The Zapata Times 11/29/2014

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SATURDAY NOVEMBER 29, 2014

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Three from Zapata indicted

Sales tax change Voters approve 2 percent increase, effective now

By GABRIELA TREVIÑO THE ZAPATA TIMES

Citizens of Zapata voted to approve a county proposition in the Nov. 4 election, which called for a 2 percent sales tax in-

crease.

The proposition read as follows on the election ballot: “Authorizing the creation of the Zapata County Assistance District and the imposition of a sales and use tax at the rate of 2 per-

Group faces human smuggling charges

cent for the purpose of financing the operations of the district.”

The county had tried to pass the proposition five years ago; however, citizens voted against the tax increase.

However according to Zapata’s Precinct 1 Commissioner Jose Vela, city officials campaigned for the proposition’s approval by letting voters know

See TAX PAGE 10A

AUSTIN

THE ZAPATA TIMES

Three Zapatans have been indicted after law enforcement said they caught them amid a human smuggling attempt on U.S. on Nov. 5.

Misti Lea Grandstaff, Mario Humberto Garza III and Manuel Alejandro Garza were indicted Tuesday on human smuggling charges. Mario Garza is an alleged Valluco gang member.

At about 3 p.m. Nov. 5, Zapata County Sheriff ’s Office investigators flagged down a Border Patrol agent, requesting help with a traffic stop on U.S 83.

They told the agent they saw a driver, later identified as Grandstaff, picking up four people near the brush on U.S. 83.

That information was relayed to a sheriff ’s deputy, who then pulled over the vehicle, a 1999 silver Pontiac Grand Prix.

Grandstaff allegedly admitted to picking up the illegal immigrants and that she had been hired by Garza to transport four of them to Zapata for $100.

Investigators had seen a red Ford Mustang usually driven by Garza following the Pontiac.

Deputies pulled over the Mustang and detained three people: Garza, his brother Alejandro Garza and Javier Castro. Mario Garza later told authorities he was a member of the Valluco gang.

In a post-arrest interview, Grandstaff claimed the Garzas were involved in the smuggling attempt. Mario Garza acted as the foot guide for the group of immigrants while Manuel Garza was the scout, she told law enforcement.

GUNMAN OPENS FIRE

Photo by Laura Skelding/Austin American-Statesman | TNS

FBI personnel photograph the federal courthouse and mark evidence at the scene on Friday where a gunman, identified by law enforcement sources as Larry Steve McQuilliams, targeted buildings in downtown Austin before being shot and killed by police Friday morning in Austin, Texas.

Shooter targeted Mexican Consulate, downtown area

By JIM VERTUNO ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUSTIN — A gunman fired more than 100 rounds at downtown buildings in Austin and tried to set the Mexican Consul-

ate ablaze early Friday before he died during a confrontation with police, authorities said.

Some of the targeted buildings are near the popular Sixth Street entertainment district, where bars close at 2 a.m.,

about the same time the shootings began. Thousands of people are typically on the street at that time, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said.

“Many, many rounds were fired in downtown Austin,”

Acevedo said. “With all the people on the streets, we’re very fortunate. I give thanks that no one but the suspect is injured or deceased.”

See GUNMAN PAGE 10A

RIO GRANDE

State changes role of game wardens to secure border

By ASHER PRICE AND JEREMY SCHWARTZ AUSTIN-AMERICAN STATESMAN

Photo by Jay Janner/Austin-American Statesman | TNS

Game warden Capt. James Dunks carries an M4 Bushmaster carbine while patrolling the Rio Grande near Brownsville on Sept. 24.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — As part of Operation Strong Safety, the state’s latest effort to bolster the U.S. Border Patrol, hundreds of well-armed Texas game wardens, from as far away as the upper reaches of the Panhandle, have rotated through the Rio

Grande Valley, many of them patrolling the restive waterway in gunboats.

The deployments are just the most recent way the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has been drawn into border operations over the last decade.

But an Austin American-Statesman investigation shows that the state’s efforts to boost border secu-

rity, coupled with an evolving role for Texas game wardens, might have weakened natural resource protection efforts in other parts of the state.

Data obtained through the Texas Public Information Act show that the number of citations for traditional hunting, fishing and

See BORDER PAGE 11A

PAGE 2A

Zin brief CALENDAR

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014

AROUND TEXAS

TODAY IN HISTORY

Tuesday, Dec. 2

ASSOCIATED PRESS

South Texas Food Bank Fundraiser. 6 to 11 p.m. Hal’s Landing. For information call 324-2432, or visit southtexasfoodbank.org.

The Alzheimer’s support group. 7 pm. Room 2, building B of the Laredo Medical Center.

Los Amies Birthday Club. 11:30 a.m. to TBA. Ramada Plaza. Honorees Alicia D. Laurel and Olga Laurel. Hostesses will be Consuelo Lopez, Olga Hovel and Magda Sanchez.

Today is Saturday, Nov. 29, the 333rd day of 2014. There are 32 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History: On Nov. 29, 1964, the U.S. Roman Catholic Church instituted sweeping changes in the liturgy, including the partial use of English instead of Latin.

On this date: In 1314, King Philip IV of France died; he was succeeded by his eldest son, Louis X. In 1864, a Colorado militia killed at least 150 peaceful Cheyenne Indians in the Sand Creek Massacre.

In 1924, Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels before he could complete his opera “Turandot.” (It was finished by Franco Alfano.)

In 1952, President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower secretly left on a trip to Korea, keeping his campaign promise to assess the ongoing conflict firsthand.

In 1961, Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited earth twice before returning.

In 1972, the coin-operated video arcade game Pong, created by Atari, made its debut at Andy Capp’s Tavern in Sunnyvale, California.

In 1981, actress Natalie Wood drowned in a boating accident off Santa Catalina Island, California, at age 43.

In 1989, in response to a growing pro-democracy movement in Czechoslovakia, the Communist-run Parliament ended the party’s 40-year monopoly on power.

In 2001, George Harrison, the “quiet Beatle,” died in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer; he was 58.

Ten years ago: The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a gay-marriage law in Massachusetts.

Five years ago: Iran approved plans to build 10 industrial scale uranium enrichment facilities in defiance of U.N. demands it halt enrichment.

One year ago: A police helicopter crashed onto a pub in Glasgow, Scotland, killing 10 people. A single-engine plane crashed in remote southwest Alaska, killing four people and injuring six.

Today’s Birthdays: Hallof-Fame sportscaster Vin Scully is 87. Former French President Jacques Chirac is 82.

Blues singer-musician John Mayall is 81. Songwriter Mark James (“Always on My Mind” “Suspicious Minds”) is 74.

Composer-musician Chuck Mangione is 74. Country singer Jody Miller is 73. Comedian Garry Shandling is 65. Movie director Joel Coen is 60. Actorcomedian-celebrity judge Howie Mandel is 59. Former Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano is 57. The mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, is 55. Actor Don Cheadle is 50. Actor-producer Neill Barry is 49. Pop singer Jonathan Knight (New Kids on the Block) is 46. Actress Gena Lee Nolin is 43. Actress Anna Faris is 38. Actor Julian Ovenden is 38. Gospel singer James Fortune is 37. Actress Lauren German (TV: “Chicago Fire”) is 36. Rapper The Game is 35.

Actress Janina Gavankar (TV: “The Mysteries of Laura”) is 34. Rock musician Ringo Garza is 33. Actor/comedian John Milhiser is 33. Actor Lucas Black is 32.

Thought for Today: “Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.” — Edmund Burke, British statesman (1729-1797).

Thursday , Dec. 4 Primped’s Christmas Party, from 5 to 8 p.m. Primped the Style Bar. 7718 McPherson Rd. Ste. #1. Contact Ariana Mora at arianamora@stx.rr.com or go to the website www.ruthebcowl.com.

The Webb County Heritage Foundation will host an opening reception for “Historic Laredo” Photo Competition from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Villa Antigua Border Heritage Museum, 810 Zaragoza St. The public is invited. Exhibit will run through mid-January. New Historic Laredo calendars will be available. Call 7270977 or visit webbheritage.org or on Facebook.

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.

First United Methodist Church.

Used Book Sale, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., hardcovers $1; paperbacks 50¢; magazines and childrens books 25¢; Public is welcome. Sue Webber, fumc_office@sbcglobal.net.

Sunday, Dec. 7 Pet Fest Laredo 2014. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Laredo Civic Center.

Woof@gopetfest.com.

5th Annual Christmas Animal Posada, from 4 to 5 p.m. St. Peter’s Plaza (Matamoros Street and Main Avenue).

Contact Berta “Birdie” Torres, president of Gateway Gatos of Laredo, at birdtorres@hotmail.com. Call Birdie at 2867866.

Photo by Rod Aydelotte/The Waco Tribune-Herald | AP

In this photo taken on Nov. 15, patrons of the historic Hippodrome walk past the front of the century-old Austin Avenue theater in Waco, Texas, which saw appearances by Abbott & Costello and Elvis Presley through the years. The theater recently reopened after a year long renovation.

Theater opens once more

By DON BOLDING WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD

WACO — The chill in the air might have shrunk the crowds for a street dance outside the remodeled Waco Hippodrome on a recent Saturday night, but the lobby was busy, the second-floor café was full, and people seemed thrilled at the newest manifestation of a revitalized downtown Waco.

The century-old Austin Avenue theater, which saw appearances by Abbott & Costello and Elvis Presley through the years, has reopened, drawing on nostalgia and displaying a love for the iconic showplace.

Monica Wheelis, standing with a group around a heater in the open-air courtyard, remembered crying at a performance of “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the theater in the years before its 2010 closing.

“I never thought it would reopen,” she told

the Waco Tribune-Herald. “I hope they’ll start producing plays now, but it’s great that they’ll show movies, too.”

Jason Rose worked in lighting and sound for the theater for several years before it closed.

“I think among the reasons it closed was that they kept bringing in big shows that had to leave half their stuff on their trucks, and we couldn’t make it pay,” he said. “Plus, there were a lot of repairs that needed to be made. It would take a developer willing to put in lots of money and effort to get it going again, and I thought it was just out of the question.

So when I saw that there were plans to reopen it, I just said ‘wow’ and came over to see if I could get back on. They already had most of their team in place, but they said they might be able to make a place for me.”

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.

The South Texas Food Bank Kids Café program honors World War II and Korean War veterans, 6 to 8 p.m. Boys and Girls Club, 500 Moctezuma. For information call veteran Dr. Jesse J. Olivarez of the STFB Kids Cafe program at 726-3120 or veterans officer David Garza 523-4399

Thursday, Dec. 11 Spanish Book Club, Laredo Public Library, Calton Road, from 6 to 8 p.m. Contact Sylvia Reash at 763-1810.

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 to 5 p.m. First United Methodist Church 1220 McClelland. Linda Mott at lmott@stx.rr.com or the church office at 722-1674.

Death row inmate loses at federal court HOUSTON— A federal judge has refused to halt next week’s scheduled execution of a convicted killer who defense attorneys contend is severely delusional.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks’ ruling late Wednesday says new claims alleging Panetti’s mental condition is deteriorating aren’t measurably different from those the judge considered and rejected in 2008.

Woman found dead in Fort Worth apartment fire FORT WORTH — Authorities say a body has been found in a North Texas apartment following a fire.

The Fort Worth Fire Department says the woman’s body was discovered Friday morning at the damaged residence. Officials are trying to determine what started the fire. Firefighters say a sprinkler system helped contain the blaze to one room.

(Submit calendar items at lmtonline.com/calendar/submit or by emailing editorial@lmtonline.com with the event’s name, date and time, location and purpose and contact information for a representative. Items will run as space is available.)

HOUSTON — A reserve deputy constable has been charged in the off-duty shooting of another driver during what Houston police call a road rage incident.

Harris County jail records show 34-year-old Kenneth Caplan was being held Friday on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

AMARILLO — Some workers at four Amarillo strip clubs have won more than $318,000 in back wages to settle a federal labor lawsuit.

The Amarillo Globe-News reported Thursday that employees will get back wages in amounts ranging from $2,312 to $27,565.

2 Amarillo men pointed laser at DPS chopper

Woman wanted for murder deported to El Salvador

AMARILLO — Two Amarillo men face up to five-year federal prison terms for pointing a hand-held laser at a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter.

Randall County jail records show 34-year-old Christopher Anthony Cantrell was being held Friday pending sentencing in January. Officials say 35-year-old Matthew George Dodgen remains free pending sentencing.

Both pleaded guilty.

DALLAS — Federal authorities say a Salvadoran woman has been deported after they found her in Texas and determined she was a member of a violent gang who was wanted for murder.

She was being sought there on charges that include aggravated murder and conspiracy in the crime of aggravated murder. U.S. authorities say she’s a member of the MS-13 street gang. — Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION

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 or Juan Gonzalez (Spanish) at 237-0666.

Reserve deputy charged in 4 Texas strip clubs, owner Houston shooting pay $318K back wages

Huge fire destroys California pallet yard FONTANA, Calif. — Fire has destroyed a sprawling Southern California pallet yard and several tractor trailers.

Firefighters found four acres of pallets stacked up to 30 feet high fully engulfed in flames.

More than 65 firefighters from numerous departments battled the flames for hours. Damage was estimated at more than $3 million, but the county fire department estimates more than $2 million worth of property was saved.

The explosions were caused by propane and acetylene containers.

NY boys buried in snow heard rescuers calling NEWBURGH, N.Y. — Two boys trapped in a snow pile in upstate New York for more than seven hours say they heard their

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Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a sprawling Southern California pallet yard. Firefighters found four acres of pallets stacked up to 30 feet high fully engulfed in flames Thursday. friends and family calling for them but couldn’t answer loudly enough. Eleven-year-old Elijah Martinez and 9-year-old Jason Rivera were outside building a snow fort near Elijah’s house on Wednesday night when a plow operator clearing a parking lot

unknowingly pushed snow over them. Early Thursday, a police officer searching for them saw a shovel half buried, started to dig and then saw a small boot. The boys were conscious and suffering from exposure. — 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

State

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014

Most wanted man captured in Mexico THE ZAPATA TIMES

A Laredoan on the Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list was recently captured in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

Alfredo Rangel, 37, was taken into custody in Nuevo Laredo on Thursday. Authorities there turned him over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Marshals Service at the Gateway to the Americas International Bridge.

Rangel, who was added to the fugitive list Oct. 16, was wanted for parole violation, larceny and engaging in organized criminal activity.

His parole stemmed a conviction for aggravated assault of a public servant, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery.

On Aug. 15, Rangel, his wife, Wendy Lopez, and her nephew, Jose Alfredo Rangel, were involved in an armed robbery at Lucky Bamboo, 4600 U.S. 83, an 8liner establishment, LPD said.

According to police, Lopez, who worked at the casino, told them that a man entered the maquinita, pointed a handgun at her and stole $8,500 from safe boxes that were in an office. After reviewing surveillance footage, police identified the suspect vehicle as a gray van bearing car dealership tags with two male occupants.

About 20 minutes before the robbery, an LPD officer on routine patrol had pulled over the van and identified the two occupants as Jose Alfredo Rangel and Alfredo Rangel. The officer did the traffic stop because the van had car dealer tags and the officer saw it pull into a Stripes convenience store. Alfredo Rangel told the officer they were test driving the vehicle and that they stopped

by Stripes to buy some items.

The officer told them a

vehicle with dealer tags can only be used for a test drive and not for personal use.

The officer let them off with a warning.

After the robbery, the officer told detectives he had just pulled over a van fitting the description of the suspect vehicle. Detectives then learned of the relationship between Lopez and the vehicle’s occupants.

Lopez was arrested and arrest warrants were issued for Alfredo Rangel and Jose Alfredo Rangel.

In 2000, Alfredo Rangel and two other accomplices were involved in a violent assault of a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper during a traffic stop near Cotulla. The trooper’s service weapon was taken and the trooper suffered serious injuries.

Rangel received a 15-year prison sentence.

DPS said he was captured in Nuevo Laredo after authorities received a tip. A reward of up to $7,500 will be paid to the tipster.

Also Tuesday, DPS announced two other people on the Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list were captured recently. Josue Reyna, 24, was arrested Nov. 18 in Del Rio and Ngoc Van Tran, 44, was arrested Thursday in Mexico.

CBP arrested Reyna at the Del Rio International Bridge when he attempted to enter the U.S. from Mexico, and was stopped by officers and his identity confirmed. The arrest was not the result of a tip, and no reward will be paid. The Del Rio Police Department assisted with the arrest.

Reyna was wanted for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and retaliation.

Tran was arrested after being located by the U.S. Marshals Service. He was wanted for homicide and parole violation. The arrest was not the result of a tip, and no reward will be paid.

Tran was wanted for the 1996 killing of his wife, whose body was found in the trunk of an abandoned vehicle. In 2009, he was added to the Texas 10 Most Wanted list.

So far in 2014, DPS and other agencies have arrested 14 Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, 12 Texas 10 Most Wanted Sex Offenders, and $55,500 in rewards has been paid for tips that resulted in arrests.

To be eligible for the cash rewards, anyone with information can provide anonymous tips in five different ways: Call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-252TIPS (8477).

Text the letters DPS – followed by your tip – to 274637 (CRIMES) from your cell phone.

Submit a web tip through the DPS website by selecting the fugitive you have information about, and then clicking on the link under their picture.

Submit a Facebook tip at facebook.com/texas10mostwanted by clicking the “SUBMIT A TIP” link (under the “About” section).

Submit a tip through the DPS mobile app. The app is currently available for iPhone users on the Apple App Store (https:// itunes.apple.com/us/app/ texas-dps/ id902092368?mt=8) and for Android users on Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microassist.texasdps&hl=en).

All tips are anonymous — regardless of how they are submitted.

The following link, dps.texas.gov/Texas10MostWanted/video/tipsterVideo.htm, explains the steps on how to submit a tip regarding a Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitive or Sex Offender and how to receive a reward once the fugitive is captured.

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

Man indicted for human smuggling THE ZAPATA TIMES

A man was indicted this week on human smuggling-related charges after he was found in a local motel room with a number of immigrants who were in the country illegally.

At about 1:30 a.m. Oct. 31, a Homeland Security Investigations special agent received a call from a supervisory Border Patrol agent about a human smuggling case involving a man and six immigrants who were in the country illegally.

At about 2 a.m., special

agents were told that Border Patrol in Zapata had arrested a man who had information on the human smuggling attempt. The man told Border Patrol that he knew of unaccompanied minors who were in the country illegally and being harbored at a motel in Laredo.

Authorities contacted the Webb County Sheriff ’s Office to do a welfare check at the motel. Border Patrol agents, assisted by Sheriff ’s Office deputies, said they found seven males in a motel room, six of whom were in the coun-

try illegally. The other was a U.S. citizen.

He was identified as Mario Benavides Jr. One of the immigrants told authorities that he was charged $6,000 to be smuggled to Miami, Florida. He and another man claimed Benavides had picked them up after they swam across the Rio Grande.

Benavides denied involvement in the human smuggling attempt but said he would accept the responsibility if found guilty, the criminal complaint alleges.

Immigrants Social Security eligible

By JIM KUHNHENN ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Many immigrants in the United States illegally who apply for work permits under President Barack Obama’s new executive actions would be eligible for Social Security and Medicare benefits upon reaching retirement age, according to the White House.

Under Obama’s actions, immigrants who are spared deportation could obtain work permits and a Social Security number.

As a result, they would pay into the Social Security system through payroll taxes.

No such “lawfully present” immigrant, however, would be immediately entitled to the benefits because like all Social Security and Medicare recipients they would have to

work 10 years to become eligible for retirement payments and health care.

To remain qualified, either Congress or future administrations would have to extend Obama’s actions so that those immigrants would still be considered lawfully present in the country.

None of the immigrants who would be spared deportation under Obama’s executive actions would be able to receive federal assistance such as welfare or food stamps, or other income-based aid.

They also would not be eligible to purchase health insurance in federal exchanges set up by the new health care law and they would not be able to apply for tax credits that would lower the cost of their health insurance.

The issue of benefits for immigrants who are illegally in the United

States is a particularly sensitive one for the Obama administration. As a result, the White House has made it clear that none of the nearly 5 million immigrants affected

by Obama’s actions would be eligible for federal assistance. The Obama administration first denied younger immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children access to health care exchanges and tax credits in 2012, especially disappointing immigrant advocates.

“They were specifically carved out of that, which is deeply unfortunate because it cuts directly against the spirit” of the health care law, said Avideh Moussavian, an attorney at the National Immigration Law Center.

“They should have had the opportunity to buy health insurance just like anybody else.”

PAGE 4A

Zopinion

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014

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

COLUMN

OTHER VIEWS

By the numbers: the kids are all right

By DAVID FINKELHOR THE WASHINGTON POST

The news media likes to characterize today’s young people as risk averse, narcissistic, appdependent, over-scheduled, entitled and "pornified." Among the culprits are too much praise, not enough challenge, helicopter parents, cellphones and, of course, the Internet.

But by many measures, young people are actually showing virtues their elders lacked. They have brought levels of delinquency, truancy, promiscuity, alcohol abuse and suicide down to levels unseen in many cases since the 1950s. Rather than coming up with ever more old-fogey complaints, we should be toasting young people’s good judgment and selfcontrol - and extolling their parents and teachers.

Here are some of the most impressive developments.

You’ve probably heard that crime is down. But most of the remarkable facts about crime and delinquency among young people have not been trumpeted enough in a country just 20 years removed from fears that it was facing a generation of young "super-predators." In fact, arrests for serious violent offenses by juveniles have dropped about 60 percent from 1994 to 2011. Juvenile arrests have receded faster in the past 10 years than adult arrests. Property crime by youth also has sunk to its lowest point in 30 years.

Of course, we read, quite correctly, that rates of rape on college campuses and in the military are high, and that victims are treated poorly. But rape and other sex crimes among youth have been decreasing. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, the number of sexual assaults against 12- to 17year-olds has declined by more than half since the mid-1990s. The number of youth arrests for sex offenses also has dropped.

It may be hard to believe, but three nationwide and statewide victim surveys have corroborated these decreases.

School shootings, too, have scarred the nation’s psyche and left a sense that schools are dangerous. But school safety has been improving dramatically. Violent victimization of teenagers at school has dropped 60 percent from 1992 to 2012, according to Justice Department data. School homicides, which rarely number more than a couple of dozen per year, have been lower in the 2000s than they were in the 1990s.

We hear about the bullying epidemic in painful accounts of youth taking their own lives after dealing with peer harassment. But peer victimization, harassment and bullying — despite their ubiquity — have been abating in almost all of the surveys. Suicide, too, is less common. Among 10- to 24- year-olds, the rate declined from 9.24 to 7.21 suicides per 100,000 people from 1991 to 2009.

Every generation of parents is alarmed by the sexual behavior of the young. But the accusations are more misplaced now than ever. Not only is the rate of teenage pregnancy down to record lows in the United States, but the percentage of ninth-graders who say they have had sexual intercourse has declined from 54 percent in 1991 to 47 percent in 2013. The percentage of high schoolers who say they have had four or more sexual partners also has declined.

Young people are showing a lot more self-control when it comes to substances as well. Binge drinking by 12th-graders is lower than at any time since surveys were started in 1976. The number of teenagers who have been drunk in the past year is at a record low and the drop for eighth-graders is particularly remarkable.

According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, half as many high school students said they had driven a car after drinking alcohol in 2011 compared with 1991.

Kids also are much less likely to run away and they’re also much more conscientious about finishing school. Compared with 1995, 56 percent fewer youth were running away in 2012.

And dropout rates among those ages 16 to 24 are at their lowest, down from 17 percent in 1968 to 6.6 percent in 2013.

Why these improvements? Social scientists are mostly guessing. For example, over the past generation we have unleashed many new prevention and intervention programs for parents, families and children that use more effective strategies. We also have given psychiatric medication to many children and their parents. Although controversial, such drugs reduce aggression, depression and hyperactivity — which all contribute to conflict and risk-taking.

Then there is the Internet, electronic games and related technology that have combined to relieve boredom, one of the chief drivers of adolescent mischief. Cellphones keep kids in touch with their parents and their friends, making it easier to summon help or get advice when they’re in trouble.

Moreover, maybe risk-taking has migrated, like everything else, to the electronic world, but in that world the connection between risk and harm is more remote than it was in the face-to-face past.

These improvements do not mean that everything is rosy. The levels of many problems among young people are still too high by most standards.

And one can easily find other indicators that have worsened for this generation, such as obesity.

But every parenting manual says it is important to highlight progress to encourage improvement. What’s so wrong with a little praise and gratitude for a remarkable generation? We may look back on today’s youth as relatively virtuous, as the ones who turned the tide on impulsivity and indulgence.

COLUMN

The ambition explosion In 1976, Daniel Bell published a book called "The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism." Bell argued that capitalism undermines itself because it nurtures a population of ever more self-gratifying consumers. These people may start out as industrious, but they soon get addicted to affluence, spending, credit and pleasure and stop being the sort of hard workers capitalism requires.

Bell was right that there’s a contradiction at the heart of capitalism, but he got its nature slightly wrong. Affluent, consumerist capitalists still work hard. Just look around.

The real contradiction of capitalism is that it arouses enormous ambition, but it doesn’t help you define where you should focus it. It doesn’t define an end to which you should devote your life. It nurtures the illusion that career and economic success can lead to fulfillment, which is the central illusion of our time.

Capitalism on its own breeds people who are vaguely aware that they are not living the spiritually richest life, who are ill-equipped to know how they might do so, who don’t have the time to do so, and who, when they go off to find fulfillment, end up devoting themselves to scattershot causes and light religions.

To survive, capitalism needs to be embedded in a

“

DAVID BROOKS

moral culture that sits in tension with it, and provides a scale of values based on moral and not monetary grounds. Capitalism, though, is voracious. The personal ambition it arouses is always threatening to blot out the counterculture it requires.

Modern China is an extreme example of this phenomenon, as eloquently described by Evan Osnos in his book, "Age of Ambition," which just won the National Book Award for nonfiction.

As Osnos describes it, the capitalist reforms of Deng Xiaoping raised the ambition levels of an entire society. A people that had been raised under Mao to be a "rustless screw in the revolutionary machine" had the chance, in the course of one generation, to achieve rags-toriches wealth. This led, Osnos writes, to a hunger for new sensations, a ravenous desire to make new fortunes.

Osnos describes the "English fever" that swept some Chinese youth. Li Yang was a shy man who found that the louder he bellowed English phrases the bolder he felt as a human being. Li filled large arenas, charging more than a month’s wages for a single day of instruction.

He had the crowds shout-

ing English phrases en masse, like "I would like to take your temperature!" and repeating his patriotic slogans, "Conquer English to make China stronger!"

Osnos interviewed a member of the Li cult who called himself Michael and considered himself a "born-again English speaker." For Michael, learning English was intermingled with the aspirational mantras he surrounded himself with: "The past does not equal the future. Believe in yourself. Create miracles."

It was this ambition explosion as much as anything else that created China’s prosperity. One mother who called herself "Harvard Mom" had her daughter hold ice cubes in her hands for 15 minutes at a time to teach fortitude. Soon China was building the real estate equivalent of Rome every fortnight.

But the fever, like communism before it, stripped away the deep rich spiritual traditions of Buddhism and Taoism. Society hardened. Corruption became rampant. People came to believe that society was cruel and unforgiving. They hunkered down.

One day, a little girl was hit by a bread truck in the city of Foshan. Seventeen people passed and did nothing as she lay bleeding on the ground. The security video of the incident played over and over again on TV, haunting the country.

Li Yang, the English

teacher, turned out to be a notorious wife-beater. His disciple, Michael, became embittered. The optimistic slogans now on his wall had undertones of frustration: "I have to mentally change my whole life’s destiny!" and "I can’t stand it anymore!"

This led, as it must among human beings who are endowed with a moral imagination that can be suppressed but never destroyed, to a great spiritual searching. Osnos writes that many Chinese sensed that there was a spiritual void at the core of their society. They sought to fill it any way they could, with revived Confucianism, nationalism, lectures by the Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel and Christianity.

Osnos writes that this spiritual searching is going out in all directions at once with no central melody. One gets the sense that the nation’s future will be determined as much by this quest as by political reform or capitalist innovation.

China is desperately searching for a spiritual and humanist nest to hold capitalist ambition. Those of us in the rest of the world are probably not searching as feverishly for a counterculture, but the essential challenge is the same. Capitalist ambition is an energizing gale force.

If there’s not an equally fervent counterculture to direct it, the wind uproots the tender foliage that makes life sweet.

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-call-

ing 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.

CLASSIC DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

Mexico

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014

THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A

Peña Nieto announces anti-crime plan

By MARK STEVENSON AND JOSE ANTONIO RIVERA ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president announced a nationwide anti-crime plan Thursday that would allow Congress to dissolve local governments infiltrated by drug gangs and give state authorities control over often-corrupt municipal police.

The plan announced by President Enrique Peña Nieto came two months after 43 teachers college students disappeared in the Guerrero city of Iguala, allegedly killed and incinerated by a drug gang working with local police. Huge marches have been held to protest their disappearance.

Peña Nieto suggested his plan was influenced by the Iguala tragedy, noting its “cruelty and barbarity have shocked Mexico.”

“Mexico cannot go on like this,” he said. “After

Iguala, Mexico must change.”

As if to underscore the problem, authorities said Thursday that they had found the decapitated, partly burned bodies of 11 men dumped on the side of a road near another Guerrero city.

The president’s plan would also relax the complex divisions between which offenses are dealt with at federal, state and local levels. At present, some local police refuse to act to prevent federal crimes like drug trafficking. It would also seek to establish a national identity number or document, though it was unclear what form that would take.

The plan would focus first on four of Mexico’s most troubled states — Guerrero, Michoacan, Jalisco and Tamaulipas.

More federal police and other security forces would be sent to the “hot

land” region overlapping the first two states, where the government has already sent significant contingents of federal police and soldiers.

“My response to the police operation in the ‘hot lands’ is: ‘What? Another one?”’ said Mexico Citybased security analyst Alejandro Hope, alluding to a string of previous anti-crime initiatives in the area. “The same as the others, for a limited time and without the right conditions?”

At a briefing for reporters later in the day, presidential chief of staff Aurelio Nuno said that within a year and a half the municipal police forces in those four states would be completely gone, replaced with state police under a clear command structure.

“What this case of Iguala has shown the government and I believe all of Mexican society, in a brutal and overwhelming way,

is the level of weakness that exists especially in this part of the country in terms of security, justice and the rule of law,” Nuno said.

The reforms, some of which would require constitutional changes, will be formally presented next week. They would include a single, nationwide emergency telephone number, which the president said could be “911,” as in the United States.

But Peña Nieto was vague in describing some of the proposals.

The focus on corrupt local governments reflects the shocking accusations made about the mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca.

Prosecutors say he collaborated with a local drug gang and ordered the detention of the students by local police, who turned them over to gang gunmen.

Municipal governments currently enjoy high lev-

els of autonomy and control their own police forces, something the president is now seeking to weaken. Nuno said an autonomous prosecutor’s office would empowered to investigate municipal governments. If it found collusion with organized crime or other corruption there would be a mechanism, yet to be determined, that would allow the federal government to take control of the local government.

Similar broad, federal anti-crime plans announced in 2004 and 2008 brought some improvements in areas such as vetting of police officers, but failed to prevent some entire municipal police forces from being coopted by crime gangs. As a result, Mexicans have become skeptical of such announcements.

“More than announcements, the public needs to see concrete actions that

make this rhetoric seem believable,” said Pedro Torres, a law professor at the Tecnologico de Monterrey university’s school of government. “There is definitely nothing new here that they haven’t tried to implement before.”

Peña Nieto began his administration in 2012 hoping to concentrate on economic and legal reforms and avoid the focus on drug-gang violence that dominated the term of his predecessor, Felipe Calderon.

Thursday marked Peña Nieto’s first broad policy statement on the subject, a tacit acknowledgement that the issue had become unavoidable.

Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson reported this story in Mexico City and Jose Antonio Rivera reported from Acapulco.

AP writer Christopher Sherman in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Nation

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014

Justice sent home after heart stent implanted

By MARK SHERMAN AND SAM HANANEL ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was released from the hospital Thursday after having a heart stent implanted to clear a blocked artery, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said.

The 81-year-old jurist was sent home and was expected to be at work when the court hears its next round of oral arguments on Monday, spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said.

Ginsburg was rushed to MedStar Washington Hospital Center late Tuesday after experiencing discomfort during exercise with a personal trainer.

She has had a series of health problems, including colorectal cancer in 1999 and pancreatic cancer in 2009.

The justice, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, has rejected suggestions from some liberals that she should step down and give President Barack Obama a chance to name her successor.

Her hospitalization just three weeks after elections handed Republicans control of the Senate raised anew the question whether Obama would be able to appoint a like-minded replacement.

Ginsburg’s procedure came after a blockage was discovered in her right coronary artery, Arberg said.

Ginsburg, who leads the court’s liberal wing, has for years been fending off questions about whether she should retire and give a Democratic president a chance to name her successor. In addition to two cancer operations, she was hospitalized after a bad reaction to medicine in 2009 and suffered broken ribs in a fall two years ago.

But the court’s oldest justice has not missed any time on the job since joining the high court.

For several years, liberal

academics have been calling on Ginsburg and, to a lesser extent, 76-year-old justice Stephen Breyer, to step down to ensure that Obama could nominate a younger justice with similar views.

Lawyers who are close to the Obama administration have made the same argument, but more quietly.

In one sense, it’s already late for that, because the Senate will be in Republican hands come January, making confirmation more difficult.

Still, the picture would look worse yet for the Democrats if a Republican should win the presidential election in 2016. A retirement then by a liberal justice would allow the appointment of a more conservative justice and potentially flip the out-

Photo by Cliff Owen | AP file

This July 31 file photo shows Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her Supreme Court chambers in Washington. come in important 5-4 decisions in death penalty, abortion, even gay rights cases in which the liberal side sometimes prevails.

The decision to leave the

pinnacle of the legal world never is an easy one, even for justices with health problems.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist remained even as

he suffered through thyroid cancer. He died in September 2005, still chief justice.

Rehnquist’s death allowed President George W. Bush to nominate another conservative, John Roberts, the current chief justice. The Roberts court has five justices appointed by Republican presidents and four appointed by Democrats.

Ginsburg has repeatedly rebuffed suggestions that it’s time to step down. She remains one of the court’s fastest writers and she has continued to make frequent public appearances around the country.

“So who do you think could be nominated now that would get through the Senate that you would rather see on the court than me?” she said in an Associ-

ated Press interview in July.

As for the next presidential election, she has said on more than one occasion, “I am hopeful about 2016.”

In an October interview in The New Yorker magazine, Obama said Ginsburg was “doing a wonderful job.”

“She is one of my favorite people,” Obama told the magazine.

“Life tenure means she gets to decide, not anybody else, when she chooses to go.”

In 2005, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said nothing publicly when he had a stent inserted after experiencing mild chest pain. The court revealed the procedure when Kennedy returned to the hospital to have the stent replaced 10 months later.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014

THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A

Photo courtesy of Televisa | AP

Mexican comedian Roberto Gomez Bolaños poses for a photo as his famous character El Chavo del Ocho.

Photo by J.B. Forbres/St. Louis Post-Dispatch | AP

Protesters of the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown shooting chant slogans at the St. Louis Galleria mall on Wednesday evening in Richmond Heights, Mo. They stayed in the mall for about 15 minutes and then left peacefully without confrontation.

Ferguson protest closes malls

By JIM SALTER AND TOM FOREMAN JR. ASSOCIATED PRESS

FERGUSON, Mo. — Demonstrators temporarily shut down two large malls in suburban St. Louis on one of the busiest shopping days of the year Friday, as rallies were held nationwide to protest a grand jury’s recent decision not to indict the police officer who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson.

Several stores lowered their security doors or locked entrances as at least 200 protesters sprawled onto the floor while chanting, “Stop shopping and join the movement” at the Galleria mall in Richmond Heights, about 10 miles south of Ferguson.

The protest prompted authorities to close the mall for about an hour Friday afternoon, while a similar protest of about 50 people had the same effect at West County Mall in nearby Des Peres. It didn’t appear that any arrests were made.

The protests were among

the largest in the country on Black Friday, along with rallies in Chicago, New York, Seattle, northern California and elsewhere. Demonstrations continued in and around Ferguson, where officer Darren Wilson fatally shot the 18-yearold Brown, who was unarmed, in August.

“We want to really let the world know that it is no longer business as usual,” Chenjerai Kumanyika, an assistant professor at Clemson University in South Carolina, said at a rally at a Wal-Mart in Manchester, another St. Louis suburb.

Monday night’s announcement that Wilson, who is white, wouldn’t be indicted for fatally shooting Brown, who was black, prompted violent protests that resulted in about a dozen buildings and some cars being burned. Dozens of people were arrested.

The rallies have been ongoing but have grown more peaceful this week, as protesters turn their attention to disrupting commerce.

Mindy Elledge, who runs

a watch kiosk at the Galleria, said it was working.

“I think people are afraid to come here,” Elledge said.

“With the protests going on, you never know when or where they’re going to happen.”

In Chicago, about 200 people gathered near the city’s popular Magnificent Mile shopping district, where Kristiana Colon, 28, called Friday “a day of awareness and engagement.” She’s a member of the Let Us Breathe Collective, which has been taking supplies such as gas masks to protesters in Ferguson.

“We want them to think twice before spending that dollar today,” she said of shoppers. “As long as black lives are put second to materialism, there will be no peace.”

Malcolm London, a leader in the Black Youth Project 100, which has been organizing Chicago protests, said the group was also trying to rally support for other issues, such as more transparency from Chicago police.

“We are not indicting a man. We are indicting a system,” London told the crowd.

Other planned events around the country seemed relatively brief and thinly attended in contrast to the large demonstrations earlier this week. In Brooklyn, New York, a “Hands Up, Don’t Shop” protest had been scheduled, but no one materialized.

At a shopping center in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, a dozen people gathered and chanted “Black lives matter.” Security was heightened at the Wal-Mart in Ferguson on Friday morning, with military Humvees, police cars and security guards on patrol. The store was busy, but there were no protesters.

In California, more than two dozen protesters chained themselves to trains running from Oakland to San Francisco.

About 25 protesters started Friday morning by holding train doors open to protest Brown’s death. No one was hurt.

Mexico’s ‘Chespirito’ dies at 85

By ISAAC GARRIDO ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY — Roberto Gomez Bolaños, the iconic Mexican comedian who wrote and played the boy television character “El Chavo del Ocho” that defined a generation for millions of Latin American children, died Friday, the Televisa television network said. He was 85.

Known as “Chespirito,” he changed comedy in Latin America, taking his inspiration from Laurel and Hardy as well as Mexico’s other transcendent comedian who eventually made it to Hollywood, Cantinflas. The cause of death was not immediately announced.

His two most famous characters were “El Chavo del Ocho,” who lived in the homes of Latin America and beyond with his barrel, freckles, striped shirt and frayed cap, and the naive superhero “El Chapulin Colorado,” or “The Crimson Grasshopper.”

He

warmed the hearts of millions with a clean comedy style far removed from the sexual innuendo and obscenity-laced jokes popular today. In a career that started in the 1950s, he wrote hundreds of television episodes, 20 films and theater productions that drew record-breaking audiences.

His prolific output earned him the nickname “Chespirito.” It came from the Spanish phonetic pronunciation of Shakespeare — “Chespir” — combined with “ito,” a diminutive commonly used in Mexico that seemed natural for Gomez Bolaños because of his short stature.

On Friday, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto tweeted, “Mexico has lost an icon whose work has transcended generations and borders.”

Gomez Bolaños is survived by his second wife, actress Florinda Meza, as well as six children from his first marriage and 12 grandchildren.

Nation

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES

Black Friday a little less crazy

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AND MAE ANDERSON ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — Black Friday seemed a little less crazy this year.

There were squabbles here and there, and elbows got thrown, but the Friday morning crowds appeared smaller than usual and less frenzied, in part because many Americans took advantage of stores’ earlier opening hours to do their shopping on Thanksgiving Day. That might be hard to stomach for people worried about commercial encroachment on Thanksgiving. But it is good news for bargain-hunters who hate crowds. Whether it’s good news for retailers remains to be seen. Sales estimates for the start of the holiday shopping season will start

trickling out later in the weekend.

Stores such as Wal-Mart and Target reported brisk Thanksgiving crowds. The colossal Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, said it drew 100,000 people between 5 p.m. Thursday and 1 a.m. Friday, nearly what it draws over a typical full day.

On Friday, plenty of shoppers were out, but it wasn’t elbow-to-elbow, said Moody’s analyst Michael Zucchero, at a mall in northern Connecticut.

“Traffic seems a little light,” he said. “Stores being open last night takes away some of the early birds.”

There were scattered reports of shopper scuffles and arrests. In addition, protests were planned nationwide over minimumwage laws.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014

Obama thanks armed forces ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama spent a quiet Thanksgiving at the White House where the belly-stuffing menu featured all the holiday’s basics. He also continued a tradition of telephoning members of

the armed forces to thank them for their service.

Obama called members from each of the military services and participated in a conference call with troops in West Africa. A White House summary of the calls said Obama told them their varied missions, from helping to

stamp out Ebola to prosecuting the war against Islamic State militants, had one primary objective — keeping the American people safe and secure.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made similar calls, contacting an Air Force captain in Kuwait, a Marine sergeant

in Liberia, an Army lieutenant in Afghanistan, and a Navy petty officer on a ship in the Arabian Gulf. Hagel, who submitted his resignation under pressure from the president earlier this week, thanked the service members for their sacrifices for the nation.

SÁBADO 29 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2014

Ribereña en Breve TALLER DE VIDEO El Instituto Tamaulipeco para la Cultura y las Artes (ITCA) invita a la comunidad de Reynosa y áreas circunvecinas a participar del taller “Video en tiempo real y narrativas alternas”, que estará a cargo de Ary Ehrenberg Lesur, a partir del 2 de diciembre y hasta el 5 de diciembre, en el Laboratorio de Experimentación Digital (LED) del Parque Cultural Reynosa (PCR).

Durante el taller se abordará principalmente la creación audiovisual en tiempo real, explorando las herramientas para su ejecución, así como las posibilidades que el acto en vivo puede dar para la construcción de una narrativa experimental. Este propone también la extensión de los materiales audiovisuales hacia el trabajo colaborativo con diversas disciplinas.

Ary Ehrenberg Lesur cursó la Licenciatura de Artes Visuales en la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos. Sus propuestas se enfocan en la relación entre medios y entorno, los fenómenos que se generan dentro de la naturaleza y la sociedad a partir de la tecnología, así como el juego con la percepción a través de la reconfiguración de los códigos que le construyan.

Zfrontera

PÁGINA 9A

INVESTIGACIÓN

Tráfico humano TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Un hombre fue acusado esta semana con cargos relacionado con el contrabando de personas después de que fuera encontrado en la habitación de un hotel de Laredo con un número de inmigrantes que se encontraban en el país de manera ilegal.

A alrededor de la 1:30 a.m. del 31 de octubre un agente especial de Investigaciones de Seguridad Nacional (HSI, por sus siglas en inglés) recibió una llamada por parte de un agente supervisor de Patrulla Fronteriza, acerca de un caso por contrabando de personas que implicaba a un hombre y a seis inmi-

grantes que se encontraban en el país sin permiso.

A alrededor de las 2 a.m., a agentes especiales se les dijo que Patrulla Fronteriza en Zapata había arrestado a un hombre quien sostuvo tenía información sobre un intento de tráfico de personas, El hombre dijo a Patrulla Fronteriza que sabía sobre menores solos que estaban en el país de manera ilegal y fueron albergados en un motel de Laredo.

Las autoridades contactaron a la Oficina del Alguacil del Condado de Webb para conducir la revisión del hotel. Agentes de Patrulla Fronteriza asistidos por oficiales de la Oficina del Alguacil, dijeron que encontraron

a siete hombres en una habitación del motel, seis de los cuales estaban en el país ilegalmente. El otro era ciudadano de EU. Fue identificado como Mario Benavides Jr. Uno de los inmigrantes dijo a las autoridades que se le cobraron 6.000 dólares para ser contrabandeado a Miami, Florida. Él y otro hombre sostuvieron que Benavides los recogió después de que nadaran para cruzar el Río Grande.

Benavides negó estar implicado en el intento de contrabando de personas, pero dijo que aceptará la responsabilidad en caso de ser declarado culpable, alega la querella criminal.

CIUDAD DE ROMA, TX.

OBITUARIO

MEJOR PLATILLO

Adiós a Roberto Gómez B. POR ISAAC GARRIDO ASSOCIATED PRESS

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.

Para más información, comunicarse con Celia Baldes, del Zapata County Chamber of Commerce, al (956) 765-4871.

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.

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.

Foto de cortesía | Ciudad de Roma

El Parque municipal de la Ciudad de Roma fue el escenario donde se desarrolló la Primera Competencia de Cocina “Gobble Till Ya Wobble”, el sábado. El evento contó con trofeos para los primeros lugares, música y entretenimiento para los asistentes.

COLUMNA

Mujeres logran derecho al voto POR RAÚL SINENCIO ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Cada 17 de octubre, las mujeres de México conmemoran el aniversario de su derecho al voto, que fue instituido en 1953. El paso no fue sencillo, sino que se sortearon varios obstáculos que duraron un largo periodo de tiempo. Un ejemplo de ello es Tamaulipas.

Recorrido Aunque las “Adelitas” aportaron mucho a la Revolución Mexicana, esto no facilitó las cosas.

Hermila Galindo Acosta, precursora feminista, demandó el sufragio para sus congéneres en el congreso constituyente de 19161917.

“Es de estricta justicia que la mujer tenga el voto en las elecciones de las autoridades, porque si ella tiene obligaciones […] razonable es que no carezca de derechos”, expuso. Los asambleístas desecharon la iniciativa.

Sin darse por vencidas continuaron insistiendo. En 1936 se creó la Oficina de Acción Femenina. Puertas afuera surgió el

Frente Único Pro Derechos de la Mujer. Creyeron triunfar el 18 de julio de 1938, cuando prosperaron enmiendas jurídicas que les otorgaban prerrogativas comiciales.

No obstante, el decreto con las innovaciones aprobadas no fue publicado.

El 12 de febrero de 1947 alcanzaron el derecho, restringido al municipio. Por fin, el 17 de octubre de 1953 se hizo extensivo a los demás órdenes de gobierno.

Amalia González Caballero de Castillo Ledón cobró relevancia en el logro.

Comparativo México fue pionero de los derechos sociales. Antes que ninguna otra, la carta magna de 1917 consagró preceptos en materia agraria y laboral, beneficiando a las trabajadoras.

En la Unión Americana, hacia 1890 el estado de Wyoming implantó el sufragio femenino, extendido a los comicios federales tres décadas adelante. En 1928 los ingleses adoptaron medidas similares para las elecciones legislativas. La Francia republicana legalizó el voto de las mujeres desde

1944.

Tuvo oportunidad de tomar la delantera el constituyente mexicano, y fue desaprovechada. Al escatimar la presencia de género en líderes políticas, los diputados dijeron que “las mujeres no sienten la necesidad de participar en los asuntos públicos, como lo demuestra la falta de todo movimiento colectivo en este sentido”.

Sin embargo, ciertas entidades permitieron el voto a la mujer. También desempeñaron cargos representativos, de carácter edilicio o legislativo. Yucatán, y San Luis Potosí, México, abrieron la tendencia, replicándola Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Puebla y Guerrero, México.

De esta suerte, en 1947 reformas dispusieron que las mexicanas se incorporaran a la renovación de ayuntamientos, limitándolas a elegir y ser electas munícipes. Pues bien, Tamaulipas aplazaría cuatro años las correspondientes adecuaciones.

Tras la publicación del 19 de septiembre de 1953 fueron cuestionadas las candidaturas femeninas.

(Publicado con permiso del autor conforme apareció en La Razón, Tampico, México).

MEXICO — “Sin querer queriendo” Roberto Gómez Bolaños recorrió las casas y vecindades de América Latina con sus entrañables personajes, desde el Chavo del Ocho, con su barril, sus pecas, su camisa a rayas y su gorra a cuadros, hasta el Chapulín Colorado, el héroe ingenuo más famoso de la región.

El llamado “Chespirito” fue un astro incluso en países que no compartían su idioma pero quedaban cautivados por una mezcla de inocencia y comicidad que conservó hasta sus últimos días, cuando desde su silla de ruedas podía desatar carcajadas en cada lugar al que asistía, en su mayoría para recibir hoGÓMEZ menajes.

Gómez Bolaños murió el viernes, informó la cadena Televisa.

Tenía 85 años.

Aparte de ser el creador de la vecindad donde vivían el Chavo y sus amigos Quico y la Chilindrina, además de Don Ramón, el Profesor Jirafales, Doña Clotilde y Doña Florinda, Gómez Bolaños escribió, produjo y dirigió comedias que marcaron un hito en la televisión, transmitiéndose años después de su debut y que el cariño del público aún mantienen con vida.

Nacido el 21 de febrero de 1929, Gómez Bolaños fue el segundo de los tres hijos de Elsa Bolaños Cacho y Francisco Gómez Linares, un pintor. Creció en la capital mexicana, en un barrio de clase media.

Su carrera como guionista de televisión comenzó en la década de 1950 y le hizo crear cientos de episodios de comedia, más de una veintena de películas, y obras de teatro que rompieron récords de presentaciones.

Por su enorme producción escrita se le comparó con William Shakespeare y de ahí surgió su apodo de "Chespirito", una castellanización del apellido del autor británico pero en diminutivo, por su baja estatura, explicó en una ocasión su esposa, la actriz Florinda Meza.

“Los apodos son esenciales en la vida, son más valiosos que los nombres”, dijo el actor en una entrevista con Televisa en 2011.

Su mayor influencia para la comedia la encontró en el popular dúo estadounidense "El Gordo y El Flaco", del que dijo en 2001: "Los tengo realmente metidos en el corazón". El mexicano Mario Moreno "Cantinflas" fue otro de sus ídolos.

En medio de la agitación social de 1968, Gómez Bolaños dio a su vez una sacudida a la escena de la comedia televisiva mexicana al ser reclutado por la recién inaugurada estación Televisión Independiente de México, para la que creó "Los supergenios de la mesa cuadrada".

FRONTERA

Sucesos dejan una muerte e incautaciones TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

La muerte de una persona y el decomiso de armamento de alto poder, fueron los resultados de dos operativos realizados por personal militar en los municipios de Miguel Alemán y Mier, México.

El martes el municipio de Miguel Alemán fue el escenario de una balacera entre personal mili-

tar y civiles armados, después de que elementos de la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional, realizaran una detención de tráfico para inspeccionar dos vehículos sospechosos y las personas a bordo comenzaran a disparar, de acuerdo con un comunicado de prensa.

El evento, que fue reportado a las 2:10 p.m., culminó con la muerte de José Angel Medina Montes,

de 39 años de edad, uno de los atacantes, señala el reporte.

Decomiso A las 2:10 p.m. del martes personal militar localizó dos vehículos con blindaje artesanal, en el municipio de Mier, después de seguir las pistas de una denuncia ciudadana.

Entre el armamento recuperado había armas de alto poder, equipo táctico y cartuchos útiles, entre ello 16 armas largas, dos fusiles calibre .50, 176 cargadores, 7.240 cartuchos útiles de diferentes calibres y diverso equipo táctico. El decomiso quedó a disposición del Agente del Ministerio Público Federal con base en el municipio de Miguel Alemán.

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014

TAX Continued from Page 1A that if they voted against the sales tax increase, property taxes would rise.

Vela said the county’s election canvassing report accounted for 202 people in favor of the sales tax increase. 151 voted against the increase in the early voting stage.

On Election Day, however, the totals amounted to 626 who voted in favor and 438 who voted against.

This data concludes that 58.8 percent of voters voted in favor of the increase.

According to unofficial election night results published by the Office of the Secretary of State, Zapata County has 7,438 registered voters. The county’s population is 14,390, according to data collected in 2013 by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Vela said the county government was “very happy” with the voter’s decision to vote in favor of the tax increase.

“Right now, we don’t have any oil and gas drilling, and that has affected us,” Vela said.

In addition to the absence of oil and gas drilling in the area, Zapata’s main source of tourism, Falcon Lake, had seen the number of visitors dwindle due to lower water levels, a declining largemouth bass population and international safety concerns as the lake lies on the U.S.Mexico border.

Due to the aforementioned factors, Zapata’s economy took a hit, and Vela said the sales tax increase will help balance the county’s budget.

“The money made from the sales tax increase will go towards the county, towards infrastructure and balancing the budget. And this way, we don’t have to increase property taxes,” Vela said.

The 2 percent increase is in additional to the cur-

rent state tax.

“It’s an extra two cents per dollar,” Vela said.

Between 1.5 million and 2 million dollars are expected to be collected through the tax in 2015, according to Vela.

The sales tax increase has already taken effect.

“People who come in and shop in our county will be contributing … It won’t be 100 percent coming from Zapata residents,” Vela said.

Vela also mentioned that tourism in the area is expected to peak during hunting season.

According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife website, hunting season is currently in effect for ducks, Canada Geese, Light Geese, White-fronted Geese, Quail, Turkey, White-tailed Deer and Wilson’s Snipe.

(Gabriela A. Treviño may be reached at 956-7282579 or gtrevino@lmtonline.com)

GUNMAN Continued from Page 1A Investigators identified the shooter as 49-year-old Larry McQuilliams of Austin. Police said he had a criminal record but didn’t release details, and said they were still trying to determine a motive.

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department issued a statement expressing “profound concern and condemnation” of the attack, but also said “there is no evidence the shots were exclusively directed at our facility.”

Other targeted buildings included Austin police headquarters and the U.S. courthouse.

Acevedo said a sergeant, while holding the reins of two police horses after his patrol, shot the gunman just outside the main entrance to police headquarters. But Acevedo said it’s not clear if the shot was fatal or if McQuilliams took his own life.

His targets were located throughout downtown

Austin and officers received multiple reports of gunfire, though the entire incident lasted about 10 minutes from the first call, Acevedo said.

Officers approached McQuilliams after he had been shot, but noticed cylinders in his vehicle, which was nearby. They also discovered he was wearing a vest they thought may have been rigged to explode. Officers retreated and a bomb squad was called, but it was later determined that the items were not explosive.

The shooter’s white van was still on the street outside police headquarters several hours after the shooting. Its doors, the trunk and hood were open as investigators looked it over.

The fire at the consulate was extinguished before any significant damage was done to the building.

The federal courthouse’s guard house

was shot several times, as was police headquarters, which Acevedo said was “extensively damaged.”

As a precaution, a police tactical team later went to the Austin apartment complex where they believed the gunman lived. Some homes close to his apartment were evacuated.

Officers at the scene were seen removing about a dozen small tanks of propane, the type used in camping and the type police said was used in the attempt to set fire to the Mexican Consulate.

Adam Peyton, who lives in the area, said he awoke Friday to see SWAT vehicles and police officers on motorcycles in the southwest Austin neighborhood near the city’s well-known Zilker Park. He said the area was “really laid back” and close-knit, where residents know each other and are often out walking their dogs.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014

THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A

BORDER Continued from Page 1A water safety violations — the bread-and-butter of Texas game wardens — has fallen steeply, from 52,165 citations during the first nine months of 2009 to 42,237 citations during the first nine months of 2014.

That 19 percent decline occurred even as the number of game wardens in the state held more or less steady and as the number of fishing and hunting licenses issued in Texas steadily increased.

One area of the state that hasn’t experienced the drop-off in such enforcement actions in recent years is the portion of the border extending from Brownsville to Laredo. Citations in that five-county area increased significantly in recent years.

In a sign of the intensity of border operations this year, between June 1 and Oct. 20, every one of Texas’ 503 game wardens was called to the border, some more than once, for a total of 663 border deployments.

Those deployments cost taxpayers about $1.75 million beyond regular salaries.

Overall, the Statesman found that since 2005 there have been 4,504 special deployments of wardens to the border.

The most recent border effort also coincided with a sharp rise in instances when game wardens had to use physical force in their duties. Three years ago, game wardens reported just two use-offorce instances statewide. In the first 10 months of 2014, wardens filed 31 use-of-force reports. Nearly half occurred in the waters of the Rio Grande during the first three months of Operation Strong Safety.

While offering other explanations for the dip in citations, Chief Grahame Jones, who heads special operations for the game wardens, acknowledged the border assignment has shifted the agency’s focus away from its more traditional responsibilities.

“We’re not going to say it doesn’t have an effect on our operations,” he said.

Border operations are just one aspect of the evolving role of game wardens, who over the last decade have morphed into a highly trained and highly armed force that Gov. Rick Perry has hailed as a “new generation of tech-savvy law enforcement personnel.”

That evolution of game warden responsibilities might accelerate: Last week, state leaders agreed to fund an additional $86 million to continue elements of the surge through at least August 2015.

Gov.-elect Gregg Abbott said in February that he wants to nearly double state spending on the border, suggesting a “continuous surge” with 1,000 new officers on the ground.

The shift to the border has raised concerns for some ranchers in other parts of Texas.

“I could see why a governor would want them involved in other dangerous jobs, but this seems beyond what a game warden would be called to do,” said Kendall County rancher David Langford, who is vice president emeritus of the Texas Wildlife Association, a property rights, wildlife management and conservation organization. “I’d be mad as hell if ... I call the game warden for help, and he’s down there in the Valley.”

not articulate what they were saying due to the outboard engine noise.”

As the rock attack unfolded, a group of women and children stood between the wardens and the rock-throwers, according to the report. ”Both vessels cleared the area to defuse the situation.”

More firepower

Photo by Jay Janner/Austin-American Statesman | TNS

Jorge Luis Espinoza, 20, raises his hands as armed Texas game wardens catch him collecting oysters on the Texas side of the Rio Grande near Brownsville on Sept. 24. Game wardens arrested three young Mexican men who were in Texas illegally collecting the oysters. The oysters could be dangerous because they are out of season.

Off the pavement The game wardens trace their roots to the late 19th century as the conservation-minded, pioneering counterparts of the more storied Texas Rangers. Their mission was to prevent the overhunting of Texas wild game. “Law Enforcement Off the Pavement” remains their motto, but they’ve long expanded beyond their original duties.

Game wardens make up a small part of current border operations, their role often left unmentioned in media accounts of Department of Public Safety and Texas National Guard deployments. But in many ways, the wardens represent the literal front line of the state’s border defense as they patrol what has become the most contested river on the continent.

The focus on border operations signals an important change in their usage.

At a graduation ceremony for newly minted game wardens in 2009, Perry told them their service “won’t be limited to checking for expired licenses, slot limits or outof-season game.” Instead, game wardens were to be “fully integrated into our border security operations” as they fight drug and human smuggling.

Assignments of new wardens illustrate the shift: In one graduating class roughly two decades ago, only four out of 39 newly minted wardens were assigned to border areas. Last year, of the 28 graduates, all but six were sent to the border.

“The governor is confident in their ability to fulfill the full range of law enforcement duties under their responsibility,” Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said.

Trying to reconcile the border patrol work with natural resource protection, Jones said the deployments are in keeping with the game warden mission because they leverage maritime know-how to disrupt drug cartels and provide a presence in an area known for illegal fishing. He also called the border work a humanitarian effort that reduces the “chance of water-crossing fatalities.”

“We’re very proud of our game wardens,” he said. “There’s no question we’re asking a lot of them. I’ve heard zero complaints from our guys, and they’ve missed vacations, birthdays, anniversar-

ies — you name it. They’re out there (on the border) on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, 24/7. And the way we’re looking at it is we have a job to do. We’re not going to argue with Operation Strong Safety.”

He also offers competing explanations for the drop in citations.

The drought, he said, has dampened hunting and fishing opportunities, making violations less likely.

But the Statesman found that hunting and fishing licenses have gone up every year over the last decade, despite the parched landscape: In 2011, when the drought took hold, the state sold 2,888,532 hunting and fishing licenses. This year, it has sold 3,074,629, a 6.4 percent increase.

Jones also pointed to compliance numbers to suggest, essentially, that Texans are behaving better as the Parks and Wildlife Department has stepped up public education campaigns: Water fatalities were down 38 percent from 2010 to 2014, and vessel accidents were down 32 percent since 2011.

Nationally and throughout Texas, crime rates have fallen overall in recent years.

He also said that use-of-force incidents have spiked because the department has become more aggressive about recording them, hoping to reverse years of underreporting.

Still, nearly half of the use-offorce incidents in 2014 occurred on the waters of the Rio Grande between June 6 and Aug. 24, when game wardens filed 13 reports on nine separate incidents.

The incidents, which began just after Operation Strong Safety started June 1, reveal the often chaotic and dangerous nature of the agency’s border work and show how game wardens, in some ways, have been used as immigration police, marrying environmental protection with border patrols.

Most of the incidents involved game wardens using pepper spray on people trying to cross the Rio Grande in rafts. In some cases, game wardens attempted to subdue human smugglers near rafts filled with women and children without life jackets. In two incidents, game wardens used lessthan-lethal ammunition in response to people on the Mexican shore who were throwing rocks or sticks.

While they stop short of arresting suspects for crossing illegally — that power is reserved to the federal government — they can detain suspects before turning them over to federal agents.

They have detained crossers from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Nepal, Mexico and China.

On July 22, wardens came across a raft “loaded with women and children” and tried to grab a guide who had slipped into the water.

“He kept holding (the) raft in one hand (and) poked at me with his paddle in the other hand,” wrote Game Warden David Pellizzari, who is normally stationed in Palo Pinto County, 500 miles due north. “I tried to grab the subject but could not safely grab him.”

The warden decided to spray the man, but “the can sprayed a fog instead of a stream.” The man went under water and came up holding the patrol boat. Pellizzari sprayed him again, but when he tried to grab him, the man wriggled free and swam to the U.S. shore, where he was apprehended by other wardens.

A month earlier, Game Warden Daniel Cantu, stationed in Cameron County, shot a suspected smuggler twice with less-than-lethal rounds during a tumultuous encounter just moments after a group of immigrants crossed the river.

According to Cantu’s use-offorce report, wardens attempted to arrest the suspected smuggler as he swam back to Mexico from the U.S. side, when a man on the Mexican shore lobbed a 4-foot-long stick at the patrol boat. The stick landed in the water, but Cantu feared for his safety because a group of men on the Mexican side was in an “elevated position.”

The warden shot the stickthrower in the hip with a 40 mm less-than-lethal round. But instead of backing down, the man ran up the river bank, picked up some rocks and began throwing them at Cantu, according to the report.

The warden shot the man again, in the leg, causing him to take cover behind a tree.

“At this time, several other aggressive individuals began throwing rocks, wood sticks and water bottles at both patrol vessels,” Cantu wrote. ”They were yelling at both vessels. However, we could

Once upon a time, game wardens patrolled their corners of Texas on horseback, with long rifles and revolvers.

Now they’re armed with an M-4s and Glocks.

“We work hard to find good people and train them,” Jones said.

“We have to do everything to protect them as they take risks.”

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has won more than $1.2 million in former U.S. military equipment, including more than 100 pieces of night-vision equipment, a small airplane typically used for police surveillance and automatic rifles.

The figures illustrate ways the Texas’ game wardens, like conservation police in states from California to Maine, have moved beyond their traditional resource protection mission.

“We do normal police work on top of parks and wildlife stuff,” said Capt. James Dunks, who oversees operations in the Brownsville game warden office.

Before June 2013, the statewide marine theft team consisted of a single sergeant. Between June 2013 and June 2014, an expanded marine theft investigative unit undertook 250 fraud investigations and seized 117 boats with a total value of about $775,000.

Between January and June, game wardens seized 7,670 pounds of marijuana. They seized three times as much — 23,764 pounds — between June and September, during the height of Operation Strong Safety.

The game wardens now have 10 K-9 teams trained in narcotics detection, manhunts and cadaver location. They also have a SWATlike tactical response team, a search-and-rescue squad, and a forensics reconstruction and mapping team, among others.

Former head of Parks and Wildlife law enforcement Pete Flores calls the multiple roles “a balancing act, like being an electrician and cutting the grass in your yard.”

“The key is not to divert from the primary mission, but we’re out on the water anyways, and we’re part of the law enforcement fabric anyways,” Flores said.

The breadth of the work helps when seeking pay raises from the Legislature.

In December 2012, with a legislative session approaching, Shea Guinn, president of the Texas Game Warden Association, encouraged members to “educate legislators and tell them what Game Wardens do for the people of the state.”

Game wardens are “also involved in Border Security and Homeland Security, drug interdiction, natural disaster response, search and rescue operations and assisting local law enforcement with anything that they may need,” he wrote. “As you can see, a Game Warden has a wide variety of ‘jobs.”’

12A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014

ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

Sports&Outdoors HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL BORDER OLYMPICS: ZAPATA HAWKS

NFL: DALLAS COWBOYS

Hawks ousted ZHS loses first two at Border Olympics

By CLARA SANDOVAL Photo by Jose Yau | AP

THE ZAPATA TIMES

After a 33-10 loss at home to the Eagles, Dallas is moving on with their sights set on their rematch in Philadelphia.

LAREDO – After starting the Border Olympics Holiday Classic boys’ basketball tournament with a 75-22 loss to Borne Champion, Zapata was able to put forth a better effort in their second game of the day.

Still, the Hawks were not able to overcome a cold fourth quarter as they dropped a 63-43 decision to Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Friday evening.

A pair of Hawks were in double figures with Javi Lopez leading the way with 15 points while Jake Gutierrez added 12. ZHS got into trouble early in the opening quarter as the Bears raced out to a 15-0 lead before Lopez connected on a long 3 to finally get the team on the scoreboard with 2:48 left on the clock.

Clyde Guerra worked the paint and the boards as an offensive rebound led to Zapata’s second basket of the game. Lopez added the Hawks’ final basket of the first quarter as PSJA led 26-7.

Zapata had a hard time containing Anthony Denaway and Kobe Rangel, who each had eight points apiece as PSJA won the battle of the boards with second opportunities.

The second quarter belonged to Zapata as the offense that was visibly missing in the first period was on full display. The Hawks attacked the basket as Gutierrez started to find his shot, helping the school go on a 12-5 run to chip away at PSJA’s

See ZAPATA PAGE 2B

Cowboys moving on from loss Dallas gets Eagles again, but matchup with Bears comes first

By SCHUYLER DIXON ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Clara Sandoval | The Zapata Times

Jake Gutierrez had 12 points in the Hawks 63-43 loss to Pharr-San Juan-Alamo. Zapata lost the Border Olympics’ opener 75-22 to Borne Champion.

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Ray Rice wins appeal, reinstated

IRVING — Dez Bryant was ready to play Philadelphia again as soon as the Eagles finished blowing out the Cowboys in a Thanksgiving battle for the NFC East lead.

At least the star Dallas receiver mentioned that a trip to Chicago comes first.

“I’m really not mad at all,” Bryant said after Thursday’s 33-10 loss, the third straight at home for Dallas. “They beat us. I’m going to accept that. But I cannot wait to go up there and play them again.”

Cowboys coach Jason Garrett has a unique challenge to his mantra of next practice, next day, next game. The Cowboys (8-4) were a bust in the first of two games against Philadelphia in 18 days, all the more reason to be anxious for a do-over.

The Bears (5-7) also were flattened on Thanksgiving, losing 3417 at Detroit. Instead of the usual extra time off, both teams are playing the rare Thursday-toThursday set.

“We’d be saying the same thing if the out-

See COWBOYS PAGE 2B

NFL: CLEVELAND BROWNS

By BARRY WILNER ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Jason DeCrow | AP

Ray Rice is allowed to sign an NFL contract and rejoin the league after winning an appeal for his indefinite suspension.

NEW YORK — Ray Rice has won the appeal of his indefinite suspension by the NFL. An arbitrator ruled Friday that his suspension for punching his fiancee, now his wife, should be vacated immediately. The NFL said Rice, a free agent, is “eligible to play upon signing a new contract.”

Former U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones said Commissioner Roger Goodell’s decision in September to change Rice’s

Bears to square off with Tech

By STEPHEN HAWKINS ASSOCIATED PRESS

See BAYLOR-TECH PAGE 2B

Cleveland quarterback Johnny Manziel was in an altercation on Nov. 21 with a fan, 33 year old Chris Conos.

See RICE PAGE 2B

NCAA FOOTBALL: BAYLOR VS. TEXAS TECH

ARLINGTON — Baylor coach Art Briles has always preferred repeating over defending when talking about the Big 12 title.

That first Big 12 trophy won last year is theirs to keep. The fifth-ranked Bears are now trying to repeat as league champions, something last done six seasons ago when Oklahoma won its third consecutive title.

“You can look across the nation and see how hard it is to repeat as a

Photo by Tony Dejak | AP

Manziel addresses altercation Browns, former Aggies QB says he tried to avoid situation

By TOM WITHERS ASSOCIATED PRESS

File photo by LM Otero | AP

Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty and the Bears are 24-3 in their last 27 games, looking to make a statement towards making the playoff facing Texas Tech on Saturday.

CLEVELAND — No, he’s not Johnny Footbrawl.

Johnny Manziel said he did everything he could to escape a “very aggressive” fan before an altercation in the lobby of the Browns rookie quarterback’s apartment building.

Speaking on Friday for the first time since last week’s incident, Manziel said the man, identified in a police report as Chris Gonos, was “a very intoxicated, very aggressive person that approached me in the lobby.” Manziel said he went out dinner on Friday night with his

See MANZIEL PAGE 2B

PAGE 2B

Zscores

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014

ZAPATA

COWBOYS Continued from Page 1B

Continued from Page 1B lead. He scored eight of Zapata’s 12 points in the period while Lopez added four as the Hawks outscored PSJA 12-7.

"We just preached to run the court as much as we can and the guys finally started to hit some baskets," Zapata head coach Rene Chapa said. "In our district, we face teams like Hidalgo, who are a little powerhouse, La Feria and Rio Hondo, so we need to start preparing for them. This tournament is helping us.

"We are still working with that team chemistry, mixing in some new lineups and working with all the guys. We are trying to build the team and get these guys going."

The Bears held a 33-19 advantage heading into halftime as Zapata started to tighten its defense and limit turnovers on offense. They did not slow down in the third quarter as Gutierrez and Lopez were consistently getting to the basket, accounting for 10 of the Hawks’ 16 points in the period. Zapata came within six points of the Bears off a basket by Carlos Saenz, who was relentless on the offensive boards with 3:10 left in the third period.

The fourth quarter was a nightmare for the Hawks as the offense which thrived in the second and third quarter was gone. Zapata started to run out of steam as PSJA finally began to hit field goals in the paint.

The Bears also connected on seven 3s as they were led by Jordan Garcia with 16 points and four triples. Alex Mancha added 15 points and Denway ended the evening with 11.

Zapata returns to action this morning at 9 a.m. and then will face Hebbronville on Tuesday.

come would’ve been the reverse,” Garrett said. “We got to get focused on beating Chicago. We have to learn from this game, build on the good stuff, correct the bad.

It wasn’t perfect. Let’s get back to work.”

Tony Romo will get a normal week of rest for his surgically repaired back, which didn’t appear to respond very well to the first quick turnaround since the December procedure to fix a herniated disk. He sustained a separate injury to the back a month ago on a sack against Washington.

Romo went down early on one third-down play with nobody in position to sack him, and didn’t try to escape trouble a few other times on his way to four sacks, one shy of his season high.

“I thought there was a guy coming and I was probably wrong,” said Romo, who had his worst passer rating of the season while the Cowboys were outgained by almost 200 yards.

“That was a concession, but that was also because the way their defense guarded the play, more so than anything else.”

Garrett said he didn’t think Romo’s back was the

Photo by Jose Yau | AP

Dallas running back DeMarco Murray and the Cowboys will be back in action next Thursday facing off with the Bears. reason he threw two interceptions while a 38-game streak with at least one touchdown pass ended.

“Maybe bothered by a pass rush,” Garrett said.

“He’s a human being. He’s

dealing with stuff. Everybody’s dealing with stuff. He certainly missed some throws and just the overall environment, there were some tight throws he had to make.”

MANZIEL Continued from Page 1B mother and roommate and had returned to The 9, a downtown hotel where he has an apartment, when he was confronted by “what has been made out to be a fan.”

Manziel did not name Gonos but said the man was “putting his hands on me, kind of toying with me.” The popular former Heisman Trophy winner said he and his roommate tried to coax the man into another elevator and “the guy got very aggressive” before security was able to intervene.

Manziel declined to provide any details about the skirmish, which police said took place at 2:30 a.m., and he would not say if he threw any punches. Manziel showed no visible markings from the altercation.

Manziel said he does not plan to press charges.

Gonos had told police he was struck and assaulted by “Johnny Football and his entourage.”

Manziel dismissed the idea that he’s surrounded by people when he’s out in public.

“There is no entourage, I live with one other person and my mother was upstairs,” the firstround draft pick said. “That’s about as much entourage as you get, being with my mom. “ Manziel said he has interactions with fans on a daily basis and typically enjoys them.

“I’m approached by fans every single day in Cleveland,” he said. “There’s nothing I love more than when somebody comes up and talks to me about the history of the Browns or how passionate they are about this team. I treat every fan the same, with a lot of respect, and I’m very thankful for them being the fans that they are. I don’t

If the Cowboys are tempted to look past the Bears, a quick history lesson will solve it. One of their two worst games from last season came in Chicago, a 45-28 loss after they trailed 42-14 early in the fourth quarter.

If Dallas finds a way to answer a sluggish showing in a game that started about 90 hours after a win at the New York Giants ended, the Cowboys will finally get the longer break to prepare for the rematch with the Eagles.

“We have the team that when we do it right, we can basically take where our personnel, where our assets are, where the talent is, and we have a team that can win games like this against Philadelphia,” owner Jerry Jones said. “But certainly we didn’t do it today and when we didn’t, well, we got in trouble, and got in trouble good.”

The Cowboys get another shot this time, unlike last year’s season-ending loss to the Eagles with a playoff berth on the line.

“It’s a minor setback,” center Travis Frederick said after the game. “You feel it now and you’ll probably feel it tonight and then tomorrow we move on.”

RICE Continued from Page 1B

Photo by Seth Wenig | AP

Ray Rice won his appeals hearing as a judge said that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was “arbitrary” and an “abuse of discretion.”

Photo by Tony Dejak | AP

Former Aggies QB Johnny Manziel said he attempted to avoid an altercation with a fan, who was “very aggressive” and “very intoxicated.” think our league would be that without them.

“It was a very unfortunate situation, a situation that was tried to be averted at all costs and one that I was unfortunately not able to really get away from.”

Manziel said he called Browns general manager Ray Farmer and coach Mike Pettine immediately after he awoke on Saturday to explain what happened.

“I’m very thankful for the Browns having my back in all this and supporting me in a situation that seemed to be a little blown out of proportion,” he said.

Farmer had said the team was concerned about the time the incident took place. Manziel said his lifestyle has changed “dramatically” since he came to Cleveland. There was a lot made of his out-of-town partying during the offseason, but the 22year-old understands he has a

responsibility to the Browns.

“I know there’s other guys around the league and other guys in this locker room that do the same thing and enjoy their time when they’re out of the building,” he said, “and I know that at night when I go to bed I need to make sure that I’m ready and capable of going to work the next day and doing my job to the duties that I have being in this building the next day.”

Manziel has only been on the field for a few plays this season as he backs up starter Brian Hoyer. Earlier this week, Pettine said the late-night incident had not affected Manziel’s standing with the team or playing status.

Manziel opened his interview session by thanking local media members for “not jumping out to any wild conclusions like some other people do.”

original suspension from two games to indefinite was “arbitrary” and an “abuse of discretion.”

Jones was deciding whether the NFL overstepped its authority in modifying Rice’s two-game suspension after video of the Baltimore Ravens running back punching Janay became public.

Rice was released by the Ravens when the video went public.

Rice and the union contended he was essentially sentenced twice, and Jones agreed.

In her decision, Jones wrote: “Because Rice did not mislead the commissioner and because there were no new facts on which the commissioner could base his increased suspension, I find that the imposition of the indefinite suspension was arbitrary. I therefore vacate the second penalty imposed on Rice.

“The provisions of the first discipline — those regarding making continued use of counseling and other professional services, having no further involvement with law enforcement, and not

committing any additional violations of league policies — still stand.”

The NFL said it accepted the decision.

“We respect Judge Jones’s decision to reinstate Ray Rice from his indefinite suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy in an incident of domestic violence,” spokesman Greg Aiello said in an email to The Associated Press.

“Ray Rice is a free agent and has been eligible to be signed by an NFL team since he was released by the Ravens. Based on Judge Jones’ decision, he will be eligible to play upon signing a new contract.”

The Rices’ testified at the hearing, as did NFL security chief Jeffrey Miller and Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome.

The NFL Players Association claimed a “victory for a disciplinary process that is fair and transparent” in a statement. The union called again for collective bargaining to produce a new personal conduct policy.

BAYLOR-TECH Continued from Page 1B champion. That’s something we take a lot of pride in,” Briles said. “If we were sitting in August and said, hey, you’re going to be deep in November and still have a chance to do it, we would have said that would be outstanding. So we are where we need to be, but we can’t touch it yet.”

The Bears (9-1, 6-1) play Saturday against Texas Tech (4-7, 2-6), needing a win to keep pace with No. 6 TCU (10-1, 7-1) after the Horned Frogs’ impressive 48-10 Thanksgiving night romp at Texas.

There are also those playoff implications, with Baylor seventh in the College Football Playoff rankings. The Bears are two spots behind TCU despite that 61-58 comeback win over the Frogs on Oct. 11.

“As long as you win, you’re putting yourself in the best chance to be there,” Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty said. “As far as style points go, you can’t control that. ... All

we can do is win. That puts us in the conversation.”

Baylor’s regular-season finale is Dec. 6 at home against No. 11 Kansas State, also a Big 12 title contender. TCU finishes at home against last-place Iowa State.

There have been several offensive shootouts between Baylor and Texas Tech, which won’t be going to a bowl game but could upset the Big 12 and playoff races in its final game.

“Yeah, I think you have to find motivation in that, because it’s our last game,” Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said. “Give it the best shot we can in our last attempt and play our best game of the year.”

A few things to watch when Baylor and Texas Tech play in the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium for the fourth straight year, and fifth time in six seasons: BIG, BIG NUMBERS

File photo by LM Otero | AP

Already unable to become bowl eligible, Texas Tech will be playing for pride taking on Baylor on Saturday.

The Big 12’s top two passing offenses will have

ideal conditions in a climate-controlled stadium.

In their last three meetings there, all won by Baylor, the Bears and Red Raiders combined to average nearly 101 points and 1,1145 total yards per game.

THEY CAN RUN, TOO Junior DeAndre Washington ran for 186 yards last week to become Texas Tech’s first 1,000-yard rusher since 1998 with Ricky Williams — not that season’s Heisman Trophy winner from Texas with the same name. Shock Linwood is 23 yards from giving Baylor a 1,000-yard rusher for the fifth consecutive season. Linwood and Devin Chafin are both coming off 100-yard games last week, and both ran for 100 yards against Tech last year.

EARLY ENDING Texas Tech will finish without a bowl game for the second time in four seasons, following a stretch of 11 consecutive bowl appearances from 2000-10. The Red Raiders have to win Saturday to

avoid having fewer than five wins for the first time since 1990.

BAYLOR CAN BOAST The Bears are 24-3 in their last 27 games, a mark bettered during that span only by defending national champion and No. 1 Florida State’s 27game winning streak.

Baylor has won 19 consecutive games played in Texas, and is 30-3 in the Lone Star State the past four seasons.

HANDSOME MAN Briles was asked this week if he felt shortchanged in any comparison to the appearance of Kingsbury, the Red Raiders’ quarterback when Briles was the running backs coach there. “He is a good-looking guy. I’m not going to lie,” the 58year-old Briles said of the coach 23 years his junior.

“I quit trying to worry about looking good 30 years ago. ... As long as I’m breathing and walking on my own I feel very blessed.”

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014

Christmas Cards Hit the Mark Dear Heloise: Last Valentine’s Day, I used the "romantic postmarks" to send cards from Loveland, Colo., and a couple of others you had listed in your column.

Are there cute postmarks for our CHRISTMAS CARDS? — Sharon W., Mobile, Ala. Sharon, there are a lot of postmarks that work for Christmas. Here is a short list to pick from: North Pole, NY 12997 Rudolph, OH 43462 Snow, OK 74567 Star, TX 76880 To get a complete list, you can visit the United States Postal Service website, www.usps.com, and search for "Post Offices Christmas Names."

To have your Christmas cards postmarked, choose the city and then address a large envelope to "Postmaster, Christmas Re-mailing."

Enclose all of your pre-addressed-and-stamped Christmas cards. There is no real deadline, but be sure to

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HELOISE

mail the package soon to give it time to get there, be handled and sent on.

What fun to add a little something extra to a holiday envelope. — Heloise P.S.: Don’t forget to send cards to our troops serving overseas or a family member of theirs who may not get a card from a deployed loved one.

HOLIDAY DECORATING Dear Heloise: In the fall, there are holidays relatively close together. It can be a hassle to drag out decorations just to get out a different set later on. A few years ago, I tried to find decorations that work for several holidays. For example, instead of skeletons and spiders for Halloween, I decorate with pumpkins and fall leaves. That way, they carry over to Thanksgiving. — Kellie, via email

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014