Tuesday Oct 27, 2020

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

San Juan The

50¢

DAILY

Star

Signs of Recovery from Severe COVID-19 Lung Damage P23

About Time Judge Juan R. Torruella Passes Away.

His Legacy Lives On

P3

Vázquez Does Not Say if She Supports Pierluisi.

Write-In Campaign for Herself, Maybe?

P4

NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 18

Governor Issues Executive Order to Address Violence Against Women Declaration of State of Emergency on Gender Violence Left Out

P4

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

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October 27, 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.

Judge Torruella del Valle, Puerto Rican rights advocate, dead at 87

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.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Juan Rafael Torruella del Valle, the only Hispanic to serve in the Boston court and who also opposed the early 20th century Insular Cases that discriminated against Puerto Rico, died Monday at 87, the Boston court confirmed.

Torruella, who also was a staunch advocate of women’s reproductive rights, served as chief judge of the First Circuit Court of Appeals from 1994 to 2001. Before becoming an appellate judge, he served from 1974 to 1984 on the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. He was also a competitive sailor, competing for the Puerto Rican team at the Summer Olympic Games in 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976.

Torruella was vocal about his positions and did not hide behind the robe. In September 2013, he expressed support for bills that at the time were before the Legislature that would legalize certain uses of marijuana, contending it would help reduce crime. He also said alcohol and cigarettes were far more dangerous.

Torruella said at the time that after over 40 years on the bench, in which he had seen drug use grow, he came to realize that “the only realistic alternative” to America’s failed war on drugs is to experiment with legalization, “beginning with marijuana.”

During his productive and prestigious judicial career, Torruella published more than 2,000 opinions. He was consistently an advocate of Puerto Rican rights and dissented from a 2005 First Circuit decision that Puerto Rico residents are properly denied a voice in the election of the president of the United States because Puerto Rico is not a state. In August 2017, Torruella wrote a lengthy dissent when the en banc circuit rejected a lawsuit challenging Puerto Rico’s exclusion from congressional apportionment. Torruella wrote the book The Supreme Court and Puerto Rico: The Doctrine of Separate and Unequal, a study of the Supreme Court’s decisions in the Insular Cases, in which Torruella argues that “colonial rule and the indignities of second-class citizenship can be ended not, as in the case of the Philippines, by granting the colony its independence … but rather, by securing for Puerto Rico equality under American law” including Puerto Rican statehood. The book was favorably reviewed by Judge José A. Cabranes in the Harvard Law Review.

Torruella authored the First Circuit opinion in Planned Parenthood of Northern New England v. Heed (2004), in which the court upheld the district court’s decision declaring New Hampshire’s “parental notification” abortion law unconstitutional, and enjoining its enforcement. The decision held that the state law was inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution and relevant Supreme Court constitutional decisions on abortion.

In 2009, Torruella wrote the opinion in Noonan v. Staples Inc., allowing a suit for libel to proceed because even though the statements at issue were true they reflected “actual malice.”

Torruella’s decision did not decide the question of whether this exception was inconsistent with the Constitution’s First Amendment because the argument was raised too late in the proceedings.

In 2012, Torruella joined a unanimous First Circuit panel decision (written by Judge Michael Boudin) in Massachusetts v. United States Department of Health and Human Services.

The decision struck down section 3 of the Defense of Marriage

Act, which denied federal benefits to all same-sex couples, even those legally married under state law.

Torruella was born in San Juan on June 7, 1933 and, after studying in the United States and at the School of Public Administration of the University of Puerto Rico, he began his legal career in 1957 as a legal officer for Puerto Rico Supreme Court Associate Justice Pedro Pérez Pimentel.

His private practice continued until President Gerald Ford appointed him as a district judge in Puerto Rico in 1974 to begin a robust life on the bench that included being the presiding judge of the U.S. Court in Puerto Rico from 1982 to 1984.

During his tenure, the U.S. Court for the District of Puerto Rico grew from one court with three judges to one with seven judges. The court’s physical presence also expanded from Old San Juan to Hato Rey and Ponce.

Condolences started to pour in following news of Torruella’s passing. Supreme Court Chief Justice Maite Oronoz Rodríguez said Torruella “was a great friend to me and my family.”

“During almost 40 years in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, he was a forceful, strong and courageous voice in favor of Puerto Rico and the constitutional rights that protect all Puerto Ricans,” she said. “His career was characterized by his unrestricted dedication to the cause of justice and his deep concern for equality and fairness.”

“Puerto Rico loses a judge with a vast legal culture, proven neatness, and unwavering industry and courage,” Oronoz Rodríguez said. “To Judy and her four children, our embrace of solidarity and the most heartfelt expression of grief on the part of all of us in the Puerto Rico Judicial Branch.”

Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez (D-N.Y.) said Puerto Rico has lost a giant of its legal system, a trailblazer, a native son of San Juan, and a fierce defender of Puerto Rico.

“Judge Torruella has made Puerto Ricans living on the island and on the mainland proud through a distinguished career as the first Puerto Rican judge to serve in the U.S. First Circuit,” she said. “While I am optimistic that Judge Torruella’s irreplaceable legacy will endure for many more decades, his passing comes during an especially difficult time for our country.

His successor has very big shoes to fill and must be carefully and deliberately chosen. On this very sad day, I join so many others in sending my deepest sympathies to Judge Torruella’s family, colleagues, and all who knew him.”

Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced also lamented the judge’s passing.

“It is with great sorrow that we learned of Juan R. Torruella’s passing, a giant in the legal world and a defender of equal rights for Puerto Ricans,” she said. “Our condolences to the family on behalf of our people.”

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Tuesday, October 27, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Governor issues executive order to ‘prioritize attention to violence against women’ Does not declare state of emergency

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

T

hirteen months after a national alert status was declared to respond to the deaths of women due to gender violence in Puerto Rico, Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced issued Executive Order 2020-078 on Monday to draw attention to cases of violence against women as “priority services” and ordered the development of prevention and education campaigns on access to services for women that will be broadcast as news bulletins through government outlets.

Vázquez said the order is based on the recognition of every right issued in the Puerto Rico Constitution, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the public policy of the island government. The governor also said that the order includes an “Action Protocol to Fight Violence Against Women in Puerto Rico” that will focus on four issues to ensure women’s rights: prevention, effective attention, adequate management, and accountability. The order imposes obligations to that effect on the commonwealth Family, Justice and Education departments.

“This order is not only focused on addressing violence against women in Puerto Rico as a matter of priority, but it also establishes clearly the government’s responsibilities in the execution of the ministerial duty of defense and protection of those most vulnerable,” Vázquez said.

As for the order not declaring a state of emergency on gender violence, the governor said “words don’t make the difference.”

“When we analyzed all the groups, all the organizations

were represented. And, for me, the most important thing that has been part of my government since August 7, 2019, is consensus,” she said. “For me, it was more important, after listening to all the organizations and reaching a consensus, what is a priority for the government of Puerto Rico? The priority is the fight against violence against women. That is why the order is [called] ‘Priority Services in the fight against violence against women.’”

The action protocol will detail strategies and implementation objectives that will be managed by a Multisectoral Commission Against Violence Against Women (COMUVI by its Spanish initials) which will be led by the Justice secretary, with the women’s advocate serving as its vice president. Moreover, COMUVI will include a non-governmental organization representative along with main officials in public safety, physical and mental health, and family and education. It will also include the Statistics Institute, representatives from both the Mayors Federation and the Mayors Association, a media outlet representative and a law enforcement official, according to the aforementioned order.

“The State is responsible for respecting women’s rights and for contributing to eliminating violence against this population; in addition, the violent deaths of women are concerning, and even more concerning are those who end up murdered due to their gender and they are not considered or investigated as such,” the governor said. “Deaths due to gender violence are the most extreme form of violence against women.”

The order mandates that the Justice Department, in collaboration with the Puerto Rico Police Bureau, create an “investigation protocol in cases of violent deaths of women based on gender” to implement Law 83-2020, which creates the Crimes Against Women and Domestic Violence Unit.

Moreover, the order will obligate government agencies to include budget items with federal funds allocated for gender violence victims starting in July 2021 so each agency delivers favorable public policies for addressing the issue. According to OE 2020-078, agencies will have 90 days after receiving the federal notification of the funding award to file a request for proposals and 90 more days for the analysis and granting of funds to the entities.

“At the end of the road, we can look in the face of COMUVI [and] the rulers and tell them: ‘The government of Puerto Rico’s budget includes $10 million, among all budgets, for the fight against violence,’” Vázquez said. “That is a big difference. Now, the Women’s Advocate Office, how much does it have? A $2 or $3 million budget? That’s not fair; you have to [speak] the word, but the action is the most important.”

Meanwhile, the governor said she will summon the Legislative Assembly for a seventh Special Session after the general elections. She said she will submit administrative bills to tackle human trafficking and to further criminalize femicide in Puerto Rico.

Vázquez has yet to endorse Pierluisi as governor; says she ‘can’t interfere with’ rally to make her a write-in candidate

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

W

ith just a week away before the 2020 general elections, Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced did not respond clearly on Monday as to whether she was going to endorse New Progressive Party (NPP) gubernatorial candidate Pedro Pierluisi.

Vázquez said her political campaign finished back on Aug.16, the day that the second part of the primary elections took place, and that she remains focused on her role as governor. She said “the candidates have done an extraordinary job.”

“Going forward, I will continue in my government function.

I’m pro-statehood, I will vote for statehood and for my party,” Vázquez said. “Those are my statements and I stand by them.

Once again, I have held onto these statements; I will vote for the NPP and for statehood.”

When a member of the press asked about a political rally that called for a “Vázquez for governor” write-in campaign, she said “it was an expression of the constitutional right that people have [to freedom of speech], [and] I cannot interfere with that,” even though the current Executive Order 2020-077, which remains in effect until Nov. 13, states that “all mass

activities are unauthorized, both in open and closed spaces, including parades, convoys and similar activities that tend toward crowding.”

“I cannot prevent the demonstrations of the Puerto Rican people, nor can we prevent reactions to different situations that occur in our town,” the governor said. “Just as we see demonstrations by the workers, by the teachers, by the nurses who go in front of La Fortaleza and express their position in NPP gubernatorial candidate Pedro Pierluisi favor of or against the situations that are occurring.”

Responds to Health secretary’s estimates on COVID- Rico, something that I consider has been extraordinary,” she 19-related deaths by end of year said. “We have had the [Puerto Rico Public Health] Trust and Meanwhile, when another member of the press asked about different groups of physicians that have helped make such her plan to continue addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in determinations, and I, as governor, will always make every Puerto Rico after Health Secretary Lorenzo González Feliciano decision taking mainly the medical aspect into consideration told local media outlets that the death toll due to the corona- to protect the lives and health of all Puerto Ricans. If there’s an virus on the island could reach 1,000 by the end of the year, impact on the economic sector, the lives and health of Puerto Vázquez said she keeps contact with González Feliciano “day Ricans go above everything else.” by day” in terms of the virus’ presence on the island and that Meanwhile, she congratulated “the vast majority of Puerto every citizen is responsible for continuing to enforce safety Ricans” for following not only her instructions, but also the rules, such as using face coverings, to prevent further infections. guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “We have to keep enforcing the message of using face to protect themselves from the virus. coverings, frequent hand washing, and physical distancing; “We have to keep doing so as long as we don’t have a vacin that sense, we have made every decision with the recom- cine,” she said. “We have to protect ourselves both individually mendations of physicians, of every scientific sector in Puerto and among others.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

5

Truckers visit gubernatorial candidates, deliver proposals for workers’ rights

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

T

he executive committee of the Frente Amplio de Camioneros -- Truck Drivers Coalition -- and its affiliates mobilized on Monday and visited the headquarters of the candidates for governor of Puerto Rico to present 30 measures that they say would help correct the “serious injustice carried out by past administrations in the area of labor that hurt working people on a private and public level in all sectors of the economy.”

The mobilization, which included dozens of trucks, left Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Hato Rey for the Capitol in Puerta de Tierra. Along the way, proposals were delivered to the candidates for governor. According to a press release, the proposals were delivered into the hands of candidates Juan Dalmau, Alexandra Lúgaro and Eliezer Molina. Meanwhile, Pedro Pierluisi, Carlos Delgado and César Vázquez sent their representatives to receive them.

The coalition’s proposals for the candidates are as follows: 1. Repeal Law No. 4-2007, known as the “LaborTransformation and Flexibility Law,” approved on Jan. 26, 2017 with the purpose of restoring the rights of workers acquired prior to this law.

2. Eliminate Law No. 109-1962, as amended, in order to replace it with Public and Private Transportation Regulatory Board in the economic and industrial sector, establishing a self-financed, balanced and tri-sectoral system at no cost to the general budget of the Puerto Rico government and keep thousands of jobs in all sectors of public transportation.

3. Amend Subsection (J) and (K) of Law 253 of December 1995, as amended, known as the “Compulsory Liability Insurance Law for Motor Vehicles” to include commercial vehicles authorized by the Bureau of Transportation and Other Public Services (NTSP) for the transportation of passengers, general cargo and aggregate cargo, as well as tow trucks, operating on the island’s

public roads for payment, in order to establish maximum coverage for damage to property and people.

4. Immediately cancel the government’s disastrous contract with LUMA Energy. Stop all attempts to privatize Channel 6, the university system of the UPR and its assets. “ZERO PRIVATIZATION,” said the press release.

5. Establish by law fixed, fair and reasonable rates in passenger transportation service through payment with any mobile application, web page, computer program or other system used by transport network companies (ERTs by the Spanish initials), which will guarantee more than 20,000 jobs.

6. Adopt the measures presented to resolve the situation of the increase in tolls for carriers that travel on PR-22.

7. Re-establish an effective communication system between the Puerto Rico Police Highways Division and tow trucks to deal with accidents on island roads. Communication channels have been blocked and thousands of parents seeking their livelihood have been deprived of employment by people who have access to police accident information and who are not authorized concessionaires.

8. Amend Law No. 17 (Workplace Sexual Harassment) of April 22, 1988 to include criminal penalties for violators.

9. Amend Law No. 45 (Workers’ Compensation) of April 18, 1936, as amended to extend from one to three years the term of reserving employment for the injured worker.

10. Amend Law No. 180 (Minimum Wage, Vacation and Sick Leave) of July 27, 1998, as amended so that the prescriptive term for claims is 10 years.

11. Establish a law to fix the profit margin in the price of diesel fuel.

12. Establish a law to award an annual compensation of 50 percent to the Puerto Rico Police of all funds seized due to intervention in drug trafficking.

13. Establish a law to award an annual bonus of 50 percent for lottery agents of winning tickets that are not collected.

14. Establish a law for pharmaceutical companies that produce drugs in Puerto Rico to guarantee retirees, pensioners and people over 65 years of age a credit of 30 percent toward the purchase of all drugs prescribed by a health professional.

15. Establish a law to make Social Security compulsory in the Puerto Rico Police Bureau.

16. Establish a law to create a charitable fund with the Health Reform funds granted by the federal government to Puerto Rico to cover the expenses of medicines for pensioners and retirees by age who have limited economic resources.

17. Establish a law to guarantee that single working mothers who are heads of households and whose salary is not enough to meet their needs are granted in their food stamps payment an extra 40 percent of the monthly average of spending on food for their household.

18. Establish by law a life, death and disability insurance policy for all workers paid by companies with more than 15 employees.

19. Establish by law a government fund of $5 million to cover catastrophic illnesses for people with limited resources.

20. Establish a law to encourage the creation of jobs under a system of self-management or co-administration through workers’ corporations, workers’ cooperatives or owner-worker partnership companies.

21. Establish a law so that every new company that receives funds from the government or that does business with the government guarantees no less than 20 percent of jobs to young people between 18 and 30 years of age and to adults aged 62 years and older.

22. Establish by law labor affairs offices to attend to the island’s labor problems.

23. Establish by law that labor-employer arbitration is autonomous and outside the jurisdiction of the Department of Labor and Human Resources.

24. Establish a law to create a chamber of labor affairs in the island justice system.

25. Achieve the codification of labor laws.

26. Amend the Autonomous Municipalities Law to recognize the Municipal Workers Union.

27. Amend the Autonomous Municipalities Law to replace informal hearings with formal hearings in disciplinary action cases.

28. Establish by law a minimum wage of $12 per hour for all public and private sector workers on the island.

29. Establish by law in the private and public sector a minimum contribution of $400 by private employers, and the central and municipal governments, toward payment for an employee medical plan.

30. Create a workers bank.

31. Establish a law so that each transportation sector under NTSP jurisdiction must have public license plates in order to legally provide authorized transportation service, as a means of paying for the upkeep of the island’s public roads.

32. Establish by law that a section on Puerto Rican trade unionism be included in courses on history of Puerto Rico offered in the island’s public education system.

33. Restore by law the retirement system for public employees in a fair and reasonable manner for all workers who were drastically affected by the actions of past administrations.

“Fulfilling our commitment to the workers of our homeland, today we go publicly before you to ask you to take into consideration our proposals that have been the product of the historical work of thousands of workers who hope not to be disappointed once again,” the coalition said.

“We will be vigilant and aggressive in defense of our rights, making our way as we go.”

Oversight board asks for more time to file commonwealth’s revised debt restructuring plan

By THE STAR STAFF

T

he Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico is seeking from U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain additional time to file a revised restructuring plan for the commonwealth’s debt citing the global pandemic and the general election.

It is the seventh time the oversight board has sought a delay in the approval by the court of a revised debt deal since March, when the island government declared a lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The board’s status report was filed Sunday.

The petition means the restructuring of the commonwealth debt and Puerto Rico’s possible bankruptcy exit have been pushed back to 2021. The oversight board asked Swain that

it be permitted to provide the court with an updated status report on the board’s position on the matter on or before Dec. 4, prior to the scheduled Dec. 9 omnibus hearing.

It comes after the designation of board member David Skeel as the new oversight board president, and President Trump’s appointment to the board of Justin Peterson, who said he is eager to get the island out of bankruptcy.

The status report notes that the oversight board and the government have continued to collaborate and to take steps to deal with the COVID-19 emergency, while also slowly reopening critical governmental functions and businesses as appropriate.

The oversight board said it needs additional time to negotiate a revised plan of adjustment to take into account the impact of COVID-19,

adding that it is still hurricane season in the U.S. territory until next month. Puerto Rico will also elect a new governor next month when voters choose among six candidates.

“During the intervening period, much focus has been placed on the gubernatorial election process, with candidates stating their respective visions for the best path forward for the Commonwealth and the restructuring of the Commonwealth’s indebtedness,” the oversight board wrote. “At the same time, the Oversight Board is working with Governor Wanda Vázquez [Garced] to address such restructuring and the needs of the commonwealth to reach and gain access to the capital markets.”

After filing a proposed plan support agreement in February to restructure the debt, the oversight board had to return to the negotiating

table to reach a new deal to address the effects of the pandemic. In August, the board unveiled a draft of a new debt deal.

“Notwithstanding such disclosure and what some unrelated parties have asserted are differences unable to be overcome, the Oversight Board and its advisors continue to engage in active dialogue with individual creditors and their respective advisors, both those party to the Plan Support Agreement as well as other notable parties in interest,” the oversight board said.

While some creditors have asked the court to impose deadlines on the approval of a debt deal, the oversight board says it is premature.

The board also reported that it may have to draft a new fiscal plan, even though it has already certified one, because its assumptions continue to be tested by the pandemic.

6

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Health Dept. publishes guide for elder care facilities

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

T

he island Health Department on Monday published the Guide for Elder Care Establishments, whose main objective is to safeguard the safety and well being of the elderly, providing tools to caregivers who offer services at long-term care facilities in Puerto Rico.

“Given the emergency situation we are experiencing today due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the health and safety of all older adults have become our priority, as they are the most vulnerable group,” said Idania Rodríguez, an epidemiologist and director of the initiative for screening the elderly, in a written statement. “With this publication we intend to continue our responsibility to guide all people who directly or indirectly relate to senior citizens, especially in long-term care facilities. It is a complete and extremely useful guide.”

Rodríguez added that all information detailed in the publication is consistent with the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The publication, which covers everything related to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, includes the definition of the disease; how it spreads, as well as measures to slow the spread;

priority groups for testing; the importance of the effective use of personal protective equipment, including the correct way to remove the equipment; the various COVID zones in elder care facilities; and how to handle recovered patients, among other important topics.

Rodríguez noted that the questions raised by the people who work in the island’s senior care facilities were considered as part of the document’s development. Thus the guide is aimed primarily

at caregivers, nursing staff, administrative staff and anyone who works on or visits the premises of any type of care facility for the elderly.

Various commonwealth government agencies participated in the writing and preparation of the guide, such as the Health, Family and Justice departments and the Bureau for Emergency Management and Disaster Administration. Also participating were the Federal Emergency Management Agency and private entities,

among other contributors. The document will be updated as new indications are published by the relevant authorities.

According to data released by the CDC, the risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms increases with age, and people 85 and older are at higher risk, especially if they have pre-existing conditions.

The Guide for Elder Care Establishments is available through the Health Department’s website by accessing the following address: www.salud.gov.pr.

Vargas Vidot: Homelessness on the rise in PR, along with risks of living on the street

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

I

ndependent Sen. José Vargas Vidot said Monday that the number of homeless people in Puerto Rico has increased.

“It has increased. In fact their profile has changed. We see more young people on the streets. People with more deterioration of their health,” Vargas Vidot told journalist Julio Rivera Saniel on “Pegaos en la Mañana” on Radio Isla 1320 AM. “We see more women, who in the past were only 17 percent of the people on the streets. Today we are seeing many more people.”

“When I make my rounds [to distribute food], because I continue to do my route on Fridays, sometimes it [the food] does not last beyond five or six blocks,” he added.

“Although the food that I carry is supposed to last all night, at 3 in the morning I’m already coming back.”

Vargas Vidot said meanwhile that life on the street is becoming more dangerous for the growing number of homeless.

“In addition to the violence that is taking place [against the homeless], we see one or two missing persons weekly,” the community activist and first-term senator said. “People have openly shot them.”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

7

The two Americas financing the Trump and Biden campaigns

By SHANE GOLMACHER, ELLA KOEZE and RACHEL SHOREY

J

oe Biden has outraised President Donald Trump on the strength of some of the wealthiest and most educated ZIP codes in the United States, running up the fundraising score in cities and suburbs so resoundingly that he collected more money than Trump on all but two days in the last two months, according to a New York Times analysis of $1.8 billion donated by 7.6 million people since April.

The data reveals, for the first time, not only when Biden decisively overtook Trump in the money race — it happened the day Sen. Kamala Harris joined the ticket — but also what corners of the country, geographically and demographically, powered his remarkable surge.

The findings paint a portrait of two candidates who are, in many ways, financing their campaigns from two different Americas.

It is not just that much of Biden’s strongest support comes overwhelmingly from the two coasts, which it does. Or that Trump’s financial base is in Texas, which it is. It is that across the country, down to the ZIP code level, some of the same cleavages that are driving the 2020 election — along class and education lines — are also fundamentally reshaping how the two parties pay for their campaigns.

For years, affluent and college-educated voters, mostly white, had been the base of the Republican Party.

Exit polls showed Republicans winning college graduates nationally from 1988 to 2004, and again in 2012.

Voters who earned at least $100,000 have historically sided with most Republican presidential candidates by comfortable margins, too.

But under Trump, Republicans have hemorrhaged support from white voters with college degrees, who polls show have been repelled by his embrace of a politics of cultural division and racial grievance.

The fundraising data suggests that erosion is not only harming the party’s electoral prospects but also its economic bottom line.

Trump lost the money race in 2016, too, but he mobilized a base of white working-class voters then that offset his losses among college-educated voters. Now he is trying to leverage the powers of incumbency to do that to an even greater degree. But win or lose, Trump has accelerated a political realignment.

In ZIP codes with a median household income of at least $100,000, Biden smashed Trump in fundraising, $486 million to only $167 million — accounting for almost his entire financial edge. In the rest of the country, the two were knotted closely together.

It was a similar story in the most educated pockets of the country, only even more pronounced.

Of the ZIP codes where at least 65% of people had graduated from college — just over 1,000 out of nearly 32,000 populated ZIP codes that reported donations —

With Story: BC-CAMPAIGN-FUNDRAISING-NYT Joe Biden has outraised President Donald Trump on the strength of some of the wealthiest and most educated ZIP codes in the United States, according to a New York Times analysis of $1.8 billion donated by 7.6 million people since April.

Biden outraised Trump $478 million to $104 million.

Below that education level, Trump was ahead by nearly $40 million.

“Alienating white college-educated voters means more than just losing their votes; it’s also literally costing them money,” said Amy Walter, the national editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “These are the kinds of places that, not that long ago, hosted high-dollar fundraisers exclusively for GOP candidates. Now, those donors are sitting in their living rooms, tapping out donations to Democrats around the country via their smartphones.”

The analysis looked at more than 25 million donations from April 1 to Oct. 14, merging Federal Election Commission filings from the campaigns of Trump and Biden, their joint operations with the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee, and data from the donation-processing sites WinRed and ActBlue.

The analysis does not include direct donations to the parties themselves, but it covers more than 90% of contributions to Trump, Biden and the committees directly linked to them, from $1 gifts to checks of more than $700,000. The average donation to those committees was $71 for Trump and $76 for Biden.

Overall, Biden raised $1.07 billion and Trump $734 million over the last six months in the 32,000 populated ZIP codes, the analysis shows.

The period analyzed is not a perfect snapshot. Trump was seeking money from donors, including in wealthy enclaves, in the months before Biden first emerged as the presumptive Democratic nominee. But during the six months in which the choice was between these two men, the disparity was yawning.

Shift of educated voters Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster who studies demographic trends, said “the donations mirror voting patterns,” as white voters with college degrees have swung sharply toward the Democrats in the last decade, with the trend expected to accelerate further in 2020 with

Trump on the ticket.

“It makes perfect sense,” Ayres said of the donation data. “Basically, Republicans have traded larger, more upscale, fast-growing suburban counties for smaller, down-scale, slower-growing rural counties. That’s not a promising trend for future victories.”

In Georgia, the data shows that many of the suburban ZIP codes surrounding Atlanta, which are helping turn the state into a true presidential battleground for the first time in decades, are solidly Democratic when it comes to the number of donors, all the way deep into Gwinnett County, a swing county trending Democratic.

In Pennsylvania, the vote-rich suburbs outside Philadelphia are overwhelmingly blue, with virtually every ZIP code counting more Biden donors than Trump ones, including in Bucks County, where Biden campaigned on Saturday and where Hillary Clinton won by less than 1 percentage point four years ago.

And in Virginia, the demographic march of the suburbs and exurbs outside Washington, D.C., that have turned the state reliably Democratic is apparent in the Biden-leaning ZIP codes for donors that stretch nearly to the West Virginia border.

These political and fundraising trends underscore the jeopardy that Trump has created for himself and his party: Rather than enjoying the usual advantages of incumbency, the president is struggling to stanch the bleeding for the GOP in the suburbs. His conduct, rhetoric and record are imperiling some traditionally red Senate and House seats because of the realignment of college-educated voters toward moderate Democrats emphasizing issues like health care and economic growth.

“These voters with lots of disposable income and deep antipathy to Trump can channel their frustration into Biden’s campaign coffers,” said Walter of the Cook Political Report.

The median household in the United States was $68,703 in 2019. In ZIP codes above that level, Biden outraised Trump by $389.1 million. Below that level, Trump was actually ahead by $53.4 million.

A pivotal turning point For months, after Biden had emerged as the presumptive Democratic nominee, he and Trump competed closely for donations, despite the president’s three-year head start. But that all changed on Aug. 11, when Biden named Harris as his running mate.

That day, Biden raised five times as much as Trump and nearly repeated that margin the day after. In the 65 days from the formation of the Biden-Harris team until Oct. 14, that Democratic team outraised Trump on 63 of them, according to the data.

The only two exceptions were the night of Trump’s convention speech, when Republican giving surged, and the day after his hospitalization with the coronavirus, when Democratic giving waned.

In those 65 days, Biden built a financial advantage of more than $300 million.

8

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Questions and answers about the Bidens and a deal in China

By ERIC LIPTON, KENNETH P. VOGEL and MAGGIE HABERMAN

I

n the closing days of the campaign, President Donald Trump and his allies are engaged in a last-ditch effort to raise questions about the ethics of former Vice President Joe Biden by trying to link Biden to the international business dealings of Biden’s son, Hunter, and one of his brothers, James.

Their efforts have drawn on a number of sources, including emails, photographs of encrypted text messages and other documents provided by Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter and James Biden. Many of those records focus on a proposed joint venture in 2017, after Biden left office, with a Chinese Tony Bobulinski, who produced records of negotiations for a joint venture inpartner. The deal ultimately fell apart.

Here are some questions and answers volving a Chinese company with relatives of Democratic presidential nominee about the situation.

Joe Biden, in Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 22, 2020.

Was Joe Biden involved in this deal?

There is no evidence in the records that Andrew Bates, a Biden campaign spokes- of his family. “He never had any conversations the elder Biden was involved in or profited from man, said the former vice president never had about these issues at all,” Bates said. the joint venture. any stake in the project. “Joe Biden has never One email sent on May 13, 2017, by anEncrypted messages, emails and other even considered being involved in business other member of the venture discusses how the documents examined by The New York Times with his family, nor in any overseas business various partners in the deal could theoretically do not show Hunter Biden or James Biden dis- whatsoever,” he said. split up the equity and makes reference to whether cussing any role for the former vice president in At the second presidential debate on Thurs- “the big guy” might get 10%. The document does the project. day, Biden said, “I have not taken a penny from not specify who this person is, saying only “10 Joe Biden’s tax returns, which he has re- any foreign source ever in my life.” held by H for the big guy ?” leased, show no income from any such venture.

The messages produced by Bobulinski Bobulinski has said the reference was There is nothing illegal about doing business appear to reflect a meeting between him, the clearly to the former vice president. in China or with Chinese partners; Trump long former vice president and James Biden in May Bates said Biden “has never held stock pursued deals in China, had a partnership with 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. The messages in any such business arrangements nor has any a government-controlled enterprise and main- do not make clear what was discussed. family member or any other person ever held tained a corporate bank account there.

Bates did not answer questions about stock for him.”

The Biden campaign has rejected all asser- Bobulinski’s claim that he met with the former What were Hunter and James Biden doing? tions that the former vice president had any role vice president. But Bates said the Chinese deal Records produced by Bobulinski show that in the negotiations over the deal or any stake in it. never was discussed by Biden with members in 2017, Hunter Biden and James Biden were involved in negotiations about a joint venture with a Chinese energy and finance company called CEFC China Energy.

The Bobulinski records include emails, contracts, business plan documents and photographs of encrypted messages among the American partners. The Times could not independently authenticate all of the records, but the records referred to in this article are consistent with interviews and previous reporting by The Times.

The Biden campaign did not dispute that Hunter and James Biden participated in negotiating the deal with the Chinese company.

The records make clear that Hunter Biden saw the family name as a valuable asset, angrily citing his “family’s brand” as a reason he is valuable to the proposed venture.

The documents also show that the countries that Hunter Biden, James Biden and their associates planned to target for deals overlapped with nations where Joe Biden had previously

been involved as vice president. One 42-page plan includes a section specifically highlighting former Vice President Biden’s role in facilitating increased commerce with Colombia, which is one of the targets of the joint venture, along with Luxembourg, Oman and Romania.

Hunter Biden’s role in the deal, according to one of the documents, “was key in relationship set up, messaging the good will around the chairman,” referring toYe Jianming, the chairman of CEFC. The Times reported in 2018 that Ye met privately with Hunter Biden at a hotel in Miami in May 2017, where the Chinese executive proposed a partnership to invest in American infrastructure and energy deals. Planning for the Miami meeting appears to be reflected in some of the messages released by Bobulinski.

The documents indicate that CEFC China initially said it would send $10 million in early 2017 to the joint venture.

CEFC focused on trading oil futures and securing the rights to overseas oil fields in strifetorn places like Chad, South Sudan and Iraq. It was looking to expand its global ventures, both as an energy company and a financial backer of projects, and it turned to Hunter and James Biden and their associates, including Bobulinski, to help find new deals.

One early version of the business plan indicated that Hunter and James Biden and their American associates “have forged alliances with the highest levels of government, banking and enterprise.”

What happened to the deal?

By August 2017, there were signs of trouble with the deal. Bobulinski wrote to CEFC noting that the promised $10 million payment had not been deposited in the American partners’ bank account.

There is conflicting information about whether any of this money was ever delivered by the Chinese partner. An election-year investigation into corruption allegations against the Bidens by two Senate committees, which found no evidence of improper influence or wrongdoing by the former vice president, suggested that some money from CEFC might have come through, prompting Bobulinski to ask James Biden whether that was the case in a recent message.

Documents from August 2018 suggest that at least parts of the business venture were shut down or that there were plans to shut it down, with one draft document referring to a “complete liquidation and dissolution” of the venture’s main investment vehicle.

CEFC, one of the largest privately held companies in China, was declared bankrupt in March of this year after it was named in a criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

9

Fights erupt during ‘Jews for Trump’ rally in Manhattan

By ASHLEY SOUTHALL and DANA RUBINSTEIN

P

olitical tensions over the upcoming presidential election escalated on New York City’s streets Sunday, as supporters of President Donald Trump clashed with counterprotesters during a day of demonstrations.

Seven people were arrested during skirmishes between opposing sides in Manhattan, where Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer and the city’s former mayor, encountered protesters targeting a caravan of cars organized by a group that identifies itself as Jews for Trump.

In one video, Giuliani could be seen in the passenger side of a vehicle with the window rolled down as anti-Trump protesters screamed at him.

In an interview, Giuliani said that he had encountered the caravan and the protesters while driving down Fifth Avenue after taping his radio show.

“I would love to have had a campaign commercial of it and put it on in the middle of America and say, ‘Who would you prefer for the next four years?” he said. “This group of foul-mouthed people who don’t seem to have a vocabulary beyond three words, or these very nice Jewish people who are driving in the car and not saying anything back and not doing anything other than exercising their right to say they’re for Donald Trump.”

According to the police, the pro-Trump caravan passed through Times Square, where it converged with a group of anti-Trump protesters who had marched from Brooklyn.

The cars in the convoy were then blocked by counterprotesters, and some drivers got out of their cars to confront the anti-Trump demonstrators.

The two sides hurled political slurs — calling each other “fascists” and “anar-

chists”— traded blows, and fought over the Trump supporters’ flags before police broke them apart, according to videos posted online.

In some videos, a group of people can be seen yelling expletives and throwing eggs and other projectiles at passing cars flying pro-Trump flags in midtown, while in another, a group of people holding pro-Trump banners march on one side of the street as people across the street yell, “New York hates you.”

The clashes came as the Police Department was preparing for more possible unrest as Election Day approached, including days or weeks of protests in the aftermath of the vote. Hundreds of police officers have been assigned to polling stations for both early voting and Election Day, with thousands more on standby for protests.

Top police officials have stressed the need for officers to remain neutral, despite their unions’ open embrace of Trump. But officials said an officer crossed the line late Saturday, when he used a police loudspeaker to voice support for the president while arguing with a man on the street in Flatbush, Brooklyn, who called him a “fascist.”

“Trump 2020,” the officer responded.

“Put it on YouTube. Put it on Facebook.

Trump 2020.”

The officer, whose name the police withheld, was suspended without pay Sunday after videos of the incident went viral on social media. Department policy prohibits officers from engaging in political activity on duty or in uniform, including endorsing a candidate or party.

“One hundred percent unacceptable.

Period,” Commissioner Dermot F. Shea commented on one of the videos of the suspended officer on Twitter. “Law Enforcement must remain apolitical, it is essential in our role to serve ALL New Yorkers regardless of any political beliefs. It is essential for New

Fights broke out in New York’s Times Square on Sunday between demonstrators for and against President Trump. Officials said seven people were arrested.

Yorkers to trust their Police.”

The Police Benevolent Association, the officer’s labor union, declined to comment.

It is unclear whether two other officers who were with the suspended officer will face discipline.

His suspension is the beginning of a disciplinary process that can take months or even years to play out. But Mayor Bill de Blasio promised quick action.

“ANY NYPD Officer pushing ANY political agenda while on duty will face consequences,” he wrote on Twitter. “We will act fast here, and this will not be tolerated.”

State Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, expressed concern over the incident, noting that police officers transport ballots from poll sites to the Board of Elections.

“There must be swift consequences and protections against election interference,” he said.

Despite the directives from the top, the city’s biggest police unions have heartily embraced Trump, whose law and order

message resonates with those who feel Democrats have made the city too soft on crime. Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, endorsed the president in a speech before the Republican National Convention. Ed Mullins, the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, has appeared at the White House and regularly praises Trump in his official messages to officers.

The demonstrators detained in Times Square on Sunday afternoon, five men and two women, were expected to be charged with disorderly conduct, police said. Investigators were also looking for at least two people seen throwing projectiles at a proTrump caravan as it traveled on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.

The caravan, organized by Orthodox Jewish leaders, consisted of dozens of cars and trucks whose participants rode from Brooklyn to Manhattan’s Upper East Side on Sunday. Drivers honked their horns and passengers waved American flags.

10

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Colleges slash budgets in the pandemic, with ‘nothing off-limits’ the state’s working-class coal towns, the 14 campuses in Pennsylvania’s system have lost roughly a fifth of their enrollment over the hio Wesleyan University is elimipast decade. The proposal, long underway nating 18 majors. The University of but made more urgent by pandemic losses, Florida’s trustees this month took would merge Clarion, California, and Edinthe first steps toward letting the school furboro universities into one unit and Bloomlough faculty. The University of California, sburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield univerBerkeley, has paused admissions to its docsities into another to serve a region whose toral programs in anthropology, sociology demographics have changed. and art history.

Such pressures have reached critical As it resurges across the country, the mass throughout the country in the months coronavirus is forcing universities large and since the pandemic hit. State governments small to make deep and possibly lasting cuts from Washington to Connecticut, tightening to close widening budget shortfalls. By one their own belts, have told public universiestimate, the pandemic has cost colleges at ties to expect steep cuts in appropriations. least $120 billion, with even Harvard UniverStudents and families, facing skyrocketing sity, despite its $41.9 billion endowment, reunemployment, have balked at the prospect porting a $10 million deficit that has prompof paying full fare for largely online instructed belt tightening. tion, opting instead for gap years or less exThough many colleges imposed stopensive schools closer to home. pgap measures such as hiring freezes and Costs have also soared as colleges have early retirements to save money in the spent millions on testing, tracing and quaspring, the persistence of the economic rantining students, only to face outbreaks. downturn is taking a devastating financial A New York Times database has confirmed toll, pushing many to lay off or furlough emmore than 214,000 cases this year at colleployees, delay graduate admissions and even ge campuses, with at least 75 deaths, mostly cut or consolidate core programs like liberal among adults last spring, but also including arts departments.

The University of South Florida annousome students more recently. nced last week that its college of education Freshman enrollment is down more than 16% from last year, the National Stuwould become a graduate school only, phadent Clearinghouse Research Center has reported — part of a 4% overall drop in undergraduate enrollment that is taking tuition revenue down with it.

In a letter to Congress this week, the American Council on Education and other higher education organizations estimated that the virus would cost institutions more than $120 billion in increased student aid, lost housing fees, forgone sports revenue, public health measures, learning technology and other adjustments.

And because donations to all but the heftiest endowments limit those funds to specific uses, most colleges cannot freely dip into them as emergency reserves. Harvard has the largest endowment in the nation, but its pandemic losses turned a $300 millionplus surplus in 2019 into a $10 million operating loss in 2020, according to an annual The campus of Ithaca College, which has accelerated plans to cut 131 full-time report posted this week, forcing the universifaculty jobs, in Ithaca, N.Y., Oct. 19, 2020. As it resurges across the country, the ty to freeze hiring, slash capital spending and coronavirus is forcing universities large and small to make deep and possibly las- cut senior managers’ pay. ting cuts to close widening budget shortfalls.

That has meant months of cutbacks,

By SHAWN HUBLER

O

sing out undergraduate education degrees to help close a $6.8 million budget gap. In Ohio, the University of Akron, citing the coronavirus, successfully invoked a clause in its collective-bargaining agreement in September to supersede tenure rules and lay off 97 unionized faculty members.

“We haven’t seen a budget crisis like this in a generation,” said Robert Kelchen, a Seton Hall University associate professor of higher education who has been tracking the administrative response to the pandemic.

“There’s nothing off-limits at this point.”

Even before the pandemic, colleges and universities were grappling with a growing financial crisis, brought on by years of shrinking state support, declining enrollment, and student concerns with skyrocketing tuition and burdensome debt. Now the coronavirus has amplified the financial trouble systemwide, though elite, well-endowed colleges seem sure to weather it with far less pain.

“We have been in aggressive recession management for 12 years — probably more than 12 years,” Daniel Greenstein, chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, told his board of governors last week as they voted to forge ahead with a proposal to merge a half-dozen small schools into two academic entities.

Once linchpins of social mobility in

including abolishing athletic programs, deferring campus construction and laying off administrative staff and cafeteria workers.

Scores of graduate programs, including some at elite research universities such as Harvard, Princeton and UC Berkeley, have temporarily stopped taking new doctoral students — the result of financial aid budgets strained by current doctoral candidates whose research is taking more time because of the pandemic.

A Chronicle of Higher Education database tracking the budgetary triage has documented more than 100 such suspended programs, from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts and Sciences, which will not take new doctoral students next fall, to Rice University, which paused admissions to all five of the doctoral programs in its school of humanities.

Most of the suspensions are in social sciences and humanities programs where the universities — rather than outside funders such as corporations, foundations and the federal government — typically underwrite the multiyear financial aid packages offered to doctoral students. University officials say the suspensions are necessary to ensure their strapped budgets can continue supporting students already in doctoral pipelines.

But Suzanne T. Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools, noted that interrupting that pipeline could also have a lingering impact on the higher education workforce, diverting promising students from low-income households, for example, or discouraging candidates who might bring much needed diversity to faculty rosters.

As schools exhaust the possibilities of trims around the margins, what is left, administrators say, is payroll, typically the largest line item in higher education. Since February, when the coronavirus hit, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that colleges and universities have shed more than 300,000 mostly nonfaculty jobs.

“Some of these institutions have redone their budgets three, four, five times,” said Jim Hundrieser, vice president for consulting and business development at the National Association of College and University Business Officers, a professional organization for finance officers in higher education.

“As this next chapter unfolds, what’s left is just staffing. For most, this will be the toughest round.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

11

When startups go into the garage (or sometimes the living room)

By CADE METZ

I

t is the folksiest of Silicon Valley origin stories: Tech startup makes it big after a wide-eyed entrepreneur builds a prototype in his garage. But Colin Wessells could never have imagined that a pandemic would force him back into the garage just to keep his company going.

Wessells, 34, is one of the founders and the chief executive of Natron Energy, a startup building a new kind of battery.

In March, when social distancing orders shuttered his company’s offices in Santa Clara, California, he and his engineers could no longer use the lab where they tested the batteries. So he packed as much of the equipment as he could into an SUV, drove it home and re-created part of the lab in his garage.

“It was only a fraction of the test equipment,” Wessells said. “But we could at least run some new experiments.”

Designing and creating new technology — never easy tasks — have become far more difficult in the pandemic.

This is particularly true for companies building batteries, computer chips, robots, self-driving cars and any other technology that involves more than software code. While many American workers can get by with a laptop and an internet connection, startup engineers piecing together new kinds of hardware also need circuit boards, car parts, soldering irons, microscopes and, at the end of it all, an assembly line.

But Silicon Valley is not the home of ingenuity for nothing. When the pandemic hit, many startup engineers in the area, like Wessells, moved their gear into their home garages so they could keep innovating. And if it wasn’t the garage, then it was the living room.

“We moved millions of dollars of equipment just so people could continue working,” said Andrew Feldman, chief executive of Cerebras Systems, a startup in Los Altos, California, that is building what may be the world’s largest computer chip. “It was the only way we could keep making these physical things.”

To continue development of Cerebras’ dinner-plate-size chip even when the office was closed, one of Feldman’s engineers, Phil Hedges, turned his living

Aaron Loar, an engineer at Natron Energy, works from his home in Berkeley, Calif. room into a hardware lab. In mid-March, Hedges packed the 10-by-14-foot room with chips and circuit boards. There were also monitors, soldering irons, microscopes and oscilloscopes, which analyze the electrical signals that travel across the hardware.

To accommodate the gear, Hedges set up three folding tables. He put half the equipment on the tabletops and half on the floor below. There was so much heat from the computer hardware running day and night that he also set up massive “chillers” to keep the makeshift lab from getting too hot.

In July, he moved some of the gear back into the Cerebras offices, where he now works on occasion, largely alone.

Only seven other people are allowed in the 35,000-square-foot office, with most others still at home with their own gear. The arrangement works well enough, Hedges said, although he does not always have the equipment he needs because it has been scattered across so many people’s residences.

Like Cerebras, other tech startups are finding that they need to move their makeshift labs from one place to another — or have several jury-rigged labs going at the same time — to keep development

going.

Voyage, a self-driving car startup in Palo Alto, California, initially bought various self-driving car parts and shipped them to two engineers so they could work at home. The startup sent them lidar sensors (the laser sensors that track everything around the car) and inertial measurement units (the devices that track the position and movement of the car itself) so they could keep testing changes to the car’s software.

But Voyage did not just rely on the at-home setups. In some cases, it arranged for engineers to log on to their home computers for remote access to a collection of car parts set up at the company’s offices.

Called “the HIL” — short for “hardware in the loop” — this was basically a car without wheels, complete with steering rack and braking system. Rather than run tests on the contraption up close, engineers tapped into it over the internet and ran tests from afar.

“It helps make us more efficient,” said Eric Gonzalez, one of Voyage’s founders and a director of engineering.

“But we had to change our road map.”

If all else failed, there was always the garage.

In Silicon Valley, the garage has long had a kind of mythical aura. In the 1990s, Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed Google in a garage. In the late 1930s, Bill Hewlett and David Packard created Hewlett-Packard in another. Today, the HP Garage, in Palo Alto, remains well-preserved and is sometimes called the “birthplace of Silicon Valley.”

Now, in the pandemic, the Silicon Valley garage has become a metaphor for making use of whatever space is available to do what needs to be done, engineers said. Hedges, the Cerebras engineer, said he had moved equipment into the living room only because he did not have a garage.

“If we had a garage, my wife would have put me there — with the chillers,” he said.

In the one-car garage of Wessells, the Natron chief executive, the re-creation of the office lab allowed him to test batteries inside “environmental chambers” the size of mini-refrigerators that control temperature and humidity. He said he had taken over the workbench in the garage with all of the equipment.

By July, new government orders allowed Natron — deemed an essential business because it served cellphone networks — to get some engineers back into the lab, with staggered hours.

The startup also installed software on computers that allowed engineers to have access to the lab’s equipment from home. The arrangement was not ideal — it was not like having the equipment in front of people — but it worked, Natron engineers said.

“It is sort of like I am sitting there,” said Aaron Loar, a Natron engineer who helps write the software that operates the batteries. “But I’m a little hamstrung.”

Natron also started manufacturing batteries again at a facility in Santa Clara, where it reorganized the assembly line for social distancing. It installed plastic barriers between each worker on the line and rebuilt the building’s airflow system.

While the assembly line is slower, no one has tested positive for the coronavirus, Wessells said.

“The engineering team isn’t as fast.

The manufacturing line isn’t as fast,” he said. “But that is just the cost of business during COVID.”

12

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Dunkin’ brands is said to be near deal to sell itself and go private

By LAUREN HIRSCH

D

unkin’ Brands, the parent company of the Dunkin’ and Baskin Robbins chains, is nearing a deal to sell itself to a private equity-backed company, Inspire Brands, two people with knowledge of the negotiations said.

The deal being discussed would take Dunkin’ Brands private at a price of $106.50 a share, these people said. That would be a 20% premium over the company’s closing price Friday and implies a company valuation of about $8.8 billion. Dunkin’s share price has more than doubled since March, as investors took heed of its success in building up its app and drive-through services. Its shares are up about 18% from a year ago.

The transaction would add Dunkin’ Brands to Inspire Brands’ portfolio, which includes Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sonic and Jimmy John’s. Inspire is backed by the private

equity firm Roark Capital.

The two people requested anonymity because the talks are confidential, and they cautioned that the deal was not yet final and could still fall apart.

The company has said that as stay-athome orders have shifted working patterns, customers have been coming to its stores later in the day than they used to and spending more on newer and more expensive items like espresso and other specialty beverages.

Dunkin’ already brings in more than half its revenue through drinks, and it dropped “Donut” from its name last year as it seeks to shift its emphasis to coffee and take on Starbucks more directly.

“While Dunkin’ may not have been thought of by investors as a beneficiary of the current environment, these results make the case that it has been,” analysts at Morgan Stanley wrote in a research note this summer.

Michelle King, a spokeswoman for

A Dunkin’ Donuts in Brooklyn earlier this month. The chain brings in more than half its revenue through drinks.

Dunkin’, told The Times, “As a public company it is our policy not to comment on rumors or speculation.” A spokesman for Inspi-

re Brands had no comment.

During the pandemic, Dunkin’ has been bolstered by its drive-thrus and online ordering systems, allowing its restaurants to continue to serve customers while smaller, independent chains have faltered. It took an initial hit in the pandemic, reporting a 20% drop in sales in the second quarter and announcing plans to close about 800 of its least-profitable stores. But business since then has been improving.

Dunkin’ Brands, whose 21,000 outlets are all franchised, reported revenue last year of $1.4 billion and a profit of more than $240 million.

The chain has been private before. It was owned by a consortium of private equity firms, led by Bain Capital, Carlyle Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners, who acquired Dunkin’ Donuts from Pernod Ricard in a $2.4 billion deal in 2005. The firms took it public six years later.

Ant Group set to raise $34 billion in world’s biggest IPO

By RAYMOND ZHONG

A

nt Group, the Chinese financial technology titan, is set to raise around $34 billion when its shares begin trading in Hong Kong and Shanghai in the coming

weeks, which would make its initial public offering the largest on record.

The company, the parent of the Alipay mobile payment service, priced its shares around $10.30 apiece, according to documents released Monday by stock exchanges

Using Alipay at a market in Hangzhou, China. The more people use Alipay, the more data it gathers about their spending power.

in the two cities. At that price, the company would be worth around $310 billion, a market value comparable to that of JPMorgan Chase and more than that of many other global banks.

The money that Ant raises would surpass the $29.4 billion that Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil company, Saudi Aramco, raised when it went public last year. Ant’s listing would also be larger than that of its sister company, the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which raised $25 billion when its shares started trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014.

For hundreds of millions of people in China, Alipay may as well be a bank. It is their credit card, debit card, mutual fund and even insurance broker — all on a single mobile platform. It is a lender to small businesses, both online and off, that might otherwise be ignored by China’s big state-run banks.

Alipay has more than 730 million monthly users, more than twice the U.S. population.

By comparison, PayPal has 346 million active accounts.

Like other giant internet companies, Ant says its strength lies in performing a large number of different tasks at once. The

more people use Alipay to purchase lattes, for example, the more data it gathers about their spending power. Ant says this information helps it offer loans, investments and insurance policies that suit users’ needs. The data also helps Ant and its partner banks determine who is likely to pay them back.

Yet the melding of finance and tech is attracting regulators’ interest everywhere, and Ant has not been spared the scrutiny. In recent years, China has clamped down on fishy online lending and investing schemes.

Regulatory pressures have led Ant to temper its ambitions in certain areas since it was spun off from Alibaba in 2011.

Today, the company emphasizes that Alipay is merely the front door through which its users gain access to financial services. The lending and investing are still mostly done by established institutions — a message that was crystallized when the company, which used to be called Ant Financial, dropped the second word from its English name this year.

Last year, Ant earned $2.7 billion in profit on $18 billion in revenue. It says it handled $17 trillion in digital payments in mainland China during the 12 months that ended in June.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

13 Stocks

Stocks slide on surging COVID-19 cases, stimulus doubts; dollar rises

S

hares fell across the globe on Monday as surging coronavirus cases in Europe and the United States clouded the world economic outlook, giving the U.S. dollar a safe-haven boost.

The euro meanwhile traded 0.3% higher at $1.1756 and sterling rallied back to near $1.30 levels against the dollar on Monday. Investors cut their holdings as British and European negotiators tried to salvage post-Brexit trade talks. “EU-UK trade talks are flirting with collapse,” ANZ economists said. “UK Prime Minister Johnson said the UK needs to prepare for a no-deal outcome, as both sides cannot agree on a Canada-style FTA. Talks resume in London on Monday, but without the political willingness to shift ground, there is little the negotiators can achieve.”

The United States, Russia and France set new daily records for coronavirus infections as a resurgence of the virus swelled across parts of the Northern Hemisphere, forcing some countries to impose new curbs.

The spreading pandemic, along with lack of progress on a U.S. stimulus package and caution ahead of the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election, dragged down the MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS. “It’s almost entirely COVID-related. We thought all along that the most important factor for the market, good or bad, is COVID and it’s bad (today) because cases are rising,” said Christopher Grisanti, chief equity strategist at Mai Capital Management in Cleveland.

“The administration has come out and said it does not want to slow down the economy, yet as cases rise they may not have a choice. So the administration is in a difficult position.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 767.56 points, or 2.71%, to 27,568.01, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 77.75 points, or 2.24%, to 3,387.64 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 250.24 points, or 2.17%, to 11,298.04.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX lost 1.81% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS shed 1.78%.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks globally hit a record high in September and brushed against it earlier this month.

Emerging market stocks lost 0.70%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS closed 0.39% lower, while Japan’s Nikkei .N225 fell 0.09%.

Europe became the second region after Latin America to surpass 250,000 COVID-19 deaths on Saturday, according to a Reuters tally, as many European countries reported their highest number of infections in a single day.

Sentiment was also hit by a survey showing German business morale fell in October for the first time in six months.

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14

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

‘An end to the chapter of dictatorship’: Chileans vote to draft a new Constitution

Masses of people protest in the streets of Santiago, Chile, Oct. 25, 2019. Voters are expected to approve a bid to scrap the charter inherited from Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, a move that could set a new course for the country.

By PASCALE BONNEFOY

T

he protests started over a small hike in metro fares, then exploded into a broad reckoning over inequality that shook Chile for weeks. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets, calling for sweeping change in their society, with higher wages and pensions, better health care and education.

The movement soon seized on a vehicle for their demands: Chile’s Constitution.

The existing charter, drafted without popular input during the military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet and approved in a fraudulent plebiscite in 1980, was widely blamed for blocking change — and seen as a lingering link to a grim chapter in Chile’s history.

On Sunday, just over a year after the massive demonstrations swept the nation, Chileans voted to scrap the dictatorship-era document and write a new one — a process that could transform the politics of a country that has long been regarded as one of the most stable and prosperous in Latin America.

The referendum was headed for

a landslide victory; with about half the votes counted, more than 77% were cast in favor of a new constitution, and it was leading in almost every part of the country.

“This plebiscite is not the end; it is the beginning of a path we should all undertake together,” President Sebastián Piñera said in an address from the presidential palace.

“Until now, the constitution has divided us,” he added. “As of today, we should all cooperate to make the new constitution become one home for all of us.”

Until the protests last year, the idea of a new constitution “wasn’t on anyone’s agenda,” said Lucía Dammert, a political scientist and board member of the research center Espacio Público.

“The fact we are now discussing a new constitution is a victory of the social movement.”

The vote, originally scheduled for April, was postponed as Chile went on lockdown during the pandemic. Now, with most of the capital, Santiago, and other areas gradually opening up, voter turnout was high.

Thousands of people flocked to the

Plaza Italia in Santiago to celebrate on Sunday night, chanting, dancing, waving flags and setting off fireworks. Demonstrators unfurled banners addressed to Pinochet, with messages like “Goodbye, General,” and “Erasing your legacy will be our legacy.”

“Today, citizenship and democracy have prevailed, and peace has prevailed over violence,” Piñera said. “This is a victory for all Chileans.”

On Sunday morning, Chileans turned out in droves to participate.

Throughout the country, voters in masks ringed block after block in calm, orderly lines.

After transitioning to democracy in 1990, Chile’s market-friendly business environment, framed in part by the constitution, attracted foreign investment.

The country grew consistently and saw poverty go down. But this came at the cost of an acute concentration of wealth and growing inequality. Last year, the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America estimated that nearly a quarter of total income goes to 1% of Chile’s population.

To cover the high cost of living, Chileans are greatly indebted. The Central Bank found last year that on average nearly three-fourths of household income was used to pay debt. The public health care and education systems are in shambles, and meager pensions force most people of retirement age to continue working.

Sunday’s ballot asks voters whether they want a new constitution, and who should draft it: a body of only newly elected representatives or a convention in which half of the delegates would be members of Congress.

Voters overwhelmingly opted for a newly elected constitutional convention, without automatic inclusion of Congress members. Elections will be held in April to choose the delegates, among whom there must be gender parity. Political factions are still negotiating whether to reserve seats for Indigenous delegates.

Chileans are now scheduled to vote in 2022 to approve or reject the constitution the convention drafts.

As the nation geared up for voting, tensions were high.

After last year’s immense protests — known as the “estallido,” or explosion — rocked the country, the pandemic sent demonstrators home for much of 2020. Timid protests returned last month, leading to clashes between demonstrators and the police.

In one protest on Oct. 2, a police officer pushed a teenager off a bridge and into the bed of the Mapocho River in Santiago. The teenager survived with fractures, and the officer was charged with attempted murder and expelled from the force.

Last Sunday, tens of thousands flocked to the protests’ epicenter, Plaza Italia, to commemorate the anniversary of the uprising. The demonstration was largely peaceful, but late in the afternoon small groups set fire to two churches, including one used by the police for religious services.

Last year’s demonstrations often devolved into violence and were met with police brutality. The Public Prosecutor’s Office received 8,827 reports of human rights violations, including hundreds of complaints of permanent eye damage from rubber bullets; two people lost their sight completely.

By early last November, the clashes had left five people dead and nearly 1,800 wounded. Piñera was facing competing calls to deploy the armed forces to restore order — or to resign. Instead, he announced he was willing to open the process for a new constitution — an idea that sharply divided his own party.

The 1980 Constitution has undergone several changes since it was drafted behind closed doors by a Pinochet-appointed commission. The most significant shift, in 2005, eliminated major authoritarian provisions.

Still, many Chileans saw Sunday’s vote as highly symbolic.

It “means putting an end to the chapter of dictatorship,” said Hernán Becker, 58, a salesman who participated in a demonstration last Sunday. “Its origin is totally illegitimate: under military rule, with no freedom of expression, no freedom of assembly.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

15

Treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons passes important threshold

By RICK GLADSTONE

A

treaty aimed at destroying all nuclear weapons and forever prohibiting their use has hit an important bench mark, with Honduras becoming the 50th country to ratify the accord — the minimum needed for it to enter into force as international law.

The United Nations announced late Saturday that the ratification threshold had been achieved, a little more than three years after the treaty was completed in negotiations at the organization’s New York headquarters. Secretary-General António Guterres said the 50th ratification was “the culmination of a worldwide movement to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons.”

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is not binding on those nations that refuse to sign on to it. The United States and the world’s eight other nuclear-armed countries — Russia, China, Britain, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel — boycotted the negotiations that created the treaty and have shown no inclination to accept it.

U.S. officials have called the accord a dangerous and naive diplomatic endeavor that could even increase the possibility that nuclear weapons will be used.

Nonetheless, the nuclear-armed countries have been unable to reverse the growing acceptance of the treaty, which takes effect 90 days from the 50th ratification: Jan. 22, 2021. Advocates of the accord have called it the most far-reaching effort undertaken to permanently avert the possibility of nuclear war, a shadow hanging over the world since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan 75 years ago, in the final days of World War II. “This is the proof that we are in a completely different era,” Elayne Whyte Gómez, the Costa Rican diplomat who led the 2017 negotiations for the treaty, said Sunday. “This is a strong message.”

So far, the governments of 84 countries have signed the treaty, and the legislatures of 50 of those have ratified it. Advocates expected the remainder of the signatories to ratify it in coming weeks and months.

“This treaty changes the legal status of nuclear weapons in international law, and marks a historic milestone for a decadeslong, intergenerational movement to abolish nuclear weapons,” said Physicians for Social Responsibility, a Washington-based group.

The accord outlaws nuclear weapons use, threat of use, testing, development, production, possession, transfer and stationing in a different country. For any nuclear-armed countries that choose to join, the treaty outlines procedures for destroying stockpiles and enforcing their pledge to remain free of nuclear weapons.

Asked for comment on the 50th ratification, the State Department spokesperson, Morgan Ortagus, reiterated the U.S. opposition to the treaty.

“The TPNW will not result in the elimination of a single nuclear weapon, enhance the security of any state or contribute in any tangible way to peace and security in the geopolitical reality of the 21st century,” she said in a statement.

The 50th ratification was reached just days after the Trump administration sent a letter to other governments that have signed or ratified the treaty, exhorting them to reverse their decision.

“Although we recognize your sovereign right to ratify or accede to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), we believe that you have made a strategic error,” read the letter, a copy of which was seen by The New York Times.

The letter, reported last week by The Associated Press, contended that Russia and China were intent on increasing their nuclear weapons, would never voluntarily relinquish them and would only benefit strategically from the treaty by making other countries more vulnerable.

“Join with us in publicly calling on Russia and the PRC to engage in trilateral arms control negotiations with the United States and reduce nuclear risks

rather than heighten them,” the letter stated. “Doing so will do more for advancing the cause of nuclear disarmament than the TPNW ever will.”

That appeal came as the Trump administration has been negotiating with Russia on extending the START treaty, the main arms control accord limiting the size of the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, which is scheduled to expire in February. China has long rejected the U.S. contention that it, too, sign any successor to the START treaty.

Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a group that won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its work, said Sunday that the Trump administration’s appeal betrayed U.S. government nervousness about the effect of the treaty banning them.

She cited the effect of other treaties that have outlawed weapons such as chemical and biological munitions, land mines and cluster bombs. Even if not universally accepted at first, these treaties have shamed other countries into joining them or at least curbing the use of the abhorrent weapons.

“They know that even if it doesn’t bind them legally, it has an impact,” Fihn said. “Nobody’s immune to peer pressure from other governments.”

António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, with papers second from right, at the signing of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017.

16

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

A teacher, his killer and the failure of French integration

People visit a makeshift memorial for teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a class on free speech, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, France, Oct. 22, 2020.

By NORIMISTSU ONISHI and CONSTANT MÉHEUT

T

hey could have easily shared the same classroom — the immigrant teenager and the veteran teacher known for his commitment to instilling the nation’s ideals, in a relationship that had turned waves of newcomers into French citizens.

But Abdoullakh Anzorov, 18, who grew up in France from age 6 and was the product of its public schools, rejected those principles in a horrific crime that shocked and enraged France. Offended by cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad shown in a class on free speech given by the teacher, Samuel Paty, 47, the teenager beheaded him a week ago with a long knife before being gunned down by police.

France has paid national homage to Paty because the killing was seen as an attack on the very foundation — the teacher, the public school — of French citizenship. In the anger sweeping the nation, French leaders have promised to redouble their defense of a public educational system that plays an essential role in shaping national identity.

The killing has underscored the increasing challenges to that system as France grows more racially and ethnically diverse. Two or three generations of newcomers have now struggled to integrate into French society, the political establishment agrees.

But the nation, broadly, has balked at the suggestion from critics, many in the Muslim community, that France’s model of integration, including its schools, needs an update or an overhaul.

President Emmanuel Macron’s emphatic defense of the caricatures has also led to ripples overseas. Several Muslim nations, including Kuwait and Qatar, have begun boycotting French goods in protest. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey questioned Macron’s mental health in a speech, prompting France to recall its ambassador to Turkey.

Anzorov was the latest product of France’s public schools to turn against their ideals: Two brothers who went to public schools in 2015 attacked Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine that published — and republished last month — caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Jean-Pierre Obin, a former senior national education official, said that public schools played a leading role in “the cultural assimilation and political integration” of immigrant children who “were turned into good little French” and no longer felt “Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or Polish.” Other institutions that also played this role — the Catholic Church, unions and political parties — have been weakened, leaving only the schools, he said.

It was in schools that immigrant children learned not only proper French, but

also how to politely address teachers as “Madame” or “Monsieur.” They also absorbed notions like secularism in a country where, much as in the United States, ideals form the basis of nationhood.

At least on paper, Anzorov seemed a good candidate to fit into French society. A Russian of Chechen descent, he arrived in Paris when he was 6 and entered a public primary school. When he was about 10, his family moved to Évreux, a city in an economically depressed area about 55 miles west of Paris and home to about 50 Chechen families, according to Chechens living in the city.

The Chechens largely kept to themselves in Madeleine, a poor neighborhood with other immigrants, who are mostly from former French colonies and whose integration is often complicated by France’s colonial legacy.

Anzorov attended a middle school called Collège Pablo Neruda that, hewing to the national curriculum, also offered civics lessons on secularism and freedom of expression. He lived in a rent-subsidized, five-story apartment building with his family, with a direct view of the local jail.

“He always passed in front of my place when going home,” said Ruslan Ibragimov, 49, a Chechen who arrived in Évreux 18 years ago. “He was always alone, with his backpack. Even when he would see me from afar, he’d come over to greet me. He never talked much.”

Never much interested in his studies, Anzorov was passionate about mixed martial arts, said a 26-year-old Chechen who also practices the sport. In 2018, Anzorov, then 16, lived for a while in Toulouse, where he had an uncle.

Unsuccessful in Toulouse, Anzorov came back to Évreux. His father, who specialized in setting up security for construction sites and other businesses, was encouraging his son to join him, Ibragimov said. The father had recently bought his son a car, he added.

“But he couldn’t drive it yet because he still hadn’t gotten his driver’s license,” Ibragimov said.

It was only in recent months that the teenager had shown signs of radicalization, said the special anti-terrorism prosecutor, Jean-François Ricard. Anzorov’s transformation appeared to have played out online, according to an analysis by French news website Mediapart of a Twitter account that he created in June and that was deleted last week after his death.

His posts on Twitter attacked a wide array of targets, including Jews, Christians and the rulers of Saudi Arabia.

Paty was a strong believer in laïcité, the strict secularism that separates religion from the state in France. Davoust recalled Paty once asking a young girl wearing a cross around her neck in school to take it off.

“Our democracy was established against the Catholic Church and the monarchy, and laïcité is the way that democracy was organized in France,” said Dominique Schnapper, a sociologist and president of the Council of the Wise, a group created by the government in 2018 to reinforce laïcité in public schools.

In a class on freedom of expression — including the right to say blasphemous things about all religions — Paty used caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, Jesus and rabbis to teach, former students said.

After his transfer a few years ago to Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, in a Paris suburb with a more diverse population, he appeared to adjust his approach. When showing caricatures, he began telling students who might be offended that they could leave the classroom or look away.

At the new school, students said he showed mostly caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that had been published by Charlie Hebdo. One of the two shown this month was titled “A star is born” and depicted Muhammad fully nude. That upset many Muslim students and their parents, according to the local chapter of PEEP, a national parents association.

Paty said he was surprised by the backlash and apologized to students, said Talia, a 13-year-old student who was present at the lecture.

“He told us that he’s a teacher, that this class is part of his program, that France is a secular country and so is our school,” said Talia, who asked that she be identified by only her first name given the sensitivity of the situation.

One angry father complained about the teacher in videos he uploaded on social media. Enraged, Anzorov, the Chechen teenager, traveled all the way from Évreux to ConflansSainte-Honorine, nearly 60 miles, to kill Paty.

“Did he never have committed teachers? Or did he have them and he didn’t hear them?” Schnapper, the president of the Council of the Wise, said of Anzorov’s years in France’s public schools. “We’ll never know.

But it’s a sign of failure.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

17

Pope Francis appoints first African American cardinal

By ELIZABETH DIAS and JASON HOROWITZ

P

ope Francis on Sunday named Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, a cardinal, elevating the first African American to the Catholic church’s highest governing body, a groundbreaking act in a year when demands for racial justice have consumed the country.

The rise of Gregory, who is also the first American named to the College of Cardinals since 2016, comes as debates over how to address the legacy of slavery and racism have extended to the Catholic church, which for centuries excluded African Americans from positions of power.

“By naming Archbishop Wilton Gregory as a Cardinal, Pope Francis is sending a powerful message of hope and inclusion to the Church in the United States,” Archbishop José H. Gomez, president of the United Archbishop Wilton Gregory, center, leaving Mass last year at the Cathedral of States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington. in a statement.

The move is the latest sign that, seven ington. He is also a former president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops. Only one years into his papacy, Francis continues to U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, whose other diocese beyond the Archdiocese of redirect the church toward greater acceptance vision is considered in line with Francis’ pas- Washington is currently led by an African of those on the margins. He has worked to toral and welcoming approach in the church. American: Bishop Shelton Fabre of Houmadiversify the College of Cardinals, center the Gregory, who did not come from a Thibodaux in Louisiana. poor and migrants and warned of the threat of Catholic background, converted as a child The majority of Black American adults climate change. Last week Francis expressed after he began attending a Catholic gram- are Protestant, but about 5% are Catholic, support for same-sex civil unions, staking out mar school in Chicago. It was 1958, and according to the Pew Research Center. The new ground for the church’s recognition of the school had decided to accept African Catholic church historically had a smaller gay people.

American students as white families were presence in the Deep South, which has In recent months, Gregory has urged leaving, and within six weeks of joining the long been significantly Baptist, but the Black the church’s leaders to improve race relations, school, Gregory reflected later, he decided Catholic community grew in places where the recalling his time as an auxiliary bishop in the to become a priest. church had a stronger presence, like Texas Archdiocese of Chicago and how important On Sunday, Gregory said in a statement, and Louisiana as well as in the Northeast as it was for young Black Catholics to see a “With a very grateful and humble heart, immigrants met and married Black people bishop who looked like them.

I thank Pope Francis for this appointment who had moved there during the Great MiIn August, during a Mass commemo- which will allow me to work more closely gration, Verret said. rating the 57th anniversary of the March on with him in caring for Christ’s Church.” He For centuries, Black Catholics were exWashington, Gregory said, “Ours is the task did not respond to a request for an interview. cluded from seminaries and religious orders, and the privilege of advancing the goals that Like many institutions in other spheres, and when they were included, they were were so eloquently expressed 57 years ago the Catholic church in the United States has often given positions with little power and by such distinguished voices on that day.” He long minimized the experience and value were not allowed to lead African American added that “men and women, young and old, of African Americans, said Reynold Verret, parishes, said Shannen Dee Williams, assistant people of every racial and ethnic background president of Xavier University of Louisiana, professor of history at Villanova University. are needed in this effort. We are at a pivotal the country’s only historically Black and Gregory’s appointment is the “culmijuncture in our country’s struggle for racial Catholic university. nation of a long-standing Black Catholic justice and national harmony.”

“It is our great sin,” he said. “The Vatican freedom struggle against racism, slavery, Gregory, 72, was one of 13 new cardinal is leading us in a new direction, and I think segregation and exclusion within the U.S. appointments around the world that Francis Pope Francis is showing a new opening for church,” she said. announced Sunday. A Chicago native, he us as a church, that we are one church.”

“The significance of his role as the first served for years as the archbishop of Atlanta Only about 250 of the estimated Black Archbishop, now Cardinal, of Washuntil last year, when the pontiff made him the 37,000 Catholic priests in the United States ington D.C., which was the center of power first African American archbishop of Wash- are African American, according to the U.S. of the U.S. church’s slaveholding elite, also

cannot be overstated,” Williams said. “His presence, voice and advocacy against racism as a ‘pro-life’ issue in the Church is needed now more than ever.”

Gregory’s leadership in Washington was a turning point for a pivotal diocese previously led by Theodore McCarrick and Donald Wuerl, two prelates tarnished by the church sexual abuse crisis.

Last year, Francis stripped McCarrick first of his title as cardinal and then of his status as priest after accusations of sexual abuse against him that the church deemed credible. Wuerl left the position under a cloud of controversy amid accusations that he had failed to prevent abuse decades earlier in his diocese in Pittsburgh.

This summer, as protests spread against the police killing of George Floyd, Gregory publicly clashed with President Donald Trump, who visited the Saint John Paul II National Shrine the day after armed officers unleashed tear gas and rubber pellets on peaceful protesters near the White House.

“I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people, even those with whom we might disagree,” Gregory wrote.

Pope John Paul II, he said, “certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace.”

Nine of the 13 men named as new cardinals Sunday, including Gregory, are younger than 80 and therefore eligible to participate in the next conclave to elect Francis’ successor.

The new cardinals chosen by Francis reflect his priorities, making it more likely that the college will elect someone like him. His list included prelates from Rwanda, the Philippines and Brunei.

The ceremony to install the new cardinals is set for Nov. 28 in Rome. The Vatican offered no details about how it would conduct the consistory, an ornate ceremony in which the pope physically puts red hats onto the heads of the new cardinals, given concerns over the coronavirus and new restrictions announced Sunday in Italy. With travel restrictions in place for many countries, it is unclear whether some of the bishops will be able make the trip.

18

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

Trump’s army of angry white men

By CHARLES M. BLOW

T

his election will test the country’s core.

Who are we? How did we come to this?

How did this country elect Donald Trump and does it have the collective constitution to admit the error and reverse it?

At the moment, Joe Biden is leading in the polls, but the fact that Trump is even close — and still has a chance, however slim, to be reelected — is for a person like me, a Black man, astounding. I assume that there are many women, Muslims, immigrants, Mexicans and people from Haiti and African nations he disparaged who feel the same way.

Trump is the president of the United States because a majority of white people in this country wanted him to be. Perhaps some supported him despite his obvious flaws, but others undoubtedly saw those flaws as laudable attributes. For the latter, Trump’s racism was welcome in the coven.

Still, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll, more white people support Trump than Biden. This is primarily a function of white men who prefer Trump over Biden 57% to 36%. Most white women support Biden, which is a reversal from the last

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President Donald Trump at a campaign event in Pensacola, Fla., Oct. 23, 2020. “At the moment, Joe Biden is leading in the polls, but the fact that Trump is even close — and still has a chance, however slim, to be re-elected — is for a person like me, a Black man, astounding,” writes The New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow. election, when a plurality voted for Trump.

The white racist, sexist, xenophobic patriarchy and all those who benefit from or aspire to it are in a battle with the rest of us, for not only the present in this country but also the future of it.

The Republican Party, which is now without question the Party of Trump, has become a structural reflection of him. They see their majorities slipping and the country turning brown with a quickness, and they are becoming more tribal, more rash, more devious, just like him.

Like Trump, the Republican Party sees a future in which the only way they can win is to cheat. That is why they are stacking the courts. That is why they openly embrace tactics that are well known to result in voter suppression. That is why they gerrymander.

That is why they staunchly oppose immigration.

Trump’s base of mostly white men, mostly without a college degree, see him as the ambassador of their anger, one who ministers to their fear, consoles their losses and champions their victimhood. Trump is the angry white man leading the battle charge for angry white men.

The most optimistic among us see the Trump era as some sort of momentary insanity, half of the nation under the spell of a conjurer. They believe that the country can be reunited and this period forgotten.

I am not one of those people. I believe what political scientist Thomas Schaller told Bloomberg columnist Francis Wilkinson in 2018: “I think we’re at the beginning of a soft civil war.” If 2018 was the beginning of it, it is now well underway.

Trump is building an army of the aggrieved in plain sight.

It is an army with its own mercenaries, people Trump doesn’t have to personally direct, but ones he has absolutely refused to condemn.

When it comes to the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, the young neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville and the far-right fight club the Proud Boys, Trump finds a way to avoid a fullthroated condemnation, often feigning ignorance.

“I don’t know anything about David Duke,” Trump said when he ran in 2016. That of course was a lie. In fact, Trump is heir to Duke’s legacy.

In 1991, when Duke ran unsuccessfully to be governor of Louisiana but received a majority of the white vote in the state, Trump told CNN’s Larry King, “I hate seeing what it represents, but I guess it just shows there’s a lot of hostility in this country. There’s a tremendous amount of hostility in the United States.”

King responded, “Anger?”

Then Trump explained: “It’s anger. I mean, that’s an anger vote. People are angry about what’s happened. People are angry about the jobs.”

It is that very anger that Trump harnessed to win the presidency: anger over racial displacement disguised as economic anxiety.

Trump has bottled defiance and sold the serum to his acolytes and henchmen. He is fighting for white power and white heritage — he mourns the loss of “beautiful” monuments to racists while attacking racial sensitivity training. He is fighting to keep out foreigners, unless they are from countries like Norway, an overwhelmingly white country. He is fighting for people to be foolish, like not wearing a mask in the middle of a global pandemic caused by an airborne virus.

Trump is fighting for these people and they will continue to fight for him. Trump knows that. And he keeps them angry because he needs them angry.

There is a strong chance that Trump won’t win the coming election, but there is also a strong chance that he will win a majority of white men.

The question then is how an angry Trump and those angry men will react to defeat and humiliation.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

19

Secretario de Salud se recupera de COVID-19 Por THE STAR

E

l secretario de Salud, Lorenzo González Feliciano, dijo este lunes que ya se recuperó de COVID-19, que le fue diagnosticado el miércoles 14 de octubre.

“Fueron 10 días que estuve en aislamiento. Me siento bien. Soy afortunado, porque los síntomas que tuve fueron (solo) dolor de cuerpo y la pérdida de apetito” dijo González Feliciano en entrevista radial con Normando en la Mañana por NotiUno 630 AM. González Feliciano explicó que estuvo cinco días en un tratamiento con “un esteroide por vena”, a cargo de los doctores Fernando Cabanillas y Javier Morales.

“Me hacía falta la oficina”, sostuvo González Feliciano, quien se mantuvo trabajando a distancia desde su hogar.

El día en que González Feliciano anunció que había dado positivo al COVID-19 en una prueba molecular tenía pautada una reunión con la gobernadora Wanda Vázquez Garced y el gabinete constitucional.

En ese momento el secretario de Salud dijo: “tras haber estado de viaje por los pasados días, me realicé la prueba de COVID-19, la cual arrojó un resultado positivo. Responsablemente, me mantendré en aislamiento por el tiempo recomendado, según la Oficina de Epidemiología del Departamento de Salud. Además, ofrecí información sobre las personas

con las que compartí por los pasados días, para que se inicie el rastreo de contactos correspondiente”.

Representantes del PNP exigen investigación de escoltas asignadas a Delgado Por THE STAR

L

os representantes José Aponte Hernández y Maricarmen Mas Rodríguez solicitaron el lunes al comisionado de la Policía, Henry Escalera, que pida cuentas a la Oficina de Seguridad y Protección de la Región de Aguadilla por la supuesta asignación de cuatro agentes adicionales a los autorizados para la escolta del candidato a la gobernación del Partido Popular Democrático (PPD), Carlos ‘Charlie’ Delgado Altieri.

“El comisionado de la Policía asignó una cantidad para la protección de cada candidato a la gobernación, pero nos llega información que la Región de Aguadilla le asignó 4 agentes adicionales vinculados al PPD y que fueron escoltas de los exgobernadores Aníbal Acevedo Vilá y Sila María Cal-

derón”, señaló Aponte Hernández en comunicación escrita.

Los representantes mencionaron que recibieron información que los agentes Cathy Valentín, Ernesto Villanueva, Juan Juarbe y Abdiel Dumeng fueron asignados y destacados exclusivamente a reforzar la escolta de Carlos ‘Charlie’ Delgado en sus actividades y caravanas políticas.

“Esta asignación adicional a la autorizada por el comisionado de la Policía debe investigarse porque no se justifica y va por encima de las propias órdenes del Comisionado”, añadió la representante Más Rodríguez.

Ambos representantes exigieron al comisionado de la Policía a “corroborar esta información y a desautorizar cualquier asignación de agentes de la Policía adicional a la autorizada por el”.

20

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

‘SNL’ spoofs the final debate and Adele sings (a little)

Jim Carrey reprised his Joe Biden impersonation on “Saturday Night Live” this week.

By DAVE ITZKOFF

A

dele hosted “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, and to answer your most pressing question: Yes, she did sing, briefly, though H.E.R. was officially the musical guest. But first, there was a parody of Thursday’s second and final presidential debate to get through.

The debate sketch, which opened the show, began with Maya Rudolph, its resident Kamala Harris impersonator, this time playing moderator Kristen Welker of NBC News.

She explained, “Tonight we have a mute button, because it was either that or tranquilizer darts, and the president has a very high tolerance for those after his COVID treatment.”

Onto the stage came Alec Baldwin as President Donald Trump and Jim Carrey as Joe Biden. “How’s this mute button work?” Carrey asked. “Do I just haul off and slap him in the mouth?”

Rudolph replied, “It’s not connected to anything, but I will push it.”

Baldwin, who was given an introductory question about managing the coronavirus crisis, responded, “What a nice question, thank you, Hoda. Can I just say you’re really doing a great job?” He added, “No, really, you’re taking really good care of us tonight.

Now could you just tell us about the special, please?”

Baldwin repeated Trump’s now-familiar line that the country is “rounding the corner” on coronavirus. “In fact,” Baldwin said, “we’ve rounded so many corners, we’ve gone all the way around the block, and we’re back where we started in March.”

Indicating Carrey, Baldwin said, “If he was in charge, we’d all be in our basements, and that’s where the haunted Annabelle doll lives. A lot of people are saying that’s a very scary doll.” He added that “we can’t spend all day in the basement, because we’re all not rich like Joe, with all the money he got from China.”

Carrey responded, “Look at me. Do I look remotely rich? If I have money, where am I spending it? I live in Delaware. A night out is $28.” If he had an extra $3 million, Carrey said, “I’d be pulling up to the Capitol in a candy-red Trans Am with Kenny Loggins playing in the back. Not a recording — the real Kenny Loggins.”

Baldwin said he could not reveal his coronavirus response plan because it was under audit, adding, “If you don’t believe me, you can talk to my lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.”

The camera cut to Kate McKinnon as Giuliani, with her back to the audience, making an obscured but vigorous gesture. As she turned around, she revealed that she was rubbing her stomach. “It’s not what it looks like,” McKinnon said, adding, “Is this another ‘Borat’? You’ve got to tell me if it’s a ‘Borat.’”

Finally, the two candidates were asked what they would say to people who did not vote for them. Baldwin replied, “If they didn’t vote for me, I guess I’d say, ‘Hola.’”

Carrey said, “You know who he is, and you know who I am. I’m good ol’ Joe. I’m reliable as a rock. I’ve got a five-star safety rating, and I’m ranked best in midsize in my class

by J.D. Power and Associates. I don’t have a golden toilet seat. I have a soft, spongy one that hisses whenever I park my keister.”

‘Bachelor’ parody of the week In her opening monologue, Adele explained that she didn’t want to be both host and musical guest, saying that she would rather “just put on some wigs” and “have a glass of wine or six and just see what happens.”

Nonetheless, “SNL” found a not-so-subtle way to get her to perform selections from a few of her best-known songs in this sendup of “The Bachelor,” which cast Adele as one of its contestants.

“I’m here because I’ve had a lot of heartbreak in my life,” she said at the start of the sketch, “first at 19; and then, sort of famously, at 21; and then even more famously at 25.”

Desperately vying for a bland romantic interest (Beck Bennett), Adele sang him excerpts from “When We Were Young,” “Hello” and “Rolling in the Deep,” then concluded with a spirited portion of “Someone Like You.” As the sketch ended, Adele said, “Catch me next week on ‘Love Island.’”

Political ad of the week This filmed segment starts off like any number of other political commercials rotating endlessly in the run-up to Election Day, with the “SNL” cast members playing seemingly everyday Americans explaining why they’re voting for Biden and against Trump.

But, these people explain, they’re also worried because, as Ego Nwodim asks, if Biden wins, “then what are we going to talk about?”

Pete Davidson adds, “The only thing I talked about for four years is Donald Trump.”

Another voter, played by Melissa Villaseñor, says, “My entire personality is hating Donald Trump. If he’s gone, what am I supposed to do — focus on my kids again? No, thanks.”

Kenan Thompson says, “I am really worried for Rachel Maddow. Like, what is she even going to talk about?” (Following the commercial — paid for by the fictional Trump Addicts of America — the real-life Maddow

tweeted, “I’ll be fine! I swear!”)

Weekend update jokes of the week At the Weekend Update desk, anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che continued to riff on the final presidential debate.

Jost began: Well, the final presidential debate took place on Thursday, and the actual CNN headline after was, “Trump Behaved More Like Regular Person.” That’s not a description of a president. It’s like a description of a robot from “Westworld.” This debate was so frustrating to watch. Did anyone else find themselves yelling lines at the screen that they wished Biden had said? Like when Trump talked about how good he’s been for the stock market, I was like, “Joe, the stock market when you were vice president went up four times higher than Trump’s stock market. You have the ball.

You’re standing above the rim. Why will you not dunk it?” Or when Trump said that Biden is all talk and no action, why didn’t Biden just say, “Bitch, show us your taxes, show us the vaccine, show us the wall, and show us what prison you locked Hillary in”? Really, it was like Biden had an open field, running for a touchdown, and then this happened: [plays video of New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones tripping in Thursday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles].

Che continued: Trump claimed that he was the least racist person in the room, which is only something the most racist person in the room would say. You never hear Martin Luther King going, “I’m the least racist.” Nobody’s expecting you to be the least racist. I’d just settle for not-so-racist anymore. When you lie that big, it makes you look more guilty, like when my uncle told me he doesn’t get high anymore while he was holding my TV. Questionable tourism ad of the week We can’t say we endorse the fake ad, which rests on the uneasy premise that Adele, McKinnon and Heidi Gardner are women who have traveled to Africa in search of men who will help them get over their divorces.

(That’s already elicited a fair share of discomfort on social media.)

But we include it here for the sake of completeness and for the sight of Adele repeatedly breaking character, which at least gives the sketch some moments of pleasant awkwardness.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

21

These sisters have transformed the piano duo

By ROSLYN SULCAS

“O

h, look!” said pianist Katia Labèque, pushing aside some neatly ironed clothes hanging on a rack.

Behind the clothes, which were behind the boiler in the utility room of her home and studio in Ahetze in French Basque Country, was a poster advertising concerts last year at the Philharmonie in Paris. It showed Katia Labèque and her sister, Marielle Labèque — both with dark hair flowing, glamorously dressed — and listed three programs: five centuries of Basque music; a Stravinsky and Debussy double bill; an evening with three art-rock auteurs, Thom Yorke, Bryce Dessner and David Chalmin.

“We’re ridiculous,” said Katia Labèque. “This is the only poster we have, and it’s hidden.”

The poster suggests the wildly varied musical interests of the Labèque sisters, who for more than 50 years have been playing — and enlarging — the two-piano repertory. They have interpreted traditional classical and romantic works, to brilliant effect, but have also ventured into jazz, baroque, modernist and experimental genres — commissioning scores, inventing projects and testing their limits. Their latest recording, out this week, is a newly arranged two-piano adaptation of Philip Glass’ opera “Les Enfants Terribles.”

“What always struck me with both of them is that, although they are very different human beings, they both have this endless curiosity about everything, not just music,” said Simon Rattle, the music director of the London Symphony Orchestra and a frequent Labèques collaborator.

Katia Labèque, 70, and Marielle Labèque, 68, have been inventing themselves since they were teenagers.

First taught by their mother, an Italian piano teacher and pupil of renowned pianist Marguerite Long, the sisters moved at 11 and 13 from their hometown, Hendaye (not far from Ahetze), to attend the prestigious Paris Conservatory.

“They taught you the tricks, but not the love of music that we learned from our parents,” Marielle Labèque said. “Maybe that helped us develop our sense of independence, the desire to move in the world on our own terms.”

(The sisters, interviewed mostly in French, also speak fluent English, Italian and Spanish.)

They decided against the solo careers that their fiercely competitive training had shaped them for. “From the moment we left — and it was 1968, the year of revolution of the students — we said, ‘Let’s do something maybe not so conventional,’” Katia Labèque said.

They decided to play together.

“They took a time-honored form, the double piano, which had become slightly less fashionable, and breathed entirely new life into it,” said Deborah Borda, president and chief executive of the New York Philharmonic.

Despite their almost uncanny unity onstage — “it’s

Katia, left, and Marielle Labèque have ventured into jazz, Baroque, modernist and experimental genres.

Their latest album is a new arrangement of a Philip Glass opera. a mystery beyond sisterhood,” Rattle said — the Labèques have very different personalities. In the interview, Katia Labèque exuded energy and enthusiasm, while Marielle Labèque remained calm and reflective. But they agreed that they never really had a career plan. After deciding to perform together, they joined the conservatory’s chamber music graduate class to develop their dual repertory, and worked as ensemble musicians with Félix Blaska’s dance company.

One day, while they were working on Olivier Messiaen’s “Visions de l’Amen,” Messiaen, who taught composition at the conservatory, knocked on the door. After listening for a bit, he asked if one of the sisters would record the work with his wife. Even then, they showed surprising strength of purpose.

“We said, ‘No, we are just starting out and we can’t begin by dividing,’” Katia Labèque recalled. But eventually Messiaen asked them to record the work together, which led to encounters with composers Gyorgy Ligeti, Pierre Boulez and Luciano Berio, whom they boldly approached, asking him to compose a work for them. Berio suggested they give the French premiere of his double piano concerto, which they subsequently played all over the world.

Their international breakthrough came with a 1980 recording of “Rhapsody in Blue,” which was a bestseller but led to some harsh criticism from parts of the classical music establishment.

“The concert halls were closed to Gershwin,” Katia Labèque said. “People would say, ‘He is not a serious composer.’ The same thing was true 30 years later, when we started to play Philip Glass.”

They were also sometimes ribbed for their designer outfits and glossy image. But Chad Smith, chief executive of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, said he loved that the Labèques “have a complete vision. Lighting creates a beautiful environment; clothes, too. They come with a theatrical approach and have shown the false narrative that it’s less serious if you engage in the visual.”

Over the years, they have pursued Baroque music, on Silbermann-model period-style pianofortes made for them and with the ensemble Il Giardino Armonico; ragtime; traditional basque music; and jazz. Katia Labèque once lived with jazz musician John McLaughlin and played in his band, and counts Miles Davis — who wrote two songs for her — and Billie Holiday as influences. The sisters have plunged deep into experimental terrain in “Minimalist Dream House,” an ongoing series of concerts and recordings with Chalmin, who is Katia Labèque’s partner, and Dessner.

“They have an extremely broad vision of what they can do in a concert hall, and they treat everyone with the same respect,” said Dessner, best known as a member of the indie-rock band the National.

The coronavirus pandemic paused a number of their projects. A concerto by Nico Muhly, which should have premiered at the New York Philharmonic in early June, is now scheduled for the Paris Philharmonie on Nov. 12; a program with Dessner and soprano Barbara Hannigan will probably be pushed to 2022.

But one thing they could work on in quarantine was “Les Enfants Terribles,” arranged by Glass’ longtime collaborator, Michael Riesman. During the initial lockdown the Labèques worked separately to prepare the score — Marielle Labèque lives with her husband, conductor Semyon Bychkov, about 9 miles from the house Katia Labèque and Chalmin share — but sent recordings back and forth and spoke frequently with Riesman about changes.

“We wanted more of the story and the dramatic parts,” Katia Labèque said. “It was so odd that it’s a story of confinement.” After the lockdown restrictions were relaxed in May, they were able to practice together, and recorded the work in the state-of-the-art studio at Katia Labèque’s house.

“I love the way they play Philip Glass,” said Riesman.

“They have the right style, the right approach. They don’t overly dramatize or emote.”

Muhly said, “They are actually much more involved in everything than most people of their stature. They email you about material; they are totally involved. The rhythms of the day are organized around an unspeakably rigorous work ethic, but there is something really elegant about the way they live their lives which flows into music and food and their extended family of artists.”

The sisters’ trick, according to Katia Labèque, is their constant desire to change and learn. “We never want to rely on what we’ve done,” she said. “We have always tried to be relentlessly in the present.”

22

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

How to take better pet portraits

By J.D. BIERSDORFER

gle-lens reflex camera’s, smartphone camera technology has greatly improved in the past decade. With a recent phone, you can get some of the same looks for your photos, like using the portrait mode to keep the foreground subject in sharp focus while gently blurring the background. Many of Apple’s iPhone models and Google’s Pixel phones support a portrait mode; phones by Samsung and other manufacturers have similar settings.

Some camera apps have a “burst mode,” which captures a rapid series of shots when you hold down the shutter button so you can later pick the best photo of the bunch from the camera roll. In Apple’s iOS 14 camera app, you can take a burst by holding down the phone’s Volume Up button. Google’s current Pixel phones have a burstlike Top Shot feature.

Before you start your session, make sure your camera app is set to take photos at the highest possible image resolution.

M

uch of the internet seems to be made of animal photos, especially pictures of cats. If it all makes you want a decent portrait of your own pet for posterity — and you can’t afford a professional photographer — just grab your smartphone.

Many recent phone models include all the hardware and software you need to take a great picture of your friend. You’ll also want to consider factors like location and lighting. And remember: Let the pet rule the photo session, and never agitate or distress the animal — just wait for his or her personality to shine through the camera lens. Here’s a guide.

Step 1: Make a plan Decide where you would like to create your portrait. Depending on the animal, you may get better results if you take the photo in a familiar place where your pet is likely to be calm.

If you’re going for the portrait studio approach, try taking the photos during a time of day when your animal is more relaxed, like right after a meal or on the edge of nap time.

Once you pick a spot, remove as much clutter from the background as you can. A sheet or bit of fabric hung up as a backdrop can also keep the focus on your subject.

If you’d rather capture the animal’s natural bounce and liveliness, take your camera

The timer function on the Android (left) and iOS camera apps will snap the shutter up to ten seconds after you press the button. Even if you don’t have an expensive camera, you can capture memorable images of your pets with your smartphone, the right software and a few tricks.

their camera apps. Remote shutter controls that connect to your phone via Bluetooth are another option, and pressing the volume button on Apple’s corded headphones also sets off the iPhone camera’s shutter. And some voice assistant apps can take photos on command.

Step 5: Editing your shots Now that you have sour photos, it’s time to make them even better. Most camera apps include tools to straighten crooked framing and enhance color and exposure. And the cropping tool is great for eliminating unwanted background elements.

If your images need more help than your default software offers, look for a third-party app with features like a healing brush tool for removing flyaway fur. And don’t forget the power of filters to give your photo a whole new look and feel. Even if a shot is slightly fuzzy or the color is off, you can get really creative — and even make art out of your pet portraits.

The editing tools and filters in your phone’s photo app can help clean up the image and give your portraits an arty look. along during a regular park stroll or backyard romp so you can snap away.

Don’t forget to factor in plenty of time and patience. Animals can be unpredictable or uncooperative, so take your cues from the creature. It may take dozens of shots (or another session) to get your perfect picture.

Step 2: See the light When setting up your smartphone shot, avoid firing the flash. The unexpected pop may startle your pet, and the glare reflected in the back of the animal’s retinas usually creates eerie red or green eyes.

Natural light — outdoors or from a window — often works best. If you’re taking the pictures indoors, you can gently brighten the area with inexpensive clip-on lamps, but be mindful of where the shadows land and adjust the lighting positions accordingly.

Step 3: Set your camera While not as powerful as a digital sin-

The cropping function and other editing tools in your smartphone’s photo software can make your homemade pet portraits look much more professional.

Step 4: Posing the pet Now it’s time to actually take some pic- Avoid the flash and go with natural tures. Don’t be afraid to try creative angles. But light when you can. positioning yourself on the pet’s level and focusing the camera on the animal’s eyes often makes for a soulful portrait.

Taking pet photos is often easier if you have help. While you handle the camera, the other person can keep the animal engaged by supplying treats or focus with a favorite toy.

If it’s just you and the pet, consider using a tripod with a shutter timer so you can While you may need to add or adjust work with the animal right before the photo; the lighting, try taking pictures while Apple, Google and Samsung have timers in your pet is relaxing in a favorite spot.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

23

Some signs of recovery from severe COVID lung damage

By LINA ZELDOVICH

W

hen Annie Coissieux tried to stand up for the first time after weeks in the hospital battling COVID-19, she couldn’t get on her feet.

“My first day after ICU, I couldn’t leave the chair without the help of two nurses,” she recalled from her home in the Drôme region in southeast France. She felt breathless and exhausted after walking for just a few minutes. “Going to the bathroom was a real mission that required time and effort.”

Coissieux, 78, was sent to a nearby pulmonary rehabilitation clinic, Dieulefit Santé, where a physical therapist taught her exercises to help restore her lungs and the muscles involved in breathing.

When she went home three weeks later, Coissieux could walk close to 1,000 feet with a walker. As she exercised at home, she grew stronger. “Now I can walk 500 meters with no walker,” or about 1,600 feet, the retired schoolteacher said. “I can walk up the stairs at my cousin’s house.” And while she still feels fatigued in the afternoons, she cycles on her indoor bike and swims.

Lingering shortness of breath and diminished stamina have dogged many COVID patients whose lungs were viciously attacked by the coronavirus. Early in the pandemic, doctors worried that COVID might cause irreversible damage leading to lung fibrosis — progressive scarring in which tissue continues to die even after the infection is gone.

According to the World Health Organization, about 80% of patients have mild to moderate symptoms, 15% develop a severe form of the disease and about 5% like Coissieux escalate to critical.

While global or nationwide statistics on post-COVID lung recovery are not yet available, hospitals and clinics are assessing their cases.

At the peak of the outbreak in New York, about 20% of hospitalized patients were in intensive care units, where many needed ventilators, according to Dr. Gabriel C. Lockhart, a pulmonologist at National Jewish Health, a respiratory hospital in Denver, who also volunteered at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. “Of the ones who get intubated, at least two-thirds will survive but will require some physical therapy,” he said.

In an undated photo from Yara Al Chikhanie, patients exercise at the Dieulefit Sante clinic in France. In two early research studies, researchers said some coronavirus patients’ lungs show signs of healing with intensive therapy and exercise just weeks after they were discharged from the hospital.

It’s not known yet how many people will rebound to their pre-COVID status, because so many are still recovering, said Dr. Jafar J. Abunasser, a pulmonologist at Cleveland Clinic. He added that one study of severe acute respiratory syndrome, another coronavirus, published in the journal Chest found that about 59% of survivors had no lung impairment after one year, while one-third still had some lung abnormalities, which he described as “mild.”

During this year’s pandemic, few patients suffered such severe lung damage that they required lung transplants, still a rarity worldwide. But that number may climb as some patients’ lungs will not improve sufficiently, said Dr. Sadia Shah, a pulmonologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.

At a recent European Respiratory Society meeting, doctors presented early results of a few small studies that offered a glimmer of hope, indicating that in at least some cases, patients’ lungs show signs of recovery, especially with intensive aftercare and exercise.

Yara Al Chikhanie, a doctoral student in lung physiopathology at the Dieulefit Santé, cited the clinic’s rehabilitation study of 19 patients at the session.

For patients who were bedridden or intubated in intensive care units for weeks, the

ability to breathe on their own was impaired.

Their muscles, including the diaphragm — the main breathing muscle that pushes the abdominal organs down so that the lungs can expand — had weakened.

“They spent months in bed and lost their muscle and respiratory capacity,” Al Chikhanie explained.

“It seems that most of these more severe patients recover from severe lung injury,” said Dr. Frederic Hérengt, who oversaw the study at Dieulefit Santé.

Longer-range studies still have to be conducted to assess the potential for permanent effects.

Doctors at the University Clinic of Internal Medicine in Innsbruck, Austria, observed similar improvements in their 86 patients, who were also in the hard-hit category and endured long hospital and ICU stays.

Even after rehabilitation, many were still coughing and short of breath as they went home, equipped with exercise instructions and breathing devices — small, inexpensive plastic tubes that require one to breathe in and out with force.

But as they came back for checkups weeks later, their CT scans showed improvement, doctors said. Fluids were clearing from their lungs, and the white-glass lesions often seen in COVID pneumonia were lessening,

sometimes disappearing and sometimes noticeable only as thin white bands.

“There are some signs of reversible damage,” said Dr. Thomas Sonnweber, who conducted the study with his colleagues Dr. Judith Löffler-Ragg and Dr. Ivan Tancevski. At the time the patients were discharged from the hospital, 88% had lung damage, but 12 weeks later, only 56% did.

Their symptoms also improved. They coughed less, breathed and walked more easily, in some cases with markedly improved endurance.

“We have seen patients who went on wheelchairs to rehabilitation but they start walking again,” Löffler-Ragg said. She cited one particular case of an elderly man who needed oxygen before rehabilitation, but now walks up the stairs to his fourth-floor apartment with only mild shortness of breath.

“Despite his 78 years, despite COVID pneumonia, he can manage this,” she said.

Neither study has been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal. But the patients’ improvement was encouraging to others who have been treating patients.

Doctors don’t yet know how long it will take patients to regain their pre-COVID strength and endurance. In the case of acute respiratory distress syndrome or ARDS, which has been caused by other viruses and has similarities to COVID-19, full recovery can take over a year, but there are no such statistics for COVID yet.

However, the earlier patients start their rehabilitation, the faster they begin to bounce back, which may be another reason for doctors to take them off ventilators sooner, Al Chikhanie said. That may be possible, especially as scientists understand how to manage the acute infection phase better.

Some people who spent a long time on life support can recover, although they will need a great deal of help and perseverance.

“Stay active, move and walk around the house, go up and down stairs,” Al Chikhanie said.

But research is still very nascent about finding the best therapies to help COVID survivors restore their strength and lung capacity. “We really need a couple of years of data, it’s far too early for us to have the data about this pandemic,” Abunasser of the Cleveland Clinic said.

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

ORIENTAL BANK Demandante v.

NILDA ISABEL RAMOS AYALA

Demandado(a) Civil: HU2019CV01823. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO EJECUCIOND E HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: NILDAI SABELR AMOSA YA LA a sus últimas direcciones conocidas: URB. ARBOLEDA, B16 CALLE 5, HUMACAO, PR 00791; RR4 BOX2 6809, TOA A LTA, PR 009539413 P/C LIC. JUAN C. FORTUÑO FAS

Demandados CIVIL NÚM.: SJ2020CV05309.

SALA: 802. SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE, como posibles tenedores o personas que hayan adquirido algún derecho sobre el pagaré o la hipoteca objeto de este pleito.

Se le notifica que se ha presentado una Demanda en su contra en este caso. En la Demanda se solicita se decrete judicialmente la cancelación de un (1) pagaré hipotecario a favor de Senior Mortgage Bankers, Inc., o a su orden, por la suma de $615,000.00 de principal, con intereses al 3.168% anual, con vencimiento el día 21 de febrero (Nombre de las partes a las que se del 2088, autenticado mediante le notifican la sentencia por edicto) el afidávit número 10167. Este EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscri- pagaré fue suscrito el 6 de dibe le notifica a usted que 20 de ciembre del 2013 ante el Notaoctubre de 2020, este Tribunal rio Público Juan Luis Romero ha dictado Sentencia, Senten- Sánchez, y garantizado por una cia Parcial o Resolución en este hipoteca constituida mediante caso, que ha sido debidamente la escritura núm. 280 de 6 de registrada y archivada en autos diciembre del 2013, otorgada donde podrá usted enterarse en San Juan, Puerto Rico, e detalladamente de los términos inscrita al folio 201 del tomo de la misma. Esta notificación se 1233 de Santurce Norte, finca publicará una sola vez en un pe- #7948, inscripción 18, Registro riódico de circulación general en de San Juan, Sección I, sobre la la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de siguiente propiedad: URBANA: los 10 días siguientes a su notifi- Solar en la Sección Norte del cación. Y, siendo o representan- Barrio de Santurce, Puerto Rico, do usted una parte en el proce- sitio conocido por El Parque, con dimiento sujeta a los términos de un área superficial de 396.00 la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial metros cuadrados. Es marcado o Resolución, de la cual puede con el #9 de la manzana D de establecerse recurso de revisión la finca principal y colinda por el o apelación dentro del término NORTE, en 14.40 metros, con de 30 días contados a partir de la Avenida Los Ángeles, abierta la publicación por edicto de esta en terrenos de la finca principal; notificación, dirijo a usted esta por el SUR, en 14.40 metros, notificación que se considerará con el solar #2 de la manzana hecha en la fecha de la publica- D propiedad de Ocean Park ción de este edicto. Copiad de Development Corporation; por esta notificación ha sido archi- el ESTE, en 27.50 metros, con vada en los autos de este caso, el solar #10 de la manzana D de con fecha de 21 de OCTUBRE la Urbanización, hoy propiedad de 2020. En HUMACAO, Puer- de Arveio Marl; y por el OESTE, to Rico, el 21 de OCTUBRE de en 27.50 metros, con el solar #8 2020. DOMINGA GOMEZ FUS- de la manzana D propiedad de TER, Secretario(a). F/EVELYN Ocean Park Development CorFELIX VAZQUEZ, Secretario(a) poration. Enclava una casa de concreto con garaje, cuarto de Auxiliar. servicio y techo de igual consLEGAL NOTICE trucción. Finca 7948 inscrita ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE al folio 142 del tomo 1218 de PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE Santurce Norte, Registro de San PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA Juan, Sección I La parte demandante allega que el original del SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN. SE INVESTMENTS LLC. pagaré se extravio y la deuda evidenciada y garantizada por Demandante Vs. el mismo fue satisfecha, según SENIOR MORTGAGE consta más detalladamente BANKERS, INC.; COMPU- en la Demanda presentada, la LINK CORPORATION cual puede examinarse en la Secretaría de este Tribunal. Por D/B/A CELINK; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD DOE la presente, se le emplaza y se le notifica que debe contestar

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la demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente edicto. Deberá presentar la contestación a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudiciaLpr/ sumac, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentarla ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de San Juan con copia a la representación legal de la parte demandante a la siguiente dirección: Lcdo. Javier Montalvo Cintrón, RUA Núm.

17682, Delgado & Fernández, LLC, PO Box 11750, Fernández Juncos Station, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00910-1750; Tel. (787) 274-1414 ¡Fax (787) 764-8241; correo electrónico: jontalvo@ de1gadofernandez.com. Se le apercibe que, de no contestar la demanda dentro del término aquí establecido, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle.

Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal en San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 7 de octubre de 2020.

- GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. Raquel E. Figueroa Nater, SECRETARIA SERVICIOS A SALA.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los 30 días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando Ia siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.rarnaiudiciaLpr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en Ia secretarla del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en Ia demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Representa a Ia parte demandante el Lcdo. Javier Montalvo Cintrón, Delgado & Fernández, LLC, PO Box 11750, Fernández Juncos Station, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00910-1750.

Tel. [787] 274-1414. DADA en Carolina, Puerto Rico, a 14 de octubre de 2020. Lcda. Marilyn Aponte Rodriguez, Sec Regional. Rosa M. Viera Velazquez, Sec Auxiliar del Tribunal.

Tuesday, October 27, 2020 misma, la cual puede ser examinada en la secretaría de este Tribunal. REPRESENTA a los demandantes el bufete RIVERA COLON, RIVERA TORRES & RIVERA RIOS (Lcdo. Víctor M. Rivera Torres) con dirección en Avenida Fernández Juncos #1420, Santurce, Puerto Rico 00909, teléfonos (787) 7275710, fax (787) 268-1835, email: victor.riverarcrtrblaw.com.

Se le advierte que este edicto se publicará en un periódico de circulación general una sola vez y que si no comparece en el término de treinta (30) días desde su publicación, los querellantes podrán solicitar que se dicte sentencia en rebeldía, declarándose con lugar la querella, sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO, bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy día 7 de octubre de 2020. CARMEN ANA PEREIRA ORTIZ, Secretaria. GLORIMAR RIVERA RIVERA, Sec Auxiliar del Tribunal I.

LEGAL NOTICE

5710, fax (787) 268-1835, email: victor.riverarcrtrblaw.com.

Se le advierte que este edicto se publicará en un periódico de circulación general una sola vez y que si no comparece en el término de treinta (30) días desde su publicación, los querellantes podrán solicitar que se dicte sentencia en rebeldía, declarándose con lugar la querella, sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO, bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy día 7 de octubre de 2020. CARMEN ANA PEREIRA ORTIZ, Secretaria. GLORIMAR RIVERA RIVERA, Sec Auxiliar del Tribunal I.

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

MTGLQ INVESTORS, L.P. Parte Demandante Vs.

CMFC INC, ahora CITI MORTGAGE, INC; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE, Como Posibles tenedores desconocidos

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE Parte Demandada CAGUAS. CIVIL NÚM: MT2020CV00434.

ALEJANDRO ANTONIO SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN DE ORIZONDO ALVAREZ- PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. MENA ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉDEMANDANTE VS. RICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS AMARIS URBINA EE. UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE LEGAL NOTICE ECHEVARRIA ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE DEMANDADA SS. ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE CARMEN DORIS PAGAN A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GE- PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE SEDA; FERNANDO ROE COMO posibles NERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBU- CAGUAS. JAVIER ORIZONDO NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA tenedores desconocidos ALEJANDRO ANTONIO ALVAREZ-MENA POR LA PRESENTE se les emSALA DE CAROLINA. ORIZONDO ALVAREZDEMANDADOS plaza y requiere para que conORIENTAL BANK MENA teste la demanda dentro de los INVOLUNTAR]OS Demandante V. DEMANDANTE VS. CIVIL NUM. CG2020CV01973. treinta (30) dfas siguientes a la JC REHAB CENTER INC.; AMARIS URBINA SOBRE: REINVINDICACIÓN publicación de este Edicto. UsJOSE ANDRES VARGAS DIVISIÓN Y LIQUIDACIÓN DE ted deberá radicar su alegación ECHEVARRIA SANCHEZ, CINDY ENID COMUNIDAD DE BIENES. EM- responsiva a través del Sistema DEMANDADA RODRIGUEZ LEDUC Y CARMEN DORIS PAGAN PLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. Unificado de Manejo y AdminisESTADOS UNIDOS DE AME- tración de Casos (SUMAC), al LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL SEDA; FERNANDO RICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS cual puede acceder utilizando la DE GANANCIALES JAVIER ORIZONDO ESTADOS UNIDOS ESTADO siguiente dirección electrónica: COMPUESTA POR LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO http://unired.ramajudicial.pr/suALVAREZ-MENA AMBOS. mac/, salvo que se presente por RICO. DEMANDADOS Demandados INVOLUNTAR]OS A: FERNANDO JAVIER derecho propio, en cuyo caso CIVIL NUM. CA2020CV01754. CIVIL NUM. CG2020CV01973.

ORIZONDO ALVAREZ- deberá radicar el original de su SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO SOBRE: contestación ante el Tribunal REINVINDICACIÓN MENA Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA DIVISIÓN Y LIQUIDACIÓN DE correspondiente y notifique con PO BOX 368108 POR LA VIA ORDINARIA. ES- COMUNIDAD DE BIENES. EMcopia a los abogados de la parTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERI- PLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. te demandante, Lcda. Marjaliisa SAN JUAN, PR 00936 CA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AME- POR LA PRESENTE se le noti- Colón Villanueva, al PO BOX EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE RICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS fica que ha sido presentada en 7970, Ponce, P.R. 00732; TeléASOCIADO DE P.R. SS. EDIC- ESTADOS UNIDOS ESTADO este Tribunal por la parte de- fono: 787-843-4168. En dicha TO. LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO mandante una demanda sobre demanda se tramita un procediRICO. reinvindicación, división y liqui- miento de cancelación de pagaA: CINDY ENID dación de comunidad de bienes, re extraviado. Se alega en dicho A: CARMEN DORIS RODRIGUEZ LEDUC, por cuyos hechos se. detallan en la procedimiento que se extravió PAGAN SEDA si y en representación misma, la cual puede ser exa- un pagaré a favor de CMFC, PO BOX 190998 de Ia Sociedad Legal minada en la secretaría de este lnc, ahora, Citi Mortgage, lnc, de Bienes Gananciales SAN JUAN, PR 00919-0998 Tribunal. REPRESENTA a los por la suma sesenta y tres mil compuesta por esta y su POR LA PRESENTE se le noti- demandantes el bufete RIVE- dólares (63,000.00), con interefica que ha sido presentada en al siete punto cero cero por esposo, JOSE ANDRES este Tribunal por la parte de- RA COLON, RIVERA TORRES ses & RIVERA RIOS (Lcdo. Víctor ciento (7.00%) anual, vencedero VARGAS SANCHEZ. mandante una demanda sobre M. Rivera Torres) con dirección el primero (1ro) de abril dos mil reinvindicación, división y liqui- en Avenida Fernández Juncos veinte uno (2021), según consta Urb. Loiza Valley Z-975, Calle Bahuinia, dación de comunidad de bienes, #1420, Santurce, Puerto Rico de la escritura número veintitrés cuyos hechos se. detallan en la 00909, teléfonos (787) 727- (23), otorgada en Bayamón,

Canóvanas, PR 00729.

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

(787) 743-3346

The San Juan Daily Star Puerto Rico, el día quince (15) de marzo de dos mil seis (2006) se constituyó hipoteca en garantía de pagaré suscrito ante el notario público Raúl Burgos Sola y cuya obligación hipotecaria se encuentra inscrita al folio ciento treinta y cinco (135) del tomo quinientos ochenta y dos (582) de Manatí, finca número dieciséis mil cincuenta y nueve (16,059). Inscripción tercera (3ra). Que grava la propiedad que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Parcela de terreno radicado en la Urbanización Monteverde localizada en el barrio Coto Norte de término municipal de Manatí Puerto Rico y que se describe en el plano de inscripción de la urbanización con el número, área y colindancia que se relacionan a continuación : Solar RR guion dos (RR-2) , con un área de trescientos punto cero cero (300 .00), metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en una alineación recta de doce punto cincuenta (12.50) metros, con la calle veinticinco (25) ; por el SUR, en una alineación recta de doce punto cincuenta (12.50) metros, con el solar RR guion trece (RR-13); por el ESTE , en una alineación recta de veinticuatros punto cero cero (24.00) metros. con el solar RR guion tres (RR-3) y por el OESTE, en una alineación recta de veinticuatro punto cero cero (24.00) metros. con el solar RR guion uno (RR-1). Enclava casa. Inscrita al folio móvil del tomo cuatrocientos noventa y cinco (495) de Manatl, finca número dieciséis mil cincuenta y nueve (16,059). Registro de la Propiedad de Manatí. SE LES APERCIBE que, de no hacer sus alegaciones responsivas a la demanda dentro del término aqul dispuesto. se les anotará la rebeldla y se dictará Sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal en Manatí, Puerto Rico, a 13 de octubre de 2020. VIVIAN Y. FRESSE GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. Iris M. Miranda, Sec Auxiliar.

CIVIL NÚM. MZ2020CV00255.

SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E.U.U. ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PR }

A: FDIC COMO SUCESOR EN DERECHO DE WESTERNBANK PUERTO RICO, P/C KEVIN J. GLUECKERT 235 CALLE FEDERICO COSTA, SUITE 335 SAN JUAN, P. R. 00918

Por el presente Edicto, que se publicará una sola vez, se les notifica que se ha presentado ante este Tribunal una Demanda alegando lo siguiente: (1) mediante escritura número 50 otorgada en Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, el día 12 de septiembre de 1997 ante el notario público Luis F. Cario Mendoza se constituyó una hipoteca en garantía de-un pagaré.por la suma principal de $60,000.00 con intereses al 15% a favor del Portador, y suscrito por Alfredo Mercado Quiles, la cual consta inscrita en la Finca Número 13,454 de Lajas como Inscripción tercera. Dicha hipoteca fue modificada por el Westernbank Puerto Rico y Alfredo Mercado Quiles, para vencer el vencimiento el 12 de septiembre de 2021, según consta de la escritura número 306 otorgada en Yauco, Puerto Rico, el día 8 de agosto de 2006 ante la Notario Lourdes Alicea Soto, inscrita al folio 249 vuelto del tomo 311 de Lajas, finca número 13,454.

Dicho Pagaré se ha extraviado y la parte demandante desea cancelarlo por haberse pagado la deuda en su totalidad por lo cual, si ustedes no formulan oposición, dentro del término de treinta (30) días, contados a partir de la fecha de publicación de este Edicto, la parte demandante podrá obtener Sentencia en rebeldía declarando que la Hipoteca que garantiza el mismo se ha extinguido y se ordenará su cancelación en el Registro de la Propiedad, sin más citarles ni oírles a ustedes. Deberán radicar el original de su ContesLEGAL NOTICE tación a Demanda en la SecreESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE taría del Tribunal de epígrafe y PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE enviar copia por correo al aboPRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE gado de la parte demandante cuyo nombre y dirección postal MAYAGÜEZ. es la siguiente: Lcdo. Santiago EVELYN ENID Mari Roca, PO Box 1589, MaCOLE FALTO yagüez, PR 00681-1589. Su DEMANDANTE Vs. teléfono es el (787) 831-2200, FEDERAL DEPOSIT email: smari_roca@yahoo.com.

EXPEDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y INSURANCE CORPORATION (FDIC) el sello de este Tribunal, por orden de un Juez de esta Sala. En COMO SUCESOR Mayagüez, Puerto Rico a 13 de EN DERECHO DE octubre de 2020. LCDA NORMA WESTERNBANK PUERTO G SANTANA IRIZARRY, SecreRICO; FULANO DE TAL Y taria General REGIONAL. Por: BETSY SANTIAGO GONZAMENGANO MÁS CUAL F/ LEZ, Secretaria Auxiliar.

DEMANDADOS

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

dirección jose. aguilar@orf- law. com y a la dirección notificacioESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE nes@orf-law.com. EXTENDIDO PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO Tribunal, en BAYAMON, Puerto JUDICIAL DE BAYAMON. Rico, hoy día 15 de octubre de 2020. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, PR RECOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT JV, LLC el 15 de octubre de 2020. LCDA. LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ, SeDEMANDANTE vs. cretaria Regional. Yariliz Cintron ANGEL RODRIGUEZ Colon, Sec Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

MEDINA, BLANCA l.

PADILLA ORTEGA & LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS H/ N/ C LECHONERA Y RESTAURANTE RODRIGUEZ

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NÚM.: NJ2019CV00198.

SOBRE: COBRO DE EJECUCION DE MOBILIARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO DINERO Y GRAVAMEN.

acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de San Juan y enviando copia a la parte demandante: Lcdo. Andrés Sáez Marrero; Cond. El Centro 1, Suite 801, 500 Muñoz Rivera LEGAL NOT ICE Ave., San Juan, PR 00918, Tel. ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE (787) 946-5268, Email: andres@ PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE bellverlaw.com. Se le apercibe PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA y notifica que si no contesta la SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN. demanda radicada en su contra WILMINGTON SAVINGS dentro del término de treinta (30) FUND SOCIETY, FSB, días de la publicación de este edicto, se le anotará la rebeldía NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL y se dictará sentencia conceCAPACITY BUT SOLELY diendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin más citárseles, AS CERTIFICATE TRUSTEE OF BOSCO ni oírseles. Expedido bajo mi y sello del.Tribunal, a 15 CREDIT II TRUST SERIES firma de octubre de 2020. GRISELDA 2017-1, BY FRANKLIN RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, SeCREDIT MANAGEMENT cretaria. LUZ ENID HERNANDEZ Del Valle, Sec Servicios a CORPORATION AS Sala.

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 San Juan , Puerto Rico, el 16 de octubre de 2020.

Griselda Rodriguez Collado, Secretario Regional. f/ María L. Tolentino Morales, Secretaria Reg. Aux.

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

PR RECOVERY & DEVELOPMENT JV, LLC, por conducto de su Agente Autorizado, Island Portfolio Services, LLC,

A: BLANCA l.

PADJLLA ORTEGA SERVICER H/N/C LECHONERA Demandante v.

Demandante, v.

LEGAL NOTICE Y RESTAURANTE URAYOAN HEREDIA LA SUCESION Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto RODRIGUEZ, POR SI Y SANTOS Y LUIS E. DE GILBERTO Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE EN REPRESENTACION CONCEPCION SUAREZ, JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera ALEJANDRO CALCAÑO Instancia Sala Superior MuniciDE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL Demandados compuesta por ANA pal de San Juan.

CIVIL NUM.: BQ2020CV00053.

DE GANANCIALES MARIA CONCEPCION SALA: SOBRE: COBRO DE DIDLJ MORTGAGE -Carretera 164 Km. 7.1 CASTRO, MARIA ELENA NERO y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOCAPITAL, INC NARANJITO PUERTO CONCEPCION CASTRO, TECA EMPLAZAMIENTO POR Demandante (a) VS. RICO 00719.

EDICTO. SOLEDAD CONCEPCION ANTONIO NICOLAS A: ANGEL RODRIGUEZ A: URAYOAN CASTRO, CARLOS MOREDA TOLEDO; MEDJNA H/N/C HEREDIA SANTOS CONCEPCION CASTRO ESTADO LIBRE POR EL PRESENTE EDICTO se LECHONERA Y y FULANO DE TAL ASOCIADO DE PUERTO le notifica que las partes demanRESTAURANTE como posible heredero RICO, DEPARTAMENTO dantes de epígrafe han radicado RODRIGUEZ, POR SI Y desconocido de la en este Tribunal una demanda DE HACIENDA, EN REPRESENTACION en su contra por la causal de Sucesión.

ORIENTAL BANK, DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL Cobro de Dinero Ejecución de Demandados CITIBANK N.A., JOHN Hipoteca. Se le emplaza conforCIVIL NÚM. SJ2018CV08506.

DE GANANCIALESCarretera 164 Km. 7.1 SOBRE:. COBRO DE DINERO DOE Y JANE DOE COMO me a la Regla 4.5 y 4.6 de las de Procedimiento Civil, mediante Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA NARANJI TO PUERTO (VIA ORDINARIA). EMPLAZA- POSIBLES TENEDORES la publicación de un solo edicto DESCONOCIDOS DEL RICO 00719. en un periódico de circulación MIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTAPAGARE EXTRAVIADO general diaria en la Isla de PuerPOR LA PRESENTE se le DOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL emplaza y requiere para qu e conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto.

Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deber á presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si us ted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referid o término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio so licitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende pro ce dente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia al abogado de la parte demandante , el Lcdo.

José F. Aguilar Vélez cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan , Puerto Rico 00936-8518 , teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la

Demandado (a) PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. Civil Núm.: SJ2019CV01521.

DE AMERICA EL ESTADO LISala: 506. Sobre: CANCELABRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO CION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIARICO. DO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENA: SUCESIÓN TENCIA POR EDICTO.

DE GILBERTO CONCEPCIÓN SUÁREZ, COMPUESTA POR SUS MIEMBROS: ANA MARÍA CONCEPCIÓN CAMACHO, MARÍA ELENA CONCEPCIÓN CAMACHO, SOLEDAD CONCEPCIÓN CAMACHO Y FULANO DE TAL, COMO POSIBLE HEREDERO DESCONOCIDO DE LA SUCESIÓN

Quedan emplazados y notificados de que en este Tribunal se ha radicado una demanda de cobro de dinero y ejecución de hipoteca en su contra. Se le notifica que deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede

A: JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARE EXTRAVIADO

EL SECRETARIO (A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 13 de octubre de 2020 este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los diez (10) días siguientes a su notificación.

Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede

to Rico, a los efectos de que se presente cualquier alegación responsiva a la demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este Edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publicación. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección 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 advierte que, si no contesta la demanda o deja de presentar una alegación responsiva, radicando el original de dicha alegación responsiva en este Tribunal y notificando copia de la misma al abogado de la parte demandante, dentro del referido término, el Tribunal podrá anotarle la rebeldía y dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra, concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. Favor de notificar

25

copia de su contestación al: LCDO. LUIS J. VILARÓ VÉLEZ: PO Box 363812, San Juan, PR 00936-3812 Tel.: 787-753-2160 luisvilaro@gmail.com EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en Aibonito, Puerto Rico, a 4 de septiembre de 2020. ELIZABETH GONZALEZ RIVERA, Secretaria. CARMEN TORRES TORRES, SubSecretaria.

tano de Tal, proceda a notificar la presente Orden mediante un edicto a esos efectos una sola vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de la Isla de Puerto Rico. DADA en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 9 de octubre de 2020. F/RAMON E. MELENDEZ CASTRO, Juez.

Reverse Mortgage Funding, LLC

Sucesión Myrta Morales Sostre, t/c/e Myrta María Sostres, t/c/c Myrta Morales compuesta por Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos de nombres desconocidos; Centro de Recaudaciones Municipales; y a los Estados Unidos de América.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE LEGAL NOTICE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE SAN JUAN. PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE Reverse Mortgage PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE Funding, LLC SAN JUAN. DEMANDANTE vs.

DEMANDANTE VS.

Sucesión Myrta Morales Sostre, t/c/c Myrta María Sostres, t/c/c Myrta Morales compuesta por Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos de nombres desconocidos; Centro de Recaudaciones Municipales; y a los Estados Unidos de América.

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: SJ2019CV10439.

SALA: 506. SOBRE: Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria. ORDEN. Examinada la demanda radicada por la parte demandante, la solicitud de interpelación contenida en la misma y examinados los autos del caso, el Tribunal le imparte su aprobación y en su virtud acepta la Demanda en el caso de epígrafe, así como la interpelación judicial de la parte demandante a los herederos del codemandado conforme dispone el Artículo 959 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 2787. Se Ordena a los herederos del causante a saber, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal a que, dentro del término legal de 30 días contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudien la participación que les corresponda en la herencia del causante Myrta Morales Sostre, t/c/c Myrta María Sostres, t/c/c Myrta Morales. 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 del causante Myrta Morales Sostre, t/c/c Myrta María Sostres, t/c/c Myrta Morales incluyen como herederos a Fulano de Tal y Su-

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: SJ2019CV10439.

SALA: 506. SOBRE: Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal como posibles herederos de nombres desconocidos de la Sucesión de Myrta Morales Sostre, t/c/c Myrta María Sostres, t/c/c Myrta Morales

POR LA PRESENTE, se les emplaza y se les notifica que se ha presentado en la Secretaria de este Tribunal la Demanda del caso del epígrafe solicitando la ejecución de hipoteca y el cobro de dinero relacionado al pagaré suscrito a favor de The Money House, loe., o a su orden, por la suma principal de $200,000.00, con intereses computados sobre la misma desde su fecha hasta su total y completo pago a razón de la tasa de interés de 7% anual, la cual será ajustada mensualmente, obligándose además al pago de costas, gastos y desembolsos del litigio, más honorarios de abogados en una suma de $20,000.00, equivalente al 10% de la suma principal original. Este pagaré fue suscrito bajo el affidávit número 2,834 ante el notario María l. De Mier Pérez. Lo anterior surge de la hipoteca constituida mediante la escritura número 76 otorgada el 30 de junio de 2008, ante el mismo notario público, inscrita al folio 48 del tomo de 1,013, finca número 17,573, Sección V de San Juan. La Hipoteca Revertida grava la propiedad que se

describe a continuación: C-890 . URBANA: Solar número veinticuatro del Bloque F (F-24) en la Urbanización Colinas Verdes, radicado en el Barrio Sabana Llana de Río Piedras, término municipal de San Juan, Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de trescientos veinticinco metros cuadrados (325 m); en lindes por el NORTE, en trece metros, con la Calle número 4; por el SUR, en trece metros, con el solar 38 del Bloque F; por el ESTE, en veinticinco metros, con el solar 25 del Bloque F; y por el OESTE, en veinticinco metros, con el solar 23 del Bloque F. Sobre el descrito solar enclava una casa de concreto dedicado a vivienda. Finca número 17.573, inscrita al folio 265 del tomo 417 de Sabana Llana. Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección V de San Juan. Se apercibe y advierte a ustedes como personas desconocidas , que deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.jamajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal. De no contestar la demanda radicando el original de la contestación ante la secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan , y notificar copia de la contestación de esta a la parte demandante por conducto de su abogada, GLS LEGAL SERVICES, LLC, Atención: Lcda. Cbarline M. Jimenez Ecbevarría , Dirección: P.O. Box 367308, San Juan, P.R. 009367308 , Teléfono: 787-758-6550, dentro de los próximos 60 días a partir de la publicación de este emplazamiento por edicto, que será publicado una sola vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general en la isla de Puerto Rico, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia , concediendo el remedio solicitando en la Demanda sin más citarle ni oírle.

Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal hoy 15 de octubre de 2020. Griselda Rodriguez Collado, Secretaria. Luz E. Fernandez Del Valle, SubSecretaria.

Estados Unidos de América.

DEMANDADOS CIVIL NUM.: SJ2019CV10439.

SALA: 506. SOBRE: Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria. MANDAMIENTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. Por Cuanto: Se ha dictado en el presente caso la siguiente Orden: ORDEN. Examinada la demanda radicada por la parte demandante, la solicitud de interpelación contenida en la misma y examinados los autos de! caso, el Tribunal le imparte su aprobación y en su virtud acepta la Demanda en el caso de epígrafe, así como la interpelación judicial de la parte demandante a los herederos del codemandado conforme dispone el Artículo 959 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 2787. Se Ordena a los herederos del causante a saber, Fulano de Ta! y Sutano de Tal a que, dentro de! término legal de 30 días contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudien la participación que les corresponda en la herencia del causante Myrta Morales Sostre, t/c/c Myrta María Sostres, t/c/c Myrta Morales. Se le Apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados: (a) Que de no expresarse dentro del término de 30 días en tomo a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia la misma se tendrá por aceptada; (b) Que luego del transcurso del 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 del causante Myrta Morales Sostre, t/c/c Myrta María Sostres, t/c/c Myrta Morales incluyen como herederos a Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal, proceda a notificar la presente Orden mediante un edicto a esos efectos una sola vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de la Isla de Puerto Rico. DADA en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 9 de octubre de LEGAL NOTICE 2020. Fdo. Ramon Melendez ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE Castro, JUEZ. Por Cuanto: Se le PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE advierte a que dentro de! térmiPRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE no legal de 30 días contados a SAN JUAN. partir de la fecha de notificación Reverse Mortgage de la presente Orden, acepten o Funding, LLC repudien la participación que les DEMANDANTE VS. corresponda en la herencia del Sucesión Myrta Morales causante Myrta Morales Sostre, Sostre, t/c/c Myrta María t/c/c Myrta María Sostres, t/c/c Myrta Morales. Por Orden del Sostres, t/c/c Myrta Honorable Juez de Primera insMorales compuesta por tancia de este Tribunal, expido Fulano de Tal y Sutano el presente Mandamiento, bajo de Tal como posibles mi firma y sello oficial, en San Puerto Rico hoy día 22 herederos de nombres Juan, de octubre de 2020. GRlSELDA desconocidos; Centro RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, Sec de Recaudaciones General. Luz E. Fernandez Del Valle, SubSecretaria.

Municipales; y a los

26

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Clayton Kershaw steadies Dodgers and puts a World Series within reach

By DAVID WALDSTEIN (Dodgers 4, Rays 2 | Los Angeles Leads Series, 3-2)

T

here were no crazy comebacks this time, no stumbling, staggering routes to home plate and no wild outfield celebration like the night before.

Some relative normalcy returned to the World Series on Sunday as the Los Angeles Dodgers inched closer to their first title in 32 years.

Shaking off whatever sting had come via a shocking loss in Game 4 on Saturday, the Dodgers rebounded to beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 4-2, in a comparatively straightforward Game 5 of the World Series at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

No team in this World Series has won consecutive games, and the pattern held Sunday as the Rays were unable to capitalize on whatever momentum they might have derived from their exhilarating win in Game 4, which ended when Randy Arozarena tapped home plate after stumbling and falling down the third-base line.

There were no such histrionics in this game — although there was a rare attempted steal of home plate — as Clayton Kershaw held down the Rays with a strong outing to win his second game in this Series.

Game 6 is today (8:08 p.m.), when the Rays will send their ace, Blake Snell, to the mound to try to prevent the Dodgers from winning their first World Series since 1988. The Dodgers pitcher for that game has not been announced yet, but in Game 2 last week Snell went up against a collection of Dodgers relievers as the Rays earned a 6-4 win.

On Sunday, the Dodgers started Kershaw, one of the best pitchers in the club’s long history, but he has his own history of inconsistencies in the postseason. In this Series, though, he has delivered whenever asked.

He allowed only one run in Game 1 and followed that up Sunday when he allowed two runs in 5 2/3 solid innings. He recorded six strikeouts, giving him 207 in his postseason career, which broke the record of 205 held

by Justin Verlander.

The Dodgers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning against Tyler Glasnow, the Rays’ starter, and never trailed in the game. It was a return to the Series trend: In Game 4 there were four lead changes, but the first three games had none.

Mookie Betts led off with a double and scored on a single by Corey Seager, who then scored on an infield single by Cody Bellinger. The Dodgers added to their lead in the second inning when Joc Pederson homered with the bases empty to give Los Angeles a 3-0 lead.

The Rays struck back in the third, as Kevin Kiermaier led off with an infield single and then scored on a one-out triple by leadoff hitter Yandy Díaz. Arozarena then singled on a high, hanging breaking ball from Kershaw, and the Dodgers lead was trimmed to 3-2. But Kershaw escaped further trouble by striking out Brandon Lowe, and Arozarena was thrown out trying to steal second base.

Clayton Kershaw held the Tampa Bay Rays to two runs over five and two-thirds inning in the Dodgers’ Game 5 win.

But that would not be the last time a Rays player was cut down trying to steal. The more memorable instance began when Manuel Margot led off the fourth by drawing a walk against Kershaw, and then stole second base. The throw to second base by catcher Austin Barnes was wild and dribbled into the outfield, allowing Margot to advance to third. Kershaw walked Hunter Renfroe but proceeded to record two outs.

Then, in a play that hadn’t happened in the World Series for 18 years, Margot attempted to steal home.

Kershaw has a unique windup, in which he pauses with his arms high in the air, and that was the moment Margot broke. Kershaw kept his composure, stepped off the rubber and threw to Barnes, who tagged Margot’s hand an instant before it touched the plate.

The Dodgers added to their lead in the top of the fifth when Max Muncy hit a towering blast to right field off Glasnow. As soon as the ball hit the bat, there was no question whether it would go over the

fence, and Muncy stood and admired the shot before breaking into his home run trot.

With a two-run lead going into the ninth inning, Dave Roberts, the Dodgers manager, decided not to use Kenley Jansen to record the save. Jansen blew the save opportunity in Game 4, and Roberts instead went with Blake Treinen, who got the final three outs for the save.

Roberts has faced criticism in the past for postseason pitching decisions, including in Game 4 when he brought Pedro Báez back one inning after he had given up a three-run home run, and Báez surrendered another homer.

But all of Roberts’ decisions proved to be the correct ones Sunday, including taking Kershaw out of the game in the sixth inning to bring in Dustin May. The result was a Dodgers team being one win away from its first World Series in more than a quarter of a century.

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

27

As a coach and a cop in Minneapolis, where would he draw the line?

By KURT STREETER

O

n the sidelines and in the streets, caught in the riptide of race and reconciliation, Charles Adams prided himself on keeping a cool optimism.

But on a painful night this spring, as his Minneapolis erupted in anger and he readied to face protesters in his riot gear, dread consumed him.

He was a 20-year veteran of the police force, an African American officer who tried to effect change from the inside. He was also the coach of a state championship football team in a poor, Black neighborhood, and a steadfast shepherd for his players. As the sky darkened, he feared for them. Where were they? Were they safe?

He feared for himself. His uniform made him a target. The face shield and gas mask hid his identity from the angry crowds, obscuring the beloved figure he has been across large swaths of the city.

Three days earlier, another Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, had used a knee to snuff the life from George Floyd, a Black man accused of trying to spend counterfeit money on cigarettes. The killing sickened Adams.

He could see himself in Floyd, a broadshouldered man who was a high school football and basketball star.

Adams considered Floyd’s death the result of an abuse of power that went against everything he stood for. The moment he saw the scene on video, he knew the city would convulse.

Nearby, buildings burned and cops took cover. Standing outside a squad car, Adams prepared to head into the trenches. First, he had to speak to his players, the Polars of Minneapolis North High. He opened his cellphone and addressed them on Zoom.

“I got to see your faces before I go up in here,” he told them. “I have to see you guys.”

Coach, you’re going to be OK, they said, voices cracking with emotion. It was their way of boosting him up, as he had always done for them.

“Before I hit the streets, I have to tell you guys something,” Adams replied.

“Just know that I care. I’m not sure what is going to happen tonight. I’m not sure if I am going to make it back and see you again.”

He needed them that night, more

than ever. It made sense. “Along with my family, the kids I help, they give me a higher purpose,” Adams told me.

“There’s a way that they help save me, and that night showed it.”

They needed him, too. “We just wanted to hear from him,” said Zach Yeager, the team’s quarterback. “He sets the path and gives us so much.

When everything was going crazy in this town, it was good to have his back.”

Adams, 40, a baritone-voiced bear of a man, was raised on Minneapolis’ North Side, where streets lined with modest homes and maple trees belie entrenched poverty and the city’s worst gang battles.

Adams could have left his neighborhood behind. But he never did. For all of its troubles, he loved its roughhewed warmth. As an officer, he became a fixture. “One of the rocks of this community,” a local pastor called him.

When Adams decided to become a high school coach during his off time, he did so at his struggling alma mater, Minneapolis North, four blocks from his childhood home. He turned a doormat team into a champion, his coaching powered by his ability to connect.

Now, as his city struggles to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and to mend the wounds laid bare by Floyd’s death, Adams remains. His work is a parable, testimony in troubled times to the power of everyday people who steadfastly care in struggling communities.

“Through thick and thin,” he said.

“I’m going to be here for north Minneapolis, here for the kids, through thick and thin.”

Upholding the law, and a team He was a cop before becoming a coach.

Adams followed his father, a veteran Minneapolis officer who came of age facing harassment by the police in the city’s housing projects during the 1960s and ’70s, and then joined the force to try changing it from within.

Like his father, Adams entered law enforcement aware of the trouble he would face, working in a department with few who looked like him. His eyes were also open to the difficult balance Black officers are forced to strike in a world rived by racism.

“I take that blue uniform off, I’m

Adams believed the team should play during the pandemic because of the unity football could provide. just like any other brother in America, dealing with all the issues,” he said. “I also look at it like this: Just because I have that uniform on does not mean I don’t know where I am from. I am a Black man first, blue or no blue.”

That said, he loved being an officer, especially in his community. He excelled.

“The guy was cool as a cucumber in every situation,” said Todd Kurth, a former squad car partner who noted the way Adams’ broad smile and highwattage friendliness won over even the wariest. “He could be firm when he needed to, no doubt, but he also had this ability to win people over and defuse tough situations. He had a need to help.”

It was a need that led him back to North High, from which he had graduated in the late 1990s. Ten years ago, Adams transferred to a unit that worked inside the public schools. He asked to be stationed exclusively at North. The school had changed since he graduated. A campus that once served 1,400 students now had about 100. District officials spoke of closing it for good.

One thing was similar: The basketball teams were top-notch, but the football team was decidedly not.

It did not take long for Adams to assume dual roles. School cop and head football coach.

There were about two dozen players when he started. The camaraderie was low. Morale, lower. In 2010, Adams’ first season, the Polars managed three wins. The next year, none.

Adams asked his father to help coach defense. He got a few other officers to join as assistants. Nothing helped. “We were getting the crap beat out of us,” Adams said.

“He wouldn’t quit on those kids,” said Beulah Verdell, a nurse who has been an assistant at North since the 1990s.

Verdell said that Adams proved himself early on by showing that he cared more about how the players were doing off the field than anything else. “That way, he could drive them hard on the field, and they would listen.” She added: “He kept telling everyone that we are going to win and win big. Not many believed, but look what happened.”

A coach and a counselor The Polars soon began winning.

Within three seasons, they were among the state’s best. In 2015, they lost in the Minnesota title game for small schools.

The next year, they won it all. They became the first team from a Minneapolis city school to win a state football championship since 1977.

Continues on page 28

28

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

From page 27 North has contended for the title every year since.

Still, there are continual challenges, not all of them having to do with games. The team often has to cobble together equipment — socks, pads, mouth guards — from donations.

North has plenty of players who don’t need much more than gentle guidance, on the field or off. But it also has plenty who need every bit of support Adams and his fellow coaches can give. Players whose families are mired in poverty. Players whose parents have been killed or have died young from diseases that rack the community, such as diabetes.

Players who fall for the lure of the streets Not long after North won the state championship, one of the team’s running backs was accused of involvement in a shooting. Facing arrest, he came to the school and turned himself into the one police officer he trusted: Adams.

“I can’t tell a kid I love him only when everything is going good and he helps us win championships,” Adams said, thinking back to the arrest and the tears he and his troubled player shed that day.

“When it goes bad, I also got to tell him I love him. That is how it works.

That is how this whole team works.”

Everything was set for more success this fall. The Polars were coming off a painful loss in last year’s championship game and were expected to be contenders again.

Then, the pandemic. And not long afterward, the night when Adams looked at his Facebook feed and saw the video recording of Chauvin’s knee on George Floyd’s neck.

“Right is right and wrong is wrong,” Adams said. “And this was as wrong as can be. The moment I saw that video, I could tell it was going to set us back 10, 20 years in terms of trust, or more.”

He knew Chauvin. They weren’t friends, but they started on the police force about the same time. In their early years, Adams recalled, he and Chauvin were once part of a group of officers who took a group of Black children fishing for a day. The details of that trip were hazy, but he remembers how Chauvin struck him.

“He came off as weird,” Adams said. “Socially awkward. Not sociable.

You could see something about him in his eyes during the video with him on Floyd’s neck. Control and power, and stubbornness.”

Adams loved being a police officer, but he knew there were still members of the force like Chauvin, who was fired and now faces second-degree charges of murder and manslaughter. He was released on $1 million bail this month.

North’s players also knew that.

Aside from Adams and the four officers who volunteered to help coach the team, the police made most of the players uneasy. C.J. Brown, a receiver, told me about the time he was pulled over, handcuffed and bullied. A case of mistaken identity.

“I’m not the only one on this team who has been treated like that,” Brown said. “It makes me sad. There are kids in other communities who can just do whatever, and the police treat them well. But kids here who are my color or darker, you can’t count on that.”

Unrest and mistrust The fallout from Floyd’s death was immediate in Minneapolis. It hit Adams directly. His day job as North’s in-house police officer had been as important to him as coaching the football team. He was inside the school each day, more counselor and calming uncle than a cop. He ate lunch with the students and didn’t carry his gun. Instead of a uniform, he wore khakis and a polo shirt.

In June, the city’s school board voted to end its contract with the Police Department. Adams could remain as the football coach but no longer work inside the school as an officer.

The move struck many at North as wrongheaded. Mauri Friestleben, the school’s principal, publicly criticized the ruling. On Facebook, she called Adams a life changer who “stands for what is good within my school, what is good within the Police Department, and what is good within Minneapolis.”

For the first time in 10 years, Adams was in a squad car, once again patrolling the North Side. He managed to be put on an early morning shift. That allowed him to be at the high school’s worn practice field in the afternoon so he could oversee summer workouts.

After Floyd’s death, and with the everyday rhythms of life beaten back for months by the pandemic, the streets of north Minneapolis quaked. From his patrol car, Adams could sense the tension.

His days suddenly filled with domestic violence calls, heroin overdoses, shootings, robberies.

Adams couldn’t wait to get to the school and be with his team, where he would often coach from a lawn chair, set off to the side, keeping what distance he could to avoid the virus.

At the end of one August afternoon, he rose to give his team news no one wanted to hear: Because of the pandemic, state high school officials had put football on hold until spring.

The players fell silent, taking in what they had just heard. Adams broke the spell. The Polars would keep going, even if they weren’t playing. “We have got to practice,” he told them. Not only to keep them in shape, but also to keep them safe.

“Giving you guys another two or three months when you are running around in this neighborhood with this crime, and you guys aren’t here with us, and we are not here keeping tabs on you all, that is a recipe for disaster,” Adams said.

His words underscored the way he navigated the pandemic. He knew the dire health risks, but paid heed to another stark reality: Kids in the neighborhood — with its rising number of gang shootouts, its shuttered schools and halted youth programs — felt increasingly alone and in despair. Like other high school coaches, he wrestled with applying the precautions required to lead his team during the pandemic — like distancing and masking — but he also saw football as a lifeline.

The weeks wore on. There would be more shocks.

Adams fell ill with the coronavirus.

He figured he caught it while on duty, often forced into close contact with strangers. It left him with a fever and what felt like a terrible flu, but he recovered in about three weeks.

He returned to his job as a beat cop and could feel unease continuing to increase between the police and his community. For the first time, he felt he could do nothing to calm it. One morning on duty, he crossed paths with a childhood acquaintance from the neighborhood. Normally they would talk for a while. But now Adams’ old friend wanted nothing to do with him.

“It was like all he saw was blue,” Adams recalled. “He saw that uniform, and for the first time ever, he looked right through me.”

That kind of interaction was happening too often. When I checked in and we spoke of Adams’ police work, I could hear sadness for the first time.

In an odd twist, Adams soon received a call from the Minnesota Twins.

They had become aware of Adams when he visited the team’s front office to help give a Police Department update after Floyd’s death and weeks of protest.

Bowled over by Adams’ passion for his community and his years on the force, the Twins made him a job offer: director of team security.

It would increase his salary, get him off the streets, give him a fresh perspective. He had one request of the Twins: He needed a schedule that would allow him to coach. State sports officials had reversed course, allowing a shortened football season in the fall.

Adams would not take the Twins job if it meant giving up North football, this season or in the future. Once he was assured that he could keep leading his team, Adams did something he had never imagined before this challenging year: He left the Police Department.

“A difficult decision,” he called it. “But police work no longer felt the same. The time had come for change.”

What hadn’t changed was football.

Now it was Oct. 16, cool and crisp. The Polars prepared to play their first home game of the season, against a Roman Catholic school from the suburbs.

It would be an unusual night, one of celebration. Not only was football back, but over the summer, the school district had finished renovating North’s football field. The team could not have fans in the stands because of the virus, but for the first time in years, the Polars would play at home under lights.

Prepping for the game, the Polars gathered at North, dressed and then walked, as they traditionally do, through the neighborhood’s leaf-strewn streets.

Adams followed, alone, dressed in his blue sweatshirt with the hood pulled up.

It felt meditative, sifting through memories of the past seven months and all of its trouble. The pandemic. George Floyd. The night he went to the trenches and called his players, worried he would not see them again.

It felt prayerful. Despite the madness in the world, there he was, on his way to coach players he loved in north Minneapolis, the neighborhood he will always call home.

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Tuesday, October 27, 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)

Be ready to talk about it calmly when a difference of an opinion regarding a financial or business matter occurs. Useful information could come from an unexpected source.

Don’t let gossip you overhear discourage or upset you. Rumours aren’t likely to be true. An exciting invitation will take you by surprise.

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

A friend will try to drag you into a financial wrangle with a third party. Proceed with caution. Better still, just don’t get involved. You can sense when there will be trouble ahead.

Urge caution and at least you will have tried to nip a problem in the bud. Going away for a few days would bring contentment if this can be arranged.

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Encourage a friend or loved one who has something on their mind to open up to you.

You can tell they need to talk and it shouldn’t take a lot of effort to persuade them to do so.

There’s every chance you have knowledge or information that will put their mind at ease.

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

Change the subject when a nosy friend wants to know your private business. Be careful how much you disclose about your personal affairs, especially your finances. Their motives may be innocent but you don’t want to say anything you might later regret. It should be surprisingly easy to evade these questions without causing offence.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

Don’t hesitate to defend another person’s rights. If you spot someone who is struggling to express themselves, offer to speak up on their behalf. You hate seeing anyone being treated unfairly and not only will your support boost their morale but it will let the person who is causing the problem know they can’t get away with such biased behaviour.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

The San Juan Daily Star

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Financial matters need closer attention. Take time to sift through your bills and bank statements. You’ve been putting this off for too long. An overpayment will need to be paid back and cannot be overlooked. If you think a mistake has been made get in touch with the appropriate authorities.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

It will take time to get used to changes in the home but eventually you will settle into new routines. Go with the flow as this could pave the way for improved family conditions. You might try to dismiss minor aches and pains as being nothing very serious but it’s still worth getting the opinion of a medical practitioner.

Scorpio

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Get an early start if you’re planning to update your home or re-organise your workplace.

You don’t want the whole day to be taken up with such a project. Your boss has been relying on you a lot to fill in for an absent colleague.

Now is a good time to argue for a better deal when it comes to conditions of your job.

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

Creative and artistic pursuits will bring cash rewards. Changes in a friendship or romantic relationship will leave you both happier and more at ease with each other. Someone in the family will make an announcement that will remove a weight from your mind. Communications are mostly positive.

An expert in some form of therapy might suggest you look into studying the subject. If they can see your potential and you are interested, it’s worth thinking about it. Conversely, you have specialised skills that someone wants to learn. There is money to be made from passing these talents on to another.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

Friendships strengthen through sharing interests and activities together. Are you single and hoping to get to know someone better? Take the initiative now before you or they lose interest. Love is in the air. If you’ve been longing to hear three little words from someone special in your life, this could be your lucky day.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

You and a partner should be carefully considering your individual and joint situations when it comes to finances. If you’re moving in together or if one of you is going through a career change, you have a lot to consider.

It would be best to talk things through thoroughly then step back and think about what you have discussed.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

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Ziggy

32

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star