The Zapata Times 6/24/2015

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WEDNESDAY JUNE 24, 2015

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ZAPATA COUNTY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

Board meeting drama Superintendent maintains that relationship with trustees is good

By JUDITH RAYO THE ZAPATA TIMES

Zapata County Independent School District Superintendent Raul Nuques says the relationship between the superintendent and the board of trustees is “better than ever,” even after an incident involving him slamming a door during a meeting.

During ZCISD’s June 4 special called meeting, while with trustees in closed sesNUQUES sion, Nuques slammed the door as he was exiting the office.

“I slipped and that is all it was,” he said.

Nuques said he was carrying two binders as he was exiting the office. As he was closing the door, the binders were slipping off his hands and he tried to balance himself.

He said after leaving, he went to drop off the binders in his minivan.

“It wasn’t even 30 seconds,” Nuques said.

During the meeting on

June 4, trustees discussed appointing a school counselor for Zapata North Elementary School, appointing a counselor for Fidel and Andrea R. Villarreal Elementary School and appointing a student service and public relations director.

“We discuss everything in a constructive manner,” Nuques said. “We see eye

to eye on everything.”

He added, “In regards to board meetings being tense — no. We have open communication.”

Rogelio Gonzalez, ZCISD student services and public relations director, said in April that Nuques received a one year contract extension and a three percent raise.

“He has three years left

TEXAS

with the school district,” Gonzalez said.

Regarding his contract extension, Nuques said it was a “great evaluation.”

“There is no concern or anything like that,” Nuques. “I may look upset sometimes but this is the face God gave me.”

(Judith Rayo may be reached at 728-2567 or jrayo@lmtonline.com)

ZAPATA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

TEA PARTY ISN’T HAPPY

Courtesy photo

Chief Deputy Raymundo Del Bosque Jr. is shown Chief Deputies Association Conference in Kerrville.

Photo by Ian McVea/The Fort Worth Star-Telegram | AP file

In this Jan. 31, 2014 file photo, Texas State Representative Giovanni Capriglione speaks to second-grade students at Keller-Harvel Elementary in Keller, Texas. The Texas Legislature’s tea party leaders are finding it hard to deliver on some of their most-conservative promises.

Legislators could not answer many promises

By WILL WEISSERT ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUSTIN — Texas can sometimes feel like tea party heaven — the land of Ted Cruz, where the Legislature is packed with hard-right devotees and the governor himself heeds fringe fears about possible federal plots to seize

the state.

But with so much power comes pressure, and the Texas Legislature’s tea party leaders are struggling to deliver on their most conservative promises. After the legislative session that ended this month, movement activists were openly unhappy with the results and have targeted

a few onetime favorite lawmakers for possible retribution.

“It’s a truth in advertising issue,” said JoAnn Fleming, a state tea party leader who heads Grassroots America — We the People. “There are some that will likely pay a political price for caving on what they said they would

do.”

The Texas tea party network is the nation’s strongest, with four dozen major conservative groups representing thousands of active members. Republicans control both chambers of the Legislature and the state

See PARTY PAGE 11A

Deputy nominated to board of directors Members of state association recognize Del Bosque SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

RIO GRANDE CITY

Ex-police chief found dead Byron ‘Dutch’ Piper allegedly committed suicide hours after he was accused of stealing federal grant money by the FBI. He was scheduled for court Tuesday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

RIO GRANDE CITY — A former Rio Grande City police chief died in what authorities said Tuesday was a possible suicide, hours after the FBI accused him of stealing more than $44,000 in federal grant money.

Byron “Dutch” Piper, who retired last December, was found dead overnight at his home, with a possible self-inflicted gunshot wound, cur-

rent Rio Grande City police Chief Noe Castillo said.

The FBI had filed a theft complaint Monday accusing Piper of stealing grant money since 2009 meant for overtime pay for border security operations carried out by local police. Piper had been scheduled for a court appearance Tuesday in McAllen, officials said.

Federal agents received information last October that Piper, 63, may have been submitting time sheets reflecting

hours for work not done, the affidavit said. Agents conducted surveillance on Piper on several dates in December, finding that he appeared to do little, if any, actual police work, the complaint said.

“He stayed several hours at home; he spent several hours eating meals at various restaurants; and he completed a number of personal errands,” the complaint said.

Piper, in a voluntary meeting with agents in January, acknowledged filing false

time and attendance sheets to fraudulently collect money, the affidavit said. The former sheriff said in a statement to the FBI on Feb. 25 that he did not work 70 percent of the time as submitted on his time sheet.

“I did it out of being lazy and stupidity,” Piper’s statement said. “I am very, very sorry for my actions. It is not only another stain on law enforcement but I am also hurting my family and embarrassing them.”

From June 9 to June 12, Chief Deputy Raymundo Del Bosque Jr., of the Zapata County Sheriff ’s Office, attended the 29th Annual Texas Chief Deputies Association Conference in Kerrville.

He has been a member of the association for the past three years. In this year’s conference, members and directors of the association nominated Chief Del Bosque for one of the board of directors’ position.

Del Bosque is an architect of change, according to the Sheriff ’s Office. He stands alongside Zapata Sheriff Alonso M. Lopez and assists him as the office charts its way forward to a new successful year.

Del Bosque’s contribution to his community and the citizens of Zapata is the union of experience and change, officials said. Del Bosque and Lopez work together to maintain the peace and safety of all county citizens.

“I want to thank God first of all, my family, Sheriff Alonso M. Lopez, the Zapata County Sheriff ’s employees, and all the officials and citizens of Zapata County for their support and prayers,” Del Bosque said in a prepared statement.

PAGE 2A

Zin brief CALENDAR

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

AROUND TEXAS

TODAY IN HISTORY

Wednesday, June 24

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Planetarium shows at TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium from 2 to 5 p.m. 3 p.m.: Cosmic Adventures; 4 p.m.: The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket; 5 p.m.: Secrets of the Sun. General admission is $3. Call 956-326DOME (3663).

Loteria for a Cause. 100 percent of proceeds will benefit furry friends.

6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. MVP Party Place, 9803 Sterling Loop. $20 for 4 play cards. Prizes, snacks and sweets.

Doctors Hospital Senior Salud Program will host the June meeting at 5 p.m. at the hospital cafeteria. Gastroenterologist Reynaldo Godines, M.D., will speak on “How to Prevent Cancer and Heart Disease.” Presentation will include information from: www.fedupmovie.com, www.forksoverknives.com and www.heartattackproof.com. Call 956523-2495.

Today is Wednesday, June 24, the 175th day of 2015. There are 190 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History: On June 24, 1975, 113 people were killed when Eastern Airlines Flight 66, a Boeing 727 carrying 124 people, crashed while attempting to land during a thunderstorm at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

On this date: In 1509, Henry VIII was crowned king of England; his wife, Catherine of Aragon, was crowned queen consort.

In 1908, Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, died in Princeton, New Jersey, at age 71.

In 1939, the Southeast Asian country Siam changed its name to Thailand. (It went back to being Siam in 1945, then became Thailand once again in 1949.)

In 1948, Communist forces cut off all land and water routes between West Germany and West Berlin, prompting the western allies to organize the Berlin Airlift.

In 1968, “Resurrection City,” a shantytown constructed as part of the Poor People’s March on Washington D.C., was closed down by authorities.

In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger — carrying America’s first woman in space, Sally K. Ride — coasted to a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

In 1985, a federal judge in New York found former Wall Street Journal reporter R. Foster Winans guilty of illegally using his position at the paper in a get-rich-quick insidertrading scheme.

(Winans served eight months in federal prison.)

In 1990, Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan was virtually drowned out by jeering demonstrators as he addressed the Sixth International AIDS conference in San Francisco.

Ten years ago: Despite growing anxiety about the war in Iraq, President George W. Bush refused to set a timetable for bringing home U.S. troops and declared, “I’m not giving up on the mission. We’re doing the right thing.”

Five years ago: President Barack Obama declared that he and visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had “succeeded in resetting” the relationship between the former Cold War adversaries.

U.S. tennis player John Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut of France 70-68 at Wimbledon in the longest-ever professional match: 11 hours, 5 minutes over three days.

One year ago: Mississippi Republican Sen. Thad Cochran, a mainstream conservative with more than 40 years’ congressional experience, narrowly turned back a primary challenge from state Sen. Chris McDaniel, a tea party favorite.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Al Molinaro is 96. Comedian Jack Carter is 93. Rock musician Jeff Beck is 71. Actor Peter Weller is 68. Actress Nancy Allen is 65. Actor Iain Glen is 54. Actress Sherry Stringfield is 48. Actress-producer Mindy Kaling is 36. Actress Minka Kelly is 35. Singer Solange Knowles is 29.

Thought for Today: “All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher.” — Ambrose Bierce, American author (born this date in 1842, disappeared in 1914.)

Thursday, June 25 Planetarium shows at TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium from 2 to 5 p.m. 3 p.m.: Cosmic Adventures; 4 p.m.: The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket; 5 p.m.: Secrets of the Sun. General admission is $3. For more information call 956-326-DOME (3663).

Spanish Book Club from 6-8 p.m. at the Laredo Public Library on Calton Road. Call Sylvia Reash at 763-1810

Saturday, June 27 Planetarium shows at TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium from 1 to 5 p.m. 2 p.m.: Accidental Astronaut (Matinee Show – $1 less); 3 p.m.: Cosmic Adventures; 4 p.m.: Attack of the Space Pirates; 5 p.m.: Led Zeppelin.

General admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU students, faculty and staff. Call 956-326-DOME (3663).

Spiritual wisdom on health and healing. Free bilingual spiritual discussion and HU chant. Se habla español (210) 831-7113 1-2:30 p.m. Laredo Public Library, 1120 E. Calton, 2nd floor, Classroom A. Online: Eckankar-Texas.org, spiritualexperience.org or call (210) 831-7113.

Webb County Tax Office will be open from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. All services will be provided. Dealer line will be open from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Call 523-4200.

Tuesday, June 30 Planetarium shows at TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium from 2 to 5 p.m. 3 p.m.: Cosmic Adventures; 4 p.m.: The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket; 5 p.m.: Secrets of the Sun. General admission is $3. Call 956-326DOME (3663).

Thursday, July 2 Renacer Couple’s Club meeting at Northtown Professional Plaza, 6999 McPherson Rd. Suite 221, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Free and open to the public.

Contact Rosario Navarro at rossnavarro83@gmail.com.

Thursday, July 9 Inspire Social Business Club meeting at Northtown Professional Plaza, 6999 McPherson Rd. Suite 211, at 6:30 p.m. The public can discuss ideas, hear keynote speakers and support one another in business ventures. Contact Victor Navarro at vnavarro@texaslakeinc.com.

Photo by Tess Cagle/The Daily Texan | AP

A maintenance worker cleans the Jefferson Davis statue in the Main Mall at the University of Texas at Austin, Tuesday. The statue has been defaced at the University of Texas as another push is underway to remove it from the Austin campus.

UT statue scrutinized

By DAVID WARREN ASSOCIATED PRESS

DALLAS — The University of Texas will establish a committee to determine the fate of the controversial Jefferson Davis statue, though a descendent of the president of the Confederacy says it’s “terrible” to link him so closely to the Confederate flag, arguing that he was a statesman with a broad list of accomplishments whose legacy is being unfairly demonized.

The announcement Tuesday that a panel of students, faculty and alumni will provide a list of options for new UT President Greg Fenves came hours after vandals scrawled “Black lives matter” and “Bump all the chumps” on the statue pedestal. The first of those slogans has been used during protests over several black men being killed by white police officers in the last year and after sev-

en black church congregants in Charleston, South Carolina, were gunned down in what authorities say was a racial hate crime.

“I deeply understand the concerns of our students who have raised this issue,” Fenves said in a statement. “I have been working closely with them to consider the range of options that recognize the impact this statue has on our students and the need for us to understand and learn from our history.”

Gregory Vincent, vice president for the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, will lead the committee. Vincent said he plans to hold public hearings and present recommendations to Fenves by the “end of the summer.”

The UT Student Government earlier this year passed a resolution asking that the century-old statue be jettisoned, followed recently by an online petition.

Man gets 14 years for sex trafficking of girls

Dallas public schools superintendent resigns

Students get off school bus before it explodes

HOUSTON — A Houston man has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for the sex trafficking of girls in Texas, Louisiana and Colorado.

Prosecutors say 40-year-old Pierre Johnson used force, fraud or coercion to lure at least three minor girls into prostitution.

The children were photographed, then featured in online advertisement for sex. Johnson would then transport the underage girls to have sex with clients.

DALLAS — The superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District has quit after nearly three years on the job.

Mike Miles cited family reasons in announcing his resignation Tuesday, effective Thursday.

Miles joined DISD in July 2012 after six years as superintendent of the Harrison School District in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Miles said it’s time to rejoin his family in Colorado. He made about $300,000 annually.

HOUSTON — Several students have managed to escape an Alief Independent School District bus that caught fire and exploded in southwest Houston.

The driver of the school bus was transporting 13 students home from summer school at Holmquist Elementary school Monday when he smelled smoke and stopped the bus. The driver had the students exit the bus, which caught fire and exploded moments later.

3rd person pleads guilty to role in overdose death

11 arrested in undercover prostitution sting

12-year-old crashes car into Cedar Park home

DALLAS — A third person faces up to 20 years in prison for her role in the 2014 Texas drug overdose death of an apparent first-time heroin user. Kathryn “Kat” Grace Dirks pleaded guilty Tuesday. Prosecutors say 19-yearold Rian Lashley of Dallas died in March 2014 after buying heroin via the suspects.

GALVESTON, Texas — Galveston police say 11 out-of-towners face charges in a prostitution and child sex investigation linked to an online sting. Investigators on Monday announced the arrest of eight men and three women on charges including online solicitation of a minor and prostitution.

CEDAR PARK — A man has been cited after police say his 12year-old son drove a vehicle into a house and hit a gas line in Cedar Park.

According to Cedar Park police, the vehicle crashed into a house Monday at about 6 p.m. after the father let his son drive.

— Compiled from AP reports

Friday, July 10 A local support group known as Strength Within Me has a mission to create disability awareness in the community.All who live with a physical disability are invited to participate in the next meeting scheduled for July 10 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Ruthe B. Cowl Rehabilitation Center, 1220 North Malinche Ave. Info: facebook.com/strengthwithinme13, email: strengthwithinme13@hotmail.com.

Tuesday, July 21 South Texas Food Bank “Strike Out Hunger” bowling tournament and fundraiser at 5:30 p.m. at Jett Bowl North. Lanes are $125 for five bowlers.

Open to everyone. Sponsorship advertising is open for $250. Call Cindy Liendo at 726-3120 or email cliendo@southtexasfoodbank.org.

(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.)

AROUND THE NATION Firefighters battle wildfire blazes in 4 states Wildfires are tearing through some hot, drought-stricken areas of the West. They include a massive blaze in a remote area and some smaller but dangerous fires.

In Northern California, air tankers and helicopters helped hundreds of firefighters battle a wildfire south of Lake Tahoe that grown to more than 25 square miles. No structures have been damaged, but the California mountain town of Markleeville remained on standby for possible evacuations Tuesday. Several campgrounds along a highway have been evacuated.

Boeing names its president as new CEO NEW YORK — Boeing CEO Jim McNerney is stepping away from the controls after 10 years.

The aircraft maker said Tues-

CONTACT US

Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez | AP

Donna Garner, right, embraces former employee Napua Gonsales-Merck while they shift through the remains of the Fireside Village, a restaurant and shop owned by the Garners for over 30 years, in the aftermath of the fire in August 2014. day that President and Chief Operating Officer Dennis Muilenburg will become its new CEO on July 1. To ease the transition, McNerney will keep working at Boeing until the end of February.

He is also remaining chairman of the Chicago-based company.

Muilenburg, 51, has worked at Boeing since 1985 in roles including president and CEO of its defense space and security business. He was widely seen as McNerney’s likely successor after being named COO in 2013.

— Compiled from AP reports

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State

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

Republicans balking as federal climate rules loom

By JIM MALEWITZ TEXAS TRIBUNE

Texas’ Republican leadership clearly disdains President Obama’s landmark proposal to combat climate change by slashing carbon emissions, and Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced plans to sue over the rules.

But with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency planning to finalize its Clean Power Plan in August, top officials still won’t say whether Texas will flout those rules – an option that some critics call risky.

“There’s no decision that’s been made,” Bryan Shaw, chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the agency that would be charged with implementing the rules, told The Texas Tribune on Monday. “It’s difficult to know what to plan for without knowing the rule.”

Shaw made the comment after speaking at a Texas Public Policy Foundation event aiming to poke holes in the federal plan, which, as written, would require the state to cut close to 200 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions in the next two decades however it sees fit.

The EPA suggests Texas could meet that goal through a combination of actions called “building blocks”: making coal plants more efficient, switching to cleaner-burning natural gas, adding more renewable resources and bolstering energy efficiency. Under the proposal, Texas could also adopt a "cap-and-trade" program — a scheme in which companies bid on the right to pollute.

Environmental and health advocates say limiting the greenhouse gas would help fight climate change, bolster public health and conserve water in parched Texas, and they suggest that opponents are exaggerating the economic burdens.

Texas Republicans have loudly panned the federal requirement, which they say would increase prices and threaten reliability on the electric grid, and Monday’s discussion at the powerful conservative group’s headquarters provided no exception.

Paxton, who keynoted the event, called the looming rules “an example of the president forcing through what he could not accomplish legislatively” and part of his “war on coal and fos-

Photo by Marjorie Kamys Cotera | Texas Tribune

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks to media after keynoting a June 2015 event hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation regarding impact of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. sil fuels.” He suggested that they would unleash uncertainty across the Texas economy.

“You can’t spell unpredictability without EPA,” he told the audience, drawing laughs.

But asked whether Texas would — or should — refuse to follow the rules, Paxton was noncommittal.

“I leave that up to the Legislature, and what they want to do. My goal is to go and fight them in the courts and win,” he told reporters.

So far, the Legislature, which wrapped up business June 1, has done nothing except reject all proposals instructing Texas regulators to construct a climate plan.

Lawmakers aren’t scheduled to meet again until January of 2017, likely giving them little time to submit a plan to the EPA before a deadline.

Under the current proposal, Texas would have one year to comply once the rules are final. Shaw said his agency would struggle to cobble together a plan within that time frame, even though it has had a year to digest a proposal. Shaw said Texas has taken 18-months to a year to implement a “typical” federal rule, and called this one particularly complex.

If Texas ignores the rules — and loses its likely legal challenge — the EPA would

construct its own plan for Texas, though the agency has not said what that might look like.

Critics have called that strategy risky.

“We are an energy leader, both in fossil fuels and renewables, and our plan will look nothing like a one-sizefits-all plan that would likely be imposed on the state,” said Rep. Rafael Anchia, DDallas, who led the unsuccessful push to construct a climate plan, in a recent interview. “It’s bad for Texas business and we are abdicating our responsibility.”

The last time Texas refused to follow climate rules, the regulations involved "greenhouse gas permits" needed to build facilities.

Without those permits, companies couldn’t build large industrial plants, prompting an outcry.

Texas has fared poorly in its lawsuits against the Obama administration’s climate regulations, litigation that has cost the state more than $400,000, according to the attorney general’s office. In 2013, the Supreme Court declined to hear the state’s appeals in two cases it had lost in lower courts: a challenge to the EPA’s “endangerment finding,” which states that greenhouse gases are a dan-

ger to public health and welfare, and a challenge to rules that limit greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.

The Supreme Court also largely struck down Texas’ challenge to the EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gases from large industrial plants in June of 2014. And the state lost its battle against a different environmental rule, aimed at limiting air pollution that crosses state lines, in the Supreme Court in April of last year.

On Monday, Paxton said, “I’m always worried about risk, but in that particular case, we plan on fighting it in court, and we plan on winning.”

Opponents of the federal rules suggest that this legal challenge would be different, because the rules reach farther than others have, dealing with the makeup of the state’s electric portfolio, rather than just the equipment power plants run on – potentially overstepping authority under the Clean Air Act. “This is unprecedented,” Mike Nasi, an attorney representing the energy industry, said at the conservative event. “Never have we had somebody try to contort the Clean Air Act in such a way.”

Politicians return money from white supremacist

By PATRICK SVITEK TEXAS TRIBUNE

A number of elected officials from Texas are parting ways with campaign donations from the white supremacist leader of a group tied to the recent massacre at a church in South Carolina.

Earl Holt, a Longview man who heads the Missouri-based Council of Conservative Citizens, has given to dozens of Republican candidates and causes across the country, according to federal

records. In Texas, he has spread around several thousand dollars over the CRUZ past four years, state records show.

Dylann Roof, the 21-yearold man accused of killing nine people last week at a historically black church in Charleston, cited the CCC in a manifesto widely attributed to him. The CCC and Holt have a history of racial-

ly charged positions, and in the aftermath of the shooting, the group issued a statement suggesting Roof had some "legitimate grievances" related to race.

The highest-ranking recipient of Holt’s money with Texas ties is U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a 2016 presidential candidate. He initially decided to refund $8,500 in contributions from Holt to several groups affiliated with Cruz.

On Monday, though, Cruz’s campaign said he would instead use the money to make a donation of $11,000

to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund, which benefits families of the shooting victims.

Gov. Greg Abbott was also planning to return money from Holt, according to his office. Holt had given $1,000 to Abbott’s gubernatorial campaign, all of which Abbott will re-donate to charity.

At the state level, Holt gave the most money — $1,250 in total — to the campaigns of his state representative, Republican David Simpson of Longview. Simp-

son, who formally launched a bid for state Senate on Monday, also said he was parting ways with the donations.

"I am returning the money today," Simpson said in a statement Monday. "I have also asked my staff to find the best way I can personally donate to the families that lost their loved ones in this horrific attack."

Another legislator who has received money from Holt is state Sen. Konni Burton, R-Colleyville. The $750 Holt gave to her campaign

will go to a charity or a Charleston church, Burton’s team said Monday.

The second-largest recipient of Holt’s money at the state level has been the Republican Party of Gregg County, which includes Longview. The party, which has received $1,100 from Holt, was looking into the donations Monday, according to chairman Tim Vaughn.

The Guardian first reported Cruz’s campaign was refunding the donations from Holt.

PAGE 4A

Zopinion

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

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

COLUMN

OTHER VIEWS

Fracking and the Franciscans Pope Francis is one of the world’s most inspiring figures. There are passages in his new encyclical on the environment that beautifully place human beings within the seamless garment of life. And yet overall the encyclical is surprisingly disappointing.

Legitimate warnings about the perils of global warming morph into 1970s-style doom-mongering about technological civilization. There are too many overdrawn statements like "The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth."

Hardest to accept, though, is the moral premise implied throughout the encyclical: that the only legitimate human relationships are based on compassion, harmony and love, and that arrangements based on self-interest and competition are inherently destructive.

The pope has a section on work in the encyclical. The section’s heroes are St. Francis of Assisi and monks — emblems of selfless love who seek to return, the pope says, to a state of "original innocence."

He is relentlessly negative, on the other hand, when describing institutions in which people compete for political power or economic gain.

At one point he links self-interest with violence. He comes out against technological advances that will improve productivity by replacing human work. He specifically condemns marketbased mechanisms to solve environmental problems, even though these cap-and-trade programs are up and running in places like California.

Moral realists, including Catholic ones, should be able to worship and emulate a God of perfect love and still appreciate systems, like democracy and capitalism, that harness self-interest. But Francis doesn’t seem to have practical strategies for a fallen world. He neglects the obvious truth that the qualities that do harm can often, when carefully directed, do enormous good. Within marriage, lust can lead to childbearing. Within a regulated market, greed can lead to entrepreneurship and economic innovation. Within a constitution, the desire for fame can lead to political greatness.

You would never know from the encyclical that we are living through the greatest reduction in poverty in human history. A raw and rugged capitalism in Asia has led, ironically, to a great expansion of the middle class and great gains in human dignity.

You would never know that in many parts of the world, like the United States, the rivers and skies are getting cleaner.

The race for riches, ironically, produces the wealth that can be used to clean the environment.

A few years ago, a team of researchers led

by Daniel Esty of Yale looked at the environmental health of 150 countries. The nations with higher income per

“

DAVID BROOKS

capita had better environmental ratings. As countries get richer they invest to tackle environmental problems that directly kill human beings (though they don’t necessarily tackle problems that despoil the natural commons).

You would never suspect, from this encyclical, that over the last decade, one of the most castigated industries has, ironically, produced some of the most important economic and environmental gains. I’m talking of course about fracking.

There was recently a vogue for polemical antifracking documentaries like "Gasland" that purport to show that fracking is causing flammable tap water and other horrors.

But a recent Environmental Protection Agency study found that there was no evidence that fracking was causing widespread harm to the nation’s water supply. On the contrary, there’s some evidence that fracking is a net environmental plus.

That’s because cheap natural gas from fracking displaces coal. A study by the Breakthrough Institute found coal-powered electricity declined to 37 percent from 50 percent of the generation mix between 2007 and 2012. Because natural gas has just half as much global-warming potential as coal, energyrelated carbon emissions have declined more in the U.S. than in any other country over that time.

Fracking has also been an enormous boon to the nation’s wealth and the well-being of its people.

In a new report called "America’s Unconventional Energy Opportunity," Michael E. Porter, David S. Gee and Gregory J. Pope conclude that gas and oil resources extracted through fracking have already added more than $430 billion to annual gross domestic product and supported more than 2.7 million jobs that pay, on average, twice the median U.S. salary.

Pope Francis is a wonderful example of how to be a truly good person.

But if we had followed his line of analysis, neither the Asian economic miracle nor the technology-based American energy revolution would have happened. There’d be no awareness that though industrialization can lead to catastrophic pollution in the short term (China), over the long haul both people and nature are better off with technological progress, growth and regulated affluence.

The innocence of the dove has to be accompanied by the wisdom of the serpent — the awareness that programs based on the purity of the heart backfire; the irony that the best social programs harvest the low but steady motivations of people as they actually are.

(David Brooks is a columnist for the New York Times.)

COLUMN

1970s men’s fashions are recalled and regurgitated On the copy of this missive that I sent to the three-dozen Texas community newspapers that bless me by printing this piece, I applied a headline that might or might not mechanically fit this paper’s format. So I will reiterate it for you here: 1970s fashions recalled and regurgitated.

That is so appropriate for ‘seventies fashions. For those of you who were not around then, I’ll attempt to describe those rather ‘unique’ styles and maybe you’ll understand the double meaning that could be applied to “regurgitated.”

And, I describe this as best I can in the hopes that the precise men’s apparel of those days is NEVER regurgitated, especially in that word’s worst context.

I think ‘seventies men’s clothing fashions, male hairstyles and facial hair choices were attempts to tone down some of the less conventional fashion ideas of the tumultuous 1960s.

Young people of the ‘sixties were in rebellion against The Establishment, Convention, The Man, The Bath and whatever else raised its ugly, objectionable head.

Since I am a product of the ‘fifties and was already in the workaday world of editing and publishing community newspapers, I missed out on The Rebel-

lion. I was a fashion mannequin of my era, and had to be molded to fit in the Jumpin’ ‘seventies style.

Guys in early ‘seventies business and the professions were wearing suits or sports coats and slacks, dress shirts (with broad diversification in colors and patterns), ties (with widths changing frequently in order to line haberdashers already silken pockets) and silk handkerchiefs, stuffed deliberately to look haphazard as they “erupted” from the coat’s breast pocket.

I considered myself to be “with it” in terms of where ‘seventies business and professional men were fashion-wise, thus it was a continuation of the forever prominent “business” or “Sunday” suit, starchedand-ironed shirt, silk tie and wing-tip shoes. Oh, and socks that extended up over the calf and blended with the suit pants.

Smooth. Slick. Conservative. And, looking the same as everyone else.

Well, I thought I was suave and debonair. Today, I laughingly pronounce that “swave” and “deboner.”

Of course, the ‘sixties had branded The Suit as

“establishment” and so ‘seventies junior business execs began to be a bit daring and maintain some connection to the rebellious times that spawned them.

So, the yen for “different” and for relaxed took hold of the younger men in business. Of course, the true core of the professions — attorneys, bankers and the like — stuck to the same-ol’-same-ol’ of earlier times.

Here came the ‘seventies fashions: Ta Da! No ties. Casual shirts with big wild patterns.

Leisure suits. White shoes.

White belt. Hair trimmed from the hippie-down-theback look to just touching the collar of the coat and/ or shirt and shortened on the sides with big but trimmed sideburns. Hair could cover your ears or not, your choice. If you chose to have facial hair, either a neatly groomed mustache or an equally neatly trimmed beard, probably Van Gogh, were the norms.

Obviously there was a lot of leeway.

Self expression. Strutting self-indulgence.

My first leisure suit was tan with epaulets that were tan with maroon, forest green and tan trim.

Jacket pockets maintained that color combo. A stretch belt picked up that entire color theme. Shoes were tan Hush Puppies.

Tan socks but occasional fashion daring brought on forest green, maroon or (gasp!) an argyle combo of, yep, maroon, forest green and tan. I looked like an Algerian army officer, minus beret.

Suit No. 2 was a mint green worn with a white belt, white shoes and a slick-looking shirt that was a white base with a big forest green floral design and of course a huge collar that was turned down over the collar/neck of the mint green leisure coat. Oh, and tan and/or mint green socks. No, not white. Not even for David Letterman.

There were even “baby blue” leisure suits. There were also black, dark green, brown and I even saw a red one (Whoa!).

Music was disco and disco clubs, playing a lot of Bee Gees falsetto harmony, or same-sounding copycats, in a disco dance beat (read slow jitterbug, the push, the whip or whatever step lit your fire). You were, of course, wearing your best fashionleading leisure suit.

Now, we’ve recalled 1970s men’s fashions.

All together: R-E-G-U-RG-I-T-A-T-E. Willis Webb is a retired community newspaper editor and publisher of more than 50 years experience.

He can be reached by email at wwebb1937@att.net.

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National

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

Rape case ruled mistrial

THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

South revisits flag issue

By LUCAS L. JOHNSON II

By BILL BARROW

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A judge has granted a mistrial in the case of two former Vanderbilt football players convicted in the dorm-room rape of a student, saying “bias has been clearly shown.”

Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins on Tuesday ruled in favor of defense attorneys who said a juror intentionally withheld information that he was a rape victim during the jury selection process.

Defense attorneys said the juror, 31-year-old Todd Easter, intentionally withheld information that he was a rape victim during the jury selection.

Easter testified at a hearing last week that he didn’t withhold information because he doesn’t consider himself a victim.

In his ruling, Watkins said “actual bias has been clearly shown.”

“Our system of justice cannot tolerate a trial with a tainted juror regardless of the strength of the evidence against the defendant,” Watkins said.

“The court finds that the proof and arguments presented at the hearing provides enough evidence that granting a new trial is necessary and appropriate in order to promote a fair determination of the defendants’ guilt or innocence.”

A Sumner County man was convicted of raping Easter when he was 16. However, Easter testified that his relationship with the man was consensual and that his parents were the ones who pressed charges.

The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of alleged sexual crimes, but Easter, who was the jury foreman, agreed to have his name included in news stories.

Defense attorneys described Easter as “deceitful and manipulative,” and that he had an agenda.

They said that during the jury selection process Easter

ATLANTA — Calls to remove Confederate imagery from public places multiplied rapidly across the South and beyond Tuesday, with opponents eyeing state flags, license plates and statues of Civil War politicians and generals.

The startling movement, driven by the killing of nine black churchgoers in an apparent racist attack in Charleston, South Carolina, has made converts of politicians who have long supported or stood silent on such symbols. Many of the efforts appear to have the muscle to succeed.

Statehouse displays such as the Confederate battle flag flying in South Carolina are coming under the heaviest fire. But the familiar banner, with its star-studded blue ‘X’ overlaying a field of red, is just one of scores, if not hundreds, of statesanctioned displays that honor the vanquished Confederacy and the era of Jim Crow segregation that lasted for more than a century after the end of the Civil War. The homages — from veterans’ memorials and statues of politicians to counties, streets, government buildings and public schools named for Confederate figures and subsequent white supremacists — haven’t always generated the same political and social tensions as the battle flag, and Confederate heritage groups say the outcry is misplaced, despite widely seen images of what appears to be the church shooting suspect, 21-yearold Dylann Roof, holding the rebel flag.

At the least, however, the flag and other tributes remain a constant reminder of the nation’s perpetual struggle with race, and of some South-

Photo by Shelley Mays/The Tennessean | AP

Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins listens to a witness during a hearing in a case involving two former Vanderbilt football players. in had a chance to discuss the rape case he was involved in but when asked whether he had been sexually assaulted, defense attorneys said Easter’s response was, “no one super close to me.”

They also noted comments Easter made to the media after the players were convicted, that part of his motivation for wanting to be foreman was so he could look the defendants in their eyes as the verdict was read.

Easter testified that wasn’t his motivation, but that he was simply trying to “give them the respect of a human being.”

Easter acknowledged that he had a sometimes abusive relationship with the man who was convicted of raping him. He said the two engaged in sexual activity more than 100 times, and that the man — who was seven years older than Easter — threatened to harm him when he broke off the four-month relationship.

Authorities said Easter went to his mother out of concern and she and her husband contacted authorities.

Easter testified that he was against his parents pressing charges and that he even met with the man again after he was charged.

Attorneys for the defendants did not immediately return calls to The Associated Press on Tuesday.

However, according to the Criminal Court Clerk’s office, the defendants and their

attorneys are scheduled to be in court on Wednesday to request their bonds be reinstated.

Prosecutors said in a statement that the Nashville District Attorney General’s office will request a new trial date be set soon.

“This ruling does not, in any way, affect the evidence that exists; nor does it affect the state’s resolve to vigorously pursue justice in this matter,” prosecutors said.

“Justice may be delayed but it will not be denied.”

Ed Yarbrough, an attorney who represents the victim, declined to comment on the judge’s decision or his client’s reaction to the possibility of facing another trial.

Kathy Walsh, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, said the judge’s ruling was devastating.

The Vanderbilt case had seemed to her something of a bright spot amid a national uproar over universities’ careless handling of sexual assault cases.

“It was an example of how the system can work,” Walsh said. “And then to have a mistrial. It’s very disappointing.”

She worried that the decision will cause others to shy away from the process of going to trial and testifying.

“It’s very emotional for a victim to have to relive this traumatic event in an extremely public way,” Walsh said. “It’s traumatizing.”

Photo by Travis Dove/New York Times | AP

The Confederate battle flag flies outside the State House in Columbia, South Carolina, Tuesday. erners’ defiance of the federal government’s efforts on civil rights.

“Statues and monuments aren’t history,” said Stan Deaton, a historian for the Georgia Historical Society. “They are what we choose to tell future generations about the past. ... It’s a very delicate subject, and let’s not kid ourselves: So much of it has to do with race.”

In Kentucky, the Republican candidate for governor, Matt Bevin, and U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis should be removed from the Capitol rotunda, where it sits just feet from a statue of Abraham Lincoln, whose election spurred the South’s secession. Both men were born in Kentucky, a border state during the Civil War. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, said he wanted the state to stop issuing a vanity license plate for the Sons of Confederate Veterans that includes the battle flag. “Even its display on state-issued license tags, in my view, is unnecessarily divisive and hurtful to too many of our people,” McAuliffe said, speaking in Richmond, the second and final capital of the Confederacy.

In Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam and

lawmakers of both parties called for removing a Capitol grounds bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader. The longest-serving black legislator in Alabama said he plans to introduce a resolution that would remove the Confederate flags that fly outside the Alabama Capitol next to a towering monument to Confederate soldiers.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s office said the city should consider changes to several monuments, including a prominent statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee near downtown, as the city prepares to celebrate the 300th anniversary of its founding.

Top Mississippi Republicans appear divided over the state’s flag, the last of the 50 state banners to include a specific image of the battle flag.

House Speaker Philip Gunn said Monday that the image, which appears in the top left corner of the Mississippi flag, is offensive and should be removed. Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves responded Tuesday that the decision should be up to Mississippians, who voted 2-to-1 in 2001 to keep the flag.

Gov. Phil Bryant, also a Republican, said he supports that referendum result.

National

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

Contractor’s credential used to breach system

By DEB RIECHMANN AND KEN DILANIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The head of the government agency that suffered two massive cyberattacks said Tuesday that a hacker gained access to its records with a credential used by a federal contractor.

Despite calls for her ouster, the director of the Office of Personnel Management said if anyone is responsible for the breaches, it’s the hackers.

Katherine Archuleta told a Senate hearing that old computer networks were to blame for the cyberbreakins that exposed private information on nearly every federal employee and personal histories of millions with security clearances.

“If there is anyone to blame, it’s the perpetrators,” she said.

Sen. John Boozman, RArk., the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee panel where she testified, said OPM officials

are blaming antiquated systems, but not all the breaches occurred exclusively on older networks.

“I still don’t think we know exactly what’s gone on,” Boozman said later in the afternoon on his way out of a classified briefing on cybersecurity.

Archuleta told a House oversight committee last week that many of the agency’s systems were too old to support encryption, which would have made the data harder to steal. But the agency’s independent watchdog is challenging that assessment in written testimony to be delivered Wednesday to the same committee.

OPM Inspector General Patrick McFarland says some of the systems involved in the data breach were modern, so encryption could have been used.

Boozman and other senators said there was concern that people who stole the information could use it to file fake tax returns with the Internal Revenue Ser-

Photo by Cliff Owen | AP

Katherine Archuleta, director, Office of Personnel Management, testifies before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday. vice.

Sen. Susan Collins, RMaine, said, “People would discover it because they would file their returns and the IRS would say, ‘Oh, you’ve already filed, and we’ve already sent your return.’ So this is really serious.”

President Barack Obama has said he continues to have confidence in Archuleta, although several Republican and Democratic lawmakers have called on her to step down — the latest being Sen. Steve Daines, R-

Mont.

“Under Katherine Archuleta’s watch, OPM allowed one of the largest breaches of federal employees’ personal information in our nation’s history,” Daines said Tuesday. “Ms. Archuleta has refused to take accountability for this great failure — in turn failing the American people, whom she swore an oath to protect and defend.”

Daines, who worked in Montana’s technology sector for more than 12 years, is among the Americans

who received a notice that his information might have been compromised in the latest breach.

Archuleta testified that an “adversary” somehow obtained a user credential used by KeyPoint Government Solutions, a contractor based in Loveland, Colorado. She didn’t say specifically when that occurred or if it was linked to the two cyberbreaches that exposed private information on nearly every federal employee and personal histories of millions with security clearances.

“I want to be very clear that while the adversary leveraged — compromised — a KeyPoint User credential to gain access to OPM’s network, we don’t have any evidence that would suggest that KeyPoint as a company was responsible or directly involved in the intrusion,” she said.

The agency has not identified any “pattern or material deficiency” that led to the compromise, Archuleta said, and the company has

actively worked to secure its network and meet additional protective controls the government has asked.

Archuleta said the cyberattacks were discovered because of OPM’s stepped-up efforts in the past 18 months to improve security, but she acknowledged the office still has work to do.

She said that in fiscal 2014 and 2015, the agency committed nearly $67 million toward shoring up its information technology infrastructure and in June of last year began completely redesigning the network.

She said that work is on schedule and on budget, that OPM has added firewalls and a better authentication process for remote access and that it is increasing the types of ways used to encrypt data. A new data center network is expected to be completed by the end of this fiscal year. The agency’s budget request for fiscal 2016 includes an additional $21 million above 2015 spending to further support modernization.

International

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A

Protesters march against electricity prices in Armenia

By AVET DEMOURIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

YEREVAN, Armenia — Street protests in the Armenian capital against a hike in electricity prices grew on Tuesday evening, with an estimated 7,000 people joining a second attempt to march toward the presidential residence even after riot police had used water cannons to forcefully disperse demonstrators.

The number of riot police also increased, and helmeted officers holding shields stood shoulder-to-shoulder to block the protesters from moving farther down the central avenue in Yerevan.

The protesters stood behind large trash containers that they had placed across the road as a barricade.

There appeared to be some progress toward ending the standoff late Tuesday, with the protesters agreeing to appoint several representatives to meet with President Serge Sarkisian.

But after a long discussion, they changed their mind.

In the early hours of Wednesday, the street remained full of protesters, most of them young.

Yerevan’s deputy police chief, Valery Osipyan, told the crowd that all of the nearly 240 protesters detained early Tuesday had been released, one of the demonstrators’ demands.

The unrest was the most serious that Armenia has seen in years, raising concerns about political stability in the impoverished former Soviet nation, which hosts a Russian military base and is part of a Moscow-dominated economic alliance.

Russian companies control some of the most prized economic assets in Armenia, including the power grid. The protest was triggered when an Armenian government commission agreed to raise electricity rates at the request of the power company.

Photo by Narek Aleksanyan/PAN | AP

Armenian police use water cannons to disperse protesters demonstrating against an increase in electricity prices, Tuesday.

Russia was closely following the protests, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said.

“Of course, we hope that in the near future the situation will be resolved in strict accordance with the law and that there will be no violations of the law,” Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

The U.S. Embassy in Ye-

revan voiced concern about reports of excessive use of force by police and urged the government to investigate.

On Monday, about 5,000 demonstrators marched toward the presidential headquarters, but were stopped by lines of riot police backed by water cannons.

The protesters then sat on the road, blocking traffic

and ignoring police demands to leave.

Several hundred remained in place overnight.

Riot police broke up the protest early Tuesday, using water cannons.

Some protesters resisted and threw rocks at the officers, who responded by beating them with truncheons. Plainclothes police agents also rounded up demonstrators.

Fifteen people sought medical treatment and seven of them were hospitalized, the Health Ministry said.

Police also broke up a small rally in Armenia’s second-largest city of Gyumri on Tuesday backing the main protest, arresting 12 people.

The demonstrators were demanding that the government reconsider its decision to increase electricity prices for households by 17-22 percent. Some protesters also called for Sarkisian’s resignation.

The opposition Armenian National Congress walked out of parliament in protest Tuesday against the rally’s breakup and demanded the release of all those detained.

Raffi Hovannisian, the leader of the opposition Heritage party who challenged Sarkisian in a 2013 presidential election, also denounced the government crackdown on the protest, calling it “a national shame.”

Sarkisian, who is serving his second term, has not yet commented on the protest.

The landlocked country’s economy is hobbled by the longstanding closure of its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey over a conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. It depends on close ties with Russia.

Alexander Iskandarian, head of the Caucasus Institute, an independent think tank, said the protest reflected “the radicalization of opposition activities.”

Greece defends ‘harsh’ reforms

By ELENA BECATOROS ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s government on Tuesday defended the billions worth of “harsh” new budget savings it has offered in talks with creditors, as some of the governing party’s own lawmakers spoke out against them.

Greece has proposed measures worth 8 billion euros ($9 billion), including increases to company and consumer taxes, to persuade the country’s bailout creditors to release new loans it needs to avoid defaulting on its debts next week.

A decision is expected this week: eurozone finance ministers are to meet Wednesday evening, followed by a European Union summit Thursday and Friday.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will also travel to Brussels Wednesday, for midday talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi and International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde, his office said.

Greece needs a decision before June 30, when its current bailout expires and it also faces a 1.6 billion-euro ($1.8 billion) loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund.

The government is also under pressure from other left wing parties and trade unions, who say its proposals will place further burdens on austerityweary Greeks. Late Tuesday, 7,000 members of a Communist Party-affiliated trade union and 3,000 pensioners held a peaceful protest march through Athens, demanding that the government withdraws its proposals and restore pensions to precrisis levels.

Tsipras’ radical left

Photo by Daniel Ochoa de Olza | AP

Presidential guards march while some demonstrators sit on the side during an anti-austerity protest in Athens on Tuesday.

Syriza party won in January on a promise to repeal the harsh budget cuts and tax increases that previous governments had imposed since 2010 in return for bailout loans.

Tsipras says such measures have been focusing too closely on healing public finances while worsening the economic plight of Greeks.

But with creditors withholding 7.2 billion euros ($8 billion) worth of rescue loans and Greece’s state coffers running dry, Tsipras has been forced to backtrack on many pledges. A debt default by Greece could result in much greater economic pain for the country — a potential run on the banks and even an exit from the 19-nation euro currency union.

On Tuesday, Tsipras’ government found it had some explaining to do to its own party and backers.

“There is full comprehension that there are measures in the proposal that are harsh, and they are measures that under different circumstances, if it was up to us, there was no way we would have taken,” government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis told the private Greek television station Antenna.

Sakellaridis noted the proposed measures seek to increase taxes on those with higher incomes rath-

er than on low-income families, salaried employees and pensioners.

But some party members were not swayed.

The proposals “cannot be supported, cannot be voted for,” Syriza party lawmaker Eleni Sotiriou was quoted as telling the weekly Dromos tis Aristeras. “The responsibility for the political developments regarding the submission of such measures will lie with those who made these choices.”

Another lawmaker, Dimitris Kodelas, echoed the sentiment.

“Such an agreement cannot be voted on,” he told To Vima radio. “The deal toward which we are moving is a deal which, by common admission, has nothing to do with our program.”

Labor Minister Panos Skourletis insisted the proposal, if accepted by the creditors, was a good one for Greece that included beneficial measures for workers.

A deal that will ensure Greece remains in the eurozone is likely to have enough parliamentary votes to pass, as some opposition lawmakers will almost certainly vote in favor. But significant losses from the governing coalition of Syriza and its coalition partner, the small ANEL nationalist party, would be a blow to Tsipras and could lead to early elections.

ANEL said Tuesday that any agreement with Greece’s creditors should be linked with some form of debt relief.

“Clearly a government that doesn’t have the confidence of its deputies can’t stand up. But I don’t think we’ll get to this point,” Sakellaridis said.

The uncertainty of the past few months has further hammered the Greek economy, while worried Greeks have pulled billions out of domestic banks for fear of restrictions being imposed on banking transactions, or of the country leaving the euro.

The government’s proposal “is clearly moving in the right direction” to ensure the country can maintain international funding “and avert a disorderly path towards bankruptcy,” said Simos Anastasopoulos, the head of the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce.

“On the other hand the proposed measures put the burden on the private economy,” he said, adding that the new taxes are certain to “lead to recession and an increase in unemployment.”

After a series of meetings in Brussels on Monday, European creditors say Greece’s new reforms proposals offer a good basis to break a nearly fivemonth deadlock in talks over new loans.

Greece’s new proposals “are tangible elements we can work with in an efficient way to reach an agreement,” French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said. “We need one last push (Wednesday) night so that the heads of state can sign off on the agreement.”

The IMF sounded less optimistic, with Lagarde describing the proposals as “still short of everything that we expected.”

Hopes that a deal was at hand nevertheless boosted markets.

Photo by Cristian Torres | AP

A paramedic attends an elderly woman after evacuating her from a nursing home that caught fire in Mexicali, Mexico, Tuesday.

16 dead in nursing home fire in Mexico ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY — A fire swept through a retirement home for poor people early Tuesday, killing 16 elderly residents at the facility outside the northern border city of Mexicali, the mayor’s office said.

Five other residents were reported in serious condition after being taken to a hospital in nearby Mexicali, which sits across the border from Calexico, California.

Mayor Jaime Diaz Ochoa said the cause of the blaze at the Hermoso Atardecer (Beautiful Sunset) retirement home was being investigated by the state prosecutors’ office. The mayor’s office said that 12 fire extinguishers and eight smoke detectors had been found at the home and that the nonprofit facility in a rural area about a half-hour drive from Mexicali had not been overcrowded.

Diaz Ochoa said 23 residents had been taken to a temporary city shelter and

would be referred to a city elderly care center. He said most were apparently over 75 years old. The nursing home housed poor, abandoned or formerly homeless elderly people.

Telephone numbers listed for the home rang unanswered or were disconnected.

Diaz Ochoa said the facility was run by the nonprofit Cultural Society for the Promotion of Social Welfare.

In its government registration page, the group lists one of its functions as “giving humanitarian assistance to low-income elderly people in need, including food, shelter, clothing and medical care.”

Susana Marisol Tapia, a former volunteer at the home, said the administrators “do a great job, with a lot of dedication and sacrifice.”

“What has happened is a tragedy that will surely hurt the beautiful work that they do, and that’s a shame,” Tapia wrote in an email upon hearing of the fire.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

Sports&Outdoors NFL: PATRIOTS

PGA TOUR: JORDAN SPIETH

Spieth keeps winning Photo by Mark Lennihan | AP

QB Tom Brady arrives for his appeal hearing at NFL headquarters Tuesday.

Brady appeals NFL

By RACHEL COHEN ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Matt York | AP

Jordan Spieth holds up the trophy after winning the U.S. Open tournament at Chambers Bay on Sunday in University Place, Wash.

Texan might be best thing to happen to Chambers

By DAVE SKRETTA ASSOCIATED PRESS

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — The course that was built for a U.S. Open needs a makeover.

And when that’s finished, then it can fix the greens.

Chambers Bay deserves another shot at hosting the U.S. Open for no other reason than the finish it produced. Jordan Spieth, with a big assist from Dustin Johnson, did more to put this course on the map than views of Puget Sound or the design of Robert Trent Jones Jr. For all the complaints - a tradition nearly as old as the U.S. Open - the lasting image is the guy holding the trophy.

It helps when the winner is a 21-year-old with polished manners and a tenacious short game who made "Grand Slam" a summer topic for only the third time in the last 50 years. Throw in some heartache and it’s an ending that won’t be forgotten.

The real mystery is how Johnson’s 5-iron into the 18th green didn’t come off that slope instead of leaving a 12-foot eagle putt that was like putting down a luge track.

That’s ice, not broccoli.

Golf courses don’t always define great players. Sometimes it’s the other way around.

Valhalla, for example, cannot be considered on the A-list of championship courses. But it gave us Tiger Woods winning in a playoff for his third straight major, and Rory McIlroy holding off Phil Mickelson,

Rickie Fowler and Henrik Stenson in the dark.

The greens at Chambers Bay were terrible. Everyone could see that. A few players - Billy Horschel comes to mind couldn’t wait to say it.

But they weren’t that much worse than Pebble Beach in 2010 ("These greens are just awful," Woods said that year). They were only slightly more dead than those at Shinnecock Hills in 2004. Go back and watch that 12-foot putt Woods made at Torrey Pines to get into a playoff and try to count the bounces.

This is the U.S. Open, not the Immaculate Open.

It is meant to be the toughest test in golf, even when it gets a little extreme.

The greens should be an easy fix. Poa annua crept into the fescue, which led to Henrik Stenson’s reference that it was like putting on broccoli. Up close, it even looked like broccoli. It was difficult to make putts, though Spieth and Johnson made their share. So did Louis Oosthuizen, with six birdies on the last seven holes (one with a wedge from the fairway).

Or maybe they all just got lucky.

The overhaul has more to do with an aspect of the U.S. Open that was sadly overlooked this year - the spectators.

For 50 years, the only way to see a U.S. Open in the Pacific Northwest was on television. And once the fans got onto the course, they were so far away from the action that the players looked about as big as they once did on a 19-inch TV screen with

a knob to change the channels.

Adding grandstands isn’t the answer. At midday on Saturday, the 18th bleachers already were filled and the line was nearly 50 yards long, and not moving. Sounds like a fun way to spend the afternoon at a U.S. Open.

Phil Mickelson’s wife was standing near the first tee in the opening round. She looked down the fairway and didn’t see fans on either side. The 18th fairway was on the left. A massive dune was on the right.

"Where am I supposed to go?" she inquired.

The eighth fairway had no room on either side for spectators. For a course that was built with hopes of landing a U.S. Open, there was no reason it couldn’t have cut viewing areas through the dunes without risking spectator safety.

It’s worth going back to Chambers Bay no matter who won. The USGA wants to move its championship around the country. The Pacific Northwest had to wait 120 years. It’s also important for the U.S. Open to be held on a public course every now and then, so that ticks two boxes.

It sounds minor. It’s a big deal. And it should be fixed if the U.S. Open ever returns to Chambers Bay. And if it does, golf fans will recall Spieth going birdie-double bogey-birdie to capture the second leg of the Grand Slam.

They will recall Johnson having a 12-foot putt to win and then missing a 4-foot putt to lose, all in a span of 48 seconds.

NEW YORK — Tom Brady and representatives from the players’ union have been meeting with Commissioner Roger Goodell at NFL headquarters for much of Tuesday as the New England quarterback appeals his four-game suspension.

Brady was suspended by the league for his role in the use of deflated footballs in the AFC championship game win over Indianapolis. He arrived at the NFL’s Park Avenue offices Tuesday morning, as did attorney Jeffrey Kessler, who is leading Brady’s defense.

The NFL Players Association had asked Goodell to recuse himself from hearing the appeal because he could not be impartial and might be called as a witness.

But Goodell said it was his responsibility to oversee the hearing to protect the integrity of the league.

Based on the league-sanctioned Wells report, Brady was suspended and the Patriots were fined $1 million and docked a pair of draft picks.

Among the key elements of Brady’s appeal will be about who ordered his four-game suspension and whether science supports the league’s findings about deflated footballs.

The NFL says Goodell authorized the discipline that was imposed by league executive Troy Vincent, who signed the letters sent to Brady and the Patriots informing them of the penalties.

The NFLPA challenged Vincent’s power to issue punishment, citing Article 46 of the league’s collective bargaining agreement.

MIÉRCOLES 24 DE JUNIO DE 2015

Agenda 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.

FESTEJOS PATRONALES MIGUEL ALEMÁN— Habrá una celebración por el día de San Juan, el miércoles 24 de junio, a partir de las 8 a.m.

El evento comenzará con una cabalgata en el rancho “Las Blanquitas”, en el kilómetro 126.5; la partida de la cabalgata, programada para las 9 a.m., será animada por el grupo “El tamborazo de Vidal”.

A la 1 p.m., la cabalgata será bendecida y continuará hasta la Plaza Principal, donde se ofrecerá una comida. La recepción contará con música en vivo del grupo “Combinación Guerrero”.

En punto de las 4 p.m. las fiestas continuarán con un espectáculo de rodeo en el parque constitución.

Y para finalizar con los festejos, habrá un baile popular en la Plaza Principal, a partir de las 7 p.m. El evento será amenizado por los grupo s”Los Hermanos Barrón”, y “Combinación Guerrero”.

Zfrontera

PÁGINA 9A

LAGO FALCÓN

Drástico descenso TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

El Lago Falcón bajó en la lista de los 100 Mejores Lagos de Robalo anual que publica Bassmaster.

En su conteo inaugural en 2012, el Lago Falcón quedó en el primer lugar. Este año bajó hasta el número 42.

“Cualquier otro lago en el país se sentiría orgulloso de estar clasificado en el número 42, pero esta pescadería no es una de ellas”, señala el sitio en Internet de Bassmasters.

“En 2012, Falcón era el mejor del país, sin excepción. Bajó al séptimo lugar en 2013, y al doceavo el año pasado. Ahora, parece que es la

sombra de lo que un día fue”.

Toldeo Bend Reservoir obtuvo el primer lugar en la lista de 2015.

“La clasificación de este año es más confiable que nunca antes”, dijo el Editor de la revista Bassmaster, James Hall. “Los pasados tres años, la lista fue publicada en mayo.

Sin embargo, esperamos para incluirla en las publicaciones de julio y agosto, para que de esta manera poder recolectar los datos de la primavera para evaluar la salud y productividad de cada pesquería”.

Las clasificaciones fueron creadas a través de un largo proceso, donde los organismos pesqueros de cada estado pudieran votar para

producir una lista actualizada de sus lagos y aguas ricas en robalo. A continuación B.A.S.S Nation fue empleada para hablar de las mejores pesquerías que compiten en todo el país.

Todos los 630.000 seguidores de de B.A.S.S en Facebook, fueron encuestados para asegurarse de que no se consideraran lagos sin torneos, y entonces la junta de B.A.S.S, un panel de 3.500 integrantes de pescadores ávidos, ayudaron a colocar los lagos en orden. Al final, después de recolectar los datos de torneos de cientos de clubes de pesca de robalo y organizadores de torneos, la lista fue terminada por un panel de 15

CARES

TAMAULIPAS

ESTIMULAN EDUCACIÓN SUPERIOR

Arrestan supuesto líder de grupo TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

FESTIVAL DE LA LIBERTAD RIO GRANDE CITY — El 2015 Rio Grande City Freedom Fest se realizará el viernes 26 de junio, a partir de las 6 p.m. en el Parque Municipal Basilio Villarreal. Presentación de Marshall Law, Palominos y Jack Ingram. Habrá comida gratis, puestos, juegos infantiles gratis y fuegos artificiales. Costo en preventa: 15 dólares; el día del evento a 25 dólares. Evento a beneficio del Rio Grande City Boys and Girls Youth Club.

Foto de cortesía

En la imagen, algunos de los 19 estudiantes inmigrantes cuyo trabajo y esfuerzo fue reconocido a través de una beca escolar para continuar con sus estudios superiores.

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) 765-3892.

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.

Estudiantes inmigrantes reciben becas ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

L

a Oficina de Programas Compensatorios Federal y Estatal de UISD, en conjunto con el comité para Defensa de Menores y Aumentar los Estándares de Educación para Estudiantes Inmigrantes de Laredo (C.A.R.E.S., por sus siglas en inglés), entregaron 19 becas a estudiantes del Programa de Educación para Inmigrantes, durante un desayuno/ceremonia de reconocimientos, organizada por IBC, el 16 de junio.

La Coordinadora de Inmigrantes

La corte de comisionados se reunirá el lunes 13 de julio, de 9 a.m. a 12 p.m., en el Palacio de Justicia de la Ciudad.

Para más información pude llamar a Roxy Elizondo al (956) 765-9920.

CAMINATA Se realizará la Tercer Carrera Anual “5K Memorial Run”, el 18 de julio a partir de las 8 a.m., frente a al Palacio de Justicia sobre 7th y calle Hidalgo.

El costo de inscripción anticipada es de 15 dólares, mientras que el día del vento se podrá inscribir, de 7 a.m. a 7:45 a.m., por un costo de 20 dólares. La inscripción a la carrera para niños costará 5 dólares.

Federal y Estatal de UISD, Verónica Burgoa, dijo que la ceremonia fue diseñada para reconocer y premiar a algunos estudiantes muy especiales.

“Estos estudiantes han superado la adversidad y trabajaron duro para graduarse de preparatoria. Las becas escolares les ayudarán con los gastos que experimenten para entrar al colegio y universidad. Estamos muy agradecidos con la generosidad de nuestros patrocinadores, quienes continúan defendiendo a estudiantes inmigrantes”, dijo Burgoa.

El programa de becas a inmigrantes comenzó en octubre de 2012 y ha recibido reconocimiento estatal y nacional por ayudar a estudiantes inmigrantes que se han graduado de la preparatoria y pasan a instituciones de estudios superiores.

El comité de patrocinadores de C.A.R.E.S., incluyen a Renato Zapata, CEO y presidente de la Junta de International Bank of Commerce en Zapata, a Humberto Gonzalez Bentancourt, de G.E. Electric, y a Eduardo A. Garza Robles de UniTrade.

El supuesto líder de una banda delictiva y objetivo primordial en la Estrategia de Seguridad de Tamaulipas, fue arrestado por elementos del Grupo de Coordinación Tamaulipas (GCT) en el municipio de Matamoros, México, dieron a conocer autoridades tamaulipecas el lunes.

Pedro Oddiel Villegas Coronado, supuesto jefe regional de un grupo delictivo, es acusado de secuestro, extorsión, tráfico de armas y drogas, violaciones y probables homicidios. El comunicado no señala el nombre del grupo delictivo.

El arresto ocurrió el domingo, en el municipio de Matamoros, mediante un operativo especial realizado por personal de la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional.

Al momento de su arresto, Villegas Coronado fue detenido junto a Erick Fabián Saucedo Argüelles, supuesto escolta.

De acuerdo con un comunicado de prensa, Villegas Coronado operaba en municipios como Xicoténcatl, El Mante, Aldama, González y otros municipios más de las regiones Centro y Sur del Estado.

En los últimos días se realizó la detención de por lo menos 14 integrantes de bandas de secuestradores que operaban en Matamoros, Cd. Victoria y Tampico, anunciaron autoridades.

De acuerdo con informes, la detención de los supuestos delincuentes permitió esclarecer seis casos de secuestros. Los casos continúan bajo investigación.

COLUMNA

Relatos retratan realidad de Tamaulipas POR RAÚL SINENCIO

CORTE DE COMISIONADOS

integrantes de la industria pesquera.

El año pasado Sturgeon Bay, un lago de Michigan ocupó el primer lugar de la lista, bajando al segundo puesto. El lago número uno de 2013, Lago St. Clair de Michigan, tomó la tercera posición. El resto de los primeros cinco lugares, en orden, son California Delta y Sam Rayburn Reservoir en Texas.

Texas gana derechos con la mayor cantidad de lagos clasificados dentro los 100 mejores de Bassmaster, con un total de nueve lagos. California y Nueva York cada uno puede presumir de seis lagos; Michigan cuenta con ocho lagos en la lista.

ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Nota del Editor: Este es el primero de dos artículos donde el autor cuenta los puntos de vista de tres turistas en Ciudad Victoria.

Al correr la primera mitad del siglo XX, tres distintos personajes visitan Ciudad Victoria. Lo hacen en diversos momentos y escriben testimonios que recogen variadas facetas. Con ellas arman la esencia de la capital de Tamaulipas.

Punto de Vista En 1910 Adolfo Dollero, nativo de Italia, recorre México. Era acompañado por el ingeniero Armando Borneti y Arturo Vaneresson, doctor en química. Desde Tampico llegan a la capital.

“Ciudad Victoria no es

una población de mucha importancia; tiene aproximadamente 17.000 habitantes”, señala Dollero. “(Y por encontrarse en el centro) ha sido escogida como cabecera del estado. Ofrece escaso movimiento, hoteles muy malos y poco de interesante, salvo algunas casas [mercantiles] que ya han casi monopolizado el comercio […] y […] otras que se dedican al cultivo y a la exportación de fibras textiles”.

Añade: “En las inmediaciones hay plantíos de naranjos y de huertas fértiles […] regadas por un torrente […] poco distante, (refiriéndose al río San Marcos). La fiebre amarilla ha contribuido también a que no pudiera desarrollarse, aunque la enfermedad no es endémica, sino que fue importada hace algunos años por un contagio accidental”.

Rebelión En otra ocasión Valentín Campa Salazar, trabajador de Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México, División Golfo, sostuvo: “En 1925 me trasladaron a Ciudad Victoria terminal importante, porque por allí se enviaba el petróleo de Tampico a todo el norte […] Entonces la capital de Tamaulipas era una ciudad apacible […] con unos 50.000 habitantes. En los andenes solía aglomerarse mucha gente por la llegada y salida de los trenes de Monterrey y Tampico”.

Aguerrido sindicalista, apoya el paro de mecánicos rieleros en 1927.

Indica, “Del 33 Regimiento, comandado por el coronel Cabrera avanzaron hacia mí mientras Cabrera me golpeaba con su pistola.

Iban a ejecutarlo, pero el Gobernador Emilio Portes

Gil revierte la orden, pues ‘si era yo fusilado la situación […] en todo el estado se tornaría muy complicada.”.

Tras medio año de exilio forzoso, regresa a suelo victorense.

“Operaba una […] trituradora de roca en Tamatán, La Pedrera, […] para el balastro de las vías férreas, con enormes ganancias, basadas en salarios miserables. Puesto que acordamos sindicalizar a los obreros […] y emplazamos a huelga”, señala. “Fui aprehendido, enviándome a un calabozo inmundo […] Al día siguiente algunos compañeros obtuvieron mi libertad, informándome que Portes Gil era socio de La Pedrera y previo a ocupar en 1928 la Secretaría de Gobernación ordenó que me aprehendieran por el emplazamiento a huelga”.

Periodista Escribe Porfirio Hernández, “Fígaro”, en abril de 1946: “Las diez de la mañana. Estamos en Ciudad Victoria, listos para la hora de la partida. La capital de Tamaulipas es alegre y optimista. Cumple muy bien su papel de centro de los poderes oficiales del estado. Adelanta con rapidez y aprovecha muy bien el auge traído por la carretera internacional”.

Observa que “bellas y elegantes colonias han crecido al margen de las dos anchas avenidas, abiertas de acuerdo con las necesidades de una ciudad moderna. Altos edificios van alzándose por todas partes y posee un magnífico hotel –‘Sierra Gorda’— que responde a las exigencias del gran turismo.

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

PAGE 10A

Zentertainment

Former ballet star Albert Evans dead at 46

By JOCELYN NOVECK ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — Albert Evans, a former New York City Ballet principal dancer and one of the most prominent African-Americans in classical dance, has died at age 46.

Evans died at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital on Monday night “following a short illness,” said Rob Daniels, a spokesman for the ballet company. He did not have further details.

Evans was one of only two African-American principal dancers in New York City Ballet’s 67-year history. The first was Arthur Mitchell, who is now 81.

As a principal, Evans danced a huge variety of roles in the City Ballet repertoire, from classical to modern, from George Balanchine to Jerome Robbins to Christopher Wheeldon. He joined the company in 1988 and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming a soloist in 1991 and a principal in 1995. Evans retired during the spring 2010 season with an emotional farewell performance, and had been serving since then as a ballet master at the company.

“The entire New York City Ballet family is heartbroken by the loss of our beloved friend and colleague Albert Evans,” said Peter Martins, the company’s ballet master in chief, in a statement.

“Kind, warm, generous, and always a joy to be with, Albert is quite simply irreplaceable.”

Evans was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and trained there as a youngster. In 1986, he was awarded a full scholarship to the School of American Ballet, NYCB’s official school.

His more prominent roles in Balanchine ballets included the Cavalier in “The Nutcracker” and Puck in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” among many others. He had featured roles in Wheeldon’s “Polyphonia” and “Liturgy.” And he originated roles in a number of works by Martins, including his 1991 “Sleeping Beauty,” in which Evans danced Puss in Boots, and “Romeo + Juliet,” in which he played a commanding Prince of Verona.

Friends and colleagues in the dance world took to social media on Tuesday to praise Evans.

“Goodbye dear Albert, a beautiful soul,” wrote choreographer Alexei Ratmansky on Facebook.

“He gave us all the strength, beauty, joy, laughter, smiles, passion,

EVANS

and inspiration to keep going, to keep pushing onward, to be the best we could be,” wrote principal dancer Sara Mearns on Instagram.

Dancer and rising choreographer Justin Peck, also on Instagram, called Evans “such an incredible, luminous person. Albert always brought warmth, hospitality, enthusiasm, humor to any situation.”

In addition to his dance roles, Evans choreographed several works, including “Haiku,” to music

by John Cage, for New York City Ballet’s 2002 Diamond Project, as well as a solo for NYCB principal Peter Boal in 2003, performed at the Joyce Theater.

Evans also appeared in the 2002 “Live From Lincoln Center” broadcast of “New York City Ballet’s Diamond Project: Ten Years of New Choreography.”

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

Apple decides to pay artists

By MESFIN FEKADU ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — Independent record label founder Allen Kovac had planned to remove the music by his artists from iTunes a week ahead of the launch of Apple Music.

Kovac, whose labels are home to performers ranging from Motley Crue to Blondie, changed his mind Monday after Apple decided it would pay artists during its free, threemonth trial. That aboutface came after Taylor Swift called for artists to be paid properly.

Her actions — praised by indie acts — marked a winning moment for independent record labels, who often fall into the shadow of major labels.

“There’s nothing business-wise that made sense here to me,” Kovac said of Apple’s initial deal during an interview on Monday.

“And when I talked to my artists about it, they agreed, and we informed Sony, our distributor, and Apple, that we weren’t going to be in that kind of business.”

Kovac said during the last week he and other indie labels went back and forth with Apple about its decision not to pay artists for the first three months of Apple Music, which launches June 30. Swift wrote a strong Tumblr post criticizing Apple’s decision on Sunday, and hours later the tech company announced it would pay up.

“They started having a dialogue that was different over the weekend, and then when Taylor went public, it made their decision a lot easier to make,” said Kovac, who owns the labels Eleven Seven Music, Five Seven Music and Better Noise Records and

calls seeking comment.

“It does look a little bit like Taylor put a post up and just turned Apple around in one Tumblr post; it’s not quite that easy. But we can’t take away from the fact that one of the largest stars did put themselves out there publicly,” Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx, signed to Kovac’s label, said in an interview Monday. “They were already hearing that lots of labels and artists were going to pull, but that was the tipping point.

I think it was perfect ...

It’s a win-win-win.”

The victory for indie labels comes at a perfect time: The American Association of Independent Music is celebrating its 10th anniversary in New York City this week. Daniel Glass, the president of Glassnote Records which launched the ultra-successful Mumford & Sons in America, applauded Photo by Eric Jamison/Invision | AP file Apple’s quick decision.

In this May 17 file photo, Taylor Swift arrives at the Billboard Music “It speaks volumes of Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. both sides to say that this was a decision made withhas a roster including Pa- singer Calvin Harris, out bad blood created,” pa Roach and Five Finger tweeted Monday, “I just Glass said Tuesday. “To Death Punch. played a gig inside a giant have one of the largest Kovac said 30 percent of owl and my girl just corporations in the world his labels’ revenue is from changed the entire music react so quickly without streaming. industry what a day.” any drama, without any Though she is pop’s Other artists have spo- antagonism, just reacted most powerful act, Swift is ken out about how stream- and said, ‘Let’s move on. signed to the indie label ing services like Spotify Good point. Let’s grow toBig Machine Records. The don’t pay musicians gether.’ I think they took 25-year-old said she would enough. But Swift, who it off the table so quickly, withhold her latest multi- pulled “1989” from Spotify and I think that was a platinum album, “1989,” last year, is easily No.1 great thing.” from Apple Music because among top-selling artists But Sixx said the fight the tech company would today. isn’t completely over for not pay artists and labels “Thankfully I am on my indies. directly for the use of fifth album and can sup“Don’t jump up and their music during the 90- port myself, my band, down and wave the flag day introductory period (it crew, and entire manage- quite yet; we got work to will later cost $10). Apple ment team by playing live do but we’re moving in a responded in a tweet and shows. This is about the better direction than a lot said it changed its mind. new artist or band that of people say,” he said. “A “A word from our fu- has just released their lot of people are like, ‘This ture President. Right on. first single and will not be music industry’s dead.

You tell ‘em, Girl,” Elvis paid for its success,” Swift There’s no use being in a Costello tweeted to Swift wrote. band anymore or an arton Sunday.

Representatives for ist. You’re never going to Swift’s boyfriend, plati- Swift or her label didn’t make any money.’ It’s not num-selling DJ-producer- return emails or phone true.”

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A

ESTELA G. GONZALEZ Aug. 11, 1942 – June 20, 2015 Estela G. Gonzalez, 72, passed away on Saturday, June 20, 2015 at Retama Manor Nursing Center in Laredo, Texas.

Ms. Gonzalez is preceded in death by her husband, Juan J. Gonzalez; brothers, Jose F. Garza, Carlos Garza; sister, Maria (Ramon) Benavides and sister-in-law, Odilia Garza.

Ms. Gonzalez is survived by her son, Juan J. Jr. (Martina) Gonzalez; daughters, Alma Gonzalez, Antonia (Steve) Todd; grandchildren, Juan J. Gonzalez III, Devon Todd; brothers, Leopoldo Garza, Pedro Garza; sisters, Guillermina Garza, Cristelia Garza; sister-in-law, Elma G. Garza and by numerous nephews, nieces, other family members and friends.

Visitation hours were held on Tuesday, June 23, 2015, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home.

The funeral procession will depart on Wednesday,

June 24, 2015, at 9:15 a.m. for a 10 a.m. funeral Mass at Nuestra Señora del Refugio in San Ygnacio, Texas.

Committal services will follow at Panteon Del Pueblo in San Ygnacio, Texas.

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home Daniel A. Gonzalez, funeral director, 2102 N. U.S. Hwy 83 Zapata, Texas.

JOSE DE JESUS "CHUY" REYES July 3, 1943 – June 19, 2015 Jose De Jesus "Chuy" Reyes, 71, passed away on Friday, June 19, 2015 at his residence in Zapata.

Mr. Reyes is preceded in death by his daughter, Almager Reyes, and his parents, Domingo and Josefa Reyes.

Mr. Reyes is survived by his wife, Sylvia Reyes; son, Jose De Jesus Jr. (Ludivina) Reyes; daughters, Alma Rosa (Hans) Schutz and Gaby Reyes; grandchildren, Jonathan Schutz, Jose De Jesus Reyes III, Mia Marie Reyes; brothers, Alberto (Socorro) Reyes, Juan (Angela) Reyes; sisters, Francisca R. Hernandez, Edna Alicia (Arturo) Gonzalez, Elia Reyes, Dolores (Miguel) Gutierrez and by numerous cousins, nephews, nieces, other family members and friends.

Visitation hours were held on Monday, June 22, 2015, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home.

Burial was held on Tuesday, June 23, 2015 at 11:30 a.m. at Zapata County Cemetery.

Funeral arrangements were under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home Daniel A. Gonzalez, funeral director, 2102 N. U.S. Hwy 83 Zapata, Texas.

PARTY Continued from Page 1A Senate is run by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a former, often fire-breathing conservative talk radio host.

About a third of the 31 senators are strong tea party voices, while nearly 25 of the Texas House’s 150 members are conservative grass-roots favorites.

But except for limiting government and slashing state spending, the groups often don’t agree on much. And their agendas sometimes compete with each other.

While some tea party leaders focus on strengthening Texas’ ban on gay marriage, tightening immigration policies or fending off the potential imposition of Sharia law, others see a greater threat in mandatory vaccines, red light cameras or smart electrical meters. Still others place a high priority on gun and private property rights.

“Everyone always likes to think that we’re topdown, but we’re not,” said Robin Lennon, president of the Kingwood TEA Party in suburban Houston.

During the nearly fivemonth legislative session, tea party members had some victories. Lawmakers legalized concealed handguns on college campuses and approved allowing handguns to be openly carried virtually everywhere else.

But unhappiness grew after other issues fizzled.

Rep. Dan Flynn’s bill exempting Texas from daylight saving time was sidelined amid concerns that refusing to roll back the clocks could leave Texans choosing between church and watching Dallas Cowboys games on fall Sundays.

Also dropped was Sen. Donna Campbell’s proposal banning the Alamo from falling under the control of the United Nations.

The backlash was greatest over lawmakers’ failure to repeal Texas’ 2001 law offering in-state tuition to some college students in the country illegally, to pass school vouchers or block an expansion of pre-kindergarten programs “We’re making our voices very clearly heard,” said Cathie Adams, a former Texas Republican Party chairwoman who now heads the influential Texas Eagle Forum conservative grassroots group. “But they’re ignoring us.”

Patrick, one of the most powerful tea party politicians in elective office, along with Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas House Speaker Joe Straus were targets of a scathing letter signed by 28 conservative activists

decrying “excuses rather than results” on too many issues.

Patrick countered that sometimes the legislative process can be slow-moving. Also, Democrats and skeptical Republicans teamed up to thwart some proposals, such as the tuition repeal.

“It’s hard to make everyone happy all the time,” he said. Considering the many issues, Patrick said, “if you took a list of 25 or 30, we did very well. Some 100 percent, some 80 percent.”

At one point, top staff members in Patrick’s office had to meet with alarmed gun rights activists after he suggested that “open carry” might not have the votes to pass. Later, one of them posted an online video reminding state lawmakers that “treason is punishable by death.” Open carry of handguns was eventually approved.

Katrina Pierson, who mounted an unsuccessful tea party bid for Congress last year, said group members will settle for “90-10 or 80-20” percent ideological purity by lawmakers they support. But she said that now “it’s barely 5050.”

Abbott works to keep good tea party relations.

He punctuates his tweets with tea party hashtags and even ordered the Texas State Guard to be on alert amid warnings from far-right corners of the Internet that a planned U.S. military exercise in Texas could be an excuse for a federally imposed martial law.

But some former tea party darlings face repercussions for straying from the party line.

Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, a longtime tea party organizer in suburban Dallas, voted to reelect as House Speaker Straus, a San Antonio Republican whom conservative activists consider too moderate.

“He slapped us in the face,” said Julie McCarty, president of the NE Tarrant Tea Party, which is recruiting a primary challenger to run against Capriglione.

Then there’s Rep. David Simpson, owner of an East Texas timber company and religious publishing house, who became a tea party hero in 2011 for his attempts to criminalize “excessive touching” during airport security pat-downs. He’s now running for state Senate but acknowledges he risked a challenge by arguing for legalizing marijuana, saying it’s God’s creation.

“I think there’s some who will never vote for me again,” Simpson said.

Facebook now worth more than Wal-Mart on market

By BARBARA ORTUTAY ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — Facebook is now bigger than Wal-Mart, at least when it comes to its value on the stock market.

The world’s biggest online social network knocked the world’s largest retailer out of the top 10 list of the highest-valued companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index on Monday and the gap widened on Tuesday.

While the switch is mostly symbolic — nothing specific happened this week to warrant it, and the difference between the two giants is not that big — it signals investors’ insatiable appetite for successful tech stocks. Apple, Microsoft and Google top the list of the highest-valued companies in the U.S., and Facebook looks to be on its way to joining them.

A company’s market value is calculated by multiplying the number of shares of stock it has in circulation by the current price of one share.

Facebook Inc. was valued at $238 billion at the close of trading Tuesday, according to FactSet. Its stock gained $3.14, or 3.7 percent, at $87.88.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was valued at $234 billion.

Its stock dipped 22 cents to $72.57.

Facebook, which is based in Menlo Park, California, has been on a roll this past year, its shares up about 34 percent in the past year compared with just 8.2 percent for the S&P 500 index. Its quarterly results have consistently surpassed expectations.

Bentonville, Arkansasbased Wal-Mart, meanwhile, asked for investor patience after its most-recent earnings report showed a 7 percent profit decline due to the effects of the strong dollar and higher worker wages and spending on its online operations.

Comparing the two companies’ financial results, though, shows just how much Wall Street is investing in growth and potential — Facebook — versus existing size and might — Wal-Mart. In the first three months of this year, Facebook’s total revenue of $3.54 billion amounted to just a little more than Wal-Mart’s total profit for its fiscal first quarter of $3.34 billion.

But while Facebook saw revenue grow 42 percent in the same period, WalMart’s declined slightly.

That said, none of the nine companies that follow Apple in the top 10 come even close to the mighty iPhone and Mac maker, whose market capitalization is about $735 billion.

12A THE ZAPATA TIMES

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015