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ZAPATA COUNTY ISD
JALISCO
Truancy cases eyed School district has 11th highest prosecution rate By JUDITH RAYO THE ZAPATA TIMES
The number of truancy cases prosecuted in Zapata County courts in the 2012-13 school year ranked one of the highest in the state, according to a recent study.
At 3.53 percent, Zapata County ISD had the 11th highest prosecution rate. In the 2012-2013 school year, ZCISD filed 132 cases, according to the Texas Education Agency website. The district had the highest filing rate in 2012-2013 since
2008. The district had the lowest filing rate in the 2010-2011 school year with a reported number of 47 cases. In the 2013-14 school year, ZCISD’s truant cases decreased with a reported number of 81 cases, TEA states. As of Friday evening,
ZCISD officials were not available for comment. Almost 600 “failure to attend school” cases were prosecuted in Webb County in the 2012-13 school year, according to the report published by the
See TRUANCY PAGE 12A Photo by Refugio Ruiz | AP
FORT HOOD ATTACK
SURVIVORS RECEIVE HONOR
Mourners comfort each other during a ceremony to honor slain policemen in Tlaquepaque, Mexico, Wednesday. On Monday, the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel stopped a police convoy on a rural highway and opened fire, killing 15 officers and wounding five in the bloodiest single attack on Mexican law enforcement in recent memory.
A new name in Mexico’s drug war New Generation cartel responsible for police deaths By JOSHUA PARTLOW THE WASHINGTON POST
Photo by Rodolfo Gonzalez/Austin American-Statesman | AP
Purple Heart recipients Pfc. James Armstrong, left, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christopher Royal hug as they look at pictures of co-workers who were killed in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, prior to a ceremony, Friday at Fort Hood, Texas. Survivors and family members of those killed during the attack were awarded medals: a Purple Heart for military personnel and Defense of Freedom Medals for civilians.
Five years after attack, Purple Hearts awarded By PAUL J. WEBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
FORT HOOD, Texas — Eric Jackson took a bullet in the forearm during the deadliest mass shooting on a U.S. military base, and returned to Fort Hood five years later
with other survivors Friday to receive Purple Heart medals. Some smiled over an honor they felt was overdue, but also clenched their teeth over needs in their scarred and injured lives they say the Army has denied.
“I try not to be bitter. But it’s kind of hard not to be bitter,” said Jackson, a former staff sergeant. “You wonder, where’s the respect? Where’s the recognition? Where’s the support for what you’ve gone through and what you’re continuously going
through?” Thirteen people were killed and 31 were injured in the 2009 attack carried out by an Army psychiatrist who is now on military death row. Following years of tension,
See FORT HOOD PAGE 12A
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS AT BORDER
Cuellar details reimbursement plan By KENDRA ABLAZA THE ZAPATA TIMES
Local governments, law enforcement agencies, nonprofits and religious groups could be reimbursed for tens of thousands dollars spent since last year to
address an influx of families and unaccompanied children crossing CUELLAR the Southwest Texas bor-
der into the United States. U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, announced Friday that those in border communities like Zapata can soon apply for reimbursement of expenses accrued from
their efforts assisting those families and children. Cuellar said $47 million will be available to the state of Texas this year from the Federal Emergency Manage-
ment Agency. Though the agency usually serves U.S. citizens who have experienced natural or manmade domestic disasters, including acts of terror, Cuellar said this
See CUELLAR PAGE 12A
MEXICO CITY — There’s a new name to worry about in Mexico’s ever-churning drug war. They call themselves the New Generation of Jalisco, and they just pulled off one of the most audacious attacks against Mexican authorities in years. Earlier this week, on a lonely road in western Mexico between the resort beach town of Puerto Vallarta and the state capital of Guadalajara, cartel henchmen with assault rifles and grenade launchers ambushed a convoy of state police, killing 15 of them and wounding five more. That brought the total number of police killed in the state to 21, just over the past three weeks, according to the Mexican newspaper El Universal. This is not just an attack on the police, but "an attack on the security of the state, an attack on the people’s security, and it’s bringing crisis to the state," said Jose Guillermo Garcia Murillo, a professor at the University of Guadalajara. Mexican cartels rise and fall, and analysts say New Generation is now rising faster than any. According to the Treasury Department, which put New Generation’s leaders on the drug kingpin list this week, the cartel is operating in several Mexican states and forging underworld ties around the globe. New Generation and an allied group, Los Cuinis, "have rapidly expanded their criminal empire in recent years through the use of violence and extortion," John E. Smith, acting director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in a state-
See DRUG PAGE 12A