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Director resigns Alfonso Casso steps down after 4 years By GABRIELA A. TREVIÑO THE ZAPATA TIMES
Photo by Julián Aguilar | Texas Tribune
Texas Department of Public Safety officers patrol Anzalduas Park as part of Operation Strong Safety.
South Texas Food Bank Executive Director Alfonso Casso has resigned from his position. The board has named founding member, Erasmo Villarreal, as the interim. The organization was formed in 1989 by Villarreal, Odie Arambula and Galo Garcia to help alleviate the issue of hunger in the region, according
the South Texas Food Bank, Casso worked at Lowe’s for ten years, where he took on various management positions. Prior to working at Lowe’s, he worked in wholesale grocery for 30 years with the familyowned company, Casso Guerra. During Casso’s time as Executive Director, he said the organization was
Border surge could BOARD OF EDUCATION continue TEXTBOOKS NOT APPROVED CASSO
VILLARREAL
to southtexasfoodbacnk.org. Casso was the Execu-
tive Director for the past four years. Prior to his position at
See FOOD BANK PAGE 12A
Perry, Straus, Dewhurst agree on spending to protect border By JULIÁN AGUILAR TEXAS TRIBUNE
The surge of state law enforcement on Texas’ southern border will continue through August if a request made by the state’s top leaders is approved next month by budget writers. Gov. Rick Perry announced Tuesday that he, House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst had reached an agreement that will cost about $86 million. If approved by the Legislative Budget Board, that spending will not need a green light from incoming lawmakers, who are set to gavel in in January. The state’s deployment began in June as a response to the crush of undocumented immigrants from Central America seeking illegal entry into Texas through the Rio Grande Valley. The state’s leadership said at the time that the law enforcement build-up — which including Department of Public Safety troopers, and later, the Texas National Guard — was to prevent transnational gangs and human smugglers from taking advantage of U.S. Border Patrol agents who were overwhelmed with the influx of immigrants and unable to concentrate on their duties. The latest proposal will extend the current border
security initiative beyond the Rio Grande Valley to other parts of the border. Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said due to operational and security concerns, the governor’s office could not say where specifically the additional resources will go. But she added that various mobile units will be deployed wherever the need arises. The $86 million will go toward expanded shifts for Texas Department of Public Safety officers that will equal about 650 full-time positions. It will also go toward new technology and patrol boats, additional Texas National Guard troops, and Texas Parks and Wildlife agents. “Texas has proven beyond any doubt that this border can be secured, even if the federal government refuses to take the steps necessary to do so as required by the Constitution,” Perry said in a statement. “This agreement will ensure the hardworking men and women from DPS, the Texas National Guard and Texas Parks and Wildlife, who have been working with local and federal partners, have the resources they need to maintain a robust law enforcement presence along the border until the Legislature can act.”
See SURGE PAGE 12A
Photo by Eric Gay | AP
MerryLynn Gerstenschlager takes notes as she listens to testimony before the Texas Board of Education during a final public hearing raising objections to proposed history books Tuesday in Austin.
Many schools purchase books on their own By WILL WEISSERT
A final, potentially tense vote will now come Friday, with the board no closer to settling on books for Texas’ 5 million-plus public school students. Some academics and activists have for months worried that many of the books exaggerate the influence of Moses and other biblical figures on American democracy. Conservative groups, meanwhile, said many ignore connections between radical Islam and modern terrorism. However, more school districts and public char-
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Amid charges of bias from the right and left, the Texas Board of Education has failed to grant preliminary approval for any of the around 100 new history and social studies textbooks up for use in classrooms statewide. The Republican-controlled board tried Tuesday night to pass all but two of the proposed books. But that effort failed 5-4, including four abstentions. One member was absent.
ter schools are utilizing a 2011 law allowing them to purchase books on their own with or without board approval — a measure that partially grew out of some lawmakers’ distaste for the board’s vetting process. Already the new purchasing option has become more prominent than the traditional method in which the state directly supplies approved textbooks to public schools. This school year, Texas districts spent $284 million getting both board-approved and non-approved materials independently
before seeking state reimbursement — 3.7 percent more than what the state spent on providing approved-only textbooks. “I think the gate has opened. I don’t think it’s wide open yet, but I think some are starting to walk through it,” said education board member Thomas Ratliff, a Mount Pleasant Republican. “I do see it happening more and more.” Determining the exact amount of non-approved books reaching classrooms
See TEXTBOOKS PAGE 12A
MISSING STUDENTS
Protests, riots spread across Mexico By JOSHUA PARTLOW THE WASHINGTON POST
AYOTZINAPA, Mexico — On the day that pipe-wielding rioters set fire to a government accounting office and ransacked the state congress building, Felipe de la Cruz stepped to the microphone in the floodlit plaza of his missing son’s school. The protests about his son and dozens of others abducted by police had been building for weeks. The next morning, caravans of buses would drive out of these wooded hills to spread their defiant message to far corners of Mex-
ico, as protesters in different states blocked highways, seized town squares, closed airports, and burned cars and buildings. "The parents are enraged by so much waiting and so few results," De la Cruz, who has emerged as a spokesman for the victims’ families, told the crowd last Wednesday. As of Monday, he said, "the flame of insurgency has been lit." In the seven weeks since police drove away with Cruz’s 19-year-old son, Angel, and 42 of his classmates at a teachers’ college in the rural state of Guerrero, the localized rage of
“
The parents are enraged by so much waiting and so few results." FELIPE DE LA CRUZ, SPOKESMAN
their relatives at the forced disappearances has flashed across the country and the world, drawing condemnations from everyone from President Barack Obama to Pope Francis. The crime has captured Mexico’s attention unlike nearly any other atrocity in the recent
years of brutal drug-war violence, and spawned a protest movement that has shown no signs of abating. President Enrique Peña Nieto, who returned this weekend from an extended trip abroad, is now facing the most acute crisis of his two years in office.
The demand to find the students and punish those responsible for their disappearance has broadened into a more diverse fury about corrupt politicians and their drug-trafficking cronies, the economic and education reforms pushed by Peña Nieto, and the enrichment of the political class as poverty persists in states such as Guerrero. The outrage reflects deep distrust of the new government, which has emphasized that security is improving, even as large swaths of the country remain under the control of drug cartels and more than 20,000 people are officially
counted as missing. "It is not violence to burn a government building that isn’t an institution, that’s a white elephant that doesn’t serve the interests of the people," said a protest leader who said his name was Carlos, wearing a skeleton mask and aviator sunglasses as he prepared to march through the Guerrero capital of Chilpancingo. "The real violence is the assassination of our comrades. And we will not give up this fight." The protests have spread far beyond the rural towns and villages where they
See PROTESTS PAGE 12A
PAGE 2A
Zin brief CALENDAR
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014
AROUND TEXAS
TODAY IN HISTORY
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 19
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Laredo Animal Protective Society’s first annual membership meeting. 5:30 p.m. at the Laredo Public Library multi purpose room. 1120 E. Calton Rd. Call 956-206-4229
Today is Wednesday, Nov. 19, the 323rd day of 2014. There are 42 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln paid tribute to the fallen from the Battle of Gettysburg as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania. On this date: In 1600, King Charles I of England was born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. In 1794, the United States and Britain signed Jay’s Treaty, which resolved some issues left over from the Revolutionary War. In 1919, the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles (vehrSY’) by a vote of 55 in favor, 39 against, short of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification. In 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made the second manned landing on the moon. In 1984, some 500 people died in a firestorm set off by a series of explosions at a petroleum storage plant on the edge of Mexico City. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva. In 1990, the pop duo Milli Vanilli were stripped of their Grammy Award because other singers had lent their voices to the “Girl You Know It’s True” album. In 1997, Iowa seamstress Bobbi McCaughey (mih-KOY’) gave birth to septuplets, four boys and three girls. The space shuttle Columbia zoomed into orbit on a twoweek science mission. Ten years ago: A notorious NBA brawl that came to be known as the “Malice at the Palace” erupted as Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson of the Indiana Pacers charged into the stands and fought with Detroit Pistons fans, forcing officials to end the Pacers’ 9782 win with 45.9 seconds left. Five years ago: President Barack Obama wrapped up his weeklong Asia trip in South Korea, where he said the United States had begun talking with allies about fresh punishment against Iran for defying efforts to halt its nuclear weapons pursuits. One year ago: Suicide bombers struck the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, killing 23 people, including a diplomat, and injuring more than 140 others. Today’s Birthdays: Actor Alan Young is 95. Talk show host Larry King is 81. Former General Electric chief executive Jack Welch is 79. Talk show host Dick Cavett is 78. Broadcasting and sports mogul Ted Turner is 76. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson is 73. Fashion designer Calvin Klein is 72. Broadcast journalist Ann Curry is 58. Former NASA astronaut Eileen Collins is 58. Actress Meg Ryan is 53. Actress-director Jodie Foster is 52. Olympic gold medal runner Gail Devers is 48. Rock musician Travis McNabb is 45. Country singer Billy Currington is 41. Rhythm-and-blues singer Lil’ Mo is 37. Actor Adam Driver is 31. Actress Samantha Futerman is 27. Rapper Tyga is 25. Thought for Today: “The misfortunes hardest to bear are these which never came.” — Christopher Morley, American author and journalist (1890-1957).
THURSDAY, NOV. 20 Villa San Agustin de Laredo Genealogical Society presents “The Origin of the Gonzalez Last Name” and American Indian Heritage Meeting. 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at St. John Neumann Catholic Church. Sanjuanita Martinez-Hunter at 722-3497. Pediatric Orthopedic Clinic by Dr. William Edwards from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. 12220 N. Malinche. Norma Rangel at program.manager@laredo.twcbc.com.
FRIDAY, NOV. 21 USTA Adult Open Tournament. Three day event. Market Tennis Courts. Cecy Abboud at 724-7179.
SATURDAY, NOV. 22 Rummage Sale. From 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Blessed Sacrament Church /Bartlett and Galveston St. Contact Rebecca Sepulveda at rsepulveda@stx.rr.com or go to catholicweb.com/Blessed_Sacrament. Spiritual Wisdom on Karma and Reincarnation. From 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Laredo Public Library, 1120 E. Calton. Contact Greg Pape / Aurora Gonzales at greg2u4@sbcglobal.net or go to the website www.Eckankar-Texas.org. Or call 210-831-7113. Planetarium movies. 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Science Center Planetarium. Claudia Herrera at claudia.herrera@tamiu.edu or www.tamiu.edu/planetarium.
MONDAY, NOV. 24 Monthly meeting of Laredo Parkinson’s Disease Support Group. 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Laredo Medical Center, Tower B, First Floor Community Center. Patients, caregivers and family members invited. Free info pamphlets available in Spanish and English. Richard Renner (English) at 645-8649 or Juan Gonzalez (Spanish) at 237-0666. Planetarium movies at TAMIU. 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Science Center Planetarium. Claudia Herrera at claudia.herrera@tamiu.edu or tamiu.edu/planetarium.
THURSDAY, NOV. 27 Register for the 35th Guajolote 10K Race. Register at Hamilton Trophies (1320 Garden), Hamilton Jewelry (607 Flores), or on-line at www.raceit.com, Guajolote 10K Race. Call 956-724-9990 or 956-722-9463.
TUESDAY, DEC. 2 South Texas Food Bank Fundraiser. 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Hal’s Landing. For information call 324-2432. Or visit the website southtexasfoodbank.org.
SATURDAY, DEC. 6 Trail clean up. 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. LCC Lamar Bruni Vergara Environmental Science Center. “Shine the Light on Hunger” Health Fair. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 4500 Marco Drive. Call 324-2432 or www.southtexasfoodbank.org.
SUNDAY, DEC. 7 Pet Fest Laredo 2014. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Laredo Civic Center. Woof@gopetfest.com.
Photo by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman | AP file
In this Nov. 23, 2010 file photo, shift supervisor Greg Moore works at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT in Austin. The operator of the electric distribution grid for most of Texas says a federal mandate to slash carbon emissions nationwide would jeopardize power reliability in Texas and raise costs for consumers.
EPA rule would be costly By EMILY SCHMALL ASSOCIATED PRESS
FORT WORTH — The electric distribution grid operator for most of Texas said Monday that a federal mandate to slash carbon emissions nationwide would challenge power reliability in Texas and raise consumer electricity costs by as much as 20 percent as half the state’s coal-fired power plants shut down. The state would have to invest billions in new transmission lines, and reliability might be jeopardized at peak times around cities if the plan is implemented as quickly as the federal agency has proposed, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said in a report Monday. Under the plan unveiled in June, Texas, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and industrial pollution in the nation, would need to cut emissions by 39 percent. The
Prosecutor: Texas inmate faked Ebola report
Prisons to alter rules on inmates who marry
7 injured in South Texas school bus crash
CORPUS CHRISTI — Prosecutors in South Texas plan to charge an inmate who they say caused an approximately fivehour lockdown at a county jail after claiming to have come into contact with the Ebola virus. Nueces County District Attorney Mark Skurka told The Corpus Christi Caller-Times on Monday that the 49-year-old man will be charged with giving a false report. Kaelin says the hoax cost the county more than $10,000.
HOUSTON — Texas prison officials are revising a policy that would allow inmates to be married inside a prison to someone who isn’t incarcerated. Inmates in Texas historically have been allowed to marry by proxy. But a recently enacted state law now requires both parties be present for a marriage ceremony, and U.S. Supreme Court rulings have upheld prisoners’ right to marry.
EDINBURG — A South Texas trooper says seven people including one student have been hospitalized after a school bus crashed into a car. The Department of Public Safety says the Edinburg school bus was transporting seven students from Vision Academy on Monday when its driver failed to yield to the car at an intersection. The student and 6 people in the car suffered minor injuries and were taken to area hospitals.
Woman sentenced for threatening to kill Obama HOUSTON — Federal authorities say a Houston woman has been sentenced to nearly two years in prison for mailing a letter that threatened the life of President Barack Obama. Fifty-six-year-old Teddy Bear Paradise was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Houston.
TUESDAY, DEC. 9 Monthly Orthopaedic Clinic. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. 1220 N. Malinche.Contact Norma Rangel at program.manager@laredo.twcbc.com. Prior registration is required.
FRIDAY, DEC. 12 “The Great Gatsby” Christmas Party, 7 p.m. Laredo Country Club. For more information contact Nancy De Anda at 763-9960.
SUNDAY, DEC. 21 “Ring we now of Christmas” from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. First United Methodist Church 1220 McClelland. Linda Mott at lmott@stx.rr.com or the church office at 722-1674.
MONDAY, DEC. 29 Monthly meeting of Laredo Parkinson’s Disease Support Group. 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Laredo Medical Center, Tower B, First Floor Community Center. Patients, caregivers and family members invited. Free info pamphlets available in Spanish and English. Richard Renner (English) at 645-8649.
EPA’s broader plan calls for a 30 percent nationwide reduction by 2030. In the short-term, ERCOT planner Warren Lasher said, retail electricity prices would increase because of more expensive energy supplies. Prices could rise as much as 20 percent, without accounting for the cost of investments in transmission lines and other infrastructure. “The ability to implement this plan or one like it is a good distance away,” Lasher said. However, EPA spokesman David Gray said the agency offers “a large toolbox is available to planners,” to ensure states and regions have adequate energy supplies. Gov.-elect Greg Abbott has repeatedly sued the EPA and has said the recent proposal is part of a “job-killing agenda” that threatens the state’s booming energy industry.
Texas man gets 50 years for killing wife EL PASO — An El Paso man who strangled his wife and left her hanging in a closet has been sentenced to 50 years in prison. A judge on Monday delivered the punishment to 36-year-old Antonio Brown, who pleaded guilty to murdering 32-year-old Yanira Caballero. Family members found her body inside the couple’s home on March 26, 2012.
Fugitive sex offender’s skull found by dog ID’d AUSTIN — Federal marshals say DNA tests have confirmed that a human skull found by a dog in southeastern Austin belonged to a fugitive sex offender who vanished after escaping a halfway house a year ago. Kevin Stoeser escaped the Austin Transitional Center in October 2013. — Compiled from AP reports
AROUND THE NATION Fast-tracked bill would shield execution drug COLUMBUS, Ohio — Opponents of a bill that would shield the source of Ohio’s lethal injection drugs along with most aspects of an execution have asked lawmakers to reject the proposal. The state public defender, the American Civil Liberties Union and Ohioans to Stop Executions all say it’s better to keep executions as open as possible. Supporters including prosecutors say the bill is needed to restart executions in Ohio as the state struggles to find execution drugs.
Juarez boy has massive tumor removed in US ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An 11-year-old Mexican boy who had been suffering from a massive tumor and came to New Mexico for treatment has had the growth removed.
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 Managing Editor, Nick Georgiou ................. 728-2565 Sports Editor, Zach Davis ..........................728-2578 Spanish Editor, Melva Lavin-Castillo............ 728-2569 Photo by Andrew Welsh-Huggins | AP
Jim Tobin, a lobbyist for the Catholic Conference of Ohio, asks lawmakers to reject a bill that would shield the source of execution drugs, on Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio. Kristean Alcocer of the First Baptist Church of Rio Rancho said the boy underwent surgery Monday at the University of New Mexico Children’s Hospital to remove the tumor from his neck, shoulder and torso area. Alcocer says the surgery last-
ed more than 12 hours and involved 25 medical professionals. In July 2012, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations assisted in picking up the boy and his parents from a neighborhood in Ciudad Juarez. — 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
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A
Two sentenced for sexual exploitation of a child SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
CORPUS CHRISTI — A woman from Zapata and man from Corpus Christi have been ordered to prison for the sexual exploitation of a child, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson said. Vanessa Cloud, 28, of Zapata, and Charles Cloud, 30, of Corpus Christi, both pleaded guilty in June 2014. Today, Senior U.S. District Judge Hayden Head sentenced Charles Cloud to 324 months in
federal prison, while Vanessa Cloud was ordered to serve a 240-month-term. Both were further ordered to serve 20 years of supervised release following completion of their prison term and must pay $150,000 in restitution. They will also be ordered to register as sex offenders. On Aug. 25, 2013, Vanessa Cloud contacted the Zapata County Sheriff ’s Office for help regarding a property dispute with her estranged husband
Charles Cloud. Charles, who had been residing and working in Corpus Christi, returned to Zapata to retrieve his belongings after his wife’s indication that she planned to divorce him. After law enforcement informed Vanessa Cloud that they could not intervene in such a dispute without a court order, Charles Cloud returned to Corpus Christi with the couple’s children. The next day, Vanessa Cloud informed authorities that while
they lived in Zapata, she had sexual intercourse with a young male relative while her husband videotaped it on a cellular telephone. The victim was identified and confirmed the abuse. Authorities conducted a search warrant and seized several electronic media storage devices from both Charles Cloud’s Corpus residence and the Zapata home. A forensic examination of the items led to the discovery of seven videos of children involved in sexual ex-
Mexico president: Wife to clear up home questions ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO CITY — President Enrique Peña Nieto said Tuesday that the first lady will clarify questions about a multimillion-dollar home that has raised concerns about possible conflict of interest, even as his government grapples with protests over the disappearance of 43 teachers college students. Speaking in Mexico State where he was governor before becoming president, Peña Nieto said reports about the Mexico City mansion, valued at an estimated $7 million, have led to “countless versions and falsehoods.” The website of journalist Carmen Aristegui was the first to report on the house, registered under Ingenieria Inmobiliaria del Centro, a subsidiary of Grupo Higa, which has benefited from public works contracts. Just days before publication, Peña Nieto’s government canceled a high-speed rail contract that had been granted to the sole bidder, a consortium that included Constructora Teya, another Grupo Higa compa-
plicit conduct. Both have remained in custody since their arrest and will remain there pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future. The charges against the Clouds were the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI, Corpus Christi Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Zapata County Sherriff ’s Office and Child Protective Services.
Rick Perry criminal case can proceed By CHUCK LINDELL AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Photo by Patrick Hamilton | AP
President of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto and first lady Angelica Rivera Hurtado arrive at Brisbane Airport ahead of the G-20 summit in Brisbane, Australia on Nov. 14. ny. The government later said the home in the capital’s most exclusive neighborhood belonged to first lady Angelica Rivera, a former actress. Peña Nieto said Tuesday that Rivera worked for 25 years to build up her own savings, and added that he has asked her to clear up any doubts.
“I hope that the clarification that my wife will personally give can make clear how it was that this property came about, something that was done based on her work,” he said. Peña Nieto did not specify when Rivera would address the matter publicly. The president also touched on the recent pro-
tests over the disappearance of the students, who investigators believe were seized by police, handed over to drug cartel thugs and then killed. Peña Nieto said that amid the sometimes violent demonstrations, he perceived an “orchestrated effort to destabilize” reforms that he is pushing.
AUSTIN — A state district judge refused to throw out the criminal charges against Texas Gov. Rick Perry, ruling Tuesday that special prosecutor Michael McCrum had been properly appointed to the case. Perry’s legal team argued that the charges must be voided because McCrum did not properly take his oath of office when he began working on the governor’s case, negating every act performed over the past 15 months - including the indictment accusing Perry of abusing the powers of his office. Senior District Judge Bert Richardson disagreed. "This court concludes that Mr. McCrum’s authority was not voided by the procedural irregularities in how and when the oath of office . was administered," Richardson’s order said. What’s more, Richardson ruled, Perry’s lawyers
waited too long to raise their objections to the way McCrum was sworn in more than a year ago. Richardson has yet to rule on a separate, broader challenge arguing that Perry’s charges should be tossed out because they were based on unconstitutional state laws and because they improperly criminalize politics and limit gubernatorial power. A ruling on that issue is still several weeks away. A Travis County grand jury indicted Perry in August on felony charges of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant. The indictment resulted from his threat last year to Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg to resign after her April 2013 drunken driving conviction or lose $7.5 million for the Public Integrity Unit housed in her office. Lehmberg refused to step down, and Perry carried out the threat by using his line-item veto authority in the state budget.
PAGE 4A
Zopinion
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO EDITORIAL@LMTONLINE.COM
EDITORIAL
OTHER VIEWS
A Cuban brain drain, thanks to US NEW YORK TIMES
Secretary of State John Kerry and the American ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, have praised the work of Cuban doctors dispatched to treat Ebola patients in West Africa. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently sent an official to a regional meeting the Cuban government convened in Havana to coordinate efforts to fight the disease. In Africa, Cuban doctors are working in American-built facilities. The epidemic has had the unexpected effect of injecting common sense into an unnecessarily poisonous relationship. And yet, Cuban doctors serving in West Africa today could easily abandon their posts, take a taxi to the nearest U.S. Embassy and apply for a littleknown immigration program that has allowed thousands of them to defect. Those who are accepted can be on American soil within weeks, on track to becoming United States citizens. There is much to criticize about Washington’s failed policies toward Cuba and the embargo it has imposed on the island for decades. But the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program, which in the last fiscal year enabled 1,278 Cubans to defect while on overseas assignments, a record number, is particularly hard to justify. It is incongruous for the United States to value the contributions of Cuban doctors who are sent by their government to assist in international crises like the 2010 Haiti earthquake while working to subvert that government by making defection so easy. American immigration policy should give priority to the world’s neediest refugees and persecuted people. It should not be used to exacerbate the brain drain of an adversarial nation at a time when improved relations between the two countries are a worthwhile, realistic goal. The program was introduced through executive authority in August 2006, when Emilio González, a hard-line Cuban exile, was at the helm of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. González described the labor of Cuban doctors abroad as "statesponsored human trafficking." At the time, the Bush administration was trying to cripple the Cuban government. Easily enabling medical personnel posted abroad to defect represented an opportunity to strike at the core of the island’s primary diplomatic tool, while embarrassing the Castro regime. Cuba has been using its medical corps as the nation’s main source of reve-
nue and soft power for many years. The country has one of the highest numbers of doctors per capita in the world and offers medical scholarships to hundreds of disadvantaged international students each year, and some have been from the United States. According to Cuban government figures, more than 440,000 of the island’s 11 million citizens are employed in the health sector. Havana gets subsidized oil from Venezuela and money from several other countries in exchange for medical services. This year, according to the staterun newspaper Granma, the government expects to make $8.2 billion from its medical workers overseas. The vast majority, just under 46,000, are posted in Latin America and the Caribbean. A few thousand are in 32 African countries. Medical professionals, like most Cubans, earn meager wages. Earlier this year, the government raised the salaries of medical workers. Doctors now earn about $60 per month, while nurses make nearly $40. Overseas postings allows these health care workers to earn significantly more. Doctors in Brazil, for example, are making about $1,200 per month. The 256 Cuban medical professionals treating Ebola patients in West Africa are getting daily stipends of roughly $240 from the World Health Organization. José Luis Di Fabio, the head of the WHO in Havana, said he was confident the doctors and nurses dispatched to Africa have gone on their own volition. "It was voluntary," Di Fabio, an Uruguayan whose organization has overseen their deployment, said in an interview. "Some backtracked at the last minute and there was no problem." Some doctors who have defected say they felt the overseas tours had an implicit element of coercion and have complained that the government pockets the bulk of the money it gets for their services. But the State Department says in its latest report on human trafficking that reported coercion of Cuban medical personnel does "not appear to reflect a uniform government policy." Even so, the Cuban government would be wise to compensate medical personnel more generously if their work overseas is to remain the island’s economic bedrock. Many medical professionals, like a growing number of Cubans, will continue to want to move to the U.S. in search of new opportunities, and they have every right to do so. But inviting them to defect while on overseas tours is going too far.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY The Zapata Times does not publish anonymous letters. To be published, letters must include the writer’s first and last names as well as a phone number to verify identity. The phone number IS NOT published; it is used solely to verify identity and to clarify content, if necessary. Identity of the letter writer must be verified before publication. We want to assure our readers that a letter is written by the person who signs the letter. The Zapata Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms. Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No name-calling or gratuitous abuse is allowed. Via e-mail, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.
EDITORIAL
Clear eyes on climate change THE WASHINGTON POST
Just before Republicans scored a big midterm-election victory two weeks ago, the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report that underscored the severity of the risk global warming poses and the level of certainty scientists have about their warnings. Then, shortly following the GOP’s win, President Barack Obama concluded a historic agreement with China on climate change, undercutting Republican arguments that cutting emissions here would be useless because China wouldn’t sacrifice along with the United States. Despite all of this, since the election Republican leaders have continued to indulge in hysterical "war on coal" rhetoric, and they attacked the climate breakthrough in Beijing. They still appear determined to repeal the country’s climate policies rather than replacing those policies with cheaper and more effective options, such as the marketbased carbon-pricing pro-
grams that authentic conservatives would favor. Americans deserve leaders who will govern with clear eyes about a range of potential hazards, particularly those over which humans have direct control. Whether out of cynicism, callousness or ignorance, Republicans over the past decade have instead indulged and encouraged shortsighted naysayers and climate conspiracists in the face of grave climate forecasts. If they continue with this nonsense, they will risk disqualifying themselves with voters who expect rationality from their elected representatives. Scientists could not be clearer about the need to act. Here are just a few of the IPCC’s conclusions: "Human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history. Recent climate changes have had widespread impacts on human and natural systems." "Many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean
have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen." "From 2000 to 2010 emissions were the highest in history. Historical emissions have driven atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, to levels that are unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years." "Human influence has been detected in warming of the atmosphere and the ocean, in changes in the global water cycle, in reductions in snow and ice, and in global mean sea-level rise; and it is extremely likely to have been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century." "In recent decades, changes in climate have caused impacts on natural and human systems on all continents and across the oceans." "Changes in many extreme weather and climate events have been observed since about 1950. Some of these changes have been linked to human influences, including a decrease in cold
temperature extremes, an increase in warm temperature extremes, an increase in extreme high sea levels and an increase in the number of heavy precipitation events in a number of regions." "Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and longlasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems. Limiting climate change would require substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions which, together with adaptation, can limit climate change risks." During the campaign, soon-to-be Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, RKy., spoke a lot about the "war on coal" but dodged questions about the damage coal burning does to human welfare. "I’m not a scientist," he told reporters. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, struck a similar note. Their scientific qualifications have never been the question. Their suitability for leadership still is.
EDITORIAL
Stumbling alone into immigration THE WASHINGTON POST
Democrats urging President Barack Obama to "go big" in his executive order on immigration might pause to consider the following scenario: It is 2017. Newly elected President Ted Cruz, R, insists he has won a mandate to repeal Obamacare. The Senate, narrowly back in Democratic hands, disagrees. Cruz instructs the Internal Revenue Service not to collect a fine from anyone who opts out of the individual mandate to buy
health insurance, thereby neutering a key element of the program. It is a matter of prosecutorial discretion, Cruz explains; tax cheats are defrauding the government of billions, and he wants the IRS to concentrate on them. Of course, he is willing to modify his order as soon as Congress agrees to fix what he considers a "broken" health system. That is not a perfect analogy to Obama’s proposed action on immigration. But it captures the unilateral spirit that Obama seems to have
embraced since Republicans swept to victory in the midterm elections. He is vowing to go it alone on immigration. On Iran, he is reportedly designing an agreement that he need not bring to Congress. He already has gone that route on climate change with China. The legal or constitutional case for each is different, but the rationales overlap: Congress is broken, so Obama must act. Two-thirds of Americans did not vote in the midterms, and the president must represent them, too. He has tried compro-
mise, and the Republicans spurned him. We will not relitigate that last contention except to note that behind the legislative disappointments of the past six years lies fault on both sides. The bigger point is this: In an era of fierce partisanship and close division, there will always be a temptation to postpone legislating until after the next election and to spend the intervening two years jockeying for political advantage. But a knockout blow will remain out of reach for both sides.
CLASSIC DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014
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Fracking OK’d in national forest By BROCK VERGAKIS ASSOCIATED PRESS
NORFOLK, Va. — Over the objection of environmental groups and Virginia’s governor, a federal management plan released Tuesday will allow a form of natural gas drilling known as fracking to occur in parts of the largest national forest on the East Coast. The U.S. Forest Service originally planned to ban fracking in the 1.1 millionacre George Washington National Forest, but energy companies cried foul after a draft of the plan was released in 2011. It would have been the first outright ban on the practice in a national forest. “We think we’ve ended up in a much better place, which is we are allowing oil and gas drilling,” Robert Bonnie, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s undersecretary for natural resources and environment, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “From a policy perspective, the Forest Service allows fracking on forest lands throughout the country. We didn’t want to make a policy decision or change policy related to fracking. This decision is about where it’s appropriate to do oil and gas leasing.” Land in national forests is commonly leased out for commercial and recreational purposes, such as mining, timber, and skiing. The plan also addresses timber acreage, wildlife habitat and waterways. Under the new plan, which is subject to appeal, drilling will only be permitted on 167,000 acres where there are existing private mineral rights and on about 10,000 acres that are already leased to oil and gas companies. The leased acreage is in Highland County, while the pri-
Photo by Brennan Llinsley | AP file
In this Dec. 2006, file photo, a shackled detainee is transported by guards away from his annual review hearing with U.S. officials.
Photo by Nikki Fox/Daily News-Record | AP file
In this May 10, 2013 photo, Lynn Cameron of Mount Crawford, Va., looks out at the view while hiking the Mines Run Trail, which is in the George Washington National Forest in Rockingham County, Va.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
vate mineral rights are scattered throughout the forest. Many local government officials near the forest objected to allowing any drilling, and in September, Gov. Terry McAuliffe told the inaugural meeting of a climate change panel that he wouldn’t allow fracking in the forest as long as he was governor. Ken Arney, a regional manager for the U.S. Forest Service whose area includes the George Washington National Forest, had the final word on the plan. It is the first time the management plan has been updated since 1993. Among other things, it eliminates the potential for oil and gas leases on 985,000 acres where it was previously allowed. Arney said local objections led to that decision. The forest is located in Virginia, although about 100,000 acres of it extend into West Virginia. Bonnie said energy companies could already have been drilling on the land they’re leasing, but nobody has wanted to. “The economic value of
Hundreds of rape cases to reopen By CAIN BURDEAU ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS — The mayor of New Orleans says hundreds of rape and child abuse cases that went largely ignored by five police detectives over a three-year period will be reopened and thoroughly investigated. Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Tuesday that a special team of police officers would reopen hundreds of mishandled cases uncovered by a city inspector general’s audit that was released last week. The report charged five detectives failed to do substantial investigation of more than 1,000 sex crimes and child abuse cases. “I can’t express how
angry and frustrated I am about the findings in this report,” Landrieu said. He called the accusations against the detectives “a disgrace.” The inspector general’s report found that the detectives classified 65 percent of the cases they received as “miscellaneous,” for which no report at all was written. The inspectors said those cases could not be examined due to the “total void of information.” The report identified 271 other cases where the detectives did some initial investigative work but failed to file a follow-up report. Police said the new task force would focus first on reopening those cases.
Early winter pummels north By CAROLYN THOMPSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Several feet of lake-effect snow paralyzed the Buffalo area Tuesday, forcing state troopers on snowmobiles to deliver blankets to stranded motorists on the New York State Thruway on a wintry day when temperatures fell to freezing or below in all 50 states. In a region accustomed to highway-choking snowstorms, this one is being called one of the worst in memory. Snow blown by strong winds forced the closing of a 132-mile stretch of the Thruway, the main highway across New York state. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said about 140 vehicles were stuck. Troopers used snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles to deliver supplies, state police Capt. Ed Kennedy said.
Use of women guards on hold
“Other than wishing they weren’t stuck in traffic, they’re warm and safe in their vehicles,” Kennedy said. Poloncarz was expecting the remaining motorists to be evacuated by nightfall because of plunging temperatures. Meteorologists say temperatures in all 50 states fell to freezing or below on Tuesday. They say the low temperatures were more reminiscent of January than November. In New Hampshire and elsewhere, icy roads led to accidents. Lake-effect storms in Michigan produced gale-force winds and as much as 18 inches of snow, and canceled several flights at the Grand Rapids airport. Schools closed in the North Carolina mountains amid blustery winds and ice-coated roads. In Indiana, three firefighters were hurt when a semitrailer hit a fire truck on a snowy highway.
these reserves is very low. We’ve had very little interest on oil and gas on the forest,” Bonnie said. The decision was highly anticipated by environmentalists and the energy industry because about half the national forest sits atop the Marcellus shale formation. The formation is home to a vast deposit of natural gas running from upstate New York to West Virginia and yields more than $10 billion worth of gas annually. A sliver of the formation extends into northwest Virginia. The Forest Service said before any drilling in the forest occurs, additional environmental analysis and opportunities for public comment would occur. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a drilling technique to extract oil and gas from the shale by injecting high-pressure mixtures of water, sand or gravel, and chemicals. Environmental groups fear the drilling would pollute mountain streams that directly provide drinking water to about 260,000 people in the Shenandoah Valley. Another 2.7 million
people in Northern Virginia and Washington rely upon the forest for a portion of their water supply. An industry group, The American Petroleum Institute, has said hydraulic fracturing can be done safely and that the drilling poses no risk to groundwater. The science on the impact of fracking has not been conclusive. Besides fears that drilling and its waste would foul pristine mountain streams, opponents have also argued that the trucks, wells and other infrastructure that would come with gas drilling are incompatible with the forest’s primary attractions of hiking, fishing, hunting, camping, tourism and its abundant wildlife. The forest includes a section of the Appalachian Trail and attracts more than 1 million visitors annually. It is also home to the headwaters of the James and Potomac rivers, which feed into the Chesapeake Bay. The estuary is amid a multibillion-dollar, multistate restoration directed by the Environmental Protection Agency.
MIAMI — A resolution of a dispute over the use of female guards inside the secret Camp 7 at the Guantanamo Bay prison will have to wait until at least January, a U.S. military judge ruled Tuesday. Navy Capt. J.K. Waits agreed to a request by lawyers for an alleged al-Qaida commander to put off a hearing on the issue at the U.S. base in Cuba, according to Army Lt. Col. Myles B. Caggins, a Pentagon spokesman. Lawyers for Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi asked to put it off because of delays collecting evidence. Judge Waits left in place, over the objections of government prosecutors, an earlier order that requires the military to only use male guards to move al-Hadi at least while he considers whether to issue a permanent injunction. Al-Hadi is facing trial by military commission at Guantanamo for war crimes. The case is in the pretrial stage and a trial date has not been scheduled. His lawyers say al-Hadi
began refusing to meet with in recent months because the military had resumed including female guards among the escort teams that move him around the prison. His lawyers took it up with the judge, arguing that the issue was a violation of his Muslim faith, which prohibits physical contact with females unless he is related or married to them, and interfered with his legal representation on charges that could get him life in prison. The objection to physical contact with female guards has also been raised by several other prisoners held in Camp 7, a secret unit for about 15 men designated by the Pentagon as “high-value detainees” but has not yet come before a judge handling their cases. The U.S. holds a total of 148 prisoners at the U.S. base. Military officials say it would amount to gender discrimination to ban women from taking part in the escorting of prisoners inside Camp 7. Prosecutors argued in a written motion that taking women out of the rotation would also “place additional strain and responsibilities” on the male guard force.
Senate votes no on Keystone By DAVID ESPO AND DINA CAPPIELLO ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — In a combustible blend of oil and politics, the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected legislation Tuesday night aimed at forcing completion of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Republicans vowed to resurrect the controversial issue swiftly after taking two-house control of Congress in January. The 59-41 Senate vote was one shy short of the 60 needed to clear the Housepassed measure. The outcome marked a severe blow to embattled Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who had seized control of the chamber’s agenda in hopes of securing approval of the project and boosting her chances in an uphill Dec. 6 runoff election in her energy-rich state. All 45 Senate Republicans supported the legislation to build the Canada-toTexas pipeline. Only 14 of 55 Democrats and allied independents joined them, a total that didn’t budge despite an appeal delivered by the Louisiana Democrat behind closed doors a few hours before the vote. The vote was one of the last acts of this Senate controlled by the Democrats. It is expected to complete its work by mid-December. But Republicans said a pipeline replay with the potential to spark a veto confrontation with President Barack Obama would be coming — and soon. “I wish the Senate would have followed the lead of Congressman Cassidy and his House colleagues in approving Keystone years ago. It’s just common sense,” Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said in advance of the vote. With no passage Tuesday night, “a new majority will be taking this matter up and sending it to the president” in the new year, McConnell said. Rep. Bill Cassidy is Landrieu’s opponent in the runoff election. He was the lead sponsor of an identical bill that cleared the House last week.
Photo by J. Scott Applewhite | AP
Prior to the Senate’s vote on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, RKy., center, flanked by Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, left, and Sen. John Barrasso. While Obama opposes the measure, likely 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has repeatedly refused to take a position. Most recently, her spokesman did not respond to two requests over the weekend to do so. Among Senate Democrats, 14 had publicly announced their support for the bill in the hours before the vote, but several whom Landrieu had hoped would provide the critical 60th vote needed for passage failed to step forward. Among retiring lawmakers. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Tom Harkin of Iowa all said in advance they would oppose the bill. Sen. Angus King, IMaine, who opened the door on Monday to becoming the 60th vote, slammed it shut a few hours later. Several Democrats said the issue was discussed at some length at a weekly closed-door meeting of the party’s senators. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a supporter of the bill, said Landrieu pointed out that “this vote is going to happen, whether it happens now or it happens in January, same outcome, so why not do it now? She brought it to a head.” The project would move oil from Canada into the
United States and eventually to the Gulf Coast. Supporters say it would create jobs and ease American dependence on Middle East oil. A government environmental impact statement also predicts that a pipeline would result in less damage to the climate than moving the same oil by rail. Critics argue that the drilling itself is environmentally harmful, and said much of the Canadian crude would be exported with little or no impact on America’s drive for energy stability. At the White House, press secretary Josh Earnest said the measure is something “the president doesn’t support because the president believes that this is something that should be determined through the State Department and the regular process that is in place to evaluate projects like this.” Trailing in polls before the runoff and heavily outspent in the television ad wars, she has seized control of the Senate’s agenda in recent days at the same time she pursues her campaign. On the home front, Landrieu’s campaign announced during the day that musician Stevie Wonder would perform at a fundraiser on her behalf. In the Senate, she has re-
peatedly cast herself as an independent lawmaker willing to stand up to Democratic leaders as well as the White House. Even strong Democratic opponents of the legislation credited Landrieu with making the effort to score a major victory for her oilrich home state. “Let the record be clear forever that this debate would not be before this body if not for Sen. Landrieu’s insistence,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer of California. That was as far as it went, though. Boxer strongly opposed the project in remarks on the floor. In political terms, Republicans looked like they were in a win-win position, assured of dividing Democrats no matter the outcome, and in a position to force Obama to veto the legislation in the new year if it comes to that. The proposed pipeline would run 1,179 miles from the Canadian tar sands to Gulf coast refineries. It has been at the center of a struggle since Calgarybased TransCanada proposed it in 2008. The most recent delay was caused by a lawsuit filed in Nebraska over its proposed route. The delays have caused friction between the U.S. and Canada, which is interested in exporting its growing oil sands production.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014
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NFL suspends Peterson Vikings star running back to miss remainder of the season By DAVE CAMPBELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
MINNEAPOLIS — Adrian Peterson’s future with the Minnesota Vikings dimmed further Tuesday, with the NFL suspending the star running back without pay for at least the rest of the season. As his representatives initiated an appeal, Peterson remained at the center of an escalating dispute between the league and the NFL Players Association over the player discipline process. Commissioner Roger Goodell told Peterson he will not be considered for reinstatement before April 15 for his violation of the NFL personal conduct policy — the first example of a crackdown on players involved with domestic violence. The NFLPA quickly announced it would immediately appeal, calling for a neutral arbitrator to handle it, and sharply rebuked the league for what it labeled as inconsistency and unfairness in determining the discipline. The NFL’s words
were even stronger, with a nearly 1,600-word statement spelling out the conditions for Peterson’s path to return to the field and describing the reasons for the stiff punishment. Peterson pleaded no contest Nov. 4 to misdemeanor reckless assault in Texas for injuries to his 4-year-old son with a wooden switch. He said he intended no harm, only discipline. Peterson was on a special exempt list at the sole discretion of Goodell, essentially paid leave while the case went through the legal system. The NFLPA said Peterson was told that would count as time served toward a suspension, citing an unidentified NFL executive. League spokesman Brian McCarthy said the stay on the exempt list was taken into account. “There were aggravating circumstances that led to the discipline announced,” McCarthy said. Peterson’s salary for the season was $11.75 million. He will keep the money accrued while on the exempt list. But the NFL’s punishment has now amounted to
Photo by Ann Heisenfelt | AP
Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson has been suspended without pay for at least the remainder of the season. a 14-game ban, with six unpaid weeks. That’s the equivalent of a fine of more than $4.1 million. Peterson’s agent, Ben Dogra, told The Associated Press he and his client were scheduled for a conference call Tuesday with the NFLPA to discuss options. “We look forward to filing an immediate appeal and coming to a resolution for Adrian Peterson that would be appropriate under the circumstances,” Dogra said. The Vikings don’t practice Tuesdays. The organi-
zation issued a brief statement: “We respect the league’s decision and will have no further comment at this time.” Goodell announced Aug. 28 tougher punishment for players involved with domestic violence. That action stemmed from a torrent of criticism for the initial leniency toward Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice following a caught-on-camera knockout punch of the woman who is now his wife. Rice was later suspended indefinitely and recently had his appeal heard
by an arbitrator. According to the enhanced policy, first offenses of assault, battery or domestic violence bring a sixgame suspension. Aggravating circumstances warrant higher levels of discipline, and Goodell’s letter to Peterson spelled that out. Goodell pointed to the child’s age and the significant physical difference between Peterson and his son. “Further, the injury inflicted on your son includes the emotional and psychological trauma to a young child who suffers criminal physical abuse at the hands of his father,” Goodell wrote. “Second, the repetitive use of a switch in this instance is the functional equivalent of a weapon, particularly in the hands of someone with the strength of an accomplished professional athlete.” Goodell also came down on Peterson for showing “no meaningful remorse” for hurting the boy and expressed concern that he “may feel free to engage in similar conduct in the future.” The injuries to the boy
occurred in May. Peterson was indicted on a felony child abuse charge in September, a few days after rushing for 75 yards in the season opener. The Vikings put him on the inactive list for the next game, just as they would for players who are injured or backups. The day after, they announced he would resume playing until completion of his due process in court. But with the Rice backlash as a backdrop, Peterson, the Vikings and the NFL were inundated by protest, including corporations canceling sponsorships. The Vikings relented and less than two days later the league placed him on the exempt list. The union has accused the league of overstepping bounds spelled out in the collective bargaining agreement. Peterson will turn 30 in March. There are three years and $45 million remaining on his contract, but none of it is guaranteed. The Vikings would take only a $2.4 million hit on their 2015 salary cap if they cut him before next season.
International
8A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014
4 killed Ebola patient Israel on edge after 5 isolated in India killed in synagogue in Puerto Rico ASSOCIATED PRESS
By DANICA COTO ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Gunmen killed a retired Army sergeant and three members of his family, Puerto Rico police said Tuesday. A 13-year-old son survived despite being stabbed and thrown off a bridge. At least two suspects were involved in the fatal shooting of 67-year-old Miguel Ortiz Diaz, his wife, and his mother-in-law at the family home in the U.S. territory’s upscale city of Guaynabo just southwest of the capital of San Juan, police officer Maritza Ramos said. The suspects took two teenage sons of the couple to the neighboring city of Bayamon, where a 15-yearold son was fatally shot. A 13-year-old son survived after being stabbed and thrown over a bridge when the gun one of the attackers was using ran out of bullets, Police Superintendent Jose Caldero said. The boy was able to reach someone at a nearby house who then called 911 early Tuesday, officials said. Two people have turned themselves in, including a 27-year-old man. “We already have concrete evidence that he was involved in the killing,” Caldero said of one of the suspects. No charges have been filed. Caldero said police do not have a motive yet but are investigating whether Ortiz was killed by people who were renting a house he owned and were facing eviction because they had fallen behind on the rent. Ortiz had been a professor for nearly 20 years at Puerto Rico’s American Military Academy.
NEW DELHI — A 26year-old Indian man who recovered from Ebola in Liberia has been placed in isolation at the New Delhi airport after traces of the virus were found in his semen, India’s Health Ministry said Tuesday. The ministry said three blood samples from the man tested negative for the disease, which means he is considered recovered according to standards set by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC advises Ebola survivors to avoid sex for three months or use condoms because the virus can continue to be found in semen for seven weeks after recovery from the disease. Sexual transmission of Ebola has not been definitively established, though multiple studies have shown that the virus can persist in semen for longer than in blood or other body fluids. The ministry said the move to isolate the man was taken “as a matter of abundant caution” and he would continue to be held under isolation at a special health facility at the airport until his body fluids test negative. “The person concerned
is a treated and cured case of Ebola virus disease,” it said in a statement. “All necessary precautions are being taken at the isolation facility. This would rule out even the remote possibility of spread of this disease by the sexual route.” When the man arrived at the New Delhi airport on Nov. 10, he carried documents from Liberia confirming he had successfully undergone Ebola treatment and had been declared free of any symptoms, the Health Ministry said. He was placed in quarantine as a precautionary measure as authorities tested his blood over the next several days. Although his blood tests were clear, authorities decided to test his semen before releasing him from quarantine. Those tests showed traces of the virus. There have been no Ebola cases reported in India or throughout Asia, but there are fears that an outbreak could spread quickly in a region where billions live in poverty and public health systems are often very weak. Early symptoms of Ebola include fever, headache, body aches, cough, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea, and patients aren’t contagious until those begin.
By JODI RUDOREN AND ISABEL KERSHNER NEW YORK TIMES
JERUSALEM — Two Palestinians armed with a gun, knives and axes stormed a synagogue complex in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of West Jerusalem on Tuesday morning and killed four men in the middle of their morning prayers, the Israeli police said. The assailants were killed at the scene in a gunbattle with the police that wounded two officers, one of whom died of his injuries on Tuesday night. It was the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians in more than three years, and the worst in Jerusalem since 2008. Witnesses and Israeli leaders were particularly horrified at the religious overtones of an attack on a synagogue that killed men
Photo by Ariel Schalit | AP
Two youths look at bullet holes and forensic evidence inside a synagogue after an attack in Jerusalem, Tuesday. in ritual garments and spilled blood on prayer books. "To see Jews wearing tefillin and wrapped in the tallit lying in pools of blood, I wondered if I was imagining scenes from the Holocaust," said Yehuda Meshi Zahav, the veteran leader of a religious emergency-response team, describing the straps and
prayer shawls worn by the worshippers. "It was a massacre of Jews at prayer." Three of the four men killed in the synagogue Tuesday were rabbis, and all were immigrants to Israel with dual citizenship. One was born in England, and three in the United States, including Moshe Twersky, 59, part of a celebrated Hasidic dynasty.
MIÉRCOLES 19 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2014
Ribereña en Breve MEDIDAS DE PREVENCIÓN Debido a que el frente frío número 12 generaría lluvias y nieblas aisladas, además de “eventos de norte” con rachas de viento superiores a los 80 kilómetros por hora en el Sur de Texas y el Norte de Tamaulipas, la Coordinación General de Protección Civil de Nuevo Laredo, México, pide a la población tomar mediadas para prevenir enfermedades y proteger su identidad. Entre las recomendaciones está: Tener una ventilación adecuada al encender chimeneas, calentador u hornillos; si sale de casa, asegúrese de apagar aparatos eléctricos y calentadores, así como estufas; evitar que adultos de la tercera edad y niños salgan a la calle con frío extremo; y vigilar que la temperatura de los cuartos de bebés.
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PÁGINA 9A
TRÁFICO DE NARCÓTICOS
Arrestan a oficial POR CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Una oficial de la Oficina del Fiscal del Condado Starr y su hermano han sido arrestados después de que supuestamente intentaran el contrabando de 77 libras de marihuana a través de un punto de revisión federal en Hebbronville, muestran registros de la corte obtenidos el martes. La oficial Amy Reyes y su hermano Bobby Reyes fueron acusados a través de una querella criminal con cargos por posesión con intento de distribución de marihuana.
COMPETENCIA DE ACCIÓN DE GRACIAS
“Amy Reyes añadió que se le pagarían 1.000 dólares por su papel para transportar la marihuana encontrada en el vehículo”, señala la querella criminal, que fue presentada el 12 de noviembre. Ambos sospechosos se encuentran en custodia federal con una fianza de 50.000 dólares cada uno. El decomiso ocurrió a alrededor de las 11 a.m. del 10 de noviembre en un punto de revisión en Hebbronville. Los hermanos Reyes llegaron a la ubicación en un vehículo Chevrolet Malibu, modelo 2010. Agentes de Patrulla Fronteriza de EU, refirieron el
vehículo a una inspección secundaria, tras la alerta de un can detector de narcóticos, señala la querella. Agentes dijeron que encontraron un compartimiento fabricado bajo el panel de los asientos del conductor y pasajero, donde encontraron 24 libras de marihuana. Agentes identificaron a Bobby Reyes como el conductor, mientras que la pasajera fue identificada como Amy Reyes, su hermana. Registros de la corte señalan que Amy Reyes también fue identificada como una oficial de paz del Estado de Texas certificada, y empleada del Condado de Starr.
Fuerzas de trabajo de DEA y agentes especiales respondieron a la escena para investigar. Registros muestran que ambos hermanos acordaron responder al interrogatorio sin la presencia de un abogado. “Una vez que los dos sujetos fueron interrogados, Bobby Reyes y Amy Reyes admitieron tener conocimiento en relación al transporte de marihuana, desde su ciudad natal, de Río Grande City, a Houston, Texas”, señala la querella criminal. Ambos sospechosos fueron transportados a la Cárcel del Condado de Webb. (Localice a César G. Rodriguez en 728-2568)
TAMAULIPAS
NUEVO LAREDO, MX
SEGURIDAD
Muere niña de 11 años
La Comisión de Parques y Recreación de la Ciudad de Roma invita a su primer Competencia Comunitaria de Cocina por Acción de Gracias Gobble Till Ya Wobble, el sábado 22 de noviembre en el Parque Municipal de Roma. La cuota de entrada es de 150 dólares por equipo. Las categorías disponibles para participar son: fajitas, frijoles, pan de campo y pavo. Se invita a la comunidad en general a asistir y disfrutar de una cena gratuita por Acción de Gracias.
TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
DESFILE DE NAVIDAD La Cámara de Comercio del Condado de Zapata invita al Desfile de Navidad y Encendido de la Plaza del Condado, el jueves 4 de diciembre. Se invita a empresas, iglesias, clubes, escuelas, organizaciones, y oficiales a participar durante el desfile. Se entregarán trofeos a los tres mejores carros alegóricos. Los participantes empezarán a alinearse a las 5 p.m. del 4 de diciembre en calle Glenn y 17th Ave (detrás de Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church). El desfile iniciará a las 6 p.m., tomando 17th Ave y continuando al sur sobre US Hwy 83, y girando a la izquierda en 6th Ave, para concluir el desfile. Al concluir el desfile, se realizará la ceremonia anual de encendido del árbol de Navidad en la Plaza del Condado, seguido de regalos de Santa.
VISITA DE CASAS Se invita a pasar la tarde del 7 de diciembre visitando casas históricas y puntos de referencia de San Ygnacio. Las ganancias se destinarán a la Escuela Primaria Arturo L. Benavides.
Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Tamaulipas
Nuevo Laredo, México, fue la sede de la reunión de autoridades gubernamentales y de seguridad de Tamaulipas, número 25. En la junta dieron a conocer los resultados obtenidos después de seis meses de la implementación de una nueva estrategia de seguridad.
Autoridades indican resultados de estrategia TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Han pasado seis meses desde el implemento de una nueva Estrategia de Seguridad ordenada por el Gobierno de la República Mexicana, en el Estado de Tamaulipas, tras lo cual autoridades estatales han dado a conocer los resultados. El lunes, durante la Vigésima Quinta reunión itinerante del Grupo de Coordinación Tamaulipas, que se celebró dentro del cuartel militar del
16 Regimiento de Caballería Motorizada en la Ciudad de Nuevo Laredo, México, se informó que del 13 de mayo al 17 de noviembre de 2014, se ha logrado la detención de 1.161 personas, acusadas de delitos que van desde robo hasta delitos por drogas. Del monto total 826 supuestos criminales han sido asignados a un juez, 95 han sido asignados a otras autoridades, 115 fueron colocados en libertad bajo reservas de la ley y 125 se encuentran en libertad bajo caución.
FERIA TAMAULIPAS 2014
FSA
Agencia ofrece préstamos para agricultores SDA
CAMPAMENTO DE SOFTBALL La Ciudad de Roma, Texas estará realizando un campamento de softball dirigido a jugadores de entre 8 y 14 años de edad. El evento se llevará a cabo el sábado 13 de diciembre, dentro de las instalaciones del Roma High Softball Field, en los siguientes horarios: de 9 a.m. a 12 p.m.; de 12 p.m. a 1 p.m. (se proporcionará la comida); y de 1 p.m. a 3 p.m. Los asistentes recibirán entrenamiento para cubrir las áreas de picheo, bateo, cubrir las bases, moverse entre campos, robar bases, entre otros aspectos. El costo del campamento será de 25 dólares, e incluirá la comida y una playera. Para más información puede llamar a Joel Hinojosa Jr., al 353-1442.
Igualmente el grupo, encabezado por el Gobernador de Tamaulipas, Egidio Torre Cantú, añadió que se han confiscado 1.532 armas largas, 286 armas cortas, alrededor de 23.231 cargadores, 671.384 cartuchos útiles de diferentes calibres, 297 granadas, cinco cohetes, 36 lanzagranadas, 1.953 vehículos terrestres, 606 máquinas tragamonedas, 58.5 toneladas de marihuana y 3.484.662 litros de carburantes, entre otros objetos decomisados.
Una niña de 11 años de edad, perdió la vida después de ser atropellada por supuestos delincuentes en la Ciudad de Nuevo Laredo, México, el lunes. A alrededor de las 5 p.m. del martes, una camioneta Chevrolet Tahoe, modelo 2008, que iba a exceso de velocidad, y era conducida por civiles armados, atropelló a Daniela López Moreno, según anunció el Grupo de Coordinación Tamaulipas, a través de un comunicado de prensa. El accidente ocurrió en la calle Privada Quito entre Bulevar Anáhuac y Privada Río de Janeiro, de la colonia Voluntad y Trabajo número uno. López Moreno vivía sobre la cuadra 1700 de Privada Quito. Momentos después del incidente una camioneta con la misma descripción fue encontrada en el crucero de las calles Héroes de Nacatáz y Avenida Río de Janeiro, en la colonia 20 de Noviembre. El vehículo había impactado en un puesto de tianguis, y se encontraba con las cuatro puertas abiertas. Del interior del vehículo fueron aseguradas cuatro armas largas y 30 cargadores abastecidos. Los artículos fueron entregados a las autoridades competentes.
ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Tamaulipas
La Expo Feria Tamaulipas 2014 llegó a su fin, después de exponer las actividades de capacitación, concientización y prevención que se llevan a cabo en los 43 municipios del Estado.
La Agencia de Servicios de Cultivo de Texas (FSA, por sus siglas en inglés) recuerda a los productores que la agencia ofrece préstamos especialmente orientados a la propiedad agrícola y a la explotación agrícola, para solicitantes en desventaja social. “Cada año, una parte de los fondos de préstamo de FSA son reservados para los agricultores y ganaderos en desventaja social”, señaló Judith A. Canales, directora ejecutiva de FSA. “La agricultura y la ganadería es un negocio de capital intensivo y FSA se ha comprometido a ayudar a que los productores inicien y mantengan sus operaciones agrícolas”. Durante el año fiscal 2014, que va del 1 de octubre de 2013 al 30 de septiembre de 2014, FSA de Te-
xas reserva 52.2 millones de dólares para préstamos a solicitantes en desventaja social (SDA, por sus siglas en inglés) USDA define a los solicitantes en desventaja social como un grupo cuyos integrantes han sido objeto de prejuicios por raza, etnia o raza, ya sea por su género o debido a su identidad como miembros del grupo, sin tener en cuenta sus cualidades individuales. Para los propósitos del programa de préstamos agrícolas, los grupos SDA son las mujeres, los ciudadanos afro americanos, los indios americanos y nativos de Alaska, hispanos y asiáticos e isleños del Pacífico. Los productores de SDA que no han obtenido un crédito comercial por parte de un banco pueden solicitar cualquiera de los préstamos directos de FSA o préstamos garantizados.
Los préstamos directos son hechos por los solicitantes a FSA. Los préstamos garantizados son realizados por instituciones de crédito que rentan para FSA, y así garantizar el préstamo. FSA puede garantizar hasta el 95 por ciento de la pérdida de capital e intereses de un préstamo. La garantía de FSA permite a los prestamistas disponer del crédito agrícola para los productores que no cumplan con los criterios normales de aseguramiento de la entidad crediticia. Los préstamos directos y garantizados ofrecen dos tipos de préstamos: préstamos de propiedad agrícola y créditos de gestión agrícola. Para obtener más información sobre los programas de préstamos agrícolas de la FSA, puede ponerse en contacto con su oficina local de FSA.
10A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014
THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A
GUILLERMO "WILLIE" PIÑA Nov. 10, 1941 — Nov. 13, 2014 Guillermo “Willie” Piña, 73, passed away on Thursday, November 13, 2014 at Laredo Medical Center in Laredo, Texas. Mr. Piña is preceded in death by his parents, Santiago and Zulema Piña. Mr. Piña is survived by his wife, Norma Andicia S. Piña; sons, Guillermo Jr. (Christina) Piña, Rene Piña, Noe A. (Vanessa) Piña; daughter, Claudia N. Piña (John Chambers); grandchildren, A.J., Noe II, Guillermo III, Anthony, Kayla, Joey Piña, Leanza, Cody Chambers; brothers, Gregorio Piña, Jaime M. (Graciela) Piña, Santiago Piña, Jr., Reynaldo Piña; sisters, Beatriz (+Jose Angel) Casarez, Maria Ada (Heberto) Moreno, Oralia (Ricardo); and by numerous nephews, nieces, other family members and friends. Visitation hours were held on Monday, November 17, 2014, 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 Tuesday, No-
Marley’s heirs to launch pot brand By DAVID MCFADDEN ASSOCIATED PRESS
vember 18, 2014, 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 are under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home Daniel A. Gonzalez, Funeral Director, 2102 N. U.S. Hwy 83 Zapata, Texas.
KINGSTON, Jamaica — A U.S. private equity firm announced Tuesday it has joined the family of late reggae star Bob Marley in hopes of building what it touts as the “world’s first global cannabis brand.” Seattle-based Privateer Holdings announced Tuesday it has reached a licensing deal with Marley’s heirs to offer marijuana strains, including ones famed in Jamaica, where regulations permit by late 2015. It also plans to sell weed-infused lotions, creams and various accessories. “My dad would be so happy to see people understanding the healing power of the herb,” Miami-based Cedella Marley said in a company statement. She’s the eldest daughter of the music legend who died of cancer in 1981 and is Jamaica’s most iconic figure. Over the years, his estate has authorized deals
Photo by David McFadden | AP file
In this Feb. 2013 photo, a mural depicting reggae music icon Bob Marley decorates a wall in the yard of Marley’s Kingston home. for a wide range of merchandise. But the move to create “Marley Natural” has stirred grousing in Jamaica among those who share his Rastafarian faith, a spiritual movement that considers the drug divine. Maxine Stowe of the Rastafari Millennium Council asserts that Marley was “the least of the
Wailers around the issue of ganja legalization” and worries his estate’s efforts to launch a cannabis brand will negatively impact Jamaican efforts to financially benefit from a legalization movement gaining traction across the globe. The Wailers were founded by Marley, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh.
All three famously espoused smoking the “holy herb,” but Stowe argues Wailer and the late Tosh were more strident activists. “The government has to stand up now for Rastafari and the Wailers’ rights in their intellectual property!” Stowe wrote in a Tuesday email. Some Rastas are also irked that Marley Natural will be based in New York. But while pot remains prohibited here, Jamaica has been rethinking its position. The government hopes to amend drug laws to pave the way for a regulated medical marijuana and research sector. Officials say this could be achieved next year. Delano Seiveright, director of the island’s Ganja Law Reform Coalition, said there are hopes that the Marley family’s plans will spur Jamaica to “develop a legal and regulated cannabis industry much sooner rather than later.”
Madoff friend’s $62M settlement approved By ERIK LARSON BLOOMBERG NEWS
Bernard Madoff ’s lifelong friend Edward Blumenfeld, a former customer of the con man and a New York real estate devel-
oper, won court approval of a $62 million settlement of claims he withdrew more money from the investment firm than he deposited, the trustee unwinding the company said. The deal with the trust-
ee, Irving Picard, resolves a 2010 lawsuit accusing Blumenfeld and his family of receiving almost $40 million in fake trading profits from dozens of accounts and accepting an $11 million transfer from Madoff
days before his December 2008 arrest. Approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan comes a day after Picard reached a $495 million settlement with two offshore funds that invested
with Madoff, boosting his total recoveries for victims past $10 billion, or about 59 percent of the principal lost in the biggest U.S. Ponzi scheme. Blumenfeld “is a lifelong friend, close confidant and
business partner of Madoff, who used Madoff ’s investment advisory business to amass his family’s wealth and to build his real estate development firm over several decades,” Picard said.
Big cities are dominating economic recovery By JIM TANKERSLEY THE WASHINGTON POST
PALO ALTO, California — Monday traffic is brutal on U.S. 101 between San Francisco and San Jose, choking the commute to Google and Facebook and hundreds of startups you’ve never heard of. Tuesday and Wednesday are worse, the regular drivers say, and so is Thursday. On Friday it lets up, but not much. Everyday traffic is worse than it was last year and the year before that and the year before that. This is the most frustrating gauge of just how hot Silicon Valley’s economy is right now. Out here it’s easy to forget there was ever a Great Recession, or why so many Americans believe that recession still isn’t over. The metro area that the 101 freeway bisects added 30,000 new jobs in the past year, a 3.5 percent increase from September 2013. All those jobs, and the salaries and stock options that come with so many of them, are powering California to a respectable recovery and a balanced budget. The state as a whole has a falling unemployment rate and 100,000 more jobs today than it did at its
pre-recession peak in 2008. But if the San Jose and San Francisco areas didn’t exist, the state would still be 80,000 jobs down from its ’08 peak. A similar story is playing out around the nation: Big metro areas are mostly booming after the recession, and everywhere else is still digging out. As of the third quarter of this year, according to a Brookings analysis of Moody’s Analytics data, America’s 100 largest metro areas were collectively 1.3 million jobs over their pre-recession peak. All the other parts of the country, combined, were still 300,000 jobs below peak. That’s a 1.5 percent gain for the big metros and a 0.7 percent loss for everywhere else. The gap would be much wider if not for an oil- and gas-drilling bonanza that is lifting job growth in North Dakota and other largely rural areas. This isn’t how the economy typically worked over the last 35 years. Calculations made earlier this year by state economists in Oregon show that big cities tended to grow at rate similar to other areas of the country after a recession. Only the late 1990s
were an exception. Until now. Those diverging fortunes help explain why people in broad swaths of the country perceive that the recession, which ended officially in mid-2009, still hasn’t loosened its grip on their lives. Rural areas without oil or gas reserves have on average only recovered one-fifth to one-quarter of the jobs they lost during the crisis, according to calculations by Joshua Lehner, an economist for the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis. "In an ideal world," he said, "you’d have jobs for everyone that wanted them" — regardless of where they live. It may be that this geographic jobs gap is a permanent feature in an economy increasingly driven by brainpower and innovation, where clustering smart people in relatively small areas appears to boost labor productivity. That’s certainly what the economists think at the Brookings Metropolitan Program, which conducted its breakdown of job growth at the request of The Washington Post. "Scale and density concentrate economic inputs like skilled people and R&D, intensify interac-
tions, allow for labor market pooling and matching, allow for access to shared infrastructure," said Mark Muro, the metro program’s policy director. "This a fact of economic life. Place, scale and density matter." Or, says, Jed Kolko, the chief economist for the online real estate site Trulia, it could be that there’s nothing new here, other than that some parts of the country are just correcting the excesses of the last housing bubble. "We need to be further outside of this economic cycle before we can say whether there’s been a permanent shift in the past few years," he said. In California, researchers are beginning to worry that the economy and the state budget depend too heavily on Silicon Valley. It’s easy to imagine a cascade where tech growth slows, employees cash in fewer stock options and capital gains receipts fall, plunging the state back into the sort of budgetary trouble that plagued it throughout the 2000s. Oddly enough, government budget cuts may be one driver of the big metro/everyone else disparity. Smaller communities tend to have less diverse economies
than major cities, Lehner said, and so when cuts force layoffs of teachers and civil servants, those smaller areas have fewer other jobs to cushion them. That’s a factor in his state, Oregon, where Portland has gained back all its lost jobs, plus two percent, while the rest of the state is still four percent below its jobs peak. That brings up another concern about growth being concentrated in big metro areas: They tend to be more unequal and expensive places to live. Income inequality runs very high in Silicon Valley and many other large metros. Palo Alto residents love to talk about the bidding wars on their blocks, with multimilliondollar homes being bought entirely for cash. Home prices are up more than five percent over the last year in Portland, Oregon. Trulia reported Tuesday that homes are getting less affordable for the middle class, especially in high-income areas. When jobs are concentrated in pricier areas, workers often face a choice: Accept a more expensive life or drive longer to get to work. Many of them choose the commute - which means more traffic, on the 101 and elsewhere.
12A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014
SURGE Continued from Page 1A Perry said in the statement that the funding will include: $13.7 million from the state’s disaster funds; $47.9 from the Texas Department of Transportation’s general revenue bond fund; $7 million from the state’s Emerging Technology Fund; and $17.5 million from the Texas Public Finance Authority. Dewhurst said in an interview that there was a need to act before the Legislature convenes in January to be assured of the surge’s continued success. “The reason to continue the border surge through the end of the fiscal year, which is Aug. 31, is because some of the newly elected officials may not be focusing on the fact
that it’s undoubtedly impossible to get a two-thirds vote in both chambers to continue it,” he said. “And once you don’t get a twothirds vote for immediate effect, the surge will stop, we’ll have business as usual for the cartels and the $850 to $900 million that we just spent will be all for nothing.” While the initial DPS surge saw mild resistance from some border leaders, the deployment of the Texas National Guard was met with heavy criticism by area economic leaders and elected officials. They saw it as a “militarization” that was an affront to border cities and sent the wrong message to Mexico.
FOOD BANK Continued from Page 1A able to increase the number of families being fed through the Kid’s Café program and reach more applicants throughout South Texas through a Skype application program that was recently started. When asked what Casso would be doing during his retirement, he said the following: “Right now I’m just enjoying the time off.” Erasmo Villarreal, who recently retired from his job as Director of Building and Development Services with the City of Laredo, has served on the board for 25 years. Since the organization’s inception as a founding member until his most recent position on the Board of Directors as
PROTESTS Continued from Page 1A started. Tens of thousands of marchers have descended several times on Mexico City’s main Zocalo plaza. At minute 43 — the number of Ayotzinapa students missing — of the Mexican national soccer team’s game in Amsterdam against Holland last week, a stadium full of fans chanted "justice, justice." The trouble began on the evening of Sept. 26, when police stopped the students as they traveled on buses in the town of Iguala. Authorities accuse Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca of ordering police to prevent the students from disrupting a speech given by his wife. According to the government version of events, police then handed over the students to a drug gang, Guerreros Unidos. In the ensuing weeks, 10,000 Mexican soldiers and police scoured the region and uncovered various graves. Last week, Mexico’s attorney general, Jesus Murillo Karam, announced that the charred remains of what probably were the students had been found at a dump and in a river in Guerrero.
He presented videotaped confessions of drug gang members talking about how they carried out the killings. Authorities are working to identify the remains through DNA testing. The night after Murillo Karam’s presentation, protesters threw Molotov cocktails at the door of the national palace in Mexico City. On Friday in Chilpancingo, thousands of people marched through the streets, led by masked men from the teachers’ union carrying riot shields and metal pipes. With police or soldiers nowhere in sight, they stopped along the way to spray-paint government buildings, newspaper offices, and the storefront windows of Oxxo convenience stores, part of a national chain. The march ended at the town square, which protesters have occupied for weeks, with people living in tents surrounding a statue in the central plaza hung with a cardboard sign that reads: "We are going to disappear the narcostate." "If the state doesn’t re-
turn our students, this could get out of control," said Walter Añorve, a teacher from Acapulco who is one of the protest leaders. "It’s a peaceful struggle so far, but it might not remain so." The state of Guerrero, rural and poor, has a history of antigovernment mobilizations. The Mexican military fought leftist guerrillas here in the 1970s and government security forces have killed villagers in uprisings in the decades since, including a massacre by police of 17 farmers on their way to a protest in 1996. As in neighboring Michoacan, a citizens’ militia movement took off in Guerrero, with peasants forming armed groups to keep out drug traffickers and corrupt cops. Veterans of these struggles say that this time feels different. The protests tapped into a growing opposition to Peña Nieto’s reforms to open up the country’s oil sector to foreign firms, and his challenges to teachers’ unions, which have prompted months of protests in Oaxaca.
Secretary, Villarreal has served the South Texas Food Bank in many capacities. “I remember the first meeting we had. It was at the H-E-B on Calton (Road) and San Dario (Avenue) … We met in the back and we used milk crates as chairs,” Villarreal said. He said the non-profit has steadily grown, meeting not only the demands of the needy, but also through the generosity of longtime suppliers such as H-E-B. The organization’s warehouses grew in size and its distribution services more sophisticated. “Back then, we were giving out (recycled) banana crates full of food,” Villar-
real said. Today, the South Texas Food Bank distributes food to 86 pantries in the region, according to Villarreal. Despite Villarreal’s legacy with the organization, he said the board is already in search for his replacement. “They are looking for someone younger than I am … someone that will be here for a while,” he said. Current board president, Ana Benavides-Galo said the organization plans to find a permanent Executive Director early into 2015. The South Texas Food Bank has several programs aimed to assist dif-
ferent target populations in need. The Commodity Supplement Food Program, Kid’s Café, and the Adopt-a-Family programs are aimed to help feed the elderly, school-age children and low-income families, respectively. “The mission here is very simple. Our mission is to feed the hungry,” Villarreal said. If you are interested in learning how to become a donor or participate in any of the food bank’s programs, please call 956-7263120 or visit the following webpage: southtexasfoodbank.org/GetInvolved. (Gabriela A. Treviño may be reached at 956-7282579 or gtrevino@lmtonline.com)
TEXTBOOKS Continued from Page 1A is difficult. State officials don’t track how much is spent exclusively on these kinds of materials since districts can buy both non-approved and approved items directly from publishers then get reimbursed, said Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe. The 2011 law also eliminated a separate state funding allotment for technology, meaning school districts use the same funds for books as they do for items such as iPods and e-readers and the salaries of technology support staff. Still, a survey conducted by the Instructional Materials Coordinators’ Association of Texas — designed to aid school district book purchasers — found that 94 percent of recent respondents bought at least some non-board-approved books. “There are more and more districts selecting their materials away from the (board of education) process,” said Cliff Avery, the association’s executive director, who added that this is what some members of the Legislature hoped to see when the law was passed. The Fort Worth-area Mansfield school district is among those that have utilized the new purchasing freedom, buying both state-approved and non-sanctioned books. Misty Fisher, the instructional materials coordinator for the more than 33,000student district, said she likes having the flexibility. But she noted that while publishers offer discounts when selling directly to districts, a price ceiling set by Texas state officials doesn’t apply to non-
approved books. It also can take longer to get reimbursed than buying approved books directly through the state. The largest textbook publishers in Texas and the nation — Pearson Education, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt — still submit proposed books for board approval. The board convenes Tuesday and will vote on social studies books that will likely be used for a decade beginning next September. Its members have already heard public complaints that some proposed textbooks exaggerate the influence of Judeo-Christian values on America’s Founding Fathers, cheerlead too much for free-market ideals and downplay climate change. Others say they omitted President Ronald Reagan’s role in tearing down the Berlin Wall and are overly politically correct about Muslims. “I think in some ways the flexibility (of the 2011 law) has been overlooked,” said Jay Diskey, executive director of the PreK-12 Learning Group of the Association of American Publishers. “There’s all this clamor over some content, and yet a school can buy things that are not approved by the board at all.” For years, meanwhile, the nation’s second most-populous state was such a large textbook market that edits mandated by the Texas Board of Education could influence books sold around the country. But, more recently, the increasing use of electronic classroom materials has allowed publishers to better tailor lessons to meet states’ needs, Diskey said.