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PRECINCT 2
SMUGGLING CHARGES
New commissioner
Two plea guilty
Elizondo is Zapata’s first female county commissioner By GABRIELA A. TREVIÑO THE ZAPATA TIMES
Olga M. Elizondo is the firstever female to serve as a county commissioner in Zapata. Elizondo represents Precinct 2, which encompasses North Zapata and San Ygnacio. According to the March 4 primary election results, Elizondo beat her opponents with 56 percent, or 377 votes. Her opponents were the incumbent Gabriel Villarreal and Victor Juan de Dios Gonzalez, who garnered 32.39 percent and 11.59 percent, respectively. Elizondo has been married to Sergio Elizondo for 26 years,
and the couple has three children: Ivan, Eric and Priscilla. She said she has resided in Zapata her entire life. Elizondo has served the community in various capacities since the early 1990s. She was previously the President of the area’s Little League Association, which she said piqued her interest in youth projects. She also served as PTO President. “I remember when my grandfather, Felipe Morales, would tell me that one day I could be elected into office for all my dedication to our community in Zapata,” Elizondo
told The Zapata Timesvia text Saturday. “My future projects plans are to have more lighting, improve projects that would benefit our youth and elderly and finish street paving.” Elizondo said she was motivated to run for the position of county commissioner after hearing complaints about the cleanliness of her precinct. She also said that she plans on supporting the sheriff ’s department’s anti-drug program. “(I plan to) upgrade the sheriff ’s and fire department’s equipment, start planning for
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Pair attempted to transport immigrants By PHILIP BALLI THE ZAPATA TIMES
Two of the three Zapata residents indicted Nov. 25 on human smuggling charges pleaded guilty Monday before a federal magistrate judge in Laredo. Misti Lea Grandstaff and Mario Humberto Garza III each pleaded guilty to one count of transporting
ELIZONDO
See GUILTY PAGE 11A
TEXAS POLITICS
LEGISLATURE OPENS AMID OIL WOES
Photo by Eric Gay | AP
Visitors line up in the Texas Capitol to enter the House Chambers for the beginning of the 2015 legislative session, Tuesday in Austin, Texas.
House speaker retains post, Republicans work to keep promises By JIM VERTUNO AND PAUL J. WEBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — The Texas Legislature roared back to life Tuesday with plenty of pomp but also the first House leadership floor fight in 40 years — an early hint of what could be bitter policy clashes ahead as re-galvanized Republicans work to keep sweeping conservative promises on tax cuts, gun rights, education and immi-
gration. Keeping those promises could be even more difficult, though, as plummeting oil prices may eventually harm Texas’ economy. The start of the 140-day session featured more ceremony than policy with a notable exception in the House, where Speaker Joe Straus, a San Antonio Republican, easily beat back a tea-party challenge to his post.
Second-term Rep. Scott Turner claimed Straus was too moderate and ran against him, forcing the lower chamber’s first floor vote on the speakership since 1975. But a coalition of Republicans and Democrats supported Straus 127-19, trouncing Turner, a former NFL football player from Richardson in suburban Dallas who was backed by the GOP’s far-right faction. “Small members sought to divide us up
with misleading and personal attacks,” Straus said. “But you cannot effectively govern this House by dividing it.” Entering his fourth term as speaker, Straus is one of the few veterans returning to a top Texas political post. The largest shake-up in a generation last November changed the names in power, but not the party. The GOP still controls ev-
See LEGISLATURE PAGE 11A
GUERRERO, MEXICO
Jailed US vigilante becomes political football ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Grisel Rodriguez | AP file
This 2009 family photo provided by Grisel Rodriguez shows Nestora Salgado, who has been detained since she was arrested Aug. 21, 2013 in the state of Guerrero.
MEXICO CITY — A proposal to free a female vigilante leader who holds dual U.S.-Mexico nationality has become a subject of heated debate in Mexico. The case of Nestora Salgado has pitted supporters who claim she is a crime-fighter and victim of a political vendetta, against victims-rights activists, who say
freeing her would be an added offense to victims of unlawful detention. Salgado returned from Washington state, where she lived and obtained U.S. citizenship, to her hometown of Olinala in southern Guerrero state to head a vigilante-style community police force. She was arrested in August 2013, after people detained by vig-
ilantes complained they had been kidnapped. Some said Salgado’s force had demanded payments in exchange for releasing them. Last week, Guerrero Governor Rogelio Ortega suggested last week that charges against Salgado be dropped. But anti-crime activist Isabel Miranda de Wallace said Monday
See VIGILANTE PAGE 11A