The Zapata Times 12/24/2016

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U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

OIL TRADES

Travel warning in effect

Drillers extend shale revival

Kidnapping numbers in Tamaulipas among highest in Mexico TH E ZAPATA T IME S

Due to American citizens being the victims of homicides, kidnappings, carjackings and robberies in Mexico, the U.S. State Department has updated its travel warnings to the country ahead of the holidays.

For Tamaulipas, which includes Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Tampico, the warning states that “U.S. citizens should defer all non-essential travel to the state ... due to vio-

lent crime, including homicide, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, extortion and sexual assault.”

Gun battles between rival drug cartels and gangs or with Mexican authorities continue to happen on the streets and in public places during daylight. The State Department says there is no evidence that criminal groups target U.S. citizens based on their nationality.

Also, most “resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico generally do not see

the level of drug-related violence and crime that are reported in the border region or in areas along major trafficking routes,” according to the State Department. One of the most popular tourist destinations in Mexico is Quintana Roo, which includes Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Riviera Maya and Tulum. No advisory is in effect for that state.

The warning recommends U.S. citizens to use toll roads when possible.

207 rigs have been added since May

The State Department also advises travelers to cooperate at checkpoints on Mexican roads and highways.

“In some places, criminal organizations have erected their own unauthorized checkpoints, at times wearing police and military uniforms, and have killed or abducted motorists who have failed to stop at them,” the warning states. “You should cooperate at all checkpoints.”

The advisory includes

Oil explorers added rigs for the eighth straight week, extending a ramp-up of activity in the U.S. shale patch as prices hover near $53 a barrel.

Rigs targeting crude in the U.S. rose by 13 TO 523 this week, Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday.

Drillers have added 207 rigs since the count hit a seven-year low on May 27. Natural gas rigs

Travel continues on A11

Oil continues on A11

By Meenal Vamburkar BL OOMBERG NEWS

YEAR IN REVIEW

TEXAN OF THE YEAR

2016 ON THE BORDER

Todd Yates / Corpus Christi Caller-Times/AP file

In this July 2008 photo, U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack administers the U.S. oath of citizenship.

Judge who ruled Texas’ foster care system broken recognized

A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent passes birdwatcher Nancy Hill, 81, along a section of the border wall Nov. 13 in Hidago, Texas.

A S S O CIAT E D PRE SS

Trump’s ‘wall’ talk propelled him to victory

DALLAS — U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack, who ruled that Texas’ foster care system is unconstitutionally broken, has been named The Dallas Morning News’ Texan of the Year.

Jack “punctured our comfortable obliviousness to the appalling treatment” being endured by the 12,000 children labeled permanent wards of the state, the newspaper said in its announcement of the award Friday.

“It takes an extraordinary person to hold up a Judge continues on A11

Eric Gay / AP

By Julián Aguilar THE TEXAS TRIBUNE

Between a presidential candidate making a border wall the centerpiece of his winning campaign and debates over whether local or state officials were doing enough on the complicated issue, illegal immigration

was at the forefront of the political landscape in 2016.

Here’s a look at the year’s biggest stories related to immigration and the border, all of which could reverberate during next year’s legislative session in Austin and the upcoming transition of power in Washington, D.C.

Border talk helps propel Trump to White House In 2015, Donald Trump, then a new candidate for president, quickly sparked outrage among border residents and many Democrats after he said Mexico was sending “criminals” and “rapists” to the United

States and promised to build a “big, beautiful” wall on the southern border. He also vowed to eliminate NAFTA, a 20-year-old trade deal that has made some Texas cities among the busiest trade hubs in the country.

In 2016, with little Border continues on A11

Zin brief A2 | Saturday, December 24, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

CALENDAR

AROUND THE WORLD

TODAY IN HISTORY

MONDAY, DECEMBER 26

ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Chess Club. Every Monday, 4-6 p.m.

LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete with other players in this cherished game played internationally. Free instruction for all ages and skill levels. Chess books and training materials are available.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 1 J.J. Sanchez Annual Memorial Mass. 10 a.m. Christ the King Church.

Hosted by the Laredo A&M Mothers' Club. Former and current Aggie students and their families are invited to attend. There will a special blessing for those students who are returning to A&M in College Station the spring semester.

MONDAY, JANUARY 2 Chess Club. Every Monday, 4-6 p.m.

LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete with other players in this cherished game played internationally. Free instruction for all ages and skill levels. Chess books and training materials are available.

Ray of Light anxiety and depression support group meeting.

6:30—7:30 p.m. Area Health Education Center, 1505 Calle del Norte, Suite 430. Every first Monday of the month.

People suffering from anxiety and depression are invited to attend this free, confidential and anonymous support group meeting. While a support group does not replace an individual’s medical care, it can be a valuable resource to gain insight, strength and hope.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3 Alzheimer's support group meeting. 7 p.m. Meeting room 2, building B of the Laredo Medical Center. The support group is for family members and caregivers taking care of someone who has Alzheimer's. For information, please call 956-693-9991.

MONDAY, JANUARY 9 Chess Club. Every Monday, 4-6 p.m.

LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete with other players in this cherished game played internationally. Free instruction for all ages and skill levels. Chess books and training materials are available.

Fethi Belaid / AFP/Getty

Walid Amri, right, and Mustapha Amri, the father and brother of 24-year-old Anis Amri, the prime suspect in Berlin's deadly truck attack, pose with a portrait of Anis in front of the family house in the town of Oueslatia, in Tunisia's region of Kairouan on Friday.

BERLIN ATTACK SUSPECT SLAIN MILAN — A routine request for ID papers outside a deserted train station in Milan at 3 a.m. Friday led to a police shootout that killed the Tunisian fugitive wanted in the deadly Christmas market attack in Berlin.

While authorities expressed relief that the search for Anis Amri was over, his four-day run raised fresh questions about whether he had any accomplices and how Europe can stop extremists from moving freely across its open borders, even amid an intense manhunt.

Italian police said Amri traveled from Germany through France and into Italy after Monday night’s truck rampage in Berlin, and at least some of his journey was

by rail. French officials refused to comment on his passage through France, which has increased surveillance on trains after recent attacks in France and Germany.

Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni called for greater cross-border police cooperation, suggesting some dismay that Europe’s open frontier policy had enabled Amri to move around easily despite being its No. 1 fugitive.

Amri, whose fingerprints and wallet were found in the truck that plowed into Christmas market outside Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others, was caught seemingly by chance after eluding police for more than three days.

MONDAY, JANUARY 16 Chess Club. Every Monday, 4-6 p.m.

LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete with other players in this cherished game played internationally. Free instruction for all ages and skill levels. Chess books and training materials are available.

MONDAY, JANUARY 23 Chess Club. Every Monday, 4-6 p.m.

LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete with other players in this cherished game played internationally. Free instruction for all ages and skill levels. Chess books and training materials are available.

MONDAY, JANUARY 30 Chess Club. Every Monday, 4-6 p.m.

LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete with other players in this cherished game played internationally. Free instruction for all ages and skill levels. Chess books and training materials are available.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6 Chess Club. Every Monday, 4-6 p.m.

LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete with other players in this cherished game played internationally. Free instruction for all ages and skill levels. Chess books and training materials are available.

Ray of Light anxiety and depression support group meeting.

6:30—7:30 p.m. Area Health Education Center, 1505 Calle del Norte, Suite 430. Every first Monday of the month.

People suffering from anxiety and depression are invited to attend this free, confidential and anonymous support group meeting. While a support group does not replace an individual’s medical care, it can be a valuable resource to gain insight, strength and hope.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13 Chess Club. Every Monday, 4-6 p.m.

LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete with other players in this cherished game played internationally. Free instruction for all ages and skill levels. Chess books and training materials are available.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20 Chess Club. Every Monday, 4-6 p.m.

LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete with other players in this cherished game played internationally. Free instruction for all ages and skill levels. Chess books and training materials are available.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27 Chess Club. Every Monday, 4-6 p.m.

LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete with other players in this cherished game played internationally. Free instruction for all ages and skill levels. Chess books and training materials are available.

MONDAY, MARCH 6 Chess Club. Every Monday, 4-6 p.m.

LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete with other players in this cherished game played internationally. Free instruction for all ages and skill levels. Chess books and training materials are available.

Obama signs defense policy bill, objects on Guantanamo HONOLULU — President Barack Obama signed into law Friday a defense policy bill that authorizes $611 billion for the military in 2017, lauding provisions designed to sustain momentum in countering the Islamic State group while harshly criticizing Congress's insistence on keeping open the

military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The legislation provides a 2.1 percent pay hike for the military and sets spending priorities and guidance for the current fiscal year. The funding for the programs is delivered through a separate spending bill.

Obama, who is vacationing in Hawaii, said the bill will provide vital benefits to military personnel and their families. He also said it improved flexibility for government agencies in countering cyber-

attacks and adversaries' use of drones.

But he was highly critical of several other provisions.

Among them, Obama cited the continued operation of Guantanamo. He said spending hundreds of millions of dollars to keep fewer than 60 men in isolation undermines U.S. standing in the world and emboldens violent extremists.

Obama submitted a plan in February to close the detention facility. — Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE NATION Officer shot in Washington state gradually improving SEATTLE — A Washington state police officer who was shot in the head while responding to a call last week is making incremental improvements, but it's too soon to say what his prognosis might be, a doctor said Friday.

City of Mount Vernon Officer Mike McClaughry, 60, has been in intensive care at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle since the Dec. 15 shooting.

Dr. Louis Kim, chief of neurological surgery, told reporters that McClaughry has displayed some reaction to localized stimulation, a sign of upper brain function, but he is not responding to instructions by squeezing or moving his fingers, for example.

On a "coma scale" that runs

Ellen M. Banner / AP

April McClaughry, daughter of Mount Vernon Officer Mike McClaughry, speaks at a news conference in Seattle on Friday.

from 3, or nearly brain-dead, to 15, or fully functioning, McClaughry is somewhere in the middle, Kim said.

Daughter April McClaughry thanked the community for its support, saying at the news conference that the family might dedicate an entire room to the cards and letters received from well-wishers. She

smiled as she read a letter from a child suggesting her father should get a Purple Heart.

"You sacrificed your head for others' safety," it said.

Mike McClaughry was responding to a shooting in Mount Vernon, 60 miles north of Seattle, when he was shot.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND TEXAS Texas police must show arrest not racially motivated DALLAS — The lawyer for a black woman who's seen on video being wrestled to the ground and arrested by a white officer said Friday the burden is on police to prove the officer's actions weren't racially motivated.

Attorney S. Lee Merritt said police in Fort Worth and elsewhere in the country have

Today is Saturday, Dec. 24, the 359th day of 2016. There are seven days left in the year. This is Christmas Eve; the Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, begins at sunset.

Today’s Highlight in History: On Dec. 24, 1906, Canadian physicist Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to transmit the human voice (his own) as well as music over radio, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.

On this date: In 1814, the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812 following ratification by both the British Parliament and the U.S. Senate.

In 1851, fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroying about 35,000 volumes.

In 1865, several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, that was the original version of the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1914, during World War I, impromptu Christmas truces began to take hold along parts of the Western Front between British and German soldiers.

In 1939, Pope Pius XII delivered a Christmas Eve address in which he offered a five-point program for peace and denounced “premeditated aggressions.”

In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe as part of Operation Overlord.

In 1951, Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” the first opera written specifically for television, was first broadcast by NBC-TV. In 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve telecast.

In 1974, Cyclone Tracy began battering the Australian city of Darwin, resulting in widespread damage and causing some 65 deaths.

In 1980, Americans remembered the U.S. hostages in Iran by burning candles or shining lights for 417 seconds — one second for each day of captivity.

In 1995, fire broke out at the Philadelphia Zoo, killing 23 rare gorillas, orangutans, gibbons and lemurs.

Ten years ago: Ethiopia sent fighter jets into Somalia and bombed several towns in a dramatic attack on Somalia’s powerful Islamic movement; Ethiopia’s prime minister said his country had been “forced to enter a war.”

Five years ago: In a setback, Republican presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to qualify for Virginia’s Super Tuesday primary ballot by falling short of the 10,000 signatures required.

Troops commanded by relatives of Yemen’s outgoing president, Ali Abdullah Saleh attacked a crowd of more than 100,000 peaceful protesters, killing at least nine and driving Saleh to promise to leave the country.

One year ago: Christian faithful from around the world descended on the biblical city of Bethlehem for Christmas Eve celebrations as an outburst of Israeli-Palestinian violence dampened the typically festive mood.

California Gov. Jerry Brown pardoned actor Robert Downey Jr. for a nearly 20-year-old felony drug conviction that sent the Oscar-nominated actor to jail for nearly a year. William Guest, 74, a member of Gladys Knight and the Pips, died in Detroit.

Today’s Birthdays: Songwriterbandleader Dave Bartholomew is 98.

Author Mary Higgins Clark is 89.

Federal health official Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., is 76. Recording company executive Mike Curb is 72. Actress Sharon Farrell is 70. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., is 70. Actor Grand L. Bush is 61. Actor Clarence Gilyard is 61.

Actress Stephanie Hodge is 60. The former president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai is 59. Rock musician Ian Burden is 59. Actor Anil Kapoor is 57.

Actress Eva Tamargo is 56. Actor Wade Williams is 55. Designer Kate Spade is 54. Rock singer Mary Ramsey (10,000 Maniacs) is 53. Actor Mark Valley is 52. Actor Diedrich Bader is 50. Actor Amaury Nolasco is 46.

Singer Ricky Martin is 45. Author Stephenie Meyer is 43. Former “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest is 42.

Actor Michael Raymond-James is 39.

Rock singer Louis Tomlinson is 25.

Thought for Today: “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” — The Rev. Norman Vincent Peale (born 1898, died this day in 1993).

CONTACT US shown "discriminatory behavior" toward minorities. He told The Associated Press that his client, Jacqueline Craig, is not currently considering a federal civil rights claim against police.

She wants to see the Fort Worth officer fired and other actions taken by authorities, Merritt said.

"Everything that was done that day was done incorrectly," he said.

The officer, whose name hasn't been released, responded to a call for service after Craig

argued with a man who she said had physically confronted her 7-year-old son for littering.

In the cellphone video of Wednesday's incident, Craig can be heard telling the officer that the man had "grabbed and choked" her son. The officer engages Craig in a conversation that quickly escalates. He asks why she hadn't taught her son not to litter. Craig says that regardless of whether the boy littered, the man did not have the right to "put his hands on him." — Compiled from AP reports

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The Zapata Times

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, December 24, 2016 |

A3

LOCAL & STATE

Gateway Community Health Christmas door decorating contest S P ECIAL T O T HE T I ME S

On Tuesday, Gateway Community Health Center held their annual Christmas Door Decorating Contest.

Every year, all four clinics decorate their department doors for the holiday season and then have them judged by members of the community. This year’s judges were Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina; Julie Bazan, executive director of

AHEC; and Jackie Rodriguez, CEO of Ruthe B. Cowell Rehabilitation Center.

After much deliberation the winners of the Central/Zapata Clinic are: 1st: Zapata 2nd: Pharmacy 3rd: Dental The winners for the South/Hebbronville Clinics are: 1st: Adult Medical 2nd: Dental 3rd: Women’s Clinic

Texas man accused in double-slaying will not fight extradition A S S O CIAT E D PRE SS

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. — A man suspected of killing his wife and infant son in Texas calmly told officers during a traffic stop in Colorado that he was having a “long week” because his wife and children had been murdered and he was being blamed, according to police reports filed in connection with the case.

Craig Vandewege, 35, was being held Friday in Glenwood Springs, a Colorado resort town, pending his extradition to Texas to face charges and did not plan to fight the effort to send him back, said his lawyer,

Leslie Barrows.

Police have said he had called 911 Dec. 15 in Fort Worth, Texas, to report he came home from work and found his wife, Shanna Riddle Vandewege, and their 3-monthold son Diederik dead.

Their throats had been slashed.

The Colorado police reports stated Vandewege raised suspicions after police say he borrowed a phone from a 7-Eleven clerk and was overheard talking about a murder.

The clerk called 911 and when police later pulled him over for speeding, he calmly and unemotionally told them that his wife and son had been murdered, the reports said.

Donated bicycles help adult, children refugees in Austin Kelly West / AP

By Taylor Goldenstein ASSOCIATED PRE SS

AUSTIN, Texas — Snug in a black peacoat, 12-year-old Rafael AlMashahedi eyed the bikes around her, standing next to a few and sizing herself up. Then she spotted the one: a Magna in pink, her favorite color.

The Austin AmericanStatesman reports Rafael had never owned a bicycle before.

She had a small tricycle when she was a toddler, but she had to leave it behind in Baghdad, along with nearly all of her family’s other belongings when they moved about six months ago. They also left many of their relatives.

“It’s good, because, like, in my country, no one very (much) want(s) to let his daughter ride a bike, but here we are free,” she said, describing the plans she already had to go with her family to the park near their new home in Northeast Austin. “In my country, it was not very good, it’s kind of dangerous. Here, we feel safe.”

Rafael was one of more than 40 refugee children who received free bikes during a giveaway for families using resettlement services from the nonprofit Caritas of Austin. The bikes were donated by Austin’s Yellow Bike Project, a nonprofit community bike shop that fixes up old donated bicycles with the help of volunteers and some

professional mechanics.

For the past three years, the Yellow Bike Project donated about 10 to 15 bikes every month to adult refugees to give them a mode of transportation.

This year, the two nonprofits teamed up to plan the bike giveaway for children as a holiday event, said Will Chang, donation coordinator at Yellow Bike. Small donations have also been made in the past for children, but this is the first mass giveaway. The groups hope to make it an annual

In this Dec. 14 photo, Joel Bell repairs a child's bike at the Austin Yellow Bike Project in Austin, Texas.

event.

At a time when refugees aren’t always accepted with open arms, Chang said he wanted to send the children and their families a loving message with this gift.

“The state of Texas has been talking about not letting refugees in and cutting funding for refugee services, so we just wanted to make an effort so that people who are moving here feel welcomed by somebody,”

Chang said.

Caritas of Austin offers many services for refugee families, including orientation programs for adults that include courses on job readiness, health care, and gender and American culture, and sessions for children that cover such topics as what to expect at an American school. Each family is matched with case managers and employment specialists that they meet with regularly.

Zopinion

Letters to the editor Send your signed letter to editorial@lmtonline.com

A4 | Saturday, December 24, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

COLUMN

OTHER VIEWS

Why do some hate crimes fail to resonate?

By Mary Sanchez TH E KA NSAS CI T Y STAR

The December day began like any other. Will Corporon awoke to the noisy bustle of his life, five children and loving wife.

He headed out, a normal day in the life of a hardworking American father.

Until the day’s news reared with an offending slap.

Dylann S. Roof was convicted on 33 federal hate crime-related charges for the execution slaughter of nine African-Americans as they prayed in a historically significant South Carolina church.

Corporon sent me a text shortly after he heard the news: "Hey, Mary, how come there is a federal hate crimes trial for Dylann Roof but not our idiot?"

Our idiot is known to the Kansas Department of Corrections as F. Glenn Miller Jr. He drove to the Kansas City area from southern Missouri in 2014 intent to murder Jews. He shot and killed Corporon’s father and his 14-year-old nephew, and then turned his shotgun on the beloved wife and mother of another family who had ventured out that rainy afternoon to visit her mother in a nursing home. All were Christian.

Don’t know the names of the victims? Specifics of the case don’t resonate?

That’s part of what makes Corporon upset, and with good reason.

In America, deranged people can kill with racial, ethnic, religious or any of a wide range of hatreds and receive far differing reactions from the national media, the general public and seemingly even from the forces of justice.

And so 24/7 news coverage of Roof agitated Corporon, who lives in Arkansas.

What if the idiot had been successful and had killed numerous Jewish people? Would the national outcry have been different? What if the victims had been black? Would advocacy groups or highprofile individuals have stepped in to pressure for federal attention?

"In this day and age, why pass up the opportunity to send a message?"

Corporon asked.

Fair questions - and hard to answer. As a reporter, I was truly surprised that Miller’s murders did not become a bigger national story.

The most recent federal data on hate crimes detail more than 7,000 people targeted in 2015. Hate crimes targeting the victim’s real or perceived race/ethnicity/ancestry were the most prevalent, accounting for 59 percent of the incidents. Next was religious bias at nearly 20

percent, followed by sexual orientation at almost 18 percent.

Among the hate crimes motivated by race or ethnicity, black people by far were the main victims, drawing more than 50 percent of the crimes.

Whites followed at nearly 19 percent. Anti-Hispanic or Latino bias motivated 9 percent of the crimes.

Among crimes motivated by religious bias, antiSemitism accounted for more than half of the attacks, followed by antiMuslim bias at about 22 percent.

So the despicable actions of both Roof and Miller fit the leading patterns of hate crimes.

There are explanations for the lack of hate crime charges in the Kansas murders. Corporon accepts them, to a point.

"We did get justice," he said. "But to me, it’s more about a message that the U.S. government stands up and says, ’This is a hate crime and we aren’t going to tolerate it.’ " A decision was made between the district attorney and the then-U.S. attorney for Kansas, Barry Grissom. The goal was to get the case to trial quickly. Federal action would take longer.

Like South Carolina, Kansas has no hate crime law. But it does have enhanced sentencing for bias motivated crimes.

Miller was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. Asthmatic and feeble, he will die in prison.

Officials didn’t want to put the community and the families through another trial to reach the same result. As Corporon concedes, they can’t kill Miller twice. The dignity and respect afforded the families during every phase of the trial was a testament to prosecutors and the judge.

More than 50 years of age separate Roof and Miller. But they are largely the same type of person.

Both dwell on concocted versions of racial strife.

Roof wanted to start a race war, inspired by online reports of nonexistent murder sprees by black people targeting whites. Miller, a longtime white supremacist, was obsessed by the belief that immigrants, Jewish people and minorities are pitted against white people.

Corporon sees a common theme. "It’s all just another example of ways that we are mean and hostile to each other," he said.

Yet both crimes also engendered tremendous acts of kindness from people moved by the violence, strangers who were deeply offended by the hatred. Maybe, it will be at that level that these hateful acts will be overcome.

COLUMN

What Texas doesn’t want you to slip in the kids’ Christmas stocking

By Ken Herman COX NEWSPAPERS

AUSTIN, Texas — What makes a better stocking stuffer for the kids than an investment that carries potential for high-dollar, short-term yield?

The State of Texas may have just the ticket. For a mere dollar, you can purchase a gift that will delight the kids and spread the holiday spirit. For that buck you can buy a chance in the Texas Lottery’s Hipster Holiday game. As of mid-week, 54 of the 77 $500 top prizes have been claimed, so there’s still some out there, as well as many in the lower prize categories.

Players have a 1 in 4.7 chance of scratching off a Hispter Holidays winner (Caveat: That includes the bottom-tier $1 prize that just gives you your money back.)

Great idea for the kids, right? And, even if they experience the disappointment of scratching off a loser — a potentially valuable lesson in how life sometimes goes -- you can have a teaching moment about how the state uses gambling losses to fund

public schools, veterans programs and other good stuff.

But wait. Ho, ho, hold it right there! (And there it is, folks, one of Austin’s great annual holiday traditions: My tiresome use of the “ho, ho, hold it right there” chestnut roasting on an open fire. We can now proceed with Christmas 2016. And may all your Christmases be white. Sorry, that comes out better when sung.)

Before you stuff lottery tickets in the kids’ stockings, you should know that, in addition to its annual holiday seasonthemed games, the Texas Lottery is out with its annual holiday season warning against giving its tickets as gifts to kids.

“Our products are designed to be entertaining stocking stuffers or holiday office party gifts,” Gary Grief, the Texas Lottery’s executive director, says in the caveat, “but they are not intended for anyone under 18 years old.”

You’ve been warned.

Yule be a bad adult if you give lottery tickets to kids this holiday season.

And while Christmas is on our minds, let me tell you about the dumbest

portrayal of Santa that I’ve seen in a while. It’s on a TV commercial for toll tags, specifically the TxTags so many of us have on our windshields.

(And wouldn’t a TxTag make a nice stocking stuffer if you’re giving your kid a riding car toy?)

In addition to making a list and checking it more than once, Santa is hawking TxTags this year in a commercial that uses the only holiday theme more tiresome than my “ho, ho, hold it right there” line.

It’s another iteration of a device that became hackneyed not long after Clement Clarke Moore penned the beloved original version in 1822: “’Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the town, Santa was preparing to make his rounds,” the TxTag ad begins as it goes on to show Santa delayed by a bad radiator on what appears to be the 1957 Cadillac he’s using to make the deliveries. The reindeer apparently were involved in a work stoppage of some kind. Just kidding, there is no Amalgamated Reindeer Union.

Actually, Santa says he’s using the flashy Caddy because his sleigh didn’t

OP-ED

World’s constitutions sent into crisis

By Noah Feldman BL OOMBERG NEWS

Many constitutional systems around the globe have been tested in 2016.

Turkey, Poland, the UK, the U.S. -- each case sheds some light on how different constitutional arrangements respond to the challenges of political factions.

Begin with the worst constitutional crisis, the one that is taking place in Turkey in the aftermath of a coup attempt against

the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The background is complicated: Erdogan’s AK Party won national elections in 2002, 2007 and 2015; Erdogan himself was directly elected president in 2014. All these elections were pretty clean, and most observers accept that a plurality of Turks have preferred Erdogan’s party for a decade and a half.

During that time, the Turkish constitution has come under pressure both from AK’s attempts

to make it more religionfriendly and from the efforts of the constitutional court to maintain the radical secularism enshrined in the document.

Beyond that, Erdogan has been slowly but clearly eroding freedom of the press as he has become increasingly authoritarian.

But the failed coup this past summer changed Turkey’s constitutional landscape drastically. Not only did Erdogan purge the military, but he took the opportunity to purge

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pass inspection.

“But with his sleigh bells jingling and toys in his bag, Santa got it done thanks to his trusty TxTag,” we’re told on the ad. “Avoid holiday traffic by taking the toll roads and get a TxTag to save 25 percent.”

All good there, if you’re good with Santa in a gasguzzling mass of metal from years gone by. But it’s the visual that makes Santa look like something of a dummy. In the climactic final scene, the toystuffed red Caddy cruises under the toll-reading device on the toll road and then takes off into the air and veers right.

So many questions here: If the Caddy can fly, what was Santa doing on the toll road? And if the Caddy can fly, why would Santa go under the tollreading device and then take off right after it?

This makes no sense. I invite you to ponder its meaning vis a vis the broader meaning of life itself. I’m sure there’s a connection.

And when you’re done with that, have a happy and safe holiday season.

And keep those lottery tickets away from the kids.

DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

the judiciary, too, badly undermining the rule of law. The purge was based partly in party politics, and partly on the religious-cultural movement led by Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish leader in exile in the U.S. whom Erdogan blames for the coup attempt.

The lesson is that when a government believes one faction is trying to bring it down undemocratically, it will be sorely tempted to suppress that faction outside the constitution.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, December 24, 2016 |

A5

ENTERTAINMENT

Rockettes' owners say attendance at inauguration is a choice Fred R. Conrad / NYT

By Mark Kennedy A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

NEW YORK — The Radio City Rockettes will be dancing at Presidentelect Donald Trump's inauguration next month, but not everyone is kicking up their heels at the booking.

One of the famed dancers took to Instagram to say she was "embarrassed and disappointed" by the gig, triggering calls for a boycott by some on social media. Critics have posted the phone numbers of the dancers' union and the Rockettes' employer to

urge complaints.

But Madison Square Garden Co., which employs the dancers, said Friday no dancers are being compelled to attend the event.

"For a Rockette to be considered for an event, they must voluntarily sign up and are never told they have to perform at a particular event, including the inaugural," the company said in a statement.

"It is always their choice.

In fact, for the coming inauguration, we had more Rockettes request to participate than we have slots available."

Many on social media

believed attendance was mandatory, including Julissa Sabino, a performer who is part of the union, who tweeted that the issue "breaks my heart" and urged supporters to "help these ladies."

Autumn Withers, a former Rockette, supported a boycott, saying "take a knee, ladies!"

The American Guild of Variety Artists, which represents the Rockettes, has not publicly responded. Many Rockettes — there are 80 women employed for the Christmas show, split into two casts — are employed yearround and also appear in

Man charged with killing ex-reality TV contestant A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — A Southern California man has been charged with beating to death a former reality TV show contestant with a ham-

mer and burying her in his backyard.

Jackie Rogers was charged Thursday with murder. It's unclear whether he has an attorney because his scheduled Thursday arraign-

ment was postponed.

Rogers could face 26 years to life in prison if convicted.

The 34-year-old Lennox man is charged with bludgeoning to death Lisa Marie Naegle.

Rapper Young Thug arrested at Atlanta mall A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

ATLANTA — Atlanta police have arrested rapper Young Thug on an outstanding warrant after spotting him at a mall.

A police report says officers responded around

8 p.m. Thursday to a report of a stolen vehicle seen driving through the parking lot of Lenox Square mall. They decided to walk through the mall and one of them spotted the 25-year-old rapper, whose real name is Jeffery

Lamar Williams.

The officer knew Williams had an active warrant and verified that by radio. Atlanta police said the outstanding warrant stemmed from his failure to appear in court for a previous traffic violation.

This Dec. 2013 file photo shows the Rockettes at the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan. After an uproar over reports that Rockettes who did not perform at the inauguration of Donald Trump would lose their jobs, the troupes management denied that was the case.

a summer show that debuted this year.

The Rockettes, who have performed at Radio City Music Hall since the 1930s, have previously appeared in Super Bowl halftime shows, Macy's Thanksgiving Day parades and George W. Bush's inaugurations in 2001 and 2005.

The dancers who choose to attend will join The Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20.

Earlier this month,

Trump's inaugural committee announced that "America's Got Talent" star Jackie Evancho will be singing the national anthem at the ceremony.

The presence of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which has performed at several past inaugurations, hasn't been met with universal applause.

Former choir member John Bonner, for one, said he was shocked and upset when he heard the news.

"I expect the church to

stand on their moral high ground," Bonner told KUTV in Salt Lake City.

An online petition calls on the group to re-consider.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acknowledged that the response to the announcement has been mixed, though church spokesman Eric Hawkins said in a statement that the appearance is a demonstration of support for the office rather than party affiliations or politics.

A6 | Saturday, December 24, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

NATIONAL

Chicago police brass defended Laquan McDonald shooting after seeing video, records show Nancy Stone / TNS

By Jeremy Gorner, Dan Hinkel and Todd Lighty CH ICAGO T RIBUNE

CHICAGO — Days after Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke shot Laquan McDonald 16 times, top brass watched a video of the fatal shooting at a meeting in which "everyone agreed" the shooting was justified, a lieutenant who attended the meeting said in sworn testimony.

Newly obtained documents of the city’s Office of Inspector General investigation into the fatal shooting show that the department, from beat cops to command-level officials, quickly came to Van Dyke’s defense, even after viewing dashboard camera video at the scene that contradicted officers’ accounts. Command-level officers raised few concerns and signed off on their reports, the inspector general’s investigation found.

"There was never no question whether the shooting was justified," Lt. Osvaldo Valdez told investigators with the city’s Office of Inspector General about the meeting of the top brass. "Everyone

agreed that Officer Van Dyke used the force necessary to eliminate the threat, and that’s pretty much it."

Among those who huddled at police headquarters for the meeting, about 10 days after the shooting in October 2014, was thenDeputy Chief Eddie Johnson, who was promoted to superintendent after Garry McCarthy was fired in the fallout of the video’s release. Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi acknowledged that Johnson was at the meeting but said the superintendent "strongly disagrees" with Valdez’s characterization of the briefing. Guglielmi declined to elaborate and Johnson referred questions to the spokesman.

The details about the meeting are buried in thousands of pages of records obtained by the Chicago Tribune that document the inspector general’s investigation and its findings that numerous officers at the scene falsified police reports and sought to cover up the facts of McDonald’s killing.

The documents also contain Van Dyke’s first-

Facebook threats against Trump land Florida man in jail, feds say

By Paula McMahon SUN S ENT I NE L

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A Broward man’s Facebook postings have landed him in jail after federal authorities said he threatened to kill or harm President-elect Donald Trump.

Kevin Keith Krohn, 59, was arrested Thursday at his Pembroke Pines home after law enforcement informed the U.S. Secret Service agents who protect Trump about the postings.

"I’m just glad Obama didn’t take all our gunz! I see a good use for one now," Krohn wrote online above a picture of Trump that read, "He’s not my president / He’s an enemy of the state," agents wrote in court records.

Krohn posted his remarks in a thread of comments related to Trump’s holiday season stay at his Palm Beach home, according to court records.

Agents said Krohn posted another comment that read: "The Expediter of Trump! He will never last long!" above a picture of a man in camouflage holding a scoped sniper rifle.

When another Facebook user asked what he meant, agents said Krohn responded: "Keep yer eyes open!"

Agents said they were able to track Krohn to his home in Pembroke Pines and he was arrested there on Thursday evening. He could face a federal charge of threatening to take the life of the president-elect or inflict bodily harm. The offense carries a maximum punishment of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

"Krohn became confrontational when asked if he made the statements threatening the PEOTUS (President-elect of the United States) . Krohn declared any statements he made were an expression of his First Amend-

ment rights," agents wrote in court records.

When he Krohn was asked if he made any threats against Trump, agents said he became more confrontational, "began pacing in the yard, and in a loud voice said, ’Well then, arrest me.’"

Agents said they tried, but failed, to calm him down and he was arrested.

His girlfriend told investigators she was not aware of him making any threats of violence against anyone, authorities said.

Agents said the laptop computer Krohn had been using before they arrived was open on an article that someone had posted on Facebook about "a recent harassment incident" involving Trump’s daughter, Ivanka.

During a brief appearance Friday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Krohn told the judge he was scheduled to start a new job Monday morning cleaning cooking equipment at a chain of convenience stores. He said he was divorced, had little or no money, owns a 1998 Lincoln and owes an unspecified amount of child support arrears.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Seltzer ordered that Krohn will remain locked up at least until a bond hearing scheduled for Thursday. The judge appointed the Federal Public Defender’s Office to represent Krohn, after ruling that he could not afford to hire a lawyer.

Krohn has a long history of arrests in Broward County on allegations, including stalking, drug and driving offenses. Records show he served two stints in state prison for a drug offense and for driving with a suspended license.

person account of why he shot McDonald.

"I think he’s going to try and take my life away from me," Van Dyke told an investigator two days later.

When challenged in recent months about discrepancies between the video and their accounts, top officials as well as rank-and-file cops stood their ground, saying they had accurately described what happened the night McDonald was shot.

The records raise questions about Johnson’s response to the inspector general’s findings against his command officers.

The documents revealed that the inspector general recommended firing Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy and Deputy Chief David McNaughton in addition to nine lowerranking officers. Inspector General Joseph Ferguson found that Roy, who had supervised the department’s investigation into McDonald’s shooting, was "incompetent in the performance of his duties."

While Johnson moved to fire several rank-andfile officers, the records show, he didn’t act on the recommendation to fire

Roy or publicly disclose his role, instead letting him quietly step down as he neared the mandatory age for retirement. McNaughton, the highestranking officer at the scene of McDonald’s shooting, also retired.

Roy declined to comment, while McNaughton could not be reached.

Officers recommended for firing by the inspector general and their lawyers either could not be reached for comment or declined to talk, except for Van Dyke’s lawyer, Daniel Herbert, who said Van Dyke told the truth.

Herbert said Johnson’s decisions about whom to seek to fire reflect an unwillingness to lay responsibility on command officers. He pointed to the meeting involving Johnson in which command staff purportedly agreed the shooting was justified.

"Nothing has changed, other than the heat has been turned up in this case," Herbert said.

Exaggerating McDonald’s threat For more than a year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel had fought the release of the video showing the white police officer repeat-

Jason Van Dyke walks past several attorneys including Assistant Attorney General Barbara Greenspan, right, on his way to the bench.

edly shooting the black teenager as he lay motionless in the street. The release of the video in November 2015 sparked widespread protests and exposed long-simmering grievances over policing in the city, particularly in minority communities.

Hours before the video’s release, Cook County prosecutors made the rare move of charging a police officer in a shooting, announcing first-degree murder charges against Van Dyke. No other officers have been criminally charged in the matter, but a special grand jury is gathering evidence into whether officers orchestrated a cover-up.

McDonald’s killing prompted an ongoing U.S. Justice Department investigation into whether the Chicago Police Department has systematically mistreated citizens.

Emanuel has since pushed reforms in police training, departmental rules and discipline. After the mayor fired Superintendent McCarthy, he rejected the three finalists

the Chicago Police Board had picked to succeed him.

Instead, Emanuel chose Johnson, an AfricanAmerican who joined the department in 1988 and had not even sought the superintendent’s post.

As City Hall made changes in the department, Ferguson’s office was collecting evidence on the Police Department’s response to McDonald’s shooting.

Ferguson concluded that police made false statements and found that at least one officer engaged in a "code of silence," an unwritten rule that officers should lie to protect a colleague, investigation records show.

He also found that the video contradicted official police accounts of McDonald’s shooting and that officers exaggerated the threat posed by McDonald.

"The video footage of the shooting shows that, before Van Dyke shot McDonald, McDonald was walking away from Van Dyke ."

Ferguson activist turned politician says police beat him

By Summer Ballentine ASSOCIATED PRE SS

ST. LOUIS — A Ferguson activist turned politician is suing police in the St. Louis area, saying he was beaten and pepper sprayed while handcuffed during a 2014 protest.

Missouri state Rep.elect Bruce Franks Jr. alleges that St. Louis County and Berkeley police kicked him in the face and beat his legs with a baton while he was handcuffed facedown on the ground during a December 2014 protest over the fatal police shooting of Antonio Martin. The shooting came amid heightened tensions that followed the

August 2014 fatal police shooting of black, unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson.

The federal civil rights lawsuit, filed Thursday, says Franks was trying to act as a peacemaker after protesters gathered in the St. Louis suburb of Berkeley following the fatal shooting of Martin, a black 18-year-old who had pointed a gun at an officer in a convenience store parking lot. Police initially charged Franks with resisting arrest and assaulting an officer, but those charges later were dropped. The lawsuit alleges the charges were aimed at justifying police misconduct.

A Berkeley police captain didn’t immediately

respond to requests for comment Friday. The St. Louis County counselor said he hasn’t seen the lawsuit yet and typically doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit says Franks, who is black, was working with a small group of volunteers called the Peacekeepers who tried to de-escalate tensions between protesters and police. The Peacekeepers had positioned themselves between police and protesters, according to the lawsuit, when an officer grabbed a member of Franks’ group.

The lawsuit says Franks bear-hugged the fellow volunteer “in an attempt to pull him back with the other Peacekeep-

ers. In the brief struggle that ensued, the three men lost their balance and fell to the ground.”

Police then handcuffed Franks, who says he didn’t resist arrest. The lawsuit says that after officers beat him, one officer sprayed him in the face with pepper spray.

“Mr. Franks’ case sheds light on the dangers of police power,” Thomas Harvey, executive director and cofounder of nonprofit legal group ArchCity Defenders, which filed the lawsuit, said in a statement.

Franks, a St. Louis Democrat, was elected in November and takes office in January. His lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Pence hands out pay raises, awards before leaving office

By Brian Slodysko ASSOCIATED PRE SS

INDIANAPOLIS — On his way out of office, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence approved pay raises for state employees while giving one of the state’s highest awards to more than a dozen of his political allies and staff.

Pence, now the vice president-elect, said Indiana “would not be a state that works” without dedicated government workers, to whom he is giving raises that range between 2 and 4 percent. The raises will cost $31 million over the next year, though they amount to a smaller pay bump than what Pence gave out in 2015, The Indianapolis Star reported.

Meanwhile, Pence has awarded a bevy of Sagamore of the Wabash awards in recent days to Republican legislators, state office holders and staffers, as well as Indiana’s outgoing Republican Party Chairman Jeff Cardwell, who is a former Pence staffer. The award was at one time the highest public service honor

in Indiana.

State offices were closed for the Christmas holiday on Friday and Pence spokesman Matt Lloyd said a list of everyone Pence gave the award to in recent weeks was not readily available.

In one recent photo obtained by The Associated Press, Pence is posing in the governor’s office with eight members of his staff who are clutching their awards. The staffers include longtime aides Lani Czarniecki and Chris Crabtree, as well as his personal assistant and “body man” Zach Bauer.

Pence’s mass issuance of the awards was mocked by some Indiana Republicans on social media as excessive, but former Pence spokesman Robert Vane said it was appropriate to give the award to his staff.

“It is completely within Gov. Pence’s character to recognize the staffers who put in 70 hours a week in their service to Hoosiers and his office,” said Vane. “The easiest thing in the world is to give Sagamores to businessmen and large donors, but it’s typical of the

vice president-elect to award them to the people who work hard for him every day.”

Indiana governors are free to develop their own criteria for handing out the award, which was created during the term of Gov. Ralph Gates in the 1940s.

While some have generously handed them out, Pence’s predecessor, Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, sharply curtailed the number issued during his eight-year tenure. Pence issued looser rules for giving the award when he took office in 2013, allowing each of the state’s 150 lawmakers to nominate two people for the Sagamore award every year.

The award used to be the highest public service honor in the state until Daniels revived Indiana’s Sachem award, which is issued to one person a year.

Republican Secretary of State Connie Lawson was one of the office holders given the Sagamore award this week.

During the election won

by President-elect Donald Trump and Pence, Law-

son was a driving force behind an investigation into voter registration irregularities and repeatedly raised fears that widespread voter fraud could be occurring. After Trump and Pence were elected, Lawson said the election process “worked.”

Pence, who leaves office on Jan. 9, said the pay raises were a just reward for hardworking state employees.

Gov.-elect Eric Holcomb’s transition team declined to comment on the raises, although Holcomb last week said less revenue than previously projected “may require difficult decisions.” Lawmakers have also signaled that they expect a tight budget year, but don’t expect any spending cuts.

“Indiana would not be a state that works without the dedication and commitment of our state employees,” Pence said in a statement. “I am privileged to work alongside the Hoosiers who are the force behind the outstanding services and support the people have come to expect from their state government.”

Zfrontera THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, December 24, 2016 |

RIBEREÑA EN BREVE PAGO DE IMPUESTOS 1 A partir del 7 de diciembre, los pagos por impuestos a la propiedad de la Ciudad de Roma deberán realizarse en la oficina de impuestos del Distrito Escolar de Roma, localizado en el 608 N. García St. CURSOS DE LENGUAJE DE SIGNOS (ASL) 1 El Departamento de Educación Especial local está ofreciendo clases de Lenguaje Americano de Signos para el personal profesional y paraprofesional así como para padres, estudiantes o administradores del distrito Zapata County Independent School District, todos los jueves desde el 20 de octubre al 15 de diciembre (ocho semanas de duración). En el horario de 4:15 p.m. a 5:15 p.m. en el laboratorio de computadoras de la escuela primaria Zapata North Elementary School. Mayores informes al 956-2856877 o a la Oficina de Educación Especial al 956-756-6130 antes del 13 de octubre.

MUSEO EN ZAPATA 1 A los interesados en realizar una investigación sobre genealogía de la región, se sugiere visitar el Museo del Condado de Zapata ubicado en 805 N US-Hwy 83.

Opera de 10 a.m. a 4 p.m. Existen visitas guiadas. Personal está capacitado y puede orientar acerca de la historia del Sur de Texas y sus fundadores. Pida informes en el 956-765-8983.

DEPARTAMENTO DE ESTADO

BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU

Emiten alerta de viaje para México Aconsejan extremar precauciones y utilizar carreteras de cuota durante festividades El Departamento de Estado de los Estados Unidos emitió alertas de viaje hacia México durante las festividades debido a “organizaciones criminales” que han hecho que los ciudadanos sean víctimas de homicidios, secuestros, robo de autos y hurtos en el país.

“Los ciudadanos estadounidenses han sido asesinados durante el robo de autos y hurtos en las carreteras, mayormente durante la noche y en caminos solitarios”, se lee en el aviso de Diciembre. “Los ladrones de

autos utilizan una variedad de técnicas, incluyendo bloquear los caminos, colocar bordos/ vehículos para forzarlos a detenerse, y vehículos fuera del camino corriendo a altas velocidades”.

La alerta incluye áreas cercanas a la frontera de México, entre ellas: Nuevo Laredo, Juárez, Matamoros, Monterrey y Piedras Negras.

Una valoración estado por estado para México es mostrado a través del sitio oficial de viaje.

“Los viajeros deben estar prevenidos que aunque no haya una alerta para un estado determi-

nado, los ciudadanos de Estados Unidos deben ser cautos en todo México ya que el crimen y la violencia siguen sucediendo”, se explica en el sitio. Áreas turísticas y destinos vacacionales generalmente no experimentan la violencia relacionada con las drogas que se reporta en las regiones fronterizas y no hay evidencia para confirmar que los ciudadanos estadounidenses han sido marcados como objetivo por su nacionalidad, se lee en la alerta.

La alerta aconseja a los ciudadanos de EU utilizar las carreteras de cuota

cuando sea posible. Además, el Departamento de Estado aconsejó a los viajeros a cooperar con los puntos de revisión en los caminos y carreteras mexicanos.

“En algunos lugares, las organizaciones criminales han montado sus propios puntos de revisión ilegales, en ocasiones, utilizando uniformes policíacos y militares, y han dado muerte o secuestrado a los conductores que no se detienen ante ellos”, se establece en la alerta. “Usted debe cooperar con todos los puntos de revisión”.

CD. MIGUEL ALEMÁN, MX

DESFILE NAVIDEÑO 2016

1 La Ciudad de Roma pone a disposición de la comunidad el Laboratorio Computacional que abre de lunes a viernes en horario de 1 p.m. a 5 p.m. en Historical Plaza, a un lado del City Hall. Informes en el 956-849-1411.

SUSPENDEN JUNTA Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Miguel Alemán.

Cientos de familias se dieron cita para disfrutar de un gran desfile navideño que se llevó a cabo en Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas, México, el miércoles 14, organizados por la presidencia municipal, el Sistema DIF, instituciones educativas y el sector empresarial.

COLUMNA

GRUPOS DE APOYO 1 El grupo de apoyo para personas con Alzheimer se reunirá en su junta mensual, a las 7 p.m., en el Laredo Medical Center, primer piso, Torre B en el Centro Comunitario. Las reuniones se realizan el primer lunes de cada mes en el mismo lugar y a la misma hora.

1 El grupo Cancer Friend se reúne a las 6 p.m. el primer lunes del mes en el Centro Comunitario de Doctors Hospital. Padecer cáncer es una de las experiencias más estresantes en la vida de una persona. Sin embargo, los grupos de apoyo pueden ayudar a muchos a lidiar con los aspectos emocionales de la enfermedad.

1 Grupo de Apoyo para Ansiedad y Depresión Rayo de Luz. En Centro de Educación del Área de Salud, ubicado en 1505 Calle del Norte, Suite 430. De 6:30 p.m. a 7:30 p.m.

Ofrecen consejos para tarjetas de regalo Miguel Segura BETTER BUSINE SS BUREAU

SAN ANTONIO EXPRE SS-NEWS

LABORATORIO COMPUTACIONAL

1 La Sociedad de Genealogía Nuevo Santander informa a sus socios y a la comunidad en general que no habrá reunión durante el mes de Diciembre.

A7

Un partidario de Castro en Tamaulipas Por Raúl Sinencio Chávez TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Viajando Fidel Castro en un automóvil en El Mante, Tamaulipas, México, en plena zona rural, Castro obedece a las órdenes de un agente de tránsito, Armando Ayech Villegas, que le marca el alto. Sintiéndose en casa, baja, cierra la portezuela y respira hondo. Los alrededores le recuerdan a Cuba. Abundan tupidos cañaverales, colmándolos la chimenea del ingenio azucarero que distingue a la urbe mantense.

Corriéndole las debidas cortesías, Villegas lo saluda. Fidel exhibe documentos suyos y del coche. Bromea a ratos, sintiéndose confiado.

Todo parece en regla. Por último, Ayech Villegas revisa la unidad motriz y sorprendido descubre un cargamento de armas. El caso amerita detener al cubano in fraganti y presentarlo ante el Ministerio Público.

Castro mantiene la

Picasa /

Ingenio azucarero en El Mante, México, actividad comercial similar a la ejercida en Cuba.

calma. Echa mano de la pericia con que ha sorteado difíciles escollos a través de los años. Persuasivo, resume el movimiento que encabeza y exalta la pertinencia de brindarle auxilio, de permitirle continuar. El motociclista queda pensativo. “Me di cuenta de las injusticias que se estaban cometiendo en Cuba, y simpaticé con los revolucionarios”, man-

ifiesta después. Ayech Villegas lo deja ir. Pero aquel incidente tendría mayores consecuencias.

Del recorrido tamaulipeco, Fidel Castro vuelve a la Ciudad de México.

Enfrenta ahí nuevas dificultades, bastante serias. Elementos de la Dirección Federal de Seguridad lo detienen el 20 de junio de 1956. Extienden la redada a una veintena de reclutas,

incluido Ernesto El Che Guevara. Al enterarse por los periódicos, Armando Ayech Villegas recuerda de inmediato su encuentro fortuito con el dirigente exiliado. Acababa de sorprenderlo en la carretera Mante-Tampico. Aunque transporta armamento y parque, le permite entonces marcharse y se convierte en firme partidario de Castro Ruz.

Las tarjetas de regalo son obsequios rápidos y sencillos. Si se te está acabando el tiempo o simplemente no sabes qué comprar, una tarjeta de regalo puede ser una buena opción.

De acuerdo con la encuesta de vacaciones de la Federación Nacional de Minoristas, más del 61 por ciento de los consumidores quieren tarjetas de regalo o certificados de regalo esta temporada navideña. Más de la mitad de todos los compradores de regalos planean comprar un promedio de tres tarjetas de regalo, y se espera que el gasto total en tarjetas de regalo alcance 27,5 mil millones de dólares.

Antes de comprar una tarjeta de regalo, Better Business Bureau recomienda: Investigar antes de comprar. El mejor lugar para comprar una tarjeta de regalo es directamente de la tienda, ya sea en persona o en línea. BBB recomienda evitar los sitios de subastas y sitios de descuentos en línea, ya que las tarjetas de regalo pueden ser falsificadas o robadas.

Leer la letra pequeña.

Entienda completamente cómo funciona la tarjeta.

Averigüe si hay algún cargo asociado con la compra o el uso de la tarjeta y si las tarifas se deducirán de la tarjeta después de que se compra.

Inspeccionar la tarjeta antes de comprarla. Verifique que no se hayan retirado los adhesivos protectores y que el número PIN en la parte posterior de la tarjeta no esté expuesto.

Proveer un recibo de regalo con la tarjeta de regalo. Entregue al recipiente de la tarjeta un recibo de regalo (o original si el recibo de regalo no es una opción) en caso de que la tarjeta se pierda, sea robada o haya una discrepancia con el saldo.

Si usted recibe una tarjeta de regalo esta temporada de vacaciones: Compruebe la fecha. Si aparece que el valor de su tarjeta ha caducado, o que se han deducido los honorarios, comuníquese con la compañía que emitió la tarjeta. Todavía pueden honrar la tarjeta o revertir las tarifas.

Use antes de perder.

Use su tarjeta tan pronto como pueda. No es raro perder las tarjetas de regalo u olvidar que las tiene. Usarlas temprano le ayudará a obtener el valor total.

Trate su tarjeta como dinero en efectivo. Si su tarjeta se pierde o es robada, informe al emisor inmediatamente.

Algunos emisores no reemplazarán las tarjetas que se pierdan o se roben, pero otros emisores pueden, por una tarifa.

Es posible que deba presentar el comprobante de compra y el número de identificación en la tarjeta. La mayoría de los emisores tienen números de teléfono gratuitos que puede llamar para reportar una tarjeta perdida o robada.

A8 | Saturday, December 24, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

NATION

Eric Risberg / AP

In this Dec. 13 file photo, an Uber driverless car is displayed. A fleet of self-driving Uber cars is headed to Arizona after they were banned from California roads over safety concerns.

Arizona governor welcomes Uber fleet of self-driving cars A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Friday welcomed the arrival of a fleet of Uber self-driving cars delivered via a self-driving truck that transported them from California.

Ducey’s office says the governor welcomed the truck carrying the selfdriving Volvos at the State Capitol in Phoenix.

Uber announced Thursday that it was shipping the cars to Arizona after they were banned from California roads over lack of required permits.

Uber made the announcement after Ducey on Wednesday and Thursday promoted Arizona as an alternative to California for the ridehailing company to test its self-driving cars.

Uber has not announced when the cars will be tested, nor provided details about how many vehicles arrived in Arizona.

Uber previously had 16 self-driving cars registered in California.

This story clarifies that Uber’s self-driving cars were banned in California because they lacked permits, not solely because of safety concerns.

Congressman wants FDA to take action against ‘fake milk’

By Lisa Rathke A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Got milk? Vermont’s sole congressman says if it’s from soybeans, almond or rice, it should not be labeled as milk.

Democratic Rep. Peter Welch, Republican Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson and 23 other members of Congress signed a letter asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to investigate and take action against manufacturers of what they say is “fake milk.”

They want the FDA to require plant-based products to adopt a more appropriate name, other than milk, which they say is deceptive.

“We strongly believe that the use of the term ‘milk’ by manufacturers of plant-based products is misleading to consumers, harmful to the dairy industry and a violation of milk’s standard of identity,” the letter states.

Dairy farmers are struggling with “deep cuts in income” following a 40-percent drop in milk prices since 2014.

The forecast is for prices to remain low. In recent years, the sale of plantbased products, often labeled as milk, has jumped in recent years, the letter states.

They say milk has a clear standard of identity: “obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows,”

among other qualities.

“While consumers are entitled to choose imitation products, it is misleading and illegal for manufacturers of these items to profit from the ‘milk’ name,” the letter states. “These products should be allowed on the market only when accurately labeled.”

The Soyfoods Association of North America said the term “soymilk” has been used on products for over 100 years. It asked the FDA in 1997 to recognize the one-word name “soymilk” but that the FDA has not made a decision on the petition.

The FDA said Friday that it had received the Dec. 16 letter and planned to respond directly to lawmakers.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, December 24, 2016 |

A9

BUSINESS

Midwest buying spree lifted US new-home sales in November

By Paul Wiseman A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

WASHINGTON — A buying spree in the Midwest spurred new U.S. home sales last month to the fastest pace since July.

The Commerce Department said Friday that new-home sales in November rose 5.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate 592,000. It was the fastest pace since July's 622,000. Sales were up 16.5 percent from November 2015.

Sales in the Midwest shot up 43.8 percent, the region's biggest monthly increase since October 2012. Sales were up 7.7 percent in the West, flat in the Northeast and down 3.1 percent in the South.

The median price of new home sold last month was $305,400.

Charlie Neibergall / AP

In this May 2014 photo, a sign sits in front of a home for sale. A buying spree spurred new U.S. home sales last month to the fastest pace since July.

Demand for houses has been strong this year, helped by a healthy job market and low mortgage rates. The unemployment rate is at a nine-year low 4.6 percent, and most workers enjoy job security.

The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that Americans bought existing homes last month at the fastest pace since February 2007.

But the cheap loans that have supported stronger sales may be vanishing.

Long-term mortgage rates have quickly risen since the election. The average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.30 percent this week, the highest level since April 2014.

Investors have bid rates higher because they believe President-elect Donald Trump's plans for tax

cuts and higher infrastructure spending will drive up economic growth and inflation. And last week, the Federal Reserve, citing improvement in the U.S. economy, raised short-term U.S. interest rates for only the second time in a decade.

More people are at risk of being priced out of the housing market because rates are rising at a time when there is a shortage of properties for sale, driving bids higher.

"Housing demand clearly continues to be strong," Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpoint Securities, said in a research note.

But he noted that the November sales numbers mostly came in before the sharp rise in rates: "Higher mortgage rates could produce renewed caution heading into next year."

US stocks inch higher in slow pre-holiday trading

By Marley Jay A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

NEW YORK — Wall Street traders sometimes root for year-end “Santa Claus rallies,” but on Friday, hardly a creature was stirring as stocks finished slightly higher on the quietest full day of trading in more than a year. Health care companies brought in most of the gains.

Major U.S. indexes stayed in a narrow range throughout the day. Drugmakers and other companies in health care did the best, while retailers continued to take small losses just before the holiday.

Energy companies also slipped, and they took their first weekly loss since the beginning of November. The Dow Jones industrial average, however, rose for the seventh week in a row.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin fell after President-elect Donald Trump again tweeted that the company’s F-35 fighter jet costs too much. The stock is down almost 6 percent this month.

“This is a negotiating tactic,” said Josh Sullivan, a Seaport Global analyst who covers aerospace and defense companies.

“You’re seeing the negative portion of the negotia-

tion in public where privately they may be more constructive.”

The Dow Jones industrial average picked up 14.93 points, or 0.1 percent, to 19,933.81. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 2.83 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,263.79. The Nasdaq composite rose 15.27 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,462.69.

Small-company stocks did far better, as the Russell 2000 climbed 8.85 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,371.51.

Fewer than 2 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange. That’s barely half the volume of an average day. The last full trading day with that little activity was in October 2015.

Lockheed Martin fell after Trump said on Twitter that Lockheed’s F-35 fighter jet costs too much and that he has asked Boeing to “price-out” a comparable F-18 jet.

Trump complained earlier this month about the costs of the F-35, which brought in about 20 percent of Lockheed’s revenue last year. Lockheed gave up $3.21, or 1.3 percent, to $249.59.

This month Trump also criticized Boeing for the cost of the next Air Force One. The presidential jet is far less significant for Boeing than the F-35 is for

Lockheed, however, and Boeing shares were only briefly affected.

Sullivan, of Seaport, said Trump’s tweets are a new type of bad publicity for defense companies.

But even if the Presidentelect periodically criticizes the companies in public, investors are still optimistic about their prospects under his administration.

If Trump builds up the U.S. nuclear arsenal, as he proposed doing in a tweet Thursday, that would also involve more military spending.

“Ultimately (Trump) ran on a strong defense spending platform,” he said. Defense stocks have done better than the rest of the market overall since the election.

So far, investor optimism that Trump’s spending plans could boost economic growth is outweighing any concerns about his trade proposals, brash style and Twitter pronouncements, which have moved company stocks at times. That may change when he’s in office and can more easily back up his comments with executive actions and policy shifts.

Drug companies made small gains on Friday.

Botox maker Allergan rose $5.09, or 2.6 percent, to $199.08. Bristol-Myers Squibb picked up 85

cents, or 1.4 percent, to $59.61 and health insurer Aetna added $1.26, or 1 percent, to $125.95.

Cintas, a uniform rental company, slipped after its second-quarter profit fell short of Wall Street’s forecasts. Analysts said its first-aid business, which sells products like first-aid kits, eyewash stations and emergency cabinets, had a disappointing quarter. The stock lost $3.73, or 3.1 percent, to $116.36.

Benchmark U.S. crude added 7 cents to close at $53.02 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 11 cents to close at $55.16 a barrel in London.

In other energy trading, natural gas prices continued to climb as investors anticipated that colder weather will lead to more demand for home heating.

Natural gas futures rose 12 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $3.66 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Wholesale gasoline added 2 cents to $1.63 a gallon and heating oil stood still at $2.48 a gallon.

The dollar slid to 117.26 yen from 117.60 yen. The euro rose to $1.0452 from $1.0433.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.54 percent from 2.55 percent.

The price of gold rose $2.90 to $1,133.60 an ounce.

GM's main China venture fined $29M in anti-monopoly case

By Joe Mcdonald ASSOCIATED PRE SS

BEIJING — General Motors Co.'s main joint venture in China was fined $29 million on Friday on charges it suppressed competition by enforcing minimum sales prices for dealers, the latest in a string of penalties against foreign auto brands under the country's anti-monopoly law.

Chinese regulators have punished companies in industries from milk to medical devices under a 2008 anti-monopoly law in what appears to be an effort to force down consumer prices.

Friday's announcement followed public criticism

by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump of Chinese trade practices but there was no indication the case was linked to that.

GM had announced in August 2014 its joint venture, Shanghai GM, was under investigation by anti-monopoly regulators.

The Shanghai Price Bureau said Shanghai GM, a joint venture with state-owned Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp., improperly suppressed competition by enforcing minimum prices dealers were allowed to charge for Cadillac, Chevrolet and Buick models.

That "disrupted the normal order of market competition," the statement said.

Setting minimum retail prices is a common practice in many markets but lawyers say Chinese regulators appear to regard it as an improper restraint on competition.

A statement by the price bureau said the penalty was set at 4 percent of Shanghai GM's annual sales, or 201 million yuan ($29 million).

In a statement, GM said: "GM fully respects local laws and regulations wherever we operate. We will provide full support to our joint venture in China to ensure that all responsive and appropriate actions are taken with respect to this matter."

GM vies with Germany's Volkswagen AG for

the status of the topselling vehicle brand in China.

Sales of GM vehicles in China rose 7 percent in November over a year earlier to 371,740 units.

Year-to-date sales rose 8.5 percent to 3.4 million.

Audi, VW's luxury unit, was fined $40.5 million and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' Chrysler brand received a smaller penalty in 2014 on similar charges of enforcing minimum sales prices.

State media cited an official saying Daimler Benz AG's Mercedes unit was guilty of violations but no penalty was announced. Toyota Motor Corp. said its Lexus unit was under scrutiny but no results have been announced.

A dozen Japanese auto parts suppliers were fined earlier on pricefixing charges.

The industry-wide investigation began in 2014 following complaints foreign auto brands were abusing their control over supplies of spare parts to overcharge consumers. In the case of Mercedes, regulators said purchasing the spare parts needed to assemble one car would cost as much as 12 new vehicles.

Foreign business groups welcomed passage of the 2008 law, which they said would help to clarify operating conditions in China's statedominated economy.

Since then, they have complained about the secretive way investigations are conducted. They say companies are pressured into agreeing to penalties and to avoid disputing any finding of wrongdoing.

In the biggest penalty so far, Qualcomm Inc. was fined $975 million in 2015 on charges it abused control over patents that are part of global industry standards for mobile phones to charge Chinese handset makers excessive licensing fees.

This month, medical device maker Medtronic Inc. was fined $17 million on charges it suppressed competition by enforcing minimum prices for its retailers.

A10 | Saturday, December 24, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

NATIONAL

Railroad in fiery derailment agrees to changes

By Matthew Brown ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Elizabeth Flores / AP

Crews demolish a small house that once belonged to Danny Heinrich, Jacob Wetterling's killer, Friday in Annandale, Minn. Real estate developer Tim Thorne bought the former home of Danny Heinrich specifically to destroy it.

Home that belonged to Minnesota boy’s murderer is demolished A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

ANNANDALE, Minn.

— A small white house that belonged to the Minnesota man who abducted and killed 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling in 1989 came crashing down Friday.

Real estate developer Tim Thone bought Danny Heinrich’s former home specifically to destroy it.

While Heinrich is now in prison, his empty house was a distressing reminder to the central Minnesota community of Annandale that the man who kidnapped and killed Jacob had lived among them.

Jacob’s mother, Patty Wetterling, was in the crowd to watch a crew use heavy machinery to tear the house down.

The St. Joseph boy’s kidnapping haunted Minnesota as it went unsolved for decades.

Authorities searched Heinrich’s home and arrested him on child

pornography charges last year as they took a fresh look at the case. As part of a plea bargain, Heinrich publicly confessed in September after leading authorities to where he buried Jacob.

The 53-year-old was sentenced to 20 years in prison on a single child pornography count, and prosecutor’s agreed not to charge him in Jacob’s murder.

Thone has said the idea of tearing down the house came to him Dec. 10, while he watched a news story about the case. The story included a brief shot of Heinrich’s home, which was up for sale in Annandale, about 50 miles northwest of Minneapolis. Neighbors had petitioned the city to buy the house and raze it, but the city couldn’t come up with enough money.

Thone said the house reminded him of the emotional scars caused by the case, and he agreed it had to go.

BILLINGS, Mont. — The nation's largest freight railroad has agreed to more thorough inspections and maintenance improvements after a fiery oil train derailment in Oregon and the discovery of more than 800 potential safety violations across its sprawling network.

Details on the agreement between the Federal Railroad Administration and Union Pacific Railroad were obtained by The Associated Press.

Sixteen tank cars from a Union Pacific train hauling North Dakota crude through the Columbia River Gorge derailed in early June along a curve in the tracks near Mosier, Oregon. The accident sparked a massive fire that burned for 14 hours and prompted the evacuation of nearby areas.

No one was injured. But federal officials said the railroad wasn't following its own inspection rules to ensure the track was safe.

A closer examination of the tracks would have caught a series of broken bolts that allowed the rails to move too far apart where the accident occurred, officials said.

The investigation into the accident is continuing.

The more than 800 potential violations against Union Pacific were found as part of a twoyear examination of tracks across the U.S. used to haul crude. They include some of the same lax inspection problems blamed in the Mosier derailment, federal officials said.

AP

This June 4, 2016, file aerial photo, provided by the Washington State Department of Ecology, shows scattered and burned oil tank cars after a train derailed and burned near Mosier, Ore.

Enforcement actions against the company have not been finalized.

Spokeswoman Calli Hite says Union Pacific is committed to making its lines safer and has fixed the problems identified by the government as potential violations. She characterized the agreement disclosed Friday as the result of a collaborative effort with federal railroad officials.

"All of the issues, the 800 that were noted, have been addressed," she said.

"We did everything as soon as we talked to them and knew we needed to do it."

Federal Railroad Administrator Sarah Feinberg said the agreement raises the bar on safety.

"This compliance agreement requires Union Pacific to go above and beyond existing regulations," she said.

The oil industry has become heavily reliant on trains in recent years because of limited pipeline capacity in the booming oil patch of the Northern Plains and the oil sands region of western Canada.

Omaha, Nebraskabased Union Pacific operates more than 32,000 miles of track across 23

states.

The safety measures included in the agreement with the FRA will apply to all rail lines used to haul oil and other hazardous liquids, passengers, explosives, radioactive materials and poisonous gases. That includes about 22,500 miles of tracks, Hite said.

They include an inventory of all curves in the track that are three degrees or greater across that network and walking inspections every 120 days on tracks that have the type of bolts involved in the Mosier accident.

Those inspections have to occur every 30 days in the part of the network that includes the Columbia River Gorge.

Previously, Union Pacific said it would voluntarily take some of the same steps within the gorge, a designated national scenic area popular with boaters and windsurfers along the Oregon-Washington border.

The safety agreement was welcomed by Oregon elected officials including Gov. Kate Brown and U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley. All have called for a halt to oil trains traveling through

the gorge.

Wyden and Merkley said in a statement Friday that "banning oil trains....is the only way to completely eliminate future derailments."

The Democratic lawmakers added that they would closely monitor the railroad agency after President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month to ensure the terms of the Union Pacific agreement are upheld.

At least 27 oil trains have been involved in major derailments, fires or oil spills in the United States and Canada in the past decade, according to an AP analysis of accident records.

The trains travel through more than 400 counties across the U.S. to reach refineries on the West, East and Gulf coasts, according to the AP analysis.

A 2013 derailment killed 47 people when a runaway oil train from North Dakota jumped the tracks and exploded in Lac-Megantic, Quebec.

Damage from that accident has been estimated at $1.2 billion or higher.

The U.S. Transportation Department says it assessed more than $15 million in civil penalties against the U.S. railroad industry this year for safety violations and other infractions, a slight increase over 2015.

Of the major railroads, BNSF Railway racked up the most penalties in 2016, totaling $3.4 million from 1,349 violations. Union Pacific had $3 million in penalties from more than 1,222 violations. Pending violations were not included.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, December 24, 2016 |

A11

FROM THE COVER

Trump co-chair wishes death Prosecutor: on Obama, calls 1st lady male Pastor may have tried to destroy fingerprints

By Chris Carola A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

ALBANY, N.Y. — A wealthy businessman who co-chaired president-Elect Donald Trump’s state campaign confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday that he told an alternative newspaper he hoped President Barack Obama would die from mad cow disease and that the first lady would “return to being a male.”

Carl Paladino, a millionaire real estate developer who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2010 as a Republican, made the comments in response to a survey by Artvoice , a Buffalo publication that asked local artists, performers and business owners for their New Year’s wish list.

Asked what he would most like to happen in 2017, Paladino responded that he hoped “Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations” with a cow, dies and is buried in a cow pasture.

Asked who he would like to see “go away,” he said Michelle Obama.

“I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimba-

JUDGE From page A1 mirror that shows us the stark reality of our indifference. And it takes a powerful voice to make it clear that our state has countenanced unspeakable suffering for far too long,” the newspaper said.

It noted that Jack’s December 2015 ruling not

TRAVEL From page A1 areas close to the TexasMexico border including: Nuevo Laredo, Juarez, Matamoros, Monterrey and Piedras Negras.

“The number of reported kidnappings in Tamaulipas is among the highest in Mexico,” according to the travel warning for the state.

“Tamaulipas and municipal law enforcement capacity is limited to non-

BORDER From page A1 change in his rhetoric, Trump survived the Republican primaries and withstood a grueling general election to be elected the next president of the United States.

The real estate mogul’s surprise victory immediately sparked fear in some border communities, as residents wondered whether Trump would make good on his promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. Although he scaled back his tough deportation talk concerning DREAMers — immigrants brought to the country illegally by their parents or guardians — in December, uncertainty still lingers.

Trump’s recent decision to tap Gen. John F. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general and outspoken border security hawk, as his pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security prompted several analysts to conclude Trump’s administration plans to take a hard-line approach to immigration policies.

Sanctuary cities debate The issue of “sanctuary cities” — a term that

ASSOCIATED PRE SS

forcement to secure his return, had no intention of coming back,” Young said. “If given the opportunity, he would again leave.”

Martinez faces up to five years in prison.

He also faces additional charges after three 19-year-old men also accused of him of sexual assault following his initial conviction. The judge set bail at a combined $1 million cash on those counts.

In court, Martinez only said he didn’t know whom the judge was referring to when he used the initials of the three young men.

NJ.com reported in May that Martinez had been hiding in Esteli, Nicaragua, and had secured a position at a church.

Members of the congregation said he was charismatic and regularly preached at religious festivals and churches.

Martinez claimed he could cure sickness and cast out demons. He also frequently spoke in tongues.

bwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla,” he wrote.

Reached at his western New York office by phone, Paladino, a member of the Buffalo school board, confirmed to the AP the answers published in Artvoice were his.

In a subsequent emailed statement, Paladino, 70, claimed his comments had “nothing to do with race” but instead reflected his opinion of the president’s performance in office.

“Merry Christmas and tough luck if you don’t like my answer,” he wrote.

As recently as August, Paladino falsely claimed Obama was not Christian,

telling the New York Observer that to average Americans, “there is no doubt he is a Muslim.”

And in 2010, Paladino was criticized after it was revealed he had forwarded to friends racially charged emails that depicted Obama as a pimp.

A spokeswoman for Trump, who earlier this month met with Paladino in Trump Tower, didn’t immediately respond when asked for the president-elect’s reaction to the comments.

But Democrats and civil rights groups were quick to condemn them.

In a statement, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the remarks by his former gubernatori-

al opponent, “racist, ugly and reprehensible.”

“While most New Yorkers know Mr. Paladino is not to be taken seriously, as his erratic behavior defies any rational analysis and he has no credibility, his words are still jarring,” he said.

Frank Mesiah, the outgoing president of the NAACP’s Buffalo chapter, urged other politicians to publicly denounce Paladino.

“He says this stuff without anybody countering him,” he said. “By their silence, to me, they’re condoning that. They’re accepting him and his behavior.”

The White House had no immediate comment.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — A pastor who has been on the run for nearly two years after he was convicted of sexual assault charges in New Jersey may have tried to obliterate his own fingerprints, a prosecutor said.

Gregorio Martinez’s 10 fingers were bloodied and bandaged when he was detained in Honduras in August, Assistant Prosecutor Linda Claude-Oben revealed in court Friday.

Martinez, 49, was once a Pentecostal preacher in Jersey City. He was found guilty last year of molesting a 13-year-old boy he knew through church. Prosecutors say Martinez then fled to Nicaragua.

He appeared in court in Jersey City on Friday, NJ.com reported. Hudson County Superior Court Judge John Young Jr. ordered Martinez held without bail pending sentencing March 24.

“It’s obvious Mr. Martinez, but for the extraordinary effort of law en-

only focused statewide attention on those in long-term foster care, but all of the approximately 30,000 children whose welfare is overseen by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the agency that oversees Child Protective Services.

Jack has ordered an independent overhaul of the foster care system and has appointed experts to

come up with a plan.

Her order followed a lawsuit that was filed by the New York-based advocacy group Children’s Rights along with attorneys from Texas. The plaintiffs were children who had been placed in long-term foster care.

“In a just world, they would be at the front of the line for the best care and compassion society could offer. In reality, they

are, in Jack’s words, ‘the forgotten children,”’ the newspaper said.

Jack devoted nearly half of her 260-page ruling to detailed histories of the child plaintiffs. One child, Jack wrote, entered the foster care system at age 5 and within months reported being raped by an older child. The girl was moved more than 45 times, including to psychiatric hospitals, and

missed several chances for adoption because of paperwork delays. At 18, after aging out of the system, she walked into traffic. She was hit by a car but survived.

The newspaper called the judge’s ruling an “extraordinary document,” noting “it examines Texas child-welfare procedures in more exacting detail than many DFPS bureaucrats were able to

define at trial” and “it identifies systemic failings that have been repeated for decades.”

“Dramatic change needs a catalyst,” said Houston lawyer Paul Yetter, the lead plaintiffs’ attorney in the case.

“Judge Jack’s opinion shines such a bright light on this broken system that the harm to these children cannot be ignored.”

existent in many parts of Tamaulipas. Violent criminal activity occurs more frequently along the northern border and organized criminal groups may target public and private passenger buses traveling through Tamaulipas.

“These groups sometimes take all passengers hostage and demand ransom payments. Matamoros, Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo and Ciudad Victoria have experienced numerous gun battles and

attacks with explosive devices in the past year.”

The State Department says U.S. citizens have been killed in carjacking and highway robberies.

They usually occur at night and on isolated roads.

“Carjackers use a variety of techniques, including roadblocks, bumping/moving vehicles to force them to stop and running vehicles off the road at high speeds,” according to the State Department.

futures in New York trade above $50 a barrel, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Andrew Cosgrove said in a report this week.

Boosts in the Eagle Ford and Bakken “may gain steam once budgets are reset higher in early 2017,” he said.

West Texas Intermediate crude touched $54.51 on Dec. 12 and has hovered near $53 after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and

other major exporters agreed to cut supplies to ease a global glut.

The deal may make room for more U.S. shale growth, IHS Markit’s Daniel Yergin said earlier this month.

The U.S. could add 300,000 to 500,000 barrels a day by the end of 2017 with oil prices around $50 to $55, according to Yergin. But mega-projects will be much slower to come back.

broadly refers to a local government that doesn’t enforce federal immigration policies — was once again at the forefront of state politics in 2016 after Gov. Greg Abbott continued a fight he started the previous year with Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez. Abbott accused Valdez, a Democrat, of creating a sanctuary city in Dallas after she said in an interview she’d limit cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement when the agency makes requests that deportable immigrants be handed over for possible removal.

Valdez later said her words were taken out of context and that her jail never declined to turn over a person to federal authorities. (A 2016 Texas Tribune analysis revealed most Texas jails cooperate well with ICE). Still, Abbott threatened to cut off state funding to any county sheriff’s department that didn’t cooperate with immigration officials.

The issue was also a major talking point for several GOP candidates who won their primaries and general elections this year. Afterward, several lawmakers filed bills for the upcoming legislative session to ban sanctuary cities. Both Abbott and

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have described the legislation as a priority next year.

Hilary Swift / NYT

Carl Paladino, speaks to reporters at Trump Tower in Manhattan, Dec. 5.

Paladino came under fire for racially charged comments about President Barack Obama and the first lady.

Influx of Central American asylum seekers continues A recent influx of women and children from Central America crossing the Rio Grande into Texas and seeking asylum slowed some in 2015, only to regain strength this year.

Agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector of the U.S. Border Patrol came across about 52,000 families and about 36,700 unaccompanied minors during the 2016 fiscal year. That’s compared to 27,400 and 23,864, respectively, the year before.

The federal government’s 2016 fiscal year began in October 2015 and ran through September 2016.

Overall, the total number of apprehensions on the country’s southwest border increased by more than 77,500 to 408,870 in 2016, compared to 331,333 in the prior year.

Though the Rio Grande Valley was the epicenter of the exodus, the figures show that each sector in Texas saw at least a double-digit percentage increase in 2016. In the Del Rio sector, apprehensions of unaccompanied minors increased by 18 percent

OIL From page A1 were up by 3 to 129, bringing the total for oil and gas up 16 to 653.

Most of the recovery in drilling has been in the prolific Permian Basin, which has been a hotbed for acquisitions this year. The prospects for rig gains beyond the Permian and Mid-Continent are looking brighter as

and family units by 66 percent. In Big Bend, the increases were 13 and 30 percent, respectively.

The Laredo sector saw a 20 percent increase in apprehensions of minors and family units, while the El Paso sector, which includes New Mexico, saw an increase in minor apprehensions of 134 percent — from 1,662 in 2015 to 3,885 in 2016.

The overwhelming majority of the undocumented immigrants — most of whom say they are fleeing violence and poverty in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — turned themselves into law enforcement on the border and were then processed by immigration agents.

The Texas border surge When lawmakers approved a record $800 million for border security efforts in 2015, border Democrats balked at what they said was a waste of money. The majority of the people crossing illegally, they argued, were women and children fleeing violence and poverty and not people intent on harming Texans.

In 2016, those cries grew louder when lawmakers accused the state’s Department of

Public Safety, which received the lion’s share of the money, of failing to provide data that showed the effort was working.

Instead lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said that although DPS was able to make security improvements in Starr and Hidalgo counties, smugglers simply adjusted their routes and entered Texas through adjacent counties.

But Texas DPS Director Col. Steve McCraw said that wasn’t an anomaly and instead assured budget writers that the outcome was what the agency expected. A quick fix was never a possibility, he said, and securing the entire border would take more time.

The agency also told lawmakers that it would seek about $300 million in additional monies to keep the surge going. But with the price of oil and the decline in the natural gas industry, budget writers expressed doubts in October about whether DPS will get everything it asks for during next year’s legislative session.

U.S. Supreme Court ends Obama’s deferred action bid In June, the U.S. Supreme Court finally put an end to an executive

order issued by President Obama in 2014 that sought to let as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants in the country live and work without the fear of deportation.

Obama issued his deferred action order in November 2014, but Gov. Greg Abbott, then the state’s attorney general, quickly filed suit to stop the program. Twenty-five states would eventually sign on to the lawsuit.

The program was scheduled to take effect in February 2015 but was halted that month by a U.S. district judge in Brownsville, who ruled that it violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal regulations are made and how much input the public has.

The White House asked the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to let the program proceed but was denied twice.

In July, the White House asked the Supreme Court if it would reconsider the case when it had a full bench. It is still one short since the February death of Justice Antonin Scalia. But in October the court announced it would not take up the case again, leaving in place the lower court ruling that blocked the program.

A12 | Saturday, December 24, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

Sports&Outdoors THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, December 24, 2016 |

B1

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: HOUSTON TEXANS

Texans look to Savage on Saturday South-leading Houston faces Cincinnati

By Kristie Rieken ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Ben Margot / Associated Press file

Houston quarterback Tom Savage leads the Texans into Saturday night’s matchup with Cincinnati.

HOUSTON — Houston’s $72 million man Brock Osweiler is staying on the bench and the Texans are counting on Tom Savage to help them to their second straight AFC South title on Saturday night against the Bengals.

Osweiler, who Houston signed to that huge contract this offseason, was replaced after throwing interceptions on two straight possessions in the second quarter last Sunday against the Jaguars. Savage took over and threw for 260 yards in his first action since 2014 to help Houston rally from a 13-point deficit for a 21-20 victory.

Coach Bill O’Brien stayed with Savage this week and the third-year player will make his first career start against the Bengals.

“He’s confident in his own abilities,” O’Brien said. “He’s a good communicator with his teammates. His teammates have a lot of respect for him. They’ve seen how hard he’s worked to wait to get this opportunity.”

Savage was a fourthround pick in 2014, but has appeared in just three games since then after spending all of last season on injured reserve and serving as Osweiler’s backup for most of this season.

“It’s a great opportunity to go out there and Texans continues on B2

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: DALLAS COWBOYS

NBA

COWBOYS CLINCHED, FOCUSED ON DETROIT Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images file

Dwyane Wade and the Bulls will play in San Antonio against the Spurs on Christmas.

For Wade and others, NBA Christmas games remain a privilege

By Tim Reynolds A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

Christmas has already been celebrated at Dwyane Wade’s house.

His wife and kids unwrapped their presents on Wednesday night, since waiting until Sunday morning wasn’t an option this year.

Dad’s got to work.

Again.

Wade will wake up on Christmas morning in San Antonio, instead of being with his family in Chicago. He’s part of the NBA’s lineup on Christmas for the 12th time in his 14 professional seasons — and even though Christmas continues on B2

Edward A. Orneals / San Antonio Express-News

Two of the biggest NFL Pro Bowl snubs meet this week as quarterback Matthew Stafford and the Lions head to Dallas to face linebacker Sean Lee and the Cowboys Monday.

Harry How / Getty Images file

President Chris Paul and the rest of the NBA Players’ Association agreed to the new Collective Bargaining Agreement on Friday that will last for the next six seasons.

Dallas hosts Lions on Monday Night Football

By Schuyler Dixon ASSOCIATED PRE SS

NBA, players complete process of ratifying new labor deal

By Tim Reynolds A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

The votes are in, and labor peace in the NBA is virtually assured for several years.

The National Basketball Players Association has completed its process of voting to approve the terms of the next collec-

tive bargaining agreement between the league and its players, which was tentatively agreed upon last week. All that’s left to do now is for the sides to sign the deal, which will happen once the writing of the actual document is completed.

Members of the NBA’s NBA continues on B2

ARLINGTON — Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions aren’t quite in win-or-go-home mode like the last time they visited his hometown Dallas Cowboys for a wild-card playoff two years ago.

The Lions could do their postseason hopes a lot of good Monday night with a victory, though.

That includes scenarios where Detroit (9-5) clinches the NFC North by beating the conference-leading Cowboys, who were the first team to lock up a playoff berth this season.

It’s the second straight week Detroit can take a significant step toward the

playoffs on the road against an NFC East contender. The Lions didn’t take advantage in a 17-6 loss to the New York Giants.

“Last week, we had opportunities to make some plays and we just didn’t make them,” Stafford said. “For the majority of the season, we’ve done a really nice job of, in those crucial times, making those plays. I’m sure this week and from here on out will be no different.”

Tony Romo made the crucial play to rally the Cowboys past the Lions 24-20 two years ago for just their second playoff win in two decades since their last Super Bowl title.

He’s the backup now,

replaced by Dak Prescott because the rookie led an 11-game winning streak while Romo was recovering from a preseason back injury.

The streak ended with Dallas’ second loss of the season to the Giants, but Prescott and the Cowboys (12-2) recovered by beating Tampa Bay. Then the Cowboys clinched the NFC East title and home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs when the Giants lost to Philadelphia on Thursday night.

The Giants-Eagles outcome didn’t concern Prescott, who followed his worst game as a pro against New York with the second-best completion percentage with at least 30

attempts in NFL history (88.9 percent).

“This game is going to matter,” he said. “Any game I play, I participate in and think pretty much everybody in this locker room, we want to win. We hold ourselves to high standards and I know I do individually. We want to win this game.”

Things to consider in a series in which four of the past five games, playoffs included, have been decided by four points or less: HOMECOMING Stafford will be playing on the same field a little more than a week after his high school, Dallas Highland Park, won its first state championship Cowboys continues on B2

B2 | Saturday, December 24, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

SPORTS

Oklahoma’s Mixon tearfully apologizes for punching woman

By Cliff Brunt A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

NORMAN, Okla. — Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon made a tearful public apology Friday, more than two years after punching a woman and breaking bones in her face.

As Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops looked on, Mixon spoke at a news conference Friday afternoon, more than two years after he assaulted Amelia Molitor and broke her jaw and cheekbone.

Mixon said he wanted to address the issue earlier, but his legal team advised him not to.

“I’m here to apologize to Miss Molitor,” he said.

“I apologize to Coach Stoops, I apologize to President (David) Boren,

NBA From page B1 Board of Governors voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the deal, and players got their vote done subsequently. The approvals were announced in a simple, short statement Friday night, essentially ending a process that was blissful compared to the rancor-filled mess that surrounded the last round of labor negotiations — ones where a lockout wound up threatening an entire season — five years

TEXANS From page B1 show what I can do,” he said. “I have to go out there and execute what I need to do and I’m going to have some fun doing it.”

Houston (8-6) can secure the division title and a playoff spot Saturday with a win against Cincinnati and a loss by the Titans, who are playing the Jaguars. The Texans insist they aren’t thinking about any other team this week and are simply focused on themselves.

“We know what’s at hand and what’s in front of us, so we’re just going out there trying to get another win, trying to get our ninth win, defend our home field,” left tackle Duane Brown said.

“That’s all we’re worried about.”

The Bengals (5-8-1) look to end a disappointing season on a high note after losing four of their last six to be eliminated from playoff contention , ending a streak of five straight postseason appearances.

“Obviously, we’ve raised the bar here, so we expect to be competing

CHRISTMAS From page B1

it meant having a nontraditional holiday celebration, the Bulls guard still relishes being part of the league’s showcase day.

“I won’t lie to you and say it means as much as it did when I was young or when I got to be in my first Christmas game,” Wade said. “But it is still special. At the end of the day, no matter what’s happened in my career, the NBA has put me on Christmas, let me play on Christmas, let me be part of Christmas. One day, I won’t be playing. But for now, it’s still so cool.”

The annual Christmas quintupleheader — highlighted by the NBA Finals rematch of Golden State visiting champion Cleveland — involves 10 teams, five arenas, hundreds of players and team employ-

the AD (athletic director Joe Castiglione), my teammates. And most of all, my family. I let a lot of people down.”

Mixon was suspended for a year after the incident. Though Molitor shoved and slapped him first, Mixon said hitting a woman is unacceptable, even if provoked.

“Honestly, it really don’t matter what she did that night,” he said during the 26-minute session. “It’s all on me the reason why I’m in this position right now. I take full responsibility of what happened that night. It’s never OK to hit a woman.

Never. I will preach that to anybody. It’s never OK. Hopefully, people around the world will learn from my mistake, and I’m willing to teach.”

The All-Big 12 performer said if it happened now, he would respond differently.

“If I could go back, I would do whatever I could to change the outcome of that situation,” he said. “I definitely would have walked or ran away and went about the situation differently. I wouldn’t have been in that situation.”

Mixon said he was disappointed he let down his team, the university and his family. He struggled to speak when he began talking about the impact on his mother, a single parent who watched the video with him along with Norman Police a few days after the incident.

“My mother, she worked hard, and I dis-

appointed her,” he said.

“She’s my queen, and I apologize to you, mom.”

Mixon’s legal advisers released video of the punch last week, and Mixon said he wishes it had come out sooner.

Since the video came out, there has been a backlash against Mixon, Stoops and the university. Mixon said he hasn’t paid attention to his fellow students much on campus, but his teammates have been supportive.

“I can’t do nothing but thank my teammates for lifting up my spirits,” he said. “Just wanting me to come out and go hard for them every day, and I feel like honestly that’s how I give back to them. I can only lead by example on and off the field by words, by my actions.

Honestly, I’m willing to do anything for my teammates.”

Mixon said he has matured and learned since July 2014.

“Well, at the time, as you guys know, I was 17, 18 years old,” he said. “I was young. Right now I’m 20 years old. I’ve grown up a lot over the 2 1/2-3 years I’ve been at OU. Like I said, I can’t do nothing but thank coach Stoops for giving me a second chance and having me prove to everyone that I deserve it.”

Mixon said he’s willing to speak against violence against women so others can learn from his mistake.

“I think when I have the opportunity to do that I’ll seize the moment and do whatever I can to be the person — the bigger person — and the man I should be,” he said. “I want to be that influence for young kids that are lost out there or in certain situations I was in. Hopefully, I can teach them for the next time and how to react a certain way.”

ago.

“The parties voted based on a term sheet that outline the key deal points,” the league and the union said in that statement. “Once the NBA and NBPA finish drafting and execute the complete agreement, specific details will be released.”

The seven-year deal will go into effect July 1.

Either side may opt out after six years.

“It’s funny: I don’t feel old by any means, but I’ve been through sort of two of these, this the second one I’ve really been in-

volved in,” union president Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers said after the deal was struck last week. “I can remember how ugly it got back in 2011. I was a little younger then, didn’t fully understand all the things that were taking place.

This was different ... like a partnership.”

This era is the most lucrative in NBA history, with salaries and revenues both rising — and if forecasts from both sides are correct that trend will continue for the foreseeable future. The league’s

record $24 billion television deal is responsible for much of the money that the sides are essentially sharing, and the average player salary is predicted to reach $8.5 million next season and $10 million within four years under the new deal.

Also coming, starting Jan. 1: Additional benefits for retired players, including better medical care — something both the NBPA and the league wanted to deliver.

Throughout the process, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver lauded how

union leader Michele Roberts handled her role in deal-making, and singled out Charlotte owner and six-time NBA champion player Michael Jordan for his perspective as part of the negotiating committee.

“He clearly can put himself in a player’s shoes, but also when we’re meeting privately, he can help represent the players’ perspective to the owners,” Silver said in October. “I think it’s very, very healthy in terms of the business, and I also credit a lot of our success

most recently of the league to that true sense of partnership between the players and the owners.”

It’s unclear when the process of completing the new CBA will be done. It may take some time, given the document’s size and the complexity of the language involved. But the major work is over now.

“I’m glad it got done,” Chicago guard Dwyane Wade said this week, while players were preparing to make their vote official. “It got done the right way.”

within our division,” defensive end Carlos Dunlap said. “This year, we didn’t do that and the end result is what we’ve got now. So it’s not a good feeling. Very frustrating. Nothing we can do about it now. We’ve just got to learn from it and not let it happen next year.”

Some things to know about the Bengals-Texans game:

terback. Hopkins was third in the NFL with 1,521 yards receiving last year, but his numbers have suffered this season as Osweiler struggled to get the ball downfield and Houston’s passing offense sank to near the bottom of the NFL. Hopkins has 788 yards receiving and has just one 100-yard receiving game this season after finishing with six last year.

Savage got the ball to Hopkins on Sunday and he finished with 87 yards receiving, which was his highest total since a 113yard game against the Chiefs on Sept. 18.

CLOWNEY KEEPS COMING Houston defensive end Jadeveon Clowney has played perhaps the best two games of his threeyear career in the last two weeks. Clowney had a sack, three tackles for losses and two quarterback hits against Jacksonville last week after getting a strip-sack against the Colts two weeks ago. The top overall pick in the 2014 draft, who was selected to the Pro Bowl on Tuesday, is tied for fourth in the NFL with 15 tackles for losses and has a career-high five sacks this season.

COWBOYS From page B1

linemen Tyron Smith, Zack Martin and Travis Frederick). The Lions don’t have any. “I don’t think we’re going to have any sort of recount, but nevertheless, our guys are really focused on trying to win games,” Lions coach Jim Caldwell said.

NO CHANGES Bengals coach Marvin Lewis won’t make any lineup changes with Cincinnati eliminated from playoff contention. Some of his younger players have gotten bigger roles as the season has evolved, but Lewis isn’t going to increase their number of plays in the last two games.

“My thought is to win these next two football games with the best players we can put out there to play,” Lewis said.

“That’s what we owe to everybody. This isn’t junior high school.”

WELCOME HOME Kicker Randy Bullock was a Texans fifth-round pick in 2012. The Bengals released struggling kicker Mike Nugent and claimed Bullock off waivers from Pittsburgh a week ago. He made field goals of 23 and 22 yards as well as both of his extra-point attempts against the Steelers, getting a loud ovation from fans at Paul Brown Stadium. Nugent’s struggles — six missed field goals and five missed extra points — contributed to the Bengals’ slide.

FOURTH QUARTER BLUES The Bengals have scored only 51 points in the fourth quarter, an average of 3.6 that is the worst in the NFL. The winless Cleveland Browns are second-tolast. In the past six games, the Bengals have managed three field goals and a safety in the fourth quarter, contributing to the slide that ended their postseason hopes. In a 24-20 loss to the Steelers on Sunday, they were shut out in the second half and managed only 38 yards total.

HOPE FOR HOPKINS Houston receiver DeAndre Hopkins should have reason to hope he’ll have better numbers now that Savage has taken over at quar-

ees, who-knows-howmany workers in those various buildings and will draw about 100,000 fans.

And no fewer than seven other teams will be traveling at some point on Christmas, because they play on Dec. 26.

“It’s not a burden,” Cavaliers guard James Jones said. “You come to find out that it’s a privilege because if you’re playing on Christmas, that means you are on one of the good teams.

You’re one of the teams people want to see. You don’t lose sight that our business, my business, is entertainment and there’s no better time to play than when everyone is at home.”

It’s a smorgasbord of basketball, starting with Boston visiting New York at noon and followed by Golden State at Cleveland, Chicago at San Antonio, Minnesota at Oklahoma

Being able to play on Christmas is like a privilege. Not a lot of people get to do that. For the NBA to think that we’re one of the most exciting teams to play on Christmas, that says a lot for us.

-Minnesota guard Andrew Wiggins

City and the Clippers visiting the Lakers in the building they share in Los Angeles.

The league’s schedule mandate is simple: There’s usually a Finals rematch, and the other four games are about finding matchups of highprofile teams or players and hoping fans at home watch.

And they will. There’s two NFL games on Christmas as well, but the NBA always is a huge TV draw on Dec. 25.

“It’s the responsibility of being the best,” Milwaukee coach Jason Kidd said. “You’re going to play

on Christmas.”

LeBron James is playing on Christmas for the 11th time, Pau Gasol for the ninth time, and Chris Paul and Kevin Durant will be making their seventh appearances. Some of the league’s next stars — Kristaps Porzingis, Karl-Anthony Towns, Zach LaVine and Andrew Wiggins — all will make Christmas debuts.

“Being able to play on Christmas is like a privilege,” Wiggins said. “Not a lot of people get to do that. Usually it’s the best teams in the league or the most exciting teams, and for the NBA to think that

Steve Sisney / Associated Press

Oklahoma’s Joe Mixon speaks out for the first time since the release of a 2014 video showing him striking Amelia Molitor on Friday.

since Stafford won a title with the Scots in 2005.

The latest title came with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ grandson, John Stephen Jones, at quarterback. “I don’t really know him, but obviously know the family and just happy that his success was a big part of Highland Park’s success,” Stafford said.

KETTLE 2.0?

Don’t count on it. While Dallas rookie sensation Ezekiel Elliott wasn’t worried about getting in trouble with his coaches for jumping into an oversized Salvation Army red kettle to celebrate a touchdown against Tampa Bay, he’s pretty sure he got a one-time reprieve with the NFL deciding not to fine him. “I think I had one get out jail free card. I used it already,” the NFL rushing leader said.

GREGORY’S RETURN Jerry Jones says he expects Randy Gregory to play in his return from a 14-game suspension. The second-year defensive end, banned for multiple violations of the NFL’s substance-abuse policy, practiced for the first time Thursday. “Champing at the bit,” Dallas coach Jason Garrett said.

PAIR OF SNUBS Stafford and Dallas linebacker Sean Lee were among the most prominent snubs on the Pro Bowl roster. But at least the Cowboys are contenders with some Pro Bowlers. They have five (Prescott, Elliott and offensive

DIFFERENT DEZ In Detroit’s 31-30 victory in the last regular-season meeting between these teams in 2013, Dallas receiver Dez Bryant had an infamous sideline outburst and shouting match with tight end Jason Witten in Detroit when the Cowboys couldn’t hold a 10-point lead in the last 7 minutes. But Bryant has shown more maturity this season, most notably when he calmly went to the sideline after his late fumble cost the Cowboys in a 10-7 loss to the Giants two weeks ago.

we’re one of the most exciting teams to play on Christmas, that says a lot for us.”

There’s obvious inconvenience, but Boston’s Jae Crowder said it gets canceled out by the opportunity.

Besides, it’s a 40-minute flight from New York to Boston. That means he’ll be home for Christmas night.

“This is a once-in-alifetime deal for me,” Crowder said.

Knicks star Carmelo Anthony abhors day games. He makes an exception once a year. For him, the atmosphere on Dec. 25 at Madison Square Garden is as Christmasy as the North Pole.

“You can’t beat playing in the Garden on Christmas,” Anthony said. “I mean, that’s a dream come true for people and I know, I remember

watching games in New York and that feeling. It’s a different feel playing here on Christmas.”

Memphis coach David Fizdale wants that feeling again.

He spent the past eight seasons as an assistant in Miami, and the Heat were a Christmas fixture on the NBA schedule during his tenure. The rebuilding Heat weren’t picked this year, nor were the Grizzlies — something Fizdale hopes to change soon.

“Our guys (in Miami) really got up for that Christmas game,” Fizdale said. “They all got their new Christmas shoes that they could wear that day, and the new Christmas uniforms. They knew everyone was watching that game. That was always a great game to watch and at some point, while I’m here, we’re going to get ourselves on Christmas Day.”

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, December 24, 2016 |

Dear Readers: This holiday, stop for a moment and CONSIDER YOUR PETS. They have become such a part of our lives that they can be overlooked and not appreciated for the magnificent creatures they really are.

What are your favorite attributes of your dog or cat? Companionship is a big one -- they are always happy to see us after we've had a stressful day at work, they can tell when we're feeling blue, and they will give a nudge or a head bonk for cheer.

Playing with your dog or cat can bring out the kid in you, and walking the dog can relieve stress and help you break the ice and meet people.

And ending the day snuggled on the couch with the dog and the cat curled up next to you is a way for all to feel safe, warm and protected.

Make sure to take a

minute to let your pet know he or she is loved today and all throughout the year. -- Heloise CRAZY CATNIP Dear Readers: Catnip is an herb, Nepeta cataria, in the mint family.

Catnip and cats go together like peanut butter and jelly. Cats are comical when playing with catnip; it can give a cat a feeling of euphoria, but it's generally not harmful. See if your cat likes it: Pour some in a sock and tie it off.

You can purchase catnip at a discount retailer or pet store. Clearly label the catnip in a sealable container to keep it fresh. Ask your veterinarian for more information about catnip! -- Heloise

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B4 | Saturday, December 24, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES