Wednesday Sep 9, 2020

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

San Juan The

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Casino Owners, Employees Demand Reopening P6

Is a Billion-Dollar Loss in Medicaid Funds Possible?

No Transition Process Has Taken Place, Yet New SEC Chief Sees Nothing Delaying November Elections P5

Zero Cooperation: Police Arrest, Then Release Organizers of Morovis Party P3 NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 19

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The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

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September 9, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star, the only paper with News Service in English in Puerto Rico, publishes 7 days a week, with a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday edition, along with a Weekend Edition to cover Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Alleged organizers of big event in Morovis arrested, then released by the Police

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By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

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INDEX Local 3 Mainland 7 Business 12 International 14 Viewpoint 18 Noticias en Español 19 Entertainment 20

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n alleged organizer of a party that took place on Saturday at a farm in Morovis where dozens of attendees failed to wear masks and maintain a safe distance to avoid contracting COVID-19 was arrested Tuesday at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in Carolina.

“Michael Miles, who was preparing to leave the country [sic] for Dallas, Texas, was detained for investigation purposes, since he is one of the participants in the activity that took place on a private farm in the town of Morovis,” the Puerto Rico Police Bureau Press Office said Tuesday in a written statement. “The agents in charge of the investigation will continue with it today [Tuesday].”

Two other people who allegedly participated in the Morovis event were intercepted and arrested later Tuesday by police at the Spirit Airlines terminal as they were preparing to travel to Baltimore.

Personnel from the island Health Department’s Office of Investigations participated in the arrests.

It was known by The Star that the three of them were later released because the Police did not have enough evidence against them and they did not cooperate.

However, personnel from the Department of Health are convinced that they were in the event.

The event in Morovis violated the executive order of Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced, which seeks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Photos and videos posted on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, show the number of people attending the so-called Forex event.

Health Secretary Lorenzo González Feliciano on Sunday denounced the behavior of the dozens of people who gathered without wearing masks or maintaining the proper distance.

A group of people at the event are seen celebrating and singing without wearing masks or maintaining the recommended six feet of physical distance.

The video tweet was available for a few hours, but was later deleted. An attempt to access the video on Tuesday resulted in a “This Tweet is not available” message.

“It is unacceptable what is seen in the video that is circulating on social networks of a party where there is a gathering of people, without masks and without physical distancing, on a farm in Morovis,” González Feliciano said in a written statement.

“If indeed that video documents an activity held in recent days, as has been broadcast, not only the people who participated in the activity and appear in the video but also the owners of the place and the organizers of the event are irresponsible and have no respect for life,” the official added. “At the Department of Health we are going to activate all the mechanisms at our disposal so that they pay for their actions.”

“The Health Department’s Office of Investigations is working on the situation and has instructions to act immediately in this case, together with the pertinent agencies, so that the full weight of the law falls on these people, for putting lives at risk,” González Feliciano added. “As a result of this incident, not only can those responsible become infected, but they can become ill and even kill their family and friends. It is sad that, at a time when we are reinforcing the message that protection is the best tool against the spread of COVID-19, we see people who are indifferent and make fun of life in that way. To all those people who think that they are not going to be infected, I urge you to look at the daily statistics and understand that anyone can not only become infected, but also become a lethal weapon for those close to them.”

Vázquez reacted on her Twitter account Sunday to the video of the event.

“The lack of awareness and the irresponsibility of some in not protecting themselves and maintaining physical distancing, causing more infections and deaths mainly in our elderly, will not allow us to advance in this battle,” the governor tweeted. “It depends on you!”

Screenshot from Facebook

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The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Acevedo Vilá points to possible billion-dollar loss in unused Medicaid funds

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

P

opular Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for resident commissioner Aníbal Acevedo Vilá denounced on Tuesday what he said has been a lack of action from Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced and Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González as over $1 billion in Medicaid funds might be lost as the island government has until Sept. 30 to use them.

Acevedo Vilá, along with other PDP candidates and current officials, said that as the U.S. Congress approved over $2.9 billion to be used from Oct. 1, 2019 to the aforementioned deadline, the local government has used only 64 percent of the funds and has been unable to allocate the remaining 36 percent. The former governor showed a letter that he sent to both Vázquez and González on Sept. 1 to demand urgency in extending the terms of the funding through congressional legislation.

“What I am telling you is something that I’m not inventing and that came from a secret source, although they wanted to keep it a secret,” Acevedo Vilá said as he revealed a letter that

Vázquez sent to both Republican and Democratic members of Congress in which she said the island government has not used the funds due to difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic and bureaucratic procedures of both the federal government and the Financial Oversight and Management Board, and requested that the funds be carried over to the following fiscal year.

According to the governor’s letter, failure to transfer the federal funds to the 2020-2021 fiscal year might affect the financing of critical sustainable measures to improve and increase Medicaid services and that the urgent needs of around 1.4 million Medicaid recipients might be hampered. However, Acevedo Vilá said he questions if her reasons for requesting that the funds be carried over were valid given that she informed Congress a month before the deadline for distributing the funds.

“You don’t discover that you haven’t spent 36 percent of the allocated funds when you have only one month left until the [federal] fiscal year comes to an end,” the candidate said. “What I also find incredible is that this letter was sent in September, with a copy to the resident commissioner and Puerto Rico was

Acevedo Vilá said that as the U.S. Congress approved over $2.9 billion to be used from Oct. 1, 2019 to Sept.30, the local government has used only 64 percent of the funds and has been unable to allocate the remaining 36 percent. not informed. This means that we have to go back to Congress to request a new allocation of federal funds for Medicaid, yet more than a billion dollars was not used.”

Acevedo Vilá added that at the beginning of the administration of former Gov. Ricardo Rosselló Nevares, he and other former governors met as part of the Front for Puerto Rico to find legislation involving the healthcare system to achieve a tax reform, and recovery funds after

the passage of hurricanes Irma and Maria. At that time, he said, he made himself available to help the then-governor request an extension.

“I’m ready to do it again. I am available to meet with you and whoever you deem necessary to define the strategy and efforts … to guarantee the health services of the Puerto Rican people,” he said.

Reactions from the governing New Progessive Party (NPP) meanwhile were to be expected, as Reps. Yashira Lebrón and Jackeline “Jackie” Rodríguez later on Tuesday rejected Acevedo Vilá’s allegations and said “the [previous] PDP administration snatched the coverage of the medical plan from more than 379,000 Puerto Rican families.”

“We must remind the former governor accused of corruption that it was the mismanagement of the past PDP administration that caused the fiscal cliff that we inherited at the beginning of the [current] four-year term and that, thanks to the work of [Resident] Commissioner Jenniffer González with the Republicans, and [former] Governor Rosselló with the Democrats, we obtained the necessary funds to maintain and expand the services that Vital Plan beneficiaries receive,” Lebrón and Rodríguez said in a letter.

PDP House delegation leader calls on speaker to resume legislative agenda

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

P

opular Democratic Party (PDP) spokesman in the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, Rafael “Tatito” Hernández Montañez, called on House Speaker Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Núñez on Tuesday to resume the legislative agenda and use his powers to convene the lower chamber to pass various measures that the minority lawmaker said are of great importance to Puerto Rico and deserve prompt action.

“After spending almost two weeks in preventive quarantine due to the multiple positive cases of COVID-19 of several employees of the Legislature, including the Speaker of this body, today we resume the work in the Legislative Assembly urging the parliamentary majority to address various measures on some important issues for the country that require immediate action,” the PDP leader said. “The PDP Delegation in the House continued to carry out its work, despite the recess, and presented legislation to prevent the continued attack on the pocketbooks of Puerto Ricans. Likewise, other [measures] were filed to immediately address the chaos that exists in the Department of Education, investigate the multiple appointments they intend to make in the middle of the electoral ban, expedite the disbursement of federal funds to protect the jobs of thousands of fathers and mothers who face the challenge of educating from home, and everything concerning the

Luma Energy contract under investigation, among other things.”

Among the measures introduced by the PDP delegation are: Concurrent Resolution 128 -- Rejects any initiative of the Financial Oversight and Management Board to “reform” the island’s property tax system. Hernández Montañez said “they cannot be allowed to continue to damage the delicate emotional and economic situation that our citizens are experiencing, [nor can the oversight board be allowed to adversely affect] the financial stability of the business and commercial sector.”

House Bill 2585 -- Seeks to prohibit certain positions in the Department of Education from being converted into career positions, so as to guarantee the effective administration of the agency. Hernández Montañez said “it is outrageous that the priority of the Secretary of Education focuses on pegging employees at the last minute, instead of addressing the demands of the entire school community.”

“This situation requires that Johnny Méndez and the NPP [New Progressive Party] majority challenge [Education] Secretary Eligio Hernández to render him accountable to the country,” he said.

House Resolution 1802 -- Investigates incidents within the Department of Education, including the conversion of positions of trust to career appointments, the lack of resources for teachers and students, the bid procedure for the purchase of computers and tablets for students

and teachers, the conditions of the schools, the Microsoft Teams platform for virtual classes, the freezing of federal funds and the status of the internet provider in schools.

House Resolution 1804 -- Orders an investigation into the action plan proposed by Executive Order 2020-040, which adopts the strategic plan for the disbursement of funds assigned to Puerto Rico through the Coronavirus Relief Fund. “The people need answers about the … process of distributing federal funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, better known as the ‘CARES Act,’ which are so necessary for the recovery of the island,” Hernández Montañez said.

House Resolution 1803 (authored by PDP colleague Luis Raúl Torres Cruz along with the candidates for San Juan district seats in the House, Manuel Calderón Cerame and Robert Zayas) -- Requires an investigation regarding the contract of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) with LUMA Energy to operate, manage, maintain, repair and restore the electricity grid of the public corporation for a period of 15 years.

“Other matters that must be taken seriously are the various appointments that Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced has made during this recess, which in ordinary times require the approval of the Legislative Assembly. Among them, that of the secretary of State, Raúl Márquez Hernández, who registered the company Legislative Assessment LLC on December 19, 2016 and has earned $537,770 from 16 contracts in the

Capitol since 2017, as appears in the registry of the Comptroller’s Office,” Hernández Montañez said.

“The legislative evaluation of Márquez will necessarily include an analysis of his contracts with the House of Representatives,” the leader of the PDP in the House said. “Information similar to this is what the PDP Delegation has previously requested and the Speaker has refused to provide. In this sense, I authorize Johnny Méndez to publicly disclose the contracts of my office and I invite him to do the same with all the contracts, functions and performance of the contractors of the House of Representatives to clarify this matter.”

According to Rep. Hernández, the House Speaker must use his powers to convene the lower chamber “to pass various measures that the minority lawmaker said are of great importance to Puerto Rico and deserve prompt action.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

5

New SEC chief: Election day prep on schedule, but ‘waiting for a bar program’ to determine where we’re at

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

H

ours after being sworn in as the new chairman of the State Elections Commission (SEC), Judge Francisco Rosado Colomer said Tuesday that there was no transition process with former president Juan Ernesto Dávila Rivera, adding that so far he has not identified any stumbling block that could delay the general elections on Nov. 3.

During a press conference, Rosado Colomer said a work plan is being developed and that he expects to acquire a “bar program” in order to determine the SEC’s progress 55 days before the elections. However, when a member of the press asked if there was any transition process with the former SEC chairman, he replied with a no.

“The answer is no, we have not had a transition process,” Rosado Colomer said.

“I have not had communication with judge Dávila.

It is not that it is not on the agenda, it is that, once again, we started today, and there is no schedule; we are creating it on the fly based on what our experience has been.”

“That work plan, it is assumed that this person left

by judge Dávila [is] almost finished,” he added.

“This is where dates come out with some things that have to happen. I asked him to translate that into a bar program. Once you have it, because you have to become familiar with the sequence of events, it is a critical step in what we receive.”

As for the employee appointed by the former SEC chairman, Nelson Torres is the one who is in charge of the bar schematics identification.

Rosado Colmer insisted, meanwhile, that he is aware that citizens are anxious to know if the general elections are going to run smoothly.

Regarding the printing of ballots, he said that as

important as that matter is, there are others that need to be addressed in order to safeguard the electoral event.

“There is a lot of talk about the ballot; the ballot is important, but we also have to talk about the regulations. We have to talk about the drill that needs to be done in order to check if there are any signs [of possible delays]. I can understand the anxiety,” he said.

“There are many documents that the [electoral] commissioners are bringing in and many issues that they deem as particular[ly important]. We have a meeting with Finance to acknowledge where the payments that have been identified as available are. In terms of the information received from Mr. Torres, there are no critical steps that could delay us. That doesn’t mean that we won’t identify one tomorrow.”

When a member of the press asked why he accepted the appointment to head the SEC, Rosado Colmer said it was necessary.

Deputy Chairman Jessika Padilla Rivera, meanwhile, responded with a “why not?” while emphasizing that the two will work as a team to ensure citizens’ voting rights.

“Why not do it if we have the capacities to do it, the will to do it and, above all, for the electoral process to regain the security and guarantees it had?”, Padilla Rivera said.

Court denies unsecured creditors’ request to compel discovery of docs in bid to end PREPA debt deal

By THE STAR STAFF

I

n what appears to be good news for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s (PREPA) restructuring, U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith Dein has denied a request from the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (UCC) to compel discovery of documents in relation to a prior petition to end PREPA’s debt deal to restructure some $9 billion in debt.

In a decision last week, Dein said the discovery sought by the UCC was irrelevant to the question of whether the government has abandoned the restructuring support agreement (RSA) altogether. The island government has said the debt deal, whose evaluation has been suspended more than 11 times, is alive and kicking. The government is slated to submit a status report later this month.

“To the extent that the UCC’s argument in connection with its motion to dismiss is premised on an implied abandonment or termination of the RSA, there is sufficient information in the record already to enable the UCC to present the argument to the court,” Dein said.

The UCC had recently requested an order dismissing PREPA’s 9019 motion because “the government parties no longer support the underlying RSA, and therefore the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the dispute.”

The UCC alleged that “recent public statements from leaders of the [Financial Management and] Oversight Board and PREPA in which they explain that the RSA must be renegotiated and that such renegotiations are unlikely to begin until sometime in 2021” was evidence that the government parties have already decided to abandon the RSA in its current form and to not prosecute the 9019 motion.

In particular, the UCC pointed to statements made

by PREPA’s former executive director, José Ortiz. The UCC also relied on a statement from PREPA governing board member Robert Poe that the “RSA that was considered last year [is] a whole different situation” given that interest rates have now plummeted such that “money is almost free at this point.”

The committee then sought to pursue discovery to back up its claims. The document request sought documents and communications, dated from June 1 through the present, relating to the status of the RSA and the 9019 motion.

The government parties replied that no decision has been made to abandon the RSA, and that they are continuing to evaluate the feasibility of the debt deal.

They charge that the committee was not entitled to any discovery because the documents were privileged.

Dein agreed with the government, noting that much

of what the UCC was arguing was speculative.

“Individuals’ opinions are of minimal probative value as to whether the government parties have made a decision to abandon the RSA or not prosecute the 9019 Motion,” Dein said. “The UCC does not allege that the RSA expired on its own terms. The UCC also does not dispute the fact that contractual termination of the RSA can only be achieved by resolution, and no such resolution has been made.”

As the government asserted, Dein said the RSA’s status is not a matter of opinion or a subject of inquiry, it is an objective fact and, by its terms, the RSA remains in effect unless and until a termination right is executed.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

With their future and gov’t millions in play, casino owners, employees demand reopening

By THE STAR STAFF

T

he owners, operators and employees of some 15 of Puerto Rico’s casinos held a virtual press conference on Tuesday requesting that the government immediately reopen hotel casinos so more than 3,000 workers can return to their jobs.

Since March 16 and after briefly operating in July without any incidents of infection from the coronavirus, hotel casinos were ordered to shut down through an executive order.

Hotel casinos have been paralyzed, resulting in a devastating blow to the more than 3,000 direct employees and the more than 80,000 tourism industry employees who likewise have been affected, casino officials said.

The outlook looms even more bleakly in light of the reality that many of these people who had to be laid off in March and again in July have not received their unemployment benefits, thus lacking income to support their families, industry spokespeople said.

The decisions to close casino operations have come to be seen as unfounded and not based on

an evaluation of all the rigorous and strict measures taken by the casino industry, participants in the virtual conference said.

“It’s time now for the closures to be done using empirical evidence. This closure has been nefarious

and affects day by day the physical and mental health of thousands of Puerto Rican families,” the groups said in a statement. “Many of these families are led by women who have been unable to pay for housing, buy food and school supplies, or have a health plan for their children and family.”

The closure also directly affects the economy and government of Puerto Rico since the casinos contribute nearly $150 million to the budget of the University of Puerto Rico, the Tourism Co. and the General Fund, the groups added.

This hurts teachers and students,” they said.

Before being ordered to close, casinos implemented numerous measures in consideration of employees, customers and suppliers to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.They invested in and implemented without reservation protocols, rigorous cleaning and disinfection, mandatory use of masks, taking of temperatures, occupancy reduction and physical distancing, the group said. They also conducted monitoring through cameras and security guards to ensure that protocols were followed.

Restaurants association wants next executive order to allow dining rooms to open Sundays, alcohol sales to diners

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

G

iven the expiration of the current Executive Order (EO 2020-062) containing measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus on the island, Puerto Rico Restaurant Association (ASORE by its Spanish acronym) Executive Director Gadiel Lebrón said Tuesday that ASORE in recent days sent a letter to Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced with a series of recommendations regarding the operation of restaurants and their measures to control the virus.

“We sent a letter to the governor where we pledge to continue with the strict protocol that we have implemented since the beginning of this pandemic that has allowed restaurants to operate without putting the health of their employees and customers at risk,” Lebrón said in a written statement. “Likewise, we suggest some alternatives for allowing restaurants to operate with a little more flexibility, but maintaining control within the situation we are facing.”

Among the requests sent to the governor is the opening of the dining rooms on Sundays and that the sale and consumption of alcohol be allowed inside restaurants seven days a week until the allowed closing time, but only for those customers who are consuming food inside restaurants.

“We believe that customers who are already inside restaurants consuming their food and beverages can continue to do so until the closing time … because they are

in a controlled environment, without crowds and taking all precautionary measures, according to the established protocol in the industry,” the ASORE executive director said. “However, consumption outside the premises must continue to be prohibited to prevent crowds and, consequently, the spread of the virus.”

The letter notes that according to a report from the Municipal Case Investigation and Contact Tracking System distributed by the island Department of Health earlier this month, 57 percent of the outbreaks that are occurring in Puerto Rico’s municipalities are through family parties, birthdays and wakes.

Another of the arguments raised in the letter is the importance of offering financial assistance to the restaurant industry to avoid the closure of many restaurants due to the reduction in sales and expenses that have resulted from th pandemic.

“As an association, we have continuously guided our partners, and the industry in general, on the measures necessary for the operation of restaurants in the midst of this pandemic. We have witnessed the great efforts that restaurants are making to maintain their operations,” Lebrón said in his letter. “That is why it is vitally important that the government offer the necessary financial support to help the stability of the industry. Sales revenue is down, but costs aren’t. This, consequently, will continue to cause the sustained closure of businesses and the loss of jobs.”

According to the survey conducted by ASORE, sales of more than half of those surveyed have fallen by over 30 percent since the pandemic began. Also, as of the end of August, 34 percent were covering their costs, but without making a profit, and 62 percent were experiencing losses in their businesses. If they continue with the restrictions in force, 40 percent responded that they would be forced to reduce their staffs.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

7

A gender-reveal celebration is blamed for a wildfire. It wasn’t the first time.

By CHRISTINA MORALES and ALLYSON WALLER

A

n elaborate plan to reveal a baby’s gender went disastrously wrong when a “smoke-generating pyrotechnic device” ignited a wildfire that consumed thousands of acres east of Los Angeles over the holiday weekend, the authorities said.

The device ignited 4-foot-tall grass at El Dorado Ranch Park on Saturday morning, and efforts to douse the flames with water bottles proved fruitless, Capt. Bennet Milloy of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, said Monday. The family called 911 to report the fire and shared photos with investigators.

By Monday, the fire had burned more than 7,300 acres and was only 7% contained, authorities said. Evacuations were ordered, including in parts of Yucaipa, a nearby city of nearly 54,000. It was just one of several fires that continued to burn out of control up and down California on Monday, as extreme heat roasted much of the state.

No injuries or serious structural damage were immediately reported.

Criminal charges were being considered, but would not be filed before the fire is extinguished, Milloy said. Cal Fire could also ask those responsible to reimburse the cost of fighting the fire, he added.

“I can’t speak on their behalf,” Milloy said of the family, “but personally, I can only imagine how terrible they have to feel for a lot of reasons.”

Gender-reveal celebrations became popular about a decade ago as a way for new parents to learn the sex of their child, often in the presence of family and friends. Simple versions of these celebrations often involve couples cutting open pink or blue cakes, or popping balloons filled with pink or blue confetti.

While these celebrations started out as intimate events, the rise of social media has turned some gender-reveal parties into spectacles, said Carly Gieseler, an associate professor at York College of the City University of New York, and the author of “Gender-Reveal Parties as Mediated Events: Celebrating Identity in Pink and Blue.”

“As long as we have something like social media where a gender-reveal party is so visible — it’s all about the visual cues and all this performative aspect — you’re going to continue seeing that,” Gieseler said. “It’s a sense of connection, but it’s also a sense of that kind of competitive spectacle.”

Jenna Karvunidis has been credited with creating the genderreveal party by hosting one for her firstborn in 2008 and sharing it on her blog, High Gloss and Sauce.

Karvunidis, who lives in California, said in a telephone interview that she had ash on her house from another wildfire that was burning in the Angeles National Forest northeast of Los Angeles. “Could we just stop having these stupid parties and then the problem would solve itself?” she wrote on Twitter. “Thanks.”

The gender-reveal celebration that sparked the El Dorado fire wasn’t the first one to end in mayhem. It wasn’t even the first one to end in a wildfire.

One celebration sparked a wildfire in Arizona.

In April 2017 near Green Valley, Arizona, about 26 miles

In a photo provided by Federal Aviation Administration, A crop-dusting plane stalled and crashed near Turkey, Texas, in September 2019 after it dumped 350 gallons of pink water as part of a gender-reveal celebration. south of Tucson, an off-duty Border Patrol agent fired a rifle at a target filled with colored powder and Tannerite, a highly explosive substance, expecting to learn the gender of his child.

When placed with colorful packets of powder and shot at, Tannerite can fill the air with colorful residue for gender-reveal parties: blue for boys or pink for girls.

The resulting explosion sparked a fire that spread to the Coronado National Forest. It consumed more than 45,000 acres, resulted in $8 million in damage and required nearly 800 firefighters to battle it. The border agent immediately reported the fire and admitted that he started it, the U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona said in September 2018.

The agent, Dennis Dickey, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of U.S. Forest Service regulations, admitting that he had ignited what became known as the Sawmill Fire, and agreed to pay more than $8.1 million in restitution.

In Australia, a car ignited.

In April 2018, a car in Australia that was emitting blue, billowing smoke burst into flames, leading to the driver’s conviction for dangerous operation of a car.

The Queensland Police Service released footage of the incident to warn the public about “burnouts,” in which cars emit thick clouds of blue or pink smoke to signal a baby’s gender. Such stunts had become a popular fixture of gender-reveal celebrations in Australia, the authorities said, often leading to car fires and arrests.

A plane crashed after dumping gallons of pink water in Texas.

In September 2019, a crop-dusting plane stalled and crashed after it dumped thousands of gallons of pink water over a field in Texas. The pilot and a passenger escaped major injuries.

The pilot, Raj Horan, who said he was conducting the flight for a friend, released about 350 gallons of water over a field in Turkey, Texas, a small city about 300 miles northwest of Dallas. As the pilot released the water, the plane began to stall before it crashed, according to documents from the National Transportation Safety Board.

A woman in Iowa was killed in an explosion.

In October 2019, a 56-year-old woman was killed when she was struck by flying debris from a device that was supposed to shoot plumes of smoke at a gender-reveal party in Knoxville, Iowa, about 40 miles southeast of Des Moines.

A malfunction caused the device to operate more like a pipe bomb, the authorities said, sending projectiles flying more than 150 yards.

The woman’s family had planned to reveal the baby’s gender by using “explosive material,” the authorities said, and hoped to record footage to post on social media. The device they constructed included tape wrapped over the top of metal tubing that contained gunpowder, a piece of wood and colored powder, with a hole drilled in the side of the device for a fuse.

The woman died instantly after a metal piece from the device struck her in the head, authorities said.

8

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Limited testing for children creates a COVID ‘blind spot’

By SARAH KLIFF and MARGOT SANGER-KATZ

W

hen Audrey Blute’s almost 2-yearold son, George, had a runny nose in July, she wanted to do what she felt was responsible: get him tested for coronavirus.

It wasn’t easy.

Blute, 34, planned to walk to one of Washington, D.C.’s free testing sites — until she learned they do not test children younger than 6. She called her pediatrician’s office, which also declined to test George.

As child care centers and schools reopen, parents are encountering another coronavirus testing bottleneck: Few sites will test children. Even in large cities with dozens of test sites, parents are driving long distances and calling multiple centers to track down one accepting children.

The age policies at testing sites reflect a range of concerns, including differences in health insurance, medical privacy rules, holes in test approval, and fears of squirmy or shrieking children.

The limited testing hampers schools’ ability to quickly isolate and trace coronavirus cases among students. It could also create a new burden on working parents, with some schools and child care centers requiring symptomatic children to test negative for coronavirus before rejoining class.

“There is no good reason not to do it in kids,” said Sean O’Leary, a Colorado pediatrician who sits on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ committee on infectious diseases.

“It’s a matter of people not being comfortable with doing it.”

Many testing sites, including those run by cities and states, do not test any children, or they set age minimums that exclude young children. The age limits vary widely from place to place. Los Angeles offers public testing without any age minimum, while San Francisco, which initially saw only adults, recently began offering tests to children 13 and older. Dallas sets a cutoff at 5 years old.

The District of Columbia decided not to test young children at its public sites because children have nearly universal health coverage in the city, meaning they could be tested at a pediatrician’s office.

Parents like Blute, however, are finding that pediatricians’ offices appear to have limited testing capacities. George never got a test for his runny nose. Instead, Blute and

Many coronavirus testing sites do not screen children. One that does, outside Chief Sealth High School in Seattle, swabbed 1-year-old Quentin Brown late last month. her husband kept him isolated at home while they tried to work their full-time jobs.

“We were told to assume that everyone in the household has it, which didn’t seem like the best information — we’re both big believers in contributing to the data pool,” she said. “We think that’s really important.”

In Florida, the Division of Emergency Management announced last month that it would “prioritize” pediatric testing as students there begin to return to in-person school. Still, only a quarter of the 60 testing sites the agency supports will see children of all ages. The state’s 18 drive-through sites are limited to patients 5 and older, but did recently add priority lanes for symptomatic children.

“When we first started, and there was a lack of access to testing, this kind of triage might have made sense,” said Daniella Levine Cava, a county commissioner in MiamiDade. “Clearly it doesn’t make sense in the current environment. We know that children contract the disease, we know that children spread the disease, and just because they are less likely to show symptoms, that doesn’t mean they pose any less of a risk to others.”

Pediatricians say the test itself is the same when administered to a child, although it can sometimes require additional supplies.

Not all coronavirus tests have gone through safety testing in children, and sometimes providers use smaller swabs on toddlers.

Large pharmacy chains, which have set up thousands of testing sites across the country, have generally catered to adults.

Walgreens does not see children at its drivethrough clinics.

CVS Health has slowly dropped the age minimum at its 1,944 drive-through testing sites across the country. The pharmacies initially accepted only adult patients but dropped the age minimum to 16 in August, and are in the process of lowering it to 12 this month.

“Because we use self-administered swabs, we’ve been evolving our testing protocols as we learn more about what’s possible,” said William Durling, a CVS spokesman.

“Twelve years old is the age that our team felt a child could likely swab themselves.”

Early in the pandemic, public health officials were not focused on children as an at-risk population, given how few ended up hospitalized for the virus. Some scientists even thought that children might be safe from coronavirus infection altogether.

But now, with schools underway, and with evidence of childhood infection more established, the testing infrastructure for children in many communities has major

holes. Nir Menachemi, a professor of health policy and management at Indiana University, called it a blind spot that was interfering with school reopening plans and with efforts to understand how the virus was spreading.

“Having a blind spot makes you not able to respond from a public health perspective, either with the correct messaging or with the right policies to put into place to protect the people who are vulnerable,” he said.

When Christine Carter’s 5-year-old son, West, was experiencing a fever and vomiting, she worried it might be coronavirus. But her pediatrician’s office said it did those tests only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and all appointments that week had already been booked.

“By the time I was going to be able to get him tested, he’d already have been a week into having it,” said Carter, who lives outside Baltimore. “It turned out to be an allergic reaction, but if I do really need to get him tested in the future, I fear the process will be really lengthy.”

In Chicago, Jen Cowhy’s pediatrician declined to test her 11-month-old daughter after a day care classmate tested positive.

Cowhy, 31, called the city’s two pediatric hospitals, and both told her they would not test a child who had been exposed but was asymptomatic.

The limited testing sites for children reflect broader patterns in medical care delivery. Even when it comes to more longstanding health needs — like flu shots, checkups or an assessment of a sore wrist — many clinics, urgent care centers and drugstores that offer services to adults won’t accept children. So even if workers there can technically swab a child’s nose the same way they would swab an adult’s, they may not feel comfortable doing so.

Joe Little, the clinical supervisor for coronavirus testing at the AllCare Family Medicine and Urgent Care in Washington’s Dupont Circle neighborhood, said health workers without pediatric training sometimes worry that children will be resistant or emotional. But nurses at his clinic, one of the few places in the region testing young children, have had success administering nasal swab tests to people of all ages.

“They generally tolerate it pretty well,” said Little, who is trained as a nurse. “When we do it, the nurse will say: ‘We’re going to tickle your nose. Tickle, tickle.’ And then you’re doing it. And they’re like, ‘Oh, it didn’t hurt.’”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

9

How Trump’s billion-dollar campaign lost its cash advantage

President Donald Trump, second from right, hosts President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, left, at a dinner at Mara-Lago in Palm Beach on March 7, 2020.

By SHANE GOLDMACHER and MAGGIE HABERMAN

M

oney was supposed to have been one of the great advantages of incumbency for President Donald Trump, much as it was for President Barack Obama in 2012 and George W. Bush in 2004. After getting outspent in 2016, Trump filed for reelection on the day of his inauguration — earlier than any other modern president — betting that the head start would deliver him a decisive financial advantage this year.

It seemed to have worked. His rival, Joe Biden, was relatively broke when he emerged as the presumptive Democratic nominee this spring, and Trump and the Republican National Committee had a nearly $200 million cash advantage.

Five months later, Trump’s financial supremacy has evaporated. Of the $1.1 billion his campaign and the party raised from the beginning of 2019 through July, more than $800 million has been spent. Now some people inside the campaign are forecasting what was once unthinkable: a cash crunch with less than 60 days until the election, according to Republican officials briefed on the matter.

Brad Parscale, the former campaign manager, liked to call Trump’s reelection war machine an “unstoppable juggernaut.” But interviews with more than a dozen current and former campaign aides and Trump allies, and a review of thousands of items in federal campaign filings, show that the president’s campaign and the RNC developed some profligate

habits as they burned through hundreds of millions of dollars.

Since Bill Stepien replaced Parscale in July, the campaign has imposed a series of belt-tightening measures that have reshaped initiatives, including hiring practices, travel and the advertising budget.

Under Parscale, more than $350 million — almost half of the $800 million spent — went to fundraising operations, as no expense was spared in finding new donors online. The campaign assembled a big and well-paid staff and housed the team at a cavernous, well-appointed office in the Virginia suburbs; outsize legal bills were treated as campaign costs; and more than $100 million was spent on a television advertising blitz before the party convention, the point when most of the electorate historically begins to pay close attention to the race.

Among the splashiest and perhaps most questionable purchases was a pair of Super Bowl ads the campaign reserved for $11 million, according to Advertising Analytics — more than it has spent on TV in some top battleground states — a vanity splurge that allowed Trump to match billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s buy for the big game.

There was also a cascade of smaller choices that added up: The campaign hired a coterie of highly paid consultants (Trump’s former bodyguard and White House aide has been paid more than $500,000 by the RNC since late 2017); spent $156,000 for planes to pull aerial banners in recent months; and paid nearly $110,000 to Yondr, a company that makes magnetic pouches used to store cellphones during fundraisers so that

donors could not secretly record Trump and leak his remarks.

Some people familiar with the expenses noted that Parscale had a car and driver, an unusual expense for a campaign manager. Trump has told people gleefully that Stepien took a pay cut when the president gave him the job.

Critics of the campaign’s management say the lavish spending was ineffective: Trump enters the fall trailing in most national and battleground state polls, and Biden has surpassed him as a fundraising powerhouse, after posting a record-setting haul of nearly $365 million in August. The Trump campaign has not revealed its August fundraising figure.

“If you spend $800 million and you’re 10 points behind, I think you’ve got to answer the question ‘What was the game plan?’” said Ed Rollins, a veteran Republican strategist who runs a small pro-Trump super PAC, and who accused Parscale of spending “like a drunken sailor.”

“I think a lot of money was spent when voters weren’t paying attention,” he added.

Parscale, who is still a senior adviser on the campaign, said in an interview that the Trump operation invested heavily in attracting donors to erase the large advantage that Democrats had built digitally after the Obama years. “We closed that gap,” he said, crediting early spending as “the only reason Republicans are even close” in terms of online fundraising.

“I ran the campaign the same way I did in 2016, which also included all of the marketing, strategy and expenses under the very close eye of the family,” said Parscale, who was the digital director, not the campaign manager, in 2016. “No decision was made without their approval.”

Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has overseen the campaign from his position as a senior White House aide, had posed for a Forbes magazine cover as the person who ran the 2016 campaign soon after the election.

“Any spending arrangements with the RNC since 2016 were in partnership with Ronna McDaniel,” Parscale said, referring to the party chairwoman, “who I consider a strategic partner and friend.” Parscale said on Twitter that the campaign spent less than $11 million on the Super Bowl ads, after moving one of them to the postgame portion of the telecast.

Nicholas Everhart, a Republican strategist who owns a firm specializing in placing political ads, said the $800 million spent so far shows the “peril of starting a reelection campaign just weeks after winning.”

“A presidential campaign costs a lot of money to run,” Everhart said. “In essence, the campaign has been spending nonstop for almost four years straight.”

Reining in the Budget At the top of the whiteboard in Stepien’s office are the latest numbers on the campaign budget, and Stepien has instituted a number of changes since he was promoted from deputy campaign manager. A proposal to spend $50 million in costs related to coalitions groups was cast aside. An idea to spend $3 million for a NASCAR car bearing Trump’s name was discarded.

The number of staff members allowed to travel to events has been pared back to avoid what one senior campaign official described as “sponsoring vacations.”

Continues on page 10

10

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

From page 9 Trips aboard Air Force One, popular because they enable aides to get face time with the president — but which have to be compensated by the campaign — have been slashed.

“The most important thing I do every day is pay attention to the budget,” Stepien said in a brief interview. He declined to discuss budget specifics but said the campaign had enough funds to win.

Most visibly, the Trump campaign slashed its August television spending, mostly abandoning the airwaves during the party conventions. In the last two weeks of the month, Biden’s campaign spent $35.9 million on television, compared with $4.8 million for Trump, according to Advertising Analytics.

“We held on to cash to make sure that we’ll have the firepower that we need” for the fall, said Jason Miller, a senior Trump strategist, who contended that airing ads during the conventions would prove a waste for Biden. “We want to make sure that we’re saving it for when it really matters, when it’s going to move the needle.”

Miller defended spending money on television ads earlier this spring and summer, calling it a “tough” decision necessary to keep Trump competitive as the nation suffered through a pandemic and its economic fallout. “We had to claw our way back,” he said.

One of the reasons Biden was able to wipe away Trump’s early cash edge was that he sharply contained costs with a minimalistic campaign during the pandemic’s worst months. Trump officials derisively dismissed it as his “basement” strategy, but from that basement Biden fully embraced Zoom fundraisers, with top donors asked to give as much as $720,000.

These virtual events typically took less than 90 minutes of the candidate’s time, could raise millions of dollars and cost almost nothing. Trump has almost entirely refused to hold such fundraisers. Aides say he does not like them.

Door-Knocking to Win Over Voters There is some disagreement in the extended Trump operation about the depth of any potential cash-on-hand shortage. Some officials believe that plenty more money will come in during the last two months from online donors and that cutting back on TV advertising in August was shortsighted. The campaign announced a combined $76 million haul with the party during the four days of its convention.

Others said the campaign had expected the low-dollar fundraising to continue at the same pace, and were also counting on a significant number of $5,600 checks, the limit for direct campaign giving, that did not materialize; that was in part because they rely on in-person events, which was more difficult with the virus.

Some party officials defended the early spending as prudent, including money devoted to the expansive ground operation and an online network of donors that was setting fundraising records. The GOP has more than 2,000 staff members across 100 offices and claims that volunteers knock on 1 million doors per week; the Biden campaign has forgone door-knocking so far during the pandemic.

“The Biden campaign is hoarding money and hoping that fall TV ads help put them over the edge,” said Richard Walters, chief of staff for the RNC. “But when a state comes down to 10,700 votes like Michigan did in 2016, we think

that direct voter contact — those millions of door knocks and phone calls we make each week — is going to be critical.”

The Trump campaign has undertaken its own financial review of spending under Parscale. Among the first changes implemented was shutting down an ad campaign that had used Parscale’s personal social media accounts to deliver pro-Trump ads. More than $800,000 had been poured into boosting Parscale’s Facebook and Instagram pages; those ads ceased the day after he was removed as campaign manager.

Parscale said the Facebook page was “not my idea” and the “family’s direct approval” had been sought on the program.

“I built an unprecedented infrastructure with the Republican Party under this family’s leadership since 2016,” Parscale said in a statement to The Times. “I am proud of my achievements.”

Some Trump-Pleasing Expenditures Some spending choices appear devised, at least in part, to satisfy Trump, including the Super Bowl ads, which were purchased as part of an advertising arms race with Bloomberg. The two ads on game day cost more than the Trump campaign spent on local television through the end of July in four battleground states: Wisconsin ($3.9 million), Michigan ($3.6 million), Iowa ($2 million) and Minnesota ($1.3 million).

Another Trump-pleasing expense: more than $1 million in ads aired in the Washington, D.C., media market, a region that is not likely to be competitive in the fall but where the president, a famously voracious television consumer, resides.

Trump, who once joked he could be the first candidate to make money running for president, has steered, along with the Republican Party, about $4 million into the Trump family businesses since 2019: hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trump’s club at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, lavish donor retreats at Trump hotels, office space in Trump Tower, and thousands of dollars at the steakhouse in Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel.

Many of the specifics of Trump’s spending are opaque; since 2017, the campaign and the RNC have routed $227 million through a single limited liability company linked to Trump campaign officials. That firm, American Made Media Consultants, has been used to place television and digital ads and was the subject of a recent Federal Election Commission complaint arguing it was used to disguise the final destination of spending, which has included paychecks to Lara Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the partners of Trump’s two adult sons.

Millions more followed to firms tied to RNC and Trumplinked officials, including more than $39 million to two firms, Parscale Strategy LLC and Giles-Parscale, controlled by Parscale since the beginning of 2017.

Parscale said that he had “no ownership or financial interest in A.M.M.C.” and that he had “negotiated a contract with the family for 1% of digital ad spend and after becoming campaign manager took no percentage.”

‘You Have to Spend Money to Make Money’ There is little question that Parscale helped the Trump campaign construct an unparalleled Republican operation to lure small donors online. He directed a nine-figure investment in digital ads and list-building that appears to have largely paid for itself. Some of the president’s advisers believe it will continue to pay great dividends in the final weeks, pointing to the $165 million raised by the president and his party in July — more than any month in 2016.

“You have to spend money to make money,” explained

The San Juan Daily Star Walters, the RNC chief of staff. “We have had a big increase in revenue because of early investments we made in online fundraising and direct mail.”

Still, the costs of the GOP money operation have been enormous.

Since 2019, Trump, the RNC and their shared committees have spent $145 million on costs related to direct mail, almost $42 million on digital list acquisition and rentals (to expand their list of email addresses) and tens of millions more in online advertising for new donors.

Just procuring the Trump paraphernalia that supporters buy costs a lot. Two firms that make campaign swag were paid more than $30 million combined since 2019.

At Trump’s direction, the party has taken a spare-no-expense approach to donor maintenance, with the RNC spending more than $6 million in “donor mementos.” The spending has gone to stationery shops, the White House Historical Association ($538,000) and the Hershey Co., the chocolatemaker ($337,000), which cover costs for items such as the White House-branded M&M’s given away by administrations of both parties.

Trump has also accumulated many costs that are unusual for a presidential reelection.

Republicans, for instance, have been saddled with extra legal costs, more than $21 million since 2019, resulting from investigations into Trump and, eventually, his impeachment trial. The RNC also paid a large legal bill of $666,666.67 to Reuters News & Media at the end of June. Both Reuters and the RNC declined to discuss the payment. It was labeled “legal proceedings — IP resolution,” suggesting it was related to a potential litigation over intellectual property.

There have been other squandered costs driven by Trump’s sometimes mercurial desires. He switched his convention plans twice, incurring many expenses along the way.

In July, for instance, the RNC made a $325,000 payment to the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island near Jacksonville for the convention that never happened there. The party is not expected to get that money back.

A reelection capaign rally for President Donald Trump in Latrobe, Penn., on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020. Trump’s campaign has spent $800 million.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

11

6MĂ„JPHS (WWYV]LK 5V[PJL MYVT )HURY\W[J` *V\Y[

:L_\HS (I\ZL *SHPTZ PU )V` :JV\[Z )HURY\W[J` 9LNHYKSLZZ VM OV^ VSK `V\ HYL [VKH` VY ^OLU [OL ZL_\HS HI\ZL VJJ\YYLK `V\ ULLK [V Ă„SL `V\Y JSHPT I` W T ,HZ[LYU ;PTL VU 5V]LTILY The Boy Scouts of America (“BSAâ€?) has filed bankruptcy in order to restructure its nonprofit organization and pay Sexual Abuse Survivors. Please read this notice carefully as it may impact your rights against BSA, BSA Local Councils and organizations that sponsored your troop or pack and provides information about the case, In re Boy Scouts of America and Delaware BSA, LLC, No. 20-10343 (Bankr. D. Del.). This notice is a short summary. For more detail, visit www.OfficialBSAClaims.com or call 1-866-907-2721.

>OV :OV\SK -PSL H :L_\HS (I\ZL *SHPT& Anyone who was sexually abused during their time in Scouting, on or before February 18, 2020, must file a claim. This includes sexual abuse in connection with Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, or any entity or activity associated with Scouting. Sexual Abuse Claims include, but are not limited to: sexual misconduct, exploitation, or touching, sexual comments about a person or other behaviors that led to abuse, even if the behavior was not sexual or against the law, and regardless of whether you thought the behavior was sexual abuse or not. These acts could be between a: (1) child and an adult or (2) child and another child.

>OLU HUK /V^ :OV\SK 0 -PSL H :L_\HS (I\ZL *SHPT& You should file a claim using the Sexual Abuse Survivor Proof of Claim by November 16, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time). If you do not file a timely Sexual Abuse Claim, you may lose rights against BSA, BSA Local Councils or organizations that sponsored your troop or pack, including any right to compensation. Only BSA is in bankruptcy. If you have a claim against the BSA Local Councils or other organizations, you must take additional legal action to preserve and pursue your rights.

Your information will be kept private. You can download and file a claim at www.OfficialBSAclaims.com or call 1-866-907-2721 for help on how to file a claim by mail. Scouting participants who were at least 18 years of age at the time the sexual abuse began may also have claims related to sexual abuse and should consult the appropriate claim form at www.OfficialBSAclaims.com.

(*; 56> )LMVYL ;PTL 9\UZ 6\[!

WWW.

CLAIM

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File a Sexual Abuse Survivor Proof of Claim.

‹

If your claim is approved, you may receive compensation from the bankruptcy.

‹

Have questions?

Call or visit the website for more information.

If a plan to reorganize BSA is approved, it could release claims you hold against certain third parties, including against BSA Local Councils and organizations that sponsored your troop or pack. Please visit the website to learn more.

6[OLY :\WWVY[ BSA will fund in-person counseling for current or former Scouts or their family. To request in-person counseling, please call 1-866-907-2721 or email restructuring@scouting.org.

Your information will be kept private.

^^^ 6MĂ„JPHS):(JSHPTZ JVT

12

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Looking to buy a used car in the pandemic? So is everyone else

By NEAL E. BOUDETTE

U

sed cars are usually overlooked in the fanfare accorded to cuttingedge electric cars and gussiedup pickup trucks. Now they are suddenly the industry’s hottest commodity.

Consumers are snapping up used vehicles as second or third cars so they can avoid trains, buses or Ubers during the coronavirus pandemic. Others are buying used rather than new to save money in an uncertain economy, not knowing when they or their spouse might lose a job. Demand for older cars has also been fed by a roughly two-month halt in production of new cars this spring.

Across the country, the prices of used cars have shot up. The increase defies the conventional wisdom that cars are depreciating assets that lose a big chunk of their value the moment they leave the dealership. In July alone, the average value of used cars jumped more than 16%, according to Edmunds.com.

In June, the most recent month for which data is available, franchised car dealers sold 1.2 million used cars and trucks, according to Edmunds, up 22% from a year earlier. It was the highest monthly total since at least 2007.

The boom has turned the business of selling cars upside down. Because used cars don’t come from factories in Detroit, dealers are having to work as hard to buy cars as they typically do to sell them, they say, including running ads and cold calling people to ask if they would be interested in selling their old car. That’s how strong demand for used cars has become in the pandemic.

“Used cars are supposed to depreciate, but I’d look up the book value of a car on the lot and see it was higher than at the beginning of the month,” said Adam Silverleib, president of Silko Honda in Raynham, Massachusetts. “I’ve never seen that before.”

Silverleib recently sold a 2017 Honda Pilot with 22,000 miles to Suzanne Cray and her husband. The family had gotten by with just one car. But Cray, a nurse who works at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, said the family had decided it needed

Salesmen at the Silko Honda dealership in Raynham, Mass., on Sept. 2, 2020. The president of Silko Honda says some low-mileage vehicles were snapped up within hours of arriving on the lot. another to ensure that no one had to ride with Uber or on public transportation.

“We used to take Uber to restaurants, especially if we were going out with friends and didn’t want to drink and drive,” said Cray, who has treated patients with the coronavirus. “We don’t do that any more. We take our car instead.”

The boom is of a piece with other unexpected trends in a recession that has left millions of people unemployed and has devastated airlines, restaurants, hotels and small businesses. Despite that pain, the pandemic has been a boon to old standbys of the economy, such as canned and processed foods and suburban home sales, that had fallen out of favor in recent years.

The auto industry’s equivalent of the three-bedroom ranch with the charming backyard patio is a low-mileage car or SUV — a lot cheaper than the newer version but just as good at taking the family to a socially distanced picnic after months of isolation.

The growing desire to own a car has caught many people by surprise and unnerved others who are worried about what it might say about the future of cities and transportation. Mayor Bill de

Blasio, who gets around in an SUV, recently implored New Yorkers, many of whom don’t own vehicles, not to buy a car, saying they represent “the past.”

Those fears might be overdone.

Buying a used car does not increase the number of cars on the road, of course.

And sales of new cars are not taking off.

If anything, part of the sudden mania for used cars stems from the yearslong rise in the price of new cars and trucks. On average, new vehicles now sell for about $38,000, more than many consumers can afford or are willing to pay.

In addition, many Americans realize they don’t have to worry that they’re buying a rattle trap that’s constantly in the shop. Cars and trucks of recent vintage are better made than those from a couple of decades ago, and certainly compared with the vehicles Ralph Nader inveighed against in his 1965 book, “Unsafe at Any Speed.”

Other consumers have gravitated toward used cars because there still aren’t that many new cars to choose from. Although automakers have restarted their plants after halting production for about 60 days from late March to mid-May, they haven’t made

up for the lost time.

In the first seven months of the year, automakers produced 6.6 million cars and light trucks in North America, according to Automotive News. Those were 3 million fewer than they made in the same period in 2019.

Early in the pandemic, when many people avoided leaving home for all but the most pressing needs, carmakers offered no-interest loans for as long as 84 months to lure buyers. With new-car inventories low, such generous incentives have mostly disappeared.

But people with a car to sell still have some leverage. The strong demand for used cars has lifted trade-in values, a boon for some car buyers. Sutherland was shocked to get $2,000 for her Mitsubishi, which had 245,000 miles on it.

In July, Edmunds found that the average trade-in value rose almost $2,000, to just over $14,000.

This banner year for the used car will — inevitably — end. Automakers will catch up on production, dealer lots will swell with new vehicles again, and enticing sales incentives will return, said Jessica Caldwell, a senior analyst at Edmunds. But demand for used cars could stay brisk if the pandemic worsens in the fall and the economy weakens further even if the supply of new cars improves.

“It won’t last forever,” Caldwell said. “But for now it’s a great time to trade in a used car.”

Used car prices have jumped during the pandemic as buyers worry about using public transit, hailing rides or tightened finances.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

13 Stocks

Nasdaq slides as tech rout deepens, Tesla hits three-week low

T

he Nasdaq tumbled on Tuesday as a sell-off in highflying technology stocks extended to a third straight day, while Tesla tracked its worst day in nearly six months after investors were caught off guard by the stock being left out of the S&P 500.

All eleven major S&P sectors were down, with declines worsening after news on Friday that SoftBank made significant option purchases during the run-up in U.S. stocks.

Energy, financial and information technology stocks were among the biggest decliners.

“To see a period of carnage is reasonable, considering the massive run up that we have experienced since the early part of the year,” said Eric Schiffer, chief executive officer of private equity firm Patriarch Organization in Beverly Hills, California.

“We’ll need some time to see whether this is a fundamental shift versus a technical on exhibit, because if it is a shift to fundamentals, that is not a position where you’re going to want to necessarily buy a dip.”

Media reports of SoftBank’s option purchases also reminded investors that market makers might have billions of dollars worth of long positions as hedges against options trades, which will have to be sold as prices fall. “If you bought a lot of call options in the second quarter, you’re doing very well, but that creates a problem for later when you need to unwind these positions,” said Ken Peng, Citi Private Bank’s head of Asia Investment Strategy.

Wall Street’s tech-and-stimulus-led rally halted last week with the Nasdaq falling as much as 9.9% from its record closing high as investors booked profits after a run that boosted the index about 70% from its pandemic-lows.

At session lows on Tuesday, Facebook, Amazon.com, Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, Alphabet and Netflix - which are increasingly being referred to as “FAATMAN” - had collectively lost more than $1 trillion in market capitalization since Sept. 2.

Tesla plunged another 15.5% to a three-week low as the electric-car maker was excluded from a group of companies being added to the S&P 500. Investors had widely expected its inclusion after a blockbuster quarterly earnings report in July. Up to Friday’s close, the stock had surged about 400% this year.

At 12:28 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 414.98 points, or 1.48%, at 27,718.33, the S&P 500 was down 64.73 points, or 1.89%, at 3,362.23, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 305.36 points, or 2.70%, at 11,007.77.

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14

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

‘The lockdown killed my father’: Farmer suicides add to India’s virus misery

By KARAN DEEP SINGH

R

andhir Singh was already deeply in debt when the coronavirus pandemic struck.

Looking out at his paltry cotton field by the side of a railway track, he walked in circles, hopeless. In early May, he killed himself by lying on the same track.

“This is what we feared,” said Rashpal Singh, Singh’s 22-year-old son, choking back tears in his family home in Sirsiwala, a small village in the northern Indian state of Punjab. “The lockdown killed my father.”

Months ago, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Singh’s livelihood came crashing down. His 1-acre farm had barely produced enough cotton to cover the cost of growing it, and the lockdown even robbed him of his side job as a bus driver.

India now leads the world in new daily reported coronavirus cases and has the secondhighest number of cases globally, surpassing Brazil on Monday. In Punjab, where cases have surged, lockdowns have been imposed all over again. The

Randhir Singh’s widow, Paramjeet Kaur, and son Rashpal Singh at their village home in the northern Indian state of Punjab. measures, economists say, are forcing millions of households into poverty and contributing to a long-running tragedy: farmer suicides.

Emergencias Dentales

Farm bankruptcies and debts like the one that tormented Singh have been the source of misery in the country for decades, but experts say the suffering has reached new levels in the pandemic.

“This crisis is the making of this government,” said Vikas Rawal, a professor of economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, the capital. Rawal, who has spent the past 25 years studying agrarian distress in India, said that he believes thousands of people who live and work on farms have most likely killed themselves in the past few months.

After India’s lockdown was extended for the third time, Singh became convinced he would never pull himself out of debt with the economy shut down, his family said. “He kept saying, ‘It won’t open now,’” said Paramjeet Kaur, his widow, wiping away tears. “Now, what will happen to us? Who will feed us?”

India has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. In 2019, a total of 10,281 farmers and farm laborers died by suicide across the country, according to statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau. Taking one’s own life is still a crime in India, and experts have said for years that the actual numbers are far higher because most people fear the stigma of reporting.

Few of the recent examples among farmers have been reported in the Indian news, according to Rawal. “It’s hard to say exactly how many because there was massive underreporting of deaths, and even the media could not reach the hinterland because of the lockdown,” he said.

A spokeswoman from the Ministry of Agriculture in New Delhi declined to answer questions about farmer suicides. The office of the chief minister of Punjab also declined to comment, cit-

ing the demands of the coronavirus crisis.

Twenty years ago, Nirmal Singh’s father drank a bottle of pesticide when he lost most of the land he owned to a huge debt of nearly 2 million rupees (about $26,700). Then Singh’s sister took her own life because the family could not afford to bear the expenses for her wedding.

In 2016, Singh’s son died by putting himself in the path of a train after their cotton fields were devoured by whiteflies. “He was just 23,” said Singh, pointing to a framed portrait of his son.

Singh is trapped under a punishing debt of $20,000 that he accumulated over the years to keep his farm running. But farming, he said, is more unprofitable than ever. On a sweltering June afternoon, he walked gingerly through his parched fields. “Have you ever heard of a politician or an industrialist committing suicide?” he asked. “It’s always a farmer or a laborer.”

When farmers in Punjab began sowing rice in the pandemic, they had no access to farm labor. They scrambled to arrange and pay for buses, tractors — whatever they could find — to bring in workers who typically traveled from the northern states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh every summer.

Desperate and jobless for nearly three months because of the lockdown, the workers demanded double and triple their usual rates.

In the early days of the lockdown, farmers were so constricted that they were only able to bring a small fraction of their produce to the market. Unable to sell their crops, they set their farms on fire and dumped millions of dollars worth of fruits and vegetables on the roads or plowed them back into the fields.

In early June, Modi’s government used its executive powers to push through sweeping changes aimed at privatizing agriculture. It promised farmers greater freedom to sell their produce outside large agricultural markets taxed by state governments.

In August, thousands of farmers gathered to protest the new orders, burning their copies in the street and arguing the orders could expose them to a monopoly of corporate buyers rather than empowering them.

On a recent afternoon in Nirmal Singh’s village, dozens of women and children led a procession to mark an ancient ritual: the funeral of a doll made of dry twigs and wrapped in fine silk. It is believed the funeral forces the gods to unleash rain and ease suffering on Earth.

“Look what you have done to our daughter,” the women sing in unison, some grieving, beating their breasts and throwing their hands up in the air. After the ceremony, it began to rain.

The ritual worked, said Singh. Some of their suffering had been relieved.

“Now, we just hope Modi gets the message.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

15

Israel’s virus czar was making headway. Then he tangled with a key Netanyahu ally.

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER and ISABEL KERSHNER

F

or a fleeting three days, it looked as if Israel had successfully rebooted its faulty fight against the coronavirus.

Then politics intervened.

In late July, a veteran Tel Aviv hospital administrator, Dr. Ronni Gamzu, was anointed the country’s virus czar and swept in with self-assurance. Acknowledging previous government mistakes, he enlisted the military to take responsibility for contact tracing and pleaded with Israelis to take the threat seriously and wear their masks.

He also vowed to restore the public’s trust, demanding accountability from municipal officials while replacing the central government’s ceaselessly zigzagging dictates with simple instructions that anyone, it seemed, should be able to understand and embrace.

Last Thursday, Gamzu won Cabinet approval for a traffic light-themed plan to impose strict lockdowns on “red” cities with the worst outbreaks, while easing restrictions in “green” ones where the virus was finding fewer victims. The goal was to avoid, or at least delay, another economically strangling nationwide lockdown.

By Sunday, however, Gamzu was looking more like a victim himself.

Ultra-Orthodox leaders who felt that their community was being stigmatized revolted against the traffic light plan. This time, however, they did not bother to attack Gamzu, instead directing their ire at his most important backer, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

And Netanyahu, under fierce public pressure from one of his most vital constituencies, caved in on the targeted lockdown plan.

Forget about the harshest new restrictions in red cities, he announced Sunday night. Instead, he and Gamzu grasped at a watered-down nighttime curfew, something that Arab mayors had proposed to curtail big weddings but that even Gamzu later conceded would have little effect in ultra-Orthodox communities.

Netanyahu and Gamzu took turns at a microphone Monday to project unity. Netanyahu insisted that he had not knuckled under but merely done what the professionals had recommended. Gamzu insisted that even if his professional recommendations had been blocked, he was determined to soldier on.

But the upshot for Israel is a bleak prospect: The pandemic has mushroomed, with Israel’s number of new cases near the worst in the world on a per capita basis. Yet the odds of stopping its march seem slim as the Jewish High Holy Days approach.

Ordinarily, the New Year, Yom Kippur and Sukkot are a festive and unifying time. Instead, there are fears that by Sept. 18, when the holidays begin, Israel will be either overrun by the pandemic or under a full lockdown. And the deeply polarized country appears to be warring with itself along religious, cultural and political lines that may sound familiar to many Americans.

Secular Israeli Jews accuse the ultra-Orthodox

and Arab citizens of spreading the virus in their overcrowded areas. The ultra-Orthodox point to the relative normalcy of life in Tel Aviv and complain that they are being singled out.

Joined by their right-wing allies, they ask why, if crowds are so dangerous, liberal-leaning protesters are allowed to gather by the thousands to demand Netanyahu’s ouster.

And a growing chorus of frustrated Israelis across the political spectrum accuse Netanyahu of working harder at holding onto power than on bringing infection rates down. Indeed, in dumping Gamzu’s lockdown plan, critics said Netanyahu had subverted his virus czar’s authority to mollify his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners.

“It shows that fighting the pandemic is not his first priority,” said Orit Galili-Zucker, a onetime Netanyahu strategist.

In effect, she said, the other crises that have weakened Netanyahu’s standing — his ongoing trial on corruption charges, and the anti-corruption demonstrations denouncing him — are inhibiting his willingness to let the professionals dictate how to combat the pandemic.

“The political story of Israel is affecting its fight against the virus,” Galili-Zucker said. “It’s very sad.”

Gamzu became Netanyahu’s virus czar after pioneering a program to protect the elderly from the virus at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. He addressed the Israeli public energetically and emotionally in frequent television appearances and Facebook videos, asserting

that he would now make the decisions.

Others had refused the job because its powers were undefined. But Gamzu, exuding confidence, tried to turn that to his advantage.

“I have a natural authority,” he said on Aug. 31, at the start of an interview that took three days to complete because of repeated urgent interruptions. “I was director-general of the Ministry of Health, I know all the politicians, I know all the ministers. I know all the Cabinet. I know all the political issues. But I’m not a politician. I’m a professional,” he added.

“I would say that I have 100% authority,” Gamzu declared.

He laid out a three-pronged strategy: restoring public confidence; building the infrastructure needed — faster and more widespread testing and many more epidemiological investigators — to break the chain of contagion; and empowering local authorities.

His signature initiative was the traffic light plan. It would give mayors the tools they needed to respond quickly to new outbreaks, but also give them the inducement they would need — easing restrictions — to win public cooperation.

If it worked, he said, it could help delay another nationwide lockdown until the army’s contact tracers are ready for an expected resurgence of the virus in the fall.

The problem politically was that nearly all the red cities turned out to be either predominantly Arab or ultra-Orthodox. And every action affecting the ultraOrthodox sector elicited fierce pushback.

Dr. Ronni Gamzu, waving the Israeli flag, became Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s virus czar after pioneering a program to protect the elderly from the virus at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.

16

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Fearing detention, two Australian correspondents flee China

By DAMIEN CAVE and CHRIS BUCKLEY

T

wo Australian journalists have rushed out of China after a fiveday diplomatic standoff that began when Chinese state security officers paid them unannounced visits, prompting fears that they would be detained.

The journalists — Michael Smith, the China correspondent for The Australian Financial Review, and Bill Birtles, a correspondent with the Australian Broadcasting Corp. — arrived in Sydney on Tuesday morning after their organizations hastily arranged flights. They were the last two correspondents working in China for Australian news outlets.

Their exit, which occurred after negotiations between Australian and Chinese diplomats that led China to revoke a ban on their departure, added another

conflict to the deteriorating relations between the two nations. It also highlighted Beijing’s increasingly heavy-handed tactics to limit independent journalism in the country.

“Their rushed departure from China marks a new low in a relationship which had already seemed to have reached rock bottom,” said Richard McGregor, a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney think tank, and a former China correspondent for The Financial Times and The Australian.

“Other countries grappling with China should take note,” he added. “If their bilateral relationship deteriorates, then their own nationals will be in the firing line, as well.”

For Smith and Birtles, the sense of vulnerability — and the departure process — accelerated with visits from Chinese state security last week. Seven

Michael Smith, left, of The Australian Financial Review and Bill Birtles of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation arrived in Sydney on Tuesday.

officers, nearly all in uniform, called on each of them at the same time: after midnight Thursday at the homes of Smith in Shanghai and Birtles in Beijing.

The Australian Financial Review reported that Chinese investigators sought to question Birtles and Smith about Cheng Lei, a Chinese-born Australian business news anchor for China’s CGTN television service who was detained in August.

Both men reported extensively on the case, including the detail that Cheng was being held under “residential surveillance,” a sweeping detention power that can keep people in custody for up to six months, denied visits by relatives or lawyers.

On Tuesday, hours after the two journalists had returned to Australia, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry confirmed for the first time that Cheng was under investigation for national security crimes, a broad category that can include espionage, illegally obtaining state secrets or subverting Communist Party power.

Smith said there was no good reason to draw him or Birtles into the case other than an attempt at intimidation.

“They really asked me basic questions, like: ‘Do you know her? Have you met her?’ And I’ve only met her once, at a bar in Beijing with a lot of other journalists, and I didn’t actually talk to her,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

“I didn’t have much to offer them, so it bemuses me as to why I was a target of their investigation when obviously I had no connection with her.”

In an interview posted on YouTube by the ABC, Australia’s main public broadcaster, Birtles said that it appeared that he had become a pawn in a diplomatic tussle.

“It sort of felt to me like the whole episode was about harassment,” he said, adding that “it felt very, very political.”

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China condemned the authorities’ actions, calling them “appalling intimidatory tactics that threaten and seek to curtail the work of foreign journalists based in China.”

Birtles and Smith had already been warned of rising pressures — Australian diplomats told them early last week that they should consider leaving China.

They had both planned to depart Thursday.

Birtles was hosting a farewell dinner when the Chinese officers arrived.

Smith was woken up by their arrival.

“They were filming me, there was a spotlight on me, and they read me a statement which was asking me if I understood China’s national security laws,” Smith said.

The officers told them they were barred from leaving the country and asked them to sign a statement saying they understood the message being delivered. They were told they would be contacted the next day to schedule a time to be formally questioned.

Birtles immediately called the Australian Embassy and arranged to be taken there, where he stayed for the next few days. Smith was also placed under diplomatic protection while Chinese officials repeatedly demanded interviews, which both journalists refused, citing fears for their personal safety.

The Australian government eventually secured a commitment from Beijing that they would be free to leave China after a one-hour interview. Birtles was questioned by Chinese authorities Sunday, alongside Australia’s ambassador to China, Graham Fletcher.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

17

London’s bridges really are falling down

By MARK LANDER

O

ne by one, they stepped forward to tell their stories. Children suddenly forced to travel two hours each way to school. Pensioners whose weekly doctors’ appointments have turned into arduous, half-day treks. Shopkeepers whose businesses have been crippled by the disappearance of commuters.

All because Hammersmith Bridge, a majestic but badly corroded 19th-century suspension bridge that connects the district of Barnes with much of London, was closed last month for safety reasons.

“Now, I need to wake up at quarter past 6, every day, six days a week,” said Aston Jenkins, 10, drawing sympathetic groans from the frustrated, if exceedingly polite, crowd protesting recently at the bridge. “I can’t cope with that.”

While Hammersmith Bridge’s structural problems are particularly dire, it is far from the only London bridge that is crumbling. Two major crossings in the city center, Vauxhall Bridge and London Bridge, are closed to car traffic while they receive urgent repairs. Tower Bridge, the very symbol of London, was closed for two days last month after a mechanical glitch jammed its drawbridge open.

It fell to a young schoolgirl — outfitted in a red cardigan and patent-leather Mary Janes, and brandishing a placard with angry pink letters — to make the inevitable point: “London Bridges are falling down!”

Philip Englefield, a professional magician who lives in Barnes, pointed out that when a suspension bridge collapsed in Genoa, Italy, in 2018, killing 43 people, the Italians worked tirelessly, even as the country battled the coronavirus pandemic, to build a replacement. It was inaugurated last month.

“Why can’t we do that?” Englefield asked the crowd, as a gentle rain further dampened their spirits. “For goodness’ sake, this is England.”

It turns out that is precisely the problem: Hammersmith Bridge is an apt metaphor for all the ways the country has changed after a decade of economic austerity, years of political wars over Brexit, and months of lockdown to combat the pandemic, the last of which has decimated already-stressed public finances.

Like other London roads and bridges, Hammersmith Bridge had been neglected for decades. Fully repairing it would cost an estimated 141 million pounds ($187 million) — funds that neither Hammersmith & Fulham Council, which owns the bridge, nor London’s transportation authority, which depends on it, currently have.

Transport for London, which runs the subway and bus system and some major roads, has already had to negotiate a nearly 2 billion pound bailout from the government to make up for a shortfall in revenue after ridership plummeted during the lockdown. Except for rush hour, London’s subways are still largely ghost trains.

Hammersmith has appealed for help to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. But Johnson won election by promising to spend money on marquee projects like a $130 billion-plus high-speed railway, not a cast-iron relic of Queen Victoria’s reign.

He also wants to spread the wealth to Britain’s economically challenged Midlands and North, not rescue a leafy, affluent enclave of London, where professionals commute from gracious Regency villas to jobs in the City and students practice on the manicured playing fields of the elite St. Paul’s School.

“The national government is afraid of spending money in London because it would threaten its ‘leveling up’ agenda,” said Tony Travers, an expert in urban affairs at the London School of Economics.

“Promising to build shiny things for the future is more attractive than fixing road surfaces or mending bridges.”

It doesn’t help that the member of Parliament from Johnson’s Conservatives who represented the district that encompasses Barnes, Zac Goldsmith, lost his seat in the last election. Goldsmith, a well-connected friend of Johnson’s, had pledged to fix the bridge during his campaign. His successor, Sarah Olney, from the centrist Liberal Democrats, said she could not get any Cabinet ministers to answer her letters pleading for help.

Michael White, a former political editor at The Guardian who lives on the north bank of the Thames, pointed out a problem of asymmetry: Barnes, on the southern side, needs the bridge more than Hammersmith, on the northern side, because scores of its commuters cross it

Hammersmith Bridge, is closed even to pedestrians for fear that it might collapse, in London on Sept. 5, 2020. Three major crossings on the Thames are closed to cars — one of them considered too dangerous even to walk across and even the landmark Tower Bridge was recently shut for two days. every day to reach the nearest Tube station.

There is less traffic in the opposite direction, which makes an expensive repair job politically hard to sell for officials in less well-off Hammersmith.

Still, the Labour Party leader of the council, Stephan Cowan, insisted that Hammersmith was fully committed to fixing the bridge — if it can find a financial lifeline. He credited the council with averting a potential calamity by hiring engineers to inspect the bridge in 2014.

They found a web of tiny fractures in its cast-iron pedestals, evidence of untold years of corrosion.

In April 2019, authorities closed the bridge to cars, but left it open to pedestrians and cyclists. Then, after a recent heat wave, inspectors discovered that the fractures had widened. Because cast iron is more brittle than steel, those changes raised the danger that the pedestals could shatter, plunging the bridge into the Thames. The council immediately closed the bridge to everyone.

“If we hadn’t done the comprehensive integrity review,” Cowan said, “I genuinely believe we could have had a catastrophe.”

In the meantime, the locals are floating other solutions, like starting a ferry

service or running shuttle buses. Some, like Toby Gordon-Smith, have resorted to roundabout routes across other bridges (there are more than a dozen road or pedestrian crossings between Hammersmith Bridge and Tower Bridge). Gordon-Smith, 46, who uses a wheelchair, said he chose to live in a riverfront apartment in Barnes because he could wheel himself across the bridge to his office in Hammersmith — 10 minutes door to door.

“This is an important place for me to live, to be able to access my work, to be able to access the rest of London,” he said.

For older people who came to the rally, the fragility of London’s bridges is more than just grist for a nursery rhyme.

Christopher Morcom, 81, recalled that in 1967, an American entrepreneur, Robert McCulloch, bought the crumbling London Bridge, dismantled it, and transported it stone by stone to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where it now sits as a tourist attraction in the desert. (The London Bridge currently undergoing work is a replacement for that 19th-century version.)

It all gave Morcom the germ of an idea. “I don’t know whether this old bridge is reparable,” he said, gesturing to Hammersmith Bridge. “Maybe we should sell it to the president of the United States.”

18

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

Gross domestic misery is rising A

By PAUL KRUGMAN

re you better off now than you were in July?

On the face of it, that shouldn’t even be a question.

After all, stocks are up; the economy added more than a million jobs in “August” (I’ll explain the scare quotes in a minute); preliminary estimates suggest that gross domestic product is growing rapidly in the third quarter, which ends this month.

But the stock market isn’t the economy: more than half of all stocks are owned by only 1% of Americans, while the bottom half of the population owns only 0.7% of the market.

Jobs and GDP, by contrast, sort of are the economy. But they aren’t the economy’s point. What some economists and many politicians often forget is that economics isn’t fundamentally about data, it’s about people. I like data as much as, or probably more than, the next guy. But an economy’s success should be judged not by impersonal statistics, but by whether people’s lives are getting better.

And the simple fact is that over the past few weeks the lives of many Americans have gotten much worse.

Obviously this is true for the roughly 30,000 Americans who died of COVID-19 in August — for comparison, only 4,000 people died in the European Union, which has a larger popula-

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People lined up outside a Kentucky career center for assistance with their unemployment claims in Frankfort, Ky., in June. tion — plus the unknown but large number of our citizens who suffered long-term health damage. And don’t look now, but the number of new coronavirus cases, which had been declining, seems to have plateaued; between Labor Day and school reopenings, there’s a pretty good chance that the virus situation is about to take another turn for the worse.

But things have already gotten worse for millions of families that lost most of their normal income as a result of the pandemic and still haven’t gotten it back. For the first few months of the pandemic depression many of these Americans were getting by thanks to emergency federal aid. But much of that aid was cut off at the end of July, and despite job gains we’re in the midst of a huge increase in national misery.

So let’s talk about that employment report.

One important thing to bear in mind about official monthly job statistics is that they’re based on surveys conducted during the second week of the month. That’s why I used scare quotes around “August”: What Friday’s report actually gave us was a snapshot of the state of the labor market around Aug. 12.

This may be important. Private data suggest a slowdown in job growth since late July. So the next employment report, which will be based on data collected this week — and will also be the last report before the election — will probably (not certainly) be weaker than the last.

In any case, that August report wasn’t great considering the context. In normal times a gain of 1.4 million jobs would be impressive, even if some of those jobs were a temporary blip associated with the census. But we’re still more than 11 million jobs down from where we were in February.

And the situation remains dire for the hardest-hit workers.

The pandemic slump disproportionately hit workers in the leisure and hospitality sector — think restaurants — and employment in that sector is still down around 25%, while the unemployment rate for workers in the industry is still over 20%, more than four

times what it was a year ago.

In part because of where the slump was concentrated, the unemployed tend to be Americans who were earning low wages even before the slump. And one disturbing fact about the August report was that average wages rose. No, that’s not a misprint: If the low-wage workers hit worst by the slump were being rehired, we’d expect average wages to fall, as they did during the snapback of May and June. Rising average wages at this point are a sign that those who really need jobs aren’t getting them.

So the economy is still bypassing those who need a recovery most.

Yet most of the safety net that temporarily sustained the economic victims of the coronavirus has been torn down.

The CARES Act, enacted in March, gave the unemployed an extra $600 a week in benefits. This supplement played a crucial role in limiting extreme hardship; poverty may even have gone down.

But the supplement ended on July 31, and all indications are that Republicans in the Senate will do nothing to restore aid before the election. President Donald Trump’s attempt to implement a $300 per week supplement by executive action will fail to reach many and prove inadequate even for those who get it.

Families may have scraped by for a few weeks on saved money, but things are about to get very hard for millions.

The bottom line here is that before you cite economic statistics, you want to think about what they mean for people and their lives. The data aren’t meaningless: A million jobs gained is better than a million jobs lost, and growing GDP is better than shrinking GDP. But there is often a disconnect between the headline numbers and the reality of American life, and that is especially true right now.

The fact is that this economy just isn’t working for many Americans, who are facing hard times that — thanks to political decisions by Trump and his allies — are just getting harder.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

19

Vuelven a los tribunales para que alcalde de Arecibo pague el bono de Navidad Por THE STAR

P

rosol-Utier, sindicato que representa a los empleados municipales de Arecibo, radicó el martes, una moción de Mandamus en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia de dicho municipio, para que el alcalde Carlos Molina cumpla la sentencia emitida por dicho Tribunal que ordena el pago del bono de Navidad correspondiente al 2016.

“Recurrimos nuevamente al Tribunal para presentar una moción solicitando aseguramiento de sentencia para

que el alcalde cumpla el dictamen emitido por el propio Tribunal el pasado 8 de octubre donde se le ordena pagar los 500 dólares que adeuda a los empleados del municipio del bono de Navidad correspondiente al 2016”, explicó Jesús Anguita, coordinador de Prosol-Utier en comunicación escrita.

Anguita detalló que el alcalde Carlos Molina ha intentado, sin éxito, de valerse de subterfugios legales para evitar cumplir con la sentencia del Tribunal.

“Carlos Molina ha buscado las mil

maneras de evitar pagar el dinero que debe a los trabajadores de Arecibo.

Apela las decisiones, hace al municipio perder tiempo y dinero en cuestiones legales innecesarias y todo con tal de no pagar un dinero que ya el Tribunal decidió que tiene que pagar. Nuestro llamado al alcalde es a que cumpla ya con la sentencia y le pague el bono a (cantidad de empleados que se le debe el bono), de no hacerlo seguiremos yendo a los foros correspondientes a seguir defendiendo los derechos de los trabajadores”, concluyó.

UPR recibe $8 millones para proyectos en tres recintos Por THE STAR

C

omo parte de los esfuerzos dirigidos a mejorar la infraestructura y retención de estudiantes, la Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR) invertirá en el desarrollo de nuevos centros de innovación, tecnología y programas de apoyo y consejería para estudiantes, gracias a la aprobación de tres subvenciones millonarias para Cayey, Carolina y Aguadilla.

Las subvenciones otorgadas por el Departamento de Educación de Estados Unidos autorizan asignaciones que sobrepasan la cantidad de $8 millones de dólares en un periodo de cinco años, se informó este martes en declaraciones escritas.

Con los fondos asignados, la UPR en Carolina construirá un edificio inteligente y un anfiteatro que contarán con alta tecnología para maximizar el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje. La iniciativa incluirá espacios abiertos con conexión de Internet para fomentar la cooperación, innovación y creatividad.

Mientras, la UPR en Cayey desarrollará un centro de apoyo académico al estudiante y un centro de innovación.

Además, se realizarán mejoras a la biblioteca. Ambos proyectos brindan apoyo directo a los estudiantes mediante herramientas académicas para que completen sus estudios universitarios y desarrollen proyectos de emprendimiento.

Entretanto, la UPR en Aguadilla optimizará la infraestructura y añadirá tecnología a los laboratorios de química general y química orgánica, incluyendo recursos para ofrecer educación a distancia. Así también, se creará un progra-

ma de mentoría para estudiantes y otro de detección temprana de estudiantes de alto riesgo, enfocados en que todo alumno admitido en la institución pueda completar su grado académico. Como parte del programa, se otorgarán estipendios a estudiantes de tercer y cuarto año para que funjan como mentores de los alumnos de nuevo ingreso.

“Constantemente estamos buscando herramientas para promover nuevas destrezas de emprendimiento e innovación en nuestros estudiantes para que puedan desarrollarse profesionalmente, y apoyarlos en el proceso educativo para garantizar que puedan completar su grado.

Las unidades compitieron exitosamente entre cientos de propuestas de instituciones de educación superior que sirven mayormente a poblaciones hispanas a nivel de todos los estados y territorios de Estados Unidos”, expresó el presidente de la UPR, el doctor Jorge Haddock, quien informó que este año se desem-

bolsarán $2.3 millones.

El líder universitario agradeció al personal a cargo de preparar las propuestas desde las unidades, así como los esfuerzos que se están gestando desde la Vicepresidencia de Recursos Externos, que dirige la profesora Carmen Bachier, para beneficiar a toda la comunidad universitaria.

Bachier indicó que “en el contexto social y educativo en que se encuentra Puerto Rico, los proyectos cobran mayor relevancia, pues además de permitir la renovación y creación de infraestructura y tecnología, promueven la innovación y la retención, ya que el apoyo directo a estudiantes evita la deserción o abandono de sus estudios”.

La vicepresidenta agradeció a los profesores Gladys Ramos, Jimmy Torres y Jesús Lee-Borges, entre otros recursos de las unidades, por la conceptualización y desarrollo de los proyectos, así como su esfuerzo y compromiso con la institu-

ción para lograr que las propuestas fueran seleccionadas por la agencia federal.

La profesora Ramos, de la UPR en Cayey, precisó la importancia a corto y largo plazo de la propuesta para su comunidad universitaria. “Esta subvención de fondos abonará al mejoramiento académico, a la retención y persistencia de nuestros estudiantes a través de un sistema de alerta donde se conectará con servicios como consejería, tutorías, entre otros. Además, estaremos enfocados en preparar a nuestros estudiantes a entrar en el mundo de la innovación y el emprendimiento necesarios para el éxito hoy en día”, sostuvo la académica.

“Estamos más que contentos en poder iniciar esta colaboración con el Departamento de Educación de Estados Unidos. Esta subvención nos permitirá ofrecerles a nuestros estudiantes, especialmente a los más necesitados, recursos innovadores de educación que no solamente les permitan completar sus grados, sino obtener las herramientas necesarias para lograr sus metas en un mundo cada vez más competitivo”, indicó el doctor Lee-Borges, profesor de la UPR en Aguadilla.

Por su parte, el rector de la UPR en Carolina, José I. Meza, destacó el impacto que tendrá el proyecto en su unidad.

“Con esta nueva subvención le ofrecemos a nuestros estudiantes herramientas tecnológicas de avanzada, atemperadas a las necesidades de estos tiempos, y así también apoyo digital a nuestros profesores para continuar ofreciendo la excelencia académica que nos caracteriza.

Estamos muy entusiasmados con los resultados que lograremos para toda nuestra comunidad”, destacó el rector.

20

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

How that surprise ‘Mulan’ cameo happened

Ming-Na Wen, who voiced Mulan in 1998, followed by Yifei Liu, her successor in the live-action version.

By KYLE BUCHANAN

D

isney’s live-action take on “Mulan” has no need for songs or wisecracking dragons, but there is still one notable holdover from the 1998 animated version that inspired it: Ming-Na Wen, the actress who originally voiced Mulan, appears at the end of the new film in a cameo role.

After the villain’s plot is foiled and the brave warrior Mulan (played by Yifei Liu) reveals her gender to the troops she fought alongside while dressed as a man, she is brought to the throne room of the emperor for a celebration. That’s when Wen comes in, oh so briefly: Billed in the credits as “Esteemed Guest,” she introduces Mulan to the emperor, bows and departs.

Although it had been scheduled for a March 27 release in theaters before the pandemic, “Mulan” debuted on Disney+ over the weekend. Still, Wen delights in the reaction her surprise cameo got at the film’s premiere back in March, before Hollywood went into shutdown. “I hope even though it’s streaming, it can still have that impact,” she said in a phone call last week. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.

Q: You heard through the grapevine that Disney is going to do a live-action “Mulan.” What happened next?

A: It all started with the fans tweeting about it, saying, “You have to be a part of it!” I asked my manager and my agent if that would be a possibility because I thought

that would be kind of fun. Then I met with the producer Jason Reed and he loved the idea, but at that time I was doing “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” so scheduling-wise, it was kind of a logistical nightmare because “Mulan” was shooting in New Zealand. They had written a scene for me to be a part of, but the schedule just didn’t work out.

Q: What was that going to be?

A: I was going to be the potential mother-in-law for the matchmaker scene, but because of the weather, they needed me to be out there for a month just in case. The producers of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” just threw up their hands: “We can’t lose you for a month!” I totally understood, and I’m always very Zen about this stuff. I said, “Look, if it was meant to me be, it was meant to be. We all tried, and it’s too bad.”

So we sort of let it go, and then Jason and Niki (Caro, the director) came up with this great idea where instead of shooting an entire scene, I’d just make a cameo at the very end to announce Mulan to the emperor. I thought that was very appropriate and just wonderful, a little Easter egg where I could pass the baton. And this time, they only needed me there for a week. So it all worked out!

Q: I did let out a little yelp when I saw you.

A: That’s what happened at the premiere! I’m so happy you squealed. That’s what it’s about, right? I’m just sad that the fans don’t get to see this on a large screen, because Niki Caro did this brilliant job creating this imagery. I really hope that in the future, they can do a limited

rerelease in theaters.

Q: Was it a full-circle moment to go to the “Mulan” premiere 22 years after the animated film debuted?

A: I couldn’t have foreseen any of it. At the time, I thought Disney was taking a huge risk by doing an animated film that was ethnically diverse and based on foreign folklore. The fact that it still speaks to the current generation of kids makes me think this movie is going to blow them away. You know, it’s so sad that recently Chadwick Boseman passed away, and just seeing all the love for what he created as the king T’Challa in “Black Panther,” it’s very affecting, because that’s what “Mulan” was like for our community and Asians in general.

Q: What was it like for you to win the role back in the day?

A: I was excited because I’m a huge Disney geek. I remember reading the full script and thinking, “OK, she’s 16 or 17 and I’m in my 20s, so I’d better make her sound younger.” When I went in for the first recording session, I did this young voice, and the director and producer in the room were like, “Ming? Uh, what are you doing? We hired you for your voice.” I’d never done voice-over before, so I had no idea that you record by yourself before they even animate it, and that it would be a three-year process.

When I first saw the finished movie, it was overwhelming. In the scene where Mulan is sitting with her father under the cherry blossom tree, she was stroking her hair — and I touch my hair all the time, something they must have captured in the recording sessions. I remember my mom turning to me and saying, “Wow, I saw you.” She didn’t see the animated character anymore. She saw her daughter in those images.

Q: I know a lot of queer and trans fans saw themselves in Mulan, too.

A: I was blown away when these beautiful young women and boys from the LGBTQ community would come up to me crying because Mulan was a representation for them, and they latched on to the images of her transforming herself into a boy. There was so much about the film that was an extra plus like that. I’m sure Yifei is going to get incredible accolades as the live-action Mulan, but I hope everyone will still have a little place in their hearts for the animated Mulan. I mean, at least she cut her hair! (Laughs) A lot of moms would come up to me and say, “My daughter cut her hair because of you.” I got a few of those complaints.

Q: What did you say to them?

A: It’ll grow back.

Q: Do you think you’ll keep voicing Mulan in future projects and spinoffs, or will Yifei take over those duties?

A: Oh, gosh. Yifei and I will have to duke it out! I feel a little possessive in that way about wanting to keep Mulan consistent, wanting to have her be voiced by me.

She’s my baby. They’ll ask, “Can we use your voice for a stuffed animal?” and I’ll say, “Yeah, sure.” I have such a loyalty to Mulan’s fans that I will always say yes.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

21

Tiwa Savage, Queen of Afrobeats, makes a new start

By JON PARELES

F

or a singer and songwriter just making her American album debut, Tiwa Savage is wildly overqualified.

“Celia,” released last month, is actually her fourth full-length album in Nigeria, where she was born and has been hailed in recent years as the Queen of Afrobeats, the West African pop finding its way to a growing worldwide audience.

It’s the global leveling-up of a solo career that also includes plenty of nonalbum singles and collaborations with top Afrobeats performers like Wizkid, Davido and Patoranking. Savage was featured on “Keys to the Kingdom” with Mr Eazi on Beyoncé’s “The Lion King: The Gift” (repurposed this year for Beyoncé’s visual album “Black Is King”).

Savage, 40, has also been a television host (on “Nigerian Idol”), a stage and television actress, her own video director and an activist devoted to HIV/ AIDS prevention and to combating rape culture in Nigeria. Her international reach, on streaming services and beyond, reflects international experience.

“I lived in Nigeria; I lived in London; I lived in America,” she said via Zoom from her home in Lagos, casually dressed in a T-shirt and, she noted, not wearing makeup or eyelashes. “Those are three different, completely different cultures and different continents. So I’ve just grown up just being a sponge for different kinds of music.”

Before she started her solo career in Nigeria a decade ago, Savage worked behind the scenes in the American and British music business. She has songwriting credits on albums by Fantasia, Kat DeLuna and Monica, and she sang backup on tour with Mary J. Blige, in the studio on Whitney Houston’s final album and onstage at Wembley Stadium with George Michael.

“Celia” is an album of sleekly insinuating Afrobeats grooves that carry love songs and understated but purposeful messages of empowerment. The lyrics switch between English and Yoruba as Savage glides through her melodies, rarely raising her airy, unflappable voice. Her latest single, “Temptation,” is a duet with English pop singer Sam Smith, who was “flattered” to join her, Smith said via Zoom from London, because “I think she’s sensational.”

Smith added: “Tiwa has this natural tone in her voice that makes you feel like you’re listening to a friend. It feels comfortable and feels wholesome and homey. And she sounds kind when she sings.

My favorite singers have a softness to their voice that doesn’t, you know, smash you in the face. It just sits with you and talks to you in a kind and soft way.

That’s how I hear her voice.”

Savage is treating “Celia” as both a culmination and a new beginning. “When I first started out as an artist, I was seen a certain way, and I’ve grown since

The singer and songwriter Tiwa Savage in Lagos, Nigeria, Sept. 1, 2020. “I feel like as a musician, I owe it to my listeners just to have that one song where they just want to cry or they want to just be in a room and know that everything will be all right,” Savage said. then,” she said. “I’ve experienced a divorce, being a single mom and seeing backlash for being sometimes too sexy in a male-dominated industry.”

Savage was born in Lagos, and she grew up listening to the Nigerian music her parents loved — the politically charged Afrobeat of Fela Kuti and the juju of Sir Shina Peters — along with imported Western pop. She was 11 when she moved with her family to London, and while she was drawn to music and sang in the school choir, she dutifully followed her father’s advice and earned her first college degree in business administration, going on to work as an accountant at a bank.

But music beckoned, and Savage decided to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, adding jazz to her vocabulary. Her next move was to Brooklyn, where she concentrated on writing songs.

One night she finished a session and left her engineer working on a track. Fantasia, who was working

in a nearby studio, heard the song “Collard Greens and Cornbread” and immediately wanted to record it.

That led to a publishing contract with Sony/ATV and a move to Los Angeles, where Savage worked as a songwriter and backup singer. “I learned 70% of how to handle industry stress from being a backup,” Savage said. On the road with Blige, she recalled: “The focus isn’t on you, but you’re just watching how she handles the press, how she handles fans when she’s tired, how she handles the pressure. So I was mentally prepared. I knew it’s a lot of work.”

In 2010, Savage started her solo career, moving back to Lagos — which was already the center of Afrobeats — on the advice of Tunji Balogun, who was then an A&R representative at Interscope Records.

He went on to become her manager and, in 2013, her husband; they had a child, Jamil, in 2015.

“He said, ‘Look at Rihanna, look at Beyoncé, look at all of these girls — you have to be sexy,’” Savage recalled. “And I have to give it up to him, because that strategy worked in getting me into the market. Because when I showed up on the scene, there wasn’t anything like it. It was just like: ‘Yo, who is this? She’s Nigerian? And she’s wearing a multicolored cat suit in a video?’ So it got their attention.”

Her first single, “Kele Kele Love,” was a hit; Savage sang about expecting all of her man’s love, not half. But its video — modest by American norms — drew a backlash in Nigeria, along with some awards nominations. Her next video, for “Love Me Love Me Love Me,” showed her in bed with a shirtless man and was banned by the National Broadcasting Commission in Nigeria; some of her performances were canceled.

Savage said she was told: “‘This is too sexy. You can’t be this.’ And the more they kept on saying no, the more I just kept pushing the envelope. The skirts got shorter, the lashes got longer.”

At one point, Savage retreated to Los Angeles and considered going back to simply being a songwriter. “But then I would open my DMs, and I’d see all these young girls being like, ‘I love your sleeve tattoo; I love your piercing,’” she said. “And it was like, I have to go back for these girls. Now I say that I want to inspire girls, but they inspired me to come back.”

For all the programming, planning, brand management and careful messaging that go into her music, Savage is determined to loosen up. She is trading pinpoint choreography for more spontaneous moves; she’s revealing her tomboy side as well as her glamorous one; she’s leaving bits of noise and imperfection in her songs. Her next album, which may arrive sometime next year, might dip into Brazilian music or other styles that have caught her ear.

“I’m never going to stop experimenting,” she said. “That’s just who I am. Get used to it.”

FASHION The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, March 4, 2020 Wednesday, September 9, 2020 20 22

The TheSan SanJuan JuanDaily DailyStar Star

Advertisers putting black models front and center IMG Models. “We’re telling them, ‘We understand what you want, but if you want to stay relevant, this is what you need.’ ” Brands are heeding the call, even if their motives are sometimes open to question. We may well see a substantial rise in Black models’ visibility, said David Lipman, a veteran creative director whose clients include jeweler John Hardy and Naked Cashmere. “But I hope it’s not a temporary cover-our-base uptick,” he said.

By RUTH LA FERLA

N

early a decade ago, when Precious Lee arrived for a modeling go-see, she was grilled about her ethnic background. The clients, who were representing a deep-pocketed luxury brand, were looking for a mixed-race model, Lee recalled. When she told them that she was Black, their faces fell.

“Oh, you’re just so pretty,” they rushed to reassure her. She was as quick with a comeback.

“I didn’t know being Black didn’t come in pretty,” she said.

Fast-forward a few years to find Black models making token appearances in fashion campaigns as part of a multicultural mix.

“The typical casting was one Black model and one Asian,” said Alton Mason, a Black model who has been featured in campaigns for Etro, Missoni and Tommy Hilfiger. “The rest of the models were white.”

Times change. A health crisis combined with a summer of civil unrest and protests against racism forced a shift in mindset. Magazine editors reacted, enlisting high-profile Black personalities — among them Rihanna for Harper’s Bazaar, Cardi B for Elle and Kerry Washington for Town & Country — to front their September issues.

Advertisers have been at least as swift to seize the moment.

“People got woke in the middle of this,” said Kenneth Richard, creative director and chief executive of The Impression, an online fashion magazine.

Models of color had already graced some campaigns, a nod in part to the widening influence of Black artists, thinkers and athletes on the popular culture. “But it took a big social awakening to really expedite things,” Richard said.

The movement is gathering steam.

The pandemic hampered efforts by The Fashion Spot, an online publication that tracks diversity in the industry, to collect an official tally this year, but the numbers reported last fall showed Black models represented by an increase of 1 or several percentage points at the publications it tracks, according Morgan Schimminger, a contributing writer and editor.

“The assumption would be that the move toward diversity will continue in that direction,” Schimminger said.

In the light of the latest campaigns, that forecast seems conservative.

Alton Mason in the Tommy Hilfiger fall campaign.

These days models of color are virtually omnipresent in leading style publications.

During lockdown, Pierpaolo Piccioli, creative director of Valentino, unveiled “Empathy,” a campaign that harnessed the star power of “friends of the house,” notably Laura Dern and Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Campbell and Sudanese Australian fashion star Adut Akech.

J Brand, a Los Angeles jeans label, captured newcomer Oumie Jammeh posing languidly in a field of wildflowers; Fendi released a print campaign and short film featuring singers, and sisters, Chloe x Halle, both demurely garbed in puff-sleeve frocks.

Even the formerly recalcitrant Hedi Slimane, creative director of Celine, performed an about-face. Called out for excluding Black models from his runway and Instagram account, Slimane cast neophyte Essoye Mombot, shooting her in St.-Tropez for his fall campaign.

Spurred by the crisis, Michael Kors sought a more novel approach. “We decided that it would be exciting to bring the energy and electricity of our backstage show environment to our campaign and the consumer,” he said. His fall 2020 campaign, featuring sought-after Nigerian model Mayowa Nicholas, and Annibelis Baez, who is Dominican, stars in what Kors, echoing a popular new marketing phrase, calls “a United Nations of Beauty.”

Top agencies have been no less aggressive in pushing for inclusion. “We are actually making calls, talking to clients and giving them direction,” said Ivan Bart, president of

enjoyed almost exclusively by Tyra Banks, Campbell, Tyson Beckford and their highprofile ilk. Maty Fall, a 19-year-old Senegalese Italian university student, caught marketers’ attention after appearing on the cover of Vogue Italia last year. But Fall, who has since starred in campaigns for Pat McGrath Labs, Etro and Dior, views her success with a gimlet eye.

“I can’t honestly say that the casting of more people of color is an act or if it’s genuine,” she said. “I don’t want this to be just a trend. But we all know that the fashion industry is very unpredictable.”

The industry’s track record has hardly been unblemished. “Until a few years ago, advertising was very conservative,” said Trey Laird, founder and chief executive of Laird+ Partners, whose clients include Tom Ford, Tiffany and Co., Topshop and Jimmy Choo.

“People were making safe choices, relying on the bourgeois appeal of a beautiful blond woman with glossy red lips.

“We were going by old rules that have little to do with the way the world works. It was like fashion was talking only to itself.”

Adut Akech, part of the Valentino “Empathy” campaign.

Some brands may be thinking defensively, their reactions to Black Lives Matter often based on fear, Lipman noted. “They’re afraid of Diet Prada outing them,” he said, referring to the influential Instagram account and industry watchdog that has called out Dolce & Gabbana and other industry players for racism.

And for some, casting Black models has clearly been an afterthought, Richard said.

“When you see a narrative that was clearly built around a white couple, and you suddenly see a third person hanging around, that seems forced.”

Diversity in casting has, not incidentally, spawned a roster of newcomers being actively groomed for the kind of celebrity once

Mayowa Nicholas, left, and Annibelis Baez for the Michael Kors fall campaign.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

23

Helping children with pandemic grief

By PERRI KLASS, M.D.

B

etween travel restrictions and limits on visitors to hospitals, parents may get the news of a loved one’s death over the phone and find themselves having to tell children who may be unprepared.

At the end of March, doctors in the child and adolescent psychiatry group at Oxford University, led by Alan Stein, published an editorial in the journal The Lancet: Child and Adolescent Health, arguing that honest and effective communication with children about the pandemic, including about death and dying, and about parental stress and sadness, was vital for children’s psychological health and wellbeing.

The group has published in the past on how to talk with children about lifethreatening illness — their own or that of a parent — emphasizing that the communication needs to be tailored to children’s developmental understanding. Parents should not try to keep troubling news from their children, they wrote, nor should they take refuge in overly technical talk, but should acknowledge their own emotional distress without overwhelming the child’s emotions or fears with their own.

“Not telling them does not protect them,” said one of the authors, Louise Dalton, a consultant clinical psychologist in the department of psychiatry at Oxford, who led the project together with Elizabeth Rapa, a senior postdoctoral researcher. “Even young children are aware of the changes that have happened in everyone’s life.”

The group had developed guidance for the health care workers who found themselves in the new pandemic position of having to deliver bad news by phone, and they worried, Rapa said, that family isolation during the pandemic meant that “children would be even more invisible.”

So their guidelines emphasized the importance of finding out whether the deceased person left children who would need to be told, and offering help to the family member who would have to do the telling.

They wrote guidance for the family member who has to do the telling, which Rapa called “a step-by-step guide to help parents or any adults have one of the most difficult conversations you’re ever going to

have with your child.” The specific scenario they had in mind was a parent, at home in lockdown with one or more children, getting a phone call that a grandparent or other family member had died, though their advice applies to many other situations.

“Parents were taking this horrendous phone call to learn that granddad had died,” Rapa said. “Children would know that granddad was not very well, they would know in lockdown that mum has taken this phone call — you would have hardly any time to prepare.” The first instruction for parents is to take a minute to breathe “as slowly and deeply as you can.”

“Thinking about talking to children about this probably feels the hardest thing in the world,” the guide begins. “Try to keep your focus on the next few minutes and how you want the children to hear the news of their loved one’s death.”

It’s a conversation that changes with the age and understanding of the child, but remember that children as young as 2 will understand that something has happened, Rapa said, and will need to be included.

Dr. Elena Lister, an adult and child psychiatrist on the faculty at Columbia and Cornell medical centers who specializes in grief and loss, said, “I’m a believer in no rush, holding your child, being close

to your child, letting that sink in for a few seconds, waiting to see what comes up.”

Answer the specific questions a child asks, Lister said, for example about the actual cause of death: “The doctors couldn’t help her with her breathing enough.” And let the child know, “We’re going to have a lot of time to talk about this, we’ll get through this together.”

Be prepared for common reactions, including being asked if you are going to die as well. Especially with younger children, be ready to revisit the topic, check in with them a day later, and ask them what they understand, Rapa said.

“I don’t think of it as one conversation,” said Lister, who has written about the experience of losing her daughter to leukemia. “It’s step one of a difficult conversation.”

Use very specific and literal language. Young children may hear “we’ve lost granddad,” for example, and assume that the next step is to go find him.

Make sure that children are not blaming themselves, Dalton said. That may mean reassuring the child that the person who died was well taken care of in the hospital, that everyone did everything that could be done. Talk about practical measures to prevent transmission — masks and hand hygiene. Talk about the scientists who are working on vaccines.

Acknowledge your own sadness, and that you miss the person who has died.

We’re living in a world right now where experts on grief and loss have a lot to teach us about everyday parenting. Our behavior as parents is already affected by the stress of the pandemic, both acute and chronic, Lister said. “The acute part puts us all in a state of hyperarousal,” she said, but the chronic stress is particularly wearing.

“Kids are seeing loss in many different ways,” Lister said. Their schools, their friends, their routines, their summer plans — and then on top of that, the constant talk about disease and death. “They’re surrounded by it — in the news, their parents are talking about it — it’s so unlike regular life where we all chug along at a kind of level of denial of our mortality,” Lister said.

“This environment has caused us all to live in a soup of mortality awareness.”

Children are scared and anxious, Lister said, and they may be encountering misinformation, or misunderstanding some of what they see and hear. Bring up the difficult topics with your children, she advised. Try not to discuss them at bedtime, and remember that what you say to one sibling may well be passed along to the next. Having these conversations, she said, “teaches them you can handle the hard stuff — they feel less alone.”

24 localizado en el Barrio Sabana del municipio de Vega Alta, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO Puerto Rico. El área aproximaDE PUERTO RICO TRIBUTAL da es de 1,672.7496 pies cuaGENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRI- drados, equivalentes a 155.46 BUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTAN- metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en una distancia CIA SALA DE VEGA ALTA. de 12.34 metros, con patio coORIENTAL BANK mún limitado del apartamento; Demandante V. por el SUR, en una distancia de MIGDALIA LEBRON 12.34 metros, con área común; MARBELT; por el ESTE; en una distancia JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE de 13.64 metros, c4n el aparDemandados tamento M-2501 y con área CIVIL NÚM. VA2020CV00079. común; y por el OESTE, en SOBRE: SUSTITUCIÓN DE una distancia de 16.08 metros, PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO. EMcon el apartamento L-2301 y PLAZAMIENTO. ESTADOS con área común. La puerta de UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL entrada de este apartamento PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. está situada en el lindero Sur. UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOConsta de una sala-comedor, CIADO DE P.R. SS. un family room, una cocina, un A: JOHN DOE Y laundry closet, un pasillo prinRICHARD ROE, personas cipal, en el cua están localizados un baño y un linen closet, desconocidas que se un dormitorio principal con su designan con estos vanity y walk-in-closet, nombres ficticios, que baño, dos cuartos con sus respectipuedan ser tenedor o vos closets, y una terraza. Este tenedores, o puedan tener apartamento tiene derecho al algún interés en el pagaré uso exclusivo de un patio trahipotecario a que se hace sero con un área de 1032.96 cuadrados, equivalentes a referencia más adelante pies 96.00 metros cuadrados como en el presente edicto, que elemento común limitado. Le se publicará una sola vez. corresponden dos espacios de Se les notifica que en la De- estacionamientos identificamanda radicada en el caso dos con el mismo número del de epígrafe se alega que un apartamento, localizados uno pagaré hipotecario otorgado el separado del otro. Este apar21 de mayo de 2004, Migdalia tamento tiene una participación Lebrón Marbelt otorgó en San de 0.798%en los elementos coJuan, Puerto Rico un pagaré hi- munes del Condominio. Finca potecario por la suma principal 18964 inscrita al 53 del tomo de $254,000.00, con intereses 312 de Vega Alta, Registro de a razón del 6.375% anual, a la Propiedad de Bayamón, Secfavor de la Banco Bilbao Vizca- ción III. POR LA PRESENTE se ya Argentaría Puerto Rico (hoy le emplaza para que presente Oriental Bank), o a su orden, al tribunal su alegación rescon vencimiento el 1 de junio ponsiva dentro de los 30 días de 2034, ante el Notario Mire- de haber sido diligenciado este ya Placer Villeneuve, mediante emplazamiento, excluyéndoel afidávit número 109, se ex- se el día del diligenciamiento. travió, sin embargo la deuda Usted deberá presentar su aleevidenciada y garantizada por gación responsiva a través del dicho pagaré hipotecario no ha Sistema Unificado de Manejo y sido salda, por lo que la parte Administración de Casos (SUdemandante solicita que se or- MAC), al cual puede acceder dene la sustitución del mismo. utilizando la siguiente direcEn garantía de dicho pagaré el ción electrónica: https://unired.

21 de mayo de 2004, Migda- ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se lia Lebrón Marbelt constituyó represente por derecho propio, hipoteca número 264 ante el en cuyo caso deberá presentar Notario Mireya Placer Villeneu- su alegación responsiva en la ve en garantía del pago del pa- secretaría del tribunal. Si usted garé antes descrito, inscrita al deja de presentar su alegación folio 53 del tomo 317 de Vega responsiva dentro del referido Alta, finca 18964, inscripción término, el tribunal podrá dic2da, Registro de la Propiedad tar sentencia en rebeldía en su de Bayamón, Sección III. La contra y conceder el remedio hipoteca que garantiza dicho solicitado en la demanda, o pagaré grava la propiedad cualquier otro, si el Tribunal, en inmueble que se describe a el ejercicio de su sana discrecontinuación: PROPIEDAD ción, lo entiende procedente.

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A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO posibles tenedores desconocidos

POR LA PRESENTE se les emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto.

Usted deberá radicar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC}, al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired.ramajudícial.pr/sumac/. salvo que se presente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá radicar el original de su contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente y notifique con copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, Lcda. Marjalilsa Colón Villanueva, al PO BOX 7970, Ponce, P.R. 00732; Teléfono: 787-843-4168. En dicha demanda se tramita un procedimiento de cancelación de pagare extraviado. Se alega en dicho procedimiento que se extravió un pagaré que consta en la escritura ciento cinco (105), otorgada en san Juan, Puerto Rico, el día veinticuatro (24) de junio de dos mil cuatro (2004), se constituyó hipoteca en garantía de pagaré suscrito ante el notario público Baldomero A. Collazo Torres, a favor de Associates International Holdings Corporation, o a su orden, por

staredictos@thesanjuandailystar.com

la suma de veinte mil setecientos noventa y nueve dólares con noventa y nueve centavos ($20,799.99), con intereses al doce punto veinticuatro por ciento (12.274%), vencedero el veinte nueve (29) de junio de dos mil diecinueve (2019) y cuya obligación hipotecaria se encuentra inscrita al folio noventa y cuatro (94) del tomo cuatrocientos sesenta (460) de Guayama, finca número dieciséis mil setecientos ochenta y seis (16,786) inscripción segunda (2da). Que grava la propiedad que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: RÚSTICA: Parcela marcada con el número dos ciento noventa (290), en el plano de parcelación de la comunidad rural Olimpo, radicada en el Barrio Caimital del término municipal de Guayama, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de quinientos noventa punto catorce (590.14) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con la parcela número dos cientos noventa y dos (292) de la comunidad: por el SUR, con la parcela número dos cientos ochenta y ocho (288) de la comunidad; por el ESTE, con parcela número dos cientos ochenta y nueve (289) y por el OESTE, con La calle cuatro (4).

Inscrita al folio noventa y cuatro (94) del tomo cuatrocientos sesenta (460) de Guayama, finca número dieciséis mil setecientos ochenta y seis (16,786). Registro de la Propiedad de Guayama. SE LES APERCIBE que, de no hacer sus alegaciones responsivas a la demanda dentro del término aquí dispuesto, se les anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal en Guayama, Puerto Rico, a 24 de agosto de 2020. Marisol Rosado Rodriguez, Sec Regional.

Wednesday, September 9, 2020 Héctor Fuentes Osorio; ADMINISTRACIÓN PARA EL SUSTENTO DE MENORES, Y CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN SOBRE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES; LA SUCESION DE HECTOR FUENTES NAVARRO compuesta por Iris Fuentes Navarro y John Doe y Richard Roe como herederos desconocidos; ADMINISTRACION PARA EL SUSTENTO DE MENORES, Y CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN SOBRE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

Parte Demandada CASO CIVIL NUM: CA2019CV03098 (407). SOBRE: EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA POR LA VIA ORDINARIA y COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO Y NOTIFICACION DE INTERPELACION POR EDICTO. Estados Unidos de América Presidente de los Estados Unidos de América Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico.

A: John Doe y Richard Roe como posible herederos desconocidos de la Sucesión de Héctor Fuentes Navarro

POR LA PRESENTE se les emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda y que se exprese en tomo a su aceptación o repudiación de la herencia de Héctor Fuentes Navarro, dentro de los treinta (30) días siguiente a la publicación de este Edicto.

Usted deberá radicar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired.rarnajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se presente por derecho propio, LEGAL NOTICE en cuyo caso deberá radicar el ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIAD DE original de su cante ación ante PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE el Tribunal correspondiente y PRIME INSTANCIA SALA DE notifique con copia a los aboCAROLINA. gados de la part demandante, MTGLQ INVESTORS, L.P. Lcda. Marjaliisa Colón VillanueParte Demandante Vs. va, al PO BOX 7970, Ponce, SUCESIÓN DE HÉCTOR P.R. 0073 ; Teléfono: 787-8434168. En dicha demanda se traFUENTES OSORIO compuesta por Héctor mita un procedimiento de cobro dinero y ejecución de hipoFuentes Navarro, Iris de teca bajo el número mencioFuentes Navarro, Víctor nado en el epígrafe. Se alega Manuel Fuentes López, en dicho procedimiento que la Lydla Osorio Fuentes; parte Demandada incurrió en el John Doe y Richard Roe incumplimiento del Contrato de al no poder pagar las como posibles herederos Hipoteca, mensualidades vencidas codesconocidos de Héctor rrespondientes a los meses de Fuentes Osorio y JUANA abril de 2016, hasta el presenFUENTES LOPEZ por te, más los cargos por demora correspondientes.

Además, si y como viuda de adeuda a la parte demandante

(787) 743-3346

las costas, gastos y honorario de abogado en que incurra el tenedor del pagaré en este litigio. De acuerdo con dicho Contrato de Garantía Hipotecaria la parte Demandante declaró vencida la totalidad de a deuda ascendente a la suma de $75,466.88 de balance de principal, el cual se compone de un primer principal por la suma de $73,855.89 y un principal diferi o por la suma de $1,610.99, más Intereses sobre la suma de $73,855.89 a raz n del 7.716% anual, asl como todos aquellos créditos y sumas que surjan de la fa de la obligación hipotecaria y de la hipoteca que la garantiza, incluyendo la su a estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogada. La parte Demandante presentó para su inscripción en el Registro de la Propiedad correspondiente, un AVISO DE PLEITO PENDIENTE (“Lis Pendens”) sobre la propiedad objeto de esta acción cuya propiedad es la siguiente: : Solar número veinte (20) del bloque AD de la Urbanización Villas de Río Grande radicada en el Barrio Pueblo del Municipio de Río Grande, compuesto de trescientos uno punto treinta (301.30) metros cuadrados. Colindante por el Norte, en veintitrés punto cero cero (23.00) metros, con el solar número veintidós (22); por el SUR, en veintitrés punto cero cero (23.00) metros con el solar número dieciocho (18); por el ESTE, en trece punto diez (13.10) metros con el solar número diecinueve (19) del bloque V; por el OESTE, en trece punto diez (13.10) metros con la calle número veinticuatro (24). Enclava una casa. Inscrita al folio dieciocho ocho (18) del tomo ciento veintiséis (126) de Río Grande, finca número seis mil trescientos cuarenta (6,340). Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina Sección 111.

SE LES APERCIBE que de no hacer sus alegaciones responsivas a la demanda dentro del término aquí dispuesto, se les anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin más citarle ni oirle, además se presumirá que usted ha aceptado la herencia de Héctor Fuentes Navarro y por consiguiente, responden por las cargas de dicha herencia conforme dispone el Art. 957 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. 52785 el término de treinta (30) días antes señalado, Expedido bajo mi finna y sello del Tribunal en Carolina, Puerto Rico.

A 25 de agosto de 2020 Lcda.

Marilyn Aponte Rodriguez, Sec Regional. Lourdes Torres, Sec del Tribunal.

The San Juan Daily Star término de 30 días en torno a su aceptación o repudiación de ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO herencia la misma se tendrá DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU- por aceptada; (b) Que luego NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA del transcurso del termino de SALA DE SAN JUAN. 30 días contados a partir de la Reverse Mortgage fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, se presumirá Funding, LLC que han aceptado la herencia DEMANDANTE VS. Sucesión de Angel Rafael del causante y por consiguiente, responden por la cargas de Antonini Nazario, t/c/c dicha herencia conforme dispoAngel R. Antonini Nazario, ne el Artículo 957 del Código t/c/c Angel Antonini Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 2785. Se Nazario, t/c/c Angel R. Ordena a la parte demandante Antonini compuesta por a que, en vista de que la sucedel causante Angel Rafael Jessica Antonini Montes, sión Antonini Nazario, t/c/c Angel R. Sandra Antonini Montes, Antonini Nazario, t/c/c Angel Fulano de Tal y Sutano Antonini Nazario, t/c/c Angel R. de Tal como posibles Antonini incluyen como heredemiembros de nombres ros a Fulano de Tal y Sutano de desconocidos; Sucesión Tal, como posibles herederos desconocidos, proceda a notifide Sandra Felicita Montes car la presente Orden mediante Mendez, t/c/c/ Sandra un edicto a esos efectos una F. Montes Mendez, t/c/c sola vez en un periódico de Sandra M. De Antonini, circulación diaria general de la Isla de Puerto Rico. DADA en t/c/c Sandra Montes, San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día t/c/c Sandra Montes 26 de agosto de 2020. F/RAMendez, compuesta por MON E. MELENDEZ CASTRO, Jessica Antonini Montes, JUEZ.

LEGAL NOTICE

Sandra Antonini Montes, LEGAL NOT ICE Fulano de Tal y Sutano ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO de Tal como posibles DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUmiembros de nombres NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA desconocidos; Centro SALA DE SAN JUAN. de Recaudación de Reverse Mortgage Ingresos Municipales; y Funding, LLC DEMANDANTE VS. a los Estados Unidos de Sucesión de Angel Rafael América.

DEMANDADOS Antonini Nazario, t/c/c CIVIL NUM.: SJ2020CV02034. Angel R. Antonini Nazario, SALA: 506. SOBRE: Cobro de t/c/c Angel Antonini Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca Nazario, t/c/c Angel R. por la Vía Ordinaria. ORDEN. Examinada la demanda radica- Antonini compuesta por da por la parte demandante, la Jessica Antonini Montes, solicitud de interpelación conte- Sandra Antonini Montes, nida en la misma y examinados Fulano de Tal y Sutano los autos del caso, el Tribunal de Tal como posibles le imparte su aprobación y en miembros de nombres su virtud acepta la Demanda en el caso de epígrafe, así como desconocidos; Sucesión la interpelación judicial de la de Sandra Felicita Montes parte demandante a los hereMendez, t/c/c/ Sandra deros del codemandado conF. Montes Mendez, t/c/c forme dispone el Artículo 959 Sandra M. De Antonini, del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. t/c/c Sandra Montes, sec. 2787. Se Ordena a los herederos del causante a saber, t/c/c Sandra Montes Jessica Antonini Montes, San- Mendez, compuesta por dra Antonini Montes, Fulano de Jessica Antonini Montes, Tal y Sutano de Tal, herederos de nombres desconocidos a Sandra Antonini Montes, Fulano de Tal y Sutano que dentro del término legal de 30 días contados a partir de la de Tal como posibles fecha de la notificación de la miembros de nombres presente Orden, acepten o redesconocidos; Centro pudien la participación que les de Recaudación de corresponda en la herencia del Ingresos Municipales; y causante Angel Rafael Antonini Nazario, t/c/c Angel R. Antonini a los Estados Unidos de Nazario, t/c/c Angel Antonini América.

Nazario, t/c/c Angel R. Antonini.

DEMANDADOS Se le Apercibe a los herederos CIVIL NUM.: SJ2020CV02034. antes mencionados: (a) Que SALA: 506. SOBRE: Cobro de de no expresarse dentro del

The San Juan Daily Star Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria. ORDEN. Examinada la demanda radicada por la parte demandante, la solicitud de interpelación contenida en la misma y examinados los autos del caso, el Tribunal le imparte su aprobación y en su virtud acepta la Demanda en el caso de epígrafe, así como la interpelación judicial de la parte demandante a los herederos del codemandado conforme dispone el Artículo 959 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 2787. Se Ordena a los herederos del causante a saber, Jessica Antonini Montes, Sandra Antonini Montes, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal, herederos de nombres desconocidos a que dentro del término legal de 30 días contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudien la participación que les corresponda en la herencia del causante Sandra Felicita Montes Mendez, t/c/c/ Sandra F. Montes Mendez, t/c/c Sandra M. De Antonini, t/c/c Sandra Montes, t/c/c Sandra Montes Mendez. Se le Apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados: (a) Que de no expresarse dentro del término de 30 días en torno a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia la misma se tendrá por aceptada; (b) Que luego del transcurso del termino de 30 días contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación de la presente Orden, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia del causante y por consiguiente, responden por la cargas de dicha herencia conforme dispone el Artículo 957 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 2785. Se Ordena a la parte demandante a que, en vista de que la sucesión del causante Sandra Felicita Montes Mendez, t/c/c/ Sandra F. Montes Mendez, t/c/c Sandra M. De Antonini, t/c/c Sandra Montes, t/c/c Sandra Montes Mendez incluyen como herederos a Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Tal, como posibles herederos desconocidos, proceda a notificar la presente Orden mediante un edicto a esos efectos una sola vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de la Isla de Puerto Rico. DADA en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 26 de AGOSTO de 2020. F/RAMON E. MELENDEZ CASTRO, JUEZ.

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

AMERICAS LEADING FINANCE, LLC Demandante V.

VINCENT MARRERO AYALA, SU ESPOSA WANDA RODRÍGUEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL

Wednesday, September 9, 2020 DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandados CIVIL NÚM.: TA2020CV00363.

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO POR LA VA ORDINARIA Y EJECUCIÓN DE GRAVAMEN MOBILIARIO (REPOSESIÓN DE VEHÍCULO). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. DE AMERICA EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: WANDA RODRÍGUEZ, POR SI Y EN REPRESENTACIÓN DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR ELLA Y VINCENT MARRERO AYALA.

Quedan emplazados y notificados que en este Tribunal se ha radicado Demanda sobre cobro de dinero por la vía ordinaria en la que se alega que la parte codemandada, WANDA RODRÍGUEZ, POR SI Y EN REPRESENTACIÓN DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR ELLA Y VINCENT MARRERO AYALA, le adeuda solidariamente a Americas Leading Finance, LLC, la suma de principal de $14,193.63, más los intereses que continúen acumulando, las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado según pactados. Además, solicitamos de este Honorable Tribunal que autorice la reposesión y/o embargo del Vehículo. Se les advierte que este edicto se publicará en un periódico de circulación general una sola vez y que, si no comparecen a contestar dicha Demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del Edicto, a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr/sumac/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará Sentencia concediendo el remedio así solicitado sin más citarles ni oírles. El abogado de la parte demandante es el Lcdo.

Gerardo M. Ortiz Torres, cuya dirección física y postal es: Cond. El Centro I, Suite 801, 500 Muñoz Rivera Ave., San Juan, Puerto Rico 00918; cuyo número de teléfono es (787) 946-5268, el facsímile (787) 946-0062 y su correo electrónico es: gerardo@bellverlaw. com. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, en TOA ALTA, Puerto Rico, hoy día 31 de AGOSTO de 2020. LCDA LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ,

Secretaria. Gloribell Vazquez que se represente por derecho Maysonet, Sec del Tribunal propio, en cuyo caso deberá Conf I. presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribuLEGAL NOTICE nal”. Se le apercibe que de no ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO hacerlo, se le anotará la rebelDE PUERTO RICO TRIBU- día y se dictará sentencia conNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA cediendo el remedio solicitado SALA SUPERIOR DE VIE- en la demanda, sm más citarle ni oírle. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI QUES. y el sello del Tribunal, GLADYS M. ALEMÁN FIRMA en Fajardo Puerto Rico, hoy día PACHECO; BRYAN J. 1ro. de septiembre de 2020.

JAHNKE; BLACK BEARD WANDA I SEGUI REYES, Sec del Tribunal.

SPORTS, INC. Demandante Vs.

RACHEL MORRIS; BRAVOS 1 LLC.; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA Demandados SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYACIVIL NÚMERO: MÓN. VQ2020CV00015.

SOBRE: BAUTISTA CAYMAN INJUNCTION (ENTREDICHO ASSET COMPANY, PROVISIONAL, INJUNCTION DEMANDANTE; PRELIMINAR Y PERMANEN-

SUCESIÓN DE MARÍA MONTE DE OCA T/C/C MARÍA MONTE DE OCA OLMO COMPUESTA POR RAFAEL CASTRO MONTE A LAS PARTES DE OCA, YAMILLE DEMANDADAS: CASTRO MONTE DE RACHEL MORRIS; OCA, Y RAFAEL CASTRO BRAVOS 1 LLC.; A; B; C; BETANCOURT T/C/C D; E; F; G; H, nombres de RAFAEL ARMANDO personas naturales y/o jurídicas desconocidas. CASTRO BETANCOURT, POR SÍ Y COMO POR LA PRESENTE, se le emMIEMBRO DE LA plaza, se le notifica que una demanda ha sido presentada en SUCESIÓN DE MARÍA su contra y se le requiere que MONTE DE OCA T/C/C conteste la demanda dentro de MARÍA MONTE DE OCA los treinta (30) días siguientes OLMO; FULANO DE TAL Y a la publicación de este Edicto, radicando el original de su con- MENGANO DE TAL COMO testación ante el Tribunal coPOSIBLES MIEMBROS rrespondiente y notificando con DE LA SUCESIÓN DE copia de la misma al abogado MARÍA MONTE DE OCA de la parte demandante: T/C/C MARÍA MONTE DE Lcdo. Samuel F. Pamias Portalatín Hoglund & Pamias, PSC OCA OLMO TE). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. Estados Unidos De América El Presidente De Los Estados Unidos El Estado Libre Asociado De Puerto Rico.

256 Calle Eleanor Roosevelt, San Juan, PR 00918 sarnuel@hhoglund.con Tel. 787-772-9834 Fax: 787-772-9533 Con copia de la Contestación a la Demanda, radicando el original de la Contestación ante este Tribunal, dentro de los treinta (30) días a la publicación de este Edicto que se publicara una vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general, por orden del TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA DE PUERTO RICO, SALA DE FAJARDO. Conforme la Sección VII (4) de las Directrices Administrativas para la Presentación y Notificación Electrónica de Documentos Mediante el Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos, según enmendadas, el edicto publicado debe contener además un lenguaje similar al siguiente: “Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Administración y Manejo de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:// unired.ramajudicial.pr, salvo

dirección electrónica: https:// unired.rarnajudicial.pr. Se le emplaza y requiere para que notifique a: Ferraiuoli LLC Lcdo. Luis G. Parrilla Hernández P.O. Box 195168 San Juan, PR 00919-5 168 Tel.: 787-766-7000 / Fax: 787-766-7001 lparrilla@ferraiuoli.com Abogado de la parte demandante, con copia de respuesta a la Demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto y radicar el original de dicha contestación en este Tribunal en donde podrá enterarse de su contenido. Si dejare de hacerlo, podrá anotársele la rebeldía y se le dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado sin más citarle ni oírle. Se le apercibe a la parte que, conforme al Art. 959 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. § 2787, los codemandados antes mencionados, miembros de la Sucesión de María Monte de Oca t/c/c María Monte de Oca Olmo, que tienen un término de treinta (30) días para informarle al Tribunal si acepta o repudia la herencia de los causantes. En caso de que usted no manifieste su declaración sobre la aceptación de la herencia dentro del plazo correspondiente, se tendrá la herencia por aceptada. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y con el sello del Tribunal. DADO hoy en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, a 7 de agosto de 2020. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, Secretaria Regional. ALBA BRITO BORGEN, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

25

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

FINANCE OF AMERICA REVERSE, LLC DEMANDANTE Vs.

SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN LYDIA JIMÉNEZ REYES T/C/C CARMEN L. JIMÉNEZ REYES T/C/C CARMEN LYDIA JIMÉNEZ T/C/C CARMEN JIMÉNEZ REYES COMPUESTA POR FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS a que dentro del mismo término de sesenta (60) días contados a partir de la fecha de la notificación, ACEPTEN o REPUDIEN la participación que les corresponda en la herencia de la causante, CARMEN LYDIA JIMÉNEZ REYES T/C/C CARMEN L. JIMÉNEZ REYES T/C/C CARMEN LYDIA JIMENEZ T/C/C CARMEN JIMÉNEZ REYES. Se les apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que de no expresarse dentro de ese término de sesenta (60) días en torno a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia, se tendrá por aceptada. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, a 2 de septiembre de 2020.

GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA. LUZ ENID FERNANDEZ DEL VALLE, SEC SERVICIOS A SALA.

LEGAL NOTICE

Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico TRIBUNAL GENEDEMANDADOS RAL DE JUSTICIA Tribunal de CIVIL NUM: SJ2020CV01264.

Primera Instancia Sala SupeSALA: 604. SOBRE: EJECUrior de CABO ROJO. CIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMFIRSTBANK PLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO PUERTO RICO (ENMENDADO).

ESTADOS Demandante vs.

UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. BANCO POPULAR DE UU. ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIAPUERTO RICO, JOHN DO DE P.R. SS.

A: FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN LYDIA JIMÉNEZ REYES TIC/C CARMEN L. JIMÉNEZ REYES TIC/C CARMEN LYDIA JIMÉNEZ TIC/C CARMEN JIMÉNEZ REYES

North Carolina Wake County In the General Court of Justice Superior Court Division File No. 20 SP 421 & 20 SP 422 DEMANDADOS NOTICE OF SERVICE OF CIVIL NÚM. BY2020CV01387.

PROCESS BY PUBLICATION Quedan emplazados y notifiSOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO To: MANUEL RAMON cados de que en este Tribunal Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. se ha radicado una demanda ROMERO-BRITO, EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICde ejecución de hipoteca en Respondent.

TO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE Take notice that a pleading sus contras. Se les notifica DE LOS EE.UU. ESTADO LI- seeking relief against you has para que comparezcan ante el BRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO been filed in the above-entitled Tribunal dentro del término de action. The nature of the relief sesenta (60) días a partir de RICO. SS. A: FULANO DE TAL Y being sought is for the legitima- la publicación de este edicto y lo que a sus derechos MENGANO DE TAL como tion of two minors: Elmer Valen- exponer tin Reyes, born December 28, convenga, en el presente caso. posibles miembros de la 2016, and Ruby Valentin Re- Se les apercibe y notifica que si Sucesión de María Monte yes, born March 26, 2015. You no contestan la demanda radide Oca t/c/c María Monte are required to make defense cada en sus contras, radicando to such pleading no later than el original de la misma y enviande Oca Olmo ____________________ said do copia de su contestación a BIk. 58 #27, Sierra date being at least forty (40) la parte demandante, Lcda.

Bayamón, Bayamón, days from the first publication of Genevieve López Stipes, P.O. Puerto Rico 00956; Cond. this Notice, and upon your fai- Box 367308, San Juan, P.R. Assisi, #1304 Ave. Luis lure to do so, the Petitioner will 00936, Tel. 787-758-6550/Fax. Vigoreaux, Guaynabo, apply to the court for the relief 787-758-6554, correo electrónico: lcda.glopez@gmail.com, sought.

Puerto Rico dentro del término de sesenta Por la presente se le notifica This, the _______th day of (60) días de la publicación de ________________, 2020. que se ha radicado en su coneste edicto, se les anotará la retra una Demanda de Cobro de Yvonne Armendáriz, Esq. beldía en su contra y se dictará Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca Armendáriz Law Office, PLLC sentencia en su contra, confor1140 Kildaire Farm Road a través del Sistema Unificado me se solicita en la Demanda, de Manejo y Administración de Suite 206-4 sin más citárseles, ni oírseles.

Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede Cary, NC 27511 Se ordena a los herederos de la Telephone: (919) 656-1524 acceder utilizando la siguiente causante a saber: FULANO DE

DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS

Puerto Rico, el 4 de septiembre de 2020. NORMA G. SANTANA IRIZARRY, Secretaria Regional. F/VERONICA MARTINEZ ORTIZ, Secretaria Auxiliar.

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

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KARLA VILLEGAS FIGUEROA por sí y como miembro de la Sucesión de ANGEL VILLEGAS LOPEZ, FULANO DE TAL Y FULANA DE TAL como miembros desconocidos de la SUCESIÓN DE ANGEL VILLEGAS TORRES

DEMANDADO Civil Núm.: CG2019CV01067.

Sala: 801. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE SENTENCIA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO ENMENDADA.

A: KARLA VILLEGAS FIGUEROA, por sí y como miembro conocido de la SUCESIÓN DE ANGEL VILLEGAS LOPEZ, FULANO Y FULANA DE TAL como miembro desconocido de la SUCESIÓN DE ANGEL VILLEGASS LOPEZ- Urbanización Santa Juana, 04 Calle 18, Caguas PR 00725-2048

Demandado(a) Civil: MZ2020CV00296. Sobre: CANCELACION PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. EL(LA) SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que A: JOHN DOE Y el 28 de agosto de 2020 este RICHARD ROE (Nombre de las partes a las que se Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia le notifican la sentencia por edicto) o Sentencia Parcial en este EL SECRETARIO(A) que sus- caso, que ha sido debidamente cribe le notifica a usted 3 de registrada y archivada en autos septiembre de 2020 , este Tri- donde podrá usted enterarse bunal ha dictado Sentencia, detalladamente de los términos Sentencia Parcial o Resolución de la misma. Esta notificación en este caso, que ha sido debi- se publicará una sola vez en damente registrada y archivada un periódico de circulación geen autos donde podrá usted en- neral en la isla de Puerto Rico, terarse detalladamente de los dentro de los 10 días siguientes términos de la misma. Esta no- a su notificación. Y, siendo o tificación se publicará una sola representando usted una parvez en un periódico de circula- te en el procedimiento sujeta ción general en la Isla de Puer- a los términos de la Sentencia to Rico, dentro de los 10 días o Sentencia Parcial, de la cual siguientes a su notificación. Y, puede establecerse recurso de siendo o representando usted revisión o apelación dentro del una parte en el procedimiento término de 30 días contados a sujeta a los términos de la Sen- partir de la publicación por edictencia, Sentencia Parcial o Re- to de esta notificación, dirijo a solución, de la cual puede esta- usted esta notificación que se blecerse recurso de revisión o considerará hecha en la fecha apelación dentro del término de de la publicación de este edic30 días contados a partir de la to. Copia de esta notificación ha publicación por edicto de esta sido archivada en los autos de notificación, dirijo a usted esta este caso, con fecha 4 de sepnotificación que se considerará tiembre de 2020. En Caguas, hecha en la fecha de la publi- Puerto Rico, el 4 de septiembre cación de este edicto. Copia de de 2020. Carmen A. Pereira esta notificación ha sido archi- Ortiz, Secretario (a) Regional. vada en los autos de este caso, Eneida Arroyo Velez, Secretacon fecha de 4 de septiembre rio (a) Auxiliar. de 2020. En CABO ROJO,

26

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Despite big hiccups and no fans, the US Open has had some classics

By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY

P

hase 1 of the weirdest U.S. Open was full of tennis lessons we never expected we would have to learn: Don’t pull a ball out of your pocket and smack it without looking.

Don’t play cards with Benoît Paire.

Don’t sign a new protocol and stay in a Long Island hotel. You still might not be allowed to cross a county line to play your match in Queens.

Don’t argue line calls on the outside courts. With automated calls, there is no one to argue with.

But there was another revelation, too. You don’t need a crowd to have a classic U.S. Open night match.

Until now, the players and the spectators seemed to be essential ingredients: feeding off one another, inspiring one another.

But Borna Coric and Stefanos Tsitsipas did it on their own in Louis Armstrong Stadium, forging a mutual masterpiece as they exchanged shouts, dirty looks and all manner of shots: bold, subtle, cocksure and humanizingly shaky in the third round.

Tsitsipas, a prodigiously talented Greek full of hunger and swagger, seemed to have the match under control at 5-1 in the fourth set and seemed to have it under lock and key serving at 5-4, 40-0. But Coric, who has a tattoo that reads “There is nothing worse in life than being ordinary,” stayed true to his body art.

One of the best movers in the men’s game, the young, bristle-haired Croatian kept grinding and swinging. He saved six match points and leveled the match at two sets apiece as Friday night turned into Saturday.

Tsitsipas could have been excused for curling up into a ball on the baseline at that stage. But he stayed upright and even went up a break in the fifth set before Coric leveled.

Tsitsipas had four more break-point chances down the stretch. But Coric held phenomenally firm and Tsitsipas cracked again, double faulting twice in the fifthset tiebreaker as Coric prevailed 6-7 (2), 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4).

“I have to be honest, and say I was really lucky,” said Coric, who is now in the quarterfinals. “In the third and fourth set, he was playing unbelievable tennis, and I felt like I had no chance.”

It was not the first tennis pandemic epic (a pandepic, perhaps?): Andy Murray and his bionic hip won a five-setter of their own in the first round against Yoshihito Nishioka. Earlier Friday, Denis Shapovalov came back from a breakdown in the fifth to defeat Taylor Fritz.

Although Novak Djokovic’s fourth-round default was certainly the most dramatic moment of the first week, he and Pablo Carreño Busta did not even finish the first set. For long-form quality, relentless intensity and midnight madness timing, there was no topping Coric and Tsitsipas.

“This is probably the saddest and funniest at the

Shelby Rogers, ranked 93rd in singles, has defeated two seeded players on her way to a match against a third: Naomi Osaka. same time thing that has ever happened in my career,” tweeted Tsitsipas, in new-generation fashion, just minutes after it happened.

It would have been the match of just about any tournament — this one, coronavirus willing, still has matches through Sunday — and that it could happen in a fan-free environment in an individual sport was both reaffirming and unsettling.

How much do the roars and the jeers really matter?

The thought is, of course, not unique to tennis at the moment. Sport after sport is discovering what it means to play behind closed doors.

But there were moments Friday night when the lack of outside buzz and external distraction actually seemed to elevate the duel, making it possible to hear every sneaker squeak, every grunt and mutter.

The court-level camera angles helped, too, bringing viewers into the players’ space and avoiding the wider shots that would have made clear that hardly anyone was watching in person.

It was intimate, even meditative at times, as the two rivals took turns being brilliant under pressure to the sounds of the passing trains and a few shouts from their entourages.

“Look, it would have been an amazing atmosphere to have fans in there — cheering a guy on as he makes this amazing comeback,” said Brad Gilbert, who called the match for ESPN. “But I do think that the players start getting locked in, and that it’s just about you and the opponent. I don’t think they even were noticing there was no crowd.”

Call it their own bubble within a bubble.

“You could see everything develop with clarity because you had no distractions,” Gilbert said. “But

listen, I’m just so grateful we have a chance to do the tennis and just see the tennis. Obviously, this model without a crowd is not sustainable for the rest of tennis ever, but for the moment, it’s a lot better than no tennis.”

The problem in New York during Week 1 was that not everyone who crossed the Atlantic to play tennis was allowed to do so, and that in Djokovic’s case, the biggest star in the men’s game essentially eliminated himself.

Staging this tournament at all has been an immense undertaking, and the USTA does not have the same financial means as the NBA with its locked-down campus at Walt Disney World in Florida. Nor did it have the wherewithal to quarantine an international field of players for two full weeks before the first ball was struck.

There were bound to be issues. For now, Paire is the only player known to have tested positive for the coronavirus in the controlled environment set up for the Western & Southern Open and the U.S. Open.

But the devil has been in the details of the contact tracing, which forced seven players who had been in close contact with Paire to sign a new, more restrictive agreement in order to keep playing.

When Nassau County health officials learned that those in contact with Paire were being allowed to compete instead of remaining in full quarantine, they effectively voided the new agreement. On Saturday, French star Kristina Mladenovic, one of those in contact with Paire, was not permitted to travel to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center from the player hotel.

She and her Hungarian doubles partner, Timea Babos, the No. 1 seeds, were forced to withdraw before their second-round match, after Adrian Mannarino of France had been allowed to play singles on Friday after great debate. He ended up losing to Alexander Zverev.

This moving of the goal posts is not the way this situation should have been handled. Inconsistency undermines the rules, and that Mannarino was allowed to play because he was not at the hotel in Nassau County when the new edict was issued is not a good enough excuse.

Every probable scenario should have been talked through and made clear with all the potentially relevant health authorities before the tournament began.

Failing to do so undermines the USTA’s remarkable efforts and certainly does not play well internationally.

Clearly, watching Mannarino play Friday, it did not have to be like this. But that does not mean the 2020 U.S. Open, even tarnished and having lost its biggest men’s star, has not had its shining moments.

Most of the players seem to appreciate the opportunity (and the paycheck), and they have paid it back with tennis worthy of the occasion, worthy of a Grand Slam tournament.

Coric versus Tsitsipas was only the best of many examples: a late-night classic no doubt, even without the customary soundtrack.

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

27

Djokovic sorry for outburst, but his drama is often self-inflicted

By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY

S

hortly after arriving in New York last month, Novak Djokovic told me that he genuinely wanted to be here for the U.S. Open.

He repeated it throughout his stay, which ended much earlier than expected Sunday as the top-seeded Djokovic was defaulted in the fourth round for unsportsmanlike conduct, after hitting a ball in frustration toward the back wall of the court, which struck a line judge in the throat.

It was unintentional, no doubt, but it was also a rash move that a 33-year-old superstar, so accustomed to living and playing under the microscope, should have learned to avoid long ago.

But Djokovic, the elastic winner of 17 Grand Slam singles titles who has proved himself to be the men’s game’s best competitor under pressure, remains a work very much in progress: capable of charm, magnanimity and deep reflection but also capable of turning too much of what he touches into ash.

Despite his earnest attempts to find peace, commune with nature and heed his inner voice, Djokovic remains too often his own worst enemy. And even if he truly does not aim to be beloved on the same scale as his career-long measuring sticks Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal — he insists he does not — he has had a rough few months.

He has been spreading himself thin: serving as president of the ATP Player Council until the Sunday before the U.S. Open, when he and Canadian player Vasek Pospisil launched a new players’ association that the ATP Tour’s leadership views warily and which Federer, Nadal and numerous other leading players have chosen, for now, not to back.

In truth, despite Djokovic’s affirmations, he seemed conflicted about this business trip to New York: He only decided to come last month after extensive negotiations with the U.S. Open organizers over everything from housing to entourage size to testing and quarantine protocols. He certainly did not make it easy, but at least he came and then — in typically self-defeating fashion — gave officials no choice but to send him packing early.

Though sports writers (and everyone else) should generally steer clear of armchair psychology, it was easy to see Sun-

Novak Djokovic apologized after accidentally hitting a line judge with a ball at the United States Open, and pleaded his case with tournament officials before being defaulted. day’s ill-timed burst of anger as a product of all that accumulated off-court tension.

Sitting on a couch in the home he rented for the Western & Southern Open and U.S. Open, he gestured toward his agent Edoardo Artaldi.

“I know that Edoardo here wishes that maybe sometimes I don’t speak about some things in public or that I don’t maybe deal with tennis politics as much,” Djokovic said. “But look, I know that I feel deep in my heart that this is the right thing to do because I feel also responsible. And I feel that if I have an opportunity to share something that I feel might serve somebody in a positive way, I will do that.”

Djokovic did the right thing Monday night. After the line umpire he hit began receiving vicious abuse online, Djokovic posted a message on Twitter to his supporters, asking them to “please also remember the linesperson that was hit by the ball last night needs our support too” and that “she’s done nothing wrong at all.”

Pospisil and others who have worked closely with Djokovic expressed respect for his desire to put his reputation and energy on the line for his peers.

He has been involved in some major

behind-the-scenes power struggles in the last two seasons: helping to lead the ouster of Chris Kermode, the former chairman of the ATP Tour in 2019, and supporting Justin Gimelstob, an influential board member and former American player who pleaded no contest last year to a battery charge and eventually resigned.

Now comes the new player association, which Djokovic views in part as an attempt to help lower-ranked players increase their earnings in a sport that has traditionally rewarded the stars handsomely and the hoi polloi meagerly.

His labor organizing may yet lead to trouble, just as the Adria Tour, another high-minded initiative organized this year during the coronavirus pandemic, got him into trouble. During the five-month hiatus, Djokovic wanted to help struggling players in the Balkan region and organized a series of charity exhibitions in Serbia and Croatia, where infection rates were low and restrictions were few.

The tour raised eyebrows globally as the players hugged, danced the limbo and communed, mask free, with fans. It went truly awry when he, his wife Jelena and several other players and team members

ended up contracting the virus, including Borna Coric, a Croatian who is in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open.

“So many times he has the right intentions, it’s just with the timing he’s not getting it right, like the Adria Tour,” said Daniela Hantuchova, a former top-5 player from Slovakia, who has known Djokovic since his early years on tour. “There’s no problem with running an exhibition tour like that, just not when the whole world stops. Same with the ATP stuff. Sure things need to change, but not right now.”

In terms of public image, Djokovic’s career has been a roller-coaster ride compared to Federer’s and Nadal’s much steadier paths.

“It feels like sometimes the anger comes out of control,” Hantuchova said of Djokovic. “I care so much about him and respect everything he is doing for our game, but I just hope there is a lesson to be learned, even if this one came at the worst possible time, where pretty much the only thing standing between him and an 18th Grand Slam title was himself, with all my respect to the other players.”

Djokovic was fined his prize money of $250,000 on Monday plus $10,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct and $7,500 for skipping his post-match news conference: a pittance for someone who has won more than $140 million in career prize money. What hurts is the missed opportunity to narrow the gap with Federer, who has won a record 20 major singles titles, and Nadal, who has won 19.

For all Djokovic’s talent and drive, the window to secure the record could be narrower than it seems. The younger generation is rising and improving, and one of them will get their first Grand Slam singles title on Sunday.

As Djokovic knows too well, he has no one to blame but himself.

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28

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Tina Charles is a WNBA superstar hiding in plain sight

Tina Charles played six seasons with her hometown team, the Liberty. “She’s been put in these situations where she has to be the standard-bearer without other Olympians around her; she was carrying us so heavily, she just ran out of gas,” said Bill Laimbeer, her former coach.

By NATALIE WEINER

E

ven if Tina Charles never plays another basketball game, she’s bound to be a Hall of Famer. That’s according to UConn’s Geno Auriemma, her already inducted former coach — but it doesn’t take winning 11 national championships to see that her enshrinement is inevitable.

Some of her numerous accolades, though, already have a public place of honor. At Charlie’s Records on Fulton Street in New York’s Brooklyn, a banner that’s several feet tall bears a photo of Charles shooting in her Connecticut Sun uniform. It hangs above racks of calypso, soca and dancehall records, and next to several signs printed with Charles’ No. 31 and “MVP.” A large adjacent banner reads “Bud Light Salutes Tina Charles, 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist.”

Smaller photos and news clippings complete the tribute.

About a half-hour walk away is Barclays Center, where the New York native might have continued chasing a WNBA championship, one of the few awards missing from what must be straining shelves of trophies.

The accomplishment would certainly be recognized prominently at Charlie’s Records, her father Rawlston Charles’ decades-old Bedford-Stuyvesant record shop.

Despite Tina Charles’ many rings and medals, her lack of deep postseason runs in

the world’s best women’s basketball league has made her an all-time talent who’s inexplicably hiding in plain sight.

“I think that eats at her,” Washington Mystics coach Mike Thibault said. “I think she wants to re-establish that, ‘Look, I’m one of the top players and I can help a team win a championship.’ That was her big goal when she went to New York, and it didn’t work.”

Charles, who leveraged her franchise player status to get back to her hometown from the Connecticut Sun in 2014, was traded by the New York Liberty to the Washington Mystics earlier this year when the team hit a hard reset, liquidating almost all of its veteran talent.

Charles was traded to the reigning WNBA champion Mystics, which also meant reuniting with Thibault — who coached Charles after the Sun picked her first overall in the 2010 draft. Thibault helped her win awards like Rookie of the Year (2010) and MVP (2012).

“He was the first person to believe in me,” Charles said of Thibault. “When you’re consistent as a coach, you know how to get the best out of your players regardless of who’s on your roster.”

What the Mystics also have is an established group of top-tier players, something that has eluded Charles for much of her professional career.

The Mystics have struggled to a 5-13 re-

cord in the WNBA bubble in Bradenton, Fla., without key starters like reigning MVP Elena Delle Donne and Natasha Cloud. Charles is not with the team after receiving a medical exemption this season because she has extrinsic asthma and is at high risk of having complications from COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus. Thibault said that although Charles is on a one-year deal, she has verbally committed to returning to the Mystics next year.

The 6-foot-4-inch center has the fifth most rebounds and the 11th-most points in WNBA history — both because of her exceptional ability and because she’s more or less had to shoulder that much of the load to keep her teams afloat.

“She’s always been the one, not one of,” said Bill Laimbeer, who coached the Liberty during four of the six seasons Charles played for the team and now coaches the Las Vegas Aces. “She’s been put in these situations where she has to be the standard-bearer without other Olympians around her; she was carrying us so heavily, she just ran out of gas.”

Being the one is familiar for Charles. In New York’s always-competitive amateur basketball scene she was center stage, playing at the Garden with her Amateur Athletic Union team during Liberty halftimes and then again as the star player of the No. 1-ranked Christ the King team in 2006 (naturally, she hit the game-winner). As the best high school player in the country, she went to UConn, the best women’s basketball program in the country.

There, she became the best college player in the country, leading that team to two more titles.

“The expectations are so high for a kid like that, that I don’t know that there’s any way you could have said she exceeded expectations,” Auriemma said. “That would be impossible.”

Charles has at least met, if not surpassed, those sky-high expectations at every level on the court, without necessarily getting much attention for doing so. Whether that’s because of her lack of WNBA titles or her generally understated demeanor, Charles is unbothered by so often being in the background.

“It doesn’t make me feel any type of way,” Charles said. “If your team isn’t successful, you’re not going to get individual success. I know it has nothing to do with my skill or anything I’ve been able to put out on the court.”

Since 2013, Charles has donated her WNBA salary to her Hopey’s Heart Founda-

tion, which supplies automated external defibrillators to schools and recreational centers.

This year, she’s shifting that donation to organizations that support the Black Lives Matter movement, Black-owned businesses and COVID-19 relief. Her contributions will be in $846 increments, in recognition of the eight minutes and 46 seconds that have come to symbolize how long a police officer in Minneapolis pressed a knee into the neck of George Floyd, killing him. Charles attended a memorial service for Floyd in Brooklyn’s Cadman Square Plaza.

“It’s gotten overlooked that us WNBA players were the ones who were really on the front lines, who were always very vocal,” Charles said.

She and her Liberty teammates were initially fined for wearing T-shirts that bore the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in 2016; even after being warned by the league about violating uniform policies, she wore her warm-up shirt inside out in protest.

“We didn’t really have the support of the WNBA when Philando Castile and Alton Sterling’s lives were lost,” she said. “It was totally different. So it’s definitely very beautiful to see them support this cause just as they support breast cancer awareness, Pride, any other cause — you know? It’s really important.”

The league later rescinded the fines amid public outcry.

“Tina can be shy, can be quiet, but she’s always understood her responsibility,” said Swin Cash, the four-time All-Star who played and protested alongside Charles on the Liberty in 2016. “It meant so much to her to let people know, ‘As a franchise player, you guys are going to see me. I want to lead in that regard.’”

With her championship aspirations on hold for now, Charles is working on both her game and drawing attention to the achievements of those around her via her production company, Thirty-One Enterprises, which has partnered with Kevin Durant’s “The Boardroom” to share the stories of her fellow WNBA players. She also reciprocated her father’s in-store homage by directing a documentary about him and his effect on the New York music scene. The film, called “Charlie’s Records,” was released last year.

“In basketball, for me it’s winning a championship,” Charles said. “That’s the ultimate goal for me. But at the end of the day, championship or not, it’s just about how I was able to leave a lasting impact on someone that I came across. I’m thankful, regardless of how my story ends basketballwise.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

29

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

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

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

GAMES

HOROSCOPE Aries

30

(Mar 21-April 20)

A big political story in your area will get a lot of public support. Officials may not approve a project but this is not the end of the matter.

It won’t all be plain sailing but you will fight for what you believe in. A long-awaited report is due to hit the table of senior colleagues who are about to make a decision on possible changes to come.

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

(June 22-July 23)

The San Juan Daily Star

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Even if you don’t always agree, you will enjoy exchanging views with friends. After a lively discussion, you will feel you’ve learned something from them. This isn’t a good time to play fast and loose with money. Keep a mental note of how much you are spending even on everyday expenses.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

You’re starting to see some light at the end of what has been a long and arduous tunnel. A lot of work has been involved in a project you would normally have had more help with.

You’ve tackled a challenging task on your own and your effort is about to pay off. This will be a great boost to your confidence.

Scorpio

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

With the chance of a promotion just around the corner, now is not the time to sit back and relax. Only more hard work and diligence will take you where you want to go. Think again if you’re tempted to splash out on a luxury item you cannot really afford. Be sensible about the choices you are making.

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

You’ve given the future a lot of thought and no one could accuse you of making a hasty decision. You’re ready to decide on what you want to do next. Even if there are objections you know that in the circumstances you have made a good choice. No one will be able to persuade you otherwise.

Someone close has been expecting too much from you. This relationship has been turbulent and although you’re doing your best to be polite, your patience is wearing thin. Feelings need to be expressed and you want to know you are being taken seriously. If a partner or close friend cannot respect your point of view, they may not be right for you.

Cancer

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

You may not have always seen eye to eye but there’s likely to be more cooperation in the home at this time. An older relative will surprise you by sorting out a household matter that has been causing you concern. Trying something new is tempting but it may not be the right time to experiment with bold ideas.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

Someone is pushing you to take on a leadership role. They will admit they don’t want this kind of responsibility. It might seem as if they’re being honest and supportive but what they aren’t saying is that you will get the blame if things go wrong and they may not stand by you when you need them.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

Doing some work for a charity will make you conscious of how lucky you truly are. You might commit regularly to some volunteer work. You’re fired with positivity and optimism and this makes you determined to put pans that are so far only in your mind or on paper, into action.

You are grateful for offers of support and guidance even if you turn these down. Advice will be offered. You would feel better making your own decisions. Colleagues will pitch in and help out if you need it but this is unlikely.

You just prefer to be left to work at your own pace, in your own way.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

No matter how enthusiastic you feel about a new job opening, this isn’t the time to show your interest. A rival is watching you very carefully. They will block your efforts if they get wind of your goals. Wait until another day if you want to discuss important issues. You need to know you have someone’s undivided attention.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

There are two distinct possibilities indicated.

If you’re lucky you should be able to enjoy benefits from both. Firstly there are signs of you being accepted on a study or training course. Getting intellectual stimulation will lift your spirits. Also, you will be invited to join a team who are planning on launching an important project.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

The San Juan Daily Star

Ziggy

SEMANA, INC 9, • Jueves, Wednesday, September 2020 3 de septiembre de 2020 32EDITORIAL

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Desde

$589.00

Smart-tv-kit

$189

.00

QFX Remote Controlled Motorized 360 Rotating Outdoor Antenna

Ipad 7 .00

$489

TV Mount desde

$29.00

$20

$129

$99.00

Super Sonic 32”

Estufa de gas 2 hornillas .00

Tope de Gas Mabe 20” .00

Nevera Mabe 10pc.

$489

$749

$189

Estufa Mabe 30” .00

$449

Lavadora GE .00

.00

$649

$29.00

Pulsar 2300 .00

Samsung Galaxy Tab A .00

Samsung A10s

Learning Tab

$149.00

$169.00 Freezer Commercial con Ruedas .00

Horno de Microondas Blanco, Negro o Stainless Steal

$89.00

Abanico recargable

$449

$69.00

Switching Power Adapter .00

$18

Sony. CDF-S70

$79.00

Silla Metal Estudiantes .00

$29

Water Dispenser

$169

.00

Bitz Stand Fan Turbo 5 aspas Cafetera Oster .00

$29

Licuadora OSTER

$49.00

Plancha Oster .00

$29.00

$20

DEALER AUTORIZADO EN PIEZAS Y SERVICIO