Thursday Mar 28, 2024

$776 Million Federal Injection to Fund 23 Infrastructure Projects

White House Warns of ‘Difficult Path’ to Baltimore Port Recovery

A Holy Week Hike for Tourism

Ports Chief:

Baltimore Bridge

Collapse Won’t Impact PR P6

More Than 46,000 Cruise Ship Passengers Expected; Month’s Room Tax Collection

Total on Track for Record

Photo: Héctor René Santos

GOOD MORNING

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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.

Today’s Weather

Federal injection of $776 million to fund infrastructure projects

By THE STAR STAFF

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia and Housing Secretary William Rodríguez Rodríguez announced on Wednesday the investment of $776.2 million in CDBG-MIT funds for 23 projects under the Infrastructure Mitigation-Competitive (INFRA-MIT) program.

The projects are geared toward flood control, improvements to the telecommunications system, solid waste management, and maritime and air transportation infrastructure, among others.

“From hurricanes Irma and Maria to the earthquakes that affected our island, we have prioritized providing new resilience to reconstruction works that allow the vital infrastructure of our island to withstand the onslaught of potential future disasters,” the governor told reporters. “To that end, as part of the Infrastructure Mitigation Program, or INFRA-MIT, of the federal housing department’s CDBG-MIT Program, we have set aside just over $1 billion in mitigation funding for projects that strengthen the critical facilities of our island and at the same time promote the mitigation of climatic, seismic and deterioration threats to our infrastructure and the ability to provide services to citizens, particularly to our vulnerable populations.”

Pierluisi said the selected projects have a total cost of over $900 million and the allocation of the INFRA-MIT program will be just over $776 million.

Most of the projects are in the planning stage, and in six of them the designs are practically completed, the governor said. Among the next steps will be a series of meetings where entities can receive technical help for complying with state and federal regulations to apply for subsidies.

The projects must comply with at least one or more of the seven community lifelines, including safety and security, hazardous materials, energy, food, water and shelter, health and medicine, communications, and transportation.

“We are proud to move forward with these transformative

projects that will make a significant difference in our communities,” the island Housing secretary said. “Each project has been selected for its potential impact on improving the quality of life of Puerto Ricans, demonstrating our focus on sustainability, innovation, and resilience.”

After an evaluation in compliance with the requirements of the federal government, 23 projects from 15 municipalities, four government agencies and two non-governmental entities were preselected. Among those chosen include the municipalities of Aguadilla, Barceloneta, Canóvanas, Ceiba, Coamo, Dorado, Isabela, Juana Díaz, Lajas, Maunabo, Moca, Toa Baja, Utuado, Vega Alta and Yabucoa, which will have flood control projects, improvements to their telecommunications systems, redundancy and resilience of public services, recycling and solid waste management, transportation, security and protection.

Likewise, four government agencies, including the Ports Authority, the Department of Transportation and Public Works, the Office of Management and Budget and the Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, were chosen for projects related to transportation, flood control in roads, telecommunications of critical services and security. In addition, two non-governmental organizations, in this case, MedCentro and Menonita Hospital in Aibonito, will develop projects involving access to health services.

“Meanwhile, under this program, we have strategic infrastructure projects that will receive funds and include important projects such as PR-10, La Vita in Mayagüez, and the Army Terminal, which we announced yesterday,” Pierluisi added.

Regarding the distribution of the awarded CDBG-MIT funds, the municipalities will receive $382.2 million, government agencies will obtain $318 million and non-governmental organizations will have $76 million to carry out their projects.

The distribution of funds underscores the government of Puerto Rico’s focus on investing in resilient and sustainable infrastructure, which benefits a wide range of sectors on the island, the officials pointed out. Following the coordination meetings with the selected entities to ensure compliance with the necessary requirements, the process will continue with the formalization of the subsidy agreements.

The Housing Department will also provide assistance and training related to CDBG-MIT funds management and compliance.

EDITOR’S NOTE: So that our employees can participate in Holy Week activities, the STAR will not publish on Friday, March 29.

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said the 23 selected projects will have a total cost of over $900 million. (Gov. Pierluisi/Facebook)

Ports chief: Baltimore bridge collapse won’t impact PR

By THE STAR STAFF

Puerto Rico Ports Authority Executive Director Joel Pizá Batiz said Wednesday that at the moment, the bridge collapse at the port of Baltimore is not expected to impact the island’s supply lines.

“There shouldn’t be any worry or anxiety in the population,” the official said in response to questions from the press. “Much of our cargo comes through the Port of Jacksonville. Of the vehicles that arrive in Puerto Rico, most of them come by rail. Yes, there are certain states in the nation that have their distribution chain a little threatened, mostly in the western zone, but for Puerto Rico there should be no alarm or anxiety about shortages of food or vehicles.”

“Maybe some importer, a particular product …” Pizá Batiz added. “The distribution chain is very wide, it’s billions of dollars, but there should be no anxiety in the population about that accident. Yesterday, the president of

the United States mentioned that the federal government is going to be fully immersed in opening this navigation channel as quickly as possible. The [U.S. Army] Corps of Engineers is collaborating, the Coast Guard is collaborating, specifically to be able to open that navigation channel so that maritime traffic can be quickly restored. Talking about inflation costs to a chain of a more than $1.3 trillion economy right now I think is going to be very speculative. I think that channel should be open in a week, two weeks maximum, but there should be no anxiety in the population about that.”

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, a Dali cargo ship struck a column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge, collapsing several spans of the bridge structure and prompting the closure of the Port of Baltimore. The marine terminal is the deepest in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay and handles the largest volume of U.S. commercial car and light truck transportation, as well as the largest amounts of imported gypsum and sugar.

Justice chief confirms probe into alleged fraud involving political endorsements

By THE STAR STAFF

Justice Secretary Domingo Emanuelli Hernández confirmed on Wednesday an ongoing investigation related to complaints of false political endorsements.

“We confirm that the Department of Justice is investigating allegations of false endorsements of several candidates for elective positions,” Emanuelli Hernández said in a written statement. “After the Police Bureau attended to the referrals presented by the State Elections Commission, the cases were sent to the Prosecutor’s Office to continue the investigative process and determine if charges should be filed.”

“To guarantee the purity of the process, we will not issue

additional statements until the investigation is completed,” he added.

Among the cases of potentially false endorsements, it was reported in early February that one in favor of a candidate for resident commissioner under the New Progressive Party (NPP), Elmer Román, was supposedly issued by Nelsa López Colón, the widow of former governor Rafael Hernández Colón.

Other cases confirmed by State Elections Commission Alternate Chairwoman Jessika Padilla Rivera involved another NPP candidate for resident commissioner, Sen. William Villafañe Ramos.

Padilla Rivera would have referred the cases to state and federal agencies.

Comptroller: Several Río Grande municipal officials are under investigation

By THE STAR STAFF

After the island Justice Department recommended the appointment of a special independent prosecutor to investigate Río Grande Mayor Ángel González Damudt over irregularities in the rental of vehicles, Assistant Comptroller David de Jesús said Wednesday that other municipal officials are under investigation.

De Jesús confirmed in a radio report that the situation with the rental of vehicles is not the only irregularity found in the northeast town’s operations.

The Comptroller’s Office initiated an audit in the municipality that led them to identify transactions that raised a red flag not only against the mayor, but also against his former finance director, Luis Pagán Padró.

The assistant comptroller said the agency made the corresponding referrals to the Justice Department and to the Office of the Special Independent Prosecutor Panel (OPFEI by its Spanish initials).

De Jesús said the vehicle rental transactions are part of a report on municipal operations, but other transactions identified as part of that audit will be made public later.

“There are other situations related to the municipality’s operations …” he said. “They could be internal control situations or violations of the law. We will communicate about them at the appropriate time.”

De Jesús added that if federal funds were spent in the transactions, the corresponding authorities will establish whether there is relevant information that warrants further investigation.

Although he did not specify whether federal funds were used, the official confirmed the existence of transactions from the emergency period after the passage of hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.

The audit is related to the rental of vehicles to Allied Car & Truck Rental Inc. from August 2016 to December 2020 in which the comptroller says the municipality did not follow proper norms and rules on the use of public funds.

Puerto Rico Ports Authority Executive Director Joel Pizá Batiz (Facebook)

Jessika Padilla Rivera, alternate chairwoman of the State Elections Commission

Río Grande Mayor Ángel González Damudt

More than 46,000 cruise passenger arrivals on tap for Holy Week

Starting March 22 and through Holy Week, the cruise sector will have contributed some $6 million to the island’s treasury with 11 homeport departures from San Juan with some 16,000 passengers, and nine transit stops with 30,560 passengers.

By THE STAR STAFF

The arrival of more than 46,000 cruise ship passengers between Friday, March 22 and Sunday, March 31 and hotel occupancy projections for the long weekend exceeding 91% augur a strong week of activity in the island’s tourism sector, Puerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC) Executive Director Carlos Mercado Santiago said Wednesday.

“We can affirm that Tourism is experiencing an excellent season during the traditional ‘Spring Break’ and Easter holidays,” Mercado Santiago said in a written statement. “We are pleased with the work we continue to do together with industry partners to promote all the attractions and natural beauty that Puerto Rico has to offer, while stimulating economic activity for the benefit of residents in all regions of the island.”

So far, the highest percentage of hotel registrations are

in regions outside the San Juan Metro area with an average of 94%. As for the Paradores de Puerto Rico, a program created by the Tourism Company in 1973, they have reported 100% of their rooms full. It should be noted that these projections may continue to increase over the next few days, as a result of last-minute bookings.

Mercado Santiago added that preliminary projections from the PRTC indicate that the total room tax collection for March will exceed $15 million, compared to the same month in 2023, when collections of $13.7 million were reported. If those numbers hold, this would be the highest-grossing month in the history of tourism in Puerto Rico.

The cruise sector, meanwhile, will contribute some $6,048,958 to the local treasury with 11 departures from the port of San Juan (homeport) with around 16,000 passengers, and nine transit stops with 30,560 passengers.

Mercado Santiago noted that the projections in all sectors continue to be very encouraging.

Vieques safety plan in place with 20,000 Holy Week visitors expected

By THE STAR STAFF

Vieques Mayor José “Junito” Corcino Acevedo met on Wednesday with Bureau of Emergency Management and Disaster Administration (NMEAD by its Spanish acronym) Commissioner Nino Correa Filomena to draw up and implement the security plan for the offshore island municipality during the Holy Week holidays, with more than 20,000 new visitors expected.

“The safety of the residents of Vieques, as well as those who visit us this Holy Week, is a priority for us. That is why we held a meeting with our friend Nino Correa, to outline the action plans to attend to a floating population that we expect to exceed 20,000 in the coming days,” the mayor said. “These plans we discussed include attending to emergency situations, both at sea and on land, preventive surveillance of areas of high tourist interest and

redoubling resources at the Sun Bay resort, among others.”

“As of today [Wednesday], thousands of visitors have begun to arrive on the island,” Corcino Acevedo added. “Our population of around 8,000 will triple in the coming days and we have to be very attentive to any issues. We are concerned about the conditions of the sea, which as you know, there is an announcement of high currents for the north coast, from Rincón to Vieques, due to an unusual sea surge. We urge bathers to take into consideration this warning that, although it ends tomorrow, Thursday, it is no less true that it can be extended until Saturday,”

The mayor noted that the Vieques Municipal Police force is prepared and has already implemented a preventive patrol program in areas of high tourist interest. Likewise, the municipal emergency management team has carried out drills to be prepared for any eventuality.

Corcino Acevedo thanked NMEAD “for preparing our

team here in Vieques.”

“Our employees are ready, ambulances are ready and rescue systems are activated and prepared to respond to any emergency in a short time,” the mayor said. “What we want is for everyone to enjoy our natural beauty in a safe environment and without any major incidents.”

By THE STAR STAFF

The Economic Development Bank for Puerto Rico (BDE by its Spanish initials) on Wednesday announced a new alliance with the Puerto Rican Chamber of

Commerce of Central Florida (PRCCCF) with the main objective of forming a strategic collaboration to provide comprehensive support to Puerto Rican companies from Central Florida interested in establishing themselves in Puerto Rico, providing financial alternatives to small and midsize entrepreneurs who wish to expand their businesses on the island.

“Through this alliance with the PRCCCF, the Bank will offer financing services of up to $1 million to the companies referred by this Chamber of Commerce,” BDE President Luis Alemañy González said in a written statement.

The PRCCCF, recognized for its work in promoting the economic and business development of the Puerto Rican diaspora in Central Florida, will be in charge of identifying and referring companies interested in establishing them-

selves in Puerto Rico.

“This alliance represents a unique opportunity to promote business activity and economic development in Puerto Rico, while strengthening ties between the Puerto Rican diaspora and the island,” Alemañy González said. “The BDE and the PRCCCF are committed to working hand in hand to provide the necessary support to entrepreneurs who wish to contribute to the growth and prosperity of Puerto Rico.”

PRCCCF President Jorge Figueroa Ortiz added that with the alliance “we seek to maintain and improve a strong socially responsible business climate based on the principles of free enterprise and fair profit in our communities.”

“We are committed to advancing existing businesses and attracting new economic opportunities in Puerto Rico as well as Central Florida,” he said.

Bureau of Emergency Management and Disaster Administration Commissioner Nino Correa Filomena, left, and Vieques Mayor José Corcino Acevedo discuss the offshore island municipality’s security plan for the Holy Week holidays.

Economic Development Bank for Puerto Rico President Luis Alemañy González, at left, and Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida President Jorge Figueroa Ortiz

White House warns of ‘difficult path’ to Baltimore port recovery

By JACEY FORTIN, DANIEL VICTOR and VICTORIA KIM

The Biden administration on Wednesday pledged an aggressive effort to reopen the Port of Baltimore, but Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned of a “long and difficult path” to full recovery, including the rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, whose tangled remains lay across the massive cargo ship that rammed into it.

Federal investigators planned an update later Wednesday on what they have learned after gathering data recordings, exploring the ship and interviewing key witnesses in an effort to piece together the disaster that appeared to have taken six lives. Officials said there was no threat to the public from the spilled cargo containers or fuel on board.

Officials were scrambling to limit the economic impact of the disaster, which severed Interstate 695 and upended operations at one of the nation’s busiest ports, causing a major disruption to shipping and global supply chains that is likely to ripple for weeks. State representatives proposed replacing income for workers who were affected by the bridge collapse, and President Joe Biden called on the federal government to pay for the “entire cost” of the bridge’s reconstruction.

“Rebuilding will not be quick, or easy or cheap,” Buttigieg told reporters at the White House on Wednesday, “but we will

A Coast Guard boat passes in front of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge and the cargo ship Dali after it struck the bridge in Baltimore, on Tuesday morning, March 26, 2024. Six construction workers who had been fixing potholes on the Francis Scott Key Bridge remained missing as divers and other emergency workers on boats and helicopters continued to search for them. Two others had been rescued. (Pete Kiehart/The New York Times)

get it done.”

More immediately, rescue divers were working through dangerous conditions, facing frigid waters, moving tides and mangled metal in an effort to recover the bodies of six construction workers who plunged into the cold water as the bridge fell. Two surviving workers had been pulled from the river

Tuesday.

Officials made progress in understanding the events that led to a massive cargo ship, a Singapore-flagged vessel nearly three football fields in length, losing propulsion as it left Baltimore, striking the bridge early Tuesday. On Tuesday night, the National Transportation Safety Board recovered data

from the ship’s voyage data recorder, which an official described as essentially the ship’s “black box.”

Here are more details:

— Officials said that shortly before the impact, the ship, called the Dali, suffered a “complete blackout” and issued a mayday warning, prompting traffic to be stopped at both ends of the bridge and averting a larger tragedy.

— One of the missing workers is a Honduran citizen, Maynor Yasir Suazo Sandoval, in his 30s, who had been living in the United States for two decades, according to Honduras’ migrant protection service. A nonprofit organization that provides services to the immigrant community in Baltimore identified another as Miguel Luna, a 40-yearold father of three from El Salvador.

— Ships belonging to Grace Ocean Private Ltd., the owner of the Dali, have been cited in recent years for labor violations — including underpaying crews and holding crew members on board for months past their contracts, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

— The NTSB said its investigation would look into the structure of the bridge, including what protective structures existed around its pylons. Buttigieg called the disaster a “unique circumstance,” saying he doubted that any bridge could have withstood a direct impact of such magnitude.

What we know about the six men presumed dead in Baltimore bridge collapse

By MIRIAM JORDAN, JACEY FORTIN and EDUARDO MEDINA

DTe ayudamos a Vender, Alquilar, Comprar y Administrar tu Propiedad

José Rodríguez

Officials have said the men are presumed dead. On Wednesday, divers were working through dangerous conditions to recover the bodies.

etails have begun to emerge about some of the six people who plunged into the water after the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed Tuesday.

Here’s what we know so far about the men, who were working as contractors doing overnight maintenance on the bridge:

— Miguel Luna, in his 40s, from El Salvador, was married and has three children, said Gustavo Torres, executive director of the nonprofit We Are Casa, which provides services to immigrants in Baltimore. He said Luna had been living in Maryland for at least 19 years.

— Maynor Yasir Suazo Sandoval,

in his 30s, of Honduras, immigrated to the United States more than 17 years ago, according to Torres, and was married with two children. In a statement provided to The New York Times via We Are Casa, Suazo’s brother, Carlos, described him as having a special talent for repairing and operating all kinds of machinery, and said that he dreamed of starting his own small business. “He was always so full of joy and brought so much humor to our family,” Carlos Suazo said, noting that the family was planning to celebrate his brother’s next birthday April 27.

— All of the men worked for Brawner, a contractor based in Baltimore County, a senior executive at the

company said Tuesday. They were immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, according to consular authorities and the nonprofit.

— The president of Mexico said Wednesday that two of missing men were Mexican citizens and that one of the people rescued was also a Mexican citizen.

— Guatemala’s Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed that two of the workers were Guatemalan nationals, from the regions of Petén and Chiquimula. The ministry, which did not release the names, said that the country’s consul general in Maryland had spoken with the siblings of the two workers and was hoping to meet with their families.

Supreme Court seems skeptical of doctors seeking to curtail abortion pill access

By ABBIE VANSICKLE

Amajority of the Supreme Court appeared deeply skeptical earlier this week of efforts to severely curtail access to a widely used abortion pill, questioning whether a group of anti-abortion doctors and organizations had a right to challenge the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the medication.

Over nearly two hours of argument, justices across the ideological spectrum seemed likely to side with the federal government, with only two justices, conservatives Samuel Alito and, possibly, Clarence Thomas, appearing to favor limits on distribution of the pill.

Describing the case as an effort by “a handful of individuals,” Justice Neil Gorsuch raised whether it would stand as “a prime example of turning what could be a small lawsuit into a nationwide legislative assembly on an FDA rule or any other federal government action.”

The challenge involves mifepristone, a drug approved by the FDA more than two decades ago that is used in nearly two-thirds of abortions in the country. At issue is whether the agency acted appropriately in expanding access to the drug in 2016 and again in 2021 by allowing doctors to prescribe it through telemedicine and to send the pills by mail.

The Biden administration had asked the Supreme Court to intervene after a

three-judge panel of a federal appeals court favored curbing distribution of the drug. Until the justices decide, access to mifepristone remains unchanged, delaying the potential for abrupt limits on its availability.

Even if the court preserves full access to mifepristone, the pills will remain illegal in more than a dozen states that have enacted near-total abortion bans. Those bans do not distinguish between medication and surgical abortion.

The case brought the issue of abortion access back to the Supreme Court, even as the conservative majority had said in the case that overturned Roe v. Wade, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, that it would cede the question “to the people and their elected representatives.”

Gorsuch’s pointed questioning was echoed by other justices, who asked whether any of the doctors involved in the lawsuit could show they were harmed by the federal government’s approval and regulation of the abortion drug.

In one instance, Justice Elena Kagan asked the lawyer for the anti-abortion groups whom they were relying on to show an actual injury.

“You need a person,” Kagan said. “So who’s your person?”

Although the argument contained detailed descriptions of abortion, including questions about placental tissue and blee-

ding, the focus on whether the challengers were even entitled to sue suggested that the justices could rule for the FDA without addressing the merits of the case.

Since the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade ended a nationwide right in place for nearly a half-century, abortion pills have increasingly become the center of political and legal fights.

The case began in November 2022, when a group of anti-abortion doctors and medical organizations sued the FDA, asserting that the agency erred when it approved the drug in 2000.

A federal judge in Texas, Matthew Kacsmaryk, issued a preliminary ruling last spring invalidating the FDA’s approval of the drug. In August, a panel of federal appeals judges in New Orleans limited his ruling, determining that mifepristone should remain legal but imposing significant restrictions on access. Those focused on the FDA decisions about telemedicine and pills by mail.

A ruling for the anti-abortion doctors could have implications for the regulatory authority of the FDA, potentially calling into question the agency’s ability to approve and distribute other drugs.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, arguing for the government, warned of the far-ranging consequences, both for the pharmaceutical industry and for reproductive rights. “It harms the pharmaceutical industry, which is sounding alarm bells in this case and saying that this would destabilize the system for approving and regulating drugs,” she said. “And it harms women who need access to medication abortion under the conditions that FDA determined were safe and effective.”

To bring the legal challenge, antiabortion doctors and groups must show that they will suffer concrete harm if the pill remains widely available. Lawyers call this

requirement standing.

Whether anti-abortion groups had met this basic threshold took up much of the questioning.

The argument zeroed in on declarations by seven anti-abortion doctors in the lawsuit. They said they have suffered moral injuries from the availability of the abortion pill because they may be forced to treat women who come to emergency rooms suffering complications from the pill, including heavy bleeding.

Erin Hawley, the lawyer for the antiabortion doctors, claimed that her clients suffered harm from the abortion pill and were subjected to acting against their conscience. They were forced to treat women in “lifethreatening situations in which the choice for a doctor is either to scrub out and try to find someone else or to treat the woman who’s hemorrhaging on the emergency room table,” she said.

Hawley, who is married to Josh Hawley, a Republican senator from Missouri who has been involved in anti-abortion legislation, added that in an emergency, “it’s a lot to ask” for “doctors to go up to the top floor and litigate this with the general counsel when the federal government’s telling them they don’t have a conscience protection.”

Prelogar asserted that the claims by the anti-abortion doctors and groups “rest on a long chain of remote contingencies,” with scientific studies showing that medical complications from abortion pills are very rare.

She argued that there was only a slim chance that doctors who oppose abortion would have to treat patients. If those doctors wanted to opt out, they can do so under federal conscience protections, policies that allow doctors and other health workers to refrain from providing care they object to.

The anti-abortion challengers had made generalizations, with no specific example of a doctor who had to provide care against their conscience, Prelogar said, demonstrating “that the past harm hasn’t happened.”

She urged the justices to “put an end to this case.”

Abortion rights and anti-abortion protesters gather outside the Supreme Court building in Washington on Tuesday morning, March 26, 2024. (Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times)

Stocks

Dow leads gains on Wall Street as investors await rate clues

The Dow was the best performing of the three major indexes on Wednesday, paced by gains in drugmaker Merck, while as investors looked towards the next piece of inflation data and Federal Reserve policymaker commentary for insight on the rate path.

Merck & Co advanced 4.77% as the biggest boost and percentage gained on the Dow after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its therapy for adults suffering from a rare lung condition.

The blue-chip Dow sits roughly 1% away from breaking the 40,000 level for the first time.

Gains on the tech-heavy Nasdaq were capped by AI giant Nvidia which lost 2.59% and was on track for its second straight decline. Shares were still up more than 80% on the year, however.

Recent data that showed hotter than expected inflation in the form of consumer prices (CPI) and producer prices (PPI) failed to markedly disrupt market expectations for a rate cut of at least 25 basis points (bps) from the Federal Reserve in June.

The Fed kept its projections for three rate cuts this year intact at its policy meeting last week, which Fed officials have largely stood by this week in comments.

The Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE), the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, is due on Good Friday, when the U.S. stock market will be closed.

“We’re living in between the space of those data-heavy bookends, and the markets are largely behaving as we would expect them to in that void, which is we’re seeing equities largely tread water, a little bit of weakness which I would probably chalk up more so to just quarter-end rebalancing,” said Craig Fehr, head of investment strategy at Edward Jones in St. Louis.

“But we have the markets that are keenly anchored on the big data points, which is inflation, Fed decisions, and the labor market.”

Later in the day, Fed Board Governor Christopher Waller is expected to speak at the Economic Club of New York later in the day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 307.35 points, or 0.77%, to 39,584.13, the S&P 500 gained 23.92 points, or 0.46%, to 5,227.50 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 35.50 points, or 0.22%, to 16,351.19.

All three major U.S. stock indexes were poised for quarterly gains, with the S&P on track for its biggest first quarter percentage gain since 2019.

MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS

Traders see a 70.4% chance the Fed will begin its easing cycle in June, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Nine of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were trading higher, with rate sensitive utilities and real estate leading the best performers as bond yields eased.

Among individual stocks, Trump Media & Tech-

PUERTO RICO STOCKS

COMMODITIES

CURRENCY

nology Group jumped 14.16%, a day after its stellar Nasdaq debut.

GameStop plunged 14.77% after the videogame retailer reported lower fourth-quarter revenue and said it had cut an unspecified number of jobs to reduce costs.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.43-to-1 ratio on the NYSE while advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about a 2.43-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 43 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq recorded 131 new highs and 72 new lows.

Israel deploys expansive facial recognition program in Gaza

In an undated photo provided by the Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, he appears with his family. He said he was not aware of any facial recognition program in Gaza. (Mosab Abu Toha via The New York Times)

By SHEERA FRENKEL

Within minutes of walking through an Israeli military checkpoint along the Gaza Strip’s central highway Nov. 19, Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha was asked to step out of the crowd. He put down his 3-year-old son, whom he was carrying, and sat in front of a military jeep.

Half an hour later, Abu Toha heard his name called. Then he was blindfolded and led away for interrogation.

“I had no idea what was happening or how they could suddenly know my full legal name,” said the 31-year-old, who added that he had no ties to the militant group Hamas and had been trying to leave Gaza for Egypt.

It turned out Abu Toha had walked into the range of cameras embedded with facial recognition technology, according to three Israeli intelligence officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. After his face was scanned and he was identified, an artificial intelligence program found that the poet was on an Israeli list of wanted persons, they said.

Abu Toha is one of hundreds of Palestinians who have been picked out by a previously undisclosed Israeli facial recognition program that was started in Gaza late last year. The expansive and experimental effort is being used to conduct mass surveillance there, collecting and cataloging the faces of Palestinians without their knowledge or consent, according to Israeli intelligence officers, military officials and soldiers.

The technology was initially used in Gaza to search for Israelis who were taken hostage by Hamas during the Oct. 7 cross-border raids, the intelligence officials said. After Israel embarked on a ground offensive in Gaza, it increasingly turned to the program to root out anyone with ties to Hamas or other militant groups. At times, the technology wrongly flagged civilians as wanted Hamas militants, one officer said.

The facial recognition program, which is run by Israel’s military intelligence unit, including the cyberintelligence division Unit 8200, relies on technology from Corsight, a private Israeli company, four intelligence officers said. It also uses Google Photos, they said. Combined, the technologies enable Israel to pick faces out of crowds and grainy drone footage.

Three of the people with knowledge of the program said they were speaking out because of concerns that it was a misuse of time and resources by Israel.

An Israeli army spokesperson declined to comment on activity in Gaza but said the military “carries out necessary security and intelligence operations, while making significant efforts to minimize harm to the uninvolved population.” He added, “Naturally, we cannot refer to operational and intelligence capabilities in this context.”

Facial recognition technology has spread across the globe in recent years, fueled by increasingly sophisticated AI systems. While some countries use the technology to make air travel easier, China and Russia have deployed the technology against minority groups and to suppress dissent. Israel’s use of facial recognition in Gaza stands out as an application of the technology in a war.

Matt Mahmoudi, a researcher with Amnesty International, said Israel’s use of facial recognition was a concern because it could lead to “a complete dehumanization of Palestinians” where they were not seen as individuals. He added that Israeli soldiers were unlikely to question the technology when it identified a person as being part of a militant group, even though the technology makes mistakes.

Israel previously used facial recognition in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to an Amnesty report last year, but the effort in Gaza goes further.

In the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Israelis have a homegrown facial recognition system called Blue Wolf, according to the Amnesty report. At checkpoints in West Bank cities such as Hebron, Palestinians are scanned by high-resolution cameras before being permitted to pass. Soldiers also use smartphone apps to scan the faces of Palestinians and add them to a database, the report said.

In Gaza, which Israel withdrew from in 2005, no facial recognition technology was present. Surveillance of Hamas in Gaza was instead conducted by tapping phone lines, interrogating Palestinian prisoners, harvesting drone footage, getting access to private social media accounts and hacking into telecommunications systems, Israeli intelligence officers said.

After Oct. 7, Israeli intelligence officers in Unit 8200 turned to that surveillance for information on the Hamas militants who breached Israel’s borders. The unit also combed through footage of the attacks from security cameras, as well as videos uploaded by Hamas on social media, one officer said. He said the unit had been told to create a “hit list” of Hamas members who participated in the attack.

Corsight was then brought in to create a facial recognition program in Gaza, three Israeli intelligence officers said.

The company, with headquarters in Tel Aviv, says on its website that its technology requires less than 50% of a face to be visible for accurate recognition. Robert Watts, Corsight’s president, posted this month on LinkedIn that the facial recognition technology could work with “extreme angles, (even from drones,) darkness, poor quality.”

Corsight declined to comment.

To supplement Corsight’s technology, Israeli officers used Google Photos, the free photo sharing and storage service from Google, three intelligence officers said. By uploading a database of known persons to Google Photos, Israeli officers could use the service’s photo search function to identify people.

Google’s ability to match faces and identify people even with only a small portion of their face visible was superior to other technology, one officer said. The military continued to use Corsight because it was customizable, the officers said.

A Google spokesperson said Google Photos was a free consumer product that “does not provide identities for unknown people in photographs.”

The facial recognition program in Gaza

grew as Israel expanded its military offensive there. Israeli soldiers entering Gaza were given cameras equipped with the technology. Soldiers also set up checkpoints along major roads that Palestinians were using to flee areas of heavy fighting, with cameras that scanned faces.

The program’s goals were to search for Israeli hostages, as well as Hamas fighters who could be detained for questioning, the Israeli intelligence officers said.

The guidelines of whom to stop were intentionally broad, one said. Palestinian prisoners were asked to name people from their communities who they believed were part of Hamas. Israel would then search for those people, hoping they would yield more intelligence.

Abu Toha, the Palestinian poet, was named as a Hamas operative by someone in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia, where he lived with his family, the Israeli intelligence officers said. The officers said there was no specific intelligence attached to his file explaining a connection to Hamas.

Abu Toha said he was beaten and interrogated in an Israeli detention center for two days before being returned to Gaza with no explanation. He wrote about his experience in The New Yorker, where he is a contributor. He credited his release to a campaign led by journalists at The New Yorker and other publications.

Upon his release, Israeli soldiers told him his interrogation had been a “mistake,” he said.

In a statement at the time, the Israeli military said Abu Toha was taken for questioning because of “intelligence indicating a number of interactions between several civilians and terror organizations inside the Gaza Strip.”

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Worries over ethnic tensions have Kremlin treading carefully on massacre

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t a memorial service this week outside the concert hall where Islamic extremists are suspected of carrying out a deadly terrorist attack, one of Russia’s most popular pro-Kremlin rappers warned “right-wing and far-right groups” that they must not “incite ethnic hatred.”

At a televised meeting about the attack, Russia’s top prosecutor, Igor Krasnov, pledged that his service was paying “special attention” to preventing “interethnic and interfaith conflicts.”

And when President Vladimir Putin made his first comments on the tragedy last weekend, he said he would not allow anyone to “sow the poisonous seeds of hatred, panic and discord in our multiethnic society.”

In the wake of the assault near Moscow that killed 139 people on Friday, there has been a recurring theme in the Kremlin’s response: a fear that the tragedy could spur ethnic strife inside Russia. While Putin and his security chiefs are accusing Ukraine — without evidence — of having helped organize the killing, the fact that the four detained suspects in the attack are from the predominantly Muslim Central Asian country of Tajikistan is stoking anti-migrant rhetoric online.

For Putin, the problem is magnified by the competing priorities of his war in Ukraine. Members of Muslim minority groups make up a significant share of the Russian soldiers fighting and dying. Migrants from Central Asia are providing much of the labor that keeps Russia’s economy running and its military supply chain humming.

But many of the most fervent supporters of Putin’s invasion are Russian nationalists whose popular, pro-war blogs on the Telegram messaging app have brimmed with xenophobia in the days since the attack.

“The borders have to be shut down as much as possible, if not closed,” said one. “The situation now has shown that Russian society is on the brink.”

As a result, the Kremlin is walking a fine line, trying to keep war supporters happy by promising tougher action against migrants while trying to prevent tensions from flaring across society. The potential for violence was highlighted in October, when an antisemitic mob stormed an airport in the predominantly Muslim Russian region of Dagestan to confront a passenger plane arriving from Israel.

“The authorities see this as a very big, serious threat,” Sergey Markov, a pro-Putin political analyst in Moscow and a former Kremlin adviser, said in a phone interview. “That’s why all efforts are being made now to calm down public opinion.”

Caught in the middle are millions of migrant workers and ethnic-minority Russians who are already facing an increase on city streets in the kind of racial profiling that was commonplace even before the attack. Svetlana Gannushkina, a longtime Russian human rights defender, said Tuesday that she was scrambling to try to help a Tajik man who had just been detained because the police “are looking for Tajiks” and “saw a person with such an appearance.”

Nearly 1 million citizens of Tajikistan, which has a population of about 10 million, were registered in Russia as migrant workers last year, according to government statistics. They are among the millions of migrant laborers in Russia from across the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, a driving force in Russia’s economy, from food delivery and construction to factory work.

A manager of a food business in Moscow that employs Tajiks said in an interview that the mood in the Russian capital reminded her of the 2000s, when Muslims from the Caucasus region faced widespread discrimination in the wake of terrorist attacks and the wars in Chechnya. Tajiks in Moscow are so apprehensive they are hardly going outside at all, she said, requesting anonymity because she feared repercussions for speaking to a Western journalist.

In his speeches on the war, Putin has paid frequent lip service to Russia as a multiethnic state — a legacy of the Russian and Soviet empires. In March 2022, after describing the heroism of a soldier from Dagestan, Putin enumerated some of Russia’s ethnic groups by saying: “I am a Lak, I am a Dagestani, I am a Chechen, an Ingush, a Russian, a Tatar, a Jew, a Mordvin, an Ossetian.”

In his rhetoric about his conflict with the West, Putin has frequently accused Russia’s adversaries of trying to stir up ethnic strife in Russia. That was his response to the Dagestan airport riot in October, which he baselessly blamed on Western intelligence agencies and Ukraine. That is also increasingly at the center of his response to Friday’s terrorist attack, which the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for and U.S. officials say was carried out by a branch of the extremist group. On Tuesday, the head of Russia’s domestic intelligence agency claimed that Ukrainian, British and American spies might have been behind it.

The upshot appears to be that the Kremlin is seeking to refocus anger over the attack toward Ukraine while trying to show the public that it is taking concerns about migration into account.

Still, Markov, the pro-Kremlin analyst, said he saw tensions over migration policy even inside Putin’s powerful security establishment. Antiimmigrant law enforcement and intelligence officials, he said, were at odds with a militaryindustrial complex that needs migrant labor.

Who is blowing up Russia?

were killed. The first is that it was an inside job — orchestrated by Russian security services, or at least carried out with their foreknowledge.

The second is that it wasn’t.

In open societies, conspiracy theories are for cranks. In closed societies, they’re a reasonable (if not always correct) way to understand political phenomena.

In 1999, more than 300 Russians were killed and 1,700 injured in a series of apartment bombings for which authorities blamed Chechen terrorists. The bombings served as a pretext for Vladimir Putin — who had ascended swiftly from secondary apparatchik to director of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, to prime minister — to launch the second Chechen war.

Iran before an attack by the Islamic State group there in January) that an attack was imminent. In both cases, the warnings were ignored — Putin dismissed it as “an attempt to frighten and destabilize our society” — perhaps because cynical regimes have trouble imagining the possibility of altruistic motives.

This suggests what we already knew: Putin’s state is as incompetent as it is brutish. And with the enemies it has, it doesn’t need to invent a fictitious conspiracy between Western powers and the “Nazi regime” in Kyiv. Russia will never resolve its inner weaknesses — a shrinking population, fissiparous ethnic minorities, a brain drain and an energy-dependent economy — through foreign conquests.

By BRET STEPHENS

There are two plausible hypotheses regarding Friday’s terrorist attack at a concert hall outside Moscow, in which at least 139 people

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Then something strange happened. The police found three enormous sacks of white powder in the basement of an apartment building in the city of Ryazan, connected to a detonator and timer set to go off at 5:30 in the morning. Initial tests of the powder found it contained the same explosive, hexogen, that had been used in other bombings.

The police soon apprehended the culprits who had placed the sacks — and they turned out to be employees of the FSB. The Russian government later said the sacks were filled with sugar and had been left in the buildings as a training exercise. But as historian David Satter and others have documented, the claim borders on the preposterous. And numerous journalists and politicians who sought to investigate the incident wound up poisoned or shot dead.

Why does this history matter? Because it shows that Putin “has no allergy to blood, Russian or any other kind, if spilling it furthers his goals,” as Garry Kasparov noted in The Wall Street Journal.

It says something that Putin seemed to provide a motivation for a false-flag attack by almost immediately pointing the finger at Ukraine for Friday’s massacre — an absurd if telling choice of a culprit, given that Ukraine would immediately destroy its credibility with its Western partners if it had any connection to the event.

It says something, too, that the attack occurred right after Putin’s reelection in this month’s sham vote, and just as he is seeking to mobilize tens of thousands of fresh troops for the war in Ukraine. What better way for him to do so than to revert to the tried-andtrue formula of creating panic on the homefront so that he can bring destruction to the frontier?

That’s the first hypothesis. But there’s also a brutal history of Islamic terrorism in Russia, and the United States alerted Moscow on March 7 (just as it alerted

But it suggests something else: Five years after the Islamic State group’s so-called caliphate fell in northern Iraq and Syria, the group and its offshoots are far from gone.

Around 9,000 hardened Islamic State fighters are held as prisoners in several camps in Syria, guarded by Kurdish forces with American help (which Donald Trump attempted to end). The branch of the Islamic State group accused of the Moscow attacks is estimated to have as many as 6,000 fighters at large, mostly in Afghanistan. Other Islamic State affiliates operate throughout Africa, where U.S. counterterrorist efforts are being hampered by local upheavals.

In other words, as Washington has retreated from (or been forced out of) its efforts to confront global disorder, the disorder has grown. What happened in Moscow is reminiscent of what happened at the Bataclan theater in Paris in 2015, where 90 were murdered. The Islamic State group seems to have a taste for concert halls.

The word “pivot” gets used a lot in foreign policy discussions, as in the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia” or the “pivot to great-power competition” under Trump and President Joe Biden. But if the lesson of the first pivot is that we neglected NATO and European security at our peril, the lesson of the second is that we have lulled ourselves into the belief that our Islamist terror problem is largely behind us. As Israel found out on Oct. 7, a country’s mortal enemies aren’t tamed or vanquished just because leaders have other priorities.

The American security challenge today is global: a resurgent Islamic State group, a revanchist China, a regionally aggressive Iran and a Russia where the lines between grandiosity and paranoia blur. Whether what happened in Russia was Islamist terror, an FSB conspiracy, or some appalling combination of both, it augurs ill for us.

People line up to lay flowers on Sunday, March 24, 2024, at a memorial near Crocus City Hall, a popular concert venue outside Moscow where at least 137 people were killed in an attack last Friday night. (Nanna Heitmann/The New York Times)

¡Huertas College tiene un 2 x 1 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” con transportación incluída, para todos los estudiantes de Escuela Superior el jueves, 4 de abril de 2024 desde las 8:30 a.m. hasta la 1:30 p.m. Durante este evento, los asistentes tendrán la oportunidad de experimentar actividades interactivas que les permitirá conocer más sobre los programas que se ofrecen en Huertas y la demanda laboral en las distintas áreas profesionales. Los mejor de todo, ¡ese mismo día te puedes matricular en Huertas College! Es a esto a lo que Huertas College le llama un 2 x 1 en donde podrás participar del “Open House” y a la vez matricularte en tu programa de elección.

Los programas ofrecidos por Huertas College abarcan diversas áreas de estudio, incluyendo Bachilleratos en Ciencias en Enfermería, Administración de Empresas en 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; y Certificados en Tecnología en Electrici-

dad, Tecnología en Refrigeración y Aire Acondicionado, Estética, Entrenador Personal, Artes Culinarias y Masaje Terapéutico. ¡Visítalos para que te matricules! Además de la matrícula temprana y su “Open House”, Huertas College organizará una serie de actividades completamente GRATIS durante los próximos meses para que los interesados puedan visitar los laboratorios, conocer a los profesores y explorar las diversas oportunidades educativas disponibles. El calendario de actividades hasta mayo incluye eventos como:

1. Open House para las Escuelas Superiores - jueves, 4 de abril de 2024. Transportación disponible.

2. Soluciona tus Problemas de Electricidad con Huertas College - martes, 9 de abril de 2024 a las 5:00 p.m. (Presencial)

3. Últimas Tecnologías en Aires Acondicionados con Huertas College y AirMax - miércoles, 17 de abril de 2024 a las 5:00 p.m. (2da Sesión de manera presencial)

4. Ventas y Mercadeo para la Vida - miércoles, 24 de abril de 2024 a las 6:30 p.m. (Seminario virtual)

5. Manejo de Finanzas Personales en 1, 2 y 3 - miércoles, 8 de mayo de 2024 a las 6:00 p.m. (Presencial) Huertas College se enorgullece de ofrecer estas oportunidades educativas para que todos los interesados puedan aprender más sobre cómo estas profesiones pueden ayudar a los participantes en sus vidas profesionales y cotidianas. Para obtener más información sobre los programas académicos y el proceso de matrícula, pueden comunicarse al 787-746-1400 extensión 3, visitar el campus de Huertas College en Caguas, acceder a su página web en www.huertascollege.com o escribir a admisiones@huertas.edu. Huertas, ¡Los líderes en carreras cortas!

5 children’s movies to stream now

By DINA GACHMAN

This month’s picks include a space adventure from Richard Linklater and two critically acclaimed tales from Pixar.

‘Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood’

Stan (Milo Coy), a Texas fourth grader, is rounding the bases while playing kickball at recess one day when two NASA agents pull him off the playground to tell him they’re sending him to the moon. This being 1969, in a world before Apollo 11 took flight, Stan’s new mission is an extremely big deal. The agents, played by Glen Powell and Zachary Levi, tell Stan they were impressed by his science papers and by the fact that he won a Presidential Physical Fitness Award “three years running.” They need a kid to test an “accidentally smaller version” of the lunar module immediately, and so Stan is sworn to secrecy as he prepares for space. It’s tough for him to keep the training and planning from his mother (a droll Lee Eddy) and father (Bill Wise), and his gaggle of siblings, but he tries his best to act like a regular kid while covertly preparing for a lunar landing.

Writer-director Richard Linklater uses similar dreamy rotoscope animation as his earlier films “Waking Life” and “A Scanner Darkly,” and this nostalgic tale is narrated by Jack Black, who tells the story from the point of view of a grown-up Stan. The wall-to-wall narration and lack of fast-paced action may not hold every young viewer rapt, but older kids with a thing for space might fall under the film’s spell. (Watch it on Netflix.)

‘The Willoughbys’

Tim (voiced by Will Forte), Jane (Alessia Cara) and comically creepy twins both named Barnaby (voiced by Seán Cullen) are magenta-haired siblings who have the worst parents. Their mother (Jane Krakowski) and father (Martin Short) are selfish, narcissistic and neglectful. The couple sees their brood as a pure nuisance. The Willoughby kids devise a scheme to send their parents away on vacation in hopes of finding new parents who actually feed them.

That might sound dark, but the cast and writer-director Kris Pearn (“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2”) bring so much humor, wackiness and heart to the film that it never feels like a downer. The story is narrated by a paunchy blue Cat (Ricky Gervais), and Maya Rudolph voices Linda, the kind nanny who watches them when their parents leave. Terry Crews plays Commander Melanoff, a loving, lonely bloke who owns a candy factory.

Based on a book by Lois Lowry, “The Willoughbys” is an imaginative story about chosen families that understands that every child is deserving of love. Cory Evans and Rob Lodermeier co-directed with Pearn, and Mark Stanleigh co-wrote the script. (Watch it on Netflix.)

‘Soul’

So often stories are dumbed down for children, but the Oscar-winning “Soul” manages to be cerebral and probing while also being charming, entertaining and funny. Jamie Foxx voices Joe Gardner, a New York City middle school music teacher and pianist. He likes teaching, but his passion is to become a jazz musician. After he auditions for the sax pla-

yer Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett), Joe feels like he might actually get his big break, but his dreams are dashed when he falls into a maintenance hole in the street. He ends up in the Great Before, the place souls pass through when they’re coming and going from life on Earth. He meets 22 (Tina Fey), a ghostlike blob inhabiting this strange in-between place. Despite the efforts of past mentors like Mother Teresa and Gandhi, 22 has resisted finding a passion for life on Earth. Joe and 22 end up bonding in unexpected ways and helping each other discover what truly matters to each of them.

Yes, it seems heavy, but directors Pete Docter (“Inside Out” and “Up”) and Kemp Powers (who wrote “One Night in Miami” and later co-directed “Spider-Man: Across the SpiderVerse”) manage to keep things light enough for little ones while giving adults plenty to think about (and cry over). Docter and Powers co-wrote the script with Mike Jones. (Watch it on Disney+.)

‘Luca’

Luca (Jacob Tremblay) is not the first animated sea creature to long for a life on land, but this time, instead of being a little mermaid, he’s a brightly colored, scaly sea monster. Like Ariel, Luca is fascinated by humans — their ability to walk

on two feet, their food, their gadgets. One day, he defies his protective parents (voiced by Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan) and ventures onto land. In this fantasy, sea monsters automatically turn into humans once they’re out of the water, but a single splash can transform them back to their scaly selves. Luca meets another sea monster parading around as a human: the loquacious, parentless Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer from “Shazam!”). Luca and Alberto encounter a villain named Ercole (Saverio Raimondo) and befriend a local girl named Giulia (Emma Berman), who convinces them to enter a triathlon where the three sports are swimming, biking and eating a ton of pasta.

This Oscar nominee from Pixar doesn’t possess the depth and nuance of “Soul,” but the bold landscapes and the picturesque Italian fishing village should offer youngsters plenty of visual stimuli. Along the way, Luca learns about confidence, independence and friendship. This was the first feature for director Enrico Casarosa (his animated short “La Luna” was an Oscar nominee), who also wrote the screenplay. (Watch it on Disney+.)

‘Craig Before the Creek’

Pirates, a treasure map and a mysterious fortuneteller are sometimes all you need to rev a kid’s imagination. This Cartoon Network Studios movie, based on the series “Craig of the Creek,” follows a shy and unsure Craig Williams (Philip Solomon, who voices Craig in the series) as he moves to a new town called Herkleton with his family and feels, immediately, like an outsider. Craig and his sister meet a motley band of kids at the creek one day, and when they’re raided by teenage pirates led by Serena (Vico Ortiz), Craig gets caught up in a quest to find a magical object called a Wish Maker.

Fans of the series should love this prequel, which fills in Craig’s back story. Younger kids who are new to Craig’s world are likely to root for him when he is forced to find his confidence and strength through a series of raucous adventures. Series co-creators Matt Burnett and Ben Levin co-directed and co-wrote the script. (Watch it on Max.)

May

Milo Coy as Stan in “Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood,” from the director Richard Linklater. Netflix

How to recognize the most common form of skin cancer

By DANI BLUM

Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer, but it can be easy to miss or mistake for another skin issue.

Doctors often discover the cancer during a routine skin check, said Dr. Melissa Piliang, chair of the dermatology department at Cleveland Clinic. “A patient may not have even noticed” signs of the disease, she said.

In a Facebook post last week, health and fitness personality Richard Simmons announced he had been treated for basal cell carcinoma. He said he first noticed a “strange looking bump” under his eye that he tried treating with Neosporin. It was only after seeing a dermatologist that Simmons was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma.

While it can be difficult for patients to identify, basal cell carcinoma — which is estimated to affect several million people in the United States each year — is very treatable. Here’s what to know about causes, prevention and treatment.

What causes basal cell carcinoma? And how does it differ from other skin cancers?

People usually develop basal cell carcinoma after they are exposed to UV radiation through sunlight, tanning beds or sun lamps. The disease is the result of cumulative, chronic exposure, said Dr. Karen Connolly, a dermatologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Research suggests it is most common in adults older than 40.

The disease starts in basal cells, which are found within the epidermis, the outer layer of the skin. Another kind of skin cancer can develop in squamous cells, which lie just above them.

Basal cell carcinoma is more common and far less deadly than another form of skin cancer, melanoma, which grows in skin cells called melanocytes. Melanoma is especially dangerous because it can grow rapidly and spread to other parts of the body if untreated. Melanomas typically look darker or browner than basal cell carcinomas, Connolly said, but patients should bring any lesion they’re worried about to a dermatologist’s attention.

What does basal cell carcinoma look like?

Basal cell carcinomas are common in the areas of the body most exposed to the sun: typically, the head, face, neck and arms, said Dr. Paras Vakharia, an assistant professor of dermatology at Northwestern Medicine. Most

of the time, the lesions are “pink and pearly,” he said. “They almost look a little bit shiny,” he said. They can sometimes be brown, blue or gray. The lesions may also bleed easily, including when people wash their faces, Piliang said.

“When I educate patients, I tell them to look for pimples that don’t heal,” she added.

People sometimes mistake basal cell carcinoma for acne scars, minor skin injuries, moles, warts or freckles, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.

How do you treat and prevent basal cell carcinoma?

Basal cell carcinoma grows slowly, but it’s important to address the disease as soon as possible, doctors said.

Doctors use several different approaches to treat the condition. One is known as Mohs surgery, in which doctors remove thin layers of skin, one at a time, to get rid of cancerous lesions. In other cases, doctors might perform a procedure called electrodesiccation and curettage — or, as Connolly put it, a “burn and scrape” of skin growths. If the carcinoma is very small, it can be treated with a chemotherapy cream, Vakharia said.

Basal cell carcinomas are rarely fatal. Connolly said that patients sometimes “hear the word ‘cancer,’ and they think, ‘I’m going to die from this.’” But, she explained, most cases “really have no effect on the patients’ overall health.”

However, Vakharia said that a diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma should be a clear sign to patients that “they need to be more cautious with sun exposure.” He encouraged people to wear broad-brimmed hats that fully shield the face from UV rays and to use sunscreen with at least SPF 30 protection. Reapply sunscreen if you’re outside for an extended period of time, he added.

And “tanning-bed use is a big no-no,” Connolly said. A mounting body of evidence has linked indoor tanning to an increased risk of melanoma, she said.

If you’ve had a significant amount of sun exposure throughout your life, have had sunburns so intense they blistered or have a family history of skin cancer, you may want to see a dermatologist for a baseline skin exam, Vakharia added.

And in general, people should take time to scan their skin about every month, Connolly said, to “make sure there’s nothing new growing, changing rapidly.”

The San Juan Daily Star

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL

GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNALK DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS

JORGE MANUEL

SANTIAGO RAMIREZ

Parte Peticionaria

CIVIL NÚM. AB2023CV00207 (305) SOBRE: EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO. EDICTOS. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS.

A: LAS PERSONAS IGNORADAS O DESCONOCIDAS A QUIENES PUEDA PERJUDICAR LA INSCRIPCIÓN SOLICITADA.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE LA PRO-

PIEDAD: RUSTICA: Predio de terreno radicado en el Barrio

Bairoa de Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, compuesto de cuatro cuerdas con seis mil quinientos cincuenta nueve milésimas de otra (4.6559) equivalentes a dieciocho mil doscientos noventa y nueve punto cinco mil doscientos cuarenta metros cuadrados (18,299.5240 m/c). En lindes por el NORTE, con Jorge Bird; por el SUR, con Graciliano Perez; por el ESTE, con Sucesión Justino Román y Felicita Román; y por el OESTE, con Jorge Bird. En dicha parcela enclava una casa terrera de cemento con sala, comedor, cocina, dos cuartos dormitorios, un baño y un balcón, destinada a casa de vivienda.

Dicho inmueble se encuentra libre de cargas y gravámenes.

La propiedad arriba descrita es el remanente de una finca de mayor cabida localizada en el Barrio Jagüeyes de Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, e inscrita originalmente libre de cargas y gravámenes al folio setenta y nueve (79) del tomo sesenta y seis (66), de Aguas Buenas, finca tres mil doscientos cincuenta y uno (3251) Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas. Remanente de la finca número tres mil doscientos cincuenta y uno (3,251), inscrita al folio setenta y nueve (79), tomo sesenta y seis (66), de Aguas Buenas, Registro de la Propiedad Caguas Sección Segunda. No habiéndose podido emplazar personalmente a las partes antes relacionadas, este Tribunal ha ordenado que se emplace por edicto, que se publicará una vez por semana por tres (3) semanas dentro de veinte (20) días en un periódico de circulación general de Puerto Rico. Se le notifica que si usted desea presentar objeción o defensa a la incautación de la propiedad debe usted radicar su contestación en este Tribu-

Thursday, March 28, 2024 15

nal dentro de un término improrrogable de veinte (20) días contados a partir de la última publicación de este Edicto, los interesados, y/o partes citadas, o en su defecto, los organismos públicos afectados, podrás comparecer ante el tribunal a fin de alegar lo que en derecho proceda. Representante de la parte Peticionaria: Lcda. Luisa M. Storer Bello, PMB 512, 1353 Rd 19, Guaynabo, PR 00966, teléfono (787)564-4944 y correo electrónico: lstorer@ storerlaw.com. Expedido por Orden del Tribunal en Caguas, Puerto Rico, a 1 de marzo de 2024.Lisilda Martínez Agosto, Secretaria. Dharma Torres Bruno, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIANDO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA DE GUAYANILLA EN SABANA GRANDE FERNANDO

VELAZQUEZ MALDONADO

HC 02 BOX 6228

PEÑUELAS, PR 00624

Tel. (787)241-0258.

Peticionario Vs. EX-PARTE

Civil Núm.: GY2023CV00196

SOBRE: EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA. EL PRE-

SIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: MARINA MALDONADO

MADERA, RENE

MALDONADO MADERA, GLIDDEN MALDONADO MADERA y HERIBERTO MALDONADO MADERA.

Por la presente se le notifica que comparezca, si creyera que le conviene, a este Tribunal, dentro de veinte (20) días a partir de la publicación de este Edicto, el cual se publicará por tres (3) veces y exponer lo que a sus derechos convenga en el Expediente de Dominio promovido por el peticionario para adquirir el dominio de la siguiente propiedad: “RUSTICA: Predio de terreno radicado en el Barrio Macaná del término municipal de Peñuelas, Puerto Rico, con una cabida de UNO PUNTO

TREINTA Y SIETE CUERDAS (1.37 cdas.) equivalentes a CINCO MIL TRESCIENTOS

OCHENTA Y CUATRO PUNTO

SESENTA Y CINCO METROS CUADRADOS (5,384.65 mc). Colinda por el Norte con Héctor S. Prieto Velázquez, por el Sur y Este con José A. Velázquez Velázquez y por el Oeste con Carretera Ciento Treinta y Uno (131) y terrenos de Luisa Velázquez Maldonado. Contiene una estructura destinada a vivienda.”. Debe notificar con copia

de sus alegaciones a la representación legal del prominente, Lcda. Joseph Brocco Santiago, P.O. Box 608, Peñuelas, Puerto Rico 00624-0608, Teléfono 787-836-3020. EXTENDIDO

BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal en Yauco, Puerto Rico, hoy día 9 de febrero de 2024.

Carmen G. Tirú Quiñones, Secretaria del Tribunal. Delia Aponte Velázquez, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL

GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN ORIENTAL BANK

Demandante V. JULIO TORRES

ACEVEDO, POR SÍ Y COMO MIEMBRO

CONOCIDO DE LA SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN

MARÍA RIVERA BENÍTEZ; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO MIEMBROS

DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN

MARÍA RIVERA BENÍTEZ

Demandados

CIVIL NÚM. BY2022CV00154, BY2022CV00998 SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS. El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Bayamón, hago saber a la parte demandada JULIO TORRES ACEVEDO, por sí y como miembro conocido de la Sucesión de Carmen María Rivera Benítez, JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE como miembros desconocidos de la Sucesión de Carmen María Rivera Benítez y al PÚBLICO EN GENERAL; que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedido el 26 de enero de 2024, por la Secretaría del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta por el precio mínimo de $100,000.00 y al mejor postor, pagadero en efectivo, cheque de gerente o giro postal, a nombre del alguacil del tribunal, la propiedad que se describe a continuación: URB. LAS VEGAS, DD-6 CALLE 28, CATAÑO, PR 00962, y que se describe de la siguiente manera:

URBANA: Solar número seis de la manzana DD de la Urbanización Las Vegas, sitio Flor del Valle del barrio Palmas de Cataño, Puerto Rico, con un área de 299.00 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NOROESTE, en 23 metros con el solar nú-

mero 7 de la manzana DD; por el SURESTE, en 23 metros con el solar número 5 de la manzana DD; por el NORESTE, en 13 metros con el solar número 9 de la manzana DD; y por el SUROESTE, en 13 metros con la calle número 28. Contiene una casa de una planta de concreto que consta de tres dormitorios, sala-comedor, cocina, dos baños, balcón y marquesina. Finca 2765 inscrita al folio 143 del tomo 184 de Cataño, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección IV. La finca antes descrita se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: (i) HIPOTECA en garantía de pagaré a favor de RG Premier Bank of Puerto Rico o a su orden por la suma principal de $100,000.00 con intereses a razón del 7.5% anual y vencimiento el 1 de marzo del 2036. Constituida por la Escritura # 8 otorgada en Arecibo el 2 de febrero del 2006 ante el notario Enrique Acosta Pumarejo. Inscrita el 25 de septiembre de 2006 al folio 143 del Tomo 184 de Cataño, inscripción 6ª (ii) HIPOTECA en garantía de pagaré a favor del RG Premier Bank of Puerto Rico o a su orden por la suma principal de $25,000.00 con intereses a razón del 7.5% anual y vencimiento el 1 de marzo del 2021. Constituida por la Escritura # 10 otorgada en Arecibo el 2 de febrero del 2006 ante el notario Enrique Acosta Pumarejo. Inscrita el 25 de septiembre de 2006 al folio 143 del Tomo 184 de Cataño, inscripción 7ª (iii) CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA a favor de Julio Torres Acevedo que resulta de Resolución sobre Declaratoria de Herederos dictada el 15 de marzo del 2010 por la Sala de Bayamón del Tribunal de Primera Instancia en el caso civil número DJV2010-0335.

Inscrita el 4 de mayo del 2012 al folio 143 vuelto del Tomo 184 de Cataño, inscripción 8ª (iv) Demanda del 8 de julio de 2021, radicado en el Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de Bayamón, en el caso civil #BY2021CV02647, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, seguido por Oriental Bank vs. Julio Torres Acevedo; Lino Manuel, Julio, Carmen Ana, Juan Gilberto y Bryan de apellidos Torres Rivera, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, Departamento de Hacienda, Centro Recaudación de Ingresos Municipales, por $18,914.36, anotada al Sistema Karibe de Cataño, finca #2765, anotación P, el 6 de septiembre de 2022. La hipoteca objeto de esta ejecución es la que ha quedado descrita en el inciso (i). Será celebrada la subasta para con el importe de la misma satisfacer la sentencia dicta el 13 de diciembre de 2023, mediante la cual se con-

denó a la parte demandada pagar a la parte demandante las sumas: (i) en cuanto al préstamo 1366151 que asciende a $74,040.02 de principal, más $2,313.75 de interés al 7.50% anual, al 1 de febrero de 2022, que continuarán acumulándose $15.2136 diario hasta el saldo total, $233.76 de otros cargos, $10,000.00 de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más cualquier otro desembolso que haya efectuado o efectúe la parte demandante durante la tramitación de este caso para otros adelantos de conformidad con el Contrato Hipotecario, incluyendo primas de seguro de hipoteca, prima de seguro de siniestro y cargos por demora; y (ii) en cuanto al préstamo 1366356 que asciende a $18,914.36 por concepto de principal, más $2,955.25 de intereses acumulados, al 1 de marzo de 2023, que continuarán acumulándose a razón de $3.940491666 diario hasta el saldo total, más $54.72 de otros cargos, más $125.35 de escrow funds, $2,500.00 de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, más cualquier otro desembolso que haya efectuado o efectúe la parte demandante durante la tramitación de este caso para otros adelantos de conformidad con el Contrato Hipotecario, incluyendo primas de seguro de hipoteca, prima de seguro de siniestro y cargos por demora. La PRIMERA SUBASTA será celebrada el día 9 DE ABRIL DE 2024 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina del Alguacil, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la cantidad de $100,000.00, sin admitirse oferta inferior. De no haber remate ni adjudicación, celebraré SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 16 DE ABRIL DE 2024 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la que servirá como tipo mínimo, dos terceras (2/3) partes del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $66,666.67. Si no hubiese remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, celebraré TERCERA SUBASTA el día 23 DE ABRIL DE 2024 A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar en la que regirá como tipo mínimo, la mitad del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $50,000.00. El Alguacil que suscribe hizo constar que toda licitación deberá hacerse para pagar su importe en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América, de acuerdo con la Ley y de acuerdo con lo anunciado en este Aviso de Subasta. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas

laborables. Se entiende que todo licitador que comparezca a la subasta señalada en este caso acepta como bastante la titulación que da base a la misma. Se entiende que cualquier carga y/o gravamen anterior y/o preferente, si la hubiere al crédito que da base a esta ejecución continuará subsistente, entendiéndose, además, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción cualquier parte del remanente del precio de licitación. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, 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, quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Vendida o adjudicada la finca o derecho hipotecado y consignado el precio correspondiente, en esa misma fecha o fecha posterior, el alguacil que celebró la subasta procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura pública de traspaso en representación del dueño o titular de los bienes hipotecados, ante el notario que elija el adjudicatario o comprador, quien deberá abonar el importe de tal escritura. El alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la confirmación de la venta o adjudicación. 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. Y PARA CONOCIMIENTO DE LOS LICITADORES Y DEL PUBLICO EN GENERAL y para su publicación de acuerdo con la Ley, expido el presente Edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy 29 de febrero de 2024. Edgardo Elias Vargas Santana Placa 193, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE FAJARDO SALA SUPERIOR LIME HOMES, LTD

Parte Demandante Vs. JOSE ENRIQUE

MAYORAL AMY, TAMBIÉN

CONOCIDO COMO

JOSE MAYORAL AMY, LISA MARIE PENFIELD

KIRBY TAMBIÉN

CONOCIDA COMO LISA

PENFIELD KIRBY Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES

COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA

POR CONDUCTO DEL FISCAL FEDERAL DE LA CORTE DE DISTRITO DE ESTADOS UNIDOS PARA EL DISTRITO DE PUERTO RICO

Parte Demandada

Caso Civil Núm.:

FA2019CV00915. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA Y COBRO DE DINERO. ANUNCIO DE SUBASTA. El suscribiente, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Fajardo, Oficina de Subasta; a los demandados de epígrafe y al público en general hace saber que los autos y documentos del caso de epígrafe estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables y que venderá en pública subasta 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, en mi oficina en este Tribunal el derecho que tenga la parte demandada en el inmueble que se relaciona más adelante para pagar la SENTENCIA por $146,116.19 de balance de principal, más los intereses sobre dicha suma al 6.25% anual, desde el día primero de marzo de 2012 hasta su completo pago, más las primas de seguro hipotecario y riesgo, recargos por demora computados al 5% sobre cada mensualidad de principal e interés, más la suma de $12,000.00 como cantidad estipulada para honorarios de abogado, pactada en la escritura de hipoteca; y cuales quiera 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: RUSTICA: Solar Bloque E número siete (7) de la comunidad de La Romana del

Barrio Flamenco del término municipal de Culebra, con una cabida de setecientos sesenta y uno punto quinientos sesenta y ocho (761.568) metros cuadrados, por le Norte, con Calle número siete (7) y Parcela número seis (6); por el Sur, con Parcela número trece y ocho (13 y 8); por el Este, con Calle número siete (7); y por el Oeste, con Parcelas número seis, catorce y trece (6,14 y 13). Inscrita al folio cincuenta y cinco (55) del tomo veintiocho (28) de Culebra, finca número mil doscientos noventa y seis (1296). Registro de la Propiedad de Fajardo. Dirección física: Lot 7 Block E, Comm La Romana, Culebra, PR 00775. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a cabo el día 10 DE ABRIL DE 2024 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA y servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma la suma de $120,000.00 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 17 DE ABRIL DE 2024 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA y el precio mínimo para esta segunda subasta será el de dos terceras partes del precio mínimo establecido para la primera subasta, o a sea la suma de $80,000.00. Si tampoco hubiera remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 24 DE ABRIL DE 2024 A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA y el tipo mínimo para esta tercera subasta será la mitad del precio establecido para la primera subasta, o sea, la suma de $60,000.00. El mejor postor deberá pagar el importe de su oferta en efecto, cheque certificado o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse el inmueble al acreedor hipotecario dentro de los diez días siguientes a la fecha de la última subasta, si así lo estimase conveniente, por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada conforme a la sentencia, si ésta fuera igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta y abonándose dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta fuera mayor. Que se entenderá por todo licitador acepte como suficiente la titulación y que los cargos y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante continuarán subsistentes en entendiéndose que el rematador los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse su extinción al precio rematante. Todos los nombres de los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad

MORTGAGE CORP

Demandante V. JOHN DOE Y OTROS

Demandado(a)

Caso Núm.: BY2023CV07234.

(Salón 701). Sobre: CANCELACIÓN O RESTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

DAVID CARDONA DINGUIDCARDONA@CM-PRLAW.COM.

JORGE GARCIA RONDON

JAFGRONDON@GMAIL.COM.

A: MR COOPER; JOHN DE Y RICHARD ROE PERSONAS DESCONOCIDAS CON POSIBLE INTERES).

(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 15 de febrero de 2024. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 15 de febrero de 2024. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA. MARÍA

COLLAZO FEBUS, 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 ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE

FUNDING, LLC

Demandante V. HILDA BAEZ RIVERA Demandado(a)

Caso Núm.: SJ2023CV05861.

(Salón: 803 CIVIL). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO - ORDINARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

KENMUEL JOSÉ RUIZ LÓPEZKENMUEL.RUIZ@ORF-LAW.COM.

A: HILDA BAEZ RIVERA. (Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 18 DE MARZO 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 marzo de 2024. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 20 de marzo de 2024. Griselda Rodríguez Collado, Secretaria. Karolyn Rivera Navarro, Secretaria Auxiliar Del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION COMO SINDICO DE DORAL BANK POR CONDUCTO DE SU AGENTE AUTORIZADO CT CORPORATION SYSTEM Y OTROS

Demandado(a)

Caso Núm.: PO2023CV02607. (Salón: 605 CIVIL SUPERIOR).

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

BELMA ALONSO GARCÍAOFICIANABELMAALONSO@GMAIL. COM

A: FULANO DE TAL

Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARE.

(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 marzo 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 21 de marzo de 2024. En Ponce, Puerto Rico, el 21 de marzo de 2024. Carmen G. Tirú Quiñones, Secretaria. Brenda Santiago López, Secretaria(A Auxiliar Del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. WILFREDO PAGAN

ALICEA Y OTROS

Demandado(a)

Caso Núm.: BY2022CV05733.

(Salón: 503). Sobre: HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

GUILLERMO A. SOMOZA

COLOMBANI - BILLYSOMOZA@ YAHOO.COM.

A: WILFREDO PAGAN

ALICEA; JETTY SHERLY

REYES PEÑA T/C/C

JETTY REYES PEÑA.

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

EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 19 DE MARZO 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 marzo de 2024. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 20 de marzo de 2024. Laura I. Santa Sánchez, Secretaria. Ivette M. Marrero Bracero, Secretaria Auxiliar Del Tribunal.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAGUAS SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. MARIA DOLORES

ESTERAZ VICENTE

T/C MARIA DOLORES

ESTERAS VICENTE Y OTROS

Demandado(a)

Caso Núm.: CG2019CV02753. (Salón: 801). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO - ORDINARIO Y OTROS. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO ENMENDADA.

GUILLERMO A. SOMOZA

COLOMBANI - BILLYSOMOZA@ YAHOO.COM.

A: FULANO DE TAL, FULANA DE TAL, ZUTANO DE TAL, ZUTANA DE TAL, A, B, Y C COMO MIEMBROS

DESCONOCIDOS DE LA

SUCESION DE MARIA

DOLORES ESTERAZ

VICENTE T/C/C MARIA

DOLORES ESTERAS VICENTE.

(Nombre de las partes que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 01 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2023, 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 19 de MARZO de 2024. Notas de la Secretaría: SE ENMIENDA NOTIFICACION POR ORDEN DEL JUEZ DEL DIA

15 DE MARZO DE 2024. En CAGUAS, Puerto Rico, el 19 de MARZO de 2024. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA. SANDRA TRINIDAD CAÑUELAS, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE COMERÍO ORLANDO VÁZQUEZ

RIVERA

Parte Demandante Vs. MIGUELINA CASTOR THEN

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: CR2023RF00019. SOBRE: DIVORCIO (RUPTURA IRREPARABLE). EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. EDICTO.

A: MIGUELINA CASTOR THEN. CALLE 5 #9, BARRIADA LA PLATA, COMERÍO, PUERTO RICO 00782. En este Tribunal se ha presentado una demanda de divorcio por la causal de Ruptura Irreparable en contra suya. El nombre y dirección del abogado de la parte demandante lo es:

LCDO. HECTOR M. MARRERO MARRERO

RUA 7747

95 CALLE GEORGETTI, SUITE 1 APARTADO 283 NARANJITO, PUERTO RICO

00719-0283

TELEFONO: (787) 869-0806

Email: marreroh@gamail.ccom

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza por medio de Edictos para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los días Treinta (30) días de haberse publicado el edicto, excluyéndose el día de la publicación del edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, 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 Se expide este edicto bajo la firma y sello de este Tribunal, en Comerío, Puerto Rico, hoy 1 de noviembre de 2023. ELIZABETH GONZÁLEZ RIVERA, SECRETARIA. CARMEN L. APONTE FLORES, SUB-SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

WILFREDO MUÑOZ GALARZA

Demandante V. ORIENTAL BANK COMO

SUCESOR EN DERECHO DE SCOTIABANK DE PUERTO RICO Y OTROS

Demandado(a)

Caso Núm.: CG2023CV02165. (Salón 702). Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA: PROPIEDAD RESIDENCIAL. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA

POR EDICTO.

ANA M. MARÍN CASTROANAMARINCASTRO@YAHOO.COM. DENNISE M. DEDÓS OCASIOLCDADEDOS@FRAUYASOC.COM.

A: JOSE ORLANDO

ORTIZ RIVERA & LYDIETTE VAZQUEZ

ROMAN POR SI Y EN REPRESENTACIÓN DE 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 14 de marzo 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 15 de marzo de 2024. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 15 de marzo de 2024.

LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA. VIONNETTE

ESPINOSA CASTILLO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA DE BAYAMÓN

ESTRELLA HOMES II, LLC

Demandante Vs SUCESIÓN DE ÁNGEL RIVERA DE JESÚS

COMPUESTA POR FULANO DE TAL Y FULANA DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESIÓN DE ISABEL

COTTO ORTEGA

COMPUESTA POR SUTANO DE TAL Y

SUTANA DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Demandado

Civil Núm.: BY2022CV00949.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

AL PUBLICO EN GENERAL; A LA PARTE DEMANDADA Y A LOS TENEDORES DE GRAVÁMENES

POSTERIORES.

YO, EDGARDO ELÍAS VARGAS SANTANA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #193, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, al público en general, POR LA PRESENTE HAGO SABER:

CERTIFICO Y HAGO SABER: Cumpliendo con un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia del Secretario de este Tribunal, venderé en pública subasta al mejor postor en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos, en mi oficina, en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, el día 22 DE ABRIL DE 2024, A LAS 9:45 DE LA MAÑANA, la siguiente propiedad: URBANA: solar número cuatro (4) con una cabida superficial de dos mil ciento treinta y dos punto novecientos cincuenta y cuatro (2,132.954) metros cuadrados, sita en el Barrio Dajaos del término municipal de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, colindante por el norte, con el solar número dos y el solar número tres, en una distancia de (58.053) metros lineales y en otra distancia de (25.807) metros lineales del solar número tres; por el sur, con la parcela número cinco en una distancia de (66.319) metros lineales; por el este, con la carretera estatal, número ochocientos doce (812) del Barrio Dajaos y con la faja de terreno dedicada a uso público y por el oeste, con el remanente de la finca principal en una distancia de (66.319) metros lineales. Dicha propiedad consta inscrita en el Folio146 del Tomo 1266 de Bayamón; Finca 56,936; Registro de la Propiedad, Sección Primera de Bayamón. La dirección física es: Barrio Dajaos PR 812 km 2.9 Lote 4 Bayamón, Puerto Rico 00956. Los tipos mínimos fijados para la ejecución del bien inmueble antes mencionado lo son las sumas de $53,086.36 para la Primera Subasta; $35,390.91 para la Segunda Subasta; $26,543.18 para la Tercera Subasta. La venta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, hasta donde sea posible, el importe de la sentencia dictada el pasado 13 de septiembre de 2023 y notificada el 15 de septiembre de 2023 en el caso de epígrafe, ascendente a las siguientes cantidades: $20,786.79, más los intereses

sobre dicha suma desde el 4 de mayo de 2020, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además, se adeuda la suma estipulada de $10,617.27 para gastos, costas y honorarios de abogado, los cargos por demora equivalentes a 5.00% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha vencimiento; así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato de préstamo. En caso de que el inmueble a ser subastado no fuera adjudicado en la primera subasta, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 29 DE ABRIL DE 2024, A LAS 9:45 DE LA MAÑANA, y el tipo mínimo para ésta será $35,390.91 que es las dos terceras partes del precio mínimo establecido para la primera subasta. Si tampoco hubiera remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 6 DE MAYO DE 2024, A LAS 9:45 DE LA MAÑANA, y el tipo mínimo para esta subasta será $26,543.18 que es la mitad del precio mínimo pactado para la primera subasta. Cuando se declare desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si esta fuera igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta fuere mayor. Todas las subastas deberán ser acordadas y celebradas según lo ordenado por el Tribunal. La subasta antes indicada se llevará a cabo en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables. El inmueble antes relacionado NO consta de afectos de gravámenes preferenciales ni posteriores. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación y que las cargas preferentes, si alguna, continuarán subsistentes; entiéndase que el rematante los acepta y quedan subrogados en la responsabilidad del mismo sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Para la publicación de este edicto en un periódico de circulación general una vez por semana, durante dos semanas consecutivas, y para la colocación del mismo en tres sitios públicos visibles del municipio en que se celebre la subasta, libro el presente en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 11 de marzo del 2024. EDGARDO ELÍAS VARGAS SANTANA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #193, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE BAYAMÓN.

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Crossword

For women’s basketball, Caitlin Clark’s lasting impact may be economic

By SANTUL NERKAR

Caitlin Clark, the University of Iowa basketball player who has dazzled crowds with her deep shooting range and preternatural scoring ability, is one of the biggest draws in sports.

Tickets to her games this season were nearly 200% more expensive than they were last year, according to Vivid Seats, a ticket exchange and resale company. Fans routinely traveled hundreds of miles to catch a glimpse of her, lining up for hours before tipoff and boosting local economies.

Nearly 10 million people, a record, watched her play in last year’s championship game, a loss to Louisiana State. More than 3 million tuned in this year when she set the career record for points scored by a Division I college basketball player.

Now, as Clark plays in her final NCAA Tournament — No. 1-seeded Iowa plays No. 5 Colorado on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC) in the Sweet 16 — excitement has reached a fever pitch. It has some wondering if Clark’s effect on the popularity of women’s sports, and their economics, will linger after her career at Iowa ends.

Viewership, juiced by media rights deals, and corporate sponsorships are the key drivers of revenue for college and professional sports. In women’s sports, those have long lagged behind what men’s sports receive. In 2019, for instance, women’s sports programming accounted for less than 6% of coverage on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” according to a study.

But in recent years, women’s sports have had significant growth. A November report from Deloitte projected that women’s sports would generate more than $1 billion in global revenue this year, up roughly 300% from the company’s estimate in 2021. Globally, the number of sponsorships in women’s professional leagues increased 22% in 2023, compared with a 24% increase in men’s sports, according to SponsorUnited, which tracks company sponsorships and deals.

“You do need women like Caitlin Clark who are so great that you can’t miss them,” said Michael Pachter, a tech analyst for Wedbush Securities.

Stars do make sports. The men’s national title game in 1979 between Magic Johnson’s Michigan State and Larry Bird’s Indiana State remains the most-watched college basketball game of all time. Both stars then entered the

in 1999 spurred interest and investment at the youth level. Serena Williams changed the audience for tennis, and athletes including race car driver Danica Patrick and fighter Ronda Rousey brought new viewers to their sports.

Andrew Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College, said Clark’s success was “another event in a long line of events” that had boosted the acceptance of all women’s sports.

“There’s been a positive evolution since Title IX was passed in 1972,” Zimbalist said.

Unlike previous generations, Clark has been able to immediately reap the rewards of her fame because of an NCAA rule change in 2021 that allows college athletes to profit off their own name, image and likeness, including through product endorsements and sponsorship deals. Clark’s sponsorship deals — valued at $3 million, according to On3, a site that tracks NIL deals — means she earns much more in endorsements than she will in salary from the WNBA. (Her projected base salary for her rookie season is $76,000.)

NBA, making the league more popular than it had ever been.

Before the Johnson-Bird NBA era, the league’s finals were broadcast on tape delay. Today, the NBA earns billions of dollars from its television deals, and star players make more than $60 million per season.

As TV networks have tried to give viewers reasons to tune in during the streaming era, the rights to broadcast popular men’s sports like football, hockey and basketball, have become expensive. That has spurred networks to lock in deals to broadcast sports, like women’s basketball, that don’t cost as much and whose viewership is projected to grow.

“The networks have run into an economic problem where they’re paying too much for the sports that they need to fill up their network space,” said Andrew Barrett, a managing director of STS Capital Partners who works in sports management. “You start to look at female sports because people will watch those.”

In January, the NCAA signed a deal with ESPN that valued the annual rights to broadcast the women’s basketball tournament at more than $60 million, more than 10 times what the network paid in the previous deal, in 2011.

The network pays $25 million to $33 million per year to broadcast some WNBA games, while Scripps reportedly pays $13 million per year. The WNBA’s previous deal, solely with ESPN, was signed in 2013 for $12 million per year, according to Sports Business Journal. Annual revenue nearly doubled from $100 million in 2019 to around $200 million in 2023, according to Bloomberg.

“We’re not a charity,” Cathy Engelbert, the WNBA commissioner, said during a recent panel discussion with the law firm Kramer Levin. “We’re a real sports media and entertainment property.”

When Clark said she would forgo her final year of college eligibility to enter this spring’s WNBA draft, it had an immediate effect. The Indiana Fever, who are expected to select her with the first overall pick in April, saw a more than 200% increase in the average listed price of their season opener, according to Vivid Seats.

Clark’s success follows decades of progress for women in sports, dating to the 1972 passage of Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational settings and led to skyrocketing funding of — and participation in — women’s sports. The World Cup that the U.S. women’s soccer team won

Clark is hardly the first female basketball star to generate intense interest. The WNBA was founded in large part because of the popularity of women’s college basketball. Storied programs like the University of Tennessee and University of Connecticut collected multiple championships and featured stars such as Tamika Catchings, Chamique Holdsclaw, Candace Parker, Rebecca Lobo, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi.

But the progress has come in fits and starts. In 1997, the WNBA’s inaugural season, average attendance was around 10,000. Three years later, the league expanded to 16 teams. In 2023, there were only 12 teams, and average attendance was less than 7,000. The 2023 finals averaged 728,000 viewers, an improvement from 2022 but fewer than the 2003 finals, which were watched by an average of 848,000.

Pachter said he didn’t think the audience for women’s basketball would reach hundreds of millions overnight. But he sees interest continuing to steadily grow, and can envision a future where a streaming service may try to own the exclusive rights to a league like the WNBA. For that to happen, other stars need to step up to Clark’s level.

“You need three or four more, but they’re coming,” Pachter said. “They’re going to emerge because now we’re paying attention.”

Caitlin Clark of Iowa during a basketball game against Wisconsin in Iowa City, Iowa, Jan. 16, 2024. People have flocked to watch the University of Iowa star on TV and in person at a time when her sport is more valuable than it ever was before. (Hilary Swift/The New York Times)

The San Juan Daily Star