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VOTER ID
MIDEAST
Voter ID law before federal court judge
American down Video could show journalist’s beheading By ZEINA KARAM
US Justice Department says the law discriminates against minorities By PAUL J. WEBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
CORPUS CHRISTI — A federal judge on Tuesday began reviewing tough new Texas voter ID rules challenged by the Obama administration in a trial that could threaten the polarizing law, although a decision isn’t expected before the November election. Minority rights groups, voters and Democratic lawmakers are among a coalition of plaintiffs suing Texas, and they say their experts have estimated 787,000 registered voters lacking one of seven acceptable forms of ID to cast a ballot under the law. They say blacks and Hispanics make up a disproportionate slice of those voters. Texas is the first test by the Justice Department to wring protections from a weaker Voting Rights Act after the U.S. Supreme Court last year gutted the heart of the landmark 1965 civil rights law. In two Texas elections since that ruling, voters have been required to show an approved ID. Lawyers for Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the favorite to become governor in January, told a judge that both took place without glitches or disenfranchising voters. “This requirement is one that Americans comply with every day to engage in mundane activities like cashing a check, opening a bank account or boarding a plane,” said Reed Clay, a special assistant under Abbott. The trial in front of U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos in Corpus Christi is expected to last two weeks, but a ruling isn’t expected until after Election Day. That means roughly 13.6 million registered voters in Texas would still need to produce a photo ID this fall. Conservative states have rushed to pass voter ID restrictions in recent years, and similar lawsuits are ongoing in Wisconsin and North Carolina. Measures in Georgia
and Indiana have survived challenges. But the office of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says the Texas law stands out as especially stringent and racially motivated. Unlike other states with voter ID restrictions, Texas doesn’t recognize university IDs from college students at polling places, but does accept concealed handgun licenses as proof of identity. Free voting IDs are available from the state, but opponents say getting those cards still put underlying financial costs on voters, such as paying for birth certificate copies and travel. “The U.S. will show that (the law) interacts with social and historical conditions in Texas to cause inequality,” said Elizabeth Westfall, an attorney in the Justice Department’s civil rights division. Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed the voter ID law in 2011. It was blocked after a court ruled that it would disproportionately affect the poor and minorities, a finding that came under a review mandated by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Section 5 required nine mostly southern states with a history of discrimination to seek approval from either the U.S. Justice Department or a federal court, before changing election laws. But after the Supreme Court struck down Section 5 last summer, Texas was free to implement voter ID. The Justice Department argues that the law still runs afoul of the Voting Rights Act but now faces the higher threshold of proving intentional discrimination to prevail in court. Clay said opponents came up empty despite volumes of evidence and hours of depositions. He also contested the number of Texas registered voters who don’t have an acceptable form of ID, citing flaws in the state’s voter rolls. Between 2000 and 2010,
See VOTER ID PAGE 11A
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIRUT — Islamic State extremists released a video Tuesday purportedly showing the beheading of a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff, and warning President Barack Obama that as long as U.S. airstrikes against the militant group continue, “our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.” The footage — depicting what the U.S. called a sickening act of brutality
STEVEN SOTLOFF
— was posted two weeks after the release of video showing the killing of
James Foley and just days after Sotloff ’s mother pleaded for his life. Barak Barfi, a spokesman for the family, said that the Sotloffs had seen the video but that authorities have not established its authenticity. “The family knows of this horrific tragedy and is grieving privately. There will be no public comment from the family during this difficult time,” Barfi said. Sotloff, a 31-year-old Miami-area native who freelanced for Time and
Foreign Policy magazines, vanished in Syria in August 2013 and was not seen again until he appeared in a video released last month that showed Foley’s beheading. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit against an arid Syrian landscape, Sotloff was threatened in that video with death unless the U.S. stopped airstrikes on the Islamic State. In the video distributed Tuesday and titled “A Second Message to America,”
See SYRIA PAGE 11A
TRANSPORTATION
DANGEROUS RECLINE
Photo by John Mone/file | AP
Rows of slimline seats await installation aboard a Southwest Airlines 737 in Dallas, on Sept. 23, 2013. “Seats are getting closer together,” says Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents 60,000 flight attendants at 19 airlines.
It’s no longer safe to lean back in your seat By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Squeezed into tighter and tighter spaces, airline passengers appear to be rebelling, taking their frustrations out on other fliers. Three U.S. flights made unscheduled landings in the past eight days after passengers got into fights over the ability to recline their seats. Disputes over a tiny bit of personal space might seem petty, but for passengers
whose knees are already banging into tray tables, every inch counts. “Seats are getting closer together,” says Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents 60,000 flight attendants at 19 airlines. “We have to de-escalate conflict all the time.” There are fights over overhead bin space, legroom and where to put winter coats. “We haven’t hit the end of it,” Nelson says. “The condi-
tions continue to march in a direction that will lead to more and more conflict.” Airlines today are juggling terror warnings in Britain, an Ebola outbreak in Africa and an Icelandic volcano erupting and threating to close down European airspace. Yet, the issue of disruptive passengers has captured the world’s attention. It’s getting to the point where the pre-flight safety videos need an additional warning: Be nice to your
neighbor. The International Air Transport Association calls unruly passengers “an escalating problem,” saying there was one incident for every 1,300 flights in the past three years. The trade group would not share detailed historical data to back up the assertion that this is a growing problem. Today’s flying experience is far from glamorous. Passengers wait in long lines
See RECLINING
PAGE 11A
UTILITY SERVICE
New $1B power line to improve area’s service ASSOCIATED PRESS
McALLEN — Construction continues on a new $1 billion electricity line in South Texas that officials said will not only improve service in the state’s Rio Grande Valley but also allow energy generated in South Texas to be delivered to the rest of the state. The project was approved by the Electric Reliability Council
of Texas — the state’s electric grid operator — and the Public Utility Commission after a cold snap in February 2011 brought snow and ice to much of the state and resulted in rolling blackouts. The new line is set to be completed by 2016, the Monitor of McAllen reported Monday. The project’s cost is being paid by all Texas electricity users as officials said the line
would theoretically reduce congestion on the state power grid. The new line is part of the Cross Valley Project, headed by American Electric Power Texas and its affiliate, Electric Transmission Texas. Currently, more than 1.3 million people rely on two 20-yearold electricity lines in South Texas that run down from the Corpus Christi area to North Edinburg and Rio Hondo.
The project will not only provide the Rio Grande Valley with added capacity for energy delivery, but it will also allow American Electric Power to maintain the two existing lines more easily, said Lee Jones, a spokesman for AEP Texas. “For some time we wanted to build a line from Laredo to Edinburg because the capacity needs, with the area growing, it needs extra capacity,” Jones said. “And
one of the problems of only having two lines is that on the hot summer days too, we need both up and running and there’s no opportunity to take them down for maintenance.” Officials said the project will allow more energy generated by the Rio Grande Valley to be delivered north, like the power produced at a $410 million wind farm under construction in Starr County.
PAGE 2A
Zin brief CALENDAR
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014
AROUND TEXAS
TODAY IN HISTORY
Wednesday, Sept.3
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bible study. 7 p.m. Lighthouse Assembly of God Church, 8731 Belize Dr. Every Wednesday. Contact Ricardo Rangel Jr. at 333-9294 or ricardo_grace@yahoo.com
Thursday, Sept. 4 Grief support group. Noon to 1:30 p.m. First United Methodist Church, 1220 McClelland Ave. Free and open to public. Contact Patricia Cisneros at 722-1674 or pcisneros@mhm.org. Sisters of Mercy “Conversations with the Sisters,” a series of discussions focusing on earth, nonviolence, women, racism and immigration. 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. 1000 Mier St. Los Amigos Duplicate Bridge Club meeting. 1:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. Laredo Country Club. Contact Beverly Cantu at 727-0589.
Friday, Sept. 5 Photo by Jay Janner/American-Statesman | AP
Women in Leadership. Positive role models event. Noon to 1:30 p.m. Palenque Grill. Contact Abby Willett or Sylvia Praesel at wwconnection.org.
Saturday, Sept. 6 FUMC Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Contact Sue Webber, administrative assistant, at 722-1674 or fumc_office@sbcglobal.net.
Wednesday, Sept. 10 21st annual Logistics & Manufacturing Symposium. Texas A&M International University. Contact the Laredo Development Foundation at 800-8200564, 722-0563 or ldfinfo@ldfonline.org.
Thursday, Sept. 11 Grief support group. Noon to 1:30 p.m. First United Methodist Church, 1220 McClelland Ave. Free and open to public. Contact Patricia Cisneros at 722-1674 or pcisneros@mhm.org. Los Amigos Duplicate Bridge Club will meet at the Laredo Country Club from 1:15 to 5 p.m. Contact Beverly Cantu at 727-0589.
Saturday, Sept. 13 21st annual Logistics & Manufacturing Symposium. Texas A&M International University. Contact the Laredo Development Foundation at 800-8200564, 722-0563 or ldfinfo@ldfonline.org. South Texas Collectors Expo. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Laredo Energy Arena. Celebrities, comic book artists, cosplayers, vendors and more. Tickets on sale at LEA box office and Ticketmaster.com. Visit southtexascollectorsexpo.com or email info@stcelaredo.com.
Thursday, Sept. 18 Grief support group. Noon to 1:30 p.m. First United Methodist Church, 1220 McClelland Ave. Free and open to public. Contact Patricia Cisneros at 722-1674 or pcisneros@mhm.org. Los Amigos Duplicate Bridge Club will meet at the Laredo Country Club from 1:15 to 5 p.m. Contact Beverly Cantu at 727-0589. Spanish Club Meeting. 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Laredo Public Library-Calton. Contact Sylvia Reash at 763-1810.
Thursday, Sept. 25 Grief support group. Noon to 1:30 p.m. First United Methodist Church, 1220 McClelland Ave. Free and open to public. Contact Patricia Cisneros at 722-1674 or pcisneros@mhm.org.
Friday, Sept. 26 Los Amigos Duplicate Bridge Club meeting. 1:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. Laredo Country Club. Contact Beverly Cantu at 727-0589.
Monday, Sept. 29 Monthly meeting of Laredo Parkinson’s Disease Support Group. 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Laredo Medical Center, Tower B, First Floor Community Center. Patients, caregivers and family members invited. Free info pamphlets available in Spanish and English. Call Richard Renner (English) at 645-8649 or Juan Gonzalez (Spanish) at 2370666. (Submit calendar items at lmtonline.com/calendar/submit or by emailing editorial@lmtonline.com with the event’s name, date and time, location and purpose and contact information for a representative.)
The University of Texas campus and downtown Austin are shown Oct. 3, 2013. Some online higher education courses are costing Texans more money than brick-and-mortar classes. The Dallas Morning News analyzed 18 universities and found that only the University of North Texas in Denton and the University of Texas at Austin had lower costs for online classes.
Some online courses costly ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Some online higher education courses are costing Texans more money than brick-and-mortar classes. At the University of Texas at Arlington, students are charged an extra fee of $75 to $90 per online class to “defray the cost of course development and implementation,” said Pete Smith, the college’s vice provost for digital teaching and learning. The Dallas Morning News analyzed 18 universities and found that only the University of North Texas in Denton and the University of Texas at Austin had lower costs for online classes. State leaders have hailed online education as one fix for ballooning college prices, but tuition for those classes can be more than 20 percent higher. In 2011, Texas Gov. Rick Perry chal-
lenged state public universities to establish bachelor’s degrees that would cost $10,000 or less. Some state lawmakers and public policy groups say online courses could be the answer to reducing tuition rates by opening a way for universities to save on facility and faculty costs. But many of the online courses include extra fees or additional costs per credit hour. University officials said higher tuition rates for online courses are the result of expensive infrastructure and the costs for designing the courses. Barmak Nassirian, of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, said online courses aren’t a solution to rising college tuition in Texas and across the nation.
2 tasty creations win State Fair of Texas honors
University of Texas campaign tops $3 billion
Police: Man assaulted neighbor, damaged drone
DALLAS — A Cajun creation and funnel cake flavored beer have won the culinary competition ahead of this year’s State Fair of Texas. Fair officials in Dallas on Monday announced the winners for the Best Tasting and Most Creative new foods at the expo. The winners were among eight finalists that will be for sale during the State Fair of Texas, which runs from Sept. 26 to Oct. 19.
AUSTIN — The University of Texas says it has topped its $3 billion goal in an eight-year fundraising campaign. The Campaign for Texas ended Aug. 31. School officials say it raised $856 million in the final year, bringing the total to $3.1 billion in gifts, pledges and donations. The donations helped fund 830 new student scholarship and support endowments, as well as other projects.
AUSTIN — An Austin man has been arrested for head-butting his neighbor and damaging the victim’s hand-held ham radio and personal drone. Steven Anthony Garza faces assault and criminal mischief charges. Travis County jail records show Garza remained in custody as of Tuesday afternoon.
Girl, 5, dies after San Angelo domestic dispute
Ex-fire chief in Southeast Texas accused of theft
SAN ANGELO — A West Texas man has been charged with murder after police say a 5-yearold girl was assaulted at a home and later died. Tom Green County jail records show 23-year-old Isidro Miguel DeLacruz Jr. of San Angelo was being held without bond on a murder charge.
GALVESTON — A former volunteer fire chief in Southeast Texas has surrendered on theftrelated counts after about $70,000 in department money allegedly was misspent. The Galveston County Sheriff ’s Office says David Miles Loop, 56, turned himself in Tuesday.
2 teens injured after falling out of carnival ride EL PASO — Two teenagers are recovering after being injured when they fell out of a carnival ride at a church bazaar. The male and female, both 13 years old, were taken to University Medical Center in El Paso. Police say their injuries are not believed to be life threatening. Authorities say no charges have been filed and the incident remains under investigation. — Compiled from AP reports
AROUND THE NATION School mourns alumnus likely slain MERIDEN, N.H. — A New Hampshire school is mourning the apparent videotaped slaying of a former student who vanished in Syria last year. A video surfaced Tuesday purportedly showing 31-year-old journalist Steven Sotloff being beheaded by the Islamic State group in Syria. Sotloff graduated in 2002 from Kimball Union Academy in Meriden. The Academy says in a statement on its website he revitalized its student newspaper, was on the student council and played varsity football and rugby.
Los Angeles jury convicts man of 3 serial murders LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles jury has convicted a career criminal in the serial killings of three women in the 1980s. The jury on Tuesday found 74-
Today is Wednesday, September 3, the 246th day of 2014. There are 119 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On September 3, 1939, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland; in a radio address, Britain’s King George VI said, “With God’s help, we shall prevail.” The same day, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the British liner SS Athenia some 250 miles off the Irish coast, killing more than 100 out of the 1,400 or so people on board. On this date: In 1189, England’s King Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) was crowned in Westminster Abbey. In 1658, Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, died in London; he was succeeded by his son, Richard. In 1783, representatives of the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Revolutionary War. In 1923, the United States and Mexico resumed diplomatic relations. In 1944, British forces liberated Brussels during World War II. In 1976, America’s Viking 2 lander touched down on Mars to take the first close-up, color photographs of the planet’s surface. In 1989, a Cubana de Aviacion jetliner crashed after takeoff in Havana, killing all 126 aboard and 45 people on the ground. In 1994, China and Russia proclaimed an end to any lingering hostilities, pledging they would no longer target nuclear missiles or use force against each other. Ten years ago: A three-day hostage siege at a school in Beslan, Russia, ended in bloody chaos after Chechen militants set off bombs as Russian commandos stormed the building; more than 330 people, over half of them children, were killed. Five years ago: Vice President Joe Biden told a Brookings Institution gathering that the Obama administration was fiercely determined to get a health care overhaul, although he conceded it likely wouldn’t happen without “an awful lot of screaming and hollering.” One year ago: Ariel Castro, who’d held three women captive in his Cleveland home for nearly a decade before one escaped and alerted authorities, was found hanged in his prison cell, a suicide. Today’s Birthdays: “Beetle Bailey” cartoonist Mort Walker is 91. Actress Anne Jackson is 89. Actress Pauline Collins is 74. Rock singer-musician Al Jardine is 72. Actress Valerie Perrine is 71. Rock musician Donald Brewer (Grand Funk Railroad) is 66. Rock guitarist Steve Jones (The Sex Pistols) is 59. Actor Steve Schirripa is 57. Actor Holt McCallany is 50. Rock singer-musician Todd Lewis is 49. Actor Charlie Sheen is 49. Singer Jennifer Paige is 41. Dance-rock musician Redfoo (LMFAO) is 39. Actress Ashley Jones is 38. Actress Nichole Hiltz is 36. Actor Nick Wechsler is 36. Rock musician Tomo Milicevic (30 Seconds to Mars) is 35. Thought for Today: “It is awfully important to know what is and what is not your business.” — Gertrude Stein, American author (1874-1946).
CONTACT US Publisher, William B. Green....................... 728-2501 Account Executive, Dora Martinez ...... (956) 765-5113 General Manager, Adriana Devally .............. 728-2510 Adv. Billing Inquiries ................................ 728-2531 Circulation Director ................................. 728-2559 MIS Director, Michael Castillo.................... 728-2505 Managing Editor, Nick Georgiou ................. 728-2565 Sports Editor, Zach Davis ......................... 728-2578 Spanish Editor, Melva Lavin-Castillo............ 728-2569 Photo by Jeff Wheeler/The Star Tribune | AP
Mr. Peabody runs to the finish line in the sixth heat of a dog race on Monday at Canterbury Park, in Shakopee, Minn. Canterbury Park hosted their annual Labor Day Wiener Dog Wars in which dogs competed in seven races on the horse track. year-old Samuel Little guilty of three counts of murder. The victims were 41-year-old Carol Alford, whose body was found on July 13, 1987; 35-yearold Audrey Nelson, found on Aug. 14, 1989; and 46-year-old Guadalupe Apodaca, found on
Sept. 3, 1989. The prosecution was made possible by advances in DNA technology. Little was arrested in 2012 after detectives from Los Angeles found him living in Kentucky. — Compiled from AP reports
SUBSCRIPTIONS/DELIVERY (956) 728-2555 The Zapata Times is distributed on Saturdays to 4,000 households in Zapata County. For subscribers of the Laredo Morning Times and for those who buy the Laredo Morning Times at newsstands, the Zapata Times is inserted. The Zapata Times is free. The Zapata Times is published by the Laredo Morning Times, a division of The Hearst Corporation, P.O. Box 2129, Laredo, Texas 78044. Phone (956) 728-2500. The Zapata office is at 1309 N. U.S. Hwy. 83 at 14th Avenue, Suite 2, Zapata, TX 78076. Call (956) 765-5113 or e-mail thezapatatimes.net
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A
FOOD BANK RECEIVES GROCER’S ASSISTANCE
Disaster assistance program ends Oct. 1 Ranchers who have applied for support by Sept. 30 will not be impacted by ending date SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Courtesy photo
H-E-B customers raised $731,000 to benefit 16 food banks. On Aug. 29, a check for $9,000 was presented to the South Texas Food Bank in Laredo from tear-pad campaign that ran May 7 to June 25.
Dolly eyes Mexico Zapata and the area may see its share of thunderstorms ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO CITY — Tropical Storm Dolly headed Tuesday for a soggy collision with Mexico’s Gulf coast, where authorities suspended school classes and readied shelters. The storm’s maximum sustained winds were near 45 mph and some strengthening was possible as Dolly’s center approached the coast in the evening and moved over land overnight, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The storm was expected to bring 5 to 10 inches of rain to states of Tamaulipas and Veracruz, along the Gulf coast and inland. In Zapata, residents can expect thunderstorms beginning today and running through Sunday. Highs this week are expected in the mid-90s with lows in the mid-70s.
Expected rainfall percentages are, according to the National Weather Service: Today: 60 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms Thursday: 40 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms Friday: 40 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms Saturday: 50 percent chance of afternoon thunderstorms, and Sunday: 40 percent chance of afternoon thunderstorms. A slim chance of rain is forecasat for Monday. A tropical storm warning for Mexico’s coast covered an area from Cabo Rojo to Barra el Mezquital. Dolly was centered about 40 miles east of the port city of Tampico by Tuesday evening. It was moving to the west at 10 mph. Tamaulipas state authorities said shelters were be-
ing readied and that classes would be suspended Wednesday in several municipalities along the Gulf coast. Authorities in neighboring Veracruz state ordered classes in the whole state suspended. “Classes will be suspended in the whole state of #Veracruz because of Tropical Story #Dolly,” wrote Veracruz Gov. Javier Duarte on his Twitter account. Also Tuesday, another tropical storm, Norbert, formed off the Mexico’s Pacific coast. Norbert’s center was about 145 miles west of Manzanillo. It was moving toward the north-northeast, but Hurricane Center forecasters said it was expected to turn west and head away from land. Maximum sustained winds were around 45 mph, and the storm was forecast to strengthen somewhat in the next two days.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is encouraging producers who have suffered eligible disaster-related losses to act to secure assistance by Sept. 30, as congressionally mandated payment reductions will take place for producers who have not acted before that date. Livestock producers that have experienced grazing losses since October 2011 and may be eligible for benefits but have not yet contacted their local Farm Service Agency office should do so as soon as possible. The Budget Control Act passed by Congress in 2011 requires USDA to implement reductions of 7.3 percent to the Livestock Forage Disaster Program in the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. However, producers seeking LFP support who have scheduled appointments with their local FSA office before Oct. 1, even if the appointment occurs after Oct.1, will not see reductions in the amount of disaster relief they receive. USDA is encouraging producers to register, request an appointment or begin a Livestock Forage Disaster Program application with their county FSA office before Oct. 1, to lock in the current zero percent sequestration rate. As an additional aid to qualified producers applying for LFP, the Farm Service’s Agency
has developed an online registration that enables farmers and ranchers to put their names on an electronic list before the deadline to avoid reductions in their disaster assistance. This is an alternative to visiting or contacting the county office. To place a name on the Livestock Forage Disaster Program list online, visit http:// www.fsa.usda.gov/disaster-register . Producers who already contacted the county office and have an appointment scheduled need do nothing more. “In just four months since disaster assistance enrollments began, we’ve processed 240,000 applications to help farmers and ranchers who suffered losses,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Eligible producers who have not yet contacted their local FSA office should stop by or call their local FSA office, or sign up online before Oct. 1 when congressionally mandated payment reductions take effect. This will ensure they receive as much financial assistance as possible.” The Livestock Indemnity Program, the Tree Assistance Program and the Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program Frost Freeze payments will also be cut by 7.3 percent on Oct. 1. Unlike the Livestock Forage Disaster Program, applications for these programs must be fully completed
by Sept. 30. FSA offices will prioritize these applications, but as the full application process can take several days or more to complete, producers are encouraged to begin the application process as soon as possible. The Livestock Forage Disaster Program compensates eligible livestock producers who suffered grazing losses due to drought or fire between Oct. 1, 2011 and Dec. 31. Eligible livestock includes alpacas, beef cattle, buffalo, beefalo, dairy cattle, deer, elk, emus, equine, goats, llamas, poultry, reindeer, sheep or swine that have been or would have been grazing the eligible grazing land or pastureland. Producers forced to liquidate their livestock may also be eligible for program benefits. Additionally, the 2014 Farm Bill eliminated the risk management purchase requirement. Livestock producers are no longer required to purchase coverage under the federal crop insurance program or Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program to be eligible for Livestock Forage Disaster Program assistance. To learn more about USDA disaster relief program, producers can review the 2014 Farm Bill fact sheet at www.fsa.usda.gov/farmbill, the LFP program fact sheet, http:// go.usa.gov/5JTk, or contact their local FSA office.
PAGE 4A
Zopinion
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO EDITORIAL@LMTONLINE.COM
COLUMN
OTHER VIEWS
No fear nor inspiration in words Obama speaks, but his words ring hollow to nation, enemies By FRANK BRUNI NEW YORK TIMES
There are things that you think and things that you say. There’s what you reckon with privately and what you utter publicly. There are discussions suitable for a lecture hall and those that befit the bully pulpit. These sets overlap but aren’t the same. Has President Barack Obama lost sight of that? It’s a question fairly asked after his statement last week that “we don’t have a strategy yet” for dealing with Islamic extremists in Syria. Not having a strategy, at least a fixed, definitive one, is understandable. The options aren’t great, the answers aren’t easy and the stakes are enormous. But announcing as much? It’s hard to see any percentage in that. It gives no comfort to Americans. It puts no fear in our enemies. Just as curious was what Obama followed that up with. Speaking at a fundraiser Friday, he told donors, “If you watch the nightly news, it feels like the world is falling apart.” He had that much right. But it wasn’t the whole of his message. In a statement of the obvious, he also said, “The world has always been messy.” And he coupled that with a needless comparison, advising Americans to bear in mind that the rise of the Islamic State, the rapacity of Putin, the bedlam in Libya and the rest of it were “not something that is comparable to the challenges we faced during the Cold War.” Set aside the question of how germane the example of the Cold War is. When the gut-twisting image stuck in your head is of a masked madman holding a crude knife to the neck of an American on his knees in the desert, when you’re reading about crucifixions in the 21st century, when you’re hearing about women sold by jihadists as sex slaves, and when British leaders have just raised the threat level in their country to “severe,” the last thing that you want to be told is that it’s par for the historical course, all a matter of perspective and not so cosmically dire. Where’s the reassurance — or the sense of urgency — in that? And maybe the second-to-last thing that you want to be told is that technology and social media amplify peril in a new way and may be the reason you’re feeling especially on edge. Obama said something along those lines, too. It’s not the terror, folks. It’s the tweets. Is the president consoling us — or himself ? It’s as if he’s tak-
en his interior monologue and wired it to speakers in the town square. And it’s rattling. When he came along, many of us were fed up with misinformation and “Mission Accomplished” theatrics and bluster. America had paid a price for them in young lives. And we were tired and leery of an oversimplified, Hollywood version of world affairs, of the Manichaean lexicon of “evil empire” and “axis of evil.” We longed for something less rash and more nuanced. But there’s plenty of territory between the bloated and bellicose rhetoric of then and what Obama is giving us now. He’s adopted a strange language of self-effacement, with notes of defeatism, reminding us that “America, as the most powerful country on earth, still does not control everything”; that we must be content at times with singles and doubles in lieu of home runs; that not doing stupid stuff is its own accomplishment. This is all true. It’s in tune with our awareness of our limits. And it reflects a prudent disinclination to repeat past mistakes and overreach. But that doesn’t make it the right message for the world’s lone superpower (whether we like it or not) to articulate and disseminate. That doesn’t make it savvy, constructive PR. And the low marks that Americans currently give the president, especially for foreign policy, suggest that it’s not exactly what we were after. In The Washington Post on Sunday, Karen DeYoung and Dan Balz observed that while Obama’s nostrategy remark “may have had the virtue of candor,” it in no way projected “an image of presidential resolve or decisiveness at a time of international turmoil.” And no matter what Obama ultimately elects to do, such an image is vital. But in its place are oratorical shrugs and an aura of hesitancy, even evasion, as he and John Kerry broadcast that the United States shouldn’t be expected to act on its own. Isn’t that better whispered to our allies and negotiated behind closed doors? Echoing Hillary Clinton to some degree, Sen. Dianne Feinstein just complained that Obama was perhaps “too cautious.” Not in what he says, he’s not. Not when he draws and then erases red lines. Not with his recent adjectives. “Messy” is my kitchen at the end of a long weekend. What’s happening in much of Syria and Iraq is monstrous.
COLUMN
Growth doesn’t use old signs
“
KEN HERMAN
AUSTIN — Semi-rhetorical question: Is there a square inch around here that’s not under destruction or construction? The big news is there’s a retail/residential planned unit development planned for your guest bathroom. Just kidding, but I’d keep an eye out for that if I were you. Amazing, isn’t it, how the ongoing facelift is changing the town? I was a bit wistful recently when I noticed the disappearance of the Burnet Road building that many years ago housed an Academy back when Academy was more surplus than sporting goods. That part of Burnet Road is moving toward an overdue overhaul. So are parts of North and South Lamar Boulevard. So is East Austin. So is South Austin. So is, it seems, Everywhere Austin. This, of course, is unsettling to those of us who live in homes that occurred naturally and did not replace or displace anything. As we advance to what’s next, I’m intrigued by the signs of what’s been left behind. I’m talking about actual signs, those oft-hated markers that, for better or worse, become familiar parts of the landscape. At some imprecise point in its lifespan, a sign can move from eyesore to icon. Back in 2012, I wrote about
the Don-Mar Motor Court sign that stood on South Congress Avenue for decades, including several years after the Don-Mar was gone. Ben’s Workshop, a car repair place, was moving to the location, and owner Bill Morey was eager to save the old sign by finding a new home for it. He did, selling it in 2013 to Don Lougheed, who placed it with his wonderful collection of old and curious vehicles on display at Crestview RV in Buda. It was a perfect match. Today, I’ve got some more orphan signs to report on, and I’d like to hear from you if you know of others. The definition is simple: Signs that mark where something used to be. Let’s start with a favorite, the sign at South Congress Avenue and East St. Elmo Road where the, as it’s called on the sign, St-Elmo-Tel used to be. Both sides of the sign still promise “Cable-HBO,” but only the south side still boasts about “Color TV by RCA.” The wonderfully named StElmo-Tel was torn down in 2006, but the sign lives on. And, I’m happy to report, it will continue to do so. Deacon Shields, the broker on the deal, said November groundbreaking is planned on a 162-unit condo project where the St-Elmo-Tel and an equally gone apartment complex used to stand. I asked Shields if he’d ever fielded any calls from anyone wanting the old sign. “About once a week,” he said. The sign will be preserved and somehow incorporated
into the project design. Inevitably, and appropriately, he called the sign “iconic.” On Burnet Road, the big Nelson Puett Real Estate sign long has stood out in the jungle of signs along that stretch of road. The company moved to West Anderson Lane in 2008, but the sign remains at the Burnet Road location where the company had been since the 1950s. The property under the old sign is being reborn as a restaurant and other businesses. Nick Tarantino of Tarantino Properties, which is handling the transformation, is not sure what’s going to happen to the sign. Nelson Puett, the son of the late Nelson Puett who started the real estate firm, said the sign’s been there since 1955. “I toyed with the idea of seeing if the city would let me move it up here to our new office but I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t,” said Puett, who is pleased with how Burnet Road is changing. “Things change and people move on and Austin grows.” The next three orphan signs (two at the same place) are fairly close to each other. Long after it closed, the sign for the Marimont Cafeteria still stands (with graffiti — some kind of fish on one side and stitches, a big button and a crowned penguin on the other — on the bricks that hold it up) on the now-vacant lot on West 38th Street, between Guadalupe and Ronson streets. That’s where the wellknown cafeteria stood for 30 years prior to closing in 2005. There’s a no-trespassing sign, but no hints of what’s to
come, if anything, on the lot. “This was the best cafeteria ever,” says a bit of hyperbole on Yelp. My cafeteria sample size is not large enough to reach such a sweeping conclusion, but I do know that late author James Michener was a Marimont regular. New to the orphan sign category are the two that say “Lamar Village” where the recently demolished shopping center used to be at North Lamar Boulevard and West 38th Street. The signs, one on North Lamar and one on West 38th, are all that’s left of Lamar Village. The signs, though unremarkable, long were familiar sights to folks passing through that busy area. Lamar Village is to be replaced by Lamar Central, a mixed-use development with office and retail space. The previews posted on the project website don’t include either of the Lamar Village signs. But David Bodenman, vice president for Highland Resources Inc., owners of the 1970s-era property since the early 1980s, said the signs are still up because project officials are looking for ways to incorporate them into the new project. Reuse would mean leaving them were they are, which is probably not an option. But adaptive reuse, which would mean relocating them into the new project, is the way Bodenman wants to go. Nice, isn’t it, when orphans find a nice new home? So who knows of other orphan signs around town that might need new homes?
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Business
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014
THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A
$1.4B penalty for blast Home Depot eyes possible breach
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO — California regulatory judges recommended a $1.4 billion penalty on Tuesday — the largest safety-related levy ever against a public utility in the state — for a fiery 2010 gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in a suburban San Francisco neighborhood. The California Public Utilities Commission said the figure reached by two administrative law judges over the San Bruno pipeline explosion reflected nearly 3,800 violations of state and federal law, regulations and standards by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. in the operation of its gas pipelines. The penalty is meant to “send a strong message to PG&E, and all other pipeline operators, that they must comply with mandated federal and state pipeline safety requirements, or face severe consequences,” Timothy J. Sullivan, one of the two judges, wrote in the order. The largest share — $950 million — of the penalty is a fine to be paid directly to the state. That amount drew objections from city officials in San Bruno, the utility and a private ratepayersadvocacy group that the overall penalty should be focused on spending for the safe operation of the aging pipeline network. “We are accountable and fully accept that a penalty is appropriate,” the utility said in a statement. Asked whether PG&E would appeal, utility spokesman Greg Snapper said, “We’re reviewing the decision and believe that any penalty should go toward pipeline safety.” The recommended penalty requires approval by members of the state utility board. PG&E and other parties in the case have 30 days to lodge an appeal. The commission previously ordered PG&E to pay $635 million for pipeline modernization in the wake of the Sept. 9, 2010, blast in the suburb of San Francisco. The explosion destroyed more than three dozen homes and was California’s deadliest utility disaster in decades.
By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Paul Sakuma/file | AP
A massive fire roars through an area of San Bruno, Calif., on Sept. 9, 2010. California regulatory judges recommended a $1.4 billion penalty Tuesday. The blast occurred when a 30inch natural-gas transmission line installed in 1956 ruptured. At the time, survivors described the heat of the blast burning the back of their necks like a blowtorch as they ran away. The $1.4 billion penalty also includes $400 million for pipeline improvements, and about $50 million to enhance pipeline safety. PG&E cannot recover any of the money from customers, including the earlier $635 million penalty, although a ratepayers’ group called The Utility Reform Network maintained PG&E could raise rates in other rate cases to indirectly offset the penalty. Sending $950 million to the state’s general fund, with no strings attached, means it could be spent in any way the governor and Legislature see fit, said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance. The public utility commission staff recommended in July that the utility pay at least $300 million in fines. San Bruno city officials were just beginning to study Tuesday’s decision but on first read believed the overall judgment fell short of what was needed to ensure PG&E upgraded pipeline safety as much as necessary, city manager Connie Jackson said. The penalty was historic in terms of financial charges levied against utilities on safety violations, said Britt Strottman, a lawyer for San Bruno. However, “a lot of the utilities do not
cause the same amount of devastation and destruction that was a result of the PG&E explosion in San Bruno,” Strottman said. A 2011 investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board concluded the rupture occurred in a weak weld in a pipeline that PG&E records had shown as being smooth and unwelded. Among other safety failings, PG&E let 95 minutes go by before shutting off the natural gas that was fueling the fire, the federal investigators said. That same 2011 federal investigation also faulted what it called the California Public Utilities Commission’s weak oversight of the utility, which serves customers in the northern twothirds of California. The San Bruno blast prompted congressional hearings on pipeline safety and recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board and other government bodies that utilities intensify their oversight of decades-old natural gas lines. This year, federal prosecutors separately indicted PG&E on 27 counts alleging the utility violated pipeline safety requirements. PG&E faces additional fines of more than $1 billion if convicted of the federal charges, which are separate from the state financial penalties. PG&E has pleaded not guilty to the counts. Separately, PG&E was hit with about 160 lawsuits from people who lost family members, suffered injuries or had property damage.
NEW YORK — Home Depot may be the latest retailer to suffer a major credit card data breach. The Atlanta-based home improvement retailer told The Associated Press Tuesday that it is working with both banks and law enforcement to investigate “unusual activity” that would point to a hack. “Protecting our customers’ information is something we take extremely seriously, and we are aggressively gathering facts at this point while working to protect customers,” said Paula Drake, a spokeswoman at Home Depot, declining to elaborate. She said the retailer would notify customers immediately if it confirms a breach. Shares of Home Depot Inc. fell $1.88, or 2 percent, to close at $91.15. Hackers have broken security walls for many retailers in recent months, including Target, grocery store chain Supervalu, P.F. Chang’s and the thrift store operations of Goodwill. The rash of breaches has rattled shoppers’ confidence in the security of their personal data and pushed retailers, banks and card companies to increase security by speeding the adoption of microchips into U.S. credit and debit cards. Supports say chip cards are safer, because unlike magnetic strip cards that transfer a credit card number when they are swiped at a point-ofsale terminal, chip cards use a onetime code that moves between the chip and the retailer’s register. The result is a transfer of data that is useless to anyone except the parties involved. Chip cards are also nearly impossible to copy, experts say. The possible data breach at Home Depot was first reported by Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security, a website that focuses on cybersecurity. Krebs said multiple banks reported “evidence that Home Depot stores may be the source of a massive new batch of stolen credit and debit cards” that went on sale on the black market earlier Tuesday. Krebs reported that it’s not clear how many stores were affected but preliminary analysis indicates the
breach may have affected all 2,200 Home Depot stores in the U.S. Several banks that were contacted said they believe the breach may have started in late April or early May. “If that is accurate — and if even a majority of Home Depot stores were compromised — this breach could be many times larger than Target, which had 40 million credit and debit cards stolen over a threeweek period,” said the Krebs post. Krebs said that the party responsible for the breach may be the same group of Russian and Ukrainian hackers suspected in the Target breach late last year. Krebs also broke the news of Target’s breach. Target Corp., based in Minneapolis, is still trying to get beyond its massive breach that occurred late last year and hurt sales, profits and its reputation with customers. It has been overhauling its security department and systems and is accelerating its $100 million plan to roll out chip-based credit card technology in all of its nearly 1,800 stores. New payment terminals will appear in stores by this month, six months ahead of schedule. In April, the retailer announced it teamed up with MasterCard to issue branded Target payment cards equipped with chip technology by early in 2015. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, is also sending customers who have a store credit card a chip-enabled MasterCard, while its Sam’s Club division introduced a chip-enabled MasterCard in June. The company has chip-enabled check-out terminals in 4,600 stores, and terminals in the remaining U.S stores will be activated before the end of the year. In a separate statement Tuesday, Goodwill said its customers’ credit and debit card numbers had been stolen at more than 300 stores in 19 states and Washington, D.C. rom February 2013 through Aug. 14. Goodwill blamed the security lapse on an unidentified contractor’s payment processing system. Reports about fraud linked to shoppers’ cards have been “very limited,” Goodwill said. The company had said in July that it was investigating the breach.
Nation
6A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014
Immigrants face problems Phone records at center of case By KELLI KENNEDY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI — More than 200,000 immigrants who bought insurance through President Barack Obama’s health care initiative could lose their coverage this month if they don’t submit proof this week they are legally in the country, but language barriers and computer glitches are hindering efforts to alert them. The government mailed letters in English and Spanish last month notifying about 300,000 people that if immigration and citizenship documents aren’t submitted by Friday, their coverage under the Affordable Care Act will end Sept. 30. However, few seem to be responding. U.S. Health and Human Services officials released information Tuesday showing that 239,000 of the original 300,000 were still receiving final notices. Immigration advocates say the notices in only two languages don’t take into account the wide variety of immigrant languages. They say many who received the letters already have filed the documents either by mail or via computer, but the paperwork was not processed. And they fear most who haven’t responded don’t understand the gravity of the situation or think they have already complied. A line at the bottom of the letter advises the recipients to call a phone number if they need the notice translated, said Amy Jones of the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition Inc. in Philadelphia. “People do not know what they say or that they’re important. Many have been putting them aside or throwing them away,” Jones said. Her agency, which has helped 450 immigrants sign up for health insurance under the new law, is calling enrollees to see if they received a letter and help them keep their coverage. Early on, some healthcare.gov enrollment counselors said they did not input immigration or citizenship information to the glitchplagued federal website so they could complete the applications. Later, they sent in the documents when the upload feature was working. Federal health officials said Tuesday the upload feature is working for most consumers. Of the 8 million people who
Judges query government lawyers about scope of collection program By LARRY NEUMEISTER ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Amy Jones/SEAMAAC | AP
Shekhar Bastola, an outreach worker, left, assisits Bhagawat Bastola with his immigration documents in Philadelphia submitted to purchase health insurance. signed up for private coverage through the Affordable Care Act, about 1 million immigrants originally received notices asking for proof they are here legally and nearly 700,000 have been verified. Under the health care law, immigrants who are in the country illegally are not eligible for the program or to receive insurance subsidies. Florida and Texas have the largest numbers of immigrants whose immigration and citizenship information on file with the government conflicts with what they wrote on their health insurance applications. Nearly 100,000 in Florida received letters from the feds, yet two of the largest health advocacy groups in South Florida said they’ve gotten very few phone calls seeking help. Vicki Tucci, an attorney with Legal Aid in West Palm Beach, said she’s heard from fewer than 20 clients, despite meeting with thousands during open enrollment. A few thought the letter was a scam and ignored it, she said. Perhaps most frustrating, she said all but one of the letter recipients she spoke with had already sent in the documents. “They had their certified mail receipt with them to prove that they sent it,” Tucci said. However, even those who uploaded the documents by computer to www.healthcare.gov must still call the government’s helpline to see if they were received. Federal health officials on Tuesday disputed much of what the advocates alleged, saying they checked their records in August and only sent letters to consumers
who they hadn’t yet heard from despite multiple attempts. Consumers can call the helpline for a real time update to verify if the documents had been received, said Health and Human Services spokesman Benjamin Wakana. Bhagawat Bastola sent in his documents when he first applied for health coverage. Nevertheless, the 24-year-old from Nepal recently received two letters asking for them again. He re-sent them, but Jones’ agency called the helpline Friday and was unable to confirm whether the government had received them. Without confirmation, he worries he may lose coverage. Federal health officials indicated consumers like Bastola are receiving multiple requests because staffers are still processing the documents. The officials said they’re working as quickly as possible to sort through them, but didn’t give a timeframe. In other cases, healthcare.gov used information from consumers and checked it against databases with other government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, where the information isn’t updated as quickly or may contain errors, especially for naturalized citizens, advocates said. Consumers who have submitted the requested documents but have not received confirmation by the deadline will remain covered while their application is being processed, said Wakana. He says only those who don’t submit documents are at risk of losing coverage. Those who lose coverage may be liable for paying back at least part of any subsidy they received, up to a cap.
NEW YORK — A lawyer defending the government’s bulk collection of millions of Americans’ telephone records found himself facing tough questions Tuesday from appeals judges wanting to know whether the program will inevitably lead to, as one judge put it, the government’s study of “every American’s everything.” Questions about the scope of the program arose frequently during arguments before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan. After nearly two hours of arguments, the court reserved decision on the American Civil Liberty Union’s appeal of a December ruling giving a green light to the National Security Agency program on the grounds that it was necessary extension to security measures taken after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. A 2nd Circuit ruling is likely months away. Even the judges acknowledged the issue will probably be decided by the Supreme Court. Circuit Judge Robert Sack noted that a judge in Washington, D.C., had ruled the other way, blocking the collection of phone records of two men who had challenged the program. Sack asked ACLU attorney Alex Abdo if the 2nd Circuit should issue its ruling but stay its effect if it sides with the ACLU until the Supreme Court has an opportunity to speak. “Supposing we’re wrong and somebody blows up a subway train?” he asked. Judge Gerard Lynch asked Assistant Attorney General Stuart F. Delery why the program would not be extended to collect the bank and credit card records of Americans. “What’s so special about telephone records that makes them so valuable, so uniquely interactive or whatever, that the same arguments you’re
making don’t apply to every record in the hands of a third party business entity of every American’s everything?” Lynch asked. The judge questioned why the government didn’t “collect everything there is to know about everybody and have it all in one big government cloud.” “C’mon,” he added, “isn’t it at least as relevant to you whether somebody that you had some reasonable suspicion is engaged in terrorist connections used his credit card last week to buy a ton of fertilizer as it is to find out whether he called his gym using his Verizon cellphone or even to find out who his other colleagues are?” District Judge Vernon Broderick, sitting by designation on the appeals court, also questioned why the government wouldn’t store everyone’s banking records. Delery, though, said all records are not the same and analysis of the phone records enables law enforcement to make speedy determinations when a terrorist is reaching out to others. Other records, he said, are more useful when law enforcement agencies are looking back at a crime to determine who carried it out. “The purpose of the bulk collection is to allow for the use of analytic tools in counterterrorism investigations,” he said. Delery said the phone records are most useful in a probe that is “designed to be forward-looking.” “The purpose of the work is to detect and disrupt future plots before an attack can be made,” he said. Secret NSA documents were leaked to journalists last year by contractor Edward Snowden, revealing that the agency was collecting phone records and digital communications of millions of citizens not suspected of crimes and prompting congressional reform. Snowden remains exiled in Russia.
International
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014
THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A
Islamic State accused of war crimes International rights group accuses the extremists Islamic State of ‘ethnic cleansing’ Targeting indigenous religious minorities, mass killings By SINAN SALAHEDDIN AND DIAA HADID ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD — An international rights group accused the extremist Islamic State group on Tuesday of systematic “ethnic cleansing” in northern Iraq targeting indigenous religious minorities, as well as conducting mass killings of men and abducting women. In a new report, Amnesty International said militants abducted “hundreds, if not thousands” of women and girls of the Yazidi faith. The extremists also killed “hundreds” of Yazidi men and boys, Amnesty said. In at least one incident, the report said militants rounded up on trucks, took them to the edge of their village and shot them. The 26-page report adds to a growing body of evidence outlining the scope and extent of the Islamic State group’s atrocities since it began its sweep from Syria across neighboring Iraq in June. The militants since have seized much of northern and western Iraq, and have stretched to the outskirts of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. On Monday, the United Nations’ top human rights body approved a request by Iraq to open an investigation into suspected crimes committed by the Islamic State group against civilians. Its aim would be to provide the Human Rights Council with evidence on atrocities committed in Iraq, which could be used as part of any international war crimes prosecution. In its report, Amnesty detailed how the advance of Islamic State group
Associated Press
Shiite militiamen hold the flag of the Islamic State group they captured near Amirli, 105 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq, on Monday. Governments from France to Indonesia are moving aggressively to block would-be jihadis from taking their fight to Syria and Iraq.
Amnesty noted allegations that some abducted women were raped or forced to marry fighters. fighters expelled an estimated 830,000 people — mostly Shiites and those belonging to tiny religious minorities that barely exist outside of Iraq. They include Aramaic-speaking Christians, Yazidis, a faith that traces to ancient Mesopotamia, the Shabak, an offshoot of Islam, and Mandeans, a gnostic faith. Most fled as extremists neared their communities, fearing they’d be killed or forcibly converted to the group’s hard-line version of Islam. Thousands of Christians now live in schools and churches in northern Iraq. Yazidis crowd into a dis-
placed persons camp and half-finished buildings. Shiites have mostly drifted to southern Iraq. The sudden displacement of the minority groups appears to be the final blow to the continuity of those tiny communities in Iraq. Their numbers had been shrinking since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which triggered extremist violence against them. “Minorities in Iraq have been targeted at different points in the past, but the Islamic State (group) has managed, in the space of a few weeks, to completely wipe off of the map of Iraq, the religious and ethnic
minorities from the area under their control,” said Donatella Rovera of Amnesty International. The Yazidis, in particular, were harshly targeted as Islamic State militants overran their ancestral lands in August. In one incident, the report said “possibly hundreds” were killed in the village of Kocho on Aug. 15 after militants told residents to gather in a school. “They separated men and boys from women and younger children. The men were then bundled into pickup vehicles — some 1520 in each vehicle — and driven away to different
nearby locations, where they were shot,” the report said. Islamic State fighters also systematically seized Yazidi women and children, some as they rounded up villagers, others as they tried to flee the militant onslaught, the report said. Their fate is unclear. The report said they had obtained the names of “scores of the women and children” seized by the group. It said “hundreds, possibly thousands,” were likely being held. Some captive women are secretly communicating with their families on cell phones, Amnesty said.
They told their families that some girls and young women were separated and taken away, Amnesty said. It appears that some teenage girls were taken in groups to the homes of Islamic State fighters, the report said. The brother of one girl who escaped the militants told The Associated Press that his 17-year-old sister was held with another Yazidi teenage girl in a house in the Iraqi town of Falluja. Khairy Sabri said militants threatened to kill his sister Samira if she did not convert to Islam. Sabri said his sister was seized on August 3 and was moved three times. After fighting intensified between Kurdish forces and the militants, the three Islamic State group fighters guarding the house fled, allowing the women to escape, Sabri said. Sabri said his sister was otherwise unharmed. Amnesty noted allegations that some abducted women were raped or forced to marry fighters. The group said detained women who were in contact with their families had not been harmed, but “they believe that others have, notably those who were moved to undisclosed locations and have not been heard from since.” Yazidi lawmaker, Mahma Khalil, called on the Iraqi government and international community to urgently help the Yazidis who are still facing “continuing atrocities” by the militants. “They have been trying hard to force us to abandon our religion. We reject that because we are the oldest faith in Iraq, that has roots in Mesopotamia,” Khalil said.
PÁGINA 8A
Zfrontera
Agenda en Breve LAREDO 09/03— AVISO: Viva, Done, y Aliméntese de United Way, durante la Noche de United Way, de 5 p.m. a 8 p.m. en tres McDonalds participantes (2101 E. Saunders, 7701 McPherson Road, y 116 US Hwy 83 –Zapata). McDonalds donará el 20 por ciento de todas las ganancias a United Way of Laredo. 09/03— Voluntariado y servicio será el tema de la feria anual iServe de Texas A&M International University para conectar a los estudiantes con diferentes organizaciones sin fines de lucro que buscan ayuda. De 11 a.m. a 2 p.m., en la rotonda de Student Center Rotunda. 09/03— Exhibición Anual de Arte Estudiantil en Otoño tendrá una recepción a las 4:30 p.m. en la Galería de Artes Visuales del Visual and Performing Arts Center en LCC, del Campus Fort McIntosh. Evento gratuito. 09/03— Lutheran Social Services invita a una Orientación para Padres de 6:30 p.m. a 8 p.m. en 102 E. Calton Road Suite 4. Se estará instruyendo sobre el proceso para ser padres de crianza. Para más información puede llamar a Linda Mendiola al (956) 791-4909. 09/03— Estudio de La Biblia a las 7 p.m. en Lighthouse Assembly of God Church, 8731 Belize Dr. Informes con Ricardo Rangel Jr al (956) 333-9294. 09/04— En el marco del 120 Aniversario de Sisters of Mercy se invita a la serie de discusiones “Conversaciones con las Hermanas”. La segunda charla será a las 6 p.m. en el Centro de Educación Lamar Bruni Vergara, 1000 Mier, esquina con Hendricks, con el tema de Mujeres. La conversación será Bilingüe. 09/04— El equipo de volleyball femenil de TAMIU se enfrentará al equipo de la Universidad de Texas Permian Basin, a las 7 p.m. en el Edificio Kinesiology-Convocation de TAMIU. Evento gratuito para estudiantes con identificación. Para más información puede visitar www.GoDustdevils.com. 09/05— Desayuno mensual de Wellness & Women Connection, de 12 p.m. a 1:30 p.m. en Palenque Grill. 09/05— SOCCER: El equipo femenil de soccer de TAMIU se enfrentará al equipo de Ouachita Baptist University, en San Antonio, a la 1 p.m. Para más información puede visitar www.GoDustdevils.com
NUEVO LAREDO, MÉXICO 09/03— Cine Club presenta “Las Tres Calaveras”, a las 6 p.m., en el Auditorio de Estación Palabra. Entrada gratuita. 09/04— “Performance y Body Art en un Panorama Internacional”, una plática con Juan Flores, en Maquila Creativa, a las 5:30 p.m. Entrada gratuita. 09/04— Se festejará el Sexto Aniversario de Estación Palabra con un Homenaje a Julio Cortázar con la lectura dramatizada “Casa Tomada”, por Laberintus Teatro, a las 6 p.m. en el Auditorio de Estación Palabra. 09/05— Cine Maquila “Leigh Bowery, Performance y Body Art”, en Maquila Creativa, a las 5 p.m. 09/05— Estación Palabra festeja el Centenario de Nicanor Parra con una charla por parte de Víctor Barrera Enderle, en Estación Palabra, a las 6:30 p.m. . 09/05— Inicio de la Feria y Exposición Fronteriza de Nuevo Laredo. Coronación de SGM Karla Elizabeth I a las 8 p.m. en el Teatro del Pueblo. Presentación del Trío Los Panchos de Chucho Navarro. Entrada tiene costo.
MIÉRCOLES 03 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2014
POLICÍA
Arrestan narco ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO— Policías y militares mexicanos detuvieron a un líder del narcotráfico que operaba en el noreste del país y que ha sido vinculado con la distribución de droga y tráfico de inmigrantes, entre otros varios delitos. La Comisión Nacional de Seguridad informó el domingo por la tarde de la detención de Mario Alberto Arce Moreno, de 31 años, al que se localizó en un domicilio de la ciudad de Nuevo Laredo, México, en el estado de Tamaulipas.
Policías y militares mexicanos detuvieron a un líder del narcotráfico que ha sido vinculado con la distribución de droga y tráfico de inmigrantes. Las autoridades indican que Arce Moreno operaba en los estados fronterizos de Tamaulipas, Nuevo León y Coahuila, México, y aunque no mencionan el cártel al que pertenece, reportes de prensa lo vinculan con Los Zetas, la organización criminal que lucha contra el Cártel del Golfo para controlar esos territorios.
El detenido, que fue arrestado “sin realizar un solo disparo” junto a otras tres personas, brindaba seguridad a grupos delictivos, se dedicaba a amenazar a la población para que no apoyaran a las fuerzas federales ni estatales en su lucha contra la delincuencia y amedrentaba a autoridades municipales para que reti-
raran cualquier acción de los equipos de operaciones especiales contra el crimen, según acusaciones. Se le considera además responsable de haber ordenado un ataque contra los miembros de las fuerzas especiales el pasado 21 de agosto, agregó la nota. En el operativo se aseguraron un vehículo, dos armas largas, un arma corta, un envoltorio con las características propias de la droga sintética conocida como cristal, un envoltorio con hierba verde, aparentemente marihuana, y un equipo de telefonía móvil.
TAMAULIPAS
NUEVO LAREDO, MÉXICO
VUELTA CICLISTA
Dirigen esfuerzo mejorar economía TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Potencializar el aprovechamiento de los recursos mineros y energéticos de la Cuenca de Burgos, fue el tema central de la conferencia “Desarrollo Cuenca de Burgos”, efectuada el viernes, en Nuevo Laredo, México.
Fotos de cortesía | Gobierno de Nuevo Laredo
El domingo dio inicio la I etapa de “Vuelta por Tamaulipas 2014” en Nuevo Laredo, México. Alrededor de 136 ciclistas participantes en el evento de inauguración.
Participan alrededor de 136 ciclistas TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
El domingo dio inicio la I Etapa de la “Vuelta a Tamaulipas 2014” en Nuevo Laredo, México, con un total de 136 ciclistas, originarios de diferentes Estados mexicanos, así como de Venezuela, Colombia y Estados Unidos. El banderazo de salida estuvo a cargo de Enrique de la Garza Ferrer, director general del Instituto Tamaulipeco del Deporte acompañado por el Alcalde de Nuevo Laredo, Carlos Canturosas Villarreal, así como del presidente de la Federación Mexicana de Ciclismo, Edgardo Hernández Chagoya y del titular de la Asociación Estatal de Ciclismo de Tamaulipas, Arturo Silva Infante. Los ciclistas recorrieron avenidas tales como Paseo Colón y Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, como parte de la trayectoria marcada en la ciudad fronteriza. Las categorías
fueron Elite y Sub 23 como de Montaña. La Policía Estatal Acreditable escoltó a los ciclistas durante la I etapa y continuarán durante las siguientes trayectorias, anunciaron autoridades tamaulipecas. Miguel Armando Ubeto, de Venezuela, ocupó el primer lugar en la I Etapa de la Vuelta a Tamaulipas 2014, cronometrando 3 horas 48 minutos 05 segundos a una velocidad de 60 kilómetros por hora en toda la ruta por las principales arterias de Nuevo
Laredo. En segundo sitio quedó Fabricio Von Nacher del equipo Rabbits de Matamoros y en tercero quedó el venezolano Gil Cordovés del equipo Canel´s Turbo. La Vuelta Ciclista continuará hasta el 7 de septiembre y se recorrerán 1.015 kilómetros. Los ciclistas continuarán con recorridos en las ciudades de Miguel Alemán, Reynosa, Matamoros, San Fernando, Ciudad Victoria (circuito), El Mante y Ciudad Madero.
Potencializarán el aprovechamiento de los recursos energéticos de Cuenca de Burgos Representantes del sector de la construcción, ganadero, productivo, educativo y empresarial, se reunieron en el auditorio Siglo XXI de la Facultad de Comercio, Administración y Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas (FCAYCS-UAT), para escuchar la conferencia y buscar ampliar el panorama sobre las ventajas y áreas de oportunidad que surgen con la aprobación de la Reforma Energética, en la Cuenta de Burgos, geográficamente se encuentra Nuevo Laredo. “Es excelente que se lleven a cabo este tipo de conferencias aquí en la ciudad. El desarrollo energético va a traer muchas oportunidades que tenemos que ver todos los sectores productivos, desde infraestructura, educación y medio ambiente”, dijo Jorge Viñals Ortiz de la Peña, secretario de Desarrollo Económico. La conferencia fue organizada por el gobierno municipal en coordinación con la Cámara Nacional de la Industria de Transformación de Nuevo Laredo (CANACINTRA), la Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana (COPARMEX) y la Asociación de Maquiladoras de Exportación (INDEX).
COLUMNA
Llegan primeros vuelos a Tamaulipas Este es el segundo artículo de una serie de dos partes donde el autor narra inversiones extranjeras del Siglo XX en Tamaulipas.
By RAÚL SINENCIO CHÁVEZ ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Con el auge petrolero, a principios del Siglo XX Tamaulipas concentra inversiones extranjeras. Detrás aparecen magnates interesados en nuevo medio de transporte. Ello propicia que la entidad figure entre los destinos tempranos de la aviación comercial en Méxi-
co. Hacia fines de 1920 autoridades del ramo someten a concurso la apertura del servicio para carga y pasajeros de la metrópoli capitalina a Tampico, deteniéndose en Tuxpan. Obtiene el título concesionario la Compañía Mexicana de Transportación Aérea, perteneciente a Harry Lawson, piloto de la I Guerra Mundial. El aparato que inaugura la ruta sale el 21 de agosto de 1921 con un solo usuario y ejemplares del periódico Excélsior. De este modo arranca la aviación
comercial en América Latina. Sus activos los traspasa Lawson al exbanquero George L. Rhil. Con tres capitalistas foráneos, Rhil crea en 1923 la Compañía Mexicana de Aviación (CMA). Pronto brinda viajes especiales a la elite petrolera. La CMA también les trasporta pagas laborales a los campos de producción, dejándolas caer en sacos desde lo alto. “Una sábana extendida sobre el suelo […] indicaba que todo estaba en orden; el piloto pasaba sobre el lugar indicado y, al
ver la sábana, daba una segunda vuelta para que el pagador pudiera soltar las bolsas con monedas de oro”. La aeronavegación comercial ensancha y diversifica rápido el ámbito de actividades. Mediante contrato público, la ruta que toca el sureste tamaulipeco se abre el 15 de abril de 1928 a la mensajería. Constituye algo por completo novedoso. “Un […] Fairchild” –refiere Fernando A. Morlet— “despegó en Tampico a las 6:00 a. m., llevando a bordo” pasajeros “y poco más de 18 kilos de correspondencia
para Tuxpan y México”. Aterriza en Balbuena “antes de las 10:00 a. m., [y] el mismo aparato regresa a Tampico con “17 kilos de correspondencia y cuatro bultos postales, dos de ellos contenían flores para la esposa del presidente municipal” porteño “y otro para la esposa del administrador de Correos”. El avión toca pista “a las 12:45 p. m. […] finalizando […] el primer vuelo de correo aéreo concesionado”. (Publicado con permiso del autor, según apareciera en La Razón de Tampico)
International
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014
THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A
Top South Am hackers rattle Peru’s Cabinet By FRANK BAJAK ASSOCIATED PRESS
LIMA, Peru — The Peruvian hackers have broken into military, police, and other sensitive government networks in Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, defacing websites and extracting sensitive data to strut their programming prowess and make political points. Now the team calling itself LulzSecPeru has created a national political uproar. Emails the hackers stole from the Peruvian Council of Ministers’ network and dumped online last month fueled accusations that top Cabinet ministers have acted more like industry lobbyists than public servants. That helped precipitate a no-confidence vote last week that the Cabinet barely survived. The hackers, who describe themselves as two young men, are a homegrown version of the U.S. and U.K-based LulzSec “black hat” hacker collective that has attacked the Church of Scientology and agitated on behalf of the WikiLeaks online secret-spillers and Occupy Wall Street. A lot of “hacktivism” out of the United States and western Europe has waned or been driven underground by police pressure and arrests, said Gabriella Coleman, an anthropologist at McGill University, in Montreal, Canada, who has studied the phenomenon. “The hackers in Latin America, however, never really stopped,” Coleman said. LulzSecPeru is widely considered the region’s most accomplished hacktivist team, said Camilo Galdos, a Peruvian digital security expert. Until now, their signature exploit was hijacking the Twitter accounts of Venezuela’s president and ruling socialist party during elections last year. Nothing they’d done, however, had the impact of the online dump of an estimated 3,500 emails from the account of then-Prime Minister Rene Cornejo, dating from February to July. “Happy Hunting!” the hackers wrote when they linked to the upload destination. The prime minister who had just succeeded Cornejo, Ana Jara, said some of the purloined emails may have concerned matters of “national defense.”
Image from Associated Press
This screenshot shows a July 3 tweet by the hacking group LulzSecPeru after it claimed to have hacked Peru’s CERT network emergency center. The Peruvian hackers have broken into military, police, and other sensitive government networks. But what reporters found instead was evidence of the inside influence of Peru’s fishing and oil industry lobbies, putting the country’s energy and finance ministers in the hot seat. In one missive, a fishing industry executive asked the finance minister if the anchoveta season can be extended. She later got her wish. The energy minister, in a testy email exchange, impatiently dismissed objections by the environment minister to his coziness with an Australian oil company with offshore concessions. Oil industry technicians — not regulators — are best qualified to deem whether environmental impact studies are necessary for exploratory seismic testing, he said. The revelations helped prompt a “no confidence” vote in Congress that came within one vote of forcing the entire Cabinet to resign. The "CornejoLeaks” spectacle, as the press dubbed it, delighted the hackers. “We’re mixed up in everything. “There is no limit to the hacking.” one of the duo, who goes by the nickname Cyber-Rat, boasted in an encrypted online chat with The
Associated Press, which reached him through the Twitter account where the team announces its hacks. Cyber-Rat said he’s 17 and will quit before becoming an adult to avoid prison. He handles the social networking, cultivates the Anonymous activists who help publicize LulzSecPeru’s hacks and admits to “a tendency toward narcissism.” His partner goes by Desh501, says he is between 19 and 23 and a university student. Desh is the technical whiz, and more reserved. “I’m very private. I don’t have hacker friends in person, only virtually,” Desh typed. Both say they are autodidacts. Cyber-Rat said he started programming at age 8; Desh at age 6. Cyber-Rat said their hacking is “a quest for (the) ecstasy of doing something unprecedented,” shaming administrators who claim their networks are bulletproof. Desh said he is motivated by reached him through the Twitter account where the team publicizes its hacks, to “1. the abuse of power. 2. the lack of transparency.” Some of their hacks are clearly political. They defaced the website of the Peru-based Antamina cop-
per mine in 2012 after the multinational consortium’s slurry pipeline burst, sickening dozens. And they defaced the Venezuelan ruling party’s website again in February in support of anti-government protesters, entering through one of the backdoors they say they secretly leave in networks they penetrate. Desh said they also retain access to the Chilean Air Force network, from which they extracted the published sensitive documents on arms purchases. They called last month’s action payback for Chile’s spying on Peru’s air force in a case uncovered in 2009. The hackers, who provided as credentials documents they said they obtained in one of their Venezuela hacks,said they neither enrich themselves nor do damage with their exploits But many believe LulzSecPeru did do harm when it accessed the network of the company that manages Peru’s top-level internet domain. In October 2012, it dumped online a database of thousands of names, phone numbers, email addresses and passwords. The affected sites included banks, security companies, Google — every domain ending with “.pe”
Desh said Rat did so without consulting him. “I almost killed him that day.” A company representative, leading Peruvian Internet activist Erick Iriarte, said the hack occurred well before the upload — six weeks earlier, according to Desh — and customers were notified in time to change their passwords. Across Latin America, government-run networks are generally regarded as insecure and untrustworthy. A surprising number of senior officials use private email services instead. Peruvian authorities call LulzSecPeru “cyber-pirates” and say they could face up to eight years in prison under Peru’s new computer crimes statute. But they first must be caught, and independent security experts say Peru’s cyberpolice are outmatched. LulzSecPeru’s first claim to fame was penetrating the Peruvian cyberpolice network in early 2012. It claims it still has hidden backdoor access. The unit’s commander, Col. Carlos Salvatierra, would not discuss details of the LulzSecPeru investigation but said it includes “permanent coordination” with other affected governments and has been ongoing for months. LulzSec as a name derives from “lulz” — a variant of LOL (laughing out loud) that evokes the mischievous bliss of hackers who expose sloppy security ("sec”). And there is little greater ‘lulz’ for the pair than mocking to their 30,300 Twitter followers the technology chief for Peru’s Council of Ministers, who is also president of the Lima chapter of the country’s top cybersecurity group. Security experts have also asked why the official has not appeared in public to explain how his network was violated. Desh said it took a month to get inside the Cabinet’s system. He said he then routed a carbon copy of all traffic for nearly a month to an external server, capturing Cornejo’s email password in the process. Desh said Cornejo’s Gmail account was linked to the ex-premier’s official email account and that he accessed a mirror of it on the network. Rat said the hackers are staying away from the Council of Ministers’ network for now.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
Sports&Outdoors HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL: ZAPATA LADY HAWKS
BASKETBALL WORLD CUP: USA 98, NEW ZEALAND 71
Flying north
USA remains unbeaten
Photo by Clara Sandoval | The Zapata Times
Zapata won two of its seven games at the Lady Longhorn Volleyball Fest, including a 2-1 loss to Nixon.
Zapata goes 2-5 in Laredo tourney By CLARA SANDOVAL THE ZAPATA TIMES
LAREDO – The Lady Hawks flew north for the sixth annual Lady Longhorn Volleyball Fest, which pitted 25 teams against each other in the two-day tournament. Zapata fought against some formidable opponents and was one of the few 4A schools at the tournament. The Lady Hawks came up short at the end, going 2-5 in the tournament. In pool play, Zapata was in Pool D and battled the likes of Del Rio, United South, San Antonio Highlands and Roma to go 1-3 heading into Saturday’s bracket play. "All I asked them to do was to play as best as they could with the big schools," Zapata head coach Rosie Villarreal said. "They were able to achieve 90 percent of their goal for the weekend. We came short on some of the games but we have improved in our play. "Cassy Garcia and Tere
Villarreal are doing very well in the front row with room for improvement from all the team." The Lady Hawks played Martin on Tuesday, a team they already defeated at the Lady Longhorn Volleyball Fest. They return on Saturday to take on Idea Quest High School.
Scores from Tournament Del Rio 2, Zapata 0 (25-16, 25-20) Cassy Garcia 7 kills, Villarreal 4 kills, Sarah Rathmell 3 kills, Isela Gonzalez and Alex Garcia 5 digs, Andrea Garza 3 aces, Kaitlyn Ramirez 12 assists, Brianna Gonzalez 6 assists. Zapata 2, United South 0 (25-19, 25-22) Alexis Alvarez 5 kills, 3 digs, Villarreal 5 kills; Cassy Garcia 3 kills; Gonzalez 8 digs, Garcia 6 digs, Ramirez 9 assists, 6 aces, Brianna Gonzalez 6 assists. San Antonio Highlands 2, Zapata 1 (25-23, 4-25, 8-25) Alvarez 5 kills, Villarreal 4 kills, Rathmell 3
kills, Alex Garcia 7 digs, Gonzalez 8 digs, 4 assists, Garza 3 digs, Ramirez 3 digs, 13 assists. Roma 2, Zapata 0 (20-25-1825) Garcia and Villarreal 7 kills, Rathmell 3 kills, Gonzalez 8 digs, Brianna Gonzalez 4 digs, 6 assists, Ramirez 14 assists. Zapata 2, Martin 0 (25-15, 25-18) Garcia 9 kills, Alvarez 5 kills, Gonzalez 7 digs, Alex Garcia 3 aces, Briana Gonzalez 9 assists, Ramirez 7 assists, 4 aces. Nixon 2, Zapata 1 (25-13, 2426, 13-25) Garcia 13 kills, 10 digs, Alvarez 9 kills, Villarreal 7 kills, Ramirez 20 assists, 8 digs, Briana Gonzalez 12 assists, 6 digs, Isela Gonzalez 18 digs. Eagle Pass 2, Zapata 0 (2325, 17-25) Garcia 9 kills, Alvarez 3 kills, Brianna Gonzalez 17 assists, Ramirez 12 assists, Isela Gonzalez 17 digs, Alex Garcia 13 digs, Villarreal 6 digs. Clara Sandoval can be reached at Sandoval.Clara@Gmail.com.
TEXANS EXTEND DE WATT TO $100 MILLION CONTRACT
Photo by Patric Schneider | AP
Houston gave defensive end J.J. Watt a six-year, $100 million extension late Monday night, making him the highest paid defensive player in NFL history. He surpasses the previous $95 million contract that former Texans end Mario Williams received from the Bills.
By BRIAN MAHONEY ASSOCIATED PRESS
BILBAO, Spain — Anthony Davis scored 21 points, Kenneth Faried had 15 and the U.S. remained unbeaten at the Basketball World Cup by beating winless New Zealand 98-71 on Tuesday. James Harden added 13 points for the Americans, who will play two more games here before moving on to Barcelona for the round of 16. They face the Dominican Republic on Wednesday before wrapping up Group C play on Thursday against Ukraine. Two nights after having to rally from a halftime deficit and pull away in the fourth quarter for a 9877 victory over Turkey, the U.S. led this one wire to wire. The game was close only for a little more than a quarter. BJ Anthony scored 11 points for New Zealand, which fell to 0-3. The Americans paused late in warmups to stand and face the Tall Blacks, who performed the haka, their traditional war dance challenge. Fans enjoyed it, then were largely quiet throughout the first half as the bigger U.S. team imposed its will, not needing the kind of highlight plays fans expect of the NBA stars. But there was no shortage of energy from Faried,
Photo by Alvaro Barrientos | AP
Anthony Davis had 21 points as the USA picked up a 98-71 victory over New Zealand at the Basketball World Cup.
the Denver Nuggets forward who seems intent on raising his profile as a largely overlooked player in the league. The Manimal came into the game shooting 14 of 17 in the tournament and then made all five shots in the first half while also grabbing six rebounds. He was just as active on defense, getting called for a third-quarter goaltend on a shot he blocked with such force that it landed behind the New Zealand bench. Stephen Curry finished with 12 points for the U.S., getting his shot to fall after going just 4 of 17 through the first two games.
It was 27-20 after one and the Americans were ahead by nine in the second before a 12-0 run, featuring seven points from Irving, made it 50-29 on Faried’s follow shot with 4:14 left. The Americans got into transition during that flurry, but were often content in the first half to pound it inside, taking advantage of Davis and Faried’s muscle in the middle. Harden had a couple of baskets early in the third quarter — he and Davis both throwing down impressive dunks — and the Americans kept building the lead en route to their 57th straight victory.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014
THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A
THE MARKET IN REVIEW DAILY DOW JONES
STOCK EXCHANGE HIGHLIGHTS
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NYSE 11,038.12
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1,602 1,095 132 2,829 140 35 1,806,992,965
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO CITY — President Enrique Peña Nieto announced the construction of a new international airport for Mexico City on Tuesday, saying it will quadruple the capacity of the current one. Costing an estimated $9.2 billion, the facility will have six runways and a capacity of 120 million passengers a year. Peña Nieto said it has been clear for decades that the capital’s overtaxed airport needed to be replaced. “The current saturation restricts travel between the different states of the country, limits Mexico’s connectivity to the world, slows investment and commerce,” he said. “We can no longer keep postponing the fundamental solution.” More than a decade ago, protests led authorities to scrap a planned new airport on the outskirts of Mexico City. The new proposal is to build on federally owned land next to the existing facility. Peña Nieto said it will be Mexico’s largest public infrastructure project in recent years, and called it “Mexico’s gateway to the world.” He made the announcement during his state-of-the-nation address, in
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Stock Footnotes: g=Dividends and earnings in Canadian dollars .h= Doe not meet continued- listings tandards lf = Late filing with SEC. n = New in past 52 weeks. pf = Preferred. rs = Stock has undergone a reverse stock split of at least 50 percent within the past year. rt = Right to buy security at a specified price. s = Stock has split by at least 20 percent within the last year. un = Units. vj = In bankruptcy or receivership. wd = When distributed. wi = When issued. wt = Warrants. Mutual Fund Footnotes: b = Fee covering market costs is paid from fund assets. d = Deferred sales charge, or redemption fee. f = front load (sales charges). m = Multiple fees are charged. NA = not available. p = previous day’s net asset value. s = fund split shares during the week. x = fund paid a distribution during the week. Gainers and Losers must be worth at least $2 to be listed in tables at left. Most Actives must be worth at least $1. Volume in hundreds of shares. Source: The Associated Press. Sales figures are unofficial.
which he defended reforms instituted since he took office in 2012. He predicted a brighter economic future, while acknowledging recent performance has disappointed. Independent analysts have lowered their 2014 economic growth forecast from 2.56 percent to 2.47 percent. GDP expanded just 1.1. percent the previous year. “It’s clear that we still have not arrived at the economic growth rates that the country and its people need,” Peña Nieto said. “The challenge of growth is not new for Mexico; achieving an accelerated, sustained and sustainable growth has been our principal economic challenge for decades.” Peña Nieto’s administration has been waging a campaign to promote his reforms amid declining public support for the government. A recent poll by Pew Research found that Peña Nieto’s approval numbers fell six points from last year, to 51 percent. Survey respondents with a negative view of his leadership rose nine points to 47 percent. Sixty percent said they were dissatisfied with the economy and Peña Nieto’s handling of it. The Pew survey relied on in-person interviews with 1,000 people and had a margin of error of 4 percent-
tables, and United moved the magazine pocket, getting it away from passengers’ knees. But passengers aren’t just losing legroom; they’re losing elbow room. Airlines sold 84 percent of their seats on domestic flights so far this year, up from 81 percent five years ago and 74 percent a decade ago, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. That means there are fewer and fewer empty middle seats on which passengers can spread out. The latest spate of passenger problems started Aug. 24, when a man on a United flight prevented the woman in front of him from reclining thanks to a $21.95 gadget called the Knee Defender. It attaches to a passenger’s tray table and prevents the person in front from reclining. A flight attendant told the man to remove the device. He refused, and the passenger one row forward dumped a cup of water on him. Three days later, on an American flight from Miami to Paris, two passengers got into a fight, again over
age points. Jose Antonio Crespo, a professor at Mexico’s Center for Economic Research and Teaching, said Peña Nieto faces a tough challenge on issues such as the economy, corruption and public insecurity. “The problem is that with great corruption, all that is positive can be distorted — the energy and communications reforms,” Crespo told The Associated Press. “As long as that corruption is there, in reality I don’t think the country can truly change or advance significantly.”
Chicago Arab leader in court on immigration case DETROIT — A Chicago-area Arab leader accused of covering up her conviction in a fatal terrorist bombing in Jerusalem when she entered the U.S. is returning to court for the first time since a new Detroit judge was assigned to her case. Federal Judge Gershwin Drain scheduled a status conference Tuesday in the immigration fraud case against Rasmieh Yousef Odeh. The Associated Press left messages Tuesday for the Justice Department and defense lawyers seeking an update.
Continued from Page 1A
a reclining seat, and the plane was diverted to Boston. Then on Sunday night, on a Delta flight from New York to West Palm Beach, Florida, a woman resting her head on a tray table got upset when the passenger in front of her reclined his seat, hitting her in the head. That plane was diverted to Jacksonville, Florida. The passengers on both the United and Delta flights were already sitting in premium coach sections that have 4 inches of extra legroom. There were 14,903 flight diversions by U.S. airlines in the 12-month period ending in June, according to an Associated Press analysis of Department of Transportation reports. That means, 41 flights a day, on average, make unscheduled landings at other airports. The government doesn’t break out the reason for diversions, but industry experts say the vast majority occur because of bad weather or mechanical problems. And diversions remain a tiny portion of the 6 million annual flights
in the U.S. — less than a quarter of a percentage point. The decision to divert is up to the pilot. Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant says the crew must determine if the person is going to cause harm to others or has terrorist intentions. It can cost an airline $6,000 an hour, plus airport landing fees, to divert the standard domestic jet, according to independent airline analyst Robert Mann. “These costs are among the reasons why airlines ought to be arbitrating these in-flight issues instead of diverting, not to mention the significant inconvenience to all customers and possible disruption of onward connections,” Mann says. Ben Baldanza, CEO of Spirit Airlines, says that if airlines install seats that can recline, passengers should have the right to recline. Of course, Spirit and Allegiant Air are the only U.S. airlines to install seats that don’t recline. “People should lose the emotion,” Baldanza says. “We’ve never had to divert because of legroom issues.”
VOTER ID Continued from Page 1A nearly 9 out of 10 new residents in fast-booming Texas were minorities. Among the newcomers is Sammie Louise Bates, a black retired factory worker who moved from Illinois in 2011 and was the trial’s first witness. Bates recalls helping her grandmother count money dec-
Dow Industrials Dow Transportation Dow Utilities NYSE Composite Nasdaq Composite S&P 100 S&P 500 S&P MidCap Wilshire 5000 Russell 2000
ades ago to make sure they could cover the fee, known as a poll tax, which at the time was required to cast a ballot. She said her monthly income mostly amounted to $321 in Social Security and that she cast a provisional ballot in November because she didn’t have an accepted form of
Texas ID. She said she couldn’t submit proper documentation in time to make her provisional vote count. Among the biggest obstacles was the cost of getting a copy of her Mississippi birth certificate. “I had to put $42 where it would do the most good,” Bates said. “We couldn’t eat the birth certificate.”
Prime Rate Discount Rate Federal Funds Rate Treasuries 3-month 6-month 5-year 10-year 30-year
CURRENCIES
3.25 3.25 0.75 0.75 .00-.25 .00-.25 0.025 0.05 1.69 2.42 3.18
YTD 12-mo Chgg %Chg %Chg %Chg
17,067.56 -30.89 -.18 +2.96 +15.06 8,516.25 +108.23 +1.29 +15.08 +35.80 559.27 -5.10 -.90 +14.00 +18.26 11,038.12 -8.21 -.07 +6.13 +18.26 4,598.19 +17.92 +.39 +10.09 +27.28 888.48 -.60 -.07 +7.85 +21.16 2,002.28 -1.09 -.05 +8.33 +22.11 1,442.81 +4.63 +.32 +7.47 +22.12 21,244.43 +10.54 +.05 +7.81 +21.93 1,179.47 +5.12 +.44 +1.36 +16.06
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RECLINING for security screening, push and shove at the gate to be first on board, and then fight for the limited overhead bin space. They are already agitated by the time they arrive at their row and see how cramped it is. To boost their profits, airlines have been adding more rows of seats to planes in the past few years. Southwest and United both took away one inch from each row on certain jets to make room for six more seats. American is increasing the number of seats on its Boeing 737-800s from 150 to 160. Delta installed new, smaller toilets in its 737-900s, enabling it to squeeze in an extra four seats. And to make room for a first-class cabin with lie-flat beds on its transcontinental flights, JetBlue cut one inch of legroom for coach passengers. Airlines say passengers won’t notice because the seats are being redesigned to create a sense of more space. Southwest’s seats have thinner seatback magazine pockets, Alaska Airlines shrank the size of tray
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MONEY RATES
Mexico to get $9.2B airport By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO
14,719.43 6,237.14 467.93 9,246.89 3,573.57 728.63 1,627.47 1,170.62 17,305.21 1,009.00
Name
16,200
LOSERS ($2 OR MORE)
Name
10 DAYS
16,800
15,900
LOSERS ($2 OR MORE)
17,153.80 8,515.04 576.98 11,334.65 4,580.27 890.48 2,005.04 1,452.01 21,236.75 1,213.55
+17.92
Name
+1.49 +12.5 XRS Corp +.26 +11.8 ImageSens +2.13 +8.4 DigitalAlly +.45 +7.2 Viggle n +1.10 +6.8 PHI vtg +2.44 +6.7 AdamisP rs +1.00 +6.5 FormFac +.32 +6.3 ChinaHGS +.38 +6.2 Oxbridge n +4.40 +6.2 CallularBio
STOCK MARKET INDEXES 52-Week High Low
0.03 0.05 1.66 2.40 3.16
Australia Britain Canada Euro Japan Mexico Switzerlnd
Last
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1.0783 1.6474 1.0924 .7618 105.13 13.1155 .9195
1.0714 1.6609 1.0866 .7616 104.29 13.0885 .9195
British pound expressed in U.S. dollars. All others show dollar in foreign currency.
MUTUAL FUNDS Name Alliance Bernstein GlTmtcGA m Columbia ComInfoA m Eaton Vance WldwHealA m Fidelity Select Biotech d Fidelity Select BrokInv d Fidelity Select CommEq d Fidelity Select Computer d Fidelity Select ConsFin d Fidelity Select Electron d Fidelity Select FinSvc d Fidelity Select SoftwCom d Fidelity Select Tech d T Rowe Price SciTech Vanguard HlthCare Waddell & Reed Adv SciTechA m
Total Assets Total Return/Rank Pct Min Init Obj ($Mlns)NAV 4-wk 12-mo 5-year Load Invt WS 595 87.03 +3.9 +23.3/A +9.1/E 4.25 2,500 ST 2,536 59.83 +5.9 +33.4/B +15.5/D 5.75 2,000 SH 919 13.42 +7.4 +39.6/A +19.4/D 5.75 1,000 SH 9,220 218.62 +13.5 +36.0/B +30.0/A NL 2,500 SF 625 75.65 +5.8 +23.6/A +11.9/C NL 2,500 ST 258 32.31 +3.5 +24.1/E +12.9/E NL 2,500 ST 690 82.36 +4.9 +25.1/D +18.7/B NL 2,500 SF 146 15.64 +4.1 +14.6/E +15.7/A NL 2,500 ST 1,890 80.08 +5.1 +44.8/A +17.8/C NL 2,500 SF 1,161 86.85 +5.2 +22.3/B +10.4/D NL 2,500 ST 3,004 118.76 +3.8 +25.8/D +22.5/A NL 2,500 ST 2,640 125.36 +5.2 +28.1/C +19.3/A NL 2,500 ST 3,098 43.89 +5.6 +33.2/B +18.1/B NL 2,500 SH 10,301 213.33 +4.1 +37.0/B +20.6/C NL 3,000 ST 3,554 16.67 +4.0 +28.3/C +19.9/A 5.75 750
CA -Conservative Allocation, CI -Intermediate-Term Bond, ES -Europe Stock, FB -Foreign Large Blend, FG -Foreign LargeGrowth, FV -Foreign Large Value, IH -World Allocation, LB -Large Blend, LG -Large Growth, LV -Large Value, MA Moderate Allocation, MB -Mid-Cap Blend, MV - Mid-Cap Value, SH -Specialty-heath, WS -World Stock, Total Return: Chng in NAV with dividends reinvested. Rank: How fund performed vs. others with same objective: A is in top 20%, E in bottom 20%. Min Init Invt: Minimum $ needed to invest in fund. Source: Morningstar.
SYRIA Continued from Page 1A Sotloff appears in a similar jumpsuit before he is apparently beheaded by a fighter with the Islamic State, the extremist group that has conquered wide swaths of territory across Syria and Iraq and declared itself a caliphate. In the video, the organization threatens to kill another hostage, this one identified as a British citizen, David Cawthorne Haines. It was not immediately clear who Haines was. Britain and France called the killing “barbaric.” British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement that he would chair an emergency response meeting with his Cabinet early Wednesday to review the latest developments. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said U.S. intelligence analysts will work as quickly as possible to determine if the video is authentic. “If the video is genuine, we are sickened by this brutal act, taking the life of another innocent American citizen,” Psaki said. “Our hearts go out to the Sotloff family.” Psaki said it is believed that “a few” Americans are still being held by the Islamic State. Psaki would not give any specifics, but one is a 26-year-old woman kidnapped while doing humanitarian aid work in Syria, according to a family representative who asked that the hostage not be identified out of fear for her safety. The fighter who apparently beheads Sotloff in the video calls it retribution for Obama’s continued airstrikes against the group. “I’m back, Obama, and I’m back because of your arrogant foreign policy toward the Islamic State ... despite our serious warnings,” the fighter says. “So just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.” The killer specifically mentions the recent U.S. airstrikes around the Mosul dam and the beleaguered Iraqi town of Amirli, making it unlikely that Sotloff was killed at the same time as Foley, as some analysts had speculated. Over the weekend, Iraqi government forces with help from U.S. airstrikes broke the Islamic State’s two-month siege of Amirli, a town where some 15,000 Shiite Turkmens had been stranded. The SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. terrorism watchdog, first reported the video’s existence. In a sign of disorganization — or perhaps dissension — in the extremist group’s ranks, a faction of
the Islamic State apparently posted the video early, before it was supposed to be released. In a later Twitter message, those responsible apologized and asked fellow jihadis not to “reproach” them. The Islamic State has terrorized rivals and civilians alike with widely publicized brutality as it seeks to expand a protostate it has carved out on both sides of the border. In its rise to prominence over the past year, it has frequently published graphic photos and gruesome videos of bombings, beheadings and mass killings. Last week, Sotloff ’s mother, Shirley Sotloff, pleaded with his captors for mercy, saying in a video that her son was “an innocent journalist” and “an honorable man” who “has always tried to help the weak.” Sotloff grew up in the Miami area, graduated from Kimball Union Academy, a prep school in New Hampshire, and then attended the University of Central Florida, which said he majored in journalism from 2022 to 2004 but apparently left without graduating. Just how Sotloff made his way from Florida to Middle East hotspots is not clear. He published articles from Syria, Egypt and Libya in a variety of publications. Several focus on the plight of ordinary people in war-torn places. In a statement, Foreign Policy magazine said it was saddened by news of his death and called him a “brave and talented journalist” whose reporting “showed a deep concern for the civilians caught in the middle of a brutal war.” Time Editor Nancy Gibbs said Sotloff “gave his life so readers would have access to information from some of the most dangerous places in the world.” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., said the new video demonstrates the Islamic State’s “barbarity across the region — beheading and crucifying those who don’t share their ideology.” He said the U.S. and allies need to step up military action against the group, including through airstrikes. At Sotloff ’s parents’ home in Pinecrest, Fla., two police vehicles blocked the driveway Tuesday, and officers advised journalists to stay away. Friends of the family could be seen coming and going. “Everyone’s been concerned. Everyone is grieving,” neighbor Pepe Cazas said. “It’s terrible. I’ve been praying for him.”
12A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014