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MEXICO
CRIME
Bloody battle
Wanted man captured in Zapata County
Tamaulipas top detective, four others killed ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO CITY — The chief of investigations for the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas died a latenight gunbattle that also killed four gunmen, the state government said Tuesday. Top state police investigator Salvador de Haro Muñoz was killed late Monday in the state capi-
tal, Ciudad Victoria, after authorities went to investigate a local home that was apparently beMUÑOZ ing used as a safe house by a criminal gang. Officials say the gang began shooting after soldiers and police showed
up, and they returned fire. Three marines and a military police officer were wounded in the confrontation. After the gunbattle, five suspects were detained, including two women. Tamaulipas has been the scene of bloody turf battles between the Gulf drug cartel and the Zetas drug gang.
Once one of Mexico’s most violent states, Tamaulipas had calmed somewhat by 2012, before violence re-ignited in recent weeks. On Monday, officials reported that four gunmen were killed in a shootout with federal police in the border city of Reynosa. All of the dead men had rifles and bullet-proof vests.
By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
A man wanted in Laredo for aggravated assault has been arrested in Zapata County, according to a Laredo police spokesman. Sergio Gonzalez, 29, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault at about 11:30 a.m. April 29 in the 1500 block of South Siesta Shore Lane in Zapata, a po-
lice report states. The allegations against Gonzalez stem from an assault reported April GONZALEZ 4. That day, police responded to an assault call at 7:28 p.m. at the intersection of
See CAUGHT PAGE 12A
NATION
STUDY: CLIMATE CHANGE IS HERE Report details warming By SETH BORENSTEIN ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Global warming is rapidly turning America the beautiful into America the stormy, sneezy and dangerous, according to a new federal scientific report. And those shining seas? Rising and costly, the report says. Climate change’s assorted harms “are expected to become increasingly disruptive across the nation throughout this century and beyond,” the National Climate Assessment concluded Tuesday. The report emphasizes that warming and all-too-wild weather are changing daily lives, using the phrase “climate disruption” as another way of saying global warming. Still, it’s not too late to prevent the worst of climate change, says the 840-page report, which the Obama administration is highlighting as it tries to jumpstart often-stalled efforts to curb heat-trapping gases. Said White House science adviser John Holdren: “It’s a good-news story about the many opportunities to take cost-effective actions to reduce the damage.” Release of the report, the third edition of a congressionally mandated study, gives President Barack Obama an opportunity to ground his campaign against climate change in science and numbers, endeavoring to blunt the arguments of those who question the idea and humans’ contributions to such changes. The White House and its allies also hope that by drilling down on local effects, the report will help Americans identify with specific impacts that are affecting their lives, Later this summer, the administration
File photo by Tony Gutierrez | AP
In this Aug. 3, 2011 file photo, Texas State Park police officer Thomas Bigham walks across the cracked lake bed of O.C. Fisher Lake in San Angelo. Global warming is rapidly turning America into a stormy and dangerous place, according to a new U.S. federal scientific report released Tuesday. plans to propose new regulations restricting gases that come from existing coal-fired power plants. Not everyone is persuaded. Some fossil energy groups, conservative think tanks and Republican senators immediately assailed the report as “alarmist.” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Obama was likely to “use the platform to renew his call for a national energy tax. And I’m sure he’ll get loud cheers from liberal elites — from the kind of people who leave a giant carbon footprint and then lecture everybody else about lowflow toilets.” Since taking office, Obama has not proposed a specific tax on fossil fuel emissions. He has
proposed a system that caps emissions and allows companies to trade carbon pollution credits, but it failed in Congress. Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana said the report was supposed to be scientific but “it’s more of a political one used to justify government overreach.” Leaders in the fossil fuel industry, which is responsible for a large amount of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide, said their energy is needed and America can’t afford to cut back on it. “Whether you agree or disagree with the report, the question is: What are you going to do about it? To us that is a major question,” said Charlie Drevna, president of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers. He called the report “over-
blown.” The report — which is full of figures, charts and other research-generated graphics — includes 3,096 footnotes to other mostly peer-reviewed research. It was written by more than 250 scientists and government officials, starting in 2012. A draft was released in January 2013, but this version has been reviewed by more scientists, including twice by the National Academy of Sciences which called it “reasonable,” and “a valuable resource.” Environmental groups praised the report. “If we don’t slam the brakes on the carbon pollution driving climate change, we’re dooming ourselves and our children to more intense heat waves, destructive
floods and storms and surging sea levels,” said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Scientists and the White House called it the most detailed and U.S.-focused scientific report on global warming. The report looks at regional and state-level effects of global warming, compared with recent reports from the United Nations that lumped all of North America together. “All Americans will find things that matter to them in this report,” said scientist Jerry Melillo of the Marine Biological Laboratory, who chaired the science committee that wrote the report. “For decades we’ve been
See CLIMATE PAGE 12A
BORDER
Three undocumented immigrants detained By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
Three men have been detained in separate enforcement actions for allegedly being illegally in
the United States, according to court records released last week. Court documents identified the men as Jesus Alejandro Gallegos Carmona, Jose Landin Moyoa and Jose Guadalupe
Onofre Cuellar. U.S. Border Patrol agents detained the three men in Zapata County last week. Investigations revealed the men did not have legal status to
be in this country, according to court records. Records go on to say all three men had been deported before. None of them had applied to or received permission to re-enter the United
States. Each man remains in federal custody on a $75,000 bond. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)