The Zapata Times 5/20/2015

DEPTH PROPELLING ROCKETS

WEDNESDAY MAY 20, 2015

FREE

HOUSTON’S 2ND UNIT LEADS TEAM TO WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS, 7A

DELIVERED EVERY SATURDAY

TO 4,000 HOMES

A HEARST PUBLICATION

ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

FEDERAL COURT

“DENTON FRACKING BILL”

Man faces 30 years

Local control lost Abbott signs House Bill 40 into law

By JIM MALEWITZ TEXAS TRIBUNE

Defendant caught with 7 immigrants

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

A man could be facing a lengthy prison sentence if he’s convicted for smuggling seven people who crossed the border illegally, according to court documents.

On May 12, a federal grand jury indicted Benito Juarez-Gutierrez on one count of conspiracy to transport undocumented people within the United States, and two counts of transport and attempt to transport undocumented people for financial gain.

Each count could be punishable with up to 10 years behind bars. JuarezGutierrez has arraignment May 21. He remains in federal detention on a $75,000 bond.

The case dates back to mid-April, when the Zapata County Sheriff ’s Office requested the assistance from federal agents during a speeding violation stop at U.S. 83 and Singer Street.

The deputy could not identify seven of eight occupants, according to a criminal complaint filed April 20. Records identified the driver as JuarezGutierrez while the remaining occupants were determined to be immigrants from Mexico with no legal status to be in the country.

Juarez-Gutierrez had allegedly picked up the group at a house in the Siesta Shores neighborhood. He was to be paid

Photo by Rodolfo Gonzalez/Austin American-Statesman | AP

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, front center, signs a fracking bill into law at the State Capitol in Austin, Monday. Abbott has signed into law a prohibition on cities and towns imposing local ordinances preventing fracking and other potentially environmentally harmful oil and natural gas activities.

Saying Texas needs to avoid a “patchwork of local regulations” that threaten oil and gas production, Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday signed legislation that would pre-empt local efforts to regulate a wide variety of drillingrelated activities.

“This bill is so incredibly important,” the Republican said at a state Capitol ceremony.

Flanked by the measure’s sponsors, he said House Bill 40 does a “profound

job of protecting private property rights.”

Intended to clarify where local control ends and Texas law begins, the bill is the most prominent of the flurry of measures filed in response to Denton’s November vote to ban hydraulic fracturing within city limits.

The legislation has outraged officials in some towns that have sought to blunt the effects of drilling close to homes, schools and businesses.

But in Austin, it sailed

See FRACKING PAGE 12A

ZAPATA FARMER & ARTISAN’S MARKET

MARKET MAKES ITS DEBUT 200 people attended

By MALENA CHARUR THE ZAPATA TIMES

W

ith the motto “Local & Fresh; Zapata at its best!”, the first-ever Zapata Farmer & Artisan’s Market took place at the Zapata Community Center in early May. “Thank you everyone that participated at Zapata’s very first farmers market. We had a great turnout. Thank you to all

See MARKET PAGE 12A

Photo courtesy of Zapata Farmer & Artisan’s Market Facebook

This courtesy photo shows one of the booths set up for the first Zapata Farmer & Artisan’s Market, which took place May 2. There will be a market every first Saturday of the month at the Zapata Community Center.

See COURT PAGE 12A

LAREDO COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Free ESL, GED classes offered to Zapatans SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

This fall, Zapata residents will have an opportunity to enhance their quality of life and future job prospects through free GED and ESL classes.

Laredo Community College’s Adult Education and Literacy Development pro-

gram will hold General Educational Development and English as a Second Language classes at the former Texas Health Department facilities in Zapata, located at 609 North U.S. Highway 83, beginning August 31.

ESL classes for beginning, intermediate, and ad-

vanced levels will be offered. Students must be 18 years of age or older to qualify.

GED classes also vary with beginning, intermediate and advanced study available. The course is open to students 18 years or older and will be taught solely in English. Students

also may register as young as 16 years of age by providing parental consent and additional documentation.

Daytime and evening courses will be offered to ESL students. Morning classes will be offered Monday through Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Evening ESL classes will be of-

fered Monday through Wednesday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

GED classes will meet Monday through Wednesday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Prior to beginning classes, participating students must attend a three-day orientation session from Tuesday, August 25 through

Thursday, August 27. During orientation, students will cover pertinent topics including study skills, goal setting, note-taking and time management.

For more information about the Adult Education and Literacy Department, contact Marisela Morales at 794-4436.

PAGE 2A

Zin brief CALENDAR

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015

AROUND TEXAS

TODAY IN HISTORY

THURSDAY, MAY 21

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Elysian Social Club will be hosting its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m.

Herlinda Nieto-Dubuisson at 956-2853126.

FRIDAY, MAY 22 TAMIU commencement ceremonies at the Kinesiology and Convocation Building. College of Arts and Sciences (undergraduates only) at 10 a.m.; College of Arts and Sciences (graduates) at 2 p.m.; A. R. Sanchez, Jr. School of Business at 2 p.m.; College of Education at 6 p.m.; College of Nursing and Health Sciences at 6 p.m.

Office of the University Registrar at 326-2250.

SATURDAY, MAY 23 Founders’ Day Celebration at noon at Laredo Center for the Arts, 500 San Agustín Ave. The Webb County Heritage Foundation will host a luncheon honoring the descendants of its founder, Don Tomas Sanchez, and founding families of the community.

The event is open to the public. Tickets are $60. For ticket information and table reservations, WCHF at 956-7270977 or visit www.webbheritage.org.

Laredo Area Retired School Employees Association awards luncheon and installation of officers at 11:30 a.m. at Embassay Suites, 110 Calle del Norte. Marta Kinslow at 722-0214.

TUESDAY, MAY 26 Rock wall climbing from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at LBV Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. People of all ages are invited. Climbers must bring an ID and sign the release form, weather permitting. John Hong at john@laredolibrary.org or 795-2400 x2520.

The Color of Music, a Ballroom Gala-Dance at the Laredo Center for the Arts, 500 San Agustin, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tickets are $15 and are available at the Vidal M. Treviño School of Communications and Fine Arts office at 820 Main and at the Laredo Center for the Arts. Tickets sold at the door. Proceeds will benefit the student activity fund. Robert M. Lopez at 273-7811 or rmlopez004@laredoisd.org.

SATURDAY, MAY 30 LCC’s Rio Grande Arts Festival from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. at LCC Fort McIntosh Campus West End. This celebration includes contests in playwriting, play production, short film, song writing, battle of bands and dance. Admission is free. Martinez Fine Arts Center at martinezfineartscenter@laredo.edu or 721-5334.

LCC presents “Girl in a Coma” as part of the Rio Grande Arts Festival, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Admission is free.

Polly Heil-Mealey, naturopath and certified iridologist, will be at Lighthouse Assembly of God Church, 8731 Belize Dr at Puig at 7 p.m., speaking on whole body wellness. Admission is free. Call 281-312-2860.

SUNDAY, MAY 31 LCC’s Rio Grande Arts Festival from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. at LCC Fort McIntosh Campus West End. Contests in playwriting, play production, short film, song writing, battle of bands and dance. Admission is free. Martinez Fine Arts Center at martinezfineartscenter@laredo.edu or 721-5334.

Photo by Matt McClain | The Washington Post

Ted Cruz got in a light sparring round with reporters in Beaumont Tuesday, mainly working on his attacks on Hillary Clinton and defending his views on same-sex marriage. “Unfortunately this pattern of deception is what we’ve come to expect from the Clintons,” Cruz said, speaking of Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email while she was the U.S. secretary of state.

Ted Cruz spars a bit

By BOBBY BLANCHARD TEXAS TRIBUNE

BEAUMONT — Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz hit some of his main stump points while meeting with local leaders here Tuesday afternoon — promising to defend the Constitution, step back from the Obama administration’s foreign policy and promote economic growth.

Then Texas’s junior Republican U.S. senator — visiting Beaumont to meet privately with county officials and others — got in a light sparring round with reporters, mainly working on his attacks on Hillary Clinton and defending his views on same-sex marriage.

“Is there something about the left — and I am going to put the media in this category — that is obsessed with sex?” Cruz asked after fielding multiple questions on gay rights.

Bags of cocaine, worth $175K, wash up on beach

Legislature OKs making college PD records public

Asst. principal charged in bus driver sex case

GALVESTON — A beachgoer in Southeast Texas has found about $175,000 worth of cocaine in unmarked bags that washed ashore. Galveston police said Monday that the more than 30 bags do not contain any information on the source of the drugs.

Police say a man reported finding the bags Sunday morning on the shore just south of Galveston Island State Park. The bags yielded about 15 pounds of cocaine.

AUSTIN — A bill on its way to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk requires private campus police to release certain records to the public.

The bill’s sponsor, Houston Democratic Sen. John Whitmire, said he filed it after Rice University declined to release information about an incident in 2013.

That’s when police used batons to hit a suspected bicycle thief who they claim resisted arrest.

AUSTIN — The former assistant principal of an Austin school accused of failing to report child sex abuse for months has turned himself in to authorities. Local media outlets report Juan Zea was charged Friday with failing to report two incidents in which he allegedly observed 61-year-old bus driver Leon Young inappropriate touching a 6-year-old girl.

He turned himself in Monday at the Travis County Jail.

2 sentenced to prison for bribing voters with drugs MCALLEN — Two women who worked in a South Texas school board campaign in 2012 have been sentenced to prison for bribing voters with cocaine, cash and other enticements.

A federal judge in McAllen sentenced Veronica Saldivar of Donna to eight months in prison after she pleaded guilty

MONDAY, JUNE 1 Monthly Laredo Soup Dinner from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Holding Institute Community Center, 1102 Santa Maria. For a $5 donation, attendees receive soup, salad, bread and a vote for one of four presentations ranging from art, urban agriculture, social justice, social entrepreneurs, education, technology and more. Ballots are counted and the winner goes home with all of the money raised to carry out their project. Vicky Garcia at laredosoup@gmail.com or 763-3667.

THURSDAY, JUNE 4 Elysian Social Club will be hosting its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m.

Herlinda Nieto-Dubuisson at 285-3126.

(Submit calendar items at lmtonline.com/calendar/submit or by emailing editorial@lmtonline.com with the event’s name, date and time, location and purpose and contact information for a representative. Items will run as space is available.)

“ISIS is executing homosexuals — you want to talk about gay rights? This week was a very bad week for gay rights because the expansion of ISIS, the expansion of radical, theocratic, Islamic zealots that crucify Christians, that behead children and that murder homosexuals — that ought to be concerning you far more than asking six questions all on the same topic.”

Cruz also said he did not think his opposition to gay marriage will hurt his chances with moderate voters.

“With respect, I would suggest not drawing your questions from MSNBC — they have very few viewers and they are a radical and extreme partisan outlet,” Cruz told a reporter.

He cited the expansion of “mandatory same-sex marriage” as an assault on religious liberty in the United States.

Man drowns after saving Houston police investigate daughter in water at dam slaying in drive-thru lane ROUND ROCK — A man has drowned after rescuing his 4year-old daughter from a stormswelled creek at a Central Texas dam.

Police in Round Rock say the man’s body was recovered shortly after the accident Sunday in Brushy Creek. Officials identified the victim as 38-year-old Jorge Martinez Sr.

HOUSTON — Houston police are trying to determine who robbed and fatally shot a man as he waited in his vehicle in the drive-thru lane of a restaurant.

Police responded to a report of a suspicious person to find the victim still sitting inside his vehicle in the drive-thru lane. The driver was dead at the scene.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION It’s not an ostrich: Emu causes I-20 traffic jam DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. — Drivers may have mistaken it for an ostrich, but an emu was at the heart of a highway traffic jam in metro Atlanta.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that authorities in Douglas County received calls about a big bird running around Interstate 20 early Tuesday morning.

Douglas County sheriff ’s Lt. Glenn Daniel says the emu had gotten loose from a private owner who lived nearby.

Several deputies corralled and captured the flightless bird. Daniel says it appeared to be scared but was not injured and was returned to its owner.

Egg prices jump as impact of bird flu pinches supply DES MOINES, Iowa — Egg prices have surged higher as the

Today is Wednesday, May 20, the 140th day of 2015. There are 225 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History: On May 20, 1915, Israeli soldier-statesman Moshe Dayan was born at Deganya Alef Kibbutz.

On this date: In 1712, the original version of Alexander Pope’s satirical mock-heroic poem “The Rape of the Lock” was published anonymously in Lintot’s Miscellany.

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, which was intended to encourage settlements west of the Mississippi River by making federal land available for farming.

In 1902, the United States ended a three-year military presence in Cuba as the Republic of Cuba was established under its first elected president, Tomas Estrada Palma.

In 1932, Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. (Because of weather and equipment problems, Earhart set down in Northern Ireland instead of her intended destination, France.)

In 1959, nearly 5,000 Japanese-Americans had their U.S. citizenships restored after choosing to renounce them during World War II. In 1961, a white mob attacked a busload of Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama, prompting the federal government to send in U.S. marshals to restore order.

In 1970, some 100,000 people demonstrated in New York’s Wall Street district in support of U.S. policy in Vietnam and Cambodia.

In 1995, President Bill Clinton announced that the twoblock stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House would be permanently closed to motor vehicles as a security measure.

Ten years ago: The U.S. military condemned the publication of photographs showing an imprisoned Saddam Hussein clad only in his white underwear after the pictures were leaked to a British tabloid.

Five years ago: Under pressure following security lapses, retired Navy Adm. Dennis Blair resigned as national intelligence director.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon took his opposition to a new Arizona immigration law to the U.S. Congress, telling lawmakers it ignored “a reality that cannot be erased by decree.” A masked intruder stole a Picasso, a Matisse and three other masterpieces from a Paris museum.

One year ago: In Kentucky’s primary, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell dispatched his tea party challenger, Matt Bevin, with ease; Democrats chose Alison Lundergan Graimes to oppose McConnell in the fall (McConnell went on to win).

Today’s Birthdays: Actorauthor James McEachin is 85.

Singer-actress Cher is 69. Actor-comedian Dave Thomas is 67. Former New York Gov. David Paterson is 61. Actor John Billingsley is 55. Actor Tony Goldwyn is 55. Actress Gina Ravera is 49. Actor Timothy Olyphant is 47. Rapper Busta Rhymes is 43. Actor Matt Czuchry is 38.

Thought for Today: “If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.” — Moshe Dayan (1915-1981).

CONTACT US Publisher, William B. Green........................728-2501 Account Executive, Dora Martinez ...... (956) 765-5113 General Manager, Adriana Devally ...............728-2510 Adv. Billing Inquiries ................................. 728-2531 Circulation Director ................................. 728-2559 MIS Director, Michael Castillo.................... 728-2505 Copy Editor, Nick Georgiou ....................... 728-2565 Sports Editor, Zach Davis ..........................728-2578 Spanish Editor, Melva Lavin-Castillo............ 728-2569 Photo by Alex Roman/Douglas County Sheriff’s Office | AP

In this photo provided by the Douglas County (Ga.) Sheriff’s Office, a handler holds on to an emu that wandered onto Interstate 20 west of Atlanta and slowed traffic Tuesday. Authorities said the bird escaped from a private owner’s property. death of millions of hens from bird flu is beginning to tighten supplies.

The Midwest price of a dozen large eggs rose to $1.88. That’s 58 percent higher than they were a month ago when the bird flu first hit Iowa chicken farms.

Prices have been climbing at a rate of about 5 percent a day for the past week as supplies become tighter.

About 10 percent of chickens that lay eggs for food are dead or dying from bird flu.

— Compiled from AP reports

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

The Zapata Times is free.

The Zapata Times is published by the Laredo Morning Times, a division of The Hearst Corporation, P.O. Box 2129, Laredo, Texas 78044. Phone (956) 728-2500.

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

State

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

Police investigating bikers still on guard

By MANNY FERNANDEZ, RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA AND ALAN BLINDER NEW YORK TIMES

WACO — Investigating the gunbattle here that killed nine motorcycle gang members and put about 170 in jail, the police said on Tuesday that they remained on guard against renewed violence, though that threat seemed to have died down, and that they were still not sure how many of the dead were killed by officers.

The authorities have released mug shots of at least 51 of those arrested in the brawl-turned-shootout Sunday afternoon at the Twin Peaks restaurant here. All were men, ranging in age from 24 to 45.

The police have not identified those who died — investigators have had trouble notifying some of their families, a task made harder by people who have called and falsely claimed to be relatives — but they expect to release the names soon, said Sgt. Patrick Swanton, a Waco Police Department spokesman. He also held out the possibility of more arrests of people involved in the mayhem, in addition to about 170 already in custody.

The investigation involves a daunting amount of evidence and number of suspects, and the Waco police are being helped by Texas state law enforcement agencies, as well as the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The authorities collected more than 100 guns, and more than 100 other weapons, including knives and chains with padlocks affixed to the ends. Swanton said the police were still combing through the restaurant, parking lot and surrounding grounds, collecting bullet fragments and shell casings.

Responding to reports that four of the dead were shot by officers, Swanton

Photo by Jerry Larson | AP

Waco Police Sgt. Patrick Swanton addresses the media as law enforcement continues to investigate the motorcycle gang related shooting at the Twin Peaks restaurant, Monday in Waco, where nine were killed Sunday and over a dozen injured. said: “Is it possible? Yes. Is it a fact? No, because the autopsies are not complete.”

The rival gangs that battled at the restaurant, part of a busy shopping center just off Interstate 35 in south Waco, first took aim at each other, but officials have said that when officers stationed there tried to intervene, some of the bikers turned their guns on the police, who returned fire.

“There have been credible, reliable threats toward law enforcement in and around our area,” Swanton said Tuesday. “I will tell you those have toned down in the last 24 hours.”

After the shooting on Sunday, the state-run Texas Joint Crime Information Center issued an advisory that members of the two main gangs involved, the Bandidos and the Cossacks, “reportedly have been instructed to arm themselves with weapons and travel to North Texas.” The bulletin said the Bandidos were believed to have summoned additional members from Arkansas and New Mexico, to commit violence against rival gangs and law enforcement officers.

“We certainly hope it

Photo courtesy of McLennan County Sheriff’s Office | AP

This combination of booking photos shows people arrested during the motorcycle gang related shooting in Waco on Sunday. doesn’t happen here, but if it does, we’re going to meet it head-on,” said the McLennan County sheriff, Parnell McNamara.

Law enforcement officials here have been on what McNamara called a “high state of alert.” Police vehicles and police helicopters have been patrolling near the shopping center.

Security concerns were acute enough that when flatbed trucks on Monday transported some of the 135 motorcycles impounded in the restaurant parking lot, they were accompanied by a SWAT team.

That threat, too, seemed to have abated by Tuesday, but “in the biker-gang

world, violence usually begets more violence,” Swanton said. “Is it over? Probably not.”

J. Greg Gullion, an associate professor of sociology and criminal justice at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, said of Sunday’s shootout, “This is a declaration of war between motorcycle gangs, and this will turn into a long-lasting, bitter feud.”

Eighteen people were taken to hospitals with injuries suffered in the violence, and seven of them remained hospitalized Tuesday morning. All are expected to recover.

As for those patients who have been released,

“We know who they are,” Swanton said. “Are there additional arrests expected? That is a very good possibility.”

The arrested bikers have been charged with engaging in organized crime related to capital murder, and bail has been set at $1 million for each of them. Officials said they were being held in group cells in the county jail, with members of different gangs kept apart.

On Tuesday morning, a man who answered the phone at a home in Red Oak, outside Dallas, identified himself as the grandfather of Brian Logan, 38, who was among those charged in Waco. The man declined to speak to a reporter. He said that Logan had a lawyer, whom he declined to identify.

C. Daniel Jones III, a lawyer representing another accused biker, Jimmy Dan Smith, said Tuesday that the district attorney’s office appeared “overwhelmed by the volume of activity.” He said he understood the concerns of officials who sought and set high bail, but that the $1 million bond was excessive for Smith, a 59-year-old shop manager for a con-

struction company, who he said had no criminal history.

“I don’t think he did anything,” Jones said. “I think the problem is he was there and there was an injured person that he helped take to the hospital.”

According to gang leaders and law enforcement officials, a regional coalition of motorcycle clubs, including the Bandidos, one of the nation’s largest biker gangs and the dominant one in Texas, was gathering at the restaurant Sunday for one of its periodic meetings.

Motorcyclists showed up from other gangs that had not been invited, including the Cossacks, bitter rivals of the Bandidos, and the Scimitars, a group affiliated with the Cossacks. In all, officials say, five gangs were involved.

Though the rivalry between the Bandidos and the Cossacks dates to the 1960s, when the clubs were established, in the past two years the two groups have had numerous run-ins.

Much of the recent conflict stemmed from members of the Cossacks, a smaller club, refusing to pay tribute to the Bandidos, according to a law enforcement official who asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly. People who study the gangs say the Cossacks had also violated protocol by wearing insignia without approval from the regional coalition dominated by the Bandidos.

The police have said the violence Sunday began as a dispute over parking, and Swanton said another element may have been one person running over another’s foot. But he acknowledged that piecing together what happened has been difficult, because of “people not being truthful with us about what went on inside and outside.”

PAGE 4A

Zopinion

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015

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

COLUMN

OTHER VIEWS

Learning from mistakes If you could go back to 1889 and strangle Adolf Hitler in his crib, would you do it? At one level, the answer is obvious. Of course, you should. If there had been no Hitler, presumably the Nazi Party would have lacked the charismatic leader it needed to rise to power. Presumably, there would have been no World War II, no Holocaust, no millions dead on the Eastern and Western fronts.

But, on the other hand, if there were no World War II, you wouldn’t have had the infusion of women into the workforce. You wouldn’t have had the pacification of Europe, PaxAmericana, which led to decades of peace and prosperity, or the end of the British and other empires.

History is an infinitely complex web of causations.

To erase mistakes from the past is to obliterate your world now. You can’t go back and know then what you know now. You can’t step in the same river twice.

So it’s really hard to give simple sound-bite answers about past mistakes.

The question, would you go back and undo your errors, is unanswerable. It’s only useful to ask, what wisdom have you learned from your misjudgments that will help you going forward?

Which brings us to Iraq.

From the current vantage point, the decision to go to war was a clear misjudgment, made by President George W. Bush and supported by 72 percent of the American public who were polled at the time. I supported it, too.

What can be learned?

The first obvious lesson is that we should look at intelligence products with a more skeptical eye.

There’s a fable going around now that the intelligence about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction was all cooked by political pressure, that there was a big political conspiracy to lie us into war.

That doesn’t gibe with the facts. Anybody conversant with the Robb-Silberman report from 2005 knows that this was a case of human fallibility. This exhaustive, bipartisan commission found "a major intelligence failure": "The failure was not merely that the Intelligence Community’s assessments were wrong. There were also serious shortcomings in the way these assessments were made and communicated to policy makers."

The Iraq War error reminds us of the need for epistemological modesty.

We don’t know much about the world, and much of our information is wrong. A successful president has to make decisions while radiating hesitancy,

“

DAVID BROOKS

staying open-minded in the face of new evidence, not falling into the traps that afflict those who possess excessive self-confidence.

The second lesson of Iraq concerns this question: How much can we really change other nations? Every foreign policy dilemma involves a calibration. Should we lean forward to try to influence this or that region? Or should we hang back figuring we’ll just end up making everything worse.

After the 1990s, many of us were leaning in the interventionist direction.

We’d seen the fall of the apartheid regime, which made South Africa better.

We’d seen the fall of communist regimes, which made the Eastern bloc nations better. Many of us thought that, by taking down Saddam Hussein, we could end another evil empire, and gradually open up human development in Iraq and the Arab world.

Has that happened? In 2004, I would have said yes.

In 2006, I would have said no. In 2015, I say yes and no, but mostly no.

The outcome, so far, in Iraq should remind us that we don’t really know much about how other cultures will evolve. We can exert only clumsy and indirect influence on how other nations govern themselves.

When you take away basic order, people respond with sectarian savagery.

If the victory in the Cold War taught us to lean forward and be interventionist, the legacy of the 2003 Iraq decision should cause us to pull back from the excesses of that mentality, to have less faith in America’s ability to understand other places and effect change.

These are all data points in a larger education — along with the surge and the recent withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan. I wind up in a place with less interventionist instincts than where Bush was in 2003 but significantly more interventionist instincts than where President Barack Obama is inclined to be today.

Finally, Iraq teaches us to be suspicious of leaders who try to force revolutionary, transformational change. It teaches us to have respect for trimmers, leaders who pay minute attention to context, who try to lead gradual but constant change. It teaches us to honor those who respect the unfathomable complexity of history and who are humble in the face of consequences to their actions that they cannot fully predict or understand.

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 namecalling 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

Red ants as mean as brother My hero Leon Hale, a former longtime Houston Chronicle columnist and current Facebook blogger and tweeter, never fails to prompt a story in my mind.

Other than my Life Mate, probably no other person stimulates a lot of thought in that direction for me besides Leon.

Leon’s 94 and still cranking out blogs for the Chronicle. He’s written 11 books that have a place in my office-study-man cave a la converted screened-in back porch.

I’ve mentioned Leon here on several occasions, and it usually stirs someone to write and ask how to get his books. Most should be in just about any good Texas library. After all, he’s been honored by the Texas Institute of Letters and was recently inducted into the Texas Newspaper Foundation Hall of Fame. Some are out of print, but the more recent ones should be available, at least through ordering, at most bookstores of any size.

But, I digress. A column he wrote was about Texas red ants, which these fancy bug-insect specialists’ (entomologists) designation is harvester ant, brought back memories of my own. I nev-

er heard ‘em called any thing except “them ol’ red ants.”

Before fire ants took us over, they were plentiful in the eastern half of our Lone Star State but you can’t find a sign of ‘em now except, I’m told, in sections of West Texas.

My recollection of these critters are of a totally “red” body, somewhere around a quarter-inch long (maximum). And, they hurt like the mischief when they stung you.

Their beds were rounded, slight rises in sandy or clayish soil anywhere from 5-6 inches across up to huge ones with seemingly “thousands” of the ants. I recall having seen mounds that I believed to be 14-18 inches across and a couple I would swear were more than two feet in diameter. But, then I was seeing through 8-9 year old eyes, and we all know those can actually see a man made of green cheese grinning at us from that thing called the moon.

If we were intent on play-

ing some game or another, particularly with our “best buddies,” then caution got thrown to the winds as to where we stood. And, we learned that if you stood too long in one spot near the multitude of trails from the bed, it’s likely one or two or a dozen might find their way up your foot and pants leg. Then, if you twitched a muscle or tried to scratch the area beneath your jeans leg where you felt the “tickle” of the ant crawling, out came that painful, burning stinger and screams of pain followed by tears, letting all in the immediate area know you’d become the prey.

Naturally, after any punishing brush with the red ants, the 8-9 year old mind wants revenge. Stomping on the bed or trying to dig it up was even more dangerous, not to mention dumb, than just standing anywhere near an ant trail.

Our devious and vengeful minds set about creative ways to destroy the devilcolored (we’d determined) red ants.

A magnifying glass focusing a fiery sun ray on a small object like an ant, can rapidly burn it to a crisp, little wisp of smoke and all.

Heh, heh.

But, one day there was

an infrequent visit to the home of Mom’s best friend, Pauline Partin, and (whoopee!) a chance for my younger brother and me to play with Miss Pauline’s two boys, Billy Wayne and Tommy, who were just the best buddies anyone could have.

So, we’re playing in the yard, somewhat unfamiliar territory since we weren’t frequent visitors. And, we got carried away with that and Tommy, the younger Partin, unknowingly stood on a red ant bed.

Soon, the varmints were all up his pants leg and stinging the fire out of him.

He’s screaming for help, telling big brother, Billy Wayne, that ants are stinging him.

Billy Wayne just grinned and said, “Aw, that’s just meanness popping out on you.”

I don’t remember if their mom spanked Billy or not, but I’d almost bet on it. Plus the admonishment had to contain some remark about “meanness,” and I don’t think it was applied to red ants.

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

Safer online access remains elusive PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

According to Microsoft research, the average American has 25 accounts requiring passwords and accesses about eight of them every day. But for those two dozen or so accounts, most people use just six or seven passwords, increasing their vulnerability to hackers.

Enter the U.S. government, which proposes to im-

prove cybersecurity and end the nation’s "password fatigue" by making the password extinct. The mantra of the Obama administration’s cybersecurity coordinator, Michael Daniel, is "kill the password dead," but don’t write its obituary yet. Alternatives on the table carry their own risks. Another roadblock to freedom from passwords is the government itself, which wants

technology it alone can hack.

Passwords could be gone tomorrow, replaced with thumbprints, facial recognition, eye scans and other sophisticated (and expensive) authentications. Mr. Daniel recently spoke of an identifying selfie: The user would snap a picture with his cell phone, unlocking his account. Many people, however, remain distrustful of bio-

metric scans, and the theft of a thumbprint would be worse than that of a password.

This leaves hapless consumers left with passwords until America works out its privacy issues. It’s good the private sector stands ready to help there, too. A number of new products, such as IPassword and PasswordBox, promise to store passwords for the forgetful.

CLASSIC DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

State

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

Cannabis oil approved West Texas school for epilepsy patients district under review

By AMAN BATHEJA TEXAS TRIBUNE

Despite concerns from some lawmakers that they were taking the first step toward legalizing marijuana, the Texas House tentatively approved a bill Monday that would allow epilepsy patients in Texas to use medicinal oils containing a therapeutic component found in the plant.

On a 96-34 vote, the House passed Senate Bill 339, from state Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, which would legalize oils containing CBD, a non-euphoric component of marijuana known to treat epilepsy and other chronic medical conditions. If the House gives final passage in a follow-up vote, the measure will be Gov. Greg Abbott’s to sign, veto or allow to become law without his signature. If it becomes law, the state would be able to regulate and distribute the oils to patients whose symptoms have not responded to federally approved medication.

Before the vote, state Rep. Stephanie Klick, RFort Worth, the bill’s House sponsor, repeatedly stressed to House members that the product she was trying to legalize should not be confused with marijuana.

“It is also not something you can get high on. It has a low risk of abuse,” Klick said. “This is not something that can be smoked.

It is ingested orally.”

Texas is one of 16 states where marijuana is illegal for medical and recreational use. In recent years, 13 states have legalized CBD oil for certain medical conditions. Twenty-three other states and the District of Columbia have laws allowing broader medical marijuana use.

At an April hearing of the House Committee on Public Health, supporters recounted the seizures endured by children who

they say could benefit from derivatives of medical marijuana. But opponents, including representatives of law enforcement agencies, expressed concerns that increased access to any component of marijuana would jeopardize public safety and lead to increased recreational use of marijuana throughout the state.

Several Republican lawmakers brought up those concerns during the House floor debate. At one point, over the shouts of House members booing, state Rep. Mark Keough, R-The Woodlands, yelled, “This is a bad bill.”

State Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, and a House sponsor of the bill along with Klick, responded: “It is not a bad bill. It is a great bill, and it is going to save lives.”

The bill requires the

state to regulate the distribution of the medication, directing the Texas Department of Public Safety to license at least three dispensing organizations by Sept. 1, 2017, provided that at least that many applicants have met the state’s requirements. Klick said on the House floor that the dispensaries would function similar to compounding pharmacies. Under the bill, only a neurologist or epileptologist would be able to prescribe CBD oil.

State Rep. David Simpson, a Longview Republican who drew national attention this session for his efforts to decriminalize marijuana, urged House members to back SB 339.

“Many people think it’s government doing too little too late, but it is a step forward for medical freedom and personal responsibility,” Simpson said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

EL PASO — A West Texas school district that for several years was the focus of a testing scores scandal has come under review again by the state, but this time for attendance and course credit practices.

Details were announced by the Texas education commissioner during a Monday meeting with the El Paso Times’ editorial board.

The newspaper reported in February that an internal audit found the El Paso Independent School District’s policies may violate state law. The audit conducted during the 2013-14 school year looked into course credits issued for students who missed school for a while.

The Texas Education Code requires students to attend 90 percent of sched-

uled school days to receive credit for a course. Students who attend between 75 percent and 90 percent of the days can receive credit for extenuating circumstances, like medical conditions, or if they complete an alternative plan approved by the school principal.

School committees hear students’ petition for credit. They will award it, deny it or require students to complete alternative learning activities or a principal’s plan.

The audit found some students had received credit for activities like donating blood, organizing a locker room or tutoring students in unrelated subjects. Auditors reviewed 314 student files and weren’t able to validate committees’ decisions to reinstate or deny credit in more than half of the

cases.

Superintendent Juan Cabrera said auditors also examined attendances and found absences might have been incorrectly counted.

District leaders voted May 7 to self-report the attendance findings to the agency.

The Texas Education Agency notified the district in a letter of its investigation. The letter outlines which documents the district must supply to the state agency by next week.

Cabrera asked for additional time in a reply letter dated Monday to compile the records since the agency’s request would cover almost 5,500 students.

Former superintendent Lorenzo Garcia was convicted in 2012 of conspiracy to commit mail fraud for his role in a districtwide scheme to artificially inflate student test scores.

Nation

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015

Clinton wants emails out Killed IS leader may

By JULIE PACE AND LISA LERER

have kept US hostage

ASSOCIATED PRESS

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — Hillary Rodham Clinton urged the State Department on Tuesday to speed the release of 55,000 pages of emails from her time as secretary of state, as her decision to spurn administration rules and use a private email address continued to dog her presidential campaign.

“I want those emails out,” Clinton said at a campaign event in Iowa.

Clinton’s comments came shortly after a federal judge rejected a State Department proposal to release the emails by next January. The judge instead ordered the agency to conduct a “rolling production” of the records in the meantime.

That all but guarantees a slow drip of revelations from the emails throughout Clinton’s primary campaign, complicating her efforts to put the issue to rest.

The agency’s original plan would have set the release date just a few weeks before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

In an Associated PressGfK poll released earlier this month, six in ten voters said the word “honest” describes Clinton only slightly well or not well at all. And the continuing stories about her use of a private email account run from a server at her New York home while in government have enabled Republicans to work at feeding perceptions she had things to hide.

“If Clinton wanted all of her emails to be public, she wouldn’t have created her own server in the first place,” said Allison Moore, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.

Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said Tuesday she wanted the documents to be released as soon as possible.

“Nobody has a bigger in-

By LOLITA C. BALDOR AND KEN DILANIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais | AP file

This March 23 file photo shows Hillary Clinton speaking at an event hosted by the Center for American Progress in Washington. terest in getting them released than I do,” she said.

Asked if she would demand their release, Clinton said of the emails, “They’re not mine. They belong to the State Department.”

Clinton turned her emails over to the State Department last year, nearly two years after leaving the Obama administration. Despite administration rules requiring officials to conduct business using their government email addresses, Clinton communicated exclusively via a personal email account run on a private server.

She has said she got rid of about 30,000 emails she deemed exclusively personal. Only she and perhaps a small circle of advisers know the content of the discarded communications.

The State Department made its proposal to release the emails by mid-January in a federal court filing Monday night, as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Vice News.

John F. Hackett, who is responsible for the department’s responses to FOIA requests, said in the filing the department had received the 55,000 pages of emails from Clinton in paper form.

“Given the breadth and importance of the many foreign policy issues on which

the secretary of state and the department work, the review of these materials will likely require consultation with a broad range of subject matter experts within the department and other agencies, as well as potentially with foreign governments,” he wrote.

The federal judge who rejected the State Department proposal gave the agency a week to craft a schedule for releasing the records, according to Vice News lawyer Jeffrey Light. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said the agency would comply.

Clinton addressed the email issue during a rare question-and-answer session with reporters. Before Tuesday, it had been nearly a month since she had taken questions from journalists who are trailing her from stop to stop.

Her reluctance to take questions has fueled criticism from Republicans who say she’s dodging tough issues. Some Democrats have also worried that she has risked looking entitled to the nomination by avoiding speaking about things that other candidates for the nomination are willing to tackle.

She briefly addressed questions about her family’s charitable foundation Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating the possibility that the Islamic State militant leader killed Friday was the captor of American hostage Kayla Mueller for a time.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, confirmed the line of inquiry at a breakfast with reporters Tuesday, but declined further comment. ABC News first reported that U.S. officials believe Mueller, whose death was announced in February, spent time in the custody of the Tunisian Islamic State finance man known as Abu Sayyaf.

A U.S. official on Tuesday said Sayyaf ’s real name was Fathi ben Awn ben Jildi Murad al-Tunisi.

Murad was killed Friday during a rare ground operation in Islamic Stateheld territory in Syria by Delta Force operators. His wife, known as Umm Sayyaf, was taken into custody and is being interrogated, U.S. officials say. She is cooperative and providing “a trove” of intelligence, said a congressional official briefed on the matter.

Intelligence analysts are also sifting through reams of electronic data seized at the site, the official said.

Murad had a number of aliases, the U.S. official said, but officials believe Murad is his real name.

Murad is believed to be the Islamic State’s head of oil operations.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The Islamic State group said Mueller was killed in a Jordanian air strike, but

Photo by Jo. L. Keener/The Daily Courier | AP file

In this May 30, 2013, file photo, Kayla Mueller is shown after speaking to a group in Prescott, Ariz.

U.S. officials have cast doubt on that assertion.

Mueller and her Syrian boyfriend were taken hostage in August 2013 after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria. The boyfriend was later released.

White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan declined to address the issue and the Mueller family had no immediate comment.

“We are currently debriefing the detainee to obtain intelligence about ISIL operations,” she said, using one acronym for the Islamic State group. “We are also working to determine any information she may have regarding hostages — including American citizens who were held

by ISIL.” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said: “We have been in touch with the families of those American hostages previously held by ISIL. Given the sensitivity of those discussions, and out of respect for these families, we don’t have more details to provide on those conversations.”

A U.S. official provided more details on the Friday night raid.

The commandos who flew by Black Hawk and

V-22 Osprey aircraft into Syria under cover of darkness quickly met resistance on the ground. They blew a hole in the building where Murad was believed to be staying and as they ran into the building and up the stairs, they encountered more insurgents.

The official said that at that point the U.S. forces battled in close-quarters combat, including some hand-to-hand fighting.

The goal of the mission, which had undergone months of planning, was to take Murad and his wife alive. The U.S. hoped he would provide intelligence on the group’s operations, finances and information on whom they do business with and, potentially, on their leader, Abu Bakr alBaghdadi. Another part of the plan was to free an 18year-old Yazidi girl who was believed to have been kept as a slave by the Islamic State leader and his wife.

The girl was found and freed by the commandos and is expected to be returned to her family after she is debriefed by the U.S. A team from U.S. intelligence agencies is poring over the laptops, cellphones, computer drives and other data recovered at the site.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015

ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

Sports&Outdoors NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION: HOUSTON ROCKETS

Depth pushing Rockets Houston on to West Finals

By KRISTIE RIEKEN ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON — James Harden and Dwight Howard are undeniably Houston’s most important players.

But without role players like Josh Smith, Corey Brewer and even 38-year-old Pablo Prigioni, who spent most of his career overseas, the Rockets probably wouldn’t be in the Western Conference finals for the first time since 1997.

“When you are trying to win championships role players have to play a big role,” Brewer said.

And Brewer has done just that, averaging 15 points in the last three games to help Houston rebound from a 3-1 deficit to eliminate the Los Angeles Clippers and move on.

Brewer was acquired from Minnesota in December and has provided a spark off the bench time and time again this season.

That was never more evident than in Game 6 against the Clippers when the Rock-

Photo by David J. Phillip | AP

Houston’s James Harden was an MVP candidate, but the Rockets depth this season has helped the team move on to the Western Conference Finals. ets rallied from a 19-point third-quarter deficit for the win. Brewer scored 15 points in the fourth quarter to lead that furious comeback and Smith added 14 in the final period.

“Those guys have made a huge impact on this team,” coach Kevin McHale said.

“They’ve won many, many games for us and I anticipate they’ll win more for us.

Those guys are just high-energy. Brew had a great series. In the games we won he was just huge.” Smith has had a remarkable turnaround since joining the Rockets. Derided for being a cancer to the team after he was released in Detroit, Smith has found peace and

a fresh start in Houston with childhood friend Howard.

“A lot of people tried to write me off and put all kind of negative things out here,” Smith said. “But I knew that one day I was going to be able to get the opportunity to play for a team that valued and appreciated me and I’m here now.”

McHale beamed when asked about Smith and loves what the forward has brought to Houston.

“He’s been huge for our team and I’m really happy for him,” McHale said.

“We’re not standing here without what he did in Game 6. Everybody played great defensively, but he and

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS

Kraft not appealing

By BARRY WILNER ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO — Now that Patriots owner Robert Kraft is not appealing his team’s punishments in the deflated footballs scandal, only his quarterback’s challenge remains.

Moments after Kraft said Tuesday he won’t oppose the $1 million fine and loss of two draft choices the NFL penalized the team for its role in using underinflated footballs in the AFC championship game, the players’ union reasserted that Tom Brady’s appeal will go forward.

Brady, the MVP of February’s Super Bowl and one of the league’s biggest stars, has been suspended for the first four games of the 2015 season by the NFL. So while Kraft sought to end the "dialogue and rhetoric," it’s certain "Deflategate" won’t disappear anytime soon.

At the owners meetings, Kraft said he was putting the league before his franchise because "at no time should the agenda of one team outweigh the collective good of the 32."

The Patriots will lose a first-round draft pick next year and a fourth-rounder in 2017.

"When the discipline camea out, I felt it was way over the top," Kraft said, adding that if he had made his decision last week, "I think maybe it might have been a different one."

But after further consideration, he cited "believing in the strength of the (NFL) partnership and the 32 teams" for dropping any appeal plans.

Kraft also recognized the powers given to Commissioner Roger Goodell.

"Although I might disagree in what is decided, I do have respect for the com-

Photo by AP

New England owner Robert Kraft is not appealing his team’s punishments in the deflated footballs scandal, only his quarterback’s challenge remains. missioner, and believe he is doing what he perceives to be in the best interest of the 32," Kraft added.

Kraft would not take any questions Tuesday about his decision nor about Brady’s appeal, which will be heard

by Goodell. But he has said he’s convinced Brady played no part in deflating the footballs.

Brady’s appeal will be heard within the next week.

On Tuesday, the union formally requested that Goodell recuse himself from serving as arbitrator, saying he is not impartial and that he is a "central witness in the appeal."

An NFL spokesman said the league would have no comment.

Kraft was livid when the Wells Report, which was commissioned by the NFL and took nearly four months to compile, contained what he termed "all circumstantial, no hard evidence." He said Tuesday that "the entire process has taken too long; it’s four months after the AFC championship game, and we are still talking about air pressure ... in footballs."

This is the second time in Kraft’s 21 years as owner that the Patriots have been disciplined for breaking NFL rules. In 2007, they

were penalized for videotaping New York Jets signals during a game. They didn’t challenge fines of $500,000 against coach Bill Belichick and $250,000 against the club, along with the loss of a first-round draft pick.

Kraft has long been a confidant and adviser to Goodell and was one of the owners who championed Goodell to replace Paul Tagliabue in 2006. Kraft also was one of the leaders in getting key owners and the union together to end the 2011 lockout, and he’s been a major force in negotiations with TV networks.

In other words, a team player, something he stressed in his short news conference Tuesday.

"What I’ve learned over the last 21 years is the heart and soul and strength of the NFL," he said, "is the partnership of 32 teams."

Outside the Ritz-Carlton, Chase Bender, a 21-year-old who identified himself as a football fan, made his own statement. He had a pile of deflated footballs and a bag full of more, along with a Patriots helmet.

"I don’t really think they cheated," he said. "If they did, just say sorry and that you know it was wrong, accept your penalty and get on with it."

Brew offensively carried us in that fourth quarter. So it’s great ... sometimes some of the darkest times are followed by light and I’m just happy that he’s getting some good coverage.”

Tuesday night’s game at Golden State will mark the 29-year-old Smith’s first trip to the conference finals. He’s averaging 12.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists this postseason. And even more important, the Rockets haven’t lost since McHale inserted him into the starting lineup when they were down two games in the conference semifinals. He’s been great from long-range, shooting 37 percent on 3pointers.

He’s proud that his performance has helped give the Rockets more options when teams focus on shutting down Howard and Harden.

“It’s big,” Smith said.

“This team has a lot of depth and (Harden and Howard) have a great supporting cast and they understand and know that all the weight doesn’t have to be on their shoulders in order to get us over the hump. Everybody in each one of these first two rounds has contributed and made impacts on the games.”

Perhaps the most unlikely contributor on this team is Prigioni. Acquired in February, Prigioni became

Houston’s backup point guard when starter Pat Beverley had season-ending surgery wrist surgery in March.

“Very impressed with Pablo,” Brewer said. “To be a 38-year-old man out there playing like he’s 20 is amazing.”

The Argentinian played for years overseas before making his NBA debut with the Knicks in 2012 at age 35.

He had two steals and a 3pointer during an important stretch on Sunday to extend the lead when the Clippers had cut it to three points.

Harden is quick to heap praise upon Houston’s unsung heroes and took time after scoring 31 points in Houston’s win on Sunday to give those guys some love.

He was more than happy to rave about them again on Monday before the Rockets left for California.

“They’ve meant everything,” he said. “They’ve been confident throughout the way. Sometimes shots don’t fall but they find other ways to attack the game and make an impact on the game. Pablo knocking down a big 3, getting a couple of offensive rebounds and getting it out for 3s — those plays like that are probably not going to be on the highlights, but those are gamechangers right there.”

Nation

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015

Unions want 2nd person in locomotive

By MICHAEL R. SISAK ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHILADELPHIA — The union for Amtrak’s locomotive engineers urged the railroad on Tuesday to put a second crew member at the controls of trains on the busy Northeast Corridor, where a derailment killed eight people and injured more than 200 others.

“The public would never accept an airline operation with a single person in the cockpit,” the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen said in a statement. “There is no reason that rail employees and rail passengers’ lives should be viewed any differently.”

Brandon Bostian, 32, was alone in the locomotive of Train 188 when it derailed May 12, about 10 minutes after departing Philadelphia for New York.

Train 188 had a fivemember crew — including a conductor who is still hospitalized with serious injuries — but they were in the passenger coaches, closed off from the locomotive.

Amtrak hasn’t had a second crew member in the locomotive of its Northeast Corridor trains since Congress ended the requirement in the early 1980s, the union said.

In a statement, Amtrak said it operates its locomotives in accordance with federal standards and that its locomotive engineers and train conductors work together to ensure safe train operation.

“Amtrak is and always

Photo by Julio Cortez | AP

Bruce Nagel, attorney for Amtrak conductor Emilio Fonseca, who was working on the first car of last week’s train wreck in Philadelphia, speaks during a news conference, Tuesday, in Roseland, N.J. Fonseca has sued Amtrak, claiming negligence and carelessness. has been committed to safety as its number one priority and continues to work with all the stakeholders toward a consensus on the appropriate management of crew resources in passenger train locomotives,” the statement said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is looking into why the train was going more than double the 50 mph limit around a sharp curve. It is also investigating whether an object may have struck the locomotive’s windshield before the crash.

The FBI said it found no evidence a grapefruit-sized fracture on the windshield was caused by a firearm,

and the NTSB said it was unsure anything had struck the vehicle.

Investigators said Bostian, who was among the injured, told them in an interview that he couldn’t recall anything from the last 3 miles before the derailment.

About 20 people remained hospitalized Tuesday. Five were listed in critical condition.

Authorities say it could be a year before they determine the probable cause of the derailment.

The union Tuesday called on Congress to require a second “fully trained and qualified” crew member in each locomo-

tive, but stopped short of demanding that person also be an engineer.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., suggested Tuesday that Amtrak at least place a second crew member in the locomotive until automatic speed control technology is fully implemented.

A former NTSB chief railroad crash investigator questioned the idea, saying putting multiple crew members in a locomotive was “more of a distraction” than a safeguard and most likely would not have prevented the May 12 derailment.

The former investigator, Ed Dobranetski, pointed to a 1996 collision outside

Washington, D.C., in which a commuter train engineer was thought to have been distracted by a conversation with a crew member riding along in the cab compartment, causing a crash with an Amtrak train that killed 11 people.

Amtrak occasionally employs a second engineer on long-haul routes, according to Dobranetski.

On some railroads a conductor or brakeman will sit to the left of the engineer.

With only one set of controls to operate the train, their role is limited to calling out signals and hitting the emergency brake if trouble arises, he said.

“I’ve done accident inves-

tigations where either the conductor is asleep, inattentive or intimidated by the engineer, but 99 percent of the time the conductor only reminds the engineer of the speed or a situation.

He’s rarely prevented something,” Dobranetski said.

The engineers’ union on Tuesday also blamed lawmakers for deep funding cuts it said translated into fewer Amtrak crew members and greater lag time in the implementation of technology that slows speeding trains.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing on the derailment after Memorial Day. A spokesman said it was not clear if the two-person crew proposal would be discussed.

The hospitalized conductor, Emilio Fonseca, has sued Amtrak, claiming the railroad was negligent and careless. His lawyer said Tuesday he suffered a broken neck, broken back and other serious injuries.

The attorney, Bruce Nagel, said Fonseca, 33, of Kearny, New Jersey, was in a bathroom in the first car of the train at the time of the derailment and that his location likely saved his life.

Fonseca managed to get out of the train and remembers telling people to watch out for electrical wires, Nagel said. Doctors have dubbed him the “miracle man” for surviving the crash.

“Obviously the hand of God was on his shoulder,” Nagel said.

New strain LA raises minimum wage to $15 of rabies found

By JENNIFER MEDINA NEW YORK TIMES

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A new strain of rabies has been discovered in southern New Mexico, federal and state health officials confirmed Tuesday.

While it doesn’t present any more of a public health threat than the known strains of the potentially fatal disease, the discovery is generating curiosity in scientific circles because it’s the first new strain to be found in the United States in several years.

“It’s exciting. It’s related to another bat strain. It’s similar but unique, so the question is what’s the reservoir for this strain,” state public health veterinarian Paul Ettestad said.

When scientists talk about the reservoir, they are referring to animals known to host the virus. In many cases, that can be bats, skunks or raccoons. Those animals usually aren’t tested because it’s assumed they have regular strains of rabies.

Tests are done when it shows up in other animals, including dogs, cats, horses and foxes, Ettestad said.

That was the case when a 78-year-old Lincoln County woman was bitten by a rabid fox in April. Genetic testing at a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab in Atlanta confirmed the strain was one that never before had been identified.

State officials suspect the rabid fox came in contact with an infected bat that was carrying the strain. “It has probably been out there for some time. We just haven’t looked that hard for it and by chance we found it,” Ettestad said of the new strain.

New Mexico health and wildlife officials have been tracking rabies in the fox population since 2007, when a separate strain found in Arizona gray foxes crossed into New Mexico.

The Health Department will continue working with state wildlife officers to collect foxes that are found dead along roadways in Lincoln County as well as freshly dead bats in hopes of determining where the newly identified strain is coming from, Ettestad said.

About 100,000 animals are tested for rabies each year in the U.S. Of the roughly 6,000 that are positive, only a fraction are tested to determine the type of strain.

So far this year, New Mexico has had only two confirmed rabies cases — a bat from Dona Ana County and the fox from Lincoln County. The state isn’t considered a hot zone for rabies and in fact ranks near the bottom when it comes to the number of cases reported each year.

The virus infects the central nervous system. Early symptoms in people can include fever, headache and general weakness or discomfort.

State health officials warned people to stay away from wild or unfamiliar animals and advised parents to teach their children to never touch a bat or other wild animal.

LOS ANGELES — The nation’s second-largest city voted on Tuesday to increase its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, in what is perhaps the most significant victory so far in the national push to raise the minimum wage.

The increase — which the Los Angeles City Council passed in a 14-1 vote — comes as workers across the country are rallying for higher wages, and several large companies, including Facebook and WalMart, have moved to raise their lowest wages. Several other cities, including San Francisco, Seattle and Oakland, California, have already approved increases, and dozens more are considering doing the same. In 2014, a number of Republican-leaning states like Alaska and South Dakota also raised their statelevel minimum wage by referendum.

The impact is likely to be particularly strong in Los Angeles, where, according to some estimates, more than 40

Photo by Jenna Schoenefeld/New York Times | AP

Maria Castaneda, with other members of Unite Here Local 11, raises a fist before the city council vote to raise the minimum wage in Los Angeles. percent of the city’s workforce earns less than $15 an hour.

"The effects here will be the biggest by far," said Michael Reich, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was commissioned by city leaders here to conduct several studies on the potential effects of a minimum-wage increase. "The proposal will bring wages up in a way we haven’t seen since the 1960s.

There’s a sense spreading that this is the new norm, especially in areas that have high costs of housing."

Tuesday’s vote could set off a wave of minimum wage increases across Southern California, and the groups pressing for the increases say the new pay scales would change the way of life for the region’s vast low-wage workforce.

Indeed, much of the debate here has centered on the potential regional impact. Many of the low-wage workers who form the backbone of Southern California’s economy live in the suburban cities of Los Angeles. Proponents of the wage increase say they expect

that several nearby cities, including Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Pasadena, would follow Los Angeles’ lead and pass ordinances for higher wages in the coming months.

The increase could also reverberate nationally. Earlier this month, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced that he is convening a state board to consider a wage increase in the local fastfood industry, which could be enacted without a vote in the state Legislature.

After the Los Angeles vote, Cuomo may feel pressure to reject an increase that falls short of $15 per hour. "Look at what Cuomo talked about in New York, leading the nation," said Daniel Massey, a spokesman for the union-led Fight for $15 campaign that has worked to increase the minimum wage across the country.

"I don’t see how he can go less than $15."

Los Angeles County is also considering a measure that would lift the wages of several hundred thousand people who work in unincorporated parts of the county.

Prostitute pleads guilty in death

By MARTHA MENDOZA ASSOCIATED PRESS

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — A California prostitute charged with killing a Google executive with an overdose of heroin aboard his yacht pleaded guilty Tuesday to involuntary manslaughter and administering drugs.

A Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge sentenced defendant Alix Tichelman to six years in prison, bringing a sudden and unexpected conclusion to a tawdry case that garnered national attention.

Tichelman injected Forrest Timothy Hayes with heroin in November 2013 then left without seeking help when he passed out on the yacht, authorities say. Hayes had hired Tichelman several times before, and they were doing drugs and having sex the night he died, authorities said.

Defense attorney Larry Biggam said Tichelman, 28, was relieved to have the court proceedings behind her, and she is expected to serve three years. She will be credited the year already served in jail.

Photo by Dan Coyro/Santa Cruz Sentinel | AP

Alix Tichelman arrives in the courtroom Tuesday in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Tichelman is charged with killing a Google executive with an overdose of heroin aboard his yacht in 2013.

“It was an accidental overdose between two consenting adults,” Biggam said.

The high-end call girl was arrested eight months after Hayes’ death. Santa Cruz police said a surveillance video at the Santa Cruz harbor showed the woman gather her belongings, casually step over Hayes’ body, finish a glass of wine and lower a blind before leaving the yacht the night before the body was discovered.

The video also showed Tichelman panicking and at-

tempting to revive Hayes as he slipped into unconsciousness before leaving the yacht, Santa Cruz Deputy District Attorney Rafael Vazquez said.

“There was an obvious reaction that showed she didn’t intend to kill,” Vazquez said.

The hearing Tuesday was scheduled to set additional proceedings, and Tichelman’s plea surprised Vazquez.

Vazquez began by submitting a revised complaint specifying that Tichleman’s manslaughter charge was to be involuntary rather than the more severe voluntary.

Then Tichelman’s attorney told the court his client intended to plead guilty to all counts.

Vazquez said the charges were filed over the objections of Hayes’ family, who feared a public trial would further embarrass a wife and children traumatized by exposure of the Google executive’s double life. Hayes was the father of five, and two of his children are in elementary school.

“They just wanted this to go away,” the prosecutor said.

“But we had a duty to pursue the case.”

Vazquez said none of Hayes’ family attended the hearing Tuesday, but an attorney representing them did. Christine McGuire, a Santa Cruz lawyer representing the family, didn’t return a phone call after the hearing.

Tichelman had been preparing to move out of California when she was arrested, She has wealthy parents and dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada.

After Tichelman was charged in California, police in Milton, Georgia, took another look at the 2013 overdose death of Tichelman’s former boyfriend Dean Riopelle, 53, the owner of a popular Atlanta music venue.

Authorities said a panicked Tichelman had called police, saying her boyfriend had overdosed on something and wouldn’t respond. Police in Milton did not immediately return a call Tuesday seeking a possible update on the situation.

Tichelman has not been charged in that death. An autopsy report listed Riopelle’s death as an accidental overdose of heroin, oxycodone and alcohol.

MIÉRCOLES 20 DE MAYO DE 2015

Ribereña en Breve NOCHE DE FIESTA El Proyecto South Texas Civil Rights le invita a Noche de Fiesta, celebrando el compromiso con la comunidad, el miércoles 20 de mayo en Frida’s Grill and Cantina de McAllen. Comentarios estarán a cargo de Jim Harrington, Fundador y Director Retirado del TCRP. El costo es de 40 dólares. Pida informes en el (956) 7878171, extensión 102 o escriba a mayra.stcrp@gmail.com.

RECAUDACIÓN DE FONDOS El Boys and Girls Club del Condado de Zapata se encuentra recaudando fondos para sus programas juveniles y eventos programados para el 2015. Interesados en apoyar la causa, la compañía Tupperware se encuentra ofreciendo que por cada producto Tupperware que se compre, un 40 por ciento de las ventas se destinará directamente al club de Zapata.

Le meta es recaudar 3.000 dólares. Pida informes llamando al (956) 765-3892.

Zfrontera

PÁGINA 9A

CORTE

Otorgan 1.5 mdd POR PHILIP BALLI TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

La semana pasada, un jurado en la Corte de Distrito 81 de Cotulla otorgó 1.5 millones de dólares a la familia de un hombre que murió aplastado en 2012 por un trailer en una parada de camiones.

El lunes pasado, tras un juicio de cinco días y tres horas de deliberación, un jurado decidió compensar a la madre de Jesús Anaya Garza, de 45 años de edad, Belia Garza González, con 1 millón de dólares por pérdidas de la compa-

ñía debido a la muerte de su hijo, 250.000 dólares por la angustia mental padecida, y otros 250.000 dólares, por la angustia mental que probablemente padezca en el futuro.

Garza fue aplastado por un trailer de Werner Enterprises, mientras estaba en servicio en su propio camión en una parada de trailers de Luv, en Encinal, el 3 de agosto de 2012, según el abogado de Brownsville, Javier Villarreal, un abogado de lesiones personales contratado para representar a la madre y la herencia de Garza en la

demanda.

Villarreal explicó que Garza, estaba limpiando una parte de su trailer, cuando su pierna quedó atorada y lo giró debajo del camión Werner, mientras el conductor conducía el vehículo.

Villarreal presentó la demanda por homicidio culposo contra Werner Enterprises en nombre de la familia en agosto de 2012, después del incidente.

De acuerdo con Villarreal, representantes de Werner Enterprises ofrecieron un acuerdo por 100.000 dólares, el cual fue rechazado.

COMUNIDAD

LCC

MERCADO AGRÍCOLA

Programa facilitará cursos

INAUGURACIÓN Ceremonia de apertura para nueva sucursal de Escamilla Pre-Owned Center, en 2412 de North Highway 83, el viernes 22 de mayo, a partir de las 11:30 a.m.

Más información llamando al (956) 765-9500.

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

CARRERA Carrera/Caminata 8K y 5K Memorial Day Mayhem, se realizará el sábado 23 de mayo, en Lions Club of Zapata County, ubicado en 2312 de Hidalgo Street.

Puede inscribirse en línea más información visite: http://tinyurl.com/mm2nc3q.

DÍA DE LOS CAÍDOS Se llevará a cabo la Celebración por el Día de los Caídos (Memorial Day), el lunes 25 de mayo, a las 9 a.m. en la Rotonda del Palacio de Justicia de Zapata. El orador principal será el Teniente retirado Ricardo S. Sánchez, del Ejército de EU.

MERCADO AGRÍCOLA Y DE ARTESANOS El Mercado Agrícola y de Artesanos de Zapata se realizará el sábado 6 de junio, de 9 a.m. a 1 p.m. en el estacionamiento del Centro Comunitario, 605 N US Highway 83. Pida informes en el (956) 536-7171.

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; a Dalia García, al (956) 7654332; a Ana Martínez, al (956) 765-5611; o a Marlen Guerra al (956) 765-4321.

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.

“La oferta era inaceptable”, dijo Villarreal. “Esa fue la primera y la única oferta de Werner y era demasiado baja”.

Villarreal dijo que la decisión del jurado dio a la familia de Garza la justicia que han estado esperando casi tres años.

“La familia finalmente tuvo un día en la corte, que es lo que querían”, dijo Villarreal. “Es bueno saber que el jurado está dispuesto a tomar las medidas necesarias para tratar de corregir un error”.

(Localice a Philip Balli en 7282528 o en pballi@lmtonline.com)

Foto de cortesía

Alrededor de 200 personas acudieron al primer Mercado Agrícola y Artesanal de Zapata que se realizó el 2 de mayo; a partir de ésta fecha, cada primer sábado del mes se realizará el mercado agrícola.

Evento será cada primer sábado del mes POR MALENA CHARUR TIEMPO DE LAREDO

Con el lema “Local & Fresh; Zapata at it’s best”! (Fresco y local; con lo mejor de Zapata), se realizó la primer emisión del Mercado Agrícola y Artesanal de Zapata en el centro comunitario Zapata Community Center, a principios de mayo.

“Gracias a todos los que participaron en el primer mercado agrícola de Zapata. Gracias a todos los vendedores, voluntarios, banda y clientes por hacer de este evento un éxito. No lo podríamos haber hecho sin su apoyo y dedicación”, se lee en una publicación que aparece en la página de Facebook del mercado agrícola.

Mariamada Garza-Pérez, integrante del comité directivo, dijo que la idea de tener un

mercado agrícola es que el dinero se quede en la ciudad.

“Hablamos de que sería bueno tener el dinero en Zapata y ayudar a los pequeños comerciantes. También que la gente vea que se pueden obtener productos en la ciudad”, dijo Garza-Pérez.

El primer evento atrajo a cerca de 200 visitantes que recorrieron los puestos que ofrecían diversos productos como joyería, artículos de decoración y plantas entre muchos otros.

“Nos dimos cuenta que las plantas tuvieron mucho éxito y esperamos que haya más vendedores el próximo mes”, indicó.

Garza-Pérez dijo que el evento se celebrará cada primer sábado del mes, de 9 a.m. a 1 p.m.

No existe costo de entrada para los consumidores. Sin embargo, los comerciantes deben pagar una cuota de 25 dólares para montar un puesto. No se cobra ninguna comisión sobre las ventas.

“El dinero que recaudamos es sólo para cubrir algunos gastos como la publicidad. En el futuro esperamos repartir todo el dinero que se obtenga en becas”, señaló.

Si usted está interesado en participar para vender sus productos puede llamar a GarzaPérez al (956) 536-7171; a Victoria Vela al (956) 500 6600 o a Yael Rodríguez al (956) 286 0042. Asimismo puede visitar la página en Facebook: Zapata Farmer & Artisan’s Market.

(Localice a Malena Charur en el 956-728-2583 o en mcharur@lmtonline.com)

Los residentes de Zapata, ahora tendrán la oportunidad de mejorar su calidad de vida y su futuro laboral, a través de clases para Desarrollo Educativo General (GED, por sus siglas en inglés) o Inglés como Segunda Lengua (ESL, por sus siglas en inglés).

El programa desarrollado por el Departamento de Alfabetización y Educación para Adultos en Laredo Community College, impartirá clases gratuitas de GED y ESL, dentro de las instalaciones del Departamento de Salud de Texas en Zapata, ubicado en 609 de U.S. Highway 83, al norte.

Ambas clases contarán con niveles para principiantes, intermediarios y avanzados.

Los estudiantes deberán tener 18 años o mayores para calificar. Las clases de ESL solamente serán impartidas en inglés. De igual manera, los estudiantes a partir de 16 años de edad, podrán inscribirse presentando el permiso de sus padres y documentación adicional.

Los cursos de ELS serán impartidos de lunes a miércoles, en horario matutino, de 8 a.m. a 12 p.m. o en horario vespertinos, de lunes a miércoles, de 5:30 a.m. a 8:30 p.m.

Clases de GED serán impartidas de lunes a miércoles de 5:30 p.m. a 8:30 p.m.

Antes de comenzar las clases, los estudiantes participantes deberán acudir a una sesión de orientación de tres días a partir del martes 25 de agosto y hasta el jueves 27 de agosto.

Durante la orientación, los estudiantes cubrirán los temas pertinentes para su desarrollo profesional.

Las clases comenzarán el 31 de agosto.

Para más información puede llamar al Departamento de Alfabetización y Educación para Adulto, llamando a Marisela Morales, al 7944436.

COLUMNA

Anuncios durante siglo XIX crean análisis Nota del Editor: El autor narra la manera en que los anuncios publicitarios eran publicados en los periódicos tamaulipecos durante el siglo XIX.

POR RAÚL SINENCIO ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Con pocas ilustraciones, la prensa mexicana, durante el siglo XIX, ofrecía en gran parte decretos, actas, proclamas y comentarios políticos.

Los pocos anuncios comerciales que se publicaban ahora sorprende. A continuación algunos ejemplos:

Tampico “El martes 1° de abril, la graciosa comedia del célebre poeta mexicano Eduardo Gorostiza, titulada ‘El don Dieguito’, que concluirá con la chistosa pieza ‘Naturales o puestas’. En-

trada 8 reales”, se lee en Gaceta de Tampico el 31 de marzo de 1834. Sin indicar dónde transcurren las funciones, remata: “El lunes 31 por la tarde corresponde el turno a la comedia titulada ‘Dejar lo cierto por lo dudoso o la mujer firme’ y el sainete ‘Engaños a quien engaña’. Entrada general de seis reales”.

El Comercio de Santa Anna de Tamaulipas señala lo siguiente el 19 de mayo de 1855: “Sanguijuelas extranjeras; se han recibido […] de La Habana por el bergantín goleta nacional ‘Ventura’ y se expenderán a precios moderados en la botica […] situada en la Plaza de la Libertad.

Tampico, mayo de 1855, J. Ignacio Rojas”. Las sanguijuelas tenían usos médicos.

“En la calle de la Aurora […] ofrece el que suscribe retratar al daguerrotipo a todas las personas que gusten ocuparlo […] Su ga-

binete permanecerá abierto los domingos y días de fiesta, desde las 7 de la mañana a las 4 de la tarde”, participa Narciso Tovar por El Tamaulipeco, el 22 de diciembre de 1855.

Matamoros Pasemos a Matamoros.

Ahí circula El Cronista, del que mostramos tres servicios de promoción de 1888. El 29 de marzo: “Ferrocarril Nacional Mexicano […] División Matamoros […] El tren número uno corre lunes, miércoles y viernes […] El tren número dos corre martes, jueves y sábado. Concesionado a extranjeros durante el porfiriato inicia el transporte ferroviario.

El 31 de mayo asoman las actividades mercantiles de la época: “Juan García Peña. Plaza Allende. Camargo, México […] Compra en esta ciudad y en la

vecina Río Grande, lana y algodón, pieles, cerda, huesos, esquilmos de ganado menor, etc., etc.”.

El 2 de diciembre se anuncian los precursores del cinematógrafo: “Linterna mágica […] Se vende en esta imprenta […] Contiene infinidad de vistas de movimiento. Aprovéchese la oportunidad de hacerse de un juguete curioso”.

Ciudad Victoria Ahora analicemos la propaganda expuesta en Ciudad Victoria, capital tamaulipeca, en 1896. El 12 de marzo informa el Periódico Oficial: “Plano de Ciudad Victoria, formado […] por el […] ingeniero Carlos D. Prieto y aprobado por el R. Ayuntamiento”, del que “se acaba de hacer […] esmerada edición litográfica […] al módico precio de $1.50 el ejemplar”.

“Café del Comercio. […]

Vinos franceses y españoles […] Cerveza helada, mantequilla, quesos, jamones, salchichones. Se preparan sándwiches […] al gusto del consumidor. Se expenden también hielo, helados […] refrescos, aperitivos, picón y bitters. Encontrarán […] a todas horas […] magnífica y variada repostería”, publica El Progresista el 11 de abril, guardándose el domicilio.

Nota aparte señala, “El día 4 comenzó [la feria] que anualmente […] celebra […] esta ciudad. Hay alguna concurrencia […] aunque […] no proporcione grandes utilidades ni al empresario, ni a los dueños de los puestos, fondas, etcétera, establecidos […] en la plaza de Colón”, frente a los andenes del tren Monterrey-Tampico.

(Publicado con permiso del autor conforme aparece en La Razón, Tampico, Tamps.)

International

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015

Colombian town hit by flood, survivors stunned

By LUIS BENAVIDES ASSOCIATED PRESS

SALGAR, Colombia — Hector Raul Henao weeps as he surveys the barren landscape of mud and uprooted trees that for years was a vibrant community of small coffee farmers. Off in the distance, across the still raging La Libordiana ravine, he points to the zincroofed house he fled — one of just two left standing in an area devastated by a predawn mudslide the killed at least 65 people.

“I lost half my life,” he said Tuesday amid tears.

When the earth rumbled, his 20-year-old son and twomonth-old granddaughter were asleep at another house directly in the flash flood’s path. Both were killed along with several neighbors, many of whose bodies he says are still trapped in the mud.

“I wish I had been the one killed but God willed it

this way,” said Henao, who survived along with his wife by forcing open a door against a raging current and fleeing to the jungled mountain rising directly from their home.

As the small mountain town of Salgar began digging out after Monday’s devastation, the tales of human tragedy multiplied. Survivors recalled being stirred from their beds by a loud rumble and neighbors’ shouts, barely having enough time to gather their loved ones.

The death toll, which authorities put at 65, was likely to grow as an undetermined number of people, perhaps as many as 100, remained unaccounted for.

Authorities said they were too busy searching for bodies and assisting survivors at makeshift shelters to give a precise estimate of how many are missing.

Many of the dead are believed buried in the grey

Photo by Luis Benavides | AP

An overflooded ravine cuts through Salgar, in Colombia’s northwestern state of Antioquia, Tuesday, where a flood swept through. moonscape along with dozens of homes, bridges and even a grade school that locals say is where former President Alvaro Uribe studied as a child growing up in his mother’s hometown.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who traveled to the town to oversee relief efforts, said several children lost their parents and the bodies of those killed needed

to be transported to Medellin, a three-hour drive, for identification. He vowed to rebuild the lost homes and provide shelter and assistance for the estimated 500 people affected by the calamity.

“Nobody can bring back the dead ... but we have to handle this disaster as best we can to move forward,” Santos said.

Soldiers handed out food

9 arrested in jewel heist

By GREGORY KATZ ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONDON — With meticulous planning and remarkable good fortune, the thieves who broke into a safe deposit in London’s diamond district seemed to have pulled off the perfect jewel heist. But their luck ran out Tuesday when more than 200 Scotland Yard officers closed in on them.

The nine arrests were a triumph for embattled detectives whose early work had been criticized because of an embarrassing failure to respond to a midnight alarm at the start of a holiday weekend.

That gave the thieves more than 48 hours to carefully remove the contents of the safe used by jewelers in the Hatton Garden district.

The suspects, all British men between ages 43 and 76, were questioned in a London police station after coordinated morning raids in northern London and the southeastern district of Kent, Scotland Yard said.

It said bags containing a significant amount of high-value property were recovered at one of the addresses but did not assign a value to the heist.

The audacious robbery

Photo by Dominic Lipinski | AP file

In this April 7 file photo, Police forensics officer enter the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company in London. over the Easter weekend fascinated Britain. Dressed in fluorescent vests and hard hats, the thieves entered the high-security vault area in the London diamond district, carrying bags and wheeled garbage bins for carrying off the booty.

To gain entry, they climbed down an elevator shaft and drilled through concrete walls that were 2 meters (6 feet) thick, later making off with the contents of 72 safety deposit boxes.

Commander Peter Spindler on Tuesday defended the police performance in the face of the earlier criticism.

“At times we’ve been portrayed as if we have

acted like Keystone Cops but I want to reassure you that in the finest traditions of Scotland Yard, these detectives have done their utmost to bring justice to the victims of this callous crime,” he said.

Nonetheless, police took the unusual step of apologizing for mishandling the alarm.

“Our call-handling system and procedures for working with the alarmmonitoring companies were not followed,” they said. “Our normal procedures would have resulted in police attending the scene, and we apologize that this did not happen.”

They asked victims to be patient while police sort out the recovered val-

uables in order to return them to their owners.

They said the investigation is still expanding and appealed to the public for information.

Apparently no one took notice of the group as it went about its business in the diamond district that was nearly deserted over the holiday weekend.

Security footage showed the men, wearing dust masks, entering and leaving the building repeatedly after their arrival late on Thursday, April 2. They worked throughout the night and left Friday morning, returning on Saturday night and leaving again on Easter Sunday morning.

They had picked their spots carefully — local jewelers routinely store valuable gems in the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit facility overnight and on weekends.

The facility’s intruder alarm sounded shortly after midnight on April 3, but police did not respond — although they asserted Tuesday that a private security guard did check the outside of the premises and found nothing amiss.

The crime was not discovered until the jewelry district sprang back to life Tuesday morning.

and blankets to the homeless on Tuesday as civil defense authorities armed with little more than shovels probed the shaky ground to look for bodies. Farmers like Henao were ordered to refrain from returning to their homes because of a risk of more landslides.

Sergio Fajardo, governor of Antioquia province, said that several cadavers had been deformed and dismembered, complicating the process of identification. The force of the flood had carried one body some 60 miles (100 kilometers ) downriver, he said.

Authorities asked heartbroken Colombians to refrain from sending physical donations and instead contribute to a fund to help families rebuild. For its part, the government has promised about $6,500 in economic assistance to those who suffered damage.

Colombia’s rugged topography, in a seismically ac-

tive area at the northern edge of the Andes, combined with shoddy construction, has made the country one of Latin America’s most disaster-prone. More than 150 disasters have struck the country over the past 40 years, claiming more than 32,000 lives and affecting more than 12 million people, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.

The tragedy in Salgar appeared to be the single deadliest event since a 1999 earthquake in the city of Armenia that left hundreds dead. A wave of flooding during the 2011 rainy season left more than 100 dead over several weeks.

Authorities said they had no notion the town was at risk of a tragedy of such proportions. While flooding in the mountainous area is not uncommon, the heavy rains this time were dozens of miles (kilometers) uphill from the town, in a forested, sparsely populated area.

Refugees show up in Tanzania

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA ASSOCIATED PRESS

KAMPALA, Uganda — Cholera and severe diarrhea have broken out among tens of thousands of refugees from Burundi who are jammed into a village in Tanzania on the edge of Lake Tanganyika, with the Burundians overwhelming the health infrastructure and sanitation facilities, aid agencies said Tuesday.

Between 500 and 2,000 people are arriving daily in the tiny fishing village of Kagunga, the World Health Organization said. The refugees have abandoned their country because of fears of political violence in the run-up to June elections, in which their president is seeking a third term. His candidacy has triggered demonstrations for three weeks in Burundi’s capital and amid the chaos, some military officer launched a coup last week, which failed within two days.

Kagunga’s original population of 11,382 has increased to over 90,000 since April, WHO said in a statement. There is not enough safe water for drinking.

With Kagunga surrounded by mountains, the refu-

gees must wait to board a 100-year-old ship and make the three-hour trip to the port of Kigoma, the International Rescue Committee said. The ship is transporting 600 passengers twice daily, leaving those who remain behind in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, the aid group said.

The IRC said it is providing medical care in Kagunga, on the boat and at a transit camp in Kigoma.

After making it to Kigoma, around 16,000 refugees have moved on to Nyarugusu refugee camp, a journey of up to four hours by road.

Cases of acute diarrhea and cholera have been confirmed, according to WHO. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees office reported on Sunday that at least seven Burundian refugees had died of severe diarrhea.

Demonstrators in Bujumbura, Burundi’s capital, say they will continue to protest until President Pierre Nkurunziza steps down at the end of his second term.

Burundi’s Constitution states a president can be popularly elected to a fiveyear terms, renewable once.

Indonesia says they have helped enough

By NINIEK KARMINI ASSOCIATED PRESS

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia has “given more than it should” to help hundreds of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants stranded on boats by human traffickers, its foreign minister said Tuesday, a day before she was to meet with her counterparts from the other countries feeling the brunt of the humanitarian crisis.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said that at Wednesday’s meeting with Malaysian and Thai officials, she will discuss how to solve the migrant problem with help from their countries of origin, the U.N. refugee agency and the International Office for Migration.

“This irregular migration is not the problem of one or two nations. This is a regional problem which also happens in other places. This is also a global problem,” Marsudi told reporters after a Cabinet meeting at the presidential palace.

Marsudi said Indonesia has sheltered 1,346 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants who washed onto Aceh and North Sumatra provinces last week. The first batch came on May 10 with 558 people on a boat, and the second with 807 on three boats landed on Friday. Even before the crisis, nearly 12,000 migrants were being sheltered in Indonesia awaiting resettlement, she said, with most of those

Photo by Binsar Bakkara | AP

Rohingya women hold sleeping mats at a temporary shelter in Langsa, Aceh province, Indonesia, Tuesday. The country has sheltered more than 1,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants who washed onto Aceh and North Sumatra provinces last week.

Rohingya Muslims who have fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. No more than 500 of those migrants are resettled in third countries each year, she said.

“Indonesia has given more than it should do as a non-member-state of the Refugee Convention of 1951,” she said.

The crisis emerged this month as governments in the region began cracking down on human trafficking.

Some captains of trafficking boats abandoned their vessels — and hundreds of migrants — at sea. About 3,000 of the migrants have reached land in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, but

all three countries have pushed some ships away.

Aid groups estimate that thousands more migrants — who fled persecution in Myanmar and poverty in Bangladesh — are stranded in the Andaman Sea. Myanmar’s cooperation is seen as vital to solving the crisis, but its government has already cast doubt on whether it will attend a conference to be hosted by Thailand on May 29 that is to include 15 Asian nations affected by the emergency.

Like Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia have not signed the U.N. convention, which would obligate them to accept some refugees. All have said they can longer

accept Rohingya; Malaysia, the country many Rohingya try to reach, already has tens of thousands of them.

On Monday, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the country will help those who end up on its shores, but “would be more active in helping Rohingya migrants if there is an international pledge to accept them in a third country.”

Kalla, speaking to reporters on a visit to southern Borneo, noted that the UNHCR set up a refugee camp on the Indonesia island of Galang to process tens of thousands of refugees, mostly Vietnamese, from 1979 to 1986.

The Philippines has

signed the U.N. refugee convention, but its justice secretary, Leila de Lima, said Tuesday that genuine asylum seekers would need to be sorted from those “just seeking greener pastures” before Manila would take in migrants. That process can take years.

In the meantime, she said, “at most we can offer to these affected countries, some kind of an assistance in terms of offering our experience, our best practices in handling refugees and also stateless persons because we are a signatory to these conventions and we have considerable experience and track record in that area.”

“Thankfully the Philip-

pines is not affected by this problem, by this issue. The so-called boat people are not anywhere near the waters of the Philippines,” de Lima told reporters after meeting with UNHCR Representative Bernard Kerblat.

The Philippines may be able to provide rescue boats if needed to provide aid to those aboard trafficking boats, de Lima said.

“We’re talking here about human beings drifting at sea and gradually dying. A number of them have died already because of the situation that they are in,” de Lima said. “As a community of nations, we cannot just sit idly by and allow that to happen.”

In a joint statement Tuesday, the UNHCR, International Organization for Migration and other U.N. groups said they “strongly urge the leaders of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand to protect migrants and refugees stranded on vessels ... to facilitate safe disembarkation, and to give priority to saving lives, protecting rights and respecting human dignity.”

Kerblat said the UNHCR is working with governments in the region “to put together ideas and the basic message here is what can be done collectively to save lives.”

“We’re calling on all the people of goodwill around the world to join forces to look at ways and means about how to solve this crisis. It’s not easy. There’s no magic touch.”

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A

Stock market drifts from highs

By MATTHEW CRAFT ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — The stock market slipped back from its latest record high in a listless day of trading Tuesday. Oil companies and drillers tugged major indexes down as the price of crude oil dropped for a fifth day straight.

Wal-Mart Stores fell after reporting weak sales and a drop in quarterly earnings, a result of raises for workers and a rising dollar squeezing its profits.

Wal-Mart’s stock sank $3.49, or 4 percent, to $76.43.

Major indexes headed lower at the opening of trading, wavered between tiny gains and losses throughout the morning then spent much of the afternoon sitting still.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index has gained 2 percent this month, setting record highs along the way.

“But it hasn’t felt like it,” said Hank Smith, chief investment officer at Haverford Trust. “The market pulls back slightly one day,

then moves ahead. It has been a grind.”

The S&P 500 lost 1.37 points, a sliver of a percent, to 2,127.83. The Nasdaq composite dipped 8.41 points, or 0.2 percent, to 5,070.03.

The Dow Jones industrial average managed a slight gain, edging up 13.51 points, or 0.1 percent, to 18,312.39. That marked the fourth straight daily gain for the Dow. The government reported that builders started work on new houses at the fastest pace in seven years.

Housing starts jumped 20.2 percent to an annual rate of 1.14 million homes, the fastest clip since November 2007.

The news helped lift shares in D.R. Horton, PulteGroup and other builders. “The housing market comes back in the spring, is what realtors always say, and boy is this true today,” said Christopher Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank, in a note to clients.

In other trading, TakeTwo Interactive, the com-

pany behind the “Grand Theft Auto” video games, surged 18 percent after posting earnings that trounced analysts’ estimates. The company’s stock jumped $4.42 to $28.62.

Major indexes in Europe closed with solid gains. Germany’s DAX surged 2.2 percent, while France’s CAC 40 picked up 2.1 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent.

The rally in Europe came after an official with the European Central Bank said that it would step up its bond-buying program in May and June to avoid slow trading in the summer months. The ECB’s effort tends to support stock and bond markets while weakening the euro.

In another development, Greece’s finance minister said he expects his government will reach an agreement with its creditors within the next week, potentially saving the cashstrapped country from defaulting on its debts. The talks have run on for al-

most four months.

In China, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 3.1 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.4 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.7 percent.

Back in the U.S., government bond prices fell, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note up to 2.28 percent from 2.24 percent late Monday.

In other commodity markets, precious and industrial metals took a hard fall. Gold dropped $20.90 to settle at $1,206.70 an ounce and silver sank 66 cents to $17.07 an ounce. Copper lost 7 cents to $2.84 a pound.

The price of oil fell sharply Tuesday, extending its slide for a fifth day in a row. A rising dollar made oil, which is priced in dollars, more expensive for overseas buyers. Benchmark U.S. crude fell $2.17 to close at $57.26 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oil used by many U.S. refineries, fell $2.25 to close at $64.02 in London.

LIONS CLUB RECEIVES DONATION

Courtesy photo

La India Packing Co. Inc. from Laredo donated $400 to Zapata Lions Club. President of La India Packing Co. Elsa Rodriguez Arguindegui made the donation in memory of her father, Lion Ruben Rodriguez, Member of the Year 1975 for the Laredo Evening Lions. The proceeds will go toward eye glasses for children. Pictured from left to right are Arguindegui; Cleofas Tellez, raffle winner; and Aurelio Villarreal, Lions Club president.

Takata will double recall to 34 million

By DANIELLE IVORY NEW YORK TIMES

Takata, the Japanese supplier linked to faulty air bags in millions of cars, widened the scale of potential recalls in the United States on Tuesday to 34 million vehicles.

The supplier made the announcement with federal safety regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which had been prodding the company since late last year to say that the air bags were defective.

Takata had fought these demands, even asserting at one point that the agency could not force it to issue a recall.

Air bag inflaters made

by Takata can explode violently when they deploy, spraying metal fragments into the passenger compartment. Six deaths and more than 100 injuries have been linked to the flaw.

“From the very beginning, our goal has been simple: a safe air bag in every vehicle,” said Mark R. Rosekind, administrator of the safety agency since December.

“The steps we’re taking today represent significant progress toward that goal.”

But the agency said it did not have a final breakdown yet of all the makes and models the expanded recall encompasses, and that it will not for several days until it coordinates

with automakers. The final number of defective cars may shift downward as more tests are performed, Rosekind said. He acknowledged that the repairs could take several years to complete, but he said that consumers could still drive their cars in the meantime.

“Yes, people need to drive their cars,” Rosekind said, adding that they should be checking with their dealers often “to ensure it gets replaced as soon as possible.”

Even now, Takata and automakers continue to search for the root cause of the inflater defect, but it still remains unclear.

But in new filings with the safety agency, Takata went further than it had previously in admitting wider, structural problems with its air bag inflaters.

“Up until now Takata has refused to acknowledge that their air bags are defective,” said Anthony Foxx, the transportation secretary.

“That changes today.”

In its filings, dated Monday, Takata said that the propellant in the air bag inflaters — the explosive material that generates the gases to inflate the air bag — could degrade over time if exposed to high humidity and changes in temperature, making it prone to “overaggressive combustion.”

Former Takata engineers told The New York

Photo by Jacquelyn Martin | AP

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, right, listens as NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind speaks about the Takata Corp. air bag inflator recall during a news conference at the Transportation Department in Washington, Tuesday.

Times last year that they had raised concerns over a decade ago that the explosive material Takata uses — ammonium nitrate — was sensitive to moisture and temperature swings. But those concerns went unheeded, they said.

Takata’s patents also document how the company’s engineers for years struggled to stabilize the ammonium nitrate in its propellant.

And for the first time, Takata also acknowledged problems with leaks in its

air bag inflaters. Tests had revealed that some of its air bag inflaters were found to have leaks in the seals that are supposed to keep them air tight.

Last week, a former Takata consultant said that tests he carried out on prototype Takata air bags in the early 2000s showed that they contained leaks.

He urged the company to use a different leak testing method, one that he devised, he said, but his advice went unheeded.

In February, federal safety regulators began to

levy a fine of $14,000 a day against Takata because it had not cooperated fully in the agency’s investigation. The company disputed the claims. With the expansion of the recall, though, regulators said they would suspend that fine, which had reached more than $1 million.

Takata’s air bag problems date back almost 15 years. As early as 2000, customers filed complaints with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration alluding to rupturing air bags in models that contained Takata’s product.

Eight years later, in November 2008, Honda recalled more than 4,000 cars with the air bags and then, six months later, after a teenager was killed by fragments from an exploding air bag, the company recalled an additional 510,000 vehicles.

Those Honda recalls prompted safety regulators to open an investigation into the defect in 2009, but six months later it was closed abruptly. The agency did not even require Takata to produce all of the documents that it had initially requested.

Less than a year later, more recalls for cars with the air bags were issued.

As the number of cars under recall continued to expand, the safety agency started a second investigation into the air bags last June and, late last year,

began to demand that automakers issue nationwide recalls in the United States.

Just last week, Honda, Toyota and Nissan recalled more than 11.5 million cars worldwide.

Tuesday’s announcement drew praise from one lawmaker who has been a persistent critic of Takata.

“Folks shouldn’t have to drive around wondering if their air bag is going to explode in their face or if their car is going to be on another recall list,” said Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee and a leading figure in a congressional investigation into the defective air bags. “Let’s hope Takata’s admissions today tells us the whole story.”

Analysts said the recalls illustrated the risk that automakers take in a push to standardize production across the globe.

“A recall of this scope illustrates the potential for massive automaker expense and consumer inconvenience when a common, mass-produced part is defective,” Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book, said in an email. “Ironically, the use of common parts across markets and manufacturers is meant to save money, yet a recall of this size will cost the industry billions.”

12A THE ZAPATA TIMES

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015

Execution drug providers kept secret in bill

By EVA HERSHAW TEXAS TRIBUNE

Legislation that would keep the names of execution drug providers secret is headed to the governor’s office after the Texas House gave final approval on Tuesday to a Senate measure.

Senate Bill 1697, authored by state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, and sponsored in the House by state Rep. John Smithee, R-Ama-

rillo, would make information about anyone who participates in the execution procedure – including those who manufacture, supply, transport and administer execution drugs – confidential and unavailable through public records requests.

Supporters of the bill, which passed with a 99-45 vote, said that the measure was necessary to protect companies that handle the drugs from threats and

possible attacks.

"Almost none of the manufacturers of companies will sell this drug to Texas or any state right now because of threats of violence, fire bombings and other threats of violence, and that’s not right," said Smithee, speaking to the House ahead of the vote. "This bill is about trying to protect innocent people who are just doing their job."

In 2013, after the Texas

Department of Criminal Justice announced it had obtained doses of pentobarbital – the drug used for lethal injections – from the Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy near Houston, the pharmacy owner, Jasper Lovoi, complained that publicizing the transaction resulted in hate mail and phone calls.

"Had I known that this information would be made public, which the State implied it would not,

I never would have agreed to provide the drugs to the TDCJ," Lovoi wrote in a 2013 letter to the state agency.

But not everyone is convinced of the bill’s merits.

State Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, a defense attorney, said that the measure would set a dangerous precedent while giving unneeded protection to private companies.

"At what point do you think that liberty and

right of people to know information is trumped by corporate interests and safety?" Canales said, questioning Smithee. "If any state is going to put you to death, I think it’s your right to know who made the drug that is going to kill you."

Canales joins other defense attorneys who have expressed concerns about the fact that they will no longer be able to access information about the drugs.

the event is held to benefit the community.

“The money we raise is to cover expenses such as advertising. In the future we hope to return all money earned in the form of scholarships,” she said.

For more information or to register to sell products contact Garza-Perez at 956-

536-7171; Victoria Vela at 956-500-6600 or Yael Rodríguez at 956-286-0042. One can also visit the Facebook page called Zapata Farmer & Artisan’s Market.

(Contact Malena Charur at 956-728-2583 or at mcharur@lmtonline.com. Translated by Mark Webber of the Times staff.)

viduals’ lives, encroaching upon individual liberty,” he said. “At the same time, we are ensuring that people and officials at the local level are not going to be encroaching upon individual liberty or individual rights.”

HB 40 may not be the Legislature’s final response to Denton’s fracking ban.

Earlier this month the House approved legislation – Rep. Jim Keffer’s HB 2595 – that would bar local governments from putting measures on their ballots that would “restrict the right of any person to use or access the person’s private property" for economic gain.

Voter referendum was the weapon of choice for opponents of fracking in Denton, where 59 percent

of voters there supported the ban. Supporters called it a last-ditch effort to address noise and toxic fumes that spew from wells just beyond their backyards, after loopholes and previous zoning decisions rendered changes to the city’s drilling ordinance unenforceable.

Opponents say the policy effectively halted all drilling inside Denton, keeping mineral owners from using their property.

The Denton vote came as oil and gas companies face increased pushback in other cities where the industry’s footprint has spread – particularly in North Texas’ 5,000-squaremile Barnett Shale. In some cases, neighborhoods are expanding closer to longtime drilling sites.

MARKET Continued from Page 1A of our vendors, volunteers, band, and customers for making this event such a success. We couldn’t have done this without your support and dedication,” read a statement on the market’s Facebook page.

Mariamada Garza-Perez, a member of the steering committee, said the idea to

have a farmers’ market was so that money spent in the city stays in the city.

“We talked about how good it would be to keep the money in Zapata and help small businesses.

This also allows people to see that they can get these products in the city,” Garza-Perez said.

The event attracted about 200 visitors who toured booths which offered products that included jewelry, home furnishings and plants, among many others.

“We realized that the plants were very successful, and we hope that more vendors participate next

month,” Garza-Perez said.

She said the market will be every first Saturday of the month, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Visitors enter for free; however, merchants must pay a $25 fee to set up a stand. No commission is charged on sales.

Garza-Perez added that

FRACKING Continued from Page 1A through the Republicandominated Legislature.

The law – championed

by Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo – took effect immediately, because both chambers approved it by a more than two-thirds margin.

Energy companies and industry groups support the bill, whose preamble states that the act “expressly pre-empts regulation of oil and gas operations by municipalities and other political subdivisions.”

“House Bill 40 represents balanced legislation that will build upon a 100year history of cooperation between Texans, their communities, and oil and natural gas operators,” Todd Staples, the former agriculture commissioner and current president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, said in a statement Monday.

But environmentalists and some local officials worry that the legislation will erode authority cities have long tapped to ensure local health and safe-

COURT Continued from Page 1A $200 per person for transporting the immigrants to Laredo, according to court documents.

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

ty.

“By advocating for and signing this bill, Gov. Abbott has succeeded in seizing power away from local governments working to protect us from the real dangers of dirty drilling,” Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, said in a statement.

Critics also claim the bill could add to confusion about what municipalities can regulate, partly because of the bill’s broad definition of the “oil and gas operations” in which Texas law trumps local law.

Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, has called the bill “a gold mine for lawyers."

The Texas Municipal League, which counts 1,145 Texas cities among its members, was initially among the bill’s fiercest critics — saying it could invalidate local drilling

ordinances across Texas.

The league softened that message after Darby’s committee added language listing areas cities could still regulate, including fire and emergency response, traffic, lights and noise – but only if such rules were “commercially reasonable.” The language also allows cities to enact some setbacks between drilling sites and certain buildings.

Darby also added what he calls a “safe harbor" provision, protecting cities from legal challenges if their ordinances have not triggered litigation in the past five years – another change that the Municipal League found more palatable.

Citing the negotiations that spurred those additions, Abbott said the law “strikes a meaningful balance" between private

property and local control.

City officials, however, remain plenty upset.

In a recent letter to the bill’s backers, 15 local elected officials called the proposal a “fundamentally flawed” effort that would jeopardize public health and safety in drilling communities.

Asked Monday whether the state was being hypocritical in limiting city power in an era where state officials routinely blast – and sue – the federal government over its uniform standards for various industries, Abbot said no.

“We have sued the federal government multiple times because of the heavy hand of regulation from the federal government – trying to run indi-