VRABEL IN DEMAND
SATURDAY JANUARY 20, 2018
FREE
TEXANS COORDINATOR INTERVIEWS WITH THIRD TEAM FOR HEAD COACH VACANCY, A6
DELIVERED EVERY SATURDAY
TO 4,000 HOMES
A HEARST PUBLICATION
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
MATAMOROS, MEXCIO
MARINES, POLICE BLAMED FOR KILLINGS
Ted S. Warren / AP
Ana Martinez, a medical assistant at the Sea Mar Community Health Center, gives a patient a flu shot. This years U.S. flu season got off to an early start, and its been driven by a nasty type of flu that tends to put more people in the hospital and cause more deaths than other common flu bugs.
Flu season gets worse Health official says it has ‘lot more steam’ than expected this year Lisa Krantz / Lisa Krantz
By Mike Stobbe A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
NEW YORK — The flu season in the U.S. is getting worse. Health officials last week said flu was blanketing the country but they thought there was a good chance the season was already peaking. But the newest numbers out Friday show it grew even more intense. “This is a season that has a lot more steam than we thought,” said Dr. Dan Jernigan of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One measure of the season is how many doctor or hospital visits are because of a high fever, cough and other flu symptoms. Thirty-two states reported high patient traffic last week, up from 26 the previous week. Overall, it was the busiest week for flu symptoms in nine years. Hawaii is the only state that doesn’t have widespread illnesses. This year’s flu season got off to an early start, and it’s been driven by a nasty type of flu that tends to put more people in the hospital and cause more deaths than other common flu bugs. In New York, state officials say a drastic rise in flu cases hospitalized more than 1,600 this past week. The flu became intense last month in the U.S. The last two weekly report show flu widespread Flu continues on A3
Esmeralda Alvarado grieves during the burial for her cousins, Erica Alvarado Rivera, 26, Alex Alvarado, 22, and Jose Angel Alvarado, 21, during their burial in El Control, Mexico in 2014. The siblings, U.S. Citizens from Progreso, were found shot to death after they went missing from a restaurant near El Control.
Investigators: officials lied to cover up 2014 murders By Christopher Sherman ASSOCIATED PRE SS
MEXICO CITY — A border mayor’s paramilitary security team and Mexican marines were behind the disappearance and murder of four people, including three American siblings, the government’s National Human Rights Commission said Thursday. Investigators determined that city officials in Matamoros, marines, and state and federal police lied in their statements in an effort to cover up the 2014 killings, a report re-
leased by the commission said. Erica, Alex and Jose Angel Alvarado Rivera of Progreso, Texas, disappeared on Oct. 13 of that year while visiting their father in Control, a small town in Mexico near Matamoros, which is across the border from Brownsville, Texas. An acquaintance, Mexican citizen Jose Guadalupe Castaneda Benitez, was also taken. Their bodies were all found shot in the head more than two weeks later. The commission said the four were last seen alive in the custody of marines and the Hercules unit, which provided security for thenMatamoros Mayor Leticia Salazar. The report said the nine members of the Hercules team were technically Tamaulipas state police officers, but they appeared to answer only to the mayor and her lieutenants. The city paid part of their salaries and gave them special uniforms with a logo otherwise un-
related to the state police, it said. Witnesses told investigators the three Americans and their Mexican friend were at a taco stand beneath a highway overpass around midday when marines and the Hercules team approached them. At one point a city motorcade also stopped, the witnesses said. The mayor had attended an event earlier in Control. All four were loaded into vehicles and taken away, the witnesses said. “Of the arrests made by public servants of the Navy and Hercules Group on Oct. 13, 2014, no record exists, nor were they presented to any authority,” the commission said. “There is not even an investigation involving (the victims), much less arrest orders or a complaint against them.” Human rights investigators said they had found some men in prison who reported also being arrested by marines the same day the four peoKillings continues on A3
STATE OF TEXAS
Judge orders sweeping changes for foster care system Ruling calls for improved record keeping and more caseworker visits
Todd Yates/Corpus Christi Caller-Times/AP
U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack ordered sweeping changes for the Texas' foster care system Friday. Jack wrote that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services “has demonstrated an unwillingness to take tangible steps to fix the broken system.”
DALLAS — A judge ordered Texas to make sweeping changes to its foster care system on Friday, two years after she found it unconstitutionally broken. In the scathing final order, U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack told the state the overhaul must include improvements in record keeping, caseworker visits and where children are placed. The changes were based on recommendations from experts the judge appointed to help craft a plan to improve the lives of children in long-term foster care. The judge appointed
the two experts after ruling in December 2015 that people labeled permanent wards of the state “almost uniformly leave state custody more damaged than when they entered.” The state has fought Jack’s oversight and objected to previous recommendations made by the experts. In her ruling Friday, Jack wrote that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services “has demonstrated an unwillingness to take tangible steps to fix the broken system.” The state quickly filed a notice of appeal following the ruling. Attorney General Ken Paxton said
the judge’s “unfunded and unrealistic mandates” were misguided, and he noted legislation last year that funds improvements to the system. But in her final order, Jack said there was no explanation about where the nearly $1 billion in additional funding that the Legislature provided last session would go. “Two years and one legislative session later, the foster care system of Texas remains broken,” she wrote. Among directives from Jack is that foster children have access to a phone to report abuse to Ruling continues on A3
Zin brief A2 | Saturday, January 20, 2018 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
CALENDAR
AROUND THE NATION
TODAY IN HISTORY
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 24
ASSOCIATED PRE SS
Laredo Gateway Rotary presents Paul Harris Foundation Dinner. 6:30 p.m. Laredo Energy Arena. The Paul Harris Fellow honoree is Juan Francisco Ochoa, restauranteur extraordinaire. For table information, contact Rotarian Bill Green at 956728-2501 or 956-237-9704 or email bbgreen@lmtonline.com
THURSDAY, JAN. 25 Villa San Agustin de Laredo Genealogical Society Meeting. 3 to 5 p.m. Joe A. Guerra Public Library, second floor. Speakers: Ricardo Palacios, Mary Treviño, Lily Perez. "The Story of the Tomb of Tomás Sánchez, The Founder of Laredo.” For more info, call Sylvia Reash at 956 763-1810.
SATURDAY, JAN. 27 Holy Redeemer Church annual dance. Laredo Civic Center Ballroom. Music by Calle 8. Person tickets are $25 per person. For more information call Amparo at 286-0862.
SATURDAY, FEB. 3 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
Saturday, Feb. 10 Conference and Resource Fair for Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Developmental Disabilities, 8:30am-1:30pm, UT Health Regional Campus Laredo, 1937 E. Bustamante, This is a free resource fair for parents of children with special needs it is also open to the community. To register call Oda Garcia at 956-7120037 email ogarcia@mrgbahec.org.
SATURDAY, MARCH 3 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post
Members of the media swarm Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney as he talks about a possible government shutdown at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Friday.
SHUTDOWN NEARS; NO DEAL IN SIGHT WASHINGTON — The government careened toward shutdown Friday night in a chaotic close to Donald Trump’s first year as president, as Democrats and Republicans preemptively traded blame while still struggling to find some accord before a deadline at the stroke of midnight. The lawmakers and Trump’s White House mounted last-ditch negotiations to stave off what had come to appear as the inevitable, with the parties in stare-down mode over federal spending and proposals to protect some 700,000 younger immigrants from deportation.
After hours of negotiating, the Senate scheduled a late-night vote on a Housepassed plan. It appeared likely to fail. The election-year standoff marked a test of the president’s much vaunted deal-making skills — and of both parties’ political fortitude. Republicans, who control both Congress and the White House, faced the prospect of being blamed for the display of dysfunction — just the fourth shutdown in a quarter-century. It could also threaten to slow any GOP momentum, one month after passage of the party’s signature tax Shutdown continues on A3
SATURDAY, APRIL 7 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
SATURDAY, APRIL 14 Habitat for Humanity Laredo major fundraiser Golfing For Roofs golf tournament. Max A. Mandel Municipal Golf Course. Hole sponsorships are title $10,000, platinum $5,000, diamond $2,500, gold $1,500, silver $1,000, bronze. For information, call 724-3227.
SATURDAY, MAY 5 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
SATURDAY, JUNE 2 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
SATURDAY, JULY 7 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
SATURDAY, AUG. 4 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions. Submit calendar items by emailing editorial@lmtonline.com with the event’s name, date and time, location, purpose and contact information for a representative. Items will run as space is available.
Facebook eyes ‘trustworthy’ news via user surveys Facebook is taking another step to try to make itself more socially beneficial, saying it will boost news sources that its users rate as trustworthy in surveys. In a blog post and a Facebook post from CEO Mark Zuckerberg Friday, the company said it is surveying users about their familiarity with and trust in news sources. That
data will influence what others see in their news feeds. It’s the second major tweak to Facebook’s algorithm announced this month. The social-media giant, a major source of news for users, has struggled to deal with an uproar over fake news and Russian-linked posts, meant to influence the 2016 U.S. elections, on its platform. The company has slowly acknowledged its role in that foreign interference. Zuckerberg has said his goal for this year is to fix Facebook ,
whether by protecting against foreign interference and abuse or by making users feel better about how they spend time on Facebook. Facebook announced last week that it would try to have users see fewer posts from publishers, businesses and celebrities, and more from friends and family. Zuckerberg said Friday because of that, news posts will make up 4 percent of the news feed , down from 5 percent today. — Compiled from AP reports
AROUND THE WORLD Pope: Corruption is ‘virus’ infecting Latin America LIMA, Peru — Pope Francis strongly condemned corruption in Latin America as a “social virus” infecting all aspects of life in stern remarks Friday to Peru’s president and highranking political leaders, several of whom are embroiled in the region’s biggest graft scandal. Hours after decrying the destruction of Peru’s Amazon, the pontiff warned President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and other leaders gathered that another, more subtle form of environmental degradation is also pervading society: corruption. “How much evil is done to our Latin American people and the democracies of this content by this social virus,” the pope said. “Everything being done to combat this social scourge deserves our utmost attention.” The remarks come less than
Luka Gonzalez / AFP/Getty Images
Pope Fracis waves as he leaves the Presidential Palace and heads to Saint Peter's Church in Lima, Peru on Friday.
a month after Kuczynski narrowly avoided impeachment over $782,000 in payments Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht made to his private consulting firm over a decade ago when he served as a minister. Odebrecht has admitted to paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to officials throughout Latin America in
exchange for lucrative public works contracts. The bribery scandal has ended the careers of some of Latin America’s most prominent politicians and in Peru two former presidents stand accused of accepting money from Odebrecht while a third is under investigation. — Compiled from AP reports
AROUND TEXAS Tree company sued six years after wildfire that killed two people AUSTIN — Texas is suing a vegetation management company that it alleges caused the 2011 Bastrop County Complex Fire, the most destructive wildfire in Texas history. The lawsuit filed Friday by Texas AG Ken Paxton alleges the Asplundh Tree Expert Co.
Today is Saturday, Jan. 20, the 20th day of 2018. There are 345 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Jan. 20, 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, pledging emphatically to empower America's "forgotten men and women." Protesters registered their rage against the new president in a chaotic confrontation with police just blocks from the inaugural parade. On this date: In 1649, King Charles I of England went on trial, accused of high treason. In 1887, the U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base. In 1936, Britain's King George V died after his physician injected the mortally ill monarch with morphine and cocaine to hasten his death; the king was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne 11 months later to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. In 1942, Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their "final solution" that called for exterminating Europe's Jews. In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn into office for an unprecedented fourth term. In 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower took the oath of office as president of the United States; Richard M. Nixon was sworn in as vice president. In 1968, in what was billed as "The Game of the Century," No. 2 ranked Houston defeated top-ranked UCLA 71-69 at the Houston Astrodome in the first prime-time national telecast of a college basketball game. In 1969, Richard M. Nixon was inaugurated as the 37th President of the United States. In 1977, Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as the 39th President of the United States. In 1981, Iran released 52 Americans it had held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan. In 1993, Bill Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd President of the United States. Actress Audrey Hepburn died in Switzerland at age 63. In 2001, George Walker Bush became America's 43rd president after one of the most turbulent elections in U.S. history. Ten years ago: Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili was sworn in for a second term. The New England Patriots defeated the San Diego Chargers in the AFC championship game, pulling out a 21-12 victory that sent them back to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in seven seasons. The New York Giants won a 23-20 overtime victory over Green Bay in the NFC championship. "Breaking Bad," a cable TV crime drama starring Bryan Cranston as a schoolteacher-turnedmeth dealer, debuted on American Movie Classics. Five years ago: President Barack Obama was sworn in for four more years in a simple Sunday ceremony at the White House (a public ceremony took place the following day). The San Francisco 49ers rebounded from a 17-0 deficit to beat the Atlanta Falcons 28-24 in the NFC championship game. The Baltimore Ravens earned their first Super Bowl appearance in 12 years with a 28-13 victory over the New England Patriots for the AFC championship. One year ago: A bus carrying Hungarian students home from a school ski trip to France slammed into a highway barrier in northern Italy and burst into flames, killing 17 people. A shooting at West Liberty High School in Ohio left two students wounded, one critically; authorities credited the heroics of staff members who stopped the shooter and had him pinned down when police arrived. Today's Birthdays: Comedian Arte Johnson is 89. Buzz Aldrin is 88. Olympic gold medal figure skater Carol Heiss is 78. Singer Eric Stewart is 73. Movie director David Lynch is 72. Country-rock musician George Grantham is 71. Israeli activist Natan Sharansky is 70. Actor Daniel Benzali is 68. Rock musician Paul Stanley is 66. Rock musician Ian Hill is 66. Comedian Bill Maher is 62. Actor Lorenzo Lamas is 60. Actor James Denton is 55. Rock musician Greg K. is 53. Country singer John Michael Montgomery is 53. Sophie, Countess of Wessex, is 53. Actor Rainn Wilson is 52. Presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway is 51. Actress Stacey Dash is 51. TV personality Melissa Rivers is 50. Singer Xavier is 50. Actor Reno Wilson is 49. Singer Edwin McCain is 48. Actor Skeet Ulrich is 48. United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is 46. Thought for Today : "Know yourself, and your neighbor will not mistake you." — Scottish proverb.
CONTACT US failed to clear easements around power lines and remove dead trees before Tropical Storm Lee hit the area. Fire officials previously said the fire that burned for a month across 32,400 acres, killing two people and destroying almost 1,700 homes and structures, likely started when trees tumbled onto the power lines and sparks lit grass below. The lawsuit seeks more than $1 million for replanting and habitat mitigation after extensive damage to Bastrop State
Park.
Judge recuses self after pushing jurors for acquittal NEW BRAUNFELS — A Texas judge overseeing the trial of a woman accused of trafficking her teenage niece recused himself after interrupting jury deliberations to push for an acquittal. The jury nonetheless returned a guilty verdict last week despite state District
Judge Jack Robison intervening. Court administrator Steve Thomas said Friday the judge was not commenting. Judge Robison apparently entered the jury room after the court learned that a verdict had been reached. Robison later apologized from the bench and said, “When God tells me I gotta do something, I gotta do it.” The jury handed down a 25-year sentence after Robison stepped aside. — Compiled from AP reports
Publisher, William B. Green .....................................728-2501 General Manager, Adriana Devally ..........................728-2510 Adv. Billing Inquiries ................................................728-2531 Circulation Director ..................................................728-2559 MIS Director, Michael Castillo..................................728-2505 Managing Editor, Nick Georgiou ..............................728-2582 Sports Editor, Zach Davis ........................................728-2578 Spanish Editor, Melva Lavin-Castillo.......................728-2569
SUBSCRIPTIONS/DELIVERY (956) 728-2555 The Zapata Times is distributed on Wednesdays and Saturdays to 4,000 households in Zapata and Jim Hogg counties. For subscribers of the Laredo Morning Times and for those who buy the Laredo Morning Times in those areas at newstands, The Zapata Times is inserted. 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. Call (956) 728-2500.
The Zapata Times
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, January 20, 2018 |
A3
FROM THE COVER SHUTDOWN From page A2 cut law. Democrats, too, risked being labeled obstructionist. Republicans branded the confrontation a “Schumer shutdown” and argued that Democrats were harming fellow Americans to protect “illegal immigrants.” Trump summoned Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to the White House Friday afternoon in hopes of cutting a deal. But the two New Yorkers, who pride themselves on their negotiating abilities, emerged from the meeting at the White House without an agreement, and Republicans and Democrats in Congress continued to pass off responsibility. “We made some progress, but we still have a good number of disagreements,” Schumer said upon returning to Capitol Hill. Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told CNN that “Not much has changed” over the course of the day, but he predicted a deal would be reached by Monday, when most government offices are to reopen after the weekend.
FLU From page A1 over the entire continental United States, which is unusual. Usually, flu seasons start to wane after so much activity, but “it’s difficult to predict,” Jernigan said. Flu is a contagious respiratory illness, spread by a virus. It can cause a miserable but relatively mild illness in many people, but more a more severe illness in others. Young children and the elderly are at greatest risk from flu and its complications. In a bad season, there as many as 56,000 deaths connected to the flu. In the U.S., annual flu shots are recommended for
RULING From page A1 a 24-hour hotline. She said that the state should either require all placements to have a landline for such use or present the court with another plan for giving children such access. She noted that the state has said a landline requirement would require extra funds but said officials have provided no evidence of cost. She also noted that the cost of landlines seems “trivial” compared with the $1 billion the Legislature provided to the agency. Other directives include that the state must ensure that children get monthly face-to-face visits with caseworkers outside the presence of caregivers. She also ordered the state to come up with a plan for an integrated computer system that incorporates records on each child, including educational and medical records. She also says any sexualized children — whether victim or aggressor — should be placed in single-child homes. The order came in a case filed in 2011 by New York advocacy group Children’s Rights and Texas lawyers on behalf of those in long-term foster care. Unlike most states faced with such lawsuits, Texas fought it instead of settling. At a 2014 trial in the class-action lawsuit, for-
Democrats in the Senate served notice they would filibuster a four-week extension, the governmentwide funding bill that cleared the House Thursday evening. They’re seeking an even shorter extension that they think will keep the pressure on the White House to cut a deal to protect “dreamer” immigrants — who were brought to the country as children and are now here illegally — before their legal protection runs out in March. But a White House official said Trump would oppose a mini-short-term agreement to keep the government open through the weekend, suggesting lawmakers would be in their exact same position in a few days. For his part, Trump described his discussion with Schumer as an “excellent preliminary meeting,” tweeting that lawmakers are “Making progress - four week extension would be best!” Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas said Trump told Schumer to work things out with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul
Ryan. McConnell did not attend the meeting because he was not invited, a Senate GOP aide said. Trump has been an unreliable negotiator in the weeks leading up to the showdown. Earlier this week he tweeted opposition to the four-week plan, forcing the White House to later affirmed his support. He expressed openness extending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, only to reject a bipartisan proposal. His disparaging remarks about African and Haitian immigrants last week helped derail further negotiations. Still, officials said the president has been working the phones trying to avert a shutdown. The president had been set to leave Friday afternoon to attend a fundraiser at his Palm Beach, Florida, estate marking the one-year anniversary of his inauguration, but delayed his travel until at least Saturday. “I think the president’s been very clear: he’s not leaving until this is finished,” Mulvaney told reporters. As word of the Schumer meeting spread, the White House hastened to reassure Republican congressional
leaders that Trump would not make any major policy concessions, said a person familiar with the conversations but not authorized to be quoted by name. Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas said Trump told Schumer to work things out with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan. On Capitol Hill, McConnell said Americans at home would be watching to see “which senators make the patriotic decision” and which “vote to shove aside veterans, military families and vulnerable children to hold the entire country hostage... until we pass an immigration bill.” Across the Capitol, the House backed away from a plan to adjourn for a oneweek recess, meaning the GOP-controlled chamber could wait for a last-minute compromise that would require a new vote. “We can’t keep kicking the can down the road,” said Schumer, insisting on more urgency in talks on immigration. “In another month, we’ll be right back here, at this moment, with the same web of problems at our feet, in no better position to solve them.”
KILLINGS From page A1
Texas districts cancel classes Some Texas school districts have canceled classes because of high numbers of students and staff experiencing illnesses including the flu. Gunter Independent School District, located north of Dallas, announced Wednesday that
it would close beginning Thursday after about 30 percent of its students were absent due to illness. Bonham Independent School District, located northeast of Dallas, said Tuesday that school would be canceled starting Wednesday after all of its campuses had an increase in flu cases. Bonham school district has about 1,800 students, while Gunter has about 800. Both districts will reopen Jan. 24 after crews disinfect campus spaces. In West Texas, Paducah Independent School District canceled classes Thursday and Friday. Officials said facilities in the district with about 200 students would be disinfected and classes would resume Monday.
mer foster children testified of abuse they suffered as they were shuffled from placement to placement. Jack’s 2015 opinion detailed the sufferings of foster youths, including a girl identified as S.A. who entered the foster care system at age 5 and within months reported being raped by an older child. She was moved more than 45 times, including to psychiatric hospitals, and missed several chances for adoption because of paperwork
delays. At 18, after aging out of the system, she walked into traffic and survived being hit by a car. Texas continued to fight after Jack’s 2015 ruling, even as crisis after crisis emerged in the state’s child welfare system: Some children taken from their families had to sleep in state offices, motels or emergency shelters because of a lack of other options and children believed to be at risk weren’t being promptly seen, if at all. Jack’s order
everyone age 6 months or older. In Oklahoma and Texas, some school districts canceled classes this week because so many students and teachers were sick with the flu and other illnesses. In Mississippi, flu outbreaks have hit more than 100 nursing homes and other long-term care places, resulting in some restricting visitors.
The four-week measure would be the fourth stopgap spending bill since the current budget year started in October. A pile of unfinished Capitol Hill business has been on hold, first as Republicans ironed out last fall’s tax bill and now as Democrats insist on progress on immigration. Talks on a budget deal to ease tight spending limits on both the Pentagon and domestic agencies are on hold, as is progress on a huge $80 billion-plus disaster aid bill. Before Thursday night’s House approval, GOP leaders sweetened the stopgap measure with legislation to extend for six years a popular health care program for children from low-income families and two-year delays in unpopular “Obamacare” taxes on medical devices and generous employer-provided health plans. A shutdown would be the first since 2013, when tea party Republicans — in a strategy not unlike the one Schumer is employing now — sought to use a must-pass funding bill to try to force then-President Barack Obama to delay implementation of his marquee health care law.
ple disappeared. Several said the siblings and their friend were taken to an empty lot where they were beaten and interrogated, the report said. The prisoners told the investigators that at the lot they heard three people talking with American accents who sometimes whispered in English among themselves. Several said they recognized the fourth victim as someone they knew from their neighborhood, the report said. The commission said the inmates also testified that the mayor arrived at some point and ordered the marines and Hercu-
les team to turn the detainees over to prosecutors. The other prisoners were turned over to prosecutors, but not the three Americans and their friend, the report said. A lawyer for the siblings’ father did not immediately return calls for comment. Salazar’s term ended in 2016 and her whereabouts could not immediately be determined. The commission said the federal Attorney General’s Office still lists the case as “active” and it called on the local and state governments, the navy and federal police to cooperate in the investigation. The federal police force was involved because some of its officers witnessed illegal
arrests and did not intervene, the commission said. The commission also called for military prosecutors to open a case against the marines involved, who it said had not been investigated. Mexico’s navy said it has accepted the recommendations and was taking the steps recommended in the report. The current government of the state of Tamaulipas said it also accepted the report’s recommendations, and that it has implemented human rights training for police in Matamoros. It said the case was turned over to federal prosecutors in November 2014. AP-WF-01-19-18 0320GMT
Friday says no child can be placed in an office overnight. While state officials repeatedly acknowledged serious problems, they objected to oversight by a federal judge, saying they had been working on their own changes. Yet when the experts appointed by Jack filed their recommendations last month, they noted that “in numerous instances” the state had declined to “implement policy changes or develop implementation plans.”
Jack wrote Friday that the state has taken “minimal” steps to help the experts she appointed in crafting corrective policies, “limiting their participation to providing requested information.” The lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, Paul Yetter, called the order “a turning point for Texas foster children.” He said the order “largely adopts the careful, well-thought-out roadmap to reform” that the appointed experts laid out. Jack appointed mon-
itors to make sure the state complies with her order, serving until the court no longer deems it necessary. ——— Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber contributed to this report from Austin. ——— Sign up for the AP’s weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas: http:// apne.ws/2u1RMfv AP-WF-01-19-18 2316GMT
Zopinion
Letters to the editor Send your signed letter to editorial@lmtonline.com
A4 | Saturday, January 20, 2018 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
COLUMN
OTHER VIEWS
The power of human touch By David Brooks N EW YORK T I ME S
In 1945, Austrian physician René Spitz investigated an orphanage that took extra care to make sure its infants were not infected with disease. The children received first-class nutrition and medical care, but they were barely touched, to minimize their contact with germs. The approach was a catastrophe. Thirtyseven percent of the babies died before reaching age 2. It turns out that empathetic physical contact is essential for life. Intimate touch engages the emotions and wires the fibers of the brain together. The power of this kind of loving touch is longlasting. The famous Grant Study investigated a set of men who had gone to Harvard in the 1940s. The men who grew up in loving homes earned 50 percent more over the course of their careers than those from loveless ones. They suffered from far less chronic illness and much lower rates of dementia in old age. A loving home was the best predictor of life outcomes. If the power of loving touch is astounding, the power of invasive touch is horrific. Christie Kim of NYU surveyed the research literature on victims of child sexual abuse. The victims experience higher levels of anxiety throughout their lifetimes. They report higher levels of depression across the decades and higher levels of self-blame. They are more than twice as likely to experience sexual victimization again. Over the course of each year, people have many kinds of interactions and experience many kinds of mistreatment. But there is something unique about positive or negative touch. Emotional touch alters the heart and soul in ways that are mostly unconscious. It can take a lifetime of analysis to get even a glimpse of understanding. For this reason, cultures all around the world have treated emotional touching as something apart. The Greeks labeled the drive to touch with the word “eros,” and they meant something vaster and deeper than just sexual pleasure. “Animals have sex and human beings have eros, and no accurate science is possible without making this distinction,” Allan Bloom observed. The Abrahamic religions also treat sex as something sacred and beautiful when enveloped in loving and covenantal protections, and as something disordered and potentially peace-destroying when not. Over the past 100 years or so, advanced thinkers across the West have worked to take the shame out of sex, surely a good
thing. But they’ve also disenchanted it. As Elizabeth Bruenig wrote in The Washington Post this week, “One of the principal outcomes of the sexual revolution was to establish that sex is just like any other social interaction — nothing taboo or sacred about it.” Sex is seen as a shallow physical and social thing, not a heart and soul altering thing. One unintended effect of this disenchantment is that it becomes easy to underestimate the risks inherent in any encounter. The woman who talked in an online article about her date with Aziz Ansari is being criticized because what happened to her was not like what happened to the victims of Harvey Weinstein and Louis C.K. There was no workplace power dynamic and no clear violation of consent. The assumption seems to be that as long as there’s consent between adults, everything else is kosher. Surely that’s setting the bar amazingly low. Everything we know about touch suggests that even with full consent, the emotional quality of an encounter can have profound positive or negative effects. If Ansari did treat her coldly or neglectfully, it’s reasonable to think that the shame she felt right after was the surface effect of a deeper wound. Neglectful, dehumanizing sex is not harassment, but it’s some other form of serious harm. Disenchanting emotional touch also causes people to underestimate the way past experiences shape current behavior. Two writers I greatly admire criticized the woman in the Ansari episode for not exercising more agency. If she was uncomfortable, she could have put on her clothes and hopped in a taxi. But that’s not how agency works. It’s not a card you pull out of your pocket and lay on the table. Agency is learned, not bred. And one of the things that undermines agency most powerfully is past sexual harm. The abuse of intimacy erodes all the building blocks of agency: selfworth, resiliency and self-efficacy (the belief that you can control a situation). It is precisely someone who lives within a culture of supposedly zipless encounters who is most likely to be unable to take action when she feels uncomfortable. It’s the partner’s responsibility to be sensitive to this possibility. Every human being has had better and worse experiences. Everybody makes mistakes. And I hate the way Babe, which published the story about the Ansari date, violated everybody’s privacy here. David Brooks is a New York Times columnist.
COLUMN
Executive privilege claims aren’t insane By Noah Feldman BL OOMBERG NEWS
Steve Bannon’s claim of executive privilege in his refusal to answer questions this week from the House Intelligence Committee is raising a novel and somewhat difficult problem: Should there be executive privilege for communications between the president and his close advisers during the transition period between the election and the inauguration? On the one hand, the president’s need for candid advice starts before he takes office. On the other hand, there’s something strange about applying a constitutionally based executive privilege to someone who is not, after all, the executive. The only way to resolve the question is to delve into an issue that courts have tried to avoid, namely the underlying logic of having executive privilege at all. The basic idea goes all the way back to George Washington, who strongly resisted efforts by the House of Representatives to get hold of his correspondence with John Jay, the special representative who negotiated the controversial treaty that reestablished relations between the U.S. and the U.K. after the Revolutionary War. Washington’s rationale was primarily functional. “The nature of foreign negotiations requires caution,” he wrote to Congress in refusing the demand, “and their success must often depend on secrecy.” But Washington also hinted at a constitutional basis for his refusal by saying that he had no
intent to “withhold any information which the Constitution has enjoined upon the president as a duty to give.” The implication was that the president had the right to keep his own diplomatic correspondence away from Congress. A similar tension was manifest in the Watergate tapes case, U.S. v. Nixon, in which the U.S. Supreme Court finally recognized the executive privilege for the first time. The justices unanimously said that executive privilege was rooted in “the supremacy of each branch within its own assigned area of constitutional duties” and in the separation of powers. Yet the court also held that “absent a need to protect military, diplomatic, or sensitive national security secrets,” executive privilege would not prevent disclosure of material necessary for criminal charges. This was pragmatic balancing, not abstract constitutional principle — and President Richard Nixon had to hand over the tapes. When it comes to the period of the presidential transition, the issue of executive privilege may well depend on which matters more, pure separation of powers or practical interest. If you think that executive privilege exists because the president can’t be pushed around by Congress and the courts, then the Trump administration and Bannon shouldn’t be able to take any refuge in executive privilege for anything that took place during the transition. During that time, Barack Obama was president. The foreign affairs power belonged to
him, not Trump. This perspective is reflected in many Democrats’ view that there was something wrong with Trump and his national security adviser-designate, Mike Flynn, trying to do foreign policy during the transition. There’s only one president at a time, goes the thinking — so there should be only one foreign policy actor speaking on behalf of the executive. Yet there is a nontrivial argument to be made that the transition is a crucial moment for coming foreign policy goals. Not only must the president choose his senior-most national security official. But also he and they must go through a series of extremely detailed briefings on how U.S. foreign policy and military policy is being conducted. Then the president and his advisers presumably discuss those briefings in private amongst themselves. Those briefings and discussions are just as instrumental to the shaping of foreign policy as anything that takes place after the president swears the oath of office. To the extent executive privilege is appropriate to protect a conversation that might take place after inauguration, it seems very sensible to apply the same logic to an identical conversation that takes place before the inauguration. There’s no simple answer here. But a solution might be found in extending the privilege to the transition, while simultaneously drawing the privilege very narrowly, even after the president takes office. Consider the context of foreign affairs. True, the presidential power to
LETTERS POLICY Laredo Morning Times does not publish anonymous letters. To be published, letters must include the writer's first and last names as well as a phone number to verify identity. The phone number IS NOT published; it is used solely to verify identity and to clarify content, if necessary. Identity of the letter writer must be verified before publication. We want to assure our readers that a letter is written by the person who signs the
letter. Laredo Morning Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms. This space allows for public debate of the issues of the day. Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No name-calling or gratuitous abuse is allowed. Also, letters longer than 500 words will not be accepted. Via email, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.
DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU
make foreign policy is closer to exclusive than almost any other. And the questions from Congress that Bannon doesn’t want to answer may well have to do with making foreign policy. Yet the courts have also said that even on foreign policy, presidential power doesn’t translate into absolute privilege. In a 1977 case, U.S. v. AT&T, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit pointed out that Congress still has national-securityrelated powers, including the power to declare war and, in the case of the Senate, approve treaties. The court then refused to resolve a dispute about the privilege between Congress and the president until the two sides tried to negotiate a solution. The upshot is that Congress has a role to supervise and participate in foreign policy — and so executive privilege shouldn’t extend so far as to protect all conversations between the president and his advisers that might happen to touch on foreign policy. That’s especially true when the conversations might trench on criminal conduct. The lesson of the Watergate tapes case is surely that the executive branch may not hide behind privilege to cover up knowledge of crimes. This proposed compromise may satisfy no one from a partisan perspective. But extending executive privilege to the transition while defining the privilege narrowly may well be what’s best for the country — and national security — going forward. Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg View columnist.
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, January 20, 2018 |
A5
Sports&Outdoors A6 | Saturday, January 20, 2018 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: HOUSTON TEXANS
Titans interview Texans’ Mike Vrabel Houston defensive coordinator in demand for coaching vacancies By Aaron Wilson H OUSTO N CHRONI CLE
Texans defensive coordinator Mike Vrabel interviewed Thursday for the Tennessee Titans' head coaching vacancy, the AFC South franchise announced. Vrabel has previously interviewed with the Detroit Lions and Indianapolis Colts this month. The Lions are expected to hire New England Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, and the Colts are expected to hire Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Vrabel was the first candidate to interview for the Titans job that became open when the team was unable to reach a contract extension with Mike Mularkey and fired him. The Titans' other candidates include Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur and Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks. Titans general manager Jon Robinson was
previously with the Patriots, the team Vrabel won Super Bowls with as an All-Pro outside linebacker. A former Ohio State assistant coach and Texans linebackers coach, Vrabel was linked to the Los Angeles Rams' job that went to Sean McVay last year. He turned down the San Francsico 49ers' defensive coordinator opening two years ago before later being promoted to defensive coordinator. In his first season as defensive coordinator after being promoted from linebackers coach, the defense ranked last in the NFL in points allowed per game. They were ranked first in total defense a year ago, but had injuries this season that affected their ability to rush the passer as defensive end J.J. Watt broke his leg and outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus tore his pectoral. "I think when you get into coaching I think that everybody aspires to lead at the highest level, and
clearly being a head coach in the National Football League is the opportunity to do that," Vrabel said during the season about head-coaching aspirations. Vrabel has ascended quickly in the coaching ranks. First, he was a position coach at Ohio State. Then, he coached the Texans linebackers. Now, he's in charge of an entire defense. "When I started coaching, I didn't think I would be in the NFL," Vrabel said. "When I started coaching I didn't think I'd be at Ohio State. Didn't think I would be coordinating. So, you never really know. You try to do as good a job as you can in the role that you have and then you go from there." Texans Pro Bowl pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney said he believes Vrabel is head-coaching material. "He's a smart guy," Clowney said. "He's the same guy every day. High-energy guy. He brings the best out of his players and he's a good coach."
Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle file
Texans defensive coordinator Mike Vrabel interviewed to be the head coach of the Titans after completing interviews for vacancies with the Colts and Lions.
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
BRADY QUESTIONABLE
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: HOUSTON ASTROS
Astros tab Rodney Linares as manager of AAA affiliate By Jake Kaplan HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Bill Sikes / Associated Press
Tom Brady is questionable for Sunday’s AFC championship game after suffering an injury to his throwing hand Wednesday at practice.
Hand injury has status for title game in doubt By Kyle Hightower A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady is staying mum on his status for the AFC championship game after suffering a right hand injury earlier in the week. Brady said a bit contentiously only “We’ll see” on Friday when asked whether he would play in Sunday’s conference title game against Jacksonville. The quarterback wore red gloves and responded to several other questions about how much he practiced or how he sustained the injury by saying “I’m not talking about that.” Brady is listed as questionable for Sunday after being a limited participant in practice Friday. He was also limited on Wednesday. He sat out practice Thursday, but wore a glove on his injured hand during the
stretching period open to reporters. He usually only wears a glove on his nonthrowing hand. One thing Brady was clear about was the test he expects from a Jaguars unit ranked second in the NFL in total and scoring defense. “It’s a very unique challenge,” Brady said. “I think their front three, their linebackers, are very instinctive and very fast. And great cover guys in the secondary. Ball-hawking defense. They strip it off you, they sack you. ... So they’re a good defense." Brady appeared on the Patriots’ weekly injury report several times during the latter half of this season with injuries to both his Achilles tendon and his left shoulder. The four-time Super Bowl MVP has never missed a playoff start during his 18-year career. “Tom always tends to
show up in big games. This is a big game,” receiver Danny Amendola said. “(He’s) super tough. The toughest. He’s a warrior, he’s a competitor and there’s really only one reason why he’s here, and that’s to play football. “ Jacksonville is preparing like Brady will be in the huddle as usual Sunday. Jaguars defensive tackle Marcell Dareus said typical methods of rattling a quarterback don’t apply when it comes to him. “You can hit Brady, but hitting him isn’t what’s going to get to him. It’s constantly being that gnat in his face. He just hates that gnat just always around,” said Dareus, who might be more familiar than any Jacksonville player with Brady, having spent six-plus seasons with the Bills. “You sack him he’s going to get up and just keep rolling. He’s that competitive spirit, like, ‘OK, you got me. Now I’m fixing to go throw this touchdown the next play. Forty yards.
You happy about that sack? But there you go.’ That’s just his mentality. I like it. I love playing against the guy. He’s phenomenal to watch.” If for some reason Brady can’t go — no, the Earth won’t stop rotating on its axis and New England still would show up to play — the Patriots would look to backup Brian Hoyer. His last playoff start was the antithesis of a Brady performance. For Houston in its 2015 AFC wild-card matchup with Kansas City, Hoyer completed 15 of 34 passes for 136 yards, with no touchdowns and five turnovers (four interceptions) in a 30-0 loss. Hoyer, a former Patriot, was acquired in midseason when the Patriots traded Jimmy Garoppolo to San Francisco. “I’m always preparing to play because the truth of reality is you never know when your name’s gonna be called,” he said Thursday. The Patriots haven’t called any QB’s name in the postseason other than Brady’s since the 1990s.
Rodney Linares, who managed Class AA Corpus Christi the last three seasons, will manage the Astros' Class AAA Fresno affiliate in 2018, the team said Friday. Linares, 40, has 11 seasons of minor league managerial experience with the Astros. He managed Astros affiliates in the California, South Atlantic and Appalachian Leagues before assuming the role with Corpus Christi of the Texas League. At the helm of Class AAA Fresno, Linares will replace Tony DeFrancesco, who wasn't retained after the expiration of his contract last fall. The New York Mets have since hired DeFrancesco as the manager of their Class AAA Las Vegas affiliate. DeFrancesco was Linares the Astros' Class AAA manager the last seven seasons. Replacing Linares on the bench in Class AA will be Omar Lopez, who managed the Astros' Advanced Class A affiliate the previous two seasons. Over all, this will be Linares' 21st season with the Astros. His father, Julio, is a senior advisor in player development on the international side. Lopez, 41, is entering his 20th season with the Astros. Morgan Ensberg, the former Astros third baseman who made his managerial debut last year with short-season Class A Tri-City, will take over for Lopez as the manager of Advanced Class A Buies Creek. Mickey Storey, a reliever for the Astros in 2012, will be the new manager of their low Class A Quad Cities affiliate. Storey was a development coach last year with Buies Creek. Jason Bell, the development coach last year with Quad Cities, will manage short-season Tri-City. Wladimir Sutil returns as the manager of the Astros' rookie-level Gulf Coast League affiliate. Charlie Romero will manage their rookie-level club in the Dominican Summer League. The Astros have four minor league coordinators who will rove around their farm system, a group that interestingly enough doesn't include a hitting coordinator. Josh Miller will be their pitching coordinator, Chris Holt their assistant pitching coordinator, Josh Bonifay their field coordinator and Mark Bailey their catching coordinator. Bonifay, a former Astros minor league manager and coach, returned to the team after spending last season as the Texas Rangers' major league field coordinator.
Zfrontera THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, January 20, 2018 |
RIBEREÑA EN BREVE JUNTA 1 La reunión de la Sociedad Genealógica del Nuevo Santander se ha reprogramado para el sábado 27 de enero, con un recorrido histórico en San Ygnacio, a las 2 p.m. PASEO CONTRA CRIMEN 1 Crime Stoppers de Laredo organiza un paseo en motocicleta contra el crimen dentro del evento Menudo Bowl, el 20 de enero. Evento tiene costo. Informes al 956-724-1876. CURSO EN LÍNEA La ciudad de Miguel Alemán, México, invita al curso en línea “APP-Aprende” que la compañía TELCEL ofrece completamente gratis a niños, jóvenes y adultos para facilitar el aprendizaje en oficios tales como navegar en Internet, Técnico en Sistema e Informática, reparador de celulares, y tablets entre otros. El curso se ofrecerá en la plaza principal del 24 al 28 de enero desde las 4 p.m. EXÁMENES DE SALUD 1 La Ciudad de Roma invita a la realización de exámenes de salud cardiovascular Life Line Screening con tecnología avanzada de ultrasonido que proporciona una visión en el interior de las arterias, en el Centro Comunitario de la Ciudad de Roma, de 8 a.m. a 3 p.m., el 31 de enero, patrocinado por Peripheral Vascular Associates. Se requiere registro previo llamando al 1-888653-6450.
ADUANAS Y PROTECCIÓN FRONTERIZA
Decomisan marihuana Valor estimado de droga alcanza suma millonaria E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE ZAPATA
El 17 de enero, agentes de la Patrulla Fronteriza decomisaron más de 2.200 libras de marihuana después de observar actividad sospechosa en Falcon, Texas. Agentes de la Patrulla Fronteriza, con la ayuda del Departamento de Seguridad Pública de Texas, descubrieron 102 paquetes de marihuana escondidos en la caja y la cabina de dos camionetas y en un cobertizo ubicado en la propiedad marcada con el número 406 de la
calle Serna. La marihuana tiene un valor estimado de 1.872.672 dólares. No se hicieron arrestos en este caso. La marihuana fue entregada a la Administración para el Control de Drogas y los vehículos fueron decomisados por la Patrulla Fronteriza. Para reportar actividad sospechosa tal como contrabando de inmigrantes indocumentados y/o de drogas, contacte a la Patrulla Fronteriza Sector Laredo al número telefónico gratuito 1-800-3431994.
Foto de cortesía / CBP
Paquetes de marihuana fueron decomisados por agentes de la Patrulla Fronteriza el 17 de enero.
WBCA
ZCFD
ARRANCAN FIESTAS DEL 22
ZAPATA
1 Roma Bluffs World Birding Center presentará a los maestros naturalistas de Texas, Volker Imschweiler y Sally Merrill, en el seminario “Nurturing Native Plants Butterflies and Birds Need to Live Here”, a la 1 p.m., el sábado 3 de febrero.
1 Acompañe a celebrar y mostrar su aprecio por los Adultos Mayores y Winter Texan’s, que serán honrados por sus logros y por lo que siguen haciendo a favor de su comunidad, el jueves 22 de febrero. GENEALOGÍA 1 ¿Desea saber más sobre su historia familiar? ¿Necesita ayuda para iniciar su genealogía? Venga y reciba ayuda personalizada para investigar a sus ancestros utilizando recursos en línea. Voluntarios entrenados le ayudarán, todos los martes de 6:30 p.m a 8 p.m., en Roma Birding Center. Evento gratuito patrocinado por la Iglesia de Jesús de los Santos de los Últimos Días. AVIARIO 1 La Ciudad de Roma invita a visitar el aviario Roma Bluffs World Birding Center en el distrito histórico de Roma. El aviario estará abierto desde el jueves a domingo de 8 a.m. a 4 p.m. hasta enero. Mayores informes al 956849-1411
Orientan sobre uso de calentadores E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE
CONFERENCIA SOBRE AVES
DÍA DE APRECIO A ADULTO MAYOR
A7
Danny Zaragoza / Laredo Morning Times
Funcionarios y representantes de WBCA celebran el comienzo de las festividades del 2018 con una ceremonia de corte de listón el jueves 18 de enero de 2018 en Laredo Energy Arena.
El Departamento de Bomberos de Zapata recomienda extremar precauciones con los calentadores portátiles en esta temporada de invierno para evitar accidentes o incendios. De acuerdo a la Agencia Federal de Manejo de Emergencias (FEMA por sus siglas en inglés), la calefacción es la segunda causa de incendios en el hogar. Se puede prevenir un incendio producto de la calefacción siguiendo estos pasos: 1 Mantenga cualquier elemento que pueda incendiarse a una distancia mínima de tres pies de las chimeneas, estufas de leña, calentadores portátiles y radiadores.
1 Conecte los calentadores portátiles directo a la pared. No use un cable de extensión. 1 Asegúrese que el calentador tenga un interruptor automático de seguridad que permita que el sistema se apague automáticamente si el calentador se voltea. 1 Nunca deje un calentador sin supervisión. 1 No permita que los niños operen los calentadores portátiles. 1 Cuando se vaya de una habitación o se vaya a la cama, apague los calentadores y desconéctelos. 1 Mantenga a los niños y a las mascotas alejados de cualquier cosa que genere calor. Para preguntas sobre los calentadores portátiles envíe un mensaje o llame al 956-765-9942.
COLUMNA
Bienvenido, Camarada Trotski Por Raúl Sinencio Chávez TIEMP O DE ZAPATA
El buque tanque noruego Ruth está a punto de concluir tres semanas de travesía. Orientado por el faro de La Barra, navega de noche. Frente a la bocana del río Pánuco fondea antes de que termine el sábado 9 de enero de 1937. En lastre, surca el océano Atlántico con secreto encargo: transportar a León Trotski. Aun “en enero –anota este último–, la tierra … exudaba calor. Las torres petroleras de Tampico nos recordaban a Bakú”. Autoridades migratorias y altos mandos del Ejército atienden el recibimiento. Vestidos de civiles, acuden elementos policíacos. Únicos pasajeros, esperan sobre la cubierta del barco el teórico ucraniano, su esposa Natalia Sedova y el nieto Esteban. Hasta ahí sube Frida Kahlo, pintora mexicana, extendiéndoles afectuosa bienvenida. Los reunidos echan de menos a Diego Rivera. Porque realiza persuasivas diligencias para el arribo del excamarada de Lenin, al que prácticamente expulsa a Noruega, temerosa de represalias. Pero inoportuna recaída del art-
Picasa
Frida Kahlo aparece flanqueada por León Trotski y su esposa Natalia Sedova, a la llegada de éstos a México en 1937.
ista plástico vuelve necesario hospitalizarlo, impidiéndole salir de la metrópoli capitalina. José Stalin había desatado en la Unión Soviética purgas y atrocidades. Incluso fuera del terruño, Trotski padece feroz hostigamiento. Amagos de por medio, ningún país le proporciona refugio. Como a otras víctimas de regímenes tiránicos, en humanitario gesto el presidente Lázaro Cárdenas le concede asilo. La decisión trasciende fronteras. El 7 de diciembre de 1936 los periódicos le dan vuelo. El Parti-
do Comunista (PC) y la Confederación de Trabajadores de México (CTM) externan críticas el jueves 12. Si el asilado divide las filas obreras –manifiesta Vicente Lombardo Toledano, líder de la CTM–, deberá considerársele persona non grata. En la capital, el posterior 2 de enero los gendarmes disuelven una protesta del PC. En La Barra funcionaba modesta pista de aterrizaje y despegue. No obstante, Trotski descarta seguir por vía aérea. La presidencia de la República en-
tonces prepara el tren Estrella. Los tres migrantes van mientras al hotel Imperial de Tampico. Les asignan el cuarto 203, del segundo piso. Kahlo descansa en la habitación vecina. Reporteros nacionales y foráneos toman notas e imprimen placas fotográficas. A Vicente Villasana González, propietario del matutino El Mundo y corresponsal de Excélsior, dice el disidente que aplaude “con gratitud” “la buena voluntad … de” Cárdenas. Lee declaraciones en que agrega: “Partí de una Europa desgarrada … por el presentimiento de una nueva guerra”. Cuando el reloj marca las 21 horas, aquel domingo los huéspedes del hotel Imperial suben al carro pulman Hidalgo. En raudo viaje alcanzan la Ciudad de México el lunes 11, a mediodía. Diego, marido de Frida, aguarda en la estación ferroviaria. Con los suyos, el quincuagenario opositor se instala en la famosa Casa Azul, de Rivera y Kahlo. También en Coyoacán, transcurridos dos años los exiliados adquieren vivienda propia. En dicha residencia, el 20 de agosto de 1940 propina a Trotski mortales heridas Jaime Ramón Mercader, por órdenes de Stalin.
A8 | Saturday, January 20, 2018 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
NATIONAL
Border wall tests find heights should keep crossers out By Elliot Spagat A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
SAN DIEGO — Recent assaults by tactical teams on prototypes of President Donald Trump’s proposed wall with Mexico found their imposing heights should stop border crossers, The Associated Press has learned, a finding that’s likely to please security hawks but raise concerns about costs and environmental damage. Military special forces based in Florida and U.S. Customs and Border Protection special units spent three weeks trying to breach and scale the eight models in San Diego, using jackhammers, saws, torches and other tools and climbing devices, a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the rigorous testing told the AP on condition of anonymity because the information was not authorized for public release. Each model was to be 18 to 30 feet (5 to 9 meters) high, and contractors built at or near the maximum, which is roughly twice as high as many existing barriers. Ronald Vitiello, the agency’s acting deputy commissioner, said after visiting the prototypes in October that he was struck most by their height. The highly trained testers scaled 16 to 20 feet (5 to 6 meters) unassisted but needed help after that, said the official, who described the assaults on the wall prototypes to the AP. Testers also expressed safety concerns about getting down from 30 feet. Only once did a tester manage to land a hook on top of the wall without help, the official said. Tubes atop some models repelled climbing devices but wouldn’t work in more mountainous areas because the terrain is too jagged. The findings appear to challenge what Janet Napolitano, now chancellor of the University of California, often said when she was President Barack Obama’s homeland security secretary: “You show me a 50-foot
wall, and I’ll show you a 51-foot ladder.” A Customs and Border Protection report on the tests identifies strengths and flaws of each design but does not pick an overall winner or rank them. The report recommends combining elements of each, depending on the terrain. The official likened it to a Lego design, pulling pieces from different prototypes. The report favors steel at the ground level because agents can see what is happening on the other side through mesh, and damage can more easily be fixed than concrete, the official said. With concrete, large slabs have to be replaced for even small breaches, which is time-consuming and expensive. Topping the steel with smooth concrete surfaces helps prevent climbing. Brandon Judd, who heads the union representing border agents, said the recommended height and steel-concrete design make sense. He said people have been able to scale the smaller border walls, which were not put to same degree of testing before construction. “Not many people are going to attempt to go over 30 feet,” said Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council. “I just don’t see it happening.” Just as daunting as getting over, he said, is climbing back if someone decides to try to return to Mexico to avoid capture. Taller barriers are undoubtedly more effective, but they drive up the cost and could endanger wildlife. Brian Segee, an attorney for Center for Biological Diversity, which has sued to block construction, said border walls 15 feet (5 meters) or less have prevented the movement of low-flying birds and insects. “The bigger, more impervious the wall, the worse the impacts are going to be for wildlife,” Segee said. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat in a border district, said a 30-foot (9-meter) wall
would increase the cost “tremendously” and do nothing to address the problem of people entering the country legally and overstaying their visas. Customs and Border Protection leaders were set to be briefed on the findings this week amid a standoff over immigration legislation that threatens to shut down the government. Democrats insist it includes protections for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who were shielded from deportation under an Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which is scheduled to end in March. The administration has insisted wall funding be part of any immigration deal, but Trump has been unclear about how long the wall would be and how it should be designed. The administration has asked for $1.6 billion this year to build or replace 74 miles (118 kilometers) of barriers in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and San Diego and plans to request another $1.6 billion next year. A proposal by Customs and Border Protection calls for spending $18 billion over 10 years to extend barriers to cover nearly half the border. Mexico has steadfastly rejected Trump’s demand that it pay for the wall. The agency is still in “the testing phase” and results are being evaluated, spokesman Carlos Diaz said. Combining elements of different prototypes instead of picking a winner is consistent with previous statements by officials, he said, noting that the agency said in bidding guidelines that a minimum height of 18 feet (5 meters) would be a key characteristic. Contractors were awarded between $300,000 and $500,000 for each prototype. They were built last fall in a remote part of San Diego to guide future construction of one of Trump’s signature campaign pledges. Four were concrete and four were made of other materials.
Gregory Bull / AP
People pass border wall prototypes as they stand near the border with Tijuana, Mexico, in San Diego. A U.S. official says recent testing of prototypes of President Donald Trump's proposed wall with Mexico found their heights should stop border crossers.
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, January 20, 2018 |
X3
X4 | Saturday, January 20, 2018 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
BUSINESS
Texas unemployment rate reaches 3.9 percent in December A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
AUSTIN — The Texas unemployment rate rose slightly in December to 3.9 percent, the Texas Workforce Commission reported Friday. Nationwide unemployment last month at 4.1 percent. The Texas jobless rate in November was 3.8 percent, according to the state labor agency. Amarillo and Midland
areas had the lowest unemployment in Texas during December at 2.5 percent. The BeaumontPort Arthur and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission areas had the state’s highest jobless rates last month at 6.7 percent, officials said. The Texas economy added 306,900 seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs over the year, including 400 additional jobs in December, according to
the commission. Annual employment growth for Texas was 2.5 percent in December, marking 92 consecutive months of annual growth. “The unemployment rate in Texas fell nearly a point over the year 2017, which is great news for workers in the Lone Star State,” said Commissioner Labor Julian Alvarez. “Positive economic growth means continued opportunities for the
expanding labor force here in Texas.” Industries adding jobs in December included leisure and hospitality, which added 6,800 jobs. Construction added 4,300 jobs, according to commission officials. Information, which added 3,600 jobs, includes traditional and software publishing, data processing and hosting, and telecommunications companies.
Luke Sharrett / Bloomberg
A job seeker fills out a form during a Job News USA career fair. The Texas unemployment rate rose slightly in December to 3.9 percent, the Texas Workforce Commission reported Friday.
Stocks close higher as market sets record again By Alex Veiga ASSOCIATED PRE SS
Steve Gonzales/Houston Chronicle
This photo shows an oil rig at sunset in Midland, Texas. U.S. oil production is booming and is forecast to top that of heavyweight Saudi Arabia and rival Russia this year, a global energy agency said Friday.
US oil output is booming and outpacing others A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
PARIS — U.S. oil production is booming and is forecast to top that of heavyweight Saudi Arabia and rival Russia this year, a global energy agency said Friday. The International Energy Agency said in its monthly market report that U.S. oil production, which has already risen to its highest level in nearly 50 years, will push past 10 million barrels a day in 2018 as higher prices entice more producers to start pumping. “This year promises to be a record-setting one for the U.S.,” it said. The price of crude has risen about 50 percent since June, with the U.S. benchmark now trading around $63 a barrel, on evidence of strong global economic growth and a pact among OPEC countries and Russia to limit their production. The OPEC-Russia deal worked for them: as prices rose they made more money despite pumping less crude, the IEA said. Russia is estimated to have earned an
extra $117 million a day and Saudi Arabia $100 million daily by limiting their output and nudging up prices. But the higher prices also brought back U.S. producers, particularly in shale oil, which requires higher prices in order to break even. U.S. production rose last year to its highest since 1970 and is expected to keep growing, assuming OPEC and Russia don’t decide to increase their own production — a decision of which there is no sign, the IEA says. Even the hurricanes of last year didn’t hinder the U.S. oil production boom. For now, the extra crude from the U.S. is meeting growing demand as the world economy expands at a strong pace. Global demand for oil is forecast to grow by 1.3 million barrels a day, the same as the year before. It’s not growing faster because some consumers are reducing spending on oil because of the higher prices and switching to other types of energy, like natural gas.
Investors shrugged off the potential for a federal government shutdown Friday, driving U.S. stocks higher and setting new milestones for several of the indexes. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, Nasdaq composite and Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks finished at record highs as the market bounced back from modest losses a day earlier. The S&P 500 has now posted a weekly gain in nine of the last 10 weeks. Retailers, banks and consumer goods companies accounted for much of the latest gains. Energy stocks fell along with crude oil prices. Utilities also declined as bond yields edged up to their highest level in more than three years. The market rally suggested that the possibility of a federal government shutdown this weekend wasn’t worrying traders. “Looking back to some of the previous shutdowns, they weren’t terribly extended in nature and didn’t cause a lot of disruption by the time everything was done,” said Tim Dreiling, regional investment director at U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management. “I don’t think it’s going to disrupt growth or make much of an impact on GDP, for example.” The S&P 500 index rose 12.27 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,810.30. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 53.91 points, or 0.2 percent, to 26,071.72. The average hit a new high on Wednesday. The Nasdaq added
Richard Drew / AP
Specialist Michael Pistillo wears a "Dow 26,000" hat as he works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Investors shrugged off the potential for a federal government shutdown Friday, driving stocks higher.
40.33 points, or 0.6 percent, to 7,336.38. The Russell 2000 index of smallercompany stocks picked up 20.90 points, or 1.3 percent, to 1,597.63. Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.66 percent from 2.63 percent late Thursday. That’s the highest level since July 2014. The increase in yields weighed on bond-proxy stocks, such as utilities. Exelon declined 62 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $37.97. Despite an eleventhhour effort to reach an agreement, Republicans and Democrats appeared no closer to averting a government shutdown before a midnight Friday deadline. After an afternoon meeting with President Donald Trump, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the discussions would continue after having made “some progress.” U.S. House lawmakers voted late Thursday for a stopgap funding bill to keep federal agency doors open until mid-February, but Senate Democrats and
some Republicans threatened to block it. Democrats want the bill to include protections for younger immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Investors have driven stock indexes higher on optimism over the global economic outlook and corporate earnings, and the possibility of a federal government shutdown did not dim that enthusiasm Friday. Investors bid up shares in clothing makers, restaurant chains, department stores and other consumer-focused companies. Toy maker Mattel led the pack, climbing 91 cents, or 6 percent, to $16.14. They also drove up tobacco manufacturers, food and beverage makers, and other consumer products companies. Philip Morris International picked up $3.85, or 3.7 percent, to $108.92. Campbell Soup added $1.14, or 2.5 percent, to $47.39. Banks and other financial stocks also rose. Synchrony Financial gained $1.17, or 3.1 percent,
to $38.47. Lowe’s rose 3.5 percent after the home-improvement supply retailer named three new directors. The stock added $3.59 to $104.95. Some big companies missed out on the broader market gains Friday. IBM slumped 4 percent despite a solid fourthquarter report. The technology and consulting company was the biggest decliner in the Dow. The stock slid $6.75 to $162.37. American Express fell 1.8 percent after the credit card issuer suspended its share buy-back program for six months following a big one-time tax charge. The stock shed $1.83 to $98.03. Oil futures closed lower after the International Energy Agency said U.S. oil production would rise sharply this year. Benchmark U.S. crude lost 58 cents, or 0.9 percent, to settle at $63.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 70 cents, or 1 percent, to close at $68.61 a barrel. The decline in oil prices weighed on energy sector stocks. Range Resources slid 39 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $16.08. In other energy futures trading, wholesale gasoline fell 2 cents to $1.86 a gallon. Heating oil was little changed at $2.06 a gallon. Natural gas also closed essentially flat at $3.19 per 1,000 cubic feet. Gold rose $5.90 to $1,333.10 an ounce. Silver added 8 cents to $17.04 an ounce. Copper slipped 1 cent to $3.19 a pound. The dollar fell to 110.60 yen from 110.98 yen on Thursday.