The Zapata Times 11/14/2015

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One last goodbye

Four run over, killed Bystanders dead after wild battle ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by César G. Rodriguez | The Zapata Times

As pallbearers carry the casket outside Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Webb County Sheriff’s Office deputies, Zapata County Sheriff’s Office deputies, Border Patrol agents, Zapata County constables and Texas game wardens salute Cesar Cuellar on Friday.

2,500 pay their respects to Deputy Cesar Cuellar Jr.

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

Zapata County laid to rest one of its own Friday morning.

More than 600 people visited Rose Garden Funeral Home to say their final goodbyes to Cesar Cuellar Jr., the Webb County Sheriff ’s Office’s deputy fatally shot by a Laredo police officer Monday.

Relatives estimated that between Thursday and Friday, about 2,500 people stopped by at the chapel to pay their respect.

Sobbing was inevitable.

“They took him away from me,” cried out Cuellar’s grandmother San Juana Arambula as she walked outside the funeral home.

“He was my little baby.”

Escorted by area law enforcement agencies, the funeral procession departed to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church for mass.

Father Agustin Escalante spoke words of comfort to the audience. He said Cuellar be-

longed to Christ because he was baptized when he was a child.

“Not even the hands of death can take us away from Jesus,” Escalante said. “For those who live in Jesus, life does not end here … We’re in pain. We’re crying during these difficult times, but Jesus is with us.”

Cuellar received full honors from the Webb County Sheriff ’s Office, where he had been working since October. However, his law enforcement career began with the Zapata County Sheriff ’s Office.

A few of his former colleagues were there.

“Growing up as a young man, he always looked up at the uniform, to law enforcement,” said his father Cesar Cuellar Sr. Cuellar had law enforcement going through his veins because he loved to serve and protect the community, his father said.

“Through his years growing up, he was an individual that

See CUELLAR PAGE 12A

Photo by César G. Rodriguez | The Zapata Times

A wreath and photo of Cesar Cuellar are displayed at the entrance to the chapel at Rose Garden Funeral Home in Zapata on Friday.

MEXICO CITY — A wild running gun battle between Mexican soldiers and gunmen in the border city of Reynosa resulted in the deaths of four bystanders after a military vehicle took a spray of gunfire and crashed into a taco stand.

The dead were apparently customers at the taco stand in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas. They included a 20year-old mother and her 4month-old baby.

Four other bystanders were wounded, as were an unspecified number of army personnel.

The government of the northern state of Tamaulipas said Thursday in a press statement that it regretted the deaths, and blamed the gunmen for the attack.

The army patrol was pursuing a five-vehicle convoy of armed suspects late Wednesday when a sport utility vehicle unexpectedly joined the confrontation.

Occupants of the SUV shot out the windshield of a military patrol truck and crashed into it. The force of the impact and the loss of visibility from the shotout windshield led the military vehicle to crash into the stand and two nearby vehicles.

Photos showed the metal stand with a tin roof was nearly collapsed by the force of the crash.

The gunmen in the SUV fled, but police found eight rifles in the vehicle.

Reynosa is dominated by factions of the Gulf drug cartel, which has been known for mounting large-scale, sophisticated attacks on law enforcement and military personnel.

SUPREME COURT

Texas abortion law scrutinized

By MARK SHERMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is taking on its first abortion case in eight years, a dispute over state regulation of abortion clinics.

The justices said Friday they will hear arguments over a Texas law that would leave about 10 abortion clinics open across the state. A decision should come by late June, four months before the presidential election.

The high court previously blocked parts of the Texas law. The court took no action on a separate appeal from Mississippi, where a

state law would close the only abortion clinic, in Jackson.

Arguments will take place in February or March.

States have enacted a wave of measures in recent years that have placed restrictions on when in a pregnancy abortions may be performed, imposed limits on abortions using drugs instead of surgery and raised standards for clinics and the doctors who work in them.

The new case concerns the last category. In Texas, the fight is over two provisions of the law that Gov. Rick Perry signed in 2013.

One requires abortion facilities to be constructed like surgical centers. The other

allows doctors to perform abortions at clinics only if they have admitting privileges at a local hospital.

Backers of the regulations say they are commonsense measures intended to protect women. Abortion rights groups say the regulations have only one aim: to make it harder, if not impossible, for women to get abortions in Texas.

“Texans should have full freedom to prioritize women’s health and safety over the bottom line of abortionists,” said Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Steven H. Aden.

But Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, dis-

agreed about the purpose of the law. “This law does not advance women’s health and in fact undermines it,” Northup said.

Texas had 41 abortion clinics before the clinic law.

More than half of those closed when the admitting privileges requirement was allowed to take effect. Nineteen clinics remain.

Northup said the effect of the law has been to increase wait times for women in the Dallas area from an average of five days to 20 days.

The focus of the dispute at the Supreme Court is whether the law imposes what the court has called an

See LAW PAGE 12A

Photo by Zach Gibson | New York Times

The Supreme Court building is shown in Washington, Nov. 6. The Supreme Court will take up a new case regarding abortion.

PAGE 2A

Zin brief CALENDAR

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015

AROUND TEXAS

TODAY IN HISTORY

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Trail Clean-Up and Open House.

LCC’s Lamar Bruni Vergara Environmental Science Center will host their trail day clean up from 8 a.m.–12 p.m. at the Paso del Indio Nature Trail. The center will be open from 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Admission is $4 for adults and $2 for students and senior citizens.

Entrance is free for children 3 and under, and LCC and TAMIU students, faculty and staff with a valid ID. TEDxLaredo from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at TAMIU’s Center for the Fine and Performing Arts Recital Hall. For more information, please contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services, at 326-2180, email prmis@tamiu.edu or visit offices located in the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library, room 268.

The American Cancer Society invites the community to its 2nd annual Bark for Life of Webb County event. It will take place at North Central Park from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Come honor canines who are cancer survivors or who serve as caregivers for cancer patients. Dogs can participate in games and contests, which includes a costume contest. The theme is Bark for Life Around the World: It’s A World Full of Hope. Registration fee is $15 per dog. For more info, contact Laura Nanez at 956-286-6955 or Diana Juarez at 956-319-3100 or register at Bark for Life of Webb County.

TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows, 5201 University Blvd. 2 p.m.: The Little Star that Could; 3 p.m.: Saturn: Jewel of the Heavens; 4 p.m.: Back to the Moon; 5 p.m.: Pink Floyd’s The Wall. General Admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU students, faculty and staff. 2 p.m. show is $1 less.

For more information call 956-326DOME (3663).

Parish Rummage Sale from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at Blessed Sacrament Church Parish Hall on Bartlett and Galveston Streets. Clothes, shoes, furniture, bedding and jewelry. All items $1 except luxury items. For more information, call Rebecca Sepulveda at rsepulveda@dioceseoflaredo.org or 956-7272140.

Garage sale at Holy Redeemer Church, 1602 Garcia St. from 7 a.m.-1 p.m. For more information, call Amparo Ugarte at 286-0862.

Today is Saturday, Nov. 14, the 318th day of 2015. There are 47 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History: On Nov. 14, 1965, the U.S. Army’s first major military operation of the Vietnam War began with the start of the five-day Battle of Ia Drang.

(The fighting between American troops and North Vietnamese forces ended on Nov. 18 with both sides claiming victory.)

On this date: In 1851, Herman Melville’s novel “Moby-Dick; Or, The Whale” was first published in the United States.

In 1889, inspired by the Jules Verne novel “Around the World in Eighty Days,” New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) set out to make the trip in less time than the fictional Phileas Fogg. (She completed the journey in 72 days.)

In 1915, African-American educator Booker T. Washington, 59, died in Tuskegee, Alabama.

In 1925, the first group exhibition of surrealistic paintings opened at the Galerie Pierre in Paris.

In 1940, during World War II, German planes destroyed most of the English town of Coventry.

In 1944, Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra recorded “Opus No. 1” for RCA Victor.

In 1969, Apollo 12 blasted off for the moon.

In 1970, a chartered Southern Airways DC-9 crashed while trying to land in West Virginia, killing all 75 people on board, including the Marshall University football team and its coaching staff.

In 1990, it was revealed that pop duo Milli Vanilli (Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan) had done none of the singing on their Grammy-winning debut album “Girl You Know It’s True.”

Ten years ago: Two separate suicide attackers rammed car bombs into vehicles belonging to NATO-led peacekeepers in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing a German soldier and an Afghan child.

Five years ago: A 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting in Yokohama, Japan, concluded with a unanimous pledge by members to avoid raising more trade barriers and to roll back those they may have erected in the midst of crisis.

One year ago: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced the Pentagon would spend an additional $10 billion to correct deep problems of neglect and mismanagement within the nation’s nuclear forces.

Today’s Birthdays: Former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali is 93.

Actress Kathleen Hughes is 87.

Former MLB All-Star Jimmy Piersall is 86. Former NASA astronaut Fred Haise is 82.

Writer P.J. O’Rourke is 68. Zydeco singer-musician Buckwheat Zydeco is 68. Britain’s Prince Charles is 67. Pianist Yanni is 61. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is 61. Rapper Reverend Run (Run-DMC) is 51. Rock singer Butch Walker is 46. Actor Josh Duhamel is 43. Rock musician Travis Barker is 40. Actress/ comedian Vanessa Bayer (TV: “Saturday Night Live”) is 34.

Thought for Today: “The world cares very little what you or I know, but it does care a great deal about what you or I do.” — Booker T. Washington (1856-1915).

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16 Chess Club meets at the LBV–Inner City Branch Library from 4–6 p.m.

Free for all ages and skill levels. Basic instruction is offered. Call John at 7952400x2521 for more information.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17 Take the challenge and climb the Rock Wall. Free. All participants must bring ID and sign release form. 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at LBV–Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Call 7952400, x2520.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18 International Bank of Commerce Keynote Speaker Series presentation featuring Dr. Tony Payan, director of the Baker Institute’s Mexico Center at Rice University. “Trade, Politics and Culture: Resetting the Texas-Mexico Relationship for the 21st Century” will be at TAMIU Student Center Ballroom, 5201 University Blvd. from 7-8:30 p.m.

This event is free and open to the public.

Photo courtesy of Waller County Sheriff’s Department | AP file

In this undated file image taken from video, Sandra Bland stands in front of a desk at Waller County Jail in Hempstead, Texas. Waller County, which is being sued by the family of Bland who died in the county jail in the summer of 2014, says she committed suicide because she was despondent over her relatives’ refusal to quickly bail her out.

Bland was ‘despondent’

By MICHAEL GRACZYK ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON — Sandra Bland, the black woman found dead in a Texas county jail this summer, killed herself because she was despondent over her relatives’ refusal to quickly bail her out, attorneys for Waller County argue in a federal court motion to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit.

An attorney for Bland’s family responded on Friday that blaming relatives for her death was “completely unnecessary and inaccurate.”

“That’s a gratuitous insult, pouring salt into the wound of an already devastated family,” said Larry Rogers Jr., a lawyer for Geneva Reed-Veal, Bland’s mother.

Bland, 28, from the Chicago area, was pulled over July 10 by a white Texas state trooper for making an improper lane change.

When the traffic stop became a confrontation, she was arrested for assault and jailed in Waller County. Unable to meet the roughly $500 bond requirement, she was found dead in jail three days later.

“Ultimately, Bland’s decision to commit suicide was hers alone, after she denied any suicidal intentions to jail personnel, and after her friends and family refused to bail her out of jail,” Larry Simmons, the attorney for the Southeast Texas county and two of its jailers, said in a court petition. The county and jailers were sued by the Bland family.

Rogers said the family didn’t ignore her pleas for help. He said they were trying to figure out how to “get her out of jail in a situation where it’s happening over a weekend, they’re not familiar with the procedures and processes, they’re over a thousand miles away.”

TCU opts out of Texas’ campus carry law

Prison van overturns in Lubbock traffic accident

2 school board members indicted for corruption

FORT WORTH — Texas Christian University has opted out of the state’s new law allowing concealed weapons on college campuses — believed to be the first major private college to do so.

The Board of Trustees voted Friday to reject the law, which was approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature but which private universities can forgo.

LUBBOCK — Police say nine people have been hurt when a Texas prison van hauling inmates overturned during a traffic accident in Lubbock.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says the van and another vehicle collided Friday morning. The van, carrying two guards and nine prisoners, ended up on its roof.

McALLEN — Two South Texas school board members and another man have been indicted in a public corruption case linked to educational services.

The suspects, who surrendered Friday, allegedly attempted to extort bribes from another person whose company provided services to the Donna Independent School District.

Lawmaker asks for AG ruling on fantasy sites

Deer crashes into car, ends up in back seat

Corpse found in car in sheriff’s storage lot

AUSTIN — A Texas lawmaker is asking the state attorney general to determine if daily fantasy sports betting websites are illegal gambling operations in the Lone Star State.

The request from Republican Rep. Myra Crownover was filed Thursday. Her letter to Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton notes that Texas law has “generally criminalized gambling.”

PLANO — A Texas driver had an unexpected passenger when a deer trying to dash across a Dallas-area toll road crashed into his car and ended up in the back seat. Christopher Coleman of Frisco says he noticed the deer on the side of the road, briefly “admired it” and then he heard a bang as the windshield broke and the animal entered his car.

The deer ended up wedged behind the driver’s seat.

HOUSTON — Investigators say a body has been found in the trunk of a car several days after the vehicle arrived at a Harris County Sheriff ’s Office storage lot. A coroner determined 25year-old Vittorio Gavin of Galveston was shot several times.

Authorities say the car, discovered abandoned near a toll road, was connected to a Nov. 5 crime scene.

— Compiled from AP reports

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19 Spanish Book Club meets from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Laredo Public Library, 1120 E. Calton Road. Call Sylvia Reash at 763-1810 for more details.

Bowlers sought for UISD’s Annual Bowl-A-Thon, 6-9 p.m. at Jett Bowl North, 5823 McPherson Road. Teams are comprised of five members and there is a $25 fee for each player. Proceeds will benefit the district’s Partners for Scholars program, which provides college scholarships for high school students. Register with Rosie Cruz in the Communications Office, 201 Lindenwood Drive, or call 473-6331.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20 TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows, 5201 University Blvd. 6 p.m.: Earth, Moon and Sun; 7 p.m.: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.

General Admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU students, faculty and staff. For more information call 956-326-DOME.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21 Cesar Chavez Memorial Alliance of South Texas and Laredo Chess Club are hosting a chess tournament.

AROUND THE NATION Nun who stood up to Billy the Kid may be canonized ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An Italian-born nun who challenged Billy the Kid, calmed angry mobs and helped open hospitals and schools in New Mexico territory took a step Friday toward possible sainthood with documents about her purported good deeds being sent to Rome.

In a public Albuquerque ceremony, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe formally closed its inquiry on why Sister Blandina Segale should become a saint and sealed its findings. Church Investigators presented piles of documents they say corroborate the stories about the nun’s legendary clashes with Old West outlaws.

Pastafarian gets to wear strainer in ID photo BOSTON — A Massachusetts agency is letting a woman who belongs to the Church of the Fly-

CONTACT US Publisher, William B. Green........................728-2501 Account Executive, Dora Martinez ...... (956) 765-5113 General Manager, Adriana Devally ...............728-2510 Adv. Billing Inquiries ................................. 728-2531 Circulation Director ................................. 728-2559 MIS Director, Michael Castillo.................... 728-2505 Copy Editor, Nick Georgiou ....................... 728-2565 Sports Editor, Zach Davis ..........................728-2578 Spanish Editor, Melva Lavin-Castillo............ 728-2569 Photo by Russell Contreras | AP file

In this Aug. 25 file photo, pamphlets and prayer cards of Sister Blandina Segale sit on a table at the Catholic Center in Albuquerque, N.M. Segale was an Italianborn nun who challenged Billy the Kid. ing Spaghetti Monster wear a colander on her head in her driver’s license photo after she cited her religious beliefs.

Lowell resident Lindsay Miller said Friday that she “absolutely loves the history and the story” of Pastafarians, whose website

says has existed in secrecy for hundreds of years and entered the mainstream in 2005.

Miller says wearing the spaghetti strainer allows her to express her beliefs, like other religions are allowed to do.

— Compiled from AP reports

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

The Zapata Times is free.

The Zapata Times is published by the Laredo Morning Times, a division of The Hearst Corporation, P.O. Box 2129, Laredo, Texas 78044. Phone (956) 728-2500.

The Zapata office is at 1309 N. U.S. Hwy. 83 at 14th Avenue, Suite 2, Zapata, TX 78076. Call (956) 765-5113 or e-mail thezapatatimes.net

Local & State

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

Poetry reading set in Zapata SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Photo by Mark Lennihan | AP file

In this Feb. 19 file photo, shoppers visit a J.C. Penney store in New York. The Texas-based retailer reported financial results, Friday.

JC Penney sales rose 6.4 percent ASSOCIATED PRESS

PLANO, Texas — J.C. Penney said Friday that its sales rose 6.4 percent at established locations in the third quarter and expressed confidence about the upcoming holiday shopping season.

The company left its previous full-year sales forecast intact, but its shares fell almost 9 percent in morning trading Friday.

That may reflect the disappointing results earlier this week from Macy’s and Nordstrom, which raised concerns about the holiday shopping season — a critical time when retailers get a big chunk of their annual sales. Macy’s said it expects sales for the holiday season to be down from a year ago, citing its need for markdowns to get rid of merchandise by the end of the year.

J.C. Penney, meanwhile, said its gross margin improved during the quarter, driven by supply chain productivity and improvements in margins for its sale items. The company is still losing money, but is hoping to change that by cutting costs and continuing to push up sales.

A big part of the strategy is focusing more on J.C. Penney’s private brands, which tend to cost the company less to carry on shelves than national name brands. J.C. Penney says private brands, which ac-

count for 51 percent of sales, represent a big opportunity for improving margins.

“When you survey our customers, they believe that they are national brands,” said CEO Marvin Ellison, who joined the company a year ago.

Ellison also noted the company is increasingly using Sephora makeup locations within its stores to attract younger customers, and get them to visit more frequently and spend more per visit.

For the full year, J.C. Penney expects sales to be up between 4 to 5 percent at established locations from the previous year.

But the company, based in Plano, Texas, is still trying to regain its footing and nevertheless reported a loss for the period.

For the quarter ended Oct. 31, the company said its loss narrowed to $137 million, or 45 cents per share. Losses, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to 47 cents per share.

Analysts had forecast a steeper loss of 58 cents per share, according to Zacks Investment Research.

Revenue rose to $2.9 billion, also exceeding Street forecasts of revenue of $2.86 billion. Shares of J.C. Penney Co. dropped 78 cents, or 8.9 percent, to $8.01 in morning trading Friday.

Penney shares have risen 36 percent since the beginning of the year.

The public is invited to a book signing, Q&A and reading for Ma. Alma González Pérez’s book of original Spanish poetry, “Cantos del alma y del corazón: Poesía original.”

The event will be held Sunday, Nov. 22, 2015 at 3

p.m. at Rev. Peter J. McNamara Parish Center, located on Intocable Boulevard and 16th Avenue in Zapata. ‘“Cantos del alma y del corazón: Poesía original’ expresses feelings and emotions derived from the experience of everyday life,” reads a press

release. “This collection of 50 poems provides the reader with a sensitive perspective of love, family, and culture among other topics.”

Each poem is complemented by a photograph depicting scenic areas of Zapata County.

“Cantos del alma y del

corazón: Poesía original” includes seven sections, 51 pictures and a total of 104 pages.

Books will be available to purchase at the book signing as well as through the websites delalmapublications.com and amazon.com.

Photo by Susan Walsh | AP file

In this Oct. 23, 2013 file photo, Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Veteran Democratic Rep. Hinojosa has decided not to seek re-election next year, party officials said Friday, calling an end to a 20-year career.

Hinojosa will retire in ‘17

By ALAN FRAM ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Veteran Democratic Rep. Ruben Hinojosa announced Friday that he will not seek re-election next year, calling an end to a 20-year career for a lawmaker who has represented a South Texas district with one of the heaviest concentrations of Hispanics in the country.

Hinojosa, 75, will serve out his 10th term in Congress, which ends in Janu-

ary 2017. He was first elected in 1996.

“I’m announcing officially that I am not going to seek re-election. But I will not just go to a wheelchair or go to a walking chair. I’m going to stay busy,” Hinojosa said at a news conference in McAllen, Texas.

Hinojosa said he will look at opportunities that are available after he completes his final term. He did not elaborate.

His Democratic-leaning Texas district, which

snakes from south of San Antonio to the Mexican border, is about 80 percent Hispanic, according to a study last year by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

Hinojosa served as chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which represents Latino lawmakers, in 2013 and 2014.

He has pushed legislation increasing federal aid for Hispanic students and easing the path to citizenship for immigrants in

the U.S. illegally.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Hinojosa’s retirement means Congress will be losing “one of our most dedicated champions for advancing the education and opportunity for all Americans.”

“For almost 20 years, Congressman Hinojosa’s towering leadership has driven progress for aspiring students, rural families and Latino communities across America,” she said in a statement.

PAGE 4A

Zopinion

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO EDITORIAL@LMTONLINE.COM

COMMENTARY

OTHER VIEWS

Is Donald Trump losing it?

By JENNIFER RUBIN THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has now taken to calling Ben Carson "pathological," based on the latter’s account of his temper as a youth. He then jumped the shark, comparing him to a "child molester." No, really, he did: "I said that if you’re a child molester, a sick puppy, a child molester, there’s no cure for that — there’s only one cure and we don’t want to talk about that cure, that’s the ultimate cure," Trump told an Iowa audience. "No there’s two, there’s death and the other thing. But if you’re a child molester, there’s no cure, they can’t stop you. Pathological, there’s no cure."

We do have a candidate with a serious problem, but in this regard (as opposed to policy awareness), Carson is not the one to worry about.

We thought it might take longer, but Trump now is accusing Iowa voters of being, in essence, losers. Citing Carson’s account of his knife attack as a teen, Trump bellowed: "How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?"

Hmm. It’s a unique way to corral voters.

I’m not in favor of armchair psychology or labeling unacceptable, even abominable, political rhetoric as the result of a psychiatric malady. Judge for yourself and label what you will Trump’s performance Thursday in Iowa.

The Washington Post report paints a vivid picture: "The usually punctual executive was nearly 40 minutes late. His voice was hoarse, his hair mussed, his tone defensive. He promised to take questions from the audience but instead launched into a 95minute-long rant that at times sounded like the monologue of a man grappling with why he is running for president — and if it’s really worth it or not.

Even for a candidate full of

surprises, the speech was surprising.

"He scoffed at those who have accused him of not understanding foreign policy, saying he knows more about Islamic State terrorists "than the generals do."

He took credit for predicting the threat of Osama bin Laden and being right on the "anchor baby situation," a position he says "these great geniuses from Harvard Law School" now back.

"Trump called Republican rival Carly Fiorina "Carly whatever-the-hellher-name-is," accused Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton of playing the "woman’s card" and said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is "weak like a baby." He then devoted more than 10 minutes angrily attacking his chief rival, Ben Carson, saying the retired doctor has a "pathological disease" with no cure, similar to being a child molester."

This was not the usual Trump shtick. ("Trump appeared to unravel on stage Thursday evening before a crowd of roughly 1,500 in Fort Dodge, a small industrial town 100 miles northwest of Des Moines.") This was not so much a speech as a primal scream session. ("As the speech dragged on, the applause came less often and grew softer. As Trump attacked Carson using deeply personal language, the audience grew quiet, a few shaking their heads. A man sitting in the back of the auditorium loudly gasped.")

This seems less stagemanaged bombast and more unhinged flailing about. Perhaps it is not so much fun when, as the debate audience did on Tuesday, the audience starts hissing and booing. Having to put up with all these "stupid" people and "losers" must be trying. It takes its toll, I suppose, on Trump, but also on the audience. We will see whether it is possible that even Trump supporters may become uncomfortable with these displays.

COLUMN

John Kasich had the worst week in DC

By CHRIS CILLIZZA THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — John Kasich came into the fourth Republican presidential debate, in Milwaukee on Tuesday night, with a very clear mission: Don’t get left behind.

The Ohio governor’s strategy to achieve that?

Interrupt. A lot.

"Excuse me," he said. "I would like to make a comment," he added. "Can we comment on that?" he asked. "Look, I hate to crash the party," he said.

It got so bad that at one point, Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo had to shush Kasich. "We have more questions for you, Governor Kasich, coming up," she said. "We have more questions for you, Governor Kasich." In short, please be quiet.

Kasich’s butting-in did ensure that he talked the second-most of the eight candidates on stage. But that didn’t win him many fans.

He got into an extended back-and-forth with Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) on whether Wall Street banks should be allowed to fail. Backed into a corner by Cruz for his refusal to say where he stood on the issue, Kasich responded: "I would figure out how to separate those people who can afford it versus those people, or the hard-working folks who put those money in those institutions …"

At that point, he was interrupted by spontaneous booing from the crowd — to which he responded: "Let me say another thing."

Um, no. The reviews for Kasich were scathingly, and unsurprisingly, bad. "My NH focus group is offended by Kasich’s interruptions," GOP pollster Frank Luntz tweeted.

"Really offended."

John Kasich, for trying to stand out but coming off as just plain standoffish, you had the worst week in Washington. Congrats, or something.

COLUMN

Mizzou, Yale and free speech On university campuses across the country, from Mizzou to Yale, we have two noble forces colliding with explosive force.

One is a concern for minority or marginalized students and faculty members, who are often left feeling as outsiders in ways that damage everyone’s education. At the University of Missouri, a black professor, Cynthia Frisby, wrote, “I have been called the N-word too many times to count.”

The problem is not just racists who use epithets but also administrators who seem to acquiesce. That’s why Mizzou students — especially football players — used their clout to oust the university system’s president. They showed leadership in trying to rectify a failure of leadership.

But moral voices can also become sanctimonious bullies.

“Go, go, go,” some Mizzou protesters yelled as they jostled a student photographer, Tim Tai, who was trying to document the protests unfolding in a public space. And Melissa Click, an assistant professor who joined the protests, is heard on a video calling for “muscle” to oust another student journalist (she later apologized).

Tai represented the other noble force in these upheavals — free expression. He tried to make the point, telling the crowd: “The First Amendment protects your right to be here — and mine.”

We like to caricature

“

NICHOLAS KRISTOF

great moral debates as right confronting wrong. But often, to some degree, it’s right colliding with right.

Yes, universities should work harder to be inclusive.

And, yes, campuses must assure free expression, which means protecting dissonant and unwelcome voices that sometimes leave other people feeling aggrieved or wounded. On both counts we fall far short.

We’ve also seen Wesleyan students cut funding for the student newspaper after it ran an op-ed criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement. At Mount Holyoke, students canceled a production of “The Vagina Monologues” because they felt it excluded transgender women. Protests led to the withdrawal of Condoleezza Rice as commencement speaker at Rutgers and Christine Lagarde at Smith.

This is sensitivity but also intolerance, and it is disproportionately an instinct on the left.

I’m a pro-choice liberal who has been invited to infect evangelical Christian universities with progressive thoughts, and to address Catholic universities where I’ve praised condoms and birth control programs.

I’m sure I discomfited many students on these conservative campuses, but it’s a tribute to them that they

were willing to be challenged. In the same spirit, liberal universities should seek out pro-life social conservatives to speak.

More broadly, academia — especially the social sciences — undermines itself by a tilt to the left. We should cherish all kinds of diversity, including the presence of conservatives to infuriate us liberals and make us uncomfortable. Education is about stretching muscles, and that’s painful in the gym and in the lecture hall.

One of the wrenching upheavals lately has unfolded at Yale. Longtime frustrations among minority students boiled over after administrators seemed to them insufficiently concerned about offensive costumes for Halloween. A widely circulated video showed a furious student shouting down one administrator, professor Nicholas Christakis. “Be quiet!” she screams at him. “It is not about creating an intellectual space!”

A student wrote an op-ed about “the very real hurt” that minority students feel, adding: “I don’t want to debate. I want to talk about my pain.” That prompted savage commentary online.

“Is Yale letting in 8-yearolds?” one person asked on Twitter.

The Wall Street Journal editorial page denounced “Yale’s Little Robespierres.”

It followed up Wednesday with another editorial, warning that the PC mindset “threatens to undermine

or destroy universities as a place of learning.”

I suggest we all take a deep breath.

The protesters at Mizzou and Yale and elsewhere make a legitimate point: Universities should work harder to make all students feel they are safe and belong. Members of minorities — whether black or transgender or evangelical conservatives — should be able to feel a part of campus, not feel mocked in their own community.

The problems at Mizzou were underscored on Tuesday when there were death threats against black students. What’s unfolding at universities is not just about free expression but also about a safe and nurturing environment.

Consider an office where bosses shrug as some men hang nude centerfolds and leeringly speculate about the sexual proclivities of female colleagues.

Free speech issue? No! That’s a hostile work environment.

And imagine if you’re an 18year-old for whom this is your 24/7 home — named, say, for a 19th-century proslavery white supremacist.

My favorite philosopher, the late Sir Isaiah Berlin, argued that there was a deep human yearning to find the One Great Truth.

In fact, he said, that’s a dead end: Our fate is to struggle with a “plurality of values,” with competing truths, with trying to reconcile what may well be irreconcilable.

That’s unsatisfying. It’s complicated. It’s also life.

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DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

PÁGINA 6A

Zfrontera

SÁBADO 14 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2015

CASO CÉSAR CUELLAR JR.

Ribereña en Breve

Último adiós

EL CENIZO El Juez Ramiro Veliz Jr. tomó protesta como Juez de la Corte Municipal de El Cenizo. Veliz Jr. es el Juez de Paz del Precinto 2, Lugar 1. La designación se hizo por unanimidad de los integrantes del Cabildo de la Ciudad de El Cenizo el jueves 12 de noviembre durante su junta regular, debido a que el Juez Jaime A. Montes presentó su renuncia al cargo el 21 de octubre. Montes había sido Juez de la Corte Municipal de El Cenizo desde su designación en mayo del 2013. Veliz Jr. es el 6º Juez de la Corte Municipal en asumir el puesto desde que la posición fuera creada en 2005.

NOCHE DE CASINO El Club de Leones de Zapata invita al evento Casino Night Fundraiser que se realizará el día de hoy, de 7 p.m. a 10 p.m. en el Holiday Inn Express de Zapata. Todos los juegos serán al estilo de casino (no dinero). El boleto es de 30 dólares por persona, y puede adquirirlos en Zapata Chamber of Commerce. Las ganancias beneficiarán la 4ª Entrega Anual de Pavos en Navidad por parte del Club de Leones de Zapata.

DESFILE POR NAVIDAD La Cámara de Comercio del Condado del Condado de Zapata invita al Desfile de Navidad y Encendido de la Plaza del Condado, el jueves 3 de diciembre. Se invita a que se registren para participar en el evento llamando para detalles al (956) 765-5434.

El día del desfile la alineación iniciará a las 5 p.m. en Glenn St. y 17th Ave. . El desfile dará inicio a las 6 p.m. y proseguirá por 17th Ave. hacia el Sur sobre US Hwy 83 tomando a la izquierda sobre 6th Ave. para concluirlo. Posteriormente será el encendido anual del árbol de Navidad en la Plaza del Condado, seguido de entrega de regalos por Santa.

Foto por César G. Rodríguez | Laredo Morning Times

Familia, amigos y elementos del orden despidieron al agente César Cuellar Jr., quien murió después de que una oficial del departamento de policía de Laredo le disparara.

Más de 600 personas acudieron al funeral de ex oficial POR CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ TIEMPO DE LAREDO

El viernes por la mañana, el Condado de Zapata enterró a uno de los suyos.

Más de 600 personas acudieron a Rose Garden Funeral Home para despedir a César Cuellar Jr., el agente del Alguacil del Condado de Webb que murió tras un disparo mortal por parte de una oficial de la policía de Laredo, el lunes.

Familiares estimaron que entre el jueves y viernes, alrededor de 2.500 personas se detuvieron en la capilla para presentar sus condolencias. Sollozar fue inevitable.

“Se lo llevaron de casa”, dijo llorando la abuela de Cuellar, San Juana Arambula, y caminó al exterior de la capilla. “Era mi bebé”.

Con el área escoltada por agen-

tes, la procesión fúnebre partió a la iglesia católica Our Lady of Lourdes, donde se celebró una misa.

El padre Agustin Escalante dio algunas palabras de aliento a la audiencia. Dijo que Cuellar pertenecía a Cristo porque fue bautizado cuando era pequeño.

“Ni siquiera las manos de la muerte pueden alejarnos de Jesús”, dijo Escalante. “Para aquellas personas que viven en Jesús, la vida no termina aquí… Sentimos dolor. Estamos llorando durante estos tiempos difíciles, pero Jesús está con nosotros”.

Cuellar recibió honores por parte de la Oficina del Alguacil del Condado de Webb, donde comenzó a trabajar en octubre. Sin embargo, su carrera en las agencias del orden comenzó en la Oficina del Alguacil del Condado de

Zapata. Algunos de sus ex compañeros estuvieron ahí.

“Al crecer y convertirse en joven, siempre vio hacia el uniforme, rumbo a las agencias del orden”, dijo su padre César Cuellar Sr. Cuellar tenía en la sangre el pertenecer a estas agencias ya que amaba servir y proteger a la comunidad, dijo su padre.

“Durante sus años de crecimiento, fue una persona que siempre veía por los demás”, dijo Cuellar Sr. “Siempre buscaba a sus amigos, a su familia, asegurándose de que estuvieran bien”.

Cuellar parecía ser una persona que se presentaría cuando se le necesitara.

“Era el hombre donde apoyarse. Era una persona con quien podías hablar si te sentías decaído, si tenías un problema”, dijo su

padre. “(Cuellar Jr.) era una persona maravillosa. Fue criado en un buen hogar, con buenos padres, con buena moral”.

El ex Alguacil del Condado de Zapata, Sigifredo González Jr. dijo que Cuellar era un individuo carismático.

“Cualquier cosa que pudiera hacer por alguien más, él la hacía”, dijo González. “Hemos escuchado los términos ‘quitarse el pan de la boca’. Él era este tipo de persona”.

Cuellar trataría de resolver las diferencias entre las personas antes de hacer un arresto, recordó González. “Él era una persona versátil, el tipo de oficial que es bueno trabajando con la comunidad”, dijo González (Localice a César G. Rodriguez e728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)

DONACIÓN DE OSOS La Oficina del Alguacil del Condado de Webb visitó las Oficinas del Fiscal de Distrito de Webb y Zapata para donar osos de peluche. La idea es que a través de los muñecos de peluche se brinde consuelo a víctimas infantiles de abuso y violencia doméstica. Los osos fueron recaudados por donaciones de la comunidad a través del 4º Proyecto Comparte-Un-Oso.

PRESUPUESTO Yahleel Abdala, Diputada Federal de Tamaulipas (Distrito I), dio a conocer que congresistas lograron que alrededor de 40 millones de pesos del Fondo Fronterizo sea destinado al Primer Distrito. El dinero beneficiará a las ciudades fronterizas de Nuevo Laredo, Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, Ciudad Mier, Miguel Alemán y Camargo. Por otra parte, dio a conocer que fueron aprobados 400 millones de pesos que serán destinados a la reconstrucción y rehabilitación de la Carretera Nuevo Laredo-Monterrey, México.

Sostuvo que el recurso se aplicará al presupuesto 2016 a fin de que el proyecto inicie lo antes posible.

DÍAZ ORDAZ El miércoles, policías estatales de Tamaulipas fueron agredidos por civiles armados durante una persecución en Gustavo Díaz Ordaz.

Agentes habían respondido a la denuncia ciudadana acerca de un vehículo sospechoso, el cual resultó ser una camioneta GMC donde viajaban personas sospechosas.

Tras un intercambio de disparos resultó lesionado uno de los agresores, de acuerdo con un comunicado de prensa del Gobierno de Tamaulipas.

TEXAS

TAMAULIPAS

Rubén Hinojosa no se postulará a reelección

Mueren 4 civiles tras choque militar

POR ALAN FRAM ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Rubén Hinojosa, veterano legislador demócrata cuyo distrito en Texas es uno de los de mayor concentración hispana del país, anunció el viernes que no se presentará a la reelección.

Hinojosa, de 75 años, terminará de cumplir su décimo período como legislador cuando culmine la actual sesión parlamentaria en enero de 2017. Su primera elección fue en 1996.

“Estoy anunciando oficialmente que no voy a buscar la reelección, pero ello no quiere decir que me retiraré a mi silla de rue-

das. Seguiré trabajando”, dijo Hinojosa en conferencia de prensa en McAllen, Texas.

HINOJOSA Hinojosa dijo que buscará otras oportunidades profesionales después de cumplir su mandato, pero no dio detalles.

El distrito que representa, de tendencia demócrata y que abarca desde San Antonio a la frontera mexicana, es un 80% hispano, según un estudio el año pasado del centro académico Pew. Hinojosa fue presidente del bloque de legisladores

hispanos entre 2013 y 2014.

Ha impulsado leyes para aumentar la ayuda financiera a estudiantes hispanos y para que los inmigrantes no autorizados obtengan estatus legal.

La líder de la minoría demócrata Nancy Pelosi dijo que el retiro de Hinojosa implica “la pérdida de uno de nuestros más incansables campeones de llevarle educación y oportunidades a todos los estadounidenses”.

“Durante casi 20 años, su imponente liderazgo ha beneficiado a estudiantes, campesinos y comunidades latinas en todo Estados Unidos”, dijo Pelosi en un comunicado.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MÉXICO — Cuatro transeúntes murieron cuando un vehículo militar chocó contra un puesto de tacos tras recibir disparos de hombres armados en el norte de Tamaulipas, México.

El gobierno de Tamaulipas informó el viernes en un comunicado que entre las víctimas estaban una mamá de 20 años y su bebé de cuatro meses, que al parecer se encontraban en el puesto.

El incidente ocurrió el miércoles en Reynosa y otras cuatro personas resultaron lesionadas. Las autoridades estatales lamentaron los fallecimien-

tos y culparon a los hombres armados.

El gobierno de Tamaulipas refirió que el vehículo militar perseguía a un convoy de cinco camionetas con hombres armados cuando otro vehículo se les acercó y los hombres comenzaron a disparar contra el personal castrense. Una ráfaga dio al parabrisas de la unidad militar, el conductor perdió la visibilidad y se estrelló contra el puesto de tacos y dos vehículos.

Los hombres armados huyeron de la camioneta desde la que dispararon.

Las autoridades encontraron en su interior ocho fusiles, añadió el gobierno.

COLUMNA

‘Torta’ se ubica entre platillos mexicanos Nota del Editor: Esta es el segundo de una serie de dos artículos, donde el autor narra la manera en que el saber de las tortas tiene influencia tamaulipeca.

POR RAÚL SINENCIO CHÁVEZ ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Bajo el segundo imperio, en la Ciudad de México cobra auge el bocadillo.

Las “tortas compuestas […] que se vendieron en la plaza principal” durante

“el mes de noviembre” último, van a expenderse ahora “en la alacena número 1 del portal del Coliseo Viejo, con la prontitud y limpieza de costumbre”, anuncia “El Pájaro Verde”, periódico conservador, el 8 de febrero de 1864.

Parece que al principio sólo están disponibles en ciertas fechas, de noche. El panorama cambia en la dictadura porfiriana. Toman “cada día más incremento” en sitios capitali-

nos –publica “El Imparcial” del 9 de julio de 1902.

“La Opinión Pública”, tabloide de Tampico, el 11 de mayo de 1873 inserta: “En la nueva cantina ‘Pomoca’ […] se hallarán […] refrescos, […] ‘tortas compuestas’ al estilo de Jalisco y ensaladas para” quienes “acostumbren cenar”.

En municipios del centro y norte de la entidad, las noticias relativas escasean. A través de “El Progresista” de Ciudad Victo-

ria, el “Café del Comercio” en 1896 ofrece “sandwichs [sic] y […] toda clase de confecciones al gusto del consumidor”, mientras que en 1903 la cantina “El Golfo” oferta “surtido especial de […] lunch”.

Tampico, México, avanza en cambio a versiones autóctonas. La prensa del puerto ya el 8 de junio de 1958 publicita al legendario tortero “Gordolele con sus zepelines”, que mantienen recia fama varias

décadas adelante. Surgen antes las famosísimas “tortas de la barda”, producidas frente a la barda del muelle fiscal. Originalmente para alijadores, repuntan tanto que hoy las consumen diversas comunidades de la república “y hasta en Houston, Texas”, nos comparte Alfonso de los Reyes.

(Con permiso del autor, según fuera publicado en La Razón de Tampico, el 23 octubre 2015)

Nation

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A

Postal Service lost $5.1 billion this fiscal year

By ANDREW TAYLOR ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The Postal Service on Friday reported a $5.1 billion loss for the just-completed 2015 fiscal cycle — but that’s a slight improvement over last year.

The loss reflects continued erosion in the delivery of first-class mail as well as expensive mandates for upfront funding of its retiree health care obligations.

There was good and bad news in the Postal Service’s yearend results. Revenues were up, and it made an operating profit of $1.2 billion, reflecting continued growth in its package-delivery business.

But a special rate surcharge is set to expire next year, which promises to cut revenues by $2 billion annually, and volume of mail delivery should continue to

shrink. Expenses continue to rise despite slower mail delivery.

The service is still seeking relief from the mandate to “pre-fund” retiree health benefits. Legislation in 2006 required the Postal Service to fund 75 years’ worth of retiree health benefits, something that neither the government nor private companies are required to do.

“The road is difficult for a number of reasons,” said Chief Financial Officer Joseph Corbett. “Without the surcharge, for example, in 2015, we would have recorded a controllable loss of $800 million, not income of $1.2 billion. Also, our costs continue to escalate.”

The service continues to press for legislation that would provide relief from its funding requirement for retiree health benefits.

The Postal Service registered revenues of $68.9 bil-

lion in 2015, a $1.1 billion increase over 2014.

It’s the ninth consecutive year that the Postal Service has lost money. Mail volume is down as people rely more and more on email for online bill payments. But online shopping has led to significant growth in its package-delivery business, which has grown by 50 percent over the past five years.

“The USPS’ continuing financial upswing shows that dismantling services to the public would be precisely the wrong path to take,” said Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

“This impressive performance is no fluke. It results from two structural factors: An improving economy is helping stabilize letter revenue, and Internet-driven online shopping is sending package revenue skyrocketing.”

SENATOR JUDITH ZAFFIRINI is a champion for the needs and priorities of veterans in the Texas Senate. She is shown with Senate District 21 veteran Hector Lopez at the Texas Capitol.

T

his nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. I agree with these beautiful words written by Elmer Davis during World War II. The noted journalist’s eloquent tribute is timely as we honor the brave veterans who have served in the United States military forces.

Veterans Day is a special opportunity to thank these men and women for their enormous sacrifices that enable us to enjoy our cherished freedoms.

Today’s holiday began in 1919 as Armistice Day, which marked the anniversary of the end of World War I, and was expanded in 1954 to honor all veterans.

Davis’ words should underscore the importance of supporting our veterans not only while they serve overseas, but also after they come home. That is why my priorities in the Texas Senate include ensuring that all veterans have access to education, jobs and health care, including mental health.

My prayer is that all Texans thank veterans for their service and honor them not only today, but also every day.

Nation

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES

New produce safety rules

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015

Lesbian couple can keep baby

By BRADY MCCOMBS AND MICHELLE L. PRICE ASSOCIATED PRESS

By MARY CLARE JALONICK ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration wants you to eat your fruits and vegetables. They also want the produce to be safe.

Long-awaited rules announced by the Food and Drug Administration Friday are designed to help prevent large-scale, deadly outbreaks of foodborne illness like those linked to fresh spinach, cantaloupes, cucumbers and other foods over the last decade.

That means making sure workers are trained to wash their hands, irrigation water is monitored for harmful bacteria and animals do not leave droppings in fields.

The rules will phase in over the next several years and give the FDA sweeping new oversight over how food is grown on farms.

The majority of farmers and food manufacturers already follow good safety practices, but the rules are intended to give greater focus on prevention in a system that has been largely reactive after large outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 48 million people — or 1 in 6 people in the United States — are sickened each year from foodborne diseases, and an estimated 3,000 people die.

The Obama administration has said they don’t want people to eat fewer fruits and vegetables because of safety concerns.

“The rules will help better protect consumers from foodborne illness and strengthen their confidence that modern preventive practices are in place, no matter where in the world the food is produced,” said Michael Taylor, the FDA deputy com-

missioner for foods.

The FDA also released rules Friday that will require importers to be more accountable for the safety of food they bring into the U.S. market. The government estimates that about 52 percent of fresh fruit and 22 percent of fresh vegetables are imported.

Taylor said both rules could help prevent illnesses such as an ongoing outbreak of salmonella linked to cucumber imported from Mexico. In that outbreak, four people have died and more than 700 people have fallen ill.

There have been many other outbreaks linked to produce in recent years. In 2006, E. coli in fresh spinach was linked to several deaths, including a 2-yearold.

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah judge reversed his decision to take a baby girl from her lesbian foster parents and place her with a heterosexual couple after his ruling caused widespread backlash, but child welfare officials say the change could be temporary.

In an order released Friday, Judge Scott Johansen allowed the 9-month-old baby to stay for now with April Hoagland and Beckie Peirce, a married couple from the city of Price.

It comes after Johansen said in court Tuesday that the baby should be removed from the couple’s home within a week. Utah officials and the couple filed challenges demanding he rescind the order.

Ashley Sumner, spokes-

Photo by Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune | AP

Foster parents April Hoagland and Beckie Peirce are photographed on Wednesday in Salt Lake City. woman for the Utah Division of Child and Family Services, said the agency is cautiously optimistic and relieved. But Johansen’s decision still leaves open the possibility that he could order the child removed at a Dec. 4 custody hearing.

“We’re moving in the right direction, but it’s not the final answer,” Sumner

said.

In his first ruling, Johansen mentioned research that said children raised by heterosexual families do better and that “same-sex marriages have double the rate of instability as heterosexual marriages.”

That language was crossed out in Johansen’s new order. It now says the court

merely cited concerns that research has shown children are more emotionally and mentally stable when raised by a mother and father in the same home.

The American Psychological Association has said there’s no scientific basis that gay couples are unfit parents based on sexual orientation.

Jim Hunnicutt, a lawyer for the couple, said they are happy the judge reversed the order so quickly.

“These two people are excellent, wonderful parents,” he said. “They love the child very much, and they are very optimistic that the child will remain in their care.”

Hunnicutt said he didn’t know what caused the judge to change his mind but called the initial decision a constitutional violation and harmful to the baby.

International

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

As many as 120 dead in Paris attacks

By LORI HINNANT AND GREG KELLER ASSOCIATED PRESS

PARIS — A series of attacks targeting young concert-goers and Parisians enjoying a Friday night out at popular nightspots killed as many as 120 people in the deadliest violence to strike France since World War II. President Francois Hollande pledged that France would stand firm against what he called terrorism.

The worst carnage was at a concert hall hosting an American rock band, where scores of people were held hostage and attackers hurled explosives at their captives. Police who stormed the building, killing three attackers, encountered a bloody scene of horror inside.

Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said as many as five attackers may have been killed, though it was not clear how many there were altogether and how many were still at large.

Authorities said the death toll at the six sites could exceed 120.

Hollande declared a state of emergency and announced that he was closing the country’s borders.

The violence spread fear through the city and exceeded the horrors of the Charlie Hebdo attack just 10 months ago.

In addition to the deaths at the concert hall, a police official said 11 people were killed in a Paris restaurant in the 10th arrondissement and other officials said at least three people died when bombs went off outside a stadium.

All of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be publicly named in the quickly moving investigation.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, and no clear picture of how many attackers were involved and if any were on the run. Jihadists on Twitter immedi-

Photo by Kamil Zihnioglu | AP

Elite police officers arrive outside the Bataclan theater in Paris, France, Wednesday. Several dozen people were killed in a series of unprecedented attacks around Paris on Friday, French President Francois Hollande said, announcing that he was closing the country’s borders. ately praised the attack and criticized France’s military operations against Islamic State extremists.

Hollande, who had to be evacuated from the stadium when the bombs went off outside, said in a televised address that the nation would stand firm and united.

“This is a terrible ordeal that again assails us,” he said. “We know where it comes from, who these criminals are, who these terrorists are.”

U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking to reporters in Washington, called the attacks on Paris “outrageous attempt to terrorize innocent civilians” and vowed to do whatever it takes to help bring the perpetrators to justice. He called the attacks a “heartbreaking situation” and an “attack on all of humanity.”

Earlier Friday, two explosions were heard outside the Stade de France stadium north of Paris during a France-Germany

Photo by Michel Euler | AP

Investigating police officers work outside the Stade de France stadium after an international friendly soccer match on Friday. exhibition soccer game. A police union official said there were two suicide attacks and a bombing that killed at least three people.

The official, Gregory Goupil of the Alliance Police Nationale, whose region includes the area of the stadium, said explosions went off simultaneously near two entrances and a McDonalds.

An Associated Press reporter in the stadium Friday night heard two explosions loud enough to pene-

trate the sounds of cheering fans. Sirens were immediately heard, and a helicopter was circling overhead.

The attack comes as France has heightened security measures ahead of a major global climate conference that starts in two weeks, out of fear of violent protests and potential terrorist attacks. Hollande canceled a planned trip to this weekend’s G-20 summit in Turkey, which was to focus in large part on

growing fears of terrorism carried out by Islamic extremists.

Emilio Macchio, from Ravenna, Italy, was at the Carillon restaurant that was targeted, having a beer on the sidewalk, when the shooting started.

He said he didn’t see any gunmen or victims, but hid behind a corner, then ran away.

“It sounded like fireworks,” he said.

France has been on edge since January, when Islamic extremists attacked the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which had run cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, and a kosher grocery. Twenty people died, including the three attackers. The Charlie Hebdo attackers claimed links to extremists in Yemen, while the kosher market attacker claimed ties to the Islamic State group.

This time, they targeted young people enjoying a rock concert and ordinary city residents enjoying a Friday night out.

One of at least two res-

taurants targeted Friday, Le Carillon, is in the same general neighborhood as the Charlie Hebdo offices, as is the Bataclan, among the best-known venues in eastern Paris, near the trendy Oberkampf area known for a vibrant nightlife. The California-based band Eagles of Death Metal was scheduled to play there Friday night.

The country has seen several smaller-scale attacks or attempts since, including an incident on a high-speed train in August in which American travelers thwarted an attempted attack by a heavily armed man.

France’s military is bombing Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq and fighting extremists in Africa, and extremist groups have frequently threatened France in the past.

French authorities are particularly concerned about the threat from hundreds of French Islamic radicals who have travelled to Syria and returned home with skills to stage violence.

Though who was responsible for Friday night’s violence remained a mystery, the Islamic State is “clearly the name at the top of everyone’s list,” Brian Michael Jenkins, a terrorism expert and senior adviser to the president of RAND Corp., said.

Jenkins said the tactic used — “multiple attackers in coordinated attacks at multiple locations” — echoed recommendations published in extremist group’s online magazine, Dabbiq, over the summer.

“The big question on everyone’s mind is, were these attackers, if they turn out to be connected to one of the groups in Syria, were they homegrown terrorists or were they returning fighters from having served” with the Islamic State group, Jenkins said. “That will be a huge question.”

Photo by Fernando Llano | AP

Opposition members cheer during a campaign rally for congressional candidates, in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday. The process for the Dec. 6 legislative elections enters the final stretch.

Drug scandal reverberates

By HANNAH DREIER ASSOCIATED PRESS

CARACAS, Venezuela — It’s the story of the year or no story at all, depending on where one falls on Venezuela’s hyper-polarized political spectrum.

Venezuelan officials kept silent Friday on the arrest this week of two nephews of first lady Cilia Flores on U.S. drug trafficking charges.

The South American country’s opposition leaders, meanwhile, made the news the focus of their rallies to mark the launch of the campaign season for crucial Dec. 6 congressional elections.

The two young men were arrested in Haiti on Tuesday on charges of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States. They are being held in New York without bail.

The opposition hammered on the scandal on Friday during nationwide events celebrating the official start of the fight for control of congress — a battle that polls indicate the government may lose badly.

Opposition leaders said the arrests had shocked the nation and showed the need for change after 16 years of socialist rule.

The most hard line party in the opposition coalition,

Popular Will, referred to the arrests in its slogan for the campaign launch: “Today we start the shift from narco state to a better Venezuela.”

U.S prosecutors have investigated several high-level Venezuelan officials for drug and corruption charges, but this week’s arrests marks the first time President Nicolas Maduro’s inner circle has been directly implicated. Even many government critics were surprised because they tend to see Maduro, the handpicked successor to late President Hugo Chavez, as incompetent but not especially corrupt.

Neither Maduro nor any other governing official has commented on the arrests, although the president has claimed the U.S. is targeting Venezuela.

Without mentioning the accusations against the first lady’s relatives, Maduro on Friday accused U.S. President Barack Obama of disrupting relations, saying that “your agencies of the power establishment are breaking the basic rules of coexistence among nations.”

“Tie down your crazies, Obama,” Maduro said in a televised event from western Venezuela.

National media have largely blacked out the news of the drug charges.

One of the country’s largest daily newspapers reported on the drug bust, but left out any connection to the first family.

State television has been broadcasting footage of government giveaways, with poor residents lining up to receive laptops, appliances, and keys to newly built apartments. On Friday, Maduro filled his Twitter feed with images of Chavez as well as warnings to his followers not to trust biased media.

On Twitter, Venezuelans posted memes and jokes poking fun at a weekly television show Flores hosts titled “Cilia with her family,” and mocking the administration for banning a Telemundo soap opera the week of the arrests on the grounds that it glorified the lifestyle of drug traffickers.

The opposition coalition held a news conference to denounce the “monstrous censorship” the case revealed, and promised to launch an official investigation once it wins control of congress.

Opposition governor and former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles demanded an official response, though he did not really seem to expect one.

“The case shows how rotten this government is,” he said.

Photo by Rebecca Blackwell | AP

Mexico’s Environment Minister Rafael Pacchiano listens during the opening session of the 2015 Ministerial Summit of the Group on Earth Observations, in Mexico City, Friday.

US, Mexico sign satellite data deal

By PETER ORSI ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY — The United States and Mexico signed a deal Friday for Mexico to capture and process land-surface imagery and data directly from a U.S.-operated satellite.

The agreement means Mexico will be able to get the raw information from the Landsat 8 satellite immediately instead of waiting for filtered data to be released by U.S. authorities.

Mexico joins about a half dozen other countries that are already downloading such data directly from U.S. satellites, U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said.

Officials said that will yield benefits in areas including agriculture, geology, forestry, mapping and climate change research.

It will also help Mexico improve monitoring of hurricanes such as last month’s Patricia, a mon-

ster Category 5 storm that fortunately avoided making a direct blow on major population centers.

The agreement “acknowledges Mexico’s capability and hunger, really, for this real-time data to address the challenges and the opportunities that they have on the ground,” Jewell told The Associated Press. “If you look at Hurricane Patricia ... that’s the kind of information that Mexico could have been using in real time to help it prepare.”

“And it lessens its dependence on the United States for interpretation of that data and enables it to directly integrate it with the data that it has, which can provide it more useful information than perhaps what they could do without that direct download,” she added.

Jewell and Eduardo Sojo, president of Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography,

signed the agreement in the Mexican capital on the sidelines of the 2015 Ministerial Summit of the Group on Earth Observations.

Sojo said Mexico will receive downloads from Landsat 8 at a station operated by the country’s space agency in the Caribbean coastal city of Chetumal, on the southeastern border with Belize.

“We also, and this is extraordinarily important, will receive the historical information,” Sojo said.

“So we will be able to construct models that let us precisely anticipate disasters and model the impact that climate change is having on issues such as flooding, on issues such as agriculture, in the different areas where we use satellite images.”

He added that Mexico plans to share the data to federal, state and local government entities as well as researchers and universities.

International

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015

Mexico hopes to see more monarch butterflies

By MARK STEVENSON ASSOCIATED PRESS

PIEDRA HERRADA, Mexico — The number of monarch butterflies reaching their wintering grounds in central Mexico this year may be three to four times higher than the previous season, authorities said Thursday.

Speaking during a visit to a monarch reserve with U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Mexican Environment Secretary Rafael Pacchiano said initial reports suggest the butterfly population is rebounding.

“We estimate that the butterfly population that arrives at the reserve is as much as three and could reach four times the surface area it occupied last season,” Pacchiano said.

He did not explain how the government made the calculation, but authorities

conduct informal tracking of monarch butterflies as they enter Mexico from the United States.

The population of orangeand-black butterflies making the 3,400-mile migration from the United States and Canada declined in recent years before recovering slightly in 2014, when the insects covered about 2.79 acres in the mountains west of Mexico City.

The monarchs cluster so closely in trees that their numbers are measured by the area they cover. They once blanketed as much as 44 acres.

Pacchiano said the butterfly colonies could cover 7.8 to 9.9 acres this year, and officials hope to reach 14.8 acres in the reserves by 2020.

“The United States is very committed to protecting the monarch butterfly, but we need the help of Mexico

Photo by Rebecca Blackwell | AP

A guide gently touches a damaged and dying butterfly at the monarch butterfly reserve in Piedra Herrada, Mexico State, Mexico. and Canada,” Jewell said before hiking an hour into the mountains to see the trees where the monarchs roost.

She said the United States is working to reintroduce milkweed, a plant key to the butterflies’ migration, on about 1,160 square miles within five years, both by planting and by designating pesticide-free areas.

Milkweed is the plant the butterflies feed and lay their

eggs on, but it has been attacked by herbicide use in the United States.

“Our agricultural practices must be adapted. ... We have to look at our use of pesticides,” Jewell said. “We have the goal of 225 million monarch butterflies returning right here, to Mexico, every year. We believe we can get there by working together.”

Mexico, too, still has problems.

Illegal logging more than tripled in the monarch butterflies’ wintering grounds last year, reversing several years of steady improvements.

Pacchiano said the reserve’s buffer area lost more than 20 acres due to illegal logging in one area this year, but the tree cutting was detected and a number of arrests were made.

Loggers cut down 47 acres of trees in San Felipe de los Alzati in Michoacan state last year, the biggest loss since 2009.

Illegal logging had fallen to almost zero in 2012.

The forest canopy acts as a sort of blanket against the cold for butterflies that form huge clumps on tree branches during their winter stay in Mexico.

The migration is an inherited trait: No butterfly lives to make the full round

trip, and it is unclear how they find their way back to the same patch of pine forest each year.

Some scientists suggest the butterflies may release chemicals marking the migratory path and fear that if their numbers fall too low the chemical traces will not be strong enough for others to follow.

Two years ago the butterflies reached a low point, covering only 1.65 acres, the lowest since record-keeping began in 1993.

At their peak in 1996, the monarchs covered more than 44 acres. But since then, each time the monarchs have rebounded, they have done so at lower levels.

The species is found in many countries and is not in danger of extinction, but experts fear the migration could be disrupted if very few butterflies make the long trip.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A

CESAR CUELLAR JR.

MARIA ANTONIA CUELLAR

ODILIA MARTINEZ

Oct. 16, 1990 – Nov. 9, 2015

Nov. 18, 1948 – Nov. 10, 2015

May 25, 1936 – Nov. 10, 2015

Cesar Cuellar Jr., 25, passed away on Monday, Nov. 9, 2015 in Laredo, Texas.

Cesar was a proud 2009 graduate of Zapata High School and was currently employed as a deputy with Webb County Sheriff ’s Office.

Cesar is survived by his father, Cesar (Lesvia) Cuellar; mother, Dora (Antonio III) Cuellar; brothers, Carlos D. Cuellar and Javier A. Lopez; paternal grandparents, Fernando (+Eva) Cuellar; maternal grandparents, Ramiro (San Juana) Arambula; and by numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

Visitation hours were held on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home.

The funeral procession departed on Friday, Nov. 13, 2015, at 9:30 a.m. for a 10 a.m. funeral Mass at

Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.

Committal services followed at Zapata County Cemetery.

Funeral arrangements were under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home Daniel A. Gonzalez, Funeral Director, 2102 N. U.S. Hwy 83 Zapata, Texas.

Maria Antonia Cuellar, 66, passed away on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015 at her residence in Zapata, Texas.

Mrs. Cuellar is preceded in death by her parents, Antonio Chavez and Celestina Olvera; and her in-laws, Manuel Jr. (San Juana D.) Cuellar.

Mrs. Cuellar is survived by her husband, Jose Lucio Cuellar, and by numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and many friends.

Visitation hours were held on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home.

The funeral procession departed on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015, at 9:30 a.m. for a 10 a.m. funeral Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.

Committal services followed at Zapata Coun-

ty Cemetery.

Funeral arrangements were under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home Daniel A. Gonzalez, Funeral Director, 2102 N. U.S. Hwy 83 Zapata, Texas.

Odilia Martinez, 79, passed away on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015 at Laredo Specialty Hospital in Laredo, Texas.

Mrs. Martinez is preceded in death by her parents, Anselmo and Lydia Lerma; sisters, Ismenia (Alejandro) Barraz, Blanca Gomez and Aida (Amador) Ramos.

Mrs. Martinez is survived by her husband, Hugo Martinez; sons, Hugo (Liliana) Martinez and Oscar (Yadira) Martinez; grandchildren, Hugo Alan Martinez, Alexa Martinez, Lizbeth Martinez; brother, Israel (Rebecca) Lerma; sister, Imelda Fuentes; brother-inlaw, Jose Gomez and by numerous other family members and friends.

Visitation hours were held on Friday, Nov. 13, 2015, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home.

The funeral procession will depart on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015, at 9:30 a.m. for a 10 a.m. funeral Mass at

Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.

Committal services will follow at Zapata County Cemetery.

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home Daniel A. Gonzalez, Funeral Director, 2102 N. US HWY 83 Zapata, Texas.

Stocks have second-worst week of year

By MARLEY JAY ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — The stock market slumped to its second-biggest weekly loss of the year Friday, breaking a streak of six consecutive weeks of gains. Fears that the holiday shopping season will be a dud tanked retail stocks.

Retailers ranging from department stores to dollar stores plunged after Nordstrom posted disappointing third-quarter results, just as Macy’s did earlier this week.

The price of oil continued to slide on evidence that global supplies are still rising. The dollar could get even stronger, further pressuring oil and other commodities and affecting mining and energy companies.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 202.83 points, or 1.2 percent, to 17,245.24. The Standard & Poor’s 500 gave up 22.93 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,023.04. The Nasdaq composite index slipped 77.20 points, or 1.5 percent, to 4,927.88.

Concerns about retail sales and skidding commodities prices have eroded the gains from October’s big stock market rally. Stocks have now lost ground seven of the last eight days. Overall the S&P 500 is down almost 2 percent for the year.

Nordstrom sank $9.51, or 15 percent, to $53.96 after reporting weaker sales. The company also cut its forecast for the year. Macy’s had done the same on Wednesday.

The holiday shopping rush will kick into high

Photo by Richard Drew | AP

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday. Retailers are plunging Friday as earnings reports from Nordstrom and others touched off investor worries that the holiday shopping season will be a dud. gear with Black Friday in two weeks. Following several weak reports from retailers, investors are becoming worried that sales will be poor during that period, which is a crucial moneymaker for retail companies.

Macy’s and Nordstrom both hit two-year lows Friday.

Consumer discretionary stocks were by far the worst performing group in the S&P 500.

J.C. Penney’s results were about equal to analyst projections, but its stock lost $1.35, or 15.4 percent, to $7.44. Video game retailer GameStop sank $7.35, or 16.5 percent, to $37.18. Watchmaker Fossil Group plunged

$18.62, or 36.5 percent, to $32.39. Fossil posted disappointing earnings Thursday afternoon and also said it will buy activity tracker maker Misfit for $260 million. Its shares hit their lowest level in five years.

Compounding those worries was a government report showing that U.S. retail spending edged up just 0.1 percent in October, a bit less than analysts expected. Prices charged by farmers, manufacturers and other producers fell in October. The figures show there is little sign of inflation in the U.S. economy. When inflation is higher, consumers have an incentive to spend more

money.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Richard Jaffe suggested the widespread selling was an overreaction. Shoppers will spend plenty of money this holiday season, he said, and while they’re spending more money on smartphones and TVs and other big items than they used to, there will still be plenty of socks and sweaters given as gifts over the holidays.

“Christmas is boxed gifts,” Jaffe said. “There will be a lot of gift giving, a lot of apparel sales.”

Jaffe noted that Americans’ shopping habits have changed a lot over the last few years. Consumers are

spending more on homes, cars, and vacations. Aging baby boomers don’t buy clothes as often as they used to, and younger shoppers are more interested in technology.

The price of oil continued to fall after the International Energy Agency said commercial inventories reached almost 3 billion barrels at the end of September, a record. The IEA also said growth in global demand will slow down next year.

Oil prices have dropped because demand can’t keep up with ever-increasing supplies. The strong dollar makes dollar-denominated commodities costlier to buyers

using yen, euro and other currencies.

U.S. crude slumped $1.01, or 2.4 percent, to $40.74 a barrel in New York. It’s dropped about 13 percent this month and is at its lowest price since late August.

Brent crude, which is used to price international oils, lost 45 cents, or 1 percent, to $43.61 a barrel in London.

Jim Ritterbusch of the oil trading firm Ritterbusch & Associates said crude could fall another $3 to $4 a barrel.

It’s gone as low as $37.75 this year.

In other energy trading, heating oil fell 2.5 cents to $1.381 a gallon. Wholesale gasoline dipped 3.4 cents to $1.239 a gallon. Natural gas edged up 10.1 cents to $2.361 per 1,000 cubic feet.

The price of gold fell 10 cents to $1,080.90 an ounce.

Silver fell for the tenth day in a row, losing 2.1 cents to $14.20 an ounce. Copper dipped slightly to just under $2.17 a pound. All three metals are at their lowest levels in six years.

Generic drugmaker Mylan climbed after a long pursuit of Irish drugmaker Perrigo came to an end. Perrigo’s shareholders rejected a $26 billion offer from Mylan, an offer Perrigo had called inadequate. Mylan logged the biggest gain on the S&P 500, adding $5.58, or 12.9 percent, to $48.78. Perrigo fell $9.65, or 6.2 percent, to $146.90.

U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped to 2.27 percent from 2.31 percent. The euro declined to $1.0751 from $1.0791 and the dollar edged up to $122.67 yen from 122.62 yen.

12A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015

LAW

CUELLAR Continued from Page 1A

Continued from Page 1A undue burden on a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. If allowed to take full effect, the law would leave no abortion clinics west of San Antonio and only one operating on a limited basis in the Rio Grande Valley.

The state has argued that women in west Texas already cross into New Mexico to obtain abortions at a clinic in suburban El Paso.

In its decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in 1992, the court ruled that states generally can regulate abortion unless doing so places an undue burden on women.

Casey was a huge victory for abortion-rights advocates because it ended up reaffirming the constitutional right to an abortion that the court established in Roe v. Wade in 1973.

In 2007, a divided court upheld a federal law that bans an abortion procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion and opened the door to new limits on abortion.

Photo by César G. Rodriguez | The Zapata Times

Officials salute as Cesar Cuellar’s casket is carried out of Rose Garden Funeral Home on Friday. was always looking out for someone else,” Cuellar Sr. said. “He was always looking out for his friends, for his family, making sure they were okay.”

Cuellar seemed to be the person to go to when

needed.

“He was the shoulder to lean on. He was the person to talk to if you were down, if you had a problem,” his father said. “(Cuellar) was an amazing individual. He was brought up in a good

home, with good parents, with good morals.”

Former Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. said Cuellar was a caring individual.

“Anything he could do for somebody else, he would do it,” Gonzalez

said. “We’ve heard this term about ‘giving the shirt off your back.’ He was that type of person.”

Cuellar would try to settle differences between people without making an arrest, Gonzalez recalled.

“He was an all-around caring individual, the type of law enforcement officer that is good at working with the community,” Gonzalez said.

(César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015

ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

Sports&Outdoors NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: DALLAS COWBOYS

Romo’s comeback nears Reeling Cowboys get QB back next week

By SCHUYLER DIXON ASSOCIATED PRESS

IRVING — Tony Romo, scout team quarterback.

That’s the best the Dallas star could do the past two weeks in his return from a broken left collarbone, so he was still watching while the Cowboys’ losing streak grew to six games without him, the team’s longest in the same season in 26 years.

Naturally, there’s a bit of anticipation for his likely start next week at Miami, even if that means peeking past Sunday’s visit to Tampa Bay (3-5). But there are limits to that eagerness for the Cowboys (2-6).

“You can’t sit and wait on Romo,” defensive lineman Jeremy Mincey said.

“He’s not Jesus, you know? You can’t sit and wait on him because

there’s some games we could’ve easily won without him being there. So it’s our fault.”

Matt Cassel and Brandon Weeden are both 0-3 trying to replace Romo, and Cassel will get likely the last chance to break that drought in what could be his final start for Dallas after coming over in a trade with Buffalo following the injury to Romo in a Week 2 win at Philadelphia.

Cassel has filled in for a franchise quarterback before, but not as something of a lame-duck starter. The job was his for the final 15 games in New England in 2008, when the Patriots finished 11-5 and missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker after Tom Brady went down with a season-ending knee injury in the opener.

Photo by Alex Brandon | AP

Dallas quarterback Tony Romo (9) has missed the last six games with a broken collarbone as the Cowboys went from 2-0 and alone atop the NFC East to 2-6 and at the bottom of the division during his absence.

See ROMO PAGE 2B

NCAA FOOTBALL

Texas, WVU aiming for bowl contention

By JOHN RABY ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Sue Ogrocki | AP

Trying to jump up in the College Football Playoff rankings, Baylor meets Oklahoma this weekend in a matchup of high-powered offenses.

Baylor looks to prove itself against Sooners

By STEPHEN HAWKINS ASSOCIATED PRESS

WACO — Spencer Drango was standing on the Baylor sideline during his redshirt season four years ago when the Bears finally beat Oklahoma for the first time.

“We were going nuts.

It kind of solidified and just kind of spoke that we can beat them,” said Drango, now a senior All-America left tackle.

“And if we can beat them, we can beat anyone. ... They were the powerhouse back in the day. Now it’s shifted a little bit.”

Now the fourth-ranked Bears (8-0, 5-0 Big 12, No. 6 CFP) are trying to become the first team ever to beat a Bob Stoopscoached Oklahoma team three consecutive times and join the Sooners as the only teams to win

See BAYLOR PAGE 2B

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Running back Johnathan Gray would like nothing but pleasant memories of Texas’ upcoming trip to West Virginia.

The last time the Longhorns came to Morgantown in November 2013, Gray tore an Achilles tendon in an overtime win over the Mountaineers and missed the rest of the season. Texas lost two of its three final regularseason games and coach Mack Brown was out of a job.

Gray returned for 2014 and was a big part of the Longhorns’ victory over the Mountaineers in Austin rushing for 101 yards and three touchdowns. But overall, the player who set a national high school career record for touchdowns hasn’t met lofty expectations in college. Before

Photo by Tim Schnupp | MCT

Tyrone Swoopes and the Longhorns are two wins away from bowl eligibility squaring off with West Virginia Saturday. his injury, Gray rushed for 780 yards in 2013, which remains his best season.

Now a senior and part of a running back tandem with 241-pound sophomore D’Onta Foreman along with a pair of mobile quarterbacks, Gray is hoping to help Texas (4-5, 3-3 Big 12) get that elusive first true road win and move closer to qualifying for a bowl game Saturday at West Virginia (4-4, 1-4).

“It means a lot,” Gray said of returning to Morgantown. “That’s the game of football. So you’ve just got to move on and help your teammates out in any way possible.

“I get another chance to go out there and do that, and that’s what I plan on doing.”

Texas has won three of its last four games, beating winless Kansas 59-20

See TEXAS PAGE 2B

Slumping Texas A&M hosts Western Carolina

By KRISTIE RIEKEN ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by David J. Phillip | AP

Texas A&M quarterback Kyler Murray and the Aggies have lost three of their past four games as they face Western Carolina in non-conference action.

COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M has lost three of its last four games and is struggling to regain its footing on offense.

The Aggies will get a good chance to do that on Saturday when they take a break from Southeastern Conference play to host Western Carolina, an FCS team, in the first meeting between these schools.

Texas A&M is coming off a loss to Auburn where they turned the ball over three times and allowed more than 300 yards rushing. Coach Kevin Sumlin knows they’ve got to clean up their play if they hope to turn things around.

“Like most teams in America, when we limit turnovers and penalties, we have won,” Sumlin said.

“When we haven’t, we haven’t won. Turnover ratio becomes a complete team statistic, ability to get

turnovers and to protect ball on offense.”

Freshman quarterback Kyler Murray was responsible for all three turnovers in that loss by throwing three interceptions in his second career start. His status for Saturday’s game is up in the air after he left that game after taking a hard hit to the head.

Sumlin won’t say exactly what’s wrong with him, but did

See A&M PAGE 2B

PAGE 2B

Zscores

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015

3 accept offers, Kenseth: No regrets over wreck turn down F.A.

By JENNA FRYER

Logano’s predicament is his own fault, Kenseth believes, because the young driver could have put an end to the feud at any point before Martinsville.

Instead, Kenseth felt Logano was “arrogant” and his comments over the next few weeks only infuriated Kenseth more. Kenseth also accused Logano of “doing everything in his power to try to aggravate me more” on track at Talladega the week after Kansas.

Then, as Kenseth raced Logano for the lead at Martinsville, he felt he was intentionally wrecked by Logano’s Team Penske teammate, Brad Keselowski.

Had the incident been an accident, Kenseth said he would have heard from Keselowski by now but has not been contacted by him.

“There’s a right and wrong way to do things, and most grown-ups would have tried to handle it better,” Kenseth said. “There’s just dozens of things that could have stopped it, and

Joey never tried to reconcile it. I think everyone in the garage knew it was coming, and you would think (Logano) would be a little bit nervous and address it.”

Kenseth also said NASCAR failed to intervene and squash the feud.

Kenseth couldn’t recall a time in his 16-year history that series officials didn’t sit down a pair of drivers who had on-track issues, and he felt backed into having to retaliate after chairman Brian France deemed Logano’s actions at Kansas “quintessential NASCAR.” “I felt like I was almost encouraged. I felt like the comments almost condoned it, the way Brian France said Joey was smart in the way he strategically eliminated a threat for the title,” Kenseth said. “I just never dreamed, ever, that I’d get suspended for going back and evening the score.”

Kenseth views his behavior at Martinsville to be “parallel” to Jeff Gordon intentionally wrecking Clint Bowyer at Phoenix in 2012.

Gordon was fined $100,000 but avoided suspension, even though the payback ended Bowyer’s title hopes.

Danica Patrick was fined $50,000 for intentionally wrecking David Gilliland at Martinsville. But Kenseth earned a two-race suspension — because of the stakes Logano had at the time — and he doesn’t believe the disparity in penalties is fair.

Texas A&M’s defense is focused on shoring up its run defense after giving up a season-high 311 yards rushing last week. But it certainly wasn’t the first time the unit has struggled in that area and the Aggies rank 115th in the nation by allowing 218.3 yards rushing a game.

They’ve allowed more than 230 yards rushing in each of the last four games.

NEWSOME’S WORK Western Carolina running back Detrez Newsome could be a problem for an A&M defense struggling to stop the run.

Newsome has 857 yards rushing with eight touch-

downs this season. He’s coming off a big game where he rushed for 184 yards.

PILING UP TACKLES Texas A&M free safety Armani Watts leads the Aggies and is fourth in the SEC with 88 tackles. He had 13 tackles last week for his fifth game this season with at least 10 tackles. His best game came against Mississippi when he piled up a career-high 20 tackles, which were the second-most in school history for a defensive back.

He’s 12 tackles away from becoming the first A&M player to reach 100 tackles since 2010.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

By RONALD BLUM ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — Houston outfielder Colby Rasmus, Baltimore catcher Matt Wieters and Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Brett Anderson became the first three players to accept qualifying offers rather than remain free agents.

The trio, who accepted $15.8 million, one-year contracts Friday, were among 20 players given the offers last week. Another in the group, Toronto pitcher Marco Estrada, agreed to a $26 million, two-year contract that was announced just before the 5 p.m. EST deadline to accept qualifying offers.

None of the 34 qualifying offers was accepted in the first three years of baseball’s current collective bargaining agreement.

Among those who turned down the offer this year were second baseman Daniel Murphy (Mets) and right-hander Ian Kennedy (Padres).

The 29-year-old Rasmus hit .238 with a career-high 25 homers and 61 RBIs in his first season with the Astros. He had seven homers over 27 at-bats in his last nine games, including four in six postseason games.

“I’m just happy to be an Astro. It would have been nice obviously to have a long-term deal and whatnot, but I feel that it worked out pretty good,” Rasmus said during a conference call. “It was in my heart and my wife’s heart to go to Houston.”

Wieters played in 75 games last season after elbow ligament replacement surgery in 2014. He batted .267 with eight homers and 25 RBIs. “For a one-year deal, there’s no place more comfortable than playing baseball for the Orioles,” the 29-year-old said.

Asked whether his family tried to talk him out of accepting, Wieters said, “They know that I’m stubborn. When I make a decision, that’s it.”

Anderson, a 27-yearold left-hander, was 10-9 with a 3.69 ERA. Estrada gets a $1 million signing bonus payable by Jan. 29 and salaries of $11 million next year and $14 million in 2017. The 32-year-old right-hander 13-8 with a 3.13 ERA, setting career bests for wins, ERA and opponents’ batting average. He was 2-1 with a 2.33 ERA in the playoffs, Toronto’s first postseason appearance since 1993.

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Pushed to his limit after three races worth of slights, Matt Kenseth firmly believed he had no choice but to retaliate against Joey Logano.

His deliberate wrecking of Logano drew a two-race suspension from NASCAR, and Kenseth said Friday he would have handled the payback differently had he known he’d draw such an unprecedented penalty.

But in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Kenseth said he would do it again.

“I really stand by my actions,” he said. “I feel like there’s a breaking point. It wasn’t just about being mad, it was about getting this fixed. It was time to make it stop.”

Logano spun Kenseth while racing for a win at Kansas that Kenseth needed to continue his championship chances. Kenseth retaliated two races later by wrecking Logano as Logano raced for a win at Martinsville Speedway that would have landed him a berth in the championship field.

Kenseth had returned to the track down nine laps after a wreck with Logano teammate Brad Keselowski.

“You have to have respect in the garage area. If you are going to go out and try to race for wins and race for championships,

File photo by Don Petersen | AP

Matt Kenseth (20) intentionally wrecked Joey Logano (22) on Nov. 1 severely damaging Logano’s chances at a championship. you can’t be a doormat or next year you are going to get knocked out again,” Kenseth said. “Drivers are going to be like, ’Well, he ain’t going to do nothing.

We’ll just knock him out of the race and then jack with him as much as possible and make sure he’s not going to make it through because he’s not going to retaliate.’

“At some point, in my opinion, you have to retaliate.”

His mood upbeat and his deadpan humor intact in a 30-minute interview from North Carolina, Kenseth accepted responsibility for wrecking Logano but insisted he feels no remorse that it potentially ruined Logano’s title chances.

Instead of winning Martinsville and earning a spot in next week’s championship finale, Logano is last in the eight-driver field and must win Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway to race for the Sprint Cup title.

A&M Continued from Page 1B acknowledge that he might not be ready and the team could start either Kyle Allen or Jake Hubenak in his place.

“We will see where Kyler is from a physical standpoint,” Sumlin said.

“If he’s in place where he’s practiced, he needs reps, needs to be able to do that, and is ready to go, he’ll be the starter. If not we’ll make decision later on in week.”

Murray earned the starting job after a tough stretch by Allen that got him benched. Murray was great in his first start, throwing for 223 yards and a touchdown and running

for 156 yards and another score in a win over South Carolina. He threw for just 105 yards in the loss for Auburn while struggling with the turnovers before leaving with his injury in the second half.

The Catamounts are coming off a win over Furman that improved them to 5-0 at home this season.

“You want to create an environment where it’s tough to come play at your house — and we’re getting ready to go into one of the premier teams that has a lot of experience with that,” Western Carolina coach Mark Speir said. “A lot of their traditions are

built on the 12th man and the great tradition it is, and I think everybody tries to build that 12th man mentality at home.”

Some things to know about the Western Carolina-Texas A&M game.

HOMECOMING Western Carolina quarterback Troy Mitchell will return to his home state on Saturday. Mitchell, who grew up in nearby Houston, is the school’s all-time leader in total offense with 8,891 yards in his career.

He earned Southern Conference player of the week honors this week after throwing for 305 yards and three touchdowns and running for 55 yards and two more scores against Furman.

Sumlin knew about him when he was in high school but admitted this week that he didn’t recruit him — but probably should have.

“He’s one of greatest players in their history at quarterback,” Sumlin said. “Will be excited to come in here. Probably have a lot of people here.

He’s an exciting player.”

STOPPING THE RUN

BAYLOR Continued from Page 1B three Big 12 titles in a row.

But the No. 12 Sooners (8-1, 5-1, No. 15 CFP) have a four-game winning streak since losing their last game south of the Red River, scoring at least 50 points every week since that 24-17 loss to the Longhorns at the State Fair of Texas.

Win out in this regular season-ending stretch against Baylor, No. 13 TCU and No. 5 Oklahoma State, and the Sooners will claim their first Big 12 title since 2012. That would end their longest conference title drought in Stoops’ 17 seasons, and put them in position for a possible playoff spot.

“I’m just worried about one big game. That’s right now. That’s how it’s been for the last — every week,” Stoops said. “The way we’ve been playing, you have to feel confident.”

For all the critics of the Bears’ weak schedule so far, they have the same remaining games as Oklahoma. They play at Oklahoma State and TCU, plus their regular season home finale against Texas.

“You don’t have big games unless you take care of games prior to big games,” Baylor coach Art Briles said. “So fortunately our team, I think, has been fairly consistent throughout the season with their play, with their attitude and with our results, which leads into big games.”

A few things to watch when Baylor looks to extend its FBS-best 20game home winning streak: BAKER AND JARRETT Former Texas Tech walk-on Baker Mayfield, the junior in his first season as Oklahoma’s quarterback, has thrown for

2,812 yards with 28 touchdowns and only four interceptions. He has at least three TDs in seven games.

Baylor true freshman Jarrett Stidham threw for 419 yards and three TDs last week in a win at Kansas State, his first start replacing injured Seth Russell.

RUNNING SOONERS Running backs Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon have combined for 200 yards rushing per game with 11 rushing TDs in Oklahoma’s winning streak.

SERVING HIS TIME Baylor passing game coordinator Jeff Lebby will not be in the pressbox for the first half. He is serving a one-half suspension for being on the sideline during an Oklahoma game earlier this season when the Bears were off and he was in Oklahoma for a wedding. The Big 12 issued a public reprimand

TEXAS Continued from Page 1B and accepted the school’s self-imposed penalty.

BEATING THE BEST Baylor is 8-0 at home against Top 25 teams since the start of the 2011 season, including two wins over Oklahoma. The Sooners won the first 20 meetings in the series until a game-winning pass by Robert Griffin III in the 2011 game that pretty much clinched the quarterback the Heisman Trophy. The Bears have won three of the last four meetings.

BIG NUMBERS Oklahoma has outscored its last four opponents by an average margin of 45.5 points and outgained them by 364 total yards. Baylor is the nation’s top offense with 665.6 yards and 57 points a game, though the Bears over their past four games have won only by an average margin of 27 points.

at home last week. Now the Longhorns are making a 1,400-mile trek to take on a West Virginia team with its own ups-and-downs. The Mountaineers started the season 3-0 before losing to four ranked teams in October.

Texas coach Charlie Strong is worried about West Virginia’s offense, too.

The Mountaineers piled up 300 rushing yards in a 31-26 win over Texas Tech last week.

BOWL HOPES Both teams need two wins to qualify for a bowl.

After West Virginia, the Longhorns host Texas Tech on Thanksgiving and end the regular season at undefeated Baylor. WVU also plays Kansas and Kansas State on the road, sandwiched around a home game with Iowa State.

TEXAS QBs Texas redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard threw for 201

yards and a score against Kansas, while former starter Tyrone Swoopes, used primarily in short-yardage situations, had four TD runs and a scoring pass.

But Texas managed just 204 total yards in a 24-0 loss the week before to Iowa State.

NOVEMBER TO FORGET West Virginia is 4-9 in November since joining the Big 12 in 2012.

ROAD WOES Texas has been outscored 112-10 in three losses in true road games. The Longhorns beat Oklahoma on a neutral field in Dallas.

STRONG’S RETURN Strong was Louisville’s head coach in 2011 when the Cardinals beat West Virginia in Morgantown when both teams were in the Big East. “When we get there, it’s all about us just locking in and getting focused,” Strong said. “It’s a really tough environment.”

concerned or alarmed me,” Linehan said. “Like riding a bike, he’s going to be ready to go.”

Probably no more scout team work for Romo, starting next week.

NOTES: LB Sean Lee (concussion) was ruled out Friday against the Buccaneers, and fellow LBs Rolando McClain (hand, foot) and Anthony Hitchens (ankle) are questionable. If McClain and Hitchens don’t play, Dallas’ depth at

linebacker will be severely tested. ... A day after Bryant had several profanity-laced tirades at reporters in the locker room, coach Jason Garrett said the receiver “didn’t handle that situation the right way” and that they had discussed it. He said Bryant was receptive to the message. “I believe that 100 percent of our guys do things the right way about 98 percent of the time,” Garrett said.

ROMO Continued from Page 1B “You knew that Tom wasn’t coming back for the year, and we’ve known that Tony was going to come back at some point,” said Cassel, who struggled in the first two starts but is coming off his best outing, despite an interception that played a key role in Philadelphia’s overtime win last weekend.

“But at the same time, you do what you can with the time that you get.”

Since Cassel obviously

still needed first-team work in practice, most of Romo’s time in game simulations in practice was with the scout team. He was doing that as early as last week, the first week he was eligible to practice while still on the injured list with a designation for return.

Romo briskly jogged onto the practice field a few minutes late Friday, with All-Pro receiver Dez Bryant just behind him,

and eagerly called for a ball before he had reached the quarterback group making soft warm-up tosses. Romo hasn’t had a session with reporters since he was injured.

“We’re anxious to get him back,” tight end Jason Witten said. “He’s our franchise quarterback, our leader, but our focus has been on this week of getting the win and getting ourselves back in position.

We’re worried about next

week when we get there with him coming back.”

Offensive coordinator Scott Linehan says Romo looks “close to being 100 percent” in practice. And while Linehan’s primary focus is the weekly work with Cassel, he’s doing a little peeking ahead himself as well.

“We have a plan each day and I kept an eye on him ... just to see he looked the same and I didn’t see anything that

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015

Dear Heloise: When my husband and I would go see a 3-D MOVIE, I used to get motion sickness from wearing the "adult" 3-D glasses that the theater provides.

Rather than not go, I decided to try the "child" 3-D glasses. These are smaller and hug my face more closely (blocking the peripheral) – they work like magic! Awesome! We can sit back and enjoy the movie; no more feeling bad!

I also always bring earplugs in case the movie is too loud or deafening – works great!

Lastly, because movie theaters are so cold, I bring a light jacket for both my husband and me. This makes seeing the movie so much more enjoyable, temperaturewise! Thanks so much. – Pamela V., The Villages, Fla. Pamela, I’m with you on two out of three: earplugs (even for the LOUD movie next door) and a large, lightweight shawl for me.

The shawl can cover cold legs, drape my neck or just my shoulders. Alas, no 3-D

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

movies for me, even with the special glasses. I was born cross-eyed, and all I see is a flat screen. I still can enjoy the movie, but when everyone else is "ohing" and "ahing," I’m "whating?" – Heloise EARDROPS FOR CAT Dear Heloise: When I put eardrops in my kitty’s ears or put liquid flea medicine on her skin, I measure out the drops onto a spoon and apply. It’s easier and more exact than using a dropper or squeezing a tube. – Ann S., via email If your cat is happy, then go for it. However, when measuring out liquid medicine, especially for a cat or a very small dog, you must be exact, and a dropper is the best way.

The ointment for ears is a little different. I used to put it on my little finger, then gently pat in on the inside of our dogs’ ears. Of course, I "patted" the other ear, too, so they thought it was a love rub. – Heloise

4B THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015