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US BORDER PATROL
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SYSTEM
Marijuana bust
Chancellor advocated for students
Anonymous tip leads to arrest in Zapata County By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
An anonymous tip led federal agents to arrest a suspected drug mule and seize 31 marijuana bundles, according to court records obtained Tuesday. Jose Luis Villalba-Cardenas was charged with possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance. U.S. Border Patrol agents seized 359 pounds of marijuana with an estimat-
ed street value of $287,200. The incident took place Sept. 14. That day, Border Patrol agents assigned to Zapata County responded to a tip of a white Ford pickup loaded with marijuana bundles at the intersection of U.S. 83 and Chele Road. Agents said they responded immediately to the area and observed the pickup driving south along U.S. 83. The pickup was speeding but slowed down once agents began following it, according to court documents.
Agents then activated their emergency lights and pulled over the suspected vehicle. Agents said they noticed a marijuana odor when the driver rolled down his window. Authorities then noticed marijuana bundles in the rear seat of the pickup. Identified as the driver, VillalbaCardenas opted not to talk to law enforcement. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)
US-MEXICO BORDER
‘AMERICAN PATRIOTS’
Photo by Bob Own/San Antonio Express-News
KC Massey, left, and John Forester patrol the border wall along the Rio Grande River on Wednesday, Sept. 10, in Brownsville, Texas, on property owned by Rusty Monsees.
Armed civilians patrol along Rio Grande By AARON NELSEN SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
CAMERON COUNTY — One recent evening, the sound of a rapid succession of gunshots echoed across a freshly shorn field of cotton near the Rio Grande and carried into the home of Pamela Taylor, who sat on her couch, smiling. The gunfire came from
some heavily armed civilians who call themselves “American Patriots” and set up camp about a month ago on an adjacent ranch to patrol for unauthorized immigrants crossing from Mexico. Taylor, a sprightly octogenarian and English war bride who immigrated decades ago, seethed when the government installed a section of rust-colored border
fence north of her 2-acre plot. Far from slowing illicit traffic, she argued, the fence concentrated the flow of people through her property. Since the Patriots arrived, however, the nightly disturbances have all but disappeared, she said. As the sounds from various caliber guns rang out from the encampment, called Camp Lonestar, Taylor announced plans to host
a barbecue for the men as a token of her appreciation. “We haven’t had a single person come across since they’ve been here,” Taylor said of the men. “It’s nice to get a good night sleep.” If Taylor is resting easy these days, some of her neighbors and law enforcement agencies who patrol the area are troubled by the
See BORDER PAGE 11A
System’s outgoing head forwarded letters to UT president ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Records show the outgoing chancellor of the University of Texas System has forwarded letters of recommendation from influential people to UT-Austin’s president advocating admission of about 40 students since 2009. The letters obtained by the Austin AmericanStatesman CIGARROA show Francisco Cigarroa forwarded letters to UT-Austin President Bill Powers and would sometimes add handwritten notes as a hint about the prominence of the person making the request. For instance, when a person close to George Sealy, the executive vice president of Sealy & Smith Foundation, a charitable organization that has donated about $800 million to the UT Medical Branch at Galveston over the years was rejected, he appealed to Cigarroa. The Chancellor then forwarded the letter to Powers, with a handwritten note that read “on Sealy Foundation” and added a copy of the response letter to Sealy, with an assurance that the “outstanding young man” would receive “careful consideration.” Cigarroa disavowed the practice in recent months amid questions of possible favoritism, and last month he sent a letter instructing his staff to forward letters the admissions committee,
not to university presidents or deans. The system hired an outside firm to investigate the handling of recommendation letters. A UT System report about letters sent by legislators to Powers found no wrongdoing but also showed that applicants with recommendations were accepted at much higher rates. After that report was released, additional information came to the system’s attention, Cigarroa said. It prompted the decision to conduct an external review. In another case, Cigarroa forwarded a letter of recommendation to Powers noting that the person making the request, John D. Alexander Jr., is on the board of Robert J. Kleberg Jr. & Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, a foundation that gave $4.4 million to the UT System in 2013, according to tax records. Jenny LaCoste-Caputo, a UT System spokeswoman said that “it had been common practice in the past when recommendation letters came to the chancellor’s office to forward those to the institutions, with no expectation that those candidates receive any special consideration.” UT-Austin spokesman Gary Susswein said Powers handled the correspondence the same way he handled letters sent directly to him. “The president has a general policy of forwarding references and recommendations he gets to the Office of Admissions or the appropriate college,” Susswein said.
WEATHER
El Niño to help state out of drought By BETSY BLANEY ASSOCIATED PRESS
LUBBOCK, Texas — El Niño appears to be on its way. The long-awaited weather pattern that brings rain to Texas is forecast to arrive next month, National Weather Service meteorologist Victor Murphy in Fort Worth said. El Niño raises the chances in many parts of the state for abundant rain through February, which would raise lake levels statewide and improve soil moisture, he said. But the region around Wichita Falls along the Oklahoma border is likely to miss out on the wet weather pattern. Parts of that region are in exceptional drought, the worst stage on the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor map, and many nearby are in
extreme drought. The city itself hasn’t fallen out of the two driest categories in about four years. “The farther north you go, the smaller the impact of El Niño,” said state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University. The current Texas drought began in October 2010, and 2011 was the state’s driest ever. Subsequent years have not brought enough rain to quench the dryness. There had been no real relief statewide until the past week, when heavy rains from a storm system and Hurricane Odile’s remnants swept across much of the state. “Its’ been a drought-ender in a couple of places, but there’s a
lot of places it’s not been,” Nielsen-Gammon said. When droughts begin, the first symptom is dry soil. The last is lakes drying up. But when drought begins to improve, the first sign is improved soil moisture, which allows more water to run into lakes. That has happened in some parts of the state but not others, with lake levels across the state at 64.1 full on Tuesday. The usual capacity for this time of year is 79 percent. Agriculture officials see the soil moisture levels rising from the recent rains in the Central Gulf Coast, Central Texas, the Rio Grande Valley, South Plains and far West Texas, said Travis Miller, associate director of state
See EL NIÑO PAGE 12A
Photo by Lower Colorado River Authority | AP
This June 4 aerial photograph shows Lake Travis, Texas. El Niño, the weather pattern that brings rain to Texas, is forecast to arrive next month.
PAGE 2A
Zin brief CALENDAR
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
AROUND TEXAS
TODAY IN HISTORY
THURSDAY, SEPT. 25
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Grief support group. Noon to 1:30 p.m. First United Methodist Church, 1220 McClelland Ave. Free and open to public. Contact Patricia Cisneros at 722-1674 or pcisneros@mhm.org. Villa de San Agustin de Laredo Genealogical Society meeting. 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. St. John Newmann Church, Parish Hall. Presentation of “Peru and the Legacy of the Incas,” by Sylvia Reasch. Contact Sanjuanita MartinezHunter at 722-3497. Planetarium movies. From 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. At 6 p.m. Wonders of the Universe, at 7 p.m. Lamps of Atlantis, $5 general admissions, $4 children under age of 12 and TAMIU Students with ID. Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium, TAMIU. Contact Claudia Herrera at claudia.herrera@tamiu.edu for more information. Or go to the website Tamiu.edu/planetarium. Los Amigos Duplicate Bridge Club. 1:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Laredo Country Club. For more information, contact Beverly Cantu at 727-0589.
Today is Wednesday, Sept. 24, the 267th day of 2014. There are 98 days left in the year. The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, begins at sunset. Today’s Highlight in History: On Sept. 24, 1789, President George Washington signed a Judiciary Act establishing America’s federal court system and creating the post of attorney general. On this date: In 1869, thousands of businessmen were ruined in a Wall Street panic known as “Black Friday” after financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the gold market. In 1934, Babe Ruth made his farewell appearance as a player with the New York Yankees in a game against the Boston Red Sox. (The Sox won, 5-0.) In 1948, Mildred Gillars, accused of being Nazi wartime radio propagandist “Axis Sally,” pleaded not guilty in Washington, D.C. to charges of treason. (Gillars, later convicted, ended up serving 12 years in prison.) In 1960, the USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was launched at Newport News, Virginia. In 1964, the situation comedy “The Munsters” premiered on CBS television. In 1976, former hostage Patricia Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison for her part in a 1974 bank robbery in San Francisco carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army. In 1988, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson won the men’s 100-meter dash at the Seoul (sohl) Summer Olympics — but he was disqualified three days later for using anabolic steroids. In 1991, children’s author Theodor Seuss Geisel (GY’zul), better known as “Dr. Seuss,” died in La Jolla, California, at age 87. Ten years ago: Iraq’s interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi (EE’-yahd ah-LAH’-wee), appealed to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly to unite behind his country’s effort to rein in spiraling violence, lighten the foreign debt and improve security ahead of the January elections. Five years ago: With President Barack Obama presiding, the U.N. Security Council unanimously endorsed a sweeping strategy aimed at halting the spread of nuclear weapons and ultimately eliminating them. One year ago: Tea party conservative Sen. Ted Cruz, RTexas, began an old-style filibuster lasting nearly 22 hours over President Barack Obama’s health care law. Today’s Birthdays: Rhythm-and-blues singer Sonny Turner (The Platters) is 75. Singer Barbara Allbut Brown (The Angels) is 74. Singer Phyllis “Jiggs” Allbut Sirico (The Angels) is 72. Singer Gerry Marsden (Gerry and the Pacemakers) is 72. News anchor Lou Dobbs is 69. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Joe Greene is 68. Actor Gordon Clapp is 66. Songwriter Holly Knight is 58. Former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, D-Mass., is 62. Actor Kevin Sorbo is 56. Actress-writer Nia Vardalos is 52. Thought for Today: “There was never a nation great until it came to the knowledge that it had nowhere in the world to go for help.” — Charles Dudley Warner, American author and editor (1829-1900).
FRIDAY, SEPT. 26 Planetarium movies. From 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at 7 p.m. Stars of Pharoahs. $5 General Admission. $4 Children 12 and under & TAMIU Students with ID at the Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium, TAMIU. Contact Claudia Herrera at claudia.herrera@tamiu.edu. Or go the website at www.tamiu.edu/planetarium.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 27 Meeting of the new American Legion Post 850. 6:30 p.m. Knights of Columbus home, 1720 Houston St. Veterans interested in joining the group should attend the meeting and bring a copy of your DD214 and $30 for a fullyear membership. For more information, call Javier Aranda at 722-3434 or Francisco Perez at 220-7858
SUNDAY, SEPT. 28 Semi-annual all-you-can-eat spaghetti lunch. From 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. First United Methodist Church. Contact Sue Webber at fumc_office@sbcglobal.net.
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.
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 1 3rd Annual Youth Domestic Violence Conference. 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 pm. UTHSC Laredo Regional Campus, 1937 E. Bustamante, Laredo, Texas. For additional information and to register call Area Health Education Center at (956)712-0037.
THURSDAY, OCT. 2 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. From 1:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. Laredo Country Club. For more information, contact Beverly Cantu at 727-0589. 18thAnnualDomestic Violence Conference. 8:00 a.m.- 5:30 pm. Texas A&M International University, Student Center.For additional information and to register call Area Health Education Center at (956)712-0037.
SUNDAY, OCT. 5 5th Annual Blessing of All Animals. From 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. St. Peter’s Plaza (Matamoros Street and Main Avenue). For more information contact Berta "Birdie" Torres at birdtorres@hotmail.com or call Birdie at 286-7866.
MONDAY, OCT. 6 “Conversations with the Sisters”. From 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. It will be held at Lamar Bruni Vergara Education Center at 1000 Mier. Contact Rosanne Palacios at rosanne.palacios@mercy.net for more information.
TUESDAY, OCT. 7 The Alzheimer’s support group. Will meet at 7 pm. Laredo Medical Center. If you have any questions, please leave a message at 956-6939991. (Submit calendar items at lmtonline.com/calendar/submit or by emailing editorial@lmtonline.com.)
Photo by Juan Carlos Llorca | AP
Ines Jimenez holds her daughter Chelsea Jimenez as she talks to reporters at the El Paso Department of Public Health in El Paso on Tuesday. Jimenez’s baby and about 750 other infants were exposed to a healthcare worker infected with tuberculosis over the past year prompting health authorities to screen all those children for the disease.
More infants exposed to TB By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA ASSOCIATED PRESS
EL PASO — Health officials say an additional 45 infants may have been exposed to a West Texas hospital worker infected with tuberculosis, bringing the total number of children potentially exposed to the disease to 751. The El Paso Department of Public Heath said Tuesday that it received a list of another 45 infants at Providence Memorial Hospital in El Paso. Authorities have said the infants were exposed to the worker from September 2013 to August. More than 350 appointments have been made for babies to be tested, officials said. The families of the 45 infants are being notified. Norma Hernandez, the mother of a 9month-old boy exposed to TB, says her trust
in the health care system is shattered. “I’m afraid to even bring him to the doctor because now I don’t know whether he’ll be exposed to something else,” she said at the parking lot of the El Paso Department of Public Health, where children are being tested for tuberculosis. Health officials say the hospital employee tested positive for TB late August and was placed on leave. They are testing all those potentially exposed as far back as September 2013, three months before the worker exhibited the first symptoms of the disease. Citing privacy laws, the hospital has not said why it took so long to test this person. Lee B. Richman, founder of the New Jersey Medical School Global Tuberculosis Institute in Newark, says very few people get infected because it takes a lot of exposure over long periods of time to be infected.
Immigrant center to hold up to 2,400
Prosecutors: Man used cocaine to buy votes
South Texas city adopts stricter tattoo policy
DILLEY — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Tuesday that a fourth center to house families apprehended while crossing the Southwest border into the U.S. will eventually hold 2,400 people in Texas. ICE will operate the residential facility when it opens in November in Dilley, Texas, about 70 miles southwest of San Antonio. It will house immigrant adults with children caught entering the country illegally. The South Texas Family Residential Center will be the fourth such facility. It’s meant to expedite their return to their home countries and deter others from embarking on the journey, according to a statement from ICE. The facility, like others for families, will provide medical care, social workers, educational services and access to legal counsel, according to ICE.
McALLEN — Federal prosecutors say a 47-year-old man provided cocaine to secure votes for school board candidates in South Texas. A federal judge in McAllen on Monday scheduled the arraignment of Francisco “Frankie” Garcia of Donna for next month. He’s facing voter fraud and other charges. The Monitor newspaper reports that an indictment alleges Garcia paid voters by giving them a “dime bag” of cocaine. Others were paid $10 for their votes in the 2012 Donna school board elections. FBI agents arrested Garcia last week in Illinois. He’s the latest to be implicated in a conspiracy to buy votes for the school board elections. Three women pleaded guilty earlier this year to voter fraud. A phone listing in Donna for Garcia could not be found.
BALCONES HEIGHTS — A San Antonio-area city has banned visible tattoos for municipal employees at work four months after an off-duty officer was killed outside his tattoo parlor. The Balcones Heights City Council approved the ordinance Monday night. It’s based on a similar measure used by the San Antonio Police Department. Three men have been arrested and charged with murder in the May shooting death of Officer Julian Pesina (puh-SEE’-nuh). The officer had a number of tattoos and investigators are looking into whether his slaying was related to gang activity. KENS-TV reports Balcones Heights Mayor Pro Temp Jack Burton says the new policy comes in response to the killing. Tattoos must not be visible when any Balcones Heights municipal worker is on duty. — Compiled from AP reports
AROUND THE NATION Traffic resumes on highway hit by landslide OSO, Wash. — Traffic was for the most part flowing freely in two directions on a state highway that was blocked by a huge landslide six months ago in Washington state that killed 43 people. State Highway 530 reopened to two-way, 50-mph traffic Monday night. On Tuesday, vehicles were travelling mostly without problems. The highway was realigned and raised as much as 20 feet in places. As part of a $28 million project funded by federal emergency money, crews also installed six new culverts. The deadly landslide struck about 55 miles north of Seattle on March 22.
Driver charged in fatal Delaware bus crash NEW CASTLE, Del. — Dela-
CONTACT US Publisher, William B. Green........................728-2501 Account Executive, Dora Martinez ...... (956) 765-5113 General Manager, Adriana Devally ...............728-2510 Adv. Billing Inquiries ................................. 728-2531 Circulation Director ................................. 728-2559 MIS Director, Michael Castillo.................... 728-2505 Copy Editor, Nick Georgiou ....................... 728-2565 Sports Editor, Zach Davis ..........................728-2578 Spanish Editor, Melva Lavin-Castillo............ 728-2569 Photo by Leila Navidi/The Star Tribune | AP
One of two new 2-year-old twin polar bears, Suka or Sakari, swims inside the Polar Bear Odyssey display at the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory on Tuesday in St. Paul, Minn. The bears were born in November 2012 at the Toledo Zoo in Ohio. ware State Police have charged the driver of a tour bus that crashed in New Castle, killing two passengers and injuring dozens. Troopers said Tuesday that 56year-old Jinli Zhao of Flushing, New York, has been charged
with two counts of the operation of a vehicle causing death of another person. Fifty-four-year-old Hua’y Chen of New York City and 30-year-old Idil Bahsi of Istanbul, Turkey, were killed in Sunday’s crash. — 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
State
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
SpaceX breaks ground By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
BROWNSVILLE — The commercial rocket launches that could begin as early as 2016 in the southernmost tip of Texas will be a critical step toward one day establishing a human presence on Mars, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said Monday. With waves from the Gulf of Mexico crashing just over the dunes and crabs skittering around a tent erected for the groundbreaking, Musk said he expects SpaceX to invest $100 million in the world’s first commercial orbital spaceport during the next three to four years. The commercial satellite launch revenue Musk anticipates generating at the Boca Chica Beach site east of Brownsville will fuel California-based SpaceX’s real objective. “The long-term goal is to create technology necessary to take humanity beyond Earth,” Musk said. “To take humanity to Mars and establish a base on Mars. So it could very well be that the first person that departs for another
Photo by Yvette Vela/The Brownsville Herald | AP
A sign indicating the future site of the SpaceX launch site is shown where people gathered for the SpaceX ground breaking ceremony. planet will depart from this location.” Beginning as early as the third quarter of 2016, Musk said he expects the spaceport to handle at least 12 rocket launches per year. SpaceX will continue using government launch sites in Florida and California, but Musk said its manifest would outpace the available launch windows at those existing sites. Gov. Rick Perry, on hand for the ceremony, announced a $4.4 million grant from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund to the University of
Texas at Brownsville that will be matched by the University of Texas System to test and commercialize a new communications system at laboratories at the SpaceX Boca Chica complex. “The future of South Texas takes off right behind me,” Perry said. Perry is also providing $2.3 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund toward the spaceport and an additional $13 million from the Spaceport Trust Fund. The U.S. Department of Commerce announced Monday that it had awarded $1.2 million to the Uni-
versity of Texas at Brownsville for a high-tech business incubation facility that could foster a cluster of space industry businesses. SpaceX is expected to create 300 jobs at the site, and Musk said he expected other companies to settle there. SpaceX already provides resupply missions for the International Space Station with its unmanned Dragon capsule, most recently on Sunday. Last week, SpaceX and Boeing won contracts to carry U.S. astronauts to the space station beginning in 2016 or 2017. Musk said he expects those NASA missions to continue to launch from Florida. NASA has not launched its own crews since the end of the shuttle program in 2011. Musk said he would like to fly to Mars one day but that his goals are not about tourism. He said the question is whether humans become a less vulnerable multi-planet species. “I think the important thing is to develop the technology that will enable ultimately anyone to move to Mars if they really want to,” he said.
Requests for gun purchases drop ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON — The number of Texas residents seeking federal permission to purchase firearms has dropped 18 percent this year as fears of tougher regulations subside. Experts attribute the slowdown to waning fears of stricter federal regulations, The Houston Chronicle reported. Gun sales spiked across the nation after the Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school massacre in 2012. Texans submitted nearly
1.1 million requests to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from January to August 2013. That number has dropped to about 910,000 for the same period this year. The bureau conducts computerized checks to determine if a person has certain criminal convictions or other issues that would prohibit the gun purchase. “Some of the concern over certain types of firearms just disappearing may have been satisfied,” said Alice Tripp of the Texas State Rifle Association.
“Some of the concern has relaxed since nothing from Congress has happened. Various types of firearms and ammunition are still being made. Nobody has knocked on your door and taken anything.” Still, a spokeswoman for the bureau’s Houston office says it’s too early to know a definite reason for the decline. “One of the possibilities is people are getting their guns somewhere else,” said Special Agent Nicole Strong. Jeremy Alcede, CEO of
Tactical Firearms in Katy, also said the decline is due to eased tensions over whether President Barack Obama or other lawmakers would push for stricter gun laws. He said his sales in 2013 jumped from an average to $1 million per month to $1 million per week. Alcede says customers put off making mortgage and car payments in order to buy guns. “We had a huge influx,” Alcede said. “Obama has been the gun industry’s best salesman four years in a row.”
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A
7 books temporarily removed ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS — A Texas school district temporarily removed seven books from its approved book list for high school students after parents complained at a school board meeting about sex scenes and references to rape, abuse and abortion. Highland Park Superintendent Dawson Orr said the books will be reviewed by committees of parents, teachers and students, a process that could take months. “I made the decision — given the volume and the tenor and just the continual escalation of this issue — that we would pause, take the time to go ahead and create the reconsideration committees and do the work,” Orr told The Dallas Morning News. Teachers can choose from more than 200 books on the high school’s approved book list, each reviewed by a committee of teachers and parents. They sometimes send permission slips for books with mature content. Parents who object to a book can request another option for their children and formally ask to have it removed from the list. One parent who raised objections, Tavia Hunt, said she doesn’t want her sophomore daughter or any students to feel uncomfortable in English class because of sex scenes, but said the books should be allowed in the library. “This is not about banning books. No one is ad-
vocating that,” Hunt said. “We want the kids to have access to the books in the library. The problem is having obscene literature mandatory in the classroom and for discussion.” One of the seven removed books is “The Glass Castle: A Memoir” by Jeannette Walls, about growing up in poverty with a father who spent his money on alcohol and a mother who became homeless. Walls is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the district’s annual literary festival in February. She said she was heartbroken to learn her book was temporarily removed and that teenage readers have told her the book gave them courage to seek help. “My book has ugly elements to it, but it’s about hope and resilience, and I don’t know why that wouldn’t be an important message,” she said. “Sometimes you have to walk through the muck to get to the message.” But she said that she respects parents who are trying to protect their children. The other books that were removed are: “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein; “The Working Poor: Invisible in America” by David K. Shipler; “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse; “The Absolutely True Diary of a PartTime Indian” by Sherman Alexie; “An Abundance of Katherines” by John Green; and “Song of Solomon” by Toni Morrison.
PAGE 4A
Zopinion
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO EDITORIAL@LMTONLINE.COM
COMMENTARY
OTHER VIEWS
Approval is not wanted By NOAH FELDMAN BLOOMBERG NEWS
The Obama administration has offered no credible legal authorization for a war against Islamic State, and Congress plainly will not provide one. What’s going on here, asks the shade of James Madison? Has the United States completely lost the part of the Constitution that imagines Congress and thus the people as a check on the president’s war powers? And if so, does it matter? We can dispense quickly with the justifications that the administration has proffered in a piecemeal and somewhat embarrassed fashion. The 2002 authorization for the use of military force for the Iraq War says that the president can “protect the national security of the United States against the threat posed by Iraq.” But in bombing Islamic State, the United States isn’t protecting itself against the threat “by” Iraq. It’s protecting Iraqi residents from a threat “against” Iraq. Unless you think “by” and “against” mean the same thing, the 2002 authorization doesn’t apply. This is to say nothing of the fact that the Obama administration sought the repeal of the 2002 authorization before relying on it. The 2001 authorization is less applicable still. In it, Congress told the president he could make war on anyone he determines to have “planned, authorized, committed, or aided” the Sept. 11 attacks. The George W. Bush and Obama demonstrations have vastly expanded this language to cover al-Qaida affiliates and spinoffs that didn’t exist in 2001. But even these extensions don’t cover Islamic State, which is not only unaffiliated with al-Qaida but also at war with its affiliate in Syria, known as the Nusra Front. That leaves the last refuge of the believer in inherent presidential power: Article 2 of the Constitution, which makes the president commander in chief. As a candidate, Obama harshly criticized the Bush administration’s near pathological reliance on the idea that this clause trumped all other legal restraints on the president when he was protecting the country. As president, Obama has relied on inherent presidential powers to an unprecedented degree. At its maximum, commander-in-chief power gives the president the authority to use force in national self-defense without waiting for Congress. America’s national interests would certainly be implicated by the rise of an Islamic State statelet. But the U.S. is not defending itself against Islamic State in any meaningful sense. The brutal deaths of several journalists are a moral outrage, not a national security crisis. Obama has not given a credible public argument about why bombing Islamic State is an act of self-defensive war. Even if it were, the War Powers Resolution should then start ticking — and the administration won’t acknowledge that it applies at all. So what, if anything, does the Obama administration believe authorizes its newest war? There are two real possibilities, and both are legally and morally preposterous. One is that the administration essentially believes that if it is bombing from the air or pushing a button from
afar - as in a drone strike or a cyberattack - it isn’t going to war and doesn’t need legal justification. Before you laugh at the preposterous idea that air war isn’t war, recall that the administration actually made an analogous argument when it ignored the War Powers Resolution during the Libya bombing. Somehow the idea that U.S. ground troops won’t be involved is supposed to transfer the category into something else — a humanitarian intervention or just global police work. The experience of continual drone strikes in countries with which the U.S. is not at war may have strengthened this perspective over the last six years. The other possibility is that the Obama administration secretly believes that, if it’s killing jihadis, then it’s covered by the 2001 and 2002 authorizations as a kind of general catchall. This is legally indefensible, because those authorizations were specific to al-Qaida and Iraq respectively. Morally it’s worse still, veering dangerously close to the since-refuted Bush-era notion that the U.S. is in a global war against radical Islam. Again, however, the practice of constant drone strikes may well have created this unconscious norm in the minds of the administration’s actors. What of it? Should the absence of a credible legal authorization for this war bother us? After all, the decision to go to war is often wrapped in only a thin tissue of justification - should the war on Islamic State be any different? The answer is yes, and for a specific reason. It’s true that declaring war on another country often seems arbitrary as a matter of international law. But that’s a different question from whether the U.S. government is following its internal constitutional restraints in choosing war. The U.S. Constitution is designed to require that Congress take an active role in the decision to go to war — because the great majority of the framers believed that a republic should go to war only when the public supported that action. Today’s Congress actively wants to avoid endorsing the war on Islamic State, in large part because it fears that, if put plainly before the American people, the war would be unpopular. Yes, Democrats fear alienating their base at the midterms — but that’s just a cynical way of saying that congressional Democrats want to avoid confronting public opinion. At the same time, Congress wants the president to be able to go forward. This sets a dangerous precedent. This Congress may be winking at the president and telling him to proceed without authorization. But future presidents may want to go to war even when only a small part of the population approves — and they’ll be able to say that even the liberal Barack Obama started a full-scale war entirely on his own. This moves us one click further away from the ideal of a republic that goes to war only when the public approves. Noah Feldman, a Bloomberg View columnist, is a professor of constitutional and international law at Harvard and the author of six books, most recently “Cool War: The Future of Global Competition.”
COMMENTARY
We saved a kidnapped man By RONALD T. HOSKO SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST
Shortly before I retired as assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division in April, I watched a bizarre kidnapping unfold. An older man was tased, beaten and zip-tied, then forcibly taken from his home in Wake Forest, N.C. The victim was the father of a local prosecutor who’d helped try members of a violent, nationwide gang. Hundreds of FBI, state and local law enforcement personnel worked tirelessly to find the victim and kidnappers. Once we identified
potential conspirators, we quickly requested and secured the legal authority to intercept phone calls and text messages on multiple devices. That led us to the victim, just minutes before his life was to end. He’d been locked in a closet in a vacant public housing project apartment in Atlanta, quietly awaiting his own execution. Last week, Apple and Android announced that their new operating systems will be encrypted by default. That means the companies won’t be able to unlock phones and iPads to reveal
the photos, e-mails and recordings stored within. It also means law enforcement officials won’t be able to look at the range of data stored on the device, even with a court-approved warrant. Had this technology been used by the conspirators in our case, our victim would be dead. The perpetrators would likely be freely plotting their next revenge attack. Law enforcement officials rely on all kinds of tools to solve crimes and bring criminals to justice. Most investigations don’t rely solely on information from one source. But without each
and every important piece of the investigative puzzle, criminals may walk free. As Apple and Android trumpet their victories over law enforcement efforts, our citizenry, our Congress and our media ought to start managing expectations about future law enforcement and national security success. If our technologies are designed to keep important information of the hands of our government, we all might start thinking about how safe and secure we will be when the most tech-savvy, dedicated criminals exponentially increase their own success rates?
COLUMN
Orphan signs find new homes AUSTIN, Texas — It’s always therapeutic to find there are readers who share some of my interests. Sometimes it’s surprising, bordering on troubling. Turns out I’m not the only one around here intrigued by orphan signs still in place where businesses used to be. A few weeks back, I opened the bidding with three: signs at the long-gone St. Elmo-Tel on South Congress Avenue and Marimont Cafeteria on West 38th Street, and the more recently gone Lamar Village on North Lamar Boulevard. I was pleased to report that developers at the St. ElmoTel and Lamar Village developments plan to incorpo-
“
KEN HERMAN
rate the old signs into the new projects. Before I tell you about some other orphan signs, I can give you some good news about the Marimont sign. Turns out that now-vacant lot will be home to a new Pioneer Bank. Grant Buck, the bank’s marketing director, says the Marimont sign won’t remain where it is but “we will try to incorporate it into the architecture of the new building.” Now on to some other or-
phan signs. There is one on East 38th Street, a few blocks east of Interstate 35, and it needs a bit of a caveat. The sign marked two businesses. One is still there under a different name. One is gone. Guess which is which: Delwood Cleaners & Laundry or Stork Diaper Service? Correct, the diaper service is gone. Ken Clapham, whose son owns the business, now called Royal Touch Cleaners, told me the story of the sign. It’s been there a long time but had been laminated over for many years and carried the Royal Touch name. About two years ago it was renovated back to its original state.
“We decided to try to take it back to the original,” Clapham said. Thanks; nice move, nice sign. Another orphan sign comes with a wistful note. Many folks fondly remember Artz Rib House on South Lamar Boulevard, which closed in 2012. The building’s gone, but the sign remains. The south side promises “Live Music.” The north side encourages us to “Work Less.” On the day I went by, there were two wilting bouquets of flowers and a handwritten note on the chainlink fence. Former owner Art Blondin died Aug. 30. “Rest in Peace, Art,” the note said. “Thanks for the music and BBQ.”
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readers that a letter is written by the person who signs the letter. The Zapata Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms. Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No name-call-
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CLASSIC DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
Nation
Filmmaker speaks out By MICHAEL RUBINKAM ASSOCIATED PRESS
Eric Frein obsessively collected military memorabilia, dismissed his fellow war re-enactors as dilettantes, and took his hobby so seriously that he spoke French during a simulated Vietnam Warera interrogation, according to a filmmaker who interviewed the man now suspected of ambushing a Pennsylvania State Police barracks. Frein appears in an upcoming documentary about Vietnam re-enactors called “Vietnam Appreciation Day,” identifying himself by name and saying that re-enactments are “about teaching the public and showing the equipment that was used, talking about the history of it all.” Frein, 31, is charged with killing Cpl. Bryon Dickson and injuring another trooper in the Sept. 12 ambush outside a rural barracks. He has managed to elude hundreds of law enforcement officials looking for him in the heavily wooded Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. The documentary’s director, Patrick Bresnan, recalled Frein as odd and aloof, segregating himself from the other re-enactors. Frein and two of his friends “kind of viewed the other re-enactors as, in their words, playing cowboys and Indians,” Bresnan told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “‘They are playing war,’ is what he says, ‘and we’re here because we want to preserve the history of war and we want to meet veterans and we want to catalogue their stories.’” Frein made sure every detail of his look was just right, Bresnan said, and lost himself in the simulated battles that featured authentic period military
THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A
Fire destroys memorial By JIM SALTER ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Sean Simmers/PennLive.com | AP
Residents of Snow Hill Road wait to get back in their homes as law enforcement personnel continue to search for Eric Frein, the suspect in an ambush, on Monday. rifles firing blanks. “If you saw Eric go through the woods, it was very scary,” he said. “He was absolutely serious when he was going through the brush, hunting Viet Cong at these reenactments.” The director added he did not feel Frein posed an actual threat. “With Eric and his friends, they are so much more educated than the average re-enactor that we figured they were too smart to harm anyone,” he said. Police have called Frein a survivalist with a vendetta against law enforcement. They believe he’s hiding in the woods where he grew up and his parents still live. But there was no indication Tuesday that authorities are
imminently close to catching him. Frein attended East Stroudsburg University for one semester as a history student in 2005 and then again for two semesters in 2011 and 2012 as a chemistry major, but he didn’t graduate, said Brenda Friday, a university spokeswoman. He also attended classes off and on at Northampton Community College from 2008 to 2013 but never received a degree, said spokeswoman Heidi Butler. Frein once worked as a part-time, seasonal employee at the Boy Scouts of America’s Camp Minsi in the Poconos, according to Craig Poland, scout executive with the Minsi Trails Council. As the search for Frein continued, NBC’s “Today”
show aired footage from “Vietnam Appreciation Day.” In one clip, Frein talked about the difficult terrain where one of the re-enactments took place — an eerie prelude to the real-life manhunt playing out in the area around Canadensis, where authorities have been closing roads and residents have been unable to get back to their homes due to the heavy police presence. Though Bresnan last saw Frein in 2011, the director remembered Frein and his friends clearly. “They really identified with the soldiers of Vietnam because they came back to the U.S. and were rejects from society,” Bresnan said. “Eric and his friends definitely identified with the underdogs and rejects.”
FERGUSON, Mo. — Anger spilled over Tuesday after fire destroyed one of two memorials on the street where Michael Brown was killed, a site that has become sacred to many in Ferguson and others nationwide focused on interactions between minorities and police. How the fire happened wasn’t immediately clear, but it stoked fresh resentment among those who question whether the shooting of the unarmed, black 18-year-old by a white Ferguson police officer on Aug. 9 is being adequately investigated. “It’s the same as if somebody came and desecrated a grave,” Anthony Levine of Florissant, another St. Louis suburb, said as he studied the charred scene and shook his head. Many who gathered at the site Tuesday blamed police for the blaze, even as the chief said officers did everything they could to keep the stuffed animals and other items from burning. More than six weeks after Brown’s death, resi-
dents and others remain upset about the way his body lay in the street for more than four hours while police investigated the shooting. Many insist he was trying to surrender, with his hands up. They’re also angry that the officer who shot him, Darren Wilson, remains free and on paid administrative leave while a state grand jury weighs whether Wilson should face criminal charges. The Justice Department also is investigating. The memorial fire and ensuing outcry was a reminder of the simmering tensions that have only deepened since Brown’s death, which prompted several nights of riots and protests in the predominantly black suburb where just three blacks serve on a 53-officer force. Two memorials were put up the day Brown was killed. The one not damaged by fire is in the middle of Canfield Drive — a narrow band of stuffed animals, crosses, handmade signs and other items at the exact spot where Brown was shot. The smaller memorial that burned sat a few feet away with teddy bears.
Nation
6A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
Students walk out in protest By COLLEEN SLEVIN AND P. SOLOMON BANDA ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARVADA, Colo. — Hundreds of students walked out of classrooms around suburban Denver on Tuesday in protest over a conservative-led school board proposal to focus history education on topics that promote citizenship, patriotism and respect for authority, providing a show of civil disobedience that the new standards would aim to downplay. The youth protest in the state’s second-largest school district follows a sick-out from teachers that shut down two high schools in the politically and economically diverse area that has become a key political battleground. Student participants said their demonstration was organized by word of mouth and social media. Many waived American flags and carried signs, including messages that read “There is nothing more patriotic than protest.” “I don’t think my education should be cen-
sored. We should be able to know what happened in our past,” said Tori Leu, a 17-year-old student who protested at Ralston Valley High School in Arvada. The school board proposal that triggered the walkout calls of instructional materials that present positive aspects of the nation and its heritage. It would establish a committee to regularly review texts and course plans, starting with Advanced Placement history, to make sure materials “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the freemarket system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights” and don’t “encourage or condone civil disorder, social strike or disregard of the law.” The proposal from Julie Williams, part of the board’s conservative majority, has not been voted on and was put on hold last week. She didn’t return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment Tuesday, but previously told Chalkbeat Colorado, a school news website, that she
recognizes there are negative events that are part of U.S. history that need to be taught. “There are things we may not be proud of as Americans,” she said. “But we shouldn’t be encouraging our kids to think that America is a bad place.” A student demonstrator, Tyrone G. Parks, a senior at Arvada High School, said Tuesday that the nation’s foundation was built on civil protest, “and everything that we’ve done is what allowed us to be at this point today. And if you take that from us, you take away everything that America was built off of.” The proposal comes from an elected board with three conservative members who took office in November. The other two board members were elected in 2011 and oppose the new plan, which was drafted in response to a national framework for teaching history that supporters say encourages discussion and critical thinking. Detractors, however, fear it could put an outsize emphasis on
the nation’s problems. Tension over high school education has cropped up recently in Texas, where conservative school board officials are facing criticism over new textbooks. Meanwhile, in South Carolina, conservatives have called on an education oversight committee to ask the College Board, which oversees Advanced Placement courses, to rewrite their framework to make sure there is no ideological bias. Participating students were not punished, school district spokeswoman Lynn Setzer said. They will receive unexcused absences from unless their parents call to relay permission for missed classes, Setzer said. Superintendent Dan McMinimee has met with some of the students and renewed his offer to continue discussions on the issue. “I respect the right of our students to express their opinions in a peaceful manner,” he said. “I do, however, prefer that our students stay in class.”
Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez | AP
Flames from a controlled burn engulf a hillside as a firefighter watches while fighting the King Fire on Tuesday in Mosquito, Calif. Almost 7,400 firefighters are on the scene.
Manpower added to fight US warns that Ebola could Cali wildfire infect 1.4 million people By TERRY COLLINS
By MIKE STOBBE AND MARIA CHENG ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — U.S. health officials Tuesday laid out worst-case and best-case scenarios for the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, warning that the number of infected people could explode to at least 1.4 million by mid-January — or peak well below that, if efforts to control the outbreak are ramped up. The widely varying projections by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were based on conditions in late August and do not take into account a recent international surge in medical aid for the stricken region. That burst has given health authorities reason for some optimism. “I’m confident the most dire projections are not going to come to pass,” CDC chief Dr. Tom Frieden said in releasing the report. About 5,800 illnesses and over 2,800 deaths have been counted since the first cases were reported six months ago. But international health authorities have warned that the crisis is probably far worse in reality, with many corpses and infected people hidden or unreported. The CDC, for example, estimated that the real number of cases, reported and unreported, could reach 21,000 by Sept. 30 in just two of the hardest-hit countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone. In its worst-case scenario, the CDC said the number of illnesses in those nations could hit 1.4 million by Jan. 20. But the CDC also said that the epidemic in both countries could be almost ended by Jan. 20, by aggressively isolating the sick, ei-
ther in hospitals or at home, and by taking steps to reduce the spread of the disease during burials. “A surge now can break the back of the epidemic,” Frieden said. The CDC did not give an estimate of how many Ebola cases overall could be expected under the best-case scenario. But it said the number of new cases per day could be fewer than 300 by mid-January, instead of the thousands feared under the grimmer projections. The World Health Organization released its own estimates Tuesday, also warning that cases could soar dramatically. The U.N. agency, whose estimates were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, said 21,000 people could be infected in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone by early November. WHO said the death rate has been about 70 percent among hospitalized patients. Guessing the epidemic’s path — especially long-term — is difficult, experts said. “This is a bit like weather forecasting. We can do it a few days in advance, but looking a few weeks or months ahead is very difficult,” said Christopher Dye, WHO director of strategy and co-author of the organization’s study. He added: “We’re beginning to see some signs in the response that gives us hope this increase in cases won’t happen.” Last week, the U.S. announced it would build more than a dozen medical centers in Liberia and send 3,000 troops.
Britain and France have also pledged to build treatment centers in Sierra Leone and Guinea, and the World Bank and UNICEF have sent more than $1 million worth of supplies to the region. Sierra Leone on Sunday completed a three-day lockdown in what was believed to be the most dramatic disease-control measure taken since the plague was ravaging Europe in the Middle Ages. The nation’s president said it was so successful that a second one is being considered. In an indication that the crisis is worse than the official numbers suggest, health teams that went door-to-door in Sierra Leone identified 130 confirmed cases of Ebola and 70 suspected cases. In addition, 92 bodies were found, though it was not clear how many had Ebola. The CDC’s worst-case numbers seem “somewhat pessimistic” and flawed for not accounting for the infection-control efforts already underway, said Dr. Richard Wenzel, a Virginia Commonwealth University scientist who formerly led the International Society for Infectious Diseases. Another outside expert questioned WHO’s projections and said Ebola’s spread would ultimately be slowed not only by containment measures but by changes in people’s behavior. “Ebola outbreaks usually end when people stop touching the sick,” said Dr. Armand Sprecher, an infectious-disease specialist at Doctors Without Borders. Local health officials have launched campaigns to educate people about Ebola’s symptoms and to warn them not to touch the sick or the dead.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO — Nearly 2,000 firefighters were added Tuesday to battle a massive Northern California wildfire threatening thousands of homes in anticipation of erratic winds and hotter temperatures that could undo their progress. Almost 7,400 firefighters are on the scene as crews nearly doubled containment overnight of the King Fire east of Sacramento that has scorched 139 square miles. With containment now at 35 percent, crews focused on expanding contingency lines and putting out hot spots. But a red-flag warning with wind gusts of up to 35 mph, along with dry heat and low humidity, could stoke the flames and send embers flying ahead of the blaze. “We’re not sitting back and waiting. We have crews trying to get those containment lines strengthened,” state fire Battalion Chief Scott McLean said. “Our awareness is heightened as we’re continuing to work as hard and safely as we can to try to mitigate this fire.” The wildfire, which started on Sept. 13, continues to threaten about 21,000 structures, more than half homes. It has destroyed 10 homes and 22 outbuildings in the White Meadows area of Pollock Pines. While firefighters made progress during the week-
end with cooler and wetter conditions, there were fears Tuesday that winds could be similar to when the blaze doubled in size a week ago. “We are just as concerned as were last week, but with the increased personnel we are optimistic that we can reduce any type of wind effect,” state fire Battalion Chief Chris Christopherson said. “This is the highest priority fire in the nation. We’re hopeful that we can combat it.” About 2,700 people remain under evacuation orders, fire officials said. The fire also continued to threaten a key University of California, Berkeley research station that is home to scores of experiments on trees, plants and other wildlife. The blaze spread beyond California as the National Weather Service said a “dense smoke advisory” remained in effect Tuesday about 50 miles away in Reno, Nevada, and around Lake Tahoe, which is about 15 miles from the fire. Those winds sent the air quality index into the “hazardous” level for general populations in Auburn northeast of Sacramento as well as the Roseville and Rockville areas. A man charged with starting the fire, Wayne Allen Huntsman, 37, pleaded not guilty to arson on Friday. He remains in the El Dorado County jail on $10 million bail.
Police: Gunman fired before shooting By JAY REEVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A man wearing his work uniform started shooting at his former colleagues inside a UPS sorting facility in Alabama a day after he was fired from the company, killing a supervisor and another employee before committing suicide, police said Tuesday. Neither the gunman nor his two victims have been named, and Lt. Sean Edwards said police were still trying to reach their families. UPS spokesman Steve Gaut would not say what the shooter’s job duties had been. The UPS warehouse, a sand-colored building sitting on a hill with company logos on the front and side, is used to sort packages and send them out on trucks. About 80 drivers had already left on their routes, and a small number remained when the
shooter drove up in a private vehicle Tuesday morning and walked inside through a truck dock door in the back of the building, Gaut said. The building has a parking lot surrounded by barbed wire. The man was wearing a UPS uniform and opened fire either in or near some offices inside the warehouse in an industrial area just north of the Birmingham airport, Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper told reporters. The gunman had apparently shot himself by the time officers got inside the warehouse, Roper said. No one else was hurt. “When these people came here to work, they had no idea this would be their last day on earth,” Roper said. Edwards said the shooter had been armed with a handgun. Atlanta-based UPS said in a brief statement that the shooting happened
around 9:40 a.m. CDT. The company added that it is fully cooperating with the investigation. Employees who were at the warehouse when the shooting happened were being taken to another location so that they could be interviewed by investigators and provided with counseling, Roper said. Late Tuesday morning, a long line of police cars with their lights flashing left the area as part of a motorcade with a white school bus. Also, a wrecker with a police escort left the scene towing a dark red Honda SUV. Vonderrick Rogers lives on the same street as the UPS facility and said he drove past the building shortly after it happened. There were already 10 to 15 police officers on the scene with more arriving, he said. “Cops were jittering and running around like they were ready to go grab somebody,” he said.
Photo by Joe Songer/AL.com | AP
Police converge on a home in the Argo area of Birmingham, Ala., in connection with the investigation into an earlier shooting at the UPS service center in the city’s Inglenook community Tuesday.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
International
THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A
Obama urges world to follow US on climate By DINA CAPPIELLO AND SETH BORENSTEIN ASSOCIATED PRESS
UNITED NATIONS — In the first international test for his climate-change strategy, President Barack Obama pressed world leaders Tuesday to follow the United States’ lead on the issue, even as a United Nations summit revealed the many obstacles that still stand in the way of wider agreements to reduce heat-trapping pollution. “The United States has made ambitious investments in clean energy and ambitious reductions in our carbon emissions,” Obama said. “Today I call on all countries to join us, not next year or the year after that, but right now. Because no nation can meet this global threat alone.” But none of the pledges made at Tuesday’s one-day meeting was binding. The largest-ever gathering of world leaders to discuss climate was designed to lay the groundwork for a new global climate-change treaty. It also revealed the sharp differences that divide countries on matters such as deforestation, carbon pollution and methane leaks from oil and gas production: Brazil, home to the Amazon rainforest, said it would not sign a pledge to halt deforestation by 2030. The United States decided not to join 73 countries in supporting a price on carbon, which Congress has indicated it would reject. And minutes after Obama said “nobody gets a pass,” Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli insisted the world treat developing nations, including China, differently than developed nations, allowing them to release more heat-trapping pollution. China, the No. 1 carbon-polluting nation, signed on in support of pricing carbon and vowed to stop the rise of carbondioxide emissions as soon as possible. “Today we must set the
world on a new course,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who added that pricing carbon was critical. “Climate change is the defining issue of our age. It is defining our present. Our response will define our future.” In some ways, the summit, which was part of the annual U.N. General Assembly, answered that call. The European Union said its member nations next month were set to approve a plan that would cut greenhouse gases back to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. The EU also called for using renewable energy for 27 percent of the bloc’s power needs and increasing energy efficiency by 30 percent. The United States will not release its new emissions targets until early next year. “There were not that many surprises,” said Connie Hedegaard, the top climate official for the Euro-
pean Commission, referring to Obama’s speech. Hedegaard said the firstever limits on carbon from power plants, proposed by Obama back in June, were “a good signal to send, but after today we will still have to wait until first quarter of 2015 to see how ambitious the United States will be.” By 2020, China will reduce its emissions per gross domestic product by 45 percent from 2005 levels, Zhang said. But because economic growth in China has more than tripled since 2005, that means Chinese carbon pollution can continue to soar. Still, outside environmentalists hailed the country’s promises because they went beyond any of China’s previous statements. More than 150 countries set the first-ever deadline to end deforestation by 2030, but that goal was thrown into doubt when Brazil said it would not join. Forests
are important because they absorb the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. The United States, Canada and the entire European Union signed onto a declaration to halve forest loss by 2020 and eliminate deforestation entirely by 2030. If the forest goal is met, the U.N. says it would be the equivalent of taking every car in the world off the road. A group of companies, countries and nonprofits also pledged to restore more than 1 million square miles of forest worldwide by 2030. Norway promised to spend $350 million to protect forests in Peru and another $100 million in Liberia. World leaders pledged to spend at least $5 billion making the world more sustainable. France promised $1 billion. Korea pledged $100 million. Others, like Chile, pledged cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. A 2009 agreement called
the Copenhagen Accord called for developed countries to contribute $10 billion a year in 2010 and scale it up to $100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing countries cut emissions and adapt to a changing climate. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro chastised “polluting powers” for causing an “evil of such planetary dimensions” and then trying to barter their way out of their responsibilities. Seychelles President James Michel called small island nations like his “victims of this pollution” and said it was up to the countries that burn the most coal, oil and gas to do the most. “If they don’t do something, the Earth will not survive, and that will be the end of us all,” Michel said in an interview before the start of the summit. Ban, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and scientist Rajendra K. Pachauri
warned that time was short. By 2020, Ban said, the world must reduce greenhouse gases to prevent an escalating level of warming. Five years ago, leaders pledged to keep world temperatures from increasing by another 2 degrees Fahrenheit (3.6 degrees Celsius). Pachauri, who headed a Nobel Prize-winning panel of scientists that studied the issue, and Ban told world leaders the effects of global warming are already here, pointing to a U.N. building that flooded during the devastating Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Pachauri said it will get worse with droughts, storms and food and water shortages. He foresaw even more violent climate-driven conflicts. And, Pachauri said, “a steady rise in our death toll, especially among the world’s poorest. How on Earth can we leave our children with a world like this?”
PÁGINA 8A
Zfrontera
Agenda en Breve LAREDO 09/25— Concierto “Music on the Menu”, de 12 p.m. a 1 p.m. en el Salón de Recitales del Center for the Fine and Performing Arts de TAMIU. Evento gratuito. 09/25— Planetario Lamar Bruni Vergara presenta “Wonders of the Universe”, a las 6 p.m.; “Lamps of Atlantis”, a las 7 p.m.; Costo: 5 dólares, general; y, 4 dólares a niños menores de 12 años. 09/25— VOLEIBOL: El equipo Dutsdevil de TAMIU recibe a Newman University a las 7 p.m. en el Kinesiology and Convocation Building de TAMIU. 09/25— El guitarrista Tony Morris ofrecerá un concierto a las 7:30 p.m. en el Private David B. Barkeley Cantu Veterans Memorial Chapel del Campus Fort McIntosh de LCC. Evento gratuito. 09/26— Planetario Lamar Bruni Vergara de TAMIU presenta: “Stars of Pharoahs” a las 7 p.m. Costo: 5 dólares (general) y 4 dólares niños de 12 años y menores. 09/27— VOLEIBOL: El equipo Dustdevil de TAMIU recibe a Oklahoma Panhandle State University al mediodía en Kinesiology and Convocation Building de TAMIU. 09/27— Segundo Concierto “Caring Loving Giving” de United Way, a las 8 p.m. en el Salón del Laredo Civic Center. Costo: 40 dólares. Informes en el 723-9113. 09/28— Evento ‘Todo el Spaguetti que Pueda Comer’ de 12 p.m. a 1:30 p.m. en First United Methodist Church United Methodist.
MIÉRCOLES 24 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2014
TEXAS
Cuarto albergue ASSOCIATED PRESS
DILLEY — Funcionarios federales anunciaron que el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas abrirá un cuarto centro para albergar a familias detenidas al cruzar ilegalmente la frontera con Méxi-
co. Las autoridades informaron el martes que el ICE operará la instalación residencial cuando abra en noviembre en Dilley, unos 112 kilómetros (70 millas) al suroeste de San Antonio, y que albergará a inmigrantes que ingresaron a Esta-
dos Unidos sin autorización con sus hijos. La instalación, llamada Centro de Residencia Familiar del Sur de Texas, será el cuarto que se abre en meses recientes para albergar a estas personas y tiene por fin acelerar su regreso a sus países de
origen. Los otros centros operan en Karnes City, Texas; Artesia, Nuevo México, y Leesport, Pennsylvania. Las autoridades dicen que el centro albergará inicialmente 480 personas, pero con el tiempo tendrá capacidad para 2.400.
DESARROLLO
TAMAULIPAS
FORTALECEN EQUIPO TEXAS-TAMAULIPAS
Dan seguro por riesgo Asignan medio millón para Díaz Ordaz TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
NUEVA CIUDAD GUERRERO, MÉXICO 0925— FIT 2014 presenta “Mariatrix Show, Tamaulipas Música” a las 6 p.m. en la Plaza Principal. Evento gratuito. 0926— FIT 2014 presenta “Horacio Leal, Saxofón en las Calles” a las 6 p.m. en la Plaza Principal. Evento gratuito. 0928— FIT 2014 presenta “Guitarras Sin Límite” a las 6 p.m. en la Plaza Principal. Evento gratuito. 0929— FIT 2014 presenta “Nina Felina, Teatro” a las 6 p.m. en la Plaza Principal. Evento gratuito. Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Tamaulipas
MIGUEL ALEMÁN, MÉXICO 0926— FIT 2014 presenta “Mariatrix Show, Tamaulipas Música” a las 5 p.m. en la Plaza Principal. Evento gratuito. 0927— FIT 2014 presenta “Horacio Leal, Saxofón en las Calles” a las 5 p.m. en la Plaza Principal. Evento gratuito. 0930— FIT 2014 presenta “Nina Felina, Teatro” a las 5 p.m. en la Plaza Principal. Evento gratuito.
CAMARGO, MÉXICO 0927— FIT 2014 presenta “Mariatrix Show, Tamaulipas Música” a las 8 p.m. en la Plaza Principal. Evento gratuito. 0928— FIT 2014 presenta “Horacio Leal, Saxofón en las Calles” a las 8 p.m. en la Plaza Principal. Evento gratuito.
DÍAZ ORDAZ, MÉXICO 0926— FIT 2014 presenta “Nina Felina, Teatro” a las 5 p.m. en la Plaza Damas Leonas. Evento gratuito.
A fin de promocionar la Agenda Energética de Tamaulipas en Texas, el Gobernador de la entidad mexicana, Egidio Torre Cantú, al centro, visitó las instalaciones del Marathon Oil en el Eagle Ford Shale en Beeville.
Visualizan similitudes en agenda energética TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Promover la Agenda Energética Tamaulipas, es el objetivo de una gira de trabajo que realiza el Gobernador de Tamaulipas, Egidio Torre Cantú, por algunas ciudades de Texas, como Beeville y San Antonio. “La mejor forma para hacer las cosas, es hacerlas en equipo y por eso estamos aquí”, dijo Torre al reunirse con Robert McKinley, Vicepresidente del Instituto de Desarrollo Económico de la Universidad de Texas en San Antonio (UTSA). Torre sostuvo que su deseo es tener una mejor articulación con UTSA, institución directamente vinculada con la industria petrolera del Eagle Ford Shale Consortium. “Tamaulipas es el líder en el tema energético y lo que se viene será lo más grande de nuestras vidas”, dijo
McKinley. “El Producto Interno Bruto de Tamaulipas se duplicará en la siguiente década por la Reforma Energética y eso traerá muchos beneficios a la comunidad”. Durante el recorrido se visitaron las instalaciones del Marathon Oil en el Eagle Ford Shale. El objetivo de Tamaulipas es llevar la delantera en la forma de capital humano, para que cuando las empresas busquen trabajadores, volteen hacia el sur, indica un comunicado de prensa. Torre presentó las acciones de la Agenda Energética de Tamaulipas que tiene como objetivo de prever acciones, conjuntar esfuerzos y asegurar que las inversiones que se realicen en este sector respeten criterios de sustentabilidad y se reflejen en un incremento en la calidad de vida de los habitantes de nuestro estado.
Agregó que las áreas clave de las acciones a realizar son el capital humano, la investigación y el desarrollo tecnológico, infraestructura estratégica, promoción de inversiones, la sostenibilidad ambiental y la gestión de riesgos, entre otros. El Gobernador sostuvo que Texas ha sido un punto de referencia vital con el resurgimiento de la explotación de petróleo y gas en Texas. En el comunicado del Gobierno de Tamaulipas, se indica que hoy en día, Texas se posiciona como estado líder en materia energética. Texas reporta 116.000 empleos de tiempo completo relacionados a los hidrocarburos en los últimos tres años. En cuanto a impactos económicos en la región de Eagle Ford Shale se estiman 28.000 millones de dólares en 2013 y para el 2022 el gobierno local estima más de 2.000 millones de dólares de ingresos.
Ganaderos de la región del Municipio de Díaz Ordaz, afectados por contingencias, son los principales beneficiados con la adquisición Seguro Satelital Pecuario por un monto de 18 millones de pesos. Fue en Díaz Ordaz donde el Subsecretario de Desarrollo Pecuario y Forestal, Francisco Bonilla López, hizo entrega de beneficios a 43 productores pecuarios. La inversión en el punto fue de medio millón de pesos, apoyo que permitirá a los ganaderos comprar alimento para sus hatos. El seguro está diseñado para gente de escasos recursos que no tengan más de 20 hectáreas de pasto y que cuenten con hasta 60 unidades animal. Las unidades animal deben estar debidamente registradas en la Unidad Pecuaria. Argelio Flores Gámez, en representación del Presidente Municipal de Díaz Ordaz, Jorge Longoria Olivares, agradeció el apoyo del Gobierno de Tamaulipas. “Le damos las gracias al Gobernador del Estado que nos esté apoyando, en especial a la ganadería, y seguiremos trabajando en coordinación con los tres órdenes de gobierno en beneficio del campo y de Tamaulipas”, manifestó Flores. Por su parte, el Presidente de la Asociación Ganadera en Díaz Ordaz, Martín García Magdaleno, dijo que “los productores de Gustavo Díaz Ordaz expresan su agradecimiento por los estímulos que los ganaderos están recibiendo por concepto de Seguro Pecuario Satelital”.
CULTURA
NUEVO LAREDO, MÉXICO 09/27— Estación Palabra ‘Gabriel García Márquez’ presenta “Bazar de Arte” a las 10 a.m.; “100 Thousand Poets for Change” a las 10 a.m.; Festival Infantil a las 2 p.m. Entrada gratuita a todos los eventos. 09/27— Programa “Leo… Luego Existo” presenta la Lectura en Voz Alta con Juan Ignacio Aranda, y textos de Laura Esquivel, a las 4 p.m. en el Auditorio de Estación Palabra. Entrada gratuita.
FIT 2014 inicia el viernes en Tamaulipas TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Del 25 de septiembre al 5 de octubre se celebrará el Festival Internacional Tamaulipas en los 43 municipios de Tamaulipas. Por primera ocasión la entrada a todos los eventos será gratuita. Considerada “la gran fiesta cultural”, el evento organizado por el Instituto Tamaulipeco para la Cultura y las Artes (ITCA) invita a disfrutar las propuestas artísticas y culturales para toda la familia en espacios públicos con
El FIT 2014 recibe como país invitado de honor a Uruguay y al Estado de Yucatán. acceso libre. En esta edición, el FIT 2014 recibe como país invitado de honor a la República Oriental del Uruguay y al Estado Libre y Soberano Yucatán. Las presentaciones musicales que se ofrecerán por parte del ta-
lento de esta entidad corren a cargo de las voces románticas de Armando Manzanero y María Medina; Maricarmen Pérez y Jesús Armando con “Cantares del Mayab”; la agrupación Los Juglares, Jorge Buenfil y La Orquesta Típica Yukalpetén mostrarán la
“Fiesta en Yucatán” a lado del Ballet Folklórico del Estado de Yucatán. Los tamaulipecos conocerán además las propuestas para teatro como Silkateatro Andante y La Rendija con “Don Quijote, historias andantes. Teatro para una actriz y un mundo de objetos”; además Saas Tun presentará “Mestiza Power” y “Piedra de lluvia”. Conozca los detalles para ciudades cercana a Usted visitando fit.gob.mx.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
Sports&Outdoors HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: ZAPATA HAWKS
Hawks roll
NCAA FOOTBALL: TEXAS LONGHORNS TEXAS’ STRONG KICKS NINTH PLAYER OFF TEAM Texas coach Charlie Strong, center, dismissed junior tackle Kennedy Estelle from the team for an undisclosed rules violation, the ninth player he has removed in his first season.
Zapata trounces Carrizo Springs, Hawks improve to 3-1 in 2014 File photo by Eric Gay | AP
By CLARA SANDOVAL LAREDO MORNING TIMES
The Hawks football team continued to roll through their preseason schedule, picking up another victory on Friday. Zapata’s Alex Solis scored two touchdowns and racked up 129 yards on the night to help the Hawks beat Carrizo Springs 48-8 on the road. Solis rushed for eight yards on one carry but did most of his damage in the air to break away from the Hawks’ ground game. He caught three passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns. Kris Hinkel caught one pass for 49 yards. Senior quarterback Raul Ruiz completed just four passes but racked up 170 yards against the Wildcats, who had a hard time getting into the end zone as the Hawks held them to one touchdown on the night. Zapata moves to 3-1 on the season with their only blemish coming at the hands of Laredo Cigarroa (2-1) to open the season.
The Hawks have rolled off three consecutive victories as they head into Friday’s game against Falfurrias (2-2). Zapata took a 13-0 lead in the opening quarter and was able to add a score each quarter to put the game away early. The Hawks added 14 more points before halftime and held a 27-8 lead heading into the locker room. The defense allowed Carrizo Springs (1-4) only score in the second quarter after the Wildcats opted for the two-point conversion. That would be all they could do for the remainder of the game as the Hawks’ defense suffocated any comeback in the second half as Zapata held Carrizo Springs scoreless. The Hawks ground attack was led by the legs of junior running back Orlando Villarreal who had 10 carries for 109 yards on the ground. His longest run was a 63-yard touchdown while Carlos Gutierrez added 59 yards on four carries with a score.
Carrizo Springs controlled the clock and had the ball the majority of the time at 31:29 out of the total 48 minutes but were not able to convert that into points. Zapata was efficient with the clock scoring at will to open the game and only ran 37 plays compared to Carrizo Springs’ 71. The Hawks did a great job of containing running back Ernest Flores who was the only viable threat on the field. He rushed for 127 yards on 21 carries. Zapata showed their versatility on offense with a balanced scoring attack that had five Hawks get in to the scoring act with Solis and Ruiz leading the way with two touchdowns apiece. Picking up one touchdown each was Jorge Molina, Gutierrez and Villarreal. Kicker Franco Arce made all four extra-point attempts as he let the ball sail through the uprights. Clara Sandoval can be reached at Sandoval.Clara@Gmail.com.
International
10A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
Airstrikes alone may not do the trick By VIVIAN SALAMA AND DIAA HADID ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD — In their Syrian strongholds, extremists from the Islamic State group had been moving into civilian apartment buildings for cover days before the U.S. and its allies began pounding them before dawn Tuesday, activists say. It’s just one sign of the difficulties in trying to destroy the group by relying mainly on airstrikes. Breaking the militants’ hold over the cities they have captured in both Iraq and Syria will be complicated because the group can easily melt into the population. In the Iraqi city of Mosul, the extremists have enough support among the mainly Sunni Muslim population that they have reduced the presence of their fighters in the streets without apparent worry about their grip on power. Another problem is that there are no allied forces on the ground poised to move in to control territory should the militants retreat under the aerial bombardment. That’s particularly the case in Syria, where rebels opposed to the Islamic State group have been almost completely driven from areas it controls. Across a broad stretch of eastern Syria, the only forces that could conceivably capitalize on the airstrikes at the moment are a few remaining units of President Bashar Assad’s military, holed up in isolated bases in the Deir elZour and Hassakeh areas. But the Obama administration says it still wants Assad’s ouster and doesn’t want to help him regain ground. So far, the coalition also has resisted calls by Kurds in Syria for arms, training and air cover. Those Kurdish forces, fighting in a group known as the YPG, had successfully pushed back the Islamic State group for two years in a
Photo by Hussein Malla/file | AP
In this June 25, 2014 file photo, a Kurdish peshmerga fighter carries his weapon walks onto his base, where two flags of the militant extremist Islamic State group are seen on a building, right, and water tower, left, at the front line with the militants in Tuz Khormato. band of territory that hugs the Syrian-Turkish border in the north and northwest. In recent days, however, the extremists have made gains in the area near the town of Kobani, forcing more than 130,000 people — mostly Kurds — to flee into Turkey. A spokesman for the fighters said they could not match the firepower of the militants, who seized arms and armored vehicles from Iraqi forces fleeing their advance in June. The U.S. and its allies have been carrying out airstrikes in Iraq for weeks, and Iraqi government forces, Shiite militiamen and Iraqi Kurdish fighters moved in to retake two sites in the north after bombardments pushed back the extremists: the Mosul dam and the besieged village of Amirli. So far, the strikes have not targeted large urban areas such as Mosul, Fallujah and Tikrit, where breaking the extremists’ grip is harder and the risk of civilians casualties is higher. In a sign of their confidence, Islamic State group fighters paraded 30 captured Iraqi soldiers in pickup trucks
through the streets of Fallujah on Tuesday, only hours after the coalition strikes across the border in Syria. The opening salvo in Syria by the U.S. and Arab nations blasted key government buildings held by Islamic State fighters in their de facto capital of Raqqa as well as the group’s checkpoints and bases around the east. Syrian activist groups reported dozens of extremist fighters killed with seemingly few civilian casualties, although precise numbers were impossible to get. But many of the buildings hit in the strikes were already empty, said Rami Abdurrahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict through activists in Syria. Most of the deaths came in strikes on a training camp and on checkpoints outside cities, he said. For days before, militant fighters in Raqqa melted away among the city’s civilians, said Abu Ibrahim alRaqqawi, who oversees another secret collective of activists. “They are taking apartments in civilian build-
ings, so you have six flats full of Daesh fighters, and four flats of ordinary people,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. Many of the militants sent their wives and children to nearby villages considered to be safer. Fighters have been appearing more rarely in the daytime and instead gather in public places like coffee shops at night, al-Raqqawi said, citing activists still in the city. In Mosul — the largest Iraqi city in the territory across Syria and Iraq that is held by the group — residents say street patrols have been reduced because of the considerable support for the militants among the city’s mainly Sunni Muslim population. There is deep resentment of the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad and the Kurds, whose self-ruled area is nearby. “When you’re in a city, the population can be a screen for you — you can hide behind it,” said Michael Knights, an Iraq expert with the Washington Institute for Near East Studies. The problem comes if res-
idents move away from the group or lose their fear of it, he said. “Then a highly populated city becomes a dangerous place; there are a million eyes, a million informants, a million people who can pick up an AK-47.” The governor of Ninevah province, where Mosul is the capital, is trying to organize a militia of Mosul residents against the Islamic State group. The official, Atheel al-Nujaifi, was among those who fled the city when the militants first overran it in June. Now he operates from an office in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous zone. A recent statement posted on al-Nujaifi’s official website announced the plan for the so-called Mosul Battalions: “We will soon start the process of registering volunteers from Mosul to work toward liberating the city.” The Battalions claim to be operating already, announcing on social media there have been attacks on Islamic State group fighters, although it is impossible to confirm the statement’s authenticity. Mosul residents tell The
Associated Press that a number of armed factions have formed in recent weeks, often made up of former soldiers seeking to avenge colleagues killed by the militants. The groups have used roadside bombs and guns with silencers in attacks on the extremists, according to the residents who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were concerned for their safety. In Syria, the long-divided rebel factions are trying to position themselves to capitalize on any damage wreaked on the Islamic State group. Some have formed united “operation rooms,” hoping to be a vehicle for aid the U.S. has promised to the rebels to fight the extremists. Most prominent among them is one called the “Euphrates Volcano,” grouping moderate rebel factions and Syrian Kurds. Rebels east of the Syrian capital of Damascus successfully pushed back Islamic State fighters from their villages and towns in the spring, said an activist who is part of a rebel group called the Brigades of the Habib Moustafa. The group is a more moderate faction that is also seeking aid and training from the West. The activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation, said the rebels’ strategy first involved uniting rebel groups in an area east of Damascus known as the Ghouta against the Islamic State group. The main resistance they encountered was in areas where residents supported the extremists. So the rebel factions launched a campaign to reduce support, distributing pamphlets that explained crimes committed by the jihadis and asking Muslim preachers to talk about atrocities in their sermons. “We need to raise awareness to break the people’s sympathy for them,” the activist said.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A
Soda makers to reduce calorie consumption By CANDICE CHOI ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper said Tuesday they’ll work to reduce the calories Americans get from beverages by 20 percent over the next decade by more aggressively marketing smaller sizes, bottled water and diet drinks. The announcement was made at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City and comes as the country’s three biggest soda makers face pressure over the role of sugary drinks in fueling obesity rates. In many ways, the commitment follows the way
customers’ tastes are already changing: People have been moving away from soda on their own for several years. In response, Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. have been pushing smaller cans and bottles, which tend to be more profitable and are positioned as a way to control portions. They’ve also rolled out flavored versions of Dasani and Aquafina, respectively, as demand for bottled water has grown. John Sicher, publisher of the industry tracker Beverage Digest, said the commitment announced Tuesday appears to be a response to the growth challenges the companies are facing, in part because of health con-
cerns. Between 2000 and 2013, Beverage Digest estimates the calories people got from drinks fell by 12 percent. Susan Neely, president of the American Beverage Association, said the commitment with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation is intended to take such trends “to an ambitious new level.” She said the companies will focus their efforts on communities where there has traditionally been less interest in lower-calorie drinks. On stage at the event, former President Bill Clinton noted that drinks can make up a greater share of daily calorie intake for lower-income people.
The initiative could also be a way for the industry to get out in front of campaigns for more aggressive tactics to fight obesity. The American Beverage Association has spent millions of dollars campaigning against taxes and other measures intended to reduce consumption of sugary drinks. In the San Francisco Bay Area, for instance, it is now working to defeat a proposed tax set to go before voters in November. Instead of such government measures, the beverage association has touted the need for greater awareness about choices and the need to balance calorie intake with physical activity.
That will be one component of its new push, with an ad campaign called “Mixify” aimed at teens set to start airing nationally on TV this week. The association also noted companies will provide calorie counts on places such as vending machines. A federal regulation is expected to soon require such disclosures, but Neely said beverage makers will go farther by providing some sort of additional “nudge” for people to make better choices. The association said it will hire an independent evaluator to track its progress. It isn’t the first time the
industry has partnered with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. In 2006, the American Beverage Association also announced an agreement with the organization to remove full-calorie soft drinks from schools. That came after the threat of legal action by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said Jeff Cronin, a spokesman for the nutrition advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. Michael Jacobson, executive director of CSPI, said the announcement shows “the industry is seeing the writing on the wall” and that it’s a way for the industry to burnish its reputation.
ments by Border Patrol officials. In a video provided to the San Antonio Express-News by Matthew Leber and American Patriots the III percent, an alleged border agent dressed in uniform and wearing a mask declares his full support for the armed citizens on the border. Leber wouldn’t say where the video was shot. A Border Patrol spokesman said the video remains under investigation and couldn’t verify whether the masked person is a border agent. At Camp Lonestar, the men still are reeling from the shooting incident. A few of them “chickened out” and left camp, Foerster said, and Border Patrol authorities have confined Patriot movement to less than 100 yards of riverfront. There have been other brushes with law enforcement since. Steven Brooks, a Patriot from Ohio, was arrested earlier this month on a third-degree felony charge after he left a 9 mm handgun in the bathroom of a Stripes Convenience Store. He remains in jail. A fellow Patriot, Richard Smith, attempted to claim ownership of the weapon to protect Brooks, who does not have a license to carry a concealed handgun. Smith was charged with a misdemeanor for making a false report to Cameron County sheriff ’s investigators. A short video posted on Facebook of Patriots members tying up three suspected undocumented immigrants raises other legal questions about the detention of immigrants by men unauthorized to enforce immigration law. “Unless these immigrants pose some threat of violence, they cannot be detained against their will,” said Geary Reamey, a professor at St. Mary’s
School of Law. “These guys are probably violating several criminal laws themselves, the most obvious would be kidnapping.” Amid a rising chorus of opposition from Democrats and pressure from concerned law enforcement agencies, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst recommend that border militia groups join the Texas National Guard to avoid another “friendly fire” incident. For now, the Patriots have an ardent supporter in Larry Smith, Republican candidate for U.S. Congressional District 34, which encompasses a swath of border. Smith applauded the “dedicated Americans” he met at Camp Lonestar whose efforts in the Rio Grande Valley dovetail nicely with his own hard-line stance on border security. “These guys aren’t cowboys,” Smith said. “If Border Patrol had brought them into the fold, the shooting could have been prevented.” But Cordero fears that with pressure mounting, the Patriots could decide to patrol the streets of La Posada, a situation rife with potential conflict. It’s been nearly 20 years since Cordero left her home in Durango, Mexico, for Brownsville, and much has changed. Myriad tactical infrastructure and manpower have transformed the border, and immigrants still cross here. More than 248,000 immigrants have been detained in the Rio Grande Valley so far this year. Some nights she can hear people running through the alley behind her home. “I crossed there,” Cordero said of the property now occupied by Camp Lonestar. “If someone would have stopped me with a gun, I wouldn’t have had the chance to be productive for this country.” anelsen@expressnews.net
BORDER Continued from Page 1A armed outsiders, roaming the neighborhood and firing guns. In La Posada, a neighborhood a block from the Patriot encampment and comprised largely of Spanish-speaking families, some citizens, some not, residents are used to the white-and-green U.S. Border Patrol vehicles perched atop levees. But a swell of illegal immigration in the Rio Grande Valley this summer, including unprecedented numbers of unaccompanied children, has prompted a dramatic increase in law enforcement. Border Patrol now has more than 3,000 agents in its Rio Grande Valley sector, a number that’s growing. Gov. Rick Perry deployed between 900 and 1,000 National Guard members, while the Department of Public Safety is spending $1.3 million per week for additional state troopers on the border. Yet, it’s the presence of armed civilians, most from out of state, with questionable training and no legal authority or formal coordination with law enforcement agencies that has caused the biggest stir on this stretch of border. While some landowners welcome the Patriots, Camp Lonestar and its incongruous band of volunteers have put law enforcement agencies and La Posada residents on edge. “If they aren’t allowed to do the job of Border Patrol, then what are they doing there, hunting people?” said Maria Cordero, whose home is within view of the camp. “What will happen if they chase someone through the neighborhood? There are children here.” Cordero, a community organizer in La Posada, worries a stray bullet from a poorly aimed rifle in Camp Lonestar could injure her 3-year-old daughter — or worse. Some of Cordero’s neighbors also noticed the camouflaged
men but mistook them for National Guard. When she informs her neighbors that the men actually are a militia camped out a block away, the news is met with disbelief and anger. “I thought the shooting was from the cartel in Matamoros,” said Polo Rojas, a La Posada resident. “Of course I’m not OK with these guys. They’re racist.”
Inside the camp Even though the men at Camp Lonestar appeared to be Caucasian, they said their mission is not motivated by race but by border security. Men from Texas, Indiana, Louisiana and Ohio sleep in tents on a 20-acre ranch owned by Cuban “Rusty” Monsees, a cantankerous landowner given to rants against social ills, the government and in particular illegal immigration. Monsees invited a small group of men to set up a base of operations on his ranch about a month ago. Others arrived after learning of the encampment via social media. Assorted tents are pitched around a small, low-slung building that serves as the command center and usually is offlimits to media. Mounds of dirt piled chest high shield the building from imminent attack by cartel operatives, said Kevin “KC” Massey, an electrician from the Texas Panhandle. “This is a war zone, but I can’t sit at home with any good conscience knowing what’s happening on the border,” Massey said. “What life am I going to have when my home is overrun?” Knife-toting, sunburned men with nicknames like “Jesus,” with shoulderlength hair and bushy beard, and “Two Gone,” missing two front teeth,
eat biscuits and gravy for breakfast, swat at mosquitoes, and shower and use the bathroom outside. Fiercely independent, the Patriots abhor comparisons to citizen militia, which they say lack principals and discipline. Still, a hierarchy clearly has emerged in the camp, with the men deferring to Massey or Chris Detwiler, a former Marine from Indiana. The risks are real, Massey said, driving his Kawasaki Mule up to the border fence. Details about the camp and its volunteers are kept secret to keep danger to a minimum, he said. To demonstrate how near the threat is, he pointed to the letters CDG for Cartel Del Gulfo, or Gulf Cartel, etched into the fence. The Patriots spray painted their own message over the letters in fluorescent orange: “Don’t Tread On Me.” “You know how gangs tag over each others’ signs?” Massey said. “Same thing here.” Massey parked atop a bluff, overlooking a frequent crossing point the Patriots had named Cartel Beach. Although Massey said he had detained immigrants, he has found that standing on the banks of the river with a rifle slung over his shoulder usually is enough to scare people back to Mexico. “We’re showing this can be done without doing anything illegal or immoral,” he said. “I haven’t had to point my weapon.” With the area secure, John Foerster, a Brownsville native and a felon convicted of burglary, scribbled a message in the dirt that only border agents would understand, he said. Patriots described a “flawless” working partnership with Border Patrol, and Massey offered the phone numbers of su-
pervisors and tower operators programmed into his cellphone as evidence. “You don’t get those from the phone book,” Massey said. In yet another example of their good-natured association, Massey said, border agents nicknamed the men Rusty’s Rangers. But in the aftermath of a shooting incident several weeks ago, the Patriots have found themselves increasingly at odds with law enforcement. “We don’t know who these people are or how many are out there,” Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio said. “It’s a real concern because they don’t know the area, the customs, the people or the language.” On Aug. 29, an agent in pursuit of immigrants stumbled upon Forester, who was armed with a rifle. The agent fired several rounds at close range, and though Forester was unharmed, relations with Border Patrol have cooled since. Cameron County sheriff ’s investigators responded to the shooting, and the FBI is reviewing the Sheriff ’s Department investigation. In response to Patriot comments, Border Patrol has flatly denied coordination of any kind with private groups or organizations. The agency noted in a statement that interdicting narcotics and deterring and apprehending immigrants requires highly trained personnel — Border Patrol agents receive more than four months of specialized training. “Taking justice into your own hands really weighs on the law enforcement community,” said Raul Ortiz, deputy chief patrol agent for the Rio Grande Valley sector of the Border Patrol. “The militia is just an accident waiting to happen.” The Patriots, however, dispute formal pronounce-
12A THE ZAPATA TIMES
EL NIÑO Continued from Page 1A operations for Texas AgriLife Extension Service and a former drought specialist there. The drought map, released on Thursdays, will show improvement this week because of the recent rains. The current map shows about 43 percent of the state in no drought stage. West Texas, where conditions are typically the state’s driest, has gotten above normal rainfall, with Lubbock at 106 percent of normal and Amarillo about 102 percent of normal. Many lakes’ levels have risen by double digits in the region. Austin has gotten 75 percent of normal rainfall for the year. Drought in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, southeast of Wichita Falls, is likely to fall into a drier category next week, having gotten just 61 percent of normal rainfall for the year. Lake levels in the area are at lows not seen in 25 years; El Niño is expected to help there, Murphy said. El Niño, a flow of unusually warm surface waters from the Pacific Ocean toward and along the western coast of South America, changes rain and temperature patterns around the world and usually raises global temperatures.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
Suspect charged in case ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A suspect has been charged in the disappearance of a University of Virginia student, but the man has not been apprehended, police said Tuesday night. Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo said at a news conference that officers obtained an arrest warrant charging Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr., 32, with abduction with intent to defile. Police have said they believe Matthew was the last person seen with 18-year-old Hannah Graham, who disappeared early the morning of Sept. 13. Matthew was last seen Saturday when he stopped by the police station to ask for a lawyer. Police say he sped away afterward, losing officers who had him under surveillance and prompting authorities to issue two arrest warrants for reckless driving. Longo said police, who have searched Matthew’s car once
and his apartment twice, the Department of Fodecided they had probarensic Science’s Central ble cause to charge him Laboratory in Richin Graham’s disappearmond. ance. He declined to say Ban said that the dewhat new information partment has expedited police had, and he did the case and hoped to MATTHEW not take questions. provide authorities with Officials said earlier results in the “very near that they took clothing during future.” But he noted the lab their second search of Mat- could spend hours or even a thew’s apartment Monday, but whole day on a single piece of they would not elaborate on evidence that may have multithe importance of the items. ple stains or hairs on it. He alPolice first searched the so said it is standard procedure apartment Monday, and police to test any samples against Capt. Gary Pleasants said in- those in their database, includformation that came up during ing those from other missing the investigation led to a sec- persons cases in the central ond search. He would not give Virginia area. details about the clothing or Matthew is a patient technielaborate on the search. cian in the operating room at As of Tuesday afternoon, the the university’s medical center. state lab was still analyzing Police have not offered any deevidence it has received from tails about how he and Grathe Charlottesville Police De- ham, a sophomore from northpartment, which included near- ern Virginia, may be connectly two dozen items and eight ed. “known samples that we would Authorities on Tuesday reuse for comparison purposes,” leased an updated wanted postsaid Jeffrey Ban, director of er reflecting the new charge
against Matthew. It says the 6foot-2, 270-pound man was last reported driving his sister’s 1997 light blue Nissan Sentra, and notes that he is said to have contacts in Virginia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. Police said they have focused on Graham’s movements the night of Sept. 12 and into early Sept. 13. Graham met friends at a restaurant for dinner, stopped by two parties at off-campus housing units and left the second party alone, police have said. Surveillance videos showed her walking, and at some points running, past a pub and a service station and then onto the Downtown Mall, a sevenblock pedestrian strip lined with shops and restaurants. According to family members and police, Graham is an alpine skier and plays the alto saxophone. Organizers of a candlelight vigil last week at the university handed out her favorite candy, Starburst.