The Zapata Times 12/7/2013

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SATURDAY DECEMBER 7, 2013

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CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY PRIORITIES

Children living in poverty Valley counties fill top 10, with 46% of Zapata kids considered poor

By ALDO AMATO THE ZAPATA TIMES

Nearly half of the children in Webb and Zapata counties are living in poverty according to statistics released Tuesday by the Center for Public Policy Priorities.

From 2000 to 2011, the number of children living in poverty in Webb County increased by more than 45 percent, with an estimated 38,893 total children in poverty.

The rate in 2011 was 17 percentage points higher than the child poverty rate for the entire state.

South Texas counties made up a majority of the top 10 counties with the highest poverty rate.

Brooks County had the highest rate in the state with 48 percent, followed by Hidalgo County at 47 percent while over 46 percent of children in Zapata County live in poverty.

Zapata County Commissioner Jose Vela said the county is doing everything it can to help the more than 2,000 children living in poverty in Zapata County.

“The statistics are surprising, and I did not think we were that

high,” Vela said. “But most of these kids should be receiving some type of assistance whether it is free lunch or after-school programs. Each day we’re trying to stop poverty in the community.”

Zapata County has the sixth highest child poverty rate in the state. Vela said the school districts play a vital role in the fight against poverty.

“As we move towards the future, we need to place a focus on education,” he said. “I think the more kids who graduate will help shrink the high statistics.”

Beatriz Saldaña, executive director for the Bethany House in Laredo, said 14 children occupy eight family dorms at the shelter.

She said the shelter continues to provide several programs to help curb child poverty.

“The number of kids we see varies from month to month because we provide transitional housing,” Saldaña said. “But we always provide education and life skills programs each week for the children who are here.”

Saldana said Bethany House distributed four boxes of chil-

dren’s jackets that were donated

by Burlington Coat Factory over the Thanksgiving holiday. The shelter also works closely with the South Texas Food Bank and their Kids Café program. The program provides free meals and snacks to low-income children during after-school hours.

The Webb County Indigent Health Care Program has also seen a slight increase in the number of clients in need of assistance. Executive Director Nancy

See POVERTY PAGE 9A

TEXAS WEATHER

DPS

COLD PARALYZES STATE

No more roadblocks Agency: They were successful

By PAUL J. WEBER ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Tony Gutierrez | AP

Hugo Pedroza, a light equipment operator with the City of Richardson, helps clear away limbs from an ice-covered tree that fell across a neighborhood intersection on Friday, in Richardson. An ice storm in North Texas has knocked out power to more than a quarter of a million homes and businesses.

Icy storm slams Southwest, shuts down N. Texas

By NOMAAN MERCHANT ASSOCIATED PRESS

DALLAS — Freezing rain and stinging winds slammed the Southwest Friday and made a strangely blank landscape out of normally sun-drenched North Texas: mostly empty highways covered in a sometimes impassable frost, closed schools and businesses, and millions of residents hunkered down for icy conditions expected to last through the weekend.

Earlier this week, many in Texas

were basking in spring-like temperatures that hit the 80s. But by Thursday, Texas was facing the same wintry blast that has slammed much of the U.S., bringing frigid temperatures, ice and snow.

The weather forced the cancellation of Sunday’s Dallas Marathon, which was expected to draw 25,000 runners, some of whom had trained for months. A quarter of a million customers in North Texas were left without power, and many businesses told employees to stay home to avoid the slick roads.

Rob Yates, 44, of the Dallas suburb of Rowlett, had trained for four months to participate in the half-marathon Sunday — his first time competing at that distance. His wife and three children were going to attend the race to volunteer and cheer him on, he said.

Now, “I’ll probably be catching up on some work,” Yates said, laughing.

Yates spent Friday at home with his children, who were outside pulling off icicles and wishing more snow had fall-

See WEATHER

PAGE 9A

AUSTIN — Traffic checkpoints along the Texas border that critics say were state-operated immigration traps won’t be deployed again without lawmaker support, Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said Wednesday.

McCraw, however, defended the effectiveness of a three-week roadblock operation in the Rio Grande Valley in September and October, saying the $3.4 million effort heightened safety. He disputed allegations that it was a ruse to catch or intimidate immigrants who are in the country without legal documentation.

Calling the roadblocks a “tactically brilliant technique but strategically flawed,” McCraw spoke in the Texas Capitol after Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst announced efforts to reallocate $60 million in the state budget for a new border security surge.

Exactly how that money will be spent hasn’t yet been revealed, but McCraw said it won’t include checkpoints. He remarked on some critics’ “histrionics” and acknowledged public opposition as the reason the roadblocks ended.

“They certainly were effective and efficient,” McCraw said. “But again, just because it’s effective and efficient in terms of getting compliance with insurance and driver’s license, if it undermines the mission to protect Texans, it’s not worth doing.”

The checkpoints were the first in Texas in two decades. DPS has cited roadway safety as a main reason why troopers randomly stopped motorists, mostly in Hidalgo and Cameron.

Carlos M. Garcia, an immigration attorney in McAllen, said he walked into a Head Start class near a roadblock one day and was told that 30 percent of students hadn’t been taken to class by their parents.

“These were very targeted operations in certain areas of our community where low-income immigrant people live,” Gar-

See VALLEY PAGE 9A

LAREDO POLICE

Zapata Co. residents accused of shoplifting

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

LAREDO — Two Zapata County residents were allegedly busted for shoplifting at Mall del Norte in Laredo on Wednesday, a Laredo police report states.

Edlin Bolaños, 21, who re-

sides in the 300 block of Third Street in Zapata, and Rubina Lyvon Solis, 21, who reBOLAÑOS sides in the 100 block of Valle Verde Road in San Yg-

nacio, were arrested and charged with misdemeanor theft at about 5 p.m. at J.C. Penney, 5301 SOLIS San Dario Avenue.

Both Bolaños and Solis

were transported to the Webb County Jail. Both women later posted bail that same day. If convicted for the Class B misdemeanor, they face a maximum punishment of 180 days in jail and/or a $2,000 fine.

On Wednesday afternoon, police officers responded to

J.C. Penney where they met loss prevention officers who had detained two women later identified as Bolaños and Solis.

Investigator Joe E. Baeza, Laredo Police Department spokesman, said both women were allegedly seen concealing merchandise on

themselves. Store representatives provided a DVD of the offense caught on surveillance video. Baeza said the women stole a blouse, earrings and dresses with a total value of $190.

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

PAGE 2A

Zin brief CALENDAR

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

AROUND TEXAS

TODAY IN HISTORY

Saturday, Dec. 7

ASSOCIATED PRESS

First United Methodist Church will hold a used book sale, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at 1220 McClelland Ave. Hardback books are $1, paperback books 50 cents, and magazines and children’s books 25 cents.

TAMIU Planetarium shows: “The Little Star that Could” at 2 p.m.; “Season of Light” at 3 p.m.; “Mystery of the Christmas Star” at 4 p.m.; and “Holiday Music Magic” at 5 p.m. General admission $4 children and $5 adults. Premium shows $1 more. Call 326-3663.

Women’s City Club’s “Moonlight and Mistletoe.” 7 p.m. Laredo Country Club. Tickets $50 per person; table of eight $500. RSVP with Nancy De Anda at 763-9960.

Today is Saturday, Dec. 7, the 341st day of 2013. There are 24 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History: On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as part of its plan to conquer Southeast Asian territories; the raid, which claimed some 2,400 American lives, prompted the United States to declare war against Japan the next day.

On this date: In 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1796, electors chose John Adams to be the second president of the United States.

In 1808, electors chose James Madison to be the fourth president of the United States.

In 1842, the New York Philharmonic performed its first concert.

In 1909, in his State of the Union address, President William Howard Taft defended the decision to base U.S. naval operations in the Pacific at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, instead of in the Philippines.

In 1911, China abolished the requirement that men wear their hair in a queue, or ponytail.

In 1946, fire broke out at the Winecoff (WYN’-kahf) Hotel in Atlanta; the blaze killed 119 people, including hotel founder W. Frank Winecoff.

In 1972, America’s last moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral. Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, was seriously wounded by an assailant who was then shot dead by her bodyguards.

In 1982, convicted murderer Charlie Brooks Jr. became the first U.S. prisoner to be executed by injection, at a prison in Huntsville, Texas.

In 1987, 43 people were killed after a gunman aboard a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner in California apparently opened fire on a fellow passenger, the pilots and himself, causing the plane to crash. Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev set foot on American soil for the first time, arriving for a Washington summit with President Ronald Reagan.

In 1988, a major earthquake in the Soviet Union devastated northern Armenia; official estimates put the death toll at 25,000.

Ten years ago: Allies of President Vladimir Putin won a sweeping victory in Russia’s parliamentary elections.

Five years ago: Presidentelect Barack Obama introduced retired Gen. Eric Shinseki (shin-SEHK’-ee) as his choice to head the Veterans Affairs Department.

One year ago: The Supreme Court agreed to consider California’s ban on samesex marriage and a separate dispute about federal benefits for legally-married gay couples.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Eli Wallach is 98. Linguist and political philosopher Noam Chomsky is 85. Bluegrass singer Bobby Osborne is 82.

Actress Ellen Burstyn is 81.

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., is 76. Broadcast journalist Carole Simpson is 73. Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench is 66.

Actor-director-producer James Keach is 66. Country singer Gary Morris is 65.

Thought for Today: “War is the unfolding of miscalculations.” — Barbara Tuchman, American historian (19121989).

Sunday, Dec. 8 4th Annual Christmas Animal Posada. 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. St. Peter’s Plaza (Matamoros Street and Main Avenue). Pets should be taken with leash, harness or cage. Owners can participate by wearing animal mask or costume. Contact Berta Torres at 2867866 or birdtorres@hotmail.com.

Monday, Dec. 9 Zapata County Commissioners Court meeting. 9 a.m. Zapata County Courthouse. Call Roxy Elizondo at 7659920.

Tuesday, Dec. 10 Kiwanis Club of Laredo’s weekly meeting. Noon to 1 p.m. Holiday Inn Civic Center, The Covey Lounge. New members are welcome. Contact Memo Cavazos at 337-2266 or memocav@bizlaredo.rr.com.

LULAC Council No. 777’s meeting.

7 p.m. to 9 p.m. American Legion Post 59’s Commander Room, 809 Zaragoza St. Meetings held every second and fourth Tuesday of each month.

Wednesday, Dec. 11 I Can Cope Class, sponsored by American Cancer Society and Doctors Hospital of Laredo. 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Doctors Hospital Cancer Treatment Center lobby. Class offered second Wednesday of each month. For people with cancer and their family and friends. Guest speakers include professionals in the field of cancer management. No charge to attend. Contact Diana Juarez at 319-3100 or diana.juarez@cancer.org.

Thursday, Dec. 12 Los Amigos Duplicate Bridge Club. 1:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. Laredo Country Club. Call Beverly Cantu at 7270589.

Friday, Dec. 13 TAMIU Planetarium shows: “Destination Saturn” at 6 p.m. and “Mystery of the Christmas Star” at 7 p.m.

General admissions $4 children and $5 adults. Premium shows $1 more. Call 326-3663.

Sunday, Dec. 15 Fifth annual Handbell Christmas Concert, “Tapestry in Bronze,” presented by Memorial Bells of First United Methodist Church. 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

First United Methodist Church, 1220 McClelland Ave. Sacred and secular selections and conclude with a Ring-SingAlong of favorite Christmas carols featuring Alejandra Rodriguez on organ.

Free and open to public. Donations accepted. Contact church office at 7221674 or fumc_office@sbcglobal.net.

Thursday, Dec. 19 Los Amigos Duplicate Bridge Club. 1:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. Laredo Country Club. Call Beverly Cantu at 7270589.

“The Nutcracker” ballet, presented by Dance Expressions. 7:30 p.m.

Laredo Civic Center Auditorium. For ticket information, call 724-5330.

Friday, Dec. 20 TAMIU Planetarium shows: “Season of Light” at 6 p.m. and “Holiday Music Magic” at 7 p.m. General admission $4 children and $5 adults. Call 326-3663.

Monday, Dec. 23 Zapata County Commissioners Court meeting. 9 a.m. Zapata County Courthouse. Call Roxy Elizondo at 7659920.

Submit calendar items at lmtonline.com/calendar/submit or by emailing editorial@lmtonline.com. Items will run as space is available.

Photo by LM Otero/file | AP

Investigators work at the site of a destroyed fertilizer plant in West, on Thursday, May 2. Federal investigators in charge of investigating the deadly fertilizer plant explosion say they still consider the case open, eight months after the blast killed 15 people and sent debris flying miles away.

ATF: Case still open

By NOMAAN MERCHANT ASSOCIATED PRESS

DALLAS — Federal investigators in charge of investigating the deadly fertilizer plant explosion in West say they still consider the case open, eight months after the blast killed 15 people and sent debris flying.

One month after the April 17 blast, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Texas Fire Marshal’s Office declared they had narrowed the initial fire that sparked the explosion to three possible causes: a battery-powered golf cart, an electrical system in the plant or a criminal act. The blast registered as a small earthquake, caving in homes and schools blocks away and requiring a rebuilding process that continues today.

Crisanto Perez, ATF’s assistant San Antonio special agent in charge, said in an inter-

view Thursday that those three possibilities remain.

Perez insisted that ATF agents in Waco and Austin continue to work on the case, but he declined to specify what leads they were pursuing or when the investigation might be completed.

“It will remain open until we’ve exhausted all leads and all possibilities that we could do,” Perez said, adding that while not pinpointing a single cause was frustrating, agents had worked hard on a complex case.

ATF agents were on scene in West for about one month after the explosion. Investigators sifted through untold pieces of debris and conducted more than 400 interviews.

Authorities eventually said a fire inside one of the storage buildings led to the detonation of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be unsafe when stored improperly.

Beeville under boil water notice after outage

Slain mom remembered, ex-boyfriend held

25 proposed logos make cut in competition

BEEVILLE — Water has been restored to a South Texas city but a boil advisory remains in effect as officials make sure the system is working properly after storms and human error.

Beeville Mayor David Carbajal has apologized for the lack of water after about a dozen pipelines broke during rainstorms last week. Officials also say a water treatment worker on Sunday put the wrong amount of chemical into the supply.

SAN ANTONIO — Dozens of people turned out in San Antonio to remember a slain 17-yearold mother whose ex-boyfriend has been charged with killing her as she held their baby.

Family and friends on Wednesday night attended two candlelight vigils for 17-year-old Megan Hernandez. Her nearly year-old daughter wasn’t hurt in Tuesday afternoon’s stabbing attack during an argument.

AMARILLO — More than two dozen proposed images have made the cut to become the new logo for Amarillo after a design dispute nixed the original version.

The Amarillo Globe-News reports the second round of online voting runs through Monday for public input on a logo for Amarillo’s 100th anniversary.

The newspaper reports more than 23,000 votes were cast in the first round.

Emergency psychiatric center to open in spring AUSTIN — The first psychiatric emergency center in Central Texas is scheduled to open in the spring.

The Austin American-Statesman reports the 17-bed facility will be housed at University Medical Center Brackenridge and is expected to serve 2,500 adults by June.

Retail gas prices fall by 3 cents across the state IRVING — Retail gasoline prices across Texas have dropped by three cents over the last week.

AAA Texas on Thursday reported the average statewide unleaded price fell to $3.11.

Of the metropolitan areas surveyed in Texas, drivers in Dallas and Fort Worth are paying the most at $3.15 and those in Amarillo are paying the least at $2.93.

15 arrested in Central Texas meth ring sweep BURNET — Investigators say 15 people have been arrested on drug-related counts over an alleged Central Texas methamphetamine ring with ties to Mexico.

The investigation began in May. Authorities say drugs smuggled from Mexico were sold in several counties.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION Rock slide survivor says dad saved her BUENA VISTA, Colo. — The Colorado girl who was the only member of her family to survive a rock slide is for the first time publicly describing how her father saved her life by pushing her into a large rock.

Appearing on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday, 13-year-old Gracie Johnson said she covered herself but was still standing in the open before her father helped by pushing her into a rock bigger than she is.

Her father and mother, her 18year-old sister and two cousins from Missouri were killed in the September slide on a trail near her hometown of Buena Vista in south-central Colorado.

Smoke in school sends 37 people to hospitals TUNNELTON, W.Va. — Smoke from an outdoor furnace at a

CONTACT US

Photo by John Minchillo | AP

Pedestrians pass beneath the Apollo Theatre marquee commemorating the life of South African leader Nelson Mandela, on Thursday, in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. South Africa’s first black president died Thursday. He was 95.

West Virginia auto repair shop drifted into a nearby elementary school’s ventilation system Friday, and authorities said 37 people were taken to hospitals.

Preston County Assistant Superintendent Craig Schmidl said classes were dismissed Friday at

Tunnelton-Denver Elementary School.

Schmidl said authorities were looking into the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning, although the cause remained under investigation.

— Compiled from AP reports

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

Zlocal

PAGE 3A

Grand jury indicts man

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES

A man accused of smuggling four illegal immigrants in the San Ygnacio area Nov. 7 was indicted Tuesday in federal court in Laredo.

An indictment charges Guadalupe Gonzalez Jr., 34, with one count of conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants within the United States and two counts of transport and attempt to transport undocumented immigrants for financial gain.

Gonzalez, a U.S. citizen born in Laredo who has lived 15 years in the Zapata area, faces up to 10 years in prison per count

if he’s convicted. He has arraignment set for Thursday in courtroom 3C before U.S. Magistrate Judge Guillermo R. Garcia, On Nov. 22, a federal judge set a $75,000 bond for Gonzalez with a $1,500 cash deposit and two cosureties. Court documents state he has “little, if any, ties to Mexico.” He remained in federal custody.

U.S. Border Patrol agents detained Gonzalez on Nov. 7 in the San Ygnacio area. That afternoon, agents observed a group of people boarding a boat on the Mexican riverbanks.

The group then made landfall on U.S. soil about 25 yards from the agents’

THE BLOTTER Assault An aggravated assault with a deadly weapon was reported at 7:51 p.m. Dec. 1 in the 100 block of Valle Verde Road.

An assault incident was reported at 10:19 p.m. Monday in the 400 block of Guadalupe. No charges were filed.

An assault was reported at 8:04 p.m. Tuesday in the 400 block of Lincoln Street.

An assault, family violence incident was reported at 3:05 a.m. Friday in the 1400 block of Laredo Avenue.

Burglary A burglary of habitation was reported at noon Dec. 1 at the Eugenio Gutierrez Ranch.

Theft A theft of firearm was reported at 9:30 p.m. Nov. 30 in the 100 block of Trinity Lane.

location, states a criminal complaint filed Nov. 12.

Four suspected illegal immigrants began following Gonzalez until agents apprehended them. Gonzalez evaded authorities but was apprehended shortly after about 100 yards away, according to court documents.

Two immigrants, who were held as material witnesses against Gonzalez, told agents Gonzalez instructed them to follow him once they were on U.S. soil. Gonzalez denied the allegations in a postarrest interview with federal agents.

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

Man faces 20 years in prison

By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ

Agents rescue man Rescue squad gets man stranded on rock in river THE ZAPATA TIMES

THE ZAPATA TIMES

A Mexican national detained in Zapata County was indicted Tuesday in Laredo for being in the United States illegally, according to court documents.

Jose Luis Razo-Rostro was charged with illegal entry after deportation. The penalty for the offense is up to 20 years behind bars, the indictment reads.

U.S. Border Patrol agents detained him Nov. 4 near Zapata. Agents determined RazoRostro was an illegal immigrant following a brief interview. An investigation revealed he had been previously removed from the country in Laredo on Jan. 5, 2004.

Razo-Rostro has been in custody since the day of his apprehension. He has a $75,000 bond. He is set to be arraigned Thursday in courtroom 3C before U.S. Magistrate Judge Guillermo R. Garcia.

(César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 7282568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)

Federal authorities in Laredo said they rescued a man who was stranded on a rock early Friday in the middle of the Rio Grande.

At about 5 a.m., Border Patrol agents assigned to Border Patrol Search Trauma and Rescue, or BORSTAR, were dispatched to the riverbanks of the Rio Grande where they spotted an individual who was without clothing and in severe distress.

Due to the extreme weather conditions, agents conducted a swift water rescue of the man. A team of five agents entered the water in water gear and proceeded to swim to the rock to rescue the man.

Once they reached him, they noticed he was in the early stages of hypothermia and had other medical conditions that would not allow him to walk on his own.

A flotation device was used with the assistance of the agents to bring him to the

river bank.

Once they made landing, agents carried the man on a soft litter bridle out of the brush to where an ambulance was waiting to take him to a local hospital.

A Laredo Fire Department spokesman said crews were dispatched at about 7 a.m. to Markley Lane and Anna Avenue in West Central Laredo for a 47-year-old male patient, who was handed over by Border Patrol. The man was alert and in stable condition when he was taken to Laredo Medical Center for further treatment, the spokesman said.

BORSTAR was created in 1998 in response to a growing number of migrant deaths along the nation’s border. BORSTAR agents respond to various emergency search and rescue situations anywhere in the United States.

Through interagency partnerships, Laredo Sector Border Patrol is able to assist other federal, state and local agencies in life-saving rescues throughout Texas.

PAGE 4A

Zopinion

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

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

OTHER VIEWS

COLUMN

Irony of despair

“

DAVID BRODER

We’ve made some progress in understanding mental illnesses over the past few decades, and even come up with drugs to help ameliorate their effects.

But we have not made any headway against suicide.

According to the World Health Organization, global suicide rates have increased by 60 percent over the past 45 years. The increase in this country is nothing like that, but between 1999 and 2010 the suicide rate among Americans between 35 and 64 rose by 28 percent.

More people die by suicide than by auto accidents.

When you get inside the numbers, all sorts of correlations pop out. Whites are more likely to commit suicide than African-Americans or Hispanics. Economically stressed and socially isolated people are more likely to commit suicide than those who are not. People in the Western American states are more likely to kill themselves than people in the Eastern ones. People in France are more likely to kill themselves than people in the United Kingdom.

But people don’t kill themselves in bundles. They kill themselves, for the most part, one by one. People who attempt suicide are always subject to sociological risk factors, but they need an idea or story to bring them to the edge of suicide and to justify their act. If you want to prevent suicide, of course, you want to reduce unemployment and isolation, but you also want to attack the ideas and stories that seem to justify it.

Some people commit suicide because their sense of their own identity has dissolved. Some people do it because they hate themselves. Some feel unable to ever participate in the world. The writer Annie Sexton wrote the following before her own suicide: “Now listen, life is lovely, but I Can’t Live It. ... To be alive, yes, alive, but not be able to live it. Ay, that’s the rub. I am like a stone that lives ... locked outside of all that’s real. ... I wish, or think I wish, that I were dying of something, for then I could be brave, but to be not dying and yet ... and yet to (be) behind a wall, watching everyone fit in where I can’t, to talk behind a gray foggy wall, to live but ... to do it all wrong. ... I’m not a part. I’m not a member. I’m frozen.”

In her eloquent and affecting book “Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It,” Jennifer Michael Hecht presents two big counterideas that she hopes people contemplating potential suicides will keep in their heads.

Her first is that “Suicide is delayed homicide.” Suicides happen in clusters, with one person’s suicide influencing the other’s. If a parent commits suicide, his or her children are three times as likely to do so at some point in their lives. In the month after Marilyn Monroe’s overdose, there was a 12 percent increase in suicides across America.

People in the act of committing suicide may feel isolated, but, in fact, they are deeply connected to those around. As Hecht put it, if you want your niece to make it through her dark nights, you have to make it through yours.

Her second argument is that you owe it to your future self to live. A 1978 study tracked down 515 people who were stopped from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. Decades later, Hecht writes, “94 percent of those who had tried to commit suicide on the bridge were still alive or had died of natural causes.” Suicide is an act of chronological arrogance, the assumption that the impulse of the moment has a right to dictate the judgment of future decades.

I’d only add that the suicidal situation is an ironical situation. A person enters the situation amid feelings of powerlessness and despair, but once in the situation the potential suicide has the power to make a series of big points before the world. By deciding to live, a person in a suicidal situation can prove that life isn’t just about racking up pleasure points; it is a vale of soul-making, and suffering can be turned into wisdom. A person in that situation can model endurance and prove to others that, as John Milton put it, “They also serve who only stand and wait.”

That person can commit to live to redeem past mistakes. That person can show that we are not completely self-determining creatures, and do not have the right to choose when we end our participation in the common project of life.

The blackness of the suicidal situation makes these rejoinders stand out in stark relief. And, as our friend Nietzsche observed, he who has a why to live for can withstand any how.

COLUMN

Money came from tainted source

“

KEN HERMAN

AUSTIN — I was an early bandwagoner on the effort (now defunct, I’m afraid) to strip Lance Armstrong’s name from Austin’s Lance Armstrong Bikeway. I still say Armstrong should repay the U.S. Postal Service, his former sponsor, by delivering mail by bike for a few years.

And I’m about the only one in town less than thrilled that Austin now has a Willie Nelson statue.

For me, it’s not Nelson’s past IRS troubles. It’s more about his ongoing disrespect for the law, specifically the one about marijuana possession. I’m agnostic on pot legalization, but not on obeying laws. At last year’s statue unveiling, Nelson sang ”Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.” Intriguing entreaty, but I think I’ll pass.

So what should we think now that, as of Tuesday, a local university has a business school named for a U.S. Supreme Court-certified high-dollar tax scofflaw? The difference between this situation and the Armstrong Bikeway and Nelson statue is that the honoree here bought himself the honor by way of generous donation.

From a May 11, 2000, University of Texas announcement: ”In the largest single donation in the 117-year history of the University of Texas at Austin,

So what should we think now that, as of Tuesday, a local university has a business school named for a U.S. Supreme Court-certified high-dollar tax scofflaw? The difference between this situation and the Armstrong Bikeway and Nelson statue is that the honoree here bought himself the honor.

San Antonio businessman Red McCombs has given a $50 million cash gift to the university’s business school. ... To honor McCombs for his extraordinary gift, the UT System Board of Regents has authorized the renaming of the UT Austin College of Business Administration and Graduate School of Business as the Red McCombs School of Business.”

All of us who have donated $50 million to anything know how satisfying it can be.

McCombs’ money has helped make the McCombs School of Business among the nation’s best. Good for UT. Good for civic-minded San Antonio businessman Billy Joe ”Red” McCombs.

But what should we think about what happened Tuesday in the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of United States v.

Woods? ”Respondent Gary Woods and his employer, Billy Joe McCombs, participated in an

offsetting-option tax shelter designed to generate large paper losses that they could use to reduce their taxable income,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in a unanimous decision upholding IRS penalties on Woods and McCombs.

All of us who have used offsetting-option tax shelters know how satisfying they can be in reducing your tax hit.

The deal involved Deutsche Bank currency-option spreads, Canadian dollars and Sun Microsystems stock, all purchased, the high court said, to produce capital losses for tax purposes.

The words ”sham” or ”shams” appear with some frequency in the decision upholding a 40 percent penalty in the case. ”Although they had contributed roughly $3.2 million in cash and spreads to the partnerships, (Woods and McCombs) claimed losses of more than $45 million,” Scalia wrote, though he didn’t do the math on how much McCombs now owes the

IRS. All of us who’ve had losses of more than $45 million know how vexing that can be, unless it’s just on paper and reduces your tax burden.

It is, of course, possible for good people to have legitimate differences of opinion with the IRS on interpretation of complicated tax laws. But we now know the U.S. Supreme Court said Woods and McCombs skirted the code. Scalia noted that the IRS said their deal had ”no business purpose other than tax avoidance.”

I asked Jeannie Boylan, assistant to the dean at the McCombs School of Business, if she cared to comment on the courthouse travails of her employer’s benefactor. She replied by email: ”No, thank you. Hook ’em!”

Side note: Batman made a rare Supreme Court appearance in this opinion. He came up during discussion of the word ”or,” which, the court said, sometimes can introduce ”a word or phrase that is synonymous with what precedes it (’Vienna or Wien,’ ’Batman or the Caped Crusader’)... .”

So, what do we think? Do we dare rank the relative merits of having a bikeway named for a cycling cheat, a statue honoring a tax cheat/illegal drug aficionado and a business school named for a man who the Supreme Court said engaged in a tax-avoidance sham?

Ken Herman is a columnist for the Austin American-Statesman. E-mail: kherman@statesman.com.

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

Zentertainment

PAGE 5A

Beer worth big bucks

By LISA RATHKE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo by Tom McNamara/PBS | AP

From left, Elyse Luray, contributor Dawn Peterson and Wes Cowan, of “History Detectives,” pose with Bob Dylan’s guitar. The electric guitar Dylan plugged in at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 may be the most historic instrument in rock music, and it has sat in a New Jersey attic for 47 years.

$1M for Dylan’s guitar

By ULA ILNYTZKY ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — The Fender Stratocaster that Bob Dylan plugged in when he famously went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival sold Friday for nearly $1 million — the highest price ever paid for a guitar at auction.

A buyer identified only as a private individual agreed to pay $965,000, including the auction house’s fees, for the sunburst-finish guitar, Christie’s said.

Dylan’s legendary performance at the festival in Rhode Island 48 years ago marked his rupture with the folk movement’s old guard and solidified his shift away from acoustic music, like “Blowin’ in the Wind,” toward amplified rock, such as “Like a Rolling Stone.”

The raucous, three-song electric set was booed by some in the crowd, and folk purists saw Dylan as a traitor and a sellout.

But Dylan’s “going electric changed the structure of folk music,” said Newport Folk Festival founder George Wein, 88. “The minute Dylan went electric, all these young people said, ‘Bobby’s going electric.

We’re going electric, too.”’

Christie’s had expected the guitar, which was sold with its original black leather strap and Fender

hard-shell case, to go for far less: $300,000 to $500,000.

The previous record for a guitar sold at auction was held by Eric Clapton’s Fender, nicknamed “Blackie,” which sold at Christie’s for $959,500 in 2004.

Dylan’s guitar had been in the possession of a New Jersey family for nearly 50 years after the singer left it on a private plane.

The pilot’s daughter, Dawn Peterson of Morris County, N.J., said that her father asked Dylan’s management what to do with the instrument, and nobody ever got back to him.

Last year, she took it to the PBS show “History Detectives” to have it authenticated, and rock-memorabilia experts matched its wood grain to close-up color photos of Dylan’s instrument at the 1965 festival.

Dylan’s attorney and his publicist didn’t respond to email and phone requests for comment. Dylan and Peterson, who declined to be interviewed, recently settled a legal dispute over the items. The terms weren’t disclosed.

Dylan’s Newport performance — like Elvis Presley’s above-the-hips appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” or the Beatles’ arrival in America, or Woodstock — is regarded as one of the milestone moments in rock history.

By going electric, Dylan

helped lead a movement that gave rock ‘n’ roll lyrics the richness of literature.

Exactly what happened at the festival on July 25, 1965, has become enshrouded in legend, and to this day, the debate persists over whether those who booed were angry over Dylan’s electric turn or were upset over the sound quality or the brief set.

Backed by a band that included Mike Bloomfield on guitar and Al Kooper on organ, Dylan played such songs as “Maggie’s Farm” and “Like a Rolling Stone.”

He returned for an acoustic encore with “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.”

Legend has it that Pete Seeger, one of the elder statesmen of the folk movement, was so angry that he tried to pull the plug on the electric performance or threatened to cut the cable with an ax.

But years later, Seeger said he had nothing against Dylan going electric — he was upset over the distortion-filled sound system.

Christie’s also was offering five lots of hand- and typewritten lyric fragments found inside the guitar case — early versions of some of Dylan’s songs. They had a presale estimate ranging from $3,000 to $30,000. But only one of them sold; it went for $20,000 and contained draft lyrics for “I Wanna Be Your Lover.”

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Fancy a pint of Pliny the Elder or Heady Topper double India pale ales, but can’t find it in your neighborhood? Get out your wallet.

As craft brews gain an intense following, a black market has bloomed in which some opportunists are selling for hundreds of dollars top-rated beers that are hard to find, in short supply, expensive or illegal to ship.

In Vermont, a Burlington woman was charged recently with selling five cases of the popular Heady Topper beer for $825 on Craigslist, which brought about mixed feelings for its brewer.

“It’s a compliment in an odd way,” said Jen Kimmich, owner of The Alchemist brewery in Waterbury, which produces Heady Topper. The hoppy concoction, which retails for $3 a can and $72 a case, was recently ranked No. 1 by Beer Advocate magazine out of the top 250 beers in the world.

“But at the same time,” she added, “we don’t want to see the consumer being cheated by paying too much and getting a product that hasn’t been taken care of properly.”

The beer is so popular that The Alchemist recently closed its retail operation in Waterbury, Vt., to appease neighbors concerned about traffic. In the weeks since, a half a dozen posts have appeared on Craigslist — including from southern California, Chicago, and Boston — clamoring for the stuff.

Craigslist did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Beer geeks often trade coveted craft brews with no money changing hands to get hard-to-find beers

Photo by Toby Talbot/file | AP

Cans of Heady Topper roll off the line at The Alchemist in Waterbury, Vt. A black market has bloomed as craft brews gain following, allowing opportunists to sell beer for hundreds of dollars. that may only be sold in certain states or countries, in limited amounts or are only in draft form.

To get them might require a beer mule, who will transport the brews to the consumer, or someone who will buy them from the brewery and ship them, said Joe Tucker, executive director of the RateBeer website.

“It’s done because the rarity of these releases, the prestige of these releases is a huge driver,” he said.

Plenty of trading is done illegally, which RateBeer tries to discourage, he said.

He said he once got an unsolicited shipment labeled the Belgian Coffee Company that contained the site’s highest-rated beer.

The practice of trading beer doesn’t bother most brewers. But buying beer, marking up the price and selling it is another matter.

It’s illegal in the U.S. to sell alcohol online without a license.

Yet at least hundreds of posts daily last year on eBay offered hard-to-get beers at astronomical prices, said Natalie Cilurzo, coowner and president of Russian River Brewing, in Santa Rosa, Calif. She spotted the brewery’s flagship Pliny the Elder, which sells for $5 a bottle, going for between $15 and $50, and its discontinued Toronado an-

niversary beer, which sold for about $25 at the brewery, being auctioned for about $700 last year.

“It was out of control,” she said. “People were running liquor stores on eBay without accountability.”

She cited the steps that her company took that black market sellers are skipping: acquiring liquor and business licenses, paying sales, property and other taxes and selling responsibly. She pointed out the dangers of selling to minors or the questions of who would be responsible if a drunk driver who’d bought beer sold illegally online killed someone.

She decided she had to stand up for the breweries.

“It was not just our beer but a lot of our friends’,” she said. “And I really felt like I needed to be an advocate for everybody.”

She went to state regulators, who set up a meeting with eBay. She said eBay was unaware of the practice but committed to ending it. EBay responded to an interview request by referring to its site, which says that it doesn’t allow any container with alcohol, even if it’s considered collectible.

While brewers and states might not have the resources to police illegal sales online, beer lovers are doing their part.

Nation

6A THE ZAPATA TIMES

FDA approves new hepatitis C drug ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Federal health officials have approved a highly anticipated hepatitis C drug from Gilead Sciences Inc. that is expected to offer a faster, more palatable cure to millions of people infected with the liver-destroying virus.

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday it approved the pill Sovaldi in combination with older drugs to treat the main forms of hepatitis C that affect U.S. patients.

Current treatments for hepatitis C can take up to a year of therapy and involve weekly injections of a drug that causes flu-like side effects. That approach only cures about three out of four patients. Sovaldi is a daily pill that in clinical trials cured roughly 90 percent of patients in just 12 weeks, when combined with the older drug cocktail.

Between 3 million and 4 million Americans are estimated to carry the bloodborne virus, though most do not even know they are infected. Others have tested positive but are waiting for more effective treatments to become available.

Hepatitis C symptoms may not appear until two or three decades after infection, though the virus can cause liver failure, cirrhosis and cancer if left untreated.

Dr. Donald Jensen of the University of Chicago said he’s optimistic that new drugs like Sovaldi will increase treatment of the disease, which is blamed for 15,000 U.S. deaths per year.

“I’m hoping that these new, less toxic therapies will drive more people to get tested and more primary care physicians to test their patients, knowing that the therapy is going to be more effective and easier,” said Jensen, who directs the university’s center for liver diseases.

Gilead Sciences Inc.,

Current treatments for hepatitis C can take up to a year of therapy and involve weekly injections of a drug that causes flu-like side effects. based in Foster City, Calif., is one of a half-dozen companies battling over the market more effective treatments for hepatitis C. Many industry analysts expect Sovaldi to quickly dominate the field with sales of over $1.6 billion next year.

Gilead said Friday it would price the drug at $84,000 for one 12-week supply. Patients with a less common subtype of the disease may need to take the drug for 24 weeks, raising the cost to $168,000 for one course of treatment.

Drugs already on the market run between $25,000 and $50,000 for a course of treatment.

The approval comes as the federal government urges all baby boomers to get tested for the disease.

People born between 1945 and 1965 are five times more likely than other age groups to have hepatitis C, with many having contracted the virus by sharing needles or having sex with an infected person in their youth.

For most of the last 20 years, the standard treatment for hepatitis C involved a grueling one-year regimen of pills and injections that caused nausea, fever and headaches and cured fewer than half of patients. Then in 2011, the FDA approved two new drugs from Merck and Vertex Pharmaceuticals that raised the cure rate to about 65 and 75 percent, respectively, when combined with the older treatments.

Gilead’s once-a-day pill pushes the cure rate much higher.

In a company study of

patients with the most common forms of the disease, 90 percent of participants had undetectable levels of the virus after 12 weeks taking Sovaldi plus the older pill-and-injection cocktail. The forms of the disease studied in the trial account for more than 75 percent of hepatitis C cases in the U.S. Gilead’s drug is less effective in treating a less common form of the disease that accounts for about 10 percent of U.S. cases. Patients with that strain of the virus had to take the drug for 24 weeks, twice the normal duration, to achieve an 85 percent cure rate.

But even for those patients, experts say Gilead’s drug represents an important step forward.

The company’s approach for those patients — Sovaldi plus another antiviral pill — is the first all-oral regimen to treat hepatitis C, eliminating the need for interferon, the injectable medication that is the backbone of standard treatment and causes diarrhea and other taxing side effects.

Next year Gilead expects to file for FDA approval of a combination pill containing sofosbuvir and ledipasvir, another antiviral drug, that could become the first all-oral regimen for the most common form of hepatitis C, long viewed as the holy grail of treatments by drugmakers. Similar development efforts are underway from competitors like Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Vertex Pharmaceuticals and others.

NSA: Global cellphone tracking is legal

By KIMBERLY DOZIER ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency on Friday said its tracking of cellphones overseas is legally authorized under a sweeping U.S. presidential order. The distinction means the extraordinary surveillance program is not overseen by a secretive U.S. intelligence court but is regulated by some U.S. lawmakers, Obama administration insiders and inspectors general.

Documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden showed that the NSA gathers as many as 5 billion records every day about the location data for hundreds of millions of cellphones worldwide by tapping into cables that carry international cellphone traffic. The Washington Post said the collection inadvertently scoops up an unknown amount of American data as well.

The NSA said Friday it was not tracking every foreign phone call and said it takes measures to limit how much U.S. data is collected. The NSA has declined to provide any estimates about the number of Americans whose cellphones it has tracked either because they were traveling overseas or their data was irrevocably included in information about foreigners’ cellphones.

“It is not ubiquitous,” NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said in a statement.

“NSA does not know and

cannot track the location of every cell phone.”

Vines said the collection of the global cellphone location data is carried out under the White House order that governs all U.S. espionage, known as Executive Order 12333.

That means congressional committees and relevant inspectors general can oversee the program, but the secret court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would not. It also makes it less likely that the NSA cellphone tracking would be affected by legal changes under consideration on Capitol Hill — most of which would involve changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. A frequent justification for the NSA programs by President Barack Obama and top U.S. intelligence officials is that they are overseen by all three branches of government.

“The NSA claims its collection is incidental, but there is no question it’s deliberately engaging in the mass collection of cell phone location data that it knows will inevitably sweep up information on a huge number of innocent Americans,” said Catherine Crump, American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney in a statement. “And, all of this is happening without any supervision by a court.”

The NSA spokeswoman, Vines, said legal restrictions under the intelligence law still apply to the cellphone tracking.

When NSA analysts realize they unintentionally

collected an American’s information, they would have to separate it when possible or wall it off from the other information, and limit who can access it and how long it is kept.

But an intelligence lawyer also told the Post that when U.S. cellphone data are collected, the data are not covered by the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures.

“FISA authorization would be required for the intentional collection of domestic metadata,” Vines said. “This activity is centered on overseas locations.” She said no domestic NSA program gathers such geolocation data.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

Court eyes trespass

By JIM MALEWITZ THE TEXAS TRIBUNE

A case involving the disposal of industrial wastewater pits two interests that are dear to many Texans against each other: oil and gas resources versus private property rights.

A decision by the state’s highest civil court could have major implications for both. The Texas Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on Jan. 7 in a dispute between a company that operates injection wells in Liberty County and a nearby rice farm that says wastewater from those wells has migrated into a saltwater aquifer below its land. It calls the migration trespassing, for which it should be compensated.

Among several smaller questions, the court will weigh a broad one: Just how far below the earth’s surface do property lines extend?

“This is the classic battle between the two quintessential values that are in direct conflict with each other,” said Matthew J. Festa, a professor at the South Texas College of Law. “On a lot of different levels, this case could make some new law.”

This is not the first time oil and gas interests have clashed with landowners in Texas. State courts have weighed in on several such showdowns in recent years, including eminent domain cases involving land seized to build pipelines. But the court has yet to consider the idea of underground trespassing.

The dispute, which has reached the high court once before, has drawn the oil and gas industry’s attention.

The well in question is classified as Class I and used for nonhazardous industrial waste. It is not one of the 50,000 Class II waste wells that drillers typically use. But lower courts’ opinions have drawn no distinction between the wells, stirring concerns that a ruling in FPL Farming’s favor would harm production.

“Because the ability to produce oil and gas is inextricably tied to the availability of injection wells,” the Texas Oil and Gas Association says in a brief, “a new common law

Photo by Michael Stravato | The Texas Tribune

In a case before the Texas Supreme Court, representatives from a Liberty County rice farm say that water from an injection well has “trespassed” in the aquifer beneath its property. cause of action that threatens operation of injection wells likely threatens oil and gas production.”

In 1997, Environmental Processing Services finished drilling an injection well about 400 feet from FPL Farming’s land, which the farm contested early on. Since then, the company has injected more than 100 million gallons of wastewater.

Bob Kent, a former Texas environmental regulator and FPL Farming’s expert witness, testified that the waste plume had probably traveled across the property lines, basing those conclusions on a formula widely used by state and federal regulators.

Representatives of the farm say they worry that the waste, which includes the flammable liquid acetone, will contaminate its groundwater and erode the value of its property.

Though the water is too salty to drink, those on the farm’s side contend that it is valuable because desalination technology could make it drinkable.

The well operator and its supporters say the waste will make the groundwater no more polluted than it naturally is.

And in its brief, the Texas Oil and Gas Association calls it “impossible” for a well operator to “predict or control the precise path of migration within a formation that could span dozens of square miles.”

On top of that, the industry group argues those points are moot point because the subsurface trespassing argument is near-

ly unprecedented. The appellate court in Beaumont is the only court to have accepted it.

Common law holds that land ownership extends to the sky above and the earth’s center below, but courts have chipped away from that doctrine over the past decades as new technologies made parts of it impractical for the modern world. In a landmark 1946 case, for instance, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that airplane operators could be held liable for flying over private property only if they caused damage by flying too close.

“The trend is kind of going away from ‘the doctrine,’ but it hasn’t been completely overruled,” Festa said.

The concept of underground property rights is still murky.

The injection well suit is flying under the radar of property rights advocates. No group has filed a brief in support of the rice farm, but the Texas Farm Bureau, which typically supports landowners in such disputes, said it was looking at the case after recently learning of its return to court.

The group supported FPL Farming the last time the case reached the Supreme Court. That was in 2011, when the justices remanded the case to the lower courts after considering various arguments.

“We think they own the property down to the center of the earth,” said Regan Beck, assistant general counsel for the Farm Bureau, adding, “You have a taking without compensation.”

ZCISD Public Auction Location Bus Shop 21st & Kennedy Items to be auctioned are as follows: Bus #01 2000 Thomas Bus #02 2000 Thomas Bus #03 2000 Thomas Bus #04 2000 Thomas Bus #07 1996 Thomas Bus #08 1996 Thomas Bus #09 1996 Thomas Bus #10 1996 Thomas Bus #20 VCR 2004 INT Bus #36 VCR 2002 INT All awarded bidders will have one week to remove all purchased items from lots.

To schedule a walk-through of the lots please contact Ms. Teresa Hein at (956)2867639 on December 10, 2013 from 8:00am – 3:00pm. Bids must be delivered

by December 13, 2013 by 2:00 pm at the Zapata County ISD Administration Building @ 702 East Avenue 17th Zapata, TX 78076.

Please note: ZCISD will not be held liable for any accidents.

SABADO 7 DE DICIEMBRE DE 2013

Agenda en Breve LAREDO 12/07— El Centro de Desarrollo Ciencias Ambientalistas Lamar Bruni Vergara de LCC estará llevando a cabo la última limpieza al Sendero Natural Paso del Indio a partir de las 7:30 a.m.

12/07— First United Methodist Church estará realizando una venta de libros usados a partir de las 8:30 a.m. en 1220 de avenida McClelland. Libros de tapa dura 1 dólar; libros de bolsillo .50 centavos; revistas y libros para niños .25 centavos.

12/07— El Laredo Community College está invitando a los estudiantes que entrarán al próximo semestre a participar en una orientación que se llevará acabo en el William N. “Billy” Hall Jr. Student Center del Campus Sur a partir de las 9 a.m. La orientación será a partir de las 10 a.m. y hasta las 4 p.m. Los padres son bienvenidos a unirse a los estudiantes en la orientación.

12/07— El Centro de Desarrollo Ciencias Ambientalistas Lamar Bruni Vergara de LCC estará ofreciendo visitas guiadas a partir de las 10 a.m.

12/07— Se estará realizando el evento de adopción de animales “Home for the Pawlidays” a partir de las 10 a.m. y hasta las 3 p.m. en Blas Castañeda Park.

12/08— Se realizará la Christmas Animal Posada a partir de las 4 p.m. en la Plaza St. Peter, en avenida Main y calle Matamoros. Para más información puede llamar al 286-7866 o escribir al birdtorres@hotmail.com.

12/08— La Compañía de Ballet Laredos estará presentando la obra ‘El Cascanueces’ a las 5 p.m. en el Laredo Civic Center. Costos 5 dólares para niños y 10 dólares para adultos.

12/10— Se realizará conferencia para anunciar el “Let’s Move for Scholars” en su tercera edición, a beneficio de estudiantes de UISD. Conferencia será en sala de juntas de UISD, en 201 Lindenwood Drive, a las 10:30 a.m.

NUEVO LAREDO, MÉXICO 12/07— Estación Palabra presenta “Bazar de Arte” a las 12 p.m.; el cuento teatralizado “Hay que soñar” en la sala de lectura infantil a las 3 p.m.

12/07— Se realizará un maratón de pastorelas en el teatro Lucio Blanco de la Casa de la Cultura a partir de las 5 p.m. Evento gratuito.

12/07— La Compañía de Danza de Nuevo Laredo presenta “Gala de invierno” a las 5 p.m. en el teatro principal del Centro Cultural.

Evento gratuito.

12/08— El grupo de Teatro Laberintus estará presentando la obra de teatro “La Nave de José Luis Pineda Servín, a las 12 p.m. en el Teatro del IMSS. Costo 20 pesos.

12/08— La Compañía de Danza de Nuevo Laredo presenta “Gala de invierno” a las 5 p.m. en el teatro principal del Centro Cultural.

Evento gratuito.

12/08— La Academia de Danza Mexicana presenta “Gala Huasteca” a las 5 p.m. en la Sala Experimental de la Antigua Aduana.

12/08— Se estará efectuando el evento Mágica Navidad, en el que se encenderá el árbol navideño de la ciudad, esto en la Explanada Esteban Baca Calderón a partir de las 6 p.m.

12/10— El grupo de Teatro Laberintus estará presentando la obra “Sueño de una noche de verano” de William Shakespeare, a las 7 p.m. en el Teatro del IMSS. Costo 20 pesos.

Zfrontera

PÁGINA 7A

OBITUARIO

Dan último adiós POR DONNA BRYSON ASSOCIATED PRESS

JOHANNESBURGO, Sudáfrica — Nelson Mandela fue un luchador incansable contra el apartheid, desde antes de haber estado preso durante 27 años y luego de haber sido presidente de su país y activista humanitario.

La vida de Mandela, libertador de los negros de Sudáfrica, fue una epopeya de triunfos frente a obstáculos monumentales, una hazaña hecha posible por su férrea disciplina, agudo realismo y carisma popular que le valió amistades y aliados incluso entre los blancos.

Meses atrás, cuando su salud se deterioró y parecía inminente su muerte, líde-

res internacionales, celebridades, atletas y otros elogiaron a Mandela, quien murió el jueves a los 95 años, no solamente como el hombre que guió a Sudáfrica en su tensa transición de un régimen racista a la democracia hace dos decenios, sino también como un símbolo universal de sacri-

ficio y reconciliación.

Vestido de negro, el presidente sudafricano Jacob Zuma hizo el anuncio por televisión. Dijo que Mandela murió “en paz” acompañado de su familia alrededor de las 8:50 de la noche el jueves (hora de Johannesburgo).

“Hemos perdido al más grande de nuestros hijos.

Nuestra nación ha perdido a su más grande hijo. Nuestro pueblo ha perdido a un padre”, dijo Zuma. “Aunque sabíamos que este día llegaría, nada puede aminorar el sentimiento de una profunda y perdurable pérdida”.

En la iglesia Regina Mundi en Soweto, un área urbana al suroeste de Johannesburgo, el padre Sebastian Rousso dijo que

Mandela un papel crucial “no sólo para nosotros como sudafricanos, sino para el mundo”.

A pesar de haber estado 27 años prisionero del régimen segregacionista blanco del apartheid, Mandela emergió de la cárcel con gestos de reconciliación y buena voluntad: almorzó con el fiscal que le dictó sentencia, cantó el himno de los blancos durante su juramentación y viajó cientos de kilómetros para reunirse con la viuda de Hendrik Verwoerd, quien fuera primer ministro al momento de su encarcelamiento.

Quizás uno de sus momentos más memorables fue en 1995 cuando entró caminando al campo de rugby de Sudáfrica vistiendo la camiseta del equipo

nacional, al que iba a felicitar por haber ganado la Copa Mundial.

Fue en 1964 cuando lo declararon culpable de traición a la patria y lo sentenciaron a cadena perpetua en la notoria cárcel de la isla Robben.

Se emitió una orden a nivel nacional prohibiendo que se mencionara su nombre. Sin embargo, tanto él como otros presos políticos lograron sacar clandestinamente mensajes para orientar a su movimiento antiapartheid, el Congreso Nacional Africano.

Con el paso de los años crecía la conciencia internacional sobre las injusticias del apartheid y al cumplir 70 años, ya era el preso político más famoso del mundo.

TAMAULIPAS

ECONOMÍA

ANIVERSARIO

Facilitan ingresos tras paso huracán TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Tamaulipas

El municipio de Mier, se encuentra celebrando su Quinto Aniversario como Pueblo Mágico, en la imagen se puede ver la Plaza Hidalgo de dicha ciudad.

Mier celebra ser ‘Pueblo Mágico’ TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

CD. VICTORIA, Tamaulipas— El municipio de Mier, se encuentra celebrando su Quinto Aniversario como Pueblo Mágico.

Mier cuenta con raíces históricas, calles empedradas, y un ambiente donde se puede sentir la hospitalidad y cultura de sus habitantes, además de una belleza arquitectónica y gastronómica, por lo que fue declarado Pueblo Mágico el 5 de diciembre del 2007.

En la actualidad, Mier es el primer y único Pueblo Mágico de la frontera norte del país, esta ciudad surgió en el Nuevo Santander durante el siglo

XVIII, fundado por José de Escandón y Helguera y 19 familias provenientes de Camargo y Cerralvo.

Esta comunidad muestra con claridad la belleza de los pueblos antiguos, haciendo percibir la nostalgia del pasado, lo emblemático y enigmático no pasó por tiempo, y mantiene sus edificios y sus historias en cada rincón de este mágico lugar.

Entre los atractivos turísticos están la Parroquia de la Purísima Concepción, la Plaza Hidalgo, y la Casa de la Cultura, donde se expone la cultura de Mier y la región, antiguas casas y edificios antiguos, la Casa de los Frijoles Pintos.

Uno de los puntos más im-

portantes y visitados de esta región es la Presa Falcón, ubicada a pocos kilómetros al norte de Ciudad Mier, dentro de esta se encuentran las ruinas de Guerrero Viejo.

Gastronómicamente hablando, Mier se distingue por tener una de las más deliciosas gastronomías tamaulipecas, cuyos platillos típicos con deliciosos guisos como la milanesa de res, el caldillo fiscaleño, el cabrito en salsa, el machacado con huevo y el famoso cortadillo.

El Pueblo Mágico de Mier, una belleza tamaulipeca, un ejemplo de cultura y tradición, simplemente una fracción del hermoso Estado de Tamaulipas.

CD. VICTORIA, Tamaulipas— El Gobierno de Tamaulipas se encuentra implementando programa de financiamiento tras el paso del fenómeno meteorológico “Ingrid”, al realizar actividades de coordinación y apoyo al sector empresarial a través de reuniones informativas con las empresas afectadas.

El objetivo de las reuniones es acelerar la recuperación económica regional.

El Director General del Fondo Tamaulipas, Jesús Alberto Palomo Valles, se reunió con cámaras y organismos para informar que el Gobierno del Estado, Nacional Financiera y la Secretaria de Economía implementaron un programa emergente que se aplicará a los 33 municipios del estado declarados en emergencia en apoyo a las empresas afectadas por este fenómeno meteorológico.

Palomo Valles indicó que los financiamientos consisten en montos de hasta 2 millones de pesos, con plazos para su liquidación de entre 3 años y 10 años, sin garantías reales y un interés de 9.2 por ciento, 9.5 y el 10 por ciento fija anual, la variación de la recuperación del financiamiento y la del interés, depende de la aplicación del recurso.

Dijo que por instrucciones de la Secretaria de Desarrollo Económico y Turismo, Mónica González García, se han celebrado reuniones de seguimiento informativo con los miembros de la COPARMEX, CANACO y CANACINTRA. “Este plan de contingencia fue bien recibido por los empresarios, ya que a lo anterior los interesados no tendrán que pagar comisiones por apertura, ni comisiones por prepago, además de que también se apoyará al sector agroindustrial, siempre y cuando en las unidades se realicen procesos que agreguen valor a los productos”, comentó.

SALUD

Arrancan programa contra obesidad TIEMPO DE ZAPATA

REYNOSA— El Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas puso en marcha el Programa “Ponte al 100 Paso a Paso” en Reynosa, con la asistencia de 11 municipios: Nuevo Laredo, Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, Mier, Miguel Alemán, Díaz Ordaz, Camargo, Matamoros, Río Bravo, Valle Hermoso, San Fernando y el anfitrión Reynosa.

El alcalde de Reynosa, José Elías Leal les dio la bienvenida a todos los Directores del deporte municipal y los exhortó a brindar su máximo esfuerzo para que el Programa Ponte

al 100 Paso a Paso resulte todo un éxito.

Enrique de la Garza Ferrer, Director General del Instituto Tamaulipeco del Deporte, enfatizó que “el compromiso del gobierno es que la población tenga una mejor salud con la Activación Física. La idea es que los niños y jóvenes tamaulipecos, se adentren al Programa que se ha implementado para darle batalla al sobrepeso y obesidad; por tal motivo, se instruirá a los Directores del Deporte Municipal en todo Tamaulipas para que implementen este importante programa”.

El Programa Ponte al

100 Paso a Paso fue puesto en marcha el 5 de diciembre, en las instalaciones del Instituto Municipal del Deporte en la Unidad Deportiva Solidaridad de esta comunidad fronteriza.

El principal objetivo del Programa Ponte al 100 Paso a Paso es darle combate al sobrepeso y obesidad infantil y juvenil en todo Tamaulipas.

Los Directores Municipales del Deporte, recibieron un Kit de Medición y gracias a esta tecnología se podrá medir fuerza, flexibilidad, morfología, signos vitales, estado nutricional, postura, proporción corporal, entre otros.

Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Tamaulipas

El Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas puso en marcha el Programa “Ponte al 100 Paso a Paso” en Reynosa. El principal objetivo del programa es dar combate al sobrepeso y obesidad infantil y juvenil en Tamaulipas.

International

8A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

Six detained in theft of radioactive material Police believe they are suspects in case

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO AND ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY — Six people being tested for possible radiation exposure in a hospital in central Mexico are suspects in the theft of highly radioactive cobalt-60, a government official said Friday.

The official said the six were arrested Thursday and taken to the general hospital in Pachuca for observation and testing for radiation exposure. Once they are cleared, they will be turned over to federal authorities in connection with the case of a cargo truck stolen Monday at gunpoint that was carrying the extremely dangerous material.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. He did not specify how the six were allegedly involved in the theft.

Hidalgo state Health Minister Pedro Luis Noble said Friday that the six suffered from skin irritations and dizziness, but that none are in grave condition and may be released soon. Only one was vomiting, a sign of radiation poisoning.

But based on the tests, “none are showing immediate signs of radiation poisoning,” Noble told

Photo by Eduardo Verdugo | AP

A cameraman films the radiation head that was part of a radiation therapy machine on the patio of the family who found the stolen equipment abandoned in a nearby field, in the village of Hueypoxtla, Mexico, on Friday. The truck that was hauling the equipment was found abandoned Wednesday, and the container for the radioactive material was found opened.

Foro TV. The cobalt-60 theft triggered alerts in six Mexican states and Mexico City, as well as international notifications to the U.S. and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. It raised concerns that the material could have been stolen to make a dirty bomb, a conventional explosive that disseminates radioactive material.

The atomic energy agency

said the cobalt has an activity of 3,000 curies, or Category 1, meaning “it would probably be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period in the range of a few minutes to an hour.”

But Mexican officials said that the thieves seemed to have targeted the cargo truck with moveable platform and crane, and likely didn’t know about the dangerous cargo. The govern-

ment official would not give details or location of Thursday’s arrest nor names or ages of the suspects.

The six were arrested by Hidalgo state police, said state attorney general’s spokesman Fernando Hidalgo.

The driver of the truck, who had stopped to rest at a gas station early Monday when the theft occurred, said two armed men made him get out, tied his

hands and feet and left him in a vacant lot.

Hidalgo said he didn’t know how or if the others were involved.

The truck was found abandoned Wednesday about 24 miles from where it was stolen, and the container for the radioactive material was found opened. The cobalt-60 pellets were left about one-half mile from the truck in an empty rural field, where authorities said they were a risk only to anyone who had handled them and not to anyone in Hueypoxtla, the closest town of about 4,000 people. There was no evacuation.

The material was from obsolete radiation therapy equipment at a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana and was being transported to nuclear waste facility in the state of Mexico, which borders Mexico City.

Authorities maintained a 500yard cordon around the site where the cobalt-60 still remains in the state of Mexico and continued to work Friday to extract it safely, said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of Mexico’s National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards.

“It’s quite an operation and it is in the process of being planned,” he said. “It’s highly radioactive, so you cannot just go over and pick it up. It’s going to take a while to pick it up.”

Federal police blocked access Friday to hospital where the six were held.

Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais/pool | AP

Secretary of State John Kerry, left, chats with Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid, right, before their meeting in Jerusalem, Israel, on Friday.

Photo by Ben Curtis | AP

A mourner writes a message on a poster of Nelson Mandela on which she and others have written their messages of condolence and support, in the street outside his old house in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa, on Friday.

Song, dance, tears for Mandela

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA AND JASON STRAZIUSO ASSOCIATED PRESS

JOHANNESBURG — Themba Radebe spun slowly in a circle.

First he pointed his cellphone camera at a group of children chanting Nelson Mandela’s name as they waved posters of the antiapartheid champion. Then pivoting to his right, Radebe aimed his camera at a swaying group of adults who sang in Zulu while rocking and clapping.

A day after Mandela’s death at 95, South Africans of all colors erupted in song, dance and tears Friday in emotional celebrations of the life of the man who bridged this country’s black-white divide and helped avert a race war.

“I don’t think Mr. Mandela belonged to black people,” said Alex Freilingsdorf, a Toyota executive at a Soweto dealership. “He belonged to South Africa.”

Freilingsdorf and other white South Africans mingled among the hundreds of blacks gathered outside a home where Mandela lived as a young lawyer in the rough and tumble Soweto township.

The mood was simultaneously celebratory and somber at the impromptu street festival where Radebe filmed scenes to share with his family.

“I’m sorry, I’m too emotional.

The tears flow too easily,” said the balding 60-year-old, his eyes sparkling with tears as he reflected on how South Africa’s race relations have improved — “not perfect, but much better” — compared with his childhood in the black township.

“This is a celebration of the death, because we knew he was an old man,” Radebe said. “He brought a lot of changes to our community, because I grew up in apartheid. It was a very bad situation.”

At a service in Cape Town, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel laureate like Mandela and himself a monumental figure in the struggle against apartheid, called on South Africa’s 51 million people to embrace the values of unity and democracy that Mandela embodied.

“God, thank you for the gift of

Madiba,” Tutu said, using Mandela’s clan name.

“All of us here in many ways amazed the world, a world that was expecting us to be devastated by a racial conflagration,” Tutu said as he recalled how Mandela helped unite South Africa as it dismantled the cruel system of white minority rule, and prepared for all-race elections in 1994.

In those elections, Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison, became South Africa’s first black president.

At Mandela’s home in the leafy Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton, where he spent his last sickly months, a multi-racial crowd paid tribute.

“What I liked most about Mandela was his forgiveness, his passion, his diversity, the impact of what he did,” said Ariel Sobel, a white man who was born in 1993, a year before Mandela was elected president. “I am not worried about what will happen next. We will continue as a nation. We knew this was coming. We are prepared.”

As a dozen doves were released into the sky, people sang tribal songs, the national anthem, God Bless Africa — the anthem of the anti-apartheid struggle — and Christian hymns.

Many wore the traditional garb of the nation’s Zulu, Xhosa and other ethnic groups.

“He will rule the universe with God,” proclaimed a poster raised aloft by a mourner.

President Jacob Zuma announced a schedule of ceremonies expected to draw huge numbers of world dignitaries and ordinary mourners.

Mandela’s body is to lie in state from Wednesday through Friday after a memorial service at the same Johannesburg stadium where he made his last public appearance in 2010 at the closing ceremony of the soccer World Cup. He is to be buried in his rural childhood village of Qunu on Dec. 15, after a state funeral.

“We call upon all our people to gather in halls, churches, mosques, temples, synagogues and in their homes for prayer services and meditation, reflecting on the life of Madiba and his contribution to our country and the world,” Zuma said.

The White House said President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama would visit South Africa next week to participate in memorial events, though no precise dates were given.

Mandela was a “very human person” with a sense of humor who took interest in people around him, said F.W. de Klerk, South Africa’s last apartheid-era president. The two men negotiated the end of apartheid, finding common cause in often tense circumstances, and shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Summarizing Mandela’s legacy, de Klerk paraphrased Mandela’s own words: “Never and never again should there be in South Africa the suppression of anyone by another.”

In Mandela’s hometown of Qunu in the wide-open spaces of Eastern Cape province, residents consoled each other as they mourned the death of South Africa’s most famous citizen.

On Vilakazi Street in Soweto, where Mandela lived as a young man, 26-year-old Vathiswa Nongogo brought her 3-year-old daughter Konwabo to soak in the celebratory atmosphere. The crowd was mostly black, but mourners both white and black said Mandela transcended race.

“The feeling is genuinely the same among the white people and the colors,” said Nongogo, who is black. “And the political division doesn’t appear to exist today.”

The late leader’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, said he was strengthened by the knowledge that his grandfather is finally at rest.

“All that I can do is thank God that I had a grandfather who loved and guided all of us in the family,” Mandla Mandela said in a statement. “The best lesson that he taught all of us was the need for us to be prepared to be of service to our people.”

Helen Zille, leader of South Africa’s official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, and premier of the Western Cape, the only province not controlled by the African National Congress party, agreed.

“We all belong to the South African family — and we owe that sense of belonging to Madiba. That is his legacy.”

Very little to show Kerry’s Mideast efforts go for naught

By JOSEF FEDERMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

JERUSALEM — Halfway through an ambitious ninemonth process aimed at forging Mideast peace, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, after another round of shuttle diplomacy, has little to show for his efforts.

The participants have reported no progress, a top Palestinian negotiator has resigned in frustration, and few believe Kerry can broker the comprehensive settlement set as his official goal. Instead, there are rumblings about what will happen when the clock runs out — either an extension of talks, an interim deal, unilateral moves or the outbreak of violence.

Kerry tried to put a positive spin on things during a threeday stay marked by smiles, friendly rhetoric toward Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but also acknowledgements of the tough task ahead. “I believe we are closer than we have been for years to bringing about the peace and prosperity and the security that all people in this region deserve and yearn for,” he said Friday as he wrapped up his eighth visit to the region as secretary of state.

Kerry did not elaborate, and It was the same type of optimistic language he has used since persuading Israel and the Palestinians to resume talks, their first substantive negotiations in five years, last July. Under heavy American pressure, the sides set an April target date for resolving their decades-long conflict. While negotiators have quietly been meeting, neither side has shown optimism. Instead, the talks have been repeatedly marred by mistrust and finger-pointing.

The Palestinians have accused Israel of negotiating in bad faith, pointing to continued Jewish settlement construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, lands captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for their state. With roughly 550,000 Jews now living in these territories, the Palestinians say the chances of being able to divide the territory between the two peoples are

running out.

Plans to build more settlement homes have sparked a series of crises in the talks. Kerry has said the construction raised questions about Israel’s to peace, and the Palestinians have threatened to withdraw from the talks in protest.

Mohammed Ishtayeh, a former negotiator, said he resigned last month after concluding that the gaps would never be bridged.

“I found no partner in Israel in the talks and the Israelis are not serious. They came to talk just to avoid the international pressure and isolation,” he said. “All Israel wanted from these talks is to maintain the status quo.”

Voices at home also have begun to question Netanyahu’s commitment to peace. On Wednesday, Yuval Diskin, a former director of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service, said time was running out for a peace deal. The alternative, he warned, was plunging into a single binational state in which Arabs ultimately outnumber Jews. As the man responsible for battling Palestinian militants for many years, Diskin’s comments carry added weight in security-obsessed Israel.

“We need an agreement now, before we reach a point of no return from which the twostate solution is not an option any longer,” Diskin told the Geneva Initiative, an Israeli-Palestinian peace organization. “It doesn’t seem like the current government is trying to change the direction of the settlement enterprise.”

In perhaps his toughest criticism of Netanyahu, he said the unresolved conflict with the Palestinians posed a bigger threat to Israel than Iran’s nuclear program. Netanyahu believes Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon and has sparred with Kerry over the international community’s recent nuclear deal with Tehran, which insists its atomic program is for peaceful purposes.

Netanyahu, for his part, has dismissed the criticism. Officials in his office say Diskin is naively underestimating the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A

School to host grand opening

By YASMIN SHARIFF THE ZAPATA TIMES

Tuesday is the grand opening for Zapata North Elementary School, an event open to the public.

The event will begin at 6 p.m. at the school, 502 East 17th Ave. The school opened at the beginning of the academic year, in August, with an enrollment of 650 students.

School counselor Blanca Gonzalez said the facility is much needed.

“We were part of another North Elementary for many years, at least 30. Now we are happy to have a new school,” Gonzalez said.

The old school held about 530 students, she said.

“The last school here was built eight years ago. This will be a grand opening, open to the public, with food,” according to Rogelio Gonzalez, the Zapata County Independent School District coordinator.

(Contact Yasmin Shariff at 728-2563, or email at yshariff@lmtonline.com)

Aquarium offers birds 2nd chance

By RACHEL DENNY CLOW CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES

CORPUS CHRISTI — Emaciated, weak and blind in one eye, Norman was near death.

At 1 week old, the eastern screech owl received a second chance at life at the Texas State Aquarium.

It is a chance that nearly 1,000 birds receive every year in special treatment rooms, outdoor ponds and flight cages at the Second Chances Wildlife Rehabilitation Program housed a few miles from the bayside aquarium.

Fed by hand every few hours and then twice a day until he got stronger, the now 6-month-old owl has a new home at the aquarium, where he helps tell the story of an owl’s life.

“He would have died if we weren’t here,” Kelley Shutt, a senior wildlife care specialist, said.

Norman was found near Beeville and dropped off at a veterinary clinic there. The

Rachel Denny Clow/Corpus Christi Caller-Times | AP

Kelley Shutt, a senior wildlife care specialist at the Texas State Aquarium, holds an American Coot as it is examined in Corpus Christi. The bird is treated through the Second Chances Wildlife Rehabilitation Program. vet staff reached out to the rehab program to help save the tiny owl.

After almost 20 years of operation, the Second Chances Wildlife Rehabilitation Program has found its niche as an ER and recovery center for injured Gulf Coast shore birds and raptors. The program is excelling at saving injured

birds and using those survivors to help educate people about birds by transferring them to zoos and aquariums throughout the United States.

The rescue work began in 1995, five years after the aquarium opened. Initially the program treated all birds, including grackles and pigeons, but now its focus is on

shore birds and raptors.

Those birds are most likely to suffer from environmental impacts such as pollution or habitat destruction, said Jesse Gilbert, vice president and chief operating officer at the aquarium.

“We wanted to make sure that the efforts we were putting forth really impacted species that were of a conservation importance,” Gilbert said. “The mission of the aquarium is to educate our visitors about wildlife conservation and inspire conservation of the Gulf of Mexico.”

In 2010, the aquarium hired a full-time veterinarian, a major step to provide immediate and specialized animal care, Gilbert said.

“I think it’s changed how that program not so much operates, but changed how much medical attention those animals receive,” he said. “Dr. David Stelling has training in wildlife medicine so that has gone a long way in helping that program do well.”

POVERTY Continued from Page 1A Cadena said the program assisted approximately 262 clients in September, the highest number it served this year.

“Our numbers tend to fluctuate month to month in accordance with the needs of our clients,” Cadena said. “On average, the program assists approximately 240 clients every month and expenses over $1.7 million yearly to provide assistance with physician services, medications and hospital services.”

In an effort to counter child poverty, the county opted to increase the standard monthly income for a single person household to $288 in order for the program to serve a larger population.

Salo Otero with the South Texas Food Bank says the organization remains dedicated to fighting hunger even with poverty numbers on the rise.

“It is totally unacceptable to have children to have food inse-

WEATHER en. But Yates, originally from near Manchester, England, said he stayed inside with his wife.

“It’s kind of unusual weather for Dallas, so they’re just having fun with it,” Yates said. “Me and my wife — adults are not particularly impressed with it.”

Friday’s storm stretched from South Texas, where anxious residents bagged outdoor plants to protect them from the cold, through the Midwest and Ohio Valley and up into northern New England and the Canadian Maritimes.

In North Texas, agencies and residents haven’t forgotten the disastrous week before the Super Bowl two years ago, when an inadequate response to a snowstorm crippled the region and left visitors stranded on impassable highways.

People in the Dallas area raided grocery shelves and home improvement stores Thursday in advance of what one store manager joked was the Black Friday of bad weather — “Ice Friday.” Most people appeared to heed warnings Friday to stay inside.

Bundled up against the elements, Matthew Johnson was one of the few people braving the cold

curity,” Otero said. “You don’t have to go across the bridge to see child poverty because it’s right in our backyard. Each and every day we are trying to make a dent in the amount of children who go hungry.”

There are 15 Kids Café locations in Webb County that serve more than 1,500 meals a day to low income children. Otero said the number could be higher but some families are ashamed to “raise their hand and say they’re

hungry.”

The United ISD Homeless Education Services program has seen an increase in the number of families in need of assistance in recent years. Nearly 400 students received assistance last year and the district has already served more than 160 students this year alone. The district provides free lunches, clothing, toiletries and school supplies to underprivileged children.

Elia M. Juarez, homeless liais-

Continued from Page 1A

Friday.

“We’re going to walk the dog and have fun outside, I guess,” said Johnson, standing near his home in the Dallas suburb of Richardson.

The weather led to more than 1,000 cancelations at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, one of the nation’s busiest airports and a key hub for Fort Worthbased American Airlines. Many travelers were stuck waiting — and hoping for another flight.

Those arriving in North Texas were having trouble finding cabs as many drivers stayed home.

Dallas-area light rail trains were not running.

“I don’t let things like this stop me,” said Dayo Bankale, a taxi driver at the airport Friday. “I’m not scared.”

Rosibel Gutierrez Artavia, shivering in a light sweater as she waited for a taxi, had traveled from Alajuela, Costa Rica, to suburban Fort Worth to see family.

Relatives called her before she left Costa Rica to warn her to pack warm. But she got the call when she was already at the airport.

“I did not come prepared with snow clothes,” Artavia said in

Spanish.

But she was thankful the weather didn’t prevent her from boarding a flight that got her from Houston to North Texas and close to her family.

“I prayed to God and he listened to me,” she said.

Others didn’t make it to Dallas at all.

Julie Bahbaz, 31, of Little Rock, Ark., was planning to run in the marathon but decided Friday not to try to drive the more than 300 miles to Dallas shortly before the race was canceled.

“I’ve been thinking about it for the last couple of days and hoping (the forecasts) were wrong, but apparently not,” Bahbaz said.

Police in Arlington, about 20 miles west of Dallas, reported one driver was killed when his car slammed into a truck. Authorities in Oklahoma reported two weather-related traffic deaths.

Storms this week had already dumped 1 to 2 feet of snow in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin and draped many communities in skin-stinging cold. The temperature in parts of North Dakota on Thursday was a few degrees below zero, but wind chill pushed it to nearly 40 below.

on for UISD, said she tries to combat the extreme cases of child poverty she sees on a daily basis.

“It’s a harsh reality seeing children living in cars and stables from elementary school all the way up to their high school graduation,” Juarez said. “As a school district we are always looking to help those most in need in the best way we can.”

(Aldo Amato may be reached at 728-2538 or aamato@lmtonline.com)

VALLEY Continued from Page 1A cia said.

Garcia said he was a supporter of a DPS presence in the Valley. The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday took a more critical view of plans for a costly new border protection surge, calling it a political stunt.

McCraw said the checkpoints led to a 13 percent increase in driver’s license applications in the area. He said checkpoints are the “most effective way” of getting compliance with insurance and driver’s license requirements and the agency had considered putting up more elsewhere in Texas.

Dewhurst, who is locked in a competitive four-way Republican primary to keep his seat in 2014, described the proposed $60 million ramp-up on the border as a permanent surge that would be reauthorized annually. He didn’t indicate where from the state’s existing $100 billion budget the funds might be taken or suggest when a reallocation would be complete, only saying he planned to make it happen as soon as possible.

Dewhurst said the state has spent $800 million the last five years on border security. He is also instructing Senate subcommittees to explore between now and the 2015 legislative session whether federal crime data is giving an accurate picture of border violence.

Texas Republicans have long hammered the federal government over border security. But Democrats and critics have accused state leaders of embellishing the level of danger on the Texas-Mexico border, pointing toward federal crime statistics that show decreasing levels of violent crime.

Dewhurst and other Republicans say that data provides an unreliable snapshot of organized crime because it doesn’t include public corruption or human and drug trafficking.

Dewhurst has been lieutenant governor since 2003 but is trying to fend off land commissioner Jerry Patterson, agriculture commissioner Todd Staples and state Sen. Dan Patrick. Staples has made border security a pet issue, releasing a book on the subject last year.

10A THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM

Sports&Outdoors NFL: HOUSTON TEXANS

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL: ZAPATA HAWKS

Hawks regroup Zapata coming off Border Olympics

By CLARA SANDOVAL THE ZAPATA TIMES

Photo by Clara Sandoval | Laredo Morning Times

The Zapata basketball team has been valiantly attempting to grab a few wins in the past four games but have been able to only pick up one victory.

The Hawks (3-4) opened the eighth annual Border Olympics tournament in Laredo with a pair of losses to Del Rio and Laredo LBJ. They rebounded soundly beat Cigarroa 66-49 for their lone win of the tournament.

Against Del Rio, The Hawks started off on the wrong foot falling into a deep hole that spiraled out of control at the end of four quarters. Things did not improve in their game against LBJ as the Wolves took Zapata out of their gameplan in the second half and lost 76-45 before picking up a win over Cigarroa at the end of the tournament.

"That was a good game because we matched up well with Cigarroa and had the same style of play," Zapata head coach Juan Villarreal said. "We were down at one point and the team was able to rally and come back.

"At the end we just pulled away from them to earn the victory."

Following the Border Olympics, Zapata dropped their Tuesday game to Falfurrias 49-24 as the Hawks had a hard time getting anything going on either end of the court.

"We could just not move the ball and could not get anything going," Villarreal said. "We were not doing the little things like boxing out and it did not help that our shots were not dropping in despite getting a good look at the basket."

While the ball has not rolled Zapata’s way in the last few games, the team is working to make sure that it puts everything together by the time district rolls around.

The Hawks have the luxury of getting in a few more games in before district opens with Kingsville on Jan. 10.

"We are just working to get everybody on the same page," Villarreal said. "We are looking for that fifth man and just need to

Zapata’s Javier Lopez has started to emerge for the Hawks in his first year being on the varsity team.

Texans fire Kubiak

By DARRELL LOVELL ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON — The scuffling Houston Texans fired Gary Kubiak on Friday, parting ways with the only coach to lead the team to the playoffs.

The team announced the decision one day after the Texans lost their 11th straight game, 2720 at Jacksonville, a stunning fall for a team that expected to make a Super Bowl run. Houston (2-11) played miserably and was flagged 14 times for a franchiserecord 177 yards.

The 52-year-old Kubiak was hired in 2006 and led the team to back-to-back AFC South titles in 2011-2012, the highlights of his eight-year tenure.

The Texans said they couldn’t wait any longer to start turning things around.

“What’s taken place with this organization is unacceptable,” general manager Rick Smith said. “We’ve got three weeks of an evaluation process left and we’ve got to right the ship.”

Kubiak’s overall record is 6164, with a 2-2 mark in the playoffs. Owner Bob McNair said the decision to let him go was a hard one.

“It was difficult for me because I think so much of Gary,” McNair said. “We’re here to have a winning culture and this year has not contributed to that.”

The Texans said defensive coordinator Wade Phillips would serve as interim coach for the rest of the season.

Kubiak suffered a mini-stroke Nov. 3 in a frightening scene, collapsing at halftime during a game against the Colts and being rushed to a Houston hospital. He had returned to the sidelines, but the Texans have been unable to rebound from injuries to top players including quarterback Matt Schaub and running back Arian Foster.

The team later said Kubiak suffered a transient ischemic attack, or TIA, which occurs when blood flow to the brain is briefly interrupted, typically by a blood

See ZAPATA PAGE 2B See TEXANS PAGE 2B

NCAA FOOTBALL: BAYLOR VS. TEXAS

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: SEATTLE MARINERS

Cano leaves Yankees for M’s

By TIM BOOTH ASSOCIATED PRESS

File photo by Jerry Larson | AP

Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty and the No. 9 Bears take on No. 23 Texas with a BCS spot waiting if Oklahoma State slips up.

Final chances Baylor, Texas battle for possible BCS berth

By STEPHEN HAWKINS ASSOCIATED PRESS

WACO — By time No. 9 Baylor and No. 23 Texas kick off their regular season finale, they could be playing a de facto Big 12 championship game with a Fiesta Bowl trip on the line.

The winner of Saturday’s

game is guaranteed at least a share of the Big 12 title. The last game ever at Baylor’s Floyd Casey Stadium becomes even bigger than that for the Bears (10-1, 7-1) and Longhorns (8-3, 7-1) if sixth-ranked Oklahoma State loses at home against No.

See BIG 12 PAGE 2B

SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners were staying quiet on Friday about a potential major deal with free agent second baseman Robinson Cano.

The team issued a statement in response to an ESPN report that Cano and the Mariners had reached agreement on a $240 million, 10-year contract pending a physical.

“We are not able to confirm any news regarding Robinson Cano at this time. If and when an agreement is completed and finalized, we will announce,” the statement read.

Cano’s reported deal would be one of the largest in baseball history and a coup for a franchise that’s gone a dozen years since making the postseason. It would bring creditability for the Mariners after striking out in the past in their pursuits of big free agents like Prince Fielder and Josh Hamilton.

Cano is a five-time All-Star second baseman for the Yankees. Last season, he played in 160 games, hitting .314 with 27 homers and 107 RBIs, while posting a .899 on-base plus slugging percentage. He finished fifth in American League most valuable player voting.

Seattle has plenty of financial

Photo by Kathy Kmonicek | AP

Second baseman Robinson Cano left the Yankees to accept a 10-year, $240 million contract with Seattle.

room to make a large cash commitment. The only major contracts on the books for 2014 are for pitchers Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma. Helping provide room to increase the payroll is the Mariners’ investment in a new regional sports network that is expected to net Seattle significant revenue in the coming years and it’s not a surprise the club was able to make such a staggering offer.

But finalizing a deal with Ca-

no won’t solve all of Seattle’s problems. It’s a start, immediately adding a legitimate slugger to the middle of a lineup that finally showed some pop last season after years of floundering with one of the worst offenses in baseball. The Mariners have plenty of other problems to solve, including adding another established starter to their rotation and finding solutions for an outfield filled with questions.

Zscores

PAGE 2B

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

Rice looks to make history in C-USA title

By JEREMY RAKES ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON — Rice has a chance to make history and end a championship drought all at once.

The Owls face Marshall on Saturday in the Conference USA championship. Rice, which is in its first C-USA title game, has not won an outright championship since claiming the Southwest Conference title in 1957; the Owls last shared a conference title in 1994 when it was still a member of the SWC. However, the Owls are not thinking about all that history.

“We’re not focused on the historical perspective this week,” Rice quarterback Taylor McHargue said. “We’ll look back after the season and embrace a lot of this, but for right now I think we’re so focused on winning this game that a lot of the historical stuff we don’t pay attention to.

We do realize something special

is going on right now.”

Unlike in years past where Rice has leaned on its offense to put up a lot of points, the Owls have been able to win this year with a good defense. Cornerbacks Phillip Gaines and Bruce Callahan have seven interceptions between them, while linebacker Michael Kutzler and safety Paul Porras lead the team in tackles with 79 and 70, respectively.

In its 17-13 win over Tulane to clinch the West Division, Rice’s defense allowed only 10 yards and no first downs at the half and 123 yards total for the game.

Rice’s defense will be tested against Marshall, which has scored at least 45 points in each of the last six games.

“We got here by one play at a time, one game at a time,” Rice coach David Bailiff said. “Our focus is Marshall, and they are a great football team. We are going to have to bring our ’A’ game in all three phases to win it.”

MARSHALL TITLE HOPES

Marshall earned its first trip to the C-USA title game since joining the conference in 2004 with a 59-28 win over East Carolina. RICE’S THREATS The Owls scored 20 points or more in nine of its 12 games this season.

Quarterback Taylor McHargue has been a dual threat throwing for 2,065 yards and 16 touchdowns this season, while completing over 52 percent of his passes but he has also rushed for 432 yards and five scores this year. Along with McHargue, Charles Ross leads C-USA with 114.3 yards per game average and has rushed for 1,143 yards and 12 touchdowns this season.

PLAYING THE CLOCK Rice is seventh in the nation in time of possession this season, holding on to the ball for an average of 33 minutes, 29 seconds.

The Owls have won the time of possession battle in 10 of 12 games this season and has held the ball for more than 38 minutes three times.

Photo by Smiley N. Pool | AP

Rice is looking to win an outright championship for the first time since claiming the Southwest Conference title in 1957 in its first Conference USA championship.

TEXANS Continued from Page 1B

ZAPATA Continued from Page 1B

“

“What’s taken place with this organization is unacceptable. We’ve got three weeks of an evaluation process left and we’ve got to right the ship.”

-TEXANS GENERAL MANAGER RICK SMITH

clot or narrowed blood vessels.

Experts say they are often a warning sign for a future stroke, particularly within three months of a TIA. The workaholic coach said he has learned through this ordeal he must take the advice of others and slow down some.

Kubiak, a former NFL quarterback who calls the team’s plays, has long been known as a top offensive coach, mentoring quarterbacks in Denver under Mike Shanahan and then Schaub and Case Keenum in Houston.

He was hired in 2006, along with Smith, after the Texans finished a franchise-worst 2-14.

Smith spent 10 years with Kubiak while the coach was offensive coordinator of the Broncos. Smith was Denver’s defensive assistant for four seasons before moving into the front office for his last six years with the Broncos.

The pair helped transform the Texans, which began play in 2002, from league laughingstock to contender. The team went 6-10 in their first year and 8-8 in each of the next two seasons. Expectations were high in 2010 after Houston fin-

ished at 9-7 for its first winning record in 2009. The Texans instead fell to 6-10, which led to many fans calling for Kubiak’s firing.

His original contract was due to expire after the 2010 season, but McNair defended him several times amid the bumps.

Last year, the Texans announced contract extensions for both Smith and Kubiak, rewarding them for taking the team to the playoffs last year for the first time. Kubiak’s three-year agreement has him under contract through 2014.

McNair said at the time he offered Kubiak a four-year deal, but the coach preferred to make it for three.

Kubiak made his mark as Denver’s offensive coordinator under Shanahan, winning two Super Bowls. An eighth-round pick out of Texas A&M, he spent nine years as John Elway’s backup. He finished his career 4-1 as a starter, all in emergency relief of Elway.

Other recent departures from the Texans include assistant head coach Alex Gibbs (for Seattle) and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan went to join his father in Washington.

Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack | AP

The Texans fired head coach Gary Kubiak on Friday after the team lost at Jacksonville 27-20 the night before. It was the 11th straight loss for Houston after starting the season 2-0.

get everyone healthy."

Villarreal knew that the preseason was going to be a tough schedule, but he knows that each one of those tough games will just help him get better for district play.

"We have a tough preseason schedule and it was designed that way in order to get the team ready for district," Villarreal noted. "We are playing in the Edinburg tournament this weekend and then have St. Augustine on Tuesday, another tough opponent, before we play in the La Feria Tournament next weekend.

"These games will test us and that is what we want."

One aspect that Villarreal is working hard to ensure that his team understands fully is man-to-man defense.

In the past two years, Zapata has relied heavily on their zone defense but this year they have speed that can benefit immensely with this new defense.

"We are working a lot on communication on our defense," Villarreal said.

"We have not used a man-to-man in the past two years. The team is getting used to the man-to-man, how to help on the weak side and where to be with two passes away from the ball.

"They are slowly grasping the concept but it takes time."

One player that has really gotten the attention of Villarreal is sophomore Javier Lopez, who has really stepped in to play a role on the team.

Last year, Lopez was playing on the freshman team and made that leap to become a varsity starter. He has made most of his impact on the glass, averaging double digits in rebounds while scoring 11 points per game. His season-high has been 18 points against Hebbronville earlier this year.

(Clara Sandoval can be reached at Sandoval.Clara@Gmail.com)

BIG 12 Continued from Page 1B 18 Oklahoma earlier in the day.

“I think it will be a cherry on top if Oklahoma decides to pull out a victory,” Texas quarterback Case McCoy said. “Our job right now is to win a Big 12 championship, and that’s Baylor, Baylor alone. ... They’re saying exactly the same thing we are.”

Oklahoma State (10-1, 7-1) had convincing victories last month over Baylor and Texas. That assures the Cowboys a BCS berth if they win the Bedlam game, which should wrap up about the same time the Bears and Longhorns get started.

The Bears are looking for their first Big 12 title, and have never won 11 games in a season. They plan to keep their focus on trying to beat Texas, not what’s going to be happening about 350 miles away while getting ready to play.

“I’m not going to look for (that score),” Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty said. “It doesn’t matter what happens in Stillwater until after what happens in Waco.”

Baylor was anticipating the finale against Texas long before the season even began, knowing it would be Floyd Casey’s last game after 64 seasons before moving to a new campus stadium next year. Now the Bears have a chance to win a fourth league title there — they won outright Southwest Conference titles in 1974 and 1980, and were in a fiveway tie when unbeaten Texas A&M was ineligible in 1994.

“We’re excited to be able to be in this situation,” linebacker

Sam Holl said. “We wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Here are five things to know when Baylor and Texas play for the 103rd time: MACK’S DRAMA Even though Texas has recovered from going 1-2 in non-conference play to having a chance to win the Big 12, there is still plenty of speculation about coach Mack Brown’s future after this season. Brown’s running joke this week has been about him being the only coach in America playing for a conference title while also shrugging off speculation about whether he will be replaced. The school president reconfirmed his support of Brown, but there is a new athletic director who hasn’t made any direct comments publicly about the coach’s status.

STRONG RUNNING Malcolm Brown and Joe Bergeron both are coming off 100-yard rushing games against Texas Tech, the second time this year Texas had two 100-yard runners in the same game. Brown and Johnathan Gray, now out for the season with an Achilles injury, did it against Oklahoma. Lache Seastrunk, the Big 12 leader with 109 yards rushing per game, and Glasco Martin both returned from injuries last week for Baylor after missing two games. The Bears have had three games with two 100-yard rushers. Seastrunk and Shock Linwood did it twice, and Linwood combined with fellow freshman Devin Chafin in one of the games the Bears’ top

two runners missed.

DIXON’S HALF Baylor senior safety Ahmad Dixon will have to sit out the first half after being ejected because of a targeting penalty in the second half against TCU last week. He can’t be on the sideline until after halftime, so will watch from the locker room. “I’ll get riled up just like I’m on the field,” Dixon said. Defensive coordinator Phil Bennett said Dixon is a good kid who sparks the Bears. “He’s very passionate about what he does,” Bennett said. “He has never been malicious.”

RARE RANKINGS The final game in Floyd Casey Stadium’s 64 seasons will be only the 10th when Baylor and its opponent are both ranked. The Bears are 5-4 in the previous such matchups, including a 41-12 win over Oklahoma in their last home game Nov. 7. In 1980, one of their SWC championship seasons, the No. 11 Bears defeated No. 20 Texas 16-0 at home. Baylor has won its last five home games against Top 25 teams since the start of the 2011 season.

CHILLY CASE Temperatures are expected to be in the mid- to upper 20s with some significant breezes for Saturday’s game. At least the freezing rain is supposed to clear out of the Waco area long before game time. “Whatever the weather is, still got to go play. Can’t really worry about it too much,” Texas running back Malcolm Brown said. “Just got to go out and do what you got to do.”

Photo by Eric Gay | AP

Texas’ Jackson Jeffcoat and the Longhorns are hoping to qualify for the BCS during a season full of ups and downs.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B

HINTS | BY HELOISE Dear Heloise: I have read your column for as long as I can remember.

All of your hints are helpful, practical and inexpensive. I hope you can spread the word about something very important to me and to millions of pets.

I have a PACEMAKER. I read that when the batteries in a pacemaker wear down, the pacemaker must be replaced. Used pacemakers cannot be refurbished and placed in humans again, but they can be placed into a pet to help prolong its life.

When a used pacemaker is given to you or your family, just take it to a veterinarian, who will forward it to a veterinary university in your state. Here in Indiana, it is Purdue University. They can use pacemakers in which the battery has expired, or if a person passes away.

There is a need for this donation, and it could give a beloved pet a better quality of life. — C.P., Fort Wayne, Ind. Wow! And thank you for sharing this heart hint!

Pacemakers are being used for animals — dogs, some cats and even a horse or two. This is a pretty new practice, but it seems to be growing. How wonderful to know that a used pacemaker can prolong the life of one of our animal friends.

Also, if a loved one is being buried or cremated, the pacemaker usually is removed and returned to the family. Call your veterinarian or a college of veterinary medicine in your state to find out if it accepts pacemakers or can direct you to an organization that does. — Hugs, Heloise FULL TREE Dear Heloise: I have a thin, artificial Christmas tree. However, it lacks the fullness to become a "wow" tree. I put plain green glass ornaments on the inner branches before the other decorations. This gives the tree an "optical blend" that makes it seem fuller (particularly from a distance).

The green ornaments are on sale after the holidays, and I grab them up! — Joe S. in Lake Worth, Fla.

DENNIS THE MENACE

FAMILY CIRCUS

PEANUTS

GARFIELD

DAILY CRYPTOQUOTES — Here’s how to work it:

DILBERT

Sports

4B THE ZAPATA TIMES

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

USA receives tough draw for World Cup Americans to face Ghana, Portugal and Germany

By RONALD BLUM ASSOCIATED PRESS

The United States will play Ghana, Portugal and Germany in what appears to be the most difficult first-round group at next year’s World Cup, one that will take the Americans on a 9,000mile trip around Brazil.

Making its seventh straight appearance at soccer’s showcase, the U.S. was drawn Friday into Group G and opens on June 16 in Natal against Ghana, which eliminated the Americans at the 2006 and 2010 tournaments.

The U.S. meets Portugal and 2008 FIFA Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo six days later in the Amazon rain forest city Manaus.

The Americans have just three off days to recover before closing group play on June 26 in Recife against three-time champion Germany.

“I think we have the quality, if we play our best ball, to get out of the group,” U.S. captain Clint Dempsey said. “You can’t think about, ’Am I the favorite? Am I the underdog? What’s it going to be like playing in the heat?

What’s it going to be like with the travel?’ Those are factors that come into it, but at the end of the day both teams have to deal with it.”

Statistically, the U.S. group has the top average FIFA world ranking.

“It’s definitely one of the tougher groups, if not the toughest, but at the same time, this is what the World Cup’s all about. You go there to play against the best,”

Photo by Silvia Izquierdo | AP

The United States had a difficult World Cup draw getting grouped with Ghana, Portugal and Germany.

American forward Jozy Altidore said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “I think the boys will be excited, will be up for it.”

U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann played for Germany’s 1990 World Cup championship team and coached his native country to third place in the 2006 tournament, commuting to Europe from his California home in Orange County.

“Obviously it’s one of the most difficult groups in the whole draw, having Portugal with Cristiano Ronaldo and then Ghana, who has a history with the United States. It couldn’t get any more difficult or any bigger,” he said at the draw in Costa do Sauipe, Brazil. “It’s a real challenge. And we’ll take it. We’ll take it on, and hopefully we’re going to surprise some people there.”

As the draw pot the U.S. was in was emptied, the Americans and South Korea were the last remaining teams. While the Americans

were drawn into the group with an average FIFA ranking of 11.25, South Korea wound up in Group H, creating a group with the poorest average at 28.25.

“I think the team’s mentality is that we can go and play with anybody,” American defender Matt Besler said. “Now we’re going to have to prove it.”

“I kind of had in my stomach that we were going to get Germany,” Klinsmann said.

Germany beat the U.S. 2-0 in in 1998 World Cup opener in Paris — with Klinsmann setting up the first goal and scoring the second — the edged the Americans 1-0 on a controversial goal in the 2002 quarterfinal in South Korea.

Die Mannschaft is coached by Klinsmann’s former assistant, Joachim Loew. The Americans beat a second-tier German team 4-3 in a June exhibition at Washington.

“With Jurgen Klinsmann, they have another mentality,” Loew said. “I learned a lot from Jurgen,

so this is special.”

Ranked 14th in the world, the U.S. has alternated quick exits with advancement since returning to soccer’s showcase in 1990.

After the draw four years ago, one British paper used a headline “EASY” for England, Algeria, Slovenia and the Yanks, and The Sun called it the “best English group since the Beatles.” The Americans wound up atop a group for the first time, and England advanced as the second-place nation.

This time, second-ranked Germany and fifth-ranked Portugal are the favorites to advance to the second round. If the U.S. reaches the round of 16, it would face Belgium, Russia, Algeria or South Korea from Group H. “I guarantee you Jurgen knows more about Germany than Jogi Loew knows about the U.S,” U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati said.

The U.S. will feel pressure to open with a win against Ghana,

ranked 24th. The Black Stars defeated the Americans 2-1 in the 2006 stage in Germany and by the same score in overtime in the round of 16 at the last World Cup in South Africa.

“They’re the team that beat us, kind of crushed our dreams of being in the World Cup, so I think we’re due a little bit of luck and we’re due a win against them,” Dempsey said.

At the 2002 tournament, the U.S. opened with a 3-2 upset of Portugal after taking a shocking three-goal lead in the first 36 minutes.

The Americans will train in the U.S. from mid-May on and plan a series of exhibition games, which likely will include England as an opponent, before heading to Brazil.

After having the shortest group-play travel in South Africa, the U.S. will have the longest in Brazil. The Americans will be based in Sao Paulo and face trips of 1,436 miles to Natal, 1,832 miles to Manaus and 1,321 miles to Recife. They also will play all three matches in the tropics, with the second and third matches in the afternoon.

“Everybody is saying that this is the ’Group of Death’ and it’s such a hard challenge,” former American captain John Harkes said. “I still think that the U.S. can rise to the occasion.”

In other groups, it is: Group A—Brazil, Cameroon, Croatia, Mexico; Group B—Australia, Chile, Netherlands, Spain; Group C—Colombia, Greece, Ivory Coast, Japan; Group D—Costa Rica, England, Italy, Uruguay; Group E—Ecuador, France, Honduras, Switzerland; Group F—Argentina, BosniaHerzegovina, Iran, Nigeria.

File photo by Lenny Ignelzi | AP

Chris Peterson has left Boise State after eight seasons to take the head coaching position at Washington.

Peterson leaves BSU

By TIM BOOTH ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEATTLE — Chris Petersen is headed to Washington after finally being persuaded to leave Boise State.

Petersen agreed to become the Huskies’ new football coach on Friday, leaving behind an unprecedented run of success with the Broncos. The Huskies made the announcement Friday morning after Petersen reportedly met with Washington athletic director Scott Woodward on Thursday night in Boise.

The decision was first reported

by ESPN. Petersen met with his Boise State players Friday morning before the announcement was made.

“Coach Petersen’s success and record are extraordinary, but even more impressive is the man himself,” Woodward said in a statement released by the school. “His integrity, work ethic and character make him an outstanding fit and leader of our student-athletes at UW. We are thrilled and proud to call Coach Petersen a Husky.”

Petersen will replace Steve Sarkisian, who went 34-29 in five seasons at Washington before leaving earlier this week to take the job at USC. Petersen was 92-12 in his eight seasons at Boise State, turning the Broncos into a national program with two Fiesta Bowl titles. But he’s coming off the worst regular season in his tenure with the Broncos after going 8-4, including a 38-6 loss at Washington in the season opener.

The fact Washington was able to pry Petersen out of Boise can be considered surprising after so many other schools called in the past and were rebuffed by the Broncos coach. He took over for Dan Hawkins in 2006 and turned Boise State into the darling of the BCS. Whether it was the audacious trick plays that led to Boise State’s first BCS upset of Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, or the staggering

run of victories with Kellen Moore at quarterback, Petersen was the one directing the Broncos’ rise.

The Broncos won five conference championships under Petersen and won 12 games in every season between 2008 and 2011. The Broncos got as high as No. 2 in the AP Top 25 in 2010 and might have found themselves playing in another BCS game if not for an overtime loss at Nevada in the next-tolast game of the regular season.

But the Broncos seemed to plateau this past season. The year started with the blowout loss at Washington, the worst defeat of Petersen’s career. Boise State lost three more times on the road at Fresno State, at BYU and at San Diego State, and a loss in a bowl game would leave the Broncos with five defeats for the first time since 1998, when they were in their third season at the Football Bowl Subdivision level.

The struggles this season left some wondering if Petersen had already done all he could do at Boise State.

Petersen will inherit a program at Washington coming off its first eight-win season since 2001. The Huskies had been stuck on seven wins the past three seasons but a 27-17 win over Washington State in the Apple Cup changed the tenor of the Huskies’ season.

Washington appeared on the verge of joining the upper echelon of the conference this season but was turned back in losses to Stanford, Oregon and Arizona State.

Sarkisian never defeated the Ducks in his tenure, which stuck with Washington fans tired of getting beaten up by their neighbors to the south, and that will be a primary task for Petersen. In his career, Petersen is 2-0 against the Ducks.

Sarkisian was the first Washington coach to voluntarily leave for another position since Darrell Royal in 1956 when he departed for Texas. Royal was at Washington for one season.

Photo by John Minchillo | AP

Outfielder Curtis Granderson is switching jerseys in New York, trading in his Yankees gear to become a Met.

Granderson picks Mets ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — A person familiar with the situation says free-agent outfielder Curtis Granderson and the New York Mets have agreed to a $60 million, four-year contract.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Friday because the deal was pending a physical and no announcement had been made.

The agreement was first reported by the New York Post.

The 32-year-old Granderson comes over from the crosstown Yankees, giving the Mets muchneeded power in their punchless outfield. He batted .229 with seven homers and 15 RBIs this year, when injuries limited him to 61 games. But he surpassed 40 homers in each of the previous two seasons.

The move marks general manager Sandy Alderson’s most expensive free-agent signing — by far — after three years of bargain shopping as the Mets were rebuilding.

Rangers sign Contreras to minorleague deal ARLINGTON — Jose Contreras, the Cuban right-hander who turns 42 on Friday, has signed a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers that includes a non-roster invitation to major league spring training.

Contreras spent last season with the Pittsburgh and Boston organizations. He had ligament replacement surgery on his right elbow in June 2012 and spent last spring rehabbing before making seven relief appearances for the Pirates in May. Also Thursday, Texas signed right-hander Nate Adcock and outfielder Bryan Petersen to minor league deals with the

same invitation to spring training as Contreras. Adcock and Petersen both have major league experience.

Contreras has a 78-67 career record in the major leagues, with a 4.57 ERA over 299 games with the New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Colorado, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Furcal moves to Miami MIAMI— Two people familiar with the situation say freeagent infielder Rafael Furcal and the Miami Marlins have agreed to terms on a contract.

Both people confirmed the deal to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday because the contract hadn’t been finalized.

In addition, one of the people said, catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia passed his physical, and his $21 million, three-year contract with Miami was finalized.

The 36-year-old Furcal, a three-time All-Star, sat out this season after undergoing elbow ligament-replacement surgery in March. He made the NL AllStar team as a starter at shortstop in 2012, when he batted .264 in 121 games for the Cardinals.

Furcal is a 13-year veteran and a .281 career hitter. He’s expected to compete for playing time at second base for the Marlins.

Dodgers ink reliever Wilson LOS ANGELES — A person with knowledge of the negotiations says free-agent reliever Brian Wilson has agreed to terms on a $10 million, oneyear contract to stay with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The deal is pending a physical, the person said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the team had not made an announcement re-

garding the quirky, bearded pitcher. Wilson’s new contract includes an option for the 2015 season.

Wilson, a right-hander and the 2010 majors saves leader while with San Francisco, joined the NL West champion Dodgers last season after a second Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery. He missed almost the entire 2012 season when the Giants won their second World Series in three years.

Wilson went 2-1 with a 0.66 ERA in 18 outings this year for Los Angeles.

Cards lose Mujica to Red Sox BOSTON — A person familiar with the deal tells The Associated Press that the Boston Red Sox and reliever Edward Mujica have agreed on a twoyear contract.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday because the deal was pending a physical and had not been announced. The 29-year-old Mujica gives the Red Sox some protection if closer Koji Uehara, who turns 39 in April, cannot repeat his 2013 performance next season.

The move comes one day after Boston completed an $8.25 million, one-year contract with catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who gets a $7.5 million salary and a $750,000 signing bonus.

Mujica was 2-1 with 37 saves and a 2.78 ERA for the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals last season. He made two appearances in the playoffs, giving up one run in two innings. He did not appear in the World Series against the Red Sox. In an eight-year career, the right-handed Venezuelan has a 19-19 record with 41 saves and a 3.75 ERA.