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Archivist: IRS didn’t follow law
Few consequences Law, flawed system could allow children to stay By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Agency mum when Lois Lerner’s hard drive failed By EILEEN SULLIVAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service did not follow the law when it failed to report the loss of records belonging to a senior IRS executive, the nation’s top archivist told Congress on Tuesday, in the latest development in the congressional probe of the agency’s targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. In June 2011, IRS executive Lois Lerner’s computer crashed, resulting in the loss of records that are sought in investigations into the agency’s actions. At the time, the agency tried to recover Lerner’s records, but with no success. When it was determined later in the summer of 2011 that the records on the hard drive were gone forever, the IRS should have notified the National Archives and Records Administration, U.S. Archivist David Ferriero told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But Ferriero learned of the lost records on June 13 when the IRS notified Congress. “Any agency is required to notify us when they realize they have a problem,” Ferriero said. Lerner is at the center of the controversy and has refused to answer questions from Congress, citing her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself. In May, the House voted to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress. She retired from the IRS last fall after having been placed on paid leave. In an effort to determine whether the Obama administration had any knowledge or involvement in the activities of the IRS division that reviews applications for tax-exempt status, lawmakers have sought and received thousands of IRS records — none of which has implicated the White House in the controversy. But when it was revealed that some of the emails sought were unrecoverable, Republicans questioned the timing of the hard drive crash, suggesting key records related to the investigation have conveniently gone missing. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has said that he has seen no evidence anyone committed a crime when the agency lost emails. Pressed by a congressman Tuesday, Ferriero would not state that the IRS broke the law. He would only say that the agency didn’t “follow” the law, referring to the Federal Records Act. In a rare evening hearing before the same committee on Monday, Koskinen said there was no evidence that Lerner intentionally destroyed the missing emails. To the contrary, he said, the IRS went to great lengths trying to retrieve lost documents on Lerner’s computer, even sending it to the agency’s forensic lab. Republicans have said the Obama administration has not been cooperative with Con-
See HARD DRIVE PAGE 9A
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Thousands of immigrant children fleeing poverty and violence in Central America to cross alone into the United States can live in American cities, attend public schools and possibly work here for years without consequences. The chief reasons are an overburdened, deeply flawed
system of immigration courts and a 2002 law intended to protect children’s welfare, an Associated Press investigation finds. Driving the dramatic increases in these immigrants is the recognition throughout Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that children who make the dangerous trip can effectively remain in the U.S. for years before facing even a moderate risk of deportation.
The Obama administration estimates it will catch 90,000 children trying to illegally cross the Mexican border without their parents by the end of the current budget year in September. Last year, the government returned fewer than 2,000 children to their native countries. The administration has asked Congress for $2 billion to spend on the issue. “They almost never go
home,” said Gary Mead, who until last year was director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office responsible for finding and removing immigrants living in the country. “It’s not a process that ultimately ends in easy resolutions or clear-cut resolutions.” The situation is widely perceived as becoming a human-
See CHILDREN
PAGE 9A
RECONSTRUCTION SURGERY
REPAIRING A MISTAKE Cancer mistake patched up By BRUCE SCHREINER ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky medical team has painstakingly repaired the disfiguring injuries to a woman’s face, caused by radiation treatments for a cancer she never had that caused a gaping hole in her cheek and made her an outcast in a former Soviet republic. Lessya Kotelevskaya was recovering Tuesday following the 16-hour surgery the day before at University of Louisville Hospital. Her surgeon, Dr. Jarrod Little, said the procedure to reconstruct her jawbone and cheek went according to plan. “Lessya cannot wait to get back to her normal life,” her cousin, Oleg Sennik, told reporters. The 30-year-old’s life spiraled into tragedy when she was diagnosed with terminal jaw cancer at age 19 in Kazakhstan after she was accidentally elbowed in the face at a basketball game and her jaw became swollen. The damage from radiation treatments made it difficult to eat and talk.
Photo by Bruce Schreiner | AP
Dr. Jarrod Little speaks during a news conference Tuesday, in Louisville, Ky, about the 16-hour surgery he performed to repair damage to the face of Lessya Kotelevskaya. Sennik spent years searching for his younger cousin, and when he found her she was a mere 79 pounds and living in the shadows of life in Kazakhstan, where the Ukrainian native had lived since childhood. By the time she found out the cancer diagnosis was wrong, she had lost her husband and their clothing bou-
tique. She scraped by for years with odd jobs at night so people wouldn’t see her. At one point, she lived in the utility room of a car wash. “She was rejected everywhere she went before,” her cousin said. Sennik brought Kotelevskaya and her young son to live with him last year in
Louisville, where they found medical care to turn around her life. The surgery included removing a leg bone that was conformed into a new jawbone, with the skin becoming the new inside covering of her mouth.
See SURGERY
PAGE 9A
ABORTION RIGHTS
Year after filibuster, backer momentum ebbs By WILL WEISSERT ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — One year after a filibuster attracted national attention and gave them a rare but brief Texas victory, abortion-rights supporters have struggled to recapture momentum in a conservative state where political battles usually don’t go their way. The thousands of orangeclad protesters, who for weeks last summer voiced their opposition to sweeping new abortion restrictions statewide, haven’t mobilized on nearly that scale since. Even Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis, who laced up pink sneakers and
stood on the floor of the Senate chamber for more than 12 hours leading the cause, has pivoted to less-divisive campaign talking points as she seeks to woo voters in her uphill bid for governor. “With every movement you have ebbs and flows and peaks and valleys. We’re kind of in a valley now,” said Tiffani Bishop, co-state lead organizer for GetEqual Texas, a gay rights group among the dozens of organizations that mobilized abortion-rights demonstrators last summer. The abortion law later was passed overwhelmingly. Bishop said if there was another filibuster, protesters would return in even great-
er numbers — but since there hasn’t been a subsequent unifying force, “all that momentum has shifted.” Still, that frantic Tuesday night wasn’t all about the filibuster. With the midnight deadline looming on June 25, 2013, Davis’ political soliloquy had been stopped and a law authorizing the restrictions was about to pass when Democratic Sen. Leticia Van de Putte jockeyed with other lawmakers to be heard. “At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over the male col-
See ABORTION RIGHTS
PAGE 9A
Photo by Eric Gay/file |AP
Members of the gallery cheer and chant June 26, 2013, as the Texas Senate tries to bring an abortion bill to a vote as time expires in Austin.
PAGE 2A
Zin brief CALENDAR
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014
AROUND TEXAS
TODAY IN HISTORY
Thursday, June 26
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Grief support group. Noon to 1:30 p.m. First United Methodist Church, 1220 McClelland Ave. Free and open to public. Contact Patricia Cisneros at 722-1674 or pcisneros@mhm.org. Los Amigos Duplicate Bridge Club. 1:14 p.m. to 5 p.m. Laredo Country Club. Call Beverly Cantu at 7270589. Cow Appreciation Day. 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Chick-fil-A North Laredo (Loop 20). Make your own cow costume with supplies provided. TAMIU Planetarium shows. “The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket” 2 p.m.; “Earth, Moon and Sun” 3 p.m.; “Wonders of the Universe” 4 p.m.; and “Destination Saturn” 5 p.m. Admission $4 children and $5 adults. Premium shows $1 more. Call 326-3663. Spanish Book Club meeting. 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Laredo Public Library. Call Sylvia Reash at 763-1810.
Friday, June 27 Live Star Show. 8 p.m. TAMIU Planetarium. $3 admission. Call 3263663.
Saturday, June 28 Voz de Niños training. 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. 902 E. Calton Road. Free. Topics assist in volunteering with foster youth and prepare individuals to be Court Appointed Special Advocates. Must be 21 or older; clear background. TAMIU Planetarium shows. “The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket” 2 p.m.; “Earth, Moon and Sun” 3 p.m.; “Wonders of the Universe” 4 p.m.; and “Pink Floyd’s The Wall” 5 p.m. General admission $4 children and $5 adults. Premium shows $1 more. Call 3263663.
Monday, June 30 Monthly meeting of Laredo Parkinson’s Disease Support Group. 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Laredo Medical Center, Tower B, First Floor Community Center. Patients, caregivers and family members invited. Free info pamphlets available in Spanish and English. Call Richard Renner (English) at 645-8649 or Juan Gonzalez (Spanish) at 2370666.
Photo by Pat Sullivan/file | AP
A sea of stacks, pipes and storage tanks are amassed along the Houston ship channel in Houston, on Feb. 25, 2010. The Supreme Court on Monday largely upheld the EPA’s efforts to control greenhouse gases from power plants, refineries and factories — an important affirmation of the Obama administration’s climate agenda.
Court backs EPA rules By MATTHEW TRESAUGUE HOUSTON CHRONICLE
The Supreme Court on Monday largely upheld the EPA’s efforts to control greenhouse gases from power plants, refineries and factories — an important affirmation of the Obama administration’s climate agenda despite concerns raised by Texas and other Republican-led states. The justices, in a split ruling, trimmed some parts of the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules, prohibiting it from requiring limits on carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from sources that would otherwise not need an air pollution permit, such as churches, schools and apartment buildings. All sides of the legal fight claimed victory, including Texas lawmakers who said the high court had held an activist administra-
tion in check. Yet it was clear that the EPA essentially got what it wanted from the 29page ruling — a point that its author, Justice Antonin Scalia, acknowledged from the bench in announcing the decision. The federal agency sought to regulate sources responsible for 86 percent of all greenhouse gases released by stationary sources nationwide. With the court’s ruling, the EPA will be able to control 83 percent of those emissions, Scalia said. Also, it’s unlikely the ruling will directly affect the agency’s new proposal to cut greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants 30 percent by 2030. Industry groups and several states challenged the permitting program, saying the EPA went too far in trying to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
Tuesday, July 1 Monthly meeting of Les Amies Birthday Club. 11:30 a.m. Holiday Inn Civic Center. Hostesses are Lydia Linares, Alicia S. Zuñiga and Luisa Peña. Individuals will be honored. “The Calling” series of Bible talks. 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Laredo Church of Christ Chapel, 1505 Calle del Norte, Suite 340. Contact Miguel Zuñiga at 286-9631 or mglzuñiga@yahoo.com. Alzheimer’s support group. 7 p.m. Laredo Medical Center, building B, meeting room 2. For family members and caregivers.
Thursday, July 3 Grief support group. Noon to 1:30 p.m. First United Methodist Church, 1220 McClelland Ave. Free and open to public. Contact Patricia Cisneros at 722-1674 or pcisneros@mhm.org.
Saturday, July 5 Used book sale, hosted by First United Methodist Church. 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hardback books are $1, paperback books 50 cents, and magazines and children’s books 25 cents.
Laredo gun dealer gets prison, loses license
Man gets nearly 6 years for passing bogus cash
Videotaped: Police officer saves woman from train
LAREDO — A federal judge has sentenced a gun store owner to five years in prison for smuggling ammunition to Mexico. Robert Jacaman Sr. also surrendered his license to sell firearms by virtue of his felony guilty plea. The 60-year-old owner of Jacaman Guns and Ammo in Laredo admitted to conspiring with others to smuggle weapons and ammo into Mexico.
TYLER — A North Texas man who meticulously made and spent more than $400,000 in fake money has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison. A federal judge in Tyler on Tuesday sentenced 58-year-old Cloyd Ray Knight III of Arlington in a case involving bogus $100 bills.
RICHMOND — A Houston-area police officer has been praised as a hero for dragging a woman off some railroad tracks just moments before a train rushes by. Richmond police say the actions of Officer Ramon Morales were videotaped by a camera in his patrol car.
Man pleads to robbing Corpus Christi bank
Medical chopper loses power, lands in field
CORPUS CHRISTI — A South Texas man blamed for three bank robberies this year has pleaded guilty to one holdup in which he fled on a bicycle. A federal judge in Corpus Christi on Tuesday accepted the plea from 35-year-old Robert Perez Jr. of Corpus Christi. Perez pleaded guilty to bank robbery by force or violence in the Jan. 8 robbery of Kleberg Bank in Corpus Christi.
LEARY — A medical helicopter transporting an Oklahoma traffic accident victim lost power and made an emergency landing in a Northeast Texas soybean field. The Department of Public Safety says nobody was hurt in Monday’s landing near Leary, just west of Texarkana. Cpl. Heath Bell says the EagleMed helicopter apparently had mechanical failure. — Compiled from AP reports
More than 50 dogs killed in Dallas house fire DALLAS — Fire officials say more than 50 dogs living in a single-story Dallas home were killed in an early-morning fire. Authorities believe more than 70 canines were in the home when the fire began shortly before 4 a.m. Tuesday. Many of the rescued dogs were given oxygen by first-responders.
Tuesday, July 8 “The Calling” series of Bible talks. 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Laredo Church of Christ Chapel, 1505 Calle del Norte, Suite 340. Contact Miguel Zuñiga at 286-9631 or mglzuñiga@yahoo.com.
Thursday, July 10 Grief support group. Noon to 1:30 p.m. First United Methodist Church, 1220 McClelland Ave. Free and open to public. Contact Patricia Cisneros at 722-1674 or pcisneros@mhm.org.
Friday, July 11 Free Chick-fil-A at Chick-fil-A North Laredo (Loop 20). Visit the restaurant and dress up like a cow July 11 from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. to get free food. 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 Judge: No-fly list violates constitutional rights PORTLAND, Ore. — The U.S. government offers no adequate method for people to challenge their placement on its no-fly list, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in a case involving 13 Muslims who believe they’re on the list. U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown found people lack a way to challenge their placement on the list, and the 13 people who sued the government have been unconstitutionally deprived of their right to fly. “This should serve as wakeup call to the government,” said American Civil Liberties Union attorney Hina Shamsi. “This decision also benefits other people wrongly stuck on the no-fly list.”
AP sources: Christie facing 2nd bridge probe NEWARK, N.J. — Gov. Chris Christie’s administration is fac-
Today is Wednesday, June 25, the 176th day of 2014. There are 189 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On June 25, 2009, death claimed Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop,” in Los Angeles at age 50 and actress Farrah Fawcett in Santa Monica, California, at age 62. On this date: In 1788, Virginia ratified the U.S. Constitution. In 1876, Lt. Col. Colonel George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry were wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana. In 1888, the Republican National Convention, meeting in Chicago, nominated Benjamin Harrison for the presidency. (Harrison went on to win the election, defeating President Grover Cleveland.) In 1910, President William Howard Taft signed the WhiteSlave Traffic Act, more popularly known as the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines for “immoral” purposes. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was enacted. In 1943, Congress passed, over President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s veto, the SmithConnally Anti-Strike Act, which allowed the federal government to seize and operate privately owned war plants facing labor strikes. In 1950, war broke out in Korea as forces from the communist North invaded the South. In 1973, former White House Counsel John W. Dean began testifying before the Senate Watergate Committee, implicating top administration officials, including President Richard Nixon as well as himself, in the Watergate scandal and cover-up. In 1984, the Prince and the Revolution soundtrack album “Purple Rain” was released by Warner Bros. Records. In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a line-item veto law as unconstitutional, and ruled that HIV-infected people are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Today’s Birthdays: Actress June Lockhart is 89. Civil rights activist James Meredith is 81. Rhythm-and-blues singer Eddie Floyd is 77. Actress Barbara Montgomery is 75. Actress Mary Beth Peil (peel) is 74. Basketball Hall-ofFamer Willis Reed is 72. Singer Carly Simon is 69. Rock musician Ian McDonald (Foreigner; King Crimson) is 68. Actorcomedian Jimmie Walker is 67. Actor-director Michael Lembeck is 66. TV personality Phyllis George is 65. Rock singer Tim Finn is 62. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is 60. Rock musician David Paich (Toto) is 60. Actor Michael Sabatino is 59. Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain is 58. Actor-writer-director Ricky Gervais is 53. Actor John Benjamin Hickey is 51. Rock singer George Michael is 51. Actress Erica Gimpel is 50. Retired NBA All-Star Dikembe Mutombo is 48. Rapper-producer Richie Rich is 47. Rapper Candyman is 46. Contemporary Christian musician Sean Kelly (Sixpence None the Richer) is 43. Actress Angela Kinsey is 43. Thought for Today: “Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.” — Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet-author (18751926).
CONTACT US Publisher, William B. Green........................728-2501 Account Executive, Dora Martinez ...... (956) 765-5113 General Manager, Adriana Devally ...............728-2510 Adv. Billing Inquiries ................................. 728-2531 Circulation Director ................................. 728-2559 MIS Director, Michael Castillo.................... 728-2505 Managing Editor, Nick Georgiou ................. 728-2565 Sports Editor, Zach Davis ..........................728-2578 Spanish Editor, Melva Lavin-Castillo............ 728-2569 Photo by Michael Conroy | AP
Mailboxes lay in the street in front of a home damaged by a storm in Indianapolis, on Tuesday. The National Weather Service said the tornado struck Tuesday afternoon just southwest of Indianapolis but was no longer on the ground. ing an investigation into how it paid for a $1 billion repair of a New Jersey bridge. An official said the investigation deals with whether funding for repairs was misrepresented in bond documents by the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey. The Manhattan district attorney’s office and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating whether the possible misrepresentations amount to securities law violations. — Compiled from AP reports
SUBSCRIPTIONS/DELIVERY (956) 728-2555 The Zapata Times is distributed on Saturdays to 4,000 households in Zapata County. For subscribers of the Laredo Morning Times and for those who buy the Laredo Morning Times at newsstands, the Zapata Times is inserted. The Zapata Times is free. The Zapata Times is published by the Laredo Morning Times, a division of The Hearst Corporation, P.O. Box 2129, Laredo, Texas 78044. Phone (956) 728-2500. The Zapata office is at 1309 N. U.S. Hwy. 83 at 14th Avenue, Suite 2, Zapata, TX 78076. Call (956) 765-5113 or e-mail thezapatatimes.net
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A
Drought eyes North Texas Wichita Falls authorities face expensive programs to keep water flowing to 150,000-plus area residents as reservoirs could run dry by mid-2016 By EMILY SCHMALL ASSOCIATED PRESS
WICHITA FALLS — A North Texas city experiencing its worst drought on record may face a decade or longer of persistent hot, dry weather, state and federal climatologists warned at a public forum Tuesday. Wichita Falls, about 110 miles northwest of Fort Worth, will likely need to undertake costly programs to retrieve or treat water as its reservoirs fall to dangerous lows, the experts said. The forum, among a half dozen gatherings organized by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration across the U.S. Southern Plains, focused on preservation efforts, climate forecasts and financial assistance available to those whose businesses have suffered from a lack of water. Drinking water supplies for about 150,000 users around Wichita Falls have fallen precipitously from nearly 90 percent capacity before the drought began in late 2010 to less than a quarter of capacity, according to the Texas Water Development Board. The city has banned irrigation, attempted to increase rainfall with cloud seeding and is now awaiting approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which regulates public water sources, for a toilet-to-tap reuse program. Still, the city’s reservoirs are on a trajectory to run dry by August 2016. TCEQ officials have not made a final decision on the city’s proposal. The current drought is the second-worst in Texas after the historic 1950s Dust Bowl, according to the state’s climatologist, John
RURAL ECONOMY
Farmers, ranchers get USDA support SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Photo by Torin Halsey/Wichita Falls Times Record News | AP
Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon does a presentation at the Drought Outlook and Assessment Forum on Tuesday in Wichita Falls. Nielsen-Gammon. “This truly is a historic drought,” the intensity of which is seen only every 200 to 400 years in stable climate conditions, NielsenGammon said. NOAA has participated in several drought forums in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Organizers said the Wichita Falls meeting, which attracted about 200 public water resource managers, farmers, ranchers and other stakeholders, was the most well-attended to date. Dental hygienist Sharon Hyde uses buckets to collect rainwater, captures shower water and uses it to
flush toilets and recycles dishwater to water rose bushes. “To see your plants, huge 50-year-old trees die, is just heartbreaking,” Hyde said. Record heat is expected to last through the summer months, but the area may see much-needed precipitation from an El Niño system, a band of warm ocean water temperatures off the Equatorial Pacific that generally bring wetter winters to Texas, said Klaus Wolter of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory. The dire situation is fallout from Texas’ driest year ever in 2011. Since then,
rainfall has been more plentiful in the eastern half of the state. When it fell in the western half of the state, the precipitation didn’t fall into lakes’ watersheds. Conservation by Wichita Falls residents has water usage down by more than half in the past year, said Darron Leiker, the city manager. But that can only go so far. “In the long term, we’re going to have to secure another water source,” Leiker said. “The where is not close and the where is expensive, but we might have to bite the bullet and do it anyway.”
U.S. Agriculture Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden announced Tuesday the implementation of new Farm Bill measures and other policy changes to improve the financial security of new and beginning farmers and ranchers. Harden also unveiled www.USDA.gov/newfarmers, a new website that will provide a centralized resource where beginning farmers and ranchers can explore USDA initiatives. “New and beginning farmers are the future of American agriculture,” Harden said. “The average age of an American farmer is 58 and rising, so we must help new farmers get started if America is going to continue feeding the world and maintain a strong agriculture economy.” USDA’s www.usda.gov/ newfarmers has in depth information for new farmers and ranchers, including how to increase access to land and capital, build new market opportunities, participate in conservation opportunities, select and use the right risk management tools and access USDA education, and technical support programs. These issues have been identified as top priorities by new farmers. The website will also feature case studies about beginning
farmers who have utilized USDA resources to start or expand their operations. Tuesday’s policy announcements in support of beginning farmers and ranchers include: Waiving service fees for new and beginning farmers or ranchers to enroll in the Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) for the 2014 crop year. Eliminating payment reductions under the Conservation Reserve Program for new and beginning farmers which will allow routine, prescribed, and emergency grazing outside the primary nesting season on enrolled land consistent with approved conservation plans. Increasing payment rates to beginning farmers and ranchers under Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program. USDA will also announce additional crop insurance program changes for beginning farmers and ranchers, including discounted premiums, waiver of administrative fees, and other benefits. These policy announcements are made possible through the 2014 Farm Bill, which builds on historic economic gains in rural America over the past five years. For more information, visit www.usda.gov/farmbill.
PAGE 4A
Zopinion
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014
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COLUMN
OTHER VIEWS
Obama does not convey Iraq threat By TRUDY RUBIN THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
When President Obama went on TV last week to outline his response to terrorist advances in Iraq, he missed a chance to do something essential: convey how serious the threat is to the Mideast — and to us. The practical steps he proposed made sense in the short run (although they should have been taken at least a year earlier): Increase U.S. intelligence surveillance of Iraq and Syria; send up to 300 more U.S. military advisers to Iraq to learn what’s really going on; make an intense diplomatic effort to head off a wider sectarian holy war; and position military assets such as ships in the region in case the terrorists move on Baghdad. The president ruled out sending any combat troops — ever — and held off, for now, on air strikes or drone attacks. But Obama failed to make clear to skeptical Americans why they should care about Iraq’s current troubles, or why this crisis is so terrifying to those who know the region. The U.S. public needs to understand why this challenge is so enormous and why U.S. officials must focus, again, on Iraq. So here goes: The current crisis was sparked this month when an al-Qaida offshoot known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) took control of Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul. As the Iraqi army collapsed, ISIS forces moved rapidly toward Baghdad. The group was well known to U.S. officials. Born in Iraq, then decimated by U.S. troops in the 2000s, it reconstituted itself in war-torn Syria last year and conquered the northeastern part of that country. It moved into Fallujah in western Iraq early this year. But its seizure of onethird of Iraq this month marks the first time a radical jihadi group has taken control of a nation-sized swath of territory, erasing borders that had existed since the early 20th century. ISIS has pledged to restore the Islamic caliphate that ended with the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1924. In areas of Syria it controls, ISIS has set up courts and schools and taken control of other government services. Not only does the group control land, it also has the financial and military resources of a state. Once reliant on cash from private donations from rich gulf sheikhs, it increased its wealth through taking control of Syrian oil fields, illegally selling valuable antiquities, and extortion. Now it has added about $400 million seized from Iraqi banks in Mosul. And it has an arsenal of heavy U.S. weaponry taken from Iraqi army depots it captured this month. “This is the biggest challenge to the United States since 9/11,” says Jim Jeffrey, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, in comments typical of
those I’ve heard from many experts. “This is the largest concentration of al-Qaida anywhere, and they are the nastiest.” In fact, ISIS was so extraordinarily violent in Syria that core al-Qaida disavowed the group, worried it would alienate the locals. Some experts argue that the ISIS threat is overrated because it has only 7,000 to 10,000 members and because its advance on Baghdad has stalled. They also say ISIS gains in Iraq depend on cooperation from Sunni tribes that have been alienated by the avidly sectarian rule of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. They predict these tribes will ultimately evict the jihadis. Thus, they claim, no American focus on Iraq is necessary. Such arguments gloss over the depth of the ISIS threat to U.S. interests, and to Iraq. First, ISIS has already attracted thousands of foreign fighters, including at least several hundred Europeans and dozens of Americans, one of whom died as a suicide bomber in Syria. Top U.S. and European intelligence officials worry that some of these trained fighters will be dispatched back to their homelands. Moreover, even if ISIS halts at Baghdad’s gates, the group’s astonishing Iraqi successes will attract more foreign fighters, including Westerners. Second, Maliki has been able to stall ISIS only by relying on extensive help from radical Shiite militias and from Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers. Unless the Iraqi leader can be persuaded to step down or form a national unity government with Sunnis, he is likely to provoke a wider sectarian war in the region that could spread to Lebanon, Jordan, and the gulf. This would threaten untold civilian lives, not to mention U.S. allies and oil. Moreover, if Maliki and Iran hold to their sectarian ways, Iraq’s Sunni tribal leaders will be reluctant to break with ISIS. Radical Shiite militias and Sunni jihadis will stoke the killing. ISIS will revel in a regional holy war that pits Sunnis against Shia, Sunni Saudi Arabia against Shiite Iran. Only intense, U.S.-led regional diplomacy offers a slight chance of averting this grim scenario, by persuading Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraqi factions that sectarianism threatens them all (Iranian officials appear split on this issue). Only U.S. diplomacy, led by Obama, might lead to an Iraqi government of national unity. Only then might there be a chance to roll back ISIS inside Iraq. And if U.S. diplomacy fails, the White House must be positioned to prevent ISIS from threatening U.S. interests, using drones if necessary. But long before then, Obama needs to explain to Americans why Iraq still matters to them. (Contact Trudy Rubin at trubin@phillynews.com)
COLUMN
Idealism becomes realism when love and life collide
“
DAVID BROOKS
A few years ago, I came across an article on a blog that appealed tremendously. It was on a subject that obviously I have a lot to learn about. But it was actually the tone and underlying worldview that was so instructive, not just the substance. The article was called “15 Ways to Stay Married for 15 Years” by Lydia Netzer. The first piece of advice was “Go to bed mad.” Normally couples are told to resolve each dispute before they call it a night. But Netzer writes that sometimes you need to just go to bed. It won’t do any good to stay up late when you’re tired and petulant: “In the morning, eat some pancakes. Everything will seem better, I swear.” Another piece of advice is to brag about your spouse in public and let them overhear you bragging. Later, she tells wives that they should make a husband pact with their friends. “The husband pact says this: I promise to listen to you complain about your husband even in the most dire terms, without it affecting my good opinion of him.
I will agree with your harshest criticism, accept your gloomiest predictions. I will nod and furrow my brow and sigh when you describe him as a hideous ogre. Then when your fight is over and love shines again like a beautiful sunbeam in your life, I promise to forget everything you said and regard him as the most charming of princes once more.” Most advice, whether on love or business or politics, is based on the premise that we can just will ourselves into being rational and good and that the correct path to happiness is a straight line. These writers, in the “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” school, are essentially telling you to turn yourself into a superstar by discipline and then everything will be swell. But Netzer’s piece is nicely based on the premise that we are crooked timber. We are, to varying degrees, foolish, weak and often just plain inexplicable — and always will be. As Kant put it: “Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.” People with a crooked timber mentality tend to see life as full of ironies. Intellectual life is ironic because really smart people often do the dumbest things precisely because they are carried away by their own brilliance. Politics is ironic be-
cause powerful people make themselves vulnerable because they think they can achieve more than they can. Marriage is ironic because you are trying to build a pure relationship out of people who are ramshackle and messy. There’s an awesome incongruity between the purity you glimpse in the love and the fact that he leaves used tissues around the house and it drives you crazy. People with a crooked timber mentality try to find comedy in the mixture of high and low. There’s something fervent in Netzer’s belief in marital loyalty: “You and your spouse are a team of two. It is you against the world. No one else is allowed on the team, and no one else will ever understand the team’s rules.” Yet the piece is written with a wry appreciation of human foibles. If you have to complain about your husband’s latest outrage to somebody’s mother, she writes, complain to his mother, not to yours. “His mother will forgive him. Yours never will.” People with a crooked timber mentality try to adopt an attitude of bemused affection. A person with this attitude finds the annoying endearing and the silly adorable. Such a person tries to remember that we each seem more virtuous from our own vantage point than from anybody
else’s. People with a crooked timber mentality are antiperfectionist. When two people are working together there are bound to be different views, and sometimes you can’t find a solution so you have to settle for an arrangement. You have to design structures that have a lot of give, for when people screw up. You have to satisfice, which is Herbert Simon’s term for any option that is not optimal but happens to work well enough. Great and small enterprises often have two births: first in purity, then in maturity. The idealism of the Declaration of Independence gave way to the coldeyed balances of the Constitution. Love starts in passion and ends in car pools. The beauty of the first birth comes from the lofty hopes, but the beauty of the second birth comes when people begin to love frailty. (Have you noticed that people from ugly places love their cities more tenaciously than people from beautiful cities?) The mature people one meets often have this crooked timber view, having learned from experience the intransigence of imperfection and how to make a friend of every stupid stumble. As Thornton Wilder once put it, “In love’s service only wounded soldiers can serve.”
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Nation
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014
THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A
NTSB faults pilot ‘mismanagement’ in crash By JOAN LOWY AND MARTHA MENDOZA ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Mismanagement by the pilots of Asiana Flight 214, including confusion over whether one of the airliner’s key controls was maintaining airspeed, caused the plane to crash while landing in San Francisco last year, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded Tuesday. But the board also took the unusual step of faulting the complexity of the Boeing 777’s autothrottle, as well as materials provided by the aircraft maker that fail to make clear under what conditions the automated system doesn’t automatically maintain speed, saying they contributed to the accident. The 777 has been in service 18 years and is one of the world’s most popular wide-bodied airliners, especially for international travel. Until last year’s accident, it had not been involved in a single fatal crash. The board’s acting chairman, Chris Hart, warned that the accident underscores a problem that has long troubled aviation regulators around the globe — that increasingly complicated automated aircraft controls designed to improve safety are also creating new opportunities for error. The Asiana flight crew “over-relied on automated systems that they did not fully understand,”
Photo by Evan Vucci | AP
National Transportation Safety Board lead investigator Bill English, right, talks with investigator Roger Cox during an NTSB hearing in Washington, on Tuesday, to establish the cause of Asiana Flight 214 airlines crash in San Francisco. Hart said. “In their efforts to compensate for the unreliability of human performance, the designers of automated control systems have unwittingly created opportunities for new error types that can be even more serious than those they were seeking to avoid,” he said. The South Korea-based airline’s pilot training also was faulted.
Boeing immediately rejected the notion that the 777s automated systems contributed to the accident, pointing to the aircraft’s safety record. “The auto-flight system has been used successfully for over 200 million flight hours across several airplane models, and for more than 55 million safe landings,” the company said in a statement.
“The evidence collected during this investigation demonstrates that all of the airplane’s systems performed as designed.” The board didn’t say that the autothrottle failed to perform as designed. But rather that its design, under certain circumstances, could lead to confusion as to whether it was controlling speed or in an inactive state.
The safety board “did the right thing,” said Ilyas Akbari, a Los Angeles attorney representing 16 of Flight 214’s passengers. “It took courage to call out Boeing because it’s an American manufacturer” and one of the nation’s largest employers and exporters. But most of the fault lies with Asiana and its pilots, Akbari said. Investigators said the flight’s three veteran pilots made 20 to 30 different errors, some minor and others significant, during the landing approach on July 6, 2013. Among the errors were that pilots didn’t follow company procedures on calling out notifications about the plane’s altitude, speed and actions they were taking during the landing approach. They also weren’t closely monitoring the plane’s airspeed — a fundamental of flying. Instead, they assumed the autothrottle was maintaining the speed for a safe landing. But the captain flying the plane, Lee Kang Kuk, 45, who was new to the 777, deactivated the autothrottle, putting it into a hold mode. A training captain who was sitting next to Kuk in the right seat didn’t notice the error, and then compounded it by turning off only one of two other key systems for managing the flight. Both systems are supposed to be on or off, but not one on and one off. A third pilot riding in the jump seat noticed the plane was descending too fast but didn’t speak up right away.
House, Senate start talks on vets compromise By DAVID ESPO ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — House and Senate negotiators opened compromise talks Tuesday on legislation to expand health care for veterans, hoping for a quick response to a scandal that has uncovered long wait times, false recordkeeping and accusations of criminal activity at the Department of Veterans Affairs. At their core, the bills passed by the House and Senate would allow millions of former members of
the armed forces to seek health care outside the government’s veterans system if they were unable to get a timely appointment inside it. “The simple truth of the matter is that the VA needs more doctors, more nurses, more mental health providers, and, in certain parts of the country, more space for a growing patient population,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who chairs the Senate veterans committee. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., and chairman of the House panel, noted the deaths re-
ported among veterans awaiting care in Phoenix, Ariz., and said that for them, “our work begins too late. For veterans still waiting, our work begins” none too soon. The lawmakers met one day after the latest indication of a federal agency in deep trouble. In a letter to President Barack Obama, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said the agency shows a “troubling pattern of deficient patient care” and also pays little attention to reports from its own whistleblowers. The scandal — which
cost former secretary Eric Shinseki his job — erupted this spring with reports — as yet unproven — that a delay in care at the agency’s facility in Phoenix, Ariz., contributed to the deaths of about 35 veterans. It quickly mushroomed when a VA report concluded that about 1,700 veterans in need of care were “at risk of being lost or forgotten” at the center after being kept off an official, electronic waiting list. Then came reports of problems at numerous facilities around the country, including widespread reports of
records falsified to make it look like veterans were getting timely appointments even though they were not. In a bow to the political influence of veterans, the House and Senate acted with unusual speed to respond, and both houses approved legislation earlier this month. In addition to allowing veterans to seek care outside the VA system, both bills also authorize the agency to sign leases for new facilities, 27 in the House measure and 26 under the Senate bill. Both bills enhance au-
thority of the department’s secretary to fire or demote senior executives, although the Senate-passed measure includes employee protections that the House bill lacks. Both also crack down on bonuses, some of which were used as an incentive for employees to meet patient scheduling guidelines. The House measure bans bonuses at the department through 2016, while the Senate measure blocks them from being awarded based on prompt scheduling of medical appointments.
PÁGINA 6A
Zfrontera
Agenda en Breve ZAPATA 06/25— La Clase 1964 de Zapata High School se reúne esta noche para celebrar los 50 años de haber graduado, en el Steak House. Interesados en asistir a la cena pueden solicitar informes con Dora Martínez al (956) 324-1226 o con Ninfa Gracia al (956) 500-5219.
ROMA 06/27— Cine en el Parque presenta la película ‘Frozen’ de Disney a las 8:30 p.m. en el Roma Municipal Park. Evento gratuito. 06/28— Baile ranchero a beneficio de Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, en terrenos de la iglesia ubicados en El Sauz, Texas, a partir de las 7 p.m. Música a cargo de Country Roland Jr. Costo: 12 dólares, adultos. Niños de 12 años o menores, 2 dólares.
PROSTITUCIÓN INFANTIL
Rescatan a menores POR ERIC TUCKER ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cerca de 170 víctimas del tráfico de menores con índole sexual, muchos de los cuales nunca habían sido reportados como desaparecidos, fueron rescatados la semana pasada como parte de una operación anual a nivel nacional, dijo el Buró Federal de Investigaciones (FBI, por sus siglas en inglés), el lunes. Además de los 168 menores rescatados del tráfico sexual, 281 proxenetas fueron arrestados durante el mismo periodo con cargos tanto estatales como federales. “No son menores lejanos en tierras lejanas”, dijo el director del FBI, James Comey, en el anuncio de la operación anual conocida como Operation Cross Country. “Ellos son niños estadounidenses”. Esta es la octava ocasión en que se efectúa la operación de una semana, que este año se desplegó en
106 ciudades. El FBI dijo, hasta el momento, cerca de 3.600 menores han sido recuperados de las calles. “No hay trabajo más significativo que el que el FBI participe en el rescate de los menores”, dijo Comey. Las operaciones están diseñadas para rescatar a los menores que son objeto de trata en las esquinas, en las paradas de camiones y, cada vez más, a través de Internet. Entre las ciudades que participaron en el operativo estuvieron Austin y San Antonio donde seis niños fueron recuperados, tres en cada área, quienes estaban siendo víctimas de prostitución. Además, tres proxenetas fueron arrestados, uno en San Antonio y dos en Austin, con cargos estatales y federales. Un desafío, dijeron las autoridades, es que muchos de los niños que se recuperaron nunca fueron reportados como desaparecidos en
LAREDO 06/25— El Programa de Nutrición Infantil de LISD invita al Show de Marionetas a las 11:15 a.m. en el Kids CAFÉ, en el Centro Comunitario Larga Vista, 5401 Cisneros. 06/26— Estudiantes de Escuelas Primarias de LISD participarán en el paseo “LISD Globetrotters: Exploring the World One Country at a time” a partir de las 9:30 a.m. en Laredo Center for the Arts, 500 San Agustin. 06/26— El Planetario Lamar Bruni Vergara de TAMIU estará proyectando “Wonders of the Universe” y “Destination Saturn” a partir de las 4 p.m. Costo general: 3 dólares. 06/26— Reunión del Club de Libro en Español, de 6 p.m. a 8 p.m. en la Biblioteca Pública de Laredo, 1120 E. Calton Road. Informes con Sylvia Reash en el 763-1810. 06/26— Cena de Premios Imagine, por parte del Imaginarium of South Texas, a las 6:30 p.m. en Laredo Country Club. Serán homenajeados Fasken Oil and Ranch, Frank Architects Inc, y el artista Armando Hinojosa. Informes con Sandra Cavazos al 728-0404. 06/26— Chick-Fil-ANorte invita a disfrutar el Día de Agradecimiento a la Vaca, por lo cual se le invita a construir su propio disfraz de vaca, de 6:30 p.m. a 8:30 p.m. en Chick-Fil-ANorth, mientras haya material disponible. Evento gratuito. 06/27— El Planetario Lamar Bruni Vergara de TAMIU estará proyectando “The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket” (El Secreto del Cohete de Cartón), a las 2 p.m.; “Earth, Moon and Sun” (Tierra, Luna y Sol) a las 3 p.m.; “Wonders of the Universe” (Maravillas del Universo), a las 4 p.m.; “Destination Saturn” (Destino Saturno), a las 5 p.m. Costo: 3 dólares niños y 4 dólares adultos. 06/28— Se Presentará el “Annual Fishing Derby”, a partir de las 7 a.m. en el Lago Casa Blanca. Admisión es gratuita. Habrá trofeos para los tres primeros lugares.
NUEVO LAREDO, MX 06/25— Estará en exhibición la exposición fotográfica “Aves de Tamaulipas”, en la Galería de Arte Visual dentro del Centro Cultural, a partir de las 7 p.m. 06/26— Charla sobre el libro “Crónicas de una muerte anunciada”, del escritor Gabriel García Márquez en Estación Palabra, a las 7 p.m. Evento gratuito. 06/27— Se presentará un concierto con Héctor Gamaliel, a las 7 p.m. en la Sala Sergio Peña. Evento gratuito.
MIÉRCOLES 25 DE JUNIO DE 2014
el primer lugar — por los padres, tutores y en todo sistema de bienestar infantil, diseñado para protegerlos.
Preocupante “Nadie ha reportado que están desaparecidos. Por lo tanto, nadie los está buscando”, dijo John Ryan, director ejecutivo del Centro Nacional para Niños Desaparecidos y Explotados. “Pero sin operaciones de este tipo, probablemente nunca se habrían encontrado a estos niños”. Dijo que se necesitan mejores leyes para requerir el servicio de bienestar infantiles para que se reporte a los menores desaparecidos. En este momento, dijo, sólo dos estados tienen leyes que exigen a los organismos reportar la desaparición de niños en su cuidado. “No podemos encontrarlos si na-
die informa de su desaparición”, dijo. A la fecha, a través de esfuerzos nacionales, el FBI y sus fuerzas especiales han recuperado más de 3.400 menores que han sido explotados. Las investigaciones y los subsecuentes 1.450 acusados han dado lugar a largas condenas, incluidas 14 cadenas perpetuas. Operation Cross Country es parte de Innocence Lost National Initiative (Iniciativa Nacional Inocencia Perdida), que fue establecida en 2003 por la División de Aplicación de la Ley del FBI, en colaboración con el Departamento de Justicia y el Centro Nacional de Menores Perdidos y Explotados (NCMEC, por sus siglas en inglés), para enfrentar el creciente problema de menores siendo prostituidos. (Con información proporcionada por la Oficina del FBI de San Antonio)
ROMA, TX
SEGURIDAD
PROTEGER Y SERVIR
Enlistan logros de estrategia TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Foto de cortesía | Ciudad de Roma, Texas
El pasado 18 de junio Noe C. Flores Jr. tomó posesión de su nuevo cargo como oficial de policía de la Ciudad de Roma, Texas. En la imagen se le observa realizando su juramentó ante el alcalde de esta ciudad, Freddy Guerra.
Nueva estrategia para salvaguardar la seguridad en el estado fronterizo de Tamaulipas comienza a dar resultados en el combate a la inseguridad, indica Gobernador de Tamaulipas. Durante la sesión ordinaria del Grupo de Coordinación Tamaulipas, realizada el lunes, Egidio Torre, Gobernador de Tamaulipas, señaló que la coordinación entre las fuerzas de seguridad del estado y federales han logrado realizar operativos exitosos durante los últimos días. De igual manera señaló los resultados de las acciones efectuadas. Se capturó a Juan Manuel Rodríguez Rodríguez y Ricardo Iván Santillán Trejo, dos delincuentes buscados en el estado, durante operativos realizados en Reynosa y El Mante, Tamaulipas, México, respectivamente. Asimismo se rescató a un total de 18 inmigrantes en Altamira, Tamaulipas, México, que habían sido privados de su libertad. Se detuvo a cuatro sospechosos, dos de ellos menores de edad. Fue el 21 de junio, que elementos de la Policía Estatal Acreditable detuvieron a 23 integrantes de una probable red de halcones, pertenecientes a un grupo delincuencial que supuestamente opera en Victoria, Tamaulipas, México. Para finalizar Torre Cantú precisó que los resultados obtenidos en las primeras cinco semanas de aplicarse la nueva fase de combate a la inseguridad, son positivos y que las acciones seguirán beneficiando a la comunidad del estado fronterizo.
TAMAULIPAS
COLUMNA
Operativo arroja arresto de once
Posee doble talento
TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Once presuntos responsables de diversos delitos fueron detenidos por personal militar de la Coordinación Federal Zona Centro de Tamaulipas, durante el fin de semana en la capital, Ciudad Victoria, México. Las acciones llevaron al aseguramiento de 6 millones de pesos y 43.000 dólares en efectivo. También se aseguraron drogas, armas, cargadores, cartuchos útiles y tres vehículos. Un primer operativo se realizó en un domicilio ubicado en el Fraccionamiento Las Palmas. Tres hombres y dos mujeres estaban en posesión de 5.399.030 pesos y 43.600 dólares. Ellos no pudieron justificar la procedencia del efectivo a los militares. Fueron detenidos Alan Abraham Hernández Zúñiga, Juan Alberto Padilla Rodríguez, Rubén Rodríguez Mendoza, Hidalga Muzqui de la Rosa y María de la Luz Alvarez Coronado. Las cinco per-
sonas fueron puestos a disposición de las autoridades correspondientes. El dinero, una pistola automática calibre .9 milímetros, un cargador con nueve cartuchos útiles y un automóvil de reciente modelo también fueron puestos a disposición de las autoridades. Un segundo operativo fue realizado en una casa ubicada a la salida de la carretera Victoria-San Luis Potosí, donde se ubicó a cuatro hombres y dos mujeres en posesión de 689.700 pesos, 5.300 dosis de cocaína, nueve dosis de cocaína en piedra, un arma larga, 146 cartuchos útiles de diferentes calibres, un automóvil de lujo y un trailer de carga. Se detuvo a Juan Carlos Gallego Guerra, Sergio González, Luis Alberto Serna, Gabriel Robles Ruvalcaba, Cecilia Yareli Zúñiga García y Leonor Balcón Martínez. Ellos fueron puestos a disposición de las autoridades correspondientes, al igual que el dinero, drogas, arma, cartuchos y vehículos.
Historiador destaca labor y vida de Juan O’Gorman POR RAUL SINENCIO ESPECIAL TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Describiremos una personalidad, a Juan O’Gorman. Cofundador del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), con enfoque progresista deja huella en las artes plásticas. Sobresale además entre los creadores de la arquitectura del México posrevolucionario. A mediados de 1905 nace O’Gorman en la capital de México, donde fallecería 77 años después. Estudia arquitectura en la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Ya titulado y vuelto docente, concurre a fundar la Escuela de Ingeniería y Arquitectura, que apuntara el posterior nacimiento del IPN. Desarrolla también obra arquitectónica propia. A la par incursiona en la pintura. Su herencia mejor conocida conocida es el mural “La conquista
del aire por el hombre”. Concluido hacia 1937, podemos verlo en los interiores del Aeropuerto Internacional, Benito Juárez, de la Ciudad de México. Síntesis de ambos talentos – arquitectónico y plástico – nos ofrece la Biblioteca Central de la UNAM. O’Gorman diseña la estructura e idea los murales exteriores, hechos con vidrio y piedras autóctonas.
Trayectoria Aún en tiempos estudiantiles, O’Gorman entabló amistad con el muralista Diego Rivera, quien lo encamina por el arte, la cultura y el ideario de la izquierda. Rivera le pide una casa-estudio que se construye en San Ángel de 1931 a 1932, y con esto adquiere prestigio dentro y fuera del país. Narciso Bassols, titular de la Secretaría de Educa-
ción Pública (SEP), le pide entonces dirigir el Departamento de Edificios. O’Gorman acepta la jefatura y aplica el funcionalismo al diseño económico de planteles. Sin embargo, poco dura ahí, pues Bassols abandona la SEP en 1934. El segundo proyecto sí logra abrirse paso. Le asignan un predio al poniente de las avenidas Hidalgo y Álvaro Obregón en la Ciudad de México. Lo que el bosquejo presenta como “escuela primaria”, se convierte en la Escuela Prevocacional e Industrial número 7. Según Juan Manuel Torrea, la estructura se financia “con el remanente de la colecta que a iniciativa de Emilio Portes Gil se hizo […] para ayudar a los damnificados por los ciclones de 1933”. (Con permiso del autor, según reporte en La Razón de Tampico, México)
State
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014
THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A
SEAWEED ON THE BEACH
Finance judge to stay Ruling allows judge to continue with school finance trial By WILL WEISSERT ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN, Texas — A visiting judge ruled late Monday that a colleague can keep presiding over Texas’ long-running school finance trial, blocking state attempts to oust him because of perceived bias. San Antonio-based David Peeples found that fellow state District Judge John Dietz won’t be removed from a sweeping case that first went to trial in October 2012. It grew out of the Legislature cutting $5.4 billion in public education funding the previous year, prompting lawsuits from more than 600 school districts responsible for educating three-quarters of Texas’ 5 million-plus public school students. The office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott asked Dietz to step aside because of what it said was favoritism the judge expressed in emails he and his staff exchanged with school district attorneys. Dietz refused and the matter was assigned to Peeples, who held a hearing last week in Dietz’s Austin courtroom. No witnesses were called and Dietz wasn’t present, but Abbott’s office pointed to messages between March and May which it said proved Dietz was coaching school districts’ lawyers on how to make their case stronger. Attorneys for the school districts countered that Dietz did nothing wrong and that outside communication was common in civil cases, especially complicated ones. “It appears that the parties and the judge had different understandings on whether there would be back and forth discussions between the judge and the
prevailing parties on the issues,” Peeples wrote in a nine-page decision. “Judge Dietz’s understanding was reasonable, and he acted in good faith.” Peeples later added: “This court emphatically rejects any suggestion that Judge Dietz realized and knew that the State” was opposed to the kind of outside communication expressed in the emails but “nevertheless engaged in it, knowing that it was unethical.” The emails in question have not been made in public. Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for Abbott’s office, said after the ruling was issued that, “Despite the decision, we are resolute in our belief that the secret conversations between the judge and individual plaintiffs counsel in the school finance case should be immediately made public.” “It is important for the general public to have the opportunity to determine whether the ultimate decision in the school finance case is made with the objectivity and impartiality that justice requires,” Strickland said. “Failure to do so would undermine confidence in our judicial system and the rule of law.” Abbott’s office did not immediately say if it planned to appeal. Last year, Dietz found that the Legislature’s 2011 cuts violated educational guarantees cemented in the Texas Constitution, ruling that funding was inadequate and unevenly distributed among wealthy and poor parts of the state. But he has yet to issue a final, written ruling that can be appealed. Lawmakers later restored about $3.4 billion to classrooms, and the judge briefly reopened the case in
January to hear evidence on what effect the added funding might have. Still sifting through thousands of pages of witness testimony, evidence and other paperwork related to the case, Dietz had planned to issue a final judgment soon — but had to suspend his work after Abbott’s office sought his removal June 2. School district attorneys had further argued that since Dietz had already ruled once, it shouldn’t be a surprise that his recent emails reinforced the idea that he would rule against the state in his final judgment. Legal battles over school finance are nothing new in Texas — this case is the sixth of its kind since 1984, and Dietz oversaw a similar trial in 2004. Abbott, a Republican, is running for governor and is not arguing the case personally. His Democratic opponent, state Sen. Wendy Davis, claims he’s trying to delay a potentially embarrassing final ruling until after the November election. But the state attorney general’s office argued that judicial impartiality was more important than finishing the case quickly. Rick Gray, an attorney who represents more than 400 school districts, mostly in poorer parts of the state, said Monday night’s decision means Dietz can go immediately back to working on his final ruling. “All that we’ve lost is the time,” Gray said. “It’s three weeks that we didn’t want to lose, but it’s certainly better than losing a year or more, which was what was likely to happen if he were recused.” Gray said Dietz has indicated that when it comes to his final ruling, “He’s clearly way down the road, but I don’t think he’s completed it just yet.”
Photo by Eric Gay | AP
Seaweed accumulates on the beach Tuesday in Port Aransas. Front loading trucks and dump trucks have been used to help remove the seaweed that keeps washing ashore.
Migrant children help US plans processing center in for children in McAllen By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
McALLEN — The U.S. government plans to turn an empty 55,000-square-foot warehouse in South Texas into a processing facility for unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally, according to construction permits. The permits, obtained by The Associated Press Monday through a public records request, reveal plans for four fence-enclosed pods inside a corrugated steel warehouse in McAllen that could eventually accommodate about 1,000 children. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. More than 52,000 unaccompanied minors have been arrested since October after entering the United States illegally, a 99 percent increase over the same period a year earlier. About three-quarters of those children have been arrested in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. U.S. law requires that the
children be processed and transferred to custody of the Health and Human Services Department within 72 hours of their arrest. The wave of children has overwhelmed Border Patrol stations in South Texas that are ill-equipped to house children for an extended period of time, so Homeland Security has been flying planeloads of children to Arizona for processing at a facility in Nogales before sending them to shelters around the country. The new processing facility would be less than a mile from the Rio Grande Valley’s busiest Border Patrol station. Floor plans show rows of cells with unsecured doors on either side of open “interaction/ play” areas. Boys and girls would be separated and portable toilets would be installed. “Minors will be staged here until processing is completed and then they (will be) moved to a different location,” according to a fire protection engineering analysis submitted by the U.S. General Services
Administration. That agency, which provides buildings for government operations, signed a one-year lease for the property. The documents do not indicate when renovations would be complete. City attorney Kevin Pagan said McAllen had expedited the permitting process. Most of the children are from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Many are fleeing widespread gang violence, and some are looking to reunite with parents already in the United States. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson wrote an open letter to Central American parents warning them of the dangers of such a journey and emphasizing that the children could be deported. “The criminal smuggling networks that you pay to deliver your child to the United States have no regard for his or her safety and well-being — to them, your child is a commodity to be exchanged for a payment,” the letter said.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
Sports&Outdoors ZAPATA ATHLETICS: ALL-CITY TEAM
NBA: MIAMI HEAT
A step ahead Runner Garza leads list of standout athletes
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File photo by Alan Diaz | AP
CLARA SANDOVAL OVAL
Zapata has had a banner year in sports thanks to a group of athletes who proved catalysts for their respective teams and led the Hawks deep into the postseason. On an individual level, two made a state appearance. The Zapata Times AllCity team is comprised of 12 athletes, six males and six females. Each week we will reveal two standout athletes, ranging from the football field to the golf course. The All-City list will start with the fall sports and consists largely of seniors, with a few underclassmen in the mix. In boys’ cross country, there was no name bigger than Luis Garza, who made his senior year one of the most memorable seasons of his high school career. Garza is the first honoree in the Zapata Times AllCity team because of a long list of accolades that took him from the roads of Zapata all the way to Austin to conclude his cross country career. Entering his senior year, Garza was regarded as one of the top long-distance runners in the district and region. He placed third overall at last year’s Region IV-3A cross country meet and earned his first trip to state. But one successful season wasn’t enough to satisfy Garza, and he came into the season wanting to start his senior campaign on the right foot. Each week Garza improved on his time, and along the way he picked up plenty of hardware building up to the District 31-3A meet, where he was the favorite to take the individual title. Garza wasted no time in proving he was worthy of those expectations on the course, as he led the Hawks to the District 31-3A cross country title and ran away with the individual district title, with no one near him as he cruised across the finish line. Heading into the Region
LeBron James may be moving on from Miami after three straight NBA Finals appearances and two titles with the Heat.
James becomes a free agent By TIM REYNOLDS ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI — LeBron James is heading back to free agency. James has told the Miami Heat that he is opting out of the final two years of his contract, a person with knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because neither James nor the Heat announced the move. It does not mean James is leaving the Heat — but there’s no guarantee that he’ll be in a Miami uniform next season, either. “There’s no other decision yet,” the person told AP. File photo by Clara Sandoval | Laredo Morning Times
As a senior, Zapata’s Luis Garza made a second trip to the cross country state meet in Austin, where he finished 42nd. He returned to the state capital this spring with the track and field team. IV-3A cross country championships in San Antonio, Garza was the runner to beat since he had one of the top times in the region after a strong district race. But Garza knew a talented field was ready to match him step-for-step on the three-mile course at the National Shooting Complex in the Alamo City. He started with an impressive opening mile and led the entire way, eventually opening up a 13gap on Hidalgo Early College runner Moises Campos, who pushed the pace. Garza kicked it into high gear in the final mile and raced into the Zapata history books when he was crowned the Region IV-3A cross country champion. For the second consecutive year, Garza earned a spot at the Class 3A state cross country state meet at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock. He placed 42nd in the final meet of his high
school career. Garza is the only Zapata athlete to make it to state in the fall and spring semesters. With the track team, he took first at the District 31-3A meet and second at the Region IV-3A meet in Kingsville to earn
a trip to the Class 3A track and field meet in Austin. On Saturday, we will reveal the second Zapata Times All-City athlete, and this female is also no stranger to the state meet. E-mail: sandoval.clara@gmail.com
James addressed the lure of having flexibility last week in his exit interview after the Heat lost to San Antonio in the NBA Finals. “Being able to have flexibility as a professional, anyone, that’s what we all would like,” James said last week. “That’s in any sport, for a football player, a baseball player, a basketball player, to have flexibility and be able to control your future or your present. I have a position to be able to do that. ... There’s a lot of times that you’re not in control of your future as a professional.” James had about $42.7 million remaining on his deal with the Heat.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014
THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A
HARD DRIVE Continued from Page 1A gress’ investigation. “They’ve not only not fully cooperated, they haven’t done a damn thing to help us get to the truth of what really happened,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. “Lois Lerner refuses to tell us the truth, and then all of sudden, ‘Oh my goodness, we lose two years’ worth emails.’ Listen, I grew up in a bar. This doesn’t pass the straight-face test.” Monday night, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, RCalif., subpoenaed White House counsel Jennifer O’Connor to testify about her time at the IRS from May to November 2013. While at the IRS, O’Connor helped the agency gather documents related to the
congressional investigation. On Tuesday, when he questioned O’Connor, Issa called her a “hostile witness.” O’Connor disagreed. “I’m definitely not hostile,” she said. Later in the hearing, Issa said he consulted with another member who is a former prosecutor and the proper term to describe O’Connor was a “non-cooperative witness.” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the White House has been cooperating throughout the investigation. “Our commitment to cooperating with legitimate congressional oversight and in some cases illegitimate congressional over-
SURGERY “It couldn’t have gone any better,” said Little, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon with University of Louisville Physicians. Before the procedure, Kotelevskaya could barely open her mouth and had to patch the hole in her right cheek to keep food and drink from seeping out. Now, she’ll be able to open her jaw without problem, Little said. Kotelevskaya was not incurring expenses for the care. The surgery was described as a $1 million-plus procedure by a UofL Physicians spokeswoman. “She came with no money,” said Little, who donat-
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ed his time. “She didn’t have anything. With this devastating problem ... her insurance status at that point is irrelevant to me. She needs help and we can help her.” Kotelevskaya is expected to remain hospitalized for two to three weeks, Little said. She will likely need “touch up” procedures later, he said. She can also receive dental implants in about six months. The surgeon said Kotelevskaya won’t look completely like she did before the cancer misdiagnosis and radiation. She will have some scarring on her cheek, “but my job is to
ABORTION RIGHTS leagues in the room?” Van de Putte demanded, sending protesters who had packed the Capitol into a frenzy so deafening that work stopped and the clock ran out on the bill. Van de Putte, now running for lieutenant governor, says she still feels the anger that boiled over then. “What I said was out of pure frustration but it wasn’t just the bill, it was, ‘What is it going to take for you guys to listen to us women?” she said. “And even now, people around Texas, even outside Texas, they come up to me and go ‘What’s it going to take?”’ Van De Putte concedes that the issue since hasn’t dominated her campaign or Davis’, but said, “I think people know where we stand.” Heather Frederick, a demonstrator from last summer who is a patient and peer advocate at an abortion clinic and domestic violence center, said “being at the Capitol for such an extended period of time took a lot out of people.” “I think there are those
sight is pretty well documented,” Earnest said. Asked if the House Oversight and Government Reform committee’s investigation was “illegitimate,” Earnest said, “I’m saying that there are legitimate questions that can be raised about the partisan motivation of some of those who are conducting oversight in this circumstance.” The IRS was able to generate 24,000 Lerner emails from the 2009 to 2011 period because she had copied in other IRS employees. Overall, the IRS said it is producing a total of 67,000 emails to and from Lerner, covering the period from 2009 to 2013. The IRS inspector general is investigating the lost emails, Koskinen said.
who are disheartened that such a large group didn’t have more of an effect,” Frederick said. Davis, who became a rising Democratic star and saw her sneakers and (hash)standwithwendy hashtag cause a stir nationally, has now even been accused of flip-flopping. She said in February that she’d support, in most cases, banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy — a key component of the law she stood against. And, while she’s used the filibuster anniversary as a fundraising tool, Davis also now characterizes her actions as about more than just one topic, saying it showed Texans “that their voices matter ... not only on issues of reproductive rights but it matters on so many other issues.” Both Davis and Van De Putte are aware, though, their filibuster roles helped catapult them the top of Texas’ Democratic ticket — just the fifth time in at least the past 20 years that a party has nominated women for both governor and lieu-
make that as least noticeable as possible,” he said. “Everybody has issues; she’s going to have her issues,” he said. “But these are not anything that’s going to keep her from doing anything she wants to do.” Kotelevskaya is in this country on a green card but hopes to become an American citizen, her cousin said. Since arriving in Kentucky, she has started English lessons and got a driver’s license. Her son, now 7, is adjusting well, and she hopes to become a nurse, following in the footsteps of those who cared for her, Sennik said.
Continued from Page 1A tenant governor. None of previous incarnations were elected, however. Davis faces long odds in her race against Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott, and Van De Putte is an underdog against tea party-backed Republican state Sen. Dan Patrick. Some abortion-rights activists say opposition to the law has grown since it was implemented Nov. 1. In addition to banning abortions after 20 weeks, it requires abortion clinics to meet the same standards as hospitalstyle surgical centers and mandates that doctors have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of a clinic. Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Women’s Health, says 21 licensed abortion facilities have closed because of the law, leaving 20 open in America’s second most-populous state. And Heather Busby, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, maintains that last year’s demonstrations “awakened a sleeping giant.”
CHILDREN itarian crisis at the border. The system is now so overwhelmed that children are being housed in Border Patrol facilities ill-equipped to handle them. The government has asked the military to open temporary shelters in Texas, Oklahoma and California. U.S. officials, including the Homeland Security secretary, the White House domestic policy council director and the Customs and Border Protection commissioner have described immigrant families’ concerns about education, jobs and personal safety as driving the rise in border crossings. Only recently have officials acknowledged that perceptions that these children may be allowed to stay or that Congress soon may relax U.S. immigration laws — which is highly unlikely — may also be responsible.
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mother, who had traveled to find work in the United States when he was 4. He was apprehended in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, one of more than 26,000 juveniles apprehended at the border in the 2013 budget year. His lawyer, Victor Cuco, said he spent about a month in government custody before being reunited with his mother in Virginia last summer. The Border Patrol has apprehended more than 52,000 child immigrants traveling on their own since the start of the 2014 budget year in October. Like Antunez and thousands of others, most spend about one month in the custody of the Office of Refugee and Resettlement under the Health and Human Services Department, before they are reunited with parents or other relatives in the United States. There is no requirement that their parents or those
Final decisions by immigration judges can take years, but that supposes immigrants dutifully attend their assigned hearings. Many won’t. As many as one-quarter of the immigrants ordered to show up in court have failed to appear. The AP’s investigation, based on interviews, court records and federal data, found that such perceptions are understandable because of America’s broken system. “That misinformation is causing some people who are in a rather desperate situation to risk their lives to come to the United States border expecting that they’ll be able to stay in this country. That is simply not true,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday. “It’s important for viewers or those consumers of information in Central America to understand that showing up at the border illegally is not a ticket into this,” he said. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson issued an open letter to parents over the weekend, warning them that there are no “free passes” for children entering the country illegally. “The desire to see a child have a better life in the United States is understandable. But the risks of illegal migration by an unaccompanied child to achieve that dream are far too great, and the ‘permisos’ do not exist,” Johnson wrote, using the Spanish word for permission. Elmer Antunez Barahona, 17, left Honduras last year to reunite with his
other relatives were legally allowed into the United States. All the young immigrants who cross the border illegally are subject to deportation eventually. But it’s not a quick process. The immigration court system was backlogged with as many as 30,000 pending cases before the most recent surge. Court delays that already persist for years will grow even longer as the beleaguered system absorbs the cases for the new children immigrants. That will make the risk of speedy deportation even less likely. Antunez lived in the U.S. for nearly nine months before his first court hearing in March. When he appeared again last week in an immigration court in Arlington, Virginia, Antunez was ordered to come back again next year after his lawyer told Judge John M. Bryant that his client will ask the government for asylum. It was the same for many for the teenagers who stood in court for their first hearings. The judge told them, come back next year and try to find a lawyer in the meantime. Cuco, the immigration lawyer, said next year’s hearing will only be the beginning of a process that
will take years longer. Antunez will meet with an asylum officer at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and his case probably will be sent back to court, his lawyer said. As he waits, the high school freshman will focus on school and keep learning English. Six months after his asylum claim is filed, Antunez can apply for a work permit. Final decisions by immigration judges can take years, but that supposes immigrants dutifully attend their assigned hearings. Many won’t. As many as one-quarter of the immigrants ordered to show up in court in recent years have failed to appear, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Justice Department agency that runs immigration courts. “The longer the process goes, the less likely it is that people will return,” said Doris Meissner, a former head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. After years in the United States, immigrants establish roots. Advocates so far have successfully urged President Barack Obama not to immediately deport many young immigrants and those whose only offense is living in the country illegally. Instead, the government has more narrowly targeted people who return to the U.S. after they were deported, people who threaten U.S. national security and public safety and adults who can be subject to expedited deportation that takes hours or days. The recent increase in child immigrants is politically inopportune for Obama, who has pushed Congress to act on long-stalled proposals to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws. The president has made several administrative changes to immigration enforcement, including a program to allow some young immigrants who came to the country before 2007 to avoid deportation and obtain a work permit for two years. Children crossing the border “would not be entitled to a path to citizenship as a result of entering the country now,” said Customs and Border Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske. Republican lawmakers have criticized Obama’s immigration policies and blamed the administration for what Obama has described a humanitarian issue at the border. “Once these minors come to the U.S., they are eligible for an array of benefits. It will be years before their case is heard in court,” said GOP Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
10A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014