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FEDERAL COURT
TEXAS
Off to prison Photo by Brandon Wade | AP
Flood waters from the Brazos River encroach upon homes in the Horseshoe Bend neighborhood, Friday, in Weatherford. Floodwaters submerged Texas highways and threatened more homes Friday after another round of heavy rain added to the damage inflicted by storms. GARZA
ZARAGOZA-SOLIS
SANCHEZ
CERDA
DIAZ
Five who worked for Zetas sentenced By PHILIP BALLI THE ZAPATA TIMES
Four Laredoans involved in a kidnapping ordered by the Zetas drug cartel were sentenced to prison Thursday in federal court. Efrain Garza, 33, was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Diana Saldaña to serve 37 years and three months in federal prison. Ernesto “Zombie” ZaragozaSolis, 31, was sentenced to 30 years.
Also sentenced were Nicolas “Nico” Sanchez Reyes, 52, and Grace Diaz Martinez, 35. Sanchez, who was convicted in 2014 of killing a man in Laredo on behalf of the Zetas, will serve 10 years in prison for conspiracy to export firearms destined for the Zetas. Diaz was sentenced to 48 months behind bars. A fifth co-defendant, Pablo “Panda” Cerda, 38, was sentenced Tuesday to 16 years in federal prison.
Members and associates of the Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos were ordered by the Zetas to execute the kidnapping after a person stole $2 million in drug proceeds, prosecutors allege. The proceeds were delivered from Chicago to a warehouse in Laredo on Sept. 14, 2010, authorities said. The person who stole the money was supposed to deliver it to the Zetas in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Authorities said the coconspirators were tasked with kidnapping the thief and his or her family members. They were to kill them if the money was not returned. At about 11:30 p.m. Sept. 19, 2010, the Laredo Police Department received a 911 call indicating a woman had been abducted at gunpoint in the 1300 block of Eistetter Street. The woman turned
See ZETAS PAGE 12A
More rain, more serious flooding Death toll rises to 22, 13 missing after days of severe weather By JUAN A. LOZANO AND SETH ROBBINS ASSOCIATED PRESS
IMMIGRATION CRISIS
FAMILIES RECEIVE HELP
HOUSTON — Floodwaters submerged highways and threatened homes Friday in Texas as another round of heavy rain added to the damage inflicted by storms that have killed at least 22 people and left 13 missing. The line of thunderstorms that stalled over Dallas dropped as much as 7 more inches overnight. That rainfall contributed to another death
early Friday, when firefighters in a Dallas suburb said a man drowned in his truck after it was swept into a culvert. Houston-area authorities confirmed the death of an 87-year-old man who was swept away when a boat attempting to rescue him from a bayou overturned. The man had previously been counted among the missing. His body was recovered from the Houston Ship Channel. The rain also seeped
See FLOOD PAGE 12A
CRUDE OIL
Abbott wants export ban lifted Texas governor calls 40-year-old ban a ‘relic from an era of scarcity’ By JIM MALEWITZ Photo by Bob Owen/The San Antonio Express-News | AP
Mirian Escobar Perez, 23, of Honduras cries as she prays on her knees in her room as the Mennonite Casa de Maria y Marta shelter on April 2 in San Antonio. The Mennonite Casa de Maria y Marta is where immigrant women and their children stay after being released from detention centers in South Texas and participates as part of the Interfaith Welcome Coalition.
After being released from dentention, shelter By JASON BUCH SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
SAN ANTONIO — When the vans from South Texas’s immigrant detention centers arrive at the San Antonio Greyhound station, a group of volunteers waits to greet women and children who face a long bus ride through a foreign country with little more than the
clothes on their backs. Members of San Antonio’s Interfaith Welcome Coalition offer them cell phones to call relatives, explain their bus tickets, and give them food and blankets for the journey ahead. At the bus station recently, Azuzucha Sanchez, 33, from Guatemala, threw her arms around Yanira Lopez, a friend from the Karnes
County detention center who has been staying for several weeks with the coalition, a network of local churches and religious groups that provides support for Central American families crossing the border in Texas. “I didn’t imagine she would be here,” Sanchez told the San Antonio Express-News. “I arrived and
saw people from the church, and they said come in. I was afraid of the journey, but now it’s better.” San Antonio’s bus station is the first stop for most of the women released from detention centers in Karnes County and the town of Dilley. Combined, the two centers are holding about 1,500
See FAMILIES PAGE 11A
TEXAS TRIBUNE
Texas has officially asked Congress to lift its 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports. Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday signed a resolution calling the federal ban a “relic from an era of scarcity and flawed price control policies” that should be lifted at a time when the country is awash in low-priced crude. A trio of Texans in Congress is pushing legislation that would overturn the ban. Supporters of lifting the ban – including virtually all Texas lawmakers and
industry regulators – argue that finding more buyers for U.S. crude would prompt more drilling, pouring more cash into the state treasury. Proponents of the status quo fear that a repeal could increase gas prices and spur more drilling that harms the environment. American companies may export refined petroleum products such as gasoline or diesel, but most crude here is stuck at home. That’s due to a policy dating back to the mid-1970s, when the U.S.
See CRUDE OIL PAGE 11A
PAGE 2A
Zin brief CALENDAR
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2015
AROUND TEXAS
TODAY IN HISTORY
SATURDAY, MAY 30
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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. Laredo Northside Market Association is hosting the May “Fifth Saturday Market” at Slaughter Park. Many of the regular Laredo Northside Market vendors will be present, and there will also be activities with prizes for kids. For more information, visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/laredonorthsidemarket. 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. Planetarium Shows at TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium from 1 – 5 p.m. 2 p.m.: Accidental Astronaut; 3 p.m.: Cosmic Adventures; 4 p.m.: Back to the Moon; 5 p.m.: Black Holes. General Admission is $4 for children and $5 adults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU students, faculty and staff. For more information, call 956-326-DOME (3663). Spiritual Wisdom on Karma and Reincarnation. Free Bilingual Discussion with booklet included. From 1 – 2:30 p.m. in Room A of Laredo Public Library, 1120 E. Calton. Se habla español. For more info please call 210-8317113 or got to www.Eckankar-Texas.org.
Today is Saturday, May 30, the 150th day of 2015. There are 215 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On May 30, 1935, Babe Ruth played in his last major league baseball game for the Boston Braves, leaving after the first inning of the first of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies, who won both games (Ruth announced his retirement three days later). On this date: In 1431, Joan of Arc, condemned as a heretic, was burned at the stake in Rouen, France. In 1814, the first Treaty of Paris was signed, ending war between France and the Sixth Coalition (the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Portugal and Prussia). In 1883, 12 people were trampled to death in a stampede sparked by a rumor that the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge was in danger of collapsing. In 1922, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. was dedicated in a ceremony attended by President Warren G. Harding, Chief Justice William Howard Taft and Robert Todd Lincoln. In 1937, ten people were killed when police fired on steelworkers demonstrating near the Republic Steel plant in South Chicago. In 1958, unidentified American service members killed in World War II and the Korean War were interred in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. In 1980, Pope John Paul II arrived in France on the first visit there by the head of the Roman Catholic Church since the early 19th century. In 1996, Britain’s Prince Andrew and the former Sarah Ferguson were granted an uncontested decree ending their 10-year marriage. Ten years ago: American teenager Natalee Holloway vanished in Aruba after leaving a bar with three young men, including the chief suspect in her disappearance, Joran van der Sloot; her fate remains unknown. Five years ago: Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba, was seen leaving a hotel room in Lima, Peru, where the body of 21year-old Stephany Flores was found three days later. (Van der Sloot later confessed to murdering Flores, and is serving a 28-year prison sentence.) One year ago: Beset by growing evidence of patient delays and cover-ups, embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned from President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, taking the blame for what he decried as a “lack of integrity” in the sprawling health care system for the nation’s military veterans. Today’s Birthdays: Actor Clint Walker is 88. Actress Ruta Lee is 80. Actor Michael J. Pollard is 76. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Gale Sayers is 72. Actor Colm Meaney is 62. Country singer Wynonna Judd is 51. Movie director Antoine Fuqua is 50. Rapper Cee Lo Green is 40. Actor Jake Short is 18. Actor Sean Giambrone is 16. Actor Jared Gilmore is 15. Thought for Today: “For happiness one needs security, but joy can spring like a flower even from the cliffs of despair.” — Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American writer (19062001).
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.
TUESDAY, JUNE 2 Alzheimer’s support group will meet at 7 p.m. at the Laredo Medical Center, building B, meeting room 2. The support group is for family members and caregivers taking care of someone who has Alzheimer’s. For information, please call 956-693-9991.
THURSDAY, JUNE 4 Elysian Social Club will be hosting its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Herlinda Nieto-Dubuisson at 956-2853126.
SATURDAY, JUNE 6 Villa San Agustin de Laredo Genealogical Society meeting with speaker Albino Salinas Arreola on the Founding of Nuevo Laredo at the Laredo Public Library-Calton, from 10 a.m. to noon. Sanjuanita Martinez-Hunter at 722-3497. First United Methodist Church used book sale from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at 1220 McClelland. Hardcovers, $1; paperbacks, $.50; magazines, $.25; childrens books, $.25.
MONDAY, JUNE 8
Photo by Marjorie Kamys Cotera | Texas Tribune
Legislators congratulate Rep. John Otto, R-Dayton, after HB1 passes on Friday. The budget leaves $6.4 billion unspent, including $2.9 billion under the state’s constitutional spending cap, which limits the growth of some state funds. Lawmakers also left untouched another $11 billion in the state’s Rainy Day Fund.
$209.4B budget approved By AMAN BATHEJA AND JULIÁN AGUILAR TEXAS TRIBUNE
Texas lawmakers in both chambers on Friday overwhelmingly approved a $209.4 billion two-year budget, a 3.6 percent increase over the current one. It now heads to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. The budget leaves $6.4 billion unspent, including $2.9 billion under the state’s constitutional spending cap, which limits the growth of some state funds. Lawmakers also left untouched another $11 billion in the state’s Rainy Day Fund, which is fed by oil and gas production taxes. The budget also includes funding to cover $3.8 billion in property tax relief and franchise tax cuts for Texas businesses. A 133-15 House vote was preceded by hours of occasionally heated debate in which both Democrats and Republicans took issue
Lawmakers approve new Search for missing girl off Superintendent arrested, teen abortion restrictions Galveston Island resumes faces bribery charges AUSTIN — Texas lawmakers have voted to tighten rules for teenagers seeking to get an abortion without parental consent. The bill sent to Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday requires girls to show ID to prove they are under 18 and extends the time for a judge to make a ruling. It also bars girls from using abuse as a reason to apply for an application for a judicial bypass.
South Texas Food Bank bucket brigade fundraiser 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at seven Laredo corners: Hillside-McPherson, Zacatecas-Zapata Highway, McPherson-Shiloh, Saunders-Bartlett, Arkansas-Clark, Guadalupe-Meadow, Springfield –Del Mar. For information please call Salo Otero, 956-324-2432.
THURSDAY, JUNE 18 Elysian Social Club will be hosting its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Herlinda Nieto-Dubuisson at 956-2853126. (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.)
GALVESTON — The search for a 12-year-old Houston girl who disappeared while swimming off Galveston Island is set to continue after being suspended for the night. Houston media outlets report Samira Carlon was at the beach with a school group of about 20 from KIPP Voyage Academy for Girls in Houston on Thursday afternoon.
DONNA — The superintendent of a South Texas school district faces charges on accusations he and another official paid the school police chief to drop an investigation into theft and insurance fraud. The Monitor reports that Donna school district Superintendent Jesus Rene Reyna was arrested Thursday and is charged with bribery and obstruction.
Abbott signs law giving 10 injured in gas leak at Gas prices drop slightly to reporters extra protection Panhandle chemical plant $2.51 average in Texas AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law a measure further shielding journalists from libel lawsuits if they accurately report a whistleblower’s allegations — even if they turn out to be false. The protection initially appeared stalled, but rallied after lengthy negotiations between organizations that represent journalists and trial lawyers.
The Laredo Stroke Support Group will be holding its monthly meeting at 7 p.m. at the San Martin de Porres Church Family Life Center. Please visit www.laredostrokesupport.com for more information.
SATURDAY JUNE 13
with certain levels of funding. “I’m very happy to support this budget,” House Appropriations Chairman John Otto, R-Dayton, told House members. “Does it do everything I want to do? No. Anybody who thinks they can get 100 percent of what they want is crazy. It doesn’t happen.” The votes against the budget in the lower chamber included state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, who served as Otto’s vice chairman on the Appropriations Committee and was the only House Democrat to serve on the conference committee that worked to hash out differences between the two chambers’ budgets. Turner called the amount allocated for public education in the final budget “woefully inadequate” and also cited frustrations with spending levels for transportation and physician reimbursement payments for Medicaid.
BORGER — Ten people were taken to hospitals after a gas leak at a chemical plant in the Texas Panhandle. The incident happened about 4:15 p.m. Thursday at the Agrium plant in Borger, about 40 miles northeast of Amarillo. Borger police Lt. Brandon Strope says the 10 were taken to Panhandle hospitals by ambulance and helicopter.
COPPELL — Gas prices across Texas dropped by one cent this week. AAA Texas said Thursday that the statewide average for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in Texas is now at $2.51. That’s 94 cents less per gallon than last year. Texans are paying 23 cents less than the national average, which now sits at $2.74. — Compiled from AP reports
AROUND THE NATION Fuel and potential fires for the US economy ahead WASHINGTON — The US economy should get better after a sputtering first quarter, but how much better? It’s complicated. Steady hiring and low gas prices should help power solid growth through the rest of 2015. The harsh winter and a labor dispute that slowed trade at West Coast ports are both over. Home sales and construction are rebounding, along with business investment. But risks remain: A stronger dollar will likely continue to keep the trade deficit wide. And further cutbacks in oil drilling could depress spending in the energy industry.
American Express president dies suddenly NEW YORK — American Express says president Ed Gilligan
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In this April 27 photo, rodbusters install rebar on the new Comcast Innovation and Technology Center under construction, in Philadelphia. The Commerce Department released first-quarter gross domestic product on Friday. died suddenly Friday after falling ill while flying on a corporate plane to New York. The company says the 55-yearold executive was coming back from a business trip. It said the plane made an emergency landing. Gilligan began working at
American Express Co. 35 years ago as an intern and became president of the credit card company in 2013. The company says he is survived by his wife and four children. — 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
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A
Border bill sent to Gov. Abbott By JULIÁN AGUILAR TEXAS TRIBUNE
Photo by LM Otero | AP
Don Hooton posses for a photo in a room with remembrances of his late son Taylor Hooton at his home on March 17, in McKinney. Hooton, who started the Taylor Hooton Foundation for steroid abuse education after his 17-year-old son’s 2003 suicide was linked to steroid use, was one of the key advocates in creating the Texas program.
High school steroids tests end By JIM VERTUNO ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Texas lawmakers voted Friday to dismantle the state’s high school steroids testing program after eight years and more than $10 million spent collecting thousands of samples that turned up only a handful of cheaters. Once lauded as a model for the nation, the program instead turned into a target for critics who called it an ineffective waste of money. Several lawmakers defended it Friday as an effective deterrent against steroid use, but said it was no longer needed. “We spent a lot of money. We raised awareness. We saved lives,” said Rep. Dan Flynn, a Republican who helped write the original testing law in 2007. Friday’s vote stripped all money for the testing program out of the next state budget, which was sent to Gov. Greg Abbott to sign into law.
Texas started the program in response to fears that performanceenhancing drug use in professional sports was rapidly growing among teenagers in a state where the love of high school football is second to none. Texas initially created a massive program that sent testers swarming across the state to randomly collect urine samples from high school athletes in all sports. The first 30,000 tests produced just 11 positive results of steroid use. Few saw those numbers as good news of clean athletes or even as proof the program could be a successful deterrent. Most saw it as fodder for critics that the state was wasting money. Lawmakers have been scaling down the program ever since. By 2013, its budget had been cut from $3 million per year to $500,000. Soon, Illinois and New Jersey will be the only states with testing programs.
The move was expected. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst championed the program from its start and kept it afloat in recent years, but he lost a bid for re-election in 2014. A special committee that reviews state agencies last year recommended eliminating the program. “While I am disappointed to see the testing program disappear, its demise was inevitable,” said Don Hooton, who started the Taylor Hooton Foundation after his 17-year-old son’s 2003 suicide was linked to steroid use, and was one of the key advocates in creating the Texas program. An initial supporter, Hooton became one the program’s chief critics, complaining of loopholes in sample collecting and concerns that it didn’t test for enough different types of steroids, creating easy ways for students to avoid detection. “The chances of this
program catching one of our Texas high-schoolers using steroids was somewhere between slim and none,” Hooton said. State officials scrambled briefly Friday to determine if cutting the money really killed the program. The legislative session ends Monday and lawmakers have not eliminated the portion of state law passed in 2007 that required testing. But key lawmakers, from the original author to the budget architects, said it was a minor misstep and testing will not be required. “The legislature voted to de-fund it, so I think the legislative intent is pretty clear,” said Sen. Jane Nelson, the Republican chairman of the Senate budget committee. Flynn, however, said the hiccup could allow lawmakers to bring testing back in the future. “If we find there’s a problem again, we could test again,” Flynn said.
After a months-long staring contest between the House and the Senate, the lower chamber gave a sweeping border security bill a final blessing Thursday. State Rep. Dennis Bonnen, RAngleton, agreed to accept changes the Senate made to his House Bill 11, which would beef up staffing for the Texas Department of Public Safety, keep the Texas National Guard on the border and establish a transnational intelligence center on the border to analyze crime data, among other things. “I think the people of Texas can be very proud of the great deal of respect and dignity” shown through the process, Bonnen said. “We are going to step forward where Washington fails.” The final vote on the bill was 122-22 and came after several House Democrats questioned Bonnen about what oversight mechanisms are in the bill. An earlier version included a House provision that would have created an oversight committee to monitor DPS spending and activities. That was
stripped and replaced by a general oversight committee that didn’t include the DPS mandate. Bonnen did his best to reassure members that the committee would look at an array of issues during the interim, and that the DPS would be under sunset review in 2019, when lawmakers can implement changes to the agency. The bill has a price tag of about $310 million, which is allocated for in the $800 million lawmakers earmarked for border security through the 2016-17 biennium. The bill creates a new offense for smuggling if a person knowingly transports or harbors someone in the country illegally for profit. It also requires DPS to form a plan to establish southbound checkpoints on international bridges to search for weapons and bulk cash. The bill was considered a “must-pass” proposal after Gov. Greg Abbott declared border security an emergency item in January. Because the House accepted the Senate’s final version, there won’t be a need for a conference committee, and the measure should be at Abbott’s desk for a signature soon.
Jailed biker sues Waco for arrest ASSOCIATED PRESS
WACO — A Texas motorcyclist arrested with more than 170 others after a motorcycle club meeting ended in gunfire has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit. WFAA-TV reports Matthew Alan Clendennen alleges he was arrested and detained “without probable cause.” He says he took cover in a hallway inside Twin Peaks, the Waco restaurant where the meeting was to take place, and
had nothing to do with the violence that ensued. Nine people were killed in the shootout. The lawsuit filed Friday in Waco federal court names as defendants the city of Waco, McLennan County and Waco police officer Manuel Chavez, who drafted the warrant for Clendennen’s arrest. Clendennen remains jailed on a $1 million bond. Waco police spokesman Sgt. Patrick Swanton could not immediately be reached for comment.
PAGE 4A
Zopinion
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2015
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COMMENTARY
OTHER VIEWS
Housewives should get salaries By ALYSSA ROSENBERG THE WASHINGTON POST
There’s little more entertaining, predictable or depressing about watching people throw their political good sense out the window just because they don’t like the beneficiaries of a practice they might otherwise support. Such has been the case with the hysteria over so-called “wife bonuses,” the subject of a May 16 piece in the New York Times. “A wife bonus, I was told, might be hammered out in a pre-nup or postnup, and distributed on the basis of not only how well her husband’s fund had done but her own performance — how well she managed the home budget, whether the kids got into a ‘good’ school — the same way their husbands were rewarded at investment banks,” author Wednesday Martin explained. It’s easy to get distracted by the amounts of money Martin is talking about and what the women who receive these bonuses do with them. “Their self-care was no less zealous or competitive. No ponytails or mom jeans here: they exercised themselves to a razor’s edge, wore expensive and exquisite outfits to school drop-off and looked a decade younger than they were. Many ran their homes (plural) like C.E.O.s,” Martin noted. “Oil prices aside, I can’t help dreaming about what I might be able to afford with my 2016 bonus,” mused Polly Phillips in a New York Post piece designed to court this specific ire. (“I get a wife bonus and I deserve it, so STFU,” screams the headline.) “Might it be the ultimate in wife bonus purchases — a Birkin bag? I’d absolutely kill for a $15,000 starter model in taupe.” But hating on rich women obscures an important point: Housework and child care are work, or at least they’re treated that way when someone other than the person who lives in the house or gave birth to the child in question does them. If one person in a marriage is going to take on these responsibilities, which rightfully belong to both partners, then maybe they should be paid. And if we think it’s so important that children have their parents present and have a certain standard of living at home, maybe we should make a collective investment and pay similar stipends to families even where one partner isn’t making an invest-
ment banking or oil executive’s fortune, or families headed by a single person. “I’ve been surprised and disappointed by the reaction I’ve received from other women,” when disclosing that she gets a bonus, Phillips wrote. And while she is sort of skipping over the fact that talking about your spending incessantly might not make you great company, she makes an excellent point. “Many of them have sniggered, assuming that my bonus is bedroom dependent, or have accused me of betraying feminism and living in the ‘50s like a desperate housewife. To me, there can be nothing more feminist than believing that staying home to take care of our daughter — as well as the day-to-day washing, ironing, cooking and cleaning — is just as worthy of a wage as going out to a job outside the home.” Or, as Shane Ferro put it in Business Insider, “One parent working and one doing the unpaid upkeep of the house and kids is unfair and too often split down typical gender lines, but it’s not economically irrational.” My biggest point of objection is to the way Phillips’ bonus is structured. “The size of my bonus has nothing to do with my performance in the kitchen or the bedroom. It’s entirely dependent on how my husband does at work, and how well his company performs,” she explains. “Which means, judging by the price of oil at the moment, my critics might be pleased to hear that next year, I might not get much of a wife bonus at all.” But if she’s going to be paid for managing her family’s home and doing child care, Phillips should be getting a set salary that reflects the value of her work, rather than a cut of her husband’s bonus. It’s not her fault if the price of crude falls or her husband has a bad year despite the environment she has created for him at home. It’s not getting paid for work that’s necessarily condescending or sexist; it’s tying that payment to the performance of the person who’s paying the salary, rather than the person who’s actually undertaking the labor in question. And it’s doling that money out like a year-end treat, rather than delivering it regularly like the wage that it is. So down with the wife bonus. And up with the wife (or husband, or stay-at-home partner) salary.
COLUMN
Allow kids to choose their own summer reading books By ERIN KELLY SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST
It’s a familiar classroom ritual — every June, teachers assign summer reading. And every September, students come back to school having read too few books. This is frustrating for teachers, and challenging for students. When kids aren’t in school, they forget crucial skills they learned during the year — at least a month of reading achievement, on average. This so-called “summer slide” is particularly pernicious in children from low-income families.
Already behind Low-income students often walk through the door of their kindergartens already behind their more fortunate peers because of a mix of poverty, poorer health, less parental education, and higher rates of single and teenage parents. With limited access to books and other academic opportunities in the summer, these children experience the summer slide threefold . Over time, this adds up. By third grade, children who can’t read at their grade level (a whopping 73 percent of students eligible for free or reducedprice lunch) begin to struggle with other subjects.
At risk students Students living in poverty who cannot read proficiently by third grade are 13 times less likely to graduate from high school. By ninth grade, some have estimated that two-thirds of the reading achievement gap can be explained by unequal ac-
cess to summer learning opportunities. There is good news: Stemming the summer slide isn’t impossible. Students who read just four to six books over the summer maintain their skills (they need to turn more pages to actually become better readers.)
Summer reading Schools have tried to enforce this with a summer reading list. Students are assigned several books that they must write a report about or take a test on once they return in the fall. These programs often include a mailed package of books selected by wellintentioned educators, who evaluate the material on educational and literary merits and then ship books home sight-unseen by students. I wondered if there was a way to make this program more effective. So in 2013, I tested a small tweak in two low-income classrooms in Rochester, New York: I asked the teachers to let the kids choose the books they read over the summer. We started with two second-grade classrooms in schools with low-income students. Although 84 percent of students in the Rochester City School District qualify for the free and reduced-price lunch program, this school had a particularly high concentration of poverty, with 96 percent of students eligible for the program.
Choosing books For one class, researchers ran a book fair, where each student picked 13 books to take home at the end of the school year.
Books are available
Study results
The fair featured a broad range of selections — fiction and nonfiction, classics and newer works — and students eagerly passed the books back and forth, reveling in the opportunity to pick those matching their personal interests while chattering with one another about familiar stories. (An adaptation of Disney’s “Frozen” was especially popular.) Many also chose works considerably above or below their reading levels so they could share with siblings. The other class of students received books by mail from the already-inplace community program. Both classes were given literacy tests before summer vacation and again when they returned in the fall. Sure enough, the students who chose their own books did better, improving from the previous summer. Those in the community program showed no improvement.
A three-year study of Florida students found that kids who selected books to take home for the summer had significantly higher reading proficiency scores compared to students who received nothing. A Scholastic Corp. study of 1,000 readers found that middle and high school students who are given the opportunity to choose the books they read are more likely to read more frequently for fun. “You become a lifelong reader when you’re able to make choices about the books you read, and when you love the books you read,” Pam Allyn, a literacy advocate, told The Washington Post. “You tend to get better at something you love to do.”
Few differences A follow-up study involved six classes, with a total of 87 students, and compared those who selected all of their summer books with those who chose some of their own books, while educators picked the rest. There was no significant difference between the two groups. Seventyfive percent of the students either maintained or improved their reading levels over the summer, which is much better than typically expected. Clearly, the small sample size is a limitation, but other reading research backs this up.
Book choices The Rochester City School District seems to agree. This summer, for the first time, all kindergarten through secondgrade students will receive five books selected by educators and five more they will pick themselves. Tackling the academic achievement gap between the rich and poor is a staggering undertaking. This is a relatively simple piece of the puzzle. Many districts already have summer reading programs — we just have to let the children have a say in what they take home. And if that means a few of them pick “Frozen” rather than “Charlotte’s Web,” that’s a sacrifice we should be willing to make. (Kelly is a fourth-year resident in the Internal Medicine-Pediatrics program at the University of Rochester Medical Center.)
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.
CLASSIC DOONESBURY (1982) | GARRY TRUDEAU
National
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A
GM, Subaru models added to air bag recall By TOM KRISHER ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sketch by Elizabeth Williams | AP file
This Feb. 4 file courtroom sketch shows defendant Ross William Ulbricht as the deputy recites the word “guilty” multiple times during Ubricht’s trial in New York. Ulbricht was sentenced Friday to life in prison.
Man gets life for drug website By LARRY NEUMEISTER AND JAKE PEARSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — A San Francisco man who created the underground drug-selling website Silk Road was sentenced Friday to life in prison by a judge who cited six deaths from drugs bought on his site and five people he tried to have killed. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest told 31-year-old Ross Ulbricht he was a criminal even though he doesn’t fit the typical profile — he has two collegiate degrees — and she brushed aside his efforts to characterize the business as merely a big mistake. “It was a carefully planned life’s work. It was your opus,” she said. “You are no better a person than any other drug dealer.” Ulbricht’s 2013 arrest shut down what prosecutors described as an unprecedented one-stop online shopping mall where the supply of drugs was virtually limitless, enabling nearly 4,000 drug dealers to expand their
markets from the sidewalk to cyberspace, selling drugs on a never-before-seen scale to more than 100,000 buyers in markets stretching from Argentina to Australia, from the United States to Ukraine. The government said in court papers that Ulbricht left a blueprint that others have followed by establishing new “dark markets” in sophisticated spaces of the Internet that are hard to trace, where an even broader range of illicit goods are sold than were available on Silk Road. Forrest said the sentence could show copycats there are “very serious consequences.” She also ordered $183 million forfeiture. Prosecutors had not asked for a life sentence, saying only they wanted substantially more than the 20-year mandatory minimum. Ulbricht was convicted in February of operating the site for nearly three years from 2011 until 2013. Prosecutors say he collected $18 million in bitcoins through commissions on a website containing thou-
sands of listings under categories like “Cannabis,” ’’Psychedelics” and “Stimulants.” They said he brokered more than 1 million drug deals worth over $183 million while he operated on the site under the alias Dread Pirate Roberts — a reference to the swashbuckling character in “The Princess Bride.” The judge said Ulbricht’s efforts to arrange the murders of five people he deemed as threats to his business was proof that Silk Road had not become the “world without restrictions, of ultimate freedom” that he claimed he sought. Ulbricht also is charged in Baltimore federal court in an attempted murder-for-hire scheme. “You were captain of the ship, Dread Pirate Roberts,” Forrest said. “It was a world with laws you created. ... It was a place with a lot of rules. If you broke the rules, you’d have all kinds of things done to you.” Prosecutors cited at least five deaths traced to overdoses from drugs bought on Silk Road, and two parents who lost sons spoke in
court. Before the sentence was announced, a sniffling and apologetic Ulbricht told Forrest he’s a changed man who is not greedy or vain by nature. “I’ve essentially ruined my life and broken the hearts of every member of my family and my closest friends,” he said. “I’m not a self-centered sociopathic person that was trying to express some inner badness. I do love freedom. It’s been devastating to lose it.” His lawyer, Joshua Dratel, said he was “disappointed tremendously” by the sentence. Outside court, Ulbricht’s mother, Lyn, called the war on drugs a failure and said two of the victims in the case died during the four months that authorities investigated but did not shut down the website. His hands folded before him, Ulbricht was stoic as the sentence was announced. As he left the courtroom, he carried with him photographs of those who died as a result of drugs purchased on Silk Road.
DETROIT — General Motors and Subaru are adding vehicles to the growing list of models being recalled by 11 automakers due to potentially exploding air bags. The U.S. government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released the model information on Friday. The vehicles are equipped with air bag inflators made by Takata Corp. of Japan that can inflate with too much force, spewing shrapnel into the passenger compartment. Six people have been killed and more than 100 injured due to the problem. Last week NHTSA and the government agreed to double the number of inflators it recalled to 33.8 million. But the makes and models were not available. The increase made it the largest auto recall in U.S. history, according to the agency. The best way to tell if your car or truck is being recalled is to key in the vehicle identification number at https:// vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/. The number is stamped on the driver’s side of the dashboard near the windshield and also is on many state registration cards. Automakers are still posting recall information by number, and the task may take several days or even weeks. So it’s wise to
keep checking periodically. Here’s a breakdown of the vehicles added to the recall Friday: General Motors: About 375,000 Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra HD trucks from the 2007 and 2008 model years to replace passenger air bags, mainly across North America. About 330,000 of the trucks were sold in the U.S. Dealers will replace the inflators at no cost to customers. GM says it knows of no crashes or injuries due to performance of the air bags in these vehicles. Subaru: About 60,000 vehicles added to a previous recall along the Gulf Coast for passenger air bag inflators. Recall now expanded nationally. Brings total Subaru vehicles recalled to about 81,000. Additional models include 2004-2005 Impreza and the 2005 Saab 9-2X, which was manufactured by Subaru. On Thursday, Honda, Fiat Chrysler, BMW, Ford and Mitsubishi released their models added to the recall. Eleven automakers have vehicles included in the Takata recall expansion. Other companies include Daimler Trucks, Mazda, Nissan, and Toyota. Nissan said it would not add U.S. vehicles in the latest recall expansion. Vehicles from other automakers will be announced later. For more details on the recall, go to www.safercar.gov/rs/takata/index.html
National
6A THE ZAPATA TIMES
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2015
Holmes: Mind was ‘falling apart’ By DAN ELLIOTT ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Rogelio V. Solis | AP
George “Buddy” Guy, a Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist, speaks about his friendship with B.B. King during a public viewing Friday.
Public views B.B. King By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS ASSOCIATED PRESS
INDIANOLA, Miss. — Blues guitarist Buddy Guy says he always intended to tour the B.B. King Museum while its namesake, his longtime friend, was still living. The 78-year-old Guy was among more than 4,000 people who filed past King’s open casket at the museum Friday, the eve of the blues legend’s funeral in the Mississippi Delta. “His left hand was a special effect,” Guy said, describing King’s talent for bending strings to make the guitar sing. King was 89 when he died May 14 at his home in Las Vegas. A public viewing and invitation-only memorial service were held in that city before his body was flown to Memphis, Tennessee, for a tribute Wednesday. He will be buried at B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in his hometown of Indianola, Mississippi.
CENTENNIAL, Colo. — James Holmes said his “mind was kind of falling apart” and he began to have homicidal thoughts months before he killed 12 people and injured 70 others in a Colorado movie theater, according to a video excerpt presented Friday at his murder trial. Holmes told a state-appointed psychiatrist in the videotaped interview that he had contracted mononucleosis in late 2011 and became depressed and lacked energy partly because of a breakup with a girlfriend in early 2012. “My mind was kind of falling apart,” he told Dr. William Reid in the interview at a state mental hospital two years after the July 20, 2012, Aurora theater attack. “I don’t know what else to say.” Asked by Reid whether he ever thought about hurting or killing himself, Holmes replied: “No.” Asked about killing other people, Holmes said: “Yes.” Holmes said he associated depression with suicidal thoughts and added: “I kind of transferred my suicidal thoughts into homicidal.” Holmes told Reid that he wondered if the FBI was surveilling him as he was preparing to attack moviegoers and that he hoped agents would stop him. When questioned by District Attorney George Brauchler about those comments in the video, Reid said: “It suggests that he knew that he was doing something wrong or was planning something wrong.” The clip is part of a promised 22 hours of redacted videotaped interviews the jury will see of Holmes’ state-ordered evaluation. Reid testified Thursday that following the exam, he determined that Holmes was legally sane at the time of the shooting. Holmes’ attorneys have yet to question Reid, a key witness for the prosecution that has the burden of proof in trying to convince the jury to reject Holmes’ plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutors are seeking a guilty verdict and the death penalty; if jurors find for Holmes, he would spend his life in a state
Photo by Colorado Judicial Department/The New York Times | AP
A handout image from the Colorado Judicial Department shows a portion of a diary kept by James Holmes, the Aurora theater gunman. The journal was presented as evidence in his murder trial.
This week, prosecutors introduced into evidence a notebook in which Holmes methodically weighed pros and cons of a theater attack and included notes on his mental condition. mental hospital. On screen, Holmes appeared cautious, even wary, his hands clasped as he answered with few words. In court, Holmes did not glance at the video screen but stared straight ahead, swiveling lightly in his chair. Reid did the vast majority of talking in the video clip, apparently trying to get Holmes to open up as he asked the defendant about a wide range of topics, including faith, his parents, his preference for being alone, books he liked and childhood nightmares. Holmes said faith was important to his mother but that he was “never really a believer.” Asked about his parents’ relationship, he said he “could see love between them” and that he also felt loved.
He said he sympathized with Lennie Small, a troubled migrant worker in John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men.” He said he suffered nightmares as a child and sometimes experienced a catatonic state, a “frozen feeling.” He preferred to live alone in an apartment at college. In a segment shown Thursday, Holmes told Reid he sometimes cries before he goes to bed because he regrets the shooting. But the details were seemingly random and so far sketchy as prosecutors launch into the process of drawing a profile of Holmes — one largely shrouded from the public in part because of pre-trial gag orders and Holmes’ penchant for solitude, including his time in Denver as a graduate student in neuroscience at the University of Col-
orado medical center. This week, prosecutors introduced into evidence a notebook in which Holmes methodically weighed pros and cons of a theater attack and included notes on his mental condition. Holmes wrote about how he liked to keep his distance from psychiatrists and therapists who treated him: “Prevent building false sense of rapport. Speak truthfully and deflect incriminating questions. Oddly they don’t pursue or delve farther (sic) into harmful omissions.” Judge Carlos A. Samour told the jury they should consider what they see and hear in the interviews only for the purpose of determining the issue of Holmes’ sanity. Colorado law defines a defendant as insane if he or she was so mentally diseased or deficient at the time of committing a crime as to be incapable of telling right from wrong, or of being able to form a culpable state of mind. Reid has acknowledged that between the attack and his interview, Holmes suffered a physical and mental breakdown and began taking anti-psychotic and other medications.
National
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A
Indictment: Ex-Speaker paid man off By MICHAEL TARM ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO — Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million in hush money to keep a person from the town where he was a longtime high school teacher silent about “prior misconduct” by the Illinois Republican who once was second in line to the U.S. presidency, according to a federal grand jury indictment handed down Thursday. The indictment, which doesn’t describe the alleged misconduct by Hastert, charges the 73-yearold with one count of evading bank regulations by withdrawing $952,000 in increments of less than $10,000 to skirt reporting requirements. He also is charged with one count of lying to the FBI about the reason for the unusual withdrawals. Each count of the indictment carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Hastert did not return email and phone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment on the allegations. Hastert, who had worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., since shortly after he left Congress in 2007, resigned from Dickstein Shapiro LLC, a spokesman for the lobbying and law firm said Thursday. The indictment alleges Hastert withdrew a total of around $1.7 million in cash from various bank accounts from 2010 to 2014, then provided the money to a person identified in the indictment only as “Individual A.” Hastert allegedly agreed to pay the person $3.5 million, but never apparently paid that full amount. It notes that Hastert was a high school teacher and coach from 1965 to 1981 in suburban York-
Photo by Amy Sancetta/file | AP
House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois is seen in Philadelphia on July 31, 2000. Hastert’s career as House speaker both arose and ended amid the sex-related scandals of others. Now, eight years after leaving Congress, Hastert’s own legacy is threatened by an indictment charging financial misdeeds — and cryptically referring to “misconduct” against an unnamed person. ville, about 50 miles west of Chicago. While the indictment says Individual A has been a resident of Yorkville and has known Hastert most of Individual A’s life, it doesn’t describe their relationship. The indictment says Hastert agreed to the payments after multiple meetings in 2010. It says that “during at least one of the meetings, Individual A
and defendant discussed past misconduct by defendant against Individual A that had occurred years earlier” and Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million “in order to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against Individual A.” The indictment says that between 2010 and 2012 Hastert made 15 cash withdrawals of $50,000
from bank accounts at Old Second Bank, People’s State Bank and Castle Bank and gave cash to Individual A around every six weeks. Around April 2012, bank officials began questioning Hastert about the withdrawals, and starting in July of that year, Hastert reduced the amounts he withdrew at a time to less than $10,000 — appar-
ently so they would not run afoul of a regulation designed to stop illicit activity such as money laundering, according to the indictment. Among the focuses of the FBI investigation was whether Hastert, in the words of the indictment, was “the victim of a criminal extortion related to, among other matters, his prior positions in government.” The court document does not elaborate. Legal experts said extortion cases can be tricky. In mulling over whom to charge, prosecutors often must decide who is the greater victim: the person being extorted or the person doing the extorting, said Chicagobased attorney and former federal prosecutor Phil Turner. Jeff Cramer, a former federal prosecutor and head of the Chicago office of the investigation firm Kroll, said investigators could have concluded Hastert’s alleged misconduct was “more egregious than the extortion.” Investigators questioned Hastert on Dec. 8, 2014, and he lied about why he had been withdrawing so much money at a time, the indictment alleges. He told investigators he did it because he didn’t trust the banking system, the indictment says. “Yeah ... I kept the cash. That’s what I am doing,” it quotes Hastert as saying. Hastert, who also maintains a home in the Chicago suburb of Plano several miles northwest of Yorkville, was a littleknown lawmaker from suburban Chicago when chosen to succeed conservative Newt Gingrich as speaker. Hastert was picked after favored Louisiana Rep. Bob Livingston resigned following his admission of several sexual
affairs. As speaker, Hastert pushed President George W. Bush’s legislative agenda, helping pass a massive tax cut and expanding Medicare prescription drug benefits. He retired from Congress in 2007 after eight years as speaker, making him the longest-serving Republican House speaker. He was second in line to the presidency during those years after the vice president. David Corwin of Yorkville said his son, Scott, wrestled for Hastert in high school, then later became a wrestling coach himself. “You won’t get anyone to say anything bad about him out here,” said David Corwin. “Everybody loved him. The kids loved him, and they still do.” Illinois has a long history of politicians getting in legal trouble. Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. served a year and a half for illegally spending $750,000 in campaign funds on furs, vacations and other luxury items. Two successive governors in the 2000s, Republican George Ryan and Democrat Rod Blagojevich, were convicted on corruption charges. In the Hastert case, it’s not clear whether the money was paid in relation to his former position in government. Hastert started making the payments to the person in about 2010, according to the indictment. Reached by telephone after the announcement, former Gov. Ryan described Hastert as an effective legislator. “I’m just surprised if this is true,” said Ryan, who has lived in Kankakee, Illinois, since his release from prison. A spokesman for Bush declined Thursday to comment on the charges against Hastert.
International
8A THE ZAPATA TIMES
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2015
Cuba off US list of terrorism sponsors By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ AND MATTHEW LEE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA — The Obama administration formally removed Cuba from the U.S. terrorism blacklist Friday, a decision hailed in Cuba as the healing of a decadesold wound and an important step toward normalizing relations between the Cold War foes. Secretary of State John Kerry signed off on rescinding Cuba’s “state sponsor of terrorism” designation exactly 45 days after the Obama administration informed Congress of its intent to do so on April 14. Lawmakers had that amount of time to weigh in and try to block the move, but did not do so. “The 45-day congressional pre-notification period has expired, and the secretary of state has made the final decision to rescind Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, effective today, May 29, 2015,” the State Department said in a statement. “While the United States has significant concerns and disagreements with a wide range of Cuba’s policies and actions, these fall outside the criteria relevant to the rescission of a state sponsor of terrorism designation,” the statement said. The step comes as officials from the two countries continue to hash out details for restoring full diplomatic relations, including opening embassies in Washington and Havana and returning ambassadors to the two countries for the first time since the U.S. severed diplomatic relations with the island in January 1961. The removal of Cuba from the terrorism list had been a key Cuban demand. The Cold War-era designation was levied mainly for Cuba’s support of leftist guerrillas around the world and isolated the communist island from much of the world financial system because banks fear repercus-
Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais | AP
President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro meet at the Summit of the Americas, in Panama City, Panama, on April 11. The Obama administration formally removed Cuba from the U.S. terrorism blacklist Friday, a decision hailed in Cuba as the healing of a decades-old wound and an important step toward normalizing relations. sions from doing business with designated countries. Even Cuba’s Interests Section in Washington lost its bank in the United States, forcing it to deal in cash until it found a new banker this month. Banks continue to take a cautious tone about doing business with Cuba since U.S. laws still make the island off limits for U.S. businesses. Leaders of the Republicans-controlled House have shown zero interest in repealing the laws from the 1990s that codified the U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba. “Taking Cuba off the terrorism list is one step toward normalization, but for doing business down there, we have a long way to go,” said Rob Rowe, vice president and associate chief council at the Ameri-
can Bankers Association. In a blog post, the White House called the decision on the terrorism list another step toward improving relations with Cuba. “For 55 years, we tried using isolation to bring about change in Cuba,” it said. “But by isolating Cuba from the United States, we isolated the United States from the Cuban people and, increasingly, the rest of the world.” The terrorism list was a particularly charged issue for Cuba because of the U.S. history of supporting exile groups responsible for attacks on the island, including the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger flight from Barbados that killed 73 people aboard. The attack was linked to Cuban exiles with ties to U.S.backed anti-Castro groups
and both men accused of masterminding the crime took shelter in Florida, where one, Luis Posada Carriles, currently lives. “I think this could be a positive act that adds to hope and understanding and can help the negotiations between Cuba and the United States,” said director Juan Carlos Cremata, who lost his father in the 1976 bombing. “It’s a list we never should have been on,” said Ileana Alfonso, who also lost her father in the attack. Top U.S. Republicans criticized the move, with House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio saying the Obama administration had “handed the Castro regime a significant political win in return for nothing.” “The communist dictatorship has offered no assurances it will address its long record of repression
and human rights at home,” Boehner said in a statement. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said the decision was a mistake and called it “further evidence that President Obama seems more interested in capitulating to our adversaries than in confronting them.” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, praised the move, saying it is a “critical step forward in creating new opportunities for American businesses and entrepreneurs, and in strengthening family ties.” U.S. and Cuban officials have said the two sides are close to resolving the final issues needed for restoring diplomatic relations, but the most recent round of talks ended May 22 with no announcement of an agreement. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Fri-
day that “there continue to be issues that need to be worked out.” He said important progress had been made, but would not give a time frame for an announcement. “That’s obviously among the next milestones,” he said. Washington and Havana are wrangling over U.S. demands that its diplomats be able to travel throughout Cuba and meet with dissidents without restrictions. The Cubans are wary of activity they see as destabilizing to their government. Both the U.S. and Cuba say reopening embassies would be a first step in a larger process of normalizing relations. That effort would still have to tackle bigger questions such as the trade embargo as well as the future of the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay and Cuba’s democracy record.
SÁBADO 30 DE MAYO DE 2015
Ribereña en Breve 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.
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) 765-4332; a Ana Martínez, al (956) 7655611; o a Marlen Guerra al (956) 765-4321.
Zfrontera
PÁGINA 9A
CORTE FEDERAL
Dictan condenas POR PHILIP BALLI
TIEMPO DE LAREDO
El jueves finalizó la etapa de sentencia en contra de cinco laredenses, por su participación en un intento de secuestro frustrado y una conspiración para exportación de armas de fuego, en una corte federal de Laredo. Supuestamente ellos tenían lazos con Los Zetas, Las audiencias de sentencia para Pablo “Panda” Cerda, de 38 años, Ernesto “Zombie” Zaragoza-Solís, de 31 años de edad, Efrain Garza, de 33, Grace Díaz-Martínez, de 35 años, Nicolás “Nico” Sánchez-Reyes, de 52 años, y José “Minutitos” Roberto Obregón, fueron programadas para esta semana ante la Juez de Distrito de EU, Diana Saldaña. Una acusación formal sustituida presentada el 31 de julio de 2012, los acusó de secuestro y contrabando de armas. El martes, Cerda recibió una sentencia total de 16 años en prisión. Él se declaró culpable de un cargo por conspiración para secuestro y un cargo por usar y descargar
un arma durante un crimen violento. Zaragoza-Solís y Garza se declararon culpables de los mismos cargos. El jueves, Saldaña los sentenció a ellos, a Sánchez-Reyes y a DíazMartínez. A Zaragoza-Solís se le dictó una sentencia de 20 años por conspiración para secuestro y una sentencia de 10 años por conspirar para usar un arma de fuego en un crimen violento, dándole un total de 30 años en prisión. Garza recibió la sentencia máxima en prisión. Saldaña dictó 27 años y tres meses por conspiración para secuestro y una sentencia de 10 años, por utilizar un arma de fuego en un crimen violento, dando un total de 37 años y tres meses en prisión. Díaz Martínez recibió una sentencia menor. Se le dictaron cuatro años después de declararse culpable a un cargo por ser cómplice después del incidente de secuestro. Sánchez-Reyes se declaró culpable de un cargo por conspiración
para exportar armas de fuego, que supuestamente estaban destinadas al Cártel de Los Zetas en México. A él se le dictó una sentencia de 10 años, que es la sentencia máxima que se puede otorgar por el delito.
Petición Esta semana, Obregón fue el único acusado que no fue sentenciado, después de que enviara una carta escrita a mano para Saldaña, solicitando un nuevo abogado y permiso para retirar su declaración de culpabilidad. Obregón se declaró culpable en febrero de 2013 a un cargo por conspiración para exportar armas de fuego. Saldaña acordó asignar un nuevo abogado para Obregón y programará el caso para una fecha posterior. Sánchez-Reyes, Obregón, Cerda y otros que se alega tuvieron relación con Los Zetas, también fueron acusados formalmente en una corte estatal por su supuesta participación
ZCISD
TEXAS
FERIA DE CIENCIAS
Tormentas dejan nuevas inundaciones en Estado POR JUAN A. LOZANO Y SETH ROBBINS ASSOCIATED PRESS
Fotos de cortesía | ZCISD
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. El Presidente Municipal, Ramiro Cortez, informó que los misioneros evangélicos viajarán a las comunidades rurales del sur de Miguel Alemán el 13 de junio.
EXHIBICIÓN DE ARTE El Boys and Girls Club de Zapata tendrá una exhibición de arte, el sábado 27 de junio, de 1 p.m. a 4 p.m. Los integrantes del club interesados en participar pueden llamar al (956) 7653892. La participación es exclusiva para integrantes del club. Las personas que gusten inscribirse pueden acudir al club o llamar al (956) 765-3892.
DESFILE DE MODAS MIGUEL ALEMAN — Damas representantes de la Fundación “Vive en Paz y Haz el Bien” invitan a un Desfile de Modas que se llevará a cabo el 8 de julio en el Casino Milenium. La fundación que lucha contra el cáncer, espera que con el desfile de modas se recauden fondos que les permitirán continuar con su misión.
TORNEO El Torneo Anual de Pesca Infantil ‘Back to School’ organizado por la Cámara de Comercio de Zapata, en su quinta edición, se realizará el sábado 22 de agosto. El evento se realizará de 7 a.m. a 3 p.m. en Bravo Park Pond. Se están aceptando patrocinadores desde 300 dólares hasta 2.000 dólares.
en los homicidios de Guillermo Rodríguez, de 48 años, en junio de 2010; Ramón Lucero Ramírez, de 47 años, en julio de 2010 y de Fidencio Ríos-Cárdenas, de 31 años, en septiembre de 2010. Sánchez-Reyes está acusado por la fiscalía de liderar una célula del Cártel de Los Zetas en Laredo. Los fiscales alegan que los homicidios fueron por encargo de Sánchez y ejecutados a nombre de Los Zetas. Después de aproximadamente dos semanas de juicio en la Corte de Distrito 49, Sánchez-Reyes y Obregón se declararon culpables del homicidio de Ríos-Cárdenas, a principios de abril de 2014. Como parte de su acuerdo de culpabilidad, Sánchez-Reyes cumplirá 35 años en prisión, condena que será ejecutada simultáneamente con los 10 años dictados el jueves en la corte federal por exportación de armas de fuego. La sentencia de Obregón también sería ejecutada simultáneamente con la sentencia de la corte federal del jueves.
Estudiantes del Zapata County Independent School District, participaron en una feria de ciencias nivel distrito, el jueves. En las imágenes dos estudiantes explican sus proyectos a los jurados.
NUEVA CIUDAD GUERRERO, MÉXICO
Abdala presenta proyecto TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Una candidata a la Diputación Federal por el Primer Distrito de Tamaulipas visitó a los habitantes de Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, México, para presentar su proyecto legislativo. Yahleel Abdala Carmona, candidata del Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) visitó a los residentes de la ciudad para solicitarles salir a votar el próximo 7 de junio. La candidata del Revolucionario Institucional tam-
bién saludó a los menores, y les entregó historietas ilustradas donde se da a conocer, de forma ABDALA sencilla sus propuestas, y parte de su vida profesional y política, señala un comunicado de prensa. “Estamos muy contentos con el recibimiento de la gente, es reconfortante ver cómo familias nos reciben y me brindan su confianza”, señaló Abdala a través de
un comunicado de prensa. “Hay que regresar a la política que te atiende, te escucha y te ayuda y esa es la política que gusta practicar pues así me lo enseñó mi padre”. Durante pláticas con los residentes Abdala señaló “que el político se debe al ciudadano y está para servirlos”, añade el comunicado “La gente es la que me irá marcando el camino, y yo haré lo que ellos me digan”, añadió. El recorrido se prolongó por alrededor de 2 horas.
HOUSTON— Varias carreteras de Texas amanecieron sumergidas el viernes y más hogares estaban bajo amenaza luego de una nueva ronda de lluvias que se sumó a los daños de las tormentas que han dejado al menos 20 muertos y 14 desaparecidos. La línea de tormentas que se paralizó sobre Dallas dejó hasta 18 centímetros (7 pulgadas) de lluvia durante la noche. La lluvia se coló a las casas y dejó a cientos de conductores varados, muchos de ellos a lo largo de las carreteras que quedaron prácticamente cerradas ante los elevados niveles de agua y los vehículos abandonados. Los cuerpos de rescate respondieron a cerca de 260 llamados entre los que se incluían vehículos atascados y accidentes, de acuerdo con las autoridades. El Río Colorado en Wharton y los ríos Brazos y San Jacinto cerca de Houston, eran los principales focos de preocupación mientras las aguas se movían del norte y centro de Texas hacia el Golfo de México. En tanto, la cifra de decesos aumentó luego de que los equipos de rescate examinaran los escombros a lo largo del paso de los ríos. Los cadáveres encontrados el jueves elevaron el número de fallecimientos confirmados a 24, incluso los fallecidos en Oklahoma. El Río Brazos, cuyo nivel se había ido reduciendo, nuevamente creció el viernes por encima de su nivel en el condado de Parker, al oeste de Fort Worth, y se esperaba que aumentara ante la apertura planeada de las compuertas de la presa en el Possum Kingdom, río arriba. Se solicitó la evacuación voluntaria de unas 250 casas en la zona cercana al río. Con el agua circulando rápidamente río abajo, se esperaban inundaciones graves en las comunidades de Simonton y Thompsons. De acuerdo con el jefe de policía del condado de Fort Bend, Troy Nehls, ya se solicitó el desalojo de algunos residentes de Simonton. Los meteorólogos señalan que el Río Colorado en Wharton podría desbordarse el sábado, provocando una gran inundación en la comunidad ubicada a 96 kilómetros (60 millas) al suroeste de Houston. Ya se realizan evacuaciones voluntarias en la parte baja de la ciudad.
COLUMNA
Narra reacción de Tamaulipas ante guerra POR RAÚL SINENCIO
con ramificaciones locales.
ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Nota del Editor: Esta es el segundo de dos artículos sobre la postura de Tamaulipas y México durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Tras dar refugio a numerosos perseguidos por condenas a agresiones contra otros países, México mantenía neutralidad ante la II Guerra Mundial. Recientemente quedó al descubierto torva red de espías y provocadores financiada por el Tercer Reich,
Llamado En Tampico se llama a constituir en Tamaulipas la Unión Nacional Antisinarquista y en Defensa de la Democracia, según el programa, hay sesiones el 11 y 12 de abril de 1942. Acuden líderes del gobernante del Partido de la Revolución Mexicana, hoy Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), y del Partido Comunista Mexicano, así como Unificación de Veteranos de
la Revolución, Vanguardia Avilacamachista y el Comité de Orientación Política Magdaleno Aguilar. Las delegaciones sindicales resultan variadas y de ciudades como Nuevo Laredo, MéxicoMatamoros, Ciudad Victoria, Mante, Tampico y Ciudad Madero.
Medidas Se compone un comité estatal. Lo presiden Isidoro Gómez Gámez y Miguel Ramírez, directivo tamaulipeco de la Confederación de
Trabajadores de México. Enfrentaremos a quienes “tratan de […] implantarnos un régimen totalitario”, manifiestan el 20 de abril. Pronto se reafirma que en Tamaulipas están las maniobras enemigas concentradas en la parte sureste. El nuevo agrupamiento implementa estrecha vigilancia. Cierto extranjero “de la Falange Española” reúne “periódicamente […] simpatizadores nazi-fascistas” en Tampico, detallan informes remitidos a las autoridades el 8 de mayo de 1942. Puntualizan que “el
capitán del vapor italiano Atlas […] lo trató de dinamitar” “cuando [distintos barcos de Roma y Berlín] fueron incautados por el gobierno”. Convertido en “Choapas”, el buque-tanque Atlas figura entre las embarcaciones civiles torpedeadas por el Führer. Ávila Camacho declara el 22 de mayo la guerra a las potencias del Eje y decreta medidas de control por el conflicto bélico. (Publicado con permiso del autor conforme aparece en La Razón, Tampico, Tamps.)
International
10A THE ZAPATA TIMES
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2015
Delegates discuss boat people
Photo by Yang Yang//Xinhua/Zuma Press | TNS
Muhammadu Buhari gives a speech after receiving the certification from the Electoral Chief Attahiru Jega on April 1 in Abuja, Nigeria.
President pledges to fight terror By MICHELLE FAUL ASSOCIATED PRESS
ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria’s new president was sworn in on Friday and pledged to tackle Boko Haram “head on,” asserting the fight against the Islamic extremists wouldn’t be won until hundreds of schoolgirls abducted last year and other kidnapping victims were brought home alive. Muhammadu Buhari’s new administration won a signal of support from the United States, which indicated it was prepared to increase military aid. The inauguration turned into a nationwide celebration by Nigerians welcoming their country’s newly reinforced democracy after Buhari became the first candidate to defeat a sitting president at the polls since the end of military rule in 1999. With dancing and the release of white doves symbolizing peace, Nigerians hailed the handover of power in an African nation marked by superlatives: the most populous nation, the biggest oil producer, the largest economy. Nigeria also confronts the most deadly conflict on the continent — the insurgency by Boko Haram that has killed more than 13,000 people and driven more than 1.5 million from their homes. Blaming official bungling, negligence, complacency and collusion for allowing the Islamic extremists to grow into “a terrifying force,” Buhari pledged to take on Nigeria’s myriad problems. “We are going to tackle them head on,” he declared. “But we cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents,” he said, referring to the hundreds of girls seized more than a year ago from their school in Chibok in northeastern Borno state. “This government will do all it can to rescue them alive.” The military has freed hundreds of captured women and children in recent weeks as it hemmed Boko Haram into its stronghold in the Sambisa Forest, but there has been no word of the schoolgirls whose abduction brought an international outcry. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was the first foreign official to meet with Nigeria’s new leader after the inauguration, accompanied by head of U.S. Africa Command, Gen. David M. Rodriguez. A senior State Department official said Washington was ready to increase military aid and could quickly send more advisers. “Congratulations to @MBuhari & the Nigerian people. A privilege to be here to celebrate #Nigeria’s historic & peaceful democratic transition,” Kerry tweeted. The 72-year-old Buhari had earlier pledged to root out human rights violations by the Nigerian military — abuses that had prevented full military cooperation from the U.S. and Britain. Departing President Goodluck Jonathan last year halted U.S. training of a battalion of Nigerian
troops to fight Boko Haram. No reason was given but his officials had expressed anger at U.S. refusals to sell Nigeria weapons, including helicopter gunships. The United States and former colonizer Britain were hindered by laws preventing certain weapons sales to countries whose militaries are accused of gross human rights violations. Nigeria’s military is accused of killing detainees and civilians and burning their homes in revenge for Boko Haram attacks. Buhari addressed those concerns Friday, promising to overhaul rules of engagement to prevent abuses and to take “disciplinary steps” against violators of human rights. He also thanked the leaders of neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger for sending troops for a multinational offensive that this year has driven Boko Haram from towns where it had declared an Islamic caliphate. Suicide bombings, abductions and hit-and-run attacks continue in northeastern Nigeria by what Buhari called “a mindless, godless group as far away from Islam as you can think of.” Hours before his inauguration a double-explosion blamed on the insurgents in the Borno village of TashanAlede killed seven people and injured several others, said survivor Ibrahim Bitrus. Gov. Kashim Shettima, who was sworn in Friday for a second term as governor of Borno, the birthplace of Boko Haram, pledged to rebuild the hundreds of communities destroyed by the insurgents. The insurgency has “preyed on our young girls, and did all it could to terminate their hope for education and a good life, while turning our women into objects of enslavement and as sex objects,” Shettima said. However, he surprised those in attendance by saying he would appeal to the federal government to allow the rehabilitation of Boko Haram fighters who come out of the bush and de-radicalize — a move he said was essential for national reconciliation.
BANGKOK — A regional conference called to address the swelling tide of boat people in Southeast Asia ended Friday with no major breakthroughs, as Myanmar criticized those blaming it for fueling the crisis and warned that “finger pointing” would not help. But delegates agreed on one thing at least— the need to keep talking. In Myanmar, state television announced the navy had seized a boat carrying 727 migrants a few dozen miles (kilometers) off the coast of the Irrawaddy Delta region, the latest vessel found in the last few weeks. The report identified those on board as “Bengalis” — a reference to Bangladesh — and said they were taken to a nearby island. Forty-five of them were children. Friday’s meeting in Bangkok was attended by representatives of 17 countries directly or indirectly affected by the growing crisis, along with the United States and Japan and officials from international organizations such as the U.N. refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration. That so many countries — including Myanmar — participated was considered progress in itself. “The most encouraging result was the general consensus that these discussions need to continue,” said IOM Director-General William Lacy Swing. “It cannot be a one-off.” Southeast Asia has been beset for years by growing waves of desperate migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar. In the last several weeks alone, at least 3,000 people have been rescued by fishermen or have made their way ashore in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Several thousand more are believed to still be at sea after human smugglers abandoned their boats amid a regional crackdown that has unearthed the graves
Photo by Sergey Ponomarev/New York Times | AP
Rohingya migrants read the Quran in a makeshift mosque in Langsa, Indonesia, Friday. The Myanmar government forcefully rejected assertions by UN that the root cause of Southeast Asia’s migration crisis is Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya. of dozens of people who died while being kept hostage in illegal trafficking camps. Some are Bangladeshis who left their impoverished homeland in hope of finding jobs abroad. But many are Rohingya Muslims who have fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which has denied them basic rights, confined more than 100,000 to camps and denies them citizenship. There are more than 1 million Rohingya living in the country formerly known as Burma. At the start of the meeting, the U.N.’s assistant high commissioner for refugees responsible for protection, Volker Turk, said there could be no solution if root causes are not addressed. “This will require full assumption of responsibility by Myanmar toward all its people. Granting citizenship is the ultimate goal,” he said. “In the interim ... recognizing that Myanmar is their own country is urgently required (as well as) access to identity documents and the removal of restrictions on basic freedoms.” Htin Linn, the acting director of Myanmar’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, shot back in a speech afterward, saying Turk should “be more informed.” He also cast doubt on whether “the spirit of cooperation
is prevailing in the room. ... Finger pointing will not serve any purpose. It will take us nowhere.” The word “Rohingya” did not appear on the invitation for the meeting, after Myanmar threatened to boycott the talks if it did, and most people who spoke at Friday’s meeting avoided saying it. Myanmar’s government does not recognize Rohingya as an ethnic group, arguing instead they are really Bangladeshis. Bangladesh also does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens. An official summary of the meeting included a list of proposals and recommendations that were “put forward,” including ensuring the U.N. has access to migrants and addressing
the issue’s root causes. It was not clear that any of them had been agreed on, however, or that they would be implemented. There were small signs of progress. Thai Foreign Minister Thanasak Patimaprakorn said Bangkok agreed to allow the U.S. military to operate flights out of Thailand to search for migrants stuck on boats — one week after Washington put in a request to do so. And the U.S. pledged $3 million to help the IOM deal with the crisis, while Australia pledged $4.6 million toward humanitarian assistance in Myanmar. Southeast Asian governments have largely ignored the issue for years. The problem has recently attracted international attention amid increased media scrutiny as more migrants and refugees pour out of the Bay of Bengal. In many cases, they pay human smugglers for passage to another country, but are instead held for weeks or months while traffickers extort more money from their families back home. Rights groups say some migrants have been beaten to death. Human rights groups have urged those involved in the talks to find a better way of saving the people still stranded at sea, and to put pressure on Myanmar to end its repressive policies that drive Rohingya to flee.
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FAMILIES Continued from Page 1A people, with facilities under construction to hold another 2,000, part of a federal policy to avoid a repeat of last year’s influx of 100,000 children and families who illegally crossed the border in the Rio Grande Valley. About 2,700 people have passed through the two family detention centers since last year, according to immigration officials. Of those, 274 have been deported. The rest have been released for a variety of reasons, including on bond or because a judge approved their asylum claims. Harvey Howell, one of the coalition’s co-moderators and a national response team member of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, likened the arrival of women and children to a previous diaspora that came to San Antonio: Hurricane Katrina. “It’s a large population of folks who don’t think they have a home anymore, or don’t. What are they going to do?” Howell asked. “They’re not American citizens at this point, yet they are in the country with the government’s permission, so to speak, pending the outcome of their (court case).” Most of them have family members in this country, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement usually makes sure detainees have a place to stay before they’re released on bond, an official said during a media tour of the Karnes center last month. When Karnes opened last year, many of the women and children showed up in the clothes they were wearing when the crossed the Rio Grande, volunteers said. Now they often show up with outfits issued by the detention centers, sometimes even with boxes of food. Still, many are unprepared for a cross-country journey that can take days, members of the coalition said. If their bus doesn’t leave until the next day, volunteers are on hand to drive them to a house near downtown, a fairly recent addition after volunteers for months offered up spare bedrooms or couches to sleep on. Coalition members described rushing out to find diapers, caring for children and hearing tales of violence in home countries and rape on the route to the U.S. “It’s just hard for us to fathom people living like that,” said the Rev. Bert Clayton, a retired Methodist minister. “You feel like you’re doing one little thing, not that it’s going to solve the entire problem. There’s got to be a whole lot more.” Clayton and his wife hosted families at their home for several months, and are regulars at the bus station. “I guess it’s got its reward, but that’s not the issue,” he said. “The issue is dealing with a real need. I guess the part that is most heartbreaking is to see the little children.” The Interfaith Welcome Coalition —volunteers from 200 religious groups including Mennonites, Quakers, Presbyterians, Catholics and Methodists — was formed last year as various faith groups here became aware of the influx of unaccompanied minors crossing the border in South Texas. The crisis first made headlines last May when U.S. Health
and Human Services opened an emergency shelter on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. By the end of the year, the Border Patrol apprehended 50,000 children, most of them from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, illegally crossing the border in the Rio Grande Valley. Nearly 200 people showed up to a meeting in August, wondering what they could to to help, said the Rev. Kelly Allen, one of the coalition’s leaders. “Very soon, what we realized was that the kids were taken care of by the federal government through the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and it is very very difficult to get access to the kids,” Allen said. Receiving less attention were the other 50,000 immigrants, mostly mothers and children, who also crossed the Rio Grande last year. Much like the unaccompanied children, the vast majority just surrendered to the first law enforcement official to come across them and claimed asylum. The initial crisis was in the Valley, where local communities were dealing with dozens of families dropped off every day at local bus stations. The U.S. government had all but abandoned detaining families, so after a few days in overcrowded Border Patrol stations, they were released with notices to appear in immigration court. In the Valley, churches responded by opening shelters, and local governments chipped in, providing security and emergency tents equipped with showers. Meanwhile, in the face of intense criticism over the hundreds of women and children being left at bus stations in Brownsville and McAllen and to dispel the misconception that women and children were being released with permits to enter the U.S., ICE began detaining families. By the time the coalition got rolling, ICE had converted the Karnes center into a family detention facility. It had been a 500bed center for low-risk male immigrants. “There was an obvious sort of injustice to the policy,” Allen said. “There was a desire to help these women and children because of what they’d gone through. So there was a desire to start some visitation, and there was a desire to help the women and children who’ve been released.” Although they have asked for asylum, most of those who have been released were let out on bond while their immigration court cases are still in progress. They’re not considered refugees by the U.S. government and aren’t eligible for any aid. The coalition partnered with the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, a San Antonio nonprofit known as RAICES that provides free and reduced cost legal representation and operates a fund to bond women out of detention. When RAICES clients were released from detention in Karnes, coalition volunteers would drive 50 miles to pick them up and drive them to the bus station or a volunteer’s house. The trips to Karnes County were putting a strain on volunteers, Allen said, and the detention center was willing to shuttle
the families to the bus station. Coalition members realized there were many more families being released than just RAICES’s clients. “We sort of accidentally discovered that … ‘Oh my gosh there are sometimes 10 or 12 people being released that we’ve never heard about,”’ Allen said. ICE was “taking them to bus station and dropping them off, sometimes to spend the night.” Meanwhile, the number of people in detention has been increasing. In December, ICE converted a former camp for oilfield workers in Dilley into a family detention center and began expanding it, with the ultimate goal of making it a 2,400bed facility. In February a federal judge in Washington, D.C., told ICE to change its bond policy for families. As a result, the agency has been setting bonds for many of the detainees in Karnes and Dilley, although some bonds exceed $7,000. “Initially whenever we started the bus reception in December … for that month it was maybe a trickle of families,” said Mohammad Abdollahi, an organizer with RAICES. “Two or three days a week there was no one getting out, then Wednesday suddenly there would be like six families, Thursday there would be like one family, Friday two families.” After the federal court decision, “I don’t think we’ve had a day since Feb. 20 that no one showed up from Karnes,” he said. Rosie Maldonado, 49, got her first call from Allen in November. She went to the bus station with tacos and $50 to help a woman and her teenage son. When Maldonado got there, she saw that the existing volunteer efforts were just scratching the surface. “There were four other moms, and they said ‘Can you help?”’ Maldonado said. “They were carrying babies with no backpacks or diapers or milk to make the trip to Florida.” One woman and her three children spent the night. After that, Maldonado said, she and her husband started showing up to the bus station every day. She came to the U.S. 17 years ago without papers, Maldonado said, and tries to be an example of what immigrants can do in the U.S. The volunteer work has had an impact on her as well. “When I heard the stories of these women and children, they’ve seen violence, it just changed my perspective on life, how I’m using our natural resources, how I’m using what I’m given,” Maldonado said. “So now it’s like I’ve been put in this position so I can give.” More than 100 people have stayed at her house, she said, including one night when she hosted five families. Maldonado said she’s heard stories from people fleeing violence in their home countries and young girls who were raped as they crossed Mexico. There are rewards, too. On Mother’s Day, she said, children from all over the country called her. The volunteers don’t focus exclusively on Dilley and Karnes detainees. Later in the evening, when young men show up from
CRUDE OIL another detention center in Pearsall, coalition members will give them what they have left. Maldonado said she’ll hand out food to anyone in the bus station who needs it. Families no longer stay at volunteers’ houses. The coalition now rents two houses south of downtown and every weeknight, volunteers gather at the bus station around 7 p.m. Most detainees from Karnes arrive in the early evening, and are helped onto buses — usually the 8:15 p.m. Greyhound heading west. The van from Dilley arrives any time between 9 p.m. and 11, so families released from that detention center often have to spend the night. Since late February, when the coalition started hosting families at the two leased houses, it has hosted about 40 people per week, Allen said. A couple of weeks ago, Sandra Lopez, 25, sat chatting with Maldonado in one of the houses while her 7-year-old daughter Milda got her hair braided by Yanira Lopez, a former Karnes detainee who’s been staying with the coalition long-term. Sandra Lopez said she left a young son in her native Guatemala. After her arrest in Texas, she was held for 22 days in Dilley before an aunt in Oakland got a loan to pay her bond. She arrived at the San Antonio bus station late, terrified she and Milda would be kidnapped. When members of the coalition approached her, “I started praying to God and wondering if it was true,” she said. “I asked God, ‘Did you send these people to help me?’ I was shaking with fear.” After calling her aunt, who spoke on the phone with the volunteers, she agreed to spend the night. On Wednesday, as she killed time before heading to the bus station with coalition members, Sandra Lopez said she’s grateful. “When I came here, I thought no one was going to help me,” she said. “When I came to the bus station, I didn’t have anything. I didn’t have clothes, I didn’t have food, I didn’t have a comb, I didn’t have a bag.” The coalition is not a nonprofit, so donations are collected through University Presbyterian and volunteers have been paying for items out of pocket. The group is trying to become more structured, Allen said. A pair of AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America members have been added, meaning there are now two full-time coalition members, and the group is trying to sketch out a budget to apply for grants. Allen wants to expand volunteer recruitment and training, as well as the coalition’s ability to host more people. There are a number of support networks for people who the government considers refugees, but not for immigrants whose asylum cases are pending, she said. “I hope we will be able to expand our capacity to host refugee families … and maybe provide support to people who have been in detention from elsewhere in the world,” Allen said. “Part of the reason I’m saying that, is this need has been there since before last summer, the need to support people who have been released from detention and are seeking asylum, and there hasn’t been in San Antonio a strong program for that.”
Continued from Page 1A produced far less oil and the 1973 Arab oil embargo caused global oil prices to skyrocket. In 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which banned crude oil exports with few exceptions — an effort to keep oil here and protect against price shocks. Since then, the U.S. — led by Texas — has become the world’s top oil producer, largely due to technological advances like hydraulic fracturing that allow operators to tap resources once considered unreachable. But that surge of production is filling up the country’s pipelines and storage tanks, driving down U.S. prices and slowing drilling across the country, with big implications for the Texas economy. Hovering around $60 a barrel in recent days, crude prices are up from lows around $45 in late January but remain far below the $100plus levels seen last summer. Supporters of lifting the ban say the move would bring U.S. prices more in line with international prices, softening the blow of the drilling downturn. Critics argue that shipping U.S. crude overseas would threaten the country’s energy security and raise gasoline prices. It’s unclear how the change would affect prices at the pump or ripple through other sectors of the economy. In an October 2014 report, the federal Energy Information Administration concluded that gasoline prices at the pump are more closely linked to global crude prices than the value of U.S. oil. The market research firm IHS agrees, estimating that exports could actually lower gas prices over time. Some refiners have opposed lifting the ban, fearing they would lose their discount on domestic crude. The Brookings Institution, a left-of-center think tank, projected in September that a repeal could increase the country’s GDP by $550 billion to $1.8 trillion over the next 25 years. But it also states that lifting the repeal could hurt refineries in some regions and that “these issues are serious for those companies involved and will entail real economic costs which should not be underestimated.” Texans in Congress have already received the message Austin sent to Washington on Friday. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, has joined U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, and U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, in pushing bills to overturn the export ban. But those proposals face a number of political obstacles, making their prospects tenuous. Also on Friday, Abbott signed a resolution urging the federal government to speed up natural gas exports, drawing cheers from Texas petroleum groups. “We applaud Governor Abbott for his support in repealing our nation’s outdated crude oil export ban and for encouraging an expedited process for liquefied natural gas exports from the U.S., both of which would drive further growth and security for our country, while offering supply diversity and support to our allies abroad,” Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association said in a statement.
12A THE ZAPATA TIMES
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2015
FLOOD Continued from Page 1A into homes and stranded hundreds of drivers, many of whom lingered along highways that were nearly gridlocked from the high water and abandoned vehicles. Fire rescue crews responded to about 260 calls that included trapped vehicles and accidents, authorities said. Exacerbating the problem for first-responders are people who have been going around barricades to take pictures of the floodwaters, said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. He said those people are endangering themselves and stretching thin the first responders’ resources. “Floodwaters are never safe to play around, take a picture around, walk around,” Jenkins said. “We don’t need any more loss of life.” Jenkins also said he is considering issuing evacuation orders for Dallas-area neighborhoods depending on the latest flood projections. The Colorado River in Wharton and the Brazos and San Jacinto rivers near Houston were the main focus of concern as floodwaters moved from North and Central Texas downstream toward the Gulf of Mexico. Floodwater was creeping into neighborhoods in the suburban Houston city of Kingwood near the swollen San Jacinto River, where residents were keeping a close eye on water levels. “Everybody’s worried about it,” James Simms said from his second-story balcony, looking down at a flood that had reached his garage. “Those people who are going to leave are already gone. There’s others like us who are going to wait until it’s mandatory.” Teams continued to search through debris piles along rivers. Bodies found on Thursday raised the confirmed death toll to at least 26, including storm victims from Oklahoma. The Brazos River, which had been receding, rose above flood stage again Fri-
day in Parker County, west of Fort Worth, and was expected to climb higher with the planned opening of the flood gates at Possum Kingdom Lake upstream. People in about 250 homes near the river were asked to voluntarily evacuate. With the water moving rapidly down the river, serious flooding was expected in the downstream communities of Simonton and Thompsons. Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls said some residents of Simonton had already been asked to leave. Forecasters said the Colorado River at Wharton could crest on Saturday, causing major flooding in the community 60 miles southwest of Houston. Voluntary evacuations were underway in the city’s low-lying west side.
ZETAS Continued from Page 1A out to be a relative of the person who stole the load of cash, authorities said. A 14-year-old girl told police that several people took her mother by force. She told LPD they tried to take her as well but were unable to do so. The daughter identified Garza as one of the kidnappers. The next day, Drug Enforcement Administration agents received information that the victim was being kept at Garza’s house in the 1400 block of Piedra China Street. When agents approached the house, a person opened the door and the victim ran outside, saying she had been bound and gagged. Police apprehended Garza, Zaragoza-Solis and Diaz at the house. They found at the residence three weapons, including a Smith and Wesson .38caliber revolver, a 7.62-caliber pistol and a Norinco 7.62-caliber rifle, Model
Mak-90. Also recovered was the duct tape used to blindfold and bound the victim. Cerda was tied to the case by phone calls made between him and the kidnappers. In the calls, he discussed plans for taking the victim to Mexico. Prosecutors allege that Sanchez oversaw a Zetas cell in Laredo and smuggled weapons to Mexico. One defendant in the case, Jose “Minutitos” Roberto Obregon, has not yet been sentenced. He sent a handwritten letter to Judge Saldaña asking for new counsel and for permission to withdraw his guilty plea. Obregon pleaded guilty in February 2013 to conspiracy to export firearms. Sanchez, Obregon, Cerda and others have also been indicted in state court for their alleged involvement in the 2010 killings of Guillermo Rodriguez, 48, Ramon Lucero Ramirez, 47, and Fidencio Rios-Cardenas, 31. They allegedly carried out the slay-
ings on behalf of the Zetas. Sanchez and Obregon pleaded guilty in April 2014 to the murder of Rios-Cardenas. As part of his plea agreement, Sanchez will serve 35 years, which will run concurrent with the 10-year sentence he received Thursday in federal court. Obregon’s plea agreement has him serving 32 years in prison for the murder charge. His sentence would have run concurrent with the federal court sentence. The investigation into the kidnapping, homicides and gun-trafficking began with an operation by the Drug Enforcement Administration in Chicago targeting Zetas who were smuggling drug proceeds. That investigation led to the seizure of more than $20 million in cash heading south from Chicago, Philadelphia and Dallas and it led agents to Sanchez, who prosecutors say answered to the
gang’s leadership in Mexico. Millions of dollars were seized in and near San Antonio. A Laredo police detective testified during a 2011 court hearing that the department was contacted in September 2010 by DEA agents involved in the money smuggling investigation. More than $1 million of the Zetas’ money had gone missing, the detective testified, and agents tapping the gang member’s phones had overheard Zetas leaders ordering a Laredo-based cell to find the thief. The investigation revealed details about the three homicides ordered by the Zetas, overseen by Sanchez and carried out by members of the Hermandad Pistoleros Latinos prison gang, the detective said. (Philip Balli may be reached at 728-2528 or pballi@lmtonline.com. Jason Buch, staff reporter for the San Antonio Express-News, contributed to this report.)
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2015
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Sports&Outdoors MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: TEXAS RANGERS
Hamilton homecoming
FIFA’s Blatter re-elected Scandal can’t keep Blatter from new four-year term By GRAHAM DUNBAR ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Brandon Wade | AP
Rangers fans show their support for outfielder Josh Hamilton as he played his first home game with Texas after being reacquired from the Los Angeles Angels.
2010 AL MVP back in Arlington for Rangers By STEPHEN HAWKINS ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARLINGTON — Josh Hamilton stepped into the batter’s box to a loud ovation. The Texas Rangers fans got even louder when he lined the first pitch he saw into the right-field corner for a double. “It’ll be a game I’ll remember forever. Coming back and getting a warm reception like that, all through the game, people in the stands ’Welcome back Josh, glad to have you back,”’ Hamilton said. “It just makes you feel good. I hope the fans know that I’m giving them everything I’ve got being back, just like I did when I was here before.” A month and a day after being re-acquired by the Rangers, Hamilton played his first home game in Texas since the 2012 AL wild-card game, one in which
the soon-to-depart slugger was booed lustily — like he would be the next two seasons when returning with the Los Angeles Angels. Hamilton finished 2 for 4 Thursday night, including an RBI single in the ninth — on another sharply hit ball to right — that accounted for the Rangers’ only run in a 5-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox. “As long as he just keeps getting better and feeling comfortable, he’s going to do his thing,” shortstop Elvis Andrus said. “Same guy. He hasn’t changed at all. He’s been the same person since he got here Day One, and you can see in his eyes he just wants to play.” The only thing that would have been better for Hamilton would have been a win, but Eduardo Rodriguez threw 7 2/3 scoreless innings to become the youngest Red Sox starter to win in his major
NFL: NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
league debut on the road since 1967. Already the youngest Red Sox pitcher to make his MLB debut on the road since 21-year-old Roger Clemens in 1985, Rodriguez became the youngest since Billy Rohr was 21 when winning his debut at the New York Yankees on April 14, 1967. “He was outstanding. Very impressive, he was poised,” said Red Sox manager John Farrell, whose team snapped a three-game losing streak. Before the game, Hamilton said he always has good memories at the Rangers’ ballpark, and those started going through his mind when turning onto Ballpark Way earlier in the day. This was his home from 2008-12, a stretch of five seasons when he was the 2010 AL MVP, an All-Star each year and
ZURICH — In the end, nothing could stop Sepp Blatter. Not a far-reaching corruption scandal. Not a tarnished international image. Not a young prince who gave him a stronger-than-expected challenge. Despite the biggest crisis in FIFA’s 111-year history, Blatter emerged victorious once again Friday, winning re-election as president of world soccer’s governing body for a fifth term and proving BLATTER he is the sport’s ultimate survivor. "I am now the president of everybody," the 79-year-old Blatter crowed after defeating Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan to secure another four years in office as one of the most powerful men in sports. Blatter was declared the victor after Prince Ali withdrew following the first round of secret balloting among FIFA’s 209 member federations. Blatter won the first ballot 133-73, seven votes short of the two-thirds majority required for victory. Before the start of the second round, where a simple majority would be enough for victory, the 39-year-old prince conceded defeat. By preventing Blatter from securing an outright first-round triumph, Prince Ali gave Blatter a symbolic bloody nose and showed that his previous iron grip on the organization has weakened. "I want to thank all of you who were brave enough to support me," Prince Ali told the delegates. With FIFA in turmoil amid a pair of U.S. and Swiss corruption investigations, Blatter had remained defiant and refused to step down - as demanded by European soccer’s governing body, UEFA.
See HAMILTON PAGE 2B See FIFA PAGE 2B
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION: GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
Thompson has concussion By ANTONIO GONZALEZ ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Elise Amendola | AP
New England head coach Bill Belichick declined to address the latest Deflategate findings on Friday in his first comments since the Wells report.
Belichick: We’re on to next year By HOWARD ULMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Coach Bill Belichick shed little light Friday in his first public remarks since the report was issued on the Patriots’ use of deflated footballs. He avoided direct answers to most of the 10 questions he was asked about Tom Brady, backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and how the team was handling the fallout from the investigation.
Brady, who is appealing his four-game suspension, did not speak with reporters after New England’s organized team activity. Patriots owner Robert Kraft has accepted the team penalty of a $1 million fine and loss of two draft picks. Asked if he agreed with that decision, Belichick said, “He made a statement on it last week.” The rest of his answers fo-
See PATRIOTS PAGE 2B
OAKLAND — The initial hit caused Klay Thompson plenty of pain. The final diagnosis delivered another blow to him and the Golden State Warriors as they prepare for the NBA Finals. Two days after he got kneed in the head by Houston’s Trevor Ariza, the Warriors said Friday that Thompson has a concussion and will not return to practice until he is symptom free. The All-Star guard went through neurological tests that confirmed the concussion. He was injured in the fourth quarter of Golden State’s 104-90 win over the Rockets in the Western Conference finals clincher Wednesday night. The NBA Finals start Thursday against Cleveland. And while the Warriors are optimistic Thompson will be cleared before then, he must pass through the league’s concussion protocol first. “This break has turned out to be good for us,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after Friday’s practice. “And maybe good for Cleveland, too, because they’ve got some injuries. It’s just something we’ve got to work through and we’ll see how it goes.” Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving
Photo by Tony Avelar | AP
Golden State guard Klay Thompson took a knee to his head from Rockets forward Trevor Ariza during the second half of Game 5 in the Western Conference Finals. His status is now uncertain as his Warriors teammates enter the NBA Finals next week against the Cleveland Cavaliers. has been slowed by knee tendinitis and a sore foot, and fourtime NBA MVP LeBron James has been banged up as well. But neither of those injuries seems as serious as the one the Warriors are facing now. Thompson was at the team’s facility Friday but did not participate in the workout. The Warriors will practice again Saturday and take Sunday off. Kerr said he’s not concerned about Thompson staying sharp. “Klay picks up his rhythm ve-
ry quickly,” Kerr said. It’s unclear how long Thompson could be away from the court — and that’s the concern for the Warriors. The NBA’s concussion policy requires players to pass a series of steps without experiencing symptoms before they can return. That starts with riding a stationary bike and progresses to jogging, agility work and noncontact team drills, according to
See THOMPSON PAGE 2B
PAGE 2B
Zscores
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2015
Magic hire Skiles as coach By KYLE HIGHTOWER ASSOCIATED PRESS
ORLANDO — The Orlando Magic have hired former player Scott Skiles as their next head coach. General manager Rob Hennigan announced the hiring Friday. An introductory news conference was set for later in the day. The 51-year-old Skiles becomes the 12th coach in franchise history. He follows Jacque Vaughn, who was fired in February. In a statement Hennigan lauded Skiles’ 13 years as an NBA head coach. “Scott clearly distinguished himself as a tremendous fit,” Hennigan said. “Our young roster will benefit greatly from Scott’s extensive head coaching experience and commitment to teaching smart, physical, unselfish basketball. We believe in Scott’s ability to establish a culture of winning habits and accountability that will help guide our team in a positive direction.” Skiles was a member of the Magic’s inaugural team in 1989-90 and played point guard for a total of five seasons in Orlando as part of his 10year playing career. He is 13-year veteran NBA coach, with stops in Phoenix, Chicago and Milwaukee. He owns a 443-433 overall coaching record, with his best season coming with the Suns in 2000-01 when they went 51-31. The Magic’s front office was mostly mum during the coaching search, with Hennigan only acknowledging at the outset that they planned to interview interim coach James Borrego. Borrego led the Magic to a 10-20 record following Vaughn’s dismissal. It was clear that Magic were interested in hiring a more veteran coach to lead the next step of the Magic’s rebuilding process, following three straight seasons of 25 or fewer wins under Vaughn, a first-time coach. Though Skiles has only the lone 50-win season as a head coach, he did help the Bulls improve from 23
Photo by Elise Amendola | AP
After winning the Super Bowl, Bill Belichick and the Patriots haven’t been able to escape the Deflategate drama. File photo by Alan Diaz | AP
Former Bucks head coach Scott Skiles has been hired by Orlando to helm the Magic next season. wins in 2003-04 to 47 victories in his first full season in Chicago. He went on to guide the Bulls to three consecutive playoff appearances, which ended a six-year postseason drought for Chicago. Skiles also has a reputation of being a no-nonsense presence in the locker room, an extension of his playing days in which he was known as an intense competitor. He inherits a young roster in Orlando, headlined by big man Nik Vucevic and guards Victor Oladipo and Elfrid Payton. That list also includes forward Tobias Harris, who previ-
ously played under Skiles in Milwaukee as a rookie and for part of his second year in the league. Harris has been a solid part of the Magic’s nucleus since his arrival in Orlando, but becomes a restricted free agent July 1. After hiring a coach, and navigating the upcoming draft, deciding what to do with Harris’s contract is likely the Magic’s next offseason priority. Orlando, which finished 25-57 and at the bottom of the Southeast division for the third straight season, owns the fifth overall pick for next month’s draft.
THOMPSON Continued from Page 1B the league. Players must start over if they experience any symptoms. The protocol also requires the team physician to discuss the process with Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, the director of the NBA’s concussion program, before a player can return. Kerr insisted he will heed the advice of the medical staff as he always has with injuries. “I just do what the doctors say we should do,” Kerr said. “Obviously, we want to be as careful as possible and make sure our players are safe and sound and healthy. So we’ll follow this protocol that the league provides and we’ll have Klay out here when he’s ready.” Team doctors initially cleared Thompson to return to the game. He ended up not playing, and the team said he started developing symptoms after the game, fueling questions about the league’s concussion protocol. Thompson’s father, former NBA
player Mychal Thompson, had to drive his son home after the game because he was feeling ill. He said Thursday that Klay vomited a couple of times but had been feeling “better by the hour” and was confident that doctors would clear him before the finals begin. Thompson also needed stitches on his right ear after the hit caused blood to spill down the side of his head. It was the second consecutive game the Warriors were under scrutiny for letting an All-Star player return after getting banged up. Point guard and MVP Stephen Curry got hurt in the second quarter of Game 4 when he jumped as Ariza was about to go up for a shot. Ariza saw him and stopped abruptly, causing Curry to tumble over him. Curry’s head and right arm hit the court, where he remained for several minutes. Curry returned in the third quarter after passing the concussion
protocol. He was diagnosed with a bruised head and a bruised right arm — but has not shown any signs of a concussion, the team said. Curry called it a strange coincidence and said he’s confident in the system in place. “The amount of times that that’s happened, I don’t think that’s too prevalent in basketball,” Curry said. “You kind of just go based on how you feel, the test that they run, and you have confidence that if they say you’re OK to go out and play. But in the cases that I had, if you feel not yourself, you let them know and they pull you out and kind of reassess. “That’s why the protocol is what it is. You go through tests, if you pass, you’re able to go back in there. You make a judgment call. Hopefully in basketball you don’t put yourself in too much danger as in other sports where you might be taking those big hits.”
FIFA Continued from Page 1B The result of the one-vote-per-country election proved that Blatter retains the loyalty of the many smaller countries in Africa and Asia, a bloc that is enough to counter his critics in Europe and elsewhere. "I like you. I like my job," Blatter said to the assembly after receiving a mix of cheers and jeers as he stepped to the stage for his victory speech. "I am not perfect, nobody is perfect, but we will do a good job together I am sure." Then he exhorted the delegates: "Together we go! Let’s go FIFA! Let’s go FIFA!" The election took place two days after seven soccer officials were arrested in dawn raids at a luxury Zurich hotel. The U.S. Justice Department indicted 14 people on charges of bribery, racketeering, money-laundering and other charges. In a separate investigation, Swiss authorities are looking into FIFA’s awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar. And Britain’s Serious Fraud Office said Friday it is assessing "material in its possession" relating to allegations of FIFA corruption. Blatter himself was not implicated in the U.S. indictments, but prosecutors have said the investigations are far from over. FIFA’s big-money sponsors have also called for change within FIFA. Visa warned it could pull out of its contract, which is worth at least $25 million a year through 2022. Blatter, who has been in office for 17 years, portrayed himself as the man who can guide FIFA through the tumult and restore trust in an or-
ganization that has been left battered and reeling from years of corruption accusations. "I have been made responsible for this storm," he said in his final speech to the voters before the election. "That’s fine, that’s fine. I take that responsibility. I take it. I take it upon myself and I also want to accept this responsibility, get back on the path, to fix FIFA, together with you." The election went ahead after U.S. and Swiss federal investigations struck at the heart of Blatter’s circle. Two FIFA vice presidents and a recently elected executive committee member were still in custody Friday as the votes were counted. "I thank you that you accepted me for the next four years," Blatter told the assembly. "I will be in command of this boat called FIFA and we will bring it back off shore and bring it back to the beach." He cited God and Allah in his speech, saying they would help guide FIFA out of its crisis. "I promise you, in the end of my term I will give this FIFA to my successor in a very, very strong position, a robust FIFA and a good FIFA," he said. Blatter won despite direct calls for his resignation from UEFA president Michel Platini, who sat still during the congress and did not clap during the victory remarks. "I am proud that UEFA has defended and supported a movement for change at FIFA, change which in my opinion is crucial if this organization is to regain its credibility," Platini said.
UEFA is scheduled to hold meetings next week in Berlin ahead of the Champions League final. Platini said before the vote that UEFA could pull out of FIFA and withdraw from the World Cup if Blatter was re-elected. In what appeared to be a warning to UEFA, Blatter pledged Friday to change the representation of his influential executive committee, where Europe currently has eight of 25 voting members. Blatter also said he would retain a 32-team World Cup and resist expanding what is FIFA’s cash cow. England Football Association chairman Greg Dyke, who voted for Prince Ali, said Europe’s opposition to Blatter would not wane. "This isn’t over by any means," he said. "The events of this week are so traumatic for FIFA that I cannot see FIFA reforming itself under Blatter he’s had (17) years to reform it and he hasn’t done it." Sunil Gulati, president of the U.S. soccer federation and a member of FIFA’s executive committee, also voted against Blatter. "While we are disappointed in the result of the election, we will continue to push for meaningful change within FIFA," he said. "Our goal is for governance of FIFA that is responsible, accountable, transparent and focused solely on the best interests of the game." Blatter did have one big ally in Europe - Russia, the site of the next World Cup. "Russia staunchly supported Blatter," Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told The Associated Press, "so we are very satisfied with a result like this."
PATRIOTS Continued from Page 1B cused mostly on the need to improve every day and to work hard. Asked if he was preparing to start the season with Garoppolo as the starter, Belichick said, “I’m just going day by day right now. Everybody’s working hard trying to get better.” How tough was it to watch the scandal unfold during the past month? “We’re just working hard every day to come out here and get better, coaches, players, everybody in the organization,” he said. Did the issue detract from the team’s enjoyment of its Super Bowl win over the Seattle Seahawks? “That’s a long time ago,” Belichick said. “We’re on to next year.” Brady spent the workout lofting passes, handing the ball off and waiting his turn while other quarterbacks got theirs. In a 243-page report issued May 6, NFL investigator Ted Wells found that Patriots employees violated NFL rules covering game balls and that Brady was “at least generally aware” of plans to doctor the footballs to his liking. The following night at an appearance before a friendly crowd at Salem State University, Brady said he hadn’t read the report and would reserve comment. He did say “absolutely not” when asked if the investigation tainted the Super Bowl win. On May 11, the NFL announced its punishment. But it was business as usual on Friday on the third and final day of
OTAs this week. “It’s cool being on this team and in this atmosphere just because you wouldn’t know (about) everything going on outside when you come in this building,” safety Devin McCourty said. “Every day we come in here, coach Belichick has a list of stuff we need to get done in practice. “Guys are so focused on those little things and trying to get better that we really don’t have time to focus on other stuff.” Brady took nearly every snap last season. But he may not take any in the first four games this year. “We’re not even thinking about the first four games,” said Julian Edelman, Brady’s top receiver. “We’re still thinking about trying to get this offense going and learning everyone’s names.” That’s the approach Garoppolo, last year’s secondround draft pick, is taking. His thinking with Brady facing a four-game suspension? “I just have the mindset I’m trying to get better,” Garoppolo said. “That’s all you can control at the end of the day.” With no contact permitted during OTA’s, players participated in 11-on-11 drills and quarterbacks threw passes with only one receiver and one defender. “Being back on the field kind of brings a calmness,” McCourty said. “It’s where everyone’s comfortable at, not all the other stuff that goes into being in the NFL, but the actual football part of being in this league.”
HAMILTON Continued from Page 1B helped the Rangers get to their only two World Series. In his last home game for Texas, Hamilton twice struck out on three pitches and grounded into a double play in the wildcard loss to Baltimore. That came after 18 strikeouts in the last 10 regularseason games, and a dropped routine popup in the finale that allowed Oakland to go ahead to stay and clinch the division title that day. Hamilton left in free agency to the Angels two months later, but struggled with injuries and performance during his two seasons on the West Coast. Asked before the game if he felt he could still put up the kind of numbers he did in the past for the Rangers, Hamilton said the only way to find out was to go out and play. But, yes, he has confidence that he can. “When you don’t get nervous when you go out there and play, whether first at-bat or you’re in the field for the first time again, if you’re not nerv-
ous, then you don’t need to do it,” he said. “I still have all those things. Yeah, I think I can do what I’ve done in the past.” Hamilton hit .305 with 152 homers and 506 RBIs his previous five seasons as a Ranger. He led the AL with 130 RBIs in his 2008 Texas debut, led the majors with .359 average in 2010 and had a career-high 43 homers in 2012. The Angels traded Hamilton back to Texas on April 27. After an offseason when he had shoulder surgery and a self-reported relapse with cocaine and alcohol, the slugger went to Arizona for extended spring training before 12 games split between Triple-A Round Rock and Double-A Frisco. “Over this last month, it’s just been fun in general,” Hamilton said. “It’s been fun for me to see all aspects of it. You know you appreciate it. “Anytime you go through those levels like that, you can appreciate it even more. ... It’s gone well. Physically feel good, mentally feel even better.”
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2015
Dear Heloise: To SAVE WATER, my wife and I shower one right after the other. She goes in, showers, jumps out, and I go in immediately afterward to keep the water hot. While soaping up, I turn off the water until I need it to rinse. The dishwasher is now run every other day, or even less. There are many others things, but these are the biggest users of our dwindling water supply. My lawn will suffer, our cars will be dirtier, and our lives will be different from now on. –– Larry in Garden Grove, Calif. Water is a precious resource, and we in Texas understand how serious it is, since many parts of the state are under extreme drought conditions and have been for years. They say this is the worst drought in hundreds of years. Every drop counts! Some folks have even sprayed their yard green since they can’t water. Now that’s a Heloise hint! –– Heloise NO LOST PET Dear Readers: If your pet
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“
HELOISE
runs away or gets lost, what is the best way to help ensure that it will be reunited with you? First is, of course, a collar with tags. But a microchip is the best defense. A tiny, tiny chip that contains contact info is inserted with a quick injection. Any veterinarian office, shelter or rescue group should have a scanner to read the chip to identify the pet, and then you can be contacted. –– Heloise EASY TEA Dear Readers: Looking for a delicious, cold and simple way to make iced tea? It’s sun tea! Pick a bright, sunny day. In a glass or clear container, put in the tea bags and cold water. I also added a handful of peppermint candy. Cover and place in direct sunlight. This is solar tea! No energy wasted at all. Thanks, Mother Nature! –– Heloise
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SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2015