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MUSEUM OF HISTORY
MEXICO CITY
Extradition of ‘El Chapo’ to the US can go forward Lawyers have 30 days to appeal decision Courtesy photo / Zapata County Museum of History
Dr. Shumway will be accompanied by Mrs. Viqui Uribe who will share her family tree, Flores Burford, and the work they have done together on her tree.
Meeting highlights family ties Digitizing photos, documents to be discussed S P ECIAL T O T HE T I ME S
The Zapata County Chamber of Commerce would like to invite the public to the Museum of History this afternoon, for the Nuevo Santander Genealogical Society Meeting. Starting at 2 p.m. today, Dr. Del Shumway from the Church of Latter Day Saints will be introducing members to digitizing photographs and documents in Family Search. Dr. Shumway will be accompanied by
Mrs. Viqui Uribe who will share her family tree, Flores Burford, and the work they have done together on her tree. This includes vintage photographs that have been in the family for generations. Both Dr. Shumway and Mrs. Uribe are members of the Nuevo Santander Genealogical Society. For more information regarding the meeting, contact Amparo Montes-Gutierrez of the Zapata County Museum of History at 956-765-8983.
By Mark Stevenson ASSOCIATED PRE SS
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department ruled Friday that the extradition of convicted drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States can go forward. The process can still be appealed, meaning it could be weeks or months before the Sinaloa cartel leader may be sent to the U.S., where he is wanted in multiple jurisdictions on charges related to drug trafficking and organized crime. Guzman’s lawyers now have 30 days to appeal the decision, and they have said they will. The department said Friday in a statement that the United States has provided “adequate guarantees” that Guzman would not face the death penalty. Mexico has abolished capital punishment and does not extradite its citizens if they face possible execu-
Marco Ugarte / Associated Press file
In this Jan. 8, 2016 file photo, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is made to face the press as he is escorted to a helicopter in handcuffs by Mexican soldiers and marines at a federal hangar in Mexico City, Mexico. Mexico’s Foreign Relations department has ruled that the extradition of Guzman to the United States can go forward.
tion. Friday’s ruling covered an extradition request from a Texas federal court related to charges of conspiracy to import and distribute co-
caine and marijuana, money-laundering, arms possession and murder, and another extradition request from a federal court in California.
In all, Guzman faces charges from seven U.S. federal prosecutors including in Chicago, New York, Miami and San Diego. El Chapo continues on A11
JAIME J. ZAPATA SCHOLARSHIP
2016 GRANT RECIPIENTS
IMMIGRATION
Pool / Getty Images
President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill, Jan. 12, 2016 in Washington, D.C.
Judge orders ethics classes for Justice Department attorneys By Julián Aguilar TEX A S T RIBUNE
The Brownsvillebased judge who halted President Obama’s 2014 executive action on immigration has decided that ethics classes are in order for the attorneys who defended the policy. In a 28-page order, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen said the classes are required for the U.S. Department of Justice attorneys who wish to practice in the 26
states that are suing over the immigration policy. The order also told the government to provide Hanen a list of the immigrants who benefited prematurely from the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) policy. Hanen said his sanctions stem from the administration’s attorneys purposely misleading his court about when the government would begin Ethics continues on A11
César G. Rodriguez/ The Zapata Times
Ayacel Anahi Muñoz, Rosy Gregory, Amador Zapata, Mary Zapata and Ricardo Joel Muñoz pose for a picture during the 2016 Jaime J. Zapata Scholarship awards ceremony held Tuesday at the Ramada Plaza in Laredo. The Muñoz cousins were among 30 recipients of a scholarship that honors fallen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime J. Zapata.
Two local students among 30 to receive funds By César G. Rodriguez THE ZAPATA TIME S
Two Zapatans were among 30 recipients of the 2016 Jaime J. Zapata Scholarships. Cousins Ayacel Anahi Muñoz, 18, and Ricardo Joel Muñoz, 19, received their scholarship Tuesday during a ceremony held at the Ramada Plaza in Laredo.
Zapata was a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent who was killed in the line of duty in Mexico in February 2011. “It’s an honor because he risked his life so we can go to school,” Ayacel Anahi Muñoz said. “He died doing what he loved. … They’re supporting you to do that.”
Ayacel Anahi Muñoz is a Laredo Community College student aspiring to become an attorney. “Thank you to the Zapata family for giving us this opportunity,” she said. “It’s good to know there are people supporting children’s dreams.” Ricardo Joel Muñoz echoed the sentiment and could not contain his grat-
itude. “It’s an honor because his story is inspiring. He put his life for his job,” said Ricardo Joel Muñoz, a St. Mary’s University student who aspires to become a dermatologist. “It’s good to be here and celebrating (Agent Zapata’s) life.” Mary Zapata, the agent’s Grant continues on A11
Zin brief A2 | Saturday, May 21, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
CALENDAR
TODAY IN HISTORY
AROUND THE NATION
ASSOCIATED PRE SS
SATURDAY, MAY 21
Today is Saturday, May 21, the 142nd day of 2016. There are 224 days left in the year.
1
El Centro de Laredo Farmers Market. 9 a.m.–1 p.m. Jarvis Plaza. Free and open to the public. There will be fresh, local, seasonal produce available for purchase, a free cooking demo featuring LCC student Marco Gutierrez, more than 25 participating vendors and live music by DJ The Pop Rocks. 1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. Shows start at 2 p.m. TAMIU. “The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket,” “Cosmic Adventures,” “Space Next” and “A Starry Tale.” General admission is $5 and $4 for children and TAMIU students, faculty and staff. For more information, call 326-3663.
Today’s Highlight in History: On May 21, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St. Louis monoplane near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 33 1/2 hours.
MONDAY, MAY 23 1
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 956795-2400 x2520.
TUESDAY, MAY 24 1
VISION 2016: State of the Economy. 8–9:30 a.m. Laredo Country Club, 1415 Country Club Drive. The Vision 2016 Speaker Series kicks off with a breakfast session on the state of the economy. Guest speaker is Jesus Canas, business economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. 1 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 PerezGomez at analiza@laredolibrary.org or 795-2400 x2403. 1 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 PerezGomez at analiza@laredolibrary.org or 795-2400 x2403. 1 Rock wall climbing. 4–5 p.m. LBV-Inner 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 795-2400 x2521. 1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. Shows begin at 6 p.m. TAMIU. “Extreme Planets” starts at 6 p.m. and “Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’” starts at 7 p.m. General admission is $5 and $4 for children and TAMIU students, faculty and staff. For more information, call 326-3663.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 1
ARTEXPRESSIONS student art exhibit. 5 p.m. Gallery 201, 513 San Bernardo Ave. Meet the student artists as well as their instructors and enjoy great art and music. For more information, call 237-0627.
1 20th Annual Photography Exhibition. 6-9 p.m. Laredo Center for the Arts, in the Laredo Area Community Foundation Gallery, 500 San Agustin Ave. Journalism and online media students will be displaying their work. 1 LEGO Robotics. 6:15–7:15 p.m. McKendrick Ochoa Salinas Branch Library, 1920 Palo Blanco St. Make a LEGO robot and program its movement. Duplo LEGO play available for toddlers. 1 Bible study. 7–9 p.m. Lighthouse Assembly of God Church, 8731 Belize Drive. Every Wednesday. The Word of God has the power to comfort, heal and change hearts. For more information, contact Norma Perez at 251-1784 or normalight1@gmail.com
THURSDAY, MAY 26 1
Spanish Book Club. 6–8 p.m. Laredo Public Library – Calton. For more information, call Sylvia Reash at 763-1810. 1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. Shows begin at 6 p.m. TAMIU. “Space Pirates” starts at 6 p.m. and “A Starry Tale” starts at 7 p.m. General admission is $5 and $4 for children and TAMIU students, faculty and staff. For more information, call 326-3663. 1 Groovin’ – A Ballroom GalaDance featuring SoundTown. 7:30–10:30 p.m. LISD Civic Center Ballroom, 2400 San Bernardo Ave. $15. Come and enjoy VMT’s premiere Jazz Ensemble SoundTown and their vibrant, energetic, and jazzy sounds. Tickets are available at the VMT office located at 2102 East Lyon St., 956273-7800. Tickets will also be sold at the door. Proceeds will benefit the student activity fund.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press
Early Friday the White House was placed on a security alert. A uniformed Secret Service officer shot a person who drew a weapon just outside the White House.
SECRET SERVICE SHOOTS GUNMAN By Ben Nuckols ASSOCIATED PRE SS
WASHINGTON — A U.S. Secret Service officer shot a man with a gun who approached a checkpoint outside the White House on Friday afternoon and refused to drop his weapon, the Secret Service said. The White House was briefly placed on a security alert after the shooting, which happened within view of sightseers as sidewalks were crowded with families, school groups and government workers. The armed man approached the check-
Border agent justified in fatal 2011 shooting PHOENIX — A federal judge has found that a U.S. Border Patrol agent was justified in the 2011 fatal shooting of a suspect who was caught in the line of fire while fleeing in southern Arizona. Judge James Soto ruled April 25 that agent Lucas Tidwell cannot be held liable for the killing of Douglas resident Carlos LaMadrid because Tid-
point on E Street shortly after 3 p.m., and the officer repeatedly ordered the man to drop his gun, but the man ignored those commands, according to a statement from David Iacovetti, a Secret Service deputy assistant director. The officer fired one shot at the man, who was taken to a hospital for treatment, and the gun was recovered at the scene, Iacovetti said. The man was in critical condition when he was transported, a D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman said.
well was within the law. The Tucson Sentinel reported the ruling this week. The lawsuit was filed by LaMadrid’s mother, Guadalupe Guerrero, in federal court in Tucson. William Risner, her attorney, declined to comment. Tidwell was represented by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego. U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy of the Southern District of California said LaMadrid’s death was a tragic loss of life but that the judge ruled correctly because Tidwell was acting in self-defense.
“As the judge said, a reasonable person would have believed his life was in serious danger when rocks the size of bricks were being thrown at his head,” she said in a statement to The Associated Press. The incident began on March 21, 2011, when Douglas police attempted to pull 19-year-old LaMadrid over after getting a call that he might have drugs in a truck he was driving. LaMadrid fled toward the Mexican border, where two men had propped up a ladder. — Compiled from AP reports
AROUND TEXAS Murder charge dropped against man in boy’s stabbing HOUSTON — A murder charge was dropped Friday against a man who had been accused of fatally stabbing an 11-year-old Houston boy as the child walked home from school because the man’s alibi checked out, authorities said Friday. Houston Homicide Lt. Robert Blain said that means the person who did kill Josue Flores on Tuesday afternoon “is still loose at this point,” and provided a description of a possible suspect. Residents in the neighborhood where Josue was stabbed said Friday they’re upset and scared that the killer is at large. Detectives found physical evidence to support the contention of Che Calhoun, 31, that he was in a suburb south of Houston when Josue was killed.
Elizabeth Conley / Houston Chronicle
Neighbors and family comfort each other after a vigil for 11-year-old Josue Flores, who was stabbed to death.
“As our common practice, we began working to see if we could confirm or disprove his alibi,” Blain said. “We wound up locating several witnesses from his alibi, interviewing them, and late last night wound up recovering physical evidence and showed he was down in Pearland and could not have been at the location
where the murder occurred.” Calhoun, who has an extensive criminal record, remains held on charges of assault and evading arrest in connection with a confrontation with a transit officer on Monday. Blain said Calhoun has acknowledged involvement in that incident. — Compiled from AP reports
On this date: In 1471, King Henry VI of England died in the Tower of London at age 49. In 1542, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto died while searching for gold along the Mississippi River. In 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross. In 1892, the opera “Pagliacci,” by Ruggero Leoncavallo, premiered in Milan, Italy. In 1924, in a case that drew much notoriety, 14-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered in a “thrill killing” carried out by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb (Bobby’s cousin). In 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean as she landed in Northern Ireland, about 15 hours after leaving Newfoundland. In 1941, a German U-boat sank the American merchant steamship SS Robin Moor in the South Atlantic after the ship’s passengers and crew were allowed to board lifeboats. In 1945, actors Humphrey Bogart, 45, and Lauren Bacall, 20, were married at Malabar Farm in Lucas, Ohio (it was his fourth marriage, her first, and would last until Bogart’s death in 1957). In 1959, the musical “Gypsy,” inspired by the life of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, opened on Broadway with Ethel Merman starring as Mama Rose. In 1972, Michelangelo’s Pieta, on display at the Vatican, was damaged by a hammer-wielding man who shouted he was Jesus Christ. In 1982, during the Falklands War, British amphibious forces landed on the beach at San Carlos Bay. In 1991, former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated during national elections by a suicide bomber. Ten years ago: Iraq’s new prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, promised to use “maximum force” if necessary to end the brutal insurgent and sectarian violence racking his country. Anthony Bell of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was charged with shooting to death his wife and four of her relatives. (Bell was later convicted of murder and sentenced to death.) Katherine Dunham, a pioneering dancer, author and civil rights activist, died in New York City at age 96. Grand Ole Opry legend Billy Walker died in a traffic accident along an Alabama interstate highway; he was 77. Five years ago: The apocalypse did not arrive, despite the prophecy of 89-year-old Christian broadcast group operator Harold Camping, who had been predicting the rolling global destruction of Judgment Day for years. Shackleford won the Preakness, holding off a late charge from Kentucky Derby-winner Animal Kingdom to win as a 12-1 underdog. One year ago: Four Malaysian navy ships began searching for stranded boat people in the first official rescue operation since desperate migrants started washing up on Southeast Asia’s shores. The Family Research Council said it had accepted the resignation of Josh Duggar in the wake of the reality TV star’s apology for unspecified bad behavior as a young teen. (Duggar later admitted molesting five underage girls as a teenager, including two of his sisters, cheating on his wife and being addicted to pornography; those revelations led to the cancellation of the TLC show “19 Kids and Counting.”) Today’s Birthdays: Rhythm-andblues singer Ron Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 75. Rock musician Hilton Valentine (The Animals) is 73. Actor Richard Hatch is 71. Musician Bill Champlin is 69. Singer Leo Sayer is 68. Actress Carol Potter is 68. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., is 65. Actor Mr. T is 64. Music producer Stan Lynch is 61. Actor Judge Reinhold is 59. Actordirector Nick Cassavetes is 57. Actor Brent Briscoe is 55. Actress Lisa Edelstein is 50. Actress Fairuza Balk is 42. Rock singer-musician Mikel Jollett (Airborne Toxic Event) is 42. Rapper Havoc (Mobb Deep) is 42. Actor Sunkrish Bala (TV: “Castle”) is 32. Actor David Ajala is 30. Actress Ashlie Brillault is 29. Actor Scott Leavenworth is 26. Actress Sarah Ramos is 25. Thought for Today: “Being frustrated is disagreeable, but the real disasters of life begin when you get what you want.” — Irving Kristol, American writer (1920-2009).
SATURDAY, MAY 28 1
Cemetery Clean-Up. 8–11 a.m. City of Laredo Cemetery, 3200 N. Meadow Ave. Councilman Roque Vela invites the community to help prepare the Veterans’ Section of the City of Laredo Cemetery with a cleanup event. Anyone wishing to volunteer can sign up by calling Tonie Gamboa at 3335096. Volunteers should bring hats, sunscreen and any garden tools. Water and lunch will be given to all volunteers. 1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. Shows start at 2 p.m. TAMIU. “The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket,” “Cosmic Adventures,” “Space Next” and “A Starry Tale.” General admission is $5 and $4 for children and TAMIU students, faculty and staff. For more information, call 326-3663.
AROUND THE WORLD Congo opposition leader Katumbi flies to South Africa LUBUMBASHI, Congo — Congo’s top opposition candidate for the upcoming presidential election flew to South Africa for medical treatment Friday, one day after authorities issued an arrest warrant for him on charges his supporters say are politically motivated. Moise Katumbi’s lawyer Georges Kapiamba told The
Associated Press late Friday that his client had boarded a flight that would take him from Lubumbashi to South Africa “for appropriate care.” The move postpones the prospect of his arrest, although the authorities who granted him permission to fly insisted he must return to face the charges of hiring mercenaries. It was not immediately known what medical ailment Katumbi had, although he was hospitalized in Lubumbashi on Thursday at the time his arrest
CONTACT US warrant was announced on state television. “He boarded the plane himself but he is weak,” Kapiamba said. Prosecutor Flory Kabange Numbi said Katumbi would be allowed to travel but warned he is required to return to Congo to face the charges in the ongoing criminal case. A breach of this condition “would lead me to withdraw the authorization,” he wrote. — Compiled from AP reports
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THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, May 21, 2016 |
A3
LOCAL & STATE
Beef production, brush control workshop set S P ECIAL T O T HE T I ME S
RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas — As cow numbers rebound from the recent drought and calf prices begin to decline, producers will need to evaluate the profitability of various best management practices. Business people have known for many years, that planning is needed to guide management decisions. You wouldn’t drive to an unknown location without consulting a map. The same principle applies to ranching.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Starr Soil & Water Conservation District, USDA-NRCS, and Texas/Mexico Border Coalition will be having a Rancher’s Program on Thursday, June 2, 2016 at the Catholic Parish Hall in San Isidro, Texas. The rancher’s program will feature information on beef cattle culling techniques, what drives cattle prices in South Texas, Benefits of chemical brush control, and other timely topics. The program will begin at 8:30
a.m. and conclude at 3:30 p.m. There will be noon meal sponsored by Dow AgriScience. The program is free of charge and will offer continuing education units to those ranchers with a TDA private applicator license. There will also be door prizes sponsored by Helena and R.Y. Livestock Sales, Inc. The sponsors are very excited about this program and hope that everyone can join them on June 2nd . Please call 956487-5598 ext. 3 to RSVP.
Guns now permitted in centers for disabled residents A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas’ 13 state-run homes for disabled residents have begun letting people with concealed handgun permits carry weapons into the facilities. The Dallas Morning News reports that officials ended longstanding gun bans at the state-
supported living centers in January, asking visitors with gun licenses to voluntarily stow their guns, or to at least conceal them. Officials say new firearms legislation prompted them to review the weapons policies. But those laws didn’t change where Texas residents can carry. The change appears to
put the gun rules in compliance with what’s been the law for years because the centers aren’t listed as a place where guns can be barred. A Department of Aging and Disability Services spokeswoman says there weren’t any requests to allow firearms on the campuses in the past.
Unemployment in April up slightly A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas unemployment rate rose slightly in April to 4.4 percent, the Texas Workforce Commission reported Friday. The state’s jobless rate in March was 4.3 percent. Nationwide unemployment last month was 5.0 percent, officials said. “Over the month, private employers added more than 8,000 jobs, strengthening the Texas
labor market,” said TWC Commissioner Ruth R. Hughs. “The fact that our state has added jobs for 12 of the last 13 months is a credit to the diversity and resilience of employers in Texas.” Employment in the education and health services industry was up in April, with the addition of 10,900 jobs. Professional and business services added 6,600 jobs over the month and recorded a 1.9 percent an-
nual growth rate. Amarillo had the lowest unemployment rate in Texas last month at 2.7 percent. The AustinRound Rock area had a jobless rate of 2.9 percent. The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area had the state’s highest jobless rate for April at 7.2 percent, the TWC said. The figures showed Texas employers added 189,600 jobs over the past year.
Recent heavy rains help recharge Edwards Aquifer By Brendan Gibbons SAN ANTONIO EXPRE SS-NEWS
SAN ANTONIO — The white Ford Explorer turned right onto the farm road and headed north, as sunlight broke through heavy storm clouds and illuminated the green knobs of the Hill Country on the horizon. In the driver’s seat sat Jon Cradit, a geologist with the Edwards Aquifer Authority. Jim Boenig, an engineer who serves as director of aquifer protection, rode shotgun. Their destination Thursday morning was a private ranch two hours west of San Antonio where a torrent of water cascades into a cavern during heavy rains, helping to recharge the Edwards Aquifer. The San Antonio Ex-
William Luther / Associated Press
An employee of a private ranch stands on the edge of a large sink hole as water goes down the hole into the Edwards Aquifer, on Thursday.
press-News reports, thanks to months of above-average rainfall, the Edwards is fuller than it has been since 2010. That’s good news for the 2 million people who rely on the aquifer as their primary drinking water source. It was a stark change from three years ago,
when the lack of rain dropped the aquifer level low enough for San Antonio Express-News journalists to rappel deep into the chasm. The sinkhole actually was formed by water upwelling through an ancient spring hundreds of thousands of years ago, Cradit said.
Zopinion
Letters to the editor Send your signed letter to editorial@lmtonline.com
A4 | Saturday, May 21, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
COLUMN
OTHER VIEWS
Obama’s war on inequality By Paul Krugman N EW YORK T I ME S
There were two big economic policy stories this week that you may have missed if you were distracted by Trumpian bombast and the yelling of the Sanders dead-enders. Each tells you a lot about both what President Barack Obama has accomplished and the stakes in this year’s election. One of those stories, I’m sorry to say, did involve Donald Trump: The presumptive Republican nominee — who has already declared that he will, in fact, slash taxes on the rich, whatever he may have said in the recent past — once again declared his intention to do away with Dodd-Frank, the financial reform passed during Democrats’ brief window of congressional control. Just for the record, while Trump is sometimes described as a “populist,” almost every substantive policy he has announced would make the rich richer at workers’ expense. The other story was about a policy change achieved through executive action: The Obama administration issued new guidelines on overtime pay, which will benefit an estimated 12.5 million workers. What both stories tell us is that the Obama administration has done much more than most people realize to fight extreme economic inequality. That fight will continue if Hillary Clinton wins the election; it will go into sharp reverse if Trump wins. Step back for a minute and ask, what can policy do to limit inequality? The answer is, it can operate on two fronts. It can engage in redistribution, taxing high incomes and aiding families with lower incomes. It can also engage in what is sometimes called “predistribution,” strengthening the bargaining power of lower-paid workers and limiting the opportunities for a handful of people to make giant sums. In practice, governments that succeed in limiting inequality generally do both. We can see this in our own history. The middleclass society that baby boomers like me grew up in didn’t happen by accident; it was created by the New Deal, which engineered what economists call the “Great Compression,” a sharp reduction in income gaps. On one side, pro-labor policies led to a striking expansion of unions, which, along with the establishment of a fairly high minimum wage, helped raise wages, especially at the bottom. On the other side, taxes on the wealthy went up sharply, while major programs like Social Security aided working families. We can also see this in cross-country compari-
sons. Among advanced countries, the U.S. has the highest level of inequality, Denmark the lowest. How does Denmark do it? Partly with higher taxes and bigger social programs, but it starts with lower inequality in market incomes, thanks in large part to high minimum wages and a labor movement representing twothirds of workers. Now, America isn’t about to become Denmark, and Obama, facing relentless opposition in Congress, has never been in a position to repeat the New Deal. (Even FDR made limited headway against inequality until World War II gave the government unusual influence over the economy.) But more has happened than you might think. Most obviously, Obamacare provides aid and subsidies mainly to lowerincome working Americans, and it pays for that aid partly with higher taxes at the top. That makes it an important redistributionist policy — the biggest such policy since the 1960s. And between those extra Obamacare taxes and the expiration of the high-end Bush tax cuts made possible by Obama’s re-election, the average federal tax rate on the top 1 percent has risen quite a lot. In fact, it’s roughly back to what it was in 1979, pre-Ronald Reagan, something nobody seems to know. What about predistribution? Well, why is Trump, like everyone in the GOP, so eager to repeal financial reform? Because despite what you may have heard about its ineffectuality, Dodd-Frank actually has put a substantial crimp in the ability of Wall Street to make money hand over fist. It doesn’t go far enough, but it’s significant enough to have bankers howling, which is a good sign. And while the move on overtime comes late in the game, it’s a pretty big deal and could be the beginning of much broader action. Again, nothing Obama has done will put more than a modest dent in American inequality. But his actions aren’t trivial, either. And even these medium-size steps put the lie to the pessimism and fatalism one hears all too often on this subject. No, America isn’t an oligarchy in which both parties reliably serve the interests of the economic elite. Money talks on both sides of the aisle, but the influence of big donors hasn’t prevented the current president from doing a substantial amount to narrow income gaps — and he would have done much more if he’d faced less opposition in Congress. And in this as in so much else, it matters hugely whom the nation chooses as his successor.
LETTERS POLICY Laredo Morning 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. Laredo Morning Times does not allow the use of pseudonyms. This space allows for public debate of the issues of the day. Letters are edited for style, grammar, length and civility. Via email, send letters to editorial@lmtonline.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, 111 Esperanza Drive, Laredo, TX 78041.
COLUMN
The pros and cons of shacking up in Canada to avoid Trump By Frank Cerabino COX NEWSPAPERS
If you’re one of those people who have been saying you’d move to Canada if Donald Trump were elected president, you have a new option. A dating website called MapleMatch.com has been set up for Americans to “find the ideal Canadian partner to save them from the unfathomable horror of a Trump presidency.” Maple Match was created by Joe Goldman, 25, of Austin, Texas, who figured that Trump’s high unfavorable ratings among some Americans might lead them to “shack up” with a Canadian for the next four years as an alternative to living under President Trump. But there are other things to consider before establishing a Canadian love nest. I’ve been consulting some of my Canadian snowbird readers this week, and I’ve learned some alarming factors that might make you decide to stay in America,
even if it would put you in the orbit of a dangerously uninformed and mercurial self-promoter with a glaring personality disorder. There’s Netflix, for example. It’s not the same in Canada. “There are some series you have that we do not get here,” explained Paule LaRoche, in Quebec City. American Netflix carries about 1,900 shows that Canadian Netflix doesn’t carry, including shows such as “Scandal,” “Parks and Recreation,” “The Office” and “Frasier.” Sure, it might be good to put some distance between you and a country run by a comb-over despot who would consider restraining the free press, defaulting on the nation’s debts, and mocking other heads of state in midnight Twitter rants. But are you ready to end up in a very cold place watching hockey on TV because of an inferior Netflix situation? And then there’s the voting situation in Canada. “We have our own ‘The
Voice’ in Quebec and we vote,” LaRoche wrote me. “I have tried to vote on a few American reality shows such as ‘Dancing with the Stars,' ‘The Voice’ or ‘American Idol.' It did not work.” Something else to keep in mind. Is giving up your voting rights to “Dancing with the Stars” a sustainable cost to fleeing a country run by a reality TV star with no experience in elected office? That’s a tough call. Then there’s the whole dating experience with Canadians. They tend to be far more polite than the average Floridian. And finding common ground in these relationships may be difficult. “Describe a typical romantic Canadian date that doesn’t involve ice fishing,” I asked Louise Philippe, of Ottawa. She responded: “A bicycle ride followed by finger-licking-good beaver tail!” Whoa, Louise. Slow down. We’ve got four years. No sense rushing right into the finger-licking beaver tail.
Then she explained that a beaver tail was some kind of Canadian crepe sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. As you can see, this could be confusing. Maybe not as confusing as how President Trump will start a trade war with China while relying on the Chinese to help us disarm North Korea. But shacking up in a new country will have its challenges. “Do the American defectors have to learn French?” I asked Louise. “Yes. It will give them a good base for learning Spanish when they get back home,” she answered. “As a warm-up to learning French, they should move their hands.” OK, so you’ve been warned. If you still want to sign up for Maple Match to avoid living under the orange umbrella of shame, I recommend you start binge-watching Netflix before November, voting on your favorite TV reality shows, and moving your hands around as you acquire a taste for beaver tail.
COLUMN
Democrats at war with each other By David Horsey L O S ANGELE S TIME S
There is always bad feeling between competing camps in hotly contested primaries and maybe by the time the Democratic convention in Philadelphia comes to an end, Democrats will be united behind their candidate. That is what usually happens, but this time could be different. Many Bernie bros and Sanders sisters are, like their candidate, new to the Democratic Party. Not only new, they are antagonistic to party
leadership, viewing people like DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz not to mention Hillary Clinton — as morally compromised members of a corrupt establishment that is as repellant as the GOP. If and when they lose in Philadelphia, do not expect them to suddenly stick Hillary pins on their lapels (if they even have lapels). Politics can get rough. The Clinton campaign has played hardball to get as many delegates as possible and they have benefited from a familiarity with the rules of
the game that most of Sanders’ newcomers lack. But the Sanders legion has played rough, as well, especially in caucus settings where they have been able to gain advantage with numbers and noise. The difference is that some Bernie backers feel their righteousness excuses anything they do, while they view the countermoves by the other side as unfair and "fascist." Democratic leaders are calling on Sanders to rein in the excesses of his most bellicose fans. So far, his words of caution
DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU
have been tepid and that is a problem for Democrats. Their fate is in the hands of a politician who, like many of his supporters, never called himself a Democrat until he decided to upend conventional politics by running for president. This has been the year of the outsider in both political parties. It would be wildly ironic if the excesses of Sanders’ partisans cause so much damage to the Democratic Party that the outsider they end up electing is a guy named Trump.
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, May 21, 2016 |
A5
ENTERTAINMENT
Maroon 5, citing morality, cancels Hugh Hefner gives testimony North Carolina concerts in Bill Cosby sex case By Martha Waggoner ASSOCIATED PRE SS
A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
LOS ANGELES — An attorney for a woman suing Bill Cosby for sexual battery says Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has given sworn testimony in the case. Gloria Allred says Hefner provided a deposition on Wednesday at the Playboy Mansion but the contents of the testimony are under seal. Hefner gave the testimony in a case filed by Judy Huth, who alleges Cosby forced her to perform a Hefner sex act on him around 1974 at Hefner’s mansion. Hefner was sued along with Cosby on Monday by another woman who claims the comedian sexually abused her at the mansion in 2008. Cosby has denied both women’s allegations and his former lawyers have accused Huth of attempting to extort him before suing. An email message sent to a Playboy spokeswoman seeking comment was not immediately returned.
RALEIGH, N.C. — The pop group Maroon 5 on Friday joined the list of entertainers canceling appearances in North Carolina because of its law that denies anti-discrimination protections and dictates which restrooms transgender people can use. “This was a difficult decision for us to make as a band. We don’t want to penalize our fans in North Carolina by not performing for them, but in the end it comes down to what we feel is morally right,” the group said on its website. The band led by Adam Levine, who doubles as a celebrity musician-coach on NBC’s “The Voice,” won’t appear Sept. 11 at Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte or Sept. 12 at PNC Arena in Raleigh.
Theo Wargo / Getty Images
Adam Levine of Maroon 5 performs on stage during the NCAA March Madness Music Festival in Houston. The pop group cancelled appearances in North Carolina because of its anti-LGBT law.
A spokesman for Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in his race against Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, who opposes the law, responded by email. Spokesman Ricky Diaz said hundreds of performances, including one by Beyonce, have taken place in North Carolina since the law passed in March. Ma-
roon 5 is only hurting its fans by “hypocritically targeting North Carolina for selective outrage,” noting that the group has not canceled a concert in Russia. Beyonce did perform at N.C. State University in Raleigh, but only after she promoted the efforts of those trying to get the law
reversed. She posted an image of herself wearing Equality NC’s “Y’all Means All” T-shirt and posted a statement supporting equality and encouraging donations to the group. “We think it is important for us to bring attention to those who are committed to being good and carrying on the message of equality in this core of controversy,” her statement read. Other major performers pulling out of North Carolina include Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Pearl Jam, Itzhak Perlman and Ringo Starr. Other performers, including Cyndi Lauper and the comedian Louis C.K., said they would donate proceeds from their shows to groups fighting the law known as HB2. The NBA also could move the 2017 All-Star game out of Charlotte.
Zfrontera A6 | Saturday, May 21, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
RIBEREÑA EN BREVE REPROGRAMAN CONCIERTO 1 Debido al clima imperante sobre la ciudad de Roma, el evento Noche de Música, que estuviera programado para el viernes, hubo de ser cancelado. Organizadores anunciaron que el evento será programado para junio. Participará el Mariachi de RMS/ RBMS/RHS, el RHS Folclórico y el RHS Conjunto. CARRERA 1 En el marco del Día de las Fuerzas Armadas se realizará una Carrera/Caminata de 5K y 1K, a partir de las 8:30 a.m. La salida y meta serán en el Roma Guadalupe Plaza. Inscripción tiene costo. SOCIEDAD GENEALÓGICA 1 La Sociedad Genealógica Nuevo Santander celebrará su reunión el sábado 21 de mayo a las 2 p.m. en el Zapata County Museum of History. Los oradores invitados para esta ocasión son Del & Marsha Shumway, así como Viqui Uribe, con el tema “Búsqueda Familiar” (Family Search). ACADEMIA ROMA FC SOCCER 1 Se invita a participar en la escuela infantil Academia Roma FC Soccer para niños de 3 años a 10 años de edad. Cuota de 40 dólares que incluye uniforme. Registro es martes y jueves de 6 p.m. a 8 p.m. en el Roma Park Soccer Field. Participan en juegos de fin de semana y torneos. Informes en el 956-437-2700 o 956-437-9112. MERCADO AGRÍCOLA 1 El mercado agrícola y artesanal de Zapata y Texas A&M University invita al arranque del evento Walk Across Texas, el sábado 4 de junio, de 10 a.m. a 1 p.m., que consta de un reto de ocho semanas para mantenerse físicamente activo a través de carrera/caminata. El evento es gratuito y lleno de actividades. Regístrese en walkacrosstexas.tamu.edu o el día del evento en Zapata County Plaza (junto a la Oficina del Alguacil). Asista, ejercítese y adquiera productos frescos, saludables y locales.
Memorial Day 1 La Cámara de Comercio del Condado de Zapata anuncia que el lunes 30 de mayo las oficinas permanecerán cerradas por la celebración de Memorial Day. 1 Se le invita a participar en la conmemoración por Memorial Day a partir de las 9:30 a.m. en el V.F.W. Memorial Post 9175 en Roma. PRÉSTAMOS FSA 1 Los Condados de Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr y Willacy Counties fueron declarados elegibles para los préstamos de emergencia ante desastres del Farm Service Agency (FSA). Esto significa que los agricultores que hayan perdido al menos 30 por ciento de su producción en el periodo del 22 al 31 de octubre del 2015. La fecha límite para presentar su solicitud de préstamo es el 25 de julio del 2016. Las oficinas del FSA se ubican en 2514 S. Veterans Blvd., Suite 1 en Edinburg. Informes 956-381-0916 Ext. 2.
MÉXICO
PROCURADURÍA
‘Sí’ a extradición
Arrestan a supuestos depredadores
Defensa de ‘El Chapo’ dice apelarán penal en el norte de México donde permanece recluido, señaló la cancillería. El capo fue repentinamente transferido a la cárcel en Ciudad Juárez, cerca de la frontera con Estados Unidos, en un movimiento que el gobierno dijo tenía que ver con nuevas obras para fortalecer la seguridad en la prisión donde se encontraba, cerca de la capital mexicana. Guzmán enfrenta dos procesos de extradición para ser procesado en Texas y California. La cancillería señaló que consideró procedentes ambas solicitudes. El juicio de amparo al que tiene derecho “El Chapo” puede hacer que pasen meses antes de que la justicia resuelva si finalmente es enviado a Estados Unidos o no. En ocasiones, los procesos de extradición llegan hasta la Suprema Corte. José Refugio Rodríguez, abogado del capo, dijo en Milenio Televisión que ya anticipaban que la cancillería avalaría la entrega y que su cliente está “tranquilo” porque aún pueden acudir a la justicia. “Él sabe y está consciente
MARK STEVENSON ASSOCIATED PRE SS
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO — El gobierno de México concedió la extradición del líder narcotraficante Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán a Estados Unidos, una decisión que la defensa del capo anunció que combatirá y ‘El Chapo’ que podría demorar por varios meses el envío al país vecino del norte. La cancillería mexicana informó el viernes en un comunicado que el gobierno estadounidense dio garantías de que el capo no enfrentará pena de muerte, una condición de México para extraditar a uno de sus ciudadanos. La defensa de Guzmán tiene aún 30 días para poder iniciar un juicio de amparo contra la extradición, algo que su abogado dijo que haría el mismo viernes. El propio Guzmán, considerado el líder del cártel de Sinaloa, fue notificado de la decisión de México en el
que la verdadera batalla contra la resolución de extradición se va a librar en un juicio de amparo”, señaló el abogado. Rodríguez estimó que el juicio podría llevarse de entre uno y tres años. Aunque sólo se presentaron dos procesos de extradición, Guzmán enfrenta acusaciones de siete fiscalías federales en Estados Unidos, incluidas las de Chicago, Nueva York, Miami y San Diego. El capo fue detenido en enero de 2016 casi seis meses después de huir del penal de máxima seguridad del Altiplano, en las afueras de la Ciudad de México, a través de un túnel de 1,5 kilómetros que daba hasta la zona de la regadera de su celda. “El Chapo” ya se había fugado de otra prisión de máxima seguridad en 2001 y pasó más de una década como uno de los prófugos más buscados del mundo hasta su recaptura en 2014. Tras su última detención, las autoridades lo recluyeron nuevamente en el penal del Altiplano y dijeron que habían reforzado la seguridad.
E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE ZAPATA
AUSTIN — Ocho sospechosos de ser depredadores infantiles fueron arrestados gracias a un operativo realizado entre la Unidad de la Procuraduría General Contra la Explotación de Menores (Child Exploitation Unit, CEU) y el Departamento de Policía de Victoria. “Podemos decir que ocho personas que han sido arrestadas ya no representan una amenaza a los niños de Texas”, dijo el Procurador General de Texas Ken Paxton. “Desafortunadamente, los peligros del mundo pueden infiltrarse a cualquier hogar a través de computadoras, tabletas, o hasta por un teléfono”. El objetivo del operativo era arrestar a depredadores de niños que utilizan la Internet para solicitar a menores sexualmente y luego viajar
con el intento de cometer delitos sexuales en contra de un menor. Las personas que fueron arrestadas tras acudir a una cita a donde habían sido citadas, y que recibieron cargos por solicitación de un menor en la Internet son: Joe Angel Lopez, de 41 años, de Victoria; Cedric Rene Ramirez, de 18 años, de Victoria; Mark Edward Lemke, de 37 años, de Victoria; Alfonso Enrique Estraca, de 32 años, de Victoria; Alfredo Serna, Jr., de 45 años, de Port Lavaca; Jeffrey Davis Campbell, Jr., de 29 años, de Austin; Jorge Luis Santillan, de 39 años, de Corpus Christi; y Terry Dewayne Matula, de 32 años, de Bloomington. Paxton exhortó a todos los padres y maestros a reconocer los riesgos que corren los niños en la Internet y tomar pasos para asegurar la protección de sus niños.
EDUCACIÓN
BECA JAIME J. ZAPATA Alumnos agradecen apoyo Por César G. Rodriguez TIEMP O DE ZAPATA
De los 30 acreedores a la beca 2016 Jaime J. Zapata, dos de ellos son residentes de Zapata. Los primos Ayacel Anahí Muñoz de 18 años y Ricardo Joel Muñoz de 19 años, recibieron la beca el martes durante una ceremonia realizada en el hotel Ramada Plaza en Laredo. Zapata era un agente especial de Migración y Aduanas de Estados Unidos (ICE por sus siglas en inglés) que fue asesinado en el cumplimiento del deber en México en febrero del 2011. “Es un honor porque él arriesgo su vida para que nosotros pudiéramos ir a la escuela”, dijo Ayacel Anahí Muñoz. “Él murió haciendo lo
César G. Rodriguez/ Laredo Morning Times
Samuel Guadalupe Pedraza y su madre Ileana Pedraza escuchan a Mary Zapata hablar de la vida de su hijo, el Agente del ICE, Jaime J. Zapata.
que amaba. …Ellos nos están apoyando para hacer eso”. Ayacel Anahí Muñoz es una estudiante de Laredo Community College que espera convertirse en abogada. “Gracias a la familia Zapata por darnos esta oportunidad”, ella dijo. “Es bueno saber que hay gente apoyando los sueños
de los niños”. Ricardo Joel Muñoz hizo eco de los comentarios y no podía contener su agradecimiento. “Es un honor porque su historia es inspiradora. Dio su vida por el trabajo”, dijo Ricardo Joel Muñoz, un estudiante de St. Mary’s University que aspira a convertirse en dermatólogo.
“Es bueno estar aquí celebrando la vida (del agente Zapata)”, dijo él. Mary Zapata, la madre del agente, se siente reconfortada de saber que la comunidad de Laredo recuerda a su hijo. “Estoy muy honrada de que la comunidad de Laredo continúe apoyando todos los esfuerzos de mi hijo, y nos recuerda
que existió”, dijo. “Se ha convertido, de cierta manera, en algo así como un ídolo para adolescentes y niños que… están pensando en un futuro dentro de las fuerzas del orden”. Zapata espera que la beca inspire a jóvenes a obtener una buena carrera “Quiero que cumplan un sueño. Sé que no es suficiente dinero como para mantenerlos los cuatro años, pero es suficiente dinero como para iniciar un plan para un mejor futuro”, ella dijo. Fuerzas del orden locales, estatales y federales, así como personas de la comunidad se unieron para ayudar a recaudar fondos, dijo Rosy Gregory, coordinadora de la organización sin fines de lucro Friends of Jaime Zapata. Los voluntarios trabajaron incesantemente bajo el lema del grupo, “Nunca te des por vencido”, ella dijo. “Cuando hacemos un proyecto para la familia Zapata, la comunidad es muy receptiva de lo que hacemos”, dijo Gregory.
COLUMNA
Describen razones para leer a Miguel de Cervantes Por Raúl Sinencio E SPECIAL PARA TIEMP O DE ZAPATA
Alcalá de Henares ve nacer en 1547 a Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Cuarto de siete hijos, vive con apuros económicos desde niño. A su padre Rodrigo de Cervantes, un médico cirujano, le resulta problemático el sustento de la numerosa familia. Entonces recorre varias plazas de la península. Don Miguel revela entretanto cualidades literarias y, en Sevilla, los jesuitas se encargan de instruirlo. Va a Italia y atiende funciones de camarero del cardenal Julio Acquaviva. Reacio al sacerdocio, opta por la carrera de las armas. Tripulante de la galera “Marquesa”, al transcurrir 1571 pelea contra fuerzas árabes en la célebre batalla de Lepanto. Pierde ahí la mano izquierda. En 1575, al nave-
gar cerca de Marsella, piratas turcos lo apresan. Cinco años permanece en Argel cautivo antes de volver a Madrid, al ser rescatado por amigos y parientes. Hacia 1585 aparece impresa “La Galatea”. De corte pastoril, esta primera novela cervantina alude ya al otrora imperio de Moctezuma. Dividida en seis partes, la última incluye el “Canto de Calíope”, donde hallamos los siguientes versos: “…De Nueva España y nuevo Apolo;/ […] Francisco […] de Terrazas, tiene/ el nombre acá y allá tan conocido,/ cuya vena caudal […]/ ha dado al patrio venturoso nido…” Es probable que en suelo ibérico lograra el novelista entrevistarse con Terrazas - vástago del mayordomo principal de Hernán Cortés - visita Europa y cosecha reconocimientos. Francisco Monterde lo considera “el primero de
los poetas mexicanos de” renombre. Don Miguel publica en 1613 “Novelas ejemplares”. Nutre la serie con “El licenciado Vidriera” y retoma el tema. “…Merced al cielo y al gran Hernando Cortés, que conquistó la gran México, para que la gran Venecia tuviese en alguna manera quien se le opusiese. Estas dos famosas ciudades se parecen en las calles, que son todas de agua”, resalta el autor. A cuenta de ello, busca que le permitan residir y colocarse en América. Manifestándose el 21 de mayo de 1590 por escrito, “pide y suplica humildemente cuanto puede a V. M. [Felipe II] sea servido de hacerle merced de un oficio en las Indias, de los […] que al presente están vacíos […] que […] cualquiera […] recibirá, porque es hombre hábil, suficiente y
benemérito”. Al efecto, señala vacante “la gobernación de la provincia de Soconusco”, hoy zona del estado de Chiapas. José N. Iturriaga cree “que años después la pretensión” referida se renueva “a influencia de nuestro dramaturgo Juan Ruiz de Alarcón”, quien “en 1600 viajó a España para estudiar en Salamanca y en 1606 participó en un certamen poético del que Cervantes fue secretario”. Entre ambos “quizás hubo un acercamiento personal”. No obstante que los capítulos iniciales de “El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha” circulan en 1605 con éxito, nunca prospera la solicitud formulada por Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, fallecido en 1616 sin “hacerle merced […] en las Indias”. Publicado en La Razón, Tampico, Tamps., 13 mayo 2016.
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, May 21, 2016 |
A7
NATIONAL
Judge: Kidnapping suspect can’t question girl before trial By Lynne Tuohy ASSOCIATED PRE SS
Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press
Oklahoma Republican Gov. Mary Fallin on Friday vetoed legislation that would make it a felony for doctors to perform an abortion, citing it was vague and would not withstand a legal challenge.
Republican vetoes bill criminalizing abortions By Sean Murphy A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Republican Gov. Mary Fallin on Friday vetoed legislation that would make it a felony for doctors to perform an abortion, a measure that would have effectively outlawed the procedure in the state. In vetoing the measure, Fallin said it was vague and would not withstand a legal challenge. The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Nathan Dahm, said the measure was aimed at ultimately overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The bill would have made it a felony punishable by up to three years in prison for anyone who performs an abortion, including doctors. State law already makes it a felony for anyone who’s not a doctor to perform an abortion, and Dahm’s bill would have removed the exemption for physicians. Lawmakers can still attempt a veto override, which requires a two-
thirds majority in each chamber. The bill, which abortion-rights group Center for Reproductive Rights said was the first of its kind in the nation, also would restrict any physician who performs an abortion from obtaining or renewing a license to practice medicine in Oklahoma. The Legislature passed the measure with no discussion or debate on Thursday. Dahm said after its passage that he hoped his bill could lead to overturning Roe v. Wade. “Since I believe life begins at conception, it should be protected, and I believe it’s a core function of state government to defend that life from the beginning of conception,” said Dahm, from Broken Arrow. But abortion-rights supporters — and the state’s medical association — have said the bill is unconstitutional. Sen. Ervin Yen, an Oklahoma City Republican and the only physician in the Senate, described the measure as “insane” and voted against it.
CONCORD, N.H. — A man prosecutors accuse of kidnapping a 14-yearold girl and raping her repeatedly during her nine months of captivity cannot question her before his trial, a judge has ruled. Lawyers for 35-year-old Nathaniel Kibby wanted to question the girl about exposure to media coverage and the amount of freedom she was given to move about his trailer in Gorham, where prosecutors say he used a stun gun, zip ties and a shock collar to control her.
The girl returned to her North Conway home in July 2014, though prosecutors have not elaborated on the circumstances of her return. According to court documents, she was able to identify Kibby because she spotted his full name inside a cookbook in his home. Superior Court Judge Larry Smukler, in an order released Friday, also denied Kibby’s bid to question the girl’s sister and three school workers about her home life and family dynamic. Defense attorney Jesse Friedman argued that transcripts of recorded interviews between pros-
ecutors and the girl “are not adequately specific as to the time frames of the alleged sexual assaults and (her) ability to move freely during her alleged captivity.” He said it was necessary to question the girl to prepare to crossexamine experts about domestic violence and Stockholm syndrome, a psychological condition in which people develop feelings of trust or affection toward their captors. Friedman on Friday did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the judge’s ruling. The judge noted the state provided the de-
fense team with 12 interviews consisting of nearly 18 recorded hours and 685 pages of transcripts. In some, the girl described sexual assaults as occurring “every day, pretty much.” Kibby is scheduled to go on trial next month in Belknap Superior Court on nearly 200 felony charges related to the girl’s October 2013 disappearance and the months that followed. The judge ruled that Kibby’s lawyers will be allowed to question a Maine state trooper about trying to track the girl’s cellphone activity in an effort to find her.
Tennessee law strips university diversity office funding By Erik Schelzig ASSOCIATED PRE SS
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A bill to strip funding from the diversity office at Tennessee’s flagship public university became law without Gov. Bill Haslam’s signature on Friday. Lawmakers had been angered by the University of Tennessee’s diversity office recommendations to use gender-neutral pronouns for transgender students and to avoid religious-themed holiday parties. So they voted to remove about $446,000 in state funds for the office and instead use the money to pay for minority scholarships. Conservative lawmakers have also been upset at the annual student-run Sex Week at the school, though the diversity office plays no role in that event. The bill bans the school
Caitie McMekin / Associated Press
Students supporting the UT Diversity Matters coalition protest lay down on the Joe Johnson/John Ward University Mall on Tuesday.
from funding or supporting Sex Week. “If Sex Week were held on the campus, or even in a classroom of that campus, that would be considered support and illegal under this act,” Rep. Tilman Goins, R-Morris-
town, said during the floor debate on the bill. The university in 2013 withdrew more than $11,000 in direct funding for Sex Week after some state lawmakers took issue with the program. But school officials have
said they are powerless to stop student fees and donations from being spent on the event, or from banning it outright because of First Amendment protections. Haslam said in a written statement to lawmakers that he does not like the precedent set by redirecting funds within the budget of a higher education institution. But he stopped short of vetoing the bill. A House version of the bill would have required the university to produce and distribute “In God We Trust” decals to law enforcement agencies around the state, but the Senate had rejected that provision. Haslam said the final of the bill was “less objectionable” to him.
A8 | Saturday, May 21, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
INTERNATIONAL Searchers find body parts, Heat wave sets a record in India seats, luggage from Egyptian jet By Nida Najar and Hari Kumar NEW YORK TIME S
By Maggie Michael and Paisley Dodds A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
CAIRO — Search crews found floating human remains, luggage and seats from the doomed EgyptAir jetliner Friday but face a potentially more complex task in locating bigger pieces of wreckage and the black boxes vital to determining why the plane plunged into the Mediterranean. Looking for clues to whether terrorists brought down EgyptAir Flight 804 and its 66 people aboard, investigators pored over the passenger list and questioned ground crew members at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, where the plane took off. The Airbus A320 had been cruising normally in clear skies on a nighttime flight to Cairo early Thursday when it suddenly lurched left, then right, spun all the way around and plummeted 38,000 feet into the sea, never issuing a distress signal. In Egypt, home to 30 of the victims, grieving families and friends wondered if their loved ones would ever be recovered. Many gathered in mosques for Salat al-Ghaib, or “prayers for the absent,” held for the dead whose bodies have not been found. “This is what is ripping our hearts apart, when we think about it. When someone you love so much dies, at least you have a body to bury. But we have no body until now,” said Sherif al-Metanawi, a childhood friend of the pilot, Mohammed Shoukair. Egyptian authorities said they believe terrorism is a more likely explanation than equipment failure, and some aviation
experts have said the erratic flight suggests a bomb blast or a struggle in the cockpit. But so far no hard evidence has emerged. No militant group has claimed to have brought down the aircraft. That is a contrast to the downing of a Russian jet in October over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula that killed 224 people. In that case, the Islamic State group’s branch in Sinai issued a claim of responsibility within hours. On Friday, IS issued a statement on clashes with the Egyptian military in Sinai, but nothing about the plane. Three European security officials said the passenger manifest for Flight 804 contained no names on terrorism watch lists. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation. The manifest was leaked online and has not been verified by the airline. Further checks are being conducted on relatives of the passengers. French aviation investigators have begun to check and question all baggage handlers, maintenance workers, gate agents and other ground crew members at De Gaulle Airport who had a direct or indirect link to the plane before it took off, according to a French judicial official. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity. Experts said answers will come only with an examination of the wreckage and the plane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders, commonly known as black boxes. A possible cause could have been a fire, The Avia-
tion Herald, a website that covers the civil aviation industry, reported Friday. The publication cited information transmitted through the plane’s Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, which transmits data from the plane to the ground in the form of a series of messages. Those messages showed that smoke was detected in the plan’s lavatory near the cockpit, according to the report. A French Navy patrol boat left the port of Toulon on Friday with sonar that can pick up the underwater “pings” emitted by the recorders. But it will take the vessel two or three days to reach the search zone. Ships and planes from Egypt, Greece, Britain, France, the United States and Cyprus have taken part in the search for what’s left of Flight 804, scouring the waters roughly halfway between the Greek island of Crete and the Egyptian coast. The waters in the area are 8,000 to 10,000 feet deep (2,440 to 3,050 meters), and the pings can be detected up to a depth of 20,000 feet (6 kilometers). “Its batteries allow it to transmit for 30 days,” Athanassios Binis, head of Greece’s aviation accident investigation agency, said on state TV. Once a vessel detects the recorders, “the next step would be to pinpoint it and go down with special equipment to recover it.” Egyptian searchers found the first debris from the crash around 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria. Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi informed relatives there were no survivors, the newspaper said.
NEW DELHI — People weren’t frying eggs on the sidewalks in Phalodi during India’s hottest day ever — in fact, it was so hot that many did not venture out at all. Heat is a familiar part of life in Phalodi, in the deserts of Rajasthan, so residents were following a familiar drill even before temperatures soared to 123.8 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday: When the heat comes, stay indoors, chug buttermilk and, if you must go out, cover your head and pray for shade. It is a drill that may prove ever more necessary if temperatures continue to rise. Dr. Bhani Ram Paliwal, the principal medical officer at a government hospital in Phalodi, could
Ajit Solanki / Associated Press
Indian children play in the Sabarmati river to beat the heat on a hot summer day in Ahmadabad, India, on Friday.
not remember a day like Thursday in 15 years of working there. Roughly 500 patients, almost double the average number, visited his outpatient department, many with complaints of diarrhea and fever. “It was like heat waves were coming out of a clay oven,” he said. Scientists say that if
greenhouse gas emissions continue at a high pace, average global temperatures could rise by more than 6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. “Climate change is obviously going to be playing a role,” said Andrew Robertson, a senior research scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate.
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, May 21, 2016 |
A9
BUSINESS
Stocks close higher, led by health care, tech By Bernard Condon A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
NEW YORK — Stocks rose on Friday in a modest but broad rally that erased much of the losses from earlier in the week when investors had sold over fears of rising interest rates. Health care and technology stocks rose the most, helping to nudge the Standard and Poor’s 500 index back to slight gains for the week and year. Nine of the index’s 10 sectors closed higher. Stocks rose from the start of trading, following sizable gains in Europe. Among the winners, Intel climbed nearly 2 percent and Pfizer closed up 1.1 percent. Investors were spooked earlier in the week when the Federal Reserve released minutes of its last meeting that suggested it may raise rates in June, something the market had not expected. They scrambled to readjust portfolios, selling oil and copper, U.S. Treasury bonds and stocks of steady dividend payers like utilities that tend to fall when rates rise. But on Friday a measure of calm returned. U.S. bonds barely moved, commodities ended mixed and utilities rose, albeit just 0.2 percent. The S&P 500 rose 12.28 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,052.32. The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day up 65.54 points, or 0.4 percent, to 17,500.94. The Dow lost 0.2
Richard Drew / Associated Press file
Global stock markets recovered their poise on Friday, in the wake of sizeable falls triggered by the U.S. Federal Reserve's surprise indication that it could raise interest rates in June.
percent for the week. The Nasdaq composite climbed 57.03 points, or 1.2 percent, to 4,769.56. Applied Materials led the move higher in technology stocks. The maker of chipmaking equipment jumped $2.75, or 14 percent, to $22.66 after reporting earnings ahead of analysts’ forecasts. Another big gainer for the day, Interoil, jumped $11.92, or 38 percent, to $43.57 after rival Oil Search announced a deal to buy the company for $2.2 billion. The deal still needs approval by shareholders. Friday’s gains notwithstanding, the major indexes have barely moved this year. Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Securities, says investors are uncertain about the strength of the economy and that’s reflected in their unwillingness to commit
themselves to buying. “There’s no conviction,” he said. “There is no upside momentum.” Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist for Wells Capital Management, thinks investors will eventually come around. He said he welcomes Fed talk of a rate increase because it shows things are getting better. “The economy is good enough that even the Fed thinks it might be able to raise rates,” he said. “Job creation is there, unemployment is low.” Among other stocks making big moves, Campbell Soup dropped $4.08, or 6 percent, to $59.90 after reporting thirdquarter sales that fell short of Wall Street expectations. The company partly blamed challenges in its V8 beverages business and problems with its fresh carrot supply.
The clothes chain Gap rose 73 cents, or 4 percent, to $18.01 after announcing late Thursday that it’s closing 75 Old Navy and Banana Republic stores outside North America. The announcement came as the clothes retailer reported a 47 percent drop in first-quarter profits and lower revenue. In Europe, stock markets reversed losses from the previous day. Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 1.7 percent while Germany’s DAX rose 1.2 percent. France’s CAC 40 advanced 1.7 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.5 percent while South Korea’s Kospi was flat. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.8 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5 percent. Benchmark U.S. oil fell 41 cents to $47.75 a barrel in New York. Brent, used to price international oils, lost 9 cents to $48.72 a barrel in London. In other energy markets, wholesale gasoline inched up to $1.64 a gallon. Heating oil rose 1 cent to $1.49 a gallon. Natural gas rose 2 cents to $2.06 per 1,000 cubic feet. Bond prices rose slightly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held steady at 1.85 percent. The euro rose to $1.1219 from $1.1202, while the dollar rose to 110.23 yen from 109.89 yen. Metals prices were mixed. Gold fell $1.90 to $1,252.90 an ounce. Silver added 4 cents to $16.53 an ounce. Copper remained at $2.06 a pound.
Louisiana governor wants oil industry to pay for coastal restoration By Cain Burdeau ASSOCIATED PRE SS
NEW ORLEANS — Gov. John Bel Edwards is pushing to get the oil and natural gas industry to pay for restoring Louisiana’s fragile coast by encouraging them to settle lawsuits alleging they caused extensive damage to coastal lands. The governor met with industry leaders on May 13 and asked them to settle the numerous lawsuits, filed by local governments, and help pay for coastal restoration, according to letters obtained by The Associated Press on Friday. Industry leaders have rejected his request. But, the governor, in a letter sent to industry organizations on Thursday, said he wanted to meet with them again to discuss settlements. Three coastal parishes are seeking compensation for alleged state permit violations, coastal damage and pollution. Earlier this year the governor and Attorney General Jeff Landry intervened in those suits.
South Africa: Miners with lung disease prepare lawsuit By Stuart Graham A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
WELKOM, South Africa — Thabang Moorosi, a former driller in South Africa’s gold mines, takes a minute to catch his breath after struggling onto a hospital bed for his monthly lung check. The 60-year-old, a long-distance runner in his youth, was diagnosed in 2005 with a lung disease, silicosis, after years of inhaling silica dust at rock faces far below ground. He is one of tens of thousands of miners preparing to sue some of South Africa’s largest gold mining companies, including Anglo American, AngloGold Ashanti, Harmony Gold and Goldfields, for damages. Last week, a South African judge said gold miners who got lung diseases while working underground, as well as families of miners who died of such diseases, can launch a class action suit against those companies. Some companies said they want to reach a settlement to avoid litigation that could last many years. “I used to run marathons, but these days I struggle to walk around the block,” Moorosi told The Associated Press in Welkom, a town in South
Africa’s Free State province that flourished generations ago when gold was discovered there. “I was a healthy man when I started working on the mines in 1973,” Moorosi said. “But my lungs are cracked now. I have no power. I can no longer lift heavy things.” Thousands of miners like Moorosi have been treated for lung diseases over the years, said Rhett Kahn, a doctor who works in a ramshackle house in downtown Welkom. “I realized there was a problem from the moment I started working on the mines in 1982,” Kahn said. “The wards in the mining hospitals were filled with young men who had tuberculosis,” he said in his clinic’s waiting room, which is plastered with posters warning about lung diseases and other ailments. Retired mine worker William Mothabeng and four friends sat in a park, listening to music on a radio in a Welkom township located between two decommissioned mine shafts. Mothabeng said he spent decades working in the gold mines, but was retrenched in 1997 after he was diagnosed with silicosis. “I gave them many years of
Themba Hadebe / Associated Press
In this photo taken Wednesday, retired mine worker William Mothabeng, speaks to the Associated Press during an interview at a park in Welkom, South Africa. Tens of thousands of South African miners with lung disease prepare to sue some of the country's largest gold mining companies.
my life,” he said of his work. “In many of the houses here, there are no men,” Mothabeng said, pointing at some tin shacks. “Many of them have died, either from the rock falls or from a lung disease.” Dozens of workers, mostly poor men from Lesotho, Mozambique and South Africa, told The Associated Press that they are supposed to wait at least 12 hours for dust to settle after blasting at a rock face. But they said they are paid bonuses by the mining houses to haul out rocks as fast as possible to speed up gold production. The
miners said they are given masks, but seldom wear them due to the high temperatures in the mine. Inspectors from the country’s mineral resources department or health ministry are seldom present to enforce the rules. It takes around 10 years for miners to develop silicosis from constantly inhaling dust, Kahn said. Once miners have silicosis, they are usually infected with tuberculosis. Many die before they reach 50. Richard Spoor, the lawyer who initiated the lawsuit, said 35 gold mining companies are
defendants. “We are dealing with people who have worked on about 100 or more mines over a period of 50 years and around 100,000 plaintiffs,” he said. “We will spend the coming months trying to track down mine workers across southern Africa who have been infected with silicosis.” Preventing silicosis is relatively simple but costly as it involves ventilating a mine with vast quantities of refrigerated air, Spoor said. During apartheid, South Africa’s system of white minority rule which ended in 1994, many young black men worked in the mines until they were sick or dead because there were few protections, he said. Some mining houses recognize that current compensation for victims of silicosis is inadequate and are eager to reach a settlement, said Alan Fine, a spokesman for six gold companies. “The companies don’t think it is in their interests to have that hanging over them, and neither is it in the workers’ interests to have to suffer delays of the sort that would be inevitable,” Fine said. “We want to find a solution as soon as possible.”
A10 | Saturday, May 21, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
POLITICS
New owner wants to make Trump’s Taj Mahal casino great again By Wayne Parry A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The name on the front still reads “Trump,” but a different flamboyant billionaire now wants to make the Taj Mahal casino great again. Carl Icahn isn’t sure whether he’ll spend the $100 million he promised to spruce up the struggling gambling hall opened in 1990 by Donald Trump, who hailed it as “the eighth wonder of the world.” But there are certain things the new owner is doing right away to make the casino a place of his own. First is healing the damage that the casino’s reputation incurred during a prolonged neardeath experience as it languished in bankruptcy court and repeatedly threatened to close over the last year and a half. Icahn rescued the Taj Mahal by keeping it afloat during its Chapter 11 case and pledging to invest $100 million once he got control. “We want to let the world know that we are open for business and we’re not going anywhere,” said Tony Rodio, president of the Icahnowned Tropicana casino, which now runs the Taj Mahal as well. But almost as soon as Icahn took over in March, he wavered on investing the full $100 million, spooked by the prospect of two new casinos in the northern part of the state. New Jersey voters will decide in November whether to authorize them. Icahn will wait until the referendum to commit to spending that much money on a casino that could
Wayne Parry / Associated Press
Sean Friel, a valet attendant, stands at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, N.J. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn recently acquired the casino, which Donald Trump once owned, and is making immediate improvements.
be at an even worse competitive position with new in-state rivals. But he has authorized $15 million for immediate repairs on things guests will immediately notice, like 250 new slot machines, reactivating lights and water fountains that had been turned off for years, reopening a poker room, and offering live entertainment every night in its re-done Ego lounge. Less visible repairs include fixing leaks in a roof. The 180 out-of-service hotel rooms that needed work should all be ready by the July 4 holiday. Including its Chairman Tower, named after youknow-who when he was Chairman of the Board, the Taj Mahal has 2,010 hotel rooms, placing it in the upper echelon of Atlantic City’s casino market. When it opened in 1990, the Taj Mahal was the most expensive casino ever built, at $1.1 billion. Its chandeliers alone cost $16 million, and Trump flew in Michael Jackson for the grand opening. But it went bankrupt (for the first of four times) after just a year, choked by debt.
Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner who has received some help from Icahn courting political donors, lost majority control to bondholders in the casino’s 2004 bankruptcy filing. He has not owned or had anything to do with the casino company since 2009, aside from a 10 percent stake in return for the use of his name that was wiped out in bankruptcy court. The Taj Mahal took $180 million from gamblers last year, ranking it 7th out of Atlantic City’s eight casinos. Sean Friel, a valet at the Taj Mahal since the day it opened, said the past two years have been rough on the staff as the former owners, Trump Entertainment Resorts, let the property deteriorate. With Icahn having promised to keep it open, Friel said the staff is relieved. “It’s a great weight off your shoulders,” Friel said. “I was afraid it would go dark; I saw them make up these big black things to barricade and lock the doors, and signs that said, ‘We’re closing.’ Now we can see light at the end of the tunnel.” The Taj Mahal’s union-
ized employees are still fighting to regain health care and pension benefits that the previous owners terminated during bankruptcy, and Local 54 of the Unite-HERE casino workers union has held more than a dozen public protests against Icahn, calling for the benefits to be restored. The union last year authorized a strike but thus far has not walked out. Should Icahn agree to go all-in on upgrades to the Taj Mahal, Rodio envisions new nightclubs, branded restaurants and other attractions to fill the vast empty spaces that exist in numerous areas of the sprawling casino complex. “It’s a big canvas,” Rodio said. “We just have to figure out how to paint it.”
Sanders campaign down to less than $6 million in cash By Julie Bykowicz and Chad Day ASSOCIATED PRE SS
WASHINGTON — Bernie Sanders began this month with less than $6 million in available campaign cash, new finance reports show. The Vermont senator is making his last stand in the Democratic presidential contest, as Hillary Clinton closes in on clinching the necessary number of pledged delegates and superdelegates to secure her party’s nomination. Clinton began May with about $30 million. The new report, covering the month of April, shows Sanders contin-
ued to spend heavily, lodging almost $39 million in expenses. Sanders Clinton, meanwhile, spent about $24 million in April, her report shows. The two candidates brought in about the same amount, with Clinton at $25 million and Sanders at $27 million. Sanders has significantly thinned his campaign operation in recent weeks, reducing his staff from about 1,000 to fewer than 400 employees.
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, May 21, 2016 |
A11
FROM THE COVER EL CHAPO From page A1 Jose Refugio Rodriguez, one of Guzman’s lawyers, said Friday the legal team planned to appeal the decision all the way to Mexico’s Supreme Court, and possibly to international tribunals. Rodriguez told the Milenio television station that any extradition would take “at least one to three years.” "We expected it,” Rodriguez said of the foreign relations department decision. “It is no surprise.” Rodriguez said Guzman knew about the ruling and said he was “calm.” “He knows and is conscious that the real battle against extradition is going to be waged through the constitutional appeals process,” Rodriguez said. Guzman was arrested in January after almost six months on the run following his escape from a maximum-security prison through a mile-long tunnel that opened to the floor of his shower. He had already escaped once before in 2001 and spent more than a decade as one of the world’s most wanted fugitives until he was recaptured in 2014. Guzman’s lawyers have so far waged a publicrelations offensive, speaking to the press and even organizing protests; but as
GRANT From page A1 mother, finds peace knowing that the Laredo community remembers her son. “I’m very honored that the community of Laredo continues to support all the efforts of my son, support him and reminds us that he existed,” she said. “He has become, in a
ETHICS From page A1 accepting applications for the program, and how many immigrants were mistakenly awarded work permits before the program was slated to start. The policy was announced in November 2014 and would have allowed an estimated 5 million undocumented immigrants to apply for a work permit and a reprieve from deportation. It also expanded a 2012 initiative known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. “The Government knowingly acted contrary to its representations to this Court on over 100,000 occasions,” Hanen wrote. “This Court finds that the misrepresentations detailed above: (1) were false; (2) were made in bad faith; and (3) misled both the Court and the Plaintiff States.” Texas and 16 other states initially sued the Obama administration in early December 2014 after
extradition draws nearer, the battle could turn violent, like the one Colombian drug lords waged extradition in the 1980s, said Mike Vigil, a former head of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Vigil said there is still the appeals process and he expects Guzman’s attorneys to “try to move heaven and earth” to prevent him from being extradited, noting that drug lords fear extradition because it removes them from their criminal infrastructure. “As long as they have access to their criminal infrastructure, they can intimidate or they can bribe, “ Vigil said, “and I’m sure that right now, Chapo Guzman is going to be scrambling, trying to intimidate government officials, because he will fight it to the bitter end.” “That could lead to violence against the government, to intimidate violence against the judicial system, against individuals that will have something to do with his extradition, and if he can’t get to them, he’ll go after their families,” Vigil said. “That’s a very strong possibility that he will launch a frontal assault on the Mexican government, to try to intimidate the government to stop his extradition.” Prior to his latest cap-
ture, the drug lord met with Mexican actress Kate del Castillo and U.S. actor Sean Penn, who published an interview with the Guzman in Rolling Stone. Mexican authorities say the meeting in a remote area of Mexico helped them locate Guzman. After the capture, authorities returned Guzman to the same Altiplano lockup where he had pulled off his brazen tunnel escape. They said they had reinforced the prison’s security. But earlier this month, authorities suddenly transferred Guzman to a prison on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, near the U.S. border, a move they said was due to work on improvements at Altiplano. Rodriguez, the lawyer, is trying to get Guzman returned to Altiplano, arguing that the transfer hurt his defense because it’s hundreds of miles away from the court handling the case. He said a judge told them Guzman could be sent back to Altiplano if prison authorities determine the conditions are right. Authorities have said Guzman can be held safely in Juarez where, like in Altiplano, he is under 24-hour surveillance through cameras in his cell and on the helmets of his guards.
way, something like an idol for teenagers and kids who … think about a future in law enforcement.” Zapata hopes the scholarship propels youngsters into a good career. “I want them to accomplish a dream. I know it’s not enough money to pull them through four years, but it’s enough money to initiate a plan for a better future for them,” she said. Local, state and federal
law enforcement and people from the community came together to help raise funds, said Rosy Gregory, coordinator of the nonprofit organization Friends of Jaime Zapata. Volunteers worked tirelessly under the group’s motto, “Never Back Down,” she said. “When we do a project for the Zapata family, the community is very receptive of what we do,” Gregory said.
the executive action was announced; eight others eventually signed on. Hanen’s decision was upheld twice by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The case was argued last month before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to issue a decision next month. The Obama administration has argued that Texas does not have standing to sue the government and that executive action isn’t granting undocumented immigrants a free pass. The administration says the president is telling immigration agents to use their limited resources to deport criminals and felons, while simultaneously allowing immigrants deemed low priority to work and stay with their families. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Thursday that Hanen’s sanctions are further proof of the White House’s dishonesty in the case. “Throughout this case, the administration has struggled to provide accu-
rate, reliable information regarding the scope of the President’s plan or even when it would be implemented,” he said in a statement. “From the start, our lawsuit has been about asserting that one person cannot unilaterally change the law, and part of that is ensuring everyone abides by the rule of law.” Hanen said he would keep the list of individuals who obtained the benefits sealed at least until the high court made its ruling. He also declined to issue monetary sanctions, saying that taxpayers shouldn’t be burdened with footing the bill for the government’s mistakes. “The Court would be imposing more costs on the aggrieved parties, and the Justice Department, which is actually responsible for this mess, would go unscathed,” he wrote. “There would be no corrective effect and no motivation for the Government’s lawyers to act more appropriately in the future.”
Tom Fox / Associated Press
Karen Roggenkamp, left, and her daughter, transgender teen Charlotte Roggenkamp, pose for a photo at home in Rowlett, Texas. Karen Roggenkamp spoke out at a Rockwall City Council meeting to oppose a plan that would limit LGBT access to some public restrooms.
Mom seeks safety, love for transgender daughter By Claire Ballor THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
ROCKWALL, Texas — In the front room of her family’s Rockwall home, Charlotte Roggenkamp stretches her willowy 6-foot-4 frame across a low-rise couch. The 17-year-old runs her fingers through her long brown hair, trying to get her part just right. She rolls her eyes when her mother comments that her dress, barely covering her thighs, is too short. Karen Roggenkamp, scooting closer to her daughter on the couch, responds with a smile. Charlotte has taught her mother patience, the kind that comes from living with a teenage daughter. That’s something Karen has only done for a few months. Before Charlotte became a snarky teenage girl who argues with her mom and takes too long in front of the mirror, she was Simon, a talkative kid with a thoughtful character and a secret. The feeling of being trapped in a stranger’s body had haunted Simon for years. ("Gender dysphoria” is the formal diagnostic term.) The depression that came with it was obvious, though no one knew the extent of the daily torment. Last summer, before the start of junior year at Rockwall High School, Simon nervously sat Karen down and explained that she was transgender. She wasn’t Simon, she was Charlotte, and she was desperate to begin the transition from male to female. Fears and questions raced through Karen’s head as she tried to understand. Still, she says, she was grateful for the conversation. “It was a gift to me as a mother that she had the confidence to tell me,” she told The Dallas Morning News. “It told me that somewhere along the line I had made it safe for her to share something so personal.” Once Karen knew, things started to add up. Charlotte’s favorite toy growing up was a pink stuffed cat. The child
struggled to make friends with boys and refused to have haircuts. Puberty brought extreme bodyimage insecurities and numbing bouts of depression. “I was visibly dead inside,” said Charlotte. “I was not all there for a long time.” Charlotte’s eyes peek above her glasses as she recounts her journey, piecing together a timeline of pain and confusion. “The prospect was overwhelming,” she said, “but I knew I would be happier living as a girl. Because I knew I was a girl.” Accepting that realization, though, was just the beginning. Her grades dropped, so she began home-schooling. Her depression persisted, as did a desperate yearning to begin her transition. Last fall, Charlotte attempted suicide. “I saw it as fixing myself, because I didn’t believe I was in a body I could live in,” said Charlotte. “After you come out, you start comparing yourself, and there’s just a horrible feeling of inadequacy.” Charlotte’s mom knew her daughter needed help. “It was clear she wouldn’t survive if she had to wait any longer,” said Karen. In November, Charlotte began hormone therapy under the care of Dr. Aimee Wright, a family practitioner in Plano who began treating transgender patients eight years ago. “I just decided that’s what I’m supposed to do, to help these people who need help,” the doctor said. Charlotte takes two estrogen pills a day. That will continue for the rest of her life. Her hormonal transformation will take about two years. Someday, she hopes to undergo sex-reassignment surgery, a series of operations that typically costs tens of thousands of dollars. Some days, Charlotte is heartened by the progress she’s made in accepting her body and its slow transition. Other times,
when she looks in the mirror, she’s tormented by what she sees as the masculine face staring back at her. Her family has been thoroughly supportive. Charlotte shares the Rockwall home with three younger siblings. Her father lives out of state. But when things seem futile, she says, it’s a mother’s love above all else that eases the burden. Earlier this month, Karen publicly took on Rockwall’s mayor in what she saw as a fight for her daughter’s rights and dignity. Mayor Jim Pruitt proposed an ordinance that would require people to use public restrooms based on their biological sex at birth. A similar statute in North Carolina has brought protests from LGBT advocates and others, and a civil rights challenge from the U.S. Justice Department. Pruitt’s measure failed for lack of a second when the City Council considered it on May 2. Karen was among those who addressed the council to oppose it. “This law is designed to interfere with transgender citizens in the worst possible way,” she said. “These are not outsiders. These are your neighbors.” Days later, she would say the bathroom tussle had awakened her “Mama Bear instinct.” On the couch, Karen scoots closer still to Charlotte. She holds her daughter’s arm. “I just want her to be happy and fulfilled,” she said. “I want a world that’s not going to try and put these silly, politically driven laws in her way.” Charlotte’s wish for herself is simple: to be OK with who she is. “I want to be at a point in life where I feel like I’m someone I’m genuinely happy being,” she said. “I want to be a better Charlotte. My goal is that I get to a point where I can wake up every day and feel proud of my body and feel proud of myself.” For now, that struggle begins anew each morning, in front of the mirror.
Texas’ water future: More toilet-to-tap, aquifer storage By Betsy Blaney A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
LUBBOCK, Texas — Texas would rely more on treated toilet water and pumping rainwater into aquifers to serve its booming population over the next half-century under the state’s 2017 water plan approved Thursday. Several years removed from a historic drought that brought more attention to funding water projects, Texas Water Development Board officials unanimously OK’d a $62.6 billion plan that outlines more than 5,500 varying strategies for
solving the growing state’s water woes. “This is the best plan yet, in my view,” board chairman Bech Bruun said before the vote in Austin. “The most comprehensive, detailed plan.” Texas’ population is projected to grow by 73 percent from 29.5 million in 2020 to 51 million in 2070, according to the board’s plan. Demand for water will follow — a projected increase of 17 percent by 2070. Conservation was the most frequently recommended strategy in the new plan, which also calls for supplies from
treated toilet water to increase sevenfold — from 3.9 billion gallons to 28.3 billion gallons — by 2070. Some Texas cities turned to toilet-to-tap reuse during 2011, the driest year ever in Texas. Big Spring in West Texas uses a direct potable reuse, meaning the treated effluent is put directly in the distribution system. In North Texas, Wichita Falls had a direct potable reuse project but is converting it to indirect potable reuse, meaning it will be filtered through an environmental buffer, such as a lake or an aquifer, before it goes into
distribution. And El Paso’s advanced toilet-to-tap purification plant will be the largest direct water reuse project in the U.S. when it begins operating in 2018. Capital costs for conservation projects went from $1 billion in the 2012 water plan to $4 billion in the new one. Strategies recommended to get water from aquifer storage and subsequent withdrawals increased 350 percent from the 2012 state water plan. The recommendation is for this water to result in 49.5 billion gallons in 2070. Twenty-six new reser-
voirs are also part of the plan, most of those in the eastern half of the state. The head of one environmental group said the 2017 plan is a “big improvement” from the last one. “The last drought exposed the huge amount of water waste in the Texas economy, from leaking water mains and irrigation systems to profligate water use in industry,” Environment Texas director Luke Metzger said. “This new water plan recognizes the powerful role that conservation and ending water waste plays in meeting our water needs.”
Water providers estimated they will need about $36.1 million in state assistance to build their projects. They can apply for loans from $2 billion from the state’s Rainy Day Fund, a move voters approved in 2013. That money, through interest earnings and revenue bonds, could grow to $27 billion over 50 years. The state’s water plan, done every five years, is based on recommendations from 16 regional water planning groups. It will be submitted to the state’s top elected officials and lawmakers by January.
A12 | Saturday, May 21, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
Sports&Outdoors THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, May 21, 2016 |
NBA: ORLANDO MAGIC
B1
HORSE RACING: PREAKNESS STAKES
Nyquist ready for a rainy Preakness Michael Conroy / Associated Press file
Former Pacers coach Frank Vogel was announced as the new head coach for the Magic Friday.
Vogel announced as Magic coach By Terrance Harris A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
ORLANDO, Fla. — After agreeing to a deal with Frank Vogel on Thursday, the Orlando Magic completed a whirlwind eight days by formally announcing their new head coach. The team confirmed reports Friday that Vogel had been hired and will be formally introduced on Monday. “While we were conducting our search, it became very evident that
Gusts up to 20 mph expected By Richard Rosenblatt ASSOCIATED PRE SS
Frank is a terrific fit for our organization,” Magic general manager Rob Hennigan said in a statement. “He is a strong, hard-working and experienced leader, who will continue to instill smart, physical, unselfish and defensive-minded basketball in our group. We welcome him into the Magic family, as we move forward in a positive direction.” Vogel replaces Scott Skies, who surprised the organization when he
BALTIMORE — Let it rain again on the Preakness. Team Nyquist doesn’t seem concerned. A driving rainstorm didn’t faze American Pharoah as he splashed his way to victory in the second leg of the Triple Crown last year, and it sure appears like Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist will have to do the same thing in a bid to set up another Triple try in the Belmont Stakes. The National Weather Service on Friday gave a forecast calling for a nearly 100 percent chance of rain beginning early Saturday and continuing throughout the day, with as much as three-quarters of an inch expected. Temperatures will be in the mid-50s with wind gusts up to 20 mph. Post time for the Preakness is 6:45 p.m. “With a horse like Nyquist, I’m not overly concerned about the weather,” trainer Doug O’Neill said on a bright, sunny Friday morning. “As far as rain or shine, we’re not
Vogel continues on B2
Preakness continues on B2
Garry Jones / Associated Press
Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist will need to battle the rain to keep his Triple Crown chances alive Saturday at the Preakness Stakes.
2016 SUMMER OLYMPICS: RIO DE JANEIRO
TENNIS: FRENCH OPEN
US DROPS PUERTO RICO SWIM TRAINING OVER ZIKA
Darko Vojinovic / Associated Press file
Nine-time champion Rafael Nadal could meet No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the 2016 French Open.
Felipe Dana / Associated Press
USA Swimming has moved a pre-Olympic training camp out of Puerto Rico because of the Zika virus, but there are no plans to bail on the Summer Games in Brazil.
Swim team moves training camp to Atlanta By Paul Newberry A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
ATLANTA — USA Swimming has moved a pre-Olympic training camp out of Puerto Rico because of the Zika virus. There are no plans to bail on the Summer Games in Brazil, even though that country has been the epicenter of the outbreak. Frank Busch, the U.S. national team director, sent a letter Thursday to all national team athletes and coaches telling them of the change. The camp will now be held in Atlanta instead of Puerto Rico in late July.
“As part of our preparations for the Olympic Games this summer, we have been closely monitoring the current situation with the Zika virus,” Busch wrote in his letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press. “According to the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and other health experts in the field of science and medicine, our athletes would be highly exposed to the Zika virus in Puerto Rico.” The U.S. team is still scheduled to hold a training camp in San Antonio from July 11-21. After that, the team
had been planning to make a stop in Puerto Rico for several more days of training before traveling to Rio de Janeiro, where Olympic swimming begins Aug. 6. Now, that camp will be held at the Georgia Tech aquatic center, site of the 1996 Olympics and a meet just last weekend featuring gold medalists Katie Ledecky and Nathan Adrian. “I think it’s the prudent thing to do,” said Bob Bowman, who coaches 18-time gold medalist Michael Phelps. When asked about the seeming contradiction of canceling a camp in Puer-
to Rico because of Zika but going on to compete in the country hardest hit by the virus, Bowman said he believes the risk will actually be much lower at the Olympics. “Honestly, we can control it better in Rio,” he said. “They’re taking every precaution they can. We’re talking about swimming in an indoor venue in the wintertime. Plus, we have other measures we can take. We just feel like that’s a much more controlled environment.” USA Swimming’s decision follows a move by Major League Baseball to Zika continues on B2
Djokovic and Nadal could meet in French Open semis By Samuel Petrequin ASSOCIATED PRE SS
PARIS — In his quest to complete a career Grand Slam, Novak Djokovic could have to beat nine-time champion Rafael Nadal in the French Open semifinals. Djokovic, who will face 100th-ranked Lu Yenhsun in the first round, was put in the same side of the draw as Nadal on Friday. The top-ranked Serb beat Nadal in the quarterfinals last year, the Spaniard’s second
loss of his career at Roland Garros. Defending champion Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray could meet in the other semifinal match. In the women’s draw, Serena Williams’ attempt to equal Steffi Graf’s professional era record of 22 major titles includes a possible quarterfinal match against Victoria Azarenka. Djokovic has lost in the final on the red clay in three of the last four Tennis continues on B2
B2 | Saturday, May 21, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES
SPORTS PREAKNESS From page B1
going to change anything shoeing-wise He’s going to wear the same shoes he’s got on. We’d just love to have a beautiful day.” Rain could be a good thing for several of his top rivals, though, especially Derby runner-up Exaggerator, or long shot Cherry Wine. Both have run well in the mud, with Exaggerator taking the Santa Anita Derby on a sloppy track and Cherry Wine breaking his maiden by 9 1⁄2 lengths under similar conditions. “I’ll be one of the few people doing a rain dance,” Cherry Wine’s trainer Dale Romans said. Nyquist, with an 8-0 record, won the Florida Derby over a surface listed as good even though the track had been drenched by a rainstorm before the race. The fleet son of Uncle Mo is a win away from a shot at the Triple Crown, which would give racing back-to-back Triples for the second time. American Pharoah became the first to sweep the Derby, Preakness and Belmont since Affirmed in 1978, a year after Seattle Slew won it. But first, Nyquist has to defeat 10 rivals at 1 3-16ths miles over Pimlico Race Course, a track he’s become familiar with over the past two weeks. The 3-5 favorite leaves from the No. 3 post with Mario Gutierrez aboard. O’Neill has been through this before, along with owner J. Paul Reddam and Gutierrez. In 2012, they won the Derby and Preakness with I’ll Have Another, who was retired the day before the Belmont with an injury. Asked what would be an ideal trip for Nyquist, O’Neill didn’t hesitate: “We break great, have the lead and go really easy around there. Mario knows Nyquist so well. He has so much speed away from the gate, ideally, he gets good position wherever that is and he runs a big race.” Exaggerator, the 3-1 second choice, may be the most accomplished mudder in the field. In addition to his Santa Anita Derby win, he won once and finished second over
VOGEL From page B1 resigned on May 12. Vogel comes to Orlando as a proven head coach with playoff experience having led the Indiana Pacers the last five full seasons with the team making the postseason in each of those seasons. The 42-year-old Vogel did not have his Indiana contract renewed following this season. The Pacers made the playoffs but were bounced in Game 7 of the first round by the Toronto Raptors. During Vogel’s tenure Indiana he compiled a 250-181 regular-season record. He was also 31-30 in the postseason with the Pacers. After Skiles resigned, team CEO Alex Martins and Hennigan both said at a news conference that they wanted a coach who has strong defensive principles and can connect with the players. Vogel succinctly fits what the Magic were looking in a coach. His Pacer teams were usually one of the top defensive clubs in the NBA, finishing in the top six in field goal percent defense in each of his five full seasons as head coach. The Pacers were also top 10 in the league in defensive efficiency under Vogel. “In Frank, we feel we have someone with tremendous perseverance, character and great balance,” Martins said. “He is an effective communi-
muddy tracks. “He’s run on every track that’s been put before him and that may prove to be an advantage,” Exaggerator’s trainer Keith Desormeaux said. “But I am not sure wishing for one track over another. I’d prefer to have my picture taken in the sun.” Lani, the first Japanbased horse in the Preakness, is the only other Derby starter in the field. The flighty gray colt arrived at Pimlico on Thursday. He’s run three times on “off-tracks” in Japan, with a win, a second- and a fifth-place. “It would not be great, but everybody has to run on it,” Lani’s trainer Mikio Matsunaga said of a possible sloppy track. Among the eight new shooters, Abiding Star, Awesome Speed, Cherry Wine, Fellowship and Uncle Lino have shown they can handle an offtrack. Horses usually are fitted with shoes made of lightweight aluminum. When a track surface becomes muddy or sloppy, trainers could opt for mud caulks — small cleats inserted on the back end of the shoe for better traction. Shoe changes are determined the day of the race. Unlike the Derby, the Preakness is full of frontrunners, horses who like to run on the lead. Nyquist is one of them, along with Abiding Star, Awesome Speed, Collected, Laoban and Uncle Lino. If the pace is too fast, it gives closers a chance to make a winning run at the end. Which is what Romans is hoping for when Cherry Wine breaks from the inside No. 1 post. “We’ll fall back and chase the speed and come running at the end,” he said, adding jokingly (but sort of seriously), “I challenge Doug to be on the lead by the 5/8ths pole. Don’t listen to what anyone else says. Just go for it. Make them go fast.” It might not matter. “The thing about our horse is we don’t know for real how good he is,” Reddam said. “Other than his maiden race, which doesn’t really count at five furlongs, he has not been in an all-out drive. So we think there’s a lot more in the tank.”
cator, who brings a wealth of strategic and postseason experience, and is someone who is incredibly excited to embrace the journey ahead. We are excited to welcome Frank and his wonderful family to our Magic family.” Vogel inherits one of the youngest rosters in the NBA, but also one stocked with talent. The Magic are building around young players like Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon, Victor Oladipo and Efrid Payton. The Magic are hopeful they are just a couple of veteran pieces away from returning to the playoffs after missing the postseason four straight seasons. They also say they are looking to re-sign free agent forward Evan Fournier, who will hit the market in July. The team made some strides under Skiles in his only season, improving by 10 wins this season to finish 35-47. Were it not for a horrible January in which they went 2-12, most believe they would have made the postseason this year. Since Pacers director of operations Larry Bird announced last month that Vogel’s contract would not be renewed he has been connected most of the openings. There was said to be some interest from the New York Knicks and Memphis Grizzlies in addition to Orlando. But the Magic emerged as a strong possibility this week.
Rangers plan $1B retractable-roof stadium ASSOCAITED PRE SS
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers could be playing in a new $1 billion retractable-roof stadium by 2021 and would remain in Arlington until at least 2054 under plans revealed Friday by the team and the city. The proposed master agreement for a publicprivate partnership calls for a 50-50 split of the estimated cost of the stadium and related infrastructure, with the city’s portion capped at $500 million. The Arlington City Council will consider authorizing the agreement when it meets next Tuesday. “The Rangers and Arlington have enjoyed a great partnership for 45 years, and we are excited about the possibility of calling this city home for many years to come,” Rangers co-chairman Ray Davis said. “A baseball park is a very special place and the Rangers are committed to providing the best possible experience for our fans. The construction of a new facility with a retractable roof and so many other amenities would allow us to enhance that experience in a manner that is not presently possible.” Arlington voters in November are expected to be asked to support the project by continuing existing sales taxes that are used to help pay for $1.2 billion AT&T Stadium, the next-door home of the Dallas Cowboys that has a retractable roof. The city originally issued $298 million in bonds in 2005 to build
TENNIS From page B1 years. But winning the French Open would give him four consecutive major championships, something no man has achieved since Rod Laver won a true Grand Slam in 1969. “Of course the expectations are big not just from my side but from people around knowing that this is the only Grand Slam I never won,” Djokovic said. “Of course people are very eager to find out whether or not I can make it this year, and that kind of anticipation existed and it was present also in the last couple of years.” Djokovic arrives in the French capital with a 37-3 record, but on the back of a loss to Murray in the Italian Open final. He won a title on clay this season in Madrid, defeating Murray in final. “I got 10 matches out of two weeks, which is maximum I could get out of Madrid and Rome, and it was a perfect way of getting the match play that I needed before French Open,” Djokovic said. Murray is seeded second for the first time at Roland Garros and will face qualifier Radek Stepanek in his first match. “It’s only two days out from the start of the tournament and I don’t know who I’m playing against yet,” Murray said about playing a qualifier. “So you don’t have as much time to start preparing for it and that’s what makes it tricky. “The positives are that often a lot of the qualifiers maybe have not played on the bigger courts and stuff and maybe you can capitalize a bit on that at the beginning if they are a little bit nervous.” Because of Roger Fe-
LM Otero / Associated Press
The Texas Rangers could be playing in a new $1 billion retractable-roof stadium by 2021 and would remain in Arlington until at least 2054
the Cowboys’ stadium, which since opening in 2009 has hosted events such as the Super Bowl, the first College Football Playoff national championship game and the NCAA Final Four. Davis said putting a roof on Globe Life Park, which opened in 1994 as Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, would be too expensive. If approved by councilmen next week, the city could begin the steps required for an election in November that asks voters to extend existing funding mechanisms that would provide the public financing for construction of a new ballpark. The Rangers’ 30-year lease on the city-owned Globe Life Park is set to end in 2024. Under the new proposed master agreement, the Rangers’
partnership with Arlington would extend until January 1, 2054. “The Texas Rangers are a part of our fabric, a part of our DNA,” Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams said. “The City Council and I have heard the message loud and clear: our citizens want the Texas Rangers to stay in Arlington. No doubt any city would want the Rangers. We want to be proactive and continue this 45-year relationship, which has been so successful for us, for the team and the North Texas region.” In 1991, voters approved a half-cent sales tax to help construct the Rangers’ current home. That sales tax went away after the city’s $135 million debt on the ballpark was paid off in 2001, a decade earlier than
scheduled. Before moving into their current home, the Rangers spent their first 22 seasons at old Arlington Stadium. Arlington voters in 2004 approved a halfcent sales tax, a 5 percent car rental tax and a 2 percent hotel occupancy tax to help publicly finance the Cowboys’ stadium. The city and the Rangers recently reached an agreement on another public-private partnership, with Arlington agreeing to pay $50 million toward a project that will include 100,000 square feet of restaurant, bar and retail space, 35,000 square feet of convention space and plans for a 300-bed, high-rise luxury hotel to be built directly across from Globe Life Park.
derer’s withdrawal, Nadal has been seeded No. 4, avoiding a possible quarterfinal rematch against Djokovic. Chasing his first major title since winning in Paris two years ago, Nadal takes on big server Sam Groth in the first round. “I need to be ready to suffer a little bit during the match, because I know it’s going to be difficult to have breaks,” Nadal said. Djokovic should have few problems before the fourth round, where 14th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut could be waiting. Williams, the defending champion in Paris, will open against 76thranked Magdalena Rybarikova. Before a potential quarterfinal match against Azarenka, the top-ranked American might also have to face Kristina Mladenovic and former champion Ana Ivanovic. In the semifinals, Williams could then be pitted against thirdseeded Angelique Kerber, who beat her in the Australian Open final in January to win her first Grand Slam title. Williams, who won her first title in nine months in Rome, has played only four tournaments this season. “Four tournaments, three finals isn’t bad for everyone else, but then again I’m not everyone else,” said Williams, who lost to Azarenka in the Indian Wells final in March. Margaret Smith Court (24) and Graf are the only players with more Grand Slam singles titles than Williams, who has never won back-to-back titles at Roland Garros. In the bottom half of the draw, second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska will start her bid for a first major title against Bojana Jovanovski.
ZIKA From page B1
confirmed death from the virus. Busch wrote that a number of factors went into the decision to go to Atlanta, including the flight time to Rio (about 9 1-2 hours nonstop), the world-class facilities at Georgia Tech and hotel availability. Bowman also pointed out there’s only a one-hour time difference between Rio and Atlanta. While no prominent national team members have expressed concerns about competing in Rio, Busch stressed that preventing athletes from being infected while at the Olympics was a top priority. “We will also educate Olympic team members about Zika and provide them with multiple tools to reduce the risk of being bitten by mosquitoes while in Rio,” he wrote. Busch said the setup in Atlanta will allow the powerful U.S. team to develop the sort of camaraderie that is so important heading into the Olympics. The squad will be determined at the eight-day trials in Omaha, Nebraska, which begin June 26. “Team culture is one of the things that sets Team USA apart,” Busch wrote. “We want to make sure our camp creates that unity as we head into the Olympic Games.” Bowman said it was also important to eliminate any potential distractions heading into Rio. If the camp had stayed in Puerto Rico, some athletes might have worried about contracting Zika before they even got to the Olympics. “We want to make sure camp preparations are not compromised, even by the mental stress of worrying about it,” Bowman said. “We feel like we’ll have a good, solid camp in Atlanta. That’s the best way to prepare for the games.”
shift two regular-season games from San Juan because of players’ concerns about the virus. The May 30-31 series between the Marlins and the Pittsburgh Pirates will now be played in Miami. The Zika virus is carried by mosquitoes and has been linked to microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with undersized brains and skulls. There are also concerns that it might contribute to the GuillainBarre syndrome in adults, a condition that leads to rapid muscle weakness caused by the immune system damaging the peripheral nervous system. “The health and safety of our athletes is USA Swimming’s primary priority and responsibility,” said Scott Leightman, a spokesman for USA Swimming. The Zika outbreak has been one of the major headaches facing Olympic organizers as they prepare for South America’s first Olympics. Brazilian officials insist that precautions will be taken to keep athletes safe and point to the onset of winter in Brazil as being helpful in reducing the mosquito population. But a Canadian professor, in an article published last week by the Harvard Public Health Review, warned that the Olympics should be postponed or moved until the virus is under control. Amir Attaran of the University of Ottawa warned that the influx of visitors to Brazil will result in the avoidable births of malformed babies. Brazil is by far the country most affected by Zika, though hundreds have now been infected in Puerto Rico, including the U.S. commonwealth’s first
THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, May 21, 2016 |
Dear Heloise: I enjoy your column in the (Tupelo, Miss.) Daily Journal. When I BAKE COOKIES for my greatgrandchildren, I chill the dough for a few minutes, then roll the balls into the size of a walnut and place them on a cookie sheet. I take a thread spool (medium size, with a hole in the middle) and press on the dough. This will make the impression of a flower. -- Sarah G., Blue Springs, Miss. Sarah, oh, how darling, and I bet your great-grandchildren love them! Say hello to my friends in Tupelo. I truly enjoyed my visit and meeting folks while I was there speaking at the library. -- Heloise EASY CLEAN Dear Heloise: Our house was built in the mid '70s, and our plumber has cautioned against using commercial drain cleaners. Do you have a
"drain friendly" suggestion for my slow-running bathtub drain? -- Nancy, via email Sure do. Many commercial drain cleaners are loaded with harsh chemicals that can damage plumbing and (especially older) pipes. Pour a good 1/2 cup to 1 cup of baking soda down the drain, followed by 1-2 cups of hot vinegar. Let it foam and bubble, then sit 15-30 minutes. Follow by running 30-60 seconds of cold water to be sure it gets flushed through the system. Two of my favorite items to always have in the household, vinegar and baking soda. Cheap, safe, and readily available, they are always in my pantry. Remember, both baking soda (when used for cleaning) and vinegar will last a long time in the pantry in case you don't get around to using them right away.
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B4 | Saturday, May 21, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES