than $175 million, with further adjustments possible in future seasons depending on how quickly life and pro football return to normal.

Other leagues still must find a way to get their players to share the burden of lost revenue without alienating stars like James, who is supposed to make nearly $40 million next season. Baseball, which nearly called off its season in July as owners and players bickered for weeks over pay, may face another bitter labor fight during the winter.

Wasserman remains optimistic.

“Everyone’s interests are really aligned here,” Wasserman said. “Right now everyone is just trying to grind through the year. In total, it’s 18 months of pain, and sports will be back.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

27

Black players continued a mentoring tradition amid a pandemic

By JAMES WAGNER

E

arly in his major league career, Curtis Granderson never went hungry around Dmitri Young, particularly in Kansas City, Mo. Whenever the Detroit Tigers traveled there, Young, one of the elder Black players on the team, would invite his younger Black teammates — outfielders Nook Logan, Marcus Thames, Craig Monroe and Granderson — to his hotel suite to enjoy a catered buffet usually made up of macaroni and cheese, cornbread, collard greens and barbecued meats. They would fill their bellies, laugh and talk about life and baseball for hours.

“We’d all just be hanging out and fighting over the last piece of oxtail,” Granderson recalled recently. Added Young: “That good old soul food.”

Without realizing it at the time, Granderson was participating in an unofficial tradition that has been handed down through generations in the sport: The older Black players are responsible for looking out for the younger ones.

It has often involved gifts or meals, but those simply provide opportunities to get together, to offer support and to make the newbies feel welcome in a sport where the presence of African American players has shrunk over the past several decades, to just 8 percent of the major leagues this season. Just one Black American player — Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers — is playing in this year’s World Series.

“Man, that’s ridiculous,” said Young, 47, who last played in the majors in 2008 and is now the head baseball coach at Camarillo High in California. “For the history of the game, it dwindles down to this.”

This year complicated the pay-itforward practice. When the coronavirus pandemic wiped out the 2020 minor league season, recently drafted Black players’ orientation into professional baseball was put on hold as they missed out on the camaraderie of a clubhouse.

So Granderson, 39, and the others leading the Players Alliance, a nonprofit formed after the killing of George Floyd that now includes more than 100 former and current Black players, looked for a modern way to carry on the tradition.

Marcus Thames, right, with Cameron Maybin in 2007. Thames was one of the players who guided a young Maybin when he was with the Tigers.

That is why, not long after the Major League Baseball amateur draft in June, Granderson, the president of the nonprofit, was sitting at his computer at his Chicago home with a notepad and his cellphone.

He researched the list of 160 players selected in the five rounds and found that 15 of them were Black. Then he reached out to each one of them — via text message or direct message on social media — with an invitation.

“Thank you very much, Instagram,” Granderson, who retired earlier this year after 16 major league seasons, said in a phone interview.

After Granderson welcomed the draftees into the nonprofit — which was created this summer to build Black participation in the sport — he sent them each a Zoom link. As soon as the outfielder Baron Radcliff, the Philadelphia Phillies’ fifth-round pick out of Georgia Tech, joined the video call from the link, he was floored when he saw the faces of players he had idolized or watched on television — C.C. Sabathia, Andrew McCutchen, Delino DeShields Jr. and Torii Hunter.

“Whoa, this is crazy,” said Radcliff, 21.

Radcliff was one of nearly a dozen draftees who joined the hourlong chat. After an introduction, they broke into small groups, many of them paired with current and former players of the same organization or city. The New York Mets’ draftee Isaiah Greene talked to Dominic Smith, a current Mets first baseman and outfielder, and Sabathia, the longtime New York

Yankees pitcher who retired last year.

Ed Howard, the Cubs’ first-round pick from Mount Carmel High in Chicago, asked current and former major leaguers about what to expect in spring training and about their paths through the minor leagues. He was encouraged to connect with Cincinnati Reds pitcher Amir Garrett and prospect Hunter Greene, he said, because it meant that when he was in Arizona for spring training or instructional league, “I got people I can count on and talk about things.”

“There’s not a lot of Black players in the game,” added Howard, 19, “and just [having] a mentor helps me feel more comfortable on this new journey, going around different places to play, being around different people and things like that. They talked a lot about being myself and being a good example for people coming up behind me.”

Radcliff said he already had some idea of what to expect because his father, a former Royals minor leaguer in the 1990s, had passed along his experiences. (Back then, African American players made up as much as 19 percent of the major leagues.)

Still, Radcliff said, it was jarring to arrive at Phillies’ instructional camp last month and see only two other Black players, out of the nearly 60 present. On the Zoom call, he said, he tried to be a sponge.

“They talked about making sure you’re hustling,” said Radcliff, an Atlanta native, “because there are stereotypes of Black players in pro ball and they don’t want us to fall into that trap. It was all good advice.”

The young players were also all added to a large GroupMe message chain with all of the players in the nonprofit, from Yankees star Giancarlo Stanton to Sabathia.

Howard already had Granderson’s number (the two had crossed paths before in Chicago), and he said he has stayed in touch with Jason Heyward, a Black outfielder for the Cubs who reached out after Howard was drafted by the team, and Tim Anderson, a Black shortstop for the Chicago White Sox. Since the Zoom meeting, Radcliff said, he has talked frequently with two others from Georgia in the group: Edwin Jackson, who last pitched for the Tigers in 2019, and Dexter Fowler, a St. Louis Cardinals outfielder.

“It’s crazy having all these guys’ phone numbers in my phone,” Radcliff said, adding later, “I don’t want to be a bother — ‘Oh, hit me up.’ But every time I’ve hit somebody up, I always get a response and it’s always cool.”

Cameron Maybin, a 14-year veteran outfielder who played for the Cubs and Tigers this season, said the Zoom call was also “an incredible platform” for the draftees to share their own experiences with racism, as well as an opportunity to ask questions about entering professional baseball before even stepping foot on a major league field.

“I wish I would’ve had that going in and been able to reach out to C.C. Sabathia and some of these older guys and ask, ‘What am I in for? What is this going to be like?’” he said in a phone interview.

When Maybin first reached the major leagues with the Tigers at 20 in 2007, he said older players such as Gary Sheffield, Thames, Young and Granderson took him under their wings. They told him to “be seen, not heard” — a common piece of advice Black players give each other in professional baseball.

“They were teaching me from a young age how I needed to move,” said Maybin, now 33, who helped found the Players Alliance. “And I didn’t realize it until I got older. Then you’re like, ‘Damn, these dudes were really trying to help me make sure I didn’t stub my toe on the way.’”

The acts of kindness by one teammate in particular during Maybin’s rookie season have forever stuck with him. Granderson, who was 26 at the time, let Maybin sleep on his couch in Detroit for a week after his call-up, then took him out to eat in every new city they visited that season.

“This dude took me everywhere,” Maybin said. “Everywhere.”

Granderson took the mentorship tradition to heart throughout his career. He sent equipment to minor league, college or youth players who were in need and would bring teammates along to meals. He hosted an annual cookout, mostly for his Black teammates, at his cousin’s home in Florida during spring training.

“It was stuff that was happening all around us that you just didn’t say was mentoring,” he said. “It’s just what you did.”

28

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

The Big Ten’s rocky road back to football

By GILLIAN R. BRASSIL

T

he day before its first kickoff of 2020, the Big Ten Conference was still unveiling rules for a football season that had been postponed, revived, truncated and compromised in efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Last Thursday, the conference announced a “no contest” rule for games canceled if team personnel tested positive for the virus — which seemed inevitable because the schedule has no bye weeks and, thus, no wiggle room for last-minute changes. The intention is to play nine games in nine weeks to catch up to the three Power Five conferences that have already started.

But just over a month ago, no one thought the Big Ten — made up of 14 schools across the Midwest and Northeast — would be set to begin football Friday night, with the University of Illinois at the University of Wisconsin, even as the home team’s state ranked fourth in the country in per capita cases over the past seven days and first among the states with Big Ten programs.

“Having football while I can’t go to class — in a way, it’s nice that we’re having this one thing that’s unifying,” said Anne Isman, a sophomore at Wisconsin who is living in an apartment in Madison. “At the same time, the timing feels a little off.”

Fans and parties will be barred from all of the league’s stadiums, but the precautions have not fully reassured the mayors of certain Big Ten towns.

They know that what happens at the stadiums will be only one part of football’s return. Fear of groups breaking recommended social-distancing protocols led 12 mayors of areas surrounding 11 Big Ten schools to send a letter to the conference this week, citing concerns about what bringing football back means for college towns as fans congregate to watch games — the virus an omnipresent risk freely floating between face paint, beer bottles and potlucks.

“We know the history of football games within our cities,” the mayors wrote. “They generate a lot of activity, social gatherings and consumption of alcohol.”

The mayors, covering cities around all Big Ten schools except for Nebraska, Illinois and Rutgers, asked the conference to factor in case counts of surrounding communities when deciding whether to hold games.

Big Ten officials have not responded to the mayors or to requests for comment.

“Madison is a huge football town — you feel the environment change, even now, with game day approaching,” said Luke Carmosino, a junior at Wisconsin who recovered from COVID-19 in September while in Madison.

Pre-pandemic, the whole city essentially shut down for games, Isman said, as bars, restaurants and fraternities overflowed with fans from far and wide. Both stu-

Camp Randall Stadium at the University of Wisconsin hosted the Big Ten football opener on Friday. dents expect slips in public health safety compliance during game days.

So long as positive coronavirus tests remain low among players, team staff members and officials, the Big Ten intends to push forward, although accomplishing its intended nine games in nine weeks seems unlikely: Other college conferences have had to postpone games because of outbreaks within teams, as has the NFL. Already in the Big Ten, Purdue coach Jeff Brohm wasn’t on the field this weekend after testing positive for the virus, and some Minnesota players missed the opener because they had contracted the virus, coach P.J. Fleck said.

“This is how the whole year is going to be, and there are no excuses,” Fleck said ahead of Saturday’s game against Michigan. “We’ve got to be able to find a way.”

The Big Ten was one of the first marquee conferences to postpone college football, initially pushing the season to the spring of 2021, only to reverse its decision in September amid sparring motivations of athletic goals, political arm-twisting and coronavirus containment.

Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields started the #WeWantToPlay petition, which drew more than 300,000 signatures in support of a fall schedule. Parents from 11 of the Big Ten schools sent letters to the conference’s commissioner, Kevin Warren, saying that letting their sons play “presents the best environment” for them.

And President Donald Trump claimed credit for helping persuade the Big Ten to reverse its delay, prompting

former Vice President Joe Biden to blame the president for the postponement in the first place.

Conference officials and schools said the president’s opinion did not factor into their decision; rather, a dip in coronavirus cases, more widespread availability of testing and improved information on myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart linked to the virus, spawned the restart, they said.

“It feels like the Big Ten and NCAA catered to what the nation is feeling rather than what the students at institutions are feeling,” Carmosino said.

Some Big Ten colleges and their cities had to increase restrictions on students after bringing them back to campus, issuing punishments for crowded parties or moving classes online entirely. Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan, issued an emergency stay-athome order last Tuesday for the college, effective until Nov. 3. Athletics are exempt from these restrictions.

A month ago, Linda Vail, the health officer in Ingham County, which includes Michigan State University, would have recommended no football. But now that case counts in her county are trending downward, with a positive rate below 4 percent, she thinks that as long as fans continue following recommended guidelines, football’s return could have a calming effect.

“We’re all getting a bit fatigued with all the restrictions, but so long as you take precautions — even in the small gatherings — we can keep pushing case counts down,” she said. “We can have this semblance of normalcy.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

29

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

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

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

GAMES

HOROSCOPE Aries

30

(Mar 21-April 20)

Life is far from boring. You have so many things to think about and so much to do, your challenge is to fit it all in. Your capacity for success comes through your skill in balancing your private and public lives. You will find achievement through combining hard work with periods of quiet reflection.

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

You value the practical in life and this means you can quickly find ways to make good use of your resources and get a good deal from financial transactions. Just be sure to spend some time away from serious concerns and treat yourself to some well-earned rest and relaxation.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

A group activity has not been going as well as it could have done. Someone in charge has been getting too much of their own way but this hasn’t been for the good of others involved. It is becoming clear that the situation cannot continue. People admire your honesty and fairness. Don’t be surprised if you are promoted to a top position.

Scorpio

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Someone you are introduced to is worth getting to know. They will bring with them the chance for you to widen your social circle.

There will be some sadness as a friend pulls out of commitments you’ve worked on together for some time. This will leave a hole in your life that will soon be filled by new friendships.

Support and agreement from your family will help you put a long-held hope or aspiration into action. A generous relative will be particularly helpful in providing financial support.

Communication with others in your immediate circle will be interesting, informative and inspirational. Someone who has been feeling down shows renewed cheerfulness which will be a relief.

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Cancer

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

(June 22-July 23)

An eccentric friend will want to involve you in a new project. You admire their creative spirit even if sometimes their tastes might seem outlandish.

Your biggest dilemma will be in deciding what to do if you start on a joint venture and they grow bored and drop out. Is this something you are prepared to continue alone?

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

You long to hug and hold hands with younger relatives you haven’t seen for a while. It will come as a pleasant surprise to hear that family who live some distance away are planning to visit you. Let your true feelings show.

You want to thank your loved ones for having been so supportive during recent, challenging times.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

Taking control of your life will make you feel better about the future. You can’t keep ignoring your own needs. Accept the chance to undergo a rehabilitation programme or to start a fitness regime that supports your health. Someone who has been too busy to keep you company recently will want to make up for it now.

There is a lot happening in the family and this isn’t without a degree of confusion. You won’t feel content until you bring a degree of order within your own four walls. An important phone call will have some urgency about it; there will be something exciting connected with this too.

Even when dealing with obnoxious people you will be patient, calm and tactful. This will make life easier for others who aren’t so patient. It will also help sort out a misunderstanding between neighbours or close relatives.

You will be entrusted with someone’s secrets and they will be safe in your hands.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

A social event will not go as planned due to new safety measures having to be put in place. A postponement will be disappointing and you aren’t sure you want to continue with these arrangements. At least you will find the time you need to sort out a relationship that has veered slightly off course.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

Differences between you and a partner or close friend are causing tension. You’ve always been sensitive to atmosphere and this makes you feel uncomfortable and uncertain. If you want this relationship to continue, this would be a good time to extend an olive branch.

Find ways to put your differences aside for the sake of this relationship.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Monday, October 26, 2020

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

The San Juan Daily Star

Ziggy

32

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 26, 2020

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