Monday Oct 9, 2023

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

Exhibit room at Caguana Indigenous Ceremonial Park slated for renewal

By THE STAR STAFF

The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (ICP by its Spanish initials) will carry out a curatorial and museographic renovation of the thematic exhibit room at the Caguana Indigenous Ceremonial Park in Utuado.

The work is part of a new stage of development at the archaeological site. For this reason, the exhibit room will be closed until February of next year, when a new exhibition is expected to open. Other park areas will remain open at regular hours, seven days a week. In addition, other improvements will be made, such as new signage and labeling in the park and maintenance of the monoliths.

The project is possible thanks to an allocation of more than $150,000 in Cultural Rescue Phase II with ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds made by Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia.

“Aimed at providing a better experience to the public that visits the Caguana Ceremonial Park, we have begun the renovation of its theme room and the rest of the park,” ICP Executive Director Carlos Ruiz said. “With the new exhibition we are working on, the public will be able to appreciate more archaeological objects, not only from the indigenous Taíno culture, but from previous cultures such as the archaic Saladoid and Huecoid, forming a general

history of our aboriginal past. We will have a broad and detailed curatorial vision of a fascinating past that will positively impact the entire archaeological site, considered the most important in the Caribbean.”

A few weeks ago, the ICP’s Archaeology and Ethnohistory program, along with the Museums and Parks program, began the disassembly, packaging and transportation of the pieces and inspection of the work. During the process, personnel will work under the supervision of Reniel Rodríguez Ramos, curator and professor at the University of Puerto Rico in Utuado. Rodríguez Ramos is known for his archaeological findings, the most recent dating the first inhabitants of Puerto Rico to the year 4200 BC.

The exhibit in the thematic room will have a more significant number of objects, such as lithic rings, lithic elbows, vessels, ceramics, anthropomorphic handles, zemis, ducts and shells. Once renovated, it will have greater educational and technological resources that support students and the general public. Workers will create new signage and make the area accessible to the public with diverse needs. The curation of the new exhibition is in the hands of Rodríguez Ramos. Likewise, the Museum of the Americas is managing the project.

The archaeological site known as Caguana was inhabited for nearly 300 years, from around 1200 AD to around 1500 AD. It was abandoned after the Spanish conquest and colonization. In 1915, the first archaeological investigation of the area was led by John Alden Mason. In 1938, archaeologist Irving Rouse of Yale University carried out new excavations, producing essential finds. Later, in 1965, under the direction of Ricardo E. Alegría, the Caguana Indigenous Ceremonial Park was inaugurated as an archaeological site and a place for contemplation of cultural and natural elements.

The renovated exhibit room at Caguana Indigenous Ceremonial Park in Utuado will have a more significant number of objects, such as lithic rings, lithic elbows, vessels, ceramics, anthropomorphic handles, zemis, ducts and shells. It will also have more extensive educational and technological resources for students and the general public. (Photos courtesy of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture)

Lawmaker seeks to create IVU-free zones in urban centers

By THE STAR STAFF

Popular Democratic Party Rep. Joel Sánchez Ayala has introduced legislation that seeks to create “sales and use tax-free zones” in the downtown areas, known in Spanish as cascos urbanos, of municipalities.

The idea is to exempt retail stores and restaurants from paying the sales and use tax (IVU by its Spanish acronym) for five years to promote economic activity and the repopulation of urban centers.

Public housing projects located in urban centers or downtown areas would also be exempted from paying the IVU.

Under the bill, the municipalities will have to submit yearly reports.

The bill is the latest attempt to revitalize urban centers and bring in economic activity. The rise of shopping malls and reduction of the island’s population have

resulted in urban centers becoming ghost towns, the legislator noted.

For decades, the population and commercial displacement of urban centers went unnoticed in the face of the expansion of housing developments and the economic growth predicted by the commercial centers around those new homes, he said.

To repopulate Puerto Rico’s urban centers, addressing the deterioration of infrastructure is also necessary, Sánchez Ayala said. Currently, infrastructure is not limited to electricity, water, and communications services, but also includes security, transportation, sidewalks and parking, among other elements, he said.

Therefore, the economic development proposed by the IVU-free zones in the town centers must go hand in hand with proposals that allow a municipality to be better organized, facilitating a mixed use of space between homes and businesses.

New law aims to foster awareness of childhood diabetes, obesity

By THE STAR STAFF

Senate President José Luis Dalmau Santiago announced on Sunday the new Law 115-202, which establishes as an educational objective orientation on and awareness of diabetes, hypoglycaemia and childhood obesity at elementary, intermediate and higher levels in the public education system.

“We believe that education is the key to preventing and addressing these health conditions and we are determined to provide our students with the necessary tools to lead healthier lives,” Dalmau Santiago said.

The proposed law, which amends the “Puerto Rico Educational Reform Act,” establishes that the “a school model tempered to the global reality cannot do without education about the health and well-being of its students, both physically and emotionally.

“Taking into account the importance of the inclusion of guidance and awareness on childhood obesity, childhood diabetes and hypoglycemia, this measure promotes and supports that guidance on the subject

becomes a requirement within the public education system,” says the legislation promoted by the secretary of education.

Likewise, the legislation establishes, in coordination with the island Department of Health, a teaching workshop aimed at fostering guidance on and awareness of childhood obesity, childhood diabetes and childhood hypoglycemia. Given the public health situation regarding childhood obesity and the alarming numbers of minors with glucose-related conditions, “it is important that our population, from an early age, is well oriented and guided on how to prevent or treat this type of ailment.”

In addition, the legislation details that schools will have the obligation to implement this curriculum through regular academic offerings, or by integrating it into academic programs and other educational modalities.

“The schools, with the advice of the department, will provide two hours per academic year on guidance and awareness of obesity, diabetes and hypoglycemia [in early childhood], including lectures and printed information material,” notes the legislation in Section 67 of the refer-

enced article. “These will emphasize the importance of preventing or treating the aforementioned conditions, as well as guidelines on healthy lifestyles.”

The proposed law refers to the fact that childhood obesity is recognized as one of the most serious public health problems

of the 21st century. Studies indicate that overweight children have an 80% chance of becoming obese adults. In addition, diabetes, which has been one of the leading causes of death in Puerto Rico for more than two decades, has seen an increase in the child and youth population.

Senate President José Luis Dalmau Santiago

Rep. Joel Sánchez Ayala

Understanding flu season

Epidemiologist stresses that in Puerto Rico it has begun ahead of schedule

By RICHARD GUTIÉRREZ richardsanjuanstar@gmail.com

Hurricane season is still active in Puerto Rico even though its peak month of September has passed. However, there is another yearly season that is about to enter its first phase, and that is flu season.

While it may not tear the roofs off houses and take the energy grid down as well, flu is a public health concern and something that everyone should be on the lookout for. With flu season looming, epidemiologist Fabiola Cruz López spoke to the STAR about how people can gain a better understanding of the disease from a Caribbean perspective.

“Flu season technically officially happens a little before Christmas time, in the months from November to February, but in the tropics, there can be multiple breakouts throughout the year,” Cruz López said. “We always update the vaccines on time and in fact the flu shot for this year has been updated already.”

“Within this flu season, we can already state that we are facing an epidemic, because flu cases have been rising over the past five weeks,” she added. “In fact, we are reporting more flu cases than we have in previous years and in historic averages. Therefore, we are currently facing a flu epidemic, right before the official beginning of the flu season in November.”

The world population has been growing sporadically, and with more people in the world, one might ask if the reason for the rise in flu cases has anything to do with this population growth.

“More than just the number of people, I believe it has to do with the amount of contact people are having currently,” Cruz López noted. “The pandemic had many people locked up in their houses, which in a sense prevented contact, but now people are able to go out and interact more in groups. People are also a lot more careless now.”

“Right now the highest rates of flu cases are in people between 0 and 19 years of age,” the doctor added. “Returning to school, the lack of awareness and [excessive] heat all create a recipe for high rates of contagion.”

While this may seem like a disaster in the making, Puerto Rico has medical services and numerous vaccination centers available in both cities and small towns. If there is so much access to medical services, then, why are flu cases going up? The answer is rather complicated, Cruz López said.

“It’s not about these services being available, it’s about the services being accessible,” she said. “Vaccination centers usually have hours that clash with classroom or office hours. From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., many parents are at work. While children clock out [of school] at 3 p.m., most vaccination centers close around that time.”

Another important factor in this public health situation has to do with communicating with and educating people

on the subject, Cruz López said.

“Not everyone watches TV, nor does everyone have Facebook,” she said. “One thing that should be done in order to reach more people is having the sound vans pass through towns, as we did during the coronavirus pandemic.”

Cruz López went on to point out that “[t]here are a multitude of different things that can factor in as to why cases are still occurring.”

“The economy is one thing that severely affects decisions people make, which in turn can lead them to be more susceptible to being sick,” she said. “The answer to such a question is not as black and white as we may think. There is a lot to consider. This [problem] needs to be studied in detail as much as possible. There is a lot of work to be done in order to answer that question.”

It is common knowledge that the elderly and children are at a greater risk of suffering stronger effects from the flu. However, those are not the only populations that should watch out the most for flu season.

“Anyone whose immune system is compromised is at risk of suffering stronger effects from the flu,” Cruz López said. “This includes people with cancer, along with many other serious health issues. Children are specifically vulnerable because they are sharing with each other more and more.”

The epidemiologist did note that “while it is important to go to the doctor and get yourself checked or take your medication if you have any, prevention is possible and should be a patient’s priority.”

“Disinfecting tables when you [sit down to eat] is a good idea; there is a lot of contact with people and viruses alike,” Cruz López said. “Having a good lifestyle is key for prevention; more than just a diet, nutrition is primarily important because eating healthy raises your immune system. Adding fruits and vegetables into your diet is important.”

“Obesity is something else we need to work on,” she continued. “Over 55 to 60% of the population on the island is overweight, that inevitably makes your immune system go down. If we don’t manage our previous conditions, our body won’t be able to manage the flu as efficiently when it hits us.”

Cruz López also mentioned mental health being important for physical health and well being.

“Both are interconnected; one can’t work without the other,” she said. “Having a healthy and balanced lifestyle can help us have a better relationship with our physician. A relationship in which we visit our doctor just to check out how everything is going in our bodies on a yearly basis, instead of only going after health scares.”

The government also has a responsibility when it comes to public health, and Cruz López believes accessibility to spaces where people can exercise is key.

“The government should prioritize spaces where people don’t have access to places where they can exercise and possibly have to drive in order to do so,” she said. “Creating these spaces near communities at a walking distance is key to incentivizing people to have an active lifestyle. If somebody

has the luxury to pay for a gym, that’s wonderful, but we need to make sure that those who cannot do that, have the chance to take care of themselves and their bodies as well.”

The epidemiologist also noted that preparing well before hurricane season can also prevent the heavier effects of the flu, because reducing stress and having access to all the right foods and medication for other health issues will help people stay stronger during those times when they cannot readily access the drug store or supermarket.

Epidemiologist Fabiola Cruz López

PREPA bond trustee: Proposed receiver should benefit all bondholders

By THE STAR STAFF

Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s (PREPA) bond trustee argued as an intervenor in an appeal to the U.S. First Circuit Court that if the court approves a bondholders’ request to appoint a receiver, the relief should benefit all creditors and not just the ones that brought the suit.

U.S. Bank National Association in its capacity as trustee under PREPA’s Trust Agreement dated Jan. 1, 1974 submitted a brief last week as intervenor to address certain issues in an appeal brought up by GoldenTree Asset Management and Syncora Guarantee.

U.S. Bank National Association said that nothing in the trust agreement barred GoldenTree Asset Management and Syncora Guarantee’s motion to lift a stay so that they can appoint a receiver to PREPA.

However, U.S. Bank argued, if the First Circuit Court of Appeals agrees that bondhold-

ers have the right to appoint the receiver, all bondholders should have the same rights related to the receiver.

“If this court grants [GoldenTree and Syncora] relief, then the trustee asks that such relief extend to both it and to all bondholders,” the brief said. “The trust agreement requires that bondholder actions taken to enforce rights under the trust agreement must be conducted for the benefit of the trust and all bondholders.”

GoldenTree and Syncora filed a motion to appoint a receiver on Aug. 24, a day before PREPA filed its debt adjustment plan. The new plan had the support of holders of about $2.4 billion in debt. Right now, bondholders are divided into factions supporting and opposing the plan.

Even though GoldenTree and Syncora were parties to a separate process to appoint a receiver, they made new arguments about equal protection in a new motion. U.S. District

Judge Laura Taylor Swain denied the motion.

Swain had ruled March 22 that bondholders’ $8.4 billion in debt was unsecured and later that the unsecured claim was only $2.4 billion.

If GoldenTree and Syncora win, they should have no special rights, the bond trustee argued.

In a case related to Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy, the Public Finance Corporation (PFC) bondholders will now be able to receive $47.7 million in bonds, after an Oct. 3 order from Swain allowing the correction of technical problems that prevented the debt issuance.

The Financial Oversight and Management Board on Sept. 22 asked Swain to delay closing the Puerto Rico PFC Title VI restructuring because of an unnamed technical problem issuing the debt.

The Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority had said it could not issue the debt because the order required bonds to be issued with the same CUSIP numbers as outstanding debt, which the bond indenture prohibits.

Swain changed the order so that new CUSIPs could be issued for the PFC debt.

Doctor warns about protecting the eyes during solar eclipse

By THE STAR STAFF

Asolar eclipse will take place on Oct. 14 in Puerto Rico and the rest of the Americas. Dr. Celia de Lourdes Feliciano, a member of the Optometrists Association of Puerto Rico, warned in a press release of the dangers of looking directly at the celestial event without adequate protection.

“To enjoy this gift of nature we must do it responsibly to avoid damage to our eyes,” Feliciano said. “It is vital not to take selfies during the event.”

The specialist emphasized the importance of using glasses with an ISO-12312-2 filter, available through organizations such as the American Astronomical Society and the Astronomical Society of Puerto Rico. It also

emphasizes supervision of children during the event and caution when using equipment such as telescopes and cameras.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon comes between the earth and the sun. There are different types of solar eclipses; Puerto Rico will witness an annular eclipse, where the outer ring of the sun is visible.

Looking directly at an eclipse without protection can cause solar retinopathy, a permanent injury of the eyes.

Feliciano added that watching the eclipse through a cell phone is equally dangerous.

“The mobile screen has no protection against the sun’s rays and works as a mirror,” she warned. “Especially young people, they should avoid selfies with the eclipse in the

background.”

The doctor concluded by stressing that “you should never look directly at the sun during an eclipse without the right protection.”

She also recommended not observing the sun for more than three minutes at a time, even with protective glasses.

Sunburn on the eyes is not immediately noticeable. People often become aware of

the injury when they experience vision loss or difficulty identifying colors. In addition to eye care, it is essential to protect the skin with sunscreen and, if possible, wear hats. The eclipse is expected to begin at 12:13 p.m. If someone suspects that they have suffered from solar retinopathy, they should immediately consult an optometrist or ophthalmologist, Feliciano said.

Election boards in Río Grande, Fajardo close their doors permanently

By THE STAR STAFF

The permanent election registration boards in Río Grande and Fajardo will close their doors permanently,

with services to the public shifting to the Ceiba region on Tuesday.

The new address for services will be at 1203 Antigua Base Roosevelt Roads entrance, in the Municipality of Ceiba.

However, voters have the option of visiting any permanent registration board of their choice throughout the island.

For more details, citizens are

invited to visit the www.ceepur.org/ directorio.htm website or contact the State Elections Commission at (787) 777-8682, extensions 2301, 2302, 2179 and 2362.

U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain

Eyes on gavel, Jordan makes play from outside

By LUKE BROADWATER

As a co-founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, once antagonized his party’s leadership so mercilessly that former Speaker John Boehner, whom he helped chase from his position, branded him a “legislative terrorist.”

Less than a decade later, Jordan — a fast talker often seen sans jacket, known for his hard-line stances and aggressive tactics — is now one of two leading candidates to claim the very speakership whose occupants he once tormented.

Jordan’s journey from the fringe of Republican politics to its epicenter on Capitol Hill is a testament to how sharply his party has veered to the right in recent years, and how thoroughly it has adopted his pugilistic style.

Those forces played a pivotal role in the downfall of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy late last week, though Jordan, once a thorn in his side, had since allied himself with McCarthy, R-Calif. Now, the same dynamics have placed Jordan in contention for the post that is second in line to the presidency, a notion that is mindblowing to many establishment Republicans who have tracked his career.

“That notion that he could go from ‘legislative terrorist’ to speaker of the House is just insane,” said Mike Ricci, a former aide to both Boehner and Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. “Jordan is an outsider, but he’s very much done the work of an insider to get to this moment. Keeping that balance is what will determine whether he will win, and what kind of speaker he will be.”

The race between Jordan, a populist who questions federal law enforcement and America’s funding of overseas wars, and Rep. Steve Scalise, a staunch conservative and the No. 2 House Republican from Louisiana, continued to heat up on Friday. Both men worked the phones relentlessly seeking support, including making calls with first-term lawmakers, the Congressional Western Caucus and the Main Street Caucus, a group of business-oriented Republicans.

On Friday, as they were vying for support, a bloc of Republicans were quietly requesting a change to party rules that would raise the vote threshold for nominating a candidate for speaker, which would make it more difficult for Scalise to prevail.

While Scalise is amassing dozens of commitments of support, so is Jordan, which could

lead to a bitter and potentially prolonged battle when Republicans meet behind closed doors this coming week to choose their nominee — or spill into public disarray on the House floor.

On Saturday, a third possible contender, Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, said he would not run and urged his Republican colleagues to unify behind either Scalise or Jordan.

Jordan’s rise in Congress to a position where he can credibly challenge Scalise, who has served in leadership for years, stems from a number of important alliances he has formed over the years. His strongest base of power is his colleagues in the House Freedom Caucus, many of whom consider him a mentor. He has built a solid relationship with McCarthy, for whom Jordan proved a reliable supporter and important validator on the right. And he has forged close ties with former President Donald Trump, perhaps his most important ally.

In a Republican House that has defined itself in large part by its determination to protect Trump and attack President Joe Biden, Jordan has been a leader of both efforts. He leads a special subcommittee on the “weaponization of government” against conservatives. He has started investigations into federal and state prosecutors who indicted Trump, and he’s a co-leader of the impeachment inquiry into Biden that McCarthy formally announced last month as he worked to appease the right and cling to his post. The weaponization subcommittee has spotlighted some examples of government overreach, and the impeachment inquiry has produced unflattering information against President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, but neither has produced proof of Republicans’ boldest claims.

Trump endorsed Jordan for the top House job early Friday, ending speculation, however unrealistic, that the former president might seek the job himself. (A speaker is not required to be an elected lawmaker.)

“Congressman Jim Jordan has been a STAR long before making his very successful journey to Washington, D.C.,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.

“He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House, & has my Complete & Total Endorsement!”

Trump’s endorsement could help Jordan garner support from fellow House Republicans, among whom Trump is popular. But it is not expected to seal a victory.

Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, whip of the House Freedom Caucus and a supporter of Jordan, said Trump’s endorsement was a

“positive” for Jordan because “Trump is widely viewed as the leader of our party.”

But, he said, some more mainstream Republicans aren’t thrilled about aligning themselves with Trump.

“There are some folks in moderate districts that are like, ‘Well, that might actually complicate things for me,’” Davidson said.

Jordan helped undermine faith in the 2020 presidential election results as Trump spread the lie that the election had been stolen through widespread fraud. Jordan strategized with Trump about how to use Congress’ official count of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, to reject the results, voting to object even after a mob of Trump’s supporters attacked the Capitol. His candidacy for speaker has drawn a stark warning from former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who was the No. 3 Republican and vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, who said that if he prevailed, “there would no longer be any possible way to argue that a group of elected Republicans could be counted on to defend the Constitution.”

In a speech at the University of Minnesota on Wednesday, Cheney told the audience that “Jim Jordan was involved, was part of the conspiracy in which Donald Trump was engaged as he attempted to overturn the election.”

Jordan has defended his actions in challenging the results of the 2020 election, saying he had a “duty” to object given the way some

states changed voting procedures during the coronavirus pandemic.

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., said that Jordan’s true power lay in the love he commands from base voters, built up through years of defending Trump and advocating conservative policies on Fox News and in combative congressional hearings. Jordan is known to fly to districts nationwide to help raise money for candidates who are aligned with the House Freedom Caucus — and even for Republicans who are not.

Banks suggested that Jordan’s credibility with the right could make it easier for the party to unify behind any spending deal he were to cut with Democrats and the White House should he become speaker. Such a deal would be a tall order. Jordan voted a week ago against a measure to avoid a government shutdown — an agreement with Democrats that ultimately drove McCarthy from the speakership.

“Jim Jordan is a trusted conservative — he’s well-respected by the base of the Republican Party,” Banks said. “So when we get to some of these tough spending fights and Speaker Jim Jordan is negotiating with the White House and the Senate, that’s going to help Republicans rally behind him and get to a place where they can vote for those deals.”

“This is a different Republican Party today than what it was a decade ago,” he added. “And the Republican Party today is a lot more like Jim Jordan. It’s more of a fighting Republican Party.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) listens to testimony during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on violent crime, in New York, April 17, 2023.

GOP candidates use attacks on Israel to criticize Biden for his Iran deal

that would not have a dual military use.”

A senior Biden administration official responded to the comments by Trump — as well as to criticism by other Republican candidates — by calling them “total lies” and accusing the politicians of having either a “complete misunderstanding” of the facts or of participating willingly in a “complete mischaracterization and disinformation of facts.”

Another Biden administration official, Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said in a statement, “These funds have absolutely nothing to do with the horrific attacks today, and this is not the time to spread disinformation.”

Trump, the GOP front-runner, was not alone in assailing Biden, as the entire Republican field weighed in on the attacks Saturday.

In a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis faulted the Biden administration for its foreign policy decisions in the Middle East.

“Iran has helped fund this war against Israel, and Joe Biden’s policies that have gone easy on Iran has helped to fill their coffers,” he said. “Israel is now paying the price for those policies.”

In a statement issued through the White House, Biden pledged solidarity with Israel and said that he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The United States unequivocally condemns this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, and I made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the Government and people of Israel,” Biden said.

By NEIL VIGDOR

Republican presidential candidates seized on the Hamas attack on Israel on Saturday to try to lay blame on President Joe Biden, drawing a connection between the surprise assault and a recent hostage release deal between the United States and Iran, a longtime backer of the group.

Former President Donald Trump, who has frequently presented himself as a unflinching ally of Israel and who moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in 2018, blamed

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Biden for the conflict.

While campaigning Saturday in Waterloo, Iowa, he said the attacks had occurred because “we are perceived as being weak and ineffective, with a really weak leader.”

On several occasions, Trump went further, saying that the hostage deal was a catalyst of the attacks. “The war happened for two reasons,” he said. “The United States is giving — and gave to Iran — $6 billion over hostages.”

In exchange for the release of five Americans held in Tehran, Iran, the Biden administration agreed in August to free up $6 billion in frozen Iranian oil revenue funds for humanitarian purposes. The administration has emphasized that the money could be used only for “food, medicine, medical equipment

MICHELLE

COLÓN, NL

Yet while the GOP candidates rallied around Israel on Saturday, there is a divide in the party between foreign policy hawks and those who favor a more isolationist approach.

In addition to criticizing Biden on Saturday, former Vice President Mike Pence had harsh words for fellow Republicans who prefer a more hands-off approach to conflicts abroad.

“This is what happens when @POTUS projects weakness on the world stage, kowtows to the mullahs in Iran with a $6 Billion ransom, and leaders in the Republican Party signal American retreat as Leader of the Free World,” Pence wrote on X. “Weakness arouses evil.”

Other Republican candidates, including Nikki Haley, who was an ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina denounced the attacks as acts of terrorism.

“Make no mistake: Hamas is a bloodthirsty terrorist organization backed by Iran and determined to kill as many innocent lives as possible,” Haley said in a statement.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie echoed the criticism of his Republican rivals in a social media post, calling the release of $6 billion by the Biden administration to Iran “idiotic.” North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson similarly sought to connect the attack with the release of humanitarian funds for Iran.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur, called the attacks “barbaric and medieval” in a post on X.

“Shooting civilians and kidnapping children are war crimes,” he wrote. “Israel’s right to exist & defend itself should never be doubted and Iran-backed Hamas & Hezbollah cannot be allowed to prevail.”

In a statement on Saturday, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said Israel was “paying the price” for the Biden administration’s policy decisions.

Chocolate factory failed to evacuate workers before deadly blast, OSHA says

By ORLANDO MAYORQUIN

Achocolate manufacturer, R.M. Palmer Co., failed to evacuate a Pennsylvania factory after some employees reported smelling gas before an explosion leveled part of the plant in March, killing seven workers, a federal official said late last week.

“Seven workers will never return home because the R.M. Palmer Co. did not evacuate the facility after being told of a suspected gas leak,” Kevin T. Chambers, an area director with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Pennsylvania, said in a news release Thursday.

“Ensuring the safety of a workplace is expected of employers and required by law,” he added. “The company could have prevented this horrific tragedy by following required safety procedures.”

In a statement Friday, the company called his remarks “inflammatory, callous and irresponsible.”

“R.M. Palmer stands by its safety program and policies and has already contested the OSHA citations in this matter,” the company said. “The company disputes each of the citations and contends that the agency had no basis to issue these citations as stated.”

OSHA imposed $44,483 in penalties against R.M. Palmer for not evacuating the plant, not clearly marking emergency exit signs, improperly splicing cords and for several record-keeping violations.

The agency said it had been investigating reports that workers complained of a

gas smell before the March 24 explosion at the plant in West Reading, Pennsylvania, a borough of about 4,500 residents roughly 65 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

The blast, which happened about 5 p.m., flattened a two-story factory building and damaged another.

Seven people were killed. Eleven others were injured and three families living in a nearby apartment were displaced, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the blast.

NTSB investigators determined that the explosion involved two gas leaks from service fittings to a gas line adjacent to the factory installed by UGI, a natural gas and utility company that serves Pennsylvania.

A representative for UGI could not be immediately reached Saturday night.

In a statement days after the explosion, the company said, “We take our responsibility seriously, and we are working with local authorities and state and federal agencies to determine the cause of the incident.”

R.M. Palmer pointed to the NTSB findings from the ongoing investigation to rebut the OSHA citations, which the company said were “predicated upon a ‘leak’ inside of a Palmer building.”

A July NTSB investigation update, the company said, “contains no reference to any natural gas leak inside any Palmer building.”

“Until the NTSB’s investigation is complete, there is simply no basis to evaluate OSHA’s statement that an eva-

cuation would have prevented the seven tragic deaths that occurred,” the statement continued.

Last month, the NTSB revealed that its investigation had hit a snag.

The agency announced it had subpoenaed the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission, which oversees UGI, and removed the state agency as an investigative partner after the commission failed to obtain and provide unredacted inspection and investigation reports from UGI.

R.M. Palmer, which was founded

in 1948, is known for making seasonal chocolates, including Easter chocolate bunnies. It employs about 850 people, according to its website.

About 35 office staff members and 70 factory employees were inside the two buildings at the time of the blast, officials said.

The NTSB is expected to complete its investigation “likely sometime next year,” according to R.M. Palmer, which said it was continuing to cooperate with the inquiry.

A chocolate manufacturer failed to evacuate its plant in West Reading, Pa., after workers reported smelling gas and before seven people died in an explosion in March, federal regulators said.

Gary Wang, an FTX founder, says Sam Bankman-Fried steered misuse of funds

did it,” Wang said.

That effectively allowed the trading platform to make unlimited withdrawals from the exchange, he said. None of that was disclosed to customers, investors or lenders to the firms, he added.

“We gave special privileges to Alameda Research on FTX,” Wang said. “And we lied about this to the public.”

Alameda at first was allowed to take out only as much as FTX’s revenue from trading fees, which was about $300 million at the time, Wang said. But that credit line increased over time, growing to tens of billions of dollars, he said. Bankman-Fried said he had no issues with this, Wang said.

Since FTX imploded, Bankman-Fried has repeatedly said he was only vaguely aware of the amount that Alameda was borrowing from the exchange. But Wang testified that BankmanFried had Alameda’s balance visible on one of his computer screens at the office. Wang said he, Bankman-Fried, Singh and Ellison discussed the money that Alameda owed at a meeting in June 2022.

At the end of the meeting in FTX’s office in the Bahamas, Wang said, Bankman-Fried turned to Ellison and told her she could use more customer funds to pay back Alameda’s creditors.

Under cross-examination, Wang said some special privileges that Alameda had were part of its role as a trading partner to enable FTX customers to freely buy and sell cryptocurrencies. He is scheduled to answer more questions from defense lawyers when the trial resumes Tuesday.

By DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY, J. EDWARD MORENO and MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN

Gary Wang, a former top executive of the failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange, testified that Sam Bankman-Fried, the company’s founder, was the final decision-maker at the firm and directed a closely related hedge fund to misuse as it pleased billions of dollars in money from FTX customers.

Over more than six hours of testimony in federal court in Manhattan over two days late last week, Wang said BankmanFried was fully aware that a sister cryptocurrency trading firm, Alameda Research, had siphoned off $8 billion in customer money from FTX. He said Bankman-Fried had lied in his public statements in November about FTX customer assets being safe and secure.

Bankman-Fried called the shots on big issues at FTX, Wang told the jury of nine women and three men. “In the end, it was Sam’s decision,” he said.

Wang, 30, who was also a founder of FTX and programmed its code base, is a crucial witness in Bankman-Fried’s highprofile criminal fraud trial. Wang is one of Bankman-Fried’s three close advisers who have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate against the entrepreneur, who has been charged with orchestrating a conspiracy to use as much as $10 billion of FTX customer money for all manner of personal projects.

The saga of FTX’s rise and fall has gripped the public for months with its mixture of corporate hubris and personal intrigue. Since the exchange collapsed in November, Bankman-Fried has become a symbol of the crypto industry’s excesses, and his trial is seen by some as a credibility test for the digital currency

industry.

A run on deposits last year exposed an $8 billion hole in FTX’s accounts, which prosecutors allege stems in large part from “special privileges” that allowed Alameda to tap into FTX customer money. FTX filed for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried was charged a month later with wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering and related conspiracy charges. He has pleaded not guilty and faces what could amount to a life sentence if convicted.

Within weeks of FTX’s implosion, Wang, a friend of Bankman-Fried’s from high school math camp, pleaded guilty to aiding him in that conspiracy. Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison, two other top executives in Bankman-Fried’s business empire, have also pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors.

Wang and Singh, who also programmed the code underlying FTX’s business, have admitted to creating a secret backdoor that allowed Alameda to borrow a virtually unlimited amount of money from the exchange. Prosecutors have argued that this backdoor was one of the primary engines of the scheme to pilfer customer accounts.

Bankman-Fried’s legal team has argued that FTX and Alameda had an appropriate business relationship and “were not set up to create some grand fraudulent scheme.”

In court Thursday and Friday, Wang walked the jury through FTX’s early days in 2019 to its stunning collapse last year.

Wang said he and Singh had written FTX’s computer code to grant Alameda special privileges at Bankman-Fried’s direction beginning in 2019. “He asked us to do it, and we told him we

Wang and Bankman-Fried were classmates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before founding FTX together in 2019.

Like Bankman-Fried, Wang became enormously rich, with an estimated net worth of nearly $5 billion. Within FTX, he and Bankman-Fried were regarded as opposites. While BankmanFried was the garrulous pitchman, Wang was the shy coder who showed up for work in the middle of the afternoon and labored through the night.

They were also close friends who lived together with eight other roommates in a luxury penthouse in the Bahamas, where FTX was based. That relationship ended in December when Wang pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges, saying he knew “what I was doing was wrong.”

Before Wang took the stand, lawyers questioned a witness who was one of Bankman-Fried’s MIT classmates, Adam Yedidia. Yedidia, who worked as a developer at FTX, recounted a conversation he had with Bankman-Fried in mid-2022, months before FTX failed, in which the founder admitted that his firm was on shaky footing.

“Sam said something like, ‘We were bulletproof last year, but we’re not bulletproof this year,’” Yedidia said. He said Bankman-Fried explained that it could take six months to three years to make the company “bulletproof again.”

Yedidia was followed on the witness stand by Matt Huang, a founder of Paradigm, a venture capital firm that was one of FTX’s biggest backers. Huang said he would have had qualms about authorizing investments in FTX if he had known the full extent of the exchange’s relationship with Alameda.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thane Rehn, a member of the prosecution team, at federal district court in Manhattan for the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023.

Indexes end up sharply with tech after strong jobs, slower wage growth

U.S. stocks rallied on Friday, led by technology shares to a sharply higher close as investors assessed a jobs report that showed U.S. hiring rose broadly in September with slowing wage growth.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq registered their biggest daily percentage gains since late August, and the S&P 500 rose for the week, snapping a four-week losing streak.

Information technology (.SPLRCT) was up the most of any S&P 500 sector, followed by communication services (.SPLRCL).

Stocks initially fell after the jobs data, which showed U.S. employment increased by the most in eight months in September, but began to rebound by late morning.

“You have an economy that’s slowing, but not faltering, and you have a Federal Reserve on the sidelines,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in Fairfield, Connecticut.

He said also that the S&P 500 appeared to bounce after nearing its 200-day moving average, currently at around 4,208.

Market watchers have been weighing whether the Fed may be done hiking interest rates after a recent surge in long-term U.S. Treasury yields. Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields hit 16-year highs on Friday.

The day’s data also showed a moderation in wages, which may have been because most of the jobs added last month were in lower-paying industries.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 288.01 points, or 0.87%, to 33,407.58, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 50.31 points, or 1.18%, to 4,308.5 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 211.51 points, or 1.6%, to 13,431.34.

For the week, the S&P 500 was up 0.5%, the Dow fell 0.3% and the Nasdaq rose 1.6%.

The recent gains follow sharp losses for stocks for September and for the third quarter.

Investors await data on September consumer price inflation and producer price index readings, due this week.

Investors also are keen for the upcoming quarterly earnings season, with major banks including JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) due to report tihis week.

Shares of Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) were down 1.7% after sources told Reuters that the U.S. oil producer was in advanced talks to acquire Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD.N). Pioneer’s stock jumped 10.4%.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.58 billion shares, compared with the 10.72 billion average for

the full session over the last 20 trading days. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.96-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.73to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted six new 52-week highs and 52 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 27 new highs and 260 new lows.

Monday, October 9, 2023

The San Juan Daily Star

A shaken Israel is forced back to its eternal dilemma

— has been compounded by a widespread sense that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was fatally distracted.

Its focus on a fiercely contested judicial overhaul that would weaken the independence of the judiciary, and so compromise democratic checks and balances, appeared to leave the situation in Gaza as a low priority.

Such were the Israeli protests against the government program that the military had to deal with more than 10,000 reservists threatening to refuse service, a major distraction. There have been no such threats since the Hamas attack. Distracting, too, were the wild settler projects in the West Bank backed by hard-right government ministers.

elephant in the room: the growing Palestinian fury at humiliation and marginalization that had led to a spike in West Bank violence this year.

The status quo was never really that. It incubated bloodshed by institutionalizing the steady advance of Israeli control over the more than 2.6 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Israel’s stranglehold on encircled Gaza, where another estimated 2.1 million Palestinians live.

By ROGER COHEN

The most sweeping invasion of Israeli territory in decades, conducted by a Hamas force that had been widely seen as a ragtag collection of militants, has delivered a psychological shock to Israel so great that its very foundations are being questioned: its army, its intelligence services, its government and its capacity to control the millions of Palestinians in its midst.

The war that began with a Hamas assault that has taken as many as 700 Israeli lives is not an existential struggle for the survival of the Israeli state itself, as were the 1948 war triggered by Israel’s foundation or the 1973 Yom Kippur War. But 75 years, and a half-century, respectively, from those conflicts, the sight of villages once again overrun, hostages seized and desperate civilians being killed by Palestinian militants has awakened a kind of primal dread.

“Israelis are shaken to the core,” said Yuval Shany, a professor of international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “There is outrage at Hamas, but also at the political and military leadership that allowed this to happen. You would expect a state this strong to prevent such things, yet 75 years from Israel’s creation the government has failed in its principal responsibility: the protection of the lives of its citizens.”

As with the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, disbelief has mingled with anger at a colossal intelligence failure.

In 1973, the assumption was that after Israel’s lightning victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, Syria and Egypt were spent forces. To-

day, the belief had grown that Hamas was uninterested in large-scale violence and that it could even be a useful vehicle for weakening the more moderate Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, thus burying talk of a Palestinian state.

“The fact that we were allowing the most extreme Palestinian elements to grow stronger was overlooked, and Israel was revealed as totally unprepared, strategically and operationally,” said Shlomo Avineri, a political scientist in Jerusalem.

A page has been turned, whatever the outcome of the war that has just begun. Israel has not, after all, moved beyond the conflict that has haunted it since the creation of the modern state in 1948: the claims of two peoples, Jewish and Palestinian, to the same narrow strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

Its wealth, vibrant startup culture and increasing acceptance in the Middle East could not forever mask a fundamental Israeli instability. Now the shock to its self-image is so great that, after the initial rallying to the flag, Israel could be projected into a period of profound social and political turbulence.

Certainly, heady talk of a transformative normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, brokered by the Biden administration, seems optimistic as a result of the Hamas attack.

This blow to Israel comes at a time of deep internal unease. Dismay that the Israel Defense Forces, the revered institution at the core of the nation’s security, could allow such a multipronged Palestinian assault to happen — and then appear slow to react

“The government was fixated with a plan that had nothing to do with national security,” Shany said. “There is a clear link between that and the dismal Israeli performance. It does not look good for Mr. Netanyahu.”

The Yom Kippur war, an equally profound psychological shock for Israel, did not immediately turn national politics on its head. But within four years, in 1977, the Labor government that had run Israel since its foundation was defeated, a right-wing Likud government took power with a landslide victory, and Labor has scarcely recovered in the almost five decades since.

Certainly, Netanyahu’s right-wing government appears to be in a deep hole, facing agonizing decisions over how sweeping the Israeli retaliation in Gaza should be. Gaza, controlled by Hamas, which the United States identifies as a terrorist organization, has long seethed in an overcrowded state of poverty and resentment, under a 16year Israeli blockade.

For many years the assumption had grown within Israel that the Palestinian question had become a nonissue and that a policy of tactical procrastination, as Israeli settlements in the West Bank grew ever larger, would ensure that no Palestinian state ever came into being.

The conflict became “the situation,” a bland term expressing a combustible status quo. Netanyahu emerged as the champion of a kick-the-can-down-the-road approach that left the two-state idea on life support. Israel normalized relations with several smaller Arab states. The Palestinian issue all but disappeared from the global agenda. There was talk of a new Middle East.

All this, however, could not hide the

In a recorded message, Muhammad Deif, leader of Hamas’ military wing, described the objective of the “operation” as ensuring that “the enemy will understand that the time of their rampaging without accountability has ended.” The statement was clearly intended to rouse Palestinians from their acquiescence to powerlessness in Gaza and the West Bank.

But the cost for both sides could be very high. The operation showed the world that, as Avineri put it, “Every Israeli Jew is, for Hamas, a legitimate target for killing.” That will not help the broader Palestinian cause with Western governments.

Netanyahu has promised a “long and difficult war” now entering an “offensive phase, which will continue with neither limitations nor respite until the objectives are achieved.” Already more than 350 Palestinians have been killed.

The temptation is clearly strong for an overwhelming Israeli offensive to make sure Hamas is never again able to mount such an operation. A model could be the massive 2006 offensive in southern Lebanon; since then the border has been relatively quiet, although Hezbollah fired artillery shells Sunday on three Israeli posts in the contested Shebaa Farms area.

But in Gaza, the presence of perhaps dozens of Israeli hostages seized by Hamas is a deeply complicating factor. Israel does not abandon its own. Executions of hostages in response to an Israeli assault would become an explosive domestic political issue. After what looks like a serious blunder, Netanyahu faces one of his most delicate challenges.

“Issues of international law are certain to arise, around proportionality and collateral damage,” Shany said about the looming Israeli offensive, referring to legal restraints on the use of military force. “But the political interest in restraint is very limited. This will be a serious test for Israel.”

Palestinians inspect a destroyed building as emergency responders try to contain fires after Israeli jets bombed Gaza City in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.

Earthquakes in Afghanistan kill nearly 200, officials say

By YAQOOB AKBARY, NAJIM RAHIM, CHRISTINA GOLDBAUM and SAFIULLAH PADSHAH

Two 6.3 magnitude earthquakes killed nearly 200 people in western Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, the second major quake to hit the country in less than two years.

At least 180 people were killed and around 600 injured, according to the chief of the regional hospital in Herat province, where the quake struck hardest. The number of casualties is expected to rise as search and rescue efforts continue, officials said.

The epicenter of the quake was about 25 miles northwest of Herat City, an ancient trading center and cultural hub that borders Iran, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At least seven aftershocks followed.

The Taliban administration declared a state of emergency because of the possibility of more aftershocks, said Musa Ashari, the head of the Taliban’s disaster management department for Herat province. A dozen villages in the Zinda Jan district there had been “completely destroyed,” he said Saturday, and 600 injured people had been pulled out from the rubble.

The force of the tremors stoked panic in Herat City, residents said. Videos circulating on social media show hundreds of people rushing out of their homes and office buildings, fearing they could collapse on top of them.

Abdullah Ansari, 27, was working at

a sewing workshop in Herat City on an underground floor when the first quake hit, he said. He and his co-workers ran outside, some barefoot, and he quickly checked if everyone had made it out.

“I called my wife and asked about my sons,” he said, then asked her to leave their home. “There is a big building next to my house, and I was worried if it collapses, they might get killed.”

He and his family had dinner in his father-in-law’s yard, and he said that like most people in the area, they planned to sleep outside. Some would be sleeping in parks or on the street, he said, “because people were not feeling safe at their houses.”

The World Health Organization dispatched 12 ambulances to hard-hit districts in Herat province to help evacuate casualties, it said, cautioning that the areas were remote, making rescue operations difficult. Houses in the area are fragile, the organization noted, made of mud and brick.

Nazir Hussaini, 34, was filing paperwork at a tax office in Herat City when the building started shaking. He and others ran outside screaming, then felt another quake about 10 minutes later, he said. Cellphone networks were not working well, making it difficult to get in touch with family members, and after a third tremor hit, he eventually made his way back home, as his office and shops had all closed. His neighbors were cooking outside and camping out in the street, he said.

The Taliban administration directed military and service organizations to pri-

oritize the areas hit by the quake, including rescue operations, transporting the injured, preparing homeless shelters and delivering food aid.

“We wish patience and solace for the families of the victims, along with a swift recovery for the injured,” Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the acting deputy prime minister of the Taliban administration, said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter. “Immediate relief efforts are underway to provide essential aid to those in need.”

The earthquakes Saturday were the latest natural disaster to rattle Afghanistan,

which has faced a series of devastating floods and earthquakes in recent years. Those crises have tested the Taliban’s ability to coordinate massive and sustained humanitarian efforts since seizing power in 2021.

The challenge of doing so was put on display in June 2022, after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit southeastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1,000 people and injuring 1,600 more. The earthquake was the deadliest to hit the country in decades and added to an already dire humanitarian crisis that has engulfed Afghanistan since the Western-backed government collapsed.

Six accused of killing Ecuadorian presidential candidate are found dead

By GENEVIEVE GLATSKY

The six Colombian men accused of killing an Ecuadorian presidential candidate were found dead in a prison in the port city of Guayaquil late last week, Ecuador’s prison authority said in a statement.

The assassination of the candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, as he exited a campaign event in August was a traumatic jolt for a nation that has been shaken by an increasingly powerful narco-trafficking industry in recent years.

As foreign drug mafias have joined forces with local prison and street gangs, they have transformed entire swaths of the country, extorting businesses, recruiting young people, infiltrating the government and killing those who investigate them.

Villavicencio, who had worked as a journalist, activist and legislator, was polling near the middle of a group of eight candidates when he was killed 11 days before the first round of the presidential election Aug. 20. He was among the most outspoken about the links between organized crime and the government.

The deaths of the six people accused in the assassination came eight days before a runoff election Oct. 15, pitting a center-right businessperson, Daniel Noboa, against an establishment leftist, Luisa González.

For some time, widespread speculation had suggested that the Colombians were guns for hire and that powerful figures had ordered the assassination. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that the United States was offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of the masterminds, and up to $1 million for infor-

mation leading to any gang leader responsible. Upon learning of the deaths of the men accused in the killing, President Guillermo Lasso said he would return to Ecuador from New York and would hold an immediate meeting of the security Cabinet.

“Neither complicity nor cover-up,” he wrote on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. “The truth will be known here.”

In its statement, the prison authority vowed to “identify those intellectually responsible for the crime against the former candidate.”

Residents of Sarbuland, a village in Afghanistan’s Herat Province, cleared debris from a house damaged in an earthquake that struck on Saturday.

On Latin America trip, Adams’ warning meets skepticism from migrants

displacement, acknowledged the limits of his efforts. “Mayor Adams showing up at the Darién Gap is not going to change the minds of everyone that’s coming through,” he said.

He added, “There isn’t one magic pill that’s going to solve this crisis, and we need to be clear on that.” But, he said, “If we sit back and wait for the one magic pill, then we are going to watch this issue erode.”

Adams is not the first U.S. official to visit the Darién region. The State Department has sent several recent delegations whose members have sometimes used the visits to urge people to not make the trek. But these pleas have been followed by ever-larger waves of migrants.

In Mexico City, where Adams spoke at a business conference Thursday, hundreds of families were camped outside a terminal for buses headed north, their tents and tarps stretching for blocks. Most were waiting for relatives to wire them money.

Jhonatan Antony Velásquez Diaz, 33, sat against the glass of an altar to the Virgin Mary. Beside him, his wife nursed their 6-month-old daughter. They trekked for 22 days from Venezuela and were robbed at gunpoint. Velásquez said that friends who had made it to New York “tell me to come, that a lot of them have jobs.”

“That lifts me up and helps me to keep going,” he said.

He said he doubted Adams’ words would carry much weight. “No matter what, people are going to get there, and I’m not going to be discouraged by what a politician says or a mayor says.”

By ANDY NEWMAN, JULIE TURKEWITZ and JUAN ARREDONDO

Mayor Eric Adams of New York City flew by helicopter on Saturday to the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants enter the jungle passageway called the Darién Gap. It was the final stop on a four-day trip meant to send a message: Please do not come to New York.

It was an extraordinary tableau. Adams, wearing an olive-drab outfit and aviator sunglasses suggestive of military gear, was escorted by Colombia’s ambassador to the United States, the head of the national police and a heavy security detail. In Necoclí, as hundreds of migrants looked on, Adams stood beneath palm trees by the loading dock for a ferry into the jungle and alluded to difficult conditions “on the streets of New York.”

He did not explicitly tell the migrants to stay away from New York — he did not address his remarks directly to them. But he called for efforts to “push back on the propaganda that is giving people false hopes and false promises.” He has said frequently during the trip that migrants are being wrongly told that they will find comfortable living conditions and easy employment in New York.

The visit, culminating a 7,000-mile swing through Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia, was all the more remarkable given the uncertainty that the mayor’s attempt at deterrence would have any effect at all.

In more than a dozen interviews this past week in Neco -

clí and on the streets of Mexico City and Ecuador’s capital, Quito, most U.S.-bound migrants said that they would not be dissuaded by Adams’ statements. The city has been increasingly overwhelmed by the 120,000 migrants who have arrived since last year; sheltering them has become so costly that the mayor has called for budget cuts. On his trip, Adams has called for countries to work together to help the migrants.

Johanna del Valle Acosta, traveling with her fiancé and three children from the Falcón state of Venezuela, said she understood Adams’ mission. “I think he, as mayor, is defending his country,” she said as Adams headed toward Necoclí, a poor fishing and tourist town that has been transformed by migrants making their way north.

But she asked for compassion. “Suddenly other countries see us as a threat, but we are good people who want to work,” she said. The day’s spectacle included a protest, hastily organized by an activist from New York, in which migrants chanted “Shame on you” at the mayor.

In Quito on Friday, 100 feet from where the mayor and his entourage were touring the historic city center, Carlos Gabriel Hernández sat on a restaurant doorstep with his wife and two young children. He said that he and his family had tried and failed to cross the Darién Gap but were determined to try again to reach New York. He was puzzled, even offended, to learn the purpose of Adams’ visit.

“How can you tell someone not to follow their American dream?” he asked.

At a news conference in Quito, Adams, who said he had made the trip to learn firsthand about the forces driving global

Some families had heard less encouraging things about the city. Henry Aguilar, who had pushed through the jungle with his wife, three children and a dog, played a voice message that a friend sent him this week.

“I’ve been here for a little more than a week, and I haven’t been able to find work,” the friend was heard saying. “It’s not as easy as they paint it.”

Aguilar, 34, a former military bodyguard in Venezuela, had planned to bring his family to New York, but after hearing that there were no places to stay, he set his sights on Texas.

At every stop on his tour, Adams enlisted local news outlets to spread his message. “We need you, the media,” he told reporters in Quito, “the power of you going into households, going on apps and cellphones to push back on this misinformation” that New York would be an easy place to start a new life.

But a media blitz may be no match for the determination of those who see no future in their homeland.

Raúl Alfredo Chica, 39, runs a wood shop in Quito that makes frames for sofas and chairs. When the pandemic hit, his business was decimated and he laid off most of his employees. He fell into debt, then bankruptcy. In the middle of the night in late 2021, he woke his wife and told her, “I’m going to the U.S.”

After a grueling journey by foot, bus and storm-tossed boat, he crossed into Texas and was promptly arrested and detained for two months. Back home, his equipment was stolen. Extortionists paid regular visits to his wife. Chica gave up and returned.

Adams, he said, “might persuade some people, but I’ll tell you this: Even after all that I went through, my wife now wants to go.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams poses for a photo after touring the historic center of Quito, Ecuador, on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. Adams traveled to three countries to discourage migrants from coming to New York. At each stop, people said they were still determined to make the trek.

Hamas’ control of Gaza must end now

By BRET STEPHENS

It’s easy to note the parallels between Hamas’ attack on Israel on Saturday morning and the Yom Kippur war, which began 50 years ago Friday.

Now, as then, Israel seems to have been taken almost wholly by surprise by an enemy whose capabilities it appears to have badly underestimated. Now, as then, Israelis have sustained losses — at least 250 dead, over 1,000 wounded and dozens of hostages taken in just the first few hours of fighting, according to Haaretz — that go far beyond anything they suffered in recent years. Now, as then, there looms the prospect of a wider and deadlier war — the last time with the Soviet Union, this time with Iran and its proxies in Syria and Lebanon.

Now, as then, Israel’s military, intelligence and political leaders can soon expect hard questions about their failure to anticipate this attack. The Yom Kippur war helped end the Labor Party’s iron grip on power in Israel. This war might yet do the same for the Likud’s.

There are parallels on the Arab side, too. Like Egypt’s and Syria’s in 1973, Hamas’ aims in this war almost surely have strategic purposes that go beyond killing, maiming and terrorizing Israelis.

Hamas is attacking Israeli civilians in a way that is clearly calculated to provoke a devastating Israeli response,

one that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel promises is coming. Large numbers of Palestinian casualties will probably derail a peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia — not just by inflaming Muslim opposition to the Jewish state but also by giving Israel’s far right a stronger argument to oppose any accommodations with Palestinians as a price of the deal.

But there are additional parallels that augur less well for Hamas.

In 1973, Israel was able to recover from its initial setbacks to destroy its enemies on the battlefield, leaving them incapable of ever again posing a serious threat to Israel. And, with the help of U.S. diplomacy from both Republican and Democratic administrations, the Yom Kippur war led to the 1978 Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt. This war, too, can lead to a similar outcome among Jerusalem, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Washington, provided all sides adopt the same watchword: Liberate Gaza.

What does that mean?

In January 2009, I interviewed Netanyahu for The Wall Street Journal, right as the first major conflagration between Israel and Hamas was winding down and as he was about to return to power. Though he praised the performance of the military, he was withering about the political outcome.

“Notwithstanding the blows to the Hamas, it’s still in Gaza, it’s still ruling Gaza,” he told me. He stressed that regime change in Gaza — that is, overthrowing Hamas and reinstalling the Palestinian Authority — was the “optimal outcome” but added that “the minimal outcome would have been to seal Gaza” from its supplies of rockets and munitions.

Several wars and nearly 15 years later, Hamas is still ruling Gaza, and the munitions have kept pouring in. Though Netanyahu might publicly rue this, the status quo has served his political and ideological interests in multiple ways.

Hamas’ control of Gaza has hopelessly divided Palesti-

nian politics. It has provided a modicum of stability in Gaza itself by way of despotic intolerance for domestic dissent. It has served as an advertisement to Israelis as to why they can’t afford to relinquish the West Bank to Palestinian control, lest it become another Gaza. And it has done all this at an acceptable price in Israeli lives. Thanks to defensive systems including Iron Dome, Hamas’ punches, while frequent and menacing, rarely landed. For Israelis, Gaza seemed relatively contained.

That was, until this weekend. Whatever happens next in the current war, this concept (to borrow another term from the Yom Kippur war era, related to Israel’s confidence that it wouldn’t be attacked) has clearly failed. Israel has a clear interest not just in punishing Hamas but also in ending its rule for good. But how can it do so without either allowing it to descend into anarchy or reoccupying the territory, which Israel doesn’t want?

The answer is to turn Gaza into a zone of shared interests. Despite its anti-Israel public rhetoric, Saudi Arabia has long distrusted Hamas because of its close military ties to Iran. Egypt sees Hamas as the Palestinian arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, which it ruthlessly suppresses at home. The ailing Palestinian Authority views Hamas as its principal rival for power. And the United States long ago designated Hamas as a terrorist group.

Could Israel finally dislodge Hamas from power and invite Saudi Arabia, Egypt and maybe the United Arab Emirates to deploy a substantial peacekeeping force to the strip? That would serve Israel’s interests in toppling an enemy and the Arab states’ interests in diminishing a rival.

Could the Palestinian Authority resume civil control over the strip, with security furnished by Arab states and economic aid from the gulf states, Washington and Brussels? That would give Ramallah the control over Gaza it has lacked for 16 years, strengthen secular forces in Palestinian politics and free Gazans from extremist tyranny.

Could Israel and Egypt ease their restrictions on Gaza’s economy and the movement of its people in exchange for guarantees that the strip won’t again turn into a haven for havoc? That would give the Saudis the opportunity to show that any agreement they make with Israel would help ordinary Palestinians.

And can the Biden administration make itself a vital partner in the diplomatic effort, bringing to fruition what the Trump administration started with the Abraham Accords, just as the Carter administration brought to fruition what the Nixon and Ford administrations started after the Yom Kippur war? That would be no small victory for a president who dearly needs one.

It’s too soon to tell how closely this war will resemble the one that nearly destroyed Israel 50 years ago. It’s not too soon to start thinking about how this disaster could have the best possible outcome.

Evgenia Simanovich runs to the family home’s reinforced concrete shelter, moments after rocket sirens sounded in Ashkelon, Israel on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.

Los “Manufacturing Excellence Awards” enaltecen a nueve empresas puertorriqueñas

POR EL STAR STAFF

CAGUAS – En el marco de la celebración anual del Día de la Manufactura, nueve empresas puertorriqueñas fueron honradas durante la ceremonia de los “Manufacturing Excellence Awards” que se celebró el pasado viernes en el Salón Wilnelia Merced Forsyth del Centro de la casa alcaldía del municipio autónomo de Caguas.

Puerto Rico Manufacturing Extension (PRiMEX) estuvo a cargo de seleccionar y otorgar los premios a las siguientes empresas: Alcor Food Inc., Bayer Crops, Criolite Corp, DM Wireless, MC Green Solutions, Pérez Precision Works, Prime Air Corp, Semila LLC y Vaca Negra. Estas empresas fueron reconocidas por sus procesos transformacionales, incremento en ventas, retención de empleos, crecimiento en áreas de producción y nuevos productos, entre otros logros que las distinguen dentro de la industria.

“La manufactura es el motor de la economia en nuestra Isla. Estás empresas son una representación de la calidad de la manufactura que se elabora en Puerto Rico, nuestra responsabilidad

es seguir aportando en las áreas de productividad y competitividad con asesoría en lineas de producción, nuevas tecnologías entre otros”, destacó Ramón Vega Alejandro, director ejecutivo de PRiMEX.

El Municipio Autónomo de Caguas y su alcalde William Miranda Torres dieron entrega de una proclama resaltando la celebración del mes de la manufactura puertorriqueña. La señora Zamia Baerga Torres, Secretaría de Desarrollo Económico del Municipio Caguas, dio lectura y entrega de la misma comprometiéndose con este sector que también genera un gran impacto en la ciudad de

Criolla.

“La excelencia manufacturera es un trabajo constante de mejora continua y compromiso con la calidad. Es por eso que trabajamos cada día para facilitar el trabajo que hacen nuestros manufactureros, con el fin de impulsar la innovación y el desarrollo de la economía local, expresó Soraya Morón Vélez, Secretaria Auxiliar de Emprendimiento y Desarrollo e Negocios del DDEC. Aprovechamos para felicitar a las 9 empresas homenajeadas por su excelencia manufacturera; y reiteramos nuestro compromiso de seguir trabajando juntos para continuar elevando los estándares de esta industria”, concluyó.

El Banco de Desarrollo Economico para Puerto Rico también reconoció especialmente a Criolite Corp y Prime Air Corp por ser clientes reconocidos en el mes de la manufactura. “Felicito a todos los ganadores de PRIMEX Manufacturing Excellence Awards 2023. Su dedicación y excelencia en la industria de la manufactura nos inspira a todos. Es un honor tener hombres y mujeres tan comprometidos con el éxito de Puerto Rico”, expresó Luis Alemañy González, presidente del BDE.

Sigue Ángel Cintrón como presidente del Partido Republicano en PR

POR CYBERNEWS

SAN JUAN – El Partido Republicano de Puerto Rico (PRPR) cerró sus trabajos de su convención con la Asamblea en la que se ratificó su directiva que estará frente a la colectividad hasta el año 2027 y que también dio por concluido su proceso de reorganización en toda la Isla.

“Hemos concluido nuestra primera convención estatal con gran éxito y nos sentimos muy satisfechos. Tuvimos delegados de toda la isla lo que establece que somos un partido vibrante. Agradecemos el trabajo de todos los funcionarios presentes que apoyaron los valores y principios de la colectividad, incluyendo anoche cuando la congresista María Elvira Salazar estuvo participando de nuestros trabajos y reiteró su mensaje a favor de la estadidad para la Isla”, expresó el presidente local, Ángel Cintrón García.

Se escogieron a: Cintrón García – presidente local; Zoraida Fonalledas- national committeewoman del PRPR; Luis Fortuño – national committeeman; General José Reyes, primer vicepresidente y Keren Riquelme, segunda vicepresidenta.

En la Asamblea, que contó con la asistencia del 81 por ciento presentes de los delegados estatales, se aprobaron varias resoluciones que enmarcan el plan de trabajo de la colectividad a nivel local.

1. Para defender los valores del Partido Republicano de

bajar impuestos, apoyo al libre mercado, proteger la vida desde su concepción, libertades de asociación y propiedad privada, igual protección de las leyes, apoyo de la estadidad para la isla, entre otros.

2. Condenando los ataques al pueblo de Israel, quienes tienen el derecho de defenderse de ataques no provocados y la responsabilidad ineludible de defender a su gente.

3. Apoyo a la libertad de religión; que el gobierno no puede prohibir ni impulsar denominación alguna. Apoyo al Proyecto del Senado 1345 para proteger la libertad religiosa.

4. Apoyo y homenaje a nuestros militares y funcionarios de seguridad pública y primera respuesta en servicio activo y aquellos fallecidos en el cumplimiento del deber.

5. Declarando que todo progenitor tiene el derecho fundamental y natural de dirigir la crianza, educación, cuidado y custodia de sus hijos; establecer que cualquier interferencia, restricción o supresión de un derecho fundamental y natural de los padres requiere un interés gubernamental apremiante; y exigiendo que, si un interés gubernamental apremiante requiere la privación de la patria potestad, la restricción del derecho fundamental y natural de los padres a dirigir la crianza, la educación, el cuidado y la custodia de sus hijos se promulgue de la forma menos restrictiva posible.

6. Que el Partido Republicano de Puerto Rico respalda

la aprobación de un proyecto de admisión por parte del Congreso de los Estados Unidos y que éste sea presentado al pueblo de Puerto Rico para su ratificación; con esta acción federal y ratificación democrática, ponemos fin al centenario problema colonial que afecta a nuestra gente; esta Resolución será traducida al idioma inglés y será cursada a cada miembro del Congreso de los Estados Unidos. Esta Resolución fue presentada por el delegado nacional, Luis Fortuño.

Durante la Asamblea se dirigieron a los presentes los directivos, el vicepresidente Nacional del Partido en Washington DC, Drew McKissick y la comisionada residente en Washington, Jenniffer González Colón.

Drake releases ‘For All the Dogs’ album, with assists from Bad Bunny and Kevin Durant

By JOE COSCARELLI

After a summer of teasing, various delays, dozens of arena concerts and eventually another No. 1 single, rapper Drake released his fourth album in barely two years late last week, before a tour-ending, two-night run of shows in his hometown, Toronto.

“For All the Dogs,” Drake’s eighth solo studio album, not counting those he considers mixtapes, includes 23 tracks and features past collaborators like J. Cole, 21 Savage, Lil Yachty, SZA and Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, plus artists from the hip-hop vanguard like Chief Keef, Yeat, Teezo Touchdown and Sexyy Red.

The credits also list a role for Kevin Durant, the Phoenix Suns basketball player, who is given the title of A&R on “For All the Dogs,” a role that, in the modern music business, refers to a collaborator who helps to organize an album. Tracks include “Bahamas Promises,” “What Would Pluto Do,” “7969 Santa” and “Virginia Beach,” a song that immediately raised eyebrows because it is named for the hometown of Drake’s longtime rap rival, Pusha-T.

The album was released at the unorthodox hour of 6 a.m. Eastern time Friday, breaking from the industry standard. “Sorry to all my streamers,” Drake wrote on Instagram in his announcement, a reference to the fact that new albums are typically released to services like Spotify and Apple Music at midnight.

It was the latest — and shortest — delay for a longexpected album. Drake, a perpetual chart-topper who prides himself on relentless productivity, began promising a new release even before the opening of his “It’s All A Blur” arena tour, which debuted in July, and he provided updates on his recording progress most nights onstage.

“For All the Dogs” had previously been scheduled for release Sept. 22, but fan anticipation stretched back further, to the beginning of summer.

Drake first teased the album in June, with the surprise

announcement of a book of poetry via full page newspaper advertisements in major publications. The ads and the book, “Titles Ruin Everything,” written with Kenza Samir, contained a QR code atop an image of two puppies that linked to a website revealing the existence of new music.

It did not include a release date, but did come with

a cheeky Drake lyric from “Headlines,” a song released in 2011: “They say they miss the old Drake, girl, don’t tempt me.”

On Thursday, he called the new album “one of my best ever,” marking the release of the video for “8am in Charlotte,” the latest in his long-running time stamp series, which co-stars his young son, Adonis. The child also contributed the scrawled rendering of a goat — not a dog, according to the artist — that serves as the “For All the Dogs” album cover.

The album was preceded earlier by the release of the singles “Search & Rescue,” which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April (but is not included on “For All the Dogs”), and “Slime You Out,” featuring SZA, which debuted at No. 1 last month, marking Drake’s 12th charttopping song. That achievement tied him with Madonna and the Supremes for the fifth-most No. 1s of all time, Billboard said.

This year, Drake has also appeared on tracks by rappers J Hus, Central Cee, Young Thug and Travis Scott.

Drake has 12 Billboard No. 1 albums in all, including two from last year — the dance music-inspired “Honestly, Nevermind,” released in June, and the more rap-focused “Her Loss,” with 21 Savage, from November.

The “It’s All a Blur” tour, which also features 21 Savage, concludes Saturday at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. With more than 50 arena dates, Drake’s tour was one of many by music’s biggest stars this summer in which intense post-pandemic demand and ticket competition led to high prices, jarring some fans.

Drake said Friday that he would likely take a break following the tour and album, citing a persistent stomach problem. “I probably won’t make music for a little bit,” the rapper told listeners of his Sirius XM radio show, “Table for One.” “I need to focus on my health.”

“I don’t even know what a little bit is,” he added. “Maybe a year or so, maybe a little longer.”

The San Juan Daily Star

Monday, October 9, 2023 17

Drake had given updates on his recording progress during stops on his “It’s All A Blur” arena tour this summer.

‘The Exorcist: Believer’ review: Double the possession, half the fun

By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Ahalf-century ago, the great William Friedkin directed “The Exorcist,” blowing box-office records and audiences’ minds. Now David Gordon Green, not content with mining the “Halloween” franchise for a trilogy of uneven follow-ups, has returned to visit the same fate on one of the highest-grossing films of the 1970s. Kicking off with “The Exorcist: Believer,” this latest recycling project will continue with “The Exorcist: Deceiver,” planned for 2025. No word yet on the third.

If your main gripe with the original was its preoccupation with a single victim and the dogma of just one religious denomination, then this overpopulated sequel has you covered. Clearly believing that more is more, Green and Peter Sattler’s screenplay (which ignores the intervening franchise entries) gives us double the possessed, more than triple the faiths and a passel of enthusiastic exorcists. Keep them straight if you can.

The setup is swiftly efficient. Thir-

teen years after losing his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake, Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) and his daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett), are settled in Georgia. Aside from tolerating a grumpy neighbor (Ann Dowd) and her complaints about Victor’s trash can management, the two seem happy enough. Then Angela and her friend Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) head into the woods for some spiritual hanky-panky, returning three days later with blank memories and disturbing behaviors. Bring on the holy water!

Measured against the often mediocre standards of today’s glut of reboots and reimaginings, “Believer” is slickly professional, its young performers more than up to the task. It’s also disappointingly, if unsurprisingly, cautious, gesturing only wanly toward the original’s potent weave of puberty, religion and corporeal abuse. While no one is asking for lazy reruns of the infamous masturbation scene or that corkscrewing noggin (though both are hinted at here), there are plenty of ways for a filmmaker to till such fertile thematic soil. Instead, Green contents himself

with inconsequential tinkering, like switching the gender of the first film’s evil entity. Shame on you if you assumed all demons were male.

Injecting a welcome dash of this-ishow-it’s-done acting, Dowd (whose character will reveal hidden spiritual depths) and Ellen Burstyn (reprising her role as Chris MacNeil, the original victim’s now-estranged mother), allow the film to take an occasional breath. Burstyn’s inclusion, though, is narra-

tively clumsy, a weak attempt to punch up familial pain that the new film fatally dilutes. Confining her to a hospital bed for much of the movie — as Green did with Jamie Lee Curtis in “Halloween Kills” (2021) — only underscores the film’s paucity of fresh ideas.

As for Green, his fondness for cinematic threesomes makes me nostalgic for his first three features, all made before he was 30 and one of which, “All the Real Girls,” won a 2003 Sundance Special Jury Prize for “emotional truth.” These dreamy, small-town reflections on love and survival, set among the crumbling textile mills and deserted railroad tracks of the rural South, revealed an uncommon talent for identifying the drama of decline. That patience and sensitivity have now been sacrificed to the cannibalism of recycled ideas; and while I don’t begrudge him his success, I do miss the filmmaker he used to be.

‘The Exorcist: Believer’

Rated R for blasphemous behavior and detachable toenails. Running time: 2 hours 1 minute. In theaters.

Lidya Jewett, left, and Olivia O’Neill in “The Exorcist: Believer.”

The beauty of a silent walk

By CHRISTINA CARON

In a TikTok video that has now amassed nearly 500,000 views, influencer Mady Maio describes taking a walk. But not just any walk: a silent one.

For her, the 30-minute stroll was revelatory. No podcasts, no music. Just “me, myself and I.”

She was resistant at first. (It was her boyfriend’s idea.) “My anxiety could never,” she said in the video.

Maio described the first two minutes as mental “mayhem” that eventually gave way to a “flow state.” Her brain fog lifted. Ideas started popping into her head because she was “giving them space to enter.”

The silent walk is TikTok’s latest wellness obsession, a blend of meditation and exercise that aims to improve mental health. Unlike the similarly trendy “hot girl walk,” a 4-mile odyssey that requires goal-setting and giving thanks, the silent walk does not involve multitasking. There is no agenda other than to set one foot in front of the other and take note of the world around you.

Walking in silence is an ancient tradition rooted in mindfulness, a form of meditation that helps people focus on the physical sensations, thoughts and emotions of the present moment, without any judgment.

The fact that the silent walk is nothing new has attracted a chorus of critics; “Gen Z thinks it just invented walking,” they say.

To that, Arielle Lorre, 38, a content creator in Los Angeles, had to laugh.

“Fifteen or 20 years ago, this would not have even been a conversation,” said Lorre, who has often discussed the benefits of silent walks, most recently on her podcast and on TikTok. But silent walking feels relevant right now because many of us have become tethered to our devices, she added.

The question then becomes: “How do we counteract that?” Lorre said.

Walking is a well-established balm for the mind and body. Research has shown that walking for as little as 10 extra minutes a day may lead to a longer life. And a 2020 study in The Journal of Environmental Psychology found that a 30-minute walk in an urban park reduced the amount of time that people dwelled on negative thoughts. Walking has also been shown to improve creativity and

help fend off depression.

Lorre, who walks in silence for at least 45 minutes roughly four times a week, said that since she started this practice about a year ago, she now sleeps better, feels calmer and has more consistent energy throughout the day.

But for some people, the idea of a silent walk might seem torturous. One 2014 study found that, if left with no other option, people would shock themselves rather than sit alone with their thoughts.

“Most people seem to prefer to be doing something rather than nothing, even if that something is negative,” the study authors wrote.

Walking, however, can make it more pleasant to spend time with ourselves, experts say.

Erin C. Westgate, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Florida in Gainesville who studies boredom, found in her research that being in transit, which included walking or riding public transportation, was one of the times when people most often reported having enjoyable thoughts.

Walking “isn’t so demanding that it’s actually taking up a lot of your mental bandwidth,” Westgate said, which “gives us permission and license to daydream.”

If the idea of daydreaming seems luxu-

rious, it may be because our attention spans have shriveled over the past two decades. We now spend an average of about 47 seconds on a piece of screen content before switching to another piece of content, according to research led by Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of “Attention Span.” Back in 2004, however, Mark

found that people could spend an average of 2 1/2 minutes on email before turning to another work task.

Continually flipping our attention from one task to another is draining, Mark said. But a silent walk can help replenish our “tank” so that we have a greater reserve of mental energy, she added. In other words, disconnecting for a while can actually help us perform better.

Mark suggested taking digital breaks at other times, not just when we’re walking, and that we think about an emotional goal for the day, not just a list of tasks.

For example, if your goal is to feel calm, you can write that on a Post-it note and refer back to it when thinking about how you’ll spend your fleeting free time that day.

“So many of us feel like we’re always behind and running to catch up,” said David M. Levy, a professor at the Information School at the University of Washington in Seattle, and the author of “Mindful Tech.” This can lead to a state of being “so distracted that we aren’t present at all.”

But in a future-oriented society we need opportunities to be satisfied with the here and now, Levy said, and drop the pressure to be productive.

“There is great beauty and aliveness in the world outside of whatever it is we’re doing on our devices,” Levy said.

The silent walk is TikTok’s latest wellness obsession, a blend of meditation and exercise that aims to improve mental health.

Mediano o grande? An ice cream tour of Mexico City

“It’s so much more interesting to me to show people that you can make ice cream with ingredients they don’t expect,” Ortiz Monasterio said from her tiny shop inside an exquisite late-19th-century mansion. It’s also her way of taking advantage of the flavors that make Mexican culture so particularly rich. Seventy pesos, (about $4) for a single scoop; 105 pesos (about $6) for a double. (Colima 162, Roma Norte)

Heladería Casa Morgana

Like Cometa, Casa Morgana is part of a new crop of highly modern confectioners whose signature, nontraditional flavors have garnered acclaim in an ice cream scene that, until recently, was dominated by conventional European ingredients. A 10-foot-by-10-foot storefront, Casa Morgana is demarcated by a bright blue facade in the Juárez neighborhood, an eclectic area that once housed Mexico City’s aristocratic quarter.

cream (45 pesos for a single) — widely considered the best in the city — the vanilla milkshake (40 pesos), and the “Chiandoni souvenir,” with a layer of wine cake at the bottom topped with mameya, a tropical fruit native to the region, and vanilla ice creams and hazelnuts; 44 pesos for a slice. (Calle Pennsylvania 255, Nápoles)

Nevería Roxy

The original Nevería Roxy in Condesa, whose retro teal awnings immediately transport visitors to 1946 when it first opened, still operates on Avenida Tamaulipas (although there are nine others now). With a perennial line that curls out the front door, Roxy is where Mexico City residents, their parents and their grandparents likely all had their first dates.

Opened by a husband-and-wife team, the shop has walls plastered with newspaper cuttings full of accolades and pho-

By NILI BLANCK

Mexico does not have a long history with ice cream. The country’s first versions of the dessert were akin to snow cones, made from ice that was harvested from the summits of the country’s volcanoes and transported via donkeys and mules to urban areas. With a dash of salt and fruit mixed in, these “raspados” (literally, shavings) or “nieves” (snow), were prepared in flavors like lime and guava and were sold out of pushcarts along streets, just as they are today.

That changed roughly 80 years ago, when locals no longer needed to rely on these troves for their ice supply. With the advent of the refrigerator, ice cream shops started to blossom throughout Mexico City. Today, you can teleport from the capital city’s present into its past by visiting both of-the-moment ice cream parlors that are branching away from traditional flavors and shops from the last century that remain practically untouched by the hand of time. Here are five spots to hit on an ice cream tour of the city.

Cometa

“I’ve always been thinking about ice cream,” Julia Ortiz Monasterio said about the origins of Cometa, the artisanal ice cream shop she opened five years ago in the Roma neighborhood. Using almost exclusively local ingredients (down to the sugar), Cometa specializes in making quintessentially Mexican flavors that are not typically used for ice cream.

A September specialty, the baby blue-hued maize flavor — made to celebrate Cometa’s anniversary as well as Mexican Independence Day — has garnered somewhat of a cult following, with customers from across town making annual buying trips. Equally appetizing as it is curious is sweet potato, which is inspired by the city’s traveling food carts that sell roasted yams, and whose loud whistle has become one of the capital’s most recognizable sounds. Made from both orange and purple potatoes, the ice cream is a cosmic two-toned concoction with a sweet base that’s provided by a strong splash of caramelized milk. Then there’s a prickly pear (tuna in Spanish) variation, an explosion of cream and magenta that derives its beautiful colors from the bright pink cactus flower from which it is made.

Family-run Casa Morgana’s seasonal, farm-to-cone flavors are made with no artificial colorants, no vegetable fats and no preservatives. Kirén Miret, the owner, is committed to following a strict process she learned from a gelato master in the Piedmont region of Italy that involves slowly churning the milk and sugar in a special Italian machine she calls a “Ferrari” — she had to sell her car to afford it — which is responsible for its silky texture. Although they prepare more than 220 flavors annually, eight are available on a weekly basis; look out for some of their most beloved varieties, which include cinnamon roll, pumpkin and pan de muerto in October and November for Day of the Dead. Single scoops range from 53 pesos to 65 pesos depending on flavor. (Milán 36, Colonia Juárez)

Chiandoni

Ice cream in Mexico underwent a paradigm shift in the 1950s as ice became readily available, and as Italian immigrants settled in the metropolis. The best example is Chiandoni (pronounced KEY-andoni), an ice-cream parlor that is a time capsule to 1957, when Pietro Chiandoni, an Italian boxer who immigrated to Mexico, first opened its iconic crystal doors.

Aptly found in the Nápoles neighborhood, Chiandoni is the definition of old-school, and thanks to the intact glassware, checkerboard floor, soda machines and — most importantly — unchanged family recipes, it continues to be as much an exercise in nostalgia as it is a gustatory delight. Its best-known treats are equally vintage-feeling, like the super soft banana ice

tos of celebrity patrons. In addition to fruit flavors (try mamey), which are made from fresh fruits carefully selected at the Mercado de la Merced as they were 70 years ago (46 pesos for a medium scoop, 56 pesos for a large scoop), Roxy’s specialties include the banana split, the “arlequín,” a mishmash of flavors served in a glass, and the Roxy special, a three-scoop delight made with chocolate, strawberry and coconut, all 89 pesos.

(Avenida Tamaulipas 161, Hipódromo Condesa)

La Especial de Paris

Chiandoni and Roxy aren’t even CDMX’s oldest ice cream parlors. In a palm-size, hole in the wall in the historic downtown is La Especial de Paris, a local legend that celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021. La Especial has been passed down over four generations of fathers and sons and has grown from a cart that sold vanilla ice cream and lime snow cones to a purveyor of more than 22 flavors at any given time.

It’s a place where time has stood still, where visitors feel like nothing has changed since it was name-dropped in famous Mexican novels and frequented by presidents and celebrities alike. It’s also one of the few shops that sells authentic vanilla ice cream made from natural vanilla. If you look closely, you’re likely to see a few vanilla seeds in your scoops. For those who want to take a walk on the wilder side, La Especial de Paris also sells flavors as exotic as tabaco (tobacco), goat cheese with raisins dipped in Cognac, and olive oil. A scoop is 36

(Insurgentes

pesos.

Centro 117, Colonia San Rafael)

Patrons share a sundae at the original Nevería Roxy, a famous ice cream parlor in Mexico City, on Sept. 12, 2023

Historic newspaper clippings and famous customers’ photos at La Especial de Paris, an ice cream parlor that celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021, in Mexico City on Sept. 16, 2023.

Heladería Casa Morgana, whose owner adheres to a strict process she learned from a gelato master in the Piedmont region of Italy, in Mexico City on Sept. 17, 2023.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V. SUCESIÓN DE MABEL

AGUAYO RIVERA T/C/C

MABELL AGUAYO

RIVERA T/C/C MABEL ORTIZ, COMPUESTA

POR FULANO(A) DE TAL, SUTANO(A) DE TAL Y JUAN(A) DEL PUEBLO; JOHN DOE Y RICHARD DOE, COMO POSIBLES HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS; CENTRO DE RECAUDACIÓN DE INGRESOS

MUNICIPALES; SECRETARIO DE LA VIVIENDA Y DESARROLLO URBANO DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA; ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA; MENGANO(A) DE TAL Y MENGANITO(A) DE TAL COMO

POSIBLES TENEDORES DESCONOCIDOS DEL PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO

Demandados

Civil Núm.: SJ2019CV02812.

Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA Y SUSTITUCIÓN DE PAGARÉ EXTRAVIADO. EDICTO DE SUBASTA. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS E.E.

U.U., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. Yo, EDWIN E. LÓPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, Alguacil del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala de San Juan, al público HAGO SABER: Que en cumplimiento de un Mandamiento de Ejecución de Sentencia que se me libró con fecha de 28 de agosto de 2023, por la Secretaria de este Tribunal, en el caso de epígrafe, venderé en pública subasta y al mejor postor con dinero en efectivo, cheque de gerente y/o giro postal a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal o letra bancaria con similar garantía, todo título, derecho o interés de la parte demandada de epígrafe sobre la siguiente propiedad perteneciente a la parte demandada, la cual se describe a continuación: “URBANA: Solar marcado con el número doce (12) del Bloque AA de la Urbanización

Montecarlo, localizado en el Barrio Sabana Llana del Municipio de Rio Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico, con un área de cuatrocientos sesenta y tres punto catorce metros cuadrados (463.14 m.c) en lindes por el NORTE, con el solar número once (11) del propio bloque, en una longitud de veintiocho punto treinta y dos metros (28.32 m); por el SUR, con el solar número trece (13) del propio bloque, en una longitud de veintiocho punto cero cero metros (28.00 m); por el ESTE, con la Calle número dieciocho (18), en una longitud de diecisiete punto cincuenta y tres metros (17.53 m); y por el OESTE, con el solar número veintiuno (21) del propio bloque, en una longitud de ocho punto sesenta y ocho metros (8.68 m) más seis punto ochenta y un metros (6.81 m) para un total de quince punto cuarenta y nueve metros (15.49 m). Enclava una casa. Consta inscrita al folio 121 del tomo 389 de Sábana Llana, finca número 16,938, Registro de la Propiedad de Puerto Rico, Sección Quinta (V) de San Juan.

Dirección física: 1380 (AA-12)

18 St. Urb. Monte Cario, San Juan 00924. La finca 16,938 está gravada con la siguiente hipoteca cuya ejecución se solicita en la subasta objeto de este edicto: Hipoteca en garantía de un pagaré a favor de The Money House, lnc., o a su orden, por la suma principal de $148,000.00, con intereses al 7% anual, vencedero a la presentación, constituida mediante la escritura número 68, no expresa lugar dé otorgamiento, el día 25 de marzo de 2008, ante el notario Luis Rafael Rodríguez Vélez, e inscrita al folio 2,652 del tomo 1,129 de Sabana Llana, finca número 16,938, inscripción 7ma., como Asiento Abreviado, extendidas líneas el día 20 de octubre de 2017, en virtud de la ley 216 del día 27 de diciembre de 2010. (Fue presentado el día 16 de abril de 2008, al Asiento 786 del Diario 883). La propiedad está afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: A Hipoteca Revertida en garantía de un pagaré a favor del Secretario de la Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano, o a su orden, por la suma principal de $222,000.00, con intereses al 7% anual, vencedero a la presentación, constituida mediante la escritura número 69, no expresa lugar de otorgamiento, el día 25 de marzo de 2008 ante el notario Luis Rafael Rodríguez Vélez, e inscrita al folio 2,652 del tomo 1,129 de Sabana Llana, finca número 16,938, inscripción

8va., como Asiento Abreviado, extendidas líneas el día 20 de octubre de 2017, en virtud de la ley 216 del día 27 de diciembre de 2010. (Fue presentado el día 16 de abril de 2008, al Asiento 786 del Diario 883). B. Aviso de Demanda de fecha 21 de marzo de 2019, expedido en el Centro Judicial de San Juan, en el Caso Civil número SJ2019CVCV02812, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, seguido por el Banco Popular de Puerto Rico; versus Sucesión Mabel Aguayo Rivera también conocido como Mabell Aguayo Riveray como Mabel Ortiz, compuesta por Pedro E. Moll Aguayo, Fulano de Tal y Sutano de Taly Juan(a) del Pueblo; John Doe y Richard Doe como posibles herederos desconocidos, por la suma de $229,845.30, más intereses y otras sumas adicionales o en su defecto la venta en Pública Subasta, anotado el día 20 de junio de 2019, al tomo Karibe de Sabana Llana, finca número 16,938, Anotación “B” y última. La venta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer a Banco Popular de Puerto Rico; por la hipoteca de $148,00.00 total o parcialmente. 1. La venta se llevará a cabo para con su producto satisfacer a Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, total o parcialmente el importe de la Sentencia emitida el 2 de junio de 2023, notificada y archivada en autos el 8 de junio de 2023. El importe de la Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, asciende a las siguientes cantidades: $352,840.63 por concepto de principal al 31 de marzo de 2023. Cantidad que continuará acumulándose a razón del 7% de interés hasta el pago total de la obligación. Además, en la escritura de hipoteca, las partes pactaron la suma de $14,800.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, una suma equivalente a $14,800.00 para cubrir cualquier otro adelanto que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca, y una suma equivalente a $14,800.00 para cubrir intereses adicionales a los garantizados por ley. El precio mínimo de licitación con relación a la antes descrita propiedad y la fecha y hora de cada subasta es como sigue: PRIMERA SUBASTA: Se celebrará el día 18 DE OCTUBRE DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA. PRECIO MÍNIMO: $148,000.00. SEGUNDA SUBASTA: Se celebrará el día 25 DE OCTUBRE DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA. PRECIO MÍNIMO: $98,666.66. TERCE-

RA SUBASTA: Se celebrará el día 1 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS 9:30 DE LA MAÑANA. PRECIO MÍNIMO: $74,000.00. Las subastas de dicha propiedad se llevarán a efecto en mi oficina situada en el local que ocupa este Tribunal en el Centro Judicial de San Juan, advirtiéndose que el que obtuviere la buena pro de dicha propiedad consignará en el acto del remate el importe de su oferta en moneda legal, en adición a los gastos de la subasta, siendo éste el mejor postor. En cualquier momento luego de haberse comenzado el acto de la subasta, el Alguacil podrá requerir de los licitadores que le evidencien la capacidad de pago de sus posturas. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante el título del inmueble y las cargas o gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes al crédito del ejecutante, si los hubiere, continuarán subsistiendo, entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda responsable de los mismos sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Se le apercibe a los tenedores de gravámenes posteriores al que se ejecuta que, para proteger cualesquiera derechos que tengan sobre el inmueble, deberán comparecer a la subasta, pues de no hacerlo así y de no igualar el precio de venta del gravamen hipotecario que se ejecuta, el Tribunal ordenará la cancelación de todos los gravámenes posteriores. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquiere libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Si se declara desierta la tercera subasta se adjudicará la finca a favor del acreedor por la totalidad de la cantidad adeudada si ésta es igual o menor que el monto del tipo mínimo de la tercera subasta, si el Tribunal lo estima conveniente. Se abonará dicho monto a la cantidad adeudada si ésta es mayor. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento del caso de epígrafe están disponibles en la Secretaría del Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico, Sala Superior de San Juan, durante horas laborables. Para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda persona que tenga interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, si alguna, y para la concurrencia de licitadores y para el público en general el presente edicto se publicará en un diario de circulación general en el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico una vez por semana por un término de dos

(2) semanas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre cada publicación. Se fijará además, en tres (3) lugares públicos del Municipio donde ha de celebrarse la subasta, estos lugares serán la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía de dicho Municipio. Se notificará a la parte demandada copia del edicto de subasta mediante correo certificado con acuse de recibo a su dirección que obra en autos. Una vez efectuada la correspondiente venta judicial, otorgaré la escritura del traspaso al licitador victorioso, quien podrá ser la parte demandante, cuya oferta podrá aplicarse a la extinción parcial o total de la obligación reconocida por la Sentencia. Colocaré al licitador victorioso en posesión física de la Propiedad mediante el lanzamiento de los ocupantes en el término legal de veinte (20) días desde la fecha de la venta en pública subasta. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el Tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante o ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. El Registrador de la Propiedad cancelará, libre de derechos, todo gravamen posterior a la fecha en que se otorgó la hipoteca que ha sido ejecutada mediante esta acción, y procederá a la inscripción de la venta a favor del comprador en subasta libre de todo gravamen posterior a la fecha en que se otorgó la hipoteca que ha sido ejecutada mediante esta acción. Expido el presente edicto bajo mi firma y sello del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de San Juan. En San Juan, Puerto Rico, a 15 de septiembre de 2023. EDWIN E. LÓPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, ALGUACIL DEL TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN.

LEGAL NOTICE

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

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante V.

MARIO JULIO

BARRAGAN ARCE; CLAUDIA HERBAS DONOSO Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES POR AMBOS COMPUESTA

Demandados Civil Núm.: MZ2022CV00038. (207). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA. AVISO DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA SUBASTA. Yo, ALG. IVELISSE FIGUEROA VARGAS, ALGUACIL PLACA #924, Alguacil de la División de Subastas del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Mayagüez, a la demandada y al público en general, les notifico que, cumpliendo con un Mandamiento que se ha librado en el presente caso, por el Secretario del Tribunal, con fecha 22 de septiembre de 2023 y para satisfacer la Sentencia por la cantidad de $163,362.85 de principal, dictada en el caso de epígrafe el 19 de octubre de 2022, notificada y archivada en autos el 21 de octubre de 2022, y publicada mediante edicto el día 27 de octubre de 2022 en el periódico The San Juan Daily Star, procederé a vender en pública subasta, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, todo derecho, título e interés que haya tenido, tenga o pueda tener la deudora demandada en cuanto a la propiedad localizada en el: Municipio de Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, el bien inmueble que se describe a continuación: 3351 PR, Int. Km. 3.0 Lot 3, Rio Cañas Abajo Wd, Mayagüez, PR 00680.

DESCRIPCIÓN: RUSTICA:

Parcela de terreno con un área superficial de 1,142.629 metros cuadrados, radicada en el barrio Rio Cañas Abajo del término municipal de Mayagüez. Los puntos y colindancias de esta parcela segregada son los siguientes: al Norte, en 58.464 metros lineales con solar #2; al Este, en 21.00 metros lineales con el remanente de la finca de la cual se segrega; al Sur, en 55.517 metros lineales con el solar #4 y al Oeste, en dos alineaciones que miden 9.953 y 9.424 metros lineales con camino Municipal. Consta inscrita al tomo de hoja móvil 1456, finca#40293 de Mayagüez. Registro de la Propiedad de Mayagüez. Con el importe de dicha venta se habrá de satisfacer a la parte demandante las cantidades adeudadas, según la Sentencia dictada en el caso de epígrafe, por el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Mayagüez, cuyas cantidades ascienden a $163,362.85 de principal, intereses a razón del 3.75% anual, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda;

$1,295.00 de cargos por demora, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda; más costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado. El tipo mínimo para la subasta será la suma de tasación pactada, la cual es $183,600.00 para la propiedad descrita. Si no produjere remate o adjudicación la primera subasta, se procederá a una segunda subasta y servirá de tipo mínimo la cantidad de $122,400.00. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en esta segunda subasta, se procederá a una tercera subasta, en ésta el tipo mínimo será la cantidad de $91,800.00. Si se declarase desierta la tercera subasta se dará por terminado el procedimiento, pudiendo adjudicarse a opción del demandante. Para el lote descrito, la PRIMERA SUBASTA se llevará a cabo el día 19 DE OCTUBRE DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA. De no comparecer postor alguno se llevará a efecto una SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 26 DE OCTUBRE DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA. De no comparecer postor alguno se llevará a cabo una TERCERA SUBASTA el día 2 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA. La subasta o subastas antes indicadas se llevarán a efecto en mi oficina, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de Mayagüez. De Estudio de Título realizado, surge el siguiente gravamen preferente: Condiciones Restrictivas de Venta por el termino de 10 años impuestas por la Autoridad de Financiamiento de Vivienda de Puerto Rico por haber concedido la suma de $9,000.00 para sufragar gastos de cierre, según Esc. #16 en Mayagüez el 13 de febrero de 2012 ante Hector A. Rodriguez Figueroa, inscrita al tomo Karibe finca #40293 de Mayagüez, inscripción 4ta. De Estudio de Título realizado, surge el siguiente gravamen posterior: Aviso de Demanda dictado el 12 de julio de 2019 em el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Mayagüez caso civil #MZ2019CV01146 sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca seguido por Banco Popular de Puerto Rico vs. Mario Julio Barragán Arce y Claudia Herbas Danoso donde se solicita el pago de la deuda garantizada con la hipoteca de la inscripción 5ta reducida a $163,365.48 o la venta en publica subasta, anotado al tomo Karibe finca #40293 de Mayagüez el 16 de enero de 2020, anotación “A”. Se le ad-

vierte a los licitadores que la adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el mismo acto de la adjudicación en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, giro postal o cheque de gerente a nombre del Alguacil del Tribunal y para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda(s) aquella(s) persona(s) que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de los licitadores y el público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general, una vez por semana durante el término de dos (2) semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete (7) días entre ambas publicaciones, y para su fijación en tres (3) lugares públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como, la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía y se le notificará además a la parte demandada vía correo certificado con acuse de recibo a la última dirección conocida. Se les advierte a todos los interesados que todos los documentos relacionados con la presente acción de ejecución de hipoteca, así como la de la subasta, estarán disponibles para ser examinados en la Secretaría del Tribunal. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titulación y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere al crédito de ejecutante, continuarán subsiguientes entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. La propiedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores, previa orden judicial dirigida al Registrador de la Propiedad de la sección correspondiente para la cancelación de aquellos posteriores. Y para conocimiento de la demandada, de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas y público en general, expido el presente Aviso para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspondientes. Librado en Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, a 27 de septiembre de 2023. ALG. IVELISSE FIGUEROA VARGAS, ALGUACIL PLACA #924. ***

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

CENTRO JUDICIAL DE CAROLINA. BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO DEMANDANTE V. MARIO JOEL RIVERA ALVARADO, MILAGROS PAGÁN OJEDA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE BIENES GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS

DEMANDADOS

Civil Núm. FCD2017-0344

(401). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO Y Ejecución de Hipoteca por la Vía Ordinaria. AVISO DE VENTA EN PÚBLICA SUBASTA. Yo, HECTOR PEÑA RODRIGUEZ, Alguacil Supervisor de la División de Subastas del Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina, a los demandados y al público en general les notifico que, cumpliendo con un Mandamiento que se ha librado en el presente caso por el Secretario del Tribunal de epígrafe con fecha 23 de junio de 2022 y para satisfacer la cantidad adeudada de $166,445.41 de principal mediante Sentencia dictada en el caso de autos el 10 de octubre de 2019, notificada y archivada en autos el 21 de febrero de 2020, procederé a vender en pública subasta, al mejor postor en pago de contado y en moneda del curso legal de los Estados Unidos de América, mediante efectivo, giro o cheque certificado a nombre del Alguacil de este Tribunal todo derecho, título e interés que hayan tenido tengan o puedan tener los deudores demandados en cuanto a la propiedad localizada en el Municipio de Carolina, Puerto Rico, el bien inmueble se describe a continuación: Apartamento 703, Cond. Veredas del Parque, Carolina, Puerto Rico 00987. URBANA: Apartamento #703 ubicado en el tercero y cuarto piso del Edificio #7-8 en su Sección siete y en su lado izquierdo, cual edificio está localizado en el lado Oeste del inmueble sometido al Régimen de Propiedad Horizontal conocido por Condominio Veredas del Parque, ubicado en el Barrio San Antón del Municipio de Carolina, Puerto Rico, cuya entrada y salida dan hacia el área de estacionamiento, está construido de hormigón reforzado y bloques de hormigón, con un área de piso de dos niveles de 1,427.60 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 132.63 metros cuadrados. Su forma es aproximadamente rectangular y consta de dos niveles, el primero ubicado en el tercer piso y el segundo en el cuarto piso, que a su vez da acceso a la azotea. Su entrada está localizada en el tercer piso, orientada hacia el Noreste del edificio y da acceso

directamente al vestíbulo de dicho piso que a su vez da acceso a elementos comunes generales de la propiedad a través de los pasillos, escaleras y acera para llegar a la vía pública. El primer nivel ubicado en el tercer piso está dividido en los siguientes elementos: una cocina, una sala-comedor, un medio baño, un closet para lavandería, un balcón y unas escaleras que dan acceso al segundo nivel ubicado en el cuarto piso. Contiene un calentador de agua y gabinetes de cocina. El tercer piso tiene una cabida de 645.00 pies cuadrados, equivalentes a 59.92 metros cuadrados. En lindes al Noreste, en 18’4” con el pasillo y las escaleras del edificio que dan acceso al apartamento; el Suroeste, en 21’8” con el apartamento 603; al Noroeste, en 29’11” con el apartamento 704 y al Sureste, en 29’11”, con el exterior del edificio. En el segundo nivel ubicado en el cuarto piso y está dividido en los siguientes elementos: tres cuartos dormitorios con sus closets, unidos por un pasillo central, dos baños, uno con acceso al pasillo central y el segundo ubicado dentro del área del cuarto dormitorio principal y una escalera con acceso a la azotea y al tercer piso. A este apartamento le corresponde el uso de la azotea sujeto a las disposiciones de ley y sujeto a las limitaciones contenidas en la escritura de construcción de Régimen de Propiedad Horizontal. El cuarto piso consta de un área de 782.60 pies cuadrados equivalentes a 72.71 metros cuadrados, en lindes: al Noreste, en 21’7” con el apartamento #803; al Suroeste, en 23’10” con el apartamento #603; al Noroeste, en 31’9.5” con el apartamento #704; al Sureste, en 33’9.5” con el exterior del edificio. Le corresponde en forma permanente e inseparable dos espacios de estacionamiento los cuales están identificados en el plano de estacionamiento que se une a la primera copia certificada de la escritura de Régimen de Propiedad Horizontal y que forma parte de los planos generales del Condominio. Los espacios de estacionamiento que le corresponde a este apartamento serán adjudicados en la escritura de individualización y compraventa y llevarán el mismo número del apartamento. Le corresponde a este apartamento en los elementos comunes generales el 0.5388708%. Consta inscrita al folio 41 del tomo 1367 de Carolina, Finca número 55,603. Registro de la Propiedad de Carolina, Sección

II. Con el importe de dicha venta se habrá de satisfacer a la parte demandante las cantidades adeudadas, en el caso de

epígrafe, que se desglosan de la siguiente forma: $166,445.41 de principal, 3.75% de intereses, los cuales continúan acumulándose hasta el saldo total de la deuda, más costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado, todas cuyas sumas están líquidas y exigibles. El tipo mínimo para la subasta será la suma de tasación pactada, la cual es $200,122.00 para la propiedad antes descrita. De declarase la subasta desierta y tener que celebrarse una segunda subasta el tipo mínimo serán dos terceras partes (2/3) del precio mínimo antes mencionado; $133,414.67. Si tampoco hubiere remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, regirá como tipo de la tercera subasta la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado; $100,161.00. La primera subasta se llevará a cabo el 31 de octubre de 2023, a las 11:30 de la mañana. De no comparecer postor alguno se llevará a efecto una segunda subasta el 7 de noviembre de 2023, a las 11:30 de la mañana. De no comparecer postor alguno se llevará a cabo una tercera subasta el 14 de noviembre de 2023, a las 11:30 de la mañana. La subasta o subastas antes indicadas se llevarán a efecto en mi oficina, localizada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Carolina. Del Estudio de Título realizado surgen los siguientes gravámenes: Servidumbres y Condiciones Restrictivas. Se designa esta finca como “Hogar Seguro” bajo las disposiciones de la Ley#195 de 13 de septiembre de 2011, según Esc. #4 en San Juan el 15 de marzo de 2013 ante María Teresa López Colón, inscrita al margen de/ folio 41 tomo 1367 de Carolina Sur, finca #55603. Se advierte a los licitadores que la adjudicación se hará al mejor postor, quien deberá consignar el importe de su oferta en el mismo acto de la adjudicación en moneda de curso legal de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica y para conocimiento de la parte demandada y de toda(s) aquella(s) persona(s) que tengan interés inscrito con posterioridad a la inscripción del gravamen que se está ejecutando, y para conocimiento de los licitadores y el público en general y para su publicación en un periódico de circulación general, una vez por semana durante el término de dos (2) semanas consecutivas con un intervalo de por lo menos siete

(7) días entre ambas publicaciones, y para su fijación en tres

(3) lugares públicos del municipio en que ha de celebrarse la venta, tales como, la Alcaldía, el Tribunal y la Colecturía y se le notificará además a la parte demandada vía correo certificado con acuse de recibo a la última dirección conocida. La pro-

piedad a ser ejecutada se adquirirá libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores, previa orden judicial dirigida al Registrador de la Propiedad de la sección correspondiente para la cancelación de aquellos posteriores. Se les advierte a todos los interesados que todos los documentos relacionados con la presente acción de ejecución de hipoteca, así como la de la subasta, estarán disponibles para ser examinados, durante horas laborables, en la Secretaría del Tribunal. Se entenderá que todo licitador acepta como bastante la titularidad y que las cargas y gravámenes anteriores y los preferentes, si los hubiere, al crédito del ejecutante, continuarán subsistentes; entendiéndose que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de los mismos, sin destinarse a su extinción el precio del remate. Y para conocimiento de los demandados, de los acreedores posteriores, de los licitadores, partes interesadas y público en general, expido el presente Aviso para su publicación en los lugares públicos correspondientes. Librado en la Sala de Carolina, Puerto Rico, a 3 de octubre de 2023. HECTOR

PEÑA RODRIGUEZ, ALGUACIL

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE DORADO

ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC, COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE FUNDING, LLC

Demandante Vs. IVALAINE

ROSARIO CAMACHO

Demandado

Civil Núm.: DO2023CV00091.

Salón: 506. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: IVALAINE

ROSARIO CAMACHOCALLE EXT SUR #555, DORADO, PR 00646.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presen-

tar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kevin Sánchez Campanero cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 009368518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kevin.sanchez@ orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com.

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 31 de julio de 2023. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 31 de julio de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. NÉLIDA OCASIÓN ORTEGA, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE BAYAMÓN ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC, COMO AGENTE DE FAIRWAY ACQUISITIONS FUND, LLC

Demandante Vs. JAVIER VIRELLA DÍAZ

Demandado Civil Núm.: CZ2023CV00015. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO ORDINARIO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: JAVIER VIRELLA DÍAZ

-CARR 568 KM 5 HM 5 BO. PADILLA, PR 00783 / PO BOX 241, COROZAL, PR 00783.

POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en re-

beldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Kevin Sánchez Campanero cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 009368518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección kevin.sanchez@ orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orf-law.com.

EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Bayamón, Puerto Rico, hoy día 31 de julio de 2023. En Bayamón, Puerto Rico, el 31 de julio de 2023. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. AMALYN FIGUEROA NIEVES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR DEL TRIBUNAL.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA DE CAGUAS ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC, COMO AGENTE DE ACE ONE

FUNDING, LLC

Demandante Vs. ANTHONY E. RUIZ MONTAÑEZ

Demandado

Civil Núm.: CY2023CV00190.

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

A: ANTHONY E. RUIZ MONTAÑEZ - PO BOX 22309, CAYEY, PR 00736. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Edwin Serrano

cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección edwin.serrano@orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orflaw.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO

MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy día 28 de agosto de 2023. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 28 de agosto de 2023. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. RIVERA RIVERA, GLORIMAR, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE SAN JUAN

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO

Demandante Vs. DIONISIO NIEVES

RODRIGUEZ; SUCESION DE IVELISSE ROBLES

RIVAS, COMPUESTA

POR SUS HIJOS JUAN CARLOS NIEVES ROBLES Y SANDRA

IVETTE NIEVES

ROBLES; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM)

Demandados

Civil Núm.: SJ2022CV04142. (604). Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO (EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA). EDICTO DE SUBASTA.

Al: PÚBLICO EN GENERAL.

A: DIONISIO NIEVES

RODRIGUEZ; SUCESION DE IVELISSE ROBLES

RIVAS, COMPUESTA POR SUS HIJOS JUAN CARLOS NIEVES ROBLES Y SANDRA IVETTE NIEVES ROBLES; CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES (CRIM).

Yo, EDWIN E. LÓPEZ MULERO, ALGUACIL AUXILIAR, Alguacil de este Tribunal, a la parte demandada y a los acreedores y personas con interés sobre la propiedad que más adelante se describe, y al público en general, HAGO SABER: Que el día 31 DE OCTUBRE DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina, sita en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala Superior de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico, venderé en Pública Subasta la propiedad inmueble que más adelante se describe y cuya venta en pública subasta se ordenó por la vía ordinaria al mejor postor quien hará el pago en

dinero en efectivo, giro postal o cheque certificado a nombre del o la Alguacil del Tribunal de Primera Instancia. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado, estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal de San Juan durante horas laborables. Que en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación en la primera subasta a celebrarse, se celebrará una SEGUNDA SUBASTA para la venta de la susodicha propiedad, el día 7 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA y en caso de no producir remate ni adjudicación, se celebrará una TERCERA SUBASTA el 14 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS 10:00 DE LA MAÑANA en mi oficina sita en el lugar antes indicado. La propiedad a venderse en pública subasta se describe como sigue: URBAN: Residential apartment 1210, located at SANTA MARÍA II CONDOMINIUM, in Sabana Llana Ward of the Municipality of San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is regular in shape, with a superficial area of SEVEN HUNDRED SEVENTY EIGHT (778) SQUARE FEET (gross), measuring (21’) in width at its Northern and Southern wall by (37”), in length at its Western and Eastern wall. Its boundaries are the following: by the North, with the common corridor; EAST, with apartment 1209; by the WEST and SOUTH, with the exterior. It consists of a living-dining area, three bedrooms with closets, one bathroom with toilet, wash basin and shower stall, an interior hall with linen closet, and a kitchen with sink, electric range, with oven, refrigerator, hot water heater and storage closets. Le corresponde un porcentaje en los elementos comunes de .57875%. La escritura de hipoteca se encuentra inscrita al folio 87 del tomo 1036 de Sábana Llana, Registro de la Propiedad de San Juan, Sección Quinta, finca número 23,914, inscripción octava. La dirección física de la propiedad antes descrita es: Condominio Santa María 2, 501 Calle Modesta, Apartamento 1210, San Juan, Puerto Rico. La Subasta se llevará a efecto para satisfacer a la parte demandante la suma de $32,806.89 de principal, intereses al 6.50% anual, desde el 1ro. de septiembre de 2021, hasta su completo pago, $5,200.00 para costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado; recargos acumulados; más cualquier otra suma que se haga en virtud de la escritura de hipoteca. Dichas sumas están vencidas, son líquidas y exigibles. Que la cantidad mínima de licitación en la primera subasta para el inmueble será de $52,000.00 y de ser necesaria una segunda subasta, la cantidad mínima

lizada por su colindancia Oeste, por donde tiene acceso a los elementos comunes, con el número, cabida y colindancias que se describen a continuación: Apartamento #437, localizado en el tercer piso de este Edificio, del Proyecto. Cabida de 970.29 pies cuadrados. Colinda por el NORTE, con elemento común y apartamento #436 en 35’8 ½ “; por el SUR, con apartamento #438 y elemento común en 35’8 ½ “; por el ESTE, con elemento común en 32’ 1”y por el OESTE, con elemento común en 31’9”. Participación en los elementos comunes. La participación de dicha unidad es 0.008727666%. Espacios de estacionamiento.

Le pertenece el uso y disfrute de los espacios de estacionamiento identificados con el número del apartamento, para un automóvil. Finca 65382, inscrita al Sistema Karibe de Caguas, Registral de la Propiedad de Caguas, Sección I. La finca antes descrita se encuentra afecta a los siguientes gravámenes: (i) HIPOTECA constituida en garantía de un pagaré a favor de RG Premier Bank of PR o a su orden por $35,400.00 al 6 7/8%, vencedero el 1 de febrero de 2037, según Escritura #29, en San Juan, a 16 de enero de 2007, ante Armando J. Martinez Vilella, inscrita al Sistema Karibe de Caguas, finca #65382, inscripción 2da, el 18 de julio de 2023. (ii) HIPOTECA constituida por Diana Iris Aponte Calderón, soltera, en garantía de un pagaré a favor de El Municipio de Caguas, o a su orden, por $40,000.00, sin intereses, fecha de conversión antes de transcurrir 20 años desde la fecha de la escritura, según Escritura. #3, en Caguas, a 16 de enero de 2007, ante Gil R. Calderón Rivera, inscrita al Sistema Karibe de Caguas, finca #65382, inscripción 3ra., el 18 de julio de 2023. Condiciones restrictivas: El pago de esta obligación queda diferido y condicionado a la eventualidad de que el deudor hipoteca venda la propiedad o de cualquier otra forma deje de ocupar la misma como residencia principal en cualquier momento, fecha de conversión antes de trascurrir 20 años, según Escritura #3 de Hipoteca. (iii) Hipoteca constituida par Diana Aponte Calderón, soltera, en garantía de un pagaré, a favor de La Autoridad para el Financiamiento de la Vivienda de Puerto Rico, o a su orden, por $10,100.00, sin intereses, vencedero en 8 años, a partir de la fecha de la escritura, según Esc. #30, en San Juan, a 16 de enero de 2007, ante Armando J. Martinez Vilella, inscrita al Sistema Karibe de Caguas, finca #65382, inscripci6n 4ta., el 18 de julio de 2023. Condiciones de la Hipoteca:

Sujeta a las disposiciones del Programa gubernamental denominado La Llave para tu Hogar: No pudiendo ser transferida ni gravada par un término de 8 años, a partir de la concesión del subsidio, sin el previo consentimiento de la Autoridad so pena de la restitución del subsidio concedida, según Esc. #30, de Hipoteca de la inscripción 4ta. (iv) Demanda del 12 de agosto de 2013, radicada en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de Caguas, en el caso civil #ECD 2013-1054, sobre Cobro de Dinero y Ejecución de Hipoteca, seguido por Banco Cooperativo vs. Diana Iris Aponte Calderón, anotada al Sistema Karibe de Caguas, finca #65832, el 18 de julio de 2023, anotación A y última. La hipoteca objeto de esta ejecución es la que ha quedado descrita en el inciso (i). Será celebrada la subasta para con el importe de la misma satisfacer la sentencia dictada el 30 de octubre de 2013, mediante la cual se condenó a la parte demandada pagar a la parte demandante la cantidad adeudada y vencida ascendiente a $32,847.88 de principal, más los intereses que se acumulen hasta la fecha de pago total, recargos por demora, más la suma de dinero para primas de seguro y/o contribuciones, inspecciones, mas

$3,540.00 de costas, gastos y honorarios de abogado según pactado. La PRIMERA SUBAS-

TA será celebrada el día 31 DE OCTUBRE DE 2023, A LAS

9:30 DE LA MAÑANA en el Tribunal de Primera Instancia, Sala de CAGUAS, Puerto Rico. Servirá de tipo mínimo para la misma, la cantidad de $35,400.00 sin admitirse oferta inferior. De no haber remate ni adjudicación, celebraré SEGUNDA SUBASTA el día 7 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS

9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar, en la que servirá como tipo mínimo, dos terceras (2/3) partes del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $23,600.00. Si no hubiese remate ni adjudicación en la segunda subasta, celebraré TERCERA SUBASTA el día 14 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2023, A LAS

9:30 DE LA MAÑANA, en el mismo lugar en la que regirá como tipo mínimo, la mitad (1/2) del precio pactado para la primera subasta, o sea, $17,700.00. El Alguacil que suscribe hizo constar que toda licitación deberá hacerse para pagar su importe en moneda legal de los Estados Unidos de América, de acuerdo con la Ley y de acuerdo con lo anunciado en este Aviso de Subasta. Los autos y todos los documentos correspondientes al procedimiento incoado estarán de manifiesto en la Secretaría del Tribunal durante horas laborables.

Se entiende que todo licitador que comparezca a la subasta señalada en este caso acepta como bastante la titulación que da base a la misma. Se entiende que cualquier carga y/o gravamen anterior y/o preferente, si la hubiere al crédito que da base a esta ejecución continuará subsistente, entendiéndose, además, que el rematante los acepta y queda subrogado en la responsabilidad de estos, sin destinarse a su extinción cualquier parte del remanente del precio de licitación. La propiedad para ejecutar será adquirida libre de cargas y gravámenes posteriores. Por la presente se notifica a los acreedores que tengan inscritos o anotados sus derechos sobre los bienes hipotecados con posterioridad a la inscripción del crédito del ejecutante o acreedores de cargas o derechos reales que los hubiesen pospuesto a la hipoteca ejecutada y las personas interesadas en, o con derecho a exigir el cumplimiento de instrumentos negociables garantizados hipotecariamente con posterioridad al crédito ejecutado, para que puedan concurrir a la subasta si les convenga o satisfacer antes del remate el importe del crédito, de sus intereses, costas y honorarios de abogados asegurados, quedando subrogados en los derechos del acreedor ejecutante. Vendida o adjudicada la finca o derecho hipotecado y consignado el precio correspondiente, en esa misma fecha o fecha posterior, el alguacil que celebró la subasta procederá a otorgar la correspondiente escritura pública de traspaso en representación del dueño o titular de los bienes hipotecados, ante el notario que elija el adjudicatario o comprador, quien deberá abonar el importe de tal escritura. El alguacil pondrá en posesión judicial al nuevo dueño, si así se lo solicita dentro del término de veinte (20) días a partir de la confirmación de la venta o adjudicación. Si transcurren los referidos veinte (20) días, el tribunal podrá ordenar, sin necesidad de ulterior procedimiento, que se lleve a efecto el desalojo o lanzamiento del ocupante u ocupantes de la finca o de todos los que por orden o tolerancia del deudor la ocupen. Y PARA CONOCIMIENTO DE LOS LICITADORES Y DEL PUBLICO

EN GENERAL y para su publicación de acuerdo con la Ley, expido el presente Edicto bajo mi firma y sello de este Tribunal. En CAGUAS, Puerto Rico, hoy 3 de octubre de 2023. ÁNGEL GÓMEZ GÓMEZ, ALGUACIL PLACA #593, TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA, SALA DE CAGUAS.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE GUAYNABO LEGACY MORTGAGE ASSET TRUST 2019-PR1

Parte Demandante Vs. PALOMA SUSANA VAZQUEZ IBANEZ Y CARMEN ELENA VAZQUEZ IBANEZ POR SÍ Y EN REPRESENTACIÓN DE LA SUCESIÓN DE CONFESOR VÁZQUEZ

RIQUELME Y DE LA SUCESIÓN DE LUISA FERNANDA IBANEZ

T/C/C LUISA FERNANDA IBANEZ ARELLANO, JOHN DOE Y RICHARD ROE COMO HEREDEROS DESCONOCIDOS DE LA SUCESIÓN DE CONFESOR VÁZQUEZ RIQUELME Y DE LA SUCESIÓN DE LUISA FERNANDA MANEZ T/C/C LUISA FERNANDA IBANEZ ARELLANO, CENTRO DE RECAUDACION DE INGRESOS MUNICIPALES Y ADMINISTRACION DE SUSTENTO DE MENORES

Parte Demandada Civil Núm.: GB2023CV00574. Sala: 202. Sobre: EJECUCIÓN DE HIPOTECA POR LA VÍA ORDINARIA Y COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO E INTERPELACIÓN. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS. A: CARMEN ELENA VÁZQUEZ IBÁÑEZ. Por la presente, se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC

notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, la Lcda. Marjaliisa Colon Villanueva, abogada de la parte demandante, (787) 843-4168, PO Box 7970, Ponce, Puerto Rico 00732, mcolon@wwclaw.com. Por la presente se le notifica, como miembro de la Sucesión de Sucesión de Confesor Vazquez Riquelme y la Sucesión de Luisa Fernanda Ibáñez t/c/c Luisa Fernanda Ibáñez Arellano, se ha presentado una solicitud de interpelación judicial para que sirva en el término de treinta (30) días aceptar o repudiar la herencia. Se le apercibe que si no compareciera usted a expresarse dentro del término de treinta (30) días a partir de la presente notificación de la Interpelación Judicial en torno a la aceptación o repudiación de la herencia, se presumirá que ha aceptado la herencia del causante Sucesión de Confesor Vazquez Riquelme y la sucesión de Luisa Fernanda Ibáñez t/c/c Luisa Fernanda Ibáñez Arellano a beneficio de inventario y por consiguiente, responderá por las cargas de dicha herencia conforme dispone el Artículo 1578 del Código Civil de Puerto Rico, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 11021. EXPEDIDO bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, a 29 de septiembre de 2023, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. LCDA. LAURA I. SANTA SÁNCHEZ, SECRETARIA REGIONAL II. SARA ROSA VILLEGAS, SECRETARIA DEL TRIBUNAL CONFIDENCIAL I.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE CAROLINA APEROL LLC

Demandante Vs FABRICS INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRY CORP., FABRIXS INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRY CORP, KCS ENTERPRISES LLC; EDWARD FELICIANO LOPEZ HACIENDO NEGOCIOS COMO KITCHEN CLEANING SERVICES; KIARAS, LLC; EDWARD FELICIANO LOPEZ, SU ESPOSA FULANA DE TAL Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS; COMPAÑÍA XYZ; ASEGURADORA ABC

Demandados

Civil Núm.: CA2023CV01862. Sobre: INCUMPLIMIENTO DE CONTRATO; COBRO DE DINERO; SENTENCIA DECLARATORIA; DESCORRER EL VELO CORPORATIVO; DAÑOS Y PERJUICIOS. EM-

PLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO.

A: EDWARD FELICIANO LÓPEZ POR SÍ Y COMO COADMINISTRADOR DE LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES QUE TIENE CONSTITUIDA CON SU ESPOSA DENOMINADA CON EL NOMBRE FICTICIO DE FULANA DE TAL; EDWIN FELICIANO LÓPEZ HACIENDO NEGOCIOS COMO KITCHEN CLEANING SERVICES; FABRICS INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRY CORP.; FABRIXS INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRY CORP.; KCS ENTERPRISES, LLC; KIARAS, LIC. SABANA ABAJO INDUSTRIAL PARK, LOT 16, CALLE B, CAROLINA, PUERTO RICO 00981.

POR LA PRESENTE se le notifica que ha sido presentada en este Tribunal por la parte demandante una Demanda, cuyos hechos se detallan en la misma, la cual puede ser examinada en la secretaría de este Tribunal. REPRESENTA a APEROL LLC, el bufete RIVERA COLON, RIVERA TORRES & RIVERA RIOS (Lcdo. Víctor M. Rivera Torres) con dirección en Ave. Fernández Juncos #1420, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00909, teléfonos (787) 727-5710, fax (787) 268-1835, email: victor.rivera@rctrbIaw. com. Se le advierte que este edicto se publicará en un periódico de circulación general una sola vez y que si no comparece en el término de treinta (30) días desde su publicación, el demandante podrá solicitar que se dicte sentencia en rebeldía, declarándose con lugar las contestaciones, sin más citarle ni oírle. EXPEDIDO, bajo mi firma y el sello del Tribunal, hoy día 09 de agosto de 2023.

LCDA KANELLY ZAYAS ROBLES, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. LILLIAM ORTIZ NIEVES, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA DE HUMACAO PALMAS DEL MAR HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC.

Parte Demandante Vs. ELVIS R. MARTÍNEZ EVANGELISTA Y MARIA M. BETANCOURT

Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR

AMBOS

Parte Demandada (23-00076)

Civil Núm.: HU2023CV00906.

Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS EE.UU., EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE P.R., SS.

A: ELVIS R. MARTÍNEZ

EVANGELISTA Y MARIA

M. BETANCOURT BORIA Y LA SOCIEDAD LEGAL DE GANANCIALES COMPUESTA POR AMBOS.

POR LA PRESENTE, se le emplaza y requiere para que notifique a:

GONZÁLEZ & MORALES LAW OFFICES, LLC

PO BOX 10242

HUMACAO, PR 00792

TELÉFONO: (787) 852-4422

FACSÍMIL: (787) 285-4425

EMAIL: jrg@gonzalezmorales.com abogados de la parte demandante, cuya dirección es la que deja indicada, con copia de su Contestación a la Demanda, copia de la cual le es servida en este caso, dentro de los TREINTA (30) días de haber sido diligenciado este Emplazamiento, excluyéndose el día del diligenciamiento. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), al cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired.ramajudicial. pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Debe saber que en caso de no hacerlo así podrá dictarse Sentencia en Rebeldía en contra suya, concediendo el remedio solicitado en la demanda, o cualquier otro, si el Tribunal, en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el Sello del Tribunal, hoy día 27 de septiembre de 2023. IVELISSE C. FONSECA RODRÍGUEZ, SECRETARIA. IVELISSE M. MONCLOVA CRUZ, SUB-SECRETARIA.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA

SALA DE CAGUAS ISLAND PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC, COMO

AGENTE DE ACE ONE FUNDING, LLC

Demandante Vs. JETZEL J.

GALARZA DEL VALLE

Demandado

Civil Núm.: CG2023CV01497. Sobre: COBRO DE DINERO. EMPLAZAMIENTO POR EDICTO. ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMÉRICA, EL PRESIDENTE DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, EL ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO, SS.

A: JETZEL J. GALARZA DEL VALLEURB. TURABO GARDENS, H-19 CALLE 37, CAGUAS, PR 007276614. POR LA PRESENTE se le emplaza y requiere para que conteste la demanda dentro de los treinta (30) días siguientes a la publicación de este Edicto. Usted deberá presentar su alegación responsiva a través del Sistema Unificado de Manejo y Administración de Casos (SUMAC), la cual puede acceder utilizando la siguiente dirección electrónica: https://unired. ramajudicial.pr, salvo que se represente por derecho propio, en cuyo caso deberá presentar su alegación responsiva en la secretaría del tribunal. Si usted deja de presentar su alegación responsiva dentro del referido término, el tribunal podrá dictar sentencia en rebeldía en su contra y conceder el remedio solicitado en la demanda o cualquier otro sin más citarle ni oírle, si el tribunal en el ejercicio de su sana discreción, lo entiende procedente. El sistema SUMAC notificará copia a los abogados de la parte demandante, el Lcdo. Edwin Serrano cuyas direcciones son: P.O. Box 71418 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8518, teléfono (787) 993-3731 a la dirección edwin.serrano@orf-law.com y a la dirección notificaciones@orflaw.com. EXTENDIDO BAJO MI FIRMA y el sello del Tribunal, en Caguas, Puerto Rico, hoy día 28 de agosto de 2023. En Caguas, Puerto Rico, el 28 de agosto de 2023. LISILDA MARTÍNEZ AGOSTO, SECRETARIA REGIONAL. RIVERA RIVERA, GLORIMAR, SECRETARIA AUXILIAR.

LEGAL NOTICE

ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE PUERTO RICO TRIBUNAL DE PRIMERA INSTANCIA SALA SUPERIOR DE ARECIBO.

THE TITLE SECURITY GROUP, LLC.

DEMANDANTE V.

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Dick Butkus, fearsome Hall of Fame linebacker, dies at 80

By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN

Dick Butkus, the Chicago Bears’ famously hard-hitting Hall of Fame middle linebacker of the 1960s and ’70s and a selection for the NFL’s 100th anniversary alltime team, died last Thursday at his home in Malibu, California. He was 80.

The Bears confirmed the death but did not give the cause.

At 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds — a good size for his era — Butkus stuffed running plays up the middle. He was also speedy and mobile enough to drop back and foil opponents’ pass plays. He was cited as a first team All-Pro five times and was chosen for the Pro Bowl game eight times. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility.

Sacks did not become an official statistic until 1982, so the number of times Butkus smothered opposing quarterbacks remains unrecorded. But he was considered to have intercepted 22 passes and recovered 27 fumbles while playing for the Bears from 1965-73.

“When I went out on the field to warm up, I would manufacture things to make me mad,” Butkus was quoted as saying by the Hall of Fame. “If someone on the other team was laughing, I’d pretend he was laughing at me or the Bears. It always worked for me.”

Bill George, Butkus’ predecessor as the Bears’ middle linebacker, who was nearing the end of his own Hall of Fame career when Butkus was a rookie, believed Butkus was destined for stardom. “The first time I saw Butkus, I started packing my gear,” George once told the Chicago Tribune. “There was no way that guy wasn’t going to be great.”

Until the early 1950s, players in the middle of pro defensive lines were known as

point of contention in the series was always “Tastes Great! Less Filling!”

Butkus appeared in motion pictures, including “Necessary Roughness” (1991) and “Any Given Sunday” (1999). And he was a character in TV shows, including “My Two Dads” and “Hang Time.”

Butkus played himself in “Brian’s Song,” a 1971 television docudrama about his teammate Brian Piccolo, a running back who had died of cancer a year earlier. He also appeared in an ESPN series, “Bound for Glory,” which followed him for one season as he coached a high school football team.

Butkus and his wife, Helen, had three children — Matt, Nikki and Richard Jr. — and grandchildren. Information on his survivors was not immediately available.

Mayor

greets the

linebacker and

legend Dick Butkus at the 2015 NFL Draft in Chicago, on April 30, 2015. Butkus, the Chicago Bears’ famously hard-hitting Hall of Fame middle linebacker of the 1960s and ’70s and a selection for the NFL’s 100th anniversary all-time team, has died at his home in Malibu, Calif., the Bears announced on Oct. 5, 2023.

middle guards. They were hefty sorts charged mainly with stopping opponents’ inside running games. George began transforming defenses by dropping back at times for prospective pass plays.

The middle linebacker position was glamorized in October 1960 when CBS aired “The Violent World of Sam Huff,” narrated by Walter Cronkite, a portrayal of the New York Giants’ star. Butkus was playing football for Chicago Vocational High School at the time as a fullback, linebacker, punter and place-kicker.

He gained national recognition in his own right as an All-American playing at linebacker and center for the University of Illinois for three seasons. As a junior, he led the Illini to an 8-1-1 record and a victory over the University of Washington in the 1964 New Year’s Day Rose Bowl game.

In a 1964 cover story for Sports Illustrated, Dan Jenkins wrote that “if every college football team had a linebacker like Dick Butkus of Illinois, all fullbacks soon would be three feet tall and sing soprano.”

Richard Marvin Butkus was born into a large Lithuanian American family in Chicago on Dec. 9, 1942, a son of John and Emma (Good-off) Butkus. His father was an electri-

cian for the Pullman-Standard railroad car company.

Butkus was chosen by the Bears in the first round, third overall, in the 1965 NFL draft and by the Denver Broncos of the American Football League in its second round. He went with his hometown team, a storied NFL franchise owned and coached by future Hall of Famer George Halas. In his rookie season, he intercepted five passes and recovered seven fumbles.

But the Bears fell on hard times during Butkus’ years. They won 49 games, lost 74 and tied four, and never reached the playoffs. In his last few seasons, Butkus played on with a badly injured right knee despite having undergone surgery. In May 1974, having retired, he sued the Bears for $1.6 million, contending that the team had not provided him with the medical and hospital care it had promised in a five-year contract he signed in July 1973. The case was settled out of court.

Upon leaving football, Butkus pursued acting. In one of a series of Miller Lite television advertisements featuring athletes, he portrayed a tennis player who debated the beer’s strongest point with Bubba Smith, formerly a star defensive end with the Baltimore Colts. The

Mike Pyle, a Bears center in the 1960s, faced Butkus head on in the team’s scrimmages. In Richard Whittingham’s “Bears in Their Own Words” (1991), Pyle told how “Dick would be just as intense in practice as he was in a game.”

“I’d spend all this money buying him dinner and beer and stuff like that so that he wouldn’t take it out on me in the scrimmages,” Pyle said. “He probably did shorten my career by a couple of years just in training camp.”

MLB PLAYOFFS Division Series (Best-of-5)

Saturday’s Results

American League Rangers 3, Orioles 2 (Texas leads series 1-0) Astros 6, Twins 4 (Houston leads series 1-0)

National League Diamondbacks 11, Dodgers 2 (Arizona lead series 1-0)

Phillies 3, Braves 0 (Philadelphia lead series 1-0)

Sunday’s Games (all times EST)

American League

Texas Rangers at Baltimore Orioles (4:07 p.m.)

Minnesota Twins at Houston Astros (8:03 p.m.)

Today’s Games

National League

Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves (6:07 p.m., TBS)

Arizona Diamondbacks at Los Angeles Dodgers (9:07 p.m., TBS)

Rahm Emanuel

Hall of Fame

Bears

The San Juan Daily Star

Dick Butkus, the Chicago Bears legend, coaches a Montour High School football player in McKees Rock, Pa. on Sept. 20, 2005.

Baseball’s Mets investigation will seek to answer what Steven Cohen knew

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and KEN BELSON

Major League Baseball, which is investigating whether the New York Mets’ front office cheated by putting healthy players on the injured list, will examine whether the team’s owner, Steven Cohen, knew or should have known if his team was breaking the rules, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The investigation — which will look at a range of individuals, from trainers to baseball operations personnel — will put the conduct of Cohen’s team under scrutiny three years after he bought the Mets for about $2.3 billion. Four years earlier, he walked away largely unscathed from a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation in which he was accused of failing to properly monitor an employee of his hedge fund who went to prison for insider trading.

There are two motivations for looking at the conduct of Cohen, the game’s wealthiest owner and one of its most controversial, as part of the investigation, one of the people said. The first is that the office of the commissioner, Rob Manfred, wants to demonstrate to the public and team owners that it takes allegations of cheating seriously and has turned over every rock. The second is that it wants to ensure that Cohen’s history — which, even though he was never personally found liable for any wrongdoing, worried owners before he bought the team — has not bled into his running of the Mets and its front office culture.

Representatives from the Mets and MLB declined to comment because the investigation is continuing.

The investigation into the Mets began when an anonymous whistleblower sent the commissioner’s office a letter that said the team’s general manager, Billy Eppler, had put at least one player on the injured list this year even though the player was not injured.

The commissioner’s office does not know who sent the letter. Among the possibilities is one of the Mets’ trainers, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. At least one of the trainers is said to have acknowledged to others this season that he was concerned that the team was breaking the rules because a player who was healthy was put on the injured list, according to the person.

Declaring healthy players to be injured may not have as direct an impact on a game as, say, stealing catcher’s signals to their pitchers. But it can have a significant impact on a team’s ability to retain players. Each team has a set number of players it can keep control of during the season. But if a team puts healthy players on the injured list, it increases the number of healthy players it can carry without having to part ways with them or allow other teams to claim them.

Putting healthy players on the injured list can also have implications for whether they achieve bonuses for time spent on the field or reach certain performance thresholds. Less playing time often leaves players with lower stats when they try to make an argument to teams in the future that they should be signed and paid more.

Many in baseball have played off the practice as being just part of the game. But the letter to the commissioner’s office is said to have had a more dramatic impact. Manfred has expressed concerns in recent years about how baseball has fostered a win-at-any-cost mentality in front offices that pushes ethical bounds. And fans criticized him for not doing more to punish the ownership of the Houston Astros after the team was found to have cheated when it used video cameras to steal signs during its World Series-winning 2017 season.

The letter, which the commissioner’s office received in the past two weeks, included other accusations about Eppler’s conduct as general manager, according to one of the people familiar with the matter, although it’s unclear what those were. The commissioner’s office in New York, which is leading the investigation, plans to look into those as well.

So far, Cohen is said to have been cooperative with the commissioner’s office, according to one of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the active investigation. Investigators plan to cast their nets wide and seek cellphone data, text messages, emails and medical records as they try to determine what happened and who knew about it. They also plan to talk to players, front office personnel, and training and medical staff, the people said.

The Mets announced Monday that the team had hired a new president of baseball operations to oversee the front office, including Eppler. As part of that announcement, the team made it a point to say that Eppler, who was hired in November 2021, would stay on as general manager. But on Thursday evening, the Mets announced that Eppler was stepping aside. Shortly after, The New York Post reported that he had resigned after the Mets were informed of the investigation.

Before Cohen bought the Mets, some other team owners wanted to block the purchase because of his checkered legal history. But Manfred helped persuade owners to approve the sale. Since then, Cohen has failed to win over many owners and has clashed, at times, behind the scenes with Manfred. This season, Cohen spent a record $370 million, plus $100 million or so in luxury taxes, on player salaries, which antagonized owners who feel he is distorting the free agent market.

Cohen has been ensnared in investigations over the past decade. In 2016, he and the SEC reached a deal that barred him from managing money for outside investors for two years after the agency accused him of failing to adequately oversee Mathew Martoma, a trader at SAC Capital, the former big hedge fund that Cohen led.

In 2014, Martoma was convicted on charges that he used inside information to generate profits and avoid losses totaling $275 million while working at SAC. He received a nine-year sentence in federal prison.

Cohen was not charged with any criminal wrongdoing and did not admit or deny any wrongdoing in settling with the SEC. In the settlement, the SEC blamed him for ignoring red flags that should have prompted him to question whether Martoma was engaging in insider trading.

In 2013, SAC pleaded guilty to insider trading charges and paid a record $1.8 billion penalty. The hedge fund had to return outside money to investors.

Since then, Cohen has largely managed his own $11 billion fortune through Point72 Asset Management, although the firm has taken in money from outside investors.

Cohen has taken steps to increase compliance and oversight at Point72 to show that improper trading would not be tolerated. Point72 created the position of chief surveillance officer and signed a deal with Palantir Technologies, a software company that receives backing from the CIA, to monitor trading.

An investigation by Major League Baseball puts the conduct of Steven A. Cohen and the Mets under scrutiny less than three years after he bought the team.

Sudoku

How to Play:

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

Sudoku Rules:

Every row must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every column must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Every 3x3 square must contain the numbers from 1 through 9

Crossword

Answers on page 30

Wordsearch

Aries (Mar 21-April 20)

You may experience writer’s block in every sense of the phrase. Even if you don’t consider yourself a writer, for some reason it may be difficult to get even the simplest words down on paper. Don’t get upset. Your verbal juices may not be flowing freely, but they haven’t disappeared. Use this time to read other people’s works and visit museums for inspiration.

Taurus (April 21-May 21)

Action should be your main priority, especially when it comes to love and romance. You may not be too concerned about what sort of action you take. Your only concern is that you aren’t sitting still at any time. Once you figure out what you want, you’re unlikely to stop until you get it. Your power is forceful and extreme.

Gemini (May 22-June 21)

As luscious Venus enters your sector of ambition, it’s A surprise in love and romance is on its way to you. Things are coming full circle, and the investment you made in this realm is finally paying off. Something new is cropping up, but in reality, this is a result of things you set in motion long ago. Be open to embracing the tremendous flow of love and beauty that’s coming your way.

Cancer (June 22-July 23)

Be more aware of your personal appearance and how you’re perceived. Make sure that your attire is appropriate for the people you’re with and the situation. Fashion is a consideration, so don’t look like a slob. You may be urged into a fancy store today where you’re talked into buying some new items to spruce up your wardrobe.

Leo (July 24-Aug 23)

Know what you’re getting yourself into, especially if it has to do with love and romance. You may be like a fly on a tree branch, carefully inspecting the beautiful spider web at your feet. You’re tempted to step on the silky strands, yet once you place one foot on the sticky web, you’ll be tangled there for a long time - maybe forever.

Virgo (Aug 24-Sep 23)

Your heart may be hurt by misfortunes that have befallen you. Thinking about times past is just pulling up buckets of tears from a well. Don’t keep doing this to yourself. It’s time to move forward. Your heart is eager to start something new and bring adventure into your life. Use your emotions as fuel for the future instead of restraints from the past.

Libra (Sep 24-Oct 23)

You’re filled with joy! There’s a tremendous wave of love coming your way. Everything involving romance could be taken to extremes. An extreme in the direction of love and boundless creativity means that at some time there will be a dramatic swing in the opposite direction. Today you only need to concern yourself with the upswing.

Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov 22)

Instead of dragging on with something old, tired, and worn out, why not start something new? If you refuse to give up on a project that’s doomed to fail, you’ll be in for a long, frustrating road ahead. You’ll find this to be especially true of anything involving music, beauty, creativity, and the arts. Redirect your energy toward something more promising.

Sagittarius (Nov 23-Dec 21)

Social engagements will be your saving grace. Without them, you may be confused and sad about issues that are reaching a climax. In some form or another, you’re being asked to make some major transformations. These changes are slow and perhaps subtle, but they’re important and need addressing. This is where the help of friends can come in handy.

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 20)

The intensity should increase around an issue regarding love and romance. Friction is building. Unfortunately, this tension may be unavoidable. It’s likely that some sort of power struggle is being thrown into the mix, and you may fight for control of your emotions. Try not to get sucked into a bottomless pit.

Aquarius (Jan 21-Feb 19)

A thoughtful response may be appreciated, as an Let your heart shine. Love surrounds you like a beautiful pink cloud, and you can’t help but attract people to you. Take romance to a higher level with someone really special tonight. You’ll find that whatever you give will come back to you tenfold. Your aura glows brightly with emotion, so let it light your way.

Pisces (Feb 20-Mar 20)

There’s a great deal of transforming energy in the air that you should harness and capitalize on. You may be a fan of the diet that you’ll start “tomorrow.” When tomorrow comes and there’s a huge meal of pizza, soda, and fries, suddenly the diet once again starts “tomorrow.” Use the powerful energy of today to break out of this habit and make a real change in your life.

Speed Bump