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TEXAS CAPITOL
NORTH TEXAS
New border bill Senate measure differs on National Guard presence By JULIÁN AGUILAR TEXAS TRIBUNE
The Texas Senate on Monday passed its own sweeping border security bill, choosing to send its own version to the House rather than taking up the House’s measure, which the lower chamber passed last month. Senate Bill 3 by state Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, is the upper chamber’s companion legislation for House Bill 11 by state Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton. Both measures would beef up the number of Texas Department of Public Safety officers on the border; create a Rio Grande Valley intelligence center to analyze border crime information; establish a team of retired DPS officers to assist with
Marjorie Kamys Cotera | Texas Tribune
Sen. Brian Birdwell R-Granbury listens during debate of his campus carry bill SB 11 on March 18. background investigations and sex offender compliance; and increase penalties for human smuggling.
But the Senate’s bill would keep the Texas Army National Guard on the border until the DPS is considered to be fully
staffed in the region. "Now that the Texas Senate has overwhelmingly passed its state budget, funding border security at historic levels [$811 million], it was the appropriate time to pass SB 3," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement. The Senate approved SB 3 in a 26-4 vote, with Sens. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston; José Rodríguez, D-El Paso; Rodney Ellis, D-Houston; and José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, voting in opposition. The bill now goes to the House for consideration. "I’m extremely proud of the bipartisan support for SB 3, which will help the Department of Public Safety sustain and appropriately expand their successful efforts to tackle these problems statewide,"
See BILL PAGE 11A
Photo by Hillsman Stuart Jackson/SMU | AP
Remi Oldham, an SMU geophysics graduate student, runs a seismometer in Willow Park, Texas.
Cause of quakes studied By JIM MALEWITZ TEXAS TRIBUNE
ZAPATA COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
FISHING TOURNAMENT
The Zapata Times file
In this 2011 file photo, anglers prepare to check in for a fishing tournament at Falcon Lake. The Skeeter Bass Champs Fishing Tournament is scheduled to take place this Saturday. Morning take-off is at 6:50 a.m. at the Zapata County Public Boat Ramp and weigh-in is at 3 p.m.
Gas industry activity “most likely” triggered a series of earthquakes that shook two North Texas towns from late 2013 through early 2014, new peer-reviewed research shows. More than two-dozen small earthquakes during that period rattled residents near Reno and Azle, towns atop the gas-rich Barnett Shale, and put pressure on Texas oil and gas regulators to address concerns about man-made temblors. A combination of industry activities likely caused the phenomenon, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. More specifically, according to the research, operators’ withdrawal of brine – naturally salty water removed during oil and gas drilling – and the high-pressure injection of huge volumes of wastewater from gas wells were to blame. Mapping two intersecting faults in the area, scientists from Southern Methodist University, the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Texas at Austin found that the interplay of those gas activities likely altered fluid pressure underground, unleashing the quakes. “What we refer to as induced seismicity – earthquakes caused by something other than strictly natural forces – is often associated with subsurface pressure changes,” Heather DeShon, associate professor of geophysics at SMU, said in a statement. “We can rule out stress changes induced by local water table changes. While some uncertainties remain, it is unlikely that natural increases to tectonic stresses led to these events.” State Seismologist Craig Pearson, hired by the Texas Railroad Commission last year in response to the wave of quakes, told the researchers in a letter Tuesday that the research “raises interesting points along with many questions” and asked them for a briefing. “The commission takes very seriously
See QUAKES PAGE 11A
MEXICO
Police capture leader of Juárez Cartel By ELISABETH MALKIN NEW YORK TIMES
MEXICO CITY — Mexican officials said Sunday that they had captured a leader of the Juárez Cartel, Jesús Salas Aguayo, the man in charge of the gang’s operations in Ciudad Juárez, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, during a convulsion of violence that made the city one of the world’s most murderous. Salas, 38, was arrested Friday in the town of Villa Ahumada, about 80 miles south of the Texas border, Mexico’s national security
commissioner told reporters Sunday. Salas took over the cartel’s leadership this year after the arrests of its boss, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, last October and his replacement, David Aaron Espinoza Haro, in January, the commissioner said. The arrest occurred the same day that security forces captured the leader of the Gulf Cartel, José Tiburcio Hernández Fuentes, in the city of Reynosa. That arrest set off hours of street fighting Friday, as about 60 of Hernández’s gunmen seized buses and
set fire to them to block roads and shot at government buildings in a failed effort to prevent his transfer to Mexico City, said the security commissioner, Monte Alejandro Rubido, on Saturday. Both the Juárez and Gulf cartels have lost much of the influence they once exercised over drug trafficking along the Texas border, under the combined pressure of arrests and battles against rival gangs. President Enrique Peña Nieto has continued the policy of his predecessor in targeting kingpins. The
government’s success leaves only a couple of the top leaders of the Sinaloa drug organization at large. Many of the other organizations have splintered into smaller groups with shifting alliances. "The fracturing of Mexico’s traditional organizations" has become "a basic fact of Mexico’s security climate, and there is no reason to expect the phenomenon to slow," Patrick Corcoran, an analyst for the research group Insight Crime, wrote last week. But he warned that in such an environment, "tar-
geting the biggest bad guy is of limited value from the standpoint of altering the reality on the ground." While violence has fallen in several areas of Mexico, particularly Ciudad Juárez, other areas remain in the grip of these battling criminal gangs, including much of the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, where Reynosa is. New gangs have emerged in the last couple of years and rapidly gained strength. One of the most dangerous is the Jalisco Cartel — New Generation, which officials say am-
bushed a Jalisco state police convoy on April 6 and killed 15 agents. Salas, who is on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Most Wanted list, is suspected in the 2009 killing of a protected witness in El Paso, Texas. Salas first came to the attention of Mexican authorities in 2008, Rubido said, and he rose quickly in the cartel’s ranks. He is suspected in a 2010 car bombing there that killed two federal police agents and a 2012 bar shooting that killed 15 people.
PAGE 2A
Zin brief CALENDAR
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015
AROUND TEXAS
TODAY IN HISTORY
Wednesday, April 22
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Volunteer Services Council for Border Region Behavioral Health Center’s 23rd Annual Administrative Professional day Luncheon & Fashion Show featuring scenes from Casablanca and other classic films at the Laredo Country Club from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Reservations: Laura Kim via email at blaurak@borderregion.org or 794-3130. Used book sale, First United Methodist Church, 10 a.m. to noon. Registration for G-Force Summer Reading Camp & Vacation Bible School at First United Methodist Church from June 15 – 19 from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., for children ages 6 – 12. Applications available at the church, 1220 McClelland Ave. Registration is $5 per child. Contact Mary Webber at 7221674.
Today is Wednesday, April 22, the 112th day of 2015. There are 253 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On April 22, 1915, the first full-scale use of deadly chemicals in warfare took place as German forces unleashed chlorine gas against Allied troops at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres (EE’-preh) in Belgium during World War I; thousands of soldiers are believed to have died. On this date: In 1864, Congress authorized the use of the phrase “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins. In 1889, the Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon as thousands of homesteaders staked claims. In 1952, an atomic test in Nevada became the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television as a 31-kiloton bomb was dropped from a B-50 Superfortress. In 1954, the publicly televised sessions of the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings began. In 1970, millions of Americans concerned about the environment observed the first “Earth Day.” In 1983, the West German news magazine Stern announced the discovery of 60 volumes of personal diaries purportedly written by Adolf Hitler; however, the diaries turned out to be a hoax. In 1994, Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, died at a New York hospital four days after suffering a stroke; he was 81. In 2000, in a dramatic predawn raid, armed immigration agents seized Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy at the center of a custody dispute, from his relatives’ home in Miami; Elian was reunited with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington. Broadway producer Alexander Cohen died in New York at age 79. Ten years ago: Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom outside Washington D.C. to conspiring with the September 11 hijackers to kill Americans. (Moussaoui is serving a life prison sentence.) Five years ago: The Deepwater Horizon oil platform, operated by BP, sank into the Gulf of Mexico two days after a massive explosion that killed 11 workers. One year ago: In a blow to affirmative action, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld, 6-2, a voter-approved change to the Michigan Constitution forbidding the state’s public colleges to take race into account in admissions. Today’s Birthdays: Actor George Cole is 90. Actress Estelle Harris is 87. Singer Glen Campbell is 79. Actor Jack Nicholson is 78. Author Janet Evanovich is 72. Country singer Cleve Francis is 70. Movie director John Waters is 69. Singer Peter Frampton is 65. Comedian Byron Allen is 54. Actor Chris Makepeace is 51. Actress Sheryl Lee is 48. Actress-talk show host Sherri Shepherd is 48. Country singer Kellie Coffey is 44. Actor Eric Mabius is 44. Rock musician Shavo Odadjian (System of a Down) is 41. Actress Cassidy Freeman is 33. Actress Michelle Ryan is 31. Actress Amber Heard is 29. Thought for Today: “What’s vice today may be virtue, tomorrow.” — Henry Fielding, English novelist (born this date in 1707, died in 1754).
Thursday, April 23 Ivan Pierre Aguirre | Texas Tribune
The Elysian Social Club will be hosting their regular monthly meeting at 6:30 p.m. at La Carreta Restaurant. Contact Herlinda S. Nieto at 285 -3126 for more information.
Livestock from Licon Dairy are shown outside of Fort Hancock, Texas in this Feb. 19, 2013 file photo. House Bill 91 by state Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Canton, would allow licensed farmers to sell raw milk at farmers’ markers and through direct delivery to consumers.
Friday, April 24
Access to raw milk eyed
Relay for Life of Webb County. 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. United Independent School District Student Activity Complex. Contact Laura Nanez at 286-6955 or Diana Juarez at 319-3100, or visit www.relayfor life.org/webbtx.
Saturday, April 25 Mosque open house from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Islamic Center of Laredo, 604 Amistad. Contact Zubair Ali Raja at zubairraja@dusty.tamiu.edu .
Tuesday, April 28 Friends of ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata 5th Annual Bowl-a-thon, 5:30 p.m. Jett Bowl North. Pre-registration for a five-player team is $125. Pre-registration ends April 20; $135 after April 20. Funds go toward the Jaime J. Zapata Scholarships. Email entry forms at gregorysmartstart@live.com Contact Rosy Gregory at 744-7505 or 791-8759.
Wednesday, April 29
By EVA HERSHAW TEXAS TRIBUNE
A lawmaker’s push to increase Texans’ access to raw milk stirred controversy on Tuesday, as dairy farmers, doctors, and consumer advocates gathered at the Capitol to debate the merits of unpasteurized milk. House Bill 91 by state Rep. Dan Flynn, RCanton, would allow licensed farmers to sell raw milk at farmers’ markers and through direct delivery to consumers. The proposed legislation would not allow the sale of raw milk in supermarkets. While raw milk is currently legal in Texas, it can only be sold at farms. Local farm advocates and Republican lawmakers have teamed up to push for raw milk, underscoring the health benefits of unprocessed dairy products while lobbying for increased market access for small dairy farms across the state. Opponents of
the bill, including pediatricians, worry that deregulating unpasteurized milk in Texas could set a dangerous precedent and lead to more food-borne illnesses. "Any opposition to this bill is based upon general fears that have no basis in fact," said Flynn, speaking to the House Committee on Public Health. The bill would remove unnecessary economic barriers for farmers operating across state, he said, adding that this was particularly important for his constituents in Hopkins County, which has officially been declared the the dairy capital of Texas. Currently, the sale of raw or unpasteurized milk is legal in at least 30 states, including Texas, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The organization has joined and the Food and Drug Association in calling for a ban on the sale of raw or unpasteurized milk products.
Used book sale, First United Methodist Church, 10 a.m. to noon.
Thursday, April 30 Spanish Book Club from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Laredo Public Library on Calton. Call Sylvia Reash at 763-1810. Villa San Agustin de Laredo Genealogical Society dance from 3 to 5 p.m. at the St. John Newmann Catholic Church Hall. Call Sanjuanita Martinez-Hunter at 722-3497.
Friday, May 1 12th Annual Mental Health & Substance Abuse Awareness Symposium at the UTHSC- Laredo Regional Campus. For more information contact Jaime Arizpe, Laredo – Zapata Border Specialist, at 794-6320.
Saturday, May 2 Operation Feed the Homeless. 2 p.m. at Jarvis Plaza. Make a donation or volunteer your time. On Facebook: Operation Feed the Homeless.
Sunday, May 3
Plan will let students bypass test rules
Gunfire at apartment complex leaves 2 dead
2 Mesquite police officers rescue driver from fire
AUSTIN — Texas lawmakers could let thousands of Texas high school students graduate this year even if they fail some of the standardized tests normally required for a diploma. Under the plan by Republican state Sen. Kel Seliger, the state would offer an alternative graduation plan to about 28,000 seniors who failed to pass one of five required statewide exams. The bill allows students to fail two exams.
KILLEEN — Police say gunfire at a Central Texas apartment complex has left two people dead and three wounded. Killeen police spokeswoman Ofelia Miramontez says the shootings happened before dawn Tuesday at the Village West Apartments. She says two women were killed, while two men and another woman were wounded.
MESQUITE — Two Dallas-area police officers have saved an unconscious man trapped in a burning SUV in a dramatic rescue captured on patrol car video. Mesquite police Officers Ryan Nielson and Autumn Soto are being praised for the rescue of 25year-old Hector Valles. Relatives say Valles was taken to a hospital, for treatment of burns and broken bones.
Pregnant woman dies after run over, baby saved
Runaway tortoise found wandering Dallas
HOUSTON — Houston police say a pregnant woman has died after being run over by her husband’s truck but doctors saved her nearly full-term baby. No charges were filed over the accident. The baby was delivered at 36 weeks and was hospitalized in stable condition. Police say the couple apparently argued over repairs for her car.
DALLAS — A giant Sulcata tortoise found wandering the streets of Dallas this weekend has been returned to his owner. The Dallas Morning News reports the 27-year-old runaway turtle, named Gordo by his rescuers, was spotted Sunday night roaming the city. He was safely returned to his owner Monday. — Compiled from AP reports
Man gets 7 years in drug case, overdose death BEAUMONT — An East Texas man must serve more than seven years in federal prison in a drug case linked to a missing person whose body turned up in some woods. Shane Dwayne Hadnot of Jasper was sentenced Tuesday in Beaumont. Hadnot in December pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
Holy Redeemer Church annual Jamaica. Food, games and silent auction. Contact Amparo Ugarte for more information at 286-0862.
Tuesday, May 5 “Cinco de Mayo” holiday fundraiser for the South Texas Food Bank at Hal’s Landing , 6510 Arena Blvd. 6 p.m. to 11. Ross and Friends on the main stage and five other bands on the patio and arcade: JoAnna and The Reminiscence, Jolly Ranchers, Expansivo, La Mission Vallenata and La Autentica Sonora.Admission $10. Tickets at the door or from Salo Otero, 324-2432.
Wednesday, May 6 Used book sale, First United Methodist Church, 10 a.m. to noon.
Thursday, May 7 Elysian Social Club will be hosting their regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Contact 956 285-3126, Herlinda NietoDubuisson.
Thursday, May 21 Elysian Social Club will be hosting their regular meeting on Thursday, May 21 at 6:30 p.m.
AROUND THE NATION Hubble Space Telescope marking 25th anniversary CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — One of NASA’s crowning glories, the Hubble Space Telescope, marks its 25th anniversary this week. With 1 million-plus observations, including those of some of the farthest and oldest galaxies ever beheld by humanity, no man-made satellite has touched as many minds or hearts as Hubble. NASA is celebrating Friday’s anniversary with ceremonies this week at the Smithsonian Institution and Newseum in Washington.
Woman pleads guilty to running over husband PHOENIX — An Arizona woman accused of running over her husband with an SUV because he didn’t vote in the 2012 presidential election has pleaded
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This image made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 6543, the Cat’s Eye Nebula. The Hubble Space Telescope, one of NASA’S crowning glories, marks its 25th anniversary on Friday. guilty to two counts of aggravated assault. Authorities say Holly Nicole Solomon of Mesa was upset about President Barack Obama’s re-election and began arguing with her husband when she found out that he didn’t vote.
Her husband suffered a fractured pelvis. He told investigators Solomon believed their family was going to face hardship. Solomon told police she was trying to scare her husband by stopping the vehicle close to him. — Compiled from AP reports
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State
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A
Blue Bell still trying to pinpoint Upcoming listeria cause, recalls all ice cream events
Workforce Solutions of South Texas presents its Spring Job Fair at the Laredo Civic Center today. The fair will take place from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. at 2400 San Bernardo in Laredo. For more information, contact Frank Martinez at 794-6514 or ask for any Business Solutions representative at 794-6500.
By JUAN A. LOZANO ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON — A massive recall has brought more attention and put more pressure on a century-old Texas ice cream company that has been searching to discover how its products became linked to a deadly string of listeria cases. Texas-based Blue Bell Creameries said Tuesday, a day after recalling all its products, that it is getting closer to pinpointing the cause of the contamination. Amid those efforts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that the number of illnesses linked to the company’s products has increased to 10. “As each day passes, we are getting closer and closer to figuring out how this listeria was introduced into our facilities. ... It’s a matter of doing the work and not making excuses,” said Blue Bell spokesman Joe Robertson. He said consumers “are our No. 1 concern.” The company said a team of microbiologists it hired is working with federal officials at its four facilities in Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama to identify the cause of the listeria. Blue Bell is also expanding its cleaning and sanitization system, beefing up its employee training, expanding its swabbing system by 800 percent to include more surfaces and is sending daily samples to a microbiology laboratory for testing. Blue Bell, which has been in business for 108 years, also said that under a new policy, it will test all products produced at its facilities before sending them out to retailers. Listeria primarily affects pregnant women and their newborns, older adults and people with immune systems weakened by cancer, cancer treatments, or other serious conditions. Two more illnesses have now been confirmed in Oklahoma and Arizona. The CDC had previously reported eight illnesses in Kansas and Texas, including three deaths in Kansas
Mental Health Symposium
Photo by Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle | AP
Brett Smith, owner of Scoops Ice Cream, looks over the empty ice cream case on Tuesday, in Brenham, Texas. In compliance with the Blue Bell Ice Cream recall, Smith pulled all ice cream from his freezers. linked to ice cream contaminated with listeria. Those sickened fell ill between January 2010 and January 2015. Dr. Robert Tauxe of the CDC said the cause of an outbreak is almost always dirty equipment. Listeria occurs naturally in soil and water, and it could be tracked into a plant on an employee’s shoes, introduced through animal feces or spread by employees not washing their hands. It can grow at room temperature or in cold temperatures. It can survive forever if it’s not cleaned up. Tauxe said this outbreak is unusual because it’s lasted so long and because it’s in ice cream, which hasn’t usually been associated with listeria. The pathogen is more commonly found in processed meats, unpasteurized cheeses and unpasteurized milk. It has also been found in fruit in recent years — listeria in cantaloupes was linked to 30 deaths in a 2011 outbreak. More recently, Sabra Dipping Co. announced a recall of 30,000 cases of its Classic Hummus, also due to possi-
ble listeria contamination. No illnesses have been linked to that recall. Blue Bell said its recall, involving about 8 million gallons of ice cream products, will take two to three weeks to complete and that it will be at least that long before products are back in stores. The recall includes ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbet and frozen snacks distributed in 23 states and abroad. The company had 6.4 percent of the U.S. ice cream market in 2014, with $881.8 million in sales, ranking it third in the country, according to marketresearch firm Euromonitor. Robertson said Blue Bell is not laying off any of its 3,800 employees, as all of them will be needed to help with the recall. Matthew D’Uva, president of the trade organization the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Business, said while Blue Bell’s preference would be finding the source of the listeria as quickly as possible, “you also want to get it right.” “The consumer will look at
the entire process and positively judge a company who is getting information to them correctly,” he said. The illness was initially tracked to a production line in Brenham, Texas, the company’s headquarters, triggering an initial recall of some products. Listeria was later linked to a facility in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, which has been shut down. Monday’s recall was initiated after samples from another production line in Brenham tested positive. While no samples from a plant in Sylacauga, Alabama, have tested positive, products produced there have also been recalled. The company also has 62 distribution centers. Monday’s recall extends to retail outlets in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wyoming and international locations.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is hosting its 12th Annual Mental Health and Substance Abuse Awareness Symposium on May 1 at the UTHSC Regional Campus Laredo, 1937 E. Bustamante St. from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The tentative agenda is as follows: 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.: Welcome/Announcements 10 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.: Dr. Nikaury Rivera Antongiori, a Board Certified Psychiatrist — Border Region BHC will speak on substance related disorders 10 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.: Proclamation by Mayor Pete Saenz and Judge Tano Tijerina 10:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.: Break 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.: Dr. Yvonne T. Quintanilla — South Texas Behavioral Health will speak on “Mental Health — What’s Behind the Closed Door” 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.: Behavioral Hospital at Renaissance/Doctors Hospital at Renaissance — Martha Calderon Galassi, MA, LPC Intern will speak on counseling techniques and how to interview clients regarding substance and alcohol abuse 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.: Lunch — Gear Up IV — Ms. Martha Treviño — Dual Enrollment 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.: NIX — Behavioral Health — Dr. Roberto Jimenez — Topic: Bipolar Disorder & Depression 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.: Mr. Luis Flores — LPC, LCDC, RPT — S — Serving Children & Adults in Need — Topic: Best Practices for Supporting Youth and Families Affected by Trauma and Violence 3:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.: Break 3:45 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.: Mr. Frank Valley - MAC CCJS LCDC, Starlite Recovery Center — Topic: Identification of Impaired Professional & Effects of Drugs & Alcohol 4:45 p.m. – 5 p.m.: Closing Remarks
PAGE 4A
Zopinion
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO EDITORIAL@LMTONLINE.COM
COLUMN
OTHER VIEWS
The talented, patriotic Mr. Rubio Political audiences always like patriotic rhetoric, but as several reporters have noticed, this year’s Republican audiences have a special hunger for it. The phrase "American exceptionalism" has become a rallying cry. There is a common feeling on the right that the American idea is losing force and focus, that the American dream is slipping out of reach, that America is stepping back from its traditional role in the world and that President Barack Obama doesn’t forthrightly champion the American gospel. Even more than normal, Republicans seem to want their candidate for president to be drenched in the red, white and blue. Along comes Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. Rubio, 43, doesn’t just speak in the ardent patriotic tones common to the children of immigrants like himself. His very life is the embodiment of the American dream: parents who tended bar and worked at Kmart with a son who rose to become a U.S. senator. His heritage demonstrates that the American dream is open to all who come here legally and work hard. He is what many Republicans want their country to be. So there is beginning to be a certain charisma to his presidential campaign. It is not necessarily showing up in outright support. The first-term senator still shows up only with 8.3 percent support on the Real Clear Politics average of 2016 Republican presidential nomination polls, leaving him tied for fifth in the field. But primary voters are open to him; the upside is large. As Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight pointed out, Rubio’s net favorable/unfavorable rating is higher than every other candidate except Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Philosophically, he is at the center of the party. In an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 56 percent of Republican primary voters said they could see themselves supporting him even if he wasn’t their first choice at the time, which put him above every other candidate. So it’s probably right to see Rubio as the second most likely nominee, slightly behind Jeb Bush and slightly ahead of Walker. He is, for starters, the most talented politician in the race. Set aside who has the most money and who has the best infrastructure. (Overrated assets at this stage in the race.) Set aside the ideological buckets we pundits like to divide the candidates into. (Voters are not that attuned to factional distinctions.) In most primary battles, the crown goes to the most talented plausible candidate. Rubio gives a very good speech. He has an upbeat and pleasant demeanor. He has a great personal story. His policy agenda is more detailed and creative than
“
DAVID BROOKS
any of his rivals. He has an overarching argument — that it is time for a new generation to reform and replace archaic structures. The circumstances of the race might benefit him. With such a big field, nobody is going to lock up the race early. Republicans will likely be beating each other up for months while looking across the aisle and seeing Hillary Clinton coasting along. At some point, they are going to want to settle on a consensus choice. That point may come around March 15, when Florida holds its winnertake-all primary. Rubio was virtually tied with Bush among Florida Republicans, 31 percent to 30 percent, according to a Mason-Dixon poll conducted last week. If Bush is bloodied in the earlier primaries, Rubio could win Florida and loom as a giant. His weaknesses are not killers. Rubio’s past support for comprehensive immigration reform irks activists. But it’s not clear if it will hurt him with the voters who are more divided on reform. According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted last year, 66 percent of Republicans believed that unauthorized immigrants should be eligible for citizenship if they meet certain criteria. Immigration reform didn’t kill John McCain’s candidacy seven years ago. Rubio’s inexperience concerns everybody. But at least he was speaker of the Florida House. As Jim Geraghty of National Review has detailed, his record running that body was pretty good. He was a tough but reasonably successful negotiator. On his first day in office, he handed each legislator a book with the cover "100 Innovative Ideas for Florida’s Future." The pages were blank. He was inviting his members to fill them in — a nice collaborative touch. Can Rubio win a general election? Well, he believes more in expanding the party than in just mobilizing the base. In his past races, he’s done better than generic Republican candidates because of his success with Hispanics. Youth is America’s oldest tradition. Who’s to say that voters won’t side for the relative outsider over the know-what-you’re-getting Hillary Clinton? One big test for Rubio is this: Are Americans disillusioned with government or just disgusted? If they are disillusioned, they would likely want to play it safe and go with the experienced, low-risk candidates, Bush and Clinton. If they are disgusted, then they would be more likely to take a flier on change. The New American could be the guy.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY The Zapata Times does not publish anonymous letters. To be published, letters must include the writer’s first and last names as well as a phone number to verify identity. The phone number IS NOT published; it is used solely to verify identity and to clarify content, if necessary. Identity of the letter writer must be verified before publication. We want to assure our
readers that a letter is written by the person who signs the letter. The Zapata Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms. Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No name-calling or gratuitous abuse is allowed. Via e-mail, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.
COLUMN
Local icon, governor are impressive duo to reporter Show me a 20-year-old today who isn’t intimidated by celebrities, particularly the governor of your state and I’ll…well… I’d attended college for two years and sort of ran out of money. A job came open at my hometown newspaper. Since I could live at home, I would have no room and board costs and could afford to take the $45 a week job as the news editor in 1958. Anyway, I was faced with that imposing challenge of “celebrity intimidation” when it was announced that Gov. Price Daniel Sr. was coming to town to speak to the Methodist Men’s Club and that the meeting was being opened to the public. Instead of the church fellowship hall where the Methodist Men normally met, the speech would take place in the high school gymnasium in order to accommodate the anticipated large crowd. Adding to the pressure on this not eligible-to-voteyet, wet-behind-the-ears greenhorn newsman was the fact that the leading icon in our town was the
moving force behind the governor’s visit. Bill Boyd was the retired president of the American Petroleum Institute, the official legislative affairs arm of the U.S. oil and gas industry. Boyd, an attorney, had run the organization in New York City for decades and retired to his hometown in 1950. The mayor declared Bill Boyd Day and there was a parade, complete with the high school band. I don’t know where they found all of those convertibles, at least half a dozen, in a town of 3,300 population. But, there were cars for all the dignitaries (all males in that era) and cars for the wives Of course, he had tremendous contacts through his years as the chief lobbyist for the oil and gas folks. It was no problem for Boyd to pick up the phone and get the governor on the line hastily.
So, here he was bringing the Governor of the Lone Star State to town for a speech. I was going to get to cover the biggest wig in state government at age 20. If only my buddies at college could see me now, I thought. Boyd easily intimidated me, although he didn’t know I was just a very impressionable, not so professional (yet) newsman of just a few months real experience. Not too long before the announcement of the governor’s visit, Boyd brought his resume in for use in his obituary when he died. Here I am, a wannabe sports writer about to cover a speech by the governor of Texas and that is making it possible for me to hob-knob with all kinds of high muckety-mucks. Gee Whillikers and Gollleee. Boyd probably thought I was Gomer Pyle, or Goober at the very least. Bill Boyd. Wow! I was as impressed with him as I was with the Governor coming to town. He saw to it that the publicity flowed regularly
so as to assure of a huge crowd to make Gov. Daniel feel welcome and appreciated. I had no idea about big newspapers and their covering the Governor. It didn’t seem to be as big a deal in those days as it is now. Communications weren’t as instantaneous and governors didn’t have a giant entourage of press types following them around as is the case today. One big daily reporter was there, Tommy Turner of the Dallas Morning News Waco bureau. I watched him dash off after the meeting, grab a phone and start dictating a story. It appears our coverage was sufficient. Bill Boyd liked it because it filled the gymnasium. Gov. Daniel liked it because HE filled the gymnasium. My boss liked it because those folks liked it and apparently our readers liked it because they’re the ones who filled the gymnasium. Willis Webb is a retired community newspaper editor-publisher of more than 50 years experience. He can be reached by email at wwebb1937@att.net.
EDITORIAL
Bad science undermines justice DALLAS MORNING NEWS
The number of near absolutes in a new nationwide review of shabby forensics used to secure convictions is devastating: For more than two decades prior to 2000, nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit presented flawed evidence in almost every trial in which hair-comparison testimony was
provided. We’re talking bad science and bogus results all of it now officially acknowledged by the Justice Department. It’s unfathomable that hair examiners operated until 2000 without written standards about what constituted scientific validity. They simply backed up their claims by citing incomplete or inaccurate statistics to prove a point. Of 28 examiners with
the FBI Laboratory’s microscopic hair comparison unit, 26 overstated matches in favor of the prosecution in more than 95 percent of the 268 trials reviewed so far. Translate that into human lives, and you’ll find 32 defendants sentenced to death. Of those, 14 already have been executed or died while serving time. In Texas, forensic flaws were found in 21 state
DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU
and federal cases. That number includes five defendants now on death row and five who have been executed. Whether you favor capital punishment or oppose the death penalty — as this newspaper does — you want to get it right. It’s important to be sure that the actual perpetrator is not on the loose. Junk science has no place in the criminal justice system.
National
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A
Justic Dept. opens Baltimore police probe By JULIET LINDERMAN, DAVID DISHNEAU AND ERIC TUCKER ASSOCIATED PRESS
BALTIMORE — The Justice Department said Tuesday it has opened a civil rights investigation into the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who suffered a fatal spinal-cord injury under mysterious circumstances after he was handcuffed and put in the back of a police van. After the probe was announced, hundreds of people gathered at a previously planned rally at the site of Gray’s arrest. Protesters marched to a police station a couple of blocks away, chanting and holding signs that read “Black Lives Matter” and “No Justice, No Peace” — slogans that have come embody what demonstrators believe is widespread mistreatment of blacks by police.
Pricilla Jackson carried a sign reading, “Convict Freddie’s killers,” that listed the names of the six officers suspended with pay while local authorities and the U.S. Justice Department investigate the death. Jackson, who is black, said she wants Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to know that she and others have been brutalized by police. “They’re hurting us when they throw us to the ground and kick us and punch us,” said Jackson, 53. At least one person — an activist — was detained when he jumped past police barriers. When demonstrators went back to the site of Gray’s arrest, his mother, Gloria Darden, was overcome with grief and carried away by several men, writhing and sobbing uncontrollably, her face obscured by a hood and dark glasses. The crowd parted to let her
through. Another female family member collapsed in tears and was also carried away. Gray, 25, was taken into custody April 12 after police “made eye contact” with him and another man in an area known for drug activity, police said. Gray was handcuffed and put in a transport van. At some point during his roughly 30minute ride, the van was stopped and Gray’s legs were shackled when an officer felt he was becoming “irate,” police said. Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said that Gray asked for an inhaler, and then several times asked for medical care. He was eventually rushed to a hospital. Gray died Sunday — a week after his arrest — of what Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez described as “a significant spinal injury.”
Exactly how he was injured and what happened in the van is still not known. Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said investigators are “gathering information to determine whether any prosecutable civil rights violation occurred.” It’s not uncommon for federal investigators to look into allegations of excessive police force. Justice Department investigations in the last year include probes into the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri — a case that resulted in no charges against the officer — and an ongoing review of a police chokehold death of a New York City man. There’s a high threshold for bringing federal civil rights charges against police officers in such cases. Federal investigators must show an officer willfully de-
Photo by Patrick Semansky | AP
Rev. Jamal Bryant leads a rally outside of the Baltimore Police Department’s police station during a march for Freddie Gray, Tuesday. prived a person of his or her civil rights by using more force than the law allows, a standard that’s challenging in rapidly unfolding confrontations in which snap judgments are made. The mayor said she welcomed the Justice Department probe.
“Whenever a police force conducts an internal investigation, there are always appropriate questions of transparency and impartiality,” she said. “My goal has always been to get answers to the questions so many of us are still asking with regards to Mr. Gray’s death.”
HIV outbreak in Indiana affecting residents By RICK CALLAHAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN, Ind. — Main Street in this southern Indiana city is lined with blooming dogwood and redbud trees and punctuated by a short stretch of wellkept storefronts. It’s a tidy appearance that masks a darker side of the community — the worst HIV outbreak in state history, which health officials warn hasn’t yet peaked. The outbreak is tied to needle-sharing among drug users who are mostly shooting up a liquefied prescription painkiller called Opana. A Scott County health department nurse described the desperate measures some users took before the recent emergency needle-exchange program, saying they’d told her they used the same needle hundreds of times. Austin residents say the last 15 years have seen a steady growth in drug use,
prostitution and drug-related crime, particularly in low-income areas with shabby rental homes. They fear the outbreak, which is up to 135 cases since the beginning of the year, will make times even harder in the 4,200-resident community that’s 30 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky. “A lot of people are scared, scared for their children, scared for their children to be outside because of the carelessness of the users discarding their needles,” said Teresa White, who along with her husband, John, has found used syringes in the parking lot of their West Side Auto & Service Center. Indiana sees about 500 new HIV cases each year, state statistics show, so 135 in one community is far beyond normal. State health officials said Tuesday they’ve enlisted specialists from Virginia, Colorado, Missouri and other states to help track down about 130
Photo by Darron Cummings | AP
Information brochures are on display inside of Austin Community Outreach Center, Tuesday, in Austin, Ind. people who may have shared needles or had unprotected sex with those who have already tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS. Indiana accepted the added help because it “is absolutely essential” in containing the public health emergency, Deputy State Health Commissioner Jennifer Walthall said. Residents say drug use
has long plagued the community not far from Interstate 65, where the main employers including a large canning factory that opened in the late 19th century and a Pepsi plant. The outbreak is hurting the city’s image in ways local officials don’t yet fully appreciate, Austin Police Chief Donald Spicer said. “It’s done a lot. It’s probably hurt our economy. It’s
hurt the people, maybe kept away some people who come here and spend money. There’s a lot of negatives that can come with something like this,” he said. Gov. Mike Pence approved a monthlong needleexchange program for Scott County on March 26 and extended it on Monday for another 30 days. Ninety-five people are participating in the program, according to Brittany Combs, the public health nurse for the Scott County Health Department. They get a week’s worth of clean syringes in a small paper sack that includes pamphlets on drug use, rehabilitation options and a small plastic bag with condoms, bandages and cotton balls. Before the program started, Scott County had only one pharmacy where people could buy syringes, Combs said, and a requirement to sign a registry drove many drug users away out of fear of arrest.
Combs said some users have described re-using and sharing needles so many times that dosage numbers were rubbed off the plastic tube, she said. “It’s been staggering to see the number of times that people have used the same needle — I mean upward of 300 times. They will use the same needle until it literally breaks off in their arm. I’ve heard that multiple times. They’ll take a file and they’ll file it to make it sharper so they can keep using it,” she said. Walthall said the current crisis is a reflection of the drug abuse problems that are a scourge in many parts of the nation. “There’s nothing that makes Scott County different than any other rural county in America. It just happens to be the first that brought out attention to this constellation of events. There is an opiate epidemic across the United States,” she said.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
Sports&Outdoors NBA: CAVALIERS
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION: ATLANTA HAWKS
Coach of the Year Atlanta head coach Mike Budenholzer earns top honor Photo by Mark Duncan | AP
LeBron James will not use any form of social media during the playoffs. He said the only people he needs to talk to is his family and teammates.
In playoffs James shuts off social media By TOM WITHERS ASSOCIATED PRESS
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — No phone. No Twitter. No Instagram. LeBron James has once again gone into lockdown mode during the NBA playoffs. For the fourth straight postseason, Cleveland’s superstar is trying to shield himself from the outside world, saying he doesn’t need any distractions while he and the Cavs chase a title. “I don’t have no phones, no social media, I don’t have anything,” James said following Tuesday’s morning shootaround as the Cavs prepared to host the Boston Celtics in Game 2. “I don’t care about nonsense. There’s too much nonsense out there. Not during this time, this is when I lock in right now and I don’t need nothing creeping into my mind that don’t need to be there.” James began his personal media blackout — he’s dubbed it “Zero Dark Thirty” — in the 2012 postseason, one year after he and the Miami Heat lost to Dallas in the NBA Finals. The four-time MVP said he was unaware of a swipe Heat president Pat Riley seemed to take at him on Monday. Asked during a news conference about the difference in preparing to rebuild his roster this summer, Riley said there will be “no more smiling faces with hidden agendas,” an apparent reference to James, who announced last July that he was going back to Ohio. “That’s not really my concern right now,” James said. “My concern is Game 2, but I have no notion of what transpired yesterday.” However, once his availability with the media ended, James pulled aside a reporter to learn more about Riley’s comments. James has 20.5 million followers on Twitter, but he doesn’t plan to engage with them until the playoffs end. He said the only people he needs to communicate with are his family and teammates.
By PAUL NEWBERRY ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA — Mike Budenholzer was right where he didn’t want to be: the center of attention. There was no avoiding it. Not after leading the Atlanta Hawks to the top of the Eastern Conference. Budenholzer was honored as the NBA coach of the year on Tuesday, an award that moved him to tears as he spoke about the people who meant so much to his career. His players. His father. Danny Ferry. And, of course, Gregg Popovich. “Winning this award evokes a lot of emotions,” Budenholzer said, choking up several times. He is clearly uncomfortable in the spotlight, rarely opening up about anything more than the next game. So it didn’t sound like polite modesty when he said he would have preferred for Golden State’s Steve Kerr to win the award. Kerr, whose team finished an NBA-best 67-15 in his first season with the Warriors, was second in the balloting, the only other candidate to receive serious consideration. “I don’t want to sound like I’m not appreciative of it,” Budenholzer said after a ceremony at Philips Arena. “But in a perfect world, I’d be somewhere else.” A longtime assistant under Popovich at San Antonio, Budenholzer won the Red Auerbach Trophy for guiding the Hawks to a 60-22 mark during the regular season, the best in franchise history. They had a 19-game winning streak, became the first NBA team to go 17-0 during a calendar month, and cruised to their first division title since 1994, which also was the last time they held a No. 1 seed. “He deserves it,” said Jeff Teague, the Hawks’ All-Star point guard.
“It’s been a tough year,” said Budenholzer, the first coach of the year from Atlanta since Lenny Wilkens in 1994. “But hopefully everybody has handled it to the best of all of our abilities.” Budenholzer teared up as he talked about his father, a retired high school coach who “gave me my love for the game.” He also got emotional when thanking Ferry, whose future with the team will apparently remain in limbo until new ownership takes over. “I would not be here today without Danny Ferry’s faith in me,” said Budenholzer, whose team leads Brooklyn in the opening round of the playoffs heading into Game 2 Wednesday night. In a fitting touch, the Hawks arranged for Photo by John Bazemore | AP Popovich, whose defendAtlanta Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer was named NBA Coach of the Year Tuesday. The for- ing NBA champions are mer Spurs assistant led the Hawks to a first place finish in the Eastern Conference in his first sea- in Los Angeles to play son in charge. the Clippers in the Western Conference “He’s made me a better The Hawks’ turn- the Hawks finished sev- playoffs, to make the player. He’s made our around is even more im- en games ahead of the call to Budenholzer tellteam better.” pressive given their overwhelming East fa- ing him he was coach of Budenholzer received troubled offseason. vorites, LeBron James the year. It was 67 first-place votes and Emails emerged show- and the Cleveland Cava- Popovich who gave Bu513 points overall in bal- ing owner Bruce Leven- liers. Atlanta had six denholzer his start in loting by sports writers son made racially players average in dou- coaching as a lowly film and broadcasters. Kerr charged comments ble figures, with the five coordinator. received 56 first-place about the fan base, starters finishing be“This award has a votes and 471 points. prompting him to put tween 12.1 and 16.7 permanent spot on his Milwaukee’s Jason Kidd the team up for sale. points a game. desk in San Antonio,” was a distant third. Not long after, it was reIn January, all five Budenholzer said, his “I’m actually really vealed that Ferry — the starters were honored eye moist as he looked glad Mike won,” Kerr team’s general manager, as NBA players of the at the trophy. “He just said. “I just got into this architect of the roster month, the first time shares it around the gig. It would’ve felt real- overhaul, and the one the league has given the league every couple of ly weird to win that who hired Budenholzer award to an entire unit. years.” award when this team — made racially insenhas had so much suc- sitive comments during cess and was already a conference call to disreally good last year be- cuss the potential signfore I got here.” ing of free agent Luol Indeed, while the Deng. Ferry was forced Warriors put together to take an indefinite one of the great seasons leave that lasted all seain NBA history, they did son. go 51-31 under former The 45-year-old Bucoach Mark Jackson. denholzer, with help Atlanta went 38-44 dur- from assistant GM Wes ing Budenholzer’s inju- Wilcox, took control of ry plagued debut season player personnel matwith the Hawks, a result ters as well as his that was not unexpected coaching duties. He given the team’s almost molded a tight-knit unit total makeover the last that has been willing to couple of years. sacrifice individual “Mike has trans- stats for the good of the formed that team,” Kerr team. said. After a sluggish start,
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015
Zentertainment
PAGE 7A
‘Full Sequels multiply in summer movie season House’ revival By JAKE COYLE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
By FRAZIER MOORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — As TV networks plunder the recycling bin for old shows to revive, “Full House” must have been the final scrap at the bottom of the barrel. Or so it would seem to those gobsmacked by news that Netflix is resuscitating the 1987-95 ABC sitcom — which, even for fans, is tenderly remembered as ephemeral fluff — for 13 new episodes revisiting the Tanners of San Francisco and re-titled “Fuller House.” As the “Full House” theme song posed jauntily, “Whatever happened to predictability — the milkman, the paperboy, evening TV?” These days, “evening TV” is gloriously unpredictable in many quarters (“Louie,” “Game of Thrones,” “Mad Men” and Netflix’s own “Orange Is the New Black,” to name a bare handful). But at the same time, television programmers are heeding the echo chamber’s siren call, breathing new life (or trying) into old TV concepts refashioned as new. Two years ago, Netflix revived the offbeat comedy “Arrested Development,” which Fox had canceled eight years earlier. CBS is in its fifth season of the updated “Hawaii Five-O,” whose original CBS version left the air in 1980. Last fall, TNT canceled “Dallas” after three seasons — and two decades after the original “Dallas” ended a 14-season run on CBS. And let’s not forget “The Odd Couple,” which premiered in February on CBS.
NEW YORK — “I’ll be back,” the line Arnold Schwarzenegger first uttered more than 30 years ago in that indelible manly monotone, belongs to the Terminator, of course. But it also might as well be the official slogan of the summer movie season. It’s the time of year when Hollywood’s older, reliable brands, with the tenacity of Schwarzenegger’s lethal cyborg, claw their way back onto the big screen in a popcorn parade of big-budget sequels, reboots and redos. That’s nothing new, but the extent of the sequel spinning is. The sequel expansion — as headlong as Tom Cruise in the “Mission: Impossible” movies — runs in all
Photo by Melinda Sue Gor-don/Paramount Pictures | AP
This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Arnold Schwarzenegger in a scene from "Terminator: Genisys,” the fifth film in the series created by James Cameron in 1984. directions, stretching into prequels, second-try reboots, spinoffs and franchises that are less linear, roman-numeral progressions than (as in the brimming
Marvel world) whole universes of overlapping characters: fantasy realms to visit, not just stories to follow. To fuel the proliferation,
Hollywood is dipping ever deeper into its vaults: 10 of this summer’s most anticipated blockbusters have origins dating back more than three decades, including “Fantastic Four,” “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Terminator: Genisys,” the fifth film in the series created by James Cameron in 1984. Schwarzenegger is back to say that he’s back. Nostalgia and familiarity mingle with updated special effects and new cast members in these films to render something that hopefully feels fresh to moviegoers. As the “Fast and Furious” series (more profitable in its seventh installment than ever before) has proven this spring, the lifespan of the sequels no longer adheres to the old rules of inevitable decay — at least for now.
The ever-lengthening life of franchises can make for some strange off-screen realities, and not just for 67-year-old Terminators. “Mad Max: Fury Road” (May 15), is returning decades later with its original creator, the Australian director George Miller. There is blunt mathematics behind the proliferating franchises. The top six summer films at the box office in 2013 were sequels. Last summer, all of the top 10 movies were sequels, reboots or hailed from well-known properties. This summer, the box-office seems nearly certain to be led by “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (May 1), the sequel to the 2012 superhero teamup original, the highest grossing-summer movie ever.
PÁGINA 8A
Zfrontera
Agenda en Breve PRIMER JUGUETÓN EN RÍO BRAVO Reynaldo Santana Ayala, presidente de la asociación de autos modificados “Unidos por Tamaulipas” dio a conocer que el domingo 26 de abril se llevará a cabo el Primer Juguetón en Río Bravo, México. La sede será el “Paseo Río Bravo”, y los asistentes deberán acudir con un juguete. Los juguetes que se recauden serán entregados a niños en situación económica vulnerable durante un festejo programado para el jueves 30 de abril.
CORTE DE COMISIONADOS La Corte de Comisionados del Condado de Zapata se reunirá el lunes 27 de abril en el Palacio de Justicia del Condado de Zapata. La junta comenzará a las 9 a.m. y continuará hasta las 12 p.m. Para mayor información puede contactar a Roxy Elizondo llamando al (956) 765-9920.
MIÉRCOLES 22 DE ABRIL DE 2015
SEGURIDAD FRONTERIZA
Aceptan medidas ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Un extensivo paquete de seguridad fronteriza, una prioridad del gobernador republicano Greg Abbott, fue aprobado el lunes en el Senado estatal de Texas sin medidas de inmigración divisivas. El senador republicano Brian Birdwell dijo el lunes que no permitiría "ciudades santuario" contenciosas o que propuestas de la Ley para el Desarrollo, Asistencia y Educación para Menores Extranjeros (DREAM Act) contra Texas entren en la iniciativa de ley principal sobre seguridad fronteriza que ahora se acerca más al escritorio de Abbott. "Ciudades santuario" se ha
Foto por Nathan Lambrecht/archivo | AP
En la imagen de archivo, el gobernador de Texas, Greg Abbott, habla de su plan de seguridad en una conferencia de prensa en Weslaco, el 27 de marzo. Atrás el director del Departamento de Seguridad Pública de Texas, Steve McCraw.
LAGO FALCON
SENADO
TORNEO DE PESCA
Votarán proyecto de tráfico de personas
JAMAICA DE ESTUDIANTES El ZCISD, organiza una Jamaica de Estudiantes, el 29 de abril, a partir de las 6 p.m. en el estacionamiento de ZHS.
CORTE DE COMISIONADOS La Corte de Comisionados del Condado de Zapata se reunirá el lunes 11 de mayo en el Palacio de Justicia del Condado de Zapata. La junta comenzará a las 9 a.m. y continuará hasta las 12 p.m. Para mayor información puede contactar a Roxy Elizondo llamando al (956) 765-9920.
POR ERICA WERNER ASSOCIATED PRESS
ESPECTÁCULO DE LUCHA LIBRE A fin de recaudar fondos y adquirir equipo adecuado para realizar deporte en las escuelas de Miguel Alemán, México, se llevará a cabo un espectáculo de lucha libre el viernes 15 de mayo en el Centro Cívico (dentro de los terrenos de la Expo Feria) a las 5 p.m. El Supervisor de Tránsito, Antonio Santos Ramírez, informó que será un evento familiar. Entre los luchadores que participarán se encuentran Granda XXX y Mascara Sagrada Junior, Ator y los minis del cuadrilátero, los luchadores enanitos Voladorcito, La Parquita y Brazalete de Plata y de Platino.
CAMPAMENTO DE VERANO Del 9 de junio al 2 de julio, tendrá lugar un Campamento de Verano, para los estudiantes de ZCISD desde preescolar a quinto año. Las sesiones serán de 8 a.m. a 12 p.m. y de 12 p.m. a 4 p.m. El desayuno y el almuerzo serán proporcionados. No habrá transporte. El campamento es gratuito, sin embargo, los estudiantes deberán cumplir con las normativas de fin de año para ser elegibles. Las solicitudes de ingreso deberán ser entregadas antes del 14 de mayo. Para más información puede llamar a Gerardo García al (956) 765-6917.
CAMPAÑA MÉDICO-ASISTENCIAL MIGUEL ALEMAN — Se implementará la primer campaña médico asistencial propuesta por miembros de los ministerios nacionales “Betel” el 11 de junio, de 8 a.m. a 5 p.m. El grupo de 15 personas, entre médicos y enfermeros, estarán representados por la misionera Deana Gatlin. Además traerán consigo ropa, medicamentos y despensas.
convertido en la frase de los republicanos para describir a los gobiernos locales que prohíben a la policía preguntar a una persona sobre su estatus migratorio. Algunos senadores republicanos quieren que el estado castigue a esas ciudades y que invalide la matrícula universitaria preferencial del estado para estudiantes que entraron en el país de forma ilegal siendo niños. Pero existen pocas señales de apoyo para esas propuestas en la Cámara de Representantes. El fondo para la seguridad fronteriza está abocado al menos a duplicarse bajo el gobierno de Abbott.
Foto de archivo
La fotografía de archivo, muestra a pescadores durante la entonación del Himno Nacional, en el Lago Falcon en Zapata. El sábado, se realizará un torneo de pesca en el lago, a partir de las 6:50 a.m.
USDA
Residentes podrán dar opiniones en relación a guía alimenticia TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Los residentes de Texas podrán hacer escuchar su voz en relación a la Guía Alimenticia para los Estadounidenses de 2015, anunciaron autoridades federales. El comité asesor para la Guía Alimenticia de 2015 presentó sus recomendaciones (en inglés) al Departamento de Agricultura
(USDA) y el Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos (HHS) en febrero de 2015. El informe del comité no representó la política oficial o una versión en borrador de la misma para la Guía Alimenticia para los estadounidenses. El Gobierno federal determinará cómo utilizar el informe del comité a medida que elabore la Guía Alimenticia para los Estadounidenses.
Este año el HHS y el USDA publicarán de manera conjunta la Guía Alimentaria para los Estadounidenses de 2015. Antes de que se redacte la nueva Guía Alimenticia de 2015, HHS y USDA desean saber su opinión sobre el informe del comité. Usted puede presentar sus comentarios por Internet hasta el 8 de mayo de 2015. Los comentarios serán publicados el 22 de mayo.
WASHINGTON — Influyentes senadores dijeron que se aprestan a acordar un proyecto de ley de ayuda a las víctimas del tráfico humano, lo que allanaría el camino para votar sobre la confirmación de la secretaria de Justicia postulada por el presidente Barack Obama. Senadores republicanos y demócratas dijeron que están cerca de resolver una disputa sobre el aborto que ha demorado el proyecto. "Estamos hablando y creo que estamos cerca, pero todavía no hemos terminado", dijo el senador republicano John Cornyn, de Texas, el lunes. "Espero que se logre en cualquier momento". "Estamos cerca", dijo la senadora Patty Murray, demócrata por Washington. "Quedan algunos obstáculos". El acuerdo podría ser anunciado en las próximas horas, aunque la aprobación final de la ley tomaría más tiempo. La dirigencia republican se ha negado a votar sobre la confirmación de Loretta Lynch como secretaria de Justicia hasta que se alcance el acuerdo, lo cual ha provocado una larga demora que Obama calificó de "vergonzosa". Los legisladores de los dos partidos ansían avanzar en el proyecto sobre tráfico, que gozaba de amplio apoyo bipartidista hasta que los demócratas advirtieron una cláusula que prohibía que el dinero de un nuevo fondo para las víctimas fuera para pagar abortos en la mayoría de los casos. Las negociaciones giran en torno de la estructuración del fondo para satisfacer las inquietudes de los demócratas y a la vez asegurar a los republicanos que no se levantan las prohibiciones vigentes sobre el uso de fondos federales para el aborto.
COLUMNA
Narran asechanza nazi en Puerto de Tampico Nota del Editor: Ésta es la segunda de dos partes, acerca de la presencia de nazis y fascitas en la región sur de Tamaulipas.
POR RAÚL SINENCIO CHÁVEZ ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
La II Guerra Mundial transcurre de 1939 a 1945. Si bien mantiene su neutralidad al principio, México condena las agresiones nazis y fascistas contra otras naciones. A cuenta de ello, agentes de Adolfo Hitler realizan en Tamaulipas actividades encubiertas.
Órdenes El 19 de abril de 1941 Mé-
xico incauta once embarcaciones a Berlín y Roma. En Tampico están nueve de ellas y su marinería provoca tantos desmanes que pasa confinada a la estación migratoria de Perote, Veracruz. Walter Juentter, del “Orinoco”, sirviéndole al führer hace estallar previamente dicho barco alemán, en muelles tampiqueños. Schlebrugge y Nicolaus, servidos de Werner Barke, a la vez intentan hundir al “Forresbank”, nave inglesa surta en aguas cercanas, sin prosperar los planes. El 27 de abril del mismo año, casi ocho meses antes de la ruptura mexicana con las potencias del Eje, Schlebrugge es deportado. Lo re-
emplaza Nicolaus, aprehendido el 28 de febrero de 1942. Cae poco después Werner Burke. Le sigue Ernst Traulsen, vicecónsul de Alemania en Tampico y gerente de la Agencia Naviera Heynen-Eversbusch, utilizada por la Gestapo. En altamar, buques de PEMEX sufren ataques de submarinos nazis. En consecuencia, el 22 de mayo de 1942 México declara la guerra al Eje. Por el sureste tamaulipeco entonces detectan una radiodifusora clandestina de la Juventud Hitleriana, de que forma parte Richard Eversbusch, junior del copropietario de la referida agencia naviera y compinche del espía Edgard Hilgert.
Zócalo A Nicolaus lo sustituye Arnold Karl Franz Joachim Ruge, capturado en 1943. Igual sucede con Josef Rudolf Pipper, que actuaba en Tampico. Alicia Isasi, esposa de Pipper, resulta detenida en febrero por exhibir afuera de su domicilio tampiqueño la bandera nazi junto al lábaro tricolor. Pronto les hacen compañía, entre otros, Walter Juentter, Edgard Hilgert y los Eversbusch. Concluido el conflicto bélico, México prepara el 30 de julio de 1946 la expulsión de 21 agentes del Tercer Reich, sujetos a estricta vigilancia. Ruge se arranca la vida. Nunca supo que
por diversas razones, incluidas las humanitarias, solo 13 salen deportados. Nuestro país acoge entretanto a numerosos alemanes, víctimas de persecuciones raciales o políticas. Nutren el flujo científicos e intelectuales destacados. Crean la Liga Pro Cultura Alemana y enfrentan a los connacionales nazis. Con afanes demócratas, concurren al zócalo capitalino el 24 de mayo de 1942, día en que el presidente Manuel Ávila Camacho encabeza magna concentración antifascista. (Con permiso del autor Raúl Sinencio Chávez, según fuera publicado en La Razón, Tampico)
International
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A
Auschwitz guard goes on trial By DAVID RISING ASSOCIATED PRESS
LUENEBURG, Germany — Former SS Sgt. Oskar Groening told a German court Tuesday that he helped keep watch as thousands of Jews were led from cattle cars directly to the gas chambers at the Auschwitz death camp where he served as a guard. The 93-year-old, charged with 300,000 counts of accessory to murder, said as his trial opened that he witnessed individual atrocities, but did not acknowledge participating in any crimes. He recalled how a fellow guard discovered a baby abandoned among luggage and bashed it against a truck to stop its crying. After that, he unsuccessfully requested a transfer and started to drink vodka heavily to cope with working at the camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, he said. “I share morally in the guilt but whether I am guilty under criminal law, you will have to decide,” Groening told judges hearing the case at the Lueneburg state court in northern Germany. Under the German legal system, defendants do not enter formal pleas. Groening testified in a lengthy statement to the court that he volunteered to join the SS in 1940 after working briefly at a bank, and served at Auschwitz from 1942 to 1944. Aside from helping on the ramp as transports of Jews arrived, Groening said his main task was to help collect and tally money as part of his job dealing with the belongings stolen from people arriving at Auschwitz — a job for which the German press has dubbed him the “Accountant of Ausch-
Photo by Markus Schreiber | AP
Former SS guard Oskar Groening sits in ths sun during the noon break of the trial against him in Lueneburg, Germany, Tuesday. witz.” Groening said the money was regularly sent back to Berlin. Pressed by presiding Judge Franz Kompisch, he said his view was that it belonged to the state. “They didn’t need it anymore,” he said of the Jews from whom the money was taken — drawing gasps from Auschwitz survivors watching. Among them was Eva Kor, one of some 60 survivors and relatives from the U.S., Canada, Israel and elsewhere who joined the trial as co-plaintiffs as allowed under German law. She is expected to testify as a witness. Kor, 81, told The Associated Press that she lost her parents and two older sisters in Auschwitz, and that she and her twin sister Miriam were subjected as 10-year-olds to horrific experiments by notorious camp Dr. Josef Mengele. Kor, who now lives in Indiana, said she will ask Groening about what may have happened to Mengele’s files in the hope she can learn what she and her sister were subjected to — experiments she said caused her sister to die early nearly 30 years ago of kidney failure.
Groening could face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted. On his way into court, he told reporters that he expects an acquittal. His attorney, Hans Holtermann, wouldn’t speculate on the outcome. “Mr. Groening made a long statement about the things he did in Auschwitz and he confessed that in a moral way he’s guilty in the Holocaust, but in the end the decision whether he’s guilty or not needs to be made by the court,” Holtermann told reporters. Groening, who is not in custody, entered the courtroom with the help of a walker. He was lucid as his testimony began but gradually lost focus and Kompisch ended the court session early, saying he would question Groening further Wednesday. The trial is the first to test a new line of German legal reasoning that has unleashed an 11th-hour wave of new investigations of Nazi suspects. Prosecutors argue that anyone who was a death camp guard can be charged as an accessory to murders committed there, even without evidence of involvement in a specific
death. There are currently 11 open investigations against former Auschwitz guards, and charges have been filed in three of those cases, including Groening’s. Eight former Majdanek guards are also under investigation. The charges against Groening relate to a period in May and June 1944 when some 425,000 Jews from Hungary were brought to Auschwitz and at least 300,000 almost immediately gassed to death. “Through his job, the defendant supported the machinery of death,” prosecutor Jens Lehmann said. Groening recalled that he and other recruits were told by an SS major before going to Auschwitz they would “perform a duty that will clearly not be pleasant, but one necessary to achieve final victory.” Groening testified that he did not know what that duty was until he arrived at Auschwitz but quickly learned that Jews were being selected for work and those who couldn’t work were being killed. In the vocabulary of the camp, he said, “the enemies of Germany were being exterminated.” Thomas Walther, who represents many of the coplaintiffs, welcomed Groening’s decision to make a statement and answer questions — almost unheard of in Nazi prosecutions. “It’s a positive signal for the future course of the trial,” he said. Kor said she saw Groening as an old man who had had a hard life, “but by his own doing.” “If you’re guilty,” she asked, is there such a thing as being morally guilty but not legally guilty?
Associated Press
People leave their hometown Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday.
Iraqi troops retake Ramadi By SAMEER N. YACOUB ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces have recaptured areas lost earlier to the Islamic State group in and around the western city of Ramadi in the volatile Anbar province, security officials said Tuesday. Police Maj. Omar al-Alawani said government forces regained control of the city’s Pediatric and Maternity Hospital and the surrounding neighborhood late Monday night after fierce clashes with IS militants. The hospital is located about 500 meters (yards) from a complex of government offices. On Tuesday, Iraqi troops were engaged in intense clashes in an offensive to regain control of Soufiya, one of three villages that fell into the hands of the Islamic State group last week, said police Col. Mahdi Abbas. Both officials said the battles turned in favor of government forces after the arrival of reinforcements and weapons from Baghdad. At least 12 militants were killed in the clashes overnight, they said.
Footage obtained by The Associated Press showed military black Humvees advancing in a residential area in Ramadi and Iraqi soldiers firing their rifles while taking shelter behind a wall. The security situation in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, sharply deteriorated after IS seized Soufiya and the two other villages, Sjariyah and Albu-Ghanim, forcing thousands of civilians to flee their homes. Elsewhere in Iraq, police said a bomb exploded Tuesday in a commercial street in the town of Madain, just south of Baghdad, killing three people and wounding four. Later in the day, a roadside bomb hit a police patrol in the capital’s western suburbs, killing two policemen and wounding four. Medics in nearby hospitals confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Later Tuesday, a bomb struck mourners attending a funeral in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing three people and wounding 19 others, said police Col. Jenkis Mohammed Rasheed.
Ousted president 850 migrants die at sea to serve 20 years By TRISHA THOMAS AND COLLEEN BARRY ASSOCIATED PRESS
By MAGGIE MICHAEL ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAIRO — Egypt’s ousted Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, was convicted of using force against protesters and sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday, the first verdict against him since he was removed by the military nearly two years ago. The case was the latest in a series of mass trials on a range of charges against Morsi and other members of his Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt’s government has vowed to crush, branding it a terrorist organization. Amnesty International denounced Morsi’s trial as a “sham” — as rights groups have called many of the trials over the past two years. The Brotherhood went from decades as an underground organization to vault to power after Egypt’s 2011 popular uprising toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The Brotherhood was the biggest winner in subsequent parliament elections, and Morsi — running as its candidate — became Egypt’s first freely elected president in 2012. But a year later, millions protested against Morsi’s divisive rule, and then-army chief AbdelFattah el-Sissi led the military’s July 2013 removal of Morsi. Since then, a fierce crackdown has shattered the Brotherhood, killing hundreds of its supporters protesting for Morsi’s return and arresting thousands more. The verdict also sparked no immediate street protests, reflecting the crackdown’s impact on any show of dissent — either by Islamists or other activists. Most of the Brotherhood’s top leadership already have received heavy prison sentences in other trials, as well as hundreds of death sentences laid down for senior figures and lower level supporters over acts of violence carried out during protests against Morsi’s ouster. The Brotherhood’s top leader, Mohammed Badie, has received several death sentences in multiple cases — though they are subject to appeal. He appeared in court recently in the red jumpsuit worn by Egyptian prisoners on death row. At the same time, Mubarak and members of his inner circle have largely been acquitted of
Photo by Amr Nabil | AP
Egypt’s ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi is shown in Cairo. charges related to the killing of protesters during the uprising against his rule. Charges against Mubarak over the killings were dropped earlier this year. Political science professor Hassan Nafaa said average Egyptians have seen the differences between the trials of Morsi and Mubarak. “People are not reassured of the fairness of these trials,” Nafaa said. The U.S. government also expressed reservations about the Morsi verdict, but State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the Obama administration would withhold judgment for now. “We are concerned by these sentences. All Egyptians, regardless of political affiliation, are entitled to equal and fair treatment before the law, including the full respect for their rights to due process,” Harf said. “We will review the basis of the verdict which I understand the Egyptian court will make public soon. I don’t think we’ll have much more announcements to do before a review of the basis of that verdict.” The government accuses the Brotherhood of fueling violence in the country and has rejected accusations that the judiciary is politicized. The Brotherhood denies any involvement in violence. But there are fears that in the face of violence a younger generation of Islamists is turning to militancy. Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula is the scene of a months-old insurgency by militants who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
CATANIA, Sicily — Rescue seemed so close at hand. A ship with experience plucking migrants from unseaworthy smuggler’s boats had arrived soon after the distress call went out. But then the fishing trawler’s navigator made a maneuver that would seal the fate of the 850 people crammed inside: Instead of easing up alongside the merchant ship, he rammed it. Relief gave way to panic. Terrified migrants rushed to one side, the trawler seized and capsized. What might have been another rescue in a period of unprecedented migrant crossings instead turned into a horrifying statistic: The deadliest shipwreck ever in the Mediterranean Sea. The accounts of survivors who arrived early Tuesday in this Sicilian port 48 hours after the disaster offered new details of the tragedy. The traumatized witnesses corroborated a death toll of at least 800, making the capsizing “the deadliest incident in the Mediterranean that we have ever recorded,” the U.N. refugee agency said. Just 28 migrants, all men and boys in their teens, survived. And despite the enormous toll, only 24 bodies were recovered — frequently the case when ships sink on the high seas, especially when most passengers are locked below deck, as was the case Saturday night. Aid agencies were quick to issue another warning: At the current pace, 2015 is set to be the deadliest year on record for migrants making the perilous crossing as they flee war, repression and poverty in the Middle East and Africa. In April alone, 1,300 have died. The International Organization for Migration said the toll for the year could top 30,000 — nearly 10 times the 2014 total of 3,279, itself a record. “We just want to make sure people understand how much more ... rapid these deaths have been coming this year,” said Joel Millman, the IOM spokesman. Italian ships have rescued well over 10,000 people over the past two weeks, an unprecedented number for such a short pe-
Photo by Alessandra Tarantino | AP
In this Monday photo, a rescuer cradles a child in the Sicilian harbor of Pozzallo, Italy. More than 800 people were believed to have drowned. riod, authorities say. The rescues continued Tuesday, with another 112 migrants, all men, picked up in a deflating rubber life raft in waters some 50 miles (70 kilometers) north of the Libyan capital, Tripoli. On Tuesday, seamen who participated in saving survivors of the weekend capsizing told tales of near-miraculous rescue. Among the ships to arrive in the pre-dawn hours Sunday was the coast guard ship Gregoretti, which dispatched medics in two dinghies. By then, the trawler had already disappeared into the sea. ‘’We found, literally, a floating cemetery. Bodies were everywhere. With the dinghies we had to literally slalom among the corpses,” said Enrico Vitello, a 22-year-old medic from the Order of Malta. Hearing screams, they killed the engines and shined a spotlight, locating a migrant floating in the sea. “We got close by and rescued him,” said Giuseppe Pomilla, a 30-year-old medic. “He asked our names and where we were from. We told him we were Italians and came to rescue him. He was so happy.” Soon after, a boy floating in the sea grabbed their attention. “We couldn’t understand if he was alive or dead. He had his eyes wide open looking at us. He was not blinking, not moving or talking. We only realized he was alive when he grabbed us suddenly,” Pomilla said. When they took him on board, he “exploded in tears,” the medic said. Among the survivors were
two alleged smugglers, who were detained for investigation of aiding and abetting illegal immigration. The Tunisian navigator, identified as 27-yearold Mohammed Alì Malek, could also face multiple counts of manslaughter and causing a shipwreck — the same charges the captain of the capsized Concordia luxury cruise liner was convicted of earlier this year. Prosecutors said that after the trawler’s captain struck the Portuguese-flagged container ship sent to rescue it, terrified migrants rushed to one side of the overcrowded boat, which was already unbalanced from the collision. The trawler pitched in the water before finally tipping over and sinking. Most on board were unable to escape because they were locked below deck on the trawler’s lower two levels. Hundreds more were squeezed on the upper deck. “The survivors said that the person who was steering the boat, their smuggler, was navigating badly, and he did a bad move that made it crash against the bigger ship,” UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami said in Sicily. “This obviously created a problem because the people on the lower decks couldn’t get out and the boat destabilized, until it capsized.” She praised the merchant ship, the King Jacob, for its response, noting it had participated in previous rescues. These included saving about 100 migrants, including children and pregnant women, in the Strait of Sicily just five days earlier, ship officials said.
Politics
10A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015
Jeb Bush to run untraditional campaign VA budget eyed By THOMAS BEAUMONT ASSOCIATED PRESS
By MATTHEW DALY ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee’s plan to cut the budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs by more than $1.4 billion next year will “cause veterans to suffer,” VA Secretary Robert McDonald said Tuesday. Testifying at a Senate hearing, McDonald said a spending plan approved by a House Appropriations subcommittee on veterans affairs was “inadequate” to the growing needs of veterans. The subcommittee’s plan would cut veterans’ medical care by $690 million, the equivalent of 70,000 fewer veterans receiving VA medical care than under President Barack Obama’s budget proposal, McDonald said. The House plan also would eliminate funding for four major construction projects, including a planned rehabilitation therapy building in St. Louis, and eliminate planned cemetery expansions in four states and Puerto Rico, McDonald said. The GOP budget plan “will cause veterans to suffer,” McDonald told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee. “It means fewer veterans will get care.” McDonald’s comments came as Obama’s budget director, Shaun Donovan, sent a letter to leaders of the House Appropriations Committee objecting to the subcommittee plan. The full appropriations panel is set to vote Wednesday on the $163.2 billion proposal for the VA. Donovan said the White House has “serious concerns” about the House plan, which he said would harm medical care for tens of thousands of veterans and reduce VA’s ability to plan and build new facilities to replace aging structures across the country. Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, said the spending plan approved by the panel last week “demonstrates our firm commitment to fully supporting the nation’s veterans and service members at every phase,” from health care to claims processing for veterans’ benefits. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., told McDonald he was concerned that the VA had given more than $60,000 in bonuses to the department’s top construction executive, Glenn Haggstrom, who retired last month amid an internal investigation of delays and massive cost overruns at the Denver veterans hospital. “If we are giving incompetent people like that a bonus, how can we take care of our veterans? Kirk asked McDonald.
DES MOINES, Iowa — The traditional presidential campaign may be getting a dramatic makeover in Jeb Bush’s bid for the White House as he prepares to turn some of a campaign’s central functions over to a separate political organization that can raise unlimited amounts of money. The concept, in development for months as the former Florida governor has raised tens of millions of dollars for his Right to Rise super PAC, would endow that organization not just with advertising on Bush’s behalf, but with many of the duties typically conducted by a campaign. Should Bush move ahead as his team intends, it is possible that for the first time a super PAC created to support a single candidate would spend more than the candidate’s campaign itself — at least through the primaries. Some of Bush’s donors believe that to be more than likely. The architects of the plan believe the super PAC’s ability to le-
Photo by Elise Amendola | AP
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush smiles while speaking to reporters April 17. gally raise unlimited amounts of money outweighs its primary disadvantage, that it cannot legally coordinate its actions with Bush or his would-be campaign staff. “Nothing like this has been done before,” said David Keating, president of the Center for Competitive Politics, which opposes limits on campaign finance donations. “It will take a high level of discipline to do it.” The exact design of the strategy
remains fluid as Bush approaches an announcement of his intention to run for the Republican nomination in 2016. But at its center is the idea of placing Right to Rise in charge of the brunt of the biggest expense of electing Bush: television advertising and direct mail. Right to Rise could also break into new areas for a candidate-specific super PAC, such as data gathering, highly individualized online advertising and running phone banks. Also on the table is tasking the super PAC with crucial campaign endgame strategies: the operation to get out the vote and efforts to maximize absentee and early voting on Bush’s behalf. The campaign itself would still handle those things that require Bush’s direct involvement, such as candidate travel. It also would still pay for advertising, conduct polling and collect voter data. But the goal is for the campaign to be a streamlined operation that frees Bush to spend less time than in past campaigns raising money, and as much time as possible meeting voters. Bush’s plans were described to The Associated Press by two Re-
publicans and several Bush donors familiar with the plan, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the former Florida governor has not yet announced his candidacy. “This isn’t the product of some genius thinking,” said a Republican familiar with the strategy. “This is the natural progression of the rules as they are set out by the FEC.” Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said: “Any speculation on how a potential campaign would be structured, if he were to move forward, is premature at this time.” The strategy aims to take maximum advantage of the new world of campaign finance created by a pair of 2010 Supreme Court decisions and counts on the Federal Election Commission to remain a passive regulator with little willingness to confront those pushing the envelope of the law. One reason Bush’s aides are comfortable with the strategy is because Mike Murphy, Bush’s longtime political confidant, would probably run the super PAC once Bush enters the race.
DEA chief to retire amid sex scandal By ERIC TUCKER AND ALICIA A. CALDWELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The embattled head of the Drug Enforcement Administration said Tuesday that she plans to retire after three decades with the agency, an announcement that came amid mounting pressure for her resignation from members of Congress who questioned her handling of misconduct allegations against agents. Michele Leonhart, a career drug agent who has led the agency since 2007 and was the second woman to hold the job, had been widely criticized for her response to a scathing government watchdog report detailing allegations that agents attended sex parties with prostitutes in a foreign country. After Leonhart appeared last week before the House Oversight Com-
mittee to respond to an inspector general’s allegations that the agents had received lenient punishments, most lawmakers on the panel announced that they had lost confidence in her. She also was criticized as being “woefully unable to change” the agency’s culture. The no-confidence statement was signed by 13 House Democrats and nine Republicans, including its chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and the committee’s top Democrat, Elijah Cummings of Maryland. Chaffetz went a step further, calling for Leonhart to resign or be fired. On Tuesday, the two lawmakers said they welcomed Leonhart’s departure, calling it appropriate and an opportunity for new leadership. White House spokesman Josh Earnest reiterated earlier Tuesday that the Obama administration had
Photo by Manuel Balce Ceneta | AP file
In this April 12, 2013 file photo, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Michele Leonhart testifies on Capitol Hill. “concerns about the material that was presented in the (inspector general) report that raised legitimate and serious questions about the conduct of some DEA officers.” He said Obama “maintains a very high standard for anybody who serves in his administration, particularly when
it comes to law enforcement officials.” Leonhart will leave the agency in mid-May, Attorney General Eric Holder said in announcing her retirement. “Michele has led this distinguished agency with
honor, and I have been proud to call her my partner in the work of safeguarding our national security and protecting our citizens from crime, exploitation and abuse,” Holder said, crediting her with helping dismantle violent drug trafficking organizations. Leonhart canceled an appearance to receive an award Tuesday from sponsors of the Border Security Expo, a trade show in Phoenix for government contractors. Doug Coleman, the DEA’s special agent in charge in Phoenix, accepted on her behalf. Robert Bonner, a former DEA administrator and Customs and Border Protection commissioner, told the luncheon audience that Leonhart was being unfairly blamed for agents’ misconduct.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A
LUZ MARIA AGUILAR June 26, 1945 – April 16, 2015 Luz Maria R. “Cuca” Aguilar, 69, peacefully entered into eternal rest surrounded by her family on Thursday, April 16, 2015 at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. Ms. Aguilar is preceded in death by her parents, Leonardo and Guadalupe P. Aguilar and a sister, Rosa Maria Aguilar. Ms. Aguilar is survived by her daughters, Laura E. (Teodoro) Garcia, Luz M. (Ovidio) Bautista, Diana Y. (Jose Nicolas) Garcia; grandchildren, Kazzandra (Pablo) Guardian, Teodoro Garcia, Jr., Jazmine M. Alvarez, Yarah A. Garcia, Angel O. Bautista, Eduardo J. Garcia, Nicolas I. Garcia, Ricardo A. Garcia, Jorge L. Garcia; great-grandson, Pablo A. Guardian, Jr.; brothers, Miguel A. (Irma) Aguilar, Jesus J. Aguilar, Luis E. Aguilar, Leonardo (Irene) Aguilar, Jose R. (Chabelita) Aguilar; sisters, Carmen Acevedo, Malena Aguilar, Guadalupe Aguilar and by numerous other family members and friends. Visitation hours were held on Sunday, April 19, 2015, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
By MARK SHENK BLOOMBERG NEWS
with a rosary at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home. The funeral procession departed on Monday, April 20, 2015, at 9:30 a.m. for a 10 a.m. funeral Mass 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 N. U.S. Hwy 83 Zapata, Texas.
BILL Continued from Page 1A Birdwell said in a statement. SB 3 doesn’t set a specific timeline on the Guard’s withdrawal. It states that the “deployment of Texas National Guard troops to the border region is needed until the Texas Department of Public Safety has the personnel to fully secure the border region without the assistance of the Texas National Guard Troops.” The House passed HB 11 in March. It was introduced as part of a package with House Bill 10, which addressed human trafficking, and House Bill 12, which codifies the duties of the state’s border prosecution unit. Like Bonnen’s measure, however, the two have yet to have a hearing in a Senate committee. The Senate’s budget also contrasts with the House’s version in the amount appropriated for border security. The two chambers are about $300 million apart, in part because of the Senate’s desire to keep the National Guard deployed for an extended period of time. The Senate’s bill also requires DPS to study the usefulness of southbound checkpoints within 250 yards of the border to prevent the smuggling of guns and illicit cash. Birdwell amended his bill to make clear the agency doesn’t need to get additional legislative approval to establish the checkpoints. The measure passed with little opposition, mainly in
Oil declines, stockpiles grow
part to Birdwell’s promise to keep more controversial measures, including the socalled sanctuary cities legislation, off his bill. That measure — Senate Bill 185 by Charles Perry, R-Lubbock — is pending legislation that would give local law enforcement expanded immigration enforcement powers. Birdwell also pledged to keep any version of Senate Bill 1819 by state Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, off his proposal. That bill would eliminate a 2001 law that allows noncitizens, including undocumented immigrants, to pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities. Rodríguez unsuccessfully offered several amendments to SB 3. One sought to add an oversight committee similar to one contained in the House’s bill. The committee would receive reports and testimony on border security operations to gauge their success. Another amendment would have required National Guard members to undergo cultural and sensitivity training. Rodríguez also sought to improve border infrastructure on key trade routes but failed. Before voting against the measure, Rodríguez told Birdwell he had several concerns about whether elements of the bill would be deemed unconstitutional, specifically the southbound checkpoint provisions and some of the human-smuggling language.
Oil dropped the most in two weeks before government data forecast to show U.S. crude inventories expanded further from a record. Crude stockpiles probably rose by 2.5 million barrels last week, a Bloomberg survey showed before an Energy Information Administration report Wednesday. The industry-funded American Petroleum Institute released its figures Tuesday. The decrease in prices accelerated after Saudi Arabia said it’s ending a campaign of airstrikes against Shiite rebels in Yemen. Oil has rallied about 30 percent from a six-year low in March on signs the idling of U.S. drilling rigs is spurring a production slowdown that may ease a global supply glut. The recovery may still falter with the country’s stockpiles having swelled to the highest level in 85 years. “It’s all about the storage reports today and tomorrow,” Bob Yawger, director of the futures division at Mizuho Securities USA Inc. in New York, said by phone. “We’ll be paying a lot of attention to the size of the build. The crude data would be bullish if the gain is on the small side, even with supplies at an all-time record.” West Texas Intermediate for May delivery, which expired Tuesday, dropped $1.12, or 2 percent, to settle at $55.26 a
barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The more-active June contract fell $1.27, or 2.2 percent, to $56.61. Total volume was 21 percent below the 100day average at 4:38 p.m. June WTI extended losses after the API was said to report a U.S. crude inventory gain. Stockpiles rose 5.5 million barrels last week, the API said, according to reports on Twitter. Futures fell $1.66, or 2.9 percent, to $56.22 in electronic trading at 4:37 p.m. Brent for June settlement decreased $1.37, or 2.2 percent, to close at $62.08 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Volume was down 28 percent from the 100-day average. The European benchmark crude closed at a $5.47 premium to WTI for the same month. Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson said he expects low crude prices to stick around for the next few years. The CEO of the largest U.S energy producer said he’s watching to see if the oil industry behaves the same way U.S. shale-gas did, when a significant decline in rig activity in prior years didn’t result in a drop in production capacity. “People need to settle in for us to be in a different price environment for the next couple of years and then we’ll see where it goes,” Tillerson, said in a speech at the IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston Tuesday. U.S. crude supplies climbed to 483.7 million
barrels through April 10, the highest level in weekly EIA data that started in August 1982. Monthly records dating back to 1920 show supplies haven’t been this high since 1930. “The fundamentals are still biased to the downside,” Stewart Glickman, an equity analyst at S&P Capital IQ in New York, said by phone. “I have a feeling we will get a second bout of shale production. There are thousands of incomplete wells that can quickly be brought online.” Production fell by 20,000 barrels to 9.38 million a day, the slowest pace in five weeks, the EIA said. Drillers have reduced the number of active machines to 734, the fewest since November 2010, according to data from Baker Hughes Inc., an oil- services company. The rig count has declined by more than half since December. “It looks like production has plateaued,” Eric Mintz, who co-manages more than $10 billion in assets at Eagle Asset Management Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida, and has focused on energy investments for over a decade, said by phone. “The number of rigs has been cut in half and then some. We need about 1,000 rigs to maintain production and are down to near 700.” The EIA will probably report that U.S. gasoline stockpiles fell last week while inventories of distillate fuel, a category that includes diesel and
heating oil, rose, according to the Bloomberg survey. Gasoline futures for May delivery declined 4.34 cents, or 2.3 percent, to settle at $1.8881 a gallon. May ultra low sulfur diesel slipped 2.39 cents, or 1.3 percent, to close at $1.8532. The average price for gasoline at the pump advanced 0.7 cent to $2.464 a gallon Monday, the highest since Dec. 17, according to the Heathrow, Florida-based AAA, the nation’s biggest motoring group. Saudi Arabia said its air campaign in Yemen succeeded in eliminating threats to the kingdom and paved the way for the resumption of peace talks. The Saudi-led coalition called a halt to the bombing after almost four weeks, and now aims to revive talks and achieve humanitarian goals, according to a statement read out on Saudi state television. The Saudis accuse Iran of being behind the insurgents, an allegation that Iran and the Shite Houthi rebels reject and that Western diplomats have treated with skepticism. The return of embargoed Iranian oil to world markets looks no closer, according to UBS Group AG. Nuclear inspectors will need unfettered access in Iran as part of a deal to lift economic sanctions, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Monday, a day after an Iranian general declared that military sites must be off limits.
QUAKES Continued from Page 1A the issue of seismicity,” Pearson wrote. The study adds to the growing body of research that links disposal wells, and to a lesser extent some oil and gas production, to mostly small earthquakes. The number of disposal wells — deep resting places for liquid oil and gas waste — has surged amid Texas’ drilling bonanza. Drilling areas in South and West Texas have also seen more earthquakes. Scientists have known for decades that injecting fluid deep underground could trigger earthquakes. Neighboring Oklahoma has seen an increase in earthquakes even greater than Texas has, and has surpassed California as the country’s most quakeprone state. The USGS and Oklahoma Geological Survey say wastewater disposal probably contributes to the trend. The SMU-led research
team said it developed new models allowing researchers to declare that gas activities are “most likely” causing the earthquakes, going beyond past studies that found them “possible” causes. The researchers also pointed out that thousands of disposal wells have not triggered earthquakes. Though Texas, home to nearly 3,600 active commercial disposal wells, is four times the size of Oklahoma, it has far fewer seismic stations – devices that monitor quakes – positioned throughout the state. That makes it difficult to estimate the precise size and location of some quakes, and to understand what causes them. To improve data on the quakes around Reno and Azle, the research team added several temporary seismic stations to the area in December 2013. The team used three-dimen-
sional modeling to analyze the changing pressure in the rock formation from two wastewater injection wells and more than 70 production wells that produce natural gas and brine. The research team has been studying earthquakes in the Barnett Shale since 2008, when a cluster struck near DFW International Airport. Prior to that phenomenon, which hit early in the area’s drilling surge, no earthquake had been reported in the Fort Worth Basin since 1950. SMU researchers are also studying a more recent surge of Dallas-area earthquakes. But it was the Azle temblors – and the ensuing public outcry – that kickstarted the Railroad Commission’s response to the phenomenon. The response included hiring Pearson and approving requirements that compa-
nies submit more information before drilling disposal wells. The Texas House formed a subcommittee on seismic activity. Still, the agency’s website says, “Texas has a long history of safe injection, and staff has not identified a significant correlation between faulting and injection practices." Energy In Depth, a prominent industry-funded group, on Tuesday praised the researchers for developing a model that “provides greater understanding of the conditions that can ultimately lead to induced seismicity.” But on its website, it added that “several issues in the paper raise questions about its conclusion.” “The concerns we’ve identified in here are in the spirit of constructive collaboration,” Steve Everley, the group’s spokesman, said in an email.
12A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015