The Zapata Times 1/28/2015

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WEBB COUNTY

Sentenced to 76 months County commissioner going to prison for bribes

By PHILIP BALLI THE ZAPATA TIMES

MONTEMAYOR

Before being sentenced Monday to six-plus years in prison for taking bribes, former Webb County Commissioner Mike Montemayor told the judge that he became a “monster” and lost control of the power he had while in office.

“I want to apologize to the

City of Laredo and to the county of Webb for going against everything I promised I would do,” said Montemayor, crying.

“I have put them both on the map for all the wrong reasons.

“I am embarrassed by my actions and have been humiliated, but I have learned a hard lesson from this and I have become a better man, husband and father.”

In a courtroom filled with family members and his former county peers, Montemayor was sentenced to 76 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $109,405 fine.

Following the hearing, he was taken into custody, after being out on bond for almost a year.

The then-Precinct 1 commissioner was arrested by the FBI

TEXAS SENATE

in March on two counts of bribery. He faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty in June to one count of bribery.

Days after his arrest, he posted on his Facebook page: “ … There is a lot more to the story. A lot more. I wish I could say more but I can’t. I

See PRISON PAGE 11A

GUERRERO, MEXICO

OPEN CARRY WON’T FLY

Photo by Rebecca Blackwell | AP

Protestors carry banners with pictures of some of the 43 missing students.

All students are dead Investigators certain that 43 students were killed Photo by Eric Gay | AP

A gun-rights advocate carries a rifle on his back and a cardboard cutout of pistol on his waist as a group protests outside the Texas Capitol, Jan. 13, in Austin, Texas. The 2015 Texas Legislative Session began Tuesday and expanding where and how Texans can carry guns is expected to be an issue this session.

By ALBERTO ARCE AND MARIA VERZA

Lt. Gov. Patrick walks back on gun rights promise least two have been filed in the Senate.

Patrick’s campaign website, which is still online, notes he will “fight for open carry.”

But now that he occupies one of the most powerful offices in the state, Patrick walked back from that promise Tuesday.

“I don’t think there’s support in the Legislature to pass it,” Patrick said. “I haven’t had anyone bring it up to me.”

Patrick’s comments came a day after a small rally by open carry advocates at the Capitol, the second in as many

MEXICO CITY — Investigators are now certain that 43 college students missing since September were killed and incinerated after they were seized by police in southern Guerrero state, the Mexican attorney general said Tuesday.

It was the first time Jesus Murillo Karam said definitely that all were dead, even though Mexican authorities have DNA identification for only one student and a declaration from a laboratory in Innsbruck, Austria, that it appears impossible to identify the others.

The attorney general cited confes-

See PATRICK PAGE 12A

See STUDENTS PAGE 12A

By JIM VERTUNO ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUSTIN — After pledging in his campaign to fight for open carry of handguns in Texas, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick now says it’s not a priority and doesn’t have the votes to pass.

The issue seemed to be gaining strong momentum for the 2015 session with support from Gov. Greg Abbott and top Republicans who swept into office in November. But Patrick doused the hopes of gun rights advocates with his remarks Tuesday at a forum hosted by the Texas

Tribune.

Patrick, who has supported expanding gun rights in previous votes as a state senator, said “open carry doesn’t reach the level” of the Republican-dominated chamber’s other priorities, such as the state budget and public education.

Texas hasn’t allowed open carry of handguns since immediately after the Civil War. Several bills had been filed this session to allow open carry, ranging from requiring a license to letting anyone carry a handgun in public, also known as “constitutional carry.” While most have been filed in the House, at

ASSOCIATED PRESS

TEXAS ECONOMY

Plunge in crude oil prices will affect job creation

By MELLA MCEWEN ASSOCIATED PRESS

In recent years, Texas has led the nation in job creation, with Midland and Odessa frequently outpacing major metropolitan areas like Dallas and Houston.

The plunge in crude prices to below $50 a barrel is expected to affect the state’s job creation in 2015, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ annual Texas Economic Outlook.

The outlook forecasts that the

state’s job growth will likely slow from about 3.6 percent in 2014 to between 2 and 2.5 percent this year, said Keith Phillips, senior economist and research officer with the bank.

That will result in between 235,000 and 295,000 new jobs this year, down from the estimated 408,000 jobs that were created last year.

Phillips told local business leaders at the bank’s San Antonio branch recently that, “The sharp decline in oil prices has

created much uncertainty in our outlook for state job growth this year, but we’re viewing it as a headwind for the Texas economy. However, Texas has a diversified economy, and while the drop in oil prices slows job growth, it won’t send the state into a recession like it did in the 1980s.”

A sustained oil price below $50 a barrel will hurt the state economy because that figure is

See ECONOMY PAGE 12A

Photo by Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News | AP file

Areas of Texas more dependent on energy production, like the Eagle Ford Shale, will be more negatively impacted by the sharply curtailed drilling activity.

PAGE 2A

Zin brief CALENDAR

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015

AROUND TEXAS

TODAY IN HISTORY

THURSDAY, JAN. 29

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Spanish Book Club from 6-8 p.m. at the Laredo Public Library, Calton Road. Sylvia Reash at 763-1810.

Villa San Agustin de Laredo Genealogical Society meeting. 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. St. John Neuman Catholic Parish Hall. Sanjuanita Hunter at 722-3497.

Los Amigos Duplicate Bridge Club will meet at the Laredo Country Club at 1:15 to 5 p.m. Beverly Cantu at 7270589.

Elysian Social Club will host their monthly meeting at 7 p.m. PBA. For more information contact: Herlinda Nieto-Dubuisson 285-3126.

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 28, the 28th day of 2015. There are 337 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlights in History: On Jan. 28, 1915, the United States Coast Guard was created as President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill merging the Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service. The American merchant vessel SS William P. Frye, en route to England with a cargo of wheat, became the first U.S. ship to be sunk during World War I by a German cruiser, the SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich, even though the United States was not at war.

On this date: In 1547, England’s King Henry VIII died; he was succeeded by his 9-year-old son, Edward VI. In 1813, the novel “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen was first published anonymously in London.

In 1939, Irish poet-dramatist William Butler Yeats died in Menton, France.

In 1956, Elvis Presley made his first national TV appearance on “Stage Show,” a CBS program hosted by Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.

In 1973, a cease-fire officially went into effect in the Vietnam War. In 1980, six U.S. diplomats who had avoided being taken hostage at their embassy in Tehran flew out of Iran with the help of Canadian diplomats.

In 1985, the charity supergroup USA for Africa recorded the Michael Jackson-Lionel Richie song “We Are the World” at A&M Studios in Los Angeles.

In 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

Ten years ago: Senate Democrats criticized President George W. Bush’s plan to add personal accounts to Social Security and accused his administration of improperly using the Social Security Administration to promote the idea.

Five years ago: Major world powers opened talks in London seeking an end to the conflict in Afghanistan.

One year ago: Seeking to energize his second term, President Barack Obama vowed in his State of the Union address to sidestep Congress “whenever and wherever” necessary to narrow economic disparities between rich and poor.

Today’s Birthdays: Actordancer John Ronald Dennis is 90. Actor Nicholas Pryor is 80.

Actor Alan Alda is 79. Actress Susan Howard is 73. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., is 68.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is 60. Actress Harley Jane Kozak is 58. Rock singer Sam Phillips is 53. Rock musician Dan Spitz is 52. Singer Sarah McLachlan is 47.

Rapper Rakim is 47. DJ Muggs (Cypress Hill) is 47. Rhythmand-blues singer Anthony Hamilton is 44. Retired MLB AllStar Jermaine Dye is 41. Singer Joey Fatone Jr. (’N Sync) is 38. Rapper Rick Ross is 38. Actress Rosamund Pike is 36.

Singer Nick Carter (Backstreet Boys) is 35. Actor Elijah Wood is 34. Rapper J. Cole is 30. Actress Alexandra Krosney is 27.

Thought for Today: “A self-taught man usually has a poor teacher and a worse student.” — Henny Youngman, British-born American comedian (1906-1998).

FRIDAY, JAN. 30 TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Science Center Planetarium. Back to the Moon, 6 p.m. Saturn: Jewel of the Heavens, 7 p.m. Admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults, and $4 for TAMIU students, faculty and staff.

Photo by Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News | AP

SATURDAY, JAN. 31 TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Science Center Planetarium. The Little Star that Could, 2 p.m. Stars of the Pharoahs, 3 p.m. Back to the Moon, 4 p.m.

Saturn: Jewel of the Heavens, 5 p.m.

Admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults, and $4 for TAMIU students, faculty and staff.

The Laredo North Side Market is hosting the first Fifth Saturday market on Saturday January 31st, 2015 at Slaughter Park from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Several give-aways will happen. For more information see the Laredo Northside Market Association page on facebook.

SUNDAY, FEB. 1 Accepting applications from volunteers to help foster youth. No experience needed, must be 21 years or older, and have a clear background. Free training program offered. Voz de Niños for electronic application. www.vozdeninos.org.

Ruthe B. Cowl Rehabilitation Center, Orthopaedic Clinic. 9 a.m.-2 p.m., 1220 N. Malinche. Norma Rangel at 722-2431 for more information or program.manager@laredo.twcbc.com.

Women’s City Club monthly meeting, noon-1:30 p.m. Laredo Country Club, 1415 Country Club Drive. Claudia Garcia, WCC officer, 206-5552, cng_garcia@hotmail.com or club President Ruby Chapa at 744-0993.

TUESDAY, FEB. 3 The Gateway Gatos of Laredo monthly board meeting at 7 p.m. in Room No. 2, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 1700 San Francisco Ave. People interested in cats should attend. Birdie Torres at 956-286-7866.

The Alzheimer’s support group meets at 7 p.m. in meeting room 2, building B of the Laredo Medical Center.

The support group is for family members and caregivers taking care of someone who has Alzheimer’s. For information, please call 693-9991.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 4 Bible study 7 p.m. every Wednesday at Lighthouse Assembly of God Church, 8731 Belize Dr. Ricardo Rangel Jr. at 333-9294 or ricardo_grace@yahoo.com.

Presentation and book signing of Awakening Kindness by Nawang Khechog with a foreword by The Dalai Lama and endorsed by 3 Nobel Peace Laureates to include the Rev. Desmond Tutu and also endorsed by Richard Gere. Location: TAMIU Student Center # 236 4 – 6 p.m. Event is FREE and open to the public. Contact Esther Garcia at 956-285-9637 or Tatiana Friar at 956771-9671

SATURDAY, FEB. 7 2nd Annual Krizia Lauren Keiser Memorial 5K Run/Walk & Kids Run at Uni-Trade Stadium, 6320 Sinatra Pkwy.

Wellness & Women Con-nection Luncheon. 11:45 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., Johnny Carino’s. Contact Sylvia O. Praesel at 512-988-0503 or at info@wwconnection.org. Business Connection and Networking Luncheon, promoting women’s wellness. RSVP@wwconnec-tion.org. tp://www.wwconnec-tion.org.

First United Methodist Church, used book sale, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at 1220 McClelland Ave. Hardback books $1, paperback books 50 cents and magazines and children’s books 25 cents.

(Submit calendar items at lmtonline.com/calendar/submit or by emailing editorial@lmtonline.com with the event’s name, date and time, location and purpose.)

Gabe Simpson, a senior at Texas City High School, grinds a weld on part of a project for a district competition in Shawn Trader’s welding class at the high school on Jan. 20 in Texas City, Texas. Simpson, who has muscular dystrophy, hasn’t let his wheelchair keep him from learning the vocation.

Life lessons in welding

By SHANNON DAUGHTRY GALVESTON COUNTY DAILY NEWS

TEXAS CITY — In Shawn Trader’s classroom, it’s important that students learn not just about welding, but that they also learn some important things about life, he said.

“I want them to learn things like discipline, safety, being on time, accountability and taking care of business,” Trader said.

“These are all things they can carry on for the rest of their lives.”

The Galveston County Daily News reports that for Gabe Simpson, a senior at Texas City High School who has muscular dystrophy, Trader’s class has taught him much more than just how to weld a custom barbecue pit. He’s learned just how far he can go with hard work, determination and a great group of friends and teammates.

Muscular dystrophy is a group of diseases

that cause progressive weakness and a loss of muscle mass. There is no cure for the disease, but medications and therapy can help manage symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic.

As Simpson’s muscular dystrophy has progressed over the years, some things have become more challenging but he’s never let that get him down, Trader said.

“He dresses out every day, no complaints,” Trader said. “He’s always eager to learn and try new things.”

Simpson, who uses a wheelchair, said he loves welding. He first learned about the craft from his grandfather and has always wanted to try it. Now in his second year in the welding class, Simpson said he continues to learn all that he can and works to master his craft — even though there are some things he knows he won’t be able to do.

Mortician where decaying bodies found enters plea

Mexican gets 14 years in Texas drug money case

About 100 cold-stunned sea turtles return to Gulf

DALLAS — An owner of a Fort Worth mortuary business where decaying bodies were left unattended last summer has pleaded guilty to an unrelated charge of illegally receiving federal benefits. Federal prosecutors say 35-year-old Rachel Hardy pleaded Tuesday to food stamp benefit fraud. She faces up to 20 years in prison.

Seven of the eight bodies found at her business were in advanced stages of decomposition.

BROWNSVILLE — A Mexican man has been sentenced to 14 years in prison and must repay nearly $1.9 million for laundering drug money in South Texas.

Oscar J. Aguilar was sentenced Tuesday in Brownsville.

Aguilar last May pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit international money laundering.

Aguilar, who was a legal resident of Brownsville, could face deportation after serving his federal prison term.

CORPUS CHRISTI — About 100 green sea turtles found stunned on Texas beaches during recent cold weather have been warmed and will be returned to the Gulf of Mexico.

Officials with Padre Island National Seashore near Corpus Christi plan to release the reptiles Wednesday afternoon.

Members of the public are encouraged to attend.

3 most-wanted sex offenders arrested AUSTIN — Three men on the state’s list of 10 most-wanted sex offenders have been taken into custody over a two-day period.

The Texas Department of Public Safety on Tuesday announced that one of the men, 57-year-old Charles Leon Carr, was found in Vera Cruz, Mexico, by authorities acting on a tip.

Ex-guard at prison pleads guilty to sex with inmate WACO — A former corrections officer at a privately run prison in Central Texas has pleaded guilty to having sex with an inmate she was guarding.

Investigators say Melissa Corona in 2013 began the relationship by kissing a male inmate more than 10 times.

2 hospitalized for burns after Karnes explosion KARNES CITY — Officials say two men were hospitalized for second- and third-degree burns following an explosion at an oilfield site in South Texas. A Karnes County Sheriff ’s Office spokesman says two workers at Premier Tank Services on Monday were performing welding work on a tanker truck using a torch when the tank exploded.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION Partial store roof collapse in Philadelphia injures 3 PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia police say three women inside an athletic-apparel store were injured when the roof collapsed, apparently as bricks fell from a taller building next door.

Police say the three 27-year-old women have been taken to a hospital but don’t have life-threatening injuries.

Christine Vamvalis-Haley says she was shopping in the downtown Lululemon Athletica store and heard a huge crash. Then she says the ceiling, walls and light fixtures tumbled down.

Couple shot dead after responding to Craigslist MARIETTA, Ga. — A 28-yearold man was charged Tuesday with killing a couple who traveled to rural Georgia seeking to buy a 1966 Ford Mustang through an advertisement placed

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Firefighters gather in front of the Lululemon a store in Philadelphia, Tuesday. Philadelphia police said three women inside the Lululemon store were injured when the roof partially collapsed, as bricks fell from a taller building next door. on Craigslist, an online classified ad service.

Investigators accuse Ronnie Adrian “Jay” Towns, 28, of McRae, of killing 69-year-old Elrey “Bud” Runion and his 66year-old wife, June Runion of Marietta. They were found dead

Monday, shot in the head. Towns did not enter a plea Tuesday during a brief court appearance, and his attorney declined to comment. Telfair County Sheriff Chris Steverson said robbery appears to have been the motive.

— Compiled from AP reports

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State

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

Death-row inmate wins reprieve

By MICHAEL GRACZYK ASSOCIATED PRESS

HUNTSVILLE — Texas’ top criminal court called off today’s scheduled execution of a death-row inmate linked to five killings in Houston, though attorneys said the court didn’t immediately explain its decision.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a reprieve Tuesday afternoon to inmate Garcia White, who was sentenced to death after being convicted of fatally stabbing twin 16year-old girls at a Houston apartment where their mother also was killed.

WHITE White also was tied to the deaths of a grocery store owner and a prostitute.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys said the court didn’t immediately explain its decision. Another inmate is scheduled for execution Thursday for a separate crime in the nation’s busiest death-penalty state.

In their appeal, White’s attorneys argued that he may have been mentally impaired because of longtime cocaine use when he waived his right to an attorney during interrogations. They also said DNA evidence suggests a second person may have been involved in the triple slaying.

The bodies of Bonita Edwards, 35, and her 16-year-old daughters Annette and Bernette were found at their Houston apartment a few days after they were last seen in December 1989. But his confession came only after he was arrested six years later, for the July 1995 death of 55-year-old Hai Van Pham, who was fatally beaten during a robbery at his Houston store.

White told police he went to Edwards’ home to smoke crack cocaine and killed her during an argument, then attacked one of her daughters when she came out of her room. Evidence shows the attacker also broke down the locked door of the girls’ bedroom.

“I stabbed one in the bedroom and one in the living room,” White told detectives, who said both girls’ throats were slit.

White was convicted of killing the teenagers, and charged but not tried for the deaths of Bonita Edwards and Pham. Authorities also linked but never charged White, who played one year of football at Lubbock Christian University, to the slaying of a prostitute.

Another inmate, Robert Ladd, 57, is set for execution Thursday. Ladd was convicted of fatally beating 38-year-old Vickie Ann Garner of Tyler in 1996.

Photo by Eric Gay | AP

In this Jan. 15 photo, Gov. Rick Perry addresses a joint session of the Texas Legislature, in Austin. A Texas judge on Tuesday refused to throw out a felony abuse-of-power case against former Gov. Perry on constitutional grounds, ruling that the case against the possible presidential hopeful should continue.

Judge refuses to toss Perry case

By WILL WEISSERT ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUSTIN — A Texas judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss a felony abuse-of-power case against former Gov. Rick Perry on constitutional grounds, ruling that criminal charges against the possible 2016 presidential candidate should stand.

In 44 pages of decisions and orders, District Judge Bert Richardson, who like Perry is a Republican, rejected calls from Perry’s pricy defense team to toss the case because its client was acting within his rights as chief executive of America’s second-most populous state when he publicly threatened, then carried out, a 2013 veto of state funding for public corruption prosecutors.

Richardson wrote that, “Texas law clearly precludes a trial court from making a pretrial determination regarding the constitutionality of a state penal or criminal procedural statute as the statue applies to a particular defendant.”

Perry was the longest-serving governor in Texas history but chose not to seek re-election last year and left office Jan. 20. He is seriously considering a second run for presi-

dent after his 2012 White House bid flamed out in a series of public gaffes, however, and says he may announce a final decision as soon as May. Perry has spent more than $1.1 million of his campaign funds on his defense — and Richard’s ruling means it will likely continue for several more months at least.

David Botsford, one of Perry’s defense attorneys, said the legal team had filed a notice of appeal. Another attorney, Tony Buzbee, issued a statement saying that the former governor “acted lawfully and properly exercised his power under the law” and that his continued prosecution “is an outrage and sets a dangerous precedent in our Democracy.”

Perry was indicted in August on charges of abuse of official power and coercion of a public servant. He is accused of publicly threatening — then making good on — the veto of $7.5 million in state funding for a public corruption division within the office of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg. That came after Lehmberg, a Democrat whose county includes Austin, rebuffed Perry’s calls to resign following a convic-

tion and jail time for drunken driving.

Texans for Public Justice, a left-leaning watchdog group based in Austin, raised concerns that gave rise to the criminal case. The group’s executive director, Craig McDonald, released a statement Tuesday saying, “The prosecutor and a grand jury have said there’s compelling evidence against Perry. That evidence should be presented in court for all to see. The chances of that happening improved today.”

In a 60-page motion filed in August, Perry’s attorneys had said the law being used to prosecute him is unconstitutionally vague and decried “attempts to convert inescapably political disputes into criminal complaints.”

Richardson did rule Tuesday that one of the charges against Perry was vague, but he gave the state time to correct it.

A grand jury in Austin — a liberal enclave in otherwise largely conservative Texas — indicted Perry. If convicted, the former governor faces a maximum 109 years in prison.

Perry calls the matter a political witch hunt and says he would issue the veto again if

given the chance. When he was booked and fingerprinted, Perry smirked in his mug shot — then tweeted about going for ice cream.

Top national Republicans initially lined up to praise Perry and decry the criminal charges against him — but they’ve been less vocal about their support as the case drags on.

An exception was fellow Texan and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who’s also mulling a presidential run. The tea party favorite on Tuesday night called Perry “a good man, a man of integrity, and a friend.”

“The district court’s decision to allow this case to proceed is both unfortunate and wrong, and it profoundly undermines the rule of law,” Cruz said in a statement.

Richardson had previously refused to toss the case on a series of technicalities Perry’s lawyers raised, including questioning whether the special prosecutor assigned to the case, San Antonio attorney Michael McCrum, was properly sworn in.

McCrum has said from the start that the case is stronger than it may outwardly appear, and that it should be heard by a jury.

PAGE 4A

Zopinion

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015

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OTHER VIEWS

COLUMN

Digital economy woe

By ANDREW WHITE THE WASHINGTON POST

When we think about income and wealth inequalities, we are tempted to lay blame on the old way of doing things. In "Capital in the TwentyFirst Century," Thomas Piketty picks out inherited money as a driver of unsustainable disparities between the global rich and poor. Oxfam recently pinpointed the high-profit finance and pharmaceutical industries as engines of inequality that distribute wealth to the wealthy.

This view is consistent with those who place their faith in the digital economy as some kind of solution. It is held up as an alternative to traditional forms of economic activity, and one which can generate sustainable growth and narrow inequality. Lower barriers of entry into its markets ("anyone can start a business on the Internet!") is said to widen opportunities and lead to a more equitable distribution of wealth.

It is for this reason that many politicians and academics continue to advocate the aggressive expansion of the digital economy, especially into areas which have not witnessed much of this type of economic activity. Sadly, it’s not quite as simple as that.

Creative license The expansion of the digital economy has gone hand-in-hand with the growth of the creative industries. Britain’s pioneering development of policy on the creative industries in the late 1990s was predicated partly on the desire to exploit the intellectual property generated by burgeoning digital technology.

That applied particularly to those single operators and small businesses that proliferated in the cultural and creative sectors.

Similar policies have been used in countries at varying levels of development in the early years of the 21st century. Look at the United Nations’ enthusiastic promotion of the creative economy, and its suggestion that these kind of structural reforms could work in both the developed world and in emerging markets. This explains why much research on developmental economics focuses on narrowing the so-called digital divide in order to give more equal access to a global economic system which promises prosperity for all.

But what if the problem is the digital economy itself rather than our incapacity to fully exploit the opportunities it seemingly presents? The first chapter of Michael Lewis’ book "Flash Boys" opens with a story about construction workers on a project to lay a tunnel for fiber-optic cables as straight as they possibly could, even if this involved digging through mountains or river beds.

The reason: to connect financial exchanges in New York and Chicago by the shortest possible route and give the operators a crucial few milliseconds advantage when processing transactions.

A huge amount of money is required to carry out such projects, and to buy the supercomputers that can manipulate the data and run the trading programs. It starts to look like a rigged game, and it is difficult to see how a digital economy in which financial speculation is so prominent can reduce inequality.

Stuck in the middle with you There are undoubtedly other sectors of the digital economy where lower barriers of entry do encourage smaller operators. The early development of search engines and social networking were characterized by experimentation by single operators or small groups of people, sometimes students, at home or at university. This pioneering image of isolated entrepreneurs developing great companies from scratch goes hand-in-hand with radical sounding rhetoric about taking on vested interests.

In this worldview, cutting out the middle man, a superfluous type of employee who will not move with the times, is seen as a demonstrably good thing.

Thus, taxi drivers who complain about having their business taken away

by Uber are often described as inflexible and prone to over-charging.

But the middle man has not disappeared in the digital economy; they have just got richer.

Think of the music industry. Online stores have resulted in the loss of many jobs as a result of physical record stores closing down. However, our changing habits have not cut out the middle man.

We buy most of our music from intermediaries, such as Apple. Even record labels, seemingly superfluous to the online music industry, continue to flourish.

In other words, while the poorer middle men — record store assistants, or taxi drivers — have been ruthlessly squeezed, wealthier intermediaries continue to prosper. Even the supposedly lower barriers to entry in these industries have not prevented monopolies emerging in online markets in a way that is not as prominent in markets offline.

A role for universities It would be easy to finish this piece with a long list of proposed solutions to these inequities. But what is really needed is the necessary intellectual work of convincing wider society that the digital economy does indeed pose problems. This is not helped by the sense that higher education, one of the best placed sectors to lead this debate, is not always up to this task.

While the views that are expressed in this article are shared by many in this sector, it is often difficult to seek institutional support for research in this area when the coalition government’s policy of requiring humanities-based schools and departments to be financially self-sustaining has driven many of them into the arms of big business or into partnership with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) colleagues who might not be as interested in a critical examination of the foundations of the digital economy. Many of these solutions involve digital technology, with big data being the latest whose application promises to address various social and economic woes. How welcome it would be if funding bodies could also increase the number of schemes which ask why the rapid growth of the digital economy over the past two decades has failed both to reduce inequality and save us from the most severe financial crisis since the 1930s.

COLUMN

Not vaccinating hurts others

By PETULA DVORAK THE WASHINGTON POST

The parents who are against vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella and other childhood diseases have proved a point — and it’s a scary one. They are no longer just putting their own kids at risk. By taking their unvaccinated children to the happiest place on Earth and touching off a measles outbreak at Disneyland, the anti-vaxxers put hundreds of other children in jeopardy, too.

Measles on this level hasn’t been seen in the States since the 1970s. So far, the disease has spread to 11 states and Mexico, infecting about 70 people in less than a month. Also making a comeback: whooping cough and diphtheria.

Bravo, anti-vaxxers.

You’ve gone beyond sowing post-Super Bowl fear in 2012, when 14 people were infected with the measles after unvaccinated kids visited Super Bowl Village in Indianapolis. Now you’ve tainted Disneyland, too.

Maybe this is all a stealthy attack on the mainstream stuff that some of the organic, cage-free, Buddha-mama, mindfulparenting philosophies shun? Is a mac ’n cheese factory next? An orchestrated sneezing attack on every McDonald’s? Diphtheria for every child in the Chuck E. Cheese’s ball pit?

This didn’t have to happen. In 2004, there were just 37 measles cases in the United States. Ten years

Refusing to immunize puts the rest of us at risk. And … it’s a pretty bogus way to hedge a bet in that game of parenting roulette. later? We saw 644, according to Pediatrics, the medical journal.

It’s all about fashionable philosophy, not changes in medicine.

The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine wigs out some parents because about a decade ago, people started to assert a link between immunization and autism, fueled by the studies of a now-disgraced British doctor, Andrew Wakefield. Problem was, study after study refuted Wakefield’s autism research.

And in 2011, the British medical establishment withdrew its endorsement of Wakefield’s study and labeled his data bogus.

Still, the movement persisted, fueled by folks like actress Jenny McCarthy.

When I interviewed health officials in 2011, when the anti-vaxxer movement began to take hold, they said people like McCarthy were the bane of their education programs.

One health-policy professor joked that they would have to compete with something like "CDC Barbie."

There are few cases in which doctors have decided that a child would not do well medically by being immunized.

Some religions are

against vaccinations, too.

For those people, schools allow exemptions so that children can attend school at their own risk.

But in thousands of schools nationwide, a third category has been added — a "philosophical" exemption from the vaccination requirement. The parents of about 3 percent of children in the United States have claimed that exemption, declaring themselves opposed to vaccinations.

An additional 7 or 8 percent are disorganized, donothing parents who would rather take the easy out than go through the pain and effort of appointments, needle-sticks and paperwork. So about 10 percent of U.S. schoolchildren aren’t vaccinated against the diseases that once killed millions.

The result?

Infants who accompany families and older siblings, people too sick to be immunized or those who come from countries where they weren’t vaccinated got the measles simply by being in a spot where a measles-infected person sneezed two hours earlier.

Now the problem gets to the part where you bring up that quote about your rights ending where mine

begin.

Whatever wackadoodle philosophy you might be embracing today — frutarianism or Bokononism — is cool as long as it doesn’t hurt those around you, right?

Refusing to immunize puts the rest of us at risk.

And unless there is sound science and the guidance of a good doctor, it’s a pretty bogus way to hedge a bet in that game of parenting roulette.

Raising a child is a huge exercise in trust. Parents learn to trust a babysitter, a day care, a school, a coach. You’ve got to learn to trust the kids and their own, cockamamie judgment.

The anti-vaxxer movement is being fueled by parents who refuse to trust government, big pharma, family physicians and decades of sound science.

Those parents who won’t vaccinate their kids all took huge risks when they visited Disneyland — buckling their children into cars for the drive there, even though car accidents injure 300 children and kill three kids in America every day. They trusted that the drivers next to them would check before changing lanes, that the drivers behind them weren’t texting, that the ones merging from an on-ramp weren’t drunk.

That’s a lot of trust they put in the way others kept their kids safe.

Too bad the rest of the parents in Disneyland on the day they visited trusted them.

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CLASSIC DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

Nation

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

Where did the snow go? Blizzard was a miss

By SETH BORENSTEIN AND GEOFF MULVIHILL ASSOCIATED PRESS

In the wild world of winter weather, location is everything, which New York and Massachusetts learned too well Tuesday.

Small last minute changes in the air morphed what was supposed to be crippling feet of snow into a handful of inches in New York, leading one forecaster to apologize, the National Weather Service boss to get defensive, politicians to explain themselves and some Northeast residents wondering where the muchhyped snow went.

The not-so-great blizzard of 2015 did wallop the Northeast: Long Island and Massachusetts got hammered with more than two feet of snow. Auburn, Massachusetts, got hit with 32 inches and there was severe coastal flooding, National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini said.

But snowfall in the selfabsorbed media capital of New York City, shut down in advance, was under a foot. New Jersey and Philadelphia also were spared.

In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, a defensive Uccellini, who wrote

textbooks on winter storms, wouldn’t say his agency’s forecast was off. Instead, he blamed the way meteorologists communicating and said the weather service needs to do a better job addressing uncertainty.

Private meteorologist Ryan Maue of Weather Bell Analytics slammed the public agency for ratcheting up forecast storm amounts before the system arrived, instead of telling people how uncertain it was.

“The public should be upset that the forecast was blown for NYC and ask for answers,” he said in an email.

Uccellini said the agency would review those procedures and consult with social scientists to improve messaging.

But Uccellini said he’d rather warn too much and be wrong, than not warn enough. He said the weather service’s predictions and citywide closures that they prompted made for a faster recovery.

“This was the right forecast decision to make,” Uccellini said.

Meteorologists say the nor’easter strayed about 75 to 100 miles east of its predicted track, which meant the western edge — New

Photo by Joshua Bright/New York Times | AP

Children play in the snow at Waterside Plaza against the backdrop of the Queensborough Bridge in New York, Tuesday.

York and New Jersey — got 10 inches less than forecast.

“That miss occurred in the most populous corridor in the nation,” said David Robinson, director of the Rutgers Global Snow Lab and New Jersey’s state climatologist. “Had it been between Albany and Syracuse, not to disparage them, no one would have made much of this.”

The region girded for something historic but got much less.

“I expected tons of snow,” New York cabaret singer Susanne Payot said, walking through Central Park with her home-from-school daughters and their golden

retriever, Alvin. “This is nothing. I don’t understand why the whole city shut down because of this.”

Before heavy snows began falling, officials shut down roads and public transportation across in New York City, in New Jersey and on Long Island.

Amtrak suspended train service and air traffic slowed to a stop. Schools along the East Coast on Monday canceled Tuesday classes.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie defended his decision to ban travel on all state roads.

“I was being told as late as 9 o’clock last night that

we were looking at 20-inch accumulations in most of New Jersey. If, in fact, that is what would have happened, having these types of things in effect were absolutely the right decision to make,” Christie told WABCTV on Tuesday. “We were acting based on what we were being told.”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he was criticized for under-reacting to the November mega storm in Buffalo, so he worked “on the theory of living learned and a little wiser.”

Irwin Redlener, the director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness and an unpaid adviser to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, said Tuesday that the way the region came to a halt ahead of the storm was good practice.

“It’s not whether the city should have prepared so much, it’s how people respond,” Redlener said. “We don’t want the population to get so cynical that they’re not heeding the warnings.”

A National Weather Service forecaster who was called a hero of 2012’s Superstorm Sandy tweeted an apology for the errant forecast.

“You made a lot of tough decisions expecting us to get it right, and we didn’t.

Once again, I’m sorry,” wrote Gary Szatkowski, a National Weather Service forecaster in Mount Holly, New Jersey.

Uccellini downplayed Szatkowski’s apology.

The storm spun up in the ocean, where there are few monitors to help meteorologists and computer models pinpoint the track, forecasters said. In such a storm, an error of 50 miles “can be a big difference,” said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the private service Weather Underground.

Late Monday, the computer models started to move the storm more east and away from New York City, but by that time “media and social media hype was out of the bottle,” said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd.

The European computer model that was praised for accurately forecasting Superstorm Sandy failed more than others, Masters said.

“It’s just that we didn’t get the western edge of the forecast correct. If you want to call that a bust, I think you’re being a little harsh,” Masters said.

Trafficking twins get sharply reduced sentences

By MICHAEL TARM ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photos courtesy of U.S. Marshals Service | AP file

This undated combination of file photos from wanted posters shows Pedro Flores, left, and his twin brother, Margarito Flores.

CHICAGO — Identical twin brothers who ran a drug-trafficking ring that spanned much of North America were sentenced Tuesday to 14 years in prison after a judge agreed to sharply reduce their penalty as a reward for becoming government informants and secretly recording Mexico’s most notorious drug lord.

In a rare courtroom display, it was a federal prose-

cutor who poured praise on Pedro and Margarito Flores, portraying them as among the most valuable traffickers-turned-informants in U.S. history and describing the courage they displayed in gathering evidence against Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and other leaders in Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

With credit for time served awaiting sentencing and for good behavior in prison, the brothers, now 33, could be out in as little as six years.

Chief U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo likened Americans’ sense of security to walls and scolded the brothers for introducing drugs that fueled violence and despair.

“You devastated those walls. You knocked them down,” he said.

The twins’ cooperation was the only thing that spared them from an actual life sentence, Castillo told the brothers. But, he added, they would still serve a life sentence of sorts — having to look over their shoulders

the rest of their lives in constant fear of a deadly attack by an assassin working for the cartel they betrayed.

Castillo said the twins were the most significant traffickers ever in his court.

But he said he had also never seen traffickers at the height of their power and wealth come forward to offer to become government witnesses, as the siblings had.

The twins appeared in court with the same olivegreen clothes and the same closely cropped haircuts.

Nation

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES

Mormon leaders call for gay rights measures

By BRADY MCCOMBS AND RACHEL ZOLL

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015

Vanderbilt players convicted of rape

By SHEILA BURKE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SALT LAKE CITY — The Mormon church announced a campaign Tuesday for new laws that protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination while somehow also protecting people who assert their religious beliefs.

“We must find ways to show respect for others whose beliefs, values and behaviors differ from ours while never being forced to deny or abandon our own beliefs, values and behaviors in the process,” a church elder, Jeffrey R. Holland, said in announcing the church’s position.

Mormon leaders did not explain just how it would draw lines between gay rights and religious freedoms, and it’s unclear how much common ground the church will gain with this campaign. The church insists it is making no changes in doctrine, and still believes that sex is against the law of God unless it’s within a marriage between a man and a woman.

But the new approach could profoundly change political calculations in the Mormon strongholds of Utah, Idaho, Nevada and Arizona, where the church and its members play a large civic role.

In Utah, where most state lawmakers are Mormon, the announcement was cheered after years of failed efforts to pass anti-discrimination measures.

“What the LDS church did today was historic,” said Democratic state Sen. Jim Dabakis, who was raised Mormon and is openly gay.

“This was a bold, strong, principled statement ... today we are seeing the fruits of civility and respect.”

The gay-rights group

Photo by Rick Bowmer | AP

Democratic state Sen. Jim Dabakis, speaks during a news conference Tuesday in Salt Lake City.

Equality Utah also applauded, saying LGBT rights can co-exist with freedoms of religious individuals.

But national advocates on both sides were dismissive.

The Rev. Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention called the Mormon leaders “well-intentioned, but naive” about animosity toward religious exemptions. And Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, called it “deeply flawed.”

The First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom “does not give any of us the right to harm others, and that’s what it sounds like the proposal from the Mormon church would do - it would allow a doctor to refuse to care for a lesbian because of his religious beliefs, for example,” said James Esskes, who directs the LGBT project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The campaign is the latest example of a shift in tone on gay rights by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which counts 15 million members worldwide.

They have moved away from harsh rhetoric and are preaching compassion and acceptance of gays and lesbians now that gay marriage is legal in

Washington D.C. and 36 states including Utah.

“Accommodating the rights of all people — including their religious rights — requires wisdom and judgment, compassion and fairness,” said Holland, who appeared at a rare news conference with two other apostles from the church’s governing Quorum of the Twelve.

“Politically, it certainly requires dedication to the highest level of statesmanship. Nothing is achieved if either side resorts to bullying, political point scoring or accusations of bigotry.”

The Mormon church will back laws that protect “vital religious freedoms for individuals, families, churches and other faith groups while also protecting the rights of our LGBT citizens in such areas as housing, employment and public accommodation in hotels, restaurants and transportation,” said Dallin H. Oaks, another apostle.

Mormon leaders still want to hire and fire workers based on their religious beliefs as well as behavior standards known as honor codes, which require gays and lesbians to remain celibate or marry someone of the opposite sex.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A jury convicted two exVanderbilt football players on Tuesday of raping a former student, rejecting claims that they were too drunk to know what they were doing and that a college culture of binge drinking and promiscuous sex should be blamed for the attack.

The jury deliberated for three hours before announcing that Brandon Vandenburg and Cory Batey were guilty of aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery.

Batey was stoic, staring ahead and Vandenburg shook his head “no,” appearing stunned. His father had an outburst and abruptly left the courtroom.

The victim, who was a 21-year-old neuroscience and economics major at the time of the June 2013 attack, cried as each guilty verdict was announced. The men face decades in prison when they are sentenced March 6.

The jury heard two weeks of dramatic testimony from a parade of witnesses, including police, former and current Vanderbilt students and the woman, who said she didn’t remember what happened that night, only that she woke up in a strange dorm room. They also saw cellphone images from the night of the attack that Vandenburg sent to his friends as it was happening.

Despite the photos and video, and witnesses seeing the woman unconscious and at least partially naked in a dorm hallway, no one reported it.

The victim said in a

Photo by John Partipilo/The Tennessean | AP

Brandon Vandenburg looks at the jury as Judge Wilkins reads the charges during his trial on Tuesday in Nashville, Tenn. statement she was hopeful the publicity from the case would lead to a discussion of how to end sexual violence on college campuses. In Nashville, where the prestigious private university is located, hundreds of college officials from across the state were meeting in a two-day summit on exactly that.

“Finally, I want to remind other victims of sexual violence: You are not alone. You are not to blame,” she said.

Vandenburg and Batey were on trial together, but represented by different attorneys. Attorneys for Vandenburg, who had been seeing the woman, said he did not assault her but he was recorded on video laughing and encouraging his teammates. Batey’s attorneys said the images didn’t show him assaulting the woman.

Defense lawyers argued that Vandenburg and Batey were too drunk to know what they were doing and that a college culture of binge drinking and promiscuous sex should be partly to blame.

During closing arguments, Deputy District Attorney Tom Thurman told jurors that the college cul-

ture argument was a “red herring” and that the athletes thought the law didn’t apply to them.

“That’s the culture that you really saw here . their mindset that they can get away with anything,” Thurman said.

Earlier, one of the defense attorneys conceded that Vandenburg took “deplorable” photos, but shouldn’t be convicted of rape because he didn’t take part in it.

“He took photographs that he never should have taken,” attorney Fletcher Long said.

Batey, of Nashville, turned 21 on Tuesday.

Vandenburg, 21, is from Indio, Calif.

Rumors about what happened quickly spread around campus, and the assault might have gone unnoticed had the university not stumbled onto the closed-circuit TV images several days later in an unrelated attempt to learn who damaged a dormitory door. They were shocked to see players carrying an unconscious woman into an elevator and down a hallway, taking compromising pictures of her and then dragging her into the room.

International

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A

Attempts made to free hostages

By ZEINA KARAM AND YURI KAGEYAMA ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIRUT — Japanese officials were tightlipped Wednesday as secret talks in Jordan sought to secure the freedom of a Japanese journalist and a Jordanian pilot captured by Islamic State extremists and purportedly threatened with death within 24 hours.

The global efforts to free Japanese freelance journalist Kenji Goto and Jordanian Lt. Mu’ath al-Kaseasbeh gained greater urgency with the release of the apparent ultimatum from the Islamic State group.

In the message, the extremists say the two hostages will be killed within 24 hours — late Wednesday night Japan time — unless Jordan frees Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman sentenced to death in Jordan for her involvement in a 2005 terrorist attack on a hotel that killed 60 people.

The pilot’s father, Safi al-Kaseasbeh, made a last-ditch appeal for Jordan “to meet the demands” of the Islamic State group.

“All people must know, from the head of the regime to everybody else, that the safety of Mu’ath means the stability of Jordan, and the death of Mu’ath means chaos in Jordan,” he told The Associated Press.

About 200 relatives of the pilot demonstrated outside the prime minister’s office in the Jordanian capital of Amman, chanting anti-government slogans and urging it to meet the captors’ demands.

A member of Jordan’s parliament said the country was in indirect talks with the militants to secure the hostages’ release. Bassam Al-Manasseer, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, told Bloomberg News the negotiations are taking place through religious and tribal leaders in Iraq, adding that Jordan and Japan won’t negotiate directly with IS and won’t free al-Rishawi in exchange for Goto only.

Manaseer’s comments were the strongest suggestion yet that authorities in Jordan and Japan may be open to a prisoner exchange, something that would go against the policy of the kingdom’s main ally, the U.S., which opposes negotiating with extremists.

Japan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yasuhide Nakayama was in Amman to coordinate hostage-release efforts with Jordan, but refused comment on details of the talks early Wednesday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also

Photo courtesy of @AliTweel | AP

In this image made from video posted by a Libyan blogger, the Cortinthia Hotel is seen under attack in Tripoli, Libya, Tuesday. Gunmen stormed the luxury hotel in the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Tuesday.

Photo by Eugene Hoshiko | AP

A woman along with other protesters hold a placard and chant "Free Goto" during a rally outside the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo, Tuesday. did not comment when asked while on his way to his office. Abe will likely face questions about the crisis in parliament Wednesday.

The hostage saga involving the two Japanese nationals has stunned Japan and triggered criticism of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over his government’s handling of the crisis. The militants have reportedly beheaded one Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa.

The video matched a message released over the weekend, though neither bore the logo of the Islamic State group’s al-Furqan media arm. The weekend video showed a still photo of Goto holding what appears to be a photo of Yukawa’s body. It retracted a demand for $200 million in ransom for the two Japanese, made in an earlier online message.

The AP could not independently verify any of the videos. However, several militant websites affiliated with the Islamic State group referenced the latest video and posted links to it Tuesday.

The message holds the Jordanian government responsible for delaying the release of al-Rishawi and says that unless she is freed within 24 hours, the pilot, followed by Goto, will be killed, adding that this would be the group’s last message.

“I have only 24 hours left to live and the pilot has even less,” according to the audio, purportedly from Goto.

It is unclear why the group released only audio from Goto. Messages from other Western hostages held by the group have been read by the captives on camera.

After the video’s release late Tuesday, Japanese officials held emergency meetings. Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said he had seen the video, but did not comment on its authenticity.

“In this extremely tough situation, we are continuing as before to request the cooperation of the Jordanian government to work toward the immediate release of Mr. Goto,” Suga said.

Mentioning the Jordanian pilot for the first time, on Monday Nakayama expressed hopes the two hostages would return home “with a smile on their faces.”

Mu’ath al-Kaseasbeh has been held by after his Jordanian F-16 crashed near the group’s de facto capital of Raqqa in December. It wasn’t immediately clear when the pilot’s possible release had entered into the negotiations.

The 26-year-old Jordanian is the first foreign military pilot to fall into the extremists’ hands since an U.S.led coalition that includes Jordan began its aerial campaign against the Islamic State group in August.

This is the first time that the group has publicly demanded the release of prisoners in exchange for hostages.

Previous captives are thought to have been released in exchange for ransom, although governments involved have refused to confirm any payments were made.

Goto, a freelance journalist, was seized in October in Syria, apparently while trying to rescue Yukawa, 42, who was captured by the militants last summer.

Gunmen kill 10 in Libya hotel

By ESAM MOHAMED ASSOCIATED PRESS

TRIPOLI, Libya — In the latest sign of Libya’s descent into chaos, gunmen stormed a luxury hotel used by diplomats and businessmen in the capital on Tuesday, killing 10 people, including an American, a French citizen and three people from Eastern Europe.

Two attackers were killed following an hourslong standoff that included a car bomb that exploded in the parking lot of the seaside Corinthia Hotel. It was unclear if other gunmen were involved in the attack, which also killed five Libyan guards.

In Twitter posts and a statement on social media, a Tripoli affiliate of the Islamic State group was said to be behind the attack, but there was little evidence to back up the claims in a country that has been awash in armed extremist groups who would be equally suspect.

The SITE intelligence group reported that the two dead gunmen were identified online as sympathizers of IS and said the militants said the hotel was targeted because it houses diplomatic missions and “crusader” security companies. However, The Associated Press was

unable to independently confirm the claims, which didn’t conform with the group’s earlier postings from Libya.

Militants claiming the attack on behalf of a group called the Islamic State of the Tripoli Province posted a brief video showing burned cars in the hotel’s parking lot and said it was to avenge the 2013 abduction by American commandos of a Libyan al-Qaida operative, Nazih AbdulHamed al-Ruqai, also known as Abu Anas al-Libi. Al-Ruqai died earlier this month in a New York hospital of complications from liver surgery while awaiting trial for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The assault highlights the growing threat from militant groups that operate with near impunity in a country torn between rival governments since the 2011 toppling and killing of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Since Gadhafi’s ouster, the country has been torn among competing militias and tribes vying for power.

Libya’s post-Gadhafi transition has collapsed, with two rival governments and parliaments — each backed by different militias — ruling in the country’s eastern and western regions.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015

ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

Sports&Outdoors NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE SUPER BOWL MEDIA DAY: SEATTLE SEAHAWKS

Brief sighting

Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch set his phone for a five-minute timer and only answered reporters questions with “I’m here so I don’t get fined” during Super Bowl Media Day Tuesday.

Lynch repeats ‘I’m here so I don’t get fined” at Media Day

By JOHN BRANCH MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

PHOENIX — Marshawn Lynch smiled politely, waved at the crowd and answered every question the same.

“I’m here so I don’t get fined,” the Seattle Seahawks’ star running back constantly repeated for five minutes before leaving the podium at Media Day on Tuesday. It’s not clear if his plan will work.

About 200 reporters crowded around Lynch’s podium for at least 15 minutes before he arrived. But the media-shy Lynch made it clear right from the start he wasn’t saying anything except variations of his scripted answer.

Lynch set a timer on his phone and told everyone he showed up just to avoid a fine. Lynch caught a bag of Skittles tossed from Olympic gold medal gymnast Shawn Johnson and stopped to pick up a reporter’s recorder off the floor before he walked away.

Lynch later spoke to “Entertainment Tonight” about his foundation, the “Fam 1st Family Foundation.”

The Professional Football Writers of America was talking to the league about the session and Lynch had been apprised of a potential fine. He is also required to be at media sessions Wednesday and Thursday.

In November, the NFL fined Lynch $50,000 for violations of the league’s media policy in addition to collecting the $50,000 fine that was imposed against Lynch for violations last season. The fine from 2013 was held in anticipation of future cooperation from Lynch.

“I’m fine sitting up here,

but not everybody is comfortable with it so I don’t think he should be forced to do it,” All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman said.

Lynch has much more to say when the price is right.

Insurance company Progressive and candy maker Skittles released commercials featuring Lynch saying a bit more than his usual: “Yeah” and “Nope” and “Thanks for asking.”

At Media Day last year, Lynch’s reclusiveness became a major story. Lynch appeared for 6 1/2 minutes, left the arena, and then returned to a “mixed zone” the NFL created for players not on podiums or in microphone-equipped speaking areas at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

“This is who he is. I don’t nitpick or judge, so I just accept a person for who they are,” All-Pro safety Earl Thomas said. “I just love who he is. He is so random.”

Sherman even continued answering questions after the 60-minute session ended.

“I don’t think (players) should be obligated any more than the commissioner is obligated to speak to the media,” Sherman said.

“I think that if players are going to be obligated to speak to the media then every one of the NFL personnel should be obligated to speak to the media weekly, and that’s not the case.

“It’s unfortunate, but I think that every team should be forced to present certain players, obviously a few of them. Obviously, if someone is uncomfortable in front of the media and uncomfortable answering questions, then you have to find a way to accommodate the NFL. This is a game; you find a way to accommodate everyone else who’s uncomfortable.”

Lynch was fined $20,000 for making an obscene gesture during Seattle’s overtime win over Green Bay in the NFC championship game. The league did not specify what the gesture was, but Lynch grabbed his crotch after scoring a goahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Photo by Doug Mills | McClatchy-Tribune

MIÉRCOLES 28 DE ENERO DE 2015

Ribereña en Breve ARRESTOS Dos hombres fueron arrestados en Nuevo Laredo, México, después de que declararan ser parte de un grupo delincuencial que opera en ese municipio, dijo el Grupo de Coordinación Tamaulipas.

José Raúl Martínez Rico y Alberto López Vázquez, fueron arrestados el domingo por policías estatales, militares y federales que realizaban un recorrido de vigilancia al sur de Nuevo Laredo, señala un comunicado de prensa.

Tras los arrestos los hombres supuestamente ofrecieron sobornos a cambio de su libertad.

Asimismo se decomisaron 20 paquetes de marihuana con un peso aproximado de 200 kilogramos, poncha-llantas, cargadores y cartuchos de grueso calibre, añade el reporte.

Los artículos fueron consignados al Ministerio Público de la Federación.

Zfrontera

PÁGINA 9A

CASO MONTEMAYOR

Más de 6 años POR PHILIP BALLI TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

El lunes, el ex Comisionado de la Corte del Condado de Webb, Mike Montemayor, fue sentenciado a más de seis años en prisión por tomar sobornos.

La Juez de Distrito de EU, Marina García Marmolejo, ordenó a Montemayor cumplir con 76 meses en una prisión federal y pagar una multa por 109.405 dólares. Tras la sentencia, él fue tomado en custodia, después de estar en libertad bajo fianza por casi un año desde su arresto.

Montemayor, ex comisionado del Precinto 1, y quien tomó la oficina en enero de 2013, enfrentó hasta 10 años en prisión y una multa por 250.000 dólares, después de que se declarara culpable de un cargo por soborno.

Originalmente enfrentaba dos cargos por soborno, después de que el FBI lo arrestara en marzo. En un

resumen de sentencia prera los 120.000 dólares, de sentado por los fiscales de acuerdo con documentos de EU la semana pasada, ellos la corte. solicitaron a la corte dictar Marmolejo denegó las objeuna sentencia a Montemaciones de Vela para las dos yor “dentro del rango de las mejoras. directrices de 70 a 87 meLa fiscal asistente de EU, MONTEMAYOR Emily Rae Woods, dijo que la ses”.

En el resumen, los fiscafiscalía se habría opuesto a les escribieron que “el valor de los cualquier variante en el caso. pagos obtenidos, o que obtendría El resumen de sentencia señala Montemayor u otros actuando en que Montemayor facilitó sobornos común acuerdo con él”, serían su- a otros dos comisionados del condaperiores a 120,000 dólares. do y a un regidor de la ciudad.

Durante la audiencia, los aboga- Ellos no fueron nombrados en el redos de Montemayor, Oscar A. Vela sumen de sentencia y se refiere a Jr. y Roderick Carlos López, pelea- ellos como “conspiradores sin acuron por una variación menor en la saciones”. sentencia. La variante habría coloEn una sala de la corte, repleta cado la sentencia de Montemayor de integrantes de su familia y ex entre 46 y 57 meses. compañeros del condado, MontemaLa sentencia potencial de Monte- yor confesó a Marmolejo que se mayor incluye dos recomendacio- convirtió en un “monstruo” y pernes de mejora por parte de los fis- dió el control del poder que tenía cales porque la ofensa de la conde- estando en el cargo. na involucra más de un soborno y Además de la sentencia de 76 porque la cantidad del delito supe- meses, Marmolejo ordenó el deco-

CIUDAD DE ROMA, TEXAS

SOLICITUD DE APOYO El 30 de enero es la fecha límite para solicitar ayuda si sufrió desastres de calidad de ganado, de pastoreo o pérdidas por desastres relacionados entre el 1 de octubre y el 31 de diciembre de 2014.

El Programa fue reautorizado por la Ley Agrícola 2014 para proporcionar alivio a los agricultores que han sufrido el impacto de las sequías, y otros desastres naturales.

Para más información puede ingresar a disaster.fsa.usda.gov.o llamar a la oficina de FSA de su condado.

miso de un monto por 13.721,16 por los 11.000 dólares en efectivo y más de 2.700 dólares en aparatos electrónicos Apple que Montemayor recibió por parte de un agente encubierto a cambio de actos oficiales.

A pesar de la petición de Vela para que no se impusiera una multa en el caso, Marmolejo ordenó a Montemayor pagar 109.405,75 dólares. La cantidad es el monto restante de sobornos que Montemayor supuestamente tomó, de acuerdo con el cálculo realizado por la Oficina de Libertad Condicional de EU. Marmolejo también ordenó que Montemayor recibiera un tratamiento por drogas/alcohol y participara en un programa de salud mental.

Tras su encarcelamiento, Montemayor será colocado en un periodo de tres años de libertad condicional. Deberá cumplir con 200 horas de servicio comunitario en un periodo de dos años, en su periodo de libertad condicional.

TAMAULIPAS

DONACIÓN Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Tamaulipas

Durante la sesión ordinaria del Grupo de Coordinación Tamaulipas, autoridades anunciaron que en un periodo de 254 días, 5.273 personas han sido arrestadas por diferentes delitos.

LIGA DE FÚTBOL

Detienen a más de 5.000

Habrá inscripciones a la Liga de Fútbol Juvenil en la cancha de fútbol del Parque Roma, de 1 p.m. a 2 p.m., para niños de entre 4 y 14 años de edad. Costo es de 35 dólares. Se dará una camisa.

LIGA DE BÉISBOL Habrá inscripciones a la Roma Little League, el día de hoy y el jueves 29 de enero, de 6 p.m. a 8 p.m.

Costo es de 40 dólares. Deberá presentar acta de nacimiento. Más información puede visitar www.romalittleleague.com.

TORNEO DE PESCA El torneo de pesca de bagre Falcon Lake Babe —International Catfish Series— para damas solamente, se llevará a cabo el sábado 14 de febrero.

La serie de cinco torneos que se realizan mensualmente desde noviembre finalizará con una ronda de campeonato en el mes de marzo.

El torneo es un evento individual que permite hasta tres concursantes por embarcación. Las participantes deberán pagar la cuota de participación en los cinco torneos para tener derecho a la ronda de campeonato.

Las inscripciones se realizan el viernes anterior al sábado del torneo en Beacon Lodge Rec. Hall. La cuota de inscripción es de 20 dólares por persona.

El siguiente torneo será el 7 de marzo para finalizar con la ronda de campeonato el 7 de marzo.

Para mayores informes comuníquese con Betty Ortiz al (956) 236-4590 o con Elcina Buck al (319) 239 5859.

JUNTA DE COMISIONADOS El lunes 09 de febrero, los Comisionados de la Corte del Condado de Zapata realizarán su junta quincenal en la Sala de la Corte del Condado de Zapata, a partir de las 9 a.m. a 12 p.m.

Para mayores informes llame a Roxy Elizondo al (956) 765 9920.

Dan resultados de Estrategia de Seguridad

Foto de cortesía | Ciudad de Roma

La organización Vested Interest in K9s, entregó un chaleco antibalas a la Unidad K9 del Departamento de Policía de Roma, Texas, tras una donación. En el chaleco se lee “En honor a K9 Clif”, un can del Departamento de Policía de Vineland, que murió tras un operativo. En la imagen uno de los agentes caninos de la unidad K9 muestra el chaleco.

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

FSA

Programa restauraría reservas ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

El Administrador de la Agencia de Servicios Agrícolas (FSA, por sus siglas en inglés) del Departamento de Agricultura (USDA, por sus siglas en inglés), Val Dolcini anunció el Programa de Conservación de Reservas, ahora dirigido a alentar un mayor número de reservas para aves en las regiones de tierras agrícolas irrigadas.

La disminución de las poblaciones de aves en tierras altas, tal como el caso de la codorniz, el faisán, y pollo de pradera, llevaron a la creación del Programa de Reservas de Conservación, pa-

ra ayudar a restaurar los ecosistemas de estas especies en áreas agrícolas. Desde la creación del programa en 2004, más de 240.000 hectáreas de tierras de cultivo marginal se han convertido en pastizales nativos, estimulando un aumento en las poblaciones de aves de tierras altas.

Sin embargo, en los últimos años, las solicitudes para crear este tipo de hábitat han disminuido. Para fomentar una mayor participación, la nueva política del USDA se centra en las tierras agrícolas con sistemas de riego de pivote en el centro, donde hay áreas de tierra circulares para el cultivo con parcelas más allá del

alcance de riego. Hasta ahora, estos parches, conocidos como esquinas de pivote, solamente eran elegibles para la creación de hábitats cuando se conectara por una franja lineal de pastizales, también inscritos en el programa.

La nueva política permite a los productores interesados en la creación de hábitats usar esquinas de apoyo desconectados para ayudar a aumentar la población de aves de tierras altas.

Para más detalles, puede contactar a su local de la Agencia de Servicios Agrícolas en offices.usda.govor visite el sitio web en www.fsa.usda.gov/conservation.

Más de 5.000 personas han sido arrestadas tras operaciones ejecutadas bajo la Estrategia de Seguridad del Estado de Tamaulipas, anunciaron funcionarios tamaulipecos.

El lunes, el Complejo de Seguridad de Ciudad Victoria, México, fue el punto de reunión para la sesión ordinaria del Grupo de Coordinación Tamaulipas que encabezó el Gobernador de Tamaulipas, Egidio Torre Cantú.

Durante la sesión se informó que elementos estatales han detenido a 5.273 personas, en un periodo de 254 días, que van del 13 de mayo al 22 de enero.

De ésta cantidad, 2.877 fueron consignadas ante un juez, 12 fueron remitidas a otra autoridad, 189 remitidas a juzgados para adolescentes, 138 fueron dejadas en libertad bajo caución y 50 más se encuentran en proceso de trámite.

El resultado impulsó a las fuerzas federales integradas al Grupo de Coordinación, a detener a 1.515 personas, durante el mismo periodo de tiempo.

COLUMNA

Político elude viajar en barco ‘Titanic’ POR RAÚL SINENCIO ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE LAREDO

Guillermo Obregón Jr., pretendió cruzar el océano desde Europa, a bordo del barco Titanic. Sin embargo, la suerte decide sonreírle, ya que otra persona le sustituye a última hora. Regresa sano y salvo, pero ignora que las aguas del México revolucionario le reservan un terrible naufragio.

Contexto Por casi 100.000 dólares (actuales), Obregón Jr. compra el boleto 17601 del navío, sin problema. Durante el periodo del “Porfiriato” su padre es asignado Secretario de la Asociación de Banqueros. Abogado, el padre deja alto puesto legis-

lativo. Se dice que los negocios privados pueden sacar provecho de la hacienda pública.

Pariente de Gregorio Cortina Basadre, alcalde reelecto de Tampico, y nieto del español Ramón Obregón, Guillermo Obregón Jr. también estudia leyes.

Fiestas y bailes lo incorporan al jet set capitalino, donde conoce a su futura esposa y se hace amigo de Horacio Casasús, hijo de Joaquín Diego Casasús.

Durante el movimiento revolucionario que obliga a Porfirio Díaz y el vicepresidente Ramón Corral a renunciar, en 1911, los órganos representativos quedan intactos, lo que hace posible que Guillermo Obregón Sr., permanezca frente a la cámara.

Cambio de Planes De la legislatura, Manuel Uruchurtu Ramírez, coincide en la capital francesa con Obregón Jr., en 1912. Donde se ponen de acuerdo para remontar el Atlántico con rumbo a México. Uruchurtu planeaba remontar el Atlántico en un crucero menos lujoso, pero su amigo le pide intercambiar pasajes.

Uruchurtu accede y el 10 de abril aborda el Titanic.

El hijo del capitalista se queda porque por aquellas fechas en París, llega su primer aniversario de bodas con Amparo Corral, hija del ex vicepresidente. Siete meses después Corral muere en Ciudad Lux de sífilis.

Mientras tanto en México, Obregón Sr. regresa al senado, donde permanece en la comisión perma-

nente del congreso mexicano en 1913, cuando respalda el golpe de estado con que Victoriano Huerta derriba al gobierno maderista.

Realidad Pronto está de vuelta el hijo del legislativo. Con grandes cuentas bancarias está entre quienes acuerdan financiar a Huerta en marzo de 1913. Parte del aporte es destinado a la compra de equipo y materiales bélicos de uso represivo.

El frustrado pasajero del Titanic crea en la bolsa envidiable carrera política, pero sus sueños se esfuman tras la caída del gobierno Huertista.

(Con permiso del autor de acuerdo a La Razón, Tampico, Méx.)

PAGE 10A

Zentertainment

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015

Movie shot solely on iPhones

By RYAN PEARSON ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Barry Brecheisen/Invision | AP file

In this June 18, 2014 file photo, Giorgio Moroder performs at the 2014 Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago.

Maestro turns into live DJ

By MESFIN FEKADU ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — For a legendary artist whose accolades include Academy Awards and Grammys, maestro Giorgio Moroder says he finally feels like a true performer — now that he’s a live DJ. Moroder says performing as a DJ for an audience is “absolutely incredible.”

“I always wanted to be a performer but never had a chance because my voice is not good enough, but now suddenly as a DJ I feel like an artist,” the 74-year-old said in an interview Monday. “And lately, I played to 30,000 people.”

He added with a smile: “Sometimes I kind of feel like I’m Michael Jackson.”

His career includes collaborations with Donna Summer that yielded the hits “Hot Stuff ” and “Bad Girls.” He’s one of the pioneers of disco and electronic music, and has also worked on music for films such as “Flashdance” and “Scarface.”

Moroder was featured on Daft Punk’s Grammy-winning album, “Random Access Memories,” and he’s

readying a solo album after a nearly three-decade break.

Last week he released the Kylie Minogue-assisted disco number, “Right Here, Right Now,” and the song “74 Is the New 24” was released in November.

“When I was deejaying I see all those young people, 18, 20, the oldest like 30. So I knew I was 73, but I felt like I was 23, and now I’m 24,” he said.

The Italian musician says he’s a fan of contemporary DJs, from David Guetta to Tiesto and Avicii — acts that have dominated the music scene.

“I love them,” he said. “I still love dance music. It’s basically the only music I’m listening (to).”

Moroder says his new album will likely be released in April. It features collaborations with Sia, Charli XCX and Mikky Ekko. He’s also finishing a song with Britney Spears.

“She recorded in Los Angeles and she asked me if I could be there, but I think I was on a plane to Europe,” he said. “But I’m going back to work with her in the studio because I added a little bridge to the song so she has to sing it again.”

PARK CITY, Utah — One Sundance movie was literally phoned in — the transgender prostitute tale “Tangerine.”

The movie that premiered Friday at the Sundance Film Festival follows two characters Alexandra and Sin-Dee on a wild Christmas Eve night in Los Angeles as one chases after her pimp. It was shot entirely using iPhone 5s phones with anamorphic lens adapters.

“It made it more cinematic and we used this great app called Filmic Pro. And all of these combined really I think really gave us a really unique, really different look and that’s something that we were trying to achieve with this film, because also the subject matter is kind of different,” director Sean Baker said.

It was the first major role for transgender actress Mya Taylor, who costars with real life friend Kiki Kitana Rodriguez.

“Oh, yes. Everything that’s in the movie is ex-

Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute | AP

This photo provided by courtesy of the Sundance Institute shows a scene from the film, "Tangerine," directed by Sean Baker. actly what goes on in that area with those transgender people,” Taylor said.

Baker said one of his main motivations behind the film was his desire to shoot at a the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Highland Avenue in Los Angeles — and then finding the story that went with that.

“It’s a very chaotic area. It’s a place that I’ve always noticed as a very dramatic, colorful area and ... I knew that it would be cinematic,” he said. “So, it was just

about finding a story to tell that took place there.

And so we went in and we sort of introduced ourselves to everybody in the area. We worked our way in with the research process and that’s where we met Mya.” The movie comes at a moment when transgender characters are being seen more than ever in mainstream media, including Golden Globe winner Jeffrey Tambor’s character on the Amazon show “Transparent” and Laverne Cox on Netflix’s

“Orange is the New Black.”

“I’m very happy about what’s going on with transgender people coming out into the screen, because it’s unheard of, you know? ... I’m proud of those shows, I think they’re wonderful and this brings a good add-on to it, because it kind of brings you inside some of the lives of transgender people,” Taylor said.

“Tangerine” was wellreceived at Sundance but is still searching for a distributor.

Smithsonian considers London

By GRAHAM BOWLEY NEW YORK TIMES

The Smithsonian Institution said Tuesday that it was considering opening a 40,000-square-foot exhibition space in London in 2021. The move, if it goes ahead, will be the first time in the Smithsonian’s 168year history that it has opened a permanent exhibition space outside the United States.

The gallery would be part of a new cultural quarter planned for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London, where the 2012 Olympics took place.

In an interview, Albert G. Horvath, the Smithsonian’s acting secretary, said that the institution had been working to reach new audiences, and that the London site offered the chance to raise the organization’s profile internationally.

He said it was too early to discuss the kind of material the Smithsonian would include in its London programs or what schedules it would follow to ensure that U.S. audiences continued to see its treasures. But he said the proposed British gallery would show some of the Smithsonian’s most important objects.

"This is going to be about showing the best and the breadth of the Smithsonian," he said. "We have 130 million-plus objects at the Smithsonian. We have no shortage of things that we can certainly use to tell our story. So I am not concerned that there will be any diminution in the kinds of things we are doing here at our home base because of this."

To persuade the Smithsonian to take part in the plan, the London authorities have promised to pay the estimated $50 million cost to construct the Smithsonian’s exhibition space and ship Smithsonian exhibits to London.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A

GERARDO GUTIERREZ, JR. June 28, 1935 – Jan. 23, 2015 TSGT. Gerardo “Jerry” Gutierrez, Jr., 79, passed away peacefully on Friday, January 23, 2015, surrounded by family at his lifelong residence in Zapata, Texas.

Mr. Gutierrez is preceded in death by his loving wife, Elva A. Gutierrez, parents, Gerardo Gutierrez, Sr. and Domitila P. Gutierrez; brother, Jorge Arturo Gutierrez; sister, Dora G. Torres; inlaws, Manuel Maria and Araceli G. Lopez; in-laws, Eduardo “Lalito,” Ella, Efrain Alonso, Edmundo A. Lopez; Eustolio A. Lopez, Enrique A. Lopez, Heriberto Torres, Jack L. Moore; niece and nephew, Elsa A. LopezCaballero and Manuel Lopez; in-laws, Juan Manuel and Romana Benavides, Ricardo V. Gutierrez and Rosalva De Anda Rendon.

Mr. Gutierrez is survived by his children, Veronica L. (Israel), Gerardo III (Juana Maria), Gregory (Cynthia) Gutierrez; grandchildren, Israel B. Jr., Roberto R., Amanda L., Valerie L., Gerardo IV, Gabriella B., Marla D., Gregory Jr., Danissa R. Gutierrez; sister, Maria Genoveva G. (Danny) Rosales; in-laws, Eliseo A. (Flora) Lopez, Eduardo A. Lopez, Eloy A. (Blanca) Lopez, Elda A. (Jorge) Gonzalez, Estela A. Moore; Teresa Hein, Irene F. Lopez, Yolanda Lopez, Maria G. Gutierrez, and by numerous aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins and many friends.

Gerardo “Jerry,” was born to Gerardo and Domitila P. Gutierrez in Bustamante, Texas. Jerry graduated from Hebbronville High School 1953 and later enlisted in the U. S. Air Force in 1953. Jerry married the love of his life, Elva A. Lopez in December 25, 1960.

Jerry and Elva were both very involved with the U.S. Air Force and traveled together. Jerry had three children Veronica, Gerardo “Jerry” III and Gregory. Jerry retired in 1974 and moved back to their hometown of Zapata with his family. Jerry was an assistant football coach with the Zapata County I.S.D., and later in 1975, Jerry was employed by the International Boundary and Water Commission and retired in 2002.

Jerry was able to get his B.A. in Sociology from the Antioch University in 1979.

Jerry was very involved in community organizations; he was Zapata Middle School PTO President and Zapata High School Band Booster President. Jerry was the announcer for the Zapata Hawks Football games on Friday night in which he was known for “Hold Everything, There’s a Flag on the Field” for thirteen years. Jerry was also a member of the Zapata County Fair Association and Live Stock Committee and 4-H Club Leader with the North Fork 4-H Club. Jerry was involved with Our Lady of

Yahoo to spin off Alibaba stake

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Lourdes Catholic Church as a Lector, Usher and a member of the Knights of Columbus.

Jerry was a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post 7768 in Zapata in which he was able to serve as a Commander for numerous years and also Quarter Master within the state. Jerry contributed his time in serving his country by attending funerals in which he was a member of the Flag and Firing Squads.

Jerry was called to other funerals in the surrounding counties in which he helped out. Jerry was able to organize numerous Veterans Day and Memorial Day celebrations in the County of Zapata.

Jerry was a mentor to many, as he was always asked for advice and would always encourage many people by giving them positive ideas and for them to further their education. Jerry would say to them, “Dale Para Delante.” Jerry lost his love of his life in 2009 and kept on with supporting his children and grandkids in school functions and many others. Jerry will be greatly missed by his children, grandchildren, sister, nieces, nephews and many people throughout his life time.

Thanks to Dr. John G. Knecht, Amistad Home Health for their devoted attention and care for our father, Jerry. Special thanks also to Zapata County Fire Department and the Zapata County Sheriff’s Office.

Visitation hours will be held on Thursday, January 29, 2015, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home.

The funeral procession will depart on Friday, January 30, 2015, at 9:30 a.m. for a 10 a.m. funeral Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.

Burial services will follow at Zapata County Cemetery, including full Military Honors by the American Legion Post 486 Color Guard.

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home, Daniel A. Gonzalez, Funeral Director, 2102 N. U.S. Hwy 83, Zapata.

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is spinning off the company’s prized stake in China’s Alibaba Group Holding in a move that will enable Yahoo to avoid paying billions of dollars in future taxes.

A newly formed entity called SpinCo will inherit ownership of Yahoo’s 384 million Alibaba shares when the tax-free spin-off is completed toward the end of this year.

Yahoo’s own stock gained $3.51, or more than 7 percent, to $51.50 in extended trading after Mayer disclosed her plans for Yahoo’s 15 percent stake in Alibaba.

Tuesday’s much-anticipated announcement overshadowed Yahoo’s results for the final three months of last year.

Yahoo Inc. invested just $1 billion in Alibaba nearly a decade ago, a bargain that subjected the company to massive tax bills as it has whittled its stake during the past three years.

Yahoo says it’s able to avoid taxes by spinning off the stake into a separate, independent company instead. Yahoo shareholders will get shares in the new company.

The spinoff is subject to various regulatory approvals from the Internal Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Yahoo is targeting

Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez | AP file

In this Nov. 5, 2014 photo, a person walks in front of a Yahoo sign at the company’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. Yahoo reported quarterly financial results on Tuesday. the fourth quarter, after the expiration of a one-year lock-up agreement requiring Yahoo to hold on to the shares.

The Alibaba stake is currently worth $39 billion, intensifying the shareholder pressure on Mayer to come up with a plan to minimize future taxes. The Alibaba investment is also worth far more than Yahoo’s. Yahoo has been struggling to generate more revenue for the past six years while rivals Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. grabbed a bigger piece of digital marketing budgets.

Alibaba had its initial public offering of stock in September. The Chinese company is attractive to investors in part because most of its users visit on

smartphones and other mobile devices at least once a month — important as computing shifts away from traditional laptops and desktops.

Investments in Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce company, and Yahoo Japan are the main reason Yahoo’s stock has more than tripled since Mayer defected from Google to become Yahoo’s CEO two-and-half years ago. Yahoo is retaining its nearly 36 percent stake in Yahoo Japan, currently worth nearly $7 billion, BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis estimated.

“This is ideal for shareholders and shows that (Mayer) is aligning herself with shareholder interests, at least for now,” Gillis said.

The handling of Yahoo’s Alibaba stake is so important to shareholders that one activist investor, hedge fudge manager Jeffrey Smith of Starboard Value, has threatened to spearhead an attempt to oust Mayer if she didn’t adopt a strategy that minimizes taxes. Smith also has been pressuring Mayer to commit to returning most of any future Alibaba windfalls to shareholders instead of spending the money to buy other companies — unless she embraces his call for Yahoo to merge with rival AOL Inc. A tax-free spin-off of the Alibaba stake ranked high on Smith’s agenda.

Starboard Value did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

PRISON Continued from Page 1A have a great team of attorneys and I am confident that all this will turn out for the best. The media can say what they want but I will have my day in court.”

In a sentencing brief filed by U.S. prosecutors last week, they requested that the court sentence Montemayor “within the guidelines range of 70 to 87 months."

Prosecutors wrote in the brief that "the value of the payments obtained, or to be obtained, by Montemayor or others acting in concert with" him far exceeds $120,000.

During Monday’s hearing, Montemayor’s lawyers, Oscar A. Vela Jr. and Roderick Carlos Lopez, were fighting for a sentencing range between 46 and 57 months.

But U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo overruled the defense attorneys’ objections to the harder punishment sought by the prosecutors.

“We’re disappointed at the end result, but we re-

spect the court’s decision,” Vela said. “We had some good legal arguments about the transactions that occurred. My client, Mr. Montemayor, is very remorseful for his actions and he understands the reality of what has happened today.”

Vela said during the hearing that the ordeal has been traumatic for Montemayor.

Prosecutors pushed for an enhanced sentencing because they said Montemayor took more than one bribe and the offense exceeded $120,000.

“This defendant stood up and took an oath, yet all the while he was kneedeep in a bribery scheme to line his own pockets,” Assistant U.S. attorney Emily Rae Woods said during the hearing. “The court should consider a sentence that would be appropriate to deter this type of criminal activity.”

The sentencing brief filed by prosecutors states that Montemayor facilitated bribes with two other county commissioners

and a city councilman.

They were not identified in the court document and are referred to as "uncharged co-conspirators."

In addition to Montemayor’s 76-month sentence, Marmolejo ordered forfeiture in the amount of $13,721.16 for the $11,000 in cash and more than $2,700 in Apple electronics he received from an undercover FBI agent.

Montemayor admitted to taking the cash and items in exchange for helping the agent, who he thought was a businessman, get contracts.

When FBI agents confronted Montemayor in December 2013, they tried to get him to become an informant. But it never panned out, prosecutors said.

Montemayor stopped communicating with the agents and refused to give back the bribe money and electronics he received from the undercover agent, the sentencing brief states.

“Montemayor also failed, despite repeated

requests by the government, to return property of the FBI, specifically a recording device, which he had kept for months without the consent of the FBI,” the court record states.

Despite Vela’s request that a fine not be imposed in the case, Marmolejo ordered Montemayor to pay the $109,405.72. The number is the remaining amount in bribes Montemayor allegedly took according to a calculation made by the U.S. Probation Office.

Marmolejo further ordered that Montemayor receive drug/alcohol treatment and participate in a mental health program.

Following his incarceration, Montemayor will be placed on a three-year term of supervised release. He must complete 200 hours of community service within the first two years of his supervised release term.

(Philip Balli may be reached at 728-2528 or pballi@lmtonline.com)

12A THE ZAPATA TIMES

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015

Fidel Castro finally speaks on US-Cuba relations

By VICTORIA BURNETT NEW YORK TIMES

MEXICO CITY — Fidel Castro has ended his silence of almost six weeks over the deal to restore diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, writing in a letter that he supported a peaceful end to conflict but still distrusted U.S. politics.

"We will always defend

cooperation and friendship with all of the world’s people, among them, our political adversaries," Castro wrote in the letter. It was read to students to observe the 70th anniversary of his matriculation at the University of Havana, and it was published late Monday in Granma, the Communist Party’s official newspaper.

The conspicuous absence of Castro after the

announcement on Dec. 17 of the détente after decades of diplomatic estrangement prompted rumors in Havana and Miami that he was dead. Those were largely calmed by a letter two weeks ago from Castro, 88, to the Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona.

But the letter to Maradona did not mention the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with the United

States, leaving analysts to wonder whether Castro, who stared down nearly a dozen U.S. presidents during the long standoff between the two nations, approved of the deal. Castro, who handed the reins of power to his brother Raúl because of serious illness — first in 2006, then officially in 2008 — has made only sporadic appearances over the last few years and

has not been seen in public in a year. In the letter published Monday, Castro was wide-ranging, skipping from global economic inequality and Greek notions of utopia to Cuba’s role in the Angolan conflict before addressing the reconciliation of Cuba and the United States.

"I shall explain my essential position in a few words," he wrote. "I do not

ECONOMY Continued from Page 1A below the breakeven point for a majority of shale drilling projects, Phillips said.

He said areas of Texas more dependent on energy production, like West Texas and the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, will be more negatively impacted by the sharply curtailed drilling and extraction activity resulting from low oil prices.

Economist Ray Perryman commented, “Obviously, the area is going to be impacted. At these prices, a lot of wells are uneconomical, and there will be little, if any, exploration and opening of new areas. Capital budgets will be cut substantially, and layoffs will occur. Conventional wells are generally profitable, and re-fracking of wells will con-

tinue in some areas. The effects will spill over to other sectors, as a lot of suppliers are affected and high income jobs are lost, thus impacting consumer sectors.”

He said, however, that, “I do not think this situation is longterm in nature.” His reasoning: Although supply and (temporarily) demand and a stronger dollar — which means the same international purchasing power is obtained with fewer dollars — are playing significant roles, the driving force is OPEC decision making.

“It is a complex political calculus, and there are many reasons why OPEC is holding its production at high levels despite the situation, such as trying to slow

trust the politics of the United States, nor have I exchanged a word with them, but this is not, in any way, a rejection of a peaceful solution to conflicts."

His brother, he wrote, had "taken the relevant steps in line with the prerogatives and authorities awarded to him by the National Assembly and the Cuban Communist Party."

PATRICK

down offshore investments, trying to impact Russia and its threat to European natural gas supplies, trying to discourage U.S. shale development and restore market share,” Perryman said. “However, it is not in OPEC’s best interest to pursue the current strategy for an extended period. In fact, several members are having extreme economic difficulty at the moment, and there is dissension in the ranks.”

He continued: “OPEC cannot ultimately halt shale development, as first, the world will need the oil and markets will ultimately set a price which will allow its extraction, and, secondly, capital in the U.S. oil market can move very quickly and will

do so when the opportunities arise.”

The bank’s outlook said the state’s gross domestic product will be more affected than job growth because output per worker in the mining sector is about 4.6 times more than the state average.

Beyond the headwind created by low oil prices, slowing exports may be another headwind for the Texas economy in 2015, according to Phillips. Texas exports have declined in recent months, and a strong U.S. dollar may further dampen exports this year.

The outlook’s bottom line: Texas is likely to continue to grow but not nearly as strong as last year.

Continued from Page 1A weeks.

One gun issue that does have broad support in the Senate is a measure to allow concealed handgun license holders to carry their weapons into college buildings and classrooms.

The issue sparked fierce debate in previous sessions, but never became law.

The new campus carry bill has 19 co-sponsors, precisely the number needed under Senate rules to bring a bill up for a vote. The House would still need to take up the measure.

STUDENTS Continued from Page 1A sions and forensic evidence from an area near a garbage dump where the Sept. 26 crime occurred.

“The evidence allows us to determine that the students were kidnapped, killed, burned and thrown into the river,” Murillo Karam said in a press conference that included a video reconstruction of the mass slaying and of the investigation into the case.

He added that “there is not a single shred of evidence that the army intervened ... not a single shred of evidence of the participation of the army,” as relatives of the victims have claimed.

Murillo Karam’s explanation seemed unlikely to quell the controversy and doubts about the case, in which the federal government has been criticized for acting slowly and callously.

Thousands of people demonstrat-

ed in Mexico City Monday night, demanding the students be returned alive.

The attorney general has come under attack from many quarters, including the students’ relatives and fire experts, who say the government’s version of what happened is implausible.

Family members are still searching in hopes of finding the students alive.

The Argentine Forensic Anthropologists, an independent team hired by parents to work with federal investigators, told The Associated Press on Sunday that there is still not “sufficient evidence” to link the charred remains found by authorities in a river in the town of Cocula to what happened at the garbage dump.

Valentin Cornelio Gonzalez, 30, brother-in-law of missing stu-

dent Abel Garcia Hernandez, said he still doubts what happened because Argentine anthropologists said the bag containing the remains of the one student identified by DNA testing, Alexander Mora, was open.

“They could have been planted,” Gonzalez said. “So the parents are now more prepared than ever to look for (the students) alive.”

Murillo Karam said the conclusion was made based on the testimony of a key suspect arrested two weeks ago, Felipe Rodriguez Salgado, who said he was called to get rid of the students. There are also 39 confessions and evidence of gas, diesel and burned rocks and internal tire steel at the scene, indicating the fire was hot enough to have burned the 43, Murillo Karam said.

Authorities say they were burned the night of Sept. 26 and over the next day, and their incinerated remains were bagged up and thrown into a nearby river.

The scene of the crime was an 800-meter (yard) ravine that resembled a furnace, said criminal investigations chief Tomas Zeron.

Murillo Karam said the information was based as well on 386 declarations, 16 raids and two reconstructions. So far 99 people have been detained in connection with the crime, including the former mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca.

Murillo Karam said the motive was that the members of a local gang, the Guerreros Unidos, believed the young men were rival gang members when they hijacked some public transit buses

in Iguala. But many of the suspects testified that they knew the men were students. The students, known for commandeering buses and taking over toll booths to support their leftist causes, said they were taking the buses for transport to an upcoming demonstration in Mexico City.

“They thought they were infiltrated,” Murillo Karam said at the press conference, adding that there is no indication that the students were part of any criminal group.

The case has sparked protests inside and outside Mexico over the four months since the students disappeared, and has forced the Mexican government to turn its attention from touting economic and education reforms to dealing with the country’s crime and insecurity problems.