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.
The Popular Democratic Party (PDP) remained without an official president Monday after the party decided to go to a recount of votes amid allegations of numbers not adding up, irregular voting, and the refusal of the candidates to open cases carrying ballots.
On Sunday night, the PDP leadership decided to suspend the vote count and move to an official recount, given the difference of a handful of votes between Villalba Mayor Luis Javier Hernández Ortiz and Rep. Jesús Manuel Ortiz González. A third candidate, Morovis Mayor Carmen Maldonado González, conceded defeat earlier in the day.
PDP Secretary General Luis Vega Ramos stated that it was not possible to certify an official winner on Sunday due to the refusal of candidates Ortiz González and Hernández Ortiz, through their representatives, to open nine ballot cases to corroborate the information in the records that were in the State Election Commission’s possession.
“When they were there, the representatives of the candidates decided not to authorize the opening of those briefcases,” Vega Ramos said in a radio interview Monday.
irresponsible complaint. I could question the same about Aguada or Arecibo.”
Aguada Mayor Christian Cortés Feliciano is the campaign manager for Ortiz González.
NPP Vice President Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Nuñez said meanwhile that the election of Hernández Ortiz as PDP president with fewer than 25,000 votes would put his permanence in a precarious situation.
“The numbers are the numbers; the new president of the PDP won his position with less than 24,202 votes, if he finally prevails, of course,” Méndez said in a written statement. “That is a tiny amount and demonstrates a historical weakness. In 2020, Carlos ‘Charlie’ Delgado accumulated 563,280 votes in the primary for the governorship ([and party] presidency], infinitely more than what the current president got. Even [former San Juan mayor] Carmen Yulín Cruz, who came in third, obtained more votes (28,959) than Hernández.”
Ortiz González said he is aware that it was not proper procedure but that there needed to be more clarity on the numbers.
“We understood that there was a lot of confusion with the number system, and we understood that a counting process had to be carried out and, during the counting, those briefcases would be opened,” he said. “However, it did not seem right to us, amid the uncertainty and the comments, to open the briefcases.”
Fueling the controversy, New Progressive Party (NPP) Electoral Commissioner Vanessa Santo Domingo gave her opinion on an alleged act posted on Villalba’s social networks.
“In these minutes, there are more ballots in the ballot box than what was originally delivered to the polling station in the briefcase,” Santo Domingo said. “In the supposed document, it is stated that 475 voters voted, but in the briefcase, there were 852 ballots. The reason for the discrepancy in the numbers is not explained.”
Hernández Ortiz’s campaign manager, Rep. Jesús Santa Rodríguez, told NotiUno: “The other two candidates either had their representatives there or were blind. Therefore, it seems to me an
“This will be a questioned presidency with minimal support,” added the NPP minority leader in the lower chamber. “By contrast, the six congressional delegate candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2021 won far more votes than Hernández reached today (Sunday) and only one, Ricardo Rosselló, obtained more votes than the three combined through direct nomination. We are seeing the end of a political party.”
Health Secretary Carlos Mellado
López announced on Monday a review of all medical insurance contracts with providers to ensure health insurers pay costs agreed upon to doctors.
Mellado said he wanted to achieve a satisfactory solution to various situations that have put the health system in Puerto Rico at risk and ordered insurers and medical groups to “comply with rates and payments to providers.”
“In keeping with the priority of the governor, who has been emphatic about improving the public health scenario, I have focused on creating a fair environment, both for health service providers and for patients, Mellado said. “The increase in the fee is clear and is aimed at our primary physicians, specialists and subspecialists, which translates into direct service for our people. However, medical groups and insurers have been hampering the efforts of this administration. Therefore, I have ordered ASES [the commonwealth Health Insurance Administration] to redouble inspection efforts to ensure proper compliance with contracts.”
The Health secretary noted that they will review contracts and interview providers this coming week. He said medical providers or health insurers that are not in compliance may have their contracts canceled.
“My call to these groups is to make the adjustments before we reach them,” Mel-
lado said, after stressing that “the money is not for the insurers or for the owners of IPAs [independent practice associations].”
Mellado has been advocating in Washington, D.C. for more funding in Medicaid and other federal funds. He has had fruitful meetings with U.S.Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oreg.) and several members of Congress who share the vision of prioritizing
the island’s medical needs.
However, in achieving parity of funds and improving the health system, Mellado has urged insurers to support the medical class, with control being more rigorous than ever.
“Insurers play an important role in our health system, but the goal always has to be the patient and fair payment to providers. The federal funds we receive through the Medicaid program belong to the patients,”
he said. “We cannot allow private for-profit companies to continue running over suppliers, depriving them of fair payment for their services, with the ultimate goal of continuing to generate money. The insurers must comply with the fixed cost per patient that was agreed upon.”
The health chief has pointed out that this is the first administration since the Health Reform began in 1994 that has given priority to fair payment to health service providers, and equates them in importance to the services provided to patients.
“With far-reaching changes in the payment model for our providers in the new Plan Vital contract, we increased the fee per patient per month for primary physicians from $12 to $18 and raised the Medicare Fee Schedule from 70% to 80%,” Mellado said.
Also, with the additional funds for which the administration of Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia has worked, rates for specialists, and some subspecialists where there are critical access problems, were raised to 100% and the Medicare Fee Schedule for hospitals was increased by 5%. This is the highest rate paid at the state level and is reviewed annually, the Health chief said.
Mellado further pointed out that it is important to keep petitioning the federal government to continue mitigating the inequities in funding.
“We continue the fight to leave disparities behind,” he said. “We want our patients to receive the best services, fair compensation to our medical class and to have a first-class healthcare infrastructure.”
By THE STAR STAFF
The meditation group Conscious Pause invites the public to celebrate Mother’s Day differently, by participating in its monthly meeting of Meditation in the Morro, on Sunday, May 14 at 9 a.m.
“Mindfulness meditation helps us focus on the present, accepting thoughts, feelings and sensations without judging them, cultivating mindfulness and managing stress and anxiety,” the Conscious Pause group said in a statement.
Conscious Pause is not a religious group and welcomes people of diverse denominations, nationalities and genders.
The event will be held in the Santa Rosa Bastion, El Morro Viejo San Juan, in front of Ballajá. It is suggested that participants bring a mat or towel, hydration and the desire to connect with oneself and the community. The session is free of cost and chairs are allowed for those with difficulty sitting on the ground.
Public Safety Secretary Alexis Torres Ríos on Monday minimized the impact of the appointment of Christopher Graham as police financial supervision officer.
When speaking with journalists at La Fortaleza, Torres Ríos denied that Graham was appointed trustee, insisting he is a financial monitor. He said Graham has been working with police reform for more than 10 months.
“He’s going to be supervising (using) the judge’s motion,” the island’s public safety czar said.
The former FBI agent’s appointment was revealed Friday. Judge Francisco Besosa, as reported by the press, made the decision following an audit of 109 expenses between 2018 and 2021.
“The court has repeatedly made clear that it remains concerned about the handling of Reform-related expenses,” Besosa said in the order.
Asked about the need for the designation, Torres Ríos said Monday that it is related to “budget transactions” of $20 million allocated to the reform.
“As part of the processes, these reports are delivered to the three parties: the monitor, the federal Department of Justice and the Special Master,” he said. “He [Graham] is an auditor, supervisor. He is going to be working with the audits of the reform budget.”
Torres Ríos gave assurances that Graham’s appointment does not affect the police operationally.
“He has been working with the special master’s group for 10 months and those are his functions,” he said.
By THE STAR STAFF
Trujillo Alto Mayor Pedro Rodríguez
González issued a statement Monday on an administrative complaint of sexual harassment filed against him by a municipal employee on May 3.
“The legal and human resources team of the municipality are working diligently with the established protocol and in the greatest willingness to provide all the requested information so that this case can be resolved as soon as possible with
the confidentiality it deserves,” Rodríguez González said in a written statement.
The mayor said: “Confident that I have not committed any illegal or immoral act, my main focus is to continue leading the administrative, operational and service work, continue to move forward with the allocation of federal funds and direct large-scale projects for my Trujillo people.”
Rodríguez González added that he would not make further statements on the subject for the time being.
More than 500 volunteers, community leaders, church members and municipal public servants of Loíza participated over the weekend in the event “Dale Construye comUNIDAD,” organized by the Peace and Development Initiative, Taller Salud and the Municipality of Loíza. The volunteers organized themselves into groups to cover the 54 communities that make up the northeastern coastal municipality.
“This was a great initiative with the goal of promoting peace, communion and brotherhood among all our communities of Loíza, as well as the promotion of the joint work of community leadership and its residents,” said Mayor Julia Nazario Fuentes, who thanked the Taller Salud collective for the initiative, as well as civic organizations and the contribution of Senate President José Luis Dalmau Santiago.
“We are also grateful that consistently the levels of violence and crime in Loíza have been falling,” the mayor said. “We are currently the municipality with the best record on criminal acts, as evidenced by the statistics of the police at the regional level. In that sense, we continue working.”
Tania Rosario Méndez, executive director of Taller Salud, said that “in Taller Salud we envision a Puerto Rico with organized and active communities in defense of their right to a dignified life.” “Today we join the call to build community in Loíza by promoting respect, mutual support and solidarity,” she said. “This is why we fight and work every day for safe and prosperous communities that provide
opportunities for individual and collective development.”
During the visit to the Parcelas Vieques Community, Nazario Fuentes said “the reception of the residents was very positive in terms of everyone knowing the importance of educating to combat violence, in all its manifestations.”
“This is a task that requires opening our arms to everyone, working together and not giving up,” she said. “What we do today is an important link in a chain of working together.”
At the conclusion of the event, the volunteers gathered for a community prayer and to cry out loud for peace for Loíza.
“We mentioned the names of the 54 our communities, in gratitude for having participated in the meeting,” Nazario Fuentes said.
Family Secretary Ciení Rodríguez Troche reacted to the discovery of the body of an infant on the beach at Vacía Talega in the Piñones sector of Loíza. Forensic officials said Monday that the baby had yet to be identified.
“The raison d’être of the Family Department is to help and protect the lives of the most vulnerable people, such as our children, seniors and those with disabilities,” Rodríguez Troche said. “Each of us who make up this department prepares ourselves, in every possible way, to attend to every situation, [including] some that break our hearts. Unfortunately, one of these has taken place, … when the Puerto Rico police found the lifeless body of a baby, apparently newborn, wrapped in a sheet and wearing a cap, on the beach at Vacía Talega de Loíza.”
The Institute of Forensic Sciences (ICF) announced Monday that it had completed the autopsies of Sergio Palomino Ruiz and Franco Medina Angulo,
young Peruvians who died in a double homicide in San Juan this past weekend.
Palomino Ruiz was identified by relatives Sunday and his body was delivered to a funeral home on Monday. Medina Angulo was identified Monday afternoon by a person authorized by his family.
“The investigation of this case is ongoing, so this is the information we can disclose at this stage of the process,” an ICF spokesperson said in a written statement.
The double homicide occurred around 3:53 a.m. on Saturday, at the intersection of Manuel Corchado Street and Loíza Street in San Juan. Police received a call through the 9-1-1 Emergency System about injured people at the scene.
Upon arrival, officers found the body of a man with multiple gunshot wounds on the pavement. Another man was transported to
the Río Piedras Medical Center hospital and died while receiving medical assistance.
The men were identified as Medina Angulo, 29, and Palomino Ruiz, 28, both Peruvian nationals. The Homicide Division of the San Juan Criminal Investigations Corps is investigating the case.
President Joe Biden is set to welcome House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and other top congressional leaders to the White House today for a pivotal round of discussions about the nation’s taxes, spending and debt as a potentially catastrophic government default rapidly approaches.
The talks come just weeks before the United States is expected to run out of cash to pay its bills unless the nation’s borrowing cap is lifted. Like previous moments of brinkmanship, the discussions have echoes of 2011 and 2013, when congressional Republicans refused to raise the debt ceiling unless a Democratic president agreed to curb federal spending and reduce budget deficits. The same dynamic is at play now, but with a crucial difference: The parties share almost no common ground on tax and spending proposals that are meant to reduce the growth of the nation’s $31.4 trillion debt.
The meeting is not expected to produce anything close to final agreement on a fiscal plan that could include raising the debt limit. But even small points of consensus could be hard to come by.
Biden wants to expand federal spending and reduce future debt, largely by raising taxes on high earners and large companies. Republicans have passed a bill to cut federal discretionary spending — a category that includes national parks, education and more — and cancel tax breaks for certain low-emission energy sources that were part of Biden’s signature climate law. Republicans have promised to extend the 2017 tax cuts that were approved by President Donald Trump and are set to expire at the end of 2025.
While both sides say they want to reduce the nation’s future debt burden, there is almost no overlap in how they aim to achieve that outcome. The only point of agreement so far is on the one thing Biden and McCarthy consider off limits in budget talks: Social Security and Medicare, the primary sources of projected federal spending growth in the decades to come.
The gulf on fiscal issues is one of several complicating factors in discussions over the debt limit, which the government technically hit earlier this year. Officials have been employing what are essentially accounting maneuvers to keep paying all the government’s bills on time without going over the current
$31.4 trillion limit. But Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned in a letter last week that those efforts will no longer be possible as soon as June 1, risking a debt default that economists warn could spawn a financial crisis and recession.
Biden has refused to negotiate directly over the limit, saying Republicans must vote to raise it without conditions, given that it simply allows the government to pay for spending that lawmakers in both parties have approved. But he invited McCarthy and other congressional leaders to come to the White House on Tuesday for what he called a separate negotiation on fiscal policy — even though it is effectively linked to the debt limit drama.
Republicans say they will not raise the limit without significant curbs in spending. That is the same position they took in 2011 and 2013, under President Barack Obama, when Biden was vice president. They did not make similar demands to raise the limit when they controlled Congress at the start of Trump’s term and Republican votes helped to effectively raise the limit.
In 2011, Obama entered debt limit negotiations with a set of proposed spending cuts. They included a five-year freeze on discretionary spending not related to national security, a separate freeze on federal workers’ salaries for two years and the elimination of an air-to-air missile program and a fighting vehicle for the Marine Corps. Republicans
countered with a budget that featured deep cuts to federal health care spending, privatizing Medicare for future beneficiaries and new tax cuts.
Republicans ultimately agreed to raise the debt limit in exchange for budget changes centered on caps on discretionary spending — essentially modifying and expanding the spending freeze Obama had proposed in his budget.
Unlike Obama more than a decade ago, Biden has never agreed with Republicans’ argument that federal spending has grown too large. He has proposed to scale back the growth in government debt, but his aides reject the Republican contention that the current path of the debt poses a significant threat to economic growth.
Biden’s most recent budget included $3
trillion in proposals to reduce future deficits. The savings would come largely from tax increases on the wealthy and big corporations, along with cutting government spending on health care by broadening Medicare’s ability to negotiate prescription drug prices.
Republicans have rejected all the tax increases and criticized Biden this year for not proposing to spend even more on the military than he already did.
House Republicans have not put forth or passed a budget. The bill they passed last month would raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion or through March 2024, whichever came first. It would reduce future deficits by nearly $5 trillion, largely by freezing certain federal spending for a decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
It also included new supports for fossil fuels, a rollback of Biden’s climate change agenda and an end to the president’s attempt to cancel student loan debt for most borrowers, which appears likely to be struck down by the Supreme Court regardless.
Neither side has found anything to like in the other’s starting position. Republicans “didn’t produce a budget,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, who will join McCarthy at the White House meeting, told NBC News on Sunday. “What they did was produce a ransom note.”
Rep. Jodey C. Arrington of Texas, chair of the Budget Committee, countered that Biden would have to relent and negotiate with Republicans.
Biden “has negotiated, as vice president and as a senator, debt ceiling increases, with common-sense spending controls and fiscal reforms,” Arrington told Fox News on Sunday. “And we’re just asking him to be a responsible leader and do that again.”
Gobierno de Puerto Rico
El peticionario, Cantera Carmelo lnc., cuya dirección postal es PO Box 1052, Sabana Seca, Puerto Rico, 00952-1052, representado por el Sr. Hugo Meléndez Martínez, EH&S Manager, ha solicitado al Área de Calidad de Agua (ACA) del Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (DRNA), la renovación del Permiso de Operación UIC-9173-0057 para un (1) sistema de inyección subterránea (SIS) Clase VII, bajo las disposiciones del Reglamento para el Control de la Inyección Subterránea (RCIS) y la Ley Federal de Agua Potable Segura, según enmendada 42 USC 300f et seq. (LFAPS).
El SIS consiste de dos (2) tanques de retención conectados en serie. El primer tanque es de 11 pies de ancho por 12 pies de largo por 6 pies de profundidad líquida con una capacidad de 5,924 galones y el segundo tanque es de 12 pies de ancho por 12 pies de largo y 10.16 pies de profundidad líquida con una capacidad de 12,925 galones, para el almacenamiento exclusivamente de aguas sanitarias. El referido SIS estará ubicado en Cantera Carmelo Inc., localizado en la Carretera PR691, Km 2.4, Barrio Sabana en Vega Alta, Puerto Rico.
Luego de realizada la evaluación correspondiente de los documentos sometidos, el DRNA tiene la intención de renovar el permiso de operación para la instalación antes mencionada en conformidad con los requisitos del RCIS y de la LFAPS.
Esta notificación se hace para informar que el DRNA, ha preparado el borrador del permiso de forma tal que el público interesado pueda someter sus comentarios con relación al mismo. El permiso contiene las condiciones y prohibiciones necesarias para cumplir con los requisitos reglamentarios aplicables.
Copia de la solicitud del permiso de operación que sometió el peticionario ante el DRNA, el borrador del permiso y otros documentos relevantes estarán a la disposición del público para ser examinados, a petición del interesado mediante el envío de un correo electrónico a la siguiente dirección: inyeccionsubterranea@drna.pr.gov o visitando el ACA, cuya oficina está localizada en el Piso 3 Ala A del Edificio de Agencias Ambientales Cruz A. Matos, Carretera PR-8838, Km 6.3, Sector El Cinco, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. Copia de dichos documentos pueden adquirirse en el ACA, entre las 8:00 a.m. y las 4:00 p.m. de lunes a viernes o escribiendo a la siguiente dirección: Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales, San José Industrial Park, 1375 Avenida Ponce de León, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00926.
Las partes interesadas o afectadas pueden enviar sus comentarios por escrito al Sr. Ángel R. Meléndez Aguilar, Gerente Interino del ACA, o solicitar una vista pública por escrito a la Secretaria del DRNA, a la dirección postal o correo electrónico antes indicado.
Los comentarios por escrito o la solicitud de vista pública deberán ser sometidos al DRNA no más tarde de treinta (30) días a partir de la fecha de publicación de este aviso. La fecha límite para someter comentarios puede ser extendida si se estima necesario o apropiado para el interés público. La solicitud para una vista pública deberá señalar la razón o las razones que en la opinión del solicitante ameritan la celebración de la misma. De realizarse una vista pública los interesados o afectados tendrán una oportunidad razonable para presentar evidencia o testimonio sobre si se emite o deniega el permiso, si la Secretaria determina que dicha vista es necesaria o apropiada. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy 24 de abril de 2023.
Anaís Rodríguez Vega SecretariaEste anuncio se publica conforme a lo requerido por la Ley Núm. 416–2004, según enmendada, conocida como “Ley sobre Política Pública Ambiental”; los reglamentos aprobados a su amparo; y las leyes y reglamentos federales aplicables. El costo del aviso es sufragado por la entidad peticionaria.
San José Industrial Park, 1375 Ave Ponce de León, San Juan, PR 00926 ' (787) 999.2200 • 6 (787) 999.2303 • www.drna.pr.gov
the suspect, on May 7, 2023. The motive of the gunman so far remains a mystery.
By JOSH NEEDELMAN and ADAM GOLDMANResidents and authorities in a Dallas suburb Sunday began to process the shooting at a crowded mall in which police say a gunman killed at least eight people, including children, and injured at least seven others before a police officer killed him.
The shooting occurred Saturday at the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas, about 25 miles north of Dallas, and turned a busy afternoon of shopping into chaos.
Here is what we know about what happened.
How did the shooting unfold?
Gunfire erupted around 3:30 p.m. local time, police said, as throngs of shoppers filled the outdoor mall, which has more than 120 stores.
A video posted on social media appears to show a figure clad in black getting out of a silver car in a parking lot and opening fire.
Other videos circulating on social media show people dashing for shelter or running through a parking lot as loud popping noises are heard in the background.
Who is the gunman?
The Texas Department of Public Safety on Sunday identified the shooter as Mauricio Garcia, 33.
Garcia may have espoused white supremacist ideology, according to two law enforcement officials, but it was not yet known if the shooting was an act of domestic terrorism.
Garcia acted alone, authorities said; a police officer who was at the mall on an unrelated assignment heard the gunfire, rushed toward it and killed Garcia.
Police so far have not identified the officer.
Who were the victims?
Nine people, including the gunman, were pronounced
dead, police said.
Of those victims who were hospitalized, three were in critical condition and four were in stable condition.
A spokesperson for Medical City Healthcare, which was treating victims at its three trauma facilities, said the injured ranged in age from 5 to 61.
The victims have not been publicly identified.
In a statement Sunday, President Joe Biden said an unspecified number of children were among those killed. What did witnesses see?
Geoffrey Keaton was having lunch with his 16-year-old daughter at Fatburger in the mall when they heard gunshots.
“I got my baby girl under the counter to shield her, and then they got louder, like he was right there,” Keaton said.
Keaton said the restaurant’s manager had allowed customers to hide in the back, where they then exited through a rear door and ran to their cars.
A livestream from a local Fox television affiliate showed scores of shoppers being evacuated in an orderly fashion from shops.
“It was just kind of chaotic for a second,” said Kaleo Palakiko, 36. “Then when someone said, ‘Shooter,’ we all ran to the back of the store.”
Palakiko and his parents hid in a storeroom for about 45 minutes before they were released by the police and walked out with their hands in the air.
How does this shooting compare with others this year?
Saturday’s attack is the second-deadliest shooting of the year, after the Monterey Park, California, massacre Jan. 21, in which a gunman killed 11 people in a ballroom.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a database of shootings in the United States, there have been 199 “mass shootings,” which the archive defines as the shooting of at least four people, in 2023.
On April 28, a gunman killed five people in Cleveland, Texas, near Houston, after he was asked by neighbors to stop shooting in his yard. He was captured after a multiday search.
On May 1, a registered sex offender fatally shot six people, including his wife and three of her children, near Tulsa, Oklahoma, before turning the gun on himself.
On Wednesday, a gunman opened fire at a medical office building in Atlanta, killing one person and injuring four others. That, too, led to a search before the suspect was caught.
At least eight people were killed after the driver of a vehicle plowed into a crowd of migrants Sunday outside a center that serves homeless people in this city near the border with Mexico, authorities said.
Seven of the people who were struck “were dead on the spot” when police arrived, said Martin Sandoval, an investigator with the Brownsville Police Department. At least 10 people were injured, one of whom was airlifted to an area hospital. One person died later, the department confirmed Sunday night.
Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. of Cameron County said the group was outside the Ozanam Center, near a bus stop, when a Range Rover barreled into them around 8:30 a.m. The driver was injured and taken to a hospital, Treviño said.
The driver, who was not publicly identified and believed to be in his 30s or 40s, was charged with reckless driving and was detained, but more charges could be added, Sandoval said.
The man had been speaking to investigators in both English and Spanish, but he had also given the police different names and had not submitted to a breathalyzer test or provided his fingerprints, Sandoval said.
Police were still trying to determine how fast the vehicle was going and whether the crash was intentional. Police have ordered a warrant for the driver’s blood to determine if he was intoxicated, Sandoval said.
Police were also looking into reports that he had uttered anti-immigration remarks.
Brownsville, a border town in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, is no stranger to immigration. Situated in one of the poorest regions in the country with a majority Hispanic population, Brownsville has seen a bigger number of people crossing, with up to 1,500 migrants a day arriving in recent days by some estimates.
Treviño said the crash scene was “very graphic” based on videos he had seen of the aftermath and a briefing he had received.
“They looked like very serious injuries,” he said. “It’s a tragedy either way, but if it was intentional, it’s worse.”
All of the victims were believed to be
migrants from Venezuela, many of whom had been coming to the border in anticipation of the lifting of Title 42, a President Donald Trump-era pandemic rule that allowed for the easy expulsion of migrants.
Victor Maldonado, executive director of the Ozanam Center, said the driver ran a red light before crashing into the crowd of about 20 people. “All bodies just started going everywhere, all directions,” he said. A group of people detained the driver, who tried to flee, said Eyder Hernandez, one of those who stopped him. On the journey from Venezuela to Texas, the group of migrants became like a family, he said.
Michael Eduardo de Aponte Fonseca, who is from Caracas, Venezuela, said the driver had yelled anti-immigration insults to the group while he fled. One of the people hit by the car fell on Fonseca, he said.
“I saw what happened around me, and I didn’t want to see more,” he said. “I grabbed my things, and scared and in shock, I crossed the street.”
The Ozanam Center is a shelter frequented by migrants who stay for only a few days while they work to secure travel elsewhere, Maldonado said.
He said they stay in Brownsville to “do odd jobs and get a little money so they can move on.” But, he added, “Some of those folks tonight will not reach their destination.”
Voters are broadly dissatisfied with President Joe Biden’s job performance and are opposed to reelecting him, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll — but they don’t like their top Republican alternatives either, reflecting a deep disconnect between what Americans want and the options available to them.
In hypothetical general-election matchups, Biden, who announced his reelection campaign last month, trailed the two leading candidates in the Republican primary, former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Yet, neither of them exceeded 45% in the Post’s poll, with many voters saying they were undecided or naming a different candidate.
In the Biden-Trump matchup, 44% of respondents said they would definitely or probably vote for Trump, and 38% for Biden. In the Biden-DeSantis matchup, 42% said they would definitely or probably vote for
DeSantis, and 37% for Biden. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
As has been the case in polls for months, most Democrats and Democraticleaning voters — 58%, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.5 percentage points —
said they wanted the party to nominate “someone other than” Biden in 2024, although that preference in principle does not mean there is an actual candidate they prefer in practice. The Post did not ask voters about his primary challengers, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson, but Biden led them by huge margins in other surveys.
Trump had more than twice as much support as DeSantis in the Republican primary, but not a majority: He was at 43% and DeSantis at 20%, according to the poll. No other Republican had more than 2% support, with 27% undecided.
In terms of voter opinion, the numbers for Biden were bleak. His approval rating was a dismal 36%, with 56% disapproving of his job performance (including 47% strongly disapproving). More than 60% said he lacked the physical health and “mental sharpness” to serve effectively as president.
Trump fared better on those prompts: 64% of voters said he was sufficiently physically fit, and 54% said he was mentally
sharp. Voters also said, 54% to 36%, that Trump had done a better job handling the economy than Biden has.
Voters were more likely to see Biden as honest and trustworthy (41%) than to see Trump that way (33%), but neither man had majority support on that front.
A majority of voters said Trump should face criminal charges in three investigations: one regarding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, one regarding his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol, and another regarding his handling of classified documents. A plurality, 49%, supported the charges already filed against him in a fourth case related to hush-money payments to a porn star.
In one more sign of the disconnect between desires and political reality, sizable minorities of the voters who said that Biden wasn’t mentally sharp enough to be president or that Trump deserved to be criminally charged said they would definitely or probably vote for one of them anyway.
It’s not just posturing: As screenwriters continue their strike against Hollywood companies, the two sides remain a galaxy apart, portending a potentially long and destructive standoff.
“Any hope that this would be fast has faded,” said Tara Kole, a founding partner of JSSK, an entertainment law firm that counts Emma Stone, Adam McKay and Halle Berry as clients. “I hate to say it, but it’s going to be a while.”
The Writers Guild of America, which represents 11,500 screenwriters, went on strike last Tuesday after contract negotiations with studios, streaming services and networks failed. By the end of the week, as companies punched back at the union in the news media, and striking writers celebrated the disruption of shows filming from finished scripts, Doug Creutz, an analyst at TD Cowen, told clients that a “protracted affair seems likely.” He defined protracted as more than three months — perhaps long enough to affect the Emmy Awards, scheduled for Sept. 18, and delay the fall TV season.
The WGA has vowed to stay on strike for as long as it takes. “The week has shown, I think, just how committed and fervent writers’ feelings are about all of this,” Chris Keyser, a chair of the WGA negotiating committee, said in an interview Friday. “They’re going to stay out until something changes because they can’t afford not to.”
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of studios, streaming services and networks, has maintained that it hopes “to reach a deal that is mutually beneficial to writers and the health and longevity of the industry.” Privately, however, member companies say they are prepared to weather a strike of at least 100 days. The most recent writers strike, which began in 2007 and ended in 2008, lasted that long.
“It’s fair to say there’s a pretty big gap,” Bob Bakish, CEO of Paramount Global, told analysts and investors on a conference call Thursday. Paramount and its CBS subsidiary are prepared to “manage through this strike,” he added, “even if it’s for an extended duration.”
Both sides have insisted that the other needs to make the first move to restart talks. None are scheduled. For the moment, media companies have turned to contract renewal negotiations with the Directors Guild of America, which start Wednesday. That contract expires June 30.
Like writers, directors want more money, especially regarding residual payments (a type of royalty) from streaming services, which have rapidly expanded overseas. Before streaming, writers and directors (and other creative contributors, including actors) could receive residual payments whenever a show was licensed, whether that was for syndication, an international deal or DVD sales. In the streaming era, as global services including Netflix and Amazon have been reluctant to license their series, those distribution arms have been cut off.
In addition to raises, however, writers want media companies — Netflix, in particular — to make structural changes to the way they do business. The companies — Netflix, in particular — say that is a bridge too far.
Writers also want companies to agree to guarantee that artificial intelligence will not encroach on writers’ credits and compensation. Such guarantees are a nonstarter, the studio alliance has said, instead suggesting an annual meeting on advances in the technology. “AI raises hard,
important creative and legal questions for everyone,” the studios said Thursday. “It’s something that requires a lot more discussion, which we have committed to doing.”
Keyser’s response: Go pound sand.
“This is exactly what they offered us with the internet in 2007 — let’s chat about it every year, until it progresses so far that there’s nothing we can do about it,” he said.
In that case, have fun on the picket lines, studio executives have said privately: It’s going to be hot out there in July.
With the exception of late-night shows, which immediately went dark, Bakish assured Wall Street, “consumers really won’t notice anything for a while.” Networks and streaming services have a large amount of banked content. Reality shows, news programs and some scripted series made by overseas companies are unaffected by the strike. Most movies scheduled for release this year are well past the writing stage.
Shares climbed Friday for every company involved with the failed contract talks; investors tend to like it when costs go down, which is what happens when production slows, as during a strike. If the strike drags into July, analysts pointed out, studios can exit pricey deals with writers under “force majeure” clauses of contracts.
“The sorry news for writers is that, in declaring a strike, they may in fact be helping the streaming giants and their parent companies,” Luke Landis, a media and internet analyst at SBV MoffettNathanson, wrote in a report Wednesday.
Writers, however, succeeded in making things difficult for studios over the first week. Apple TV+ was forced to postpone the premiere of “Still,” about Michael J. Fox and his struggle with Parkinson’s disease, because Fox refused to cross a picket line. In Los Angeles, writers picketed the Apple TV+ set for “Loot,” starring Maya Rudolph, causing taping to halt. In New York, similar actions disrupted production for shows such as “Billions,” the Showtime drama. Other affected shows included “Stranger Things” on Netflix, “Hacks” on HBO Max and the MTV Movie & TV Awards telecast Sunday, which was scheduled to go forward without a host after Drew Barrymore pulled out, citing the strike.
“The corporations have gotten too greedy,” Sasha Stewart, a writer for the Netflix documentary series, “Amend: The Fight for America” as well as “The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore,” said from a picket line last week. “They want to break us. We have to show them we will not be broken.”
‘It’s going toMembers of the Writers Guild of America and supporters picket outside a sound stage at Brooklyn Stages where the “FBI” television show was filming in New York, May 5, 2023. Among the writers’ demands is that studios will not let artificial intelligence encroach on writers’ credit or compensation.
Wall Street’s main indexes inched lower on Monday as Tyson Foods and Catalent led falls on the benchmark S&P 500 ahead of a key inflation reading this week, while a rebound in regional lenders ran out of steam by midday trading.
Shares of Catalent Inc tumbled 26.6% as the contract drug manufacturer saw lower revenue and core profit in 2023, while Tyson Foods dropped 15.6% on posting a surprise second-quarter loss and cutting its annual revenue forecast.
Also weighing on the main indexes was a 1.1% decline in shares of Microsoft Corp, while Apple Inc was flat after rising 4.7% on Friday following upbeat results.
“(Growth stocks are down) on nothing other than a mild profit-taking, given the strong move that we saw last week,” said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities.
The spotlight this week, however, will be on the Labor Department’s inflation reading on Wednesday, which is expected to show the consumer price index (CPI) likely climbed 0.4% in April after gaining 0.1% in March. Producer prices, weekly jobless claims and consumer sentiment data are all lined up through the week.
Data points this week will help investors not only gauge whether the Federal Reserve’s aggressive tightening cycle - including its most recent 25 basis point hike last week - is working towards tamping down inflation but also if fears of stagflation are founded.
“The bigger picture is inflation will remain higher for longer and that we are heading into a recession. Whether that’s hard or soft remains to be seen, but until there’s something to disprove that bigger picture thesis, the overall market is going to remain somewhat range bound,” James added.
At 11:50 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 65.63 points, or 0.19%, at 33,608.75, the S&P 500 was down 1.10 points, or 0.03%, at 4,135.15, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 16.93 points, or 0.14%, at 12,218.48.
A rally in regional banks’ shares proved short-lived, with PacWest Bancorp rising only 6.5% after gaining as much as about 30% earlier in the session after. The lender sharply cut its quarterly dividend to boost capital.
The KBW Regional Banking index fell 2.2% after posting its best single-day performance in seven weeks on Friday.
Shares of regional banks tumbled for much of last week on worries tied to the collapse of First Republic Bank.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s Class B
shares rose 1.4% after posting a $35.5 billion first-quarter profit, reflecting gains from stocks such as Apple.
American Airlines Group Inc rose 4.1% after J.P. Morgan raised its rating to “overweight” from “neutral”.
Shares of Zscaler Inc soared 21.2% after the cloud security company raised its annual forecast.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.15-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 1.24-to-1 ratio
on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 10 new 52-week highs and four new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 47 new highs and 53 new lows.
Apple drove gains in other tech shares, but all 11 major S&P sectors were higher on the day.
The estimated decline in first-quarter S&P 500 earnings has been getting smaller since the start of the reporting season and is now at just 0.7% year-over-year, Refinitiv data showed on Friday.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.57 billion shares, compared with the 10.70 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.
Russia attacked Kyiv with nearly three dozen drones overnight, Ukrainian officials said Monday, one of the largest waves to directly target the Ukrainian capital and part of a broader aerial assault on towns and cities across the country.
Ukraine’s military said that it shot down all 35 drones, including 30 over Kyiv, in what was the fourth large-scale assault aimed at the city this month. At least five people were injured when drone wreckage fell onto buildings, Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, said in a statement.
“This was the most massive drone attack on the capital during the entire war,” Klitschko later told reporters, saying that 36 were shot down over the capital. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the discrepancy between his tally and the military’s, although conflicting numbers are common in the aftermath of an attack.
The assault on Kyiv began after midnight. For nearly four
hours, Ukrainian air defense teams raced to shoot down the drones, lighting up the night sky with tracer fire from antiaircraft guns. Each time a drone was downed, an explosion rattled windows and shook buildings. Residents huddled in
bomb shelters, hallways and bathrooms until the all-clear was given.
It was part of a broader Russian attack that also targeted the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa with 16 missiles in the past day, the Ukrainian military said in a statement Monday.
The Ukrainian Red Cross said that a warehouse storing its humanitarian aid was “destroyed” in the Odesa region, in southern Ukraine, and that it had been forced to suspend some of its work there.
Russian forces have been stepping up attacks on Ukrainian civilians as Moscow braces for Kyiv to launch a counteroffensive now that winter has ended. Ukrainian officials have warned that Moscow may try to provoke an attack timed to Tuesday, the annual May 9 Victory Day holiday that marks the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany. President Vladimir Putin has in years past turned that celebration into a showcase for modern Russian military might and a venue to spread his vision of Russian nationalism.
The death toll of last week’s deadly floods and landslides in Congo climbed to more than 400 people, the government said Monday, as rescue workers and family members searched through debris and mud for victims and survivors of the disaster.
The flooding began Thursday, as heavy rains pushed rivers to overflow their banks, causing rushing water and mud to flow into villages, washing away homes and ravaging farmland.
“The situation is catastrophic,” said Remy Kasindi, a representative for a civil society group in South Kivu, where the floods took place. “It’s a humanitarian crisis that troubles our consciences.”
Kasindi said that survivors were looking for their family members in the mud, and that some bodies were pulled from nearby Lake Kivu.
Nearly 3,000 families were left homeless by floods and landslides, with their houses damaged or destroyed, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. Twelve hundred homes were completely razed, the
office said. On Monday, Congo observed a day of national mourning for the victims of the flooding.
Before the flood, people from the region had traveled to the area to sell their agricultural products at a market there, making in harder to count the total number of the missing, rescuers said. On Monday, bodies were still being pulled out of the rubble.
Several news media outlets reported that authorities had to bury the bodies in mass graves.
Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Congolese winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, pleaded on Twitter for the dead to be treated with dignity.
“Exhume the bodies, identify them by DNA, bury them individually and not in a mass grave,” he wrote.
The floods hit the Kalehe Territory in South Kivu, and specifically the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi. The area affected by the floods had welcomed thousands of displaced people from the province of Nord-Kivu, which has been plagued by fighting between the Congolese army and rebel forces.
While the dry season for this region is fast approaching, the next 10 days look likely to have more rainfall, some of which could be higher than normal. Any rain, above average or not, that falls on the already saturated ground could increase the risk of flooding because the land and rivers already have abundant water and the rainfall has nowhere to go. The area is also mountainous, increasing the risk of landslides.
The villages are next to the shore of Lake Kivu, which separates Congo from Rwanda. Last week, more than 120 people were killed in devastating floods and landslides caused by heavy rains in Western Rwanda.
On Saturday, during a visit to Burundi, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said that the floods
were “yet another illustration of accelerating climate change and its disastrous impact on countries that have done nothing to contribute to global warming.”
Experts have said that while linking specific events to climate change requires extensive analysis, climate change has made extreme rainfalls more frequent and intense.
Last year, more than 140 people were killed by floods and landslides in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, and Central Africa as a region has recently been afflicted by deadly floods.
Local and international charities have provided help to the area, trying to bring food or health assistance to prevent the spread of waterborne disease. Cholera is endemic in the area, the United Nations said.
Doctors Without Borders strengthened its presence to help the wounded, and the Red Cross was deployed in the search of bodies and to help with the organization of the burials.
The war in Ukraine has prompted officials across Russia to scale back annual celebrations of Victory Day, the country’s most important national holiday, with more than 20 cities forgoing military parades and organizers calling off a popular nationwide march to honor veterans.
Security concerns were most often cited for the rash of cancellations today’s events, but some analysts suggested that the unease had as much to do with fears about domestic disturbances.
It is an unprecedented step in a country where the parades, which commemorate the triumph of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany in World War II, have become a signature event for President Vladimir Putin.
Over the years, he has cast the day not just as a celebration of a historic victory but also of Russia’s present-day need to thwart the Western forces he says are still trying to destroy it. More recently, he has tried to wrap Ukraine into that narrative, falsely depicting it as a Nazi redoubt.
The country’s biggest parade, outside the Kremlin on Red Square, is still expected to be the usual display of raw military might, with row upon row of carefully choreographed soldiers marching amid weapons ranging from vintage tanks to intercontinental ballistic missiles. Putin is also scheduled to address the nation.
But outside of Moscow, a recent spate of drone attacks against military or infrastructure targets in cities like Sevastopol in Crimea, home port of the Black Sea fleet, as well as other attacks in the regions bordering Ukraine, have given officials pause. Not even the Kremlin has been immune, with two drones destroyed over Putin’s office last week.
In announcing the cancellations, various regional governors have cited “security concerns.” They have usually not gone into detail, but in Belgorod, a region bordering Ukraine, the governor suggested that slow-moving
military vehicles and marching soldiers might make for inviting targets.
“There will be no parade in order not to provoke the enemy with a large amount of equipment and soldiers crowded in the center of Belgorod,” said the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov. “The refusal to hold the parade is related to the safety of the residents of the region.”
Many areas have banned drone flights during the events, and the Readovka news outlet on Telegram reported that national guard units were issued anti-drone weapons.
Igor Artamonov, the governor of the Lipetsk region, which is also near Ukraine, said his decision should not be misinterpreted.
“We are not afraid, we are not raising our hands,” he wrote on Telegram. “No neo-Nazi scum will be able to mar the great Victory Day. But we also have no right to put people at risk. It’s clear to everyone that parades are held in strictly defined squares at strictly defined times.”
The cancellation of the nationwide “Im-
mortal Regiment” march, when ordinary Russians take to the streets to display pictures of their veteran forebears, is perhaps the most striking change. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the march was canceled as a “precautionary measure” against possible attacks.
Some governors said they did not want to gather large numbers of people in the midst of war. But some analysts suggested that the Kremlin might be nervous that putting big crowds of Russians on the streets at such an uneasy time could lead to civil unrest, even with Russia’s draconian wartime laws against protests.
It might be especially volatile, analysts said, if thousands of people show up with pictures of those newly killed in the war, revealing the extent of a toll that the government has tried to conceal. Some portraits of sol-
diers killed in Ukraine were carried during last year’s celebrations, but the numbers were far smaller then, just two months into the fighting.
“People will not come out with portraits of their great-grandfathers,” Elvira Vikhareva, a political activist, wrote on Facebook. “People will come out with portraits of their fathers, sons and brothers. The regiment will not turn out to be ‘immortal,’ but very much mortal, and the scale will be visible.”
Whatever the reason, Russian officials have been trying to promote an alternative, suggesting that people upload the portraits to a special website or affix portraits of their veteran forebears to their vehicles and apartment windows.
Some local leaders far from Ukraine said they were canceling their parades in solidarity with front-line regions. In the Pskov region, a home to paratroopers, Gov. Mikhail Vedernikov said that the sound of the fireworks would bother recuperating soldiers and that the money would be better spent on their needs.
Other regions planned to go forward with festivities, but on a smaller scale. In St. Petersburg, there will be no air force flyover, for example.
Some pro-war bloggers have groused that the men and equipment traditionally featured in many parades would be more useful at the front, shoring up the troubled war effort.
Vedernikov suggested a twist, saying, “We must not celebrate victory, but do everything possible to bring it closer.”
China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, met with the U.S. ambassador to China in Beijing on Monday in a possible hint at a thaw in relations between the two powers after months of growing tension.
Qin told the ambassador, Nicholas Burns, that a “top priority” was to stabilize relations, “avoid a downward spiral, and prevent accidents between China and the United States,” according to China’s official readout of the meeting.
The meeting marked one of the highestlevel engagements between American and Chinese officials since relations soured in February following the appearance, and subsequent downing, of a high-altitude Chinese balloon over the continental United States. The Pentagon said China had used the balloon for spying; Beijing has insisted that the balloon was a civilian airship that had been blown off course, and has accused the United States of overreacting.
Relations deteriorated further after Secretary of State Antony Blinken publicly warned in February that China might be preparing to give weapons and ammunition to Russia for its war on Ukraine, a claim that Beijing dis-
missed as fake news.
In the three months since, China has ramped up a campaign of anti-American rhetoric and tried to drive a wedge between the United States and Europe, which is divided over how closely to align with Washington’s more hawkish policies toward Beijing.
In Qin’s meeting with Burns, the Chinese
official accused Washington of derailing progress in the relationship following the meeting of President Joe Biden and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, in November in Bali, Indonesia. Qin blamed “a series of erroneous words and deeds” by the United States for undermining “the hard-won positive momentum of SinoU.S. relations,” according to the Chinese readout.
Qin said he hoped the Biden administration could “reflect deeply” and push the relationship “back on track.” To do that, Washington needed to respect “China’s bottom line” on issues such as Taiwan, the self-governing island claimed by Beijing. Qin said the United States was “supporting and condoning ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces.”
China reacted angrily to a visit last month by President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan to the United States. Tsai met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in what was the highest-level in-person gathering for a leader of Taiwan in the United States since Beijing established relations with Washington in 1979.
In a post on Twitter, Burns said he and Qin “discussed challenges in the U.S.-China relationship and the necessity of stabilizing ties and expanding high-level communication.”
The meeting between Qin and Burns comes after months of failed efforts by the United States to reengage with China, and it follows recent expressions of optimism by Blinken that he may be able to reschedule a visit to Beijing that Washington had called off after the balloon incident.
At a virtual event last week, Burns said the United States and China needed “deeper channels” of communication and that Washington was “ready to talk.”
While China had largely frozen highlevel contacts with the United States, Xi has been working to shore up ties with U.S. allies and burnish his image as a global statesman. He has worked to restore ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, hosted President Emmanuel Macron of France and called President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine. China also announced Monday that Qin would visit Germany, France and Norway this week.
“It’s a positive sign they met,” said Paul Haenle, a former director for China on the National Security Council in both the Bush and Obama administrations.
Haenle said the meeting with Burns will benefit Qin when he travels to Europe, where there have been calls for China and the United States to cool tensions between them.
At least 22 people, many of them children, were killed after a double-decker tourist boat capsized in the southern Indian state of Kerala on Sunday evening. Rescuers had found eight people with injuries by Monday morning, with four of them in critical condition.
Some passengers were trapped under the vessel, which was concluding a 5-mile voyage in the estuary of the Purapuzha River near the town of Tanur on India’s southwestern coast. The boat was carrying more than 40 sightseers, according to survivors, when it capsized at around 7 p.m.
“The boat was overcrowded,” said Abdul Nazar, a local
police officer.
It did not have enough life jackets, other officials as well as survivors said. Local media reported that the vessel also lacked a required safety certificate and was not permitted to operate that late in the day.
Among the victims were seven children, the youngest 10 months old, and 11 victims were from one family, according to authorities, who haven’t been able to verify how many people were aboard the boat at the time of the accident. Five passengers swam ashore and were being treated at a nearby hospital, according to V. Abdurahiman, a local legislator, who is overseeing the rescue operation.
Videos posted on social media showed hundreds of local residents assisting with rescue efforts in the dark. The red-andwhite boat was initially stuck in mud but was later brought to shore using long ropes tied to excavators.
Police said a family living near the shore informed them about the accident after they heard people screaming. Officials from the National Disaster Response and the navy continued to look for the missing Monday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India said he was “pained by the loss of lives” and announced a bereavement payment to the victims’ families, according to his office.
The boat service had started only a few months ago, part of a state government initiative to increase tourism in the area. Police said they are investigating the boat’s owner, who has gone
missing, for culpable homicide.
Boat accidents are not unusual in Kerala and are often due to vessels carrying too many passengers because of lax regulations and implementation of safety rules. In September 2009, a double-decker passenger boat capsized, resulting in the deaths of 45 people, including seven children, in the Idukki district of Kerala. The cause of the disaster was the overloaded boat.
In recent years, state authorities have taken measures to implement several safety measures, including installing surveillance cameras, to prevent the tragedies.
The possibility that the federal government will soon be unable to finance its normal operations has become very real. As I wrote in my last column, this won’t be because investors view U.S. debt as excessive; America in 2023 isn’t Greece in 2009. If it happens, it will be because Republicans in the House are trying to use the debt ceiling to extort policy concessions they would have no chance of enacting through the normal legislative process.
In such a situation, it’s natural to consider possible end runs around the debt ceiling that the Biden administration could use to meet U.S. commitments without the cooperation of Congress. Indeed, it would be irresponsible not to consider these possibilities. It would be especially irresponsible to reject them because they sound undignified: Crashing the world economy for fear of looking silly would be unforgivable.
And while there may be legal and political obstacles to using clever budget tricks to avoid political extortion, I think it’s important to understand that the economic arguments I’ve been hearing against these tricks, sometimes from people who really should know better, are just wrong — embarrassingly so.
There are two main gimmicks that have been widely discussed: premium bonds and platinum coins. Premium bonds are harder to explain, which may make them a more likely route, simply because the platinum coin offers an easier
target for false narratives. But let me start with the coin.
For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, there’s a law specifying which coins the Treasury Department may issue, and it gives the Treasury secretary essentially unlimited discretion in the design and denomination of platinum coins. Obviously, this law wasn’t intended as an answer to debt ceiling extortion; but then, the debt ceiling wasn’t intended to serve as an instrument of extortion, either.
So here’s how it would go: Treasury mints a platinum coin with a value of $1 trillion. (No, it needn’t include $1 trillion worth of platinum.) It deposits this coin with the Federal Reserve, which adds $1 trillion to Treasury’s account at the Fed. The government can then draw on this account to pay its bills without having to issue new debt.
It may sound silly, but as I said, this is no time to be worried about dignity. What I’ve been hearing are two objections that sound substantive: that minting the coin would be inflationary, and that it would amount to the Fed giving the government a zero-interest loan. Both objections are just wrong.
What is true is that as the government drew down its account, the Fed would essentially be creating money out of thin air, which sounds inflationary — and would be, if that were the end of the story. But the Fed would almost certainly “sterilize” the monetary effects of the transaction, selling off some of its immense asset holdings to remove the newly created money from the system. It would have no problem doing this, since the Fed owns $5 trillion in U.S. government securities.
The thing is, if you consider the Fed to be a branch of the federal government — which it is from a fiscal point of view, even if it has considerable policy independence — when the Fed sells off some of its bond portfolio, it’s just as if the Treasury Department were selling debt the usual way. Minting the coin is basically a way to continue normal borrowing via a backdoor route that bypasses the debt ceiling.
Once you understand this, you also realize the falsity of the second claim: that if the Fed were to accept the coin, it would be giving the government a zero-interest loan. No, the Fed wouldn’t charge interest on Treasury withdrawals, but it would sell bonds to sterilize these withdrawals, and in so doing lose the interest it would have earned on those bonds.
But here’s the thing: The money the Fed earns on its portfolio is, by law, remitted to the Treasury. So the interest lost by the Fed would, in the end, be a cost to the Treasury — exactly the same cost the Treasury would have paid in interest if it had sold those bonds itself. So, no, this wouldn’t be a zero-interest loan, not in any meaningful sense.
Bottom line: Under the surface strangeness, minting the coin is just a way to permit de facto borrowing despite the debt limit.
OK, on to premium bonds.
The U.S. government finances itself largely by selling notes and bonds (10 years or less of maturity is a note, more
than that a bond). These securities combine a par value — the amount that will be paid when the note or bond matures — with an interest coupon, a sum paid twice a year. Notes and bonds are auctioned off, often for more than their par value, because sometimes market interest rates are lower than the face interest rate — the annual coupon as a percentage of par value — so investors are willing to pay a premium.
Normally this is a small factor, because interest rates on newly issued notes are set close to prevailing market rates. But that doesn’t have to be the case.
So when a $100 10-year note matures, why not issue a new note, also with a par value of $100 — so that officially we aren’t adding to the debt — but with a face interest rate of, say, 10%, far above market rates (which are currently 3.37%). This new note would sell for much more than its face value, so Treasury would in fact be raising a substantial amount of money, even though it isn’t officially increasing the debt.
And there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with selling debt instruments for more than their par value. Until 2015, part of Britain’s debt consisted of consols, bonds that pay a fixed coupon every year but never mature and therefore have no par value at all.
But, but, you splutter, that’s cheating! Shouldn’t we measure debt by its market value, not an unrealistic par value? Well, that’s not what the law says.
Also, if you want to start using market value as your debt measure, you should be aware that the market value of U.S. debt has actually declined sharply in recent years.
Why? Because the government issued a number of long-term notes and bonds back when interest rates were considerably lower than they are now, and these securities now sell at a discount. So are we supposed to use market values to measure debt when they go up, but not when they go down?
You might ask how we’re supposed to enforce a debt ceiling if the government can play games with the definition of debt. But the answer, of course, is that we shouldn’t have a debt ceiling. The government should make decisions about taxing and spending, and consider the fiscal consequences, without creating an additional choke point that extremists can weaponize.
Again, I realize that all of this can sound strange, and there may be legal or political obstacles to doing end runs around the debt ceiling. But people who say that such end runs would be unsound from an economic point of view just haven’t done their homework.
LA FORTALEZA – Agencias de emergencias y respuesta se reunieron el lunes con el gobernador Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia para discutir los preparativos del gobierno ante la próxima temporada de huracanes.
“En el día de hoy, por petición del gobernador, precisamente es colocar el plan de trabajo de esta temporada de huracanes”, dijo el comisionado del Negociado de Manejo de Emergencias y Administración de Desastres (Nmead), el doctor Nino Correa Filomeno en conferencia de prensa.
“La reunión fue muy positiva, muchas preguntas de cómo ha sido nuestra experiencia en even-
SAN JUAN – La Federación de Béisbol de Puerto Rico (FBPR) dedicó el pasado fin de semana al astro boricua, Roberto Clemente, en medio de la fase culminante de la temporada 2023 del Béisbol Superior Doble A.“Con este merecido reconocimiento, queremos resaltar la huella histórica que marcó Roberto Clemente en la Federación de Béisbol como jugador de la franquicia Mulos de Juncos para la temporada del año 1952, como dirigente del Equipo Nacional en la Copa Mundial del año 1972 y como ami-
go de nuestro eterno presidente, licenciado Osvaldo Gil Bosch”, indicó el presidente federativo doctor José Quiles en declaraciones escritas.
Como parte de las actividades de dedicatoria de este fin de semana, se le autorizó a todas las franquicias utilizar el número 21 en sus uniformes.
Los Gigantes presentaron la ceremonia principal en el Estadio Roberto Clemente Walker de Carolina, ciudad del legendario jugador del Salón de la Fama de las Grandes Ligas.
La FBPR fue la primera organización que retiró el número 21 de todos sus torneos, desde 1973.
tos de lluvias”, añadió.
Correa Filomeno explicó que han trabajado en planes junto al Departamento de Seguridad Pública (DSP), agencias gubernamentales y comunidades para crear talleres de preparación individual y de grupos. El Departamento de la Vivienda colaborará en comunicaciones en comunidades especiales.
“Estamos buscando que… en las mismas emergencias que hemos recibido podamos ser cada una de ellas más proactivas con lo que va a ser nuestra respuesta”, expresó. Participaron en la reunión el secretario del DSP, Alexis Torres; el secretario de Vivienda, William Rodríguez; y el director de COR3, Manuel Laboy.
SAN JUAN – El secretario del Departamento de Hacienda, Francisco Parés Alicea, informó el lunes que los ingresos netos del Fondo General correspondientes al mes de marzo de 2023 alcanzaron la cifra de en 1,063.4 millones de dólares, rebasando la proyección estimada para el mes de marzo por 15.3 millones de dólares o 1.5. por ciento más.
Los recaudos durante los primeros nueve meses del presente año fiscal han sido fluctuantes en relación con el desempeño de los recaudos en el periodo fiscal 2022. No obstante, durante el periodo acumulado a marzo, los ingresos de este año aún exceden lo recibido en el pasado año en 187 millones de dólares o por 2.3 por ciento.
Dichas fluctuaciones responden a dos factores principalmente, el primero, fue el paso por la Isla del huracán Fiona en septiembre, el que supuso el diferimiento de ciertos pagos contributivos para el mes de octubre, pospuestos hasta diciembre. Esta reducción se tradujo en un
incremento superior para el mes de diciembre que compensó la pérdida que se reflejaba en octubre.
El segundo factor es, la transición voluntaria de las empresas multinacionales del arbitrio de la Ley 1542010[1] a la Ley 52-2022. Esta transición comenzó a partir del mes de febrero y afecta a tres renglones contributivos. Estos son: (1) el Arbitrio a las Foráneas bajo la Ley 154, (2) la Contribución sobre Ingresos de Corporaciones y (3) la Retenida a no Residentes. Esto es así dado que, la Ley 52 o el “nuevo régimen”, ofrece a estas empresas mediante enmienda de sus decretos, un nuevo marco estatutario basado en contribuciones sobre ingresos y la retención sobre ingresos a no residentes.
Cabe señalar, que la mayoría de estas entidades se acogieron a las disposiciones de la Ley 52[2], razón por la cual se observa una caída notable en los recaudos del arbitrio a foráneas a partir de febrero. Durante el periodo acumulado a marzo, lo recibido por este concepto este año fue inferior en 391.8 millones de dólares o 32.1 por ciento menos.
Hacienda recauda $15.3 millones más que lo proyectado para el mes de marzo del Año Fiscal 2023
narratives braid together as the movie unfolds at breakneck speed. Rafa (Luis Tosar), a lawyer, is trying to balance obligations to his pregnant wife, his stepson and an Arab woman whose daughter has been taken in by social services. Azucena (Cruz) is a young mother desperately fighting an eviction order with the help of a grassroots activist group. And Germán (Font Garcia), a daily-wage laborer, struggles to make ends meet while his estranged mother faces a foreclosure order.
the film’s uproarious climax, in which the plot’s various high jinks snowball into a dance number about women’s empowerment. (Stream it on Ovid.)
This month’s picks include a Spanish drama starring Penélope Cruz, a campy French feminist comedy, a ’90s-set coming-of-age film from the Philippines and more.
‘Cette Maison’
The debut feature by Haitian Canadian director Miryam Charles opens with a series of flickering tropical images — a bright orange house nestled among verdant green hills; a chair in a living room, streaked by a golden sun — that dissolve into rain-streaked glimpses of the streets of New England. On the soundtrack, a hushed voice whispers in French about the possibility of a “fluid journey through time and space,” inducting us into what some might consider a séance, and others, a movie.
The specter haunting the dreamlike “Cette Maison” is the mysterious death of Charles’ 14-year-old cousin, Tessa, in Connecticut in 2008. She was found hanged in her room, and an autopsy revealed signs of violent assault, but the case was never solved. Around that open wound, Charles builds a speculative fable that weaves between Haiti, Connecticut and Quebec, where the filmmaker grew up. In staged, theatrical tableaux, actors enact the circumstances of Tessa’s death and its aftermath; the gaps in the story are filled in by imagined scenes of the life Tessa could have lived, in Haiti or the United States. This play with memory and longing opens into broader, poetic reflections on immigrant life. As Charles dramatizes the night of Quebec’s 1995 referendum on whether or not to separate from Canada, in which a yes vote might have caused her family to move to Connecticut, “Cette Maison” considers the predicament of being born in one home and dying in another; of leaving in search of new futures only to have them cut brutally short. (Stream it on the Criterion Channel.)
‘On the Fringe’
A towering Penélope Cruz stars in this Spanish drama, directed by Juan Diego Botto, about how states fail their most vulnerable citizens — and how people have to pick up the slack by binding together. Three distinct
Weaving through these strands in a frenetic, handheld style, “On the Fringe” evokes the precarity of the lives of the poor: One wrong move or one missed bill could land them on the streets, in jail, or separated from their families. The film rushes forth like a thriller, but each scene, each conversation, is freighted with ethical dilemmas. Can one be a good family man and a good activist? Is it worth it to fight losing battles as a matter of principle? The film has no easy answers, no happy endings, but its stirring visions of solidarity attest to a simple truth: At the end of the day, all we have is each other. (Stream it on Netflix.)
‘How to Be a Good Wife’
The year is 1968; the setting, France. In Paris, revolution rages through the streets, led by feminists, workers and student activists calling for change. In the northeastern region of Alsace, however, the prim Paulette Van der Beck (Juliette Binoche) presides over a bastion for the patriarchy: an academy for homemakers. With help from her spoiled husband, her kooky sister-in-law and a comically righteous nun, Paulette teaches young women the keys to being a good wife: obedience, discretion, economy, tolerance for mediocre sex. Until an unexpected accident — so deliciously campy that I dare not spoil it — rocks the foundation of the school, unleashing the longrepressed desires of the students and teachers alike.
Martin Provost’s rollicking dramedy may not be for anyone seeking a lesson on French history or feminism, but boy, is it a good time. Binoche is superbly entertaining as she first trills and shrills on the ways of proper womanhood, and then starts to relish the taste of new freedoms, like wearing trousers. Come for her and stay for
Raya Martin’s charming teen comedy is a candycoated blast from the Philippines’ past — a movie decked out in period references and misted with ’90s nostalgia. History frames the misadventures of the kids at the heart of “Death of Nintendo,” which is set in the months leading up to the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, then the second-largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century. Throughout the film, the characters practice duck-andcover drills, bemoan quake-induced blackouts and marvel at ash showers. But the rumblings of history are no match for the petty little struggles of adolescence.
Paolo (Noel Comia Jr.), the smothered son of a wealthy, Catholic single mother, has all the fancy new video games and brand-name sneakers but little freedom. His working-class friend Kachi (John Vincent Servilla) has no money but has enough swagger to make up the difference. And the middle-class Gilligan (Jigger Sementilla) and his sister, Mimaw (Kim Oquendo), try to figure out their identities while caring for a mother recently spurned by a cheating father. The answer to all their problems, the guys decide (with Mimaw exasperatedly following along), is to get circumcised by a village doctor. As they build up to this quest, Martin sprinkles the film with ’90s references — songs, comic books, toys, myths — that conjure a specific cultural moment, though his portrait of the travails of growing up feels endearingly universal. (Stream it on Mubi.)
‘Days
Roving through the graffiti-flecked streets of Medellín, Colombia, Catalina Arroyave Restrepo’s feature is a vibrant portrait of both the malaise and the endless imagination of youth. The film follows two punk artists, the well-to-do Cristina (Laura Tobón) and the working-class Simon (David Escallón), who belong to a local collective aiming to provoke social change through street art. As their friendship blossoms into love, their milieu, and their differences in circumstance, start to encroach on their relationship.
A piece of graffiti triggers a rivalry with a local gang that Simon is embroiled with; Cristina, meanwhile, clashes with her father and his young wife, and longs for her mother, an investigative journalist who had to flee to Spain to escape retribution from gangs. “Days of the Whale” ebbs and flows like a river, capturing the sense of stalled time that afflicts young people in Colombia, and also the beauty they’re capable of creating amid violence. A sudden glimpse of the titular animal — which is supposed to have mysteriously appeared in Medellín’s canals — stuns in the midst of a gray city; it becomes the inspiration for the protagonists’ art, which seeks magic and possibility in a grim everyday. (Stream it on HBO Max.)
Schelby Jean-Baptiste in “Cette Maison.” Penélope Cruz in “On the Fringe” The San Juan Daily Star Tuesday, May 9, 2023 17instruments brought into play.”
The next year, reviewing a return engagement at the same club, Wilson wrote, “This is a band full of fresh ideas and fresh sounds that set it apart.”
By then, Sebesky had begun working on Broadway as well. His first credit was for some of the orchestrations for “Peg,” a 1983 autobiographical one-woman show starring singer Peggy Lee.
That show was short-lived, but many of his other Broadway shows did better. The 1999 revival of “Kiss Me, Kate” ran for more than two years and won him a Tony Award for best orchestrations. “An American in Paris” in 2015 also had a long run, and he shared a second Tony, with Christopher Austin and Bill Elliott, for the orchestrations of that show.
His one attempt at writing the score for a Broadway show was less successful. “Prince of Central Park,” for which he wrote the music and Gloria Nissenson wrote the lyrics, closed after four performances in 1989.
In 1999, Sebesky, after many nominations, won his first Grammy Award, for his arrangement of pianist Bill Evans’ “Waltz for Debby” on his album “I Remember Bill: A Tribute to Bill Evans.”
The next year was a career highlight: He became one of the few people who could say that he didn’t lose a Grammy to Carlos Santana.
By NEIL GENZLINGERDon Sebesky, who in a wide-ranging musical career played with leading big bands, was a behind-thescenes force at CTI Records and other jazz labels, won Grammy Awards for his own compositions and arrangements, and orchestrated some 20 Broadway shows, died April 29 at a nursing home in Maplewood, New Jersey. He was 85.
The cause was complications of dementia, his daughter Elizabeth Jonas said.
Sebesky’s musical interests ranged far and wide. He created arrangements not only for jazz musicians but also for a diverse range of pop vocalists, including Nancy Wilson, Roberta Flack, Rod Stewart and Barry Manilow. To jazz aficionados, though, he was best known — and sometimes criticized — for the work he did as a sort of house arranger for Creed Taylor Inc., better known as CTI, a jazz label that was a major force in the 1970s.
From the beginning, Taylor and CTI were on a mission to broaden the audience for jazz by exploring intersections with pop, rock and R&B, and by making music that was more accessible to mainstream audiences than some of jazz’s more esoteric strains. It was an approach that displeased some purists, but it sold records, and Sebesky’s arranging skills were pivotal to that success.
Sebesky arranged saxophonist Paul Desmond’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (1970), an album of interpretations of Simon & Garfunkel songs. He arranged guitarist George Benson’s “White Rabbit” (1972), an album anchored by Benson’s rendition of the title track, the psychedelic Jefferson Airplane
hit. Pairing Benson with that song was an idea Sebesky had proposed to Taylor, but with a twist.
“I suggested we do ‘White Rabbit’ in a Spanish mode,” Sebesky told Marc Myers for the website JazzWax in 2010. “He agreed. George Benson doesn’t read music. He just heard the song and automatically fell into the groove.”
Those were just two of the countless records on which Sebesky worked for CTI from the late 1960s (when it was a subsidiary of A&M) through the 1970s. He also made his own albums as a bandleader, for CTI and other labels. These, too, often merged jazz and rock.
His debut album, “The Distant Galaxy” (1968), included versions of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” and the Beatles’ “Lady Madonna.” “Don Sebesky and the Jazz-Rock Syndrome,” released the same year, included his version of the Peter, Paul and Mary hit “I Dig Rock and Roll Music” as well as other covers.
In 1984, Sebesky made his nightclub debut as a bandleader, bringing a 12-piece band to Fat Tuesday’s in New York’s Manhattan borough to play selections from “Full Cycle,” an album he had just released on the Crescendo label that featured his arrangements of Miles Davis’ “All Blues,” John Lewis’ “Django” and other jazz standards.
“At Fat Tuesday’s, a low-ceilinged, narrow room in which the 12 musicians must be strung out in a line, instrumental separation and clarity are a far cry from the possibilities of a recording studio,” John S. Wilson wrote in a review in The New York Times. “But what may be lost in this respect is made up for in the vitality and involvement projected by the musicians and the visual razzle-dazzle of the variety of
Santana, thanks to his album “Supernatural,” was a Grammy juggernaut that year, winning eight awards. In the category of best instrumental composition, Sebesky won for “Joyful Noise Suite” — beating out, among others, Santana.
“That was very much of a surprise,” Sebesky, who also won a Grammy that year for best instrumental arrangement, told The Home News Tribune of New Jersey in 2000. “We expected the Santana steamroller to run over everything.”
Donald Alexander Sebesky was born Dec. 10, 1937, in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. His father, Alexander, was a laborer in a steel cable factory, and his mother, Eleanor (Ehnot) Sebesky, was a homemaker.
He studied composition at the Manhattan School of Music but left before graduating in the late 1950s to pursue a nascent career as a trombonist, playing in the bands of Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson.
By the early 1960s, Sebesky was concentrating on writing and arranging.
“There seemed like nothing could be better than taking a group of instruments and seeing what sounds could be made to come out of them,” he told The Evening Press.
Sebesky’s first marriage, to Janet Sebesky, ended in divorce. He married Janina Serden in 1986. In addition to Jonas, his daughter from his second marriage, he is survived by his wife; another daughter from his second marriage, Olivia Sebesky; two sons from his first marriage, Ken and Kevin; a brother, Gerald; and nine grandchildren. Two daughters from his first marriage, Cymbaline Rossman and Alison Bealey, died before Sebesky. Before moving to the nursing home in Maplewood, he lived for about 30 years in Mendham, New Jersey.
Last Friday evening, as drizzle fell on the tarmac, 10 passengers boarded a Gulfstream G4 headed from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to Farnborough Airport, just southwest of London. They didn’t seem to notice the plush leather seats or the treats nestled in Champagne flutes in the armrests.
They also hadn’t particularly enjoyed clambering up the aircraft’s stairs.
This was the inaugural flight of K9 Jets, a private jet charter company based in Birmingham, England, founded in response to both a growing desire among pet owners to travel with their animals and mounting frustration at the increasingly challenging process of flying with them. The passenger manifest included nine dogs, mostly on the larger side, and one sphinx cat, as well as 10 humans.
Most of the people onboard were relocating to Europe. One said her Australian cattle dog mix, Jasmine, needed lifesaving heart surgery. All had one thing in common: an aversion to putting their pets in the cargo hold.
Pet owners seeking to transport their pets on commercial flights must navigate a patchwork of rules that vary by airline. Service animals, which are not considered pets, are allowed to be in the cabin and left unconfined, but other animals are subject to size restrictions that require bigger pets to travel as cargo, though some airlines won’t carry specific breeds.
Animals that can fly inside the cabin in carriers, which must fit under the seat in front of the passenger, can face seemingly arbitrary judgments about whether the carrier is big enough. Emotional support animals, which once were allowed in cabins, no longer are, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Many owners of larger dogs fear what might happen to pets shipped as cargo, where they could face fluctuating temperatures, poor ventilation and inappropriate handling.
More than 200 pets, the majority of them dogs, died on flights in the past decade, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, which does not specify whether the pets were in cargo. The department has advised owners of snubnosed dogs such as pugs and bulldogs to consider the risks of shipping those breeds as cargo, citing a far higher mortality rate than for other dog breeds.
Snub-nosed dogs more frequently encounter difficulty breathing, compared to other breeds, according to the American College of Veterinary Surgeons.
Last year, seven pets died during flights, according to Transportation Department data. Of these fatalities, six occurred on Hawaiian Airlines flights. Five of these animals were short-faced dogs shipped in cargo, said Marissa Villegas, a Hawaiian Airlines spokesperson.
Villegas said that before traveling on Hawaiian, passengers traveling with pets are required to acknowledge and accept the risks.
Private carriers step in
Meanwhile, private jet companies have stepped in, of-
fering air travel for pets inside the plane without having them spend hours trapped in crates or carriers. Some, like NetJets and VistaJet, have dedicated pet programs. On VistaJet flights, pets are fed prime cuts of meat, offered toys and given a soft mat to sleep on.
Leona Qi, president of VistaJet U.S., said there’s been a steady rise in the number of people traveling with their pets and that about half of the company’s customers bring their animals along. Most are dogs, but she said there have also been rabbits, falcons and once, a chameleon. VistaJet sells memberships that offer different levels of access to flights. Madelyn Reiter, a spokesperson for the company, declined to detail prices.
Qi said that the pet program had frequently been “the determining factor” in convincing clients to upgrade to more expensive memberships that offer more cabin space.
On private flights, dogs less than 150 pounds are usually allowed to sit on an aircraft’s seats, although pets must be secured by a seat belt or placed in a carrier during taxi, takeoff and landing, private jet operators said. On some jets, once a person buys a seat, there is no additional cost to transport a pet or requirement to purchase a seat. Multiple companies even help clients navigate country-specific pet restrictions and assemble required documents for entry, another obstacle to flying internationally with pets.
But these private flights can be incredibly expensive, with a price tag that can run to tens of thousands of dollars, even for a domestic jaunt from one coast to the other.
For years, Rusty Rueff, a 62-year-old startup adviser and investor who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, flew his dog across the country on Pet Airways, an airline founded in 2009 that carried only animals. But the company shut down several years ago.
Rueff said that while he’d flown privately with his 5-year-old French bulldog Theo several times during the pandemic, it wasn’t a practice he wished to continue. When he’d tried to fly commercially with a previous dog, also a French bulldog, they’d sometimes been prohibited from boarding the plane, he said. That uncertainty has made him reluctant to fly commercially with an animal.
Instead, his family drives across the country from the Bay Area to Rhode Island, where they have a summer place. He called the annual trip “a pain.”
“I just don’t understand why the airlines don’t recognize the business opportunity,” Rueff said. “We’ll do anything for our pets, just like we’ll do anything for our children.”
Big dogs in the cabin
K9 Jets hopes to capitalize on that feeling, initially offering flights between New York and Paris, London and Lisbon, Portugal. Of 17 listed flights between May and the end of September, eight are sold out. In the fall, the company may expand service to additional cities, including Dubai, United Arab Emirates. One-way tickets between New York and Europe hover around $9,000 per seat. Pet owners can purchase a seat for their pet; otherwise the pets can sit on the floor for no charge. Pets cannot fly without human accompaniment.
Adam Golder, the founder of both K9 Jets and G6 Avia-
tion, a private jet brokerage, said that they planned to add more summer flights in response to surging demand.
“There are hundreds of people that are waiting for a flight,” Golder said. “I think people don’t want to put them in a crate and wave goodbye to them.”
K9 does not actually own any planes. The flights are operated by licensed U.S. air carriers, including Pegasus Elite Aviation. K9 Jets is using Gulfstream G4 planes that can accommodate 10 passengers.
Golder said that so far, the majority of prospective clients are relocating or traveling for long periods of time. Most human passengers on the company’s flight last week said they were flying private for the first time.
Private flights don’t come without an environmental cost. Research has shown that private jets emit far more carbon dioxide emissions per passenger than commercial planes do. According to Transport and Environment, an advocacy group based in Brussels, private jets are 5 to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes and 50 times more polluting than trains.
But some pet owners, like Ali and Mary Borzabdi, feel that they don’t have a choice. Mary Borzabdi and their dog, Jasmine, were on the K9 Jets flight to London last Friday. Jasmine, a sweet and excitable dog with serious heart disease, was nervous and wearing a diaper aboard the plane. In several weeks, she is scheduled for surgery in London.
“We don’t have children. All we’ve got is one dog,” Ali Borzabdi said. “You try everything and hopefully it works out.”
Roughly 60% of the calories in the average American diet come from highly processed foods. We’ve known for decades that eating such packaged products — like some breakfast cereals, snack bars, frozen meals and virtually all packaged sweets, among many other things — is linked to unwelcome health outcomes, like an increased risk of diabetes, obesity and even cancer. But more recent studies point to another major downside to these often delicious, always convenient foods: They appear to have a significant impact on our minds, too.
Research from the past 10 or so years has shown that the more ultraprocessed foods a person eats, the higher the chances that they feel depressed and anxious. A few studies have suggested a link between eating UPFs and increased risk of cognitive decline.
What’s so insidious about these foods, and how can you avoid the mental fallout? Scientists are still working on answers, but here’s what we know so far.
What qualifies as an ultraprocessed food?
In 2009, Brazilian researchers put food on a four-part scale, from unprocessed and minimally processed (like fruits, vegetables, rice and flour) to processed (oils, butter, sugar, dairy products, some canned foods, and smoked meats and fish) and ultraprocessed. “Ultraprocessed foods include ingredients that are rarely used in homemade recipes — such as high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, protein isolates and chemical additives” like colors, artificial flavors, sweeteners, emulsifiers and preservatives, said Eurídice Martínez Steele, a researcher in food processing at University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. This classification system is now used widely by nutrition researchers.
UPFs make up a majority of the packaged foods you find in the frozen food aisles at grocery stores and on the menu at fast-food restaurants — 70% of the packaged foods sold in the United States are considered ultraprocessed. They’re increasingly edging out healthier foods in people’s diets and are widely consumed across socioeconomic groups.
“Ultraprocessed foods are carefully formulated to be so palatable and satisfying that they’re almost addictive,” said Dr. Eric M. Hecht, a public health researcher at the Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University. “The problem is that in order to make the products taste better and better, manufacturers make them less and less like real food.”
What effect do ultraprocessed foods have on mental health?
Recent research has demonstrated a link between highly processed foods and low mood. In one 2022 study of over 10,000 adults in the United States, the more UPFs participants ate, the more likely they were to report mild
depression or feelings of anxiety. “There was a significant increase in mentally unhealthy days for those eating 60% or more of their calories from UPFs,” Hecht, the study’s author, said. “This is not proof of causation, but we can say that there seems to be an association.”
New research has also found a connection between high UPF consumption and cognitive decline. A 2022 study that followed nearly 11,000 Brazilian adults over a decade found a correlation between eating ultraprocessed foods and worse cognitive function (the ability to learn, remember, reason and solve problems). “While we have a natural decline in these abilities with age, we saw that this decline accelerated by 28% in people who consume more than 20% of their calories from UPFs,” said Natalia Gomes Goncalves, a professor at the University of São Paulo Medical School and the lead author of the study.
It’s possible that eating a healthy diet may offset the detrimental effects of eating ultraprocessed foods. The Brazilian researchers found that following a healthy eating regimen, like the MIND diet — which is rich in whole grains, green leafy vegetables, legumes, nuts, berries, fish, chicken and olive oil — greatly reduced the dementia risk associated with consuming ultraprocessed foods. Those who followed the MIND diet but still ate UPFs “had no association between UPF consumption and cognitive decline,” Goncalves said, adding that researchers still don’t know what a safe quantity of UPFs is.
It’s unclear. “Many high-quality, randomized studies have shown the beneficial effect of a nutrient-dense diet on depression, but we still do not fully understand the role of food processing on mental health,” said Melissa Lane, a researcher at the Food & Mood Centre at Deakin University in Australia. However, there are some clues.
Much of the research has focused on how poor gut health might affect the brain. Diets that are high in ultraprocessed foods are typically low in fiber, which is mostly
found in plant-based foods like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Fiber helps feed the good bacteria in the gut. Fiber is also necessary for the production of short-chain fatty acids, the substances produced when it breaks down in the digestive system, and which play an important role in brain function, said Wolfgang Marx, the president of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research and a senior research fellow at Deakin University. “We know that people with depression and other mental disorders have a less diverse composition of gut bacteria and fewer short-chain fatty acids.”
Chemical additives in UPFs might also have an impact on gut flora. “Emerging evidence — mostly from animal studies, but also some human data — suggests that isolated nutrients (like fructose), additives such as artificial sweeteners (like aspartame and saccharin) or emulsifiers (like carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate-80) can negatively influence the gut microbiome,” Marx said.
Poor gut microbiota diversity — as well as a diet high in sugar — may contribute to chronic inflammation, which has been linked to a host of mental and physical issues, Lane said. “Interactions between increased inflammation and the brain are thought to drive the development of depression,” she said.
It’s also worth considering the possibility that the link between highly processed foods and mental health works in both directions. “Diet does influence mood, but the reverse is also true,” said Dr. Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “When you get stressed, anxious or depressed, you tend to eat more unhealthy foods, in particular ultraprocessed foods that are high in sugar, fat and chemical additives.”
The best way to identify ultraprocessed foods is to read product labels. “A long list of ingredients, and especially one that includes ingredients you would never use in home cooking,” are clues that the food is ultraprocessed, said Whitney Linsenmeyer, an assistant professor of nutrition at Saint Louis University in Missouri and a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Chemical names, unpronounceable words, and anything you would be unlikely to find in a kitchen cabinet are often signs that a food is in the ultraprocessed category.
You can still use convenience foods to make cooking easier without resorting to ultraprocessed foods. Products such as canned beans, frozen vegetables, precooked brown rice or canned fish are all shortcut ingredients that fit well within the scope of a healthy diet, provided there aren’t any industrial items on the ingredient list. “If the added ingredients are ones you would use yourself, like herbs, spices, salt or cooking oils,” Linsenmeyer said, “that’s an indication that the food, while processed, is not inherently bad for you.”
In the next generation of dinosaur-based blockbuster films, some of the star creatures could perhaps sound more like a bird and a little less like a roaring lion.
At least that’s a possibility raised from new research published in February, although very little is really understood about dinosaur vocals.
But a research team has drawn clues about sounds the extinct creatures could have made from what might be the first known fossilized larynx of a dinosaur. It comes from an ankylosaur, a group of armored planteaters that were not close relatives of birds. This squat, spiky dinosaur (Pinacosaurus grangeri) was unearthed in 2005 in Mongolia.
Junki Yoshida, a paleontologist at the Fukushima Museum in Japan, said the find was surprising because the body parts involved in vocalization, including the larynx, which is often made of cartilage but can be bony in some animals, were not considered to be good candidates for preservation as fossils. (The larynx in some animals is located near the upper part of the windpipe and contains the vocal cords.)
To try to glean what sounds a dinosaur might have uttered, Yoshida’s team also looked to the evolutionary relatives of those Cretaceous creatures, including birds and the dinosaurs’ closest cousins — crocodiles.
“They kind of bracket the range of sounds we might expect,” said Victoria Arbour, a paleontologist at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, Canada, who was not involved in the new study.
Crocodiles’ vocal repertoire includes deep rumbles and hisses. “Assuming that dinosaurs make some crocodile-like sounds is pretty safe,” she said. “That’s the base anatomy they’d be working with. And then birds evolved these additional ways of producing sounds where they can modify the sounds coming out of their throat in a more nuanced way.”
Birds and reptiles have different ways of producing sounds using the organs that surround their windpipes and lungs. In extinct and living crocodile relatives, the larynx produces sound. Birds possess a different organ, called the syrinx, that sits close to their lungs to produce sound. They also have another organ, located near their mouths, for changing up those sounds, allowing some birds to create elaborate songs.
Yoshida and his colleagues sized up two parts of the larynx, which would have supported muscles involved in opening the airway and changing its shape. In the ankylosaur, the parts were both bones. The team compared their proportions to the larynxes from dozens of birds and reptiles, including crocodiles, geckos and turtles.
One part that forms the base of the ankylosaur’s larynx was very large compared to those of other animals, suggesting that this dinosaur could open its airway wide to make loud calls that could be heard far away, Yoshida said. The other larynx part, a relatively long pair of bones, could have permitted the windpipe to change shape to modify sounds, he added. That might have allowed ankylosaurs to vocalize in a way similar to birds, the researchers reported recently in the journal Communications Biology.
People might assume that sounding birdlike would mean these dinosaurs were tweeting like meadowlarks, Arbour said. That’s probably not true, but “they might have had a broader range of sounds than we might give ankylosaurs credit for otherwise,” she said.
“There’s still possibilities that they made chirping and cooing” noises, Yoshida said. But it is too soon to understand what specific sounds dinosaurs might have made, he cautioned. Even a single bird species makes a wide range of noises, and there are other organs at play, from the mouth and nose to possibly a syrinx, he said.
Julia Clarke, a paleontologist at the University of Texas at Austin who was not part of the study, found the analysis intriguing. But she said that the way these larynx parts and other nearby bones were arranged in the ankylosaur did not resemble those in birds.
“Only in pterosaurs do we see something like the birdlike condition,” she said.
It’s not clear how the structures that the team
analyzed would allow an ankylosaur to vary sounds, Clarke said. Birds don’t use the larynx for this purpose. They have an organ she called a hyolaryngeal basket that moves up or down to modify their calls. And the larynx shows up in all tetrapods — a group that includes animals like birds, reptiles and mammals that descended from four-limbed creatures. The anatomy described in the research varies across animals whether they can vocalize or not. “We don’t know what any of this variation means,” she said.
The larynx parts under study might have had more to do with keeping food out of the airway because they helped to open and close it, she said. And the layout of related structures in this ankylosaur also looked completely different than those of many other dinosaurs, ones that Clarke has studied and that show up in the literature.
Could other dinosaurs have sounded like birds? Maybe. Clarke and her colleagues found a fossilized syrinx from around 67 million years ago in an ancient bird. Since that was before dinosaurs went extinct, that raises the possibility that some dinosaurs may have had them. But so far, no one has found a fossilized syrinx in a non-avian dinosaur.
These larynx parts in the new study probably had to do with the unique attributes of this ankylosaur rather than something that could be generalized across dinosaurs, she said. “There are still a lot of questions about the evolution of dinosaur vocalization.”
“Ankylosaurs are weird,” Clarke said. “That is the main message.”
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN SALÓN DE SESIONES
404 NORAH ASTRID SÁNCHEZ FIGUEROA PETICIONARIA EX PARTE
Civil Núm.: SJ2021CV04582.
Salón: 504. Sobre: ADMINISTRACIÓN JUDICIAL. NOTIFICACIÓN POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A : ACREEDORES DE LA SUCESIÓN VÍCTOR A. PERALTA PICCO.
Vista la moción presentada por la parte demandante sobre publicación de edictos en cumplimiento con el Art. 594 del Código de Enjuiciamiento Civil Sec 2542, en el caso de epígrafe se les notifica a los acreedores, si alguno de Víctor A. Peralta Picco que se notifiquen con la Administradora Judicial Jacqueline Frances Rapale Burgos a la siguiente dirección en un plazo no mayor de sesenta (60) días. P. O. Box 20083
San Juan, P. R. 00928-0083
Dada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy día 24 de marzo de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. LINDA LEVY RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA DE SERVICIOS A SALA.
LEGAL NOTICE
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO DLJ MORTGAGE CAPITAL, INC.
Plaintiff V. WILSON ALFREDO
WILCHEZ-QUINTERO, KENIA ENID OCASIOMARTINEZ, AND THE CONJUGAL
PARTNERSHIP WILCHEZOCASIO
Defendants
Civil Action Num.: 16-cv-2657. (RAM). Matter: FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE. NOTICE OF SALE.
To: WILSON ALFREDO WILCHEZ-QUINTERO, KENIA ENID OCASIO - MARTINEZ AND THE CONJUGAL PARTNERSHIP WILCHEZOCASIO: AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC:
WHEREAS: On February 8th,
2023, Default Judgment was entered and grated on same day, in favor of Plaintiff to recover from defendants the principal amount of $142,668.90, plus interests at a rate of 6.875% per annum since April 1, 2016, which continues to accrue until the debit is paid in full, late charged on the amount of 5.00% of each and any monthly installment not received by the note holder within 15 days after the installment is due, all advances made in accordance with the mortgage note including, but not limited to, insurance premiums, taxes and inspections as well as 10% ($11,352.50) to cover costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees guaranteed under the mortgage obligation. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by interested parties at the Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Room 150, Federal Office Building, 150 Chardon Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. WHEREAS: Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned Judgment, Order of Execution, and the Writ of Execution thereof, the undersigned Special Master was ordered to sell at public auction for U.S. currency in cash or certified check without appraisement or right of redemption to the highest bidder and at the office of the Clerk of the Court, Room 150 – Federal Office Building, 150 Carlos Chardón Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to cover the sums adjudged to be paid to the plaintiff, the following property described in Spanish: URBANA: Solar número treinta y dos (32) del Bloque “D” del plano de inscripción de la Urbanización Los Robles radicada en el Barrio Hato Nuevo del término Municipal de Gurabo con un área de trescientos punto treinta (330.30) metros cuadrados. En lindes, por el NORTE, en trece (13.00) metros, con Cementerio de Gurabo; por el SUR, en trece (13.00) metros, con la calle número tres (#3); por el ESTE, en veintitrés punto diez (23.10) metros con el lote número treinta y uno (#31); y por el OESTE, en veintitrés punto diez (23.10) metros, con el lote número treinta y tres (#33). Enclava una casa de una sola planta construida de concreto y bloques para una sola familia. The property is identified with the number 8,822 and is recorded at Page number 122 of Volume number 230 of Gurabo, in the Registry of Property of Caguas. The deed of mortgage is recorded on Page 124 of volume 230 of Gurabo, land # 8,822, second inscription. The deed of modification # 115 of September 9,
2013 is recorded as 3rd inscription, property # 8,822. Property address: Urbanización Los Robles, Calle 3 D-32, Gurabo, P.R. 00778. The deed of mortgage recorded on Page 124 of Volume 230 and the modifications recorded at the Karibe volume of Gurabo, Property Registry of Section II, Caguas, Second Inscription. WHEREAS: This property is subject to the following liens described: Senior Liens: Notice of Lis Pendens, issued by the Federal Court for the District of Puerto Rico, in the civil case number 02-1453HL, by United States of America, for the amount of 31,772.72, annotated at page 124 of volume 230 of Gurabo, property number 8,822, 2nd inscription, as an Abbreviated Entry on July 17, 2012, by virtue of Law number 216 of December 27, 2010 (Filed for record on April 9, 2002, at Entry 240 of Daily Book 508).
Junior Liens: NONE. Other Liens: NONE. Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential liens with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferential liens to the one being foreclosed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, liens, (express, tacit, implied or legal) shall continue in effect it being understood further that the successful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the responsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. THEREFORE, the FIRST PUBLIC SALE shall be held on the 16TH DAY OF MAY OF 2023, AT: 9:15 AM. The minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $148,022.28. In the event said first auction does not produce a bidder and the property is not adjudicated, a SECOND PUBLIC AUCTION shall be held on the 23RD DAY OF MAY OF 2023, AT: 9:15 AM., and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum $98,681.52, which is two-thirds of the amount of the minimum bid for the first public sale. If a second auction does not result in the adjudication and sale of the property, a THIRD PUBLIC AUCTION will be held on the 30TH DAY OF MAY OF 2023, AT: 9:15 AM., and the minimum bid that will be accepted is the sum of $74,011.14, which is one-half of the minimum bid in the first public sale. Should there be no award or adjudication at the third public sale, the property may be awarded to the creditor for the entire amount of its debt if it is equal to or less than the amount of the minimum bid of the third public sale, cre-
Tuesday, May 9, 2023 22
diting this amount to the amount owed if it is greater. The undersigned Special Master shall not accept in payment of the property to be sold anything but United States currency (cash), or certified checks, except in case the property is sold and adjudicated to the plaintiff, in which case the amount of the bid made by said plaintiff shall be credited and deducted from its credit; said plaintiff being bound to pay in cash or certified check only any excess of its bid over the secured indebtedness that remains unsatisfied. WHEREAS: Said sale to be made by the undersigned Special Master subject to confirmation by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico and the deed of conveyance and possession to the property will be executed and delivered only after such confirmation. Upon confirmation of the sale, an order shall be issued cancelling all junior liens. For further particulars, reference is made to the judgment entered by the Court in this case, which can be examined in the Office of Clerk of the United States District Court, District of Puerto Rico. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 10th day of April of 2023. Pedro A. Vélez Baerga, Special Master, 787672-8269. ***
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE GUAYNABO
REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC.
Demandante Vs. SUCESION RAMONA CAMACHO GARCIA COMPUESTA POR MILAGROS CORTES CAMACHO; JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES
Demandados
Civil Núm.: GB2022CV00373.
Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA - IN REM. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: LA PARTE DEMANDADA, AL (A LA) SECRETARIO(A) DE HACIENDA DE PUERTO RICO Y AL PÚBLICO
GENERAL:
Certifico y Hago Constar: Que en cumplimiento con el Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por el (la) Secretario(a) del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Guaynabo, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, por separado, de contado y por moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América y/o Giro Postal y Cheque Certificado, en mi oficina ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Guaynabo, el 8 DE AGOSTO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, todo derecho título, participación o interés que le corresponda a la parte demandada o cualquiera de ellos en el inmueble hipotecado objeto de ejecución que se describe a continuación: RUSTICA: Solar marcado con el Número CINCO (5) localizado en el Barrio Hato Nuevo del término municipal de Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, con una cabida superficial de uno punta mil seiscientas siete cuerdas, equivalentes a CUATRO MIL QUINIENTOS SESENTA Y DOS PUNTO VEINTE METROS CUADRADOS (4,562.20 M.C.). En lindes por el NORTE, con remanente Gustavo Wistcovitch; por el SUR, con camino y parcela identificada con la letra A; por el ESTE, con terrenos propiedad de José Masa; y por el OESTE, con parcela identificada con la letra B. Enclava edificación para fines residenciales. Finca número 22,752, inscrita al folio 233 del tomo 559 de Guaynabo, Registro de la Propiedad de Guaynabo. La Hipoteca Revertida consta inscrita al tomo Karibe, Finca 22,752, Registro de la Propiedad de Guaynabo, inscripción 8ª. Propiedad localizada en: SOLAR NÚM. 5, PR 173 KM 8.6, BO. HATO NUEVO, GUAYNABO, PR 00969. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas anteriores o preferentes: Nombre del Titular: N/A. Suma de la Carga: N/A. Fecha de Vencimiento: N/A. Según figuran en la certificación registral, la propiedad objeto de ejecución está gravada por las siguientes cargas posteriores a la inscripción del crédito ejecutante: Nombre del Titular: Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano. Suma de la Carga: $171,000.00. Fecha de Vencimiento: 16 de noviembre de 2078. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad de la propiedad y que todas las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los
preferentes al crédito ejecutante antes descritos, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistentes. El rematante acepta dichas cargas y gravámenes anteriores, y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se establece como tipo de mínima subasta la suma de $171,000.00, según acordado entre las partes en el precio pactado en la escritura de hipoteca. De ser necesaria una SEGUNDA SUBASTA por declararse desierta la primera, la misma se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Guaynabo, el 15 DE AGOSTO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA, y se establece como mínima para dicha segunda subasta la suma de $114,000.00, 2/3 partes del tipo mínima establecido originalmente. Si tampoco se produce remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se establece como mínima para la TERCERA SUBASTA, la suma de $85,500.00, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado y dicha subasta se celebrará en mi oficina, ubicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Guaynabo, el 22 DE AGOSTO DE 2023, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para, con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante, el importe de la Sentencia dictada a su favor ascendente a la suma de $112,528.60 por concepto de principal, más la suma de $22,680.51 en intereses acumulados al 19 de agosto de 2022 y los cuales continúan acumulándose a razón de 3.501% anual hasta su total y completo pago; más la sumas de $4,934.88 en seguro hipotecario; $5,460.00 en tarifas de servicio; $93.11 en impuestos; $1,209.81 en seguro; $500.00 de tasaciones; $955.00 de inspecciones; $4,008.70 en preservación; $6,843.70 de adelantos pendientes; más la cantidad de 10% del pagare original en la suma de $17,100.00, para gastos, costas y honorarios de abogado, esta última habrá de devengar intereses al máximo del tipo legal fijado por la oficina del Comisionado de Instituciones Financieras aplicable a esta fecha, desde este mismo día hasta su total y completo saldo. La venta en pública subasta de la referida propiedad se verificará libre de toda carga o gravamen posterior que afecte la mencionada finca, a cuyo efecto se notifica y se hace saber la fecha, hora y sitio de la PRIMERA, SEGUNDA Y TERCERA SUBASTA, si esto fuera necesario, a los efectos de que cualquier persona o per-
sonas con algún interés puedan comparecer a la celebración de dicha subasta. Se notifica a todos los interesados que las actas y demás constancias del expediente de este caso están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables para ser examinadas por los (las) interesados (as). Y para su publicación en el periódico
The San Juan Daily Star, que es un diario de circulación general en la isla de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, así como para su publicación en los sitios públicos de Puerto Rico. Expedido en Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, hoy 28 de marzo de 2023. FRANCES TORRES CONTRERAS, ALGUACIL REGIONAL. ALG. HUGO BASCÓ MEDINA, ALGUACIL PLACA #807.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE BAYAMÓN SALA SUPERIOR BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Parte Demandante Vs. LA SUCESIÓN DE ROBERTO NIEVES REYES COMPUESTA POR OLGA VANESSA
NIEVES PACHECO, JESSICA NIEVES PACHECO, ROBERTO NIEVES MERCADO, SUJEY ARELIS NIEVES
SOLANO, FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; LA SUCESIÓN DE YAHAIRA NIEVES MERCADO COMPUESTA POR SU VIUDO
MIGUEL A. OTERO
FUENTES, JANE DOE OTERO NIEVES Y PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLE HEREDERO DESCONOCIDO
Part Demandada
Civil Núm.: BY2022CV00618. (501). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO, EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. AVISO DE PÚBLICA SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente anuncia y hace constar que en cumplimiento de la Sentencia el 13 de febrero de 2023
y notificada el 14 de febrero de 2023, la Orden de Ejecución de Sentencia del 30 de marzo de 2023 y el Mandamiento de Ejecución del 30 de marzo de 2023 en el caso de epígrafe, procederé a vender el día 13 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA, en el Cuarto Piso de la Oficina del Alguacil de Subastas, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial de Bayamón, Sala Superior, ubicado en la Carretera Número Dos (#2), Kilómetro 10.4, Esquina Calle Esteban Padilla, Bayamón, Puerto Rico, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda de los Estados Unidos de América, cheque de gerente o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal; todo título, derecho o interés de la parte demandada sobre la siguiente propiedad: URBANA: Solar marcado con el Número Nueve (9) del Bloque Ventiséis (26) de la Urbanización Miraflores, radicada en el Barrio Pájaros del término municipal de Bayamón, Puerto Rico, con una cabida de 302.40 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE y SUR: en 12.60 metros, por cada lado respectivamente con la Calle Número Treinta y dos (32) y el Solar Número dieciocho (18); por el ESTE y OESTE: en 24.00 metros por cada lado, respectivamente con Solares Número diez (10) y ocho (8). La propiedad consta inscrita al folio 240 del tomo 879 de Bayamón, Finca 39283, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección I. La escritura de hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 186 vuelto del tomo 1802 de Bayamón, Finca 39283, Registro de la Propiedad de Bayamón, Sección I. Inscripción séptima (7ma). Dirección Física: Urb. Miraflores, 26-9 Calle 32, Bayamón PR 00957-3868. Número de Catastro: 15-084100-279-09-001. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta será de $160,000.00. De no haber adjudicación en la primera subasta se celebrar una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, el día 20 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será de dos terceras partes del tipo mínimo fijado en la primera subasta, o sea, $106,666.66. De no haber adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 27 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 10:45 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será la mitad del precio pactado, o sea, $80,000.00. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada
parte Norte a una cocina que contiene un closet y cuya cocina se tiene acceso asimismo por su parte Este a un balcón de servicio que tiene una cabida superficial de 52.50 pies cuadrados equivalentes a 4.88 metros cuadrados. De este balcón de servicio se tiene acceso hacia el Norte a través de una puerta de entrada secundaria de apartamento al vestíbulo de duodécima planta del edificio. La puerta de entrada principal del apartamento está localizada en el extremo Noroeste de la sala que resulta se a su vez el extremo Sureste del vestíbulo de uso común al límite de esta planta de cuyo vestíbulo se tiene acceso por sus lados Este y Oeste dos (2) elevadores y a dos (2) escaleras que conectan las varias plantas del edificio en el vestíbulo principal localizado en la planta terrena y de cuyo vestíbulo principal se tiene acceso a su vez a través de los patios Sur y Norte de la propiedad a la Avenida Roosevelt y a la Calle Número dos (2) respectivamente de la Urbanización Piñero. Le corresponde el 1.698% en los elementos comunes generales. La propiedad consta inscrita al folio 101 del tomo 743 de Rio Piedras Norte, Finca 21505. Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección II. La hipoteca consta inscrita al folio 1 del tomo móvil 1432 de Rio Piedras Norte, Finca 21505. Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección II. Inscripción undécima (11ma). Dirección Física: Cond. El Escorial III, 111 Ave Roosevelt, Apt 12-A, San Juan, PR 009172713. Número de Catastro: 79063-032-371-37-045. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta será de $122,150.00. De no haber adjudicación en la primera subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA, el día 12 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será de dos terceras partes del tipo mínimo fijado en la primera subasta, o sea, $81,433.33. De no haber adjudicación en la segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA, el día 20 DE JUNIO DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar, en la cual el tipo mínimo será la mitad del precio pactado, o sea, $61,075.00. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo de la tercera subasta, si el tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta es mayor. Dicho remate se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la Sentencia por la suma de $86,855.55 de princi-
pal, más intereses sobre dicha suma al 6.5% anual desde el 1 de enero de 2018 hasta su completo pago, más $2,097.29 de recargos acumulados, más la cantidad estipulada de $12,215.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogados, así como cualquier otra suma que contenga el contrato del préstamo. Surge del Estudio de Título Registral que sobre esta propiedad pesan los siguientes gravámenes posteriores que afecta la propiedad que se pretende ejecutar: a. Hipoteca: Constituida por Lourdes Rucci Vega (soltera) en garantía a un pagaré a favor de BANCO POPULAR PUERTO RICO, o a su orden, por la suma de $24,750.00 sin intereses y vencedero a la presentación, según consta de la Escritura Número 210, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 15 de septiembre de 2005, ante la notario Myrtelena Díaz Pedrosa. Inscrita al folio 1 del tomo Móvil 1432 de Río Piedras Norte, finca #21505. Inscripción duodécima (12ma). b. Anotación de Embargo: Anotada como perteneciente a Lourdes Rucci Vega a favor del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por la suma de $17,276.05, sobre contribución de ingresos según certificación de fecha 21 de agosto de 2007. Anotado al folio 165 vuelto del tomo 1486 de Río Piedras Norte. Anotación
A. c. Aviso de Demanda: Pleito seguido por Banco Popular de Puerto Rico Vs. Lourdes Rucci Vega (soltera), ante el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, en el Caso Civil Número SJ2019CV06468, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, en la que se reclama el pago de hipoteca, con un balance de $86,855.55 y otras cantidades, según Demanda de fecha 19 de junio de 2019. Anotada al Tomo Karibe de Río Piedras Norte. Anotación
B. Se notifica al acreedor posterior o a su sucesor o cesionario en derecho para que comparezca a proteger su derecho si así lo desea. Se les advierte a los interesados que todos los documentos relacionados con la presente acción de ejecución de hipoteca, así como los de Subasta, estarán disponibles para ser examinados, durante horas laborables, en el expediente del caso que obra en los archivos de la Secretaría del Tribunal, bajo el número de epígrafe y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general en Puerto Rico por espacio de dos semanas y por lo menos una vez por semana; y para su fijación en los sitios públicos requeridos por ley. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes; en-
tendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate y que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores tal como lo expresa la Ley Núm. 210-2015. Y para el conocimiento de los demandados, de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas y público en general, EXPIDO para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspondientes, el presente Aviso de Pública Subasta en San Juan, Puerto Rico, hoy 24 de abril de 2023.
PEDRO HIEYE GONZÁLEZ, ALGUACIL, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, CENTRO JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN, SALA SUPERIOR.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE PONCE BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante V. JOEL ROBLES GONZÁLEZ; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Demandados Civil Núm.: PO2022CV01196.
Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE GARANTÍAS. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: PUBLICO EN GENERAL. El Alguacil del Tribunal que suscribe anuncia y hace constar: A. Que en cumplimiento del Mandamiento que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaria del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Puerto Rico, Sala de Ponce, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor de contado y en moneda de curso legal y corriente de los Estados Unidos de América y cuyo pago se efectuará en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, todo derecho, título o interés que tenga la Parte Demandada en el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación:
URBANA: Solar radicado en el Barrio Canas del Municipio de Ponce, Puerto Rico, marcado en el Plano de Inscripción con el número trece (13) del Bloque Q de la Urbanización
La Matilde, con una cabida de trescientos metros cuadrados (300.00 m.c.), en lindes por el NORTE, con la finca principal a una distancia de doce (12.00) metros; por el SUR, con la Calle número cinco (5) a una distan-
cia de doce (12.00) metros; por el ESTE, con el lote número Qcatorce (Q-14) a una distancia de veinticinco (25.00) metros; y por el OESTE, con el Lote número Q-doce (Q-12) a una distancia de veinticinco (25.00) metros. Enclava estructura tipo individual dedicada a vivienda construida en hormigón y bloques. Afecta a servidumbre de un ancho de cinco (5) pies a lo largo de su colindancia Sur, a favor de Puerto Rico Telephone Company. Dirección Física: 5172 (Q-13), TRAPICHE (5) ST. HACIENDA LA MATILDE, PONCE PR 00731. Finca 17,859, inscrita al folio 217 del tomo 850 de Ponce Sur, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Segunda de Ponce.
B. Que los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado están de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante las horas laborables bajo el epígrafe de este caso. C. Que se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes, entendiéndose que el rematente los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. D. Que la propiedad se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes posteriores: Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor de The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development of the United States of America, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $10,787.60, sin intereses, vencedero el día 1 de octubre de 2029, constituida mediante la escritura número 113, otorgada en Ponce, Puerto Rico, el día 10 de junio de 2021, ante el notario Juan C. Girod Barnes, e inscrita al tomo Karibe de Ponce Sur, finca número 17,859, inscripción 6ta. E. Dicha subasta se llevará a cabo para satisfacer a la parte demandante el importe de la sentencia que ha obtenido ascendente a la suma principal de $53,417.50, la suma de $4,135.04, que incluye intereses según pactados, cargos por demora y otros cargos, que se acumulan diariamente hasta su total y completo pago, más la suma de 10% del principal, por concepto de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se celebrará el día 8 DE JUNIO DE 2023
A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA en la Oficina del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia de Ponce, por el tipo mínimo de $91,575.00. De declararse desierta dicha subasta se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 15 DE JUNIO DE 2023 A
LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado. El precio para la segunda subasta lo será 2/3 partes del precio mínimo de la primera, o sea, $61,050.00. De declararse desierta dicha segunda subasta, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 22 DE JUNIO DE 2023 A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA en el mismo lugar antes mencionado. El precio para la tercera subasta lo será 1/2 del precio mínimo de la primera, o sea, $45,787.50. Y PARA QUE ASÍ CONSTE, y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general y por un término de catorce (14) días en los sitios públicos conforme a la ley, expido la presente bajo mi firma y sello de este tribunal, hoy 26 de abril de 2023 en Ponce, Puerto Rico. MIGUEL A. TORRES AYALA, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #560.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN JOSE RAMON
BENITEZ DIAZ
Demandante Vs POPULAR MORTGAGE, INC; FULANO; SUTANO; MENGANO
Demandado (a) Civil Núm.: SJ2023CV00788. Sala: (504). Sobre: CANCELACIÓN O RESTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: FULANO, MENGANO Y SUTANO. EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 13 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 18 de abril de 2023. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 18 de abril de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍ-
GUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. E. DIOMARYS ALCÁNTARA FÉLIX, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CAROLINASUPERIOR
SAN CARLOS MORTGAGE LLC VS BOSQUES TORRENS, ISAMIYR
CASO: FCD2017-0675 SO-
BRE: EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACION DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO SUCN DE ISAMIYR BOSQUE TORRENS
COMPUESTA POR SU HEREDERA ISADORA SOFIA BOSQSUES MORTEROLA (MENOR)
REPRESENTADA POR SU MADRE CHARLENE MORTEROLA Y LOS HEREDEROS
DESCONOCIDOS JOHN DOE Y JANE DOE
EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 16 de marzo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 3 DE MAYO DE 2023. Lic. Montalvo Cinturón, Javier. jmontalvo@delgadofernandez.com. En Carolina, Puerto Rico, a 3 de mayo de 2023. Lcda. Kanelly Zayas Robles, Secretaria. F/Denisse M. Torres Ruiz, Secretaria Auxiliar.
GOBIERNO DE PUERTO RICO
DEPARTAMENTO DE ESTADO. NOMBRE COMERCIAL
PARA REGISTRAR. AVISO. A
QUIEN PUEDA INTERESAR: De acuerdo con las disposiciones de la Ley Núm. 75 del 23 de septiembre de 1992, según en-
mendada, mejor conocida como la Ley de Nombres Comerciales del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y la Sección 24 del Reglamento promulgado bajo la ley citada anteriormente, el siguiente nombre comercial ha sido presentado en el Departamento de Estado de Puerto Rico para su archivo y registro
Número de Expediente: 248061-99-0. Propietario: CHEVROLET BUICK GMC CADILLAC TOA BAJA LLC. Dirección: 221 PONCE DE LEON AVENUE 5TH FLOOR, SAN JUAN, PR 00917. Actividad Empresarial: CAR DEALERSHIP. Renuncia a elementos no registrables: Autogrupo. NOTIFICACIÓN: Cualquier oposición a este registro deberá presentarse en el Departamento de Estado de Puerto Rico dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este aviso.
GOBIERNO DE PUERTO RICO
DEPARTAMENTO DE ESTADO. NOMBRE COMERCIAL PARA REGISTRAR. AVISO. A QUIEN PUEDA INTERESAR: De acuerdo con las disposiciones de la Ley Núm. 75 del 23 de septiembre de 1992, según enmendada, mejor conocida como la Ley de Nombres Comerciales del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y la Sección 24 del Reglamento promulgado bajo la ley citada anteriormente, el siguiente nombre comercial ha sido presentado en el Departamento de Estado de Puerto Rico para su archivo y registro
AUTOGRUPO
CHEVROLET BUICK GMC
Número de Expediente: 248062-99-0. Propietario: CHEVROLET BUICK GMC CADILLAC TOA BAJA LLC. Dirección: 221 PONCE DE LEON AVENUE 5TH FLOOR, SAN JUAN, PR 00917. Actividad Empresarial: CAR DEALERSHIP. Renuncia a elementos no registrables: Autogrupo. NOTIFICACIÓN: Cualquier oposición a este registro deberá presentarse en el Departamento de Estado de Puerto Rico dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este aviso.
GOBIERNO DE PUERTO RICO
DEPARTAMENTO DE ESTADO. NOMBRE COMERCIAL PARA REGISTRAR AVISO. A QUIEN PUEDA INTERESAR:
De acuerdo con las disposiciones de la Ley Núm. 75 del 23 de septiembre de 1992, según enmendada, mejor conocida como la Ley de Nombres Comerciales del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y la Sección 24 del Reglamento promulgado bajo la ley citada anteriormente, el siguiente nombre comercial ha
sido presentado en el Departamento de Estado de Puerto Rico para su archivo y registro
LAMBORGHINI
PUERTO RICO
Número de Expediente: 248465-99-0. Propietario: F40 LLC. Dirección: 221 PONCE DE LEON AVENUE 5TH FLOOR, SAN JUAN, PR 00917. Actividad Empresarial: CAR DEALERSHIP. Renuncia a los elementos no registrables: NOTIFICACIÓN: Cualquier oposición a este registro deberá presentarse en el Departamento de Estado de Puerto Rico dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este aviso.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN ALMA WHITE DE JESUS Vs DORAL MORTGAGE, LLC, AHORA FIRSTBANK PUERTO RICO; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS
Demandados Civil Núm.: SJ2023CV00122. (908). Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO EXTRAVIADO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO POR SUMAC.
A: LA PARTE CODEMANDADA: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE, DEMANDADOS DESCONOCIDOS CUYA DIRECCION SE DESCONOCE. EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 23 de marzo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos
de este caso, con fecha de 3 de mayo de 2023. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 3 de mayo de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ
COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. LUCRECIA PAGÁN MORALES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO
DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE PONCE
LIME HOMES, LTD.
Demandante Vs. SUCESION MARCO
LUIS RIVERA LOPEZ
COMPUESTA POR SUS
HEREDEROS JULIA
MILAGROS MATOS
TORRES; CAROL ALEXA
RIVERA MATOS; MARCO
ALEJANDRO RIVERA
MATOS Y FULANO Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO
POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS
Demandados
Civil Núm.: GM202OCV00060.
Sala: 702. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA. Emplazamiento por edicto e interpelación.
ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, ss.
A: FULANO Y SUTANO DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN MARCO LUIS RIVERA LOPEZ.
POR LA PRESENTE se les emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá radicar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se presente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá radicar el original de su contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente y notifique con copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, Lcdo. Roberto C. Látimer Valentín, al PO BOX 9022512, San Juan, P.R. 00902-2512; Teléfono: (787)
724-0230. En dicha demanda se tramita un procedimiento de cobro de dinero y ejecución de hipoteca bajo el número mencionado en el epígrafe. Se alega en dicho procedimiento que la parte Demandada incurrió en el incumplimiento del Contrato de Hipoteca, al no poder pagar las mensualidades vencidas correspondientes a los meses de febrero de 2018, hasta el presente, más los cargos por demora correspondientes.
Además adeuda a la parte demandante las costas, gastos y
honorarios de abogado en que incurra el tenedor del pagaré en este litigio. De acuerdo con dicho Contrato de Garantía Hipotecaria la parte Demandante declaró vencida la totalidad de la deuda ascendente a la suma de $252,877.60, más intereses a razón de! 7.25% anual, desde el 1 de enero de 2018, hasta el presente y tos que se continúen acumulando hasta su total y completo pago, una suma de principal diferido de $7,319.96 la cual no genera intereses, más tos cargos por demora que se corresponden a los plazos atrasados desde la fecha anteriormente indicada a razón de la tasa pactada de 5% de cualquier pago que éste en mora por más de quince (15) días desde la fecha de su vencimiento, más adelantos para el pago de seguros y contribuciones, entre otros; más una suma equivalente a ($21,4000.00) para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. La parte Demandante presentará para su inscripción en el Registro de la Propiedad correspondiente, un AVISO DE PLEITO PENDIENTE (“Lis Pendens”) sobre la propiedad objeto de esta acción cuya propiedad es la siguiente:
URBANA: Solar marcado con el número 25 del bloque B del plano de inscripción de la urbanización Portales de Jacaranda localizado en la Carretera Estatal PR-545, barrio Descalabrado del término municipal de Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico, con un área superficial de 1081.76 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, con dos alineaciones que suman 39.18 metros lineales con la Calle Número 16 y el solar número 26 del bloque B; por el SUR, con una lineación de 5.31 metros lineales con el Expreso Luis A. Ferre; por el ESTE, con una alineación de 34.74 metros lineales con los solares número 47 y 48 del bloque G y por el OESTE, con una alineación de 56.06 metros lineales con el soler número 24 del bloque B. Afecta a este solar una servidumbre de 1.52 metros de ancho que discurre a todo lo largo de su colindancia Norte, a favor de la Puerto Rico Telephone Company. En dicho solar enclava una estructura de concreto diseñada para fines residenciales para una familia construida de acuerdo a los planos y especificaciones. Afecta a este solar una servidumbre sanitaria que discurre a todo lo largo de su colindancia Sur y Oeste. Consta inscrita al 179 del tomo 176 de Santa Isabel, Finca #7321, Registro de la Propiedad de Guayama.
SE LES ORDENA a ustedes a que dentro del término legal de treinta (30) días, contados a partir de la fecha de notificación de la presente Orden, acepten o repudien la participación que les corresponda en la herencia
de la DE LA SUCESION DE Marco Luis Rivera Lopez. De no hacerlo dentro de dicho término, se dará la herencia por aceptada. SE LES APERCIBE que de no hacer sus alegaciones responsivas a la demanda dentro del término aquí dispuesto, se les anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia, concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Demanda, sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal en Ponce Puerto Rico. A 3 de mayo de 2023.
CARMEN G. TIRÚ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. MARIELY FÉLIX RIVERA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA
SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMON
BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante Vs. SUCESION DE PAULA
VÉLEZ SANTIAGO Y
SUCESION DE ABRAHAM
MELÉNDEZ MELÉNDEZ
COMPUESTAS POR SU
HEREDERA CONOCIDA
MARIA MELENDEZ; FULANO DE TAL
Y SUTANA DE TAL
COMO HEREDEROS
DESCONOCIDOS Y/O
PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHAS SUCESIONES
Demandados
CIVIL NÚM.: BY2023CV01246
SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA.
EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE. UU. EL ESTADO
LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R. SS.
A: SUCESION DE PAULA
VÉLEZ SANTIAGO Y
SUCESION DE ABRAHAM
MELÉNDEZ MELÉNDEZ
COMPUESTAS POR SU
HEREDERA CONOCIDA MARIA MELENDEZ; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHAS SUCESIONES - BARRIO MINILLAS, URB. SANTA JUANITA, G5 AVE. LAUREL, BAYAMÓN, PR 00956-4723.
POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza para que presente al tribunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y
Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Se le apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que de no expresarse dentro de ese término de treinta (30) días, en torno a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia, la herencia se tendrá por aceptada. También se le apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que luego del transcurso del término de treinta (30) días antes señalado, contados a partir de la fecha de publicación de este edicto, se presumirá que han aceptado la herencia del(los) causante(s) y, por consiguiente, responden por las cargas de dicha herencia conforme dispone el Artículo 1,578 del Nuevo Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 11,021. Representa a la parte demandante, la representación legal cuyo nombre, dirección y teléfono se consigna de inmediato: BUFETE FORTUÑO & FORTUÑO FAS, C.S.P. LCDO. JUAN C. FORTUÑO FAS RUA NÚM.:11416 PO BOX 3908, GUAYNABO, PR 00970 TEL: 787-751-5290, FAX:787-751-6155
E-MAIL: ejecuciones@fortuno-law.com Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, hoy 2 de mayo de 2023. Lcda. Laura I. Santa Sánchez, Secretaria Regional. María E. Collazo Febus, Secretaria Auxiliar.
LEGAL NOT ICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL
GENERAL DE JUSTICIA
TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN
BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO
Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE MILKA COTT RODRIGUEZ COMPUESTA POR SU CONOCIDA MIRIAM COTT
T/C/C MYRIAM COTT HEREDERA RODRIGUEZ
RODRÍGUEZ; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O
PARTES SUCESIÓN CON INTERÉS EN DICHA
Demandado (a)
CIVIL NÚM.: SJ2022CV11153
SALA: 508 SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCION DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: MIRIAM COTT
T/C/C MYRIAM COTT HEREDERA RODRIGUEZ RODRÍGUEZ; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN DICHA SUCESION DE MILKA CORR RODRIGUEZ
EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 2 de mayo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 2 de mayo de 2023. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 2 de mayo de 2023. GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ COLLADO, secretaria regional. F/MARTHA ALMODOVAR CABRERA, secretaria Auxiliar.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO ORIENTAL BANK
Demandante V. ROBERT BUSCHMAN DE LA TORRE
Demandados(a)
Civil: YB2023CV00002. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO - ORDINARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: ROBERT BUSCHMAN DE LA TORRE; DIRECCION: 17 CALLE LUIS MUÑOZ RIVERA INTERIOR, YABUCOA PR 00767-3121.
(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)
EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 19 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia,
Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 3 de mayo de 2023. En Humacao, Puerto Rico, el 3 de mayo de 2023. IVELISSE C. FONSECA RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA. DALISSA REYES DE LEÓN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC
COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS
FUND, LLC
Parte Demandante Vs. ADAM D. CRUZ LÓPEZ Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: DO2022CV00178.
402. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.
A: ADAM D. CRUZ LÓPEZ - URB MONTE ELENA 240 CALLE GERANIO DORADO, PUERTO RICO 00646-5611 / 774 CALLE
FCO GARCIA FARIA DORADO, PUERTO RICO 00646.
POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio
solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia al abogado de la parte demandante, el Lcdo.
José F. Aguilar Vélez cuya dirección es: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección jose.aguilar@orf-law. com y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 14 de abril de 2023. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 14 de abril de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. AMALYN FIGUEROA NIEVES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA REGIÓN JUDICIAL DE AGUADILLA SALA SUPERIOR DE AGUADILLA
CENTURION INSURANCE
AGENCY, INC. POR SÍ Y COMO PARTE INTERESADA
Demandante V. EQUITY PRIME
MORTGAGE, LLC; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD DOE
Demandados Civil Núm.: GB2023CV00263.
Sobre: RESTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ HIPOTECARIO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, S.S.
A: JOHN DOE / RICHARD DOE.
Quedan notificados que la demandante de epígrafe ha radicado en este Tribunal una Demanda contra ustedes como co-demandados en la que se solicita la restitución vía judicial de un Pagaré Hipotecario extraviado a favor de Equity Prime Mortgage, LLC, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $184,594.00 e intereses al 5.375% anual y vencimiento el día 1ro de marzo de 2053, mediante la Escritura Número 13 otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico ante el notario público Miguel A. Santiago Rivera. El descrito Pagaré hipotecario grava la propiedad que se describe a continuación: RÚSTICA: Barrio Palmar de Aguadilla. Solar: Cabida: 600.00 metros cuadrados. En lindes por el NORTE, en 37.50 metros, con el remanente; por el SUR, en 37.50 metros, con el remanente; por el ESTE, en 16.00 metros, con el remanente y por el OESTE, 16.00 metros, con el uso público. Consta inscrita al folio 7 del tomo 343 de Aguadilla, fin-
ca número 19340, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección de Aguadilla. Se les advierte que el presente Edicto se publicará en un periódico de circulación general una sola vez y se le requiere para que contesten la Demanda de epígrafe dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación del edicto, radicando el original de su contestación en el Tribunal correspondiente y notificando con copia de la misma a la parte demandante a la siguiente dirección:
BUFETE APONTE & CORTES
LCDA. ERIKA MORALES MARENGO PO Box 195337 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00919 Tel. (787) 302-0014 / (787) 239-5661 Email: emarengo@apontecortes.com
Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se presente por derecho propio. Se le apercibe que de no hacerlo, el tribunal podrá dictar Sentencia en rebeldía concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, hoy día 1 de mayo de 2023. SARAHÍ REYES PÉREZ, SECRETARIA. ZUHEILY GONZÁLEZ AVILÉS, SUB-SECRETARIA.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN
BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO COMO SUCESOR EN DERECHO DE LEVITT MORTGAGE CORPORATION Demandante V. CONSOLIDATED MORTGAGE AND FINANCE CORPORATION; LA SUCESION DE LUIS ANTONIO REGUERO
NEGRON T/C/C LUIS ANTONIO REQUERO NEGRON COMPUESTA POR SUTANO DE TAL, POSIBLE HEREDERO DESCONOCIDO; LA SUCESION DE GLADYS GONZALEZ TORRADO COMPUESTA POR PERECENJO DE TAL, POSIBLE HEREDERO DESCONOCIDO; BRENDA REGUERO GONZALEZ COMO PARTE DE LA SUCESOIN DE LUIS ANTONIO REGUERO NEGRON T/C/C LUIS ANTONIO
REQUERO NEGRON Y DE LA SUCESION DE GLADYS GONZALEZ TORRADO; FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARE
Demandados(a)
Civil: BY2022CV06507. Sala:
503. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO POR LA VÍA JUDICIAL. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: CONSOLIDATED MORTGAGE AND FINANCE CORPORAT!ON; BRENDA REGUERO
GONZALEZ COMO PARTE DE LA SUCESION DE LUIS ANTONIO REGUERO
NEGRON T/C/C LUIS ANTONIO REQUERO NEGRON Y DE LA SUCESION DE GLAYDS GONZALEZ TORRADO; SUTANO DE TAL, POSIBLE HEREDERO DESCONOCIDO DE LUIS ANTONIO REGUERO NEGRON
T/C/C LUIS ANTONIO REQUERO NEGRON; PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLE HEREDERO DESCONOCIDO DE GLAYDS GONZALEZ TORRADO, FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARE.
(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)
EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 3 de mayo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 4 de mayo de 2023. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 4 de mayo de 2023. LCDA. LAURA
I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA. IVETTE M. MARRERO BRACERO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR. LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA MUNICIPAL DE FAJARDO ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC., COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC.
Demandante V. REYNALDO ORTIZ BATISTA
Demandado(a)
Civil: RG2022CV00381. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO - REGLA 60. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: REYNALDO ORTIZ
BATISTA: BO. COCO BEACH, CARR. 3, KM
17.5, RIO GRANDE, PR 00745.
(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)
EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 03 de mayo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 03 de mayo de 2023.
En FAJARDO, Puerto Rico, el 03 de mayo de 2023. WANDA I. SEGUÍ REYES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. SHEILA ROBLES HERNÁNDEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA
TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA MUNICIPAL DE FAJARDO ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC., COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS
FUND, LLC.
Demandante V. REYNALDO ORTIZ
BATISTA
Demandado(a)
Civil: RG2022CV00381. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO - REGLA
60. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: REYNALDO ORTIZ
BATISTA: BO. COCO
BEACH, CARR. 3, KM
17.5, RIO GRANDE, PR 00745.
(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto)
EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 03 de mayo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 03 de mayo de 2023. En FAJARDO, Puerto Rico, el 03 de mayo de 2023. WANDA I. SEGUÍ REYES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. SHEILA ROBLES HERNÁNDEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC, COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC
Demandante V. MARÍA D. ROSARIO RUIZ
Demandado(a)
Civil: HU2022CV00281. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO - ORDINARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: MARÍA D. ROSARIO RUIZ A SU DIRECCIÓN CONOCIDA. URB. MABU A14 CALLE 1, HUMACAO, PR 00791.
P/C LCDO. JOSÉ FRANCISCO AGUILAR
VÉLEZ.
(Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 02 de mayo de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 03 de mayo de 2023. En Humacao, Puerto Rico, el 03 de mayo de 2023. IVELISSE C. FONSECA RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA. MICHELLE GUEVARA DE LEÓN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
LEGAL NOTICE
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMACAO
ADRIANA DELGADILLO FERRER, T/C/C ADRIANA
ELHYANI Y DANIEL ELIE ELHYANI FORMAN
Parte Demandante Vs. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE
Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: HU2023CV00555. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.
A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE.
POR LA PRESENTE se le notifica a usted, que se ha radicado en esta secretaría la Demanda de epígrafe. En dicha Demanda se reclama que usted es el posible tenedor de un pagaré hipotecario extraviado constituido mediante la Escritura Número ciento veintidós (122), otorgada en San Juan, el treinta (30) de abril de dos mil cuatro (2004), ante el Notario Juan C. Blasini González; por la suma principal de ciento veinte mil setecientos ochenta y cinco dólares ($120,785.00) intereses al
cinco punto cincuenta (5.50%) por ciento anual y vencedera al primero (1) de mayo de dos mil diecinueve (2019) a favor de Popular Mortgage Inc.; sobre los inmuebles que se describen a continuación: A: DESCRIP-
CIÓN: PROPIEDAD HORIZON-
TAL: URBANA: Apartamento Residencial número trescientos veinte (320) modelo tipo A localizado en el tercer piso del edificio Condominio Palmanova Plaza, situado en Palmas Inn Road, Palmas del Mar, en el Barrio Candelero Abajo del Municipio de Humacao. Es un apartamiento irregular con una cabida superficial de seiscientos veintitrés puntos cincuenta y cinco (623.55) pies cuadrados aproximadamente, equivalentes a cincuenta y siete punto novecientos veintisiete (57.027) metros cuadrados. Sus linderos y distancias son las siguientes: Por el NORTE, en trece (13) pies equivalentes a tres punto noventa y seis (3.96) metros lineales, con elementos exteriores del edificio; por el SUR, en doce (12) pies y seis con un cuarto (6 1/4) pulgadas, equivalentes a tres punto ochenta y uno (3.81) metros lineales con paso porticado elemento común separado por pared y puerta; por el ESTE, en cuarenta y nueve (49) pies una (1) tres octavos (3/8) pulgadas, equivalentes a catorce punto noventa y siete (14.97) metros lineales con el apartamiento Residencial trescientos diecinueve (319) y en dos (2) pies cinco octavos (5/8) pulgadas, equivalentes a cero punto sesenta y dos (0.62) metros lineales con el paso porticado; por el OESTE, en cuarenta y nueve (49) pies media (1/2) pulgada, equivalente a catorce punto noventa y cuatro (14.94) metros lineales con el apartamiento Residencial número trescientos veintiuno (321). Este apartamiento consta de una terraza ubicada en su costado Norte, sala -cuarto dormitorio, cocina, un baño recibidor, cuartito de desahogo, closet para la unidad de aire acondicionado y closet para máquina, lavadora y secadora. Su entrada principal se encuentra en su colindancia Sur, que comunica con paso porticado, elemento común que provee acceso a los elevadores y escaleras y de ahí al exterior del edificio. A este apartamiento le corresponde una participación en los elementos comunes generales del Condominio equivalente a cero puntos cuatrocientos dieciocho (0.418%) por ciento. INSCRITA AL FOLIO 211 DEL TOMO 484 DE HUMACAO, FINCA NÚMERO 22,079. REGISTRO DE LA PROPIEDAD DE PUERTO RICO, SECCIÓN DE HUMACAO. SISTEMA DIGITAL KARIBE. CATASTRO: 354-023557-09-267. B: DESCRIPCIÓN: PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL:
URBANA: Apartamento de Estacionamiento número “P” uno guión cincuenta y nueve (P1-59) en forma rectangular localizado en el nivel primero del estacionamiento soterrado denominado “F” uno (P-1) del edificio Condominio Palmanova Plaza, situado en Palmas Inn Road, Palmas del Mar, en el Barrio Candelero Abajo del Municipio de Humacao. Mide siete punto noventa y nueve (7.99) pies de ancho, equivalente a dos punto cuarenta y tres (2.43) metros lineales por quince (15) pies de largo, equivalente a cuatro punto cincuenta y siete (4.57) metros lineales que hacen un área superficial de ciento diecinueve punto ochenta y cinco (119.85) pies cuadrados, equivalentes a once punto ciento treinta y cuatro (11.134) metros cuadrados. Sus linderos y distancias son los siguientes: Por el NORTE, en siete punto noventa y nueve (7.99) pies con la Vía de circulación del piso; Por el SUR, en siete punto noventa y nueve (7.99 pies) con el apartamiento de estacionamiento número “P’ uno guión ochenta y dos (P1 -82); Por el ESTE, en quince (15) pies con el apartamiento de estacionamiento número “F” uno guión cincuenta y ocho (P1-58); por el OESTE, en quince (15) pies con el apartamiento de Estacionamiento número “F” uno guión sesenta (P1-60). La entrada a este apartamiento está situada en su lindero Norte y por ella se sale a la vía de circulación del piso, por la cual se sale al exterior. A este apartamiento le corresponde una participación en los elementos comunes generales del Condominio equivalente a cero punto cero ochocientos tres (0.0803%) por ciento. INSCRITA AL FOLIO 216 DEL TOMO 484 DE HUMACAO, FINCA NÚMERO 22,080.
REGISTRO DE LA PROPIEDAD DE PUERTO RICO, SECCIÓN DE HUMACAO. SISTEMA DIGITAL KARIBE. CATASTRO: 354-023-557-09059. Se le emplaza y requiere que presente su alegación responsiva a la DEMANDA dentro de las treinta (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, 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, con copia a con copia a la Lcda. Sary Magdalena Brea Falcón, a A23 Jardines de Humacao, Humacao. P.R. 00791, con teléfono 787-407-5832,
787-719-5585, Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. Se expidió bajo mi firma y sello de este Honorable Tribunal, en Humacao, Puerto Rico, a 03 de MAYO de 2023. IVELISSE C. FONSECA RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA. MICHELLE GUEVARA DE LEÓN, SUB-SECRETARIA.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC
COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC
Demandante Vs GABRIEL A.
GARCIA LOPEZ
Demandado (a)
Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV09228. Sala: (504). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO - ORDINARIO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.
A: GABRIEL A. GARCIA LOPEZ.
EL SECRETARIO(A) que suscribe le notifica a usted que el 3 de abril de 2023, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debidamente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted enterarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta notificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circulación general en la Isla de Puerto Rico, dentro de los 10 días siguientes a su notificación. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedimiento sujeta a los términos de la Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución, de la cual puede establecerse recurso de revisión o apelación dentro del término de 30 días contados a partir de la publicación por edicto de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 1 de mayo de 2023. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 1 de mayo de 2023. GRISELDA RODRÍGUEZ COLLADO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. E. DIOMARYS ALCÁNTARA FÉLIX, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.
NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA CENTRO JUDICIAL DE AGUADILLA SALA SUPERIOR
OZZIE LEE RODRIGUEZ
HERNANDEZ, también conocido por OZZIE LEE RODRÍGUEZ, y también conocido por OZZIE RODRÍGUEZ y MAYRA RODRÍGUEZ
Demandantes vs. FRANCISCO MALDONADO
Demandado CIVIL NÚM.: AG2023CV00108 (601) SOBRE: LIQUIDACIÓN DE COMUNIDAD DE BIENES. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA. EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS. EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. S.S.
A: FRANCISCO MALDONADO
Por la presente se le emplaza y se le notifica de la presentación de una Demanda de Liquidación de Comunidad de Bienes por la Parte Demandante. Este caso fue presentado a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC). Deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través de la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar cualquier documento relacionado al caso en la secretaria del tribunal; con constancia de haber servido copia de la misma (a la) abogado (a) de la parte demandante o a este si hubiera comparecido por derecho propio. Se le apercibe y advierte que de no contestar o alegar en contra de la Demanda, radicando el original de su contestación ante este Honorable Tribunal y notificando con copia al abogado de la parte demandante, licenciado Juan C. Ortiz Arocho, RUA 15,352, a la dirección Urbanización Roosevelt, 315 Calle Juan B. Rodríguez, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00918, teléfonos 787-282-8120 / 787-200-7378, correo electrónico; juankortiz@ aol.com, dentro de los veinte (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto, el cual será publicado una sola vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general en Puerto Rico, se le anotará la rebeldía y se dictará sentencia, concediendo el remedio solicitado en la Demanda sin más citarle ni oírle. Expedida bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, hoy 4 de mayo de 2023. Sarahí Reyes Pérez, Secretaria Regional. Nathalie I. Acevedo Quiñones, Secretaria Auxiliar del Tribunal I.
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU-
James Harden of the Philadelphia 76ers was on his way to Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Sunday morning when he received a text message from his coach, Doc Rivers, that included a link to a gospel song, “You Know My Name” by Tasha Cobbs Leonard. It was the first time Rivers had sent Harden a song. His curiosity was piqued.
“I tell my homies, ‘Let’s play the song,’” Harden recalled, adding, “I let the whole song play, and I’m like, ‘All right, it’s got to be some kind of good juju in this song.’”
It was not some random text, of course. The basketball-watching universe had spent about 36 hours dissecting Harden’s poor play in the past two games of the 76ers’ Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Boston Celtics. The point of sending the song, Rivers said, was to remind Harden of his identity.
“James had to get himself back,” Rivers said.
Sure enough, with 19 seconds left in overtime Sunday afternoon, Harden sank a baseline 3-pointer that lifted the 76ers to a 116-115 victory and evened the best-of-seven series at 2-2. Game 5 is tonight in Boston (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT).
Harden was brilliant in Game 4, finishing with 42 points, nine assists, eight rebounds and four steals.
“Quite frankly,” Harden said, “today was do or die.”
The 76ers have been a staple of the NBA playoffs over the past six seasons, making five appearances in the conference semifinals. But those second-round series are where the road has tended to end for them. The last time they made the conference finals was in 2001, when Allen Iverson led them past the Milwaukee Bucks and into the NBA Finals. (The 76ers wound up losing in five games to the Los Angeles Lakers.)
The collective patience of Philadelphians seems to be wearing thin. Before Game 3, when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver presented 76ers center Joel Embiid with his first MVP award, it was the fulfillment — on at least one level — of the franchise’s dustcovered, team-building blueprint known as the Process. Without getting into too many messy specifics, it involved the team playing abysmal basketball for several seasons while collecting a slew of top draft picks, one of which they used to select Embiid from the University of Kansas.
The challenge for the 76ers, of course, is that the Process was never about winning individual honors, though those are nice. The
mandate now, on players including Embiid and Harden, but also on Rivers and Daryl Morey, the team’s president of basketball operations, is to vie for a championship. Embiid is 29. The 76ers traded for Harden last season. Before Game 4, Rivers was asked about his team’s level of urgency.
“Do I really need to answer that question?” he said, laughing. “You worked on that question for 48 hours, and that’s what you came up with? Whatever high is, I’m going to assume it’s high.”
Harden delivered. Early in the first quarter, he made a beeline to the basket and scored on a runner, playfully bopping the ball off his head after it fell through the hoop. It was a sign of more pyrotechnics to come.
None of it was easy. The 76ers gave up a 16-point third-quarter lead. Embiid finished with 34 points and 13 rebounds, but struggled from the field, shooting 11 of 26. And Jayson Tatum scored 22 of his 24 points after halftime, nearly leading the Celtics to a crushing comeback victory. Instead, Harden shouldered the load for the 76ers.
“I’m always a competitor,” he said. “I always want to win.”
During the regular season, Harden operated as a facilitator, averaging a league-best 10.7 assists per game. He was neither the scoring nor the 3-point-shooting machine that he was in a former basketball life with the Houston Rockets. Instead, he formed a potent partnership with Embiid, the team’s centripetal force. Everything and everyone revolved around Embiid, for good reason, including Harden.
Game 1 of the 76ers’ series with the Celtics upset that balance in an odd and unexpected way. Embiid had sprained his right
knee late in the first round and was sidelined, which meant that Harden apparently felt obliged to board his personal time machine and travel back to his gluttonous, ball-dominant days with the Rockets. He torched the Celtics, scoring 45 points while shooting 7 of 14 from 3-point range to lead the 76ers to a narrow win.
Embiid was back in the lineup for Games 2 and 3, and suddenly Harden seemed almost too conscious of his teammate’s presence, too passive and deferential. It hardly helped that Jaylen Brown affixed himself to Harden for long stretches. In those two losses, Harden shot a combined 5 of 28 from the field and 2 of 13 from 3-point range. Game 3 on Friday was particularly gruesome. Harden routinely passed up open shots. When he did launch a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter, he barely grazed the front of the rim. More than a few fans expressed their displeasure.
“I think with anyone, if you’re not making shots, you hesitate at times,” Rivers said.
For his part, Harden defended his shot selection, telling reporters: “I’m pretty good on basketball instincts. I know when to score. I know when to pass, so I’m pretty sure a lot of it was the right play.”
On Saturday, the 76ers had a lengthy film session at their practice facility. Rivers identified clips from Game 3 where he felt the 76ers needed to play with more pace, where the Celtics outhustled them for rebounds and loose balls, and where his players exhibited poor body language. The Celtics, who advanced to the NBA Finals last season and have renewed title aspirations of their own, carried themselves differently.
“I think the film yesterday said what we had to be,” Rivers said, “that they’re going to make a run, that we’re going to make a mistake. Things are not going to go well, and just keep playing.”
On Sunday, the 76ers made plenty of mistakes. Their offense stalled in the fourth quarter. They stopped moving and settled for tough shots. Harden, though, has playoff experience, and he said he was also inspired by the presence of John Hao, a student who survived the deadly shooting at Michigan State University in February. Harden and Hao connected over FaceTime.
Late in regulation, Harden’s runner over the Celtics’ Al Horford tied the game 107107. And in overtime, Harden came up with a key steal while defending Marcus Smart. He appeared to have a calming influence on his teammates.
He also found himself with the ball in his hands when it mattered most. He knew who he was.
Vida Blue, who as a rookie with the Oakland Athletics in 1971 threw an unhittable fastball and became baseball’s hottest player, died Saturday. He was 73.
The Associated Press reported that Blue died at a hospital in San Francisco’s East Bay area of medical complications stemming from cancer. The Oakland Athletics provided the information after announcing the former pitcher’s death. According to AP, Blue had used a walking stick to assist his movement at a 50th anniversary of the 1973 A’s championship team on April 16.
Vida (pronounced VYE-da) Blue was one of the stars of an Athletics team that won the World Series three straight years, from 1972 to 1974. But his performance in those years never reproduced the adulation and hoopla of his first full season.
After losing on opening day to the Washington Senators in 1971, Blue, a lefty, reeled off eight wins in a row. In his first dozen games, he threw five complete-game shutouts. By the summer, he was leading baseball in not just shutouts but also wins, strikeouts, complete games and ERA.
Sports Illustrated and Time magazine put him on their covers. He turned 22 that July.
On the field, he was a man in a hurry. Unlike almost all other pitchers in baseball history, he ran to and from the mound. His delivery concluded with what writer Roger Angell of The New Yorker described as a “leap.”
Opposing hitters spoke mystically of how Blue’s fastballs would disappear or jump over their bats. Reporters speculated about why he carried two dimes in his pocket when he pitched, with some suggesting it was a charm to help him win 20 games. Across the country, attendance at
his outings swelled to levels that stadiums had not seen in years. Fans of an opposing team, the Detroit Tigers, chanted outside the clubhouse, “We want Vida!”
The A’s appeared in the playoffs for the first time since 1931, ultimately losing to the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Championship. Blue — who finished the year at 24-8 with a 1.82 ERA and 301 strikeouts with 24 complete games, eight of them shutouts — pulled off the feat of winning, in his first full season, both the Cy Young and the MVP awards (beating out his teammate Sal Bando to become the MVP).
Blue earned the paltry sum of about $15,000 as salary, and he prepared for a major payday. President Richard Nixon called him “the most underpaid player in baseball.”
Yet he had already fought with the colorful, obstreperous owner of the A’s, Charles O. Finley, who offered Blue $2,000 to legally change his name to Vida True Blue, hoping to use the moniker for advertising.
Blue was named after his father, who died in Blue’s boyhood. “I honor him every time the name Vida Blue appears in the headlines,” Blue told Time.
“If Mr. Finley thinks it’s such
a great name, why doesn’t he call himself True O. Finley?”
After the ’71 season, Blue said he should make $115,000. Finley countered with $50,000 and made the dispute public. Blue held a news conference and declared that he would retire from sports to become a vice president for public relations at a steel company.
Ultimately, Blue and Finley settled on $63,150.
After Blue’s run of wins in ’71 — it seemed possible at one point that he would reach the belief-defying milestone of 30 — he started the ’72 season late and went a pedestrian 6-10. He pitched well but not spectacularly as a reliever in the postseason, which concluded with the A’s winning the World Series.
“That man has soured me on baseball,” Blue told The New York Times about Finley in 1973. “No matter what he does for me in the future, I’ll never forget that he treated me like a damn colored boy.”
Blue went on to cement a reputation as a standout regular season pitcher, recording 20 or more wins in three of his first five seasons. He was a contributor to the A’s subsequent success in the playoffs.
And even without changing his name, Blue was one of several memorably named Athletics. Among them were Blue Moon Odom, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, Mudcat Grant and Rick Monday.
Blue was traded to the San Francisco Giants in 1978 and recorded another strong year, going 18-10 with a 2.79 ERA. But he would soon be better known for
his life off the field.
In 1983, as a pitcher for the Kansas City Royals, Blue and several of his teammates were questioned as part of a federal cocaine inquiry. He pleaded guilty to possession of the drug, leading to 81 days in prison and a yearlong suspension from baseball.
It was a surprising turn of events for a man whose maturity and poise had been praised when he was a 22-year-old superstar.
In his 2011 autobiography, “Vida Blue: A Life,” Blue suggested that he had struggled with substance abuse for many years.
“Along with all the glory that I’d achieved, there was a growing darkness reaching for me,” he wrote. “And the light began to dim as early as 1972” — the year of his fight with Finley.
Vida Rochelle Blue Jr. was born July 28, 1949, in Mansfield, a small town in northern Louisiana. His family lived on an unpaved street, and his father worked at a steel mill. Blue’s reputation as an athletic prodigy prompted his high school to form a baseball team. His overpowering speed on the mound caused outfielders to zone out, knowing nobody could hit him, and the hand of his catcher to hurt for days after games.
He was also a celebrated quarterback, but his plans to play college football changed when his father died at the age of 45. Blue’s mother, Sallie Blue, told him that now he was the man of the family.
When he was around 18 years old, he got an offer from the Athletics with a $35,000 signing bonus, according to Time. He gave much of it to his family.
Blue retired before the 1987 season. After his career as a ballplayer, he worked as a television analyst for the Giants. He was denied a place in the Hall of Fame, and he spoke to journalists periodically about his perception that his drug use was to blame.
Information about Blue’s survivors was not immediately available.
As a man in his 70s, Blue spoke to a group of high school students at the prompting of a friend, The Washington Post reported in 2021. One boy was going through a dark period at home. Blue took him aside and discussed his own struggles in his youth. Both of them wound up crying.
“I worked my tail off to polish that image back up and renew the name Vida Blue Jr.,” he told The Post. “It’s a constant battle to do that every day.”
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
Answers on page 30
Aries (Mar 21-April 20)
Airline travel is indicated in your immediate future, Aries. It’s likely you’ve been feeling serious wanderlust lately, as well as frustration with the same old routine. Be open to any interesting invitations that come your way today. If a friend invites you for a night out on the town, go despite any hesitation. You’re bound to have a wonderful time, and you need the diversion.
Taurus (April 21-May 21)
Your ship comes in, Taurus. Don’t be surprised if you find a big, fat check waiting for you. Who knows what you’ve done to deserve such kindness? Don’t question your good fortune - just accept it with charm and grace. Finally, you can implement some of those home improvements. Take full advantage of the generosity of the Universe. Deep down, you know you deserve it!
Gemini (May 22-June 21)
You can expect to reap the benefits from recent training or studies, Gemini. You’ve made a huge leap in ability, especially where technological skills are concerned. As a result, you can expect to receive either a promotion or raise. It’s the least your boss can do to reward you for all your hard work of late. If you continue at this pace, you will soon be running the company!
Cancer (June 22-July 23)
You may receive some important information today. This message could have a dramatic ripple effect on your life. You may change jobs or even move to a different part of the country, all as a result of the information you receive. You may be nervous about making such dramatic changes to your life, but trust that they’re for the better. Dare to take the risk, Cancer.
Leo (July 24-Aug 23)
If you have no significant other, Leo, all indications are that this will soon change. A friend may set you up on a blind date that turns out to be a real winner. Perhaps you suddenly look at a long-time friend with new eyes. If you’re in a committed relationship, you can expect to renew your bond. You feel closer to each other than ever. Celebrate your good fortune in finding each other.
Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)
You have a persuasive nature, Virgo. Take care that you don’t come on too strong today. You may try to rally support for a favored cause of yours. By all means, spread the word, but let others come to you if they’re interested. You tend to beat people over the head about doing the “right” thing. Don’t pressure anyone. If just a few people help, at least they will be truly committed.
Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)
What a day this could be, Libra. You may get an unexpected raise that seems to manifest out of the blue. Who knew it was possible? You may have a close friend to thank. He or she may have been responsible for making sure you were in the right place at the right time. Your life could change dramatically as a result. Hold on for what is bound to be a wild ride!
Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)
In spite of any feelings to the contrary, Scorpio, you’re bound to be successful. You may be involved in a group project that requires a lot of time and effort. All indications are that it will pay off shortly. Continue to work those long hours, even if it means staying up all night. In just a few months, you will catch up on sleep and be rolling in money.
Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)
In spite of any feelings to the contrary, Scorpio, you’re bound to be successful. You may be involved in a group project that requires a lot of time and effort. All indications are that it will pay off shortly. Continue to work those long hours, even if it means staying up all night. In just a few months, you will catch up on sleep and be rolling in money.
Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)
You may not want to leave the house today! You may not feel very social and prefer to spend time alone. You could go through old photographs, read old letters, and look through the attic. Pondering memories with a new perspective may clear up some things. With the wisdom and experience you’ve gained over the years, certain past issues may now finally make sense.
Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)
Don’t be surprised if you bump into an old friend or colleague today, Aquarius. This chance encounter could have a dramatic ripple effect on you as you reflect on your life and analyze how far you’ve come. You may realize you aren’t entirely pleased with your direction. Your friend may point out that there are many paths to happiness. Perhaps it’s time to choose another one.
Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)
Today is your lucky day, Pisces. You may get a windfall of some sort, maybe a check in the mail or a raise or promotion at work. This is just what you’ve been hoping for to elevate your lifestyle. Don’t go nuts. Invest the money wisely and it will keep you rolling in dough. Spend it all at once and you won’t have much to show for it in a few years.
