NEW YEAR’S EVE TRADITION
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 30, 2015
FREE
PLAYOFF SEMIFINALS HOPE TO ESTABLISH A NEW FOOTBALL CUSTOM, 7A
DELIVERED EVERY SATURDAY
TO 4,000 HOMES
A HEARST PUBLICATION
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
ZAPATA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFTEY
Fatal accident 3 dead in vehicle wreck By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
burglary happened sometime between the night of Sept. 13 and the early hours of Sept. 14. Authorities recently released pictures of the suspected burglar. People with information on the burglary or the identity of the person
Three Houston residents died in a single vehicle accident on Christmas, the Texas Department of Public Safety said Monday. DPS said the accident happened at about 3:21 p.m. on FM 2687, approximately 29 miles southeast of Zapata. Authorities identified those who died as Julian Martinez, 38, Maria Martinez, 15, and Richard Martinez, 10. Julian and Maria died at the scene while Richard was pronounced dead at a hospital, reports state. Reports state a gold 2008 Chevrolet sport utility vehicle traveling west had a blowout to the back right tire.
See LOCAL PAGE 9A
See FATAL PAGE 9A
Courtesy photo
Authorities recently released these pictures of the suspected burglar.
Local restaurant burglarized By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
Authorities are asking the community for assistance to solve a break-in at a local restaurant. The Zapata County Sheriff ’s Office said the burglary occurred at El Paraiso Restaurant, off U.S. 83. Reports state the
Courtesy photo
The vehicle is said to have skidded and rolled over multiple times striking a fence line. “The vehicle ended up on the south side of the road off the highway,” states the DPS report.
SUPREME COURT
ZAPATA FAMILY MEDICAL CENTER
OBAMA’S PLAN BLOCKED Clinic no longer open 24 hours A decrease in local funding has caused the clinic to make changes By JUDITH RAYO THE ZAPATA TIMES
Photo by Eric Gay | AP file
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is pictured on Aug. 1, 2015.
Texas asks not to review immigration case By SETH ROBBINS ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN ANTONIO — Texas on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court not to review a lower court’s decision blocking President Barack Obama’s plan to spare millions of immigrants from deportation. A 42-page brief by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claims the president’s plan to protect millions of immigrants bypasses constitutional authority and established federal laws. A coalition of 26 states, led by Texas, argues that the Obama administration also failed to provide them the notice and opportunity for comment that should have been required before such
a major policy change. At issue is the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program, announced in November 2014 that calls for shielding from deportation and giving work permits to as many as 5 million immigrants, most of whom are the parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. The states argue in the brief that the “lawful presence” granted to immigrants under the program has significant cost repercussions for them, including increased “healthcare, law-enforcement, and education expenditures.” Under DAPA immigrants would be eligible
to apply for driver’s licenses, Social Security, Earned Income Tax Credit, unemployment insurance, Medicare and other benefits. The states claim that as “one of the largest changes in immigration policy in our Nation’s history,” the plan required notice and comment from stakeholders, including the states, that did not occur. “The president alone does not have the authority to grant millions of illegal immigrants a host of benefits — like Social Security and Medicare — which should be reserved for lawful citizens,” Paxton said in a statement. The court’s current timeframe could allow arguments to be held in
April and a decision to be issued two months later. If the justices rule for the administration, Obama would have roughly seven months in office to implement his plan. Obama said last year that the plan would allow people who have been in the United States more than five years and who have children who are in the country legally to “come out of the shadows and get right with the law.” The states that challenged the plan have won every round in court so far. Most recently, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for them on Nov. 9.
See PLAN PAGE 9A
Due to a decrease in local funding, the Zapata Family Medical Center will operate during daytime hours. The clinic, which used to be open 24 hours a day, is now open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Saturday. Other changes include nurse practitioners operating the clinic instead of doctors. The changes were made effective Dec. 26. The Zapata Family Medical Center was the only clinic open 24 hours a week for Zapata residents. Zapata County Judge Joe Rathmell said the reason for the change of hours of operation and staffing is due to the decrease in local funds. He said the county has low tax revenues because of the collapse of the natural gas market. In 2011, the clinic was under operation through the Medicaid Medicare Services 1115 waiver. According to Medicaid.gov, section 1115 of the Social Security Act gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services authority to approve pilot projects that promote the objectives of the Medicaid and CHIP programs.
The county has low tax revenues because of the collapse of the natural gas market. The purpose of the pilot programs, which gives states additional flexibility to design and improve their programs, is to demonstrate and evaluate policy approaches. Such approaches include expanding eligibility to individuals who are not Medicaid or CHIP eligible, provide services not typically covered by Medicaid and using innovative service delivery systems that improve care, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. Rathwell said at the time the program became available, only hospitals were allowed to participate, thus partnering with Laredo Medical Center. “It’s been a good partnership,” he said. When the program first kicked off, Rathmell said the county had
See CLINIC PAGE 9A
PAGE 2A
Zin brief CALENDAR
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015
AROUND TEXAS
TODAY IN HISTORY
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Epoca de Oro Social Club New Years Eve Scholarship Dance from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., at Salon Chapa on 6904 West Drive. The Elysian Social Club will be hosting its annual New Years Eve Scholarship Dance at Mirage Reception Hall, 5411 McPherson Road, from 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Wine, beer, liquor, and food trays allowed. For more information please call 956-286-4253, 956764-0178 or 956-333-7760.
Today is Wednesday, Dec. 30, the 364th day of 2015. There is one day left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Dec. 30, 1940, California’s first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, was officially opened. On this date: In 1853, the United States and Mexico signed a treaty under which the U.S. agreed to buy some 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico for $10 million in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase. In 1865, author Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India. In 1905, the Franz Lehar operetta “The Merry Widow” premiered in Vienna. In 1922, Vladimir I. Lenin proclaimed the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which lasted nearly seven decades before dissolving in Dec. 1991. In 1954, Olympic gold medal runner Malvin G. Whitfield became the first black recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award for amateur athletes. In 1965, Ferdinand Marcos was inaugurated for his first term as president of the Philippines. In 1979, Broadway composer Richard Rodgers died in New York at age 77. In 2006, Iraqis awoke to news that Saddam Hussein had been hanged; victims of his three decades of autocratic rule took to the streets to celebrate. Ten years ago: President George W. Bush, unhappy with Congress for not permanently extending the USA Patriot Act, signed a bill renewing the anti-terrorism law for a few weeks. Five years ago: Veteran U.S. diplomat Barry Zorthian, 90, died in Washington. One year ago: Luise Rainer, a star of cinema’s golden era who won back-to-back Oscars but then walked away from a glittering Hollywood career, died in London at age 104. Today’s Birthdays: Actor Joseph Bologna is 81. Actor Russ Tamblyn is 81. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Sandy Koufax is 80. Actor Jack Riley is 80. Folk singer Noel Paul Stookey is 78. TV director James Burrows is 75. Actor Fred Ward is 73. Singer-musician Michael Nesmith is 73. Singer Patti Smith is 69. Rock singer-musician Jeff Lynne is 68. TV personality Meredith Vieira is 62. Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph is 60. Actress Patricia Kalember is 59. Country singer Suzy Bogguss is 59. “Today” show cohost Matt Lauer is 58. Actresscomedian Tracey Ullman is 56. Rock musician Rob Hotchkiss is 55. Radio-TV commentator Sean Hannity is 54. Sprinter Ben Johnson is 54. Actor George Newbern is 52. Movie director Bennett Miller (Film: “Foxcatcher”) is 49. Singer Jay Kay (Jamiroquai) is 46. Rock musician Byron McMackin (Pennywise) is 46. Actress Meredith Monroe is 46. Actor Daniel Sunjata is 44. Actress Maureen Flannigan is 43. Actor Jason Behr is 42. Golfer Tiger Woods is 40. TV personality-boxer Laila Ali is 38. Actress Lucy Punch is 38. Singer-actor Tyrese Gibson is 37. Actress Eliza Dushku is 35. NBA player LeBron James is 31. Pop-rock singer Ellie Goulding is 29. Thought for Today: “The meek shall inherit the earth — if that’s all right with you.” — Author unknown.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 2 Laredo Northside Market from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. at North Central Park.
MONDAY, JANUARY 4 Chess Club at the LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Free for all ages and all skill levels. Basic instruction is offered. Call John at 795-2400 x2521 for more information. Knitting Club at the LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Learn how to knit scarves, crochet hats and much more. Knit at your own pace. Instruction is available and supplies are limited. Call John at 795-2400 x2521 for more information.
Photo by Reese Dunklin | AP
This Sunday photo shows damage to the home where Daniel and Zuleyma Santillano lived with their newborn and three older children in Blue Ridge, Texas, north of Dallas. The Santillano’s newborn was killed when the home was destroyed by a tornado Saturday night.
Infant dies in storm By REESE DUNKLIN
TUESDAY, JANUARY 5
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Community conversation on teen and young adult mental health at Border Region Behavioral Health Center, 1500 Papas St., from 6–8 p.m. The purpose of this event is to encourage the community to voice concerns, ask questions and share information on available resources to help those afflicted with a mental illness and substance abuse problem. Join others in the community for an informal conversation on mental health presented by Area Health Education Center, Border Region Behavioral Health Center, and Texas Department of State Services Office of Border Health. For additional information, call 956-712-0037 or email hmedellin@mrgbahec.org The Alzheimer’s support group will meet at 7 p.m. in 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. Computer Basics class at the Laredo Public Library, 1120 E. Calton Rd., from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Classroom B on the second floor. Classes are free. Seating is limited and first come first served. No registration required. Call 795-2400 x2242 for more information. Rock wall climbing at LBV Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St., from 3:30 – 5:30 p.m. For more information, call 956-795-2400 x2520.
BLUE RIDGE, Texas — The winds had finally calmed when Debralee King and her husband ventured out to check on their horses and see what damage the tornado had caused. Then she heard a scream. King saw her neighbor, Jose Daniel Santillano — shirtless and shoeless — running toward her with his newborn daughter in his arms. The child was gravely injured. Her tiny hand was cold. “He wanted me to take her to the hospital,” King said. “He was frantic. His wife was still trapped.” With that, King was thrust into the unsuccessful effort to save the likely youngest victim of a powerful line of weekend storms that spawned multiple tornadoes, destroyed several hundred homes and displaced resi-
SATURDAY, JANUARY 9 The Northside Farmer’s Market will be in the parking lot of North Central Park on International at 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The market will feature free reusable bags and 2016 calendars (as long as they last.) There will also be children’s tent with activities.
MONDAY, JANUARY 11 Chess Club at the LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Free for all ages and all skill levels. Basic instruction is offered. Call John at 795-2400 x2521 for more information. Knitting Club at the LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Learn how to knit scarves, crochet hats and much more. Knit at your own pace. Instruction is available and supplies are limited. Call John at 795-2400 x2521 for more information.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 12 Computer Basics class at the Laredo Public Library, 1120 E. Calton Rd., from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Classroom B on the second floor. Classes are free. Seating is limited and first come first served. No registration required. Call 795-2400 x2242 for more information. Rock wall climbing at LBV Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St., from 3:30 – 5:30 p.m. For more information, call 956-795-2400 x2520.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13 The Laredo Vet Center (part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) will be hosting an Open House from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at North Town Professional Plaza, Laredo Vet Center, 6999 McPherson Road, Suite 102. This event is meant to inform the community of mental health services available to eligible veterans and their families.
dents throughout Dallas’ suburbs. At least 11 people died and dozens were injured in the tornadoes that swept through the area on Saturday. Deaths also were attributed to the recent weather in Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas, and governors declared disaster declarations in numerous states. . In Blue Ridge, a tiny town north of Dallas, King said she tried to save her neighbor’s newborn daughter during the chaos. King said she and another neighbor got in a vehicle with the infant, Aleya, and began driving. “I kept saying, ‘Oh, my God. Be OK, baby. Be OK,”’ King recalled. “Her little hand was cold. I kept praying.” They found a game warden about five minutes away. He called paramedics and began CPR until an ambulance arrived.
School district approves terms to stay open
Homeless man found dead after freezing night
More than 780 homes damaged by tornado
PREMONT — A struggling South Texas school district has approved terms issued by the Texas Education Agency in order to stay open. The Corpus Christi CallerTimes reports the Premont Independent School District board of trustees unanimously approved the terms Monday, which means a Texas Education Agency-appointed management team will oversee its board and direct the search for a superintendent. In November, the TEA told the district that its accreditation had been revoked and it would close July 1. The district sought a review. The education commissioner offered to abate the review process until preliminary academic and financial accountability ratings are released in August. Since its first closure notice in 2011, the district in a rural farming community has overcome financial struggles.
LUBBOCK — Lubbock police say the body of a lightly-dressed homeless man was found behind a convenience store following a night of below-freezing temperatures. Police say the man’s body was found Monday morning, following overnight temperatures in the area that dipped to 24 degrees. The Lubbock County medical examiner’s office will determine the cause of death, but Lubbock police Sgt. Ross Hester says, “it looks as though he’s a victim of freezing.” He told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that police do not suspect foul play The man was found wearing jeans and a light jacket. He was covered with a light blanket. Hester says the man was in a homeless camp along a wooded path. Hester says the man “definitely unprepared for the cold temperatures.”
GARLAND — Officials in the Dallas suburb of Garland say the total number of homes damaged by a tornado over the weekend has reached more than 780. Garland police said Tuesday that of the 783 homes damaged, 547 have been deemed safe and 236 are uninhabitable. Also, an apartment complex was deemed unsafe. Eleven people died when nine tornadoes swept through the Dallas area Saturday. The National Weather Service said an EF-4 tornado, with winds up to more than 200 mph, hit Garland, where eight people died. The Garland victims were: 1year-old Kamryn Crain, 19-yearold Jose Oviedo Juarez, 27-yearold Petra Ruiz of Dallas, 30-yearold Kimberly Tippett, 32-year-old Lashondra Whitaker, 42-year-old Sharva Sanders, 58 year old Timothy Harris of Greenville and 77year-old Cecil Lowrie. — Compiled by AP reports
AROUND THE NATION Deadly Midwest storm brings winter weather PORTLAND, Maine — Winter weather that spun off a series of deadly storms in the Midwest brought the season’s first big punch to the Northeast on Tuesday, with snow, sleet and freezing rain greasing roads, sending drivers spinning and keeping people indoors amid sub-freezing temperatures. Across southern Maine, about 4 to 6 inches of snow had fallen by the morning commute. To the north, communities were expecting to see 8 to 12 inches before the snow ended late in the day, said Mike Kistner of the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. The weather made for a sloppy mess in parts of metro Boston, still reeling from last winter’s record-breaking snowfall. But as Fernando Gonterman waited for a train from Harvard Square to his job at Massachu-
CONTACT US Publisher, William B. Green........................728-2501 Account Executive, Dora Martinez ...... (956) 765-5113 General Manager, Adriana Devally ...............728-2510 Adv. Billing Inquiries ................................. 728-2531 Circulation Director ................................. 728-2559 MIS Director, Michael Castillo.................... 728-2505 Copy Editor, Nick Georgiou ....................... 728-2565 Sports Editor, Zach Davis ..........................728-2578 Spanish Editor, Melva Lavin-Castillo............ 728-2569 Photo by Mike Groll | AP
A jogger makes his way along a snow-covered street in the Hudson Park neighborhood, Tuesday, in Albany, N.Y. The National Weather Service says 1 to 4 inches has fallen from the Albany area northwest to the Mohawk Valley. setts General Hospital, he was unfazed. “Weather is weather. Just deal with it, right?” he said. In snow-loving Vermont, Chassidy Byrd, the assistant manager at a gas station and convenience store in Plainfield, said the
storm returned the state to a sense of normal. Without any snow, “it didn’t feel like Vermont,” she said. Kistner said the storm is linked to the same system that produced deadly tornadoes. — Compiled from AP reports
SUBSCRIPTIONS/DELIVERY (956) 728-2555 The Zapata Times is distributed on Saturdays to 4,000 households in Zapata County. For subscribers of the Laredo Morning Times and for those who buy the Laredo Morning Times at newsstands, the Zapata Times is inserted. The Zapata Times is free. The Zapata Times is published by the Laredo Morning Times, a division of The Hearst Corporation, P.O. Box 2129, Laredo, Texas 78044. Phone (956) 728-2500. The Zapata office is at 1309 N. U.S. Hwy. 83 at 14th Avenue, Suite 2, Zapata, TX 78076. Call (956) 765-5113 or e-mail thezapatatimes.net
Local & State
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015
New abortion regulations By BRITTNEY MARTIN THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas Supreme Court released new rules Tuesday regarding the process used by abused and neglected minors to obtain abortions without parental consent. Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill into law in June that made more than a dozen changes to the judicial bypass process that allows teenagers seeking abortions to get permission from a judge instead of their parents. Abortionrights supporters say the new rules, set to go into effect Friday, are the "most radical" in the country. Austin-based Jane’s Due
Process, an organization that connects minors with lawyers and helps them through the judicial bypass process, said the Texas Supreme Court’s rules were "more extreme" than the provisions outlined in the law. Currently, a judge is required to rule on bypass cases within two days. If the judge doesn’t rule in time, the bypass is granted by default. The new law extends the time judges have to rule to five days and removes the provision that specifies what happens if a judge doesn’t rule in time. Susan Hays, legal adviser to Jane’s Due Process and an Austin attorney,
said removing that provision could leave minors in legal limbo. "You can’t even get somebody to give you a ruling," Hays said. "That’s the biggest issue." With no ruling to appeal, Hays said the minor’s lawyers don’t have a clear process to use to move forward. She foresees a sort of legal trial-and-error period once the rules go into effect Friday. Another concern is confidentiality. Under the new law, minors will be required to apply for judicial bypass in their home county. There’s an exception for minors who live in a county with a population of less than 10,000 and those
whose parents work at the courthouse. They can apply in a bordering county or the county where they plan to have the abortion. Hays said that provision, coupled with additional reporting requirements that require a minor to provide her name, date of birth, address and phone number, put the minors’ anonymity at risk. Jane’s Due Process is still considering its legal options in regards to the law. "No matter what," Hays said, "Jane’s Due Process will be there to help pregnant teenage girls in Texas exercise their right to choose what to do about an unintended pregnancy."
Mass for Aggie students announced SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Courtesy photo
Jose Juan Sanchez was a young devout, catholic Science major student.
In December 1992, a young devout, catholic Science major student, Jose Juan Sanchez, approached the priest at St. Augustine Church about the idea of officiating a special Mass for Aggie students. J.J.’s sole purpose for this Mass was for the priest to have a special blessing for all Aggie students returning to College Station in the spring semester. He assisted in organizing the first Laredo Texas A&M Students’ mass in January 1993. As fate would have it, J.J., a senior and a cadet in the corps, was killed two months later, in March 1993, in a car accident. J.J.’s efforts and commitment in initiating this tra-
dition continued even after his death. The Laredo A&M Mothers’ Club has celebrated the J.J. Sanchez Memorial Mass every year since then at Christ the King Church. This year the Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Jan. 3, and Father Jose Luis Balderas will be officiating. Students returning to Aggieland this semester will treated to a special blessing in memory of J.J. Sanchez’s 23nd Anniversary Memorial Mass. “Through this Mass, not only do we keep J.J.’s idea alive but this also allows our Aggie attendees to create a special and unique bonding among themselves before they head back to Aggieland,” said club officer Diana T.E. Lopez.
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A
Police catch suspected miniskirt bank arsonist ASSOCIATED PRESS
CEDAR PARK, Texas — Police in Central Texas say they’ve found the man who set a fire in a bank last year while wearing a miniskirt. The Austin AmericanStatesman reports Kirill Belchenko has been charged with arson in connection with the May 2014 fire in Cedar Park. Security video last year showed a miniskirt-clad man pouring liquid onto
the bank carpet and lighting a fire. Police say Belchenko signed a written statement with details that the arsonist would know. He was also found to have owned a car similar to the getaway vehicle in the surveillance video. Belchenko also faces a separate charge of harassment, and his total bond is $152,000, according to Williamson County jail records. He did not have an attorney listed.
Off-duty officer shoots one during robbery ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON — An offduty police officer in Houston has shot someone police say was trying to rob him of weapons he was selling. Houston police say the officer was meeting two people to sell his personal weapons, in a meeting arranged after they responded to an online listing. Police say a suspect pulled a
gun on the officer and demanded everything in his vehicle, then pulled the trigger but his gun jammed. Police say the officer reversed his car, then took cover and exchanged gunfire with the suspects, hitting one of them. The injured suspect was hospitalized. Police are still searching for the second person. Police did not identify the officer or the suspects.
PAGE 4A
Zopinion
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO EDITORIAL@LMTONLINE.COM
COLUMN
OTHER VIEWS
Boys can be especially mean There’s an assumption I’ll admit to making while considering one gender: boys. I believe boys’ underdeveloped sensitivities render them incapable of understanding how deeply teasing can hurt. Of course, I’ve taken for granted that the opposite sex (Viva la difference!) is not nearly as mean-spirited when it comes to teasing each other. So, going with that premise, I believe the “meanest” location for boys-teasing-boys experiences is a locker room in a gymnasium or field house. Modesty just isn’t practical in a boys/men’s sports dressing area, so many nicknames are conjured there. However, the meanest I ever heard was applied to a man who was physically challenged. One leg was considerably shorter than the other and, since he didn’t use crutches or a cane, he kind of “staggered up and down” as he walked around. Some mean-mouthed types labeled him “Step-and-aHalf.” Those gutless wonders didn’t have the gall to say it in front of him. He was a lawman. One of my dad’s friends when I was growing up was a bachelor named Monk. I never knew another name. Monk was rough around the edges in social graces but was a kind and sweet-spirited man. He thought my dad AND my mom hung the moon and maybe even the stars. The greatest treat in the world for Monk was to be invited to our house to eat some of Mom’s cooking. Another of Dad’s buddies was a guy called Dink. I remember I saw his initials, but I don’t recall what they were. Dink was a bootlegger and could provide either an illicit half pint of Old Crow bourbon or an illegal and doubly potent jar of moonshine whiskey. A summer job between my freshman and sophomore years in college produced a man to whom we gave two nicknames. At first, we observed him working and he spent more time jawing than he did manning a sledge driving spikes on the railroad bridges we were charged with maintaining. Since he was so slow, we chose the first derisive nickname Lightning, because,
as I told some people, he moved so fast, tongue in cheek. Since his mouth moved constantly, and faster than his work effort, we picked one of his favorite closing phrases to almost any statement that came from between his dirty teeth: By Gawd. Ultimately, we couldn’t choose which one fit him well enough and decided to use both: Artemus “Lightnin’ By Gawd” Jordan (not his real name). My last name gave lots of opportunities for nicknames. A few that followed me around in my youth were: Spider Webb, Spider and Webfoot Three brothers who grew up a couple of blocks away from our home had endearing nicknames (I believe begun within the family): Herman was known as “Mun.” Richard, who was short and squatty, was “Dump” and the youngest, Robert, who had big lips was called “Moofy.” One guy was so rambunctious in so many ways that he was given several nicknames over time. His first two names were John Henry. He was a tremendous athlete, especially in football, and extremely rugged and tough. He never weighed more than 170 pounds and had very good speed. But, he was so tough and invited rough-and-tumble action to show his toughness by running over tacklers when he, without doubt, had the speed to go around them. Inventive sorts that we were, we took the Henry and made it Hen Egg. Then, we decided he was bigger than a hen’s egg and named him Goose Egg. Naturally, we quickly shortened that to Goose. I do know that a hitch in the Air Force calmed him down and he married and had several kids. I’ll bet if he had any boys, there were tougher than a goose egg. Willis Webb is a retired community newspaper editor-publisher of more than 50 years experience. He can be reached by email at wwebb1937@att.net.
COMMENTARY
NBA speaks out on gun violence PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
America’s pro sports leagues are generally riskaverse. With millions of dollars in profits at stake, there’s little upside to offending customers by taking positions on social issues. That’s why it’s extraordinary - and laudable - that the National Basketball Association teamed up with Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety organization for a series of public message about gun violence. On Christmas, the advocacy group began running public service announcements on TV with Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers and Carmello Anthony of the New York Knicks speaking in personal terms about gun violence. The NBA stars are
joined by victims of gun violence and relatives of those killed by guns. Because NBA viewership during the holiday season is high, Everytown for Gun Safety scheduled the commercials for maximum exposure. Though heartfelt, the 30-second PSAs steer clear of policy proposals that could alienate viewers who feel their Second Amendment rights might be jeopardized by gunsafety legislation. This reflects a newer, smarter strategy by the group launched by the former New York City mayor. There is nothing controversial about calling for an end to gun violence, particularly given the toll from mass killings in 2015. Its willingness to buck the tradition of neutrality on big issues reflects a growing awareness.
COLUMN
Florence and the drones This winter I’m taking part in a great course at Yale called Grand Strategy. We’re reading strategic thought from Sun Tzu and Pericles straight through to Churchill and George F. Kennan. This week we read Machiavelli. Machiavelli is a tonic because he counteracts the sentiments of our age. We’re awash in TV news segments celebrating the human spirit, but Machiavelli had a lower estimation of our worth. “For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger and covetous of gain,” he writes in “The Prince.” “It needs to be taken for granted that all men are wicked and that they will always give vent to the malignity that is in their minds when opportunity offers,” he adds in “The Discourses.” The conventional view is that Machiavelli believed that since people are brutes then everything is permitted. Leaders should do anything they can to hold power. The ends justify the means. In fact, Machiavelli was a moralistic thinker. He wrote movingly of his love for his city, Florence. His vision of a great and unified Italy was romantic and idealistic. He barely goes a page without some appeal to honor and virtue.
“
DAVID BROOKS
He just had a different concept of political virtue. It would be nice, he writes, if a political leader could practice the Christian virtues like charity, mercy and gentleness and still provide for his people. But, in the real world, that’s usually not possible. In the real world, a great leader is called upon to create a civilized order for the city he serves. To create that order, to defeat the forces of anarchy and savagery, the virtuous leader is compelled to do hard things, to take, as it were, the sins of the situation upon himself. The leader who does good things cannot always be good himself. Sometimes bad acts produce good outcomes. Sometimes a leader has to love his country more than his soul. Since a leader is forced by circumstances to do morally suspect things, Machiavelli at least wants him to do them effectively. Machiavelli is full of advice. If you have to do something cruel, do it fast; if you get to do something generous, do it slowly. If you lead a country, you have more to fear from the scheming elites than the masses, so you should try to form an alliance with
the people against the aristocracy. When you read Machiavelli, you realize how lucky we are. Unlike 16thcentury Florence, we have a good Constitution that channels conflict. We have manners, respect for law and social trust that softens behavior, at least a bit. Even in the realm of foreign affairs, we’ve inherited an international order that restrains conflict. Our ancestors behaved savagely to build our world, so we don’t have to. But it’s still not possible to rule with perfectly clean hands. There are still terrorists out there, hiding in the shadows and plotting to kill Americans. So even today’s leaders face the Machiavellian choice: Do I have to be brutal to protect the people I serve? Do I have to use drones, which sometimes kill innocent children, in order to thwart terror and save the lives of my own? When Barack Obama was a senator, he wasn’t compelled to confront the brutal logic of leadership. Now in office, he’s thrown into the Machiavellian world. He’s decided, correctly, that we are in a long war against al-Qaida; that drone strikes do effectively kill terrorists; that, in fact, they inflict fewer civilian deaths than bombing campaigns, boots on the ground or any practical alternative; that, in fact, civilian death rates are
dropping sharply as the CIA gets better at this. Acting brutally abroad saves lives at home. Still, there’s another aspect of Machiavellian thought relevant to the drone debate. This is a core weakness in his thought. He puts too much faith in the self-restraint of his leaders. Machiavelli tells us that men are venal self-deceivers, but then he gives his Prince permission to do all these monstrous things, trusting him not to get carried away or turn into a monster himself. Our founders were more careful. Our founders understood that leaders are as venal and untrustworthy as anybody else. They abhorred concentrated power, and they set up checks and balances to disperse it. Our drone policy should take account of our founders’ superior realism. Drone strikes are so easy, hidden and abstract. There should be some independent judicial panel to review the kill lists. There should be an independent panel of former military and intelligence officers issuing reports on the program’s efficacy. If you take Machiavelli’s tough-minded view of human nature, you have to be brutal to your enemies — but you also have to set up skeptical checks on the people you empower to destroy them.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY The Zapata Times does not publish anonymous letters. To be published, letters must include the writer’s first and last names as well as a phone number to verify identity. The
phone number IS NOT published; it is used solely to verify identity and to clarify content, if necessary. Identity of the letter writer must be verified before publication. We want to assure our
readers that a letter is written by the person who signs the letter. The Zapata Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms. Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No name-call-
ing or gratuitous abuse is allowed. Via e-mail, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.
CLASSIC DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU
State
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A
‘Affluenza’ teen planned disappearance By EMILY SCHMALL ASSOCIATED PRESS
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas teenage fugitive and his mother attempted to disguise themselves and disappear among the American tourists who flocked to a Mexican resort city for the holidays, but are now in custody and set for deportation to the U.S., authorities said Tuesday. Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said 18-yearold Ethan Couch — known for invoking an “affluenza” defense after he killed four people in a drunken driving wreck — and his mother had prepared to be gone a while, even dying Couch’s blond hair black, before being detained Monday in the Pacific Coast city of Puerto Vallarta. “They had planned to disappear. They even had something that was almost akin to a going-away party before leaving town,” Anderson said. He would not give details about the event including how many people attended. Couch was on juvenile probation for the wreck when he was 16. During the sentencing phase of his trial, a defense expert argued that his wealthy parents coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility — a condition the expert termed “affluenza.” The condition is not recognized as a medical diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association, and its invocation drew ridicule. Anderson said Couch and his mother, Tonya Couch, apparently crossed the border in her pickup and drove to Puerto Vallarta. The U.S. Marshals found the two in Mexico, and worked with Mexican agencies to apprehend them. It was not clear whether they had any accomplices. No immediate charges were planned for others who may have known about or assisted with the flight plan, Anderson said. He said authorities have no evidence that Couch’s father was involved.
Photo by Jalisco state prosecutor’s office | AP
This Dec. 28 photo released by Mexico’s Jalisco state prosecutor’s office shows who authorities identify as Ethan Couch, after he was taken into custody in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. U.S. authorities said the Texas teenager is serving probation for killing four people. Jalisco state prosecutor Eduardo Almaguer Ramirez said U.S. authorities knew the mother and son were in Puerto Vallarta and had asked Mexican police to help capture them. Mexican detectives started searching on Dec. 24 and caught up with them at about 6 p.m. Monday. The pair did not resist arrest. Almaguer Ramirez said Couch and his mother stayed first at a resort known as Los Tules, near the beach. Prosecutors say a woman who worked there
helped authorities capture the pair. They were found in a dowdy section of Puerto Vallarta’s old town, far from the glitzy resorts, golf courses and high-rise hotels of the newer section. The street corner where they were found is dotted with a small sandwich shop, a taco stand, and a mom-and-pop corner store. Anderson noted that Ethan Couch’s hair was “markedly different.” A photo distributed by the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office shows
him in detention with his blond hair dyed black and his normally blondish beard now brown. The sheriff has said he believes the two fled in late November after a video surfaced that appears to show Couch at a party where people were drinking. If found to be drinking, Couch’s probation could be revoked and he could face up to four months in jail. Once returned to Texas, Couch will be held in a Tarrant County facility until a probation violation hearing
next month. Anderson said an arrest warrant was being issued for Tonya Couch on charges of hindering an apprehension, a third-degree felony that carries a sentence of two to 10 years in prison. Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson said that at the hearing she plans to ask a judge to transfer Ethan Couch’s case to adult court. Couch would then face up to 120 days in an adult jail, followed by 10-year probation. If he violates proba-
tion, he could face up to 10 years in prison per death, Wilson said. If the judge declines to transfer Couch to adult court, Wilson will ask that his probation be revoked, in which case he could be held in a juvenile facility until his sentence expires when he turns 19 next April. Couch’s attorneys, Scott Brown and Reagan Wynn, said they won’t comment until they speak with him, which likely won’t happen before Couch reaches the U.S. Ricardo Ariel Vera, the representative of Mexico’s immigration institute in Jalisco state, said the mother and son were being held at immigration offices in Guadalajara and would be returned to the United States aboard a commercial flight to Houston. “They are going to be sent back to their country, given that they were in Mexico improperly,” Ariel Vera said. “They would have had to enter, for example, as tourists, but they entered without registering.” He initially said that would happen Tuesday; however, another immigration official who is not allowed to be quoted by name told The Associated Press that there were no seats available on commercial flights and the return would be Wednesday. Couch was driving drunk and speeding on a road south of Fort Worth in June 2013 when he crashed into a disabled SUV off to the side, killing four people and injuring several others, including passengers in his pickup truck. He pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury. A judge sentenced him in juvenile court to 10 years’ probation and a stint in a rehabilitation center. Authorities had begun searching for the pair after Ethan Couch missed a mandatory appointment with his probation officer on Dec. 10.
Perry endorses pastor By JIM MALEWITZ TEXAS TRIBUNE
Far from the presidential campaign trail he departed months ago, former Gov. Rick Perry is wading into another Texas Republican primary race. The longest-serving governor in Texas history is endorsing Bedford pastor Scott Fisher in his bid to unseat firebrand state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, Fisher’s campaign announced Tuesday. "Scott Fisher knows how to take strong conservative values and turn them into successful conservative policies," Perry said in a statement circulated by Fisher’s campaign. "Scott is a conservative that can get things done." The statement also praised Fisher’s work at the Texas Ethics Commission and Texas Youth Commission — Perry had appointed him to positions on both panels. Stickland, a polarizing figure in the Texas House, responded by calling Perry an "Austin insider," who he is not trying to represent. "I’ve served my district for nearly 4 years now and have never tried to represent Austin insiders, only the conservatives in my District," he said in a written statement to the Tribune. "I’m proud to have their support in my re-election campaign." Stickland was first elected in 2012 to represent House District 92. It is the fourth time Perry has weighed in on a Texas race since August. His other endorsements include: state Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, who is seeking to replace outgoing state Sen. Kevin Eltife; Austin ophthalmologist Dawn Buckingham, who is looking to succeed retir-
Photo by Bob Daemmrich | Texas Tribune
Former Gov. Rick Perry announces his intentions to run for president in 2016 on June 4, 2015, at the Addison Airport. ing state Sen. Troy Fraser; and Bill Waybourn, who is campaigning to unseat Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson. In September, a spokeswoman for Perry said he had no overarching strate-
gy for endorsements. "We’re focused on our primary and make those decisions on a case-bycase basis at the appropriate time," Lucy Nashed, his spokesman at the time, told the Tribune.
Senator Judith Zaffirini and Carlos Sr. and their son and daughter-in-law, Carlos Jr. and Audrey, wish all Texas families a Happy New Year and a wonderful 2016.
H
ope smiles from the threshold of the year to come. These lovely words by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, reflect the spirit of optimism and aspiration that characterizes our celebration of the New Year. What milestones will be reached in the year ahead? What dreams will be achieved?
Our hope should inspire us to fulfill the promise of a new year every day in every way by focusing on faith and family and improving our community. The year ahead offers countless meaningful opportunities to continue to invest in our future, including by promoting wise stewardship of our natural resources; expanding educational opportunities for all; and improving access to health care, especially for the very old, the very young, the very poor and persons with disabilities. What I wish for my own family is what I champion in the Texas Senate for all families. My prayer is that the Lord will bless us all with health and hope, grace and generosity of spirit, and joy and happiness throughout 2016. May you enjoy a wonderful new year!
PÁGINA 6A
Zfrontera
Ribereña en Breve BALACERA MISSION — Un oficina del alguacil en el sur de Texas dio a conocer que dos hombres fallecieron durante un tiroteo ocurrido en una residencia durante lo que se cree fue un intento por robar más de 400 libras de marihuana. Celina Flores, vocera para la oficina del alguacil del Condado de Hidalgo, dijo a The Monitor en McAllen que oficiales habían respondido a una llamada por disturbios cuando encontraron los cuerpos, el sábado. Las víctimas fueron identificadas como Rodrigo Villanueva Álvarez, de 24 años de edad, quien vivía en la casa, y un hombre de 43 años de edad, de quien la policía cree era uno de los que atacaron. Autoridades no han dado a conocer el nombre de la persona de 43 años de edad. Flores dijo que se desconocía cuántos hombres habían irrumpido en la casa o el total de personas que estaban ahí cuando ocurrieron los hechos. Flores agregó que los investigadores encontraron varias armas, incluyendo pistolas, más de 50.000 dólares en efectivo y 37 paquetes de marihuana envueltos.
REGISTRO CIVIL La red de 21 cajeros automáticos, que expiden actas de nacimiento, defunción, divorcio y matrimonio en Tamaulipas, fue incrementada durante este mes. En los últimos cinco años, los cajeros han expedido más de 832.000 actas de nacimiento. Los cajeros se ubican actualmente en Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Victoria, Reynosa, Matamoros, Tampico, Madero y Altamira, dentro de los edificios de las presidencias municipales y oficinas gubernamentales.
MIÉRCOLES 30 DE DICIEMBRE DE 2015
ZAPATA FAMILY MEDICAL CENTER
MÉXICO
Doce horas
Arrestan a joven prófugo de EU
POR JUDITH RAYO TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Debido a la disminución en fondos locales, el Zapata Family Medical Center (centro familiar médico de Zapata), empezó a operar solamente en horario diurno. La clínica, que solía abrir las 24 horas del día, ahora solo opera de 8 a.m. a 8 p.m., de lunes a sábado. Otros cambios incluyen que enfermeras calificadas estarán trabajando en la clínica, en lugar de doctores. Los cambios entraron en vigencia el 26 de diciembre. El Zapata Family Medical Center era la única clínica abierta las 24 horas a la semana para los residentes de Zapata. El Juez del Condado de Zapata, Joe Rathmell, dijo que la razón para el cambio de horario de operación y en el personal, se debió a la reducción en fondos locales. Dijo que el condado tiene bajas recaudaciones por ingresos fiscales debido al colapso del mercado del gas natural. En 2011, la clínica operaba a través del descargo de responsabilidad 1115 de los Servicios de Medicaid y Medicare. De acuerdo a Medicaid.gov, sección 1115 del acta de seguridad social otorga a la secretaria de servicios para salud y humanos, la autoridad para aprobar proyectos pilotos que promuevan los objetivos de los programas de Medicaid y CHIP.
El do flexipropósibilidad to de los adicioprogranal para mas pidiseñar loto, los y mejocuales rar sus RATHMELL otorgan prograal estamas, es demostrar y evaluar los accesos a las pólizas. Tales accesos incluyen expandir la elegibilidad para personas que no son elegibles para Medicaid o CHIP, otorgando servicios que típicamente no son cubiertos por Medicaid y utilizar servicios de entrega de servicio innovador que mejore el cuidado, incremente la eficiencia y reduzca costos. Rathmell dijo que cuando el programa estuvo disponible, solamente los hospitales que podían participar, eran aquellos en sociedad con Laredo Medical Center. “Ha sido una buena sociedad”, dijo él. Cuando el programa inició, Rathmell dijo que el condado tenía alrededor de 1.7 millones de dólares disponibles para contribuir al programa. Ése número ha sido disminuido a 600.000 dólares. “Las ganancias son mucho menores”, dijo Rathmell. “Tenemos menos dinero para comprometer”. Agregó que las tasas para que las clínicas operen han sido costosas. De manera adicional, Rathmell dijo que oficiales del Lare-
do Medical Center presentaron un estudio sobre cuántos pacientes eran atendidos por la clínica de 10 p.m. a 8 a.m. De acuerdo al estudio, solamente 1 ½ a 2 personas eran atendidas durante esas horas. “No había mucho uso durante esos horarios”, dijo Rathmell. El nuevo cambio no ha sido bien recibido por los residentes de Zapata. “Es una pérdida para la comunidad”, dijo Rathmell. “No estamos contentos con la decisión”. En relación a los cambios, Laredo Medican Center emitió una declaración a Laredo Morning Times a través de un correo electrónico. “Pese a las reducciones en los compromisos de los fondos federales que afectan las clínicas alrededor de Texas, el Laredo Medical Center está comprometido a crear acceso comunitario al cuidado de la salud a través del Zapata Family Medical Clinic”, dijo Priscilla Iglesias, directora de mercadotecnia y desarrollo empresarial en LMC. Con el cambio en el horario de operación, Rathmell dijo que los residentes pudieran seguir contactando al Departamento de Bomberos de Zapata para recibir ayuda. Si los residentes requieren de servicios médicos urgentes, la ambulancia los llevará al hospital más cercano. (Localice a Judith Rayo en el 728-2567 o en jrayo@lmtonline.com)
DPS
TRISTE NAVIDAD
SOCIEDAD GENEALÓGICA La Sociedad Genealógica Nuevo Santander informa que la próxima reunión será el sábado 9 de enero del 2016 a las 2 p.m. en 805 N Main St/ US Hwy 83. El tema será “Texas Land Heritage Award”. La sociedad indica que se invita especialmente a quienes tienen una granja o rancho que ha funcionado más de 50 años.
FERIA DE ZAPATA La Feria del Condado de Zapata elegirá a sus representantes de belleza a inicios del 2016. El Certámen de Belleza para Jr. Royalty se celebrará el 7 de febrero; en tanto que el Concurso para Reinas de la Feria del Condado de Zapata se celebrará el 28 de febrero. Ambos eventos se realizarán a las 2 p.m. en el Auditorio de Zapata High School.
PERIODO DE REGISTRO Agricultores y ganaderos son invitados a participar en el periodo general de inscripción para el Programa de Reserva de Conservación (CRP, por sus siglas en inglés) que está vigente actualmente y concluye el 26 de febrero. El CRP, que cumple 30 años, es un programa con fondos federales que ayuda a los productores agrícolas con los costos de restauración, mejora y protección de ciertos tipos de césped, arbustos y árboles a fin de mejorar la calidad del agua, prevenir la erosión del suelo y reducir la pérdida del habitat de la vida salvaje. En el programa han participado agricultores, ganaderos, conservacionistas, cazadores, pescadores, entre otros entusiastas del exterior, de acuerdo con un comunicado de prensa. La duración del control es de entre 10 a 15 años. Para más información visite el sitio www.fsa.usda.gov/ conservation.
Foto de cortesía | DPS
Tres personas que residían en Houston, fallecieron el día de Navidad al suroeste del Condado de Zapata, después que se volcara la camioneta en que viajaban.
Mueren tres personas durante accidente POR CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ TIEMPO DE LAREDO
Tres residentes de Houston fallecieron en un accidente que involucró a un solo vehículo el día de Navidad, dio a conocer el Departamento de Seguridad Pública de Texas (DPS) el lunes. DPS informó que el accidente ocurrió alrededor de las 3:21 p.m. sobre FM 2687, aproximadamente unas 29 millas al sureste de
Zapata. Autoridades identificaron a las víctimas como Julián Martínez, de 38 años, María Martínez, de 15, y Richard Martínez, de 10. Julián y María fallecieron en el lugar de los hechos, en tanto que Richard fue declarado muerto en un hospital, de acuerdo con el reporte. El informe indica que una camioneta Chevrolet, modelo 2008, viajaba hacia el oeste cuando la
llanta posterior del lado derecho se reventó. “El vehículo… derrapó y se volcó en múltiples ocasiones, golpeando una valla divisoria. El vehículo terminó del lado sur del camino, afuera de la carretera”, de acuerdo con el reporte del DPS. La investigación continúa. (Localice a César G. Rodriguez en el 728-2568 o en cesar@lmtonline.com)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS — La policía de Texas emitirá una orden de arresto contra una mujer que huyó a México con su hijo: un adolescente que desapareció mientras estaba en libertad condicional. El joven fue procesado en 2013 por matar a cuatro personas en un accidente vial mientras conducía borracho, pero durante el juicio sus abogados alegaron que el muchacho sufría “pudiencia”, un trastorno, porque sus padres le habían consentido demasiado. El policía del condado de Tarrant Dee Anderson dijo en una conferencia de prensa que el martes también se emitió una orden a nombre de Tonya Couch. La Fiscalía General del Estado de Jalisco informó que Ethan Couch, de 18 años, y su madre fueron localizados y detenidos el lunes por la tarde en una COUCH zona de playas en la localidad turística de Puerto Vallarta, en la costa del Pacífico. Anderson dijo que al parecer los dos planearon la forma de desaparecer de suelo estadounidense e incluso celebraron una especie de fiesta de despedida. Dijo que el Servicio Federal de Alguaciles de Estados Unidos trabaja para que los dos sean devueltos a suelo estadounidense. Ricardo Ariel Vera, delegado del Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) en Jalisco, dijo que ambos se encuentran detenidos en las oficinas del INM en Guadalajara, la capital del estado, y que serán enviados a Estados Unidos a bordo de un vuelo comercial a Houston, en una hora por determinar. Agregó que ya recibieron atención consular. “La fiscalía optó por ponerlos a disposición de autoridad migratoria para que verificáramos su situación en territorio nacional”, indicó Vega, quien confirmó que “se trata de la señora y un joven de apellido Couch, de nacionalidad estadounidense”. “Se les va a retornar a su país ya que se encuentran en forma irregular”, agregó el funcionario, quien señaló que “tuvieron que haber entrado en calidad, por ejemplo de turistas, pero entraron sin registrarse, sin ninguna calidad migratoria de ingreso”. En junio de 2013, cuando tenía 16 años, Couch manejaba ebrio y por encima del límite de velocidad por una oscura calle de dos carriles al sur de Fort Worth cuando chocó con una camioneta para minusválidos. Cuatro personas murieron y varias resultaron heridas, incluyendo a los pasajeros en la camioneta descubierta de Couch. El joven se declaró culpable de cuatro delitos bajo el efecto de sustancias y dos de agresión bajo el efecto de sustancias con resultado de lesiones graves. Por su edad no se le juzgó como a un adulto y un juez de un tribunal juvenil le condenó a 10 años de libertad condicional y una estancia en un centro de rehabilitación. Las autoridades empezaron a buscarlos después de que Ethan Couch faltara a una cita obligatoria con su agente de condicional el 10 de diciembre. El jefe de policía del condado de Tarrant había dicho antes que creía que los dos huyeron a finales de noviembre, tras la difusión de un video que parece mostrar a Ethan Couch en una fiesta donde había gente bebiendo alcohol. Si se determina que el joven consumió alcohol, su libertad condicional podría revocarse y él podría ir hasta 10 años a prisión. (El periodista de The Associated Press Peter Orsi en Ciudad de México contribuyó a este despacho)
ALGUACIL La Oficina del Alguacil del Condado de Zapata dio a conocer imágenes de quien supuestamente se introdujo a un restaurante en Zapata a fin de perpetrar un asalto, en septiembre.
Piden apoyo para atrapar a presunto asaltante POR CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Foto de cortesía | ZCSO
Autoridades se encuentran solicitando el apoyo de la comunidad para resolver un robo a un restaurante local. La Oficina del Alguacil del Condado de Zapata dijo que el asalto ocurrió en El Paraiso Restaurant, por
U.S. 83. Reportes indican que el asalto ocurrió en algún momento entre la noche del 13 de septiembre y las primeras horas del 14 de septiembre. Recientemente autoridades dieron a conocer fotos del supuesto asaltante. Las personas con información acerca del asalto o identidad de la persona, se
pide se comuniquen a la Oficina del Alguacil al 7659960 o a Alto al Crimen al 765-8477. Las llamadas realizadas a través de Alto al Crimen permanecen anónimas y son elegibles para una recompensa en efectivo. (Localice a César G. Rodriguez en el 728-2568 o en cesar@lmtonline.com)
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
Sports&Outdoors NCAA FOOTBALL
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF
OSU settles Wickline lawsuit
Starting a tradition
Strong, Swoopes won’t testify By JIM VERTUNO ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN, Texas — Oklahoma State and former Texas assistant Joe Wickline settled a breach-ofcontract lawsuit Tuesday, a move that lets Longhorns coach Charlie Strong and quarterback Tyrone Swoopes avoid having to testify in an Oklahoma courtroom about who called the plays for Texas. Oklahoma State sued Wickline — who was fired by Texas on Dec. 12 — in 2014 for nearly $600,000, arguing he made a lateral move to Texas and didn’t take a promotion with “play-calling duties” as stated in his previous contract. Terms of the settlement were not immediately released. Oklahoma State notified a Stillwater judge Tuesday it was dropping the lawsuit, and school attorney Sean Breen in Austin, Texas, told The Associated Press the case was settled. Wickline’s attorney and officials for Texas and Oklahoma State did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment. A case that might have been a minor distraction to a coaching staff turned into a major headache for Texas. Oklahoma State forced Strong, Wickline and former Texas offensive coordinator Shawn Watson into lengthy depositions that put them through hours of questioning about closed-door strategy sessions and game-time decisions. And more was coming. Oklahoma State had wanted more depositions from Strong, additional staff, former Texas athletic director Steve Patterson, and even Swoopes, the Longhorns starting quarterback for 2014 who will be battling for the starting job again in 2016. Oklahoma State also put Strong and Swoopes on their trial witness list for a case that was scheduled for a Payne County courtroom in mid-2016. The Texas coach and quarterback testifying in an Oklahoma courtroom had the potential of turning an intensifying Big 12 rivalry into a circus. Patterson, who was forced to resign in September, had insisted Texas played no role in the case and that the dispute was between Oklahoma State and its former employee Wickline. Texas fans had clamored for Texas to help Wickline settled the case. Oklahoma State had agreed not to pursue new depositions until after the 2015 football season, but had recently contacted Texas to about resuming testimony. Wickline and Watson were both dismissed as Strong revamped his offensive staff after a 5-7 season and Texas had one of the worst offenses in the Big 12. Texas finished 5-7, Strong’s second consecutive losing season.
Photo by LM Otero | AP
The NFL might own Thanksgiving, the NBA dominates the sports-watching landscape on Christmas and bowl games have long been part of New Year’s Day. Now, college football is now trying to claim New Year’s Eve as well.
CFP semifinals hope to establish New Year’s Eve custom By TIM REYNOLDS ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Sometime around 8 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, Rochelle Carrasco and Jeremy Jehnsen will be having their first dance as a newly married couple. All eyes at the reception will be on them for those few minutes — no small feat since they’ll be having that dance in Lansing, Michigan, around the same time as kickoff of the Michigan State-Alabama matchup in the College Football Playoff semifinals. And most of their bridal party is, you guessed it, Michigan State fans. “I’m getting my moment,” Carrasco said, “and then they can have their TV.” Out with the old traditions, in with the new. The NFL might own Thanksgiving, the NBA dominates the sports-watching landscape on Christmas and bowl games have long been part of New Year’s Day. Now, college football is now trying to claim New Year’s Eve as well, meaning plenty of people, including those at the Carrasco-Jehnsen nuptials, will be adjusting their end-of-year plans. Including Thursday’s
matchups in the Orange and Cotton bowls, the CFP semifinals are scheduled to fall on Dec. 31 eight times between now and 2025. Those in charge of the playoff are confident they’ll be a big draw, even if they compete with the ball drop. “Frankly, these games would be a success if they were played on the Fourth of July,” CFP executive director Bill Hancock said. It’s all part of what is now being called the New Year’s Six — this year’s lineup being the Peach Bowl preceding the two semifinal games on Dec. 31, then the Fiesta, Rose and Sugar bowls on Jan. 1. “We wanted to bring them all back into the holiday,” Hancock said, noting that under the Bowl Championship Series model the games were more scattered. This year’s early game, Clemson vs. Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, should be over long before midnight comes. But the Michigan State-Alabama game in the Cotton Bowl could stretch to midnight Eastern time. And given that some 40 million viewers watched New Year’s countdown programming on ABC, NBC, Fox and CNN last year, that could
lead to some interesting remote-control choices as the big moment nears. “There are still tens of millions of people in the available audience at home,” said Artie Bulgrin, ESPN’s senior vice president of global research and analytics. The network also wants to count all the viewers who aren’t at home. Nielsen doesn’t currently measure them as part of its standard metrics, but it’s providing a custom study for ESPN of the audiences in bars and restaurants — numbers the network could use to drive advertising revenue in the future. ESPN was comfortable the semifinals could draw huge audiences on New Year’s Eve, but because of a quirk in the 2015 calendar, the network asked about a year ago to make a onetime change to hold the semis Jan. 2 because it fell on a Saturday. But CFP officials didn’t want to switch up the schedule in the first season of New Year’s Eve semifinals. “Frankly I wish we’d discovered it sooner and had earlier conversations,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN’s executive vice president for programming and scheduling.
Like many, Hancock likes having the midnight dance with his own wife on New Year’s Eve, and thinks this year’s schedule — the game in South Florida ending before midnight, the game in north Texas probably ending before midnight local time there — will give people time for their champagne toast. “To some extent, it was a factor,” Hancock said. Around the country — and particularly in the greater East Lansing and Tuscaloosa areas, since Michigan State and Alabama will be the game that flirts with a midnight finish — traditional New Year’s plans are being adjusted for the big game. Tom Bramson owns a number of bars and nightclubs in the heart of Michigan State territory, among other places. His wait staffs are usually clad in black and white; on Thursday night, they’ll all be in Spartan gear. And the red tablecloths and party favors have been ditched, lest a reveler think they’re too close to Alabama colors. His nightclubs might take a New Year’s Eve hit because of the interest in the game, he said. His sports bars, they’ll be positively jammed.
“We can’t predict everything that’ll happen, for sure,” Bramson said. “What we know is where else do you want to be on midnight on New Year’s Eve in East Lansing if we win that game than downtown and with a great group of people. We’ve also got the No. 1 basketball team in East Lansing. What a special time it is — and what a special time it could be.” And what a special night it will be for Carrasco and Jehnsen. A couple of their invited guests aren’t coming to the wedding because of the game. Most others just wanted to make sure they wouldn’t miss it all, Carrasco said, so arrangements were made to bring a television into their reception facility. The site doesn’t have cable, so the Michigan State game will be streamed there instead. Her guests will be told no phones for the first dance. Kickoff will be missed. After that, Carrasco will share her night with the Spartans. “It’s starting to get a little complicated,” Carrasco said. “I was hoping for a noon game. That didn’t happen. But it’s going to be great night.”
National
8A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015
New Mexico cleans up after snow storm By RUSSELL CONTRERAS AND MARY HUDETZ ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Crews worked to clear snow-covered roads Tuesday after a record winter storm trapped a New Mexico couple in a 12-foot snow drift for almost 20 hours, forced four newspapers to suspend publication and prompted authorities to deliver a baby in a snowbound Texas home. The cleanup continued throughout southeastern New Mexico two days after the region saw more than a foot of snow. Some city and county offices began opening, though authorities cautioned motorists about traveling in freezing temperatures amid abandoned vehicles. Near Clovis, New Mexico, a couple delivering newspapers Saturday night tried to make it through the snowstorm but ended up trapped just miles from their home. They were caught in whiteout conditions as wind pushed their vehicle off the road about two miles outside of town. Betty Anderson said she and her husband Jimmy spent the night talking in their vehicle and sending messages via Facebook telling friends and family members they needed help. The storm was so severe, however, that rescue crews couldn’t reach the couple as they sat in their vehicle buried by a 12-foot snow drift. “We’d fall asleep for five
Photo by Bill Kshir | AP
This Monday photo shows a buried Ford Fusion, left, outside of Clovis, N.M. a day after a record snow storm swept New Mexico. Jimmy and Betty Anderson, two newspaper carriers with Clovis Media, Inc., were buried in a 12-foot snow drift for nearly 20 hours until a tractor driver found them Sunday. or 10 minutes and then wake up and say, ‘Hey are you OK?”’ Betty Anderson said. “We just tried to keep each other talking.” Meanwhile, staff at the Clovis News Journal — the newspaper the Andersons had been delivering — grew anxious as the hours passed. Robert Langrell, the publisher, described waiting for updates from authorities and the Andersons, who tried to preserve their cellphone batteries after their
car died. “Anytime two hours passed without an update, it made your mind race in all kinds of different directions,” Langrell said. “You’re very hopeful the entire time, but they were in extreme danger. We knew that.” Ty Gonser of Ray Lee Equipment in Clovis was using his tractor to aid people when he found the couple. “I saw a weird-looking
snow mound with blue-ish color so I just started digging,” said Gonser, who rescued 13 stranded motorists Sunday. “I reach a windshield and I saw the lady.” Gonser, 31, pulled Betty Anderson out first and she hugged him. “We all got in the tractor and we got really close to stay warm,” Gonser said. “I drove them about seven miles to a city building.” Four newspapers did not publish Tuesday editions
because of the snowstorm that made traveling almost impossible. The Clovis News Journal, Portales News-Tribune, Roswell Daily Record and Hobbs NewsSun did not publish print editions. All four posted stories online. In Farwell, Texas, across the state border from Clovis, police Chief Larry Kelsay and two paramedics helped deliver a baby in a snow-covered home. Kelsay said he received a
Officer pleads not guilty to murder By CARLA K. JOHNSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO — A white Chicago police officer charged with murder in the 2014 fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald pleaded not guilty Tuesday. Jason Van Dyke is “hanging in there” and wants to tell his side of what happened so he’s not seen “as this cold-blooded killer,” defense attorney Dan Herbert said after the court hearing. Herbert added that they haven’t ruled out asking for a change of venue. The case is in Cook County Criminal Court in Chicago where demonstrators have staged marches protesting the shooting and how it’s been handled. Van Dyke, 37, faces six counts of first-degree murder and one of official misconduct in the death of 17-year-old McDonald. The officer, wearing a dark suit and blue striped tie, appeared in court Tuesday as his lawyer entered the plea on his behalf. Judge Vincent Gaughan set the next hearing for Jan. 29. Cook County prosecutors were not available for comment after the arraignment. Public outcry has been furious since a dashcam
call around 1 a.m. Monday from a woman who was about to give birth. The town doesn’t have a hospital and roads were closed. Kelsay called paramedic Weldon Kube and drove him to the home. A second paramedic, Craig Giesbrecht, joined them. The baby was born about 3:30 a.m. “It was an easy birth,” Kelsay told the Clovis News Journal reports. “Everything went fine. No complications.”
NYC police ready security By COLLEEN LONG AND JONATHAN LEMIRE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Brian Jackson/Chicago Sun-Times | AP
Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke leaves the Criminal Courts Building Tuesday, in Chicago. Van Dyke pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald during his arraignment. video was released last month showing the veteran officer shooting McDonald 16 times. The teenager, armed with a knife, was veering away from officers when Van Dyke opened fire. The footage sparked days of street demonstrations, the forced resignation of Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and a broad federal civil rights investigation of the Police Department’s practices and how allegations of officer misconduct are handled.
Over the weekend, Chicago police killed two other people, a 55-year-old woman who was shot accidentally and a 19-year-old man police described as “combative” before he was shot. Both were black. Police have not released the race of the officer or officers involved and will not say how many officers fired their weapons or what the man and woman were doing before they were shot. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, under pressure from community activists to resign
since the McDonald video was released, was due to return Tuesday afternoon from a family vacation in Cuba. Herbert, the lawyer for Van Dyke, said policy changes in the Chicago Police Department, which Emanuel’s office has hinted at and may include more training, would be beneficial. Van Dyke, who has been free since paying the $150,000 required of his $1.5 million bail, was suspended from the police force without pay after he
was charged. Following Tuesday’s hearing, the Rev. Marvin Hunter, McDonald’s greatuncle, called for gavel-togavel televised coverage of the trial. He said it would be “in the best interest of fairness and justice in this case.” Hunter added that he and others think there is a culture within the Cook County criminal justice system and the Chicago Police Department “where police feel comfortable with murdering AfricanAmerican people.”
NEW YORK — New York City officials say the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square will be the safest place in the world, heavily secured by thousands of officers, including a new specialized counterterrorism unit. About 1 million people are expected to pack midtown Manhattan to watch the 11,875-pound Waterford crystal ball drop. Partygoers will be screened with hand-held metal detectors twice — once when they enter one of the 14 access points to the celebration and once when they enter pens where they must stay. Thousands of officers will be assigned to the festivities. Visitors will see heavily armed counterterrorism teams and bombsniffing dogs. Rooftop patrols and New York Police Department helicopters will keep an eye on the crowd, and plainclothes officers will blend in with revelers.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015
THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A
US stocks ending the year mostly flat By ALEX VEIGA ASSOCIATED PRESS
The U.S. stock market took investors for a wild ride in 2015, but in the end it was a trip to nowhere. Despite veering between record highs and the steepest dive in four years, the stock market is on track to end the year essentially flat. That means if you invested in a fund that tracks the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, you have little to show for the past 12 months. “It’s been mildly disappointing,” said Michael Baele, managing director at the Private Client Reserve at U.S. Bank. “Any time that you come in toward the end of the year close to flat you always want a little bit more.” Markets overseas had their own challenges. China’s market surged in the late spring and then fell sharply in the summer despite several efforts by China’s government to stem the decline, while Japan’s market was on track to end moderately higher for the year after that country’s government stepped up its economic stimulus program. In Europe, Britain’s market was headed for a decline for the year, while indexes in Germany and France were on their way to big gains. In the U.S., the market got 2015 off to a slow start as investors worried about falling crude oil prices, flat earnings growth and when and how quickly the Federal Reserve would begin raising interest rates.
By May, the major indexes were hitting new highs. Even the Nasdaq bested its dot-com high-water mark set in March 2000. The market didn’t stay in milestone territory for long, though. Worries about slowing growth in China and elsewhere gave reason for the Fed to pause and for investors to fret, even as the U.S. economy continued to create jobs and consumer confidence improved. Weak company earnings, largely due to the strong dollar and falling oil prices, didn’t do much for the market’s confidence. By August, the anxiety had deepened and the market dropped sharply. The three major U.S. indexes went into a correction, commonly defined as a loss of at least 10 percent from a recent peak, for the first time in four years. That slide didn’t last long, either. Within several weeks, the market had mostly bounced back. The Nasdaq composite returned to positive territory for the year, while the Dow average and S&P 500 remained slightly in the red until December. In the weeks that followed, the S&P 500 inched back into positive territory, leaving the Dow as the only major market indicator negative for the year. Including dividends, the S&P 500 is on track to return 2 percent, following a return of 13.7 percent in 2014. “There was a lot of news that kept hitting the market
Photo by Richard Drew | AP file
Despite veering between record highs and the steepest dive in four years, the stock market is on track to end the year essentially flat. and the market kept shrugging it all off and hung in there,” said J.J. Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade. “I’d say, given all that the market faced this year, it was pretty strong.” These were some of the key factors driving U.S. markets in 2015:
WAITING FOR THE FED Wall Street watched few things more closely this year than the Federal Reserve. Traders had been predicting early on that the central bank would begin raising its benchmark interest rate as early as March. When that didn’t happen, investors turned their focus to June, only to be disappointed again. Eventually, in December, the Fed took action. It nudged its benchmark overnight borrowing rate higher, its first increase in interest rates in nearly a decade. The Fed made it clear that it was expressing a
vote of confidence in the U.S. economy by doing so and that future increases would be gradual. That helped reassure investors that the Fed wouldn’t raise rates too quickly and thereby stunt the economy’s growth. “It really was central banks looming large over the market,” Baele said. “The market had a fair amount of fear that the Fed raising rates was a risk to the market. It’s turned around now.”
CORRECTION ARRIVES The bull market had racked up six years of annual gains by the time the calendars turned to 2015. The last time it had a correction was 2011. Historically, that’s an unusually long time for the market to go without a meaningful pullback. That plus a string of record highs in late 2014 led many to think the market was overdue a drop.
Randow promoted to CEO ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS — Ameriflight, LLC announced that current President and COO Brian Randow has been promoted to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Randow is a long time airline executive with 20 years of regional and mainline air carrier experience, including executive positions at Mesaba Airlines, Delta / Northwest Airlines
and most recently Compass Airline where he held the position of Vice President, Chief Operation Officer. Since joining Ameriflight as President and Chief Operating Officer in June 2015 Brian has helped implement a number of changes; streamlining operations, increasing employee collaboration, building a recruiting team focused on pilots and maintenance technicians, and expanding relationships
LOCAL Continued from Page 1A are asked to call the Sheriff ’s Office at 7659960 or Crime Stoppers at 765-8477. Calls made through Crime Stoppers are anonymous and are eligible for a cash reward. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 7282568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)
with flight schools and aviation colleges as well as regional and mainline air carriers. Ameriflight Owner and Board Chairman Jim Martell noted, "Brian has proven himself to be a team builder and I am confident that he is the leader who can sustainably grow Ameriflight while continuing to provide the greatest level of service in the regional air cargo industry."
The long-awaited correction finally arrived in August. Late in the month indexes dropped sharply as investors worried that a slowdown in China’s huge economy could spread to other countries. Yet after an 11 percent plunge between Aug. 17 and 25, and another, less steep drop in late September, the market began to struggle higher. By late November it had recouped all the losses from its late summer swoon. Once investors determined that China’s slowdown would not spillover to the U.S. and European economies, “then we had a very rapid recovery from that very sharp decline,” Jeremy Zirin, chief equities strategist at UBS Wealth Management Americas.
EARNINGS DRAG A big reason why the market finished flat in 2015 is that company earnings growth has also been largely flat. That was due primarily to the impact of falling oil prices on energy sector earnings. Also, the rapid appreciation of the dollar constrained earnings for companies that do a lot of business overseas, including Procter & Gamble, Tiffany, Gap and Avon. As a result, earnings growth for companies in the S&P 500 index went from 7 percent in 2014 to essentially zero in 2015, Zirin said. Excluding energy, earn-
PLAN Continued from Page 1A Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. said in a subsequent court filing that allowing those rulings to stand would force millions of people “to continue to work off the books, without the option of lawful employment to provide for their families.” Paxton’s brief says the program represents the type of “crucial change” in immi-
gration policy that “could be created only by Congress.” Obama said he was spurred to act because Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration legislation. An earlier program that is not being challenged, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, shields immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.
ings for the rest of the S&P 500 would be up about 7 percent this year, Zirin said. With so few companies producing meaningful growth, investors homed in on those that did. Among the biggest gainers: Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet, Google’s parent company. “There’s only been a handful of really strong performers on a market capweighted index that have driven us to performance while the majority of the indices and the majority of the stocks are actually negative for the year,” said Darrell Cronk, president of Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
SLOW-GROWTH ECONOMY The U.S. economy didn’t do the stock market any favors in 2015. It expanded at a slight 0.6 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, depressed by unusually severe winter weather and disruptions at West Coast ports. The economy revved up in the next quarter, growing at an annual rate of 3.9 percent, but slowed to a gain of 2.1 percent in the July-September quarter. Consumer spending remained a bright spot, however. That’s one reason why consumer discretionary stocks, a category that includes big retailers and car makers, were the biggest gainers in the S&P 500.
FATAL Continued from Page 1A “The vehicle … skidded and rolled over multiple times striking a fence line. The vehicle ended up on the south side of the road off the highway,” states the DPS report. The investigation continues. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 7282568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)
CLINIC Continued from Page 1A about $1.7 million available to contribute to the program. That number has seen dropped down to $600,000. “The revenues are a lot less,” Rathmell said. “We have less money to commit.” He added clinic rates have been expensive to operate. Additionally, Rathmell said Laredo Medical Cen-
ter officials presented a survey on how many patients are seen by the clinic from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. According to the survey, about 1 ½ to 2 persons are seen during those hours. “There was not a lot of use during those hours,” Rathmell said. The new change has not been well received by the residents of Zapata. “It’s a loss to the com-
munity,” Rathmell said. “We are not happy with it.” In regards to the changes, Laredo Medical Center issued an email statement to Laredo Morning Times. “Despite reductions in federal funding commitments that are affecting clinics across Texas, Laredo Medical Center is committed to funding community healthcare access
through the Zapata Family Medical Clinic,” said Priscilla Iglesias, LMC director of marketing and business development. “LMC proudly serves as the safety-net hospital for Zapata County residents and we are proud to fund the local clinic that continues to provide the highest quality care and the only imaging diagnostic systems in Zapata available over 70 hours a
week, including Saturday and evenings." With the cut in operation hours, Rathmell said residents may still contact the Zapata Fire Department for assistance. If residents are in need of urgent medical care, the ambulance will take them to the nearest hospital. (Judith Rayo may be reached at 728-2567 or jrayo@lmtonline.com)
International
10A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015
Puerto Rico police shooter was troubled By DANICA COTO ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Youssouf Bah | AP
Mohamed Belhocine, center, a representative from the World Health Organization, speaks during a press briefing in city of Conakry, Guinea, Tuesday.
Guinea declared free of Ebola By BOUBACAR DIALLO AND CARLEY PETESCH ASSOCIATED PRESS
CONAKRY, Guinea — The World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak over in Guinea Tuesday, a huge step in the fight against the world’s largest epidemic and the first time there are no known cases anywhere since the virus emerged in Guinea two years ago. The West Africa-concentrated outbreak last year spread to neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. Liberia is on a countdown to become Ebolafree on Jan. 14, which could mark a final end to the epidemic. Sierra Leone, the third West African country to be hammered by the epidemic, was declared free from transmissions on Nov. 7. No new cases have been reported anywhere in the world in at least 21 days, according to WHO. “This is the first time that all three countries — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — have stopped the original chains of transmission that were responsible for starting this devastating outbreak two years ago,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. But experts warn that cases may still emerge. So far, the virus has killed more than 11,300 people worldwide. “We definitely cannot let our guard down,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “It’s certainly possible we
will have more cases and more clusters in the coming months.” On Tuesday, about 50 Ebola survivors, journalists, and family members of those who lost loved ones gathered at WHO’s Ebola headquarters in Conakry, where the mood was of celebration, mixed with sadness. “Guinea is a blessed country. We hope that all the dead, and the victims of this disease will be sacrifices to the Guinean nation so that no other epidemic touches us,” said survivor Ibrahima Sow. Mariam Camara, with tears in her eyes, said the country lost some of its best to Ebola, including her mother and brother, among the more than 2,500 people who died in Guinea. “That cursed disease separated me from that which is most beautiful to me in my life,” she said. “But it’s over. We are turning a page on Ebola, definitively.” This West African nation will hold a big celebration Wednesday, overseen by President Alpha Conde and including testimonies by Ebola survivors. Later, popular West African artists such as Youssou N’Dour and Tiken Jah Fakoly are to perform at a concert in the capital. Dr. Mohamed Belhocine, WHO’s representative in Guinea, said Tuesday the nation will now enter a 90-day period of heightened surveillance. WHO declares that Ebola disease transmission has ended when the coun-
try goes through two incubation periods — 21 days each — without a new case emerging. Guinea had the fewest Ebola cases of the three countries, but its bigger size, extensive remote areas and a stigma and distrust of health workers allowed the outbreak to persist longer here. Frieden also warned that if it persists or reemerges in animals, a transmission to humans is still possible. “That’s why it’s so important these countries be ready for additional cases,” he said. He said the CDC is working on a set of protection measures, including laboratories that can test for Ebola and other dangerous microbes. Trained investigators within the three West African countries will help stop and prevent threats, rapid tests are available and emergency operation centers are in place to oversee a robust response. “The world needs to be ready to surge in more rapidly when a country’s abilities are overwhelmed,” he said. The outbreak claimed the first lives in December 2013 but only made headlines in March 2014 in Guinea, before quickly spreading to Liberia and Sierra Leone. By early June 2014, even though the Ebola epidemic was the deadliest ever recorded, the WHO resisted sounding the international alarm until August, a delay that some argue may have cost lives.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The policeman who allegedly shot three fellow officers to death at work underwent psychological treatment for a decade and had faced three separate investigations for insubordination and unexcused absences, a Puerto Rico police spokesman said Wednesday. Guarionex Candelario Rivera had been on sick leave for most of December when he showed up unannounced Monday at the station in the southern coastal city of Ponce to demand a meeting with the colonel who oversees the department, Sgt. Axel Valencia told The Associated Press. Col. Hector Agosto was on vacation, so he said Candelario should meet instead with Lt. Luz Soto Segarra, who was one of the officers later shot to death, Valencia said. It was unclear why Candelario requested the meeting, the spokesman said. Authorities previously said Candelario took Soto hostage along with Cmdr. Frank Roman Rodriguez and policewoman Rosario Hernandez De Hoyos, then shot them. Candelario himself was shot twice during the incident and is hospitalized with a bullet lodged in his thorax and another in his arm, Dr. Israel Ayala told reporters earlier Tuesday. He said the 50year-old suspect might have to undergo surgery but was expected to recover. It was not revealed who shot Candelario, a 19-year police veteran. Valencia said authorities expected to file charges against Candelario once his health improved. Puerto Rico’s police
Photo by Eric Rojas/El Vocero | AP
A police officer stands guard outside the Ponce police station where three officers were killed in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Monday. force is one of the largest in a U.S. jurisdiction, and the shooting’s death toll was the highest in the force’s history. The troubled department is undergoing a 10-year federally mandated reform after U.S. prosecutors accused officers of illegal killings, corruption and civil rights violations. Valencia said Candelario had been stripped of his weapon in 2005 and put on administrative duty after his supervisor requested a medical and psychological evaluation. That year marked the first of three internal investigations against Candelario for insubordination and unexcused absences, the spokesman said. No cause for action was found during the first investigation, but the second investigation led authorities to issue a written statement ordering Candelario to cease and desist with his behavior, Valencia said. The third investigation began in 2013 and had not been completed, he said. Valencia said he did not have details of the three investigations. He said Candelario’s weapon was returned to him in January 2015 on
the recommendation of a psychologist even though the third investigation was still underway. Valencia said he believed investigators took sufficient and appropriate action against Candelario at all times, noting that the officer remained on administrative duty even after he was returned his weapon. “There is no internal investigation into this,” Valencia said. “The personnel are trained to carry out their investigations, and they are experts.” He said Candelario was approved to take the majority of December off for medical reasons after presenting a doctor’s note. Valencia said privacy laws prohibited him from sharing further details, including how many times Candelario saw a psychologist and whether he was given any medication. Calls to Candelario’s relatives went unanswered. Penuelas Mayor Walter Torres previously told the newspaper El Nuevo Dia that he knew Candelario well and that the officer was a quiet, religious man known for visiting sick people.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015
Zentertainment
PAGE 11A
Motorhead frontman dead By SANDY COHEN ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Lanky and long-haired, with mutton chops and moles, Ian “Lemmy� Kilmister looked and lived like a hard-rock hero. He founded Motorhead in 1975, and continued recording and touring with the band until his death. He began every legendary live show with the announcement, “We are Motorhead, and we play rock and roll!� The singer and bassist died Monday at age 70 after a brief battle with aggressive cancer, said his agent Andrew Goodfriend. Kilmister had learned of the diagnosis just two days earlier, according to a statement from the band, and he had also suffered several other health issues in recent months. “We cannot begin to express our shock and sadness, there aren’t words,� the band said in announcing the death on its Facebook page. “Play Motorhead loud, play Hawkwind loud, play Lemmy’s music LOUD. Have a drink or few. Share stories. Celebrate the LIFE this lovely, wonderful man celebrated so vibrantly himself. HE WOULD WANT EXACTLY THAT.� Born on Christmas Eve, 1945, in Staffordshire, England, Kilmister was deeply respected and revered as a rock master and innovator, from his time with the seminal psychedelic band Hawkwind in the early 1970s to his four decades in Motorhead, best known for the 1980 anthem “Ace of Spades.� The band won a Grammy for 2004’s best metal performance. Ozzy Osbourne called him “one of my best
Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision | AP file
Authorities say former “Glee� star Salling has been arrested in Los Angeles for investigation of possessing child pornography.
‘Glee’ star arrested in child porn case By EMILY YAHR THE WASHINGTON POST
Photo by Chris Pizzello | AP file
Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, the Motorhead frontman whose outsized persona made him a hero for generations of hard-rockers and metal-heads, has died on Monday. friends.� “He will be sadly missed,� Osbourne wrote on Twitter late Monday. “He was a warrior and a legend. I will see you on the other side.� Metallica tweeted: “Lemmy, you are one of the primary reasons this band exists. We’re forever grateful for all of your inspiration.� And numerous other rock musicians took to social media to pay tribute, including Queen guitarist
Brian May, Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler, Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue and Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer, who tweeted, “RIP Lemmy heaven is Rockin tonight.� In a Tuesday statement, Alice Cooper said Kilmister was “one of the most beloved characters in rock’n roll. I can’t think of anyone who didn’t adore Lemmy; you can’t say ‘heavy metal’ without mentioning Lemmy.� The Recording Academy
also noted the loss to the music industry, calling Kilmister “a remarkable frontman and bona fide heavy metal icon.� “His magnetic stage presence and willingness to break barriers propelled the metal genre to new heights, influencing countless fellow musicians in the process,� Recording Academy President Neil Portnow said in a statement. “We have lost a truly dynamic member of the music community.�
"Glee" star Mark Salling was arrested Tuesday on child pornography charges, Los Angeles police say. Salling, who starred on the hit Fox musical as a regular for four seasons and continued to appear through the series finale this spring, was arrested after the LAPD’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force obtained a search warrant for his home in Sunland, California. He is currently being processed in the downtown jail in Los Angeles, according to the department’s public information officer, though no other information is available at
the moment. TMZ reports that police officers found "hundreds of images" on Salling’s computer. Salling, 33 - largely off the Hollywood grid since his days as singer/football player Noah "Puck" Puckerman on "Glee" - made headlines in 2013 when he was sued by an ex-girlfriend, Roxanne Gorzela, for sexual battery. He denied the allegations and soon filed a cross-complaint, but earlier this year he settled the suit and was ordered by a judge to pay Gorzela $2.7 million. The news of Salling’s arrest was first reported by syndicated investigative series Crime Watch Daily. The actor’s representative has not replied to a request for comment.
1DWXUDO 5Hà X[ )LJKWHU 3XWV 6WRPDFK $FLG ,Q ,WV 3ODFH ² DQG .HHSV ,W 7KHUH PAID ADVERTISEMENT
Alternative to PPIs and antacids helps end heartburn, improve digestion, and support a healthy immune system
If you’re one of the 100 million Americans who live with acid indigestion and heartburn, now’s the time to call your doctor and say, “Thanks for nothing.� Whether you take an antacid or a PPI (proton pump inhibitor), or both, your doctor knows these will do little to correct the root cause of your heartburn.
Aluminum is not a Food
$QWDFLGV DUH WR DFLG UHĂ X[ what a rolled-up bath towel wedged under a door is to a serious water leak. Products like GavisconÂŽ, 0DDOR[Š DQG 0\ODQWDŠ XVH DOXPLQXP D QHXURWR[LQ WR ‘soak up’ stomach acid. Other antacids rely on calcium carbonate, the stuff used to make sheetrock in the construction industry; blood pressure-spiking sodium bicarbonate, i.e. baking soda; or PDJQHVLXP K\GUR[LGH D PLQeral powder that may have you
sprinting to the bathroom minutes after ingestion.
Heartburn = Heart Attack? Long-term PPI use has been linked to possible increased risk of heart attack, and an increased risk of bone fractures. It gets worse, too. For women over 50 years of age, long-term PPI use may double their risk of falling while subconsciously instilling an innate fear of falling, which affects mobility and gait.
A Heartburn Breakthrough Now for some good news, WKHUH¡V D QHZ DFLG UHĂ X[ Ă€JKWHU RQ WKH PDUNHW WKDW WDNHV an entirely different approach to ending heartburn. Instead of just masking and covering up searing acid pain, the organic aloe juice breakthrough called AloeCure — drum roll, please — stops heartburn before it starts! $ORH&XUH LV WKH Ă€UVW heartburn remedy that’s actually good for the body. “After I started taking it,â€? says Lois J., “I noticed right away that I was having not to take other methods such as some over the counter tablets.â€?
Safe, Natural, Effective
Aloe vera has moved from the kitchen window to top research laboratories where its LPSUHVVLYH DFLG UHĂ X[ EDODQFLQJ DQG LPPXQH boosting powers are EHLQJ VWXGLHG
Unlike OTC and prescription heartburn medicines that suppress and neutralize stomach acid, weakening the digestive V\VWHP DQG FDXVLQJ H[SORVLYH acid-rebounding, this hightech compound stages a delicate biochemical balancing act using a natural buffer called malic calcium. This rapid buffering of harsh stomach acid quickly stabilizes pH levels. “In minutes, AloeCure can promote a ten-fold reduction
A Surprise
in stomach acid,� says Dr. Santiago Rodriguez, a leading H[SHUW RQ DORH IRXQGHU RI WKH prestigious Lorand Labs, an DORH YHUD UHVHDUFK ÀUP DQG consultant to AGHG. Long-time heartburn sufferer Ralph Burns agrees.
´:HOO WKH QH[W GD\ Âľ VD\V Ralph, “this guy brings me D ZKROH ER[ RI DQ DORH YHUD based drink called AloeCure.â€? Ralph didn’t want to hurt his friend’s feelings, so he tried it right away.
Beware of PPI Heartburn Drugs, Says FDA The FDA has released a consumer alert warning Americans that certain drugs for heartburn, acid reflux, and ulcers pose a possible increased risk of fractures of the hip, wrist, and spine. If you take one or more of the prescription or OTC versions of the proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) shown below, and experience any side effects, you are urged to contact the FDA’s MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting Program.
The prescription PPIs are: ÂŽ
Nexium • PrilosecŽ DexilantŽ • ZegeridŽ
• •
PrevacidÂŽ ProtonixÂŽ
• •
AciphexÂŽ VimovoÂŽ
The over-the-counter PPIs are: Prilosec OTCÂŽ
•
Zegerid OTCÂŽ
Throatful of Battery Acid “For the better part of my life,� says Ralph, “I purposely avoided a lot of foods, especially foods with even a hint of seasoning.� “If I didn’t, it would feel like somebody poured hot lead or battery acid down my throat.� Ralph tried a number of treatments, but nothing worked. Then one day at dinner, a friend of his suggested that he try an aloe drink. Ralph laughed and said, “Thanks, but that doesn’t sound good at all�
•
Prevacid OTCÂŽ
“To my surprise, it tasted good! It has a pleasant grape Ă DYRU WKDW , DFWXDOO\ HQMR\ drinking.â€? Intrigued, he decided to try D OLWWOH H[SHULPHQW ´, VWRSSHG taking my heartburn drugs all altogether, and replaced them with AloeCure.â€?
Something Remarkable “Then,â€? smiles Ralph, “something remarkable happened... nothing! Not even the slightest hint of indigestion!â€? “Here’s the best part,â€? he VD\V ´WKH QH[W GD\ ZH KDG Italian food, which is my stomach’s arch enemy.â€? ´)RU WKH Ă€UVW WLPH LQ years, thanks to AloeCure, I
enjoyed my Italian food and I didn’t need pills or tablets to avoid indigestion!�
Doctor-Preferred Liza Leal, MD, an awardwinning author and speaker, practicing family physician LQ +RXVWRQ 7H[DV DQG spokesperson for AloeCure, recommends it as an alternative WR SDWLHQWV ZLWK DFLG UHĂ X[ heartburn, and occasional indigestion. She, along with a growing number of like-minded doctors are bypassing the side effects of antacids and PPIs, and going ‘all-natural.’
Why? Because It Works
´7KH Ă€UVW VWHS LQ JHWWLQJ my patients to live well without drugs,â€? says Dr. Leal, “is with AloeCure. I use it in my medical practice because it works.â€? Gloria K. is living proof. “When you drink AloeCure you can feel the soothing coating as it goes down and relieves the acid feeling,â€? says Gloria.
Get a Good Night’s Rest Gloria says the best thing about AloeCure is, “I don’t have to worry about going out and eating late because I know that I can come home and not have to prop myself up on pillows to sleep. I can lie down and get a good night’s rest.â€? Aloe vera in AloeCure is not the small, spiky plant found on your grandmother’s kitchen windowsill. $ORH&XUH LV D KLJK WHFK H[tract derived from a medicinal plant with a 3,800-year-old track record. Researchers at American Global Health Group start with FHUWLĂ€HG RUJDQLF DORH YHUD JURZQ LQ H[DFWLQJ FRQGLWLRQV using no chemicals, herbicides or pesticides.
After removing a compound called alloin, which can cause stomach upset, researchers DUH OHIW ZLWK D SXUH UHĂ€QHG H[WUDFW WKDW LV EULPPLQJ ZLWK D natural super-compound called acemannan.
Stronger Immune System This amazing antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal polysaccharide is one of the most body-friendly substances on the planet, and your immune system’s best friend.
An Invitation to Feel Better Are you ready to start living a normal life? Are you tired of dealing with heartburn, acid UHà X[ FRQVWLSDWLRQ EORDWLQJ and diarrhea? Take the AloeCure Heartburn Challenge. We’ll send you two free bottles of AloeCure, along with two surprise bonus gifts, with your risk-free, discounted purchase (a very rare one-time SHUFHQW GLVFRXQW RI IRXU bottles. You’ll have 30 full days WR XVH DQG H[SHULPHQW ZLWK AloeCure. You must be completely and XWWHUO\ VDWLVÀHG ,I \RXU KHDUWEXUQ DFLG UHà X[ FRQVWLSDWLRQ bloating and diarrhea, are not 100 percent improved, simply return the empty and unused bottles for full and complete refund, less S&H. Call 1-877-285-9306 now. Tell the operator you want to take the AloeCure Heartburn Challenge. It’s time you put stomach acid in its place, and kept it there! This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA.
12A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015