The Zapata Times 11/2/2016

PRESCOTT’S LEGEND GROWS

WEDNESDAYNOVEMBER 2, 2016

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LAREDO POLICE DEPARTMENT

Bodies found in Laredo Deceased man and woman in their 20s, 30s

By César G. Rodriguez THE ZAPATA TIME S

Courtesy photo / Webb County Sheriff’s Office

The bodies of a man and a woman were discovered Monday in the Laredo Ranchettes area off Texas 359.

A man and a woman were found dead Monday in the Laredo Ranchettes area off Texas 359, police and county authorities said.

Authorities have not identified the deceased.

Investigator Joe E. Baeza,

of ironing out the preliminary information,” Baeza said.

At 6:30 p.m., law enforcement responded to the macabre discovery by the intersection of Estrella Road and Arco Iris Drive.

“The neighbors around the area reported the two bodies that ap-

peared to have been placed there,” said Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar.

The Sheriff ’s Office started the investigation.

However, the location where the bodies were found was within city limits, prompting the response by Laredo police, Cuellar said.

PERMIAN BASIN

ELECTION

Candidates warn of dire outcome if rival wins

Laredo Police Department spokesman, said it appears the man and woman were in their 20s or 30s.

“At this point, we don’t know the manner of death,” Baeza said.

LPD’s crimes against persons detectives took over the case.

“We’re in the process

GOOD TIMES NOT YET ROLLING Signs of recovery?

By Jennifer Hiller SAN ANTONIO EXPRE SS-NEWS

Clinton, Trump focus on attacks

By Julie Pace and Jonathan Lemire A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

DADE CITY, Fla. — Donald Trump could draw the United States into nuclear war, Hillary Clinton warns. Clinton would plunge the country into a constitutional crisis, he says.

As the caustic presidential race lurches toward the finish line, each candidate is aggressively casting the other as a catastrophic choice for the White House. Making an affirmative case about their own qualifications and vision has become a secondary priority.

It’s an ugly conclusion to a contest featuring two Clinton of the most unpopular presidential candidates in modern American politics. The sexual assault accusations that have trailed Trump in the race’s closing weeks and a new FBI review into Clinton’s email habits seem likely to only reinTrump force the public’s negative perceptions, leaving the candidates to essentially argue to voters that they’re the best of two unappealing options.

“I would rather be here talking about nearly anything else,” Clinton said Tuesday during a rally in Florida where she leveled a series of attacks on Trump’s character and preparedness for the White House. “But I can’t just talk about all of the good things we want to do.”

Indeed, Clinton’s speeches in this final full week of campaigning have overwhelmingly focused on Trump. On Election continues on A10

Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle

A Diamondback Energy oil rig drills for oil and gas Sept. 14 outside of Midland.

MIDLAND — The oil bust arrived by 18-wheeler and FedEx to some anonymous, low-slung warehouses off a dusty road in the Permian Basin.

It came in 10,000 narrow boxes heavy as bricks, loaded in truck after truck that bumped over railroad tracks and past a wire-topped chain link fence. Delivery went to Cindy Smith, who catalogs good times and bad at the International Sample Library at Midland, a grandly named collection of dirt.

The new arrivals represent a multiyear drilling spree — the rock samples collected in thousands of new oil and gas wells. The boxes started coming in late Recovery continues on A11

TEXAS

Report: Disabled children care takes hit as funding declines sharply

By David Warren ASSOCIATED PRE SS

DALLAS — A drop in state funding and shrinking reimbursement rates are contributing to a sharp decline in the number of young children receiving care for often debilitating development and physical disabil-

ities, according to a report released Tuesday.

A nonprofit child advocacy group, Texans Care for Children, argues in the report that the number of children enrolled in the state’s Early Childhood Intervention program fell from about 59,000 in 2011 to approximately 50,000 four years

later.

A slumping amount of state money coupled with flagging Medicaid reimbursements have caused service providers to drop out, according to the report.

There were 58 providers statewide in 2010 and that number has dwindled to 47 today, with contractors in El

Paso and Tyler withdrawing in recent weeks and a third in Wichita Falls planning to cease services, the advocacy group said.

“They are required to meet the needs of each child that comes through the door but they don’t have the financing to necessarily meet Children continues on A10

Zin brief A2 | Wednesday, November 2, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

CALENDAR

AROUND THE WORLD

TODAY IN HISTORY

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2

ASSOCIATED PRE SS

1

SRX Chess Club. Every Wednesday, 4—5 p.m. Santa Rita Express Library, 83 Prada Machin Drive, on the corner of Malaga Drive and Castro Urdiales Avenue. Learn the basics of chess and compete with friends.

Limited chess sets available for use.

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 2, the 307th day of 2016. There are 59 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History: On Nov. 2, 1976, former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter became the first candidate from the Deep South since the Civil War to be elected president as he defeated incumbent Gerald R. Ford.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3 1

Author Christine Sendejo visits.

11 a.m.—12 p.m. McKendrick Ochoa Salinas Branch Library, 1920 Palo Blanco Street. The author of “Little Star” will visit the Preschool Books & Boogie program. Books will be available and on sale.

1 Wii U Gaming. Every Thursday, 4—5 p.m. Santa Rita Express Library, 83 Prada Machin Drive, on the corner of Malaga Drive and Castro Urdiales Avenue. Game with friends on Wii U.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4 1

11th Annual Big Buck Country Grant A Wish Radiothon. 7 a.m.—7 p.m. Mall del Norte, 5300 San Dario Ave, in front of Macy’s home store.

With your support, we can continue to grant that one special wish to an area child at a time they need it most.

The event benefits Make-A-Wish Central & South Texas. Call 712-9474 to pledge or renew support.

1 DUPLO Fun Time. Every Friday, 10:30—11:30 a.m. McKendrick Ochoa Salinas Branch Library, 1920 Palo Blanco Street. LEGOs for toddlers.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5 1

Purple Run. 7 a.m.—12 p.m. Lake Casa Blanca. $20. Designed for the entire family to run/walk/roll in honor of victims, survivors and all those who lost their lives to domestic violence.

1 Book sale. 8:30 a.m.—1 p.m. Widener Book Room, First United Methodist Church. No admission charge.

Everyone is invited.

1 The Laredo Northside Farmers Market’s third anniversary. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. North Central Park. To celebrate the anniversary they are hosting a food demonstration by the students and faculty of LCC's culinary arts program. They will raffle several kitchen gadgets including a Ninja Profession Blender 1000. For more information their Facebook page.

Felipe Dana / AP

Displaced people who fled from Islamic State held-territory sit outside a mosque guarded by Iraqi soldiers in Shuwayrah, south of Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday.

MAJOR URBAN WARFARE AHEAD BAZWAYA, Iraq — Iraq’s special forces fought their way into the outskirts of Mosul on Tuesday, taking its state television building despite resistance by Islamic State group fighters that is only likely to stiffen when combat reaches the inner city. It was the first time Iraqi troops have set foot in the city, Iraq’s second-largest, in more than two years. The advance was the start of what is likely to be a grueling and slow operation for the forces as they fend off booby traps and ambushes in difficult, house-to-house fighting expected to take weeks, if not months.

Troops entered Gogjali, a neighborhood inside Mosul’s city limits, and later the outskirts of the more built-up Karama district, according to Maj. Gen. Sami alAridi of the Iraqi special forces. As the sun went down, a sandstorm blew in, reducing visibility to only 100 meters and bringing the day’s combat to an end.

“Daesh is fighting back and have set up concrete blast walls to block off the Karama neighborhood and our troops’ advance,” al-Aridi said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

— Compiled from AP reports

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7 1

Chess Club. 4—6 p.m. Every Monday. Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete in this cherished strategy game played internationally.

Free. For all ages and skill levels.

Instruction is offered.

1 Movie and Popcorn. Every Monday, 4—5 p.m. Santa Rita Express Library, 83 Prada Machin Drive, on the corner of Malaga Drive and Castro Urdiales Avenue. Enjoy a family movie and refreshments.

1 Ray of Light anxiety and depression support group meeting.

6:30—7:30 p.m. Area Health Education Center, 1505 Calle del Norte, Suite 430. Every first Monday of the month. People suffering from anxiety and depression are invited to attend this free, confidential and anonymous support group meeting. While a support group does not replace an individual’s medical care, it can be a valuable resource to gain insight, strength and hope. For more information, please call 307-2014.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8 1

Rock wall climbing. 4—5:30 p.m.

LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Take the challenge and climb the rock wall! Fun exercise for all ages. Free. Bring ID. Must sign release form. Every Tuesday. For more information, call 795-2400 x2520.

1 LEGO Workshop. Every Tuesday, 4—5 p.m. Santa Rita Express Library, 83 Prada Machin Drive, on the corner of Malaga Drive and Castro Urdiales Avenue. Create with LEGOs, DUPLOs and robotics.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9 1

SRX Chess Club. Every Wednesday, 4—5 p.m. Santa Rita Express Library, 83 Prada Machin Drive, on the corner of Malaga Drive and Castro Urdiales Avenue. Learn the basics of chess and compete with friends.

Limited chess sets available for use.

1 The Economic Impacts of Violence and Crime in Mexico. 7—8:30 p.m. TAMIU Student Center Ballroom, 5201 University Blvd. International Bank of Commerce Keynote Speaker Series featuring Dr. Viridiana Rios, Global Fellow at the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute in Washington, D.C. Free and open to the public. Translation services will be available.

Venezuelan opposition eases temperature at Vatican request CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s opposition on Tuesday warily welcomed the government’s release of four jailed activists, agreeing to delay a symbolic trial in Congress to void President Nicolas Maduro’s authority and to scrap a protest march set for later this week.

The moves were a response to the Vatican’s efforts to avert bloodshed and dampen acrimony in the oil-rich South American country. Talks that began Sunday under its tutelage aim to defuse a crisis exacerbated by the socialist government’s derailing of a referendum to recall the highly unpopular Maduro.

The Democratic Unity opposition alliance said the releases did not sufficiently address its demands, which begin with the immediate release of the more than 100 people still behind

bars that it considers political prisoners.

Its executive secretary, Jesus Torrealba, called the releases “important but insufficient.”

“The releases need to continue. They should reinstate the recall referendum or, failing that, advance presidential elections,” he told reporters.

Torrealba was among opposition leaders who met privately Tuesday with U.S. special envoy Thomas Shannon, the undersecretary of state for political affairs.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION Zika ravages testes of mice; study raises concern about men NEW YORK — Zika virus ravages the testes of male mice, sharply reducing sperm counts and fertility, says a study that raises a new specter about its threat to people.

Experiments found testes of infected mice shrank about 90 percent by weight, while their output of useful sperm fell by three-quarters on average, and often more.

Now it’s time to find out if Zika causes similar damage in men, experts said.

“We just don’t know that yet,” said Michael Diamond of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, a senior author of the study.

The virus is known to infect a man’s reproductive system and persist in sperm and semen, “so it’s in the right place,” he said.

Diamond said he suspects

Felipe Dana / AP file

In this Jan. 27 file photo, an Aedes aegypti mosquito known to carry the Zika virus, is photographed through a microscope.

that in mice, the damage is permanent.

But mice are not men, and experts unconnected with the study agreed that it can’t be assumed that the mouse results apply to people.

Shannan Rossi, who studies Zika in mice at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, noted that the re-

searchers had suppressed the animals’ immune system defense against the virus. That’s a standard step in such experiments but it adds another level of difference from humans, she said. The infected mice were able to impregnate females at only about one-fourth the normal rate.

— Compiled from AP reports

On this date: In 1795, the 11th president of the United States, James Knox Polk, was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

In 1865, the 29th president of the United States, Warren Gamaliel Harding, was born near Marion, Ohio.

In 1889, North Dakota and South Dakota became the 39th and 40th states with the signing of proclamations by President Benjamin Harrison.

In 1914, during World War I, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

In 1936, the British Broadcasting Corp. inaugurated “high-definition” television service from Alexandra Palace in London.

In 1947, Howard Hughes piloted his huge wooden flying boat, the Hughes H-4 Hercules (derisively dubbed the “Spruce Goose” by detractors), on its only flight, which lasted about a minute over Long Beach Harbor in California.

In 1948, President Harry S. Truman surprised the experts by winning a narrow upset over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey.

In 1950, playwright George Bernard Shaw, 94, died in Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire, England.

In 1963, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dihn Diem (noh ding ZEE’em) was assassinated in a military coup.

In 1986, kidnappers in Lebanon released American hospital administrator David Jacobsen after holding him for 17 months.

In 1994, a jury in Pensacola, Florida, convicted Paul Hill of murder for the shotgun slayings of abortion provider Dr. John Britton and Britton’s bodyguard; Hill was executed in Sept.

2003.

In 2000, an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts became the first residents of the international space station, christening it Alpha.

Ten years ago: The Rev. Ted Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after a man said they’d had sexual trysts together (Haggard later confessed he was guilty of sexual immorality).

Gunmen in Iraq killed the Shiite dean of Baghdad University’s school of administration and economics.

Five years ago: The Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to some 19,000 Japanese-Americans who’d served in the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service.

One year ago: President Barack Obama toured a drug rehabilitation center and met with former inmates in Newark, New Jersey, where he called on the nation to ensure those regaining their freedom got a second chance instead of a return ticket to prison.

NASA and its global partners celebrated the 15th anniversary of continuous residency at the International Space Station, where six U.S., Russian and Japanese crew members held a special dinner. Actor-writer Colin Welland, 81, who won an Academy Award for his screenplay for “Chariots of Fire,” died in London. Country singer Tommy Overstreet, 78, died in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Today’s Birthdays: Singer Jay Black (Jay and the Americans) is 78. Political commentator Patrick Buchanan is 78. Actress Stefanie Powers is 74.

Author Shere (shehr) Hite is 74. Country-rock singer-songwriter J.D. Souther is 71. Actress Kate Linder is 69. Rock musician Carter Beauford (The Dave Matthews Band) is 59. Actor Peter Mullan is 57. Singer-songwriter k.d. lang is 55. Rock musician Bobby Dall (Poison) is 53. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage is 52. Actress Lauren Velez is 52. Actor Sean Kanan is 50. Actor David Schwimmer is 50.

Christian/jazz singer Alvin Chea (Take 6) is 49. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is 49. Rock singer-musician Neal Casal is 48. Rock musician Fieldy is 47.

Actress Meta Golding is 45. Rock singer-musician John Hampson (Nine Days) is 45. Rhythm-and-blues singer Timothy Christian Riley (Tony Toni Tone) is 42. Rapper Nelly is 42. Prodigy (Mobb Deep) is 42. Actor Danny Cooksey is 41. Rock musician Chris Walla is 41. Country singer Erika Jo is 30. Actor-singer Kendall Schmidt is 26.

Thought for Today: “Drop the question what tomorrow may bring, and count as profit every day that Fate allows you.” — Horace, Roman poet (65 B.C.-8 B.C.)

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10 1

Fifth annual Hiring Red, White & You! statewide hiring fair. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. UT Health Science Center Regional Campus, 1937 E. Bustamante St. This Texas Workforce Commission hiring fair intended to connect veterans and their spouses with employers who are seeking veterans’ exceptional skills. Employers participate at no cost and are encouraged to contact their local Workforce Solutions office for more information.

1 Rummage Sale. 9 a.m.—5 p.m.

First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall. Free and open to the public.

1 Wii U Gaming. Every Thursday, 4—5 p.m. Santa Rita Express Library, 83 Prada Machin Drive, on the corner of Malaga Drive and Castro Urdiales Avenue. Game with friends on Wii U.

AROUND TEXAS Hospital suggests other hospitals for rape kit exams EL PASO— An El Paso nonprofit that helps sexual assault victims says about 15 victims have told them they were turned away while seeking a rape kit exam at a local hospital.

The hospital’s officials say they have just been providing victims with the option of going to facilities better equipped to

CONTACT US work with such patients.

“The victims go to the hospital, get admitted into the (emergency room) to get checked, and when it comes down to doing the actual exam, they are told that the nurses are not trained or that they don’t have the rape kit test, a forensic exam,” Virginia Rueda, sexual assault services coordinator for the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence told the El Paso Times. She says the victims are told to go to another hospital and are discharged.

State law mandates that all hospitals with emergency rooms provide basic training for nurses to administer a rape kit, a sexual assault forensic exam that is provided to law enforcement.

Cindy Stout, the chief nursing officer at Del Sol Medical Center, said in a statement that the hospital always has access to rape kits and has nurses that are trained in evidence collection.

— Compiled from AP reports

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SUBSCRIPTIONS/DELIVERY (956) 728-2555 The Zapata Times is distributed on Wednesdays and Saturdays to 4,000 households in Zapata and Jim Hogg counties. For subscribers of the Laredo Morning Times and for those who buy the Laredo Morning Times in those areas at newstands, The Zapata Times is inserted.

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The Zapata Times

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, November 2, 2016 |

A3

LOCAL & STATE

Galveston beekeeper keeps busy with buzzing creatures

By John Wayne Ferguson TH E GALV E ST ON COUNT Y DA ILY NEWS

GALVESTON — Don Bush put on a mask Monday, but he wasn’t dressing for Halloween.

The Galveston County Daily News reports the house he was knocking on had a creepy crawly problem, and he came with bags of tricks to get rid of it.

Bush is, after all, the person you call when there’s something strange in your neighbor’s wood.

He’s a beekeeper, and on Monday he was in the backyard of vacant house in Galveston. He was there because neighbors had called the city’s

code enforcement division about the number of bees coming from the house.

The city called Bush.

“I do a lot of pro bono work for the city,” Bush said. “Churches, fire departments, law enforcement, I always give them a discount.”

What he found at the house was no small hive.

Behind the blue siding, was an 8-foot tall honeycomb. As many as 60,000 bees lived in there, Bush said.

“Unless you go right up and mess with them, they aren’t going to mess with you,” he said, minutes after approaching the hive sans safety gear.

“All they want to do is gather the nectar and pollen.”

Zapata Lions Club holding fundraiser

Bush, 76, said he’s been working with bees for 65 years. He learned to care for them from his grandfather, a Louisiana farmer who traded honey for other goods during the Depression.

After 23 years in the merchant marines, Bush retired and turned to beekeeping. He keeps a bee farm, an apiary, on the West End of Galveston, and sells honey products in downtown Galveston on Sunday mornings. He calls his business BOI Honey — Bees On the Island.

Monday’s bees were headed to that farm, after Bush got them off the house.

Taking a small commercial vacuum, Bush sucked the bees into a

bucket fitted with a screen. The bees go in, but they can’t get out.

With the bees removed, he chips away at the honeycomb, depositing the pieces into a bucket.

The honey he makes with the bees will be sold at the farmers market and local specialty grocery stores.

Vacant and deteriorat-

ed homes can attract swarms of the bees, Bush said. If they’re not attended to, they can cause big problems, he said.

The biggest mistake people make is trying to deal with an out-of-hand problem with pesticides, he said.

“People go in there and start to spray, and the bees go wild,” he

said. “They start stinging everything in sight.”

One of his next scheduled projects was at a house across the San Luis Pass. The people who called him said the hive was 25 feet tall. He’ll believe it when he sees it, he said.

“They usually underestimate,” Bush said.

DPS conducting hazardous weather course in Zapata SPECIAL TO THE TIME S

S P ECIAL T O T HE T I ME S

The Zapata Lions Club is holding a casino night fundraiser to benefit the organization’s fifth annual Christmas Turkey Giveaway.

The event will be held Saturday, Nov. 12 from 7-10 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Express in Zapata.

There will be finger food, drinks, gambling chips, door prizes and a trip for two to Las Vegas or a $600 travel voucher.

Tickets are $50 and are available to purchase at the Zapata Chamber of Commerce, Steak House and State Farm.

All games are casino-style and are not played with actual money. There will be blackjack, Texas Hold ‘em, roulette and craps.

Jennifer Reynolds / The Galveston County Daily News/AP

In this Monday photo, Don Bush, who has been working with bees for 65 years, explains the differences between lighter and darker honeycomb, before removing a hive from a vacant house on the island's East End.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is conducting a warning coordination course for local elected officials, firefighters and law enforcement officers, emergency management and those involved in public safety communications.

This course is the latest in the hazardous weather series of courses produced in partnership with the National Weather Service.

Every year, the United States experiences more severe weather than any other country in the world.

In order to reduce deaths, injuries, and property losses, emergency managers must work closely with the NWS and the news media to provide effective warnings that can be received and understood by people at risk.

This course is intended to help facilitate that process.

In addition to lecture and discussion, the course includes case studies, exercises, and an opportunity for interaction with representatives of the local news media.

Course objectives 1 Predict how people in the community may respond to

different types of warnings based on certain social factors.

1 Develop a hazardous weather warning message based on a specific event and the threat it poses to the community.

1 Explain the interlocking sets of activities that work together to form an effective community warning system.

1 Propose improvements to a community's warning system based on identified breakdowns in coordination and communication.

1 Develop warning messages for a given scenario that are targeted for delivery by a

particular media type.

1 Develop a warning coordination and communication strategy for a given scenario.

It is highly recommended that participants take IS271, Anticipating Hazardous Weather and Community Risk, and IS-247, Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, before attending this course.

This course is free of cost and will be held at the Zapata County Courthouse, 200 E. 7th Ave. It will be held Nov. 9 and Nov. 10 for 12 hours each day.

To register go to www.preparingtexas.org

Zopinion A4 | Wednesday, November 2, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

COLUMN

OTHER VIEWS

Read Buber, not the polls!

If America were a marriage we’d need therapy.

There has been so much bad communication over the past year: people talking in warring monologues past each other, ignoring the facts and using lazy stereotypes like “elites” and “Trumpeans” to reduce complex individuals into simplistic categories. Meanwhile, our main candidates are poor connectors. We’ve got the self-enclosed narcissism of Donald Trump and, to a lesser degree, the mistrustful defensiveness of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

As an antidote for all this, I’ve been reading the work of Martin Buber, the early 20th century Jewish theologian who dedicated his career to understanding deep intimacy. Buber is famous for the distinction between I-It relationships and I-Thou relationships.

I-It relationships come in two varieties.

Some are strictly utilitarian. You’re exchanging information in order to do some practical thing, like getting your taxes done.

But other I-It relationships are truncated versions of what should be deep relationships. You’re with a friend, colleague, spouse or neighbor, but you’re not really bringing your whole self to that encounter. You’re fearful, closed or withdrawn — objectifying her, talking at her, offering only a shallow piece of yourself and seeing only the shallow piece of her.

I-Thou relationships, on the other hand, are personal, direct, dialogical — nothing is held back. A Thou relationship exists when two or more people are totally immersed in their situation, when deep calls to deep, when they are offering up themselves and embracing the other in some total, unselfconscious way, when they are involved in “mutual animated describing.”

A doctor has an I-It relationship with a patient when he treats him as a machine in need of repair.

But Peter DeMarco described an I-Thou relationship in a letter to the doctors and nurses who cared for his dying wife, which was published in The New York Times: “How many times did you hug me and console me when I fell to pieces, or ask about Laura’s life and the person she was, taking the time to look at her photos or read the things I’d written about her?

How many times did you deliver bad news with compassionate words, and sadness in your eyes?”

In our culture we use phrases like finding oneself, finding your passion, loving yourself so you can love others. But Buber argued that it’s nonsensical to think of the self in isolation. The I only exists in relation to some other.

“

DAVID BROOKS

“The development of the soul in the child is inextricably bound up with that of the longing for the Thou,” he wrote.

All through life, the self is emerging out of some dialogue, either a cold stifling one or a rich complete one: “All real living is meeting.”

You can’t intentionally command I-Thou moments into being. You can only be open to them and provide fertile soil.

Some people go through life with a detached posture, trying to self-differentiate themselves and be more sophisticated than others. Those people tend to have mechanical relationships. Their feelings are self-enclosed. They don’t get to experience the Thou. Others adopt a guard-down posture that is openhearted and openminded. They regard others as unique persons and not objects. They have histories in which trust and vulnerability are rewarded.

Such people experience moments of genuine dialogue. Buber described genuine dialogue as a sort of social flow. Teachers and students are learning with each other. An audience and an artist are lost in a performance.

These moments don’t last. It is the “exalted melancholy of our fate” that Thou moments always fade back into It moments.

But a world has been built during such intense moments. A binding cord has been strengthened. The person who has experienced the Thou has been thickened and come closer to wholeness.

Buber’s writing reminds us to be intentional and brave about relationships. But it also has communal and political implications. Some organizations and leaders nurture openhearted bonds. Such communities usually began, Buber wrote, with some sacred Thou moment — like the Exodus story for the Jews or the revolutionary struggles of the early Americans.

Leaders connect current problems to that “living effective center” and set the table for situations of caring and trust.

Today, America is certainly awash in distrust.

So many people tell stories of betrayal. So many leaders (Trump) model combativeness, isolation and distrust. But the only way we get beyond depressing years like this one is at the level of intimacy: if Americans reconnect with the living center of the national story and they rebuild Thous at every level.

David Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times.

EDITORIAL

A bomb dropped days before election THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

What a fine mess, indeed. Where to start?

FBI Director James Comey spent the weekend trying to find a chair that didn’t burn — and not undeservedly so — for rolling a grenade into this most bitter and divisive of elections. His Friday letter to Congress effectively picking the scabs on the Hillary Clinton email investigation so close to Election Day was the October surprise to beat all.

Figuratively speaking, exploding heads were the order of the day.

Then again, Clinton and her team have some nerve to demand transparency now, when genuine transparency from them in the last 18 months might have put this email story to sleep, where Comey had told us it belonged. In a dramatic July revelation, he sharply criticized Clinton as "extremely care-

less" but said "no reasonable prosecutor" with his evidence would pursue criminal charges for mishandling classified information.

Now, seeds planted then have grown into a bigger question mark for American voters, with early voting well underway.

Clinton’s early dodges and shifting explanations exacerbated trust and honesty deficits with enough voters to keep her race with Republican Donald Trump closer than one might expect, given his excesses, frailties and character flaws.

Top Justice Department officials advised Comey against sending that Friday letter, in large part because the feds typically steer clear of any action in the home stretch that could affect an election outcome.

Yet because of his previous declaration that the FBI’s investigation into Clinton was complete —

and subsequent congressional testimony — he felt obligated to revise his remarks for the record, once a new trove of email was found in the most unusual of places.

The FBI reportedly turned up 650,000 emails on a laptop owned by Anthony Weiner, the former congressman and selfie king of Queens.

Weiner’s estranged wife, Huma Abedin, is among Clinton’s closest advisers.

Agents working the unrelated Weiner case — he’s accused of sending lewd photos to a 15-year-old — found what Comey described as emails that might be related to Clinton’s private server.

Or not. Comey apparently had not seen the new emails, although his investigators located the trove in early October.

Only now do the feds have a warrant that will allow them to sift out and analyze Clinton-related emails from the Weiner comput-

letter. Laredo Morning Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms.

This space allows for public debate of the issues of the day.

Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No name-calling or gratuitous abuse is allowed. Also, letters longer than 500 words will not be accepted.

Via email, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.

Still unknown is whether these Abedin emails are duplicates of previously surrendered messages.

And, beyond that, whether they even matter to an investigation into the handling of classified information.

We can’t know what we don’t know, and there’s little chance the FBI can provide definitive answers in the short run-up to Election Day. Caught in the crossfire are voters who again must weigh whether Clinton’s admitted mistake in exclusive use of a private email server while secretary of state should matter.

This newspaper has said that even with her known email troubles, Clinton was by far the superior candidate and best hope for the nation.

This new twist has not changed that, even with the questions left by the murky details and manifest unknowns.

OP-ED

Day of the Dead takes on political meaning

By Pilar Zazueta THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

El Día de Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, has become an emblematic holiday for Mexicans. So much so that Mexico’s government has used the colorful and original imagery associated with this celebration to promote tourism and sell Mexican folklore. Today, the country is going through a dramatic wave of violence and impunity, and the Día de Muertos is acquiring a different meaning.

Homicides and disappearances dominate foreign press coverage about Mexico. These are not exactly the kind of muertos that make people eager to visit the country or celebrate its traditions.

Even more alarming for Mexican society is that a large part of the violence cannot be blamed solely

on the clash between organized crime and law enforcement, or the failed “war on drugs.” The violence also has to do with the failure to admit how widespread misogyny, homophobia and transphobia are in the country, as well as social practices that normalize everyday discrimination and aggression toward women and the LGBT community.

The fact that violence is rooted in toxic gender dynamics is not news for women in Mexico, the rest of Latin America, or the United States. The current U.S. presidential election, for example, has been marred by ugly rhetoric about women and allegations of sexual assault.

Given this general state of affairs, thousands of people recently took to the streets in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay and other countries

throughout the region to protest femicide, declaring Ni Una Menos (Not One Woman Less) in response to the brutal rape and murder of an Argentinian teenager. It was an international day of mourning, but mostly a day in which Latin American civil society decided to begin building a more just system, free of violence and fear.

In this context, Mexicans are also beginning to use Día de Muertos altars in a different way, giving them a more political and somber character.

Altars in private homes or cemeteries have traditionally included decorated sugar skulls, colorful cutout paper flower arrangements and mementos of deceased relatives.

Día de Muertos derives from the Catholic celebration All Saints’ Day. Borrowing tactics from

LETTERS POLICY Laredo Morning Times does not publish anonymous letters.

To be published, letters must include the writer's first and last names as well as a phone number to verify identity.

The phone number IS NOT published; it is used solely to verify identity and to clarify content, if necessary.

Identity of the letter writer must be verified before publication. We want to assure our readers that a letter is written by the person who signs the

er.

DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

human rights organizations, people place large images or photographs of homicide victims or disappeared persons in public spaces. In fact, a group of activists in Mexico City recently set up an altar in a subway station to commemorate the life of homicide victim Alessa Flores, a transgender activist who fought to promote the rights and dignity of sex workers.

In a context in which we all have counted thousands of victims of homicides and disappeared persons in Mexico, maybe there is nothing to celebrate. But if it helps us to remember and publicly recognize the work and the life of people such as Alessa Flores, Día de Muertos might not be dead after all.

Pilar Zazueta is a lecturer at UT-Austin.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, November 2, 2016 |

A5

ENTERTAINMENT Big numbers for news networks

Cosby lawyers press judge to exclude deposition from sexual assault trial

By David Bauder

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby’s lawyers pressed a judge Tuesday to keep the comedian’s damaging deposition in a decade-old lawsuit out of his sexual assault trial, saying Cosby agreed to answer questions under oath after being assured he wouldn’t be charged with a crime.

The defense has insisted Cosby had an oral promise from the district attorney at the time that he wouldn’t be prosecuted over a 2005 sexual encounter with Andrea

A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

NEW YORK — It’s been such a great party at the television news networks that only a crank would mention the morning after.

MSNBC reached its biggest weekday primetime audience in the network’s 20-year history in October. Rivals CNN and Fox News Channel had strong months, too. For about a year, the networks have devoted most of their broadcast time to the presidential race, now about to be decided.

Fox averaged 3.06 million viewers during weekday prime in October, the Nielsen company said.

MSNBC had 2.03 million and CNN had 1.99 million.

CNN is stronger on the weekends, and moves into second place if Saturday and Sunday are included.

Measuring the full day, it was CNN’s mostwatched month since 2005. It was also the first time in 15 years that CNN has beaten Fox in both the daytime and evening among the 25-to-54 demographic that much of news advertising sales are based upon.

Fox had its best weekday prime-time number since October 2012, Nielsen said. Friday’s news that the FBI is looking into more of Hillary Clinton’s emails so energized Fox’s conservative audience that the network crushed CNN in the news demo. Recognizing an opportunity, Fox stayed in live programming all weekend to talk about the story.

By Maryclaire Dale ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Constand, a former Temple University basketball manager.

The Cosby judge previously refused to dismiss the charges on those grounds, but is now being asked to disallow the deposition when the case goes to trial in June.

A new district attorney had Cosby arrested last year, after the deposition was unsealed and dozens of new accusers came forward.

Cosby, now 79 and

blind, has said his encounter with Constand was consensual. He could get 10 years in prison if convicted. He is free on $1 million bail.

The “Cosby Show” star once known as America’s Dad smiled as he arrived at the suburban Philadelphia courthouse with his entourage.

Judge Steven O’Neill, who is hearing pretrial arguments, said that Cosby’s decision to testify could have been strategic. He found no evidence that Cosby’s lawyers tried to get the promise in writing before letting him give four days

of testimony.

They might have thought it was better for him to testify than plead the Fifth Amendment and have a civil jury think he had something to hide, the judge suggested.

Defense attorney Brian McMonagle said the judge would set a bad precedent if he let the testimony in.

“I don’t want DAs making promises that they don’t later keep,” McMonagle said. “That strikes at the heart of fundamental unfairness.”

Cosby was questioned a decade ago as part of a

lawsuit brought against him by Constand. The long-married comedian testified about a series of affairs with young women and said he sometimes gave them pills or alcohol before sex. Constand eventually settled in 2006 for an undisclosed sum.

The pretrial hearing resumes Wednesday, with another hearing on the evidence set for December. O’Neill must also decide if 13 other accusers can testify against Cosby at the trial to show they were drugged and molested in similar fashion.

Zfrontera A6 | Wednesday, November 2, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

RIBEREÑA EN BREVE CURSOS DE LENGUAJE DE SIGNOS (ASL) 1 El Departamento de Educación Especial local está ofreciendo clases de Lenguaje Americano de Signos para el personal profesional y paraprofesional así como para padres, estudiantes o administradores del distrito Zapata County Independent School District, todos los jueves desde el 20 de octubre al 15 de diciembre (ocho semanas de duración). En el horario de 4:15 p.m. a 5:15 p.m. en el laboratorio de computadoras de la escuela primaria Zapata North Elementary School. Mayores informes al (956) 285-6877 o a la Oficina de Educación Especial al (956) 756-6130 antes del 13 de octubre.

CARRETERA U.S. 359

Encuentran cuerpos LPD no ha identificado a víctimas Por César G. Rodríguez TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Los cuerpos de un hombre y una mujer fueron encontrados en el área de Laredo Ranchettes en la parte este de la ciudad, por la carretera Texas 359, dijeron autoridades de la Ciudad de Laredo y del

Condado de Webb el lunes por la noche.

Las autoridades aún no han identificado los cuerpos, pero el Investigador Joe E. Baeza, portavoz del Departamento de Policía de Laredo, dijo que parece que el hombre y la mujer tenían entre 20 y 30 años.

“Por el momento, des-

conocemos la causa de la muerte”, dijo Baeza.

Detectives de Crímenes contra las Personas tomaron el caso.

“Estamos en el proceso de sacar detalles de la información preliminar de este caso”, dijo Baeza.

A las 6:30 p.m., oficiales de las fuerzas del

orden respondieron al macabro descubrimiento cerca de la intersección entre Estrella Road y Arco Iris Drive.

“Los vecinos del área del alrededor reportaron los dos cuerpos que parece que fueron puestos ahí”, dijo el Alguacil del Condado de Webb Martin

ZAPATA COUNTY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

ELECCIONES

UN PEQUEÑO GRAN AUTOR

Se estrecha diferencia entre candidatos

FESTIVAL DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS 1 La ciudad de Miguel Alemán, México, está invitando a su Festival del Día de los Muertos en la Casa del Arte en esa ciudad. El evento, gratuito y abierto al público, iniciará a las 5 p.m., el jueves 3 de noviembre. Habrá un altar en memoria de Raúl Antonio Rodríguez Barrera, ex presidente minicipal, además de otras actividades artísticas y culturales.

Por Lisa Lerer y Johnathan Lemire ASSOCIATED PRE SS

DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS CELEBRACIÓN CULTURAL 1 Día de los Muertos, celebración cultural se realizará en el Centro para las Artes de Laredo, desde las 5 p.m. a 10 p.m. Habrá procesión desde la iglesia San Agustín, obra teatral, música, elaboración de calaveras, ballet folclórico y muchas actividades culturales realizadas por artistas de ambos Laredos. Evento gratuito.

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) 7658983.

FIRMA DE LIBROS 1 La Dra. Alma González Pérez dictará una conferencia y estará firmando su nuevo libro de poesía en la reunión mensual de la Sociedad de Genealogía Nuevo Santander el sábado 12 de Noviembre en el Museo de Historia del Condado de Zapata.

La cita es a las 2 p.m.

COMPETENCIA DE CARNE ASADA 1 La Comisión de Parques y Recreación de Roma invita a su 3a. Competencia Anual de Carne Asada, el 19 de noviembre en Guadalupe Plaza. Habrá diferentes categorías que incluyen: guisado, fajitas, costillas y pavo entre otros.

Registre a su equipo en Roma City Hall ubicado en 77 Convent St. Informes al 956-849-1411.

Cuellar.

Oficiales del alguacil comenzaron la investigación. Sin embargo, la ubicación en donde los cuerpos fueron encontrados seguía dentro de los límites de la ciudad, lo que causó la respuesta de la Policía de Laredo, dijo Cuellar.

Foto de cortesía | ZCISD

Ethan Morales posa para una fotografía junto con el primer libro de su autoría “Halloween”, el cual también ilustró. Morales participó en el evento “Conoce al autor” , que se llevó a cabo en la biblioteca de la escuela primaria Zapata South Elementary School, donde el autor es un estudiante de tercer grado.

GUERRERO HOY, DESDE EL AYER

El año del parte-aguas histórico (Nota del editor: Éste es el primero de una serie de artículos sobre la historia de Ciudad Guerrero, México, escritos por la guerrerense Lilia Treviño Martínez (1927-2016), quien fuera profesora de la escuela Leoncio Leal) Por Lilia Treviño Martínez Foto de cortesía

TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Octubre de 1953.

Había expectación en todo nuestro país y en buena parte de los Estados Unidos de Norteámerica.

Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos y Dwight D. Eisenhower, Presidente del vecino país, se preparaban para reunirse en la frontera Mexicana e inaugurar una gran obra internacional: la presa Falcón, que con su capacidad de almacenamiento de 3 mil millones de metros cúb-

Esta fotografía de 1926 muestra un desfile cívico frente al Palacio Municipal de Cd. Guerrero, Mx.

icos, fertilizaría las tierras aledañas al bajo Río Bravo, a uno y otro lado de su cauce.

En la misma fecha señalada para la inauguración de esta grandiosa obra, el 19 de octubre, se celebraría la entrevista entre dos Jefes de Estado, en uno de los salones del Palacio Municipal construido en la flamante ciudad Guerrero.

Periodistas y reporteros de ambos países

habían hecho reservaciones de vuelo para venir al histórico lugar.

Todo era propicio al gran acontecimiento: las lluvias del mes de agosto se habían embalsado en el gigantesco vaso al cerrarse las compuertas, y el agua, fuente de vida, se almacenaba en grata promesa, rielando en las serenas noches de luna y augurando progreso y bienestar.

En un ambiente tan halagüeño, casi nadie

prestaba oído a los lamentos de una moribunda: la ciudad que fue cuna de preclaros héroes insurgentes, misma que nació a mediados del siglo XVIII con el nombre de Revilla y floreció a finales del siglo XIX; cuna de hombres de bien y mujeres entusiastas y valientes; la Ciudad Guerrero con su temple de piedra de cantera y su palacio con la de torre de su gran reloj, frente al pedestal de la estatuas del indio de Guelatao, ejemplo de firmeza y lealtad a la República.

Octubre de 1953…Gran expectación y múltiples expectativas en todo el país. Se perdían los lamentos de una ciudad condenada a morir…

Pero como una compensación y obedenciendo la ley de la vida, en la penumbra había gemidos y convulsiones de parto: una ciudad estaba próxima a nacer.

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton está exhortando a sus partidarios a que voten anticipadamente en los estados disputados cruciales, al tiempo que Donald Trump intensifica sus ataques tras el anuncio de que el FBI vuelve a investigar los mensajes electrónicos de la candidata demócrata.

A medida que se reduce su ventaja en las encuestas nacionales durante la última semana de campaña, Clinton se apoya cada vez más en sus bases en los disputados estados cruciales, donde hay mayor diversidad demográfica.

Más allá de la Casa Blanca, los republicanos consideran que el asunto de los correos mejora sus oportunidades de ganar votos para decenas de candidatos que decidirán quién controla las cámaras del Congreso en Washington a partir del año próximo.

El presidente de la cámara baja, Paul Ryan, dijo a Fox News que la semana pasada votó por correo a favor de Trump y advirtió que tener una presidencia y un Congreso en poder de los demócratas sería “la peor de todas las cosas posibles”.

“Para los que vivimos la década de 1990, es una sensación del pasado que vuelve”, dijo. “Así es la vida con los Clinton.

Siempre un escándalo, seguido por una investigación”.

Con más de 23 millones de boletas emitidas en la votación anticipada, no está claro si Trump tiene tiempo o la capacidad organizativa para mejorar su situación en grado suficiente para llegar a la Casa Blanca.

Si bien la controversia más reciente en torno a los correos puede ayudar a Trump a ganar votos en estados donde la población es blanca y mayor, como Ohio y Iowa, el republicano tiene una tarea ardua para llegar a los 270 votos en el Colegio Electoral, la que incluye defender estados como Arizona y Utah que los republicanos ganan desde hace décadas.

Las dos campañas dijeron el martes que se encaminan a la victoria.

“Hacemos campaña como si estuviéramos en desventaja de 20 puntos”, dijo el jefe de campaña de Clinton, Robby Mook. a votar”.

Sports&Outdoors THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, November 2, 2016 |

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: DALLAS COWBOYS

A7

NBA: MIAMI HEAT

Garrett shows trust and confidence in Cowboys Dak leads Dallas to 6-1 start

By Charean Williams FO RT WORT H STAR-T E LE GRAM

FRISCO, Texas — Jason Garrett has left no doubt: He is all in with his team.

The Cowboys’ coach joined the postgame celebration Sunday night and took one on the chin. Or the cheek and forehead to be exact.

Garrett’s face met Jason Witten’s helmet after an over-exuberant Garrett celebrated the tight end’s 5-yard touchdown catch in overtime. Garrett had a small scratch on his forehead and a cut down his right cheek.

"We all kind of were excited after he scored that touchdown," Garrett said. "We all were running around out there. I gave him a big hug, and I forgot that he had a helmet on, and I didn’t. I caught my face on the side of his helmet."

Garrett’s trust and confidence in his team has grown with each victory, which is at six consecutive and counting.

In Sunday’s 29-23 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, Garrett called for a fake punt in the third quarter and a fourth-down attempt in overtime.

"Those are just situations we’re trying to help our team win the game," Garrett said. "We try to instill belief in our team in everything that we do each and every day.

"Any decision you make about faking a punt

Ronald Martinez / Getty Images

Dallas QB Dak Prescott converted a 4th-and-1 in OT and threw a game-winning score vs. the Eagles.

or trying an onside kick or going for it on fourthand-1, those are all meant to give our team the best chance to win. We certainly believe in our team; we believe those situations are going to work out for us. They’re well practiced; they’re well thought out before the game. When the circumstances arose, we thought those were the best things to do at those particular times, and they worked out. It’s one thing to make the call. The players are executing those things. They did a really nice job of taking the work in practice to the game and executing those in critical moments in the game."

Garrett insists he hasn’t changed. His team has.

His belief in his players to execute has allowed Garrett to attack.

The Cowboys are 5for-5 on fourth-down attempts this season, including two Sunday.

Dallas faced fourthand-8 from its own 27 when Garrett OK’d a fake punt call by special teams coach Rich Bisaccia.

Punter Chris Jones ran 30 yards to the Philadelphia 43, setting up a field goal that drew the Cowboys within a touchdown.

"I thought it was important when we were down 10, down two scores," Garrett said. "I think we had a three-

and-out, and they were getting some momentum.

They were moving the ball, and we hadn’t had a lot of success on a couple of drives offensively so we needed somehow, someway, as the game started to wind down to steal a possession. That was a really good opportunity.”

In overtime, the Cowboys faced fourth-and-1 from the Philadelphia 28.

A field goal would have handed the Cowboys the lead, but it would not have won the game.

Instead, Garrett called for a quarterback sneak and Dak Prescott got 2 yards. Five plays later, the Cowboys won with Prescott’s touchdown pass to Witten.

It isn’t the first time Garrett’s faith in his team has showed up this season. He tried an onside kick in Washington, and though it failed, the Cowboys won the game. He also went for it on fourthand-1 from the Washington 30, with Prescott finding Geoff Swaim for 28 yards to set up a firstquarter touchdown.

Garrett also has called for two Elliott rushes on fourth-and-1 attempts, with the running back picking up 5 yards against the Bears to set up a touchdown and 3 yards against the Packers to end the game.

"What you’re trying to do is give your team the best chance to win the ballgame, and typically, being aggressive, staying on the attack, those are the things that can help you win," Garrett said.

"You judge each situation as it comes, and you try to put your team in the best situation to win the ballgame."

Lynne Sladky / Associated Press file

Ray Allen announced his retirement from the NBA on Tuesday.

Allen, the top 3-point shooter in NBA history, retires

By Tim Reynolds ASSOCIATED PRE SS

MIAMI — Ray Allen won championships in Boston and Miami, made one of the most memorable shots in NBA Finals history and has more 3-pointers than anyone who ever played in the league.

Allen announced his retirement on Tuesday in a post on The Players’ Tribune website. Allen spent 18 seasons in the league with Milwaukee, Seattle, the Celtics and the Heat, averaging 18.9 points in 1,300 career regular-season games and appearing in 10 AllStar Games.

“I write this to you today as a 41-year-old man who is retiring from the game,” Allen said in his post, which was in the form of a letter to his younger self. “I write to you as a man who is completely at peace with himself.”

Allen, who played for UConn from 1993 to 1996, starred in the 1998 Spike Lee film “He Got Game,” portraying Jesus Shuttlesworth, a top-ranked basketball prospect, whose father is in prison for killing his wife.

On the court, teammates and coaches raved about Allen’s famed work ethic and commitment to fitness — which now takes a different form, after he and his wife, Shannon, recently opened an organic fast-casual restaurant in Miami.

Allen was almost always on the floor for a workout three hours before games, shooting on some occasions before the arena lights were even turned on.

Allen had the record for 3-pointers in a season for seven years, his mark of 269 standing until Stephen Curry of Golden State made 272 in 2012-13 — a record Curry has topped twice.

UFC 207 BANTAMWEIGHT TITLE : RONDA ROUSEY VS. AMANDA NUNES

ROUSEY: UFC 207 BANTAMWEIGHT TITLE SHOT WILL BE AMONG LAST FIGHTS Rousey may retire soon A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

BURBANK, Calif. — Ronda Rousey says her bantamweight title shot against Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 will be one of her final mixed martial arts bouts.

Rousey spoke about her fight Tuesday during an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show.

The 29-year-old Olympic judo medalist hasn’t fought since November 2015, when she lost her title to Holly Holm.

When asked how much longer she will continue fighting, Rousey replied: “Not that long.”

“I’m wrapping it up,” Rousey added. “This is definitely one of my last fights, so everyone better watch, because the show isn’t going to be around forever.”

Rousey (12-1) said she has been training twice a day since early August

Andy Brownbill / Associated Press file

Ronda Rousey, left, will return for the first time since losing to Holly Holm at UFC 193 when she faces Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 for the bantamweight title on Dec. 30.

for her comeback bout.

She will face Nunes (13-4) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Dec. 30.

Rousey became one of

the world’s most famous female athletes and a top pay-per-view draw during her meteoric MMA rise. She was the first

women’s bantamweight champion in UFC history, and she defended her belt six times before her stunning loss to Holm in Aus-

tralia.

The 135-pound title has changed hands twice since Rousey’s defeat.

Nunes won it with a first-

round stoppage of Miesha Tate at UFC 200 in July.

Rousey described the month-to-month rigors of training as the most difficult part of a fighting career.

“I think it’s more the buildup that’s more tiring than anything else,” Rousey said. “It’s the weeks and weeks of buildup beforehand, where you know you’re fighting this one person, and it’s like this showdown and the most important thing in your whole life, and then millions of people are watching. It’s that buildup for weeks on end. If (the fight) happened right now, I wouldn’t be nervous. It’s the waiting.”

Rousey has taken several acting jobs in the past few years. She also spoke about a comfortable personal life with her boyfriend, UFC heavyweight Travis Browne.

“He’s got me domesticated now, a little bit,” Rousey said.

Rousey even confirmed she is in a knitting club with actor Kat Dennings, dubbed The Yarn and the Restless.

A8 | Wednesday, November 2, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

NATIONAL

North Dakota officials borrow $4M, slam feds on protest cost

By James MacPherson and Blake Nicholson A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota leaders agreed Tuesday to borrow another $4 million to cover the escalating costs of policing protests at the Dakota Access pipeline and slammed the federal government for not chipping in part of the funding.

The state has now run up a $10 million line of credit for law enforcement costs after an emergency spending panel headed by Gov. Jack Dalrymple voted to borrow the additional funds from the stateowned Bank of North Dakota.

Dalrymple said officials have asked for contributions from the federal government, the pipeline company, an American Indian tribe, “and any entity we can think of.” So far, North Dakota and the local governments it backs have shouldered most of the law enforcement expenses — even paying for officers from other states that have assisted North Dakota during the protests.

More than 400 people have been arrested since August at the North Dakota portion of the pipeline, which also crosses through South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.

American Indians and others who oppose the construction of Dallasbased Energy Transfer Partners’ $3.8 billion pipeline have set up an encampment on U.S. Army Corp of Engineers land without a permit; federal officials have said they wouldn’t evict them due to free speech reasons. Opponents worry about potential effects on drinking water on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation and farther downstream on the Missouri River, as well as destruction of cultural artifacts, including burial sites.

House Majority Leader Al Carlson called the lack of federal support “very disturbing” but said the state “will always step up

Andrew Welsh-Huggins / AP

Dr. Kathy Wedig, a neonatologist at Cincinnati Children' Hospital, discusses the impact of the country's painkiller and heroin epidemic on children, on Tuesday, in Cincinnati.

Mike McCleary / The Bismarck Tribune/AP

An exodus of Dakota Access Pipeline protesters move south on Highway 1806 as a line of law enforcement slowly push the protest effort to an overflow camp a few miles down the road in Morton County, N.D., Oct. 27.

for safety.”

“I can’t tell you how disappointed I am at the lack of support from the Obama administration on an issue that’s clearly a federal issue,” Carlson said.

The U.S. Justice Department and the pipeline company did not immediately respond to email questions from The Associated Press about the state’s request for additional money. A call to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe was not immediately returned.

Energy Transfer Partners has not given the state any money for the protest response. However, Emergency Services spokeswoman Cecily Fong said the pipeline developer has provided a security helicopter that has aided law enforcement and has agreed to use it for medivac services if any officers or protesters sustain serious injuries.

Dalrymple issued an emergency declaration in August to cover law enforcement expenses related to protests. The state’s Emergency Commission borrowed $6 million from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota in September.

Maj. Gen. Alan Dohrmann, the leader of the state’s National Guard, said about $8 million has been spent to date on law enforcement and other costs related to the protests, centered in southcentral North Dakota.

Morton County said it has spent an additional $3

million in extra costs. The county may apply for reimbursement from the state.

The state of North Dakota also is using the emergency appropriations to pay the costs of law officers from other states that have helped with the protest response through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a national system for sharing personnel during a state of emergency.

The requesting state is obligated to reimburse responding agencies for reasonable expenses except workers compensation claims, according to the National Emergency Management Association.

State and local officers from South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Nebraska, Wyoming and Ohio have come to the aid of North Dakota.

North Dakota’s Department of Emergency Services isn’t releasing the number of officers, citing “operational security.”

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said recently that the out-ofstate officers as well as those brought in from around North Dakota are needed so that officers get needed breaks “so we can maintain a presence in that area.” The sharing of officers hasn’t been wellreceived in some states, including Minnesota, however. Hundreds of people gathered in the Twin Cities last week to call for the withdrawal of Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies.

Conference highlights drug abuse epidemic’s effects on children

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins ASSOCIATED PRE SS

CINCINNATI — The country’s addictions epidemic has created a generation of children affected by their parents’ problems, a doctor who works with infants born addicted to heroin told a gathering of experts struggling with the issue Tuesday.

The effect includes the physical problems of the addicted newborns and the chaos older children experience as a result of their parents’ addictions, said Dr. Kathy Wedig, a neonatologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

Such children “cannot have what we would consider is a normal childhood,” Wedig said.

Wedig says the epidemic is affecting society overall because of the cost of treating and helping such children.

Tuesday’s conference at Xavier University drew hundreds of doctors, nurses, social workers and addiction specialists.

Cases of children suffering from “toxic stress,” a condition caused by exposure to trauma or neglect, are both increasing and more severe because of the addictions epidemic, said Dr. Jennifer Bowden, a child psychiatrist in Cincinnati.

Toxic stress can inhibit physical, emotional, social and language development and put children at risk for health issues such as emphysema, diabetes and cardiac problems, she said.

The Public Children Services Association of Ohio says the number of children taken into custody has risen 19 percent over the past seven years.

The increase is largely due to parents’ painkiller and heroin addictions, according to the association.

The group says placing the children of addicts in protective custody is costing taxpayers $45 million a year.

Last year, the state saw a record 3,050 overdose deaths, a 20 percent increase, with many of those

attributed to painkillers and heroin abuse.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says opioid overdose deaths, including addictive painkillers and heroin, hit record levels in 2014, with a 14 percent increase in just one year.

In eastern Ohio, Cindy King-Anderson and her husband are raising their 5-year-old grandson following his father’s death from a heroin overdose last year. The boy was born addicted and needed six weeks of detox in the hospital.

The boy is autistic with anger issues and requires work with a speech therapist and other specialists.

King-Anderson says people need to understand that the problems faced by children like her grandson are ongoing long after their birth addiction is addressed.

“Our biggest challenge?

It’s basically being grandparents and trying to be a parent at the same time,” said King-Anderson, 53, of Columbiana.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, November 2, 2016 |

A9

BUSINESS

Newspaper deal falls apart October US sales fall as Gannett gives up on Tronc as auto boom slows A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

NEW YORK — USA Today publisher Gannett walked away Tuesday from its attempted takeover of Tronc, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other major dailies.

Gannett’s target was elusive from the beginning, with a publicly contentious back-and-forth between the two companies. Tronc, formerly known as Tribune Publishing, had rejected at least two bids from Gannett since April, saying it preferred to go it alone and focus on tech-driven initiatives involving artificial intelligence and global expansion in entertainment news and video.

Tronc’s stock lost more than 12 percent Tuesday.

After the stock market’s close, Tronc reported third-quarter results showing its revenue declined in both its traditional and digital businesses. But it kept its sales guidance for the year and raised a profit forecast.

Newspapers’ print ad revenues have been falling for years, and growth in digital ads and onlineonly subscriptions has not been enough to offset that.

Gannett has dealt with the decline by snapping up newspaper companies so it could sell more ads and then cutting jobs, and it wanted to combine with Tronc to add to its heft.

Gannett is now the largest newspaper company in the U.S. by paid circulation, according to Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a firm that helps newspapers with merger transactions; Tronc is No. 3. In addition to USA Today, Gannett owns the Detroit Free Press, the

By Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Richard Drew / AP file

In this Aug. 5, 2014 photo, specialist Michael Cacace works at the New York Stock Exchange.

Arizona Republic and dozens of other smaller newspapers across the country.

But the merger was not to be. Tronc said Tuesday that it reached an agreement on price in midSeptember, but it didn’t say how much. The last publicly rejected offer was for $864 million, including about $385 million in debt.

The Chicago company said, however, that Gannett was unable to pull together the money it needed to complete the deal. Gannett said that the terms of the deal were not acceptable.

Gannett Co., based in McLean, Virginia, had hinted at problems during its earnings call last week.

CEO Robert Dickey, after a bad quarter and layoffs , said the company had to make sure that “financing terms make sense” for the Tronc deal and that Gannett, with a long string of newspaper acquisitions under its belt, would not “add properties for the sake of adding properties.”

But Dickey said last week that the company was still interested in building its local-news footprint, suggesting that smaller deals might be

coming. This year, Gannett has already bought Journal Media Group, the publisher of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Knoxville News Sentinel and other papers, as well as the North Jersey Media Group, which publishes The Record and other papers in New Jersey.

Tronc Inc. says it will stick to its previous plan, focusing on technology and video initiatives born under Chairman Michael Ferro. Ferro, who had owned a stake in crosstown rival Chicago SunTimes, invested $44.4 million in Tronc and became its chairman in February. He brought on California entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong as an investor to help fend off Gannett.

In its most recent quarter, Tronc’s losses deepened to $10.5 million from $8.6 million, while revenue slid 6.8 percent to $378.2 million. Advertising revenue fell 11 percent. In its digital unit, dubbed “troncX,” ad revenues slipped 2.2 percent to $47.3 million. Print-ad revenue fell 13 percent, to $154.5 million; circulation revenue for the traditional business also dipped 1 percent, to $117.1 million.

DETROIT — It’s a chilly autumn for U.S. auto sales.

Sales of new cars and trucks fell an estimated 4 percent in October as consumer demand waned, according to Autodata Corp.

Hyundai and Subaru both reported 4-percent sales increases from last October. But General Motors’ sales fell 2 percent, Toyota’s sales were down 9 percent and Fiat Chrysler’s sales dropped 10 percent. Honda’s sales fell 4 percent and Nissan’s were down 2 percent.

Volkswagen’s sales fell 18.5 percent.

Ford Motor Co. said its sales figures would be delayed until later in the week due to an electrical fire at its headquarters that stopped dealers from reporting sales. Autodata estimated Ford’s sales fell 2 percent U.S. auto sales remain near their all-time highs, but after six years of growth following the Great Recession, they’re tapering off. October was the fifth month of yearover-year sales drops in 2016, a sign this year could fall short of last year’s U.S. record of 17.5 million sales.

“The fact that retail sales are beginning to contract despite high incentives and extremely low interest rates and gas prices is a clear indicator that this cycle has reached its peak,” said John Humphrey, senior vice president of J.D. Power’s global automotive practice.

Sales fell even though automakers increased

Ben Margot / AP file

In this Nov. 7, 2015 file photo, Chevrolet vehicles are for sale at a dealership in Fremont, Calif.

average discounts per vehicle by 12 percent to $3,726 per vehicle, according to J.D. Power. But the average sales price still was expected to set an October record at $31,383.

Prices are rising because more higher-priced trucks and SUVs are being sold.

Incentives can draw buyers in the short term, but they can be dangerous for the industry, since they lower profits and hurt vehicles’ resale values. Kelley Blue Book senior analyst Alec Gutierrez said incentives are currently growing faster than average prices; if that trend continues, or if prices stagnate but incentives keep growing, there could be trouble for manufacturers.

“We’re on the upper end of the spectrum in terms of where we would feel comfortable,” he said.

Gutierrez and others say they expect automakers to cut production in the coming weeks in order to keep vehicle supplies aligned with demand.

Ford already cut production at four North American plants in October, including those that make the Fusion sedan, Escape

SUV and F-150 pickup.

Automakers said: 1 General Motors Co. said its U.S. sales fell 1.7 percent to 259,000 last month. All brands but Buick reported declines.

Sales of its top-selling Chevrolet Silverado pickup fell nearly 4 percent but Chevrolet Tahoe SUV sales rose 81 percent while GMC Acadia SUV sales were up 24 percent. GM reported that it’s getting strong prices for its vehicles; its average sale price of $43,988 was a record for October.

1 Toyota Motor Corp.’s sales fell 8.7 percent to 186,295. Toyota brand sales were down 9 percent, while luxury Lexus sales fell 6 percent. Sales of the Tacoma small pickup rose 4 percent and Lexus SUV sales jumped 6 percent. But car sales tumbled. Sales of the Prius hybrid were down 46.5 percent despite a recent redesign.

1 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said its sales fell 10 percent to 176,609. Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge, Alfa and Fiat sales were down, but Ram sales were up 12 percent on strong sales of its commercial vans.

US factory activity picked up in October

By Paul Wiseman A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

WASHINGTON — Manufacturing expanded in the United States and China last month, good news for a sputtering global economy.

The Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday that its manufacturing index came in at 51.9, up from 51.5 in September.

Anything above 50 signals growth. Ten of 18 manufacturing industries reported growth last month.

Separately across the

Pacific, private and official surveys showed Tuesday that China’s factory activity rose in October to the highest level in two years, a sign the world’s secondbiggest economy may be stabilizing after years of decelerating growth.

The news “adds fuel to the narrative that global demand is finally heating up after a dismal showing in the first half of the year,” Fotios Raptis, senior economist at TD Economics, wrote in a research report.

For U.S. factories, production and export orders

grew faster in October. A measure of factory employment rose last month after falling for three straight months. The Labor Department issues its jobs report for October on Friday. The ISM suggests the report may show that factory employment climbed last month after falling in August and September.

U.S. factories have now expanded seven of the last eight months, a sign they’ve overcome the weight of a strong dollar that makes their products costlier in foreign mar-

kets.

“It’s a good start to the fourth quarter,” said Bradley Holcomb, chair of the institute’s manufacturing survey committee. The ISM is a trade group of purchasing managers.

Still, the Commerce Department reported last week that orders for bigticket manufactured goods dipped in September and that a category that tracks business investment registered the biggest drop in seven months.

Overall, the U.S. economy has picked up speed: The Commerce Depart-

ment reported last week that the economy grew at a 2.9 percent annual clip from July through September, fastest in two years. The economy slumped from the end of 2015 through mid-year on weak business investment. Companies have slashed investment in equipment for four straight quarters, partially because the energy industry has cut back in the face of low oil prices.

In China, the Caixin monthly purchasing managers’ index climbed to 51.2 in October from 50.1

the previous month.

The report showed that production grew at its fastest pace in more than five years as strong domestic demand more than offset a slight drop in new export orders.

A separate index compiled by the official Chinese Federation of Logistics & Purchasing found a similar pickup in output and new orders helped push the reading to 51.2 last month from 50.4 in September.

Both indexes are at their highest since July 2014.

A10 | Wednesday, November 2, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

FROM THE COVER

Texas official uses obscene word for Hillary Clinton on Twitter

By Will Weissert A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller apologized Tuesday after his official Twitter account briefly posted — then deleted — a tweet that used an obscenity to refer to Hillary Clinton.

The Republican is no stranger to past social media controversy. But a Miller spokesman is calling this posting inadvertent.

The account posted a purported presidential

ELECTION From page A1 Monday, she warned against giving Trump the authority to order a nuclear attack, bringing along a former nuclear launch officer to bolster her point.

“Imagine his advisers afraid to tell him what he doesn’t want to hear, racing against his legendarily short attention span to lay out life-and-death choices too complex to be reduced to a single tweet,” Clinton said Monday in Ohio.

“Then imagine him plunging us into a war because somebody got under his very thin skin.”

After spending much of the summer and fall tearing Trump down, Clinton had planned to close the campaign on a more positive note. She talked about giving Americans something to vote for, not just against. And with public opinion polls showing her with solid leads in most battleground states, she started talking about healing divisions and unifying the country after the election.

But her advisers say they saw polls tighten even before the FBI launched its new email review. The campaign now believes she needs to make a last push to define Trump as an unacceptable choice in order to seal the deal with persuadable voters.

On Tuesday, Clinton focused on Trump’s demeaning and predatory

poll from Pennsylvania showing Donald Trump with 44 percent, one percentage point better than Clinton’s 43. Rather than refer to the Democratic presidential nominee by name, though, the tweet used sexually explicit, derogatory term for women. It concluded, “Go Trump Go!” The tweet was deleted within 10 minutes. Miller campaign spokesman Todd Smith originally said the account had been hacked. But a series of tweets later explained: “The campaign was ret-

weeting information on Twitter today and inadvertently retweeted a tweet that they were not aware contained a derogatory term.”

“The tweet was taken down as soon as possible,” it continued. “Commissioner Miller finds the term vulgar and offensive and apologizes to anyone who may have seen it.”

Smith said by phone that “a member of our digital team used cut and paste and was not aware that it did not say ‘TrumpClinton.”’

An outspoken Trump

supporter, Miller’s Twitter bio describes himself as a “deplorable.” Clinton once derided Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.”

Trump in August named Miller to a list of agricultural advisers to his campaign.

Miller has caused social media stirs before. A later-deleted post from his campaign Facebook page in August 2015 appeared to endorse a nuclear bombing of “the Muslim world.” Then, in November, another Facebook post from Miller com-

comments about women, calling him a “bully.” This time she brought with her former Miss Universe Alicia Machado. Trump criticized Machado for gaining weight after winning the 1996 contest.

Trump’s campaign rhetoric has always been dark, full of searing depictions of a crumbling nation, and he has not been shy about going negative on Clinton. He routinely calls her “Crooked Hillary” and “the most corrupt person ever to run for the White House.”

But Trump, too, has stepped up his broadsides after the last weeks of October handed him a pair of potentially potent political gifts: the projected “Obamacare” premium rate hike and FBI Director James Comey’s letter revealing that agents are reviewing emails that may be connected to Clinton’s private server.

His campaign sees the latter in particular as an opportunity to reinforce questions about Clinton’s trustworthiness and remind voters that sending Clinton to the White House could lead to the return of the scandals that trailed Bill Clinton’s presidency in the 1990s.

“She would be under protracted criminal investigation and probably a criminal trial, I would say,” Trump said during a rally in Michigan on Monday. “So we’d have a criminal trial of a sitting president.”

Campaigning Tuesday in Pennsylvania, a state in

which Trump has directed an abundance of time and resources, he and his running mate Mike Pence delivered their most fullthroated takedown yet of President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Though barely mentioning Clinton’s name, the typically fiery Republican somberly warned that electing Clinton would “destroy American health care forever.”

Clinton’s and Trump’s closing campaign advertisements reiterate the race’s sharply negative tone.

Her campaign has several commercials out that directly question whether Trump would launch a nuclear attack. The ads feature clips of him saying he likes to be unpredictable and would “bomb the (expletive) out of them.”

She’s also doubled down on her argument that Trump’s offensive comments about women, as well as his boasts about touching women without their permission, disqualify him from the White House. A 60-second ad that features Trump in his own words over the years concludes: “Anyone who believes, anyone who says, anyone who does what he does, is unfit to be president.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s ads reinforce his message that the country risks doom if it doesn’t change directions by electing him.

“Hillary Clinton will keep us on the road to stagnation,” a narrator says in one of his latest ads.

CHILDREN From page A1 that need,” Stephanie Rubin, CEO of Texans Care for Children, said of the providers.

Versions of Texas’ Early Childhood Intervention program can be found in many other states, under different names, and are similar to what state officials here are trying to achieve: providing children up to 3 years old with a range of services to help with physical disabilities and developmental disorders such as autism and Down syndrome. Offering treatment early in life can allow children and their families to avoid a range of expensive services later while also minimizing special education costs.

Rubin said most states contribute a greater amount than the federal mix of money that goes toward early intervention efforts, but Texas is more dependent on the money coming from Washington.

The combined state

Tom Reel / San Antonio Express-News

Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller sits at his desk in his office on March 4, 2015.

pared Syrian refugees to rattlesnakes.

A former state legislator and champion rodeo calfroper, Miller was recently investigated by the Texas Department of Public Safety after The Houston Chronicle reported that he used taxpayer money to travel to Oklahoma last year to apparently receive a “Jesus shot,” or anti-

inflammatory injection meant to reduce chronic pain.

Miller reimbursed the state more than $1,000 but declined to say whether he got the injection. In September, prosecutors announced that he wouldn’t face charges, saying “criminal intent would be difficult to prove.”

and federal appropriation for the program in Texas in 2014 was about $155 million, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, and that amount slipped to approximately $142 million for the current fiscal year.

Carrie Williams, spokeswoman for Health and Human Services, said significant changes have occurred with eligibility requirements but says Texas when compared to other states is considered to have broader eligibility standards.

She acknowledged that some providers are stepping away from their contracts with the state but that other agencies are being recruited to replace them.

“We know this program is important to families, and we take that to heart,” Williams said. “We worked quickly to replace contractors and keep families updated, with the goal of minimizing breaks in service.”

Program enrollment has actually risen in

recent years, she said, just not back to prior levels.

The report notes that the Houston area and parts of North Texas, such as Collin and Denton counties, have been particularly hard-hit by stiff enrollment drops.

All demographic groups are affected, according to the report, but black children at a higher rate.

“The state is not keeping up with a growing population of young kids,” Rubin said. “Over the years they’ve put in added administrative challenges to providers and cut back on reimbursement rates.”

But Williams said state officials must contend with a limited pot of available funding and also “the need for a consistent, researchbased assessment for determining developmental delay” in children.

“Exiting contractors typically have both performance issues and financial issues that may be related,” Williams said.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, November 2, 2016 |

A11

FROM THE COVER RECOVERY From page A1 2014 when oil prices fell. They haven’t stopped. Smith said they always show up by the thousands when oil drops.

“We had a good run,” said Smith.

After a two-year bust, the early signs of recovery have appeared. Oil prices have bounced this year from a low of $26 per barrel in February to around $50 per barrel now.

The mantra of the U.S. industry for more than a year has been the rise of the Permian Basin, a sleeping giant in West Texas and eastern New Mexico, where shale drilling is in the early stages.

The corporate news is a strange brew: a billion-dollar quarterly loss from ConocoPhillips, the nation’s largest independent producer, and, on the other hand, ebullience. In the third quarter, PwC tracked 10 mergers and acquisitions in the Permian worth $5.9 billion.

Companies are paying boomtime prices for land, as much as $58,000 an acre in one deal.

And yet across Texas, evidence of the bust keeps showing up like boxes to the sample library.

More than 100,000 Texas oil workers have lost oil jobs since the bust, with just 800 new jobs added back in August, the first gain since December 2014.

Analysts and executives say the price of a barrel hasn’t stabilized enough to spur much more drilling, which is what would drive a wave of rehiring. Exxon Mobil Corp. reported its eighth-straight quarterly drop in profits Friday and told investors that up to 4.6 billion barrels of Canadian oil-sand and other reserves aren’t worth producing at today’s prices.

The CEO of oil field service giant Halliburton said for its customers to increase activity, oil must remain over $50, “which we haven’t seen in any meaningful way yet.” Competitor Baker Hughes believes the industry needs an oil price in the mid- to high $50s for a comeback. Research firm Wood Mackenzie expects the industry to approach new investing with caution. Oil at $50 would be neutral — an average price of $57 is needed to drive 5 percent production growth, it said.

Oil economist Karr Ingham said the Permian deals have created a perception that all is well in the oil patch.

“They’re playing the long game. They decided to be all in with the Permian and be there for a long time. It lends itself to this notion that it’s not quite catastrophic out there,” Ingham said. “The numbers tell the story.”

Ingham has tracked more than 13,000 Permian Basin oil workers layoffs since late 2014, and a 20 percent drop in retail sales and car sales in the Midland-Odessa area.

Hotel revenue has fallen across the Texas oil patch, too.

It was down 51 percent in the last two years in Midland County, the center of the West Texas oil world, and off 80 percent in Karnes County in South Texas, the heart of the Eagle Ford, according to yearto-date data from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.

Texas leaders in June asked state agencies to trim 4 percent from their budgets because of the oil downturn.

It’s worse in other states more heavily dependent on oil.

North Dakota lawmakers sliced 10 percent from their budget this year. Alaska’s governor cut in half the annual oil dividend that goes to residents.

Texas sales tax revenue, the largest source of funding for the state budget, fell to $2.1 billion in September, down 3.9 percent from the prior year.

Comptroller Glenn Hegar blamed sluggish oil and gas drilling.

Oil and natural gas production taxes, which are based on commodity prices, fell 6.2 percent from September 2015, to $215.9 million.

At the sample library, Smith pats the new boxes like they are dogs. When oil prices soar, the dirt boxes leave the private library. They get rented by companies that want to test a formation’s “total organic carbon” and look for oil in the industry’s favorite place: where it already found oil before.

When oil crashes, the boxes

Carolyn Van Houten / San Antonio Express-News

Holding thousands of dirt samples from oil wells, the International Sample Library is located in Midland, Texas on Aug. 10.

return. No one wants to pay to rent them, and in the scientific tradition of sharing research, companies donate the samples from their newest wells to the library, a repository for wells in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana and places as far flung as Australia.

“We’re hanging on,” Smith said. She cut her hours to three days a week and brings pens from home to save money. “What are you going to do?

Cry?” She smiled, because the answer was an obvious no.

After growing up in West Texas as the daughter of a geologist, Smith knew to prepare for slow times.

She wore a bright yellow shirt that read “Suck it up, Buttercup” and offered this advice for the ups and downs of the oil field: “Stop buying stuff, people.”

The scale tips The rise of the Permian has happened alongside the decline of the 400-mile Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas.

The shift happened like a scale tipping. All of the hype and corporate spending tilted from one field to another.

The number of drilling rigs working in South Texas dropped 85 percent in two years, to 33. The most dramatic fall in oil production in the U.S. shale industry is in South Texas, where 975,000 barrels will be pumped per day in November — 750,000 fewer than its peak in March 2015, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Not everyone has walked away from the region, though.

Earlier this year, when San Antonio’s Abraxas Petroleum Corp. suspended work in all of its fields, CEO Bob Watson admitted he was “kind of bored.” Oil was coming off of the $26 low and the industry had skidded to a halt. It was the first time in years that Watson didn’t have a rig working somewhere.

In late June, though, oil prices were rising and rigs were moving back into the field. Abraxas started completion work on six wells in North Dakota and started drilling a new well in Atascosa County near Jourdanton, about 40 miles south of San Antonio. It targeted the Austin Chalk, the geological formation that lies atop the more famous Eagle Ford, like stacked books.

“See the rig?” Watson asked, pointing to it as he drove to the site. It’s was hard not to see it, the rig being the only thing between the mesquite treeline and the clouds. It was a lonely piece of machinery that week, the only rig operating in Atascosa County. “There was time when you would drive and see them by the tens and twenties.”

In a trailer not far from the rig, Watson and contract drilling superintendent Gary Hernandez talked about the rig’s progress to 11,400 feet deep, the work in North Dakota and what had occupied Hernandez’ time.

“What have you been doing?” Watson asked Hernandez. “Running your bar?”

Hernandez laughed. His bar business was down two-thirds.

About 25 years ago he bought a place in Pleasanton, thinking it would be smart to invest in something that wasn’t oil. “It turns out, it runs in cycles just like oil does,” Hernandez said.

Watson and Hernandez were both hopeful the Austin Chalk well would bring more work to the area, though it was a bit of an experiment. The chalk has been a hit-and-miss

target of South Texas drillers since the 1970s, but no wells in the area around Jourdanton had used modern horizontal drilling and fracking techniques, in which water, chemicals and sand are pumped at high pressure to break open the rock and let the oil flow.

“We’ve got 200 locations here if this works,” Watson said. “That’s a lot of drilling.”

Abraxas was preparing to move a rig into its acreage in the Permian Basin, too, which has 75 of 153 rigs that have gone back to work since late May, according to a count by Baker Hughes.

Companies are tripping over each other in a land rush in the Permian.

Denver’s SM Energy paid $980 million, or nearly $40,000 an acre, to buy into the field last month. EOG Resources in September said it would buy Yates Petroleum for $2.5 billion in stock and cash, doubling its position in the Permian’s Delaware Basin. Denver’s QEP Resources in June paid $58,600 an acre to buy into Martin County.

Joey Hall has had a view of it all. He watched the boom and bust in the Eagle Ford as head of Pioneer Natural Resources’ Eagle Ford group until 2015. Now he’s the executive vice president for Pioneer’s Permian Basin holdings.

Pioneer has stopped drilling altogether in the Eagle Ford and is ramping up its drilling program from 12 to 17 rigs in the Permian. The company’s Eagle Ford acreage, located in an part of the field that produces a lot of the light oil condensate, is at a fundamental economic disadvantage to its West Texas land.

“The condensate can’t compete with a pure oil play like the Permian. It’s simple math,” Hall said. Though wells are more prolific in the Eagle Ford, condensate is less profitable.

Hall called the Permian a geologic layer cake with between seven and 13 different Eagle Fords stacked atop one another. “The complexity of Permian far exceeds any resource play in the U.S.,” Hall said.

Pioneer has around 150,000 acres in South Texas, and 800,000 acres in the Permian.

“You put your resources where near and long-term activity is,” Hall said. “The Permian is our bread and butter.”

The research firm Drillinginfo estimates Pioneer could make money at prices as dismal as $21.40 per barrel in some of its Permian acreage.

Other companies have decided to focus on the Permian, too.

George Wommack’s Petro Waste Environmental disposes of solid and water waste in the Eagle Ford and Permian Basin.

He chose to expand in the Permian this year, and it wasn’t much of a contest. “It’s a noticeable difference between South Texas and West Texas,” Wommack said. “In the Permian there’s more activity, more people in the gas stations, more people on the road. There’s more excitement about what’s going on.

While production is sliding in all other U.S. oil fields, Permian oil production is expect to grow next month to just over 2 million daily barrels, double its rate in 2011.

The crews In August, Randy Sealey drove to Odessa from Montana to attend an auction of oil field equipment. He was looking for mud pumps and a blowout

preventer, sidestepping mud puddles in an equipment yard in the cool morning air of the high desert.It wasn’t yet hot, though it would rise to 100 degrees in a few hours. A cat named Chigger prowled the site, too.

Kruse Energy & Equipment Auctioneers was selling everything, plus the equipment at 16 other yards in other places around the country. Not far away, several dozen idle drilling rigs belonging to Helmrich & Payne were parked with their derricks pointing up like exclamation marks. Oil bust!

Nothing stays clean in the oil field, but the morning sun threw a rosy glow over the big rigs and the Kruse yard, where everything had been washed and shone like the bright colors of a playground, blue, red, yellow, white, green.

Sealey said had been traveling to auctions all over the country — “I got to all of them,” he said — picking up equipment on the cheap. But even he has found the bust discouraging. “Everything is down. It’s just terrible. People went from making $35 an hour to nothing. There’s no work.”

At the auction in a hotel ballroom that day, Kruse sold a dizzying amount of pipe, pressure pumpers, sand blenders, blowout preventers, frac tanks, pickup trucks, big rigs. Some of it had never been used.

More than $12 million in frac equipment went for $2.5 million. “You’re buying them literally for pennies on the dollar,” the auctioneer said. “It’s too cheap.”

Most everyone wore jeans and straw cowboy hats, and Gary Bergman, general manager with Kruse, said the buyers included everyone from operators and service companies to scrap dealers. “Some of it will get recycled. It will never come back into the oil field,” Bergman said.

David Long, a Kruse cofounder, said the auction business stays busy — people are always buying and selling equipment — but it’s better when oil prices are high and the everything brings more money. “The nature of the business is up and down. Most people are used to it now,” Long said. “I don’t know about the newcomers who thought there would never be another poor day.”

The industry is trying to figure out whether workers will return to this on-again, off-again romance. A survey by research firm Evercore ISI found that more than half of a group of laid-off energy workers found jobs in other industries. Most said they wouldn’t return to the oil patch again.

“Can they take that chance?” asked Alex Beeker, analyst with Wood Mackenzie. “Will they say, I can’t put my family through that again?”

Enrollment in petroleum engineering programs declined during the bust, too.

This academic year, there are 10,441 petroleum engineering majors at 20 universities, down about 1,000 students from two years ago, according to a Texas Tech University professor who has been charting enrollment.

Floorhand Mike Carillo Jr. of Freer said he’s taking all the hour he can get. He filed for unemployment this summer, but was using it sparingly in case he needed to string the six months of benefits out over a longer period of time. “I used to not want to get up to go to work,” Carillo said. “Now I’m

awake and ready to go. I’m taking the hours they’re giving me and trying to make it work.

Bills don’t wait.”

His pay dropped from $16.40 an hour to $14.40 an hour. He may work 60 hours a month.

“There ain’t no other choice,” Carillo said.

Some workers left the oil patch when they could.

Jason Frederick, 27, said he worked in the oil field from the time he was 18 until he was 26.

When work started to slow last year, he walked around the rig one last time in a kind of farewell ritual.

“I said, ’Man, I am going to miss this.’”

He found steady work with the family that owns an RV park in Monahans in Ward County. “It’s not easy to get a job now,” Frederick said. “Normally you could get a job if you walk in the door. They slap a hardhat on your head and throw you a wrench.” Some former oilmen are flipping burgers at Sonic, he said.

Frederick has an infant daughter and when she was born, he took a swipe of oil from his body at the end of a long shift and brushed it across her forehead. Frederick told her, “That’s what keeps you alive.”

“I oil field baptized her.”

His wife has another girl on the way. “We’ve debated and debated and we still don’t know if I’ll go back,” Frederick said. “You’re missing birthdays, Christmases, all the holidays.”

In the office of the RV park in Monahans, employees collected money for the tamale lady and talked about the way things used to be, when they had a waiting list for their 157 spaces. Tents popped up. Desperate newcomers would sneak their RV into an empty slot in the middle of the night, only to be chased off in the morning.

Until last year, Andy Fuentes said he made $3,000 per day as a company man, the one in charge of a rig site or frac spread for the oil and gas operator who owns it.

“If you don’t know how to play the game, you’ll go broke,” Fuentes said. “People were making $80,000 to $90,000 easy, with no experience.”

There’s a feeling in West Texas, like water about to boil.

It’s nothing tangible that can be measured yet. It feels like the start of something.

“In this area, we know,” said co-worker Jessica Neves. “It’s picking back up slowly.”

Fuentes isn’t so sure. He thinks it won’t get much better for workers until the second half of 2017 — a view with which many experts agree. The U.S. EIA expects an average price of $50 per barrel next year for U.S. crude. Investment bank Goldman Sachs predicts oil at $53 per barrel. Neither would be enough to jump start much.

“Everyone’s real optimistic,” Fuentes said. “I know better.”

By late September, the well that Abraxas drilled into the Austin Chalk formation in Atascosa County was ready to be fracked. Watson, the Abraxas CEO, drove down in his tan ranch truck and passed vestiges of the oil boom — shuttered man camps, an empty business park, locked equipment yards.

It was the evidence of a yearslong frenzy that carried the Eagle Ford from the point of scant oil in 2008 to 1.7 million daily barrels in 2015, a high mark before production started falling.

“There’s no way we can replace the production that was created with that amount of activity,” Watson said. “Nobody actually foresees that kind of activity again.”

At the ranch, the drilling rig had been replaced by crews who would frack the well.

Trucks made a constant delivery of white sand for the well to swallow. Hoses snaked across the site in a complex twist. Engineers sat in a van in the center to coordinate everyone, watching pressure build on computer screens that interpreted what was happening thousands of feet below ground.

Watson held his hand against the truck glass. “If I were to push on this window with my hand with enough pressure, eventually it will break,” Watson said. “We do the same thing with the rock.”

It was the specialty of the oil industry — pushing to the point where everything shatters, and then past it.

A12 | Wednesday, November 2, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES