The Zapata Times 12/31/2016

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YEAR IN REVIEW

UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION

SURGE OF CENTRAL AMERICANS

Homicide roundup Number increases from 11 to 13 from previous year

By Taryn T. Walters L AREDO MORNING TIME S

Eddie Seal / Bloomberg

U.S. Border Patrol agents speak to suspected immigrants near the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas, U.S., on Wednesday, Dec. 21. A security surge along the U.S.-Mexico border will use "a military-style approach" with more Border Patrol agents, barriers and sensors and new authorities for law enforcement agencies, House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul said.

Helped drive a 23 percent increase in arrests during the 2016 year

By Elliot Spagat A S SOCIAT E D PRE SS

SAN DIEGO — Central Americans attempting to enter the United States illegally on the nation’s border with Mexico helped drive a 23 percent increase in U.S. Border Patrol arrests during the 2016 fiscal year, according to figures released Friday.

Apprehensions surged to 415,816 during the 12-month period ended Sept. 30 from a 44-year-low of 337,117 during the same period a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Home-

land Security said.

Still, the most recent numbers represent the Border Patrol’s fifth-lowest arrest tally since 1972 and were far below numbers seen in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The number of Central Americans stopped during the 2016 fiscal year by the Border Patrol surpassed the number of Mexicans, as it did for the first time in 2014.

Many were families and unaccompanied children from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras that Homeland Security says are fleeing poverty and violence, a shift from Central continues on A12

MURDER-SUICIDE

Deaths of 3 people in Houston house fire seen as suspicious

The Laredo Police Department recorded 13 homicides this year, a small increase from 11 in 2015.

This year’s youngest victim was Alexus Nicole Zepeda, 17.

She was a victim in one of two double homicides. The homicides stunned the city when two young couples’ bodies were discovered abandoned in a vacant lot in the Lakeside Subdivision and a grassy area in an east Laredo neighborhood.

Antonio Gonzalez, 53, was the eldest and the city’s first reported homicide. He was shot and killed during a home invasion.

The two young men arrested in connection to his death, Alexis Guzman, 18, and Rogelio Peña III, 19, were later linked to a joint investigation initiated in late 2015 by the Laredo Police Department narcotics division targeting young adult offenders smuggling narcotics and immigrants along the Rio Grande.

The year’s last homicide was a fatal shooting caused by the Laredo Police Department after Homicide continues on A11

HOUSTON — Houston police are investigating the deaths of three people in a house fire as a possible murder-suicide.

Homicide officers and a bomb squad have been at the scene of the Friday morning blaze where a married couple and one of their parents were found dead. Fire department Houston continues on A11

James Nielsen / Houston Chronicle

A Houston Police Department homicide detective works at the scene of a fatal fire in 1300 block of Richelieu Dec. 30 in Houston.

Guzman

Herrejon

Luna

Peña

Sanchez

Vasquez

Yruegas

CBP

Over $400K in pot seized at World Trade Bridge SPECIAL TO THE TIME S

A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

CortezMercado

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at World Trade Bridge discovered over $400,000 in alleged marijuana in a commercial shipment of plastic boxes.

“Our CBP officers remain vigilant as they continue to successfully keep narcotics from entering our country,” said Port Director Gregory Alvarez, Laredo Port of Entry.

“I thank our CBP officers for their diligence and commit-

ment to carry out our mission on a daily basis.”

The seizure occurred on Thursday, December 29, when a CBP officer referred a tractor trailer hauling a commercial shipment of plastic boxes for a non-intrusive inspection. A canine and non-intrusive inspection by CBP officers resulted in the discovery of 98 packages allegedly containing 2,317 pounds of alleged marijuana concealed within a front false wall compartment of the trailer.

CBP continues on A12

Zin brief A2 | Saturday, December 31, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

CALENDAR

AROUND THE NATION

TODAY IN HISTORY

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31

ASSOCIATED PRE SS

New Year’s Eve Scholarship Dance.

9 p.m. Castilian Royale (by Myreida), 9802 McPherson Road. Hosted by Epoca de Oro Social Club. There will be live music. BYOB and food trays are welcome. Tickets are $30 pre-sale and $35 at the door. For reservations call 290-7341.

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

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

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

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

Ray of Light anxiety and depression support group meeting.

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

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

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3 Les Amies Birthday Club. 11:30 a.m.

Ramada Plaza. Hostesses are Olga Laurel, Veronica Laurel and Grace Stegmann. Honorees are Olivia Arroyo, Aurora Miranda and Dora Rocha.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tony Dejak / AP

Capt. Michael Mullen of the U.S. Coast Guard answers questions during a news conference at Burke Lakefront Airport, Friday in Cleveland.

BUSINESS EXEC WAS PILOT OF LOST PLANE CLEVELAND — The chief executive of a beverage distribution company was piloting a plane carrying his wife, two sons and two other people when it quickly lost altitude after takeoff from Cleveland’s lakeshore airport and vanished from radar, according to his family and a flight-tracking service Friday.

Superior Beverage Group executive John T. Fleming was piloting the Columbus-bound plane when it disappeared late Thursday about 2 miles over Lake Erie, his parents and company confirmed.

The five other people on the plane were

Colorado lift shuts down as fatal fall investigated GRANBY, Colo. — Investigators were trying to determine Friday how a Texas woman fell to her death from a chairlift at a small Colorado ski resort, the first fatal fall in the state in over a decade.

The 40-year-old woman's two daughters were also injured after falling about 20 feet with her on Thursday at Ski Granby Ranch about 90 miles

Fleming’s wife, Sue, teenage sons Jack and Andrew, a neighbor and the neighbor’s daughter, said John W. Fleming, the pilot’s father, and Joseph McHenry, an executive vice president at Superior Beverage.

Crews combing Lake Erie for the plane on Friday remained hopeful that the occupants could be found alive, and were in search-and-rescue mode, not recovery mode, as they plied waters about 50 feet deep, said Capt. Michael Mullen, the chief of response for the Ninth Coast Guard District.

west of Denver. Their names haven't been released, but police said they were visiting from San Antonio.

The 12-year-old daughter was treated and released from the local hospital, but her 9-yearold sister was airlifted to Children's Hospital in suburban Denver. Her condition wasn't released.

The Quick Draw Express lift, which brings skiers to beginner and intermediate terrain, will remain closed until state regulators can determine that it is safe for the public to use, said

Lee Rasizer, a spokesman for the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board.

The ski industry expressed its condolences to the family, Chairlift deaths are rare, both in Colorado and across the country. People are five times more likely to die in an elevator accident and eight times more likely to die in a car accident than on a ski lift, said Chris Linsmayer, a spokesman for Colorado Ski Country USA, the trade group representing most of the state's ski resorts. — Compiled from AP reports

THURSDAY, JANUARY 26 Villa San Agustin de Laredo Genealogical Society. 3-5 p.m. St. John Neumann Parish Hall. Meet and greet membership drive. The speaker’s subject is “How I Traced My Family Roots.” Open to the public. For more information, contact Sylvia Reash at 763-1810.

Spanish Book Club. 6-8 p.m. Joe A. Guerra Public Library - Calton. For more information, contact Sylvia Reash at 763-1810.

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

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

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

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

Ray of Light anxiety and depression support group meeting.

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

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

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

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

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

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

AROUND THE WORLD Russia, brushing off Obama, looks to friendlier Donald Trump HONOLULU — Stung by new punishments, Russia is looking straight past President Barack Obama to Donald Trump in hopes the presidentelect will reverse the tough U.S. stance toward Moscow of the last eight years. In a stunning embrace of a longtime U.S. adversary, Trump is siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Whether Trump steers the U.S. toward or away from Russia upon taking office is shaping up as the first major test of his foreign policy disposition and his willingness to buck fellow Republicans, who for years have argued Obama wasn't tough enough. Now that Obama has finally sanctioned Russia over hacking allegations, Putin has essentially put

Doug Mills / NYT

President Barack Obama and President Vladimir Putin of Russia at the United Nations in New York, Sept. 28, 2015.

relations on hold till Trump takes over.

"Great move on delay (by V. Putin)," Trump wrote Friday on Twitter. "I always knew he was very smart!"

He was referring to Putin's announcement that Russia won't immediately retaliate after Obama ordered sanctions on Russian spy agencies, closed

two Russian compounds and expelled 35 diplomats the U.S. said were really spies. Though Putin reserved the right to hit back later, he suggested that won't be necessary with Trump in office. — Compiled from AP reports

AROUND TEXAS Dallas mayor says pension mismanagement could be "criminal" DALLAS — Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings wants state investigators to determine whether previous administrators of the city's ailing police and fire pension fund committed crimes that contributed to the fund's financial crisis.

Rawlings said in a Facebook

Today is Saturday, Dec. 31, the 366th and final day of 2016.

Today’s Highlight in History: On Dec. 31, 1946, President Harry S. Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II. On this date: In 1775, during the Revolutionary War, the British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec; Montgomery was killed.

In 1879, Thomas Edison first publicly demonstrated his electric incandescent light in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

In 1904, New York’s Times Square saw its first New Year’s Eve celebration, with an estimated 200,000 people in attendance.

In 1942, Frank Sinatra opened a singing engagement at New York’s Paramount Theater.

In 1951, the Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.

In 1969, Joseph A. Yablonski, an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the United Mine Workers of America, was shot to death with his wife and daughter in their Clarksville, Pennsylvania, home by hit men acting at the orders of UMWA president Tony Boyle.

In 1972, Major League baseball player Roberto Clemente, 38, was killed when a plane he’d chartered and was traveling on to bring relief supplies to earthquake-devastated Nicaragua crashed shortly after takeoff from Puerto Rico.

In 1978, Taiwanese diplomats struck their colors for the final time from the embassy flagpole in Washington, D.C., marking the end of diplomatic relations with the United States.

In 1985, singer Rick Nelson, 45, and six other people were killed when fire broke out aboard a DC-3 that was taking the group to a New Year’s Eve performance in Dallas.

In 1986, 97 people were killed when fire broke out in the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

In 1991, representatives of the government of El Salvador and rebels reached agreement at the United Nations on a peace accord to end 12 years of civil war.

In 2001, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani spent his final day in office praising police, firefighters, and other city employees in the wake of 9/11, and said he had no regrets about returning to private life.

Ten years ago: The death toll for Americans killed in the Iraq war reached 3,000. Hundreds of Iraqis flocked to the village of Ouja where Saddam Hussein was born to see the deposed leader buried in a religious compound 24 hours after his execution. Ordinary Americans paid their respects to former President Gerald R. Ford, walking slowly by his flagcovered casket in the U.S. Capitol.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama signed a wide-ranging defense bill into law despite having “serious reservations” about provisions that regulated the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists. A NASA GRAIL probe fired its engine and slipped into orbit around the moon in the first of two back-to-back arrivals over the New Year’s weekend.

One year ago: Belgian authorities announced the arrest of a 10th person in connection with the Nov. 2015 bloodbath in Paris. A towering inferno engulfed a 63-story luxury hotel in Dubai as officials went ahead with a massive New Year’s fireworks display.

Today’s Birthdays: TV producer George Schlatter is 87. Actor Sir Anthony Hopkins is 79. Actor Tim Considine (TV: “My Three Sons”) is 76.

Actress Sarah Miles is 75. Rock musician Andy Summers is 74. Actor Sir Ben Kingsley is 73. Producer-director Taylor Hackford is 72. Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg is 70. Actor Tim Matheson is 69. Pop singer Burton Cummings is 69. Rock musician Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith) is 65.

Actor James Remar is 63. Actress Bebe Neuwirth is 58. Actor Val Kilmer is 57. Singer Paul Westerberg is 57.

Actor Don Diamont is 54. Rock musician Ric Ivanisevich (Oleander) is 54.

Rock musician Scott Ian (Anthrax) is 53. Actress Gong Li is 51. Author Nicholas Sparks is 51. Actor Lance Reddick is 47. Pop singer Joe McIntyre is 44.

Rock musician Mikko Siren (Apocalyptica) is 41. Rapper PSY (Park Jaesang) is 39. Rock musician Bob Bryar is 37. Actor/singer Erich Bergen is 31.

DJ/vocalist Drew Taggart (The Chainsmokers) is 27. Olympic gold medal gymnast Gabby Douglas is 21.

Thought for Today: “In masks outrageous and austere/ The years go by in single file;/ But none has merited my fear,/ And none has quite escaped my smile.” — Elinor Wylie, American author (1885-1928).

CONTACT US post Friday that he requested the investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety and has been cooperating with the FBI. Rawlings did not specify what crimes may have been committed or name any specific administrators.

"As I have learned more in recent years and months about how the (pension fund) reached its current crisis, I have come to believe the conduct in question may rise to the level of criminal offenses," he wrote.

DPS confirmed Friday that

Texas Rangers will investigate.

The fund spent almost a decade basing its financial health on artificially inflated asset values from risky real estate investments made under a previous director, Richard Tettament, who resigned in 2014. The FBI earlier this year searched an investment firm that once advised the fund.

A spokesman for the pension system released an emailed statement on behalf of the board Friday. — Compiled from AP reports

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The Zapata Times

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, December 31, 2016 |

A3

LOCAL & STATE

10th annual Clays for Kids and Cook-Off S P ECIAL TO THE TI ME S

The Boys and Girls Club of Zapata County will host their 10th annual Clays for Kids and CookOff Saturday, Jan. 28.

The entry fee is $120 per shooter (5 man teams) and $60 per shooter (youth 5 man teams). Each youth team must have a coach or sponsor present.

There will be prizes for

the top three shooters.

Awards include: 1 1st prize: $1,500 1 2nd prize: $1,000 1 3rd prize: $500 Additional prizes will also be awarded. Individual prizes include: 1 Top shooters of each class 1 Top 2 women 1 Top 2 youth prizes Scoring will be based on the Lewis Class Scoring System. In case of a

tie, a shoot-off will determine top shooter honors.

The schedule of events are as follows: 1 1st flight will begin at 8:00 a.m.

1 2nd flight will begin at 11:00 a.m.

1 3rd flight will begin at 2:00 p.m.

ATV’s and golf carts are recommended, but will not be provided.

Shooters are required to provide their own ammo

(7 ½, 8 or 9 only). Firearm safety will be observed.

The cook-off entry fee is $200 per team.

BBQ pits can be set-up Friday, Jan. 27 from 12 to 5 p.m. Pits must be set up by 8 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 28.

There will categories which include main entrée (fajitas 10 pounds, chicken 10 whole and pork ribs 10 whole) and

sides (pan de campo and beans).

Cook-off category awards for 1st place include a cutting board with logo. Cook-off overall awards include: 1 Cooking champion: $1,000 1 Second place: $600 1 Third place: $400 Sponsorships are available at two levels.

Caregiver sponsor ($1,000) includes one

shooting team and one station sponsor. Youth station sponsor ($500) includes one youth shooting team and one station sponsor.

Please make all checks payable to the Boys and Girls Club of Zapata.

You can register for the event at www.bgcazapata.com or call Mark Alvarenga at (956) 337-5751 for more information.

Mexican man charged with rape had 19 deportations, removals

By Roxana Hegeman A S S O CIAT E D PRE SS

WICHITA, Kan. — A Mexican man accused of raping a 13-year-old girl on a Greyhound bus that traveled through Kansas had been deported 10 times and voluntarily removed from the U.S. another nine times since 2003, records obtained by The Associated Press show.

Three U.S. Republican senators — including Kansas’ Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts — demanded this month that the De-

partment of Homeland Security provide immigration records for 38-yearMartinezold Tomas Maldonado MartinezMaldonado, who is charged with a felony in the alleged Sept.

27 attack aboard a bus in Geary County. He is being held in the Geary County jail in Junction City, which is about 120 miles west of Kansas City.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, from Iowa and chairman of the judiciary com-

mittee, co-signed a Dec. 9 letter with Moran and Roberts to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, calling it “an extremely disturbing case” and questioning how Martinez-Maldonado was able to re-enter and remain in the country.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it has placed a detainer — a request to turn Martinez-Maldonado over to ICE custody before he is released — with Geary County. ICE declined to discuss his specific case beyond its October statement regarding the 10

deportations. Court filings show Martinez-Maldonado has two misdemeanor convictions for entering without legal permission in cases prosecuted in 2013 and 2015 in U.S. District Court of Arizona, where he was sentenced to serve 60 days and 165 days respectively.

A status hearing in the rape case is scheduled for Jan. 10. Defense attorney Lisa Hamer declined to comment on the charge, but said, “criminal law and immigration definitely intersect and nowadays it should be the responsibility of every crim-

inal defense attorney to know the possible ramifications in the immigration courts.”

Nationwide, 52 percent of all federal prosecutions in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 were for entry or re-entry without legal permission and similar immigration violations, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

It’s not unusual to see immigrants with multiple entries without legal permission, said David Trevino, a Topeka immigration attorney who has provid-

ed legal advice to Martinez-Maldonado’s family.

Most of Martinez-Maldonado’s family lives in Mexico, but he also has family in the United States, and the family is “devastated,” Trevino said. “(President-elect Donald Trump) can build a wall 100 feet high and 50 feet deep, but it is not going to keep family separated. So if someone is deported and they have family members here ... they will find a way back — whether it is through the air, under a wall, through the coast of the US,” Trevino said.

Zopinion

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

A4 | Saturday, December 31, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

COLUMN

OTHER VIEWS

Hope, change and a happy new year - or not?

By Jay Ambrose TR IB UN E NEWS SE RV ICE

"Optimism, n. The doctrine, or belief, that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly, everything is good, especially the bad, and everything right that is wrong."

- Ambrose Bierce (1843-circa 1914), "The Devil’s Dictionary."

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence."

- Words from Helen Keller (1880-1968), author and lecturer who was both blind and deaf.

Optimism and hope are for fools, some think, even as we know that without them, too little is tried and too little improves. So it is that we equate the coming of a new year with the coming of hope, a chance to walk away from the bad of the past and forward to something better. And so it is that politicians associate hope with themselves and despair with their opponents.

Right now, we have a confluence of a coming new year and a coming administration in Washington, and we have the first lady, Michelle Obama, talking about the election of Donald Trump as president and the disappearance of hope.

"We feel the difference now," she said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey on CBS. "We are feeling what not to have hope feels like."

Her views are applauded by a massive audience even as Trump responded that she could not be talking about the future because, "I’m telling you, we have tremendous hope and we have tremendous promise and tremendous potential."

Excuse me, says President Barack Obama, but this guy would not be about to take residence in the White House if third terms were permitted. What he would have done differently from Hillary Clinton as a candidate, Obama said, was to reiterate the "hope and change" message he had repeated so many times when running and winning in 2008.

The Obama hope then was to change the state of affairs under President George W. Bush.

Would he, in 2016, have been running to change the state of affairs under his own Democratic administration? Some will tell you there is indeed plenty of the ugly, bad and wrong to be found there.

Violent crime, for instance, has been going

“Optimism and hope are for fools, some think, even as we know that without them, too little is tried and too little improves.” up significantly in America’s largest cities as Obama has called policemen racists and made their duties more difficult to fulfill. Racial tensions are the highest they have been in years.

The Obamacare program and Medicaid changes have extended insurance coverage to millions, but that has not stopped a rare increase in the U.S. death rate, the first in 10 years. A New York Times story says causes may include Alzheimer’s disease, a massive drug epidemic and suicide, hardly an indicator of hope.

Obama’s education program, known as Race to the Top, has been slouching towards the bottom, at least if you believe some of the national test scores that have shown up along with complaints of ideologically awry, unwarranted, impractical and confusing interventions with state and local education authorities.

Take a look at foreign affairs and you will note early, muted responses to Russian aggressions that then took off like a rocket until now we have a last-minute response that is not muted. In the Middle East, you will note that his policies have done nothing to prevent a more militaristic, terroristic Iran or to prevent hundreds of thousands of Syrian deaths, some 4.8 million refugees and over 13 million people in desperate need. In Asia you will note China illegally taking over land and resources of allies in the South China Sea. Trump, less than a mount of knowledge or a master of temperament, has some awful ideas on spending and trade, for instance.

But he has nevertheless inspired hope, as attested by stocks shooting upwards and consumer confidence reaching a 13-year high since his election. Believe it or not, he has some sound ideas on fighting crime, improving education and stopping drug smuggling on our southern border.

Does that mean everything is going to be beautiful, good and right? No, but it will still help for all of us to work and hope for a happy new year.

COLUMN

I hereby resolve to approach 2017 with a plan

By Justin Fox BL OOMBERG NEWS

My main New Year’s resolution for 2017 is pretty much the same as always: Stop eating Christmas cookies, cut back on the drinking and get back to the gym. This resolve tends to stick for much of the year -- only during the next holiday season does everything invariably fall apart again. Maybe I should consider making this a pre-Thanksgiving resolution.

I’ve had some other resolutions on my mind this week, though, and it struck me that they might be of wider applicability for a year that so many people are approaching with a hang-

over -- literal, metaphorical or both -- and a lot of trepidation. Also, while I don’t really believe that New Year’s resolutions are the key to ending the productivitygrowth slowdown that has been weighing on the economy for the past decade-plus, they can’t hurt, right? So here goes.

Go outside. Modern professional life generally happens indoors.

That’s inevitable, but for me staying in the building often means getting stuck in a rut, or even a funk. Just walking around the block shakes things up a little, but I’m lucky enough to have a job where I can count wandering around a California alfalfa field or a Chinese theme park as work. So why am I not

doing that more often?

And on weekends, why am I not spending more time exploring the gigantic, endlessly surprising city I live in? Seriously, I need to get out more.

Maybe you do too.

Talk to human beings, in person. This is obviously key for a journalist, but it seems kind of important for all of us.

Virtual interaction is efficient. It can open up new worlds. It’s also incomplete, and often one-dimensional. Interacting with data can be great, too. But it comes with its own biases and blinders. Actual conversations take time.

They complicate things.

That’s why they’re so important.

Be generous. You can’t be generous to every-

COLUMN

Bingeing on tragedy of celebrity deaths

By Chris Vognar THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Peruse social media for a moment and you’ll find all manner of people cursing 2016.

You’re killing our favorite stars! This year can’t end quickly enough. Get Betty White/Madonna/fill in the blank to a safe house stat. And so on.

These sentiments generally come from a good place, which makes it easier to excuse the conceit that a calendar year, an indifferent block of 52 weeks, can commit murder. If "Star Wars" meant something to you, chances are Carrie Fisher’s death affected you. If you ever danced to "Let’s Go Cra-

zy," you mourned Prince.

Was it really this year that David Bowie died? Yep. Jan. 10. Seems like ages ago.

Muhammad Ali. George Michael. Sharon Jones. Gene Wilder. Anton Yelchin. Sometimes they departed in clusters: Joining Fisher was Richard Adams, author of the beloved "Watership Down," followed the very next day by Fisher’s mother, Debbie Reynolds.

Obit writers have been working overtime. Individuals and media outlets have scrambled figuring out whom to mourn and how.

It’s a ghoulish process, the prioritizing of death.

Social media allows us all to participate in a chorus

of grief that sometimes feels like a competition.

We binge and purge on the dramatic tragedy.

It all obscures the fact that people die every minute of every day of every year; "ordinary" people who perhaps didn’t touch us with their art or influence or celebrity. Breaking news: You’ll join them someday.

As Clint Eastwood says to the kid in "Unforgiven" who insists a dead man had it coming: "We all have it coming, kid." Or, as Sufjan Stevens puts it in the haunting track "Fourth of July": "We’re all gonna die."

Did an inordinate number of people die in 2016?

Logic tells us no. But we are getting older, which

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Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No name-calling or gratuitous abuse is allowed. Also, letters longer than 500 words will not be accepted.

Via email, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.

body. But it’s too easy to use that as an excuse not to be generous to anybody. I’m not just talking about panhandlers on the subway (although I am talking about panhandlers on the subway).

It’s also that friend whose book manuscript is waiting to be read, that family member who could use a little encouragement and help, that good idea that might wither without some attention and promotion.

I’m never going to be another Adam Grant -the tireless Wharton School professor who has made helpfulness into a personal and professional credo. But I do think Grant is right that generosity benefits the generous.

DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

means the famous folks we grew up worshipping are getting closer to the finish line, and in many cases passing it. Some are paying the price for the vices that accompanied their stardom.

Some, including Jones and Craig Sager, survived cancer, only to find that the illness dubbed "The Emperor of All Maladies" by oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee is a tenacious monster.

Keep mourning, and keep celebrating the lives of those you mourn. But don’t assume recent weeks and months are anything unique.

Death comes with the package of life. And the only schedule it follows is its own.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, December 31, 2016 |

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A6 | Saturday, December 31, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

BUSINESS

Plenty of billionaires, but few are women

By Robert Frank N EW YORK T I ME S

Women have been rapidly climbing the employment and wage ladders in recent decades. But only a small fraction have made it to the top rungs — and their progress may be slowing.

New research shows that after making big strides in the 1980s and ‘90s, the number of women breaking into the top 1 percent of earners has stalled. Women account for only 16 percent of the 1 percent, a number that has remained essentially flat over the past decade, according to a paper by three economists. And they account for only 11 percent of the top 0.1 percent of earners.

The threshold for making the top 1 percent of earners in 2014 was $390,000, while it was

$1.32 million for the top 0.1 percent, according to the definitions of income used in the research.

“The higher up you move in the income distribution, the lower the proportion of women,” said Gabriel Zucman, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and an author of the paper, which analyzes gender in the 1 percent. “It shows that there is a fundamental form of inequality at the top related to gender.”

The world of billionaires and millionaires, measured by wealth, also remains a predominantly male club. Of the nearly 2,500 billionaires in the world, only 294 (around 12 percent) are women, according to Wealth-X, a research firm.

The number of female billionaires is growing only half as fast as the male billionaire popula-

tion, Wealth-X says. And women may even be losing ground in the millionaire population: Worldwide, the number of women worth $30 million or more declined in 2015, even as the equivalent male population grew.

Of course, women are making inroads among the rich. By some measures, there are more wealthy or high-earning women than ever, in the United States and around the world. In 2000, there were 11 female billionaires on the planet, according to Forbes; by 2016, there were 190. (Forbes and Wealth-X have different tallies for the female billionaire population.)

Yet cracking the “diamond ceiling” appears to be getting harder. According to the paper that Zucman and two other economists wrote for the nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research — his

collaborators were the well-known Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics and Emmanuel Saez of Berkeley — women tripled their share of the top 1 percent of earners from 1980-2000, to 9.2 percent. Yet from 2000-14, their share grew only to 11.5 percent.

At the current pace, Zucman predicted, it would take nearly 100 years for women to make up half the population of the top 1 percenters. “We are still a long, long way from gender equality at the top,” he said.

The slowdown stands in stark contrast to the gains made by women in the broader workforce.

Median pretax income for working-age women more than quintupled between 1962 and 2014, to $20,000.

It’s still far below the median pretax income for men, which, at $35,000, has stayed roughly the

US stocks end modestly lower on final trading day of 2016

By Alex Veiga A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

Investors capped a year of solid gains on Wall Street Friday in a selling mood, sending the major U.S. stock indexes modestly lower on the final trading day of 2016.

Technology and consumer-focused stocks led the broad slide, while real estate companies and banks eked out small gains. As it had been for much of the week, trading was subdued ahead of the New Year’s Day holiday.

Despite riding out the last week of the year with losses, halting the Dow Jones industrial average’s momentum as it neared the 20,000 mark, 2016 delivered a much better finish for stock investors than most would have anticipated.

All told, the Dow ended the year with a 13.4 percent gain, while the Nasdaq composite gained 7.5 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, the broadest measure of the stock market, gained 9.5 percent after an essentially flat finish in 2015. Including dividends, the total return was 12.5 percent as of Thursday’s close.

Small-company stocks fared the best, especially since the election. The

Michael Nagle / Bloomberg

A trader works beneath Mobileye NV signage on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Friday. U.S. stocks pared the biggest annual gain in at least two years as indexes slipped in light holiday trading.

Russell 2000 index closed out 2016 with a gain of 19.5 percent.

“This was not just a market that did well, it did extremely well,” said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial.

The stock market weathered repeated slumps in 2016, including the worst start to any year for stocks, the second correction for the market in five months and plummeting oil prices. A steadily improving U.S. economy and job market, as well as more stable oil prices and better company earnings growth helped turn the market around. More recently, investor optimism following the Republican election sweep in November kicked off a rally that sent the market to new heights.

Some of that enthusiasm evaporated in the final week of the year, as traders seized on the quiet period between the Christmas and New Year’s holidays to do some selling to lock in profits.

“So many times we look for a rally at the end of the year, particularly between Christmas and New Year’s,” said J.J. Kinahan, TD Ameritrade’s chief strategist.

“But with the incredible up move we’ve had since the election, people are either hesitant to buy things heading into the new year or are taking a little bit of profit.”

On Friday, the Dow slid 57.18 points, or 0.3 percent, to 19,762.60. The S&P 500 index fell 10.43 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,238.83. The Nasdaq composite gave up 48.97

points, or 0.9 percent, to 5,383.12.

The Russell 2000 lost 6.05 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,357.13.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.44 percent from 2.48 percent late Thursday.

Global stocks mostly rose on the year’s last day of trading.

Britain’s index rallied to hit another all-time high. The FTSE 100, which was trading for only a half day, rose 0.3 percent. That left the index 14.4 percent higher over 2016.

Elsewhere in Europe, Germany’s DAX rose 0.3 percent, while France’s CAC 40 gained 0.5 percent. Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.2 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1 percent.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell 5 cents to close at $53.72 a barrel in New York. That translates into a 45 percent gain for the year. Brent crude, used to price international oils, slipped 3 cents to close at $56.82 a barrel in London.

In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline dropped 2 cents to $1.67 a gallon and heating oil held steady at $1.70 a gallon. Natural gas futures fell 7.8 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $3.72 per 1,000 cubic feet.

same since 1964, according to the research paper. (The paper uses “labor income” as its definition of income, which does not include capital gains and certain other sources of wealth.)

The women’s wealth gap would be even worse without inherited fortunes. According to Wealth-X, of the 294 female billionaires in the world, only 49 are selfmade. The rest owe their fortunes partly or entirely from an inheritance.

Of the nearly 27,000 women in the world worth $30 million or more, one third are self-made.

And there are reasons to think that those numbers could rise, as wealth becomes more global and women in countries like China start to prosper. In 2015, more than half of the female billionaires in Asia were self-made, compared with 19 percent in the United States, according

to a report from the Swiss bank UBS and the consulting firm PwC. Yet even as many women are making the rich lists, others are dropping off. In the United States, one of the highest-flying self-made female billionaires, Elizabeth Holmes, recently became the highest-profile financial casualty: As the medical-testing company she founded, Theranos, started to collapse amid fraud allegations, Holmes’ net worth plummeted from about $4.5 billion to next to nothing, according to Forbes.

At the moment, the wealthiest self-made woman in the United States is Diane Hendricks, a founder of ABC Supply, a building materials company in Beloit, Wisconsin. She is worth $4.9 billion, according to Forbes. Oprah Winfrey ranks second at $3.1 billion.

Twitter CEO solicits product feedback as he takes larger role

By Sarah Frier BL OOMBERG NEWS

Jack Dorsey wants Twitter Inc.’s users to know he’s listening to them.

His tweet Thursday soliciting product feedback from users drew hundreds of responses, highlighting concerns with everything from abuse on the site to users’ inability to fix errors after they publish tweets.

“We’ll consider everything we heard from you,” Dorsey said Friday on Twitter. “Not going to ship all of it, but will be more transparent about why and what we learned.”

Dorsey is taking more control over Twitter’s product after the company lost its chief operating officer and chief technology officer. Now, out of necessity, the product, engineering and design divisions report directly to him. The product division is run by an executive relatively new to Twitter, Keith Coleman, who joined with an acquisition on Dec. 1.

Twitter, which lets users post 140-character messages and follow the tweets of others, has had trouble defining its vision after years of executive turnover. The San Fran-

cisco-based company is under pressure to show it can expand its audience of about 317 million monthly active users, as advertising revenue starts to increase more slowly.

Twitter failed to find an acquirer earlier this year and the social media company said in October it would eliminate 9 percent of its workforce. The shares lost 30 percent this year, closing Friday at $16.30.

Dorsey summarized user requests on his Twitter account. For addressing abuse, the CEO and co-founder said the “biggest ask was for greater transparency around our actions (or inaction) and faster shipping.” For editing tweets, he said the “clearest ask was to provide a quick way to fix errors. Anything beyond requires showing edit history given tweets are public record.”

People also wanted an easier way to follow topics and understand the flow of conversations, Dorsey said.

Dorsey got the idea to request user feedback via Twitter after Airbnb Inc. CEO Brian Chesky did so. Dorsey also solicited product ideas for electronic payments company Square Inc., where he is also CEO.

Zfrontera THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, December 31, 2016 |

RIBEREÑA EN BREVE PAGO DE IMPUESTOS 1 A partir del 7 de diciembre, los pagos por impuestos a la propiedad de la Ciudad de Roma deberán realizarse en la oficina de impuestos del Distrito Escolar de Roma, localizado en el 608 N. García St. MUSEO EN ZAPATA 1 A los interesados en realizar una investigación sobre genealogía de la región, se sugiere visitar el Museo del Condado de Zapata ubicado en 805 N US-Hwy 83. Opera de 10 a.m. a 4 p.m.

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

BOYS & GIRLS CLUB

ADUANAS Y PROTECCIÓN FRONTERIZA

Decomisan cargamento de marihuana Droga tiene un valor de 400.000 dólares E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Oficiales de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de Estados Unidos (CBP, por sus siglas en inglés) decomisaron más de 400.000 dólares en presunta marihuana en el Puente del Comercio Mundial. Los narcóticos fueron descu-

biertos en un cargamento comercial de cajas de plástico.

“Nuestros oficiales de CBP permanecen alertas mientras continúan impidiendo el ingreso de narcóticos a nuestro país”, dijo el Director del puerto de entrada de Laredo, Gregory Álvarez. “Agradezco a los oficiales de

CBP por su diligencia y compromiso para llevar a cabo nuestra misión diariamente”.

El decomiso ocurrió el jueves, 29 de diciembre, cuando un oficial de CBP remitió a una revisión secundaria a un remolque tractor transportando un cargamento comercial de cajas de plástico. Una

inspección canina y no intrusiva por agentes de la CBP resultó en el descubrimiento de 98 paquetes que supuestamente contenían 2.317 libras de presunta marihuana escondida dentro de un falso compartimiento frontal. La marihuana tiene un valor estimado reventa de

FRONTERA CHICA

ENTREGAN DESPENSAS

ZAPATA

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

Informes en el 956849-1411.

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

1 El grupo Cancer Friend se reúne a las 6 p.m. el primer lunes del mes en el Centro Comunitario de Doctors Hospital.

Padecer cáncer es una de las experiencias más estresantes en la vida de una persona. Sin embargo, los grupos de apoyo pueden ayudar a muchos a lidiar con los aspectos emocionales de la enfermedad.

1 Grupo de Apoyo para Ansiedad y Depresión Rayo de Luz. En Centro de Educación del Área de Salud, ubicado en 1505 Calle del Norte, Suite 430. El grupo se reúne de 6:30 p.m. a 7:30 p.m. en 1505 Calle del Norte, Suite 430, cada primer lunes de mes.

Alertan sobre cohetes y armas E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE

LABORATORIO COMPUTACIONAL

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

463.054 dólares.

Oficiales de CBP se apoderaron del remolque y de los narcóticos. El caso fue turnado a los agentes especiales de Inmigración y Aduanas de los Estados UnidosInvestigaciones de Seguridad Nacional (ICE-HSI) para una investigación más a fondo.

FIN DE AÑO

1 La organización Boys & Girls Club invita a su evento Clays for Kids Skeet Shoot & Cook-Off en su décima edición, que se celebrará el sábado 28 de enero.

Para registrarse o para mayores informes visite www.bgcazapata.com o llame a Mark Alvarenga al (956) 337-5751.

SE SUSPENDE JUNTA

A7

Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Miguel Alemán

La alcaldesa de Miguel Alemán, México, Rosa Isela Corro, aparece durante la entrega de despensas enviadas por el Gobierno de Tamaulipas para los municipios que conforman la frontera chica: Díaz Ordaz, Camargo, Miguel Alemán, Mier y Guerrero, el jueves en esa ciudad fronteriza.

Destinan alimentos a familias necesitadas E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Miguel Alemán, México— Quince mil despensas fueron envíadas por el gobernador de Tamaulipas, México, Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca, a la frontera chica, abarcando los municipios de Díaz Ordaz, Camargo, Miguel Alemán, Mier y Guerrero.

En el caso de Miguel Alemán, la alcaldesa Rosa Isela Corro acudió el jueves a un domicilio ubicado sobre la calle Primera e Insurgentes, como lugar designado para este evento. explicó Laura Ivón Hernandez, coordinadora de la entrega de despensas en la frontera chica.

La alcaldesa dijo que estas despensas llegan a

las familias más necesitadas a través de de la Secretaría de Bienestar Social.

“Estamos atendiendo primeramente a las familias que más lo necesitan.

Hoy lo estamos haciendo aquí sobre la calle Primera y en la tarde lo haremos en otra parte”, especificó Corro.

Agregó que la idea es entregar las despensas

antes de la noche de Año Nuevo.

“El interés del Gobernador de Tamaulipas, es que estas despensas lleguen a las familias antes de la noche de Año Nuevo, es una despensa nutritiva para toda la familia, aunque estamos trabajando con los comités de colonias existentes para realizar esta entrega”, finalizó.

BIOCONSTRUCCIÓN

Primera mujer en Latinoamérica en recibir premio LEED Fellow Por Malena Charur TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Construir o hacer de su hogar una edificación sustentable es ahora una realidad. Para lograr hacer esto se requiere de determinación además de contar con profesionales capacitados que le pueden indicar cómo contribuir a ayudar a su economía y beneficiar al planeta.

Una de estas personas calificadas es Diana Marcela Páez Serrato, quien además de ser arquitecta graduada del Tecnológico de Monterrey, ha recibido en octubre el reconocimiento LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Fellow por su trayectoria en bioconstrucción o edificación sustentable, con-

virtiéndose en la primera mujer en América Latina en recibir este reconociPáez miento.

Páez Serrato dijo que se interesó en la construcción sustentable cuando empezó a diseñar y construir su propia casa hace cerca de 20 años en Monterrey.

“Cuando empecé a diseñar la casa busqué materiales con mucha capacidad para aislar en los muros y la losa además de ventanas de doble vidrio colocadas de tal forma que hubiera circulación cruzada de aire”, explicó. “Colocamos un domo operable (que se abre y se cierra) en el área social. En tiempo de ca-

lor, durante el día, cerrábamos todo y por la noche se abrían las ventanas y el domo de tal manera que se generara un circuito de aire nocturno que sirviera para referescar la casa durante el día”.

Páez Serrato más tarde se involucró con una empresa dedicada a la bioconstrucción.

“En ese trabajo me pidieron hacer una manual ecológico para el banco HSBC en la Ciudad de México que consta de posibles estrategias para ahorrar luz, agua, calidad del aire interiores, materiales que con el tiempo se puedan reutilizar y que el sitio de construcción esté cerca de paradas de camiones para evitar el uso de automóviles”, señaló.

El edificio del banco

HSBC, de 33 pisos, alberga la torre corporativa frente al monumento Ángel de la Independencia en la Ciudad de México y fue el primer edificio LEED en México.

También participó en la construcción de un Seven Eleven en Monterrey que en su construcción se respetó a la naturaleza dejando un árbol dentro del edificio.

LEED es un sistema de calificaciones para evaluar una construcción ecológica o sustentable.

Cinco son los elementos que se evalúan principalmente: el sitio, la eficiencia en el agua, la energía y la atmósfera, los materiales y los recursos y la calidad del aire interior, de lo que se trata es de reducir las emisiones de CO2.

La noche de Año Nuevo es un tiempo maravilloso para celebrar el inicio de un nuevo año. Y los fuegos artificiales y el uso de armas de fuego pueden ser una manera peligrosa de celebrar.

Los fuegos artificiales han sido parte de las tradiciones americanas para celebrar la llegada del nuevo año pero una celebración feliz se puede tornar en un recuerdo doloroso cuando niños y adultos son lastimados por el uso de fuegos artificiales. Y, aunque las etiquetas mencionen que son seguros de acuerdo a la Comisión de Seguridad de Productos para el Consumidor, todos los fuegos artificiales son peligrosos y pueden causar lesiones.

En Texas, hubo 39 personas hospitalizadas debido a lesiones por fuegos artificiales en el 2003, de las cuales el principal diagnóstico de admisión eran quemaduras de segundo grado.

Sin embargo, en la Ciudad de Laredo, de acuerdo a la ordenanza de la ciudad, la posesión, uso o venta de fuegos artificiales está restringida y quienes violen esta regla podrían ser acreedores a multas de hasta 2.000 dólares, señaló en un comunicado el oficial Abraham H. Díaz, de la Unidad de Relaciones con la Comunidad del Departamento de Policía de Laredo.

Lo mejor que puede hacer para proteger a su familia es no utilizar ningún tipo de fuegos artificiales en casa y asistir a despliegues públicos de fuegos articiales dejando el encendido de los mismos a los profesionales.

Descargar armas de fuego en el aire puede hacer que se persiga al responsable en toda la extensión de la ley. Muchos individuos que participan de esta forma en la celebración de Año Nuevo no se dan cuenta del peligro que suponen estas acciones. Los reportes de investigadores han encontrado que una bala disparada al aire puede viajar hasta dos millas y permanecer en vuelo por más de un minuto.

LPD exhorta a la comunidad a no utilizar fuegos artificiales, a no detonar armas de fuego al aire y mantenerse sobrio.

A8 | Saturday, December 31, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

NATIONAL

Power won’t be fully back at Vegas casino for days

By Michelle Rindels A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

LAS VEGAS — The busy New Year’s holiday weekend is likely to come and go before a Rio casino hotel tower in Las Vegas fully recovers from a power outage that prompted a 900-room evacuation, officials said Friday.

Spokesman Richard Broome of the Rio’s parent company, Caesars Entertainment, said the company is testing to see whether rooms on the lowest 20 floors can be occupied Friday. That could mean about 500 rooms would reopen in time for the holiday, when hotel rooms are scarce.

Broome said about 400 rooms on the upper floors of the Masquerade Tower will likely be unoccupied for several more days.

The chain of events that triggered the outage and evacuation started Wednesday, when a sink in a service area overflowed and shorted a fuse in the tower’s power system.

The hotel moved to a backup generator, but that had been compromised by water from a fire sprinkler and it gave out on Thursday morning.

Guests in the nearcapacity tower were transferred to other rooms in casinos owned

by Caesars, but also to competitors’ rooms.

“Naturally, they’re frustrated,” Broome said

at a news conference on Friday. “We’re trying to bend over backward to try to make that frustration as small as possible by giving them free food, by giving them as much information as we can, making sure we transport them over to the other property they’ll be staying at.”

The 2,500-room Rio, which was built in 1990 and is a short drive from the Las Vegas Strip, is one of the more affordable resorts in Las Vegas, with rooms that run less than $100 on an off-peak night.

It’s home to magicians Penn and Teller, the Chippendales male revue and Food Network personality Guy Fieri’s restaurant El Burro Borracho.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, December 31, 2016 |

A9

ENTERTAINMENT

Did Debbie Reynolds die of broken-heart syndrome?

By Sandy Cohen A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

LOS ANGELES — Dying of a broken heart is real.

When Debbie Reynolds passed away this week, her son said the stress of his sister Carrie Fisher’s death the day before was too much for his mother to take.

The emotional distress of losing a loved one can trigger broken-heart syndrome, a recognized medical condition that disproportionately affects women and can be fatal.

“A ‘broken heart’ really is an event where the heart ceases to function normally and is prone to heart rhythm abnormalities,” said Dr. Mark Creager, director of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Heart and Vascular Center in New Hampshire and past president of the American Heart Association. “That term is used to explain a very real phenomenon that does occur in patients who have been exposed to sudden emotional stress or extremely devastating circumstances.”

Known medically as stress-induced cardiomyopathy or takotsubo syndrome, it can strike anyone, even those in good health with no previous heart problems.

Reynolds, who suffered two strokes in 2015

but recovered, was taken by ambulance to a hospital the day after Fisher died.

“She said, ‘I want to be with Carrie,”’ Reynolds’ son, Todd Fisher, told The Associated Press.

“And then she was gone.”

No cause of death has been disclosed for either woman.

Broken-heart syndrome is when a surge of stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, cause arteries to seize, limiting blood flow to the heart. The experience — and diagnosis — is often confused with heart attack, Creager said.

Both conditions look the same on an electrocardiogram, said cardiologist Dr. Holly Andersen, director of education for the heart institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital and scientific adviser for the Women’s Heart Alliance. But where heart attacks are caused by blocked arteries, there are no such blockages in “broken” hearts.

The condition can be treated, and even heal untreated, she said, but it can also cause heart arrhythmias and sudden death.

Japanese researchers were the first to describe broken-heart syndrome in 1990. They named it takotsubo, which means “octopus pot,” for the way the malfunctioning heart appears in imaging studies.

Kevork Djansezian / Getty

Flowers are placed on Debbie Reynolds's live performance star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame on Dec. 29 in Hollywood, California. Reynolds has two stars on The Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for live performance and another for film performance.

Andersen has not treated Reynolds, but she suspects the actress succumbed to “a cardiovascular event,” noting Reynolds’ history of stroke and the prevalence of heart disease among women.

“It wouldn’t be surprising that an 84-yearold woman like Debbie Reynolds had some (arterial) plaque, and with this kind of stress, became more vulnerable and had more of a garden-variety heart attack and sudden death,” Andersen said. “But you don’t have to have any predisposing disease and you could be still susceptible to sudden death from (takotsubo) syndrome because of overwhelming emotional stress.”

Barbra Streisand, an advocate for women’s cardiovascular health, said in a statement Thursday that “too many women die of heart dis-

ease and stroke like mother and child Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher.”

Streisand gave $10 million in 2012 to create her namesake Women’s Heart Center at CedarsSinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, a research and treatment facility.

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, but until recently, research has been done almost exclusively on men.

Women’s hearts are smaller and beat faster at rest than men’s, Andersen said: “There’s no question that, physiologically, when you put everything together — the nerves and the blood vessels — that (women’s) hearts work differently and get disease differently.”

“We need to study more women,” she said.

“We’re under-researched. We’re undertreated. But even if you control for all the differ-

ences that we know about, we’re still more likely to die from heart disease than a man.”

Carrie Fisher reportedly suffered a heart attack aboard a flight that led to her death four days later.

Women also get other forms of heart disease more frequently than men, Creager said. Takotsubo syndrome is one example.

The American Heart Association is working with Streisand’s heart center to study women, heart attacks and heart disease, he said.

Scientists don’t know exactly why takotsubo syndrome primarily affects women, but they think it has something to do with the female stress response and the way women’s brains and bodies process emotions.

If fans of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher want to take a health lesson from the women’s

Zsa Zsa Gabor’s life, glamour, honored at funeral Mass

‘By Sidney Lumet’ is an engrossing look at filmmaker’s work

By Nicole Evatt A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.

— Zsa Zsa Gabor was remembered Friday during a funeral Mass for being the epitome of Hollywood glamour, an elegant and attention-seeking actress who paved the way for future generations of celebrities.

Around 100 mourners gathered Friday at the picturesque Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills to pay respects to Gabor, who died Dec. 18 from a heart attack at age 99.

Elaborate floral arrangements flanked the altar, where a painting Gabor made of one of her horses and a photo of HungarianAmerican actress were displayed, emblazoned with the words, “Farewell My Love.”

Gabor’s husband, Frederic von Anhalt, gave a 40-minute eulogy that focused on Gabor’s thirst for the limelight.

“I want to remember the way she walked the red carpet,” von Anhalt said.

“She loved it so much. Her life was only red carpet, nothing else.” He said Gabor would often duck out of events after walking the red carpet because that was the only element she was interested in.

He also recounted his wife’s 1989 arrest and conviction after slapping a Beverly Hills police officer, saying Gabor turned the incident into a publicity device and a template for future generations of troubled starlets.

He said his wife’s name will live on forever, in part thanks to her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“She will never be forgotten because she has her Hollywood star,” von Anhalt said. “It will always be Zsa Zsa Gabor. It will never end.”

tragic, successive deaths, Creager and Andersen hope it will be recognized as the literal vulnerability of women’s hearts. Forty percent of women don’t experience chest pain during a heart attack, Andersen said, and a recent survey showed that women often neglect to call 911 even when they think they are having a heart attack.

“The majority know that something’s wrong,” Andersen said. “Jaw pain, back pain, sweating, an overwhelming sense of fatigue. There’s a feeling that something’s wrong. It could be shortness of breath or crazy indigestion. But we’d much rather be taking care of acid reflux or indigestion in the emergency room than missing a heart attack, so please come in if you think something’s wrong.

“You really can die of a broken heart.”

By Moira Macdonald THE SEATTLE TIME S

David Mcnew / AFP/Getty

Husband Frederic Prinz Von Anhalt receives a hug before the start of memorial services for actress and former beauty queen Zsa Zsa Gabor, who died December 18 at age 99, on December 30 in Beverly Hills, California.

During his eulogy, von Anhalt pulled a magazine out of a Louis Vuitton dog bag and spoke about the first cover story featuring them as a couple, and also displayed what he said was her favorite pink pillow from Munich.

At the end of the eulogy, he took a gold box containing Gabor’s ashes and placed them inside the bag to take them to a private ceremony at the nearby Westwood Village Park Memorial Cemetery. It is the final resting place of many stars, including Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, Roy Orbison and Gabor’s sister, Eva. Von Anhalt said after the service that Gabor won’t be interred there, but rather with her father in Budapest.

He interrupted the closing procession and singing of “May Choirs of Angels” to draw mourners’ attention to a painting his wife made of one of her horses.

A priest contrasted Gabor’s public persona with

her private life. “She epitomized and personified Hollywood glamour,” Father Edward Benioff said.

“She could write. She could act. She had many, many talents.”

He said Gabor, who was known for conspicuously flaunting her wealth, also quietly gave to numerous charities including those supporting the homeless and animals. “What a lot of people don’t about is Zsa Zsa had a very sensitive side, a very compassionate side,” Benioff said.

Long before reality television minted stars for their behavior, Gabor was famous for being famous, despite appearing in several movies including “Moulin Rouge” and Orson Welles’ “Touch of Evil.”

In the 1940s Gabor began her ascent from beauty queen to millionaire’s wife to minor television personality to minor film actress to major public character.

Decked out in diamonds and lavish clothes, Zsa Zsa joked often about the droll

burdens of wealth and her ability to attract men.

She and her family, including sisters Eva and Magda, emigrated to America around World War II and she married Conrad Hilton in 1942.

They had one child together, Francesca, who died last year.

Gabor married nine times, although one shipboard ceremony was quickly annulled and was of questionable legality. She married von Anhalt in 1986, who along with a team of nurses cared for her in their Bel Air home in recent years. Von Anhalt continued to throw her lavish birthday celebrations even after she could no longer attend, and reported her maladies dutifully to the media.

Von Anhalt urged mourners to remember Gabor for her glamorous days.

“Keep her in your heart, the way she was,” he said.

“The way she was in Hollywood.”

In 2008, filmmaker Sidney Lumet ("Dog Day Afternoon," "12 Angry Men," "Serpico," "Network") sat down for a long interview with documentarian Daniel Anker, in which he discussed his 50-year career in television and films, his background as a child actor in Yiddish theater and on Broadway, his lifelong connection to the city of New York and the strong moral core that informed his work.

Lumet died, at the age of 86, in 2011; Anker in 2014 - but that five-day conversation lives on, in the engrossing documentary "By Sidney Lumet."

Director Nancy Buirski ("Afternoon of a Faun," "The Loving Story") crafts the film simply: Lumet talks, interspersed with scenes-often gloriously long ones-from many of the 44 films he directed. (Though Lumet never won a competitive Oscar, he was given an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 2005.) It’s the kind of documentary that might serve as a perfect introduction to Lumet’s work; when it’s done, you want to watch all of these films immediately.

Among the remarkable performances of which we get a tantalizing glance: Katharine Hepburn’s bleary Mary Tyrone in "A Long Day’s Journey Into Night"; Paul Newman’s quietly electric speech to the jury in "The Verdict"; Al Pacino, in a performance Lumet describes as "an open wound up there" in "Dog Day Afternoon"; Henry Fonda’s stalwart conviction as the holdout juror in "12 Angry Men." And it’s also a gift to film buffs: a detailed look at what made this 20th century filmmaker tick. A lifelong New Yorker and self-described "city rat" ("I wouldn’t know what to do with a Western. I wouldn’t know where to begin"), Lumet spent decades exploring themes of parents and children, of injustice, of lone figures questioning authority - and of the way movies can, sometimes, tell the story as it should be. The film is framed by Lumet’s remembrance of a deeply disturbing incident he witnessed long ago, and in which he didn’t intervene for fear of retaliation. Things might have turned out differently, he muses, in the "romantic, movie version of life."

A10 | Saturday, December 31, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

NATIONAL

Court reinstates Kennedy cousin Skakel’s murder conviction

By Dave Collins A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

HARTFORD, Conn. — Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel faces a possible return to prison after the state Supreme Court on Friday reinstated his murder conviction in the killing of Martha Moxley in 1975 when they were 15 years old and neighbors in a wealthy enclave.

The court issued a 4-3 decision that rejected a lower court’s ruling that Skakel’s trial lawyer didn’t adequately represent him. Justice Peter T. Zarella wrote that the majority of the court concluded Skakel’s lawyer “rendered constitutionally

adequate representation.”

It was unclear if Skakel, now 56 years old, will be sent back to prison or allowed to remain free if he appeals or asks the high court to reconsider.

His appellate lawyer Hubert Santos said he was reviewing the ruling.

Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel Kennedy, was convicted of murder in 2002 and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison in the killing of Moxley, who was bludgeoned with a golf club, in Greenwich. His cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been a top advocate and this year released a book that argued he’s innocent.

Skakel was freed in

2013 on $1.2 million bail after a judge granted him a new trial based on claims his trial lawyer, Michael Sherman, made a series of poor decisions in representing him. The judge found Sherman failed to argue that Skakel’s brother could have been responsible for the crime and failed to present a key alibi witness for Skakel.

Sherman had defended his work.

The case has drawn international attention because of the Kennedy name, Skakel’s rich family, numerous theories about who killed Moxley and the brutal way in which she died. Several other people, including

Skakel’s brother Tommy Skakel, have been mentioned as possible killers.

Moxley’s brother, John Moxley, said he was “a little shocked” by Friday’s court ruling.

“I think it’s the right decision,” he said. “It’s going to take a while to sink in, but I hope this is the end of it.”

Moxley’s mother, Dorthy Moxley, who’s in her mid-80s, added, “This is the way it should be. I am very, very happy. It is sinking in, and I could not be more excited, more pleased.”

Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane, the state’s top prosecutor, didn’t return messages seeking comment.

Bob Luckey / AP

In this Nov. 21, 2013 file photo, Michael Skakel reacts to being granted bail during his bond hearing.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, December 31, 2016 |

A11

NATIONAL Vehicle hits hill, North Carolina judge delays law launches into North overhauling elections panel Carolina group home

By Alan Blinder NEW YORK TIME S A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Authorities say a woman driving at least 70 mph hit a hill and launched into the roof of a group home in North Carolina.

Remarkably, no one inside the home was injured. WGHP-TV reports that the woman was taken to a hospital. She is expected to be OK. Winston-Salem police said the crash happened about 4 p.m. Friday. The

vehicle hit a hill in the front yard of the group home and landed through the roof of the house. The front part of the home appeared undamaged in photos posted online.

Police believe the woman may have suffered a medical emergency while driving.

Shane Ferguson, executive director of Rescare, says the home is for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and there were six people inside.

In a second courtroom setback in two days for Republican leaders in North Carolina, a judge on Friday temporarily blocked a state elections board overhaul that had been condemned as a partisan diminishing of executive power.

The abolition of the existing State Board of Elections was to take effect Sunday, less than

HOUSTON From page A1 spokesman Ruy Lozano says there were reports

HOMICIDE From page A1

AP

These undated file combination photo provided by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections shows death row inmates Ronald Phillips and Raymond Tibbetts.

Court upholds judge’s order blocking Ohio execution details

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a judge’s order blocking death row inmates from information about Ohio’s new lethal injection process.

The 2-1 decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will help determine whether Ohio will proceed with its first executions in three years beginning in February.

Attorneys for condemned inmates had challenged the order.

Ohio plans to execute Ronald Phillips on Feb. 15 for raping and killing his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter in 1993. Another execution is scheduled for April.

Judge Eugene Siler, writing for the majority, said a judge didn’t abuse his discretion last fall when he barred the release of information about Ohio’s new lethal injection process requested by attorneys for Phillips and other inmates.

Those attorneys can still pursue their challenge of lethal injection drugs in the process, including taking the state up on its offer to provide samples for testing, Siler said.

Although knowledge of drug facilities and handlers could help defense attorneys test the drugs, “the harm presented by identification of those intimately involved in an execution outweighs the speculative benefit of complete understanding of an industry already heavily regulated,” Siler said.

In a dissent, Judge Jane Stranch said the judge’s order shields from attorneys “a vast array of information” from the qualifications of the execution team to how Ohio obtained the drugs.

“In sum, they do not have the information they need to ensure that the testing is adequate or that the executions will be carried out in a constitutional manner,” Stranch wrote.

The state prisons agency said it was reviewing

the ruling and awaiting an expected follow-up decision by a lower court judge, who put executions briefly on hold until the 6th Circuit ruled.

A message was left with the lead attorney challenging the judge’s order.

At issue before the court were new efforts Ohio is making to shield information about lethal injection in hopes of jump-starting executions, which have been on hold since January 2014. That’s when it took condemned inmate Dennis McGuire 26 minutes to die from a never-before-used twodrug method while he repeatedly gasped and snorted.

Last fall, now-retired Judge Gregory Frost issued a protective order that said Ohio’s need to obtain supplies of lethal drugs outweighed concerns by death row inmates that information about the drugs, including names of the manufacturers, is needed to meaningfully challenge them.

Friday’s ruling upheld Frost’s order.

Defense attorneys argued they couldn’t meaningfully challenge the use of the drugs without the information being shielded. They also said the secrecy protections are unnecessary given the history of lawsuits over lethal injection in Ohio.

The attorneys also said federal rules for obtaining evidence should take precedence over a state law trying to shield that evidence.

For its part, the state cited defense attorneys’ “wildly exaggerated and misplaced arguments” to say that the protective order should stay in place.

The state’s interest in keeping lethal injection information confidential far outweighs death row inmates’ right to the release of that information, the state said.

The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in October announced plans to use a new three-drug combination — midazolam, rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride — for at least three executions.

a man allegedly stabbed an officer.

Nine people died by shootings this year. Other causes of death included strangulation, physical force and the use of a blunt force object.

January Antonio Gonzalez was shot and killed during a home invasion Jan. 9.

At about 11:13 p.m., police said they received a 911 call from a home in the 3500 block of South Texas reporting shots fired.

Gonzalez was found dead at the scene. LPD said preliminary reports indicated two men, possibly more, forced their way inside the home and shot Gonzalez.

An investigation into the shooting yielded the arrests of Alexis Guzman and Rogelio Peña III. Both were indicted on charges of murder and burglary of a habitation.

February On Feb. 4, in central Laredo, a man was accused of killing his father after he grabbed him by the neck and hit him several times during an altercation, police said.

Roel Herrejon, 24, was charged with murder in the death of his father Ramiro Herrejon, 51.

At 10:37 a.m., paramedics were called to the 600 block of Garza Street where a heart attack was reported.

First responders said they found Ramiro Herrejon unresponsive in a bedroom. He had bruises to his chest and blood on the back of his head. Herrejon was transported to Laredo Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.

“Based on the statements provided by witnesses and (the) suspect …

Herrejon informed detectives that he wrapped his arms around the victim’s neck and struck (him) several times with his hands and feet,” LPD said.

Drug deal shooting February’s second homicide, an alleged drug deal gone wrong, resulted in the indictment of six men on murder charges.

The men allegedly conceived a scheme to use fake flash money, newspaper cut into dollar bill shapes, during a drug deal that resulted in the death of a 22-year-old man, according to witness testimony.

On Feb. 22, Julio Cesar Martinez-Garza was allegedly negotiating a drug deal moments before he and two others were ambushed as they sat in a minivan, according to court documents.

Martinez-Garza, 22, the front passenger in the van, was shot multiple times in the back, police said.

Records identified the driver of the van as Al-

three weeks after the Republican-controlled General Assembly approved a proposal to merge the panel with the State Ethics Commission and, ultimately, reduce the authority of Gov.elect Roy Cooper, a Democrat.

“It certainly is not going to harm the state or the agency or any agency to delay that termination for 10 days so that we can have a hearing, a more complete hearing on the legal is-

sues, the constitutional issues,” said Judge Donald W. Stephens of Wake County Superior Court, where Cooper filed a lawsuit Friday.

The judge, who announced his decision to grant a temporary restraining order at the end of a Friday afternoon hearing, is scheduled to hear more arguments about the disputed law Thursday. But his ultimate role in the case, which Cooper’s lawyers say is rooted in the prin-

ciple of separation of powers, will be limited: Under North Carolina law, three-judge panels hear and decide constitutional challenges to state statutes.

The law that Stephens agreed to hold in abeyance amounts to a sweeping redesign of the panel that administers and regulates elections in a state that has been steeping in political conflict.

of ammunition being fired in a garage area of the home.

One of the victims was found by firefighters inside the home, a sec-

ond was found outside and a third in the garage.

Names of the victims have not been immediately released.

Police spokeswoman

Jodi Silva says the deaths are suspicious and police consider the fire “more than just a house fire.”

fredo Garza, 27, and Jorge Antonio Aguilera, 20, as the rear passenger. Police said Aguilera was shot in the leg. Garza was unharmed.

“As they attempted to flee, they were chased, blocked and shot at by occupants of (some) vehicles,” according to the complaint.

An investigation into the shooting led to the indictments of Victor Daniel Castillo, Alberto Dominguez, Luis Angel Garcia, Erik Ibarra, Jesus Ruben Rodriguez and Jose Alfredo Villegas. Each was indicted on one count of murder, one count of engaging in organized criminal activity and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

On Dec. 12, Villegas pleaded guilty to engaging in organized criminal activity before 111th District Court. As part of a plea agreement, the state will be moving to dismiss a murder charge and two counts of aggravated assault against Villegas.

San Bernardo while wearing a trash bag, probably due to the rain that fell that evening, police said.

The case remains under investigation as LPD awaits the results of DNA evidence from a forensic lab.

edly a crime of passion.

Officers said they encountered a frantic female and Gutierrez, who was bleeding profusely, upon arrival at the residence on Rosario.

Police said Lorenzo Sanchez, 39, is suspected of shooting Gutierrez in the chest and forehead during an argument. Sanchez, a Mexican national from Nuevo Laredo, was identified as the ex-common-law husband of the woman. He remains at large.

March On March 25, a man with a history of prior convictions and over 20 arrests fatally stabbed Cesar Moises Salazar, police said. At about 2 a.m., officers responded to the intersection of Napoleon Street and South Louisiana Avenue. Reports state that a man, Salazar, 20, was in the street, screaming that he had been stabbed.

Salazar may have tried walking to a house seeking help but collapsed and died. He had multiple stab wounds to his chest and abdomen.

Witnesses claimed there had been an altercation between Salazar and a man identified as Tommy Luna. Police said Luna, 29, claimed self-defense, saying Salazar had assaulted him with a chair.

LPD said it recovered a knife at Luna's house. “He admitted he pulled out a knife and that he stabbed (Salazar),” said Investigator Joe E. Baeza, LPD spokesman.

Luna was indicted on a murder charge.

April The city’s fifth homicide remains under investigation, police said.

On April 20, Janette Escamilla Jaramillo was found dead at Seven Flags Park. Police said Jaramillo had a bruised neck, indicating that she may have been strangled.

Surveillance video taken from a business in the 4500 block of San Bernardo Avenue at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday shows Jaramillo, 33, who had just left work at about midnight, walking with an unidentified suspect.

“The suspect (was) described as tall, with a short, cropped hair cut,” police said. The suspect was seen walking with Jaramillo southbound on

June June marked Laredo’s first double homicide of the year. On June 26, George O. Rodriguez, 20, and Alondra Gutierrez, 19, were discovered dead in an empty lot in the Lakeside Subdivision.

Their bodies were discovered naked with their heads covered in plastic by a passer-by near Iguazu Falls Creek and Lake Victoria Road, police said.

Francisco Villarreal Jr. and Ernesto Rodriguez Jr., wanted for questioning by LPD in connection to the homicides, were detained

by Mexican authorities in October after a shootout with police, media outlets reported.

LPD is currently working with the Mexican government to facilitate the return of Villarreal and Rodriguez to the U.S. Laredo police were initially searching for Villarreal in connection with the shooting of Esteban Yruegas, 22, on June 13 in the 3600 block of Galveston Street.

A visit by Villarreal and Rodriguez to Yruegas’ home resulted in Yruegas suffering a non-life threatening gunshot wound.

Police later issued warrants for the arrest of Villarreal and Rodriguez on the charge of aggravated assault with a firearm.

After the shooting, Rodriguez and Arroyo went missing, prompting their families to file missing person reports with LPD. July LPD later identified Yruegas and Pedro Vasquez, 29, as suspected shooters in the death of Cesar Javier Sarmiento, 44, who was killed July 26.

Police said Yruegas and Vasquez gunned down Sarmiento, who sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his head, chest and abdomen area. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Vasquez is the owner of a mobile home in the 3600 block of Galveston, where the shooting occurred.

Authorities said there is no connection between Sarmiento’s death and the Lakeside homicide other than Yruegas first being a victim June 13 and then becoming a wanted a person for Sarmiento's homicide.

Yruegas and Vasquez are wanted by police in connection to the death of Sarimento.

August On Aug. 22, Leopoldo Galot Gutierrez, 29, was fatally shot during an argument in the 2800 block of Rosario, police said.

The homicide was alleg-

October Jorge Alberto Bustos died Oct. 25 after being assaulted with a wooden object in the downtown area, police said.

A woman alleged Mario Martinez, 20, had assaulted her boyfriend, Bustos, with a wooden object, possibly a fence board.

Bustos was airlifted to a San Antonio hospital due to internal bleeding, according to LPD reports.

Authorities said he died of complications of head trauma.

Martinez is wanted by police in connection to the death of Bustos.

Halloween homicides On Oct. 31, Andrew Michael Moreno, 18, and Alexus Nicole Zepeda, 17, a recently engaged couple, were discovered dead in a grassy area by Estrella Drive and Arco Iris Road in an east Laredo neighborhood.

Surveillance footage lead to the arrest of Edwin Cortez-Mercado, who was charged with two counts of murder. Noticeable traces of blood could be seen inside an Expedition at Cortez’s residence, police said.

Detectives do not yet know where the couple was killed. Police are also looking into the possibility of other people being involved in the homicides.

“Cortez implicated himself into the homicide of (Zepeda and Moreno),” Baeza said.

The case remains under investigation.

December On Dec. 11, Laredo police fatally shot Jose Angel Vallarta after he allegedly stabbed an officer.

The shooting happened in the 2700 block of Norton Street after officers responded to a report of a domestic disturbance in an apartment. A person had called 911 at about 11:40 a.m., saying an individual - armed with a knife - was threatening to harm himself in an apartment on Norton.

When officers encountered the man in or near the apartment, he refused to comply with officers' commands to drop the knife, LPD said.

They opened fire when he allegedly stabbed an officer in his arm. The injured officer was taken in stable condition to Laredo Medical Center, where he was later released.

A12 | Saturday, December 31, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

FROM THE COVER CBP From page A1 The marijuana carries an estimated street value of

CENTRAL From page A1 earlier years when crossers were largely adult men from Mexico.

Homeland Security said in its year-end report that “a growing share” of people entering the country illegally surrender to authorities to seek humanitarian protection, instead of trying to evade capture.

That trend has exacerbated backlogs in immigration courts, which determine whether to grant asylum.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson credited decades of

$463,054.

CBP officers seized the trailer and narcotics. The case was turned over to U.S. Immigration and

Customs EnforcementHomeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) special agents for further investigation.

spending on border security for the sharp decline in arrests over time.

Border Patrol arrests peaked at 1.7 million in 2000 — quadruple the amount in 2016.

The Border Patrol is responsible for areas between land crossings and makes nearly all its arrests on the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which covers the entire country, reported a modest decline in arrests in 2016.

Total immigration apprehensions by ICE and the Border Patrol for the year reached 530,250

from 462,328 a year earlier — a 15 percent increase.

U.S. authorities say they prevented 274,821 entries at land crossings, at airports and by ship, an increase of 8 percent from a year earlier. That number isn’t reflected in the arrest total.

Homeland Security said deportations totaled 450,954 in 2016, with 85 percent of those people apprehended at the border.

The administration of President Barack Obama has prioritized border crossers, convicted felons and those who pose public safety threats for deportation.

Sports&Outdoors THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, December 31, 2016 |

B1

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Texans and Titans face off in finale Nothing on the line but plenty to play for

By Teresa M. Walker ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Eric Christian Smith / Associated Press

Tom Savage is making his second start Sunday as the Texans travel to face the Titans in the regular-season finale.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The AFC South title Tennessee hoped to be playing for Sunday now rests comfortably in Houston’s hands for a second straight season.

The Texans and Titans insist they still have lots on the line in their regular-season finale.

Houston (9-6) can finish its first season sweep of the AFC South and extend a divisional winning streak already tied for the NFL’s longest active string to 11 games.

A win would cap just the

third 10-win season in franchise history and first since 2012.

Better yet, the Texans could cruise into the playoffs with a fourth straight victory.

“There’s a lot out there for us in this game,” Houston coach Bill O’Brien said. “I know that Tennessee wants to win. They want a winning record, and they’re going to be tough.

They’re going to be very, very tough. Our guys need to show up ready to go. It’s going to be a good game.”

No thought of resting Texans continues on B2

COWBOYS AIM TO AVOID INJURIES Prescott and Elliott likely to be limited

By Rob Maaddi A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

PHILADELPHIA — Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott prefer playing over resting.

Staying healthy — not winning — is the top priority for the playoffbound Dallas Cowboys (13-2) when they visit the Philadelphia Eagles (6-9) on Sunday because they already clinched homefield advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.

Don’t tell their two dynamic rookies this game doesn’t matter.

“No game is meaningless,” Prescott said.

“There’s quality reps against a quality team that’s in our division that

we’ll play for years to come. Any reps I can get against a good team to make myself better and get some momentum going into the playoffs, I’ll take it.”

Elliott needs 178 yards to break Eric Dickerson’s rookie record. There’s no chance coach Jason Garrett gives him enough carries, if any, to reach that mark.

“Everything is meaningful, even though it may not matter if we win or lose,” Elliott said. “We’re trying to stay sharp, trying to have a sharp edge every week so we can go into this playoffs like a high-octane machine.

We’re not taking weeks Cowboys continues on B2

Richard W. Rodriguez / Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Dak Prescott, left, and Ezekiel Elliott are expected to see limited action Sunday as the Cowboys travel to face Philadelphia in the regular-season finale.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF: ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE, WASHINGTON HUSKIES

COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF: CLEMSON TIGERS, OHIO STATE BUCKEYES

Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press file

David Goldman / Associated Press

Alabama head coach Nick Saban, right, and the Crimson tide face Washington and head coach Chris Petersen Saturday in the Peach Bowl.

Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer square off Saturday for the first time since the Tigers beat the Buckeyes 40-35 in the 2014 Orange Bowl.

Peach Bowl: Alabama dynasty vs. playoff outsider Washington

Fiesta Bowl: Swinney looks to put a rare bowl loss on Meyer’s record

By Paul Newberry A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

ATLANTA — Alabama is very familiar with this role.

Washington? It’s been a while.

The Peach Bowl features one of college football’s greatest dynasties against the definite out-

sider in this season’s College Football Playoff.

The top-ranked Crimson Tide (13-0) is going for its second straight national title and fifth in the last nine seasons under coach Nick Saban .

At this point, it’s national championship or bust for Alabama.

A loss in Saturday’s

semifinal game would make this season a failure.

“It’s the Bama way,” linebacker Reuben Foster said.

Washington (12-1) comes into the Peach Bowl with an entirely different perspective.

The Huskies wandered in the wilderness for Peach continues on B2

By Ralph D. Russo ASSOCIATED PRE SS

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.

— Urban Meyer was giving the abridged version of the core values he has instilled in Ohio State football, the pillars upon which he has built the Buckeyes.

There is 4 to 6, A to B,

in reference to the effort expected on each play.

Power of the unit focuses on each position group.

Competitive excellence, which sort of speaks for itself.

“You mean the gameday underwear, that’s not the key ingredient?”

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney chimed in, get-

ting a smile from Meyer.

“I’m not saying I don’t wear them,” Meyer responded.

Swinney and Meyer shared the stage Friday morning for the final news conference before the second-ranked Buckeyes (11-1, No. 3 CFP) and Tigers (12-1, No. 2 CFP) Fiesta continues on B2

B2 | Saturday, December 31, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

SPORTS

Georgia rallies to beat TCU 31-23 in Liberty Bowl

By Steve Megargee A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — No matter how difficult it was to find running room early on, Georgia kept trying to establish its ground attack.

That stubborn approach eventually paid off.

Nick Chubb and Sony Michel combined to rush for 229 yards and two touchdowns Friday as Georgia came from behind in the fourth quarter to beat TCU 31-23 in the

PEACH From page B1 much of the past two decades, playing in only one major bowl since Don James retired after the 1992 season and slogging through a stretch of six straight losing seasons that included an 0-12 debacle in 2008.

Chris Petersen took over as coach in 2014 and struggled through his first two years, going 15-12. But it all came together this season as the Huskies overcame their lone loss, at home against Southern Cal , to claim the final playoff berth behind a trio of perennial national contenders that also included Ohio State and Clemson.

For Petersen, the return to prominence comes down a simple formula he

FIESTA From page B1 face off in the Fiesta Bowl.

The coaches exchanged handshakes and kind of a half-hug, pat-on-the-back thing before posing for photos with an ostentatious trophy that goes to the winner of Saturday night’s game — along with a trip to the College Football Playoff championship game.

The 52-year-old Meyer has a resume few who have ever coached college football can match. No current coach who has at least 10 seasons of experience has a better winning percentage than Meyer’s .854. He has won three national championships, including the first College Football Playoff title two years ago.

At the beginning of this week in Arizona, Swinney

COWBOYS From page B1 off.”

After watching Derek Carr and Marcus Mariota suffer season-ending injuries broken legs last week, every coach has to be wary of playing his starters in a game with no playoff implications. But Garrett didn’t give any indication he planned to sit his best players.

Dallas had nothing at stake Monday night, but Prescott played the entire game and led Dallas to a 42-21 win over the Lions.

Tony Romo could make his season debut for the Cowboys whenever Prescott finishes his tuneup, though owner Jerry Jones said the veteran doesn’t need any reps to be ready for the playoffs. No. 3 quarterback Mark Sanchez should see action against his former team.

The Eagles nearly beat Dallas with more at stake on Oct. 30. They wasted a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter and Prescott tossed a touchdown pass to Jason Witten in overtime.

Here are some things to watch for when the NFC East rivals meet in the regular-season finale: THE OTHER ROOKIE QB Carson Wentz, the No. 2 overall pick, is second

Liberty Bowl.

“At the end of the day, we were able to run the ball when we had to run the ball and they knew we had to run the ball,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “That’s a mark of two good backs. That’s the mark of some tough guys up front.”

Chubb rushed for 142 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries, while Michel ran for 87 yards and a score on 16 attempts. Michel also had a 33-yard touchdown catch. The two

juniors already have announced that they plan to return to school for their senior seasons.

Held in check for much of the game, Chubb closed the third quarter with a 48-yard burst that set up Rodrigo Blankenship’s field goal to put Georgia ahead 24-23 with 13:27 left.

Chubb then rushed for 57 yards in the final period, including a 13-yard touchdown with 2:48 remaining.

“We never stopped,” Chubb said. “Nobody on

our offense stopped. Nobody on our team stopped.

We kept pounding.”

Georgia (8-5) restored some pride to the Southeastern Conference. The SEC had entered the day with a 1-4 bowl record, a major step back for a league that went 9-2 in bowl games last year to set a record for bowl victories.

The Bulldogs also sent TCU (6-7) to only its third losing year in Gary Patterson’s 16 full seasons as coach. Missed opportunities proved costly for the

Horned Frogs, who led 16-7 in the first half and carried a 23-21 advantage into the fourth quarter.

“It was a game that we could have easily won, but you’ve got to make plays,” Patterson said. “For us, it’s kind of been the story of our season.”

Brandon Hatfield was wide right on a 47-yard field goal attempt that would have put TCU ahead with 7:57 remaining.

He earlier had missed an extra point attempt as well as a 41-yard field goal.

Both of Hatfield’s missed field goals came after Trenton Thompson sacked Kenny Hill in third-down situations.

Thompson set a Liberty Bowl record with three sacks and was named the game’s most valuable player.

Hill threw a pair of touchdown passes to John Diarse and also ran for a third score, but he was sacked five times and lost a fumble. Georgia’s Jacob Eason was 12 of 21 for 164 yards and two scores.

looks for in every recruit: talent plus character equals OKG (Our Kind of Guy).

“We feel real strongly about the guy that we’re looking for that we think fits our culture, our style of football,” he said Friday. “There’s a lot of good players out there, and some of those guys don’t fit what we’re all about.”

Some things to watch for when the Crimson Tide takes on the Huskies:

backs Sidney Jones and Kevin King. If the defense can shut down Alabama’s running game, it might play into Washington’s hands. While Jalen Hurts has put together a dynamic season at quarterback for the Crimson Tide, he is still just a freshman who could get confused by some of the looks the Huskies throw at him.

Washington has created 33 turnovers this season, more than any team in the country, including 19 interceptions.

whole lot of fun working for the hardnosed Saban , it’s clear he was given the latitude to transform Alabama into more of a spread-like team. From Saban’s perspective, the willingness to change and adapt is the key to keeping a team on top. Kiffin will leave after the Tide completes its playoff run to become the head coach at Florida Atlantic.

9-of-24 passing. Washington will surely need to be balanced against Alabama’s defense, which is the best in the land.

things.”

KIFFIN’S INFLUENCE Lane Kiffin is winding up his three-year run as Alabama’s offensive coordinator, a time that will be remembered for bringing the Tide more in line with the wide-open times.

While Kiffin doesn’t sound like he’s had a

BALANCED HUSKIES Jake Browning and a high-flying passing game gets much of the attention at Washington, but don’t overlook a ground game that features 1,339-yard rusher Myles Gaskin. He came through big in victories over Utah and especially Colorado in the Pac-12 championship game, when Browning was held to 118 yards on

compared Meyer to Notre Dame legend Knute Rockne and joked about how he needed to quickly read Meyer’s book to gain some insight.

Swinney, 47, talks about Meyer with reverential deference, but he is on the short list of current coaches who can claim Meyerlevels of success. Clemson needed more work when Swinney took over during the 2008 season than Ohio State did when Meyer became coach in 2012. But since 2011, Swinney is 68-14 (.829), including a victory against Ohio State in the 2014 Orange Bowl, one of only two postseason loses on Meyer’s record (10-2).

The only thing Swinney and Clemson have not accomplished during this run, the greatest in the history of the program, is a national championship.

Deshaun Watson and the

Tigers came up just short last year against Alabama.

Watson, the Heisman Trophy runner-up, was fabulous against the Tide and followed it up with another spectacular season (3,914 yards passing and 37 touchdowns).

“I would think that you would see his poise,” Swinney said about Watson. “And to me his poise really makes him incredibly unique, because he just — he just never changes.”

Clemson returns to the playoff for a semifinal in the stadium where they lost 45-40 to Alabama in January. University of Phoenix Stadium is also the site of Meyer’s first national championship victory. His Florida Gators won the 2006 BCS title in Glendale, routing Ohio State.

“That was the first one, and I still, to this day

remember, everybody on the sideline celebrating, screaming it’s not over yet.

And it was pretty much over. And then we ran a bubble screen with about a minute and a half left to Percy Harvin, and he nudged the ball past the first down marker, and I thought, even us, we can’t screw this up now,” Meyer said. “The knees started shaking and it was a special moment, though.”

Swinney can relate. He played on the 1992 Alabama team that won the national championship.

“So I can definitely see it and visualize that and hopefully we’ll have our opportunity to hold the trophy up one of these days,” Swinney said.

“And we’ve got a chance this year. But they don’t give those things away, man,” he added. “You’ve got to go earn it and play well and you’ve got to beat

behind Prescott in yards passing and TD passes by rookies. Wentz is two completions away from breaking Sam Bradford’s rookie record. He will become the first QB to start 16 games for the Eagles since Donovan McNabb in 2008.

“I’m very fortunate,” Wentz said. “I think, first of all, it goes to the guys up front doing a great job protecting me. But ultimately, I’m very fortunate. This is a fluky game.

Things happen. I’ve just got to thank the Lord for that, for sure.”

rusher Ryan Mathews.

Rookie Byron Marshall should get much of the workload in his second career game, along with veteran Darren Sproles.

Marshall, undrafted out of Oregon, spent most of the season on the practice squad.

“You don’t want to just practice and then go home on the weekend and watch like a fan,” he said.

TEXANS From page B1

HURTS VS. SEAHAWKS LITE Saban said Washington’s secondary reminds him of the Seattle Seahawks. That’s a bit of an overstatement, but the Huskies do rely heavily on a talented, experienced group that includes safety Budda Baker and corner-

DEPLETED D-LINE The Cowboys are likely to be without three starters on their defensive line: ends DeMarcus Lawrence (back) and Tyrone Crawford (hamstring/shoulder) and tackle Terrell McClain (ankle). All three figure to be ready for the playoffs. But to get through this game, Dallas signed end Richard Ash off Jacksonville’s practice squad after putting Ryan Davis (knee) on injured reserve. Linebacker Kyle Wilber, who has played defensive end in the past, will likely be there after seeing some time in that spot against Detroit.

LAST BACKS STANDING The Eagles have placed three running backs on injured reserve this month, including leading

DEZ AT QB? Executive vice president of personnel Stephen Jones joked on his radio show that Dez Bryant wanted to be in quarterback meetings and was lobbying offensive coordinator for Scott Linehan for more passing plays.

Bryant threw his first career touchdown to Jason Witten on a trick play against the Lions. Of course, Prescott had to answer a question about whether the 2014 All-Pro receiver was in the QB room: “No, not at all,” Prescott said in his typical no-nonsense style.

FINISHING STRONG The Eagles snapped a five-game losing streak by defeating the Giants 24-19 last Thursday. That allowed the Cowboys to clinch the NFC East and the No. 1 seed. Despite a disappointing season after starting 3-0, Philadelphia looks to end on a high note with a twogame winning streak.

any starters for O’Brien before hosting a wildcard game.

“We’re playing to win,” O’Brien said.

The Titans’ playoff hopes ended last week along with quarterback Marcus Mariota breaking his right fibula in a 38-17 loss to Jacksonville . The final nail came hours later when Cincinnati missed a 43-yard field goal wide right, allowing Houston to clinch the division with a 12-10 win.

Yet a win scratches a lengthy to-do list for Tennessee (8-7): first winning record since 2011; ending a five-game skid to Houston; serving notice the Titans are coming for the AFC South in 2017.

“This can definitely lead us into the next season,” Titans linebacker Brian Orakpo said. “I think we made a drastic turnaround over here, with the Titans organization especially from the years prior to this year.

We did a lot of good things, so there’s definitely something to hang our hat on. We just want to finish the season right.”

Coach Mike Mularkey has reminded his Titans they haven’t beaten Houston since he’s been around. Houston has won

HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE Alabama will be playing at the Georgia Dome for the second time this month — having already won the Southeastern Conference title on the same field — and in a city that is a manageable drive for most of its fan base.

That should give the Crimson Tide a decided edge in the stands , especially when Washington is on offense. “It’s not quite a home game for anybody, but it’s probably more of an away game for us,” Petersen said. “It’s going to be loud because it’s inside and that will make it difficult to call some

the best. And that’s what we’re playing, the best of the best.”

Things to know about the third, and by far most important, meeting between Ohio State and Clemson: AS GALLMAN GOES Wayne Gallman has a Clemson record 17 100yard rushing games in his career and the Tigers are 17-0 in those games.

“Once he gets to the next level, it’s hard to take him down,” Ohio State linebacker Raekwon McMillan said about Gallman.

GROUNDED BUCKEYES Redshirt freshman Mike Weber has 1,072 yards rushing for the Ohio State, but when games get tight the Buckeyes like to let quarterback J.T. Barrett carry the ball.

eight of the last nine, and why not start Sunday learning how to beat divisional opponents?.

“That’s why we’re not in the playoffs, because of our division losses,” Mularkey said of going 1-4 in the AFC South. “This is an important football game to go into the offseason to really start the 2017 season.”

Here are some things to watch Sunday when the Texans and Titans meet: OFFENSIVE TUNE-UP Tom Savage will start his second straight game since coming off the bench to replace Brock Osweiler. O’Brien wants Savage speeding up an offense that managed only 34 yards in the first half against Cincinnati and finished with 250.

Savage also was sacked four times. Houston is averaging just 17.5 points per game, not just worst among playoff-bound teams but 29th in the NFL. SECONDARY WOES Playing the Titans could be just what Savage needs. Tennessee gave up 325 yards passing to Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles last week in the Titans’ lone double-digit loss of the season. Cornerback Jason McCourty missed last week with a bruised chest, and rookie LeShaun Sims couldn’t

WATCH YOUR BACK Petersen’s reputation as a gambling, creative coach who isn’t afraid to try just about anything was forever sealed at the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, when his Boise State team pulled off three improbable plays to beat Oklahoma. Given that the Huskies are a two-touchdown underdog, look for Petersen to dig deep into his bag of tricks looking for something to catch Alabama off guard. Saban said the Tide has spent “a lot of time” at practice on dealing with plays they haven’t seen before.

“Rather than thinking that they’re trick plays, they’re little unusual plays that create a tremendous amount of attention to detail and discipline for defensive players.”

Barrett had 92 yards rushing and two touchdowns in a come-frombehind, overtime victory against Wisconsin. He ran for 125 yards and a touchdown in the double overtime win against Michigan.

DO-IT-ALL SAMUEL Ohio State All-American Curtis Samuel is the only player in the country with at least 800 yards receiving (822 on 65 catches) and 700 rushing (730).

He has 15 touchdowns (eight rushing and seven receiving) and the key to stopping the Buckeyes is to identify where Samuel is lining up. It’s like playing Where’s Waldo, Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables said.

“Everybody’s focusing on the quarterback on that little read power play, well, who has Waldo out here on the edge?” he said.

finish after sustaining a concussion. Tennessee is next to last against the pass allowing 270.9 yards per game.

CASSEL TIME Both teams will be without the quarterbacks that started the season.

Veteran Matt Cassel will make his first start in place of Mariota, the fifth time in six games Tennessee has not had its starting QB against Houston. Cassel threw for 124 yards and a TD coming off the bench last week and also had an interception.

STINGY RUN D Not only do the Texans have the stingiest defense in the NFL, nobody has been better stopping the run since Week 8. Houston is allowing just 68 yards per game since then. Titans running back DeMarco Murray ran for 95 yards against Houston on Oct. 2 in a 27-20 win by the Texans.

Rookie Derrick Henry only had three carries in that game.

TITANIC TURNAROUND Tennessee already has won five more games than a season ago (3-13). A win Sunday would tie the biggest one-year turnaround in franchise history, matching the six-win improvement of 1967 and 1974.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, December 31, 2016 |

Dear Readers: HAPPY NEW YEAR! The first of the year is a good time to schedule an annual exam for your pets.

Regular preventive medicine can enrich the life of your pet, and catching something before it gets worse is better for the pet, and your pocketbook.

What does an annual exam cover? Here's some of what to expect. The doctor will look at, among other things: >> Teeth: signs of decay and pain. >> Ears and eyes: discharge, redness. >> Feet and legs: toenail trouble, limping, etc. >> Breathing and heart: coughing, runny nose, shortness of breath.

The doctor typically will ask you about the animal's diet, how much exercise the animal gets, any tummy trouble and any changes in temperament and behavior. The doctor will want the animal updated on vaccina-

tions, flea and heartworm prevention, and blood tests, especially for older animals.

-- Heloise POT PLACEMENT Dear Heloise: To keep clay flowerpots upright outside, use an old piece of silverware or other metal dowel piece.

Insert it into the ground through the drain hole in the pot. Use metal; wood will break down over time. -- Peggy B., Bellbrook, Ohio DOG'S ONESIE Dear Heloise: My dachshund just got spayed. She needed to wear the "cone of shame" the first day.

After that, we switched her over to a baby onesie, which does the trick and is cute, besides. -- Pat B., via email

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B4 | Saturday, December 31, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES