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IMMIGRATION
DUVAL COUNTY
Order will heavily impact many
Refinery says it’s going green
A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
DALLAS — The former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief said President Donald Trump’s executive order involving the deportation of people living in the country illegally will affect more people than his other immigration policies do. The executive order allows any immigrant without documentation to be deported for being suspected of a minor crime, the Dallas Morning News reported. The order not only prioritizes removing those convicted of a criminal offense, but also acts “that constitute a chargeable criminal offense.” Former ICE Chief Sarah Saldana, who led the agency for two years under the Obama administration, said money and litigation will create obstacles for Trump as he attempts to enforce the policy. “We don’t have billions sitting around,” she said. “My budget while at ICE was almost $6
Raven Petroleum aims to counter foes in area By Rye Druzin SAN ANTONIO EXPRE SS-NEWS
The builders of the largest new U.S. refinery in 40 years are hoping that going “green” will help win over community opposition, but environmental activists remain skeptical. “Once people learn how clean or green this refinery is going to be, I think it will address a lot of the concerns,” said Christopher Moore, managing director of
Houston-based developer Raven Petroleum. “This is going to be a near-net-zero emission, and we will not be burnMoore ing any dry gas for our energy. We will be pulling that completely from the geothermal.” Moore signed a deal Feb. 1 with Houston-based BASIC Equipment and Austin-based
Thermal Energy Partners to build a $500 million, 55,000barrel-per-day crude oil refinery on 832 acres in Duval County northeast of Zapata. The refinery is designed to process light sweet crude oil from South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale and to export diesel, jet fuel, naphtha, gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas products to Mexico’s recently opened energy market. Raven has tapped Thermal Energy to build a geothermal power station on-site that will provide upward of 20 megawatts of power using heat drawn from wells up to 12,000 feet deep, according to chief business development officer
James Jackson. “We’re calling this the cleanest refinery model in the world — we already have requests to replicate the same thing,” Jackson said. He said refineries and other petrochemical plants typically would use natural gas generation systems to produce electricity and that while some of geothermal’s initial costs can be higher, in the long run, the costs are on par with natural gas because the fuel is essentially free. Geothermal uses the heat from thousands of feet underground to produce steam to spin turbines and create Refinery continues on A11
COAHUILA, MEXICO
MIGRATING NORTH, BUT NOT TO THE U.S.
Order continues on A11
TEXAS
Many more Latinos voted in 2016 election A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
AUSTIN, Texas — Nearly 30 percent more Latinos in Texas voted in November than in the 2012 election, outpacing the increase in that time for nonLatino voters, according to a state report. The rise signals to some observers that elections will become increasingly competitive in the Lone Star State. The share of the electorate with a Spanish surname increased to 19.4 percent in 2016 from 17.2 percent, the figures released by the Texas Legislative Council show. State officials determined the numbers using a count based on a list of surnames and the findings don’t account for every Latino voter. Latinos make up 38 percent of the Texas population but tend to vote at lower rates than other groups in Texas or Latinos in other states, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Texas Democrats have long awaited a voter surge among Latinos that could break the Republican stranglehold on statewide elected offices. Democrats don’t hold a single one. Latinos continues on A11
Mauricio Lima / New York Times
A migrant family from El Salvador poses for a portrait at their dormitory in a shelter in Tapachula, Mexico, Oct. 21, 2016. A growing number of migrants are putting down roots in Mexico, legally or illegally, instead of using it as a thruway to the United States.
A growing number of migrants are putting down roots in Mexico, legally or illegally By Kirk Semple NEW YORK TIME S
SALTILLO, Mexico — Wendy no longer worries that when her sons leave the apartment in the morning, they may never make it to school. Memories of the gangs that haunted their lives in Honduras are slowly receding into the past. The family fled its home last year after gang members tried to recruit the boys, threatening them with death if they did not join. They received asylum in Mexico, making them among the country’s newest residents. “It’s not easy — as you can imagine — starting again,” Wendy said in an interview in this small city in northeastern Mexico, where the family decided to settle. “But we are better here because we are safer.” The United States has long been the dream destination for many Latin American migrants, whether fleeing poverty, political unrest, natural disaster or violence. But now a growing number of migrants are putting down roots in Mexico, legally or illegally, instead of using it as a thruway to the U.S.
They have many reasons for staying here. Crossing the Mexico-U.S. border has become increasingly difficult, migrants say, especially with rising smugglers’ fees and tougher enforcement. Some are deterred by the abundance of dangers that lurk on the route through Mexico. Some believe it might be easier to qualify for some form of legal status in Mexico than in the U.S. In recent weeks, yet another factor has begun to weigh on some northbound migrants: President Donald Trump. Even if all the details of his recent policy declarations on immigration have not yet permeated the migration grapevine, his long-standing promises to restrict immigration have fueled a growing perception among migrants that the U.S. is becoming far less hospitable to immigrants, documented and undocumented alike. “Here, at least, the people like you, they help you,” said Josué, 31, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras staying at Casa del Migrante, a migrant shelter here in Saltillo. “Why would you want to go to a country that doesn’t like you?” (Like other migrants interviewed, Josué requested Mexico continues on A11
Zin brief A2 | Wednesday, February 15, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
CALENDAR
AROUND THE NATION
TODAY IN HISTORY
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15
ASSOCIATED PRE SS
Book Room open. 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Widener Book Room, First United Methodist Church. Public invited, no admission fee.
Today is Wednesday, Feb. 15, the 46th day of 2017. There are 319 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History: On Feb. 15, 1867, “On the Beautiful Blue Danube,” a waltz by Johann Strauss (the Younger), was publicly performed for the first time by the Vienna Men’s Choral Society, garnering a polite, if decidedly less than enthusiastic, audience response. (A revised orchestral version proved much more successful.)
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18 Harry Potter Book Club. 3-4:30 p.m. McKendrick Ochoa Salinas Branch Library, 1920 Palo Blanco. Free and family-friendly. Children and adults are welcome. We will discuss “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling.
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.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22 Book Room open. 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Widener Book Room, First United Methodist Church. Public invited, no admission fee. International Bank of Commerce Keynote Speaker Series. 7:30 p.m. TAMIU Student Center Ballroom, 5201 University Blvd. The presentation is called Economic Crisis: The Hit Men Strike Home ... What Wrecked our Economy and How to Fix It, by John Perkins, New York Times bestselling author. Free and open to the public.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23 Villa San Agustin de Laredo Genealogical Society. 3-5 p.m. Joe A. Guerra Public Library, second floor. Meeting and speaker: Ricardo Palacios “The Green Street Kid.” Members free; guests: $5. For more information call Sylvia Reash 763-1810. Spanish Book Club. 6-8 p.m. Joe A. Guerra Public Library. For more information call Sylvia Reash 763-1810.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27 Chess Club. Every Monday, 4-6 p.m. LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete with other players in this cherished game played internationally. Free instruction for all ages and skill levels. Chess books and training materials are available.
Richard Drew / AP
Stan Patz, right, father of 6-year-old Etan Patz who disappeared on the way to the school bus stop 38 years ago, reacts after a news conference with Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann.
ETAN PATZ’S DAD FINDS JUSTICE By Colleen Long and Jennifer Peltz ASSOCIATED PRE SS
NEW YORK — Nearly four decades after 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished on the way to his school bus stop, a former convenience store clerk was convicted Tuesday of murder in a case that influenced American parenting and law enforcement. The jury verdict against Pedro Hernandez gave Etan’s relatives a resolution they had sought since May 1979 and gave prosecutors a conviction that eluded them when a 2015 jury deadlocked. “The Patz family has waited a long time,
but we’ve finally found some measure of justice for our wonderful little boy, Etan,” said his father, Stanley Patz, choking up. “I am truly relieved, and I’ll tell you, it’s about time. It’s about time.” Hernandez, who once worked in a shop in Etan’s neighborhood, had confessed, but his lawyers said his admissions were the false imaginings of a man whose mind blurred the boundary between reality and illusion. On the earlier jury, the lone holdout against conviction cited the mental health issue as a major reason for his stance.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28 Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper. 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Fellowship Hall, First United Methodist Church. Public invited, no admission fee, but freewill donations accepted.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1 Book Room open. 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Widener Book Room, First United Methodist Church. Public invited, no admission fee.
SATURDAY, MARCH 4 Book sale. 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Widener Book Room, First United Methodist Church. Public invited, no admission fee.
Evacuation lifted for 200K Californians living below dam OROVILLE, Calif. — Authorities lifted an evacuation order Tuesday for nearly 200,000 California residents who live below the nation’s tallest dam after declaring that the risk of catastrophic collapse of a damaged spillway had been significantly reduced. Butte County Sheriff Kory
MONDAY, MARCH 6 Chess Club. Every Monday, 4-6 p.m. LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete with other players in this cherished game played internationally. Free instruction for all ages and skill levels. Chess books and training materials are available. 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, MARCH 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, MARCH 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.
SATURDAY, MARCH 25
Honea said residents can return home immediately. State water officials said they have drained enough of the lake behind Oroville Dam so that its earthen emergency spillway will not be needed to handle runoff from an approaching storm. But, the sheriff said, the region would remain under an evacuation warning, meaning that residents need to be ready to flee again if conditions worsen. Residents returning home “have to be vigilant,” and “there
is the prospect that we will issue another evacuation order ... if the situation changes,” Honea said. Crews also dropped giant sandbags, cement blocks and boulders on damaged areas Tuesday. Officials had ordered residents to flee to higher ground Sunday after fearing a neverbefore-used emergency spillway was close to failing and sending a 30-foot wall of water into communities downstream. — Compiled from AP reports
AROUND TEXAS
Ten years ago: National Guardsmen in Humvees ferried food, fuel and baby supplies to hundreds of motorists stranded for nearly a day on a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 78 in eastern Pennsylvania because of a monster storm. Five years ago: Congressional negotiators sealed an agreement on legislation to renew a payroll tax cut for 160 million workers and jobless benefits for millions more. In defiant swipes at its foes, Iran said it was dramatically closer to mastering the production of nuclear fuel even as the U.S. weighed tougher pressure on the Tehran government. One year ago: President Barack Obama opened a meeting in Rancho Mirage, California, of leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, calling the landmark gathering on U.S. soil a reflection of his personal commitment to an enduring partnership with the diverse group of countries. Taylor Swift’s “1989” brought the singer her second Grammy Award win for album of the year; Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars earned top record for “Uptown Funk,” while Ed Sheeran won song of the year for “Thinking Out Loud.”
Tornadoes suspected of causing damage southwest of Houston DALLAS — Tornadoes are suspected of damaging homes and injuring people Tuesday southwest of Houston as a strong storm system moved quickly across much of the state. National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Overpeck said agency teams were inspecting damage in three locations to confirm whether a tornado touched down Tuesday morning in each area. Damage is evident in communities stretching from Van Vleck in Matagorda County north to Wharton and Rosenberg, he said. The weather service had issued tornado warnings for dozens of counties extending from the San Antonio area over to Southeast Texas.
On this date: In 1764, the site of present-day St. Louis was established by Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau. In 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine mysteriously blew up in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the United States closer to war with Spain. In 1933, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami that mortally wounded Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak; gunman Giuseppe Zangara was executed more than four weeks later. In 1942, the British colony Singapore surrendered to Japanese forces during World War II. In 1952, a funeral was held at Windsor Castle for Britain’s King George VI, who had died nine days earlier. In 1961, 73 people, including an 18-member U.S. figure skating team en route to the World Championships in Czechoslovakia, were killed in the crash of a Sabena Airlines Boeing 707 in Belgium. In 1967, the rock band Chicago was founded by Walter Parazaider, Terry Kath, Danny Seraphine, Lee Loughnane (LOK’-nayn), James Pankow and Robert Lamm; the group originally called itself The Big Thing. In 1971, Britain and Ireland “decimalised” their currencies, making one pound equal to 100 new pence instead of 240 pence. In 1982, 84 men were killed when a huge oil-drilling rig, the Ocean Ranger, sank off the coast of Newfoundland during a fierce storm. In 1989, the Soviet Union announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan, after more than nine years of military intervention. In 1992, a Milwaukee jury found that Jeffrey Dahmer was sane when he killed and mutilated 15 men and boys. (The decision meant that Dahmer, who had already pleaded guilty to the murders, would receive a mandatory life sentence for each count; Dahmer was beaten to death in prison in 1994.) In 2002, a private funeral was held at Windsor Castle for Britain’s Princess Margaret, who had died six days earlier at age 71.
Steve Gonzales / Houston Chronicle
Wharton County Junior College Surgical Technology student Maura Fortner looks at a fallen tree on the campus, Tuesday.
Doug Matthes, emergency management coordinator for Matagorda County, said it appears a tornado passed through Van Vleck and touched down in two locations. “Tops of trees are twisted off and at least one home is completely torn apart,” Matthes said. A preliminary review of the damage in Van Vleck, a
town of about 1,800 people near the Texas coast, indicates up to four homes were destroyed and several others damaged, he said. Seven people were transported by ambulance for medical care and it’s not clear how many more may have been taken to hospitals by private vehicle, he said. — Compiled from AP reports
Today’s Birthdays: Former Illinois Congressman John Anderson is 95. Author Susan Brownmiller is 82. Jazz musician Henry Threadgill is 73. Actress-model Marisa Berenson is 70. “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening is 63. Model Janice Dickinson is 62. College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Darrell Green is 57. Actor Michael Easton is 50. Olympic gold medal swimmer Amy Van DykenRouen is 44. Actress-director Miranda July is 43. Singer-songwriter-musician Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) is 37. Blues-rock musician Gary Clark Jr. is 33. Actress Natalie Morales is 32. Actress Amber Riley is 31. Thought for Today: “Nothing is mine, I have only nothing but it is enough, it is beautiful and it is all mine.” — Katherine Anne Porter, American author (1894-1980).
Rally at the Border Laredo. 4-7 p.m. Convent Avenue.
MONDAY, MARCH 27 Chess Club. Every Monday, 4-6 p.m. LBV-Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Compete with other players in this cherished game played internationally. Free instruction for all ages and skill levels. Chess books and training materials are available.
MONDAY, APRIL 3 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.
AROUND THE WORLD Shining Path leader to be tried in 1992 deaths of 25 in Peru LIMA, Peru — Imprisoned Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman is being tried for a 1992 car bombing in Peru’s capital that killed 25 people and injured 155. The 82-year-old Guzman is already serving a life sentence for the killing of 69 people in the Andean village of Santiago de Lucanamarca in 1983. The
Maoist-inspired group began its fight against Peru’s government in 1980 but was badly weakened by the 1992 capture of Guzman and many of its other leaders. The latest legal process against Guzman began on Tuesday in a military prison. Prosecutors have called for another life sentence and an order of $122,000 in reparations for his alleged intellectual authorship of the deadly attack in a middle-class Lima neighborhood. Guzman’s lawyer, Manuel
CONTACT US Fajardo, called the attack “lamentable” but said his client “had nothing to do with this issue.” The attack was part of a wave of car bombings in Lima that came as the Shining Path focused its attacks on Peru’s capital. A truth commission found that between 1980 and 2000, fighting among the Shining Path, Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, the government and self-defense patrols left up 70,000 dead. — Compiled from AP reports
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The Zapata Times
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, February 15, 2017 |
A3
LOCAL & STATE Registration open for 45th Zapata County Fair Parade SPECIAL TO THE TIME S
Courtesy
Lions Clubs from Zapata and Donna meet The Zapata Lions Club recently received a visit from Donna’s Lion Club regarding their PediaVision program. This program helps detect eye abnormalities in patients at a very young age so that adequate measures can be taken to improve the child’s vision. Pictured in the front row, from left, are Lion Humberto Gonzalez Jr., PDG 1 District PediaVision chairperson Cesar Montelogno, Donna Lion President Frank Alvarez, Lion Aaron Cruz and Lion Aurelio Villarreal.
Registration is now open for those who would like to participate in the 45th annual Zapata County Fair Parade. The parade will take place Saturday, March 11 at 9 a.m. It will proceed on 3rd Avenue and head north on U.S. Hwy 83, taking a right on 23rd Street to the Zapata County Fairgrounds. Parade lineup is from 7-8:30 a.m. on U.S. Hwy 83 and 3rd Avenue, next to Pepe’s Car Wash. Trophies for different categories will be issued and awarded at the Zapata County Fairgrounds at 1:30 p.m. These
include: 1 Best in Show 1 Top Equestrian Entry 1 Top Law Enforcement Entry 1 Top School Entry 1 Top Musical Entry 1 Top Military / Veteran Entry 1 Top Dance Team / Studio Entry 1 Top Cheer Entry 1 Top Business Entry 1 Top Club / Organization Entry 1 Top Community Spirit Award Deadline to submit a parade entry form is Tuesday, March 7. Access the form at zapatacountyfair.com/index.php/forms-and-regulations
Experts find tumors in some cold-stunned turtles By Julie Garcia CORPUS CHRISTI CAL L ER-TIME S
Courtesy
This file photo shows Winter Texans enjoying Appreciation Day at the Zapata Community Center last year.
Live music at Zapata’s Winter Texan Senior Citizen Day S P ECIAL T O T HE T I ME S
Zapata’s annual Winter Texan Senior Citizen Appreciation Day is coming up this month. “This is a day in which we celebrate and show our gratitude to our local Senior Citizens and Winter Texans,” a news release states. “We honor
them for what they have achieved throughout their life and for all they continue to do in our community.” The event will take place Thursday, Feb. 23 from noon to 5 p.m. at the Zapata Community Center, 605 N. U.S. Hwy 83. There will be a catered meal, gifts and door priz-
es, live entertainment by Terry Porter Roewe and Jeanette Silva, along with presentations by Laredo Medical Center’s Bone & Joint Center and information on Zapata’s Dialysis Center by DaVita. For more information, contact the Zapata County Chamber of Commerce at 765-4871 x1012.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — After months of mild weather, temperatures dropped fast and hard on the weekend of Jan. 7, cold-stunning hundreds of sea turtles in Texas waters. But as scientists treated the animals, they discovered another problem. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports at least 94 cold-stunned sea turtles were found at the Upper Laguna Madre and Corpus Christi, according to Donna J. Shaver, chief division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery at the Padre Island National Seashore. Scientists found that half of the turtles were afflicted with fibropapillomatosis, or FP, a herpes virus specific to sea turtles. FP was not seen by researchers in Texas until 2009 when nine were studied at South Padre
Courtney Sacco / Corpus Christi Caller-Times
In this Jan. 29 photo, a tumor from a green sea turtle is weighed in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Island. “We are shocked at the increase in numbers and size and aggression of the tumors, especially on their eyes and shells,” said Dr. Tim Tristan, a veterinarian and director of the Texas Sealife Center. “There is something changing in the environment to make it more prevalent.” Only two months in, and 2017 is shaping up to be the busiest year on record for Coastal Bend sea turtle advocates and
veterinarians who perform surgeries on FPafflicted turtles. At $200 per turtle, these nonprofit and unfunded facilities rely on donations or their own pocketbooks to pay for tumor-removal surgeries and rehabilitation. “We have to keep them isolated,” Tony Amos, director of the Animal Rehabilitation Keep. “We are probably the only people, us and the Texas Sealife Center, who handle (sea turtles with FP) on the Gulf Coast.”
Zopinion
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A4 | Wednesday, February 15, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
COLUMN
OTHER VIEWS
Lying seems to be just fine on TV Margaret Sullivan WA S H INGT ON P O ST
Strange, isn’t it, that it was a lie that supposedly caused Gen. Michael Flynn to be fired? His false assurances to Vice President Mike Pence about pre-election conversations with Russia were what evidently did him in as national security adviser. If lies were taken that seriously in the Trump administration, we might be living on the right side of the looking glass. But they aren’t. And we aren’t. Consider, for example, the way the consistently truth-challenged President Donald Trump applauded a top adviser last weekend after he went on national talk shows and told brash falsehoods. “Congratulations Stephen Miller — on representing me this morning on the various Sunday morning shows. Great job!” went the Trump tweet (bringing to mind the presidential praise after Hurricane Katrina to the hapless Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown: “You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie”). What had Miller done to deserve the presidential attaboy? Well, among other things, the 31-yearold White House wunderkind had: 1 Repeated, forcefully and with great conviction, evidence-free claims that there is widespread voter fraud in the United States. (Simply: There isn’t.) 1 Insisted that the federal courts had no legitimate role in Trump’s executive order on immigration. 1 Argued that there can be no questioning of presidential authority from the judicial branch. The Sunday hosts did their best to counter all this, but Miller was resolute. The Washington Post’s Fact Checker followed up, handing out Pinocchios like Kit Kats on Halloween. Then came Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday morning, less than half a day after she said Flynn had the president’s “full confidence.” Now, being grilled by Matt Lauer on the “Today” show, she slipped and slid through important questions about just when Trump knew about Flynn’s pre-election conversations with the Russian government about lifting economic sanctions. Viewers were left with no answers, except the increasing conviction that the Trump spokespeople are not to be believed. Should proven liars continue to be given these platforms, especially on the Sunday morning talk circuit? At what point are some administration officials no longer welcome in these influential national forums? I asked John Dickerson,
host of CBS’ “Face the Nation,” and George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC’s “This Week,” that question Monday. Both thoughtfully made the case that it’s important to have administration spokespeople on their shows, even if they don’t say much that’s useful or spout falsehoods. “If they are representatives of the White House, then the bias should be for taking them on the air,” Dickerson said. The key is to provide context, he said — sometimes with a discussion immediately following, and, when appropriate, to do what he calls “adjudicating,” meaning pushing back, asserting established fact through repeated questioning, as he has often done. Or sometimes, Dickerson says, viewers are best served by letting such guests speak freely, and then let “an informed and wise” viewership make its own judgments. Stephanopoulos, who pushed Miller hard on the lack of evidence for his voting-fraud claims, told me that he was a worthwhile guest. “Miller was elaborating on the president’s own assertion,” he said. “So it’s critical for us,” through questioning Miller as his surrogate, “to hold the president accountable.” CNN, which declined Conway as a guest recently, in part for this very reason, is now being punished — if that’s the right word — with lack of access. Thus, CNN was the one network that managed to survive last Sunday morning without a Trump administration talking head. (Trump and his spokespeople also have continued to aggressively mischaracterize CNN’s solid reporting on a “dossier” that portrayed Trump as beholden to Russia.) No doubt, having Miller on four other networks Sunday gave the administration a valuable platform for their talking points. It seems undeniable that some viewers came away believing his false claims. What’s more, some sympathetic media were right there to take the material and twist at will: “George Stephanopoulos will NOT deny massive numbers of illegals registered to vote,” thundered a headline in PolitiStick, a right-wing website (one that promises it won’t annoy you with articles “unrelated to the culture war”). It should all seem familiar. Remember: A couple of months ago, radio listeners were startled when a Trump surrogate offered the belief, on nationally syndicated radio, that “there is no such thing, anymore, as facts.” There is reason to doubt whether giving proven liars a regular platform is something that ought to continue. Truth matters.
COLUMN
Strangers meeting in the storm Garrison Keillor WASHINGTON P O ST
I flew into Boston in a snowstorm Sunday, coming in low over little white houses in the gray murk, and my connecting flight to Vermont was canceled, so I rented a car and set out into the storm. I had told Vermont I’d be there and once you start canceling things, where do you stop? It’s three hours from Boston to Vermont ordinarily and I made it in six, nonstop, 35 mph, through the prettiest snow landscape you can imagine, yard lights of farmhouses glowing in the twilight, the Main Streets of Norman Rockwell towns lined by lit store windows, and thanks to GPS, the gift of big government, navigation was a cinch, I just stayed in the tracks, drove slowly, listening to a CD, the DiGiallonardo Sisters singing Beatles songs and old swing tunes. I heard it
eight times and pulled up to my hotel just over the New Hampshire border. It was one of those economy hotels with a big TV in the lobby, two heads on the screen, a man and a woman, talking, about the news, I guess, though the sound was low and nobody was listening. It was a background murmur, like ocean surf or the wind in the trees. For this, these faces are paid millions a year and I suppose they imagine they play a large role in the life of the nation, whereas their function is more like houseplants. They’re decor. I checked in at the desk and a man at a nearby table said, “So how are you doing tonight?” and that seemed to be an invitation. So I sat down. Two other men and two women at the table. A cheerful group, as people tend to be in winter once they’re warm and in off the road. “How was the drive?” he said. “Almost
rear-ended a snowplow,” I said. Other than that, I had listened to the Beatles’ “Because” eight times, which I never cared for because of the dumb lyric, but now I do. A woman at the table didn’t know the song, so I sang her a little of it. “Because the world is round, it turns me on. Love is old, love is new. Love is all, love is you.” Two of the men and the two women were couples and had met last summer at a memorial service for a mutual friend of the two women. Those two had grown up within 10 miles of each other in Vermont and had never met before. They bonded over the death of the woman, in her 50s; faced with a dreadful diagnosis, she committed suicide. She had seemed rather elated the day before, making phone calls, reminiscing, and had spoken to these two women and told each of them that she should meet the other — “You’d
COLUMN
A family’s desire to reflect reality By Jacquielynn Floyd THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
What do we owe the unloved dead? A dignified farewell or a deeply felt “good riddance”? Tact or candor? Leslie Ray Charping, a Galveston, Texas, man who died Jan. 30 at 74, made a public mark in passing that reflected the private marks - both figurative and literal that he apparently left on his family. The obituary they wrote is a gloomy meditation on what appears to have been a cruel and useless life. “He leaves behind two relieved children ... and countless other victims including an ex-wife, relatives, friends, doctors, nurses and random strangers,” read the death notice, which his adult daughter has acknowledged she wrote.
The brutally candid obit made headlines around the world and drew so many viewers that the attending funeral home’s website crashed Friday. By the end of the weekend, the send-off had been replaced with a brief just-the-dates mention on the funeral home’s tribute page. It’s tough to read and sad to imagine the raw hatred this man engendered. Mr. Charping’s hobbies, the biting reminiscence says, included “being abusive to his family (and) expediting trips to heaven for the beloved family pets. ... No services will be held, no prayers for eternal peace, and no apologies to the family he tortured.” Out there in the chattersphere, opinions varied as to the appropriateness of publicly excori-
ating the dead. Presumably, once gone to his reward (or just deserts), he is beyond criticism. “Everyone deserves prayers,” one commenter wrote. Yet reading this awful obit offers a painful but instructive picture of the permanent damage imposed by human cruelty. Mr. Charping’s offspring may be safe now from any injury he might inflict, but the miserable and tormented children they once were are still seeking some justice, some fairness, some order in the universe that they did not get. There are other hints, beyond the obituary’s depiction of Mr. Charping as a violent alcoholic and unfaithful husband, that he was a less-than-stellar dad: Harris County court records published by the Houston Chronicle show that he had several con-
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like each other” — and so they had become friends. They had come up to Vermont from Boston this weekend to put flowers on her grave for her birthday and they couldn’t find the grave under all the snow. She had been an English teacher and one of the women, a banker, had memorized a Shakespeare sonnet about old age for the memorial, “That time of year thou may’st in me behold, when yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang” and she said it there at the table, and we all knew the ending: “This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long.” Their story beat mine, hands down. Nearneighbors who are strangers, pulled together by the suicide of a mutual friend. We sat contemplating the lost friend and the poem, and then the conversation dwindled onto politics, and we said goodnight.
DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU
victions for assault, including scalding his thenwife with boiling water and violating a restraining order by contacting another family member and threatening her with death. The writer of the obit has had little to add, other than a statement issued to Houston’s KTRKTV: “I loved my father because he was my father, and his passing would not have been any less difficult had he been a good father,” said his daughter, who asked that her name not be used. “This obit was intended to help bring closure because not talking about domestic violence doesn’t make it go away.” She added: “Although I appreciate everyone’s concern, it would have been much more appreciated at any time during my childhood.”
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, February 15, 2017 |
ENTERTAINMENT
‘SNL’ keeps up Trump-inspired winning streak By David Bauder A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
NEW YORK — NBC’s comedy institution “Saturday Night Live” reached its largest audience since 2011 with last weekend’s episode hosted by President Trump impersonator Alec Baldwin and featuring the return of Melissa McCarthy portraying White House press secretary Sean Spicer. The show reached 10.8 million viewers, the Nielsen company said. To put that in perspective, the late-night show had a bigger audience than all but four prime-time programs on TV last week. Among younger viewers, only the Grammys had better ratings. The viewership estimate is only a portion of their audience; it doesn’t count millions of people who recorded the program for later viewing or watched clips of its skits online. McCarthy opened Saturday’s show with her Spicer portrayal and Baldwin, who has been host for a show-record 17 times, rolled out his version of Trump appearing on “People’s Court.” Kate McKinnon also did an impersonation of Trump aide Kellyanne Conway in a “Fatal Attraction” type relationship with CNN’s Jake Tapper; she also impersonated Jeff Sessions and Elizabeth Warren. It was the mostwatched episode of “SNL” since Jan. 8, 2011, a show that featured Jim Carrey
Will Heath / NBC
Melissa McCarthy portrays press secretary Sean Spicer on “Saturday Night Live.”
and the Black Keys. “SNL” ratings generally jump during election years and fade — but interest in the Trump administration has kept the numbers high. NBC wouldn’t put forth an executive to talk about its good fortune on Tuesday. James Andrew Miller, an author of an oral history of “Saturday Night Live,” noted how Trump’s tweets about the show have helped give it new life (he did not offer a Twitter critique on last weekend’s show). There have been reports that NBC is also mulling a prime-time edition of the show’s “Weekend Update” segment. “Even if he’s not tweeting about it, they know that someone in the White House is paying attention to it, and I think that increases the currency of the show,” Miller said. Trump has helped other comics, too. HBO’s John Oliver returned Sunday from a threemonth hiatus to his best ratings for a season premiere. For the second straight week, CBS’ Stephen Colbert, who has
concentrated on pointed political comedy in recent months, beat NBC’s usually dominant “Tonight” show in viewership, Nielsen said. The Grammys were the biggest TV event during the past week, reaching 26 million viewers for its biggest audience since 2014. CBS easily won the week in prime time, averaging 10.3 million viewers. ABC had 5.1 million viewers, NBC had 4.5 million, Fox had 3.1 million, Univision had 1.9 million, the CW had 1.6 million, Telemundo had 1.5 million and ION Television had 1.3 million. Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.89 million viewers. HGTV had 1.666 million, AMC had 1.665 million, USA had 1.59 million and MSNBC had 1.4 million. ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.1 million viewers, NBC’s “Nightly News” had 9 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.5 million.
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Zfrontera A6 | Wednesday, February 15, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
RAVEN PETROLEUM
Avanza proyecto de refinería Por Rye Duzin SA N A N TONI O E XPRE SS-NEWS
El proyecto para construir la refinería nueva más grande en los Estados Unidos en 40 años se ha vuelto más grande y más ambicioso, ya que la constructora Raven Petroleum con sede en Houston, también busca convertirla en la refinería más limpia del mundo. “Una vez que la gente se de cuenta de lo limpia o verde que va a ser esta refinería, creo que calmará muchas de las preocupaciones", dijo Christopher Moore, jefe de Raven Petroleum. "Las emisiones serán de casi cero y no vamos a quemar ningún gas seco para nuestra energía. Vamos a sacar todo eso de la (energía) geotérmica”. Moore firmó un acuerdo el 1 de febrero para
construir una refinería de crudo con capacidad para producir 500.000.000 de barriles por día en el condado de Duval, al este de Laredo. La refinería exportaría productosal mercado de energía de México. “Estamos llamando a esto el modelo de refinería más limpio del mundo”, dijo Jackson. "Todos somos partidarios del medio ambiente y así que la única manera que queremos hacerlo es convirtiéndolo en una refinería limpia y verde". Jackson dijo que típicamente las refinerías y otras plantas petroquímicas utilizan sistemas de gas natural para producir energía y que si bien parte del costo inicial de la construcción de la central eléctrica geotérmica puede ser mayor, a largo plazo los costos
RIBEREÑA EN BREVE PESCA La cámara de comercio de Zapata presenta el torneo de pesca Texas B.A.S.S. Nation, el cual será llevado a cabo del 16 al 19 de febrero de 7 a.m. a 4 p.m. Registro en línea en www.basschamps.com
están a la par con el gas natural porque el combustible es esencialmente gratis. La energía geotérmica utiliza el calor extraído de miles de metros bajo tierra para calentar fluidos que hacen giran turbinas y crear electricidad. Moore y Jackson mencionaron que la refinería capturará las emisiones de carbono y las usará en la planta de energía geotérmica, eliminando muchas de las emisiones que salen de las instalaciones. Moore dijo que todavía no ha presentado la solicitud de permiso ante la Comisión de Texas para la Calidad Ambiental, pero espera presentarla al principio del segundo trimestre. En un foro comunitario celebrado en la pequeña ciudad de Bruni el 1 de febrero, más de 100 per-
sonas se reunieron para expresar sus preocupaciones sobre los posibles impactos ambientales de la refinería y la falta de información. Tricia Cortez, portavoz de la organización comunitaria Refinería" (STAR por sus siglas en inglés), se mostró escéptica sobre las declaraciones de Moore en un mensaje de texto. "Puede firmar memorandos de entendimiento todo el día, pero sin haber presentado una solicitud de permiso, no hay mucho que discutir", dijo Cortez. "A pesar de las declaraciones de Raven con respecto a que los residentes locales construirán la refinería, Moore ya está buscando alinear firmas de Houston y Austin en su lugar. Esto no presagia nada bueno para los trabajos locales que Moore afirma que
Raven creará". Moore dijo que “hay miedo de lo desconocido” y que no esta autorizado para discutir detalles específicos sobre el proyecto mientras se encuentre trabajando con BASIC y Thermal Energy Partners para terminar los diseños. Mooreno especificó si llevaría a cabo reuniones con la comunidad. En noviembre el juez del Condado Duval, Ricardo “Rocky” Carrillo, expresó su apoyo al proyecto, mencionando que traería 1.800 empleos y añadiría decenas de millones a la base de impuestos del condado. Esos empleos e inversiones serían benéficos para un área golpeada duramente por la recesión petrolera de los últimos dos años en Eagle Ford Shale, lo que costó a miles
KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN DE MÉXICO
de personas sus empleos ya que las compañías petroleras redujeron presupuestos y nóminas. Moore espera poner la primera piedra del proyecto en los próximos tres meses y comenzar operaciones en 2018. “Estamos tratando de no afectar a el medio ambiente, la ganadería, la fauna o a la población. La tecnología nos permite lograrlo y estamos dispuestos a usarla”, dijo Moore. “Sentimos que a largo plazo la eficiencia de la energía geotérmica es una buena estrategia empresarial pero también es la manera correcta de hacerlo. Otras refinerías no lo han hecho porque no están obligadas a hacerlo. No estamos obligados a hacerlo, pero queremos hacerlo. Simplemente pensamos que es el camino responsible”.
TAMAULIPAS
AGREGAN SEGUNDA VÍA
Hallan hombres colgando de puente Por Alfredo Peña ASSOCIATED PRE SS
DÍA DE ADULTO MAYOR Habrá presentaciones del Centro de Huesos y Articulaciones de Laredo Medical Center y Centro de Diálisis Davita, así como entretenimiento por parte de Terry Porter Roewe y Jeanette Silva. Será llevado a cabo el jueves 23 de febrero de 12 p.m. a 5 p.m. en Centro Comunitario de Zapata ubicado en 605 N. US Hwy 83. TRÁMITES CONSULARES El Consulado de México estará en la Ciudad de Roma, el sábado 4 de marzo, donde los residentes podrán realizar los trámites de expedición de matrícula consular y pasaporte, en el Centro Mundial de las Aves, Plaza Histórica frente a la Iglesia Católica Nuestra Señora del Refugio, esquina de Portscheller y avenida Convento. Mayores informes en el Consulado de México en McAllen al teléfono 956-686-0243. LABORATORIO COMPUTACIONAL 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. MUSEO EN ZAPATA 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.
Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Nuevo Laredo
El alcalde visitó la construcción —una inversión de 200 millones de dólares— de la doble vía que comprende desde la avenida César López de Lara hasta Estación Sánchez.
Inversión aumentará operaciones comerciales E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE LAREDO
NUEVO LAREDO, México— El presidente municipal Enrique Rivas, realizó un recorrido de supervisión de trabajos de la segunda vía ferroviaria que realiza Kansas City Southern de México para incrementar las operaciones de importación y exportación por esta frontera. Acompañado por directivos de la empresa, el alcalde visitó la vía férrea desde la avenida César López de Lara hasta Estación Sánchez, donde se
hace una inversión de 200 millones de dólares por parte de Kansas City para mejorar la infraestructura. Este millonario proyecto incrementará las operaciones comerciales entre México y Estados Unidos, pues con la segunda vía, una quedará para importación y otra exportación. “Debido a la importancia que representa para Nuevo Laredo el cruce ferroviario, trabajan para terminar la doble vía, es un compromiso para este gobierno ver áreas de oportunidades que podamos mejorar”,
comentó el alcalde. “Estoy muy contento por la voluntad mostrada por los directivos de Kansas City de seguir creyendo en esta ciudad, nos da competitividad nos pone en el mapa del comercio exterior con mayor firmeza”. Para concluir el proyecto de la segunda vía, el alcalde informó que serán reubicados los comerciantes de la “pulga” instalados junto al riel, entre el puente de la avenida Eva Sámano y puente Mazatlán. Actualmente al día cruzan 2.400 furgones con productos de hidro-
carburos, industria automotriz y metalúrgicos. Además de la segunda vía, la empresa Kansas City amplió el patio de la Estación Sánchez para el intercambio y clasificación de la mercancía y, en la colonia San Rafael de esta ciudad, se amplió el centro de distribución. En el recorrido, Rivas fue acompañado por Francisco Fabila, director de Relaciones Institucionales de Kansas City; Jesús López, superintendente de operaciones y Juan Carlos García Cepeda, gerente de Protección Ferroviaria.
GUERRERO AYER Y HOY
Diserción escolar como obstáculo social Nota del editor: Esta serie de artículos sobre la historia de Ciudad Guerrero, México, fueron escritos por la guerrerense Lilia Treviño Martínez (1927-2016), quien fuera profesora de la escuela Leoncio Leal. Por Lilia Treviño Martínez TIEMP O DE ZAPATA
Uno de los factores nocivos que han obstaculizado el progreso de Nueva Ciudad Guerrero es la deserción escolar. Es más notable en el nivel primario, pero también afecta la educación secundaria, que ya es “obligatoria”, y así se va formando un rezago
educativo consistente en adultos con ninguna o muy escasa preparación, incapacitados para desempeñar un trabajo convenientemente remunerado que les permita sostener una familia en forma decorosa. En México existe un gran porcentaje de analfabetas funcionales, porque son capaces de descifrar la escritura, pero jamás leen un libro o revistas culturales. De 122 niños que ingresaron a primer grado de primaria en promedio de los últimos cuatro años del siglo pasado, solamente 65 (54 por ciento), lograron terminar su edu-
cación primaria. En la escuela secundaria también se presenta el fenómeno de la diserción , y solamente un 52 por ciento de los inscritos en primer año lograron terminar el tercer grado. De los afortunados que logran terminar su educación secundaria, un reducido número ingresa a Preparatoria para continuar estudios universitarios. Los universitarios no regresan, pues el municipio poco o nada tiene que ofrecer para el ejercicio de una profesión, y ellos se quedan en ciudades con horizantes más amplios para su campo de acción. Guerrero se convierte así
en una especie de pordiosero despilfarrador: se da el lujo de exportar profesionistas y en cambio acoge a familias que llegan a esta frontera procedentes de estados del centro o sur del país, quienes en su mayor parte poseen muy escasa preparación y la mano de obra que ofrecen no es apta para la competitividad. Este es un problema que solamente podría desvanecerse si las autoridades y/o la iniciativa privada lograran dar impulso a la economía mediante la creación de permanentes fuentes de trabajo que retuvieran a los jóvenes como fuerza productiva.
CIUDAD VICTORIA, México— En un hecho inusual, dos hombres fueron encontrados el martes golpeados y atados a un puente en la ciudad fronteriza mexicana de Reynosa, pero vivos. En Reynosa y otras ciudades de la frontera norte de México afectadas por enfrentamientos entre bandas de narcotráfico se ha visto cadáveres colgados del cuello en puentes. Pero en esta ocasión, los hombres estaban atados al pasamanos de un puente y al parecer no por el cuello. Acompañando a los hombres había un mensaje firmado por un reputado líder narcotraficante en el que promete atrapar a delincuentes comunes y dejarlos a la policía. Medios mexicanos reportaron que fueron los conductores que circulaban por la carretera a Monterrey que vieron a los individuos en el puente peatonal. Soldados mexicanos respondieron al incidente y bajaron a los dos hombres de entre 20 y 25 años de edad quienes se encontraban semidesnudos, golpeados y estaban sujetados al puente con cinta adhesiva. De acuerdo con el periódico tamaulipeco Horacero, el mensaje de la manta estaba firmado por el “Comandante Toro”, líder del Cártel del Golfo. La manta supuestamente indica que él y su grupo criminal no son responsables de todos los secuestros, asaltos, extorsiones y robos que se dan en la ciudad hermana de McAllen. Un funcionario de la fiscalía del estado de Tamaulipas dijo que los dos hombres recibían atención médica a causa de sus heridas. El funcionario no está autorizado a hablar con la prensa por lo que solicitó no ser identificado.
Sports&Outdoors THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, February 15, 2017 |
A7
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: TEXAS RANGERS
Rangers acquire knuckleballer Gamboa Fielder, Diekman to 60-day DL A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
SURPRISE, Ariz. — The Texas Rangers acquired right-handed knuckleballer Eddie Gamboa from the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday, when they placed reliever Jake Diekman and first baseman Prince Fielder on the 60-day disabled list. The moves by the AL West champions came on the same day pitchers and catchers reported to spring training. Fielder was forced to quit playing last summer after his second neck surgery, but is under contract through 2020 for $24 million a season. He has to remain on the Rangers roster for them
to recoup some of that money through an insurance policy. Diekman is expected to miss at least half of the season during treatment for the ulcerative colitis, a digestive condition he has dealt with much of his life. He had surgery Jan. 25, the first of a series of scheduled procedures to remove his colon. Even though he can’t participate in any individual or team drills, Diekman was in camp Tuesday to be with his teammates Gamboa goes to the Rangers for a player to be named later or cash considerations. He was 0-2 with a 1.35 ERA in seven relief appearances for the Rays last season, the first major league action for
the 32-year-old pitcher. Since Fielder didn’t formally retire, he had to remain on the Rangers’ 40-man roster during the offseason. But he can be placed on the 60-day disabled list once camp opens and not count against their roster limit. Fielder got a $214 million, nine-year contract in 2012 from Detroit, which traded the slugger to Texas after two seasons. The Tigers owe Texas $6 million apiece in 2017 and ’18, and $7 million in each of the following two years as part of that November 2013 deal. The Rangers are responsible for the remainder, about half of which will be covered by disability insurance.
Will Vragovic / Associated Press file
Texas acquired former Rays starting pitcher and knuckleballer Eddie Gamboa for a player to be named later or cash considerations.
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
NBA
HIGH HOPES IN SPRING TRAINING Frank Gunn / Associated Press file
Orlando forward Serge Ibaka, center, was sent to the Raptors Tuesday in a deal for Terrence Ross and a first-round pick.
Raptors land Magic’s Ibaka By Jon Krawczynski A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
Kyle Lowry said something had to change in Toronto. Serge Ibaka is on his way to try to make that happen. The Raptors acquired the veteran power forward from Orlando on Tuesday for Terrence Ross and a 2017 first round draft pick. Orlando general manager Rob Hennigan said Tuesday evening the trade of Ibaka for Ross was necessary for the Magic to have a chance of salvaging a season that has gone drastically off course. The Raptors made the move with the postseason and possible championship run in mind. “Any time you can add a talent who has got playoff experience, (NBA) Finals experience, and a defender and two-way player like Ibaka has got to give us a boost,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said Tuesday night in Chicago before the Raptors-Bulls game. “Ibaka fills a huge need.” Toronto started the day in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, having lost 10 of its previous 14 games. The latest ugly performance came on Sunday when the Raptors gave up a 16-point lead to start the fourth quarter and lost to the Detroit Pistons. After the game, Lowry didn’t pull any punches on the state of a team that made the Eastern Conference finals last season but has lost to the Magic twice, the Pistons, Timberwolves and Suns dur-
ing this latest swoon. Casey has said all season long that the something is defense. Toronto ranks 17th in the NBA in defensive efficiency, allowing 106.2 points per 100 possessions. The coach knows that won’t be close to good enough when they get into the playoffs to try to build off of last year’s run to the Eastern Conference finals. Ibaka averaged 15.1 points and 6.8 rebounds for the Magic this season. He has long been considered a rugged defensive power forward, and has experience making deep playoff runs with the Thunder. He will be a free agent this summer after being acquired from Oklahoma City on draft night last summer for Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and the first-round draft pick that became Domantas Sabonis. The Raptors parted with Ross, who is in the first year of a three-year, $31 million contract, and a pick to get the deal done. Ross averaged 10.4 points and 2.6 rebounds, but the high flier has never been able to provide Toronto with the consistency they were looking for from him. The Magic made the move in part to try to get something back for Ibaka before risking losing him on the open market this summer. Hennigan made the deal with OKC on draft night in hopes that Ibaka’s defense and veteran leadership would help a team with a young core including Aaron Gordon, Evan Fournier and Elfrid Payton.
Robin Buckson / Associated Press
Dertroit starter Justin Verlander and the Tigers were one of 15 teams to begin Spring Training on Tuesday. Verlander finished second in last season’s AL Cy Young race.
15 teams begin Spring Training Tuesday By Noah Trister ASSOCIATED PRE SS
LAKELAND, Fla. — Even for an accomplished veteran like Justin Verlander, the start of spring training can be special. “I usually sleep pretty well. I woke up early today,” the Detroit ace said Tuesday. “On one hand, you want to appreciate everything as much as you can. It’s not such a whirlwind anymore — you kind of know what to expect. But in the same aspect, every day is pretty much the same thing I’ve done for 12 years, so it also starts going faster.” Verlander’s Tigers were among 15 teams with their first scheduled workouts for pitchers and catchers Tuesday. As major leaguers took the field in Florida and Arizona, that familiar sound of balls popping into mitts served as a reminder that in baseball at least, winter is finally over. While Verlander and the Tigers went through their routine at their newly renovated facility in Lakeland, the Boston Red Sox were about 115 miles to the south, holding their first workout of the post-
Papi era. It’s Boston’s first season without David Ortiz since the Red Sox signed him in January 2003, but Big Papi’s retirement may not be too big a blow to a team that added star left-hander Chris Sale. Over in Arizona, the Cleveland Indians began preparing to defend their American League title. Cleveland won the AL Central comfortably last year and made it to the World Series before losing to the Chicago Cubs in seven games. “This time of year, everyone is at glass halffull,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “We have good reason to be.” Hopes are always high at the start of spring training, but occasionally there’s some injury news on the first day. Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said right-hander Chris Tillman had a platelet-rich plasma injection on his right shoulder and won’t start the season until April 7 at the earliest. The Kansas City Royals said left-hander Brian Flynn broke a rib and had three minor vertebrae fractures in a bizarre offseason injury. Flynn is
expected to miss two months after falling through a barn roof at his Oklahoma residence. The Royals and Miami Marlins begin this season with heavy hearts following the deaths of pitchers Yordano Ventura last month and Jose Fernandez in September, and Tigers owner Mike Ilitch died Friday at age 87. “I got to know him as best as an owner and player can know each other,” said Detroit catcher Alex Avila, whose father Al is the team’s general manager. “He was always a very gracious and generous person — very nice to myself, my family. ... Very loyal. I know as a family, we always felt we had to kind of reciprocate that loyalty because he’s a tremendous man. They’re a great family.” The Arizona Diamondbacks have also found themselves dealing with some sobering news. Their bench coach, former Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, has prostate cancer and is set to have surgery. He said doctors believe they caught the cancer early. The Diamondbacks
went 69-93 last year and are one of a few National League teams that started workouts Tuesday amid tepid expectations. The Phillies, Reds and Rockies also finished well out of the postseason picture in 2016, but that doesn’t mean they can’t set goals for themselves. Philadelphia manager Pete Mackanin said he wants his team to play .500 baseball deeper into the season after the Phillies lost 91 games last year. For the first time since 2009, the Giants are entering an odd-numbered season without a World Series title to defend. After winning it all in 2010, 2012 and 2014, San Francisco made the playoffs last year as a wild card but lost in the Division Series to the Cubs. The Giants look like contenders again in 2017, and manager Bruce Bochy had plenty of reasons to be upbeat Tuesday when his pitchers and catchers took the field. “It’s a day you look forward to, getting a chance to see everybody and hear the sound of the bat, watch these guys work out again,” Bochy said. “So it’s a good day.”
A8 | Wednesday, February 15, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
NATIONAL
Woman chained in container says she was raped daily By Seanna Adcox A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina woman who spent two months chained inside a large metal container says her captor raped her daily and warned that if she ran or tried to hurt him, she would die. “He told me as long as I served my purpose, I was safe,” Kala Brown told Phillip McGraw, the host of the television show “Dr. Phil.” It was the first time she has talked publicly since her Nov. 3 rescue, which authorities say helped them solve seven slayings in the area dating back 13 years. Police said Todd Kohlhepp, a real estate agent with his own firm until his arrest, killed Brown’s boyfriend, a couple who had been missing nearly a year and four people at a motorcycle shop in 2003. Brown said she and her boyfriend had gone to Kohlhepp’s rural property Aug. 31 to help him clear some underbrush from trails. After the couple followed him to a two-story garage on the 95-acre property, Kohlhepp handed them hedge clippers and bottles of water. He said he needed to get something inside and came out a few minutes later shooting, Brown said. He shot Charles Carver three times in the chest, she said. He gagged Brown and handcuffed her ankles and wrists. Kohlhepp took her to a “pitch black,”
30-foot-long storage container nearby, chained her by the neck in a back corner and raped her, she said. He “let me know that if I tried to run, he’d kill me. If I tried to hurt him, he’d kill me. If I fought back, he would kill me. And then he raped me,” Brown said in episodes that aired this week. “He would rape me twice a day, every day.” Kohlhepp, 45, faces murder, kidnapping and weapon charges. He is not charged with sexual assault. Spokesmen for the sheriff and prosecutor declined to address the rape allegations or whether more charges are forthcoming. His attorney did not return messages. Police said Kohlhepp acknowledged the grisly cold cases after authorities granted him several requests, including letting him speak to his mother. The Associated Press normally does not identify victims of sexual assault but is naming Brown after she publicly identified herself. The day after her rescue, investigators found Carver’s body in a shallow grave on Kohlhepp’s property. Brought to the site in handcuffs, Kohlhepp showed authorities the graves of the couple missing since December 2015. Brown, who had previously cleaned several of Kohlhepp’s properties, said he made sure only Carver accompanied her to his land, telling her
“he didn’t want anyone else knowing where he lived.” Nothing seemed awry over the several months she periodically worked for Kohlhepp, she said: “He was nice, polite, just a regular businessman. ... No red flags.” Brown said Kohlhepp told her he killed Carver because “it was easier to control someone if you took someone they loved.” She thought Kohlhepp was infatuated with her and didn’t want to kill her, even saying he would let her go and give her money “if he ever got old and sick,” she said. He explained Stockholm syndrome, in which a hostage starts feeling sympathetic toward their captor, and said “it would kick in and we’d be happy together.” She remained tied up, even when he took her to the garage apartment to eat, she said. When Brown heard people talking outside the container the morning of Nov. 3, she panicked, thinking maybe he had brought someone else. When she realized help had come, “I started screaming and hitting the walls,” she said. “I knew my family would never stop looking, but he was so careful, I couldn’t see how I could be found so soon. I was scared it really wasn’t happening,” she said. “And when they finally got the door open and I saw the police uniforms, I was relieved.”
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, February 15, 2017 |
A9
BUSINESS
Aetna, Humana call off $34 billion deal By Tom Murphy A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
INDIANAPOLIS — Aetna and Humana called off a $34 billion proposal to combine the two major health insurers after a federal judge, citing antitrust concerns, shot down the deal. The announcement Tuesday comes several days after another federal judge rejected a tie-up between two other massive insurers. Blue Cross-Blue Shield carrier Anthem is attempting to buy Cigna for $48 billion. Anthem has vowed to appeal that decision. Aetna, the nation’s third largest insurer, had announced its bid for Humana in 2015. The deal would have given Aetna the opportunity to significantly expand its presence in the fast-growing market for Medicare Advantage plans, privately run versions of the federal Medicare program for people who are over 65 or disabled. But Aetna’s attempt to gobble up the nation’s fifth largest health insurer brought in the Department of Justice, which sued to block the deal last summer. U.S. District Judge John Bates wrote in the decision last month that neither new competition nor plans to shed some of the combined company’s businesses would be enough to ease antitrust concerns. Federal regulation would likely be “insufficient to prevent the merged firm from raising prices or reducing benefits,” Bates ruled. Aetna Chairman and CEO Mark Bertolini said in a company release Tuesday that “the current environment makes it too challenging to continue pursuing the transaction.” Humana is entitled to a $1 billion breakup fee, which would amount to about $630 million after taxes. The Louisville, Kentucky, insurer says it will announce its 2017 forecast and provide an update on its strategic plan after markets close Tuesday. Aetna is based in Hartford, Connecticut. The two deals blocked in federal courts would have melded the nation’s five largest insurers into three, with UnitedHealth Group Inc. currently the biggest. The insurers have argued that growing through acquisitions would allow them to better negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and doctor groups that also are merging and growing larger. They also expect to cut expenses and add more customers, which helps them spread out the cost of investing in technology to manage and improve care. Insurers have also said that combining would help them stabilize their business on the Affordable Care Act’s public insurance exchanges. But the American Medical Association said last week, after the AnthemCigna deal was shot down, that a merger would have created a health care behemoth too large to regulate and with too much control over the lives of consumers.
Leaders of American Airlines pilots’ union blast company’s CEO By David Koenig ASSOCIATED PRE SS
DALLAS — Support from labor unions was critical when Doug Parker’s US Airways forced a merger with American, but now the CEO of the world’s biggest airline is under fire from unions unhappy about pay that lags rates at rival Delta. Leaders of the pilots’ union say they have lost confidence in the ability of Parker and senior executives to lead the airline. Flight attendants picketed Tuesday at company headquarters and three big airports. The unions are complaining about lower pay and profit sharing than counterparts at Delta Air Lines. Delta said it will pay about $1.1 billion to employees as their share of the company’s 2016 profit. American set
aside $314 million. American says it has increased wages and benefits by $3.5 billion since its 2013 merger with US Airways. Airlines have become hugely profitable in recent years after a string of mergers. Parker has pledged that American will provide industry-leading pay when contracts come up for renegotiation, but that isn’t until 2020 for American’s pilots. They wanted upgrades after Delta and United pilots got raises last year. The Allied Pilots Association board unanimously approved a resolution on Monday saying it had lost confidence in Parker. Union President Dan Carey said American has made questionable decisions that have kept the airline behind Delta in customer satisfaction, operations and revenue. Company spokesman
Matt Miller said American shares the union’s goal of making the airline a great place to work and is pleased with its progress, so “further public dialogue serves no purpose.” Separately, American flight attendants were picketing Tuesday at the company’s headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, and at airports in Los Angeles, Miami and Charlotte, North Carolina — all busy hubs for American flights. Union President Bob Ross said that despite record profits, American flight attendants are paid less than at other airlines and are unhappy about frequent computer meltdowns, bad schedules and new uniforms that some employees say cause allergic reactions. Miller said flight attendants have received average pay increases of 27 percent
since the merger. The company said in November that pilot pay had climbed an average of 53 percent in that time. The vote by the pilots’ union board and the picketing by members of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants have no legal effect but symbolize worsening relations between the unions and senior management. In 2013, Parker successfully courted the unions in his bid to force then-bankrupt American, which had a history of stormy relations with labor including strikes in the 1990s, to merge with his smaller airline. Parker’s team replaced the executives who were running American. Shares of American Airlines Group Inc. fell 84 cents, or 1.8 percent, to close Tuesday at $46.57.
Yellen: Expect Fed to resume raising rates in coming months By Martin Crutsinger ASSOCIATED PRE SS
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen pointed Tuesday to a solid U.S. job market and economy and said the Fed will likely resume raising interest rates in the next few months. But with uncertainties surrounding President Donald Trump’s proposals, Yellen said the Fed still wants to keep assessing the economy. Testifying to a Senate committee, Yellen noted that Fed officials forecast in December that they would raise rates three times in 2017. That would mark an acceleration from 2015 and 2016, when they boosted rates once each year. “Precisely when we would take an action, whether it is March, or May or June ... I can’t tell you which meeting it would be,” Yellen said in response to a question. “I would say that every meeting is live.” Though Yellen didn’t rule out a rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting in midMarch, most economists and investors think the next one will occur in June. Until then, the details of Trump’s ambitious proposals — for tax cuts for individuals and businesses, greater spending on infrastructure projects, changes to trade deals and a relaxation of regulations — could remain hazy.
Andrew Harnik / AP
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen adjusts her glasses while testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday.
“With the uncertainty over fiscal policy likely to last for at least another few months, that means the Fed will probably be on hold until June,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. Other analysts say they think that while three Fed rate hikes will occur in 2017, all of them may happen in the second half of the year. In her first congressional appearance since Trump took office, Yellen avoided making critical observations of the president’s economic ideas. During the campaign, Trump was at times harshly dismissive of Yellen. At one point, he had declared that she should be “ashamed of herself” for, in his view, keeping rates low to favor Democrats.
In her remarks, Yellen did caution that any economic initiatives that significantly swell long-term budget deficits would likely slow growth. But she offered support for part of Trump’s agenda: His efforts to make it easier for smaller banks to lend, in part by liberating them from some rules imposed by the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law. She said the Fed has been trying to ease the regulatory burden on community banks and is open to doing more. Yellen said the Fed’s interest rate policies would evolve, in part, from how spending and tax changes enacted by Congress affect economic growth. Right now, she said, “it’s too early to know what policy changes
will be put in place or how their economic effects will unfold.” Trump has argued that his economic initiatives can achieve his goal of doubling annual economic growth to 4 percent, up from the tepid 2 percent pace that’s prevailed since the Great Recession ended in 2009. Most economists say 4 percent annual growth is unrealistic given the nation’s slow-growing population and weak worker productivity growth. Trump’s new Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, told reporters Tuesday that “there is a tradition of the secretary of the Treasury having ongoing meetings with the head of the Federal Reserve, and I look forward to that now that I am in office, doing that and spending time with her.” In her testimony Tuesday — the first of two days marking her semiannual report to Congress on interest rate policy — Yellen reiterated that she plans to serve the final year of her four-year term as Fed chair, which ends next February. She will testify to the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday. Trump has the opportunity to fill three vacancies on the Fed’s seven-member policymaking board after Daniel Tarullo announced Friday that he would resign this spring.
A10 | Wednesday, February 15, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
NATIONAL
Conservatives want fast health law repeal, leaders cautious By Alan Fram A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
WASHINGTON — Conservatives have demanded a quick vote on erasing much of President Barack Obama’s health care law, with some threatening to oppose legislation that falls short. But House Republican leaders said they were working deliberatively as the party continued its struggle to find a replacement that could pass Congress. “This affects every person and every family in America,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, RWis., told reporters on Tuesday. “That’s why we’re taking a step-bystep approach.” Ryan spoke the morning after the House Freedom Caucus — whose members are among Congress’ most hard line conservatives — voted unanimously to insist on a House vote on legislation repealing much of Obama’s overhaul, the group’s leaders said. They said they also wanted a simultaneous vote on a GOP package replacing that law. Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, told reporters that if forthcoming GOP legislation annulling Obama’s law doesn’t go as far as legislation that Obama vetoed last year, “We’re not going to vote for that.” Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., leader of a broader group of conservatives, called the Freedom Caucus’ demands “a common sense position” and said he wanted a vote “as soon as possible.” Conservatives say they’re worried that this year — with President Donald Trump eager to sign repeal legislation — lawmakers nervous about angering constituents who could lose coverage might pass a watered down version instead. Internal divisions facing GOP leaders include what to do about the law’s expansion of Medicaid for poor people and its tax increases, and two senators have proposed letting states choose to retain Obama’s law entirely. “If we’re just going to replace Obamacare with Obamacare light, it begs the question, ‘Were we just against Obamacare because it was proposed by Democrats,”’ Labrador said. Doing that would be “hypocritical” and would mean “our base is going to leave the party because they’re not going to be happy,” Labrador said. “At the minimum, we ought to be able to put on President Trump’s desk
exactly what we put on President Obama’s desk,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a conservative leader. Despite their demands, conservatives share some of the same unresolved questions as other Republicans. Conservatives said they’ve still not struck a unified position on what to do about Obama’s expansion of Medicaid to cover more low-income people. Some states have opted to take billions in federal money to cover millions of people under the statute and would like to retain the expansion, but others oppose the program’s enlargement and don’t want federal money to be spent for those that did. Though Trump said days before taking office that his plan for replacing Obama’s overhaul was practically ready, Republicans have yet to unveil legislation — just as they hadn’t in the years since the law’s 2010 enactment. Ryan has talked about repealing the statute and having a replacement plan ready in March, and GOP leaders have been emphasizing that they want to work carefully. “We want to get it right and we’ve been taking our time to do that,” said Rep. Greg Walden, ROre., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is among those writing the legislation. He said his panel would begin voting on a plan “in the near future.”
Russia cloud over Trump not likely to fade with Flynn exit By Eileen Sullivan ASSOCIATED PRE SS
WASHINGTON — Questions about the Trump administration’s ties to Russia are hardly going to disappear with the firing of national security adviser Michael Flynn. Investigations are underway, and more are likely by the new administration and on Capitol Hill. U.S. agencies, including the FBI, have been probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. And three congressional committees are conducting their own investigations that include looking at contacts between Russian officials and members of the Trump campaign and administration. This isn’t the first time Trump has distanced himself from an adviser in light of a relationships with Moscow. In late August, Paul Manafort resigned as Trump’s campaign chairman after disclosures by The Associated Press about his firm’s covert lobbying on behalf of the former pro-
Russian ruling political party in Ukraine. Trump’s own ties to Flynn Russia have been questioned in light of his friendly posture toward the long-time U.S. adversary and reluctance to criticize President Vladimir Putin, even for Putin’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014. “This isn’t simply about a change in policy toward Russia, as the administration would like to portray. It’s what’s behind that change in policy,” said California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, one of the congressional bodies investigating. Schiff said there are continuing questions about the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and whether anyone assisted Moscow in hacking. “It’s not just that an administration official was caught lying. It’s that the national security
adviser to the president was caught lying and on a matter of central importance. So this is big,” Schiff said. The Obama administration said Russia interfered in the 2016 election with the goal of electing Trump. Trump has acknowledged that Russia hacked Democratic emails but denies it was to help him win. The investigations and the unusual firing of the national security adviser just 24 days into his job have put Republicans in the awkward position of investigating the leader of their party. Senior GOP lawmakers continue to deny Democrats’ requests that an independent panel be established to carry out the Russia investigation. So the congressional probes are ultimately in the hands of the Republican chairmen, and the executive branch’s investigation has been overseen ultimately by Trump appointees. On Tuesday, Republican leaders focused on the idea that Flynn misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of
his contacts with the Russian ambassador — not on any questioning of the relationship between Flynn and the ambassador. Democrats say a key issue is whether Flynn broke diplomatic protocol and potentially the law by discussing U.S. sanctions with Moscow before Trump’s inauguration. The Justice Department had warned the White House late last month that Flynn could be at risk for blackmail because of contradictions between his public depictions of the calls with the Russian ambassador and what intelligence officials knew about the conversations. “You cannot have a national security adviser misleading the vice president and others,” said Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Daniel Jones, a former lead investigator on the Senate intelligence committee, said it’s important that Congress investigate Flynn’s ties to Russia and make sure that doesn’t get lost in a broader probe into Russia and the 2016 election.
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Wednesday, February 15, 2017 |
A11
FROM THE COVER ORDER From page A1 billion and we were stretching to do the things we were doing that are much more narrowly focused than this administration proposes. So if you expand the mission, you will have to expand the budget.” She said conflict can occur by “coming in and saying, ‘You will do things one way, our way.”’ According to the Pew Research Center, about 4 percent of the country’s unauthorized immigrants live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Saldana also said immigration courts are already overburdened, with a national backlog of about 534,000 cases according to nonprofit
LATINOS From page A1 “I think it shows there’s a transition happening in Texas,” Matt Barreto, co-founder of the polling and research firm Latino Decisions, told the newspaper. “Latino voters in Texas are becoming more engaged.” But Rice University political scientist Mark Jones was more measured, calling the increase “notable, but not dramatic,” and said it mirrored jumps in past presidential elections. “The Texas electorate becomes more Latino and less Anglo with every passing electoral cycle,” Jones said. “But the increase is fueled primarily by natural demographic trends rather than by a dramatic spike in participation rates among Latinos.” Derek Ryan, a political consultant and former research director for the Texas Republican Party,
“Texas is a leader in so many areas. ... Why can’t we show the feds how it is done?”
Lady Gaga, Jimmy Kimmel condemn Texas ‘bathroom bill’ ASSOCIATED PRE SS
Transactional Records Action Clearinghouse. The group said it takes an average of about two years for an immigration case to make its way through the Texas system. “This could be a heyday for lawyers,” Saldana said. She said she hopes Texas policy-makers become leaders in less conflictive implementation of immigration policy. “Texas is a leader in so many areas,” she said. “We are at the epicenter in immigration. Why can’t we show the feds how it is done?”
said an analysis of early voting figures in 20 large counties reveals that new voters are driving the increase in Latino participation. Lydia Camarillo, vice president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, said the turnout numbers for 2016 are higher than her group anticipated, but she said Texas has high barriers to register to vote. Camarillo said her group is pushing for legislative changes that would make registering easier, such as by allowing Texans to register to vote online, as more than 30 other states already do. “When we ask potential voters why they didn’t register, they say it’s not because they didn’t care, but that in most cases they don’t start paying attention to elections until about 10 days out,” Camarillo said. Texas law requires voters to register at least 30 days before an election.
AUSTIN, Texas — Musicians Lady Gaga and Alicia Keys along with Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence are among more than 140 artists and celebrities condemning a Texas “bathroom bill”
REFINERY From page A1 electricity. Moore said the refinery will take some of the heat from the geothermal unit and supplement it with high-quality natural gas in the refining process. Combined with catalytic systems, Moore hopes that most carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions will be captured from the processes. Local environmental activists aren’t so convinced that the refinery will be all that green, said Tricia Cortez, a representative from the Rio Grande International Study Center, a member of grass-roots organization South Texans Against the Refinery. “These claims don’t address the many other toxic chemicals that their proposed refinery will still release into the air and the negative health impacts that these surrounding communities will still face,” Cortez said. Ilan Levin, an Austinbased attorney and an associate director with the Washington-based Environmental Integrity Project, said it is hard to know exactly what processes Moore’s refinery will use because Raven hasn’t filed any permits with the state
people to use bathrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate. It’s similar to a North Carolina law that prompted rockers Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen to cancel concerts in that state last year.
The Texas bill has yet to receive even a preliminary vote but public pressure is ratcheting up. Last week, the NFL suggested that Texas could be passed over for future Super Bowl sites if the proposal became law.
“He can sign memorandums of understanding all day long, but without having even submitted a permit application, there’s not much to discuss.”
said he was working with BASIC and Thermal Energy to finalize the designs. “We are in a position now to communicate more of those details into the community,” Moore said, though he did not say how he planned to notify the public. Duval County Judge Ricardo “Rocky” Carrillo expressed his support for the project in November, saying it could bring up to 1,800 jobs and add tens of millions of dollars to the county’s tax base. Those jobs and investment would be a boon to an area hit hard from the oil downturn over the past two years. Marathon Petroleum Corp. built the last major U.S. refinery, in Garyville, Louisiana, in 1977. It could process 200,000 barrels of oil a day when it opened. The facility since has been upgraded to process 539,000 barrels a day. Raven hopes to have the refinery up and running by next year, Moore said. “We’re trying to not impact the environment, the livestock, the wildlife or the people. The technology allows us to do that, and we’re willing to use it,” Moore said. “We feel that in the long run, the efficiency of the geothermal, it’s good business, but it’s also the right way to do it.”
targeting transgender people. Britney Spears and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel also signed a letter Tuesday criticizing the Republican-backed efforts as a “denial of basic human dignity.” The bill would require
— Tricia Cortez, representative from the Rio Grande International Study Center
yet. He said he was skeptical about carbon capture at the refinery and was quick to note that Moore is not the first person to bring it up in Texas. “We heard a lot of power companies, utilities, others talk about carbon sequestration, and a lot of companies several years ago planned on building new power plants across Texas,” Levin said. He added that the only way to reach near-net-zero emissions at a new refinery would be to use technology similar to what European refineries run. He said those employ many expensive emissions scrubbers to clean the air. He described his organization’s view on the project as “supportive, but skeptical.” While Moore hopes to file a permit with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality by the second quarter, he wants to move ahead, preparing the site for the refinery within the next month or so, flattening
the land and securing the site with fences. At a community forum in the small town of Bruni on Feb. 1, more than 100 people showed up for a meeting to complain about the refinery’s potential effect on the environment and a lack of information from Raven Petroleum. Cortez said she and other STAR members are skeptical about Moore’s claims that it will bring jobs to the area. “He can sign memorandums of understanding all day long, but without having even submitted a permit application, there’s not much to discuss,” Cortez said. “Despite Raven’s claims that local residents will build the refinery, Moore is already looking to line up firms from Houston and Austin instead. This doesn’t bode well for the local jobs Moore is claiming Raven will create.” Moore said that “there’s a fear of the unknown,” declining to discuss specifics of the project. He
MEXICO From page A1 partial anonymity, in his case because of his undocumented status. Others said they feared being tracked down by their persecutors.) Josué came to Mexico about a year ago with the intention of “passing through” on his way to the U.S. he said. But he was able to find work and liked Mexico enough, so he decided to stay for a while before resuming his trip. With the rise of Trump, however, and the president’s vows to harden the borders of the U.S. and step up deportations, Josué has decided to remain in Mexico for the foreseeable future. “In my case, I’d like to be in the United States to work,” he said during a recent interview at the shelter. “But this president, he doesn’t want anybody because he doesn’t like anybody.” Josué is now exploring ways to gain legal status in Mexico. The number of migrants deciding to stay in Mexico is still thought to be a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands using the country as a transit corridor to enter the U.S. But the growing attractiveness of Mexico is plainly reflected in the country’s asylum program. Last year, more than 8,100 foreigners applied for asylum, nearly three times as many as in 2015, and more than 15 times as many as five years ago, according to statistics from the Mexican government. At the same time, Mexico, under pressure from immigrants’ advocates, has been granting asylum at increasingly higher rates, in part because of improvements to its intake and processing sys-
Jerry Lara / San Antonio Express-News
A Central American immigrant opens a can of tuna while another one jumps off a train in Saltillo, Mexico, Aug. 14, 2014.
tem. In 2016, 63 percent of applicants, not including those who dropped their cases during the review process, received asylum or some other form of protection, up from 46 percent in 2015. Most applicants in the past few years have been from El Salvador and Honduras, which have been convulsing with gang violence. The increase in asylum petitions in Mexico is also in part due to the rise in detentions on the country’s southern flank, an effect of a U.S.-backed plan begun in 2014 to better control the flow of people and goods crossing the Mexico-Guatemala border. After being stopped by the immigration authorities, some detainees have come to learn that they may be eligible for asylum, either through word-of-mouth from other detainees or during screenings with immigration officials. “Many come here not knowing that the experi-
ences they’ve had fit perfectly with asylum,” said Javier Martínez Hernández, a lawyer at Casa del Migrante, which helped more than 100 migrants apply for refugee status in 2016, more than double the number in 2015. If the current trends continue, U.N. officials predict, Mexico could receive more than 20,000 asylum claims this year. But advocacy and human rights groups believe that the population of migrants potentially eligible for protection in Mexico is much higher. Many of the more than 147,000 foreigners deported from Mexico last year, for instance, might not have known that they qualified and were not given the opportunity to make their case before being deported, they say. In the past year, the Mexican government has made a number of improvements to its asylum system, including increasing its staff and
modifying the screening process to ensure that eligible migrants have a chance to apply, officials said. The Mexican authorities have also begun releasing asylum seekers from detention while they await the resolution of their cases, a process that often takes three or more months, and have improved applicants’ access to humanitarian aid and psychological and legal counseling, advocates said. “The Mexican government has recognized that this is increasingly a refugee situation,” said Mark Manly, the Mexico representative for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. He added that the Mexican authorities had been making “real progress” in improving processing and services for asylum seekers. The government and the United Nations have sponsored a pilot program in Saltillo to help
integrate asylum seekers into Mexican society. Begun in August, the program has involved 38 asylum recipients. Of those, 26 remain in the program, while the others have left and moved elsewhere. Saltillo was chosen because it has plenty of employment opportunities and is relatively calm and safe, U.N. officials said. Several program participants said life in Mexico was not easy, despite all the assistance they had received. It is hard to make ends meet; salaries at the bottom rung of the ladder are barely enough to cover the cost of living. And some, in the interest of disconnecting from the menacing world they left, have cut off all contact with friends, relatives and old colleagues in their home countries. “It’s very sad to leave everything in your country,” said Ana, 41, a Salvadoran who immigrated to Mexico with her son, 18,
and her two daughters, 15 and 21, after gangs tried to recruit her son and started threatening one of her daughters. “Can you imagine? We had everything,” Ana added. “My children studying and then coming here and sleeping on the ground? It’s not easy.” But all said they were happier in Mexico, in large part because they did not fear for their lives. “I left all my friends and family, but after what happened, it made me happy to leave,” said Ana’s son, Fernando, who found work here cleaning rooms in a hotel. His older sister, who had been planning to enter a university in El Salvador to study medicine, works in the laundry room at another hotel. Still, for many, the allure of the U.S. is hard to extinguish. Wendy and her husband, José, have both found work — he with an air-conditioner contractor and she cleaning a private home. The boys are happy in their new school and are making friends. Yet the family is having a hard time covering expenses. “I still have that aspiration to go to the United States or Canada someday,” José allowed as he sat with Wendy in their kitchen here. Both were wearing winter coats indoors because they couldn’t afford heaters to warm them against the cold. Wendy saw where the conversation was heading — down a road they had clearly traveled many times — and she intervened. “Our idea is to have our own home, build our own business. That’s the idea,” she said enthusiastically. “If we had a home of our own, I’d stay here for the rest of my life.”
A12 | Wednesday, February 15, 2017 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
INTERNATIONAL
N. Korea leader’s brother slain at airport By Eileen Ng and Matthew Pennington A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The halfbrother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was assassinated at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, telling medical workers before he died that he had been attacked with a chemical spray, a Malaysian official said Tuesday. Kim Jong Nam, 46, was targeted Monday in the shopping concourse at the airport and had not gone through immigration yet for his flight to Macau, said the senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case involves sensitive diplomacy. He was taken to the airport clinic and then died on the way to the
hospital, the official said. Kim Jong Nam was estranged from his younger brother, the North Korean leader. He had been tipped by outsiders to succeed their dictator father, but reportedly fell out of favor when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport in 2001, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland. He was believed to have been living recently in Macau, Singapore and Malaysia. Multiple South Korean media reports, citing unidentified sources, said Kim Jong Nam was killed at the airport by two women. TV Chosun, citing “multiple government sources,” said the women were believed to be North Korean agents. It said they fled in a taxi and were being sought by Malay-
sian police. A Malaysian police statement confirmed the death of a 46-year-old North Korean man whom it identified from his travel document as Kim Chol, born in Pyongyang on June 10, 1970. “Investigation is in progress and a post mortem examination request has been made to ascertain the cause of death,” the statement said. Ken Gause, at the CNA think tank in Washington who has studied North Korea’s leadership for 30 years, said Kim Chol was a name that Kim Jong Nam has traveled under. He is believed to have been born May 10, 1971, although birthdays are always unclear for senior North Koreans, Gause said. Mark Tokola, vice president of the Korea Eco-
Venezuela’s VP shrugs off drug sanctions as US weighs policy By Fabiola Sanchez and Joshua Goodman A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s government condemned U.S. sanctions on the country’s vice president, saying Tuesday that the Trump administration’s designation of Tareck El Aissami as a major drug trafficker represented an unprecedented and “highly dangerous” infringement on the South American nation’s sovereignty. In a series of defiant messages posted on social media, El Aissami said the “miserable and defamatory aggression” only deepens his commitment to revolution started
by the late Hugo Chavez and won’t distract him from his job of rescuing Venezuela’s crashing economy from what he called sabotage by its conservative opponents. “They’ll never be able to defeat our unbreakable resolution to be free forever,” El Aissami said. On Monday, the Trump administration froze El Aissami’s U.S. assets and banned him from entering the U.S. for his alleged role facilitating cocaine shipments from Venezuela. El Aissami is the highest-ranking Venezuelan official to ever be sanctioned by the U.S. and his designation as a drug kingpin is bound to ratchet up tensions between the two countries,
who have not exchanged ambassadors since 2010. But whether the action signals a hardening U.S. stance toward President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government, or is just a carry-over of policies set in motion by the Obama administration, remains to be seen, analysts said. Under Obama, the U.S. was careful not to call for the unpopular Maduro’s removal, as the opposition has been seeking, choosing instead to support a Vatican-sponsored dialogue aimed at avoiding bloodshed. “Patience has worn out,” said Chris Sabatini, editor of Latin America Goes Global, a website that tracks U.S. policy toward the region.
nomic Institute in Washington and a former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, said it would be surprising if Kim Jong Nam was not killed on the orders of his brother, given that North Korean agents have reportedly tried to assassinate Kim Jong Nam in the past. “It seems probable that the motivation for the murder was a continuing sense of paranoia on the part of Kim Jong Un,” Tokola wrote in a commentary Tuesday. Although there was scant evidence that Kim Jong Nam was plotting against the North Korean leader, he provided an alternative for North Koreans who would want to depose his brother. In Washington, the State Department said it
Ahn Young-joon / AP
A TV screen shows a picture of Kim Jong Nam, the older brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday.
was aware of reports of Kim Jong Nam’s death but declined to comment, referring questions to Malaysian authorities. The reported killing came as North Korea celebrated its latest missile launch, which foreign experts were analyzing for evidence of advancement in the country’s missile capabilities. For the next several days, North Korea will be marking the birthday of its late leader Kim
Jong Il, Kim Jong Nam and Kim Jong Un’s father, though they have different mothers. The major holiday this Thursday is called the “Day of the Shining Star” and will be feted with figure skating and synchronized swimming exhibitions, fireworks and mass rallies. Since taking power in late 2011, Kim Jong Un has executed or purged a slew of high-level government officials.