Thursday Feb 29, 2024

The San Juan

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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.

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Fiscal board wants action, not plans, from UPR

By THE STAR STAFF

Financial Oversight and Management Board Executive Director Robert Mujica said Wednesday that the talks with the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) go beyond the issue of bonuses for non-teaching employees.

Mujica said at a press conference that UPR has to ensure that resources are properly invested for the benefit of students and take into account demographic changes and declining enrollment.

“We’re continuing conversations with the university about that, identifying both the resources and also the terms themselves,” the oversight board official said. “There were conversations as recent as yesterday. I think the talks are continuing, so hopefully we can come to an agreement that is fair for the university. To be clear, we have worked with the government to increase the budget by about 20 percent for the university this year, more than $102 million.”

The federal entity created under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act, commonly known as PROMESA, has not yet issued a final determination on the payment of a $3,000 bonus to members of the Brotherhood of Non-Teaching Exempt Employees.

“We also spent eight months working with the university and others interested in addressing the issues facing UPR in the future,” Mujica continued. “The problem with the employees is important. We need to deal with the faculty as well. A priority of ours is to bring money into the classroom and address some of the challenges that UPR faces, that many universities face and many public universities are facing. Challenges related to demographic changes. The UPR has faced a 32% decline in enrollment and part of our conversations with the university has been these four strategic initiatives designed to improve class offerings. They are designed to improve how students get classes and make sure they have classes available, make sure their credits transfer, and make sure the offerings are what students need. So they are choosing the UPR over other university systems.”

“So we’re talking about the issue related to non-teaching staff and that contract and we’re working on that,” he said. “But we’re also working on other things to make sure that the additional funds we’ve set aside for the university are being put into the classroom and result in changes. Because as the environment changes, as the economy changes, universities in general need to make changes to fit the needs of students, and that’s what we’re focusing on.”

Asked if the oversight board was going to enter into the academic offering, Mujica said the board is not going to make decisions for the university about what course offerings are needed.

“And again, that’s why we’ve had a lot of conversations both with the governing board, the president of the university, and others. The point is, they’re going to have to make those decisions and make those changes,” he said. “But we just want to make sure that those conversations are actually happening and to the extent that we’re going to add additional resources, let’s not add them to the status quo. So let’s make sure that by adding additional resources, we’re putting them in the places where they’re needed the most and also where they help with the academic mission, which is the primary goal of the university, the academic mission.”

He said UPR doesn’t need more plans, it needs more execution on the things he had mentioned.

“And if resources are being issued, we want to make sure that the resources are there to help assist in the transformation that simply needs to happen,” Mujica said. “So we’re not going to tell the university what the academic offerings are [going to be], but they should use data to make these determinations. What are students looking for? Is that aligned with your offerings in a number of ways? Make sure they’re aligned, and then move forward. So, you have to stimulate the conversation, have the resources set aside for that purpose. But we’re not making those determinations. Those determinations need to be made.”

Suspended Ponce mayor says he won’t give up his candidacy; PDP will go to court

By THE STAR STAFF

Suspended Ponce Mayor Luis Manuel Irizarry Pabón said on Wednesday that he will not give up his candidacy for re-election under the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) banner.

“I am innocent! I am protected by the constitutions of Puerto Rico and the United States and my constitutional rights are being violated,” Irizarry Pabón said in a written statement. “I have been visiting my Ponce communities, where they have received me with joy and support. They repeatedly tell me: ‘Doctor, don’t leave, we are with you!’ For that and all the previous reasons I want to make it clear that, I DO NOT QUIT! In the midst of this hoax, there is no reason to leave my position and my candidacy.”

“As your servant, Dr. Luis Manuel Irizarry Pabón, your mayor and certified candidate, I am here standing and facing you,” he added. “I will continue here to serve my Ponce and my beloved Ponceños. In Ponce, we Ponceños decide!”

An agreement reached between Irizarry Pabón, Rep. Ángel “Tito” Fourquet Corder, and PDP Secretary General Gerardo Antonio “Toñito” Cruz Maldonado included a deadline of Feb. 28, 2024 for the mayor to renounce his

Fiscal board establishes deadlines for new budget

By THE STAR STAFF

The 2024-2025 fiscal budget, the highest in the island’s history at almost $13 billion, did not allocate funding for salary hikes for the island’s judges, and allocated few resources -- some $500 million -- to the University of Puerto Rico, House Treasury Committee Chairman Jesús Santa Rodríguez said Wednesday.

“... [T]he [Financial Oversight and Management] Board was very clear when in July it issued a letter stating the necessary conditions for the [salary] increase,” the legislator said in a radio report, noting that the item for the pay increase for judges was not included because there is no law that orders it, although the oversight board affirms that the money is there.

On Feb. 2, a judge determined that a resolution approved by the Legislature provided for the concession of the salary increase for judges. The resolution contains

a portion of $11.2 million for the raise. The House of Representatives had tried to withdraw the resolution after conditioning the judges’ salary hike on a similar hike to legislators’ salaries.

The oversight board sent to the Legislature this week a forecast of revenues for the purpose of developing the fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget and other information.

On March 25, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia must submit a proposed FY2025 budget based on the forecast of revenues and budget targets along with detailed supporting documentation for any variances. The government must update the inventory listing of all agencies, including agency contacts, and details on any consolidation of agencies or new agencies.

Following the receipt of the governor’s submission of the proposed FY2025 budget, and until May 3, the oversight board and the government will hold various meetings to revise the budget. The Legislature must

candidacy for re-election.

Cruz Maldonado said Irizarry Pabón will be sued in court to comply with the agreement.

“This unilateral action denotes lack of words, indiscipline and a challenge to the decisions of the institution, revealing his personal interest above those of the Popular Democratic Party,” Cruz Maldonado said at a press conference. “Given that Dr. Irizarry Pabón informed us that he will renounce his candidacy, the Popular Democratic Party will officially be going to court to enforce the agreement and maintain order in the institution. The regulations of the Popular Democratic Party in its articles 6 and 7 establish the obligation of each [PDP] member to comply with the agreements that are signed and contracted with our institution. Without exception, no one can violate these agreements.”

“The Electoral Code, even, recognizes the power of a political party to go to court to remove an applicant or a candidate who, after having been certified by his party, violates its regulations,” he added.

Cruz Maldonado said he will present the legal appeal before Friday. Consequently, the defendant would have a period of some 10 days to file an opposing petition.

The preliminary hearing in a public corruption case against Irizarry Pabón will continue on March 14 and 15.

submit to the board a revised budget by June 26 so it can be voted on by June 30.

The oversight board has estimated General Fund revenues at $13 billion and other types of revenues at $5.2 billion. In addition to complying with the FY2025 revenue forecast provided, the board expects the government’s March 25 submission of the proposed FY2025 budget to follow certain agency payroll and operating expenditure targets.

The oversight board said payroll targets include the current estimated impact of Act 80 of 2020 with reductions made to applicable agencies based on roster data provided by the government. The additional pension expense related to Act 80 is reflected in the “PayGo” expense line for the General Fund and Special Revenue Fund with incremental Pension Reserve Trust contributions captured within the respective agency targets, the board said.

Suspended Ponce Mayor Luis Manuel Irizarry Pabón

House Treasury Committee Chairman Jesús Santa Rodríguez

Teachers Assn. to sponsor human ribbon against gender violence on International Women’s Day

By THE STAR STAFF

The Puerto Rico Teachers Association (AMPR by its Spanish initials), along with a group of men and women committed to an anti-gender violence educational process, will make a citizens’ call on Friday, March 8, International Women’s Day, to send a message about the importance of education in stopping violence against women.

To that end, a human ribbon will be formed by the people who meet that day, dressed in violet shirts, on the grounds of El Morro in Old San Juan at 10 a.m.

“Well, we want to inform all the people of Puerto Rico that the Puerto Rico Teachers Association has inserted itself into this call to celebrate the bond of love against sexist violence,” AMPR President Víctor Manuel Bonilla Sánchez said Wednesday at a press conference, where he noted that the island’s schools are “the beginning of at least … seeing this problem, which is not just [a concern] of the judiciary, of the government, but also an initiative of the Department of Education to be able to eradicate this evil that at this time is of great importance in our society.”

152 compared to the same period in 2023, and there were 19 femicides.

Lisdel Flores Barger, the executive director of the Ruth Home for Battered Women, pointed out that “for us at the Ruth Home it is an excellent initiative, it is an initiative to raise awareness on a mass level.”

“It breaks the paradigms of what we are used to doing, which are the traditional marches, … the claims of inequality, of inequality toward women,” she said. “It breaks away from that same pattern to bring a message of solidarity, of love, of awareness so that then, boys and girls begin to ask, from an early age, why this effort is being created, what is the importance of this effort. So, creating that awareness among children and adults, I think it’s an excellent way to start talking about the issue from all sectors.”

Erika García Santiago, a teacher at Pablo D. Burgos Marrero school in Corozal and a member of the AMPR board of directors, stressed that “it is necessary to delve into this issue through education in schools, families, churches, communities and the media, in order to cultivate love and promote peace.”

“Our aspiration as a country should be to have an education that builds relationships of respect, equality and cooperation between genders, that strengthens a culture of human rights and that does not validate or reproduce

stereotypes, prejudices and inequities,” she said.

Bonilla Sánchez added that since its foundation, the AMPR has promoted the teaching of equity and respect as vehicles to address social inequalities and end the different forms of discrimination, as well as the paradigms of superiority that often occur in some social groups.

“The Teachers Association has historically been involved in all the struggles that we as a country have undertaken to achieve a more equitable and just society,” he said.

Currently, Puerto Rico is going through one of its worst periods of sexist violence. In January of this year alone, 423 cases of domestic violence were registered, an increase of

Dr. Irma Lugo Nazario, a recognized leader of the feminist movement in Puerto Rico, added that “today we announce the Ribbon of Love against sexist violence, to be carried out during the International Women’s Day, to denounce the different manifestations of violence that women experience, here and in all parts of the world, …”

“It is also a space for reflection that seeks to raise awareness about how violence impacts and affects our personal, family, community and social lives,” she said.

The Ribbon of Love Against Sexist Violence will begin in front of the School of Studio Arts with the animation of Cordelia González, Anibelle Sloan and the participation of several pacifist leaders from various sectors.

In charge of the design will be students from the Community Design Workshop of the University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture, under the direction of Prof. Elio Martínez Joffre.

Rodríguez Aguiló denies discrimination toward PDP towns in roadwork

By THE STAR STAFF

Rep. Gabriel Rodríguez Aguiló insisted Wednesday that the roads in his district have been attended to in the current four-year period without regard for political colors.

With that statement, the New Progressive Party (NPP) legislator confronted Villalba Mayor Luis Javier Hernández Ortiz, who had alleged in recent days that the central government was discriminating against Popular Democratic Party (PDP)-run municipalities on the issue of road repairs.

The NPP leader attributed the PDP mayor’s statements to the fact that he is seeking to raise his image going into a PDP primary in mid-March.

“So the district’s roads have been attended to without looking at the [political party] colors,” Rodríguez Aguiló said. “I can tell you that as a

representative, when Alejandro García Padilla was governor, the asphalt reached as far as Vega Baja, they jumped to Manatí, they reached Barceloneta, they jumped to Arecibo, which was from Carlos Molina, the mayor, and continued to Hatillo.”

“There was total discrimination against the municipalities of the New Progressive Party,” he said. “But I am telling you, not five gallons of asphalt; that is, not even a voucher for asphalt for five years.”

Rodríguez Aguiló said the then-PDP central government administration ignored the pleas of NPP officials.

“This is a matter for the mayor of Villalba because he is in a political race to preside over the Popular Democratic Party, which has a primary on March 16, and he is looking to be the movie hero to get votes for that primary …” he said.

Puerto Rico Teachers Association President Víctor Manuel Bonilla Sánchez

Rep. Gabriel Rodríguez Aguiló

In long-awaited testimony, Hunter Biden assails GOP impeachment inquiry

Boxes of documents are brought into the room for the closed-door deposition of Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, conducted by House Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday morning, Feb. 28, 2024. Republicans’ deposition of Hunter Biden comes at a make-or-break moment in their impeachment investigation of his father.

(Kenny Holston/The New York Times)

By LUKE BROADWATER

Hunter Biden, the president’s son, blasted House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry during a closeddoor deposition Wednesday, condemning their investigation as a “partisan political pursuit” that was based on a “false premise” and fueled by “lies.”

Conducted in an office building on Capitol Hill, the interview was the latest bid by Republicans to unearth evidence that President Joe Biden was inappropriately involved in his son’s foreign business dealings. So far, their impeachment investigation has turned up no proof.

Hunter Biden, 54, made clear in his opening statement, a copy of which was

obtained by The New York Times, that he planned to cede no ground to the GOP.

“You have trafficked in innuendo, distortion and sensationalism — all the while ignoring the clear and convincing evidence staring you in the face,” Biden said in the prepared remarks. “You do not have evidence to support the baseless and MAGA-motivated conspiracies about my father because there isn’t any.”

“I did not involve my father in my business,” Biden said. “Not while I was a practicing lawyer, not in my investments or transactions domestic or international, not as a board member and not as an artist. Never.”

The interview, which was expected to last all day and into the evening, came at a make-or-break moment for the inquiry. Re-

publicans have sought for months to tie Joe Biden to the alleged misdeeds of his secondborn son, but they have struggled with a series of setbacks, including the indictment of an FBI informant accused of making up a story that the elder Biden took a $5 million bribe.

In his opening statement, Hunter Biden mocked the way Republicans have relied on accused criminals to build the case against his father.

“Rather than follow the facts as they have been laid out before you in bank records, financial statements, correspondence and other witness testimony, you continue your frantic search to prove the lies you, and those you rely on, keep peddling,” he said. “Yes, they are lies.”

The deposition is the culmination of a multiyear Republican pursuit of Hunter Biden, whose business dealings and descent into debauchery have long made him a punching bag for the GOP. After years of asking “Where’s Hunter?” and spreading the lurid contents of a laptop that contained graphic material of his exploits while he struggled with drug addiction, Republicans finally have their chance to question him.

The interview also was a major moment in the drawn-out feud between Republicans and Biden about whether he would cooperate in the impeachment inquiry. He had refused repeatedly to sit for a private deposition, and Republicans threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress for defying an earlier subpoena to do so.

Biden had maintained that he was worried that House Republicans would selectively leak portions of his testimony to misrepresent his account and try to harm his father. He made two surprise appearances on Capitol Hill in which he challenged Republicans to question him at a public hearing. But after the contempt threat, Biden relented.

Hunter Biden is already under federal indictment over accusations of tax crimes related to his overseas business interests, including with companies and partners in Ukraine and China. Testifying is a risk because anything he says could be used against him in the criminal case.

Republicans have determined through bank records that from 2014 to 2019, Biden family members received about $15 million through business deals from foreign entities. But they have yet to show that any of the deals were illegal, or that the elder Biden benefited from them.

House Republicans have uncovered evidence that the elder Biden was aware of and met some of his son’s business partners, raising questions about whether some of the president’s public statements about the deals were intentionally misleading. But a key witness also testified that such conversations were superficial in nature, extending only to niceties like the weather or fishing.

In his opening statement, Hunter Biden acknowledged making “mistakes in my life, and I have squandered opportunities and privileges that were afforded to me.” But he said his mistakes and shortcomings “are my own and not my father’s.”

“During my battle with addiction, my father was there for me,” he said. “He helped save my life. His love and support made it possible for me to get sober, stay sober and rebuild my life as a father, husband, son and brother.”

Last week, Republicans interviewed another key Biden family member, the president’s brother James, but that testimony did not produce the bombshell revelations the GOP sought. James Biden told investigators that his older brother was not involved in any of the business deals in which he and Hunter Biden were partners.

McConnell to step down as leader at the end of the year

By CARL HULSE

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the longtime top Senate Republican, said Wednesday that he would give up his spot as the party’s leader at the end of this year, acknowledging that his Reaganite national security views had put him out of step with a party now headed by former President Donald Trump.

“Believe me, I know the politics within my party at this particular time,” McConnell, who turned 82 last week, said in a speech on the Senate floor announcing his intentions. “I have many faults. Misunderstanding politics is not one of them.”

His decision, reported earlier by The Associated Press, was not a surprise. McConnell suffered a serious fall last year and

experienced some episodes in which he momentarily froze in front of the media. He has also faced rising resistance within his ranks for his push to provide continued military assistance to Ukraine as well as his close-tothe-vest leadership style.

McConnell had said earlier that he would serve out his full Senate term ending in 2027 but had been more opaque about

whether he would try to remain leader after the November elections. His announcement followed a White House meeting Tuesday during which he strongly advocated congressional passage of a foreign aid bill that includes more than $60 billion in aid for Ukraine and urged Speaker Mike Johnson to put the proposal on the House floor.

Johnson floats short-term spending bill to avert partial shutdown

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) appears at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. Johnson is floating another short-term stopgap spending bill to head off a partial government shutdown looming on March 1, offering a temporary path out of a stalemate that has repeatedly threatened federal funding over the past six months. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)

By CATIE EDMONDSON

House Speaker Mike Johnson is floating another short-term stopgap spending bill to head off a partial government shutdown at the end of the week, offering a temporary path out of a stalemate that has repeatedly threatened federal funding over the past six months.

His proposal would extend funding for some government agencies for a week, through March 8, and the rest for another two weeks, until March 22. It would be contingent on congressional leaders finalizing an emerging bipartisan agreement on six of the 12 annual spending bills.

And it would leave time for top lawmakers to negotiate the other six measures, and then try to pass the spending bills individually before the next set of deadlines to fund the government. That would be a tall order in the House, which has struggled to pass spending legislation amid Republican divisions.

Any stopgap bill “would be part of a larger agreement to finish a number of appropriations bills, ensuring adequate time for drafting text and for members to review prior to casting votes,” said Athina Lawson, a spokesperson for Johnson, R-La.

Congressional leaders hoped to finalize the plan as early as Wednesday, leaving time for quick votes in both chambers

before the midnight deadline Friday.The details were reported earlier by Punchbowl News.

“We continue to make very good progress on an agreement, and we are very close to getting it done,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, said Wednesday morning. He added later, “I’m hopeful that the four leaders can reach this agreement very soon so we can not only avoid a shutdown on Friday, but get closer to finishing the appropriations process altogether.”

The proposal offers glimmers of hope for staving off a shutdown in the immediate term, but would only punt resolution of a spending stalemate that has gripped Congress for months, as Republicans bent on steep cuts and conservative policy mandates refuse to accept a deal with Democrats. It comes after a meeting at the White House on Tuesday in which President Joe Biden and congressional leaders from both parties escalated pressure on Johnson to accept a spending deal. Top Democrats and Republicans emerged saying they were optimistic about keeping the government funded.

“We believe that we can get to agreement on these issues and prevent a government shutdown,” Johnson said after the meeting, which was followed by a brief one-on-one talk between him and Biden.

The spending showdown that has brought the government to the brink of a partial shutdown this week has been fueled by congressional Republicans, who, after failing in their efforts to slash federal funding, have fought to tie it to a number of right-wing policy dictates.

The proposal floated by Johnson suggests that appropriators believe they are close to resolving some of the policy disagreements they had been litigating in recent days. Johnson told Republicans over the weekend during a conference call that they should not expect the inclusion of many of their major policy priorities, but that he expected to secure a number of smaller victories.

Among the measures that Republicans have sought are one that would restrict access to abortion medication and another to restrict the Department of Veterans Affairs from flagging veterans deemed mentally incompetent in a federal background check needed to buy a gun. They also have tried to block an effort by Democrats to increase funding for nutrition programs for low-income women and children.

Michigan primary takeaways: ‘Uncommitted’ makes itself heard

By REID J. EPSTEIN and SHANE GOLDMACHER

Joe Biden and Donald Trump won Michigan’s primary elections Tuesday as the president and his predecessor hurtle toward a rematch in November.

But the results showed some of the fragility of the political coalitions they have constructed in a critical state for the fall. Losing any slice of support is perilous for Biden and Trump. Biden won

Michigan in 2020 by about 150,000 votes, and Trump carried it in 2016 by about 11,000 votes.

The results of the primaries Tuesday carried extra weight because Michigan was the first state that is a top general-election battleground to hold its primary in 2024.

Here are four takeaways from the results:

‘Uncommitted’ succeeded in grabbing Biden’s attention.

When the movement to persuade Democrats

to vote “uncommitted” began three weeks ago, its public goal was clear: Pile enough pressure on Biden that he would call for an unconditional cease-fire in Gaza.

Since then, top White House officials told Arab American leaders in Dearborn, Michigan, that they had regrets over how the administration had responded to the crisis. Biden called Israel’s military action “over the top.” And on the eve of the primary, he said he hoped a cease-fire agree-

ment would be in place within a week. (The view from Israel and Gaza suggested Biden was being a bit optimistic.)

And yet the strength of the “uncommitted” effort surprised the president’s campaign, which until this week didn’t anticipate the strength of anti-Biden sentiment among Michigan Democrats.

In the early hours of Wednesday, roughly

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A voter after casting their ballot at a polling location inside the Southfield City Centre in Southfield, Mich., on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. (Emily Elconin/ The New York Times)

From page 7

13% of primary voters had chosen “uncommitted” — a share that paled next to Biden’s 81%, but represented more than 75,000 people in Michigan who made the effort to lodge their disapproval of the president.

The movement is now likely to spread to other states, many of which have an option for voters to choose “uncommitted” or “no preference” in their primaries. Listen to Michigan, the group that kicked off the state’s protest vote, is holding an organizing call for supporters in Minnesota, which votes next week, and Washington state, which holds its primary March 12.

“This is the only option we have to enact democracy in this moment,” said Asma Mohammed, a progressive activist who is among the leaders of a new group called Uncommitted Minnesota. “We are against a Trump presidency, and we also want Biden to be better. If that means pushing him to his limit, that is what it will take.”

Both front-runners have clear vulnerabilities.

Trump has long been the heavy favorite to become the Republican nominee. Biden left little doubt that he would run again for Democrats.

Yet tens of thousands of Michiganders in both parties voted against their standardbearers Tuesday, a stark rejection that suggests they could have problems stitching together a winning coalition in November. The saving grace for each man, as Karl Rove, the former top strategist for George W. Bush, vividly put it recently, is that “only one can lose.”

Part of the reason Michigan’s results appear more damaging to Biden than Trump is the matter of expectations.

Haley has been campaigning against Trump for months, and her share of the Republican electorate has gone down from New

The San Juan Daily Star

Hampshire to South Carolina to Michigan.

But Biden cruised through his first two primaries in South Carolina and Nevada before a loosely organized group of Arab American political operatives, with $200,000 and three weeks to spare, won enough support that their effort is likely to clinch delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

“If the White House is listening, if our congressional leaders are listening, if our state leaders are listening, we need a change of course or we risk the complete unraveling of American democracy come November,” Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said.

Biden needs to keep an eye on college towns.

It was not surprising to see “uncommitted” beat Biden in Dearborn and Hamtramck, two of the Michigan cities with the highest concentrations of Arab Americans. With nearly all ballots counted, Dearborn gave 56% of its Democratic primary vote to “uncommitted.” In Hamtramck, “uncommitted” drew 61% of the city’s Democratic vote.

Perhaps more worrisome for Biden was his performance in Ann Arbor, a college town 30 miles to the west.

There, where most students and faculty members at the University of Michigan live, “uncommitted” earned 19% of the vote. In East Lansing, home to Michigan State University, “uncommitted” got 15% of the vote.

While no other battleground states have Arab American communities the size of Michigan’s, they all have college towns where young, progressive voters are angry about American support for Israel.

Nikki Haley’s still in it, but she’s not going to win it.

Donald Trump won — again. Nikki Haley lost — again.

At one point in the nominating calendar, the Michigan primary had the potential to be a brief but notable way station between the four first states and Super Tuesday.

But the lopsided results offered more of the same, with Trump dominating everywhere in Michigan and Haley on track for her weakest showing since the race narrowed to two candidates. She marches on, with planned rallies and fundraisers in seven states and Washington, D.C., before Super Tuesday on March 5.

February was about momentum, and Trump has all of it. March is about delegates, and he has most of those, too.

For women undergoing IVF in Alabama, what now?

By EDUARDO MEDINA

Natalie Brumfield, 41, cried as she read about the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that embryos in test tubes should be considered children. A mother of seven, including two babies conceived through in vitro fertilization, Brumfield felt that one of her cherished beliefs as a Christian had been affirmed: Life, she said, begins when embryos form.

Emily Capilouto, 36, also cried because of the ruling, but her tears were prompted by despair. She had struggled for years to have a child. Now she was nearing the end of an IVF cycle, when one of the embryos she and her husband had produced would be transferred to her uterus. But last week, she learned that her clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham health system was halting IVF treatments in response to the ruling.

“I don’t know what this means now,” Capilouto said last Wednesday, minutes after learning that her dream of having a child would be indefinitely suspended.

Questions like hers are echoing across the country after the court’s ruling, which was handed down Feb. 16. The potential national implications remain unclear, but many women in Alabama are wondering how this new classification for embryos — one rooted in a religious belief — will affect their own journeys toward motherhood, a process that for many who seek IVF is already filled with emotional and physical pain.

In interviews last Wednesday, a number of women in Alabama who recently underwent in vitro fertilization or were in the middle of treatment said that they felt abruptly stuck in limbo.

Some who recently had children through IVF said that they were afraid to do anything with their extra embryos from the process, which are stored frozen in facilities across the state.

Others wondered whether they would now have to pay a significant amount of money to keep their embryos in permanent storage, even those with chromosomal abnormalities that would lead to a miscarriage if transplanted. And they asked, would disposing of unused embryos, or even moving them out of state, lead to criminal charges?

“To declare embryos children is to dismiss what people go through to hold a baby in their arms,” said Veronica Wehby-Upchurch, 41, who has one son and two frozen embryos in storage. “An embryo in a dish is not even

the start line, and a pink line in a pregnancy test isn’t the finish line.”

Wehby-Upchurch, who lives in Homewood, Alabama, said she had half-joked with friends who also went through IVF about whether she should now list her frozen embryos on her income tax return and her health insurance. Because of the court ruling, she said, “the questions aren’t crazy.”

Women who hold anti-abortion views, like Brumfield, said the ruling reflected the values laid out in Proverbs 31-8: “Speak up for those who have no voice,” Brumfield said, adding that she was relieved that the decision would prevent embryos from being destroyed.

The irony, some women said, is that the ruling, whose consequences fertility clinics are still assessing, has forced many couples to pause their IVF treatments and suspend their ticket to parenthood. The University of Alabama at Birmingham said in a statement Wednesday that it was halting the procedures to “evaluate the potential that our patients and our physicians could be prosecuted criminally or face punitive damages for following the standard of care for IVF treatments.”

Another provider, Alabama Fertility Specialists in Mountain Brook, outside Birmingham, said Thursday said that it would not offer “new IVF treatments due to the legal risk to our clinic and our embryologists.”

Kayla Lee, 33, of Birmingham, said she spent nine years, $80,000 and dozens of hours at doctors’ offices trying to have a child. After several miscarriages, she was a few days away from finally having a viable embryo transferred. But on Tuesday night, Lee received a jolting call.

The doctor from Lee’s clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham said that IVF treatments had to be put on hold because of the ruling.

“I’m so sorry,” the doctor told Lee, who held the phone to her cheek and cried, fuming that a court decision seeking to protect lives had caused her to lose her chance at creating one, at least for now.

“This is my life. This is my body,” Lee said, her voice breaking. She added, “It’s not our fault that we can’t reproduce without assistance.”

Kate Choban Gilbreath, 37, who lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico, said she had completed her in vitro treatments at the Center for Reproductive Medicine at Mobile Infirmary. That was where the plaintiffs in the Alabama court case — several couples who had gone through IVF — had embryos stored until a hospital patient removed them from tanks of

liquid nitrogen and dropped them on the floor, destroying them.

The majority opinion in the case said that a state statute allowing parents to sue over the wrongful death of a child also applies to “unborn children.”

The center announced Thursday that it, too, would halt IVF treatments, starting Saturday.

Gilbreath, who has an 8-month-old daughter, said she signed paperwork late last year granting the center in Mobile permission to dispose of her remaining embryos, and now felt as if she had dodged the dilemma that other couples are now facing.

Gilbreath and many of the other women interviewed for this article said that while they felt angry about the court ruling, they also felt enormous empathy for the couples involved in the case.

“That’s horrific, that someone stumbled into storage and destroyed their embryos,” said Julie Cohen, 38, of Mountain Brook. While she felt very attached to her own embryos, she added, “all of my embryos are the potential of babies, but they’re not babies yet.”

Cohen said she felt terrified about the ruling and the questions that couples could soon face, over issues like what rights they have over their embryos.

AshLeigh Dunham, a lawyer in Birmingham who specializes in cases involving assisted reproductive technology recently had

a daughter through IVF treatment. Dunham said that her clients who were interested in socalled embryo adoption — acquiring embryos from couples who produced them through IVF but did not use them — had phoned her in a panic this week, asking questions that no one quite knows the answers to yet. Will Alabama allow embryos to be sent out of state? Are fertility clinics still going to want to operate in Alabama?

“We’re losing doctors. We’re losing clinics. We’re losing research,” Dunham said. “And the ones who may possibly afford it, they’re going to go elsewhere.”

Even so, Brumfield said her state was heading in the right direction. She viewed her daughter Eloise, 4, as evidence that preserving all embryos was worthwhile. Her embryo had been given a poor grade, she said, but had nonetheless developed into a fetus and eventually a healthy child, whom Brumfield called “my strongest baby ever.”

Capilouto said she was afraid she would not have another chance to become a mother through IVF in Alabama.

On Wednesday, when she found out her treatment was halted, she dropped to the ground in distress and called her mother, who had gone through IVF in the ’80s and then decided to adopt Capilouto after the treatment did not work.

“We’ll find a way,” her mother said on the phone. “I’m sorry it has to be so hard.”

The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Women & Infants Center, which halted in vitro fertilization procedures after a state Supreme Court’s ruling that embryos in test tubes should be considered children, on Feb. 22, 2024. (Charity Rachelle/ The New York Times)

Starbucks and union agree to work out framework for contract talks

By NOAM SCHEIBER

Starbucks and the union that represents employees in roughly 400 of its U.S. stores announced earlier this week that they were beginning discussions on a “foundational framework” that would help the company reach labor agreements with unionized workers and resolve litigation between the two sides.

The union greeted the development as a major shift in strategy for Starbucks, which has taken steps to resist union organizing at the company since the campaign began in 2021, moves that federal labor regulators have said violated labor law hundreds of times.

Starbucks, which has denied the accusations, said in a statement that it hoped to have contracts negotiated and ratified by the end of the year and would agree to a “fair process for organizing” — something the union has demanded for years. It said that, as a gesture of good faith, it was providing unionized workers with benefits it introduced in 2022 but withheld from union stores, such as an option for customers to tip via credit card.

Starbucks workers and their supporters during a walkout in Seattle on Nov. 15, 2023. Before Tuesday, the company had sent mixed signals about its willingness to engage with labor organizers. (Grant Hindsley/The New York Times)

Representatives of Starbucks and the union, Workers United, said that while details must be worked out, they hoped to be back at the bargaining table in the coming weeks. Negotiations between the two sides had largely lapsed over the past several months.

Workers who have helped lead the organizing said the development had surprised them. “It still feels pretty surreal right now,” said Michelle Eisen, a longtime barista at a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, that was the first company-owned store to unionize during the current campaign. “There has not been a single call I’ve been on today where either I wasn’t crying or everyone else wasn’t crying.”

If a framework is agreed to and quickly leads to contracts,

experts said, it could be a major development in labor relations in corporate America, where companies including Amazon and Apple have resisted union organizing to varying degrees.

“If Starbucks genuinely intends to respect workers’ right to organize, stop its intimidation and harassment of pro-union workers, and engage in real good-faith bargaining, this is a huge step forward,” John Logan, a professor at San Francisco State University who is an expert on how companies respond to union campaigns, said in an email.

But Logan said he wanted to withhold judgment on the value of the framework until details were available. “There’s plenty of reason to be cautious: Over the past 2.5 years, the

company has engaged in one of the most aggressive and unlawful anti-union campaigns in modern history,” he said.

The shift appears to have been driven by Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan, who took over nearly a year ago.

Narasimhan’s predecessor, Howard Schultz, told The New York Times in 2022 that he could not imagine ever embracing the union. He remains a large shareholder in Starbucks but is no longer on its board of directors.

Former executives who have spoken with Narasimhan have said he is less resistant to the union.

The company announced in December that it was seeking to restart contract bargaining, and Narasimhan sent out a conciliatory message soon after indicating that the company wanted to improve its relationship with employees, whom it calls partners.

“Our goal next year is to further reinvigorate our partner culture,” Narasimhan wrote, adding that “it is time to restitch the fabric of the green apron for all partners.”

People on both sides said the breakthrough — including an agreement on broad principles — came about during mediation last week to resolve lawsuits between the union and the company.

Workers at more than 20 stores had filed petitions to unionize their stores one day last week — the most ever in one day, according to the union — reflecting the persistence of the campaign.

Unaddressed in the discussions so far is a dissident campaign for three seats on the Starbucks board backed by a coalition of unions that includes the parent of Workers United. Shareholders can vote on the candidates until the company’s annual meeting in mid-March if no compromise is reached before, but the framework announcement could diminish the rationale for a change in the eyes of many investors.

Toyota recalls more than 600,000 trucks and SUVs over safety concerns

By AIMEE ORTIZ

More than 600,000 Toyota pickup trucks and SUVs in the United States were voluntarily recalled over the past week because of different issues that could increase the risk of crashes, the vehicle manufacturer said.

The first announcement, on Feb. 21, stated that about 280,000 vehicles, including certain Toyota Tundra, Tundra Hybrid and Lexus LX600 vehicles from the model years 2022-24 and Sequoia Hybrid vehicles issued from 2023-24, were recalled because “certain parts of the transmission may not immediately disengage when the vehicle is shifted to the neutral position,” Toyota said in a statement.

The defect “can allow some engine power to continue to

be transferred to the wheels and can allow the vehicle to inadvertently creep forward at a low speed when it is on a flat surface and no brakes are applied, leading to an increased risk of a crash,” Toyota said.

A defect information report posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website said that affected vehicles could “inadvertently creep forward at a low speed (up to approximately 4 mph).”

The second recall, announced Tuesday, affected roughly 381,000 Toyota Tacoma pickup trucks from 2022 and 2023, according to the company.

Toyota said in a statement that welding debris left on the ends of the rear-axle assembly could “cause nuts to loosen over time and eventually fall off, potentially causing a part to separate

from the axle.

“If separation occurs, this can affect vehicle stability and brake performance, increasing the risk of a crash,” Toyota said.

Amanda Roark, a spokesperson for Toyota, said in an email that only the Tacoma model from 2022 and 2023 is “affected by this recall.”

“If the vehicle is operated with loosened nuts, the driver may experience a vibration, hear an abnormal noise, and/or observe leaking of differential oil,” she said.

Toyota declined to comment on whether any of the issues that prompted the recalls had led to any crashes or injuries.

Owners of the affected vehicles will be notified of the recalls by late April, Toyota said, and they should go to their local dealerships for the appropriate repairs.

Wall St retreats as investors brace for inflation data

Wall Street’s main indexes slipped on Wednesday ahead of an inflation reading later in the week that would influence expectations about when the U.S. Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates.

The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge due on Thursday, is likely to show prices rose on a monthly basis in January.

Stocks have struggled in the days leading up to the report after a scorching rally in the previous week that was fueled by euphoria around the potential for artificial intelligence (AI).

“We’re in a little bit of a digestion period where people are willing to take some profits,” said Dennis Dick, a trader at Triple D Trading.

“If we start to see inflation start to take higher, that could put the Fed’s rate cuts further down the road, and the market is not going to like that at all.”

Evidence of sticky inflation, a robust U.S. economy and pushback from some Fed officials have already led traders to delay bets of the first interest rate cut to June from March.

Data on Wednesday confirmed the U.S. economy grew at a solid clip in the fourth quarter amid strong consumer spending but it appears to have lost some speed early in the new year.

Jobless claims and manufacturing activity data are due in the coming days and the readings will be parsed for further clues on the strength of the economy and the outlook for interest rates.

Investor focus was also on comments from Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic and New York Fed chief John Williams expected later in the day.

At 11:25 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), opens new tab was down 73.81 points, or 0.19%, at 38,898.60, the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab was down 4.27 points, or 0.08%, at 5,073.91, and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), opens new tab was down 47.64 points, or 0.30%, at 15,987.66.

Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sub-indexes were in the red, with communication services (.SPLRCL), opens new tab leading declines as Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab dropped 1.9%.

UnitedHealth (UNH.N), opens new tab was the top decliner on the S&P 500, down 4.8% after a report on Tuesday said the U.S. Department of Justice has launched an antitrust investigation into the healthcare conglomerate.

Semiconductor equipment supplier Applied Materials (AMAT.O), opens new tab slid 2.4% following a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February.

Beyond Meat (BYND.O), opens new tab surged 45.9% as plant-based meat maker placed its bets on price hikes and steep cost cuts to turn around its battered margins, triggering a squeeze on its highly shorted shares.

E-commerce platform eBay (EBAY.O), opens new tab added 8.5% as quarterly results beat expectations, while Bumble (BMBL.O), opens new tab fell 11.2% on a disappointing first-quarter revenue forecast.

Shares of major cryptocurrency firms Coinbase Global (COIN.O), opens new tab and Marathon Digital (MARA.O), opens new tab climbed 4.6% and 7.2% respectively as bitcoin

surged past $61,000.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.07-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.33-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

Seeking to unsettle Russia, Macron provokes allies

By ROGER COHEN

With his jolting unexpected statement that sending Western troops to Ukraine “should not be ruled out,” President Emmanuel Macron of France has shattered a taboo, ignited debate, spread dismay among allies and forced a reckoning on Europe’s future.

For an embattled leader who loathes lazy thinking, longs for a Europe of military strength and loves the limelight, this was typical enough. It was Macron, after all, who in 2019 described NATO as suffering from “brain death” and who last year warned Europe against becoming America’s strategic “vassal.”

But bold pronouncements are one thing and patiently putting the pieces in place to attain those objectives another. Macron has often favored provocation over preparation, even if he often has a point, as in arguing since 2017 that Europe needed to bolster its defense industry to attain greater strategic heft.

Pedestrians view photographs of fallen Ukrainian soldiers on a wall outside St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024. From the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, the West has sought to contain the conflict in Ukraine and avoid a shooting war between Russia and NATO that could escalate into a nuclear standoff. (Brendan Hoffman/The New York Times)

This week was no exception. By lurching forward without building consensus among allies, Macron may have done more to illustrate Western divisions and the limits of how far NATO allies are willing to go in defense of Ukraine than achieve the “strategic ambiguity” he says is needed to keep President Vladimir Putin of Russia guessing.

Macron’s provocation looked in part like a quest for relevance at a time when he is isolated at home and has appeared a marginal figure in the war between Israel and Hamas. France has played a central role in coordinating European Union aid to Ukraine, including a $54 billion program to support Ukraine approved this month, but its own aid contribution lags behind Germany, Britain and the United States.

Still, for Macron, the case for “acting differently” in Ukraine, as he put it Monday after a meeting in Paris of leaders and officials from 27 countries, mostly European, is overwhelming.

From the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, the West has sought to contain the conflict in Ukraine and avoid a shooting war between Russia and NATO that could escalate into a nuclear standoff. Hence the hesitation of his allies.

But containment has obvious limitations that have left Ukraine struggling to hold the line against a larger Russian force. Russia has recently taken territory on the eastern front, Ukraine lacks the weapons and ammunition it needs, uncertainty surrounds U.S. support for the war in an election year, and nobody knows where an emboldened Putin will stop. Given all this, more of the same seems unserious to France.

“The defeat of Russia is indispensable to the security and stability of Europe,” Macron said, dispensing with the cautious Russia-must-not-win formulation favored by the United States and Germany.

Behind the French president’s words lurked exasperation with the apparent strategic impunity afforded to Putin by the West.

“The positive thing is that Macron is trying to introduce a balance of power, and so dissuasion, with Russia: Tell Putin that we are ready for anything, so you should be worried; we won’t give up,” said Nicole Bacharan, a social scientist and expert on the United States at Sciences Po University.

But she also pointed to a cumulative problem for Macron: the lack of credibility of a leader who has been on a tortuous wartime strategic journey.

It began with his attempt to involve Russia in a new European “architecture of security” in 2019, despite the Russian annexation of Crimea five years earlier. This was followed by his statement in 2022 that “we must not humiliate Russia,” and the long exercise in futility of repeated phone calls to Putin in the months after the Russian leader’s full-scale invasion.

Now it has culminated with the French president in the vanguard of defiance of Putin, and in effusive concert with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, his erstwhile critic. Zelenskyy praised Macron’s idea Wednesday, saying such initiatives “are good for the whole world.”

No wonder some Europeans are rubbing their eyes. “He gives the impulse, but people don’t feel they can trust him to be consistent,” Bacharan said. Even states that agree with Macron’s analysis may hesitate in the face of his volatility.

Certainly his openness to sending troops was unexpected. In the short term, at least, the result appears to have been more strategic bafflement than “strategic ambiguity.”

His gambit presented Russia with an image of allied division as countries from the United States to Sweden rejected the deployment of troops. It also underlined Franco-German differences on the war as Chancellor Olaf Scholz not only ruled out German forces but any “ground troops from European countries or NATO.”

“A disaster,” the influential German magazine Der Spiegel said of the differences between the two leaders.

Macron’s mocking denunciation of repeated delays and reversals in Western policy to Ukraine — “never, never tanks, never, never planes, never, never long-range missiles” — appeared particularly provocative to Germany, in that France has been among those saying no before saying yes.

When France and Germany are at odds, Europe tends to stall, the very thing Macron does not want in his now almost seven-year quest for greater European “strategic autonomy” from the United States.

Macron’s vision for an independent European defense appears timelier than ever with Europeans anxious over the possible return to the White House of Donald Trump — and with him, per Trump’s own telling, a possible wink to Russia to do its worst. The heavy Ukrainian reliance on the United States for weapons has underscored Europe’s ongoing dependence on Washington as the 75th anniversary of NATO approaches this year.

Yet because front-line states with Russia want America’s continued presence, Macron has found it hard to sway Europe toward greater independence.

Still, nobody answered the fundamental question Macron has posed: how to stop Russia’s advance and a Ukrainian defeat that would threaten freedom and open societies across Europe.

“Macron eventually understood that dialogue with Russia will go nowhere, and increasing cyberattacks on France and other states convinced him that Putin will not stop in Ukraine,” said Nicolas Tenzer, a political scientist who has long argued for the dispatch of Western troops to Ukraine. “NATO’s credibility and Europe itself are at risk.”

In this sense, as Russia advances and a $60 billion U.S. aid package to Ukraine is held up in Congress by Republican opposition, Macron may have forced a necessary reassessment, especially given the possibility of Trump’s reelection.

“Should we delegate our future to the American voter?” Macron asked. “My response is no, whatever this voter decides.”

Doubling down on Macron’s statement, despite the furor it has caused, a senior official close to him said Tuesday that “we comfort Mr. Putin in his impression that we are weak when we write checks, make statements, send artillery and produce shells, but above all do not want to take any risk ourselves.”

At the same time, said the official, who requested anonymity in keeping with French diplomatic protocol, France remains committed to avoiding “a confrontation between the Alliance and Russia.”

What exactly France has in mind is unclear, but it appears likely that any troops would be sent for purposes that “do not cross the threshold of belligerence,” as Stéphane Séjourné, the foreign minister, put it to the National Assembly.

Among these purposes: demining, training and assistance in local production of weapons appear possible, all with the aim of defending against further Russian advances but without participation in any offensive Ukrainian action.

Of course, Russia will define Western “belligerence” on its own terms. The Kremlin has already warned that Macron has introduced “a very important new element” that could lead to a direct clash of Russian forces and NATO.

Hamas rejects cease-fire proposal, dashing Biden’s hopes of near term deal

By AARON BOXERMAN, HWAIDA SAAD, RAJA ABDULRAHIM and MICHAEL LEVENSON

Hamas officials said earlier this week that there had been no breakthrough in the mediated talks with Israel aimed at pausing the war and freeing the remaining hostages in the Gaza Strip, one day after President Joe Biden said he was hopeful that a cease-fire would be in place by next week.

Basem Naim, a Hamas spokesperson, said in a text message that the militant group had yet to formally receive “any new proposals” since senior Israeli officials met with Qatari, Egyptian and U.S. mediators in Paris last week to advance a possible deal.

Another Hamas official, Ahmad Abdelhadi, said the group was sticking to its demand that Israel agree to a longterm cease-fire and that leaks about the talks were designed to pressure Hamas to soften its position.

“We are not interested in engaging with what’s been floated, because it does not fulfill our demands,” Abdelhadi said Tuesday in a televised interview with alMayadeen, a Lebanese broadcaster.

Qatar, a key mediator in the talks, also expressed caution Tuesday, saying it could not comment on Biden’s view that negotiators were nearing an agreement.

“The efforts are ongoing; all the parties are conducting regular meetings,” Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for the Qatari foreign ministry, told reporters in Doha. “But for now, while we certainly hope it will be achieved as soon as possible, we don’t have anything in our hands so as to comment on that deadline.”

As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins in less than two weeks, and as the death toll in Gaza approaches 30,000, global pressure has been mounting on Israel to agree to a deal to stop the war, at least temporarily. Biden, facing his own domestic pressures in an election year, has been pushing for an agreement as soon as possible, telling reporters in New York on Monday that, “My hope is by next Monday, we’ll have a cease-fire.”

Those pressures have led Israel to make significant concessions in the ne -

gotiations, two officials said, including an offer to release 15 Palestinians jailed on serious terrorism charges in exchange for five female Israeli soldiers being held in Gaza.

That offer was part of a broader proposal to exchange scores of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange for about 35 other hostages during a roughly six-week cease-fire, the officials said.

Hamas’ political leaders have insisted, at least publicly, that any deal to release the more than 100 hostages still being held in Gaza is dependent on a permanent cease-fire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops. Israel has said it will not compromise on its goal of toppling Hamas in Gaza, suggesting it will not agree to a long-term truce.

At a news conference in Washington on Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said negotiators “made significant progress” last week and were continuing to push for an agreement between Israel and Hamas.

“We are trying to push this deal over the finish line,” Miller said. “We do think it’s possible.”

But he added, “Ultimately, some of this comes down to Hamas and whether Hamas is willing to agree to a deal that would provide significant benefits to the Palestinian people that they claim to represent.”

With no accord in place, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said it had suspended emergency medical missions for two days in a part of Gaza where Israeli forces Sunday intercepted a convoy evacuating patients from a hospital, interrogating and detaining workers on the suspicion that they were ferrying Hamas fighters.

The Red Crescent and U.N. officials said they had cleared arrangements for the evacuation with Israeli authorities. Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the U.N. aid office in Geneva, said Tuesday that Israel had known the details of the route, the vehicles and the identities of those traveling in the convoy.

But after the convoy left Al-Amal Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, carrying 24 patients who required surgery, it was stopped by Israeli forces.

The soldiers ordered patients and aid workers out of the vehicles, forced

paramedics to strip and held the convoy for seven hours, U.N. officials said. One of those detained was released hours later, the Red Crescent said.

In a statement, the Israeli military said that it had stopped the convoy after intelligence “raised the possibility” that Hamas members were traveling in it. It said it had questioned the Red Crescent workers because of “information regarding their possible involvement in terrorist activity.” It did not say what that information was.

The incident led the Red Crescent to announce Monday that it would suspend missions in areas where it must first arrange its movements with Israeli troops. The group criticized “the lack of commitment and respect of the Israeli occupation forces to the procedures and coordination mechanisms agreed upon.”

The U.N. humanitarian team for the Palestinian territories said the interception of the Al-Amal convoy was “not an isolated incident.”

“Aid convoys have come under fire and are systematically denied access to people in need,” it said in a statement. “Humanitarian workers have been harassed, intimidated or detained by Israeli forces and humanitarian infrastructure has been hit.”

Israel has publicized intelligence it says shows Hamas has made use of civilian medical infrastructure, including hospitals, for military purposes and has accused some humanitarian workers, including about a dozen Palestinians employed by the U.N., of ties to Hamas

and participating in the Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel that precipitated the war.

Underscoring the obstacles to relief efforts on the ground in Gaza, planes from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and France joined a Jordanian operation to airdrop aid along the coast of Gaza on Tuesday, the Jordanian military said in a statement. It was Egypt’s first time airdropping aid into Gaza.

Jordanian and French planes previously dropped aid, including readymade meals, into Gaza on Monday, the Jordanian armed forces said.

Video footage on Monday showed a cluster of parachutes falling into the sea near Deir al Balah, a city in central Gaza. Men in small boats paddled out through choppy water to retrieve the aid. As they returned to shore, hundreds on the beach scrambled for the packages.

“It was sad seeing people I know well running and crowding to get aid that’s not nearly enough,” said Alaa Fayad, a veterinary student who shot footage of the scene that he posted online.

The aid drop came after the World Food Program last week suspended food deliveries to northern Gaza, saying that despite extreme needs there, it could not safely operate amid gunfire and the “collapse of civil order” in recent days.

The WFP and other U.N. aid agencies have repeatedly warned that their access to northern Gaza was being systematically impeded by Israeli authorities. Israel has denied blocking aid deliveries and blames the U.N. and Hamas for the delays.

Ego, Putin or jets? Reasons for Orban’s stance on Sweden perplex many.

applications of Finland and Sweden to the Parliament in July 2022, but dawdled on putting them to a vote. Finland was accepted by Hungary in March last year but it took the Parliament another 11 months to get to Sweden.

Orban and government officials put forward a host of shifting and sometimes farfetched explanations for the delay, including complaints about references to Hungary in textbooks used in Swedish schools.

Some critics of the government like Peter Kreko, the director of Political Capital, a research group critical of Fidesz, blamed Orban’s ego and his desire, as the leader of a small country with little economic or military leverage, to be at the center of attention.

More conspiracy-inclined critics suspected a secret deal between Orban and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, pointing to the fact that, of the European Union’s 27 national leaders, only Hungary’s has met and been photographed shaking hands with Putin since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.

prime minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, who traveled to Budapest on Friday to talk Orban down from his defiant one-againstall stand on Sweden’s membership. To help do that, he brought with him promises of increased military and industrial cooperation between the countries.

Soon after he arrived in Budapest, Saab, a Swedish aeronautics company, announced it had signed a contract with the Swedish state for the delivery of four new Gripen fighter jets to Hungary.

Kristersson, who had earlier said he would visit Budapest only after Hungary had ratified his country’s NATO membership, also brought with him a promise that Saab would open a research center in Hungary.

Agoston Mraz, the director of Nezopont Institute, a research center that does opinion polling for the government, said the most important aspect of Kristersson’s visit was not just expanded military cooperation but that the Swedish prime minister had to smile for the cameras with Orban.

By ANDREW HIGGINS

It took 19 months of broken promises and belligerent rhetoric for Hungary to finally ratify Sweden’s entry into NATO.

Why all the foot-dragging, many observers wondered, when Hungary was going to approve the Nordic country’s membership of the military alliance anyway?

That question has perplexed even members of Hungary’s governing party, Fidesz, according to Peter Ungar, an opposition legislator. He said he had been approached by one Fidesz lawmaker, in the run-up to Monday’s vote in Parliament to accept NATO’s expansion, and asked: “‘What the hell is going on with Sweden?’”

That a member of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s governing party would seek an explanation from a rival politician is a mea-

sure of how puzzled even allies of the Hungarian leader, never mind his opponents, became over their country delaying NATO’s expansion.

“The whole thing is incomprehensible,” said Ungar, a Hungarian progressive whose mother, Maria Schmidt, is a prominent conservative and longtime ally of Orban. “Nobody understands what the problem was,” Ungar added.

He declined to name the member of Parliament who had sought him out, saying that Fidesz demands unquestioning loyalty to and acceptance of Orban’s decisions, no matter how bewildering they might seem.

Asked why the process to approve Sweden’s membership in NATO had taken so long, the Hungarian government’s International Communications Office referred to a statement by Orban last Friday welcoming a decision by Sweden to provide additional jet fighters.

When the Parliament finally voted on Monday, it gave overwhelming support for Sweden’s membership. Zoltan Kovacs, the secretary of state for international communications, declared it a “historic moment,” noting that “Hungary has a vested interest in Europe’s security” and that Sweden will be “a strong and reliable ally.”

The reliability of Hungary, however, is more in question.

The government submitted the NATO

But there is no evidence that Orban’s cozying up to Russia is anything more than an expression of his oft-stated desire to stay on good terms with Moscow, an important source of energy, and avoid getting entangled in the war next door in Ukraine.

That stance, which runs counter to those of fellow European leaders who see support for Ukraine as a moral and security imperative, helped Fidesz to a landslide victory, its fourth in a row, in Hungary’s last general election in April 2022.

The ego theory perhaps has more basis. Hungary’s stalling certainly put a spotlight, albeit a mostly unflattering one, on Orban and his country, which has only 10 million people and accounts for only 1% of the European Union’s economic output.

Alarmed by the long delay, a bipartisan delegation of United States senators trekked to Budapest, the Hungarian capital, this month to show that Hungary was being taken seriously. Government ministers and Fidesz legislators all declined to meet the senators, a snub that the government and its media machine celebrated as evidence that Hungary makes its own decisions and will not be pushed around.

“It is not worth it for visiting American senators to try to exert pressure,” Hungary’s pugnacious foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said.

Receiving a warmer reception was the

“He is not a big fan of Mr. Orban but in order to be accepted into NATO he has to smile,” Mraz said.

Without that, he added, Orban would have had a hard time explaining to his core voters in the countryside why, after so many months of delays, Hungary dropped its objections to Sweden and let it join NATO. “It had to be explained and the explanation is that there is a deal with the Swedish prime minister,” he said.

The deal over military cooperation, in the works for many months, had little to do with Sweden’s membership of the Western alliance and, according to diplomats and analysts, became tied to the NATO issue only so that Orban could point to a concrete benefit from his policy of obstruction.

That policy, at least initially, fit into a familiar pattern, particularly evident in Hungary’s repeated battles with the European Union, of defying mainstream opinion and asserting Hungarian sovereignty. Hungary also blocked a financial aid package for Ukraine for months, but relented under heavy pressure on Feb. 1, a few weeks after the European Union released $10 billion in frozen funding for Hungary.

“The Hungarian way of politics,” Mraz said, “is to be loud and fight.” Others, particularly Scandinavians and EU officials in Brussels committed to seeking consensus, might not like the Hungarian approach. But, Mraz said, “it works.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is revered by a wing of the American political right, at a Conservative Political Action Conference gathering in Dallas, Aug. 4, 2022. (Emil Lippe/The New York Times)

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Israel is losing its greatest asset: Acceptance

By THOMAS FRIEDMAN

I’ve spent the past few days traveling from New Delhi to Dubai and Amman, and I have an urgent message to deliver to President Joe Biden and the Israeli people: I am seeing the increasingly rapid erosion of Israel’s standing among friendly nations — a level of acceptance and legitimacy that was painstakingly built up over decades. And if Biden is not careful, America’s global standing will plummet right along with Israel’s.

I don’t think Israelis or the Biden administration fully appreciate the rage that is bubbling up around the world, fueled by social media and TV footage, over the deaths of so many thousands of Palestinian civilians, particularly children, with U.S.-supplied weapons in Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has much to answer for in triggering this human tragedy, but Israel and the U.S. are seen as driving events now and getting most of the blame.

That such anger is boiling over in the Arab world is obvious, but I heard it over and over again in conversations in India during the past week — from friends, business leaders, an official and journalists both young and old. That is even more telling because the Hindu-dominated government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the only major power in the global south that has supported Israel and consistently blamed Hamas for inviting the massive Israeli retaliation and the deaths of an estimated 30,000 people, according to Gaza health officials, the majority of them civilians.

That many civilian deaths in a relatively short war would

be problematic in any context. But when so many civilians die in a retaliatory invasion that was launched by an Israeli government without any political horizon for the morning after — and then, when the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, finally offers a morning-after plan that essentially says to the world that Israel now intends to occupy both the West Bank and Gaza indefinitely — it is no surprise that Israel’s friends will edge away and the Biden team will start to look hapless.

As Shekhar Gupta, the veteran editor of the Indian newspaper ThePrint, put it to me: “There’s enormous love and admiration for Israel in India. But a war with no end will strain it. Initial shock and awe apart, Netanyahu’s war is damaging Israel’s greatest asset: the widely held belief in the invincibility of its army, the infallibility of its intelligence services and the justness of its mission.”

Each day brings new calls for Israel to be banned from international academic, artistic and athletic competitions or events. That so much of it is hypocritical in singling out Israel for censure — while ignoring the excesses of Iran, Russia, Syria and China, not to mention Hamas — is true. But this Israeli government is doing things that make it too easy. Many of Israel’s friends are now just praying for a cease-fire so that they don’t have to be asked by their citizens or voters — especially their youth — how they can be indifferent to so many mounting civilian casualties in Gaza.

In particular, many Arab leaders who privately want to see Hamas destroyed, who understand what a warped and destructive force it is, are being pressured from the streets to the elites to publicly distance themselves from an Israel that is unwilling to consider any political horizon for Palestinian independence on any border.

Or, as Netanyahu put it in the morning-after plan he issued last Friday: Israel will keep security control over Gaza, the territory will be demilitarized, the strip’s southern border with Egypt will be sealed much more tightly in coordination with Cairo, the

United Nations agency that provides primary health and education services for Palestinian refugees will be disbanded, and education and administration will be completely overhauled. Civil administration and day-to-day policing will be based on “local elements with administrative and management experience.” Who will pay for all of this and how local Palestinians will be enlisted to perpetuate Israel’s control is not explained.

Netanyahu refuses to even consider trying to nurture a new relationship with non-Hamas Palestinians, because to do so would risk his prime minister’s chair, which depends on backing by hard-right Jewish supremacist parties who will never cede an inch of the West Bank. Hard to believe, but Netanyahu is ready to sacrifice Israel’s hard-won international legitimacy for his personal political needs. He will not hesitate to take Biden down with him.

But the broader point is that a unique opportunity to permanently diminish Hamas, not only as an army but also as a political movement, is being squandered because Netanyahu refuses to encourage any prospect, however long term, of building toward a two-state solution.

Still so traumatized by Oct. 7, Israelis, in my view, are failing to see that at least making an effort to move slowly toward a Palestinian state led by a transformed Palestinian Authority and conditioned on demilitarization and hitting certain institutional governance goals is not a gift to Palestinians or a reward for Hamas.

It is instead the most hard-nosed, selfish thing Israelis could now do for themselves — because Israel is losing on three fronts at once today.

It is losing the global narrative that it is fighting a just war. It has no plan to ever get out of Gaza, so it will eventually sink into the sands there with a permanent occupation that will surely complicate relations with all its Arab allies and friends across the globe. And it is losing regionally to Iran and its anti-Israel proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, who are pressuring Israel’s northern, southern and eastern borders.

There is one fix that would help on all three fronts: an Israeli government prepared to begin the process of building two nation-states for two people with a Palestinian Authority that is truly ready and willing to transform itself. That changes the narrative.

It gives cover for Israel’s Arab allies to partner with Israel in rebuilding Gaza, and it provides the glue for the regional alliance Israel needs to confront Iran and its proxies.

In failing to see that, I believe Israel is imperiling decades of diplomacy to get the world to recognize the right of the Jewish people to national self-determination and self-defense in their historic homeland. It is also relieving Palestinians of the burden and depriving them of the opportunity of recognizing two nationstates for two people and building the necessary institutions and compromises to make that happen. And, I repeat, it is going to put the Biden administration in an increasingly untenable position.

And it is making Iran’s day.

Dressed in white, women hold signs written in Arabic, Hebrew and English at a rare antiwar protest in Tel Aviv on Dec. 15, 2023. (Adam Sella/The New York Times)

Manuel

Huertas College celebrará su “Open House” el jueves, 4 de abril de 2024

Huertas College, los líderes en carreras cortas y con más de 79 años en el mercado, estará celebrando su “Open House” (Casa Abierta) el jueves, 4 de abril de 2024 desde las 8:30 a.m. a 1:30 p.m. La actividad, que se enfocará en experiencias interactivas de cada uno de sus programas, tendrá como objetivo orientar a los estudiantes sobre la alta demanda laboral que tienen las carreras profesionales que se ofrecen en Huertas.

“Hemos notado que cuando vamos a las escuelas a orientar a los estudiantes o cuando los recibimos en la Institución, la gran mayoría tienen dudas sobre qué estudiar y en casos como esos, una carrera corta puede ser la mejor alternativa para que el estudiante pueda experimentar o confirmar si realmente desea continuar estudios en un futuro. Cabe destacar, que todas nuestras carreras tienen mucha demanda en el mercado por lo que rápidamente al culminar pueden conseguir trabajo”, expresó Sally Figueroa, directora de admisiones de Huertas College.

Actualmente, Huertas, ya comenzó su proceso de Admisión Temprana para su matrícula de septiembre 2024 y entre sus ofrecimientos incluye: Bachillerato en Ciencias en Enfermería, Administración de Empresas, Contabilidad con Auditoría, Ventas y Mercadeo; Grados Asociados en: Ciencias en Enfermería, Asistente Dental con funciones Expandidas, Tecnología en el Manejo de Información de Salud, Técnico de Farmacia, Terapia Física y Asistente de Terapia Ocupacional; Grados Certificados en: Tecnología en Electricidad,

Tecnología en Refrigeración y Aire Acondicionado, Estética, Entrenador Personal, Artes Culinarias y Masaje Terapéutico. ¡Visítalos para que te matricules!

Si actualmente eres estudiante de escuela superior, te interesa participar de su “Open House” y no tienes transportación, comunícate con ellos al 787-746-1400 ext. 3 o a su correo electrónico: admisiones@huertas.edu para que uno de sus oficiales te pueda brindar la información necesaria para la coordinación de la transportación y así, puedas disfrutar de la experiencia de Huertas.

Próximas actividades:

1. martes, 5 de marzo de 2024: Desde las 8:30 a.m. y con el tema: Innovando en la Estética con Huertas College, podrás disfrutar de faciales, manicuras ymasajes completamente gratis. Participa y mímate en la Semana de la Mujer con Huertas College.

2. miércoles, 13 de marzo de 2024: A las 5:00 p.m. tienes una cita en Huertas College y AirMax para que conozcas las últimas tecnologías en aires acondicionados. ¡Hace calor; aprende de los expertos!

3. martes, 9 de abril de 2024: Soluciona tus problemas de electricidad con Huertas College. Aprende desde una forma práctica todo lo que puedes resolver de electricidad en tu hogar. Esta actividad comienza a las 5:00 p.m.

Para participar en uno de sus eventos, puede llamar al 787-746-1400 ext. 3 o visitar www.huertascollege.com Huertas College, ¡los líderes en carreras cortas!

On Residente’s new album, a troublemaker reveals his heart

By JON PARELES

Residente — the Puerto Rican songwriter René Pérez Joglar — is lying, or at least misdirecting, with the title of his second solo album, “Las Letras Ya No Importan” (“The Lyrics Don’t Matter Anymore”). Words still matter to Residente, and they pour out of him. As always, he’s a blunt, far-reaching, fast-talking rapper who’s determined to engage on multiple fronts: political, cultural, mythmaking, cybernetic, sardonic and — now more than ever — personal.

Residente arrived in the early 2000s as the frontman of Calle 13, his duo with his half brother Eduardo Cabra (aka Visitante). With Residente rapping and Visitante overseeing the musical backdrops, Calle 13 conquered the Americas with rebellious, hard-hitting and sonically omnivorous songs. Residente’s virtuosic raps in Spanish flaunted impeccable diction and a compulsion to push boundaries. He was often crudely raunchy, science-minded and ideologically sophisticated in the same song. As Calle 13’s popularity and ambitions grew, the group formed international musical and activist alliances with songs like the Pan-American manifesto “Latinoamérica” in 2011. The duo went separate ways in 2015.

For his first solo album, “Residente” in 2017, Pérez took a DNA test and followed the results to his ancestral homelands, drawing on local musical traditions and, in some places, visiting conflict zones. The new album isn’t so tidily conceptual.

With 20 songs that Residente has amassed over the past seven years, “Las Letras Ya No Importan” (5020 Records) is a huge harvest of assorted ideas, from minimalistic to lavish, from cocky to righteous to humble to unexpectedly romantic.

The album is packed with collaborators including rappers Busta Rhymes, Big Daddy Kane and Vico C (a Puerto Rican reggaeton pioneer) and singers Rauw Alejandro and Christian Nodal, among many others. It dips into rock, oldschool hip-hop, flamenco, Cuban son, Palestinian music, electro and — with tongue in cheek — pop. (“Quiero Ser Baladista” — “I Want to Be a Ballad Singer” — suddenly swit-

Residente, the Puerto Rican rapper, writer and producer, shows off his machete pendant in Manhattan, Aug. 18, 2019. Words still matter to Residente, and they pour out of him on his second solo album. (José Alvarado Jr./The New

ches from a belligerent rap over electric-guitar chords to an ardent love-song chorus from none other than Ricky Martin.)

The set reclaims Residente singles like the fiercely percussive “This Is Not America” from 2022, which insists “America isn’t only the USA,” and “Problema Cabrón,” a blues-rock rap that revels in being a troublemaker. The album concludes with Residente’s 2020 single “René,” a gut-spilling seven-minute confessional that sets his fears and self-doubts to somber, sustained chamber-music strings — until Rubén Blades shows up for a conga-driven coda.

“René” apparently opened up Residente’s introspective side. The single he released this week, “313,” brings back the orchestral strings — along with a choir, a poetic spoken-word intro from actress Penélope Cruz and a flamenco-tinged guest vocal from Spanish singer Silvia Pérez Cruz — as Residente

sings, more than raps, about love, time and eternity. (A version of the song’s backing track without Residente, which has the choir reciting numbers over an orchestra, hinting at Philip Glass’ “Einstein on the Beach,” reappears as the album’s title cut.)

“313” is as tender as Residente has ever allowed himself to sound — until, near the end of the album, he joins Jessie Reyez in “El Encuentro” (“The Encounter”), an unabashed ballad about lingering love. Residente stays reflective in “Ron en el Piso” (“Rum on the Floor”). It’s an elegy for a cousin, Julián, that turns to thoughts about growing older and having evolved from a rebel sensation to “a legend”; Residente turns 46 this week. Rapping over piano-ballad chords, he muses, “I know I’m not so relevant anymore.”

But while he has now mastered slow tempos, Residente isn’t growing complacent, much less mellowing. He supports resistance movements in “Bajo los Escombros” (“Under the Debris”), a song about Palestinian children with Amal Markus, and in “En Talla” (“In Stature”), which features Cuban rapper Al2 El Aldeano; the song finds parallels between Puerto Rico’s status as a U.S. territory and Cuba’s repression, denouncing government corruption. For all his options as a “legend” — lush production, famous collaborators — Residente is still contentious, still thinking about higher purposes and artistic aspirations, still determined to live up to hip-hop’s promise that the voiceless can make themselves heard.

Residente pays tribute to vintage hip-hop, reviving 1980s samples in “Estilo Libre” (“Freestyle,” featuring Big Daddy Kane and Vico C), and sparking a breakneck rap — over a grindingly slow beat — from Busta Rhymes in “Cerebro” (“Brain”). But he’s not promoting nostalgia. In “El Malestar en la Cultura” (“Cultural Malaise”), Residente insists on looking ahead and stirring things up, even as his chosen backup is measured piano chords, cello and choir. “Culture doesn’t stay the same. It adapts, it changes, it mixes, it merges,” he raps. Then he sets out a crisp, rhythmic, decisive statement of purpose: “I structure everything by breaking the structures.”

Eagles’ Don Henley testifies that stolen lyrics were deeply pers onal

By COLIN MOYNIHAN

Don Henley and Glenn Frey followed a routine while writing some of the most emblematic and enduring songs of the 1970s.

The men, who co-founded the Eagles, would rent a house and bring in a piano and guitars. The two would rise in late morning — “musician time,” Henley testified in a New York City courtroom earlier this week. They would make coffee, then have “philosophical” conversations and begin trying out riffs and discussing “song titles, subject matters, concepts,” he said.

Henley paid particular attention to lyrics, crafting and

refining them on legal pads. The pages came to have a deeply personal meaning, and Henley said he saved them inside a barn on his organic farm in Malibu, California.

Now they are at the center of an unusual prosecution in New York state Supreme Court. A rare-book dealer, Glenn Horowitz, is accused along with two other men of conspiring to possess stolen property — some 100 pages of Henley’s handwritten notes and drafts for hits such as “New Kid in Town,” “Hotel California” and “Life in the Fast Lane.”

Prosecutors say the notes were stolen decades ago by an author who had signed a contract in the late 1970s to write a book about the Eagles. The author, Ed Sanders, has not been charged. He sold the documents in 2005 to

Horowitz, who in turn sold them to the two other defendants, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which began investigating after complaints by Henley.

Testifying during a break from what the Eagles have billed as their final tour, Henley said that he was alarmed in 2012 when he first learned that a few pages of his “Hotel California” notes had been put up for auction online.

“They are basically the detritus, if you will, left over from song writing,” he said. “Those are things nobody is supposed to see.”

Wearing a charcoal suit, white shirt and black tie, Henley, 76, moved creakily at times and occasionally asked

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York Times)

From page 17

that a question be repeated, saying that his hearing had been “impaired” because of his profession.

During his testimony Henley spoke about how the Eagles operated and gave his impressions of Sanders, whom he referred to as “an eccentric fellow.”

Prosecutors have said that Sanders, who co-founded a New York counterculture band called the Fugs in the mid-1960s and later wrote a book about Charles Manson, obtained the lyrics as source material after agreeing with the Eagles to write about the band.

Henley said that idea came from Frey, who had gotten to know Sanders when he was in California researching his Manson book.

Sanders’ book, to which the Eagles controlled the rights, was completed but never published. Henley said that he was disappointed after reading a 100-page excerpt that Sanders provided in 1980.

“I didn’t think it was very substantial,” he testified. “There was a lot of beatnik jargon that seemed anachronistic and corny.”

That summer, Henley said, he gave Sanders access to the barn on his farm where

he kept records including the songwriting notepads, hoping those would provide insights into the Eagles that would strengthen the book.

Nearly 20 years ago, according to an indictment, Sanders wrote in an email that an assistant for Henley had mailed him some of the material he had examined “at Henley’s place in Malibu.” In 2005, prosecutors said, Sanders sold documents to Horowitz, a book dealer with offices in Manhattan and East Hampton, New York, who had placed the papers of Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe in university libraries and had worked to sell Bob Dylan’s archive.

Horowitz sold the material in 2012 to Craig Inciardi, who worked as a curator with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and Edward Kosinski, the owner of an online auction site, prosecutors said. The men sought to resell some of it through Kosinski’s site and the Christie’s and Sotheby’s auction houses.

While on the stand Monday, Henley identified pages of lyrics that were entered into evidence, some written in cursive and others in block lettering. Certain sentences were scrawled across the page, as if written in a rush. Red ink was used in places to make what appeared to be annotations, and

some passages were crossed out.

All the handwriting was his, Henley testified, except for some writing by Frey that appeared at the top of one page.

Henley also testified about his emo-

tions when Frey, his longtime collaborator, informed him in 1980 that he was leaving the Eagles to start a solo career.

“Well, I was devastated,” he said. “The band was everything to me.”

¡Porque Escrito Está….! Ha sido revelado en estos tiempos, año 2020. Año que jamás olvidaremos. Donde nació este libro sustentado por la Palabra que sale de la boca de Dios. Leerlo es muy edificante, porque nos enfoca. Esta obra toca los siguientes temas: los últimos tiempos, la maravillosa creación de todo el universo, y la creación tan espectacular de nosotros los seres humanos.

LO ALCANZARÁS TODO, SOLO AL CREER

¿Cuántos de nosotros nos hemos enfrentado a desafíos que ante nuestros ojos naturales parecen realmente imposibles? Si somos honestos con nosotros mismos, reconoceremos que a través de los procesos difíciles algunos hemos vivido procesos de crisis de fe. Creo que todo ser humano vive experiencias de vida donde tiene que reconocer que solo la intervención divina de Dios puede resolver lo que el ser humano no puede.

¡Porque Escrito Está….!

Gracias por su apoyo incondicional. ¡Bendiciones!

Apóstol Robert “Babby” Colón

Disponible en Amazon, Librería WOW en Ave. Santa Juanita en Bayamón. Libreria Pura Vida Books Ave. Lomas Verde Guaynabo

Pastor Robert “Babby” Colón

• Para pedidos e invitación 281-408-9844

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Don Henley of Eagles performing at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan on May 28, 2008. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)

When the biggest student mental health advocates are the students

By JENNIFER MILLER

In October 2023, to commemorate Mental Health Awareness Week, a group of students at Sacopee Valley High School in Hiram, Maine, created the annual Hope Board. Shaped like an enormous tulip and displayed in the lobby, the board was covered with anonymous teenage aspirations. Some students hoped to pass driver’s education or have a successful playoff season. Others expressed more complicated desires. “To be more happy than angry,” wrote one student. Another wrote, “I hope people are kinder and more mature.”

Camryn Baron, 17, created the board as a founder of Sacopee’s Yellow Tulip Team, a student group devoted to mental health. “It’s an outlet for some kids to be able to outwardly express and vocalize something that’s bothering them,” she said.

Baron has struggled with an eating disorder, anxiety and depression; she is bisexual and has not always felt supported. “The things that a lot of us dismiss or struggle with here — to be able to share them with other people is validating,” she said.

Sacopee’s Yellow Tulip Team is one of roughly 150 such clubs supported by the Yellow Tulip Project, a mental health education and advocacy nonprofit. Co-founded in 2016 by Julia Hansen, a high schooler in Maine who had lost her two best friends to suicide, the nonprofit works to destigmatize mental illness and help students prioritize their emotional well-being.

At Sacopee Valley, the club plays upbeat music to welcome students each Monday and shares mental health information through morning announcements. Each fall, it plants a Hope Garden — 500 tulip bulbs this year — and will celebrate the flowers’ resilience in the spring with a youth wellness day of workshops and activities. At the group’s regular meetings, students might discuss stress-reduction strategies, as well as the homophobia, socioeconomic inequality and various stigma that many teenagers experience in their conservative-leaning, rural community.

In recent years, nonprofits that support school-based mental health clubs have found their programs in demand. The increase is the result of two phenomena: the rising number of adolescents struggling with mental health and the dearth of resources to help them. As schools search for solutions, often it’s the students who are leading the effort.

“When we think about mental health, it’s not just about crisis intervention,” said Lisa Padilla, senior behavioral and social scientist at the RAND Corp., who has studied mental health clubs. “The peer-based organizations are creating an environment in the school that says, ‘We value your well-being, and we know that’s part of who you are as a whole person.’ That message goes a long way to make students feel safe and empowered to speak up about their own needs.”

Camryn Baron, left, who founded the Yellow Tulip Team at Sacopee Valley High School in Hiram, Maine, where she is a junior, with the help of Elizabeth Sanborn, right, her faculty adviser, at the school on Jan. 29, 2024. With the number of adolescents struggling with mental health rising, student-led clubs have come to provide support amid a dearth of resources. (John Tully/The New York Times)

Teenagers’ mental health has worsened since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, 44% of high school students said they “persistently felt sad or hopeless,” up from 36.7% in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The percentage of students who made a suicide plan or died by suicide also rose, especially among LGBTQ teenagers. According to a 2022 survey from the Institute of Education Sciences, 69% of public schools reported an increase in students seeking mental health services that year, but 43% of schools “moderately agreed” that they could “effectively provide mental health service to all students in need.” Only 13% “strongly agreed.”

In 2022, the White House pledged to invest $1 billion in school-based mental health programs over the next five years and promised to double the number of school counselors and social workers. Researchers say that trusted adults are crucial to helping struggling students.

Student-led efforts can play a vital role, too, said Peter Wyman, co-director of the Center for Study and Prevention of Suicide at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Peer leaders can be “significant influencers,”

he said, in helping friends to avoid risk-taking behaviors, such as vaping or drugs, and to embrace coping behaviors, such as seeking counseling. The closer a teen is to the peer leader delivering a prevention message or demonstrating a healthy coping behavior, the bigger the impact, Wyman said.

Niku Sedarat, a high school senior from San Jose, California, and founder of the mental health organization Unité, said that teenagers were most receptive to “socially and culturally competent” messages delivered by their peers. Sedarat has recruited 150 student volunteers from across the country. They come from various backgrounds and are tasked with disseminating mental health resources at their schools. “When students feel their identity is being heard and matched, it’s more feasible for them to take the step to get support,” Sedarat said.

Some evidence suggests that the presence of a mental health club can benefit school culture. Padilla led a study of mental health clubs affiliated with the nonprofit Active Minds, another organization focused on destigmatizing mental illness. She found that students who were familiar with the club — even if they were not highly engaged in it — reported reduced stigma about mental illness. Those directly engaged were more knowledgeable about mental health resources on their campuses and were more likely to provide emotional support and connect friends to services.

Padilla emphasized that school-based mental health clubs should draw from an evidence-informed or an evidence-based curriculum. “It can’t just be students doing it by themselves,” she said.

NASA’s crash into an asteroid may have altered its shape

By ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS

In 2022, when NASA’s $325 million spacecraft crashed into an asteroid named Dimorphos at 14,000 mph, cheers and applause erupted back on Earth.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission deliberately targeted Dimorphos to change its orbit around the larger asteroid Didymos as a dress rehearsal of sorts for thwarting a deadly space rock that might someday head toward Earth.

The world’s first-ever planetary defense experiment was deemed a triumph: The asteroid’s orbit shrank by 33 minutes, far above the minimum threshold of 73 seconds.

But what the DART team didn’t realize then was just how bizarrely Dimorphos responded to that punch. A new study, published Monday in Nature Astronomy, has concluded that DART hit Dimorphos so hard that the asteroid changed shape.

Simulations of the impact suggest that the spacecraft’s death did not excavate a normal, bowl-shaped crater. Instead, it left behind something that resembles a dent. And although the artificial impact blasted millions of tons of rock into space, plenty splashed back onto its sides like tremendous tidal waves. It widened Dimorphos, transforming it from a squat orb into a flat-topped oval — like an M&M candy.

In an image provided by NASA/Johns Hopkins APL, a view of the asteroid Dimorphos made from 10 final full-frame images from the Direct Asteroid Redirect Test’s cameras seconds before impact on Sept. 26, 2022. A new study using simulations suggests the impact in 2022 transformed the space rock into an M&M-like flat-top oval. (NASA/Johns Hopkins APL via The New York Times)

That the asteroid acted like a fluid comes down to its peculiar composition. It’s not a solid contiguous rock, but more like “a pile of sand,” said Sabina Raducan, a planetary scientist at the University of Bern in Switzerland and the study’s lead author. And a low-density asteroid barely held together by its own gravity was never going to respond in a straightforward manner when a van-size spacecraft flew into its face.

Dimorphos’ response is “completely outside of the realm of physics as we un-

derstand it” in our day-to-day lives, said Cristina Thomas, the lead of the mission’s observations working group at Northern Arizona University who was not involved with the study. And “this has overarching implications for planetary defense.”

DART showed that a tiny spacecraft can deflect an asteroid. But the study indicates that crashing a similarly disjointed space rock too forcefully risks fragmenting it, which, in a real asteroid emergency, could create multiple Earthbound asteroids.

Planetary defense, as a concept, clearly works. “We know we can do it,” said Federica Spoto, an asteroid dynamics researcher at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian, who was not involved with the new study. “But we have to do it right.”

Dimorphos was chosen to be DART’s target for myriad reasons. One of the most important was its dimensions: At 530 feet across, it’s just the right size of a common variant of stony asteroid that could handily annihilate a city.

Because it’s so small and thereby tricky to observe from Earth, little was known about Dimorphos before DART glimpsed it up close during the spacecraft’s terminal approach. But many sci-

entists suspected it was a rubble pile, a collection of closely spaced boulders.

The handful of space missions that have visited similarly sized asteroids — even those with different geological compositions — also found them to lack cohesion. That makes them behave oddly. For example, when NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly touched down on the surface of the rubbly asteroid Bennu to steal a sample, it almost completely sank into it, as if it were plunging into a plastic ball pit.

That DART’s collision knocked back Dimorphos so significantly demonstrated that deflecting these types of asteroids can succeed even when their properties are largely unknown beforehand.

But early observations taken by ground-based telescopes, space-based observatories and the LICIACube (a small satellite that rode along with the DART spacecraft) hinted that Dimorphos reacted with unanticipated drama to this act of interplanetary vandalism.

“A lot of material was thrown out,” Thomas said. Dimorphos was quickly enveloped by a swarm of boulders and was trailed by a 20,000-mile-long cometlike tail that persisted for months.

What other surprises might Dimorphos have in store? Hera, a European Space Agency mission is launching this October and will arrive at Dimorphos in late 2026 to survey the asteroidal wreckage.

But Raducan was impatient, deciding instead to forecast what Hera may discover. Her team ran simulations of the impact, hoping to see which virtual outcome best fit the fleeting post-impact observations taken of Dimorphos. A lack of a classic crater, and a transmogrified asteroid, is not what most astronomers anticipated.

Like its previously explored asteroid siblings, Dimorphos responded in an unexpected way to being angrily prodded by a robot. That means that if the world requires saving from an inbound rubble pile, no assumptions can be made.

“We do need more space missions to asteroids,” Raducan said. “Just because we impacted one asteroid, doesn’t mean all of them will behave the same.”

The San Juan Daily Star

LEGAL NOTICE

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE NINTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR ORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA. GUILLERMO HERNANDEZ

Petitioner/Husband And GLORIBEL GARZA Respondent/Wife

CASE NO.: 2023-DR-9228-O.

DIVISION: 31.

TO: GLORIBEL GARZAJ.

HC 91, VEGA AL TA, PR 00692-9802 AND ANY PARTIES UNKNOWN to Petitioner, which parties may be interested as heirs, devisees, grantees, assignees, lienors, creditors, trustees, or other claimants, by, through under or against GLORIBEL GARZA, whose whereabouts is unknown.

NOTICE OF ACTION

YOU ARE NOTIFIED that an action for Petition of Dissolution of Marriage has been filed against you and you are required to serve a copy of your written defenses to it, if any, on ROBERT SAUERHEBER,

ESQ. 1650 Sandlake Road, #$255, Orlando, FL 32809 on or before 3/14/2024 , 2024 and file the original with the clerk of this Court at 425 N. Orange Avenue, Orlando, FL 32801, before service on Petitioner or immediately thereafter. If you fail to do so, a default may be entered against you for the relief demanded in the petition. Copies of all court documents in this case, including orders, are available at the Clerk of the Circuit Court’s office. You may review these documents upon request. You must keep the Clerk of the Circuit Court’s office notified of your current address. (You may file Designation of Current Mailing and E-Mail Address, Florida Supreme Court Approved Family Law Form 12.915.) Future papers in this lawsuit will be mailed or e-mailed to the addresses on record at the clerk’s office.

Dated: 1/26/ 2024

TIFFANY MOORE RUSSELl, CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT COURT.

By: /S/ JUAN VAZQUEZ, Deputy Clerk.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA.

FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante VS. LUIS QUILES

RODRĺGUEZ t/c/c LUIS

A. QUILES RODRĺGUEZ; MARÍA HERNÁNDEZ RIVERA

Parte Demandada CIVIL NÚM. CA2022CV02101. SALÓN NÚM. (404). SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA Y COBRO DE DINERO. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS.

A: LUIS QUILES

RODRĺGUEZ t/c/c LUIS

A. QUILES RODRĺGUEZ; MARÍA HERNÁNDEZ

RIVERA: Y AL PUBLICO

EN GENERAL:

El Alguacil que suscribe, certifica y hace constar que en cumplimiento de Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América. Todo pago recibido por el (la) Alguacil por concepto de subastas será en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del (de la) Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Todo derecho, título, participación e interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: Parcela marcada con el número quinientos cincuenta y uno en el plano de inscripción de la comunidad Rural Campo Rico del Barrio Hato Puerco del término Municipal de Canóvanas, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de cuatrocientos cuarenta y seis punto sesenta y ocho metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con Parcela número quinientos cincuenta y dos de la Comunidad; por el SUR, con quebrada; por el ESTE, con Parcela número quinientos cincuenta y nueve de la comunidad; y por el OESTE, con calle número once de la comunidad y parcela número quinientos cincuenta de la comunidad. Finca número #8,919, inscrita al folio 43 del tomo 183 de Canóvanas. Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección III de Carolina. La propiedad objeto de ejecución está localizada en la siguiente dirección: 551 Calle 11, Campo Rico, Canóvanas, P.R. 00729. Se informa que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravamen posterior, una vez sea otorgada la escritura de venta judicial y obtenida la Orden y Mandamiento de cancelación

Thursday, February 29, 2024 21

de gravamen posterior. (Art. 51, Ley 210-2015). En relación a la finca a subastarse, se establece como tipo mínimo de licitación en la Primera Subasta la suma de $100,327.68, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la Escritura de Hipoteca Modificación #129, otorgada en San Juan, el día 28 de febrero de 2020, ante la notario Alexandra M. Serracante Cadilla, inscrita al tomo Keribe de Canóvanas, finca #8,919, inscripción Sexta. La PRIMERA

SUBASTA, se llevará a cabo el día 12 DE MARZO DE 2024 A

LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en mis oficinas sitas en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, el tipo mínimo para la primera subasta es la suma de $100,327.68. Si la primera subasta del inmueble no produjere remate, ni adjudicación, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 19 DE MARZO DE 2024 A

LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo sitio y servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes del precio pactada para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $66,885.12. Si la segunda subasta no produjere remate, ni adjudicación, se celebrará una

TERCERA SUBASTA el día 27 DE MARZO DE 2024 A LAS

10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar y regirá como tipo mínimo de la tercera subasta la mitad del precio pactado para la primera, o sea, la suma de $50,163.84. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo, para con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor, a saber: La suma de $97,170.98, con intereses a 4.25% anual, desde el 1ro de diciembre de 2021, hasta el presente y los que se continúen acumulando hasta su total y completo pago, más los cargos por demora que se corresponden a los plazos atrasados desde la fecha anteriormente indicada a razón de la tasa pactada de 4% de cualquier pago que éste en mora por más de quince (15) días desde la fecha de su vencimiento, más una suma equivalente a $9,380.00, por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más cualquier otra suma que resulte por cualesquiera otros adelantos que se hayan hecho la demandante, en virtud de las disposiciones de la escritura de hipoteca y del Pagaré hipotecario. Para más información, a las personas interesadas se les notifica que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal, durante las horas laborables. Este EDICTO DE SUBASTA,

se publicará en los lugares públicos correspondientes y en un periódico de circulación general en la jurisdicción de Puerto Rico. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los referentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente Escritura de Venta Judicial y el Alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días, de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Expedido en Carolina, Puerto Rico, a 31 de enero de 2024. Hector L Peña Rodriguez, Alguacil.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

LEGACY MORTGAGE

ASSET TRUST 2019-PR1

Parte Demandante VS. JORGE JUAN BANACHET OCASIO SIERRA

Parte Demandada CIVIL NÚM. CA2023CV00786. SALÓN NÚM. (407). SOBRE: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA Y COBRO DE DINERO. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R.. SS.

A: JORGE JUAN

BANACHET OCASIO

SIERRA: Y AL PUBLICO

EN GENERAL:

El Alguacil que suscribe, certifica y hace constar que en cumplimiento de Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América. Todo pago recibido por el (la) Alguacil por concepto de subastas será en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del (de la) Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera

Instancia. Todo derecho, título, participación e interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar de forma irregular número diez de la manzana dieciocho, radicado frente a la calle San Rafael del Municipio de Carolina, Puerto Rico, con una capacidad superficial de ciento cuarenta y seis metros cuadrados con veintinueve centésimas de metros cuadrado. En lindes por el NORTE, diecisiete metros cuadrados con setenta y ocho centésimas y sesenta y un centésimas de metro, con dos solares municipales ocupados por la Sucesión de Don Emilio Fragoso y por la familia Zurinaga, respectivamente; por el SUR, en nueve metros con catorce centímetros y en nueve metros nueve centímetros, con un solar del municipio ocupado por Dólares Ortiz y con terrenos de la Sucesión Soto, respectivamente; por el ESTE, en cuatro metros ochentisiete centímetros y dos metros veintiocho centímetros con otros dos solares del municipio ocupados por la familia Zurinaga y por el señor Antipo Euraskin, respectivamente; y por el OESTE, con ocho metros ochenticinco centímetros, con la calle San Rafael. Enclava una casa de dos plantas dedicada a vivienda y comercio. Consta inscrita al folio 50 del tomo 889 de Carolina Sur, finca número #35,802, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección II de Carolina. La propiedad objeto de ejecución está localizada en la siguiente dirección: #53 Calle San Rafael, Carolina, P.R. 00979. Según figura en el Estudio de título, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada al siguiente Gravamen preferente a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: a. Aviso de Demanda de fecha 17 de octubre de 2005, expedido en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, en el Caso Civil número FCD205-1428(205), sobre cobro de dinero y ejecución de hipoteca, seguido por Doral Financial Corporation, contra Jorge Becerril Fuentes, también conocido como Jorge Luis Becerril Fuentes y su esposa Zhymy Nuñez Rivera y la sociedad legal ganancial compuesta por ambos, por la suma de $10,996.96, más intereses y otras sumas, anotado el día 20 de agosto de 2007, al folio 158 del tomo 1410 de Carolina Sur, finca número 35,802, Anotación A. Se le notifica a los acreedores preferentes anteriormente identificado para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer

antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados. Se informa que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravamen posterior, una vez sea otorgada la escritura de venta judicial y obtenida la Orden y Mandamiento de cancelación de gravamen posterior. (Art. 51, Ley 210-2015). En relación a la finca a subastarse, se establece como tipo mínimo de licitación en la Primera Subasta la suma de $109,413.53, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la Escritura de Modificación de Hipoteca #976, otorgada en San Juan, el día 15 de noviembre de 2012, ante la notario Magda V. Alsina Figueroa, inscrita al folio 165 del tomo 1481 de Carolina Sur, finca #35,802, inscripción 12ma. La PRIMERA SUBASTA, se llevará a cabo el día 12 DE

MARZO DE 2024 A LAS 10:15

DE LA MAÑANA, en mis oficinas sitas en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, el tipo mínimo para la primera subasta es la suma de $109,413.53. Si la primera subasta del inmueble no produjere remate, ni adjudicación, se celebrará una SEGUNDA

SUBASTA el día 19 DE MAR-

ZO DE 2024 A LAS 10:15 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo sitio y servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes del precio pactada para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $72,942.35.

Si la segunda subasta no produjere remate, ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA

SUBASTA el día 27 DE MAR-

ZO DE 2024 A LAS 10:15 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar y regirá como tipo mínimo de la tercera subasta la mitad del precio pactado para la primera, o sea, la suma de $54,706.76. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo, para con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor, a saber: La suma de $100,626.41, la cual se desglosa a continuación: una suma principal por la cantidad de $99,138.58, con intereses a 7.75% anual, desde el 1ro de agosto de 2021, hasta el presente y los que se continúen acumulando hasta su total y completo pago, más una suma de principal diferida (piggyback) por la cantidad de $1,487.83 la cual no genera intereses, más los cargos por demora que se corresponden a los plazos atrasados desde la fecha anteriormente indicada a razón de la tasa pactada de 5% de cualquier pago que éste en mora por más de quince (15) días desde la fecha de su vencimiento, más una suma equivalente a $7,200.00, por

concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más cualquier otra suma que resulte por cualesquiera otros adelantos que se hayan hecho la demandante, en virtud de las disposiciones de la escritura de hipoteca y del Pagaré hipotecario. Para más información, a las personas interesadas se les notifica que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal, durante las horas laborables. Este EDICTO DE SUBASTA, se publicará en los lugares públicos correspondientes y en un periódico de circulación general en la jurisdicción de Puerto Rico. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los referentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes. Se entenderá que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente Escritura de Venta Judicial y el Alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días, de conformidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Expedido en Carolina, Puerto Rico, a 31 de enero de 2024. Hector L Peña Rodriguez, Alguacil. 278, Placa.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE FAJARDO.

LIME HOMES, LTD.

Parte Demandante Vs. RUTH RODRIGUEZ

BORRERO y la Sucesión de JULIO VAZQUEZ

ALVAREZ compuesta por John Doe y Richard Roe como posibles herederos desconocidos de éste; la Administración para el sustento de menores, y el Centro de Recaudación de ingresos municipales

Parte Demandada

CIVIL NUM. FA2022CV01067.

SOBRE: EJECUCION DE HI-

POTECA POR LA VIA ORDI-

NARIA Y COBRO DE DINERO.

ANUNCIO DE SUBASTA. El suscribiente, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de

Puerto Rico, Sala de Fajardo, a los demandados de epígrafe y al público en general hace saber que venderá en pública subasta en la Oficina de Alguaciles, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Fajardo, al mejor postor, en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América en efectivo, cheque certificado, o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, el derecho que tenga la parte demandada en el inmueble que se relaciona más adelante para pagar la SENTENCIA por $115,591.85 de balance principal, el cual se compone de $97,663.27 de primer principal y un principal diferido por la suma de $18,328.58, más los intereses adeudados sobre la suma de $97,663.27 de primer principal y un principal diferido por la suma de $18,328.58, más los intereses computados al 4.250% anual hasta su total pago y completo pago desde el primero de junio de 2019; cargos por demora devengados, más la suma de $7,570.00 estipulada para honorarios de abogado pactada en la escritura de hipoteca y cualesquiera otras sumas que por cualesquiera concepto legal se devenguen hasta el día de la subasta. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBANA: Solar número catorce (14) de la Urbanización Jardines de Ávila, radicada en el Barrio Saco, del término municipal de Ceiba, con una cabida superficial de tres cientos cuarenta y dos punto ochenta y ocho (342.88) metros cuadrados. Colinda por el NORTE, en una distancia de treinta dos punto cincuenta y uno (32.51) metros, con el solar número trece (13); por el SUR en una distancia de treinta dos punto ochenta (32.80) metros, con el solar número quince (15); por el Este, en diez punto cincuenta (10.50) metros, con la calle uno (1); y por el Oeste, en una distancia con la Autoridad de Carreteras. Enclava una estructura residencial de hormigón. Inscrita al folio ochenta y cinco (85) del tomo ochenta y cuatro (84) de Ceiba, Registro de la Propiedad de Fajardo, Finca número cinco mil ciento setenta y tres guion A (5,173A). Dirección Física: 14 1ST, Urbanización Jardines Avilés, Ceiba, PR, 00735. La primera subasta se llevará a cabo el día 9 de abril de 2024, a las 10:30 de la mañana, y servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la suma de $119,881.67 sin admitirse oferta inferior. En el caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en la primera subasta, se celebrará una segunda subasta el día 16

The San Juan Daily Star

JANE DOE DEMANDADOS DESCONOCIDOS

(Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 16 DE FEBRERO DE 2024, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 21 de FEBRERO de 2024.

En GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico, el 21 de FEBRERO de 2024.

LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretaria. f/SARA ROSA VILLEGAS, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN. FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. LUIS O. VALE ZAPATA; NANCY I. ZAPATA QUIONES

Demandados

CIVIL NUM.: SJ2023CV11202 (603). SOBRE: INCUMPLIMIENTO DE CONTRATO, CO-

BRO DE DINERO Y REPOSE-

SION. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR

EDICTO. ESTADOSUNIDOS-

DEAMERICA EL PRESIDENTE

DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS

EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIA-

DO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: LUIS O. VALE ZAPATA; NANCY I. ZAPATA

QUIÑONES

3 CALLE TULAINE, APT 19

COND UNIVERSITY PLAZA

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO 00927-4921

DE: FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO

Se le emplaza y requiere que conteste Ia demanda dentro de los treinta (30) dIas siguientes a Ia publicación de este edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del

Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando Ia siguiente dirección electrónica: https://www.poderjudicial.pr/index.php/tribunalelectronico/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en Ia secretarla del tribunal. Este caso trata sobre Incumplimiento de Contrato, Cobro de Dinero y Reposición en que Ia parte demandante solicita que se condene al demandado a pagar las cantidades adeudadas desde al 30 de octubre de 2023 de $31,884.94 de principal, más intereses acumulados a razón del 13.45% los cuales se continUan acumulando hasta el total y completo pago de Ia deuda; más cargos por mora los cuales se continúan acumulando hasta el total y completo pago de Ia deuda; más una suma equivalente al 5% del total adeudado para honorarios de abogados según pactado. Se le apercibe que, si dejare de hacerlo, se dictará contra usted sentencia en rebeldía, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en Ia demanda, sin más citarle ni oIrle. Lcdo. José Antonio Lamas Burgos Nümero del Tribunal Supremo 15693 P0 Box 194089 San Juan, PR 00917

Teléfono: (787) 296-9500

Correo Electrónico: jlamas@lvprlaw.com

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y Sello del Tribunal, hoy 5 de febrero de 2024. GRISELDA

RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, Secretaria. Michelle Rivera Rios, Sub-Secretario(a).

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.

MONTEHIEDRA WEST COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION INC

Demandante V. JORGE HERNANDEZ

MILLER Y OTROS

Demandado(a)

RAFAEL E SANTOS TOLEDO RSRESTLAW@GMAIL.COM

CASO NÚM.: SJ2023CV08118 (SALÓN 803 CIVIL) SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO - ORDINARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JORGE HERNANDEZ

MILLER, FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

(Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 21 DE FEBRERO DE 2024, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse deta-

lladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 22 de FEBRERO de 2024. En SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, el 22 de FEBRERO de 2024. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, Secretaria. f/KAROLYN

RIVERA NAVARRO, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA DE BAYAMON

COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CREDITO LA PUERTORRIQUEÑA

Parte Demandante Vs. ANTONIO KOLTHOFF

BENNERS

Parte Demandada

CIVIL NUM: BY2019CV01342

• 504 • COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA.

EDICTO DE SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe, funcionario del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Bayamón, por la presente anuncia y hace saber al público en general que en cumplimiento con la Sentencia dictada en este caso, fechada 31 de diciembre de 2020 y de una Orden fechada 31 de enero de 2024 y Mandamiento fechado 1ero de febrero de 2024, librados por este Honorable Tribunal, procederé a vender en pública subasta, en mi oficina sita en el edificio que ocupa el Centro Judicial de Bayamón, al mejor postor y por dinero en efectivo o cheque certificado, todo título, derecho y/o interés de la parte demandada sobre la propiedad que se describe a continuación: RUSTICA: Parcela marcada con el número Cuarenta (40) en el plano de parcelación de la comunidad rural La Morenita, del Barrio Guaraguao del término municipal de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de cero punto mil setecientos treinta y uno de cuerda, equivalentes a Seiscientos Ochenta punto Sesenta y Dos (680.62) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el Norte, con la parcela número treinta y nueve de la comunidad; por el Sur, con las parcelas cuarenta y uno y cuarenta y dos de la comuni-

dad; por el Este, con la calle número tres de la comunidad; y por el Oeste, con la finca de la Sucesión de Manuel Fabricio. Inscrito al folio 171 del tomo 1332 de Bayamón, Sección I, finca número 59881. Se anuncia por medio de este edicto que la primera subasta en ejecución del inmueble antes descrito se celebrará el 22 de abril de 2024, a las 9:15 de la mañana y por el tipo mínimo pactado en la hipoteca de SETENTA Y CUATRO MIL OCHOCIENTOS

DOLARES ($74,800.00). De no haber remate o adjudicación en esta primera subasta, se celebrará en el mismo lugar antes mencionado una segunda subasta el 29 de abril de 2024, a las 9: 15 de la mañana, con tipo mínimo de 2/3 del tipo mínimo correspondiente fijado para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $49,866.66. De no haber remate o adjudicación en esta segunda subasta por el tipo mínimo indicado en el párrafo anterior, se celebrará en el mismo lugar, una tercera subasta el 6 de mayo de 2024, a las 9:15 de la mañana, con el tipo mínimo de la mitad del tipo mínimo fijado para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $37,400.00. Si tampoco hubiese remate o adjudicación en la tercera subasta y se declara desierta, se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo el acreedor adjudicarse el inmueble dentro de los 10 días siguientes por la totalidad de las cantidades adeudadas. Con el importe de esta venta se habrá de satisfacer la Sentencia dictada en este caso, la cual consiste de $48,490.62 de principal, $32.860.70 de intereses, los que continúan acumulándose hasta su recobro final, $2,760.96 en concepto de recargos, $1,735.21 en concepto de seguro, más $7,480.00 pactados para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. Se dispone que una vez celebrada la inmueble, los adjudicatarios serán puestos en dentro del término de 20 días a partir de subasta y vendido el posesión del inmueble dicha subasta por el Alguacil de este Tribunal, quien efectuará el lanzamiento de los ocupantes, de ser necesario. Se notifica e informa también de la presente a FULANO y SUTANO DE TAL, como personas desconocidas que puedan tener derechos en el inmueble objeto de este aviso. La Venta en Pública Subasta del referido inmueble se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte los mismos, a cuyo efecto se hace saber la fecha, hora y lugar de estas Subastas, para que cualquiera con interés pueda comparecer a la celebración de ellas. Los autos y todos los documentos relacionados al procedimiento del caso están disponibles en la Secretaría de este Tribunal durante horas laborables y para la concurrencia de licitadores expido este

Edicto, el cual se publicará en un diario de circulación diaria en Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas, una vez por semana y se fijará además, en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Alcaldía y Colecturía de Rentas Internas del Municipio donde se celebrará la Subasta y en la Colecturía más cercana al lugar de residencia de la parte demandada. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate.

EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL expido el presente que sello y firmo en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, a 21 de febrero de 2024. Maribel Lanzar Velázquez, Alguacil Placa 735.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. LUIS FELIPE REYES

HERRERA T/C/C LUIS

F. REYES HERRERA

T/C/C LUIS REYES

HERRERA POR SI Y EN REPRESENTACION DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA CON CARMEN DELIA

MELENDEZ NAZARIO

T/C/C Y OTROS

Demandado(a) GUILLERMO A. SOMOZA COLOMBANI BILLYSOMOZA@YAHOO.COM Caso Núm. : SJ2018CV06579 (Salón 803 CIVIL) Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA POR LA VIA ORDINARIA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: LUIS FELIPE REYES

HERRERA T/C/C LUIS

F. REYES HERRERA

T/C/C LUIS REYES

HERRERA POR SI Y EN REPRESENTACION DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA CON

CARMEN DELIA

MELENDEZ NAZARIO

T/C/C CARMEN DELIA

MELENDEZ NAZARIO

T/C/C CARMEN DELIA

MELENDEZ T/C/C

CARMEN MELENDEZ

NAZARIO POR SI Y EN

REPRESENTACION DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES

COMPUESTA CON LUIS

FELIPE REYES HERRERA

T, SECRETARIO DE HACIENDA ,SECRETARIO DE JUSTICIA

(Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 24 DE ENERO DE 2020, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 23 de febrero de 2024. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 23 de febrero de 2024. Griselda Rodríguez Collado, Secretaria. F/Karolyn Rivera Navarro, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAROLINA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA.

ISLAND PORTFOLOIO

SERVICES LLC COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE FUNDING LLC

Demandante V. LEROY ARRATIA DIAZ

Demandado(a)

GABRIEL ANTONIO RAMOS COLON GABRIEL.RAMOS@ORF-LAW.COM

NATALIE BONAPARTE SERVERA

NATALIE.BONAPARTE@ORF-LAW. COM

CASO NÚM.: TJ2023CV00251 (CIVIL 406) SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO - ORDINARIO.

NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: LEROY ARRATIA DIAZ (Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 23 DE FEBRERO DE 2024, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de

la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 23 de FEBRERO de 2024.

En CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, el 23 de FEBRERO de 2024. KANELLY ZAYAS ROBLES, Secretaria. f/MARICRUZ APONTE ALICEA, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMON SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMON. ELBA

MARTINEZ ROSADO

Demandante v. JOHN DOE Y OTROS

Demandado(a)

Caso Núm.: BY2023CV07343 (SALÓN 703). Sobre: CANCELACION O RESTITUCION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

JORGE GARCIA RONDON JAFGRONDON@GMAIL.COM

A: JOHN DOE & RICHARD

ROE (PERSONAS DESCONOCIDAS

CON POSIBLE INTERES).

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 21 DE FEBRERO DE 2024, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 22 de FEBRERO de 2024.

En BAYAMON, Puerto Rico, el 22 de FEBRERO de 2024. LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretario(a). f/LUREIMY ALICEA GONZALEZ, Secretario(a) Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE PONCE SALA SUPERIOR DE PONCE

ILUMINADA

CARDONA RIVERA

Demandante v. LA CORPORACION DE RENOVACION URBANA Y VIVIENDA DE PUERTO RICO Y OTROS

Demandado(a) ADALIZ RAMÍREZ RIVERA ADA.RAMIREZ@AFV.PR.GOV DANIA MARIE MATÍAS BREBÁN DANIA.MATIAS@JUSTICIA.PR. GOV ZILMARIE DELGADO PIERAS ZILMARIED@HOTMAIL.COM CASO NÚM.: PO2023CV02324 (SALÓN 602 CIVIL SUPERIOR) SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN O RESTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JUAN Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO, PARA SER NOTIFICADO POR EDICTO

(Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 14 DE FEBRERO DE 2024, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 22 de febrero de 2024. En Ponce, Puerto Rico, el 22 de febrero de 2024. Carmen G. Tirú Quiñones, Secretaria. F/Loyda Torres Irizarry, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

FELIPE LEBRON CRISTY

Demandante V. FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO Y OTROS

Demandado(a)

MARITZA DEL CARMEN GUZMÁN MATOS MGUZMAN@ PARTNERSLEGALSERVICESPR. COM

Caso Núm. : CA2023CV02764

Sobre: CANCELACIÓN O RESTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE

(Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 21 DE FEBRERO DE 2024, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 22 de febrero de 2024. En Carolina, Puerto Rico, el 22 de febrero de 2024. Kanelly Zayas Robles, Secretaria. F/Myriam Figueroa Pastrana, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN

JUAN SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante v.

MILQUEYLIN ANTONIO

RODRIGUEZ LENDOF Y OTROS

Demandado(a) GUILLERMO A. SOMOZA COLOMBANI BILLYSOMOZA@YAHOO. COM

Caso Núm. : SJ2021CV08431

(Salón 604 CIVIL) Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO - ORDINARIO Y OTROS. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR

EDICTO. A: IRMA GRACIELA

RIVERA V AZQUEZ

(Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que sus-

cribe le notifica a usted que el 20 DE FEBRERO DE 2024, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 21 de febrero de 2024. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 21 de febrero de 2024. Griselda Rodríguez Collado, Secretaria. F/ Raquel Díaz López, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADOL IBREA SOCIADOD E PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN

HÉCTOR FLORES SEDA

Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE DON

ELÍAS DÍAZ GONZÁLEZ; compuesta por ARCILIA MALDONADO PADILLA; RADAMÉS DÍAZ MALDONADO; JOSEFINA DÍAZ MALDONADO Y EDWIN DÍAZ ROBLES; RADAMÉS DÍAZ MALDONADO; OLGA COLÓN Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR ELLOS; JAMES DOE y JOHN DOE

Demandados

CIVIL NÚM.: BY2021CV02314

SALA:506 SOBRE: ACCIÓN

CIVIL. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.

A: JOSEFINA DÍAZ

MALDONADO; JAMES DOE Y JOHN JOE DE: HÉCTOR FLORES

SEDA REPRESENTADO

POR LA LCDA. MARIAM BERRIOS

SÁNCHEZ CON DIRECCIÓN 101 CALLE

ESTEBAN PADILLA, OFICINA 4, BAYAMÓN, P.R. 00959.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza, se le notifica que una

demanda ha sido presentada en su contra y se le requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto, radicando el original de su contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente y notificando con copia de la misma a la parte demandante a la dirección antes indicada. “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 que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal.” Se le apercibe que, de no hacerlo, se podrá dictar Sentencia en rebeldía concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. Se ordena al demandante enviar al demandado, por correo certificado con acuse de recibo, copia de la demanda y del emplazamiento a su última dirección conocida, eximiéndose a personas desconocidas cuyas identidades y residencias se ignoran. EXTENDIDO

BAJO MI FIRMA Y EL SELLO DEL TRIBUNAL, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 20 de febrero de 2024. Lcda. Laura I. Santa Sánchez, Secretaria del Tribunal. Marilyn Colón Carrasquillo, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAROLINA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA

ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE

FUNDING LLC

Demandante V.

ANGEL L

CARRASQUILLO RODRIGUEZ

Demandado(a)

KEVIN SÁNCHEZ CAMPANERO

KEVIN.SANCHEZ@ORF-LAW.COM

CASO NÚM. : CA2023CV01995

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO - ORDINARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO

A: ANGEL L

CARRASQUILLO RODRIGUEZ

(Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 20 DE FEBRERO DE 2024, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro

de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 21 de febrero de 2024. En Carolina, Puerto Rico, el 21 de febrero de 2024. Kanelly Zayas Robles, Secretaria. F/Maricruz Aponte Alicea, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO

AGENTE DE ACE ONE

FUNDING LLC

Demandante V. JAIME E.

CASANOVA TORRES

Demandado(a)

KEVIN SÁNCHEZ CAMPANERO

KEVIN.SANCHEZ@ORF-LAW.COM

Caso Núm.: CY2023CV00236 (SALÓN 803 - CIVIL) Sobre: Cobro de dinero - ordinario. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A JAIME E.

CASANOVA TORRES

(Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 16 DE FEBRERO DE 2024, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 21 de febrero de 2024. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 21 de febrero de 2024. Lisilda Martínez Agosto, Secretaria. F/Glo-

rimar Rivera Rivera, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. MARIA DEL PILAR

VILCHES NUÑEZ

Demandado(a) REGGIE DÍAZ HERNÁNDEZ RDIAZ@BDPRLAW.COM

Caso Núm.: SJ2023CV06335 (SALÓN 508 CIVIL) Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA: PROPIEDAD RESIDENCIAL. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: MARIA DEL PILAR

VILCHES NUÑEZ

(Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el

22 DE FEBRERO DE 2024, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 22 de febrero de 2024. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 22 de febrero de 2024. Griselda Rodríguez Collado, Secretaria. F/Martha Almodovar Cabrera, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. WILLIAM BERNARDO MENDEZ RUBIO Y OTROS

Demandado(a) REGGIE DÍAZ HERNÁNDEZ RDIAZ@BDPRLAW.COM

CASO NÚM.: SJ2023CV11976 (SALÓN 903 CIVIL) SOBRE: CANCELACIÓN O RESTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIA-

DO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: DORAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION Y JOHN DOE COMO TENEDOR DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ

(Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 20 DE FEBRERO DE 2024, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 22 de febrero de 2024. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 22 de febrero de 2024. Griselda Rodríguez Collado, Secretaria. F/ Mildred J. Franco Reventos, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN

MARJA TERESA

REY CANCIO

Demandante V. ORIENTAL BANK Y OTROS

Demandado(a)

JESSICA D. MARTÍNEZ BIRRIEL

JMARTBIRR@YAHOO.COM Caso Núm. : SJ2023CV11708 (Salón 903 CIVIL) Sobre: CANCELACIÓN O RESTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO.

NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO

A: JUAN DEL PUEBLO Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES Y CUALESQUIERA OTRA PERSONA

DESCONOCIDA CON POSIBLE INTERÉS EN LA OBLIGACIÓN CUYA CANCELACIÓN POR DECRETO JUDICIAL SE SOLICITA (Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que sus-

cribe le notifica a usted que el 20 DE FEBRERO DE 2024, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 22 de febrero de 2024. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 22 de febrero de 2024. Griselda Rodríguez Collado, Secretaria. F/ Mildred J. Franco Reventos, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS.

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC.

Demandante vs. HECTOR RIVERA

GONZALEZ; ESTADOS

UNIDOS DE AMERICA

Demandados

CIVIL NUM. CG2021CV02483.

SOBRE: EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO DE SUBAS-

TA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS

EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIA-

DO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: La Parte Demandada, al (a la) Secretario(a) de Hacienda de Puerto Rico y al Público General:

Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Caguas, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América y/o Giro Postal y Cheque Certificado, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, el 1ro de abril de 2024, a las 10:15 de la mañana, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se des-

cribe a continuación: URBANA: Solar en la Urbanización Villa Ana, sita en el barrio Mamey del término municipal de Juncos Puerto Rico, en el plano de inscripción con el número ocho (8) del bloque B (B-8) de la urbanización con una cabida superficial de trescientos veintidós punto veinticinco (322.25) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el Norte, en una distancia de trece punto cero cero (13.00) metros, con la carretera Estatal número ciento ochenta y seis (186); por el Sur, en trece punto cero cero (13.00) metros, con los solares veintidós (22) y veintitrés (23) del bloque B; por el Este, en veinticuatro punto ochocientos once (24.811) metros, con el solar Siete B; y por el Oeste, en veinticuatro punto setecientos noventa y cuatro (24.794) metros, con el solar nueve guion B (9-B). Enclava una casa de concreto para fines residenciales. Finca número 3,409, inscrita al folio 215 del tomo 101 de Juncos, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección II. La Hipoteca Revertida consta inscrita al folio 196 del tomo 128 de Juncos, Finca 3409, Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección II, inscripción 4ª. Propiedad localizada en: URB. VILLA ANA, #B-8 CALLE DOMINGO FIDALGO, JUNCOS, PR 00777. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes: Nombre del Titular: N/A. Suma de la Carga: N/A. Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: Nombre del Titular: Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano Suma de la Carga: $202,500.00 Fecha de Vencimiento: 12 de diciembre de 2087. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes. El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo de mínima subasta la suma de $202,500.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una segunda subasta por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, el 8 de abril de 2024, a las 10:15 de la mañana, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $135,000.00, 2/3 partes del tipo mínima establecido origi-

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN LIME HOME, LTD

Demandante Vs. FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES

desconocidos

DEMANDADOS

CIVIL NUM. BY2024CV00565

SOBRE: CANCELACION DE PAGARE EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.

ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS. 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.ramajudicial.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. MARJALIISA COLÓN

VILLANUEVA A su dirección:

PO. Box 7970 Ponce, PR. 00732. Tel: 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 hipotecario por la suma principal de dos cientos treinta y dos mil novecientos dólares ($232,900.00), con intereses al seis punto tres octavos por ciento (6.3/8%) anual, vencedero el primero de agosto de dos mil cuarenta y cinco (2045), a favor de Firstbank Puerto Rico, o a su orden, según surge de testimonio número once mil doscientos ochenta y nueve (11,289) de la escritura número seiscientas veinticinco (625) otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día treinta (30) de julio de dos mil cinco (2005), ante el notario Mario A. Quiles Rosado, y cuya obligación está inscrita al folio doscientos dieciséis (216) del tomo cuatrocientos setenta y cinco (475) de Toa Alta, finca número quince mil trescientos noventa y nueve (15,399), inscripción duodécima (12ma). La propiedad sobre la cual se constituyó dicha hipoteca es la siguiente: RÚSTICA: Lote once (11). Parcela de terreno radicada en el Barrio Mucarabones del término municipal de Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, con una

cabida superficial de quinientos setenta y cinco punto cero seis uno seis (575.0616) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con la finca principal de la cual se segrega; por el SUR, con la carretera ochocientos diecinueve (819); por el ESTE, con la finca principal de la cual se segrega y con los terrenos cedidos a doña Juana y Don Alfonso Rivera; por el OESTE, con camino vecinal dedicado a uso público. Inscrita al folio ochenta y tres (83) del tomo trescientos doce (312) de Toa Alta, finca número quince mil trescientos noventa y nueve (15,399) del RegistroPropiedad Sección Tercera (3ra.) de Bayamón. 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 Bayamón, Puerto Rico, a 8 día febrero de 2024. Lda. Laura l. Santa Sánchez, SECRETARIA. Marilyn Colón Carrasquillo, SUB-SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CAGUAS

FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandante Vs. LA SUCESIÓN DE JOSE BORIA DE LEON COMPUESTA POR

SHEILA BORIA, LINETTE BORIA TORRES, ELSIE MARIA BORIA TORRES Y JENIFFER BORIA TORRES, VILMA MARTINEZ; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DE LA SUCESION DE JOSÉ BORIA DE LEON; MARTA GARCIA GELPI T/C/C MARIA GARCÍA

GELPI ADMINISTRACION PARA EL SUSTENTO DE MENORES Y EL CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES

Parte Demandada

CASO CIVIL NUM:

CG2023CV04347 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. ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. S.S.

A: SHEILA BORIA, LINETTE BORIA TORRES, ELSIE MARIA BORIA TORRES, JENIFFER

BORIA TORRES COMO HEREDERAS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE JOSÉ BORIA DE LEÓN Y JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE JOSÉ BORIA DE LEÓN; MARTA GARCIA GELPI

T/C/C MARIA GARCÍA

GELPI

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.ramajudicial.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. Marjaliisa Colón Villanueva, al PO BOX 7970, Ponce, P.R. 00732; Teléfono: 787-8434168. En dicha demanda se tramita un procedimiento de cobro de dinero y ejecución de hipoteca bajo el número mencionado en el epígrafe. Se alega en dicho procedimiento que la parte Demandada incurrió en el incumplimiento del Contrato de Hipoteca, al no poder pagar las mensualidades vencidas correspondientes a los meses de agosto de 2023, hasta el presente, más los cargos por demora correspondientes. Además, adeuda a la parte demandante las costas, gastos y honorarios 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 la deuda ascendente a la suma de $47,856.97 de principal, compuesto de un primer principal por la suma de $46,378.32 y un balance diferido de $1,478.65, más los intereses sobre la suma de $46,378.32 al 7.125% de interés anual, así como todos aquellos créditos y sumas que surjan de la faz de la obligación hipotecaria y de la hipoteca que la garantiza, incluyendo la suma estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. 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: URBANA: Parcela marcada con el numero setenta y seis (76) en el plano de parcelación de la Comunidad Rural Canta Gallo del Barrio Mamey del termino municipal de Juncos, Puerto Rico, con una cabida super-

ficial de trescientos setenta y seis punto diecinueve (376.19) metros cuadrados. En lindes por el Norte, con la calle once (11) de la comunidad; por el Sur, con la calle siete (7) de la comunidad; por el Este, con la parcela setenta y siete (77) de la comunidad; y por el Oeste, con la parcela número setenta y cinco (75) de la comunidad. Inscrita al folio cinco (5) del tomo trescientos sesenta y cinco (365) de Juncos, finca trece mil quinientos ochenta y cuatro (13,584) Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección II. 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. Además, como miembro de la Sucesión de José Boria De León se ha presentado una solicitud de interpelación judicial para que sirva en el término de treinta (30) días aceptar o repudiar la herencia. Se le apercibe que si no compareciera usted a expresarse dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este edicto en torno a la aceptación o repudiación de la herencia, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia del causante José Boria De León y por consiguiente, responderán por las cargas de dicha herencia conforme dispone el 1578 del Código Civil de Puerto Rico, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 11021 En Caguas, Puerto Rico, a 12 de febrero de 2024. LISILDA MARTINEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA. ANA H. LUGO MUÑOZ, SUB-SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA MUNICIPAL DE CABO ROJO

COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CRÉDITO DE CABO ROJO

Parte Demandante Vs FELMAIRIM

SANTIAGO NEGRÓN

Parte Demandada

CIVIL NÚM. CB2023CV00507

SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO (REGLA 60). EDICTO. A: FELMAIRIM

SANTIAGO NEGRÓN

Se le apercibe que la parte demandante por mediación del Lcdo. Rafael Fabre Colón, P.O. Box 277, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 00681, Tel. 787-265-0334, ha radicado la acción de epígrafe en su contra. Copia de la demanda, emplazamientos y del presente edicto le ha sido enviado por correo a la última dirección conocida. Pueden ustedes obtener mayor información sobre el asunto revisando los autos en el Tribunal. Se le apercibe que tiene usted un término de treinta (30) días para

radicar contestación a dicha demanda de cobro de dinero y/o cualquier escrito que estime usted conveniente 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, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal de epígrafe, pero que de no radicarse escrito alguno ante el Tribunal dentro de dicho término el Tribunal procederá a ventilar el procedimiento sin más citarle ni oírle. Dada en CABO ROJO, Puerto Rico, hoy 7 de FEBRERO de 2024. LCDA. NORMA G SANTANA IRIZARRY, SECRETARIA GENERAL. TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA MUNICIPAL DE CABO ROJO. MARIA M. AVILÉS BONILLA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA DE PONCE ORIENTAL BANK

Demandante V. JACKELINE M. RODRIGUEZ HERNANDEZ, FULANO DE TAL Y SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandados

CIVIL NUM.: PO2023CV03714 SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EMPLAZAMIENTOP OR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDÓS DE AMERICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: JACKELINE M. RODRIGUEZ HERNANDEZ, FULANO DE TAL Y SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

POR MEDIO del presente edicto se le notifica de la radicación de una demanda en cobro de dinero por la vía ordinaria en la que se alega que usted adeuda a la parte demandante, Oriental Bank, ciertas sumas de dinero, y las costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado de este litigio. El demandante, Oriental Bank, ha solicitado que se dicte sentencia en contra suya y que se le ordene pagar las cantidades reclamadas en la demanda.

POR EL PRESENTE EDICTO se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva a la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este em-

plazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://www.poderjudicial. pr/index/php/tribunalelectronico/, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra, y conceder el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente, sin más citarle ni oírle. El abogado de la parte demandante es: Jaime Ruiz Saldaña, RUA número 11673; Dirección: PO Box 366276, San Juan, PR 00936-6276; Teléfono: (787) 759-6897; Correo electrónico: legal@jrslawpr. com. Se le advierte que dentro de los diez (10) días siguientes a la publicación del presente edicto, se le estará enviando a usted por correo certificado con acuse de recibo, una copia del emplazamiento y de la demanda presentada al lugar de su última dirección conocida: Urb. Tibes, D25 Calle Agueybana, Ponce, PR 00730. Expedido bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal en Ponce, Puerto Rico, hoy día 6 de febrero de 2024. Carmen G. Tiro Quiñones, Secretaria. Joan M. Rosario Albino, Sub-Secretaria.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA DE FAJARDO ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE FUNDING, LLC

Parte Demandante Vs. RUBEN BLASINI SANTOS

Parte Demandada

CIVIL NÚM. RG2023CV00284 SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS.

A: RUBEN BLASINI SANTOS • URB LOS ARBOLES N13 CALLE 515, RIO GRANDE PR 00745 • PO BOX 882, RIO GRANDE PR 00745-0882 POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración

de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:///www.poderjudicial.pr/ index.php/tribunal-electronico, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia al abogado de la parte demandante, Natalie Bonaparte Servera cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección natalie.bonaparte@ orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com.

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Fajardo, Puerto Rico, hoy día 9de enero de 2024. Wanda I. Seguí Reyes, Secretaria. Merlly Olmo Torres, Secretaria Auxiliar Servicios a Sala.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE ARECIBO SALA SUPERIOR DE ARECIBO

ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE FUNDING LLC

Demandante V. MELVIN M BONET RIVERA

Demandado(a)

KEVIN SÁNCHEZ CAMPANERO

KEVIN.SANCHEZ@ORF-LAW.COM

MELVIN M BONET RIVERA

HC 1 BOX 2403 SABANA HOYOS, PUERTO RICO 00688-8754

CASO NÚM.: AR2023CV01374

(SALÓN 401 - CIVIL SUPERIOR) SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO - REGLA 60. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: MELVIN M BONET RIVERA

(Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 20 DE FEBRERO DE 2024, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia,

Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 20 de febrero de 2024. En Arecibo, Puerto Rico, el 20 de febrero de 2024. Vivian Y. Fresse González, Secretaria. F/Vanessa González Malave, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE FUNDING LLC Demandante V. LEONARDO

ARROYO SANCHEZ

Demandado(a) KEVIN SÁNCHEZ CAMPANERO KEVIN.SANCHEZ@ORF-LAW.COM

CASO NÚM.: CT2023CV00083 (SALÓN 402 SUPERIOR CIVIL) SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO - ORDINARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO

A: LEONARDO ARROYO SANCHEZ 17 RES. JUANA MATOS APT. 161 CATAÑO PR 00962

(Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 16 DE FEBRERO DE 2024, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 20 de febrero de 2024.

En BAYAMÓN, Puerto Rico, el 20 de febrero de 2024. Laura I. Santa Sánchez, Secretaria. F/ Noelia Matias Salas, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal.

Sold out: Registration for San Blas Half Marathon closes early

By THE STAR STAFF

San Blas Half Marathon President Einar Ramos López announced on Wednesday the early closing of registrations, with a record 2,100 runners, for the 62nd edition of the event this Sunday, March 3 in Coamo.

“It is with great satisfaction and emotion that we announce to the country that we have reached 2,100 registered for this year,” Ramos López said in a written statement. “This is the highest number in the 62 years of the event’s existence. In 2023, we made history with 1,613 athletes, this year 2024 we have made the determination to close the registration process at 2,100 so as not to alter the logistics, resources and planning that we put into action for the race.”

The director of the Delta Phi Delta Fraternity thanked the Puerto Rican runners, teams, running clubs, media and sponsors for this year’s success.

“Based on previous events, for this edition we prepared extensive logistics for 2,100 athletes,” Ramos López said. “There is no doubt that the 2025 edition will have greater parameters of athletic participation. The San Blas Half Marathon is today established

as The Sports Event of Puerto Rico. The presentation of athletes will be on Saturday, March 2, 2024 at the Delta Phi

Delta Fraternity facilities at 10 a.m. We are waiting for you in Villa De San Blas.”

For his part, Antonio Rodríguez, the executive director of the race, reminded runners that they have until Saturday to pick up their race packets at the fraternity facilities in Coamo on highway PR-150.

“It is important that you know that the packets will be available in our Fraternity,” Rodríguez said. Among the runners this year we have the Peruvian Gladys Tejada, two-time winner of the San Blas, Bernard Njeno from Kenya, winner of the event in 2022, and from Puerto Rico, runners Paola Ramos and Arnaldo Martínez, to whom the San Blas Half Marathon is dedicated. We are waiting for you in this 62nd edition in Coamo.”

The San Blas 2024 Artisanal Gastronomic Festival begins today and will last until Sunday night with the best of Coameña gastronomy, artisans and a first-class musical selection. In the three days of celebration artists such as Ednita Nazario, Trio Los Condes, Algarete, Luis Figueroa and his Orchestra, Limi-T 21, Andrés Jiménez, Giselle, A Fuego, Plenéalo, Charlie Aponte and Wilfrido Vargas will perform on stage.

Unopened case of more than 10,000 hockey cards sells for $3.72 million

By AMANDA HOLPUCH

Asealed case filled with unopened boxes of Canadian hockey trading cards sold for $3.72 million earlier this week after a father and son found them while cleaning the father’s house in Saskatchewan.

The high price takes into account the mystery inside: The case could contain as many as 30 of the holy grail of collectible hockey cards, a Wayne Gretzky rookie card from 1979. Or it might not.

The buyer is probably content with the uncertainty, and prepared to never know the answer, explained Jason Simonds, a sports-card specialist at Heritage Auctions, the Dallas-based auction house that brokered the sale.

“The person who buys this, one night could crack open a couple beers and open up the case and then go to town on these 16 boxes,” Simonds said. “But chances are it’ll stay as a case for at least the foreseeable future.”

This is because unopened boxes are not purchased just for the potential riches inside. Some people appreciate the nostalgic value of boxes from the 1970s and 1980s and might display them as they are. Others buy unopened boxes as investments. If the Gretzky card and others continue to increase in value, so will the case sold Sunday, Simonds said.

“When it comes to card collecting, a lot of times it’s not just purely for profit,” Simonds said. “It’s because they have

some sort of draw toward Mickey Mantle or Babe Ruth or Joe DiMaggio or, in this case, Wayne Gretzky, which is the hockey equivalent of those guys.”

The 1979 Wayne Gretzky card issued by O-Pee-Chee is prized by collectors. In May 2021, one of the cards sold for $3.75 million in a private sale that was brokered by Heritage Auctions.

Simonds said the case sold Sunday — the kind that would have been shipped to a corner store or other card distributor — could include 25 to 30 of the Gretzky cards and that it would be a “statistical anomaly” for the box not to contain any based on how many cards are inside.

The case was found while the father and son in Saskatchewan, who remained anonymous, were cleaning out the father’s house, which had a storage room stacked floor to ceiling with boxes, Simonds said. He said the father was an “avid”

collector in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, often purchasing a couple of cases of cards each year from a distributor and selling or trading the cards inside. He never got around to examining the case that sold Sunday, which would have cost him about $150 in 1979, Simonds said.

The box went to an anonymous buyer in Canada, Simonds said, breaking the record for the most money spent on unopened sports cards and the most anyone has spent on a hockey collectible.

Baseball Card Exchange, an authenticator that specializes in unopened vintage sports cards, confirmed that 16 wax boxes were inside the case. Each box contains 48 packs of cards, with 14 cards per pack, for a total of more than 10,000 cards. The set contains 396 different player cards, which means that if the assortment were perfectly random, it would contain 27 Gretzky cards, according to the auction house’s listing.

If the case does contain a couple dozen of the prized Gretzky cards, they might not be in good condition, Simonds warned. The cards could be slightly off-center, have ink smudges or other flaws.

The buyer might never find out.

Simonds said that if the case were to be opened, it would probably be to sell the individually sealed boxes inside. “There’s not a lot of people that are willing to spend $4 million on a case of hockey cards,” he said, “but at a quarter-million dollars a box, there’s a slightly larger audience.”

The record 2,100 runners registered for this Sunday’s 62nd edition of the San Blas Half Marathon eclipses the 1,613 athletes who entered last year’s race.

Why Guardians’ bid to boost their offense starts with … swinging-and-missing?

By ZACK MEISEL / THE ATHLETIC

Outfielder Steven Kwan of the Cleveland Guardians was hacking away in a Chicago batting cage over the winter. One swing and a miss followed another. It was whiff after whiff after whiff.

Kwan had the second-best strikeout rate in MLB the past two years, but, still, he would lift his front foot, uncork his bat and come up empty, again and again. All on purpose, just to see how it felt.

To become the hitter he aspires to be, and for the Guardians to field a more proficient offense, Kwan needed to get comfortable with the idea of swinging and missing once in a while. It is not an intentional attempt to sabotage his contact ability, but an organizational plea for him and a roster full of bat-to-ball mavens to take more chances and swing with more authority.

That is the challenge facing the Guardians and their hitting coach, Chris Valaika. This team is largely the same group that last season produced the lowest home run total and the lowest rate of hard contact in the league.

How do you repair a power-starved offense that will feature similar personnel? How do you perform a face-lift to a lineup with such a distinct identity? The bloop troop program flourished in 2022 but flopped in 2023.

To make more hard contact, the coaches have preached, batters need to take more chances. To take more chances, hitters must be amenable to more swings and misses. And so, after some initial hesitation, Kwan sought to gain familiarity with failing.

“It’s almost like telling yourself it’s OK to swing through pitches,” center fielder Myles Straw said earlier this week at the Guardians’ spring training facility in Goodyear, Arizona.

Then-Cleveland Guardians player Oscar González hits a two-run single that gave Cleveland a walk-off win in Game 3 of their A.L. division series with the Yankees, at Progressive Field in Cleveland, on Oct. 15, 2022. A year after he was a postseason hero for Cleveland, the free-swinging González became a roster casualty. (Maddie McGarvey/The New York Times)

Sometimes competency at making contact can be detrimental. Take, for example, a change-up on the outside corner, in which the hitter’s best-case scenario might be to tap it toward the second baseman.

“I’d rather you be 0-1 in a count than 0 for 1,” Valaika said.

Valaika acknowledged this approach would not vault this group of hitters to the top of the slugging leader boards. Kwan, Straw, Will Brennan and Tyler Freeman are not going to turn into 30-homer threats who also strike out 200 times a season. Straw switched trainers and added 10 pounds of muscle over the winter in the hope of driving the ball more, but he also has one homer in his past 1,273 plate appearances.

It’s about trade-offs, accepting some whiffs in exchange for some doubles and homers. Valaika suggested he would sign up for a middle-of-the-pack home run ranking if the Guardians dropped to, say, fifth in strikeout rate after finishing first the past two years.

“It’s embarrassing to decide to swing at something, swing hard and then miss it,” Kwan said. “I just have to get over that.”

He added: “If I miss, that’s almost good, because I get to survive as opposed to I make contact but it’s weak contact. I was up, 2-0, and now it’s a groundout.”

The key is capitalizing on hitters’ counts. It’s one thing to resort to a defensive swing when the pitcher lands two strikes to start an at-bat. But when ahead in the count, 2-0 or 3-1, when confident the pitcher won’t nibble, there’s an opportunity to swing with more conviction, even if the downside is missing the pitch.

Kwan, Straw, Brennan, Freeman, José Ramírez and Josh Naylor tend to have elite contact rates. But Kwan, Straw and Brennan ranked near the bottom of the league in hard-hit rate last season. They received the bulk of the playing time in Cleveland’s outfield, which recorded the lowest home run total (18) of any outfield in a nonpandemic-or-strike-shortened season since the 1976 Chicago White Sox. Cleveland ranked third in singles, but the difference between its league-worst homer total (124) and the 29th-ranked total (151) was greater than the difference between 29th and 19th.

“We have to break that mold,” Valaika said. “The hallmark of the organization has been drafting good decision makers, highcontact bats. So we have to add to more of that impact potential that we have.”

Not everyone on the roster fits into that contact-first category. Trade acquisition Estevan Florial, Rule 5 draft selection Deyvison De Los Santos and prospects Johnathan Rodriguez, Jhonkensy Noel and

George Valera, for instance, could enter the mix this season. All five wield plenty of power and swing-and-miss potential.

The messaging to hitters with those profiles isn’t too dissimilar, though. To maximize their power, they need to identify which pitches they can wallop. Strike zone awareness doomed Oscar González, who could not resist chasing pitches, which too often resulted in either whiffs or weak contact, neutralizing his power. A year after he was a postseason hero for Cleveland, he became a roster casualty.

“We can live with a lot of swing and miss,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “It’s, ‘What are we swinging and missing at?’ That’s the biggest question.”

Brennan, who hit Cleveland’s first Cactus League homer of 2024 on Sunday, ranked in the 88th percentile in whiff rate and the 95th percentile in strikeout rate last year, but because he chased so much (sixth percentile), pitchers offered him nothing worthwhile. The result? The league’s second-lowest walk rate and seventh-lowest slugging percentage of any hitter with at least 450 trips to the plate. A better understanding of which pitches he can bruise could go a long way.

For Kwan, the goal is not 30 homers. That’s not realistic for someone with 11 homers in two seasons in the majors. But Valaika believes he could hit 10 to 15, and just posing the threat is enough to stoke discomfort in a pitcher who otherwise would not sweat if behind in the count. The Guardians ranked 25th in walk rate, in part because pitchers could attack the zone without fearing they would surrender the long ball.

“It’s a weird dynamic and idea to wrap your head around,” Kwan said. “I’ve been so used to finding the barrel and making contact in a certain way that my success is a double in the gap or a single the other way, whereas another guy will try to hit the ball literally out of the ballpark, not even just over the fence. I’ve never had that opportunity because it’s just not realistic at times. But there are times when I can take that shot.”

Swinging and missing isn’t the Guardians’ goal, but it may be a necessary evil.

Valaika said it was about “taking shots, looking for go zones, looking for areas that we can impact the ball, rather than just putting the ball in play.”

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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

Aries (Mar 21-April 20)

Don’t be surprised if a lot of uninvited visitors show up today, Aries. You could host an impromptu social event as neighbors stop by to bring news of changes in the area. You have energy to spare right now, so you’re perfectly able to accommodate your guests. But don’t let yourself get overwhelmed. Simply offer whatever refreshments you happen to have on hand and let the party take its course.

Taurus (April 21-May 21)

You can expect to run a lot of errands today, Taurus, even though you would probably prefer to stay at home. You have obligations to fulfill for friends and family, and you can’t bear to let them down. Try to get everything done as quickly as possible so that you’ll still have the afternoon free for yourself.

Gemini (May 22-June 21)

You have energy to burn, Gemini, and you intend to use it. Ask friends to join you in the park. Or set up a round-robin tennis match for the afternoon. Enjoy your day outdoors, but take care not to push too hard. If you strain muscles today, it could be weeks before you’re fully healed. If you pace yourself and take plenty of water breaks, then you’ll enjoy the day with no repercussions.

Cancer (June 22-July 23)

Today you could receive word of a promotion or exciting new challenge at work. Although this is something you’ve wanted for a long time, you may hesitate to accept immediately. Could it be because your self-confidence is rather low right now, Cancer? Don’t let that stop you! This feeling is only temporary, while the opportunity could develop into something lasting. Don’t lose your chance!

Leo (July 24-Aug 23)

Money and friendship rarely mix, Leo. Keep this in mind today if a friend hits you up for a loan. You’d be better off helping her strategize ways to earn more money. Much as you like to help the underdog, a temporary approach often does more harm than good. A quick loan won’t help your friend’s fundamental problem of compulsive spending. Offering to pay for counseling would be a gift of enduring value.

Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)

This is unlike you, Virgo, but today you’re a lean, mean cleaning machine. You get it in your head that this is the day for putting your house in order, and you set about single-handedly doing it. That’s way too much cleaning and organizing for one person to do. Why not enlist some help? Bribe your partner or kids, play some loud music, and all of you will finish the tasks in no time.

Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)

You can’t help but feel a bit frustrated today, Libra. There are places to go, people to see, and you can’t seem to get out of the house. Your responsibilities are at home now, and the situation won’t change for a while. You can, however, plan some mini-vacations without too much effort. Treat yourself one evening to fantastic take-out food and a sappy old movie. That might be just the thing to lift your spirits.

Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)

If you overindulged last night, you’re likely paying the price today. If your head is screaming and your blood feels like molasses, you know that too much of a good thing can make you feel rotten! Much as you feel driven to get out of bed and get on with your chores, there’s no point, Scorpio. You’d be better off resting. You’ll be your old self by afternoon. Your work can wait until then.

Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)

Without a doubt, there’s a lot of work to be done around the house. With today’s planetary configuration, you feel especially vested in making your home look its best. But you don’t have to get everything done today, Sagittarius. Rather than scrubbing floors and dusting furniture, why not invest in a few inexpensive items that will perk the place up a bit? A few area rugs and scatter pillows could make a big difference!

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)

You probably aren’t feeling your best today, Capricorn. No doubt your illness is a result of recent overindulgence. You can’t blame anyone but yourself for your crashing headache and queasy stomach. Try not to take your bad mood out on the family. Just ask them to close the curtains and shut the door. You will emerge in the early afternoon feeling a bit wobbly but definitely on the mend.

Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)

There is such a thing as being too honest, Aquarius. You’ve experienced in the past how your determination to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth can cause hurt feelings. Today try to exercise a bit of tact and diplomacy. You will still be able to get your point across, with the added bonus that your audience will still be speaking to you once you’ve done so.

Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)

You want nothing more than to be alone today. For that to happen, Pisces, you need to turn off your phone, shut off the computer, and hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door. Even then, your friends are likely to walk past the sign and ask what’s for dinner. It’s one of those days. People want to congregate and they want to do it at your house. Order your favorite comfort food and enjoy the chaos!