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ADULT PROTECTIVE SERVICES
Victimizing the elderly Authorities: Abuse of an elder is usually linked to a family member By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
Financial exploitation and abuse of the elderly can mostly be attributed to a family member, an Adult Protective Services official said this week.
Under the motto, “If it’s not your money — it’s a crime,” APS wanted to put a spotlight on financial exploitation in October. “Financial exploitation is when a relative, caretaker or anyone with an ongoing relationship, improperly or illegally
uses the money or property of a person who is elderly or has a disability for personal benefit or profit,” APS said. APS investigates allegations of abuse, neglect and exploitation of a person with a disability ages 18 to 64 or anyone older than 65 years of age, according to John
Lennan, a regional media specialist with Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Elizabeth Vega, APS financial exploitation specialist, said the perpetrator in
See ELDERLY CRIME PAGE 13A
ELECTION 2014
EARLY CHILDHOOD INTERVENTION PROJECT NIÑOS
Federal judge blocks state’s voter ID law
HELPING A CHILD
Ruling blocks Texas’s enforcement of controversial measure; appeal is pending By WILL WEISSERT ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — A federal judge on Thursday likened Texas’ tough voter ID rules to a poll tax meant to suppress minority voters and blocked Texas from enforcing it just weeks ahead of next month’s election, knocking down a law that the U.S. Justice Department condemned in court as deliberately discriminatory. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos of Corpus Christi is a defeat for Republican-backed photo ID measures that have swept the U.S. in recent years and have mostly been upheld in court. And it wasn’t the only one. The U.S. Supreme Court also blocked Wisconsin from implementing a law requiring voters to present photo IDs. Gonzales Ramos, an appointee of President Barack Obama, never signaled during a twoweek trial in September that
she intended to rule on the Texas law — rebuked as the toughest of its kind in the U.S. — before Election Day. But the timing could spare an estimated 13.6 million registered Texas voters from needing one of seven kinds of photos identification to cast a ballot. The Justice Department says more than 600,000 of those voters, mostly blacks and Hispanics, currently lack any eligible ID to vote. Gonzales Ramos’ ruling says the law “creates an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote, has an impermissible discriminatory effect against Hispanics and African-Americans, and was imposed with an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose.” It added that the measure: “constitutes an unconstitutional poll tax.” Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office said it would appeal.
See ELECTION 2014 PAGE 13A
Photo by César G. Rodriguez | The Zapata Times
Zapata County Sheriff’s Deputy Manuel Longoria plays with 14-month-old Leslie Raquel “Junior” Longoria at their home. “Junior” is diagnosed with lissencephaly, or smoothness of the brain, which causes her developmental delays.
Family makes effort to aid their daughter By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
Aug. 5, 2013, marked the day Zapata County Sheriff’s Deputy Manuel Longoria and his wife Leslie Vela received a blessing from the sky,
they said. That day Vela gave birth to their second child, Leslie Raquel “Junior” Longoria, who is now 14 months old. In the following months, her parents be-
See CHILDREN
PAGE 13A
Photo by César G. Rodriguez | The Zapata Times
Zapata County Sheriff’s Deputy Manuel Longoria and wife Leslie Vela pose with their child, Leslie Raquel “Junior” Longoria.
PUBLIC HEALTH
Rep calls for Texas airport screenings By LISA HAGEN HEARST NEWSPAPERS
In the wake of the first U.S. death and the stillgrowing Ebola epidemic in West Africa, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, and a number of Texas lawmakers Friday called for screenings at Texas’ international airports, and asked key public health officials why they oppose
travel bans to and from infected countries. At a House Homeland Security committee hearing at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, members of Congress voiced concerns over Thomas Duncan, who died Wednesday of the virus after traveling from Liberia to Dallas about two weeks ago. “If there has ever been
a time to come together and put pettiness aside, it is now,” McCaul said at the hearing. “We must get this right and make sure that federal protocols are put in place and communicated to our local and
state leaders when a situation this critical occurs.” According to the World Health Organization, there have been 8,399 confirmed, suspected and probable cases as of Wednesday in seven countries around
the world including the three most infected countries in West Africa — Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. Among those cases have been 4,033 deaths, the WHO reported. In addition to screening announced this week at JFK, Newark, Dulles, Atlanta and O’Hare airports, McCaul and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, requested in a letter to U.S. Cus-
toms and Border Protection commissioner Gil Kerlikowske that DallasFort Worth International and George Bush Intercontinental in Houston also start screening travelers arriving from those three West African countries for fevers. “Because those traveling from Guinea, Sierra
See PUBLIC HEALTH PAGE 13A