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The San Juan Daily Star
March 4-6, 2016
15
16
March 4-6, 2016
The San Juan Daily Star
Chamber of Commerce Opposes Consumer Bill
By JOHN MCPHAUL
[email protected]
ESTADO LIBRE ASOCIADO DE
PUERTO RICO
JUNTA DE CALIDAD AMBIENTAL
AVISO AMBIENTAL
INTENCIÓN DE RENOVAR PERMISO DE
INYECCIÓN SUBTERRÁNEA
El peticionario, Sr. Ricardo Román Rivera, cuya dirección postal es PO Box
343, Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico 00703, ha solicitado a la Junta de Calidad
Ambiental (JCA) la Renovación del Permiso de Operación UIC-94-650010, para un sistema de inyección subterránea (SIS) Clase VII, bajo las
disposiciones del Reglamento para el Control de la Inyección Subterránea
(RCIS) y la Ley Federal de Agua Potable Segura, según enmendada 42 USC
300f et seq. (LFAPS).
El SIS consiste de un tanque de retención de 11.16 pies de ancho por 11.16
pies de largo por 7.16 pies de profundidad líquida con una capacidad de
6,670 galones, para el almacenamiento de aguas de lavado de los tanques de
manufactura. El referido SIS está ubicado en las instalaciones de Borinquén
Cones, Inc., localizado en la Carretera PR-873, Km 0.2, Barrio Tortugo, San
Juan, Puerto Rico.
Luego de realizada la evaluación correspondiente de los documentos
sometidos, la JCA tiene la intención de renovar el Permiso de Operación para
la instalación antes mencionada en conformidad con los requisitos del RCIS
y de la LFAPS.
Esta notificación se hace para informar que la JCA, ha preparado el borrador del
permiso de forma tal que el público interesado pueda someter sus comentarios
con relación a los mismos. El permiso contiene las condiciones y prohibiciones
necesarias para cumplir con los requisitos reglamentarios aplicables.
El público puede evaluar copia de la solicitud de permiso que sometió el
peticionario ante la JCA, el borrador del permiso y otros documentos relevantes
en el Area de Calidad de Agua de la JCA, cuya oficina está localizada en el Piso
3 Ala A del Edificio Agencias Ambientales Cruz A. Matos, Urbanización San
José Industrial Park, Avenida Pone e de León 1375, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Copia de dichos documentos pueden adquirirse en la Oficina de Secretaría,
entre las 8:00 am y las 4:00 pm de lunes a viernes o escribiendo a la siguiente
dirección: Junta de Calidad Ambiental, PO Box 11488, San Juan, Puerto Rico
00910.
Las partes interesadas o afectadas pueden enviar sus comentarios por escrito
a la Gerente Interina del Area de Calidad de Agua o solicitar una vista pública
por escrito al Director Ejecutivo de la JCA, a la dirección antes indicada.
Los comentarios por escrito o la solicitud de vistas públicas deberán ser
sometidos a la JCA, no más tarde de treinta (30) días a partir de la fecha de
publicación de este aviso. La fecha límite para someter comentarios puede
ser extendida si se estima necesario o apropiado para el interés público. La
solicitud para una vista pública deberá señalar la razón o las razones que en la
opinión del solicitante ameritan la celebración de la misma. De realizarse una
vista pública los interesados o afectados tendrán una oportunidad razonable
para presentar evidencia o testimonio sobre si se emite o deniega el permiso,
si el Director Ejecutivo determina que dicha vista es necesaria o apropiada.
Weldin F. Ortiz Franco
Director Ejecutivo
Edificio de Agencias Ambientales Cruz A. Matos
Carretera Estatal 8838, Sector el Cinco, Río Piedras, PR 00926
PO Box 11488, Santurce, PR 00910
Te!. 787-767-8181, Fax 787-767-4861
www.jca.gobierno.pr
JCA
JUNTA DE CALIDAD AMBIENTAL
Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico
T
he Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce expressed its opposition Thursday to a bill that would
prohibit businesses from including in their bills
of sale any service charge that does not detail its origin, saying that the Department of Consumer Affairs
(DACO) already covers that eventuality.
Senate Bill 1557 was filed by Sens. Luis Daniel Rivera Filomeno and Eduardo Bhatia at the end of last
month after press reports revealed the existence of restaurants that include services charges in the bill and
don’t specify what the charge is for.
The measure would create the “Law for Transparency in the Sales Receipt.”
Héctor Mayol, interim executive director of the
Chamber of Commerce, said the objective of the measure is already contained in the Regulations Against
False Practices and Announcements administered by
DACO.
Mayol cited Rule 7, specifically section B point 14
of the rule, which provides language almost identical to
the bill currently under analysis by the Labor Relations,
Consumer Affairs and Creation of Employment Committee of the Senate presided over by Rivera Filomeno.
In essence, DACO prohibits charging for services
“when said services are nonexistent or not susceptible
to being corroborated.”
“For the business, the dispositions of the rule are
clear and you have to comply with them,” Mayol said
during a public hearing before the Senate committee.
“That being the case, it doesn’t seem to us necessary to
attend to this matter in Senate Bill 1557.”
“The Legislative Assembly must continue to leave
the practices between businesses and consumers in
DACO’s hands and allow it the flexibility to regulate,”
he added.
Mayol noted further that the Chamber of Commerce rejects the practices attributed to certain restaurants and affirmed that the chamber advocates greater
transparency in commercial transactions.
“You can look at what [DACO] is doing and look at
the charter of the agency to see if this law needs amending, because there is a process established in administrative law to deal with these situations,” Mayol said.
Disney Plans to Build 2 New Cruise Ships
D
isney Cruise Line announced Thursday that it is building two new ships.
The new vessels are scheduled to be completed in
2021 and 2023. They will be built at the Meyer Werft shipyard
in Germany.
The new ships will each have about 1,250 staterooms,
and will be slightly larger than Disney’s newest ships, Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy. The company has two other
ships as well, Disney Magic, and its first ship, Disney Wonder,
which launched in 1998.
Design plans, ship names and itineraries for the new
vessels are still in development. The announcement was
made Thursday by Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger in Chicago at
the annual meeting of company shareholders. The new vessels will be Disney’s first ships since Disney Fantasy launched
in 2012.
Disney ships are loaded with company branding, including activities, shows, decor and venues all themed on
Disney characters and story lines. But they’re also known for
innovation, like virtual portholes in windowless staterooms
that provide real-time views of the sea using video technology. That concept has since been copied elsewhere in the
cruise industry. And while families are the cruise line’s natural fan base, the ships also attract cruisers traveling without
children.
In the most recent batch of annual awards from CruiseCritic.com, Disney Cruise Line won 11 first-place awards,
including, for Disney Dream, wins in the categories of best
overall large ship, best for families, best cabins and best public rooms.
‘‘Disney is consistently rated one of the top cruise lines
on Cruise Critic by our members, and it’s a line known for
moving the needle with new and state-of-the-art features, so
we expect the same high quality touches and focus on innovation will be incorporated on the new ships as well,’’ said
Colleen McDaniel, managing editor of CruiseCritic.com.
The San Juan Daily Star
March 4-6, 2016
17
Apple Gets Tech Industry Backing in iPhone Dispute, Despite Misgivings
By NICK WINGFIELD and MIKE ISAAC
Yet whatever doubts Apple’s allies voiced privately, they
were in the end insufficient to keep a large number of big
companies from signing on to the cause.
Dropbox’s general counsel, Ramsey Homsany, said in a
statement, “We stand against the use of broad authorities to
undermine the security of a company’s products.”
Bruce Sewell, Apple’s general counsel, said in a statement,
“We are humbled by the outpouring of support we’ve received from our customers, our colleagues in business, nonprofit
organizations, the security community and many others.” He
added, “The groups filing briefs with the court understand,
as more and more people have come to realize, that this case
is not about one phone — it is about the future and how we
protect our safety and our privacy.”
On Tuesday, Apple filed its formal objection to the government order to open up the iPhone, citing the reasons set
forth in a previously filed motion.
For many tech companies that were initially concerned by
Apple’s opposition to opening up the iPhone in the San Bernardino case, the worries centered not only on whether this
was the right case for challenging the government but also on
how public perceptions of the fight might reflect on the rest
of the industry, according to tech executives involved in the
discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
A report by Pew Research Center last week said 51 percent
of Americans believed that Apple should unlock the iPhone
to assist the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the case, while
only 38 percent found Apple in the right.
Some of the companies were also concerned that the relationships they had forged with the government might degrade because of Apple’s battle, according to the people involved in the tech industry discussions. In the years since the
disclosures by Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence
contractor who released a trove of details on United States
government surveillance tactics, some tech companies have
been trying to educate members of Congress about online privacy practices.
Others were also anxious that Apple’s defiance of the government could lead to congressional efforts to reshape, in
ways unfavorable to the tech industry, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which privacy advocates and tech
companies have long claimed needs an overhaul.
And these companies are watching what effect the fight
could have on a proposal to establish a national commission that would explore ways to obtain encrypted data from
consumers while working to safeguard users’ privacy. The
proposed commission, the bill for which was introduced
on Monday, would be led by the House Homeland Security
Committee chairman Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas,
and Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia.
APARTMENT FOR SALE CONDADO
OFFICE FOR SALE
I
t is a remarkable moment for the technology industry, with
many different companies and organizations rallying around
a single company — Apple — in a major legal case against the
United States government over privacy and security.
Yet behind the scenes, it took time for some of the tech companies to make the decision to support Apple. Several feared the
showdown with the government was too risky and could have
far-reaching implications for the tech industry if Apple lost.
Those misgivings ultimately did not win the day. About 40
companies and organizations are expected to file court briefs on
Thursday backing Apple as it fights a judge’s order to help law
enforcement break into an iPhone used by a gunman in the San
Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attack last year.
Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Snapchat and Yahoo
are among the tech companies expected to sign on to briefs in the
case, according to people with knowledge of the plans who spoke
on the condition of anonymity. More than 40 individuals, including
prominent security experts and academics, are also planning to
sign briefs, which will focus on themes like free speech, the importance of encryption and concerns about government overreach.
The show of support — including briefs filed on Wednesday
by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Access
Now — is unusual in its breadth, showing that many in Silicon
Valley believe that it could have profound implications on the
trustworthiness of their products.
“Given the years of companies’ reluctance to be at the barricades around intelligence discussions, this is significant,” said Jules Polonetsky, chief executive of the Future of Privacy Forum, an
industry-financed think tank in Washington.
Still, several executives at tech companies supporting Apple
said they were worried that Apple had picked a fight that could
end up backfiring on the rest of the industry. In the days since a
magistrate judge in California ordered Apple to bypass security
measures on the iPhone, lawyers in some of the companies debated these issues with one another and peers at other firms.
All of the executives asked to remain anonymous because their deliberations were private, but their views are shared
among others in Silicon Valley.
Keith Rabois, a venture capitalist with the firm Khosla Ventures, said he was a strong believer in privacy and encryption —
“all the normal Silicon Valley views,” he said — but worried that
Apple could lose the case, setting a legal precedent that could
force other companies to compromise the security of their products for law enforcement.
“In my view, this is the wrong case to fight,” Mr. Rabois said.
“There are plenty of other cases with a lot less sympathetic case
for the government.”
For Mr. Rabois and others, the circumstances working against
Apple include the iPhone’s connection to a terrorist attack that left
14 people dead, rather than to a less highly charged crime. Furthermore, the iPhone was owned by the employer of the gunman, Syed
Rizwan Farook, which consented to a search of the device.
Apple’s defenders said the company did not pick this fight —
the government did. Critics of Apple’s approach believe that the
company could have quietly complied with the government’s request to help break into the iPhone and then taken a public stand
in a more favorable case. But Apple has said that once a tool exists
for extracting data from the phone, that tool cannot be made to
disappear.
Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft, which is
expected to side with Apple in its privacy case against
the federal government.
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18 March 4-6, 2016
Stocks
The San Juan Daily Star
Market Inches Upward,
p
but Earnings
g Disappoint
pp
S
tocks made modest gains on Thursday as the market
once again turned higher late in the day.
Energy stocks led the way as investors continue to hope
that oil prices have stabilized after almost two years of steep
declines.
For the second day in a row, stocks opened with small
losses and gradually rose during the afternoon. Energy companies surged and are now slightly higher for the year. Industrial companies like Caterpillar and Deere also rose. Drugmakers led a decline in health care stocks.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index edged up 6.95
points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,993.40. Tech stocks lagged, and the
Nasdaq composite index added 4 points, or 0.1 percent, to
4,707.42.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 44.58 points,
or 0.3 percent, to 16,943.90.
Stocks have eked out small gains over the last two days,
aided by steady oil prices and reports showing the U.S. economy is on solid footing. After a big jump on Tuesday, and the
market is on target for its third consecutive weekly gain.
The price of U.S. crude wavered between small gains
and losses, finally closing down 9 cents at $34.57 a barrel in
New York. Brent crude, the benchmark for international oils,
added 14 cents to $37.07 a barrel in London. The price of U.S.
oil has risen more than 30 percent in three weeks, and Brent
crude has erased its losses for the year.
ConocoPhillips rose $2.07, or 5.7 percent, to $38.56 and
Southwestern Energy jumped $1.13, or 18.2 percent, to $7.34.
Chesapeake Energy continued to skyrocket after the
company said it does not expect to be prosecuted or fined
as part of a federal investigation into the company’s founder
and former chief, Aubrey McClendon, who died in a car accident on Wednesday. Mr. McClendon had been indicted by a
federal grand jury on charges of rigging gas-lease bids.
Shares of Chesapeake jumped 23 percent and added another 87 cents, or 25.6 percent, to $4.27.
J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist for TD Ameritrade,
said that investors seemed to be waiting for good news about
the economy. That could come Friday morning, when the
government reports its latest employment figures.
Mr. Kinahan said investors will be looking for signs of
growth in better-paying jobs, possibly in the manufacturing
or health care industries, as opposed to restaurants and hotels.
“We know we’re not going to be a manufacturing economy again,” he said, but investors hope to see some growth
in manufacturing jobs instead of losses.
The Commerce Department said orders to U.S. factories
grew 1.6 percent in January, the biggest gain in seven months.
A category that measures business investment rose by the
largest amount in 19 months.
Mining equipment maker Joy Global climbed $2.77, or
20.8 percent, to $16.09 after its first-quarter sales were stronger than expected. 3D printer maker Stratasys rose $3.64, or
17.4 percent, to $24.53. The company’s fourth-quarter results
were better than expected and it gave a strong forecast for
2016.
MOST ASSERTIVE STOCKS
PUERTO RICO STOCKS
COMMODITIES
CURRENCY
LOCAL PERSONAL LOAN RATES
LOCAL MORTGAGE RATES
Bank
FHA 30-YR POINTS CONV 30-YR POINTS
BPPR
Scotia
CooPACA
Money House
First Mort
Oriental
3.00%
3.50%
3.50%
3.75%
3.50%
3.50%
0.00
0.00
2.00
2.00
0.00
0.00
3.50%
4.00%
3.75%
3.75%
5.50%
3.75%
000
0.00
2.00
2.00
0.00
5.50
Bank
PERS.
CREDIT CARD
AUTO
BPPR
--.--
17.95
4.95
Scotia
4.99
14.99
4.59
CooPACA
6.75
9.95
2.95
Reliable
--.--
--.--
4.40
First Mort
7.99
--.--
--.--
Oriental
4.95
9.99
7.09