The Zapata Times 4/4/2015

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ZETAS DRUG CARTEL

LAREDO FEDERAL COURT

‘Z-31’ detained

Man indicted on 3 counts

Commander worked Zapata County area

Flores allegedly smuggled immigrants in Zapata County

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

A regional commander for Los Zetas in northern parts of Mexico and Zapata County has been ordered detained pending further court proceedings, according to court

documents released Wednesday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Milloy ordered Jose Manuel Saldivar-Farias, also known as “Z-31” or “Borrado,” detained pending trial following a preliminary examination and detention

hearing held March 31 in Houston, records show.

“I find that the credible testimony and information submitted at the hearing establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure

the appearance of the defendant as required,” Milloy wrote in the court order.

“Should new information come to light that would materially affect this court’s ruling, the defendant may move

See Z-31 PAGE 11A

PETROLEOS MEXICANOS

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

A man accused of smuggling immigrants in Zapata County was indicted this week in a Laredo federal court,

according to court documents.

On Tuesday, a grand jury rendered an indictment charging Enrique Flores Jr. with

See INDICTED PAGE 11A

SOUTH TEXAS FOOD BANK

NEIGHBORWORKS Photo courtesy of Pemex | AP

In this Thursday photo provided by Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), emergency boats works to put out a fire at the Abkatun-A Permanente shallow-water oil platform.

Three workers still missing after fire

By MARK STEVENSON ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY — Three workers are missing following the huge blaze on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico that killed four workers and burned for hours, Mexico’s state oil company said Thursday.

Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said it became aware of the missing workers when it recounted personnel after Wednesday’s fire on the Abkatun-A Per-

manente shallow-water platform in the Campeche Sound.

One of the missing workers was from Pemex and the other two were employed by contractor Cotemar, a company statement said.

Investigators were still trying to determine the cause of the blaze, which injured 16 people, two seriously, and forced the evacuation of 300 workers.

Pemex said it managed to avert any sig-

nificant oil spill. Officials said environmental damage was avoided because the fire happened on a processing platform where the feeder lines could be turned off, rather than at an active oil well with a virtually unlimited amount of fuel flowing up from the seabed.

Pemex Director General Emilio Lozoya said the accident “would have a minimal impact on produc-

See FIRE PAGE 11A

Photo by Cuate Santos | Laredo Morning Times

Zapata County Treasurer and South Texas Food Bank board member Romeo Salinas plants one of the vegetables planted Thursday morning at a community garden at the NeighborWorks Laredo property. NeighborWorks Laredo joined forces with the South Texas Food Bank and Keep Laredo Beautiful for the project.

13TH COURT OF APPEALS IN CORPUS CHRISTI This photo shows the Dow chemical plant along the Brazos River in Freeport.

Water ruling cuts state’s power

By JIM MALEWITZ TEXAS TRIBUNE

A state appeals court has sided with farmers, ranchers and other longstanding water rights holders in a Brazos River case with widespread implications for future water battles in drought-prone Texas.

Upholding a lower court’s ruling, the 13th Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi on Thursday ruled that Texas cannot give special treatment to cities or power generators over more “senior” water rights holders on parched rivers — even if the state declares it necessary to protect the “public health, safety and wel-

fare.”

As it stands, the decision would require some cities, power generators or others with more “junior” river rights to pay up or go thirsty when severe drought strikes.

The Texas Farm Bureau,

See WATER PAGE 11A

Photo by Michael Stravato | Texas Tribune

PAGE 2A

Zin brief CALENDAR

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

AROUND TEXAS

TODAY IN HISTORY

SATURDAY, APRIL 4

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Used book and magazine sale at First United Methodist Church.

Widener Book Room. 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Public invited; no admission fee.

Laredo Northside Market from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at North Central Park. There will be an Easter egg hunt at 11 a.m. for children 5 years and under with parents and children ages 6 – 12.

Today is Saturday, April 4, the 94th day of 2015. There are 271 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History: On April 4, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln, accompanied by his son Tad, visited the vanquished Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, where he was greeted by a crowd that included former slaves.

On this date: In 1818, Congress decided the flag of the United States would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state of the Union.

In 1841, President William Henry Harrison succumbed to pneumonia one month after his inaugural, becoming the first U.S. chief executive to die in office.

In 1850, the city of Los Angeles was incorporated.

In 1933, the Navy airship USS Akron crashed in severe weather off the New Jersey coast with the loss of 73 lives.

In 1945, during World War II, U.S. forces liberated the Nazi concentration camp Ohrdruf in Germany. Hungary was liberated as Soviet forces cleared out remaining German troops.

In 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot and killed while standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

In 1975, more than 130 people, most of them children, were killed when a U.S. Air Force transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crash-landed shortly after takeoff from Saigon. Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In 1995, Francisco Martin Duran, who had raked the White House with semiautomatic rifle fire in Oct. 1994, was convicted in Washington of trying to assassinate President Bill Clinton (Duran was later sentenced to 40 years in prison).

Ten years ago: Tens of thousands of pilgrims paid their final respects to Pope John Paul II after his body was carried on a crimson platform to St. Peter’s Basilica.

Five years ago: At least 42 people were killed as suicide attackers detonated car bombs near embassies in Baghdad.

One year ago: An Afghan police officer opened fire on two Associated Press journalists inside a security forces base in eastern Afghanistan, killing prize-winning photographer Anja Niedringhaus (AHN’-yuh NEE’-dring-hows) and wounding veteran correspondent Kathy Gannon.

Today’s Birthdays: Actress Elizabeth Wilson is 94.

Recording executive Clive Davis is 83. Actor Craig T. Nelson is 71. Actress Mary-Margaret Humes is 61. Writer-producer David E. Kelley is 59. Rock musician Craig Adams (The Cult) is 53. Talk show host/ comic Graham Norton is 52.

Actor Robert Downey Jr. is 50.

Country singer Clay Davidson is 44. Magician David Blaine is 42. Singer Kelly Price is 42.

Actress Natasha Lyonne is 36.

Actor Eric Andre is 32. Actress Jamie Lynn Spears is 24.

Actress Daniela Bobadilla is 22. Pop singer Austin Mahone is 19.

Thought for Today: “You can kill a man but you can’t kill an idea.” — Medgar Evers, American civil rights activist (1926-1963).

MONDAY, APRIL 6 Volunteers needed for clean-up at Lake Casa Blanca. Registration is at 8 a.m. and clean-up is from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Bring comfortable clothes and shoes, sunscreen and a reusable water bootle. Community service hours are available, and lunch will be provided, courtesy of Councilman Roque Vela Jr. Call RGISC at 718-1063 to pre-register. Lake Casa Blanca International State Park 5102 Bob Bullock Loop.

TUESDAY, APRIL 7 The Alzheimer’s support group.

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.

Les Amies Birthday Club’s monthly meeting at 11:30 a.m. at the Ramada Plaza, honoring Leonor “Noni” Daves.

A Community Conversation on Teen and Young Adult Mental Health is being offered by the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Border Region Behavioral Health Center and Texas Department of State Services Office of Border Health from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at UT Health Science Center Regional Campus Laredo, 1937 E. Bustamante St., Laredo. Registration is free and open to all community members. For additional information, call 956-712-0037 or email hmedellin@mrgbahec.org.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8 Used book sale. First United Methodist Church. 10 a.m. to noon.

Come join us at the Laredo Human Resource Management Association Meeting. Embassy Suites at noon. Mr. Rodney Klein the Education and Training Manager for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will be presenting on: Harassment and Bullying in the workplace.

Please register online at LAHRM.org.

SATURDAY, APRIL 11 Larry Hernandez Memorial 7th Annual Crime Stoppers 5-K Run/Walk Against Crime at the entrance of Lake Casa Blanca State Park. Registration 7 a.m. Race at 8 a.m. Pre-registration fee $15 through April 10.

Day of the event n April 11, $20.

Kids’ run for ages 10 years and under. Proceeds benefit Laredo Crime Stoppers. The first 100 entries receive T-shirt and goody bag. Registration forms at Laredo Crime Stoppers office, 1200 Washington St., 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., or at Laredo Ciclo Mania at 611 Shiloh, Ste. #2 from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Call 956-724-1876 for information; applications at www.laredocrimestoppers.org.

TUESDAY, APRIL 14 The Ruthe B. Cowl Rehabilitation Center orthopedic clinic. Patients must register at the Center before the day of the clinic. BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. $5 fee. For more information please contact Norma Rangel at 722-2431.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15 Used Book Sale, 10 a.m. to noon. Widener Book Room, First United Methodist Church. Public invited; no admission fee.

“Opportunities and Challenges for Mexico Today” from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at TAMIU Student Center Ballroom 5201 University Blvd. Dr. Negroponte will examine the high expectations for modernization of the Mexican economy under President Enrique Peña Nieto and the 11 structural reforms that he succeeded in passing through Congress. She will discuss questions such as how implementation of the principal reforms, energy and telecommunications progressed.

She will also explore the question of how Peña Nieto’s administration has met serious security and political challenges following the reforms’ passages and what lies ahead in 2015.

For more information, contact Amy Palacios at cswht@tamiu.edu or 956326-2820.

Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News | AP

In this Tuesday, May 10, 2011 photo, a park board employee cleans the the sargassum seaweed from the beach with a bulldozer, between 24th and 21st Streets in Galveston. Experts believe Galveston will have fewer seaweed problems in summer 2015.

Fewer seaweed problems ASSOCIATED PRESS

GALVESTON — Experts say Galveston should experience fewer problems with seaweed this summer compared to last year, when the city found itself nearly buried in the stuff.

The Galveston County Daily News reports that much of the seaweed, which traditionally arrives at the island in April, has been caught in a current that is steering it away from the Texas Gulf Coast. Large amounts of the sargassum seaweed have floated toward the Caribbean islands and Mexico’s Yucatán area instead.

Capt. Robert Webster, a researcher at Texas A&M University-Galveston relayed his seaweed prediction and studies Thursday at an annual symposium that is devoted to the seaweed.

“We’ll see sargassum this year, sorry guys,” Webster said. “But it won’t be as bad as last year.”

So much seaweed landed in Galveston last year that officials were unable remove it from some beaches.

This year, a new web application called the Sargassum Early Advisory System will aid groups who maintain the beached in their cleanup preparation. The system uses images taken by two NASA satellites that pass over the Gulf every eight days to predict where mats of seaweed will land. The application is part of Texas A&M University-Galveston’s partnership with NASA. NASA officials say they were skeptical of the prediction system’s necessity when it was first proposed, but went ahead with the project after seeing the heavy amount of seaweed that hit Galveston last year.

Round Rock police help round up loose buffalo

1 hurt when crane arm falls on roof of museum

Love Field gets church’s stained-glass window

ROUND ROCK — A buffalo that roamed away from home has been recaptured after being cornered by Central Texas police in a videotaped chase through a residential area. Round Rock police were dispatched Friday morning when the owner reported the buffalo jumped some fences and fled in a rural area.

Patrol car video shows officers with flashing lights chasing the buffalo as it gallops along sidewalks, on grass and into streets.

DALLAS — One person has been hurt when part of a truckmounted crane toppled onto the roof of the Dallas Museum of Art. The crane was mounted on a truck that was upended during the accident on the museum grounds.

The crane’s upper extended arm came to rest on the edge of the museum roof, near a grassy part of the complex. The crane tipped near a towering outdoor red steel sculpture called “Ave.”

DALLAS — One of four stained-glass windows salvaged from an old church undergoing demolition will be hung in the ticketing hall at Dallas Love Field. The window is one of four windows salvaged from the Trinity Lutheran Church in Old East Dallas when it was demolished in 2013. The blue and turquoise panels have been restored by Michael Van Enter and are being suspended in four sections in front of ticketing hall windows.

Toddler survives fall from 4th floor of apartment

Father, son plead guilty over marijuana farm

Irving has another quake, 3.3 magnitude

FRISCO — Rescuers say a 2year-old girl has survived falling from a window on the fourth floor of an apartment complex.

Emergency personnel received a call shortly before 9 a.m. Friday.

It appears the window was open, the toddler pushed the screen and then fell four stories to a grassy area below.

BROWNSVILLE — A father and son from Mexico have pleaded guilty to running a marijuana farm where officers found about 9,000 plants. Investigators say 52year-old Miguel Echevarria Zuniga and 22-year-old Miguel Echevarria Guizar could be sentenced to life in prison and fined up to $10 million.

IRVING — Another minor earthquake has been detected in North Texas.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports a 3.3 magnitude quake happened at 5:36 p.m. CDT Thursday.

The quake was centered in the Las Colinas section of northeastern Irving near Texas 114.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE WORLD Kenya mourns 148 dead in university attack GARISSA, Kenya — The 20year-old student called home from the university besieged by Islamic militants and frantically told her father, “There are gunshots everywhere! Tell Mum to pray for me — I don’t know if I will survive.”

The call by Elizabeth Namarome Musinai at dawn Thursday was one of several her family received as the attack and hostage drama unfolded at Garissa University College, where gunmen from the al-Shabab militant group killed 148 people.

The gunmen singled out Christians at the university, killing them on the spot. But Muslims also were among the dead.

French government eyes measure against models PARIS — In one of the most image-conscious cities on earth,

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Kenya Red Cross staff assist a woman after she viewed the body of a relative killed in Thursday’s attack on a university, at Chiromo funeral home, Nairobi, Kenya, Friday. Al-Shabab gunmen rampaged through a Kenyan university Thursday.

France’s Parliament has moved to make it a crime to use anorexic models or encourage anorexia, as authorities try to crack down on the glorification of dangerously thin women.

Other countries including Israel and Spain have taken simi-

lar action.

The French measures would only apply within France, but could have symbolic impact beyond, because of its outsized influence in setting style trends around the world.

— Compiled from AP reports

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Local

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

Men plead not guitly in smuggling case

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

Two Laredo men suspected of smuggling illegal immigrants in Zapata County have pleaded not guilty in federal court, according to documents obtained this week.

Court records identified the defendants as Roy Ramirez and Adolfo de la Cruz Jr., both from Lare-

do. On Tuesday, a grand jury charged the men with conspiracy to transport undocumented people within the United States, and transport and attempt to transport undocumented people for financial gain, according to the indictment.

De la Cruz and Ramirez submitted a written not guilty plea Thursday and Friday, respectively, and

waived their arraignment set for April 9.

Both face up to 10 years in prison if they’re found guilty, records show. De la Cruz and Ramirez and out on bond.

A criminal complaint filed March 16 alleges that both men were arrested following a traffic stop reported March 12 in the intersection of U.S. 83 and Mesa Salinas Road, south

of Zapata.

Prior to the arrest, a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper cited Ramirez for allegedly driving in the left lane when not passing and for not having a driver’s license.

The trooper then requested assistance from U.S. Border Patrol after he suspected that some occupants were in the country illegally.

Border Patrol determined that five people did not have legal status to be in the country, states the complaint. Everyone was taken to the Zapata Border Patrol Station for processing. There, Ramirez invoked his right to an attorney.

Records allege de la Cruz agreed to speak with authorities in a post-arrest interview. He agents

that Ramirez asked him to travel with him to Zapata to pick up a group of immigrants. Ramirez allegedly needed de la Cruz’s car. The men would’ve been paid $200 per person smuggled. They were going to split the earnings, according to court documents.

(César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)

Photo by Michael Stravato | Texas Tribune

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz speaks to supporters with his father Rafael, his wife Heidi and their children in Houston on Tuesday.

Sen. Cruz won’t speak at TAMIU

By MATTHEW WATKINS TEXAS TRIBUNE

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz won’t be speaking at Texas A&M International’s graduation this spring, the university announced Friday.

In a brief statement, the school said it was notified that Cruz, a Republican presidential candidate, is "regrettably unable to join us" at the May event. No reason was given, but the school said it "looks forward to a future opportunity to welcome Sen. Cruz to TAMIU." That announcement comes a day after the school confirmed that Cruz had reached out and offered to appear at the May 22 com-

mencement. Plans were never finalized, but students at the Laredo school were told that the ceremony schedule may be changed.

TAMIU has about 7,000 students. Usually, graduation is broken into three separate ceremonies, but those would have been combined into one event to accommodate the presidential candidate.

The trip to Laredo would have given Cruz another opportunity to visit Texas’ border with Mexico. Cruz has been criticized for only taking three trips to the region since being elected in 2012. Sen. John Cornyn, the senior Texas Republican in the Senate, has visited 13 times in that same span.

Courtesy photo

Pictured from left to right, back row to front row: Harold Smith, Pedro Alvarez, Beethoven Garcia, Eduardo Gracia, Berry O’Bryan, Raymond Quigg, Ramon Rodriguez, Miguel Treviño and Jorge Collazo; Jorge Rendon, Jesus Gonzalez, Hector Gonzalez, Leticia Perez, Mary Hernandez, Marisa Ramirez, Juan Reyna, Daniel Garcia and Arturo Estevis.

TxDOT awarded for US 83 work SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

The Texas Department of Transportation-Pharr District received top awards for a U.S. 83 project in Zapata County from the The TxDOT / TXAPA Quality Asphalt Pavement Awards Program.

The project consisted of the reconstruction of an existing roadway, which

widened pavement of roadway and structures and added 2-mile passing lanes at three locations from the Zapata/Starr County Line to about 6.5 miles north of FM 2687.

This achievement was accomplished with the partnering efforts of the Texas Department of Transportation and the prime contractor, Anderson Columbia Company, Inc.

The awards program was developed to recognize Quality Asphalt Paving Projects. The program recognizes quality methods and practices and people dedicated to quality.

In September of 2014, The Texas Asphalt Pavement Association announced the 2014 Quality Asphalt Pavement Award for a U.S. 83 Project in Za-

pata County and in late January of 2015, the National Asphalt Pavement Association announced that this same project was the recipient of the 2014 Quality in Construction Award. The same project is now being considered of the prestigious Sheldon G. Hayes Award from the National Asphalt Pavement Association.

PAGE 4A

Zopinion

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO EDITORIAL@LMTONLINE.COM

COMMENTARY

OTHER VIEWS

Freedom is a two-way street WASHINGTON — Excited protests against Indiana’s recently passed religious freedom law have highlighted both America’s growing support for same-sex marriage and our apparent incapacity to entertain more than one idea at a time.

The law in question is a version of the 1993 federal Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA) signed by thenPresident Clinton. Nineteen states have versions of the law and another 11 have interpreted their state constitutions as already providing these protections. Without diving into the weeds, RFRA aims to protect religious freedom against government action that abridges deeply held convictions.

Indiana’s law isn’t exactly the same as the federal version — or of some other state laws — and it isn’t clear whether these distinctions constitute a difference justifying the current level of outrage.

They include extending protection to corporations as well as individuals; expanding protections against government actions that are “likely” to be substantially burdensome; and, perhaps most problematic, allowing claims of religious-freedom infringement even if the government isn’t involved.

Nevertheless, after a difficult week of criticism and protests aimed at Indiana, Gov. Mike Pence announced Tuesday that he would push his state’s Assembly to pass legislation stating that the new law does not give businesses a right to deny services to anyone.

This may be exactly so, but it wouldn’t necessarily preclude individuals or corporations from denying services to samesex couples and then defending themselves on religious principle.

Based on what Pence said, it would merely make clear that the state doesn’t authorize or condone such refusal of services or any other discriminatory action.

But discrimination remains a personal choice, which can be defended in individual cases under RFRA. Does anyone really object to this option? Isn’t it fair to allow religious people a framework for seeking recourse through the courts?

Refusing services because of a religious belief doesn’t lend solace to those seeking complete equality without exception.

As Clinton said at the time of the federal law’s passage, freedom of religion is “perhaps the most precious of all American liberties.” Though the First Amendment was intended to protect citizens from religious persecution and the imposition of a state religion, inferentially, it also has protected religious believers from

“

KATHLEEN PARKER

being forced by government fiat to renounce their belief in attendance to some government action.

The most familiar recent case involved a baker who didn’t want to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. The question is whether he has the right, owing to his religious beliefs, to refuse to bake the cake. If you think this is silly, consider that RFRA first came about to protect the rights of Native Americans to consume peyote in religious ceremonies.

The theoretical abuses on both sides can be endlessly entertaining.

Should we also allow the slaughter of pets as sacrifices to someone’s God? Even Abraham believed that God required he slay his own son. Abraham almost did, too, before God intervened, satisfied that Abraham sufficiently feared him.

But we’re not talking about silly or extreme exceptions.

If even a few Christians, Jews or Muslims understand marriage to be the sacred union of man and woman in the eyes of God, activists seeking a fresh definition shouldn’t expect an immediate surrender.

This doesn’t justify the refusal of a wedding cake, the baking of which hardly qualifies as an endorsement, but nor does it justify charges of bigotry, as is often said of religious people struggling with profound social restructuring.

This isn’t an excuse for what is, in fact, discrimination by any other name.

It is an attempt at compassion sorely missing from most discussions of this and other laws that try to carve out a tiny space for people whose religious beliefs are being put asunder.

As gay activist and conservative author Andrew Sullivan wrote last year, “we should give them [religious believers] space.”

Such as by, say, going to another bakery?

The market ultimately may settle these matters before the courts do.

Pence’s latest move was prompted by corporate pressure as well as a few state boycotts on statefunded travel to the Hoosier state.

As Indiana moves to clarify its intent, the perception of discrimination will persist until RFRA laws are eliminated. This is the goal of many activists. But discrimination is a two-way street and tolerance should apply equally to sexual orientation as well as to religious belief.

There’s plenty of cake to go around.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY The Zapata Times does not publish anonymous letters.

To be published, letters must include the writer’s first and last names as well as a phone number to verify identity. The phone number IS NOT published; it is used solely to verify identity and to clarify content, if necessary. Identity of the letter writer must be verified before publication.

We want to assure

our readers that a letter is written by the person who signs the letter. The Zapata Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms.

Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No namecalling or gratuitous abuse is allowed.

Via e-mail, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.

COLUMN

Latinos will not change GOP

By O. RICARDO PIMENTEL SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

We have two Latinos in the 2016 presidential field so far. And that presents just the first irony.

Those two Latinos — Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida — are Republicans. The Democratic Party is allegedly the favorite of minorities and it has nary a Latino in sight vying for its nomination.

In 2008, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson gave it a feeble try. But after that I’m hard-pressed to remember a credible Latino candidate in the Democratic Party, though photos of JFK jockeyed for wall space on many a Latino wall when I was growing up. Competing, of course, with the Virgin Mary and the pope.

As I calculate, the first Latino to run as a major party candidate wasn’t Richardson and wasn’t a Democrat. It was Ben Fernandez, who ran for the Republican nomination twice in the 1980s. He had this compelling personal story — son of Mexican immigrants and self-made millionaire. Alas, though Fernandez was presciently lecturing his party about the growing Latino population, Republicans preferred a

chap by the name of Reagan.

A woman, Hillary Clinton, the favorite to top the Democratic ticket in 2016, is nothing to sneeze at in gauging how far national politics has come. A first black president followed by our first female president?

It boggles the mind, though this happening is far from assured.

Irony No. 2. The groundbreaking Latinos in the GOP are likely to scare away more Latino voters than attract. Their presence makes history but not how folks might have envisioned.

It depends which Rubio shows up. Will it be the guy who shepherded bipartisan immigration reform through the Senate, a bill that both parties said they could live with and was championed by immigrant advocates? Or is it the guy who quickly distanced himself from his own handiwork once his party’s tea party wing started thinking of him as an amnesty-giving RINO? Immigration isn’t the only issue for Latino voters, though an important one.

But Rubio tacks right on a lot of those other issues and will likely have to stay that course for the GOP primary,

perhaps taking an even more rightward tilt forced by the likes of Cruz, running as an evangelical Christian and unyielding tea party warrior.

Which brings us to Cruz.

Let’s dispense with something. There is no Latino litmus test. No one can claim to be more Latino than anyone else. If anyone has a big tent, it’s Latinos, able to accommodate anti-communist, Castro-hating Cubans (the Cruz and Rubio wings), Puerto Ricans for or against island statehood or independence, Mexican-Americans who can trace their family presence here back before nationhood — or back to folks they call Mama and Papi — and Central Americans with more recent immigration history.

But if you’re thinking that a Spanish surname will bring Latinos along automatically, you haven’t been paying attention. In Cruz, we’ve pretty much got a guy who wants to close the border — he calls it ”securing the border” — and whose idea for teeny, tiny government, when he isn’t shutting it down, runs counter to what Latinos need in education, health care, job training and housing. All those things that make economic opportunity

possible.

Most everything that Cruz will cite in his attempt to wrest the GOP nomination from the party establishment will alienate a whole lot of Latino voters.

Funny, a Ben Fernandez running today on the same sort of platform he used in 1980 and 1984 — opportunity — would likely get more votes.

And in that sense, though the GOP has two Latino candidates, it has actually regressed. Thank you, tea party. And Democrats? Destined apparently to have Latino VP candidates perpetually waiting in the wings, what Richardson had the best shot for in his 2008 run.

Understand, a Latino VP candidate would make history — Julian Castro, anyone? But if ever there actually was a real decade of the Hispanic — trotted out as a slogan in some form every decade since I started voting in the 1970s — it seems to have escaped notice, presidentially speaking.

And the GOP’s Latino candidates? Viva Fernandez! He had his problems as a candidate, but he’s looking pretty good about now. (o.ricardo.pimentel@express-news.net)

WORST WEEK IN WASHINGTON

Charges are nothing to sneeze at

By CHRIS CILLIZZA THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — Groucho Marx once said he didn’t want to belong to any club that would accept him as a member.

Somewhere, Sen. Bob Menendez is nodding his head. That’s because this past week the New Jersey Democrat joined a club no politician wants to be in: He became one of only 12

U.S. senators to be charged with a crime.

At issue is Menendez’s relationship with Salomon Melgen, a wealthy Florida eye doctor. The Justice Department alleges — in a 14count indictment that came down Wednesday — that the lawmaker intervened repeatedly on Melgen’s behalf in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Menendez and

other interests tied to him.

That intervention included wading into a port dispute in the Dominican Republic and helping to obtain visas for three of Melgen’s girlfriends.

Menendez insists that there was absolutely no quid pro quo at work in his relationship with Melgen.

The case against him is daunting — a 68-page charging document provides granular detail on

just what the senator allegedly received from Salomon. It says the gifts included 19 free rides on private jets for Menendez and guests, long weekends to visit Melgen in Florida and the Dominican Republic, and, oh yeah, a $600,000 super PAC donation.

Bob Menendez, for your new membership in the Senate’s least-distinguished club, you had the worst week in Washington.

CLASSIC DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

Nation

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

No evidence frees man after 30 years in prison

By KIM CHANDLER ASSOCIATED PRESS

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A man who spent nearly 30 years on Alabama’s death row walked free Friday hours after prosecutors acknowledged that the only evidence they had against him couldn’t prove he committed the crime.

Ray Hinton was 29 when he was arrested for two 1985 killings. Freed at age 58, with grey hair and a beard, he was embraced by his sobbing sisters, who said “thank you Jesus,” as they wrapped their arms around him outside the Jefferson County Jail.

Hinton had won a new trial last year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that his trial counsel was inadequate.

Prosecutors on Wednesday moved to drop the case after new ballistics tests contradicted those done three decades ago. Experts couldn’t match crime scene bullets to a gun found in Hinton’s home.

“I shouldn’t have sat on death row for 30 years. All they had to do was test the gun,” Hinton said.

The state of Alabama offered no immediate apology.

“When you think you are high and mighty and you are above the law, you don’t have to answer to nobody.

But I got news for them, everybody who played a part in sending me to death row, you will answer to God,” Hinton said. “They just didn’t take me from my family and friends. They had every intention of executing me for something I didn’t do,” Hinton said.

Hinton was arrested in 1985 for the murders of two Birmingham fast-food restaurant managers after the survivor of a third restaurant robbery identified Hinton as the gunman. Prosecution experts said at the trial that bullets recovered at all three crime scenes matched Hinton’s mother’s .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver.

He was convicted despite an

alibi: He had been at work inside a locked warehouse 15 minutes away during the third shooting.

“The only thing we’ve ever had to connect him to the two crimes here in Birmingham was the bullets matching the gun that was recovered from his home,” Chief Deputy District Attorney John R. Bowers, Jr. told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that Hinton had “constitutionally deficient” representation at trial because his defense lawyer wrongly thought he had only $1,000 to hire a ballistics expert to rebut the state’s case. The only expert willing to take the job at that price struggled so much under cross-examination that jurors chuckled at his responses.

Attorney Bryan Stevenson, who directs Alabama’s

Photo by Alabama Dept. of Corrections | AP

Inmate Anthony Ray Hinton, who spent nearly 30 years on death row, went free Friday after prosecutors told a court that there is not enough evidence to link him to the 1985 murders he was convicted of committing.

Equal Justice Initiative, called it “a case study” in what is wrong with the judicial system. He said the trial was tainted by racial bias and that Hinton, an impoverished African-American man, did not have ac-

cess to a better defense.

“We have a system that doesn’t do the right thing when the right thing is apparent. Prosecutors should have done these tests years ago,” Stevenson said.

The independent experts Stevenson hired to re-examine this evidence after taking on Hinton’s case in 1999 “were quite unequivocal that this gun was not connected to these crimes,” he said. “That’s the real shame to me. What happened this week to get Mr. Hinton released could have happened at least 15 years ago.”

Stevenson then tried in vain for years to persuade the state of Alabama to reexamine the evidence. The bullets only got a new look as prosecutors and defense lawyers tangled over a possible retrial following the Supreme Court ruling.

The result: Three forensics experts could not posi-

tively conclude whether the bullets were fired from Hinton’s revolver, or whether they came from the same gun at all, according to the state’s request to dismiss the case against Hinton.

Asked how the state’s conclusions could be so different this time, Bowers said they put the same question to the experts, who said test standards have become more “conservative.”

“Some things back then that experts would be willing to attest to, they would not be willing to attest to now,” Bowers said.

The science of bullet matching remains the same as it was 30 years ago, even though microscopes have improved since then: A gun is test-fired and the bullet is compared with a slug from the crime scene. Problems can result mainly through human error, or when analysts aren’t qualified, said

Pete Gagliardi, a former ATF special agent in charge and vice president of Forensic Technology Inc. Hinton was one of the longest-serving inmates on Alabama’s death row, and is one of the longest-serving inmates to be released in the United States. But Stevenson said there are many others behind bars who were convicted “based on bad science.”

Hinton left the jail for a cemetery, planning to put flowers on the grave of his mother, who died in 2002.

After that comes the adjustment after spending nearly half of his life in solitary confinement.

“The world is a very different place than in what 30 years ago. There was no internet. There was no email.

I gave him an iPhone this morning. He’s completely mystified by that,” Stevenson said.

PÁGINA 6A

Zfrontera Estará en custodia

SÁBADO 4 DE ABRIL DE 2015

CASO SALDIVAR-FARÍAS

Ribereña en Breve

CARRERA CONTRA AUTISMO

El 4 de abril tendrá lugar la Primera Carrera para Concientizar sobre el Autismo del Condado de Zapata. La carrera comenzará a las 8 a.m. en el Palacio de Justicia del Condado de Zapata. La preinscripción tiene un costo de 10 dólares en active.com o en la Cámara de Comercio del Condado de Zapata en 800 de North Hwy 83 Zapata. El costo de inscripción el día del evento será de 20 dólares.

Las categorías para la carrera de 5K son: 14 años y menores; de 15 años a 19 años; de 20 a 29 años; de 30 a 39 años; de 40 a 49 años; de 50 a 59 años; y de 60 en adelante.

BRAVO FEST MIGUEL ALEMÁN— Se estará realizando el “Bravo Fest”, evento que tendrá lugar el 3, 4 y 5 de abril, en el Parque del Río Bravo, debajo del Puente Internacional.

El evento, que tiene como objetivo llegar a todas las familias de la región, contará con música en vivo por parte de artistas locales, música de DJ, competencias de baile, competencias de voleibol playero y campo de gotcha. Asimismo habrá puestos de comida y bebidas.

El festival es gratuito y abierto al público.

POR CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

A un comandante regional de Los Zetas en áreas del norte de México y el Condado de Zapata se le ordenó permanecer detenido a la espera de futuros procesos judiciales, de acuerdo con documentos de la corte emitidos el miércoles.

La Juez Magistrada de EU, Mary Milloy, ordenó a José Manuel Saldivar-Farías, también conocido como “Z-31” o “Borrado”, permanecer detenido a la espera de un juicio después de un reconocimiento preliminar y audiencia de detención celebrada el 31 de marzo en Houston, muestran registros.

“Me parece un testimonio creíble y la información presentada en la audiencia establecida por una preponderancia de la evidencia de que ninguna condición o

combinación de condiciones asegurará razonablemente la comparecencia del acusado como es requerido”, escribió Milloy en una orden judicial. “En caso de que nueva información surja y que ésta pudiera afectar materialmente el fallo de este tribunal, el acusado puede reabrir la audiencia de detención”.

Autoridades estatales y federales arrestaron a Saldivar-Farías, de 27 años, a mediados de marzo. Él renunció a su audiencia preliminar y de detención en Laredo, el 20 de marzo. Además solicitó al Juez Magistrado de EU, Guillermo R. García, trasladar su caso a Houston, donde la querella original fue presentada.

Una querella criminal presentada el 16 de marzo, acusa a Saldivar-Farias y a su coacusado Osiel Hernández-Martínez, de 26 años, con cargos por conspiración para

posesión de más de 1.000 kilogramos de marihuana. Además, Saldivar-Farías fue acusado de hacer una declaración falsa a agentes gubernamentales. Registros de la corte alegan que supervisó el contrabando de múltiples toneladas de marihuana desde México a Estados Unidos. Además, SaldivarFarias supuestamente suministraba cargamentos de marihuana que serían cruzados por el Lago Falcon alrededor de Zapata.

Saldivar-Farias, habría comenzado a trabajar para los Zetas bajo las órdenes del Comandante Tortugon, quien estaba a cargo de la plaza de Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, a principios del 2000. Él y su hermano Juan Pedro Saldivar-Farías eran “cocineros”, a cargo de ejecutar homicidios, disponiendo y desmembrando cuerpos en grandes barriles de químicos, utilizando un método llamado “guiso” o esto-

fado, de acuerdo con una querella.

Saldivar-Farias obtuvo el puesto de comandante regional del norte de México de Los Zetas y el área del Lago Falcón en Zapata, después de que elementos de la marina mexicana capturara a su hermano el 12 de octubre de 2013.

Autoridades de EU, arrestaron a Saldivar-Farías alrededor de las 9:30 p.m. del 12 de marzo, después de elementos del Departamento de Seguridad Pública de Texas (DPS, por sus siglas en inglés) notaran un bote a alta velocidad con dirección al norte, rumbo a Estados Unidos. Sospechando que se trataba de inmigrantes indocumentados, DPS interceptó el bote. Saldivar-Farias, supuestamente mintió sobre su identidad diciendo que era Carlos Cruz-Jiménez. Pero una investigación reveló que era el comandante de Los Zetas, muestran registros.

MIGUEL ALEMÁN, MÉXICO

TRÁFICO DE PERSONAS

PREPARAN FESTIVAL

Dos se declaran no culpables

CAMPAÑA MÉDICO-ASISTENCIAL MIGUEL ALEMAN — Se implementará la primer campaña médico asistencial propuesta por miembros de los ministerios nacionales “Betel” el 11 de junio, de 8 a.m. a 5 p.m.

El grupo de 15 personas, entre médicos y enfermeros, estarán representados por la misionera Deana Gatlin. Además traerán consigo ropa, medicamentos y despensas.

El Presidente Municipal, Ramiro Cortez, informó que los misioneros evangélicos viajarán a las comunidades rurales del sur de Miguel Alemán el 13 de junio.

POR CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Foto de cortesía

La Ciudad de Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas, está realizando el “Bravo Fest”, durante este fin de semana, en el Parque del Río Bravo, debajo del Puente Internacional. El evento contará con música en vivo, música de DJ, competencias de baile, competencias de voleibol playero y campo de gotcha.

CORTE

Sujeto recibe cargos formales

CONVOCATORIA

POR CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ

El Gobierno de Tamaulipas, a través del Instituto Tamaulipeco para la Cultura y las Artes (ITCA), en coordinación con el Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA) invita a intelectuales, artistas e intérpretes a participar en la convocatoria para obtener apoyo económico para cursar Residencias Artísticas y Capacitación del Programa de Estímulo a la Creación y al Desarrollo Artístico (PECDA) 2015.

Los requisitos son, en participación individual: ser creadores tamaulipecos o con residencia continua mínima comprobable de 3 años en el Estado de Tamaulipas, mayores de 18 años, con trayectoria acreditada en disciplinas artísticas.

Las fechas para la capacitación deberán estar comprendidas en el periodo julio-noviembre de 2015. Para el registro, los interesados deberán de entrar al sitio del PECDA (www.pecdaenlinea.conaculta.gob.mx), llenar la solicitud de participación en línea. Y subir al sitio del PECDA los documentos y anexos obligatorios. Las bases completas se pueden revisar en la página oficial del instituto en www.itca.gob.mx/convocatorias.

Esta convocatoria permanecerá abierta hasta el 25 de abril. Para información, los aspirantes llamar al teléfono 01 (834) 1534312 ext. 111, 131 y 132.

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Un hombre acusado de tráfico de inmigrantes en el Condado de Webb, fue acusado formalmente esta semana en una corte federal de Laredo, de acuerdo con documentos de la corte.

El martes, un gran jurado dictó un auto de procesamiento acusando a Enrique Flores Jr., con un cargo por conspiración para transportar inmigrantes indocumentados a Estados Unidos, y dos cargos por transportar e intentar el transporte de personas indocumentadas a cambio de un pago.

En caso de ser encontrado culpable, Flores podría ser sentenciado a hasta 10 años tras las rejas. Flores tiene una lectura de cargos programada para el 9 de abril en la sala 2B, ante la Juez Magistrado Diana Song Quiroga. Continúa en custodia federal con una fianza por 75.000 dólares,

Flores y su hija, Roxanna Flores, fueron arrestados al sur de Zapata, el 5 de marzo, por supuestamente transportar a siete personas que entraron al país de manera ilegal. Ese día, la Oficina del Alguacil del Condado de Zapata, solicitó la asistencia de Patrulla Fronteriza, durante un reporte en el vecindario Siesta Shores.

Registros alegan que la GMC Sierra, modelo 2007, operada por Flores llevó a las autoridades a una persecución, después de que elementos del orden intentaran detener el vehículo por varias violaciones de tráfico. Tras el caso, varios ocupantes fueron expulsados del GMC en Weslaco y Vicki Lines.

Mientras tanto, un oficial asistente detuvo un vehículo, Chrysler 300, color verde, modelo 2005, conducido por Roxanna Flores sobre Mesa Salinas Road.

Los oficiales la tomaron en custodia por supuestamente ac-

tuar como señuelo o exploradora, y ayudar a su padre en la evasión del arresto. Los agentes dijeron que los siete ocupantes del GMC no tenían estatus legal para estar en el país. Los inmigrantes que fueron retenidos como testigos materiales identificaron a Enrique Flores como el conductor de la GMC. “Flores admitió que sabía que fue detenido porque estaba contrabandeando (inmigrantes) indocumentados. Continuó diciendo que él sabía que las personas que recogió eran indocumentados porque estaba ahí para recoger a su esposa, Carolina Trejo González, quien es una (inmigrante) indocumentada”, señala la querella criminal, presentada el 9 de marzo.

Roxanna Flores fue dejada en libertad porque no cumplía con las directrices de la fiscalía, según documentos de la corte.

(Localice a César G. Rodriguez en 728-2568 o en cesar@lmtonline.com)

Dos hombres de Laredo, sospechosos del tráfico de inmigrantes indocumentados en el Condado de Zapata se declararon no culpables en una corte federal, de acuerdo con documentos obtenidos esta semana.

Los documentos de la corte identifican a los acusados como Roy Ramírez y Adolfo de la Cruz Jr., ambos de Laredo.

El martes, un gran jurado acusó a los hombres de conspiración para transportar personas indocumentadas a Estados Unidos, y transportar e intento para transportar personas indocumentadas con fines de lucro, de acuerdo con la acusación.

De la Cruz y Ramírez presentaron una declaración de no culpabilidad, por escrito, el jueves y viernes, respectivamente, y renunciaron a su comparecencia para la lectura de cargos, programada para el 9 de abril.

Ambos enfrentan a hasta 10 años en prisión, en caso de ser declarados culpables, muestran documentos. De la Cruz y Ramírez salieron libres bajo fianza.

Una querella criminal presentada el 16 de marzo alega que ambos hombres fueron detenidos tras una parada de tráfico reportada el 12 de marzo en la intersección de U.S. 83 y Mesa Salinas Road, al sur de Zapata.

Antes de la detención, un policía del Departamento de Seguridad Pública de Texas (DPS, por sus siglas en inglés) citó a Ramírez por presuntamente conducir sobre el carril izquierdo, sin paso y por no tener licencia para conducir. Entonces el oficial, solicitó la ayuda de Patrulla Fronteriza, tras sospechar que algunos de los ocupantes estaban en el país de manera ilegal.

Patrulla Fronteriza determinó que cinco personas no tienen estatus legal para estar en el país, señala la querella. Todos fueron transportados a la estación de Patrulla Fronteriza de Zapata para ser procesados. Ahí, Ramírez invocó su derecho a un abogado.

COLUMNA

Tras altibajos se suprime pena de muerte Nota del editor: Esta es la segunda parte de dos donde el autor narra como Tamaulipas ha implementado y erradicado la pena de muerte, a través de su historia.

POR RAÚL SINENCIO ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Sin mucho tiempo en ejecución, México suprime la pena de muerte en 2005. La constitución la contemplaba para delitos extremos. Entre tanto Tamaulipas sigue su propia ruta, que reúne as-

pectos interesantes: Tras intentos por establecerla y erradicarla el tema vuelve en 1889 en el legislativo tamaulipeco y deroga la pena capital. En vez de ella, “se impondrá la de prisión por 20 años no habiendo lugar al indulto”, determina.

Y complementa: “Excítese a […] los demás estados” y “al congreso de la Unión para que secunden esta iniciativa”. Se concede asimismo 6 meses con la finalidad de que el poder ejecutivo “formule el proyecto de código

penitenciario”.

El gobernador Alejandro Prieto Quintero veta la resolución parlamentaria. Alega que “eran irrealizables sus disposiciones, para que se construyera una penitenciaría dentro del plazo de seis meses”. No obstante, evita decir cuánto tardaría la pretextada obra. Dizque simpatizante de la “idea progresista de ver […] implantada […] tan trascendental mejora moral”, Prieto Quintero ninguna propuesta sobre el particular formaliza jamás,

pese a las facultades atinentes y reelegirse después.

Tratados La pena capital, por ende, continúa aplicándose en suelo tamaulipeco. Los archivos judiciales de la entidad preservan antiquísimos expedientes ilustrativos. El acervo contiene la causa seguida en las postrimerías el siglo XIX a cierto homicida del municipio de Xicoténcatl, cuya sentencia confir-

ma la instancia competente.

Válido de subterfugios legaloides, el gobernador Emilio Portes Gil redacta y pone en vigor el código penal de 1926 para Tamaulipas. Contra las corrientes modernizadoras, el ordenamiento relanza la pena de muerte. Esta última rige hasta 1934, en que es abolida por Rafael Villarreal, sucedáneo y enemigo de Portes Gil. (Publicado con permiso del autor, conforme aparece en La Razón, Tampico, México)

Nation

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A

Missing sailor found in good health

By ALAN SUDERMAN AND EMERY P. DALESIO ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Adrift on the ocean, the mast of his 35-foot sailboat torn away, Louis Jordan caught rainwater in a bucket, scooped up fish that were attracted to the laundry he hung over the side, and fervently prayed to God for help.

After 66 days missing at sea, he was finally rescued by a passing German freighter and brought ashore by the Coast Guard in good condition.

Early Friday, just hours later, the bearded 37-yearold man walked out of the Norfolk hospital where he was reluctantly taken, showing no obvious ill effects.

“We were expecting worse, with blisters and severe sunburn and dehydration,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Kyle McCollum, a member of the helicopter crew who brought Jordan to shore.

Jordan hadn’t been heard from since Jan. 23, when he set out on a fishing expedition aboard the single-masted 1950s-era sailboat that had been his home for months at a marina in South Carolina.

It was unclear how long after leaving port that the boat was damaged, the Coast Guard said.

Jordan was plucked from the Atlantic about 200 miles off the North Carolina coast on Thursday afternoon after furiously waving down the container ship.

His boat was upright,

but the mast had broken off in heavy weather, and the vessel appeared to have flipped over repeatedly, said Thomas Grenz, captain of the German container ship.

Jordan asked his Coast Guard rescuers to drop him off without seeking medical care, but he was taken to a hospital anyway as a precaution.

He demonstrated a firm handshake and weary-looking blue eyes before declining an interview with The Associated Press on Friday.

In interviews with other news organizations, he described making pancakes out of flour fried in oil, collecting rainwater with a bucket, and using a net to catch fish that would swim in and out of his clothes when he put them over the side to rinse them.

He told WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, Virginia, that he rationed his water to about a pint a day.

“Every day I was like, ‘Please God, send me some

Photo by Steve Earley/The Virginian-Pilot | AP

Louis Jordan, second from left, walks from the Coast Guard helicopter to the Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk, Va., after being found off the North Carolina coast, on Thursday. rain, send me some water,”’ he said.

Jordan had been living on his boat in Conway, South Carolina, near Myrtle Beach. He told his family he was going into open water to sail and fish, said his mother, Norma Davis.

Grenz, the German captain, said Jordan told him he had set out with about a month’s worth of provisions.

On Jan. 29, the Coast Guard in Miami was notified by the sailor’s father that he hadn’t seen or

heard from his son in a week.

Alerts were issued from New Jersey to Miami, and the Coast Guard began a search Feb. 8 but abandoned it 10 days later after failing to confirm any sightings, officials said.

Jeff Weeks, who manages the marina where Jordan docked his boat, said he is highly capable of fending for himself.

“He is somewhat of a person who stays to himself,” Weeks said. “I consider him a gentle giant with a good personality.

But he likes to be self-sufficient. Here at the marina, he liked to catch most all of the food that he’d eat.

He would eat a lot of rice and fish. And he would know what berries and what mushrooms to pick.

He was really knowledgeable on some survival skills.”

Grenz said he made a copy of Jordan’s U.S. passport describing the American as weighing 290 pounds. Jordan is now probably only about 200 pounds, and he looked little like the man in the passport photo, Grenz said.

“It was a bit like the movie of Tom Hanks on that movie, you know, ‘Cast Away,”’ Grenz said.

Nation

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

Religious freedom fight will persist

By RACHEL ZOLL ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — Conservative faith leaders have made religious liberty a rallying cry as gay marriage has spread throughout the states. And though stunned by Indiana’s retreat from a religious freedom law after an uproar over same-sex marriage, they vow not to give up.

Evangelical and Roman Catholic leaders say they will continue their push for conscience protections from laws they consider immoral — a drive that gained momentum several years ago when they saw their beliefs on marriage, abortion and other issues increasingly in the minority.

Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, who leads the religious liberty committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the bishops’ goals have not changed following the uproar this week in Indiana and to a lesser degree Arkansas.

“Individual or familyowned businesses as well as religious institutions should have the freedom to serve others consistent with their faith,” Lori said in a statement.

Similarly, the Rev. Russell Moore, who leads the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, said, “We have to continue to press for religious liberty for everybody regardless of how unpopular that concept might be.”

Still, Tim Schultz, president of the 1st Amendment Partnership, which works with religious groups and state lawmakers on religious liberty, said after this week’s controversy over religious freedom, “the brand has definitely been tarnished.”

The governors of Indiana and Arkansas signed bills Thursday hoping to

Photo by Brian Chilson | AP

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signs a reworked religious freedom bill into law after it passed in the House at the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark., Thursday. Lawmakers in Arkansas and Indiana passed legislation Thursday that they hoped would quiet the uproar. quiet the national outcry over whether the laws offered a legal defense for discrimination against gays. In Arkansas, the changes more closely aligned the bill with the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The Indiana law was amended to bar a religious liberty defense by for-profit businesses accused of discrimination for refusing to serve someone based on sexual orientation, but left in place protections for faith-based nonprofits.

Religious liberty was once an issue that consistently united groups across the political and theological spectrum. But religious conservatives came to adopt religious freedom as a call to arms, as they found themselves more and more on the losing side of the culture

wars.

A decade ago, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public interest law firm in Washington, convened legal scholars from across the ideological divide on gay marriage to examine potential areas where religious freedom and gay rights might clash.

First Amendment protections for worship are secure. But complications arise when faith-affiliated organizations, such as charities, hospitals and schools, try to maintain their religious identity even as large employers of people from all faiths and providers of services to the public.

The 2005 Becket meeting generated a book, “Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty: Emerging Conflicts,” and a subsequent policy paper that

Storms hit the South

By CLAIRE GALOFARO AND BRUCE SCHREINER ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A mother and child remained missing Friday, hours after they were swept into a flooded creek in eastern Kentucky, as torrential rains swamped portions of the state and forced emergency crews to make more than 160 rescues farther west in Louisville.

Kentucky State Police Trooper Robert Purdy said the two were stranded in their vehicle in high water around 9:30 a.m. on a rural highway in Lee County, near the Estill County line.

Local authorities could see them in the vehicle and attempted a water rescue, Purdy said. But around 11:30 a.m., the rushing water swept them away and rescue workers lost sight of them. A search was continuing late in the day.

As rain pushed through parts of the South and Midwest, severe thunderstorms were also blamed for the death of a woman who was camping with her family at Natural Bridge State Resort Park in eastern Kentucky.

Meanwhile, thousands of people in south central Kansas lost power amid winds that reached nearly 90 mph, downed trees and damaged buildings overnight and early Friday, and a possible tornado was being investigated in Oklahoma.

In Louisville, Simone Wester awoke Friday to the sight of boats carting away her neighbors.

“It looked like a hurricane struck,” said Wester, whose apartment complex was surrounded by floodwaters, waist-deep in some places. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Wester, 20, and her 7month-old son, Jeremiah, were rescued by a man who removed his socks and waded through the floodwaters toward her. The man, Kevin Mansfield, charted a navigable path and ushered

Photo by Timothy D. Easley | AP

Kevin Mansfield, right, helps Simone Wester and her 7-month old son Jeremiah from her flooded apartment building in Louisville, Ky. her out of the flooding.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said more than 160 water rescues had been made.

In Powell County, Kentucky, Catherine Carlson, 45, was killed and her husband was injured when a large tree limb fell on their tent, said Coroner Hondo Hearne. Their three children didn’t appear to be injured, he said.

The campground where the family was staying was evacuated due to flash flooding, said Gil Lawson, a spokesman for the state Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet.

In Kansas, no deaths were reported but six people were injured in a severe thunderstorm, emergency management officials said.

Several buildings were damaged in Newton and the Jabara Airport in Wichita was closed Friday morning because of storm debris on the airfield.

In Oklahoma, the National Weather Service planned to send a survey team to Ottawa County to investigate reports of a tornado touchdown.

The possible tornado near Afton was part of a storm system that moved through northeastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas late Thursday and early Friday.

Elsewhere, heavy rains that drenched parts of southern Indiana with

nearly four inches of rain sparked flooding that trapped two truck drivers and a motorist in their vehicles Friday before emergency crews ferried them to dry ground.

In Kentucky, Powell County received 4 inches of rain, and other eastern areas of the state had 3-4 inches, said National Weather Service meteorologist Tony Edwards.

More than 6 inches of rain fell in Louisville, and Lexington had received more than 5 inches, he said.

A northern Kentucky school bus with 16 students aboard was stranded for about three hours by floodwaters that covered roads to schools. Numerous roads in northeastern Kentucky were under water.

Some cars were submerged by high water on roads next to the University of Louisville’s main campus, said school spokesman Mark Hebert. A few campus buildings had water in the basements, he said.

Early classes were canceled Friday, but classes resumed by midmorning, he said.

Bill Mattingly, assistant chief of the Okolona Fire Protection District, said floodwaters started pouring into first-floor apartments overnight.

Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville canceled classes Friday.

became influential among church-state experts and religious leaders closely watching the issue.

Four years later, a coalition of evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders, citing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” unveiled the “Manhattan Declaration: The Call of Christian Conscience.” It pledged civil disobedience to government laws they said would compel them to violate their views.

By 2011, the Catholic bishops’ conference had formed its own religious liberty committee and started organizing rallies and prayer services around the issue. The same year, the 1st Amendment Partnership was formed to work with state lawmakers.

“I think it’s fair to say

the faith groups saw storm clouds on the horizon,” said the partnership’s Schultz.

The movement had its greatest victory to date last year, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Hobby Lobby arts and crafts chain and other closely held businesses with religious objections could opt out of providing the contraceptive coverage required by the Affordable Care Act. But that win prompted a liberal backlash, and public opinion against religious exemptions hardened, especially when it came to legalizing gay marriage.

Conflicts over protections for religious objectors had been a part of every statehouse debate over legalizing gay marriage.

In New York, same-sex marriage became law in

2011 only after Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state’s top two legislators struck an 11th-hour compromise on protections for religious objectors.

But when gay marriage increasingly became recognized by courts instead of legislatures, religious conservatives needed another means to seek conscience protections. Lawmakers in several states turned to the laws known as Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, which states had been adopting one-by-one since 1997, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal version of the law did not apply to states.

But many church-state experts say the laws have been badly misrepresented amid this week’s turmoil. Legal scholars say the law would not provide blanket protection for religious objectors to gay marriage, as some advocates claimed. Religious Freedom Restoration Acts give people a chance to bring a religious liberty claim before a judge, who then decides on the merits.

“Those folks who wanted to clutch onto these laws as a way to hold onto the past or stave off gay rights misunderstood what these laws would do,” said Robin Fretwell Wilson, a family law specialist at the University of Illinois Law School.

Wilson advised legislators in Utah and elsewhere on a compromise enacted last month that combined religious exemptions with civil rights protections for gays.

“That’s the way forward,” she said.

But many religious conservatives and gay rights advocates rejected that approach, each saying it gave too much away to the other side, which means more clashes like the ones in Indiana and Arkansas are ahead.

International

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

Investigation prompts rescue of slaves

By ROBIN MCDOWELL AND MARGIE MASON ASSOCIATED PRESS

BENJINA, Indonesia — At first the men filtered in by twos and threes, hearing whispers of a possible rescue.

Then, as the news rippled around the island, hundreds of weathered former and current slaves with long, greasy hair and tattoos streamed from their trawlers, down the hills, even out of the jungle, running toward what they had only dreamed of for years: Freedom.

“I will go see my parents. They haven’t heard from me, and I haven’t heard from them since I left,” said Win Win Ko, 42, beaming, his smile showing missing teeth. The captain on his fishing boat had kicked out four teeth with his military boots, he said, because Win was not moving fish fast enough from the deck to the hold below.

The Burmese men were among hundreds of migrant workers revealed in an Associated Press investigation to have been lured or tricked into leaving their countries and forced into catching fish for consumers around the world, including the United States. In response to the AP’s findings, Indonesian government officials visited the island village of Benjina on Friday and found brutal conditions, down to an “enforcer” paid to beat men up. They offered immediate evacuation.

The officials first gave the invitation for protection just to a small group of men who talked openly about their abuse. But then Asep Burhanuddin, director general of Indonesia’s Marine Resources and Fisheries Surveillance, said everybody was welcome, including those hiding in the forest because they were too scared to come out.

“They can all come,” he said. “We don’t want to leave a single person behind.”

About 320 men took up the offer. Even as a downpour started, some dashed through the rain. They sprinted back to their boats, jumped over the rails and threw themselves through windows.

Photo by Dita Alangkara | AP

Burmese fishermen raise their hands as they are asked who among them want to go home, at the compound of Pusaka Benjina Resources fishing company in Benjina, Aru Islands, Indonesia, on Friday.

They stuffed their meager belongings into plastic bags, small suitcases and day packs, and rushed back to the dock, not wanting to be left behind.

A small boat going from trawler to trawler to pick up men was soon loaded down.

Throughout the day and until darkness fell, they kept coming, more and more men, hugging, laughing, spilling onto the seven trawlers that were their ride out. Even just before the trawlers pushed off Benjina on the 24-hour trip to neighboring Tual island, fishermen were still running to the shore and clambering onto the vessels. Some were so sick and emaciated, they stumbled or had to be carried up the gang plank.

While excitement and relief flooded through many of the fishermen on the dock, others looked scared and unsure of what to expect next. Many complained they had no money to start over.

“I’m really happy, but I’m confused,” said Nay Hla Win, 32. “I don’t know what my future is in Myanmar.”

Indonesian officials said security in Benjina is limited, with only two Navy officials stationed

there to protect them. The men will be housed at a government compound while immigration is sorted out. Officials from Myanmar are set to visit the islands next week and will assist with locating other men and getting the ones freed from Benjina home.

The dramatic rescue came after a round of interviews Indonesian officials held with the fishermen, where they confirmed the abuse reported in the AP story, which included video of eight men locked in a cage and a slave graveyard. The men, mostly from Myanmar, talked of how they were beaten and shocked with Taser-like devices at sea, forced to work almost nonstop without clean water or proper food, paid little or nothing at all and prevented from going home.

There was essentially no way out: The island is so remote, there was no phone service until a cell tower was installed last month, and it is a difficult place to reach in the best of circumstances.

The abuse went even further at the hands of the man known as “the enforcer.” This man, deeply feared and hated by the workers, was hired by

their boat captains to punish them for misbehavior, they said.

Saw Eail Htoo and Myo Naing were among those he tormented. After three months at sea working with only two to four hours of sleep a night, the two Burmese slaves just wanted to rest. They fell asleep on the deck.

Their Thai captain decided to make an example of them, they said. So the two were driven by motorbike to a hill above the port. They were handcuffed together and placed in front of an Indonesian flag. Then they were punched in the face and kicked until they collapsed into the dirt, they said, blood oozing from their ripped faces.

Even then, the enforcer would not stop.

“He kept kicking me,” said Naing, rail-thin with a military-style haircut. “I kept thinking, if I was at home, this wouldn’t be happening.”

The findings documented by Indonesian officials and the AP came in stark contrast to what a Thai delegation reported they saw during a visit to Benjina earlier this week.Their trip was focused only on finding Thai nationals who had been traf-

ficked. They denied mistreatment on the boats and said the crews were all Thai, even though the AP found many migrant workers from other countries are issued fake documents with Thai names and addresses.

“We examined the boats and the crews, and the result is most of the crews are happy and a few of them are sick and willing to go home,” said Thai police Lt. Gen. Saritchai Anekwiang, who was leading the delegation. “Generally, the boat conditions are good.”

Thailand, the world’s third-largest seafood exporter, has been under further pressure to clean up its industry since the AP’s investigation, which used satellites to track fish caught by slaves on a large refrigerated cargo ship from Benjina to Thailand. The investigation linked the seafood to supply chains of some of America’s largest supermarkets and retailers.

The report prompted the U.S. government and major seafood industry leaders to urge Thailand to end slavery at sea and to punish those responsible. Thailand’s biggest seafood company, Thai Union Frozen Products, an-

nounced it was cutting ties with a supplier after determining it might be involved with forced labor and other abuses.

Last week, the International Organization for Migration said there could be as many as 4,000 foreign men, many trafficked or enslaved, who are stranded on islands surrounding Benjina following a fishing moratorium called by the Indonesian Fisheries Ministry to crack down on poaching.

Indonesia has some of the world’s richest fishing grounds, and the government estimates billions of dollars in seafood are stolen from its waters by foreign crews every year.

Three-quarters of the more than 320 migrant workers who left the island on Friday were Burmese, but about 50 from the country refused to go, saying they had not received their salaries and did not want leave without money.

Some were also from Cambodia and Laos. A few Thais were allowed to board the boats, but the Indonesians said Thai nationals could stay on Benjina more safely, since Thai captains were less likely to abuse them.

“I expected to evacuate all of them, but I did not expect it this soon,” said Ida Kusuma, one of the leaders of the Fisheries Ministry delegation. “But I think it’s good.”

Police are investigating in Benjina and will decide whether to prosecute those involved in abuse, said Kedo Arya, head of Maluku province prosecutor’s office. The Indonesian officials were told “the enforcer” was being detained.

For those like Naing, who recalled being tortured, beaten and locked in a room for a month and 17 days for simply falling asleep, the thought of finally leaving the island was impossible to believe.

“Is it real that we are going home?” he asked.

A firework soon shot off from one of the boats, signaling it was indeed time to go. The same trawlers where the fishermen had suffered years of abuse were heading back to sea.

This time crowded with free men full of hope.

Drone offers glimpse of antiquities looting

By SAM MCNEIL ASSOCIATED PRESS

FIFA, Jordan — At a sprawling Bronze Age cemetery in southern Jordan, archaeologists have developed a unique way of peering into the murky world of antiquities looting: With aerial photographs taken by a homemade drone, researchers are mapping exactly where — and roughly when — these ancient tombs were robbed.

Based on such images and conversations with some looters whose confidence they gained, archaeologists try to follow the trail of stolen pots and other artifacts to traders and buyers.

They hope to get a better understanding of the black market and perhaps stop future plunder.

It’s sophisticated detective work that stretches from the site, not far from the famed Dead Sea in Jordan, to collectors and buyers the world over.

The aerial photography detects spots where new looting has taken place at the 5,000year-old Fifa graveyard, which can then sometimes be linked to Bronze Age pots turning up in shops of dealers, said Morag Kersel, an archaeologist at DePaul University in Chicago. Kersel, who heads the “Follow The Pots” project, also shares the data with Jordan’s Department of Antiquities, to combat looting.

On a recent morning, team members walked across ravaged graves, their boots crunching ancient bones, as a tiny, sixbladed flying robot buzzed overhead. In recent years, drone use in archaeology has become increasingly common, replacing blimps, kites and balloons in surveying hard-to-access dig sites, experts said.

Chad Hill, an archaeologist at

Photo by Sam McNeil | AP

In this photo taken March 19, Chad Hill, an archaeologist at the University of Connecticut, operates a drone he built to survey looting at a 5,000-year-old cemetery known as Fifa in southern Jordan. the University of Connecticut who built the drone, piloted it over a part of the graveyard that had not been mapped yet.

The drone snapped photographs that allowed Hill to see in great detail how looting altered the landscape.

“We can see the change through time, not just of ‘a huge pit has been dug’ but where different stones have moved,” Hill said. “It’s a level of resolution of spatial data collection that’s never really been possible until the last couple of years.”

As the drone’s batteries ran low, Hill overrode the automatic pilot and guided the landing with a remote control. Flipping

the drone on its back, he checked the camera, nodding approvingly at the afternoon’s work.

The cemetery in Jordan’s Dead Sea plain contains about 10,000 graves, part of the vast archaeological heritage of the region.

It looks like a moonscape as a result of looting, with about 3,700 craters stretching to the horizon and strewn with shards of skeletons and broken ceramics. Looters typically leave human remains and take only well preserved artifacts.

“I spend my days stepping on dead people,” said Kersel, picking up a broken shell bracelet, presumably from ancient Egypt.

An underlying cause for looting is high unemployment, said Muhammed al-Zahran, director of the nearby Dead Sea Museum. “Looting happens all across the region,” he said.

In Jordan, unemployment is 12 percent, and it’s twice as high among the young.

Yet stolen antiquities rarely enrich local looters, said Neil Brodie, a researcher at the University of Glasgow’s Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research.

Rather, the profits end up in Europe or America, Brodie said, describing high markups as the artifacts move from looter to middleman, dealer and then customer.

Brodie studied looting at another site in Jordan, the ruins of the early Bronze Age community of Bab adh-Dhra, though without the help of drones.

He estimated that diggers were paid about $10,500 for 28,084 pots that were subsequently sold in London for over $5 million, sometimes marketed as “Old Testament” artifacts.

An artifact that later sold for $275,000 was initially traded for a pig, Brodie’s research showed.

And he also found that a dancing Hindu deity bought for about $18 sold eventually for $372,000.

Some of the artifacts stolen from Jordan’s sites, including tombstones, end up in neighboring Israel, said Eitan Klein, a deputy at the Israeli Antiquities Authority’s robbery unit.

Kersel, from the “Follow the Pots” project, said looters told her they sell their goods to middlemen from the Jordanian capital of Amman or the southern town of Karak. She said the trail stops with the shadowy middlemen, but that she can sometimes pick it up on the other end, by comparing the looting timeline with what eventually ends up on the market all across the world.

In addition to monitoring the cemetery, Kersel also teaches local workshops on profiting from antiquities legally, including by making and selling replicas, to discourage robbing graves.

Yet, looting will be difficult to stop as long as demand remains high, she said.

“People don’t ask the sticky questions about where artifacts come from,” said Kersel, standing inside a robbed grave in Fifa. “They just want to own the piece regardless of what kind of background the artifact has, and that is what causes people on the ground to loot.”

International

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

Saudi-led group drops arms to Yemeni troops

By AHMED AL-HAJ ASSOCIATED PRESS

SANAA, Yemen — A Saudi-led coalition trying to halt the advance of Yemen’s Shiite rebels airdropped weapons to beleaguered fighters in a southern port city on Friday, while al-Qaida militants overran a key military base in eastern Yemen, further expanding their gains in this violencewracked country.

The developments underscore the magnitude of Yemen’s turmoil and the swift unraveling of the country’s military and other forces still loyal to embattled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled Yemen to Saudi Arabia last week.

On one side, there is the ferocious fighting between Shiite rebels known as Houthis and southern militias loyal to Hadi. On the other, Yemen’s al-Qaida branch has been widening its area of influence in the country and gobbling up more territory.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian

Peninsula, as the branch is named, has benefited from Yemen’s political crisis ever since the Houthis first surged from their northern strongholds last year to take over the capital, Sanaa, and much of the north. The rebels are backed in their push by military and police forces loyal to Hadi’s predecessor, ousted autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh.

On Thursday, al-Qaida militants overrun Mukalla, a major port city in southern Yemen and the provincial capital of the country’s largest province, Hadramawt, seizing government buildings and freeing inmates from a prison, including a top Saudi-born leader.

The militants consolidated their hold of Mukalla on Friday, capturing its port and a major army base in the city, facing little resistance, said military officials.

Hadramawt, which had been mostly peaceful as the crisis in Sanaa and Aden was building up, has a long stretch of the border with Saudi Arabia on one side

Photo by Shakil Adil | AP

People welcome family members evacuated from Yemen as they arrive at the airport in Karachi, Pakistan, on Friday. and lies on the Arabian Sea on the other, making it strategically significant. It also houses key oil companies and close to the Mukalla port are fuel tanks that feed three major provinces.

Hadramawt’s governor, Adel Ba-hamed, described the fall of Mukalla as part of a “scenario aimed at dragging the province and its residents” into the chaos across Yemen.

“The changes are terrify-

ing,” said activist Mohammed al-Sharafi, adding he worries al-Qaida’s presence will bring the Houthis to fight the militants, which in turn could invite Saudiled airstrikes.

To the west of Mukalla,

coalition airstrikes continued to target Shiite rebels advancing on the southern port city of Aden, Yemen’s major hub and the embattled Hadi’s last seat of power before he fled to Saudi Arabia.

Coalition planes airdropped weapons to fighters battling the Houthis in Aden early Friday, the first such airdrop since the strikes began nine days ago.

Saudi Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri, the coalition spokesman, told reporters in Riyadh that the fighters in Aden have managed to “change the situation on the ground.” He said the coalition was giving them “logistical support.”

Street battles intensified in several Aden districts Friday, including the vicinity of a major weapons depot, according to the mili-

tary officials. They said that weapons were dropped above the city’s port.

Local pro-Hadi fighters, who are poorly armed, have been trying to keep the Houthis from overrunning Aden and the surrounding province and have often complained of lack of weapons and leadership. Ali Hussein, one of the fighters, told The Associated Press over the phone that there is “near absence of leadership and coordination.”

Overnight airstrikes focused on Aden’s rebel-held airport, and at least 30 rebels and Saleh’s forces were killed in the strikes, according to medical officials.

In the town of al-Mualla, also in Aden province, proHadi fighters fought with the rebels on Friday, leaving at least eight dead on both sides.

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A

LINA F. GARCIA Lina F. Garcia, 66, passed away on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio.

Mrs. Garcia is preceded in death by her parents, Leonardo G. and Ofelia G. Flores.

Mrs. Garcia is survived by her husband, Hector L. Garcia; sons, Gerardo H. (Eliza) Garcia, Jaime J. (Melissa) Garcia, Hector L. Jr. (Lucia) Garcia; daughter, Daniela S. (Roberto, Jr.) Garcia; grandchildren, Gerardo R. Garcia, Michelle Y. Garcia, Maritza Y. (Justin) Bell, Carlos J. Garcia, Jaime J. Garcia, Jr., Ariza A. Garcia, Briza B. Garcia, Emily I. Garcia, Hector L. Garcia, III, Roberto Garcia, III, Dalina A. Garcia, Ruben R. Garcia; brothers, Hildegardo (Olga) Flores, Leonardo G. (Maria De Los Angeles) Flores; sisters, Aminta (+Ruben) Gutierrez, Viola (+Mauro) Ramirez; and by numerous nephews, nieces, other family members and friends.

Visitation hours were held on Wednesday, April 1, 2015, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. at

Rose Garden Funeral Home.

A prayer service was held on Thursday, April 2, 2015, at 10 a.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home.

Committal services followed at Zapata County Cemetery.

Funeral arrangements were under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home Daniel A. Gonzalez, funeral director, 2102 N. U.S. Hwy 83 Zapata, Texas.

LEO PARCHMAN ALICE, TEXAS — Leo Parchman, age 74, died on Monday, March 30, 2015 in a San Antonio hospital following an extended illness.

Leo was formally a long time resident of Zapata, Texas.

Graveside Funeral Services are scheduled for

Saturday, April 4, 2015 at 10 a.m. in the Sandia City Cemetery in Sandia, Texas.

Services entrusted to Roberson Funeral Home of Alice, Texas.

Online condolences may be left at www.robersonfuneralhome.net

Z-31 Continued from Page 1A to reopen the detention hearing.”

State and federal authorities arrested Saldivar-Farias, 27, in mid-March. He waived his preliminary and detention hearings in Laredo on March 20. He further requested U.S. Magistrate Judge Guillermo R. Garcia to move his case to Houston, where the original complaint was issued.

A criminal complaint filed March 16 charges Saldivar-Farias and co-defendant Osiel Hernandez-Martinez, 26, with conspiracy to possess more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana. In addition, Saldivar-Farias was charged with giving false statements to government agents.

Court records allege he oversaw the smuggling of multi-ton quantities of marijuana from Mexico to the United States. Further, Saldivar-Farias supplied marijuana loads that would be crossed via Falcon Lake across from Zapata.

Saldivar-Farias got his start with Los Zetas working under Comandante Tortugon, who was in charge of the Nueva Ciudad Guerrero plaza in early 2000. He and

his brother Juan Pedro Saldivar-Farias were “cooks” tasked with killing, disposing and disintegrating bodies in large barrels of chemicals using a method called “guiso” or stew, according to the complaint.

Saldivar-Farias gained the rank of Zeta regional commander of northern Mexico — which included Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas — and for the Falcon Lake area in Zapata after Mexican marines captured his brother on Oct. 12, 2013.

U.S. authorities arrested Saldivar-Farias at approximately 9:30 p.m. March 12 after the Texas Department of Public Safety noticed a speeding boat heading north toward the United States.

Suspecting it could be illegal immigrants, DPS intercepted the boat. Six individuals were on board. One of them was Saldivar-Farias who initially lied about his identity saying he was Carlos Cruz-Jimenez. But an investigation revealed he was the Zeta commander, records show.

(César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)

FIRE Continued from Page 1A tion, because this was a processing platform,” not a producing well.

On Wednesday, helicopters flew workers with bandaged hands and faces and burn marks on their overalls to the nearby city of Ciudad del Carmen, where crowds of relatives of oil workers thronged outside hospitals.

Survivors said the blaze engulfed the platform, forcing people to leap into the sea or flee in evacuation boats.

Photo courtesy of Noticias Ciudad del Carmen | AP

This frame grab of a video from the news station Noticias Ciudad del Carmen shows a fire burning at an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico along the Mexican coast before sunrise on Wednesday.

INDICTED Continued from Page 1A one count of conspiracy to transport undocumented people within the United States, and two counts of transport and attempt to transport undocumented people for financial gain.

If convicted, Flores could spend up to 10 years behind bars. Flores has arraignment April 9 in courtroom 2B before U.S. Magistrate Judge Diana Song Quiroga. He remains in federal custody on a $75,000 bond.

Flores and his daughter, Roxanna Flores, were arrested south of Zapata on March 5 for allegedly

transporting seven people who had entered the country illegally. Earlier that day, the Zapata County Sheriff ’s Office requested the assistance of U.S. Border Patrol during a bailout reported in the Siesta Shores neighborhood.

Records allege that a 2007 GMC Sierra operated

by Flores led deputies in a pursuit after lawmen attempted to pull the vehicle over for several traffic violations. Following the chase, several occupants bailed out of the GMC at Weslaco and Vicki lanes.

Meanwhile, an assisting deputy spotted a green 2005 Chrysler 300 driven

by Roxanna Flores on Mesa Salinas Road.

Deputies took her into custody for allegedly acting as a decoy or scout, and assisting her father in evading arrest. Agents said that the seven occupants of the GMC did not have legal status to be in the country. Immigrants held as material witnesses identified Flores as the driver of the GMC. “Flores admitted that he knew that he was arrested because he was

smuggling illegal (immigrants). He continued by stating that he knew the people he was picking up were illegal because he was there to pick up his wife, Carolina Trejo-Gonzalez, who is an illegal (immigrant),” states the criminal complaint filed March 9.

Roxanna Flores was released because she did not meet prosecution guidelines, according to court documents.

(César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 7282568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)

WATER Continued from Page 1A which challenged a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality policy giving cities preferential treatment in certain water squabbles, applauded the ruling.

“It’s a clear win for private property rights,” said Regan Beck, assistant general counsel for the group. “The rules that TCEQ is trying to promulgate would really do away with the priority system as we know it.”

The TCEQ said it was "disappointed" in the decision and planned to appeal it to the Texas Supreme Court.

Prioritizing access for cities and power plants is "essential for public health, safety and welfare throughout the state, especially during these times of record drought," Terry Clawson, its spokesman, said in a statement.

The case — set in motion after Dow Chemical asserted its rights to Brazos River water — centers on whether Texas regulators may grant exceptions to the state’s longstanding ‘first-in-line, first-in-time’ surface water rights regime.

The giant chemical manufacturer is by far the largest water user on the Brazos, which also supplies farmers and ranchers, cities and other industries

along its 900-mile stretch from northwest Texas to the Gulf Coast. It also holds the oldest water rights, giving the company priority over all others.

Dow first set up shop in Freeport in 1940 to extract magnesium from seawater. Since then, its Gulf Coast operations have grown rapidly, and the Brazos supplies the company with the 100,000 gallons of freshwater per minute it needs to operate.

But years of drought and rapid growth along the river have strained the river’s supplies.

In mid-2009, the Brazos was flowing at just 50 cubic feet per second, less than half the speed required for Dow’s smallest pump to pull the water the company needed out of the river — an unprecedented condition.

Dow issued a series of priority calls beginning in 2009 asserting its “senior” right to divert water from the Brazos River — and force “junior” water rights holders to curtail their use. It was the first time the TCEQ had received such a request, and it took the agency weeks to respond.

Dow had the right. But by the time the TCEQ determined it several weeks

later, the company said it was too late. Junior water rights were suspended that summer, cutting off mostly farmers and ranchers from using about 46 billion gallons of water, but no additional water flowed down to Dow’s pumps.

Dow argued that by law, the TCEQ should have cut off even more water users than it did; in the interest of public health and safety, the agency elected not to force junior users like municipalities and power plants to cut back. In 2012, the agency formally adopted new drought rules giving priority to those junior users.

The Farm Bureau agreed with Dow and sued the state. A Travis County district judge ruled in its favor in June of 2013.

In its appeal, TCEQ argued that the judge misinterpreted the law that authorized the agency rules, and said the agency has the authority to police public health and safety.

The Corpus Christi court disagreed.

“None of the statutes or the constitutional provision cited by TCEQ give the agency the general authority to suspend water rights after they have been issued,” Thursday’s ruling said. “While we

recognize TCEQ’s authority to manage and regulate the state’s scarce water resources, such authority must not exceed its express legislative mandate.”

Brad Castleberry, a water rights attorney with Lloyd Gosselink Law Firm, said the decision puts the state’s rules in flux and may be another step towards a marketbased approach to managing water amid drought.

But he noted that there are other methods of dealing with water disputes, and priority calls are a last-ditch option.

For instance, the state recently appointed a water master to the lower Brazos basin – someone to interact daily with river users like farmers and manufacturers and require them to report their water use in real time.

But even that move was hotly contested.

“Hopefully, the water master can balance the interest of the water rights, so we don’t have to deal with priority calls,” Castleberry said.

If that doesn’t work, and a local government with junior rights is left dry?

Beck said the answer is simple.

“If it’s something that’s for the public,” he said, "the public can pay for it.”

Entertainment

12A THE ZAPATA TIMES

‘Mad Men’ nears end

By FRAZIER MOORE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — How time flies in this very mad world! It seems like only yesterday that the 1960s were dawning for Don Draper, his family and his comrades at the Sterling Cooper advertising agency.

Now, as if in the blink of an eye, the ’60s are waning as “Mad Men” nears the end of its glorious run.

When the series begins its final stretch Sunday at 9 p.m. Zapata time on AMC, the passage of time will be palpable for all concerned — the series’ characters, its audience and, oh, by the way, “Mad Men” mastermind Matthew Weiner.

“I’m out of work,” cracks Weiner, who wrapped shooting last July, finished postproduction last October and, in December, vacated his office of seven years.

He is excited about what the last lap will bring, but, during this recent conversation, was customarily tight-lipped.

“We deal with the conse-

Photo by Michael Yarish/AMC | AP

In this image released by AMC, Don Draper portrays Jon Hamm in a scene from season five of “Mad Men.” quences of material success,” he says, only hinting at what lies ahead for the agency’s newly well-to-do partners. “The incredible windfall they got at the end of last season wasn’t just a plot device. It is propelling them into these last seven episodes: Once all your material needs are met, what else is on your mind?”

In an interview a few weeks before “Mad Men” premiered in July 2007, Weiner explained why he had placed his ambitious new drama in the 1960s.

“By talking about that era,” he said, “I can talk about everything right now that I care about.” Things like civil rights. Sex. Gender roles. The nature of adulthood.

And that he has done, season after season, with a drama of modern society as viewed through the prism of modernity as it was a half-century ago.

Weiner centered the action on Draper, whose gift for image-making, seduction and strategic chicanery was perfectly suited to the advertising game

Liftetime movie spoiled

By DAVID BAUDER ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — The fate of a Lifetime TV movie featuring Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig remained unclear on Friday after the project’s planned secrecy was spoiled.

The former “Saturday Night Live” stars made the ominously titled “A Deadly Adoption,” playing a couple who befriend a pregnant woman in hopes of adopting her child. Lifetime’s movies, frequently melodramas about life and love that appeal to the network’s primarily female audience, are a genre onto themselves and often ripe for parody.

“We are disappointed

that our secret project with Will and Kristen was leaked and the network is determining the fate of the movie,” said Michael Feeney, spokesman for Lifetime’s corporate parent, A&E Networks, on Friday.

A spokesman for the actors’ talent agency had no immediate comment on Lifetime’s plans.

After word of the project got out, Ferrell issued a statement that he and Wiig had decided it was “in the best interest for everyone to forego the project entirely.”

Lifetime had said the movie was due to air this summer.

Ferrell’s statement may be an empty threat: Stars generally don’t have the ability to kill an already-

filmed project, except in the unusual circumstance where they fully financed the production, said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney for the Hollywood firm TroyGould. Even then, they could face a breach of contract lawsuit if the film had already been leased to a television network.

In most cases, television movies are financed jointly by a production company and the network itself, Handel said.

It’s not known how long Lifetime and the stars planned to keep the secret.

Ferrell and Wiig appeared together in the big-screen movie “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.”

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

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Sports&Outdoors NCAA BASKETBALL AP AWARDS

NCAA BASKETBALL: TEXAS LONGHORNS

Texas hires Smart Photo by Michael Conroy | AP

Kentucky head coach John Calipari was named AP Coach of the Year after leading the still undefeated Wildcats to a Final Four.

Yearly AP awards announced Calipari, Kaminsky take top honors from The Associated Press

By DAVE SKRETTA ASSOCIATED PRESS

INDIANAPOLIS — John Calipari has been dealing with detractors for years.

They call him the embodiment of everything that’s wrong in the oneand-done world of college basketball. He’s a crook who landed two programs on probation, a snake-oil salesman who only won a national title because he was able to sell Kentucky to some top prospects.

Perhaps that perception has finally started to change.

After molding a roster full of McDonald’s AllAmericans into a 38-0 juggernaut that’s two wins shy of another champion-

ship, Calipari was voted AP coach of the year on Friday.

He received 40 firstplace votes from the 65member national media panel. Tony Bennett of Virginia was runner-up with nine votes and Notre Dame’s Mike Brey got five.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin forward Frank Kaminsky was honored as the AP player of the year.

“I know this, I’m the same guy I’ve always been,” Calipari said, when asked whether opinions of him — particularly those in the media — have softened over the years.

“Well, not really. A lot of things change as you get older. My heart’s the

See AWARDS PAGE 2B

File photo by Zach Gibson | AP

Former VCU head coach Shaka Smart is leaving Virginia Commonwealth to become the next head coach of the Texas Longhorns, replacing Rick Barnes.

Shaka Smart introduced as Texas coach

By HANK KURZ JR. AND JIM VERTUNO ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUSTIN, Texas — Shaka Smart has been a hot coaching commodity since leading Virginia Commonwealth to the Final Four in 2011. He had reportedly shunned several big-time offers, but the lure of Tex-

NCAA BASKETBALL: DUKE VS. MICHIGAN STATE

as was finally too much to turn down.

Texas officials formally announced the hiring of Smart as the Longhorns’ new basketball coach Friday and expect to introduce him at a news conference on campus. The announcement from Texas came a day after Smart

met with athletic director Steve Patterson in Richmond, Virginia, to strike a deal.

Smart met with VCU players Thursday evening at the Siegel Center, the team’s home arena, and at least one player was seen crying when he left.

Smart, who has won at

least 26 games in each of his six seasons at VCU, is bolting for a Texas program that hasn’t been able to unseat Kansas atop the Big 12. But the Longhorns also boast the wealthiest athletic department in the country and

See SMART PAGE 2B

NCAA BASKETBALL: KENTUCKY VS. WISCONSIN

Photo Michael Conroy | AP

Photo by David J. Phillip | AP

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, right, is very familiar with the Final Four, and is one of the finest coaches in basketball when March rolls around.

Wisconsin lost to Kentucky in the Final Four a season ago, but can exact some revenge and hand the Wildcats their first loss of the season Saturday evening in Indianapolis.

Blue Devils, Spartans take on undercard feel

Kentucky trying to keep things perfect

By DAVE SKRETTA ASSOCIATED PRESS

INDIANAPOLIS — Any other year, this would probably be the premier matchup of the Final Four.

On one bench sits topseeded Duke and its record-setting coach, Mike Krzyzewski. On the other is upstart Michigan State and Tom Izzo, one of the finest coaches in the game

come March.

But with overall No. 1 seed Kentucky chasing perfection against those loveable goofballs from Wisconsin, the opening game of Saturday night’s national semifinals has taken on an undercard feel — two of the game’s most tradition-rich programs kicking things off at Lucas Oil Stadium before a massive crowd and

potentially record-setting TV audience.

“We’ve been that way all year: overlooked, doubted the whole time,” said the Spartans’ Travis Trice, who Krzyzewski lauded as the biggest breakout star of this year’s NCAA Tournament.

“But we don’t really

See DUKE PAGE 2B

By EDDIE PELLS ASSOCIATED PRESS

INDIANAPOLIS — Next in the way of Kentucky’s perfect season: Frank the Tank and his fun-loving band of Wisconsin teammates.

Player of the Year Frank Kaminsky and the Badgers were so loose they were giggling on the podium during their inter-

views Friday, answering questions about what they eat (Kaminsky likes omelets with syrup on top), how they slept (Sam Dekker got eight solid hours) and what their word of the day is for the poor NCAA stenographers they discovered earlier at the tournament (Nigel Hayes went with “prestidigitation”).

The team they face Saturday, 38-0 Kentucky, is al-

so trying to keep things pressure-free, and their coach, John Calipari, tried working some magic of his own with the numbers.

“Everybody is 0-0,” Calipari said. “Whether you’re Duke, Michigan State, Wisconsin or us, everybody’s record is the same. We’re all feeling the same thing.

We all want to win a na-

See KENTUCKY

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Zscores

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

KENTUCKY Continued from Page 1B tional title.”

If the Wildcats do, they’ll be the first program since the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers to finish a season as undefeated champions — an accomplishment that hovers over everything this week at what is shaping up as a monumental Final Four because of the history involved.

“If we do complete that goal, I couldn’t even put it into words,” said Andrew Harrison, whose two free throws were the difference in the 68-66 win over Notre Dame in the Midwest Regional final.

But undefeated doesn’t necessarily mean perfect, and Wisconsin is hardly in awe.

This is a rematch of last year’s semifinal. In that game, the Badgers (35-3) were leading Kentucky by two when Harrison’s twin brother, Aaron, spotted up from behind the upper-left part of the arc with 5.7 seconds left and made his second straight gamewinning 3-pointer.

“He has that clutch gene,” Dekker said after that one.

One notable stat from that 74-73 thriller: Kaminsky finished with only eight points and five rebounds.

The 7-foot center, who averages 18 points and almost nine rebounds this season and will likely go in the first round of the NBA

Photo by Michael Conroy | AP

Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky was named AP Player of the Year, and will lead Wisconsin against Kentucky in the Final Four. draft, said he would have returned for his senior season either way. Still, the loss — and the way it went down — left a mark.

“It’s obviously motivating because you want to come back to this stage,” Kaminsky said. “This is what seasons are remembered for. You remember the national champion at the end of the season.”

Win or lose, these Kentucky players will be remembered — and watched some more. Freshman Karl-Anthony Towns — like-

ly to become one of Calipari’s much-discussed “one-and-dones” — is a probable lottery pick, as is junior Willie Cauley-Stein. The Harrison brothers and four or five more are also expected to wind up in the NBA, too.

Wisconsin has a few future pros — Kaminsky, Dekker and Hayes.

But it’s no big secret that the Badgers won’t win on raw talent.

“Do you think I have to tell my players that this is a big game or that Kentucky’s pretty good?”

Badgers coach Bo Ryan said.

AWARDS Continued from Page 1B same,” Calipari added.

“Hopefully I’ve matured and grown up a little bit.

That’s questionable also, I hear.”

Speaking of growing up, Kaminsky has certainly done that the past couple of years. After averaging 10 minutes a game as a sophomore, then having a breakout junior campaign, Kaminsky took another step forward in guiding the Badgers back to the Final Four.

The senior was rewarded with 58 first-place votes.

Duke freshman Jahlil Okafor received five, and Willie Cauley-Stein of Kentucky and Jerian Grant of Notre Dame each received one.

“I thought about it a little bit,” Kaminsky said of winning the award. “Obviously, wasn’t one of my main priorities. Getting back to the Final Four was it. But being here and being honored by the AP is awesome. I’m grateful a lot of guys think of me in that manner.”

It’s hardly surprising that Kaminsky was such an overwhelming pick.

Besides being a dominant inside-outside threat, the fuzzy 7-footer also has wicked sense of humor. He’s become one of the ringleaders on the fun-loving Badgers, his effervescent personality endearing himself to coaches, players and fans alike.

“I saw him out in the hallway,” said Calipari, whose team plays Wisconsin in the Final Four on Saturday night. “I said, ’Look, I’m so tired of looking at your tape right now.”’

Probably about as tired as many folks are of seeing Calipari this time of year.

He began making a habit of the NCAA Tournament with UMass in the late 1980s and early ’90s, leading the Minutemen to the Final Four. After a failed stint in the NBA, Calipari returned to the college game — and winning — with Memphis

in 2000.

But like his first Final Four appearance, another trip with the Tigers in 2008 was later vacated by the NCAA. Calipari’s reputation was sullied, even though both transgressions were not entirely his fault: UMass star Marcus Camby was ruled ineligible for contact with an agent, and allegations of academic fraud unrelated to the university brought down Memphis.

“I always say this, the reason I’m not worried about now and how I’m evaluated, legacy — it doesn’t matter,” said Calipari, who joins Eddie Sutton and Tubby Smith as Kentucky coaches to win the AP coach of the year award since its inception in “Fifty years from now when we’re all gone,” Calipari said, “people will look back without emotion and say, ’What has he done?

What did he do for people?

What did he do for the universities?’ Not just me, but all coaches. Your legacy is, ’How did he benefit these people?”’

At least this season, by getting what could have been a mess of egos to play as a team.

Players accustomed to being the stars accepted fewer minutes and bit roles. They decided that in basketballmad Kentucky, they would eschew any individual spotlight so the Wildcats could chase something greater: The first perfect season since Indiana’s in 1976.

In that respect, this may have been Calipari’s toughest coaching job yet.

His most masterful job, too.

“I’m not focused on changing people’s minds who don’t know me,” he said. “I’m doing my job for these kids. If you like that, I’m happy. If you don’t like that or don’t like that kid, that’s your problem, not mine. I’m not doing this to please everybody.”

“They are. I think our guys are astute enough to figure that part out.”

THE POSTMEN: The big man is back — at least at this Final Four.

This game will feature three of best: Kaminsky for Wisconsin and 6-11 Towns and 7-foot CauleyStein for Kentucky. The Wildcats also have Trey Lyles at 6-10 and Marcus Lee at 6-9. To practice for Kentucky’s height, Ryan tinkered with the idea of using tennis rackets to swat down shots at practice. “But with these guys,

they might have started whacking each other with them,” he said.

“We can’t simulate what they have.”

ANALYTICS: When asked what stats he pays most attention to, Ryan focused in on one: Points per possession. It’s pretty clear why. The Badgers lead the nation in that stat at 1.22. Kentucky’s not far behind, ranked ninth at 1.156.

BALANCE: Part of Calipari’s coaching brilliance this season has been figuring out how to spread the minutes and the touches, while keeping everyone happy.

Nobody on Kentucky averages more than 26 minutes a game, and Andrew Harrison leads the team in scoring with a modest 11 points a game. The Badgers, whose roster isn’t as deep, have three players who score more — Kaminsky (18.7), Dekker (13.9) and Hayes (12.4).

ENDS AND ODDS: The Wildcats are five-point favorites, matching the lowest number they have been favored by all season. Also, for those thinking this Kentucky team will go down as the best in college basketball history if it runs the table, think again. The 2014-15 Wildcats would be a 31/2point underdog against the 201112 title team, according to R.J. Bell, a betting analyst who runs the Pregame.com website.

DUKE Continued from Page 1B look like it like that,” Trice added, moments later. “If we win, people are going to be talking about us. We win a national championship, everybody will be talking.”

The seventh-seeded Spartans (27-11) have certainly come a long way since November, when they were routed by the Blue Devils (33-4) just down the street at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

Freshman guard Tum Tum Nairn has replaced Bryn Forbes in the starting lineup, giving Michigan State a much-needed shot of speed. Trice and fellow senior Branden Dawson have learned to shoulder the leadership role. And just about everyone else has found their niche for a team that missed out on the Final Four a year ago, when everyone expected it to contend for the title.

“That was a devastating loss last year,” Izzo recalled Friday. “That’s what the beauty and the terror of the tournament is, you’ve got to play well six straight games to win.”

They’ve already done that four times, beating Georgia and then knocking off in succession second-seeded Virginia, third-seeded Oklahoma and fourth-seeded Louisville.

Now, they a chance to topple a No. 1 seed.

Relying on stingy defense, the Blue Devils have run roughshod through the opening two weeks of the tournament.

Even when shots weren’t falling and All-American forward Jahlil Okafor was held in check by Utah and Gonzaga, Coach K’s bunch of bluebloods have been just fine.

That doesn’t mean there haven’t been potholes on the road to Indianapolis.

Photo by David J. Phillip | AP

Branden Dawson missed an opportunity to reach this stage last year when the Spartans were eliminated in the Elite Eight.

The Blue Devils went through a lull in January, losing to North Carolina State and getting pounded

by Miami. Junior guard Rasheed Sulaimon was booted from the team, the first player to be dismissed by Krzyzewski in 35 seasons. And there were times when the trio of Okafor, Tyus Jones and Justise Winslow looked like wide-eyed freshmen rather than superstar

prospects.

All those growing pains? They turned Duke into a monster by March.

“It’s just special. You can just feel it in the air now, how important it is, what it means to be here,” Jones said. “Just look out and see how many seats are out there.

On Saturday night, those seats are all going to be filled. It’s a special feeling.”

There is no shortage of story lines as two of college basketball’s premier programs try to move one step closer to another national title. Here are some to watch: OKAFOR AND JONES: Izzo should be quite familiar with Duke’s star freshmen — he recruited both of them heavily. The close friends even visited the Michigan State campus in East Lansing before committing to the Blue Devils. “They were one of the first schools to recruit me,” Okafor said. “I love Tom Izzo and their coaching staff. They have a great relationship with my family.”

TURNOVER TROUBLE: When the teams met Nov. 18, the Blue Devils forced 13 turnovers that they turned into 24 points. Izzo has been harping on ball security ever since. “That’s definitely been the key since that game,” Trice said. “We feel like we beat ourselves.”

DAWSON VS. WINSLOW: Sure, there are other stars in the spotlight, but this could be one of the pivotal matchups. Dawson is arguably Michigan State’s toughest defender, and Winslow has been one of the Blue Devils’ hottest players, averaging 14 points in the NCAA Tournament.

THE COACHING MATCHUP: Krzyzewski and Izzo have met nine times, and Coach K has won eight of them. That includes a 2-1 mark in the NCAA Tournament. But there may be no coach more dangerous as an underdog than Izzo, who has a record 13 tournament wins as the lowerseeded team.

“You know, stats are unbelievable, man,” Krzyzewski said. “That doesn’t make a difference at all.

They’re going to be ready.

You know what? They don’t lack talent.”

SMART Continued from Page 1B easy access to some of the nation’s most fertile recruiting grounds in Dallas and Houston.

Smart replaces Rick Barnes, who was fired last weekend after 17 seasons.

Terms of Smart’s contract were not immediately released and VCU said a statement would be released Friday.

Barnes made $2.62 million last season, while Smart made $1.8 million with the Rams.

Patterson had zeroed in on bringing Smart to Texas immediately after firing Barnes.

Smart did not speak to the media gathered Thursday and VCU players were escorted from the building

by university public relations without offering comments.

That Barnes was pushed out shows Patterson, a former NBA executive, expects big things from basketball. Barnes won three Big 12 titles and recruited elite talent to Austin. Former Longhorns T.J. Ford (2003) and Kevin Durant (2007) won national player of the year honors.

But the program had plateaued and the earlyround exits in the NCAA Tournament started to mount, despite rosters full of future NBA talent.

At VCU, Smart took over a program that had had great success under

Jeff Capel, and then Anthony Grant. He hopes to avoid the pitfalls at Texas that his predecessors encountered when they left to take over programs at universities considered “football schools.”

Capel lasted five years at Oklahoma before being fired, and Grant spent six at Alabama before he was dismissed.

By leaving before May 1, Smart owes VCU a $500,000 buyout. His contract also contains a provision that if he became a head coach at another institution, that school would have to play VCU in a home-and-home series, or pay VCU $250,000.

Barnes led Texas to 16

NCAA Tournaments in 17 seasons but his teams haven’t made it out of the first weekend since 2008.

His best years came from 2003-2008, when Texas made its first Final Four in more than 50 years and twice more reached the tournament’s final eight. Texas also earned the program’s first No. 1 ranking in the 20092010 season.

Smart had some success right away at VCU when the Rams won the CBI postseason tournament in his first year.

But it was VCU’s monumental run in the NCAA Tournament the following year that really got Smart noticed. The Rams went

from being a questionable selection, barely getting a bid and playing in the First Four in Dayton, Ohio, to beating five major-conference schools to reach the Final Four.

The Rams have been back in the NCAA Tournament each of the past four seasons, but were eliminated in the round of 32 in 2012 and 2013 and lost their first game in overtime each of the past two seasons.

Beyond the Final Four run, this year might have been Smart’s best coaching job at VCU. The Rams lost Briante Weber, the leader of their “havoc” defensive style, on Jan. 31 to a knee inju-

ry, and played the last month and a half with scoring leader Treveon Graham bothered by a high left ankle sprain, sometimes even sidelined.

VCU (26-10) lost six of 10 late in the season, enduring its first three-game slide in Smart’s six seasons, before winning five straight, including four in four days, to win the Atlantic 10 title.

Smart’s 26 wins in six consecutive seasons is a feat matched only by Duke. With the interest he has generated in basketball, a $25 million basketball practice facility is under construction and scheduled to be ready for use in the fall.

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

Dear Heloise: There needs to be a law that would require, at the time of purchase of a CELLPHONE, the purchaser to be supplied with a handbook on cellphone etiquette.

The requirements should include: * When speaking on your phone in a public area, move away from others.

Use a modulated tone of voice; there is no need to shout! * Never bring your phone to church. If you are expecting a call, stay home, or if you carry the phone for fear of an emergency, keep it on "VIBRATE"! * It is never acceptable to laugh hysterically while speaking on your cellphone in a public area.

There is enough irritation surrounding us; we don’t need people causing noise pollution by flaunting their cellphones. Observe basic good manners and consideration of others. – A Reader in San Antonio Dear Reader: Many of your suggestions are (or should be) common courte-

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

“

HELOISE

sy.

Not sure about "never acceptable to laugh hysterically while speaking on your cellphone in a public area."

If it’s funny and you laugh, that’s pretty normal. No, not in a church, synagogue, hospital or other similar place. Yes, put the phone on "vibrate" for those occasions. Also, it’s very, very rarely an EMERGENCY! The world will not stop if you don’t answer the cellphone right away! – Heloise MOUSE OUT OF THE HOUSE Dear Heloise: I heard a noise just above the water heater. I listened to it and decided to try something new. I took a portable radio into the attic, turned it on HIGH – without music, just static – and left it there for three days. The varmints moved out! – Irene R., Rocklin, Calif.

4B THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015