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ELECTION 2014
MEXICO
Voter ID laws
Judge sets ‘Chapo’ trial in motion
Primaries offer 1st major test
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, MARK STEVENSON AND E. EDUARDO CASTILLO
By THOMAS BEAUMONT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — In elections that begin next week, voters in 10 states will be required to present photo identification before casting ballots — the first major test of voter ID laws after years of legal challenges arguing that the measures are designed to suppress voting. The first election is March 4 in Texas, followed by nine other primaries running through early September that will set the
See VOTER IDS PAGE 11A
Photo by Eric Gay | AP
An election official checks a voter’s photo identification at an early voting polling site, in Austin, on Feb. 26. Voters in 10 states are now required to present photo identification before casting ballots — the first major test of voter ID laws after years of legal challenges arguing that the measures are designed to suppress voting.
TEXAS A&M INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
DESIRE FOR PEACE
MEXICO CITY — A federal judge ruled last week that drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman must stand trial on drug-trafficking charges and remain for the immediate future in Mexico, where authorities say there is no chance of escaping his cell in the nation’s highest-security prison. It is at least the second case launched against Guzman in Mexico since he was captured Saturday morning in a condominium in the Pacific coast city of Mazatlan after 13 years on the run. He has been indicted in at least seven U.S. jurisdictions for crimes committed during his reign as fugitive head of the Sinaloa cartel, a multi-billion dollar cartel that dominated drug trafficking in much of Mexico and stretched into dozens of other countries. Top Mexican officials have made it increasingly clear that they want Guzman to face all local charges, and interrogation by Mexican investigators looking to dismantle his cartel, before they consider extraditing him to the U.S. A second judge was expected to rule Tuesday on whether Guzman should go to trial on separate drug-trafficking charges. Guzman was being
GUZMAN held in a maximum-security prison in the state of Jalisco in 2001 when he escaped in a laundry cart, according to the official account, and spent more than a decade running the Sinaloa cartel from a series of hideouts around western Mexico. Mexican officials say that won’t happen again. “We think he’s being perfectly guarded and watched, and we don’t think it’s necessary to do anything else,” Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, the country’s most powerful lawenforcement official, told The Associated Press. “He will be very isolated. He won’t be allowed to continue with his operations.” But experts say President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government hasn’t proven able to match headline-grabbing arrests like Guzman’s with complex, long-term investigations and prosecutions of deep-rooted criminal networks. Cases have stalled, cartels keep operating and last year one of Guz-
See GUZMAN PAGE 11A
THE UKRAINE
Russia gets threats from US Photo by Victor Strife | The Zapata Times
TAMIU students bow their heads in prayer Wednesday evening during a candlelight vigil for Venezuela. The vigil organized by the Student Government Association was held in effort to bring awareness of the current political, social and economic issues facing the people of Venezuela.
Venezuelan students get support from area By MALENA CHARUR THE ZAPATA TIMES
LAREDO — With a prayer for peace in Venezuela, a group of students and local residents gathered late Wednesday at TAMIU to offer their support to the political problems plaguing the country. In Venezuela, universities and others opposing the government, including the middle class, have been protesting against inflation, which is rising at an annual rate of more than 56 percent, according to the Associated Press. David Gonzalez Febres, a native of Venezuela and an International Business student at Texas A&M International Uni-
versity, who has lived in Laredo for three years, said Wednesday’s candlelight vigil at TAMIU was intended as a peaceful protest to support students in Venezuela so that people from elsewhere will be aware of what is happening there. He said the Venezuelan government has banned all types of communication in addition to the other problems the country is facing. “We are here in protest mode to support students in my country. We have much insecurity. Last year 25,000 people were killed in common crimes in a country of 28 or 29 million people,” Gonzalez said. Associated Press re-
ports indicate there have been 16 deaths and 150 injuries in the past three weeks from protests in Caracas and other cities in Venezuela. There have also been more than 500 detained during that time, most of whom have already been released, news reports state. Gonzalez also referred to the problems of food shortages and unemployment that plague the country. “In a country rich in oil, right now people line up for a bottle of milk in a government store,” he said. “You can only buy once a week and the lines are endless.” Nicolas Maduro, who became president upon the death of Hugo Chavez
in April, says the protests are part of an opposition plan to promote a coup, Associated Press stories report. Gonzalez, without taking a political position, attributes the situation to government mismanagement and believes a change guaranteeing citizens the confidence to go out without being assaulted or killed would be good. “What we want is a change that allows (citizens) to meet their basic needs. This is an opportunity to do something. If it is not resolved now, we will have a dictatorship, and we will end up like Cuba,” Gonzalez said.
See STUDENTS
PAGE 11A
By DALTON BENNETT AND KARL RITTER ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine — Armed men described as Russian troops took control of key airports in Crimea on Friday and Russian transport planes flew into the strategic region, Ukrainian officials said, an ominous sign of the Kremlin’s iron hand in Ukraine. President Barack Obama bluntly warned Moscow “there will be costs” if it intervenes militarily. The sudden arrival of men in military uniforms patrolling key strategic facilities prompted Ukraine to accuse Russia of a “military invasion and occupation” — a claim that brought an alarming new dimension to the crisis. In a hastily arranged statement delivered from the White House, Obama called on Russia to respect the independence and territory of Ukraine and not try to take advantage of its neighbor, which is under-
going political upheaval. “Any violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing,” Obama said. Such action by Russia would not serve the interests of the Ukrainian people, Russia or Europe, Obama said, and would represent a “profound interference” in matters he said must be decided by the Ukrainian people. “Just days after the world came to Russia for the Olympic Games, that would invite the condemnation of nations around the world,” Obama said. “The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine.” He did not say what those costs might be. Earlier Friday, Ukraine’s fugitive president resurfaced in Russia to deliver a defiant condemnation of what he called a
See UKRAINE PAGE 10A
PAGE 2A
Zin brief CALENDAR
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014
AROUND TEXAS
TODAY IN HISTORY
SATURDAY, MARCH 1
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Used book sale, hosted by First United Methodist Church. 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. 1220 McClelland Ave. Hardback books are $1, paperback books 50 cents, and magazines and children’s books 25 cents. Laredo Northside Market. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. North Central Park. Contact Erna Pelto at enpelto@stx.rr.com. Meeting of Healing Hearts of Laredo grief support group. 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. First floor conference room of Laredo Public Library, 1120 E. Calton Road. Free to public. Please bring picture of loved one or an item to share with the group (voluntary, not mandatory). Call Elizabeth Alonzo Villarreal at 740-3233 or visit facebook.com/healingheartsoflaredo.
Today is Saturday, March 1, the 60th day of 2014. There are 305 days left in the year. Today’s Highlights in History: On March 1, 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the spectators’ gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five members of Congress. The United States detonated a dryfuel hydrogen bomb, codenamed Castle Bravo, at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands; the explosive yield of 15 megatons, much greater than expected, dropped radioactive fallout on occupied islands hundreds of miles away. On this date: In 1790, President George Washington signed a measure authorizing the first U.S. Census. In 1864, Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first black woman to receive an American medical degree, from the New England Female Medical College in Boston. In 1867, Nebraska became the 37th state. In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed an act creating Yellowstone National Park. In 1914, National Baseball Hall of Fame announcer Harry Caray was born in St. Louis, Mo. In 1919, a group of Korean nationalists declared their country’s independence from Japanese colonial rule. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. In 1964, Paradise Airlines Flight 901A, a Lockheed L-049 Constellation, crashed near Lake Tahoe Airport in California, killing all 85 people on board. In 1974, seven people, including former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman, former Attorney General John Mitchell and former assistant Attorney General Robert Mardian, were indicted on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice in connection with the Watergate break-in. (These four defendants were convicted in Jan. 1975, although Mardian’s conviction was later reversed.) Ten years ago: The California Supreme Court ruled a Roman Catholic charity had to pay for workers’ contraceptive health insurance benefits. Five years ago: At a oneday summit in Brussels, European Union leaders flatly rejected a new multibillion euro bailout for eastern Europe. One year ago: President Barack Obama, still deadlocked with Republican congressional leaders, formally enacted $85 billion in acrossthe-board spending cuts a few hours before the midnight deadline required by law. Today’s Birthdays: Actor Robert Clary is 88. Singer Harry Belafonte is 87. Actor Robert Conrad is 79. Rock singer Mike D’Abo (Manfred Mann) is 70. Former Sen. John Breaux, D-La., is 70. Rock singer Roger Daltrey is 70. Actor Dirk Benedict is 69. Actor Alan Thicke is 67. Actor-director Ron Howard is 60. Actress Catherine Bach is 60. Country singer Janis Gill (aka Janis Oliver Cummins) (Sweethearts of the Rodeo) is 60. Actor Tim Daly is 58. Thought for Today: “Keep the circus going inside you, keep it going, don’t take anything too seriously, it’ll all work out in the end.” — David Niven, British actor (born this date in 1910, died 1983).
TUESDAY, MARCH 4 Meeting of Webb County Community Coalition. 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. San Martin De Porres Catholic Church, 1704 Sandman St. Guest speaker representatives from Laredo Police Department’s Community Relations/Crime Prevention Unit. Tips for safe and drugfree spring break. Contact Veronica Jimenez at 724-3177 or veronica.jimenez@scan-inc.org. Pre-Lenten all-you-can-eat pancake supper. 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. First United Methodist Church’s Fellowship Hall, 1220 McClelland Ave. Free, but donations accepted. Contact Sue Webber at 722-1674 or fumc_office@sbcglobal.net. Meeting of Alzheimer’s support group. 7 p.m. Meeting Room 2, Building B, Laredo Medical Center. For family members and caregivers. Call Melissa L. Guerra at 693-9991. Les Amies meeting. 11:30 a.m. Holiday Inn. Hostesses are Alicia Valdez, Sama Velasquez and Viola Gonzalez. Honorees are Alicia Zuñiga, Alicia Veronica Salinas and Maria Luz Bustamante. Contact Ma Eugenia Garcia at 740-2228.
THURSDAY, MARCH 6 Los Amigos Duplicate Bridge Club. 1:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. Laredo Country Club. Call Beverly Cantu at 7270589 “Visiones del Anáhuac” exhibit opening reception. 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Villa Antigua Border Heritage Museum, 810 Zaragoza St. Exhibit features paintings by renowned Mexican landscape artists José María Velasco. Call 7270977 or visit webbheritage.org.
FRIDAY, MARCH 7 Christian Life Seminar: What It Means To Be A Christian. 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., every Friday until April 11. San Martin De Porres Catholic Church’s St. Elizabeth Room. Free. Light snacks served. Contact Leah Cayanan at 2860654 or leigh.cayanan@gmail.com.
SATURDAY, MARCH 8 Affordable Care Act Information and Enrollment session. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. UTHSC Regional Campus, 1937 E. Bustamante St. Navigators and certified application counselors available. Bring personal identification and income verification. Call 712-0037.
MONDAY, MARCH 10 Zapata County Commissioners Court meeting. 9 a.m. Zapata County Courthouse. Call Roxy Elizondo at 7659920.
Photo by LM Otero/file | AP
Eagle Stadium at Allen High School, in Allen, is shown on Aug. 28, 2012. The $60 million high school stadium that got national attention for its grandeur — and its price tag — will be shut down indefinitely just 18 months after its opening, North Texas school district officials said Thursday, for an examination of cracking in the concrete of the stadium’s concourse.
Cracks force closure ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALLEN — A $60 million Texas high school stadium that got national attention for its grandeur and price tag will be shut down indefinitely 18 months after its opening, school district officials said Thursday. Eagle Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Allen will be closed until at least June for an examination of “extensive cracking” in the concrete of the stadium’s concourse, the district said in a statement Thursday. The closure will likely affect home games at the stadium this fall, the district said. Built in 2012 as part of a $120 million bond issue, Eagle Stadium seats 18,000 people and sports a 38-foot-wide video board. Eagle Stadium’s opening was a moment of triumph for the community of Allen, a fast-growing Dallas suburb that has become home to a
State to sell alcohol at some sports events AUSTIN — Texas will begin selling beer and wine at some athletic events, starting Friday at the Texas softball invitational tournament. Texas has long banned alcohol sales at athletic events. New men’s athletic director Steve Patterson said the school will sell beer and wine at the final men’s and women’s basketball games, softball, baseball and the Texas Relays track event.
Clinton helps honor Cisneros in San Antonio SAN ANTONIO — Former President Bill Clinton came to Texas to help honor Henry Cisneros, a former San Antonio mayor who served as housing secretary in the Clinton administration. Clinton praised Cisneros on Wednesday in San Antonio as “by a long stretch the finest secretary of housing of all.”
high school football powerhouse. The Eagles won the Class 5A Division I state championship last year. District officials defended the cost — an eye-popping figure even in football-mad Texas, home to hundreds of schools playing under the “Friday Night Lights” — by calling the stadium an investment for generations of future Eagles fans and a much-needed upgrade from the district’s previous 35-year-old field. They planned to host state playoff games and other events at Eagle Stadium. Instead, the district’s graduation ceremonies will be affected and all other events are now on hold. “This is a significant investment for our community. We are very disappointed and upset that these problems have arisen,” said interim superintendent Beth Nicholas said.
NASA gives $100K grant to Man incompetent for trial Texas A&M-Galveston in pentagram incident GALVESTON — NASA has awarded Texas A&M University at Galveston a one-year, $100,000 grant to fund study of why seaweed is infesting Texas beaches. A university statement Thursday says the Sargassum seaweed carpets any of the 376 miles of Texas shoreline periodically but unpredictably.
Officials jailed on meetings violation WESLACO — Four top officials of Weslaco and a former top official spent the afternoon in jail after they were charged with violating the state Open Meetings Act. The five are accused of meeting after the city election but before the newly elected allies of the commission minority were sworn in. The Monitor of McAllen reports a commission complained to District Attorney Rene Guerra.
FORT WORTH — A North Texas man charged with carving a pentagram into his 6-year-old son’s back has been declared incompetent for trial. Authorities say Brent Troy Bartel in December 2012 called 911, made religious comments and said he etched a pentagram on his son. Investigators believe the father used a box cutter to wound the boy.
Man dies after re-entering burning Plano home PLANO — A man has died after re-entering a burning home in suburban Dallas to get his cell phone. Fire officials say people should never go back into a burning home or building, noting that fire and smoke conditions quickly change and a fastmoving fire and toxic smoke can quickly incapacitate a person. — Compiled from AP reports
THURSDAY, MARCH 13 42nd Annual Zapata County Fair. 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Zapata County Fairgrounds.
FRIDAY, MARCH 14 42nd Annual Zapata County Fair. 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Zapata County Fairgrounds.
SATURDAY, MARCH 15 42nd Annual Zapata County Fair. 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Zapata County Fairgrounds.
MONDAY, MARCH 24 Zapata County Commissioners Court meeting. 9 a.m. Zapata County Courthouse. Call Roxy Elizondo at 7659920.
MONDAY, APRIL 14 Zapata County Commissioners Court meeting. 9 a.m. Zapata County Courthouse. Call Roxy Elizondo at 7659920. Submit calendar items at lmtonline.com/calendar/submit or by emailing editorial@lmtonline.com.
AROUND THE NATION Court: School can ban US flag shirts for safety SAN FRANCISCO — Officials at a high school acted appropriately when they ordered students wearing American flag T-shirts to turn the garments inside out during the Mexican heritage celebration Cinco de Mayo, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the officials’ concerns of racial violence outweighed students’ freedom of expression rights. Administrators feared the American-flag shirts would enflame the passions of Latino students celebrating the Mexican holiday. Live Oak High School had a history of problems between white and Latino students on that day.
Town with foul-mouthed ex-chief to close dept. GILBERTON, Pa. — A week after a Pennsylvania borough an-
CONTACT US
Photo by Erin Stubblefield | AP
Wissam Akiki, who is married, left, serves his daughter, Perla, communion after being ordained during a ceremony at St. Raymond’s Maronite Cathedral on Thursday, in St. Louis. Akiki is the first married priest to be ordained by the Maronite Catholic Church in the United States in nearly a century. nounced the departure of its polarizing police chief, officials have voted to begin the process to abolish its police department. Former Chief Mark Kessler was the only officer on the Gilberton police force. He reached a settlement last week that allowed
him to retire from the force. Gilberton officials suspended Kessler last year and tried to fire him after he posted videos of himself shooting borough-owned automatic weapons and cursing liberals and others. — Compiled from AP reports
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Nation
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A
Calif. storm said not a drought buster By JUSTIN PRITCHARD ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — California was lashed Friday by heavy rains that the parched state so desperately needs, though with the soaking came familiar problems: traffic snarls, power outages and the threat of mudslides. Even with rainfall totals exceeding 8 inches in some Southern California mountains by afternoon, the powerful Pacific storm did not put a major dent in a drought that is among the worst in recent California history. The first waves of the storm drenched foothill communities east of Los Angeles that just weeks ago were menaced by a wildfire — and now faced potential mudslides. Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for about 1,200 homes in the area. Small debris flows covered one street in Glendora, but no property damage occurred, police said. Forecasters expected the storm to last through Saturday in California before trundling east into similarly rain-starved neighboring states. Phoenix was expecting its first noticeable precipitation in two months. The storm was projected to head east across the Rockies before petering out in the Northeast in several days. The threat of mudslides will last at least through Saturday night. Tornadoes and water spouts were possible. Rainfall totals in parts of California were impressive, especially in areas that typically don’t receive much, but not nearly enough to offer long-term relief from a long-running drought. Downtown Los Angeles received about 2 inches — doubling its total for the rainy season that began in July, the National Weather
Service said. The city remained 7 inches below the normal 11 inches. The last time a storm dumped 2 inches of rain in Los Angeles was March 2011. “We need several large storms and we just don’t see that on the horizon. This is a rogue storm,” National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Boldt said. “We will dry out next week.” But for this rain, the service said, this would have been the driest December through February on record in Los Angeles. In Glendora, a city about 25 miles east of Los Angeles that sits beneath nearly 2,000 acres of steep mountain slopes stripped by fire in January, a muddy soup of debris began to fill catch basins. With the vegetation gone, little held the dirt and rock in place. Homes were spared. Skip loaders scraped tons of mud off a road that funneled ooze, large rocks and other debris from a damlike catch basin below the burn area down the steep roadway. Andrew Geleris, 59, of Pomona, spent the night with his 87-year-old mother at her home near the catch basin. “I tried to talk her into evacuating yesterday,” he said, “but she’s just stubborn.” Meteorologists posted flood watches for many other areas denuded by fires over the past two years, and also warned of potential coastal flooding. Rain also fell along the central coast, the San Francisco Bay area and Central Valley. Winter storm warnings were in effect in the Sierra Nevada. About 15 inches of new snow had fallen by mid-day Friday at the University of California, Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab located at 6,900 feet elevation. Earlier in the week, the state Department of Water
Photo by Ringo H.W. Chiu | AP
Workers try to help a woman to get her car unstuck from the mud brought by the rain along a hillside in Glendora, Calif., on Friday. The first wave of a powerful Pacific storm spread rain and snow early Friday through much of California, where communities endangered by a wildfire just weeks ago now faced the threat of mud and debris flows. Resources found that the Sierra snowpack had water content at only 24 percent of average for the date. “All these (storm) events move us a little higher up, but we’re still well below average,” said researcher Randall Osterhuber. Farmer Ray Gene Veldhuis, who grows almonds, walnuts and pistachios and runs a 2,300-cow dairy in the Central Valley’s Merced County, welcomed the wet weather but knew it would not rescue California from drought. “Hopefully, they keep coming,” Veldhuis said of the storms. “If not, we’ll deal with the hand we’re dealt.” In neighboring Fresno County, a man was struck by lightning while looking
for work at an oil field, officials said. He was found unconscious and taken to the hospital. The storm did more than force Californians to reacquaint themselves with their rain gear. Numerous traffic accidents occurred on slick or flooded roads across California, including one about 60 miles east of Los Angeles involving a big rig whose driver died after falling from a freeway overpass. Two men and their dogs were rescued from the swift waters of the Los Angeles River. A few miles downriver, another man was pulled out and carried to safety. Hundreds of miles north in San Jose, firefighters also pulled a man from swollen Coyote
Creek near a homeless encampment. Power outages hit about 32,000 customers, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Southern California Edison said. The storm was good news for other Californians who didn’t have to worry about mudslides. Kite-surfer Chris Strong braved pelting rain to take advantage of strong winds that gave him about an hour of fun over the pounding surf in the Sunset Beach enclave of Huntington Beach. “I don’t get to kite here in these conditions very often — only a handful of times — but you put them in the memory bank,” he said. Surf schools in San Die-
go cancelled lessons, and asked their customers to be patient. “It’s unruly out there now but when the storm settles and it cleans up, there will be the best waves in the next few days,” said Rick Gehris of Surfari Surf School. Storms this winter mostly began in the Pacific Northwest and followed a U-shaped path across the country. This latest storm originated farther south and is “taking a beeline across the middle of the country,” said warning meteorologist Greg Carbin at the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. “It’s a different than other storms we’ve seen so far, but this is nothing all that unusual,” he said.
PAGE 4A
Zopinion
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO EDITORIAL@LMTONLINE.COM
OTHER VIEWS
Why vote when races decided? AUSTIN — Primary day approacheth. The outcomes, of course, already are decided. We don’t know what they are, but history tells us votes cast Tuesday merely will confirm decisions made by the folks who cast ballots during the early voting period that ended Friday. For example, in winning re-election in 2010, Gov. Rick Perry got 56.8 percent of the early vote and 55 percent of the total vote. Challenger Bill White got 40.7 percent of the early vote and 42.3 percent of the total vote. It was the same in all top statewide races, with the early vote outcomes within a few percentage points of the total vote. All this means is that early voting is a large enough sample to produce statistically significant results. It actually would be more shocking if the votes cast on an election day produced much of a different outcome. Here’s some of what I’ll be watching for when votes are counted. The big show is the four-way race for the GOP lieutenant governor nomination featuring incumbent David Dewhurst against Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples and state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston. A Dewhurst-Patrick runoff seems a smart bet. One way or another, the GOP battle could end three political careers, with the survivor moving on as heavy favorite to beat Democratic state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio in November for the right to preside in the state Senate when it convenes in January. The GOP battle is mostly one of style. There’s not much policy difference among the four men, and the type of legislation the 2015 Senate will pass probably would be about the same under each of them. But this race could be a litmus test in the wake of Dewhurst’s surprise 2012 loss to tea party favorite Ted Cruz in the U.S. Senate race. Thanks to upward mobility availability caused by Perry’s decision not to seek re-election, we’ve got the greatest of GOP statewide intramural battles in Texas history, including for nominations for attorney general, comptroller and agriculture commissioner. George P. Bush will win the land commissioner nomination. Primary night’s best fun could come in both party’s battles for the
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KEN HERMAN
nomination to be atop the November ticket as U.S. Senate nominee. On the GOP side, twoterm incumbent John Cornyn’s a heavy favorite. But challenger U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman, an oddity of a politician from Friendswood, wants Repubs to believe Cornyn is dangerously moderate. And there’s a six-pack of even lesserknowns in the GOP field. Anything less than a Cornyn win without a runoff would be a huge embarrassment for him. So that could be fun. And for those of us who like major chaos in our politics, a recent poll showed that the leader in the battle for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination is Kesha Rogers, who favors the impeachment of Democratic President Barack Obama. It’s a field of five candidates you’ve never heard of, so a runoff is probable. Rogers is a LaRouche Democrat. Google it yourself. I’ve given up on trying to explain LaRouche Democrats, though I do recall they’re named for 91year-old Lyndon LaRouche, who seems to believe much of the world is out to get him and Britain’s reigning monarch is a drug queenpin. One thing to look for the Dem side is total turnout, which could serve as a measure of heightened interest resulting from state Sen. Wendy Davis’ attentiongetting gubernatorial race. As a benchmark, in 2010, the most recent gubernatorial race, 680,548 votes were cast in the Dem primary, compared with 1,484,542 on the GOP side. One last thing, and it’s a reason to care about the ag commissioner race. There’s a great opportunity here on the Dem side. How about if we deal Kinky Friedman such a crushing defeat that the singer/author/ cigar salesman/perpetual perpetually unqualified candidate is dissuaded from such look-at-me candidacies in the future? Voting against Friedman might be the best reason to go to the polls Tuesday. (And let’s hope the early voters already have said no to Friedman.) Ken Herman is a columnist for the Austin American-Statesman. Email: kherman@statesman.com.
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
Thoughts of liberal Dems By ANDREW KOHUT SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST
Among Democrats who call themselves liberal: 36 percent: Think most people can get ahead if they work hard 39 percent: Think reducing the budget deficit is a top national priority 44 percent: Say they have old-fashioned values about
family and marriage 62 percent: Think the government can do a lot to reduce poverty 54 percent: Think it’s acceptable if another country is as powerful as the United States 54 percent: Have a favorable view of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Source: Pew Research Center
YOUR OPINION University student from Venezuela discusses unrest, government’s reaction, in his country To the editor: While many of us welcome the morning with a cup of hot coffee while we tune in on the news, or even check up on social networks such as Twitter, there are people around the world who are denied these very privileges we take for granted. More importantly, there are people whose very human rights are being violated by a despotic government, and whose cries for help have been surging all over the media for the past two weeks. My name is Adolfo Lopez and I am a Texas A&M International University student who was raised in Venezuela. I’m writing this to inform people of the situation in Venezuela from the perspective of a person who has personally been there in several protests and wishes
to contribute to the cause. Since Feb. 12, on International Youth Day, students took matters into their own hands by protesting against the socio-economic crisis caused by the illegitimate government Venezuela has. While students peacefully march their way through the country, many paramilitary groups have been armed by the government and given a green light to disrupt the peaceful protest which eventually leads to the military taking aggressive measures against the unarmed students. The fact is that Venezuela’s military has been treating these students with aggressive force. Due to the media shut down the government has imposed, there is little information about how many students have been murdered in these pro-
tests, many have been incarcerated, and are being tortured with no rights to due process or communication. The government has shut down one of the people’s most important weapon against this injustice, their freedom of speech, and most particularly that of the press. The protests in Venezuela arose due to the lack of basic resources such as milk, eggs, toilet paper, etc., as well as the instability of various government institutions. Also, the moment a person chose to take the risk of becoming a “voice,” the government exerted its entire force against him. The opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, was just incarcerated on Feb. 18 for standing against Maduro and his illegitimate government, and we have been
looking to set forth peaceful routes for political discourse; it seems impossible in the midst of political repression. Information is traveling at the speed of light; for this reason we should have the capacity to adapt our international policies to better serve those whose human rights are being violated. No country should remain silent. The United States should demonstrate that its international policy is based on principles and not self-interest. I believe that the United Nations and any country that seeks to join the cause to unite under one same ideal should to uphold human rights and the establishment of a true democracy. Sincerely, Adolfo Lopez
WORST WEEK IN WASHINGTON
Dem senator had a bad week By CHRIS CILLIZZA THE WASHINGTON POST
Things were going so well for Democratic Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado. Sure, he sits in a swing state, and recent polls show that he is hurting from the national troubles of the rocky health-care rollout. But Republicans — stop me if you’ve heard this one — couldn’t seem to get their act together for this year’s midterm election. The GOP looked ready to nominate District Attorney Ken Buck,
the same Ken Buck who lost what looked like a lay-up race against freshman Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in 2010. Then, in a turn of events that would make the “House of Cards” writers blush, this past week Rep. Cory Gardner, a rising Republican star who had previously spurned a challenge to Udall, decided to run. Buck quickly dropped out of the race to run for Gardner’s now-open 4th Congressional District seat. State Rep. Amy Stephens also
abandoned her Senate candidacy, calling Gardner “the great uniter.” And voila! Within 48 hours, Udall went from being a safe incumbent to being one of the half-dozen or so most endangered senators on the ballot this fall. Udall has plenty of strengths, with or without Gardner in the race. Chief among them is the $5 million in his campaign account. And while Gardner is a significant improvement from the D-list candidates Republicans had earli-
er, he is still a member of a decidedly unpopular congressional GOP. A week ago, Udall was plotting committee assignments in the 114th Congress. Today he is bracing for a real fight for a second term. Mark Udall, for watching your opponent turn from a frog to a prince, you had the worst week in Washington. Congrats, or something. Cillizza covers the White House for The Washington Post and writes The Fix, its politics blog.
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DOONESBURY FLASHBACKS | GARRY TRUDEAU
State
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014
SAD ENDING FOR A GIANT TREE
THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A
Group: New evidence in murder case ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Torin Halsey/The Wichita Times-Record-News | AP
Workers from Dino’s Professional Tree Service use large and small chain saws on a 90-year-old Oak tree in the Country Club Addition on Friday, in Wichita Falls. Drought and old age are believed to have killed the giant, one of the largest in the area.
Peak power demands less ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Demand for electric power across Texas isn’t growing as fast as previously thought, even during the hottest hours of summer, the operator of the electric distribution grid for most of the state said Friday. A new 10-year outlook released by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas shows power reserve margins of 13 percent by June 1 — below its 13.75 percent target. But new power plants totaling
more than 2,100 megawatts of capacity are scheduled to begin operating by August, increasing reserve margins to 16 percent. Even as much of the state’s population and energy demand continues to rise, peak-hour summer reserve margins are forecast to be 15.4 percent by 2015 and 14.1 percent the following year. They aren’t expected to fall below targets now until 2017. An ERCOT report last May had predicted a far greater chance of supply
outpacing demand in the near future. It showed reserves failing to hit target levels this summer, and then dipping to 6.9 percent by 2015. ERCOT cited the new plants and more efficient power use by consumers — including changing incandescent light bulbs to LED lights and relying on energy-saving appliances — for the rosier picture. It also highlighted improvements to its load forecasting methodology, which the report said gives a more-accurate pic-
ture of future demand. “Although population and the economy continue to grow in the ERCOT region, the relationship between economic growth and peak electric demand has changed in the past several years,” Warren Lasher, ERCOT director of system planning, said in a statement. “We believe recent improvements to our load forecasting methodology are providing a more realistic view of the future electric demand we need to be prepared to serve.”
AUSTIN — The Innocence Project argued Friday that newly discovered documents undermine the credibility of a key witness against a Texas man executed for the deaths of his three children based in part on arson evidence that has since been WILLINGHAM deemed faulty. The New York-based nonprofit said it has discovered a handwritten note that suggests a prosecutor gave a lesser charge to informant Johnny Webb, who testified that Cameron Todd Willingham told Webb he killed his daughters in 1991. That would contradict claims made at trial by Webb and prosecutor John Jackson that Webb did not receive consideration for his testimony. “It’s astonishing that 10 years after Todd Willingham was executed we are still uncovering evidence showing what a grave injustice this case represents,” Barry Scheck, the Innocence Project’s co-director, said in a statement. Willingham’s case has been scrutinized by advocates who argue the state may have executed a wrongfully convicted man. Fire science experts already have refuted much of the methodology used in his case. In a new filing Friday with the state pardon board, The Innocence Project said Jackson worked to have Webb’s charge re-
duced from an aggravated offense with a deadly weapon to a second-degree felony. Included in the filing is a handwritten note, found in files turned over by current prosecutors, that mentions a second-degree robbery offense “based on coop in Willingham.” The note is not signed or dated. Jackson, the former district attorney in Navarro County, south of Dallas, who later became a state district judge, has maintained that Webb did not receive leniency. He told The Associated Press on Friday that he had not seen the note, but believed it was likely referring to efforts he made to get Webb out of prison after Willingham’s trial due to threats on Webb’s safety. “The file may certainly reflect that we tried to get sentencing shortened, but it had nothing to do with any agreement relative to the Willingham trial,” Jackson said. Jackson said imprisoned members of the Aryan Brotherhood had threatened Webb due to his role in Willingham’s conviction. “We certainly had an interest in not seeing a primary witness in the case killed while he was in prison,” he said. Lowell Thompson, the current Navarro County district attorney, confirmed the note was in the files he allowed the Innocence Project to inspect, but did not take a position on it. “I’ve seen it, but I’m not familiar with anything it might mean or it might not mean,” Thompson said Friday.
PÁGINA 6A
Zfrontera REYNOSA, MÉXICO
Agenda en Breve
Rescatan a 61
SÁBADO 1 DE MARZO 03/01— First United Methodist Church realizará una venta de libros usados, desde las 8:30 a.m. a la 1 p.m. en 1220 McClelland Ave. Libros de pasta dura a 1 dólar; pasta blanda a .50 centavos; revistas y libros infantiles a .25 centavos. 03/01— La Asociación Laredo Northside invita al Mercado de 9 a.m. a 1 p.m. en el área de juegos del North Central Park. Habrá venta de productos naturales, de jardinería, comida, manualidades y organizaciones comerciales y sin fines de lucro. 03/01— BÉISBOL— El equipo de béisbol de TAMIU se estará enfrentando al de Oklahoma Christian University a las 12 p.m. en el campo Jorge Haynes. Admisión 5 dólares y gratuito para estudiantes con credencial de la universidad. Más información ingresando a GoDustdevils.com. 03/01— SOFTBALL — El equipo de softball de TAMIU se estará enfrentando al de Oklahoma Panhandle a las 12 p.m. en el campo Dustdevil. Admisión 5 dólares y gratuito para estudiantes con credencial de la universidad. Más información ingresando a GoDustdevils.com. 03/01— Se presentará “Encanto Español 2014”, en el Teatro del Centro de Bellas Artes y Artes Escénicas de TAMIU, a las 8 p.m. Información sobre los boletos llamando al 326.2654. 03/03— Se presentará el Recital del Trio Verlaine dentro del Salón de Recitales del Center for the Fine and Performing Arts de TAMIU, a las 7:30 p.m. Evento gratuito. Más información llamando al 326.2654. 03/04— Se llevará a cabo el evento pre-cuaresmal “Come todos los hotcakes que puedas”, de 6 p.m. a 7:30 p.m. en First United Methodist Church, ubicada en 1220 de McClelland. Evento gratuito, pero se pueden realizar donaciones. 03/04— Se realizará el Laredo Concierto Competition dentro del Salón de Recitales del Center for the Fine and Performing Arts de TAMIU a las 6 p.m. Evento gratuito y abierto al público. Más información llamando al 326.2654. 03/05— Se presenta el Recital Voice Studio Midterm dentro del Salón de Recitales del Center for the Fine and Performing Arts de TAMIU a las 7:30 p.m. Evento gratuito. Más información llamando al 326.2654. 03/06— El recital de aperture de Alumnos de Arte de TAMIU tendrá lugar en la Galería de Bellas Artes y Artes Escénicas de la universidad a las 6 p.m. Evento gratuito y abierto al público. Más información llamando al 326-2654.
NUEVO LAREDO, MÉXICO 03/01— Universidad del Norte de Tamaulipas invita “Encuentro de Migrantes” a partir de las 10 a.m. con Visita en la Casa de la Migrante; a la 1 p.m. con Comida en la Iglesia Santo Niño; a las 2 p.m. una plática con Eduardo Canales con el tema “La Migración y sus Efectos”. 03/01— Concierto “Rock, Arte y Lucha” a las 5:30 p.m. en Maquila Creativa. Entrada libre. 03/02— Cine en tu barrio presenta “La Princesita” a las 4 p.m. en el Centro Comunitario Nueva Victoria, Blvd. Rea entre Triunfo y Artículo 25. Entrada libre. 03/03— Se estará presentando la obra de teatro “Tic, Tac…Boom”, a las 7 y 9:30 p.m. en el teatro principal del Centro Cultural. Boletos a la venta en el 7112732.
SÁBADO 1 DE MARZO DE 2014
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO — Militares liberaron a 61 inmigrantes, en su mayoría centroamericanos, que presuntamente se encontraban secuestrados en una localidad mexicana frontera con Estados Unidos. La Secretaría de Gobernación informó el jueves en un comunicado que los 33 guatemaltecos, 20 salvadoreños, cuatro hondureños, tres
mexicanos y un nicaragüense fueron localizados dentro de un inmueble dentro del Fraccionamiento “Las Fuentes” en la ciudad de Reynosa, Tamaulipas, que es frontera con McAllen. La dependencia señaló que todos eran inmigrantes que declararon haber permanecido privados de su libertad por 15 días y que sus captores les exigían entre 3.500 y 6.000 dólares para que los cruzaran a Esta-
dos Unidos. Gobernación no informó si se detuvo a alguno de los supuestos plagiarios, ni si cree que pertenecen a algún grupo del narcotráfico que en los últimos años han sido señalados de plagiar inmigrantes. Carteles de las drogas como Los Zetas y el Golfo han sido acusados en el pasado de secuestrar inmigrantes centroamericanos que cruzan territorio mexicano para inten-
tar llegar a Estados Unidos. Tamaulipas ha sido uno de los estados donde los inmigrantes han enfrentado más riesgos. San Fernando, una municipalidad de Tamaulipas, fue escenario en agosto de 2010 de la peor masacre hasta ese momento cuando marinos encontraron dentro de un rancho los cuerpos de 72 inmigrantes acribillados por negarse a integrar a las filas del cartel de Los Zetas.
TAMAULIPAS
NACIONAL
PROYECTO
EU revisa opciones sobre Venezuela POR LUIS ALONSO LUGO ASSOCIATED PRESS
Foto de cortesía | Gobierno de Tamaulipas
Autoridades del vecino Estado de Tamaulipas, entre ellos el Gobernador Egidio Torre Cantú, sobre el helicóptero, presentaron el Proyecto Integral Puerto de Matamoros, que presenta una inversión de más de 726 millones de pesos.
Presentan inversión millonaria TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
A
utoridades del vecino Estado de Tamaulipas, realizaron la presentación del Proyecto Integral Puerto de Matamoros, que presenta una inversión de más de 726 millones de pesos. Durante la ceremonia el Gobernador del Estado, Egidio Torre Cantú enfatizó los años de preparación que ha requerido el proyecto. “Sin duda alguna que este proyecto del Puerto de Matamoros, que es un anhelo de muchos años, es ahora una realidad de obra física”, dijo Torre Cantú. Se espera que las obras sean concluidas para el primer semestre de 2015. Así mismo el gobernador expresó que con las obras se planea tener una visión futurista tanto para el estado como para el país de México. “La participación de Pemex sin duda ha sido el detonante de este proyecto a través de la reforma energética en el noreste del país, donde Tamaulipas será un gran protagonista por todas las ventajas que hay en esta entidad”, añadió Torre Cantú. Cabe destacar que las ventajas logísticas del Puerto de Matamoros es su inte-
gración al Corredor Económico del Norte, así como su importancia para establecer una comunicación entre el pacifico y el atlántico, además de convertirse en el puerto marítimo más cercano a Estados Unidos y para Pemex un puerto fundamental por las exploraciones que se están haciendo en la perforación de pozos petroleros. De igual forma, se tiene como objetivos contar con un sistema logístico operativo eficiente en las actividades de perforación de pozos petroleros en aguas profundas, reducir los tiempos y costos de traslado de materiales mediante la operación de una cadena de suministros accesible en tierra, mar o aire y reducir los tiempos de traslado de personal hacia plataforma, principalmente ante la presencia de contingencias operativas y climatológicas. El proyecto contempla la reconstrucción de 64 kilómetros de pavimento asfáltico, de los cuales ya se concluyeron 27, continuar los trabajos en las escolleras para que estas tengan una longitud de 500 metros cada una, con el objetivo de que el puerto no se azolve tan fácilmente, así como con el dragado del canal de navegación en una extensión de 3 kilómetros de largo, con 80 metros de ancho y una profundidad de ocho metros.
WASHINGTON — El secretario de Estado de EU John Kerry dijo el viernes que Washington revisará sus opciones ante un proyecto de resolución presentado la víspera en el Senado, que busca aplicar sanciones a funcionarios venezolanos considerados cómplices en la represión de las manifestaciones opositoras. “Examinaremos cada aspecto de lo que está disponible para nosotros como una opción”, dijo Kerry en conferencia de prensa cuando una periodista le preguntó su opinión sobre el proyecto legislativo de negar y revocar visados y congelar los bienes de los funcionarios venezolanos. El proyecto fue presentado por el presidente de la comisión de Relaciones Exteriores del Senado, el demócrata por Nueva Jersey Robert Menéndez, y el republicano por Florida Marco Rubio. “No es inapropiado que el Congreso u otros debatan y piensen qué incentivos y medidas son apropiadas para decisiones que se han tomado o que no se han tomado y afectan profundamente los derechos de las personas”, agregó Kerry refiriéndose a las protestas que durante las últimas tres semanas han dejado al menos 17 muertes, 261 heridos y 55 detenidos. Durante una conferencia de prensa ofrecida tras reunirse con la canciller colombiana María Angela Holguín, Kerry señaló que “estamos trabajando muy de cerca con Colombia y otros países para ver cómo alguna mediación pudiera ocurrir”. La portavoz del Departamento de Estado, Jen Psaki, dijo posteriormente que “un moderador externo puede ser necesario. Se debe tomar una decisión sobre quién tiene la confianza de ambas partes para ser moderador”. Kerry reiteró su llamado a las autoridades venezolanas a sostener un diálogo con sus ciudadanos. "Me parece que lo que tiene pasar ahora es que el gobierno venezolano trate con sus propios ciudadanos. Ellos necesitan abrirse, tener un diálogo", señaló. Holguín se abstuvo de emitir comentarios sobre su nación vecina. El ex presidente estadounidense Jimmy Carter ofreció esta semana reunirse con funcionarios gubernamentales y con el líder opositor Henrique Capriles. El debate sobre la posibilidad de aplicar sanciones a funcionarios gubernamentales se desarrolla mientras persiste la incertidumbre sobre si el Consejo Permanente de la Organización de los Estados Americanos celebrará una sesión extraordinaria solicitada por Panamá para abordar la situación venezolana. La reunión, prevista originalmente para el jueves 27, fue cancelada cuando Caracas alegó que incumplía con el procedimiento del organismo multilateral. El embajador venezolano ante la OEA, Roy Chaderton, solicitó la nulidad de la convocatoria emitida la víspera para la reunión extraordinaria solicitada por Panamá argumentando que fue efectuada en ausencia del presidente del Consejo Permanente, el dominicano Pedro Vergés.
COLUMNA
Destacan historia de himno mexicano (En esta historia Raúl Sinecio nos narra el surgimiento del Himno Nacional Mexicano y la relación que el compositor tuvo con el estado de Tamaulipas. Primera de dos partes).
POR RAUL SINENCIO ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
A veces sutiles, entre el Himno Nacional Mexicano y Tamaulipas existen nexos únicos. Si seguimos la huella, recorreremos así ruta de lectura. Con breves renglones basta.
Patria
Incluso decenios adentro, el siglo XIX fue difícil para los mexicanos. A contrapelo de tantas desventuras, sin embargo, buscaron establecer una y otra vez el himno del país, estimulados quizás por los precedentes de La Marsellesa. Lo intentaron al menos en 11 ocasiones. Por desgracia, ninguna tentativa funcionó. Uno de los esfuerzos postreros en cierta forma nos remite a suelo tamaulipeco. Hacia 1849, efectivamente, mediante riguroso certamen la Academia de San Juan de Letrán quiso ponerle letra a bien lograda
marcha. Era autor de la partitura Henry Herz, pianista austriaco recién llegado. Vino con el holandés Franz Coenen, quien luego visitó la entidad, presentándose en Tampico como virtuoso del violín. La relación con Tamaulipas rebasa este pasaje. Porque Andrés Davis Bradburn –compadre de Francisco González Bocanegra—escribió los versos ganadores en 1849: “Nada importa morir si con gloria/ una bala enemiga nos hiere,/ que es inmenso placer, al que muere/ ver su enseña triunfante ondear”.
Descendía Andrés del angloamericano John Bradburn, que con Xavier Mina protagonizara la expedición insurgente de 1817, desembarcada en Soto la Marina, habiéndole prestado servicios a su patria adoptiva. Vecino de Matamoros, Tamaulipas, John Bradburn ahí moriría al despuntar aquella década, exaltándolo Manuel Payno in memoriam.
Glorias Olvidada pronto la pieza musical, el vínculo tamaulipeco repuntó al encabe-
zar el régimen centralista Antonio López de Santa Anna. El Ministerio de Fomento convocó en 1853 a enésimo concurso para el cántico patrio. Vencieron las estrofas compuestas por González Bocanegra, una de las cuales ensalzaba al caudillo: “Del guerrero inmortal de Zempoala/ te defiende la espada terrible,/ y sostiene su brazo invencible/ tu sagrado tricolor”. Con acordes de Jaime Nunó — catalán que como director general de bandas de guerra trajo de Cuba el “guerrero inmortal”—, sería estrenada la obra el 15 de septiembre de 1854.
Nation
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014
THE ZAPATA TIMES 7A
Tea party ready for fight with GOP By DONNA CASSATA ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Tea partyers insist they’re not to blame for Republican election losses in congressional and presidential elections, faulting the GOP establishment for showing little fight. This election year, the establishment is fighting — against the tea party insurgents challenging incumbents who the Republican Party is convinced stand a far better chance in November. The internal GOP showdown will be decided in primaries starting Tuesday in Texas and stretching through the year in Kentucky, Mississippi, Kansas, Michigan and elsewhere. Burned by losses in winnable Senate races in 2010 and 2012, establishment Republicans are aggressively challenging this year’s class of tea party-backed candidates. Tea partyers, dismissing reports of their demise, say they’re ready to use their unbending political force against both President Barack Obama and the Republican establishment. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a superstar to the movement and a potential 2016 presidential candidate, says he’s hopeful and optimistic that “we’re going to turn this country around.” Hundreds gathered Thursday as the Tea Party Patriots, one of the major grassroots groups, marked the movement’s fifth anniversary at a Washington celebration that toasted everything anti-Washington. They stood and applauded wildly for Cruz, who precipitated the 16-day partial government shutdown last fall with his opposition to Obama’s health care law, and warmly received two other tea party senators, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah. Tea partyers, who helped Republicans capture control of the House in 2010, made
clear they don’t like what the GOP establishment has done to their conservative agenda of limited government, free-market policies and what they consider fidelity to the Constitution. They signaled they will work hard to elect their uncompromising candidates no matter what the establishment does. In Kansas, the Tea Party Express endorsed Milton Wolf, who is opposing threeterm Sen. Pat Roberts in the Republican primary. Cruz, who has helped raise money for groups targeting incumbent Republicans, has refused to endorse his state’s senior senator, John Cornyn, the Senate’s second-ranking Republican, in Tuesday’s primary. Cornyn faces Rep. Steve Stockman. “Liberals fight every step,” said Steve Gibson of Columbus, Ohio. Establishment Republicans, he said, say, “we can’t win, we might as well not fight.” Gibson said he had offered to help Matt Bevin, the Republican businessman challenging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. McConnell, according to Gibson, is conservative 70 percent of the time, but then “throwing in the towel every time.”
Gibson was particularly upset with McConnell’s recent votes on allowing the nation to borrow more money. Keli Carender, national grassroots coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, said the strength of the group was reflected in the $1.2 million and counting that it raised in 10 days. To the “establishment and permanent political class,” Carender said, “we don’t need their millions; we’ve got our own.” Republicans blame the tea party for losses in winnable races in 2010 and 2012 in Colorado, Nevada, Delaware and Indiana that many believe cost the GOP a Senate majority. As evidence of the party’s tough tactics, a political deal was engineered in Colorado. Tea party-affiliated Ken Buck, who lost a close Senate race in 2010, stepped aside to run for the House while more mainstream Rep. Cory Gardner launched a Senate bid. As Rob Collins, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said this week: “We’re not anti-conservative. We’re just anti-peoplewho-can’t-win.” Tea partyers point to mainstream Republicans who lost Senate seats in
Wisconsin, Virginia, North Dakota and Montana in 2012, as well as to two defeated presidential candidates — John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. Addressing the tea party event, Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., was interrupted by the crowd, which stood and cheered when he said, “It’s high time we retire (House Speaker) John Boehner.” When the applause died down, Huelskamp completed his sentence that it was “high time to retire John Boehner’s biggest excuse that we only control onethird of the government.” Viveca Stoneberry of Spotsylvania, Va., said she was disillusioned with the Republican leadership because Boehner and others “pretend to be on the side of conservatives.” Irene Conklin of Gainesville, Va., said Boehner needs to “take a
solid stand.” Boehner said Thursday that he has “great respect for the tea party and the energy they brought to the electoral process. My gripe is with some Washington organizations who feel like they’ve got to go raise money by beating on me and others.” If Boehner and McConnell were drawing the movement’s ire, Sen. Ted Cruz was collecting praise. He drew a rousing response when he told the crowd he was “absolutely convinced we are going to repeal every single word” of the health care law. Support for the tea party has declined slightly since 2010, when members rallied around opposition to the health care law. Just ahead of the 2010 elections, an Associated Press-GfK poll found that 30 percent of adults considered
themselves supporters of the tea party movement. By October 2013, that figure had dipped to 17 percent, then rebounded to 27 percent last month. Separately, a CBS NewsNew York Times poll this week found that 50 percent of Republicans who say they back the tea party complain that the party’s candidates are not conservative enough, while just 19 percent of non-tea party Republicans said the same. While tea partyers expressed frustration with the GOP, they were fierce in their opposition to Obama. Speakers described the president as an emperor, radical and socialist whose administration has abused its power. They railed against the Internal Revenue Service’s audits that they argue target conservatives and other political groups on the right.
8A THE ZAPATA TIMES
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014
Calif. ‘lifers’ leave prison at record pace By PAUL ELIAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO — For decades, California’s criminal justice policies ensured that murderers and others sentenced to life, with the possibility of parole, could expect to die in prison. And most of the time, they did. Since Gov. Jerry Brown assumed office in January 2011, a record number of inmates with life sentences are winning parole. Brown has allowed the release of nearly 1,400 lifers, while going along with the parole board about 82 percent of the time. Brown’s predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, authorized the release of 557 lifers during his six-year term, sustaining the board at a 27 percent clip. Before that, Gov. Gray Davis over 3 years approved the release of two. This dramatic shift in releases under Brown comes as the state grapples with court orders to ease a decades-long prison crowding crisis that has seen triple bunking, prison gyms turned into dormitories and inmates shipped out of state. Crime victims and their advocates have said the releases are an injustice to the victims and that the parolees could pose a danger to the public. More than 80 percent of lifers are in prison for murder, while the remaining are mostly rapists and kidnappers. “This is playing Russian roulette with public safety,” said Christine Ward, executive director of the Crime Victims Action Alliance. “This is a change of philosophy that can be dangerous.” Brown said he is bound by court orders that require state officials to ease the stringent parole requirements that have dramatically increased the time murderers spend in prison. Today, an inmate con-
Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez | AP
Ernest Morgan holds a computer video chat with a friend, while at home, in San Francisco, on Feb. 13. Morgan was released from San Quentin State Prison in 2011 after serving 24 years for the shotgun slaying of his stepsister as he burglarized his parents’ home. Record numbers of murderers and other convicts serving life sentences with the possibility of parole are being freed from California’s prisons as a result of key court rulings, new laws and efforts by officials to ease severe overcrowding at the state’s correctional facilities. victed of first-degree murders can expect to serve an average of 27 years— almost twice what it was two decades ago before California became the fourth state to give governors the politically fraught final decision on lifer paroles. Since then, the number of lifers has grown from 9,000 to 35,000 inmates, representing a quarter of the state prison population. But two seminal California Supreme Court rulings in 2008 have significantly eased tough parole restrictions. The court ordered prison officials to consider more than the severity of the applicant’s underlying crimes. It ruled that inmates’ records while incarcerated plus their volunteer work should count heavily in assessing early release. State figures show that since the rulings, the board
has granted parole to nearly 3,000 lifers, including 590 last year and a record 670 in 2012. In the three decades prior to the 2008 rulings, only about 1,800 such prisoners were granted parole. Davis reversed only two of 232 parole board decisions granting parole between 1999 and 2002 — a rate of 2 percent. Schwarzenegger sustained the board at a 27 percent clip during his seven years in office when he was presented with 2,050 paroles granted by the board. Brown has allowed 82 percent of the 1,590 paroles granted by the board. Brown’s office says he is operating under a different legal landscape than previous governors, and that he is following court rulings and a 23-year-old state law that gave governors the power to block paroles of lifers who the state board
Isle Royal wolf dies after park escape By JOHN FLESHER ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — One of the few remaining gray wolves of Isle Royale National Park has been found dead after escaping to the mainland across a Lake Superior ice bridge, a scientist said Tuesday. The 5-year-old female’s body was discovered earlier this month along the shoreline on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation in northeastern Minnesota, biologist Rolf Peterson of Michigan Technological University told The Associated Press. She apparently hadn’t been shot and the cause of death could not be determined immediately, he said. She had been severely wounded last year in attacks by other wolves. The dead wolf had been fitted with a radio collar and its serial numbers confirmed her identity, Peterson said. He and other scientists who study the island park’s wolves and moose had nicknamed her “Isabelle.” Her loss was a blow to an already struggling wolf population at Isle Royale, which has fallen sharply in recent years. Only eight remained in 2013, down from 24 just five years earlier. The population last year was the smallest since scientists began observing the island’s wolves in the 1950s. Three pups are believed to have been born in the past year, boosting the population to 11, although Isabelle’s death and the death of another adult on the island reduced it to nine. The slump has touched off a debate over whether humans should bring more wolves to the island to replenish the severely inbred population. Peter-
They spotted Isabelle wandering shoreline areas late last month. She was last seen Jan. 21. son and Michigan Tech biologist John Vucetich, longtime leaders of the study, are among scientists who support the idea. Others oppose it, saying nature should take its course. The National Park Service is weighing its options. This winter’s prolonged deep freeze has caused most of Lake Superior’s surface to freeze at times. Peterson and Vucetich had hoped that one or more wolves might use the opportunity to migrate from the mainland to the island, about 15 miles away, just as the park’s first wolves are believed to have done in the late 1940s. None have done so this year. But the scientists acknowledged there was also a chance that some of the Isle Royale wolves might head in the opposite direction. “There’s a tendency for people to think an ice bridge is a one-way street and will solve everything,” Peterson said in a phone call from the island. “We’ve been telling people it’s more likely that wolves will leave Isle Royale rather than come to Isle Royale.” Wolves are wanderers by nature and can cover many miles in a single day, he said. Despite their low numbers, their density on Isle Royale is actually high for their species. “On the mainland their density is lower, they have a lot more directions they can disperse to,” Peterson said. “Isle Royale wolves have a lot of reasons to leave ... and just one way to go.”
Peterson and Vucetich spend seven weeks at the snowbound wilderness park every winter studying the wolves and the moose on which they feed. It’s one of the world’s longest continuous studies of a predator-prey relationship in a closed ecosystem and has generated numerous discoveries. During their frequent observational flights in a small plane, they spotted Isabelle wandering shoreline areas late last month. She was last seen Jan. 21, heading toward the pack that had assaulted her last year, Peterson said. She may have veered across the ice that night. At age 3, she had had left the pack into which she was born, which is normal behavior for a wolf, Peterson said. “They disperse and look for vacant territory and an opportunity to mate,” he said. “But she’s been trapped on Isle Royale. She’d been traveling on her own for two years and never had pups.” Ice bridges in western Lake Superior were commonplace in the 1960s and 1970, and it’s likely that other wolves crossed them to reach Isle Royale in those days, Peterson said. But they’ve become increasingly scarce as Great Lakes ice cover has shrunk in recent decades, contrary to the widespread cover this winter. “That just isn’t going to work very well” as a way to build Isle Royale’s wolf numbers, he said. “Ice just is not forming the way it used to.”
found suitable for release. A Stanford University study of lifer paroles between 1990 and 2010 found that a murderer had a 6 percent chance of leaving prison alive since governors were given the power to veto board decisions. Gov. Pete Wilson, the first governor vested with veto power, used it sparingly, though the parole board was approving just a few dozen paroles a year compared with the hundreds the board has been approving in recent years. Between 1991 and when he left office in January 1999, he approved 115 of the 171, or 67 percent, of the lifers the board found suitable for release. “If an individual is eligible for parole and the board determines they are no longer a threat, the law says they must be paroled unless there is firm evidence indicating they are
still a threat,” Brown spokesman Evan Westrup said. The few studies of recidivism among released lifers including a Stanford University report show they re-offend at much lower rates than other inmates released on parole and none has been convicted of a new murder. Of the 860 murderers paroled between 1990 and 2010 that Stanford tracked, only five inmates committed new crimes and none were convicted of murder. The average released lifer is in his mid-50s. Experts say older ex-cons are less prone to commit new crimes than younger ones. Brown has reversed the parole board. On Friday, his office announced it blocked the parole of 100 inmates deemed fit by the board for release and sent two others back to the board for reconsideration.
One of those inmates found fit for release by the board but blocked by Brown was James Mackey, a former University of Pacific football player found guilty of shooting his victim with a crossbow and then strangling him. Brown said Mackey hasn’t sufficiently owned up to the crime. “Until he can give a better explanation for his actions,” Brown wrote, “I do not think he is ready to be released.” Ernest Morgan on the other hand, is a lifer Brown did let free. Morgan, a San Francisco man convicted of the shotgun slaying of his 14-yearold stepsister burglarizing the family home, was turned down for parole five times before the board granted him parole, only to be overruled by Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger wrote that Morgan posed “a current, unreasonable risk to public safety.” And he noted that Morgan had at one point claimed that the shotgun had gone off accidentally, although he later acknowledged his guilt to the parole board. “So I was devastated when Schwarzenegger denied my release,” said Morgan, who now is majoring in business management at San Francisco State. “I felt I was a political pawn who would never get out.” In 2011, Brown approved his release after 24 years in prison. Brown made no comment in granting Morgan his release. Instead, the governor signaled his approval by taking no action within 30 days of the parole board’s decision becoming official. “It’s been a remarkable and unexpected change,” said Johanna Hoffman, Morgan’s lawyer who has represented hundreds of lifers vying for parole since becoming a California lawyer in 2008. “The overcrowding issue has a huge amount to do with it.”
Marriage trial to start By ED WHITE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT — Two Detroit-area nurses walked hand-in-hand through a line of protesters Tuesday for a trial that could overturn Michigan’s ban on gay marriage, the latest in a series of marriageequality challenges across the country. The issue: Is there a legitimate state interest in restricting marriage to a man and a woman? Federal judges in recent weeks have struck down gay marriage bans in Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia without trials. At least 17 states and the District of Columbia now allow marriage by same-sex couples. “Nothing says family like a marriage license,” April DeBoer told reporters before entering the Detroit federal courthouse with Jayne Rowse, her partner of eight years. They walked past more than a dozen people who marched quietly on the sidewalk with signs declaring, “We support tra-
ditional marriage. One man, one woman.” Gay couples poised for a favorable ruling last fall had lined up for licenses at county offices across Michigan, only to be stunned when U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman said he wanted to hear testimony from experts. “The court may not simply adopt the findings of fact and conclusions of law previously issued in other proceedings,” he said. Two weeks have been set aside for testimony. The case began in 2012 when nurses Rowse, 49, and DeBoer, 42, of Hazel Park sued to try to upset a Michigan law that bars them from adopting each other’s children. But the case became even more significant when Friedman invited them to add the same-sex marriage ban to their lawsuit. They argue that Michigan’s constitutional amendment, approved by voters in 2004, violates the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, which
forbids states from treating people differently under the law. “If marriage is a fundamental right, then logic and emerging Supreme Court precedent dictate that the legitimacy of two adults’ love for one another is the same in the eyes of the law regardless of sexual orientation,” attorneys for the couple said in a court filing last fall. The state attorney general’s office, meanwhile, is defending the election result. “There is no dispute that there is a fundamental right to marry. But there is no fundamental right to marry a person of the same sex,” the state said. Friedman said the case required a full-blown trial with testimony from economists and other
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THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A
Abbott’s wife joins the fray By JAY ROOT THE TEXAS TRIBUNE
Attorney General Greg Abbott spoke to supporters in Austin on Nov. 9, 2013, after officially filing for the 2014 gubernatorial campaign. He was joined by his daughter, Audrey, and his wife, Cecilia. Another front has opened up in the cultural war that the 2014 Texas governor’s race is fast becoming. This time it involves the fight for the growing Hispanic vote and Attorney General Greg Abbott’s contention that Democrats are cynically using his Hispanic wife, Cecilia, against him. The whole thing started in heavily Republican Lubbock, of all places. That’s where Abbott was campaigning earlier in the week, staging what appeared to be a routine campaign stop to drive up his vote before the March 4 primary election he is all but guaranteed to win big. Democrats took advantage of the event to bash Abbott and his fellow Republicans. Lubbock City Councilman Victor Hernandez, a Democrat, called Abbott’s visit offensive, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and Lubbock’s Fox 34 News. Noting that the get-outthe-vote rally was held in a local Mexican restaurant, Jimenez Bakery and Restaurant, Hernandez called the move “piñata politics.” “Greg Abbott came into our house uninvited, wanting to somehow give the illusion that the Lubbock County Hispanic community is supportive,” he said. Hernandez also blamed Abbott and other GOP candidates for using what he described as divisive rhetoric against immigrants, and he re-hashed the controversy over Abbott’s recent appearance with controversial rocker Ted Nugent. Abbott had introduced
Uganda tabloid prints list of ‘top’ gay people By RODNEY MUHUMUZA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Jack Plunkett | The Texas Trubune
Attorney General Greg Abbott speaks to supporters in Austin on Nov. 9, 2013, after officially filing for the 2014 gubernatorial campaign. He was joined by his daughter, Audrey, and his wife, Cecilia. his wife at the event, saying — as he often does at campaign stops — that she will be “the first Latina first lady in the history of the great state of Texas.” When the subject of Cecilia Abbott came up at a press conference the Democrats held at the same restaurant on Wednesday, Hernandez said he did not “want to say a whole lot about his wife, because this really isn’t about his wife. It’s about her husband,” according to the Fox story. He also called on the attorney general to “go beyond the props of a background of a Mexican restaurant, and actually come to our community.” After the appearance, Abbott said from his Twitter account, “Ha! Democrats frustrated about my #Latina wife & growing connection (between) Hispanics & Republicans.” He linked to the Fox story that quoted Hernandez. In a subsequent tweet on Friday, Abbott expressed outrage that Hernandez had allegedly referred to his wife as a “prop.” “It’s deeply offensive that a Democrat elected of-
ficial called my Latina wife of 32 years a ‘prop,’” Abbott wrote. He linked to a blog post written by former Republican Party spokesman Bryan Preston. In the post, Preston wrote that a “source tells me that Hernandez callously dismissed her as a ‘prop.’” Preston did not identify the person but said in a text message to The Texas Tribune that it was a “source I trust.” Asked if he could provide any information about how and where Hernandez allegedly delivered the verbal slap, Preston said, “My source didn’t go into detail.” “His comments even as reported are indefensible,” Preston said in the text. “He’s playing gatekeeper and dismissing all Hispanic Republicans and maybe independents.” Email and voice messages left for Hernandez were not immediately returned. The episode is yet another indication that the race for governor will play out increasingly on the volatile terrain of culture and race. In January the Abbott campaign attacked his likely Democratic opponent, state Sen. Wendy Davis, for
spinning what it called an inaccurate and “fanciful narrative” about her early background and rise from single motherhood in a trailer to a law degree at Harvard University — the subject of heated controversy a month ago. The two sides have also clashed over Abbott likening corruption in South Texas to “third-world country practices” and, more recently, Abbott’s appearance with Nugent — who has referred to women politicians as bitches and once suggested undocumented immigrants should become indentured servants — drew rebukes from Democrats and their allies. On the campaign trail, Abbott has often made references to his wife’s Hispanic background. In a recent interview with Univision, for example, he said her elevation as first lady would make his administration “naturally a lot more inclusive and embracing of the growing Hispanic culture in the state.” But until now, Abbott’s wife hasn’t become the subject of division between the two sides.
KAMPALA, Uganda — A Ugandan newspaper published a list Tuesday of what it called the country’s “200 top” homosexuals, outing some Ugandans who previously had not identified themselves as gay one day after the president enacted a harsh anti-gay law. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday’s signing of the bill by President Yoweri Museveni marked “a tragic day for Uganda and for all who care about the cause of human rights” and warned that Washington could cut aid to the government of the East African nation. “Now that this law has been enacted, we are beginning an internal review of our relationship with the Government of Uganda to ensure that all dimensions of our engagement, including assistance programs, uphold our anti-discrimination policies and principles and reflect our values,” Kerry said in a statement. The Red Pepper tabloid published the names — and some pictures — of alleged homosexuals in a front-page story under the headline: “EXPOSED!” The list included prominent Ugandan gay activists such as Pepe Julian Onziema, who has repeatedly warned that Uganda’s new anti-gay law could spark violence against homosexuals. A popular Ugandan hip-hop star as well as a Catholic priest are also on the list. Few Ugandans identify themselves publicly as
gay, and the tabloid’s publication of alleged homosexuals recalled a similar list published in 2011 by a now-defunct tabloid that called for the execution of gays. A Ugandan judge later condemned the outing of homosexuals in a country where gays face severe discrimination, saying it amounted to an invasion of privacy. A prominent Ugandan gay activist, David Kato, was killed after that list came out, and activists said at the time that they believed he was targeted because of his work promoting gay rights in Uganda. “The media witch hunt is back,” tweeted Jacqueline Kasha, a well-known Ugandan lesbian activist who is among those listed in the Red Pepper story. Uganda’s new-anti-gay law punishes gay sex with up to life in jail. The bill originally proposed the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as repeated gay sex between consenting adults and acts involving a minor, a disabled person or where one partner is infected with HIV. The law also calls for firsttime offenders to be sentenced to 14 years in jail. In signing the bill, Museveni said the measure is needed because the West is promoting homosexuality in Africa, rejecting international criticism of the law as interference in Uganda’s internal affairs. Museveni accused “arrogant and careless Western groups” of trying to recruit Ugandan children into homosexuality, but he did not name these purported groups.
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UKRAINE “bandit coup.” Appearing for the first time since fleeing Ukraine last week, Viktor Yanukovych struck a tone both of bluster and caution — vowing to “keep fighting for the future of Ukraine,” while ruling out seeking Russian military help. “Any military action in this situation is unacceptable,” Yanukovych told reporters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, near the border with Ukraine. Then, seeking to make a firm point, he tried — and failed — to break a pen. At the United Nations, the Ukrainian ambassador, Yuriy Sergeyev, said that 10 Russian transport aircraft and 11 attack helicopters had arrived in Crimea illegally, and that Russian troops had taken control of two airports in Crimea. He described the gunmen posted outside the two airports as Russian armed forces as well as “unspecified” units. “Some of them identified themselves as Russians. We know specifically some of the units,” Sergeyev said. He also said the Russians had captured the main air traffic control center on Crimea. Serhiy Astakhov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian border service, said eight Russian transport planes landed in the Crimea Peninsula with unknown cargo. He told The Associated Press that the Il-76 planes arrived unexpectedly and were given permission to land, one after the other, at Gvardeiskoye air base, north of the regional capital, Simferopol. Astakhov said the people in the planes refused to identify themselves and waved off customs officials, saying they didn’t require their services. Russia kept silent on claims of military intervention, even as it maintained its hard-line stance on protecting ethnic Russians in Crimea, a territory that was once the crown jewel in Russian and then Soviet empires and has played a symbolic role in Russia’s nation-
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Photo by Emilio Morenatti | AP
People react during the funeral of anti-Yanukovych protester Bailuk Alexander, 40, killed in a recent clash with riot police in Kiev’s Independence Square, Ukraine, on Friday. Official reports say 82 people were killed in severe clashes between opposition activists and riot police. al identity. Earlier Friday, AP journalists in Crimea spotted a convoy of nine Russian armored personnel carriers on a road between the port city of Sevastopol, where Russia has a naval base, and the regional capital, Simferopol. Later in the day, the airspace was closed over the peninsula, apparently due to tensions at the two airports. Russian armored vehicles bearing the nation’s tricolor rumbled across Crimea and men described as Russian troops took position at airports and a coast guard base. Oleksandr Turchynov, who stepped in as president after Yanukovych fled Kiev last weekend, urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop “provocations” in Crimea and pull back military forces from the peninsula. Turchynov said the Ukrainian military would fulfill its duty but would not be drawn into provocations. In Kiev, Ukraine’s newly named interior minister accused Russia of military aggression. “I can only describe this as a military invasion and occupation,” Arsen Avakov wrote in a Facebook post. In recent conversations between U.S. and Russian officials, including a lengthy telephone conversation be-
tween Obama and Putin just last week, Obama said the U.S. has made clear that Russia can be part of an international community’s effort to support the stability and success of Ukraine. But, he said Friday, “we are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine.” Earlier Friday, as pro-Russia gunmen patrolled Crimean streets in armored vehicles and took over airports there, Secretary of State John Kerry warned Moscow against military moves in Crimea that could further inflame tensions. Kerry and White House spokesman Jay Carney both said any Russian military intervention would be a grave mistake and that the United States was watching closely. They did not spell out any consequences for an intervention. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power told reporters the United States was proposing an urgent mediation mission to help resolve Ukraine’s crisis. The Russian armored vehicles seen by AP reporters were parked on the side of the road near the town of Bakhchisarai, apparently because one of them had mechanical problems.
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MANUEL MEDINA SR. Manuel Medina Sr., 90, went to be with the Lord on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014, at Falcon Lake Nursing Home in Zapata. Manuel Medina Sr. was born in Old Zapata on Christmas Day in 1923. He was a resident of Zapata all his life and a business owner. He was also a member of the Knights of Columbus, Lions Club and Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. Mr. Medina is preceded in death by his son, Hector M. Medina; grandson, Roger Mezquiti III; parents, Jose Cecilio and Vita G. Medina; and a sister, Barbara Medina. Mr. Medina is survived by his wife of 68 years, Martha S. Medina; sons and daughter, Jose D. (Sylvia) Medina, Vita MedinaMezquiti, Juan A. (Dolores) Medina, Manuel Jr. (Prisilla) Medina, Gerardo (Viola) Medina; 23 grandchildren, 50 great grandchildren; daughter-in-law, Gloria B. Medina; aunt, Carmen (†Benito) Garza; and by numerous other family members and friends.
ballot for the midterm elections in November, when voters decide competitive races for governor and control of Congress. The primaries will be closely watched by both sides of the voter ID debate, which intensified in 2011, the year after Republicans swept to power in dozens of statehouses. Visitation hours were held Friday, Feb. 28, 2014, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a rosary at 7 p.m. at Rose Garden Funeral Home. The funeral procession will depart Saturday, March 1, 2014, at 8:30 a.m. for a 9 a.m. funeral Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. Committal services will follow at Zapata County Cemetery. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.rosegardenfuneralhome.com. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Rose Garden Funeral Home, Daniel A. Gonzalez, funeral director, 2102 N. U.S. Hwy. 83, Zapata.
GUZMAN Continued from Page 1A man’s closest allies walked out of the prison where the U.S. said he was running drugs from behind bars. Despite a series of reforms to Mexico’s political system and financial regulations, the administration has done little to address deep-rooted problems in Mexico’s judicial system, which has long been criticized for being slow-moving and opaque. In a sign of the system’s opacity, an official with
Mexico’s Federal Judicial Council, which oversees the entire Mexican federal justice system, said authorities there were unaware of one of the pending cases against Guzman until Tuesday’s ruling. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Guzman has been notified of the first judge’s decision and has three days to appeal, according to Judicial Council.
TRIAL Continued from Page 8A scholars. “We’ve seen different approaches by different courts. ... I don’t think you need to hear extensive evidence to determine that these laws violate basic rights of equality,” said Jennifer Levi of Western New England University law school in Springfield, Mass., who worked on a lawsuit that led to the legalization of same-sex marriage in that state in 2004. Mark Regnerus, a sociologist at the University of Texas, is among the state’s witnesses. In 2012, he published a study in an academic journal, saying young adults with a parent who had a same-sex relationship were more likely to experience unemployment and other social woes. He later acknowledged that his study didn’t look at children raised by
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stable same-sex couples. Another witness is scholar Sherif Girgis, author of a 2012 book, “What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense.” Attorneys for DeBoer and Rowse are asking the judge to block their testimony as irrelevant. On Monday, more than 30 pastors from Baptist churches and conservative Christian congregations held a news conference to declare their support for the ban. They said family stability and the Bible demand marriage only between a man and a woman. “The fight is on,” said the Rev. Roland Caldwell of Burnette Inspirational Ministries in Detroit. “Don’t tell me I can go to the polls and then the next day tell me I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Preparations For months, election workers have been preparing new voting procedures, while party activists and political groups seek ID cards for voters who do not have them. The debut of the new laws in a few smallerscale elections over the last year has already exposed some problems, such as mismatched names, confusion over absentee voting provisions and rules that require voters to travel great distances to obtain proper documentation. In one case, voters had no recourse if their credentials were challenged. “Unless people are paying attention, and a lot of them aren’t, they don’t even know this law exists,” said Brian Schoenman, secretary of the elections board in Fairfax County, Va., a Washington, D.C., suburb. Supporters of the measures, mostly Republican conservatives, contend the ID checks protect against fraudulent voting and thus help build trust in government. Critics see them as a way of discouraging the kind of voters who lack picture IDs and might be more likely to support Democrats. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that states can require voters to produce photo ID at the polls without violating their constitutional rights. And last year, the high court threw out a
key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act, a decision that allowed voter ID laws to take effect in states where voting procedures had been under strict federal oversight for nearly 50 years. Georgia and Indiana adopted some of the first voter ID laws. This year, in addition to the Texas law, new or stricter photo-identification voting laws take effect in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Virginia. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have approved similar action, but those measures are on hold because of court challenges. In Mississippi, black lawmakers have asked Attorney General Eric Holder to block their state’s law. When Arkansas held a special legislative election in January, dozens of mail-in absentee votes were thrown out after voters failed to include a copy of their photo ID with their ballot. The Arkansas law, passed over Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe’s veto, did not address absentee voting, and the GOP-controlled Legislature is not expected to take it up during the 2014 session. The law allows voters without photo ID to cast a provisional ballot, but the ballot will not be counted unless they show identification by the Monday after the election. “This is in no way an effort to suppress any valid vote,” said GOP state Rep. Andy Mayberry, who supported the law. “It’s a measure to help secure the credibility of our elections.” Arkansas voters will have two important races to decide this year. Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat, is expected to face an aggressive challenge from Republican Rep. Tom Cotton. A competitive con-
test for governor is also unfolding, with Republican former Rep. Asa Hutchinson likely to run against Democrat Mike Ross. The higher-than-normal turnout expected for the midterm election will only compound the problems that emerged during the January election, according to Craighead County Election Commission Chairman Scott McDaniel, a Democrat. “I foresee a great number, an unacceptable number of absentee voters to be disenfranchised because of this whole deal, and I don’t like it,” McDaniel said. Virginia could be particularly confusing. Majority Republicans enacted a law requiring proof of identification, but no photo, in 2012. Last year, they amended the law to require photo ID to vote but set the effective date for the new law as July 1. Virginia’s primary is June 10, when voters will not be required to present a photo. But in November, they will. “What I’m worried about is you’ve got a good number of communities of elderly, and foreignborn citizens who speak different languages,” Schoenman said. “And we’ll only have four months to get ready.” The state has about 330,000 more registered voters than licensed drivers, which is why minority Democrats last week unsuccessfully sought $250,000 to pay for the photo ID cards voters must have by November. Democrats will be seeking to safeguard every potential vote. Last year’s attorney general race was decided by 11 votes. This fall, the Senate seat held by Democrat Mark Warner is on the ballot, and the GOP needs to gain only six seats to claim the majority. In Texas, as many as
STUDENTS Jazmín Gibeaut, TAMIU College of Arts and Sciences senator in the Student Government Association and one of the event organizers, said she heard what was happening in Venezuela and decided to become involved. She said it has been positive to see how students have joined to support their counterparts who have family there. “This event is nothing more than a wish for peace. People sometimes think the world cannot be peaceful, yet we know that things are changing.
We have faith that we can have change and achieve peace,” Gibeaut said. Dimas Eduardo Chacon, who is studying to earn a master’s in international trade at the university, said he visits his family in Venezuela every semester. “December was difficult. There was a lot of insecurity and a lot of scarcity,” he said. “The products in the basic food basket, such as flour, sugar or milk, are very difficult to obtain. “Sometimes people have to get up at 4 or 5 in
600,000 voters could be prevented from having their ballots counted because of the state’s newly enacted photo ID law, according to officials with Battleground Texas, a Democratic-leaning group aimed at helping register new voters. One third of Texas’ 254 counties do not have Department of Public Safety stations that can provide the cards. That means voters without proper identification have to drive more than 200 miles to get a card, provided they have the proper documentation, such as a birth certificate. Still, state GOP Chairman Steve Munisteri said few problems popped up with the law during last year’s election, a lowturnout affair that included constitutional changes but only drew about 10 percent of the electorate. “The law has already been tested and performed quite well. I see no reason for concern,” Munisteri said. The 10 percent were devout voters, well aware of the new requirements, said Dana DeBeauvoir, election commissioner in Travis County, which includes Austin. “This was not a population that needs extra support,” she said. “Where we’re going to see the problem is in November.” The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University is suing Texas and states with similar laws, but it’s not clear whether the lawsuits will be decided by November. “We have shown already that these laws correlate with places that had demographic changes that currently favor Democrats,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Brennan Institute’s Democracy program. “When you look at these things together, what’s going on is discrimination.”
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the morning and stand in line to get that product. Often, they’ll arrive at 6 in the morning and won’t be able to get it, but then you know that (others) resell on the black market at exorbitant prices. It’s impossible to buy.” He said he attributes this situation to the government’s economic beliefs, which have forced many foreign investors out of the country and also led to Venezuelan businessmen stopping production. Chacon said he believes that failure to achieve a peaceful dia-
logue between the government and the opposition may require foreign intervention from organizations like the Organization of American States or the United Nations. “I do not like military intervention, rather people should call on the government to respect human rights and to seek a peaceful solution which will lead to change,” he said. (Contact Malena Charur at 728-2583, or at mcharur@lmtonline.com. Translated by Mark Webber of the Times staff.)
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Sports&Outdoors HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Stadium shut down
File photo by LM Otero | AP
The $60 million Eagle Stadium at Allen High School in Allen, Texas, will be shut down indefinitely just 18 months after its opening for an examination of cracking in the concrete of the stadium’s concourse.
Cracks force closure of $60M Texas high school field ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALLEN, Texas — A $60 million Texas high school stadium that got national attention for its grandeur and price tag will be shut down indefinitely 18 months after its opening, school district officials said Thursday. Eagle Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Allen will be closed until at least June for
an examination of “extensive cracking” in the concrete of the stadium’s concourse, the district said in a statement Thursday. The closure will likely affect home games at the stadium this fall, the district said. Built in 2012 as part of a $120 million bond issue, Eagle Stadium seats 18,000 people and sports a 38-foot-wide video board. Eagle Stadium’s opening was a moment of triumph for the community of Al-
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
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len, a fast-growing Dallas suburb that has become home to a high school football powerhouse. The Eagles won the Class 5A Division I state championship last year. District officials defended the cost — an eye-popping figure even in footballmad Texas, home to hundreds of schools playing under the “Friday Night Lights” — by calling the stadium an investment
Hawks head to regional meet The road to the regional meet for the Zapata girls’ powerlifting team proved to be fruitful as all 20 team members earned to trip to Pleasanton, the site of the regional meet. Heading into the regional meet, 19 of the 20 girls are ranked in the top seven in their weight category. "Wow 20 out of 20, an amazing feeling and a goal accomplished," Zapata girls’ powerlifting head coach Veronica Arce said. "As for team standings, regionals is the toughest meet I believe that we will face, but our girls are determined, so hopefully we will come home with a championship trophy." Last year, the Lady Hawks took 23 out of the 27 girls to the regional meet and have built on that success this season. Zapata had 12 advance to state and this year they are vying to take more. "I do believe they all have a chance whether hitting their qualifying totals or coming in first or secnd," Arce said. “Everyone on the team has worked hard and has improved from the first time that we went into the weight room. "They all deserve credit for working as hard as they do, some also taking part in multiple sports, and all staying eligible academically in their classes.” Elise Muñoz in the 181-pound weight class has only lifted in two meets because of an injury
See STADIUM PAGE 2B See HAWKS PAGE 2B
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: TEXAS RANGERS
Moreland has to be versatile By STEPHEN HAWKINS ASSOCIATED PRESS
File photo by Wilfredo Lee | AP
Former Miami Dolphins offensive lineman Richie Incognito was checked into a psychiatric care facility late Thursday in Arizona after smashing up his Ferrari with a baseball bat.
Incognito in psychiatric care By ANDREW ABRAMSON PALM BEACH POST
PALM BEACH, Fla. - After admitting to cops that he smashed up his own Ferrari with a baseball bat, Miami Dolphins guard Richie Incognito is being held at a psychiatric care unit in Arizona, according to several media reports. A source told TMZ that "In-
cognito did not voluntarily admit himself and the Scottsdale PD filled out a petition to have Incognito admitted to the facility" late Thursday night. NFL Media then reported that "Richie Incognito has accepted professional help in wake of severe mental stress from Wells report."
See INCOGNITO PAGE 2B
SURPRISE, Ariz. — Mitch Moreland’s role with the Texas Rangers immediately changed when they acquired Prince Fielder in a trade early in the offseason. There was even some uncertainty then if Moreland, one of their longest-tenured position players, would still be with the Rangers after starting a teamhigh 211 games the past two seasons at first base, Fielder’s primary position. Texas kept Moreland, and he has spent most of his time so far in spring training working with the outfielders. There has been limited work at first base, and he will also get plenty of turns as the designated hitter. “I’m just trying to get acclimated to a couple of different positions and do some things different this year,” Moreland said. Moreland started in right field for a Cactus League game Friday, a day after being the designated hitter in the spring opener. Fielder has played a majorsbest 505 consecutive games, and been at first base for at least 151 games in all eight of his full major league seasons. But manager Ron Washington expects to get Fielder a few days off the field while in the lineup as the DH, when Moreland can fill in at first. Moreland can also play the corner outfield spots when ShinSoo Choo or Alex Rios get a day off or take the DH spot. Moreland has played 45 career games in the outfield, and was an everyday outfielder at Triple-A before getting to the majors. The left-hand-
File photo by Charlie Riedel | AP
Mitch Moreland will have to be versatile for Texas this season with the arrival of Prince Fielder after starting 211 games at first base for the Rangers the past two seasons. er was even a pitcher in college. “Mitch has done a good job with his attitude. He’s enjoying what he’s doing,” Washington said. “I don’t see anything different that would say that it wouldn’t work, what he has to do. And he’s around a group of guys that he love and trust, and all he has to do is just do his job. ... I’ll
give him the opportunity to take care of that.” Drafted by the Rangers in 2007, Moreland made his major league debut midway through the 2010 season. He finished his rookie year hitting a team-best .462 (6 of 13) in the World Series when he
See RANGERS PAGE 2B
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SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014
ZAPATA IN BORDER OLYMPICS
HAWKS Continued from Page 1B
Courtesy photo
All 20 members of the Zapata girls’ powerlifting team advanced to the regional meet in Pleasanton. early in the season but has managed to get her qualifying totals and is ranked third in the region. Ranked first in the region are Brianna Gonzalez (114-pound weight class),
Alana Montez (123) and Delany Cooper (148) while Jackie Garcia (105), Alexandra Garcia (114) and Amanda Esquivel are ranked second. Joeli Castillo (105) is ranked third while Secilia
Mata (165) is ranked fourth. Daniela Vela (105, No. 7), Nati Castañeda (114, No. 5), Gina Rodriguez (114, No. 7), Lili Cantu (123, No. 5), Clari Villarreal (123, No. 6), Monique Hurtado
(132, No. 6), Vanessa Guerra (132, No. 9), Aillen Campos (165, No. 6) and Trisha Garcia, 165, No. 12) round out the team for Zapata. Clara Sandoval can be reached at sandoval.clara@gmail.com.
STADIUM Continued from Page 1B for generations of future Eagles fans and a muchneeded upgrade from the district’s previous 35-yearold field. They planned to host state playoff games and other events at Eagle Stadium. Instead, the district’s graduation ceremo-
nies will be affected and all other events are now on hold. “This is a significant investment for our community. We are very disappointed and upset that these problems have arisen,” said interim superintendent Beth Nicholas
said. “It is unacceptable. Our students, families, and the entire community have always supported the district and our commitment to them is to make sure this issue is appropriately resolved.” Officials said an engineering firm has complet-
ed about 10 percent of its review of the stadium. It is expected to recommend “appropriate” repairs, the statement said. PBK Architects, the Texas firm that designed the stadium, did not return a message seeking comment Thursday.
Photo by Cuate Santos | Laredo Morning Times
Zapata High School’s Leanna Saenz prepares to putt at the Max Mandel Municipal Golf Course Friday morning while participating in the Border Olympics girl’s golf tournament.
INCOGNITO Continued from Page 1B Scottsdale police became aware of the Ferrari incident after TMZ sent them photos of the damage. When police approached Incognito about it on Wednesday, he admitted that he caused the damage himself. After police filled out the petition to have Incognito admitted to a facility, "Incognito didn’t resist . and acknowledges that he needs help dealing with all of the drama in his life," TMZ reported. He is reportedly being held at the psychiatric unit until a bed opens for him at a hospital where can be evaluated by a mental health professional. This comes two week af-
ter the NFL released its independent investigation into harassment in the Dolphins locker room. The report, written by attorney Ted Wells, accused Incognito of being the ringleader of locker room bullying. He allegedly bullied an assistant trainer and several players, most notably Jonathan Martin who brought the issue to light when he left the team in October. Incognito is reportedly also dealing with family issues. His parents are filing for divorce, and his father wrote in divorce filings that Incognito financially supports the family. His future is the NFL is now uncertain. He will be a free agent when free
agency begins on March 11. Even if a team wants to sign Incognito, he could face a league suspension. Incognito received professional help in the past for anger management issues. Once known as the dirtiest player in the NFL, he kept his image relatively clean in Miami until the bullying scandal broke. It was then revealed that he molested a woman with a golf club at a charity golf tournament in 2012 but that the incident had been kept quiet by the Dolphins and he reportedly settled out of court with the woman. In text messages between Incognito and Martin that took place after
Martin left the Dolphins and checked himself into a mental hospital, Incognito shared his own experiences with Martin. The text messages between Incognito and Martin were leaked to the media earlier this month. "It’s a lot to take in," Incognito said to Martin of being in a mental facility. "I’ve checked myself in before. I had to threaten to beat everyone up for them to let me out. Not fun." Martin responded, "I almost snapped and started breaking" stuff. "That’s exactly what I was feeling," Incognito said. Incognito gave a bizarre interview to FOX 10 in
Arizona on Thursday, saying he was "venting" when he smashed up the Ferrari. He said he plans to donate the Ferrari to charity. "Oh that was that was just me venting, that was self-expression, that’s a piece of art," Incognito said. "The happiest day of my life was when I got that car and now the second happiest day will be when I donate it to charity. "The Ferrari is a story unto itself, the Ferrari is one entity, but I will tell you this: the Ferrari is going to be for sale through my mission which is helping the brotherhood, whatever brotherhood it is." He also told the Arizona
McIlroy soars, Woods nearly misses cut By DOUG FERGUSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Golf is starting to feel easy again for Rory McIlroy, who bounced back from a sloppy start Friday in the Honda Classic for a 4-under 66 that gave him his first 36-hole lead on the PGA Tour in 18 months. Tiger Woods is making it look hard. McIlroy recovered from two early bogeys by running off six birdies in a 10-hole stretch. He looked solid from tee-to-green, hit putts with growing confidence and wound up with a one-shot lead over Brendon de Jonge. “I knew that with the way I’m playing and the confidence in my ability, I would be able to get those shots back,” McIlroy said. “I didn’t panic. I didn’t try to do anything different. Just tried to keep playing the way I was.” He was at 11-under 129. Woods felt fortunate to still be playing. He was over the cut line after scrambling for a bogey on the 11th hole and wound up with a 69 to make the cut on the number. Woods hit only two greens over his last nine holes. His lone birdie on the back nine was a chip-in on the 13th after he missed the green with a wedge. “It was a grind, there’s no doubt about it,” Woods said. “I didn’t hit it very good. Just one of those days where I fought out a
number, which was good.” Because 79 players made the cut, there will be another cut to top 70 and ties on Saturday. Woods missed the 54-hole cut the last time he played on the PGA Tour at Torrey Pines. And at least he’s still playing the weekend. That wasn’t the case for Phil Mickelson. Playing the Honda Classic for the first time in 12 years, he had a 71 to miss the cut. So did Henrik Stenson, the No. 3 player in the world, with rounds of 73-76. McIlroy knew the feeling a year ago, when he took a steep fall from No. 1 in the world while changing equipment and trying to live up to high expectations, leading to his snap decision to walk off the course after 26 holes last year at the Honda Classic. A growing gallery in warm sunshine at PGA National saw a familiar game — the McIlroy who won the Honda Classic two years ago. Swinging freely and putting beautifully, McIlroy hit his stride on his back nine with four birdies in five holes, including the par-5 third when he smashed a drive some 35 yards past Adam Scott and had only a 6-iron into the green on the 539-yard hole. De Jonge, who has never won on the PGA Tour, played early in the afternoon when the wind picked up and put eight birdies on his card in a 64. He was tied for the lead when he missed the
Photo by Wilfredo Lee | AP
Rory McIlroy shot a 4-under par 66 on Friday to take the lead at 11-under in the Honda Classic tournament in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. green with a wedge on No. 9 and made bogey. Even so, he’ll be in the last group Saturday with McIlroy. “I think I might have got a little bit of switch in the wind,” de Jonge said. Russell Henley had a 68 and was three shots behind. Russell Knox of Scotland had the low round Friday at 63 and was four shots back along with Lee Westwood (65). But the focus is clearly on McIlroy, who each week looks to be getting better. “This year is obviously a lot different,” McIlroy said. “Got off to a good start. I’m confident. I’m playing well. This is the second straight tournament I’ve opened
with a 63, so if I can keep building on these good starts, then hopefully I can start converting.” Friday was another step in the right direction, despite two errant tee shots on the 11th and 12th holes that led to bogeys. His round changed with a tee shot into 6 feet on the 16th hole for a birdie, and then a 12-foot birdie on the 18th to wrap up his front nine and earn back the two shots he had dropped. After a 45-foot birdie attempt on the second hole rimmed all the way around and out of the cup, Boy Wonder took off. He twoputted the par-5 third. He hit a wedge into 4 feet on the next hole. He rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt down the hill at the par-5 fifth.
TV station that it’s time to move on: "When things went down it was just unfortunate. Me and my dad, my mom, my brother, Jonathan Martin, the Dolphins, Stephen Ross, you we’re all brothers and sisters I think we all understand that it’s just time to move on. You know words were said, things were done, but at the end of the day we’re all brothers and sisters and we’re here to lift each other up. We’re here to motivate each other; that’s something my dad instilled in me a long time ago he’s from a military background so we have some odd ways of training."
RANGERS Continued from Page 1B was the only Texas player with a hit in all five games against San Francisco. Elvis Andrus with 757 games is the only current Rangers position player who has been in more games for Texas than Moreland (442). Last spring, Moreland was the only true first baseman on the Rangers roster. He had started more than half the Rangers games at first base the previous two seasons even while splitting time there with veterans Michael Young and Mike Napoli. Texas avoided salary arbitration with Moreland by agreeing to a $2.65 million contract only a few days before spring training. That was a raise of more than $2 million for the player who some thought might be traded after the Rangers dealt Ian Kinsler to Detroit in November for Fielder, who has seven years remaining on his massive contract. “I just had to go out and get ready to play and do what I can to make myself better individually and be able to do what I can to help the team. Whether it was here, or wherever,” Moreland said. “Thankfully, I am here, and got the opportunity still with the Rangers, so I’m going to try to make the most of it.”
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014
Dear Heloise: How do you CLEAN A CAT’S LITTER BOX? I don’t mean clean the litter –– I mean the box itself. –– D.J., via email Good question! The best way is to scrub the box with warm water and a little unscented liquid dish detergent. Don’t use things –– ammonia or other products –– that have a strong smell. Cats are very particular, and any change in the litter box may cause them to stay away! Take the box outside if you can, or use a laundryroom sink or the bathtub, and scrub with a sponge and the solution. Rinse extremely well and dry. Make sure you remove ALL of the soap. You can try using liners in the box –– depending on your cat, they might not work. –– Heloise COFFEE STAIN Dear Heloise: I have a coffee cup that has a stain inside. Is there anything I can do to remove the stain? –– A Reader, via email Of course there is, and it’s right in your pantry:
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3B
“
HELOISE
my favorite household product –– vinegar! Using white or apple-cider vinegar, make a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and salt. Rub the inside of the cup, and the stain should disappear. Want to learn what else I use vinegar for around the house? Order my pamphlet and get tons of helpful hints. Send $5 and a long, self-addressed, stamped (70 cents) envelope to: Heloise/Vinegar, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 78279-5001. Have a decanter covered in lime deposits? Pour full-strength vinegar in it and let it sit overnight to remove them. –– Heloise DECORATIVE DECALS Dear Heloise: By saving the remnants of a magnetic decal, my grandsons can cut out and design their own decals. –– Susan M., Mobile, Ala.
Zapata Sports
4B THE ZAPATA TIMES
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014
WAC looking into brawl By ANNE M. PETERSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
New Mexico State suspended guard K.C. RossMiller for actions that touched off a wild brawl between players and fans following a game between the Aggies and Utah Valley. A league spokesman said the Western Athletic Conference was also looking into the incident. Ross-Miller hurled the ball at Utah Valley’s Holton Hunsaker seconds after the Wolverines’ 66-61 victory over the Aggies on Thursday night in Orem, Utah. The ball hit Hunsaker — the son of Utah Valley coach Dick Hunsaker — in the leg. Some of the fans who rushed the court got caught up in the melee. New Mexico State guard DK Eldridge was in the middle of the scrum before he was dragged away by Aggies coaches as order was restored. With the victory, the Wolverines claimed the top spot in the conference standings. While the brawl appeared to have been touched off by Ross-Miller’s actions, it highlights the potential problems that can occur when players and fans collide. Oklahoma State AllAmerican guard Marcus Smart charged into the stands at Texas Tech on Feb. 8 and shoved a fan who called him a “piece of crap.” Smart was suspended for three games and the fan later apologized. Also earlier this month, Oregon coach Dana Altman expressed concerns about safety after two of his staffers said an Arizona State student spit at them at halftime of the game in Tempe, Ariz. Ducks guard Jason Calliste had a verbal confrontation with at least one student late in the first half.
Photo by Bob Chamberlin | AP
Former NFL safety Darren Sharper, right, huddles with attorney Leonard Levine in Los Angeles Superior Court on Feb. 20 in Los Angeles. Sharper surrendered to Los Angeles police Thursday after being named in a warrant.
Photo by Grant Hindsley | AP
New Mexico State’s Daniel Mullings, center left in red and white jersey, was involved in a brawl Thursday involving players and fans who came onto the court when New Mexico State guard K.C. Ross-Miller hurled the ball at Utah Valley’s Holton Hunsaker seconds after the Wolverines’ 66-61 overtime victory against the Aggies in Orem, Utah. Aggies coach Marvin Menzies said he suspended Ross-Miller indefinitely pending review by the school and the conference. The junior starter averages 8.3 points, 2.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists. “No matter what provoked K.C. what he did was inexcusable and hence the suspension. It is an honor and a privilege to wear an Aggie uniform and a responsibility comes with that privilege,” Menzies said in a statement Friday. WAC Commissioner Jeff Hurd is expected to speak later Friday with Menzies about the incident. “I don’t like to use military terms, but that was combative,” Dick Hunsaker told the Utah Valley student newspaper. Utah Valley officials did not immediately respond to The Associated Press for comment on Friday. The Wolverines did issue a brief statement via Twitter: “The incident fol-
lowing Thursday’s game was an unfortunate and sour endnote to an otherwise brilliant performance by both teams. The Western Athletic Conference and both universities are reviewing the incident and gathering information. Any questions should be directed to the WAC office.” The game between the WAC co-leaders at the UCCU center was attended by a season-high 4,954 fans. “I would like to commend my staff for their immediate reaction to engage our players and remove them from the floor. We are currently reviewing several sources of video to accurately assess the situation,” Menzies said. “Obviously this was a very unfortunate incident and I’m hopeful that we can learn from it moving forward.” Utah Valley’s Ben Aird scored 21 points and Keawe Enos hit three free throws with 4 seconds left in regulation to force over-
time and made four more in the last 11 seconds of the extra session. He finished with 11 points for the Wolverines (17-10, 11-3), and Zach Nelson added 10. Daniel Mullings led the Aggies (21-9, 10-4) with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Sim Bhullar had 10 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks. Eldridge’s 3-pointer put New Mexico State up 56-55 with 3:26 left in overtime, but Utah Valley scored seven straight, four from Aird, who had six in overtime. Mullings later told Menzies he was hit by a fan in the postgame melee, and a Utah Valley student claimed that he was slugged in the head by an Aggies player. However, no injuries were reported. Utah Valley is atop the WAC standings going into Saturday’s home game against Texas Pan-American. New Mexico State visits Bakersfield on Saturday.
Lorenzi upsets Monaco By TALES AZZONI ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAO PAULO — Paolo Lorenzi of Italy reached his first ATP semifinal by upsetting fourth-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina 7-6 (6), 6-7 (4), 6-4 at the Brazil Open on Friday. The 114th-ranked Lorenzi broke Monaco’s serve to go up 4-3 in the decisive set and held on to close the match in 2 hours, 34 minutes at the Ibirapuera Arena. The 32-year-old Italian squandered a match point before losing the second set, but was in control in
the third to pick up the win in the ATP 250 tournament in South America’s biggest city. Lorenzi, who had 12 aces, made it to the semis for the first time after five quarterfinal losses in his career. “I’m very happy to finally breakthrough to the semifinals,” Lorenzi said. “I’ve had a lot of opportunities before but was never able to come up with the victory at this stage. For sure this is one of my greatest weeks on the tour.” The 43rd-ranked Monaco, a former top 10 in the
world, was trying to win his 200th clay-court match. He is the fifth-greatest winner in the surface, behind Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Tommy Robredo and Nicolas Almagro. Monaco had a set point in the first set but couldn’t capitalize on it. “It was a very close match, he had his chances in the first set and I had mine in the second, it was very difficult,” Lorenzi said. The Italian will play either top-seeded Tommy Haas of Germany or Horacio Zeballos of Argentina, who play their quarterfinal
match later Friday. In the other quarterfinal Friday, Federico Delbonis of Argentina easily beat Alberto Montanes of Spain 6-4, 6-3 in just over an hour. He will play either homecrowd favorite Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil or Martin Klizan of Slovakia. The 61st-ranked Delbonis had upset three-time Brazil Open champion Almagro in the second round. Defending champion Rafael Nadal is not playing at the clay-court tournament this year. He chose to play at the first edition of the Rio Open, which he won last week.
Sharper surrenders in Los Angeles ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Former NFL All-Pro safety Darren Sharper surrendered to Los Angeles police after being named in a warrant involving a rape case in New Orleans. Sharper, 38, also is under investigation in sexual assault cases in Florida, Nevada and Arizona and has pleaded not guilty to rape charges in Los Angeles. Sharper’s surrender Thursday night had been arranged in advance, LAPD Officer Bruce Borihan said. He was being held at the downtown Metropolitan Detention Center. In a bail motion filed in the California case, Los Angeles County Investigator John Maccharella described a pattern in which the former football star met women at clubs or parties and lured them to a hotel room, where they were allegedly drugged and raped. Lawyers for Sharper, who played in the NFL from 1997 to 2010 primarily with the Green Bay Packers, have said they would prove that any sexual contact Sharper engaged in was welcomed. The motion says the incidents happened in the past five months, with two occurring within a day in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Maccharella said he was told a woman went to a New Orleans bar with Sharper, consumed an alcoholic beverage provided by him and blacked out. She awoke the next morning while being sexually assaulted, the bail motion stated, noting that an exam later
showed Sharper’s DNA was present. Another man facing rape charges in the New Orleans case turned himself in to police there on Friday. Erik Nunez, 26, was booked on two counts of aggravated rape stemming from alleged assaults last September in New Orleans, police said. Police issued warrants on Thursday for Sharper and Nunez. They face charges in the alleged rape of two women at the same location Sept. 23, police spokeswoman Remi Braden said. Sharper’s New Orleans-based attorney, Nandi Campbell, and attorney Leonard B. Levine, who represents Sharper in the California case, did not return telephone calls seeking comment. Braden said she did not know whether Nunez had an attorney. The assault investigation in New Orleans is ongoing and additional arrests are possible, Braden said. If convicted in the California case, Sharper could face more than 30 years in state prison. If convicted of aggravated rape in Louisiana, both Sharper and Nunez could face life imprisonment. Sharper was selected All-Pro six times and chosen for the Pro Bowl five times. He played in two Super Bowls, one with the Green Bay Packers as a rookie and a second with the New Orleans Saints. Sharper retired after the 2010 season. He is an analyst for the NFL Network, which has suspended him indefinitely without pay.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. goes fast and furious on Twitter By JOHN MARSHALL ASSOCIATED PRESS
AVONDALE, Ariz. — NASCAR’s most popular driver won the sport’s biggest race last weekend. It may not have been the most exciting news of the week, at least when it comes to fans of Dale Earnhardt Jr. A reluctant participant on Twitter for years, Earnhardt burst into the Twitterverse this week with a flourish of revealing tweets that have given fans insight into his life they never knew before. “I don’t know what I was thinking, why I didn’t get on there earlier,” Earnhardt said from Phoenix International Speedway on Friday. “It’s a great way to tell people things you appreciate and it’s instant.” Earnhardt has had a Twitter account since 2008, when JR Motorsports signed up (at)DaleJr. Earnhardt had no interest in that end of social media at first, so the account sat dormant for years. That changed early Monday morning, hours after Earnhardt won his second Daytona 500 and posted a
Photo by Terry Renna | AP
Dale Earnhardt Jr. celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. photo of himself with the trophy: “Tonight seemed like as good a night as any to join Twitter. How is everyone doin?”
Earnhardt’s Twitter account soared once he started typing 140 characters at a time, rising to more than 527,000 followers by Friday.
“It’s been a very interesting follow, him getting creative,” fellow Sprint Cup driver Jimmie Johnson said. “He must have been
watching for afar for a while because he has the lingo down, attacking people, holding up pretty well. He didn’t enter as a rookie on Twitter, in my opinion. He’s off to a pretty good start.” It’s certainly been entertaining and fairly revealing. Earnhardt participated in a Twitter chat with fans on Tuesday night and kept the tweets rolling this week, up over 130 by Friday morning. Among the revelations he’s made on Twitter so far: —He always goes the speed limit, figuring he’d look stupid if he gets a ticket when he’s supposed to be a professional driver. —If he had to eat only one food for a month, it would be barbecue. —His favorite car to drive is a midnight blue 76 Chevy Laguna. —The one topping he would want on a pizza is banana peppers. —His favorite style of racing is on short tracks such as Bristol and Martinsville. —Hanging from a fork in a tree near his house is the cockpit of Will Power’s IndyCar from the crash in
Las Vegas that killed Dan Wheldon. —His favorite color his orange. —His favorite band is the Matthew Good Band. —His favorite gadget is his iPad and JBL speaker. “I’m still learning. There’s still a lot of questions about the software, how to physically use it,” Earnhardt said. “I never used it before. It’s been fun to interact with the fans ... and it was enjoyable to be plugged in whenever you feel like it. I hope the fans have enjoyed it.” The fans seem to and so have his fellow drivers, who have tried enticing Earnhardt to join Twitter for years. “I, among many others have pushed him to do it,” Johnson said. “There’s been a lot of people on social media, even the people who run Twitter have come to me to put pressure on him over the years and it just was something he wasn’t interested in. As sharp as he is, as much time as he spends in the digital world, I knew when he got involved, he would love it.” He sure seems to be so far.