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LUMA defends temporary rate hike, but more are expected
By THE STAR STAFF
LUMA Energy External Relations Director José Pérez Vélez on Tuesday defended the company’s decision to request an increase of 2.9 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in the utility bill for the last quarter of 2024, and it appears there will be more hike requests.
Pérez Vélez said the cost of the generation fuel used by power plant operator Genera PR during the months of June, July and August, a cost that is decided by international markets, was higher than expected.
The Financial Oversight and Management Board recently approved an amendment to the contract between Genera and Puerto Rico Energy LLC, a fuel supplier, that increases its maximum payable amount by close to $60 million.
The original contract, which the oversight board approved on Oct. 11, 2023, is for the supply of ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) for the San Juan, Aguirre, Mayagüez, and Cambalache power generation plants, as well as the Vega Baja, Guayama, Ceiba, and Yabucoa gas turbines.
Under the original contract, the supplier sells and delivers ULSD in the quantities and time requested by Genera for the power plants and gas turbines. It had a maximum payable amount of $452 million and a term lasting up to one year from its date of execution on Nov. 17, 2023 to Nov.16, 2024, with the option to extend for an additional year.
The amendment increases the maximum payable amount by $58 million to $510 million without altering the term, due to a rise in projected fuel consumption.
The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) certified that the increase is a pass-through expenditure with no budgetary impact, and that the funds to pay for the proposed amendment are unrestricted.
LUMA Energy, the private operator of the electric power transmission and distribution system, this week sought an increase in the electric energy bill of some 2.9 cents per kWh.
As part of the report submitted to the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) for the quarterly fuel cost adjustment and power purchase adjustment factors in customer electric rates, LUMA said in a press release that “the cost of generation fuel used by Genera PR during the months of June, July, and August was higher than expected.”
“Those additional costs, along with the forecast for October-December, indicate an expected increase in the factors of approximately 2.9 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) on customer bills,” LUMA said. “The new factors for the last three months of 2024 are subject to review and final determination by the PREB.”
LUMA President & CEO Juan Saca had said in a written statement Monday afternoon that besides the increase in fuel costs, “generation problems continue to cause this increase.”
Saca also noted that the rate hike is necessitated by the island’s dependence on expensive fuels such as diesel and bunker fuel due to the lack of availability of plants that use natural gas. LUMA has said previously that it has no control over the aforementioned costs, since it is not responsible for the generation of electricity.
The bill adjustments cover only the cost of fuel and purchased energy; over 65% of customers’ bills go toward paying for these items, according to LUMA.
Nearly $4 million in energy assistance disbursed for low-income families
Also on Tuesday, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia and Family Secretary Ciení Rodríguez Troche announced the disbursement of $3.9 million to help low-income families, participants in the Temporary Assistance Program for Needy Families, with the payment of their energy bills.
“This disbursement reaffirms our commitment to supporting the most vulnerable families in Puerto Rico,” Pierluisi said in a written statement.
The assistance will be provided under the LowIncome Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which is administered by the Administration for Socioeconomic Development of Families (ADSEF by its acronym in Spanish). LIHEAP provides economic support to families below the poverty level to cover energy costs.
ADSEF Administrator Alberto Fradera Vázquez said the transfer of funds will take place today, and will be reflected in participants’ next energy bill.
Governor signs bill to strengthen care & development of eligible minors
By THE STAR STAFF
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia on Tuesday signed House Bill 1041, a measure that amends Law 173-2016, known as the “Law for the Licensing of Child Care, Development and Learning Establishments in Puerto Rico.”
The measure seeks to temper the provisions of the law to recent social and legislative changes, in order to guarantee better quality in child care services, promoting the well-being of eligible minors and facilitating the operation of centers that offer such services.
House Bill 1041 introduces significant amendments such as the creation of new figures, such as the “caregiver,” who will be responsible for the care and development of minors. The measure also replaces the Child Development Associate (CDA) Certification with the “Child Development Course (CDN),” facilitating a more accessible and flexible certification for professionals in the field.
“The signing of this measure is a crucial step to ensure that child care and development centers in Puerto Rico operate under updated standards and that minors receive the best
possible service, always focused on their safety, well-being and comprehensive development,” the governor said in a written statement.
The bill also creates a Review Board for Early Childhood Professional Development and Continuing Education Institutions, which will be appointed by the governor. The board will ensure that the entities that provide training comply with local and federal regulations, ensuring quality in the training of educators.
Another important aspect of the legislation is the creation of a “Qualified Residential Treatment Program” for minors who require specialized care due to their emotional or behavioral needs. In addition, the terms for obtaining provisional licenses are to be extended and a protocol is to be established for reporting establishments that operate without a license.
The governor stressed that the legislation also addresses the current realities of the child care system on the island, with the goal of making the processes more agile and accessible for those who operate the centers, without compromising safety and quality standards.
The measure aims to guarantee better quality in child care services, promoting the well-being of eligible minors and facilitating the operation of centers that offer such services. (Facebook via Governor Pierluisi)
Governor tells electoral commissioners to stop complaining, get to work
By THE STAR STAFF
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia insisted on Tuesday that there is an agenda on the part of electoral commissioners to discredit the State Elections Commission.
“They are looking for blame, passing blame to the right and to the left, to the same people who should have done the work. Because here the commission is nothing more than the commissioners and the parties,” the governor said in response to questions from the press. “Because our system works like this, it works based on the fact that each
party has a framework within the commission and some commissioners have a staff that they have to recruit and they have political and electoral work to do. And what they have done is complain. Enough of all this complaining and let them get to work.”
“The electoral calendar was established in March 2023, more than a year and a half ago,” Pierluisi added. “We already know what the deadlines are for all the procedures. That is why what I am saying is that there are four or five days left, that is, the population, the voters, have until September 21.”
“... The electoral code was not amended here, so the
Marine biologists paint reefs to revive them
By THE STAR STAFF
Using 3D printers, marine biologists decided to paint over desolate coral reefs to attract fish and revive them, according to an El País report.
The printers allowed the reefs destroyed by hurricanes Irma and Maria to be decorated with blue, yellow and, back to basics, bright white, colors not often seen on a natural reef.
In Puerto Rico, biologists are installing thousands of artificial corals made from cornstarch using 3D printers to restore reefs in waters off the island’s shores. Scientists from the Marine Environment Society have already installed more than 10,000 artificial corals around the offshore island municipality of Culebra, where coral life was devastated by Irma and Maria in 2017. The island is famous among tourists for its crystal-clear beaches and expeditions to see colorful reefs, which have been severely damaged by coral bleaching, exacerbated by climate change, El País said.
The printed corals measure no more than 60 centimeters, a feature that distinguishes the project, started in 2021, from others that have also used 3D printers, in which the structures are usually the size of a moving box. Its goal is to attract fish and other organisms to revitalize the reef more quickly than natural corals, which can take up to a year to grow enough to become a suitable habitat for marine life.
For now, artificial corals are only found in specific spots on Culebra, such as Punta Tampico and Punta de Maguey, two postcard-perfect paradises, El País said.
For Alex Mercado Molina, the project’s principal investigator, and his colleague Samuel Suleimán Ramos, the idea was to recreate as accurately as possible the coral environment that existed before the destruction caused by the hurricanes, according to El País.
“The biodiversity of the reef has increased since we introduced the artificial corals,” said Mercado Molina, who is also a professor at the University of Puerto Rico in Bayamón. “It’s
electoral code must be complied with,” he said. “This is a society of law and order. … All those commissioners and all the parties knew what the rules of the game were and they had to act to register their voters.”
With five days remaining in the period for registering voters, including reactivating or realizing voter transactions, the SEC decided on Tuesday to further extend the hours of operation at all the Permanent Registration Boards and Temporary Registration Boards around the island.
The boards will be open to the public without interruption from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
3D printers allowed reefs destroyed by hurricanes Irma and Maria to be decorated with colors not often seen on a natural reef. (Wikimedia Commons)
not just attracting more fish; it’s attracting more types of fish.”
The team analyzed the reef ecosystem under different scenarios and found a significant increase when the transplantation of natural and artificial corals was combined.
The brightly colored corals sparked the curiosity of the fish.
Edwin Hernández Delgado, the researcher in charge of monitoring the fish in this project, said the number of fish more than doubled after the transplantation of artificial corals.
Forum to mark 35th anniversary of Domestic Violence Law
By THE STAR STAFF
As part of the commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the Domestic Violence Law and the four years since the creation of the 24/7 Helpline, Proyecto Matria, co-sponsored by the María Dolores (Tati) Fernós Women’s Commission of the Puerto Rico Bar Association, will hold a forum on Thursday with a group of experts who will analyze the impact of the statute in Puerto Rico.
Proyecto Matria Executive Director Cristina Parés Alicea said the forum, titled “Law 54: 35 Years for Women’s Peace,” will feature perspectives from various experts from the academic sector, the practice of law, activism of several decades, the public prosecutor’s office and gender violence shelters.
“We are commemorating an important milestone that invites us to reflect. We have made significant progress, but we still face numerous challenges,” Parés Alicea said. “The human rights of women and the LGBTQI+ community continue to be violated. It is essential that we join forces and continue to
create spaces for dialogue that allow us to advance toward a Puerto Rico free of sexist violence.”
The discussion panelists will be Dr. Esther Vicente, a professor at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico School of Law; Lindsay Murillo, a special prosecutor at the Department of Justice; and Coraly León Morales, chair of the National Network of Gender Violence Shelters board of directors. The conversation will be moderated by Parés Alicea, who said the forum will address the origin of the statute and its history, as well as its implementation, the effect of the amendments, the challenges and the lessons learned; activism; the services available to survivors in shelters; and the support provided by various specialized spaces.
Parés Alicea added that the panelists will discuss where “hope for transformation accompanied by love, rage and strategy, with our dead in our hearts, and in their memory” points.
“We thank the pioneers of this cause and all the people who, throughout these 35 years, have worked hard with the victims and to raise awareness among the public,” she stressed.
“This forum is also an invitation to collective action to continue working toward the eradication of gender violence in Puerto Rico.”
Vega Baja mayor: Citizen effort to protest constant blackouts achieved its goal
By THE STAR STAFF
Vega Baja Mayor Marcos Cruz Molina, who led a citizen effort earlier this week to protest the constant blackouts and load shifts that impact homes, schools, hospitals and businesses in the northern coastal town, said Tuesday that he achieved his goal of drawing attention to the problem of the lack of energy generation.
“This is a long-term process, and now we are also going to the [Puerto Rico] Energy Bureau to validate what is indicated on both sides of the process,” the mayor said. “We are clear that we are facing a complicated process, but the first step is to have real information on the situation.”
At a meeting with Iván Báez of Genera PR, Cruz Molina received details on the work that the company in charge of the island’s legacy electric power plants will carry out in the short, medium and long term, specifically the demolition of the facilities in Vega Baja, and the establishment of a battery system.
“The lack of energy generation affects the whole society, from human reality to economic development,” Cruz Molina said. “Solutions must be as quick as possible.”
The Puerto Rico Mayors Association governing board member also pointed out that since last March, the Energy Bureau has had before it a letter in which Genera PR requests to change the energy system, and no step has been taken to do so, even though the proposed change would generate savings of $80 million in costs, which would benefit the consumer.
“Almost six months after the issuance of this document, we are going to see what has been done, because the energy situation is the main problem that Puerto Rico has at the moment,” added the mayor, who will document the efforts in order to inform U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
“By order of President Joe Biden, she has been very attentive to everything that happens on the island and has made multiple visits,” Cruz Molina said. “We will make all the efforts that can be made for the well-being of our people.”
Excessive heat at high school in Vega Baja spurs protest
Andeno Co
Tasa mínima, promedio ponderado, y máxima para préstamos personales pequeños otorgados para la semana que terminó el sábado, 14 de septiembre de 2024
Tasa
By THE STAR STAFF
Students, parents and teachers at Lino Padrón Rivera High School demonstrated on Tuesday morning in protest of the unbearable heat conditions they face daily, which they said hinder the learning process.
The school is without air conditioning, which has not been activated despite having been installed a year ago.
“The need for air conditioning is a priority to ensure an adequate learning environment,” teacher Eduardo Arce said.
The protesters acknowledged the efforts of the school’s
director, Joel Nieves Cardona, who has asked the island Department of Education to complete the electrical installation necessary to turn on the units. Another teacher, Carlos González, said $32,000 is needed for the Office for School Improvement to finish the wiring.
Student Gabriel Figueroa stressed that the conditions for studying are the same as those of teachers’ work, with the situation being all the worse given the high temperatures in Vega Baja.
Parents also requested the reconstruction of the school sports field and the installation of air conditioning in the theater and library.
Vega Baja Mayor Marcos Cruz Molina
Proyecto Matria Executive Director Cristina Parés Alicea (LinkedIn)
The San Juan Daily Star
Wednesday, September 18, 2024 5
Suspect never had sight of Trump on golf course, officials say
By ADAM GOLDMAN and GLENN THRUSH
The man arrested near Donald Trump’s golf course in Florida first approached the perimeter fence near the sixth hole about 12 hours before the former president would have teed off there, according to data retrieved from the man’s cellphone. But officials say the suspect never had Trump in his sights.
The defendant, Ryan W. Routh, 58, did not get a shot off Sunday, the agency’s acting director, Ronald Rowe, said at a news conference. Instead, agents opened fire on him, preventing what officials have described as an apparent assassination attempt by someone with a lengthy criminal record who discussed the morality of assassination in a self-published book.
Here’s what we’re covering:
— The charges: Routh made a first appearance Monday in federal court, where he faced charges of possessing a firearm as a felon, which carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years, and possession of a firearm
with an obliterated serial number. The FBI’s top agent in Miami said the bureau had no information that Routh had been working with anybody else.
— The suspect: In a rambling online screed titled “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War,” Routh last year called the former president a “buffoon” and several other insults. In one angry passage about the dismantling of the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran, the author appears to suggest that Iran, and perhaps readers, were “free to assassinate Trump.”
— The weapon: Cellphone data indicated that Routh first entered the woods
A photo released by the Martin County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office shows Ryan Wesley Routh in custody on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. Investigators say Routh waited near a golf course for 12 hours in an apparent attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, on Sunday. (Martin County Sheriff’s Office via The New York Times)
near Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, nearly half a day before a Secret Service agent spotted what appeared to be the barrel of a rifle. The complaint detailed the subsequent discovery of a loaded SKS-style rifle — a semi-automatic developed by the Soviets in the 1940s — with a scope, as well as food and a digital camera.
— Assigning blame: The episode cast fresh doubts on the Secret Service’s protective abilities after an apparent would-be killer got close to Trump for the second time in about two months. President Joe Biden told reporters Monday that the Secret Service “needs more help,” while Trump blamed what he called Democrats’ “inflammatory language” for the episode, even as he called them the “enemy from within.” Speaking via livestream on social media Monday night, Trump offered his first public description of the events Sunday, saying that he heard shots in the distance and was then grabbed and moved by Secret Service agents. “I would have loved to have sank that last putt,” he said.
Ohio governor sending state police to Springfield after rash of bomb scares
By MIRIAM JORDAN
Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio announced Monday that he was deploying state troopers to the beleaguered city of Springfield to reassure the community that schools are safe despite a wave of bomb threats.
The threats began last week after Donald Trump mentioned Springfield during the presidential debate, repeating a baseless rumor that Haitian immigrants in the city were abducting and eating household pets.
Since then, 33 bomb threats have targeted city schools, most recently on Monday when two elementary schools were evacuated as a result of threats, DeWine said. City Hall and two hospitals have also been targeted.
At a news conference, DeWine said that none of the bomb threats so far had “any validity at all.”
But the threats have shaken the city and disrupted school for thousands of students. The deployment of a contingent of 36 troopers, beginning Tuesday, is intended to allay anxieties and ensure that students can focus on school.
“We must take every threat seriously, but children deserve to be in school, and parents
deserve to know that their kids are safe,” the governor said. “The added security will help ease some of the fears caused by these hoaxes.”
Even before Trump mentioned the rumor during the presidential debate, his running mate, JD Vance, had promoted the rumors about Haitians in Springfield eating pets — claims that city officials have repeatedly refuted.
Thousands of Haitians have settled in Springfield since the COVID-19 pandemic to fill jobs in the area. Vance, Ohio’s junior senator, had cited the city in recent months to criticize the Biden administration’s border policies because the newcomers have put pressure on social services, clinics and schools.
DeWine said the troopers would be at 17 school buildings as of Tuesday and would check all school sites before the start of classes and stay on campus throughout the day and after dismissal.
He said investigators had determined that many of the threats were originating outside the United States.
“Many of these threats are coming in from overseas, made by those who want to fuel the current discord surrounding Springfield,”
DeWine said in a statement. “We cannot let the bad guys win.”
In a statement, the Springfield City School District’s superintendent, Dr. Bob Hill, denounced the threats and the effects on students. “Our students, staff and school community do not deserve to have their daily schedules disrupted by senseless threats of violence,” he said.
Higher education institutions in Springfield also have endured threats and disruptions.
Classes at Wittenberg University were held remotely Monday after a spate of threats by email that targeted the Haitian community, according to a statement from the liberal-arts college.
Clark State College also announced that classes would be held remotely and all activities rescheduled this week after it received threats.
The city said Monday that it would cancel an annual festival, called CultureFest, planned for Sept. 27-28, over safety concerns.
Vance, who first repeated the rumors, said on CNN over the weekend that he had received many “firsthand” accounts from his constituents.
He rejected any suggestion that by repeating the falsehoods he had helped prompt the threats, and he said that he condemned violence.
“All that I’ve done is surface the complaints of my constituents, people who are suffering because of Kamala Harris’ policies,” he said. “Are we not allowed to talk about these problems because some psychopaths are threatening violence?”
Later, Vance, said, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Storm lashes the Carolinas with historic amounts of rain
By JUDSON JONES and SARA RUBERG
Apowerful storm system that was not quite a tropical storm dropped historic amounts of rainfall in southeastern North Carolina on Monday, forecasters said, leading to flooded businesses and collapsed roads in a region hit by Tropical Storm Debby just last month.
Despite having tropical storm force winds above 39 mph, the storm fell technically short of becoming what would have been the eighth named storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, Helene.
But even without the name, the hazards were the same. The storm unleashed flash flooding and wind gusts stronger than 60 mph along the North Carolina coast, forecasters with the National Hurricane Center said Monday afternoon.
Debby brought more than 1 foot of rain across some parts of the Carolinas in August, and forecasters did not initially expect that much rain to fall Monday. But by early afternoon, some locations in North Carolina had already seen nearly 15 inches of rain, catching residents, officials and forecasters by surprise.
More than 18 inches of rain fell in Carolina Beach between midnight Sunday and Monday afternoon. Forecasters in Wilmington called the likelihood of that amount of rain occurring in only 12 hours a one-in-a-1,000-year event.
The National Weather Service pushed flash flood warnings for parts of Raleigh, North Carolina, Fayetteville, North Carolina, and surrounding areas issued Monday night into Tuesday. Northern Cumberland County got about 4 to 5 inches of rain by late Monday.
Larry Ashley, a retiree in Southport, North Carolina, where
some of the flooding and road damage took place Monday, said the rain was unlike anything he’s seen before.
“It was like having a bucket of water dumped on you constantly,” he said.
Mayor Lynn Barbee of Carolina Beach, a town just south of Wilmington, said that many parts of his town were 2 to 3 feet underwater Monday. Emergency teams made dozens of rescues in the area and most businesses downtown were impacted by floodwaters, the mayor said.
He added that Monday was the third major flooding event in Carolina Beach in the past few months that the town did not anticipate. He said he knew the storm would be an issue when the wind began to pick up and it sounded like a hurricane.
“We sort of feel like we’re in rainstorm alley,” Barbee said.
The fire department in Wilmington made multiple water rescues in Carolina Beach and Kure Beach, where the water was waist-deep, according to a post on its Facebook page. New
Hanover County Fire Rescue said in a social media post that it saved two people trapped in a car.
Schools in New Hanover County dismissed all students early Monday and said classes Tuesday would be conducted remotely. Some students at Carolina Beach Elementary were taken home early Monday by emergency vehicles when flooding began and parents were unable to reach their children, Barbee said.
Tuesday classes were canceled for schools in neighboring Brunswick County, which closed government offices Monday because of a declared state of emergency.
WECT, a television station in Wilmington, showed footage of cars and cargo vans stuck in floodwaters, as well as road closures in the area. Several roads in Brunswick County collapsed or partially collapsed Monday, according to posts made on Facebook by the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office.
Officials in Southport, about 30 miles south of Wilmington, closed the roads to all incoming traffic Monday and told residents to shelter in place at their homes or places of work, according to the city’s Facebook posts.
Chris Adams, a supervisor for Omni Electric in Wilmington, said Monday evening that two of his work crews had been stuck in flooded stretches of Highway 17 in Brunswick County since 10:30 a.m. and were still unable to make it home. He said parts of the road had been washed out and some were still underwater.
“I don’t think anyone expected it to be as bad as it is,” he said.
Key things to know:
— The storm system is expected to continue to move slowly inland Monday night into Tuesday, spreading heavy rain across North Carolina. On Tuesday, the remnants of the storm will move into Virginia, bringing the potential for some flooding rains across the commonwealth into Wednesday morning.
— More akin to a typical storm system over the United States, the storm’s energy came from interacting air masses instead of from the rising warm, humid air of the ocean that feeds tropical cyclones.
— As the storm approached land, its winds weakened below tropical storm force (39 mph or greater), prompting the hurricane center to drop the tropical storm warnings that had flanked the coast. A satellite image provided by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration shows a storm system spinning off the coast of the Carolinas early on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (NOAA via The New York Times)
Donald Trump rolls out his new cryptocurrency business
By DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY, SHARON LaFRANIERE and MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN
Aday after an apparent assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, he appeared on a livestream Monday to champion his latest business venture: cryptocurrencies.
“Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” Trump said on the social platform X. “Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.”
Beside him were his collaborators, including a family friend; Trump’s two oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump; and two little-known crypto entrepreneurs with no experience running a high-profile business. Together, they were rolling out Trump’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, a project that has already raised concerns about the former president’s conflicts of interest and even alarmed some of his most vocal supporters in the industry.
Trump has promoted the venture since August, but its exact purpose remains unclear. No official launch date has been set. On the livestream, he did not address the project directly, leaving the details to the two entrepreneurs, Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman. Herro has described himself as “the dirtbag of the internet,” while Folkman used to teach classes on how to seduce women.
It’s highly unusual for a presidential candidate to embark on a new business just weeks before Election Day, and even rarer for one to aggressively promote a venture designed to benefit himself and his family. But throughout his political career, Trump has engaged in business dealings that ethics experts have flagged as problematic. He is the majority owner of Trump Media & Technology Group, the publicly traded parent company of his social media platform, Truth Social, which accounts for some $2 billion of his personal wealth.
Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said that if Trump was elected in November, his involvement in the crypto venture would create serious conflicts of interest. The Securities and Exchange Commission has cracked down on the industry, arguing that nearly all cryptocurrencies are unregistered securities and ought to be regulated like stocks traded on Wall Street.
Trump “would be able to push regulatory agencies to favor businesses he is involved in,” Brian said. Ethics experts have said that his ownership of the social media company raises
Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the spin room following the presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. A day after an apparent assassination attempt against Trump, the former president appeared on a livestream on X on Monday, Sept. 16, to champion his latest business venture: cryptocurrencies. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)
similar issues.
Representatives for the Trump Organization and World Liberty Financial did not respond to requests for comment.
For years, Trump was a crypto skeptic who denounced bitcoin as a “scam.” But on the campaign trail, he has morphed into a vocal supporter, speaking at a popular industry conference and drawing donations from crypto executives.
Planning for World Liberty Financial began nine months ago, according to the Trump family friend involved in the venture, Steve Witkoff, a real estate magnate who helped spearhead it. On the livestream, Witkoff said he introduced Trump’s sons to Herro and Folkman, who have overseen the venture.
By July, AMG Software Solutions, a company based in Puerto Rico, had filed a trademark for the new platform. The next month, Trump, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. started posting about it on X.
On the livestream Monday, Trump and his sons said that crypto would transform the financial system, without detailing what their business venture is designed to accomplish. But privately, some people involved in World Liberty Financial have pitched it as a borrowing and lending platform, according to three people with knowledge of the project. A white
paper for the venture, reviewed by The New York Times, said that it would feature a new cryptocurrency called $WLFI that would be sold to the public.
On its official X and Telegram accounts, World Liberty Financial has said that the project aims to drive “mass adoption of stablecoins,” a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a constant value of $1. One person briefed on the project described it as similar to an existing service called Instadapp, an application that allows users to manage their in-
vestments across a range of crypto platforms.
Several members of the Trump family have roles in the business, according to a list of team members included in the white paper. Donald Trump’s title is “chief crypto advocate.” Barron Trump, his 18-year-old son, is listed as the project’s “DeFi visionary,” a reference to the branch of crypto known as decentralized finance. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are each described as a “web3 ambassador.”
A disclaimer at the end of the document said the platform wasn’t owned or managed by Donald Trump, the Trump Organization or his family, though family members might receive compensation. (The white paper was earlier reported by the crypto news outlet CoinDesk.)
The key figures in the project are Herro and Folkman. On the livestream, Herro, who sometimes spells his surname Hero, said his aim was to give “the everyday American” access to crypto investments.
“This country’s been so good to me, and crypto has been so good to me,” Herro said. Herro is a relatively obscure figure in the crypto world. As a young man, he has said, he was a habitual drug offender and was imprisoned, but later turned his life around and became rich. In 2022, he appeared at a crypto seminar hosted by Jordan Belfort, who inspired the 2013 movie “The Wolf of Wall Street.” At the event, Herro described stablecoins as “the biggest innovation since sliced bread,” and said his favorite of the coins was “vivacious and insane and almost borderline a Ponzi scheme.”
Over the years, Herro has worked closely with Folkman, who founded a company called Date Hotter Girls, which offered seminars on “attracting, dating and keeping women of beauty and quality.”
The San Juan Daily Star
Stocks
Fed to go big on first rate cut, traders bet
Traders on Tuesday kept bets the Federal Reserve will start an expected series of interest rate cuts with a half-percentage-point move downward on Wednesday, an expectation that may itself put pressure on central bankers to deliver just that.
Futures tied to the Fed policy rate as of Tuesday mid-morning implied about a two-in-three chance of a bigger cut, versus a one-in-three chance of the more moderate 25 basis-point reduction still penciled in by analysts at most major Wall Street firms.
The Fed starts its two-day policy setting meeting today, and will meet again in early November and mid-December.
Traders expect a total of two half-point rate cuts plus one quarter-point cut over the course of the three remaining meetings for 2024, rate-futures show.
The Fed has kept its policy rate in the 5.25%-5.50% range for more than a year as it seeks to squeeze high inflation from the economy.
Inflation is now down to 2.5% and most policymakers view it as well on the way toward the Fed’s 2% target. Meanwhile the unemployment rate rose to 4.2% last month. Nearly all Fed policymakers agreed even in July that it would soon be time to start cutting rates to avoid slowing the economy too much.
Until late last week, traders were betting on a quarter-point rate cut to begin the series, but flipped to favor a half-point cut after reports by the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times late Thursday suggested a bigger rate reduction was still an option.
Since then, those market expectations have only firmed, barely budging Tuesday as government reports showed U.S. retail sales unexpectedly rose in August, and manufacturing rebounded, signs that the economy still has legs.
Still, analysts have speculated that the news reports last week were based at least in part on guidance from the central bank. The lack of apparent pushback from the Fed since then has served only to fortify those assumptions.
“As time passes with no apparent effort by the Fed to contest market pricing that has moved odds on for a 50 basis point cut at the September FOMC meeting we confirm we think the Fed likely will cut 50 though it is still not a slam dunk,” wrote Evercore ISI’s Krishna Guha, among the minority of economists who had called for a bigger rate cut even before last week’s change of expectations in financial markets.
With markets now leaning heavily into a bigger policy easing, he wrote, “it is much harder to surprise hawkish than to surprise dovish, and no way the Fed thinks this is a good moment to introduce more (volatility).”
A half-point rate cut could draw a dissent or two from within the Fed, Guha predicted; but so, too, could a smaller quarter-point cut.
Fed policymakers by mutual agreement do not make public statements on monetary policy or the economy during the 10 days leading up to a rate-setting meeting.
“We think the Fed is trying to course correct at an unfortunate time,” wrote SGH Macro Advisors’ Tim Duy. “The blackout
MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS
period prevents conventional communications, and the Fed is left with something clumsier.”
U.S. stocks closed nearly unchanged on Tuesday, giving up earlier gains that had vaulted the S&P 500 and Dow Industrial Average to record highs as investors braced for the first Federal Reserve rate cut in 4-1/2 years.
The benchmark S&P 500 index touched 5,670.81 earlier in the session, after fresh economic data eased worries of a sharp slowdown in the U.S. economy.
The latest report from the U.S. Commerce Department showed retail sales rose unexpectedly in August, after a decline in auto dealership receipts was offset by strength in online pur-
chases, suggesting the economy was on solid footing through most of the third quarter.
“Expectations were pretty well entrenched before calling into today’s economic data and what they showed was generally a growth environment, but a relatively slow-growth environment,” said Russell Price, chief economist at Ameriprise Financial Services in Troy, Michigan.
Price said the size of the cut could either stoke inflation fears or increase worries the Fed is moving too slowly to avoid a recession.
“What you’re seeing in this afternoon’s trading is the way we pulled off of the all-time high ... because tomorrow somebody’s going to be disappointed,” he said.
Pagers explode across Lebanon in apparent attack on Hezbollah
By PATRICK KINGSLEY, EUAN WARD and RONEN BERGMAN
Hundreds of pagers blew up at the same time across Lebanon and in some parts of Syria on Tuesday in an apparently coordinated attack that targeted members of Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group in the region, Lebanese and Hezbollah officials said.
The attack came a day after Israeli leaders had warned that they were considering stepping up their military campaign against Hezbollah, which has been firing on northern Israel since last year in solidarity with Hamas and its war with Israel in the Gaza Strip. Several independent experts said it looked highly likely that Israel was behind the attack.
Hezbollah accused Israel of orchestrating the attack Tuesday and vowed to retaliate for what it called “blatant aggression.” The Israeli military declined to comment.
The wave of explosions left many people in Beirut in a state of confusion and shock. Witnesses reported smoke coming from people’s pockets, followed by small blasts that sounded like fireworks or gunshots. Amateur footage broadcast on Lebanese television showed chaotic scenes at hospitals, as wounded patients with mangled hands and mutilated faces sought treatment. Sirens blared throughout the city.
Lebanon’s
of the Council of Ministers,
addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. Mikati characterized an attack targeting hundreds of pagers across Lebanon and in some parts of Syria on Tuesday as “criminal Israeli aggression” and called it “a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty.” (Dave Sanders/The New York Times)
Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, characterized the attack as “criminal Israeli aggression” and called it “a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty.”
Here is what else to know:
— Thousands injured: Lebanon’s health minister, Dr. Firass Abiad, said at least eight people had been killed and more than 2,700 others injured, with about 200 in critical condition. Abiad said many of the victims had injuries to their faces, particularly the eyes, as well as to their hands and stomachs. One of
those killed was an 8-year-old girl, he said.
— Hezbollah’s pagers targeted: Three officials briefed on the attack said the operation had targeted hundreds of pagers belonging to Hezbollah operatives who have used such devices for years to make it harder for their messages to be intercepted. The use of pagers had became even more widespread after the Oct. 7 attacks, when Hezbollah’s chief warned that Israeli intelligence had penetrated the cellphone network, security experts said.
The devices were programmed to beep for several seconds before exploding, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
— Escalating conflict: The blasts appeared to be the latest salvo in an 11-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began last October, after Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia, began firing into Israeli territory in solidarity with its ally, Hamas, which is also backed by Iran. The conflict has largely remained contained to exchanges of missiles and rockets, but for months, leaders on either side have warned that it could expand into a war involving ground forces.
— Assassination attempt: On Tuesday afternoon, before the pager explosions in Lebanon and Syria, the Israeli military had accused Hezbollah of attempting to assassinate a retired senior member of the country’s security services with an explosive device that could be remotely detonated from Lebanon. The same operatives were behind a similar attempted attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, last year, the military said.
— The victims: The son of a Hezbollah lawmaker, Ali Ammar, was among those killed in the blasts, and Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amini, suffered injuries to his hand and face when a pager he was carrying exploded, according to Iranian state media reports.
‘She didn’t deserve this’: Husband accused of raping wife testifies in French court
By CATHERINE PORTER
At last, the man at the center of a rape trial that has shocked France and drawn attention around the world spoke in court.
Dominique Pelicot explained how his wife had saved him from a childhood haunted by a sexual assault he said he had suffered in a hospital at age 9, and a gang rape he witnessed while working as an apprentice electrician on a construction site as a teen. He was crazy about her, he said.
“She didn’t deserve this, I recognize that,” he said in tears from the stand, his voice so weak the court strained to hear him.
“I regret what I did and ask for forgiveness, even if it un-
forgivable,” he said later, addressing his ex-wife, Gisèle Pelicot, who stood in the middle of the court and looked directly at him as he testified.
Dominique Pelicot, 71, is accused of drugging Gisèle Pelicot, 71, his wife of 50 years, over almost a decade in order to rape her while she was comatose. Then, police say, he invited dozens of men to come into their house and join him in raping her.
Some 51 men, including Pelicot, are on trial together, mostly on charges of the aggravated rape of Gisèle Pelicot. One has pleaded guilty for similarly drugging his own wife to rape her and inviting Dominique Pelicot to their home to rape her while she was drugged.
Pelicot’s appearance Tuesday came as a surprise. Just one
week into the trial, he fell so ill that he missed four days of court, until the head judge finally postponed the hearing. Pelicot was diagnosed with kidney stones, a kidney infection and prostate problems.
After dispatching medical experts to assess him Monday, the Avignon court’s head judge, Roger Arata, ruled Pelicot was well enough to attend — in an amended fashion, with regular breaks and a comfortable chair.
The accused fill the benches of the court. Eighteen of them sit in two glass boxes — one built especially for the trial. The rest arrive daily, most wearing medical masks on their faces, hoods pulled up and baseball caps tugged over their heads to hide their identities.
Continues on page 10
President
Najib Azmi Mikati,
From page 9
They are a cross-section of working and middle-class rural France, ranging in age from 26 to 74; they include truck drivers, soldiers, a nurse, an information technology specialist and a journalist. Most are accused of going to the retired couple’s house in the town of Mazan and raping Gisèle Pelicot once. A handful are accused of returning and raping her repeatedly.
More than a dozen have admitted their guilt, including Dominique Pelicot. But lawyers for many others have argued that their clients did not intend to rape Gisèle Pelicot. The lawyers for several have said they were tricked into believing they were joining a sexual threesome among consenting adults and that she was only pretending to sleep.
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Over the past two weeks, many of the more than 40 lawyers in the courtroom have painted Dominique Pelicot as a master manipulator — overseeing the bedroom scene like a film director, coaxing the men, lying to them and urging them on.
“Without the intention to commit it, there is no rape,” Guillaume De Palma, a lawyer representing six of the accused, said last week in court. “My clients were totally duped, fooled, tricked and trapped by Mr. Pelicot.”
Now, finally on the stand, Pelicot addressed them.
“Today I maintain that I am a rapist, like those in this room,” he said, dressed in gray jacket zipped all the way up. “They all knew her condition before they came, they knew everything. They cannot say otherwise.”
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Prosecutors pieced the case together after Pelicot was arrested in September 2020 for filming up the skirts of women shopping in a grocery store. Police seized his electronic devices and a laptop from his home, discovering a first batch of videos and photos, which led to his arrest that November for the broader crimes.
Eventually police discovered more than 20,000 videos and photos on Pelicot’s computers and hard drives, many of them dated and labeled, in a folder titled “abuse.” Some of the videos are expected to be shown during the trial as evidence.
drugging his wife and then inviting dozens of men to rape her over almost a decade — the questions raised by the case have unsettled the country. (Ashley Tinker/The New York Times)
Explaining why he had taken the videos, edited them in a giant digital library, and titled them all, Pelicot said: “Part pleasure but also, part insurance. Because of that, we could find all those who participated.”
Gisèle Pelicot, who has divorced her husband and has renounced her former surname but is using it in court during the trial, was entitled under French law to remain anonymous and have the case tried privately. Instead, she made the relatively rare decision to ask that it be public.
She wanted to shift the shame to the accused, her lawyers said, and she stated that she hoped her story would help other victims of drugging and abuse.
During her own harrowing testimony, Pelicot described her former husband as the love of her life. They met at 19 and soon built a life together, having three children and then seven grandchildren, who often visited. She said she had no idea that she had been drugged or abused, let alone by
the man she trusted most in the world.
On Tuesday, she told the court how it was difficult for her to hear Dominique Pelicot’s words, as they had lived together for 50 years, and she “could never have imagined for a single second he could commit these acts of rape.”
“I had total trust in this man,” she said.
She had, however, suffered disturbing symptoms for many years that led her to fear she had a brain tumor or was developing Alzheimer’s: hair and weight loss, and large gaps in her memory, with whole days and nights blacked out.
As a result of her decision to testify publicly, she has become a feminist icon and hero of sexual assault survivors in France. Thousands of women rallied in support of her over the weekend at events across France.
Entering the courtroom Monday, Pelicot stopped briefly to acknowledge the support.
“Thanks to all of you, I have the strength to fight this battle to the end,” she told a battery of cameras and outstretched microphones. She offered a message to victims of sexual violence around the world.
“Look around you,” she said. “You are not alone.”
A view of the rooftops of Avignon, France, Sept. 1, 2023. A man is accused of
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How a cultural shift favors Harris
By DAVID BROOKS
American culture changes with astonishing speed. Nearly every decade, there are shifts in values, fashions and norms — in the whole atmosphere of national life. Sometimes when you’re watching a presidential campaign, it is best to ask: What year is it? What values and moods are dominant in America right now? Which candidate just seems right for this moment, and which candidate is simply out of step with the zeitgeist?
Right now, I’d say, Kamala Harris is benefiting from the beginning of a cultural shift and is beginning to have the cultural winds at her back. Donald Trump is beginning to be slapped in the face by those winds.
Trump emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. It was the tail end of the culture of narcissism, or what Tom Wolfe called the Me Decade. It was the era of the unchained self — self-esteem, self-expression, self-promotion. In the ’80s, especially in Manhattan, there was an unabashed fascination with wealth, self-display, ego, the lifestyles of the rich and famous.
Trump was the cartoon epitome of all that decade’s extravagances. The Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue opened to the public on Feb. 14, 1983, with all its gild and glitz. His book “The Art of the Deal” came out in 1987, with its braying and panting over money, money, money. In that cultural moment, gold-plated narcissism made Trump a celebrity.
Then came the 1990s, the end-of-history decade — the
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end of the Cold War, the end of apartheid. In this decade of big events and low conflict, Trump was out of step. He was there, but in the background.
Then came the 2000s and the war on terror. Trump’s show “The Apprentice” went on the air in 2004. It was popular but didn’t drive the conversation. There was a real war going on, and the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan represented a kind of heroism that put the casino owner’s tinsel machismo in the shade.
But then came the 2010s, the age of indignation. On May 15, 2011, street protests broke out in Spain led by people who called themselves “los indignados” — the outraged. Their rallying cry was “They don’t represent us!” The protesters were disgusted with their nation’s ruling class. Before long, a moral convulsion swept across the Western world and Latin America. Groups on the right (the rural white working class) and the left (Black Lives Matter) that had been marginalized by the establishment demanded new power and representation. Disgust with established power was high. Social trust dropped. Trump was perfect for this moment. Disdained and scorned by the Manhattan elite, he had built up a lifetime of antiestablishment resentments that dovetailed with the working class’s pervasive contempt. He began a hostile takeover of the Republican Party and then the federal government. The key word in that sentence is “hostile.” Hostility was in vogue, on the left and the right.
Then, in 2018, the group More in Common released a survey of the American electorate in which it popularized the phrase “the exhausted majority.” Many people were tired of the bitterness, the endless Trumpian and culture war psychodrama. There was an intense desire to leave all that behind. In a relatively tight election, Joe Biden rode to victory promising decency and normalcy.
What followed was a struggle between what you might call the forces of indignation and the forces of exhaustion. Trump still dominates the GOP because his people still want a guy who can take a sledgehammer to the ruling class and its power centers. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column trying to describe the fundamental strengths of American populism — the pervasive hostility toward the educated class, the distrust of institutions. But there are also an increasing number of people tired of living in an endless atmosphere of tribalism, enmity and conflict — even in the Republican camp.
of government in the American economy. Harris doesn’t talk about the scope of what her administration is doing.
But Harris was very compelling when portraying herself as an agent of cultural change. Her smiling equipoise is a statement of self-confident power against his sour fuming. Her “I care about you” is a stark foil to his narcissistic “I care about me.” Her good cheer and compassion contrasts with the atmosphere of bitterness and indignation that has enveloped us for a decade.
Some people dismiss all this as vibes. I don’t. This is culture. What sort of people do we want to be? What sort of values and manners do we want to see reflected in our national leaders? Who do we want shaping the nation’s social atmosphere? As Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously noted, culture matters most, but government can change culture.
There is a rhythm to cultural change, with periods of public turmoil giving way to periods when people want to turn inward. World War I gave way to the carefree hedonism of the flappers during the 1920s. World War II gave way to the domesticity of the 1950s. The days of rage in the late 1960s gave way to the new age mellowness of the mid-1970s. People can be up in arms for only so long. The wearier we grow with American carnage catastrophizing, Trump seems not just monstrous but, worse, stale.
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Harris enjoyed a surge in the polls as she became the nominee, in part because she projected a new emotional tone — the politics of joy, as Democrats kept saying during their convention. During Tuesday’s debate, she converted that emotional shift into a campaigning and governing style.
During the debate, I thought Harris did a poor job of laying out her vision for the next four years. But she did a brilliant job rebutting the cultural values embodied by Trump.
She repeated her mantra of change: It’s time to turn the page and move forward. This cry is not persuasive on policy grounds. Her agenda is a shrunken version of the unfinished Biden agenda. Biden has been pioneering a new form of industrial policy that represents a fundament shift in the role
We’re still an exhausted and battered nation, but if history is a guide, then just over the horizon there is some new cultural moment coming. I suspect that Harris’ happy strength gives us a glimpse of the zeitgeist of tomorrow. This spirit alone won’t propel her to victory, but it will help.
Vice President Kamala Harris is seen on a screen during the presidential debate with former President Donald Trump, in New York, Sept. 10, 2024. (Ioulex/ The New York Times)
“¿Con qué cara LUMA Energy se atreve a pedir otro aumento en la factura de la luz cuando el servicio es un verdadero desastre? Ya es hora de que Juan Saca renuncie por incompetente”
POR EL STAR STAFF
ARECIBO– “¡Basta ya de tantos aumentos abusivos en la factura mensual de energía eléctrica!”, exclamó el martes Edgar Robles, candidato a la Cámara de Representantes por el Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) por el Distrito 14 (Arecibo y Hatillo), reaccionando al nuevo impuesto que LUMA Energy solicitó hoy.
“Es sumamente vergonzoso que se dé otro aumento… Puerto Rico ya no aguanta más excusas y, mucho menos, aumentos a cada rato”, hizo hincapié.
“El nuevo cantazo (de, aproximadamente, 2.9 centavos por kilovatio-hora) es, sin duda alguna, otro duro golpe para el bolsillo de los puertorriqueños, quienes ya no aguantan más el abuso desmedido, la ineficiencia y la mala improvisación de LUMA Energy”, expuso.
“Es inaceptable y condenable que, mientras las fami-
POR EL STAR STAFF
SAN JUAN – El expresidente de la Cámara de Representantes, José Aponte, reiteró su propuesta de rotular las áreas donde se practican deportes extremos, como es el caso del excursionismo y escalada (rappeling), los cuales tienen como escenarios ríos, lagos, cascadas y montañas.
“Desde el 2016 he promovido la rotulación en espacios donde se practican diversos deportes extremos, esto para orientar a los ciudadanos que hacen este tipo de actividad sobre las veredas, áreas de posible peligrosidad, al igual que delinear la zona con el fin de que todos tengan una idea del lugar, su topografía y posibles riesgos. Hemos sometido la legislación a esos fi-
lias puertorriqueñas luchan por sobrevivir, ahora tengan que pagar más por un servicio que LUMA mediocre y que no ha podido estabilizarse desde su llegada. ¿Hasta cuándo vamos a soportar que nos sigan exprimiendo los bolsillos con aumentos, mientras nos mantienen en un caos energético constante?”, preguntó.
Robles criticó duramente la justificación del presidente de LUMA, Juan Saca, quien atribuyó el aumento a los costos del combustible y a la falta de disponibilidad de unidades de generación más grandes. “Ya está más que comprobado que nuestros zapatos energéticos le quedan gigantescos a Saca. En lugar de soluciones, lo único que recibimos son excusas y aumentos. ¡Renuncie ya! Puerto Rico no aguanta más”, pidió.
Éste señaló, además, que el nuevo aumento, sumado a los constantes apagones masivos recientes, son sinónimo de “una administración energética sumamente vergonzosa e ineficaz”.
nes. El cuatrienio pasado la Cámara de Representantes aprobó el Proyecto 89 que creaba la ‘Ruta del Deporte Extremo de Puerto Rico’ y otorgaba a la Compañía de Turismo la responsabilidad, junto al Departamento de Desarrollo Económico y Comercio, de rotular estas zonas para concientizar a los que practican estos deportes”, comentó el líder estadista.
Los deportes extremos, también conocidos como de riesgo o aventura, son aquellas actividades que debido a circunstancias especiales o situaciones particulares implícitas como el peligro y la dificultad para realizarlos, se les consideran extremos. Entre los deportes extremos más populares se encuentran el paracaidismo, péndulo o bungee, surf, windsurf, buceo, descenso de ríos o rafting, escalada o rappel, excursionismo, zipline
“Es inconcebible que Juan Saca, quien cobra $600 mil anuales, siga al mando, mientras nuestra Isla está paralizada por apagones constantes… Arecibo, Hatillo y toda la Isla están siendo víctimas de la incompetencia de LUMA”, expresó indignado.
o canopy.
Aponte es el autor del Proyecto de la Cámara 406 el cual crea las ‘Rutas de Turismo de Aventura de Puerto Rico’ para promover este tipo de actividad física como plataforma turística, tanto a nivel estatal como nacional.
“La rotulación salva vidas. Aquí lo que se busca es que la persona que entre a estas zonas, sea un río o montaña, una playa o una vereda conozca sobre el área, esté pendiente, en el caso de ríos, charcas y cascadas, a posibles inesperados golpes de agua, y en caso de las montañas para escalar sobre su altura y posibles vientos, entre otros. Es parte de concientizar a la ciudadanía y los turistas que vienen a Puerto Rico a realizar estas actividades”, señaló Aponte.
Tito Jackson, singer and guitarist for the Jackson 5, dies at 70
By DERRICK BRYSON TAYLOR
Tito Jackson, a founding member of the Jackson 5 who, along with his brothers Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael, became a teen heartthrob in the 1970s with a string of hits that included “ABC” and “I’ll Be There,” died Sunday. He was 70.
A spokesperson for his youngest sister, singer Janet Jackson, said in a statement Monday that Tito Jackson died of a heart attack while driving to Oklahoma from New Mexico. The statement did not say where he died. Jackson told The Tulsa World in June that he had recently moved to a ranch in Claremore, Oklahoma, about 25 miles northeast of Tulsa.
The Jackson 5, one of the most popular musical acts of their era, were responsible for launching the solo career of Michael Jackson, who earned the title “King of Pop” and became one of the most emulated musicians of all time. Michael Jackson died in 2009 at 50.
The story of the Jackson 5, from their humble beginnings in Gary, Indiana, to their various levels of success, has been well documented and was the subject of a five-hour ABC miniseries in 1992 called “The Jacksons: An American Dream.”
Toriano Adaryll Jackson was born Oct. 15, 1953, in Gary to Joe and Katherine (Scruse) Jackson. Tito Jackson is largely remembered for being the guitarist in the group, a skill he picked up by watching his father. The elder Jackson died in 2018.
In a 2019 interview with Vlad TV, Tito Jackson said that as a child he would play his father’s guitar behind his back.
“One day I broke the string and I didn’t know what to do about it,” he said. “He came home and saw the string broke and was really upset about it.”
that included young Michael, who was given a spot after impressing the family with a performance of “Climb Every Mountain” at a talent show. The band’s name was later changed to the Jackson 5 after someone suggested it after a performance at a wedding.
Tito Jackson was the second oldest, after Jackie, followed in age by Jermaine, Marlon and Michael.
The Jackson 5 was a household name in the 1970s, regularly appearing on television, sometimes next to Cher or Diana Ross. Their music, through more than a dozen albums, provided a soundtrack for a young generation and incited a level of fandom that is perhaps now reserved only for elite pop stars like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.
“I remember the very first time we went to the U.K. and we had something like 10,000 screaming fans to greet us at the airport,” Jackson told Sister Circle TV in 2019. “I got lost in the airport and 1,000 fans chasing me, pulling everywhere. It was crazy.”
(Another Jackson brother, Randy, joined the group in 1975, replacing Jermaine, who had started a solo career.)
Three of the Jackson 5’s biggest songs — “ABC,” “I Want You Back” and “I’ll Be There” — were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 alongside the Bee Gees.
Jackson continued to work in the music business over the years, releasing a solo album, “Tito Time,” in 2016, and touring alongside some of his brothers. The group, now called The Jacksons, was scheduled to perform in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in October and in Cincinnati in November.
After punishing him, Jackson said, his father asked him to demonstrate what he knew. His father then gave him the guitar with the instructions to learn every song on the radio.
The family soon formed the Jackson Brothers, a group
“We’ve always said that it’s the fans that make the artist,” Jackson told Sister Circle TV. “We go to work, we make music and we do all these other things, but it’s actually the fans who love it and buy it.”
A ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ musical will open on Broadway next year
By MICHAEL PAULSON
Twenty-seven years ago, “Buena Vista Social Club,” an album of pre-revolutionary Cuban music that became an unexpected bestseller, was released, spawning tours and documentary films and a burst of interest in the Afro-Cuban sound.
Now a stage musical inspired by the making of the album is heading for Broadway.
“Buena Vista Social Club” is scheduled to begin previews Feb. 21 and to open March 19 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.
Set primarily in Havana, the show depicts a group of aging and often overlooked musicians gathering in a recording studio, and recalling the tumultuous era decades earlier when they were young and the Cuban Revolution was gaining steam. The narrative loosely tracks with the history of the album, but contains songs that
were released separately and elements that are fictionalized.
The show had an off-Broadway run, at Atlantic Theater Company, that opened in late 2023; Jesse Green, chief theater critic for The New York Times, described it as “full-of-riches,” praising the song and dance elements but expressing concerns about some of the storytelling. The Broadway cast will include many of the same performers and musicians as the off-Broadway production.
The songs are all attributed to the Buena Vista Social Club, and the show has a book by Marco Ramirez (“The Royale”). The director is Saheem Ali (“Fat Ham”), and the choreographers are married couple Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck.
The musical is being capitalized for $17 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The lead producers are Orin Wolf, John Styles and Barbara Broccoli, who previously worked to
gether on “The Band’s Visit.” Among the co-producers are comedian-actor John Leguizamo; Luis Miranda, a founder of the Hispanic Federation and the father of Lin-Manuel Miranda; and LaChanze, a Tony-winning actress.
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The Jackson 5 in 1969. Tito Jackson, top left, one of the group’s founding members and its lead guitarist, died Sunday at age 70. (Wikipedia)
The ‘country doctor’ who upended our understanding of dementia
By JENNIE ERIN SMITH
In 1978, Dr. Francisco Lopera did what recent medical school graduates in Colombia and much of Latin America have long done: He set out for an obligatory year of work in a remote part of the country, where an inexperienced médico rural might be the only physician for miles. Lopera, who was born in the Andean region of Antioquia and knew mostly mountains and farm life before medical school, carried out his service in the Darién Gap, on the Caribbean coast near Panama.
There Lopera, a groundbreaking Colombian Alzheimer’s researcher who died last week at age 73, treated stabbings, snakebites, complicated births, burns and fevers in a hospital that had electricity for only half the day. On one occasion, he was kidnapped by Marxist guerrillas. Another time, he had to flee gunshots.
When I met Lopera in 2017, to start research on a book about the families with Alzheimer’s that became his life’s work, he told me a story about two young brothers who had died one after the other in his hospital, of unknown causes. Lopera traveled to the family home in a remote jungle clearing, where he discovered that the boys’ surviving siblings had bites on their fingers from vampire bats. He sent the bodies to a pathology lab hours away by boat, and the pathologists confirmed rabies. When the government brought in a rabies expert to investigate, Lopera joined him.
He left that experience — long nights in the rainforest, searching for hidden roosts, engrossed in the natural history of rabies and bats — wanting to become a rabies epidemiologist. But that was not to be. His interests were eclectic and quick to change, and a few years later he became a neurology resident in Medellín.
In 1984, Lopera examined a farmer in his 40s who appeared to have dementia. Lopera took again the unusual step of traveling to the family home, in a mountain hamlet like the one where he had been born. Not just the farmer had symptoms of dementia, he saw — a brother also appeared to be affected. Lopera had discovered what would turn out to be the world’s largest family with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The family shared a genetic mutation, later nicknamed the paisa mutation,
that was unique to their region of Colombia. Lopera spent the next four decades studying the family’s 6,000 members.
It is one thing to build a research cohort in a disease population, launch a hunt for an Alzheimer’s gene, start a bank of autopsy brains, conduct long-term studies in mutation carriers to understand the evolution of their disease and investigate therapies that might prevent or stall it. It is quite another thing to do all this with little money, in a country struggling with wave after wave of political and drug violence.
In the late 1980s, when Lopera’s work with the Colombian families was barely underway, his university was attacked by right-wing paramilitaries associated with drug traffickers; several of the victims were physicians. Two decades later, while recruiting participants for a landmark clinical trial of a therapy to prevent Alzheimer’s, Lopera and his colleagues still faced harassment, threats and kidnappings. The villages home to so many of his patients were deep in the clutches of guerrilla and paramilitary armies.
I ended up spending seven years in Medellín observing Lopera and the families with Alzheimer’s he studied. When I arrived, he was in his late 60s, with a disarming charm, a knack for forging productive alliances with investigators abroad, and a bedside manner that Kenneth Kosik, an American neurology researcher and longtime collaborator of Lopera, described as that of “a country doctor who still believed in the laying-on of hands.”
I loved watching Lopera conduct his grand rounds at the University of Antioquia, where he assessed people with Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases in front of his students and colleagues. He engaged in a natural dialogue with patients, affable and unobtrusive; it was as if they were backslapping old friends at a country tavern. Yet he was collecting information that allowed him to diagnose dementia or assess its progress, with a precision few could match.
The people he studied were from long-suffering, typically poor families, with rural roots, who saw few prospects for a treatment or a cure. They knew, as he did, that only later generations would benefit from his efforts, and then only with luck. And yet they hung in with him — parents, children and grandchildren — for study after study, undergoing brain scans, blood draws, spinal taps and cognitive tests. Starting in 2013, hundreds enrolled in a clinical trial of an experimental antibody, called crenezumab, that it was hoped would stall or prevent their disease.
In 2019 the families learned of the extraordinary case of Aliria Piedrahita de Villegas, a Medellín woman who carried the dreaded paisa mutation but had made it to her middle 70s before developing symptoms of Alzheimer’s: a 30-year delay. That discovery, and the ongoing study of her genes and brain, broke open a new way of thinking about Alzheimer’s treatments, elucidating different genetic and cellular mechanisms from those long presumed to be involved.
But disappointment loomed. In the summer of 2022, Lopera learned that, for all the fanfare at its inception, the clinical trial of crenezumab had failed to show a benefit. Failures of Alzheimer’s drugs had become the norm worldwide, but that made it no easier on him or the families. Study participants and their loved ones filed into an auditorium at the University of Antioquia, as they had done regularly during the course of the decadelong trial, to hear from “el doctor.”
He was by then a less humble figure than in 1978. Even though the clinical trial had produced a negative result, its successful execution amid extremely trying circumstances had turned him into a darling of the Alzheimer’s research world. He was increasingly bathed in accolades, prizes, media attention and proposals. He didn’t get out into the countryside much.
On that Saturday morning in August 2022, however, Lopera was once again a country doctor, facing a room of country people. None of his foreign collaborators or drug-company sponsors accompanied him, just his longtime colleagues at his research group, the Grupo de Neurociencias de Antioquia, who wore matching black polo shirts and formed a receiving line, in a solemn display. As Lopera delivered the bad news in his gentle but frank style, some participants cried. The rest were done crying. Word of the results had already reached them through other channels, and perhaps came as no surprise. After 40 years of participating in clinical research, these families had learned to resist undue hope and resist despair.
As the day wore on the mood lifted. The university band played. Waiters served a hearty traditional lunch, and no one seemed in a hurry to leave. Lopera danced and danced with the trial participants. He was a fantastic dancer ever since his days as a young doctor in the Darién Gap. He danced to so many songs with so many partners that he was dripping with sweat by the late afternoon, looking about to collapse. I doubt there has ever been a clinical trial anywhere in the world that ended in such a way.
Neurologist Francisco Lopera in Medellín, Colombia on Nov. 1, 2019. Lopera, who died on Sept. 10, 2024, at age 73, defied rebels, cartels and vampire bats to become a pioneering researcher of Alzheimer’s disease. (Federico Rios/The New York Times)
The San Juan Daily Star
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-
NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA DE CAROLINA
REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC.
Demandante Vs. SUCESION LUIS FELIPE
LUCCA RIVERA T/C/C
LUIS F. LUCCA T/C/C
LUIS F. LUCCA RIVERA COMPUESTA POR
CARMEN MILAGROS LUCCA COLON, AILEEN
DOLORES LUCCA
COLON; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS
DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESION DOLORES
COLON COLON T/C/C
MARIA D. COLON COLON T/C/C MARIA D. COLON COMPUESTA POR
CARMEN MILAGROS
LUCCA COLON, AILEEN
DOLORES LUCCA
COLON; JOHN ROE Y JANE ROE COMO
POSIBLES HEREDEROS
DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES
Demandados
Civil Núm.: CA2022CV01491. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: LA PARTE
DEMANDADA, AL (A LA) SECRETARIO(A) DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO Y AL PÚBLICO
GENERAL:
Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América y/o Giro Postal y Cheque Certificado, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina, el 1 DE OCTUBRE DE 2024, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto
de ejecución que se describe a continuación: “URBANA: Solar marcado el número 54 en el plano de inscripción del bloque “H” de la Urbanización El Palmar, Reparto Rodríguez Emma Inc., Isla Verde, Carolina, Puerto Rico, tiene una cabida de QUINIENTOS DOCE PUNTO OCHENTA Y SEIS (512.86) METROS CUADRADOS y colinda por el NORTE, en 17.00 metros, con la Calle E de la Urbanización; por el SUR, en 17.00 metros, con el solar número 63 de la misma urbanización; por el ESTE, en 30.17 metros, con el solar número 55 de la urbanización y por el OESTE, en 30.16 metros, con el solar 53 de la misma urbanización. Enclava en este solar una casa de concreto para fines residenciales.” Inscrita al folio 128 del tomo 537 de Carolina Norte, finca número 27,022, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección I. La Hipoteca Revertida consta inscrita al folio 114 del tomo 1005 de Carolina Norte, finca 27,022, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección I, inscripción 5ª. Propiedad localizada en: URB. EL PALMAR SUR, 5 CALLE PALMA DE COROZO, CAROLINA, PR 00979. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes: Nombre del Titular: N/A. Suma de la Carga: N/A. Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: Nombre del Titular: N/A. Suma de la Carga: $766,500.00. Fecha de Vencimiento: 18 de abril de 2077. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes. El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo de mínima subasta la suma de $766,500.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una SEGUNDA SUBASTA por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina, el 8 DE OCTUBRE DE 2024, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $511,000.00, 2/3 partes del tipo
mínima establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la TERCERA SUBASTA, la suma de $383,250.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina, el 16 DE OCTUBRE DE 2024, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente la suma de $463,248.71 por concepto de principal, más la suma de $172,297.29 en intereses acumulados al 22 de abril de 2024 y los cuales continúan acumulándose a razón de 3.568% anual hasta su total y completo pago; más la sumas de $25,984.47 en seguro hipotecario; $6,230.00 en tarifas de servicio; $4,694.74 de contribuciones; $1,080.04 de seguro; $540.00 de tasaciones; $600.00 de inspecciones; $2,777.50 de adelantos pendientes; más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original en la suma de $76,650.00, para gastos, costas y honorarios de abogado. A tenor con la Regla 44.3 de Procedimiento Civil se condena a la parte demandada a pagar intereses aplicables sobre el importe de la presente sentencia incluyendo costas y honorarios de abogado, desde esta fecha y hasta que sea satisfecha. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy 20 de agosto de 2024. JOSÉ CRISTÓBAL, ALGUACIL REGIONAL. HÉCTOR L. PEÑA
RODRÍGUEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #278.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS
BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante V. SUCESIÓN DE ESTHER MARIE ORTÍZ MOLINA, COMPUESTA POR SUS MIEMBROS: NARCISO ORTÍZ, FULANO DE TAL Y FULANA DE TAL
Demandados
Civil Núm.: CG2022CV00887.
Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. A: LOS CODEMANDADOS DE EPIGRAFE Y AL PÚBLICO EN GENERAL:
El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente anuncia y hace constar que en cumplimiento de una Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe el 11 de julio de 2024, notificada el 12 de julio de 2024 y publicada el 17 de julio de 2024; y de un Mandamiento de Ejecución emitido el día 22 de agosto de 2024, que le ha sido dirigido por la Secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, procederá a vender en subasta, y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, y/o giro postal, dinero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal, o letra bancaria, con similar garantía de todo título, derecho o interés de los demandados de epígrafe sobre el inmueble que adelante se describe. Se anuncia por la presente que la primera subasta habrá de celebrarse el día 7 DE OCTUBRE DE 2024 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas, sobre el inmueble que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar identificado con el #324 del bloque “T”, en el plano de inscripción de la Urbanización Extensión Praderas de Ceiba Norte – Fase IV, localizada en la Carretera #935, del barrio Ceiba Norte de Juncos, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de 273.770 metros cuadrados, en lindes por el NORTE, en distancia de 23.50 metros con el solar #T-325; por el SUR, en distancia de 23.50 metros con el solar #T-323; por el ESTE, en distancia de 11.65 metros con la calle C, ahora Calle El Mangó y por el OESTE, en distancia de 11.65 metros con el solar T-301. ENCLAVA: Una residencia unifamiliar, construida de hormigón armado, la cual
se compone de tres dormitorios, dos baños, sala, comedor, cocina, “laundry” y marquesina techada. Dicho solar está afecto a servidumbre que consiste de una franja de terreno de 5.00 pies de ancho a lo largo de la colindancia Este de dicho solar, a ser constituida a favor de la Junta Reglamentadora de Telecomunicaciones de Puerto Rico, para distribución de telecomunicaciones y televisión por cable.” FINCA: Número 19581 de Juncos, inscrita al tomo Karibe de la Sección II de Caguas. Dirección física: 324 T El Mango St. (antes C St.) Ext. Praderas de Ceiba Norte IV, Juncos PR 00777. El siguiente pagaré consta inscrito en la propiedad antes mencionada y es el que se pretende ejecutar: HIPOTECA: Por 112,700.00, con intereses al 4.00% anual, en garantía de un pagaré a favor de la Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Saulo D. Rodríguez, que vence el 1ro de junio de 2045. Según escritura #159, otorgada en Gurabo, el 27 de mayo de 2015, ante Pedro Juan Caride Cruz, inscrita al tomo Karibe de la Sección II de Caguas, finca #19581 de Juncos, inscripción 2da. y última. La referida hipoteca grava el bien inmueble antes descrito. Que según surge del estudio de título, la propiedad se encuentra afecta a lo siguiente: Se establece esta finca como su “Hogar Seguro. La subasta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al demandante, total o parcialmente según sea el caso, de la referida sentencia que fue dictada por las siguientes sumas: $108,473.81, por concepto de principal, más intereses al 4% anual a partir del 1 de agosto de 2017, hasta su completo pago, más 4% de todo pago en atraso, más $11,270.00, como cantidad estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, según pactados. Y PARA CONOCIMIENTO DE LAS PARTES INTERESADAS y del público en general, se advierte que los autos de este caso y demás instancias están disponibles para ser inspeccionadas en la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala Superior de Caguas, durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad del inmueble y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante, incluyendo el gravamen por las contribuciones sobre la propiedad inmueble adeudadas, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda responsable de los mismos sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá Libre de Cargas y
Gravámenes posteriores. Los tipos mínimos a utilizarse para la subasta son los siguientes: El inmueble antes descrito ha sido tasado en la suma de CIENTO DOCE MIL SETECIENTOS DÓLARES ($112,700.00) para que dicha suma sirva de tipo mínimo en la primera subasta a celebrarse. De no producirse remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta del antedicho inmueble, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado, el día 15 DE OCTUBRE DE 2024 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, sirviendo como tipo mínimo para dicha segunda subasta, una suma equivalente a las dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de SETENTA Y CINCO MIL CIENTO TREINTA Y TRES DÓLARES CON TREINTA Y TRES CENTAVOS ($75,133.33) para la finca antes descrita. De no producirse remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta del antedicho inmueble, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado, el día 22 DE OCTUBRE DE 2024 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, sirviendo como tipo mínimo para dicha tercera subasta, una suma equivalente a la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo fijado para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de CINCUENTA Y SEIS MIL TRESCIENTOS CINCUENTA DÓLARES ($56,350.00) para la finca antes descrita. En testimonio de lo cual, expido el presente aviso, el cual firmo y sello, hoy 3 de septiembre de 2024, en Caguas, Puerto Rico. ÁNGEL GÓMEZ GÓMEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #593, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE CAGUAS.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE UTUADO ORIENTAL BANK
Demandante Vs. SUCESION DE LUIS NIEVES ARCE T/C/C LUIS M. NIEVES ARCE T/C/C LUIS MANUEL NIEVES ARCE COMPUESTA POR SUS HEREDEROS CONOCIDOS COMO DIANA NIEVES ARCE, REY NIEVES ARCE, JUAN CARLOS NIEVES Y WANDALIZ NIEVES; SUCESION DE AMERICO NIEVES ARCE; SUCESION DE HERMAN NIEVES ARCE COMPUESTA POR SU
HEREDERA CONOCIDA BEATRIZ NIEVES ARCE; SUCESION DE JUAN C. NIEVES ARCE COMPUESTA POR SUS HEREDEROS CONOCIDOS COMO JUAN LUIS NIEVES GONZALEZ Y HECTOR LUIS NIEVES GONZALEZ; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERES DE DICHAS SUCESIONES; MIGUEL ANGEL CINTRON VELEZ, SU ESPOSA FELICITA GONZALEZ RIVERA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS
Demandados Civil Núm.: UT2023CV00007. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO ANUNCIANDO PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe, funcionario del Tribunal de la Sala Superior de Utuado, Puerto Rico, por la presente anuncia y hace saber al público en general que en cumplimiento con la Sentencia dictada en este caso con fecha 14 de mayo de 2024, y según Orden y Mandamiento del 10 de julio de 2024 librado por este honorable Tribunal, procederé a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor, y por dinero en efectivo, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal con todo título derecho y/o interés de la parte demandada sobre la propiedad que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: radicada en el Barrio Piletas del término municipal de Lares, Puerto Rico, compuesta de ochocientos punto cinco mil trescientos veinticinco metros cuadrados (800.5325 mc), colinda por el NORTE, con uso público a ser segregado; por el SUR, con remanente de la finca principal; por el ESTE, con remanente de la finca principal; por el OESTE, con Manuel Rivera. Contiene una casa en cemento y bloques. Finca Número 15,288, inscrita al folio 37 del tomo 293 de Lares. Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Utuado. Dirección Física: BO. PILETAS SR 453 KM 5.5, LARES PR 00669. Se anuncia por medio de este edicto que la PRIMERA SUBASTA habrá de celebrarse el día 17 DE OCTUBRE DE 2024, A LAS 1:30 DE LA TARDE, en mi oficina sita en el edificio que ocupa el Tribunal Superior de
Puerto Rico, Sala Superior de Utuado. Siendo ésta la primera subasta que se celebrará en este caso, será el precio mínimo aceptable como oferta en la Primera Subasta, eso es el tipo mínimo pactado en la Escritura de Hipoteca para la propiedad, la suma de $69,500.00. De no haber remanente o adjudicación en esta primera subasta por dicha suma mínima, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 24 DE OCTUBRE DE 2024, A LAS 1:30 DE LA TARDE, en el mismo lugar antes señalado en la cual el precio mínimo serán dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo pactado en la escritura de hipoteca, la suma de $46,333.33. De no haber remanente o adjudicación en esta segunda subasta por el tipo mínimo indicado en el párrafo anterior, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA en el mismo lugar antes señalado el día 31 DE OCTUBRE DE 2024, A LAS 1:30 DE LA TARDE, en la cual el tipo mínimo aceptable como oferta será la mitad (1/2) del precio mínimo pactado en la escritura de hipoteca, la suma de $34,750.00. Si se declare desierta la tercera subasta se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo mínimo de la tercera subasta, si el tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta es mayor. Con el importe de esta venta se habrá de satisfacer el balance de la sentencia dictada en este caso el cual consiste en el pago de $41,619.40 de principal, más intereses convenidos al 7.0000% anual más recargos hasta su pago, más el pago de lo pactado en la sentencia para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados. Se dispone que una vez celebrada la subasta y vendido el inmueble relacionado, el alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial a los nuevos dueños dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la celebración de la Subasta. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del demandado/deudor la ocupen. El Alguacil de este Tribunal efectuará el lanzamiento de los ocupantes de ser necesario. Si la subasta es adjudicada a un tercero y luego se deja sin efecto, el tercero a favor de quién se adjudicó la subasta solo tendrá derecho a la devolución del monto consignado más no tendrá derecho a entablar recurso o reclamo adicional alguno (judicial o extrajudicial) contra el demandante y/o
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COPUR Olympic Cup brings together more than 1,400 athletes in Gurabo, Salinas
By THE STAR STAFF
The Puerto Rico Olympic Committee’s (COPUR by its acronym in Spanish)
Olympic Cup concluded on Sunday after two weekends of intense sporting action, with the participation of more than 1,400 athletes in various Olympic events.
The closing ceremony took place in the municipalities of Gurabo and Salinas.
“We are more than happy, excited to have concluded a great event,” COPUR President Sara Rosario said in a written statement.
Over the past weekend, sports such as handball, badminton, various types of gymnastics and archery were featured. The table tennis competition was held at the Albergue Olímpico (Olympic Training Center) in Salinas. During the previous weekend, competition in disciplines such as boxing, fencing and weightlifting took place.
“The Olympic Cup is key to the development of high-performance athletes,” added Rosario, noting that the Olympic Beach Festival will be held in Toa Baja in February 2025.
The No. 1 breaker in the world is … Raygun?
By VICTOR MATHER
The breaker known as Raygun did terribly at the Olympics, losing all three of her head-to-head battles, each by scores of 18-0. Her unusual routines also made her an unexpected face of the Paris Games and earned her mockery worldwide.
But she did receive one accolade last week. Somehow, improbably, B-girl Raygun — yes, the same Raygun who hopped like a kangaroo in her Olympic routines — is now the No. 1 ranked women’s breaker in the world.
Raygun is the nom de break of Rachael Gunn, a 37-year-old professor from Australia. While other Olympic breakers spun dazzlingly on their heads and backs in this year’s Games, Raygun thrashed about on her side, reached for her toes, and hopped around in a salute to the kangaroos of her native country. Fans around the world, many being exposed
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to breaking competition for the first time as the sport made its Olympic debut, were baffled, amused, and in some cases outraged.
Raygun’s total score of 0 points put her in last place among the 16 breakers in the main Olympic competition.
So, in the latest world rankings, how could Raygun be in the No. 1 spot? After receiving a barrage of questions, the World DanceSport Federation, which oversees the sport internationally, released a statement Sept. 10 explaining the seeming incongruity.
The ranking is based on events over the past year, the federation explained. During that time, the majority of breakers were focused on qualifying for the Olympics.
But because they have limited fields with a small number of competitors, Olympic qualifying events and the Olympics themselves do not count toward the world rankings. Therefore, Raygun’s low-scoring performance at the Games did not hurt her ranking at all.
Further complicating the rankings, there were hardly any events in the last 52 weeks that weren’t Olympic qualifiers. The federation said that no official breaking events were held in 2024 before the Olympics, to allow “athletes to focus solely on the last part of their Olympic qualification without the added pressure of additional ranking events.”
For Raygun, her only ranked competition in that time period was the Oceania Continental Championships in Sydney in October 2023. She won that event, which was hardly of international importance. Of the top 15 finishers, 13 were from Australia and two from New Zealand. It was not a strong field: Raygun, the winner, had finished 64th at the world championships the month prior.
(In fact, the Oceania event itself caused a stir after Raygun’s performance at the Olym-
pics. The Australian federation released a statement after the Games saying to respond to speculation about her win at that event:
“Contrary to circulating misinformation, Dr. Gunn’s husband, Raygun’s coach, was not a member of the selection panel or judging committee. This would have constituted a conflict of interest.”)
Raygun got 1,000 points in the world rankings for that win. Riko Tsuhako of Japan also had 1,000 points, from a victory in a World Series event with a stronger field of competitors from all over the world. But the ranking rules state that continental championships take precedence over World Series events. Thus, Raygun won the tiebreaker and got the No. 1 spot.
Gunn is a lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, where her research interests include “breaking, street dance, and hiphop culture,” and the “politics of gender
Rachael Gunn, known as Raygun, performs in the b-girls breaking competition during the Paris Summer Olympics, on Aug. 9, 2024. Raygun, whose Olympic routines were widely mocked, is now the No. 1 woman in breaking’s official world ranking, thanks to a dearth of competitions over the past 12 months other than the Olympics and qualifiers that did not count toward the rankings. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)
and gender performance.” After the Olympics, she received a deluge of criticism, with her dancing style and even her uniform — green track pants and a polo shirt — being mocked.
“I’m glad I was able to bring some joy into your lives,” she said in a video on social media. “I didn’t realize that would also open the door to so much hate, which has frankly been pretty devastating.”
Raygun seemed to be bouncing back from the hate, posting photos of herself smiling and laughing with Richard Branson and Boy George.
Raygun’s Oceania victory will drop out of the rankings next month when it becomes a year old, and she will tumble way down the charts. But for now, Raygun, green track pants, kangaroo hops and all, is looking down from the No. 1 spot at every other breaker in the world.
The table tennis competition was held at the Albergue Olímpico (Olympic Training Center) in Salinas.
The San Juan Daily Star
Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 21
