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ZAPATA COUNTY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
FBI
‘Bullied, harassed’
Border area has lower murder rate
Records shed light on feelings toward Nuques By JUDITH RAYO THE ZAPATA TIMES
NUQUES
During a Zapata County ISD school board meeting in June, a trustee told then-Superintendent Raul Nuques that employees were afraid and “feel bullied, harassed and intimidated by him,” according to an email recently provided by the district. The records shed light
on the sentiments that some ZCISD school board members may have had toward Nuques, who resigned from the district Aug. 10. During the board meeting in June, several ZCISD trustees confronted Nuques in closed session about concerns they had with decisions he was making.
See ZCISD PAGE 8A
THE ZAPATA TIMES
RAMIREZ
SOUTH TEXAS
BATTLE WITH PTSD
WASHINGTON — Congressman Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, released Thursday a compilation of the latest statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation that show a lower murder rate in cities along the Texas-Mexico border than in other major cities across the nation and the State of Texas. The numbers are from 2014. The FBI crime rates also show that the number of robberies, assaults, and rapes are significantly lower in border cities than the major metropolitan cities in Texas.
“Many people, both in the political arena and out, mischaracterize the southern border region as very unsafe,” Cuellar said. “But today’s numbers, for yet another year, paint a very different picture. These statistics clearly show that some of the safest cities in the United States are on the U.S.-Mexico border. The murder rate is actually higher in Washington, D.C. where I work than in McAllen, El Paso or Brownsville, all along the Texas border with Mexico. “These numbers should cause people to rethink some of the
See BORDER PAGE 10A
MURDER ON THE BORDER Muder rates in U.S.cities per 100,000 population (National rate: 4.5 murders per 100,000 population) 43.56 15.95
10.9
9.11
7.21
5.6
4.34
3.54
3.08
2.73
Detroit Houston SanAntonio McAllen El Paso Washington D.C. Dallas Laredo Austin Brownsville Source: 2014 FBI Uniform Crime Reports
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS
Inmates to be released early 870 low-level drug offenders in area from Houston to Laredo to be let out By JASON BUCH AND CINDY GEORGE HEARST NEWSPAPERS Photo by Maricela Rodriguez/Valley Morning Star | AP
In this photo taken July 15, Fred Rendon, Jr. poses for a portrait in Harlingen, Texas. Rendon recently finished a book entitled, "My Battle with P.T.S.D." In the book, Rendon recounts his battle with the condition after serving in the Vietnam Conflict.
Vietnam veteran chronicles struggle in book By EMMA PEREZ-TREVINO VALLEY MORNING STAR
H
ARLINGEN — Sleep for Vietnam veteran Fred Rendon Jr. was not an option. “It’s a good time to die,” he explained to the Valley Morning Star of Harlingen. “It’s a good time to get killed,” Rendon said.
Author of the just released “My Battle With PTSD,” Rendon chronicles his battle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which shadowed his life for years. For the now 67-year-old Rendon, who has lived in California, Dallas, Brownsville, McAllen and now Harlingen, it all started when he was 18 years old.
“I felt there was something wrong with me when I returned,” Rendon said of when he came home in 1967 after his tour in Vietnam in 1966. He didn’t know what was wrong with him. Nobody did. “I knew that I couldn’t be around people anymore,” he recalled. “I felt very uncomfort-
able. I hated to look people in the eye.” Writing the book, he hopes, leads to a better understanding of the disorder, and helps families of veterans understand, but also know it is manageable. His feelings of desperation upon his return from
See VETERAN PAGE 8A
Hundreds of federal prisoners sentenced in the Southern District of Texas who qualified for retroactive cuts to their punishments are set for early release as soon as Nov. 1. The South Texas defendants will comprise the largest group of inmates who applied for reductions and the largest set whose requests were granted, according to a retroactivity report published in August by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The early releases are the result of the commis-
sion, an independent agency that sets sentencing policies for federal crimes, cutting the potential punishments for future drug offenders last year and then making that change retroactive. In April 2014, the commission approved a sentencing reduction amendment that became effective in November 2014. In July 2014, the commission voted to make those sentencing cuts retroactive, but required the courts set release dates of Nov. 1, 2015, or later for inmates whose terms were re-
See INMATES PAGE 10A