The Zapata Times 12/2/2015

ROMO IN DALLAS’ FUTURE PLANS FREE

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 2, 2015

OWNER EXPECTS QB TO PLAY NEXT 4-5 YEARS, RED SOX SIGN PRICE, 7A

DELIVERED EVERY SATURDAY

TO 4,000 HOMES

A HEARST PUBLICATION

ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

ZAPATA COUNTY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

WASHINGTON, DC

Nuques moves on Former superintendent named finalist in Hearne

By JUDITH RAYO THE ZAPATA TIMES

Close to four months after resigning from Zapata County Independent School District, Raul Nuques was named the lone finalist for superintendent of Hearne ISD. Hearne, Texas is located in Robertson County.

As of 2013, the city’s population was at 4,443.

According to Hearne ISD’s timeline, trustees voted on a finalist Nov. 18.

The lone finalist was an- of Trustees accepted Nuques’ nounced on Texas resignation and appointISD.com on Nov. 20. ed Roberto Hein as actTrustees are set to ing superintendent. vote on hiring a suNuques’ contract was perintendent on Dec. set to expire in June 10 at 6:30 p.m.

2018.

If Nuques is hired, His resignation came he will replace Joy two months after he Toney, who anstated his relationship nounced her retirewith the board of trustNUQUES ment in March. ees was “better than evThe district then hired an er,” even after an incident ininterim superintendent, Henry volving him slamming a door Lind. during a meeting.

In August, the ZCISD Board During a special called

meeting June 4, while meeting with trustees in closed session, Nuques slammed a door as he was exiting the office.

He later clarified the incident, stating he had slipped as he was exiting the office carrying two binders.

In documents related to the incident Laredo Morning Times obtained, it was confirmed Nuques intentionally slammed the door after he said he felt “ambushed” by the

See NUQUES PAGE 9A

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND HISTORY

UNDISCOVERED TOMB

Photo by John Raoux | AP

In this photo taken Nov. 13, Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks in Orlando, Fla.

Can Cruz court the left too?

Voters wonder if the senator can heal bitter divisions

By JULIE PACE ASSOCIATED PRESS

said Monday that a team led by archaeologist Leonardo Lopez Lujan had discovered an 27-foot long tunnel leading into the center of a circular platform where dead rulers

CLINTON, Iowa — Iowa Republican Sharon Gilbert thinks her party veered off course in the past two presidential elections by nominating candidates who were too moderate.

This time around, the 73-year-old Gilbert wants to send a staunch conservative into the general election, and she thinks Texas Sen. Ted Cruz might be that candidate. But she also has a nagging feeling that Cruz’s hardline views and combative style might keep him from getting anything done in Washington, a city where he’s frustrated his own party’s congressional leaders as much as — if not more than — the Democrats.

“I know he’s very far to the right, but I hope that he could work with both sides,” says Gilbert, who attended a town hall event with Cruz in her hometown of Clinton. “We don’t know that now because he’s been against Washington.”

It’s a central question of Cruz’s campaign as he gains momentum in the Republican primary: Can the uncompromising conservative unite a polarized nation and work with what he’s derisively called Washington’s “cartel” of career politicians, lobbyists and special interests?

Asked by a voter this week how he’d persuade Washington to follow his lead, Cruz said he planned to remake the way the nation’s capital works instead of trying to succeed within the current system.

“You do it with the power of the peo-

See AZTEC PAGE 9A

See CRUZ PAGE 9A

Photo by Claudio Cruz | AP

In this Oct. 3, 2006 photo, people visit the archaeological site, the Templo Mayor, in Mexico City. A Mexican archaeologist said Monday that his team has discovered, at the archaeological site, a long tunnel leading into the center of a circular platform where Aztec rulers were believed to be cremated.

Passageway may lead to Aztec ruler’s resting place

By MARK STEVENSON ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY — A Mexican archaeologist said his team has found a tunnel-like passageway that apparently leads to two sealed chambers,

the latest chapter in the search for the as-yet undiscovered tomb of an Aztec ruler.

The Aztecs are believed to have cremated the remains of their leaders during their 1325-1521 rule, but the final

resting place of the cremains has never been found. Outside experts said Tuesday the find at Mexico City’s Templo Mayor ruin complex would be significant.

The National Institute of Anthropology and History

WEBB COUNTY, ZAPATA COUNTY

District attorney seeking third term SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Webb County District Attorney Isidro R. “Chilo” Alaniz has announced he is seeking his third term in office.

Alaniz also serves Zapata County.

Alaniz first took office in 2009 after defeating three opponents in the Democratic primary in 2008. He ran uncontested in 2012.

“I am very thankful for having the opportunity to work as your district attorney for Webb and Zapata,” Alaniz said. “I am looking forward to many more opportunities, bless-

ings and victories in seeking justice and helping to keep our community safe.”

Alaniz said he has focused on making Laredo one of the safest cities in Texas by working to implement a modern justice system that emphasizes crime prevention and improved public safety. Since taking office, Alaniz said, the crime rate in Laredo has decreased every year due to his progressive and proactive approach to prosecution and the strong collaboration with federal, state and local law enforcement.

He believes in a “hands on” approach and has per-

sonally prosecuted several funded through the Texas high-profile governor’s office. In cases. Alaniz cit2013, Alaniz was aped the Katherine pointed to the Texas Cardenas case as Children’s Justice an example. CarAct Task Force, a denas, age 1, was program that brings raped and murtogether child advodered by Jose cates and criminal Eduardo “Lalo” justice experts to Arredondo in improve the state’s ALANIZ 2009. He received response to cases of four life sentences in 2012. child abuse and neglect.

The case has been present“Driven by his devotion ed by Alaniz on a national for justice and community level at the annual Crimes service, Alaniz’s ideas exagainst Children Confer- tend beyond the courtence. house into the community Alaniz is a member of with his passion for creatthe Texas Border Prosecu- ing successful programs tion Unit and has secured that address the needs of three prosecutor positions the community in unique

and positive ways,” a news release states.

A Paul Harris recipient, Alaniz was honored for his commitment and efforts to help improve relationships among the community and his establishment of the Webb County Better Community Foundation and the Webb County Freedom Riders in 2014. The foundation was created with a desire to invest in the future of the community to support services, activities and assistance to community organizations.

Freedom Riders is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to assist

child victims of domestic violence and abuse through therapeutic horsemanship. This program benefits victims who are suffering from emotional and physical wounds as a result of abuse.

“His exemplary efforts personify his devotion to the critical mission of seeking justice and working diligently to deter and prevent crime in our communities,” the news release states. “Alaniz is proud to serve the 49th Judicial District and looks forward to continue making positive changes for the counties of Webb and Zapata.”

PAGE 2A

Zin brief CALENDAR

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015

AROUND TEXAS

TODAY IN HISTORY

Thursday, December 3

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The 2nd Annual IMPACT Economic Development Forum at the Laredo Country Club, 1415 Country Club Drive.

Leaders in international trade, manufacturing and logistics, petroleum technology, allied agencies, contracting personnel and oilfield industries are invited. The forum includes a keynote address by LULAC National President Roger Rocha. For ticket and table info, call 721-5110.

Historic Laredo Photo Exhibit from 6-8 p.m. at the Villa Antigua Border Heritage Museum, 810 Zaragoza St. The Webb County Heritage Foundation will host an opening reception for the exhibit of entries in the “Historic Laredo” Photo Competition. The public is invited to view all the competition entries, which will be on exhibit through January. The new 2016 Historic Laredo Calendars will be available for sale that evening. For more information, please contact the Webb County Heritage Foundation at 727-0977 or visit us at www.webbheritage.org or on Facebook.

The Laredo Center for the Arts will be hosting a free opening ceremony for a rare exhibit of Buddhist relics from 6 to 8 p.m. The Dalai Lama has graciously donated 7 relics of the historical Buddha to the collection that are over 2,600 each. Other relics come from India, Tibet and China. Laredo Center for the Arts, 500 San Agustin, 727-1715.

Today is Wednesday, Dec. 2, the 336th day of 2015. There are 29 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History: On Dec. 2, 1995, NASA launched the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint project of the United States and the European Space Agency, on a $1 billion mission to study the sun and interplanetary space; since then, SOHO has discovered 3,000 comets.

On this date: In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French.

In 1823, President James Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.

In 1927, Ford Motor Co. unveiled its Model A automobile that replaced its Model T. In 1942, an artificially created, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago.

In 1954, the U.S. Senate passed, 67-22, a resolution condemning Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., saying he had “acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.”

In 1961, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared himself a Marxist-Leninist who would eventually lead Cuba to Communism.

In 1970, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency opened its doors; its first director was William D. Ruckelshaus.

In 1980, four American churchwomen were raped and murdered outside San Salvador. (Five El Salvador national guardsmen were later convicted of murdering nuns Ita Ford, Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel, and lay worker Jean Donovan.)

In 1982, in the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Dr. Barney Clark, who lived 112 days with the device.

Ten years ago: North Carolina inmate Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1,000th person executed since the U.S. resumed capital punishment in 1977.

Five years ago: The House voted, 333-79, to censure Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., for financial and fundraising misconduct; it was only the 23rd time that the House had invoked its most serious punishment short of expulsion.

One year ago: Israel’s divided government fell apart as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired two rebellious Cabinet ministers and called for a new election more than two years ahead of schedule.

Today’s Birthdays: Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III is 84. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is 76. Movie director Penelope Spheeris is 70. Actor Ron Raines is 66. Country singer John Wesley Ryles is 65.

Broadcast journalist Stone Phillips is 61. Actress Suzy Nakamura is 47. Actress Lucy Liu is 47. Actor Joe Lo Truglio is 45. Tennis player Monica Seles is 42. Singer Nelly Furtado is 37. Pop singer Britney Spears is 34. NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers is 32. Actor Alfred Enoch is 27.

Thought for Today: “When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.” — Henry J. Kaiser, American industrialist (1882-1967).

Friday, December 4 TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. 6 p.m.: Stars of the Pharaohs; 7 p.m.: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU students, faculty and staff. For more information, call 956326-DOME (3663).

The Laredo Center for the Arts will be hosting a free opening ceremony for a rare exhibit of Buddhist relics from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Dalai Lama has graciously donated 7 relics of the historical Buddha to the collection that are over 2,600 each. Other relics come from India, Tibet and China. Laredo Center for the Arts, 500 San Agustin, 727-1715.

Photo by Jae S. Lee | AP

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, right, looks at one of the special prosecutors during a pretrial motion hearing at the Collin County courthouse on Tuesday, in McKinney, Texas. Paxton is accused of encouraging wealthy investors to pump more than $100,000 into a tech startup called Servergy without revealing he was being paid by the company.

AG wants charges tossed

By PAUL J. WEBER ASSOCIATED PRESS

McKINNEY — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton returned to court Tuesday on securities fraud charges that have troubled his first year in office and will likely drag well into 2016 unless a judge now sides with his long list of reasons to throw out the case.

Paxton, a conservative Republican who was indicted in July, entered the suburban Dallas courthouse flanked by his wife and greeted by more than a dozen supporters, one of whom clutched a Bible in the gallery. They huddled in the hallway to pray for the tea party favorite during the first significant hearing since Paxton was booked and quickly released this summer.

The state’s top prosecutor has pleaded not guilty to charges of deceiving wealthy

investors in 2011, when he was still a state legislator. Paxton sat quietly at the defense table while his platoon of high-powered attorneys tried persuading a judge to dismiss the charges, accusing secret grand jury proceedings of being compromised and questioning whether special prosecutors understood complex securities law.

State District Judge George Gallagher did not indicate when he would rule.

“One law for him, one law for everybody else. That’s their argument,” special prosecutor Ken Schaffer said.

Paxton, 52, has sustained support within his conservative base despite the criminal charges. Other top Texas Republican leaders — including Gov. Greg Abbott, Paxton’s predecessor as attorney general — have not publicly criticized Paxton and have urged the legal system to play out.

Saturday, December 5 One year anniversary of Operation Feed the Homeless hosted by Laredo Free Thinkers and the Tamiu Muslim Student’s Association at Jarvis Plaza from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Food, music and a coat drive. Please donate or volunteer. For additional information contact us on Facebook on the Laredo Free Thinkers page or call 744-5674.

Laredo Free Thinkers One Year Anniversary of Community Action celebration at Caffe Dolce, 1708 Victoria Street, at 6 p.m. Come for music, information and conversation. Addmission is a blanket or coat donation to help Laredo’s homeless or 2 dollars to Operation Feed the Homeless.

Trail Clean-Up and Open House.

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

Entrance is free for children 3 and under, and LCC and TAMIU students, faculty and staff with a valid ID. TAMIU Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. 2 p.m.: Wonders of the Universe; 3 p.m.: Season of Light; 4 p.m.: Mystery of the Christmas Star; 5 p.m.: Let it Snow (Music Show.) Admission is $4 for children and $5 for adults. Admission is $4 for TAMIU students, faculty and staff. The 3 p.m. show is $1 less. For more information, call 956-326-DOME (3663).

The Laredo Northside Farmers Market hosted by the Laredo Northside Market Association will hold its monthly market day at North Central Park on International Boulevard from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will several children’s and adult gifts to raffle and holiday candy for the little ones. We now feature farm-fresh eggs along with our regular vendors. There will be a special children’s activity tent where they can make a reindeer ornament.

The Laredo Center for the Arts will be hosting a free opening ceremony for a rare exhibit of Buddhist relics from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Dalai Lama has graciously donated 7 relics of the historical Buddha to the collection that are over 2,600 each. Other relics come from India, Tibet and China. Laredo Center for the Arts, 500 San Agustin, 727-1715.

Police look into vandalism at Islamic student center

Trooper fired, allegedly offered driver sex

Fire destroys Granbury rope factory

LUBBOCK — Lubbock police say they continue to investigate vandalism at an Islamic student center near Texas Tech University. Lt. Ray Mendoza said Tuesday that the criminal mischief report could become a hate crime investigation if evidence shows the Islamic Cultural & Student Center, two blocks from the university, was targeted because of its religious affiliation.

SAN ANTONIO — A Texas trooper has been fired after being accused of stopping a driver for speeding and offering her $300 to have sex with him. Investigators say Champion stopped a woman on I-35, allegedly tried to solicit sex and then used her cellphone to text himself, to get her contact information. She left without getting a ticket but contacted Texas Rangers.

GRANBURY — A fire has destroyed a Texas rope production company.

Equibrand Corp. President Ken Bray tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the facility, which was a production center for rope and other equine products, is a “total loss.”

Bray says he believes the blaze may have been caused by an electrical problem.

Gas explosion at cabin leaves 3 hunters hurt

Man again gets death penalty in 1991 slaying

Husband, wife found dead at their Amarillo office

FORT STOCKTON — Three deer hunters have been hurt in a gas explosion at a West Texas cabin as they tried to light the burner on a water heater.

Pecos County Sheriff Cliff Harris said Tuesday that the men were taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

The accident severely damaged the cabin.

HOUSTON — A Houston man has again been sentenced to death over the 1991 fatal beating of his wife as the couple argued over her loud playing of a radio.

The Houston Chronicle reported Monday that jurors last month took 15 minutes to decide the penalty for William “Billy the Kid” Mason.

Mason in 1992 was convicted of capital murder.

AMARILLO — Amarillo police say a husband and wife have been found shot to death at their media office.

Police say no suspects were being sought following the deaths of 22-year-olds David and Kendal Gisch. Autopsies were ordered. The bodies were discovered Monday morning at GischMedia, a web design company.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION Bush spends millions on TV but has yet to rise DUBUQUE, Iowa — Jeb Bush and his allies are spending circles around his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. Yet for all the money they’ve invested — $26 million on television ads alone — they’ve yet to see a substantial return.

Having fallen from summer front-runner to autumn afterthought, the former Florida governor made deep spending cuts to his campaign operation in October. But he and his backers plowed ahead with a television blitz three times the size of anyone else’s.

Facebook CEO will give away most of his money SAN FRANCISCO — Talk about birth announcements: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife said they’ll devote nearly all their wealth — rough-

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

Republican presidential candidate and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush pauses as he is asked a question from the audience at the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum during a campaign stop Tuesday, in Waterloo, Iowa. ly $45 billion — to good works in celebration of their new baby daughter, Max. Zuckerberg’s wife, Priscilla Chan, gave birth to a 7-pound, 8ounce daughter last week. But the couple didn’t put out the news until Tuesday, when Zuck-

erberg posted it on Facebook.

In the same post, Zuckerberg said he and Chan will commit 99 percent of their Facebook stock to such causes as fighting disease, improving education and “building strong communities.”

— 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

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A

Bush’s agency joins federal lawsuit

By WILL WEISSERT ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Desmond Boylan | AP

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott looks out from a car during his visit to Cuba, Tuesday.

Abbott struggles in Cuba

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN ASSOCIATED PRESS

HAVANA — Gov. Greg Abbott enjoyed dinner and a private concert in Havana but made little progress in finding opportunities for Texas businesses on the second day of a three-day trip to Cuba.

The Texas Republican was at least the third U.S. governor to travel to Cuba since the declaration of detente with the U.S. last year. He appeared to be trying to maintain a low profile, announcing the trip at the last minute and declining to speak with international media based in Cuba.

According to the pool report by a Texas-based reporter traveling with Abbott, the governor dined and watched a concert at one of the capital’s high-end private restaurants Monday evening but was told by Cuban officials Tuesday that there were little opportunities for businesses from his state on the island at the moment.

Abbott told the officials that “Texas has an abundance of (rice and other products) and a very easy ability to export from Texas to Cuba,” according to the pool report.

AUSTIN, Texas — Land Commissioner George P. Bush and his little-known but powerful agency, Texas’ General Land Office, joined a lawsuit Tuesday suing the federal government for what the suit calls an unconstitutional seizure of land.

Filed last month by seven landowning families, the lawsuit accuses the federal Bureau of Land Management of a “blatant land grab” involving a 116-mile tract along the Red River that marks the border between Texas and Oklahoma, but whose waters have shifted for decades — raising ownership and demarcation questions.

“Unfortunately, with this president and with this bureaucracy composed of unelected folks, we can’t leave this to chance,” Bush — whose grandfather and uncle were president and whose father, Jeb, is seeking the 2016 GOP White House nomination — told The Associated Press.

If the Bureau of Land Manage- boundary that was defined by a ment gets its way, 1923 U.S. Supreme 113 acres of public Court ruling. Then land could fall under the bureau published federal control and, a 2014 map indicating unchecked, the agenits intent to use the cy could set a precesame method applied dent that jeopardizes in the 2009 survey to Texas’ entire 13 mila 116-mile stretch of lion acres of public Red River land, the territory, Bush said. office said.

The lawsuit, The Bureau of which his office Land Management joined in a motion says it is committed filed in U.S. District to “working with adCourt in Wichita jacent landowners, BUSH Falls, “sends a clear counties and other message that the fedstakeholders through eral government shouldn’t be in our ongoing planning process to the business of seeking to claim properly identify the extent of fedownership over the state’s assets,” eral holdings in the Red River.” he said.

“We share the interest of all Three Texas counties and a parties in clarifying ownership county sheriff ’s office also have and identifying appropriate manfiled motions to join. agement alternatives,” spokeswoIn 2009, Bush’s office argues, man Donna Hummel said in a the Bureau of Land Management statement. published a survey asserting fedGov. Greg Abbott has praised eral ownership of a small portion the families bringing the lawsuit of land south of a Red River “for standing up against the feder-

al government’s brazen attempt to take private property from Texans.”

Bush’s office says it’s suing as if it were a private landholder. It administers Texas’ public lands and collects royalties from energy firms that lease them for oil and natural gas exploration — revenue which helps cover some public education costs.

No oil and gas exploration is taking place on the land in question, making placing a dollar value on it difficult. Bush said it’s too early to say what joining the suit might cost his agency.

He also shrugged off questions about the political optics of seeking to sue the Obama administration in the midst of his father’s presidential campaign.

“Probably my most important responsibility is to generate as much revenue for the school children of Texas in an environmentally responsible way,” Bush said.

“And when this entity comes and challenges that authority, I have to respond.”

PAGE 4A

Zopinion

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015

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

COLUMN

OTHER VIEWS

Alexander Hamilton and climate change I’ve been confused about this Paris climate conference and how the world should move forward to ameliorate climate change, so I séanced up my hero Alexander Hamilton to see what he thought. I was sad to be reminded that he doesn’t actually talk in hip-hop, but he still had some interesting things to say.

First, he was struck by the fact that on this issue the GOP has come to resemble a Soviet dictatorship — a vast majority of Republican politicians can’t publicly say what they know about the truth of climate change because they’re afraid the thought police will knock on their door and drag them off to an AM radio interrogation.

This week’s Paris conference, I observed, seems like a giant Weight Watchers meeting. A bunch of national leaders get together and make some resolutions to cut their carbon emissions over the next few decades. You hope some sort of peer pressure will kick in and they will actually follow through.

I’m afraid Hamilton snorted.

The co-author of the Federalist papers is the opposite of naive about human nature. He said the conference is nothing like a Weight Watchers meeting.

Unlike weight loss, the pain in reducing carbon emissions is individual but the good is only achieved collectively.

You’re asking people to impose costs on themselves today for some future benefit they will never see. You’re asking developing countries to forswear growth now to compensate for a legacy of pollution from richer countries that they didn’t benefit from.

You’re asking richer countries that are facing severe economic strain to pay hundreds of billions of dollars in “reparations” to India and such places that can go on and burn mountains of coal and take away U.S. jobs. And you’re asking for all this topdown coercion to last a century, without any enforcement mechanism.

Are the Chinese really going to police a local coal plant efficiently?

This is perfectly designed to ensure cheating. Already, the Chinese government made a grandiose climate change announcement but then was forced to admit that its country was burning 17 percent more coal than it had previously disclosed.

The cheating will create a cycle of resentment that will dissolve any sense of common purpose.

I countered by pointing out that policymakers have come up with some clever ways to make carbon reductions more efficient, like cap and trade, permit trading and carbon taxing.

The former Treasury secretary pointed out that these ideas are good in theory but haven’t worked in reality. Cap and trade has not worked out so well in

“

DAVID BROOKS

Europe. Overall, the Europeans have spent $280 billion on climate change with very little measurable impact on global temperatures.

And as for carbon taxes, even if the U.S. imposed one on itself, it would have virtually no effect on the global climate.

Hamilton steered me to an article by James Manzi and Peter Wehner in his favorite magazine, National Affairs. The authors point out that according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the expected economic costs of unaddressed global warming over the next century are likely to be about 3 percent of world gross domestic product. This is a big, gradual problem, but not the sort of cataclysmic immediate threat that’s likely to lead people to suspend their immediate self-interest.

Well, I ventured, if you’re skeptical about our own policies, Mr. Founding Father, what would you do?

Look at what you’re already doing, he countered. The United States has the fastest rate of reduction of CO2 emissions of any major nation on earth, back to pre-1996 levels.

That’s in part because of fracking. Natural gas is replacing coal, and natural gas emits about half as much carbon dioxide.

The larger lesson is that innovation is the key. Green energy will beat dirty energy only when it makes technical and economic sense.

Hamilton reminded me that he often used government money to stoke innovation. Manzi and Wehner suggest that one of our great national science labs could work on geoengineering problems to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

Another could investigate cogeneration and small-scale energy reduction systems. We could increase funding on battery and smartgrid research. If we move to mainly solar power, we’ll need much more efficient national transmission methods.

Maybe there’s a partial answer in increased vegetation.

Hamilton pointed out that when America was just a bunch of scraggly colonies, he was already envisioning it as a great world power. He used government to incite, arouse, energize and stir up great enterprise. The global warming problem can be addressed, ineffectively, by global communiqués. Or, with the right government boost, it presents an opportunity to arouse and incite entrepreneurs, innovators and investors and foment a new technological revolution.

Sometimes like your country you got to be young, scrappy and hungry and not throw away your shot.

COLUMN

Football injuries caused Mother to slam door in my face While the high school football experience is a necessary journey for those of us who suffer from the mano-a-mano challenge, and I didn’t urge my sons to play the game (nor discourage), I managed to suffer enough injuries to make one question my intelligence and/ or judgment. But, I upheld the “I ain’t a-skeered of nothin’” mantra of our foolhardy gender.

Typical of small towns and our 210-student high school, every able-bodied boy went out for football.

Of course, like all teen boys of that time (and maybe all of eternity) I put my skinny body at risk with the rest. I was (and am) close to six feet tall and then weighed 150 pounds soaking wet and with a rock in each pocket. I did possess a little speed, the kind associated with miles per hour rather than something you ingest to fool your brain.

One of our early-season games that fall was in Groesbeck against the hated, dreaded Goats (yep, that was the mascot).

We managed to win the game, but I wasn’t around

for the finish.

Dear Ol’ Teague High ran the popular 1950s Oklahoma Sooner version of the Split-T offense — a running game, featuring quick-hitting up the middle runs and option sweeps. Little or no passing, for as Darrell Royal said: “Three things can happen when you pass and two of ‘em are bad.”

Our Lions had great blocking, making it easy for a quick, skinny boy like me (then, not now) to gain lots of yards. I was told after the game that, early in the third quarter, I had just over 150 yards rushing.

Two plays altered my appearance enough as to make me unrecognizable, at least at night in the hazy light of a front porch bulb likely less than 75 watts.

The first “damaging” play was a sweep around end wherein the Goat (that’s right) safety used his good angle to catch me

on the sideline just short of the goal. He knocked me out of bounds and was joined by a teammate as they beat the slow referees to me and one was banging the side of my head/face against his knee. That raised a knot on my cheekbone that gave me a weird appearance.

Shortly thereafter, the quarterback called my number on a quick dive play over tackle where, after about a five- or sixyard gain, a linebacker threw his body across mine high up on my thighs. That blow drove the rounded point of my solid, hard-plastic pad against a muscle in my thigh and a second tackler hit me in the nose and mouth with his fist (face masks were optional then and I didn’t wear one, duh), busting my nose and lips and temporarily rendering me unconscious. The game was over for me at that point, but my teammates kept pouring it on and we won handily.

Around midnight, when our team bus delivered us sleepily and grog-

gily back to Teague, I limped the four blocks from the high school to our house and knocked on the door. Mother cracked the door and peered at me in the dim light, screamed and slammed the door.

Apparently, I looked like something out of a horror movie, and I was allowed in only after she recognized my pleading voice through that closed door.

Naturally, the “injuries” justified Mother’s long held objection to “her boys” playing football. However, the four of us, and Dad prevailed as all played, the rest of the boys with more success than I had.

However, all of us had the good sense to recognize that not only was the game much rougher and more serious beyond high school but that there were easier ways to earn a college degree.

Willis Webb is a retired community newspaper editor-publisher of more than 50 years experience.

He can be reached by email at wwebb1937@att.net.

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-

DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

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.

Zentertainment

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015

PAGE 5A

NBR names ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ best film of the year

By JAKE COYLE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — The National Board of Review threw a fireball into Hollywood’s awards season, naming the rollicking apocalyptic adventure “Mad Max: Fury Road” the best film of 2015.

George Miller’s latest installment in the 1979-born action franchise is an unconventional pick from the National Board of Review, one of the oldest awards bodies in movies. But the group, founded in 1909, has recently tried to shed its stodgy image, previously giving J.C. Chandor’s “A Most Violent Year” (in 2014) and Spike Jonze’s “Her” (in 2013) its top hon-

or.

In the awards announced Tuesday, the science-fiction hit “The Martian” came away with the most wins, taking best actor for Matt Damon, best director for Ridley Scott and best adapted screenplay for Drew Goddard. In the early going of awards season, “The Martian” is seen as the popular, bigbudget contender likely to compete at the Academy Awards.

The National Board of Review, a collection of film enthusiasts and academics, eschewed several of the top independent contenders, like the journalism drama “Spotlight” (the big winner at Monday night’s Gotham Independent Film Awards)

Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision | AP

In this May 7, 2015 file photo, George Miller arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "Mad Max: Fury Road" at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. and the 1950s romance “Carol.”

Instead, the NBRs gave

412.521.5751

www.mdavisgroup.com Hablamos Español

EVERYTHING MUST GO!! Mobile Drill Rigs, Knuckle Boom Loader Trucks, Rolling Stock & Truck Fleet, ATVs, Air Compressors, Power Generators, Job Site Containers, Pumps, Huge Parts Inventory Online Auction: Ends 12/3

Register to bid: www.mdavisgroup.com

(50+) Ford Trucks & Others

(3) Knuckle Boom Trucks

(8) Kubota Utility Vehicles

(45+) Cargo Containers

(10) Sullair Compressors

(17) Power Generators

See Website: Terms, Conditions, Buyers Premium: 15%; Equipment Located: General Bravo, Nuevo León, México.

All must be removed by 12/23/2015 (No Exceptions). Martin I. Davis, Auctioneer PA License #AU001458L

Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Western, “The Hateful Eight,” awards for

Tarantino’s screenplay and Jennifer Jason Leigh’s supporting actress performance. Sylvester Stallone was named best supporting actor for “Creed,” the acclaimed reboot of Stallone’s “Rocky” franchise.

Brie Larson won best actress for her performance as a captive mother in “Room.” The group also singled out Larson’s young co-star, Jacob Tremblay, for breakthrough performance, an award he shares with another young actor, Abraham Attah, the child soldier of the Netflix release “Beasts of No Nation.”

The National Board of Review is known for spreading its awards around as much as possi-

ble, attracting a roomful of celebrities to its annual dinner in midtown New York. This year’s ceremony will be hosted by NBC’s Willie Geist on Jan. 5.

An award for best ensemble to Adam McKay’s “The Big Short” — featuring Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell and Brad Pitt — will surely add star power to the gala.

The group awarded best documentary to the Amy Winehouse film “Amy”; best animated film to Pixar’s “Inside Out”; and best foreign language film to the Holocaust drama “Son of Saul.” The Mexican drug war thriller “Sicario” was singled out for the “spotlight award” for its “collaborative vision.”

National

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015

Boston Marathon bomber’s lawyers argue for new trial

By DENISE LAVOIE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOSTON — Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — sentenced to death for his admitted role in the deadly 2013 attack — deserves a new trial to reconsider both his guilt and his punishment, his lawyers argued Tuesday.

Earlier this year, Tsarnaev was convicted and given the death penalty for his role in twin bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260.

Tsarnaev’s lawyers told a judge Tuesday that a recent Supreme Court ruling calls into question 15 of the 30 counts against him. The defense argued that the number and nature of those charges likely influenced jurors when they decided Tsarnaev deserved the death penalty.

“The loss of those convictions would mean that a penalty trial should be held as to all counts,” attorney William Fick argued.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision was issued in June, two days after Tsarnaev was sentenced to death. It struck down a provision in a law that called for stiffer penal-

Photo by the Federal Bureau of Investigation | AP file

This file photo released April 19, 2013 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted of federal charges in the bombing that killed three people. ties when a gun or explosive is used in a crime of violence.

Prosecutor William Weinreb, however, said “there is absolutely no reason to believe” that the jury would have changed its sentencing

decision if the 15 counts related to Tsarnaev and his brother possessing a gun during a crime of violence had been excluded.

Tsarnaev’s lawyers admitted in opening statements that he carried out the bomb-

ings with his older brother, Tamerlan. But they said Tamerlan was the mastermind of the attack and argued that Dzhokhar — then 19 — didn’t deserve the death penalty. Tamerlan died after a gun battle with police three days after the bombing.

Tsarnaev himself apologized to the victims during his sentencing hearing.

Tsarnaev, who is housed in the Supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado, was not present at Tuesday’s hearing.

Judge George O’Toole Jr. did not immediately rule on the motion for a new trial.

Tsarnaev’s lawyers also argue that he deserves a trial in a different location because jurors in greater Boston could not be impartial due to intense pretrial publicity, local outrage over the attack and heavy media coverage during the trial of events marking the second anniversary of the bombings and the people who were injured.

O’Toole also heard a request from prosecutors to order Tsarnaev to pay approximately $80 million in restitution to victims, a largely symbolic gesture since Tsarnaev has no ability to pay.

Jewelry worth $1M taken from Santa Fe store ASSOCIATED PRESS

SANTA FE, N.M. — More than $1 million in jewelry has been stolen from a store on a historic plaza in Santa Fe as crowds gathered for a holiday tree-lighting festival outside, police said Tuesday.

Santa Fe Police Lt. Michele Williams said that 11 items of jewelry were taken from an unlocked display case in a store bustling with shoppers. Williams declined to describe the stolen items because she said it might hinder the investigation.

Santa Fe Police were attempting to identify a trio of suspects involved in the Friday heist. Police distributed images of the suspects taken from security cameras on the day of the theft and in the weeks leading up the robbery, when thieves appar-

ently cased out the Diva Diamonds & Jewels store.

A glass display case was kept unlocked during business hours, and store employees were busy attending to customers when someone reached in and took the jewelry, Williams said.

Ringed by museums, art galleries and restaurants, Santa Fe’s downtown plaza dates back to the 1600s and remains a popular venue for performances and seasonal markets.

Police said the jewelry was removed between 5:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Jewelry store employees discovered the items were missing about 6 p.m.

The jewelry store could not be reached by phone or email. It advertises a diamonds, gems, and fine jewelry in a wide range of styles.

Chicago mayor fires police Clinton says US chief in wake of video release must address

injustice

By DON BABWIN ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO — Rahm Emanuel sought for months to keep the public from seeing a video that shows a white police officer shooting a black teenager 16 times. Now, a week after the video’s release, the Chicago mayor has fired the police superintendent, created a new task force for police accountability and expanded the use of body cameras.

But Emanuel’s effort to keep the video secret and his long wait to take action at the police department has stirred deep skepticism among those protesting the teen’s death. Many activists are especially incensed by the fact that the video first surfaced during a re-election campaign, when the mayor was seeking African-American votes.

“In our community, everyone is saying it (the video) was not released because of the election,’ said Corey Brooks, a prominent black minister.

Had it emerged earlier, the video “could have buried” Emanuel’s chances for re-election, Columbia Law School professor Bernard E. Harcourt wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece published Monday.

The mayor defended the decision to withhold the video from the public until the investigation was finished.

“You don’t compromise an ongoing investigation,” he said. “Yet it’s clear you all want and the public deserves that information. They’re two conflicting principles.”

Asked by a reporter if Emanuel thought he would become a distraction himself and would consider resigning, the mayor responded, “You’ll make that judgment. I think I’m doing my job.

And I try to do it every day do it in a professional way.”

Emanuel on Tuesday announced the dismissal of Garry McCarthy, who only days ago insisted to reporters that the mayor had his “back.”

The mayor praised McCarthy’s leadership but called it an “undeniable fact” that the public’s trust in the police had eroded.

“Now is the time for fresh eyes and new leadership,” Emanuel said.

Protesters have been calling for McCarthy’s dismissal in response to

By KIM CHANDLER ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times Media | AP

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks at a news conference in Chicago, Tuesday, where he announced the firing Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. the handling of the death of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old who was killed in October 2014.

Some aldermen, particularly members of the city council’s black caucus, have also been seeking McCarthy’s resignation, citing the city’s crime rate and questions about the department transparency.

The city released video of the shooting only after a judge ordered it to be made public. Last week’s release set off several days of largely peaceful protests. On the same day, officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with murder.

“Any case of excessive force or abuse of authority undermines the entire force and the trust we must build with every community in the city,” the mayor said. Police officers are only effective “if they are trusted by all Chicagoans, whoever they are and wherever they live in the city.”

Emanuel introduced McCarthy as his pick to lead the department in May 2011, replacing former FBI agent Jody Weis, who was unpopular with many rank-and-file officers who claimed Weis did not stand behind them.

Alderman Howard Brookins Jr., a member of the black caucus, said he appreciated Emanuel’s “willingness to change course.”

Chief of Detectives John Escalante will oversee the department until a permanent replacement is named, Emanuel said.

The mayor also announced the creation of a task force on police accountability that will help develop an early warning system allowing the department to intervene

with problem officers racking up complaints from the public.

Van Dyke was the subject of 18 civilian complaints over 14 years, including allegations that he used racial epithets and excessive force. Complaints against police are not uncommon, but the number filed against Van Dyke was high compared with other officers.

Emanuel’s office announced Sunday that the police department would expand its use of officer body cameras from a single district to roughly a third of Chicago.

Emanuel credited McCarthy with modernizing Chicago’s police force, getting illegal guns off the streets and pushing a community policing strategy that the mayor said had reduced overall crime rates to a record low.

In particular, McCarthy was a constant preacher on the need for tougher punishments for gun offenses. He hammered on the fact that many murder suspects had prior gun convictions, which McCarthy argued should have kept them off the streets.

But the police chief came under pressure because of homicides that included high-profile cases such as the slaying of Hadiya Pendleton.

Pendleton, an honor student, became a national symbol of gun violence when she was gunned down in 2013 as she talked with friends just a mile from President Barack Obama’s South Side home. She died just days after returning from the president’s inauguration.

In New York City, McCarthy rose from patrolman to an executive position. He later became

police director in Newark, New Jersey before coming to Chicago, where he promised he would “have the cops’ backs.”

The silent Chicago video shows McDonald walking down the middle of a four-lane street. He appears to veer away from two officers as they emerge from a vehicle, drawing their guns. Van Dyke opens fire from close range and continues firing after McDonald crumples to the ground.

Police have said McDonald was carrying a knife, and an autopsy revealed that he had the hallucinogenic drug PCP in his system. Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has said the 3-inch blade recovered from the scene had been folded into the handle.

Defense attorney Dan Herbert has said the officer feared for his life, acted lawfully and that the video does not tell the whole story. Van Dyke was released from jail Monday after paying the required $150,000 of his $1.5 million bail.

Also Tuesday, relatives of another person fatally shot last year by Chicago police stepped up their pleas to have the squad car video made public.

Emanuel spokeswoman Kelley Quinn said the city was “looking into” releasing it.

Police have said 25year-old Ronald Johnson III was fatally shot by an officer on Oct. 12, 2014. At the time, authorities said he pointed a gun at police.

His mother, Dorothy Holmes, has said he was running away from police. She and attorney Michael Oppenheimer have seen a copy of the video because of lawsuits they have filed.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Standing in the pulpit where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led the historic Montgomery bus boycott, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reached out to black voters Tuesday saying the U.S. is still plagued by injustices such as mass incarceration and attempts to roll back voting rights— and she urged Americans to rebuild their bonds with one another.

“We must be honest about the larger and deeper inequalities that continue to exist across our country,” Clinton told a majority black crowd at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church at an event commemorating the boycott.

In a speech on the 60th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ Dec. 1, 1955, arrest for refusing to give her bus seat to a white passenger, Clinton praised the heroes of the civil rights movement, but said much remains to be done.

“Our work isn’t finished.

We must pay it forward.

There are still injustices perpetuated every day in our country, sometimes in spite of the law, sometimes, unfortunately, in keeping with it,” Clinton said.

King preached his Sunday sermons at the church from 1954 to 1960 at was catapulted onto the national stage by the boycott. King’s daughter, Bernice King, gave the benediction after Clinton’s speech.

Clinton has made frank discussion about the country’s lingering racism a central theme of her primary campaign, in an effort to woo the coalition of minority, young, and female voters who twice catapulted Barack Obama into the White House.

In recent months, she’s met with the families of young black people killed in police shootings and held conversations with Black Lives Matter protesters.

She’s rolled out policies aimed a revamping the criminal justice system, an issue that she and her rivals — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley — each pitch as they court black voters who will help choose a nominee.

Clinton is working to solidify her advantage over Sanders, her closest rival, among African-Americans.

Black voters could make up more than half of the primary electorate in the early voting state of South Carolina and several other Southern states, including Alabama, that hold March primaries.

She told the crowd that mass imprisonment of nonviolent criminals such as drug offenders does little to reduce crime, but much to rip apart families.

“Right now an estimated 1.5 million black men are missing from their families and communities because of incarceration and premature death. And too many black families mourn the loss of a child,” she said.

Clinton praised the work of police who build trust and confidence with the public, but she called for reforms and “a new course in how we approach punishment and prison.”

Clinton also decried what she called efforts to erode the voting rights that minorities won decades ago in the civil rights movement.

“Unfortunately, there is mischief afoot and some people are just determined to do what they can to keep other Americans from voting,” Clinton said.

Invoking King’s words, that love and justice are intertwined, Clinton challenged Americans to examine themselves and their own preconceived notions and try to reach a greater understanding with others who may not look, or think, like them.

“We each need to do the hard work of rebuilding our bonds with one another. This isn’t just about strengthening ties between police and citizens, although that is very important. It’s about strengthening ties across society, between neighbors, colleagues, even among people with whom we profoundly disagree,” Clinton said.

A crowd formed a line Tuesday morning for the 300 seats in the small church, decorated with garlands and poinsettias for Christmas.

“She is going to be president,” retired elementary school principal Maggie Stringer, 80, said emphatically. “At least I can say I did see her and I’ve been in her presence.”

Stringer was a 20-year-old student and a member of the church during the Bus Boycott.

“Oh, the energy. As someone said, the cup was full. It just spilled out and it seemed like it reached everybody,” Stringer said.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015

ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

Sports&Outdoors NFL: DALLAS COWBOYS

Not going anywhere Jones: Romo to be Dallas QB over next 4-5 years

By JON MACHOTA MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

File photo by Brandon Wade | AP

After two separate collarbone surgeries in 2015 adding to his injury history, some have questioned whether the Cowboys may use a high draft pick on a quarterback this year. Owner Jerry Jones, however, believes Romo will be the team’s signal-caller for the next four or five years.

Jerry Jones became irritated Tuesday morning while discussing the future of his franchise quarterback. When asked during a weekly radio interview about how much longer he expected Tony Romo to be the Dallas Cowboys quarterback, Jones quickly replied, "Four to five years."

"I think if you look at his playing time, if you look at the years he has actually played, he started late," Jones said on 105.3 The Fan’s K&C Masterpiece show KRLD-FM. "He really has excellent skill relative to where his skill set began, what his skill set is. He’s got the relative skills.

More important to anything, from a mental standpoint, and from the things that also mean so much at quarterback, he’s at the top of the list. So I think four

to five years."

But Jones was then pressed about Romo’s recent injury history. Since October 2010, the 35year-old QB has fractured his left clavicle three times and has had two back surgeries.

"This is not a damn debate, guys," Jones said. "This is not a debate we’re having here. Do you know that I don’t know if he’s got four or five years, you asked me my opinion. And I can give you all the reasons why, the back, or I can give you clavicle, or I can give you any other type of injuries that are there.

"But you’re asking me what I think and I think we’ve got outstanding quarterback ahead of us for the next four or five years. That’s not a downer. Will we be looking to develop and get talent behind Romo? Absolutely."

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: BOSTON RED SOX

Price heads to Boston with monster deal

By MARK GONZALES MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

The Boston Red Sox more than made amends after losing out on left-hander Jon Lester to the Chicago Cubs last December.

According to the Boston Globe, the Red Sox and marquee free-agent left-hander David Price agreed on a seven-year, $217 million contract.

Price, 30, was considered with Zack Greinke as the top two free agent pitchers. But Price’s contract is the largest given to a starting pitcher.

Price’s contract dwarfs the six-

year, $155 million contract the Cubs gave Lester last winter. Much was made of the Cubs’ hopes of landing Price because he pitched for manager Joe Maddon with the Tampa Bay Rays. But the Cubs are looking to add two starting pitchers and Price’s contract would have placed financial stress on addressing their needs.

According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, Price’s contract includes an opt-out clause after three seasons.

The Cubs continue to search for starting pitching through free agency and trades.

Photo by Fred Thornhill | AP

Former Toronto starting pitcher David Price will be a member of the Red Sox for the foreseeable future signing a massive seven-year, $217 million free agent contract to become the highest paid pitcher of all-time.

PÁGINA 8A

Zfrontera TURISMO

Agenda en Breve

Época de caza

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

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

MIÉRCOLES 2 DICIEMBRE DE 2015

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

El sábado 28 de noviembre dio inicio la temporada de cacería del venado cola blanca en Tamaulipas.

Los ranchos cinegéticos en la entidad dijeron estar listos para recibir a cazadores nacionales y extranjeros, de acuerdo con un comunicado de prensa del Gobierno de Tamaulipas.

Las metas son crecer en afluencia y derrama económica, de acuerdo con declaración de Tomás Sánchez Álvarez, Director de Turismo Cinegético y Pesca Deportiva. La temporada concluirá el 10 de enero del 2016.

“El Estado realiza una campaña

DECORACIÓN DE ÁRBOL NAVIDEÑO El Museo de Historia del Condado de Zapata invita a las diversas organizaciones locales al concurso de decoración del árbol navideño. La fecha límite de entrada es el viernes 4 de diciembre a las 4 p.m. Los árboles serán colocados del 8 al 11 de diciembre.

La comunidad elegirá, por medio de voto, el árbol ganador. Costo de entrada para votar es de 3 dólares, para adultos, y 1 dólar para niños.

El museo se ubica en 805 N. US Hwy 83. Informes en el (956) 765-8983.

Temporada de caza del venado cola blanca texano inició el 28 de noviembre y concluirá el 10 de enero del 2016. de promoción muy intensa en Estados Unidos con el objetivo de atraer más cazadores a Tamaulipas y así mostrar el potencial cinegético que tiene el estado a través de los ranchos cinegéticos”, explicó Sánchez. “(Los ranchos) están capacitados, validados y aseguran al visitante una experiencia deportiva de alta calidad”.

Durante las diversas temporadas de caza en Tamaulipas el año actual, se han recibido a 3.232 ca-

zadores quienes han dejado una derrama económica superior a 11 millones de dólares.

La caza deportiva en la entidad ofrece al venado cola blanca, pecarí de collar, paloma ala blanca y guajolote silvestre.

Sánchez expuso que las familias tamaulipecas también se benefician con los visitantes y turistas ya que aquellos que llegan de EU y otras partes de México generan gastos de gasolina, hospedaje,

MÉXICO

TAMAULIPAS

MATEMÁTICAS

IETAM anuncia topes TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

En vísperas del proceso electoral que se desarrollará en Tamaulipas durante el verano del 2016, el IETAM acordó la cantidad máxima que los pre-candidatos buscando obtener la candidatura de su partido para buscar el puesto de Gobernador, diputados y alcaldías, podrán gastar durante los 40 días de pre-campaña.

Aquellos quienes busquen ser postulados para Gobernador de Tamaulipas, podrán gastar 21 millones 590.756 pesos con 22 centavos, durante los 40 días de precampaña, de acuerdo con el reporte presentado el lunes por el Consejo general del Instituto Electoral de Tamaulipas.

En el caso de las pre-campañas para los 22 diputados de mayoría relativa será de 26 millones 421786 pesos con 21 centavos. “(En el caso de los diputados) tal cantidad deberá ser dividida en base al número de electores por distrito”, explicó Juan Esparza Ortiz, secretario del órgano electoral.

CARRERA EN ROMA La carrera de 5K Jingle Bell en Roma, Texas se llevará a cabo el sábado 5 de diciembre a partir de las 8 a.m. La carrera será alrededor del estadio de Roma High School, 2021N. US Hwy 83.

Al concluir la carrera, alrededor de las 10 a.m., habrá un concurso de disfraces y se celebrará la ceremonia de premiación. La pre-inscripción tiene costo de 20 dólares hasta el 24 de noviembre; el día del evento la inscripción será de 25 dólares.

Para obtener la hoja de registro visite http://tinyurl.com/oljlztl. Puede entregarla en Jingle Bell 5K c/o Emily Bennett, 10 N Colima St, Unit 1, Roma, TX 78584.

Para cualquier duda favor de escribir a egbennett@romaisd.com.

Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Tamaulipas

Municipios

Roberto Alain Rivera Bravo, de Madero, México, y Jesús Roberto Llanos Fernández, de Ciudad Victoria, México, recibieron medalla de plata durante la XXIX Olimpiada Mexicana de Matemáticas 2015, celebrada en Guadalajara, México.

Dos obtienen tercer lugar en Olimpiada

TAMAULIPAS El viernes 30 de noviembre autoridades de la policía estatal evitaron que una persona fuera secuestrada en el ejido La Libertad de Ciudad Victoria, México.

Un sospechoso falleció en el lugar, en tanto que otros dos fueron detenidos, de acuerdo con comunicado de prensa del Grupo de Coordinación Tamaulipas.

El reporte indica que sospechosos circulando a bordo de una camioneta Ford Ranger blanca y un automóvil Mazda rojo sin placas, habrían privado de su libertad a una mujer. Una de las unidades tenía un reporte de robo.

Agentes ubicaron lo vehículos a la altura del Kilómetro 5 de la Carretera Interejidal, pero los sospechosos empezaron a agredir a los policías y corrieron hacia la brecha que conduce a “La Quebradora”.

Dentro de la Ford Ranger quedó el cuerpo de uno de los hombres, cuya identidad no ha sido revelada. Él tenía en su poder una pistola calibre 380, de acuerdo con el comunicado.

Fueron capturados Mario Alberto Amaro Cárdenas y Francisco Antonio Padilla García, quienes fueron puestos a disposición del Ministerio Público del Fuero Común por su probable comisión en el delito de privación ilegal de la libertad La víctima fue rescatada sin que sufriera lesiones.

alimentación, servicios, entre otros.

“Esta campaña se realiza en Estados Unidos donde se encuentra el mercado más fuerte para ese sector del turismo, varios hoteles y campos cinegéticos ya tienen reservaciones, ya están a la espera de los cazadores”, indicó Sánchez.

“Además, hay un vínculo estrecho con los clubes de caza y pesca que están en constante comunicación y tienen una gran expectativa”.

De acuerdo con el Gobierno de Tamaulipas, la entidad ocupa el primer lugar nacional en ranchos cinegéticos, cuenta con el récord con el torneo de pesca más concurrido del mundo y en 2014 obtuvo el récord del cóctel de camarón más grande.

TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

D

os jóvenes del nivel preparatoria de Tamaulipas, México, obtuvieron dos terceros lugares durante la XXIX Olimpiada Mexicana de Matemáticas 2015.

Roberto Alain Rivera Bravo, estudiante del CBTIS 103 de Madero, México, y Jesús Roberto Llanos Fernández, del CBTIS 119, de Ciudad Victoria, México, recibieron medalla de plata durante el evento llevado a cabo en Guadalajara, Jalisco, México.

“Sin duda son ejemplo de trabajo, compromiso y responsabilidad, participar en un

evento de esta índole no es nada fácil y ellos fueron a representar a Tamaulipas de una forma excepcional”, expresó Diódoro Guerra Rodríguez, Secretario de Educación de Tamaulipas. “Hago extensa una felicitación también para sus profesores y padres de familia quienes los apoyan y guían en la escuela y en sus hogares para que sean exitosos, como ya lo demostraron”.

Rivera Bravo y Llanos Fernández tuvieron que pasar primero la etapa municipal donde hubo una participación de 1.276 jóvenes; durante la pre-selección regional estuvieron compitiendo contra 180 alumnos; de

estos solo 75 obtuvieron la puntuación mayor pasa pasar a la etapa estatal.

A la XXIX Olimpiada Mexicana de Matemáticas acudieron seis representantes de la Selección Tamaulipas.

El objetivo de la competencia es “promover el interés y el estudio de las matemáticas en los educandos del nivel medio superior, con un sentido crítico y propositivo e implementando condiciones favorables para desarrollar sus propias competencias, capacidades, habilidades y estimulando la creatividad y el talento matemático”, de acuerdo a un comunicado de prensa del Gobierno de Tamaulipas.

En relación al tope de gasto de precampaña para los 43 municipios de Tamaulipas, es de 26 millones 654.159 pesos y 12 centavos.

Durante la sesión del IETAM también se aprobó que sean 173 cargos, sin contar los suplentes, que integren los 43 cabildos de Tamaulipas y en consecuencia, en número de candidaturas a registrar para la elección local del 2016.

“Es decir cada partido político podrá registrar un candidato o candidata a la gubernatura y 36 candidatos y candidatas a diputados locales, de los cuales 22 serán de mayoría relativa y una lista con 14 integrantes, para la representación proporcional”, expuso Esparza. “Además para los ayuntamientos podrán registrar 43 candidatos o candidatas a alcaldes, 57 a síndicos o síndicas, 269 a regidores o regidoras y 136 regidores entrarán a los cabildos por le principio de representación proporcional”.

Las elecciones serán el 5 de junio del 2016.

COLUMNA

Surgen leyendas por Paso de Doña Cecilia Nota del Editor: Tercera y última parte de la serie Leyendas de Tamaulipas, presenta cuando un matrimonio extranjero llega a la entidad en tiempos decimonónicos.

POR RAÚL SINENCIO CHÁVEZ ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Ángel Calderón de la Barca, primer ministro plenipotenciario de España, llega a México, acompañado de su mujer, Frances Erskine Inglis, a fines de 1839, tras establecerse relaciones diplomáticas con la monarquía hispana. Ella es la autora de “La vida en México durante una residencia de dos años en ese país”.

Los cónyuges emprenden por Veracruz la travesía de regreso apenas abierto 1842. Para cargar plata acuñada, la nave que los conduce toca el sureste tamaulipeco en breve escala.

Ella cuenta que para visitar Tampico remonta la bocana del río Pánuco. Desde el bote en que navega, sin bajarse, donde hoy está Ciudad Madero contempla “Un hermoso ‘ranchito’ […]

Los navegantes le llaman ‘El Paso de Doña Cecilia’ […] La propietaria, o sea […] ‘Doña Cecilia’ […] vive en esta pacífica soledad”, aunque “tuve la mortificación de enterarme que […] ¡tenía 68 años y acababa de

enterrar a su séptimo marido! Pero esta versión […] la acepto con […] reservas”, apunta la visitante.

En 1920 la “Pan-American Review” aventura: “Por su excelente cocina […] llegó […] Doña Cecilia a ser tan popular […] que […] el paso del río” y “la casa de teja” contigua “fueron bautizados con su nombre”.

Añaden los redactores que engendra una “hija […] bella y buena”.

Al correr el posterior decenio Luis Benedicto presenta el sitio como “mesón […] con […] dormitorio […] y […] fonda”. Ofrecía también “pelas de gallos”. “Varios jacales […] se levantaban en las inmediaciones,

dándole al lugar el aspecto de una población naciente”. Calificándola de “viuda alegre”, Benedicto asegura que doña Cecilia muere ahí “una tibia mañana del ardiente mes de mayo”, guardándose el año.

Cecilia se apellidaba Villarreal, esclarece Blas E. Rodríguez en 1948.

“El Paso de Doña Cecilia” alcanza en 1829 gran resonancia. A esto último Frances Erskine Inglis evita cualquier referencia, ante la nueva amistad ibérica con los mexicanos. No obstante, al desembarcar el referido matrimonio en Tampico, la señora Villarreal ronda los 58 años de edad.

Viuda por tercera vez, con-

trae nupcias con Pedro Domínguez, último esposo, y radica en la urbe porteña.

El “ranchito” nunca tuvo por lo tanto “excelente cocina” ni “aspecto de una población naciente”. Guerras continuas afectan la zona y desaconsejan vivir “en pacífica soledad”. Cecilia procrea un solo vástago – Felipe de la Garza Villarreal – y ninguna “hija […] bella y buena”. Falleció el domingo 11 de febrero de 1844. Le brinda al otro día sepultura el primitivo cementerio general del puerto.

(Con permiso del autor, según fuera publicado en La Razón, Tampico, México. Serie dedicada a Roberto Chávez Padrón)

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

GUADALUPE CHAPA March 15, 1958 – Nov. 28, 2015 Guadalupe Chapa, 57, passed away on Saturday, Nov. 28, 2015 at her residence in Zapata, Texas.

Mrs. Chapa is preceded in death by her son, Esteban Ramiro Chapa Jr.; father, Guadalupe Garcia, and a sister, Criselda Garcia.

Mrs. Chapa is survived by her husband, Esteban Ramiro Chapa; daughter, Minerva Gpe Chapa (Juan Jose Gonzalez); grandchildren, Alexis A. Chapa, Stephanie Chapa, Esteban Ramiro Chapa III, Estela Chapa, Raul O. Cortina, Leslie Cortina, Oscar Gonzalez; mother, Minerva Medeles; brothers, Vidal Garcia and Macario Garcia; sister, Martha A. Garcia and by numerous nephews, nieces, other family members and friends.

Visitation hours were held on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. and on Wednesday, December 2, 2015 from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home.

The funeral procession

will depart on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015, at 9:30 a.m. for a 10 a.m. funeral Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.

Committal services will follow at Zapata County Cemetery.

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

EMILIA R. VILLARREAL March 29, 1919 – Nov. 26, 2015 On the evening of Nov. 26, 2015, Mrs. Villarreal was called home by our Lord Jesus Christ. She was surrounded by family in her home where she peacefully passed. She was 96 years old.

Mrs. Villarreal was born on March 29, 1919, to Evaristo and Demetria Rodriguez at Las Alejandrenas Ranch. She married Antero Villarreal in 1935.

Mrs. Villarreal and her husband followed the oil field road from Charco Redondo to Bruni to Orange Grove and in 1977, retired and lived in Zapata until the present.

She was a loving wife, mother, and grandmother and will be dearly missed by all who knew her. She enjoyed cooking, baking, and making tamales for her family.

Mrs. Villarreal is preceded in death by her parents, Evaristo and Demetria Rodriguez; husband, Antero Villarreal Sr.; daughters, San Juana "Janie" Lieurance and Maricela V.; brother, Carlos (Brigida+) Rodriguez; sisters, Maria Petra (Merced+) Rodriguez, Alicia (Juan+) Garcia, Jesusita Rodriguez; sisters-inlaw, Ester V. Longoria, Francisca, Marta, Antonia Villarreal, Consuelo Rodriguez; brothers-in-law, Anastacio, Rumaldo and Alvaro Villarreal, and great-grandson, Luca Marciano Arrieta.

Mrs. Villarreal is survived by her son, Antero Jr. (Blanca) Villarreal; daughter, Martha (Larry+) Freudenberg; grandchildren, Mark (Santa) Villarreal, Laura (Collier) Turner, Traci (David) Alley, Annette Villarreal, Marcia (Jaime) Arrieta, Lana Freudenberg (Jake Middleton), Charles, Jr. (Kath-

Ernesto Uribe, 78, of Laredo, Texas, died in Falls Church, Virginia, on Nov. 21, 2015.

Ernesto grew up on horseback, working cattle in South Texas where his family raised beef since 1755. He was educated in the public schools of Laredo, and graduated from Texas A&M College, earning two undergraduate degrees and a master’s degree. Ernesto entered the United States Information Agency Foreign Service in 1962, beginning his career as a student affairs grantee in Guayaquil, Ecuador. He remained in the Foreign Service for 33 years, serving full tours in seven Latin American countries. Ernesto rose within the ranks of the Foreign Service to finish as Minister Counselor in the Senior Foreign Service. After retiring from the Foreign Service, Ernesto published three historical fiction novels and his memoirs, “My Way.” Ernesto is survived by his beloved wife of 56 years, Sarah Meade Uribe; and their three children, Anne Uribe Cespedes, Ernesto Uribe II, and August Orville Uribe.

Ernesto also leaves behind six adoring grandchildren: Fernando R.

Cespedes II, Sarah H. Cespedes, Oscar A. Uribe, Andreas O. Uribe, Ernesto T. Uribe and Daniel K. Uribe.

Ernesto will be buried on his ranch in Zapata, Texas on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015 at 11 a.m.

In honor of Ernesto, donations can be made to the Boy Scouts of America, Texas A&M at Laredo, or World Wildlife Fund in lieu of flowers.

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

CRUZ Continued from Page 1A

leen) Lieurance, and Charlene (Samuel) Garcia; five step-grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild; son-in-law, Charles Lieurance Sr.; and brother, Evaristo (Consuelo+) Rodriguez.

Visitation hours were held on Monday, Nov. 30, 2015, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. and on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015, from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home.

The funeral procession departed on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015, at 9:30 a.m. for a 10 a.m. funeral Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.

Committal services will follow at Las Alejandrenas Cemetery.

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

The family will like to express their appreciation to her providers, Sandra Herrera Resendiz, Laura Zavala, Petra Garcia, and also to the Falcon Lake Nursing Home staff.

JULIO A. LOPEZ Nov. 10, 1960 – Nov. 26, 2015 Julio A. Lopez, passed away on Nov. 26, 2015, in Laredo, Texas. He was a Zapata High School graduate, class of 1978. Julio dedicated his life to law enforcement.

Mr. Lopez is survived by his sons, Julio A. “Jay” Lopez, Jr. and Javier A. Lopez; daughters, Viridiana Lopez (Josue Luera) and Tatiana Lopez; grandchildren, Joshua R. and Valeria Luera; former wife, Maricia G. Lopez; parents, Antonio and Maria Magda Lopez; brothers, Judge Jose A. (Alma P.) Lopez, Joel A. (Rebecca V.) Lopez, and Jesus A. (Adriana) Lopez; sisters, Lupita Lopez, Graciela (Victor) Garza, and Mirta (Beto) Pina; and by numerous cousins, nephews, nieces, other family members and friends.

Visitation hours were held on Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m., and on Monday, Nov. 30, from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home.

The funeral procession departed on Monday, Nov.

ERNESTO URIBE

30, 2015, at 9:30 a.m. for a 10 a.m. funeral Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.

Committal services followed at Zapata County Cemetery.

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

ple,” he told the crowd gathered in a cavernous packaging factory in Clinton. He compared his campaign to a “grass-roots tidal wave” and said he’d emerge from the general election “with a mandate from the people.”

Cruz says his approach is modeled after Republican hero Ronald Reagan’s after the 1980 election. Yet his remarks are laced with echoes of President Barack Obama, one of the senator’s most frequent foils on the campaign trail.

Obama campaigned in 2008 on a pledge to bring change to Washington, propelled by a grass-roots campaign and the power of millions of Americans.

But the president’s term has been marred by nearconstant confrontation with Republicans on both domestic and foreign policy, a government shutdown and numerous other fights that put the nation at the brink of default or interruptions in federal services.

Some Iowa Republicans wonder if Cruz — who like Obama is running for president midway through his first term in the Senate — could do much better.

“I’m not completely sold on him as somebody who can unify this country,” said Ron Mann, a 65-yearold Republican from Bettendorf who attended a jam-packed town hall with Cruz Monday evening.

Mann used to live in Texas and voted for Cruz when he ran for Senate in 2012. Now an Iowa resident, Mann is leaning toward Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Republican voters have long debated whether it’s better to nominate a hardline conservative who can rally the party’s base or a more moderate candidate with broader general election appeal. The party’s last two nominees — former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain — fell into the latter category, and some GOP voters blame their defeats on an inability to energize conservatives.

Since arriving in the Senate three years ago, Cruz has cultivated a reputation as an unbending conservative with an attention-grabbing style. He

was the driver of the 2013 government shutdown, staging a 21-hour filibuster in the effort to defund Obama’s signature health care law and rallying House Republicans to block government funding that included spending on “Obamacare.”

Cruz’s strategy was derided by Republican leaders, who believed the public blamed the party for a shutdown that ultimately did nothing to advance the senator’s health care goals. The shutdown also contributed to a belief among some GOP leaders that Cruz is a self-promoter with no party loyalty.

“Ted Cruz makes Donald Trump look like a consensus builder when you consider his total inability to work with anybody of either party during his tenure in the Senate,” said Josh Holmes, a former adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who has clashed frequently with Cruz. “If you consistently have trouble getting three senators of your own party to stand with you, it’s pretty tough to explain how you’re the candidate who can accomplish conservative reform.”

Cruz wears his tense relationship with Republican leaders as a badge of honor. Still, his campaign advisers say the Texas senator does have a track record of finding common ground with both Republicans and Democrats.

Aides cite his work with New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on military sexual assault reforms and his partnership with Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley on gun legislation.

Bonnie Temperley of Clinton has Cruz on her short list of candidates for the Iowa caucuses, now just two months away.

She, too, hopes he can ease Washington’s partisan gridlock — but not if it means shedding his conservative credentials.

“I want him to work with the other side, but not cave and be so worried about what people are going to think about Republicans,” said Temperley, who is also considering caucusing for Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon. “We have to stand for something.”

AZTEC Continued from Page 1A were believed to be cremated.

The mouth of the tunnel was sealed by a 3-ton slab of rock. When experts lifted it in 2013, they found a hollow space marked by offerings by both rich and grisly.

Gold ornaments and the bones of eagles and infants were found in an offering box. Two skulls of children between five and seven years old were found with the first three vertebrae, suggesting they may have been decapitated. The kind of stone knives used in human sacrifices were also found, as well as a hand and bones from two feet.

But one researcher detected signs that a passageway appeared to lead deeper into the ceremonial platform, known as the Cuauhxicalco, where written accounts from after the 1521 Spanish conquest indicated that rulers’ remains were burned.

The passageway proved to be about 18 inches wide and 5 feet high.

“Once the rocks and dirt were dug out, we saw that it led directly into the heart of the Cuauhxicalco,” Lopez Lujan said.

“At the end (of the passageway), there are what appear to be two old entrances that had been sealed up with masonry.”

It would be a logical place for rulers remains to lie — the Templo Mayor site was the most significant temple complex in the Aztec capital, known as Tenochtitlan — but Mexican archaeologists have been searching in vain for the tombs for years.

In 2007, archaeologists using ground-penetrating radar detected underground chambers directly below a huge stone monolith carved with a representation of Tlaltecuhtli, the Aztec god of the earth. At the time, Lopez Lujan suspected that an emperor’s tomb might lie beneath. But none was found, despite the presence of rich offerings.

Any artifacts linked to an emperor would bring tremendous pride to Mexico. The country has sought unsuccessfully to recover Aztec artifacts like the feather-adorned “shield of Ahuizotl” and the “Montezuma headdress” from the Ethnology Museum in Vienna, Austria.

But Lopez Lujan is being cautious, saying the

presence of graves at the end of the newly found passageway is simply a theory that could be wrong. The blocked-up entrances will be excavated starting in 2016.

“What we are speculating is that behind these sealed-up entrances there could be two small chambers with the incinerated remains of some rulers of Tenochtitlan, like Moctezuma I and his successors, Axayacatl and Tízoc, given the relative dating of the surrounding constructions,” Lopez Lujan said.

Moctezuma I, the second Aztec emperor, ruled from about 1440 to 1469.

Moctezuma II was the emperor who first confronted — and succumbed to — Hernan Cortes.

Dr. Michael E. Smith, a professor of anthropology at Arizona State University who was not involved in the dig, said “Leonardo knows the archaeology and ethno-history better than anybody, and he is not one to grandstand or make fantastic claims to garner publicity. Thus I would think his prediction is reasonable.”

“The lack of any royal burials in Tenochtitlan is a long-standing mystery,” Smith said. “But the proof is in the pudding.

What will they find when excavation continues?”

University of Florida archaeologist Susan Gillespie, who also was not involved in the project, wrote that the find “could be quite significant.”

“We have pictures from the 16th century documents of the wrapped corpses of kings. Their “cremains” should be somewhere in the Templo Mayor vicinity according to the documents, but one cannot expect a great tomb chamber as was the case of the earlier Maya kings,” wrote Gillespie .

Some Mayan leaders, like the Palenque ruler Pakal, were buried in sumptuous crypts or stone coffins.

While the tomb is unlikely to be anything as grand as Pakal’s elaborately carved stone sarcophagus — in which his skeletal remains were found — it’s hard to say what would be found in an Aztec royal tomb.

“It is not surprising that these cremains have not yet been found or identified,” wrote Gillespie. “Archaeologists don’t quite know what they’re looking for.”

NUQUES Continued from Page 1A board in closed session, according to an email he sent to trustees.

In the email, Nuques states he wanted to apologize for a third time for his action during the meeting.

Details of what occurred in closed session were revealed in the email. Several ZCISD trustees confronted Nuques in closed session about the concerns they had with decisions he was making.

Nuques states in the

email that Ricardo X. Ramirez, board president, said “people feel bullied, harassed and intimidated” by the superintendent.

Anselmo Treviño, ZCISD trustee, said he too had received calls about harassment, bullying and intimidation.

Although Nuques denied the claims, in a 6-1 vote, trustees accepted his resignation.

(Judith Rayo may be reached at 728-2567 or jrayo@lmtonline.com)

International

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015

Russia wants crackdown on terrorist funding ASSOCIATED PRESS

UNITED NATIONS — Russia’s U.N. ambassador says he hopes to circulate a draft resolution to the Security Council very soon that will tighten the U.N. crackdown on the financing of terrorist groups including the Islamic State extremists.

Vitaly Churkin told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the resolution will be a follow-up to the Russian-sponsored resolution adopted unanimously on Feb. 12 which is aimed at halting illicit oil sales, trading in antiquities and ransom payments for hostages that are key methods used by extremist groups to fi-

nance terrorist operations.

“We’re working on it,” Churkin said. It will be circulated “very soon. It’s not a complicated thing.”

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told reporters the United States has “a shared objective” with Russia because it is also focused on cutting off terrorist financing.

Prominent IS leader killed

By TAIMOOR SHAH AND DAVID JOLLY NEW YORK TIMES

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — After months of Taliban infighting that has left hundreds dead, the prominent head of a splinter faction allied with Islamic State has been killed, government officials and Taliban commanders said Tuesday.

The splinter commander, Mullah Mansour Dadullah, died last month in a gunfight after being caught by core Taliban fighters in the Khak-e-Afghan district of Zabul, a southeastern province that borders Pakistan, according to Ghulam Jilani Farahi, the provincial security chief.

Taliban commanders in Helmand and Uruzgan provinces confirmed Dadullah’s death, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution.

His killing would remove a major rival to the Taliban’s new leader, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, who has presided over major insurgent offensives this year even while fighting to consolidate his power and address a new threat by fighters who have declared loyalty to the Islamic State.

Dadullah was a respected senior Taliban commander when he split from Mansour over the revelation this summer that the group’s supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, had been dead for at least two years.

The announcement set off a power struggle, with

Dadullah among the most prominent of those who broke away and accused Mansour of conspiring with Pakistani intelligence to hide their leader’s death and claim power over the insurgency. Mansour responded by sending hundreds of Taliban to battle Dadullah’s forces in Zabul province, and there has been heavy fighting there for months.

Elders in the Khak-e-Afghan district said that Dadullah had hidden out there after Taliban forces drove his men into the neighboring district of Arghandab.

They said that Taliban fighters discovered him in November after detaining one of his men, who revealed that Dadullah had been hiding in the home of one of his local commanders, Mullah Abdullah Haqmal.

The Taliban surrounded the house near midnight and demanded that Dadullah surrender. Instead, he and his men opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, and the battle continued for hours. Finally, the Taliban set off a large bomb, killing everyone inside the house, including Haqmal and several Uzbek fighters loyal to the Islamic State, the local elders said.

The elders said they were not allowed by the Taliban to dig out the bodies for several days, but were eventually able to bury him in the village of Kala-e-Atish. The Taliban had killed many Uzbek and Islamic State fighters, they said.

Although the elders, government officials and Taliban commanders all agreed that Dadullah had been killed, and rumors of his death had been circulating for weeks, his spokesman still insists that he is alive, though wounded.

The spokesman, Mullah Naim Niazi, said that Dadullah had only been wounded in the leg and was now recovering, and that his men continued fighting in the Daichopan district of Zabul province. But he also said Mansour’s fighters had kept Dadullah’s men from carrying him away.

In a Nov. 25 statement, the Taliban noted that Dadullah had combined his forces in Zabul with local Uzbek fighters for the Islamic State, which has grown in influence in eastern Afghanistan in recent months. The groups began acting lawlessly and looting in areas under their control, the Taliban statement said, and it accused them of responsibility for the recent kidnappings and beheadings of ethnic Hazaras.

While that Taliban statement did not acknowledge Dadullah’s death, it can be read as a justification for his killing. It said that several delegations of influential elders and commanders had gone to meet with him to resolve the conflict but that all negotiations failed. Dadullah reportedly refused the Taliban’s demands to abandon the Islamic State-allied fighters and publicly accept the authority of Mansour.

Photo by Rebecca Blackwell | AP

In this Friday, Oct. 23, 2015, file photo, a couple looks out to sea as rainfall increases with the approach of Hurricane Patricia in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

El Niño helps Mexico dodge bad hurricane season ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY — Mexico weathered a record eastern Pacific hurricane season with almost no deaths and relatively little damage, given the intensity of this year’s storms.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its 2015 hurricane season report Tuesday, saying that “this is the first year since reliable record keeping began in 1971 that the eastern Pacific saw nine major hurricanes,” which are defined as Category 3 or higher with winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph).

Turning to the worst of those storms, the report noted that Hurricane Patricia was “the strongest hurricane on record in the Western Hemisphere” just before it struck a sparsely populated stretch of Mexico’s Pacific coast in October. But while Patricia caused tens of millions of

dollars in damage, there was no confirmed death attributed to the storm — or from any of the other eight major hurricanes in the eastern pacific this year.

Mexicans have wondered why the country escaped any major disaster, and President Enrique Pena Nieto even attributed the lack of damage to prayer circles and “the faith of the Mexican people.”

But Dr. Gerry Bell, the lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said Tuesday the same thing that made Pacific hurricanes stronger — the El Nino weather phenomenon — may have also made them less deadly. El Nino is an ocean-warming phenomenon seen once every few years that can change weather patterns globally.

“El Nino made both the central and eastern Pacific hurricane seasons more

intense,” Bell wrote. “El Nino also caused the storms in the eastern Pacific to form farther west from the west coast of Mexico, and to also track more westward. As a result most of those storms remained over the open ocean throughout their life.”

Bell attributed the lack of deaths from Patricia “to excellent responses from emergency managers and citizens before the storm struck.”

The Atlantic hurricane season was below normal, with 11 named storms.

The 2015 hurricane season ended Monday, and there is no telling what next year may be like.

Bell wrote that “sometimes El Nino is a multiyear phenomenon, but we cannot currently tell whether this one will be.”

He said computer models for now are pointing to the current El Nino dissipating late next spring.

Open the Door to Your Future

It’s time!

Spring 2016 Registration

November 16 - December 15 Register now! Pay by December 15

Laredo Community College Ft. McIntosh956.721.5109 South956.794.4110

www.laredo.edu

lccpalominos

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015

THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A

Stocks advance in solid start to December trading

By KEN SWEET ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — Stocks started off December on a strong note, helped by improving economic data from Japan and Europe as well as hopes that the European Central Bank will expand its stimulus program. Trading remained relatively quiet ahead of the release later this week of the U.S. government’s monthly jobs survey and a Federal Reserve meeting later this month.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 168.43 points, or 1 percent, to 17,888.35. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 22.22 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,102.63 and the Nasdaq composite rose 47.64 points, or 0.9 percent, to 5,156.31.

Financial stocks were among the biggest gainers, helped by the prospect of higher interest rates.

Banks are more profitable when interest rates rise because they can charge more to lend. JPMorgan Chase rose 93 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $67.61. Goldman Sachs rose $3.05, or 1.6 percent, to $193.07 and Bank of America rose 38 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $17.81.

Investors are keyed into both the European Central Bank and the Federal Re-

Photo by Richard Drew | AP

Trader Patrick McKeon works the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday. serve this month. Policy decisions from both central banks will be important in determining the fate of the market in the last month of 2015.

“As it has been most of this year, central banks are still running the show,” said Samantha Azzarello, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds.

The ECB will decide on Thursday whether to expand its economic stimulus program, which functions similarly to the bondbuying program the Fed used after the financial crisis to keep long-term interest rates low. ECB head Mario Draghi has signaled the bank could expand its bond-buying program or even cut interest rates further.

Investors are so certain that Draghi will expand his program that data out Tuesday showing the unemployment rate in the 19country eurozone edged down to a four-year low of 10.7 percent in October is not seen as likely to derail those measures.

In the U.S., most of the focus will be on the November job’s report, to be released Friday. Expectations are high. Economists expect that U.S. employers added 271,000 jobs last month, according to FactSet. The unemployment rate is expected remain at 5 percent.

This jobs report comes shortly before the Fed’s two-day meeting later this month, where policymakers will debate moving in-

California oil regulator resigns

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO — California’s chief oil regulator announced his resignation after 17 months as head of the embattled agency, including a criticized episode in which he directed state workers to investigate the oil and gas potential of Gov. Jerry Brown’s family ranch.

Steve Bohlen, the state’s oil and gas supervisor, is leaving the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources to return to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory research center, Brown’s office said in a statement.

State officials did not give a reason for Bohlen’s resignation, which was announced Monday.

But the governor’s statement said Bohlen had been on loan from his work at the research center.

Bohlen took the job at the state’s oil and gas division, which is charged with protecting the public and environment from oilfield pollution, at a time when the agency already was under scrutiny from the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency for failing to fully enforce federal safe-drinking water laws on oilfield operations.

Additionally, days after Brown appointed Bohlen in June 2014, the governor and the governor’s aides asked Bohlen to BOHLEN have oil and gas regulators research and map out the oil, gas and mineral potential and history of the Brown family ranch in Northern California.

Bohlen and Brown aides this month defended the oil agency’s work for Brown family private property, saying it was legal and normal, and that Brown had no interest in drilling on his family land.

However, the oil regulator who prepared the map for Brown filed a whistleblower complaint over being made to do the work, her lawyer confirmed to the AP. Bohlen told The Los Angeles Times this month that Brown also directed him in June 2014 to keep the personal work done for Brown out of email, citing open-records laws.

terest rates in the opposite direction of the ECB: higher. Securities that allow investors to bet on which way the Fed will move rates are forecasting a 79 percent probability that the Fed will tighten. Unless Friday’s jobs report is horrific, that is unlikely to change.

“Generally the last couple of weeks have been very quiet. We’ve been and will be in a holding pattern head of the Fed’s December meeting,” said Ryan Larson, head of equity trading with RBC Global Asset Management.

In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude rose 20 cents to $41.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, which is used to price oil internationally, lost 17 cents to $44.44 a barrel in London. Heating oil rose a cent to $1.369 a gallon, wholesale gasoline rose six cents to $1.363 a gallon and natural gas was roughly unchanged at $2.231 per thousand cubic feet.

U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.14 percent from 2.21 percent. The U.S. dollar slipped to 122.84 yen from 123.25 yen on Monday on the Japanese economic data. The euro rose to $1.0631 from $1.0572.

Volvo Trucks to lay off 734 workers ASSOCIATED PRESS

DUBLIN, Va. — Volvo Trucks will lay off 734 production workers at its plant in southwest Virginia due to a slowdown in demand, the company disclosed Tuesday.

Layoffs at the New River Valley Assembly Plant in Dublin will take place over three weeks starting in early February, company spokesman John Mies said.

He added that Volvo must adapt to market changes including a decline in demand for longhaul trucks.

“We’re seeing that highway truck customers, who drove much of the recent market growth in America, have largely accomplished the renewal of their fleet, so demand from that segment in particular is softening,” Mies said.

The 1.6-million-squarefoot plant currently employs 2,800 workers and is the largest Volvo truck manufacturing facility in the world.

The company still intends to move forward with its plan to spend $38.1 million in upgrades at the plant, Mies said.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced in September that Volvo Trucks would build a 36,000-square-foot facility in Dublin, in Virginia’s Pulaski County, featuring a product showroom, training rooms, a 200-seat theater and an observation area for viewing trucks on a 1.1-mile “customer experience” track.

Suzanne Clark, spokeswoman for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, stressed that Volvo operates in a cyclical market and said she’s confident that jobs will return to the Volvo plant when demand in the trucking industry recovers.

“This will certainly have an effect on economic development in Pulaski County, but, as always, we’re hopeful to identify any opportunity to help with the transition and help the region recover,” Clark said.

An economic development official for Pulaski County and representatives from United Auto Workers Local 2069, which represents some of the plant’s workers, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

Demand for farm loans surges amid low crop, cattle prices

By ROXANA HEGEMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

WICHITA, Kan. — The nation’s net farm income is the lowest since 2002, and with another year of low commodity prices, demand for agriculture loans is surging as farmers struggle to make ends meet.

Today’s grain prices will bring in enough to pay for basic operating costs like fertilizer, seed and land rent, said Troy Soukup, the past president of Kansas Bankers Association’s Ag Bankers Division. Yet, crop prices are not high enough for farmers to make payments on equipment loans — or even to get paid for their own labor.

Agricultural lenders say they are seeing people who had operating loans requesting larger ones, and some who had operated with cash are borrowing money. But it’s unlikely the current run on loans will be anything like the farm credit crisis

Photo by Charlie Riedel | AP

In this photo taken Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015, a motorist passes a pile of milo at a grain storage facility near Canton, Kan. of the 1980s, when those who survived the significant year-to-year losses were without large debts to repay.

Farmer Tom Giessel had to borrow just to finish out this season at his western Kansas farm where he grows wheat, corn and sorghum. Not so long ago, commodity prices were so high that Giessel didn’t have to borrow any money for the farm between 2012 and 2014.

“Everybody is kind of

taking a step backward with these low commodity prices,” he said. “In fact, it might be more than a step — it might be kind of a tumble backward.”

U.S. farm debt is forecast to increase 6.3 percent in 2015, a recent U.S. Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service report showed. At the same time, net income has plummeted by a staggering 55 percent since 2013 and is forecast

to be $55.9 billion this year — the lowest since 2002. The report cites depressed crop and cattle prices as the main reasons for the decline.

It’s the latest in a boom-and-bust cycle as old as farming. A widespread drought that began in 2010 in the south and spread across the Midwest before peaking in 2012 diminished stockpiles of grain, but was followed by a renaissance fueled by a rare combination of high crop yields and prices. As more grain crops were grown, the resulting glut caused a sharp fall in prices these past two years, aggravated by weak exports.

“Most of what we are hearing out there is that farmers and the banks are in good shape to be able to weather any potential downturn,” said Steve Apodaca, vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based American Bankers Association’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Banking.

12A THE ZAPATA TIMES

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015