Thursday Oct 13, 2022

INDEX

MORNING

Highway authority plan of adjustment gains Title III court approval

By THE STAR STAFF

U.S.

District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who is overseeing Puerto Rico’s Title III bankruptcy cases, confirmed on Wednesday the plan of adjustment for the Highway and Transportation Authority (HTA), taking the island a step closer to the restructuring of its finances.

Swain approved the fifth version of the plan, submitted last month, which reduces HTA’s $6.4 billion in claims by more than 80%.

The confirmation of the plan is an important step for Puerto Rico to end its bankruptcy process under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), and to achieve long-term economic stability and growth, the Financial Oversight and Management Board said.

It is one of several debt adjustment plans confirmed by the court.

On Nov. 7, 2018, the court approved a qualifying modification for the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico that restructured some $4.5 billion in claims against the GDB.

On Jan. 18 of this year, the court confirmed the Modi fied Eighth Amended Title III Joint Plan of Adjustment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, dated Jan. 14, 2022, for the commonwealth, the Employees Retirement System and the Puerto Rico Public Buildings Authority, which reduced the commonwealth’s $30.5 billion in general obligation and guaranteed debt to some $7.4 billion, and eliminated all of the Employees Retirement System and Public Buildings Authority’s debt.

On Jan. 20, the court approved a qualifying modifica tion for the Puerto Rico Infrastructure Financing Authority (PRIFA) restructuring some $1.9 billion in claims against PRIFA and approved a qualifying modification for the Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority that restructured some $384 million in claims against that authority.

The government also restructured the debt of the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp.

Under the most recent restructuring to gain Title III court approval, HTA must establish a toll management office that is exclusively responsible for toll roads, separate responsibility for construction and maintenance between toll roads and non-toll roads, and transfer the Urban Train (Tren Urbano) to the Puerto Rico Integrated Transit Authority.

Those reforms are designed to create operational stability and improve the transportation sector overall.

The HTA Plan also requires HTA, during all times in which new HTA bonds (or refinancings thereof) remain out standing, to maintain and comply with a debt management policy that imposes certain limitations on further borrowing after the plan becomes effective.

The HTA 2022 Fiscal Plan is expected to provide for sufficient revenue to satisfy debt service to bondholders through modest increases in tolls and revenue from fines while maintaining significant cash reserves.

The plan contains 20 classes of creditors, of which the first 14 consist of bond claims, including monoline insurers. Class 15 consists of eminent domain payments.

The plan also calls for the preemption of local laws enacted prior to June 30, 2016 that provide for transfers or appropriations after the enactment of PROMESA, including transfers from the commonwealth or one of its instrumen talities to any agency or instrumentality, whether to enable such agency or instrumentality to pay or satisfy indebtedness or for any other purpose to the extent inconsistent with the HTA plan’s discharge of the debtor’s obligations.

All entities who have held, hold or may hold claims against HTA are prevented from pursuing claims that were discharged.

Meanwhile, Popular Democratic Party Sen. Juan Zara goza Gómez filed legislation for the restructuring of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority that includes a 60% haircut on the utility’s debt, according to a radio report.

The objective of the Zaragoza bill is to establish certain conditions to regulate the outcome of the restructuring pro cedure, since, in his opinion, it is necessary to guarantee that the utility will be a solvent company at the end of the process, according to the report.

Governor urged to appoint women’s advocate

By THE STAR STAFF

“Gender

violence should be a priority issue on the central government’s agenda. The lack of an official appointment to the position of the Office of the Women’s Advocate delays the work plan that aims, among other things, to preserve lives.”

With these words, Arecibo District Sen. Elizabeth Rosa Vélez urged Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia on Wednesday to appoint a person to the position.

“It is imperative, necessary, and urgent that the governor appoint a person to fill the position of Women’s Advocate,” Rosa Vélez said. “This is imperative to advance a work agenda that puts in place mechanisms to minimize and eradicate gender violence. The uncertainty of who is responsible for assuming this office gives the impression that it is not a priority for the government.”

“Two months ago, the women’s advo cate resigned, and the position is filled on an interim basis, while the media reports news daily where women victims of violence, among others, are murdered.”

The Office of the Women’s Advocate is responsible for strengthening and enforcing public policies that guarantee women’s hu man rights. It is also responsible for promoting equity and eliminating all manifestations of discrimination and violence against women,

among other obligations.

Statistics show that the Puerto Rico Police Bureau reported 2,786 incidents of domestic violence on the island from January to June of this year -- about four times more than the domestic violence statistics for the same period in 2021.

It was during that same year that the government declared a state of emergency in the face of an increase in deaths associated with gender violence.

“Despite the decree implemented by

the governor, the country is witnessing a number of murders and victims of this type of violence, so much so that the governor extended the decree until 2023,” Rosa Vélez said. “However, the lack of a proper advo cate calls into question whether the public policies and actions of the government to eradicate violence are consistent. There is no point in extending a decree if the main figure to guarantee compliance with public policies and measures is vacant.”

The senator, who is a social worker,

recognized the need to establish more rig orous measures to deal with cases of gender violence on the island. She said she is willing to contribute, through her role in the Senate, with legislation that strengthens and offers greater tools to the government to tackle the wave of violence that she described as

“engulfing the island.”

The resignation of the former women’s advocate, Lersy Boria Vizcarrondo, was effec tive Aug. 5. Since then, Madeline Bermúdez has held the position on an interim basis.

San Juan legislator seeks to regulate short-term rentals

By THE STAR STAFF

Manuel Calderón Cerame, the Popular Democrat ic Party spokesman in the San Juan Municipal Assembly, has introduced a measure to create the Code for the Regulation of Short-Term Rentals in the Municipality of San Juan, to address the uncontrolled spread of the industry in the capital.

“Short-term rentals are an important component in San Juan’s tourism industry, but their uncontrolled spread has become a problem for many communities in our city, which is why it is up to us to legislate with due knowledge and in a responsible manner,” Calderón Cerame said Wednesday in a press release.

The municipal legislator added that the main problem he has seen in the aforementioned tourist activity in San Juan is the lack of action by the municipal authorities and the central government by not applying the ordinances and laws that are already on the books. Dozens of incidents

have been reported between residents and people who book short-term rentals and behave in an uncontrolled manner, often disturbing the peace in the immediate community.

“My call to the Mayor of San Juan, as well as to my fellow legislators, is to act quickly but with the necessary knowledge to avoid a misfortune, as incidents in com munities such as Cupey, El Señorial, Puerto Nuevo, Las Lomas, Hato Rey, El Vedado, Old San Juan, and Condado are increasing,” Calderón Cerame said.

“The purpose of this measure is to create a special commission in the San Juan Municipal Legislature, where in less than 70 days, we can have a piece of legislation that has input from the communities of San Juan, as well as members of this industry of short-term rentals with knowledge of the tourism industry,” he said. “We seek to listen to all of them so that we can then draft a code that guarantees harmony among those who participate in this industry as well as the residents of our communities.”

Manuel Calderón Cerame, a member of the San Juan Municipal Assembly

Arecibo District Sen. Elizabeth Rosa Vélez

Governor still expects ‘managerial change’ at LUMA, but insists canceling contract is ‘craziness’

By THE STAR STAFF

Gov.

Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia insisted on Wednesday that LUMA Energy is still on probation and said he wants management changes, something that has not happened.

“[LUMA is on probation] that is correct; it has to improve its communication with the mayors, and there has to be a managerial change,” the governor said in a radio interview (WKAQ 580). “I asked for it before Fiona, but they haven’t done it so far and have to do it. It may be in process, don’t assume it’s not in process. They have to increase the personnel they have on the street.”

“It took three weeks to restore service to the vast majority of LUMA and Electric Power Authority subscribers; ideally, it would have taken less time. … At least, it would have taken two weeks, not three, something like that. Everything is being evaluated.”

Pierluisi added that canceling LUMA Energy’s contract is “a loquera” (craziness).

“Canceling the contract is folly, not to say madness. Because you want reliable electrical service, you don’t want major interruptions” he said. “It’s like turning off the switch and looking for someone else. Replacing LUMA

requires at least a year and a half. The law requires it to go through the whole process of a proven public alliance, and what do you have to do? You would have LUMA anyway.

In the end, now you are complaining about the service. Imagine if you told LUMA, ‘You are going out; we will change it but stay here to help us.’ That is, it is major nonsense.”

Meanwhile, the governor said, “hysteria”

had been created by the alleged increase of $26 in the energy bill.

“Now, they have generated controver sy over an alleged increase in the electric ity rate because the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority [PREPA] owes a debt. They have created a whole unnecessary hysteria,” Pierluisi said. “What is correct and true is that the ongoing mediation

did not work. And they have taken out information from within that mediation to then say ‘Look over there -- there was an increase of $26 for connecting you to electric power.’ Why are they taking that out if it [mediation] did not work? The judge asked the fiscal control board to submit a public debt adjustment plan for the authority on or before December 1. PREPA is bankrupt, and Judge [Laura] Taylor Swain is going to decide it. Don’t let them create unnecessary hysteria.”

“I will support the plan of adjustment if it is sustainable, fair, and reasonable for our people,” the governor added. “I already rejected the one that the [oversight] board had approved.”

Pierlusi said it is in Puerto Rico’s best interest for him to run for reelection so there won’t be a “cambia cambia” (constant change) of governors and that under his mandate, the island has improved.

“Definitely, that has always been there because Puerto Rico needs stability. Do you really think otherwise? Sure I do [intend to run for a second term], if it is in Puerto Rico’s best interest to get out of this cycle of changes every four years,” the governor said. “Puerto Rico has grown under my command.”

for improved security in San Juan Bay

By THE STAR STAFF

Puerto Rico Ports Authority Executive Director Joel Pizá Batiz announced on Wednesday the creation of the Port Security Advisory Board for the Bay of San Juan, with the

aim of collecting information to issue, through regulation, best maritime security practices in the Port of San Juan in 2023.

“The entrance to San Juan Bay is one of Puerto Rico’s most critical infrastructures; as more than 80% of our imports pass through it, it is essential to ensure security and adequate maritime coordination in the Bay of San Juan,” Pizá Batiz said in a written statement.

The first regular meeting of the advisory board was held on Sept. 30. Pizá Batiz observed that, during the past few years, the role of Ports as coordinator of port access and promoter of best navigation practices through rules of general application has decreased substantially. That has led to the repeal of regulations for such purposes, which has generated disagreements between maritime operators and a lack of coordination in the Bay of San Juan.

Pizá Batiz said that in the coming weeks he will receive input from the U.S. Coast Guard, San Juan Bay pilots, tug boat companies and the Puerto Rico Maritime Association, among others.

The goal of the initiative is the drafting of a regulation in 2023 that will create better maritime security practices and operational coordination in San Juan Bay.

In fiscal year 2021-22 the Port of San Juan registered 1,385,673 containers, 7,917,288 tons of cargo, 266 cruise visits and 417,399 cruise passengers.

The goal of the advisory board initiative is the drafting of a regulation in 2023 that will create better mari time security practices and operational coordination in San Juan Bay.

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi

2 arrested in slaying of retired schoolteacher in Caguas

By THE STAR STAFF

Puerto Rico Police Bureau Commissioner Antonio López Figueroa and prosecutor Maribel Mojiva Franceshi announced Wednesday the arrest of José Antonio Guatier Medina, 20, and Michael Rodríguez Flores, 21, who are accused of killing retired school teacher Margarita Rodríguez Morales on May 15 during a shootout in Caguas.

The pair face one count of first-degree

murder, one count of shooting in a public area and two counts of violation of the gun law. Rodríguez Flores also faces one count of possession of controlled substances.

Both are linked to the criminal organi zation led by Nelson Torres Delgado, alias El Burro, according to authorities.

“From the very day of the event, I made a commitment to the family of Doña Mar garita to do her justice, clarifying the facts of this unfortunate incident. Today, thanks to

the work of my police officers and the De partment of Justice, we managed to get two individuals dedicated to committing violent crimes off the street,” López Figueroa said in a written statement. “This is a clear message to those who engage in breaking the law with no sense of respect for life. We will go after them to get them out of circulation.”

Judge Ingrid Caro Cobb found cause on all the charges and set bail at $100,000 each. The preliminary hearing was scheduled

for Oct. 31.

According to the investigation, the death of Rodríguez Morales occurred dur ing a shootout between El Burro’s gang and a group called Los Viraos over the control of drug distribution points.

The day after the events, police officers arrested Jared Rosario Echeverría, 20, and Brian Sierra Fernández who face charges of violation of the weapons law for their participation in the retired teacher’s killing.

Second body recovered in Peñuelas flash flood drownings

By THE STAR STAFF

Authoritieson Wednesday found and retrieved the body of a 23-year-old Orlando, Florida woman who had been swept away by a flash flood in La Soplaera creek in Peñuelas.

“Rescuers found the body of the 23-year-old young woman missing since Saturday in the Peñuelas La Soplaera stream,” the Emergency Management and Disaster Administration Bureau said on its social media sites.

The incident occurred last Saturday

when a sudden rise in the creek swept away several people, some of whom were rescued.

On Sunday, the first body, identified as Jackeline Lasso, 30, of Colombia, was retrieved.

The social media sites did not specify where the second body, which was still unidentified as of press time Wednesday, was found.

The drowning incident occurred last Saturday when a sudden rise in the creek swept away several people, some of whom were rescued.

Group representing island investors seeks $7 million for role in restructurings

By THE STAR STAFF

Thelocal group Bonistas del Patio Inc., or Backyard Bondholders, filed a motion Tuesday requesting $7 million in fees and expenses from the commonwealth for their contribution in achieving the restruc turing of the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Corp. (COFINA) and the commonwealth debt.

In 2018, Bonistas’ payment was op posed by the Unsecured Creditors Commit tee, which noted that Bonistas had to submit documentation backing their claims.

Bonistas del Patio Inc., a Puerto Rico not-for-profit corporation established in 2016 to protect the interests of on-island investors in bonds issued by the commonwealth and its instrumentalities, said that throughout Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis, it served as a uni fied voice for the interests of this otherwise unrepresented but crucial constituency, who would, absent the efforts of Bonistas del Patio,

risk being sidelined by larger, more organized institutional investors in Puerto Rico’s bonds.

“As an advocate in the mediation process for Puerto Rican holders generally, Bonistas del Patio played a critical role in the achievement of the compromises and settle ments necessary to resolve the Title III cases of the Commonwealth and the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation (COFINA), including in connection with the negotiation, development, confirmation, and consumma tion of the COFINA Plan,” the groups said.

Bonistas del Patio was an active par ticipant in all stages of negotiations of the COFINA Plan and the settlements and made direct, concrete contributions to the plan, including in connection with structuring the COFINA Plan’s taxable bond election, and helping to obtain necessary support for the COFINA Plan from local bondholders.

Bonistas del Patio also participated in the mediation of the Commonwealth plan

of adjustment and contributed to the de velopment of possible contingent payment mechanisms that ultimately formed the basis for the contingent value instruments provided for under the commonwealth’s plan of adjust ment, the group said.

“Bonistas del Patio’s unique contribu tion to the successful restructuring of CO FINA was memorialized in the Plan Support Agreement for the COFINA Plan and recog nized by the Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority [AAFAF by its Spanish initials], by the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico and by other creditor parties in the COFINA Plan negotiations,” the group said.

“None of the contributions of Bonistas del Patio would have been possible had it not been represented in the mediation and plan process by experienced and well respected attorneys and financial advisors,” Bonistas said. “It was understood by AAFAF

and the other COFINA PSA parties that the expenses of parties to the mediation process in connection with the COFINA Plan, such as the Bonistas’ Expenses would be paid by the Commonwealth or its instrumentalities.”

Rather, having been invited to par ticipate in the mediation process to act as a voice for local bondholders and having committed to be a party to the COFINA PSA and to promote the COFINA Plan among local bondholders, the bonistas’ expenses were payable under a different COFINA Plan provision, Section 15.2. That section provides that the commonwealth will pay “all expenses … incurred by the Common wealth or COFINA … in connection with the development, negotiation, confirma tion and consummation of the COFINA Plan and the compromise and settlement of the Commonwealth-COFINA Dispute” as well as payment of Allowed Administra tive Claims.

For Venezuelan migrants in South Florida, ‘vision of a certain life’ meets reality

By PETER KUJAWINSKI

In the middle of an office park near the Miami International Airport are 18 sto rage units with an outsize meaning for Venezuelans who have just arrived in South Florida. The storage facility can be hard to find amid the tangle of access roads, one-way streets, underpass tributaries and towering highways that make up the South Florida circulatory system. But Venezuelans, some of whom have arrived only days before, find it easily.

The migrants are part of a mass exodus of 6.8 million people who have fled the country, its spiraling crises and its perva sive misery. Some are drawn to the facility by word-of-mouth, because of its location in Doral, in Miami-Dade County; 35% of Doral’s population was born in Venezuela, according to the U.S. census.

Others find it on Instagram while still in Venezuela, said Patricia Andrade, founder of the organization Raíces Venezolanas, or Venezuelan Roots, which rents the units. Im migrants often arrive penniless and without possessions, clutching a plastic grocery bag of documents. But sites like Instagram and Google Maps provide directions to resou rces — including the Raíces storage units.

Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida sent flights of Venezuelan migrants in Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachu setts, a move that garnered attention and controversy. But that event provides a limited view of immigration patterns in the United States, and the communities they create. The Venezuelan population in Doral is one such community — a group that includes hundreds of families who took more tradi tional, if often perilous, journeys.

Four years ago, Pierina Rivas was one of those newly arrived Venezuelans starting over in Doral. Raíces helped set her up for this new chapter. She remembers getting sheets; towels; silverware; pots and pans; clothes for her daughter, Bianca; baby food for her newborn, José Thomas; car seats and a stroller.

Her family’s journey is a good exam ple of the sometimes treacherous route that brings new members into these communities. Before fleeing to Florida in 2016, Rivas and her husband, José Chacin, had been living in

Punta de Mata, a town in the northern part of Venezuela. They had never considered living in the United States.

“We always had a vision of a certain life,” Chacin said. “First you study, then you work, and then you have your own space,” added Rivas. (Chacin and Rivas spoke through an interpreter.)

They had that sort of life in Punta de Mata. Chacin worked at a tire distributor, and Rivas was a medical technologist. They owned their home. At the time, though, Venezuela was in turmoil. President Hugo Chávez had died in 2013, and his succes sor, Nicolás Maduro, was presiding over a country wracked with political, economic and social instability. Chacin and Rivas were longtime supporters of the opposition.

One day in late 2016, when she was pregnant with Bianca, Rivas was at her old elementary school, which had become a polling place for regional elections. “There was a guy wearing a shirt with Chávez’s face on it,” she recalled. “I went to the military guard and said, ‘You know, this guy can’t be in here supporting a candidate within the polling place. The law says he can’t do that.’”

The guard ignored Rivas, but the man wearing the Chávez T-shirt did not. Outside the polling place, he marched over to her.

“You saw they didn’t do anything to me,” she recalled him saying. “There are a lot of us. We can do whatever we want.” She kept walking with a small group. Suddenly motorbikes surrounded them and were cir cling, their engines screaming. These were the Tupamaros, pro-government enforcers. Tears filled her eyes as she recalled, “I still have the sound in my head.”

One morning sometime later, Rivas, Chacin and his father were leaving their hou se when two men stepped out of the shadows and forced themselves inside. They asked, “Where is José Chacin?” Chacin assumed that since they were asking about him, they did not know what he looked like. Thinking fast, he told them that José Chacin was his brother, and that he was not at home. The two men took many things, including Chacin and Rivas’ cars, but left them unharmed.

These two incidents rattled Chacin and Rivas. They decided to move to Maturín, a nearby city. Bianca was a baby, and Rivas was pregnant with José Thomas. While in Maturín, however, they still attracted un wanted attention. Neighbors said people had stopped by, asking whether Rivas had moved in yet. Security cameras showed strangers looking at the house they had just moved into. Moving clearly had not worked.

“I was a target,” Rivas said. “We had to go.”

They drove to the nearby city of Barcelona and boarded a flight to Miami, arriving on April 15, 2018. Because they left in a rush, they did not sell their assets in Venezuela, and arrived in the United States without a financial cushion. “It was a relief, but it was very sad to have to get on that airplane,” Rivas said. “It was scary to have to start all over with very little money.” During their first weeks in the country, Chacin and Rivas, still pregnant, slept in the same bed with Bianca — an air mattress in a friend’s apartment.

Raíces is trying to soften exactly these sorts of landings. Every Friday, volunteers open the storage units and hand out house hold items and clothes to anyone who shows up. “The mission of this is to be ready to help Venezuelans who are arriving and don’t have money,” Andrade said. “We try to have the minimum things to have quality of life.”

Four and a half years after their arrival, the Chacin-Rivas family is undeniably doing better. They have stable jobs. Rivas is working as a medical lab technician, similar work to what she had done in Venezuela. She does not have a customer-facing position, and her co-workers all speak Spanish. Unlike in many other immigrant communities in the country, learning English is not essential to making it in South Florida. Chacin is the supervisor of an assembly line that makes windows. Together the couple makes enough money to support themselves, as well as family members back in Venezuela, and to build a new life for their children. Bianca is now 5 and in kindergarten, and José Thomas is 4. They both love to draw and to go to parks, Rivas said.

On April 1, two weeks shy of their fourth anniversary of fleeing to the United States, the family moved into a house they bought in Homestead, a city in Miami-Dade County about 30 miles south of Doral. It was their first house in the United States, and they had worked furiously to afford it. Rivas cleaned houses and sold food. Chacin worked back-to-back jobs, leaving the house at 7 a.m. and returning at 11 p.m. His hands would fall asleep at night.

When asked about the day that she moved in, Rivas paused. A deep silence fell upon the house. “I felt strong,” she said at last.

Jorgé Zoppi and Josefa Rodriguez have a beer at El Arepazo restaurant, which serves as a sort of community hub for the immigrant Venezuelan community, in Doral, Fla. on Monday, Sept. 5, 2022.

Biden administration considering humanitarian parole program for Venezuelans

By EILEEN SULLIVAN and ZOLAN KANNOYOUNGS

TheBiden administration is considering a humanitarian parole program for Venezuelans who have been fleeing political instability and poverty in large numbers, according to two administration officials familiar with the proposed plan, which the administration hopes will discourage Venezuelans from crossing the southwestern border illegally.

If implemented, the program for Venezuelans would be similar to a humanitarian program offered to Ukrainians, which allows a family member or sponsor in the United States to apply on behalf of the refugee and commit to providing them with financial assistance while they’re in the country.

While the Ukrainian program received bipartisan support, Republicans have been less welcoming to the Venezuelans, more than 150,000 of whom have been apprehended at the southwestern border from October 2021 through the end of August.

The humanitarian parole program would not apply to Venezuelans who are already in the country, but the hope is that it would encourage migrants to seek refuge in the United States without traveling north by foot, instead of crossing the border illegally. Venezuelans in their home country or who crossed into a neighboring country legally would qualify for the program. Official ports of entry have been closed to migrants since the beginning of the pandemic, effectively forcing those intent on reaching the United States to take a more dangerous route to cross illegally.

The administration officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a plan that had not yet been finalized.

Because Washington does not have formal diplomatic relations with Caracas, the United States has not been able to repatriate most of the Venezuelans who enter the country and turn themselves in to border officials. Instead, the administration has been giving most permis-

sion to stay in the country temporarily and face deportation proceedings in immigration court.

In a significant departure from that process, under the new plan the administration would turn away many Venezuelans who do not have a sponsor or cross illegally. They would be expelled to Mexico under a public health authority — known as Title 42 — that was put in place at the start of the pandemic. This is only possible because Mexico recently agreed to take Venezuelans who are expelled from the United States under Title 42, according to officials.

The full scope of what a humanitarian parole program would look like and why the administration is considering it now were not immediately clear. Immigration advocates have for months been calling for a more orderly process that would allow vulnerable immigrants to enter the country without resorting to breaking U.S. law. But they are firmly against the continued use of the public health authority, which a federal court blocked the Biden administration from lifting earlier this year.

Throughout the Obama and Trump administrations, Mexican and Central American

families made up most of those who crossed the border to seek protection in the United States. But the Biden administration has been scrambling to find ways to deter additional populations that until now did not historically cross in record numbers, including Venezuelans. Throughout President Joe Biden’s term, senior White House officials have been anxious over criticism from Republicans and Democrats that the administration lacks an orderly way to both process and turn away migrants who do not qualify for asylum.

In recent months, thousands of Venezuelans have been making the dangerous journey through the Darién Gap between South and Central America to get to the United States. Most of those who have been allowed to stay temporarily will eventually face removal proceedings that will likely take years to advance. The United Nations estimates that more than 6.8 million Venezuelans have fled their country.

Still, Venezuelans only account for about 7% of the total crossings in the southwest between last October and the end of August, according to the most recent government data.

“Venezuelans are only one group. You’re also seeing Cubans and Nicaraguans arriving in significant numbers,” said Cris Ramón, an immigration consultant who has written for the Migration Policy Institute and the George W. Bush Institute. “This policy is not going to address these groups who are arriving at the border right now.”

A plan under consideration by the White House as recently as last week included offering the same humanitarian parole to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans, according to officials briefed on the discussions. It was not immediately clear why these nationalities were ultimately left out. People from Cuba, Nicaragua andVenezuela have made up about one-quarter of the total number of migrants crossing the southwestern border between last October and the end of August, according to the most recent government data available.

Last month, Biden said, “What’s on my watch now is Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, and the ability to send them back to those states is not rational.”

The United States has not been repatriating most migrants from Cuba and Nicaragua because of ongoing political instability in those countries and will likely continue releasing them temporarily until they face an immigration court hearing, during which they can try to argue that they should not be deported.

The White House has long been wary of making any changes to its border policy that could encourage more migrants to cross illegally.

Calls for protections for Venezuelan migrants grew louder after Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., flew a group of mostly Venezuelan migrants who had illegally entered the country to Martha’s Vineyard, an upscale island off the Massachusetts coast, last month.

Rebecca Shi, the executive director of a business advocacy group, the American Business Immigration Coalition, said the new program could benefit Florida, “where tourism, construction and rebuilding from natural disasters is so completely dependent on immigrants and refugees.”

More than 150,000 Venezuelans have been apprehended at the southwestern U.S. border between October 2021 and the end of August.

Justice Dept. asks Supreme Court to reject Trump request in documents case

By ADAM LIPTAK and CHARLIE SAVAGE

TheJustice Department earlier this week urged the Supreme Court to reject a re quest from former President Donald Trump asking the justices to intervene in the litigation over documents seized from his Florida estate.

Trump asked the court last week to step into the tangled case, saying that an appeals court had lacked jurisdiction to remove about 100 documents marked as classified from a review of the seized material. If the Supreme Court were to put the sensitive files back into that review, the government would apparently have to show them to Trump’s legal team.

In a 34-page filing, Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the solicitor general, said that the Supreme Court should let stand the appeals court’s decision while the Justice Department’s appeal of a U.S. District Court judge’s order imposing a special master unfolds. The special master was appoin ted to review more than 11,000 files taken in the search of Mar-a-Lago in August to determine which, if any of them, would be subject to claims of attorney-client or executive privilege.

Trump, Prelogar wrote, “has not even attempted to explain how he is irreparably injured by the Court of Appeals’ partial stay, which simply prevents disclosure of the docu ments bearing classification markings in the special-master review during the pendency of the government’s expedited appeal.”

In their filing last week, Trump’s lawyers did not ask the Supreme Court to overturn a more important part of the appeals court’s ru ling, which allowed the Justice Department to continue using the documents with classification markings in its criminal investigation of Trump’s handling of government records.

Still, subjecting the roughly 100 docu ments with classification markings to review would significantly complicate the process because the first step would be to show the files to Trump’s lawyers so they can decide whether to claim that any are protected by attorney-client or executive privilege.

Some of the files with those markings are very highly classified — top secret, with further access restrictions for so-called sensitive com partmented information — and a government lawyer has questioned whether any of Trump’s lawyers can be deemed to meet the standards, including a “need to know,” to be shown them.

In its filing Tuesday, the Justice Department said the justices should not intervene because

the appeals court, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Atlanta, had the authority to rule on the narrow question at issue in Trump’s Supreme Court request.

Even if that were in doubt, it added, Trump “certainly cannot establish the clear error requi red to justify the relief he seeks — particularly because he does not acknowledge, much less at tempt to rebut, the Court of Appeals’ conclusion that the district court’s order was a serious and unwarranted intrusion on the executive branch’s authority to control the use and distribution of extraordinarily sensitive government records.”

The Supreme Court is likely to rule on the Trump’s application in the case, Trump v. United States, No. 22A283, in the coming days.

Whether Trump wins or loses this round, the Justice Department will be able to continue its review of the sensitive documents and the larger litigation will move forward.

Last week, the 11th Circuit called for briefs on a relatively brisk schedule on the Justice Department’s broader appeal from a Sept. 5 ruling by Judge Aileen M. Cannon of the Southern District of Florida appointing a special master. That briefing will conclude Nov. 17, and the appeals court will presumably hear arguments in the following weeks.

In the meantime, the special master ap pointed by Cannon on Sept. 15, Judge Raymond J. Dearie of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, continues his work in carrying out Cannon’s instructions to identify documents that may be subject to attorney-client or executive privilege. Should Trump prevail in the Supreme Court, documents with classified markings would again be made part of his review.

The Supreme Court is dominated by six conservative justices, three of them appointed by Trump. But it has rejected earlier efforts to block the disclosure of information about him.

Former President Donald Trump points to the crowd as he arrives on stage during a rally in Minden,

Biden proposal could lead to employee status for gig workers

By NOAM SCHEIBER

TheLabor Department earlier this week unveiled a proposal that would make it more likely for millions of janitors, home-care and construction workers and gig drivers to be classified as employees rather than inde pendent contractors.

Companies are required to provide certain bene fits and protections to employees but not to contractors, such as paying a minimum wage, overtime, a portion of a worker’s Social Security taxes and contributions to unem ployment insurance.

The proposed rule is essentially a test that the Labor Department will apply to determine whether workers are contractors or employees for companies. The test consi ders factors such as how much control workers have over how they do their jobs and how much opportunity they have to increase their earnings by doing things like offering new services. Workers who have little of either are often considered employees.

The new version of the test lowers the bar for that employee classification from the current test, which the Trump administration’s Labor Department created.

The proposal would apply only to laws that the de partment enforced, such as the federal minimum wage. States and other federal agencies, such as the IRS, set their own criteria for employment status.

But many employers and regulators in other jurisdic tions are likely to consider the department’s interpretation when making decisions about worker classification, and many judges are likely to use it as a guide.

As a result, the proposal is a potential blow to gig companies and other service providers that argue their workers are contractors, though it would not immediately affect the status of those workers.

Uber and Lyft have said in federal filings that having to treat drivers as employees could force them to alter their business models, and some gig economy officials have es timated that their labor costs would rise 20% to 30%. The companies have repeatedly fought similar efforts by regula tors and legislatures in states across the country.

Share prices for both companies dropped more than 10% Tuesday.

In a statement, Uber sounded optimistic that the pro posal would not endanger the gig-economy model, at least if the administration heeded additional input.

“Today’s proposed rule takes a measured approach, essentially returning us to the Obama era, during which our industry grew exponentially,” said CR Wooters, the company’s head of federal affairs. “In a time of deep eco nomic uncertainty, it’s crucial that the Biden administration continues to hear from the more than 50 million people who have found an earning opportunity with companies like ours.”

Lyft likewise noted that the proposal would resto re the approach under former President Barack Obama,

A Lyft driver on duty in Chicago on April 19, 2022. A proposal that would make it more likely for millions of janitors, home-care and construction workers and gig drivers to be classified as employees rather than independent contractors was advanced by the federal Labor Department on Oct. 11, 2022.

when drivers were generally classified as contractors, and emphasized that it would not force the company to alter its business model. The company said the proposal was merely the beginning of a longer process.

Companies, unions, workers and other members of the public will have a month and a half to formally com ment on the proposal before the department incorporates feedback into a final rule. After that, the department will have considerable discretion over whether or not to enfor ce the rule at particular companies.

“While independent contractors have an important role in our economy, we have seen in many cases that employers misclassify their employees as independent contractors,” Labor Secretary Martin J. Walsh said in a sta tement. “Misclassification deprives workers of their federal labor protections, including their right to be paid their full, legally earned wages.”

David Weil, who oversaw the Obama Labor Department’s approach to classifying workers, cautioned that just because the department didn’t bring an enforce ment action against Uber and Lyft didn’t mean it couldn’t have. He noted that the Obama rule had been adopted late in that administration.

“I think it is true that there are lots of gray areas in the platform world, but with the caveats that you always have to go deep into the facts, Uber and Lyft do not stri ke me as that difficult,” Weil said in an interview, adding: “There is a lot about the relationship that looks like one of employees.”

The proposal also defuses growing pressure from

activists supporting gig workers, who complained that the administration had been too slow to intervene to protect ride-hail drivers and other app-based workers.

Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, a former leader on wor kers’ issues in the California Assembly who is now head of the state’s labor federation, said in an interview that the action demonstrated the Biden administration’s strong proworker stance but that the effect of the new rule would come down to how aggressively the administration enfor ced it.

“Companies just continue to break labor law,” Gon zalez Fletcher said. “They break it at the local level, the state level and federally, and there are no consequences. Everything is about enforcement.”

The Biden Labor Department delayed and then scrapped the Trump rule on worker classification before a federal judge reinstated it. The new proposal would forma lly rescind and replace the Trump rule when made final in the coming months.

Opponents could ask a federal judge to block the new rule temporarily or strike it down, but administration officials expressed confidence that it would withstand ju dicial scrutiny. They said they were merely returning to a standard that federal courts had repeatedly upheld over the decades.

Under President Donald Trump, the department ar gued that two factors should predominate in determina tions of whether a worker is an employee or a contractor, even if other factors are relevant: the degree of control a company has over the worker, and the extent to which a worker can increase his or her income by taking entrepre neurial initiative, like marketing his or her services.

The Trump Labor Department suggested that gig workers such as Uber drivers would probably be consi dered contractors under these criteria. Proponents argued that the Trump approach was necessary so enforcement didn’t snuff out new ways of doing business, such as the gig economy.

But in an interview, Seema Nanda, the Biden Labor Department’s top lawyer, said the Trump rule “threatens to actually increase rather than decrease misclassification.”

The proposal by the Biden Labor Department ar gues that several factors must be weighed when assessing whether a worker is a contractor or an employee, and that none of them are necessarily more important than the others. Among the additional factors are whether the work being performed is central to a company’s business, and what kind of investments workers make to do their jobs, such as buying equipment.

Walsh has sometimes appeared open to the idea that gig workers could be classified as independent contractors.

But when asked in an interview this summer whether he thought drivers would prefer to be independent con tractors or employees if the trade-offs were made clear, Walsh argued that “95% of people would say yes” to being classified as employees.

Robot: Celebrating 25 years of service in a big way

By THE STAR STAFF

Thereis no doubt that perseverance, honesty and discipline are the keys to keeping a product on the market that has no competition in quality, service and cost.

Many good things have come through these 25 years that have revolutionized the health and cleaning market. Hospitals, hotels, government agencies, clea ning companies and many other private companies en joy the benefits that our Robot cleaning system offers them, bearing its motto as a goal and honor: “If your problem is pollution, at Robot, we have the solution.”

Technology continues to be part of the changes in our system, facilitating the work of cleaning and sa nitation. In the midst of all the health situations that our society faces, Robot continues to be the best op tion to keep the areas at home and in the office free from contamination. With the Robot system, you can accomplish all your household cleaning while saving time and effort since now the system has a timer and variable speeds for even easier use. You can program

it and let it sanitize and decontaminate areas without any human effort.

At this time, Robot has a completely redesigned system and a group of duly trained representatives to provide good service to each and every one of its clients in Puerto Rico and the mainland United States. Thanks to the great participation that Robot manage ment has had in the development of new products and their acceptance in the market, cleaning system ma nufacturer Turmix has awarded us number one at the company level.

For these reasons we recommend the Robot clea ning system, which is especially useful for people who suffer from allergies, asthma, or respiratory problems caused by mites, Saharan dust and other pollutants in the environment, and skin problems such as itching and hives.

Just call Robot de Puerto Rico at 787-855-3530 and you will receive totally free and in the comfort of your home or office, the orientation for our Robot cleaning system. And don´t forget: “If your problem is pollution, at Robot, we have the solution.”

Stocks

Saga of Wall Street’s pandemic darlings ends with tears

Think

about something new you started doing two and a half years ago to make life easier during the COVID lockdown and chances are there’s a related story about a stock market victim today.

Add to that investor concerns about rising inflation and an economic slowdown that sent Wall Street into a bear mar ket this year, and you’ll find a bleak picture for the companies that became hugely popular during the pandemic.

Connected stationary bicycle repair shop Peloton Interac tive (PTON.O) told employees last week that the fourth round of job cuts this year is an attempt to save the company. The is sues spotlight other pandemic hot-shots, such as Zoom Video Communications (ZM.O), Nautilus Inc (NLS.N), DocuSign Inc (DOCU.O), and DoorDash Inc (DASH.N).

Growth investors pushed Peloton shares to a record $171.09 in early 2021. Demand for its bikes was so strong that restless consumers had to wait for long delivery delays. But Peloton shares are now down 95% from their peak, clos ing at $8.53 on Wednesday. The S&P 500 (.SPX) is down about 25% in comparison from its all-time high in January this year.

Others bought sports equipment from Nautilus during the pandemic and sent the shares up to $31.30 in early 2021. It last traded at $1.65.

Zoom became synonymous with online meetings as many people worked remotely and even used video confer encing for social gatherings. But Zoom’s shares were last at $75.22 versus the peak of $588.84 reached in October 2020. Other stay-at-home favorites included online retailer Am azon.com (AMZN.O) and food delivery service DoorDash. People also flocked to consumer-friendly brokers like Robin hood Markets (HOOD.O) while sitting at home with no sports to bet on. But after scaling from $85 in August 2021, Robin hood last traded at $10.66.

“These are companies with great ideas to get enough funding. They catch a wave when COVID, their usage ex plodes,” said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners in Pittsburgh. But once that growth slows, in vestors lose interest.

“They’ve used up all the air in their universe and they have nowhere to grow. So while people may still be using the Peloton, not enough people are buying the Peloton,” Forrest said.

Daniel Morgan, portfolio manager at Synovus Trust in At lanta, Georgia, says Peloton may seem cheap, but he’s wary of it being unprofitable. The price-to-sale multiple has fallen to 0.8, on a lagging 4-quarter, from an average multiple of 6.6 since its September 2019 IPO, Morgan said.

Wall Street expects Peloton to report an adjusted loss per share of $2.07 per share for the fiscal year ended June, com pared to a loss of $7.69 in fiscal 2022, according to Refinitiv.

Zoom has made money, and the valuation also looks cheap at 35 times earnings per share versus an average mul tiple of 135 since its April 2019 debut, Morgan said.

However, he is concerned about the profit decline. Zoom’s adjusted earnings per share are expected to fall 27% for the fiscal year ending January, according to Refinitiv, com

pared to 2022 growth of 55.5%.

Morgan also pointed to a growth slowdown for Door Dash and retail giant Amazon.com, as they are also hit by rising inflation and economic uncertainty.

“Every company will have to see how their particular business model can run in a normalized environment,” he said.

Carol Schleif, deputy chief investment officer at BMO’s family office in Minneapolis, warned against investing in

LOCAL MORTGAGE

companies that look cheap and have loyal customers. It’s all about management, balance sheets and expected earnings, she said.

While a possible outcome for pandemic favorites with slowing growth could be a buyout by a larger company, Schleif is wary of taking this gamble

“Buying a stock because you think it will disappear is a risk. I wouldn’t do it with money I didn’t want to lose,” she said. “It’s not really investing. It’s more opportunistic

United States and allies vow long-term support for Ukraine

Netherlands also promised millions of do llars in air-defense missiles, a day after the White House said it was working to speed up the delivery of two National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, known as NASAMs, that the United States uses to help defend the White House and the Ca pitol.

“We’ve come together again today uni ted by our shared determination to help Ukraine defend its sovereignty, its territory and its people from Russia’s unjust and un provoked assault,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said as officials from dozens of countries gathered in Brussels to discuss the continued supplying of arms to Ukraine.

Here are other developments:

— Russia’s domestic intelligence ser vice blamed Ukraine’s spy agency for the bombing of the bridge to Crimea and arres ted eight people in connection with the blast.

— Power was cut to Ukraine’s nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia for the second time in five days, after Russian forces she lled a substation that supplies electricity to the plant, the national energy company said. The outage leaves the plant relying on diesel generators to cool its reactors.

By JOHN ISMAY, STEVEN ERLANGER, ERIC SCHMITT and CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE

Amidconcerns that spiraling energy costs and Ukraine slowing down on the battlefield in winter could under mine Western resolve, the United States and its NATO allies Wednesday reaffirmed their

support for bolstering Ukraine’s defenses in the face of intensifying Russian aggression. Ukraine said Wednesday that Germany had delivered the first of four ultramodern air defense systems — so new that they have never been used on the battlefield — as Russia’s attacks spurred a renewed effort from Ukraine’s international allies. The

The meeting came just days after Presi dent Vladimir Putin of Russia again showed his willingness to target civilians across Ukraine, with the broadest barrage of mis sile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities since the war began.

After the meeting, Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, discussed certain air defense missile systems that Ukraine has asked for, but it was unclear whether a decision had been made yet on whether to provide those weapons.

— As the United States and NATO scour the world for weapons to send to Ukraine, the hunt has focused on some unlikely nations, including Cyprus. At the same time, pressure is growing on the Biden administration to speed up the deployment to Ukraine of an air-defense system that is used to help protect the White House.

— President Joe Biden told CNN that he had “no intention” of talking to Putin next month at a meeting of the Group of 20 nations but said that he would consider such an interaction if it were to include dis cussion of the release of Brittney Griner, the WNBA star.

Russia kidnaps 2nd official from Ukraine nuclear plant

By MATTHEW MPOKE BIGG

Russia has kidnapped another senior official at the Za porizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s state nu clear power company said Tuesday, as a continuing management battle raises the stakes at a facility where she lling has already prompted fears of a nuclear accident. The company, Energoatom, said that Valeriy Martyniuk, a deputy director general for human resources, was taken Monday and was being held at an unknown location. The company said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that it feared he could be forced to disclose informa tion about Ukrainian personnel working at the plant. Martyniuk is the second top official at the plant to be kidnapped in recent days following the abduction in late September of the director-general, Ihor Murashov. He was released days later.

Last week, President Vladimir Putin of Russia said in the wake of his widely rejected annexation of the Zapo rizhzhia region that he was nationalizing and taking over operational control of the six-reactor facility. Ukraine ins

tructed workers at the plant to continue to report to Ener goatom.

Russian forces seized control of the facility in March, stationing troops and weapons there and putting pressure on the Ukrainian engineers and workers who stayed on to operate it. Several workers have been detained and interro gated, and Ukrainian authorities have said that at least one was killed.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency, the In ternational Atomic Energy Agency, has rejected Moscow’s claim of control. It also says that one essential prerequisite of nuclear safety is stable management and the ability of staff to be able to do their jobs without undue pressure.

The agency said that its director-general, Rafael Maria no Grossi, met Putin on Tuesday as part of efforts to prevent a nuclear accident at the plant and stressed the need for a safety and security zone around the plant.

Grossi, who last week met President Volodymyr Ze lenskyy of Ukraine, said that the situation had become “in creasingly dangerous, precarious and challenging, with fre quent military attacks that can also threaten nuclear safety.”

Another senior official at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was kidnapped by Russian authorities earlier this week, Ukraine’s state nuclear power company said.

Emergency workers dismantle rubble for removal from the site of a missile strike that killed eight people two days prior, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022.

Some Ukrainians brace for possibility of Russian nuclear strike

By MEGAN SPECIA

Six

and a half feet down a ladder inside a small shed at the back of Oleksandr Kadet’s home is an underground room with a cement hatch that he hopes he never has to use.

For the past two weeks, Kadet, 32, said that he and his wife, who live outside the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, had been preparing for the possibility of a nuclear attack by stoc king the room — an old well that they con verted into a bunker — with bottled water, canned food, radios and power banks.

“We are more anxious now, especially after yesterday’s attacks,” Kadet said Tues day, a day after a series of Russian missile attacks across Ukraine. “But we do think that in case of a nuclear explosion, we will be able to survive if we stay in the shelter for some time.”

The fears of escalation rose Saturday after an attack on the 12-mile Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014. Initially, Ukrainians celebrated, but that quickly gave way to worry that such a brazen assault on a symbol of President Vladimir Putin’s rule could prompt a severe retaliation.

Even before these recent events, though, concerns about the potential for a nuclear disaster had increasingly been making their way into Ukraine’s national psyche. The fear is that Russia could either use tactical nu clear arms or launch a conventional attack on one of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.

U.S. officials have said they think the chances of Russia using nuclear weapons are low, and senior American officials say they have seen no evidence that Putin is moving any of his nuclear assets.

On Sunday, Putin called the assault on the bridge a “terrorist attack aimed at destro ying the critically important civilian infras tructure of the Russian Federation.”

But his spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, appeared to tamp down fears of a nuclear

Shopkeeper Nadiia Stelmakh looks over a list of emergency supplies used to prepare for a potential nuclear attack in her shop in Kyiv, Ukraine on Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022.

reprisal, saying that the attack on the brid ge did not fall within the category under Russia’s defense doctrine that allowed for such a response.

Last month, Putin raised fears that he could resort to nuclear weapons when he warned that he would “use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people,” if Russian-controlled territory was threatened.

“This is not a bluff,” he said.

Days later, Russia illegally annexed four Ukrainian territories.

Kadet, who noted that he had begun preparing two weeks ago, said it felt better to have an action plan.

“It’s psychologically easier because you know you are at least somehow prepared for it,” he said. “It’s not a guarantee it will save you, but at least you’re ready.”

Residents of Kyiv said that they had felt wary even before the most recent missile strikes there on Monday.

Immediately after the bridge attack, many Ukrainians had shared their glee on social media. They toasted triumphantly in the capital’s bars over the weekend, and posed for selfies in front of posters of the burning bridge.

But the worry soon set in.

“I feel this real fear about how the Rus sians will answer this,” said Krystina Ge vorkova, 30, who was shopping with her friend in Kyiv on Sunday. “Earlier it had felt safer here,” she added. “Now, I have this fe eling like something is going to happen.”

Kyiv has for months been spared the worst of the Russian onslaught while Moscow focused its attention instead on southeastern Ukraine. But on Monday, a Russian missile struck just blocks away from where Gevorkova had spoken.

She said that she had been reading up on how to stay safe during a nuclear war, but that she was skeptical that it would help.

“We can’t really do anything,” she said. The war has felt far from Kyiv in recent months, as life’s rhythms return to a semblance of normalcy after Russian forces were ousted from parts of northeastern Ukraine. Nevertheless, the city has also been slowly preparing for a potential nuclear attack.

The Kyiv City Coun cil said Friday that potas

sium iodide pills would be distributed to re sidents in case of a nuclear incident “based on medical recommendations,” adding that the pills were also available in city pharma cies.

Potassium iodide is used to saturate a person’s thyroid with iodine so that radioac tive iodine inhaled or ingested after exposu re will not be retained by the gland.

Alina Bozhedomova, 23, a pharmacist in Kyiv, said that customers were coming in daily looking for the pills, but added, “I haven’t seen people panicking about it.”

Some elementary schools have advi sed parents to prepare emergency packs for their children to keep with them at school.

After worries grew about the security of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the country’s southeast in recent weeks, Ukraine’s Ministry of Health issued guidan ce about how to respond to a nuclear inci dent.

The risk of nuclear fallout can feel very real in Ukraine, a country that still bears the scars of the Chernobyl accident in 1986, one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. Chernobyl is only about 60 miles north of Kyiv.

And some who experienced the lifethreatening fallout firsthand say that they, possibly more than anyone, understand the full risk of nuclear exposure. Oleksandr, 55, who asked that his last name not be used, said that he and his family had fled Cher nobyl for Kyiv immediately after the mel tdown, when he was just 18.

His family closely followed guidance to move south, as winds were pushing radioac tive materials north, and he said that was the only reason they escaped unscathed.

“Now, people here are really not ready. People don’t know what to do,” he said. “There is not enough information.”

He owns a market stand that sells household necessities and said that more people had come in during the past two weeks preparing for a nuclear disaster, bu ying flashlights, batteries, knives, radios and small camp stoves.

Svetlana Zozulia, 47, and her husband, Vladyslav Zozulia, 37, were walking in cen tral Kyiv with their daughter, Anastasiia, 11, on Sunday night. Svetlana Zozulia said she tried to remain optimistic and did not belie ve that Putin would launch a nuclear attack on Ukraine.

But she did buy potassium iodide ta blets just in case, she said.

“I think our success disturbs him,” Zozu lia said. “But there is also a threat for him if he chooses a nuclear attack.”

Young, underground reporters ‘fight a gun with a pen’ in Myanmar

a silent protest in the city of Yangon last December and was tortured to death while in custody.

Last month, the junta sentenced Htet Htet Khine, a fre elance television presenter who worked for the BBC, to six years in prison with hard labor, saying her reporting amoun ted to “incitement and illegal association.” And the crackdown has not been limited to domestic reporters.

internet has been cut off by the regime in its effort to stop the spread of information.

“With journalism, I do believe that I can represent and can be the voice for the voiceless,” she said. “Right now, I want to write about everything I see because everything is unfair in this country.”

Journalists

By SUI-LEE WEE

The15-year-old reporter deleted the data from her phone and packed up her guitar as she set out to meet a gue rrilla fighter in Myanmar. The instrument was mostly a decoy, there to disguise her work as a journalist. She cleared the data from her phone to protect her sources in the event of an arrest.

Greeting the fighter, she took out the guitar and strum med an old Burmese tune, “The Sound of the Crane.”

When she felt safe, she started her interview, quickly stas hing the recording in a hidden folder on her phone after she was done. “Every time I go out to report, I always think that I might get arrested,” said Khaung, who works for the Burmese literary magazine Oway. Like the other journalists in Myanmar interviewed for this article, Khaung agreed to be interviewed only if her pen name was used, fearing repercussions from the military government.

Myanmar is now one of the world’s most dangerous pla ces for journalists. For the first time, it is on track to be the top jailer of reporters, surpassing China this year. Fifty-seven reporters are in prison there, according to the Detained Myan mar Journalists Group, an advocacy organization. At least 51 journalists are imprisoned in China, according to tallies from various rights groups.

Just two weeks after the military seized power in a coup last year, the junta in Myanmar created a new provision in its penal code called Section 505A, making it a crime to publish comments that “cause fear” or spread “false news.” Some of the country’s best known investigative outlets — including Myanmar Now, DVB, Khit Thit, 7 Days and Mizzima — have since had their licenses revoked. Hundreds of journalists have fled. The reporters at Oway are now among the last remnants of a free press.

“It is not easy to fight a gun with a pen, but I need to keep doing it,” said Aung Sett, the publication’s 22-year-old editor-in-chief, who spoke on the condition that his pen name be used.

Aung Sett, a third-year political science student at the University of Yangon, has been in hiding ever since the army issued a Section 505 arrest warrant against him. One of his partners, who was in charge of printing Oway, was shot and killed by soldiers while protesting the coup.

More than 140 journalists have been arrested since the military took power, mostly on charges related to Section 505A. Independent journalists can no longer safely take out a camera or a notebook. Three reporters have been killed by soldiers, including one photojournalist who had covered

A military tribunal sentenced Japanese documentary film maker Toru Kubota, 26, to 10 years in prison last week. Kubo ta faces another trial on Wednesday on a charge of violating immigration laws. Danny Fenster, an American journalist who contributed to Myanmar Now, was sentenced to 11 years in prison before being released three days later after Bill Richard son, a former U.S. diplomat, helped secure his freedom.

“The junta regime has effectively outlawed independent journalism in the country,” said Shawn Crispin, the senior Southeast Asia representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The media in Myanmar did once enjoy a semblance of in dependence. Thein Sein, Myanmar’s former president, scrap ped censorship laws in 2011 as part of a broad program to open up the country and move it toward democracy. Creative expression flourished. Dozens of newspapers opened.

While journalists working under previous military regimes who were critical of the government were forced to opera te underground, accounts of torture were rare. That changed after the coup. In March 2021, Nathan Maung, the editor-inchief of Kamayut Media, an online publication, and Han Thar Nyein, its co-founder, were among dozens of journalists roun ded up by the junta.

In an interview with The New York Times, Maung said he was blindfolded and handcuffed for 14 days and beaten in his face and abdomen. Later, when they were in the same prison cell, Maung said, Han Thar Nyein told him that soldiers had threatened him with rape after he refused to hand over the passcode to his phone, and that he had to kneel on a block of ice for two to three hours before he relented.

After more than three months in captivity, Maung, who was born in Myanmar but is an American citizen, was suddenly released. He is now back in the United States, while Han Thar Nyein remains in prison in Myanmar.

“It’s just been devastating, considering the extraordinary progress that you had seen in the media landscape since the 2012 opening,” said Crispin. “All of that has been erased.”

Oway is a biweekly publication that specializes in repor ting on youth issues and politics and does in-depth features such as profiles of striking food delivery workers and attrition within the army. Nearly all its writers are in their 20s and 30s.

The magazine was started in 1936 by the University of Yangon Students’ Union, a major proponent in the struggle against British colonial rule. One of its editors-in-chief was Aung San, who led Myanmar’s independence from Britain and is the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained in the coup last year and has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, with more trials underway.

After the coup, Khaung dropped out of school and was inspired to become a journalist after she participated in pro tests and was interviewed by a reporter. Like other writers who contribute to Oway, Khaung said she chose the publi cation because she knew the print version could still be dis tributed in places like the central Sagaing region, where the

AVISO AMBIENTAL

SOBRE INTENCIÓN DE RENOVAR UN PERMISO PARA OPERAR UNA INSTALACIÓN DE DESPERDICIOS SÓLIDOS NO PELIGROSOS

El Sr. Wilfredo Rivera Figueroa, representante autorizado de Puerto Rico Pallet Recycling Inc., sometió ante el Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (en adelante, DRNA) una solicitud de permiso para operar una instalación dedicada al almacenamiento y procesamiento de desperdicios sólidos no peligrosos, que consiste en paletas de madera. Esta instalación está ubicada en la Carr. 2 int. Km. 25.5, Sector Laguna 11, Bo. Espinosa, Dorado PR El Reglamento para el Manejo de los Desperdicios Sólidos No Peligrosos (en adelante, Reglamento), establece en el Capítulo IX el requisito de solicitar un permiso como condición previa a la operación de una instalación de desperdicios sólidos no peligrosos, el cual es aplicable a dueños u operadores. Luego de evaluar los documentos sometidos, el DRNA tiene la intención de renovar el permiso de operación.

Copia de la solicitud de permiso, al igual que el borrador del permiso y otros documentos relevantes al caso, están a la disposición del público para ser examinados en el Área Contaminación de Terrenos del DRNA, ubicado en la Carr. 8838 Km. 6.3, Sector El Cinco, Río Piedras, de 8:00 a.m. a 4:30 p.m., de lunes a viernes.

Cualquier persona interesada podrá someter comentarios por escrito sobre el borrador del permiso y podrá solicitar una vista pública. Toda solicitud de vista pública deberá hacerse por escrito y deberá ser debidamente fundamentada y exponer la naturaleza de los planteamientos que se levantarán en la vista.

El DRNA podrá celebrar una vista pública de forma discrecional. Toda solicitud deberá ser dirigida al Área Contaminación de Terrenos, San José Industrial Park, 1375 Ave. Ponce de León, San Juan PR 00926, no más tarde de treinta (30) días a partir de la publicación de este Aviso.

Este anuncio se publica conforme a lo requerido por la Ley Núm. 38-2017, conocida como la “Ley de Procedimiento Administrativo Uniforme del Gobierno de Puerto Rico”, 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.

Anaís Rodríguez Vega Secretaria

A cruel

By BRET STEPHENS

Israel.

in

it’s unlikely that his name will be publicly remembered for long, it’s worth pausing to consider the grisly murder of Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh in the West Bank city of Hebron. Every murder is an outrage and a tragedy, and many murders involve a larger story. In this case, it’s one that too few people are willing to tell.

Because

Murkhiyeh (some news accounts transliterate his surname as Marhia) was a 25-year-old gay Palestinian man who had been living for two years in Israel and had filed papers for resettlement in Canada. An acquaintance, Natali Farah, described him to the newspaper Haaretz as “a pleasant and sensitive guy, always appreciative and grateful. He had goals he sought to achieve in life, he found a good job and it seemed like it was all going to work out for him.”

Last Wednesday, he was found beheaded in Hebron. A suspect, now in the custody of the Palestinian Authority police, filmed the beheading and uploaded it to Palestinian social media, according to a report from The Times of Israel.

As with many murders, details of the case remain unclear. A relative told a Palestinian radio station that Murkhiyeh had been living in Jordan and routinely came home for visits. No motive has been established for the killing, and it’s unclear whether the suspect knew the victim.

Other facts are better established. Rita Petrenko, founder of Al-Bayt-Al-Mukhtalif, an Israeli group that works on behalf of the Arab LGBTQ community, told The Associated Press that she had helped with Murkhiyeh’s resettlement papers and that his stays at LGBTQ shelters in Israel were well documented. Farah reported that Murkhiyeh had been threatened on the phone and had changed his number. Friends of Murkhiyeh attended a memorial in his honor on the Tel Aviv boardwalk. At the time of his death, Murkhiyeh was one of scores of gay Palestinians finding refuge in

Then there is the other side of the coin. A Palestinian radio presenter denounced the murder for crossing “every single red line in our society, whether in terms of morals, customs or basic humanity.” That’s heartening to hear, but it isn’t true.

In 2016, The New York Times’ Diaa Hadid and Majd Al Waheidi reported from Gaza City on the gruesome torture and execution of Mahmoud Ishtiwi. Ishtiwi was a Hamas commander whose leaders suspected him of embezzlement and “moral turpitude” — having sex with men — raising additional fears that he might have spied for Israel.

“Relatives said Mr. Ishtiwi had told them he had been suspended from a ceiling for hours on end, for days in a row,” Hadid and Al Waheidi reported. “He was whipped, and guards blasted loud music into his cell, banishing sleep.” He was later shot with three bullets to his chest.

This was part of an old and awful pattern. In 2002, in The New Republic, Israeli writer Yossi Klein Halevi wrote about the plight of gay Palestinians with stories similar to Murkhiyeh’s, men who had taken refuge in Israel because it was the only place where their lives wouldn’t be in jeopardy.

“A gardener we’ll call Samir, who had fled the territories for Israel, told me of a gay friend who was a member of the Palestinian police and ran away to Tel Aviv,” Halevi wrote. Then, quoting Samir: “‘After a while he returned to Nablus, where he was arrested by the Palestinian police and accused of being a collaborator. They put him in a pit. It was the fast of Ramadan, and they decided to make him fast the whole month but without any break at night. They denied him food and water until he died in that hole.’”

The bigotry is, as they say, systemic. In 2019, the Palestinian Authority banned organized LGBTQ activities; a Palestinian police spokesperson called them “harmful to the higher values and ideals of Palestinian society.” The ban was later rescinded, but it says something that the Al-Qaws Foundation, which campaigns for gay rights for Palestinians, has its offices in Israel.

In recent years, it’s become the fashion of many of Israel’s vehement critics to accuse Israel’s supporters of “pinkwashing” — that is, of using the Jewish state’s pathbreaking record of promoting and protecting gay rights over many years as a cloak to obscure its various purported sins.

But there’s another word to describe the reluctance, bordering on willful blindness, of

too many advocates of Palestinian statehood to call attention to the prejudice and brutality that confront gay Palestinians. It’s called whitewashing. Whitewashing is also the word that goes for the broad indifference in pro-Palestinian circles to Hamas’ tyrannical rule in Gaza, or to the Palestinian Authority’s murder of its domestic political critics like Nizar Banat, or to the elimination of any semblance of democracy under the petty despotism of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Those who claim to champion the cause of Palestinian liberation, as a movement of national selfdetermination, should care equally about the cause of Palestinian liberties, as a basis for decent governance.

María

Ruiz

Ramírez

Aaron Christiana

Al gobernador le parece excelente que congresistas quieran darle a Puerto Rico 5 mil millones de dólares para paneles solares y baterías en residencias

L A FORTALEZA – El gobernador Pedro Raafael Pierluisi urrutia calificó el miércoles, de excelente, la propuesta del congresista Raúl Grijalva y otros 38 homólogos, para que Puerto Rico obtenga cinco mil millones de dólares en fondos federales para subsidiar la adquisición de paneles solares y baterías para residencias.

“Me parece excelente el reclamo de los congresistas, in cluyendo a nuestra Comisionada Residente, para que reciba mos 5 mil millones de dólares para paneles solares y baterías en residencias de PR. Actualmente tenemos destinados 800 millones de dólares en fondos federales para ese propósito, pero claramente necesitamos más”, dijo el gobernador a tra vés de su red social Twitter.

Durante la semana pasada, el presidente del Comité de Recursos Naturales de la Cámara de Representantes, Raúl Gri jalva (D-Ariz.), dirigió dos cartas solicitando recursos críticos para ayudar en los esfuerzos de recuperación y resiliencia en Puerto Rico y Florida después de los huracanes Fiona e Ian. La primera carta, enviada ayer y firmada conjuntamente por otros 37 miembros del Congreso, insta a la presidenta de la Cámara

de Representantes, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), y a la presidenta del Comité de Asignaciones de la Cámara de Representantes, Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), a proporcionar 5 mil millones de dólares al Departamento de Energía de Estados Unidos (DOE) para soluciones de almacenamiento y energía solar en techos para hogares de bajos ingresos y hogares con personas con discapacidades en Puerto Rico bajo un proyecto de ley de asignaciones suplementarias de emergencia.

La segunda carta, enviada el 7 de octubre a la secretaria del Departamento del Interior de los Estados Unidos (DOI, por sus siglas en inglés), Deb Haaland, solicita que el DOI, en su papel como Agencia Coordinadora de la Función de Apoyo para la Recuperación de Recursos Naturales y Cultu rales (NCR RSF), ayude con esfuerzos de socorro en casos de desastre, en Puerto Rico y Florida para asegurar la adecuada preservación y rehabilitación de los recursos naturales, cultu rales e históricos.

La carta de 38 miembros a la presidenta Pelosi y al pre sidente DeLauro enfatiza que el pueblo de Puerto Rico se ha visto privado durante mucho tiempo de energía confiable y resistente en la isla. Los legisladores señalan que la necesi dad de soluciones inmediatas al frágil sistema eléctrico del

territorio que ha quedado especialmente clara después de los recientes desastres naturales —los huracanes Irma y María en 2017, múltiples terremotos en 2020 y el huracán Fiona en septiembre— que causaron fallas totales en el sistema centra lizado de la isla.

“Cada vez que hay un colapso masivo de la red, los más de tres millones de residentes de Puerto Rico se preguntan cuánto durará, y las comunidades en el pasado han perma necido en la oscuridad durante varias semanas o, en algunos casos, después de Huracán María, meses”, afirmó Grijalva en declaraciones escritas.

Gobernador veta medida que buscaba crear un fondo para mitigar alzas en combustible de la AEE

CYBERNEWS

LA FORTALEZA – El gobernador Pedro Rafael Pier luisi Urrutia informó el miércoles, las razones por las cuales no firmó el Proyecto del Senado 728 que buscaba ordenar al Departamento de Hacienda a crear el Fondo de Estabilización del Sistema Eléc trico.

El propósito de esa medida, de la autoría de la senadora de Proyecto Dignidad (PD), Joanne Rodrí guez Veve, tenía el propósito de que los fondos que se destinasen a ese concepto fueran utilizados para

Comisionado

la Policía ordena

SAN JUAN – El comisionado de la Policía, Antonio López Figueroa ordeó este miércoles, la búsqueda y detención de un agente de la uniformada sospecho so de atropellar a una legisladora municipal de Huma cao.López Figueroa ordenó esta mañana la búsqueda y detención de un policía, quien se presume como sospechoso de atropellar a una legisladora municipal de Humacao en un accidente reportado en Las Pie dras.

“Como parte de la investigación, el Comisionado,

cubrir alzas súbitas en el costo del combustible y energía en el mercado y de esta manera, el gobierno absorbería dichas alzas sin traspasarle a los consu midores esas alzas en la factura de energía eléctrica.

El gobernador mencionó que le explicó a los presidentes legislativos mediante carta, que la in tención de la medida es loable, pero que tal y como está redactada pudiera provocar mayores problemas que los que pretende resolver.

“Se convertiría en una merma de ingresos para la AEE, puesto que ordenaría que los recursos que se estén recobrando pasen al Departamento de Ha

cienda para nutrir el Fondo de Estabilización. Pre cisamente por la actual crisis fiscal y quiebra de dicha corporación pública, todo pago por servicio de electricidad, aunque sea por balances vencidos, debe ser adjudicado a la AEE para cubrir sus gastos operacionales, mantenimiento de flujo de efectivo saludable, y el pago de combustible para la genera ción de energía. Si la AEE ve reducidas sus finanzas eso podría tener un efecto en las facturas a sus abo nados mediante los ajustes trimestrales por compra de combustible”, explicó Pierluisi Urrutia en decla raciones escritas.

impartió instrucciones para que se hagan todas las gestiones necesarias para que el policía vinculado al accidente comparezca de inmediato ante las Autori dades”, aseguró el portavoz de la Policía, el coronel Pedro Sánchez en declaraciones escritas.

Tras el accidente vehicular, la división de Homicidios de Humacao inició la investigación, tras lo cual se vin culó al agente con los hechos ocurridos.

Esta mañana, la Policía informó sobre la investigación un accidente de tránsito con un vehículo que se fue a la fuga, a eso de las 10:00 de la noche del martes, en la carretera PR-917, ramal 9917, en la entrada de la

urbanización April Gardens, en Las Piedras.

De acuerdo a la información preliminar, una mujer de 58 años y residente de Humacao, cruzaba por la referida vía, cuando fue impactada por una guagua pickup, de la cual se desconoce más descripciones, ya que el conductor de la misma abandonó el lugar sin brindar información alguna.

La mujer fue atendida por paramédicos de Emergen cias Médicas Municipal de Las Piedras en el lugar y transportada en ambulancia hacia el hospital Ryder de Humacao, donde fue atendida por el médico de turno, quien describió su condición como crítica.

‘Amsterdam’ review: A madcap mystery with many whirring parts

By MANOHLA DARGIS

Formuch of “Amsterdam,” the lat est David O. Russell Experience, the movie enjoyably zigs and zags, rushing here and there, though some times also just spinning in place. It’s a handsome period romp, a 1930s screw ball pastiche filled with mugging per formers who charm and seduce as they run around chasing down a mystery, play ing detective, tripping over their feet and navigating an international conspiracy that is best enjoyed if you don’t pay it too much attention — which seems to be the approach that Russell himself has taken.

Like all of Russell’s movies, this one is by turns loosey-goosey and high strung. At its center are three American comrades who met in Europe during World War I, formed a tight friendship and — as you see in an extended flashback — lived for a while in Amsterdam, where they recov ered (more or sometimes less) from the war and rhapsodically played bohemi ans until reality called them back home.

A dozen or so years and much personal drama later, it’s 1933, and the three have

settled into their respective lives. And then Taylor Swift pops up in a fetching hat and red-alarm lipstick, sending everyone and everything scrambling.

The pieces click into place with Burt (Christian Bale), a down-and-out doctor with dubious habits who announces that he lost an eye in France. That’s also where he met a nurse, Valerie (Margot Robbie), and found his best friend, Harold (John David Washington), now a lawyer with a healthy practice and endless patience. Soon, the men are roped into an intrigue via Swift’s Liz, one of those mysterious dames who always stir up trouble. Her father has died under suspicious circum stances, and she’s enlisted Harold for help, which is why Burt soon performs an autopsy alongside Zoe Saldana’s Irma, another Florence Nightingale.

Bale also starred in Russell’s 2013 neoscrewball “American Hustle,” a dizzi ly funny comedy set mostly in the 1970s about a quartet of scammers. For that film, Bale’s good looks were obscured by a fur ry beard, a monumental gut and a doleful comb-over; for his role here, the actor has slimmed down and effectively come out

of hiding, so you can see the planes shift ing under his narrow, expressive face. Burt has a small web of scars under one eye and a nest of hair that at times rises to Bar ton Fink-esque tumescence, and while he slouches and hunches a lot, it’s the face that draws you in with its insistent browfurrowing, head-bobbing and jaw-drop ping.

It’s a suitably showy performance (with an accent that’s pure old-studio cabby) for a brash movie with many whir ring parts. If you spend a lot of time scan ning Bale’s face, noting how it slackens and tightens, it’s partly because the movie keeps inviting you to do so. It’s an engag ing landscape, certainly, and you can feel Russell’s affection for the character (and actor) every time the camera cozies up to him. There’s feeling in Burt’s ravaged coun tenance, sadness and bewilderment and dark shadows, too. He has been wounded both in battle and in life, you are regularly reminded, even as the movie barrels deep er into nonsense.

“Amsterdam” is a funny movie, though more curious than laugh-laced, despite some energetic slapstick and soft-

landing jokes. The humor can feel strained and overly worked to no particular end, as when Mike Myers and Michael Shannon pop up as a pair of tag-teaming spies. Like Robert De Niro’s upstanding, big-daddy general, who enters late to help tie up the messy loose ends, the spies belong to the least satisfying part of the movie, the po litical intrigue that ensnares Burt, Harold and Valerie. A lot of this really happened, the movie announces early, yet while that’s eye-poppingly true it tends to feel irrele vant.

That truth claim reads almost iden tically to the one that introduces “Ameri can Hustle,” which was inspired by the Abscam scandal, a bizarre episode dating back to 1978 involving corrupt American politicians, fake Arab sheikhs and a con man enlisted by the FBI. The historical chapter thwat “Amsterdam” borrows from isn’t, oddly enough, as well known, but is profoundly more harrowing because it in volves a 1930s fascist plot by wealthy busi nessmen to take over the United States. Yet if Russell was drawn to this material be cause of the more recent, terrifying threats to American democracy, neither his heart

nor his head ever feel genuinely in it.

What fires up Russell in “Amsterdam” and brings out his best is everything in volving love and camaraderie, particularly when Burt, Harold and Valerie were young and aglow with possibility. In the unhur ried flashback that traces their friendship, Russell evades the horrors of war to in stead focus on the characters’ joyfulness, the infectious pleasure that they take in one another’s company and the fast-deep ening romance between Harold and Val erie, which both lights them up and ap preciably warms the movie. Bathed in soft,

caramel tones and at times photographed in radiant close-up, Robbie and Washing ton have rarely looked more beautiful or conveyed as much visceral sensuality as they do here — they’re an electric duet.

Once the action returns to 1933, alas, the movie sags despite the persistent frenetic action. Characters continue enter ing and exiting as the low-angled camera zips along. (The cast also includes Rami Malek, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock and a sharp, amusingly clenched Andrea Rise borough.) A gun is fired, jaws socked, someone screams. Throughout, Russell keeps going and moving, moving and go ing, but the momentum never builds the way it should, and the big reveal lands flat partly because he never seems taken with the history he’s latched onto or comfort able with its heaviness. Or perhaps it’s the contemporary parallels that make him un easy and why, again and again, he returns to the faces and filigree that he gets just right.

‘Amsterdam’

Rated R for autopsy, murder, the usu al. Running time: 2 hours, 14 minutes. In theaters.

The secret to the best cauliflower soup? High heat and a little spice.

By MELISSA CLARK

It’s hard for me to look a head of cauliflower in the florets and not immediately want to cut it up and throw it in the oven.

When doused in oil and exposed to high heat, all the little crevices and fractals covering the surface — sometimes called curd because of its resemblance to cheese — sizzle until brown and wonderfully crisp. I can easily eat a half sheet-pan of roasted cauliflower on its way from oven to table, snacking on the burnished nug gets, one after the other, like potato chips.

And this is the reason cauliflower soup is a rarity in my kitchen. Why simmer the vegetable in broth when roasting it is just so grand?

This creamy cauliflower soup, however, is an exception — precisely because I roast the florets before submerging them in the broth.

The initial cooking browns the pieces, in tensifying their inherent sweetness. Then, I simmer them in broth until they collapse and turn thoroughly soft. When puréed, they give the soup a rich, velvety texture that’s creamy without any dairy products.

On its own, the soup is gentle and restrained. So I usually punch it up with a bold, tangy garnish. For this version, I glazed some plum tomatoes with harissa and roasted them along with the cauliflower.

Under high heat, the tomatoes condensed, turning jammy beneath their fiery coating. Those contrasting fla vors — the sweet and spicy tomatoes next to the mild, cozy soup — are what makes this so fun to eat. Every bite is a little different, some mellower, some zippier.

One thing to keep in mind: Harissa pastes vary a lot in their heat level, so taste yours before brushing it on the tomatoes. If it seems at the moderate end of the continu um (meaning you don’t immediately reach for a piece of bread to soothe your tongue), use the full amount listed. But if you’re working with a more intensely fiery paste, use the lesser amount. You can always add more later. (If you’re using a harissa powder, you can mix it with some oil to create a paste.) And if you don’t have harissa on hand, any other chile paste will work well.

It’s best to keep the tomatoes and soup separate un til serving. That way, the tomatoes stay brightly scarlet in a sea of beige; it’s a soup that looks as vivid as it tastes.

Creamy cauliflower soup with harissa tomatoes

Cauliflower is cooked twice for this plush vegan soup, which is both cozy and complex in flavor. First,

it’s roasted so its flavor deepens, simmered in broth until thoroughly and completely soft. When puréed, it gives the soup a rich, velvety texture and a savory, caramelized character that’s zipped up with harissa-glazed roasted to matoes. A note on harissa pastes: They vary a lot in their heat level. If yours is milder, use the full amount listed, but if you’re working with a more fiery harissa, use less.

And if you don’t have harissa on hand, any other chile paste will work well.

Yield: 6 servings

Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 large head cauliflower (about 3 pounds), trimmed and cut into 1-inch florets (about 12 cups)

Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) and freshly ground black pepper

1 1/4 teaspoons ground coriander

7 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving

1 small bunch thyme (about 10 sprigs)

1 pound plum tomatoes, halved, seeds scooped out

2 to 4 tablespoons harissa paste

3 large bunches scallions, whites and greens thinly sliced (about 2 1/2 cups)

1 jalapeño, seeded (if desired) and coarsely chopped

4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon tomato paste

6 cups vegetable stock

3/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves and tender stems, plus more for optional garnish 1 lemon

Preparation:

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees and line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, combine cauliflower, 1 teaspoon

salt, a large pinch of black pepper, 3/4 teaspoon ground coriander, 3 tablespoons oil and half the thyme sprigs, tossing everything until well coat ed. Spread the cauliflower evenly across one of the prepared pans.

3. Using the same bowl (no need to wash it first), combine halved tomatoes, 1 to 2 table spoons of harissa (depending on how spicy your harissa is; taste it first), 2 tablespoons olive oil, a large pinch of salt and the remaining thyme sprigs, and toss gently until the tomatoes are well coated. Spread tomatoes on the other bak ing sheet, cut-side up.

4. Place both sheet pans in the oven and roast for 20 minutes, then stir the cauliflower but not the tomatoes. Continue to roast until cau liflower is golden brown and tender, 15 to 20 minutes longer (35 to 40 minutes total roasting time). Transfer cauliflower pan to a rack, and discard thyme sprigs.

5. Using tongs, gently flip tomatoes over so their cut sides are down. Using the tongs, pinch off the tomato skins — they should slip right off — and discard. Brush 1 to 2 more tablespoons of harissa onto tomatoes and continue to roast until shriveled and condensed, about 15 to 25 minutes (35 to 45 minutes total roasting time).

6. While tomatoes are roasting, make the soup: In a large pot, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium. Add scallions (saving 1/4 cup scallions for serv ing) and jalapeño, and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and lightly colored, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add another 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, black pepper to taste, cumin and tomato paste, and cook until tomato paste darkens and caramelizes, 2 to 3 min utes.

7. Stir in roasted cauliflower and stock, and bring to a simmer. Cook, partly covered, over medium-low heat until all vegetables are very tender, 15 to 20 min utes. Turn off the heat. Using an immersion blender, pu rée the soup until smooth. (Alternatively, you can purée it in batches in a food processor or blender.)

8. Transfer the roasted tomatoes into a mixing bowl and add cilantro. Using a Microplane or other fine grater, grate zest from about half the lemon into the bowl, then stir in 1/2 teaspoon coriander and reserved scallions.

9. Using a fork or spoon, break up some of the to matoes as you combine everything. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze a little into the tomatoes, then taste and add more salt and lemon juice as needed. It should taste well seasoned and a little tangy.

10. To serve, squeeze in the juice from half the lem on. Taste and add salt, pepper and lemon if needed. Ladle soup into individual bowls and dollop harissa tomatoes on top; top with olive oil and more cilantro, if you like.

Roasted cauliflower meets harissa-glazed tomatoes in this velvety vegan soup.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE CARO

LINA.

Puerto Rico 00729. Dada en Carolina, Puerto Rico al 13 de septiembre de 2022. Lcda. Marilyn Aponte Rodríguez, Sec Regional. Denisse Torres Ruiz, Sec Auxiliar.

RÚSTICA: Parcela de terreno radicada en el barrio Arenas en el término municipal de Ci dra, marcada con el número 5, con una cabida de l021 metros cuadrados con 2663 diezmi lésimas de otro. En linderos

SANTOS ANTONIO

CAMACHO PERALTA

PETICIONARIO

EX-PARTE

CIVIL NÜM. CN2022CV00349.

SALA: SOBRE: EXPEDIENTE DE DOMINIO. EDICTO. ES

TADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ES

TADOS UNIDOS EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUER TO RICO. SS.

A: LAS PERSONAS IGNORADAS Y A LAS PERSONAS DESCONOCIDAS JOHN Y JANE DOE Y RICHARD ROE A QUIENES PUEDA

PERJUDICAR LA INSCRIPCION DE ESTA FINCA

Por la presente se notifica que la parte peticionaria, Santos Garnacha Peralta, ha presen tado una petición para que se declare a su favor el dominio de la siguiente finca: RÚSTICA: Predio de terreno localizado en Barrio Campo Rico (antes Hato Puerco) del término municipal de Canóvanas, Puerto Rico, Carretera Estatal PR 185, km 6.4, Interior, con una cabida su perficial de 670.17 metros cua drados, equivalentes a 0.1705 cuerdas de terreno. En lindes por el Norte, en varias alinea ciones que sumadas totalizan 44.53 metros con José E. Rive ra Ciuro; y en otra distancia de 3.01 metros con Luz Mercedes Rivera López; por el Sur, en tres alineaciones que suman 37.59 metros con Juan Antonio Febres Ciuro; por el Este, en dos alineaciones que suman 25.84 metros con camino de uso público; y por el Oeste, en una distancia de 16.11 metros con Emérito Guzmán.” Enclava una casa dedicada a vivienda familiar construida en cemento hormigón. Este Tribunal ordenó que se publique por tres veces durante el término de veinte días en un periódico de circula ción general diaria para que los que tengan algún derecho real sobre el inmueble descrito, las personas ignoradas a quienes pueda perjudicar la inscripción y en general a todos los que desearen oponerse puedan efectuarlo dentro del término de veinte dias a partir de la úl tima publicación del presente edicto. La abogada del peti cionario lo es la LCDA. ADRfN

l. PÉREZ GARCÍA, 72 Calle Calderón Mujica, Canóvanas,

LEGAL NOTICE

IN THE UNITED STATES DIS TRICT COURT FOR THE DIS TRICT OF PUERTO RICO GITSIT SOLUTIONS, LLC

Plaintiff V. ISIA YADIRA AYALA-DE JESÚS

Defendant(s) Civil No.: 3:19-cv-01973. (FAB).

FORECLOSURE OF MORT GAGE AND COLLECTION OF MONIES. NOTICE OF SALE.

To: ISIA YADIRA AYALADE JESÚS. 734 Road, Solar 5, Km. 6.3, Arenas Ward, Cidra, Puerto Rico 00739 and THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

WHEREAS: On May 25, 2022, this Court entered Default Judg ment in favor of Plaintiff, against Defendant. On July 18, 2022, this Court entered Order for Execution of Judgment, stating that Defendant has failed to pay the sums of monies adjudged to be paid under the judgment. In the Judgment, the Court stated that Defendant has defaulted on the repayment obligation to GITSIT Solutions, LLC, and ordered to pay the Plaintiff the principal sum of $196,863.67, plus interest at the rate of 7.25% per annum from July 1, 2017 until the debt is paid in full. The Court also ordered Defendant to pay GITSIT Solutions, LLC late charges in the amount of 5% of each and every monthly installment not received by the person entitled to enforce the mortgage note within 15 days after the installment was due until the debt is paid in full. Furthermore, the Court ordered Defendant to pay GITSIT Solu tions, LLC all advances made in accordance with the mortgage note including, but not limited to, insurance premiums, taxes and inspections, as well as 10% of the original principal balance, or $21,687.80, to cover costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees guaranteed by the mortgage obligation. The records of the case and of these proceedings may be examined by the parties at the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court, Federal Building, Chardón Ave nue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.

WHERAEAS, Pursuant to the terms of the aforementioned judgment and the order of exe cution thereof, the following pro perty belonging to Defendant will be sold at a public auction:

NORTE, en cuatro alineaciones que suman 37.458 metros con un camino municipal; SUR, en una distancia de 25.092 metros con el solar 15; ESTE, en una distancia de 32.718 metros con el solar identificado como solar 6 y OESTE, en una distancia de 32.380 metros con el solar

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CA GUAS SALA SUPERIOR LIME HOMES, LTD

Demandante V. SAMUEL SANTIAGO ROSARIO, VIVIAN A. ALVAREZ RIVERA T/C/C VIVIAN ALEXANDRA ALVAREZ RIVERA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

4. Property recorded at page 49, volume 417 of Cidra, pro perty number 15171, Registry of the Property of Puerto Rico, Section II of Caguas.

WHE

REAS: The property is subject to the following lien: HIPOTECA en garantía de pagaré a favor de Doral Financial Corporation, o a su orden, por la suma de $216,878.00 con intereses al 7¼% anual y vencimiento 1 de septiembre de 2036. Constitui da por la Escritura 167 otorga da en San Juan el 11 de agosto de 2005 ante la notario Marga rita M. Pérez Rosich, e inscrita al folio 49 del tomo 417 de Ci dra, finca 15171, inscripción 3ª. MODIFICADA en cuanto a su vencimiento, siendo ahora su nuevo vencimiento el 1 de julio de 2036, según consta de la escritura 368 otorgada en San Juan el 10 de julio de 2006 ante el notario Eder Enrique Ortiz Ortiz. Inscrita el 22 de octubre de 2021 al Tomo Digital Kari be, finca 15171 de Cidra, Nota Marginal. Senior Lien: None.

The above-described property is subject to the following junior lien: HIPOTECA en garantía de pagaré a favor de Doral Bank, o a su orden, por la suma de $23,500.00 con intereses al 9.95% anual y vencimiento 1 de noviembre de 2020. Constituida por la Escritura 93 otorgada en San Juan el 29 de octubre de 2005 ante la notario Angelik Rodríguez Maldonado, e inscri ta al folio 49 del tomo 417 de Ci dra, finca 15171, inscripción 4ª.

Potential bidders are advised to verify the extent of preferential lien with the holders thereof. It shall be understood that each bidder accepts as sufficient the title and that prior and preferen tial lien to the one being fore closed upon, including but not limited to any property tax, lien (express, tacit, implied or legal), shall continue in effect it being understood further that the suc cessful bidder accepts them and is subrogated in the res ponsibility for the same and that the bid price shall not be applied toward their cancellation. The present property will be acqui red free and clear of all junior

liens. WHEREAS: For the pur pose of the First Judicial Sale, the minimum bid agreed upon by the parties in the mortgage deed will be $216,878.00 for the property and no lower offers will be accepted. Should the first judicial sale of the abovedescribed property be unsuc cessful, then the minimum bid for the property on the Second Judicial Sale will be two-thirds of the amount of the minimum bid for the First Judicial Sale, or $144,585.33. The minimum bid for the Third Judicial Sale, if the same is necessary, will be onehalf of the minimum bid agreed upon by the parties in the afo rementioned mortgage deed, or $108,439.00 (Known in the Spanish language as: “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmo biliaria del Estado Libre Asocia do de Puerto Rico, 2015 Puerto Rico Laws Act 210 (H.B. 2479), Article 104, as amended. WHE REAS: Said sale to be made by the appointed Special Master is 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. NOW THREFORE, public notice is hereby given that the appoin ted Special Master, pursuant to the provisions of the Judgment herein before referred to, will on the DECEMBER 2, 2022 AT 9:45 AM. SALE will tae pla ce at: Rondaro, located at 441 Calle E, Frailes Industrial Park, Guaynabo, 00969, Puerto Rico (18.3698745, -66.1125007) in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 2001 will sell at public auction to the highest bidder, the property described herein, the proceeds of said sale to be applied in the manner and form provided by the Court’s judgment. Should the first judicial sale set herei nabove be unsuccessful, the SECOND JUDICIAL SALE of the property describes in the Notice will be held on the DE CEMBER 9, 2022 AT 9:45 AM, at the address indicated above. Should the second judicial sale set hereinabove be unsuc cessful, the THIRD JUDICIAL SALE of the property described in this Notice will be held on the DECEMBER 16, 2022, AT 9:45 AM, located at the address in dicated above. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, this 25 day of September 2022. JOEL RON DA FELICIANO, APPOINTED SPECIAL MASTER.

LEGAL NOT ICE

M&T

42143

CG2018CV01172

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

Demandados

Civil Núm.: CG2018CV01172. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPO TECA POR LA VÍA ORDINA RIA. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. El Alguacil que suscribe por la presente CERTIFICA, ANUN CIA y hace CONSTAR: Que en cumplimiento de un Manda miento de Ejecución de Senten cia que le ha sido dirigido al Al guacil que suscribe por la Secretaría del Tribunal de Pri mera Instancia, Centro Judicial de Caguas, Sala Superior, en el caso de epígrafe procederá a vender en pública subasta al mejor postor quién pagará de contado y en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, giro postal o por che que de gerente a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia el día 2 DE NOVIEM BRE DE 2022, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA en su oficina sita en el local que ocupa en el edi ficio del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Centro Judicial de Caguas, Sala Superior, todo derecho, título e interés que tenga la parte demandada de epígrafe en el inmueble de su propiedad que ubica en 32 Co linas View Cayey, PR 00736 y que se describe a continuación: URBANA: Lote de terreno iden tificado como Lote número 32, situado en la Urbanización Coli nas View en el Barrio Toíta del término municipal de Cayey, Puerto Rico, con una cabida de 600.45 metros cuadrados. Co lindando por el Norte, con el lote número 31, en 31.85 me tros; por el Sur, con la calle nú mero 3, en 22.82 metros; por el Este, con el lote número 33, en 33.16 metros; y por el Oeste, con la calle número 1, en 18.13 metros. Sobre este solar encla va una estructura de hormigón para fines residenciales. La propiedad antes relacionada consta inscrita en el tomo Kari be de Cayey, finca número 25,174, en el Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección Primera. El tipo mínimo para la primera subasta del inmueble antes relacionado, será el dis puesto en la Escritura de Hipo

teca, es decir la suma de $222,000.00. Si no hubiere re mate ni adjudicación en la pri mera subasta del inmueble mencionado, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscri be el día 9 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2022, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MA ÑANA. En la segunda subasta que se celebre servirá de tipo mínimo las dos terceras partes (2/3) del precio pactado en la primera subasta, o sea la suma de $148,000.00. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta se cele brará una TERCERA SUBASTA en las oficinas del Alguacil que suscribe el 17 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2022, A LAS 9:00 DE LA MAÑANA. Para la tercera su basta servirá de tipo mínimo la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para el caso de ejecución, o sea, la suma de $111,000.00.

La hipoteca a ejecutarse en el caso de epígrafe fue constitui da mediante la escritura núme ro 94, otorgada el día 27 de fe brero de 2010, ante el Notario Felix R. Vega Fournier y consta inscrita en el tomo Karibe de Cayey, finca número 25,174, en el Registro de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección Primera, ins cripción segunda. Dicha subas ta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer al Deman dante total o parcialmente se gún sea el caso el importe de la Sentencia que ha obtenido as cendente a la suma de $200,015.07 por concepto de principal, más intereses al tipo pactado de 5.000% anual des de el día 1 de febrero de 2016.

Dichos intereses continúan acumulándose hasta el pago total de la obligación. Se paga rán también los cargos por de mora equivalentes a 5.000% de la suma de aquellos pagos con atrasos en exceso de 15 días calendarios de la fecha venci miento, la suma de $22,200.00 para costas, gastos y honora rios de abogado, la suma de $22,200.00 para cubrir los inte reses en adición a los garanti zados por ley y la suma de $22,200.00 para cubrir cual quier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipo teca; más intereses provistos por la Regla 44.3 de las de Pro cedimiento Civil. Que los autos y todos los documentos corres pondientes al Procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Centro Judi cial de Caguas, Sala Superior durante las horas laborables. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulari dad del inmueble y que las car gas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere,

al crédito del ejecutante conti nuarán subsistentes. Se enten derá que el rematante los acep ta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio de remate. La propiedad está sujeta a los siguientes gra vámenes anteriores y/o prefe rentes según las constancias del Registro de la Propiedad. Condiciones Restrictivas: Afec ta por si a favor de Autoridad para el Financiamiento de la Vivienda en Puerto Rico: Para viabilizar la adquisición del bien inmueble La Autoridad para el Financiamiento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, a través del Programa Mi Nuevo Hogar creado y organizado bajo las provisiones dispuestas en la Ley número 122 del seis (6) de agosto de dos mil diez (2010) y el Reglamento número 7915 del uno (1) de septiembre de dos mil diez (2010), según en mendado concedió a la parte compradora la suma de $10,000.00 para sufragar los gastos de cierre y para aplicar al pronto de esta transacción por lo que la parte compradora admite y reconoce que la rega lía o subvención le ha sido con cedida bajo las disposiciones del referido Programa, por lo que la propiedad está sujeta a las siguientes condiciones res trictivas: (a) El inmueble será la residencia principal de la parte compradora y no puede ser arrendada o destinada a otro uso que no sea el de su resi dencia principal. (b) Será de aplicación a esta condición lo establecido en el inciso ocho puntos uno “a” (8.1 a) del Arti culo VIII del Reglamento en cuanto a la vigencia de la condi ción por el termino de DIEZ (10) AÑOS. El término de diez (10) años comenzará a contar a par tir de la fecha de la escritura de compraventa, permuta u otra, que formalice la transferencia a favor de “la parte compradora”. Dicho término es de caducidad, por lo que podrá ser cancelado por el transcurso del mismo por cualquiera de las partes. Si “la parte compradora” incumpliese con las condiciones y/o restric ciones consignadas en este documento tendrá que reem bolsar la subvención a la “Auto ridad”, según la fecha de in cumplimiento y conforme la siguiente proporción: Primero: cien por ciento (100%); Segun do: noventa por ciento (90%); Tercero: ochenta por ciento (80%); Cuarto: setenta por ciento (70%); Quinto: sesenta por ciento (60%); Sexto: cin cuenta por ciento (50%); Sépti mo: cuarenta por ciento (40%); Octavo: treinta por ciento (30%); Noveno: veinte por cien

to (20%); Decimo: diez por ciento (10%), en virtud de la escritura número 6 otorgada en San Juan a 27 de febrero de 2010 ante el Notario Agustín Gómez Tiburcio, según inscrip ción 1era. A los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipo tecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del eje cutante o acreedores de cargos o derechos reales que los hu biesen pospuesto a la hipoteca del actor y a los dueños, posee dores, tenedores de, o interesa dos en títulos transmisibles por endoso, o al portador, garanti zados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito del ac tor por la presente se notifica, que se celebrarán las subastas en las fechas, horas y sitios se ñalados para que puedan con currir a la subasta si les convi niere o se les invita a satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, otros cargos y las costas y honora rios de abogado asegurados quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecu tante. Y para conocimiento de licitadores del público en gene ral se publicará este Edicto de acuerdo con la ley por espacio de dos semanas en tres sitios públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Este Edicto será pu blicado mediante edictos dos veces en un diario de circula ción general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, por espacio de dos semanas con secutivas. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posterio res sujeto a lo dispuesto en los Artículos 113 al 116 de la Ley 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015, según aplique. Expido el presente Edicto de subasta bajo mi firma en Caguas, Puer to Rico, hoy día 3 de octubre de 2022. NATALIA SUÁREZ OR TIZ, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR PLACA #089.

LEGAL NOTICE

M&T

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

JUDICIAL DE SAN JUAN SALA SUPERIOR GITSIT SOLUTIONS LLC

V. ADALBERTO RAMÓN HERNÁNDEZ

CHEZ, SECRETARIA. IVETTE

M. MARRERO BRACERO, SE

CRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA DE BAYAMÓN

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO, INC.

Demandante V.

LUIS RAFAEL BERGOLLO

LOZADA, JACKELINE

COLON LOPEZ Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES

COMPUESTA POR AMBOS, METMOR

FINANCIAL INC., JOHN DOE

Demandadas

Civil Núm.: BY2022CV04762.

Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE

PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO POR

LA VÍA JUDICIAL. EMPLA

ZAMIENTO POR EDICTO.

ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉ

RICA, PRESIDENTE DE LOS

ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO

LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUER

TO RICO, S.S.

A: METMOR FINANCIAL INC., JOHN DOE

COMO TENEDORES

DESCONOCIDOS DEL

PAGARÉ a favor de Metmor Financial Inc.

por la suma $63,318.00, con intereses al 7% anual y vencimiento 1 de diciembre de 2021. Constituida mediante Ia escritura 368 otorgada en San Juan el 27 de noviembre de 1991 ante el notario José L. Arias Juárez, inscrita en Ia finca 5,236 de Toa Baja, Registro de Ia Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Segunda Sección de Bayamón.

Por Ia presente se le em plaza y notifica que debe contestar Ia demanda incoada en su contra dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de Ia publica ción del presente edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Adminis tración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando Ia siguiente dirección electróni ca: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr/sumac/, salvo que se repre sente por derecho propio. Si usted deja de presentar y no tificar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el Tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y con ceder el remedio solicitado en Ia Demanda, a cualquier otro, si el Tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, Ia entiende procedente. Los abogados de Ia parte demandante son:

ABOGADOS DE LA PARTE

DEMANDANTE: Lcdo. Reggie Díaz Hernández

RUA Núm.: 16,393 BERMUDEZ & DIAZ LLP

Suite 209

500 Calle De La Tanca San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901

Tel.: (787) 523-2670

Fax: (787) 523-2664

rdiaz@bdprlaw.com

Expido este edicto bajo mi fir ma y el sello de este Tribunal, hoy 30 de septiembre de 2022. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁN CHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIO NAL. WANDA L. TRINIDAD SILVA, SECRETARIA DEL TRI BUNAL CONFIDENCIAL I. LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU

NALL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA SALA SUPERIOR DE HUMA CAO

MAYPA IVELISSE RODRÍGUEZ RAMOS, PEDRO LUIS OSORIO QUIÑONES; Y LA SOLCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS Demandantes Vs. VICTOR JOSÉ RAMOS ORTIZ; GLENDA JUANITA RAMOS ORTIZ & ABIGAIL RIVERA ROSARIO Demandados Civil Núm.: HU2022CV00614. Salón: 208. Sobre: LIQUIDA CIÓN DE COMUNIDAD. EM PLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉ RICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUER TO RICO, S.S. A: VÍCTOR JOSÉ RAMOS RODRÍGUEZ.

POR LA PRESENTE, se le empieza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edic to, radicando el original de su contestación ante el Tribunal correspondiente y notificando con copia al abogado de la de mandante: Lcdo. Alberto J. Rodríguez Ramos Calle Cristóbal Colón #1, Suite 2 PO Box 458 Yabucoa, PR 00767 Tel: 787-502-7232 Fax: (787) 893-6937 Email: ajr.lawfirm@gmail.com Copia de su Contestación a la Demanda, copia de cuya De manda le es servida en este acto, conjuntamente con el emplazamiento, dentro de los treinta (30) días, apercibiéndo le que de así no hacerlo podrá dictarse sentencia en rebeldía en su contra concediéndose el remedio solicitado en la Peti ción o cualquier otro, si el Tribu nal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende proce dente. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el Sello del Tribunal, hoy 2 de SEPTIEMBRE de

2022. IVELISSE C. FONSECA RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA. MICHELLE GUEVARA DE LEÓN, SUB-SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU

NAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INS TANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN

ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC Demandante V. CYBELLE R.

AGOSTINI MOTTA

Demandado(a)

Civil: GB2022CV00178. Sala: 503. Sobre: COBRO DE DINE RO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SEN TENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: CYBELLE R.

AGOSTINI MOTTA.

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

EL SECRETARIO(A) que sus cribe le notifica a usted que el 29 de septiembre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debi damente registrada y archivada en autos donde podrá usted en terarse detalladamente de los términos de la misma. Esta no tificación se publicará una sola vez en un periódico de circula ción general en la Isla de Puer to 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 Sen tencia, Sentencia Parcial o Re solución, de la cual puede es tablecerse 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 consi derará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edicto. Co pia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 4 de octubre de 2022. En BAYAMÓN, Puerto Rico, el 4 de octubre de 2022. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁN CHEZ, SECRETARIA. IVETTE M. MARRERO BRACERO, SE CRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU NAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INS TANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE PONCE LEGACY MORTGAGE ASSET TRUST 2019-PR1

Demandante Vs CMFC, INC; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS

Demandado

Civil Núm.: PO2022CV01443.

Salón: 604. Sobre: CANCELA CIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIA DO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SEN TENCIA POR EDICTO. CMFC, INC; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES

DESCONOCIDOS A SER NOTIFICADOS

POR EDICTO POR

CONDUCTO DE LA LCDA. MARJALIISA COLON VILLANUEVA, P.O. BOX 7970 PONCE PR 00732.

LCDA. MARJALIISA COLON VILLANUEVAP.O. BOX 7970 PONCE PR 00732.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se les notifica la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que sus cribe le notifica a usted que el 26 de septiembre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debi damente 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 notifica ción. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedi miento 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 edic to de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edic to. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 4 de octubre de 2022. En Ponce, Puerto Rico, el 4 de octubre de 2022. LUZ MAYRA CARABA LLO GARCÍA, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. GISELLE GUTIÉ RREZ LEÓN, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU

NAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INS

TANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE TOA ALTA

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante V. SUCESION DE ELVIN

LUIS GONZALEZ

TORRES TAMBIEN CONOCIDO COMO IRVING GONZALEZ TORRES COMPUESTA POR NERISSA ANGELA GARAY GONZALEZ POR SI Y EN CUANTO

A LA CUOTA VIUDAL

USUFRUCTUARIA; FULANO DE TAL Y ZUTANO DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (“CRIM”)

Demandado(a)

Civil: BY2019CV03230. Sobre: COBRO DINERO, EJECU CIÓN DE HIPOTECA. NOTIFI CACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO.

A: NERISSA ANGELA GARAY GONZALEZ, POR SI Y EN CUANTO

A LA CUOTA VIUDAL USUFRUCTUARIA DE LA SUCESION DE ELVIN LUIS GONZALEZ

TORRES, TAMBIEN CONOCIDO COMO IRVING GONZALEZ TORRES; FULANO DE TAL Y ZUTANO DE TAL, COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESION DE ELVIN LUIS GONZALEZ TORRES, TAMBIEN CONOCIDO COMO IRVING GONZALEZ TORRES. (Nombre de las partes a las que se le notifican la sentencia por edicto) EL SECRETARIO(A) que sus cribe le notifica a usted que el 4 de octubre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debi damente 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 notifica ción. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedi miento 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 edic to de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edic to. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 4 de octubre de 2022. En Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, el 4 de octubre de 2022. LAURA I. SANTA SÁN CHEZ, SECRETARIA. MARIT ZA BONILLA HERNÁNDEZ, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ASOCIADO

RICO TRIBUNAL

GENERAL DE JUSTICIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS ASOCIACION DE CONDOMINES SENDEROS DEL ROBLE Demandante Vs. NILDA FERRER

Demandado

Caso Núm.: CG2022CV02029.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTEN CIA POR EDICTO.

A: NILDA FERRER.

(Nombre de las partes a las que se les notifica la sentencia por edicto)

EL SECRETARIO(A) que sus cribe le notifica a usted que el 30 de septiembre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debi damente 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 notifica ción. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedi miento 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 edic to de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edic to. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 30 de septiembre de 2022. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 30 de septiembre de 2022. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRE TARIA REGIONAL. JESSENIA PEDRAZA, SECRETARIA AU XILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYA MÓN

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante Vs. SUCESION DE JUAN BAUTISTA RODRIGUEZ COLLAZO T/C/C JUAN RODRIGUEZ COLLAZO, SUCESION DE ASUNCION PINTO RODRIGUEZ Y SUCESION DE MARIA DE LOS ANGELES RODRIGUEZ PINTO, TODAS COMPUESTAS POR SU HEREDERO CONOCIDO JUAN ESTEBAN RODRIGUEZ PINTO; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O

PARTES CON INTERESEN

DICHAS SUCESIONES

Demandados

Civil Núm.: BY2022CV03147.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO

Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTE

CA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDEN

TE DE LOS EE. UU., EL ES TADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.

A: SUCESION DE JUAN

BAUTISTA RODRIGUEZ

COLLAZO T/C/C JUAN RODRIGUEZ COLLAZO, SUCESION DE ASUNCION

PINTO RODRIGUEZ Y

SUCESION DE MARIA DE LOS ANGELES RODRIGUEZ PINTO, TODAS COMPUESTAS POR SU HEREDERO CONOCIDO JUAN

ESTEBAN RODRIGUEZ

PINTO; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERESEN DICHAS SUCESIONES.

URB. LOS ALMENDROS (ESTANCIAS DE RIO HONDO IV) CALLE ROBLE 9-ED, BAYAMÓN, PR 00907; DIRECCIÓN POSTAL URB. LOS ALMENDROS (ESTANCIAS DE RIO HONDO IV), CALLE ROBLE 9-ED, BAYAMÓN, PR 00961.

POR LA PRESENTE se le em plaza para que presente al tri bunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndo se el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su ale gación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SU MAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente direc ción 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 dic tar 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 discre ción, lo entiende procedente. Se le apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que de no expresarse dentro de ese térmi no 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 señala do, 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 heren cia conforme dispone el Artícu lo 1,578 del Nuevo Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A . sec. 11,021. Repre senta a la palie 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 NUM.: 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 se llo del Tribunal, hoy 06 de septiembre de 2022. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. AMALYN FIGUEROA NIEVES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CARO LINA BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante Vs. SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN GLORIA DIAZ ROMERO COMPUESTA POR SUS HEREDEROS CONOCIDOS PEDRO ANGEL SANTANA SANTIAGO, POR SI; ARMANDO SALGADO DIAZ Y LHEISKA SALGADO DIAZ; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERÉS EN LA SUCESION Demandados Civil Núm.: CA2022CV02516. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPO TECA (IN REM). EMPLAZA MIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTA DOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.

A: SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN GLORIA DIAZ ROMERO COMPUESTA POR SUS HEREDEROS CONOCIDOS PEDRO ANGEL SANTANA SANTIAGO, POR SI; LHEISKA SALGADO DIAZ; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O

PARTES CON INTERÉS EN LA SUCESION. URB. VILLA COOPERATIVA, G-52 CALLE 6, CAROLINA, PR 00985.

POR LA PRESENTE se le em plaza para que presente al tri bunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los treinta (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este emplazamiento, excluyéndo se el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su ale gación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SU MAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente direc ción 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 dic tar 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 discre ción, lo entiende procedente. Se le apercibe a los herederos antes mencionados que de no expresarse dentro de ese térmi no de treinta (30) días, en torno a su aceptación o repudiación de herencia, la herencia se ten drá por aceptada. También se le apercibe a los herederos an tes mencionados que luego del transcurso del término de trein ta (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 heren cia conforme dispone el Artícu lo 1,578 del Nuevo Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 11,021. Repre senta 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 NUM.: 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 12 de sep tiembre de 2022. LCDA. MA

RILYN APONTE RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. LILLIAM ORTIZ NIEVES, SE CRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE CARO LINA

BANCO POPULAR

DE PUERTO RICO

SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN

LANDRÓN ALVAREZ Y SUCESIÓN DE JULIAN QUIÑONES OTERO COMPUESTA POR SU HEREDERA CONOCIDA

SONIA QUIÑONES LANDRÓN; FULANO DE TAL Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS Y/O PARTES CON INTERES EN AMBAS SUCESIONES

Demandados

Civil Núm.: CA2022CV00597.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTE

CA. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDEN TE DE LOS EE. UU., EL ES TADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.

A: FULANO DE TAL

Y SUTANA DE TAL COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE CARMEN LANDRÓN

Y LA SUCESIÓN DE JULIÁN QUIÑONES

OTERO. URB. VISTAMAR, CALLE PORTUGAL #453 CAROLINA, PR 00983.

POR LA PRESENTE se le em plaza para que presente al tri bunal su alegación responsiva dentro de los 30 días a partir de la publicación de este edicto.

Usted deberá presentar su ale gación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SU MAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente direc ción 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 dic tar 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 discre ción, lo entiende procedente. Se le apercibe que conforme al artículo 1578 del Código Civil, 31 L.P.R.A. §11021, usted tiene 30 días para aceptar o repudiar la herencia desde la publicación de este edicto. A esos efectos, de no rechazarla, se tendrá la herencia por aceptada. Repre senta 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 RÚA NÚM.: 11416 PO BOX 3908, GUAYNABO, PR 00970 TEL: 787-751-5290, FAX: 787-751-6155

E-MAIL:

ejecuciones@fortuno-law.com

En Carolina, Puerto Rico a 09 de septiembre de 2022. LCDA. MARILYN APONTE RODRÍ GUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIO NAL. RUTH M. COLÓN LUCIA NO, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE CAMUY. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Demandante v. BENJAMÍN CARDONA RIVERA; SU ESPOSA DAYSI BAYON

SANTIAGO, T/C/C DAISY BAYON SANTIAGO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

Demandados

CIVIL NUM.: CD2016-633. SOBRE: COBRO DE DINERO - EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTE CA. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO. SS. AVISO DE SUBASTA. El que suscribe, Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Ca muy, Camuy, Puerto Rico - {243 Pueblo}, hago saber, a la parte demandada y al PÚBLICO EN GENERAL: Que en cumpli miento del Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia expedi do el día 25 de agosto de 2022 - {250 Fecha mandamiento}, por la Secretaría del Tribunal, procederé a vender y venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor la propiedad que ubica y se describe a continuación: RUSTICA: Parcela radicada en el Barrio Cibao de Camuy, con una cabida de 3,930.40 metros cuadrados. En linderos por el NORTE, con Remanente I; por el SUR, con Juana Méndez; por el ESTE, con Remanente I y por el OESTE, con Calle Municipal. Inscrito al folio 270 del tomo 287 de Camuy, finca número #16,246 Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Segunda de Areci bo. La propiedad ubica según pagaré: Barrio Cibao, Sector Ocasio Camuy, PR. Además, el Alguacil que suscribe, hago sa ber a todos los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante, o de los acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimien to de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito eje

cutado, siempre que surjan de la certificación registral, para que puedan concurrir a la su basta si les convenga o satisfa cer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de aboga dos asegurados, quedando en tonces subrogados en los dere chos del acreedor ejecutante:

AUTORIDAD PARA EL FINAN

CIAMIENTO DE LA VIVIENDA

DE PUERTO RICO; A cuyo fa vor o a su orden hay un pagaré por la suma de $15,000.00 de principal, sin intereses y ven cedero el día 10 de septiembre de 2011, según consta de la escritura número #1,000, otor gada en San Juan, el día 10 de septiembre de 2003, ante el notario José Rubén Vélez Marrero, e inscrita al folio 142 del tomo 360 de Camuy, finca número #16,246, inscripción 5ta. El producto de la subas ta se destinará a satisfacer al demandante hasta donde al cance, la SENTENCIA dictada y notificada a su favor el día 9 de julio de 2021 en el presente caso civil, a saber la suma de $45,072.71 por concepto de principal; $358.07 por concep to de intereses acumulados, $46.70 por concepto de cargos por demora los cuales al igual que los intereses continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda reclamada en este pleito; $129.72 por con cepto de “Escrow Advances’’ y la suma $5,665.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de aboga do; y demás créditos acceso rios garantizados hipotecaria mente. La adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su ofer ta en el acto mismo de la ad judicación, en efectivo (moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América), giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del alguacil del Tribunal. La PRIMERA SUBASTA se lleva rá a efecto el día 29 DE NO

VIEMBRE DE 2022 A LAS 9:30

DE LA MAÑANA, en el Centro Judicial de Camuy - {243 Pue blo}, Camuy, Puerto Rico. Que el precio mínimo fijado para la PRIMERA SUBASTA es de $56,650.00. Que de ser nece saria la celebración de una SE GUNDA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día 6 DE DI

CIEMBRE DE 2022 A LAS 9:30

DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El precio mínimo para la SEGUNDA SUBASTA será de $37,766.66, equivalen tes a dos terceras (2/3) partes del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Que de ser necesaria la celebración de una TERCERA SUBASTA la misma se llevará a efecto el día 13 DE DICIEMBRE DE 2022 A

LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en la oficina antes mencionada del Alguacil que suscribe. El pre cio mínimo para la TERCERA

SUBASTA será de $28,235.00, equivalentes a la mitad (1/2) del tipo mínimo estipulado para la PRIMERA subasta. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta, se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la tota lidad 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 esta es mayor, todo ello a tenor con lo dispone el Articulo 104 de la Ley Núm. 210 del 8 de diciembre de 2015 conocida como “Ley del Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico”. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquiere libre de toda carga y gravamen que afecte la men cionada finca según el Artículo 102, inciso 6. Una vez confir mada la venta judicial por el Ho norable Tribunal, se procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura de venta judicial y se pondrá al comprador en pose sión física del inmueble de con formidad con las disposiciones de Ley. Para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda aquella persona o personas que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está eje cutando, y para conocimiento de todos los licitadores y el público en general, el presente Edicto se publicará por espacio de dos (2) semanas consecuti vas, con un intervalo de por lo menos siete días entre ambas publicaciones, en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y se fijará además en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio en que ha de celebrarse dicha venta, tales como la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía. Se les informa, por último, que: a. Que los autos y todos los do cumentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la secretaría del tribunal durante las horas laborables.

b. Que se enten derá 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 subsis tentes. Se entenderá, que el re matante los acepta y queda su brogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del rema te. EXPIDO, el presente EDIC TO, en Camuy, Puerto Rico, hoy día 13 de septiembre de 2022. Luis E Roman Carrero, Alguacil, División de Subastas, Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Camuy.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU

NAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INS

TANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAGUAS BANCO POPULAR DE PR Demandante Vs FRANCISCO VEGA MARTINEZ

Demandado

Civil Núm.: CY2022CV00091.

Sala: 701. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE GARANTÍAS. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. A: FRANCISCO VEGA MARTINEZ - HC 44 BOX 12807, CAYEY PR.

EL SECRETARIO(A) que sus cribe le notifica a usted que el 5 de octubre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debi damente 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 notifica ción. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedi miento 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 edic to de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edic to. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 7 de octubre de 2022. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 7 de octubre de 2022. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA RE GIONAL INTERINA. ENEIDA ARROVO VÉLEZ, SECRETA RIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE MAYA GÜEZ

COOPERATIVA DE AHORRO Y CRÉDITO DE CABO ROJO

Parte Demandante Vs SUCESIÓN NICOMEDES SÁNCHEZ RIVERA COMPUESTA POR YOLANDA SÁNCHEZ RIVERA, LIGIA RIVERA, CARMEN SÁNCHEZ, FULANO DE TAL, SUTANO DE TAL , JOHN DOE, RICHARD DOE

Parte Demandada

Civil Núm.: MZ2020CV00050.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA (VÍA ORDINARIA). AVISO DE SUBASTA.

A: SUCESIÓN

NICOMEDES SÁNCHEZ RIVERA COMPUESTA POR YOLANDA SÁNCHEZ RIVERA, LIGIA RIVERA, CARMEN SÁNCHEZ, FULANO DE TAL, SUTANO DE TAL, JOH DOE, RICHARD DOE.

El Alguacil que suscribe anun cia y hace constar que, en cum plimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que me ha sido dirigido por la Secretaría de este Tribunal, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor, de contado y en moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, todo derecho, título o interés que tenga la parte demandada sobre el inmueble que a conti nuación se describe: RÚSTI

CA: Porción de terreno sita en el barrio Pedernales del término municipal de Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, de una cabida superficial de 27.6582 cuerdas, equiva lente a 108,707.4846 metros cuadrados. Colindante por el NORTE, con propiedad de Ar mando Hernández Matos, an tes, luego de su Sucesión, hoy los terrenos de la Sucesión de Ricardo López los de Ramón Rodríguez y los de Monserrate Velázquez Irizarry; por el SUR, con terrenos de Castor Hernán dez Matos, antes, hoy terrenos la Sucesión de Ricardo López; por el ESTE, con un camino vecinal, hoy camino municipal y con terrenos de Ramón Ro dríguez Vidal, antes, hoy los terrenos de la Sucesión de Ri cardo López; y por el OESTE, con terrenos de Armando Her nández Matos, antes, luego de su Sucesión, hoy terrenos de Monserrate Velázquez Irizarry y los de Eric Zapata. Por esta parcela hay un camino de 6.00 metros de ancho que conduce a la parcela de 13.00 metro de Armando Hernández Torres al camino vecinal conocido como Camino Vicente Torres que empalma la carretera número 103 por un extremo y por el otro con la carretera número 307 al kilómetro 1.8. Finca número 5604, inscrita al folio 101 del tomo 294 de Cabo Rojo, última inscripción según libro décima.

CARGAS Y GRAVÁMENES:

Por su procedencia: Se halla li bre de cargas. Por sí: HIPOTE CA: Constituida por el titular re gistral en garantía de un pagaré a favor de la Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito de Cabo Rojo, por la suma de $74,000.00, sus intereses al 7.95% anual y ven cedero el 1ero de julio de 2034. Constituida por la Escritura #61, otorgada en Cabo Rojo, el 16 de junio de 2004, ante el notario Luis R. Rivera Mendoza e inscrita al folio 843 de Cabo Rojo, finca #5,604 e inscripción décima. LA PRIMERA SUBAS

TA se llevará a cabo el día 2 DE

NOVIEMBRE DE 2022; A LAS

11:00 DE LA MAÑANA en la oficina del Alguacil del Tribunal de Mayagüez, la cantidad míni ma a aceptarse en la primera subasta será de $74,000.00. Dicha venta se llevará a cabo para satisfacer a la parte de mandante el balance que refle ja el préstamo hipotecario por la suma la suma de: $69,594.72 de los cuales $57,502.55 co rresponde a principal, más $4,346.63 de intereses acumu lados al 15 de enero de 2020, $270.20 correspondiente a re cargos acumulados, $1,725.08 de penalidad y la suma de $5,750.26 por concepto de cos tas y honorarios de abogadas equivalente al 10% del principal adeudado. El anuncio p ara la venta en pública subasta se hará conforme a los dispuesto en la Regla 51.7 de Procedi miento Civil de Puerto Rico y las disposiciones aplicables de la Ley Hipotecaria de Puerto Rico en el Registro de la Pro piedad y su Reglamento. Si en la primera subasta no se produ jese la venta del inmueble an tes descritos, la SEGUNDA SU BASTA se efectuará el día 9 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2022; A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA en la ofi cina del Alguacil del Tribunal de Mayagüez y la cantidad mínima aceptada será de $49,333.33. Si en esta segunda subasta no se produjese adjudicación, en tonces la TERCERA SUBASTA se llevará a cabo el día 16 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2022; A LAS 11:00 DE LA MAÑANA en la oficina del Alguacil del Tribunal de Mayagüez y el tipo mínimo de subasta a aceptarse será de $37,000.00. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta se dará por terminado el proce dimiento y se le adjudicará al demandante la finca objeto de este procedimiento, dentro de los diez (10) días subsiguien tes a dicha tercera subasta por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta fuera mayor.

Para mejor información las personas interesadas pueden examinar los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado en la Secretaría de este Tribunal durante las horas laborables.

Este edicto de subasta se pu blicará una vez por semana por espacio de dos semanas en un diario de circulación general en Puerto Rico y en los luga res públicos correspondientes. 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 del ejecutante continua rán subsistente. Se entenderá, que el remanente los acepta y queda subrogado en la res ponsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se ex presará que la propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de

cargas y gravámenes posterio

res. El abogado de la parte de mandante, Lcdo. Rafael Fabre Colón, PO Box 277, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 00681, teléfono 787-265-0334 / 787-265- 0335.

DADA en Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, hoy 12 de octubre de 2022. ALG. IVELISSE FIGUE

ROA VARGAS, ALGUACIL PLACA #924, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE MAYAGÜEZ.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE CA GUAS

ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC., COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC.

Demandante Vs. JUAN A. ESTEVES

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

Demandados

Caso Núm.: GR2022CV00216.

Salón Núm.: 701. Sobre: CO

BRO DE DINERO ORDINA

RIO / INCUMPLIMIENTO DE CONTRATO. EMPLAZAMIEN

TO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTA DOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LI BRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES

QUE COMPONE CON JUAN A. ESTEVES

OCASIO - PARC. NUEVA CELADA 812 CALLE 39A, GURABO, PR 00778-2960.

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 ale gación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SU MAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente direc ción 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 dic tar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el reme dio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejerci cio de su sana discreción, lo en tiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte deman dante, el Lcdo. Kevin Sánchez

Campanero cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, telé fono (787) 993-3731 a la direc ción kevin.sanchez@orf-law. com, y a la dirección notifica ciones@orf-law.com. EXTEN DIDO BAJO Ml FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy 23 de septiembre de 2022. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 26 de septiembre de 2022. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA. ELISANDRA BORGES OCASIO, SECRETA RIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA RE GIÓN JUDICIAL DE PONCE SALA MUNICIPAL DE PONCE CARIBE FEDERAL CREDIT UNION Demandante Vs. MELVIN

SANTOS CAMACHO Demandado(a) Civil Núm.: PO2022CV01259. Sala: 504. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTA DOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LI BRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: MELVIN SANTOS CAMACHO. DIRECCIÓN: PARCELA EL TUQUE 916 ELÍAS BARBOSA, PONCE, PUERTO RICO 00728-4726.

POR LA PRESENTE, se le emplaza y se le notifica que una Demanda sobre Cobro de Dinero ha sido presentada en su contra y se le requiere para que conteste la misma 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 par te 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 ale gación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SU MAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ra majudicial.pr/sumac/, salvo que se presente por derecho pro pio. Se le apercibe que de no hacerlo, el tribunal podrá dictar Sentencia en rebeldía conce diendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, sin citarle ni oírle. Expedido bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal, hoy día 3 de octu bre de 2022. LUZ MAYRA CA

RABALLO GARCÍA, SECRE TARIA. MARILYN GONZÁLEZ

APONTE, SECRETARIA DE SERVICIOS A SALA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CARO LINA LEE ARNOLD HENRICKSON KNAUP

Demandante V. FIRST MORTGAGE INVESTORS; JUAN DEL PUEBLO Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO Y CUALESQUIERA

PERSONA

DESCONOCIDA CON POSIBLE INTERÉS EN LA OBLIGACIÓN CUYA CANCELACIÓN POR DECRETO JUDICIAL SE SOLICITA

Demandados

Civil Núm.: CA2022CV03074. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EM PLAZAMIENTO POR EDIC TO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., ESTADO LI BRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: JUAN Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO.

Por la presente se le notifica que ha sido presentada en este Tribunal una Demanda en su contra en el pleito de epígrafe. En este caso la parte demandante ha radicado una Demanda para que se decrete judicialmente el saldo de (1) pa garé hipotecario: pagaré a favor First Mortgage Investors, por la suma principal de $29,500.00 dólares con intereses al 6% anual, vencedero el día 1 de agosto de 2007, constituida mediante la escritura número 101, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 31 de julio de 1977, ante el notario Luis León, e inscrita al folio 215 del tomo 532 de Carolina, fin ca número 20,759, inscripción 2da.; sobre la propiedad que se describe a continuación: PRO PIEDAD HORIZONTAL: APAR TAMENTO NÚMERO 708. Es un apartamento residencial de forma irregular que está locali zado en la Torre II, piso séptimo del Edificio Condominio Coral Beach, situado en la Carretera Estatal número 187, kilómetro 0, hectómetro 9, esquina a la Calle Boulevard, Barrio Can grejo Arriba, Carolina, Puerto Rico. Que mide 26 pies 8 pulga das de largo, por su parte más larga, medida desde la puerta de entrada hacia el fondo, por 18 pies 8 pulgadas de ancho, por su parte más ancha, frente del apartamento, que hacen un área de 493.85 pies cuadrados equivalentes a 45.90 metros cuadrados. Sus linderos y dis tancias son las siguientes: por

el NORTE, en una distancia total de 26 pies 8 pulgadas, con conducto de ventilación y el Apartamento número 706, separado por pared de carga; por el ESTE, en una distancia de 18 pies 2 pulgadas, con el corredor común, separado por pared de carga y la puerta de ventilación y en 1 pie 6 pulga das, con conducto de ventila ción separado por pared; por el SUR, en una distancia total de 26 pies 8 pulgadas, con el vestíbulo de los elevadores de servicio y el cuarto del incine rador y de desperdicios, sepa rado por pared de carga; por el OESTE, en una distancia de 18 pies 8 pulgadas, con el espacio exterior que mira hacia la Calle Boulevard, separado por ba randa de la terraza. Las demás dependencias del apartamento se relacionan en el documento. Nota: en la inscripción segunda se expresa que se asigna a este apartamento el estaciona miento #48. Participación en los elementos comunes 0.1146%.

Finca Número 20,759 inscrita al Folio 214 del Tomo 532 de Ca rolina, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección I de Carolina. La parte demandante alega que dicho pagaré ha sido saldado según más detallada mente consta en la Demanda radicada que puede exami narse en la Secretaría de este Tribunal. Por tratarse de una obligación hipotecaria y pudien do usted tener interés en este caso o quedar afectado por el remedio solicitado, se le empla za por este edicto que se publi cará una vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de Puerto Rico. Usted deberá pre sentar 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 represente por de recho propio. Debe notificar con copia de ella a la abogada de la parte demandante a la Lcda. Alyssa Rivera Rivera, a la direc ción P.O. Box 19815, San Juan, P.R. 00910. Teléfono 787-4007269, dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Se le apercibe que, de no hacerlo así dentro del término indicado, el Tribu nal podrá anotar su rebeldía y dictar sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado en la De manda sin más citarle, ni oírle.

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA Y SELLO DEL TRIBUNAL, en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy a 27 de septiembre de 2022. LCDA.

MARILYN APONTE RODRÍ GUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIO NAL. Damaris Torres Ruiz, SE CRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU

NAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CARO LINA

LEE ARNOLD HENRICKSON KNAUP

Demandante V.

FIRST MORTGAGE INVESTORS; JUAN DEL PUEBLO Y JUANA DEL PUEBLO Y CUALESQUIERA PERSONA

DESCONOCIDA CON POSIBLE INTERÉS EN LA OBLIGACIÓN CUYA CANCELACIÓN POR DECRETO JUDICIAL SE SOLICITA

Demandados Civil Núm.: CA2022CV03074. Sobre: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EM PLAZAMIENTO POR EDIC TO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., ESTADO LI BRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: FIRST MORTGAGE INVESTORS COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES Y CUALESQUIER PERSONA DESCONOCIDA CON POSIBLE INTERÉS EN LA OBLIGACIÓN CUYA CANCELACIÓN POR DECRETO JUDICIAL SE SOLICITA.

Por la presente se le notifica que ha sido presentada en este Tribunal una Demanda en su contra en el pleito de epígrafe. En este caso la parte demandante ha radicado una Demanda para que se decrete judicialmente el saldo de (1) pa garé hipotecario: pagaré a favor First Mortgage Investors, por la suma principal de $29,500.00 dólares con intereses al 6% anual, vencedero el día 1 de agosto de 2007, constituida mediante la escritura número 101, otorgada en San Juan, Puerto Rico, el día 31 de julio de 1977, ante el notario Luis León, e inscrita al folio 215 del tomo 532 de Carolina, fin ca número 20,759, inscripción 2da.; sobre la propiedad que se describe a continuación: PRO PIEDAD HORIZONTAL: APAR TAMENTO NÚMERO 708. Es un apartamento residencial de forma irregular que está locali zado en la Torre II, piso séptimo del Edificio Condominio Coral Beach, situado en la Carretera Estatal número 187, kilómetro 0, hectómetro 9, esquina a la Calle Boulevard, Barrio Can grejo Arriba, Carolina, Puerto Rico. Que mide 26 pies 8 pulga das de largo, por su parte más larga, medida desde la puerta de entrada hacia el fondo, por 18 pies 8 pulgadas de ancho, por su parte más ancha, frente del apartamento, que hacen un

área de 493.85 pies cuadrados equivalentes a 45.90 metros cuadrados. Sus linderos y dis tancias son las siguientes: por el NORTE, en una distancia total de 26 pies 8 pulgadas, con conducto de ventilación y el Apartamento número 706, separado por pared de carga; por el ESTE, en una distancia de 18 pies 2 pulgadas, con el corredor común, separado por pared de carga y la puerta de ventilación y en 1 pie 6 pulga das, con conducto de ventila ción separado por pared; por el SUR, en una distancia total de 26 pies 8 pulgadas, con el vestíbulo de los elevadores de servicio y el cuarto del incine rador y de desperdicios, sepa rado por pared de carga; por el OESTE, en una distancia de 18 pies 8 pulgadas, con el espacio exterior que mira hacia la Calle Boulevard, separado por ba randa de la terraza. Las demás dependencias del apartamento se relacionan en el documento. Nota: en la inscripción segunda se expresa que se asigna a este apartamento el estaciona miento #48. Participación en los elementos comunes 0.1146%.

Finca Número 20,759 inscrita al Folio 214 del Tomo 532 de Ca rolina, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección I de Carolina. La parte demandante alega que dicho pagaré ha sido saldado según más detallada mente consta en la Demanda radicada que puede exami narse en la Secretaría de este Tribunal. Por tratarse de una obligación hipotecaria y pudien do usted tener interés en este caso o quedar afectado por el remedio solicitado, se le empla za por este edicto que se publi cará una vez en un periódico de circulación diaria general de Puerto Rico. Usted deberá pre sentar 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 represente por de recho propio. Debe notificar con copia de ella a la abogada de la parte demandante a la Lcda.

Alyssa Rivera Rivera, a la direc ción P.O. Box 19815, San Juan, P.R. 00910. Teléfono 787-4007269, dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Se le apercibe que, de no hacerlo así dentro del término indicado, el Tribu nal podrá anotar su rebeldía y dictar sentencia concediendo el remedio solicitado en la De manda sin más citarle, ni oírle.

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA Y SELLO DEL TRIBUNAL, en Carolina, Puerto Rico, hoy a 27 de septiembre de 2022. LCDA.

MARILYN APONTE RODRÍ

GUEZ, SECRETARIA REGIO

NAL. Damaris Torres Ruiz, SE

CRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO

DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU

NAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA

TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INS

TANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE BAYAMÓN

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. LA SUCESIÓN DE BENJAMÍN RIVERA

TORRES COMPUESTA

POR FULANO Y MENGANO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS

DESCONOCIDOS, LA SUCESIÓN DE SILVIA

BETANCOURT RAMOS

T/C/C SILVIA MARÍA

BETANCOURT RAMOS T/C/C SYLVIA MARÍA BETANCOURT RAMOS

T/C/C SYLVIA M. BETANCOURT RAMOS Y SYLVIA BETANCOURT RAMOS COMPUESTA POR SUTANO Y PERENCEJO DE TAL, POSIBLES HEREDEROS

DESCONOCIDOS, ANGÉLICA MARÍA RIVERA BETANCOURT, JOSÉ MANUEL RIVERA BETANCOURT, POR SÍ Y COMO HEREDEROS DE BENJAMÍN RIVERA TORRES Y DE SILVIA BETANCOURT RAMOS T/C/C SILVIA MARÍA BETANCOURT RAMOS T/C/C SYLVIA MARÍA BETANCOURT RAMOS T/C/C SYLVIA M. BETANCOURT RAMOS Y SYLVIA BETANCOURT RAMOS; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA

Demandado(a)

Civil: BY2021CV05214. Sala: 505. Sobre: COBRO DE DI NERO, EJECUCIÓN DE HI POTECA POR LA VÍA ORDI NARIA. NOTIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO. EL SECRETARIO(A) que sus cribe le notifica a usted que el 30 de septiembre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debi damente 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 notifica ción. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedi miento 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 edic to de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edic to. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 7 de octubre de 2022. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 7 de octubre de 2022. Laura I. Santa Sánchez, Secretaria. Milita Mercado Ri vera, Secretaria Auxiliar.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBU NAL GENERAL DE JUSTICIA TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INS TANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN

LEGACY MORTGAGE ASSET TRUST 2019-GS2 Demandante Vs. FIRST SECURITY MORTGAGE, INC. AHORA, BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS

Demandada

Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV04849. Materia: CANCELACIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. NO TIFICACIÓN DE SENTENCIA POR EDICTO POR SUMAC.

A: JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS.

EL SECRETARIO(A) que sus cribe le notifica a usted que el 30 de septiembre de 2022, este Tribunal ha dictado Sentencia, Sentencia Parcial o Resolución en este caso, que ha sido debi damente 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 notifica ción. Y, siendo o representando usted una parte en el procedi miento 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 edic to de esta notificación, dirijo a usted esta notificación que se considerará hecha en la fecha de la publicación de este edic to. Copia de esta notificación ha sido archivada en los autos de este caso, con fecha de 5 de octubre de 2022. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, el 5 de octubre de 2022. Griselda Rodríguez Collado, Secretaria Regional. Johanna Rodríguez Benítez, Secretaria Auxiliar.

The Cowboys and 49ers pass rushing makes their quarterbacks look good

By MIKE TANIER

If a team wants to make its ordinary quar terback look outstanding, all it has to do is pressure the daylights out of his coun terpart.

Cooper Rush of the Dallas Cowboys has spent his five NFL seasons as an ordinary (at best) and barely used backup quarterback. Yet this season, Rush has led the Cowboys to four straight victories in relief of Dak Prescott.

He has done so in large part because the Cowboys pass rush of Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler Jr. has sacked opposing quarterbacks 20 times for 128 yards, and the Cowboys defense has held opponents to just 14.4 points per game.

Jimmy Garoppolo has been the chair man of the Ordinary Quarterback Society for so long that the San Francisco 49ers un friended him in favor of Trey Lance in the offseason. Garoppolo has led the 49ers, now 3-2 and in first place in the NFC West, to three lopsided victories in four games since replacing the injured Lance, thanks in large part to a Nick Bosa-led defense that leads the NFL with 21 sacks and 142 sack yards, holding opponents to just 12.2 points per game.

It never fails: Defenders do most of the dirty work; quarterbacks get the attention. Rush and Prescott, set to soon return from a thumb injury to his throwing hand, are now embroiled in a rather contrived controversy. Some 49ers fans are now convinced that try ing to replace Garoppolo with Lance was al ways a bad idea.

Quarterbacks such as Rush and Garop polo are often credited with “finding a way to win” games in which their opponents were busy finding ways to escape.

Quarterback drama keeps the sportsmedia industrial complex humming, of course, and “Bench Dak” makes a splashier headline or podcast title than “Micah Par sons is Good.” There’s another dynamic at work, however: A great defense really does make its quarterback look better.

Garoppolo and Rush, currently ranked seventh and 12th in passer rating and fourth and 10th in Football Outsiders’ rankings for Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, are benefiting from a powerful statistical distor tion.

On average, NFL quarterbacks attempt 52% of their passes while trailing, 30%

when leading and the remaining 18% with the score tied, with sacks counted among the pass attempts. The reason for the dispar ity should be obvious: Teams pass more and take greater risks when playing catch up than they do when nursing a lead.

All of those extra risks — against de fenses that know what’s coming — mean that quarterbacks complete a lower percent age of their passes (63.0% to 65.7), average fewer yards per attempt (7.0 to 7.7), throw interceptions at a higher rate (2.8% to 1.6) and get sacked at a higher rate (7.0% to 5.4) when trailing than leading.

To summarize for readers whose eyes glazed over at the sight of all those decimals: Ordinary quarterbacks are likely to produce Pro Bowl-level statistics when leading and put up bench-the-bum statistics when trail ing, simply owing to the tactics used in dif ferent game situations.

Quarterbacks usually attempt many more passes when trailing than leading. A stingy, turnover-happy defense can make matters even easier for an ordinary quarter back, giving him the benefit of playing with leads he did little to generate and leaving him to finish out games with efficient, highpercentage passes.

Take the Cowboys’ victory against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 5, for example. Armstrong forced a Matthew Stafford fumble which Lawrence returned for a touchdown

on the opening drive, then blocked a punt to set up a short Cowboys field goal. The Cowboys led, 9-0, before Rush completed a single pass, and he played with a lead most of the way to a 22-10 victory.

Rush has attempted just 26 passes with the Cowboys trailing this season, 57 while leading. That’s practically the inverse of the typical NFL ratio. It’s easy for a quarterback to go four games without an interception when he spends most fourth quarters hand ing off.

Garoppolo’s splits are even more reveal ing: He has thrown just 11 passes with the 49ers trailing, 85 while leading. The 49ers defense returned an interception for a touch down and forced Carolina quarterback Baker Mayfield to hobble through their 37-15 vic tory Sunday on a sprained ankle. Garoppolo, who has thrown only one interception, was free to spend another afternoon distributing micro-passes, handing off and watching the clock melt away.

A team’s vicious pass rush has other hid den benefits which go beyond sack totals. The Cowboys have coaxed a league-high 11 false starts from opposing

linemen hoping to get a jump on blocking Parsons and company, as well as two inten tional grounding penalties when Washington Commanders quarterback Carson Wentz desperately heaved passes away to avoid be ing sacked in Week 4.

The 49ers defense forces opponents to go three-and-out on 39.6% of their posses sions, the highest total in the league accord ing to Football Outsiders, providing their of fense with more possessions.

Constant pressure has a snowball effect: Sacks and turnovers force the opponent to play from behind, which means they must take greater risks, which lead to more mis takes and an ever-widening deficit. Under the right circumstances, a victorious “game manager” barely breaks a sweat.

Fortunately, quarterbacks don’t get all the credit. Parsons is now the even-odds fa vorite to win the Defensive Player of the Year award. Bosa is one of the league’s most rec ognizable stars. Rush will most likely be for gotten by everyone but the dedicated drama junkies upon Prescott’s return, and Garop polo long ago galvanized his reputation for helping the 49ers by doing minimal harm.

If the Cowboys and 49ers keep sack ing their way toward the playoffs, their de fenders are sure to get their due.

An excellent pass rush can even lead a team with an ordinary quarterback to vic tory in the Super Bowl. Who can forget the legendary teams led by famously lessthan-stellar passers such as Trent Dilfer, Joe Flacco, Mark Rypien, Jim McMahon or, let’s be totally honest, Eli Manning?

Wait, why do we remember those quarterbacks so readily when we are sup posed to be praising their defenses?

Sigh. Even when a defense leads its team to a championship, it’s the quarter back who somehow secures a place in history.

Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons (11) and defensive end Dante Fowler Jr. (56) celebrated after Parsons sacked Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford in Week 5.

Astros shock Mariners with 9th-inning blast, take 1-0 series lead

runs were crucial to setting up the Astros’ rally.

“You want to win the seventh, eighth, and ninth to give you a chance to win the ballgame,” he said.

The Mariners sent Paul Sewald to the mound in the bottom of the ninth to thwart an attempt at an Astros rally. With one out, Sewald hit pinch-hitter David Hensley with a pitch, putting a runner on base for José Altuve, who stepped up to the plate one swing away from tying the game. Sewald struck out Altuve, but then Jeremy Peña hit a single to shallow center field.

In need of one out, Servais pulled Sewald, and replaced him with Ray. Álvarez came to the plate with two runners aboard, and hit a commanding three-run home run to right field to give the Astros a walk-off win and a 1-0 lead in the series.

As Álvarez reached home plate, he was mobbed by his teammates in celebration as the fans at Minute Maid Park roared.

By JESÚS JIMÉNEZ

The Houston Astros started their 2022 postseason campaign with a bang, coming back from a four-run deficit to defeat the Seattle Mariners, 8-7, with a three-run walk-off home run by Yordan Ál varez.

The Astros trailed from the first inning forward, and Seattle had called on last year’s American League Cy Young Awardwinner, left-hander Robbie Ray, to get the final out in what the team hoped would be its third straight postseason win after 20 seasons of not making the playoffs. But left-handed hitter Álvarez had other plans, hitting a 438-foot blast to right off Ray that scored three runs, turning a two-run deficit into a one-run victory.

Justin Verlander had gotten the host Astros off to a rocky start, allowing a walk and a pair of singles within the first four batters that got the Mariners off to a 1-0 lead. Verlander’s struggles continued into the second inning, even requiring an early mound visit from the pitching coach Josh Miller. He gave up a string of singles and a double as the Mariners extended their lead to 4-0.

Before Tuesday’s game, Mariners man ager Scott Servais said that Verlander is “one of the better pitchers of our era,” but that he told his team to prepare for any op portunities to strike.

“All pitchers will give you a chance,”

Servais said. “They will make mistakes. As good as they are, as good as their stuff is, they will make mistakes. You got to be ready to take advantage of it when it’s there.”

Verlander settled down in the third inning, retiring three straight batters, and got some support in the bottom half when Álvarez hit a two-run double that bounced off the tall scoreboard wall in left field.

Álvarez, who made his major league debut with the Astros in June 2019 and made that year’s postseason roster, said before the game that his experience in the World Series three years ago has helped him feel less pressured in the playoffs this year.

“I think I’ve grown a lot as a player, as a hitter,” Álvarez said through a Span ish-language interpreter. “Being able to go back to the postseason I can say to myself, ‘OK, I know what the experience is like. I know what the environment’s going to be like.’”

Álvarez’s two RBI in the third inning energized the Houston crowd, which roared after back-to-back strikeouts from Verlander to start the top of the fourth.

But the crowd was quickly silenced when J.P. Crawford followed that sequence with a home run, the first Verlander had given up since July 23, when the Astros beat Seattle on the road.

Piling on top of that, Julio Rodríguez then hit a triple off Verlander, and scored a

run after the next batter, Ty France, drove him in with a double.

By then, Astros manager Dusty Baker had seen enough, cutting Verlander’s work day at four innings, pulling him from the game when he returned to the dugout and replacing him with right-handed reliever Bryan Abreu.

It was Verlander’s first start in the post season since Game 6 of the 2019 World Series against Washington. He gave up two home runs in a 7-2 loss, and the Nationals went on to win Game 7 to claim the fran chise’s first championship.

Although the Astros reached the league championship series in 2020, the team was without Verlander, who pitched only six innings in the pandemic-shortened season before being shut down with an injury. He missed all of the 2021 season after having Tommy John surgery, but returned this year to lead the majors in ERA at age 39.

After Verlander came out of the game, the Astros and the Mariners exchanged solo home runs, with one from Yuli Gurriel in the bottom of the fourth, and another from Eugenio Suárez in the top of the seventh.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Astros tried to start a rally when Alex Bregman hit a two-run home run to left field to bring the game to 7-5, but reliever Andrés Mu ñoz constrained the rally to just two runs, striking out two Houston batters to get out of the inning.

Baker said after the game that those

“That was probably one of the most ex citing games that I’ve been a part of,” Baker said.

After the game, Álvarez said that as he saw Ray warming up in the bullpen, he grabbed an iPad to watch video of their pre vious matchups.

“As soon as I saw him warming up, I knew that he was going to come into the game if it came down to me,” Álvarez said, adding that hitting the winning home run was more special for him because his parents were watching him play in person for the first time this season.

“I think it’s one of the most special moments that I’ve had in my career, hav ing them there,” Álvarez said of playing in front of his family. “Even for just the city of Houston. They know that we’re a team that never gives up.”

Bregman, holding his newborn son Knox while talking to reporters after the game, said he wanted to hug Álvarez as soon as the ball landed in the right field seats.

“But he still had to go run the bases, so I was just waiting for him,” Bregman said, adding that the fans were especially loud. “The place was on fire tonight. The fans were unbelievable. It was so awe some to have a packed house here. The energy was flowing. We felt it. We felt them.”

The Mariners and the Astros will play again this afternoon (3:37 p.m. ET, TBS) in Houston, before heading to Seattle for Game 3 of the series on Saturday.

Yordan Alvarez’s three-run homer off Robbie Ray finished a day in which Houston’s left fielder went 3 for 5 with five runs batted in.

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Answers to the Sudoku and Crossword on page 29Aries (Mar 21-April 20)

Mars, your guide planet, forges the first of three aspects to Neptune today, so observe what happens and how you feel. You can adopt an uncharacteristically passive approach, but if you do nothing now, you might end up having to take action when things are worse. It may be only a small issue, but it could snowball and start to get out of control, which won’t help you, Aries.

Taurus (April 21-May 21)

Nervous to discuss something? It might be better if you were to openly share your thoughts. Consider making a gentle start Taurus, as doing so could get things moving. Your willingness to be honest can pave the way for another to be open about what is going on for them. It may clear up so much confusion, that might otherwise foster an atmosphere of distrust with someone close.

Gemini (May 22-June 21)

Your mind can be spinning with ideas, but for now you might not have the energy to make a start. Instead, you may prefer to unwind and watch the world go by. Perhaps some pampering and self-care is something you could enjoy. If self-doubt is causing you to falter, don’t give in to it. Keep taking small steps forward, and know that what you’re doing is truly worthwhile.

Cancer (June 22-July 23)

Enjoying someone’s company? With Mars angling towards filmy Neptune, there is the possibility that you’ll ignore any red flags, even if you sense something isn’t quite right. If this friendship or romantic bond is in its early stages, then time will reveal all. At some point you will find out, so you might as well trust your gut feelings and do something about it now.

Leo (July 24-Aug 23)

Wondering if someone is reliable? If you don’t listen to your instincts now, then you may regret it. A confusing aspect that shows up three times over coming months, begins today, and it can cause you to lose faith in your own judgement, while also giving someone the benefit of the doubt when you know you shouldn’t. It’s wise to be polite and considerate, but don’t be weak.

Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)

Need to make a decision? Take your time! As Mars faces off with dreamy Neptune, it can be difficult to see things as they really are. Other people may have a skewed perspective too, so avoid asking for advice. Instead, bide your time, as soon all will become clear. Looking to purchase an item? Your intuition could lead you to the bargain you’ve been hoping for.

Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)

Putting pressure on yourself, Libra? It might not help you, even if you have the best of intentions. The present line-up suggests things may not pan out as you hoped, and it can be partly due to unforeseen events. It’s also possible that you won’t feel at your most vital due to a hazy Mars/Neptune tie. This is one time when relaxing mentally could help you get a lot more done.

Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)

With sociable Mercury aligning with philosophical Jupiter, it should, in theory, be easy to bring a niggling difference of opinion to a close. In practice, it may be the angle between Mars and mesmeric Neptune, that complicates things. There might be too many cross currents and too much confusion for this to happen. The best you can do is to put off big conversations for another day.

Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)

Mercury, newly in Libra, opposes Jupiter retro in Aries, which could bring you into contact with someone you haven’t seen in a while. And you might get on better, and sense that opportunities will come from seeing more of each other. Regarding a family issue, the more you discuss it, the more confused it may become. Leave it for now, as soon everything will become clear.

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)

Make sure you at least have the facts or details correct, because it’s very likely that no one else will. A Mars/Neptune angle can mean that others won’t be too bothered about getting anything right, being on time or attending to responsibilities. At the best, they may be half-hearted. If you step up to the plate, you’ll have more than your fair share to do, but you’ll also save the day.

Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)

The days ahead may be excellent for reading books that boost your spirits and enhance motivation. Watching movies that encourage you to have faith in your abilities, and to do more and be more, might inspire you to aim higher, Aquarius. As fiery Mars angles towards aqueous Neptune though, read the small print before you commit to anything that involves money.

Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)

With feisty Mars linking to Neptune in your sign, it could be difficult to understand where a family member is coming from. If they seem in a contrary mood and liable to change their mind, this won’t help if you need to make plans. Your best bet may be to focus on what you want, and to go ahead. If you wait for them, you might be at a loss and the days ahead be wasted.