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UKRAINE
TEXAS ELECTION 2014
$1B aid package
GOP pushes right
Secretary of State Kerry backs beleaguered country By LARA JAKES ASSOCIATED PRESS
KIEV, Ukraine — In a somber show of U.S. support for Ukraine’s new leadership, Secretary of State John Kerry walked the streets Tuesday where more than 80 anti-government protesters were killed last month, and promised beseeching crowds that American aid is on the way. Kerry met in Ukraine with the new government’s acting president, prime minister, foreign minister and top parliamentary officials. Speaking to reporters afterward, Kerry
urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to stand down and said the U.S. is looking for ways to de-escalate the mounting tensions. “It is clear that Russia has been working hard to create a pretext for being able to invade further,” Kerry said. “It is not appropriate to invade a country, and at the end of a barrel of a gun dictate what you are trying
to achieve. That is not 21st-century, G-8, major nation behavior.” Kerry made a pointed distinction between the Ukrainian government and Putin’s. “The contrast really could not be clearer: determined Ukrainians demonstrating strength through unity, and the Russian government out of excuses, hiding its hand behind falsehoods, intimidation and provocations. In the hearts of Ukrainians and the eyes of the world, there is nothing strong about what Russia is doing.” He said the penalties against Russia are “not something we
are seeking to do, it is something Russia is pushing us to do.” President Barack Obama, visiting a Washington, D.C., school to highlight his new budget, said his administration’s push to punish Putin put the U.S. on “the side of history that, I think, more and more people around the world deeply believe in, the principle that a sovereign people, an independent people, are able to make their own decisions about their own lives. And, you know, Mr. Putin can throw a lot of words out
See UKRAINE PAGE 10A
PROFESSIONAL RODEO
FEWER RODEO COWBOYS Group eyes youth for membership By DALE ROBERTSON HOUSTON CHRONICLE
HOUSTON — Anyone asking Bobby Mote to recite the injuries he has suffered in his nearly 20 years as a professional bareback rider better plan to pull up a chair and sit a spell. After rattling off the long list of setbacks, Mote will explain that all the pain, the Motrinfilled toll being a rodeo cowboy takes on a man’s physical wellbeing, is worth it, and he would do it all over again. “It’s how I make my living,” the 37-year-old four-time bareback world champion said. While it may not be readily apparent to fans attending the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo — the world’s largest — which began Tuesday and continues through March 23 at Reliant Stadium, far fewer young athletes are following Mote’s career path these days. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association membership roster has plunged by nearly a thousand since 2005 to just over 5,000 today, and permit-holders, who haven’t yet earned enough
Photo by Josh Huskin/Houston Chronicle | AP
Bobby Mote rests before the semi-finals of a competition at the San Antonio Rodeo in San Antonio, on Feb. 21. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association membership roster has plunged by nearly a thousand since 2005. prize money to apply for a PRCA card, have dropped by more than 50 percent since 1997. PRCA commissioner Karl Stressman has said the association’s “No. 1 focus as we go forward” will be to boost membership. Although Mote’s dad was a horse trainer, he admitted his parents weren’t overly enthusiastic about his initial decision
to pursue a career as a cowboy. Still, they crossed their fingers and told him Godspeed. But more and more parents, it seems, are pushing their kids into different, less dangerous sporting pursuits. Also, fewer children are growing up on farms and ranches, so they aren’t exposed to rodeoing at a young age. Therefore, the PRCA has
ramped up its junior outreach program, scheduling about 20 pro-cowboy-taught clinics across the country, even in major urban areas, to teach children as young as 8 the basic elements of the rodeo’s rough-stock events — bareback, saddle-bronc and bull-riding — with future plans to also teach the timed events.
See COWBOY
By PAUL J. WEBBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Republicans decided who was more conservative while Democrats sought to galvanize new voters as Texas held a first-in-the-nation primary Tuesday that could push the state farther right, even as the left looks to stake new claims. Six of Texas’ top jobs are open after GOP Gov. Rick Perry decided not to run again following a record 14 years in office, prompting a stampede of 26 Republicans candidates for various stepping stones to higher office. Democrats set on breaking the nation’s longest losing streak in races for statewide office meanwhile hoped charismatic gubernatorial hopeful Wendy Davis would turn out long-dormant voters. “If people don’t start supporting the Democratic Party and voting as a Democrat, instead of being a Democrat voting in the Republican primary, then we’re never going to win races and we’re never going to establish ourselves as a serious party here,” said Janet Veal, 43, a Texas Tech student adviser who cast a Democratic ballot in Lubbock. That possibility, and the rising influence of tea party firebrand U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, has Texas Republicans flanking farther right this primary season. Some have blasted an “invasion” of immigrants coming across the Texas border, where immigration arrests have almost tripled in recent years but remain at about one-third of their historic highs. Others pledged to further tighten some of the nation’s strictest abortion laws and doubled down on the state’s gay marriage ban — one of several state bans recently ruled unconstitutional by federal courts. “I think we need to bolster the border security and get tougher on immigration,” 38-year-old conservative Republican Glendon Paulk said after voting in Lubbock. “I’m all for people who come over here legally but the illegal immigrants, it doesn’t make sense for them to get a break while we’re working and having to pay taxes.” Frigid weather greeted some voters with a dangerous drive to the polls. Austin locations opened late because of icy conditions and extended voting for two hours. Turnout was light in many places, with election workers seen knitting or reading a newspaper in between voters’ sporadic arrivals. Among those on the ballot Tuesday was a new member of the Bush dynasty: George P. Bush, the nephew of former President George W. Bush and son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, making his political debut by running for land commissioner. Six of Texas’ top offices lack an incumbent; the last time Texas had so many open statewide seats was 2002, when Perry won his first full term.
PAGE 10A
See ELECTION PAGE 10A
NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO
Former mayor’s wife waiting for ‘good news’ Reports circulating in Nuevo Laredo state ex-mayor has been kidnapped by an unknown group THE ZAPATA TIMES
Reports circulated online over the weekend stating that Benjamín Galván Gómez, former Nuevo Laredo, Mexico mayor, who was kidnapped last week, was found dead near his home. But Galván’s wife, Martha Alicia Aldapa, said Sunday night in a Facebook post that she was waiting for “good news.” “Thank you all for your words but still waiting to return with good news,” she wrote. “Let us pray for good
GALVÁN GÓMEZ
news soon.” On Saturday, a Nuevo Laredo, Mexico official con-
firmed Galván was kidnapped in the city Thursday. The official had knowledge of the case and spoke on the condition of anonymity. A blog, Nuevo Laredo en Vivo, reported that Galván and his driver had been abducted at about 9 p.m. at Calle Campeche and Avenida Aquiles Serdan in Colonia Madero in East Nuevo Laredo. Galván and his driver were allegedly intercepted while traveling in a vehicle, which was found abandoned.
On Friday, Ruben Dario Rios Lopez, spokesman for the Tamaulipas state attorney general’s office, said the office had not been notified about the alleged kidnapping. Galván became Nuevo Laredo’s 85th mayor in 2011. He served a three-year term that ended in 2013. At about 11 a.m. June 29, 2012, a car bomb exploded in front of the mayor’s office at City Hall in Nuevo Laredo. The blast injured seven people and damaged 11 vehicles and the City Hall building.
The Tamaulipas public security agency and attorney general’s office said in a statement that a Ford Ranger pickup with Coahuila license plates was used in the bombing. The vehicle was placed in Galván’s parking spot, about 33 feet from his second-floor office, which faces Heroe de Nacataz Street. Galván was not in his office at the time of the explosion. About two months prior to the explosion, 14 heads were found in three ice
chests in a vehicle on Juarez Avenue, between Maclovio Herrera and Heroe de Nacataz, in front of City Hall. Witnesses reported finding the ice chests in front of the building, and soldiers from the Mexican Army and explosives experts were called to the scene to investigate. It was then that the 14 heads were found inside the coolers, along with a “manta,” which authorities said was written by the Sinaloa Cartel.