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STATE
IMMIGRATION
Stakes are high for Straus successor
Immigrant child with cerebral palsy detained after surgery
Speaker’s exit poses challenge
Girl faces deportation proceedings upon release By Nomaan Merchant ASSOCIATED PRE SS
By Paul J. Weber A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
AUSTIN — The unexpected retirement of the leading moderate Republican in Texas politics comes as Democrats struggle to find candidates to fill a statewide ballot for 2018 while unwavering conservatives emboldened by President Donald Trump line up big donors and face few party rivals. Republican House Speaker Joe Straus made the surprise departure announcement Wednesday just after his national profile soared because he scuttled a North Carolina-style “bathroom bill” targeting transgender people. Even the ACLU of Texas — usually a combatant with the ruling Texas GOP — tweeted its gratitude as Straus announced his exit. Powerless Texas Democrats came to rely on the pragmatic five-term speaker as a check on some conservative measures, even as Straus allowed Texas to pass others such as immigration crackdowns, anti-abortion measures and voting restrictions that are among the toughest in the U.S. The stakes over his successor are high, because, for Democrats and a weakened class of GOP moderates in Texas, the odds of making gains in other elections next year are long. “Joe Straus saved Texas, and now that he’s gone there are no brakes,” said Andrew White, a Houston investor exploring a run for governor because no credible Democratic candidate has stepped up. “We’re an out of control 18-wheeler. If we don’t do any-
HOUSTON — A 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who entered the United States from Mexico without permission a decade ago is potentially facing deportation after having to cross a Border Patrol checkpoint in South Texas for emergency gallbladder surgery, a family lawyer said Thursday. Immigration advocates are protesting Rosa Maria Her-
nandez’s case and say Border Patrol should show more discretion in the cases of sick children who are in the U.S. illegally but need medical treatment. Leticia Gonzalez, an attorney for the Hernandez family, said Thursday that Rosa Maria was taken with a cousin from the Texas border city of Laredo to a children’s hospital in Corpus Christi, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) away. They had to pass through one
of several Border Patrol checkpoints set up in South Texas, north of the U.S.-Mexico border. Gonzalez said Border Patrol agents allowed the girl and her cousin to pass, but followed the hospital vehicle taking them. At the hospital, agents stood by and refused to let Rosa Maria’s relative close the door to their room so they could keep watch over the girl, Gonzalez said. And after the surgery was complete, agents
stood ready to escort Rosa Maria to a federal facility for unaccompanied minors in the U.S. illegally, located another 140 miles away in San Antonio. Rosa Maria is being held at the facility indefinitely, the attorney said. Even if she is eventually released to a sponsor approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the girl will undergo processing and could be deported. Gonzalez said it Child continues on A8
NATIONAL SECURITY
WALL PROTOTYPES COMPLETED They will be tested for effectiveness By Elliot Spagat ASSOCIATED PRE SS
SAN DIEGO — The U.S. government announced Thursday that prototypes for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico have been completed and will be subjected to punishment to test their mettle — by workers wielding sledgehammers, torches, pickaxes and batteryoperated tools. The testing lasting up to two months could lead to officials concluding that elements of several designs should be merged to create effective walls, said Ronald Vitiello, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s acting deputy commissioner. Wall continues on A8
Straus continues on A8
Elliott Spagat / Associated Press
People look at prototypes of a border wall Thursday, Oct. 26, 2017, in San Diego. Contractors have completed eight prototypes of President Donald Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico, triggering a period of rigorous testing to determine if they can repel sledgehammers, torches, pickaxes and battery-operated tools.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Trump frustrated by intelligence community’s JFK secrecy By Zeke Miller A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
WASHINGTON — It was a showdown 25 years in the making: With the world itching to finally get a look at classified Kennedy assassination files, and the deadline for their release just hours away, intelligence officials were still angling for a way to keep their secrets. President Donald Trump, the
one man able to block the release, did not appreciate their persistence. He did not intend to make this easy. Like much else surrounding investigations of the 1963 killing of President John F. Kennedy, Thursday’s release of 2,800 records from the JFK files was anything but smooth. It came together only at the last minute, with White House lawyers still fielding late-arriving requests
for additional redactions in the morning and an irritated Trump continuing to resist signing off on the request, according to an account by two White House officials. They spoke only on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. The tale of the final hours before the congressionally mandated 25-year release deadline adds a new chapter to the story
of Trump’s troubled relationship with his spy agencies. He again flashed his skepticism and unpredictability in dealing with agencies long accustomed to a level of deference. Intelligence officials, meanwhile, were again left scratching their heads about a president whose impulses they cannot predict. And those officials had their own story tell, some rejecting the notion they were slow to act
on Trump’s expectations for the documents. The CIA began work months ago to get its remaining assassination-related documents ready for release on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the process. The person, who was not authorized to publicly to discuss the process and spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the goal was to have all the agency’s Files continues on A8
Zin brief A2 | Saturday, October 28, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
CALENDAR
AROUND TEXAS
TODAY IN HISTORY
SATURDAY, OCT. 28
ASSOCIATED PRE SS
Dia Del Rio Loving Laredo Hike at Dusk. 4:30 p.m. Benavides Sports Complex, 600 S. Bartlett. Join Commissioner Jesse Gonzalez and the Rio Grande International Study Center for a Halloween-inspired hike at the Chacon Hike & Bike Trail with bat watching at dusk at the Meadow Street Bridge. Free event.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 1 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 10 a.m. - noon. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
FRIDAY, NOV. 3 Laredo Veterans Coalition 7th Annual Dance. 7 p.m. Jesus Martinez Performing Arts Center, formerly known as the Laredo Civic Center. This year they are honoring the Webb County Commissioner John Galo. The dance will be from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. Music will be provided by Noe Esparza and the Fabulous Dells. For ticket information, call Commander Tony Martinez at 740-0223 or Vice Commander Daniel Herrera at 740-1488.
SATURDAY, NOV. 4 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions. Holy Redeemer Church garage sale. 7 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1602 Garcia Street. From toys to clothes, the church says the public will be able to find a plethora of items on sale at very good prices. For more information, contact Amparo Ugarte at 956-286-0862.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 8 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 10 a.m. - noon. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions. The Nature Talk on "Introduction to Beekeeping." 6:30 p.m. Lamar Bruni Vergara Environmental Science Center at Laredo Community College. Nature Talks are sponsored by the Brush Country Chapter of Texas Master Naturalists. The presenter will be Jesus Jimenez. All Nature Talks are free and open to the public.
THURSDAY, NOV. 9 First United Methodist Church Annual Rummage Sale. 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. 1220 McClelland Church’s Fellowship Hall
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2017 First United Methodist Church Annual Rummage Sale. 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. 1220 McClelland Church’s Fellowship Hall
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2017 First United Methodist Church Annual Rummage Sale. 9 a.m. – 2 p.m., 1220 McClelland Church’s Fellowship Hall
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 15 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 10 a.m. - noon. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
FRIDAY, NOV. 17 12th Annual Radiothon. Hosted by Make A Wish Foundation and Big Buck Country 98.1. 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. at Mall del Norte, Centre Court. Call 712-9474 to pledge or renew support. For more information, call 235-0673
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 22 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 10 a.m. - noon. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 29 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 10 a.m. - noon. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
Les Hassell / AP
Longview Morning Journal coverage of July 1970 bus bombings. Elizabeth Michael Melton stars in "Unpacking Longview," a new play about family legacies and public school desegregation.
PLAY TACKLES TOWN’S HISTORY By Jimmy Isaac L ONGVIEW NEWS-JOURNAL
LONGVIEW — A Longview native’s collegiate research project has become a one-woman play about a dark period in her hometown’s history. “Unpacking Longview” is based on Elizabeth Melton’s doctoral dissertation research that began in 2015. She collected oral histories from parents, teachers, students and administrators connected to Longview ISD during desegregation. Each show will conclude with a discussion in which audience members can
Texas cotton hit hardest by Harvey COLLEGE STATION — Cotton farmers poised to harvest a bumper crop were the hardest hit when Hurricane Harvey ravaged Texas. Texas A&M University AgriLife Extension Service economists announced Friday that Harvey’s total agriculture losses topped an estimated $200 million. Half was cotton losses, while $93 million was in cattle that
talk about the performance’s primary themes, she said. Melton said she hopes the performances leave audience members thinking about what it means to be an East Texan and how the community can grow to actively work against racism “I think that that’s the end game,” Melton said about her goal for the play, “and for folks to come away from the performance just thinking more and reflecting more about their lives and how this either has affected them and they haven’t thought about it or acknowledged it.”
drowned and associated ranching infrastructure.
Woman sentenced to 10 years for health care scam DALLAS — A Dallas woman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for her conviction in a $375 million Medicare and Medicaid scam involving some homeless people and bogus billing. Federal prosecutors on Friday announced 52-year-old Cynthia Stiger must also repay
nearly $24 million. Prosecutors say Stiger is the last of seven defendants sentenced after being convicted, including a Dallas-area physician. Records show Roy and the six others certified about 11,000 Medicare beneficiaries through more than 500 home health providers between 2006 and late 2011. Authorities say in some cases homeless people were recruited as patients and medical records were falsified. — Compiled from AP reports
AROUND THE NATION Buyouts offered to shrink Education Department workforce WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education on Friday informed staff in the Office of Federal Student Aidthat buyouts are being offered to shrink the division. In a memo obtained by The Washington Post, the department said it received approval from the Office of Personnel Management to offer early retirement and voluntary separation incentive payments. The offer, according to the memo, does not extend to all positions. The so-called separation incentive is a lump sum payment made to workers who choose to leave through resignation or retirement. In most cases, the maximum an employee receives is $25,000, an amount that is subject to
Susan Walsh / AP
Betsy DeVos, U.S. Secretary of Education, announced on Friday that buyouts will be offered to certain Education Department employees.
taxes. Employees who accept the buyout are not allowed to work for the federal government for five years, unless they choose to repay the separation award. Voluntary early retirement, on the other hand, does not include a lump sum payment and allows federal employees to retire before they reach a cer-
tain age and years of service. Employees in positions that are eligible for either option will have 14 days to make a decision, according to the memo. Those who opt for early retirement or a buyout will be out the door before the first week of the new year is over. — Compiled from AP reports
Today is Saturday, Oct. 28, the 301st day of 2017. There are 64 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Oct. 28, 1726, the original edition of "Gulliver's Travels," a satirical novel by Jonathan Swift, was first published in London. On this date: In 1636, the General Court of Massachusetts passed a legislative act establishing Harvard College. In 1776, the Battle of White Plains was fought during the Revolutionary War, resulting in a limited British victory. In 1886, the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, was dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland. In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt rededicated the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary. In 1940, Italy invaded Greece during World War II. In 1958, the Roman Catholic patriarch of Venice, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, was elected Pope; he took the name John XXIII. The Samuel Beckett play "Krapp's Last Tape" premiered in London. In 1962, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the United States that he had ordered the dismantling of missile bases in Cuba; in return, the U.S. secretly agreed to remove nuclear missiles from U.S. installations in Turkey. In 1965, Pope Paul VI issued a Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions which, among other things, absolved Jews of collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In 1976, former Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman entered a federal prison camp in Safford, Arizona, to begin serving his sentence for Watergaterelated convictions (he was released in April 1978). In 1980, President Jimmy Carter and Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan faced off in a nationally broadcast, 90-minute debate in Cleveland. In 1991, what became known as "The Perfect Storm" began forming hundreds of miles east of Nova Scotia; lost at sea during the storm were the six crew members of the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing boat from Gloucester, Massachusetts. Ten years ago: Stacy Peterson, the 23-year-old fourth wife of police sergeant Drew Peterson, went missing in suburban Chicago. (Her fate has never been determined; Drew Peterson was convicted in Sept. 2012 of murdering his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Five years ago: Airlines canceled more than 7,000 flights in advance of Hurricane Sandy, transit systems in New York, Philadelphia and Washington were shut down, and forecasters warned the New York area could see an 11-foot wall of water. President Barrack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney altered their campaign travel plans because of the approaching superstorm. One year ago: The FBI dropped what amounted to a political bomb on the Clinton campaign when it announced it was investigating whether emails on a device belonging to disgraced ex-congressman Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of one of Clinton's closest aides, Huma Abedin, might contain classified information. Today's Birthdays: Jazz singer Cleo Laine is 90. Actress Joan Plowright is 88. Musician-songwriter Charlie Daniels is 81. Actress Jane Alexander is 78. Actor Dennis Franz is 73. Pop singer Wayne Fontana is 72. Actress Telma Hopkins is 69. Olympic track and field gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner is 68. Actress Annie Potts is 65. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is 62. The former president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is 61. Rock musician Stephen Morris is 60. Country/gospel singer-musician Ron Hemby is 59. Rock singer-musician Actor Mark Derwin is 57. Actress Daphne Zuniga is 55. Actress Lauren Holly is 54. Talk show host-comedian-actress Sheryl Underwood is 54. Actress Jami Gertz is 52. Actor Chris Bauer is 51. Actorcomedian Andy Richter is 51. Actress Julia Roberts is 50. Country singermusician Caitlin Cary is 49. Actor Jeremy Davies is 48. Singer Ben Harper is 48. Country singer Brad Paisley is 45. Actor Joaquin Phoenix is 43. Singer Justin Guarini is 39. Pop singer Brett Dennen is 38. Rock musician Dave Tirio is 38. Actor Charlie Semine is 37. Actor Matt Smith is 35. Actor Finn Wittrock is 33. Actress Troian Bellisario is 32. Singer/rapper Frank Ocean is 30. Actress Lexi Ainsworth is 25. Actor Nolan Gould is 19.
Thought for Today: "I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery." — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss-born French philosopher (1712-1778).
SATURDAY, DEC. 2 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 6 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 10 a.m. - noon. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 13 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 10 a.m. - noon. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25.
AROUND THE WORLD Myanmar pastors sentenced to jail for supporting rebels YANGON, Myanmar — A Myanmar court sentenced two ethnic Kachin Baptist pastors to prison terms on Friday on charges of supporting rebels and defaming the military. The two were detained by the army in northern Shan state in December after they were initially reported missing following heavy fighting area
between the government and a coalition of Kachin and three other ethnic guerrilla groups. Pastor Dumdaw Nawng Lat, 65, and Baptist youth leader Langjaw Gam Seng, 35, helped journalists cover the aftermath of a military offensive in Mongko town where a Catholic church was bombed and destroyed in an airstrike in November 2016. The military later accused them of providing supports to an ethnic armed group. After a nearly 9-month-long
CONTACT US trial, the Lashio court in Shan state sentenced Nawng Lat to 4 years and 3 months in prison and Gam Seng to 2 years and 3 months. Lawyer Brang Di said the convictions and sentences were unfair “as they were just pastors.” Human Rights Watch and Fortify Rights,in a joint statement called for their immediate release, saying the pastors were being prosecuted for exposing the military’s crimes. — Compiled from AP reports
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THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, October 28, 2017 |
STATE
Caregiver of Indian girl found dead wants answers By Muneeza Naqvi A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
NEW DELHI — A toddler whose body was recently found in a drain in suburban Dallas was cheerful, healthy and eating well a year ago when she met her new parents, according to the manager of the Indian orphanage from where Sherin Mathews was adopted. Babita Kumari said she wants to know what happened to the 3-yearold girl, whose father has been jailed after telling police that Sherin had choked to death while drinking milk in the middle of the night. Wesley Mathews has told police Sherin needed a special diet involving meals at odd hours because she was malnourished. Those claims puzzle Kumari, who managed the Mother Teresa Orphanage and Children’s Home in the city of Nalanda in eastern India’s Bihar state, where the girl had lived since infancy. “Look at the photos of the child. Does she look malnourished?” Kumari said during a Thursday evening phone interview with The Associated Press. “I have so many questions about what happened to her,” Kumari said. The girl, then named Saraswati, after the Hindu goddess of wisdom, was a happy, cheerful child who made everyone smile at the orphanage. “We loved her laughter,” Kumari said. “She was a smart child.” Wesley Mathews reported his daughter missing Oct. 7, and Sherin’s body was found by cadaver dogs in a culvert
Ashley Landis / The Dallas Morning News
Photo, signs, flowers and other items collect at a memorial for Sherin Mathews at a tree behind her home.
under a road in Richardson, Texas, on Sunday. Mathews has been charged with felony injury of a child in Sherin’s death and is being held on $1 million bond. A cause of death hasn’t been determined and autopsy results haven’t been released. Mathews told police his daughter had developmental disabilities and was malnourished. He described a special diet regimen in which she had to eat whenever she was awake in order to gain weight. According to an arrest affidavit filed by Richardson police, Mathews said he had been trying to get the girl to drink milk in the garage of their home. “Eventually the 3-yearold girl began to drink the milk. Wesley Mathews then physically assisted the 3-year-old girl in drinking the milk,” according to the affidavit. Mathews told police that Sherin choked and coughed and eventually he felt no pulse and believed the child had died. Investigators wrote that he “then admitted to removing the body from the home.” The affidavit does not
say whether Mathews administered any medical aid to his daughter. The child was already eating solid food and drinking milk from a cup when she left the orphanage, Kumari remembers. She said Sherin squinted in one eye, but otherwise had nothing wrong with her when Mathews and his wife Sini Mathews adopted her in June 2016. “Why did they have to make her eat or drink anything at that hour? Why was he forcing her?” Kumari asked. “If someone is forcing a drink into the mouth of someone who is crying and sobbing, then even an adult can choke.” India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted Friday that she has asked the Ministry of Women and Child Development, which oversees adoptions, to thoroughly investigate the adoption process of Sherin Mathews. Swaraj said passports for children adopted from India will now only be issued with the ministry’s approval. Sherin was sent to the orphanage in Nalanda by child welfare authorities when she was only a few months old. It has since
shut down. Kumari said that was due to missing paperwork and that the orphanage plans to challenge the shutdown. Adoption is relatively rare in India, even though hundreds of thousands of children are at risk or living in government-run or -mandated centers. Religion and caste remain important social indicators, so it’s not often considered an option by Indian families. The government has tried to promote the idea and it mandates prospective parents to register as a way to prevent trafficking and reduce cumbersome paperwork. Between April 2016 to March this year, 3,210 children were adopted within India and just 578 Indian children were adopted from outside the country. Kumari said the Mathews’ raised no red flags at the orphanage when they adopted Sherin. After their first visit to see the girl, they called regularly from the United States. “They wanted to hear her voice over the phone. They seemed to love her. The follow up reports from America were also good.” India requires quarterly post placement reports in the first year a child is adopted and then two reports a year for the second year. “I will always want to know what happened to this child. What was the real reason she passed away,” Kumari said. “If we had known this would happen to her, we would never have sent her.”
A3
Texas school district apologizes for slurs during broadcast ASSOCIATED PRE SS
ARLINGTON — A Texas school district apologized Friday after a high school football broadcaster repeatedly used a racial slur when referring to African-American players on the opposing team. The Cleburne Independent School District apologized for online audio comments made last week in a matchup between Cleburne High School and Seguin High School in Arlington, according to Leslie Johnston, spokeswoman for the Arlington Independent School District. Seguin is in Arlington, while the other school is in Cleburne, a city just south of Fort Worth. The game was broadcast by an online site that covers Cleburne High School contests but isn’t affiliated with the school district, school officials said. Cleburne officials told Arlington administrators that the broadcaster will no longer call games, Johnston said. “We support that decision,” Johnston said in an email, adding that the schools believe “this is not a time for divisiveness, and we appreciate CISD taking steps to promote unity and good sportsmanship.” The broadcaster re-
ferred to the Seguin players as the “cougroes,” an apparent conflation of the school mascot and the word negro. More than a third of the Seguin student body is African-American, while about 3 percent of students at Cleburne High School are black, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. The same broadcaster also invoked a weight-loss program in joking about a Seguin cheerleader, saying at one point: “Jenny Craig has ... a lot of work to do with her.” Johnston said in an earlier statement that, “We do not condone such boorish behavior.” A spokeswoman for Cleburne schools, Lisa Magers, said the district began investigating shortly after the game. “Cleburne ISD does not condone unacceptable, unprofessional, unethical comments,” she said. Magers noted the site isn’t affiliated with the school district and said its operators have apologized. Johnston and Magers identified the broadcaster as Mark Banton. He acknowledged to the StarTelegram that he was one of the broadcasters who covered the football game, but he said he had “nothing to say” about the comments.
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A4 | Saturday, October 28, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
COLUMN
OTHER VIEWS
That Facebook quiz might not be so innocent By Kara Alaimo B L OOM BE RG NEWS
The recent disclosures that Russians bought ads from Facebook, Google and Twitter to target U.S. voters in 2016 have left lawmakers investigating how to prevent foreign interference in future elections. But there’s another alarming problem that Congress also needs to address: how to prevent domestic and foreign organizations from duping Americans out of information they unwittingly share on social media and using the data to try to sway elections. During the 2016 election, the Trump campaign hired Cambridge Analytica, an American affiliate of a British consulting firm, which built psychological profiles of over 200 million Americans in part by using information they shared on social media. For example, according to The New York Times, hundreds of thousands of Americans took personality quizzes spread by the firm on Facebook, which were designed to reveal how they score on measures of the socalled “big five” personality traits. I’m willing to bet many of those test takers didn’t know their answers could be used by political consultants to profile and target them -- and that they wouldn’t have taken the quizzes if they did. Cambridge Analytica now says it didn’t use psychographic data when it worked for Trump (though reports it tried to get stolen data from WikiLeaks certainly call the firm’s ethical standards into question). But it -- or anyone else could try to do so in a future election. That’s why Congress needs to act. Of course, it should remain legal for an organization to post a question on social media and then list or use the aggregate results (for example, 45 percent of Americans believe x). But if organizations are going to extract personally identifiable information --- PII, in industry parlance -- from things they post on social media, they should be required to disclose three things: who they are, how they’re funded, and how they’re going to use the data. That way, Americans can make informed decisions about whether they want to share their personal information. There’s some precedent for this. Gary Nordlinger, a professional in
residence at The George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management, noted that, according to the American Association for Public Opinion Research’s code of ethics, pollsters can’t disclose information to clients or the public that could be used to identify people who participated in surveys without their permission. Of course, advertisers target people based upon data we probably didn’t realize would be shared all the time. The majority of online ads today are bought through exchanges such as DoubleClick Bid Manager (which is owned by Google) and The Trade Desk. These platforms aggregate thousands of data points on individual consumers -- like information from resorts about where they vacationed and data from auto loan providers about what kinds of cars they drive. So, for example, an advertiser can pay for an ad that reaches people in a particular ZIP code who own Priuses or have been to Disney World. But that doesn’t make it right to dupe Americans out of more information without their knowledge. We should have the right to keep knowledge about how we think anonymous if we so desire. That’s much more deeply personal than data about what we buy or where we went to school. And such information could be much more useful to a political campaign or corporation trying to manipulate us. Since quizzes and other questions posed on the internet are essentially just online polls, the same ethical standards should apply. Of course, compliance with the American Association for Public Opinion Research’s code of ethics is voluntary. But the potential for a foreign government to use such data to try to influence a future election is such a serious threat to American democracy that we need a law to prevent this, rather than another industry code. Congress should act now to protect us. In the meantime, let’s all be cautious about what we share on social media. I’m guessing the folks who scored highest in conscientiousness on those Cambridge Analytica quizzes will be most careful. Kara Alaimo is an assistant professor of public relations at Hofstra University .
COLUMN
America’s catastrophic success against Islamic State By Eli Lake BL OOMBERG NEWS
One might expect President Donald Trump to take a victory lap after last week’s liberation of Raqqa from the Islamic State. Thanks to American air power, Maoist Kurds, Syrian patriots and U.S. special operators, this caliphate ended as the shortest-lived in Islamic history. And yet the president chose not to exploit this win. The White House issued a five-paragraph statement. Much of last week was consumed with the president’s feud over his phone call to the mother of one of the soldiers killed in Niger. How to explain the subdued reaction? (After all, this White House is desperate for policy wins.) It’s the geopolitical equivalent of “Mo Money Mo Problems.” Success brings new challenges. In this case, the eclipse of the Islamic State reopens old rifts in the Middle East that were paused to defeat a universally loathed enemy. As I reported in 2015 from Iraq, even the U.S. and Iran could cooperate (tacitly) against an outfit that operated sex slave markets and attempted genocide. Now all of this fairweather esprit de corps is gone. One glaring example is in northern Iraq, where the Iraqi Security Forces advanced on Kurdish Peshmerga positions in the last week following their recapture of Kirkuk, the oil-rich city Kurdish forces protected from the Islamic State in 2014. But there are small examples as
Cafarella told me that one of the problems with the U.S. strategy against the Islamic State is that it was almost purely a military one, without the much-needed political component necessary for winning the peace. “What we have not addressed are larger institutional and societal challenges that gave rise to ISIS to begin with, and are now fueling the cascading crisis in Iraqi Kurdistan,” well. In Raqqa there are now reports the Kurdish YPG militia have started taking down Syrian revolutionary flags favored by Arab members of the opposition forces that liberated the city, according to Jennifer Cafarella, senior analyst with the Institute for the Study of War. This says nothing of the new tensions between the U.S. and Iran in Iraq. This week Secretary of State Rex Tillerson earned a rare public rebuke from the Iraqi prime minister’s office after he called on Iraniansupported militias fighting the Islamic State to return home now that the fight is coming to a close. Only two years ago, the U.S. was providing air support for ground offensives led by these militias in that fight. Cafarella told me that one of the problems with the U.S. strategy against the Islamic State is that it was almost purely a military one, without the much-needed political component necessary for winning the peace. “What we have not addressed
are larger institutional and societal challenges that gave rise to ISIS to begin with, and are now fueling the cascading crisis in Iraqi Kurdistan,” she said. “The very best example of that is that we have ignored and overlooked Iran’s penetration into the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense.” In many ways this is an old story. Iran’s penetration into these institutions vexed George W. Bush before he decided to “surge” troops into Iraq and pursue a counterinsurgency under the leadership of General David Petraeus. One of the White House staffers who argued for that strategy was Brett McGurk, the American diplomat who went on to forge the coalition against the Islamic State. At the time, the U.S. pursued both Sunni and Shiite terrorists in Iraq, targeting any groups that threatened the elected government. Much of that strategy relied on a close partnership between Bush and the Iraqi prime minister at the time, Nouri
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CLASSIC DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU
al-Maliki. Eventually Maliki, a Shiite Arab, succumbed to sectarianism. Under Obama, he pursued a ruthless campaign against Sunni groups in the west of the country, laying the ground work for the rise of the Islamic State. Maliki reasoned that if Obama was intent to leave, he best make his peace with Iran. After the Islamic State began to take territory and went on a rampage in 2014, Obama abandoned his non-interventionism. He instructed McGurk to find an alternative that summer. That alternative became Haider al-Abadi, who ascended to be prime minister that September. The Iranians supported Maliki in that power struggle and eventually lost. Today Abadi is at a crossroads again. His security forces have pressed ahead into Kurdish areas over the objections of the U.S. government – though a cease-fire was said to be reached on Friday. The situation threatens to pit two Iraqi forces, both supported and armed by the U.S. government, against one another, even though only a month ago they were cooperating against the Islamic State. It follows a certain depressing logic. Without an enemy to unite them, America’s allies in the Middle East return to fighting one another. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Eli Lake is a Bloomberg View columnist.
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, October 28, 2017 |
A5
BUSINESS
Best Buy charging extra $100 for full-price iPhone X By Mark Gurman B L OOMBE RG NEWS
Wendy Lee / AP
customer is on a business or personal plan, they are able to get a phone the way they want at Best Buy,” Danielle Schumann, a company spokeswoman, said in an email. “Our customers have told us they want this flexibility and sometimes that has a cost.” Apple declined to comment on Best Buy’s iPhone X pricing strategy. The X is the first iPhone model to cost $1,000.
Best Buy’s higher pricing is specific to the full upfront price of the phones. The retailer’s price is the same as Apple’s quoted price for customers who use a carrier installment plan, which divides up the cost of the phone across several months. Best Buy’s website said the phone will ship by Dec. 15. Apple said deliveries of the iPhone X may take as long as six weeks.
US economy grew at 3 percent rate from July to September By Martin Crutsinger A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
rate for third quarter GDP and the 3.1 percent increase in the second quarter followed a much weaker 1.2 percent increase in the first quarter. In the third quarter, consumer spending slowed slightly to 2.4 percent from a sizzling 3.3 percent in the second quarter. The slowdown was offset to some extent by a strong 8.6 percent gain in business investment in equipment and an increase in business rebuilding of inventories, which added 0.7 percentage point to third quarter growth. Other areas of the report showed weakness. Government spending fell for a third straight quarter, dropping 0.1 percent. Residential construction fell at a 6 percent rate following a 7.3 percent rate of decline in the second quarter. Many analysts believe growth in the current quarter will come in around 2.7 percent. The House on Thursday gave approval to a Republican-proposed budget that would provide for $1.5 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade. Administration officials have said the tax cuts will spur faster growth and the faster growth will erase much of the cost of the tax cuts. Democrats and many private economists have challenged that forecast.
This file photo taken on February 14, 2010 shows a woman taking photos of a wall of Barbie dolls in the Mattel display at the annual Toy Fair in New York City. Shares of slumping US toymaker Mattel tumbled on Friday after it reported sharply lower third-quarter sales as the Toys "R" Us bankruptcy added to its growing list of woes. Mattel suffered sales declines in virtually every important product line, including Barbie, the Fisher-Price educational brand and American Girl, prompting it to suspend its dividend and announce additional cost cuts.
Barbie’s world shaken by Toys R Us bankruptcy ASSOCIATED PRE SS
NEW YORK — There’s trouble in toyland, and companies are blaming Toys R Us. Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, reported disappointing third-quarter results late Thursday and said it was hurt by Toys R Us’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last month. Earlier this week, Hasbro, the maker of My Little Pony and Monopoly, also blamed weak results on the Toys R Us bankruptcy filing. Both companies said they temporarily slowed shipments to Toys R Us ahead of its bankruptcy, and both said they are working with the retailer to get their toys on its shelves during the holiday season. Toys R Us had said when it filed for bankruptcy protection that it planned to work with
suppliers and would keep its 1,600 Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores open. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. Even before the Toys R Us bankruptcy, toy makers have had trouble selling their goods to kids today, many of whom would rather play with an iPad. Lego said last month that sales of its colorful bricks fell for the first time in 13 years, and announced plans to cut 1,400 jobs. Mattel, whose revenue in North America fell 22 percent in the three months ending Sept. 30, said that about half of that decline was due to the Toys R Us bankruptcy. Globally, most of its brands saw sales declines. Barbie sales fell 7 percent and Hot Wheels fell 6 percent. Sales of its American Girl brand, whose 18-inch dolls typically cost more than $100, fell 30 percent.
“We suspected a rough quarter ... but that was really tough,” said analysts at Jefferies. To try and turn the company around, Mattel said it plans to cut $650 million in costs over the next two years. It will also suspend the quarterly dividend it pays shareholders beginning in the fourth quarter. Shares of Mattel Inc. fell $1.37, or 9 percent, to $14.00 on Friday. Its stock has lost about half of its value since the beginning of the year. Hasbro shares dropped about 2 percent on Friday. But it’s not all tough news in the toy world: FAO Schwarz, whose famous New York toy store was shut down two years ago, said Friday it opened 190 FAO Schwarz sections inside Bon-Ton, Carson’s and other department stores that sell piano mats, stuffed animals and other toys.
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy, bolstered by business investment, grew at a solid annual rate of 3 percent in the third quarter. It marks the first time in three years that growth has hit at least 3 percent for two consecutive quarters. The Commerce Department reported Friday that the July-September advance in the gross domestic product — the country’s total output of goods and services — followed a 3.1 percent rise in the second quarter. It was the strongest two-quarter showing since back-toback gains of 4.6 percent and 5.2 percent in the second and third quarters of 2014. The economy accelerated this summer despite the impact of hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which many private economists believe shaved at least one-half percentage point off growth. The third quarter performance was certain to be cited by President Donald Trump, who pledged during last year’s campaign that his economic program would boost growth from the anemic 2.2 percent averages seen since the country emerged from the Great Recession in mid-2009. Trump during the campaign said his
policies of tax cuts, deregulation and tougher enforcement of trade laws would achieve growth of 4 percent or better, though his first budget projects growth hitting 3 percent in the coming years. Private economists believe even 3 percent annual gains will be hard to achieve for an economy facing a slowdown in productivity and an aging workforce. For all of 2017, private forecasters believe the economy will grow at an annual rate of around 2.2 percent, rising to growth of 2.4 percent in 2018. That would be an improvement from the meager gain of 1.5 percent in 2016 but would still fall below the expectations of the Trump administration. Harvey made initial landfall in Texas on Aug. 25, and Irma hit Florida on Sept. 10. The government said while various activities from oil and gas refineries in Texas to farming in Florida were affected, it could not break out an estimate of how much the hurricanes had decreased growth. However, private economists have estimated that the storms sapped anywhere from one-half percentage point to 1 percentage point from growth. Analysts believe much of the lost output will recover as rebuilding begins. The 3 percent growth
Stan Honda / AFP/Getty Images
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Zfrontera A6 | Saturday, October 28, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
RIBEREÑA EN BREVE CONSULADO MÓVIL 1 El Consulado móvil de salud visitará Zapata el 28 de octubre. Las personas con algún problema de salud pueden asistir para ser referidos con aliados que puedan ayudarlos. Se estarán emitiendo servicios de documentación como pasaportes mexicanos y matricula consular.
TORNEO DE PESCA 1 Este sábado 28 de octubre se llevará a cabo el torneo de pesca Joe’s Big Gar en la presa Falcón a partir de las 8 a.m. hasta las 4 p.m. Habrá premios para los ganadores del primer, segundo y tercer lugar. Las inscripciones inicial el viernes 27 de octubre en Do It Best Store de Roma, de 5 p.m. a 7 p.m. Cuota de entrada de 30 dólares.
CARNE ASADA 1 La Ciudad de Roma invita a a su tradicional evento de carne asada ‘Gobble Til you Wobble Cookoff’ el sábado 18 de noviembre en el Parque Municipal de Roma. Registre a su equipo en Roma City Hall, 77 Convento Street. Mayores informes al 956849-1411 con Lily Sandoval.
TEXAS
Niña con parálisis cerebral podría ser deportada Se encuentra detenida en San Antonio tras cirugía Por Nomaan Merchant ASSOCIATED PRE SS
HOUSTON — Una niña mexicana con parálisis cerebral que vive en Estados Unidos sin autorización desde hace una década podría ser deportada tras cruzar un retén de la Patrulla Fronteriza en Texas para que la operaran de emergencia de la vesícula, dijo el jueves una abogada de su familia. Activistas en pro de los derechos de los inmigrantes manifestaron su molestia por el caso de Rosa María Hernández, de 10 años, y dicen que la Patrulla Fronteriza debería usar su criterio en casos de menores enfermos que viven sin autorización en el país pero que necesitan tratamiento médico. Leticia González, abogada de la familia Hernández, dijo el jueves que Rosa María fue llevada, junto con un primo, de la ciudad fronteriza de Laredo a un hospital infantil de Corpus Christi, a 240 kilómetros (unas 150 millas) de allí. Para eso tuvieron que pasar por uno de varios
puntos de control de la Patrulla Fronteriza que hay en el sur de Texas, al norte de la frontera con México. Los activistas dicen que los retenes en el interior de Estados Unidos, muchos de ellos ubicados kilómetros al norte del río Bravo, restringen el movimiento de las personas que carecen de estatus legal para que no salgan de la región. González dijo que los agentes fronterizos dejaron pasar a la niña y a su primo, pero siguieron al vehículo del hospital que los transportaba. En el hospital, los agentes montaron guardia y no permitieron que un familiar de la menor cerrara la puerta de su cuarto, de forma que ellos pudieran vigilarla, agregó la abogada. Y después de la operación, los agentes estaban listos para escoltar a la niña a un centro de detención para menores no acompañados, ubicado a 225 kilómetros (140 millas), en San Antonio. La menor está detenida allí de manera indefinida, agregó la
abogada. Aun cuando a la larga fuera entregada a un tutor autorizado por el Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos, su caso será procesado y podría ser deportada. González dijo que podrían pasar semanas antes de que salga en libertad. “Simplemente se negaron a permitir que la niña se vaya a su casa", dijo la abogada el jueves. En un comunicado, la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza confirmó que sus agentes escoltaron a Rosa María desde el puesto de control hasta el hospital. Dijo que los agentes “están comprometidos a aplicar las leyes de inmigración de este país". En el comunicado se añade que "una vez que se le dé el alta médica, su caso será procesado conforme a la ley". El Departamento de Salud, que supervisa los centros de detención para menores no acompañados que están en el país sin permiso, indicó en un comunicado que no haría comentarios sobre casos específicos de personas bajo su custodia.
El representante demócrata Joaquin Castro culpó al gobierno de Donald Trump por adoptar “políticas insensibles” hacia los inmigrantes. “La están tratando como a un reo”, afirmó. González dijo que la menor "tiene dificultades para entender exactamente lo que está ocurriendo" y su desarrollo es como el de un niño de 4 o 5 años. Sus dos padres viven sin autorización en el país, a donde llegaron con Rosa María en el 2007, cuando ella era recién nacida, en parte en busca de un mejor tratamiento médico para su mal. Enviaron a su hija con su primo al hospital, porque el primo es ciudadano estadounidense y podía pasar por el retén migratorio. Ahora la familia está recaudando dinero a través del sitio web GoFundMe con el fin de poder pagar los gastos de representación legal y para mudarse a una casa más grande que dicen alentará a las autoridades federales a que la pongan en libertad para que viva con ellos.
RED RIBBON WEEK
DI NO A LAS DROGAS
PAGO DE IMPUESTOS 1 Los pagos por impuestos a la propiedad de la Ciudad de Roma deberán realizarse en la oficina de impuestos del Distrito Escolar de Roma, localizado en el 608 N. García St.
LLENADO DE APLICACIONES 1 La Ciudad de Roma ofrece el servicio de llenado de aplicaciones para CHIP, Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, Chip, Prenatal y otros. Contacte a Gaby Rodríguez para una cita en el centro comunitario o en su domicilio al 956246-7177. MUSEO EN ZAPATA 1 A los interesados en realizar una investigación sobre genealogía de la región, se sugiere visitar el Museo del Condado de Zapata ubicado en 805 N US-Hwy 83. Opera de 10 a.m. a 4 p.m. Existen visitas guiadas. Personal está capacitado y puede orientar acerca de la historia del Sur de Texas y sus fundadores. Pida informes en el 956-765-8983.
GRUPOS DE APOYO EN LAREDO 1 Grupo de apoyo para personas con Alzheimer se reúne el primer martes de cada mes en el Laredo Medical Center, primer piso, Torre B en el Centro Comunitario a las 7 p.m. 1 Grupo Cancer Friend se reúne a las 6 p.m. el primer lunes del mes en el Centro Comunitario de Doctors Hospital. 1 Grupo de Apoyo para Ansiedad y Depresión Rayo de Luz se reúne de 6:30 p.m. a 7:30 p.m. en 1505 Calle del Norte, Suite 430, cada primer lunes de mes
Foto de cortesía Rodrigo Bazán / Roma ISD
Los estudiantes de la Escuela Secundaria Ramiro Barrera vistieron de color neón dentro de las actividades por la semana Red Ribbon Week para enviar el mensaje que son muy brillantes como para tomar drogas.
COLUMNA
MIGUEL ALEMÁN, MÉXICO
‘Cielito Lindo’ sería himno cívico Por Raúl Sinencio Chávez TIEMP O DE ZAPATA
‘Cielito Lindo’ sería himno cívico Desde hace bastante tiempo realza el repertorio de los mariachis. Letra y música emocionan. Hablamos de ‘Cielito lindo’. Alcanza esta melodía gran popularidad. Tanta, que registra atrevido intento de volverla himno cívico. Al respecto, el poder legislativo de Tamaulipas aprueba un decreto en Ciudad Victoria. Fechado el 15 de marzo de 1918, consta de tres escuetos artículos. Llenan apenas media hoja. “Se declara himno … tamaulipeco el hermoso Cielito lindo, que se tocará en todas las ceremonias oficiales”, abre el artículo primero. Deberá entonarse también –continúa—“en todos los lugares donde se presente el ciudadano gobernador”. La siguiente cláusula estipula: “Los habitantes del Estado” oirán “de pie”, “sin gorro o sombrero”, “el himno que se decreta” El tercer dispositivo concluye: “Publíquese (lo resuelto) por bando y pregón has-
ta en los rincones más lejanos”. Firma al calce Fidencio Trejo Flores, quien preside la asamblea parlamentaria. Avalándolo, el gobernador provisional Emiliano P. Nafarrete insta: “Por tanto mando que se imprima, circule, publique por bando y pregón, y se le dé debido cumplimiento”. Don Fidencio es profesor y abogado. Don Emiliano integra el órgano constituyente que en 1917 dicta la carta magna de México. Uno aprueba y el otro reafirma a pie juntillas difundir sólo mediante “bando y pregón” las disposiciones que pretenden sean de inexcusable observancia. Y en menoscabo de su “debido cumplimiento”, nunca las publica el periódico del gobierno. Frescos antecedentes explican fácil lo ocurrido aquel viernes. En conflicto poselectoral, a punta de pistola Luis Caballero Vargas y César López de Lara se disputan la gubernatura e instalan sus respectivos congresos estatales. Trejo y don Emiliano destacan en las filas caballeristas. A Caballero Vargas le
gusta “el hermoso Cielito lindo”. Bien que sí. Con la pieza, el fallido candidato a mandatario ameniza mítines durante la entonces reciente campaña política, cuyos votos se anulan. Primero himno de grupo, quieren luego volverla himno de la entidad federativa, a contentillo del líder partidista. De pésima factura, la medida incurre en irregularidades adicionales. Puesto que pisotea derechos legítimos de terceros, resume excesos arbitrarios. Efectivamente, desdeña que como autor de la pieza figura Quirino Mendoza y Cortés. Utilizarla precisa de previo consentimiento, jamás obtenido al parecer. El olvido pronto traspapela sin remedio las ocurrencias de Trejo y Nafarrete. Cielito lindo reporta en contraste notorio afianzamiento, fortalecido al paso de los años. Canción favorita de varias generaciones, al clasificarla en los ritmos del son huasteco adquiere relucientes credenciales autóctonas. Propios y extraños coinciden en considerarla típica del país.
Inician Semana Nacional de Salud para adultos mayores E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE ZAPATA
Con el objetivo de proteger la salud de las personas de edad avanzada, la alcaldesa de Miguel Alemán, México, Rosa Icela Corro Acosta puso en marcha la Semana Nacional de Salud para la Gente Grande, en coordinación con la Secretaría de Salud en Tamaulipas. Las acciones de vacunación y atención médica se iniciaron en la Casa Club del Adulto Mayor de la Presidencia Municipal, donde decenas de abuelitos fueron atendidos este miércoles durante su estancia en esa institución, en donde se llevó a cabo la coordinación de medicina preventiva en la Semana Nacional de Salud para Gente Grande bajo el lema “Para una Vejez Activa y Saludable” . El personal de salud realizó exámenes preventivos como la toma de presión arterial, glucosa, y la aplicación de vacunas de la influenza a los adultos mayores. Dichas acciones en beneficio del Adulto
Foto de cortesía / Gobierno de Miguel Alemán
Personal de salud de Miguel Alemán, México, atiende a adultos mayores durante la Semana Nacional de Salud para Gente Grande que se lleva a acabo en el estado de Tamaulipas.
Mayor son para brindar la prevención de enfermedades, siendo primordiales la detección de depresión y alteraciones de la memoria, prevención de caídas, incontinencia urinaria etc. Asimismo, se dio a conocer que del 23 al 29 de octubre se efectuaran pláticas educativas e informativas por profesionales médicos orientados a fomentar en los adultos mayores y familiares el conocimiento sobre los riesgos de salud más frecuentes, su prevención y control.
Sports&Outdoors THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, October 28, 2017 |
A7
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: DALLAS COWBOYS
Cowboys, Redskins now in wild-card hunt Prescott and Cousins duel for second place in the NFC East on Sunday By Stephen Whyno A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
LANDOVER, Md. — Carson Wentz’s Philadelphia Eagles are the class of the NFC East, while Eli Manning’s New York Giants are looking toward 2018. That puts Dak Prescott’s Dallas Cowboys and Kirk Cousins’ Washington Redskins thick in the middle of the fight for a wild-card spot. Prescott at 24 in his second NFL season and Cousins at 29 in his third full season as a starter face off Sunday in the first of their two matchups this season, which could go a long way to determining whose team makes the playoffs. “We’re 1-0 in our division now, and it’s important to go get another win,” Prescott said. “That’s our only focus.” The Cowboys and Redskins are each 3-3 as their quarterbacks continue to evolve in different ways. Cousins continues to throw for 300 yards a game, as Prescott develops the various facets of his game. “The most impressive thing about Dak last year was he looked like a 10-year veteran with the poise that he has and the command of the offense — very similar to what I see in Carson Wentz,” Redskins coach Jay Gruden said. “They’re very similar-type quarterbacks: very effective, very smart.” Wentz has already beaten the Redskins twice this season after Prescott defeated them twice as a rookie. Cousins is
0-4 in meaningful games against Dallas. Almost halfway through this season, Cousins has 1,637 yards passing and 12 touchdowns, but plenty left to prove on the franchise tag for a second consecutive time. However, Cowboys coach Jason Garrett is a believer. “He can make any throw on the field,” Garrett said. “He really cuts the ball loose and allows them to not only move the ball efficiently but also make a lot of big plays, and that’s what he’s been able to do. It’s a different supporting cast around him since he’s been the starter, but he’s certainly been a constant for them.” Meanwhile, Prescott is adjusting to opponents’ adjustments and running more as defenses anticipate his plan throwing the ball. “I think he definitely became a better player,” said running back Ezekiel Elliott, who’s eligible to play at least one more game as the case over his suspension is fought over in court. “Obviously he’s a threat as a runner and he’s done an awesome job this year just using his feet to extend plays and make big plays downfield.” Some things to watch as the Cowboys visit the Redskins: ONE MORE FOR ELLIOTT With another hearing scheduled for Monday and a ruling possible next week, Elliott could be playing his final game of the season — or he could be
eligible for every game the rest of the way. “I take it week by week,” Elliott said. “Every week I prepare like I’m going to play.” Elliott hasn’t missed a game yet after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended him in August following a yearlong investigation that he had multiple physical confrontations in the summer of 2016 with Tiffany Thompson, his girlfriend at the time. The 22-year-old has 540 yards and four touchdowns. “To me, Zeke’s handled it really, really well,” Garrett said. “Obviously there’s a lot of things going on off the field with him, but you wouldn’t know it if you were around him each and every day.” BRYANT VS. NORMAN Assuming Josh Norman returns from a broken rib that sidelined him the past two games, it’ll re-ignite the rivalry between the Washington cornerback and Dallas receiver Dez Bryant. Norman has had his on- and off-field battles with other receivers such as the Giants’ Odell Beckham Jr., and he and Bryant get fired up to face each other. “They’re both highly competitive guys, and they both want to win,” Gruden said. “I have no problem with that. If it becomes a penalty or get thrown out of the game, obviously we have an issue.” FULL STRENGTH Dallas’ defense had everyone it figured to be counting on for the first time last week against
Mark Tenally / Associated Press file
Quarterback Dak Prescott and the Cowboys play in Washington this week as a pair of teams that appear to be wild-card contenders battle.
the 49ers. The Cowboys recovered two fumbles (special teams had a third) to end a three-game streak without a takeaway and had five sacks. All-Pro linebacker Sean Lee missed the previous two games, and the Cowboys lost both at home despite scoring at least 30 points each time. Lee and Anthony Hitchens, who missed the first four games because of a preseason knee injury, have boosted the linebacking group, and defensive end David Irving has three sacks in two games following a four-game suspension. INJURED REDSKINS Gruden cut a day of practice off his team’s usual schedule because of all the injuries that built up, most notably along the offensive line. Left tackle Trent Williams, center Spencer Long and right guard Brandon Scherff all have knee injuries
and right tackle Morgan Moses has sprains in both ankles. On defense, linebackers Zach Brown (back) and Preston Smith (groin) are the most banged up, but not the only ones as Washington’s depth is being tested. NO MR. RELIABLE The Cowboys’ Dan Bailey, the most accurate in NFL history among kickers with at least 100 attempts, will miss the first game of his seven-year career with a groin injury sustained during the game in San Francisco. Mike Nugent, a 12-year veteran, will replace him for at least a game and probably more. Bailey’s career success rate of 89.9 percent is about 9 percentage points better than Nugent. The discrepancy is much larger from 50 yards and beyond — 69 percent for Bailey, 39 for Nugent.
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: HOUSTON TEXANS
Watson’s next test is facing Seahawks in Seattle that Russell Wilson is regularly included in the clips Houston coach Bill O’Brien shows his quarterbacks each week. Wilson threw for 334 yards and three touchdowns in last week’s 24-7 win over the New York Giants. Wilson has 10 touchdown passes and three interceptions in the past four games. Here’s what else to watch for as the Texans visit Seattle for the first time since 2005:
By Tim Booth A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
SEATTLE — Deshaun Watson was brilliant against New England. He handled Tennessee and Cleveland, and only threw five touchdowns against Kansas City. Watson has done all the Houston Texans could ask of him through the first five starts of his career. For his next act, Watson will be asked to solve the best scoring defense in the NFL, featuring some of the best defensive backs of this generation in one of the loudest, most hostile road venues in the league. “You play music and try to create noise, but you really can’t prep yourself for it. You just have to wait until you get there Sunday and experience it,” Watson said. “You can blast the music all you want, but that’s not going to help you on Sunday. It’s going to be way louder.” The biggest test thus far in Watson’s rookie season arrives on Sunday when the Texans (3-3) travel to Seattle to face the surging Seahawks. After a shaky start, Seattle (4-2) has won three straight — two of those on the road — and now gets four of the next six games at home with the only road trips being
Michael Dwyer / Associated Press file
Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson will play in Seattle on Sunday. The Seahawks have the best scoring defense in the NFL.
to Arizona and San Francisco. And for as much respect as the Seahawks have for what Watson is accomplishing as a rookie, they’re ready to introduce him to one of the league’s premier defenses. “He’s poised. It’s like (Carson) Wentz was last year when we played him. He doesn’t always make the greatest decisions because he’s a rookie. He’s going to make mistakes. People make mistakes,” Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman said. “But he’s poised. He doesn’t get rattled easily. The mo-
ment is not too big for him.” Watson is on pace for one of the best rookie seasons ever by a quarterback, especially considering he didn’t start the opener. Watson’s 15 TD passes are the most by a rookie in his team’s first six games of a season. Twelve of those have come in the past three games where he’s posted a 118.3 passer rating and tossed just two interceptions. He’s the first rookie in league history with three straight games of three or more TD passes. It’s special what Watson has accomplished.
Doing it against a caliber of opponent such as Seattle would be a significant next step. “It doesn’t take long to see how versatile he is, the dynamic player that he is,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. “... There’s nothing he can’t do. He’s doing it all and he’s making marvelous throws and these tights window throws, all across the board from the top down. He can do it all so they’ve got to be just thrilled they have him.” Seattle has a pretty good quarterback of its own, one with many of the same attributes as Watson. It’s no wonder
BACK ON TOP Seattle is back to having the best scoring defense in the league at 15.7 points per game. They looked shaky early in the season, especially after giving up 33 points to Tennessee, but have been outstanding during the three-game win streak in shutting down the Colts, Rams and Giants. While the Seahawks secondary gets most of the credit, the run defense has led the way during the win streak, allowing 81.3 yards per game. BROWN’S BACK Houston’s offensive line got a boost when Duane Brown ended his holdout and reported to the team this week after failing to receive a new contract. Houston coach Bill O’Brien is optimistic that Brown will be able to play on Sunday and try
to slow Seattle’s pass rush. “He’s a 10-year veteran, Pro Bowl tackle, very athletic, very smart, tough, so anytime you get a guy like that back, it’s a good thing,” O’Brien said. “He came back and passed the conditioning test, he looks like he’s in good shape, and we’ll just keep bringing him along in practice and see if he can help us on Sunday.” FREENEY ARRIVES Seattle signed veteran pass rusher Dwight Freeney this week to help bolster a pass rush looking for additions after Cliff Avril was placed on injured reserve with a neck injury. Freeney had just three sacks last season with Atlanta, but Seattle would like to see more from its pass rush. The Seahawks have just 12 sacks in part because teams are using more short and quick passes against Seattle’s defense. CATCHING ON DeAndre Hopkins will always be the Texans’ primary pass catcher, but Will Fuller is providing contributions. Fuller has five touchdown catches in his three games this season and is averaging nearly 20 yards per catch. “If we’re clicking, that means maybe the offense is rolling,” Fuller said.
A8 | Saturday, October 28, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
FROM THE COVER
38 accuse writer/director James Toback of sexual harassment By Lindsey Bahr A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
LOS ANGELES — Writer and director James Toback, who received an Oscar nomination for writing “Bugsy,” has been accused of sexual harassment by 38 women in a report published Sunday in The Los Angeles Times. In the report, many of the women allege that Toback approached them on the streets of New York City and promised stardom. His meetings would often end with sexual questions and Toback masturbating in front of them or dry-humping them, according to the accounts. The 72-year-old denied the allegations to The Los Angeles Times, saying he never met any of the women, or if he had it “was for five minutes and (I) have no recollection.” Thirty-one of the women spoke on the record including Louise Post, who is a guitarist and vocalist for the band Veruca Salt, and “As the World Turns” actress Terri Conn. Actress Echo Danon recalled an incident on the set of his film “Black and White” where Toback put his hands on her and said that he would ejaculate if she looked at his eyes and pinched his nipples. “Everyone wants to work, so they put up with it,” Danon told the Times. “That’s why I
WALL From page A1 That raises the possibility of no winner or winners. Results of the testing will dictate future wall construction, which has not yet been funded by Congress. The testing won’t start for at least a month because some concrete in the wall prototypes still needs to dry. Vitiello told reporters that workers during the 30-60 day testing period will try to answer basic questions: “Can it be climbed? Can it be dug under? Can it withstand cutting tools?” Here are some questions and answers about the border wall project. WHY WERE THE PROTOTYPES BUILT? The U.S. currently has 654 miles of single-layer fence along the 1,954-mile border, plus 51 miles of double- and triple-layer fence. This summer, the government picked six companies to build models to guide future construction. Each model is spaced about 30 feet apart a few steps from a fence made from old steel airstrip landing mats separating San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico. Contractors were awarded between $300,000 and $500,000 for each model and had a
CHILD From page A1 could be several weeks before she is released. “They just refused to allow the child to go home,” Gonzalez said Thursday. In a statement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed its agents had escorted Rosa Maria from a checkpoint to the hospital. It said Border Patrol agents were “committed to enforcing the immigration laws of this nation.” The statement added that “once medically cleared she will be processed accordingly.” HHS, which oversees facilities for unaccompanied minors in the U.S. illegally, said in a statement that it would not comment on the specific cases of people in its custody. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat, blamed the Trump administration for adopting “callous policies” toward immigrants.
Richard Shotwell / Associated Press
In this Nov. 10, 2014, photo, James Toback arrives at the 2014 AFI Fest - "The Gambler" in Los Angeles. Writer and director Toback, who received an Oscar nomination for writing "Bugsy," has been accused of sexual harassment by more than 30 women in a report published Sunday in The Los Angeles Times.
put up with it. Because I was hoping to get another job.” Toback hasn’t responded to a request for comment from The Associated Press. The report comes amid the ongoing downfall of producer Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by over three dozen women. He was fired from the company he co-founded and widely denounced by his Hollywood peers. “James Toback damn you for stealing, damn you for traumatizing,” tweeted Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan on
month to build them. W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Co. of Philadelphia, Mississippi, and Caddell Construction Co. of Montgomery, Alabama, built one concrete model and one of other materials. Texas Sterling Construction Co. a unit of Sterling Construction Co., and Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. of Tempe, Arizona, did concrete designs. ELTA North America Inc., part of state-run Israel Aerospace Industries, and KWR Construction Inc. of Sierra Vista, Arizona, built models from other materials. Each reaches the maximum allowed height of 30 feet or close — significantly higher than existing walls. Vitiello said the height was what struck him most on his tour Thursday. The concrete walls are solid, preventing agents from seeing through them and into Mexico. Others are made of thick metal poles. Some are topped by round tubes, which are less vulnerable to grappling hooks than sharp edges. One requirement is for the walls to be “aesthetically pleasing” from the U.S. side. ELTA’s solid metal wall features six light blue squares with white trim on the bottom third, topped by dark blue beams and metal plates.
Sunday. Another Weinstein accuser, actress-director Asia Argento, tweeted, “So proud of my sisters for bringing down yet another pig” in response to the Toback report. Though less widely known than Weinstein, Toback has had a successful four-decade career in Hollywood and has a devoted following who have praised him for his originality and outsized, deeply flawed characters. A New York native, Harvard graduate, creative writing professor and compulsive gambler,
Texas Sterling’s has a gray surface stamped with patterns of differentsized bricks, like driveways or sidewalks for upscale homes. There is a steel plate on top with prongs that feature three metal spikes, resembling an agave plant. Trump has asked Congress for $1.6 billion for the first installment of his wall. It would replace 14 miles in San Diego and build 60 miles in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. It’s unclear to what extent Trump will weigh in on the selection, and Vitiello said he didn’t know if the president will visit the site. Trump has expressed interest in including solar panels, which are not part of any of the prototypes. Three lawsuits — one filed by California’s Democratic attorney general, Xavier Becerra — seek to block construction, claiming the administration overstepped its authority by waiving environmental reviews and other laws. A hearing on the administration request to dismiss the lawsuits is scheduled Feb. 9 before U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a target of Trump’s enduring scorn for his handling of complaints against the nowdefunct Trump University.
In a statement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed its agents had escorted Rosa Maria from a checkpoint to the hospital. It said Border Patrol agents were “committed to enforcing the immigration laws of this nation.” The statement added that “once medically cleared she will be processed accordingly.”
“They’re treating her like a hardened convict,” Castro said. Gonzalez said Rosa Maria has “difficulty understanding exactly what’s taking place” and is closer in development to a child that’s 4 or 5 years old. Her parents are both in the United States illegally and came with Rosa Maria to the U.S. in 2007, when the girl was a newborn, in part to seek better medical treatment for her cerebral palsy. They sent Rosa Maria with a cousin to the hospital because the cousin is a U.S. citizen and could pass through the checkpoint. The case is reminiscent of a September
incident in which a man and woman in the U.S. illegally were followed by Border Patrol to the same Corpus Christi hospital when their newborn child needed surgery. Astrid Dominguez, immigration policy strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said people without legal status in Texas’ border regions have long had to decide whether to seek medical care and face detention, including during the Obama administration. “This isn’t an isolated case,” Dominiguez said. “This is a risk they have to take to get medical attention for their children.”
Toback used his own life as inspiration for his first produced screenplay, “The Gambler,” which came out in 1974 and starred James Caan. The film was remade in 2014 with Mark Walhberg and Brie Larson. He also wrote and directed the Harvey Keitel film “Fingers,” the loosely autobiographical “The Pick-up Artist,” which starred Robert Downey Jr. and Molly Ringwald, “Two Girls and a Guy,” also with Downey Jr. and Heather Graham, “Harvard Man,” with Sarah Michelle Gellar, and the Mike Tyson documentary “Tyson.” His one and only Oscar nomination is for writing the Barry Levinson-directed and Warren Beatty-starring “Bugsy.” Toback’s upcoming film, “The Private Life of a Modern Woman,” stars Sienna Miller and Alec Baldwin and debuted at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year. Like Weinstein, reports of Toback’s alleged behavior toward women have been around for decades. Spy magazine wrote about him in 1989, and the now-defunct website Gawker also published accounts from women in New York who had had run-ins with Toback. But in the past few weeks, amid the Weinstein scandal and the rise of the (hash)MeToo social media movement, in
FILES From page A1 documents ready to be released in full or with national security redactions before the deadline. Since taking office, Trump has challenged the integrity of intelligence leaders, moved to exert more control over U.S. spying agencies and accused his predecessor of using government spycraft to monitor his campaign. In the JFK files matter, one White House official said, Trump wanted to make clear he wouldn’t be bullied by the agencies. Whatever occurred in the lead-up to deadline day, Trump was irritated Thursday that agencies still were arguing for more redactions. The president earlier in the week had tweeted to tease the release of the documents, heightening the sense of drama on a subject that has sparked the imaginations of conspiracy theorists for decades. Under a 1992 law, all of the records related to the assassination were to be made public unless explicitly withheld by the president. Just before the release Thursday, Trump wrote in a memorandum that he
STRAUS From page A1 thing about it, it just gets more and more extreme from here,” said White, whose father was governor in the 1980s and died earlier this year. Texas already is the nation’s most populous Republican-led state and no Democrat has won statewide office since 1994. Conservatives who have pushed the Texas GOP to the right in recent years see Straus’ departure as an opportunity. They and wealthy donors crave new House leadership that would finally push over the goal line a raft of long-stalled campaign promises, including giving state funds to private and religious schools. Their wish list under a more conservative House leader also includes repeal a measure that allows in-state college tuition for some immigrants in the U.S. illegally, and passing the bathroom bill targeting transgender people. Conservatives might also tighten spending in a
which women are revealing instances of sexual harassment and assault, more reports have emerged about the conduct of many working in the entertainment industry. Just days ago, top Amazon Studios executive Roy Price resigned following sexual harassment allegations made by a “Man in the High Castle” producer. On Sunday, a few in Hollywood began denouncing Toback on social media, including “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig, who tweeted that Toback “Is a disgrace.” “One of the main jobs of a director is to create a safe environment for the actors,” Feig wrote. “Doctor Strange” director Scott Derrickson added, “If there is a Hell, James Toback will be in it.” “Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn wrote a lengthy Facebook post Sunday about the allegations, saying that he has personally met at least 15 women who have said they have had these kinds of encounters with Toback, including three women he has dated, two friends and a family member. “For over twenty years now, I’ve been bringing up James Toback every chance I could in groups of people,” Gunn wrote. “I couldn’t stop him, but I could warn people about him.”
had “no choice” but to agree to requests from the CIA and FBI to keep thousands of documents secret because of the possibility that releasing the information could still harm national security. Two aides said Trump was upset by what he perceived to be overly broad secrecy requests, adding that the agencies had been explicitly warned about his expectation that redactions be kept to a minimum. “The president and White House have been very clear with all agencies for weeks: They must be transparent and disclose all information possible,” White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said Friday. Late last week, Trump received his first official briefing on the release in an Oval Office meeting that included Chief of Staff John Kelly, White House Counsel Don McGahn and National Security Council legal adviser John Eisenberg. Trump made it clear he was unsatisfied with the pace of declassification. Trump’s tweets, an official said, were meant as a signal to the intelligence community to take seriously his threats to release the documents in their entirety.
According to White House officials, Trump accepted that some of the records contained references to sensitive sources and methods used by the intelligence community and law enforcement and that declassification could harm American foreign policy interests. But after having the scope of the redactions presented to him, Trump told aides he did not believe them to be in the spirit of the law. On Thursday, Trump’s top aides presented him with an alternative to simply acquiescing to the agency requests: He could temporarily allow the redactions while ordering the agencies to launch a new comprehensive examination of the records still withheld or redacted in part. Trump accepted the suggestion, ordering that agencies be “extremely circumspect” about keeping the remaining documents secret at the end of the 180-day assessment. “The American public expects — and deserves — its government to provide as much access as possible to the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records so that the people may finally be fully informed about all aspects of this pivotal event,” Trump wrote.
state that critics already say is running so lean that it is fraying the social safety net. Conservative Gov. Greg Abbott is sitting on more than $40 million in campaign funds even though he has no serious opponent for next year. Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who controls the Senate and was the chairman of Trump’s presidential campaign in Texas, is being challenged by a Democrat who lost his 2014 bid for state comptroller by 20 points. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, one of the most conservative members of the Senate, senses opportunity back home. “I think it was unfortunate that we did not have a House in Texas that was leading on strong conservative policies,” he told Lubbock radio station KFYO on Thursday. All 150 Texas House members choose the speaker at the start of the term by a majority vote — meaning chamber Democrats who are outnumbered 95-55 can have a significant say in who wins. One Straus ally who quickly announced his candidacy for speaker
is Republican Rep. John Zerwas, who previously pushed unsuccessfully for Texas to expand the Medicaid program for the poor as part of the Obama administration’s signature health care law. Zerwas, who is now the ranking budget-writer in the Texas House, deflected questions about proposals such as the transgender bill and school vouchers that have roiled the Texas GOP in recent years and made Straus a target of deeppocketed conservative groups. He defended how Straus governed. “I do think the speaker has been very fair in allowing the House to run and do their business. It would be my ambition to really emulate that philosophy that the House is made up of 149 other capable individuals,” Zerwas said. Straus said he plans to serve the rest of his term ending in December 2018 and will campaign and fundraise for other Republicans. He expressed doubt that he will seek statewide office in 2018 even though he said some might like to see him run for governor.