The Zapata Times 4/12/2014

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SATURDAY APRIL 12, 2014

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Leaked info

3 accused of smoking pot SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Three Zapata High School teens were recently detained on campus for smoking marijuana, according to authorities.

The public intoxication arrests were students who were sent to the assistant principal’s office. Authorities identified them as Jose Ernesto Garza, Carlos Alberto Guerra and Aaron Quintanilla.

Finding shows pattern of CIA deception

AARON QUINTANILLA: Accused of smoking marijuana with two others.

CARLOS GUERRA: With two others, accused of smoking marijuana.

JOSE GARZA: One of three arrested, accused of smoking marijuana.

See SMOKING PAGE 11A

By BRADLEY KLAPPER ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — A controversial torture report by the Senate Intelligence Committee paints a pattern of CIA deception about the effectiveness of waterboarding and other brutal interrogation methods used on terror suspects after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to leaked findings. The committee said it will ask the Justice Department to in-

vestigate how the material was published.

The McClatchy news service late Thursday published what it said are the voluminous, stillclassified review’s 20 findings. It concludes that the “enhanced interrogation techniques” failed to produce valuable intelligence; the CIA misled the Bush administration, Congress and the public about the value of the harsh treatment; the agency employed unauthorized techniques on de-

tainees and improperly detained others; and it never properly evaluated its own actions.

Both the CIA’s interrogation techniques and confinement conditions “were brutal and far worse than the agency communicated to policymakers.”

The reported findings are consistent with what senators have detailed about the investigation since its 2009 inception and with

See REPORT

PAGE 11A

FEDERAL COURT

GULF OIL SPILL

Man: I was helping mother

ILL AFTER THE OIL SPILL

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

A man caught transporting 12 illegal immigrants claiming he wanted to help his mother pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Laredo, according to court records.

Wayne Nicholas Martinez pleaded guilty to transporting illegal immigrants for financial gain. He could face up to 10 years in prison. The sentencing date has not been determined. Martinez remains out on bond.

At 7:35 p.m. Jan. 25, federal agents detained Martinez on U.S. 83, about 7 miles east of Zapata. Martinez was allegedly driving a white 2001 Ford Expedition erratically.

Agents attempted to stop the vehicle but Martinez accelerated before the agents could reach the driver side window, a criminal complaint states.

Martinez drove about 25 yards before slowing down and letting 12 illegal immigrants escape from his pickup. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens assisted and caught up to Martinez shortly after.

Several backpacks that belonged to the immigrants were found inside the vehicle.

In a post-arrest interview, Martinez said he took the human smuggling job instead of his mother because he wanted to help her out.

Martinez had picked up the group in Lytle. He had instructions to drive the people to El Campo, a suburb southwest of Houston.

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

Photo by Andrea Mabry | AP

Bert Ducote measures a piece of lumber for his boat, which is being rebuilt at the Lake Catherine Marina in New Orleans, on March 7. Ducote has had dozens of boils pop up on his skin since performing cleanup work during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Some Gulf Coast residents show health problems

By STACEY PLAISANCE AND KEVIN MCGILL ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHALMETTE, La. — When a BP oil well began gushing crude into the Gulf of Mexico four years ago, fisherman George Barisich used his boat to help clean up the millions of gallons that spewed in what would become the worst offshore spill in U.S. history.

Like so many Gulf Coast residents who pitched in after the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, Barisich

was motivated by a desire to help and a need to make money — the oil had destroyed his livelihood.

Today he regrets that decision, and worries his life has been permanently altered. Barisich, 58, says respiratory problems he developed during the cleanup turned into pneumonia and that his health has never been the same.

“After that, I found out that I couldn’t run. I couldn’t exert past a walk,” he said. His doctor declined comment.

Barisich is among thousands considering claims under a medical settlement BP reached with cleanup workers and coastal residents. The settlement, which could benefit an estimated 200,000 people, received final approval in February from a federal court. It establishes set amounts of money — up to $60,700 in some cases — to cover costs of various ailments for those who can document that they worked the spill and developed related illnesses, such as respiratory problems and skin

conditions.

It also provides for regular physical examinations every three years for up to 21 years, and it reserves a worker’s right to sue BP over conditions that develop down the road, if the worker believes he or she can prove a connection to the spill.

Some 33,000 people, including Barisich, are participating in a massive federal study that aims to determine any short or possible long-term health effects re-

See OIL SPILL PAGE 11A

PAGE 2A

Zin brief CALENDAR

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2014

AROUND TEXAS

TODAY IN HISTORY

SATURDAY, APRIL 12

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Larry Hernandez Memorial 6th Annual Crime Stoppers 5K Run/Walk Against Crime. Registration 7 a.m.

Race 8 a.m. Entrance of Lake Casa Blanca State Park. Pre-registration fee $15 through April 11. $20 day of event.

Kids run ages 10 and under. Proceeds benefit Laredo Crime Stoppers. Forms can be picked up at administrative office, 1200 Washington St., from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., or Laredo Ciclo Mania, 611 Shiloh Road, Suite No. 2, from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Call 724-1876.

TAMIU Planetarium anniversary showing of “Wall-E.” Noon, 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. $3 general admission. Free face painting, arts and music. Call 326-3663.

Today is Saturday, April 12, the 102nd day of 2014. There are 263 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlights in History: On April 12, 1954, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission opened a hearing on whether Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the Manhattan Project, should have his security clearance reinstated amid questions about his loyalty (it wasn’t). Bill Haley and His Comets recorded “Rock Around the Clock” in New York for Decca Records.

On this date: In 1606, England’s King James I decreed the design of the original Union Flag, which combined the flags of England and Scotland.

In 1776, North Carolina’s Fourth Provincial Congress authorized the colony’s delegates to the Continental Congress to support independence from Britain.

In 1861, the American Civil War began as Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

In 1912, Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, died in Glen Echo, Md., at age 90.

In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga., at age 63; he was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.

In 1955, the Salk vaccine against polio was declared safe and effective.

In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space, orbiting the earth once before making a safe landing.

In 1963, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested and jailed in Birmingham, Ala., charged with contempt of court and parading without a permit. (During his time behind bars, King wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”)

In 1981, the space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its first test flight.

Ten years ago: A federal judge allowed a nationwide ban on dietary supplements containing ephedra to take effect, turning aside a plea from two manufacturers.

Five years ago: American cargo ship captain Richard Phillips was rescued from Somali pirates by U.S. Navy snipers who shot and killed three of the hostage-takers.

One year ago: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, visiting South Korea, delivered a stark warning to North Korea not to test-fire a mid-range missile while tamping down anxiety caused by a new U.S. intelligence report suggesting significant progress in the communist regime’s nuclear weapons program.

Today’s Birthdays: Country singer Ned Miller is 89. Actress Jane Withers is 88. Opera singer Montserrat Caballe is 81. Playwright Alan Ayckbourn (AYK’-bohrn) is 75. Jazz musician Herbie Hancock is 74. Rock singer John Kay (Steppenwolf) is 70. Actor Ed O’Neill is 68. Actor Dan Lauria is 67. Talk show host David Letterman is 67.

Thought for Today: “All history is only one long story to this effect: men have struggled for power over their fellow men in order that they might win the joys of earth at the expense of others, and might shift the burdens of life from their own shoulders upon those of others.” — William Graham Sumner (1840-1910).

MONDAY, APRIL 14 Zapata County Commissioners Court meeting. 9 a.m. Zapata County Courthouse. Call Roxy Elizondo at 7659920.

TUESDAY, APRIL 15 South Texas Food Bank’s annual member agency conference. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. IBC Annex Building, 2416 Jacaman Road. For 80 agencies that help food bank distribute food in eightcounty area. Call Salo Otero at 3242432.

“The Calling” series of Bible talks. 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Laredo Church of Christ Chapel, 1505 Calle del Norte, Suite 340. Contact Miguel Zuniga at 286-9631 or mglzuniga@yahoo.com.

THURSDAY, APRIL 17 Meeting of Los Amigos Duplicate Bridge Club. 1:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. Laredo Country Club. Call Beverly Cantu at 727-0589.

SATURDAY, APRIL 19 Easter Egg Hunt. Noon to 2 p.m.

Chick-fil-A North Laredo. Music, pony rides, petting zoo, face painting and games. Contact Carolina Olivares at 319-4955 or carolina.cfanorthlaredo@gmail.com.

TUESDAY, APRIL 22 “The Calling” series of Bible talks. 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Laredo Church of Christ Chapel, 1505 Calle del Norte, Suite 340. Contact Miguel Zuniga at 286-9631 or mglzuniga@yahoo.com.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23 Volunteer Services Council for the Border Region Behavioral Health Center presents 22nd annual Administrative Professional Day Luncheon and Fashion Show. 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Laredo Country Club. For tickets call Laura Kim at 794-3130.

THURSDAY, APRIL 24 Meeting of Los Amigos Duplicate Bridge Club. 1:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. Laredo Country Club. Call Beverly Cantu at 727-0589.

IBC Keynote Speaker Series presentation, “Mexico Under the ‘New’ PRI: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,”

by Dr. Denise Dresser, professor of political science at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. TAMIU Student Center Ballroom, SC 203. Free and open to public.

Translation services will be available.

Contact 326-2820 or cswht@tamiu.edu.

Spanish Book Club meeting. 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Laredo Public Library, 1120 E. Calton Road. Call Sylvia Reash at 763-1810.

Villa San Agustin de Laredo Genealogical Society meeting. 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. St. John Newmann Catholic Church. Guest speaker is Dr. Gabriela Mendoza Garcia with “Jarabe Tapatio: Race and Nation in 20th Century Mexico and 21st Century United States” as topic. New members welcome. Call Sanjuanita Martinez-Hunter at 7223497.

SATURDAY, APRIL 26 National Prescription Drug TakeBack Pill Initiative. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Ryan Elementary, 2401 Clark Blvd., and Laredo Fire Department Administration Building, 616 E. Del Mar Blvd. Bring medication for proper disposal to avoid drug abuse. Call 724-3177.

SUNDAY, APRIL 27 Semiannual all-you-can-eat spaghetti lunch. Noon to 1:30 p.m. First United Methodist Church, 1220 McClelland Ave. Free. Contact Sue Webber at 722-1674 or fumc_office@sbcglobal.net.

Photo by Dborah Cannon/Austin American-Statesman | AP

Bluebonnets bloom near the University of Texas Tower in Austin, on Thursday. The flower beds are now also home to a variant known as Alamo Fire, which is a shade of maroon, and some are wondering if it is a Texas A&M prank.

Maroon bluebonnets appear ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUSTIN — A maroon version of the state flower that’s sprouted in the shadow of the University of Texas Tower in Austin has some wondering if it’s the work of Aggie pranksters.

Flower beds containing brightly colored bluebonnets are now home to a variant known as Alamo Fire, which is a shade of maroon. The Texas A&M colors are maroon and white.

There’s speculation in the land of the Longhorns that Aggies are responsible for sprinkling Alamo Fire seeds on the UT campus.

Texas A&M horticulturists developed the maroon variety in the 1980s in an attempt to plant a floral Texas flag in honor of the state’s sesquicentennial. They had spent two

decades isolating pink bluebonnets from blue but failed to achieve a solid red.

One or two maroon bluebonnets have blossomed in UT’s flower beds in recent years, but now there are about a dozen. “Some find it cute. Others say if they get too much, they want them removed,” Markus Hogue, UT’s irrigation and water conservation coordinator, told the Houston Chronicle.

Texas A&M professor and horticulturist Doug Welsh says unusually-hued bluebonnets will cross-pollinate and the recessive colors, including, maroon will recede over time to the bluebonnet’s dominant shade of indigo.

The hardy wildflower has inspired poetry, country music, and even a Comanche legend since it was named the state flower in 1901.

Bluebonnets have been planted alongside highways in Texas since the 1930s.

Denton County hailstorm Fort Bliss soldier losses put at $300 million arraigned for infant death DENTON — An insurance industry trade group estimates a hailstorm that battered North Texas a week ago has left behind about $300 million in property damages.

The Insurance Council of Texas says about 24,000 vehicles and 12,000 homes sustained damage when softball-size hail and winds topping 80 mph swept in north of Dallas April 3.

Old Midland courthouse to be razed for skyscraper

MIDLAND — Midland Mayor Jerry Morales says he wants demolition of the vacant old Midland County courthouse to be started after July 4.

The now city-owned courthouse was built in 1930.

Its site is to be the location for a skyscraper — or two — that would be the tallest structures in the West Texas city of about 120,000.

EL PASO — A Fort Bliss solider has been arraigned on capital murder charges for the death of his 11-month-old son.

Pfc. Adam Keith Jackson, 22, has pleaded not guilty to the February slaying. He’s been jailed on $250,000 bond.

An investigation began after unconscious Aiden Jackson was taken to a hospital where doctors found head and neck injuries. A affidavit says Jackson told officers he dropped the child.

Council wants expanded synthetic pot ban

LUBBOCK — Lubbock city officials want to expand a ban on synthetic marijuana.

The council Thursday gave preliminary approval to a measure that identifies new chemical compounds in synthetic marijuana sold in shops as potpourri or incense or on the streets as a legal alternative to marijuana.

2 men suspects in apartment burglaries AUSTIN — Police say they suspect two men are responsible for more than 150 apartment burglaries in the Austin area.

Austin police have investigated the burglaries for more than a year. Authorities said during a news conference Wednesday that 29-year-old Patrick King and 33year-old Dennis Webb have been charged with a handful of burglaries.

Victoria officials see goats as firefighting tool

VICTORIA — A South Texas city is looking to continue using goats to eliminate fire hazards by having the animals chomp away at heavy, dense brush.

Officials in Victoria want to remove the flammable brush at Riverside Park to prevent any chance of a brush fire, as well as clear land to make the banks of the Guadalupe River accessible.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION No cause found yet for Washington 911 outage EVERETT, Wash. — CenturyLink says it’s still investigating the cause of a statewide, sevenhour outage in 911 service early Thursday in Washington.

Many calls did not reach dispatch centers until the problem was resolved about 7 a.m.

The company says in a statement Friday that a similar 911 outage about the same time in Oregon affected about 16,000 phone customers in Lincoln, Tillamook and Yamhill counties.

CenturyLink says that was caused by a maintenance issue that was resolved about 3:30 a.m.

Thursday.

Tampa-based military dog retires with honors

TAMPA, Fla. — A bomb-sniffing dog credited with saving a military patrol in Afghanistan is retiring with full military hon-

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Kaycie Hall, of Modesto, Calif., performs a handstand on the Empire Polo Field during day one at the 2014 Coachella Music and Arts Festival on Friday in Indio, Calif. ors.

Military officials say that in 2012, a Belgian Malinois named Eddie found two improvised explosive devices containing 10 pounds of homemade explosives.

It saved the lives of his 13-member patrol unit, which was made

up of U.S. allied forces.

The retirement ceremony was held Friday at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., and soldiers turned out to cheer Eddie on.

Eddie has served for about five years.

— Compiled from AP reports

SUBSCRIPTIONS/DELIVERY (956) 728-2555 The Zapata Times is distributed on Saturdays to 4,000 households in Zapata County. For subscribers of the Laredo Morning Times and for those who buy the Laredo Morning Times at newsstands, the Zapata Times is inserted.

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The Zapata office is at 1309 N. U.S. Hwy. 83 at 14th Avenue, Suite 2, Zapata, TX 78076. Call (956) 765-5113 or e-mail thezapatatimes.net

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2014

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

Man arrested after deportation

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

Federal agents in Zapata County detained a Mexican national who had been deported before for being in the country illegally, according to court records released this week.

On Monday, Miguel Jimenez-Perez was apprehended and charged with via criminal complaint with re-entry of deported immigrant, court records filed Thursday state. U.S. Border Patrol detained him near Zapata. After a brief interview, agents deter-

mined that Jimenez-Perez was an illegal immigrant from Mexico.

Further investigation revealed he had been previously removed from the United States June 8, 2009, at Laredo. No record exists that Jimenez-Perez applied for permission to re-enter the United States, court records show.

He is on federal custody on a $75,000 bond. A preliminary hearing is set for 10 a.m. April 24 in courtroom 2C. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)

FRUITS OF THEIR LABOR

Photo by Cuate Santos | The Zapata Times

Cynthia Morales, third from left, representing Zapata’s Villarreal Elementary, poses with McDonlad’s representatives, from left, Rocio De Leon, Crisanta Macias, Melly Macias and Ronald McDonald after she was presented with a check for $1,093, Friday at the UISD Board Room, for the school’s participation in a McTeacher Night fundraising event.

Cornyn spent $5.5M during GOP primary

By WILL WEISSERT ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUSTIN, Texas — Sen. John Cornyn spent nearly $5.5 million in the two months leading up to Texas’ Republican primary to help fend off a quixotic challenge from the right by renegade Congressman Steve Stockman.

Campaign manager Brendan Steinhauser told The Associated Press that Cornyn raised $2.32 million in the year’s first quarter and had nearly $3.35 million in cash on hand March 31. The campaign ended 2013 with $6.5 million in its war chest, meaning that $5.47 million was spent between New Year’s Day and the end of last month. Most of that went toward radio, television and Web advertising across Texas’ vast and costly media markets ahead of the March 4 primary.

Although Cornyn is still campaigning, he hasn’t spent much on advertising since the primary.

The Senate’s No. 2 Republican as minority whip, Cornyn is seeking his third term and garnered 59 percent of the primary vote to

trounce Stockman and six lesserknown challengers. He won convincingly, despite being accused by some tea party groups and other conservatives of being too moderate and cozy with the GOP establishment in Washington.

Stockman received about 19 percent of the primary vote, but that actually could be considered respectable since he didn’t decide to challenge Cornyn until the last minute. Stockman’s campaign hasn’t released its latest finance reports, so it’s unclear how much it spent leading up to the primary.

But Stockman began his campaign in debt, made almost no public appearances in Texas and ignored the media.

Things got so bad that a coalition of high-profile Texas tea party activists formally disavowed Stockman just before the primary, accusing him of running perhaps the laziest campaign in state history. He was also dogged by charges of campaign finance irregularities and dropped out of sight for nearly three weeks in January, missing almost 20 House votes — though it turned out he

was part of an official overseas delegation for much of that time.

Still, Cornyn’s big spending on advertising and campaign infrastructure statewide shows he wasn’t taking any chances. Meanwhile, a group known as Texans for a Conservative Majority bought time on TV stations in Houston, Beaumont and Port Arthur, the heart of Stockman’s district, claiming the congressman was a corrupt liar.

Cornyn is now the overwhelming favorite in November, when he will face the winner of a Democratic runoff May 27 between Dallas dental mogul David Alameel, a former top GOP donor, and Kesha Rogers, who has called for the impeachment of President Barack Obama. The Democratic Party of Texas has urged its voters not to support Rogers.

“We are proud of our steady, strong support from across Texas,” Steinhauser said, “and the campaign will have no shortage of resources as Senator Cornyn works to unite our coalition and expand the party heading into November.”

THE BLOTTER CHILD SUPPORT Juan David Lara was arrested and charged with failure to appear in court for child support Friday in the intersection of Third Street and 16th Avenue.

DWI Michael Lee Delgado was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated Monday in the intersection of Eighth Street and Texas 16.

Genaro Quiroz-Orduña was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated Tuesday along Texas 16.

Miguel Andres Martinez was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated Thursday by Ninth Street and Texas 16.

EVADING ARREST Arnoldo Gonzalez was arrested and charged with evading arrest with motor vehicle Monday in the 600 block of Sixth Street. Deputies additionally served him with a capias for arson.

Luis Abran Paredes was arrested and charged with a capias for evading arrest, detention with vehicle Friday in the 400 block of Ocampo Avenue in San Ygnacio.

POSSESSION

Ricardo Carrizalez was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance Thursday in the intersection of U.S. 83 and 15th Avenue.

PUBLIC INTOXICATION Maria Elena Chapa was arrested and charged with public intoxication Wednesday by Texas 16 and Ninth Street.

Cassandra Marie Chapa was arrested and charged with public intoxication Wednesday in the intersection of Texas 16 and Ninth Street.

Johnny Ray Scarberry Jr. was arrested and charged with public intoxication Wednesday in the 1000 block of Lincoln Street.

RECKLESS DRIVING Jose Ricardo Gonzalez was arrested and charged with reckless driving Thursday in the 5000 block of McAllen Lane.

Cindy Vanessa Peña was arrested and charged with reckless driving Thursday along South U.S. 83.

TERRORISTIC THREAT Jose Luis Paredes was arrested and charged with a capias for terroristic threat against family member Friday in the 2300 block of Del Mar Street.

PAGE 4A

Zopinion

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2014

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

COLUMN

OTHER VIEWS

LBJ finally gets his recognition AUSTIN — When the RSVPs came back positive, Team LBJ members had orchestrated what they’ve wanted for years: presidents acclaiming another who, according to defenders of his legacy, has been snubbed for years, particularly by his own party.

Ladies and gentleman, Lyndonpalooza!

“What a singular honor it is for me to be here today,” President Barack Obama said Thursday, adding that LBJ opened doors for many Americans “and that’s why I’m standing here today, because of those efforts, because of that legacy.”

It’s a public acknowledgement some LBJ people believe has been overdue. A day earlier, on the same stage, Bill Clinton said: “We are here because the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act made it possible for Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to be president of the United States.”

To each his or her own on whether that’s a positive. It’s also possible, of course, that Johnson made it possible for Richard Nixon to be president of the United States. But that had to do with Vietnam, which wasn’t on the Civil Rights Summit agenda.

LBJ acolytes pinpoint snubs they feel their hero has endured. On Aug. 27, 1992, which would have been LBJ’s 84th birthday, then-candidate Clinton gave a campaign speech outside the LBJ Presidential Library without mentioning LBJ. In Denver on Aug. 27, 2008, LBJ’s 100th, his party selected its first black presidential nominee. An LBJ video tribute was prepared, and some of his supporters say it wasn’t played.

Not so, says Ben Barnes, now the vice chairman of the LBJ Foundation.

“Let me tell you when it happened,” he said. “It got played about 2 o’clock when there was nobody at the Denver stadium. And (Iowa) Sen. (Tom) Harkin and I were just furious about it. It got played, but maybe the gatekeepers and the people that were cleaning up the floor at the stadium saw it. It was not shown at a time when the people at the convention saw it.”

“It made me very upset, very angry, and not understanding what the political downside of saying that Lyndon Johnson’s Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act were great things for America,” Barnes said.

“I don’t understand where did that cost you votes with your Democratic base.”

But Barnes does understand. Vietnam. Without that war, he said, LBJ would be to Democrats as Ronald Reagan is to Republicans, a surefire applause reference in a speech to partisans.

“There is no doubt about it,” Barnes said.

“Everybody would have an LBJ scarf and a hat on and be running around the country talking about Lyndon Johnson. Look how many things have been named after Ronald Reagan.”

The current count is 134. (FYI for Austin newcomers, Austin’s Reagan

“

KEN HERMAN

“

That was the height of the controversy about Vietnam, and they campaigned for McGovern who was running against the war.”

BEN BARNES

High School is named for John H. Reagan, whose CV includes Confederate postmaster general.)

A U.S. House committee this week advanced a bill naming a Nevada mountain for Ronald Reagan.

“We finally got the (U.S.) education building named after Johnson,” Barnes said.

He believes Vietnam “caused people to run away from Lyndon Johnson.” And, he said, that war might explain why Clinton didn’t mention LBJ at his 1992 campaign stop here. Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Texas ties date back to their work for George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign.

“That was the height of the controversy about Vietnam, and they campaigned for McGovern who was running against the war,” Barnes said, “and you couldn’t keep from running against Johnson even though he wasn’t on the ballot.”

Vietnam continues to spark emotion, even among LBJ supporters like Barnes.

“I’m not proud of it at all, but I had a lot to do with keeping some people from having to go to Vietnam,” he said, recalling influence he wielded back then as Texas House speaker.

Barnes helped get George W. Bush, then the son of a Houston congressman, into the National Guard.

And Barnes recalled a stroll through the Vietnam Memorial in Washington.

“We went through it at night and looking at those names on the wall and it hit me that, my God, I can’t believe that I had a role in maybe someone’s name being on that wall or maybe someone’s name being off that wall,” he said.

“It’s still something that I’ve got some deep feeling and emotion about.”

Jesse Jackson, who came here Thursday to praise LBJ, said “people who immediately say Johnson-Vietnam War” have “not read very much.”

But that’s for another day, another summit.

Ken Herman is a columnist for the Austin American-Statesman. Email: kherman@statesman.com.

COLUMN

Many like money, but others enjoy problem solving Most of us have at one time or another felt ourselves in the grip of the explanatory drive. You’re confronted by some puzzle, confusion or mystery. Your inability to come up with an answer gnaws at you.

You’re up at night, turning the problem over in your mind. Then, suddenly: clarity. The pieces click into place. There’s a jolt of pure satisfaction.

We’re all familiar with this drive, but I wasn’t really conscious of the moral force of this longing until I read Michael Lewis’ book, “Flash Boys.”

As you’re probably aware, this book is about how a small number of Wall Street-types figured out that the stock markets were rigged by high-frequency traders who used complex technologies to give themselves a head start on everybody else. It’s nominally a book about finance, but it’s really a morality tale. The core question Lewis forces us to ask is: Why did some people do the right thing while most of their peers did not?

The answer, I think, is that most people on Wall Street are primarily motivated to make money, but a few people are primarily motivated by an intense desire to figure stuff out.

If you are primarily motivated to make money, you just need to get as much information as you need to do your job. You don’t have time for deep dives into ab-

“

DAVID BROOKS

stract matters. You certainly don’t want to let people know how confused you are by something, or how shallow your knowledge is in certain areas. You want to project an image of mastery and omniscience.

On Wall Street, as in other areas of the modern economy, this attitude leads to a culture of knowingness. People learn to bluff their way through, day to day. Executives don’t really understand the complex things going on in their own companies.

Traders don’t understand how their technological tools really work. Programmers may know their little piece of code, but they don’t have a broader knowledge of what their work is being used for.

These people are content to possess information, but they don’t seek knowledge.

Information is what you need to make money short term. Knowledge is the deeper understanding of how things work. It’s obtained only by long and inefficient study. It’s gained by those who set aside the profit motive and instead possess an intrinsic desire just to know.

The heroes of Lewis’ book have this intrinsic desire. The central figure, Brad Katsuyama, observes

that the markets are not working the way they are supposed to. Like thousands of others, he observes that funny things are happening on his screen when he places a trading order. But, unlike those others, this puzzling discrepancy between how things are and how things are supposed to be gnaws at him. He just has to understand what’s going on.

He conducts a long, arduous research project to go beneath the technology and figure things out. At one point he and his superiors at the Royal Bank of Canada conduct a series of trades not to make money but just to test theories.

Another character, Ronan Ryan, taught himself how electronic signals move through the telecommunications system. A third, John Schwall, is an obsessive who buried himself in the library so he could understand the history of a particular form of stock-rigging called frontrunning.

These people eventually figure out what was happening in the market. They acquire knowledge both of how the markets are actually working and of how they are supposed to work.

They become indignant about the discrepancy.

They could have used their knowledge to participate in the very marketrigging they were observing. But remember, the pleasure they derived from satisfying their curiosity

surpassed the pleasure they derived from making money. So some of them ended up creating a separate stock exchange that could not be rigged in this way.

One lesson of this tale is that capitalism doesn’t really work when it relies on the profit motive alone.

If everybody is just chasing material self-interest, the invisible hand won’t lead to well-functioning markets. It will just lead to arrangements in which market insiders take advantage of everybody else.

Capitalism requires the full range of motivation, including the intrinsic drive for knowledge and fairness.

Second, you can’t tame the desire for money with sermons. You can only counteract greed with some superior love, like the love of knowledge.

Third, if market-rigging is defeated, it won’t be by government regulators. It will be through a market innovation in which a good exchange replaces bad exchanges, designed by those who fundamentally understood the old system.

And here’s a phenomenon often true in innovation stories: The people who go to work pursuing knowledge, or because they intrinsically love writing code, sometimes end up making more money than the people who go to work pursuing money as their main purpose.

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SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2014

THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

State

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES

DWI officers may face firing ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUSTIN — Officers and support staff who drive drunk face dismissal in a stricter DWI policy applying to those who enforce the law, Austin police Chief Art Acevedo said.

Acevedo announced the updated policy to the department’s 2,300 personnel Wednesday.

The zero tolerance policy applies regardless of whether criminal charges are dismissed.

Effective immediately, if an internal police administrative investigation finds that an officer or civilian employee drove drunk, he or she will automatically be fired. Previously, the Austin police chief had discretion on whether to fire officers for a DWI arrest.

Ken Casaday, the secretary of the Austin Police Association, which opposes the policy change, said Wednesday that there are extenuating circumstances to every case.

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2014

Exxon Mobile boss made $28.1M ASSOCIATED PRESS

IRVING — The CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp. received compensation worth $28.1 million last year, a 3 percent increase over the previous year, according to an Associated Press analysis of a company regulatory filing.

Most of Rex W. Tillerson’s compensation was in the form of stock awards, which the largest U.S. oil company valued at $21.3 million when they were granted.

His overall compensation for 2013 was up from $27.2 million in 2012, un-

der The AP’s calculation.

The AP analysis of Tillerson’s compensation considered salary, bonus, perks and the estimated value of stock and option grants that the company reported Friday to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The calculation excluded changes in the present value of Tillerson’s pension benefits.

Tillerson, 62, received a salary of $2.7 million, a 6 percent increase from a year ago, plus a cash bonus of nearly $3.7 million, which was down 20 percent because Exxon’s

Ceremony offers solace

By SARAH RAFIQUE

By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Carolyn Kaster | AP

Chief of Staff of the Army General Raymond Odierno arrives for a memorial ceremony Wednesday in Fort Hood for those killed there in a shooting last week. attended the memorial to show his support for the community.

“What happened was a huge tragedy, but for him to actually come down here to Fort Hood, that’s huge,” she said. “Everyone can have their opinions about him, but that’s all politics. At the end of the day, he’s a human being. He has a wife and kids and he’s our commander in chief, so he’s here for the (community) and that means so much.”

Retired Chief Warrant Officer 3 Patricial Prosise, who also watched Wednesday’s memorial at the Ale House, was part of a team that immediately supported families of soldiers who died in the Nov. 5, 2009, mass shooting at Fort Hood.

Prosise, who was a casualty assistance officer at Fort Hood when she retired in 2007, said she stayed with families from the time

they learned their soldiers died up until their funerals.

“It’s rewarding, but it was very hard, very stressful,” she said. “It just tears a family up.”

Prosise said she has listened to final roll call and taps too many times — each soldier’s funeral just as emotional as the last.

“It goes to the heart,” she said.

Although it’s a “sad, somber thing,” she said the community and Obama are pulling together, just like they did nearly five years ago.

“As our commander in chief ... it’s really core to ensure the soldiers’ families that he’s here, he’s aware,” she said. “That is the respectful thing for him to do.”

In the nine months since her husband died, Heinz said the Army has not forgotten her.

“I’ll still have bad days

second-best year ever, helped by high and rising oil prices. Exxon Mobil shares, however, rose 17 percent in a strong stock market during 2013.

Through Thursday’s close, they were down 4 percent in 2014.

Exxon produces oil around the world and is also the biggest producer of natural gas in the United States since it bought XTO Energy in 2010, a deal that hasn’t lived up to expectations because of low gas prices. Tillerson, who also serves as chairman, has led the Irvingbased company since 2006.

Dad: Son beat physical woes

KILLEEN DAILY HERALD

KILLEEN — Old wounds reopened for Kelli Heinz as the somber sounds of a trumpet echoed through the air.

Memories of burying her 25-year-old husband in July were fresh on her mind as she listened to roll call and taps for three soldiers who died in the April 2 shooting at Fort Hood.

While the families of those soldiers sobbed during an outdoor memorial at Fort Hood, Heinz wiped tears from her cheeks as she watched it on TV at the Carolina Ale House in Killeen.

“I lost it. I lost it. It was the hardest thing because it reminds me like it was yesterday that I buried my husband,” said Heinz, 26.

“Seeing the wives, I know exactly what they’re feeling and, unfortunately, there’s nothing anyone can say or do to change anything because their husband is gone.”

Although her husband, Spc. Christopher Kent Heinz, drowned July 14 at Stillhouse Hollow Lake and died under different circumstances from those killed last week, Kelli Heinz said she shares something with the soldiers’ widows and family members — their loved ones died unexpectedly, and too soon.

“It’s terrible. Finding out with a knock on a door (that) your husband is dead is the worst feeling in the world,” Heinz told the Killeen Daily Herald. “I know completely what these families are going through, without a doubt.”

Heinz said she was glad President Barack Obama

earnings fell compared with 2012, the company said.

The value of Tillerson’s stock awards increased $1.6 million, or 8 percent, from 2012, because of a rise in the company’s share price. He received other compensation valued at $496,704. The biggest items in that miscellaneous category were $190,190 in matching contributions to a retirement plan and $177,140 for personal security.

Exxon earned $32.6 billion last year, a decrease of 27 percent from 2012, which was the company’s

where I just cannot get my husband off my mind and I just hurt so bad and I want to be alone, but yet I don’t,” she said. “(Christopher’s) lieutenant colonel still contacts me every now and then to check up on me and see how I’m doing ... I’m just a wife. I wasn’t a part of that, my husband was.

But for them to still make sure I’m OK, that means the world.”

Heinz decided to make Killeen her new home so she could be surrounded by military support.

“I love being around here, around Fort Hood and soldiers,” she said.

“The Army does come together when something happens and they’ve all been here for me like crazy.

It’s so comforting to be here. I’ve grown so much from it. As time goes on, I want to be here for other widows and help them like they’ve helped me.”

EL PASO — The Marine shot this week at Camp Lejeune, N.C., had to overcome physical hurdles to join his twin brother and another sibling in the Marine Corps.

Lance Cpl. Mark N. Boterf died after a single gunshot wound to the chest while on watch at the main entrance to the sprawling base, the Marine Corps said in a statement late Wednesday. No charges have been filed, and the Pentagon said the shooting appears to have been an accident.

The second of seven brothers and three sisters, Boterf underwent surgery to correct a hernia and then pushed himself to pass the fitness tests the Marine Corps requires of candidates.

“He excelled at the (physical) standards. It is three pull-ups; he could do 20. To be able to do that, so quickly after surgery, he made an example,” his twin brother Michael Stephen told The Associated Press in a phone call Thursday.

His father, Aubrey Boterf, said the 21-year-old had a “giving heart, was a cheerful person and loved God.” Born Dec. 18, 1992, in Amory, Miss., Boterf moved to Crowley, Texas, with his family in 2012.

He joined the Marines in August of that year.

He joined the 2nd Ra-

dio Battalion in 2013, served as a special intelligence system communicator and was promoted to his current rank on Oct. 1, 2013. He was on temporary assignment as a sentry.

His brother said Boterf was paying his own way through college so he could be on the same education level as his peers in the 2nd Radio Battalion.

Michael said his brother was a selfless man. “He would do anything for anything for anyone,” he said. “No matter what it was, if you needed it, he’d do it for you.”

Camp Lejeune spokesman Capt. Joshua Smith said Wednesday that a Marine colleague discharged a single shot from his M4 rifle in a guard shack at the main base entrance Tuesday and remains in custody.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating.

The name of the shooter, who is male, hasn’t been released. No charges have been filed at this time. Other guards were at the gate, but no one else was hurt, officials said.

Indications point to a “negligent discharge” as the cause of Boterf ’s death, Department of Defense spokesman Army Col. Steven Warren told reporters.

Emergency personnel attempted to revive Boterf, but he was later pronounced dead at a base hospital.

Woman gets life in stiletto heel slaying

By JUAN A. LOZANO ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON — A Houston woman was sentenced to life in prison Friday for fatally stabbing her boyfriend with the 5 1/2-inch stiletto heel of her shoe, striking him at least 25 times in the face and head.

Ana Trujillo was convicted of murder Tuesday by the same jury for killing 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson during an argument last June at his Houston condominium. Defense attorneys argued that Trujillo, 45, was defending herself from an attack by Andersson, who was a University of Houston professor and researcher.

Trujillo could be seen silently crying Friday when her sentence was handed down.

“I never meant to hurt him,” Trujillo said before the judge made the jury’s decision final. “It was never my intent. I loved him.

I wanted to get away. I never wanted to kill him.”

Andersson’s niece, Ylva Olofsson, said the family was happy with the verdict.

“My uncle was a great man. He was kind. He didn’t deserve what happened to him. We are happy that justice is served,” she said.

Prosecutors said that jurors — who declined to speak with reporters afterward — told them that it was the physical evidence that proved to them this was not self-defense.

“She hit him 25 times in the head. That is a hard thing to overcome,” said prosecutor John Jordan.

Trujillo’s attorney, Jack Carroll, said he thought the life sentence was too harsh. Carroll said

Photo by Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle | AP

Ana Trujillo reacts during the punishment phase of her trial on Friday, in Houston. Trujillo was convicted Tuesday of murder in the stabbing of her boyfriend, 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson, with the stiletto heel of her shoe. he thought the jurors were “worried about her future dangerousness ... I don’t think she’s dangerous.”

During closing arguments in the trial’s punishment phase, Jordan asked jurors for the maximum sentence: life in prison. Jordan said Trujillo not only violently killed Andersson but tried to ruin his character by falsely claiming he had abused her.

“Send the message that in our community, when you beat a man to death for no reason, when you come into a courtroom and you slaughter his good name ... that we in Texas are going to hold you

accountable,” Jordan said.

Carroll had asked jurors to find that his client acted in the heat of sudden passion, which would have limited her sentence to between two and 20 years. Carroll asked jurors to give her a two-year sentence.

“Ms. Trujillo needs mercy right now,” he said. During Carroll’s closing argument, Trujillo began crying.

Prosecutors argued Friday that Trujillo didn’t kill Andersson in a moment of sudden passion but that his slaying was a vicious murder in which she pinned him down and repeatedly stabbed him

with her shoe while he never fought back.

During their deliberations Friday, jurors asked to look at several pieces of evidence, including the blue suede stiletto heel — a size 9 platform pump. They reached agreement on a sentence after 4 1/2 hours of deliberations, and also found that the crime was not done in the heat of sudden passion.

Trujillo took the witness stand on Thursday, telling jurors that she was forced to kill Andersson to save her own life during a more than hourlong fight after being chased down, knocked into a

wall and thrown over a couch.

During about seven hours of rambling testimony, she testified that she had no idea she had hurt Andersson so badly until she reached for him and realized her hands were full of blood.

Carroll maintained Friday that Trujillo killed Andersson in “pure self-defense” and that “she did what she had to.”

“The fact she took a stiletto to his face 25 times and then paraded around town like she’s the victim, that’s insulting,” prosecutor Sarah Mickelson said during closing arguments.

Trujillo also testified she had been repeatedly abused by men and sexually assaulted, and that Andersson was a heavy drinker who would get angry with her.

Witnesses presented by prosecutors in the punishment phase detailed Trujillo’s criminal history or firsthand experiences in which she became violent toward them when she drank. Trujillo was arrested twice for drunk driving. She had been drinking the night of Andersson’s death but her blood alcohol level was not tested, according to testimony.

During the trial, prosecutors highlighted that Trujillo, a native of Mexico, did not have any injuries from her confrontation with Andersson while the researcher had defensive wounds on his hands and wrists. Trujillo’s attorneys argued she had been injured.

Witnesses, including family and friends, said Andersson, a native of Sweden who became a U.S. citizen, had a drinking problem, but they described him as mildmannered, quiet and never violent.

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2014

THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A

Bus-truck accident leaves 10 dead

By FENIT NIRAPPIL AND MARTHA MENDOZA ASSOCIATED PRESS

ORLAND, Calif. — It was a busload of opportunity: young, low-income, motivated students, destined to become the first in their families to go to college, journeying from the concrete sprawl of Los Angeles to a remote redwood campus 650 miles north.

Those dreams shattered for some Thursday in an explosive freeway collision that left 10 dead — students, chaperones and both drivers — and dozens hospitalized.

Desperate families awaited word about loved ones Friday, while investigators tried to figure out why a

southbound FedEx big rig swerved across the grassy divide of California’s key artery before sideswiping a car and slamming into the tour bus, which burst into a furious blaze.

The Serrato family, whose identical twin 17year-old daughters set off on the adventure on separate buses Thursday, had a panicked, sleepless night.

Marisol made it to their destination, Humboldt State University, but there was no word from Marisa, who had been aboard the now-gutted bus.

Friday morning when a sheriff ’s deputy asked for Marisa’s dental records, a grim request made to several families, 23-year-old brother Miguel Serrato

said his family was “getting a little bit scared.” His mother booked a flight north.

The bus was among three Humboldt had chartered as part of its two-day Preview Plus program to bring prospective students to tour the Arcata campus, according to university officials. Before launching the event Friday, university Vice President Peg Blake’s voice broke as she asked a crowded theater for a moment of silence in honor of everyone affected by the accident.

Most survivors were injured, some with critical burns or broken limbs.

Those who made it out said they scrambled through a kicked-out window.

PÁGINA 8A

Zfrontera

Agenda en Breve LAREDO

04/12— El Consulado General de México en Laredo presenta “Jornadas Sabatinas 2014”, de 8 a.m. a 2 p.m. Se otorgan servicios consulares trámites de pasaportes, matrículas consulares, y asistencia consular en el ámbito de protección.

04/12— Mercy Clinic invita al Evento Viviendo Sano, donde asistentes recibirán vacunas tras asistir a clases educativas relacionadas con salud, de 8:30 a.m. a 1 p.m. en Mercy Clinic, 2500 Zacatecas, frente a Cigarroa High School. Estacionamiento en Cigarroa HS. 04/12— El Club Rotario de Laredo invita al Women’s Expo con desfile de modas, conferencistas, módulos interactivos, vendedores y rifas, de 10 a.m. a 5 p.m. en el Holiday Inn Civic Center. Informes en el 763-1472. Entrada gratuita.

04/12— El Laredo Community College impartirá una plática de orientación a los estudiantes de nuevo ingreso a partir de las 10 a.m. y hasta las 4 p.m. en el Campus the Fort McIntosh.

04/12— SOFTBÓL: El equipo Dustdevil de TAMIU recibe a St. Edward’s University a las 12 p.m. en Dustdevil Field. Costo: 5 dólares.

04/12— BÉISBOL: El equipo Dustdevil de TAMIU recibe a Newman University a la 1 p.m. en Jorge Haynes Field. Costo: 5 dólares.

04/12— Planetario Lamar Bruni Vergara de TAMIU celebrará su 9o Aniversario presentando la película “WALL-E” a 3 dólares la entrada. El evento será de 11 a.m. a 9 p.m. en el patio del LBVSC e incluirá presentaciones de grupos de danza, pinta-caritas, manualidades y refrigerios. Informes en 3262463.

04/12— El American Legion Department of Texas invita a un Seminario sobre Beneficios para Veteranos, de 6 p.m. a 8 p.m. en las aulas 114 y 115 del Pellegrino Hall en TAMIU. Seminario abierto a todos los veteranos y estudiantes veteranos. Informes al 326-2254.

04/12— Concierto de Danza de Primavera – CriCri inicia a las 7 p.m. en el Teatro del Center for the Fine and Performing Arts de TAMIU. Costo: 5 dólares. Niños de 10 años y menores entran gratis.

04/12— Los “Spazmatics” se presentarán en Laredo Center for the Arts, a las 8 p.m. Costo: 100 dólares.

La entrada incluye baile, cena y bar. Reserve en el (956) 725-1715. 04/12— Pepe Aguilar se presenta en Laredo Energy Arena a las 8 p.m. Costo varía de 43, 63, 90 y 128 dólares. Adquiera boleto en Ticketmaster o taquilla del LEA. 04/12— Ministerio Carcelario de la Iglesia San Patricio invita al “ConciertoOración” con Hermana Glenda, a las 8 p.m. en Laredo Civic Center. Costo: 20 dólares. Boletos en Iglesia St. Patrick. Informes en 2352810.

CONDADO DE WEBB

Suspensión temporal POR ALDO AMATO TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

El Comisionado del Condado de Webb Mike Montemayor, quien se encuentra enfrentando cargos por soborno en una corte federal de Laredo, ha acordado estar suspendido de manera temporal sin goce de sueldo.

En una conferencia el jueves ante el Juez de Distrito David Peeples, el abogado de Montemayor, José Becerra, informó a todas las partes la decisión del comisionado del Precinto 1.

“La opción de suspensión temporal ha estado disponible por cientos de años”, dijo Becerra. “Mike quería seguir trabajando, pero la última junta de los Comisionados de la Corte fue un caos, y siente que podría ser una distracción”.“Por lo

que esto es una gran opción ne un sustituto temporal del porque no es admitir que se precinto. Hasta ése momento, es culpable y no se comparaMontemayor mantiene los derá evidencia”. rechos y privilegios como un Montemayor fue arrestado comisionado del condado. en su casa el 19 de marzo El condado planea colocar después de que un gran jurala vacante del puesto en su sido lo acusara de dos cargos MONTEMAYOR tio de Internet para el vierpor soborno. Más tarde pagó nes. Cualquier residente del fianza y asistió a la junta de los Co- precinto que no tenga condenas premisionados de la Corte a principios vias por algún delito es elegible. La de abril. fecha límite para presentar la soliciLa conferencia fue celebrada des- tud es el 18 de abril. Los comisionapués de que el Abogado del Conda- dos del Condado de Webb ganan do de Webb, Marco Montemayor, 76.220 dólares al año. quien no está relacionado con el co“Lo que entiendo es que el juez misionado, presentara una petición buscará entre los solicitantes y tola semana pasada ante la corte de mará una decisión en las próximas distrito. La petición pedía la suspen- semanas”, dijo el Abogado del Consión de Mike Montemayor a la luz dado, Marco Montemayor. de los alegatos por soborno.

El FBI alega que Mike MontemaLa suspensión no puede entrar yor solicitó y aceptó sobornos a en vigor hasta que Peeples seleccio- cambio de prometer realizar diver-

sos actos oficiales. Supuestamente aceptó una camioneta Ford, modelo 2012, con un costo aproximado de 37.015 dólares, a cambio de la promesa de proporcionar puestos de trabajo en el gobierno al propietario del vehículo y a su pareja.

Las acusaciones alegan que Mike Montemayor, mientras servía como comisionado del condado, solicitó y aceptó aproximadamente 11.000 dólares en efectivo y 2.700 dólares en electrónicos por parte de un empresario que, sin que Mike Montemayor supiera, era un agente encubierto de la agencia federal.

Se declaró no culpable de los dos cargos por soborno el 26 de marzo.

Una conferencia de pre-juicio está programada para el 13 de mayo ante la Juez de Distrito, Marina García Marmolejo. La selección del jurado será el 16 de mayo.

NUEVO LAREDO, MÉXICO

TAMAULIPAS

UNEN ORACIONES

Aplican Operativo Semana Mayor TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Foto por Victor Strife | The Zapata Times

Familiares y amigos del ex Presidente Municipal de Nuevo Laredo, México, Benjamín Galván Gómez, se reunieron el jueves por la tarde para celebrar una Misa en su memoria, en la Iglesia Católica San Luís Rey.

Celebran Misa por ex Presidente Municipal POR CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

M

ás de 150 personas se reunieron el jueves por la tarde en la Iglesia San Luis Rey de Laredo, para celebrar una ceremonia eucarística en memoria del ex Presidente Municipal de Nuevo Laredo, México, Benjamín Galván Gómez.

Los asistentes tuvieron oportunidad de expresar sus condolencias a la familia, así como de dar algunas palabras de consuelo. No hay mejor lugar para encontrar la paz que en la casa de Dios, dijo el Obispo James Tamayo a la audiencia.

La madre de Galván Gómez, Martha Graciela Gómez de Galván y su abuela Graciela Vázquez de Gómez Lugo encontraron consuelo entre los varios abrazos que recibieron de las personas que asistieron al servi-

cio. Vázquez de Gómez Lugo recordó que su nieto experimentó momentos difíciles como presidente de Nuevo Laredo, GALVÁN GÓMEZ con coches bombas y tiroteos. En algún momento, le pidió a Galván Gómez que renunciara.

“Angelito, déjalo. No vale la pena”, se recordó diciéndole a Galván Gómez. Pero la respuesta de su nieto la dejó perpleja.

“Alguien tiene que tomar al toro por los cuernos. Es por eso que estoy aquí”, recordó la respuesta que su nieto le dio.

Galván Gómez y el empresario Miguel Ángel Ortiz fueron secuestrados el 27 de febrero en Nuevo Laredo y más tarde fueron encontrados sin vida. Sus muertes fueron confirmadas por las autoridades de Tamaulipas

el 1 de abril. Vázquez de Gómez Lugo cree que su nieto no sufrió porque Dios estuvo con él en todo momento.

“Estoy muy segura de que no se sentía solo. Nunca estamos solos”, dijo. “Si Dios está con nosotros ¿quién está en contra de nosotros?”

Galván Gómez comenzó a mostrar sus habilidades de liderazgo desde que era un niño, dijo su madre Gómez de Galván.

Su fe lo acompañó desde el momento en que fue monaguillo.

“Tenía sus ideas y lucharía por ellas”, dijo señalando que su hijo colocaba primero las intenciones de la gente. “Era una figura paterna (para Nuevo Laredo). No dejó atrás a ningún ciudadano. Hizo lo mejor por los necesitados”.

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

A partir del jueves dio inicio el Operativo de Semana Mayor 2014 en Tamaulipas y Nuevo León, México.

Alumnos y maestros iniciaron el ciclo vacacional de Cuaresma el viernes, para retornar a las aulas el lunes 28 de abril.

Este año para garantizar la seguridad de las familias, los gobiernos determinaron incrementar la presencia de agentes de la fuerza federal y estatal en tramos carreteros que unen a Tamaulipas y Nuevo León.

“El objetivo de este operativo especial es coordinar, supervisar, vigilar y atender en su caso, cualquier situación de emergencia que ponga en riesgo la integridad física de los paseantes, sus bienes y la actividad turística”, dijo el Secretario General de Gobierno, Herminio Garza Palacios.

En Tamaulipas participarán 1.290 elementos de la Policía Estatal Acreditable, 500 elementos de la Policía Ministerial y 2.290 elementos de la Policía Militar Municipal con un total de 760 unidades motrices para cubrir los principales centros turísticos y tramos carreteros, indica un comunicado de prensa.

Por su parte, la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional, Secretaría de Marina y la Policía Federal desplegarán otra cantidad importante de elementos y poco más de 600 vehículos de transporte, incluyendo lanchas, ambulancias, cuatrimotos y helicópteros.

“Se instalarán un total de 113 puestos de auxilio y atención a turistas, 28 de ellos en playas y 85 en carreteras y balnearios”, dijo Garza Palacios.

Los principales entronques carreteros se ubican en Matamoros, San Fernando, Soto la Marina, Victoria, Aldama, Tampico, Madero y Altamira, así como en municipios con centros de esparcimiento rural, ríos y lagunas, sostuvo Pedro Benavides Benavides, coordinador de Protección Civil en Tamaulipas.

También colaborarán 50 grupos de banda radio civil, e inclusive la Corporación Ángeles Verdes en Tamaulipas tendrá en servicio 12 patrullas equipadas por carreteras de la entidad.

COLUMNA

NUEVO LAREDO, MÉXICO

04/12— Estación Palabra presenta una “Exposición de Retratos hablados”, a las 3:30 p.m.; “Leo… Luego Existo” con el actor Carlos Bracho, a las 5 p.m. Eventos gratuitos.

04/12— Se presentará el Festival Altavoz: Sound, en el Mercado Maclovio Herrera a partir de las 12 p.m. Entrada gratuita.

04/13— El Grupo de Teatro Primer Sol presenta la obra “Romero y Julieta, pensado para niñ@s”, de Olga Margallo y Antonio Muñoz de Mesa, a las 5 p.m. en el Teatro Lucio Blanco. Cooperación voluntaria 20 pesos.

SÁBADO 12 DE ABRIL DE 2014

Tratan nacionalización del petróleo y reforma POR RAUL SINENCIO ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Carlos Marx señala que los grandes hechos y personajes de la historia pueden repetirse; una vez como tragedia y, la otra, como farsa. Farsa o copia grotesca, apostrofaríamos.

Pero he aquí que segundas partes nunca resultan mejores, complementa viejo refrán.

Tratándose del oro negro, hemos padecido auténticas tragedias. Al ini-

ciar la etapa posrevolucionaria la economía mexicana apenas evoluciona. Muestra indicadores relativos siempre minúsculos durante el periodo del presidente de México, Álvaro Obregón.

Esto sucede con todo y observarse ligero retroceso de carácter demográfico.

O sea, estadísticamente hay menos habitantes con que promediar la riqueza producida. El cuadro pareciera explicarse por la guerra civil del anterior

decenio.

Consideremos empero que entonces incrementamos el flujo de hidrocarburos a ritmos ascendentes, sostenidos.

Recién abierta la tercera década del siglo XX México aún era el tercer productor mundial.

Después México experimentó una mejora plausible. Aunque para duplicar su aporte había requerido la industria doméstica seis lustros, a partir de 1940 lo consigue nomás en dos. La impor-

tancia del capital extranjero disminuye en forma apreciable. Las exportaciones aumentan y el turismo surge fuerte, casi triplicándose la oferta de crudo.

Hablamos de lo sucedido el 18 de marzo de 1938, cuando se nacionalizaron los recursos orinegros.

Réplica Posteriores administraciones reorientan el rum-

bo, seducidas por la ortodoxia del neoliberalismo.

A 30 años de establecidos gravámenes fiscales en Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) que lo debilitan — aparece la reforma energética de 2013.

Busca ésta, admitir y favorecer la presencia de consorcios foráneos en tan estratégico sector.

Los promotores rehúyen que pase el correspondiente decreto por la consulta popular, basados en criterios autoritarios.

International

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2014

THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

Honduran migrants want free trip to US

By MARK STEVENSON ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY — About a dozen Honduran migrants who lost legs and arms after falling from trains during northbound journeys across Mexico asked the country’s Senate on Tuesday to stop the government’s persecution of Central Americans, protect them from criminal gangs and contribute money to shelters for their care.

The migrants say that drug gang members and other criminals frequently beat, stab or push them from moving trains during their journeys through Mexico to the United States.

The migrants wore prosthetic limbs — in some cases, for both legs — and pinned-up shirt sleeves in place of missing arms.

They expressed hope that Mexico would agree to allow them transit visas or free passage without documents to cross the country on their way to the U.S. border.

Jose Luis Hernandez, the leader of the Association of Disabled Returning Migrants, said the group hopes to meet with Presi-

dent Enrique Pena Nieto to discuss their demands.

Hernandez said there are 452 mutilated migrants from Honduras alone, and more from other Central American countries.

“We have hit bottom,” Hernandez said. “It is no longer even news when two people die on ‘The Beast,’ or that somebody fell under the train and lost his legs,” Hernandez said, referring to the train that travels through southern Mexico that migrants call “La Bestia.”

Criminal gangs often board the trains to rob migrants, many of whom have relatives in the United States. They are sometimes kidnapped and held until their families send ransom payments.

The migrants are often afraid to report such crimes for fear they will be deported, and some accuse police in Mexico of turning detained migrants over to the gangs, or robbing them themselves.

Hernandez said migrants believe that railway employees work with criminal gangs by slowing down to allow them to board the trains. “There is a plot that involves the engineers and

Photo by Marco Ugarte | AP

Norman Saul Varela, 46, a migrant from Honduras, holds his prosthetic leg while describing his ordeal in Mexico City on Wednesday. the railway guards, it’s all about extorting money from the migrants,” he said.

A criminal complaint filed last week by prosecutors in the southern Mexico state of Veracruz alleges

that railway companies or their employees have been complicit in crimes committed against migrants riding their trains. Ferrosur, a Mexican rail line, and KCSM, a subsidiary of the U.S. railway Kansas

City Southern, noted that migrants board their trains illegally, and said they were doing everything to cooperate with authorities.

“The guidelines of KCSM state that security personnel must respect the physical safety of those who travel illegally on the trains,” the company said in a statement.

Ferrosur said it “provided full cooperation” with Mexican immigration agents.

But Hernandez said immigration agents shouldn’t be pursuing migrants who don’t want to stay in Mexico and only wish to reach the United States.

In 2008, Mexico removed rarely enforced criminal penalties of 1 1/2-10 years in prison for migrants in the country illegally. Being an undocumented migrant is now a minor offense punishable by fines. But then, and now, most migrants have simply been deported.

Rather than deportation, Hernandez’s group is calling on Mexico to provide transit visas to guarantee safe passage of central American migrants through the country, something that Mexican Con-

gresswoman Amalia Garcia said “is possible,” with some legal changes.

Hernandez also said migrants want federal police officers aboard the trains — not to catch migrants, but to protect them from criminals.

He also expressed hope that Mexico’s government would help support migrant shelters, most of them run by Roman Catholic relief and charity organizations. Such shelters could have made the difference for Hernandez, who lost an arm, a leg and part of his other hand when he fainted and fell on the tracks in the northern state of Chihuahua in 2005 after 20 days of riding the train, not eating and hiding from police.

Sen. Gabriela Cuevas, who met with the migrants, said that Mexico should give migrants the same kind of protections it demands from the United States when Mexicans are deported.

“We are no model of what we demand from the United States,” Cuevas said. “It would be nice of Mexico could become an example of what we are demanding.”

Australian chief: Sounds are from plane

By ROB GRIFFITH AND KRISTEN GELINEAU ASSOCIATED PRESS

PERTH, Australia — With the Malaysian jetliner mystery now five weeks old, officials have narrowed the search zone for the missing plane and are “very confident” the underwater signals they have heard are from its black box, Australia’s prime minister said Friday.

At the same time, however, those electronic signals are fading, Tony Abbott added.

On a visit to China, Abbott briefed President Xi Jinping on the search for Flight 370, which vanished March 8 while flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, carrying 239 people, most of them Chinese.

Based on an analysis of satellite data, officials believe the Boeing 777 flew offcourse for an unknown reason and went down in the

southern Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia.

Crews involved in the hunt have in recent days focused on a more-targeted area in the ocean for the source of the electronic signals, Abbott said.

“We have very much narrowed down the search area and we are very confident that the signals that we are detecting are from the black box on MH370,” he told reporters in Shanghai, referring to the plane’s flight data and cockpit recorders.

Search crews are racing against time because the batteries powering the recorders’ locator beacons last only about a month — and more than a month has passed since the plane disappeared. Finding the devices after the batteries fail will be extremely difficult because the water in the area is 15,000 feet deep.

“We’re getting into the stage where the signal from

Photo by the Associated Press

A woman ties a message card for passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday. what we are very confident is the black box is starting to fade,” he added. “We are hoping to get as much information as we can before the signal finally expires.”

The Australian ship Ocean Shield is towing a U.S. Navy device that detects signals from the flight recorders. Two sounds heard Saturday were deter-

mined to be consistent with the signals emitted from the black boxes. Two more sounds were detected in the same general area Tuesday.

“We are confident that we know the position of the black box flight recorder to within some kilometers,” Abbott said. “But confidence in the approximate

position of the black box is not the same as recovering wreckage from almost 4 1/2 kilometers beneath the sea or finally determining all that happened on that flight.”

Abbott told the Chinese leader that the next steps will be a “very long, slow and painstaking process.”

An Australian air force P-3 Orion, which has been dropping sonar buoys into the water near where the Ocean Shield picked up the sounds, detected another possible signal Thursday, but Angus Houston, who is coordinating the search, said in a statement that an initial assessment had determined it was not related to an aircraft black box.

The Ocean Shield towed its ping locator to try to find additional signals Friday, and the Orions were continuing their hunt, Houston said. The underwater search zone is currently a 500-square-mile

patch of the seabed, about the size of the city of Los Angeles.

“It is vital to glean as much information as possible while the batteries on the underwater locator beacons may still be active,” Houston said in a statement.

The searchers want to pinpoint the exact location of the source of the signals so they can send down a robotic submersible to look for wreckage. A decision to use the sub could be “some days away,” Houston said.

The Bluefin 21 submersible takes six times longer to cover the same area as the ping locator being towed by the Ocean Shield — about six weeks to two months to canvass the current underwater zone.

Complicating matters is the depth of the seabed.

The signals are emanating from 15,000 feet below the surface, which is the deepest the Bluefin can dive.

Congressmen charge mayors for funds

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY — The mayor of the central Mexico city of Celaya thought he was having a private conversation when he told his staff that congressmen were requiring him to inflate a paving contract by 35 percent in exchange for $12.2 million in federal public works money.

Not only that, they demanded he go with the contractor of their choice.

But the conversation was recorded, leaked to the national Reforma newspaper, and its frontpage story in January revealed one of the biggest corruption scandals to hit Mexico’s Congress. According to mayors who have come forward in recent months, senators and congressmen routinely skim off the top of federal funds they allot to cities, money that can add up to threequarters of the budget for local jurisdictions.

The federal Attorney General’s Office announced late last month that it has been investigating the scandal known as “moches,” Mexican slang for skimming off the top, since November at the request of the congressman at the center of the accusations, Luis Alberto Villarreal.

“It’s unprecedented for something like this to come out into the open,” said Barbara Botello, mayor of the city of Leon and head of the Mexican association of mayors. “The image of these institutions is being stained, but hopefully in some way this will move us closer to more transparency.”

Over the decades, corruption scandals have tainted presidents, brought down mayors, seen generals jailed and led to charges against untold numbers of police.

Just in the last two weeks, the

Photo by Mario Armas | AP

Luis Alberto Villarreal, center, now a federal congressman, is at the center of a corruption scandal over accusations that congressmen are demanding kickbacks from city mayors in exchange for federal funding.

Mexico City leader of the country’s ruling party was accused of hiring women for sex and putting them on the party payroll, and federal officials detained Michoacan state’s second-highest-ranking political leader to investigate his possible ties to the drug cartel that has terrorized the state.

But Congress has remained largely untouched until now.

Mexicans have attributed that less to lawmakers’ honesty than the fact that, in a country where inconvenient laws are generally ignored by powerful forces, lawmakers were not considered important enough to bribe.

Now, that perception has changed, leaving Mexicans wondering if there is any institution in the country left untouched by corruption.

Although no mayor has publicly admitted to participating in the payoffs themselves, local media citing anonymous officials with knowledge of the meetings have alleged that at least eight city leaders were solicited for

bribes. Celaya Mayor Ismael Perez Ordaz didn’t use the word “moche,” but rather told his staff he needed to inflate the numbers to resolve “a political issue.”

It’s the kind of scheme associated with all aspects of Mexican life, employed by everyone from police to drug traffickers to extract unofficial fees from every day citizens. In this case, elected officials are demanding the extortions, with the implication that public funding will be cut off to cities that don’t cooperate— shocking even those most jaded who are used to paying bribes even to get utility hookups.

President Enrique Peña Nieto, in office for nearly a year and a half, has pledged that his administration will not tolerate the corrupt practices that took place at all levels of government in the past. The moches investigation is the first of his term to focus on elected officials, although most named in the scandal so far belong to the National Action Party, or PAN, the rival party to Peña

Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The PRI, which ruled uninterrupted for 71 years until losing the presidency in 2000, is considered to have written the manual on coercion and corruption.

“Corruption was the oil that lubricated all the gears of the Mexican political system for decades,” said Jose Fernandez Santillian, a political scientist at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, adding that Mexico’s 2001 transition to democracy, with a free press and largely independent judiciary, opened more opportunities for corruption to be exposed. “Scandals are a democratic reaction against corruption.”

Celaya Mayor Perez Ordaz has confirmed the authenticity of the recording. He has said he did nothing illegal, despite having been solicited for a bribe.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a series of municipal officials have told local newspapers that the much of the scheme was coordinated by Villarreal, the

PAN’s coordinator in the lower house of Congress.

Villarreal, who declined a request for an interview, has publicly denied any involvement. So far, prosecutors have not moved past the stage of asking mayors or other city officials to come forward with information. Prosecutors say they are looking at the possibility of filing charges of bribery, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. They have not said whether any mayors have provided evidence.

Two mayors told the AP that the moches scheme was common knowledge, but denied that they themselves had participated.

Botello, the head of the Mexican association of mayors, said that four or five mayors had told her about being pressured to participate in the scheme, although she denied having been approached herself, and declined to say who had been. No mayor, she said, wanted to name the legislators who had approached them to demand a kickback.

“Many are afraid of reprisals, of their federal funding going down,” she said.

Reforma and the newspaper AM reported in March that three mayors, including Javier Luevano Nuñez of Calvillo in the northcentral state of Aguascalientes, had been approached by Villarreal and asked to provide kickbacks in exchange for federal funding. The newspapers cited anonymous sources with direct knowledge of the meetings.

Luevano told the AP that he had heard of about the moches but called them “a phantom.” He said he obtained $7.6 million in federal funds this year — threequarters of the city’s 2014 budget — simply by asking Congress.

There was no other deal.

“I’ve never seen it,” he said of such bribes.

Entertainment

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2014

James Franco not nervous about debut

By MARK KENNEDY ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — James Franco insists he’s not been nervous at all about making his Broadway debut, not even before his first night in front of more than a thousand people.

“Sounds like I’m bragging. I just wasn’t,” says the actor, writer and student. “I’ve learned that if you work with people that you trust, that you depend on, then you just flow with it.”

One of those people is his director Anna D. Shapiro, a Tony Award-winner who looks over at him during a joint interview in the empty mezzanine of the Longacre Theatre with a mixture of puzzlement and respect.

“He’s not nervous. He’s not lying,” she says. “Whatever he needs to do to convince himself to do what he does, I don’t care. I like the guy who shows up every day, so I don’t care what does it.”

Whether it’s ego or confidence, Franco is just a guy who doesn’t doubt himself.

From acting in TV and films like “Pineapple Express” and “Spider-Man” to screenwriting, directing and producing, or writing a novel, being an artist and studying for postgraduate degrees, Franco jumps in.

So this matinee idol multi-tasker naturally has been eyeing the one place in show business he hasn’t really dominated — the stage. Franco has chosen to make his Times Square bow in “Of Mice and Men,” John Steinbeck’s play adapted from his own classic novel.

Franco co-stars with Chris O’Dowd as two tragic migrant workers trying to make their way through the aftermath of drought and the Depression in 1930s America.

Because O’Dowd’s Lennie is mentally handicapped, Franco’s George acts as Lennie’s

guardian. The play also features Jim Norton and Leighton Meester.

“I’ve got the best: I’ve got an awesome, classic American play. I’ve got an awesome director. I’ve got awesome co-stars. It’s not going to get better,” says Franco.

“If it fails, I’m not going to feel bad because I did everything possible. Absolutely everything possible. So it’s not on me.”

Franco in person is amiable but slightly smug, a scruffy guy who loves to talk about his creative thinking and yet looks overworked, stretched thin and sleep-deprived. He mentions that Lady Gaga recently stopped by backstage, as if such a thing weren’t even a little bit odd.

The off-putting squinty sneer he was so vilified for wearing as an Oscar host reappears at times and his

Photo by Andrew Medichini/file | AP

Actor and director James Franco stars on Broadway in “Of Mice and Men,” John Steinbeck’s play adapted from his own classic novel. outsized confidence combined with a puppy-like naivete seem a dangerous gambit in these cynical days, as his recent Instagram flirtation with a 17year-old proved.

When asked the exact moment when he knew he could accomplish the rare task of impressing critics

and the public on his debut, he looks slightly confused. The interesting answer comes from his director: “He’s never not thought that.”

Franco says he’d been thinking about Broadway five years ago when the idea of teaming up with Shapiro on “Of Mice and

Men” was first discussed.

Plans fell through but the pair found a way to make it work this season.

“I’ve always been a huge theater fan,” he says. “I’d see as much theater as I can. So it’s always been a huge part of my life. It just felt like something I was always on the outside of.”

Though he’d put on plays in Los Angeles in his early 20s in 50-seat theaters, Franco had to adjust to the challenge of Broadway. He was used to letting a scene on film end with a long pause so an editor could cut around it, but here he’s learned he can’t dawdle.

Shapiro also had to retrain Franco, who she calls “an eternal student.” He’s working toward a Ph.D. in English at Yale, following degrees from UCLA and New York University. Franco initially had a student’s detachment to the work.

“That’s not the job. The job is that you step in it,” she says. “He’s really smart and so I think whether it was conscious or not, that shifted very slowly and we moved into a different kind of partnership.”

Shapiro, who directed Tracy Letts’ “August: Osage County,” has been a Franco fan ever since she followed “Freaks and Geeks,” the TV series in which he played the off-kilter but charming Daniel Desario.

“Basically, I played her high school crush,” jokes Franco.

“You’re so sweet to say that,” she replies, laughing.

In fact, Shapiro needed someone smart, with natural charisma and a certain maleness to play George in the Steinbeck play. He also needed to be very still.

“I thought he had those things. And I was right,” Franco said.

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2014

THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A

ROSA MARIA SALINAS

DONALD R. GARZA

Aug. 16, 1948 – April 4, 2014

Feb. 12, 1972 – April 7, 2014

Rosa Maria Salinas, 65, passed away April 4, 2014, at Doctors Hospital in Laredo.

Mrs. Salinas is preceded in death by her parents, Diego and Zoila Gonzalez.

Mrs. Salinas is survived by her husband, Francisco Salinas; sons, Francisco Jr. (Minerva) Salinas, Gilberto Salinas and Samuel (Rosario) Salinas; grandchildren, Francisco R. Salinas, Estevan Salinas, Emily Salinas and Samuel Salinas Jr.; brothers, Diego Jr. (Patricia) Gonzalez, David (Ana) Gonzalez; sisters, Esperanza (Daniel) Cavazos, Ana (Roberto) Molina and Blanca (Manuel) Ramon; and numerous other relatives and friends.

Visitation hours were held Monday, April 7, 2014, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. with a rosary at 9 a.m. The funeral procession departed at 10 a.m. for a funeral Mass at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.

Committal services followed at Zapata County Cemetery.

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

JOSE LUIS MARTINEZ Oct. 16, 1930 – April 6, 2014 Jose Luis Martinez, 83, passed away April 6, 2014, at Doctor’s Hospital of Laredo surrounded by family.

He was born on Oct. 16, 1930, in Laredo, to Eloisa and Benito Martinez.

Mr. Martinez was a lifelong resident of Zapata.

He graduated from Zapata High School in 1949. He served four years in the United States Army. During his service tour, he received the National Defense Service Medal and the Army of Occupation Medal (Germany). He was a sergeant at the time of his honorable discharge in 1954.

He dedicated 36 years of loyal service to the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, in both Webb and Zapata counties before retiring in 1992.

Mr. Martinez enjoyed fishing and hunting and he was a master gardener. But most of all, he enjoyed being of service to his family.

He is preceded in death by his loving wife, Helga Ursula Eisentrager-Martinez; his parents, Benito and Eloisa C. Martinez; brothers Juan Fernando Martinez, Benito Martinez Jr., Eloy Roel Martinez, Mauro Mario Martinez, Angel Martinez; and nephew Benito “Benny” Martinez.

He is survived by his children, Karoline M. Vela (Jaime), Jose Luis Martinez Jr. (Araceli), Daniel Martinez, Lisa Martinez and Linda Jo Huff (David).

He is also survived by his grandchildren, Jaime Vela Jr. (Adriana), Monica Vela, Araceli V. Ruiz (Rolando), Celina M. Guerra (Juan), Celisa Martinez, Ricardo Daniel Martinez, Lysandra Marie Martinez, Marah Martinez, Amanda Bianka Cervantes and Matthew Cervantes.

He is also survived by

Donald R. Garza, 42, passed away Monday, April 7, 2014, at his residence in Zapata.

Donald is preceded in death by his paternal grandfather, Daniel Garza and maternal grandfather, Eusebio Treviño Jr. Donald is survived by his sons, Derek R. Garza, Rylan D. Garza; daughter, Rieve G. Garza; parents, Ernest and Abelia Garza; brothers, Michael (Maria) Garza, Roque (Vicky) Garza; sister, Gracie (Matthew) Koenig; paternal grandmother, Juanita Garza; maternal grandmother, Ynocencia Treviño; and by numerous other relatives and friends.

Visitation hours were held Wednesday, April 9, 2014, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home.

Visitation was also held Thursday, April 10, 2014, at 9 a.m. with a 2 p.m. Mass at St. Theresa

Catholic Church in Woodsboro. Burial services followed at St. Bernard Catholic Cemetery in Woodsboro.

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

REPORT

Continued from Page 1A

what numerous news reports, human rights organizations and various governmental and non-governmental studies have suggested in the decade since the CIA’s program started to coming to light. President Barack Obama has likened the harsh interrogations to torture, but the spy agency defends its actions and says much in the Senate committee’s report is inaccurate.

The committee voted last week to declassify the summary and conclusions of the 6,600-page review and is now waiting for the Obama administration to censor material sensitive to national security.

The panel’s chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, DCalif., said an investigation into how the findings were published was underway. The two pages of findings published by McClatchy did not include the names of any U.S. government employees or terror detainees, locations of secret CIA prisons or anything else that might threaten national security. They also did not indicate how or why the committee reached its conclusions.

“If someone distributed any part of this classified report, they broke the law and should be prosecuted,” Feinstein said. “The committee is investigating this unauthorized disclosure, and I intend to refer the matter to the Department of Justice.”

James Asher, McClatchy’s Washington bureau chief, said the news service was disappointed that Feinstein might seek a Justice Department investigation of its journalism. “We believe that Americans need to know what the CIA might have done to detainees and who is responsible for any questionable practices, which is why we have vigorously covered this story,” Asher said in a statement.

SMOKING Continued from Page 1A On Feb. 26, deputies were sent to the high school and noticed that they had bloodshot eyes and smelled

three great-grandchildren, Helga Elise Vela, Sofia Vela and Karolina Marissa Ruiz.

Survivors also include siblings Carlos Martinez (Maria Elena), Gilberto Martinez (Joyce), Mercedes Gonzalez (Alfredo), and numerous nieces and nephews.

During his final four years, Mr. Martinez survived multiple strokes and heart attacks. He always faced rehabilitation with courage and determination, and through it all remained a loving, dedicated father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

Visitation hours were held Monday, April 7, 2014, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home.

The funeral procession departed Tuesday, April 8, 2014, at 10 a.m. for a 10:30 a.m. funeral Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. Committal services followed at Zapata County Cemetery, including full Military Honors by the American Legion Post 486 Color Guard.

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

of smoked marijuana. The students also admitted to the assistant principal that they had been smoking

marijuana. There’s no indication that they were smoking at school.

The trio is out of custody.

OIL SPILL Continued from Page 1A lated to the spill.

“We know from ... research that’s been done on other oil spills, that people one to two years after ... had respiratory symptoms and changes in their lung function, and then after a couple of years people start to return to normal,” said Dr. Dale Sandler, who heads the study overseen by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences, an arm of the National Institutes of Health.

“What nobody’s ever done is ask the question: Well, after five years or 10 years are people more likely to develop heart disease, or are they more likely to get cancer?” Sandler said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And I’m sure that’s what people who experienced this oil spill are worried about.”

At a Friday news conference, Sandler discussed some of the study’s early findings. She said depression and anxiety are common in and around disaster sites, but there are indications that cleanup workers were more likely to suffer mild to moderate depression than others living in Gulf Coast counties and parishes where economies and livelihoods were affected by the spill.

“After we took into account where people lived and other factors, it does appear that the prevalence of depression was about 30 percent higher among those who had cleanup jobs than among those who did not,” Sandler said. “The preliminary trends were similar for anxiety.”

She cautioned that the findings were preliminary and added that it is too early to tell whether exposure to oil or chemical dispersants might account for the difference.

The study is funded by NIH, which received a $10 million award from London-based BP, part of $500 million

the oil giant has committed to spend over 10 years for environmental and health research.

Researchers compiled a list of 100,000 candidates, drawn from sources including rosters of mandatory safety classes that cleanup crews attended and from records of people who were issued badges permitting access to oiled areas.

They reached nearly 33,000 for interviews, mostly cleanup workers but also some who applied for cleanup work but were not hired. Of those interviewed, about 11,000 went through physical examinations that included blood and blood pressure tests and measurements of lung function. Water and air samples taken during the spill also will be used to attempt to pinpoint how much exposure workers may have had to toxic substances.

Sandler said Friday that about 4,000 of those who had physical exams will be invited to take part in a second round at medical facilities at one of two locations: The University of South Alabama in Mobile or LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. Meanwhile, all of the original participants will be encouraged to keep taking part in surveys in the project, which Sandler hopes will continue for at least 10 years.

In the AP interview, Sandler emphasized that making any direct correlation between health concerns and the spill could prove challenging because many of the workers held other jobs that put them in contact with oil. Some worked with boat engines, did regular hazard mediation work or worked at chemical plants. Many also are smokers.

The researchers will try to account for smoking or other factors that could ruin health, and narrow in on problems tied to spill exposure. They

plan to monitor the health of study participants for at least 10 years, maybe longer.

Fisherman Bert Ducote says he knows physical and emotional pain from having worked the cleanup. Ducote said dozens of boils have turned up on his neck, back and stomach since the spill — and he theorizes, though shared no medical records that could prove, that his problems stem from the cleanup.

Ducote said he spent months handling the boom used to corral oil. Even with protective gear and rubber boots, he said his shirt often got wet with the combination of crude oil, sea water and chemical dispersant.

Ducote, like Barisich, said he is filing a claim under the medical settlement.

“That has been a disaster in our lives,” said Ducote, from the town of Meraux, in St. Bernard Parish. “The little amount of money they’re trying to give us, it’s never going to replace our quality of life, our health.”

In response, BP points to language in U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier’s order approving the medical settlement. Barbier noted that both sides said the settlement was a fair and reasonable alternative to litigation, and that fewer than 100 of 200,000 potential class members objected.

BP also lists numerous steps it took after the disaster to protect workers’ health, including protective clothing and safety classes.

Cleanup workers who faced possible contact with oil and dispersants were “provided safety training and appropriate personal protective equipment, and were monitored by federal agencies and BP to measure potential exposure levels and help ensure compliance with established safety procedures,” BP said in an email to The Associated Press.

12A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2014

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2014

ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

Sports&Outdoors HIGH SCHOOL GOLF: ZAPATA

District champs

NCAA FOOTBALL: TEXAS TECH

Lady Hawks take title

By CLARA SANDOVAL THE ZAPATA TIMES

The Zapata golf teams are flying high after coming home with the top prize and a runner-up trophy at the District 31-3A golf tournament this weekend at the Shary Golf Course in Mission.

The Zapata girls’ golf team successfully defended its District 31-3A title winning for the third consecutive year with five players finishing in the top six in the final district standings.

The Lady Hawks beat out Port Isabel which had been nipping at their heels throughout the tournament.

"It was a close race and they were right there with us, but we were able to shake them off at the end," Zapata head coach Clyde Guerra Jr. said. "The girls did not play great but played well enough to do what they needed to do get the win."

The boys’ teams came in second in the final tally with two Zapata golfers finishing in the top six in the individual standings.

"All year long we were shooting in the 370s and 360s," Guerra said. "We lost by 20 strokes, but I am proud of the boys and what they have accomplished this season so far."

Zapata heads to the Region-IV 3A tournament on Monday and Tuesday in

See HAWKS PAGE 2B

File photo by Stephen Spillman | AP

Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury already named Davis Webb the starting quarterback for the upcoming season.

The Zapata girls’ golf team won the District 31-3A title with five players finishing in the top six of the individual standings.

Webb will start for Texas Tech Kingsbury names sophomore QB starter for upcoming season

By BETSY BLANEY ASSOCIATED PRESS

LUBBOCK, Texas — Davis Webb won’t be competing for the starting job at Texas Tech this fall.

After Webb’s standout performance and MVP award in the Red Raiders’ 37-23 Holiday Bowl win over then-No. 16 Arizona State, coach Kliff Kingsbury already knows the sophomore will be leading the offense.

It doesn’t hurt that the two quarterbacks Webb battled for the starting

spot last season have transferred. But Kingsbury said what Webb went through last season seasoned him in ways that will benefit him going forward.

It will be a different type of pressure this season. Instead of wondering if he’ll get the nod to start, Webb knows the team’s success rests on his shoulders.

“That’s where I want it to be because I feel like it’s either do or die with me, and that’s what I

See WEBB PAGE 2B

Courtesy photos

The Zapata boys’ golf team finished second in the District 31-3A tournament with two players finishing in the top six of the individual standings.

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Hernandez’ Pistorius’ story challenged associates indicted OLYMPICS: OSCAR PISTORIUS

By GERALD IMRAY AND CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

PRETORIA, South Africa — What exactly was Oscar Pistorius doing in the moments before he fatally shot his girlfriend in his home?

Was he, as the double-amputee Olympian testified Friday, hobbling fearfully on his stumps with his pistol down a passageway from his bedroom toward the bathroom after hearing a possible intruder there? Or, as the chief prosecutor contended, was he instead angrily pursuing his girlfriend in the midst of an argument?

Contradicting himself at times, Pistorius sparred with the prosecutor over the differing accounts of what happened on the night he killed Reeva Steenkamp by firing four times through the closed door of a toilet cubicle. The star athlete, who says the shooting was an accident because he mistook her for a robber, faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of premeditated murder.

“My whole being was fixated on this person that I thought was in the bathroom,” Pistorius said during the third day of his cross-examination.

He said that as he moved toward the bathroom, he screamed to his girlfriend to get down from their bed and call the police. After hearing a noise that made him think someone was opening the toilet door to attack him, Pistorius said he opened fire. Only afterward, he testified, did he realize that Steenkamp was not in the bedroom but in the toilet cubicle.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel, however, said an argument between the couple was the “only reasonable explanation” for why Pistorius, 27, shot the 29-yearold model as she stood behind the toilet door some three meters (yards) away in the pre-dawn hours of Valen-

Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace indicted in connection with killing ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Themba Hadebe | AP

Oscar Pistorius arrives at the high court Thursday in Pretoria, South Africa. Pistorius has resumed testifying at his murder trial and is being challenged by the chief prosecutor. tine’s Day last year.

Citing earlier expert testimony, Nel noted that the trajectory of the three bullets that hit the model in the hip, arm and head showed she was standing behind the door and facing it.

Steenkamp wasn’t scared of anyone “other than you,” Nel said to the ath-

lete.

Nel argued that the position of items in the bedroom also indicated Pistorius’ story was a fabrication. A duvet on the floor in police photos shows the couple were awake and ar-

See PISTORIUS PAGE 2B

FALL RIVER, Mass. — Two associates of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez were indicted Friday on murder charges in connection with the shooting death of a man last summer a mile from Hernandez’s home, prosecutors said.

A grand jury in Bristol County returned separate indictments against Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace in connection with the June 2013 killing of semiprofessional football player Odin Lloyd, District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter said.

Ortiz and Wallace, who are from Bristol, Conn., where Hernandez grew up, had been charged previously with accessory to murder after the fact and had pleaded not guilty.

They had been ordered held on $500,000 bail on the older charges.

Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to murder in the June killing of Lloyd, a 27-year-old Boston resident who was dating the

sister of Hernandez’s fiancee.

The district attorney’s office said Ortiz ORTIZ and Wallace would be arraigned in Fall River Superior Court at a date yet to be scheduled. The office said it would have no further comment on the indictments until then.

Ortiz’s lawyer, John Connors, said he had not seen the indictment but called it “totally ridiculous.” He said, as he had in the past, that Ortiz was “just along for the ride” with Hernandez, Wallace and Lloyd on the night Lloyd was killed.

Lloyd’s bullet-riddled body was found by a jogger in an industrial park in North Attleborough.

Prosecutors have said Hernandez was upset with Lloyd for talking at a nightclub to some people with whom he had problems.

A message was left for Wallace’s attorney, David Meier.

PAGE 2B

Zscores

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2014

Photo by Darron Cummings | AP

Bubba Watson shoots out of the gallery on the 18th hole during the second round of the Masters on Friday in Augusta, Ga. Watson shot a 4-under 68 and has a three-stroke lead at 7-under heading into the weekend.

Bubba Watson takes lead at the Masters

By PAUL NEWBERRY ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Bubba Watson likes the way he looks in green. He wants to get that color back in his wardrobe.

Watson surged to the Masters lead with a spree of birdies on the back side Friday, positioning him for a weekend run at his second green jacket in three years.

“I’m trying to get the jacket back,” Watson said. “I want that feeling again.”

The 2012 champion at Augusta National sparked the best run of the tournament so far when he stuck his tee shot at No. 12 within 3 feet of the cup. He tapped in for the first of five straight birdies that propelled him to a 4-under 68.

Even after making his second bogey of the tournament by missing a short putt at the 18th, Watson walked off with his second straight round in the 60s, a 36hole score of 7-under 137, and a

three-stroke lead.

“It’s not science here,” Watson said. “It’s try to hit the greens, and if you’re hitting the greens that means you’re obviously hitting your tee shots well. So that’s all I’m trying to do, just hit the greens.”

Look who’s in the mix again, too: 54-year-old Fred Couples, who posted his second straight 71.

This is the fifth straight year the 1992 winner has gone to the weekend in the top 10 — he was leading two years ago — but he’s never been able to hang on.

“I can’t panic,” said Couples, looking to become the oldest major champion in golf history.

“You’re not going to pick up two or three shots here because you want to. It’s not that kind of course. You’ve got to hang in there, expect a tough shot here and there. It’s going to be a tough day tomorrow.”

Watson opened Thursday with a 69 and went bogey-free through the first 26 holes, finally stum-

bling at the ninth. But that bogey was quickly forgotten when he put on a dazzling display of the golf that had the patrons roaring.

He took advantage of both par 5s, sandwiched around a curling, 40foot birdie putt at the 14th that prompted him to throw both arms in the air.

Watson made it five in a row at the par-3 16th, pulling off another magnificent tee shot with the 9iron, the ball rolling up about 4 feet short of the flag. He became only the fifth player in Masters history to run off nothing but birdies from the 12th to 16th holes.

A year ago, the left-hander finished in a tie for 50th last year as the defending Masters champion, his worst showing in five previous appearances. He likes being two years removed from his championship a whole lot better.

“I was in awe when I was the champion,” Watson said. “I didn’t know how to handle it the best way, so I didn’t play my best golf.”

Watson’s closest pursuer was Australia’s John Senden, who birdied 14 and 15 on his way to a 68 and 140 overall.

Defending champion Adam Scott rallied for a 72 after making the turn at 3 over, keeping him solidly in contention at the midway point with a 141. He was joined by Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn, who birdied four of the last five holes for a 68, and Sweden’s Jonas Blixt, who managed 71 despite a double-bogey at the 11th.

Five shots back, Couples was joined at 142 by Jimmy Walker, a three-time PGA Tour winner this season who shot 72, and Jim Furyk, whose 68 matched Watson, Senden and Bjorn for the best round of the day. Twenty-year-old Jordan Spieth also was at 2 under as he headed to the 18th hole in the final group of the day.

First-round leader Bill Haas, teeing off on a warm, sunny afternoon with the wind picking up and the greens getting firmer, was still at 4 under approaching

the turn. Then came a miserable stretch of holes starting at No. 9: bogey, bogey, double-bogey, bogey, bogey. He staggered to a 78 — 10 shots higher than the day before, knocking him nine shots back.

At least Haas gets to keep playing.

Three-time winner Phil Mickelson missed the Augusta cut for the first time since 1997.

Lefty had a triple-bogey at the 12th, where he knocked three straight shots in bunkers for his second triple of the tournament.

Three birdies on the back side gave him a glimmer of hope, but 73 totaled up to 149 — one shot too many.

“It’s tough to overcome those big numbers,” said Mickelson, who had plenty of big-name company beyond the cut line.

Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald, Ernie Els, Graeme McDowell, Dustin Johnson, Angel Cabrera and Charl Schwartzel were all headed home as well before the weekend.

WEBB Continued from Page 1B want,” he said. “I feel so much more confident this year than I did last year.”

Texas Tech plays its spring game Saturday in Lubbock, two weeks after Webb had four touchdowns in a scrimmage in Midland.

Webb’s confidence in large measure grew out of his four-touchdown performance against the Sun Devils. He threw for 403 yards and tied a Holiday Bowl record with four touchdown passes. He had no interceptions after throwing nine during the season.

Webb, who’ll be a sophomore in the fall, didn’t start until the sixth game, watching as walk-on freshman Baker Mayfield led the Red Raiders to five straight wins.

Webb started the next five, winning two and dropping the next three. Mayfield started and lost the next two and the Red Raiders finished 7-5 in the regular season.

“It’ll never be harder for him mentally than it was last

year with that kind of yo-yo of starting, not starting,” Kingsbury said. “That was as tough as it will ever be for him. It’s downhill from here for him as far as mentally.”

Kingsbury wants better poise from Webb, who threw for 20 touchdowns and 2,718 yards last season. He had a few plays last season where he tried to do too much, instead of throwing the ball away or protecting it better.

“He’s done a much better job this spring of doing that,” Kingsbury said.

Kingsbury says Webb’s got the makings of a top-notch quarterback who could play in the NFL. “He wants to be great,” said Kingsbury, a former quarterback for the Red Raiders. “He wants to be the best that’s ever played here. So I just remind him of that.”

Webb is the only Red Raiders quarterback on scholarship now. He went through spring workouts alongside walk-on quarterbacks Tanner Tausch and Mike Richard-

PISTORIUS Continued from Page 1B guing just before the shooting and not in bed as Pistorius has claimed, he said. Pistorius said it was one of many items apparently moved by police after the shooting.

He relentlessly attacked Pistorius’ account, asking the runner why he didn’t determine where Steenkamp was and make sure she was OK before firing, and why he approached what he thought was a danger zone in the dark if he felt vulnerable on his stumps.

Nel noted that throughout Pistorius’ version Steenkamp “never uttered a word.”

“It’s not probable. It’s not possible,” the prosecutor said, asking why Steenkamp never responded to Pistorius’ panicked shouts of an intruder when she was in the cubicle.

“I agree with Mr. Nel she would have been terrified,” Pistorius said, “but I

don’t think she would have shouted out ... In her mind I must have been retreating toward the bathroom.” Nel responded that gave Steenkamp even more reason to talk to Pistorius, who was meters away.

“She was standing behind the toilet door talking to you when you shot her,” Nel said at the end of the first week of the athlete’s testimony.

“That’s not true,” replied Pistorius.

The trial in a woodlined courtroom in the South African city of Pretoria has been closely followed around the world, which once admired Pistorius as a man who persevered despite his disability and reached the pinnacle of his career when he was allowed to run in the London Olympics in 2012.

Now, instead of signing autographs in packed stadiums, the multiple Paralympic champion is a sol-

itary figure in the witness box. He stumbled in some of his testimony Friday, prompting the prosecutor to pounce on what he called inconsistencies.

“I am tired. It’s not going to change,” Pistorius said.

“You’re trying to cover up for lies,” Nel said, “and I’m not convinced.”

Judge Thokozile Masipa then asked Pistorius if he was too tired to continue testifying, saying: “You can be at a disadvantage when you’re in that box.”

Pistorius kept going.

Later, Masipa tried to rein in the prosecutor, telling him: “Mind your language. We don’t call a witness a liar, not while he’s in the witness box.”

The prosecutor has seized on virtually every opportunity to challenge the star athlete’s credibility, asserting that he had a string of unlikely excuses for why he wasn’t to blame in the gun charges

son. Webb has gained weight since last season, which should help his durability. He wants to be close to 220 pounds by August workouts, he said.

Kingsbury thinks incoming freshman Pat Mahomes will likely be Webb’s backup. The son of a former pro baseball player, Mahomes threw for 4,619 yards with 50 touchdowns his senior year at Whitehouse in East Texas. He also ran for 15 touchdowns. In December, he was named the Texas Associated Press Sports Editors football player of the year.

Before the Holiday Bowl and on the same day he was named the Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year, Mayfield told Kingsbury he was leaving the program. He transferred to Oklahoma, where he’ll have to sit out a year. Michael Brewer, the presumptive starter before last season began and before he re-injured his back, transferred to Virginia Tech.

HAWKS Continued from Page 1B he faces on top of murder.

In casting doubt on the Olympian’s honesty, Nel is pushing the prosecution’s argument that Pistorius is also lying that he killed Steenkamp by mistake.

On Friday, Nel argued that Pistorius lied about an incident years ago — when he says someone shot at him from another car on a highway — to build a backstory that he had a long-held fear of being attacked.

Pistorius said he saw a “muzzle flash” and heard “a banging noise” as a black Mercedes drove past him, and he turned off the highway and went to a restaurant parking lot and called someone to pick him up. Nel asked for the identity of the caller; Pistorius replied that he couldn’t remember.

Pistorius is not allowed to consult with his lawyers during the cross-examination, which resumes Monday.

Corpus Christi at the Corpus Beach golf course and Gabe Lozano golf course.

The Lady Hawks were led by the swing of Andrea Reyes who was crowned the District 31-3A individual girls’ champion for 2014.

Following closely behind was senior Leanna Saenz who came in second to start putting some distance from the rest of the field.

"Andrea is very deserving of the victory and has been playing well all season long," Guerra said.

"Throughout the season Andrea has finished in first place four times and has just been playing ahead of everyone else so a lot of credit goes to her work ethic that makes the golf course part of her life everyday."

Coming in fifth place was Kaity Ramirez and Krysta Lozano placed sixth to round out Zapata’s top five players at the tournament.

On the boys’ side, the

Hawks came in second place with sophomore Clyde Guerra III a fourth place medalist for Zapata and Rodrigo Saldivar finishing in sixth.

Roma Middle School Tournament The future Zapata golf teams are already starting early in their golf careers as the Merlins headed out to the Roma Middle School golf tournament.

The boys’ and girls’ middle school golf teams took home the team titles. The Merlins were led by team members Ferny Herrera, Ryan King, EJ Garcia and Franco Arce.

On the girls’ side, Daniella Hernandez, Idalinda Guerra, Andrea Nunez and Claudia Hinojosa led the way.

The Merlins continue with their season on Thursday at the Zapata Middle School Invitational.

Clara Sandoval can be reached at sandoval.clara@gmail.com

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2014

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

HINTS | BY HELOISE CLARIFYING A PET REQUEST Dear Heloise: I enjoy reading your column in The Birmingham (Ala.) News. “Heartbroken in Texas” broke my heart with her request that her older PETS be euthanized after her death. While I don’t want to see her pets placed in a shelter to live out their lives, arranging for their comfort and care with other family members or friends is preferable to ending what could be many more quality, happy years for those pets. — Animal Lover in Alabama As a human who has been “owned” by many, many animals, birds, ferrets, dogs and a cat or two, I understand your concern. But, in my reader’s eyes, I don’t think she meant that they should be put down right away. I think she just meant that when and if something happened to her, her pets would be taken care of.

This is especially true about many pets, like par-

rots that can live 50 years or more and house cats that can have a long and happy life. — Heloise P.S.: “Woof, woof ” from our new dog, Chammy, whom we found at the Humane Society here in San Antonio. She is sweet and mischievous, but a real lovebug to cuddle with while watching TV or reading a book.

HIDE THE SMELL Dear Heloise: Several people I know are very sensitive to the odors from the perfume samples we get in magazines and newspapers. Rather than throw them away, I put them in plastic zippered bags, then use them to put in the trash can to cover over the bad smells. — Vivian J., Lafayette, La. You can request a magazine without the scented inserts. Most publishers offer this option, so look in the magazine or go online to find the email address or phone number for customer service. — Heloise

DENNIS THE MENACE

FAMILY CIRCUS

PEANUTS

GARFIELD

DAILY CRYPTOQUOTES — Here’s how to work it:

DILBERT

Sports

4B THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2014

Browns match Jaguars offer for Mack

By TOM WITHERS ASSOCIATED PRESS

CLEVELAND — Alex Mack was as good as gone. The Browns pulled back their Pro Bowl center in a snap.

Acting quickly after Jacksonville signed Mack to a five-year, $42 million offer sheet, Cleveland wasted little time and matched the deal for Mack, who will remain with the Browns for at least two more years.

The 28-year-old Mack will receive $26 million guaranteed in the deal, which he can void after two seasons. Also, the Browns are not allowed to tag or trade him. That’s the steep price they’ll pay for allowing another team to do their negotiating, and for letting one of their core players test the freeagent market.

“We have talked about keeping our own players and this is a positive for us,” general manager Ray Farmer said in a release. “Alex is a quality person and player that truly brings to life what playing like a Brown means. The ending is positive for everyone. Keeping our young, good nucleus of players is vital for clubs and specifically the Browns, and therefore this is a good step.”

Farmer was able to be upbeat at the conclusion of a strange saga that began when the club placed a $10 million transition tag on Mack at the outset of free agency. If they had lost Mack, it would have been yet another blunder by the Browns, who have lost at least 11 games in

File photo by David Richard | AP

The Cleveland Browns chose Friday to match the offer sheet All-Pro center Alex Mack signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier in the day.. each of the past six seasons and are on their third head coach in three years.

They took a major risk in first letting Mack explore what his professional life could be like outside Cleveland. Then the Browns were in danger of losing him by permitting the Jaguars to structure a contract Cleveland might not be able to equal.

Fortunately for the Browns, they have salary-cap space and owner Jimmy Haslam had

stated several times he was committed to keeping Mack, who has not missed a single snap in five seasons with Cleveland.

“I think we’ve made it very clear that he’s the kind of person, the kind of player we want in our organization,” Haslam said earlier this week.

But for a few hours Friday, Mack appeared to be headed for Florida and a fresh start before the Browns locked him up.

Mack has kept a low profile

during free agency. The brief tug-of-war between the Browns and Jaguars, two teams who seemingly should have higher priorities than a center. A California graduate in legal studies, Mack, who is working toward a master’s degree, said at the end of last season he liked playing in Cleveland. However, his flirtation with the Jaguars has damaged his image with some Browns fans.

It’s tough to fault him for testing free agency. After all, the

Logano reaching expectations

By PETE IACOBELLI ASSOCIATED PRESS

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Joey Logano says his “sliced bread syndrome” is over.

The 23-year-old Logano was dubbed the greatest thing since sliced bread as an up-and-coming young racer by NASCAR great Mark Martin. Those were big words to live up to and Logano said he was definitely too young to match that moniker when he first raced in Sprint Cup in 2008.

“Did I start too soon? No doubt I did,” Logano said Friday at Darlington Raceway, site of Saturday night’s Southern 500. “But you know, it’s experience that I value a lot right now.”

Logano laughed when asked if “sliced bread syndrome” was finished.

“What is that?” he said with a grin.

Logano acknowledged there were plenty of bumps along the road from phenom to Sprint Cup title contender. He won just twice in 145 starts for Joe Gibbs Racing from 20082012. Logano moved to Roger Penske’s No. 22 car last season and made the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship for the first time

Browns have gone just 23-57 since he joined them in 2009, and Mike Pettine will be Mack’s fourth head coach in six years.

Mack has shown plenty of loyalty toward Cleveland. He’s been on the field for 4,998 consecutive plays with the Browns, who drafted him with the No. 21 overall pick in 2009. In his third season, Mack played despite a severe attack of appendicitis that landed him in surgery the following day. He has developed into one of the game’s top centers, lauded for his blocking ability, leadership and helping Cleveland’s quarterbacks read defenses.

With Mack in the middle and Pro Bowl tackle Joe Thomas on the left side, the Browns have one of the AFC’s top offensive lines. They didn’t want to weaken one of their biggest strengths and will have Mack around to snap the ball to their quarterback for at least two more seasons.

Now they go back to working on who will line up behind him.

Bengals sign Montgomery CINCINNATI — The Bengals added to their defensive line depth on Friday by signing free agent Sam Montgomery, an end who was Houston’s third-round pick last year.

Montgomery was listed as a linebacker by the Texans. He was inactive for the first seven games and was waived on Oct. 22. Oakland signed him to the practice squad in December.

Rio mayor warns strikers

By STEPHEN WADE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Larry Papke | AP

Joey Logano is looking to sustain his success after his victory at Texas Motor Speedway. in his career. He is all but locked into this year’s 16team playoff with his victory at Texas Motor Speedway.

“I feel like it’s taken me quite a number of years to figure out what I need to do in this sport and how to race against these guys,” Logano said.

Logano appears to have plenty figured out. He had a more than 2-second lead late at Texas when a late caution forced a greenwhite-checker finish. Jeff Gordon took just two tires and came out of the pits first. But Logano and his

four fresh tires quickly overtook Gordon on the restart and pulled away for victory.

Logano feels like his confidence in Sprint Cup is improving to what he feels racing in Nationwide. He became the series’ youngest winner with his 2008 victory and added 20 more career wins in NASCAR’s Triple-A circuit, a resume that gives him an edge whenever he lines up in a Nationwide event.

The win, the fourth Sprint Cup victory of Logano’s career, made him the seventh different winner in

as many races this season.

It also likely locked him into NASCAR’s new 16-team playoff format this season.

“Things are going good right now, so all that hard work’s paying off,” Logano said.

Logano said the victory took some of the pressure off himself and the team, giving them the chance to experiment at testing sessions on racetracks that make up the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.

“We can get our guns loaded for when the chase starts,” he said.

RIO DE JANEIRO — More than 2,000 workers at Rio de Janeiro’s 2016 Olympic venues remained on strike Friday, and the city’s mayor warned that the workers will have to make up for lost time.

The consortium Rio Mais, which is building venues at the Olympic Park, confirmed the continuing work stoppage.

The strike began April 3 and is one of many delays plaguing South America’s first Olympics.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes says it’s the responsibility of Rio Mais to resolve the strike.

“The consortium is hired and paid for this. It has a deadline to deliver,” Paes said. “Therefore, this is a relationship between them and their employees.

It’s a discussion between them. I’m not going to get into this. Afterward they will have to recover this week, these lost days.”

Workers are defying the order of a regional labor court, which ruled Wednesday they should re-

turn. The court said a settlement should be negotiated in the next 30 days. The dispute involves wages and working conditions.

“Any strike is worrying,” Paes added. “Whenever you are doing a job and delivering work, you don’t want a strike.”

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said Thursday he was sending Gilbert Felli, the IOC’s executive director of the Olympic Games, to Rio several months earlier than scheduled to deal with construction problems and the political paralysis that are putting some sports venues at risk.

The IOC is also sending several task forces to Rio, hiring a local project manager to oversee construction and urging Brazil to set up a special high-level decision-making body for the games. Delays in Rio are being compared to holdups slowingBrazil’s upcoming World Cup preparations, with three of 12 stadiums still under construction and numerous related building projects cancelled or postponed.

NASCAR owner Haas granted F1 license

By PETE IACOBELLI ASSOCIATED PRESS

DARLINGTON, S.C. — NASCAR owner Gene Haas said Friday he has been granted a license from Formula One’s governing body to start a U.S.-based entry in the global series, perhaps as early as next season.

Haas received documents from the FIA on Thursday and the organization confirmed the application had been approved.

“If he wants, he can join next season, it’s up to him,” FIA spokesman Matteo Bonciani said.

The last attempt for an American Formula One team came in 2010, but the entry lacked funding and development to join.

Money is not expected to be a problem for the deep-pocketed Haas, owner of CNC machine manufacturer Haas Automation and the Windshear wind tunnel in North Carolina.

Haas co-owns a NASCAR team with Tony Stewart that fields drivers Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Danica Patrick and new addition Kurt Busch. Haas pays for Busch himself.

“Obviously, we’re extremely pleased to have been granted a Formula One license by the FIA. It’s an exciting time for me, Haas

File photo by Chuck Burton | AP

NASCAR team owner Gene Haas, left, has been granted a license from Formula One’s governing body to start a U.S.-based entry in the global series.

Automation and anyone who wanted to see an American team return to Formula One,” Haas said in a statement.

Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone said at last weekend’s Bahrain Gran Prix that the U.S.backed team led by Haas would likely join the series next season.

Now it’s official.

“Now, the really hard work begins. It’s a challenge we embrace as we work to put cars on the grid,” Haas said.

Haas’ team would be America’s first F1 entrant since Penske

Racing competed from a base in England from 1974 to 1978. And it would be the first U.S.-based F1 team since Mario Andretti raced for Parnelli Jones Racing from 1974-76. The last American team competing in F1 was run by Carl Haas (no relation to Gene) and Teddy Mayer in 1985-86.

At the IndyCar race in Long Beach, Calif., drivers wondered if a U.S.-based team would actually come to fruition.

“There’s not a great track record so far, and those are the data points we have to go off of,”

said James Hinchcliffe. But his teammate believed Haas might be able to pull it off.

“With Gene Haas buying the team, I’d say that’s the likeliest chance of it finally happening,” said Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Asked if there’d be any interest in the paddock for a shot to drive for Haas in Formula One, the normally reserved Carlos Munoz immediately perked up.

“I would,” the Colombian said.

“I’d love to do it.”

Haas founded his NASCAR team based in Kannapolis, N.C.,

in 2002. Seven years later, he brought Stewart aboard in a coowner role to bring legitimacy to the team and help get the cars to Victory Lane. Stewart has delivered.

Haas also operates the Windshear, one of the world’s most sophisticated wind tunnels for the testing of car aerodynamics, which would aid any new F1 entry. He said Haas Automation, one of the largest machine tool builders in the world, currently does $1 billion in annual sales, and he believes entering Formula One could help him double that number.

“It’s not that we’re trying to individually sell machines. We’re trying to make people aware of Haas Automation as a company,” he said.

He added: “We’re just trying to bring our awareness up and Formula One is even more important because half our sales are outside the country. So we think Formula One would be a really great way of bringing us awareness and increasing our sales.”

His team would be based in North Carolina, next to the existing NASCAR shop.

“We want to be an American team. We think that has the most sizzle to it,” Haas said in January.