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Training camps Authorities seize 20 guns from rural area By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
Mexican authorities said they discovered three training camps used by suspected gunmen in a rural area across the border from Zapata County. The Mexican army said Tuesday they located the camps on kilometer marker 176 of the Nuevo Laredo-Reynosa Highway, which is also known as Carretera Ribereña. Mexico’s attorney general’s office announced it has opened an investigation into the discovery of the camps and the seizure
of 20 firearms from the location. While on patrol, soldiers came across a rural road that led them to the three camps, which were believed to be used for physical training. Soldiers said they also discovered a cooler, where they found the 20 firearms. Troops said they seized 15 assault rifles, one 5.45-caliber rifle and four .223-caliber rifles. An investigation is underway. Investigator Joe E. Baeza, LPD spokesman, said
See CAMPS PAGE 11A
Photo by Eric Gay | AP file
In this Dec. 17, 2014, file photo, oil pump jacks work behind a natural gas flare near Watford City, North Dakota.
Courtesy photo
This photo shows some of the weapons seized by authorities from the training camps found across the border from Zapata County.
Oil slump taking a toll on industry With prices down 50 percent, major companies cutting back By JONATHAN FAHEY ASSOCIATED PRESS
SOUTHEAST TEXAS
ANIMAL SANCTUARY Woman turns cattle ranch into vegan farm By IAN GOODRUM THE FACTS OF BRAZORIA COUNTY
ANGLETON — For generations, Sonnen Ranch has been a place for raising livestock — where animals, though treated humanely, were destined to be used for meat or dairy products. Now, after several rounds of fundraising, the ranch has been transformed into Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, a safe haven for farm animals, allowing the creatures to live out their lives without distress. The sanctuary’s development was the brainchild of Renee King-Sonnen, who moved to the ranch when she and Thomas Sonnen remarried. “I’m a Texas girl through and through, grew up eating barbecue, wearing boots, going to
the rodeo,” King-Sonnen told The Facts of Brazoria County. “Until I moved out here to the ranch, there was no connection to the animals that ended up on my plate. I’d experimented with vegetarianism, raw food diets, but never really called it ‘vegan.’ It all happened as a result of me living here.” Being in the presence of farm animals — and seeing their reaction after calves were sold — was enough to change her mind about her diet and lifestyle, King-Sonnen said. “The cows were so depressed,” she said. “I wasn’t prepared for the way it happened. And every year, it got harder for him to sell the calves, because he didn’t want me to see, wanted to hide it
See SANCTUARY
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NEW YORK — As drivers, shippers and airlines continue to enjoy lower fuel prices, the oil industry is responding to much lower profits with sharp cuts in spending and employment that are hurting economic growth. Low oil and gas prices are good for the overall economy because they reduce costs for consumers and business. U.S. economic growth was higher in the second quarter, and economists say that was partly fueled by consumers spending some of their savings on gasoline at stores and restaurants. But with oil prices down around 50 percent from last year, major oil companies are cutting back, offsetting some of this good news. For instance, Exxon Mobil said Friday it cut spending by $1.54 billion in the second quarter, while Chevron announced it is laying off 1,500 workers. Until about six months ago, booming U.S. oil and gas production was helping the country’s economy grow during a time of economic sluggishness. David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said this week that a $29 billion decline in oil exploration and mining ac-
tivity in the U.S. cut economic growth by 0.7 percent in the second quarter, a sizable chunk for an economy that grew 2.3 percent. Investors also feel the pain. Lower oil profits have an outsized effect on stock markets because the companies are so enormous. Analysts at RBC Capital Markets wrote that when oil prices drop by 10 percent, earnings for the overall S&P 500 fall by 1 percent. Industry layoffs seem to be accelerating. Royal Dutch Shell, while announcing Thursday that profits fell 25 percent in the second quarter, said it would cut its global workforce by 6,500. Chevron’s quarterly profit fell 90 percent and CEO John Watson said the company is reducing its workforce “to reflect lower activity levels going forward.” Layoffs at three of the big oil and gas service companies are near 60,000 after two of them, Halliburton and Baker Hughes, revealed further layoffs in quarterly filings last week. BP CFO Brian Gilvary told investors Thursday that the company has been cutting workers “and I think you’ll see more of that before we get to the end of the
See OIL PAGE 10A
2016 GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
Trump calls for mass deportation of immigrants By JILL COLVIN AND ALICIA A. CALDWELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Tamir Kalifa | New York Times
Donald Trump, the real estate mogul and reality television personality, waves from his motorcade after leaving a news conference in Laredo on July 23. Trump’s trip to this border town to push his anti-immigration cause drew the type of media circus the Republican presidential hopeful craves.
NEW YORK — In one of his first forays into policy as a presidential candidate, Republican Donald Trump calls for the deportation of all 11 million people estimated to be living in the country illegally while allowing the “really good people” to return. It’s a plan Trump offers with few specifics — and one complicated by the messy realities of the nation’s immigration system. Such an effort may be more difficult than Trump realizes because deporting so many people
means finding them first. The government does not know the identities of many of the millions of people who have come into the country illegally or remained after their legally issued visas expired. Locating immigrants who don’t have a legal immigration status has stymied officials for decades. Deporting them all “is impractical and is opposed by a large majority of Americans,” said Clint Bolick, an Arizona lawyer who coauthored a book on immigration policy with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, himself a GOP presidential candidate. During an interview Wednes-
day on CNN, Trump said the “good ones” could return via an “expedited” process and then remain in the country legally. The billionaire businessman and former reality television star has shot to the top of polls in the crowded race for the Republican presidential nomination in large part because of his hardline stance on immigration. “I want to move ‘em out, and we’re going to move ‘em back in and let them be legal,” he told CNN. As for his plans for the “bad
See TRUMP PAGE 10A