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WEST TEXAS MYSTERY
How did Border Patrol Agent Martinez die? Men may have been hit by truck driving along interstate File photo by John Davenport / San Antonio Express-News
Truck driver Jesse Parks prepares to drive a Peterbilt tractor rig near China Grove, Texas. Companies are experiencing a shortage of drivers.
A few thousand truckers needed
By Caitlin Dickerson NEW YORK TIME S NEWS SERVICE
President Donald Trump called it proof of the need to build a wall; Sen. Ted Cruz said it was a “stark reminder” of insecurity along the border. To everyone, it seemed like a horrendous example of the dangers that Border Patrol officers face as they cover vast, remote and unforgiving territories. But a month after a middle-
of-the-night incident in which one Border Patrol agent was killed and another, who is said to have no memory of what happened, was severely injured, no one seems to know how the men came into harm’s way off an interstate in West Texas. It was initially thought to be an attack, perhaps by migrants or drug smugglers. But the FBI says it also was possible the men were hurt accidentally. The Culberson County sheriff, Agent continues on A8
Mark Lambie/The El Paso Times / AP
FBI Special Agent Emmerson Buie Jr., center, speaks at a press conference on Nov. 21, 2017 in El Paso about the death of a border patrol agent and the severe injuries of a second agent.
TEXAS CRUDE They were fired in scores 3 years ago By Sheela Tobben
OIL’S BULL RUN WAVERS
BL O O MBE RG
When the price of oil collapsed in 2014 and disrupted drilling operations all across Texas’s massive Permian Basin shale formation, truckers were among those hardest hit. Rendered unnecessary by the slump in output, they were fired in scores. Now, three years later, with oil prices inching back higher and production in the Permian soaring once again, the drillers want the truckers back. The feeling, though, isn’t mutual. The pain of the 2014 bust remains fresh for many who went on to find driving gigs in other industries and, what’s more, they worry that companies will remain tightfisted with pay as they re-hire. The result is a growing trucker shortage that threatens to limit just how high drillers can push production. The problem is most acute in the western fringe of the Permian — known as the Delaware Basin — where shale companies are moving back into aggressively as prices climb. Given the off-the-beaten-path location of these wells amid the sprawling 75,000-square mile Permian, the need for truckers to haul the oil over primitive roads to pipelines is greater than in more centrally located spots. “We are able to sell the trucks to the crude haulers,” said Wade Black, a salesperson with Premier Truck Group in Amarillo, Texas, a city just to the north of the Delaware Basin. “But there’s no one to drive them.” Permian production is surging, thanks to improving oil prices. Explorers are tapping oil in the furthest regions of the field, which extends from West Texas across into New Mexico. Output may reach 2.79 million barrels a day January, 30 percent higher from the year before, according to latest government forecast. Led by Permian growth, total U.S. oil output is set to surpass 10 million barrels a day in June 2018, potentially eclipsing OPEC’s Saudi Arabia. About 3,000 oil truckers are hauling oil around the Permian, more than the 2,000 to Truckers continues on A8
LM Otero / AP
These men are shown working on a well pump near Sweetwater, Texas. The oil’s bull run is grinding to a halt as hedge funds lowered their bets on crude after they rose to a record a week earlier. After a months-long build-up, investors are wavering, concerned U.S. crude will continue to boom in 2018.
Investors wait to see what’s in store for 2018 market By Meenal Vamburkar BL OOMBERG
Oil’s bull run is grinding to a halt. Hedge funds lowered their bets on Brent crude after they rose to a record a week earlier. And the net-bullish position on West Texas Intermediate, which hit a nine-month high last month, dwindled for a third straight week. The message: After a months-long build-up, investors are wavering, concerned U.S. crude will continue to boom in 2018,
undercutting OPEC’s push to drain a global glut. “It seems like now most people have got their positions and are waiting to see what 2018 brings,” said Rob Thummel, managing director at Tortoise Capital Advisors. Oil futures in New York have jumped almost 40 percent since June as OPEC and its allies extended their production-cut deal and U.S. inventories shrank to two-year lows. But the decline in American stockpiles is largely due to refinery maintenance and exports near
an all-time high. Meanwhile gushers in the country are producing at a record pace. Global stockpiles won’t fall enough to reach the level targeted by OPEC when the group meets in June, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid AlFalih said last week. American output is poised to reach 9.99 million barrels a day in May, according to the Energy Information Administration. That would surpass Saudi Arabia’s curtailed production of 9.97 million barrels a day in November.
The Brent net-long position -- the difference between bets on a price increase and wagers on a drop -- fell 1.1 percent to 538,045 contracts in the week ended Dec. 19, according to data from ICE Futures Europe. That’s after reaching a record 544,051 contracts in the previous week. Longs fell 1.2 percent, while shorts decreased 1.8 percent. Money managers cut their WTI net-long position by 1.8 percent to 383,828 futures and options during the week, acOil continues on A8
Zin brief A2 | Wednesday, December 27, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
CALENDAR
AROUND THE NATION
TODAY IN HISTORY
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 27
ASSOCIATED PRE SS
First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 10 a.m. - noon. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
SUNDAY, DEC. 31 New Year’s Eve celebration. 6 p.m.-1 a.m. Downtown Laredo at the Outlet Shoppes at Laredo parking lot.
Epoca de Oro Social Club’s annual New Year’s Scholarship Dance. 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Magnolia’s Receptions at La Hacienda Hotel, 4914 San Bernardo Ave. Live music by The Three Amigos. BYOB and snack trays permitted. $30 presale and $35 at the door. For more information, call 337-7178, 740-3572, 290-7341 or 763-4458.
SATURDAY, JAN. 6 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
SATURDAY, FEB. 3 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
Mark Lennihan / AP
A construction worker walks past St. Nicholas National Shrine in New York. Work on the church destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks has been temporarily suspended.
COSTS RISE ON CHURCH CRUSHED ON 911 NEW YORK — Construction on a Greek Orthodox church to replace one that was crushed in the Sept. 11 attacks has been temporarily suspended amid rising costs and questions over how donations have been managed. The St. Nicholas National Shrine next to the World Trade Center memorial plaza was to replace a tiny church obliterated when the trade center’s south tower fell in 2001. The new building was designed by renowned architect Santiago Calatrava, who created the soaring white bird-like mall and transit hub nearby called the
Oculus. But unlike the transit hub, built largely with federal transportation dollars, the church is being funded through donations including from the Greek government, Greek Orthodox church members around the world, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and the Italian city of Bari, whose patron saint is St. Nicholas. In September, the estimated cost was $50 million. But according to The New York Times , which first reported the work suspension, the cost had jumped to an estimated $72 million to $78 million as of this month. — Compiled from AP reports
SATURDAY, MARCH 3 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
SATURDAY, APRIL 7 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
Property manager finds four people dead in basement apartment TROY, N.Y. — Four people were found dead Tuesday and may have been killed in a basement apartment in New York’s capital region, police said. A property manager made the grisly discovery at a home in Troy, a city near Albany, police Capt. Daniel DeWolf said.
The deaths are “certainly suspicious,” he said. “Until something changes our mind, we’re looking at it as a homicide.” “It’s horrible. Terrible. Sad — sad especially at this time of year,” DeWolf said. “We’re going to do everything we can to look into this and get to the bottom of what happened here.” A phone call to one of the home’s apartments was answered by someone who declined to comment. Officers swarmed the street
SATURDAY, MAY 5
AROUND THE WORLD
First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale.
Russia election boycott campaign may be illegal
8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
SATURDAY, JUNE 2 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
SATURDAY, JULY 7 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale. 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
MOSCOW — The Kremlin hinted Tuesday at possible legal repercussions for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny over his calls for a boycott of the March presidential election. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, wouldn’t comment on the Election Commission’s decision to bar Navalny from running but said the “calls for boycott ought to be carefully studied to see if they are breaking the law.” As expected, Russia’s top election body on Monday formally barred Navalny from a presidential run. Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and Putin’s most prominent rival, promptly put out a video statement saying that the ban shows “Putin is terribly scared and is afraid of running against me.” He called on supporters to stay away from the vote in
and cordoned off the area around the home in the Lansingburgh neighborhood, which runs along the Hudson River in Troy, a city of about 50,000 people. Troy is home to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, though it’s miles away from the crime scene. The city also is known for the Louis Comfort Tiffany stained-glass windows that grace multiple churches and buildings from Troy’s industrial heyday in the late 1800s and early 1900s. — Compiled from AP reports
Evgeny Feldman / AP
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny gestures while speaking at the election commission in Moscow, Russia.
protest. Meanwhile, Putin’s backers convened Tuesday afternoon to formally nominate him for presidency after he announced that he will run as an independent candidate. Prominent lawmakers, film actors, musicians and athletes gathered at a Soviet-era exhibition hall to endorse him. Putin did not attend because of other
engagements, Peskov said. Putin, who has been in power for 18 years and is expected to easily win another six-year term, has so far refrained from campaigning. Navalny, meanwhile, has been aggressively seeking votes all year, reaching out to the most remote parts of the country. — Compiled from AP reports
Today is Wednesday, Dec. 27, the 361st day of 2017. There are four days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Dec. 27, 1927, the musical play "Show Boat," with music by Jerome Kern and libretto by Oscar Hammerstein II, opened at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York. On this date: In 1831, naturalist Charles Darwin set out on a round-the-world voyage aboard the HMS Beagle. In 1892, the cornerstone was laid for the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City. In 1904, James Barrie's play "Peter Pan: The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up" opened at the Duke of York's Theater in London. In 1932, New York City's Radio City Music Hall first opened. In 1945, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were formally established. In 1947, the original version of the puppet character Howdy Doody made his TV debut on NBC's "Puppet Playhouse." In 1949, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands signed an act recognizing Indonesia's sovereignty after more than three centuries of Dutch rule. In 1968, Apollo 8 and its three astronauts made a safe, nighttime splashdown in the Pacific. In 1970, the musical play "Hello, Dolly!" closed on Broadway after a run of 2,844 performances. In 1979, Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed, was replaced by Babrak Karmal. In 1985, Palestinian guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports; 19 victims were killed, plus four attackers who were slain by police and security personnel. American naturalist Dian Fossey, 53, who had studied gorillas in the wild in Rwanda, was found hacked to death. In 1995, Israeli jeeps sped out of the West Bank town of Ramallah, capping a seven-week pullout giving Yasser Arafat control over 90 percent of the West Bank's one million Palestinian residents and one-third of its land. Ten years ago: Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, 54, was assassinated in a gun and suicide-bomb attack in Pakistan following a campaign rally. Kenya held an election pitting incumbent president Mwai Kibaki against opposition candidate Raila Odinga; both candidates ended up claiming victory in a vote that observers said was seriously flawed. Five years ago: An Indian-born man, Sunando Sen, was shoved to his death from a New York City subway platform; suspect Erika Menendez later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. (Authorities say Menendez pushed Sen because she thought he was Muslim; Sen was Hindu.) Retired Army general Norman Schwarzkopf, 78, died in Tampa, Florida. Character actor Harry Carey Jr., 91, died in Santa Barbara, California. One year ago: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, accompanied by President Barack Obama, visited Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, where he offered his "sincere and everlasting condolences to the souls of those who lost their lives" in Japan's 1941 attack; Abe did not apologize, but conceded his country "must never repeat the horrors of war again." Actress Carrie Fisher died in a hospital four days after suffering a medical emergency aboard a flight to Los Angeles; she was 60. Cavaliers superstar LeBron James was voted AP Male Athlete of the Year after bringing the NBA title to Cleveland. Today's Birthdays: Actor John Amos is 78. ABC News correspondent Cokie Roberts is 74. Rock musician Mick Jones is 73. Singer Tracy Nelson is 73. Actor Gerard Depardieu is 69. Jazz singer-musician T.S. Monk is 68. Singer-songwriter Karla Bonoff is 66. Rock musician David Knopfler is 65. Actress Tovah Feldshuh is 64. Journalist-turned-politician Arthur Kent is 64. Actress Maryam D'Abo is 57. Country musician Jeff Bryant is 55. Actor Ian Gomez is 53. Actress Theresa Randle is 53. Actress Eva LaRue is 51. Wrestler and actor Bill Goldberg is 51. Actress Tracey Cherelle Jones is 48. Bluegrass singer-musician Darrin Vincent is 48. Rock musician Guthrie Govan is 46. Musician Matt Slocum is 45. Actor Wilson Cruz is 44. Singer Olu is 44. Actor Masi Oka is 43. Actor Aaron Stanford is 41. Actress Emilie de Ravin is 36. Christian rock musician James Mead is 35. Rock singer Hayley Williams is 29. Country singer Shay Mooney is 26. Thought for Today : "Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense." — Gertrude Stein, author (1874-1946).
SATURDAY, AUG. 4 First United Methodist Church Used Book Sale.
AROUND TEXAS
8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hard cover $1, paperback $0.50, magazines and children’s books, $0.25. Public is invited. Proceeds are used to support the church’s missions.
Houston Metro still struggling with railroad safety
Submit calendar items by emailing editorial@lmtonline.com with the event’s name, date and time, location, purpose and contact information for a representative. Items will run as space is available.
HOUSTON — Collisions remain a constant along the Metro’s light rail track despite a monthslong effort to improve rail safety in the Houston area. The Metropolitan Transit Authority logged November as its second-worst month for train crashes in more than a year, with 15 crashes along the light rail. Transit officials plan
CONTACT US to improve police traffic enforcement to keep car and truck drivers from turning into the train, the Houston Chronicle reported. “Sixty percent of our accidents are illegal left turns along the rail corridor,” said Tom Lambert, Metro CEO. “We have not been aggressive in that — and we’re not here to bring in revenue — but we are going to start a very aggressive enforcement campaign.” Some drivers said Metro should turn its efforts internally instead of policing drivers.
“Why don’t they ticket their own drivers for blocking intersections or not blowing the horn?” said Salvadore Martin, who drives downtown daily. Other drivers said Houston should have anticipated safety problems with a street-level rail system from the beginning. “This is why you build a subway,” said Georgine McDonald, another driver in the area. The Metro had spent months focusing on rail safety after a pair of train collisions. — Compiled from AP reports
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THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, December 27, 2017 |
STATE
Holiday spirit endures despite Harvey hardships
More men must enroll to meet graduation goal ASSOCIATED PRE SS
By Laura Garcia VICTO RIA ADVOCAT E
VICTORIA, Texas — A small Christmas tree twinkles with multicolored lights inside a room at Motel 6. Stockings are hung on the wall, and snowflakes are affixed to the windows. Jaime Almanzar, 54, and his seven family members have been living at the motel in Victoria for the past four months since Hurricane Harvey. Almanzar can’t afford to repair his damaged twobedroom home and is working odd jobs every day for food and basic necessities. But he’s grateful to have a safe place to lay his head. Motel 6 left the light on for those needing a place to ride out the storm on Aug. 25 and since then has become a place families can stay as they work through the Federal Emergency Management Agency process. The motel has 22 rooms occupied by displaced families in FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance program. Manager Yolanda Cervantes said she’s seen how hard families are working to recover from Harvey. “They’re still fighting to get home,” she told the Victoria Advocate. In the meantime, she said several families have decorated their rooms for the holidays. “They do whatever they can do to make it feel like home,” she said. Motel 6 also sustained damage during Harvey and is almost finished with repairs. The swimming pool and the sign are next on the list. But repairs to
Angela Piazza/The Victoria Advocate / AP
Jaime Almanzar, 54, holds open a curtain that is a temporary door between bedrooms in his house, located in the Greens Addition community, in Victoria, Texas. The home was damaged in Hurricane Harvey and subsequent flooding. Almanzar, 54, and his seven family members have been living at the motel on Houston Highway for the past four months since Hurricane Harvey.
Almanzar’s house are much slower. The home where Almanzar raised his five daughters was uninsured, and he learned this week that FEMA won’t help beyond the $530 in aid he received early on. But that money is long gone, and he’ll need a lot more to fix his home. His hope is that once the home is repaired, he and his wife will move back in with three of their daughters. A fourth daughter, her husband and their toddler might also stay there because they lost their apartment after Harvey. Church volunteers helped tarp the hole in his roof and cleaned out the mud left behind when the
Guadalupe River entered his house. They also ripped out the walls to prevent mold. The FEMA aid was only enough to replace the walls in his daughters’ room. The windows still need to be repaired, and the walls are down to the frame in most parts of his home. Despite suffering from hernias, Almanzar works as often as he can doing yard work and manual labor. His wife, Cecilia Flores, and their older daughters are also working, but he said the costs are still overwhelming. At one point, he almost fell victim to a phone scam promising money after purchasing a Walmart gift card. Lucki-
ly his family warned him before it was too late and they reported the call to the police. The family is often washing clothes at the motel with quarters and driving to their home to dry loads of laundry. The washer didn’t survive the storm. Neither did the family’s hamster. But their two Chihuahuas survived. Most days, he’s optimistic and his tanned, aged face is set in a big smile. But when there’s just a few dollars left to his name and he’s tired, his mind wanders and he contemplates whether the daily struggle to survive is worth it. That’s usually when he says God provides. “You can’t have too much pride,” he said. “There’s no shame in asking for help.” And that’s exactly what happened this week. The nonprofit organizations that have helped Almanzar’s family stay afloat came through for the holidays. He attended a free dinner at Christ’s Kitchen and was given $20 for gas and some bread and soups. While he was at the soup kitchen, Almanzar was handed $100 in gift cards. An employee of Victoria Independent School District, where two of his daughters attend, also came by the motel with an H-E-B gift card to help with groceries. The family, meanwhile, was able to buy some small Christmas gifts. He said he just wanted to have everyone together this Christmas, wherever that is. “Sometimes you think you have it bad, but other people have it worse,” he said.
A3
AUSTIN — State officials say the number of men pursuing public college degrees must increase to catch up with their female counterparts as part of a statewide effort to expand the number of Texans who graduate. Officials with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board tell the Austin American-Statesman that lower enrollment figures among men impede efforts to have 550,000 young adults earn a post-secondary degree or certificate by 2030. The board reports that
The board reports that some 62,200 men received degrees from public schools in 2016 compared to 82,700 women.
some 62,200 men received degrees from public schools in 2016 compared to 82,700 women. The gender divide is nothing new on public campuses in Texas. The board says women have comprised at least 56 percent of the population since 2000.
DA to aid sheriff’s use-of-force probe ASSOCIATED PRE SS
SAN ANTONIO — The Bexar County District Attorney has agreed to lend some manpower to the sheriff’s office investigation into the deputy-involved shooting of a 6-year-old boy. Kameron Prescott was killed last week when Bexar County Sheriff’s deputies opened fire on a woman at a San Antonioarea mobile home park following a nearly twohour manhunt. The woman, 30-yearold Amanda Jones, was also fatally shot in the December 21 incident. Sheriff Javier Salazar has said Jones had no apparent connection to the boy or his family. District attorney
District attorney spokeswoman Leslie Garza said in a statement Tuesday that office staff are reviewing the use-of-force investigation at the request of the sheriff’s office.
spokeswoman Leslie Garza said in a statement Tuesday that office staff are reviewing the use-offorce investigation at the request of the sheriff’s office. Garza said that if the investigation indicates that the deputies’ actions were criminal, the district attorney’s office “will take appropriation action.”
Zopinion
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A4 | Wednesday, December 27, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
COLUMN
OTHER VIEWS
Good things actually did happen this year By Albert R. Hunt B L OOM BE RG V IEW
I’m a critic of President Donald Trump, so most of the 150 columns I’ve written this year have been negative. Now, in the holiday spirit, it’s time to celebrate the good stuff that happened in 2017. A groundbreaking ceremony for the Jackie Robinson Museum took place in April, 70 years after the Brooklyn Dodger great broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier and ended almost 80 years of segregation. Located in lower Manhattan, this tribute to the civil rights pioneer is scheduled to open in the spring of 2019. Professional baseball has done a good job celebrating Robinson, retiring his number 42 and honoring him every April 15, the date of his debut. In the U.S. Capitol, where Democrats and Republicans barely speak to each other, two Texas congressmen reminded us that bipartisan civility was once the norm. After a cancelled flight, Rep. Will Hurd, a Republican, and Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat, drove together on the 1,600 mile trip back to Washington. It brought to mind Gerald Ford’s wisecrack that congressional comity started to erode with the arrival of the jet airplane, which let members head home more often and left them less time to spend with each other. Natural disasters produced heroes from Texas to Florida to Puerto Rico. On July 8, for example, Jessica and Derek Simmons were walking on the beach in Panama City, Fla., when they noticed nine people, including a couple of children, caught in a rip tide and in danger of drowning. They swiftly gathered 80 others on the beach, forming a human chain that reached to the trapped swimmers and made it possible to pull them to safety. Famed chef Jose Andres swung into action after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico on Sept. 20 and Washington dawdled. He set up a food-delivery service that provided millions of hot meals and sandwiches to a traumatized citizenry, more than the Red Cross or the government. In East Texas, Southwest Airlines flew scores of lost puppies and cats to new homes after Hurricane Harvey inundated Houston in August. Pro football star J.J. Watt worked around the clock to raise more than $30 million in relief
funds. Then the city got a shot in the arm two months later when the Houston Astros won their first World Series. Medical science made strides in developing gene-altering techniques and immunotherapies to treat cancer, even in severely ill adults with leukemia. It’s a reminder of extraordinary progress. My dad was a pediatrician, and I can still picture how devastated he was when a young patient was diagnosed with leukemia. It was a death warrant. Today the survival rate for children with acute lymphocytic leukemia is above 85 percent. Smoking continues to decline, plummeting more than 20 percent since the turn of the century, according to USA Facts, the reference website launched by former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer. The site is a trove of good news, including this data point: The number of hate crimes dropped at about the same pace as smoking. That was before Trump became president, so we’ll see what happens next. A veteran Virginia state legislator who proclaimed himself the state’s "chief homophobe" lost his bid for re-election in November - to a transgender woman. He’d sponsored a bathroom bill restricting access by transgender people to public restrooms. "The Post," a movie celebrating press freedom, hit theaters last week. It’s a stirring and largely factual account of how the Washington Post, despite threats from the government and investors, decided in 1971 to publish parts of the Pentagon Papers, the secret government chronicle of U.S. deceptions during the Vietnam War. It was The New York Times that broke this seminal story and then was blocked by the government from further publication. The Post got the papers and published despite legal risks. The Supreme Court later ruled that the government’s effort to prevent publication was unconstitutional. It’s a story with contemporary importance amid Trump’s attacks on news organizations and his babble about fake news. Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks are fabulous. With the arrival of Kai Woodruff Hunt a month ago, my wife and I became grandparents. Trump’s term will end in only 1,123 days. Albert R. Hunt is a Bloomberg View columnist.
COLUMN
Liberal institutions will be better this season of purges By Francis Wilkinson BL OOMBERG VIEW
Liberals are at a loss. The U.S. president, who turned out to be more vile and duplicitous than they even had imagined, may or may not be indicted within a year’s time. Meantime, the U.S. Congress is run by conservatives who, spurred by the greed of their donors and the fears of their base, are growing ever more comfortable telling blatant lies, preparing cover-ups and counter-narratives and overhauling the nation’s tax code in the manner of a Vegas caper — hidden from view with the cash to be divvied among the plunderers. So the federal government is hostile territory. Meanwhile, liberal havens, the places where a certain class of liberals goes for succor and strength, or even for a thoughtful diversion from a world teeming with Orcs, are in tumult. Everywhere, institutions that liberals rely on are drowning beneath a progressive wave of #metoo. Voices long deemed soothing sound suddenly screechy, even menacing. So long, Garrison Keillor, folksy host of "A Prairie Home Companion." Goodbye, Charlie Rose, earnest public television interviewer. Good riddance, Harvey Weinstein, Democratic donor and purveyor of the kind of movies that well-educated people liked to talk about. Sorry to see you go, Al Franken, senator who gets health-care
policy but also gets the joke. Au revoir, Hamilton Fish, publisher of the New Republic. Adios, Don Hazen, longtime lefty news executive. Can we stop now? Well, not yet. Moving up the culture ladder in New York, the still-proud capital of liberalism, something appears deeply rotten at the top of the Metropolitan Opera. Meanwhile, Peter Martins, the longtime head of the New York City Ballet, no longer seems quite so elegant and refined. (True, New York’s Lincoln Center is Koch Country, but it’s a country where Trump has always been alien and undocumented.) Oh, and the editor of the Paris Review — he’s in la poubelle, too. WNYC, the public radio station in New York, added to liberal woes last week. The station announced the firing of erudite interviewer Leonard Lopate and one-of-a-kind musical programmer Jonathan Schwartz, both of whom had been on the airwaves in New York for decades. The firings followed the earlier dispatch of "The Takeaway" host John Hockenberry and a separate harassment scandal involving a top executive at National Public Radio, that reliably comfortable Volvo wagon of news. For the most part, these beheadings are taking place after revelations by other liberal institutions — The New York Times, the Washington Post — or belated
actions from the boards of the institutions themselves, pursuing internal investigations. The system is slowly working, and evolving to higher standards — at least in one part of the American cultureplex. The timing, however, is brutal. With Trumpism on the march — even if it’s occasionally a Chaplinesque march — liberal redoubts of news and culture have been tarnished by their own guardians. No liberal (or anyone else, apparently) laments Weinstein’s departure from the red carpet, and Rose’s interviews won’t be hard to surpass. But the collective housecleaning is bracing, and disorienting, nonetheless. Many of the comments on the WNYC web site responding to the firing of Lopate and Schwartz were angry not at the hosts but at the station that dismissed them. Anonymous accusations. Draconian punishments. Who wants to live in that kind of Stalinist, Game-of-Thrones world? Much less fund it? Lopate is an intellectual and writer who allowed listeners to eavesdrop on intimate, bookish conversation. Schwartz is a human encyclopedia of the American songbook — retro, often singing a song of self, but also a personal witness to greatness with an irrepressible passion for music. Neither man is easily replaced. The WNYC report on the firing quoted a dis-
LETTERS POLICY Laredo Morning Times does not publish anonymous letters. To be published, letters must include the writer's first and last names as well as a phone number to verify identity. The phone number IS NOT published; it is used solely to verify identity and to clarify content, if necessary. Identity of the letter writer must be verified before publication. We want to assure our readers that a letter is written by the person who signs the
letter. Laredo Morning Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms. This space allows for public debate of the issues of the day. Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No name-calling or gratuitous abuse is allowed. Also, letters longer than 500 words will not be accepted. Via email, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.
CLASSIC DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU
traught fan: "I question the judgment of the executives, frankly," said Ken Coughlin, a longtime fan who brought along his Lopate Show potholder to the recent board meeting. "I think there was an overreaction because of what happened with The Takeaway and the pendulum swung all the way to the other side." On the whole, liberal institutions will be better for this season of purges. Some will likely go too far seeking to meet evolving, uncertain standards of a new era. And, yes, a backlash is hardly unlikely. But American culture and U.S. politics are under growing duress. Conservatives are becoming less democratic, more fearful and more aggressive. Instead of purging their predators and liars, they are nominating them for high office. The White House is run by people who exhibit contempt for suckers who tell the truth and follow the law. A bitter, nation-defining fight — likely over special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and its consequences — is coming. To preserve the institutions they revere, and on which civil society depends, liberals have to shed some ungainly weight, muscle up and step into the ring. If the fight goes well, they can pick up their pledgedrive potholder after the republic is secure. Francis Wilkinson writes for Bloomberg View.
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, December 27, 2017 |
NATIONAL
Trump breaks with tradition: no state dinner
A5
US industries get major benefits from tax law By Paul Wiseman ASSOCIATED PRE SS
By Darlene Superville A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump couldn’t stop talking about the red carpets, military parades and fancy dinners that were lavished upon him during state visits on his recent tour of Asia. “Magnificent,” he declared at one point on the trip. But Trump has yet to reciprocate, making him the first president in almost a century to close his first year in office without welcoming a visiting counterpart to the U.S. with similar trappings. Trump spoke dismissively of state dinners as a candidate, when he panned President Barack Obama’s decision to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping with a 2015 state visit. Such visits are an important diplomatic tool that includes a showy arrival ceremony and an elaborate dinner at the White House. “I would not be throwing (Xi) a dinner,” Trump said at the time. “I would get him a McDonald’s hamburger and say we’ve got to get down to work.” Last month it was Xi’s turn to literally roll out the red carpet. The Chinese leader poured on the pageantry as he welcomed Trump to Beijing on what was billed as a “state visit, plus.” Trump also made state visits to South Korea and Vietnam. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there is no “singular reason” why Trump hasn’t extended a state visit invitation yet, but added that the administration hopes to sched-
Andrew Harnik / AP
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping participate in a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China during his recent visit.
ule a visit early in 2018. Sanders gave no hints about which of Trump’s foreign counterparts are being considered for the diplomatic honor. A state visit typically is offered as a sign of friendship and to showcase strategic ties between countries that are important to each other, said Anita McBride, a veteran of three Republican administrations who last served as chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush. “The White House is the world stage to elevate that,” she said. “These occasions really go a long way to solidify and strengthen relationships.” Trump speaks often about his relationships with many of his foreign counterparts, including Xi. Trump and the Chinese leader met at Trump’s Florida estate in April, and Trump treated Xi to a full dinner — not the aforementioned burger — and what Trump described as “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake.” “President Xi was en-
joying it,” the president reported. Trump has also met at the White House, sometimes over lunch as well as abroad, with many of his foreign counterparts. He recently put the figure at more than 100. But nothing compares to a state visit. The White House portion of the visit begins with an elaborate arrival ceremony on the South Lawn, including the pomp of a military honor guard, a troop review and leader statements. The leaders meet privately in the Oval Office before they hold a joint news conference in the East Room or the Rose Garden. The evening ends with the foreign leader as the guest of honor at a lavish state dinner attended by hundreds, including members of Congress, business leaders, celebrities, political donors and others. The visiting leader also has lunch at the State Department, and sometimes will address a joint meeting of Congress.
WASHINGTON — Craft breweries are raising a glass to the Republicans’ new tax overhaul: It cuts the excise tax on beer. Retailers, long saddled with heavy tax bills, will get relief. So will some high-profile names in corporate finance, led by Wells Fargo. The tax measure that President Donald Trump signed into law Friday distributes benefits across a range of American industries, from construction to health care. “As a general rule of thumb, everybody’s doing well under this bill,” Martin Sullivan, chief economist at Tax Analysts, says of U.S. companies. “When you give out a trillion in tax breaks, it’s hard to create a lot of losers.” No wonder the stock market has been roaring in anticipation of fatter after-tax corporate profits. The new law slashes the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. It applies a low one-time tax to the profits that corporations have long kept overseas to avoid paying taxes under the current higher rate. It also delivers a windfall to people who pay personal taxes on business earnings. It lets companies immediately write off the full cost of new equipment. And it showers goodies on some individual industries, such as craft brewers, distilleries and wineries. The reasoning behind shrinking the tax burdens of corporations is to free up money for companies to invest in buildings, equipment and people and thereby juice the economy — and, in turn, benefit workers. Yet
Dave Martin / AP
This photo shows a beer at a microbrewery in Birmingham, Alabama. Craft breweries are raising a glass to the Republicans new tax overhaul: It cuts the excise tax on beer.
mainstream economists have expressed mainly doubts that workers will benefit much from corporations’ lower tax burdens. In dollars, the biggest tax savings from 2018 through 2027 go to manufacturers: $261.5 billion, according to an analysis by the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model. Nextmost-fortunate are insurance and finance companies ($249.4 billion) and retailers ($171.4 billion). Supporters of the Republican tax bill point out that America’s 35 percent corporate tax is one of the highest among advanced economies. But the tax code is so riddled with loopholes that few corporations have actually paid that list price. Without the new law, the effective tax rate across all industries would have been 21.2 percent next year. With it, the effective rate across industries drops all the way to 9.2 percent in 2018, according to the Penn Wharton Model. Not all industries have gained equally from loopholes. Retailers, for example, would have paid a 27.5 percent rate in 2018; under the new law, they’ll
pay just 15.6 percent. “The tax bill is a big shot in the arm for retailers, who have traditionally paid taxes at nearly the full amount,” says Matthew Shay, CEO of the National Retail Federation. Shay says he thinks the bill will help retailers accelerate investment in e-commerce and mobile technology. He also predicts that the bill will induce foreign-owned retailers to shift investment dollars into the United States. Finance and insurance companies would have paid an effective corporate tax rate of 26.1 percent next year. Now, it will be 14.3 percent. Analysts at Goldman Sachs have estimated that the tax law will boost big-bank earnings per share by 13 percent next year. The top beneficiary will be Wells Fargo, which has been dogged by scandals over cheating customers. It will enjoy an 18 percent earnings surge in 2018, Goldman estimates. Technology companies like Apple and Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. can now catch a break on profits they’ve stored abroad.
Zfrontera A6 | Wednesday, December 27, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
RIBEREÑA EN BREVE Vacaciones de Navidad 1 El distrito escolar Zapata County Independent School District informa que las oficinas administrativas y las escuelas pertenecientes al distrito tendrán sus vacaciones de Navidad del 25 de diciembre 2017 al 5 de enero de 2018.
Foro empresarial 1 La Ciudad de Roma en conjunto con la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores invitan al Foro Empresarial para Emprendedores que se llevará a cabo el jueves 18 de enero de 5 p.m. a 7 p.m., en Roma Community Center, 502 6th Street. Evento gratuito, para inscripciones llame al 956-6657535.
Genealogía 1 ¿Desea saber más sobre su historia familiar? ¿Necesita ayuda para iniciar su genealogía? Venga y reciba ayuda personalizada para investigar a sus ancestros utilizando recursos en línea. Voluntarios entrenados le ayudarán, todos los martes de 6:30 p.m a 8 p.m., en Roma Birding Center. Evento gratuito patrocinado por la Iglesia de Jesús de los Santos de los Últimos Días.
INMIGRACIÓN
Sheriff pide mejores políticas migratorias Por Anita Snow ASSOCIATED PRE SS
NOGALES, Arizona— El sheriff Tony Estrada es un policía de Arizona, pero de un tipo distinto al de la imagen común. Marco Antonio Estrada nació en Nogales, México y fue criado al norte de la frontera, con lo que tiene una perspectiva singular sobre el tema de la frontera y opiniones enfáticas en cuanto a cómo se debe tratar a los inmigrantes. El hombre canoso de 74 años de edad afirma que “no soy fanático” del presidente Donald Trump, ni de su idea de construir una muralla en la frontera, ni de sus restricciones a la inmigración. Estrada se ha convertido en un fuerte crítico de Trump en meses recientes, al reportarse que las detenciones de migrantes lejos de la frontera se han disparado. Los arrestos por parte del Servicio de Inmigración y Aduanas de Estados Unidos aumentaron en 40 por ciento comparado con el mismo período del año anterior.
Botes de basura 1 La Ciudad de Roma informa a la comunidad que sólo estará recolectando basura contenida en botes propiedad de la ciudad. Informes al 849-1411
Pago de impuestos 1 Desde 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.
Pago en línea 1 La Ciudad de Roma informa a sus residentes que a partir de ahora el servicio del agua puede pagarse en línea a cualquier hora las 24 horas del día.
Llenado de aplicaciones 1 La Ciudad de Roma ofrece el servicio de llenado de aplicaciones para CHIP, Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, Chip, Prenatal y otros. Contacte a Gaby Rodríguez para una cita en el centro comunitario o en su domicilio al 956246-7177.
sus esfuerzos en combatir a los verdaderos delincuentes y al tráfico de drogas”. Elegido por primera vez en 1992, Estrada cumple su séptimo periodo y afirma que posiblemente no se postulará de nuevo al cargo. Cumple 50 años al servicio de la ley el último día de 2017, la mitad de ese tiempo en el Departamento de Policía de Nogales, Arizona, y la otra mitad como el jefe policial del condado. Estrada era una criatura en 1944 cuando su madre se lo trajo con tres hermanos después de cruzar la frontera hacia Arizona para encontrarse con el padre, quien había recibido autorización para que los trajera a Estados Unidos. En las décadas subsecuentes narra haber visto la destrucción de muchas familias debido a las políticas de inmigración de Estados Unidos. “Lo peor crueldad que un gobierno puede hacer es separar a las familias, a los hijos de los padres, a las esposas de los esposos”, declaró Estrada. Señaló que tiene más
Anita Snow / Associated Press
Foto tomada el 5 de diciembre del 2017 en Nogales, Arizona, del sheriff del condado Santa Cruz en Arizona, Tony Estrada.
sentido vigilar a los inmigrantes que son productivos en Estados Unidos en lugar de deportarlos y separarlos de sus familias. Estrada es todo un liberal en un estado donde abundan los policías de ideas políticas conservadoras, es un demócrata que exhibe con orgullo en su oficina una fotografía del aspirante a la candidatura presidencial Bernie Sanders cuando éste visitó la frontera en marzo de 2016. El sheriff de la policía de la zona metropolitana de Phoenix, Paul Penzone, que derrotó a Joe Arpaio que estuvo en el puesto mucho tiempo en 2016, también es demócrata, pero la mayoría de los demás sheriffs de Arizona
son republicanos. Estrada censuró el muro fronterizo de Trump y lo describió como un desperdicio de dinero porque es “imposible” construir una estructura eficaz en un terreno con una geografía complicada que incluye cañones y otros lugares de difícil acceso, y señaló que “la gente desesperada encontrará siempre una forma para pasar”. “Hay bolsones de pobreza en nuestra propia nación, y estamos pensando en construir un ‘muro enorme y bello’”, declaró Estrada mientras movía la cabeza en señal de desaprobación. “Todas nuestras prioridades están jodidas”.
MAKE-A-WISH
Aviario 1 La Ciudad de Roma invita a visitar el aviario Roma Bluffs World Birding Center en el distrito histórico de Roma. El aviario estará abierto desde el jueves a domingo de 8 a.m. a 4 p.m. hasta enero. Mayores informes al 956-849-1411
Estrada es un firme liberal, en un estado donde los agentes de la ley tienen la imagen de ser todo lo contrario. Como agente de la ley, Estrada se opone a la inmigración ilegal y siempre le ha pedido a sus agentes que entreguen a las autoridades federales a quienes estén sin autorización en territorio estadounidense. En la cárcel que él administra en Santa Cruz, los inmigrantes que hayan sido acusados o convictos de delitos graves son retenidos hasta que puedan ser entregados a las autoridades federales. Pero Estrada señala que bajo el gobierno de Barack Obama se trataba a los inmigrantes más humana pues mayormente se ignoraban a los inmigrantes que simplemente estaban en el país sin permiso, y se concentraban los esfuerzos en ir contra los inmigrantes que hayan cometido delitos graves. "Hay maneras de hacer cumplir la ley con compasión”, declaró. "El gobierno debería concentrar
RECIBE PREMIO ÚNICO Voluntaria dona casa de muñecas para fundación Por Malena Charur TIEMP O DE ZAPATA
Una bella casa de muñecas fue el regalo para una niña de 8 años hace ya varios años. Ella disfrutó imaginar y jugar en esta casa que tenía una fachada con decoración navideña, dos recámaras, y un baño. El tiempo pasó y la niña se convirtió en un agente profesional de bienes raíces. Pero llegó un día en que Elizabeth O’Conor pensó que era el momento para que alguien más gozara de la magia de jugar con esta casa. O’Conor, quien es voluntaria de la organización Make-A-Wish, organiza cada año una recaudación de fondos para esta asociación. “Soy una de las tres voluntarias para MakeA-Wish en Laredo. Nosotros entrevistamos a niños que padezcan alguna enfermedad que ponga en riesgo su vida y les concedemos un deseo. Cada año organizo un evento para recaudar 2.500 dólares y yo igualo la cantidad para reunir 5.000 dólares, que es lo que cuesta generalmente conceder el deseo”, señaló. Agregó que para el evento de este año decidió rifar su casa de muñecas. “Decidí que en lugar de pedir a mis amigos que contribuyeran con los 2.500 dólares, rifaría mi casa de muñecas. Así que la casa fue sometida a una remodelación: cambiamos la ropa de cama, la modernizamos con un cuarto para ver la televisión donde se proyecta un partido de futbol de los Cowboys y compramos más accesorios en Hobby Lobby y en una tienda de venta de mobiliario para casas de muñecas en San Antonio, entre otras cosas”, expresó O’Conor. La casa fue llevada a la oficina de O’Conor para que pudiera ser admirada y promover la venta de boletos. “Algunos amigos me decían que no tenían hijas de esa edad y me pedían que, si acaso
Cuate Santos / Laredo Morning Times
Krychel Elías, una niña Wish Child y Elizabeth O'Conor sostienen el boleto ganador de la casa de muñecas que perteneció a O’Conor en su niñez y que rifó en noviembre.
ganaban, yo decidiera a quién se la regalaría”, dijo. Entonces O’Conor pensó en una pequeña que el año anterior había sido una beneficiaria de un deseo. “Invité a Krychel y a sus hermanitas a que vinieran a ver la casa. Ella puso de su propia bolsa 10 dólares para comprar un boleto: ‘Quiero contribuir como la gente que contribuyó para cumplir mi deseo. Quiero que a alguien se le cumpla su deseo’”, recordó O’Conor. “Krychel es una niña muy generosa, es una niña que tiene mucha madurez y que siempre piensa en los demás”. Krychel obtuvo como deseo de Make-AWish visitar Disney. Krychel y su familia acudieron a ver la casa y en noviembre, fue invitada para que esc-
ogiera el número ganador de la rifa. “El ganador de la casa fue la asociación Laredo Association of Realtors”, dijo O’Conor. “Ella pensó que no había ganado y le dije: ‘Krychel mucha gente trabajó para recaudar fondos y la asociación dijo que si ganaban querían regalarte la casa por tu historia y por cómo eres como persona, así que la casa es tuya’”. O’Conor relató que tanto Krychel como su madre rompieron en llanto al conocer la noticia. “La gente a menudo me pregunta si me pondría triste por regalar mi casa. Mi respuesta es no. Tengo muchos recuerdos jugando de niña con la casa de muñecas y he creado nuevos recuerdos junto a mi madre con la remodelación”, sostuvo.
Arrestan a sospechoso por tiroteo
Laboratorio computacional
Por Joana Santillana
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.
Un hombre fue arrestado el fin de semana de Navidad por su supuesta participación en un tiroteo afuera de un negocio ubicado al norte de Laredo. Daniel Aaron Nutt, de 33 años, fue acusado de agresión con agravantes con un arma mortal después de supuestamente disparar en contra de
TIEMP O DE ZAPATA
Lewis Daniel Rodríguez, dijeron autoridades. Oficiales acudieron a Nutt la cuadra 300 de Weathers Drive después de ser notificados de un tiroteo el sábado aproximadamente a las 7 p.m., de acuerdo con la policía. LPD dijo que oficiales
encontraron a Rodríguez, de 28 años, dentro de PAM Transport, una compañía local de transportes, herido con un impacto de bala en el abdomen. Rodríguez les dijo a los oficiales que había llamado al 911 después que Nutt le disparó por una discusión acerca de mover su vehículo. Él dijo que Butt comenzó a ser agresivo y se paró enfrente de la
camioneta de Rodríguez pidiéndole que se bajara del vehículo, según reportes policiacos. Posteriormente, la discusión se convirtió en un altercado físico y Nutt sacó un arma y disparó una vez, dijo LPD. Dos armas fueron encontradas dentro del vehículo de Nutt: una pistola 9mm, el arma que supuestamente utilizó en el tiroteo y una pistola semiau-
tomática calibre .45, dijo la policía. Nutt fue detenido y declaró que había actuado en defensa propia, de acuerdo con la policía. LPD dijo que tras su declaración acogió su derecho a contar con un abogado. Rodríguez fue transportado al hospital Doctors en condición seria pero estable, dijeron las autoridades.
Sports&Outdoors THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, December 27, 2017 |
A7
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: DALLAS COWBOYS
Jones: Garrett to coach Cowboys in 2018 By Drew Davison FO RT WORT H STAR-TELEGRAM
A coaching change isn’t coming this offseason for the Dallas Cowboys, owner Jerry Jones reiterated on his 105.3 The Fan radio show Tuesday. Jones hasn’t wavered in his belief that Jason Garrett is the right man for the job on the heels of another disappointing season that will end without a playoff berth. "I know a lot about our coaching staff," Jones said. "I certainly know a lot about Jason Garrett. Because of that, I can
very quickly and candidly say his job is not an issue here at all. "Let’s just say that it’s not in the best interest of the Cowboys to be considering a coaching change." While Garrett - last year’s NFL Coach of the Year - is seemingly safe for now, Jones alluded to the fact that his staff could undergo multiple changes with assistants on expiring contracts. But Garrett’s status has become a hot topic as he’s led the Cowboys to just two playoff berths in seven full seasons, and failed to close out four
games in which they led at halftime this season. Garrett has a career regular-season record of 66-53, and is signed for the next two seasons at $6 million a year. Jones handed Garrett a fiveyear, $30 million extension after the 2014 season. Even though Jones is publicly backing his head coach, it doesn’t soften the blow from a disappointing season. The Cowboys saw their playoff dreams end with a 21-12 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. Jones described his feelings as "disappointed" and "sick" with how the
season unraveled. "It was there to take and we should be disappointed," Jones said. "I’m sick. I’m really sick about it." But Jones expressed optimism about the Cowboys’ future once again and believes they’ll return to contender status in 2018. "We have got players who are very capable of competing at this level and we’ve got enough of them to do it and we’ve got enough of them in the right spots," Jones said. "There are better days ahead for the Cowboys than today."
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: HOUSTON TEXANS
O'Brien will coach Texans without contract extension
Ron Jenkins / Fort Worth Star-Telegram file
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones, left, said that Jason Garrett will remain the team’s head coach next season after Dallas did not make the playoffs in 2017.
NCAA FOOTBALL: TEXAS LONGHORNS
Longhorns try to avoid another losing season By Nick Moyle SAN ANTONIO EXPRE SS-NEWS
Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle file
Texans head coach Bill O'Brien said he is content coaching next year without a contract extension.
Houston coach will try to prove himself in ‘18 By Aaron Wilson H OUSTON CHRONICLE
As the Texans careen toward their first losing season under Bill O'Brien, the coach has been the subject of several unconfirmed rumors about his future. O'Brien coached the Texans to AFC South division titles each of the previous two years. This season, the Texans were likely going to repeat as champions if not for losing quarterback Deshaun Watson, defensive end J.J. Watt and outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus and several other key players to injuries. O'Brien is entering the final year of his five-year contract in 2018 and said Monday that he would be willing to coach the team
next season without a contract extension. O'Brien has previously said he won't ever quit. If the Texans don't sign O'Brien to a contract extension or fire him, there would be multiple suitors for him on the open market. At this point, it remains a fluid situation with nothing decided. "Yeah, sure," O'Brien said when asked if he would be willing to coach the Texans next season. without a new contract. "Yeah, I'll coach this team. I mean, as long as they want me to coach this team, I'll coach the team. We have a good staff, we work very hard. It hasn't been a good year, we know that. We know the business. "Like, we're not blind
to what goes on in the NFL. Everybody understands that it's a bottom-line business but we believe in what we do and again, a lot of those decisions aren't made by me. So, I just do the best job I can to work with the staff and the players to try to get a win on Sunday." The Texans could execute a quick turnaround with the healthy return of Watson, Watt, Mercilus, center Nick Martin, nose tackle D.J. Reader, tight ends C.J. Fiedorowicz and Ryan Griffin and running back D'Onta Foreman. The Texans sorely need to upgrade their roster, especially their offensive line and defensive backfield. "I think every year's different," O'Brien said.
"I think a lot of that has to do with the offseason. I believe very strongly in Deshaun Watson. I mean, that's obvious. I think he's a great player. But I think things have to be evaluated. Like, you have to go into the offseason and you have to figure out what are the strengths and weaknesses of your team, of your coaching staff, of your organization, and you have to make sure that you're trying to improve. "I think that's the big thing. So, for me to sit here and say, 'What are we going to do,' that's a long way off. I think it's very, very important to focus on this game and then once this game's over, now, OK, let's evaluate where we are in all facets of what we do."
HOUSTON — Tom Herman might still be the savior Texas needs. UT’s success on the recruiting trail indicated the program still holds sway over a generation of kids too young to remember Vince Young’s Rose Bowl heroics. But it’s clear this top-to-bottom overhaul will require time and patience, two things fans of the team are understandably short on. Coaches and players disdain chatter of moral victories, but this year has been short on actual wins. It’s impossible to examine Herman’s first season without acknowledging all the “almosts.” UT (6-6) fell to fourthranked Southern Cal, 10th-ranked Oklahoma State, 12th-ranked Oklahoma and Texas Tech by a combined 15 points. It will enter Wednesday’s Texas Bowl against Missouri (7-5) at NRG Stadium a .500 team which could have been so much more. But a final triumph over the Tigers, listed as 3-point favorites, can make the Longhorns something they have not been since 2013: a winning team. “Haven’t been to a bowl game in three years, so if that doesn’t excite you as a player than you probably need to quit football and do something else,” Herman said. “I think winning this game will be important for us in terms of momentum. It’s not life or death, but we sure as heck can use this to springboard us into the offseason for 2018.” The odds aren’t in UT’s favor. A mélange of injuries, suspensions and draft declarations has pockmarked the team’s depth chart. The return of Elijah Rodriguez, who will start at left tackle, and P.J. Locke, who will replace DeShon Elliott at safety, helps, but the team is a far cry from full strength. “We don’t blink,” Herman said. “The guys that are still here and still playing are tough dudes. Just another day at the office, so to speak. “But it’s real. I feel for Tim Beck and our offensive staff. You’re really
Tom Reel / SAEN file
Texas coach Tom Herman leads the Longhorns into the Texas Bowl Wednesday against Missouri.
limited in terms of what you can do from a personnel standpoint and the plays you can call. Then god forbid a guy gets hurt, then it’s like ok now we go to Plan B here real quick. But our team has responded at every turn and I’m proud of them for that.” Missouri’s current six-game winning streak wasn’t forged through the SEC’s fiercest flames, but coach Barry Odom’s team at least owns the type of momentum UT failed to establish this season. Junior Drew Lock, who led the nation with 43 touchdown passes, is probably the best quarterback no one is talking about, and the defense ranked among the top 25 nationally in sacks (2.58) and tackles for loss per game (7.7). “There’s going to be some adversity in this game,” Herman said. “How we respond to it will be a big key to judge our development.” A seventh loss would be a sour pill to swallow, even with the nation’s No. 3 recruiting class poised to arrive in 2018. No one wants another “almost.” “Three straight losing seasons takes its toll on kids,” Herman said. “It really does. It’s difficult for them, especially when dealt with adversity it can be a ‘here we go again’ syndrome. That has been an ongoing challenge, reestablishing the right way to handle adversity and the right way to compete and the right way to go about our daily business. But for the most part I’ve learned also that these guys are hungry for that. They want to be great and they want to compete. But it’s been a challenge to reprogram all these guys.”
A8 | Wednesday, December 27, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
FROM THE COVER
Democrats hope to use tax overhaul against GOP By Bill Barrow A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
A Democratic congressional candidate outside Philadelphia calls the Republican tax overhaul a “cynical bill” that will redistribute wealth upward. One of her counterparts in California dismisses estimates of tax savings for most U.S. households and says the legislation is “just putting money in the pocket of the wealthy.” And in Kansas, a Democratic candidate for governor says it’s “a recipe for disaster” that signals inevitable cuts to popular programs like Social Security and Medicare. While Republicans celebrate a massive tax overhaul they say will goose the economy and increase workers’ take-home pay up and down the income ladder, Democrats are aiming to turn the tax law into a cudgel in next year’s fight to retake control of Congress and to dent GOP advantages in statehouses. Democrats hope to use the tax plan, passed without a single Democratic vote, to stake their ground as the party of middle-class and working-class America. They hope Republican efforts to gut the 2010 health care law and President Donald Trump’s unpopularity will help that cause.
TRUCKERS From page A1
2,500 just before the 2014 price bust, Willie Taylor, Chief Executive Officer for Permian Basin Workforce Board in Midland, Texas, said in a phone interview. But companies will need to hire more than 3,000 additional drivers at the rate the patch is growing, he said. Those drivers are sorely needed, especially in the fast-growing Delaware Basin, which has become the Permian’s second-largest section. There are as many as 2,000 trucks just servicing the Delaware, each able to transport about 180 barrels, Joey Lee, General Manager with Premium Truck of Odessa, said in a phone interview. The problem? Drivers are worried they won’t get paid much, given that most operators are still in austerity mode with prices well below their 2014 peak, according to Lee. Oil truck drivers are
AGENT From page A1 Oscar Carrillo, who is helping with the investigation, seemed to favor that theory when he told The Dallas Morning News that the men could have been hit by a truck driving along the interstate next to where they were found. “If this was an assault, believe me, as sheriff, I’d be the first one out there emphasizing safety in our community and with our deputies, pairing them up,” he told the newspaper. “But from what I know and see, that was not the case here.” That hypothesis has angered the border agents’ union, The National Border Patrol Council, whose leadership fiercely insists that the men were attacked. Chris Cabrera, a spokesman for the organization, went as far as to call Carrillo a “dingbat” on his weekly podcast. “All these other theories, it’s tarnishing the name of our agents,” he said in an interview. The immediate, politicized reactions from Trump, Cruz and other elected officials have died down, as weeks have passed without any more clarity as to what happened. It was just after 11 p.m. on Nov. 18, when, according to the FBI, the two agents at the heart of the
“It’s all a consistent message: This is not what you were promised,” says Chrissy Houlahan, a Democratic candidate in the suburban Philadelphia district of Republican Rep. Ryan Costello, who voted for the tax plan. He is one of Democrats’ top GOP targets as they try to flip the 24 GOP-held seats necessary for a House majority. Republicans acknowledge dismal polling for their approach but count on a turnaround in public opinion as tax cuts for many take effect. A Wall-Street Journal/NBC News poll taken Dec. 13-15 found just 17 percent of respondents expect to pay less in taxes, while a third thought they’d pay more. Two-thirds of those polled said corporations would get breaks; more than half said rich people would get cuts. Indeed, the overhaul slashes the corporate rate from 35 to 21 percent, and adds generous deductions for certain types of businesses. Yet the plan also lowers individual rates and alters various deductions and credits. Results vary widely but the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center calculates that every income bracket will see gains in after-tax income, at least until some of provisions expire after 2025. The initial gains are estimated at about 0.5 percent for
the bottom 20 percent of wage earners to about 2 percent for most of the top 20 percent. “When Americans see they have more in their paycheck, we think they’ll be appreciative,” says Corry Bliss, who runs a political advocacy organization and a separate political action committee backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. “I think it sets up a wonderful contrast for the midterms.” Suburban Democrats like Houlahan particularly object to a new cap on deductions for state and local taxes, along with limits on mortgage interest deductions. One provision limits a household to a maximum deduction of $10,000 in state and local taxes, including property levies. Interest calculated on mortgage debt beyond $750,000 also would not be deductible, down from the current $1 million cap. Those changes fall disproportionately on the nation’s largest metro areas, particularly along the coasts, where median incomes are often much higher than the national benchmark but where residents also have considerably higher housing costs and local tax burdens. Such House districts feature prominently on Democrats’ target list in 2018. Several are now represented by Repub-
licans who voted against the final tax bill, like House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, who represents New Jersey’s 11th congressional district. Frelinghuysen’s potential general election opponent, Democrat Mikie Sherrill, said the congressman’s overall support for Ryan and the GOP agenda still makes him “complicit” in the tax legislation. In California, Democratic House challenger Gil Cisneros plans to hammer Rep. Ed Royce for backing the bill. Cisneros acknowledges many filers will benefit from expanded standard deductions and a more generous child tax credit, but said the other changes will offset much of that. Democrats beyond the higher-income, high-tax suburbs are bullish as well, leaning on more populist arguments on values and priorities, like the prospect that the tax cuts will increase the national debt. Republican-run Kansas, Ward says, is the perfect example for the potential fallout given the state’s experience since Gov. Brownback’s sweeping tax cuts after he took office in 2011. Brownback, an acolyte of supply side economics, promised an economic boom once Kansas slashed personal income
paid about $100,000 per year, some 10 percent to 20 percent below 20142015 salaries, according to Joseph Triepke, founder of Tennessee-based oilfield research firm InfillThinking.com. Typically, oil truckers got paid more than frac sand drivers because of the additional skills needed to haul a hazardous substance like petroleum, he said in a phone interview. But that salary disparity is narrowing as demand grows for frac sand. Truckers are also concerned about the implementation of digital log books this month that compute the hours of operations more accurately, instead of the manual logs where drivers got to pen down the hours themselves. Drivers, who get paid by how much time they spend time in a field “could manipulate the system with manual entries,” Lee said. The shortage won’t cause any kind of slowdown in production or shut-ins, said Lee, adding
that more staff will likely be added steadily next year as prices rise. “Rehiring will be a slow process. It won’t happen as fast as you need it.” While the race to expand production in the more distant reaches of the Permian boosts demand for truckers, technological developments may slow the hiring. Advances in horizontal drilling allow fewer wells to produce the same amount of oil and gas, reducing the number of trucks needed to transport the oil to market, Stephen Robertson, Executive Vice President for Midland-based Permian Basin Petroleum Association, said by email. Also, with so much production coming from a centralized pad site, it’s cheaper to set up flow lines to transport the oil to storage hubs, Robertson said. “Trucks are still greatly needed to transport people and equipment, it’s just that we have been able to reduce the number of trips needed to produce
an equivalent amount of hydrocarbons.” The Delaware Basin is far from most major cities, with the few hotels and man-camps the primary form of accommodation. Infrastructure is poor and trucks travel mainly on dirt roads, which can be bad for equipment, according to Premier’s Black. The rutted roads keep travel speeds at under 10 miles an hour to destinations that are as many as 50 miles away. The manpower shortage is expected to ease soon. Trucking companies are redeploying assets to where there has been a large increase in output to meet demand, a spokesman for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, Robert McEntyre, said in a phone interview from Santa Fe. The oil industry will simply have to pay up get more drivers, Lee said. “It’s offering better incentives like more time off or bigger bonuses. This is the competitive nature of the business.”
mystery responded to unspecified “activity” near a culvert, or drainage tunnel, that carries water underneath Interstate 10 near Van Horn. One of the agents, Stephen Garland, then called for help. When colleagues arrived, they found both men with major head injuries and broken bones, and took them to a local hospital. The men were flown to a larger hospital in El Paso, where the other agent, Rogelio Martinez, died early the next morning. Immediately afterward, the FBI said that it would spearhead an inquiry into the incident, which they were treating as a “potential assault against a federal officer,” according to Jeanette Harper, a spokeswoman for the agency. Assaults against Customs and Border Protection officers, including Border Patrol agents, reached 720 in the 2017 fiscal year, the most in at least five years, according to data from the agency. Harper said the FBI had collected forensic evidence that was being analyzed at its laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, and was also “aggressively” following up on leads that came into the agency’s tip line. One of those led to a search warrant being issued for a car belonging to two brothers. But later, Harper said the agency had not arrested anyone,
or even identified anyone “of interest,” in the investigation, suggesting that the tip about the brothers may not have proved fruitful. Angie Ochoa, who was engaged to marry Martinez when he died, said she even went to the scene of the incident, escorted by one of her fiancé’s co-workers, after she became fed up with the shifting accounts of what may have happened. “None of it made sense so I wanted to see for myself,” she said. Part of the challenge of establishing what exactly happened to the men is the remoteness of their work. Border agents patrol rocky deserts, often in the middle of the night, where there are very few, if any, other people around. The incident in November happened outside a tiny town of less than 2,000 people. The other agent, Garland, who has been released from the hospital, is said to have no memory of what happened. Martinez’s father, Jose Martinez, said in an interview shortly after his son died that after seeing his son in the hospital, he thought the injuries were too severe to have been caused by an accident. “I believe someone put a trap,” he said. The elder Martinez said he had often worried about his son working alone in the middle of the night. Another sign of the
uncertainty surrounding the case can be found in the descriptions of the rewards offered by the FBI and the state of Texas. The state is offering $20,000 for information “leading to the “arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and the serious injury of another.” The FBI’s $50,000 reward is for “information leading to the resolution of this case.”
taxes for business owners and eliminated the top marginal personal income tax rate. What followed was a cratering in state revenues, followed by cuts to education and other services. Unlike states, the federal government can borrow for operating costs to avoid the steepest immediate cuts even if Republican promises of revenue growth don’t materialize. But Ward points to Republicans’ long-term proposals to overhaul popular but expensive programs like Social Security and Medicare. “Day after day, services Kansans had taken for granted were shown not to be available,” Ward recalls. “The same thing can happen from Washington over the long term.” Of course, Democrats won’t have the campaign megaphone to themselves. Ten Senate Democrats must run for re-election next year in states Trump won. Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, one of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s top recruits, is challenging incumbent Claire McCaskill, who joined 47 other Senate Democrats in unified opposition to the tax bill. In Hawley’s campaign, the senator is now known as “Claire McTaxall,” complete with a website: clairemctaxall.com.
OIL From page A1 cording to data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday. Longs fell by 1.2 percent, while shorts rose 3.9 percent. “It’s been a good year,” but there’s “some worry about what next month is going to bring,” said John Kilduff, founding partner at Again Capital in New York. “There’s not as much enthusiasm about the OPEC/non-OPEC accord as there was even a few weeks ago.” The North Sea’s Forties Pipeline System, which carries crude used to price the Dated Brent benchmark, is set to return to normal flows early in the new year, according to a statement from operator Ineos
Group. The outage, which gave a boost to prices, was the first time a force majeure had been declared in the North Sea since 1988. Repairs are expected to be completed by “around Christmas.” In the fuel market, money managers reduced their net-long position on benchmark U.S. gasoline by 2.1 percent. Meanwhile, the net-bullish position on diesel rose by 1.9 percent. Heading into next year, investors will be watching how long it takes to get inventories back to the five-year average, Thummel said. The OPEC deal extension brought some certainty to the market, which is now waiting to see how the cuts and U.S. production play out. “That was the big cloud overhanging the oil market and prices,” he said.
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, December 27, 2017 |
A9
BUSINESS
Amid sales drop, Harley-Davidson wants to teach more people to ride By Ivan Moreno A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
MILWAUKEE — Harley-Davidson is placing a renewed emphasis on teaching people to ride as part of its efforts to attract more customers. The Milwaukee-based company’s decision to expand the number of dealerships with a Harley “Riding Academy” comes as the industry grapples with years of declining sales and an aging customer base. The program launched in 2000 with about 50 locations and now 245 dealerships in the U.S. offer the three- or fourday course. The company says about a quarter of those launched since 2014. Harley sold 124,777 new motorcycles through nine months in 2017, down from 135,581 during the same period the previous year, according to the company’s most recent earnings report. The Motorcycle Industry Council says the median age of motorcycle owners increased from 32 to 47 since 1990. About 46 percent of riders are over 50; only about 10 percent are 30-34. Samantha Kay rode on the back of her father’s motorcycle growing up, but when the 25-year-old took a class to ride for the first time she couldn’t help being anxious. “I think motorcycles inherently do scare a lot of people,” said Kay, a Milwaukee woman who is one of 50,000 people
Alexandre Meneghini / AP
A woman shows the new bill of 20 Mexican pesos in Mexico City. Mexico's central bank said on Tuesday that it will seek to bolster the peso amid concerns that the U.S. tax overhaul could reduce investment flows to Mexico. Ivan Moreno / AP
Terri Meehan poses on a 2018 Harley Softail Slim in Milwaukee's House of Harley. Meehan took a riding course at the dealership as part of Harley-Davidson's "Riding Academy," an initiative the company hopes will help bring new customers.
nationwide who took a riding course at a HarleyDavidson dealership this year. The training is one of the ways Harley is trying to attract a new generation of riders like Kay amid big demographic shifts. “Some of the aging Baby Boomers, which have been the guts of Harley-Davidson’s purchasers, they’re getting older and some of them are just getting out of the sport because they can’t handle the motorcycle anymore,” said Clyde Fessler, who retired from Harley-Davidson in 2002 after holding several executive positions over
25 years. He created what became the “Riding Academy.” He said the idea “is getting people comfortable on a motorcycle and getting them to feel safe and confident.” In addition to riders getting older, a slow economic recovery has made it harder for millennials to buy new motorcycles, said Jim Williams, vice president of the American Motorcyclist Association. Among the newest models, a 2018 Softail Slim starts at $15,899 and a 2018 Sportster FortyEight at $11,299. “The younger generations are buying plenty of
motorcycles, they’re just not new,” Williams said. But it’s not all the millennials’ fault, said Robert Pandya, who managed public relations for Indian Motorcycles and Victory Motorcycles. Pandya recently launched “Give A Shift,” a volunteer group discussing ideas to promote motorcycling. One of their conclusions, he said, is the idea that “if mom rides, the kids will ride.” Currently, women are about 14 percent of the riding population, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council. “The biggest possible opportunity in motorcycling is to invite more women to ride,” he said.
Mexico’s central bank to sell more peso coverage contracts ASSOCIATED PRE SS
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s central bank said Tuesday it will seek to bolster the peso amid concerns that the U.S. tax overhaul could reduce investment flows to Mexico. The Bank of Mexico said it would increase the currency coverage contracts it auctions to cushion the risk of holding pesos. The bank said it will add $500 million in non-deliverable, renewable forwards to its initial offering of $5 billion. Mexico’s currency
market has been highly volatile in recent days, with the peso dropping as low as 19.72 to the dollar in trading Friday. And the bank’s move Tuesday did not spark a peso rally as the 48-hour interbank rate closed even weaker at 19.88 to $1. The peso has also taken a beating over the last year from uncertainty related to the renegotiation of the North America Free Trade Agreement. The peso dipped as low as 22 to $1 early this year, but later recovered to as high as 17.50.
Home prices surge 6.2 percent, outpaces US wage growth By Josh Boak A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
WASHINGTON — U.S. home prices climbed a robust 6.2 percent from a year ago, amid strong demand from would-be buyers and a shrinking supply of properties for sale. Standard & Poor’s said Tuesday that its S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index stood in October a solid 6 percent above its previous 2006 peak. Prices are rising at more than double the pace of wage growth, creating some affordability pressures that have been offset by relatively low mortgage rates. Metro areas with booming job markets and the steepest home price gains could see more
residents staying as renters. “Since home prices are rising faster than wages, salaries, and inflation, some areas could see potential home buyers compelled to look at renting,” said David M. Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. The strongest annual gains occurred in Seattle, where prices have shot up 12.7 percent since October 2015. Las Vegas has seen prices increase 10.2 percent, while San Diego notched growth of 8.1 percent. Of the 20 metro areas tracked by the index, Washington, DC reported the smallest price gain with 3.1 percent. As the economy has steadily recovered from
the 2008 financial crisis, demand from would-be buyers has steadily improved. The 17-year low unemployment rate of 4.1 percent has left more Americans confident enough to put bids on homes. Sales of existing homes in November reached their strongest pace since December 2006, according to the National Association of Realtors. But the sales growth hasn’t compelled more people to list their homes for sale, as the number of properties on the market has tumbled nearly 10 percent in the past 12 months. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said last week that the rate on 30-year fixedrate mortgages averaged 3.94 percent, down from 4.30 percent a year ago.
John Bazemore / AP
A construction worker is shown at a project for new town homes. The Standard & Poor's CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index, which tracks the value of homes in 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas, reported Tuesday that U.S. home prices climbed a robust 6.2 percent from a year ago.
A10 | Wednesday, December 27, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
ENTERTAINMENT
Elizabeth Vargas leaving ABC News after 22 years By Nicole Bitette N EW YORK DAI LY NEWS
Elizabeth Vargas will be giving her final signoff from ABC News after 22 years on the network. The longtime news anchor, who revealed her battle with alcoholism on the newsmagazine program last year, announced on Friday that she would step down from "20/20" in May as the show wraps up its 40th season to "pursue new ventures," ABC News confirmed to the Daily News. "I want you to hear some news about me, from me. I will be leaving ABC News, and 20/20 at the end of this historic 40th season. It has been a profound privilege to be the anchor of 20/20 for 14 years, and a true honor to work with each and every one of you," she wrote in a letter to staff on Friday. The 55-year-old got her start on the network in 1996 as a newsreader for "Good Morning America" - and joined primetime the following year as the Saturday anchor of "World News Tonight." Her departure from the network was first reported by the Daily Mail on Friday afternoon. In 2004, Vargas was named co-anchor of 20/ 20 - the second ever woman in the role - and a year later in 2005, she was named co-anchor of ABC’s "World News Tonight." It was in 2006 that the New Jersey native decided to step down from her role on "World News Tonight." Vargas decided to
Charles Sykes and Evan Agostini / AP
This combination photo shows John Oliver and actor Dustin Hoffman. Oliver confronted Hoffman about allegations of sexual harassment during a screening panel in New York.
Bryan Smith / TNS
Elizabeth Vargas announced on Friday that she would step down from ABC News after 22 years on the network.
John Oliver reflects on tense talk with Hoffman By Rachel DeSantis
check herself into rehab for her alcohol addiction while vacationing in California in 2014. "As so many other recovering alcoholics know, overcoming the disease can be a long and incredibly difficult process," Vargas said in a statement to The News at the time. "I feel I have let myself, my co-workers and most importantly my family down and for that I am ashamed and sorry. I am committed to battling and addressing this debilitating disease and want to thank everyone who has offered their unwavering support during this trying time," she continued. The news personality had previously spent time in rehab in the fall of 2013 amid her divorce with songwriter Marc Cohen, who had allegedly cheated on her while she was seeking treatment. Vargas has two sons Zachary, 14, and Samuel, 11. During her news tenure, Vargas has inter-
viewed former President Bush, won an Emmy for covering the story of Elián González and investigated the book "The Da Vinci Code" and the role of Mary Magdalene. "She brought awareness to the crisis in Iraq covering Christian refugees escaping ISIS, reported on orphans in Cambodia who were given up for adoption without their parents’ knowledge, on gendercide in India, and was at the forefront of the Amanda Knox case from its earliest days," ABC News president James Goldston said in a memo. Despite her broadcasting achievements, Goldson noted that their team was most proud of Vargas’ "courage and grace in telling her own story about her struggle with anxiety and alcoholism." Not only did Vargas detail her struggles on "20/20," but she also penned a best-selling memoir "Between Breaths" about her addiction in 2016.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
"Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver’s tense discussion with Dustin Hoffman over the sexual assault claims facing the actor made waves earlier this month, but not for the reasons the comedian had hoped. Oliver opened up about the heated panel exchange, and appeared regretful not for bringing up the touchy subject, but for the fact that his line of questioning gained more attention than Hoffman’s answers. "It wasn’t ideal that it became such a big story but it became about my questions rather than his answers. My questions weren’t particularly remarkable, but his answers were kind of not great. That was really the point of it. But it didn’t really go anywhere constructive, so the whole thing just
made me feel sad . I tried and failed," he told Sky One’s "The Russell Howard Hour." At the time, Hoffman, 80, had been accused of sexual misconduct by two women; the number has since risen to eight. Anna Graham Hunter claimed in October she was an intern on the 1985 set of "Death of a Salesman" when Hoffman made aggressively lewd comments, requested foot massages and groped her. He apologized, saying such behavior was "not reflective of his character" - which is what set off Oliver. The British comedian was moderating a discussion to celebrate the 20th anniversary of "Wag the Dog" when he saw his opportunity to address Hoffman’s questionable response to Hunter’s claims. "I felt it was unavoidable. I had spoken to the
event organizer twice before when it was clear (Hoffman) might be there, I said, ’If he’s gonna be there, I have to ask him about this.’ I felt like I had to bring it up, the stories were out there and I knew there were a few more coming," Oliver said. During the panel, Oliver slammed Hoffman’s public apology, saying it "pissed (him) off" and was a cop out. "It is reflective of who you were. If it happened and you’ve given no evidence to show it didn’t happen, then there was a period of time for a while when you were a creeper around women. So it feels like a cop-out to say, ’This isn’t me.’ Do you understand how that feels like a dismissal?" he asked Hoffman in front of the crowd. The actor responded with, "You weren’t there," to which Oliver quipped, "I’m glad."