The Zapata Times 6/11/2016

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BORDER PATROL

ZAPATA COUNTY

Woman facing charges

Alleged human transporter arrested

Suspect accused of picking up undocumented immigrants

By César G. Rodriguez TH E ZAPATA T IME S

A woman is facing federal charges after she allegedly picked up four illegal immigrants in Zapata County, according to court documents.

A criminal complaint filed Monday charged Maria Trinidad Lopez, of Rio Bravo, with transporting immigrants who had crossed the border

illegally.

At 4:20 p.m. June 1, U.S. Border Patrol received information about several people running out of the brush and boarding a white Chevy Avalanche on U.S. 83 near Tejon Creek.

“This area is known by ... Zapata and Laredo South Border Patrol agents to be a common load up area for smugglers,” states the com-

plaint.

Agents said they caught up to the vehicle. It traveled west on CCA Road.

Agents lost sight of the vehicle but spotted it again in the east side parking lot of the Corrections Corporation of America.

“At this point, the suspect vehicle sped up and began driving cross country through the brush attempting to flee and, or

gain distance from agents in order to have an opportunity to bail out of the vehicle,” states the complaint.

Agents said the vehicle stopped north of the Margarita culvert in Rio Bravo.

The driver and passenger abandoned the vehicle, leaving behind a man and three women.

One woman had a child in Charges continues on A10

By César G. Rodriguez THE ZAPATA TIME S

A woman was recently arrested for transporting illegal immigrants through Zapata County, according to an affidavit.

Authorities alleged that on June 1, they noticed a white Dodge Ram 1500 parking at a Stripes in Zapata. A woman exited the vehicle,

walked inside the store and bought several drinks. In addition, she was talking on the cell phone, according to court documents.

She boarded the vehicle to continue traveling north. An agent followed the vehicle and noticed it swerving and driving below the posted speed limit of 65 mph. The Arrest continues on A10

DALLAS, TEXAS

TEENAGE TEACHER Teen cleared hurdle to be Dallas ISD’s youngest instructor

By Tawnell D. Hobbs TH E DALLAS MORNI NG NEWS

DALLAS — Melisa Simon is poised, confident and a hard worker. She’s also an undocumented immigrant, crossing the U.S. border from Mexico with her family at age 3.

She was told by her mother early on that life in her new country would be tough.

“I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to have an actual career,” Melisa said.

But she trudged on, enrolling in Samuell High

School’s early college program and getting a work permit under President Barack Obama’s initiative for young people brought to the U.S. unlawfully by their parents.

Now she’s on track to be Dallas ISD’s youngest teacher — as a teenager.

Here’s how the 17-yearold is making it happen: She completed requirements for her associate’s degree this month from Eastfield College. She will graduate on June 2 with her high school diploma.

Teen continues on A10

Jae S. Lee / AP

Melisa Simon, 17, poses for a photograph with text books for college classes that she took at Eastfield College in Mesquite, Texas. She recently completed her associate degree and will start a "TechTeach" program that will allow her to get a bachelor's degree and teacher certification within one year.

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SLAYING

Teen indicted in murder case

By Jim Vertuno ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Rodolfo Gonzalez / AP file

Mourners embrace following a vigil for University of Texas student Haruka Weiser. Meechaiel Criner has been indicted on a capital murder charge in the killing of Weiser in April.

AUSTIN, Texas — A 17-year-old runaway from Texas’ foster care system has been indicted on a capital murder charge in the death of a University of Texas freshman who disappeared as she walked toward her dorm in April.

The Travis County grand jury indictment, released Friday, Criner accuses Meechaiel Criner of robbing, kidnapping, strangling and sexually assaulting Haruka Weiser of Portland,

Oregon. Criner faces up to life in prison if convicted, but isn’t eligible for the death penalty because he’s under 18.

He is being held in the Travis County jail. His attorney, Ariel Payan, says Criner is “adjusting” but isolated from other inmates. He said Criner will likely be arraigned in court July 8 and will

plead not guilty.

“I’m happy to move on so we can get started,” Payan said of the indictment.

Criner was in the custody of state Child Protective Services before being reported as a runaway March 24.

Weiser, 18, was last seen leaving a campus drama Murder continues on A10

Zin brief A2 | Saturday, June 11, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

CALENDAR

AROUND THE NATION

TODAY IN HISTORY

SATURDAY, JUNE 11 1 Laredo Northside Farmers Market. 9 a.m.–1 p.m. North Central Park.

The market is located at the playground behind the trailhead facility.

There will be the usual lineup of vendors and a special Father's Day raffle. They will raffle 10 authentic German glass beer mugs with various German-themed coats of arms.

There will also be the usual children's games and activities.

1 Webb County Vacuna Clinic. 2–6 p.m. Kennedy Zapata Elementary School. Canine and feline services including rabies shots, dewormer, sterilization, flea and tick preventative, and more. For more information about costs and packages available, call 638-2970.

1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. The Little Star That Could at 2 p.m., Origins of Life at 3 p.m., A Starry Tale at 4 p.m. and Space Next at 5 p.m. General Admission is $4 for children, TAMIU students, faculty and staff, and $5 for adults. For more information, call 326-DOME (3663).

MONDAY, JUNE 13 1 Laredo Stroke Support Group. 7 p.m. San Martin de Porres Church, Family Life Center. Meetings are held the second Monday of each month and are open to all stroke survivors, family and caregivers. Everyone is welcomed to share their story, encourage and support others, and hear informative speakers. For more information on the support groups, call 956-286-0641 or 956-763-6132.

TUESDAY, JUNE 14 1 Take the challenge and climb the Rock Wall. 10 a.m.–12 p.m. Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Fun exercise for all ages and it's free.

Must sign release form. For more information call 956-795-2400 x2520.

THURSDAY, JUNE 16 1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. TAMIU. “Zula Patrol: Under the Weather” at 3 p.m., “Cosmic Adventure” at 4 p.m. and “A Starry Tale” at 5 p.m. General admission is $3. For more information, call 326-3663.

1 Cancer Friends Meet. 6 p.m.

Every third Thursday of the month.

Laredo Medical Center, A.R. Sanchez Cancer Center, Tower A, 1st Floor.

Having cancer is often one of the most stressful experiences in a person’s life. However, support groups help many people cope with the emotional aspects of cancer by providing a safe place to share their feelings and challenges and learn from others who are facing similar situations. For more information, call Nancy Santos at 956-285-5410.

SATURDAY, JUNE 18 1 El Centro de Laredo Farmers Market. 9 a.m.–1 p.m. Jarvis Plaza.

Free and open to the public. Free cooking demo; fresh, local, seasonal produce available for purchase; breakfast and lunch; live music and much more.

1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. The Little Star That Could at 2 p.m., Origins of Life at 3 p.m., A Starry Tale at 4 p.m. and Space Next at 5 p.m. General Admission is $4 for children, TAMIU students, faculty and staff, and $5 for adults. For more information, call 326-DOME (3663).

1 Elysian Social Club Father’s Day Scholarship Dance. 9 p.m.–1 p.m.

Laredo Civic Center Ballroom. For more information, contact Laura Rodriguez at 220-0485 or Sonia Merla at 235-4811.

TUESDAY, JUNE 21 1 Take the challenge and climb the Rock Wall. 10 a.m.–12 p.m. Inner City Branch Library, 202 W. Plum St. Fun exercise for all ages and it's free.

Must sign release form. For more information call 956-795-2400 x2520.

THURSDAY, JUNE 23 1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. TAMIU. “Zula Patrol: Under the Weather” at 3 p.m., “Cosmic Adventure” at 4 p.m. and “A Starry Tale” at 5 p.m. General admission is $3. For more information, call 326-3663.

SATURDAY, JUNE 25 1 Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium shows. The Little Star That Could at 2 p.m., Origins of Life at 3 p.m., A Starry Tale at 4 p.m. and Space Next at 5 p.m. General Admission is $4 for children, TAMIU students, faculty and staff, and $5 for adults. For more information, call 326-DOME (3663).

MONDAY, JUNE 27 1 Laredo Parkinson’s Disease Support Group. 6:30 p.m. Laredo Medical Center, 1st Floor, Tower B in the Community Center. The meeting is open to anyone with Parkinson’s disease, a friend or family member of a PD patient, and primary care givers of patients with PD who are interested in learning more about the disease. Pamphlets with more information in both English and Spanish are available at all support group meetings. For more information, call Richard Renner at 645-8649 or 237-0666.

ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Today is Saturday, June 11, the 163rd day of 2016. There are 203 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlights in History: On June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence calling for freedom from Britain.

Chelsea Purgahn / AP

Hundreds bike in solidarity during a silent bike ride in Kalamazoo, Mich., on Wednesday, supporting the cyclists who were killed and injured in a crash the day before.

AGENCY EXAMINES BICYCLE CRASH

By Ed White ASSOCIATED PRE SS

DETROIT — A federal safety agency that investigates airplane failures, commercial truck mishaps and train derailments is taking a look at a Michigan road crash that killed five bicyclists to determine if lessons can be learned to prevent a similar tragedy.

Eric Weiss, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said it has been decades since the agency has “looked at bicycles and cars and safety.”

An NTSB team arrived in the Kalama-

Campaign to remove Stanford judge gains steam SAN FRANCISCO — A fledgling campaign to recall the judge who sentenced a former Stanford University swimmer to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman gained momentum Friday as three prominent political consultants joined the effort.

The Recall Judge Aaron Persky campaign said media

zoo area Thursday and will likely spend a week conducting interviews and studying the crash site, bikes and the pickup truck that hit the group, investigator Pete Kotowski said Friday.

“What drew our attention to this were the five fatalities as well as the number of injured,” said Kotowski, adding that the agency also is interested in the effects of impaired driving. “The things we look at are the type of road, the lane markings, those things. We haven’t reached any conclusions yet.” Five people were killed and four were injured Tuesday.

consultant Joe Trippi, campaign strategist John Shallman and pollster Paul Maslin would help secure the signatures and votes required to remove the Santa Clara County jurist from the bench next year.

Trippi has worked for a number of Democratic presidential candidates, while Maslin’s clients include Gov. Jerry Brown and members of Congress. Shallman has worked for the president of the California Senate, who spearheaded passage of a law requiring colleges and universities to apply a “yes

means yes” standard in sexual misconduct cases.

Persky was re-elected in an unopposed election Tuesday, five days after sentencing Brock Turner, 20, to six months in jail and three years’ probation. The punishment for the Dayton, Ohio, native ignited intense outcry as too lenient.

Prosecutors had argued for Turner to spend six years in prison for three felony convictions that could have sent him away for 14 years.

— Compiled from AP reports

NTSB: 3rd landing attempt waved off by pilot in crash

Jon Shapley / Houston Chronicle

Authorities investigate a fatal plane crash on Friday that killed three people Thursday.

around and began climbing out to the north,” he said, adding that pilots are allowed to wave off an approach if they are not comfortable with it.

Audio posted on the website liveatc.net showed that the female pilot was told at least twice to turn around and make another attempt to land. She was also told that she was she’s

flying too high and has to turn around to land at Hobby Airport.

About 12 minutes before the crash, the pilot is told to turn back around to make another landing attempt by an air traffic controller. “I’m so sorry for the confusion,” the pilot responds.

— Compiled from AP reports

AROUND THE WORLD 11 family members shot to death in central Mexico MEXICO CITY — Eleven members of a family were found shot to death in central Mexico in what a local official said Friday may have been religiously motivated killings.

The attacks Thursday night targeted a couple, their children and other relatives in the remote hamlet of San Jose el Mirador in the municipality of

Coxcatlan, Puebla state. Coxcatlan Mayor Vicente Lopez de la Vega said the dead include five women, four men and two girls. Two other children were wounded and were being treated at a hospital.

Lopez de la Vega said the hamlet’s residents, who are largely evangelical Protestants, had disagreements with a neighboring village that is mostly Roman Catholic. But he said a rivalry between family groups could have also been the motive.

Ten years ago: Al-Qaida in Iraq vowed “major attacks” after the death of leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. airstrike. “The History Boys” won six Tony Awards, including best play; “Jersey Boys” was named best musical and won four awards. Civil rights activist James Cameron, who’d survived an attempted lynching and went on to found America’s Black Holocaust Museum, died in Milwaukee at age 92.

Five years ago: Rejecting calls by Democratic leaders for him to resign in a sexting scandal, Rep. Anthony Weiner instead announced he was seeking professional treatment and asked for a leave of absence from Congress. (Weiner ended up resigning his office.) Ruler On Ice posted a huge upset in the Belmont Stakes, taking the lead from Preakness Stakes winner Shackleford in the straight and winning the final leg of the Triple Crown.

One year ago: Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. military’s reach could extend even further into Iraq if the anti-Islamic State campaign were to gain momentum, and held out the possibility of a greater role for U.S troops on the ground. “Free jazz” pioneer Ornette Coleman, 85, died in New York. Country singer-songwriter Jim Ed Brown, 81, died in Franklin, Tennessee. Actor Ron Moody, 91, best known for playing Fagin in the 1968 film “Oliver!,” died in London.

AROUND TEXAS

HOUSTON — The pilot of a plane that crashed near a Houston airport halted a third attempt to land just before it plummeted to the ground, killing all three inside, the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday.

It’s unclear whether the pilot made a distress call just before the crash that happened shortly after 1 p.m. Thursday near Hobby Airport, NTSB investigator Tom Latson said, and that initial information indicates the female pilot didn’t make any other calls to air traffic controllers after she waved off the third landing attempt. He described the crash as a “violent impact.”

“During this (third) approach, the pilot decided they would make a go-around themselves without direction and announced they were going

On this date: In 1770, Captain James Cook, commander of the British ship Endeavour, discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia by running onto it.

In 1919, Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner.

In 1936, Kansas Gov. Alfred “Alf” Landon was nominated for president at the Republican national convention in Cleveland.

In 1942, the United States and the Soviet Union signed a lend-lease agreement to aid the Soviet war effort in World War II. In 1959, the Saunders-Roe Nautical 1, the first operational hovercraft, was publicly demonstrated off the southern coast of England.

In 1962, three prisoners at Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay staged an escape, leaving the island on a makeshift raft; they were never found or heard from again.

In 1977, Seattle Slew won the Belmont Stakes, capturing the Triple Crown.

In 1985, Karen Ann Quinlan, the comatose patient whose case prompted a historic right-to-die court decision, died in Morris Plains, New Jersey, at age 31.

In 1986, the John Hughes comedy “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” starring Matthew Broderick, was released by Paramount Pictures.

In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people who commit “hate crimes” motivated by bigotry may be sentenced to extra punishment; the court also ruled religious groups had a constitutional right to sacrifice animals in worship services.

In 2001, Timothy McVeigh, 33, was executed by injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

Today’s Birthdays: U.S. Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., is 86. Actor Gene Wilder is 83. Comedian Johnny Brown is 79. International Motorsports Hall of Famer Jackie Stewart is 77. Singer Joey Dee is 76. Actress Adrienne Barbeau is 71. Rock musician Frank Beard (ZZ Top) is 67. Animal rights activist Ingrid Newkirk is 67. Rock singer Donnie Van Zant is 64. Actor Peter Bergman is 63.

Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana is 60. Actor Hugh Laurie is 57. TV personality Mehmet Oz, M.D., is 56.

Singer Gioia Bruno (Expose) is 53.

Rock musician Dan Lavery (Tonic) is 50. Country singer-songwriter Bruce Robison is 50. Actress Clare Carey is 49. Actor Peter Dinklage is 47. Country musician Smilin’ Jay McDowell is 47.

Actor Lenny Jacobson is 42. Rock musician Tai Anderson (Third Day) is 40. Actor Joshua Jackson is 38. Americana musician Gabe Witcher (Punch Brothers) is 38. Christian rock musician Ryan Shrout is 36. Actor Shia LaBeouf is 30.

Thought for Today: “Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.” — Khalil Gibran, American poet and artist (1883-1931).

CONTACT US The Puebla state prosecutor’s office said two witnesses survived and were under government protection. They told authorities the attackers arrived at the remote mountain village by foot, opened fire and left.The area has not been particularly hard hit by the drug violence raging in much of Mexico, but drug cultivation and land disputes are not uncommon. If confirmed, it would be the deadliest incident motivated by religion.

— Compiled from AP reports

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The Zapata Times

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, June 11, 2016 |

A3

LOCAL AND STATE

Gateway health center receives $8,400 donation

By Philip Balli TH E ZAPATA T IME S

Gateway Community Health Center received Friday a check for $8,400 from the Women’s City Club of Laredo as reimbursement for the purchase of three ECG/EKG machines.

The machines are housed in separate locations, the South Laredo clinic, the Zapata Clinic and the Hebbronville Clinic, according to Elmo Lopez Jr., chief executive officer.

“We’re pleased with the donation from the Women’s City Club. We work closely with them and they were gracious

enough to give us the money necessary to buy these machines,” Lopez said.

ECG/EKG machines diagnose conditions of the heart and detect abnormal heart rhythms.

Lopez estimated the machines are used up to 10 times a day with clinic patients.

“That is an indication of the importance of these machines. There is a big need for these types of diagnoses,” Lopez added.

“These machines are invaluable to us.”

Gateway ordered the EKG machines on Jan. 1 and received them Feb. 5.

Nancy De Anda of the Women’s City Club said

Danny Zaragoza / The Zapata Times

The Laredo Women’s City Club poses for a photo with Elmo Lopez Jr. and staff members of the Gateway Community Health Center in South Laredo on Friday morning during a check presentation from the club to the clinic. The Laredo Women’s City Club donated $8,481.13 for three Electrocardiogram, better known as EKG, machines.

the club partnered with the Fernando A. Salinas Charitable Trust to reimburse Gateway for the machines.

In 2015, the club raised more than $200,000. A handful of local organiza-

tions are chosen each year by the club to receive an award.

Rather than simply gifting the agencies the money, the club prefers to pay invoices for products or services the agencies

purchase.

“This way we know exactly what the money is going to,” said De Anda.

Gateway was one of 50 agencies the club selected to support this year, according to De Anda.

De Anda said she was proud the Women’s City Club was able to support Gateway in the purchase of the EKG machines.

Philip Balli may be reached at 728-2528

Officer shoots man at Dallas airport

By Emily Schmall A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

DALLAS — A police officer shot and wounded a man Friday outside a Dallas airport after the man attacked a woman believed to be the mother of his children and then threatened the officer with a large rock, police said.

“There doesn’t appear to be any other weapon present than the rock,” Dallas Police Assistant Chief Randall Blakenbaker said.

Video posted by Instagram user (at)flashyfilms— and credited to Bryan Armstrong shows the commotion on the curb outside baggage claim at Dallas Love Field.

Amid the sound of nine gunshots and an officer’s

shouts to “get down,” some people scramble while others stand watching before officers order them back inside. Toward the end of the video, one officer is seen pointing his gun at someone near the glass exterior of the airport.

Asked why the officer fired so many rounds at a man holding a rock, Blankenbaker said only that he did not know how many shots were fired. “We have to conduct an investigation over those types of speculation.”

Officers patrolling the airport Friday afternoon were seen carrying stun guns, but Blankenbaker said he didn’t know if the officer involved in the shooting had one on him at the time.

Officials said one bullet hit an exterior glass wall and the rest hit the suspect. Dallas police Sgt. Mike Beattie, who is stationed at Love Field, says that the bullet that hit the glass wall outside the airport’s baggage claim area didn’t penetrate it because of the protective film. One officer at the scene, who would not be named, said he was told that the victim “absorbed” all the other bullets.

Beattie said airport police receive specific training to be attentive to suspicious-looking travelers and that the Dallas Police Department provides “crowded-environment training” to all its officers every two years.

Beattie said the officer who fired the shots is a

Dallas police veteran, but he would not identify him.

Some airport operations were temporarily disrupted, but the airport remained open. Spokesman Jose Torres said that some people after hearing shots ran through security so everyone had to be rescreened.

“There were some folks in the security line who were startled, so they went through the security line without being checked. So the airport has had to pull everybody back out of the secure area and recheck them for security purposes,” Blankenbaker said.

Security checkpoint operations were back to normal Friday afternoon, airport officials said.

Flights were departing but

with many delays.

The man, who was not identified, was taken to a hospital. Torres said he was not critically wounded. Blankenbaker said the man was conscious while being transported to the hospital.

Traveler Lucinda Fonseca told WFAA-TV that she and her husband were coming out of the baggage claim area when they saw police approaching the man throwing rocks and one of the officers drew a gun.

“The man was yelling at the cops, basically saying ‘shoot me shoot me, I dare you,’ something to that effect,” Fonseca said, adding she then heard gunfire.

“I crouched down on the ground,” she said. “I

didn’t know where the bullets were going.”

Blankenbaker said it appeared that the man had used a large rock from nearby landscaping to smash the windshield and driver’s side window of a car. Blankenbaker said no children were present during the disturbance and the woman wasn’t injured.

The officer, the lone law enforcement person involved in the incident, would be placed on administrative leave during the investigation, Blankenbaker said.

Southwest Airlines, the dominant airline at Love Field, said in a statement that they were working with air traffic controllers nationwide to manage inbound flights.

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A4 | Saturday, June 11, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

COLUMN

OTHER VIEWS

Is Trump taking the pro-life movement for a ride?

By Mary Sanchez TH E KA NSAS CI T Y STAR

The issues that will define the upcoming presidential election are anybody’s guess. Each candidate has his or her ethical lapses. Each will have trouble establishing his or her trustworthiness with a majority of the electorate. Indeed, voters for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will largely have to settle for denying the presidency to the other candidate.

Where does that leave many of the most passionate interest groups that have driven voters to the polls in past elections? In limbo.

Consider the pro-life movement, one of the most fervent and dependable blocs of the Republican Party. Its activists are tentative about Trump, and with good reason.

The presumptive Republican nominee has been all over the map on abortion, an issue of obvious importance to voters on both sides of the issue.

The next president will be able to appoint Antonin Scalia’s replacement to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The landmark Roe v.

Wade decision likely hangs in the balance.

Pro-life voters know what they’ll get with Hillary Clinton. But what about with Trump? In 1999, he described himself as "pro-choice in every respect" and even stated he would not favor banning "partial birth" abortions. By 2011, when he began to send up trial balloons about running for office, he told interviewers he was pro-life.

This is the position he maintains today, although earlier this spring Trump vacillated on the issue in response to press queries — so much that the Washington Post ran a piece with the headline, "Donald Trump Took 5 Different Positions on Abortion in 3 Days."

The doubtfulness of Trump’s true convictions on abortion is underscored by his bungling lack of awareness of the pro-life movement’s own messaging on the issue. In March, he asserted during a MSNBC interview that women who receive abortions should be punished. Whoa, Nelly! That set off a firestorm, as even the most ardent opponents of abortion seek to protect the child, not criminalize the mother.

Trump aides quickly sent out clarifications.

His representations on abortion are reminiscent of his avowals of faith in God. Never in the history of American politics has there been a less convincing self-described Christian than Donald Trump.

Which is fine for many, perhaps most, Americans.

But for evangelical Christians who profess to live and to vote their faith, lending their voice and political influence to such a candidate as Trump could be troubling.

By May, Trump was insisting to Bill O’Reilly that he would appoint a pro-life justice to the U.S. Supreme Court. With the death of Scalia, and the apparent success of Senate Republicans in blocking President Obama’s naming of a new justice to replace him, this puts conservative Christians in a dilemma. He holds out the only hope they will have in perhaps a generation to quash abortion through the Supreme Court. On the other hand, there is good reason to doubt his bona fides, and there is the man in full to consider. Donald Trump is many things, but nobody would ever describe him as a paragon of a single Christian virtue.

This dilemma is felt by Students for Life, a group of college and high school students concerned with stopping abortion. They avoid the ranting, confrontational tactics outside abortion clinics of the old guard within their movement. They defer to civil dialogue, prodding young people to consider when they believe life begins, at conception or somewhere further along within a pregnancy.

The president of the organization, Kristan Hawkins, has an opportunity to speak with Trump directly about his position on abortion. She has been asked to participate in a June 21 meeting in New York with Trump, Ben Carson, conservative Christian leaders and other pro-life advocates.

Her goal with Trump is to "educate him on how to talk about our ‘issue’ in a loving and compassionate yet effective way." That’s how she phrased it in a letter to supporters in late May. Good luck with that.

Hawkins told her organization’s supporters that she doesn’t want to ask yes/no questions of the presumed GOP nominee.

That doesn’t get people anywhere. And she doesn’t want to waste her time trying to coach Trump on how to speak more eloquently. He’s not a man who takes direction well.

"We certainly welcome converts to our cause; that’s what we do every day at Students for Life," Hawkins told the Daily Beast. "The question is, is this a genuine belief?"

That may be the issue that defines the election after all. Does any belief or conviction guide Donald Trump beyond his ambition and narcissism?

Or is he a deceiver who will bring down all who follow him?

COLUMN

There’s a growing humorlessness in our nation

By Joshua J. Whitfield THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

"Genuine humor is replete with wisdom," Mark Twain said. Yet it is wisdom I’m afraid we’ve largely lost, a sense of humor gone with little trace.

Not that we don’t laugh anymore. We laugh a lot. It’s easy to find something funny, some comedian to make us giggle. Cheap jokes are still cheap and easy to come by; juvenile laughter has always been and will always be easy to produce. But many comedians today are just that, cheap.

There are of course a few great ones still, those who carry the great American tradition of humor forward. Jon Stewart and many of his progeny, for instance, bear that standard, offering humor with intelligence and with at least some sense of the moral and even truth.

However, many, if not most, peddle their wit safely, earning their money upon whatever prejudice and political correctness rules the day.

Like many politicians, they’re weathervanes with opinions made to order, not the prophets of truth they once were.

They’re not to blame of course, these mainstream jesters. They but symbolize a larger social sickness, a growing humorlessness and with it a shrinking wisdom.

Perhaps you’ve noticed it yourself. I do, daily.

For example, once when I was dressed as a priest, as I do most days, a rather irritated and addled man asked me bluntly, "Do you think

For example, once when I was dressed as a priest, as I do most days, a rather irritated and addled man asked me bluntly, "Do you think I’m going to hell just because I don’t go to church?" "No," I answered with a smile, "not for that."

He didn’t laugh, didn’t take it for the joke it obviously was — good humor wasted on a humorless, angry man. This is what has become of so many of us, bitter and unable to take a joke, wanting to be offended instead of to laugh.

We have, I think, ruined ourselves with a less than wholesome seriousness.

I’m going to hell just because I don’t go to church?" "No," I answered with a smile, "not for that." He didn’t laugh, didn’t take it for the joke it obviously was — good humor wasted on a humorless, angry man. This is what has become of so many of us, bitter and unable to take a joke, wanting to be offended instead of to laugh.

We have, I think, ruined ourselves with a less than wholesome seriousness, by an irritability and addiction to the comforts of the victim. This the fruit of an overemphasized identity politics mediated by social media, the overprized cult of what sociologists call "lifestyle enclaves" or what the philosopher Henri Bergson called "closed" societies. Divvied up into tribes of the likeminded, we have not only lost something of our sense of the common good, we’ve lost as well our sense of humor, our ability to laugh at ourselves and others with

that healthy common sense of the ridiculous.

We’ve lost that sense of humor that rightly blesses all of us fools, brothers and sisters one and all.

And such a loss, without exaggeration, puts us socially and politically in great danger. For without the ability to laugh at ourselves in that healthy and fully human sort of way, we risk losing the ability to laugh at power, especially power gone wrong. That is, we lose the capacity for satire, that necessary feature of any free society. Worried more about "safe spaces," made safe only for ourselves, we’ve become vulnerable to the machinations of more silent and serious powers content to let us fight it out over personal identities and demanded dignities.

Lost so seriously within our own particular prides, we’ve become pliant to powers we hardly even recognize.

And so among the many needs of our country — economic, political, social — we need to re-

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DOONESBURY | GARRY TRUDEAU

gain our sense of humor.

It is, I would argue, one of our greater spiritual needs. It’ll make us better, stronger. And it’ll help us all push back the serious tyranny that has so slowly come over us.

In 1928, Englishman Ronald Knox, a brilliant novel-writing priest, drew a distinction between humor and satire: "Humor is of an age, satire of all ages," he said. "The pure humorist is a man with no message. He can preach no gospel, unless it be the gospel that nothing matters."

What we need he said was satire, "a weapon, deadly in its efficacy, entrusted to us for exposing the shams and hypocrisies of the world." Interestingly, he said, "No country … has greater need of a satirist today than the United States of America." We need such satirical minds, such contrarian wit, women and men smart enough to detect and brave enough to call out what Twain called the "lie of silent assertion," those hidden and sometimes not-so-hidden absurdities we all accept.

But we must be people that can handle satire, take a joke, and think.

We must be the sort of people that can laugh at ourselves, laughing even at insults offered by fools and enemies. If satire is essential to free society, we need to be people capable of it. But we’re not much anymore, and so in our bitterness we’re not as free as we once were.

We need to laugh again like adults, like humans. Believe it or not, it’s necessary to democracy. It may even be more important than who you vote for.

So let’s all work on laughing a little more, laughing well. Heaven knows there’s enough to laugh about. But also let’s not forget to laugh at ourselves, for that is the first substance of freedom. No joke.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, June 11, 2016 |

A5

ENTERTAINMENT

Actor gets 40 years to life in wife’s killing

By Amanda Lee Myers

Omar Vega / AP file

A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

LOS ANGELES — An actor who played a police officer on the TV show “The Shield” was sentenced Friday to 40 years to life in prison after tearfully apologizing for fatally shooting his wife but still insisting he didn’t mean to kill her.

Michael Jace, 53, was sentenced by a judge in Los Angeles after a jury convicted him last week of second-degree murder in the death of April Jace two years ago.

“There is absolutely no justification for my actions on that night,” Jace told his wife’s family members in court. “I am profoundly sorry for the pain that I’ve caused everyone.”

He said it was important that her family know he didn’t commit first-degree murder.

“There was no premeditated anything,” he said.

“I realize it does not bring her back and it doesn’t’ help, but it would seem to me to matter,” he said.

April Jace’s mother, Kay Henry, angrily shook her head and walked out of the courtroom in the middle of his comments.

Henry addressed the court before Jace did, weeping as she talked about her daughter, saying the night she was killed, “we both died.”

“My first thought on my mind most mornings is, ‘Your daughter has been murdered.’ Then I wonder about how I’ll do today without her,” she said. “I think about how

In this file photo, actress Jaime King arrives at The Art Of Elysium Heaven Gala at Hangar 8 in Santa Monica, Calif. King has launched a gender-neutral children's clothing collection.

Jaime King aims to inspire gender-bending kids’ clothes

By Nicole Evatt Frederic M. Brown / AP

Michael Jace, right, an actor who played a police officer on the TV show "The Shield," sits in Los Angeles Superior Court during his sentencing for the murder of his wife on Friday. Jace was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for his conviction on second-degree murder charges.

my grandsons will navigate their teen years ...

Will they remember their mother and how much she loved them?”

Henry also spoke of nightmares that plague her.

“I dream about violence and danger and death,” she said. “I once dreamt about seeing April in a pile of dead bodies but then imagined she had moved her hand only to wake up and realize again that she’s dead.”

April Jace’s three sons are also haunted, said her cousin, Monique Lejay, who’s now raising the boys.

The two youngest boys witnessed their mother’s death at the ages of 8 and 5.

“They awaken through the night with nightmares of being abandoned,” Lejay said through tears. “One of them wakes at the crack

of dawn before I go to work just to hug me because he fears I will not return home.”

She said Jace should never be allowed out of prison so he can live the rest of his days and “mourn the loss of his own life.”

Soon after killing April, Jace told detectives he had retrieved the gun to kill himself but couldn’t go through with it. Instead, he planned to shoot his wife, an avid runner, in the leg so she would feel pain, Jace said in a recorded interview.

His attorney, Jamon Hicks, told jurors that Jace “snapped” and shot his wife in the heat of passion.

Prosecutor Tannaz Mokayef cited testimony from the couple’s now 10-year-old son, who told jurors he heard his father say, “‘If you like running, then run to heaven,”’ before firing

the second time.

“Who is going to argue that this was not an intent to kill?” Mokayef said. “Where else is heaven?”

Mokayef said the actor was upset his wife wanted a divorce and believed she was having an affair, although no evidence was presented during the trial that she was cheating.

Mokayek said Friday that Jace’s sentence was appropriate.

“And he’s right,” she added. “There is no justification for what he did.”

Jace’s attorney didn’t respond to a request for comment Friday.

April Jace, 40, was a financial aid counselor at Biola University. She was married to Michael Jace for nine years.

Michael Jace had small roles in films such as “Planet of the Apes,” ‘’Boogie Nights” and “Forrest Gump.”

ASSOCIATED PRE SS

LOS ANGELES — Jaime King believes lessons about tolerance should start young.

The actress and mother of two recently launched a gender-neutral children’s clothing line which she hopes will inspire acceptance and self-expression among kids and adults alike.

“It’s interesting how we’ve created these social norms that are incredibly stifling for our children,” said King of traditional kids’ clothing. “Our children should be allowed to express themselves however they want.”

King teamed with Singapore-based, Swedish designer Kristin Nystrom of Gardner and the Gang for the organic, genderfree capsule collection.

There are dresses that boys can wear, pants for girls, and the patterns are not gender-specific either.

Anything and everything can be for boys and girls. “(We) get an opportunity to send that message to children and their parents that it’s OK,

whatever you want to wear. You’re beautiful the way you are,” said Nystrom in a recent interview.

King, who starred in the CW series “Hart of Dixie,” said that message is particularly relevant amid the on-going debate over bathroom access for transgender people.

“Our intention is never to be political, but we are speaking inherently to what the issues are within the world and we don’t shy away from that. Like the fact is, we have major issues in regards to what’s happening with the transgender community,” said King.

“I have several friends that have children that don’t identify with the bodies that they were born in and that was a big reason why I wanted to do this. And I have since received incredible messages from them thanking me for doing something that to me I felt was ... my civic duty to do.”

King practices what she preaches by celebrating her son’s bold style choices.

A6 | Saturday, June 11, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

NATIONAL

Rough ride theory is a twist in police custody death case

By Juliet Linderman A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

BALTIMORE — Prosecutors introduced a new theory as a murder trial started for a Baltimore police van driver charged in the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man whose neck was broken in the back of the wagon.

Not only was Officer Caesar Goodson negligent when he didn’t buckle Gray into a seat belt, prosecutors said, he intentionally wanted to injure Gray by giving him a “rough ride” — blowing through a stop sign and making a sharp turn at such a high speed that he crossed a double yellow line. With his hands cuffed and his legs shackled, Gray was thrown helplessly against the rear compartment, the prosecutor said.

Goodson, 46, who is black, faces second-degree murder, manslaughter, assault and other charges. Prosecutors had hinted earlier that Gray was subjected to a “rough ride.” But opening statements Thursday marked the first time they accused the driver of in-

tending to hurt Gray, whose death in April 2015 touched off the worst riots in Baltimore in decades.

A “rough ride” is police lingo for putting a prisoner in a police wagon without a seat belt and driving so erratically that he or she is thrown around.

Goodson is the third officer to stand trial. So far the state has not won a conviction. Officer William Porter’s trial ended in a mistrial in December.

The judge acquitted the second officer last month.

Schatzow was unequivocal about the state’s position during opening statements.

“There was no good reason for the defendant not to belt him in, except to bounce him around,” he said.

Goodson attorney Andrew Graham flatly disputed the notion that Gray was deliberately bounced around, saying: “There was no rough ride. It simply didn’t happen.”

He said Gray’s injuries were self-inflicted when he stood up inside a moving vehicle and that officers “virtually never” belt

Jose Luis Magana / AP

Officer Caesar Goodson, one of six Baltimore city police officers charged in connection to the death of Freddie Gray, leaves the courthouse after the second day of his trial.

prisoners in. Goodson is such a “slow and cautious” driver that he sometimes lulls his prisoners to sleep, he said.

Graham said Goodson — “a good officer, a gentle man, a nice guy” — didn’t belt Gray in because of his “violent and erratic behavior” that included screaming and kicking with such force that the wagon shook. Gray continued thrashing around in the van for several stops, the attorney said.

Graham said Goodson’s supervisors never directed him to seek medical attention for Gray, and that Gray wasn’t exhibiting symptoms of distress.

“He did his job, and he followed instructions,” Graham said. “Freddie Gray’s death was a tragedy, but convicting a good officer just to assign

blame would make a tragic situation worse.”

Graham told the judge that the assistant medical examiner who performed Gray’s autopsy and ruled his death a homicide initially told an investigator it was “a freakish accident” before meeting with prosecutors and changing her mind.

“It was the result of a pressurized investigation,” Graham said.

On Friday during cross-examination, Dr. Carol Allan contradicted defense attorneys’ assertion that she initially thought Gray’s death was accidental.

“I had an open mind, and after reading the medical records and performing the autopsy, that’s when I said, this is not an accident,” she said. “The word ‘accident’ never crossed by

lips.”

Goodson’s wagon stopped six times altogether.

Allan conceded that medical evidence by itself doesn’t prove that Gray suffered his spinal injury between the second and fourth stops. But she said when she reviewed witness statements and other investigatory materials, she stood by her conclusion.

“Without the recorded statements I can tell you it happened in the van, but not when,” she said.

She also said Gray’s spinal injury could have occurred because the van sped up or slowed down — but because Gray wasn’t belted and, in her opinion, was standing up, he could have suffered his injury even if the van hadn’t been speeding or moving er-

ratically.

Prosecutors have called 11 witnesses so far, including two friends of Gray who testified that they say the officers put Gray into the wagon with his hands cuffed and legs shackled at the van’s second stop. One of them, Jamel Baker, testified that he never saw the van shake and that Gray couldn’t really move. He acknowledged that the scene was chaotic, he said none of the civilians present were harassing the officers.

The state on Friday also called Officer Lloyd Sobboh to testify, and showed a video of him demonstrating being placed inside a transport wagon with his hands cuffed and legs shackled as Gray was.

Testimony will continue Monday.

Puzzling cliff-hanger in case Justice Dept. of poisoned lottery winner opposes release

of Clinton aide’s immunity deal

By Jason Keyser A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

CHICAGO — With his departure from office this week, a county medical examiner leaves behind a beguiling mystery set in motion more than three years ago with his sensational declaration that a Chicago businessman who had just won a $1 million lottery prize was poisoned by cyanide.

Cook County Medical Examiner Stephen Cina’s finding that Urooj Khan’s death was a homicide led to the exhumation of his body, divided his family and drew flocks of international reporters to Chicago to cover the story.

Cina, whose last day in office was Sunday, told The Associated Press he had not heard so much as a peep from police since handing the case over to them in early 2013.

Estranged family members who had voiced vague suspicions about Khan’s wife or her father have quietly gone on with their lives. Attorneys for the man’s wife say they’ve heard nothing and believe the investigation stalled shortly after police questioned her in January 2013.

“Yeah, I think the case has become dormant,” said Al-Haroon Husain, an attorney who represented Khan’s wife in a bitter probate fight with her stepdaughter and late husband’s siblings over his lottery winnings and the rest of his estate.

He’s not even convinced there was foul play, adding that he thinks “the police have just stepped away.”

Over the course of nearly four years, police say they have interviewed three family members: Khan’s wife, daughter and father-inlaw, who all had dinner with him the night he died. No one has ever been charged. But detectives are continuing to talk with family members, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said

By Michael Biesecker ASSOCIATED PRE SS

WMAQ-TV in Chicago / AP file

This June 2012 file photo, shows Urooj Khan, center, holding a ceremonial check in Chicago for $1 million as winner of an Illinois instant lottery game. At left, is Khan's wife, Shabana Ansari.

Friday.

“It is still very much an open and active investigation,” he said, without getting into any specifics on progress, potential suspects or theories.

Khan, who moved to the U.S. from Hyderabad, India, in 1989, ran drycleaning businesses with his wife in the West Rogers Park neighborhood on Chicago’s Northwest Side. Relatives said he was hard-working and generous and donated money to orphanages in India.

Though the increasingly devout Muslim had sworn off gambling after a religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, Khan bought a scratch-off lottery ticket at a 7-Eleven near his home in June 2012. To his astonishment, it was a $1 million winner. He was going to use the money to pay off mortgages, expand his business and give a donation to a hospital.

But the 46-year-old with big dreams died on July 20, 2012, after eating dinner and going to bed.

It was one day after the lottery check was issued but before he received it.

Initially, the medical examiner’s office ruled he died of natural causes after an external exam turned up no signs of trauma. No autopsy was conducted at the time.

The default cause of death was listed as arterial sclerotic cardio-

vascular disease, which covers the major natural causes of death, such as a stroke or a heart attack.

But the man’s anguished brother had doubts. The timing of the death and tension over the lottery win made him suspicious, he told the Chicago Tribune in 2013.

At his urging, pathologists tested a peripheral blood sample that had been kept.

According to Cina, who became the chief medical examiner that September, the test came back positive for cyanide.

He reclassified the death as a homicide, emphasizing that he did not believe the lethal dose could have been ingested by accident. An outside lab confirmed the results.

Khan’s body was exhumed in January 2013 for further tests, but by then no cyanide was detectable in the badly decomposed remains, and it was impossible to tell how the lethal dose entered his body, Cina said in a news conference a few weeks later.

But he emphasized the county medical examiner’s office had a good record, with no false positives on 340 cyanide tests on bodies over a two-year period leading up to the Khan case.

Cina said police never reached out to him after his involvement in the case ended in the spring of 2013.

Meantime, Khan’s wife, Shabana Ansari, continues to work at the dry-cleaning businesses.

On a recent afternoon, she was hanging a shirt on an overhead conveyor at one of them as a handful of employees milled around. She refused to talk with a visiting reporter.

Steven Kozicki, a criminal defense lawyer she hired after police questioned her for four and a half hours without an attorney in 2013, says he’s instructed her not to talk anyone, including police, who he says have not tried to follow up in a couple of years.

Guglielmi says Ansari refused requests to sit for a polygraph test.

Khan’s daughter from an earlier marriage, who decided to live with an aunt after her father’s death, is now a student at Loyola University Chicago.

A probate settlement split Khan’s estate — including the lottery check — between her and her estranged stepmother and barred either side from filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the other unless the police investigation turns up evidence.

“Everybody has their suspicions and innuendos but at the end of the day at a certain point no matter what it is you just have to move on with your life,” said the wife’s attorney, Husain.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Friday it doesn’t want the public to see its immunity deal with a former government employee who installed the private email server in Hillary Clinton’s basement, arguing that its release could jeopardize an ongoing FBI probe.

Ex-State Department staffer Bryan Pagliano had been set to answer questions under oath earlier this week. The deposition was scheduled in a lawsuit filed by the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch over access to emails sent and received by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee when she was secretary of state.

The deposition was delayed indefinitely when lawyers for Pagliano told U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against selfincrimination. The lawyers also cited their client’s immunity deal with the Justice Department, granted in exchange for his cooperation with the FBI investigation. Pagliano previously refused to testify before a congressional committee investigating Clinton’s email setup.

Sullivan responded by ordering Pagliano’s lawyers to produce a copy of their client’s written agreement with the government.

In court filings, the government said releasing the deal could make public confidential details about the FBI’s separate probe into whether classified information that flowed through Clinton’s server was mishandled.

Clinton is expected to be interviewed soon as part of that ongoing investigation.

“Releasing Mr. Pagliano’s agreements with the

United States could prematurely reveal the scope and focus of the pending investigation,” the Justice Department said in its motion.

If Sullivan follows through on his order to see the immunity paperwork, the Justice Department said the documents should be filed under seal. In a separate filing, lawyers for Judicial Watch argued that Pagliano’s agreement with the government should be made public.

At issue in the Judicial Watch case is whether the State Department conducted an adequate search of public records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed in 2013. The group is seeking records related to former Deputy Secretary of State Huma Abedin’s outside work as a paid consultant for a charitable foundation run

by Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton.

There have been at least three dozen civil lawsuits filed, including one by The Associated Press, over public records requests related to Clinton’s tenure as the nation’s top diplomat from 2009 to 2013.

A separate review by the State Department’s Inspector General concluded last month that Clinton and her team ignored clear internal guidance that her email setup broke federal standards and could have left sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton has called her decision to rely on the private server a mistake, but contends she violated no laws.

The State Department has thus far released more than 52,000 pages of Clinton’s work-related emails, including a small percentage that have been redacted because they contain information considered sensitive to national security.

Zfrontera THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, June 11, 2016 |

RIBEREÑA EN BREVE Encuesta para padres 1 Zapata County Independent School District está solicitando a los padres de familia con hijos que ingresarán al grado de “pre-k 4” que respondan una encuesta. La encuesta puede ser accesada visitando http:// tinyurl.com/zkcrahr

Próximos deportistas 1 Estudiantes interesados en participar en deportes en Zapata Middle School y Zapata High School deberán acudir al examen físico de atletismo el 28 de julio. Para el nivel preparatoria será a la 1 p.m. en el gimnasio de ZHS. Para el nivel secundaria (7o y 8o grados) será a las 3 p.m. en el gimnasio de ZHS. El costo es de 20 dólares. Para cualquier información llame a Roni Arce en el Departamento de Atletismo de ZCISD en el 956-765-0280, extensión 3517.

DECLARACIÓN JURADA

PATRULLA FRONTERIZA

Aseguró era dinero fácil Acusada esperaba 450 dólares por cada uno Por César G. Rodriguez TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Recientemente una mujer fue arrestada por transportar inmigrantes ilegales a través del Condado de Zapata, de acuerdo con una declaración jurada.

Autoridades sostienen que el 1 de junio, ellos vieron un Dodge Ram 1500, color blanco, estacionado en un Stripes en Zapata. Una mujer salió del vehículo, caminó hacia adentro de la tienda

y compró varias bebidas.

Además, ella iba hablando en un teléfono celular, de acuerdo con documentos de la corte.

Ella abordó el vehículo para continuar viajando hacia el norte. Un agente siguió el vehículo y notó que iba girando y era conducido por debajo de la velocidad límite de 65 mph. El vehículo fue ordenado detenerse a unas seis millas al norte de Zapata, de acuerdo con documentos.

Identificada como la

conductora, Yvette Michelle Benavides declaró que iban de camino a Laredo. Los otros cuatro ocupantes no contaban con la documentación apropiada para estar en el país, indican archivos.

“Benavides posteriormente declaró que ganada dinero fácil con el contrabando (de inmigrantes) y que ella ya lo había hecho antes en varias ocasiones. Benavides admitió que el (30 de mayo) ella había contrabandeado a dos mu-

jeres (inmigrantes) desde Roma... a Laredo...”, indica la querella.

Ella esperaba un pago de 450 dólares por inmigrante contrabandeado, indican archivos.

“Benavides admitió que ella sabía que lo que estaba haciendo estaba mal, pero que necesitaba el dinero”, indica la querella.

Una querella criminal presentada el 6 de junio acusó a Benavides con transportar ilegales inmigrantes.

DEPORTES

CAMPEONA

Torneo de Fútbol de Bandera 1 Se invita al primer torneo de fútbol de bandera por el Día del Padre, el 18 de junio y el día 19 de junio, en caso de ser necesario a partir de las 8 a.m. en el Zapata Boys & Girls Club, E 6th Ave y calle Lincoln en Zapata.

Habrá dos categorías.

Informes con Christopher Dávila al 956251-9986 o escribiendo a chris_davila_2014@yahoo.com

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 956437-2700 o 956-4379112.

Laboratorio Computacional 1 La Ciudad de Roma pone a disposición de la comunidad el Laboratorio Computacional que abre de lunes a viernes en horario de 1 p.m. a 5 p.m. en Historical Plaza, a un lado del City Hall. Informes en el 956-849-1411.

Caminata/Carrera 1 La Cuarta Caminata/Carrera y Competencia Infantil Anual de 5K PFC Ira “Ben” Laningham IV se realizará el sábado 16 de julio a partir de las 8 a.m. con salida del Palacio de Justicia (Courthouse) del Condado de Zapata.

Habrá trofeos para ganadores en cada categoría. Cuota de participación es de 15 dólares, si se inscriben con anterioridad visitando active.com o 20 dólares el mismo día.

Presentación de libro 1 Se invita a la presentación del libro “La música y el vértigo” de Daniel Baruc Espinal, el sábado 18 de junio a las 5 p.m. en Estación Palabra de Nuevo Laredo, México. Presentación a cargo de Baruc y de Jorge Santa Anna y Juan Miguel Pérez.

Foto de cortesía | Alana Montes

Alana Montes, una joven que estudia en Zapata High School, forma parte del equipo de levantamiento de pesas que viajará a Polonia a finales de agosto. Ella busca apoyo de la comunidad para lograr su meta.

Alana Montes viajará a Polonia TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Una joven de Zapata quien practica el levantamiento de pesos se encuentra haciendo maletas para viajar a Polonia y participar en una competencia mundial.

Alana Montes, de 18 años, es Levantadora de Pesas del USAPL/IPF

A7

(Federación Internacional de Levantamiento de Pesas). Su meta es recaudar los fondos que le hagan menos complicado participar en los Mundiales en Polonia representando a los Estados Unidos en la categoría Campeonatos Mundiales IPF Sub-Junio/Junior.

Con tal motivo, Montes

abrió una cuenta en GoFundMe. “He sido campeona regional en tres ocasiones, estatal en 2 ocasiones y nacional en 2 ocasiones, en mi respectiva clase de peso”, escribió Montes en la página.

Ella explicó que la suma que se recaude será utilizada para el pago del vuelo, hotel y otros gastos.

“Esto significaría mucho para mí porque he trabajado arduamente y me he esforzado para

llegar tan lejos en el Equipo Mundial IPF, y ahora puedo decir orgullosamente que voy a representar a mi ciudad, mi estado y mi país en los Mundiales en Polonia junto con el Equipo USA”, agregó.

El evento está programado del 29 de agosto al 3 de septiembre.

La cantidad que Montes espera recaudar es de 2.000 dólares. Para ayudarla se puede visitar https://www.gofundme.com/28g2ud24

Querella detalla arresto de mujer Por César G. Rodriguez TIEMP O DE ZAPATA

Una mujer enfrenta cargos federales después que ella supuestamente recogiera a cuatro inmigrantes ilegales en el Condado de Zapata, de acuerdo con documentos de la corte.

Una querella criminal presentada el lunes acusa a María Trinidad López, de Río Bravo, con transportar inmigrantes quienes habían cruzado la frontera ilegalmente.

A las 4:20 p.m. del 1 de junio, la Patrulla Fronteriza de EU recibieron información acerca de varias personas corriente fuera de la maleza y abordando una Chevy Avalanche, color blanca, sobre U.S. 83 cerca de Arroyo Tejón. “Ésta área es conocida por... agentes de la Patrulla Fronteriza del Sur, de Zapata y Laredo, como un área común para la carga por parte de contrabandistas”, indica la querella.

Agentes dijeron que alcanzaron al vehículo.

Viajó hacia el oeste sobre CCA Road. Agentes perdieron al vehículo de vista pero lo vieron de nueva cuenta en el lado este del estacionamiento de la Corporaciones para Correcciones de América.

“En este momento, el vehículo sospechoso aumentó su velocidad y empezó a manejar entre campo traviesa, por la maleza, intentando escapar y/o ganar distancia entre los agentes a fin de tener una oportunidad de salirse del vehículo”, indica la querella.

Agentes dijeron que el vehículo se detuvo al norte de la alcantarilla sobre Margarita en Río Bravo.

El conductor y pasajero abandonaron el vehículo, dejando atrás a un hombre y tres mujeres.

Una mujer tenía un niño en sus brazos, de acuerdo con documentos de la corte.

Un registro del área llevó al arresto del conductor, quien fue identificado como López.

López identificó a su pasajero como su cuñado, Luis Rodríguez. Él no pudo ser ubicado, de acuerdo con documentos de la corte. López supuestamente declaró que ella y Rodríguez recogieron a los inmigrantes en San Ygnacio, indican archivos.

ELECCIONES 2016

Trump visitará San Antonio Por John W. Gonzalez SAN ANTONIO EXPRE SS-NEWS

La ubicación continúa sin ser confirmada, pero otros detalles han surgido acerca de la potencial campaña con fines de lucro para Donald Trump en San Antonio la próxima semana.

Se ha manejado de manera tentativa el Oak Hills Country Club, un oasis de 200 hectáreas que puede acomodar a unos 300 invitados, a la vez que mantiene varias yardas lejos a aquellos grupos no invitados. Los organizadores no han revelado cuántos seguidores de Trump han sito invitados al evento en San Antonio.

Foto por Edward A. Ornelas | SAEN

La imagen muestra al Oak Hills Country Club en uno de cuyos salones presumiblemente será la reunión del precandidato del GOP Donald Trump en San Antonio.

Invitaciones para la comida del 17 de junio fueron distribuidas el miércoles por el comité para recaudación de fondos Trump Victory, una firma con oficinas centrales en Austin para el presunto candidato presi-

dencial del Partido Republicano (GOP - Grand Old Party). Una invitación obtenida por parte de un invitado, quien solicitó el anonimato, indica que los niveles de donación son de 500 dólares, por boleto individual, hasta 250.000

dólares por pareja. Inclusive algunos invitados podrían tener acceso a una recepción fotográfica y “conversación VIP” antes de la cena.

En la lista de anfitriones se incluye al Presidente del Comité Nacional Republicano Reince Priebus y a los co-presidentes de finanzas públicas de Trump Victory, Dennis E. Nixon y Gene Powell.

Nixon es el presidente y CEO de IBC Bank-Laredo.

Facturado como “Conversación y comida VIP”, la invitación indica que el evento dará inicio al mediodía con una recepción exclusiva, seguida de una comida a las 12:30 p.m.

Entre aquellos ansiosos

por descubrir a dónde pudiera acudir Trump son seguidores de la pre candidata presidencial Demócrata Hillary Clinton, quienes tienen programadas demostraciones.

La visita de Trump a San Antonio coincide con la Convención Democrática en Texas, la cual se llevará a cabo en el Alamodome del 16 al 18 de junio. Las especulaciones continuaban acerca de que Clinton pudiera ofrecer un mensaje a los delegados la noche del 17 de junio. La convención indica como su orador principal al Secretario de Urbanismo y Vivienda Julián Castro el 17 de junio.

A8 | Saturday, June 11, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

INTERNATIONAL

US fugitives say Cuba has reassured them they are safe

By Michael Weissenstein A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

HAVANA — Two American fugitives who fled to Cuba after they were accused of killing police officers said Friday that Cuban officials have assured them that detente with the United States will not lead to their extradition.

The United States and Cuba held a second round of law-enforcement talks last month dedicated partly to resolving the fate of scores of fugitives after more than a half century with almost no cooperation. The talks are part of a series of U.S.-Cuba negotiations aimed at normalizing relations after the two countries declared an official end to Cold War hostilities on Dec. 17, 2014.

The discussions have raised U.S. law enforcement hopes that fugitives living in Cuba for decades will return to the United States to face trial or serve prison under plea deals.

Charles Hill, a black militant wanted in the 1971 slaying of a New Mexico state policeman, told The Associated Press that Cuban government contacts had recently reassured him he was at no risk of extradition. Nehanda Abiodun, another black militant wanted in a 1981 armored car robbery that left two police offers and a security guard dead, told the AP she had recently received a similar promise.

Cuba is home to dozens of people wanted in the United States on charges ranging from Medicare fraud to killings committed in the name of black and Puerto Rican revolution movements in the 1970s and ‘80s. Cuba has asked the United States to return a smaller number of people, including Luis Posada Carriles, the alleged mastermind of a

series of terror attacks against Cuba, including the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed all 73 people on board.

Cuba’s head of U.S. affairs told the AP shortly after the declaration of detente that Cuba was entitled to grant asylum to U.S. fugitives, a sign that people the country once saw as fellow revolutionary fighters will remain safe. The most prominent is Assata Shakur, who is on the FBI’s list of most-wanted terrorists. She broke out of a prison where she was serving a conviction for murdering a New Jersey state trooper. She was regularly spotted in Havana after fleeing to Cuba but has not been seen here in public in recent years.

Hill said he had contacted his Cuban government handlers about three weeks ago after seeing reports that progress was being made in negotiations that could lead to his extradition.

“My people assured me that no, that’s not going to take place,” Hill said. “I said what’s the status and they said there’s no problem.

“The future is very difficult,” he said. “I don’t know, but I think the Cuban government is going to maintain their position. I feel very tranquil.”

Abiodun said Cuban agents recently told her she’s still safe on the island.

“I feel good,” she said.

“I have been assured that my safety is secure.

“I am very, very thankful for their generosity, not only for me but for other comrades that have unfortunately had to leave the United States because of political oppression.”

New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas said the thaw of U.S. relations with Cuba has increased his hope that

Cuba will facilitate the transfer home of Americans accused of violent crimes, including Hill.

He called fleeing the country a cowardly act on Hill’s part and said that “if any country can afford him a fair trial, it is the United States.”

Kassetas said he would expect Hill to face federal charges in connection with a 1971 hijacking of a plane that brought him to Cuba, along with murder charges at the state level.

Hill denies killing State Police Officer Robert Rosenbloom during a traffic stop.

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall said Thursday that he wants to “leverage the re-opening of relations with Cuba to finally bring Charlie Hill to justice.”

The Democratic senator for New Mexico traveled to Cuba in March with President Barack Obama and said he met with Cuban officials to discuss the possibility of returning Hill to the United States.

He said the case was brought up during two past dialogues on law enforcement issues.

“I have heard reports that Charlie Hill wants to return to the United States,” Udall said in an email. “And I would encourage him and his attorney to work with law enforcement and the United States government to facilitate the transfer.”

Hill’s lawyer, Jason Flores-Williams, said Hill was confident about his client’s ability to stay in Cuba but the new era of U.S.-Cuba normalization had created some uncertainty.

“With the normalization of relations we have concerns that the U.S. may be, as they have in the past in Latin America, using monetary leverage to try to get in so that they can appease the law-and-order forces in America,” he said.

Majdi Mohammed / AP

Israeli soldiers and security forces stand at a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus, on Friday, after a Palestinian attempted a stabbing attack. The Palestinian was shot and wounded, army officials said.

Israel sets 3-day West Bank closure after attack

By Ian Deitch ASSOCIATED PRE SS

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said on Friday the West Bank will be closed off until the end of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot on Sunday, due to security concerns following a Palestinian shooting attack this week in Tel Aviv that killed four Israeli civilians.

The army said that crossings will be open for “humanitarian and medical” cases only and for Palestinians to worship at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians attended prayers at the mosque on Friday, the first of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Police were on high alert in Jerusalem and prayers passed peacefully.

Much of the past months of violence stems from tensions at the hilltop compound. Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary, and it is their third holiest site, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. It is the holiest site for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount because of the revered Jewish temples that stood

there in biblical times.

West Bank closures are often imposed ahead of holidays in Israel when there are fears of Palestinian attacks. Tensions are especially high now after Palestinian gunmen killed four people and wounded five others in a popular and crowded area of Tel Aviv on Wednesday night.

The military said it arrested several people in connection to that attack in the West Bank overnight but there were no further details. In raids Friday morning in the territory, Israeli troops found two workshops Palestinians used for manufacturing weapons, including the improvised home-made gun used in Wednesday’s attack.

Over the last eight months, Palestinians have carried out dozens of attacks on civilians and security forces, mostly stabbings, shootings and car ramming assaults that have killed 32 Israelis and two Americans. About 200 Palestinians have been killed during that time, most identified as attackers by Israel. The assaults were once neardaily incidents but they

have become less frequent in recent weeks.

The day after the Palestinian shooting, Israel froze 83,000 permits for Palestinians in the West Bank to visit relatives in Israel. The army imposed checkpoints to restrict movement in and out of the village where the Palestinian gunmen in the Tel Aviv attack were from.

The office of the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad alHussein, on Friday condemned the Tel Aviv shooting.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said that Israel had an “obligation” to bring those responsible to account, but said some measures punish “thousands of innocent Palestinians” and could constitute “collective punishment.”

Later in the day, a Palestinian tried to stab soldiers in the West Bank who opened fire and wounded him, the military said. The Palestinian was evacuated to hospital for treatment, it said.

The military says the closure will end Sunday night after the Shavuot holiday.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, June 11, 2016 |

A9

BUSINESS

Gawker files Oil trims weekly gain as US for bankruptcy dollar counters supply declines

By Mae Anderson

By Mark Shenk

A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

BL OOMBERG NEWS

NEW YORK — Gawker is filing for bankruptcy protection and will sell itself rather than pay $140 million to pro wrestler Hulk Hogan.

The company says it plans to sell itself to publishing company Ziff Davis.

Gawker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, about three months after Hogan won a lawsuit against the online gossip and news publisher. The sale will be conducted through bankruptcy court so other bidders could emerge.

The New York company said in the filing that it has as much as $500 million in debt and up to $100 million in assets.

Hogan sued Gawker after it posted a video of him having sex with a friend’s wife. Hogan was awarded $115 million in compensatory damages plus an added $25.1 million in punitive damages.

It was later revealed that billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel had been secretly funding Hogan’s lawsuit.

Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and was an early investor in Facebook, has been a frequent target of Gawker writers, who have written unflattering pieces about Thiel’s political beliefs and utopian goals. One 2007 post outed Thiel as gay. Another Gawker site, Valleywag, ran a number of stories skewering Facebook, which provided a big chunk of Thiel’s esti-

Oil trimmed its weekly advance as a rising U.S. dollar countered declining crude stockpiles and disruptions from Canada to Nigeria.

Futures fell as much as 2.8 percent in New York, dipping below $50 a barrel. A stronger greenback makes commodities denominated in the currency less attractive as an investment.

Prices extended losses after the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. rose for the second week, the first two-week increase since August, according to Baker Hughes Inc. U.S. supplies fell by 3.23 million barrels last week to a two-month low, government data showed Wednesday.

“Ninety percent of the world’s oil is dollar denominated,” so any change in dollar value will “feed through pretty directly,” Paul Sankey, an energy analyst at Wolfe Research LLC, said on Bloomberg Radio. “We are expecting Canadian production to come back soon.”

Oil has surged about 90 percent from a 12-year low in February as the global glut is trimmed by disruptions and a slide in U.S. output, which is under pressure from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ policy of pumping without limits.

West Texas Intermediate for July delivery slipped $1.34, or 2.7 per-

Steve Nesius / AP file

Gawker Media founder Nick Denton arrives in a courtroom in St. Petersburg, Fla. Gawker Media has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, about three months after pro wrestler Hulk Hogan won a $140 million lawsuit against the online gossip and news publisher.

mated $2.7 billion fortune.

A spokesman for Thiel said he had no comment on Friday.

In the filing, Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, was listed as Gawker’s biggest creditor.

Gawker founder Nick Denton said in a statement that Ziff Davis’ e-commerce, licensing and video assets would be a good fit with Gawker’s websites, which include tech site Gizmodo, sports site Deadpsin, video-game site Kotaku, celebrity and womenfocused site Jezebel, news and gossip site Gawker, car-site Jalopnik and self-help site Lifehacker.

Martin Divisek / Bloomberg

The sun sets beyond oil pumping units, also known as nodding donkeys or pump jacks, at an oil plant. Oil trimmed its weekly advance as a rising U.S. dollar countered declining crude stockpiles and disruptions from Canada to Nigeria.

cent, to $49.22 a barrel at 1:35 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures are up 1.2 percent this week.

Total volume traded was 6.8 percent below the 100-day average.

Commodity Decline Brent for August settlement dropped $1.25, or 2.4 percent, to $50.70 a barrel on the Londonbased ICE Futures Europe exchange. The North Sea crude, used as a global benchmark, is up 2.1 percent this week.

Brent traded at a 79-cent premium to WTI for August delivery.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the currency against 10 major peers, rose as much as 0.8 percent after rallying 0.4 percent on Thursday. The Bloomberg Commodity Index was heading for a second

day of losses Friday.

Global stocks headed for the biggest drop in two months and bond yields slid to record lows as investors braced for next week’s Federal Reserve meeting and Britain’s referendum on European Union membership later this month.

“We’re seeing some understandable profit taking,” said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective in New York. “The dollar’s rise is prompting a little bit of selling as is the drop in equities. Things are also being hurt by concern about the upcoming British referendum on leaving the European Union.”

Oil Rigs Rigs targeting crude in the U.S. rose by 3 to 328, after 9 were added last week, Baker Hughes said

Friday. Explorers have idled more than 1,000 oil rigs since the start of last year.

U.S. crude stockpiles fell to 532.5 million barrels last week, the lowest since April 1, data from the Energy Information Administration showed.

Gasoline inventories rose by 1 million to 239.6 million barrels, while supplies of distillates added 1.75 million to 151.4 million barrels.

Fires in Canada’s oilsands region are expected to disrupt supplies by an average of 400,000 barrels a day this month, after peaking at more than 1.1 million barrels a day of lost production in May, according to the EIA. Cenovus Energy Inc. is in the process of restarting production at the Pelican Lake oilfield after shutting operations on Wednesday.

Dan Gilbert, AT&T to bid for Yahoo, patents

By Brian Womack and Alex Sherman B L OOMBE RG NEWS

Dan Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans Inc. and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team, and AT&T Inc. each bid about $5 billion for Yahoo Inc.’s core business, patents and real estate assets, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Verizon Communications Inc. made an offer between $3.5 billion to $4 billion for only Yahoo’s core business, according to two people familiar with that situation, who asked not to be identified because the information

is private.

Verizon didn’t bid on the intellectual property and real estate because Sunnyvale, Californiabased Yahoo told the company it wished to sell them separately, one of the people said. Verizon is willing to buy both the patents and real estate, the person said. Yahoo is planning to sell more than 3,000 patents, according to a statement earlier this week.

The New York-based telecommunications company expects to be given a chance at the end of Yahoo’s sale process to match or top any superior bid, two of the people said. While Yahoo has

discussed eliminating Verizon before the last round, according to those people, Yahoo’s board hasn’t met yet to decide which ones to leave out, another person said. The board will meet soon to discuss the proposals, the person said.

New management Gilbert, whose bid is backed by Warren Buffett, isn’t looking for more outside financing, said one of the people.

Despite limited synergies with mortgage-lending company Quicken, Gilbert is confident in his chances of winning, the person said. He’s working with former Yahoo

executives and believes Yahoo can be a good investment with new management, the person said.

Private equity firm TPG is still involved in the bidding and has had preliminary discussions with several strategic partners in case it needs to increase its offer, one of the people said.

Yahoo, which began a strategic review of the company in February, accepted first-round proposals in April, attracting offers that ranged from about $4 billion to $8 billion, people familiar with the matter said at the time.

The company received

more than 10 bids, people familiar have said.

Spokesmen for Yahoo, Verizon and TPG declined to comment. Representatives for Gilbert and AT&T didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

On May 24, Chief Financial Officer Ken Goldman said the process is robust and “well along the way,” without giving specifics. Second-round bids were submitted this week, and after a final round of proposals, a winner could be chosen early next month, people familiar with the matter have said.

Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer, who

joined the company nearly four years ago, has failed to spark a turnaround, with sales showing little growth and adjusted earnings on the decline. The company is considering offers as it grapples with rising competition from younger rivals including Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. Yahoo’s disappointing financial results have drawn the ire of investors, most notably activist Starboard Value LP. The company averted a proxy war in April when it agreed to place four new members on the board, including Starboard CEO Jeffrey Smith.

A10 | Saturday, June 11, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

FROM THE COVER ARREST From page A1 vehicle was pulled over about 6 miles north of Zapata, according to

court documents.

Identified as the driver, Yvette Michelle Benavides stated they were on their way to Laredo. The other four occupants did not have proper docu-

MURDER From page A1 building around 9:30 p.m. on April 3, and her body was found two days later in Waller Creek near the campus alumni center and the massive football stadium — an area that typically hums with activity day and night.

Criner was arrested April 7 at a shelter near campus and police said they found him with a number of Weiser’s belongings, including her

TEEN From page A1 In July, she’ll start a program through Texas Tech University that will allow her to obtain a bachelor’s degree and teacher certification in one year.

She’ll be turning 19 when she begins as a bilingual elementary teacher in August 2017.

The only teacher in recent DISD history to begin that young turned 20 a month after starting work.

“They prepared me really well,” Melisa said of the staff at Samuell and Eastfield College. “At first I was intimidated — now I’m involved in both campuses.”

Melisa lives in the Pleasant Grove area and was born in Mexico. She said that her parents put a big emphasis on education. Her mother didn’t go to school past the sixth grade and her father stopped in ninth grade.

She feels a need to do well for them. This means juggling classes, extracurricular activities and an evening job as an usher for Dallas Summer Mu-

mentation to be in the country, records alleged.

“Benavides further stated that there was easy money in smuggling (immigrants) and that she has done it before on

blue duffel bag and laptop.

Weiser’s family has said the dance major had planned to take on a second major — pre-med — and travel to Japan this summer to see relatives.

University of Texas President Greg Fenves said the campus of 50,000 continues to mourn Weiser’s death.

“I deeply appreciate the tireless work of law enforcement and the district attorney’s office to investigation and prosecute this crime,” Fenves said.

sicals.

“They crossed over the border with three little kids,” she told The Dallas Morning News. “If they had to go through all that to bring me here, I think that I have to give back.”

Petite, with long dark hair, the teen teacher will be closer in age to her students’ big sisters than their moms. To put her age in perspective, there are at least 1,430 students in DISD age 19 and older.

But Melisa’s youthfulness conceals a fierce determination to succeed, say people who know her.

“There’s definitely something there that is unique about her,” said Zinab Munoz, the Dallasarea liaison for TechTeach, the teacher education program at Texas Tech that Melisa will begin this summer. “She’s actually a trailblazer.”

Melisa is also among 57 students who will make up the first graduating class at Samuell Early College High School.

Twenty-seven of them completed enough college hours to receive an associate’s degree. Others earned dozens of college

several occasions. Benavides admitted that on (May 30), she smuggled two female (immigrants) from Roma … to Laredo…” states the complaint.

Court records show Criner claimed he left home Texarkana in August 2015 because his grandmother’s religious beliefs demanded that teenagers his age go “make their own way in the world.” Criner’s family had an “extensive history” of allegations of abuse and neglect with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, according to agency records filed last year when the state asked a judge to take over his care and separate the teenager from relatives.

The slaying was the school’s first on-campus homicide since former marine Charles Whitman climbed to the top of UT’s bell tower on Aug. 1, 1966, and opened fire, killing 14 people and wounding scores of others.

Authorities later determined Whitman also killed his wife and mother in the hours before he went to the tower. A 17th death was attributed to Whitman in 2001 when a Fort Worth man died of injuries from the shooting.

Melisa is also among 57 students who will make up the first graduating class at Samuell Early College High School.

27 of them completed enough college hours to receive an associate’s degree. credit hours, according to DISD. Dallas ISD has five early college high school programs and will open eight more next fall.

Jennifer Tecklenburg, assistant principal over Samuell’s early college program, said students come out of the program prepared for a higher education and with lasting relationships.

“The best thing that it does for them, regardless of how many credit hours they have, is that they know what to expect,” Tecklenburg said.

“They’ve been together four years. They’re like a family. They support each other.”

The TechTeach program partners with various Texas school districts, including Dallas, Grand Prairie, Fort Worth and DeSoto. The goal is to put teachers where they are

She expected a $450 payment per immigrant smuggled, records alleged.

“Benavides admitted that she knows what she was doing is wrong but

most needed and in their home communities. The participants take their college courses online and receive hands-on training at a school in their area.

For Melisa, Dallas is home. It has been for as long as she can remember.

“All my life has really been here,” she said. “I don’t really remember anything from there.”

She knows that some people perceive immigrants in the U.S. illegally as being bad people. She wants to shatter that belief.

“I’m proud that I’m achieving all of this because I can prove people wrong, and I can be an example,” she said. “You just have to work hard for it.”

Students in TechTeach earn certification in elementary general education and a supplemental certification in special educa-

needed the money,” the complaint states.

A criminal complaint filed June 6 charged Benavides with transporting illegal immigrants.

CHARGES From page A1 her arms, according to court documents.

A search of the area yielded the arrest of the driver, who was identified as Lopez.

“The female was sweaty and had fresh scratches on her arms and face, as if she had just ran through thick brush. She also had fresh mud on her boots,” states the complaint.

Lopez identified her male passenger as her brother-in-law Luis Rodriguez. He was not located, according to court documents. Lopez allegedly stated that she and Rodriguez picked up the immigrants in San Ygnacio, records alleged.

tion, bilingual education or English as a second language — all hard-to-fill areas in school districts.

Those who complete the program in the Dallas area are expected to commit to work in their area school district for at least two years, Munoz said.

She added that the students can expect to work hard — two years of college in one year.

“It’s very intense,” Munoz said.

Dallas ISD began the program in 2014 and has 83 graduates so far, according to Munoz. Participants are required to already have an associate degree and a minimum 2.75 grade-point average.

Tuition for TechTeach is $18,000 to $20,000, Munoz said. Melisa plans to pay the costs using donations, scholarships and state financial aid. “My parents don’t have a lot of money to pay for college,” she said.

Melisa is thankful for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. The 2012 federal program provides people brought to the U.S. unlawfully as children

with temporary work permits, renewable every two years, as long as they meet certain requirements.

Federal officials say it’s not a pathway to permanent residency or citizenship. But for immigrants, it means living without fear of deportation and a work permit.

Of 1.36 million applications accepted under DACA through March 2016, 91 percent had been approved, according to a federal report. Most of the applicants are from Mexico, with many living in Texas or California.

Melisa wants her first teaching job to be at Thelma Richardson Elementary School in Pleasant Grove, where she’s lived her whole life. She believes that she can be a role model at the school where about 90 percent of students are considered economically disadvantaged, or qualify for freeor reduced-price lunch.

More than half are learning English, as Melisa did in elementary school.

“I just want to help them,” she said. “I used to be one of those kids.”

Sports&Outdoors THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, June 11, 2016 |

B1

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

‘Mr. Hockey’ Gordie Howe dies

By Stephen Whyno ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Frank Gunn / AP file

Hockey Hall of Famer and Red Wings great Gordie Howe, known affectionately as “Mr. Hockey,” died Friday at the age of 88.

Gordie Howe helped revolutionize the NHL by sheer force.

He could deliver an elbow as well as he could score. While other hockey greats could skate and put the puck in the net, “Mr. Hockey” could do more than that, Howe, who died Friday at the age of 88, was a physical force as well as an offensive superstar.

“A player like Gordie Howe doesn’t come around very often, a play-

er that plays as well and as long as he did,” said Michigan coach Red Berenson, who played with and against Howe. “He may have been the most well-rounded athletic player that I’ve ever seen.”

Howe broke the NHL scoring record set by Montreal Canadiens Hall of Famer Maurice “Rocket” Richard, and his 1,850 points stood up until Wayne Gretzky passed him decades later. While scoring at that pace, Howe racked up 1,685 penalty minutes — more

than fellow Hall of Famers Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Marcel Dionne combined.

Shy off the ice, Howe was the opposite when the puck was dropped.

“Obviously, he was anxious to make an impression, and he certainly did in a physical way as well,” longtime NHL executive Bill Torrey said Friday. “Gordie, he was bigger, stronger, could skate faster and he could shoot the puck with either hand — left or right.

Gordie Howe was ambiHowe continues on B2

BOXING: MUHAMMAD ALI

WORLD SAYS GOODBYE TO ALI

Mark Humphrey / AP

People line the street in front of Muhammad Ali's boyhood home as his funeral procession passes by Friday in Louisville. Ali's home is at top center.

An estimated 100,000 people attend funeral of boxing legend Muhammad Ali on Friday

By Jenna Fryer And Bruce Schreiner A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

LOUISVILLE — Louisville and the rest of the world said goodbye to The Greatest on Friday, showering affection on Muhammad Ali during a fist-pumping funeral procession through the streets of his hometown, followed by a star-studded memorial service

where he was saluted as a brash and outspoken breaker of racial barriers.

An estimated 100,000 people holding signs and chanting, “Ali! Ali!” lined the streets as a hearse carrying his cherry-red casket made its way past his childhood home to Louisville’s Cave Hill Cemetery, where a private graveside service was held for the threetime heavyweight cham-

pion of the world.

“He stood up for himself and for us, even when it wasn’t popular,” said Ashia Powell, waiting at a railing for the funeral procession to pass by on an interstate highway below.

The memorial service was held at a sports arena packed with celebrities, athletes and politicians, including former Ali continues on B2

David Goldman / AP

Muhammad Ali's wife Lonnie Ali speaks during his memorial service on Friday in Louisville.

NCAA BASKETBALL: TEXAS-SAN ANTONIO

NHL: STANLEY CUP FINALS

Former UTSA coach, NBA 1st-round Couture steps draft pick Thompson passes away up for Sharks A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS

SAN ANTONIO — Brooks Thompson, a first-round NBA draft pick and former TexasSan Antonio men’s basketball coach, has died. He was 45.

A UTSA statement announced Thompson died Thursday. Sports information spokesman Jordan Korphage said Friday that Thompson died in San Antonio.

Korphage said Thompson had been ill in recent months. No cause of death

AP file

A year removed from being the head coach at UTSA, Brooks Thompson died at the age of 45. He was a former first-round draft pick of the Magic in 1994.

was immediately released.

Orlando made Thompson the 27th pick of the 1994 draft. He also played

for Utah, Denver, Phoenix and New York during four seasons in the NBA. “He was an excellent

shooter and very knowledgeable,” Richie Adubato, who coached Thompson as an assistant in Orlando, said on the team’s website. “He was instant offense for us. We would run screens for him. Great attitude. Really understood the game. He was a great person.”

Thompson appeared in 71 regular-season games in Orlando and averaged 3.6 points and shot 35 percent from 3-point range. His memorable performance with the Magic came

SAN JOSE — In the biggest games this postseason, Logan Couture has often been San Jose’s best player.

While goalie Martin Jones’ 44 saves to protect a lead were the main reason why the Sharks staved off elimination with a 4-2 win at Pittsburgh in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final, Couture’s play early in the game was why San Jose

Thompson continues on B2

NHL continues on B2

By Josh Dubow ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Justin K. Aller / Getty Images

Logan Couture and the Sharks forced a Game 6 in the Stanley Cup Finals after San Jose won 4-2 in Pittsburgh on Thursday night.

B2 | Saturday, June 11, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES

SPORTS THOMPSON From page B1

when he scored 17 points in Game 4 of the 1996 Eastern Conference Finals against the Chicago Bulls.

“He was a great teammate,” former Magic player Jeff Turner said on the Magic website. “We had a lot of great conversations about the league. He worked hard. He would always do things for Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal), Horace (Grant) and the guys.

Great spirit about him.”

The news came just two days after another former Magic player, Sean Rooks, passed away.

Thompson’s best season was in 1996-97, when he averaged 6.8 points and 2.8 assists for Denver, with six starts in 65 games.

Thompson played college ball at Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. He earned back-to-back AllBig Eight selections at Oklahoma State in 1993 and 1994. His 15.8 points per game are 12th in school history and his 5.4 assists per game rank fourth. He’s second in school history in steals (2.7 average) and 3-point percentage (.431).

Following his NBA

NHL From page B1 played with a lead for the first time this series.

“Great players have that ability,” coach Peter DeBoer said Friday. “I put him in that category. ... I think Logan has the ability to raise his level of play when the chips are down.

I think he’s done that for us the entire playoffs. It’s a great gift to have. Not everyone has that ability.”

Couture had a goal and two assists in the first period alone for his fourth three-point game of the postseason. The first three came in San Jose’s clinching wins in the first three rounds, including Game 7 against Nashville in Round 2 when the Sharks

ALI From page B1 President Bill Clinton, comedian Billy Crystal, Sen. Orrin Hatch, director Spike Lee, former NFL great Jim Brown, Arnold Schwarzenegger, soccer star David Beckham, Whoopi Goldberg and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Crystal cracked everyone up with his careermaking impersonation of a boastful, fast-talking Ali — and his imitation of Ali’s foil, sportscaster Howard Cosell — and rhapsodized about Ali’s charisma, outspokenness and talent, calling the boxing great “a tremendous bolt of lightning, created by Mother Nature out of thin air.”

“He was funny. He was beautiful. He was the most perfect athlete you ever saw,” the comedian said. “And those were his own words.”

Kevin Cosby, pastor of a Louisville church, told the crowd of up to 15,000 people at the KFC Yum! Center that Ali “dared to affirm the power and

HOWE From page B1 dextrous.”

Boasting a unique mix of size and skill allowed Howe to play until the age of 52. He retired in 1971 because of wrist injuries, but returned to play in the World Hockey Association and then once more in the NHL with the Hartford Whalers alongside sons Mark and Marty.

Former Canadiens star Serge Savard said players were all scared of Howe in his prime and that “everyone was happy

Moniak goes No. 1 to Phillies

career, Thompson returned to Oklahoma State as an assistant coach on Eddie Sutton’s staff for the 1998-99 and 2001-02 seasons. He later served two seasons on Rob Evans’ staff at Arizona State before taking over the UTSA program.

Thompson later spent 10 seasons at UTSA, going 133-178. His squad claimed the Southland Conference Tournament championship in 2011 and made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Roadrunners then defeated Alabama State in the First Four to claim the school’s first NCAA Tournament win in any sport.

He was fired in March following a 5-27 season.

“The UTSA family is very saddened to learn that Brooks Thompson passed away on Thursday,” Texas-San Antonio athletic director Lynn Hickey said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Michelle, his daughters, Ryan Michelle, Brooke and Addison, and the rest of his family in this difficult time.”

Thompson led Littleton, Colorado, to the 1989 Class 4A title and was the state’s player of the year.

SECAUCUS, N.J. — Mickey Moniak made his mark in the Major League Baseball draft — and his buddy could soon be getting a permanent reminder.

Moniak, a high school outfielder from California, was selected first overall by the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday night.

Long before the draft, he bet La Costa Canyon High School teammate Ethan Abrams that he’d go in the top 10.

At stake: Moniak’s signature tattooed on Abrams’ rear end.

Just a few minutes after Commissioner Rob Manfred announced at MLB Network studios that the Phillies were on the clock, Moniak didn’t have to wait long for his friend’s fresh-ink fate to be sealed.

“That is very true,” a smiling Moniak said in an interview on MLB Network. “I’m holding him to that, too.”

Abrams, a freshman pitcher at Columbia this

season, can return the favor by getting picked in the first 20 rounds someday, Moniak said.

Moniak became the first prep outfielder chosen No. 1 since Tampa Bay drafted Delmon Young in 2003. The selection marked the first time the Phillies led off the draft since they took Miami slugger Pat Burrell in 1998.

“I definitely wouldn’t say there’s pressure,” the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Moniak said. “I’m excited to hopefully prove the Phillies right.”

With no consensus No.

1 talent this year, there was plenty of suspense right up until the pick was announced. At least five players were considered in the mix for the top spot.

“Collectively, we believe Mickey was the best player available in the draft,” Phillies scouting director Johnny Almaraz said in a statement. “He’s a true center fielder with incredible offensive ability and the potential to be a perennial All-Star.”

Tennessee third baseman Nick Senzel went second to Cincinnati, giving the Reds a slugger

who might someday provide pop in the middle of their lineup.

“This is the guy we wanted,” scouting director Chris Buckley said. “He’s a very polished player, one of the better hitters, if not the best hitter, in the draft.”

With the third pick, Atlanta took high school right-hander Ian Anderson. At No. 4, Colorado went with fireballing Kansas high school righty Riley Pint. Milwaukee selected Louisville outfielder Corey Ray to cap the first five picks.

also were facing elimination.

The most recent also came when San Jose was on the brink of being eliminated. Now, instead of packing up for the summer, the Sharks are preparing for Game 6 at home Sunday night, when they will try to extend the series to a decisive seventh game.

“This is the time of year, your backs are against the wall, people have to step up with big-game performances,” DeBoer said.

“We got a couple last night from those guys. We’ve got to get a couple more in Game 6 here to give us a chance in Game 7.”

Couture’s line with Patrick Marleau and Melker Karlsson on the

wings was by far San Jose’s best in Game 5.

Couture helped set up Brent Burns’ early goal just over a minute into the game that allowed the Sharks to play with the lead for the first time all series.

Less than two minutes later, Couture got to the front of the net to deflect a point shot from Justin Braun past Matt Murray to put San Jose up 2-0.

After the Penguins tied the game with a pair of goals 22 seconds apart, Couture helped San Jose regain the lead, He sent a slick backhand pass to Karlsson in the slot for a one-timer that put the Sharks in front for good.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Couture

became the fourth player since the start of the expansion era in 1968 to score three points in one period with his team facing elimination in the Stanley Cup Final.

Couture has nine goals and 20 assists so far in the playoffs, giving him six more points than teammates Burns and Joe Pavelski, who are tied for second in scoring in the NHL this postseason.

Couture’s 29 points are the most in the NHL in a single postseason since 2010, when Philadelphia’s Danny Briere had 30 and Chicago’s Jonathan Toews posted 29.

“I think Logan hasn’t gotten credit for it, but he’s one of the two or three guys who really makes

this team go,” teammate Tommy Wingels said.

“He’s a guy who quietly goes about his business.

He often gets overlooked compared to other guys in this room.”

Couture has been a key to San Jose’s success all season. He broke his right leg in practice after three games and missed nearly two months. He played just two games when he came back before internal bleeding in the leg forced him to miss three more weeks.

Couture’s return in late December helped spark the Sharks’ turnaround.

They surged from 13th place in the 14-team Western Conference in early January to the playoffs, and eventually to their

first trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

The Sharks were 32-15-5 with him in the lineup.

Without him, they were 14-15-1.

“It’s been a difficult year throughout the regular season,” Couture said.

“Missing games is never fun, injuries that are tough to get over. An ankle injury is difficult, I’ve never had something like this before. Mentally and physically it was difficult, but it makes it worth it now.”

NOTES: F Tomas Hertl remains day to day with a lower-body injury that has forced him to miss the past three games. ... San Jose has just one powerplay goal this series and has failed to convert its last nine chances.

capacity of AfricanAmericans” and infused them with a “sense of somebodiness.” He likened Ali to such racial trailblazers as Jesse Owens, Rosa Parks and Jackie Robinson.

“Before James Brown said, ‘I’m black and I’m proud,’ Muhammad Ali said, ‘I’m black and I’m pretty,”’ Cosby said.

“Blacks and pretty were an oxymoron.”

Rabbi Michael Lerner, a political activist and editor of the Jewish magazine Tikkun, brought the crowd to its feet four times with a fiery speech in which he referred to Ali’s refusal to be drafted during the Vietnam War — a stand that cost him his boxing title.

“Ali stood up to immoral war, risked fame to speak truth to power. The way to honor him is to be like him today,” Lerner said, railing against antiMuslim bigotry, drone attacks, the gap between rich and poor, and racist policing.

Ali, the most magnetic and controversial athlete of the 20th century, died last Friday at 74 after a

long battle with Parkinson’s disease.

The casket, draped with an Islamic tapestry, was loaded into a hearse outside a funeral home.

The pallbearers included former boxers Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis and actor Will Smith, who played Ali in the movies. Ali’s nine children, his widow, two of his ex-wives and other family members accompanied the body to the cemetery.

The 19-mile drive took Ali’s body past the little pink house where he grew up and the museum that bears his name. At one point, the procession went along Muhammad Ali Boulevard.

As the long line of black limousines rolled past, fans chanted like spectators at one of his fights, pumped their fists, stood on cars, held up cellphones and signs, ran alongside the hearse and reached out to touch it.

They tossed so many flowers onto the windshield that the driver had to push some of them aside to see the road.

Others fell silent and

looked on reverently as the champ went by.

“I’ve been crying all week,” said Mike Stallings, of Louisville, who brought his two young sons to bid farewell to the sports legend who grew up as Cassius Clay. “As big as he was he never looked down on people.

He always mingled among the crowds.”

Ali chose the cemetery as his final resting place a decade ago. Its 130,000 graves represent a who’s who of Kentucky, including Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Harland Sanders. Family spokesman Bob Gunnell said he will have a simple headstone, inscribed only “Ali,” in keeping with Islamic tradition.

A traditional Muslim funeral service was held Thursday, with an estimated 6,000 admirers arriving from all over the world.

Ali himself decided years ago that his funeral would be open to ordinary fans, not just VIPs. As a result, thousands of free tickets to Friday’s memorial were made available and were

snatched up within an hour.

President Barack Obama was unable to make the trip because of his daughter Malia’s high school graduation. But White House adviser Valerie Jarrett read a letter from the president at the service in which Obama said Ali helped give him the audacity to think he could one day be president.

“Muhammad Ali was America. Brash. Defiant.

Pioneering. Never tired.

Always game to test the odds. He was our most basic freedoms: religion, speech, spirit,” Obama said.

Ali’s widow, Lonnie, in her first public remarks since his death, took the stage in an oversized hat that shielded her eyes.

“Muhammad indicated that when the end came for him, he wanted to use his life and his death as a teaching moment. He wanted to remind people who are suffering that he had seen the face of injustice,” she said. “He never became bitter enough to quit or engage in violence.”

Rumors that Donald Trump would attend were quashed Friday morning when Gunnell said the Republican presidential candidate called Ali’s widow to say he was unable to make it.

People gathered early in the day outside Ali’s boyhood home, which was decorated with balloons, flags, flowers and posters. Fans took photos of themselves in front of the house. Some people staked out their places nearby with lawn chairs.

A sightseeing company offered tours of Ali’s path through the city. Businesses printed his quotes across their billboards.

City buses flashed “Ali — The Greatest” in orange lights. And a downtown bridge will be illuminated the rest of the week in red and gold: red for his boxing gloves, gold for his 1960 Olympic medal.

“Everybody feels a sense of loss with Ali’s passing,” said Mustafa Abdush-Shakur, who traveled from Connecticut. “But there’s no need to be sad for him. We’re all going to make that trip.”

when he retired.” Howe had the reputation of a player who would never forget a big hit. Along with the scoring record, the 6-foot-tall Howe broke more than a few bones in his time.

“Gordie was bigger than most players, so his elbows were at a level that seemed to make contact with a lot of big noses,” said Torrey, who attended a training camp with Howe in the 1960s.

Boston Bruins Hall of Famer Phil Esposito said Howe gave him six stitches on his nose in one of his first few NHL games.

They were great friends

ever since.

“Gordie was the greatest all-around player of all-time,” Esposito said.

“I saw him play forward and defense, I never saw him play goal, but I’m sure he could have.”

Hall of Fame goaltender Bernier Parent recalled a game in the 1960s when his Boston Bruins faced Howe’s Red Wings at the Olympia in Detroit. Defenseman Gilles Marotte hit Howe through a door in the boards, and the response was swift.

“Three plays later, Gilles went to check Gordie again and Gordie saw him coming and gave

Gilles an elbow that broke his jaw,” Parent said.

Despite fighting only a couple dozen times during his 26-year NHL and six-year WHA career, he still became the namesake for the Gordie Howe hat trick: a goal, an assist and a fight in the same game. Howe only registered a few of them, but the tradition is a testament to his all-around ability.

Howe won the Hart Memorial Trophy as NHL MVP six times, was a 23-time All-Star and led the Red Wings to four Stanley Cups.

“He had a great vision of the game, a great scorer, puck control,” Buffalo Sabres great Gilbert Perreault said in a phone interview. “It was hard to get the puck away from him. But what a player.

He had great timing with the puck to score a goal.”

Hall of Famer Frank Mahovlich, who faced Howe with the Toronto Maple Leafs for 10 years before joining him as a teammate, said fans just loved to watch him play.

“He played all those years and we packed every house that we came to,” Mahovlich said in 2014. “Boy, you didn’t

want to go in the corner with him without your eyes open because you were liable to get an elbow or something. He was a tough guy to play against.”

Howe’s hard-nosed brand of hockey became a model for kids growing up watching the Detroit Red Wings across the United States and Canada.

“So many generations of players wanted to play like Gordie Howe,” former Philadelphia Flyers captain Bobby Clarke said. “He was the ultimate professional hockey player.”

By Dennis Waszak Jr. ASSOCIATED PRE SS

Hayne Palmour IV / AP

La Costa Canyon baseball player Mickey Moniak is hugged by his grandfather Bill Moniak, who played for the Red Sox, as family members and friends celebrate the Phillies selecting Moniak with the top pick in the MLB Draft.

THE ZAPATA TIMES | Saturday, June 11, 2016 |

Dear Readers: It's wedding and shower season! If you are going to a shower or two, think about a THEMED COLLECTION OF GIFTS that will be unique and welcome.

Tailor the gift to the couple to make it thoughtful and special, fun and useful. Style the theme and make the gift fit the couple. Here are some favorite hints: * Champagne bucket filled with a corkscrew, a cork retriever (it happens, they get pushed into the bottle!), champagne bottle stopper and two special champagne glasses. * Toolbox with tools, picture hangers, a box of adhesive bandages and a bottle of aspirin. * Foodie Fun: Favorite recipes, quality kitchen gadgets, along with key ingredients. * Gamers: Familyfriendly board games, card games and books.

“

HELOISE

* Outdoor Types: Small, useful items: flashlights, water bottles, pocket knives. * Heloise Helpers: A bucket filled with my arsenal of cleaners: baking soda, vinegar, peroxide, microfiber cloths.

Include instructions.

I've compiled my best wedding hints in a handy pamphlet. To receive one, send a long, self-addressed, stamped (68 cents) envelope, along with $3, to: Heloise/ Bridal, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 782795001. You also can order via my website, www.Heloise.com. When taking a wedding or shower gift, put an extra card inside the box with a note -- the gift cards sometimes get separated.

-- Heloise

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B4 | Saturday, June 11, 2016 | THE ZAPATA TIMES