Thursday May 28, 2020

Thursday, May 28, 2020

San Juan The

50¢

DAILY

Star

JK Rowling Begins Publishing for Children in Lockdown P21

Unions Make Themselves Heard Health Professionals Demand Equal Treatment, Gov’t Incentives for Technician Colleagues P4

Black Man’s Death in Minneapolis Police Custody Incites Community Outrage

Governor Finally Orders COVID-19 Tests for Public Employees Going Back to Work

P8

NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL P 19

P4

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

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GOOD MORNING

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May 28, 2020

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

Information on COVID-19 victims held up

Today’s

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By ANGÉLICA SERRANO ROMÁN Center for Investigative Journalism

From ESE 9 mph 78% 10 of 10 5:47 AM Local Time 6:55 PM Local Time

INDEX Local 3 Mainland 7 Business 11 International 13 Viewpoint 17 Noticias en Español 19 Entertainment 20 22 Movies

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ust over a month after Health Department (DH) Secretary Lorenzo González Feliciano made a loud announcement about a collaboration between the agency and the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute to share daily raw data and information about the people who are being supplied with COVID-19 tests, the DH acknowledged that it faces difficulties in delivering the agreed information.

The Institute page is one week behind on most of the data related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and lacks essential information to understand the evolution of infections and deaths from the disease.

The DH has not yet provided the Institute with data on the “unique” negative cases, pending and inconclusive, and the total number of tests carried out in an updated manner, segregated by type of test (molecular or serological), and according to the date on which they were made.

This information is essential to determine if there has been a real decrease in the confirmed cases of COVID-19, which was the argument used by Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced to begin the second phase of the economic reopening this week.

The “unique” cases are new categories created by the DH to refer to the data that is reviewed, after more than a month of reporting the figures erroneously, even with the possibility of cases being duplicated or tripled.

The DH has been sending the Institute only daily data on positive “unique” cases using molecular tests (that detect the virus) and serological tests (that measure antibodies), as well as the number of people who have died and on what dates. The information is sent to the Institute after verifying some qualifying aspects with the variables and in the format that the Institute requested, said Orville Disdier, executive director of the Institute.

Now, after a new request for information issued by the Institute to the DH on May 12, to obtain data related to COVID-19, the DH requested an extension of up to 60 days to deliver the data, Disdier confirmed to the Center for Investigative Journalism.

The agency had 10 days to respond to the Institute’s new information request but alleged in its request for an extension that “the 10-day period to submit all the information is not sufficient. Not only because the information is being worked on manually, but also because we have faced problems with technological systems, and recently, with the lack of electrical energy [in the area of information systems] that has kept us a full afternoon and morning without the service, a situation that delays the work of officials.”

The DH never implemented an information network to handle COVID-19 data. From the beginning of the

emergency it was working with Excel tables manually until it began to receive them digitally from laboratories.

Laboratories Association President Juan Rexach said the data report requested by the DH has always been through a manual form, even before the emergency by COVID-19.

“It is written on a sheet, sent by fax or by email,” he said.

“The Bio Portal is established from one day to the next. ‘We went up Monday, there is the Bio Portal, use it.’ They offered training through one person. There are laboratories that have learned how to use it, but it has been a process.”

But due to technical problems, the DH received the data only manually for a few days, confirmed attorney Ilia Morales, executive director of the Toledo Clinical Laboratory.

Still, labs continue to report data, either through that portal or manually.

Morales also said that her laboratory does not mix serological tests with molecular ones, because the former are not diagnostic, but it is the DH that combines them.

Another factor affecting “one-time” case statistics is that labs can report whether a patient has more than one test done at their facility, but they have no control over whether people have multiple tests done at different labs, he added.

“The Health Department said they were going to solve that with a unique ID, but we don’t know what it is like,” Rexach said.

Regarding the possibility of going to court to gain access to information, Disdier said that although Institute regulations allow him to do so, for the moment the Institute’s board of directors decided to grant the DH the extension requested on May 22.

“You have to wait for how it evolves before moving on to the next step,” Disdier said.

He also noted that although he reported the board’s response to the DH, he had not received any comment from the Health secretary or his representatives on the matter as of the filing deadline for this story.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Against a rock and a COVID-19 test Governor finally says she’ll order coronavirus testing for all gov’t employees returning to work

By JOSÉ A. SÁNCHEZ FOURNIER Twitter: @SanchezFournier Special To The Star

A

fter weeks of dragging her feet on the matter, Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced apparently finally relented and ordered that all government employees be given a COVID-19 test prior to returning to their workplaces.

The new policy was the product of a meeting with labor leaders held Wednesday at Pedro J. Rosselló Convention Center in San Juan.

“The governor was emphatic and crystal clear -- public employees will be tested [for COVID-19] when they return to work,” said La Fortaleza Public Affairs Secretary Osvaldo Soto after the meeting with the labor leaders regarding the guidelines for public service professionals coming back to work while the island is not yet out of the coronavirus pandemic-induced islandwide emergency.

Soto added that each agency head must now begin talks with labor leaders and with Health Secretary Dr. Lorenzo González Fe-

liciano to find the best way to comply with the order.

Vázquez was not available to speak with the press after the meeting, although La Fortaleza did allow a pre-meeting photo opportunity with the governor and the union leaders.

According to union representative Ángel Pinto, that was the feeling he got out of the meeting, which at times turned somewhat combative.

“The governor is on the campaign trail. It is obvious,” said Pinto, president of the Roads Authority chapter of ProSol UTIER. “She seemed receptive to our claims, but she must prove with her actions that it was a genuine sign of interest and concern or just part of her campaign.”

Recent history apparently lends some credibility to Pinto’s claim.

On May 12, his ProSol UTIER chapter led a stay-at-home demonstration after the central government disobeyed its own health guidelines regarding employees returning to their job sites in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Many of the 250 on-site union employees in the Roads Authority stayed at home on that day, in objection to what they said was the dangerous and unlawful practice by the government, which included not providing training or equipment to combat the coronavirus at their places of work.

The union strategy worked and a meeting between the administration and union representatives took place later that day. An agreement was reached to inspect and upgrade all job sites, as well as to train and equip the workers to meet the higher health standards and social distancing guidelines.

During a press conference at La Fortaleza two days later, Vázquez said that all returning government employees would be tested for the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, which was one of the priorities of the unions.

“Before any government employees go back to work, they will be tested [for the coronavirus],” Vázquez said after The San Juan Daily Star questioned her on the matter. She did not go into details on the logistics of the testing.

“We want them to feel assured that they are safe,” the governor said.

That promise has not been fulfilled, but Vázquez seemingly got the ball rolling after the meeting with the union leaders.

“The government has made virtually no effort to make good on our agreements from [that day]. Not even on the testing that would be covered by our health insurance,” said Pinto, who took the news with a certain degree of incredulity.

“We told her during the meeting, face to

face, what has happened with the testing,” the union leader said. “The government won’t even have to pay for it. She did not respond to our claims, did not answer us during the meeting.”

The government has acknowledged that it has a reasonable stockpile of COVID-19 test kits, more than 177,000, according to the numbers provided on May 14 by La Fortaleza.

But they are not having large-scale and job site testing done, despite recommendations by the Health secretary to do so.

If the testing is finally ordered for all incoming government workers, it would deactivate the next phase that some union leaders were considering for next week.

“Since the previous meeting, we’ve had a positive COVID-19 result in a test administered to an on-site employee in Ponce, and another possible case in Mayagüez,” Pinto said. “If they don’t take the appropriate steps, we will have to organize another stay-at-home protest.”

Hospital professionals protest for fair treatment of their coworkers Healthcare technicians have been left behind in the distribution of COVID-19 bonuses

By JOSÉ A. SÁNCHEZ FOURNIER Twitter: @SanchezFournier Special To The Star

H

ealthcare professionals from several of the island’s hospitals convened at the Centro Médico health complex in Río Piedras to draw attention to the plight of health technicians who have not received their share of the incentive approved for nurses and other healthcare specialists working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic emergency.

“We are not protesting against the health facilities because we know this is out of their hands,” said Fernado Juarbe, a coordinator with the General Workers Union

(UGT). “All we want is that the health technicians receive their fair share of the assigned funds.”

“This demonstration is directed toward the Health Department administrators,” Juarbe added. “Had they discussed the distribution of the incentive with the union, we would have found a much more effective way. The problem we are facing now shows that whoever took the decision had no idea what he was doing.”

The current stall in the delivery of the bonuses seems to be affecting a large number of health personnel outside of the nursing profession.

“A wide range of technicians, and other specialized personnel are being forgotten, and they are sacrificing themselves just like any other doctor or nurse fighting the coronavirus,” Juarbe said.

The protest, which was held in front of the Health secretary’s main offices, amassed more than 100 people, the UGT spokesperson said.

“It was difficult because we held the demonstration at noon so that many members could take their lunch break and participate as a show of solidarity,” Juarbe said. “We

had workers from the University Hospital, the Oncological Hospital, the Pediatric Hospital, the Bayamón Regional Hospital, the ASSMCA Psychiatric Hospital and many others. I am sure that, if the Health secretary was at his offices, he saw us.”

The government approved bonuses for nurses and other healthcare professionals ranging between $1,000 and $4,000, depending on their field and specialty.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

5

Oversight board approves its version of commonwealth fiscal plan

By THE STAR STAFF

A

s questions lingered over the future of debt restructuring, the federal Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico approved at an online hearing Wednesday its version of the commonwealth fiscal plan, requiring the government to adopt structural changes to improve the economy as the board puts a one-year pause on government right-sizing.

The oversight board was not convinced by government claims that its version of the commonwealth fiscal plan was the most adequate and that it will allow the government to take care of people’s needs.

One question that prevailed centered on the proposed debt adjustment plans for the government because the fiscal plan contains a surplus of only $8 billion between fiscal years 2020 and 2032, leaving little for debt payments.

Oversight Board Executive Director Natalie Jaresko said communication with Puerto Rico’s bondholders continues, that all parties are eager to exit bankruptcy and that “it is going to require effort in this new environment to identify that solution.”

Will there be a new plan of adjustment soon?

“We won’t be commenting on the future of the debt adjustment plan. We all want to exit bankruptcy but our focus is the fiscal plan and now the budget,” Jaresko said in reply to questions from the public. “On that basis, we

will work with the government and mediators to discuss the next steps.”

The difference between the two fiscal plans center on the macroeconomic projections. The government estimates a 7.8 percent decline in the gross national product next year but the board predicts the economy will shrink 4 percent in fiscal year 2020 largely due to the coronavirus pandemic with a limited recovery of 0.5 percent in fiscal year 2021 due to the unwinding of fiscal stimulus from federal funding. Afterward there will be negative growth.

The government’s plan does not include cuts to government pensions.

While the oversight board proposes a one-year delay in government right-sizing, the government fiscal plan proposes a twoyear delay.

Jaresko acknowledged, however, that the oversight board has few tools under the law to force the government to make the needed changes. She said many of the changes can be done by executive order and do not require legislative approval.

Omar Marrero, who heads the commonwealth’s Financial Advisory Authority and Fiscal Agency, insisted that a fiscal plan should not rest solely on austerity but rather

should allow the government to continue to provide services for the most vulnerable as it exits bankruptcy.

“The government needs to change and be more efficient and less costly,” Oversight Board Chairman José Carrión said.

The fiscal plan approved by the oversight board calls for the island Education Department to implement a back-to-school plan as well as a time and attendance reporting policy for all employees, record daily student attendance, efficiently manage its studentteacher ratio by observing its own staffing policies, and generate savings through improved procurement and more transparent accounting.

The Health Department should focus on core health care services by saving money through centralized procurement of supplies across agencies and public hospitals, develop an action plan for robust, consolidated regional Medicaid offices, improve hospital management, and merge the Health Insurance Administration into the department, according to the federal board’s plan.

The oversight board also wants the Public Safety Department to move more officers from administrative positions to the field so they can better serve residents, reduce overtime with better time management, and fully consolidate the back office. It also wants to see the Department of Economic Development finalize the consolidation of the Puerto Rico Tourism Co. and ascribe the Planning Board.

Gubernatorial hopefuls called on to take a position on Civil Code

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

T

he spokesman for the Search for Equity Coalition (CABE by its Spanish acronym), Osvaldo Burgos Pérez, demanded on Wednesday that the candidates for governor express themselves publicly about the new Civil Code that is now before Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced.

“Everyone aspires to occupy a seat that, in due course, will have to make similar decisions,” Burgos Pérez said in a written statement. “That is why we invite you to present your position before the country so that we know your opinion regarding this new Civil Code. It is imperative that the people know what is the feeling of each candidate for governor regarding an issue that affects the lives of all people in Puerto Rico.”

Burgos Pérez further noted that the governor has until early next week to sign or veto House Bill 1654, which proposes to

establish a new Civil Code.

“The organizations and professionals that are part of CABE have objections to the content of the approved Civil Code based on the understanding that it contains harmful provisions for the civil rights of the country and for the stability of our legal system,” said Amárilis Pagán Jiménez, another CABE spokesperson.

“We trust that the candidates for governor understand the importance of a Civil Code and how it impacts practically all aspects of the life of each [citizen],” Pagán Jiménez added. “That is why we urge all applicants to publicly communicate their position regarding this new Civil Code that was approved by the Legislature and that is on the desk of Gov. Wanda Vázquez at this very moment. If they were the person in charge of stamping their signature on that Civil Code, would they make it into law despite the social consensus against it? What will they do with that Civil Code if the current governor turns it into law?”

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Judge orders hearing in independent lawmaker’s case to become member of House committees

By THE STAR STAFF

S

an Juan Superior Court Judge Anthony Cuevas Ramos scheduled a hearing in a lawsuit filed by Rep. Manuel Natal Albelo, an independent lawmaker, who wants the court to order House Speaker Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Nuñez to appoint him as a permanent member of all House committees.

“We believe that the case is ripe for the holding of an argumentative hearing that may enable the court to expeditiously resolve the controversy at issue,” the court order says. “For these purposes, the holding of an argumentative hearing is scheduled, through the videoconference system, for this coming Monday, June 1, 2020 at 2 p.m.”

On May 20, Méndez filed a motion to dismiss under rule 10.2 of civil procedure. In turn, Natal Albelo on May 22 filed the brief opposing Méndez’s motion to dismiss.

On May 11, Cuevas Ramos had ordered Méndez to show cause why the Superior Court should not grant the request of the independent legislator.

On May 7, after requesting to be included as a member of the public hearings held by the House Health Committee on irregularities in island Health Department contracting procedures during the coronavirus pandemic emergency, Méndez denied Natal Albelo’s request alleging that minority lawmakers were already represented on the committee, whose membership

includes Popular Democratic Party and Puerto Rican Independence Party lawmakers.

After Méndez’s determination, Natal Albelo’s petition was voted on in a House session, but was defeated by the majority New Progressive Party legislators.

However, using as a premise that the rule of law and the representative rights of his constituents are being violated, Natal Albelo filed a mandamus appeal before the court that, if resolved in his favor, would compel Méndez to appoint him to all legislative committees.

Governor asked to seek extension of FEMA assistance

By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com

A

ccess to Justice Fund Foundation (FFAJ by its Spanish initials) Executive Director Amaris Torres Rivera urged Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced on Wednesday to request an extension of the Individual Assistance Program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Requests for extensions are due May 31.

The FFAJ was making its call, Torres Rivera said, in the interest of ensuring that people affected by the earthquakes that struck Puerto Rico in January and again this month have the opportunity to repair their homes and receive temporary rent assistance, among other services.

“Recently, we sent a letter to the governor asking that she request an additional 90-day extension from FEMA, so that people affected by the earthquakes, including the most recent one on May 2, have the opportunity to ap-

ply for the program,” Torres Rivera said in a written statement.

She noted that due to the coronavirus pandemic, FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers have been closed for more than two months, so many people have been unable to file their documents or appeals.

“This represents a barrier to access for people affected by earthquakes, where only 35 percent of applications have been approved,” she added.

As part of its services, the FFAJ subsidizes a Legal Assistance Line, available free of charge through 939-545-4550, Monday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Since the line was activated in April, more than 300 calls have been received from people affected by the earthquakes, of whom 70 percent are women and older adults.

The Legal Assistance Line is operated by the Puerto Rico Bar Association’s Institute of Practical Education and is made possible by a donation from the Hispanic Federation.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

7

An ‘avalanche of evictions’ could be bearing down on America’s renters

By SARA MERVOSH

T

he United States, already wrestling with an economic collapse not seen in a generation, is facing a wave of evictions as government relief payments and legal protections run out for millions of out-of-work Americans who have little financial cushion and few choices when looking for new housing.

The hardest hit are tenants who had low incomes and little savings even before the pandemic, and whose housing costs ate up more of their paychecks. They were also more likely to work in industries where job losses have been particularly severe.

Temporary government assistance has helped, as have government orders that put evictions on hold in many cities. But evictions will soon be allowed in about half of the states, according to Emily A. Benfer, a housing expert and associate professor at Columbia Law School who is tracking eviction policies.

“I think we will enter into a severe renter crisis and very quickly,” Benfer said. Without a new round of government intervention, she added, “we will have an avalanche of evictions across the country.”

That means more and more families may soon experience the dreaded eviction notice on the front door, the stomach-turning knock from sheriff’s deputies, the possessions piled up on the sidewalk.

They will face displacement at a time when people are still being urged to stay at home to keep themselves and their communities safe.

That fear has been eating away at Sandy Naffah ever since she lost her income as the virus led to economic shutdowns.

Naffah, who had been juggling two part-time jobs — teaching elementary school students how to read and working as a beauty consultant at a mall — quickly fell behind on the $800 she pays in rent each month for a one-bedroom apartment in Euclid, a suburb of Cleveland.

She is now staring down a precarious future, desperately hoping that a one-off federal stimulus check and unemployment benefits — which she said she had yet to receive — will keep her afloat and stave off eviction.

“It’s a ticking clock,” she said. “I can’t continue to go on this way, otherwise I will be out on the street.”

In many places, the threat has already begun. The Texas Supreme Court recently ruled that evictions could begin again in the nation’s second-largest state. In the Oklahoma City area, sheriffs apologetically announced that they planned to start enforcing eviction notices this week. And a handful of states, like Ohio, had few statewide protections in place to begin with, leaving residents particularly vulnerable as eviction cases stacked up or ticked forward during the pandemic.

Although about 90% of renters made full or partial rent payments by late May, down only 2% from last year, lawyers and landlords alike fear that the trend will not last. More than 38 million people have filed jobless claims since March, including a high proportion of people living in households making less than $40,000 a year. In a survey released this month by the Census Bureau, nearly a quarter of respondents said they missed their last rent or mortgage payment or had little to no confidence that they would be able to pay on time next month.

The devastation has drawn comparisons to the Great Reces-

Sandy Naffah in her apartment in Euclid, Ohio, with her dog, Shadow. sion, when millions of people lost their homes during a foreclosure crisis. But this time, renters are likely to be on the front lines.

“We sort of expect this to be more of a renter crisis than a homeownership crisis,” said Elora Lee Raymond, an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology who focuses on affordable housing and real estate.

Even before the current joblessness crisis, eviction was troublingly common in American life. Researchers estimate that about 3.7 million eviction cases were filed in 2016, a year when the unemployment rate was 4.7%.

“Now we have 14.7%,” said Matthew Desmond, a sociologist at Princeton and author of the book “Evicted,” who is leading an effort at the university’s Eviction Lab to track cases nationally.

Without intervention, he said, “I don’t see how we wouldn’t have a wave of evictions.”

A $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill backed by House Democrats includes a proposal to dedicate $100 billion for rental assistance, a measure that could bring broad relief, but Republicans have criticized the package as too costly. It is unlikely to pass in its current form.

And some argue that the federal government has already intervened effectively, in the form of the stimulus checks and a $600 weekly boost to unemployment payments.

Many low-wage workers are making more money on unemployment than they were when they were working, said Ken Rosen, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley.

“It’s happening, not through the housing system, but through the unemployment compensation system,” he said.

But there is a looming question about what happens next.

“People may be paying their rents, but at what cost?” said Tara Raghuveer, the director of KC Tenants, an advocacy group in

Kansas City, Missouri. “I know several people who are taking out title loans. They are paying their rent on their credit card.”

Many landlords say they are working with their tenants, waiving late fees and advocating the government cover missed rent.

“We are in uncharted waters,” said Tom Bannon, chief executive of the California Apartment Association, who added that most landlords were not eager to evict residents when there was little guarantee of a replacement.

Still, landlords have bills to pay, too. When tenants cannot pay their rent, landlords with mortgages remain responsible to the banks, who answer to investors.

“I call it the responsibility chain,” Bannon said. “There is this link, and if there is a break in the link, the ripple effect is pretty significant.”

Among the first to face eviction have been those who were already struggling before the pandemic.

Stephen Jenkins, 64, was let go from his assembly job in January, making it difficult to pay his $900 monthly rent in Springfield, Ohio. By March, he said, his savings had run out, and he asked his landlord if he could pay late after his Social Security check came through.

His landlord, who declined to comment, filed for eviction.

In the weeks since, Jenkins said, his wife lost her hostess job at Bob Evans when restaurants shut down. They have not been able to move out as few realtors are showing homes because of the virus.

The stress is giving him health problems, and he is anxiously counting down the days until his eviction hearing, now scheduled for Wednesday.

“I haven’t slept through a night since March,” he said. “I wake up at three or four in the morning worried about what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

8

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

What we know about the death of George Floyd

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

G

eorge Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, died after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a police officer’s knee Monday, in an episode that was recorded on video and that sparked large protests in Minneapolis.

The explosive footage, recorded by a bystander and shared widely on social media early Tuesday, incited community outrage, an FBI civil rights investigation and the firing of the officer and three colleagues who were also at the scene.

Floyd’s relatives told CNN onTuesday night that the officers should be charged with murder.

“They treated him worse than they treat animals,” said Philonise Floyd, Floyd’s brother.

“They took a life — they deserve life.”

Floyd worked in a Minneapolis restaurant that was closed during the pandemic.

Floyd, a resident of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a Minneapolis suburb, was pronounced dead at 9:25 p.m. Monday at Hennepin County Medical Center, according to the medical examiner.

Jovanni Thunstrom, who employed Floyd as a bouncer at his restaurant, Conga Latin Bistro, said in an interview Tuesday that he couldn’t

George Floyd, who died Monday after being pinned to the ground by an officer who pressed a knee into his neck.

believe what he saw in the video.

“It’s hard to believe a police officer would do that,” said Thunstrom, who was also Floyd’s landlord. “He wasn’t a threat to justify excessive force used on him.”

Thunstrom said that Floyd had become a friend during the five years that he worked for him and the four years that he rented a duplex unit from him in St. Louis Park.

“No one had nothing bad to say about him,” he said. “They all are shocked he’s dead.

He never caused a fight or was rude to people.”

Thunstrom said that the last time he had heard from Floyd was when he paid his rent last week and told him that he was looking for a job.

The restaurant where Floyd worked has been closed to on-site dining since March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I hope something changes, because I lost a friend,” Thunstrom said.

The original police report said Floyd had resisted arrest.

The arrest of Floyd took place Monday evening. The Minneapolis Police Department said in a statement that officers had responded to a call about a man suspected of forgery. The police said the man was found sitting on top of a blue car and “appeared to be under the influence.”

“He was ordered to step from his car,” the department’s statement said. “After he got out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress.”

The statement said that officers had called for an ambulance.

Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis said Tuesday that he did not know how the initial police statement, describing a “medical incident,” had come to be written, but he said he wanted to be “absolutely as transparent as possible.”

“It’s the kind of thing where you don’t hide from the truth, you lean into it, because our city is going to be better off for it, no matter how ugly, awful it is,” he said. “If it points out the institutional racism that we are still working through right now, well, good — it means that we’ve got a lot of work to go.”

Four officers have been fired, and the FBI is investigating.

On Tuesday afternoon, Frey tweeted that four officers involved in the case had been terminated.

“This is the right call,” he said.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

9

House to vote on limiting FBI power to collect Americans’ internet data

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

H

ouse leaders have agreed to permit a vote on tightening limits on when the FBI may collect Americans’ internet browsing and search records during national security investigations, after negotiations over Memorial Day weekend between two California Democrats, Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Adam B. Schiff.

A vote on the proposal — an amendment to a peripatetic bill related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, that both the House and Senate have passed in different forms — is likely to come this week. If it passes, the bill would return to the Senate, extending its long-running consideration.

But by Tuesday night, there were multiple signs of political turbulence that raised new doubts about the bill’s future.

The text of the compromise amendment was not yet public, but congressional aides said that the proposal essentially limits to Americans the protections of a Senate proposal that would categorically ban the FBI from using a court order for business records to collect internet browsing and search records.

The House is preparing to vote this week on the overall bill, which centers on extending three partly expired tools the FBI uses to hunt for spies and terrorists.

It has also become a vehicle for broader changes to surveillance matters, with lawmakers who have long championed civil liberties teaming up with allies of President Donald Trump after an inspector general report uncovered myriad problems in FISA surveillance used in the Trump-Russia investigation. The result is a mix of overhauls and new restrictions — some related to the Russia case and some not.

Complicating matters, however, Trump abruptly urged Republicans late Tuesday on Twitter to vote against the FISA bill even though it contains changes in response to his complaints, including generally requiring the appointment of an outsider in the FISA court to argue against the government’s position if the surveillance would affect a political campaign.

“I hope all Republican House Members vote NO on FISA until such time as our Country is able to determine how and why the greatest political, criminal, and subversive scandal in USA history took place!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The president has a history of erratic intervention in FISA legislation politics. In January 2018, when Congress was about to extend a different part of that law that permits warrantless surveillance of noncitizens abroad, he abruptly urged lawmakers to vote it down after watching a segment on Fox News — only to walk back his remarks hours later. It passed.

The House passed a version of the current bill in March. But this month, when the Senate took up the bill, senators approved a different amendment to it while narrowly rejecting another one about internet records, sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Steve Daines, R-Mont.

A majority — 59 of the 100 senators — voted for the Wyden-Daines amendment, which would have banned the FBI from gathering internet records using a type of FISA court order that permits collection of business records deemed relevant to a case. But it fell one short needed under Senate rules to attach it

to the bill at that stage.

Because the Senate modified the bill, it returned to the House for another vote. Galvanized by the close vote, privacy advocates like Lofgren used the opportunity to push House leaders for permission for an up-or-down vote on the same idea.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi instructed Lofgren to negotiate with Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, to see whether they could arrive at compromise language that would narrow the Senate version. Over the holiday weekend, they agreed to limit the protection to Americans.

It was not clear, however, how far the new rule would go, were it to be enacted into law.

For one thing, the restriction would apply only to business records orders collected under a provision of law known as Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, which allows the FBI to collect such records deemed relevant to a terrorist investigation. (It is also one of the three provisions that have now partly lapsed, but would be revived and extended.)

But the government has sometimes used a different provision of FISA, the “pen register/trap and trace” section, to gather internet metadata. Orders to install a pen register device have the same low standard as orders requiring the production of business records.

Moreover, aides said the amendment would not explicitly lay out whether the proposed limit on using Section 215 business records orders would apply to situations where the FBI does not know ahead of time whose data will be collected — like when

it may want to gather the addresses of all visitors to a website or viewers of a video.

Lofgren declared that the language, should it become law, should be interpreted strictly as an “outright prohibition” on collecting Americans’ data — even if it was incidental.

For example, she said, the FBI could not use a Section 215 order to get “a list of everyone who has visited a particular website, watched a particular video or made a particular search query” unless it could somehow guarantee that no Americans would be caught in the net.

But in his own statement, Schiff put forward a narrower emphasis. Stressing the continued need to investigate foreign threats, he described the compromise as banning the use of such orders “to seek to obtain” an American’s internet information.

Wyden, who initially issued a statement on Tuesday endorsing the compromise House language and echoing Lofgren’s claims about what he believed it would mean, said later Tuesday that in light of Schiff’s suggestion of a narrower understanding, he would no longer support the measure and wanted his original version.

“It is now clear that there is no agreement with the House Intelligence Committee to enact true protections for Americans’ rights against dragnet collection of online activity, which is why I must oppose this amendment, along with the underlying bill, and urge the House to vote on the original Wyden-Daines amendment,” Wyden said.

House leaders have agreed to permit a vote on tightening limits on when the FBI may collect Americans’ internet browsing and search records during national security investigations.

10

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Trump wants troops in Afghanistan home by election day. The Pentagon is drawing up plans.

American troops applaud as President Donald Trump speaks at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, Afghanistan

By THOMAS GIBBONS-NEFF and JULIAN E. BARNES

S

enior military officials are set to brief President Donald Trump in the coming days on options for pulling all American troops out of Afghanistan, with one possible timeline for withdrawing forces before the presidential election, according to officials with knowledge of the plans.

The proposal for a complete withdrawal by November reflects an understanding among military commanders that such a timeline may be Trump’s preferred option because it may help bolster his campaign.

But they plan to propose, and to advocate, a slower withdrawal schedule, officials said.

The move is part of the Pentagon’s attempt to avoid another situation like the one in December 2018 and again in October 2019, when Trump surprised military officials by ordering the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. Diplomatic chaos and violence followed, and the president subsequently modified each announcement.

American troops remain in Syria, although in smaller numbers.

Senior military officials believe a quick withdrawal from Afghanistan would effectively doom the peace deal reached this year with the Taliban.

In recent months, Trump has repea-

tedly voiced a desire to leave Afghanistan sooner than the timeline laid out in the Feb. 29 peace agreement with the Taliban, which stipulated U.S. troops would leave in 12 to 14 months if the insurgent group met certain conditions.

The Pentagon is expected to try to persuade a commander in chief who has made clear his desire to end America’s involvement in what he has criticized as “endless wars” — and who has regularly surprised the military with his decisions.

The debate also highlights the mounting difficulty facing the February agreement.

Political strife, the novel coronavirus and bloody Taliban attacks have almost derailed what little progress has been made since the deal’s signing.

This article is based on conversations with five officials familiar with the debate over the troop withdrawal. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations were intended to be private.

The Pentagon is set to lay out multiple options in the meeting with Trump.

One would give Trump the option of pulling all forces from the country before Election Day. But the Pentagon has other options that would withdraw forces more slowly, with one plan sticking close to the current timeline that would keep American forces in the country until May 2021.

Senior officials believe the president may be able to be persuaded that protecting the peace agreement, which his administration sponsored and supports, will require a slower drawdown of forces, to give the Taliban an incentive to reduce attacks.

Defense Department officials are also arguing to the White House that they cannot yet guarantee that Afghanistan will not again become a haven for attacks against the United States. Arguably the only clear-cut condition of the February deal, outlined in one of the secret annexes, is that the Taliban must publicly renounce the Islamic State group and al-Qaida before the full troop withdrawal begins.

There are currently fewer than 12,000 troops in Afghanistan. The U.S.-led mission in the country is in the process of drawing down to 8,600 troops as part of the February agreement. This smaller American contingent will rely heavily on Special Operations forces and joint U.S.-Afghan cells, known as “regional targeting teams,” that are focused on counterterrorism missions across the country.

In a statement on Saturday, the Taliban declared a temporary cease-fire for the three days of the Islamic festival Eid al-Fitr, which started on Sunday and marks the end of Ramadan, the holy month of daytime fasting.

The Afghan government followed, declaring a cessation of fighting even though officials had recently declared that they were restarting offensive operations after waves of Taliban attacks had killed hundreds of security forces after the February agreement.

Sunday’s cease-fire is the second of the entire war. The first, widely praised on all sides and in the international community, was in 2018, also during Eid. “This development offers the opportunity to accelerate the peace process,” Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy for Afghan peace, said in a statement. “Other positive steps should immediately follow: the release of remaining prisoners as specified in the U.S.-Taliban agreement by both sides, no returning to high levels of violence, and an agreement on a new date for the start of intra-Afghan negotiations.”

The exchange of 6,000 prisoners was one of the first sticking points after the U.S.Taliban deal, as it all but forced the Kabul government to release Taliban prisoners even though it was not a signatory of the agreement.

Top American officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have pressured President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan to release the prisoners in the hopes that it would pave the way for the Afghan government to negotiate with the Taliban. Ghani has ordered their release in a series of groups, as has the Taliban, but after the announced cease-fire, Ghani pledged to release up to 2,000 more in an attempt to use the threeday cease-fire as a reset for a peace deal that was on the verge of falling apart.

On Tuesday, the Afghan government released 900 Taliban prisoners, the largest in one day since the slow process of prisoner release started and in what Afghan officials described a “goodwill” move in the hopes the cease-fire could be extended before direct negotiations.

During the closing days of the Obama administration, the Pentagon was also pressing the White House to slow its planned drawdown.

President Barack Obama had been intent on ending the long war in Afghanistan, but the military thought it precipitous. Commanders argued that removing troops would threaten what little progress had been made after years of prolonged fighting, but officials also acknowledged the pause would give the a new president time to reassess options. In October 2015, Obama halted his drawdown.

Trump and America’s NATO allies ultimately added forces after the Taliban had retaken broad parts of the country.

The current plan of keeping forces in Afghanistan until May 2021 would allow Trump, if he is reelected, to reevaluate his decision to remove troops based on the level of Taliban violence and how well the peace agreement is working. Some American officials also say the political pressure to remove the troops could be different in a second term.

And if Trump is defeated, a new president may want to reassess whether a continued American troop presence is necessary.

Lisa Maddox, a former CIA analyst, said that cutting short the deployment by only a few months might not seem like a lot, but the current situation in Afghanistan was fragile.

“It sends a message to our Afghan partners that we are running away,” she said.

“Extra time allows for better turnover, which is a complicated process given the U.S. government’s involvement in supporting the country’s security and governance.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Stocks mixed as politics outweigh recover hopes

By THE NYT

A pes.

sian stocks were mixed Wednesday as heightened rhetoric between China and the United States dimmed investor ho-

Tokyo and South Korean markets were mildly higher at midday, but Hong Kong shares ticked lower and mainland China stocks were flat, despite a big rally on Wall Street on Tuesday.

Other markets reflected the indecision.

Prices for U.S. Treasury bonds were mixed, while oil traded in a narrow range on futures markets.

The drop came after President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States could offer a strong response as soon as this week to China’s effort to strengthen its hold over Hong Kong, a semiautonomous former British colony that offers economic and civil liberties that the mainland lacks. The market uncertainty also came as police flooded Hong Kong streets in anticipation of public protests against Beijing’s plans to enact a national security law that will cover the city of about 7 million people.

The worries offset growing optimism about the coronavirus recovery, as officials in the United States, Europe and Japan have in recent days taken steps to reopen their economies. On Wall Street on Tuesday, the S&P 500 index ended 1.2% higher.

Wall Street shifts focus to reopening, and stocks rally.

Wall Street’s focus was on economic recovery Tuesday, and stocks rallied along with crude oil prices.

The S&P 500 rose more than 1%, with shares of companies most likely to benefit from the lifting of restrictions on travel and commerce faring well. Shares of Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and other big carriers rose, as did Marriott International.

Oil prices have been climbing all month as the restarting of factories and resumption of travel raised expectations that demand would rise. On Tuesday, West Texas intermediate crude rose another 3%, and shares of companies in the energy industry, like Chevron and Halliburton, were also higher.

It has been a turbulent period for stocks, with the S&P 500 alternating between gains to losses on a daily basis last week, as expectations for an eventual recovery from the coronavirus pandemic have squared off against the

reality that the damage is still severe and likely to continue for some time.

News of progress on vaccine development — even if small scale and early stage — has been one factor fueling the gains.

Tuesday was no exception, after the biotech company Novavax said Monday that it was starting trials of its vaccine on humans, with preliminary results expected in July. On Tuesday, the pharmaceutical giant Merck said it bought the rights to develop a potential drug that had “potent antiviral properties against multiple coronavirus strains,” and was also beginning work on vaccine candidates.

The reopening of businesses has been another. One largely symbolic opening Tuesday was that of the New York Stock Exchange’s trading floor. A small number of traders returned to the floor, wearing masks and following social-distancing rules, the exchange said.

Shares in Europe and Asia were also higher, as investors shrugged off negative news like rising tensions between the United States and China and the combustible political situation in Hong Kong. Instead, they focused on Japanese leaders gradually lifting emergency measures there, while European leaders have also moved to ease travel restrictions.

But any gains are susceptible to a sudden change in sentiment if the reopening plans result in new outbreaks or fresh concerns about the longevity of economic slowdown emerge.

11

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Stocks

Wall Street gains amid economic hopes; tech shares decline

T

he Dow and S&P 500 rose on Wednesday, powered by banks stocks, as optimism for an economic recovery as lockdowns continued to ease overshadowed worries of simmering U.S.China tensions.

Declines in technology shares limited the advance, with the Nasdaq underperforming the other major indexes.

The S&P 500 financial index .SPSY provided the biggest boost to the benchmark index, sending it past the psychologically key 3,000 level in intraday trading for a second day in a row. In contrast, heavyweights Amazon.com (AMZN.O), Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Facebook Inc (FB.O), which have led the recent rally, were down.

“It’s the tech stocks that are probably most sensitive to Chinese growth,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute in St. Louis.

“If the market is going to go higher from here, you’re going to have to have broader participation, but you are going to need those large-cap tech companies to be along for the ride, because they make up such a large portion of the benchmark,” Samana said.

The easing of lockdowns, optimism about an eventual COVID-19 vaccine and massive U.S. stimulus have powered the recent stock market rally, with the S&P 500 .SPX on Tuesday ending at its highest level since early March.

Even so, U.S. tensions with China have cast a cloud on markets. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Washington would announce its response to China’s planned national security legislation on Hong Kong before the end of the week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 317.75 points, or 1.27%, to 25,312.86, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 21.81 points, or 0.73%, to 3,013.58 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 6.73 points, or 0.07%, to 9,346.95.

Facebook Inc (FB.O) and Twitter Inc slipped as Trump threatened to shutter social media companies a day after Twitter attached a warning to some of his tweets, prompting readers to fact-check the president’s tweets.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.70-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.81-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted five new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 35 new highs and eight new lows.

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The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

13

Protesters in Hong Kong rally against China’s tightening grip

By AUSTIN RAMZY, TIFFANY MAY and AMY QIN

T

he protesters wanted to surround the city’s government offices, but a smothering police presence forced them to abandon that plan. They tried to block traffic in the financial district at lunchtime, but the police pelted the crowd with pepper balls. They gathered in malls to chant protest slogans but were later rounded up and herded on to police buses.

In all, Hong Kong police arrested more than 300 people Wednesday, including students in their teens and early 20s, most on suspicion of unauthorized assembly.

Anti-government protests have roiled this semiautonomous Chinese city for months, but the anger remains palpable. Protests swelled again after Beijing announced last week that it would impose national security laws that democracy advocates fear would target dissent. Grievances over the use of force by the police continue to burn. And a law that would criminalize disrespect of the national anthem has further stirred fear over threats to Hong Kong’s cherished freedoms of speech and expression.

“I think maybe this is the last chance we have to fight back,” said Sheldon Liu, a 20-year-old college student who joined protesters outside a mall in the Causeway Bay neighborhood. “Of course I hope these laws will not pass, but I feel it is impossible to stop.”

This year, the police appear more determined to quash the protests and more equipped to do so, calling into question the future of the anti-government movement that has relied heavily on marches and outdoor rallies to drum up support. Wednesday’s protests followed a march Sunday that drew thousands of people on to the streets in defiance of social-distancing orders in the city’s largest demonstration in months. Police officers fired tear gas, rubber bullets and a water cannon. Nearly 200 people were arrested.

On full display Wednesday was the police force’s more assertive approach. They erected temporary fencing and tall, water-filled barriers to vastly expand the security perimeter around Hong Kong’s government and legislative complex. Riot police officers were stationed throughout the area, checking identification documents and stopping and searching people they deemed potential protesters.

Protesters could not get anywhere close to the complex, in stark contrast to last year’s demonstrations in which activists were able to besiege the local legislature and eventually force the government to abandon an unpopular extradition bill.

Increasingly, the police appear to be no longer seeking simply to disperse protesters but to prevent them from gathering. If that fails, officers now also work to corral the protesters so they can arrest dozens at a time.

A pro-democracy union for hotel employees said police were searching guest rooms in several hotels near the legislative building for gear used in protests. Demonstrators stopped wearing all black to avoid being identified as pro-

Protesters and police scuffle in the Causeway Bay area of Hong Kong, on Wednesday. testers by the police, but that meant they found it difficult to locate one another on the streets. Police also arrested 10 teenagers for the possession of objects such as screwdrivers, gasoline bombs, respirators and a pair of scissors.

Officers also pre-empted the efforts of protesters to disrupt traffic around the morning rush hour by removing nails that had been scattered on roads and intercepting cars that were driving slowly in an attempt to cause traffic jams, police said.

The protest Wednesday was timed to coincide with when the city’s lawmakers were scheduled to debate legislation that would threaten a fine of up to about $6,500 and three years in prison for anyone found to be misusing or insulting the Chinese national anthem.

Rosa Ning, a 65-year-old retiree, made it as far as a footbridge several blocks away from the legislative complex before she was blocked by police cordons.

She said she had been saddened to see how pervasive the Chinese national anthem was becoming in the city, noting that in recent years it had begun to be played at the start of Cantonese opera performances that she enjoyed attending. Audience members were required to rise from their seats, she said.

“I stood up against my will, but in my heart, I was singing ‘Glory to Hong Kong,’” Ning said, referring to a popular protest song.

The anthem bill and the national security legislation

made her concerned for Hong Kong’s youth, she said.

“The future will be difficult if you just want to come out and express your views,” she said. “Whether you are sent to prison in Hong Kong or China, we wouldn’t know.”

At midday, groups gathered to sing and chant at a mall in the Causeway Bay neighborhood. Police officers stopped some as they took to the streets, but a few thousand more briefly marched down main roads on Hong Kong Island.

They were met by police, who sent them scattering down side streets.

In the commercial district of Mong Kok, protesters filled a major thoroughfare for another spontaneous march, but officers in riot gear stopped dozens of people, including schoolgirls in uniform. The police said they arrested more than 60 people there after protesters “rushed out to the roads” and placed garbage on lanes to obstruct traffic.

With protesters kept at bay, lawmakers began debating the national anthem bill Wednesday afternoon. For many, the bill strikes at the heart of their concerns about the shrinking space for dissent.

Some sports fans in Hong Kong in recent years have taken to turning their backs, booing and even raising their middle fingers when the Chinese anthem is played at sporting events. The law would criminalize such behavior.

Lawmakers are scheduled to vote on the anthem law next week. Because pro-government parties control the legislature, the bill is expected to pass.

14

Thursday, May 28, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Here’s how Wuhan tested 6.5 million for Coronavirus in days

Taking a swab sample for coronavirus testing in Wuhan, China, on May 14.

By SUI-LEE WEE and VIVIAN WANG

I

n Wuhan, medical workers armed with coronavirus test swabs scoured construction sites and markets to look for itinerant workers while others made house calls to reach older residents and people with disabilities. Officials aired announcements over loudspeakers urging people to sign up for their own good.

These are the front lines of an unprecedented campaign to screen virtually all 11 million people in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic began. Nearly two weeks in, the government is getting close to reaching its goal, with 6.5 million tested so far.

“Our community was checked in a day,” said Wang Yuan, a 32-year-old resident who lined up under red tents near her home and had her throat swabbed by medical workers wearing protective suits and face shields.

She expected to get her results within two to four days.

While other governments have struggled to provide testing for their populations on a broad scale, China has embarked on a citywide campaign to prevent a resurgence of infections at all costs. It has succeeded, according to residents and Chinese news reports, by mobilizing thousands of medical and other workers and spending hundreds of millions of dollars.

The government, which is covering the cost of testing, sees the drive as key to restoring the public confidence that is

needed to help restart the economy and return to some level of normalcy. But public health experts disagree on whether such a resource-intensive push is necessary when infections are low.

The drive — which has reached more than 90% of the city after taking into account people who had been recently tested and children — has largely confirmed that Wuhan has tamed the outbreak. By Tuesday, only around 200 cases were found, mostly people who showed no symptoms, although samples were still being processed.

The city has ramped up its testing capacity over the past two weeks, in sharp contrast with the early weeks of the outbreak when the government struggled to find enough testing kits. Lab technicians were able to speed up the process by pooling samples together to be tested in batches.

Laboratories went from processing around 46,000 tests a day, on average, before the drive, to as many as 1.47 million tests Friday. By comparison, the state of New York has tested 1.7 million people since March 4, according to The Atlantic’s COVID Tracking Project.

The Wuhan government is determined to leave no person behind. Officials, ordered to “check the leaks and fill the gaps,” also went from door to door to register residents and usher them to nearby testing stations. In at least one neighborhood, officials warned in public announcements that residents who refused to get tested would see their government-issued health codes downgraded, potentially limiting a

person’s right to work and travel.

“If you do not participate, you will not be allowed to enter supermarkets or banks,” the announcement said. “Your green code will turn yellow, which will cause inconvenience to your life.”

The government sought to reassure that the testing drive would not be a source of infections. Each resident was given a time slot to avoid crowding. Testing was conducted in open spaces. Residents had to have their temperatures screened, wear masks and keep a distance from one another. Medical workers were required to change or disinfect their gloves after each test.

But with confirmed, symptomatic infections remaining in the single digits in Wuhan, some experts said the scale of Wuhan’s campaign was excessive. Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, said it would be impossible to accurately test that many people in such a short period.

Under ordinary circumstances, nucleic acid tests for the coronavirus are difficult to administer in hospitals, even with well-trained nurses, Jin said. Trying to conduct so many of them, in quick succession, in makeshift testing tents, could produce many erroneous results.

There have also been questions about the reliability of China’s testing kits and reagents, with some countries complaining that the rush by Chinese manufacturers to meet surging global demand has led to faulty exports.

For a city of around 10 million, Jin said, a sample of about 100,000 people would have been more than sufficient.

He called Wuhan’s campaign to expand testing to every Wuhan resident “kind of scary” because it would overwhelm medical staff.

Even the chief epidemiologist of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Wu Zunyou, has suggested that there is no need to test everyone in the city.

Wuhan’s approach is not necessarily replicable everywhere.

Batch testing involves combining a number of swabs from different people into a plastic tube to be analyzed using one test. A negative result means all the samples can be cleared, but if the batch comes back positive, medical workers can return to each person in the group to test them individually.

But it works only in places where there is a low prevalence of infections, researchers say. If the rate of infection is too high in a community, most of the groups would have to be retested, defeating the purpose of group testing.

The approach has been adopted elsewhere in places like Nebraska and the San Francisco Bay Area, although not at the same scale attempted in Wuhan. A district in Beijing announced this month that it would test teachers and students in batches of three in preparation for schools to reopen.

Proponents of the testing push say it would give health officials a more comprehensive view of the situation in Wuhan, including of people who are asymptomatic. The campaign was initiated after authorities discovered six infections following a month of no new confirmed cases.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

15

‘Overtaken by aliens’: India faces another plague as Locusts swarm

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and SUHASINI RAI

M

agan Doodi, a groundskeeper at a golf course in Jaipur, was making his rounds earlier this week when he saw the sky suddenly turn a weird pink.

It wasn’t some quirk of the weather. It was locusts — millions of them, “like a spreading bedsheet,” he said.

“The locusts have attacked the golf course!” Doodi yelled into his cellphone during the battle Monday morning.

“It’s man versus locusts!”

As if India needed more challenges, with coronavirus infections steadily increasing, a heat wave hitting the capital, and 100 million people out of work, the country now has to fight off a new problem: a locust invasion.

Scientists say it’s the worst attack in 25 years and these locusts are different.

“This time the attack is by very young locusts who fly for longer distances, at faster speeds, unlike adults in the past who were sluggish and not so fast,” said K.L. Gurjar, the deputy director of India’s Locust Warning Organization.

The locusts poured in from the east, from Iran and Pakistan, blanketing half a dozen states in western and central India. Because most of the crops were recently harvested, the hungry swarms have buzzed into urban areas, eager to devour bushes and trees, carpeting whatever surface they land on.

On Monday, Jaipur, a sprawling city of 4 million and the biggest in the state of Rajasthan, was besieged. A blizzard of bugs flew over concrete buildings and the wealthier neighborhoods, swooping in on trees and plants, crossing graveyards and jewelry markets, attracted to the manicured golf course in the heart of the city.

After he saw what was happening, Doodi, the groundskeeper, yelled out to the caddies and other key personnel, urging them to make whatever loud noise they could to drive the bugs away. Some grabbed firecrackers. Others steel plates to bang on. Another person ran up to the roof of a maintenance building and started thumping on empty plastic containers, like drums.

Residents clamored to protect themselves and their flora, spilling onto the streets banging plates with spoons and jumping into parked cars to honk horns.

“I got out of my room and came out on my terrace at around 10 a.m. and saw a long shadow on the ground,”

Fending off swarms of locusts in Jaipur, India, on Monday. recalled Nikhil Misra, a lawyer in Jaipur. “I just stood still.

It was something I had never seen in my lifetime.”

“I looked up and saw a cloud, not the cloud that gives you rainfall, but a cloud of locusts, thousands and thousands of them hovering over my head,” he said. “It was a silent attack. It was a strange kind of fear, as if being overtaken by aliens.”

Scientists say that this outbreak, though separate from recent outbreaks in East Africa, is driven by the same factors: unusually warm weather and more rain. They blame climate change.

“All this started in late 2019, when there were warm waters in the western Indian oceans,” said Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune. “These waters triggered lot of rains over the East African regions and the Arabian Peninsula.

This seems to have triggered an ideal condition for breeding of locusts.”

The movement of the swarms depends on the winds, which are blowing west to east and a little south right now.

That could put the swarms in India’s bushy center very soon.

Already, they have overrun one of India’s renowned tiger reserves, Panna National Park, covering the trees in straight lines of countless insects, like a twitching bark.

The Indian government wants to tackle this regionally and has offered to set aside some of its differences with Pakistan to provide the neighboring country with pesticide to spray on its side of the border. India has made the same offer to Iran, which responded positively, Indian officials said.

Indian scientists said that in a single day, a modest locust swarm can travel 200 kilometers, or 125 miles, and eat as much food as about 35,000 people.

16

Thursday, May 28, 2020

How the Taliban outlasted a superpower: Tenacity and carnage

BY MUJIB MASHAL

U

nder the shade of a mulberry tree, near grave sites dotted with Taliban flags, a top insurgent military leader in eastern Afghanistan acknowledged that the group had suffered devastating losses from U.S. strikes and government operations over the past decade.

But those losses have changed little on the ground: The Taliban keep replacing their dead and wounded and delivering brutal violence.

“We see this fight as worship,” said Mawlawi Mohammed Qais, the head of the Taliban’s military commission in Laghman province, as dozens of his fighters waited nearby on a hillside. “So if a brother is killed, the second brother won’t disappoint God’s wish — he’ll step into the brother’s shoes.”

It was March, and the Taliban had just signed a peace deal with the United States that now puts the movement on the brink of realizing its most fervent desire — the complete exit of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

The Taliban have outlasted a superpower through nearly 19 years of grinding war.

And dozens of interviews with Taliban officials and fighters in three countries, as well as with Afghan and Western officials, illuminated the melding of old and new approaches and generations that helped them do it.

After 2001, the Taliban reorganized as a decentralized network of fighters and low-level commanders empowered to recruit and find

resources locally while the senior leadership remained sheltered in neighboring Pakistan.

The insurgency came to embrace a system of terrorism planning and attacks that kept the Afghan government under withering pressure, and to expand an illicit funding engine built on crime and drugs despite its roots in austere Islamic ideology.

At the same time, the Taliban have officially changed little of their harsh founding ideology as they prepare to start direct talks about power-sharing with the Afghan government.

“We prefer the agreement to be fully implemented so we can have an all-encompassing peace,” Amir Khan Mutaqi, the chief of staff to the Taliban’s supreme leader, said in a rare interview in Doha, Qatar, with The New York Times. “But we also can’t just sit here when the prisons are filled with our people, when the system of government is the same Western system, and the Taliban should just go sit at home.”

“No logic accepts that — that everything stays the same after all this sacrifice,” he said, adding, “The current government stands on foreign money, foreign weapons, on foreign funding.”

A grim history looms. The last time an occupying power left Afghanistan — when the U.S.-backed mujahedeen insurgency helped push the Soviets to withdraw in 1989 — guerrillas toppled the remaining government and then fought each other over its remains, with the Taliban coming out on top.

Taliban fighters patrol a village bazaar in the Alingar District of Laghman Province in Afghanistan

Now, even as U.S. forces and the insurgents have stopped attacking each other, the Taliban intensified their assaults against the Afghan forces before a rare three-day truce this week for the Eid holiday. Their tactics appear aimed at striking fear.

Taliban field commanders made clear that they were holding fire only on U.S. troops to give them safe passage — “so they dust off their buttocks and depart,” as one senior Taliban commander in the south said. But there was no reserve about continuing to attack the Afghan Security Forces.

“Our fight started before America — against corruption. The corrupt begged America to come because they couldn’t fight,” a young commander of the Taliban elite “Red Unit” in Alingar said. He was a toddler when the U.S. invasion began, and met up with a Times reporting team in the area where government control gives way to the Taliban.

“Until an Islamic system is established,” said the commander, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “our jihad will continue until doomsday.”

The Taliban now have somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 active fighters and tens of thousands of part-time armed men and facilitators, according to Afghan and U.S. estimates.

It is not, however, a monolithic organization. The insurgency’s leadership built a war machine out of disparate and far-flung parts, and pushed each cell to try to be locally selfsufficient. In areas they control, or at least influence, the Taliban also try to administer some services and resolve disputes, continuously positioning themselves as a shadow government.

Even at the peak of the long U.S. military presence and the coordinating effort to help the Afghan government win hearts and minds in the countryside, the Taliban were able to keep recruiting enough young men to keep fighting. Families keep answering the Taliban’s call, and booming profits help hold it all together.

In the second decade of the insurgency, the Taliban have been defined by the ruthlessness of their violence — and by their ability to strike at will even in the most guarded parts of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

They have packed sewage trucks, vans and even an ambulance with explosives, striking at the heart of the city with hundreds of casualties. They have penetrated the ranks of Afghan forces with infiltrators who have opened fire at Afghan commanders, and once even at

the top American general in Afghanistan.

When the United States began negotiating in 2018 with a delegation of the Taliban in Doha, across the table were architects of the insurgency — and the survivors of it. Nearly half of the Taliban negotiating delegation had spent a decade each in Guantánamo.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the lead Taliban negotiator, had just been released after 10 years in Pakistani prison, detained because he had made contacts for peace talks with the Afghan government without the blessing of the Pakistani military establishment that had nurtured the insurgency.

One main concern among American and Afghan officials was whether the Taliban’s political wing had true influence among the insurgency’s military commanders.

Taliban officials say what sets them apart from the factions that fought against the Soviet Union and then broke into anarchy over power is that their allegiance was divided to more than a dozen leaders. The Taliban began their insurgency under the authority of a single emir, Mullah Mohammad Omar. But the insurgency reached its greatest heights more recently, with a leadership structure that depends on consensus and then strikes with a heavy fist against any who disobey from within.

Even as new commanders emerged in recent years, much of the leadership council is made up of the older crew that established the insurgency in the years after the U.S. invasion. The old political leaders acknowledge the balancing act they face is like no challenge the insurgency has faced before. They have made sure to tightly control the rationale for their violence — it is a holy war for as long as their supreme leader and clerics decree it to be.

Timor Sharan, an Afghan researcher and former senior government official, said that unity has been easier to maintain with a common enemy, the U.S. military, to fight. But if the Taliban eventually win their dream of an Afghanistan without the Americans, he said, they will face many of the challenges that once dragged the country into anarchy.

“The relationship between the political leaders and the military commanders who have monopoly over resources and violence will be tested,” he said. “The 1990s civil war in Kabul happened not because the political leaders couldn’t agree among each other — it happened because the commanders who had monopoly of violence at the bottom wanted to expand on their resources. The political leaders were hopeless in controlling them.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

17

Mike Pompeo is the worst secretary of State ever

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

I

f you thought the volume on the Trump-Twitter-Fox noise distraction machine was turned up extra loud in the past few weeks, it was not only to deflect attention from the nearly 100,000 Americans who’ve died from COVID-19, but also from the confirmation that on President Donald Trump’s watch our country suffered the first deadly terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11 that was planned abroad.

You read that right. Last week, Attorney General William Barr and the FBI said that data from cellphones of a Saudi air force trainee who killed three U.S. sailors and wounded eight others at a Navy air base in Pensacola, Florida, on Dec. 6 confirmed that it was an act Mike Pompeo has plenty he should be answering for. of foreign-planned “terrorism.”

The phone data “definitively establishes” that the trainee, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, had “significant Clinton, secretary of state at the time, was culpable in ties to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula — not only the deaths.” A few hours later, the Obama White House before the attack, but before he even arrived in the “noted tersely that this was the eighth congressional United States” in August 2017. He had actually joined committee to investigate the attacks and went on longer the Saudi military to carry out a “special operation.” than the 9/11 Commission and the committees designated That Alshamrani was able to kill three sailors at to look at Pearl Harbor, the assassination of President an American base was a massive failure of U.S. and John F Kennedy, the Iran-Contra affair and Watergate.”

Saudi intelligence. I mean, who should be getting more So, let’s do some math here: Then-Congressman scrutinized before they come train in the U.S. on an air Pompeo led the utterly contrived campaign to blame base than Saudi pilots?

Hillary for the Benghazi deaths — a charge that a The Trump administration clearly had no idea what Republican-led committee found to be without merit. was happening under its nose.

But Pompeo used his crusade to gain the attention, via As The Washington Post noted: After the attack, Fox News, of Trump and was named Trump’s CIA diinvestigators found evidence that 17 fellow Saudi students rector. And now we learn that while Pompeo was CIA “had shared Islamist militant or anti-American material director, the first foreign-planned terrorist attack on U.S. on social media, and others had possessed or shared soil since 9/11 was being organized here and abroad, child pornography. As a result, 21 cadets from Saudi and while he was secretary of state it was carried out.

Arabia were disenrolled from the training program and Now that’s something worth investigating. sent home.”

I don’t know much about Pompeo’s time as head of That sort of intelligence failure — the first foreign- the CIA, except that he was notorious for spending long planned terrorist attack on U.S. shores since 9/11 — is hours at the White House sucking up to Trump. But I do something you’d expect Secretary of State Mike Pom- know he has been the worst secretary of state in Ameripeo to be particularly upset about. After all, it was can history, without a single diplomatic achievement.

Pompeo, when he was in Congress, who spearheaded I know you thought that Rex Tillerson had retired the investigations into then-Secretary of State Hillary that title. Tillerson was ineffective, but Tillerson had Clinton’s supposed responsibility for the death of four integrity and ethics. Pompeo has none. U.S. taxpayers U.S. diplomats in a terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate deserve a refund from him for his education at West Point. in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.

Pompeo’s two most notable accomplishments as Oh, you forgot about Congressman Pompeo’s end- secretary of state are, metaphorically speaking, shooting less campaign to nail Hillary with Benghazi? Well, let me two of his senior State Department officials in the back. jog your memory. Here is how The Guardian described One was the distinguished U.S. ambassador to the conclusion of the 800-page House select committee Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, whom Pompeo removed investigation on Benghazi, led by a Republican repre- on the orders of Trump and Trump’s nut-job lawyer sentative, Trey Gowdy, and issued on July 28, 2016: Rudy Giuliani. The other was the department’s inspector It “found no new evidence to conclude that Hillary general, Steve Linick, whom Pompeo got Trump to fire,

reportedly because he was investigating — wait for it now — Pompeo’s own efforts to evade a congressional ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and for improperly asking a State Department employee to run errands for him and his wife.

Hell, if that were me — if the first foreign-planned terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11 developed on my watch and if I had just gotten rid of the State Department inspector general without explanation — I’d also be trying to distract attention.

I mean, if it were me, I might even claim that China concocted the coronavirus in a lab in Wuhan. Wait — that’s what Pompeo did!

“There is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan,” Pompeo told ABC News’ “This Week” on May 3. “The best experts so far seem to think it was man-made. I have no reason to disbelieve that at this point.”

Pompeo has a well-earned reputation for pushing conspiracy theories. I certainly think it is possible that a coronavirus from bats being studied in the Wuhan lab might have escaped by accident. But the “best” expert virologists — and U.S. intelligence agencies — say there’s no proof it was man-made, which would leave DNA tracks.

When Martha Raddatz, the ABC interviewer, told Pompeo that U.S. intelligence has said no such thing, he just reversed course and said: “I’ve seen what the intelligence community has said. I have no reason to believe that they’ve got it wrong.”

What? The secretary of state first accuses China of manufacturing a virus that has killed more than 340,000 people worldwide and then, when reminded that our intelligence agencies have concluded no such thing, he backs off with no explanation. Can you be any more unprofessional?

But that’s not the only slimeball story that Pompeo wants to distract attention from. On May 19, NBC News revealed that since 2018 he and his wife, Susan, had held some two dozen “elaborate, unpublicized” dinners “in the historic Diplomatic Reception Rooms on the government’s dime. State Department officials involved in the dinners said they had raised concerns internally that the events were essentially using federal resources to cultivate a donor and supporter base for Pompeo’s political ambitions.”

With a president, a Senate majority and Fox News always at the ready to defend him, Pompeo couldn’t care less about any of these stories. He just smirks and marches on. But every American should care. The morale and effectiveness of our State Department — and our standing in the world — are both the worse for him.

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Thursday, May 28, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL

Republicans tried to suppress the vote in Florida. And failed.

By THE NYT EDITORIAL BOARD

W

ho gets to cast a ballot in Florida, the nation’s largest swing state, could well determine who will be the next leader of the country, and in the middle of the biggest global crisis in generations.

With stakes this high, literally every vote matters.

That’s why a ruling on Sunday by a federal judge in Tallahassee is so important.

The opinion, by Judge Robert L. Hinkle of U.S. District Court, is 125 pages long, but nearly everything you need to know is summed up in its opening sentence: “The State of Florida has adopted a system under which nearly a million otherwise-eligible citizens will be allowed to vote only if they pay an amount of money.”

That system violates at least two provisions of the Constitution, Hinkle ruled: the Equal Protection Clause and the 24th Amendment, which bans poll taxes.

The court’s decision, following an eight-day trial by videoconference, resolved a challenge to a law Florida’s Republican-led legislature passed last year. The law, known as S.B. 7066 and approved along strict party lines, requires Floridians with a criminal record to pay off all fines, fees

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A sign outside a polling place in Florida. and restitution owed in connection with their sentence before being eligible to vote.

The law was a response to what had happened in the 2018 midterms, when Floridians overwhelmingly voted to amend the Florida Constitution to eliminate a lifetime ban on voting by people with a criminal conviction who had completed their sentences. Under the ban, roughly 1.4 million Floridians, disproportionately poorer people and people of color, were denied a voice in the electoral process. The amendment automatically restored voting rights to all but those convicted of murder and felony sex offenses.

It was one of the biggest one-time enfranchisements in American history and part of a decadeslong trend in dozens of states to make it easier for people with criminal records to get their voting rights back. It was also a bipartisan success, passing with more than 64% of the vote in a year when Republican candidates won both the governorship and a contested Senate seat.

Why wasn’t that good enough for Republican lawmakers? Because, to put it bluntly, they are terrified of losing power, and they believe that as the number of people voting goes up, their odds of winning go down.

But they didn’t want to say that directly, so instead they passed S.B. 7066, on the grounds that the amendment restored voting rights upon the completion of “all terms of sentence, including parole and probation.” Floridians understood when they voted for this, Republicans said, that “all terms” included financial obligations.

Hinkle wasn’t buying it. “The voters’ primary motivation plainly was to restore the vote to deserving felons at the appropriate time — to show a measure of forgiveness and to welcome even felons back into the electorate.”

And as Republican lawmakers knew when they passed their legislation, a vast majority of people convicted of crimes are poor and will never be able to pay off their

dues to the state. Between 2013 and 2018, Florida courts assessed more than $1 billion in fines and fees, labeling more than 80% of that amount unlikely ever to be paid.

Take Raquel Wright, a plaintiff in the case, who owes roughly $54,000 in fines and fees; her part-time work pays her $450 per month. But even less extreme examples show the absurdity of the state’s demand. According to an expert witness for the plaintiffs, a majority of Floridians with convictions owe at least $500. That may not seem like much, until you remember that 40% of Americans cannot afford a $400 emergency expense — and that was before the coronavirus pandemic wiped out tens of millions of jobs in a matter of weeks.

As Hinkle wrote, “One cannot get blood from a turnip or money from a person unable to pay.”

Just trying to calculate what a person owes is often hard or impossible, the judge said, because the state keeps no centralized records, and those records that do exist are often unclear or contradictory. By Florida’s own estimates, it will take nearly six years to determine who owes what.

None of this accounts for all the additional expenses associated with paying court debts. Want a copy of your original judgment of conviction? It will cost you. Maybe you’d prefer to pay your fees directly? Watch out for the 4% surcharge. How about setting up a payment plan? That’ll be $25 — better, at least, than being sent to a collection agency, which will skim 40% of your payment off the top.

Florida has, in short, “shown a staggering inability to administer the pay-to-vote system,” Hinkle wrote. He noted that he gave lawmakers ample warning and opportunity to fix the problems in a preliminary ruling last fall, and yet they have done essentially nothing.

Sunday’s ruling is a monumental victory for voting rights. Still, it can’t fix the damage Republicans have already inflicted, by intentionally confusing hundreds of thousands of Floridians about their rights and frightening them away from the ballot box. As Hinkle rightly recognized, the incentive to stay home is especially strong for those people “who have served their time, gone straight and wish to avoid entanglement with the criminal-justice system.”

These potential voters are understandably skeptical of a government that has shown over and again how little it respects their constitutional rights or cares for their participation. The dilemma is that there is only one antidote to this systemic suppression: Vote. It won’t be easy, especially in the face of pandemic-related restrictions, but Floridians who believe in a fair and open democracy must spread the word, help their fellow citizens register and ensure as many of them as possible get to the polls, both in November and in the years to come.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

19

GNPR continúa pruebas de COVID-19 en hogares de la tercera edad Por THE STAR a Guardia Nacional de Puerto Rico (GNPR) en apoLpruebas yo al gobierno, continúa visitando y realizando las del COVID-19 en los hogares para las perso-

nas de edad avanzada en la Isla.

“Llegar a todos los hogares y centros para personas en la tercera edad es una de nuestras prioridades más importantes”, dijo el Ayudante General de Puerto Rico, General de División, José J. Reyes.

“Ante la lucha monumental que enfrentamos en esta pandemia de coronavirus, la actividad sísmica que continúa en el área sur de la Isla y la llegada de la época de huracanes, el proteger a nuestros envejecientes y las personas a su cargo nunca ha sido tan importante como lo es ahora. La Guardia Nacional de Puerto Rico está siempre presente para servirles”.

Equipos de la GNPR continúan coordinado visitas para alcanzar a los más de 1,000 hogares y centros alrededor de la Isla. Personal militar, en colaboración con los Centros 330, sigue administrando tanto la prueba rápida como la prueba mole-

cular COVID-19 a los residentes y empleados.

Al martes, la GNPR ha visitado 40 de los hogares y realizado 4,242 pruebas de COVID-19 (2,271 pruebas rápidas y 1,971 pruebas moleculares) esto para evitar la entrada y propagación del virus en esta comunidad.

En los próximos días, los equipos de la GNPR estará wn visitando 27 hogares de envejecientes en los municipios de Arecibo, Bayamón, Caguas, Guayanilla, Juana Dِíaz, Manatí, Mayagüez, Naranjito, Orocovis, Patillas, San Juan, Trujillo Alto y Yauco, donde se espera alcanzar unos 460 empleados y más de 1,560 residentes.

“Queremos impactar la mayor población posible de residentes de estos hogares”, dijo el General de Brigada Miguel Méndez, Comandante de la Fuerza de Tarea Conjunta a cargo de coordinar la respuesta militar. “Es importante recalcar que los hogares interesados en coordinar una visita con la Guardia Nacional de Puerto Rico para realizar las pruebas del COVID-19, que se comuniquen con nuestro centro de llamadas en el Negociado de Manejo de Emergencias y Desastres llamando al 787-523-0802”.

Presidente del PPD cataloga aprobación del Código Electoral como abuso de poder y asalto a la democracia Por THE STAR l presidente del Partido Popular DeEtenció mocrático, Aníbal José Torres, senel miércoles que mediante el re-

chazo a las enmiendas sometidas por el PPD al Código Electoral, los senadores de la mayoría del PNP demostraron que su único fin es perpetuar el control de su partido en la Comisión Estatal de Elecciones (CEE).

“Todas las enmiendas propuestas por el PPD tenían como fin proteger principios y derechos de los electores y de las instituciones que forman parte del andamiaje electoral puertorriqueño. Las mismas fueron adelantadas al presidente del Senado, Thomas Rivera Schatz, y ninguna fue considerada. Una vez más, el Senado aprueba un Código que carece del aval de las minorías. Esto es un atropello y un golpe al sistema electoral que por décadas ha propiciado la confianza entre los votantes”, denunció Torres en comunicación escrita.

“Otra vez queda en manos de la Gobernadora decidir si firma un proyecto que pretende cambiar las reglas que dirigen nuestros procesos electorales a menos de seis meses de una elección general y en medio de las primarias de los partidos políticos”, añadió.

Explicó que entre las enmiendas

propuestas por el PPD se encontraba que al momento de presentar una solicitud de Voto Ausente, la misma vendría acompañada de una copia de la Tarjeta Electoral del Elector y de evidencia documental que confirme que estará física-

mente fuera de Puerto Rico para la fecha en la cual se efectuará la votación para la cual presenta la solicitud.

También, propuso que los Comisionados Electorales tengan legitimación activa a nivel judicial para intervenir en

cualquier asunto de naturaleza gerencial o administrativa en la Comisión.

Para Torres, estas enmiendas eran viables y con ellas se garantizaba que el voto ausente se otorgara a aquellas personas que en efecto pudieran evidenciar, conforme a las leyes y reglamentos aplicables, que la persona estaría fuera del país el día de las elecciones. Además, se garantizaba que los Comisionados Electorales pudieran intervenir en cualquier asunto gerencial o administrativo de la CEE y que se les reconociera este derecho legítimo ante un tribunal.

“Presentamos una enmienda para disponer que los electores que tuvieran confirmado un registro electoral en cualquiera de los Estados de Estados Unidos fueran excluidos del Registro Electoral para evitar la doble inscripción. La CEE recibe esta información y este proceso de exclusión se practica en los 50 Estados y en los territorios. Sin embargo, la enmienda tampoco fue considerada”, explicó Torres.

“El Partido Popular Democrático vuelve a emplazar a la Gobernadora para que mantenga su palabra de que no aprobaría un proyecto que carezca de consenso. Hoy, le reitero que el PPD se opone al proyecto aprobado y que el mismo representa un golpe nefasto a la convivencia democrática”, concluyó.

20

Thursday, May 28, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

Union insists actors shouldn’t work till epidemic ‘under control’

By MICHAEL PAULSON

T

heater in America should not resume until there is fast, reliable testing for the novel coronavirus and widespread contact tracing, the labor union representing actors and stage managers said Tuesday.

The union, Actors’ Equity Association, has barred its 51,000 members from in-person auditions, rehearsals and performances since April 24, and made clear at a news conference Tuesday that it is not ready — or even close to ready — to lift that restriction.

Asked about the handful of professional theaters that have announced intentions to try to hold performances this summer, including Barrington Stage Company in western Massachusetts and the Muny in St. Louis, the union’s executive director, Mary McColl, said, “we’re not at a point where we have approved any plan yet.” What that means, she added, is “that members should not go to work.”

The union has hired an epidemiologist, David Michaels, who led the Occupational Safety and Health Administration under President Barack Obama, to help it develop a list of conditions under which its members will return to work. McColl acknowledged that “all of our members are unemployed,” but said theater needs to be safe before they can return.

The specific protocols are still being discussed, but on Tuesday the union outlined four “principles” that must be satisfied: that “the epidemic must be under control, with effective testing, few new cases in the area, and contact tracing.”

The union said it would also insist that theater not

Kate Shindle, president of Actors’ Equity Association, addressing the media at a virtual news conference that included the union’s medical adviser, Dr. David Michaels, in New York. resume until “individuals who may be infectious can be readily identified and isolated.” Changes might be necessary to performance venues and working conditions, with union members and theater producers collaborating on efforts to control the spread of disease.

McColl and the union’s president, Kate Shindle, said they were not ready to approve work by Equity members in any corner of the nation, in part because they do not believe that testing is yet reliable.

“We can’t have a handful of people going to work in one place if we don’t have developed, thoroughly vetted safety protocols that can be rolled out across the country,” Shindle said. “An individual member can be presented

with a plan that may say there’s going to be more hand sanitizer, there will be no communal coffee pot, there will be no communal water cooler, and everybody has their own hanger on the coat rack, just to try and cut down on things.

“I feel like our members are going to be asked to evaluate on the spot whether that makes it safe,” she added.

“The reality is, that’s not our field of expertise.”

The union leaders also expressed concern that much of the industry seems focused on audiences, but that there is less discussion about safety for performers, who often work in very close conditions both backstage and onstage.

“Almost all of the conversation that I have seen about theater is focused on when audiences will feel comfortable coming back,” Shindle said. “The needle that we have to thread is being able to tell stories onstage while keeping people safe.”

She added, “I’m sure, at some point, there’s going to be some fantastic director who wins a bunch of awards for staging an Arthur Miller play as a comment on living in the post-COVID age, and the actors will wear masks and gloves and everybody will sit there looking at this piece of theater in a whole new way because they’ve done this creative staging. But we also want people to be safe when they’re not wearing masks and gloves.”

It’s not clear how much Equity’s concerns will slow down the resumption of theater in America, because that timetable is already quite slow: Many states are not yet allowing live theater, and across the country professional theaters, including the commercial producers on Broadway, now believe they are not likely to resume until early next year.

Jimmy Fallon apologizes for blackface skit

By SANDRA E. GARCIA

J

Jimmy Fallon at the 72nd Annual Writers Guild Awards at the Edison Ballroom in New York,

immy Fallon, the host of “The Tonight Show,” apologized on Tuesday for wearing blackface while impersonating fellow comedian Chris Rock on “Saturday Night Live” two decades ago.

“In 2000, while on SNL, I made a terrible decision to do an impersonation of Chris Rock while in blackface,” Fallon said on Twitter. “There is no excuse for this. I am very sorry for making this unquestionably offensive decision and thank all of you for holding me accountable.”

In a video of the sketch that recently resurfaced on social media, Fallon appears opposite Darrell Hammond, who was impersonating television host Regis Philbin.

Fallon wears a black turtleneck, a black leather jacket and a wig. His face is covered in dark makeup. He appears in the sketch for less than a minute.

“I’ve seen ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,’ and

guess what? Not a lot of black folks on the show,” Fallon says in the skit, setting up his punchline.

“Know why? Because black folks don’t like to answer questions,” he continues. “Oh, they want to be millionaires, but you got to ask their kind of question, like, ‘In 1981, how many grams of crack did Rick James smoke when he recorded “Super Freak”?’”

Fallon declined to comment further on the sketch.

Rock did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Fallon is not the only late-night talk show host with a blackface performance in his past.

A video of Jimmy Kimmel, the host of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” wearing blackface while impersonating NBA player Karl Malone on “The Man Show” resurfaced last year. The skit was part of a segment where Kimmel repeatedly wore blackface to impersonate Malone. Kimmel has not recently addressed the video.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

21

Act surprised! Obie Awards go virtual, giving winners heads-up

By MICHAEL PAULSON

T

he Obie Awards, the freewheeling ceremony honoring theater performed off- and off-off-Broadway, has come up with its pandemic plan.

The ceremony — filmed and edited in advance — will be hosted by the alt-cabaret comedian Cole Escola and streamed on YouTube at 8 p.m. ET on June 4.

That means the winners will be notified ahead of time so that their acceptance speeches can be recorded. They will be asked not to share the news with others.

The Obies, founded by The Village Voice and now overseen and produced by the American Theater Wing, are among the most highly regarded of a variety of New York theater awards, most of which have been doled out online this season.

The Tony Awards, which honor work done only on Broadway, have not yet decided what to do in the wake of canceling its June 7 broadcast; the two active options are to hold a ceremony this fall or winter honoring the best shows that opened between May 2019 and January 2020 (there is an emerging consensus that not enough Tony voters managed to see “West Side Story” or “Girl From the North Country,” both of which opened shortly before the

shutdown, for those musicals to compete in this scenario), or just wait until next year and let all the shows that opened since spring 2019 compete.

The Obies have an unusual structure, if you can call it that — there are no set categories, and each season the judges simply decide what shows, organizations

and individuals they wish to honor. This year the judging panel is headed by set designer Rachel Hauck (“Hadestown”) and choreographer Sam Pinkleton (“Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812”); the judges considered about 160 shows that opened between May 1, 2019, and March 12, 2020.

Members of the Movement Theater Company, accepting their Obie Grants at the awards last May. This year’s event will be hosted by Cole Escola and streamed on YouTube.

“A lot of the things that were canceled or postponed will not come back, and it’s important to honor that work,” said Heather Hitchens, the president of the American Theater Wing. “We also want to send a message that live theater will come back — a message of hope to people who are stuck at home and trying to figure out what their lives are.”

The Obies ceremony, which is expected to last about two hours, will feature at least five musical performances — opening and closing numbers led by Escola, whose television credits include “Difficult People”; a tribute to “Merrily We Roll Along” featuring alumni of the show; an in memoriam segment accompanied by singer-songwriter Shaina Taub; and a musical excerpt from one of the winning shows.

The Obies have already announced three honorees: lifetime achievement awards will be given to Tim Sanford, the outgoing artistic director of Playwrights Horizons, and to actress Vinie Burrows; and a citation will be given to Michael Feingold, the longtime Village Voice theater critic who has supported the Obies for 43 years.

The Obies were originally scheduled to take place in-person on May 18. The online event will be preceded by a ticketed virtual fundraiser featuring Patti LuPone.

Rowling begins publishing ‘The Ickabog,’ for children in lockdown

By CONCEPCIÓN DE LEÓN

R

eaders who long imagined themselves in Harry Potter’s world have a chance to immerse themselves in another fictional universe created by J.K. Rowling. The author said Tuesday that she would release “The Ickabog,” a new story for young readers, for free online.

“The Ickabog” will be published in 34 installments starting Tuesday, with one installment released every weekday until July 10. It will be targeted to readers ages 7 to 9 and published as a book in November.

In an announcement on her website, Rowling said she had started working on the book more than a decade ago, while she was still writing Harry Potter, and originally intended to publish it after she finished the last book in the beloved series. But she ended up keeping “The Ickabog,” which isn’t related to

Harry Potter or any of Rowling’s other work, in her family, reading it to her young children and then putting it away in her attic until recently.

She decided to release “The Ickabog” now, she wrote on Twitter, “so children on lockdown, or even those back at school during these strange, unsettling times, can read it or have it read to them.” Rowling said she would donate her royalties for the book to causes related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Readers will have a chance to participate in the process. Rowling’s publishers around the world will hold an illustration competition, encouraging children to submit drawings using the hashtag #TheIckabog to accompany the story. The best submissions will end up in the book’s final edition when it is published in the fall.

Her children, now teenagers, are “touchingly ecstatic” about the publication of their

childhood bedtime story, Rowling wrote on her site. She started reading chapters to them again recently, which she said was “one of the most extraordinary experiences of my writing life.” “‘The Ickabog’s first two readers told me what they remember from when they were tiny, and demanded the reinstatement of bits they’d particularly liked (I obeyed),” she wrote.

Details about the plot were scant, but the publisher described the book as “a fairy tale, set in an imaginary land.” Her management team said she was not available for an interview.

Rowling said in the announcement that “The Ickabog” was a story about “truth and the abuse of power,” but added that the story “isn’t intended to be read as a response to anything that’s happening in the world right now.”

“The themes are timeless and could apply to any era or any country,” she wrote.

J.K. Rowling, best known for her wildly popular Harry Potter books, has written another children’s story, “The Ickabog.”

22

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

HBO Max is here to take on Netflix. Is it too late?

By EDMUND LEE

H

BO has been an innovator for much of its nearly 50-year run.

Now, with the unveiling of HBO Max, it’s playing catch-up.

In the 1970s, when people still referred to it as Home Box Office, HBO was a pioneer in bringing recent movies to the American living room in all their uncut glory. Another innovation came in the late 1990s, when HBO ushered in the era of prestige TV with original programs built around protagonists like Larry Sanders, Tony Soprano and Carrie Bradshaw who could not exist comfortably within the limits of the broadcast networks.

But with the launch of the ambitious HBO Max streaming platform on Wednesday, the cable channel is a late entrant to the streaming wars.

AT&T, the parent company of HBO since 2018, plans to spend more than $4.5 billion on the project over the next few years. The company hopes to have 50 million HBO Max subscribers by 2025 and envisions that the service will eventually generate billions in annual profits as it takes on Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV Plus and Peacock, among others, in the increasingly crowded field of online entertainment.

The idea of creating a major streaming platform drove AT&T’s decision to buy Time Warner, the media empire that housed HBO, TBS, TNT, CNN and the Warner Bros. film and television studios.

When it is fully up and running, HBO Max, available at $15 a month, will offer 10,000 hours of programming with a wide range of content meant to appeal to every kind of audience, not just the HBO crowd.

The platform will include HBO series like “Game of Thrones” and “Succession”; sturdy sitcoms from the Warner Bros. television archive like “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory”; some 2,000 Warner Bros. movies, including the eight Harry Potter films and blockbusters featuring DC Comics superheroes like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman; and original fare like “Love Life,” a series

Steven Van Zandt, left, and James Gandolfini in “The Sopranos,” the series that helped put HBO on the map as a creator of original programming. starring Anna Kendrick, and “Let Them All Talk,” a film directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Meryl Streep.

Soon after AT&T completed its $85.4 billion purchase of Time Warner, John Stankey, a veteran AT&T executive with limited experience in entertainment, broke down the divisions across the newly acquired properties to create WarnerMedia. Shortly after that, at a town-hall-style meeting in Manhattan before an audience of HBO employees, he let them know their territory was under a new boss.

“As I step back and think about what’s unique about the brand and where it needs to go, there’s got to be a little more depth to it,” Stankey said. “There’s got to be more frequent engagement.” To achieve that, he added, HBO had to become “broad enough” to attract a larger audience.

A leadership shake-up followed, one that included the departure of HBO’s chief executive, Richard Plepler, who had led the network to more than 160 Emmys.

Stankey was promoted this year to one of the biggest jobs in corporate America: chief executive of AT&T. He will take the reins from Randall Stephenson, the leader of AT&T since 2007, on July 1.

The future of the revamped AT&T

largely depends on HBO Max. The choice of Jason Kilar as WarnerMedia’s new chief executive was another sign of the company’s emphasis on streaming media. A onetime head of Hulu, Kilar is a veteran of the earliest days of on-demand video.

Since starting the job this month, he has been working closely with the WarnerMedia leadership team, including Robert Greenblatt, the chairman of the entertainment group, and Kevin Reilly, the head of content.

Kilar has charged ahead with putting together a future iteration of HBO Max that will allow for commercials. When it is ready, the company will be able to offer a cheaper version of HBO Max, in addition to the $15-a-month, ad-free version, that will be a direct competitor to advertising-supported streaming services like Hulu and NBCUniversal’s Peacock.

HBO itself is not going away. The premium cable network, whose latest shows include “The Plot Against America” and “Run,” will continue under Casey Bloys, who effectively took over from Plepler. But AT&T will focus on redirecting viewers’ attention to the new streaming platform. The phone giant hopes that HBO’s 35 million subscribers,

each of whom pays $15 a month, will shift their loyalty to HBO Max, which costs the same.

To Stankey, it’ll be a gauge of brain power. “I look at it as a degree of an IQ test, which is: Why wouldn’t you want twice the content for the same price?” he said at an event for investors in October.

The HBO network can currently be bought in two ways: online through HBO Now, or through a cable provider, which offers digital access through HBO Go. HBO Max is an altogether new, much larger product that includes HBO proper.

A potential stumbling block for it is the cost. Netflix’s no-frills plan costs $9 a month. Disney Plus charges $7 a month.

But HBO Max is asking people to spend $15 a month, at a time when household budgets are constrained by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Even before the outbreak, industry analysts called the pricing “unreasonable.” Now many customers are looking to cancel their HBO accounts, largely because of the cost, according to a study prepared for The New York Times by the global research consultancy Kantar.

The analysis found that 1 in 5 people who subscribed to HBO Now said they planned to cancel their subscription in the coming months; a similar proportion said they planned to drop their subscriptions to the HBO channel through their cable providers.

That’s a high opt-out rate. A little more than 7.4% of Netflix customers said they planned to dump their accounts, according to Kantar, and about 8.6% of Disney Plus customers said the same. Amazon Prime Video appears more durable, with 1.2% saying they would cancel.

Some people in the industry say that the rival streaming services may eventually reach agreements that will allow them to share their customers in some way.

“They will have to start to combine into more user-friendly aggregations,” said Craig Moffett, a co-founder of the Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson. “It’s not necessarily the case that some won’t make it — but it is almost certainly the case that some won’t make it on their own.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

23

Is the pandemic sparking suicide?

By BENEDICT CAREY

T

he mental health toll of the coronavirus pandemic is only beginning to show itself, and it is too early to predict the scale of the impact.

The coronavirus pandemic is an altogether different kind of cataclysm — an ongoing, wavelike, poorly understood threat that seems to be both everywhere and nowhere, a contagion nearly as psychological as it is physical. Death feels closer, even well away from the front lines of emergency rooms, and social isolation — which in preCOVID times was often a sign of a mind turning in on itself — is the new normal for tens of millions of people around the world.

The ultimate marker of the virus’s mental toll, some experts say, will show up in the nation’s suicide rate, in this and coming years. The immediate effect is not at all clear, despite President Donald Trump’s recent claim that lockdown conditions were causing deaths. “Just look at what’s happening with drug addiction, look at what’s happening with suicides,” he said in a press briefing in the White House Rose Garden on Monday.

In fact, doctors won’t know for many months if suicide is spiking in 2020; each death must be carefully investigated to determine its cause. The rolling impact of COVID-19 on these rates give scientists a sense of how extended uncertainty and repeating undercurrents of anxiety affect people’s will to live.

“It’s a natural experiment, in a way,” said Matthew Nock, a psychology professor at Harvard. “There’s not only an increase in anxiety, but the more important piece is social isolation.” He added, “We’ve never had anything like this — and we know social isolation is related to suicide.”

The earliest signs of whether the pandemic is driving up suicides will likely emerge among those who have had a history of managing persistent waves of self-destructive distress. Many of these people, who number in the millions worldwide, go through each day compulsively tuned to the world’s casual cruelties — its suspicious glances and rude remarks — and are prone to isolate themselves, at times contemplating a final exit plan.

“That’s how I am,” said Josh, 35, a college instructor in North Carolina who has been consumed in the past with thoughts of suicide. “I see all the bad, the suffering, and I have a tendency to crawl into a hole. Now, with this COVID threat, we’re being told to isolate and stay away from others. It’s like, ‘Oh, I was right all along, and the world was crazy.’”

He added, “I haven’t backslid, I haven’t moved. But longer term — I don’t know.” He asked that his last name be omitted for privacy.

Research done in the wake of natural disasters offers little guidance as to how this group will respond. In a widely cited 1999 paper in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-

vention reported that, in communities hit by an earthquake, flood or hurricane, rates of suicide spiked in the years after.

But the study authors later retracted that finding, after discovering an error that, when corrected, revealed “no significant increase in suicide rates after natural disasters, either for all types of disasters combined or for individual types of disasters.” Other studies have found increases, or decreases, depending on the group and disaster studied.

The evidence is stronger when it comes to the impact of economic hardship. Suicide rates in the United States have risen steadily since 2000 — by 35% overall, across most age groups — but the rate of increase roughly doubled in the wake of the 2008 downturn. Historically, the job losses, evictions and displacements caused by recessions tend to lead to an increased numbers of suicides.

“I think during the actual crisis, suicide will be lower,” said Dr. Marianne Goodman, a psychiatrist at the Department of Veterans Affairs, in the Bronx. “And once the longer-term economic impact is felt, I suspect, suicide will be rising again.”

But the imminent threat of a potentially deadly virus is very different, psychologically, from the exhausting anxiety of facing a future with few job prospects. The descent of a pandemic alters the thinking and behavior of distressed people in ways that are simply not well understood.

For now, many people who have had to manage selfdestructive thoughts have found that their inner dialogue has shifted since the pandemic descended.

“I was in relatively good place when this started, and I think one of the reasons I’ve stayed that way is that, having had all this experience with depression and anxiety, you

learn a lot of skills that are applicable in this pandemic,” said Michelle, 37, a New York teacher with a history of chronic suicidal tendencies, including two attempts.

“It’s interesting, I’m having conversations where everyone is feeling anxious about the same thing,” she said.

“It’s been a while — since grad school, I think — that I have been a part of conversations like that, and it’s strangely nice.”

In a continuing study, a research team led by Nock is monitoring smartphone data of highly suicidal people for six months after they present in a hospital at risk of suicide.

The team has gathered thousands of surveys from people 12 years and older. “From before to after COVID-19, we’re seeing increases in suicidal thinking, among adults, that are predicted by increases in feeling isolated,” Nock said.

But preliminary results suggest that such thoughts are not more frequent among the high-risk adolescent, for reasons the team is trying to work out.

The relationship between suicidal thoughts, which are fairly common in people with mental health diagnoses, and completed acts, which are comparatively rare, remains a subject of intense study. A fear of infection may push over the edge some people who would otherwise manage.

Dr. Makeda Jones, a New York psychiatrist, said that a colleague recently called because her teenage daughter tried to hang herself. “For some people who have not learned the skills to cope, this pandemic makes them feel more vulnerable and out of control,” Jones said. “And those two things will make some want to seize back control and say, ‘I don’t want to die of this disease, I can do it on my own terms.’”

24

Thursday, May 28, 2020

The San Juan Daily Star

The galaxy that grew up too fast

By DENNIS OVERBYE

I

n the early days of the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers, eager to see how far out in space — and how far back in time — their new instrument could peer, pointed it at an empty tract of sky. What returned was an image of space littered with what the astronomer Alan Dressler of the Carnegie Observatories called “train wrecks”: irregular, fragmented clouds of stars known as protogalaxies, flecks of starlight scattered like orphan jigsaw puzzle pieces across the primordial heavens.

The scene fit nicely with the growing consensus of how the universe had evolved over cosmic time: Small bits of matter slowly assembled themselves into ever larger structures, eventually resulting in majestic spiral galaxies, like our own Milky Way, 100,000 light-years across and home to hundreds of billions of stars.

But a new discovery suggests that this vision of cosmic growth may need revision. Last week, radio astronomers using the mighty Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or ALMA, radio telescope in Chile announced that they had discovered a cloud of gas located on the distant shores of time. It appears to be an infant galaxy similar in size to its grown-up counterpart, our own Milky Way, and dates to a time when the universe was only 1.5 billion years old, about one-tenth its current age.

The galaxy, known formally asALMA J081740.86+135138.2, after its coordinates in the sky, is a giant, rotating wheel of gas, dust and faint starlight — a so-called disk galaxy — that extends 100,000 light-years across the primordial sky. It is at least as massive as 70 billion or 80 billion suns, in the same weight class as the Milky Way.

“To see it is a surprise,” said J. Xavier Prochaska of the University of California, Santa Cruz, an author of a paper, published in Nature, describing the discovery.

Conventional lore held that such disk galaxies could not grow so big so early. “Most galaxies that we find early in the universe look like train wrecks because they underwent consistent and often violent merging,” Marcel Neeleman of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, and lead author of the paper, said in a statement released by the institute. “These hot mergers make it difficult to form well-ordered, cold rotating disks like we observe in our present universe.”

In an interview, Prochaska said that train wrecks still make up 90% of the action in the very early universe. But the discovery of this galaxy suggests that large rotating disks were also part of the primordial mix, and that astronomers will likely find more of them, he said. If that is the case, astronomers will need to modify some of their theories of how galaxies came to be.

Dressler, who called the new result “a nice piece of work,” said that computer models and simulations have never fully reproduced the details of galaxy and star formation without having to be constantly patched to fit new data.

“I’m glad to see state-of-the-art observations again challenging the orthodoxy,” he said.

To a cosmologist, galaxies are the true citizens of the cosmos. But where they come from and how they grow has always been fraught with controversy. And it is a story told mostly in the dark.

That story, researchers agree, began 13.8 billion years ago, when the universe emerged from the Big Bang as a fiery fizz of particles and energy. The atoms that comprise stars and ourselves

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are only a minority constituent of what exists. This visible matter is vastly outweighed by mysterious dark matter, as yet unidentified, that seems to interact with us only through gravity.

In what has become the standard view of cosmology, dark matter provides the gravitational scaffolding for galaxies and other large structures. Small irregularities in the distribution of dark matter clump together into dense clouds connected by stringy filaments, according to computer simulations of the process. These spiderweb shapes slowly draw ordinary atomic matter, which can eventually light up as stars, into their gravitational grip.

This is where things get messy. When gas falls into a galaxy, it heats up and causes train wrecks. Before the gas can grow dense enough to form stars, these wrecks must cool down again.

The process can take billions of years to settle down and form a stately disk as big as the Milky Way. So the standard theory goes. But the history of the field is full of discrepant observations that necessitate patching of the theory. There are hints, for example, of a phenomenon called downsizing, in which, as Dressler described it, the galaxies that grew earliest became the most massive ones visible today.

As a result, some astronomers have suspected that there might be another way for gas that was already cool to leak into a galaxy — perhaps, for instance, along the dark matter filaments that connected the big clumps of matter. Among those astronomers was Arthur Wolfe of the University of California, San Diego.

He made it his mission to find galaxies or protogalaxies that could have formed when the universe was only 1 billion or so years old.

“We’re not saying that the cosmology is wrong,” Wolfe said in a statement from the university in 1997. “We’re saying the part of the standard lore concerning galaxy formation needs to be changed.”

Wolfe died in 2014, but his students Prochaska and Neeleman have carried on. In 2018, they aimed the giant ALMA radio telescope in Chile at what they considered the best galaxy on a list of candidates Wolfe had assembled, an object known smartly as DLA0817g. In the course of an hour, they recorded the unmistakable signature of a large, stable rotating disk of gas — a long sought galaxy.

They named it the Wolfe Disk, in honor of their mentor.

It may be the first of many such galaxies to be found; the list of candidates now stands at 20, Prochaska said. Last year, the team reported another observation in the primordial universe, of what appears to be a pair of merging galaxies. “The explanation that these disks are made by massive cold flows at very early times seems quite sensible,” Dressler said.

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The San Juan Daily Star LEGAL NOTICE

A: ANDRÉS TORRES Condominio Playa Dorada, Apartamento TH6, Carolina, PR 00971.

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA. Por la presente se le notifica que la parte demandante Jorge JORGE LABRADA BLANZACO Labrada Blanzaco ha presentado ante este Tribunal, demanda Demandante vs. contra usted, solicitando la conANDRÉS TORRES; cesión del siguiente remedio: DARREN WILLIAM DESAHUCIO STENSRUD COBRO DE DINERO Demandados Representa a la parte demanCIVIL NÚM.: CA2019CV04100 dante, el abogado cuyo nombre, (406). SOBRE: DESAHUCIO dirección y teléfono se consigna SUMARIO Y COBRO DE DI- de inmediato: Lcdo. Rafael E. Díaz-Gonzalez NERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR PO Box 361124 EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-1124 Tel. (939) 644-4947 DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIFax: (877) 602-6311 BRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. E-Mail: rediazlaw@gmail.com A: DARREN Se le apercibe que si no compareciere usted a contestar dicha WILLIAM STENSRUD demanda dentro del término de Condominio Playa treinta (30) días a partir de la Dorada, Apartamento publicación de este edicto, se TH6, Carolina, PR 00971. le anotará la rebeldía y se le Por la presente se le notifica dictará sentencia concediendo que la parte demandante Jorge el remedio solicitado, sin más Labrada Blanzaco ha presenta- citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDA BAJO do ante este Tribunal, demanda MI FIRMA Y SELLO DEL TRIcontra usted, solicitando la con- BUNAL, HOY 14 DE MAYO DE cesión del siguiente remedio: 2020. LCDA. MARILYN APONDESAHUCIO TE RODRIGUEZ, Sec Regional.

COBRO DE DINERO MYRIAM I FIGUEROA PASTRARepresenta a la parte deman- NA, Sec Auxiliar. dante, el abogado cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna LEGAL NOTICE de inmediato: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Lcdo. Rafael E. Díaz-Gonzalez Rico TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE PO Box 361124 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-1124 JUSTICIA Tribunal de Primera Tel. (939) 644-4947 Instancia Sala Superior de SAN Fax: (877) 602-6311 JUAN. E-Mail: rediazlaw@gmail.com ORIENTAL BANK Se le apercibe que si no compaDemandante reciere usted a contestar dicha SUCESIÓN DE LUIS demanda dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la ESTEBAN APARICIO publicación de este edicto, se AMENGUAL, TAMBIÉN le anotará la rebeldía y se le CONOCIDO COMO LUIS dictará sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado, sin más E. APARICIO AMENGUAL citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDA BAJO Y COMO LUIS APARICIO MI FIRMA Y SELLO DEL TRI- AMENGUAL Y SUCESIÓN BUNAL, HOY 14 DE MAYO DE DE CARMEN MARÍA 2020. LCDA. MARILYN APONPAGÁN TRINIDAD, TE RODRIGUEZ, Sec Regional.

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Demandados CIVIL NÚM.: CA2019CV04100 (406). SOBRE: DESAHUCIO SUMARIO Y COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R.

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Thursday, May 28, 2020 Y LA SUCESIÓN DE LA SUCESIÓN DE LUIS ENGRACIA SANTANA ESTEBAN APARICIO APONTE compuesta AMENGUAL, TAMBIÉN por sus herederos: CONOCIDO COMO LUIS E. APARICIO AMENGUAL HECTOR JOSÉ NEGRÓN Y COMO LUIS APARICIO SANTANA; RITA NEGRÓN SANTANA. IDA IRIS AMENGUAL; CENTRO NEGRÓN SANTANA, DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES ERNESTO LUIS NEGRON SANTANA; NELIDA (“CRIM”) Demandado(a) NEGRÓN SANTANA; LA Civil: Núm. SJ2019CV03343 SUCESIÓN DE ANGEL (604). Sobre: COBRO DE DINENEGRÓN SANTANA RO (EJECUCION DE HIPOTEcompuesta por sus CA). NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. herederos, ELSIE MIRIAM A: FULANO DE TAL NEGRON ORTIZ, ANGEL Y ZUTANO DE TAL, NEGRÓN ORTIZ; MARÍA COMO HEREDEROS ELENA NEGRON ORTIZ, DESCONOCIDOS CON CARLOS RUBEN POSIBLE INTERES DE NEGRON ORTIZ Y LUIS LA SUCESION DE LUIS ALBERTO NEGRÓN ESTEBAN APARICIO ORTIZ; LA SUCESIÓN AMENGUAL, TAMBIEN DE OSCAR NEGRÓN CONOCIDO COMO LUIS SANTANA, compuesta E. APARICIO AMENGUAL por sus herederos: Y COMO LUIS APARICIO NORMA IRIS NEGRÓN AMENGUAL RIVERA; JOSÉ ANTONIO (Nombre de las partes a las que se NEGRÓN RIVERA, LUIS le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscri- ANGEL NEGRÓN RIVERA, be le notifica a usted que el 20 CARMEN SOCORRO de mayo de 2020, este Tribunal NEGRÓN RIVERA Y JOSÉ ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia RAÚL NEGRON RIVERA; Parcial o Resolución en este LA SUCESIÓN DE MARÍA caso, que ha sido debidamente ESTHER NEGRÓN registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse SANTANA, compuesta por detalladamente de los términos sus herederos: MARÍA de la misma. Esta notificación NATASHA GUTIERREZ se publicará una sola vez en un NEGRÓN; ANGEL periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro RAFAEL GUTIERREZ de los 10 días siguientes a su NEGRÓN; CARMEN RITA notificación. Y, siendo o repreGUTIERREZ NEGRÓN, sentando usted una parte en el E IRIS EDUARDA procedimiento sujeta a los térmiGUTIERREZ NEGRÓN, nos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual LA SUCESIÓN DE PILAR puede establecerse recurso de NEGRÓN SANTANA, revisión o apelación dentro del compuesta por sus término de 60 días contados a herederos: JOSÉ LUIS partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a RODRÍGUEZ NEGRÓN Y usted esta notificación que se A N A B E L RODRÍGUEZ considerará hecha en la fecha NEGRÓN, LA SUCESIÓN de la publicación de este edicto.

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MILDRED MARTINEZ ACOSTA, NORMA IRIS NEGRÓN Secretaria del Tribunal ConfiRIVERA; LUIS ANGEL dencial I. NEGRÓN RIVERA, JOSÉ LEGAL NOTICE ANTONIO NEGRÓN RIVERA, CARMEN ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE SOCORRO NEGRÓN PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA RIVERA Y JOSÉ RAÚL SUPERIOR DE BAYAMON. NEGRON RIVERA, L A MARIBEL NEGRÓN ORTIZ SUCESIÓN DE HERMIN Demandante vs.

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SOBRE: DOMINIO CONTRADICTORIO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R.

A: ERNESTO LUIS NEGRÓN SANTANA; MARÍA ELENA NEGRON ORTIZ, CARLOS RUBEN NEGRÓN ORTIZ, ANGEL RAFAEL GUTIERREZ NEGRÓN; IRIS EDUARDA GUTIERREZ NEGRÓN, Y JARMINA RAMÍREZ JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE, CUALQUIER PERSONA IGNORADA A QUIEN PUEDA PERJUDICAR LA INSCRIPCIÓN SOLICITADA O A CUALQUIER PERSONA QUE TENGA INTERÉS O DERECHO REAL EN DICHO BIEN INMUEBLE Y QUE PUEDA SER PERJUDICADA POR DICHA INSCRIPCIÓN

Por la presente se les notifica que la parte demandante ha presentado en este Tribunal una acción para que el Tribunal Ordene inscribir a su nombre como titular registral, la propiedad que se describe como sigue y que es una segregación de la finca número Seis Mil Cuatrocientos Setenta y Uno (6,471): “RUSTICA: PARCELA NUMERO TRES (3): Predio de terreno radicado en el Barrio Cedro Abajo del término municipal de Naranjito, Puerto Rico con una cabida superficial de SEIS MIL OCHOCIENTOS UNO PUNTO SETENTA Y SEIS MIL DOSCIENTOS TREINTA Y UNO METROS CUADRADOS (6,801.76231 me) equivalente a UNO PUNTO SETENTA Y TRES MIL CINCUENTA Y CINCO CUERDAS (1.73055 cdas); en lindes por el NORTE y ESTE, con Parcela Numero Dos SEGREGADA, por el SUR, con la carretera municipal existente, y por el OESTE, con el remanente de la finca principal”. Que el predio antes descrito es una segregación de la finca inscrita a nombre de la Sucesión de Angel Negrón Marrero, número Seis M i l Cuatrocientos Setenta y Uno (6,471), inscrita al Folio Ochenta y Dos (82), Tomo Noventa y Tres (93) de Naranjito, Catastro Número Cuarenta y Dos guión Ciento Sesenta y Ocho guión Cero Cero Cero guión Cero Cero Tres guión Cero Ocho (42-168000-003-08). Se le notifica además a toda persona que tenga algún derecho real sobre el inmueble anteriormente descrito o

cualquier persona ignorada que pueda ser perjudicada por esta inscripción y en general a todo el que tuviere motivo para oponerse, que comparezca a alegar cualquier derecho que tuviere en un término de veinte (20) días, a partir de la fecha de publicación del último edicto, excluyendo el día de su publicación, presentando su alegación a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial.pr. salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la Secretaría del Tribunal. Representa a la parte demandante, el abogado cuyo nombre y dirección se consigna de inmediato: LCDO. HECTOR M. MARRERO MARRERO 95 CALLE GEORGETTI, SUITE 1 APARTADO POSTAL 283 NARANJITO, PUERTO RICO 00719 TELÉFONO: 787-869-0806 EMAIL: marreroh@gmail.com En Bayamón, Puerto Rico a 21 de febrero de 2020. LCDA. LAURA I SANTA SANCHEZ, Secretaria Regional. Verónica Rivera Rodriguez, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal I.

LEGAL NOTICE

HACIENDA DEL MAR OWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC. Demandante Vs.

ROBERT JOHN LINDSAY, BERNARDITA MARIA GUTIÉRREZ, T/C/C BERNARDITA MARIA LINDSAY Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES, COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandada Civil Núm.: VB2019CV00948.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: ROBERT JOHN LINDSAY, BERNARDITA MARIA GUTIÉRREZ, T/C/C BERNARDITA MARIA LINDSAY Y SS. SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES, COMPUESTA POR AMBOS. Siendo ustedes la parte demandada arriba mencionada,

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE Se les notifica a ustedes que se PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE han radicado mediante el sisteVEGA BAJA ma SUMAC una Demanda por

San Juan The

la parte demandante HACIENDA DEL MAR OWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC. solicitando un Cobro de Dinero. Se les emplaza y se les requiere que notifiquen a GARRIGA & MARINI LAW OFFICES, C.S.P., P.O. Box 16593, San Juan, Puerto Rico 009086593, teléfono (787) 275-0655, telefax (800) 481-7130, copia de su contestación a la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este edicto. Ustedes deberán presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual pueden acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https:// unired.ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se representen por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberán presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Vega Baja. Si dejaren de contestar podrá anotarse la rebeldía y dictarse contra ustedes sentencia en rebeldía concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin más citarles ni oírles.

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el Sello del Tribunal, a tenor con la Orden del Tribunal, hoy día 2 de diciembre de 2019. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARITZA ROSARIO ROSARIO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

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26

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

NHL announces plan to return straight into the playoffs

By DAVID WALSTEIN

M

ore than 2 1/2 months after shutting down because of the coronavirus outbreak, the National Hockey League became the largest North American professional sports league to announce definitive plans for a return.

Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the NHL, announced on Tuesday that 24 teams would return, if and when medically cleared, for a unique playoff tournament in two hub cities. Official training camps would resume no earlier than July 1, and the season would conclude with the presentation of the Stanley Cup to the 2019-2020 champion in the early autumn. The regular season was officially declared complete.

“We remain focused on the safety of our players, coaches, support staff and arena personnel,” Bettman said. “We will not set dates, choose sites or begin to play until we know it is appropriate and prudent and are approved to do so.”

The NHL issued a memo on Monday that detailed testing and safety protocols for what it termed Phase 2, voluntary practices at team facilities that would begin in early June, if local shutdown ordinances have been lifted.

On Tuesday, Bettman outlined the next stages: the opening of training camps for all players, coaches and medical staff, and the start of a conference-based playoff. The hub cities, one hosting the Eastern Conference and one the Western Conference, will be chosen from a list that includes Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas; Edmonton, Alberta; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Minneapolis/St. Paul; Pittsburgh; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Toronto. Bettman did not say whether fans would be allowed to attend the games, which would be broadcast on television.

Bettman said teams would be allowed to bring back 50 employees, including players, coaches, medical staff and club officials, all of whom will be tested for the coronavirus throughout the process.

The players union, led by Donald Fehr, cautioned that though it had agreed with the league on the announced plans, there could be changes before play is resumed, including to health and safety protocols that were designed

Gary Bettman announced plans to hold the N.H.L. playoffs as a 24-team format hosted in two hub cities. in conjunction with medical experts and the union. Some remaining financial matters will be addressed in talks between now and the beginning of the playoffs.

“If they need to be amended over time, we will amend them,” Fehr said.

“This is a living document, and we have to make sure that logistically, we can actually implement the steps.”

When hockey resumes, the playoff will follow the format approved last week by the executive board of the NHL Players’ Association, expanding the field to 24 teams from 16. The teams qualified based on their points percentages at the time the season was suspended.

The top four teams in each conference will receive a first-round bye.

They are the Boston Bruins, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Washington Capitals and the Philadelphia Flyers in the East, and the St. Louis Blues, the Colorado Avalanche, the Vegas Golden Knights and the Dallas Stars in the West.

During the first round, those teams will play a conference-based round robin — three games each — to determine their seedings, one through four. The remaining 16 teams will commence bestof-five series to determine which eight of them will advance to the second round.

Bettman said that the league and the players union had not decided whether the second round would be best-of-five or best-of-seven and that the two factions were still discussing whether to reseed after the rounds or to maintain a bracket-style format.

The conference finals and the Stanley Cup Final will be best-of-seven, as usual, and will most likely be played in the two hub cities. But Bettman said that if conditions change, the venues might, too.

Seven teams — the New Jersey Devils, the Buffalo Sabres, the Anaheim Ducks, the Los Angeles Kings, the San Jose Sharks, the Ottawa Senators and the Detroit Red Wings — did not qualify

for the playoffs. Their seasons ended immediately, each with a dozen or so games unplayed, and they will be entered into the draft lottery along with the eight teams that lose in the first round.

For teams like the New York Rangers, who would have been eliminated from the playoffs in the traditional, 16team format, the plan provides new life.

As the East’s No. 11 seed, the Rangers will play the No. 6 Carolina Hurricanes in the first round. The No. 7 New York Islanders will play the No. 10 Florida Panthers.

The last NHL games were played on March 11, the same night that Rudy Gobert of the National Basketball Association’s Utah Jazz tested positive for the coronavirus while his team was in Oklahoma City to play the Thunder. That game was canceled, and most sports leagues’ events, including Major League Baseball’s spring training, shut down the next day.

Some sports have trickled back already, including NASCAR, and soccer and baseball in some countries. The PGA Tour announced plans to resume play on June 11 without fans in attendance and with testing procedures for golfers and caddies.

The National Football League is scheduled to start as planned in September, but the major American sports leagues that would have been in season now — men’s and women’s professional basketball and soccer, and MLB — have faced daunting challenges in efforts to reach agreement with their players unions on safety measures and logistics.

The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) announced plans to return to training camp this month and end the season with a monthlong tournament in Salt Lake City. Members of the U.S. Women’s National Team have said that, because of health concerns, they may not participate in the NWSL tournament.

The MLB and the NBA are in negotiations with their players unions and medical experts to determine a way for them to come back, too. Some basketball teams have opened their practice facilities for players to train on a limited basis. The NFL is in its offseason, and it is in the early stages of designing protocols for players, coaches and trainers to gather for mini-training camps in June.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

27

Soccer’s landscape was already shifting. Then an earthquake struck.

By RORY SMITH

T

he German language, as should be expected, has a term for it: Grössenwahn.

There is not a direct, precise English translation. Megalomania, maybe, though perhaps hubris is better. Grössenwahn implies overestimating your abilities, possessing delusions of grandeur.

It is the word Oliver Voigt reaches for as he tries to describe the fate and fall of Kaiserslautern, the German third-division club he has been tasked with restoring to something resembling its former self, now, in a precarious moment for the sport, with even less margin for error.

This is, after all, not a team accustomed to such reduced circumstances. Traditionally, Kaiserslautern is one of Germany’s grandest clubs. As recently as 1998, it was the Bundesliga champion, and a year later it made the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Its stadium was a venue for the 2006 World Cup. It holds 50,000 people, and is named after Fritz Walter, the captain of the West Germany side that won the 1954 World Cup. Kaiserslautern had five players on that team, more than any other club.

“That victory gave the whole nation its dignity back after the war,” Voigt said. “Winning the World Cup built German identity, and five of the team were from this club. Kaiserslautern was a club in the center of German emotion.”

Generations of Germans, he said, saw the club as a peer of Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and the rest of the country’s great powers. Now, though, Kaiserslautern is “on its knees.” It has spent most of the past decade in Germany’s second division. In 2018, for the first time in its history, it sank into the third.

(Before the current season was suspended, it was midtable.)

“There is an easy answer to what happened,” said Voigt, who was recruited late last year to be the chief executive. “If you spend more than you earn, if you act like you are bigger than you are, you will end up like FCK.” Kaiserslautern might be an extreme example, but it is far from alone. Over the past two decades, a current has swept through European soccer, drastically shifting the game’s landscape. An array of traditional, big-city powerhouses has slipped from its perch, caught and overtaken by a class of insurgent teams, fueled by cash and ambition, unencumbered by history.

It has happened in England, to Leeds

United, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa.

It has happened in Spain, to Deportivo de La Coruña, Racing de Santander and Real Zaragoza. It has happened in Italy, to Torino, Sampdoria and Genoa, and in France, to Marseille and Bordeaux.

There were others, too, teams that seemed on the verge of slipping into the abyss, great names that had been treading water for just a little too long: West Ham and Newcastle, perhaps, or Fiorentina, or even AC Milan.

All found themselves in the same trap: first left behind financially by the game’s superpowers, then caught in the slipstream of the young, smart and nimble — not just teams like RB Leipzig, Manchester City and, at a European level, Paris St.-Germain, products of, and ambassadors for, either corporate conglomerates or nation states, but also the likes of Wolves, Atalanta, Sassuolo and Eibar.

It was in Germany, though, that the pattern held most clearly. Kaiserslautern has been joined in the third division by 1860 Munich; next season, Karlsruhe might be there, too. The second Bundesliga contains both Stuttgart and Hamburg, emissaries of two of Germany’s biggest cities and former champions. Werder Bremen, the German champion in 2004, could drop into the division next season.

Each of these case studies can trace its demise to a different set of circumstances, of course. Some teams can point to financial mismanagement, others to chaotic ownership. Some have just made poor decisions, and then made more in trying to fix them.

But there are common threads that bind the clubs, and as soccer begins to come to terms with the greatest crisis it has faced in a lifetime, it is possible to discern in them a warning for what may come next.

The coronavirus pandemic represents an existential threat even to the biggest teams in Europe, the ones that regard themselves as too big to fail. As Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the chairman of Bayern Munich, said, it is already a crisis. Failing to play out the season, which resumed May 16, and thus being forced to hand money back to broadcasters, would make it a disaster.

The prospect of playing games behind closed doors for the rest of the year, Rummenigge said, would “have a huge impact” on everyone: The loss of revenue from ticketing, corporate entertainment and merchandise is “something everyone has to care about, and maybe the big clubs even more.”

The risk, of course, is that clubs will not

adapt as they should to that new reality, that they will continue to spend more than they earn, to think they are bigger than they have become, to succumb to the temptation of Grössenwahn. As the fallen giants can attest, after all, when circumstances diminish, the pressure to succeed does not always follow suit. Not straightaway, sometimes not at all.

“If we win one game, the assumption is that we will be promoted,” Kaiserslautern’s Voigt said. “If we win a few, people talk about the Bundesliga. There is immense pressure on the club. It is natural: Apart from our youngest fans, everyone in the stadium saw this team win a title. For them, where we are now feels unreal.”

That pressure leads to a spiral of quick fixes and kneejerk reactions. Managers, directors and ideas come and go, none of them seen through to their conclusion, none given a real chance to succeed.

“The staff here have seen so much change,” said Thomas Hitzlsperger, once a player for Stuttgart, and now, at 38, the club’s chief executive. “There has been no consistency. It is the only club in a big city. The fans get frustrated quickly. We have Bosch and Porsche and Daimler here. They expect to see the best. The club has lacked patience to have a plan and execute it.”

At the same time, there is a built-in resistance to new ways of thinking, a tendency to rest on the laurels of tradition. Hitzlsperger noted, even before he became chief executive, how “slow-moving” Stuttgart was; he persuaded the club’s board to hand him control by vowing to help the club become more modern. He talked, at his interview, of how Stuttgart could still be “proud of its history,” but needed to learn to be a “21st century club.”

The obvious contrast here, of course, is with Leipzig and Hoffenheim — two clubs effectively founded in the past two decades, teams whose whole identity is tied up in modernity. But those are not the only reference points for Germany’s faded upper middle class.

“Mainz and Freiburg are not big-status clubs, but they are regulars in the Bundesliga,” said Jonas Boldt, sporting director of perhaps the biggest example of a fallen power in European soccer, Hamburg.

The fabled Dino of German soccer — so-called because it had never been relegated — and a one-time champion of Europe, Hamburg finally slipped out of Germany’s top flight in 2018. Its demotion could serve as the moment that the new order finally toppled

the old, when European soccer’s traditional middle class gave way to a younger generation of not just teams but ideas.

Its demise, in Boldt’s eyes, was the conclusion not just of a “vicious circle” of bad decisions, but a sign that the club had become too comfortable in itself, too content to stare misty-eyed at what it used to be.

“Tradition and romance are important,” he said. “But you have to work professionally to try to develop something.”

Boldt joined Hamburg last summer, after it had spent a full season in the second division. Like Voigt and Hitzlsperger, he was chosen to take his club back to where it used to be.

All three men are ambitious, optimistic, energetic. All three are, for their posts, relatively young. Boldt, having built his reputation at Bayer Leverkusen, was lured to Hamburg by the “challenge” of building something lasting.

That challenge was fearsome before the pandemic. In the age of coronavirus, it is more daunting still. Kaiserslautern, Stuttgart and Hamburg must learn to function on reduced budgets, in an alien, sterile environment, in an atmosphere of deep uncertainty.

But those three, at least, had already identified the need for change, realizing that instead of resisting the tide, they needed to turn it. There will be many others, though, in this bleak new reality, for whom that realization has not yet dawned.

Some may look at Kaiserslautern, Stuttgart, Hamburg and the rest and learn the lessons of their travails. Others, believing themselves insulated by history, may stumble into precisely the same traps, fall into the fissures, swallowed up by this fractured, shifting landscape.

Fans lit flares in Fritz Walter Stadium in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Third-division Kaiserslautern was Bundesliga champion in 1998.

28

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

NWSL plans a one-month season: 25 games in one city

The North Carolina Courage won last season’s title at home. They’ll play for this year’s crown in Utah.

By ANDREW DAS

T

he National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) on Wednesday laid out an ambitious, and potentially risky, plan to return to the field late next month for its first games since the start of its 2020 season was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the schedule that league officials outlined Wednesday morning, the nine teams would gather in Utah in late June and complete their entire seasons as a 25-game tournament over 30 days.

The proposed event, to be called the NWSL Challenge Cup, will be an Olympic-style tournament with a group-play stage and then an eight-team knockout tournament. The games — the first is set for June 27 — will be the league’s first competition since October’s championship game and will succeed only through a mix of careful planning, extensive virus testing, strict health protocols and no small amount of good fortune.

And all of it hinges on the players’ willingness to participate, the absence of new outbreaks and hundreds of tests before and after the games arrive in Utah.

All of the matches will be played in the Salt Lake City suburbs of Herriman and Sandy, the home of one

of the league’s teams, Utah Royals FC. Under the format the NWSL has proposed, each team would play four games at the 5,000-seat Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman to determine seedings for an eight-team knockout round that will follow. The semifinals and final (set for July 26) would be played at the larger Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, the home of the Royals.

No fans will be allowed to attend any of the games.

CBS will broadcast the tournament opener and the final, and the other games will be available live on the network’s CBS All Access streaming platform.

Dell Loy Hansen, the Utah Royals owner, and his organization will be the de facto host. Hansen, who also owns the Major League Soccer team Real Salt Lake and the two Utah stadiums, will use his team’s expansive training complex to accommodate all of the teams’ training and competition needs. The league plans to partner with two area hotels to house all nine teams and their staff members in what the league is calling an NWSL Village — an effort at a quasi-quarantine that it hopes will lessen the risk of coronavirus infection for all involved.

Details of the event are not final. As recently as Tuesday, league officials and representatives of the play-

ers associations representing the league’s rank-and-file players and the members of the U.S. women’s national team were still working to negotiate testing and isolation protocols, best practices to avoid contracting or spreading the virus, and off-the-field guarantees for the teams and their players both during pretournament camps in their home cities and at the Utah event itself.

It is unclear how many members of the U.S. women’s national team, who represent the bulk of the league’s best players and marquee attractions, will take part. The team members remain split on playing, according to two people with knowledge of their plans, with some eager to get back on the field and others wary of the health and injury risks of a compressed season played — except for the semifinals and final — on artificial turf and during a pandemic.

Still, the league’s ability to forge a plan that would save its season when other women’s leagues have failed qualifies as a success. Under its new commissioner, Lisa Baird, the NWSL has even managed to sign three new commercial partners: P&G and Secret, which will serve as presenting sponsors for the Challenge Cup, and Verizon, which was to announce a multiyear agreement with the league Wednesday.

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Sudoku

29

How to Play:

Fill in the empty fields with the numbers from 1 through 9.

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

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

GAMES

HOROSCOPE Aries

30

The San Juan Daily Star

Thursday, May 28, 2020

(Mar 21-April 20)

A friend will ask for a favour that you’re not willing to give.

Be honest and direct. If your loved one takes offense, that’s their problem. Anyone who can’t accept your boundaries doesn’t have your best interests at heart. Get some distance from this relationship. An unexpected bill will arrive, shaking you to the core. Before going into full panic mode, take some deep breaths. Remember there is more to life than money. Count your blessings. The resources you need will arrive when you develop an attitude of gratitude.

Libra

(Sep 24-Oct 23)

Don’t be too hard on someone younger who is misbehaving. They lack the experience and maturity to deal with problems in a constructive way. By inviting them to talk about what’s bothering them, you’ll earn their gratitude. It isn’t easy to put feelings into words. An unexpected late fee could be imposed on you. Contact the agency in question and ask for a reprieve. By talking to everyone in a respectful tone, you could get the mercy you seek. What goes around, comes around.

Taurus

(April 21-May 21)

Scorpio

Gemini

(May 22-June 21)

Sagittarius

(Nov 23-Dec 21)

Cancer

(June 22-July 23)

Capricorn

(Dec 22-Jan 20)

Moderation isn’t your strong suit. Beware of indulging in food and drink. Eating a series of small, nutritious repasts throughout the day is preferable than having a heavy breakfast, lunch or dinner. Choose fresh produce and lean protein over carbohydrates. A lack of opportunity in your field could cause you to reconsider your options. Moving into a rapidly growing industry will be a welcome challenge. Think about taking a course in computer coding. This could allow you to pick and choose some lucrative assignments.

A slightly blinkered, backward-looking attitude is undermining your progress. Just because you disagree with someone’s beliefs doesn’t mean you can’t connect in other areas. Working with someone who has different views and values will be enlightening for both of you. Stop dwelling on your differences and look for common ground. Are you having difficulty sleeping? Establish a restful bedtime routine. Stay away from screens for a full hour before retiring. Listen to soothing music.

Create a more comfortable sleeping environment.

Being put in charge of someone else’s finances is stressful.

See if there is someone else who is willing to assume these responsibilities. You’ve already done your fair share of hard work. Give yourself the gift of freedom; there’s nothing particularly great about being a martyr. Don’t ask an unreliable friend to help you with an important task. It’s better to hire a professional to handle this job. If you’re not sure who to contact, ask for recommendations on social media.

Leo

(July 24-Aug 23)

Resist the temptation to lash out at a loved one for your feelings. If you’re sad, angry or down in the doldrums, do something to lift your spirits. Watch a movie marathon.

Listen to upbeat songs. Read a book that makes you laugh.

Happiness is an inside job. There will be some unexpected changes at your place of employment. Someone in a powerful position could quit in a huff, creating a power vacuum. Think carefully whether you want this job before applying for it.

Virgo

(Aug 24-Sep 23)

You’re bored at work. Looking for a more challenging position is worth your time. Spend a few moments reflecting on subjects that fascinate you. This will give you a good clue about where to apply for jobs. Contact companies involved with cutting-edge technology. The answers you seek can’t be found in a book, video or podcast. Look within for guidance. If you resent it when people thrive from doing the bare minimum, stop resenting them. Adopt their approach instead. You’ll have a big breakthrough.

(Oct 24-Nov 22)

Achieving domestic security is difficult when you’re feeling blue. If you want to buy a home, relocate to another area or end a lease, give yourself a day of pleasure. You enjoy an antique fair, but have struggled to find a replacement activity online that brings you the same joy. If your romantic or business partner disagrees with your plans, stay calm. You’ll find common ground after having a heart to heart conversation.

When you encounter resistance from your other half, don’t fight back. Take deep breaths and listen instead.

Interactions with a relative or neighbour will be strained.

You want them to take responsibility for their inconsiderate behaviour, but they insist they’ve done nothing wrong.

When you reach a stalemate like this, it’s wise to make a temporary retreat. Resist the temptation to binge on sugar, fat and alcohol. By giving your body the fresh produce and lean protein it needs to thrive, your mood will get better. At that point, you’ll hit upon a more effective way of solving this power struggle.

Clinging too tightly to money will make you miserable. It will also close you off from any future abundance that could be flowing into your life. Make a small donation to charity. When you remember how truly lucky you are, you’ll become magnetic to wealth. A child’s unusual behaviour is a ploy for attention. Rather than issuing stern punishments, try spending more quality time together. Arrange to do things that reflect their interests. Their outbursts will become things of the past.

Aquarius

(Jan 21-Feb 19)

Work is making you exhausted. It’s up to you to make healthier choices. By cutting back your professional responsibilities, your natural enthusiasm for life will return. If you keep accepting more assignments, you’ll suffer from burnout. Taking a break from working is strongly advised if you haven’t been furloughed. A family member’s erratic behaviour is making you angry. You’re tired of coming to this troublemaker’s rescue. The next time they demand your help, tell them to make other plans.

Pisces

(Feb 20-Mar 20)

Are you lonely? Stop waiting for people to reach out to you. Introduce yourself to new people you come across on social media. Join a dating group. It can be difficult for a natural introvert like you to break the ice. You will get better with practice. Harsh feedback could throw you off balance. Try not to take these remarks personally. Frustrated artists often lash out at those who exercise their imaginations on a regular basis. You’re not the object of their contempt; you’re the source of their envy.

Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29

Thursday, May 28, 2020

31

CARTOONS

Herman

Speed Bump

Frank & Ernest

BC

Scary Gary

Wizard of Id

For Better or for Worse

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Ziggy

32

Thursday, May 28, 2020

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