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Formal charges Mexican man indicted for harboring immigrants By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
A Mexican citizen arrested in Zapata County for harboring 10 illegal immigrants has been indicted in a Laredo federal court, records show. Eduardo Salinas-Gonzalez was charged March 1
with conspiracy to conceal, harbor or shield undocumented people and conceal, harbor or shield undocumented people for financial gain. U.S. Border Patrol said that on Feb. 4, they responded to suspicious activity near Falcon Lake in Zapata County. Agents
tracked down footprints that headed toward U.S. 83, court documents state. Agents said they later discovered footprints leading to a trailer house on U.S. 83, states the criminal complaint filed Feb. 8. Authorities allegedly observed Salinas-Gonzalez on the east side of the trailer
washing a Chevrolet Silverado. He allegedly allowed agents to search the premises and the vehicle. Agents said they discovered six people inside the trailer and four more under the bed cover of the Sil-
See INDICTED PAGE 11A
LA GLORIA, TEXAS
BLOODLESS BULLFIGHTING
Photo by Ron Jenkins | Getty
Voters line up to cast their ballots on Super Tuesday, March 1, in Fort Worth, Texas.
Voter turnout low in Texas Among 12 states that have held primaries, Texas is second to last By JOLIE MCCULLOUGH TEXAS TRIBUNE
Texas saw record turnout numbers in last week’s presidential primaries, but it still had one of the lowest voting-age participation rates of the states that have held primaries so far.
More than 4.2 million Texans voted in the presidential primary race, the most in state history, according to the Secretary of State. However, among the 12 states that already have held primaries, Texas
See ELECTIONS PAGE 11A
WASHINGTON, DC
Photo by Jerry Lara | San Antonio Express-News
Karla Santoya, 23, of Aguascalientes, Mexico, teases a bull during a bloodless bullfight at the Santa Maria Bullring in Santa Elena, Texas, Feb. 28. It was the fourth and last of the 2016 Winter Season. The event draws a large crowd of Winter Texans and area residents. Don Fred Rank owns the ring. His son, David Renk, known as "El Texano," was the first North American matador not from Mexico. The event featured four bullfights with two bullfighters from Mexico that also included Guillermo Ibarra, 52, of Monterrey, Mexico.
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during a campaign rally at Central Baptist Church in Kannapolis, N.C., Tuesday.
Cruz’s prospects rising, somewhat
Bringing art to sport
Republican candidate having trouble courting party colleagues in Senate
By AARON NELSEN SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
LA GLORIA — It was mere moments after the fighting bull entered the ring that it knocked Karla Santoyo, 23, to the ground. Suddenly lying there bloodied, the aspiring matador was staring down 1,000 pounds of horned fury. “In the ring it’s you and the bull,” Santoyo had said hours before. Every bull is a puzzle to be solved, she explained. “He doesn’t know what he needs to do; you teach him with the cape.” But some fighting bulls are not so easily solved. Over a few winter afternoons, since 2000, the drama and flair of bullfighting, minus the bloodletting, comes to South Texas. Nestled in the ranchlands of Starr County, about 70 miles east of Zapata, a handful of matadors bring their art to a ring that seats about 1,000 people. Far from the roaring af-
Photo by Gerry Broome | AP
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER NEW YORK TIMES
Photo by Jerry Lara | San Antonio Express-News
Guillermo Ibarra, 52, of Monterrey, Mexico works a bull during a bloodless bullfight at the Santa Maria Bullring in Santa Elena, Texas, Feb. 28. It was the fourth and last of the 2016 Winter Season. The event draws a large crowd of Winter Texans and area residents. Don Fred Rank owns the ring. His son, David Renk, known as "El Texano," was the first North American matador not from Mexico. The event featured four bullfights with two bullfighters from Mexico that also included Karla Santoya, 23, of Aguascalientes, Mexico. icionados who fill substantially larger rings in Mexico and Spain, these matadors perform mostly for uninitiated retirees who understand little about style, but for whom the sight of an adrenalinefueled bull is raw. Anyone expecting a sanitized version of bullfighting was quickly disabused of the idea. “It’s twice as dangerous,” Fred Renk, 79, an amateur bullfighter turned water treatment man-
ager, said of the American version of bullfighting. “The matadors who come here to perform know it, and a lot of them have felt it.” Unlike the traditional spectacle in which a bull is weakened with lance and barb, then killed with the thrust of a sword between its shoulder blades and through the heart, the so-called bloodless variety spares the animal, relying on a series of passes with a cape to wear it
down. La Gloria is one of the few places to catch a bullfight in the country; there’s another in California. This unlikely venue, in a country where traditional bullfighting is banned, is Renk’s creation. The Santa Maria ring is a shrine to aspiring bullfighters, quite literally. The ashes of a few valiant men and women have
See BULLFIGHTING PAGE 11A
WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas hopes his presidential fortunes are rising as he approaches a cluster of Republican primaries. But his prospects seem pretty flat among his party colleagues. Interviews with a dozen Republican senators on Tuesday morning failed to yield a single endorsement for Cruz, even though his fellow freshman, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, has a dozen or so colleagues backing him. Even Donald Trump, whom many Republicans have gone out of their way to dismiss as unfit for office, has the support of a fellow immigration hawk, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Some senators simply said they would support whoever wins the nomination. Other smiled wanly, as if wishing they had su-
perpowers that could remove them from the scene. “It’s, uh, well, look at the alternatives,” said Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, when asked if his party could rally around Cruz at some juncture. Cruz has been gaining on Trump over the last week and lags him by fewer than 100 delegates, while a new poll shows Trump’s popularity may be flagging after a wave of new attacks ads. “I am crestfallen that my candidate, Jeb Bush, is out of the running,” said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who added that she would endorse no one. Perhaps she was just being self-interested: Collins joked that she and Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., having recently been named the two most bipartisan senators by a policy think tank, were planning to run on their own
See CRUZ PAGE 11A
PAGE 2A
Zin brief CALENDAR
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016
AROUND TEXAS
TODAY IN HISTORY
THURSDAY, MARCH 10
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Preschool Read & Play. 11 a.m.–12 p.m. McKendrick Ochoa Salinas Branch Library, 1920 Palo Blanco St. Story time and crafts for preschoolers. For more information, contact Priscilla Garcia at priscilla@laredolibrary.org or 795-2400 x2403. Family Story Time & Crafts. 4-5 p.m. McKendrick Ochoa Salinas Branch Library, 1920 Palo Blanco St. For more information, contact Priscilla Garcia at priscilla@laredolibrary.org or 795-2400 x2403.
Today is Wednesday, March 9, the 69th day of 2016. There are 297 days left in the year. Today’s Highlights in History: On March 9, 1916, more than 400 Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico, killing 18 Americans. During the First World War, Germany declared war on Portugal. On this date: In 1661, Cardinal Jules Mazarin, the chief minister of France, died, leaving King Louis XIV in full control. In 1796, the future emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte, married Josephine de Beauharnais. (The couple later divorced.) In 1933, Congress, called into special session by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, began its “hundred days” of enacting New Deal legislation. In 1945, during World War II, U.S. B-29 bombers began launching incendiary bomb attacks against Tokyo, resulting in an estimated 100,000 deaths. In 1954, CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow critically reviewed Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy’s anti-communism campaign on “See It Now.” In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court, in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, raised the standard for public officials to prove they’d been libeled in their official capacity by news organizations. In 1965, the Rev. James Reeb, a white minister from Boston who’d gone to Selma, Alabama, to show support for civil rights marchers, was attacked by a group of white men and struck on the head; he died two days later. In 1976, a cable car in the Italian ski resort of Cavalese fell some 700 feet to the ground when a supporting line snapped, killing 43 people. In 1977, about a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington, D.C., killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. (The siege ended two days later.) In 1981, Dan Rather made his debut as principal anchorman of “The CBS Evening News.” In 1990, Dr. Antonia Novello was sworn in as surgeon general, becoming the first woman and the first Hispanic to hold the job. Five years ago: After a trip to the International Space Station, shuttle Discovery ended its career as the most flown U.S. spaceship, returning from orbit for the last time. One year ago: Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the Apple Watch in San Francisco. Today’s Birthdays: Singeractress Keely Smith is 88. Singer Lloyd Price is 83. Former ABC anchorman Charles Gibson is 73. Rock musician Robin Trower is 71. Singer Jeffrey Osborne is 68. Magazine editor Michael Kinsley is 65. TV newscaster Faith Daniels is 59. Actress Linda Fiorentino is 58. Actor Tom Amandes is 57. Actor-director Lonny Price is 57. Rock musician Shannon Leto (30 Seconds to Mars) is 46. Actor Oscar Isaac (Film: “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”) is 37. Rapper Chingy is 36. Actor Matthew Gray Gubler is 36. Actress Brittany Snow is 30. Rapper Bow Wow is 29. Rapper YG is 26 Thought for Today: “Anybody who wants the presidency so much that he’ll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.” — David Broder (1929-2011).
FRIDAY, MARCH 11 A Fresh Start to a Healthier You. 4:30-5:30 p.m. The kitchen at McKendrick Ochoa Salinas Branch Library, 1920 Palo Blanco St. Learn practical cooking and shopping tips and recipes for success. For more information, contact Angie Sifuentes, Webb County Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, 956-523-5290, angelica.sifuentes@ag.tamu.edu. Photo by Paul Moseley/Fort Worth Star-Telegram | AP
MONDAY, MARCH 14
Tolar Fire Chief Matt Hutsell searches inside a damaged home Tuesday, in Tolar, Texas. Forecasters predict a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Dallas-Fort Worth area through Thursday.
Chess Club. Every Monday from 4-6 p.m. LBV – Inner City Branch Library. Free for all ages and skill levels. Basic instruction is offered. For more information call John at 956-795-2400 x2520.
Storms cause flooding
TUESDAY, MARCH 15 Knitting Circle. 1-3 p.m. McKendrick Ochoa Salinas Branch Library, 1920 Palo Blanco St. Please bring yarn and knitting needles. For more information, contact Analiza Perez-Gomez at analiza@laredolibrary.org or 7952400 x2403. Crochet for Kids. 4-5 p.m. McKendrick Ochoa Salinas Branch Library, 1920 Palo Blanco St. Please bring yarn and a crochet needle. For more information, contact Analiza Perez-Gomez at analiza@laredolibrary.org or 795-2400 x2403. Rock wall climbing. 4-5 p.m. LBVInner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Free. Take the challenge and climb the rock wall! Fun exercise for all ages. Must sign release form. For more information, contact John Hong at 7952400 x2521.
By DAVID WARREN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS — Powerful storms dumped heavy rain on parts of Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma on Tuesday, causing flooding that led to a school bus rescue, property damage from suspected tornadoes and the death of a boater whose canoe capsized in strong winds. By the time the storm system leaves Texas and Oklahoma — likely today — it could dump up to a foot of rain on some areas, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jennifer McNatt. It could linger in Arkansas and Louisiana through Thursday. Suspected tornado damage was reported in rural communities southwest of Fort Worth, Texas, but McNatt said survey teams hadn’t confirmed as of Tuesday morning whether it was caused by tornadoes or straight-line
winds. Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds told Dallas-Fort Worth station KXAS-TV that four mobile homes were damaged and four people injured overnight. Authorities near Houston said they’ve recovered the body of a 22-year-old man whose canoe capsized as he and another man were fishing in a bayou near Galveston Bay. Dallas-based utility Oncor at one point reported more than 40,000 customers without power Tuesday as strong winds brought down trees and traffic lights. Winds of up to 70 mph were reported and tornado warnings were issued for parts of central and eastern Texas. Emergency personnel waded through thigh-deep water to rescue six children from a school bus caught on a flooded road north of Fort Worth.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16 Thieves, Greasers, and Mongrels: The Great Emancipator Encounters the Immigrant. 7 p.m. TAMIU Student Center Ballroom, 502 University Blvd. Free and open to the public. Please join us for our International Bank of Commerce Keynote Speaker Series presentation featuring Dr. Jason H. Silverman, the Ellison Capers Palmer, Jr. Professor of History at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC.
THURSDAY, MARCH 17 South Texas Food Bank St. Patrick’s Day Bowling Tournament. 5:30 p.m. Jett Bowl. A family fun event. Sponsorship is $175 per lane. For information call the South Texas Food Bank, 956-726-3120 or Salo Otero, 956-3242432. Preschool Read & Play. 11 a.m.–12 p.m. McKendrick Ochoa Salinas Branch Library, 1920 Palo Blanco St. Story time and crafts for preschoolers. For more information, contact Priscilla Garcia at priscilla@laredolibrary.org or 795-2400 x2403. Family Story Time & Crafts. 4-5 p.m. McKendrick Ochoa Salinas Branch Library, 1920 Palo Blanco St. For more information, contact Priscilla Garcia at priscilla@laredolibrary.org or 795-2400 x2403.
FRIDAY, MARCH 18 A Fresh Start to a Healthier You. 4:30-5:30 p.m. The kitchen at McKendrick Ochoa Salinas Branch Library, 1920 Palo Blanco St. Learn practical cooking and shopping tips and recipes for success. For more information, contact Angie Sifuentes, Webb County Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, 956-523-5290, angelica.sifuentes@ag.tamu.edu.
SATURDAY, MARCH 19 Easter Egg Hunt. 3 p.m. Bruni Plaza Branch Library, 1120 San Bernardo Ave. Free. Easter egg coloring, crafts, face painting, Easter bunny pictures, Easter egg hunt, food.
MONDAY, MARCH 21 Chess Club. Every Monday from 4-6 p.m. LBV – Inner City Branch Library. Free for all ages and skill levels. Basic instruction is offered. For more information call John at 956-795-2400 x2520.
Baylor University, alumni group settle dispute
Lawyer gets 17 years, must repay $37M in scam
1 dead in Corpus Christi Bay boating accident
WACO Baylor University and one of its alumni associations have settled a long-running dispute that had fractured campus relations and resulted in competing lawsuits. As part of the settlement announced Tuesday, the Baylor Alumni Association would receive $2 million from the university and change its name, but continue to exist as a not-forprofit group. Members of the group must still vote on the agreement. The BAA would no longer identify itself as an alumni organization but would continue to offer scholarships and publish the Baylor Line magazine, which some university administrators had criticized for questioning Baylor actions. The BAA has been associated with the university for nearly 160 years, but has conflicted with the university-backed Baylor Alumni Network.
HOUSTON — An attorney from Austin must serve 17 years in prison and repay $37 million dollars for stock-related fraud and harboring a fugitive he represented. Patrick Lanier was sentenced Monday night by a federal judge in Houston. The case also involves 73-year-old Harris “Butch” Ballow, formerly of Galveston County. The 67-year-old Lanier in 2014 was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, harboring and concealing Ballow and assisting a federal offender. Ballow in 2003 pleaded guilty to money laundering and agreed to assist the Securities and Exchange Commission — then fled. Prosecutors say Lanier helped the fugitive run a company that bilked hundreds more investors. Ballow was arrested in 2010 in Mexico, extradited in 2011 and sentenced to 10 years in prison, plus ordered to repay $10 million.
CORPUS CHRISTI Investigators say a 3-year-old boy drowned and two other people are missing following a weekend boating accident in Corpus Christi Bay. The Coast Guard says the search continued Tuesday for a 13-year-old girl and a 28-year-old man. Coast Guard Lt. Hans De Groot says all eight people aboard were wearing life jackets when the 18-foot boat capsized Sunday afternoon. The leisure boat was about a mile off Swanter Park when the vessel overturned during rough weather. Authorities say a woman and a child managed to reach shore to summon help. Emergency personnel then located four other people, including a boy who was transported to a hospital and declared dead. De Groot says the outing involved two sisters and their families. — Compiled from AP reports
AROUND THE NATION Denver struggling with homeless camps DENVER — People camping near Denver’s homeless shelters packed up their belongings Tuesday as city workers started removing bags, tarps, shopping carts and other items left on sidewalks. The Mile High City is another fast-growing metropolis struggling with what to do about homeless camps as affordable housing becomes scarcer. The city has spent months trying to urge the campers on the edge of downtown near the Coors Field baseball stadium to move into shelters and get rid of makeshift structures that officials say pose a health hazard.
Car nearly crashes into TV reporter while on air ALAMEDA COUNTY, Calif. — A Northern California television reporter and cameraman nar-
CONTACT US Publisher, William B. Green........................728-2501 Account Executive, Dora Martinez ...... (956) 765-5113 General Manager, Adriana Devally ...............728-2510 Adv. Billing Inquiries ................................. 728-2531 Circulation Director ................................. 728-2559 MIS Director, Michael Castillo.................... 728-2505 Copy Editor, Nick Georgiou ....................... 728-2565 Sports Editor, Zach Davis ..........................728-2578 Spanish Editor, Melva Lavin-Castillo............ 728-2569 Photo by David Zalubowski | AP
In this Monday photo, Salvatore Garofalo sits in a lawn chair as he smokes a cigarette in a makeshift homeless camp across from the Denver Rescue in downtown Denver. rowly missed getting hit by a car while reporting on air. KTVU’s Twitter feed on Tuesday showed a clip of reporter Alex Savidge on air before there’s a loud bang and cameraman Chip Vaughan hollers at him to watch out. The reporter
jumped out of the way just as a white car plowed into the spot where he was standing. The reporter is heard saying that they’re OK. Savidge posted on his Twitter feed that his heart was racing, but he was all right. — Compiled from AP reports
SUBSCRIPTIONS/DELIVERY (956) 728-2555 The Zapata Times is distributed on Saturdays to 4,000 households in Zapata County. For subscribers of the Laredo Morning Times and for those who buy the Laredo Morning Times at newsstands, the Zapata Times is inserted. The Zapata Times is free. The Zapata Times is published by the Laredo Morning Times, a division of The Hearst Corporation, P.O. Box 2129, Laredo, Texas 78044. Phone (956) 728-2500. The Zapata office is at 1309 N. U.S. Hwy. 83 at 14th Avenue, Suite 2, Zapata, TX 78076. Call (956) 765-5113 or e-mail thezapatatimes.net
State
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016
THE ZAPATA TIMES 3A
Inmate set to die for 1997 rampage By MICHAEL GRACZYK ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Vernon Bryant/Dallas Morning News | MCT
A line of oil pumps on land owned by Fasken Oil and Ranch near Midland, Texas, on Wednesday, July 23, 2014.
Texas Supreme Court grapples with oil tax By JIM MALEWITZ TEXAS TRIBUNE
With billions of dollars at stake, the Texas Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a tax showdown whose outcome could shake up the next legislative session while straining the historically friendly relationship between state lawmakers and the iconic oil and gas sector. Throughout a spirited debate over arcane accounting rules and oil-tinged science, the justices offered few clues as to how they might rule. “They’re all great poker faces,” said James LeBas, an economist with the Texas Oil & Gas Association and a former chief revenue estimator for Texas, following arguments. The case ultimately focuses on a single question: Are metal pipes, tubing and other equipment used in oil and gas extraction exempt from sales taxes? Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar has warned state lawmakers that a yes to that question, brought by Midland-based Southwest Royalties in an appeal of a lower court’s ruling, could trigger a flood of refunds that would wipe out the state’s projected $4 billion budget surplus. “This one’s as big as they come,” the Republican said ahead of the arguments. In the courtroom Tuesday, Hegar watched as the justices parsed the language of a sales tax exemption for goods and services used in the “actual manufacturing, processing, or fabrication of tangible personal property,” and consid-
ered how that description relates to the mechanics of petroleum extraction. The case hinges on whether certain extraction equipment — like casing, pipes, tubing and pumps — fits the definition cited in the exemption. Though Southwest Royalties, a subsidiary of Clayton Williams Energy, seeks to recoup less than $500,000 from purchases between 1997 and 2001, the stakes are far higher. A Texas loss could spur up to $4.4 billion in refund filings for 2017 alone, Hegar’s office estimates, and $500 million each subsequent year that the exemption remains in place. That high price tag drew no mention in Tuesday’s arguments, which lasted less than an hour and stuck to the highly technical merits of the case. David Keltner, an attorney representing Southwest Royalties, argued that certain extraction equipment clearly fits the exemption’s definition. The company’s equipment “processes” West Texas crude by separating it into marketable oil and gas, he argued, at times pointing to a chart that displayed the various stages of petroleum extraction. Once the crude is brought up from the ground, it is no longer part of a mineral owner’s estate, he said. “It is tangible personal property. People own it,” Keltner said. “If you were to hold otherwise, there would be serious consequences.” Among the consequences he named: Texas regulators would struggle to hold drill-
ers accountable for the oil they extract. Arguing for the state, Texas assistant solicitor general Michael Murphy disagreed, arguing that minerals are not “tangible personal property,” and that Southwest’s equipment was not necessarily responsible for transforming the crude. “Southwest’s mineral extraction is really like gathering raw materials,” he said, dubbing the mechanics “pre-production or preprocessing.” “Until that oil and gas bubbles out of the ground, it’s part of the [real estate]." Justice Phil Johnson, questioned that interpretation. “It’s not personal property in the tubing, when it’s coming up, it’s still realty?” he asked. “Even though it’s outside the ground, outside the natural environment?” Justice Eva Guzman wondered how Texans could determine the precise moment the crude changes phases. “But how would we know when?” she asked. Keltner, the driller’s attorney, said that instrumentation on the surface would reveal that information. Murphy disagreed. Murphy also pointed to a separate tax exemption on the books for purchases of some of the same equipment in question — if it’s used for offshore drilling outside of Texas. Texas lawmakers, he said, would not likely intend to consruct overlapping exemptions. He also argued that the court must revert to a narrow interpretation of the tax code — siding with the state — if a rule is deemed ambiguous.
McAllen loses $765K ASSOCIATED PRESS
MCALLEN — The city of McAllen has lost more than $765,000 on three holiday events in 2015. The Monitor reports that the city budgeted $1.1 million for the Christmas parade, Christmas in the park and the stadium promotion, but generated just more than $239,000 in revenue. The biggest loss came from the stadium promotion, which featured a per-
formance by singer Enrique Iglesias. The city budgeted for $1.1 million but only generated $239,180 in revenue. City officials haven’t released the amount Iglesias was paid, saying the contract was confidential. Mayor Jim Darling says securing Iglesias was probably a rushed process and that further foresight would help the city plan a budget appropriately. Darling and City Manager Roy Rodriguez say they’ll
look to hire a promoter for future concerts in order to combat potential losses. “You don’t want to spend taxpayer’s money lightly,” Darling said after the meeting. “So we’re pretty well decided that we’ll go forward with this promoter to take the risk and we’ll wait to see what kind of promoter agreement comes back to make a decision to go forward. The other two events were close to their budgets.
LIVINGSTON — Texas prisoner Coy Wesbrook is realistic about the likelihood he’ll be executed Wednesday for a Houstonarea shooting rampage more than 18 years ago that left five people dead. “I’m very optimistic they’re going to kill me,” Wesbrook said from a visiting cage outside death row. “Yeah, there ain’t no doubt.” That’s set to happen Wednesday evening in Huntsville, when Wesbrook, 58, is scheduled for lethal injection for the 1997 shooting rampage during a party at his exwife’s apartment in Channelview, just east of Houston. “The main thing in my case is five victims, five shots, five bodies and everybody died,” he said. “There was nobody left alive and that pretty much cinched it, you could say.” Among the five victims was Wesbrook’s ex-wife, Gloria Jean Coons, 32. Others killed were Coons’ roommate, Diana Ruth Money, 43, and three men: Antonio Cruz, 35; Anthony Ray Rogers, 41; and Kelly Hazlip, 28. Wesbrook would be the eighth convicted killer put to death this year nationally and fourth in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state. Two Georgia inmates have been executed so far in 2016, along with one each in Alabama and Florida. Wesbrook’s attorney, Don Vernay, said appeals to the courts have been exhausted and no lastditch efforts to save him are expected. Previous appeals rejected in the courts focused
Photo by Michael Graczyk | AP
Death row prisoner Coy Wayne Wesbrook is photographed Feb. 3 at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit outside Livingston, Texas. on claims Wesbrook had deficient legal help at his trial and that an undercover informant improperly was used to obtain incriminating information for his trial. More recently, courts refused arguments Wesbrook was mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty under U.S. Supreme Court rulings. The former security guard and delivery driver married Coons in 1995. They divorced the following year but continued seeing each other and began living together until he moved out in August 1997. They had lunch Nov. 12, 1997, and talked about reconciling. When he showed up that night at her apartment, he found a party in progress. He testified at his 1998 capital murder trial that Coons humiliated him by having sex with two of the men while he was there. “You hear all your life if you catch your old lady in bed with somebody, don’t just shoot her but shoot her lover too,” Wesbrook said from prison. “In her case, there was a bunch of lovers. I just took care of my business. “I made her a prom-
ise,” he said. “If you keep on pushing me I might push back.” Wesbrook testified when he tried to leave the party, Cruz grabbed the keys to his truck and joined others in taunting him. He said he “lost it,” walked out, grabbed a 30.06 rifle he kept in the truck and returned, shooting each person once. Coons was the final victim. Court records show the five shots were fired within 40 seconds. Wesbrook testified he shot Money after she threw a can of beer at him, shot Rogers and Cruz as they rushed toward him, then shot Coons and Hazlip as they were engaged in sex. Neighbors who heard the gunfire and called police saw Wesbrook emerge from the apartment, place the rifle inside his truck and then stand calmly by the tailgate of the pickup to wait for sheriff ’s deputies to arrive. “I’m sorry it happened,” he said from prison. “But I’m not going to sit here and boo-hoo about it.” Two more Texas inmates are set to die later this month, followed by another in April.
PAGE 4A
Zopinion
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO EDITORIAL@LMTONLINE.COM
COLUMN
OTHER VIEWS
It’s not too late to reject Cruz! It’s 2 a.m. The bar is closing. Republicans have had a series of strong and nasty Donald Trump cocktails. Suddenly Ted Cruz is beginning to look kind of attractive. At least he’s sort of predictable, and he doesn’t talk about his sexual organs in presidential debates! Well, Republicans, have your standards really fallen so low so fast? Are you really that desperate? Can you remember your 8 p.m. selves, and all the hope you had about entering a campaign with such a deep bench of talented candidates? Back in the early evening, before the current panic set in, Republicans understood that Cruz would be a terrible general election candidate, at least as unelectable as Trump and maybe more so. He is the single most conservative Republican in Congress, far adrift from the American mainstream. He’s been doing well in primaries because of the support of “extremely conservative” voters in very conservative states, and he really hasn’t broken out of that lane. His political profile is a slightly enlarged Rick Santorum but without the heart. On policy grounds, he would be unacceptable to a large majority in this country. But his policy disadvantages are overshadowed by his public image ones. His rhetorical style will come across to young and independent voters as smarmy and oleaginous. In Congress, he had two accomplishments: the disastrous government shutdown and persuading all his colleagues to dislike him. There is another path, one that doesn’t leave you self-loathing in the morning. It’s a long shot, but given the alternatives, it’s worth trying. First, hit the pause button on the rush to Cruz. Second, continue the Romneyesque assault on Trump. The results on Saturday, when late voters swung sharply against the Donald, suggest it may be working. Third, work for a Marco Rubio miracle in Florida on March 15. Fourth, clear the field for John Kasich in Ohio. If Rubio and Kasich win their home states, Trump will need to take nearly 70 percent of the remaining delegates to secure a majority. That would be unlikely; he’s only winning 44 percent of the delegates now. The party would go to the convention without a clear nominee. It would be bedlam for a few days, but a broadly acceptable new option might emerge. It would be better than going into the fall with Trump, which would be a moral error, or Cruz, who in November would manage to win several important counties in Mississippi. This isn’t about winning the presidency in 2016 anymore. This is about something much bigger. Every 50 or 60 years, parties undergo a transformation. The GOP is undergoing one
“
DAVID BROOKS
right now. What happens this year will set the party’s trajectory for decades. Since Goldwater/Reagan, the GOP has been governed by a free-market, anti-government philosophy. But over the ensuing decades new problems have emerged. First, the economy has gotten crueler. Technology is displacing workers and globalization is dampening wages. Second, the social structure has atomized and frayed, especially among the less educated. Third, demography is shifting. Orthodox Republicans, seeing no positive role for government, have had no affirmative agenda to help people deal with these new problems. Occasionally some conservative policy mavens have proposed such an agenda — anti-poverty programs, human capital policies, wage subsidies and the like — but the proposals were killed, usually in the House, by the anti-government crowd. The 1980s anti-government orthodoxy still has many followers; Cruz is the extreme embodiment of this tendency. But it has grown increasingly rigid, unresponsive and obsolete. Along comes Trump offering to replace it and change the nature of the GOP. He tramples all over the anti-government ideology of modern Republicanism. He would replace the freemarket orthodoxy with authoritarian nationalism. He offers to use government on behalf of the American working class, but in negative and defensive ways: to build walls, to close trade, to ban outside groups, to smash enemies. According to him, America’s problems aren’t caused by deep structural shifts. They’re caused by morons and parasites. The Great Leader will take them down. If the GOP is going to survive as a decent and viable national party, it can’t cling to the fading orthodoxy Cruz represents. But it can’t shift to ugly Trumpian nationalism, either. It has to find a third alternative: limited but energetic use of government to expand mobility and widen openness and opportunity. That is what Kasich, Rubio, Paul Ryan and others are stumbling toward. Amid all the vulgarity and pettiness, that is what is being fought over this month: Going back to the past, veering into an ugly future, or finding a third way. This is something worth fighting for, worth burning the boats behind you for. The hour is late and the odds may be long. But there is still hope. It’s a moment for audacity, not settling for Cruz simply because he’s the Titanic you know. David Brooks is a columnist with the New York Times.
COLUMN
What makes someone a Texas barbecue aficionado? What’s the best barbecue “joint” in Texas? (I’m a language purist and won’t use bar-b-q unless it’s part of the establishment’s name.) Of course, I don’t have the answer. Thousands of Lone Star wannabe aficionados do not either. I can state one thing with a certainty: Texas barbecue beats Louisiana’s version all hollow. I was prompted to write this after seeing an obituary in the Houston Chronicle for Jim Goode, whose establishment became one of the top barbecue restaurants in Houston with seven locations. I knew Jim when I was selling typesetting and graphic services and he was a budding commercial artist. I was around when he opened his first restaurant. Now, that we’ve established the bona fides on this issue, I will write a bit about some Texas barbecue establishments I’ve experienced. I use that big long noun to group all such places in one category. And, I don’t profess to be nearly as well connected as, say, Texas Monthly, which dedicated an issue to the subject. The magazine had some staff member research the places it featured in the story.
Homemade I can tell you that the places I’m discussing, I’ve sampled their barbecue and atmosphere and that’s
what will be offered here. “Atmosphere,” which might also be called “personality” almost certainly plays a major role in my collection. Unfortunately, my hometown didn’t have a barbecue restaurant at the time I was growing up. The only samplings of barbecue until I left to attend college were Mother’s recipe and one questionable experience at an all-night fox hunt. At that event, Dad and I sat by the huge campfire where a giant coffee pot (had to be at least a gallon, maybe two) offered strong coffee accompanied by a handful of grounds since the fresh grounds were dumped into the pot before adding water. It was my first taste of coffee (I was 11) and it put me off coffee until the late-nightcramming-for-tests routine in college necessitated my indulgence. Meanwhile, Dad sat by the fire with me as we listened to “the music of the hounds” as they chased the fox through the woods.
The flavor Barbecue was not often part of my menu until several years later and I found some memorable barbecue joints. I quickly learned
that I really liked barbecue. At first, it was because my sweet tooth greatly approved of most of the sauce I sampled. After awhile and some maturity, I learned to appreciate good barbecue based on its flavor WITHOUT the sauce and to distinguish the taste by the wood over which the barbecue meat experienced its smokey curing and cooking. In my considered opinion, the best-tasting Lone Star barbecue is cooked over mesquite with oak a distant second. Forget about those phony “charcoal briquets.”
Best of the best In my opinion, some of the best barbecue in Texas is cooked in Lockhart — Black’s (traditional), Kreuz Market and Smitty’s (the latter didn’t exist when I lived there). According to Texas Monthly, the Kreuz family had a bit of a falling out and split, with the addition of Smitty’s as very good competition. Those two are recognized as among the very best in Texas. One place that I really liked wasn’t ranked by Texas Monthly — Casey Jones Barbecue on State Highway 105 between Conroe and Cleveland. The proprietor is a cousin of famed country and Western singer, George Jones. Casey’s joint was an old railroad car. When you entered, you faced an L-
shaped serving table manned by Casey himself and he greeted everyone with “Hey, Bud,” and “Hi, Sis,” as if he really knew them. The “dining stations” were school armchair desks.
The ‘sauce’ Casey’s barbecue was good, his chatter utterly disarming. I almost choked laughing while trying to swallow mouthfuls of his meat. One place where I got to spend more time than any other was Texas Charlie’s in Jasper. The meat might not make Texas Monthly but the atmosphere and the chatter were absolutely intoxicating. Part of that was the “outrageous” personality of the place’s namesake, Charlie Nicholson, tempered by his sweet wife, Nancy. The “sauce” on the experience was The Table, which was sort of front center in the dining area and where local wits and personalities gathered every day to issue declarations about local, state and national events. These places represent most of my barbecue experiences and as you might surmise, atmosphere and personality played greater roles than the food. Willis Webb is a retired community newspaper editor-publisher of more than 50 years experience. He can be reached by email at wwebb1937@att.net.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY The Zapata Times does not publish anonymous letters. To be published, letters must include the writer’s first and last names as well as a phone number to verify identity. The
phone number IS NOT published; it is used solely to verify identity and to clarify content, if necessary. Identity of the letter writer must be verified before publication. We want to assure our
readers that a letter is written by the person who signs the letter. The Zapata Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms. Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. No name-call-
ing or gratuitous abuse is allowed. Via e-mail, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.
CLASSIC DOONESBURY (1986) | GARRY TRUDEAU
National
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016
Prime view of solar eclipse By RACHEL D’ORO ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Skygazers from around the country caught a flight from Alaska to Hawaii on Tuesday for prime viewing of a total solar eclipse that will unfold over parts of Indonesia and the Indian and Pacific oceans. A dozen eclipse enthusiasts were among the 181 passengers on the plane that departed Anchorage for Honolulu. The rare event comes when the moon is close enough to Earth to completely block out the sun. Joe Rao, an associate astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium in New York, called Alaska Airlines last fall, explaining that the flight would be in the right place for the eclipse. The route was expected to encounter the darkest shadow of the moon as it passed over Earth. Problem was, the plane would be passing by nearly a half-hour too soon. The airline said it rescheduled the flight to depart 25 minutes later, and it is expected to rendezvous with the eclipse’s sweet spot nearly 700 miles north of Honolulu. After the schedule tweak, Rao and a dozen other astronomy aficionados booked seats for the big show at 36,000 feet. Rao, like other selfdubbed “eclipse geeks,” was thrilled about setting out to witness his 11th such spectacle. “It is an experience,” he said of watching the sun turn into a giant black disk in the sky. “Every fiber of you gets involved in those few moments when the sun is totally eclipsed.” The eclipse is expected to last just under two minutes. The last total solar eclipse was in March 2015, and the one before that was in 2012. Craig Small, a semiretired Hayden Planetarium astronomer, was taking off to view his 31st total eclipse. If all goes according to plan, this event will put him over the 100-minute mark in experiencing eclipses. To mark each viewing, Small carries a special eclipse flag made in 1972. Also on board was Dan McGlaun, who brought 200 pairs of special filter classes to distribute to other passengers. McGlaun, a project manager who runs eclipse2017.org, will be viewing his 12th total eclipse. “It’s going to be amazing. It always is,” he said before boarding. “It’s a universal reaction when you see an eclipse. You cheer, you scream, you cry.”
THE ZAPATA TIMES 5A
After standoff, FBI agents investigated By STEVEN DUBOIS ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Ron Edmonds | AP file
In this Nov. 18, 1988 file photo, former President Ronald Reagan hands a pen to then first lady Nancy Reagan after he signed a major anti-drug bill at a White House East Room ceremony in Washington.
Nancy Reagan to be laid to rest By JOHN ROGERS ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Just as she was always by his side in life, former first lady Nancy Reagan will be laid to rest just inches from President Ronald Reagan when she is buried Friday in a hillside tomb facing west toward one of the couple’s favorite views — the Pacific Ocean. Mrs. Reagan’s funeral service, preceded by public viewings on Wednesday and Thursday, was planned down to the smallest details by the former first lady herself, including the flower arrangements, the music to be played by a U.S. Marine Corps band and the people who received invitations to the private memorial at Simi Valley’s Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Among those who had RSVP’d by Tuesday were former President George W. Bush and his wife, former first lady Laura Bush; former first lady Rosalynn Carter; first lady Michelle Obama; and former first lady Hillary Clinton. “No doubt about it, the most important of her special requests was that she be laid to rest right next to the president, as close as possible,” said John Heu-
busch, executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library. “The way the tomb is constructed,” he continued, “her casket will literally be set forth in the ground inches from President Reagan’s.” The hour-long service, to which approximately 1,000 people have been invited, is to take place on the library’s lawn. On a clear day the gravesite affords visitors ocean views. Others who have said they will attend include President Richard Nixon’s daughter Tricia Nixon Cox and President Lyndon Johnson’s daughters Lynda Bird Johnson Robb and Luci Baines Johnson. “One of our saddest situations is we have so many people who have called or written, saying they would like to attend, but unfortunately it needs to be by invitation only because we only have so much room on the lawn, Heubusch said. “As a result, Mrs. Reagan was very adamant about having some time where the public could come by and pay last respects.” Public viewings are scheduled at the library from 1 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday.
PORTLAND, Ore. — FBI agents involved in the traffic stop that led to the killing of one of the armed occupiers of an Oregon wildlife refuge are under investigation for not disclosing they fired shots that missed Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, authorities said Tuesday. Oregon State Police troopers fired the three rounds that killed the Arizona rancher during a confrontation on a remote road, law enforcement officials said at a news conference in Bend. An independent investigation by Oregon authorities found the troopers were justified in shooting Finicum because he failed to heed their commands and repeatedly reached for his weapon, Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said. The investigators discovered members of an FBI hostage rescue team who were at the scene failed to disclose they fired two rounds. As they looked into how many shots were fired during the confrontation and by whom, the investigators found a round in the roof of Finicum’s truck. “We could not explain the fourth shot into the roof of the truck, or its trajectory given the placement of the Oregon State Police troopers at the time,” Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson said. The U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General said it is investigating the FBI team’s actions, working with Oregon officials. During the news conference, Oregon officials played videos showing Finicum and others in his
Photo by Rick Bowmer | AP file
In this Jan. 5 file photo, Robert LaVoy Finicum, center, a rancher from Arizona, talks to reporters at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore. On Tuesday, authorities said police were justified in killing Finicum during a traffic stop on Jan. 26. truck Jan. 26 during the initial stop by law enforcement. Finicum was driving one of two vehicles that were pulled over while carrying key occupation figures. Video taken from the phone of one of his passengers shows the occupants panicking after authorities stop the truck. With his window rolled down, Finicum shouts at the officers: “Shoot me, just shoot me! Put the bullet through me. Do as you damn well please.” After a conversation with others in the truck, Finicum drives off, leading authorities on a short chase. The song “Hold Each Other” by a Great Big World was on the vehicle’s stereo. Finicum was driving over 70 mph when the truck came to a roadblock, Nelson said. A trooper fired three shots at the truck as it approached because it was a threat to law enforcement, he said. The truck plowed into a snowbank. Finicum got out, and someone from the FBI team fired two more shots, Nelson said. As Finicum stood in the snow, authorities told him
multiple times to lie on the ground. Instead, he reached into the inside of his jacket. The troopers fired three rounds, all of which hit Finicum. A loaded pistol was found in his jacket pocket. Oregon investigators said Finicum posed a threat to officers by nearly running over one of them at the roadblock, and by reaching for a gun. Occupation members in the other vehicle, including leader Ammon Bundy, surrendered. Finicum was a high-profile part of the weekslong standoff at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, launched Jan. 2 by a small armed group demanding the government relinquish control of public lands and objecting to the prison sentences of two local ranchers convicted of setting fires. His death became a symbol for those decrying federal oversight, on public lands in the West and elsewhere, and led to protests of what they called an unnecessary use of force. Finicum’s widow, Jeanette Finicum, on Tuesday rejected authorities’ conclusion that her husband’s shooting was justified.
PÁGINA 6A
Zfrontera
Ribereña en Breve DESFILE La Feria del Condado de Zapata invita a los residentes, organismos y grupos de la comunidad a inscribirse en el Desfile de la Feria de Zapata. La fecha límite para entregar su solicitud de entrada es hoy, miércoles 9 de marzo. El desfile tendrá lugar a las 9 a.m. del sábado 12 de marzo. La alineación del desfile será de 7 a.m. a 8:30 a.m., en U.S. Hwy 83 y 3rd Ave. Habrá trofeos para diferentes categorías. Los ganadores serán anunciados a la 1:30 p.m. en Zapata County Fairgrounds.
CARNAVAL El Boys and Girls Club de Zapata informa que tienen a la venta brazaletes para la noche del carnaval del jueves 10 de marzo exclusivamente, a 18 dólares. Interesados pueden acudir a la oficina del Boys and Girls Club. El valor de los brazaletes en la puerta del carnaval será 23 dólares. Informes en el 956-765-3892.
B&G CLUB DE ZAPATA PIDE APOYO El Boys and Girls Club de Zapata tiene proyectado una búsqueda de cascarones de pascua para sus integrantes el viernes 25 de marzo. Por esta razón están solicitnado el apoyo de los padres de familia y comunidad en general para que donen cascarones de pascua o snacks. Informes en el 956-7653892.
FERIA DEL CONDADO DE ZAPATA
Días de fiesta Foto de cortesía | ZCF
Las integrantes de la Corte Real de la Feria del Condado de Zapata participaron en la cabalgata anual con motivo del inicio de las fiestas.
Habrá variedad de eventos TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Hoy inicia la Feria del Condado de Zapata, la cual continuará hasta el sábado 12 de marzo. Conocida como “la mejor pequeña feria de Texas”, corte real, directivos e integrantes de comités se declaran listos para recibir a turistas y visitantes. Entre la cartelera de artistas se tiene a Ricky Naranjo y Los Gamblers, Duelo, Aaron Watson, La Mafia y Pesado, entre otros. La venta de brazaletes continúa en Zapata County Chamber of Commerce, ICE Zapata, Casa Raul South y North, y Mike’s Western Wear. Los brazaletes tienen un costo de 15 dólares por persona, por día. El día del evento, los brazaletes tendrán costo de 20 dólares por persona, por día. Niños de 12 años y menores entran gratis. Una de las primeras actividades
GANADOR ORATORIA Sergio Arturo Salinas Madrigal, de Miguel Alemán, México, obtuvo el primer lugar del concurso regional de oratoria “Sentimiento Juarista”, superando a alumnos de Río Bravo, Matamoros, Valle Hermoso Díaz Ordaz, Nuevo Laredo y Reynosa, México. Salinas Madrigal viajó esta semana a Ciudad Victoria, México, para participar en la etapa estatal, acompañado de su asesor, Carlos Barrera Vázquez.
fue seleccionar la Corte Real, lo cual se llevó a cabo el sábado 5 de marzo. Fueron designados, Gabriela González como Reina; Shannon López, segundo lugar; Christina A. Landa, tercer lugar; Darely García, Tiny Miss; Alyssa Ramírez, Jr. Miss; Rebecca Lopez, Miss Teen; Karyzza Arambula, Little Miss; y, Ramiro Garcilazo IV, Little Cowboy. Por otra parte, también se realizó una cabalgata desde el Rancho Bustamante donde se contó con la participación de comunidad en general y los involucrados en la feria.
Programa Hoy miércoles 9 de marzo se realizará el espectáculo Pee Wee Goat en el Ramirez Exhibit Hall. El pesaje iniciará a las 5 p.m. El jueves 10 de marzo, se presentará Randy García y Conjunto
Foto por Cuate Santos | TZT
Una comitiva encabezada por las integrantes de la Corte Real de la Feria del Condado de Zapata visitó las instalaciones de Laredo Morning Times. Las fiestas de Zapata se llevan a cabo del 9 al 12 de marzo. Estrella, a las 6:30 p.m.; Los Fantasmas Del Valle, a las 7:45 p.m.; Lázaro Pérez y Su Conjunto, a las 9 p.m.; y Ricky Naranjo y Los Gamblers a las 10:30 p.m. Otras actividades durante el día incluyen exhibición de manualidades, fotografías, arte en metal, entre otras actividades. El viernes 11 de marzo la programación continúa con Kix Garcia Band a las 6 p.m.; Michael Salgado a las 7 p.m.; Aaron Watson a las 8:30 p.m.; y al grupo Duelo a las 10:30 p.m. Este día también se realizará el concurso de Tight Jean; y, durante el día concursos de manualidades, fotografía, y participación de grupos de danza locales. Para el sábado 12 de marzo las actividades darán inicio con el
desfile a partir de las 9 a.m. con salida en U.S. Hwy 83 y 3rd Ave. Habrá trofeos para diferentes categorías. Los ganadores serán anunciados a la 1:30 p.m. en Zapata County Fairgrounds. Los Marshals del desfile son Mr. y Mrs. Zaragoza Rodriguez IV. En el ámbito musical se presentarán Sólido a las 7:30 p.m.; La Mafia a las 9:30 p.m. y Pesado a las 11:30 p.m. También estarán las subastas, el concurso de El Grito y el concurso de Jalapeño. Otras actividades durante el día incluirán las ceremonias de premiación y participación de grupos de danza Para más información sobre el evento puede visitar www.zapatacountyfair.com.
CEREMONIA
MIGUEL ALEMÁN, MX
ABRAZAN AMISTAD
Civiles armados logran escapar
SAN FERNANDO Tres personas armadas fueron arrestadas por agentes de Tamaulipas en San Fernando, México, el viernes. Jorge Alberto Cuellar Jasso, de 29 años de edad; Luis Barajas Guerrero, de 42 años y Genaro Ventura Juárez, de 21 años, fueron detenidos tras ser ubicados dentro de un vehículo que estaba en la brecha Las Yescas de la carretera Victoria-Matamoros. Autoridades alegan que los tres son integranes de un grupo delincuencial. Además, los agentes lograron asegurar tres armas largas de alto calibre, 19 cargadores abastecidos y equipo táctico. Corresponderá al agente del ministerio público continuar la investigación.
MIÉRCOLES 9 DE MARZO DE 2016
TIEMPO DE ZAPATA Fotos de cortesía
El Alcalde de Roma Roberto Salinas y el Presidente Municipal de Miguel Alemán, México, Ramiro Cortez, intercambiaron regalos durante la ceremonia oficial por los 88 años de construcción del Puente de Suspensión Internacional.
Ciudades celebran aniversario de puente POR MALENA CHARUR TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
El fin de semana se llevó a cabo la ceremonia oficial para celebrar los 88 años del Puente de Suspensión Miguel Alemán-Roma. El evento fue organizado por la Ciudad de Roma, la Comisión Histórica, la ciudad de Miguel Alemán, México, y la Sociedad Americana de Ingenieros Civiles. Ambas ciudades han trabajado durante 15 años para conservar y restaurar el puente colgante. Recientemente se invirtieron 325.000 dólares en un estudio para conocer el estado del cruce, de acuerdo con Noel Benavides, presidente de la Comisión Histórica de Roma.
Tras el estudio se determinó que es necesario restaurar las anclas en todo el puente, reemplazar los cables y pintarlo, lo cual tiene un costo aproximado de 5 millones de dólares, sostuvo Benavides. El evento del sábado fue encabezado por el Alcalde de Roma, Roberto Salinas, y el presidente municipal de Miguel Alemán, Ramiro Cortez. “Saludo con respeto y reconocimiento a los hombres y mujeres que ya no están pero que fueron testigos de progreso de los tiempos idos y que por su esfuerzo son ahora tiempos actuales, donde la hermandad y colaboración estrecha una relación tan antigua como el mismo puente colgante”, dijo
Cortez en su mensaje. “Admiro esta estructura de hierro porque nos da identidad, lo hago así porque es un sentimiento perene en la memoria de los dos pueblos”. Recordó que el puente fue construido como vía de comunicación en la época del algodón. Por su parte, la Sociedad Americana de Ingenieros Civiles hizo entrega de un reconocimiento como Monumento Histórico de Ingeniería Civil. Igualmente ambos alcaldes y sus comitivas realizaron un “Abrazo de Amistad”. El Puente de Suspensión Miguel Alemán-Roma fue declarado Monumento Artístico Nacional por el INBA en 2004.
Un enfrentamiento entre civiles armados y autoridades de Tamaulipas dio como resultado el aseguramiento de tres vehículos en Miguel Alemán, México, el domingo. Policías de Fuerza Tamaulipas realizaban un recorrido de vigilancia por calles Río Suchiate y Río Sauceda del Fraccionamiento Río Bravo cuando observaron a personas armadas en el interior de una camioneta Chevrolet Tahoe, color gris; una Jeep Cherokee Sport, color blanco; y, un Ford Mustang, color negro. Los sospechosos empezaron a disparar, utilizando armas de alto calibre, de acuerdo al reporte del Grupo de Coordinación Tamaulipas. Posteriormente dieron inicio a una persecución con dirección al Libramiento Cavazos Lerma. Agentes lograron ubicar los tres vehículos, pero no así a los presuntos delincuentes, quienes habían abandonado las unidades. El caso está siendo investigado.
BÚSQUEDA CASCARONES DE PASCUA La Comisión de Parques y Entretenimiento de Roma, Texas. Invita a la 4ª Búsqueda de Cascarones de Pascua el sábado 19 de marzo a partir de las 10 a.m. en el Parque Municipal Roma. Habrá comida, premios, juegos y fotografías con el Conejo de Pascua.
BRAVO FEST La ciudad de Miguel Alemán, México, invita al evento “Bravo Fest” del 25 al 27 de marzo en las márgenes del Río Bravo, debajo del puente internacional que conecta con Roma, Texas. El festival tiene como objetivo promover el turismo local y regional, especialmente en el Valle de Texas.
COLUMNA
‘El Socialista’ busca mover al proletariado Nota del Editor: Esta es el segundo de dos artículos que describen cómo los tamaulipecos participan en el movimiento obrero en la Ciudad de México
POR RAÚL SINENCIO CHÁVEZ ESPECIAL PARA TIEMPO DE ZAPATA
Los tamaulipecos aprovechan la navegación de altura para comunicarse en forma regular con el centro del país a través de Veracruz, puerto que el ferrocarril primigenio conecta ya a la Ciudad de México. Así se facilita la llegada
del semanario “El Socialista” fundado en 1871. Los propios editores indican que tienen “agentes y corresponsales” en Tampico, Matamoros, Camargo, Mier y Ciudad Guerrero, identificándolos. Dada la época, resulta de veras llamativo el nombre del impreso y asombra que inserte noticias frescas de la Asociación Internacional de Trabajadores, “presidida por míster Karl Marx”, refiere el tabloide. En distintas fechas publica asimismo los estatutos del agrupamiento y el célebre Manifiesto del Partido Co-
munista, traducido al español también. “El Socialista” desde 1872 se declara “órgano […] del Gran Círculo de Obreros de México” (GCOM). Considerada la más relevante iniciativa en su tipo, el GCOM busca organizar al naciente proletariado. Lo confunde empero con artesanos y hasta acepta patrones que procuren buen trato a los operarios. Estima al efecto impostergable constituir una sólida estructura nacional, dándole pautas unificadas. Ello pronto repercute en Tamaulipas. Lejos de res-
ponder Matamoros o Tampico, lo hacen comunidades imprevistas, aunque populosas. Cobra primero vida la Sociedad Alianza y Amistad de Mier, compuesta por trabajadores no especificados, siguiéndola en Camargo la Sociedad de Obreros La Unión, que forman artesanos varios. El GCOM las convierte en “sucursales” número 22 y 25, respectivamente. A convocatoria expresa, inicia en la metrópoli capitalina el GCOM su primer congreso el domingo 5 de marzo de 1876. De la membresía tamaulipeca, com-
parece solo el municipio de Mier. Por encima del promedio visible, acredita dos representantes: Andrés C. Vázquez y Antonio del Valle. Ambos logran destacar y figuran en la “comisión dictaminadora” que redacta el documento programático del posterior lunes 17 de abril. No obstante, en mayo la asamblea termina escindida y frustrada, inconformes los delegados independientes con los gobiernistas. (Con permiso del autor, según fuera publicado en La Razón, Tampico, Tamps., 19 febrero 2016)
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
Sports&Outdoors NCAA BASKETBALL: BIG 12 TOURNAMENT
Big 12 title up for grabs By DAVE SKRETTA ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Shaka Smart is careful not to demean the Colonial Athletic Association and the Atlantic 10, where he led VCU through a combined six conference tournaments and captured a pair of championships. Both are good leagues. Both have solid programs. Both tournaments were tough in their own right. Neither of them are the Big 12. “It’s going to be just a tremendous event, when you have so many great teams together in one venue,” the firstyear Texas coach said before his first taste of its conference tournament. “You have in the Big 12 so many teams that have beaten up on each other over the past two-plus months,” Smart said, “and you everyone will come together. You look at the bracket, some of the games that are going to be played early in the tournament are just phenomenal matchups.” The tournament begins Wednesday night when eighth-seeded Kansas State plays No. 9 seed Oklahoma State and seventh-seeded Texas Tech plays No. 10 seed TCU. But it really gets going on Thursday, when each of the four quarterfinal matchups will feature at least one team ranked in the Top 25. Already set are sixth-ranked Oklahoma against No. 21 Iowa State and No. 22 Baylor against No. 23 Texas, while top-ranked Kansas and No. 9 West Virginia await the winners in the opening round. To put into perspective how stacked the bracket is, consider this: The thirdseeded Sooners and sixth-seeded Cyclones could be seeded better in the NCAA Tournament than they are this week. “That’s what you get in the Big 12,”
File photo by Eric Gay | AP
Texas head coach Shaka Smart and the Longhorns are vying for an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament when the conference tournament begins Wednesday.
Loaded Big 12 field heads to KC said Sooners coach Lon Kruger, whose teams spent time ranked No. 1 this season, but has struggled heading into the crucial games of March. “At least you won’t have any bad losses in the tournament. Everyone is ranked.” The Jayhawks are undoubtedly the favorites after winning the outright regularseason title, the 12th consecutive year they’ve earned at least a share of it. But recent history suggests the Big 12 tournament is wide open: Only once in the past four years has the No. 1 seed won the championship. Iowa State has won the last two titles, knocking off the Jayhawks in the finals a
year ago. “You probably are playing to validate the regular season as much as anything else,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “That’s really what we’ll go into it thinking. We’ve proven it over a couple of months. Now we can validate it and try to play just as well.” As the tournament gets going at the Sprint Center, here are some of the story lines: RUBBER MATCHES With the double-round robin schedule, there are several potential matchups between teams that split in the regular season. Three of the four matchups already
set will be decisive. STATISTICALLY SPEAKING The Big 12 is No. 1 in RPI with three teams in the top 10 and seven in the top 28, the most of any conference. The league is a combined 28-15 against the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC, the best combined winning percentage of any conference against rival power leagues. INJURY SITUATION Cyclones coach Steve Prohm expects star guard Monte Morris to play after sitting out of practice this week with a shoulder injury, while the Longhorns could get big man Cameron Ridley back from a broken foot for the first time since late December. “I don’t know definitively when he’s going to be able to play,” Smart said, “but we’re extremely hopeful and optimistic he’ll be able to play soon. He’s been cleared to do quite a few basketball-type activities.” BUBBLE WATCH Kansas State, Oklahoma State and TCU need to win the title to get to the NCAA Tournament, while the Red Raiders (1911) will feel better about their at-large hopes by beating TCU and West Virginia. “I’ll feel comfortable if we win the Big 12 Tournament. That’s when I’ll feel comfortable,” Texas Tech coach Tubby Smith said. “We’d better not be comfortable. We have a lot of work to do.” SEED LINES As much as anything, seeding in the NCAA Tournament is at stake this week. Kansas has a chance to be the overall No. 1 seed with a strong showing, while others are also trying to move up. “Everybody realizes you have a chance to improve your seed with each and every game,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said, “because every game is a quality-win opportunity.”
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International
8A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016
Pope was ‘misinformed’ By MARIA VERZA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Altaf Qadri | AP
Women’s rights activists take selfies with Tribal activist-turned-politician Soni Sori and a victim of an acid attack, center with face covered, during a protest march on International Women’s Day in New Delhi, India, Tuesday.
India reminded of few female lawmakers By ASHOK SHARMA ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW DELHI — What was meant as a gesture of respect toward women ended up reminding India that it needed to improve female representation in politics. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for only female lawmakers to address the Indian parliament on International Women’s Day included silence — because there weren’t enough women to speak. Of 543 elected members in the lower house, only 62 are women — or just 12 percent. The global average is 22 percent for women in Parliament, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union The women who spoke in the assembly Tuesday raised issues including allowing women’s entry into Hindu temples and better education for girls. They also demanded renewed effort in passing long-stalled
legislation to require that 33 percent of lawmakers be women. “Surely, maximum governance also means giving us women our legitimate due, namely the muchawaited Women’s Reservation Bill,” opposition Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi said, chided her colleagues for failing to push it through since it was first floated in Parliament at least two decades ago. The legislation aims to correct some of the social imbalance between genders, but has been blocked by powerful socialist groups and political leaders worried that a female quota system would cost their male-dominated parties seats. Communist lawmaker K. Sreemathi Teacher sought to shame her male colleagues by noting that Afghanistan’s parliament is 28 percent female, even with the Taliban presenting a
constant threat to women. Her colleague from West Bengal state’s Trinamool Congress party agreed. “We don’t want a separate seat in the bus. We want to drive that bus. We don’t want separate queues. I want to earn money and pay my taxes,” said Shatabdi Roy. Meanwhile, Bhavna Gawali from the Hindu nationalist group Shiv Sena party said male priests were being ridiculous in holding to the ancient, sexist practice of barring women from the inner sanctum of the Shani temple in the western state of Maharashtra. “While we talk of equality, we can’t go to temples,” she said. Not all of the women in the assembly were prepared to speak, but after all those who wanted to speak had taken their turns, there was enough time left for the Speaker to ask the men in the house for input on the day’s agenda.
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s main archdiocese has taken the unusual step of publicly saying Pope Francis had been badly advised when he directed harsh words to local bishops during his visit in mid-February. The pope told a gathering of local bishops in February not to be career-minded clerics, saying, “We do not need ‘princes,’ but rather a community of the Lord’s witnesses.” The pope also urged them to maintain unity and show more transparency. “If you have to fight, fight. If you have to say things, say them, but do it like men: to the face,” Francis told the bishops. An editorial published Sunday on a website of
the archdiocese of Mexico City also said that some of the pope’s comments had FRANCIS been misinterpreted by “reporters more focused on histrionics than the deep meaning of the words.” “The Mexican bishops have been accompanying the suffering, downtrodden people, devoting their lives to others and not living like ‘princes,”’ the editorial said. It denies local bishops are out of touch with the people, and says the pope’s comments “might be due to someone near him who gave him bad advice.” The editorial ends with the question: “Who gave the pope bad advice?”
The rector of the Pontifical University of Mexico, Mario Angel Flores, said the editorial appeared ill-advised, given that the pope’s comments “were very frank words, inviting everyone to be more clear.” “They are trying to downplay and question his words, which is not the most correct thing to do,” Flores said. Apart from his speech to the bishops, even Francis’ prayers to the Virgin of Guadalupe reflected his concern that the Mexican church needs to get its priorities straight. During his half-hour of silent prayer, Francis later told reporters, “I prayed for the Mexican people, and one thing I prayed for a lot was that priests be true priests, and sisters be true sisters and bishops be true bishops as the Lord wants.”
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016
THE ZAPATA TIMES 9A
Renting rises in suburbs By JENNIFER PELTZ ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — In the American imagination, suburbs are places to buy a house and put down roots. But a growing percentage of suburbanites rent, according to a new study. About 29 percent of metropolitan-area suburbanites were renters in 2014, up from 23 percent in 2006, according to a report released Tuesday by New York University’s Furman Center real estate think tank and the bank Capital One. The finances of home ownership since the mortgage meltdown might be a lead reason for the change, but the cost of renting also is rising in most of the biggest metropolitan areas, the study found. Adding to data showing a national rise in renters in the past decade, the report zooms in on the metropolitan areas encompassing the nation’s 11 most populous cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington. For a national benchmark, the researchers also looked at all metropolitan areas encompassing a city of at least 50,000 people. “It’s the extensiveness of the affordability problem that is notable,” Laura Bailey, Capital One’s managing vice president of community development, told The Associated Press before the report’s release. Still, the study shows some of the nation’s biggest rental markets have become more, not less, affordable to their typical tenants. Some findings: AT HOME — WITH RENTING — IN THE SUBURBS
By KEN SWEET AND SARAH SKIDMORE SELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Mark Lennihan | AP file
In this May 20, 2015, file photo, Midtown Manhattan, including the Empire State Building, center, is seen from the observatory at One World Trade Center in New York. The number of renters grew faster on the outskirts of the nation’s 11 most populous cities than within them between 2006 and 2014. Renting is still more common in big cities than their suburbs. In Miami and New York, about twothirds of residents rent. But the gap is narrowing. In the Atlanta area, the increase in the suburban rental population from 2006 to 2014 was twice the size of the entire tenant population in the city itself. Eighty percent of the growth in Dallas-area renters happened outside the city limits. Nearly half of residents outside the city of Los Angeles are tenants. Nationwide, 37 percent of all households nationwide now rent, the highest level since the mid-1960s, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies noted in December. MAKING THE RENT Typical tenants could afford fewer than half the rental homes available in metro areas nationwide in 2014, under officials’ traditional definition of affor-
dability: spending under 30 percent of income on rent and utilities. (Governmentese for people who spend more: “rent-burdened.”) But the picture differs from city to city, depending on the interplay of median rents and incomes. The percentage of rent-burdened tenants actually declined moderately from 2006 to 2014 in Boston and Houston while staying flat in Chicago and San Francisco and rising elsewhere. WHERE DO RENTERS HAVE IT THE HARDEST? That depends how you measure it. The Washington and San Francisco metro areas had 2014 median rents topping $1,500 a month but also the highest median tenant incomes: $57,000 for San Francisco and $58,200 for Washington. That made them relatively affordable: Half of San Francisco-area tenants and 49 percent of Washington-area ones were rent-burdened. (The
national metro-area average was 53 percent.) Contrast that with about two-thirds of tenants in the Miami area, where the median renter made $34,300 a year while paying $1,150 a month. ... AND THE EASIEST? The Houston and Dallas areas boast the lowest bigmetro median rents (around $950 in 2014). With median incomes around $38,000 a year, fewer than half of tenants are rentburdened. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? Experts attribute the renter surge partly to the foreclosures, financial struggles, stagnant incomes and tighter credit that followed the mortgage meltdown. Researchers also note the wave of young adults — often renters — in the large, so-called millennial generation, though the Harvard study in December noted a majority of U.S. renters now are 40 and older.
Medicare proposes incentives By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Medicare proposed a nationwide experiment Tuesday on revamping how the government pays for drugs administered in a doctor’s office, including many cancer treatments. Chief Medical Officer Patrick Conway said Washington won’t be telling doctors which drugs to prescribe. Instead, the goal is to address financial incentives in the current payment system that can encourage the use of a more expensive drug, when a cheaper medication is just as effective. Such “perverse incen-
Pre-paid cards and tax fraud
tives” do not benefit patients or Medicare, Conway said. Drugs administered in doctors’ offices or hospital outpatient departments cost Medicare about $20 billion in 2015, a fraction of what the program spends overall on prescription medications. Under current rules, Medicare pays the average sales price of a drug plus a 6 percent fee. Many experts have already pointed out what seems obvious: that 6 percent of a more expensive drug translates into higher revenue for a medical practice or hospital. “Two drugs may have the same effectiveness and there may be a penalty for
choosing the lower-cost drug, because the reimbursement is less,” Conway explained. Medicare has heard from cancer doctors complaining they’re pressured into prescribing more expensive chemo to maximize revenue, he added. Under the elaborate experiment being proposed by Medicare, parts of the country would operate under different payment rules for physician-administered medications. The results would then be compared, and if new approaches can maintain or improve quality while showing potential to curb costs, permanent changes could follow across the whole country.
The basic alternative approach would pay doctors 2.5 percent of the cost of a drug, plus a flat per-day fee. Conway said the experiment is designed to have no initial budget impact. It’s unclear how doctors and hospitals will respond. In the past, smaller oncology clinics have complained that Medicare cuts have a disproportionate impact on them. Other payment alternatives to be tested include reducing or eliminating a patient’s share of costs for drugs deemed highly effective, as well as paying a premium for drugs that deliver demonstrably better results. Medicare hopes to launch its experiment later this year.
PHOENIX — Thousands of people have had their prepaid debit cards frozen when they try to direct their tax refund to their accounts, a result of financial industry efforts to combat an escalation in tax fraud. It’s keeping people from their money, and delaying access to much-anticipated tax refunds. People who rely on prepaid debit card accounts are often poorer Americans who don’t have traditional bank accounts. Shannon King had her money frozen for two weeks. She had planned to use it for car repairs and to help pay for a move, both of which then had to be delayed. “It was very frustrating,” King said. King has a Wal-Mart MoneyCard, which is run by Green Dot. She said after her refund was deposited, Green Dot froze the card and asked her to send a picture of her Tennessee state identification card to verify the account. The process to release the money took more than two weeks, she had to submit photos of her ID a number of times — Green Dot said they weren’t readable — and she says she spent hours on the phone with customer service agents to resolve the problem. The Associated Press reviewed documents sent to Green Dot by King, including her ID picture, and they appeared clear. Prepaid debit card companies Green Dot, NetSpend and others say the problems are the result of tighter fraud protection measures. Both Green Dot and WalMart have apologized, but emphasized the measures were there to protect their customers. “We’re working with the company to ensure that any customer service issues are resolved as quickly as possible,” a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart said. The card companies, along with the IRS, are trying to stem a tide of tax fraud by identity thieves. Criminals file bogus tax returns using other people’s identities, claim a refund and collect the money. Many people do not know they are a victim until they try to file a legitimate return and are unable to. The fraudsters often use prepaid debit cards to pull off their scams because the accounts can be relatively anonymous. For example, in 2012 a Miami man was sentenced to five years in prison and three additional years of probation for filing nearly 500 fraudulent tax returns. Instead of having the re-
funds deposited in a bank or mailed, he had them electronically deposited to prepaid debit cards, including Green Dot, and gift cards. When he was arrested, prosecutors say the man had 11 Wal-Mart money cards loaded with more than $32,000 from fraudulent returns. Tax and wage-related fraud was the most common form of identity theft reported to the FTC in 2015. It’s on the rise — about 45 percent of the identity theft complaints to the FTC last year were tax or wage-related, up from 33 percent in 2014 and 30 percent in 2013. The IRS says tax-related identity theft is one of its biggest challenges. In 2015, it stopped 1.4 million confirmed identity theft returns, totaling $8.7 billion. For criminals, the IRS makes for a quick, easy score: the IRS processes most returns in less than 21 days, and the average refund was $2,797 last year. To combat the problem, the IRS held a security summit last year with states and tax-industry representatives to find ways to solve the problem together. As a result, efforts to fight fraud have intensified this year and banks and other prepaid debit card companies are tightening their protections. The IRS and other industry representatives would not say if account delays or freezes were requested or required. But the IRS did say that it is working with banks and debit card issuers to obtain information that would be helpful in detecting and preventing fraud. Green Dot estimates that 9,000 customers have had their accounts blocked this season, representing 0.2 percent of their customers. NetSpend, the second largest issuer, said they also have been freezing accounts, but declined to give a number impacted. American Express, which issues a prepaid debit card known as American Express Serve, also said it has been stepping up fraud protection measures. A spokeswoman with American Express said customers can minimize the chances of being flagged for fraud by making sure their personal identification information on the account matches the information on their tax forms. And Jackson Hewitt, which uses American Express cards for its customers, requires two forms of ID to receive a prepaid bank product to help cut down on fraud. While their intentions are good, the industry’s efforts still are somewhat frustrating for people like King. “I understand the reasons, but it shouldn’t have taken two weeks,” she said.
PAGE 10A
Zentertainment
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016
SXSW Welcome to Twitter Rant 101 Interactive begins Friday By LEANNE ITALIE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
By OMAR L. GALLAGA AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
AUSTIN, Texas — Starting Friday, the first day of SXSW Interactive, the fest will launch a new location-based feature called SXSW Recommends that will make recommendations on festival content. The feature works with the SXSW Go app and on the SXSW.com website. Within the app, it will utilize a set of more than 1,000 iBeacon devices, which are small wireless transmitters that use Bluetooth to offer location information and deployed across 600 SXSW venues. What does this mean for SXSW attendees? Scott Wilcox, SXSW director of technology, says it will allow the app to deliver personalized event recommendations based on location, favorite events, time and popularity. It will seek out gaps in an attendees’ schedule using an algorithm developed by SXSW and send notifications about panels, shows and other programming. “It will tell you why we’ve recommended an event,” Wilcox said. “With our ability to leverage geofencing technology, we can recommend things that are a good match for somebody that are also nearby.” Last year, SXSW officials deployed the iBeacons across the festival to
allow for attendees to get to know each other with features called Around Me and Attendee Match. Those using the app could opt-in to communicate with other people using the app with similar interests. At the 2015 fest, the iBeacons had 7 million sightings (meaning how many times they detected a device nearby) and sent more than 400,000 proximity alerts, according to SXSW officials. They fest will be sending out an email to attendees letting them know about the feature, which can be toggled on or off. Recommends is already working on the SXSW.com website, but the location-based feature will be activated on Friday. Wilcox said it’s unlikely the most popular events -- the ones most likely to be inaccessible because they’re filled past capacity -- will be the ones that the app suggests, but the algorithm can be tweaked once the festival starts based on how it’s working. “We built the system so we can tune it in real time,” he said. “There’ll be a process of massaging it, getting data in, seeing how people react. We’ll be tuning it throughout the week.” SXSW began investing in Eventbase, the company it works with on this technology, in 2014.
NEW YORK — There’s “clap back,” where celebrities go after haters on social media, and then there’s “clap back” Kim Kardashian West-style, where one of the biggest names in the game takes on a 19-year-old, actress Chloe Grace Moretz. As Twitter shade goes, there’s been far worse, but like most things Kardashian, this round scored thousands and thousands of clicks. It started Monday night with a nude, in-the-mirror selfie — black censor bars in all the right places — that Kardashian West pushed out, noting later it was an old shot. The not-sonew nude was enough to motivate Bette Midler to joke in a tweet: “Kim Kardashian tweeted a nude selfie today. If Kim wants us to see a part of her we’ve never seen, she’s gonna have to swallow the camera.” Get it? Well, Moretz did, re-tweeting Midler’s joke and weighing in with a tweet or two of her own — because 140 characters were slightly not enough — as she addressed Kardashian West directly: “I truly hope you realize how important setting goals are for young women, teaching them we have so much more to offer than just our bodies.” That’s when IT happened, the IT looking just like this: “let’s all welcome @ChloeGMoretz to twitter, since no one knows who she is. your nylon cover is cute boo,” Kardashian West tweeted. Moretz’s cover in Nylon magazine being a shot of
Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision | AP file
In this Oct. 26, 2015 file photo, Kim Kardashian arrives at the InStyle Awards in Los Angeles. Kardashian is one of a few celebrities who are responding to unflattering comments on social media.
Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision | AP file
In this Jan. 14 file photo, Chloe Grace Moretz in Los Angeles. The actress engaged in a Twitter battle with TV personality Kim Kardashian West after she criticized Kardashian’s nude selfie. her in a pretzel-like pose on a shaggy white rug, a jacket draped strategically to enhance the appearance that she, too, was nude underneath. However, the photo’s caption mentions a Dior bodysuit, so — you know — whatever. The pile-on included a mention elsewhere that Moretz might be slut-shaming Kardashian West, a claim Moretz took on thusly in more tweets: “There’s a huge difference in respecting the platform that you’re given as a
celebrity and ‘slut shaming’ something I never have done and would never do.” The crazy resonated offline among celebrity watchers. Billy Bush, co-host of NBC’s “Access Hollywood Live,” wondered on air Tuesday why Kardashian West bothered to go there in the first place. “Kim needs to understand that because the way she has presented herself she’s public domain. She’s fodder for that sort of stuff,” he said. Others, as these things
usually go, also hopped on, but they’re grown people and can fend for themselves. But why Midler was singled out by the all-powerful Kardashian West, who’s usually quite nice on Twitter, is up for grabs. An email to Kardashian West’s publicist was not immediately answered Tuesday. Nor was an email to Moretz’s publicist seeking additional comment. Third grade-like petty doesn’t begin to cover some of the details involving Midler. Twitter Kim made a crack about her age and mentioned that Midler once gave her a gift but now falls into the “fake friend” category, to which Twitter Bette responded: “I never tried to fake friend you. Looks like anyone can take a selfie but not everyone can take a joke.” Speaking of funny, Kardashian West followed up hours later with yet another missive, this one aimed at speculation that her earlier tone was so off her usual norm that one of her more outspoken loved ones might have hacked her account. “Wait I can’t believe people thought Kanye or Khloe hacked my Twitter,” she said. “I swear I’m funny too!!” Other highlights: Twitter aficionado Piers Morgan offered to buy Kim some clothes and wisecracked about some personal debt the other half of Kimye, Kanye West, noted in a recent online rant of his own. I’ll spare you his wife’s response. And this from (thank you) Bella Thorne: “I think every woman should be allowed to make their own choices with their OWN bodies soo..”
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016
THE ZAPATA TIMES 11A
Clinton wins Mississippi, eyes Michigan By CALVIN WOODWARD ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton breezed to victory in Mississippi on Tuesday in part of a fourstate round of voting that tested Donald Trump’s staying power at the top of the Republican pack and Bernie Sanders’ dwindling chances to upset the Democratic front-runner. The night’s top prize was Michigan, the big industrial state that will speak loudest on the contours of the race in both parties. Mississippi was up first and delivered for Clinton as expected, as have other Southern states will substantial black populations. The GOP race in Mississippi defied an early call, with Trump and Ted Cruz contending for advantage. Republicans also held contests in Idaho and Hawaii. VOTERS SAY... “I think she’s the most qualified for the job. That’s really what we need — not some clown.” — Carter Brown, 69, an appliance store assistant manager in Dearborn, Michigan, on why he voted for Clinton. He considers Trump a clown. “He doesn’t say wrong things. He says them incorrectly.” — Jim Owen, 74, outside Bay St. Louis church where he voted for Trump. A writer of the country song “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man,” he says Trump “has the best interest of America at heart.” "I found him to be the least annoying candidate.” — Nancy Singleton, one of only a few voters at a Boise, Idaho, polling place, on why she cast her ballot for Marco Rubio.
Photo by Charlie Neibergall | AP
Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks during a rally at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Monday in Detroit, Mich. ILL TRADE WINDS Most voters in Michigan and Mississippi, regardless of party, are worried about the direction of the economy, and many consider trade to be a negative influence on jobs. According to early results of exit polls conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks Tuesday, at least 8 in 10 voters in each primary said they are very or somewhat worried about where the economy is headed. More than half of Democratic and Republican voters in Michigan, along with Republicans in Mississippi, say trade takes jobs. In Mississippi, Democratic primary voters are more closely divided on the subject, with 4 in 10 saying it takes away jobs and
nearly as many thinking it has a positive impact. COUNTDOWN TO THE HALF Going into Tuesday’s contests, Clinton was 58 delegates short of halfway to the 2,383 delegates needed to claim the Democratic prize. At stake Tuesday: 179 Democratic delegates. Of more consequence is her more than 2-to-1 delegate lead over Sanders: 1,134 to 502. Trump’s got a longer climb in the splintered GOP affair. He went into Tuesday with 384 delegates to 300 for Texas Sen. Cruz, 151 for Florida Sen. Rubio and 37 for Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Trump or any resurgent rival needs a total of 619 to slip past the halfway mark, and 1,237 to clinch the nomination. 2 TWISTS
Developments in Zika By JAMEY KEATEN AND MARIA CHENG ASSOCIATED PRESS
GENEVA — Sexual transmission of the Zika virus is more common than previously thought, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, citing reports from several countries. After a meeting of its emergency committee on Tuesday, the U.N. health agency also said there is increasing evidence that a spike in disturbing birth defects and neurological problems are caused by Zika, which is mostly spread by mosquito bites. When WHO declared the explosive outbreak in the Americas to be a global emergency last month, it said that the evidence that Zika was responsible was only circumstantial. WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said “reports and investigations in several countries strongly suggest that sexual transmission of the virus is more common than previously assumed.” The U.S. is investigating more than a dozen possible cases of Zika in people who may have been infected through sex. Dr. Bruce Aylward, who is directing WHO’s response to Zika, said the cases seen so far of sexual transmission of Zika have been from men to women. He doubted sex would play an important role in the disease’s spread. “The mosquito is undoubtedly still the main
driver of transmission,” he said. Chan also said nine countries have now reported increasing cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare condition that may be linked to Zika and can cause temporary paralysis and death in people of all ages. She said that problems connected to Zika, including Guillain-Barre syndrome, are now being seen not just in women of child-bearing age, but children, teenagers and older adults. Zika is also now spreading to new countries, WHO said. It noted local transmission has now been reported in 31 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. “All of this news is alarming,” Chan said. Despite the lack of definitive evidence proving that Zika causes birth defects and neurological problems, Chan said officials shouldn’t wait for definitive scientific proof before making recommendations. “Microcephaly is now only one of several documented birth abnormalities associated with Zika infection during pregnancy,” she said, adding that it can cause growth problems, injuries to the central nervous system and fetal death. WHO’s emergency committee called for “intensified” research into the relationship between new clusters of babies born with abnormally small heads and other neurological dis-
orders. It said particular attention should be given to studying the genetics of the different Zika virus strains and establishing studies to determine if there is a causal relationship. The agency also noted it was important to continue studying whether other factors could be responsible for the jump in microcephaly and neurological problems, including whether several causes combined might be to blame. Aylward explained that scientists were focusing on diseases as the main suspect, noting the evidence seems “really compelling that you’re looking at an infectious process here.” So far, cases of babies born with small, deformed heads linked to Zika have only been confirmed in Brazil and French Polynesia, though officials say they expect reports from other countries once the virus has been circulating there long enough to affect pregnant women. Colombia has reported several suspected cases of microcephaly. “Women who are pregnant in affected countries or travel to these countries are understandably deeply worried,” Chan said. WHO recommends pregnant women avoid travel to areas with ongoing Zika outbreaks and that if their partners travel to affected countries, they should practice safe sex or abstain from sex for the duration of their pregnancy.
INDICTED Continued from Page 1A verado, court documents state. Agents said the 10 people had entered the country illegally. Salinas-Gonzalez allegedly told authorities he
had agreed to harbor the group and expected a payment of $50 per person. If convicted, Salinas-Gonzalez may face 10 years in federal prison. Arraign-
ment is set for Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Diana Song Quiroga. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)
ELECTIONS Continued from Page 1A ranked second to last in voter turnout of residents 18 and older, at 21.5 percent. The Lone Star State came ahead of only Louisiana, where 17.3 percent of residents of voting age participated in elections there Saturday. Louisiana, unlike Texas, uses a closed system for presidential primaries, meaning a person must be registered as a Democrat or Republican before the election to be able to vote in one of the party’s primaries.
Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said low Democratic turnout and Texas’ diverse population accounts for the state’s low percentage. “Our population tends to be younger, more Latino and less well-educated than the population in (northern states),” Jones said. “And we know that age, ethnicity and income are correlated with your propensity to vote.” Jones said that by using the voting eligibility popula-
tion, an estimate that excludes undocumented immigrants and felons on probation or parole, Texas’ turnout rate grows to 25 percent. On this scale, Jones said, Texas compares closer to other southern states, such as Tennessee, though its overall ranking among states that have held primaries this year doesn’t improve. “Were on the low side, but not dramatically on the low side,” he said.
Clinton’s lead in delegates is cushioned by her lopsided advantage with the party insiders known as superdelegates, who can support anyone. They can change their mind before the convention, though that is unlikely to happen short of a meltdown of the Clinton campaign. (Minus the superdelegates, she had a smaller lead over Sanders, 673-477, in delegates won through primaries and caucuses, before Tuesday night.) Republicans will soon turn to a series of winner-take-all contests, and that’s where the numbers can change in a hurry. Two big states, Florida and Ohio, vote next week, and each will give all their delegates to the winner. All GOP contests so far have been proportional, divvying up
delegates among the contenders (with some extra allocation rules added to make it really complicated). All Democratic contests through the nomination race are proportional. THE ANTI-TRUMPS Cruz, the conservative firebrand, has put up the toughest fight against Trump, staying within range in the delegate hunt and aiming to become the last challenger standing against the billionaire if Rubio and Kasich can’t win their home states March 15. With the Michigan primary, the race came to Kasich’s region. Rubio also campaigned in the state and hoped to show enough strength to give him something to brag about headed into Florida. He’s been the mainstream Republican hope in recent weeks, but has only won two contests in 20: Minnesota and Puerto Rico. MICHIGAN (59 GOP delegates, 130 Democratic delegates) Michigan, as well as Missouri next week, should offer clues about whether Sanders is making any progress in expanding his base of support beyond his devoted followers in the under-30 crowd, and making any progress with black voters, who have overwhelmingly favored Clinton. His time is getting short to catch Clinton in the delegate chase and he must broaden his appeal to do so. In the last Democratic debate, in Flint, Michigan, Clinton hit Sanders hard for opposing a 2009 bill that provided billions to rescue the auto industry. The Vermont senator is stressing that he opposed the provision because it was part of a large bailout package for Wall Street. He said he supported an earlier, separate bill to aid the carmakers.
BULLFIGHTING Continued from Page 1A been scattered on the ring’s sandy loam. Autographed fight posters, photos of matador legends, aged newspaper clippings and other memorabilia adorn the walls of a bar and house near the ring, much of it celebrating the career of Renk’s stepson — David “El Texano” Renk, 53. El Texano became a matador at the age of 18. These days, however, he helps his stepfather with the water treatment business. On a recent Sunday, as the Santa Maria ring came alive with the cheers of winter Texans, the retirees who spend their winters and dollars in the Rio Grande Valley, El Texano sat alone. “The worm never leaves you,” he said of his desire to don the traje de luces, or suit of lights, once more. He’d taken his share of licks over the years, broken bones, a collapsed lung, but he’d also claimed 280 bulls in his time. “I’ve cheated death more than once, and I’m still cheating it.” Performing in the season finale this year on Feb. 28 was Guillermo Ibarra, 52, a 30-year veteran matador, and Santoyo, a veterinarian-to-be from a family of celebrated matadors. As the senior matador, Ibarra was first to take center ring. Several lesser toreros, or bullfighters, drew the
attention of the raging bull with magenta and gold capes, allowing Ibarra to observe the animal’s tendencies. His performance, passing the bull across his body, its horns coming within inches of his thighs, is rewarded with a bull’s ear, which Renk has collected over the years for later presentation. Two ears can only be awarded by a judge. In rare cases two ears and a tail may be awarded. “The bull is faster. You have to be very alert,” Ibarra said, because the bull has not been drained of its energy by the lance. “The task of the bullfighter is not to kill the bull, but to make an artistic moment. Always the bull makes you afraid.” Santoyo was up next. After a series of elegant passes, a quick pivot of the bull caught her off balance, and she was driven across the ring. “It took my breath away,” said Ruth Everhard, a 69-year-old retired nurse from North Dakota. Never mind an ambulance for the matadors, she said, have one ready for the audience. “For all the senior citizens out there, one might have a heart attack.” Sipping a beer and puffing on a cigarette, Renk fretted over Santoyo. Her attempts to remove a flower fastened to the bull’s shoulders, the fight’s moment of truth,
had faltered. “She tried taking the rose twice. The bull wouldn’t cooperate,” Renk said. “It scared the (expletive) out of me.” The final bull of the afternoon belonged to Santoyo, and it was particularly ornery. It wasn’t long before the charging Spanishbred behemoth had tossed her helplessly into the air. Santoyo landed awkwardly, injuring a leg and tearing her ear. The toreros came to her rescue, and the bull set its sights on their magenta capes. The fight was over. Walking gingerly about the ring, blood streaming from her ear, Santoyo waved to the crowd as flowers fell to the dusty ground. There’s no way to prepare for a bull; it enters the ring only once. That is part of the challenge and the appeal, said Gerardo Martinez, whose family has raised fighting bulls for generations. To be sure, the American version of bullfighting is a departure from the elaborate strategy involved in a traditional Spanish or Portuguese bullfight; nonetheless, the danger is the real thing. “Bloodless,” scoffed Martinez, his face contorted to express the absurdity of such a notion. “Perhaps (for) the bull. If there’s blood, it’s the matador’s.”
CRUZ Continued from Page 1A ticket. “We were worried about having an all-Catholic ticket,” Collins said. Cruz is one of the least popular senators on Capitol Hill, in large part because he masterminded the 2013 government shutdown in a failed attempt to roll back President Barack Obama’s health care law, something Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said at the time was “the dumbest idea I have ever heard.” Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., wrote Cruz a letter last year warning him not to try the same tactic over funding for Planned Parenthood. Both are up for re-election. Of course, that was just one offense. Cruz once took to the Senate floor to call the majority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a liar, and has called his Republican col-
leagues a feckless “Washington Cartel.” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., majors in defense issues and minors in blasting Cruz. Cruz has been trying to run as a Washington outsider — which has been rather difficult while standing next to Trump — and has not really craved any of his colleagues’ endorsements. But voters may notice that Cruz is like that summer camper who has only managed to make one true friend — Sen. Mike Lee of Utah — who, by the way, has also failed to endorse him. “It’s something voters may want to weigh,” Collins said. Democrats are hoping that Cruz could prove as much of a drag on Senate and other down-ballot races as Trump. On Tuesday, Democrats
ostentatiously invited Patty Judge, a former Iowa lieutenant governor and state agriculture secretary, who has decided to seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. Charles E. Grassley this fall, to their weekly policy lunch. Grassley, who is seeking a seventh term, is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee and has come under fire back in Iowa over his refusal to hold hearings on any Supreme Court nominee that Obama puts forward. Asked if Cruz could be a less divisive figure than Trump, whom many Republicans have attacked in recent weeks, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said: “I don’t know that. I think everyone will have to make up their own minds.”
12A THE ZAPATA TIMES
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016