Federal Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who was presiding over the trial of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in the United States, died Wednesday at the age of 92, according to The New York Times. It is not immediately clear who will replace Hellerstein in the high-profile case, which is scheduled to begin on June 14.
The Ortiz family slept fully dressed in case their building caught fire that night. The Ortizs, or the Brennans, or the Washingtons — it didn’t matter, it could be any surname, it could be a surname just like yours, exactly like yours. They lived in the South Bronx, in nearly century-old brick buildings of four, five or six stories with no elevators, and they went to bed in the clothes they would wear the next day, with their shoes on — especially the children — because going down three flights of stairs in socks on a burning stairwell could mean the difference between living and dying. Mothers left a bag by the door with documents, a family photo, and whatever cash they had, always the same ready bag, like people who live near a war front. Because, in a way, New York’s decade of fire was a war front.