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.
Rep. Ramón Luis Cruz Burgos introduced a bill Tuesday requiring legislative approval for all public-private partnership (PPP) contracts that exceed five years.
House Bill 1650 seeks to amend articles 9, 10 and 22 of Act 29-2009, as amended, known as the “PublicPrivate Partnerships Law,” to provide that the authorization of the Legislature will be necessary for the approval of PPP contracts that exceed five years.
“Puerto Ricans need transparency from the government for any contract that puts essential service operations in private hands,” the Popular Democratic Party lawmaker said. “For this reason, it is important that the Legislature intervene in these processes and look after the country’s best interests.”
The measure establishes that it is necessary for citizens, through the Legislature, to know the details of PPP contracts before they are signed and approved. Therefore, the House and the Senate must have the power to evaluate and supervise the contracts, the proposal says.
With the establishment of Law 29-2009, as amended, known as the “Public-Private Partnerships Law,” an entity was sought to unite resources and efforts from the public sector with resources from the private sector, through a joint investment for the benefit of both parties. As provided, the aim was to provide services, build facilities or carry out projects of high priority for the state and/or services of high public interest. This scaffolding assumes that the state does not renounce its responsibility to protect the public interest.
Regarding the processes through which the partnerships will be established, Law 29-2009 indicates that they must promote purity, and encourage transparency on the part of the state in the negotiation and agreements to sign contracts. However, once the negotiation of a partnership contract is completed, the Partnership Committee prepares a report, which must include the reasons for carrying out the partnership, the reasons for the selection of the chosen proponent, a description of the process carried out, including comparisons of the proponent and the recommended partnership contract against other proposals presented and all other information relevant to the process and the evaluation carried out.
“The problem with the current law is that it is not until the entire process is complete and the contract is final, that a copy of the report is presented to the secretariat of both legislative bodies,” Cruz Burgos stated. “The lack of access to crucial information has not allowed the representatives of the people in the Legislature to determine in time whether an alliance [partnership] contract that compromises essential public services would be protecting the public interest, so it is urgent to amend the law so that the Legislature has to approve the contracts.”
Likewise, the lawmaker noted that the experiences with energy contracts have shown that after the agreements have been signed, information about unreasonable clauses that are detrimental to the public interest emerges publicly.
As an example, he noted that the PPP contract reached to operate the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s (PREPA) transmission and distribution system has led to multiple requests for an increase in the power rate by the private operator, LUMA Energy.
Meanwhile, Cruz Burgos said, the public was also unable to learn details about the privatization of the operation and maintenance of PREPA generation plants in a PPP contract that was awarded to Genera PR.
Rep. Ramón Luis Cruz Burgos, who filed House Bill 1650 on Tuesday, noted that the public-private partnership contract reached to operate the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s transmission and distribution system has led to multiple requests for an increase in the power rate by the private operator, LUMA Energy.
Former governor Wanda Vázquez Garced’s legal representative, Luis Plaza Mariota, insisted Tuesday that the criminal trial against his client should begin as soon as possible, but the legal teams of the two other defendants in the corruption case against Vázquez Garced, banker Julio Herrera Velutini and former FBI agent Mark Rossini, said they needed more time.
The lawyer proclaimed that they already know the case and the prosecutors theory, and that they already have made their “own case,” for which they asked federal judge Raúl Arias Marxuach to order the start of the trial once a series of legal controversies have been resolved.
The next status hearing is scheduled for June 6. Vázquez Garced and her two co-defendants are accused of participating in an alleged scheme aimed at Vázquez Garced removing George Joyner from his position as head of the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions and appointing Víctor Rodríguez Bonilla, a former employee of Bancrédito, a company run by Herrera Velutini.
In exchange, according to the prosecution, Vázquez Garced was to receive political campaign contributions.
“Our interest is to move the case of Wanda Vázquez along quickly because there is a lot
of evidence in the emails that [prosecutor Ryan R.] Crosswell sent us today. They have nothing to do with us,” Plaza Mariota said.
In the case of the defense of Herrera Velutini, the scenario is very different. His lawyer, Lilly Ann Sánchez, indicated, as did the other lawyers in the case, that her office is preparing a long list of keywords to be included in a filter that will be applied to government evidence to protect information. Herrera Velutini’s defense has presented prosecutors with 15 pages of evidence they have not received.
Plaza Mariota also announced that he would deliver his own list of evidence documents to the prosecution.
“Specific issues,” he said.
“Herrera Velutini is in a very different position from Wanda Vázquez,” said Sánchez, raising the possibility that the cases will be heard separately. “Our discovery is voluminous and a speedy trial, like the one requested by Vázquez’s lawyers, I don’t think it’s possible for our client.”
Michael Brian Adler, one of Rossini’s lawyers, also noted that they are finalizing their list of keywords to be protected.
“I would agree that much of the information does apply to Rossini and any matter relevant to Rossini we want to have access to,” Adler said. “It will be a substantial discovery process, and we do not anticipate a speedy trial.”
The lawyer referred, when speaking of a “large part of the information,” to a matter raised by Plaza Mariota, who maintained that he has received thousands of documents from the prosecution that have nothing to do with the case and that he associates with matters of national security.
Plaza Mariota was emphatic on the need for Arias Marxuach to resolve the handling of sensitive information.
“We are not questioning what the government is doing, we are sure that it is important, but we do not want to be custodians of sensitive information,” said the lawyer, adding that they wanted to make the public see that a list of 24 audio files and documents stored in 61 gigabytes of memory has to do with Vázquez Garced, when it does not.
“I am clear and I will solve it in a few weeks,” Arias Marxuach replied. “I have to identify time that I don’t have.”
At-large Rep. José Enrique “Quiquito” Meléndez Ortiz on Tuesday called on the board of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to reevaluate the parameters of the Medicare Advantage Notice 2024, whose implementation, according to available information, would result in a marked reduction in the rates reimbursed to Advantage medical plans in Puerto Rico.
“Here is another area in which living under the colony affects us,” Meléndez said. “In Puerto Rico, which is the jurisdiction in the United States with the most citizens with Advantage health plans, out of 640,000, we receive only 40% to 43% reimbursement for the service of these plans in the states. Here the affected are our elderly people, and we cannot allow that.”
Members of CMS, the entity that groups insurers of Advantage medical plans, warned of a possible cut in the level of reimbursement for the federal fiscal year
2024, which begins Oct. 1. The cut, they said, could represent a decrease of up to $800 million compared to current levels.
A Medicare Advantage health plan is described as any private health plan provided by insurers that have current contracts with the Medicare program for those purposes.
“We believe that insurers will try to change these parameters in the Medicare Advantage Notice 2024,” Meléndez said.
“We are asking the members of the CMS board to sit down, take into consideration the economic reality of those who are beneficiaries of these plans, mostly seniors, and avoid this action that would put the health system at risk in a critical area.”
“These plans are used by citizens to supplement their coverage, without them many could not pay for their medicines, because in Puerto Rico we do not receive subsidies in Part D (Medicare), among others,” the New Progressive Party lawmaker added. “These plans supplement basic Medicare coverage. We are not talking
anything other than the health of the people and that is why today we make an
about
The Caribe Wave 2023 exercise, whose purpose is to help citizens deal with tsunamis, will take place on March 23 at 10 a.m. in coordination with the commonwealth Bureau for Emergency Management and Disaster Administration (NMEAD), the Caribbean Office of the International Tsunami Information Center and the Puerto Rico Seismic Network, among other state agencies and federal entities.
This year, the simulation will contemplate a tsunami caused by the eruption and collapse of the volcanic flank at Mount Pelée in Martinique.
Caribe Wave is a tsunami drill that has been held in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean for 15 years to educate the region’s populations about what to do if an event of such magnitude occurs and to corroborate the effectiveness of the tsunami alert system, and inter-agency and community communication. It also seeks to evaluate the mobilization of the various immediate response agencies and check the emergency alert system (EAS) operations of electronic media, such as radio, television, cable, and satellite stations.
NMEAD Commissioner Nino Correa Filoameno stressed that “we call on citizens to participate in the Caribe Wave 2023 so that they can practice with their family and have their family plans updated.” At the bureau,
we continue to guide and train our people to respond effectively in an emergency,” Correa Filomeno said.
Puerto Rico Seismic Network Director Víctor Huerfano urged citizens to participate in the Caribe Wave tsunami exercise to reinforce emergency family plans, know and practice evacuation routes and identify meeting sites.
Christa von Hillebrandt-Andrade, director of the Caribbean Office of the International Tsunami Information Center, said “our worst enemy in avoiding disasters is complacency and that the infrequency of the event deceives us into thinking that it is not going to happen.”
“The Caribe Wave Exercise is the ideal opportunity for everyone to review our plans and take action to be ready for when the next tsunami [strikes] our coasts,” she said.
Ernesto Morales, meteorologist and news coordinator at the National Meteorology Service in Puerto Rico, added that “for low frequency events, it is necessary to take this opportunity to put our emergency protocols into practice.”
“If there are failures, it is necessary to update our emergency plans,” he said.
Island Public Safety (DSP by its Spanish initials) Secretary Alexis Torres Ríos stressed that “every year, the NMEAD and the DSP support this drill to guide citizens.”
“We exhort them to register and participate in the exercise so that they are better prepared and can save lives in case a tsunami occurs,” he said.
During International Women’s Week, one island advocate for women’s rights has responded to reports that two towns in Puerto Rico, Caguas and Ponce, are among the nine small towns in the United States where women are paid better than men.
Proyecto Matria Executive Director Amarilis Pagán Jiménez said she had mixed feelings about the revelation.
“On the one hand, it makes me happy, but on the other hand I’m afraid of partial data; data may have been left out,” Págan said.
The reason she believes that data could be missing from the study documented by consumer finance startup Pheabs.com is that many women in both communities, like in much of Puerto Rico, work part-time, which could skew the data.
Pheabs.com spokeswoman Dana Leigh noted that the data “has come from the U.S. census, so it’s not so much [that] data is missing, more [that] we’re publicizing what was provided.”
CROEM announces ‘Women of the Year’ award recipients
Also as part of International Women’s Week, seven
graduate students and a professor from the Residential Center for Educational Opportunities of Mayagüez
(CROEM by its Spanish acronym) received the “Outstanding CROEMITAS Women of the Year 2023 Award,” a recognition granted by the CROEM Graduate Students Association (CROEM ALUMNI).
During the event, special recognition was given to the designated women’s affairs advocate, Vilmarie Rivera Sierra, whose appointment is pending approval in the island Senate, and who received special recognition in community work.
“The women honorees all meet the requirement of having achieved a strategic position either in their professional tasks or as part of the social civic work in their respective communities,” said Roberto Rivera Ponce, presidential delegate of CROEM ALUMNI.
Other recognitions went to CROEM graduates Doris Ramírez Ruiz of the Class of 1973 in the leadership area; Aurea Berríos Sáez (Class of 1972) for her work as executive in charge of the Naranjito Adolescent Program Incorporated (PANI); Juanita Pérez Orench (Class of 1984) in the area of public service; Nohemí Cotto Morales (Class of 1971) in the area of culture; Daisy Martínez Rodríguez in the area of education; the former president of the Puerto Rican Society of Pediatrics, Dr. Carmen Suárez Martínez (Class of 1981) in the area of health.
“It is important to note that the awards granted are part of the project that connects the CROEM school with the community,” Rivera Ponce noted. “The honorees have all developed special projects that reflect a positive attitude in our society.”
Renowned Broadway musical “Hamilton” is returning to Puerto Rico with a two-week run set for June 13-June 25 at Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center (Centro de Bellas Artes) in San Juan, the magazine Playbill reported.
The production will feature the cast of the musical’s “Angelica” North American tour. The stop comes courtesy of creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is using the musical as a way to raise funds for Puerto Rico, which is still rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017, the publication said.
The June 16 benefit performance of “Hamilton” in Puerto Rico will raise funds for the Hispanic Federation and the Flamboyan Arts Fund. Original Broadway cast members Miranda, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Christopher Jackson and Leslie Odom Jr. will reunite at the June 16 benefit, watching the performance and attending receptions before and after the show.
“I am so proud of the work that both the Hispanic Federation and the Flamboyan Arts Fund have done for the Puerto Rican community through their support and funding of grassroots efforts,” Miranda said in a statement to The Associated Press, which first reported the news. “By providing support to activists, artists and community groups on the ground, they have changed the ecosystem for the arts and the nonprofit sector.”
Miranda is hoping the event will raise at least $2 million for the organizations, providing further help after five years of emergency assistance and rebuilding efforts in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Funds donated to Flamboyan Arts Fund help ensure that the arts are part of Puerto Rico’s rebuilding, which was a particular goal for Miranda.
The upcoming run will be the musical’s second time playing Puerto Rico following a 2019 run that featured Miranda stepping back into the title role. The 2019 performances also benefited the Hispanic Federation and Flamboyan Arts Fund.
The play was shown for the first time in 2019 with Miranda playing Alexander Hamilton.
Tickets for the June 16 benefit performance start at $500, with three higher-tier VIP tickets ranging from $1,000 to $7,500. Tickets and additional information can be found at Hamilton.HispanicFederation.org.
The “Angelica” tour of Hamilton is currently led by Edred Utomi as Alexander Hamilton, Stephanie Umoh as Angelica Schuyler, Josh Tower as Aaron Burr, Alysha Deslorieux as Eliza Hamilton, Peter Matthew Smith as King George III, Carvens Lissaint as George Washington, Tyler Belo as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison, Jon Viktor Corpuz as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton, David Park as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson, and Yana Perrault as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds.
“Hamilton” is directed by Thomas Kail and cho-
“Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is hoping a June 16 benefit performance will raise at least $2 million for the Hispanic Federation and the Flamboyan Arts Fund, providing further help after five years of emergency assistance and rebuilding efforts in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
reographed by Andy Blankenbuehler. The production features scenic design by David Korins, costumes by Paul Tazewell, lighting by Howell Binkley, sound design by Nevin Steinberg, hair and wig design by Charles G. LaPointe, casting by The Telsey Office’s Bethany Knox, and general management by Baseline Theatrical. The show is produced by Jeffrey Seller, Sander Jacobs, Jill Furman and The Public Theater.
By THE STAR STAFF
As part of the commemoration of International Women’s Week, the New Progressive Party minority leader in the House of Representatives, Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Nuñez, paid tribute to Puerto Rico’s national women’s volleyball team and the tallest volleyball player in the world, Alba Hernández, for her career on and off
the court.
“Every now and then an athlete arrives who transforms, not only the court or the park where she exhibits her talents, but also the community that saw her born; that is the case of our Alba Hernández,” Méndez said. “Today we pay this tribute to a great athlete, but a better human being, a volleyball player who never forgets where she came from and is always available to help everyone. Today we celebrate the career of Alba, the pride of Fajardo and all of Puerto Rico.”
Hernández was born on Oct. 3, 1994 in Fajardo. As the middle blocker on the Puerto Rico National Volleyball Team, she has been a fundamental piece in the squad’s recent triumphs. Alba is 6 feet, 8 inches (2.07 meters) tall, which makes her taller than towering New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge at 6-7 (2.01 meters).
Beyond being the tallest player on the national team, which implies a natural advantage, Hernández has a technical richness that allows her to get out of her defensive priorities to go looking for points in the net, where she is a constant threat, a lethal weapon, and an almost guaranteed point, Méndez noted.
Hernández has also played for Las Criollas de Caguas, Valencianas de Juncos, Rote Raben Vilsbiburg, Amazonas de Trujillo Alto, and Gigantes de Carolina, among others. Meanwhile, with the national team she has helped the squad win matches against Cameroon (3:0), Kenya (3:1),
China (3:0), Brazil (3:0), Japan (3:0) and Argentina (3:1).
“I am sure that our Alba will continue to perform in her sport with the same love, sacrifice and professionalism that characterizes her, in order to continue reaping success,” Méndez said. “I also know that she is an example for many young people who have been writing their history in sports through her development.”
President Joe Biden will submit his latest budget request to Congress on Thursday, offering what his administration says will be $2 trillion in plans to reduce deficits and future growth of the national debt.
Republicans, who are demanding deep spending cuts in exchange for raising the nation’s borrowing cap, will almost certainly greet that proposal with a familiar refrain: Biden and his party are to blame for ballooning the debt.
But an analysis of House and Senate voting records, and of fiscal estimates of legislation prepared by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, shows that Republicans bear at least equal blame as Democrats for the biggest drivers of federal debt growth that passed Congress over the past two presidential administrations.
The national debt has grown to $31.4 trillion from just under $6 trillion in 2000, bumping against the statutory limit on federal borrowing. That increase, which spanned the presidential administrations of two Republicans and two Democrats, has been fueled by tax cuts, wars, economic stimulus and the growing costs of retirement and health programs. Since 2017, when Donald Trump took the White House, Republicans and Democrats in Congress have joined together to pass a series of spending increases and tax cuts that the budget office projects will add trillions to the debt.
The analysis is based on the forecasts that the CBO regularly issues for the federal budget. They include descriptions of newly passed legislation that affects spending, revenues and deficits, tallying the costs of those new laws over the course of a decade. Going back to the start of Trump’s tenure, those reports highlight 13 new laws that, by the CBO’s projections, will combine to add more than $11.5 trillion to the debt.
Nearly three-quarters of that new debt was approved in bills that gained the support of a majority of Republicans in at least one chamber of Congress. Three-fifths of it was signed into law by Trump.
Some of those bills were in response to emergencies, such as the early rounds of stimulus payments to people and businesses during the pandemic. Others were routine appropriations bills, which increased spending on the military and on domestic issues such as research and education.
Many of the votes were roundly bipartisan: More than 85% of the projected debt added over the past six years passed with a majority of Democratic votes in both chambers. Almost an identical amount of debt passed with at least one-third of Republican votes in the House or Senate. Chief among them were a series of COVID-19 relief measures totaling more than $3 trillion and passing with landslide majorities in 2020.
Some of the laws passed entirely along party lines. In those cases, on net, Republicans added slightly more to the debt than Democrats.
That’s because of the sweeping corporate and individual tax cuts that Trump signed into law at the end of 2017, which cost $2 trillion. Despite Republican claims that the tax cuts paid for themselves, the CBO estimated last month that Trump’s corporate tax cuts alone would cost the federal government hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue in the
years to come. Earlier CBO analyses suggest the full slate of tax cuts have already cost the government $1.2 trillion through the 2022 fiscal year.
The tax cuts’ price tag outweighed the net cost of the two most fiscally consequential bills that Biden and Democrats passed along party lines: a $1.9 trillion economic aid bill in 2021 and a climate, health and tax bill approved late last summer, which is projected to reduce future deficits by nearly $300 billion.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California and many other prominent Republicans who are now leading the resistance to raising the borrowing limit did vote against large spending bills that other Republicans backed under Trump and Biden. But they also voted for trillions of dollars in pandemic aid under Trump and roundly backed his tax cuts.
House Republicans have pushed to extend the 2017 tax cuts, which would add trillions to the debt. They also support rolling back tax increases and enhanced tax enforcement measures approved by Biden, which would have the effect of adding hundreds of billions of dollars to deficits if they were to succeed.
Top congressional Republicans rarely acknowledge the role that their party has played in adding to deficits and debt in recent years, instead laying the blame on Biden and Democrats.
“Biden’s numerous bailouts and massive government expansion disguised as COVID relief has blown out spending and exacerbated our debt disaster,” Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas, chair of the House Budget Committee, said last month. Beyond Congress, Republican candidates have long tweaked their party for not taking a harder line on spending and debt.
“The last two Republican presidents added more than $10 trillion to the national debt,” Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador who is now running for president, told the conservative Club for Growth on Saturday, as reported by Politico. “Think about that. A third of our debt happened under just two Republicans.”
Biden administration officials blame Trump and former President George W. Bush for running up debt, particularly
with tax cuts. They claim credit for a decline in the budget deficit under Biden, even though that mostly occurred because the federal government stopped passing emergency aid bills as the pandemic eased its grip on the economy.
“I’m not going to sit and be lectured by MAGA Republicans in Congress about fiscal responsibility,” Biden wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
The budget office’s math is unsparing: It shows both parties acting, often together, to increase deficits and debt in recent years.
Biden has signed laws that are set to add just under $5 trillion to the debt over the next decade, by the CBO’s estimation. The actual amount could be far less because of a quirk in how the CBO accounts for two bills: the infrastructure bill that Biden signed in 2021 and legislation enacted last year to expand health care for military veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. That quirk, which requires the budget office to assume certain spending will continue indefinitely even though Congress has not authorized it to do so, could be inflating the cost of the bills by nearly $1.3 trillion.
The estimate of the burn pits legislation could be counting nearly $400 billion in spending twice. The bill essentially shifts a large amount of spending on veterans from a budget category called discretionary spending to one called mandatory spending. The budget office recognizes the new mandatory spending but assumes Congress will not cut discretionary veterans’ spending commensurately. Similarly, the infrastructure law calls for spending on projects such as roads and broadband to increase in the near term and then taper off. The CBO estimates that tapering will never actually happen, and that spending will keep rising at the rate of inflation in later years.
But Biden has added to the debt not just by signing laws. He has also taken unilateral action that independent experts say could cost the federal government hundreds of billions of dollars. That includes the president’s plan to forgive student loan debts for a wide swath of borrowers who earn less than $125,000 a year. The plan, which is on hold as it faces a challenge before the Supreme Court, would add $400 billion to deficits over the next 30 years if carried out, according to budget office estimates.
Trump, by comparison, signed laws adding nearly $7 trillion to the debt in his four-year term, by the budget office’s estimation. That number does not include the cost of making permanent the individual tax cuts passed in 2017 that are set to expire after 2025; the CBO assumes those cuts will expire as scheduled.
McCarthy has acknowledged the degree of debt that Trump signed into law with the help of Republicans and Democrats in Congress. But he has blamed Biden for continued spending after the president entered the White House and has made clear that House Republicans will demand steep cuts in exchange for raising the debt limit.
Asked by Margaret Brennan of CBS News in January about the amount of debt incurred under Trump, McCarthy replied, “You had a pandemic. And, as that pandemic comes down, those programs leave. I have watched the president say he cut it. No, it is spending $500 billion more than what was projected. They have spent more. And we’ve got to stop the waste.”
Five women who say they were denied abortions despite grave risks to their lives or their fetuses sued the state of Texas earlier this week, apparently the first time that pregnant women themselves have taken legal action against the bans that have shut down access to abortion across the country since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The women — two visibly pregnant — planned to tell their stories on the steps of the Texas Capitol on Tuesday. Their often harrowing experiences were to put faces to what their 91-page complaint calls “catastrophic harms” to women since the court’s decision in June, which eliminated the constitutional right to abortion after five decades.
Their accounts may resonate with public opinion, which generally supports legalized abortion and does so overwhelmingly when a pregnancy endangers the woman’s life. The lawsuit, backed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, comes as the country grapples with the fallout from overturning Roe, with abortion banned in at least 13 states.
Texas, like most states with bans, allows exceptions when a physician determines there is risk of “substantial” harm to the mother, or in cases of rape or incest, or if the fetus has a fatal diagnosis. Yet the potential for prison sentences of up to 99 years, $100,000 fines and the loss of medical licenses has scared doctors into not providing abortions even in cases where the law would seem to allow them.
The suit asks the court to affirm that physicians can make exceptions, and to clarify under what conditions. But its greater power may be in appealing to public opinion on abortion. Similar lawsuits over exceptions, focusing public attention on stories of women who were denied abortions despite medical dangers, helped build momentum for legalized abortion in heavily Catholic Ireland and in South America.
The women bringing the suit contradict stereotypes about who receives abortions and why. Married, and some with children already, the women rejoiced at their pregnancies, only to discover that their fetuses had no chance of survival — two had no skulls, and two others were threatening the lives of their twins.
Though they faced the risk of hemorrhage or life-threatening infection from carrying those fetuses, the women were told they could not have abortions, the suit says. Some doctors refused even to suggest the option, or to forward medical records to another provider.
The women found themselves furtively crossing state borders to seek medical treatment outside Texas, worried that family and neighbors might report them to state authorities. In some cases, the women became so ill that they were hospitalized. One plaintiff, Amanda Zurawski, was told she was not yet sick enough to receive an abortion, then twice became septic, and was left with so much scar tissue that one of her fallopian tubes is permanently closed.
“You don’t think you’re somebody who’s going to need an abortion, let alone an abortion to save my life,” Zurawski, 35, said. “If anybody reads my story, I don’t care where they are on the political spectrum, very few people would agree there is anything pro-life about this.”
Anti-abortion groups argue that restrictions on abortion do not harm women’s health, that doctors can provide lifesaving care without needing to perform an abortion, and that the laws prevent only what the groups call “elective” abortions, or those that are intended to end an unwanted pregnancy. That is different, they argue, from the management of a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy, situations that are often allowed under the exceptions in state abortion bans.
Unlike other suits from abortion rights groups, the Texas suit does not seek to overturn the state bans on abortion. Instead, it asks the court to confirm that Texas law allows physicians to offer abortion if, in their good-faith judgment, the procedure is necessary because the woman has a “physical emergent medical condition” that cannot be treated during pregnancy or that makes continuing the pregnancy unsafe, or the fetus has a condition “where the pregnancy is unlikely to result in the birth of a living child with sustained life.”
The women are not suing the medical providers who denied abortions, and the providers are not named in the suit; in most cases, the women say the providers were doing the best they could, but had their hands tied.
The Texas Medical Association has appealed to state authorities to offer more clarity on what exceptions are allowed. The author of one of the bans wrote to the state medical board in August, concerned that hospitals “may be wrongfully prohibiting or seriously delaying physicians
from providing medically appropriate and possibly lifesaving services to patients who have various pregnancy complications.” He underscored that under the exceptions, hospitals had to protect the “mother’s life and major bodily function.”
The lawsuit says the five plaintiffs “represent only the tip of the iceberg,” and that “millions” of people across the country have been “denied dignified treatment as equal human beings.”
Few states have been more aggressively anti-abortion than Texas, the home of the original Roe case. Even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe, Texas passed a law allowing civilians to sue anyone who provided or aided and abetted an abortion, with rewards of at least $10,000 for successful suits.
Zurawski became pregnant in early 2022 after 18 months of fertility treatments. In her 17th week of pregnancy, and the day after she made the guest list for her baby shower, a scan found that her cervical membranes had begun to prolapse. Specialists told her that her fetus, which she had begun thinking of as her baby, would not survive.
Doctors told Zurawski they could perform an abortion only if she became acutely ill or went into labor naturally, or if the fetus’ heartbeat stopped. That night at home, her water broke, but when she went to the emergency room, doctors said she was not in labor. Without amniotic fluid, the fetus would die, but it still had a heartbeat. And because Zurawski’s vital signs were stable, they said, she did not qualify for an exception. The hospital sent her home.
Zurawski and her husband, Josh Zurawski, considered driving 11 hours to New
Mexico, but had been told to stay within a 20 minutes’ drive of the hospital in Texas in case she went into labor. She was so worried about being prosecuted, “I didn’t even feel safe Googling options,” Zurawski said. “I didn’t know what they could and couldn’t search.”
Three days later, doctors again told the Zurawskis they could not legally abort the fetus because it still had a heartbeat. At home that night, Zurawski developed a fever, and her husband called the obstetrician to ask to go to the hospital. “We were in this mindset of, ‘Surely now you’ll accept us,’ ” Zurawski said. A nurse told them, he said, that doctors would have to receive approval from the hospital’s ethics board.
He finally rushed his wife to the emergency room later that night. There her fever spiked to 103.2 degrees. Doctors confirmed that she had a blood infection and said her life was now in danger, so they could induce delivery without violating Texas’ abortion ban.
Later that night, she developed a secondary infection. Doctors told Zurawski that they had to give his wife a blood transfusion to stabilize her enough to move her to the intensive care unit. The couple’s families flew in, fearing that she would die.
Zurawski left intensive care after three days, and the hospital after a week. Two months later, she had an operation to remove scar tissue from her uterus and fallopian tubes, but the doctors were unable to clear one.
Now receiving IVF treatments again, Zurawski said she was left with emotional scarring, as well. “Every ultrasound is going to be terrifying — not just scary, but traumatic,” she said. “Last time I heard a heartbeat inside of me, I was wishing for it to stop.”
Astampede spurred by rumors of gunfire at a crowded arena Sunday killed two people and left a third in critical condition after a show by Grammy-nominated rapper GloRilla in Rochester, New York, police said.
The stampede began after a performance by GlorRilla, the stage name of the Memphis, Tennessee-based rap artist Gloria Hallelujah Woods, just after 11 p.m. at the Main Street Armory, Rochester Police Chief David Smith said in a news conference Monday.
“There are some reports that shots were heard, causing the crowd to panic,” said Smith, adding that investigators had found no evidence of gunfire.
“We are hearing many reports of potential causes, including crowd size, shots fired, pepper spray and more,” the Police Department said in a statement. “Preliminary reports from people at the scene indicate that these injuries were caused from being trampled. We do not have any evidence of gunshots being fired or anyone being shot or stabbed.”
Police identified one of the people who died as Rhondesia Belton, 33, but did not release the name of the second victim Monday night.
Police said one woman remained in critical condition Monday after she was taken to the hospital with significant injuries Sunday night. An additional seven people went to local hospitals Sunday night with non-life-threatening injuries, which
Smith said appeared to have been caused by trampling.
On Monday, a local Rochester news station, WHEC-TV, interviewed concertgoers who survived the stampede. They returned to the arena to look for personal belongings they had lost in the chaos, include earrings, keys and cellphones.
One concertgoer, Ikea Hayes, recounted “watching the life flash before my eyes” as she grappled with a woman pinned onto the ground beside her under the crush of other concertgoers. She said they had both been knocked to the ground near the arena entrance.
Hayes said she and another woman were “were, like, climbing up on each other.” She added that she had been on the ground praying and telling herself: “You got to get up. You got to move. If you stay here, they’re going to keep running you over.”
Rochester Mayor Malik Evans said at Monday’s news conference that the episode was a “tragedy of epic proportions.” He said the city would begin an investigation into the stampede to determine whether the operators of the arena had followed required safety measures.
“When you go to a concert, you do not expect to be trampled,” he said. “Your loved ones expect you to be able to come home.”
The stampede in Rochester called to mind a similar tragedy in 2021 when a crowd surge at the Astroworld Festival in Houston killed 10 people and injured scores more, leading to a string of lawsuits and a congressional investigation.
GloRilla, whose song “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” was nominated
for best rap performance at the Grammy Awards last month, expressed condolences on Twitter at 12:11 a.m. Monday. “I’m just now hearing about what happened,” she wrote. “Praying everybody is ok.”
Apassenger on a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Boston was arrested Sunday after he tried to open an emergency exit door while the plane was in flight and then attempted to stab a flight attendant in the neck with a broken spoon, authorities said.
The passenger, Francisco Severo Torres, 33, of Leominster, Massachusetts, was arrested after other passengers tackled him and the flight landed safely at Boston Logan International Airport, authorities said.
Torres was charged with one count of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon. The charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
He made an initial appearance Monday in U.S. District Court in Boston, and was detained until a hearing Thursday, prosecutors said. The federal public defender who represented him did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
United Airlines said in a statement that
“thanks to the quick action of our crew and customers, one customer was restrained after becoming a security concern,” on Flight 2609. No serious injuries were reported, the airline said.
“We have zero tolerance for any type of violence on our flights, and this customer will be banned from flying on United pending an investigation,” the airline said, adding that it was cooperating with the investigation.
Flight 2609 left Los Angeles about 8:20 a.m. and was about 45 minutes from Boston when an alarm in the cockpit warned that a side door between the first class and coach sections had been disarmed, a Boston Police detective assigned to an FBI task force wrote in a sworn statement filed in court.
A flight attendant who went to investigate found that the locking handle on the door had been moved about one-fourth of the way toward the unlocked position, the statement said. The arming lever for the emergency slide had also been moved to the “disarmed” position, the statement said.
A flight attendant reported that he had seen Torres near the door and believed that he
had tampered with it, the statement said. The flight attendant confronted him about tampering with the door, and Torres responded by asking if there were cameras showing that he had done so, the statement said.
The flight attendant notified the captain that he believed that Torres posed a threat to the airplane and that the captain needed to land the plane as soon as possible, the statement said.
Shortly after that, Torres got out of his seat and approached two flight attendants who were standing in an aisle, the statement said. One of the flight attendants saw Torres mouth something that he could not hear, the statement said.
Torres was holding a “shiny object,” which he later said was the handle of a metal spoon that he had broken in half in the airplane’s bathroom, the statement said.
When he got close to one of the flight attendants, he thrust the spoon handle toward that crew member in a “stabbing motion,” the statement said. The flight attendant felt Torres’ hand hit him on the shirt collar and tie three times, the statement said.
Passengers tackled Torres, and he was
“restrained with the assistance of flight crew,” the statement said.
After the plane landed and Torres was arrested, he told investigators that he “had gotten the idea to open the emergency exit door and jump out of the plane,” the statement said.
Torres told investigators that after he was confronted by flight attendants, he had tried to stab one of them because “he believed the flight attendant was trying to kill him, so he was trying to kill the flight attendant first,” the statement said.
Torres had been admitted in April 2015 to the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital, a hospital run by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, under a court order for a psychiatric evaluation, according to documents from a lawsuit that he filed against the hospital in 2021.
Torres had argued in the lawsuit that the hospital had misdiagnosed his severe spinal pain from a car accident as a mental disorder. The case was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction and failure to state a claim.
From the start, prosecutors overseeing the trial of five Proud Boys charged with sedition in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, have faced a conundrum.
Scores of members of the far-right group took part in the storming of the Capitol and often played a decisive role in breaching barricades and assaulting police. But the use of violence by the defendants themselves — mostly leaders of the group — was relatively limited. Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys’ former chairman, and one of the men on trial, was not even in Washington that day.
In building a case against Tarrio and the four other defendants — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — prosecutors have advanced an unusually expansive theory of the evidence. They have claimed that the jury should see videos of other Proud Boys and ordinary supporters of President Donald Trump in the crowd who acted violently during the assault even if those rioters had only limited connections to the defendants.
Prosecutors say Tarrio and the others wielded these rioters as “tools” of their conspiracy.
On Monday, the trial, now entering its eighth week in U.S. District Court in Washington, paused for a day as a federal judge heard arguments about which videos of these so-called tools should be admitted into evidence. The decision by the judge, Timothy Kelly, about what footage to let in was set to be made Tuesday and could shape how prosecutors seek to convince the jury that Tarrio and the others committed sedition by using force to stop the transfer of presidential power after the 2020 election.
The basic contours of the “tools of the conspiracy” approach were litigated weeks ago, and Monday’s hearing was held to give both sides an opportunity to argue for or against specific footage. Lawyers for the Proud Boys have sought for weeks to keep the videos out of the case, arguing that they make a mockery of the traditional understanding of conspiracy and criminal liability law and would in effect allow the government to tar their clients with guilt by association.
Kelly said he was likely to allow videos to be admitted if one of two things were true: The “tools” in question either had
to have followed some of the defendants in the sprawling group of Proud Boys that advanced on the Capitol on Jan. 6, or they had to have been a member of one of the organization’s text message group chats that day.
Among the “tools” discussed at the hearing were Daniel Lyon Scott, a Florida Proud Boy known as Milkshake, who took part in an early scuffle with police outside the Capitol, and Ronald Loehrke, a Georgia
man who clashed with officers several times during the assault. Shortly before Jan. 6, prosecutors say, Nordean, one of the defendants, sent Loehrke a text message saying, “I want you on the front lines with me.”
Prosecutors have also tried to include videos of Paul Rae, another Proud Boy from Florida who has been charged with obstructing a proceeding before Congress and who, prosecutors say, filmed himself inside the Capitol, saying “Let’s go find Pelosi.”
All along, the prosecution has contended that it needs to show the jury the videos to fully capture how Tarrio and the other top Proud Boys mobilized the mob on Jan. 6 to achieve their goal of stopping the certification of the election that was taking place inside the Capitol that day. Before the attack, Biggs spoke of recruiting “real men” to join the group in Washington on Jan. 6, and other leaders discussed riling up “the normies” — a reference to more normal Trump supporters who were not part of the Proud Boys.
Even though the “tools” and the “normies” may have been “in the dark about the precise details” of the defendants’ intentions, prosecutors have said in court filings, they “served as instruments of the defendants to carry out their criminal objective.”
The defense has argued against this approach, saying that the government should not be allowed to use “inflammatory episodes” loosely linked to the defendants as a means of demonstrating their guilt. In a series of court filings, the lawyers have called the approach “absurd” and proof that prosecutors are asking the judge for “an expanded power.”
“The argument is that just because defendants associated with people who did bad acts, they did bad acts,” Nicholas Smith, Nordean’s lawyer, said in court on Monday. “The other term for that is guilt by association.”
Showing the jury whatever videos the judge decides to allow is likely to last several days and follows a phase of the government’s case that focused on a star cooperating witness, Jeremy Bertino, a former Proud Boy who was injured during a pro-Trump rally weeks before Jan. 6 and was at home in North Carolina that day recovering from his wounds.
Bertino testified that he believed the defendants intended to stop the election certification by force in a bid to keep Trump in office, but he did so by describing an unusually broad and implicit version of conspiracy.
On Sunday, prosecutors filed court papers saying they have as few as five more witnesses to call — among them, an FBI agent who is expected to lead the jury through the video clips. The government has several more Proud Boys who have pleaded guilty under cooperation deals it could put on the stand, but it remains unclear whether any of them will be used during the trial.
The Justice Department on Tuesday filed a lawsuit seeking to stop JetBlue Airways from buying Spirit Airlines, arguing that the $3.8 billion deal would reduce competition in a highly concentrated industry.
In the suit, the Justice Department said that by absorbing Spirit, JetBlue would eliminate a disruptive force that had kept fares low across the country. The merger would also give JetBlue an outsized hold on dozens of routes, result in higher fares and reduce choices for travelers, the department’s antitrust division said.
“This merger will limit choices and drive up ticket prices for passengers across the country,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference on Tuesday. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. The Justice Department brought the case along with Massachusetts, New York and the District of Columbia.
The lawsuit is the latest example of the department’s aggressive approach to enforcing antitrust law under President Joe Biden, suing to prevent mergers and challenging practices it considers anti-competitive across a variety of industries. The suit will put JetBlue’s plans on hold for at least a few months and possibly much longer. The company said Monday that it expected a lawsuit and planned to defend its deal in court.
If the companies prevail, the deal would be the first major U.S. airline merger in years. It would help JetBlue rapidly achieve a long-sought expansion, leapfrogging Alaska Airlines to become the nation’s fifth-largest carrier.
But even if the airline does acquire Spirit, JetBlue would still hold only about 10% of the U.S. air travel market. United Airlines, which is the fourth-largest carrier, has a 15% market share. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines each have more than 17% of the business. A series of large deals over the past couple of decades has greatly increased the power of the big four airlines, which have acquired companies such as AirTran, TWA, Northwest, Continental and US Airways.
JetBlue has argued that consumers stand to benefit from the acquisition. The company has a reputation of challenging much larger carriers from airports in New York and Boston. A larger JetBlue, the company contends, would be able to compete even more vigorously, forcing the four dominant carriers to lower fares on more routes.
But the Justice Department disagreed. In its lawsuit, the department said JetBlue had evolved from a disruptive force in the industry to an “ally of the big four” airlines. JetBlue and American, for example, formed a partnership in New York and Boston that allowed each to more seamlessly sell seats on each other’s flights. The
Justice Department has sued to block that partnership, known as the Northeast Alliance. A decision on that case is expected soon.
“Approximately 75% of JetBlue’s total capacity is tied up in the Northeast Alliance,” the Justice Department said in the suit. “That means JetBlue today coordinates its capacity decisions and shares its revenues with American Airlines on the vast majority of its flights. In other words, JetBlue no longer competes with American Airlines on those flights — and if this acquisition happens, Spirit won’t either.”
The Justice Department said Tuesday that it would have sued to block the Spirit acquisition whether or not the Northeast Alliance was in place.
Although JetBlue offers affordable ticket prices, Spirit offers even cheaper fares, making it a bigger threat to large airlines at the airports it serves, the department argued. Spirit is considered an “ultra low cost carrier,” a type of airline that works hard to keep costs and fares much lower than those of most airlines. Spirit stands out among those carriers because it more frequently challenges the big four airlines at their hub airports, the Justice Department said.
JetBlue has said it plans to remove seats from Spirit’s densely packed planes to match its own configuration, which antitrust officials argue would make it difficult to keep costs and fares as low as Spirit has.
To make money, Spirit charges fees for a wide range of services that other airlines offer at no cost. These can include printed boarding passes at airport kiosks. That approach has frustrated many customers, but it has helped
Spirit grow fast by attracting the most price-sensitive travelers, the Justice Department said.
The acquisition would substantially reduce competition on more than 150 routes that are flown by more than 30 million passengers every year, the Justice Department said. Those flights generate about $6 billion in annual revenue for all airlines. Along some of those routes, including some connecting Florida and Puerto Rico, JetBlue and Spirit are the only airlines that offer a significant number of flights, meaning the merger would grant JetBlue a virtual monopoly on those routes.
JetBlue has promised to give up Spirit’s holdings in New York, Boston and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but that isn’t enough to address concerns about competition, the Justice Department said.
JetBlue, which had to outbid Frontier Airlines to secure a deal with Spirit, has said it expects to close the acquisition in the first half of next year.
one of the company’s executive vice presidents.
She added that Schultz would not be the right witness for the hearing because he joined the company after the unionizing efforts began and delegated oversight of it to other executives, and because he will no longer serve as interim CEO after this month.
Sanders responded the same day, reiterating his request for Schultz — “not a subordinate” — to testify. He “is the founder of Starbucks,” Sanders said, “he is the CEO of Starbucks, he is the spokesperson of Starbucks, and he will continue to be on the board of directors at Starbucks well into the future.”
Sanders added that “he is the man who engineered and continues to make labor decisions at Starbucks,” citing a meeting that was referred to in the court case last week in which Schultz met with workers in the Buffalo, New York, area before the union elections in November 2021 and before he returned to the company as CEO.
The Buffalo-area store became the first to unionize, and more than 275 have followed suit.
By STEPHANIE LAISen. Bernie Sanders earlier this week confirmed that his committee will hold a vote this week to open an investigation into federal labor law violations by major corporations and subpoena Howard Schultz, the billionaire CEO of Starbucks, as the first witness.
Sanders, I-Vt., chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, last week announced his intent to try to compel Schultz to appear on Capitol Hill, stating that Starbucks had declined an invitation in February for him to testify about his violation of federal labor law and defied congressional oversight inquiries, including by refusing requests for meetings and documents.
Schultz, the on-and-off CEO of the coffee giant who briefly eyed a presidential bid as an independent in the 2020 election, and the company have faced increasing scrutiny amid continuing unionization efforts.
Last week, an administrative judge in New York ruled that the company had violated federal law dozens of times in responding with “egregious and widespread misconduct” to a union campaign that started in 2019. The National Labor Relations Board has filed 504 complaints against Starbucks for violating federal labor law, and 81 unfair labor practice charges have been lodged by the board’s general counsel against the company, according to an NLRB spokesperson.
On Capitol Hill, the inquiry is the latest bid by Sanders, a two-time presidential candidate and self-described socialist, to use his power to demand accountability from big corporations and support workers when there is little chance of pushing any major legislation to do so through a divided Congress.
“At a time when unions are more popular than they
have been in decades, we have got to make it easier for workers to exercise their constitutional right to form a union and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions,” Sanders said in a statement released Monday.
After Sanders sent a letter informing the company of his intent to subpoena Schultz, Zabrina Jenkins, the acting executive vice president and general counsel of Starbucks, responded that the company was “shocked and deeply concerned” that Schultz was being asked to testify instead of an executive who has been involved in the company’s compliance with federal labor laws.
Jenkins also denied the allegation that the company has been unresponsive to the Senate’s inquiries, noting that a meeting took place last month between Sanders’ staff and
“Howard Schultz is the architect of Starbucks’s antiunion campaign and should be held accountable for his actions,” a spokesperson for Starbucks Workers United, the worker-led union organizing committee, said in a statement. “We are ecstatic to see elected officials, like Senator Sanders, sticking up for workers’ rights and proving that even billionaires, like Howard Schultz, are not above the law.”
The group claims that the company has fired more than 200 workers because of their involvement in the campaign, an allegation that Starbucks has denied.
The vote to subpoena Schultz would need majority support of the committee, which includes 11 Democrats and 10 Republicans, making it likely to succeed.
“The time has come for multibillionaire leaders of extremely profitable corporations to understand that they are not above the law,” Sanders said in his statement. “When these billionaires and the enormously profitable corporations they run violate federal labor law, they must be held accountable.”
Howard Schultz, the chief executive of Starbucks, has faced scrutiny amid continuing unionization efforts. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 27, 2022.Sales of shares in publicly listed U.S. companies had their strongest showing last week in more than a year, as companies and some of their shareholders, such as private equity firms, capitalized on the risk appetite of stock market investors.
Stock sales reached $4.97 billion in the United States last week, the highest tally since the second week in 2022, according to data provider Dealogic. Globally, stock sales reached $12.3 billion, the most in more than 30 weeks.
Investment bankers and lawyers say companies are seeing strong demand for their stock from investors who believe now is the time to place big bets on the market recovering in the wake of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates to fight inflation. It’s a risky proposition, so companies and their backers are seizing on the opportunity for fear it may soon slip away.
“Equity markets have regained some momentum and volatility has decreased, driving animal spirits on the buy side,” said Santiago Gilfond, co-head of Americas equity capital markets at Credit Suisse Group AG. He added that the sellers of stock have moderated their valuation expectations, helping to lure buyers.
Last week saw 18 so-called secondary stock sales in the U.S., including a $1.7 billion divestment by utility company American Water Works Co Inc, the fifth largest U.S. stock sale since beginning of 2022.
In another notable transaction last week, Oreo cookie maker Mondelez International Inc offloaded about a $1 billion stake in beverage firm Keurig Dr Pepper Inc in an unregistered stock sale, according to a securities filing.
Private equity firms are getting a piece of the action. Blackstone Inc last week sold a roughly $270 million stake in dating app Bumble Inc along with about $220 million position in human resources benefits platform Alight Inc, and this week, Providence Equity Partners sold a $333 million stake in software provider DoubleVerify Holdings Inc.
The surge in activity has been welcomed by bankers and lawyers working on these offerings. Collectively they executed $72.5 billion worth of stock sales for public companies in 2022, the lowest level since 1996 and a 67% drop from 2021’s deal bonanza, according to Dealogic data.
“Investors are willing to put money to work in a way that they weren’t a year ago,” said Michael Kaplan, a capital markets partner at law firm Davis Polk.
The next frontier for equity capital markets, bankers and lawyers say, are initial public offerings (IPOs), which have been subdued since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Unlike secondary stock sales, IPOs take at least a few days to market to investors, and several months to prepare, so companies can’t be as nimble in pursuing them when the market becomes welcoming.
A busy week for initial public offerings in early February offered some hope to stock market hopefuls, but advisors remain cautious as stocks sold off in recent weeks.
Fourth-quarter earnings season is on the final stretch, with all but seven of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Results for the quarter have beaten consensus estimates 68% of the time, according to Refinitiv.
Still, on aggregate, analysts believe S&P 500 earnings will have fallen 3.2% in the fourth quarter compared to the prior year, and expect negative year-on-year numbers for the first two quarters of 2023. This would imply the S&P 500 en-
tered a three-quarter earnings recession in the closing months of 2022, per Refinitiv.
Tasa mínima, promedio ponderado, y máxima para préstamos personales pequeños otorgados para la semana que terminó el sábado, 4 de marzo de 2023 Tasa
Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that Russia’s Wagner private military company had been forced to shift to using more of its professional soldiers in the battle for Bakhmut as its supply of prisoner recruits dwindled. The claim suggested that Ukraine, by insisting that it will keep defending Bakhmut, may see an opportunity to hang on long enough there to severely damage Wagner, a highly effective fighting force for Russia.
The mercenary force has helped Russia make crawling advances toward Bakhmut largely by throwing waves of ex-prisoners toward Ukrainian positions, wearing Kyiv’s forces down but at heavy cost.
“Almost all of them have been killed there” in Bakhmut, Col. Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern group of forces, said of the prisoner brigades. The losses among prison recruits have led Wagner to begin deploying more former Russian special forces from within its ranks.
Wagner’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been in a public battle with Russia’s Defense Ministry and has said that he has not been allowed to recruit more prisoners recently, even though those recruits are thought to have been critical to Wagner’s success in Bakhmut. Prigozhin — who has criticized Russia’s military leadership as woefully ineffective — has publicly questioned whether that decision to cut off the supply of prisoners is intentional to destroy Wagner’s “offensive potential.”
The comments by Cherevaty came as some analysts question whether Ukraine should continue to expend so many resources in the withering battle to try to hold on to Bakhmut. On Monday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that two top Ukrainian military commanders had urged him not to withdraw from the city, even as Russian forces surround the city from three directions and both sides suffer enormous casualties.
Other analysts say that if Ukraine can eliminate Russia’s limited supply of prisoner soldiers in Bakhmut, they will not have to face them again elsewhere.
“Russian convict recruits suitable for combat is not limitless, and the permanent elimination of tens of thousands of them in Bakhmut means that they will not be available for more im -
portant fights,” according to the Institute for the Study of War, a research group in Washington.
The group echoed Ukraine’s assessment that Wagner units were shifting away from brigades of former prisoners after enduring steep losses.
“Russian forces near Bakhmut have recently changed tactics and commit-
ted higher-quality special forces,” the group said, adding that Wagner was using prisoners there in “a much more limited extent than in previous months” because of high losses in its waves of frontal assaults.
Yet Prigozhin has justified his group’s brutal tactics in Bakhmut by flipping this logic, highlighting a parallel struggle to shape the legacy of the protracted battle. Prigozhin and his allies claim that Wagner’s main task in Bakhmut is not territorial gain, but the depletion of experienced Ukrainian units that could have been fighting in other sections of the 600-mile front line
“The Ukrainian forces send all their combat-ready units to Bakhmut,” Prigozhin said in late January. Wagner “destroys them, creating operational opportunities in other areas,” he added.
As an example, some pro-war Russian military bloggers — an influential group that closely tracks the war — said the intensification of the Bakhmut battle had coincided with the end of Ukrainian advances in the Kreminna area farther north, where the Kremlin’s forces appear to have regained the initiative in recent weeks. Some Western analysts have made the same point, saying that the fighting in Bakhmut is sapping Ukrainian strength before an expected counteroffensive.
“The tenacious defense of Bakhmut achieved a great deal, expending Russian manpower and ammunition. But strategies can reach points of diminishing returns,” Michael Kofman, a Washingtonbased expert on the Russian military at the Center for Naval Analyses, wrote on Twitter on Monday after visiting the Bakhmut area. “This fight doesn’t play to Ukraine’s advantages as a force.”
Russia’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, said on Tuesday that the fight for Bakhmut was “ongoing,” and emphasized its importance for the Russian side. “This city is an important hub for the defense of Ukrainian troops in the Donbas,” he said. “Taking it under control would allow further offensives deep in the defense of the Ukrainian armed forces.”
Idle trains, closed ports, empty schools, canceled flights, uncollected trash, shuttered refineries.
That was life in France on Tuesday as labor unions attempted to bring the country “to a standstill” and flooded streets in towns and cities around the country with marchers, protesting President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the legal age of retirement to 64 from 62.
After two months of an uneasy confrontation and five previous demonstrations that have unfurled across the country, neither side has shown any sign of backing down.
Many wonder if Tuesday will be the beginning of a reinvigorated movement that could force the government’s hand, or instead become a final yell of frustration — lingering in the air before fading, as Macron pushes through his change.
“Will this be a turning point?” asked Chloé Morin, a political scientist and former adviser to two prime ministers.
“Will either group manage to convince public opinion or not?” she said, adding that between the government, the unions and protesters, “you have 67 million French people who are watching this match.”
Analysts say Macron, facing the biggest social confrontation since his reelection last year, has backed himself into a corner by putting so much political stock into a change that few want or see as urgent. Now, failing to push the bill through could turn him into a lame duck president just a year into his second five-year term.
On Tuesday, normally busy Parisian streets such as the Champs-Élysées felt desolate, as the throngs of shoppers and tourists were unable to get across the city and office workers were stuck at home, sometimes with their idle children.
Only one in five trains were running on many national railway lines; the Paris Metro and regional express trains were heavily disrupted; some flights out of Paris’ main airports, Charles de Gaulle and Orly, were canceled.
Workers at nuclear power plants lowered energy production; strikers walked out of refineries and stopped fuel and gas deliveries; in Paris, trash went uncollected in several neighborhoods and protesters blocked incinerators.
Classrooms were also closed around the country, after roughly one-third of primary and secondary school teachers went on strike.
In a huge protest that swept around Paris’ Left Bank, crowds of teachers, transit workers and students chanted: “Macron, Scram,” and “Things will get serious.” In Paris and cities such as Nantes or Rennes, a minority of violent protesters clashed sporadically with police, who responded with tear gas or water cannons.
“We are very determined to fight as long a we can,” said Roger Malot, 55, a bus driver holding out a money box in the hopes of amassing a “solidarity fund” for him and his colleagues during a possible “unlimited strike.” He added: “It is the only power we have, so we’ll keep pressing where it hurts until they withdraw their reform plan.”
But despite experiencing rare unity and managing to rally more than 1 million people in past protests, the unions have little to show for their actions. Some now want continuous strikes — especially in key sectors such as energy and transportation, while some unions have already announced
longer walkouts — which would ratchet up pressure on Macron but could turn public opinion against them.
“There is no room for negotiation anymore,” said Vincent Martigny, a professor of political science at the University of Nice. “That’s part of the problem: One of the two will lose.”
Changing France’s complex retirement system, among one of the most generous in Europe, is considered particularly difficult. Michel Rocard, a former Socialist prime minister, famously said that it was “enough to topple several governments.”
Macron’s government says the retirement age needs to be pushed up to prevent long-term deficits caused by longer life expectancies and a rise in the number of pensioners. In France, today’s workers pay the pensions of current retirees.
Macron was fuzzy on details but made raising the retirement age a cornerstone of his reelection campaign, and considers his win a public endorsement of the plan. But opponents argue that many in France voted for him not in support of his platform, but to block his far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen.
Macron vowed to take it into account for his second term — part of a broad promise to govern with more collaboration and fewer dictates from above.
Union leaders accuse Macron of forgetting that promise and of ignoring public opinion, which remains resolutely opposed to the change. Recent polls found that roughly 60% of French people approved bringing France to halt.
“When there is this kind of protest, you have to stop and ask what is happening in the country,” Philippe Martinez, the head of France’s second-largest union, the CGT, told reporters at the protest Tuesday. “The president isn’t doing that.”
The government has made small concessions, such as extending exemptions for those who started work at a young age. But those were mostly offered as carrots to garner conservative Republican Party support.
Last month, the pension bill was debated in France’s lower and more powerful house of Parliament, where the government used a special procedure to hasten the process, curtailing discussion. Lawmakers shouted, jeered and traded insults as opponents buried the bill in thousands of amendments in a show of rejection.
El peticionario, Falcon Development, Corp, cuya dirección postal es PO Box 363247, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936, representado por su Presidente el Sr. Francisco Perdomo, ha solicitado al Área de Calidad de Agua (ACA) del Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (DRNA) la renovación del permiso de operación, UIC-12-70-0020, para un sistema de inyección subterránea (SIS) Clase VC-1, bajo las disposiciones del Reglamento para el Control de la Inyección Subterránea (RCIS) y la Ley Federal de Agua Potable Segura, según enmendada 42 USC 300f et seq. (LFAPS).
El SIS consiste de un tanque séptico de 12.83 pies de largo por 6.83 pies de ancho por 10.17 pies de profundidad líquida con una capacidad de 6,666 galones y dos (2) lechos de percolación con infiltrators de 14 pies de ancho por 60 pies de largo, cada uno, con un área de percolación total de 1,680 pies cuadrados, en el cual, se inyectarán 4,500 galones/día de aguas usadas, provenientes de los baños y cocina de la instalación. El referido SIS está localizado en la Carretera PR-2, Km 17 .7, Esquina PR863, Toa Baja, Puerto Rico.
Luego de realizada la evaluación correspondiente de los documentos sometidos, el DRNA tiene la intención de renovar el permiso de operación para la instalación antes mencionada en conformidad con los requisitos del RCIS y de la LFAPS.
Esta notificación se hace para informar que el DRNA, ha preparado el borrador del permiso de operación de forma tal que el público interesado pueda someter sus comentarios con relación al mismo. El permiso contiene las condiciones y prohibiciones necesarias para cumplir con los requisitos reglamentarios aplicables.
Copia de la solicitud del permiso que sometió el peticionario ante el DRNA, el borrador del permiso y otros documentos relevantes estarán a la disposición del público para ser examinados, a petición del interesado mediante el envío de un correo electrónico a la siguiente dirección: inyeccionsubterranea@drna.pr.gov o visitando el ACA, cuya oficina está localizada en el Piso 3 Ala A del Edificio de Agencias Ambientales Cruz A. Matos, Carretera PR-8838, Km 6.3, Sector El Cinco, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. Copia de dichos documentos pueden adquirirse en el ACA, entre las 8:00 a.m. y las 4:00 p.m. de lunes a viernes o escribiendo a la siguiente dirección: Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales, San José Industrial Park, 1375 Avenida Ponce de León, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00926.
Las partes interesadas o afectadas pueden enviar sus comentarios por escrito al Sr. Ángel R. Meléndez Aguilar, Gerente Interino del ACA, o solicitar una vista pública por escrito a la Secretaria del DRNA, a la dirección postal o correo electrónico antes indicado.
Los comentarios por escrito o la solicitud de vista pública deberán ser sometidos al DRNA no más tarde de treinta (30) días a partir de la fecha de publicación de este aviso. La fecha límite para someter comentarios puede ser extendida si se estima necesario o apropiado para el interés público. La solicitud para una vista pública deberá señalar la razón o las razones que en la opinión del solicitante ameritan la celebración de la misma. De realizarse una vista pública los interesados o afectados tendrán una oportunidad razonable para presentar evidencia o testimonio sobre si se emite o deniega el permiso, si la Secretaria determina que dicha vista es necesaria o apropiada.
En San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy 14 de febrero de 2023.
Anaís Rodríguez Vega SecretariaEste anuncio se publica conforme a lo requerido por la Ley Núm. 4162004, según enmendada, conocida como la “Ley sobre Política Pública Ambiental’.’, los reglamentos aprobados a su amparo; y las leyes y reglamentos federales aplicables: El costo del Aviso Público es sufragado por la entidad peticionaria.
A rally in Dunkirk, northern France, on Tuesday as part of nationwide strikes to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age to 64 from 62.
San José Industrial Park, 1375 Ave Ponce de León, San Juan, PR 00926 ' (787) 999-2200 • 6 (787) 999.2303 • www.drna.pr.gov
As he heads into an expected third term as president, China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, is signaling that he will take a harder stance against what he perceives as an effort by the United States to block China’s rise. And he’s doing so in uncommonly blunt terms.
Xi has hailed China’s success as proof that modernization does not equal Westernization. He has urged China to strive to develop advanced technologies to reduce its reliance on Western know-how. Then Monday, he made clear what he regarded as an important threat to China’s growth: the United States.
“Western countries led by the United States have implemented all-around containment, encirclement and suppression of China, which has brought unprecedented severe challenges to our country’s development,” Xi said in a speech, according to China’s official news agency.
In an indication that Xi’s forthright approach signaled a broader shift in Beijing’s rhetoric, China’s new foreign minister Tuesday reinforced Xi’s message about containment.
Xi’s new directness could play well at home with a nationalist audience but risks raising wariness abroad at a time when Beijing has sought to stabilize ties with the West. It reflects how he is bracing for more confrontation and competition between the world’s two largest economies.
His meeting with President Joe Biden in November had raised hopes that Beijing and Washington might try to arrest the downward spiral in relations. Tensions have since only escalated over U.S. support of Taiwan, the democratically governed island Beijing claims as its territory, as well as U.S. accusations that China operates a fleet of spy balloons, a claim China has denied. The Biden administration has depicted Xi as seeking to reshape the U.S.-led international order to bolster Beijing’s interests. China’s close alignment with Russia, at a time when the West is seeking to isolate Moscow over its war on Ukraine, has intensified concerns about a new type of cold war.
“This is the first time to my knowledge that Xi Jinping has publicly come out and identified the U.S. as taking such actions against China,” said Michael Swaine, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “It is, without doubt, a response to the harsh criticisms of China, and of Xi Jinping personally, that Biden and many in the administration have leveled in recent months.”
China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, the former ambassador to the United States, defended Beijing’s right to respond.
“The United States actually wants China not to fight back when hit or cursed, but this is impossible,” he said at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
Qin also called for the United States to take a less confrontational stance toward his country.
“If the U.S. doesn’t step on the brakes but continues to speed up, no guardrail can stop the derailment,” he said.
China has come under increasing pressure from the United States and its allies to use its influence on Russia to stop the Ukraine war. Washington has also publicly accused China of considering sending weapons to Russia for its war, promp-
ting a flurry of warnings from Western officials that Beijing would face consequences for such an action.
Qin denied the weapons allegations and criticized U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan. He blamed an “invisible hand” — the United States, in other words — for escalating the conflict in Ukraine.
China “is not a party to the crisis and has not provided weapons to either side of the conflict,” Qin said. “So on what basis is this talk of blame, sanctions and threats against China? This is absolutely unacceptable.”
China’s ambitions have also fueled pressure and scrutiny from the United States on trade and technology. As China has built the world’s largest navy and asserted its claims over Taiwan and the South China Sea, a bipartisan consensus has formed in Washington in favor of reducing U.S. dependence on manufactured goods from China and restricting Beijing’s access to advanced technologies that could be used in war.
The tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed on a wide range of Chinese exports to the United States are still mostly in place. Biden has also imposed broad curbs on the export to China of semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The Biden administration and Congress have increased their scrutiny of Chinese investments in the United States and begun looking at limits on American investments in China’s tech sector.
These restrictions come as the Communist Party has sought to focus its efforts on reviving the economy, which grew only 3% last year, falling far short of the government’s target. The Chinese government’s “zero COVID” policy of citywide lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines forced many businesses to shutter, disrupted industrial supply chains and severely damaged consumer confidence, especially last year. Xi pointed to the United States’ restrictions as holding back growth, but Washington’s trade measures had little immediate effect on overall trade.
Xi’s comments about the United States were part of a speech he made to a Chinese business group. He urged private companies — a main driver of growth and jobs — to work with the party to help China counter the challenges posed by U.S. containment.
“We must remain calm, maintain concentration, seek progress while maintaining stability, take active actions, unite as one, and dare to fight,” he said, according to the report by Chinese television.
China’s propaganda apparatus appeared to be directing Xi’s accusations about the United States at the Chinese public, placing it on the front page of People’s Daily on Tuesday while omitting it entirely from an English-language version of the same article from the official Xinhua News Agency.
Andrew K. Collier, the managing director of Hong Kongbased Orient Capital Research, said Xi may not have been trying to adjust his stance toward the United States as much as reassure the Chinese public that he is defending their interests.
“Xi Jinping’s comment about containment may heighten tensions with the United States, but he is mainly speaking to a domestic audience,” Collier said. “He’s trying to foster the country’s high-tech firms both for economic growth and to handle decoupling at a time when China is facing severe economic headwinds. Beating the nationalist drum is a politically savvy way to achieve these goals.”
Li Mingjiang, an associate professor of international relations at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, offered a more pessimistic assessment of the Chinese leader’s stance.
“Xi’s comments suggest that the Chinese leadership believes the U.S. and the West do not have any good intentions towards China,” he said. “It clearly indicates that they understand that China’s relations with the Western world will be very difficult in the coming years.”
As their currency plunged to new lows recently, Iranians did what they had grown all too used to: They crowded exchange shops, hoping to convert their increasingly worthless rials into dollars.
At the grocery store, prices had climbed so high that many people had only enough to buy vegetables. And as the Persian New Year approached, some had little left for holiday meals, shopping and travel.
The rial has lost some 30% of its value against the dollar since the beginning of the year — the latest setback for an economy whose outlook has steadily dimmed since 2018, when President Donald Trump walked away from an agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for lifting sanctions. Instead, he imposed even harsher sanctions.
The currency’s recent decline has added to a sense of despair and to Iranians’ grievances against the government. Prospects for economic relief and political change now appear slim: The nuclear deal looks unlikely to be revived and a violent crackdown by authorities has largely crushed the mass protests against clerical rule that erupted in September.
For an increasingly vocal number of Iranians, the long lines outside the currency exchanges were the latest evidence that the authoritarian leadership was steering the country off the rails.
Frustration with theocratic rulers — whether over economic policies or social restrictions — also drove the recent protests, which posed one of the greatest challenges to the Islamic Republic since it was established in 1979.
“As someone who has been studying her whole life, I am full of rage that I can’t have a normal life or afford the minimum that I want,” said Sima, 33, a pharmacologist from the capital, Tehran, whose savings have plummeted in value with the currency.
She hopes to emigrate to Canada, but if she makes it, her money will be worth far less than before.
“I have no future in this country,” she said.
Iran, its residents often say, should be rich, with some of the world’s largest oil reserves and a well-educated population. Instead, with inflation routinely topping 50% annually, some Iranians can no longer afford meat.
Others pare down middle-class comforts they once took for granted: No more eating out. No more travel or new clothes. No more offering visitors the sour plums and green almonds that are traditional nibbles for guests, or no more hosting at all. Marriages are delayed, babies put off.
Economic frustration over a sudden spike in gasoline prices set off major protests in 2019. But last year’s demonstrations, which began after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was accused of violating the strict religious dress code for women, first took aim at the mandatory headscarf law and the systemic sexism that protesters said it symbolized.
The movement quickly expanded, however, to en-
compass a broad range of grievances with the ruling establishment, including a lack of political and social freedoms, corruption and economic mismanagement.
Economists say the current crisis can be traced to years of Western sanctions on Iran’s oil industry and financial sector over an Iranian nuclear program that the United States and its allies suspect is aimed at producing weapons.
“There is no way for this government, without increasing oil revenues, to find money to help people find jobs or even give them mere income,” said Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, an Iranian-born economist at Virginia Tech. “They’ve gotten themselves into a very bad situation.”
Data shows that Iran’s economy grew and poverty rates fell steadily until 2011, when the West first imposed heavy sanctions. The rial exchange rate is now about 500,000 to the dollar, compared with 32,000 when the original nuclear deal was signed in 2015. Poverty has spread, especially in rural areas.
But the government’s handling of a series of recent crises did little to dispel the widely held belief that mismanagement and corruption are also to blame.
In the past several months, victims of an earthquake in northern Iran denounced a too-little-too-late emergency response, according to social media posts. Authorities responded to protests with water cannons.
Mohamed Ali Kadivar, a Boston College sociologist who studies Iranian protest movements, said that “because of the dominance of the hard-liners, the people who take government jobs are loyal, they’re not people with expertise,” which makes the system “incapable of problem-solving.”
Government interventions to stop the currency’s slide over the past week have had minor success. The government has given out cash to low-income and some middle-income Iranians and urged the private sector to create jobs. But economists say Iran has failed to use levers it has to hold back poverty.
Much of the economy is controlled by well-connected government loyalists or the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, creating advantages for insiders that, along with the political uncertainty, hinder investment.
Iran’s leaders blame Western sanctions for the economic problems and foreign meddling for the recent unrest.
Some analysts say one way for Iran to gain badly needed cash and investment would be to negotiate a new nuclear deal that would ease sanctions, as President Joe Biden has tried to do. But some of the ruling establishment’s fiercest critics argue that such an agreement would only grant Iran’s leaders revenue and power.
Negotiations are stalled after the Biden administration slow-walked it amid last fall’s protests.
Any hint that negotiations are stalling or picking up can send the rial fluctuating, and the growing belief that sanctions are here to stay was probably a factor in the rial’s decline, analysts said. New restrictions on dollars flowing into neighboring Iraq made the U.S. currency even scarcer in Iran, a major trading partner, according to analysts.
In one supermarket in Amol, a city in northern Iran, the price of shampoo went up by nearly 60% in a week, while the price of meat increased tenfold, said Leili, 39, a teacher. To save, she said, she and her husband walked instead of taking taxis, stopped eating meat and dairy and bought more canned goods to use less cooking gas.
The idea of having a child, as she once imagined, no longer seemed realistic.
“This political system is the reason that we work for most of the day, and at the end of the day, we still have nothing. We’re entirely incapable of affording the basics,” said Leili, who, like other Iranians whom The Times interviewed, gave only her first name to avoid government reprisal.
Batoul, a 77-year-old pensioner in a poor area of south Tehran whose rent alone rose this year to more than twice her monthly pension, began asking for a grocery store’s castoff fruit, hoping to find a few edible pieces among the rot.
To be sure, total economic collapse remains a ways away. Iran’s economic output other than oil has managed to grow slightly in recent years. On recent visits to several cities, restaurants and hotels still had some guests, and bazaars and sweet shops had customers.
But with the dizzying swings in the currency’s value, the uncertainty and the lack of opportunities for young people, despair is little surprise, said Salehi-Isfahani, the economist.
The government has done little to blunt the pain other than to avoid raising gas prices, one of its few means of raising revenue. Such a move could lead to protests, as it did in 2019. This year’s budget did not increase welfare payments to match inflation, according to analysts, or increase subsidies for food staples and gasoline.
The budget did, however, allocate more money to the Revolutionary Guards force and other defense sectors.
“It’s just more money for the defense industry and cuts for the people,” said Henry Rome, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who studies Iran, “and I think that kind of speaks for itself.”
Heads up: I did a podcast with Ezra Klein this week, mostly focused on inflation — which continues to be an interesting story, throwing curveballs at all who imagine they have it figured out. But today, I want to take a break and talk about environmental policy — specifically, the relationship between protecting the environment and economic growth.
As you may know (although a surprising number of people don’t), the Biden administration has taken a huge step forward in the fight against climate change. The strategically misleadingly named Inflation Reduction Act is mainly a climate bill, using subsidies and tax credits to promote green energy. Environmental experts I follow believe that it’s a very big deal, which, if successfully implemented, will greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It’s not quite as aggressive as the climate plans in Joe Biden’s original Build Back Better legislation, but modelers estimate that it will accomplish about 80% of what BBB was trying to do.
The biggest factor making this kind of climate initiative possible, after so many years of inaction, is the spectacular technological progress in renewable energy that has taken place since 2009 or so. This means that we can greatly reduce emissions using carrots instead of sticks: giving people incentives to use low-emission technologies rather than trying to regulate or tax them into giving up high-emission activities. And the politics of carrots are obviously a lot easier than the politics of sticks.
Strange to say, however, at this precise moment — the most hopeful moment for the environment, as far as I can tell, in decades — my inbox has been filling up with woeful claims that environmental protection is incompatible with economic growth. These claims are oddly bipartisan. Some of them come from people on the left who insist that the planet can’t be saved unless we give up on the notion of perpetual economic growth. Others come from people on the right who insist that we must give up on all this environmentalism if we want to preserve prosperity.
So let’s talk about why such claims are all wrong.
Part of the problem is that many people don’t understand what economic growth means, imagining that it necessarily involves producing the same things you were producing before, in the same ways, but just at a larger scale.
But that’s not at all what growth means. Currently, America’s real gross domestic product is about one-third larger than it was in 2007. But the economy of 2023 isn’t just the economy of 2007 scaled up by one-third. Production of some goods has gone way down — coal production has been cut roughly in half. Official growth measures also try to take quality changes into account: We’re producing fewer cars than we were in 2007, but
measured real output in the motor vehicle industry is higher, because government statisticians believe that recently produced cars are better in several ways than older models are, and try to estimate how much people would have been willing to pay for those improvements.
Above all, real GDP says nothing about how stuff is produced. A kilowatt-hour of electricity counts the same whether it was generated by burning coal or wind power, but the environmental impact is completely different.
As a result, there’s no reason a growing economy must place an increasing burden on the environment. In fact, environmental quality is often better in rich countries, with high GDP per capita, than in middle-income countries — a phenomenon the economists Gene Grossman and Alan Krueger dubbed the environmental Kuznets curve.
Consider, for example, a comparison between the New York metropolitan area and Delhi. Delhi has a larger population but a much smaller GDP. So does New York’s big economy mean a highly stressed environment? To take a very visible indicator, how does air quality in the two cities compare? As anyone who has visited both places knows, New York air is, well, relatively OK, while Delhi air … isn’t.
So there is no necessary relationship between economic growth and the burden we place on the environment. It’s true that the Industrial Revolution greatly increased pollution of all kinds, and countries such as India that are still in the early phases of their own economic development are by and large paying a large environmental price. But at higher levels of development, delinking growth from environmental impact isn’t just possible in principle but something that happens a lot in practice.
The invaluable Our World in Data website shows carbon dioxide emissions per capita in Britain, where the Industrial Revolution began. The early phases of industrialization were indeed associated with a huge rise in emissions. But more recently, emissions have fallen back to the levels of the ’50s — the 1850s.
How did Britain do that? Part of the answer is that over time the British economy switched from relying on coal to relying on hydrocarbons, which when burned generate less carbon dioxide. Britain also learned to use energy more efficiently over time. But more recently, a big factor has been the rise of renewable energy, especially, in Britain’s case, wind power.
So when you hear an environmentalist say something like “We live on a finite planet, so we can’t have unlimited economic growth,” what they’re actually revealing is that they don’t understand what economic growth means. Furthermore, in practice, they’re lending aid and comfort to anti-environmentalists, who want us to believe that protecting the environment is incompatible with rising living standards.
That said, although it’s possible to decouple growth from environmental harm, that’s not automatic. To
combine rising living standards with an improving environment, we need policies that encourage the use of technologies that cause less environmental damage.
The good news is that the United States is finally implementing such policies. Still, we need a lot more action along those lines — not just in America but in the rest of the world. So we can do this — but we need to try, and not give in to counsels of despair.
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EL CAPITOLIO – A pesar de que la jueza federal Laura Taylor Swain prohibió que se promulgara la implantación de la Ley 41-2022 conocida como Reforma Laboral, la delegación del Partido Popular Democrático (PPD) en la Cámara de Representantes radicó el martes la ley declarada nula desde su inicio.
El presidente de la Cámara de Representantes, Rafael “Tatito” Hernández Montañez, anunció en conferencia de prensa que “Para aclarar el récord y refrescarle la memoria al senador Thomas Rivera Schatz y al presidente de Asore, Mateo Cidre, contrario al gobernador Pedro Pierluisi, quien claudicó a su deber de defender la Ley 41-2022 y cuya inacción provocó que la medida fuera anulada, la Cámara de Representantes sí presentó un extenso informe de 26 páginas ante el Tribunal Federal en el que se detalla el impacto fiscal de la Ley.
Dicho informe fue radicado el 13 de octubre de 2022 en la sala de la jueza Swain en el Tribunal Federal, y fue preparado por el doctor Iyari Ríos González, catedrático de Economía en la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de Puerto Rico Recinto de
Río Piedras.
El pasado viernes la jueza federal declaró nula desde el inicio de la ley, bajo el argumento de que ni el gobierno ni la asamblea legislativa cumplieron con la sección 204 de la Ley Promesa que establece que una ley debe cumplir con estimados completos y precisos sobre los efectos de ingresos y gastos durante todo el periodo del Plan Fiscal.
Según Hernández Montañez, “el extenso documento evidencia cómo las múltiples versiones del Plan Fiscal de la Junta de Control Fiscal (JCF) han fallado en proveer estimados que guarden relación con la realidad económica que reflejan los datos oficiales. Asimismo, demuestra que el impacto de la Ley 412022 no es negativo para la economía y que, por el contrario, esta legislación es idónea para un momento histórico en que la isla se está beneficiando de la inyección de más de 120 mil millones de dólares en fondos federales”.
“De igual forma, se pudo evidenciar con los datos económicos oficiales que todas las políticas antiobreras que ha impulsado el gobierno desde el comienzo de la crisis fiscal no han logrado revertir el estancamiento económico. En contraste, estas políticas ace-
leraron la migración y provocaron una pérdida poblacional de más de un 20 por ciento en Puerto Rico”, abundó.
Por su parte, el presidente de la Comisión de Asuntos Laborales de la Cámara, Domingo Torres García, expresó que, “desde el primer día, con la aprobación de los proyectos de la Cámara 3 y 1244, hemos defendido consistentemente los derechos de los trabajadores del sector privado, aumentando, incluso, el salario mínimo (proyecto de la Cámara 338)”.
EL CAPITOLIO – La Delegación del Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (MVC) presentó el martes, varios esfuerzos para defender la validez de la Ley 41-2022, mejor conocida como las enmiendas a la Reforma Laboral, anulada por la Jueza Taylor Swain.
A esos fines, radicaron en ambos cuerpos legislativos una Petición de Información para que AAFAF produzca en tres días toda la información y documentación que haya sido presentada o no ante el tribunal con motivo del pleito. Esto tras desprenderse de la sentencia que la Rama Ejecutiva incumplió con su deber de proveer la información que la Ley PROMESA requiere en impugnaciones de esta índole. Radicaron, además, una resolución para requerirle al Gobernador Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia a realizar todas las acciones necesarias para defender la Ley y otra para ordenar al Departamento del Trabajo y Recursos Humanos y todas las agencias vinculadas a mantenerla en vigor.
“La decisión de la Jueza pone de manifiesto
una vez más la crisis constitucional que representa la Ley PROMESA y la Junta de Control Fiscal que, además de ser antidemocrática y dictatorial, es una amenaza al bienestar general del país y los derechos de todas las personas. La Ley 41-2022 aplica a la clase trabajadora del sector privado y nada tiene que ver con fondos públicos, por lo que impugnarla es una clara extralimitación a los poderes que se le atribuyen, y que la Jueza Swain les ha validado. Esto lo que reitera es que la Junta interviene en todo lo que le parece, intentando siempre imponer su mirada de que el desarrollo económico se logra con pésimas condiciones de trabajo. Una pena que estemos enfrentando esto a 150 años de la abolición de la esclavitud”, manifestó la senadora Ana Irma Rivera Lassén, portavoz del MVC en el Senado en declaraciones escritas.
La senadora enfatizó que la decisión tomada por la Jueza todavía no es final y firme, pues no han transcurrido los 30 días que establece la ley para que esto ocurra. Mucho menos, cuando se entiende habrá una apelación de la determinación. Por ende, los esfuerzos presentados respon-
den a que el Gobernador tiene el deber ministerial de defender esta legislación que él mismo firmó y que se convirtió en política pública.
De igual forma, el senador Rafael Bernabe Riefkohl aseveró que “todos queremos desarrollo económico. Sin embargo, el planteamiento de la Junta, y que la Jueza lo ha adoptado, es que los derechos de los trabajadores y trabajadoras que existieron hasta el 2017 constituyen un obstáculo para el desarrollo económico. Esa afirmación es muy fácil de corroborar que es falsa, y es el hecho de que esos derechos existieron por décadas. En los periodos en que Puerto Rico tuvo mayor desarrollo económico, existía esa legislación laboral. Nunca fue un impedimento.”
Radican proyecto laboral a pesar de advertencia de jueza federal
tally and shockingly.
There’s much to admire in Robert Machoian’s followup to “The Killing of Two Lovers,” his aching neo-noir thriller that also starred Crawford as a dad who tries, and fails hard, to do the right thing. As in that film, Machoian tenderly and hauntingly explores how men navigate the demands of masculinity and fatherhood, with the threat of gun violence hovering over it all.
Too bad the comedic, almost clowning elements in the script work against the ethical questions the film otherwise takes seriously, making the whole thing feel more like a character sketch than a fleshed-out drama.
Rent or buy it on most major platforms.
‘Swallowed’
Benjamin (Cooper Koch) is headed to Los Angeles with dreams of OnlyFans stardom. But first his straight bestie, Dom (Jose Colon), convinces him they should be drug mules for Alice (Jena Malone), who promises them money if they swallow pellets filled with what they assume are drugs. But when Dom accidentally expels one, what comes out is a wiggling little creature that delivers a high when it hits the bloodstream. (The film’s writer-director, Carter Smith, mined similar creepy-crawly territory in his deeply unsettling gay horror short “Bugcrush,” from 2006.) Unfortunately, the whole deal turns nasty, and deadly, when Benjamin and Dom meet Rich (Mark Patton), a lecherous old queen eager to get his bugdrugs out of their butts.
By ERIK PIEPENBURG‘Daughter’
Writer-director Corey Deshon wastes no time establishing the depraved scenario that fuels his slowburn thriller. In the opening minutes, a man who goes by Father (Casper Van Dien, maniacal) bludgeons a woman to death on a desolate hillscape. Cut to Father taking a hood off a young woman (Vivien Ngo) whom he has kidnapped so that his son, known as Brother (Ian Alexander), can have a new “sister” to replace the one Father just killed.
Enter Mother (Elyse Dinh), who assures the terrified captive that she’ll be fine as long as she keeps Father happy. (Both women are Vietnamese, a connection that becomes pivotal.) Father isn’t looking for sex — that’s incestuous, gross — but rather for Sister to keep Brother occupied at home and unaware of the world outside, where only Father ventures. What Father doesn’t know is that he picked the wrong Daughter to mess with.
Deshon’s thrillingly demented feature film debut explores what happens when fragile masculinity meets unquestioned faith and fanaticism. It’s a low-budget sampler of “Room,” “Safe” and “Dogtooth,” made on 16 mm film for extra scruff and shot through an icy camera that rarely, barely moves. Be patient. The finale is bloodcurdling. Rent it on most major platforms.
‘The Strays’
Neve (Ashley Madekwe) lives with her husband and two good-natured teenagers in a lovely suburban home. But Neve keeps seeing the same two people staring at her — on the street and in the halls of the elite school where she’s the deputy headmistress. Each happens to be Black, and these strangers are giving Neve the willies, even though she is a light-skinned Black woman herself. When the two (Jorden Myrie and Bukky Bakray) unexpectedly greet Neve at a party, the film takes an unexpected detour that forces Neve (and us) to question everything that’s come before, with no clue what to expect next.
I’m going out of my way not to spoil this British psychological thriller because going into it cold is the best way to experience the dread that writer-director Nathaniel MartelloWhite has in store. Is the script Diet Jordan Peele on racial tensions, Low-Cal Michael Haneke in the suspense department? You bet. But who cares when issues of motherhood, race and class still clash so starkly?
Stream it on Netflix.
‘The Integrity of Joseph Chambers’
Joe (Clayne Crawford, excellent) is an insurance salesman who lives with his wife and kids in rural Alabama. He gets up early one morning to go hunting, a skill he wants to hone just in case the world goes to hell and he needs to provide food for his family. Alone, Joe naps and wanders the woods but doesn’t shoot anything — until he does, acciden-
There are so many genres bouncing around this strange movie that normally I’d say stay away. But queer horror fans might give it a shot for the heartfelt (and kinky) gay-straight bromance at its center. Kudos to Patton, the star of “Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge” (1985), one of the gayest horror movies, for tackling the role of a gay grotesque. Rent or buy it on most major platforms.
‘The Assistant’
No streaming platform delivers camp horror as consistently (and for free) as Tubi. What its original movies lack in creativity and budget — don’t bother with “Titanic 666” — they make up for in undemanding watchability.
My latest guilty pleasure is Chris Stokes’ new salacious stalker film, part of Tubi’s robust roster of new Black thrillers, here led by a cast of Black women.
Annie (Parker McKenna Posey) is awkward and shy but also good at her job as the assistant to Dr. Raven Fields (Erica Mena), a successful OB-GYN. The two strike up a friendship outside the office, and when Fields learns that Annie lives in a shelter, she invites the young woman to live with her. But both Annie and Fields hide pernicious mother-daughter secrets, and while Fields has mostly moved on from her traumas, Annie has not. As she gets more involved in her boss’s life, Annie’s polished veneer cracks, with violent consequences.
More nutty than scary, Stokes calls on the spirits of “Single White Female” and “Obsessed,” adding twists that are simultaneously predictable and comically unsettling. If you’re looking for serious terror, keep walking. If you want macabre melodramatics to watch one night with wine and friends, this film will assist.
Stream it on Tubi.
From left, Elyse Dinh, Casper Van Dien, Vivien Ngo and Ian Alexander in “Daughter.”Ricou Browning, who played the title character, or at least the underwater version of it, in one of the most enduring creature features of the 1950s, “Creature From the Black Lagoon,” died Feb. 27 at his home in Southwest Ranches, Florida, northwest of Miami. He was 93. His daughter Renee Le Feuvre confirmed the death.
Browning was 23 when Newt Perry, a promoter of various Florida attractions for whom he had worked as a teenager, asked him to show some Hollywood visitors around Wakulla Springs, a picturesque spot near Tallahassee. The entourage — which, as Browning told the story later, included Jack Arnold, the film’s director, and cameraman Scotty Welbourne — was scouting locations for a planned movie about an underwater monster.
“Scotty had his underwater camera,” Browning recalled in an interview recorded in “The Creature Chronicles: Exploring the Black Lagoon Trilogy,” a 2014 book by Tom Weaver (with David Schecter and Steve Kronenberg), “and he asked me if I would get in the water with him and swim in front of the camera so they could get some perspective.”
Arnold not only liked the location; he also liked Browning. He called him days later and asked if he would want to play the creature for the underwater scenes to be shot in Florida. (An actor named Ben Chapman portrayed the monster in the scenes on land, which were filmed in California.)
“We’ve tested a lot of people for this part,” Browning recalled Arnold telling him, “but I’d like to have you play the creature — I like your swimming.”
In August 1953 he was brought to California to be fitted for the suit that would turn him into the Gill Man, and six months later “Creature From the Black Lagoon” was released. It was the latest in a tradition of monster movies from Universal Studios that included “The Mummy” (1932) and “The Wolf Man” (1941), and it took its place in monster movie lore.
In the film, which was released in 3D, scientists working in the Amazon discover a creature in a lagoon that takes a shine to a female member of the party, Kay (played by Julie Adams). About 28 minutes into the film, Kay decides to go for a swim in the lagoon, and the creature, still undiscovered by the research party, swims beneath her like an underwater stalker, a scene both creepy and oddly poignant.
“This scene turned it from a regular old monster movie to a ‘Beauty and the Beast’ thing,” Weaver said by email, “a big reason for the movie’s ongoing popularity.”
Some critics weren’t impressed by the movie.
“The proceedings above and under water were filmed in 3-D to impart an illusion of depth when viewed through polarized glasses,” A.H. Weiler wrote in The New York Times. “This adventure has no depth.”
Yet the movie did decently at the box office and be-
came a sort of cultural reference point. Browning, who had the ability to hold his breath underwater for minutes at a time, played the swimming version of the creature in two sequels, “Revenge of the Creature” (1955) and “The Creature Walks Among Us” (1956).
He went on to share a story-writing credit on the 1963 film “Flipper,” about a boy who becomes friends with a dolphin, and then, the next year, was a creator of the television series of the same name and directed and helped write a number of its episodes during its three seasons. He also did some of the underwater stunt work.
In an introductory essay in Weaver’s book, Adams, whose “Black Lagoon” character was played by Ginger Stanley in the underwater scenes, recalled waiting eagerly in California to see the “dailies” — footage from the day’s shooting — coming out of Florida.
“The dailies were long, silent takes of him and Ginger Stanley deep in the crystal clear water of Wakulla Springs,” she wrote. “They’d swim for a while, get some air from an air hose, and then go back and resume their action. It was so exciting to see the Gill Man brought to life by Ricou’s unique swimming style, and I was captivated.”
Stanley, Browning’s underwater partner in that eerie scene that helped define the film, died in January in Orlando, Florida, at 91.
Ricou Ren Browning was born Feb. 16, 1930, in Fort Pierce, Florida. His father, Clement, worked construction in the Navy, and his mother, Inez (Ricou) Browning, was a bookkeeper.
He first saw Wakulla Springs as a teenager and earned some money by swimming deep in the water for the benefit of tourists in glass-bottomed boats, who would watch him plunge to depths of 80 feet and leave tips.
“Some of us kids would earn 30, 40 dollars a day,” he told Weaver for his book, “and that was big, big money.”
In the 1940s he also got his first taste of the movie business, appearing in several short films made in the area by Grantland Rice, who was better known as a sports writer. In one, according to Weaver’s book, Browning is among the teenagers packed into a Model T Ford that drives into the waters of Wakulla Springs.
After serving in the Air Force from 1947 to 1950, Browning returned to Florida. He was the underwater double for Forrest Tucker in “Crosswinds” (1951), an adventure story about an effort to recover gold from a sunken plane, which was filmed in Florida. He was performing in Perry’s underwater shows at Weeki Wachee, another Florida attraction, and studying physical education at Florida State University when he was recruited for “Creature From the Black Lagoon.”
In his book, Weaver recounts the hit-or-miss process of coming up with the right creature costume, and the difficulties Browning had to deal with once the right look was found. One problem was that the costume was made of foam rubber, which floats.
“I wore a chest plate that was thin lead,” Browning told him, as well as thigh and ankle weights.
Another problem, Weaver said, was that Chapman, the actor playing the on-land version of the creature, was quite tall; in Florida, Browning had scenes with Stanley and several other stand-ins.
“Ricou was average height,” Weaver said, “so short people were hired to play the hero-heroine-bad guy so that Ricou would look comparatively king-sized.”
Browning’s later film work included directing the comedy “Salty” (1973), about a sea lion, and the crime drama “Mr. No Legs” (1978), about a mob enforcer who is a double amputee, as well as doing stunt work in several movies, including serving as Jerry Lewis’ underwater double in the 1959 comedy “Don’t Give Up the Ship.”
Browning’s first marriage, to Margaret Kelly in 1951, ended in divorce. His second wife, Fran Ravelo, whom he married in 1977, died in 2020. In addition to his daughter Renee, he is survived by three other children from his first marriage, his sons, Kelly and Ricou Jr., and his daughter Kim Browning; 10 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.
Weaver noted that all of the other actors who portrayed monsters in the classic Universal films died some time ago.
“Ricou,” he said, “had the distinction of being the last man standing.”
It has been said that Chanel gave women freedom, but Yves Saint Laurent gave them power.
Monsieur Saint Laurent also gave women a unique point of view, a new brand of style and the confidence to rock men’s clothes while looking sexy as hell. Who can forget Claudia Schiffer in Le Smoking in 2002?
Algeria-born Saint Laurent was a fashion phenomenon who changed women’s wardrobes forever. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, he completely revolutionized the industry with radical looks for women that now are the new normal. It was then referred to as unisex; today we call it gender fluid or gender neutral fashion.
By messing with
their heads -- sort of -- and proposing trousers, tuxedos, jackets and manly suits as elegant and seductive options, this genius opened a whole new world for women where attitude and style were more important than rules and trends.
YSL knew what women wanted. Besides Le Smoking, he gave us the Safari suits of the late 1960s, the Mondrian collection in 1965, and the Russian collection of the 1970s. In the hands of artistic director Anthony Vaccarello, the luxe label revolutionizes the industry again with an array of opulent and elegant suits, non-binary garments and highly sophisticated looks.
Every look Vaccarello presented in both men’s and women’s collections is clearly thought out and constructed. The tailoring, the fabrics, the color palette, it all works! The looks in YSL a/w 2023 are next level. Anyone can wear them. Now for the fashion icon’s signature: The suit. Although a fair number of men and women have exchanged the executive office for comfy home spaces, as in business suits no longer required, a suit is a status symbol. There is no substitute for a good suit. It is a dress code that will
always set you apart from a crowd. A tailored suit will always be a reflection and expression of your personality. It empowers you. Not a fan of suits? YSL will make you change your mind.
Besides suits and coats, the 2023 men’s collection included slimming pants in velvet and brocade fabrics paired with ultra fabulous and sophisticated blouses. Sheer blouses with pussy bows and cummerbunds are androgynous, gender inclusive and fabulous.
For women, Vaccarello presented power skirt suits with dramatic scarves, draped shawls and beautiful long coats. Pencil skirts were lean and mean, some with sexy slits in the front. Inspired by power suits of the 1980s -- think Kim Basinger, “Dynasty.” Blazers were boxy. And bigger. Clever and architectural. Also winning? Cashmere leggings and chiffon blouses with very long trailing neckties. We loved the pinstripe suits, the houndstooth coordinates, and the bright tartan textiles. Now for the details, those accessories that complete each look. In love with the seductive short leather gloves, the skinny leather belts buckled in gold, aviator shades, and the statement brooches #trend alert.
By MELINDA WENNER MOYER
For more than 25 years, psychologist Lisa Damour has been helping teenagers and their families navigate adolescence in her clinical practice, in her research and in bestselling books such as “Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions Into Adulthood.”
This moment, she says, is like no other.
According to a report released this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 42% of U.S. high schoolers experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in 2021, while 22% seriously considered attempting suicide. Adolescent girls, as well as lesbian, gay and bisexual youth, are struggling the most, but boys and teenagers in every racial and ethnic group also reported worsening symptoms.
“I am deeply concerned about the suffering teens experienced during the pandemic and the current crisis in adolescent mental health,” Damour said.
In her new book, “The Emotional Lives of Teenagers,” Damour aims to demystify adolescence and to reset the very definition of mental health: “Too often, ‘mental health’ is equated with feeling good, happy, calm or relaxed,” she said. But it’s “about having feelings that fit the moment — even if those feelings are unwanted or painful — and managing them in effective ways.” She thinks this characterization is “far more accurate,” and, she hopes, reassuring.
Here’s what Damour had to say about communicating with teenagers, distinguishing healthy emotions from mental illness and when to step in to help. This interview has been edited.
Q: It’s normal for teenagers to have big, tumultuous feelings. But given that we’re in the middle of an adolescent mental health crisis, how can parents tell the difference between healthy teenage angst and signs of anxiety or depression?
A: Teenagers feel their emotions more intensely than children do and more intensely than adults do. So there will be plenty of days where they experience distress, maybe multiple times a day.
Most of that distress will probably be appropriate to their circumstances. If a teenager failed a test, we expect they’ll be upset about that. If somebody breaks up with them, we expect they will be very sad. What we’re interested in is how the teenager then goes on to manage their feelings. What we want to see is that they use strategies that bring relief and do no harm, such as talking to people who care about them, finding brief distractions or solving the problem.
What we don’t want to see — and where we become alert to the possibility of a mental health concern — is one of two things. One, teenagers are using strategies to bring relief that actually come at a cost: So a teenager who’s very distressed and then smokes a lot of marijuana, or a teenager who’s having a hard time with a friend and then goes after that peer on social media.
The other thing we don’t want to see is feelings “run-
ning the show” — when they get in the way of a young person’s ability to do the things they need to do, such as go to school or spend time with peers.
Q: If a teenager comes home from school and seems sad or angry, what’s the best way for an adult to respond?
A: Usually, all they need from us are two things. One is curiosity — to take an interest in what they’re sharing, to ask questions. The other is empathy — letting them know that we’re sorry that they feel that way.
We have excellent scientific evidence that the mere act of putting an unwanted feeling into words reduces the sting of that emotion. So when it’s 9 p.m. and your teenager is standing in front of you suddenly describing that they are feeling very anxious, or unhappy or frustrated, the most essential thing to remember is that they are already on their way to feeling better because they put those emotions into words.
The exercise I use in my own home is that I imagine that my teenager is a reporter, and I am an editor. My teenager is reading me her latest article. My job is to listen so intently that when she comes to the end of the draft, I can produce a headline — a distilled, accurate summary of what she said that doesn’t introduce any new ideas. That shows them that you’re listening, and validates their feelings.
Q: What if your teenager says something cruel to you?
A: It is perfectly fine for kids to be angry. We should expect that. What we do put parameters around is the expression of that anger.
When teenagers use hurtful language, it can be useful to respond in a way that uncouples the feeling from how it was expressed. We can say things along the lines of: “You may be very angry with me. And you probably have a
point. But we don’t speak to each other that way, so take a minute and bring it back to me in a more civil way.” Even if a teenager rolls her eyes, she’ll get the message and, hopefully, try again when she’s cooled off.
Q: Let’s say a teenager gets really upset and doesn’t want to talk about it — and then 20 minutes later seems perfectly fine. Should you try to broach a conversation then?
A: If a kid is in a bad mood, and has found their way to a good mood, I would leave it.
Time works differently for teenagers. It’s very common that a teenager who was deeply distressed about something at 4 p.m. can be gleeful by 6 p.m.
Q: In your book, you discuss the value of letting kids talk to parents on their own terms. What does that mean?
A: Many parents find that they ask brilliant questions over dinner and come up empty-handed — they get oneword answers if they’re lucky. Later in the evening, their teenager is as chatty as can be.
Teenagers are organized around the drive toward autonomy. They’d rather not be subjected to an adult’s agenda. When we ask them questions at times that work well for us, we’re asking them to cooperate with our agenda. We need to be open to the possibility that a teenager may be most forthcoming when they are the ones who initiate the conversation.
That may mean they want to talk to us at times that we are not expecting or even find inconvenient. And they want to talk about things that may not be at the center of our attention. But if we want to cultivate and protect our connections with our teenagers, an important element of that is being willing to work with their terms of engagement.
The San Juan Daily Star Wednesday, March 8, 2023 23 Mental health is “about having feelings that fit the moment — even if those feelings are unwanted or painful — and managing them in effective ways,” psychologist Lisa Damour writes.Wednesday, March 8, 2023 24
The San Juan Daily Star
The Hubble Space Telescope, known for recording aweinspiring images of the cosmos while advancing the field of astronomy, is under threat.
Private companies are launching thousands of satellites that are photobombing the telescope — producing long bright streaks and curves of light that can be impossible to remove. And the problem is only getting worse.
A study, published Thursday in the journal Nature Astronomy, reveals an increase in the percentage of images recorded by the Hubble that are spoiled by passing satellites. And the data goes only through 2021. Thousands more satellites have been launched since then by SpaceX and other companies, and many more are expected to go to orbit in the years ahead, affecting the Hubble and potentially other telescopes in space.
“We’re going to be living with this problem. And astronomy will be impacted,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who was not involved in the study. “There will be science that can’t be done. There will be science that’s significantly more expensive to do. There will be things that we miss.”
The Hubble Space Telescope’s legacy cannot be overstated. Because of the observatory, we now know, for example, that the universe is 13.8 billion years old, that most galaxies contain a supermassive black hole at their centers and that stars form in violent processes. The Hubble’s images — including the gorgeous clouds of gas and dust in the “pillars of creation” and the view of nearly 10,000 galaxies in the “Hubble ultra deep field” — never fail to inspire.
But the number of satellites in orbit has significantly increased since the Hubble launched in 1990, and now it is staring at the cosmos through a field of satellites.
In May 2019, SpaceX launched its first batch of Starlink satellites, designed to broadcast internet signals across the globe. Soon after, an outcry emerged among astronomers who were concerned that Starlink’s streaks would jeopardize a number of campaigns to observe the universe from telescopes on Earth.
In response, Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, suggested that astronomers bypass the issue by moving telescopes to orbit.
But Hubble, which lives in low-Earth orbit roughly 335 miles above Earth’s surface, actually resides less than 10 miles below most Starlink satellites. That means that the observatory and other orbital space telescopes are still facing interference from satellite constellations. “Not only do you have to put your telescopes in space, but you also have to put them above all the other traffic,” McDowell said.
“I think we’ll be forced to do that in the decades to come,” he said. But that isn’t possible for current telescopes in lowEarth orbit or spacecraft that governments are building and launching in the coming years.
To quantify the effect of satellite constellations on Hubble, Sandor Kruk, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, and his colleagues analyzed an archive of images taken from 2002 through 2021.
They had help from hundreds of citizen scientists who pored through images to tag those with clear satellite streaks. That data set was then used as a training set for a machine-learning algorithm that analyzed more than 100,000 individual Hubble photos. Their results show that the chance of seeing a satellite in a Hubble image from 2009 to 2020 is only 3.7%. But the chance of seeing one in 2021 is 5.9% — an increase that they say corresponds to Starlink. By the date of the analysis, 1,562 Starlink satellites were in orbit. Another company, OneWeb, had lofted 320 satellites.
Mark McCaughrean, an astronomer at the European Space Agency and a co-author on the new study, is confident in their analysis but notes that this is only a minor issue at the moment. Typically, Hubble takes multiple images that are stacked on top of one another — a technique that will erase any satellites.
And NASA agrees. “While such analyses may show a gradual increase in detected satellite trails over time, most of these streaks are readily removed using standard data reduction techniques, and the majority of affected images are still usable,” a spokesperson said in regard to the latest study. “Satellite streaks do not currently pose a significant threat to Hubble’s science efficiency and data analysis.”
That threat is higher when the Hubble surveys a large swath of the sky. Then it might take only one or two images before redirecting its camera. If a satellite photobombs one of those images, the image might have to be tossed.
In addition, the satellites could pose a serious threat to a telescope that hasn’t launched yet. At the end of this year, China plans to send Xuntian, also known as the Chinese Survey Space Telescope, into low-Earth orbit. Xuntian will have a larger field of view than Hubble, making it much harder for satellites to slip by undetected.
“It’s going to be very severely affected by these satellites right off the bat,” McDowell said.
And Xuntian can’t simply launch into a higher orbit. China’s plan is for the telescope to share an orbit with the Tiangong space station so that astronauts can refurbish it if necessary.
A spokesperson from SpaceX declined to comment on the new study but pointed toward the company’s past efforts to mitigate the effects of Starlink. The company has tried a variety of methods to darken its satellites, including a mirror film designed to direct light away from the ground. But Meg Schwamb, a planetary scientist at Queen’s University Belfast who was not involved in the study, worries that the light will be directed up instead and could potentially worsen the situation for spacebased telescopes.
There are simply too many unknowns at the moment, including the ultimate number of satellites.
SpaceX hopes to eventually expand the size of its fleet to 42,000 Starlink satellites. Many other companies are in the market, too: Amazon, the British satellite provider OneWeb, a Chinese company called Galaxy Space, and even governments. A combined 431,713 satellites are planned to launch in the coming years.
“It’s a bit of a feeding frenzy at the moment,” McCaughrean said.
That estimate is based on filings with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the International Telecommunication Union. But even if only 100,000 satellites launched, that would increase the number of satellites in orbit by a factor of 10 since the new study took place — meaning that roughly 50% of Hubble’s images would spot a satellite. And if every other image had a satellite streak, the researchers worry about how much usable science could be gathered.
“When will Hubble not be useful anymore?” McCaughrean asked. “That might be 10 or 20 years away, but it’s not inconceivable that there’s a point at which you say, ‘Let’s not bother anymore.’”
In an undated image provided by NASA, ESA, Kruk et al., a photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows a satellite trail. Scientists found that an increasing number of pictures made by the iconic orbital observatory are being disrupted by passing satellites.ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-
NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN FEDERICO
ANDINO GONZALEZ PETICIONARIA EX-PARTE
Civil Núm.: BY2023CV00522.
Sobre: EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO (705). EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS
EE.UU., ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: LAS PERSONAS IGNORADAS Y DESCONOCIDAS A QUIENES PUDIERA PERJUDICAR LA INSCRIPCIÓN DEL DOMINIO A FAVOR DE LA PARTE PETICIONARIA EN EL REGISTRO DE LA PROPIEDAD DE LA FINCA
QUE MÁS ADELANTE SE DESCRIBIRÁ Y A TODA
PERSONA EN GENERAL
QUE CON DERECHO PARA ELLO DESEE OPONERSE A ESTE EXPEDIENTE.
POR LA PRESENTE: se les notifica para que comparezcan, si lo creyeren pertinente, ante este Honorable Tribunal dentro de los veinte (20) días contados a partir de la última publicación e este edicto a exponer lo que a sus derechos convenga en el expediente promovido por la parte peticionaria para adquirir su dominio sobre la finca que se describe más adelante. Usted deberá presentar su posición 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 en la secretaría del Tribunal.
Si usted deja de expresarse dentro del referido término, el Tribunal podrá dictar sentencia, previo a escuchar la prueba de valor de la parte peticionaria en su contra, sin más citarle ni oírle, y conceder el remedio solicitado en la petición, o cualquier otro, si el Tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El abogado de la parte peticionaria es el Lic. Jaime Rodríguez Rivera, cuya dirección es #30 Calle Reparto Piñero, Guaynabo, PR 00969-5650, Teléfono 787720-9553. “RÚSTICA: Predio de terreno radicado en el ba-
rrio Hato Nuevo Carretera 173 km 7.6) de Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de aproximadamente 250-300 METROS CUADRADOS. (Según mensura efectuada por el Ing. Juan Rodríguez Claudio, de 247.282 metros cuadrados).
En lindes por el NORTE: Carretera estatal 173; al SUR: con terrenos de Alexander Fuentes; por el ESTE: con terrenos de Omar Abdecadel y por el OESTE: terrenos de Daniel Sánchez. Enclava una estructura para fines residenciales.”
Este edicto deberá ser publicado en tres (3) ocasiones dentro del término de veinte (20) días, en un periódico de circulación general diaria, para que comparezcan si quieren alegar su derecho. Toda primera mención de persona natural y/o jurídica que se mencione en el mismo, se identificará en letra tamaño 10 puntos y negrillas, conforme a lo dispuesto en las Reglas de procedimiento Civil, 2009. Se le apercibe que de no comparecer los interesados y/o partes citadas, o en su defecto los organismos públicos afectados en el término improrrogable de veinte (20) días a contar de la fecha de la última publicación el edicto, el Tribunal podrá conceder el remedio solicitado por la parte peticionaria, sin más citarle ni oírle. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, a 13 de febrero de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. NÉLIDA OCASIÓ ORTEGA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I. *
LEGAL NOTICE
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO
MTGLQ Investors, L.P.
Plaintiff V. JEFTE PEREIRA
MENDOZA, CARMEN
RIVERA VALDEZ AND THEIR CONJUGAL PARTNERSHIP
Defendants
Civil Núm.: 18-CV-1227. (DRD). Re: COLLECTION OF MONIES, FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE. NOTICE OF SALE.
To: JEFTE PEREIRA
MENDOZA, CARMEN RIVERA VALDEZ AND THEIR CONJUGAL PARTNERSHIP, ANY OTHER PARTY WITH INTEREST OVER THE PROPERTY MENTIONED BELOW; GENERAL PUBLIC.
WHEREAS: Judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff to recover from defendants the
sum of $108,910.18 in principal, interest rate of 11.980% per annum since May 5, 2016. Such interest will continue to accrue until the debt is paid in full. The defendants also owe plaintiff late charges in the amount of 5.000% of each and any monthly installment not received by the note holder within 15 days after the installment was due as well as any advances made under the mortgage note including but not limited to insurance premiums, taxes and inspections as well as 10% or $11,917.90 of the original principal amount to cover costs, expenses, and attorney fees guaranteed under the mortgage obligation. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by interested parties at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150, Federal Office Building, 150 Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.
WHEREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned Judgment, Order of Execution, and the Writ of Execution thereof, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S. currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Room 150 –Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property (as described in the Property Registrar in the Spanish language): URBANA: Solar marcado con el número 8 del bloque V de la Urbanización Los Flamboyanes del Barrio Hato Nuevo, Sector Buena Vista, en el término municipal de Gurabo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de cuatrocientos cincuenta y cinco metros, cincuenta y seis decímetros cuadrados. En linderos: NORTE, con la carretera municipal número 27, en una distancia de 14.00 metros; SUR, con la calle número 24, en una distancia de 14.00 metros; ESTE, con el solar número 7 del mismo bloque, en una distancia de 32.50 metros; OESTE, con “Green Belt Area”, en una distancia de 32.58 metros. The mortgage deed is recorded at page 233 of volume 325 of Gurabo, property #12,942 Property Registry of Caguas, Section II. WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens: Senior Liens: None. Junior Liens: None. Other Liens: None. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It
shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. THEREFORE, the FIRST PUBLIC SALE shall be held on the 14TH DAY OF MARCH OF 2023, AT: 9:00 AM. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $119,179.08. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on the 21ST DAY OF MARCH OF 2023, AT: 9:00 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum $79,452.72, which is two-thirds of the amount of the minimum bid for the first public sale. If a second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD PUBLIC AUCTION will be held on the 28TH DAY OF MARCH OF 2023, AT: 9:00 AM, and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $59,589.54, which is one-half of the minimum bid in the first public sale. Should there be no award or adjudication at the third public sale, the property may be awarded to the creditor for the entire amount of its debt if it is equal to or less than the amount of the minimum bid of the third public sale, crediting this amount to the amount owed if it is greater. The Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied. WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the Special Master subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of the United States District Court,
District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 3rd day of February of 2023. PEDRO A. VÉLEZ-BAERGA, SPECIAL MASTER, SPECIALMASTERPR@GMAIL.COM, 787-6728269.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE SAN JUAN. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante vs. PEDRO HUGHET RODRIGUEZ GONZALEZ, su esposa MARTHA ISABEL VAZQUEZ AVILES y la Sociedad Legal de Bienes Gananciales compuesta por ambos
Demandados CIVIL NÚM: KCD2016-1229 (906). SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO (Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria). EDICTO DE SUBASTA.
Al: Público en General A: PEDRO HUGHET RODRIGUEZ GONZALEZ, su esposa MARTHA ISABEL VAZQUEZ AVILES y la Sociedad Legal de Bienes Gananciales compuesta por ambos; DORAL BANK ahora BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO, como sucesor en derecho, por tener Hipoteca en Garantía de Pagaré a su favor por la suma de $27,000.00.
Yo, EDWIN E. LOPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, Alguacil de este Tribunal, a la parte demandada y a los acreedores y personas con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, HAGO SABER: Que el día 5 de abril de 2023 a las 11:30 de la mañana, en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico, venderé en Pública Subasta la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria al mejor postor quien hará el pago en dinero en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del o la Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal de San Juan durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera su-
basta a celebrarse, se celebrará una segunda subasta para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el día 13 de abril de 2023, a las 11:30 de la mañana y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una tercera subasta el día 20 de abril de 2023, a las 11:30 de la mañana en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue:
URBANA: PROPIEDAD HORI-
ZONTAL: Condominio Gardens Valley Club de Rio Piedras Sur. Apartamento número 10-G. Apartamento residencial de forma irregular localizado en la cuarta planta del edificio 10 del Condominio Gardens Valley Club, situado en la carretera estatal número 176, kilómetro 3.5 en el Barrio Cupey de Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. El área aproximada en los dos niveles que se incluyen en este apartamento es de 1545.86 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 143.69 metros cuadrados. Este apartamento consta en su primer nivel de sala comedor, laundry, dos baños, tres dormitorios, y de escaleras. Estas dan acceso al segundo nivel donde tiene una terraza cubierta y un área de recreación sobre el techo del mismo apartamento. Son sus linderos los siguientes: el primer nivel por el Norte, en veintinueve pies cinco y medio pulgadas (29’ 5 ½”) con área exterior común y área de pasillo del edificio; por el Sur, en veintinueve pies cinco y medio pulgadas (29’ 5 ½”) con área exterior común; por el Este, en una distancia de cincuenta pies seis pulgadas (50’ 6”) con área exterior común de pasillo del edificio y pared medianera que lo separa del apartamento número 10-H; y por el Oeste, en distancia de cincuenta pies seis pulgadas (50’ 6”) con área exterior común y pared medianera que lo separa del apartamento 9-H. En el segundo nivel por el Norte, en veinte pies siete pulgadas (20’ 7”) con área exterior común; por el Sur, en veinte pies siete pulgadas (20’ 7”) con área de techo del edificio; por el Este, en una distancia de veintidós pies diez pulgadas (22’ 10”) con pared medianera que lo separa del apartamento número 10-H; y por el Oeste con área exterior común y área del techo del edificio. La puerta de entrada de este apartamento está situada en su lindero Este. Le corresponden dos estacionamientos identificados con el mismo número y letra del apartamento está situada en su lindero Este. Le corresponden dos estacionamientos identificados con el mismo número y letra del apartamento participación de 0912933% en
los elementos comunes. Finca número 15578, inscrita al Folio 10 del Tomo 482 de Río Piedras Sur, Registro de San Juan, Sección IV. La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al folio 29 del tomo 666 de Río Piedras Sur, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Cuarta, finca número 15578, inscripción cuarta. La dirección física de la propiedad antes descrita es: Condominio Garden Valley Club, Apartamento 10-G, Carretera Estatal 176, Kilómetro 3.5, San Juan, Puerto Rico. La subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $123,802.72 de principal, intereses al 5.75% anual, desde el día 1ro de julio de 2015, hasta su completo pago, más la cantidad de $15,750.00 estipulada para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado y recargos acumulados todas cuyas sumas están liquidas y exigibles. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será de $157,500.00 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima será una equivalente a 2/3 parte de aquella, o sea la suma de $105,000.00 y de necesitarse una tercera subasta la cantidad mínima será la mitad del precio pactado, es decir la suma de $78,750.00. Si se declara desierta la tercera subasta se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si esta es 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 esta es mayor. La propiedad se adjudicará al mejor postor, quien deberá satisfacer el importe de su oferta en moneda legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América en el momento de la adjudicación y que las cargas y gravámenes preferentes, si los hubiese, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser vendida en pública subasta se encuentra afecta al siguiente gravamen posterior: Hipoteca en Garantía de Pagaré a favor de Doral Bank, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $27,000.00, con intereses al 9.95% anual, vencedero el día 1ro. de enero de 2016, según consta de la Escritura Número 370, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 22 de diciembre de 2005, ante el Notario Público Juan C. Blasini González; inscrita al folio 29 del tomo 666 de Río Piedras Sur, Registro de la Propiedad
de San Juan, Sección Cuarta, finca 15,578, inscripción 5ta. La propiedad a ser vendida en pública subasta se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Podrán concurrir como postores a todas las subastas los titulares de créditos hipotecarios vigentes y posteriores a la hipoteca que se cobra o ejecuta, si alguno o que figuren como tales en la certificación registral y que podrán utilizar el montante de sus créditos o parte de alguno en sus ofertas. Si la oferta aceptada es por cantidad mayor a la suma del crédito o créditos preferentes al suyo, al obtener la buena pro del remate, deberá satisfacer en el mismo acto, en efectivo o en cheque de gerente, la totalidad del crédito hipotecario que se ejecuta y la de cualesquiera otro créditos posteriores al que se ejecuta pero preferente al suyo. El exceso constituirá abono total o parcial en su propio crédito. EN TESTIMONIO DE LO CUAL, expido el presente Edicto para conocimiento y comparecencia de los licitadores, bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 23 de febrero de 2023. EDWIN E. LOPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.
LEGAL NOTICE ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.
BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante vs. SUCESION DE JAIME OCASIO RODRIGUEZ, compuesta por FULANO DE TAL y ZUTANO DE TAL, como herederos desconocidos con posible interés; MARIA MAGDALENA JOUBERT RODRIGUEZ
Demandados CIVIL NÚM. SJ2021CV07350 (506). SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO (Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria). EDICTO DE SUBASTA.
Al: Público en General A: SUCESION DE JAIME OCASIO RODRIGUEZ, compuesta por FULANO DE TAL y ZUTANO DE TAL, como herederos desconocidos con posible interés; MARIA MAGDALENA JOUBERT RODRIGUEZ; MUNICIPIO DE SAN JUAN, por tener Hipoteca en Garantía de Pagaré a su favor por la
Defendants
Civil No.: 19-CV-01756. Re: COLLECTION OF MONIES, FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE. NOTICE OF SALE.
WHEREAS: Judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff to recover from defendants the sum of $538,326.68 in principal, interest rate of 3.50% per annum since April 1st, 2015. Such interest will continue to accrue until the debt is paid in full. In addition, the defendants owes the Plaintiff the late charges amounting to 5.000% of each and any monthly installment not received by the note holder within 15 days after the installment was due. The Defendants also owe the Plaintiff all of the advances made pursuant to the provisions and/or dispositions of the Mortgage Note and the Mortgage Deed. The Defendants also woe an amount equivalent to 10% of the original principal balance as liquidated amount to cover costs, expenses and attorney’s fees. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by interested parties at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150, Federal Office Building, 150 Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. WHEREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned Judgment, Order of Execution, and the Writ of Execution thereof, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S. currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Room 150 – Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property (as described in the Property Registrar in the Spanish language): Property located at: Torre del Mar Condominium, Apt. 2307, 1477 Ashford Ave., San Juan, PR. URBANA: PRO-
PIEDAD HORIZONTAL: Apartamento residencial denominado “Pent-house” número dos mil trescientos siete (2307), de dos niveles, localizado en la vigésima cuarta (24) planta del Edificio Torre del Mar, en el Sector Norte de Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico, con una ca-
bida total privada de tres mil seiscientos sesenta (3,660) pies cuadrados, equivalente a trescientos cuarenta (340.00) metros cuadrados. El primer nivel de este apartamento lo constituye la caja de la escalera privada de entrada a la parte superior o nivel superior. La escalera privada que forma parte de la unidad de vivienda se encuentra situada en el extremo del corredor común del piso y tiene los siguientes linderos y medidas: por el NORTE en trece pies y seis pulgadas (13’6”) con el corredor común del piso, dando ésta la puerta de entrada de esta escalera; por el SUR, en trece pies seis pulgadas (13’6”) con el apartamento número dos mil trescientos uno (2301); por el ESTE, en siete pies y nueve pulgadas (7’9”) con el apartamento número dos mil trescientos uno (2301); y por el OESTE, en siete pies y nueve pulgadas (7’9”) con el apartamento número dos mil trescientos uno (2301). Esta escalera constituye la entrada de este apartamento y forma parte del mismo. El nivel superior (segundo nivel) tiene una medida de cincuenta y seis pies (56’) en su mayor longitud de sesenta y seis pies y diez pulgadas (66’10”) en su parte más ancha. Consta de escalera de entradas, foyer, sala, comedor, cocina, con mesa de trabajo, estufa, gabinetes de pared, fregadero y calentador de agua, gimnasio con su medio baño, cuarto de lavandería, dormitorio principal con su vestidor, un baño y su closet, vestidor, dos cuartos dormitorios con sus closets y un baño para uso de ambos, cuartos de servicio con su baño y closet, terrazas al Norte, Oeste, y Sur. Colinda por el NORTE en cuarenta y siete pies y dos pulgadas (47’2”) con el patio exterior separado por baranda de la terraza y pared exterior y en trece pies cinco pulgadas (13’5”) con la unidad familiar o apartamento número dos mil trescientos tres (2303) separado por paredes interiores; por el SUR, en cincuenta y seis pies (56) con el espacio exterior que mira hacia la Avenida Ashford, separado por pared exterior; por el ESTE, en treinta y un pies (31’00”) con el apartamento número dos mil trescientos dos (2302), separado por pared de carga en una línea irregular de treinta y cinco pies y diez pulgadas (35’10”), con baño común del piso corredor central y cuarto de servicio de la unidad familiar o apartamento número dos mil trescientos tres (2303) separados de ellos por paredes inferiores; y por el OESTE, en una distancia de sesenta y seis pies y diez pulgadas (66”10”) con el espacio exterior que mira hacia la calle Nairm, la puerta de entrada de este apartamento se encuentra en la escalera que conduce al nivel superior y
desemboca en el foyer y por esta escalera privada se comunica con el corredor común limitado por el cual se sale al exterior. Le corresponde un porcentaje de uno punto cinco mil ochocientos seis por ciento (1.5806%) en los elementos comunes generales. Finca 29047, Inscrita al Folio 81 del Tomo 861 de Santurce Norte, registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Primera. The mortgage is recorded at page number page number 86 of volume number 861 of Santurce North of property number 29,047, 14th recording in the Registry of Property of San Juan, Section I. On August 30th, 2013, the note and Deed of Mortgage were modified pursuant to Deed of Modification of Mortgage number 582 executed before Notary Nestor Machado Cortes to decrease the principal balance to $551,629.77 and modify the annual interest rate. The Deed of Modification is recorded at Karibe page property number 29,047 of Santurce North, in the Property Registry San Juan, Section I, 15th inscription.
WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens:
Senior Liens: None.
Junior Liens: Sentencia del 25 de octubre de 2017, Orden del 18 de enero de 2018 y Mandamiento del 22 de enero de 2018 dictados en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia Sala de San Juan caso civil #KCD20161516 (901) sobre Cobro de Dinero (Ley de Condominios Gastos Comunes) seguido por Consejo de Titulares del Condominio Torre del Mar representado por su Junta de Directores vs. Entertainment Unlimited, Inc. donde se anota Sentencia por la deuda de $37,582.97 en concepto de cuotas de mantenimiento, penalidades, intereses y primas de seguro comunal, anotada el 10 de agosto de 2022 en el tomo Karibe finca 29047 de Santurce Norte anotación “A”. Other Liens: None. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. THEREFORE, the FIRST PUBLIC SALE shall be held on the 4TH DAY OF APRIL OF 2023, AT: 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $551,629.77. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not
adjudicated, a SECOND PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on the 11TH DAY OF APRIL OF 2023, AT: 9:30 AM., and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum $367,753.18, which is two-thirds of the amount of the minimum bid for the first public sale. If a second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD PUBLIC AUCTION will be held on the 18TH DAY OF APRIL OF 2023, AT: 9:30 AM., and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $275,814.89, which is one-half of the minimum bid in the first public sale. Should there be no award or adjudication at the third public sale, the property may be awarded to the creditor for the entire amount of its debt if it is equal to or less than the amount of the minimum bid of the third public sale, crediting this amount to the amount owed if it is greater. The Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied. WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the Special Master subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 24th day of February of 2023. PEDRO A. VÉLEZ-BAERGA, SPECIAL MASTER, SPECIALMASTERPR@GMAIL.COM, 787-6728269.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante V. MARITZA
MARTINEZ CRUZ
Demandado
Civil Núm.: BY2022CV02300. (502). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. AVISO DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA SUBASTA. Yo, EDGARDO ELÍAS VARGAS
SANTANA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #193, Alguacil de la División de Subastas del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, a la demandada y al público en general, les notifico que, cumpliendo con un Mandamiento que se ha librado en el presente caso, por el Secretario del Tribunal, con fecha 17 de enero de 2023 y para satisfacer la Sentencia por la cantidad de $39,319.93 de principal; $340.00 de segundo principal, para un total de $39,659.93, dictada en el caso de epígrafe el 16 de noviembre de 2022, notificada y archivada en autos el 17 de noviembre de 2022 y publicada mediante edicto el 22 de noviembre de 2022 en el periódico “The San Juan Daily Star”; procederé a vender en pública subasta, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, todo derecho, título e interés que haya tenido, tenga o pueda tener la deudora demandada en cuanto a la propiedad localizada en el: Municipio de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación: #13 Samara Hills, Dev. Minillas, Bayamón, PR 00956. Descripción: Rústica: Solar trece (13): Parcela de terreno radicada en el Barrio Minillas de la Municipalidad de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, identificado como solar trece (13), con una cabida superficial de 900.00 metros cuadrados; en lindes al NORTE, con el remanente de la finca principal, en distancia de 30.37 metros; al SUR, con la carretera municipal, en distancia de 26.90 metros; el ESTE, con el lote #14, en distancia de 29.91 metros; y al OESTE, con el lote #12, en distancia de 33.47 metros. Finca #62187, inscrita al Folio 151 del Tomo 1393 de Bayamón Sur, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección I. Con el importe de dicha venta se habrá de satisfacer a la parte demandante las cantidades adeudadas, según la Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, por el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, cuyas cantidades ascienden a $39,319.93 de principal; $340.00 de segundo principal, para un total de $39,659.93, intereses a razón del 6.5% anual, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda; $182.06 de cargos por demora, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda; más costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. El tipo mínimo para la subasta será la suma de tasación pactada, la cual es $44,555.53 para la propiedad descrita. Si no produjere remate o adjudicación la primera subasta, se procederá a una segunda subasta y servirá de tipo mínimo la cantidad de $29,703.69. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni
adjudicación en esta segunda subasta, se procederá a una tercera subasta, en ésta el tipo mínimo será la cantidad de $22,277.76. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse a opción del demandante. Para el lote descrito, la PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a cabo el día 23 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 9:45 DE LA MAÑANA. De no comparecer postor alguno se llevará a efecto una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 30 DE MARZO DE 2023, A LAS 9:45 DE LA MAÑANA. De no comparecer postor alguno se llevará a cabo una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 13 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 9:45 DE LA MAÑANA. La subasta o subastas antes indicadas se llevarán a efecto en mi oficina, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Bayamón. De Estudio de Título realizado, no surgen gravámenes preferentes, surgen los siguientes gravámenes posteriores: Aviso de Demanda dictado el 7 de octubre de 2011, en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Bayamón, Caso Civil Núm. DCD2011-2677, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, seguido por Banco Popular de Puerto Rico vs. Maritza Martínez Cruz, en la cual se solicita el pago de la deuda garantizada con la hipoteca de la inscripción 5ta. reducida a $35,257.64 o la venta en pública subasta, anotado el 11 de julio de 2016 al Tomo Karibe finca #62187 de Bayamón Sur, Anotación “A”. Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor de US Small Business Administration, o a su orden, por $118,400.00 al 1.750% anual, vencedero en 30 años, según Esc. #90, otorgada en Bayamón, el 15 de septiembre de 2018, ante la Notario Público Emma Janisae Romero Sánchez, inscrita al Tomo Karibe finca #62187 de Bayamón Sur, inscripción 7ma. y última. Se le advierte a los licitadores que la adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el mismo acto de la adjudicación en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, giro postal o cheque de gerente a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal y para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda(s) aquella(s) persona(s) que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de los licitadores y el público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general, una vez por semana durante el término de dos (2) semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete
(7) días entre ambas publicaciones, y para su fijación en tres
(3) lugares públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la
venta, tales como, la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía y se le notificará además a la parte demandada vía correo certificado con acuse de recibo a la última dirección conocida. Se les advierte a todos los interesados que todos los documentos relacionados con la presente acción de ejecución de hipoteca, así como la de la subasta, estarán disponibles para ser examinados en la Secretaría del Tribunal. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere al crédito de ejecutante, continuarán subsiguientes entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores, previa orden judicial dirigida al Registrador de la Propiedad de la sección correspondiente para la cancelación de aquellos posteriores. Y para conocimiento de la demandada, de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas y público en general, expido el presente Aviso para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspondientes. Librado en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, a 13 de febrero de 2023. EDGARDO ELÍAS VARGAS SANTANA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #193.
***
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE PONCE
BANCO POPULAR DE PR Y SUN WEST MORTGAGE COMPANY, INC., COMO AGENTE DE SERVICIO Demandante Vs SUCESIÓN DE ROBERTO PIZA
JOGLAR Y SUCESIÓN DE LILLIAM FIGUEROA CHARDÓN T/C/C
LILLIAM FIGUEROA; AMBAS SUCESIONES
COMPUESTAS POR SUS HEREDEROS
CONOCIDOS MARISOL
PIZA FIGUEROA, JOSÉ
A. PIZA FIGUEROA, MARISEL PIZA FIGUEROA Y ROBERTO PIZA
FIGUEROA, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS
DESCONOCIDOS
Y/O PARTES CON
INTERÉS EN DICHAS
SUCESIONES; ESTADOS
UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA Demandados
Civil Núm.: PO2021CV01908. Salón: 406. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (VÍA ORDINARIA). NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. A: SUCESIÓN DE ROBERTO PIZA JOGLAR Y SUCESIÓN DE LILLIAM FIGUEROA CHARDÓN T/C/C LILLIAM FIGUEROA; AMBAS SUCESIONES COMPUESTAS POR SUS HEREDEROS CONOCIDOS MARISEL PIZA FIGUEROA Y ROBERTO PIZA FIGUEROA, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHAS SUCESIONES: PARA SER NOTIFICADOS POR EDICTO. P/C: LCDO. JUAN C. FORTUÑO FAS. BUFETE FORTUÑO & FORTUÑO FAS, C.S.P., PO BOX 3908, GUAYNABO, PUERTO RICO 00970. (Nombre de las partes a las que se les notifica la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 09 de septiembre de 2022, 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 representado 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 01 de marzo de 2023. En Ponce, Puerto Rico, el 01 de marzo de 2023. CARMEN G. TIRÚ GONZÁLEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. EREINA AGRONT LEÓN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA SUPERIOR DE FAJARDO
BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
ha radicado Demanda sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca en su contra. Por la presente se le emplaza y notifica que debe contestar la demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación del presente edicto y deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), el cual podrá 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 discreción, lo entiende procedente. Los abogados de la parte demandante
son:
con remanente perteneciente a Juan Rivera Vázquez y con terrenos de Jenny Matos; por el ESTE, con camino municipal y con remanente de la finca principal de la cual se segrega perteneciente a Juan Rivera Vázquez; por el OESTE, con camino municipal y en un punto con terrenos de William Santiago”. Núm. Catastro: 140000-010-77; 140-000-010-78.
GENERAL:
Lcdo. Andrés Sáez Marrero
T.S.P.R. Núm. 18074
TROMBERG, MORRIS & POULIN, LLC
1515 South Federal Highway, Suite 100 Boca Raton, FL 33432 Tel. 877-338-4101 / Fax: 561-338-4077 prservice@tmppllc.com / asaez@tmppllc.com
Expido este edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal, hoy 16 de febrero de 2022. LCDA. MA-
RILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL.
MARICRUZ APONTE ALICEA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-
NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR SUCESIÓN DEL SR.
PEDRO RIVERA PACHECO
Peticionario
Civil Núm.: NJ2022CV00112. Sala: (705). Sobre: EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO; USUCAPIÓN. EDICTO. ESTADOS
UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: CUALQUIER
PERSONA INTERESADA, SUS HEREDEROS, CAUSAS HABIENTES, DERECHOS HABIENTES
Y A LAS PERSONAS
IGNORADAS A QUIENES
PUEDA PERJUDICAR
LA PRETENSIÓN DE
LOS PETICIONARIOS
SOBRE LA SIGUIENTE
PROPIEDAD:
Predio A: “RÚSTICA: Compuesta de 5.5133 cuerdas de terreno en el barrio Lomas de Naranjito, Puerto Rico, colindante por el NORTE, con camino municipal; por el SUR,
Predio B: “RÚSTICA: Predio de terreno en el barrio Lomas de Naranjito, Puerto Rico, compuesto de 0.1716 cuerdas, en lindes por el NORTE, ESTE y OESTE, con Rosendo Pacheco; por el SUR, con camino municipal.” Núm. Catastro: 140000-005-32. Los predios descritos no constan inscritos en el Registro de la Propiedad. Se le notifica que deberá presentar en un término de 20 días lo que sus derechos convengan ante la Secretaría del Tribunal Superior, Sala de Bayamón y enviando copia a la parte peticionaria: Lcda. Grace M. Figueroa Irizarry; PO Box 193813, San Juan, PR 00919 o via correo electrónico a gracefigueroalawoffice@ gmail.com. Se le apercibe que, de no hacerlo el Tribunal, luego de examinar la prueba podrá dictar una Sentencia aprobando el expediente de Dominio. Expido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal a 13 de febrero de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. NÉLIDA OCASIO ORTEGA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA
WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, NOT INDIVIDUALLY BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE FOR FINANCE OF AMERICA STRUCTURED SECURITIES
ACQUISITION TRUST
2018-HB1
Demandante Vs. SUCESION NITZA VIERA CORREA T/C/C NITZA
VIERA COMPUESTA
POR JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO
POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES Demandados
Civil Núm.: CA2021CV02544.
Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Carolina, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América y/o Giro Postal y Cheque Certificado, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina, el 1 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 1:15 DE LA TARDE, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Solar marcado con el número veinticinco (25) “GZ” del plano de inscripción de la Tercera Extensión de la Urbanización COUNTRY CLUB, situada en el Barrio Sabana Abajo de la municipalidad de Carolina, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de cuatrocientos cuarenta y tres punto sesenta y cuatro (443.64) metros cuadrados y colinda por el Noreste, en dieciocho punto cincuenta y tres (18.53) metros, con el solar número uno (1) del bloque “GZ” de dicha Urbanización; por el Suroeste en diecisiete punto treinta y siete (17.37) metros, con la calle número doscientos catorce (214) de dicha Urbanización; por el Sureste, en veintitrés punto cuarenta y cinco (23.45) metros, con el solar veinticuatro (24) del bloque “GZ” de dicha Urbanización; por el Noreste, en dieciocho punto veinte (18.20) metros, con la calle número doscientos doce (212) de dicha Urbanización, por el Oeste, en cinco punto cincuenta (5.50) metros, con la intersección de las calles numero doscientos doce (212) y doscientos catorce (214) de dicha urbanización. En el solar enclava una residencia de concreto armado de tres (3) habitaciones dormitorios, sala-comedor, cocina, cuarto de baño, balcón y marquesina. Inscrita al folio 243 del tomo 84 de Carolina Norte, finca 3146, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección Primera. La Hipoteca Revertida consta inscrita al folio 75 del tomo 1027, finca 3146 de Carolina Norte, Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección Primera, inscripción 11ª. Propiedad localizada en: URB. EXT COUNTRY CLUB, 1029 CALLE GENOVEVA DE LAGO, CAROLINA, PUERTO RICO 00924. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la
propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes: Nombre del Titular: N/A. Suma de la Carga: N/A. Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: Nombre del Titular: Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano. Suma de la Carga: $235,500.00. Fecha de Vencimiento: 4 de noviembre de 2091. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes. El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo de mínima subasta la suma de $235,500.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una SEGUNDA SUBASTA por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina, el 8 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 1:15 DE LA TARDE, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $157,000.00, 2/3 partes del tipo mínima establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la TERCERA SUBASTA, la suma de $117,750.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina, el 15 DE MAYO DE 2023, A LAS 1:15 DE LA TARDE. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $102,226.92 por concepto de principal, más la suma de $71,765.34 en intereses acumulados al 14 de febrero de 2022 y los cuales continúan acumulándose a razón de 5.060% anual hasta su total y completo pago; más la sumas de $20,868.55 en seguro hipotecario; $902.38 de impuestos; $675.00 de tasaciones; $440.00 de inspecciones; $615.00 de adelantos pendientes, más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original en la suma de $23,550.00, para gastos, costas y honorarios de abogado, esta última habrá de devengar intereses al máximo del tipo legal fijado por la oficina del Comisionado de Instituciones Financieras aplicable a esta fecha, desde este mismo día has-
ta su total y completo saldo. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o personas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy 14 de febrero de 2023. JOSÉ CRISTÓBAL, ALGUACIL REGIONAL. HÉCTOR L. PEÑA RODRÍGUEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #278.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE GUAYNABO
REVERSE MORTGAGE
FUNDING LLC
Parte Demandante V. CARMEN SYLVIA SANTIAGO MARTÍNEZ
T/C/C CARMEN SILVIA SANTIAGO MARTÍNEZ
T/C/C SYLVIA SANTIAGO
MARTÍNEZ T/C/C
SILVIA SANTIAGO MARTÍNEZ, POR SÍ Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA; SUCESIÓN GUSTAVO
BATISTA ORTIZ T/C/C
GUSTAVO BATISTA COMPUESTA POR GERARDO BATISTA SANTIAGO, SYLMA
BATISTA SANTIAGO, SYLVIA BATISTA SANTIAGO; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES
Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: GB2023CV00017. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE
ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: CARMEN SYLVIA
SANTIAGO MARTÍNEZ
T/C/C CARMEN SILVIA
SANTIAGO MARTÍNEZ
T/C/C SYLVIA SANTIAGO
MARTÍNEZ T/C/C
SILVIA SANTIAGO
MARTÍNEZ, POR SÍ Y EN LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA; GERARDO BATISTA
SANTIAGO, SYLMA
BATISTA SANTIAGO, SYLVIA BATISTA
SANTIAGO; JOHN DOE
Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES MIEMBROS
DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN GUSTAVO
BATISTA ORTIZ T/C/C
GUSTAVO BATISTA.
POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al Tribunal su alegación responsiva a la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaria 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.
Greenspoon Marder, LLP
Lcda. Frances L. Asencio-Guido R.U.A. 15,622
TRADE CENTRE SOUTH, SUITE 700 100 WEST CYPRESS CREEK ROAD FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 33309
Telephone: (954) 343 6273
Frances.Asencio@gmlaw.com
Expedido bajo mi firma, y sello del Tribunal, en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, hoy 23 de febrero de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA
REGIONAL. ANGELA RIVERA
HERNÁNDEZ, SECRETARIA
AUXILIAR I.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE GUAYNABO WILMINGTON SAVINGS
Demandante
SUCESIÓN DE IVÁN
LÓPEZ MERCED, T/C/C IVÁN LÓPEZ, COMPUESTA POR
MARÍA LÓPEZ RIVERA, IVONNE LOPEZ RIVERA
T/C/C ANTONIO JAMES
LOPEZ, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO MIEMBROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; SUCESIÓN DE SANDRA
FELICIANO SUÁREZ, T/C/C SANDRA
FELICIANO, T/C/C SANDRA FELICIANO S COMPUESTA POR
KARLA ANDALUZ
FELICIANO, JOSÉ
MENDOZA FELICIANO, ANA MENDOZA
FELICIANO, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO MIEMBROS DE NOMBRES DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE IMPUESTOS
MUNICIPALES; Y A LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA
Demandados
Civil Núm.: GB2022CV00016.
Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA.
Al: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL.
A: SUCESIÓN DE IVÁN
LÓPEZ MERCED, T/C/C IVÁN LÓPEZ, COMPUESTA POR
MARÍA LÓPEZ RIVERA, IVONNE LOPEZ RIVERA
T/C/C ANTONIO JAMES
LOPEZ, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO MIEMBROS DE NOMBRES
DESCONOCIDOS;
SUCESIÓN DE SANDRA
FELICIANO SUÁREZ, T/C/C SANDRA
FELICIANO, T/C/C
SANDRA FELICIANO S COMPUESTA POR
KARLA ANDALUZ
FELICIANO, JOSÉ
MENDOZA FELICIANO, ANA MENDOZA
AMÉRICA. Yo, ALG. HUGO BASCÓ MEDINA, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Guaynabo, a los demandados, acreedores y al público en general con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, por la presente CERTIFICO, ANUNCIO y HAGO CONSTAR: Que el día 11 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 10:20 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Guaynabo, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, procederé a vender en Pública Subasta, al mejor postor, la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria mediante Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, la cual se notificó y archivó en autos el día 20 de octubre de 2022. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el 18 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 10:20 DE LA MAÑANA, y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 25 DE ABRIL DE 2023, A LAS 10:20 DE LA MAÑANA, en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que ha sido liberado por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Guaynabo, en el caso de epígrafe con fecha de 12 de diciembre de 2022, procederé a vender en pública subasta y al mejor postor, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble que se describe a continuación: UR-
BANA: PROPIEDAD HORI-
FUND SOCIETY, FSB, NOT INDIVIDUALLY BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE FOR FINANCE OF AMERICA
FELICIANO, FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO MIEMBROS DE NOMBRES
STRUCTURED
SECURITIES
ACQUISITION TRUST
2018-HB1
DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE IMPUESTOS
MUNICIPALES; Y A LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE
ZONTAL: Apartamento residencial A guión doscientos veintisiete (A-227) del Condominio Boulevard del Río, localizado en el Barrio Frailes del Municipio de Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. Esta unidad está fabricada en hormigón armado y bloques de cemento y se encuentra ubicada en la segunda planta del edificio denominado A del Condominio. Consta de una planta y tiene su entrada por su lindero Noroeste, la cual sale a un pasillo de entrada común del segundo nivel del edificio que a su vez sale a una escalera también común que da acceso al exterior de edificio. Sus linderos son los siguientes: por el NORESTE, en una distancia lineal de veintinueve pies tres pulgadas y media (29’ 3 ½”), equivalentes a ocho punto noventa y dos (8.92) metros lineales, con pared del edificio
The San Francisco Giants were supposed to be celebrating on Dec. 20. A team with a roster in need of a jolt had seemingly recovered from its failure to lure Aaron Judge away from the New York Yankees by securing perhaps the second-biggest free agent of the offseason: shortstop Carlos Correa, who agreed to a 13year, $350 million contract.
But when Correa went through his physical examination — standard practice for new signees — the team became concerned about the long-term health of his right leg, which had been surgically repaired in 2014 after he fractured it in a minor league game.
On the day Correa was to be introduced as a member of the Giants, the team postponed the news conference, and news rippled across baseball that San Francisco was hoping to renegotiate the terms of the deal. That unleashed a series of events that briefly had Correa agree to terms with the New York Mets. He ultimately landed back with the Minnesota Twins, for whom he played in 2022, on a six-year, $200 million contract.
Michael Conforto, a free-agent outfielder, knew the Correa deal was unraveling when he participated in a workout for the Giants at a sports complex in Scottsdale, Arizona. Because Conforto, a former Mets star, was working his way back from a shoulder surgery, which caused him to miss the 2022 season, he took batting practice and ran and threw for Justin Viele, the Giants’ hitting coach, and Dave Groeschner, the head athletic trainer.
“It was like a tryout, and I felt like I was back in high school doing a showcase,” Conforto recalled recently. And given the news about Correa, Conforto knew the backdrop of his workout. “It was like the big elephant in the room,” he said. “I wasn’t going to pry.”
Three days after what was supposed to be Correa’s introductory event, the Giants struck a pair of deals: a three-year, $33 million contract with free-agent relief pitcher Taylor Rogers and a two-year, $36 million pact with Conforto.
The Giants, desperate to recover after following a 107-win season in 2021 with an 81-81 record in 2022, may not have gotten Judge or Correa, but the deals for Rogers and Conforto added to an offseason haul in which they spent $174 million on six free agents. It was the eighth-highest figure spent in Major League Baseball, according to Spotrac — a surprising amount given all the attention on whom the Giants did not sign.
“We went into the offseason feeling like we were a good team that wasn’t that far away,” said Farhan Zaidi, the Giants’ president of baseball operations. “And we made a lot of good additions. It’s a really deep team, and that doesn’t make headlines in the offseason. But over 162 games, it really matters.”
Entering the winter, the Giants were hoping to reignite excitement among fans. One of the biggest draws in MLB during their run of World Series titles (2010, ’12 and ’14), the Giants dropped to under 3 million in home
attendance in 2019 and 2022. (The 2020 season was only 60 games; 2021 had pandemic restrictions.) And 2021 represented the team’s only winning record, and its only postseason appearance, since 2016.
In early November, Zaidi said there was no player that would be out of the Giants’ price range. The bigmarket Giants had the 12th-largest payroll in MLB in 2022, according to Spotrac, and, per Zaidi, luring a player was simply a matter of mutual interest.
Judge, 30, was seen as a rare free agent who could change a team’s fortunes almost single-handedly. A fourtime All-Star, he won the 2022 American League MVP Award after smashing an AL-record 62 home runs. A Northern California native, he had grown up watching Barry Bonds star for the Giants, and the team hosted him for a visit in late November.
But persuading Judge to ditch the Yankees — where he was offered a nine-year, $360 million deal and the title of team captain — was too much for the Giants to overcome.
Correa, 28, was more amenable. An all-around star and unapologetic leader for a Houston Astros team that
won a since-tainted World Series title in 2017, Correa is a stellar defender and has hit at least 20 home runs in six of his eight seasons. When the Giants committed to giving him the largest contract in team history, he was going to displace fan favorite Brandon Crawford, who was the last link to the team’s run of championships.
But when the deal fell apart, the Giants pivoted.
Rogers and Conforto were added to a list of deals that included outfielders Mitch Haniger (three years, $43.5 million) and Joc Pederson (one year, $19.65 million) and starting pitchers Sean Manaea and Ross Stripling (both for two years, $25 million). In January, the Giants added reliever Luke Jackson (two years, $11.5 million).
Several of them represented buy low opportunities after injuries or down seasons.
“It’s a bunch of guys that have really high upside,” said Conforto, 30, who hit a career-high 33 home runs in 2019 for the Mets and hit .322 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Conforto, who had a down year in 2021, was one of the most intriguing free agents of the offseason, despite the shoulder surgery.
At full strength, Conforto has the ability to pay off for the Giants more than most of this offseason’s free-agent options.
Going forward, Conforto and other Giants players think the team’s attempts to sign the top free agents should be viewed as a good thing, even if they failed.
“Now that I’m a part of the organization, I look at the offseason that we had and there’s a huge commitment to winning here,” Conforto added later. “They were fully committed to bringing in a superstar and willing to pay the money. I look at that as a positive thing.”
Pederson, 30, did his best to publicly recruit Judge — Zaidi joked that he had fired Pederson as a recruiter — but said the team had moved on from the players they failed to land. “That’s old news,” he said, adding that he was excited to add several new teammates after a frustrating season.
“Baseball is a strange game where you can’t just buy one or two superstars and that’s going to guarantee you the playoffs or a World Series or anything like that,” he said. “Other teams have tried models like that and have not been very successful.”
But will the additions — more bulk than brand names — make a difference in the National League West, where the perennially contending Los Angeles Dodgers and superstar-laden San Diego Padres are favored? Or will the Giants’ failure to land Judge or Correa hang over the team?
Zaidi said San Francisco simply has to win more games if it wants people to concentrate on who is there rather than who is not.
“It’s a story as long as people keep writing about it because we’re not talking about it, we’re not thinking about it,” Zaidi said. “We recognize that we want the focus to be on this team, this group of players. And when we get out there and start playing and hopefully play well, that will change the narrative.”
By DAVID WALDSTEIN
The next emergency call could come at any moment during one of Martin Schneider’s 24-hour shifts at Olomouc’s Fire and Rescue Brigade. It might be for a car accident, a fire or a capsized canoe in a river, and in an instant he and his colleagues would slide down a pole, jump into a truck and go.
Schneider faces life-threatening situations on a routine basis and pressure is normal for him. So the thought of standing on a mound in the middle of the Tokyo Dome — with 55,000 fans screaming, chanting and banging on drums when Shohei Ohtani, the superstar designated hitter (and ace pitcher) for the Los Angeles Angels, walks to the plate — does not frighten him. It beckons him.
“I do best when I’m under pressure,” Schneider said at the station house late last month, growing more animated with each word and rapping on a table with his knuckles. “I love those situations. I need those situations. It’s my dream. I want to pitch against Japan.”
It is quite likely that on Saturday a full-time firefighter will pitch to Ohtani — a modern Babe Ruth earning $30 million this year with the Angels — and other talented Japanese batters in a unique matchup between the Czech Republic and Japan at the World Baseball Classic in Tokyo. If not the firefighter on that mound, then perhaps it will be the team’s public relations manager or a real estate agent or a schoolteacher.
All of those jobs, and more, are represented on the Czech team, which, despite its mostly amateur status, qualified for the global baseball tournament for the first time and has established itself as Europe’s secondbest national team. And the nation has done it organically, with players actually from the country, rather than mercenary pros brought in from abroad.
“In over 30 years of scouting, it’s the most remarkable achievement I’ve seen by a small country to qualify for
the WBC,” said Gene Grimaldi, an international scout, who now works for the Philadelphia Phillies. “In terms of development, what they have done is really unbelievable in the history of baseball.”
Most European national teams rely on imports from the United States and Caribbean nations, but the Czech roster is overwhelmingly Czech, by birth, passport and temperament. From the language they speak to the food and beer they consume — schnitzel and lots of fresh pilsner — these guys are Czech to the core. To see their fluid swings and precise throwing mechanics at modern facilities just a few kilometers from 14th-century cathedrals, in a country where hockey, tennis and soccer dominate, can be jarring.
But baseball is gaining a foothold in the Czech Republic, a nation with a population of about 10 million (about
4 million fewer than Tokyo). Youth leagues and training facilities have popped up around the country, and an estimated 7,500 Czechs now play the sport — 10 times the number there were in 2000.
The Czech national team is 15th in the men’s world rankings and second in Europe, behind only the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which is stocked with excellent major-league players from Curacao and Aruba; technically Dutch, but who mostly grew up in the fertile baseball culture of those warm, Caribbean islands. Other European teams rely on imports with far more tenuous connections to the country they represent.
Petr Zyma, the captain of the Czech team and a financial analyst, said he spoke to a German player just before September’s World Baseball Classic qualifiers in Regensburg, Germany,
and asked if that player was excited.
“He said, not really,” Zyma recalled last month, during a traditional Czech dinner in Prague with goulash, dumplings, pigs blood soup and large mugs of foamy pilsner. “He said there were 12 Americans flying in the next day to take over.”
After the Czechs beat Spain, 3-1, to qualify for the WBC, Zyma, Schneider and the others partied through the night in a delirious celebration of decades of work together. They had just eliminated a Spanish team of mostly Caribbean players from the U.S. minor leagues. Six came from Venezuela, five from the Dominican Republic, four from Cuba and another was born in Buffalo, New York. Only one was born in Spain.
In the Czech Republic, there are no warm-weather states or fields playable year round, so players spend winters at indoor batting cages, on nights and weekends — whenever they are not working. Still, talent is emerging. Several Czech players have reached the minor leagues, including Martin Cervenka, a superb defensive catcher who played 10 seasons in the Cleveland, Baltimore and New York Mets organizations, and Marek Minarik, a sturdy right-handed pitcher, who played in the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates systems and regales teammates with tales of working out alongside great pitchers such as Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Tyler Glasnow.
The Czechs have only three players who did not grow up there. Jake Rabinowitz, a right-handed pitcher, is from New York and played at Fordham University. He has lived in the Czech Republic for 10 years and holds a Czech passport. Eric Sogard, a veteran majorleague infielder most recently with the Chicago Cubs, was invited to join the team because his mother is Czech. The same goes for Willie Escala, a Czech Cuban American infielder in independent professional ball, whose mother, Iva Escala, left the Czech Republic during the communist era in the 1980s, and eventually settled in Miami.
Continues on page 36
From page 35
Iva Escala has visited her native country several times, and her recent trip to Prague last month was her first with Willie, who arrived in Prague in February to train indoors with his new teammates.
“It’s just amazing to me that we are here and that he is representing my country,” Iva Escala said last month outside the Prague Castle, near where her son was meeting a group of teammates for dinner. “I only wish my father was here to see it. It would have made him so proud.”
It’s too American
Iva Escala grew up in Prague, watching a variety of sports with her father and sister. Baseball was never on the agenda, in part because the communist government discouraged the sport as too American, too capitalist. That stance ignored the fact that there was a baseball club in Prague dating to 1919 and another in Brno since 1927, and that no nation adores baseball more than Cuba, one of the world’s most ardent communist states.
Softball was seen as slightly more palatable to the communists who ruled Czechoslovakia from 1948 until 1989. The games existed underground mostly, tolerated only under the name, “Batting Sports,” and much of the equipment was supplied by a Cuban manufacturer, Batos.
Pavel Chadim, the manager of the Czech national team and a neurologist by day, took up baseball as a teenager in 1986 and played for 24 years, until he was 40. He said he used Batos gloves and bats, wore soccer cleats and played on soccer fields that were modified with black dirt for the infields.
“You could tell the baseball players because their cleats and pants were black from the dirt,” Chadim said last month at his neurology practice in Brno, where not even his patients knew he managed the national team.
But baseball has grown since those muddy days, especially over the past few years. Today, there are baseball and softball facilities in many cities, with pristine outdoor fields and indoor cages, and a 10team domestic league that holds games on weekends, so that players can also work. With the help of some American, Canadian and Australian coaches over the past few decades, the sport gained a niche footing.
Mike Griffin, a coach from Vancouver Island in Canada, who now runs the PRO5 Baseball Academy outside Raleigh, North Carolina, coached in the Czech Republic. He managed the national team for eight years and was instrumental in the country rising 12 spots in the international rankings.
“Without Mike Griffin, we are not here,” Jakub Ondracek, a veteran Czech infielder, said at a recent national team workout.
Griffin tabbed top coaches, including former Boston Red Sox outfielder Trot Nixon, to increase the level of professionalism, and filtered that approach down to school children. Many kids play
after school at the clubs run by the Extraliga teams, like Prague’s Tempo club. Some are beginners with difficulty catching and throwing, while others demonstrate precocious talent.
Each year, Griffin invites players to his academy to play college teams like Duke and North Carolina. The first year the Czechs went 2-7 against the college squads. Three years later they finished 7-3. Griffin also guides young Czech players into high school and college programs, and pushes for the national team and domestic club teams to increase financial bonuses and improve training and travel conditions.
“The players really have to sacrifice a lot of free time because they work at their jobs all day,” Griffin said in a telephone interview from his academy. “But Czech baseball is here to stay. The system is healthy and there has been a huge leap in belief.”
On a Saturday afternoon late last month, a twovehicle caravan loaded with national team players made the three-hour drive from Prague to Brno for a full national team workout at the Cardion Hrosi club. Along the way, the players, many of whom have played and traveled together since high school, stopped at a roadside McDonald’s, where they spoke mostly Czech, plus English to include Willie Escala. They ate, laughed and shared their food like a group of intimately close, longtime friends, while fellow patrons, seemingly unaware that their national baseball team was in attendance, barely glanced over.
Lukas Ercoli, a crafty left-handed pitcher, was part of the traveling crew that day. He began playing baseball 20 years ago, when he was 6. He also served as the team’s publicity director until last week, when the team arrived in Japan. It was time to concentrate on pitching baseball, not story ideas.
“Maybe it is an advantage we have, that we are so close,” Ercoli said. “We grew up playing together. We love playing for each other. It’s like a family.”
That would make Chadim, the manager and neurologist, their father figure. At his office in Brno, he outlined the challenge they face in navigating a gantlet of games against the top players from China, Japan, South Korea and Australia. But he senses no fear. He even made a deal with one of his players. Schneider, the 37-year-old, right-handed-pitching firefighter will likely throw against China in the first game, and then get either one inning against Japan, or come in just to face Ohtani.
“I hope that after Tokyo, all of our players will be proud of our games, the tournament and the journey,” Chadim said. “I am very proud, but like a father, I am a little bit afraid and hope nobody will be disappointed and have bad feelings.”
Chadim is doing his best to prepare his players. As the team gathered from all parts of the Czech Republic that Saturday night, with most of the squad in attendance at the cramped indoor batting cages, the coach played a looped recording of crowd noise from the Tokyo Dome through a portable speaker — yelling, singing and drumming. The players suffered through the pounding din for more than three straight hours.
“They complained after the first 40 seconds,” Chadim said, laughing over the noise. “But that is what it is going to be like in Tokyo. We must be prepared.”
For months now, Czech baseball players have been preparing for the biggest and loudest moment of their lives. The rest of the baseball world, which will likely focus on their amateur status, may need to start preparing for Czech baseball.
“People see us as a bunch of guys with outside jobs,” Cervenka said. “But I know these guys and I have so much pride, not just in this team, but in Czech baseball. We will be competing against the best at the WBC, and we are going to do it together.”
Fill in the empty fields with the numbers from 1 through 9.
Sudoku Rules:
Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9
Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9
Every 3x3 square must contain the numbers from 1 through 9
1. Snug bug's hideout
2. ____ Valley (Los Angeles suburb)
3. Group of players
4. Like flights from the USA to Eur., e.g.
5. Drives away
6. Shell's crew member
7. Machine at a casino
8. "Give ___ minute!"
9. Nine-digit ID
10. Waylay
11. A Redgrave
12. Ready, in Rouen
13. Becomes baggy
18. Word with mental or code
21. Happy hour locale
23. Ending for tab or form
24. Special effects tech
25. Frau's partner 26. Arab socialist party 27. Maybelline rival
Exigencies
29. Circle part
31. Printing press component
32. Kelly Clarkson's "____ U Been Gone"
33. Icy precipitation
38. Cornell or Pound
40. Jittery
41. Smoke, for short
44. Aachen article
45. Genocide decider, for short
46. Polo alternatives
49. Sleeping sickness carrier
50. Little green men
53. Movie composer Morricone
54. Old, in Oberhof
55. Peter, ____ and Mary
56. Pokes fun of
58. Journalist Jacob
59. Veal dish ___ bucco
60. Preowned
61. Euphemistically, "goes"
Answers on page 38
Aries (Mar 21-April 20)
As Saturn enters a more secluded sector, it may inspire you to take a closer look at what has been hidden away in this secretive sector. Whatever is here can undermine happiness, unless it’s rooted out. Your dreams could be very helpful in this regard, but so may the assistance of a life coach or therapist. Need some pampering? Today’s Full Moon encourages you to enjoy yourself.
Taurus (April 21-May 21)
A Full Moon in Virgo highlights opportunities to get out and enjoy life. An exhibition or a walk in nature, could lift your spirits. From today, a new phase begins as prudent Saturn leaves your sector of goals and ambition and enters your social zone. The coming two years or so, can see you leaning away from superficial friends and linking with those who share your interests.
Gemini (May 22-June 21)
A major shift occurs today, as sobering Saturn the planet of discipline, boundaries, time and space, moves out of your sector of travel and learning and into your zone of goals and responsibilities. For the next two and a half years, you may be keen to leave your mark on the world and could put pressure on yourself to accomplish more, or to achieve a key ambition.
Cancer (June 22-July 23)
Sobering Saturn moves into Pisces and your sector of travel, adventure and study. You may begin to question your beliefs around key issues and your motives for wanting to pursue ideas and opportunities, and this could lead to a change of direction. Have something to say? The Virgo Full Moon could inspire you to get it out into the open. You might surprise someone.
Leo (July 24-Aug 23)
Cautious Saturn enters Pisces and an emotionally intense sector. Its presence here over the next two and a half years, can be a factor in encouraging deep inner transformation of the kind that could bring about a positive shift in your outer circumstances. A big part of this may be the ability to release what no longer serves, Leo. Many aspects of your life will start to flow better.
Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)
Relationships may take on a serious tone, as taskmaster Saturn moves into this sector from today. You’ll view your connections more objectively, and if some of them seem a tad superficial, you’ll be ready to seek out those with more depth. There’s also a Full Moon in your sign which can coincide with an unexpected visit or offer. Something or someone is worth looking into, Virgo.
Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)
Your social life sparkles with promise, as bright encounters and lively conversations can see you enjoying a delightful get-together. However, there is a more serious tone too, as thoughtful Saturn leaves your sector of creativity and moves into your lifestyle zone for two and a half years. This is an excellent time to develop habits that bring out the best in you, and help you flourish.
Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)
The coming weeks can see a change in a situation concerning your home and domestic sector, with a chance that things could ease somewhat in this area. A shift in focus to your zone of leisure and creativity from today, may see you becoming serious about self-expression, and perhaps deciding to put more effort into enhancing your skills regarding a hobby or sport.
Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)
The focus shifts from more mind orientated activities to those connected with your home, as Saturn the planet of structure and organisation, enters your domestic sector for a stay of around two and a half years. During this time, you may decide to renovate or repair your home. You might feel moved to start a home business or to take on other family responsibilities, Archer.
Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)
Any money or cashflow issues you’ve experienced can ease to an extent. This likely won’t happen overnight, but over the coming month or so, you could start to see a difference. Matters associated with communication may rise higher up your list of priorities. For instance, learning a new skill could enable you to access key opportunities that will help to better your life.
Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)
After hosting practical Saturn in your sign for the past two and a half years, it leaves today and enters Pisces and your sector of values and resources. Its presence here encourages you to take control of your money and make it work harder for you. Over the coming weeks, you’ll sense a new lightness of being and feel more relaxed about life. It may even be time for a holiday.
Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)
As Saturn moves into your sign, it’s time to get serious about your plans. You could easily get frustrated if things don’t go as fast as hoped. Yet this placement encourages commitment and perseverance, which is not only the key to succeeding, but doing so in style. Plus, today’s Full Moon can be a call to enjoy some quality time with your partner or a gettogether with friends.
