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MEXICO VIOLENCE
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL
Weapons found
MERS now in America
Soldiers find nearly 80 rifles in raids in Reynosa THE ZAPATA TIMES
Mexican Army soldiers found almost 80 rifles during four raids Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in Reynosa, Mexico, where a number of people have been killed recently in a spike of violence in the area.
In addition, soldiers found a lifeless body Wednesday morning. At 10:15 p.m. Tuesday soldiers entered a house on Quebec Street, between Liverpool and Munich avenues in the Hacienda de las Fuentes neighborhood, where they confiscated one vehicle, 22 rifles, two grenade launch-
ers, four grenades, 3 kilos of the crystal methamphetamine, 415 packets of cocaine, 714 packets of marijuana, 3,000 marijuana cigarettes, magazines and cartridges, a press release states. Later, at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, al-
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Agency says man flew from Saudi Arabia to US and fell ill By MIKE STOBBE
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
SOUTH TEXAS
POACHING PROBLEMS Deer are targets for illegal hunting By FERNANDO DEL VALLE VALLEY MORNING STAR
P
ORT MANSFIELD — Poachers have killed a large buck and wounded at least three deer in recent months in this tiny fishing village where residents’ feeding of the animals has made them easy targets, officials said. “It’s become more of a problem this year,” Oscar Castañeda, a game warden with the Texas Fish and Wildlife Service, said of deer poaching here. Norm Lavelle is a resident who helped raise a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the poacher who killed the 165pound buck. He said two other bucks have “disappeared” since January. Castañeda told the Valley Morning Star of Harlingen that authorities have not determined whether this year’s poaching incidents are related. Authorities are searching for the poacher who used a bow and arrow to kill the 11-point buck that a resident found in her backyard March 30, Castañeda said. He said he followed the buck’s blood trail about 100 yards from the Port
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Photo by David Pike/Valley Morning Star | AP
NEW YORK — Health officials on Friday confirmed the first case of an American infected with a mysterious virus that has sickened hundreds in the Middle East. The man fell ill after flying to the U.S. late last week from Saudi Arabia where he was a health care worker. He is hospitalized in good condition in northwest Indiana with Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Indiana health officials, who are investigating the case. The virus is not highly contagious and this case “represents a very low risk to the broader, general public,” Dr. Anne Schuchat told reporters during a CDC briefing. The federal agency plans to track down passengers he may have been in close contact with during his travels; it was not clear how many may have been exposed to the virus. So far, it is not known how he was infected, Schuchat said. Saudi Arabia has been at the center of a Middle East outbreak of MERS that began two years ago. The virus has spread among health care workers, most notably at four facilities in that county last spring. Officials didn’t provide details about the American’s job in Saudi Arabia or whether he treated MERS patients. Overall, at least 400 people have had the respiratory illness, and more than 100 people have died. All had ties to the Middle East region or to people who traveled there. Experts said it was just a matter of time before MERS showed up in the U.S., as it has in Europe and Asia. “Given the interconnectedness of our world, there’s no such thing as ‘it stays over there and it can’t come here,”’ said Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University MERS expert. MERS belongs to the coronavirus family that includes the common cold and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which caused some 800 deaths globally in 2003. The MERS virus has been found in camels, but officials don’t know how it is spreading to humans. It can spread from person to person, but officials believe that happens only after close contact. Not all those exposed to the vi-
Annie McKinney feeds a deer Dec. 1 in Port Mansfield. Poachers have killed a large buck and wounded at least three deer in recent months in this tiny fishing village.
See MERS VIRUS PAGE 13A
VETERANS’ AFFAIRS ADMINISTRATION
VA revelations infuriate state’s lawmakers By WILL BROWN HEARST NEWSPAPERS
Recent revelations of patient backlogs and a “secret list” of veterans waiting for medical care at a Veterans’ Affairs Administration hospital in Phoenix — including at least 40 who died before being helped — have enraged members of Congress, drawing particular ire from Texans. Rep. Bill Flores (R-Bryan), a
member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said, “The Veterans’ Affairs Administration has one of the most sacred obligations to the men and women who serve this country, and it’s just failing.” The Phoenix hospital’s system of keeping veterans seeking care out of official records for months until their appointments were actually scheduled was detailed in a CNN investigative report last week. The report quoted a retired
The VA’s North Texas system had “in excess of 36,000 unresolved consults.” Phoenix VA doctor as saying that the number of veterans who died waiting for care there “is actually higher” than 40, but that it’s “probably a good number.” The report focused on the case of a veteran who died of urinary can-
cer before getting an initial appointment with a primary care physician. Sen. John Cornyn, (R-Texas) has called for an investigation into the allegations in Phoenix and said, “It’s outrageous that the
agency responsible for providing for our veterans appears to have developed a history of systemic fraud, abuse, and misconduct.” Rep. John Culberson, (R-Houston), a member of the Appropriations Committee, is sponsor of a VA funding bill that is due to be voted on by the House Wednesday. Culberson said the bill is in-
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