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ZAPATA COUNTY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
PUBLIC EDUCATION
Nuques resigns
State ranks Villarreal at lower level
No reason given for leaving his position By JUDITH RAYO THE ZAPATA TIMES
The ZCISD Board of Trustees accepted the resignation of Superintendent Raul Nuques on Monday evening as well as appointed an acting superintendent. Trustees present were Ricardo Ramirez, Manuel Gonzalez, Anselmo Treviño, Dora Martinez, Jose Flores, Diego Gonzalez and Veronica Gonzalez. Nuques was not present when trustees voted 6 to 1
to approve his resignation. Veronica Gonzalez voted against. In an unanimous vote, trustees also appointed Roberto Hein, who serves as a consultant for the district, to serve as acting superintendent. Flores said Hein was a high school principal for eight years. “I’m very happy that he is going to join us,” he said. “We felt we needed somebody respectful to come in at this time.” Nuques’ resignation
HOUSTON HOMICIDE
was effective as of Monday. His contract was set to expire June 2018. After the vote, attorney Juan Cruz read a joint statement by Nuques and trustees in regards to the voluntary separation agreement. “Both the ZCISD Board of Trustees and Mr. Nuques believe that it is in ZCISD’s best interests to allow Mr. Nuques’ resignation to be effective Aug. 10 so that Mr. Nuques can
By JUDITH RAYO LAREDO MORNING TIMES
For a second year in a row, Zapata County Independent School District’s Fidel and Andrea R. Villarreal Elementary School was labeled “improvement required,” according to recently released accountability ratings. “All faculty and staff from Villarreal Elementary, stand up and be
NUQUES See NUQUES
PAGE 11A
proud,” said then-Superintendent Raul Nuques in an email to his colleagues. “I can assure you that you are on the road to excellence.” The district made gains with Zapata Middle School, which was labeled “improvement required” last year. This year, the school was labeled “met standard.” Nuques said the mid-
See SCHOOL PAGE 10A
MINING WASTE
POLLUTED WATERWAYS
Associated Press
David Conley makes his first court appearance Monday, in Houston. He is charged with capital murder in eight deaths.
Kids had been taken from home by state
Jon Austria/The Daily Times | AP
Pete McKay, San Juan County commissioner in Colorado, looks at the site Monday where the Gold King Mine breach occurred, north of Silverton, Colo. Local officials in towns downstream are demanding answers about possible long-term threats to the water supply.
EPA official takes responsibility for the spill By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN AND ELLEN KNICKMEYER ASSOCIATED PRESS
By JUAN A. LOZANO ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON — Six children who were fatally shot in their Houston home along with two adults had been temporarily removed by Child Protective Services from the household in 2013 after allegations of abuse and a lack of supervision. The agency filed a lawsuit in 2013 to remove the children. They were placed in foster care but were later returned to the home. The case was dismissed in 2014. Texas Department of Family and Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins said Tuesday that his agency can’t comment on why the Judge Glenn Devlin dismissed the lawsuit. A spokeswoman for Devlin declined comment. David Conley is charged with capital murder for the deaths Saturday of the six children, along with their mother, Valerie Jackson, who was Conley’s ex-do-
“
There are certain circumstances when we can make entry and … where we can’t. Sometimes the law prohibits that.” SGT. CRAIG CLOPTON
mestic partner, and the woman’s husband. Carlos Sanchez, 40, who lived across the street from the family, recalled once finding the oldest child, 13year-old Nathaniel, after dark on a street in the neighborhood. The teenag-
See HOUSTON
PAGE 11A
Photo by Matt York | AP
Hydrologic Technician Ryan Parker carries a water sample from the San Juan River on Tuesday, in Montezuma Creek, Utah. A spill containing lead and arsenic from an abandoned mine in Silverton, Colo., leaked and eventually flowed into the San Juan River, on Aug. 5. The spill was caused by a team working for the EPA.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Townspeople affected by the millions of gallons of waste spilled from an abandoned gold mine and now flowing through their communities demanded clarity Tuesday about any long-term threats to their water supply. Colorado and New Mexico made disaster declarations for stretches of the Animas and San Juan rivers and the Navajo Nation declared an emergency as the waste spread more than 100 miles downstream, where it will reach Lake Powell in Utah sometime this week. EPA workers accidentally unleashed an estimated 3 million gallons of orangeyellow waste, including high concentrations of arsenic, lead and other potentially toxic heavy metals, while inspecting the longabandoned Gold King mine near Silverton, Colorado, on Aug. 5. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, who plans to tour the damage personal-
ly, said Tuesday in Washington, D.C., that she takes full responsibility for the spill, which she said “pains me to no end.” She said the agency is working around the clock to assess the environmental impact. EPA officials said the shockingly bright plume has already dissipated and that the leading edge of the contamination cannot be seen in the downstream stretches of the San Juan River or Lake Powell. So far, the Bureau of Reclamation has no plans to slow flows on the lower Colorado River, below Lake Powell, where the water is a vital resource for parts of California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Chris Watt, a bureau spokesman in Salt Lake City, said his agency is testing the water at the request of the EPA, and can’t discuss the impact without learning the results. None of this has eased concerns or quelled anger among people in the arid Southwest who depend on this water for their survival.
See MINE LEAK PAGE 11A
PAGE 2A
Zin brief CALENDAR
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015
AROUND TEXAS
TODAY IN HISTORY
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Webb County Heritage Foundation will host a presentation and book-signing on “Border Contraband: A History of Smuggling Across the Rio Grande” by George T. Diaz from 6–8 p.m. at the Villa Antigua Border Heritage Museum, 810 Zaragoza St. Books will be available for purchase. Contact the WCHF at 956-727-0977 or visit www.webbheritage.org or its Facebook page. St. Augustine High School will begin its school year today. The first day of school will be a half-day for students.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 13 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. Health Fair from 1–4 p.m. at Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Speak to health professionals at their booths and learn more about local services that may benefit you. Giveaways available! For more information, contact John Hong at john@laredolibrary.org or 795-2400 x2521. Azteca Economic Development presents a series of small business workshops to help get your business off the ground. Learn Classes are free and in English at the Goodwill on I-35 and Mann Road from 6–8 p.m. Call 726-4462 to register or for more information.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 14 Veterans, their wives and their children are invited to “Salute to Veterans” Day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Unitrade Stadium, 6320 Sinatra Parkway. Call 235-0673. South Texas Blood Bank blood drive from 2–6 p.m., Stat Emergency Center, 2502 NE Bob Bullock Lp. Stat Center will donate $3 to the South Texas Food Bank for every pint collected. Call Salo Otero, South Texas Food Bank, 324-2432.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 16 Laredo Animal Protective Society and Best Friends for Life are holding their first annual rummage sale from 8 a.m.–2 p.m. at 2500 Gonzalez Street. All proceeds will go to the construction of the Cat Village, a freeroaming community for cats and kittens.
MONDAY, AUGUST 17 Beginning of staff development for teachers in the Laredo and United Independent School districts.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 18 “Moving Forward in the Grief Journey.” This workshop provides insight into what can keep one from moving forward. From 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Laredo Public Library Conference Room, 1120 E. Calton Rd. To register or for questions contact 210-757-9425 ext. 1703 or michelle.ramirez@gencure.org. Azteca Economic Development presents a series of small business workshops to help get your business off the ground. Classes are free and in English at the Goodwill on I-35 and Mann Road from 6–8 p.m. Call 7264462 to register or for more information.
Photo by Gabriel Perez | The Texas Tribune
Texas Secretary of State Carlos Cascos speaks at a press conference at the University of Texas at Austin, where officials announced a new partnership with the Japanese government aimed at boosting energy efficiency at data centers.
UT, Japan eye energy By JIM MALEWITZ THE TEXAS TRIBUNE
As people increasingly lean on computers to do their bidding — banking, exchanging messages or sharing too many cat photos — the data generated must live somewhere. That’s why data centers, vast warehouses of digital information, are increasingly cropping up in Texas. But those centers, packed with powerful computers, suck huge amounts of energy from the power grid, costing tech companies millions of dollars in utility bills. Now, the University of Texas at Austin and the Japanese government are combining forces to tackle that problem. University and Japanese officials joined Texas Secretary of State Carlos Cascos on Tuesday to announce a roughly $13 million project aiming to make data centers more
Inmate set to die for Ex-officer charged over killing mom gets reprieve 2013 armored car robbery HUNTSVILLE — A 54-year-old man set to die this week for his mother’s slaying more than 11 years ago has won a reprieve. Tracy Beatty had been scheduled for lethal injection Thursday evening for the death of 62year-old Carolyn Click in November 2003. Beatty recently had been paroled.
2 troopers wounded, suspect dead in shootout ODESSA — One state trooper was shot in the leg and another was grazed in the hand in a shootout at a convenience store that left a male suspect dead. The shooting happened just after 2 p.m. Tuesday. Troopers were helping Texas Rangers serve arrest warrants on a male aggravated assault suspect when the suspect refused. Gunfire erupted, killing the suspect and wounding the two troopers.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 21 South Texas Food Bank Empty Bowls IX fundraiser, 6 p.m. dinner, 8 p.m. concert, Laredo Energy Arena. Concert by Kansas. Table (of 10) sponsorships start at $1,500, on sale from South Texas Food Bank staff 324-2432. Concert tickets $10, $15, $25 available at LEA box office and Ticketmaster.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22 District Attorney Isidro “Chilo” Alaniz and J’s Party Town invite you to a back-to-school supply drive from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at J’s Party Town, 6516 McPherson Rd. Show receipt of school supplies and redeem it towards riding go-karts and paintball.
HOUSTON — A now-former Houston officer has been accused of helping pull off a 2013 armored car robbery by monitoring police radios and later lying about it. Joel Quezada was being held Tuesday pending an initial appearance in federal court. The 33-year-old Quezada faces a charge of extortion under color of official right.
Houston police say body of girl, 9, found in bayou HOUSTON — Police say a 9year-old girl was found dead in a bayou after she wandered out of the family’s apartment. Investigators did not immediately release the name of the child discovered dead Tuesday morning. Authorities say the girl’s family was looking for her when her body was located in White Oak Bayou.
Communal spider web sprawls on trees ROWLETT — A sprawling spider web at a Dallas-area park has attracted thousands of insects and the attention of people curious about arachnids. Officials with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service say the communal web has emerged in Rowlett. Thousands of spiders can be seen darting among the webs that extend up to 40 feet into the trees.
Training at Fort Hood to close some roads FORT HOOD — Some roads in the Fort Hood area will be closed for about two weeks during a training exercise called the Ironhorse Challenge. Officials at the Central Texas post say the closures begin Wednesday. Civilian drivers can expect to see an increase in military vehicle traffic in the area. — Compiled from AP reports
AROUND THE NATION
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20 Azteca Economic Development presents a series of small business workshops to help get your business off the ground. Classes are free and in English at the Goodwill on I-35 and Mann Road from 6–8 p.m. Call 7264462 to register or for more information.
energy efficient. “This project is urgently needed,” university President Gregory Fenves said in a statement. “We are ever more dependent on data, and at the same time, ever more conscious of the need to utilize all sources of energy.” The effort will be hosted by the university’s 14-year-old Texas Advanced Computing Center, which supports research projects across the sciences and is home to one of the most powerful supercomputers in the country. The project will give the center about $4 million in additional computing capability, and researchers will examine the efficiency of the equipment. The Japanese government will foot the bill for virtually the entire project, which involves installing a 250-kilowatt solar farm to power the new computers on sunny days.
Some prisoners say they were beaten after escape ALBANY, N.Y. — Inmates who knew the two convicted killers who escaped from a maximumsecurity prison in northern New York reported beatings by guards trying to determine where the pair went, according to a legal services group. Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York has received several complaints from inmates on that Clinton Correctional Facility honor block, who were later moved to other prisons, managing attorney James Bogin said Tuesday. Many were transferred and spent time in solitary confinement and some are still missing their clothes and other belongings, he said.
Firm shuts plant over Legionnaires’ bacteria RALEIGH, N.C. — Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline shut down a
Today is Wednesday, August 12, the 224th day of 2015. There are 141 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On August 12, 1985, the world’s worst single-aircraft disaster occurred as a crippled Japan Airlines Boeing 747 on a domestic flight crashed into a mountain, killing 520 people. (Four people survived.) On this date: In 1867, President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him as he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. In 1898, fighting in the Spanish-American War came to an end. In 1902, International Harvester Co. was formed by a merger of McCormick Harvesting Machine Co., Deering Harvester Co. and several other manufacturers. In 1915, the novel “Of Human Bondage,” by William Somerset Maugham, was first published in the United States, a day before it was released in England. In 1939, the MGM movie musical “The Wizard of Oz,” starring Judy Garland, had its world premiere at the Strand Theater in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, three days before opening in Hollywood. In 1944, during World War II, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., eldest son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was killed with his co-pilot when their explosives-laden Navy plane blew up over England. In 1953, the Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb. In 1960, the first balloon communications satellite — the Echo 1 — was launched by the United States from Cape Canaveral. In 1962, one day after launching Andrian Nikolayev into orbit, the Soviet Union also sent up cosmonaut Pavel Popovich; both men landed safely August 15. In 1978, Pope Paul VI, who had died August 6 at age 80, was buried in St. Peter’s Basilica. In 1981, IBM introduced its first personal computer, the model 5150, at a press conference in New York. In 1994, Woodstock ’94 opened in Saugerties, New York. Today’s Birthdays: Former Sen. Dale Bumpers, DArk., is 90. Actor George Hamilton is 76. Actress Dana Ivey is 74. Actress Jennifer Warren is 74. Rock singer-musician Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) is 66. Actor Jim Beaver is 65. Singer Kid Creole is 65. Jazz musician Pat Metheny is 61. Actor Sam J. Jones is 61. Actor Bruce Greenwood is 59. Country singer Danny Shirley is 59. Pop musician Roy Hay (Culture Club) is 54. Rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot is 52. Actor Peter Krause is 50. Actor Brent Sexton is 48. International Tennis Hall of Famer Pete Sampras is 44. Actor-comedian Michael Ian Black is 44. Actress Yvette Nicole Brown is 44. Actress Rebecca Gayheart is 44. Actor Casey Affleck is 40. Rock musician Bill Uechi (Save Ferris) is 40. Actress Maggie Lawson is 35. Actress Dominique Swain is 35. Actress Leah Pipes (TV: “The Originals”) is 27. Actress Imani Hakim is 22. Thought for Today: “The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.” — From “Of Human Bondage” by W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965).
CONTACT US Publisher, William B. Green........................728-2501 Account Executive, Dora Martinez ...... (956) 765-5113 General Manager, Adriana Devally ...............728-2510 Adv. Billing Inquiries ................................. 728-2531 Circulation Director ................................. 728-2559 MIS Director, Michael Castillo.................... 728-2505 Copy Editor, Nick Georgiou ....................... 728-2565 Sports Editor, Zach Davis ..........................728-2578 Spanish Editor, Melva Lavin-Castillo............ 728-2569 Photo by Natalie Behring/The Columbian | AP
\South Korean college students talk with inmate Larry Swan, right, about his experience caring for a cat, named Shaun, while in Larch Prison in Yacolt, Wash. The group visited the prison to learn about its cats-and-inmates program. plant Tuesday that produces inhaled medications after discovering the bacteria that causes Legionnaire’s disease, a potentially fatal form of pneumonia. The manufacturing plant in Zebulon, about 25 miles east of Raleigh, was closed after routine
testing found the bacteria in cooling towers. About 400 of the 850 employees who work in Zebulon were told to stay away until the towers are cleaned, officials for the London-based company said. — Combined from AP reports
SUBSCRIPTIONS/DELIVERY (956) 728-2555 The Zapata Times is distributed on Saturdays to 4,000 households in Zapata County. For subscribers of the Laredo Morning Times and for those who buy the Laredo Morning Times at newsstands, the Zapata Times is inserted. The Zapata Times is free. The Zapata Times is published by the Laredo Morning Times, a division of The Hearst Corporation, P.O. Box 2129, Laredo, Texas 78044. Phone (956) 728-2500. The Zapata office is at 1309 N. U.S. Hwy. 83 at 14th Avenue, Suite 2, Zapata, TX 78076. Call (956) 765-5113 or e-mail thezapatatimes.net
State
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A
Rick Perry may need his super PACs By WILL WEISSERT AND JULIE BYKOWICZ ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Rick Perry has raised so little money for his second-chance presidential bid that he’s stopped paying his campaign staffers, the kind of cash crisis that could normally sink a candidate. But the former Texas governor has well-funded super PACs that say they’re ready to step in and keep his message afloat at least through Iowa, where Perry has spent more time than any other White House hopeful. It’s the latest sign of how influential outside groups — armed with small cadres of million-dollar donors — are reshaping presidential politics. Perry raised only about $1 million in his first month of campaigning, a sum that isn’t enough to cover his payroll. But a pair of proPerry outside groups, each with “Opportunity and Freedom” in its name, amassed almost $17 million over the same period. Those groups, both super political action committees, are barred by federal rules from talking directly to the candidate they support. But it became apparent recently to Austin Barbour, the Republican operative who leads them, how important their role would have to become. The groups began spending money not just on advertisements, but also on employees who can fill roles normally left to the traditional campaign. They hired an Iowa director and deputy director, who now are building out a super PAC-run ground game in the state that weighs in first in the presidential nominating season. Barbour said he’s prepared to hire staff in other early primary states, if necessary. “We saw in the campaign finance reports that they didn’t raise as much as anyone would have liked, and
Photo by David Goldman | AP
Republican presidential candidate, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, waves to the crowd as he steps to the podium to speak at the RedState Gathering in Atlanta, on Aug. 7. Perry has stopped paying his presidential campaign staff amid slow fundraising that has left his 2016 bid cash-starved after barely two months. we knew what that meant — that they were going to have to go lean and mean while we would need to diversify what we were doing to help the governor,” Barbour said. “We’re building Perry’s Iowa team. There’s nothing in the playbook that says we can’t do that as a super PAC.” Even with so much outside help, money problems plaguing Perry’s campaign this early could leave future donors — as well as potential primary voters — wondering whether he can survive for the long haul in the crowded a GOP field. “It’s the deterioration of the campaign and there’s no pretty face, no makeup you can put on it,” said Bill Miller, a Texas-based GOP strategist. “It’s like a NASCAR race. He’s doesn’t have the pole position and now he
doesn’t even have a full tank of gas.” Yet reports on Tuesday of Perry’s money troubles prompted a longtime friend of the former governor to give the super PACs $100,000, Barbour said, declining to name the contributor. Perry’s official campaign is continuing as best it can, said Jeff Miller, his campaign manager. All but one staff member has agreed to continue working without pay, and Perry will be in South Carolina later this week before returning to Iowa next week, Miller said. “Are we raising as much money as we’d like to? No. Are we still going to continue the governor’s regular visits every week to early states? Yes,” Miller said. “If you perform in these early states, how much money
you raise doesn’t matter.” Perry’s not alone in relying heavily on super PACs. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former technology executive Carly Fiorina also are leaning on outside groups to build name recognition. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum’s ex-campaign manager and two other staff members recently left his financially troubled campaign to form a super PAC supporting him. In 2012, the support of a super PAC helped former House Speaker Newt Gingrich win South Carolina’s primary and continue competing for the presidency after traditional campaign money dried up. Word that Perry has stopped paying campaign staffers comes after he narrowly missed polling high
enough to make the main event at last week’s GOP debate, despite a rush of expensive national TV advertising that sought to boost his numbers and win him a place on stage. Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed says he’ll stay focused on competing in Iowa, as well as the subsequent primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina. His campaign’s Iowa state chairman, Sam Clovis, said Tuesday he would continue working as a volunteer — and didn’t know any Iowa campaign staffers who weren’t following suit. “I know everything there is to know about running a campaign with very little money,” Clovis said. Jamie Johnson, a Perry senior campaign director in Iowa, said he’d already “gotten an offer from another
campaign — and I’m staying.” Donors can give $2,700 maximum per election to campaigns, but there are no limits on what they can give to super PACs. Dallas businessmen Kelcy Warren and Darwin Deason gave a total of $11 million to the super PACs backing Perry, even though Warren also serves as the finance chairman for Perry’s official campaign. The groups would have to wait 120 days to bring aboard anyone currently with the official Perry campaign. But Barbour said the groups have hired different people, while refusing to say how many are now on the super PAC payroll. Opportunity and Freedom has spent more than $2 million so far on pro-Perry ads and will continue to provide such messaging.
PAGE 4A
Zopinion
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO EDITORIAL@LMTONLINE.COM
COMMENTARY
OTHER VIEWS
A long view on corporate reform By LAWRENCE SUMMERS SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST
There are not many wholly new areas to open up in economic policy. But recent months have seen a wave of innovative proposals directed at improving economic performance in general and middle-class incomes in particular, not through government actions but through mandates or incentives designed to change business decisionmaking. The goal is to cause companies and their shareholders to operate on longer time horizons and to more generously share the fruits of corporate success with their workers, customers and other stakeholders. There are strong grounds for interest in such approaches. After the events of recent years, the case for relying on speculative markets to drive the real economy — to whatever extent it had validity c0151 is surely attenuated. Instances where successful companies with strong management teams and track records of investment have been forced to curtail investment plans by activist shareholders are proper causes of concern. And all of us would like to see middle-class incomes do a better job of keeping up with productivity gains than has been the case in recent years. Even as proposals for corporate reform respond to legitimate policy imperatives, they also tap into the current zeitgeist in another way. Just as there is widespread unhappiness with market outcomes, confidence in government is at a low ebb. So the idea of achieving reform not through traditional government programs but altered business behavior is highly appealing. The debate on corporate behavior is, I believe, a very valuable one that gets in a fundamental way at how American capitalism functions. In many aspects, it represents an overdue recognition of basic market principles. Businesses will raise wages to the point where the costs of raising them are balanced by reduced costs of recruiting and motivating workers. At that point, a further increase in wages will not appreciably change their total costs but will certainly matter to workers. So there is a strong case for robust minimum wages. There is also a strong case for regulating aspects of compensation. Usually competition results in desirable economic arrangements, but not always, especially when there are risks of races to the bottom. A firm that tries to stand out by offering especially attractive family leave benefits, job security or an egalitarian wage
structure may attract a disproportionately risk-averse workforce. So there is a strong case for using mandates to level the playing field. Profit-sharing has proven benefits in terms of increased productivity, but a firm that stands out by offering profit-sharing may encounter difficulties in recruitment among wary workers. So there is a strong case for providing companies with incentives to choose this option. Matters are not as clear as is often suggested regarding short-term-driven “quarterly capitalism,” and I believe skepticism is appropriate toward arguments that horizons should be lengthened in all cases. A generation ago, Japan’s keiretsu system, which insulated corporate management from share price pressure by tying large companies together, was widely seen as a great Japanese strength; yet even apart from Japan’s manifest macroeconomic difficulties, Japanese companies lacking market discipline have squandered leads in sectors ranging from electronics to automobiles to information technology. Managements of companies that are dissipating the most value, such as General Motors before it needed to be bailed out, have often been the most enthusiastic champions of long-termism. Market participants who willingly place huge valuations on many Silicon Valley companies that lack any profits and have little revenue may be placing too much, not too little, weight on the distant future. That, at least, is the implication of the technology bubbles we have seen. Corporations that are hoarding cash earning nothing in the bank or in Treasury bills would be cheered, not jeered, by the market if they could be persuaded to put those funds to productive use. Most corporations are in this situation. The challenges are usually that companies do not have productive uses available for the cash or that they do but can’t convince investors of those projects’ validity. Pushing corporations to invest without having projects that are good candidates for investment is wasteful. And stopping or discouraging them from distributing funds to shareholders is dangerous if it results in mindless takeovers. The real need is for a cadre of trusted, toughminded investors who can credibly commit to strong management teams and provide assurances to a broader range of investors so productive investments can get made. How that can best be accomplished while maintaining market discipline is the crucial challenge going forward.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY The Zapata Times does not publish anonymous letters. To be published, letters must include the writer’s first and last names as well as a phone number to verify identity. The phone number IS NOT published; it is used solely to verify identity and to clarify content, if necessary. Identity of the letter writer must be verified before publication. We want to assure our
readers that a letter is written by the person who signs the letter. The Zapata Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms. Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No namecalling or gratuitous abuse is allowed. Via e-mail, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.
COLUMN
Shorts not good for school Six and a half days a week, my summer retirement uniform is shorts and a shirt with necessary pocket and a collar preferable. The other half day? That’s Sunday, of course, and that means church. Blessedly, this church is rather informal although you’ll see a suit and tie here and there. Regular jeans are perfectly fine. As for shoes, I’ve gone a route I’d never followed before…sandals. They’re leather and c-o-m-f-y, cushioned and cool. I do a good sartorial imitation of my good friend Murray Judson, co-publisher of The Port Aransas South Jetty. That’s been his business uniform for years. Of course, he and mate Mary own the paper, so they can pretty much do as they please. Unfortunately, I only owned (partly) one paper I published and worked for other ownership, so the uniform of the day varied from coat and tie to slacks and a sport shirt. But, I digress. Back to the genesis of my shortswearing career. Growing up as the son
of a rancher-cattle trader and a farm-raised mother, jeans were the order of the day. By the time I’d reached junior high, I discovered the teen-preferred jean was Levis. Somehow, those didn’t fit me very well. Mother explained to me that I was “long-waisted” like her. That meant that my nearsix-foot frame boasted a pants inseam of 30.5 inches. If the bottom half of me had matched the top half, I would’ve been 6-2, 6-3 and had an inseam of 34 or 35. We lived on a farm/ ranch until the end of my second-grade year when we move “to town.” So, jeans have always been an integral part of my wardrobe. However, shorts were not so cool when I was young. They were regarded as “sissy.” Jeans or overalls were fine. As mentioned, we lived out in a rural area and were close to the town of Donie, which at that time
had its own school system. There was one school but it included grades 1-12. I rode a bus to Donie School. Our house was about 100 yards from the bus stop where it turned around and head toward Donie. We were at the end of the line. Each morning I trudged to the bus stop. When it rained, the road was muddy. If it was spring, summer or early fall, I didn’t care because I could go barefoot to school it the temperature was above 60. On this particular morning, I was at the bus stop and there was a large puddle of water there from a rain the day before. I was playing by the puddle and fell down in it, of course. I went screaming toward the house telling Mother my plight. She took me in and told me that she hadn’t been able to do laundry for a few days due to the rain (long explanation for this space), and all I had was short pants. I moaned and cried and pleaded to stay home. “I can’t wear sissy shorts to school!” I declared. “The big boys will
pick on me and tease me!” She was having none of it. So I trudged back down to the bus stop. I got on the bus and there were a few kids near my age on the bus. They just looked at me and stifled snickers. All the while, I’m scared to death that someone — some bigger someone — is going to call me sissy. Fear became reality as I walked onto the school grounds from the bus. There were all the kids grades 1-12 and “the big boys” began teasing me and calling me sissy. If they’d been more literate, they might’ve called me Little Lord Fauntleroy. I alternately cried and fought all day. I was so relieved when I got home and Mother informed me she’d washed and ironed (wash-n-wear wasn’t invented then) my meager supply of jeans. I could walk tall and proud the next day at Donie School. Willis Webb is a retired community newspaper editor-publisher of more than 50 years experience. He can be reached by email at wwebb1937@att.net.
EDITORIAL
Right decision in shooting trial THE WASHINGTON POST
The Colorado jury that found James Holmes guilty of murdering 12 people in an Aurora movie theater three years ago has decided against the death penalty, instead giving him life without parole. As long-time opponents of the death penalty, we think the jury was correct in sparing his life since taking a life undermines
the principle that killing is wrong. But even those who favor execution as punishment should recognize that it would not have been right to execute someone who is mentally ill, as Holmes so clearly is. The jury of nine women and three men, after deliberating for less than seven hours Friday, announced it was not unanimous in favor of execution as the law
requires for its imposition. Holmes, 27, a oncepromising neuroscience graduate student, had been on trial since April for one of the country’s worst mass shootings in recent years. The savagery of his actions on the night of July 20, 2012, when he turned a multiplex screening of a new Batman film into a slaughterhouse is without question. In addition to the 12 people — in-
cluding a 6-year-old girl — who were killed, 70 people were injured, some grievously. The pain of these people — whose stories moved the jurors to tears — cannot be imagined or ignored. In sending Holmes to prison for the rest of his life, the state has held him legally responsible for his actions. Executing this sick man would have been wrong.
CLASSIC DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU
State
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A
Brother not angry at police By JAMIE STENGLE AND EMILY SCHMALL ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Matthew Watkins | The Texas Tribune
Three statues at the University of Texas at Austin that commemorate Confederate leaders were vandalized in June 2015.
Choices given for UT statues By ALLY MUTNICK THE TEXAS TRIBUNE
A task force on Monday recommended the University of Texas at Austin either relocate statues of Confederate leaders or add explanatory plaques. The 12-person advisory panel of students, alumni and administrators issued recommendations to UTAustin President Gregory Fenves, who commissioned the report in June, on the same day three statutes were vandalized. The report suggested five options, four of which involve moving one or more statues from the South Mall to a history center on campus. A fifth option suggested leaving the statues in place and adding plaques to explain historical context. The panel considered the placement of six statues on UT’s campus, four depicting Confederate leaders including President Jefferson Davis, one of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and one of former Texas Gov. James Hogg. Fenves will review the report before making a final decision, according to the university. “Statues have layers of meaning: aesthetic, historical, aspirational, and educational. History is not innocent; it is the living foundation for the present,” the report said. “The university’s approach to changing and replacing monuments on campus should be conservative but not uncritical.” A majority of the panel thought the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History is “a natural choice for relocation” because it could “place the statues in appropriate historical and educational contexts, rather than leaving the statues decontextualized but holding a prominent place of honor on campus,” the report said. The panel also suggested moving the statues to campus educational centers dedicated to humanities, arts or sciences. Another proposed location was the Littlefield Home, a Victorian-style house built in 1893 for the former Confederate soldier and UT regent George Littlefield, who commissioned the statues. “It was a lot of healthy discussion,” said Xavier Rotnofsky, UT-Austin student government president and a panel member. “It was an academic environment so we set emotions aside and just came and talked about the history, the artistry and the controversy.” The five options suggested by the panel were: Leaving the statues, but adding an explanatory plaque. The panel noted this might continue to attract vandalism and could be considered “’airing our dirty laundry’ in what is inescapably the most prominent part of campus — the place where graduation is held; this would be rather like engaging in vigorous self-criticism on the university’s home page.” Moving only the Davis statue and an inscription honoring the Confederacy. Moving all six statues and the inscription. Moving just the four Confederate leaders and the inscription. Moving the statue of Wilson, three Confederate leaders and the inscription. The task force was asked not to take cost into consid-
eration, said Gregory J. Vincent, the university’s vice president for diversity and community engagement. If Fenves chooses to add plaques to the existing statues, Vincent said the panel recommended the signs “stick to the facts.” “These were erected at during a time of neo-Confederate ascension,” he said. “It was part of an opportunity to revise history to talk about the power of the Confederacy.” The statues have been a growing source of controversy at the university, which has Confederate leaders commemorated on its South Mall. In March, the student assembly adopted a resolution asking UT to remove the most controversial statue of Davis. The next month, that statue was vandalized when someone tagged it with the phrase “Davis Must Fall.” Fenves announced the creation of the task force in June, after another bout of vandalism.
ARLINGTON — The brother of a college football player killed by police at a Texas car dealership questioned Monday whether deadly force was needed in the confrontation, which can’t be seen on video because there were no surveillance cameras inside the showroom. Joshua Taylor, 23, told The Associated Press that he’s not angry with police but thinks “things could have been handled differently.” He’s also perplexed by security footage showing his brother, Christian Taylor, breaking into a car in the dealership lot and crashing his vehicle into the glass showroom before police arrived. The lack of video footage from inside the dealership makes it difficult to have a clear picture of how the events leading up to the unarmed 19-year-old’s death transpired, Joshua Taylor said. “It’s pretty much their story against somebody who’s not here anymore,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to I guess justify or clarify, but at the end of the day I know my brother. I know he wouldn’t attack any officer or anybody in authority at all, or attack anybody for that matter.” In interviews with the AP, Taylor’s parents declined to talk about the fatal confrontation because they are waiting on additional information from authorities. Arlington police have said officers arriving to a burglary call early Friday found Christian Taylor roaming inside the showroom of the dealership. Police have said the officers told Taylor to surrender
Photo by G.J. McCarthy/The Dallas Morning News | AP
Ramon Mejia writes with chalk on the pavement outside the Arlington Police Department during a vigil for Christian Taylor, on Monday, in Arlington. Taylor was killed at a car dealership. and lie down on the ground, but he refused. They saw him trying to escape the showroom and pursued him. Police have said the incident ended with officer Brad Miller shooting his service weapon four times, hitting Taylor at least twice. Miller, who joined the force last year and was still completing his field training, has been placed on administrative leave. The officer with Miller — his field training officer, a nearly two-decade veteran — used his Taser, but not a gun. In a recording of radio traffic of the incident released Monday, someone can be heard saying, “We’ve got shots fired,” about two minutes after officers say they’ve spotted a man inside the building. Police say they are investigating Taylor’s death as a criminal case and to determine whether department rules were broken. The shooting comes amid increased scrutiny
nationwide of police use of force, particularly in cases involving black suspects. Taylor was black; Miller was white. About 35 demonstrators gathered outside Arlington police headquarters Monday evening to protest the shooting. The group expressed anger as they chanted the names of unarmed black men who have been shot by police. There were no arrests during the demonstration. Richard McCray, a cousin of Christian Taylor, says he worries about how his five sons can be safe from police. “What am I supposed to tell them? I still haven’t found the words,” he said. Taylor’s mother, Tina Taylor, said police have not told the family what directly preceded the shooting of their son, who graduated from high school in Arlington last year and was playing football at Angelo State University in San Angelo. Sgt. Christopher Cook said Monday that investiga-
tors cannot yet offer details on the confrontation between Taylor and police because they have not completed their interviews. David Lancaster, general manager at Classic Buick GMC, said the showroom has an alarm system but no video surveillance. Arlington police officers do not have body cameras, so authorities have said there is no video showing the confrontation that led to the shooting. Joshua Taylor said he saw his brother sleeping Thursday night, just hours before the incident. Christian Taylor hadn’t indicated that he planned to go out later. Family and friends say that what happened is especially perplexing because Christian Taylor was a good student who had also become quite spiritual. His father, Adrian Taylor, said, “His relationship with God had escalated to the point where he’d talk about it so much, you’d think he was a preacher.”
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6A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015
Blazes grow as fires roast West ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Jeff Roberson | AP
Armed civilians with a group known as the Oath Keepers arrive in Ferguson, Mo., on Tuesday.
Militia’s return raises concern By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER ASSOCIATED PRESS
FERGUSON, Mo. — The return of an armed militia group patrolling the streets of Ferguson drew criticism Tuesday from both protesters and the county police chief overseeing security amid ongoing demonstrations marking the anniversary of 18year-old Michael Brown’s shooting death. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said the overnight presence of the Oath Keepers, wearing camouflage bulletproof vests and openly carrying rifles and pistols on West Florissant Avenue, the hub of marches and protests for the past several days, was “both unnecessary and inflammatory.” Belmar plans to ask prosecutor Bob McCulloch about the legality of armed patrols by the farright anti-government activist group, which largely comprises past and present members of the military, first responders and police officers. But Missouri law allows anyone with a concealed carry permit to openly display a firearm anywhere in the state. John Karriman, a representative of the group who teaches at the Missouri Southern State University police academy, said there were five armed Oath Keepers at the Monday night protests and that another 45 or so unarmed
group members were stationed nearby to try to help keep the peace. He said members plan to remain in Ferguson “at least through the end of the week.” “A handful of us were visible,” Karriman, a former police officer in Joplin, Missouri who ran unsuccessfully as a Libertarian Party candidate for county sheriff in southwest Missouri. “The rest of us are behind the scenes.” Oath Keepers previously showed up in Ferguson in November after a grand jury declined to indict former Ferguson officer Darren Wilson in Brown’s death, saying they stationed themselves along several downtown rooftops to protect businesses from rioting and looters. Karriman said the group stepped in only after Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declined to summon the National Guard in the aftermath of the grand jury decision. County police ordered them to leave then, but group members intermittently returned. The five armed Oath Keepers, all of whom appeared to be white, interacted freely with police late Monday and early Tuesday but endured catcalls and jeers from demonstrators. Protest organizer Nabeehah Azeez called the presence of the armed men “a contradiction in how things work.”
LOWER LAKE, Calif. — Wildfires are charging through several states in the parched West, scorching homes and forcing people to flee. Flames are plaguing some California residents, who had to evacuate for the second time in recent weeks after blazes exploded in size. Here’s a look at wildfires burning through Western states: NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: A Northern California blaze more than doubled in size overnight despite cooler temperatures and higher humidity. The fire, which erupted Sunday several miles from the community of Lower Lake, had burned nearly 19 square miles, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. For the second time in as many weeks, residents had to evacuate their homes because of the uncontained fire lighting up rocky hills about 100 miles north of San Francisco. More than 1,100 firefighters are battling the blaze that is threatening 50 structures. No homes have been destroyed, and no injuries have been reported. Meanwhile, firefighters have nearly surrounded the larger nearby blaze that started about two weeks ago and has burned 109 square miles. That fire destroyed 43 homes, but all evacuations have been lifted. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: Crews made headway Tuesday against a small wildfire in rural Riverside County that chased people from their homes and left one person burned. The blaze sparked by a burning motor home has been held to just under 500 acres about halfway between Temecula and Palm Desert, state fire officials said. It is partially contained. Evacuation orders re-
Photo by Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun | AP
A helicopter drops water on the Willow Fire in Mohave Valley, Arizona. Authorities said 300 firefighters are battling the fire amid strong winds and low humidity. main for residences just east of State Route 74, but it’s not clear how many homes or people are affected. The blaze near Anza started in the motor home and spread to vegetation Monday. One person in the motor home suffered burns, and three firefighters were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, officials said. MONTANA: A fire has burned about 3 square miles in heavy timber in Glacier National Park, prompting some trail and campsite closures. The flames spotted Sunday afternoon were threatening a historic patrol cabin and come weeks after a bigger blaze led visitors to evacuate campsites and resorts in the park during prime tourist season. Crews are fighting the new fire from the air Tuesday because it is in such remote, rugged terrain. Problems with firefighting efforts could arise with temperatures between 95 and 100 degrees
expected Tuesday through Thursday and strong winds Friday. The older fire continues to burn, remaining at nearly 7 square miles and more than halfway contained. ARIZONA: Authorities say a 10-square-mile wildfire near the Arizona-California line that forced an evacuation order is now 40 percent contained. Officials said crews on Tuesday worked to hold the blaze in the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge amid favorable weather conditions and relatively light winds. Suppression actions continued on the perimeter of the Willow Fire with firefighters improving established fire lines and initiating mop-up. The fire broke out Saturday. Officials say the evacuation order was lifted late Monday morning for 900 homes after crews made solid efforts in protecting them and conditions there became more favorable.
Byron Steward, emergency management coordinator for Mohave County, says around 100 homes in the Topock area will remain evacuated because they’re near 11 homes that were burned Saturday. ELSEWHERE IN THE WEST: A big wildfire burning along the west shore of Lake Chelan has grown to nearly 54 square miles, but firefighters were keeping it away from the communities of Holden Village and Stehekin. A wildfire in Lewis County, Washington, charred about 100 acres and was controlled Tuesday. In Alaska, the fire season has officially become the second biggest on record. More than 5.08 million acres — or 7,940 square miles — has burned this year. Fire spokesman Sam Harrel says Alaska won’t beat the 6.6 million acres burned in 2004 because the state has entered its seasonal wet period.
Notice of Public Meeting to Discuss Budget and Proposed Tax Rate The Zapata ISD will hold a public meeting at 6:00 AM 08/18/2015 in PDC Building 1702 17th St Zapata, Texas. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the school district’s budget that will determine the tax rate that will be adopted. Public participation in the discussion is invited. The tax rate that is ultimately adopted at this meeting or at a seperate meeting at a later date may not exceed the proposed rate shown below unless the district publishes a revised notice containing the same information and comparisons set out below and holds another public meeting to discuss the revised notice. Maintenance Tax $1.040000/$100 (proposed rate for maintenance and operations) School Debt Service Tax Approved by Local Voters
$0.000000/$100 (proposed rate to pay bonded indebtedness)
Comparison of Proposed Budget with Last Year’s Budget The applicable percentage increase or decrease (or difference) in the amount budgeted in the preceding fiscal year and the amount budgeted for the fiscal year that begins during the current tax year is indicated for each of the following expenditure categories. Maintenance and operations
1.060000% increase or
%decrease
Debt Service
0.000000% increase or
%decrease
Total expenditures
1.060000% increase or
%decrease
Total Appraised Value and Total Taxable Value (as calculated under Section 26.04, Tax Code) Preceding Tax Year Total appraised value* of all property $1,499,877,674 Total appraised value* of new property** $7,578,849 Total taxable value*** of all property $1,471,425,790 Total taxable value*** of new property** $7,578,849
Current Tax Year $1,236,449,987 $11,992,521 $1,212,906,265 $7,481,045
*Appraised value is the amount shown on the appraisal roll and defined by Section 1.04(8), Tax Code. ** “New property” is defined by Section 26.012(17), Tax Code. *** “Taxable value” is defined by Section 1.04(10), Tax Code. Bonded Indebtedness Total amount of outstanding and unpaid bonded indebtedness* $0 *Outstanding principal. Comparison of Proposed Rates with Last Year’s Rates Maintenance & Operations
Last Year’s Rate $1.040000 Rate to Maintain Same Level of Maintenance & Operations Revenue & Pay Debt Service $1.040000 Proposed Rate $1.040000
Interest & Sinking Fund*
Total
Local Revenue Per Student
State Revenue Per Student
$0.000000*
$1.040000
$4,518
$5,399
$0.000000* $0.000000*
$1.040000 $1.040000
$3,889 $3,856
$6,085 $6,027
*The Interest & Sinking Fund tax revenue is used to pay for bonded indebtedness on construction, equipment, or both. The bonds, and the tax rate necessary to pay those bonds, were approved by the voters of this district.
Comparison of Proposed Levy with Last Year’s Levy on Average Residence Last Year This Year Average Market Value of Residences $75,847 $74,490 Average Taxable Value of Residences $42,031 $35,709 Last Year’s Rate Versus Proposed Rate per $100 Value $1.040000 $1.040000 Taxes Due on Average Residence $437.12 $371.37 Increase (Decrease) in Taxes $0.00 $-65.75 Under state law, the dollar amount of school taxes imposed on the residence homestead of a person 65 years of age or older or of the surviving spouse of such a person, if the surviving spouse was 55 years of age or older when the person died, may not be increased above the amount paid in the first year after the person turned 65, regardless of changes in tax rate or property value. Notice of Rollback Rate: The highest tax rate the district can adopt before requiring voter approval at an election is $1.000049. This election will be automatically held if the district adopts a rate in excess of the rollback rate of $1.000049. Fund Balances The following estimated balances will remain at the end of the current fiscal year and are not encumbered with or by a corresponding debt obligation, less estimated funds necessary for operating the district before receipt of the first state aid payment. Maintenance and Operations Fund Balance(s) $13,600,423 Interest & Sinking Fund Balance(s) $991,896
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
Sports&Outdoors NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: DALLAS COWBOYS
Hardy following Haley By CLARENCE E. HILL JR. MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
OXNARD, Calif. — If you are wondering why the Dallas Cowboys signed Greg Hardy, look no further than last weekend’s Hall of Fame induction of defensive end Charles Haley for the answer. Haley was never accused of domestic assault. Even more, there were no glaring legal incidents on Haley’s ledger during his 13-year career with the San Francisco 49ers and the Cowboys that included five Super Bowl titles. But he was also no choirboy. He was mean to his teammates, an old-school bully most of the time. Former safety Darren Woodson recently recalled Haley as being "absolutely crazy." His former wife diagnosed him with manic depression, which he detailed in his rousing Hall of Fame speech. The Cowboys knew all was not right with Haley and that he was a tough player to deal with. But they traded for him anyway in what owner Jerry Jones calls one of the three greatest off-schedule moves that helped turn the Cowboys into three-time Super Bowl champions in the 1990s. The first was the Herschel Walker trade with the Minnesota Vikings, netting
Photo by Gus Ruelas | AP
The Cowboys are hoping the signing of defensive end Greg Hardy is similar to their acquisition of Hall of Famer Charles Haley in the 1990s. the Cowboys a boatload of draft picks that became the foundation of those title teams. The second was the acquisition of Haley in a trade with the 49ers to give the Cowboys the pass rusher they lacked and the edge they needed on defense to win their first title in 1992. The third was the freeagent signing of cornerback Deion Sanders, who keyed the third Super Bowl title in 1995. "Each one of them impacted us to win a Super Bowl," Jones said. "Obviously if we don’t make the Herschel Walker trade then we have a difficult time to pull a Super Bowl off to begin with. There is no question in my mind without Char-
les Haley we don’t win a Super Bowl. He was that instrumental. It was pretty clear Deion was on the opposing team and they win the Super Bowl. We switch him to our team and we win the Super Bowl. That’s about as clear as you can do. That’s in three cases." This is where Hardy comes in. The Cowboys know his history. They know his issues. They have their eyes wide open. They also know if they hope to turn last year’s 12-4 team into a champion this season, they needed an impact player on defense to put them over the top. They see Hardy as the player who not only could be a differencemaker on the field, but also one who can give them that
emotional and psychological edge they need to become a champion. That was the same thought process they had with Haley. "Charles Haley was the reason we won our first Super Bowl," former Cowboys guard Nate Newton said. "He was our first Super Bowl. We needed that defensive impact much like this team needs now. It needs somebody that is going to command two or three guys in a certain situation. That’s what they hope for with Greg Hardy." Newton was not alone. Former Cowboys defensive
tackle Tony Casillas also referenced Haley when talking about Hardy’s potential impact on this team. He is the pass rusher they need. He will command double teams, which will make his teammates better. He also has that passionate edge they hope will become contagious on defense. The Cowboys feel fortunate to get Hardy. Much like Haley, if Hardy didn’t have an issue in another place, he wouldn’t have been available for the Cowboys. Jones said you need moves outside the NFL draft, in terms of player acquisition, to help put a team over the top. "Those are additions that don’t come the normal way," Jones said. "When you ask about a move like Hardy. it’s because the league is pretty scripted you are going to go .500. Things have to fall out of script for it to go good. "We have seen Deion and Charles dictate a Super Bowl. Herschel Walker dictated a Super Bowl because of what you got in a trade." The Cowboys believe Hardy can have a championship impact or they wouldn’t have signed him. The key is making sure the only trouble he gets into is with opposing quarterbacks.
LB breaks Smith’s jaw By DENNIS WASZAK JR. ASSOCIATED PRESS
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith will be sidelined at least 6-10 weeks after being punched in the jaw by teammate Ikemefuna Enemkpali. Coach Todd Bowles made the announcement before training camp practice Tuesday. Enemkpali, an outside linebacker in his second season, has been released by the Jets, according to Bowles. Bowles says Smith and Enemkpali got into an “altercation” in the Jets’ locker room Tuesday morning in which Smith was “suckerpunched.” The coach adds that it had “nothing to do with football” and it was something “very childish,” without going into details. Smith required surgery to repair the jaw. Ryan Fitzpatrick will assume the starting job.
PÁGINA 8A
Zfrontera
Ribereña en Breve DECOMISO Elementos Fuerza Tamaulipas logaron el decomiso de casi 1.000 kilogramos de marihuana en Miguel Alemán, México. Tras un reporte ciudadano, que señalaba que varias personas descargaban paquetes de una camioneta negra, elementos de seguridad acudieron a la casa 127 de calle Industria de la Construcción de la Colonia Infonavit Industrial, donde se decomisaron 935 kilos y 500 gramos de marihuana. Los policías estatales localizaron la camioneta con redilas de tres toneladas. La puerta principal de la vivienda estaba abierta, permitiendo se observaran varios paquetes apilados, señala un comunicado de prensa. El vehículo y los narcóticos fueron puestos a disposición del Ministerio Público.
REPORTE Elementos policiales logaron el decomiso de 1.444 paquetes de marihuana, que dieron un peso total de 10 toneladas, a lo largo de la frontera chica. Los decomisos se lograron en Miguel Alemán, Camargo, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz y Río Bravo, México, desde el 1 de enero al 30 de julio, de acuerdo con un comunicado de prensa. En Miguel Alemán se logró el decomiso de 5.364 kilogramos; mientras en Reynosa fueron 3.773 kilos; Río Bravo con 1.184 kilos y 68 gramos; y Camargo con 32 kilos y 500 gramos, señala un comunicado de prensa. Igualmente se logró el decomiso de 1.184 dosis de cocaína. Durante los decomisos de narcóticos también se lograron asegurar 1.582 poncha llantas.
MIÉRCOLES 12 DE AGOSTO DE 2015
ZCISD
Aceptan renuncia POR JUDITH RAYO TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
La Junta de Fideicomisarios de ZCISD aceptó la renuncia del Superintendente Raúl Nuques, la noche del lunes, igualmente asignaron un superintendente interino. Los fideicomisarios presentes fueron Ricardo Ramírez, Manuel González, Anselmo Treviño, Dora Martínez, José Flores, Diego González y Verónica González. Nuques no estaba presente cuando los fideicomisarios votaron 6 a 1 para aprobar su renuncia. Verónica González votó en contra. Por voto unánime, los fideicomisarios asignaron a Roberto Hein, quien sirve como asesor del
distrito, como superintencia del señor Nuques a pardente interno. tir del 10 de agoto, para Flores dijo que Hein fue que de esa manera el señor director de preparatoria Nuques pueda buscar otras por ocho años. oportunidades de empleo. “Estoy muy feliz de que Durante su periodo como se una a nosotros”, dijo. superintendente el señor NUQUES “Sentimos que necesitamos Nuques ha servido a ZCISD a alguien respetuoso en esbien. A nombre de todo el te momento”. distrito, la junta de fideicomisaLa renuncia de Nuques fue rios expresa su aprecio al señor efectiva desde el lunes. Su contra- Raúl Nuques por un trabajo bien to se extendía a junio de 2018. hecho y por servir a este gran Después de votar, el abogado distrito escolar y sus maravilloJuan Cruz leyó una declaración sos estudiantes, padres de familia conjunta por Nuques y los fidei- y administrativos”, dijo. comisarios en relación al acuerLa renuncia de Nuques llegó do de separación voluntaria. dos meses después de que señalaTanto la Junta de Fideicomisa- ra que su relación con la junta de rios de ZCISD y el señor Nuques comisionados estaba “mejor que creen que es para el mejor inte- nunca”, incluso después de un inrés de ZCISD permitir la renun- cidente que involucró que azota-
CULTURA
EDUCACIÓN
ENCUENTRO TEATRAL
Primaria ‘requiere mejoras’ POR JUDITH RAYO TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Tamaulipas
FIRMA DE LIBROS El día de hoy, la Fundación de la Herencia/Patrimonio del Condado de Webb organiza una presentación pública y firma de libros por parte de George T. Diaz, autor de “Border Contraband: A History of Smuggling Across the Rio Grande”, de 6 p.m. a 8 p.m. en el Museo Villa Antigua Border Heritage, en 810 de calle Zaragoza en Laredo. Habrá libros a la venta. Para más información llame al (956) 727-0977 o visite www.webbheritage.org or on facebook.
DONACIÓN DE SANGRE El viernes, el Banco de Alimentos del Sur de Texas organizará un centro de donación de sangre en Stat Emergency Center, en 2502 de NE Bob Bullock Loop de Laredo, de 2 p.m. a 6 p.m. El centro donará 3 dólares a STFB por cada recolección durante el día. Más información llamando al 3242432.
TORNEO El Torneo Anual de Pesca Infantil ‘Back to School’ organizado por la Cámara de Comercio de Zapata, en su quinta edición, se realizará el sábado 22 de agosto. El evento se realizará de 7 a.m. a 3 p.m. en Bravo Park Pond. Se están aceptando patrocinadores desde 300 dólares hasta 2.000 dólares. Para más información contacte a la Cámara de Comercio de Zapata, ubicada en 601 N. US Hwy 83 o llamando al (956) 765-4871.
REGRESO A CLASES Los estudiantes asistentes al Zapata County Independent School District, regresarán a la escuela, el lunes 24 de agosto.
ra una puerta durante una reunión. Durante una reunión especial el 4 de julio de ZCISD, mientras estaba en una sesión cerrada con los fideicomisarios, Nuques azotó una puerta mientras salía de la oficina. Más tarde aclaró el incidente, diciendo que había “resbalado” mientras salía de la oficina cargando dos carpetas. Los fideicomisarios comenzarán a buscar un superintendente permanente “tan pronto como sea posible, de manera que no se compliquen las operaciones del distrito”, dijo Cruz en la declaración conjunta. (Localice a Judith Rayo en (956) 728-2567 o en jrayo@lmtonline.com)
El lunes dio inicio la trigésima cuarta edición del Encuentro Estatal de Teatro Rafael Solana en Tampico, México. Durante el encuentro se presentarán grupos teatrales de las ciudades de Ciudad Victoria, Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa y Tampico, México. Además se ofrecerán conferencias y seminarios impartidos por los maestros Rodolfo Obregón, Alberto Villarreal, David Jiménez, Alain Kerriou y Jorge Gayón.
INMIGRACIÓN
Beneficencia reporta aumento ASSOCIATED PRESS
MCALLEN— Una organización católica de beneficencia que opera como un centro de apoyo para los inmigrantes en McAllen, dijo que consiguió que trabajadores de la ciudad montaran una carpa grande porque la cantidad de personas utilizando el centro para pasar la noche ha aumentado considerablemente en el últi-
mo mes. La hermana Norma Pimentel, directora ejecutiva de Catholic Charities del Valle de Río Grande, dijo al diario The Monitor de McAllen que los 762 migrantes en el centro durante julio representan un aumento del 29% frente al nivel máximo del año pasado. Agregó que el aumento reciente comenzó a finales de junio.
Solicitó que se colocara una carpa de 7,6 por 10 metros (25 por 35 pies) para acomodar a otras 35 personas y mantener a hombres separados de mujeres y niños. El portavoz de la Patrulla Fronteriza, Omar Zamor, dijo que la agencia está capturando un promedio mensual de 250 a 300 personas que entran al país sin autorización más que en meses recientes.
Por segundo año consecutivo, Fidel and Andrea R. Villarreal Elementary School de Zapata County Independent School District (ZCISD por sus siglas en inglés) fue clasificada en “requiere mejoras”, de acuerdo con las calificaciones escolares publicadas recientemente. “Todos los maestros y personal de Villarreal Elementary, levántense y estén orgullosos”, dijo el entonces Superintendente de ZCISD District, Raúl Nuques en un correo electrónico a sus colegas. “Les puedo asegurar que están en camino a la excelencia”. El distrito tuvo mejora en la secundaria Zapata Middle School, que fue etiquetada con “requiere mejoras” el año pasado. Este año, la escuela fue etiquetada como “cumple con el estándar”. Nuques dijo que la secundaria era el único campus en todo el distrito que subió en cada uno de los cuatro índices. Los distritos y las escuelas reciben ya sea una etiqueta de “cumple con el estándar” o “requiere mejoras” basado en la capacidad de cumplir con los siguientes índices: aprovechamiento estudiantil, progreso estudiantil, cierre de brechas de desempeño y preparación post secundaria. Mientras el estado registra todo el desempeño en los exámenes estatales, también conocidos como Evaluación de Preparación Académica de Texas, o STARR (por sus siglas en inglés), también se evalúan las tasas de graduación y sub-poblaciones, como educación especial y estudiantes con inglés limitado. Las escuelas Zapata High, Benavides Elementary, Zapata North y Zapata South Elementary también recibieron la calificación de “cumple con el estándar”. (Localice a Judith Rayo en el (956) 7282567 o en jrayo@lmtonline.com)
COLUMNA
Promueven evitar reelección en Tamaulipas Nota del Editor: El autor habla sobre la promoción del Centro Antirreleccionista en el norte de México.
POR RAÚL SINENCIO CHÁVEZ ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Recién organizado el Centro Antirreleccionista de México, Francisco I. Madero se va a promoverlo. Todavía sin candidatos, llega en gira a tierras del Mayab y después con destino a la Sultana del Norte, pisa suelo tamaulipeco. “El País”, diario capitalino, ubica a Madero en Progreso, Yucatán. Vía marítima, de ahí sale el 4 de julio de 1909. Encabeza antes “importante reunión política” a la que “el pueblo en masa acudió […] con sus entusiastas aclamaciones”. Integran la comitiva, la esposa de Madero, Sara Pérez, y Félix Palavicini. “El 11 de los corrientes se celebrará otro mitin […] en la capital de Nuevo León”, añade el reporte. Ninguna referencia hace al tránsito por Tamaulipas.
Sabemos en cambio que poco adelante trasponen la bocana del río Pánuco y al desembarcar topan con pésimas arterias. “Las calles principales” de Tampico “están ya bastante quebradas y llenas de baches, aumentado […] el […] considerable número de enfermedades alarmantes”, indica el 7 de julio la corresponsalía de “El País”. Rumbo a los comicios federales, impera enorme inquietud. El bando oficialista acumula divisiones. Unánimes todos en que Porfirio Díaz se reelija al frente del poder ejecutivo; para la vicepresidencia sólo unos respaldan a Ramón Corral, mientras los demás simpatizan con Bernardo Reyes. Tamaulipas resiente las consecuencias. Respecto a Tampico, “el único que cuenta con inmensas simpatías es […] Corral, en cuyo honor hízose” el 9 el junio “colosal manifestación popular”, afirma “El País”. “El País” reproduce asimismo: “Informa ‘El Imparcial’ que en la”
referida urbe porteña “se ha formado un club reyista, compuesto de doscientas personas, en su mayoría menores de edad, y agrega que en aquella población no se toma en serio la candidatura del general [Bernardo] Reyes”, impulsada por “vagos, enemigos de la tranquilidad pública”. Preside “El Apóstol de la Democracia” velada el 8 de julio de 1909 al interior del Teatro Apolo de Tampico, atrás de la ahora Catedral. Presagio “A […] Tampico –publica “El País”—acaban de llegar los CC. Francisco A. [sic] Madero y Félix Palavicini, propagandistas de la anti-reelección”. Prosigue: “Algunos periódicos dicen que el arribo de estos caballeros […] fue un triunfo ruidosísimo; otros, como ‘El Imparcial’, para no citar más, dicen que fue un fracaso”. Parece improbable que la asamblea desluciera. Termina sin duda favoreciéndola enojosa circunstancia. Disciplinándose, Bernardo Reyes está próximo a rechazar en de-
finitiva cualquier apetito vicepresidencial. Colgados de la brocha, avizoran los respectivos seguidores posibilidades de refugio en filas del antirreleccionismo. Mucho revela que al evento tampiqueño concurra Alberto Aragón, propietario del coliseo, haciéndole segunda Manuel de León, quienes incluso suben al proscenio. Lo anterior, porque ambos dirigen el club reyista del estado, conforme menciona “El Imparcial” en nota aparte. Descarta así Madero dedicarle a Tamaulipas actos complementarios. Urgido de alcanzar territorio regiomontano, plaza fuerte del reyismo al garete, aborda el Ferrocarril del Golfo, sin detenerse en Ciudad Victoria. “Irán a Monterrey, donde proyectan […] gran manifestación mañana domingo” 11 de julio de 1909, concluye “El País”. Madero y los exreyistas al final marchan unidos. Se cumpliría el presagio del Teatro Apolo. (Con permiso del autor según fuera publicado en La Razón, Tampico, agosto 2015)
International
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A
Activist seeking missing students is killed By JOSE ANTONIO RIVERA ASSOCIATED PRESS
ACAPULCO, Mexico — Miguel Angel Jimenez, a political activist who played a prominent early role in the search for 43 students and other missing people in southern Mexico, was slain over the weekend, an associate said Monday. The bullet-ridden body of Jimenez, a member of the Union of Towns and Organizations, or UPOEG for its initials in Spanish, was found in a car near a town where he had helped found a community police program.
UPOEG leader Bruno Placido confirmed the death and said Jimenez had received JIMENEZ threats related to his search efforts. Jimenez began organizing searches for 43 teachers’ college students who went missing after they were detained by police last September in Guerrero state. Prosecutors say corrupt local police in the city of Iguala turned the students over to members of a drug
cartel, the Guerreros Unidos, who killed the students and incinerated their bodies. But the searches Jimenez led into the mountains surrounding the city turned up clandestine graves filled with other bodies. Placido said the death threats may have come from Guerreros Unidos and Jimenez had returned to his hometown of Xaltianguis in Guerrero to be safer. Jimenez was found dead on the outskirts of Xaltianguis, and relatives buried him there Sunday. Jimenez played a key role in expanding the
search effort to include hundreds of other Iguala residents whose relatives disappeared during the cartel’s reign of kidnappings and killings. While he gradually relinquished leadership of the search efforts after November, he continued to supply information and said he had new leads. “He was always looking for somebody to help,” said Xitlali Miranda, one of the activists in the Iguala searches. “He was one of the first people to say, ‘If these aren’t the students (bodies), then who are they?”’
In July, Mexico’s attorney general’s office confirmed that at least 60 clandestine graves with 129 bodies have been found so far on the outskirts of Iguala. Most of the bodies remain unidentified. Jimenez also organized community police efforts to fight kidnappings, killings and extortion by criminal gangs, and drives to document vote fraud in June’s midterm elections. In an April interview with Kara Andrade, a doctoral student at American University, Jimenez said he had received death threats from “people who are in-
Boom prompts exclusion fears By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ ASSOCIATED PRESS
SANTIAGO, Cuba — This 500-year-old city smells of fresh paint and varnish. Residents stroll along a recently completed harbor promenade under gleaming new streetlights, enjoying sea breezes while relaxing on newly installed metal benches. Missing are the tourists. As foreign visitors flood Havana and a select group of other colonial cities and beach resorts, Cuba’s second-largest city is suffering a tourist drought. Santiago saw less than a tenth of the tourist traffic in Havana last year and less than a 20th of the visitors to the beach resort of Varadero even amid large-scale government investment in renovating the city for its 500th anniversary this summer. Other Cubans are seeing similarly stagnant visitor numbers despite the dramatic surge in overall tourism set off by the announcement of detente between the U.S. and Cuba. That’s raising concerns that a rising tide of tourist dollars will leave some areas of Cuba booming and others struggling against a backdrop of broader economic stagnation. “They’re promoting Havana and the center of the country but they’ve forgotten about Santiago,” said Gladys Domenech, who rents tourists a room in her home in the historic center that features a terrace with a sweeping view of the Caribbean. The city sits about 500 miles east of Havana on highways that narrow outside the capital to horrifically rutted roads clogged with horse carts, bicyclists and stray cows. The journey by road can last 15 hours, and far longer in Cuba’s notoriously unreliable and uncomfortable inter-city buses. Train and domestic plane tickets are virtually impossible to obtain without waiting hours in lines that may or may not end in satisfaction. There are only three flights a week from the U.S. Cruise ships provide a
volved in things and whose interests I have impacted.” “They’ve chased me, in my town (Xaltianguis) they’ve tailed and followed me from place to place,” Jimenez said. Still he kept up his activism in Guerrero, a state plagued by drug trafficking and cultivation, gang battles, extortion, illegal logging and land disputes. “I don’t do this because of me or the abuses we live now. I do this for the next generation and for my children,” Jimenez said. “If someone doesn’t sacrifice themselves right now, I ask myself who will?”
Colombia to host author’s ashes By LIBARDO CARDONA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Ramon Espinosa | AP
People return to a farm with their horses after attending a rodeo in Santiago, Cuba. As foreign visitors flood Havana and a group of other colonial cities and beach resorts, Cuba’s second-largest city is suffering a tourist drought. promising new potential source of visitors, although dockings here remain relatively rare. “It’s tough for those who go to Havana and want to come here,” said Virgen Maria Jerez, owner of an elegant private restaurant near Domenech’s home in central Santiago. “Transport is vital and we’re disconnected.” Those who do reach Santiago find a city rich with history but hampered by what visitors and residents alike call substandard accommodations, few high-quality restaurants and a lack of fun things to do at night. Cuban officials say Santiago has roughly 1,500 of Cuba’s 60,000 hotel rooms, far fewer than it needs. Santiago’s promoters lament that tourists are missing out on the city’s rich Afro-Cuban culture, its meandering streets, colonial architecture and its prized role as the home of Cuban musical genres such as trova and son. What’s more, it has a unique underwater park with seven ships sunk during the Spanish-American War, acces-
sible by small boat or a scuba dive. “It’s a treasure that we have to show off,” said Vicente Gonzalez, head of Santiago’s Center for Cultural and Natural Underwater Heritage. Along with the new oceanfront malecon and the restoration of homes in the city’s historic center, the Cuban government has built a new theater and an artisanal brewpub as part of a broader reconstruction and improvement effort that began after Hurricane Sandy devastated the city in 2012. Another potential draw, particularly for American tourists, is the memorial to Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, who fought on the city’s San Juan Hill in one of the most famous battles of the Spanish-American War that freed Cuba from Spanish rule. But virtually every tourist establishment in the city closes at 10 p.m., leaving the streets dark and silent. Last year, Santiago had 297,918 visitor-days, an industry measure of the number of tourists who arrived in the
city multiplied by the number of days each stayed. That was a 6 percent rise over 2013, but the overall number remains tiny compared to flow of tourists in Havana, which had nearly 3 million visitor days, or Varadero with 7.8 million, according to Jose Luis Perello, a professor of tourism at the University of Havana. Some advocates of U.S. travel to Cuba says they are optimistic about Santiago’s future, particularly since American tourists remain barred from pure tourism and must participate mostly in cultural or educational activities wellsuited to historic sites like Santiago. “The city and the region have much to offer. It’s just a question of time before tourism in Santiago starts growing,” said Tom Popper, head of insightCuba, one of the largest operators of U.S. tours to Cuba. “U.S. tourists can go to any part of the Caribbean for the beaches, but what they want to see is the Cuba that they haven’t been able to see for generations.”
BOGOTA, Colombia — The cremated remains of Nobel Prize-winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez are making their return journey home to Colombia and starting in December will be exhibited in the Caribbean city of Cartagena where he began his writing career. The decision to permanently exhibit the remains at colonial-era cloister in the port city’s historic downtown was the result of an agreement reached between authorities and Garcia Marquez’s family, Juan Carlos Gossain, governor of Bolivar state, told The Associated Press. MARQUEZ While books such as “100 Years of Solitude” are infused with Garcia Marquez’s reminiscences from his Colombian upbringing, many speculated his ashes would remain in Mexico, where he lived for decades and received a state funeral following his death in 2014 at the age of 87. Colombian friends of the author, who is known almost universally as “Gabo,” celebrated the decision. Garcia Marquez, who was born in a banana-growing hamlet near the Caribbean, arrived in Cartagena in 1948 and immediately landed a job as a journalist at local newspaper El Universal while continuing his law studies. The walled city was the setting for one of his best-selling novels, “Love in the Time of Cholera,” and his family still maintains a seafront house there as well as a foundation established by the author to train Latin American journalists. “These first years in Cartagena were a transcendent moment in the young writer’s life,” fellow writer and longtime confidant Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza told The Associated Press. “Cartagena is at the center of the vast Caribbean region that was so linked to his life, his experiences and his work.” The building where Garcia Marquez’s remains will be kept is owned by the University of Cartagena. Gossain said a bronze bust of the author sculpted by his friend, British artist Kate Murray, will be part of the exhibit.
What China’s devaluation means to the world By JOE MCDONALD AND PAUL WISEMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING — China rattled global financial markets Tuesday by devaluing its currency — an effort, in part, to revive economic growth. The yuan’s value declined 1.9 percent, its biggest one-day drop in a decade. The move could help Chinese companies by making their products less expensive in global markets. U.S. stocks plummeted, partly on fears about a worsening economic slowdown in China. WHAT EXACTLY DID CHINA DO? China doesn’t let its currency trade freely in financial markets as the United States does. Instead, it links the yuan’s value to the U.S. dollar. Then it restricts trading to a band 2 percent above or below a daily target set by the People’s Bank of China. On Tuesday, the central bank set the target 1.9 percent below Monday’s level — the biggest one-day change in a decade. It also made a technical change to give market forces more influence in de-
termining the yuan’s value: Its daily target will now be based on the previous day’s closing value. That change will allow the yuan to make bigger, faster moves up or down and better reflect investors’ outlook on the prospects for China and its currency, said David Dollar, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. WHY DID CHINA DEVALUE ITS CURRENCY? The People’s Bank of China said it acted because the yuan has been rising even when market forces say it should be falling. Worried Chinese have been moving money out of the country, putting downward pressure on the yuan. Yet the yuan has remained up anyway because of its link to the dollar, which has been rising. An overvalued yuan has hurt Chinese exporters by making their products more expensive overseas. In July, Chinese exports plunged 8.3 percent year over year. China’s economy already needed help. The economy is expected to grow less than 7 percent this year, its slowest rate since 1990, and could decelerate even more
Photo by Andy Wong | AP
China devalued its currency on Tuesday following a slump in trade, triggering the yuan’s biggest one-day decline in a decade. next year. The stock market has been in a freefall since June. “This move won’t solve some of the pressing problems China faces,” Sung Won Sohn, an economist at California State University Channel Islands, cautioned in a research note. “There is too much excess capacity, especially in basic industries like steel, aluminum ... A real-estate bubble is alive and well. Chinese banks are loaded with a lot of problem loans. The gyration in the stock market won’t go away.” HOW WILL CHINA’S
TRADING PARTNERS BE AFFECTED? Investors fear the worst. U.S. stocks sank Tuesday, dragged down by falling shares in such big exporters as Caterpillar and General Electric. In theory, a weaker yuan could reduce exports of U.S. goods to China, already down nearly 5 percent this year through June. But economists doubt that a one-day 2 percent drop in the yuan — a move China has called a one-time event — will do much damage to exports from the United States or other
countries. “Two percent is no big deal,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “Ten percent over the next few months would be a big deal.” American politicians, who have long charged that China keeps its currency artificially low to give its exporters an edge, denounced the devaluation. “Today’s news that China has yet again lowered the value of its currency is another harsh reminder that we cannot afford to sit idly by as China refuses to play by the rules,” Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman said in a statement. But economists didn’t see Beijing’s move as an effort to defy market forces and reduce the yuan to an artificially low level. Rather, they perceived an attempt by China to catch up to an economic reality that dictates a cheaper yuan. And the plan to let market forces play a bigger role in determining the yuan’s level is something the U.S. government itself has called for. In a statement, the U.S. Treasury Department said: “China has indicated that
the changes announced today are another step in its move to a more market-determined exchange rate. We will continue to monitor how these changes are implemented and continue to press China on the pace of its reforms.” MIGHT THE FEDERAL RESERVE DELAY A RATE HIKE? Probably not. True, a cheaper yuan hurts U.S. exporters and likely depresses U.S. inflation, which is already below the annual 2 percent rate the Fed targets. But Tuesday’s move wasn’t big enough by itself to make much difference. So the Fed is likely to go ahead, possibly at its September meeting, and raise the shortterm rate it controls, which has been pinned near zero since 2008. The U.S. economy grew at a steady 2.3 percent annual from April through June, and U.S. unemployment has fallen to a seven-year low 5.3 percent. If the U.S. economy continues to look healthy, wrote JP Morgan Chase economist Michael Feroli, “the yuan move will largely be a sideshow ‘’ by September’s Fed meeting.
Nation
10A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015
Pair arrested, accused of trying to join IS By JEFF AMY ASSOCIATED PRESS
OXFORD, Miss. — A young Mississippi couple who are charged with attempting to join the Islamic State were ordered held without bail Tuesday, pending federal grand jury action on the charges. Twenty-year-old Jaelyn Delshaun Young and 22year-old Muhammad “Mo” Dakhlalla, who were arrested at a Mississippi airport just before boarding a flight with tickets bound for Istanbul, went before U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander on Tuesday in Oxford. Alexander denied bail, saying that even though the pair have never been in trouble with the law and have relatives willing to oversee their home confinement, she believed their desire to commit terrorism is “probably still there.” During the two-day hearing, prosecutors had urged Alexander to deny bail, cit-
ing statements Young and Dakhlalla made to undercover agents and handwritten YOUNG farewell letters they left for their families saying they would never return. Assistant U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner likened them to Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, saying that like him, they could commit violence with knives, vehicles or homemade weapons. “They don’t need a gun to do harm,” Joyner said. “They don’t need military training to do harm. What they need is a violent, extremist ideology, and that’s exactly what they have espoused.” Alexander agreed that their apparent methodical planning overcame a recommendation by federal court personnel to allow pretrial release.
“It was a very calculated, step-by-step thing,” Alexander said of the planning that led the pair to the Golden Triangle Regional Airport Saturday morning. FBI agents arrested them there, filing criminal charges that both were attempting and conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist group, a federal crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. An FBI agent’s affidavit said both confessed their plans after their arrest. Defense attorneys declined to comment after the hearing, but told Alexander the material didn’t prove either had committed a crime. The families of Young and Dakhlalla were still trying to come to grips with the accusations. Dakhlalla’s family is “absolutely stunned” by his arrest, said Columbus lawyer Dennis Harmon, who represents the family. He said Tuesday they have been cooperating with the FBI.
Dakhlalla’s father, Oda H. Dakhlalla, is the longtime imam of the Islamic Center of Mississippi in Starkville, Harmon said, and has previously been reported to be a native of Bethlehem, in the West Bank. His New Jersey-born mother, Lisa Dakhlalla, has run a restaurant in Starkville and sold Middle Eastern food at farmers’ markets. Harmon said Dakhlalla is the youngest of three sons and was preparing to start graduate school at Mississippi State University. Harmon said the FBI searched the Dakhlalla home over the weekend and that the family “did not expect this at all.” Court papers say both Young and Dakhlalla are U.S. citizens. Mississippi State University spokesman Sid Salter said records show Dakhlalla graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, while Starkville High School confirmed Tuesday that he graduated
King audiotape found
from there in 2011. Salter said Young was enrolled until May as a sophomore chemistry major but has not enrolled for classes since. Young, originally from Vicksburg, Mississippi, was a 2013 honors graduate from Warren Central High School, The Vicksburg Post reported. Young’s father, Leonce Young, is a 17-year veteran of the Vicksburg Police Department. He and his wife were present Tuesday for the hearing, but declined to speak to reporters afterward. In court, prosecutors said Jaelyn Young had been trying to convert her sister to Islam as well. The government says FBI agents began interacting online with Young in May about her desire to travel to Syria to join the group. It says her Twitter page said the only thing keeping her from traveling to Syria was her need to earn money. “I just want to be there,” she is quoted as saying. In
later conversations peppered with Arabic phrases, she said she planned a “nikkah,” or Islamic marriage to Dakhlalla so they could travel without a chaperone under Islamic law. In June, the first FBI agent referred Young to a second agent posing as an Islamic State facilitator. The charging document says Young asked the second agent for help crossing from Turkey to Syria, saying, “We don’t know Turkey at all very well (I haven’t even travelled outside U.S. before.)” Young touted her skills in math and chemistry and said she and Dakhlalla wanted to be medics treating the injured. Later, the charge says, she told the second FBI agent Dakhlalla could help with the Islamic State’s Internet media, saying he “really wants to correct the falsehoods heard here” and the “U.S. media is all lies when regarding” the group.
‘Candy’ label faces ban By KRISTEN WYATT
By MARTHA WAGGONER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
RALEIGH, N.C. — Months before the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech to hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington in 1963, he fine-tuned his civil rights message before a much smaller audience in North Carolina. Reporters had covered King’s 55-minute speech at a high school gymnasium in Rocky Mount on Nov. 27, 1962, but a recording wasn’t known to exist until English professor Jason Miller found an aging reel-to-reel tape in a town library. Miller played it in public for the first time Tuesday at North Carolina State University. “It is part civil rights address. It is part mass meeting. And it has the spirit of a sermon,” Miller said. “And I never before heard Dr. King combine all those genres into one particular moment.” King used the phrase “I have a dream” eight times in his address to about 2,000 people at Booker T. Washington High School in Rocky Mount, eight months before electrifying the nation with the same words at the March on Washington. He also referred to “the
File | Associated Press
In this Aug. 28, 1963, photo, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gestures during his “I Have a Dream” speech. sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners,” saying he dreamed they would “meet at the table of brotherhood.” On the Lincoln Memorial steps, King changed that to “sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” In both, “Let Freedom Ring” served as his rallying cry. “It’s not so much the message of a man,” the Rev. William Barber, president of the state chapter of the NAACP, said Tuesday. “It’s the message of a movement, which is why he kept delivering it. It proves once again that the ‘I have a dream’ portion was not a good climax to a speech for mere applause, but an enduring call to hopeful resistance and a nonviolent challenge to injustice.”
SCHOOL Continued from Page 1A dle school was the only campus district wide that increased in every one of the four indexes. Districts and schools receive either a “met standard” or “improvement required” label based on the ability to meet four indexes: student achievement, student progress, closing performance gaps and postsecondary readiness. While the state tracks overall performance on state exams, also known as
the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, it also evaluates graduation rates and subpopulations, like special education and limited English proficient students Zapata High, Benavides Elementary, Zapata North and Zapata South Elementary also received a “met standard” rating. (Judith Rayo may be reached at (956) 728-2567 or jrayo@lmtonline.com)
Miller discovered the recording while researching “Origins of the Dream,” his book exploring similarities between King’s speeches and the poetry of Langston Hughes. His ah-ha moment came when he learned through a newspaper story about a transcript of the speech in state archives. If there’s a transcript, then there must be a recording, he thought. He sent emails and made calls until he eventually heard back in the fall of 2013 from the Braswell Public Library in Rocky Mount, where staff said a box with the recording had mysteriously appeared on a desk one day. Handwriting on the box described it as a recording of King’s speech, and said “please do not erase.”
DENVER — Edible marijuana products in Colorado may soon come labeled with a red stop sign, according to a draft of new rules released Wednesday by state marijuana regulators. The state may also ban the word “candy” from edible pot products, even if they’re sweets such as suckers or gummy chews. The new pot symbol — an octagon stop-sign shape with the letters “THC” to indicate marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient — would have to be on individual edible items, not just labels. Liquid marijuana products would be limited to single-serve packaging — defined aa 10 milligrams of THC. Regulators rejected an earlier proposal to mark edible pot with a weed-leaf symbol after a parents’ group complained the symbol would simply attract children, not dissuade them from eating the products. The proposed rules were released as the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division works on new guidelines for edible marijuana, which can be baked into cookies or brownies or added to a diz-
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T N E M L ENROL OUSE H
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William N. (Billy) Hall Jr. Student Center South Campus only AVAILABLE SERVICES:
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Admissions Advising Bookstore Registration Assessment Bursar Financial Aid (must bring 2014 IRS forms for Fall & high school transcript)
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(for those registered August 14-20)
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at Bursar’s -7pm via PASPort -11pm
Classes start August 24
Laredo Community College
West End Washington Street • 5500 South Zapata Hwy. • Laredo, TX
www.laredo.edu
Call 956.794.4110 for more information.
Photo by Brennan Linsley/file | AP
Edible marijuana products in Colorado may soon come labeled with a red stop sign as the state is finalizing rules for packaging. zying array of items from sodas, to pasta sauces, to granolas. The agency tried and failed last year to implement a requirement that edible marijuana have a distinct look when outside of its packaging, a requirement passed by state lawmakers last year amid concerns that some people were accidentally eating food infused with marijuana. The state already banned pot manufacturers from using cartoon characters on packaging or making “look-alike” products such as candies designed to mimic common foods. But the state has seen sporadic reports of people unknowingly eating pot. Perhaps most famous was a man hospitalized after un-
knowingly eating pot-infused chocolate at the 2014 Denver County Fair. The new edible pot rules face a public hearing before final adoption. Marijuana regulators in Colorado have until January to implement a 2014 law requiring edible marijuana to have a distinct look when outside its packaging. The law was passed after reports of people accidentally eating foods infused with marijuana. The agency tried but failed to come up with those rules last year after several meetings with pot manufacturers. The manufacturers complained that the law would be unwieldy when it comes to liquid products or anything besides hard candies or cookies.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A
ARNULFO CHAPA-GARZA May 23, 1926 to Aug. 7, 2015 Arnulfo Chapa Garza 89, passed away Friday, Aug. 7, 2015, at Laredo Medical Center in Laredo, Texas. Mr. Garza is preceded in death by his wife, Carlota Santos. Mr. Garza is survived by her sons, †Osvaldo Chapa, Arnulfo (Miriam) Chapa, Ambrocio (Martha) Chapa, Alejandro (Norma) Chapa; daughters, Esther (Abel) Chapa, †Marta Cisneros, Nora Hilda (Armando) Cisneros, Dora Alicia (Felipe) Morales, Olga Lidia (Hector Mario) Serna, †Carlota (†Honorato) Cantu, Ludivina (Ken) Conway; 26 grandchildren, 31 great-grandchildren, four great-great-grandchildren; brothers and sisters and by numerous nephews, nieces, other family members and friends. Visitation hours were Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2015, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a wake at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home. A chapel service will be held Wednesday, August 12,
NUQUES pursue other employment opportunities. During his tenure as superintendent, Mr. Nuques has served ZCISD well. On behalf of the entire district, the board of trustees expresses its appreciation to Mr. Raul Nuques for a job well done and for serving this great school district and its wonderful students, parents and administrators,” he said. Nuques’ resignation comes two months after he stated his relationship with the board of trustees was “better than ever,” even after an incident involving him slamming a door during a meeting.
Oil price slides to 2009 level By ALEX VEIGA ASSOCIATED PRESS
2015, at 10 a.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home. Graveside service will follow at Zapata County Cemetery at 10:30 a.m. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home Daniel A. Gonzalez, funeral director, 2102 N. U.S. Hwy. 83, Zapata, Texas.
Continued from Page 1A During ZCISD’s June 4 special called meeting, while meeting with trustees in closed session, Nuques slammed a door as he was exiting the office. He later clarified the incident, stating he had “slipped” as he was exiting the office carrying two binders. Trustees will begin a search for a permanent superintendent “as soon as possible so as not to disrupt the district’s operations,” Cruz said in the joint statement by Nuques and the board of trustees. (Judith Rayo may be reached at (956) 728-2567 or jrayo@lmtonline.com)
The price of U.S. crude oil has tumbled to its lowest level in more than six years. Benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.88, or 4 percent, to settle at $43.08 a barrel in New York on Tuesday, its lowest close since March of 2009. The latest slide came as OPEC said its production rose to a three-year high. China also devalued its currency, suggesting eco-
nomic growth there was softer and could cause lower crude demand.
Falling prices U.S. crude has been declining since reaching a high this year of $61.43 on June 10. Crude is under pressure on several fronts. Big increases in production in the U.S. and Canada, along with sizable gains in Iraq and elsewhere, have helped increase supplies.
Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations kept pumping crude at high levels and Iranian oil could soon return to the market after being kept off by sanctions. Meanwhile, worldwide demand is not as strong as expected because China’s growth has cooled and other economies have become more energy efficient. While drivers, shippers and airlines are enjoying the lower fuel prices spurred by crude’s slump, the oil industry is re-
HOUSTON er said he was running away. Sanchez took the boy home but was surprised by the reaction of the father, David Conley, after telling him his son had tried to run away. Conley “didn’t say nothing. He just looked at me. The kid went inside,” Sanchez said. “(Conley) was already in a different world.” Conley, who has a violent criminal history, faces capital murder charges after his arrest Saturday for the deaths of Nathaniel; his five siblings, 10-yearold Dewayne, 11-year-old Honesty, 9-year-old Caleb, 7-year-old Trinity; and 6year-old Jonah; their mother, Valerie Jackson, 40; and her husband, DeWayne Jackson, 50. Conley, 48, stood handcuffed and shackled and said little during his first court appearance Monday. His court appointed attorney, Joseph Scardino, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment. The family members were all shot in the head. Nathaniel was believed to
be Conley’s son from his relationship with Valerie Jackson; the other children were Valerie and Dewayne Jackson’s. Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson said authorities were alerted to what was happening in the family’s home on Saturday when Valerie Jackson sent a text to her mother, who lives in another state, saying she was being held at gunpoint. Deputies forced their way into the home later Saturday but retreated after Conley fired on them. Conley eventually gave himself up, allowing deputies to enter the home and make the gruesome discovery. Most of the victims had been handcuffed and some had been shot multiple times, police have said. “My heart goes out to that family, what they are suffering today,” Anderson said. The Harris County Sheriff ’s Office has said problems between Conley and Valerie Jackson might have led to the
sponding to lower profits with sharp cuts in spending and employment. In other futures energy trading, Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, declined $1.23, or 2.4 percent, to $49.18 a barrel in London. Wholesale gasoline closed unchanged at $1.694 a gallon, while heating oil fell 2.9 cents to close at $1.563 a gallon. Natural gas rose 0.2 cents to close at $2.844 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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shooting. The relationship between them had recently ended. Last month, Conley was charged with assault after allegedly pushing Valerie Jackson’s head against their home’s refrigerator. In 2013, Conley was charged with aggravated assault for threatening Jackson with a knife. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine months in the county jail. Vilma Flores, 61, who was the couple’s next door neighbor, said she worried about the children as they were sometimes left without adult supervision. Sanchez said he would sometimes see the youngest child, 6-year-old Jonah, playing in the street with his siblings and no adults around. Estella Olguin, a spokeswoman for Child Protective Services, said her agency had been involved with the family, but she declined to offer details. Sanchez and other neighbors questioned why authorities didn’t go into the home sooner Saturday,
knowing the family’s troubled history and Conley’s violent criminal record. Neighbors said they saw deputies come to the home at least twice earlier in the day, knock on the front door and leave when no one answered. Sgt. Craig Clopton, the lead investigator, said Sunday that he couldn’t “reveal the exact parameters of those decisions.” “There are certain circumstances when we can make entry and certain circumstances where we can’t. Even though we want to, sometimes the law prohibits that. ... It wasn’t until officers looked in the window and actually saw somebody injured that the decision was made that now we have enough to go in.” Investigators have declined to say when on Saturday the victims were shot or if any were alive when deputies first tried to enter the home. Anderson said her office hasn’t yet decided whether to seek the death penalty against Conley.
MINE LEAK Continued from Page 1A The Navajos, whose sovereign nation covers parts of New Mexico, Utah and Arizona, shut down water intake systems and stopped diverting water from the San Juan River. Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye told The Associated Press that regional EPA officials told him the cleanup could take decades. “Decades. That is totally, completely unsettling,” Begaye said. “This is a huge issue. This river, the San Juan, is our lifeline, not only in a spiritual sense but also it’s an economic base that sustains the people that live along the river. You’re taking away the livelihood and maybe taking it away from them for decades. ... That is just, to me, a disaster of a huge proportion. And we have yet to hear from the Obama ad-
ministration.” Heavy metals from Gold King and other defunct mines in Colorado have been leaching out and killing fish and other species for decades as rain and snowmelt spills from mining operations left abandoned and exposed. The EPA has considered making part of the Animas River in Colorado a Superfund site for a quarter-century. It would have provided more resources for a cleanup, but some in Colorado opposed Superfund status, fearing the stigma and the federal strings attached, so the EPA agreed to allow local officials to lead cleanup efforts instead. Now the Attorneys General of Utah, New Mexico and Colorado are coordinating a response to ensure
“whatever remediation is necessary occurs as quickly as possible,” Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said in a statement. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert expressed disappointment with the EPA’s initial handling of the spill, but said the state has no plans for legal action. New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, however, said she would not take anything off the table and that the EPA should be held to the same standards as industry. “Right now we have people preparing for a lawsuit if that is what we need to do,” she said Tuesday. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, himself a former geologist, visited a contaminated stretch of river Tuesday and said he hopes a “silver lining” to the disaster will be a more aggres-
sive state and federal effort to deal with mining’s “legacy of pollution” across the West. The EPA has said the current flows too fast for the contaminants to pose an immediate health threat, and that the heavy metals will likely be diluted over time so that they don’t pose a longer-term threat, either. Still, as a precautionary measure, the agency said stretches of the rivers would be closed for drinking water, recreation and other uses at least through Aug. 17. Dissolved iron is what turned the waste plume an alarming orange-yellow, a color familiar to old-time miners who call it “yellow boy.” “The water appears worse aesthetically than it actually is, in terms of
health,” said Ron Cohen, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the Colorado School of Mines. Tests show some of the metals have settled to the bottom and would dissolve only if conditions became acidic, which Cohen said isn’t likely. He advises leaving the metals where they settle, and counting on next spring’s mountain snowmelt to dilute them more and flush them downstream. No die-off of wildlife along the river has been detected. Federal officials say all but one of a test batch of fingerling trout deliberately exposed to the water survived over the weekend. As a precaution, state and federal officials ordered public water systems to turn off intake valves as the plume passes. Boaters
and fishing groups have been told to avoid affected stretches of the Animas and San Juan rivers, which are usually crowded with rafters and anglers in a normal summer. Farmers also have been forced to stop irrigating, endangering their crops, and recreational businesses report losing thousands of dollars. “We had lots of trips booked. Right now we’re just canceling by the day,” said Drew Beezley, co-owner of 4 Corners Whitewater in Durango, Colorado. He said his dozen employees are out of work, and he’s lost about $10,000 in business since the spill. “We don’t really know what the future holds yet,” said Beezley. “We don’t know if the rest of this season is just scrapped.”
12A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015